Nobel

I attended the Nobel Prize Ceremony in Stockholm yesterday. It was thrilling to be a part of a tradition that recognizes contributions many have made to human understanding. It is a great example of Sweden’s international effort and reach. This is a small country with a global presence that is well beyond it physical size and population (Carl Linnaeus, Abba, IKEA, Tiger Wood’s wife Elin…need I say more?). December 10th is one day when much of the world turns to Sweden. Note, this photo below is from the Nobel web site and is the banner for last year’s ceremony, but my pictures inside the auditorium are so bad…

The Swedish flag above the stage of the Stockholm Concert Hall during the 2008 Nobel Prize Award Ceremony. Copyright © The Nobel Foundation 2008 Photo: Hans Mehlin

Here is the briefest of primers on the awards…Alfred Nobel, a Swede, established the Nobel Prize and funded it via his enormous wealth (he invented dynamite--interesting to think about that…); He vowed that great advances in Science (chemistry and physics), medicine, literature and Peace (and, eventually economics was added) should be recognized regardless of national origin. Given the timing of the establishment of the Nobel Awards, the peace prize was “given” to Norway to acknowledge the longstanding peace between Norway and Sweden and the peaceful split of the Union between these two friendly neighbors (i.e. Norway’s final step in a long awaited independence from both Denmark and Sweden). The Norwegian Nobel Commission was charged with awarding the peace prize each year (hence Obama in Oslo) and the Swedish Commission awards all of the others. The ceremony at Stockholm’s Concert house is “noble”—solemn, yet celebratory pageantry! A Nobel Committee member gives a speech about each recipient (in Swedish) and then the King awards the medal—(I’m not sure how they get their 1,000,000 USD?). And between each step is music--really lovely.

One poignent moment of the ceremony this year was watching Nobel laureate Charles Kuen Kao's apparent confusion on stage (the man hailed as the father of fibre optics). He is suffering from Alzheimer’s, which reminds us of human tenure and vulnerability amidst the power of such an event.

I attended the Stockholm ceremony with the other Fulbrighters and we celebrated after with wine and a Thai feast. I can honestly say that the interaction with my fellow Fulbrighters in Sweden that makes me feel a sense of great possibility. These people are doing important things in many fields from cancer research to documentary filmmaking. While Nobel is limited to recognition of rather traditional categories of “great thought and action” (with the Peace Prize representing the most broadly defined of the awards) there is so much other thought to celebrate. Thus, watching the awards and being around such creative thinkers as the other Fulbrighters, I can’t help but be reminded of the incredible depth of human potential...some of it we find a way to award and some we can just be thankful for.

The Nobel Awards have a bit of the Oscar type buzz surrounding them…a long line of limos for the VIPS, elegant gowns or tuxes for the VIPers, etc. And the day-after gossip in all the Swedish papers. In reading the coverage, it seemed that the Queen took the biggest hit from the press, with one katty reporter asking why she wore used drapery from the castle for her dress…and another proclaiming it her “worst year.”

My photo Journalistic credentials continue to decline, but I do have a number of roofscapes that I would like to share. What is a roofscape? In this case it is the scene from my hotel room in Stockholm…another way of looking at the city and thinking about people and space. I get a similar view from the gym where I have been doing yoga in Göteborg and have developed a fondness for seeing cities from this perspective. It is a different view that we don’t think about so often—a metaphor for my time in Sweden. I have had the wonderful opportunity to live in Sweden, twice--two of the most challenging years of my life! And, I don’t think the challenge is about Sweden. It is what one learns about oneself that makes such adventures so difficult and rewarding. You’d think the anonymity of a far-away place would make it easier to dodge life’s big questions, but actually, I think it makes them that much more present…