Play Day

We had an easy day in class today – we got to watch a movie! I guess everyone that comes to live in Norway MUST see one of Norway’s most famous productions at some point in their life. Henrik Ibsen is as well known of a playwright in Norway as Shakespeare is in England. Ibsen wrote a play in 1879 that was the most “obscene” and controversial of any play known to man, up to that time in history, anyway. It was a play called “A Doll House,” and it is considered the first real feminist production, ever. It was such a clever plot, but quite scandalous in those days. The basic story line is that a woman named Nora is married to a well-to-do man who treats her like a play thing – not acknowledging at all that she has a brain in her head. When he gets sick and can’t work and their social standing is threatened, Nora secretly takes out a loan to pay the bills to help out her husband. Nora’s husband was totally against borrowing money, and it was illegal in those days for a woman to take out a loan, so she had her father do it, or so she told the guy who loaned her the money. The problem was, her father was on his death bed and couldn’t sign the loan papers so she forged his signature. She then told her husband she had inherited that money from her father who had died. Nora secretly took side jobs to earn enough money to pay the loan back and her husband was none the wiser. Her husband got well and eventually found out about the loan and the forgery and was so incensed that his wife would bring such shame to the family by doing something so illegal (obviously missing the point that his wife did what she needed to do only for HIM and that she was capable enough to earn the money to pay it back), that he slapped her, told her she was unfit to raise their children and threatened to throw her out. When he received the forged loan papers back from the man who had loaned the money, he thought his troubles were over because no one else would find out about it and his name would be spared the shame of potentially having a felon for a wife. But in the process, he completely lost his wife’s respect. She had never seen just how selfish he could be and she was very hurt he never acknowledged what she had done for him, so she up and left him. (In 1879 in Germany the actors wouldn’t even play the parts unless the ending was rewritten because it was NEVER an option for a woman to leave a man.) Before Nora left, her husband tried to convince her to stay by saying, “First and foremost you are a housewife and mother,” to which she responded, “First and foremost, I am a person!” I couldn’t help but shout AMEN at that point as he was such a jerk. I guess it’s no surprise now, after seeing that film (play), that Norway is considered the most feminist country in the world. They had men thinking about women’s equality long before it was politically correct to do so. Woo hoo.

Kory did his share for equality today and made soup for dinner. I’m thankful he told me his plans first so I could tell him that no, you can’t just dump yesterday’s leftover salad into some chicken broth and call it vegetable soup. He still doesn’t understand why not, but then, he’s a guy who once sautéed cucumbers and added them to scrambled eggs for breakfast. At least he tries, and for the most part, gets it right, but every once in a while I have to wonder what in the world he is thinking.

Kaleb’s fourth grade class was invited to school late this afternoon to sing for the incoming first graders. All the new students showed up with their parents for an orientation. The school band was playing outside and the 4th graders were singing inside. It’s so cute to hear Kaleb singing in Norwegian. And I must say, there has to be more twins born in this area of Norway than any other place on earth. There are three sets of identical twin boys entering first grade, out of a class of 78. Kaleb’s 4th grade class has 90 students and there are three sets of identical twins and two sets of paternal twins just in that grade alone. I see twins everyday around here. I checked the national statistics for America and it seems the average is 30 sets of twins for every 1000 births. I’m sure this area of Norway is ten times that average. It must be something in the water. Good thing, as Kaleb says, I’m “out of eggs.” Scary stuff.

We had our Connect group with Agape church tonight (as we often do but I fail to mention it). Tonight was special because we met at our neighbor’s newly re-modeled and decorated house. It was like stepping into the pages of a magazine. That woman is quite the interior designer/decorator so I felt elegant just walking home from her house. I can’t believe the artistic abilities some people have. We all have our gifting. I just wish mine involved something other than sitting on my butt all day staring at a computer screen. If the words aren’t coming out of my mouth, they are flying off my fingertips. Maybe my wish should be that I just didn’t have so many words…. (Kory would wish that, too, I think.)