English

29.12.2006

DISABLEMENT'S CONSEQUENCES?

 

DISABLEMENT'S CONSEQUENCES?

 

       Until just recently faith wasn't on my side while driving my car, after I got my liscence back.

 

  I was bungling my car into other cars and happened to
be causing the crashes all the time.

 

  Luckily there weren't any casualties in any of the mishaps that I caused. 

 

       Example:

 

 Once during winter we, my two sons and I, Sveinn and Eirikur went for a swim in the old swimming-pool, the Sundhollin when it was the only pool in Keflavík. 

 

 I parked our first Skoda in-front of the "palace".

 

     When we returned to our beloved car after a good moment in the pool the visability had become very poor after the sun sat down.

 

  The sky being with a very low ceiling and the illumination quite limited.  I looked at my watch and noticing how fast time had flown while having a marvellous time with my sons, but if we hurried home I would be able to see  the news;

  The 19:19 on Channel 2.   

 

     Subsequent to the securing of my younger son, Eirikur Unnar, aged four at the time in the children's chair I sat myself by the steering-wheel, started my wonderous hot-rod and backed from the parking spot. 

 

 Just at the first reflex the car stopped harshly and the horrible noice of breaking glass reached our ears, making the three of us jerk in our safety belts. 

 

       I jumped out looking for the first time behind our vehicle. 

 

 Then I noticed the monstrous truck with a crane that had been parked just a meter behind mine.
 

      In another incident I rolled our car over on an island which is on the Keflavik- highway just beneath the Keflavik-Airport's Graenas-gate (green
ridge-). 

 

      Last autumn we had bought a new Russian made Lada station car which the SSSI enabled us with an aid and a lone. 

 

 This type of car has the disadvantage that its behind's so awfully light, that it slides to the sides when driving on a slippery road.

 

  Especially in strong winds. 

 

 To limit the risk of that happening I put sandbags in the back, thus making it heavier as a counterbalance to the heavy front. 

 

      At the turn of the year when the weather had been exceedingly pleasant, without frost and snow, which many find strange for the fact that our island is on a high degree of latitude, very close to Greenland, I made the fateful decision of removing the sandbags. 

 

 The reason was that I wanted to lower the weight of the car and thus reducing the consumption of petrol.

 

  I laid the bags by the side and infront of the garage just in case I had to replace them, if the improbable would happen, that the winter hardened. 

 

 In my memory the last winter had been exceptionally snow-light and why would this turn out any different, I assumed in my naivity.

 

      On a Saturday soon after the removal of the bags my eldest, Sveinn Sigurdur who then was on his sixteenth year decided to go to Reykjavik to see a movie, along with one of his friends. 

 

 Their plan was to return home in the last bus at 9,30 pm. 

 

     The improbable happened;

 

 the weather turned bad that day and had turned very bad in the afternoon;

 

 snowing in scuds with a heavywind-hawkings. 

 

 I didn't give it any attention, because I wasn't going to move the Lada any until the morning after.

 

  In the evening when we'd positioned ourselves comfortably infront of our telly with a cup of coffee, the phone rang quite unexpectantly. 

 

     Before I answered I took a glimpse at my watch seeing that it was five minutes over 9,30, assuring me that our Svenni must be safe in the bus on his way south by the coast.

 

  Who might be calling us now in this awful weather?

 

     -Hallo, is my first responce.
 

    -Dad!  We were too late for the bus.  We're at the Traffic Center.  Won't you come and get us?
 

    -Yes, I'm coming, I replied without thinking being quite sour in mind. 

 

 Because of this sudden travel to the capital I wouldn't be able to see a good suspense-film that was on next.

 

  When I'd laid down the telephone I suddenly realised how awfully hasty I'd been, which is so very typical in my
case, sorry to say. 

 

 Of course a rational father should've tried to reach another conclusion considering the bad weather.

 

  In the first place there happened to be a jeep on the friend's home, but in the second place they could've gone to one of our numerous relatives we had in the city for the
night.

 

     Having put down the phone and turned to the clothes' rack a lovely woman's voice reached my manly ears.
 

     -Where are you going?

     -The boys missed the bus.  I'm going to fetch them.
 

     -Be careful, she remembered to ask, considering both the weather-conditions and my former luck under a steering-wheel.

