In this atmosphere it didn't even seem a bummer to study for an exam on midsummer's eve. Sitting in our terrace-turned-into-a-summer-livingroom I managed to enjoy myself immensely. When reading for the exam, it did help that the study at hand was Intellectuals in the Middle Ages, which was a very interesting little book by Jacques Le Goff. Here's a quote I liked. In it Abelard ponders about teaching and the need to understand what one wants to learn.
"...of what use, they asked, were words devoid of intelligibility? One cannot believe in what one does not understand, and it is ridiculous to teach others what neither oneself nor one's listeners cannot understand through thought."
That, my friends, is the essence of teaching! Very wise words, indeed.
A post-midsummer entry wouldn't be anything without some utterly summery pics. Unfortunately I haven't taken these myself (and they were, in fact, taken a week before the midsummer eve), but these are just beautiful. Mom and dad took these pics while they were staying over at lake Saimaa. Two of the pictures have been taken around midnight, the third shows how a thunderstorm is coming and chasing away the sun. Pretty!
See the tiny moon? And how the lake is like glass? Just beautiful.
Wouldn't you want to be there? I sure would.
On the left, sunshine and on the right, thunder.
Finnish summer at its most beautiful.
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