Everything changes, everything stays the same

Social interaction while wearing a face mask is kind of like joining an online meeting without enabling your camera. Even though the eyes communicate a very large part, probably most, of our message, it just feels extremely awkward to me. There is so much information lost with the subtle facial expressions and especially the smile. I do not like it at all. That’s why I am grateful to my past self that I listened to my gut feeling some years ago. My gut told me that we had to get out of town and move to the countryside, as soon as humanly possible. Which we did. Out here everything is exactly the same pre- and post-Covid. Nothing has changed. Mother Nature does her thing regardless of what goes on in the human world. It is a blessing to be reminded of that every single day. She is my immovable, solid foundation to which my life is anchored.

PhilosophyRikard ÖqvistMarch 29, 2021nature, virus, news, lifestyle, countrylifeComment

The greatest opportunity

Unused human potential is something that bothers me to the very core. My dream is equal opportunity to proper education for anyone on the planet. Imagine how many potential geniuses there are in poor countries of the world, that currently lack access to education. Maybe there are one million PhDs out there, just waiting to unleash their ideas upon academia? Imagine how this untapped potential could change the world. How it would increase the growth of human knowledge. How many more research papers would be published every month? The value this would bring is incalculable. Big changes bring big opportunities. The virus induced rapid change to distance learning has suddenly made the dream a reality.

EducationRikard ÖqvistMarch 28, 2020online education, distance learning, virusComment

A cloudy sunrise

The beauty of nature is often most pronounced during sunrise and sunset. It is a symbol of a beginning and an end, in a cycle that repeats perpetually. Why is it so? I believe it has something to do with contrast. When the sun is close to the horizon, the contrast is maximized in many ways. It is the same bright sphere up in the sky during the day, but when the sun is close to the horizon, the shadows become longer, and the sky is painted in many colours. Everything around us is suddenly portrayed in a whole new way. Those things that used to hold no beauty at all, suddenly can become immensely beautiful for a moment, like a stone, a tree or even a virus outbreak.