After my previous frivolous post
there is time for serious reflections. I have been recently reading serious
books, thinking serious thoughts, saying internally good bye to somebody
departed who had been important in my life. Consequently, my reflections and
thoughts have been a bit morose. Then,
I saw a post with a cheerful title Are Europeans sadder? I decided
that this is something very appropriate for my current mood. With each year passing, I
feel more and more European, the post content caught my attention and interest.
What do I think about it? What is my experience? Maybe Europeans are sadder,
but in relation to whom? My observations tell me that the south Europeans are a
cheerful lot but Scandinavians and Germans not so much. Poles are somewhere
in-between, perhaps. I would place French and Spanish, on my personal happiness
scale between Poland Southern
Europe . It makes me think that maybe
weather and sunshine have some influence here. In addition to reasons given in
the mentioned post, I wonder what influence European literature has on
emotional predispositions of people. I have just finished biography of Herman
Hesse and I would not call it a happy story. Deep and meaningful but not happy.
Hesse was a strange, complicated man and a brilliant writer
who influenced thinking of many generations of Germans in particular. Sure, his
books are read in all countries of the world but I would risk an assumption that
Europeans are in majority of his followers. His books do not cheer the readers
up.
When I was at school, I had a great teacher of literature. At some stage of my education the time has come to read and study one
of famous Polish writers of an unpronounceable name, Żeromski. He was called a
conscience of Polish literature and his books were a mandatory reading at high
schools. They cover serious, difficult subjects and I can not remember any
funny parts in his novels. My teacher used to say : Be careful reading
Żeromski. One novel – will not do you any damage, but if you read two in a row
depression will follow, three books in a row may lead to a suicide. Perhaps the
jurors of Nobel price committee in 1924 were aware of the danger and selected
another Polish writer who was also on a short list this year – Reymont.
 |
| Żeromski - Looking at the man one can see that he wrote about serious matters |
One of my Polish friends who is a
literature teacher recently suggested that I read a new international
bestseller – The Struggle by Karl Ove Knaussgaard. The first one of the six
parts of The Struggle is called – A Death in the Family. This is the book
that I just finished. Great book, full of meaningful reflections. The story is
also very good and based on the life of the author. Being under influence of
the dark wisdom of the book I feel sad. I am waiting for the next two parts to
arrive by post. Was is a wise move to order more? Perhaps not, my literature
teacher would most likely object and worry about my well-being.
| The picture on the cover is of the author |
Since I decided to unburden myself
by damping all my current sadness in this post, I have to mention my recent
visit to the local nursing home. Nursing homes are generally sad places, but I
decided to volunteer my time to spend it with people who live there. I
know that they have caring families but maybe sometimes the families are too
busy to visit and I could make a positive difference, however small.
I must confess I expected a warm
welcome but instead I was coldly and briefly informed that my enthusiasm to
help can not be used in this establishment and that I should turn to the local
council. When I wanted to find out if the council could potentially direct me
to the nursing home I was told that they are very busy, too busy to chat with
me and that they have paid qualified staff and families to support the
patients. Wow, that made me sad! Sad for failing to help, but most of all sad for
the patients who may be deprived of company they might want to have.
I did go to the local council to
offer my help and this was a very happy story with a promising outcome and as
such does not belong to my sad, very sad post.
