The King talks about a memory from his time in the navy aboard HMS Älvsnabben, which arrived in Sydney on its circumnavigation of the globe in 1966. One night when the young prince was serving as a gangway post, he met a “weather-beaten man,” a Swede.
The man used to seek out Swedish ships to get a piece of Sweden into his life. Even though the short conversation took place 60 years ago, it has stuck with the King. He has often wondered why.
Partly it had a personal significance: it was one of the few times in my life when I appeared completely anonymous.
But there was also something else in the conversation that stuck.
It was a reminder of how identity and belonging can endure, not as fixed states but as something maintained through actions.
