Sociable Stamp Society

This is our blog for current stamp news and views of interest to the philatelist and beginner. Daily updates provide items on shows, new issues, events, what's selling, and timely facts.

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Monday, September 24, 2007

Mitä kuuluu?

Mitä kuuluu?

The weekend was sunny, blue, breezy, and warm in Vermont, but it's just a last tease before the cold, wet days of stick season. I spent much of the evenings watching DVD's from Netflix, and yes, one of them has a stamp collecting angle, if you'll just follow my drift.

The movie was "Mother of Mine," a 2005 telling of a Finnish boy evacuated from Suomi to Sweden during World War Two. (PBS is rehashing the Big One on PBS too.) Briefly, this is a small story told with direct emotion and artistry, and I definitely want to see more of Maria Lundqvist, who plays the foster mother.

This is either the second or third Finnish movie I've gotten from Netflix, and it's all due to that day long ago when I was sorting stamps and wound up with a pile of Saarinen Lions, the 1918 Finnish definitives.

I like large sets and good design is important. From that basis, I focused on the postmarks, being someone who appreciates the details they add to the stamp's story. Naturally, if you're a natural detective, like me, you need maps and local geographic information to help complete the story.

In short order, I was reading Finnish history to sort out the reasons for events and stamps of 1905, 1918, 1939, etc. It was a short leap to covers, censorship markings, and war post. I read about the civil war, the winter war, the continuation war. Mannerheim, sisu, Helsinki.

The stories of events soon led to the stories of myth: the Kalevala, the national epic formulated when the Russian Tsars ruled the country. From there I delved into Finnish music. A friend in Helsinki sent tapes of 1940/50's popular music and Sibelius, a perennial favorite of mine. I listened to the kantele, rustic folk, and tunes from the war radio.

The next step was the blasted language barrier, and I took lessons with a Finnish woman who interspersed each evening with stories about Tooloo (neighborhood of Helsinki), Mannerheimintie, and growing up in Finland. At that time I was steeped in this Finnish-thing. (My favorite t-shirts had Finnish lions on them.)

Today my passion for Finland has cooled. I'm not immersed in it like I used to be. I don't pursue it, but whenever it finds me or whenever I catch of glimpse of it, I pay attention. I seek out DVDs like "Aideista Parhain" (Mother of Mine) or "Mies Vailla Menneisyyttä" (Man Without a Past).

Last night, I pulled out a box of unsorted maxim cards, postcards, and ephemera to see what I was missing.

Hyvää päivää.

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Remember, it's not the principle of the thing... it's the money! - Daffy Duck

the lanai guy | 7:36 AM | 0 comments |  

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