Al one on the Farm

Country: Denmark

Manufactory: Royal Copenhagen

Date of establishment: 1950s

Size (cm): 22x12

Limited Series

Porcelain Story

One day my wife and children and I decided to spend our holidays in a small charming hotel by the sea in Turkey. The hotel was unusual in that it was sandwiched between two high mountains and the narrow, rocky beach, which I used to go to every morning for a swim in the open sea before sunrise, seemed to be part of a peaceful cove.

There was usually nobody there so early. Just me and the elderly cleaner, carefully setting up the white plastic sun loungers close to the water.

And there were goats. When the sun came up, they were going down the steep cliffs so fast and agilely that it was hard to understand how they could do it, as there were only narrow (and slippery!) strips of rocks under their feet. It seemed that any awkward movement could cause them to fall. But this never happened. Each morning I, holding my breath, watched their perilous climbing which aroused both fear and admiration.

The beach cleaner, with whom I once shared my observations, only smiled back. Then he told me a story he had heard as a child from his father. At that time they lived in a small settlement in a mountain gorge like this one. In order to get to the nearby town where his father worked as a watchmaker, he had to walk the same steep and narrow mountain paths every morning without a railing or any other safety equipment.

-- It was terrifying to watch my father walk off to work along the deep ravine," the caretaker recalled. -- Just like seeing him come home with bags full of groceries for our big family. One day I asked my father how he managed to overcome his fear. And he told me, "You know, son, life will make you ignore it. If your aim is to feed your family and if there is no other opportunity but the one given by fate, you will (thankfully for that) go towards your goal, thinking every time not about fear, but only about how to fulfil your duty towards those for whom you live...".