Moomin with a stomach-ache

Just think, never to be glad or disappointed. Never to like anyone and get cross at him and forgive him. Never to sleep or feel cold, never to make a mistake and have a stomach-ache and be cured from it, never to have a birthday party, drink beer, and have a bad conscience...how terrible.

~ Tove Jansson, Tales from Moominvalley

Despite the fact that I don't understand a word of Finnish, I am a 'friend' of the Moominvalley museum at Tampere in Finland (http://muumilaakso.tampere.fi/ - the image above is from there) on Facebook. Recently, they announced that a new guided tour was being launched entitled "Kohdata, vaeltaa, tulla kotiin – olemisen tapa Muumilaaksossa". With the help of Google Translate, combined with my own understanding of the Moomin stories, I am reading this to mean "To meet, to wander, to come home to - a way of being in the Moomin Valley". Any Finnish readers of this blog are most welcome to contradict me (and say hello!). Because the Moomin stories seem to me to be about going out into the world (Moominvalley and sometimes beyond), meeting all sorts of people (or other beings, as the case may be) but always knowing that you have the security of home to back you up and to go back to. Moomin-fans (and others!), what do you think? Just quietly, I think Tove Jansson was something of a philosopher...

Life is all about being alive, in whatever way we may express that. The Moomins get that, and I think I might be starting to as well.

Enjoy x