Category — Microblog Mondays

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

*******

I learned a new term this week.  It was presented as 2018’s “hygge,” though once I Googled it, I saw that it was also 2017’s “hygge.”  That feels like a lot of work for a single word.

Lagom is Swedish, and (based on what I’m reading) it roughly translates as “just enough.”  The Guardian summarizes the sentiment and compares it to hygge:

Both imply a distaste for extravagance and flashiness, but hygge is active in a way that lagom is not. Hygge is about doing that little bit extra to create a special atmosphere. Lagom, although always positive, is almost the opposite. It’s about not doing what is unnecessary or superfluous, focusing on what is absolutely essential, knowing when to stop.

Which sounds pretty damn good to me.  There are times when fussy is totally worth it; go all out and enjoy the final product.  But too many times we feel like we should strive for fussy when we know that pared down is more our style.  (Or, more attainable.  Can you tell that I don’t lead a very Instagrammable life?)

And yet when it comes to personality, I’m not sure it would work for me.  As much as I am austere when it comes to tangible things, I feel pretty passionate about ideas.  The author continues:

Being lagom also means being moderate in personality, views, and politics. When Swedish children are told skratta lagom, or teenagers are told to have lagom kul, it doesn’t mean “have a bit of a laugh”, or “have a bit of fun”, it means “don’t laugh too much”, or “don’t go over the top”.

You can’t take a word out of a culture.  Or you can try, but it will forever be like wearing someone else’s shoes; they may be your size, but they’re molded to someone else’s feet.

What do you think about the idea of lagom?

*******

Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts that are connected to businesses or are sponsored post.

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

*******

Kelly Wickham Hurst recently said something that stuck with me: “People are magic.” She was talking about that human impulse to insert yourself into someone else’s life, somehow at the right time, and help. But, of course, it could go the other way, too. Magic is often used to trick the senses, misdirect your attention.

That is the thought that came to mind as I read this story about the start of the BRCA1 research. It is incredible that this project, which had an inauspicious start, led to knowledge that has potentially saved life. It’s not a long piece, but it is the best example of people are magic — both in the good and bad sense — in a single story.

Read it, but don’t ruin the twist for anyone else in your comment.

And tell us about a moment of magic that someone brought into your life.

*******

Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts that are connected to businesses or are sponsored post.

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

*******

A newsletter I read linked to a fascinating (but old — it’s from 2004) long-read article about the mysterious death of an Arthur Conan Doyle expert, Richard Green, and the Sherlockian way the community has gone about trying to figure out what happened.

This is a little different from a regular Sherlock Holmes story because it involves an actual person. I don’t want to say too much about the article and ruin it, but read it.  You’ll find yourself pausing during it, noting strange wordings and wondering if they have any meaning.

I love mysteries for the same reason that I think most people like mysteries: we want to believe that everything can be known if we give the situation enough attention.  Or, a quote from the article understandable with the world today: “The more illogical the world seemed, the more intense the cult surrounding Holmes became.”

Do you like mysteries?

*******

Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts that are connected to businesses or are sponsored post.

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

*******

There are some dates you want to remember and mark because they bring you personal happiness: your birthday, anniversary, special accomplishments.  There are other dates that you wish you could forget but you can’t because they were life changing events: death dates and other losses.

There are dates that you swear you’ll never stop marking that sometimes slip away with time.  Our miscarriages were like that.  I couldn’t tell you the dates anymore except for one, and that’s only because it occurred the day before a Jewish holiday, which makes it somewhat easier to keep in mind, though only the Hebrew date and not the American one.  The others pass on the calendar without acknowledgment even though I thought I would never forget those dates.

But there is something about September 11th that pokes my back and says, “Remember me.”  It doesn’t matter that it isn’t a neat milestone like 10 years or 15 years or 20 years after the fact.  Even at the oddball 16-year mark, it demands that you notice the date on the calendar.

Are you doing anything to mark the day?

*******

Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts that are connected to businesses or are sponsored post.

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

*******

There was a cute story in the news this past weekend about a little girl who wrote the Queen because she wanted a pet swan and she thought the Queen owned all the swans.

I showed it to the ChickieNob because she writes a blog about royal news, but she was royally miffed.  I think it secretly had something to do with the fact that she never got her pet clam, but the rest of it was because the ChickieNob sent a letter to the queen and got no response.  She did not want to hear about a little girl who got a letter from Buckingham Palace when she had been checking the mailbox for weeks since sending her own at the beginning of the summer.

When she first wrote the letter, we explained to her that it was highly unlikely that she would receive a letter back, though the ChickieNob couldn’t fathom how the Queen wouldn’t respond once she saw the evidence of the ChickieNob’s deep and abiding love.  We told her it was worth writing, but you need to send these sorts of things without any expectation of an answer.

Have you ever received a response from a public figure?

*******

Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts that are connected to businesses or are sponsored post.