Not gay as in happy, but queer as in fuck you

Science Fiction Bokhandeln (The Science Fiction Bookstore), multiple locations, Sweden

Kurt Vonnegut wrote: “When I was 15, I spent a month working on an archeological dig. I was talking to one of the archeologists one day during our lunch break and he asked those kinds of “getting to know you” questions you ask young people: Do you play sports? What’s your favorite subject? And I told him, no I don’t play any sports. I do theater, I’m in choir, I play the violin and piano, I used to take art classes.

And he went WOW. That’s amazing! And I said, “Oh no, but I’m not any good at ANY of them.”

And he said something then that I will never forget and which absolutely blew my mind because no one had ever said anything like it to me before: “I don’t think being good at things is the point of doing them. I think you’ve got all these wonderful experiences with different skills, and that all teaches you things and makes you an interesting person, no matter how well you do them.”

Under the soft light of the doorway, a mother finds moments to rest while never straying far from the two tiny lives she has brought into the world. Sometimes she watches from above, listening and keeping guard, and other times she curls around them, holding them close against her warmth. In these early days they sleep, stretch, and search for comfort, knowing only the safety of their mother and the small home that shelters them. It is a simple scene, but one filled with devotion, instinct, and the quiet beginning of two new little lives growing under her care.

also see this newspaper carichature of the swedish governments handling of the famine of 1867-68, which was characterised by moralising and proudly declaring the withholding of aid to “lazy” people who were unable to do hard labour because they were actively starving to death