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 ?

Over the years my approach to ethical decision making has been primarily guided by the thinking of H. Richard Niebuhr in his book The Responsible Self. Here’s a quick summary of his thinking.
Niebuhr begins by analyzing the term ‘responsibility.’ At its core it entails the notion of response. That is, our efforts to be moral are at their core a response to a given situation. Our initial move should be to ask “What is going on here?” What is the context in which the decision is being made and what is the most appropriate or “fitting” response to it?
In coming to a conclusion about these questions one must consider such factors as who is involved, where and when am I situated, and how and why has this situation arisen? Niebuhr calls these the “interpretive” dimension of our decision making. Secondly, we should consider the social dimension of our own existence, namely the relationships and communities in which we are involved and their respective importance in our decision making.
A third issue to consider is the historical dimension in which we find ourselves. What factors in the past have brought me to this decision point and where might my response lead? Finally we must acknowledge our own “absolute dependence” on a reality that extends beyond our present existence, what some have called our awareness of our “absolute dependence” on forces and realities beyond our own lives. It is here that Niebuhr indicates the possibility of a Divine Reality.
In a Christian context this final factor focuses on the notion of agape or love. Niebuhr sees this as neither a matter of obligation nor emotion. Rather, agape entails a genuine concern for the ultimate well-being of those involved in this particular context. It may involve putting one’s self at risk for another person. The story of the “Good Samaritan” captures the essence of this form of love.
The Samaritan responded to the needs of this person in a direct and thorough manner. This notion of agape also involves an aspect of social justice since it implies the need to do something about the socio-political dynamics leading to this concrete historical situation. These, then, are the dimensions of Niebuhr’s notion of mature ethical responsibility. In the end one should choose the course of action that is the most fitting response in light of the above factors.
Let’s take a concrete example that will provide specifics for our consideration of what a fitting response might be. Many years ago during my final year at a specific college one of my very best students ever, Gay, was taking an Independent course with me was and did not finish by the end of the semester. She went off to Texas with her new husband so he could start graduate school at SMU. I gave her the usual two month extension. After month had gone bye she wrote saying that she was having a hard time with all the distractions of a newlywed but was working hard on her paper. She was also taking graduate courses at SMU as a “special student”, pending her graduation.
After another month I wrote to her saying that I thought all this was silly since she had been such an outstanding student. I said I would give her an “A” and she could finish up the paper as she could. I went ahead and submitted her “A” grade. However, before she got my letter Gay and her husband made a surprise visit to campus, whereupon she ran into the Dean and told him she was still working hard on the paper. Naturally, the Dean called me in and read me the riot- act for having “lied” to him, etc. Anyway, she finished her “A” paper and that was that. The Dean never really forgave me for breaching college ethical standards.
In that context I actually went through Niebuhr’s process of determining what was the “responsible”, or “fitting” response to the situation. I determined that since (1) Gay was an outstanding student (4.0), and (2) since she had turned the corner on her college career she need not be bogged down with this last assignment, and (3) since no other students were involved, it was ethical on my part to excuse her from finishing the course. It was the fitting, the responsible, thing to do. Of course, the Dean did not agree. Nothing more came of it. I would do it again.
As a footnote I must add that Gay went on to Divinity School at SMU, then did her Ph.D. degree at Vanderbilt where she served as Methodist Chaplin and eventually became the Professor of Christian Ethics. Moreover, ironically, she wrote her Dissertation on H. Richard Niebuhr’s ethical views. She and I have remained good friends all these years, but I can’t remember whether I ever told her the whole story.
So, what do you think, and why?