An Enemy of the People in Oslo

I work as a Human Relations consultant.

We belong to the travellers, the happy go lucky, the travel-leaders, the fathers, the active, the ones that love the forest, the not very musical, the ones that care for people, the community-oriented, but I do not belong to the slackers, the unprepared, the ones that are cocky on an expedition, the coffee-drinkers, the gamers or the parents that drive their kids around all the time.

I live in a house built right next to where I grew up. My mother and father built it in 79. I feel privileged to live here, I probably wouldn’t be able to live in this house if it wasn’t for the fact that I inherited it from my parents. I don’t know if I will live here in ten or twenty years to come. The youngest of my children is moving out soon. I think when it comes to a horizon of ten years, I think we’ll move to a smaller place. But if we are going to move we think we will be looking for a flat close to Nordmarka – maybe in the area near to Gaustadjordene , because that is a very accessable and kind gateway to  Nordmarka. And that is important - not least  when you get older

An Enemy of the people I’ve seen a couple of times. I really enjoy going to the theatre, two or three times annually. The meaning of the quote“the strongest man in the world is the man standing the most alone” depends on which context you put the quote in. If it is about taking care of oneself, it is very meaningful to me. But if you transfer that to a working environment - I mean Anders Behring Breivik could have said that sentence... So then the context is totally different. If you read the play objectively you either accept a) that the test the doctor has is the real deal, and then it is admirable how he fights for the truth. Because he has just reached a position in life where he is pretty well of. So he makes a strong sacrifice. But if it is b) the test was wrong, he is just way off.

I have had a couple of wake-up calls in my life. During my duty-bound year in the army, my bubble burst. I grew up here in Vettakollen, went to Riis School, in other words a very protected environment. So then I signed up for duty in the north to try smoething new. There I came, sergeant and all. I quickly learned a lot about people, and the other realities of Norway. I remember it was three suicide attempts in my troop by the first week. Kids my own age, came in to my office crying, devastated and with a lot of problems from home. That was sort of a wake-up call. But then again you felt that every one of them had something in them. They were all good kids. Before that I would easier have placed all of them based on my prejudice. And also they placed me, when I told them about where I grew up. So at the end it was as if I was just saying that I lived down-town Oslo just to escape the judgement. But I never had problems with other people, and I was curious about the northeners. I never got in any trouble. It was the most important year in my life, that year in the north of Norway.

For the performance I would walk down the hill to Slemdal and take the subway to the theatre. But on my way back I would go by the subway to the Vettakollen station, just to walk another route back home.