Is enough still enough? Sweden reckons with its culture of ‘lagom.’
The ladder she’s standing on rattles in the wind, but Havana Dadian’s paintbrush is steady. With freezing fingers, she lays color inch by inch onto the whitewashed wall. The street below is empty, as residents shelter from an approaching storm.
The muralist was hired to spruce up the working-class neighborhood of Södra Sofielund in Malmö, just blocks from where she grew up.
More than that, Ms. Dadian is painting for the future of her country.
“I wanted to shine light on the beautiful soul of Sweden,” she says, gesturing to the sketch on her phone. She is painting a scene from the 1940s, back when this building was home to a neighborhood laundry house. It was a time of community, frugality, and hard work – which she sees as the foundation of Sweden’s egalitarian prosperity.
“Something has happened, and it’s not so certain anymore – the safety, feeling that you have everything you need,” says Ms. Dadian.
At stake is a uniquely Swedish philosophy: lagom. It’s a difficult-to-translate word meaning not too much, not too little, but about right. The lagom amount is just enough. The lagom solution is reasonable, appropriate, and moderate. The term is often associated with stories of Vikings who passed a bottle of mead around a circle. (Laget om means “around the team.”) To drink too much would be inexcusable; to drink too little would be unsociable. The more likely etymology points to the root lag, or law. In either case, to be lagom is to respect the rules of the group.
“Lagom is one for all and all for one,” says Ms. Dadian. “It was a way for everyone to come together, for everyone to get their share.”
At a time when collective social and economic narratives are under debate around the world, lagom raises quintessential questions about human nature and society. What is the right balance between the individual and the whole? When should we strive for more versus sustaining what we have? And how much is enough, anyway?
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