      -Ya, Ya, I replied, while putting on a summer-blazer. 

 

  Then I hurried out into the cold and horrid darkness.

      As I opened the garage I spotted them sandbags, but because I was in a real hurry, wanted to have returned at 11 0'clock I decided to act as I didn't hear them screaming at me: 

 

 "Beware of the weather-boogeyman". 

 

       I hurried under the steering-wheel, opened the radio, put in reverse and backed out, turned and then I was on my  way. 

 

       Having reached the highway above the inhabited Keflavik-district my apprehension was that the wind was not as strong as I'd thought, before I started this "might-be-adventurous-journey". 

 

 I decide to increase the speed hoping I might increase my chances of returning in time for my deadline, the second movie that Saturday-evening. 

 

    How childish can one grown-up get. 

 

      This acceleration didn't bring me any luck. 

 

 Still above the inhabited district, but now called Njardvík, after just a five minute drive, positioned beneath the Graenas-gate of the NATO-base I get startled, when strong gusts of wind start making the back-end of my Lada skid on the slippery road. 

 

  In my confusion I forget one of the main rules that drivers are taught;

 

 to turn the steering-wheel to the same direction as the back goes. 

 

 Being so startled I'm only able to strengthen my grip awaiting my destiny.

     And whatya know.

 

      Because of my idleness it happens that before I'm able to blink an eye the car has driven itself up on a road-island, where it turned over on its back and stopped.
 

     The first thought I had, where I was upside-down in the ruins of my car, which had been such a slender-looking plebeian-car just a moment earlier, was rage, pointed at my own hastiness. 

 

 I cursed myself for being such a jerk, while I unfastened my safety-belt, turned off the radio and then elbowed my way out a smashed side-window. 

 

 Blood was oozing down my right temple, but I didn't mind. 

 

   Nothing but how dreadful our dream-car was looking reached my simple mind. 

 

      Before I began my walking homeward bound alongside the not much frequented road, as it was so late on a weekend's evening, I felt how extremely cold my left foot had become, looked down and saw that one black shoe was missing.

 

  I then elbowed myself back inside, found the shoe amongst all the junk that had assembled in the ceiling, before I felt ready for the long walk up the hill, sarcastically clothed in the cold and windy darkness. 

 

       Having walked a few steps my luck began to change. 

 

  Down the slope appeared a beautiful sight;

 

 another creme-coloured Lada-station, exactly like my own. 

 

  The driver who stopped for me happened to be an old workmate, Thorir and his wife, from the period when I was working at Brynjolfur ltd. 

 

 They gave me a lift home, of course.
 

        I immediately got assistance from my father and brother, who contacted the owner of the only truck with a crane on its back in the vicinity, ironically being the one I'd crashed on in reverse once upon a time on my Skoda outside the Swimming-palace.  Small world!!

 

       By making a short story even shorter;

 

 the truck with a crane on its back fetched the wreck that used to be a car within an hour from the alleged turn-over and by then nobody else should have known anything about this mishap, because that I didn't have an all-insurance and no-one got hurt there was no reason for the assistance of the police. 

 

 For that reason I really was amazed when I read the weekly Sudurnesjafrettir next Thursday. 

 

      On the backside of this remarkable, but tiny newspaper appeared a photo showing my Lada on its top, just when it was positioned beneath the Graenas-gate. 

 

 Beneath the photo was this headline and short article:
 

       A car-turnover on a slippery road.

 

     A car knocks over on last Saturday-evening on the Airport-road above Graenas. 

 

 There were no humaninjuries, but the car damaged some when it rolled on its top. 

 

 The wind was very gusty that evening and the road was slippery, which was the cause of the accident.

 

  It just reminds us to drive according to conditions.
 

   You never drive too careful. 

 

  Photo:  elg.

     In my opinion elg. (alias Elli Gretars) showed quite extraordinary reflexes attending this coincidence and that on a Saturday-night and makes me recollect the story of how he became editor of this weekly-newspaper, which got printed and published by a printing shop called Stapaprent and is located in Njardvík which is a smaller town and a siamese-twin of Keflavik.

      This is how the story goes: 

 

      During that period I was on the road all over the district for The Development Company, The Job-Search and numerous other parties and I made countless visits to the printing shop in question.

  Acquiantance had for that reason developed between me and the two owners.

