Though the forecast for today (and I heard it several days old) called for rainy weather, now shortly after 9am the clouds are breaking up. If so, it’s off to somewhere like Krysuvik for the afternoon…a unique Icelandic landscape, one you won’t find anywhere else in the world.

A week ago I took up DeCaussade’s Sacrament of the Present Moment, a book I haven’t read in years. It comes from a time (early 1700s) when a spirituality was prevalent which, despite a very different world today, is in the background making its presence felt. While the book lacks that touch of piety (to its enduring credit), it conveys a sense of Stoic resignation, of hanging on through any and all circumstances. In other words, gloomy. However, DeCaussade has a nice phrase, “instinct of faith.” An instinct means something in-born, natural and ready at hand which can’t be explained. I was comparing this spirit of resignation with the Icelandic one towards fate which I noted in a recent entry. They move easily within the path laid out for them, not bewailing the fact. And the problems Icelanders face are just the same as anyone else: work, marriage and how to handle free time. They don’t sit around and bemoan their fate but work handily within the lot marked out for them. Maybe it has something to do with a lack of guilt. This I haven’t quite figured out, given the Lutheran influence. Then again, that might stem from Celtic roots. The problem there is that normally we associate guilt with that culture. Tentatively I’ve come to the conclusion that this guiltless attitude governed by fate is a combination of the best of two worlds, the Nordic and Celtic ones.

“How are things geologically?” That was a question I put to my volcanologist friend yesterday. He said all is quite except for the usual earthquakes off the Reykjanes Peninsula. Volcanologists are like weathermen here in Iceland: people to whom you turn to get a sense of what’s going on.