It began when I married my wife, Mari Sorri, back in 1982. A couple of years later we visited her family farm. Since then I have visited Finland 29 times!! The home is located in the tiny village of Topeno, of about 100 people and two yield signs and about 100 miles north of Helsinki. One of the first things to learn about the Finnish language is that the accent is always on the first syllable. Unfortunately foreigners continue to pronounce Helsinki wrongly.
The first thing that endeared me to Finland, in addition to Mari’s family, was the food. The down-to-earth, wholesome character of various covered dishes and pork sausage, for example. I have also grown very fond of such Finnish delicacies as “hotdogit (hot dogs) and “munkki” (donuts), along with “lohi” (salmon) and “olut”(beer). Mealtime is always a big thing around the Sorri farm.
The toughness and simplicity of Finish character I came to know mostly in Mari’s mother, Ulla. She ran the family farm all her adult life and had three caesarian births while still managing the farm and driving the tractor on the fields. I was fortunate to get to know her and love her very much during the roughly three decades we visited Finland.
It took some practice to get used to the Finnish winters. Summers are usually lovely and light for twenty hours a day, while in winter its dark for just as many hours. During our first winter visit Mari took me to Rovaniemi in Lapland and I was overcome by the beauty of the frozen crystals everywhere, even in the air itself. But when we visited Helsinki in the winter the cold wind was so bitter that one could barely walk from one store to the next.
During our summer visits we went swimming in the many nearby lakes. I tried to be of help around the farm, but about all I knew how to do was mow the rather large lawn. I also very much enjoyed our times in saunas, but I must admit that I usually bailed out before everyone else.
One of the most interesting aspects of the Finnish culture is the quiet politeness of the people. Unlike Americans, the Finish folk are largely content to sit during the whole train or bus ride without speaking. Being an American, and being a naturally talkative person, I stood out whenever we traveled by public transportation. Fortunately for me, many if not most, Finnish people know English, along with several other foreign languages, even though they are very shy about speaking in front of an American.
My biggest embarrassments, and those of the Sorri family, have come when we find ourselves standing in line at the bank or at a formal smorgasbord. It has taken me a long time to learn that when the host announces that we should eat it is polite continue to stand around and let someone else be first. Many times I have taken the host at his or her word and blundered ahead only to find myself all alone at the serving table. Fortunately Finnish people are always quick to forgive.
Some of my deepest experience grew out of being able to offer a three-week summer basketball camp for ten summers. It started out small, with about 10 kids, but grew rapidly to include over 30, including 10 highschoolers. Basketball was then new in Finland, but has caught on big-time with both boys and girls. Their biggest star is Lauri Markkanen, who now plays for the Utah Jazz. My best player, Henna Salomaa, ended up playing professionally in Europe. It was a great pleasure and a lot of fun to coach those kids. I learned a lot of Finnish, too.
This brings me to the quality that I admire and appreciate the most in Finnish people, namely their humble, non-assuming character. Even though they as a people have been through extremely difficult war-times, with both the Russians and the Germans, they have quietly gone ahead and built their country in a very progressive and thoughtful way. In 1917, at the conclusion of the First World War, they decided to be a democratic-socialist country and have done an extremely fine job of living up to this commitment. Health, education, and basic needs, such as lengthy paid maternity and paternity leaves are all provided. Of course, the taxes are very high, but they are off-set by the fact that one does not have to pay endless medical fees and school tuitions.
I should also mention that in Finland 50% of the professionals, such as doctors, lawyers, and dentists, are female. In addition, their political leaders are often women. One recent woman President governed for 12 years and half of the current Parliament is female. By the way, a clue to these numbers is reflected in the fact that the Finnish language has no gender. There is just one third person singular pronoun, “han”, for “he” and “she”.
As a parting note, I must point out that Finland, along with Denmark and Norway, shut the Corona virus down very quickly and is now operating normally again. They are smart and well educated people who listen to scientific facts and act on them. If things continue to get worse here in the States, both medically and politically, we might just try moving to Finland – if they would let us in!! ANY QUESTIONS ?