Rememberment

Ahh, the Devil.  Lucifer, The Prince of Darkness. Satan. Belial. The Father of Lies. Beelzebub. You are probably familiar with the story of Lucifer, the most beautiful and powerful of all of God's angels, who became too proud for his own good and started a rebellion against God - only to end up being thrown down into Hell along with his co-conspirators.  But Satan still wields power in this world as well. As my dad put it, "life is a battle that is fought not only in this world, but between the forces of the spirit realm". The Tempter keeps luring people away from God, and woe is anyone who listens to his lies. The Fallen Angel, as depicted by Gustave Doré for John Milton's Paradise Lost. However, as it often is with biblical lore, that story isn't really found anywhere in the Good Book. Rather, it is pieced together by re-interpreting various texts long after they were written, and then putting those pieces together to form something new. But first, let's hav...

My mom was usually the voice of reason in the household, and the first to point out if someone was spouting nonsense. But she would also sometimes get up in the morning and say "I gave birth in my dreams again, wonder who's going to die this time". And then someone died soon after. Such predictions weren't always too difficult to make. Being the twilight child meant many of my relatives were already old, and old people have a habit of passing away. Of course, it was still sad, such as when Grandma died: seeing my mom cry together with her sisters felt heartbreaking and somehow surreal at the same time. But she wasn't the only one to go within a few years' time, and it wasn't always because of old age or natural causes. Mom's brother-in-law was diagnosed with cancer and passed away shortly after. He was my godfather, and although I didn't see him very often because they lived in Sweden, I have only fond memories of him. Mom blamed her sister for his...

My childhood dream was finally realized this May Day, when I was visiting the Natural History Museum in London. Enjoy the pics!

I was more than used to seeing dead animals. All my brothers were hunters, and whenever they brought home some prey, I wanted to see how they were skinned and gutted before Mom made something delicious out of them. And while my brothers wouldn't let me mess with the birds and the rabbits, I knew very well how to gut a fish by myself. I could name most of their innards as well. Matti's dad was also an experienced hunter and trapper, and often when I visited their house I was greeted by some skinned muskrats that were hanging from the top beam of their yard swing (which I don't think was ever used for its original purpose). And of course, Matti and I both kept collecting butterflies and beetles, which also had to be dealt with properly before they could be showcased: that is, putting them in a jar with some ethyl acetate in order to take their lives without damaging their delicate bodies. Having fun with deceased critters didn't end there. I had seen a documentary about t...

I count myself a fan of horror movies, although that doesn't go for every sub-genre there is - for example, I'm not generally a fan of films depicting torture or extremely graphic violence. What I'm mostly drawn to are great stories, and exploring the darker side of human (or  inhuman ) nature can conjure up some pretty fascinating tales. Listing out all my favourite horror movies would be too much, but I'll try and pick a favourite from each decade from the 1940s onward. Feel free to comment on my choices, and maybe even share your own! 1940s: The Picture of Dorian Gray Based on the gothic horror novel by Oscar Wilde about a man who sells his soul for eternal youth, this is the first horror movie I ever watched. The final scene is forever burnt into my memory. Because of this, even though the story has been retold in many later adaptations, the original 1945 film will always be my favourite. I find it has also stood the test of time, in no small part thanks to the haun...

There's just something magical about old, abandoned houses, especially when you're a kid. They are creepy and fascinating, and should you enter one, you will immediately start to wonder what kind of treasures have been left behind by the people who used to live there. We used to have one such house right near our own. It stood between our home and the railroad track, surrounded by a sparse collection of birch trees; a small, wooden house with a roof covered in moss. I don't know if it was ever painted in the traditional Finnish way using red ochre, but if it was, that colour had long since been weathered away. Matti and I often wandered around that house. Beneath the moss-covered yard were many empty bottles of booze, and one of the four walls was riddled with bullet holes, but those were the only interesting things we found. We were strictly prohibited from trying to go inside the house, and we also weren't stupid enough to defy that. Falling into an old potato cellar ...

On the 26th of March, the Finnish Supreme Court handed down a verdict in the case against Päivi Räsänen. For those unfamiliar with the name, Räsänen is a veteran member of the Finnish Parliament, a former Minister of the Interior, and led the Christian Democrats for over a decade. She is also a conservative Christian, known for targeting sexual minorities on numerous occasions. In a narrow 3-2 vote, the court ruled against Räsänen, finding her guilty of incitement against a group of people. It was about a pamphlet she wrote in 2004 (and again made publicly available in 2019 and 2020, which was the reason they prosecuted her) titled  "Male and female he created them: Homosexual relationships challenge the Christian concept of humanity" . Alongside her they also convicted Juhana Pohjola, the Luther Foundation bishop who was responsible for the pamphlet's distribution.  The English version of it can be found  here . The entire legal process took an astonishing seven yea...