I learned something new today

I woke up early in this morning and went to ride my bicycle to one restaurant where I had a cup of coffee and I read a local newspaper. In the paper there was a writing about one man who had died. Then I realized I had known this person, because I saw him regularly in the town. He did not take care of his hygienia well and his beard and hair was uncut and his clothes were often dirty. Often I also thought he was drunk when he walked strangely in one part of the town. In this morning I learned that he had been a person whom other alcoholics had voted to the city council years ago and he had served three 4-year terms in the council. They had created their own political party just for him and their objectives. In my little town there is much abuse of alcohol nowadays as it has been before. 10 years ago I knew somebody had been elected to the city council in this way, but I never knew that it was him whom I saw regularly drunk in the streets of my little town. So I learned something new again today. Sometimes you just do not know who people really are.

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You live in a very interesting little town. I do enjoy reading your post about the corner of Finland you live in.

Yes, here are some interesting people. My friend Gunnar, a Roma person, is one interesting one. I see him almost every day when I ride my bike in the town. The town is on the border of the peace of Pähkinänsaari between Sweden and Russia hundreds of years ago. The name of the town is ‘theft’ in English and during the Imperial Russia in the 1800s in some maps it was called ‘vor’ from which the Finnish word ‘voro’ comes. Industries in the town are quite international and here are at least eight places that sell old items (flea markets and antique stores). I have been riding my bike here already almost 12 years since May 2002 and many things have happened. Many people whom I have known have died and, of course, people have become 12 years older. Some of my childhood friends have died too, one who was a lawyer died to alcohol, another one had a brain disease of some kind. My friend Gunnar drinks too much alcohol and smokes too much tobacco, but he seems to be ok. We have quite many Roma people living here too. It is an interesting little 22000-people town in the Eastern Finland.

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One of my childhood friends was very unfortunate. He had a bad alcohol and meds habit and he did these every day. He was a frequent visitor in the local police lock-up and he died on June 6, 2006, on the day of the Devil, 6-6-6 in the police lock-up. Just four days before he died his father tried to do some intervention and I saw him at the hospital, where I was with my father. But after the doctor’s appointment he continued his drinking and then died four days later on 6-6-6. It is interesting that I woke up at around 6 a.m. on 6-6-6 and I received voices in my mind ‘Taking somebody’s life’ and later during the day I discovered he had died. I do not know if the God or the Devil communicated me these words in that unfortunate morning. One thing what you should avoid in Finland, if you visit, is alcohol, which is why I do not drink any alcohol. Alcohol has messed up the lives of so many people. I have many more stories, but I do not want to write these now. Maybe later.

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Oh believe me, it’s messed up many many lives here in Seattle too. Most all of my family has suffered at the hands of that genie in the bottle. Some of my family have beat it, some haven’t and are no longer with us.

I am SO thankful that my kid sis is a straight edge as far as drinking and drugs and hasn’t tried a grain or leaf of either.

I have to write still one story. It is about a young beautiful 21-year old woman Sini. She was one of the most beautiful women I have met. She somehow understood me. But her fate was also unfortunate. At her young age she used meds and alcohol and about six months after I had met her she died to these. She had an exceptional ability to remember words of different songs and demonstrated also her abilities in the French language. In the summer when I met her she had received a letter from her father telling how a bad father he had been and then he had shot himself. When I heard about her death, it was a total surprise and it made me very sad. These are sad stories and there many more.