 

      The difficult competition between their shop and Gragas  which is a bigger print-shop in Keflavik and printed Vikurfrettir (and printed this autobiography in 1996, as I also happened to be an acquiantance of that printer), was often the topic of our conversations. 

 

 Once something worthwhile happened subsequent to a considerable amount of chatting , for we came to the conclusion, that we might try and create and publish a weekly newspaper that would be carried to every house on the Sudurnes, free of charge competing with the re-knowned week-paper from Keflavik. 

 

 If this idea came true it would bring more money to the firm because of advertisments, besides that it would create more work in the print-shop and more continuous.
 

      When the disembarrassment of the shop's financial problems had been found,we decided that our child's name should be BAEJARBLADID (The Townspaper). 

 

      It was supposed to be different to the competitor in some ways, e.g. we were going to have the programs of the two TV-stations on a page. 

 

 I was supposed to be the editor, journalist and collector of advertises in a part-time job, alongside with my other jobs, but their role would be everything else that concerned the publishing of a newspaper.

 

      I started the collecting of advertisments so that our decision might come true, just when I'd departed from my pleasant meeting with my "friends". 

 

      I had to use most of my charms when trying to convince potential advertisers about another paper's right to exist alongside and competing with the weekpaper that already existed in the area. 

 

 I made a point of the fact that our prices would be a good deal lower, than was on the other paper.

 

  My campaign resulted in a fabulous way, especially when I mentioned the lower prices, which is a psychological trick that no employer is able to stand in the long run.

 

       The morning after when I returned to the print- shop with my billfold bulging with the advertisment-money, paid in advance and a book where I'd written how my clients wanted their advertisments to look like, my heart was broken on the spot.
 

     -Oli, we're sorry that we have to inform you about our change of plans, that is we've employed an experienced journalist to edit the new paper.

 

      -What, I asked, feelin disappointed of course.
 

      -He was unemployed and that's why we bited him the job.
 

     -Well.  When I left yesterday I was sure that the prescription of the staff had been decided.

 

     -We're just hoping that you won't use this against us. 

 You do understand that when we heard that Elli Gretars (alias elg.) was looking for a job  we just couldn't let the opportunity go by.  You'll collect advertisments for the paper, won´t you? 

 

Thus they concluded their case, but their faces
turned blue, green and red when they saw all the advertisments and money I'd put on the table.
 

      -No, thank you very much, I growled and abandoned the building and them speechless.

 

               A Revelation?

 

     Once back in the year of 1988 I had this uncontrollable urge to assemble all my wits behind my typewriter, having done just that, my fingers started playing the keyboard and in a short while I'd finished an article, which I knew I was supposed to send to our country's most popular newspaper:

Wednesday June 8. 1988    

 

              Morgunblaðið (Velvakandi-readers´page)

                  The Circuit of Life
 

 

    Sometime you must have tried to figure out, whether we'll just vanish when we die. 

 

 Many do have that opinion, but most of us Icelanders haven't. 

 

 Our religious countrymen believe, that there have been many evidences telling us Christians, that eventually we'll end our lives at the side of our Lord, God allmighty in his blessedness. 

 

 For proof many of us find it sufficient to point at the Holy Bible or self-recorded experiences of some
autobiographers.

 

     In the past the Church-servants told the public that the non-believers would go to hell after their death, but the ones who'd chosen to follow the narrow and sinfree road, which the Church preached would enjoy being at the side of God, eternally. 

 

      Alongside with greater education, knowledge and critical thinking most Christians have realised, that everybody will enjoy another and more relaxed existence, when this one comes to an end, and God being so very kind, won't discriminate people, being his own children, in spite of some puny blunders in life's roaring sea.
 

    Grades (karma)

 

     Many of us earthlings believe, that we have souls;

 

 some kind of a spirit, which we're not able to see or touch, but is somewhere inside of us, being our contact with the allmighty, and when our bodies die our souls, still keeping the former shape of the body automatically travel to a seven-step heaven, where we're supposed to spend our after-life eternally. 

 

 The reason that there are seven steps in heaven: 

 

      "Those humans that have been very naughty
in their earthly life; e.g. Adolf Hitler will go straight to the lowest heaven, which is very close to Earth, so close even, that souls there might be forced to reincarnate back on Earth a number of times, just as often as it takes them to improve their behaviour, and when the accomplishment is made they will have a better karma, and thus become ready for the second heaven, which is a little bit farther from Earth´s life. 

