Jerry Gill's Enduring Questions

Exploring Finland, My Wife’s Homeland

            My wife Mari Sorri was born and raised in Finland. I was eager to learn more about her place of birth, its people, its history, and its culture, so we went there soon after we were married in 1982. I knew very little about Finland before meeting Mari, except that it a had a great record of long distance track runners, beginning with Paavo Nurmi back in the 1920s. He was an amazing runner who often ran one long distance race right after another the same day. The other great Finnish Olympic winner was Lasse Viren, who also set world records both in the middle and long distances. Mari gave me a crash course in Finnish history, which included horrific facts about how both Russia and Germany who ravaged Suomi, which is what Finland calls itself, during World War Two, and about how its main leaders chose to be a socialist country after World War One in 1917. It has become famous today for having the “happiest” population in the world.  

She also tried to teach me some of the Finnish language before we arrived there. For the past forty years I have had a love/hate relationship with Finnish. I have done somewhat OK learning to speak and read it, but I have never been good with languages and Finnish is nothing like any other language I had studied. On the good side, it is far more regular and predictable than English and other Western languages, but at the same time it is so different from all of them that it is hard to get an initial handle on it. But I keep trying. I do get bye with some basic words and expressions, enough to count and buy some simple items at the store.

Mari’s Mom ran a farm in southern Finland and we went there first to visit. There was an abundance of beautiful, flat countryside surrounded by dense forests. Mari has two older brothers, one of whom now runs the farm and the other is a lawyer. Her father died a number of years ago, so her mother became the sole manager of the farm and the provider for the family. The family is seriously Christian and differentiates themselves from the State Lutheran Church. Mari’s Grandfather was something of an itinerant preacher, traveling amongst a group of conservative churches throughout the country. At the same time, it must be said that her family is not narrowminded when it comes to religion, only serious. 

Mari had lived in America for a number of years and had been married before we met. We actually met at Eastern College in Pennsylvania, very near to Philadelphia, where she was studying to become a teacher and I was a professor. We met when Mari signed up for one of my classes during her last semester of classes before becoming a student teacher. It was a religion class and Mari had some difficulty grasping the broader sense of Christian faith than that to which she had been exposed. She asked many questions both inside and outside of class about the subject matter of the books we were reading. Soon she found a broader, more open understanding of Christianity quite attractive and grew rapidly as a student.

So, when we arrived in Topeno, her home village, it was a bit awkward for more than one reason. Not only was I her second American husband, but I was a professor, which in Europe means that one is somehow of a higher social rank. However, soon things got down to normal when I became less confused about the details of the family situation and perspective, and when they realized that I was, though 49 years old while Mari was 25, not a stuffy old professor type. I came to love Mari’s mother, Ulla, very much and I am sure the feeling was mutual. I soon got along with both brothers quite well. We stayed the whole summer and I got to help out with the farm work a good deal. We also took some trips around much of southern Finland while I continued to work on my Finnish. Ulla and I had fun doing the daily crossword puzzle in the Finnish newspaper together.

Our first tourist visit was, of course, to Helsinki, the capitol city.  The stores were full of interesting items, some quite unfamiliar to me. I did find some helpful books and some very tasty foods, especially hot dogs and thick doughnuts. I was surprised to learn that you have to pay to use the toilets. Mikko, Mari’s youngest brother, was both a horse and automobile enthusiast. So, we spent several evenings at the races, both kinds. In the summer, it quite literally almost never gets dark in the evening in Finland, and likewise in the winter it hardly ever gets light. We also took a small boat trip up a river visiting old farms and villages along the way. I was very proud when I was able to choose a product at the local store with the words “Tama on parempi”, which translates as “This one is better.” Over the years of our marriage, we have visited Finland 29 times. I am still a beginner in the language.

The most impressive landmarks in the capitol city of Helsinki are the Finlandia House, the symphony hall, the Rock Church, built right into a huge mountain of rock, and the harbor area full of ships, fish sellers and numerous outdoor cafes. Some of the architecture was done by the famous Finn, Eero Saarinen who also designed the famous St. Louis Arch. I was especially excited to visit the Olympic Track and Field where the 1951 Olympics had been held. One of my boyhood heroes, Bob Mathias, won the Decathlon that year there in Helsinki. In every major city there are huge ski jump ramps for winter time sports. I was able to visit the University of Helsinki and met several teachers. Years later my good friend and former student became a professor there and through his good graces it was arranged for me to teach a Short Winter course there. I have come to love Finland very much and would like to think I might visit there again, but it seems highly unlikely. 

After about ten years of spending summers in Finland, I decided it might be possible, and useful, to offer a summertime basketball camp for young kids. My Finnish was getting better and basketball was becoming something of a national sport. Several Finnish players have today actually made the NBA, most noteworthy is Lauri Markkanen of Utah Jazz. We got a very small start in an old school gym where for the first couple of years we had to import hoops from the States. Then the new high school in the nearbye town of Loppi opened up and the recreation leader was ecstatic to have an American basketball teacher for the brand-new gym. We advertised in the local paper and about two dozen young kids and a dozen high schoolers showed up. I ran the summer basketball school for two weeks every year for ten years. It was much fun and a great success. My Finnish also got much better, but I found that I was too old to be a coach. One more thing. My best female player went on to be a member of the Finnish national team and later played professionally in Germany.