Halfway Mountain
Halfway Mountain, Journal, 2018
According to the World Happiness Report, a yearly survey of the state of global happiness, commissioned by the United Nations, Denmark is often ranked as the “happiest country in the world”. While studying photography in Denmark in 2014 I had to work on a final project. Most of my classmates went to far away coutries. I decided to stay to understand what made Denmark the happiest country in the world.
“People often ask me if the Danes are really the happiest people in the world. I still don’t have an answer to this. But I know what I like about the Danes. I like that they use cemeteries as places to celebrate life more than death. I like their innate sense of freedom in being what they want to be. I like the fact that Danes go to ‘højskole’ (High School) to learn something for life, to be aware of what they are good at and what makes them happy.
In her New Year’s Speech 2017, Queen Margrethe of Denmark said: ‘Try and do something that is not necessary, something that there is no need for, something pointless!’ And continued: ‘I think it is important to have experiences that appeal to our senses, something that inspires our imagination, that stimulates the mind, and that can enlarge our world. That is not so pointless after all.’ Driving around
Denmark, often sleeping in a tent under pouring rain, I would find myself asking why I was doing it. But now I have the feeling that Margrethe might be right.”
DANISH
Vi er danskerne.
Vi er hundeejere i bus, vi er luftige frisurer, vi er solbrune kroppe, der spurter ud i havet en gråvejrsdag.
Vi er flag. Vi er flag overalt.
Vi er familiefester, vi er foldede servietter.
Vi er glas i fire størrelser og stearinlys, som vi tænder, før gæsterne kommer.
Vi kan finde på at gøre det med noget, der ligner en pistol.
Vi er hække. Vi er hække rundt om vores huse. Vi klipper dem i en højde, så folk, der er meget mindre end os, ikke kan kigge ind.
Vi kan finde på at gøre det uden noget andet på kroppen end træsko.
Vi er campingpladser, vi er dyrskuer, vi er mænd med geværer på væggen i dagligstuen.
Vi er forældrene, der trygt stiller vores børn i barnevogne uden for butikkerne.
Vi er danskerne, og vi ligner hinanden en del. Samtidig med, at vi også er relativt specielle.
Og så virker det som om vi har en medfødt følelse af frihed. Til at være dem, vi synes, vi er.
Vi regnes blandt verdens lykkeligste folk.
Vi er danskerne.
ENGLISH
We are the Danes.
We are dog owners on a bus, we are airy hairstyles, we are tanned bodies sprinting in the sea on a gray day.
We are flags. We are flags all over.
We are family celebrations, we are folded napkins.
We are glasses in four sizes and candles that we light before the guests arrive.
We can do that with something that looks like a gun.
We are hedges. We are hedges around our houses. We trim them to a height so that people who are much smaller than us can not look inside.
We can do it with nothing on the body but clogs.
We are campsites, we are animal watchers, we are men with guns on the living room wall.
We are the parents who safely place our children in strollers outside shops.
We are the. Danes, and we look a lot like each other. At the same time we are also relatively special.
And so it seems as if we have an innate sense of freedom. To be who we think we are.
We are amongst the world’s happiest people.
We are the Danes.
