“We, the Roma and Sinti, found our home in our music.
By singing my lyrics in Romanes, I honor
the language of our ancestors.”
Harri Stojka, Viennese jazz guitaristat least once a day, triggered by some-
thing you smell, taste, see, touch, hear,
remember, discover, or any chaotic
sensory cross wiring” of all of the above.
It should also involve “abandoning any
sense of concept of the binary and move
us toward greater complexity.”
For the American journalist and farm
owner, The Good Life is simply “purpose,
love and beauty”, echoed in part by the
Austrian-Polish startup developer and
writer, whose goals are “love, health and
peace,” with an understanding that more
superficial possessions can bring more
unhappiness. For the Belgian embassy
intern, The Good Life is only possible
with “a happy and joyful self, an inspiring
mind, compassion, integrity and love.”
The Russian event organizer, mother and
Ayahuasca experimenter would agree.
For her, The Good Life is more about
“working on yourself. Only then can you
be a force that creates good in the worldaround you.” The Austrian musician and
father sums up The Good Life as “hoping
that a day you like repeats itself, that
thankfulness is riding your waves; being
still and contemplating existence;
having a good relationship with your past
and positive thoughts about your future.”
The Good Life is most evident in the
things we share more than the things that
separate us. The highs of celebrations
and parties, the protests supporting
humanism, and the art openings that
inspire us to notice more and experience
more fully. On the wall of a black, tempo-
rary office building behind the Hofburg,
an inspired city official added a single
line in white letters wrapping around it:
“All human beings are born free and equal
in dignity and rights. They are endowed
with reason and conscience and should
act toward one another in a spirit of
brotherhood.” Like Seethaler’s home-
made poetry, these signs and images fillour cityscapes, some mere forgetful
scribbles, others, like the Declaration of
Human Rights above, a continual deep
dialogue we can only pretend to ignore.
A child clambering carefree over the
statue of the great poet Friedrich Schiller
in front of the Academy of Fine Arts is
responding to the city by absorbing its
details, open to every stimulation, exam-
ining life fully. For a child there is no
one way to think, dress or act. Life is a
constant experiment, a test of skills, an
open university, a starring role in an ad-
venture movie. Life is to be examined fully.
“Keep true to the dreams of your
youth,” wrote Schiller, perhaps the best
advice of all. Whatever the details, how
we perceive life is what matters. My
Azerbaijani It-Girl hopes for “nice peo-
ple, plenty of sun, chilling out, and good
canned tuna.”
Sunrises and sunsets are free. In the
end, The Good Life is a state of mind.The American International School – Vienna
NURTURE
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CHALLENGE
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