My Response

It would have been nice to have you show me around your city, but the truth is I never thought of asking.

Really, it was strange that I stayed at a hotel in the vicinity of your apartment in Copenhagen. My original choice was a hotel by the harbor, but my arrangements were changed at the last minute.  Actually, when I got lost, the SAS building and Tivoli Amusement Towers were the beacons I followed back to the hotel.  I also walked by the Hard Rock Café and swam in the pool at the public bathhouse DGI-Byen, across the street from the train station; I thought then you might live in the area since you mentioned these places in our conversations.

Let me just add that your indoor pools were amazing, like water playgrounds for all ages. Every afternoon, and some nights, I did hours of laps around that monstrous round pool; sat and chatted in your steaming hot whirlpool; and took heat and showers with your Danish women… What a thrill!!!  I was also very impressed by the great selection of American and Danish movies playing at the many cinemas in your area.  Once, I was tempted to see a movie and purchased a ticket, but I simply lost track of time in my wanderings around Copenhagen,

Anyway, I went to your great country because you once made me very curious about it (from our conversations, I felt I had to know it).  In any event, I prepared for my trip by listening to Ben Webster (my favorite black American jazz saxophonist is buried in Assistens Kierkegaard); reading Kierkegaard (I admire him for saying that “love is the great equalizer.” What‘s funny is that he seems to have a groupie of young Danish kids hanging out at his gravesite); and by re-reading Hans Christian Anderson’s fairy tales from my childhood.  So, I was prepared and Copenhagen delivered. 

Yet, I thought your city would be unlike any European city I had ever been to. And, to some extent it was.  But, I hate to say it, Finn, all Europeans, including the Danes, are in a battle to prove themselves superior to one another.  And, yes, I can see how your people are a bit whiter, prettier, smarter, and even more hard-working than the rest, but I don’t think that is the battle the Vikings had in mind, even though Danes seem to be at the forefront of the environmental one with all those amazing windmills stretched across the sea and its horizon (I took a long walk at the Langliere seaport and saw those austere-looking apartments that cost millions). But, maybe, there are no more “real” battles to fight, at least not in the West.  Recently, I was reading a biography of Lincoln’s presidency during the Civil War and the writer made it clear that great men such Lincoln need what Mann defined as “

Also, I think that in Copenhagen I was looking for Thoreau’s sense of “universal innocence,” the one I have seen in the East where people are genuinely authentic, real, simple and happy regardless of their station in life (I have to say, though, the minorities I spoke to – taxi drivers, hotel porters, servers, etc., were very respectful and deferential to the Danes for the opportunities they were given to make a life in Denmark).   Maybe, I have too many "books on the brain."  Maybe, I have the luxury of talking and thinking this way because I don’t suffer the way people in the world really suffer.  Maybe, with too much security and stability come fear and distrust . And, maybe we are all too smug to even try to achieve any semblance of “innocence” anymore. Now, I am rambling…

Another observation I made was that the clean lines, windows, and industrial design of your downtown office buildings and the streets, with so few billboards - and all this, so nicely juxtaposed against churches, palaces, etc. - reminded me of Moscow. So, now I understand a bit more of your communist inclinations.

Yet, I had so many wonderful impressions of Copenhagen. Once when I was sitting on a bench by the Cirkus building (by the way, I saw a wonderful performance there and danced the night away at a show with a very hot Danish “Rat Pack”) I saw this white Dane, who looked like you, ie, parsons nose, thin lips, blue eyes, with his young black son, who must have been around 4 years old. And, this boy was dressed like his father, with jeans, belt and a short-sleeved plaid shirt; and he had his hands in his pant pockets; and he was standing with his legs far apart – real “cool-looking” like his dad - while they both waited for the city bus to arrive.  And, this gave the smiling man endless delight to see a smaller “replica” of him.

Another time, I saw a beautiful Danish girl throw her bicycle at her ethnic boyfriend while screaming, crying and calling him an “asshole,” in that throaty, sexy accent all Danes have when speaking in English (On a side note: your blondes are not at all like other blondes: they have fire and passion. Recently, I discovered your Danish actress, Trine Dyrholm, and your magnificent director, Susanne Bier, and I can’t get enough of their movies as they always seem to work together).  And, I will never forget all of these amazing images, including your Little Mermaid, who incidentally does not face the sea, even though she dreams of a prince from across the waters; and, of course, there was the statute of your goddess Gefjon who with her four sons/oxen fooled the Swedish king out of some land (my god, you Danes really hate the Swedes; I don’t yet know the story behind that).

I also loved learning that the Swedes have a church in your city so that they can marry, celebrate and drink on weekends since it is too expensive to do so in their country (I know you once mentioned the high cost of living in your country, but I simply can’t imagine how much more expensive Sweden and Norway can be since Denmark seems to be outrageously overpriced; some guy told me that Iceland is the most expensive Scandinavian country… Unbelievable!!!).

In any case, I understand now why Denmark is your first love.  I can see you defending her honor and “slaying her dragons,” even to the death - if that is what it takes. I think your women, lands, clean air, ice cream, chocolate, beer and open-faced shrimp sandwiches might be worth a life or two. 

And, thanks for clearing things up about your poor:  It was upsetting to see people looking through garbage for cans they could recycle because one man told me “he needed to eat”; I think I might have given your Gypsies over 250 dollars in my confusion over the conversion of the American dollars to Kronos and/or Euros.

 One last point: your night is a contender (4th place after Bali's surreal and phantasmagoric one; Amsterdam's dark chocolate nights of love, pot and whores; and Florida' blue and tropical twinkling stars one). Like a woman, it took its time making an appearance but it was lovely and languid nonetheless.   As a matter of fact, I thought the whole of Denmark like a woman, or, at least, what a woman should be: temperamental, demanding, lovely, smart, fun and two-faced.

Sorry about all this writing. But, I did have a wonderful time in your country. Maybe it was because of all the conversations we had about it.  In any case, I hope I expressed it all in this email.