I got a swarm of gnats in my throat during a hike at Kapisillit in Greenland, 75 km. east of the capital Nuuk, when I opened the mosquito net for a sip of coffee.
Report 2023
Shut your mouth!
The picture on the left was chosen because it symbolically illustrates how risky it is to open your mouth. This applies, as in the picture, when in the summer of 2023, trekking with wife and 10 grandchildren in Greenland, I lifted the mosquito net to take a sip of coffee and got a mouth full of gnats. And it applies if, in the public debate on controversial issues (e.g. the wars in Ukraine between Russia and the USA/NATO and in Gaza), one dares to open the mouth in an attempt to moderate the rhetoric of war and the somewhat one-sided public debate and media coverage.
More generally speaking, there are a lot of things that I have cut back on or completely stopped doing in my mature age. I no longer run for buses and trains that I am about to be late for. Downhill skiing and ice skating are also deleted from the list, as is trekking with a heavy backpack over large distances in high, desolate mountain areas. I have reduced the number of official posts (boards, commissions etc.) and try (in vain) to keep my mouth shut during controversial public debates.
There are however also a few things I would like to do, before it's too late. We have started traveling by train around Europe and are experiencing things that would be unthinkable on an airplane or in our own car. My children and grandchildren beg me to write down all the family stories and anecdotes. And I have boxes totaling 1 cubic meter with family letters and photographs stretching back 150 years. A material which I should read, process and describe for my descendants.
And as if all this were not enough, Madame and I are about to change residences. After 38 years in a house for five children / ten grandchildren and two adults, we are moving during this year to a house that is half as big. It needs to be renovated and rebuilt. - Also for that we have started planning.