 

 Again you'll have to improve your behaviour or make a deed, until your karma shows you're ready for the next heaven, and on your thriving'll go, until eventually you will have reached the highest heaven, where you'll sit by God's either side enjoying blessedness to the end of time."

 

      The custom of giving grades for the life people have lead is really the cornerstone of all religions. 

 

 Some of us even believe, that the religion and the grades were and still are tools used by the ruling classes or tyrants to control the behaviour of their citizens, e.g. the oppressed beggars, cf. "Blessed are the poor, for they'll inherit the kingdom of God."

      The Hindoos in India believe, that each human is born into the Class, decided by one's behaviour in a former life, after which you were given some Karma, that controls whether you are reincarnated in a higher Class, lower or the same, a convenient system called Dharma. 

 

 By holding this belief to their citizens, the ruling Class of India has been able to keep this gigantic nation relatively calm and reconciled with what they have in this life, until in the last years and decades, with the greater education of its citizens.

 

     Every religion has had to adjust to the deminishing ignorance of the worshippers. 

 

 Attendant to greater education and knowledge more and more people will realise, that it was Homo Sapiens, who created himself the all-able-good gods, when he in his early, novice days had to find some explanation for numerous super-sensual phenomenons in Nature. 

 

 Being such superstitous blokes they decided to find some positive name for the new God, related to the word good, just as it is in every language; gud from godur in Icelandic, god from good in English, gott from gut in German, etc. 

 

     Then Homo Sapiens will finally understand and come to terms with the fact, that every human is a link in the continous circuit of life and we have great responsibility to later generations, just as I'll try to explain:
 

        The Foodchain of Life.

 

     Eventually we will probably all die. 

 

 Most Icelanders are put to rest in a grave, which is two meters deep in a churchyard subsequent to the appropriate serimony. 

 

 But that won't be the end of the one´s in question, for when you're dead the smallest life-form starts its work, for you've returned to the beginning of the food-chain, which is the foundation of all life on this wonderful Earth of
ours, in spite of the sad fact, that the Christians' custom of putting their dead in deep ground will delay the return of their members into this natural circuit of life. 

 

      Perhabs that's the reason how few of us Icelanders believe in reincarnation, but some kind of deja vu is quite common, nevertheless.
 

     In India, on the other hand the Hindoos believe in their reincarnation, wholeheartedly, and for the reason of not putting any delays or hinders on their road to another life, the dead bodies are burned to ashes under the sky. 

 

 That way the soul is able to return sooner into another human being.

 

     Cannibalism is something that existed just in the past, at least officially and gets condemned each time it occurs. 

 

  "The savages" who ate other people believed, that the virtues and talents of the deceased were obtained by eating them. 

 

 That's why their chiefs were allowed to eat the best parts,
such as the brain.

       In every human there are so-called genes, which get transformed from the parents to their children. 

 

 Because of these genes some families bear the same characteristics. 

 

 But at times someone gets borne, without any family-characteristics, like some devil in disguise. 

 

     The explanation could be so very natural: 

 

     A gene of somebody long since dead might have finished its journey through the foodchain.

 

     It's typical for those human tribes, who believe in the reincarnation, that they don't and won't put any hindrance on the returning road of the human remains into the foodchain of life.

 

  In India it's quite common, that young children are able to recall various places and events that supposedly occurred in their former life, but really shouldn't have any idea about, for they haven't been anywhere else. 

 

     And how can we explain the existence of the numerous wonder-kids, who are all around us borne with various talents in the fields of music and science. 

 

     A real fine example of how good the evolution of the foodchain has treated and changed us from the time we were all so very prejudice, novice and intolerant towards our brothers and sisters must be that I probably won't be burned at the stakes, accused of heresy.

    The Naval Station
 

      I do believe every person should try to live as long as possible, thus enabling us to ripen and educate our heritage as much as we can for unborne generations, and for that reason I recommend, that all military forces of all nations be laid down, except the Peace-Corps of the United Nations, which will hold the peace for us hereafter. 

 

     That act will enable us humans working together to obtain our brave new world, where there's perfect peace, equality and charity.