Danskcolin: Thursday 1 February 2018

04:00 I get up early and take a little look on my smartphone. On my phone I have access to a whatsapp chat room for members of Lois's church. The church holds a weekly Bible Class every Wednesday night in the town library, but Lois decided not to attend last night, which was very lucky. There seems to have been "a misunderstanding" and the class did not take place.

The couple who had the keys showed up at 7:45pm in front of the library, but after 15-18 minutes (allegedly) the couple drove home because no one else had turned up, they said. But a lot of church members immediately texted on whatsapp and said they showed up at 8 o'clock and found the library closed and locked. So the Bible class had to be canceled to the annoyance of all those who had made the effort to turn out at that time of the evening - good grief, what madness!

the misunderstanding over the keys

that got revealed minute by minute on whatsapp, and which

led to the cancellation of the church's weekly Bible Class - oh dear!

A certain amount of bitterness resulted, which can be seen on whatsapp, but misunderstandings are misunderstandings, and such things happen occasionally.

But by chance there was also an extra big moon last night, which led to some touching little whatsapp messages as well.

Church members believe that we are currently living in the "last days" and they are always looking to see signs of Jesus' return. I have noticed that many of them get very excited about unusual natural phenomena (such as hurricanes, earthquakes, red suns, etc.) because they think such phenomena are indications that we live in "the last days" and that Jesus' return is imminent, even though Lois is more skeptical. It must be a little demotivating to expect the end of the world too often and to get disappointed over and over again.

But I find their simple faith very touching too, I have to admit, though it may be a bit naive. As far as I know, this kind of moon can be seen every 150 years or so. For the church members, Trump is the greatest sign of an imminent second coming, of course, and they were all very happy to see him become America's president (and the free world's leader), no doubt about that.

They do not seem to be worried about his moral standards, for some reason, but they tend to be a little naive when it comes to politics. I suspect they see Trump as God's instrument. God is using him to hasten the end of the world, the return of Jesus, etc., they believe.

Later in the day, I get an email from Steve, my American brother in law, referring to an interesting article by Neil Carter, an American political commentator, all about Trump's election victory. Carter accuses white evangelists of "falling asleep at the wheel". Without their votes (running at 81%) and faithful support that continues no matter what Trump does, the party that is currently defending Trump would remove their protection and feed him to the lions, metaphorically speaking. The Republican party would disappear almost overnight without white evangelists turning out unfailingly to vote for it.

As Michael Gerson recently said about white evangelicals, they no longer have the "gag reflex" (metaphorically speaking!) when it comes to Trump. Whatever he does, they defend him or give him another chance.

Where is the prophetic voice among evangelists calling on "God's people" to oppose unprincipled leaders who abuse their positions of power to steer a nation in a dangerous direction, asks Carter.

Carter believes that they are silent because Trump panders to the lowest common denominator among them: their desperate need to be validated in the national arena after losing the struggle for cultural dominance in the modern world. Trump promises to make everyone say "Merry Christmas" again (as if they are not already doing that, and as if it is up to presidents to force people to say anything).

06:00 I continue to look online. I see that Sylvia, Lois' cousin in Melbourne, has sent Lois an email. Yesterday I gave her an alternate email address because she had trouble with Lois' normal email address.

Lois and I have been a little worried about Sylvia for a couple of months. For the first time in years she did not send us a Christmas card or calendar, and she had not posted anything on Facebook since mid-November. I notice she has just begun to put "likes" etc on Facebook again, starting on Tuesday.

Flashback to April 2016: Lois and I spend a week

with Sylvia, Lois' cousin, in the Melbourne area,

on our way to see our daughter Sarah and her family in Perth.

Sylvia, a widow, writes in her email that she has hooked up with Rod, a tall, slim man of the same age as her. She describes Rod as her "partner" and they live together on weekends. On weekdays they live separately - Rod still works and he lives in a different city than Melbourne.

Rod: Sylvia's partner

Sylvia is a member of the same church as Lois, and unfortunately she has had to stop going to church because the church disapproves of relationships outside of marriage. But it seems Sylvia is not specially worried about that aspect. I think church members sometimes commit adultery (they are only human), but they have to "confess" and "repent" before they can keep their membership going. Lois now has the hard problem of what to say to Sylvia in her reply: poor Lois !!!! She has to support her cousin without attacking the principles of her church, which is not that easy. But she is always very diplomatic, no doubt about that.

