Two Eyes, Two Worlds

Michael Jensen has two eyes—one blue, one brown, one Danish, one Inuit.

He grew up toggling between Denmark and Qaanaaq, two worlds as different as espresso and seal blubber. Denmark bored him, as only a place with perfectly paved roads and orderly queues can. So, he returned to Greenland, where the roads are theoretical, and the queues are nonexistent.

Integration wasn’t easy. After years of Danish civility and convenience, becoming one with the Arctic demanded something different—something primal. He had to relearn how to be quiet, how to be resourceful, how to walk the ice without falling on his behind. To survive, he had to become invisible and, paradoxically, more himself than ever.

Michael belongs to two worlds, his mismatched eyes proof of that. And his is not alone.

But it seems there’s no space for a “third eye” in his story. The American kind, that is—the eye that wants to document everything for Instagram or explain it all in a TED Talk. His vision is simpler: live it, see it, accept it.