In Sweden there’s a popular word that has come to signify life in the twenty-first century- “livspusslet”. Google translate tells me to call it “the life puzzle”, which would of course be the literal translation. In Swedish it refers to the inherent difficulties in successfully juggling family, work, relationships, a healthy lifestyle and so forth. It often involves things like the difficulty of juggling paternity leave with both drinking beer with your friend group and finding the time to see your mistress.
I have always despised this expression – perhaps because I feel that life is too complex, sacred and paradoxical to deserve to be referred to as a puzzle- something so logical. I suppose it is a comforting concept, but it can also lead to people deluding themselves into thinking that they are failures, when in fact they aren’t!
The love of your life will not magically fuse with your dream job or your best friend regardless of how hard you try to search for that elusive piece of the puzzle you suspect you threw in the rubbish. I have a tip for you: stop looking! It’s not your fault! Existence is unfathomable, and that is the beauty of it! Hamlet, or rather Shakespeare, said it best when he called it “this mortal coil” -meaning that life is a series of bad events we either have to put up with or not-in the famous “To be or not to be” speech (quote comes at 1:20, for those of you can’t put up with 2:55 minutes of superbly realized Elizabethan English):
Of course, Hamlet´s a tragedy and the poor guy goes insane, or is insane from the very start of the play, depending on what interpretation you prefer. Perhaps we should look at life less than a set of hurdles that we need to overcome and more of a melting pot filled with a mysterious, badly smelling, unpredictable, yet oddly intoxicating brew. Unless we wanna keep juggling the balls and risk losing our sanity!
- Desiree