“I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.” Mark Twain
April 12, 2020. It is Easter Sunday, the fourth day of Passover, and the beginning of the fifth week of the coronavirus-caused shutdown in Pennsylvania. We began the day with a brief note to my Uncle Knud in Denmark, with whom we spent last Easter. The kids attended virtual Sunday school and I spent some time catching up on the growing pile of magazines, primarily from The Economist and The New Yorker.
I lived with Knud and my late aunt Birthe when I was fifteen years old, arriving in 1993. That period of my life was transformative. I had the opportunity to study in a Danish handelsskole (i.e. business school). Courses I enrolled in at Holstebro Handelsskole (HH) included Business in Society, International Trade, Accounting, Economics, Marketing, and Business Writing. The daily commute to HH from their home in Bur started at the rural train station (i.e. bench) and included a bus transfer.
Most of the experiences from ’93-’94 that created impact on me were non-scholastic. I remember wondering about the challenges of integration for certain immigrant communities, especially when I periodically visited with a family that ran a pizza shop in Holstebro. In retrospect, the emergence of the nativist Dansk Folkeparti (DF) political group in the context of Uffe Ellemann-Jensen’s Venstre and Poul Nyrup Rasmussen’s prime ministership (Social Democrat) may be viewed by historians as an indicative precursor to the full eruption of isolationist trends manifesting across Europe, and the United States, that followed: Donald Trump, Marine Le Pen, Viktor Orban… Jair Bolsonoro… Narendra Modi… I would be curious to hear Pia Kjærsgaard, a foundational influence on DF, speak on the trends in global and European politics today.
I could not have imagined in 1993 that the Danish model of coping with the tension to both support a generous social safety-net while also enabling a healthy level of self-determination would become a topic of regular debate amongst American politicians. For example, here Donald Trump and Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen interact over a Trumpian overture to purchase Greenland; Here former presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg makes reference to the American Dream being available, but in Denmark; And, of course, you cannot connect Denmark and US politics without mentioning Bernie Sanders, so here is an analysis of Bernie’s infatuation with Denmark.
Aside from the experiences in school and impressions from politics, I also treasure the memories of that time with our family, and Knud and Birthe’s friends, so very much. I think back on those days so fondly: late evening conversations with Knud and Birthe, hikes in the woods, parties with friends, and a handful of stories that include me getting quite, quite lost.
My cousin Pia shared a book with me, written by Piet Hein, in 1994. Piet Hein was from Copenhagen. Amongst his many accomplishments, which included contributions to science, Nordic aesthetic design, and resistance against Nazi occupation, were the creation of, in numerous languages, clever poems he named Grooks. Here is a listing of many of Hein’s Grooks in English. He wrote one about Denmark:
(on Denmark) Denmark seen from a foreign land looks but like a grain of sand. Denmark as we Danes conceive it is so big you won’t believe it.
Bur is a small rural enclave outside of Holstebro with a population of 218. The Jensen home will always be of disproportionate size in my mind’s image of the world (to a point where you might not believe it).
