An Enemy of the People in Oslo

I am a school assistant at Tveita Primary School. 

I belong to the union representatives, the forest walkers, the cabin people, the skiers, the barbecuers, the fire-people, firewood-burners, the ones who care about kindergarden- and childhood-politics, but I do not belong to the politically active, the sports supporters, the instant-grillers or the garbage throwers.

I live in Oslo because I grew up here. My cohabitant is from Drammen, and when we were settling down we discussed Drammen or Oslo. The city of Oslo and I pulled the strongest card in the end. The best thing about Oslo is that you can choose if you want to be anonymous or someone that everybody recognizes. And of course the variety of choices according to preferences. Our network and our family, who lives just up our street is also a good thing.

I've never heard about An Enemy of the People, but I recognize the title. On the 17th of May, when my partner, I and my son was at Karl Johan street looking at the childrens parade, I accidentally noticed that I was standing on a sidewalk quote from An Enemy of the People. This was two days after the request from the theatre about my participation. I believe it's true that the strongest man in the world is the one who stands the most alone, because it takes so much courage, strength, endurance and engagement to put up with not having anyone else to lean on. A lot of people in todays soceity forget to think for themselves. It is so easy for people to let someone else own the truth and forget to think about where we stand ourselves. Having said that I do not believe that there is only one truth. Everyone has their own view on what Oslo is, and what the answers to various questions might be.

A turning-point for me came when I went through a painful conflict, where I felt very alone. A strong dilemma for me, related to that conflict, was whether to stay and keep on fighting, or move on with my life. After standing in the headwinds alone for a long time, I chose my way of living. I learned that I only could change myself, and that I am the one in charge of my life.I turned away from spending all my energy thinking about what other people thought, thinking that I could make the world a better place by doing what I thought others expected from me. Instead I turned to listening more to myself, and pay more attention to what my views were. Thus I am reaching the goal of making the world a better place by searching more within myself, and I ask myself what I think is right and what I expect from myself. This means that I own my own truth. 

For the performances at the theatre, I am walking from our house, down the "Motbakkene" together with my son Martin. Then we enter the tube and take line 3 to the theatre.