The Daily Valdemar No. 27: April 8

Valdemar Andersen, original drawing for Politiken, ca. 1927.
Private collection.

Today's moment of calm is the epitome of daily life as truly daily as it gets.

We have two drawings before us made on the same piece of paper and the two were meant for each corner of a spread in the Sunday edition of the daily Politiken. It was printed with a touch of yellow for the stop sign and red in the rear lights of the tram. Only a section of each pictorial element is included in the two drawings, yet it is all there: the motif that is hardly a motif for being so generic and yet has a presence so strong that the beholder recognises it with a shiver - enjoying it on a Sunday off.

Within a vertical strip of a drawing Valdemar Andersen has included every kind of street life to the left - a pedestrian, a cyclist and a car - tied together by the police officer making certain no one dares to overlook the stop sign. A few swirls underneath the tires make for the shiny wet asphalt. A rainy morning in which everyrone is struggling through the weather to get to work in time.

The tram is portrayed by its rear section alone in which everybody is squashed against the windows to make room for all. The darkness is near solid within in that there is no room between any of them.

For everyone, who is struggling every morning to keep the vital functions of our societies running right now, a heartfelt thank you!

For those of us who are at home, we may be wondering whether there is another way of doing life, seeing we have been struggling and squashed for a century now?