A dysfunctional rural urbanite

Yep.

That's me.

Always caught in the inbetween.

I've spent most of my life living out in the semiwilderness of rural Norway (which probably translates into something like Yukon or Siberia to most civilized people - not too far off the mark), and while the countryside has so much going for it, I'm always pining for something or other that only cities provide.

Like other people. *Warning! Gross generalizations ahead!* Ok, I don't live all alone in a shed on top of a mountain, all wise and guru-like, I DO have neighbours. They even live close enough that I am able to irritate them by practicing on my guitars or singing loudly along to the stereo in the middle of the night. There's actually a couple of hundred people living within walking distance...it's just that...not all that many of them are MY kind of people.

It's not that I'm picky or snobbish or anything. I just like to speak with people that I see eye to eye with. People that I at least have some marginal interests in common with. Hmmm. This is going to be a tough one to explain properly.

Let's try this angle, then: I've always been of a "want to know" nature. I want to know what's beyond the next rise. I want to know what life's like for other people. I want to know how things taste, feel, what they look like, what makes a certain society tick, how things became as they did...just everything! And here in the countryside, the majority of the people seem to be content with just where they are in their lives. Nothing wrong in being content, it just doesn't make for very creative and daring thinking.

And then there's city people. Lots of creative and daring thinking there, but very few have a relaxed attitude to life in general. It IS possible to be creative and daring without having to kick up a storm as soon as you get out of bed in the morning...

Sigh. Yep. As we say here: cutting everybody over the same comb. Generalizing. I guess we're all there every now and then - feeling so singularly unique that our minds boggle at the fact that other people actually live valuable lives and contribute significantly to society...just that they are so...different.

So, anyway. That's why I'm heading for Scotland next week. Going to the Highlands, Isle of Skye, the Outer Hebrides, the Orkneys and Edinburgh. 3rd summer in a row. Why? Three reasons:

1) I've yet to meet another Norwegian there.
2) I just love going there - the history, the scenery, the people, everything (ok not all of the food).
3) They invented whisky.

Arrr...want to go NOW!