I recently narrated the account of my wife sending me a text
message in which she requested that I do something about my “Swedish chair”. I
didn’t quite understand what she was referring to and it was only after
enquiring from her, that it became evident what she meant. Some years ago I
studied in Sweden during the heart of winter. I lived in a student commune and
upon returning from university daily I would remove my jacket and place it on
the single arm chair in my room. After several days the chair would be filled
with several items of clothes I left out to “air”, but eventually ended up
taking permanent residence on my “Swedish chair”.
I am not sure whether you can relate to this story. I mean
no offense to my Swedish friends for linking my ill-habit to them. Yet, I do
think that many people have a “Swedish chair” in their lives. What starts out as
an innocent decision soon becomes the dumping ground for unrealized dreams or
the procrastinating of a to-do list which never seem to be dealt with. And
after a while, we lose a part of ourselves, because invariably one will start
looking for that one item, only to realize that you never sent a forwarding
address to your brain when deciding to relocate it. This is what we do every
day. I know, you are thinking that I am generalizing and maybe I am guilty of
doing so.
The dilemma with having a “Swedish chair” is that after a
while those living with you might want to close the door in order to conceal
its existence to passing guests to your home. It becomes a sight for sore eyes.
And the longer one takes to “dethrone” the chair, the more strain it places on
the relationships between oneself and others. One is often so used to the sight
of ones inadequacies that your expectation is that others also turn a blind eye
to the existence of your ill-choices. I would be the first to admit that there
are days or moments when the existence of a “Swedish chair” has its place. Yet,
the greatest challenge is to understand that a “Swedish chair” becomes an
extension of who you are. Especially when you have parts of yourself lying in a
corner unresolved, unbecoming and in many ways unapologetic for not being better
than you potentially are able to be.
