Last week I was in Norway on business travel. It was a great trip, and being in Norway brought many of Scandinavia’s innovations and successes into full view. The itinerary was packed with meetings, travel, a major international conference, and press conferences peppered throughout the week.
One of my favorite Norway moments, however, wasn’t part of the official schedule. It was something that happened for a couple of hours during an unplanned trip to a place that I first heard about a decade earlier. It was my spontaneous, but spectacular, visit to Vigeland.
I was introduced to Vigeland by a dear Norwegian friend whom I met in college. She is one of those friends you are lucky to have. She and her husband have enriched my life, and my introduction to Vigeland is a powerful part of that inheritance.
She showed me pictures of Vigeland one evening when a group of friends were talking about Norway and its architecture. Her father’s career as a top Norwegian architect meant that she was an expert on the subject. She had prepared a seafood meal for us that gave us the perfect background for the mini-lesson on Vigeland. Our conversation floated happily between the sounds of muscle shells clinking as they fell into the big white platter in the middle of the table. After hearing about Vigeland – a magical and monumental sculpture park in the middle of the city, I knew that one day I had to go.
Vigeland’s sculptures are a magical congress of forms that each tells a story. Every emotion, relationship and moment in human life seems to be captured in these snapshots of stone. Scenes of men, women, brothers, sisters, friends and foes all paint picture of everything we go through here in Earth as one big human family.
The word that was used to describe Vigeland was “evocative.” In this case, the adjective lived up to its promise. I felt a full range of feelings as I peeked into each of the scenes at Vigeland. And I wanted to know what other people thought of the sculptures, how they would describe them, and what feelings the forms evoked in them.
My spontaneous visit to this sculptural school of emotions was made richer by the people who were with me that late Norwegian evening. I found myself in Oslo with some very new instant-friends. Do you know those people whom you meet and immediately trust, want to learn from, chat with and share? My wife and I recently met someone who fits into that instant-friend category. This new friend and her work colleague were in Oslo for a work conference, so we made arrangements for a last-minute trek to the sculptures of Vigeland. As we talked and shared opinions about the sculptures, it hit me that there could be no more fitting way to experience Vigeland than with another person who makes your life better.
The truth is I wish all of my friends and family could have been with me that evening in Oslo. I invite all of you to learn more about the place, share with me what you think, and consider yourselves invited to a stroll among the statues the next time we find ourselves in Norway. After all, our life is like one big Vigeland – with each of us a part of the evocative story of life.