I went to bed last night and fell asleep to the sound of my neighbors' bottle rockets. They sounded like small arms fire owing to the headphones I was wearing.
Wouldn't you know it? My unconscious was suggestible. I dreamt I was in a war zone. A man in uniform committed suicide with a German luger. It dawned on me that I was in Finland during the "Winter War" when the Finns were fighting against the Soviet Union. The Finns set themselves up as allies of Hitler in order to get the weapons they needed to fight Stalin. In effect they saved their national sovereignty by making a pact with the devil.
It was a tangled dream. The man who killed himself was an adjutant to Finland's President, General Mannerheim. There was something complicated about selling his soul. Parts of my dream were reminiscent of an early '80's Finnish film called "Pedon Merkki" (Mark of the Beast) which concerned itself with the Faustian narrative of Finland's temporary embrace with the Fascists. In the film and in my dream no one was a good guy.
These are the thoughts of my unconscious as we celebrate the 4th and we still find ourselves in two foreign wars.
Since WWII the Finns have stood consistently and successfully for peace. Some nations learn their lessons.
S.K.
Planet of the Blind 