This is a view from my new office. From this window I can glance down along the narrow alleys of Gamla Stan, where people stroll and stumble over the uneven cobblestones much as they must have done five centuries ago.
And if I go down into the street below, I am sometimes hit by the stark smells from the restaurant kitchen on the corner. Den Gyldene Freden, as it is called, has served people here since 1722, making it one of the world’s oldest restaurants to have kept its location until today. Our troubadour Bellman wrote songs here in praise of wine, women and song in 1790. And when it almost closed in 1919, painter Anders Zorn bought the whole building and decreed that it must never close again. Nor stop serving Swedish meatballs.
As the place from which I now work, I am taking part also of its past, and glancing toward its future. And already after a few weeks here, I can notice how the place shapes my perspective and impacts my thinking.
Everything we hear is an opinion – not a fact.
Everything we see is a perspective – not the truth.*
With this project, I want to be attentive to the thought process itself, and remember that my thought is not a fact but a perception, and my perspective may have a value in and of itself — but it is not the truth.
* I googled for a source on this quote and found Marcus Aurelius, whose Meditations I love. But it turns out that he has not written this. Someone else attributed it to Rumi. I thank my unknown source in any case because the words struck home with me and helped me make new connections.
Anna Thurdin Hedblad, founder Paxsum AB