Letter 1-2006. Ski philosophy.
5th January 2006
Dear friends,
I have started a new numbering of the letters. I don’t know how long I will continue with these writings, but I found a new year to be a good time to start a new numbering. I thought I would write a bit earlier, to be earlier with “happy new year”, but there are still 360 days left, so here are the best wishes for the rest of the year.
It has been a relaxing Christmas holiday. It has mostly contained of skiing, reading, eating and resting. I see that the holiday is coming to an end. It is still a week before my studies start. But now the car and my “private driver” (it is good to have a brother who likes skiing) is gone, and this is my third day without skiing. I can feel the abstinences coming. I was skiing nine of the first 13 days I was home. But I understand I can not keep going like this the whole winter.
Skiing is a favourite in winter. I must admit that my body was not quite used to moving in that way, as it was 20 months since it happened last time. It took some days before I was at the bottom and the stiff muscles again started to value this sort of exercise. We have been lucky with the snow where I live. We have had minus degrees all the time and so good possibilities for skiing, or at least it could have been if I had been more clever preparing my skis. When there after a snowfall then are sunny days, there can’t be any more beautiful place than the ski tracks at Ringkollen. It is not difficult to become national romantic, then.
Some ski philosophy:
Skiing is a good exercise.
Skiing makes you hungrier, which is useful before eating Christmas food.
Skiing feels cold in your face if there is cold wind.
Skiing feels warm if you wear many clothes and go fast.
Skiing clears the brain for complicated thoughts.
Skiing is a good way of disconnecting.
Skiing results in a simple philosophy.
Skiing gives energy for more demanding brain exercises.
In addition to skiing I have spent much time in the sofa with a book in my hands, and I was ready for something more demanding brain exercise. It has resulted in much Hebrew. I still find it a funny language. I was a bit worried how my experience of Hebrew as a language of occupation would influence my eagerness to learn more Bible Hebrew. It is easier than I expected. The word I have the most problem with now, among the 103 words which are used more than 500 times in the Old Testament, and so are in the curriculum I should have learnt, is “har”. It means mountain, and I do like mountains. The problem is only that when I hear “har” I immediately think of Har Homa, one of the “model settlements” outside Bethlehem, the fortress built where there was a nice hill with forest ten years ago. It is for me a symbol of the injustice done on the West Bank.
But the wall is down! (Yes, the gingerbread wall.) We had quite an effective tearing down. The first part was taken on Christmas night, and the kings passed through to the Christ child. (This might not be the theologically correct time, but the crib looks better when the kings are there.) During Christmas more parts were gone, and on New Years Eve the rest fell down by itself, it was quite a good timing. More concrete walls don’t seem to fall that easily.
I will define more of the literature I have read these days as related to my studies. The fact that it is not in the curriculum, might show how little literature on vocation is valued in the Norwegian study of theology. When I am happy to read both homiletics and church fathers in my holiday, I understand that I am more than ready to start studying again. In a week I start this semester at the Norwegian Lutheran School of Theology with Hebrew, Old Testament and practical theology.
I also understand that I am in Norway when the weekends are not to be spent at home. Tomorrow we start a training and selection of those who are interested in going to Bangladesh from Buskerud this coming autumn. It is time to do something, as I have been in quiet for so long.
Happy New Year from Hanne.
Dear friends,
I have started a new numbering of the letters. I don’t know how long I will continue with these writings, but I found a new year to be a good time to start a new numbering. I thought I would write a bit earlier, to be earlier with “happy new year”, but there are still 360 days left, so here are the best wishes for the rest of the year.
It has been a relaxing Christmas holiday. It has mostly contained of skiing, reading, eating and resting. I see that the holiday is coming to an end. It is still a week before my studies start. But now the car and my “private driver” (it is good to have a brother who likes skiing) is gone, and this is my third day without skiing. I can feel the abstinences coming. I was skiing nine of the first 13 days I was home. But I understand I can not keep going like this the whole winter.
Skiing is a favourite in winter. I must admit that my body was not quite used to moving in that way, as it was 20 months since it happened last time. It took some days before I was at the bottom and the stiff muscles again started to value this sort of exercise. We have been lucky with the snow where I live. We have had minus degrees all the time and so good possibilities for skiing, or at least it could have been if I had been more clever preparing my skis. When there after a snowfall then are sunny days, there can’t be any more beautiful place than the ski tracks at Ringkollen. It is not difficult to become national romantic, then.
Some ski philosophy:
Skiing is a good exercise.
Skiing makes you hungrier, which is useful before eating Christmas food.
Skiing feels cold in your face if there is cold wind.
Skiing feels warm if you wear many clothes and go fast.
Skiing clears the brain for complicated thoughts.
Skiing is a good way of disconnecting.
Skiing results in a simple philosophy.
Skiing gives energy for more demanding brain exercises.
In addition to skiing I have spent much time in the sofa with a book in my hands, and I was ready for something more demanding brain exercise. It has resulted in much Hebrew. I still find it a funny language. I was a bit worried how my experience of Hebrew as a language of occupation would influence my eagerness to learn more Bible Hebrew. It is easier than I expected. The word I have the most problem with now, among the 103 words which are used more than 500 times in the Old Testament, and so are in the curriculum I should have learnt, is “har”. It means mountain, and I do like mountains. The problem is only that when I hear “har” I immediately think of Har Homa, one of the “model settlements” outside Bethlehem, the fortress built where there was a nice hill with forest ten years ago. It is for me a symbol of the injustice done on the West Bank.
But the wall is down! (Yes, the gingerbread wall.) We had quite an effective tearing down. The first part was taken on Christmas night, and the kings passed through to the Christ child. (This might not be the theologically correct time, but the crib looks better when the kings are there.) During Christmas more parts were gone, and on New Years Eve the rest fell down by itself, it was quite a good timing. More concrete walls don’t seem to fall that easily.
I will define more of the literature I have read these days as related to my studies. The fact that it is not in the curriculum, might show how little literature on vocation is valued in the Norwegian study of theology. When I am happy to read both homiletics and church fathers in my holiday, I understand that I am more than ready to start studying again. In a week I start this semester at the Norwegian Lutheran School of Theology with Hebrew, Old Testament and practical theology.
I also understand that I am in Norway when the weekends are not to be spent at home. Tomorrow we start a training and selection of those who are interested in going to Bangladesh from Buskerud this coming autumn. It is time to do something, as I have been in quiet for so long.
Happy New Year from Hanne.
posted by Hanne at 5:29 AM
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