Swedish Pics & Musings
Humor, C.S. Lewis, and a smidgen of sexuality
NOTE: This was written my last day of vacation. Came home and ended up with Covid, so my blog posts may be slim for a little while.
A little less about the Tsunami today. Just about done with an eleven day vacation in Sweden to visit my daughter, and so what follows is a collection of pics, humor, thoughts about C.S. Lewis’ Till We Have Faces, and personal ramblings. Interested? It’ll be fun.
For a variety of reasons, I love Sweden. There’s far more than meatballs, IKEA, and delicious desserts. My daughter and son-in-law are here. That’s reason number one!
But people seem kind, intelligent, and very much aware of what is going on in the world. And thankfully, they almost all know how to speak English!
Though they are historically known for their neutrality, they are on the verge of joining NATO, much to the chagrin of Putin and his henchmen. Alex’s stepdad estimates 60% favor this move.
The weather in June is beautiful. It’s a colder summer than normal, but the high so far has been 72 F. The city of Umea is far enough north that tonight the sun will set for only a few hours. There’s quite a rowdy party that night, I hear. Or, hopefully I won’t hear. I have to be at the airport at 5:00 AM! Ugh.
Yesterday was a family gathering for Sarah’s birthday. She has incredibly wonderful in-laws.
Alex’s sister-in-law asked why I entered the ministry. That gave me the opportunity to share several God moments about my calling.
In short, Grandma Ongley had always prayed I’d go into the ministry. I resisted until a senior in college. Years later, on the day I was ordained, my mom told me the following:
When I found out I was pregnant with you, I cried for two weeks. But finally your dad walked into the room and said, “Maybe God needs another preacher.” Peace settled in on me and I didn’t cry from that moment on.
Wow! Pretty cool story, right?
That evening I took Alex’s mom and stepdad out for dinner. I asked Michael why, at age 61, he is getting a degree in theology from the local university.
Because I have a story similar to yours! I was so warmed by hearing about your grandmother. My aunt was a missionary to China and always prayed I‘d become a priest! And when my grandma died, her last words to me were, “Don’t ever forget about Jesus.” I disappointed them when I went into the military. But now I’m following through.
Incredible. He’s not a big talker, so I never knew any of this was churning within him.
My son-in-law Alex has a wonderful sense of humor. Note how he labels the following pieces of silverware:
In Umea, they love birch trees. Not only do they grow well up north, but a long row of birch trees helped stop a fire that nearly destroyed the city in 1888. Wind gusts during a dry summer were blowing sparks and flames across the city of wooden structures, but the line of birches halted the spread. This pic shows the devastation.
And so birch trees abound. This street is where the original line of birches halted the fire.
As for C.S. Lewis, a colleague recently said Lewis considered Till We Have Faces his best work of fiction. Sort of a remake of the mythology behind Cupid and Psyche, it is incredibly well developed and plunges you to the depths of theology and well-being at the end.
Uh, can’t give you a full analysis here, but if you want to read an intriguing take on how it relates to denial, confession, and healing, click here.
As for the smidgeon on sexuality.
One of Alex’s friends is training to be a teacher, but was lamenting the long list of required subjects a teacher has to master. All teachers, regardless of specialty, must be trained to teach sex education. Some else just today confirmed that a radical few have hijacked education in Sweden.
We have so much to learn from the Swedes when it comes to recycling and green energy. It’s so much a part of who they are. I saw almost NO litter. That was refreshingly odd! Although they aren’t much better when it comes to graffiti. It’s everywhere. Even on this hiking trail.
Hey, wait. The graffiti looks like the Swedish version of my last name!
OK, enough of the travelogue. If you’ve followed along thus far, I’ll simply leave you with a family pic:
Tremendous pictures! Wow, Sweden is so beautiful! It was good to see Sarah's face too. It sounds like you had a few God moments while you were there. I heard about Sweden joining NATO. I'm all for anything that pokes Putin in the eye! Thanks for sharing your pics and your memories. I have read almost everything from C.S. Lewis, save the one you mentioned. Bev bought me a C.S. Lewis anthology a few years back with most of his non-fiction works. I'll have to look at that one too.