This post is about how we have an urge for creative work and that it is what we do that defines us. How to set a traveling life style in stone. It sounds strange maybe, but you will see what I mean further down. It is pretty literally.
I always wanted to travel the world, at least that is all I ever wanted since I was a teenager. Or did I just want to get away from something? The more I got away from everything the more I started to miss something. Maybe it was a home or some sort of security I was missing. But you become what you are doing. It’s what we do that defines us. What you are getting use to becomes your security. No matter if it is the environment you are in or the way you are living. It is to live in your comfort zone.
About 15 years ago I found a pretty flat stone laying on the bottom of a lake. It had a shape that appealed to me and I felt like it had the same shape as a perfect rune stone from the viking age would have. But this one was a bit smaller of course. Something like what I, with a laugh, would look at as the equivalent to a newspaper back in those viking days, over a thousand years ago. A hand held rune stone. Maybe 5 kg of stone in an irregular shape but with two flat sides, perfect to chop some runes into.
So that is what I did. I started back then, 15 years ago or something like that. I took a pencil and started to sketch up how I wanted the rune stone to be like. A classic rune snake that coils into a roll and there is rune letters along its body. At first I wasn’t sure what runes to use or what to write. Runes were used by the Vikings and were the precursors to the alphabetic letters. They were used to write with and they would normally be chopped into stone. The Vikings did not have books as such. But each rune letter had its own meaning so they could be used separately as well as together to build sentences. The most known rune stones would be quite big rocks which you couldn’t move. They would most often be made as a memorial for something. Perhaps like a gravestone for some meaningful persons death or as a memorial for a happening that took place at the location. A battle or a stranding maybe. It could be a ritual with reference to some of their gods. A proof of who was the owner of the land or someone claiming to be the first person discovering the place. First man to approach a coast with his boat for example. Not uncommonly would the vikings also chop in their name to show who they were to make this rune stone. So it could for example be a short message and then an ending with the person’s name and spelling out that he was the one chopping these runes.
I took a big nail and a hammer and started to chop my runes in to the flat stone. It was a bit of a project. 15 years later I was done. Ok, I wasn’t working on it all the time. I put it on the shelf and went out traveling. In fact I didn’t have to spend that much time working on it. It would have been done in a couple of days of effective work. It was just that I was away traveling the world in between the start and the finish of this artwork. I was sailing the seven seas and exploring life and insights which I wrote about. But when I came back, I finished chopping the runes into the flat stone. And I wrote “Away is good, but home is best. Mother earth is my home. Chopped Rasmus.” That was the conclusion that I came back with after my 15 years out in the world. I translated the runes to be applicable to the modern version of the Swedish language. So it is not exactly Viking language, but close enough. It is some sort of art work. This rune stone I then gave to my mother for her 55th birthday. I thought it could be nice to have it sit next to the front door of her house. As a little reminder of the value of a nice home. Then I left again and went out to continue traveling. Sometimes I wish that I wasn’t a traveler. But I certainly am. And that’s just the way it is. The world is my home. That’s why I have the whole globe tattooed on my arm. We are what we are doing. We seem to want to make it clear what we are. Like an urge for some kind of fulfillment. Like setting it in stone.
I always wanted to travel the world, at least that is all I ever wanted since I was a teenager. Or did I just want to get away from something? The more I got away from everything the more I started to miss something. Maybe it was a home or some sort of security I was missing. But you become what you are doing. It’s what we do that defines us. What you are getting use to becomes your security. No matter if it is the environment you are in or the way you are living. It is to live in your comfort zone.
About 15 years ago I found a pretty flat stone laying on the bottom of a lake. It had a shape that appealed to me and I felt like it had the same shape as a perfect rune stone from the viking age would have. But this one was a bit smaller of course. Something like what I, with a laugh, would look at as the equivalent to a newspaper back in those viking days, over a thousand years ago. A hand held rune stone. Maybe 5 kg of stone in an irregular shape but with two flat sides, perfect to chop some runes into.
So that is what I did. I started back then, 15 years ago or something like that. I took a pencil and started to sketch up how I wanted the rune stone to be like. A classic rune snake that coils into a roll and there is rune letters along its body. At first I wasn’t sure what runes to use or what to write. Runes were used by the Vikings and were the precursors to the alphabetic letters. They were used to write with and they would normally be chopped into stone. The Vikings did not have books as such. But each rune letter had its own meaning so they could be used separately as well as together to build sentences. The most known rune stones would be quite big rocks which you couldn’t move. They would most often be made as a memorial for something. Perhaps like a gravestone for some meaningful persons death or as a memorial for a happening that took place at the location. A battle or a stranding maybe. It could be a ritual with reference to some of their gods. A proof of who was the owner of the land or someone claiming to be the first person discovering the place. First man to approach a coast with his boat for example. Not uncommonly would the vikings also chop in their name to show who they were to make this rune stone. So it could for example be a short message and then an ending with the person’s name and spelling out that he was the one chopping these runes.
I took a big nail and a hammer and started to chop my runes in to the flat stone. It was a bit of a project. 15 years later I was done. Ok, I wasn’t working on it all the time. I put it on the shelf and went out traveling. In fact I didn’t have to spend that much time working on it. It would have been done in a couple of days of effective work. It was just that I was away traveling the world in between the start and the finish of this artwork. I was sailing the seven seas and exploring life and insights which I wrote about. But when I came back, I finished chopping the runes into the flat stone. And I wrote “Away is good, but home is best. Mother earth is my home. Chopped Rasmus.” That was the conclusion that I came back with after my 15 years out in the world. I translated the runes to be applicable to the modern version of the Swedish language. So it is not exactly Viking language, but close enough. It is some sort of art work. This rune stone I then gave to my mother for her 55th birthday. I thought it could be nice to have it sit next to the front door of her house. As a little reminder of the value of a nice home. Then I left again and went out to continue traveling. Sometimes I wish that I wasn’t a traveler. But I certainly am. And that’s just the way it is. The world is my home. That’s why I have the whole globe tattooed on my arm. We are what we are doing. We seem to want to make it clear what we are. Like an urge for some kind of fulfillment. Like setting it in stone.
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