intimate walk with Erik

Erik asked me for an intimate walk the day after the intimate walks had officially ended. I wasn't sure if he really wanted one or if Kristina had asked him to go for one.  She had mentioned to me that she thought it would be good for Erik to participate in an intimate walk because he will be in charge of making the exhibition accessible to all kinds of audiences. Erik is a busy man. He only had one hour from 11 to 12 on Wednesday morning. We walked towards the lake and over the hill at a brisk pace. That was Erik's proposition. We talked about his fashion design education. I fell into my habit of asking a lot of questions. I was curious about Erik because he is such a curious character. In the brief interactions we'd had in the time leading up to the opening of the exhibition I had sized him up as a dynamic, friendly, sensitive and approachable lad. More the intellectual type, but with a creative and flexible vibe. I also find him rather cute. He told me that he had got the job at the Mangkulturellt centrum by replacing somebody who was on maternity leave. And then his contract got prolonged for another year. This meant he suddenly found himself with a nice job, a nice, steady income and a nice flat. This was new and unfamiliar for Erik. He admitted to being rather restless by nature. Before he had worked as a freelancer giving workshops in designing and recycling old stuff. He had also toured with a band. He had liked the freelancing lifestyle, its uncertainties and vicissitudes. We walked through the 'Allee' which in English (according to the online dictionary) would be an alameda or tree-lined road, but to me it's a bit like an enchanted tunnel or canopy-roofed threshold where I feel connected to the Swedish royal past. The couple of times I'd walked past there, I always had this sense of meaningfulness. I took a mental picture of this particular moment in history: Erik and I walking through the 'Allee' talking about a more settled lifestyle in comparison to freelancing. Freelancing isn't settled at all (at least in mine and Erik's experience). He said that having this new, steady job made him feel a bit sleepy and too comfortable sometimes. And that scares him a bit. For him having this contract for another year feels like being employed for eternity. He misses the thrill of not knowing what's going to happen the next week, or even the next days sometimes. He has more income and can afford to eat when he's hungry and visit places he feels like visiting without first having to think about his budget. That's a new kind of freedom, but apparently he also noticed a kind of laziness and complacency that comes along with it. I asked him what he does in his free time. He used to go running, but now he has some problems with his legs. So he goes walking mainly. And he reads a lot. When he has money he buys books and he reads them at home. Mainly philosophy books. He just bought one by Peter Sloterdijk.
Is this the portrait I wanted to draw of Erik? I'm trying to remember what more our 'intimate walk' made me feel and think. Did he maybe serve as a mirror for my own lifestyle as a freelance artist and my wish to settle down a bit more? I was quite absorbed by his way of thinking and formulating thoughts and almost forgot to think and formulate my own.  I liked the way I couldn't grasp some things he wanted to convey and had to ask again making him say it in other words. I didn't get impatient. I just realized how his mind works differently from mine. He also helped me a lot in preparing my booklet for the exhibition. He let me use his computer to print and was always very helpful and polite while helping Tatiana and Kristina and more people simultaneously. At the opening he was there to watch my performance and I was very happy about that and felt supported by his presence. The next day he gave me a folder published by his fashion school in which he had conducted an interview with Nicolas Järvklo, a PHD-student and researcher on the Swedish masculinity-politics. The interview was related to Erik's collection of men's knitwear which dealt with heterosexual transgression.