Village life (III)

One aspect of life in a small village that one discovers only after a certain time is that there is a high incidence of mental illness, at least in our village. One finds a lot of "strange, rare" people. Normally, one doesn't see them very often, they don't participate in village feasts, etc. And their condition is normally of a mild to moderate kind. They are often loners. I feel uncomfortable in the presence of some of them. All have fixed habits. One woman walks a dog regularly. One middle-aged guy talks to himself and drives his car to a neighboring village every day at exactly the same time. One is a runner. One left for a convent to become a nun. Some appear to be stored in the countryside, away from their family in the city. The relatively high number of cases is probably due to a kind of "in-breeding" over the centuries. Our area has always been sparsely populated and before cars became a common good (as recently as maybe 30 years ago), communication and contact with the outside world was difficult. So the villagers married their kids to their neighbors' kids, and so on, and everybody ended up being related to most of the others - and the gene pool became relatively small. Today marriages between villagers are rare. Those unfortunate enough to be mentally ill can get treatment at a hospital around 25km away from here, i.e. if they have relatives who acknowledge their condition, support them actively and drive them there...
A pertinent entry for a grey, stormy and cold fall day.