Swedish Debate

Neighbor Mats

They are debating, in Parliament, whether or not to lower the grade at which children begin to receive grades in school, from eighth grade to sixth.

Everybody else seems to be discussing the issues raised by the charges against Julian Assange...

Tomorrow, Christmas Eve Day, we begin the celebrations at a neighbor's annual Jul Glögg outdoors at 11 am. Given it is -18 F now at 9 pm, I'd better start internal debate over what best to wear for watching one of the guests ascend into a tree laden with a sprig (I can't recall the English word) of wheat for the birds. Not that I've seen many, except some Magpies from the train. Well, warm, spiced wine should help keep the cold at bay.

Tonight is incredibly clear and I can see the constellations almost as distinctly as when we flew Eastward over the Atlantic. Somewhere above Greenland, my perspective on the few stars seemed to cohere them into recognizable shapes and I understood why people have been compelled to name them. Looking out past the wing of that plane, with the stars so little in the vast sky, with the reflective ice below so monochromatic, I felt comforted to see familiar things.

(I just realized this blog is posting two days behind. Today is Thursday, December 23rd.)