The sum of small things

Last year at the Breakthrough Dialogue, several people independently of each other mentioned Elizabeth Currid-Halkett's book “The sum of small things” which triggered my sociological curiosity. While maybe slightly cynical, the world has clearly changed since the days of Thorstein Veblen, and status is today more often expressed in being able to afford seemingly anti-capitalist activities like studying “sustainable agriculture” in Ecuador.

For my part, the kids really behaved on the train down to Umeå and now we have a few days together before everything gets going. Yesterday, I was able to go for both a 13k trail run and return to USM for some strength training before picking up a very nice bottle of wine from the Aeolian Islands at Systembolaget.

This autumn, I will take part in the university’s teaching mentoring programme which unfortunately, due to the pandemic, will translate into long days in front on Zoom and already next week, we will have our department kick-off online as well. As such, I was relieved that the fabric of my white sofa chair survived being washed so now I am truly ready for another semester.