Nixon et. al.

When I am here in California, I often get the question, "How do you like living in Iceland?", some sort of reverse of the "How do you like Iceland" question tourists in Iceland are asked. And insider/outsider perspective as it were.

Just now Sandy, the graduate student administrator for our departmental cluster, asked me this. So I started telling her what has become my standard line lately, about how important it has been for me to be in Iceland now, during all these political and financial changes. How incredible it has been to see history unfolding, and to try to understand how upsetting and unsettling it is for Icelanders themselves.

Sandy actually started tearing up a little bit when I told her about it, especially the anticipated report. She said it sounded exactly like what she experienced, in the 70s, during the Watergate period. A loss of innocence. The realization that the government that you trust and respect can in fact lie to you without the slightest hesitancy.

To see how, 30 years later, she was still so affected by those events made me think about just how devastating it is, when we loose faith in those we depend on.

I was a baby when Watergate happened, and in the Iceland crisis, I have been rather an observer than a participant. So I guess I am lucky, because I still have the ability to trust, and to believe. I hope so much I always will.