Oh What a Useful Society!

I have been reading a book named, "Kunsten å Være Unyttig" which translates into "The Art of being Useless" by Per Henrik Gullfoss. This book has really been inspirational to me because I am one of those people who need to use every moment of my life to do something I believe is useful. The book describes our society as a place where self-worth is based on how useful we are. How often have you met someone when the first question they ask you is “what you do?” And you find your self answering what you are studying or your job title. We say this because people consider it to be useful and being useful gives meaning to our lives. And what would life be like without meaning? We never answer, “I laugh, I love, and I seek wisdom and beauty.” Many of us choose an education or job because it is useful and not because we are really interested or enjoying it. “But what if we realized that the point of life was not to be useful, but to live life (Gullfoss)?”
The author tells us to revaluate what we consider “useful.” It explains that what truly gives life meaning are the things that we consider to be useless. In particular, the book describes four assets that are useless but vital to be happy. One is to love (and no not only love for selfish reasons, because you are lonely or whatever, but truly love and not expect anything back), to seek joy (by this Gullfoss means that we should do things we want to do and more importantly to not make excuses, because ultimately you always have time for the things you really want to do), to seek wisdom (this does not mean how smart you are but to not be afraid to “bite the apple,” to make mistakes, but to learn from those mistakes). And last but not least, to seek beauty (this does not mean the superficial materialistic beauty but the inner beauty). Once you have been able to put this into practice then you will find joy in the things you do. For example you no longer come up with excuses of why you cannot go to the gym, because you take time to do the things you want, or you vacuum the house not because you have too, but because you want too.
I cannot explain the ideas of this book in such a small blog, but I only wanted to share with you the main ideas. The book only costs 65 kroner’s on the internet. It is only 84 pages and written in big text so it is an easy read. I recommend this book to anyone who feels guilty for sitting around doing nothing one day or for not using all their time doing useful things. You cannot spend your time in any better way than to read this book!

Tenk hvilken befrielse det ville være, hvis mennesket innså at livets mål ikke var å gjøre noe nyttig, men å leve livet.
- Per Henrik Gullfoss

Vegetarian in Spain

You look and you will find

I have been a pescetarian for two years and for a while now I have been considering switching out my seafood for a full vegetarian diet. Recently I moved to Spain- known as the meat loving country- and could not have chosen a worse time to be vegetarian. When visiting Barcelona back in August I found very few vegetarian dishes in resturant- menus. As a result, I ended up eating fish everyday. Although I eat fish, the plan was never to have it everyday.

On my third day in Madrid, I went on a little hunt for a food store named Planeta Vegeno (Planet Vegan). Planeta Vegano is located in the largest immigrant area in Madrid named Lavapies. On the contrary to other places in Madrid where people seem so rushed, the people of Lavapies were relaxing on benches small talking. The streets were on steep hills creating a strange mysterious feel to the place. Planeta Vegano is located in one of the steep hills along with indian and jewish returants. It was a little small shop filled with everything from vegan mayonase, lentils, vegan cheese, soya burgers, soya hotdogs, and even fake frozen shrimp, which put a big smile on my face.

Although I was happy to have found Planeta Vegano, it is too far out of my reach to go shopping there all the time. But luckily, that same day when walking around in my neighbourhood, I came upon a health store which had a small supply of tofu and soya milk.

Yesterday, I met up with one of my classmates for tea. After telling him about my vegetarian diet he told me about an amazing place just a short walk from the metro stop Cuatro Caminos. We went there and I was in joy. This place had everything. Even good whole wheat bread which is another hard thing to find in Madrid. The store promoted meditation and yoga selling statues and meditation chairs. In the back there is a cafe serving amazing juice and many vegetarian lunch options. And just down stairs there was even a resturant serving all sorts of vegetarian food! My classmate recommended the risotto. When I thought it couldn’t get better than this, my classmate tells me that on your birthday you get to eat for free when you show them your id! Oh boy guess where I am spending my birthday?

I learned that eventhough it is going to hard to be vegetarian in Madrid, it is not impossible. You look and you will find!