When we stayed for a week with Sylvia in 2016, we did not realise how lonely she was, although one of her 2 sons was still living at home and her other son and her daughter live nearby. There are often problems with sons and daughters when an older widow or widower starts a new relationship. Two of them are okay with Sylvia's choice, but the third objects to it, it sounds like.

Yikes, poor Sylvia !!!!

10:00 We walk into the village and buy bread, meat and cheese at Waghorne's, the local butcher's shop. Nigel, the owner, unfortunately lost his wife a couple of weeks ago: we think it was a cancer of some kind. A new poster on the counter gives details about the funeral etc. But I think Lois may be the first to notice that the poster gives the wrong details - when it comes to the funeral timing, it says "January" instead of February and it is unclear when the funeral begins and where it will take place (two of the biggest of the five "Ws" right there off the bat).

It's a sad occasion and important for the details to be accurate, one would suppose. Nobody seems to have the time to proof-read nowadays, for some reason.

On our way home we swing by the post office and buy a couple of children's magazines for our 3 grandchildren in Copenhagen. We come home and relax with a cup of coffee on the couch.

11:30 I get started with reading several pages of John Trevisa's "Dialogue between a lord and a clerk". Lynda's U3A "Making of English" group has its next monthly meeting tomorrow afternoon, and this Middle English dialogue is the group's current project.

I come across a couple of interesting words in the dialogue. The English word "lewd" occurs many times in the text. The Lord and the Clerk talk a lot about "lewd men", it seems. In modern English, this term would mean "dirty (old) men". And "lewd behaviour" is a crime that covers a lot of different acts, I think. In the English-speaking legal systems this somewhat old-fashioned expression refers to such acts as indecent exposure, voyeurism, public sex acts (exhibitionism), indecent phone calls, etc.

However, it appears that the word "lewd" until the 14th century meant only "uneducated" - the word described people who had not been to school, in other words, the pig-ignorant. The word looks strange: it does not exist in any other Germanic language, and nobody knows where the word comes from. How fascinating.

I note also that there are many words that have plural forms which are the same as their singular forms. Today, we only have words for certain animals in this category (1 sheep, 2 sheep etc), but in the 14th century there were other words of this type, so we see "1 thing" but also "2 thing" etc. Same as in modern Danish, which has 1 ting, 2 ting, etc.

I find that fascinating too! Lois thinks I'm insane, but I'm going to let that one slide.

13:00 Lunch and afterwards a giant afternoon nap.

18:00 We have dinner and watch a bit of television. We are tired for some reason - we are getting old, no doubt about that. An old episode of Top of the Pops is on, from 14 February 1985.

Lois and I did not see this episode when it was first broadcast by the BBC because we were living in the United States between 1982 and 1985, with our 2 young daughters, Alison and Sarah. But in February 1985 we had already begun thinking about the coming August when we would have to move back to Britain.

Alison and Sarah were then suffering from chickenpox, I recall that they were off sick for a few weeks from their school. There was a lot of snow on the ground and they enjoyed using their little sleds in the backyard, which had a fun slope right outside the back door.

Happy days !!!!

Flashback to February 1985: our daughters, Alison (9) and Sarah (7),

have fun on their sleds in our back garden in Columbia Md.

The music in tonight's episode is not fantastic, I have to admit, but it's nice to see the 1980's hairstyles again.

The hairstyles of the 1980s: what madness !!!

The show's best moments come, as always, when we see the dancers

in the studio with their fresh young faces:

these girls are now coming up to 60 - yikes!

22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzz !!!!

Danish translation

04:00 Jeg står tidligt op og kigger lidt på min smartphone. På min smartphone har jeg adgang til en whatsapp-chatrum, der består af medlemmer af Lois’s kirke. Kirken holder en ugentlig bibelklasse hver ønsdag aften i byens bibliotek, men Lois besluttede ikke at deltage i går aftes, hvilket var meget heldigt. Der virker at have været ”en misforståelse” og klassen fandt ikke sted, lader det til.

Parret, der havde nøglene dukkede op kl 19:45 foran biblioteket, men efter 15-18 minutter (angiveligt) kørte parret hjem, fordi ingen anden var dukket op, sagde de. Men en masse kirkemedlemmer sms’ede straks på whatsapp, og sagde, de dukkede op kl 20 og fandt biblioteket lukket og låst. Så måtte bibelklassen aflyses til ærgelsen af alle dem, der havde gjort indsatsen for at rykke ud på denne tid af aftenen – du godeste, sikke et vanvid!

misforståelsen over nøglene,

der afslørede sig minut efter minut på whatsapp, og

førte til aflysningen af kirkens ugentlige bibelklasse – uha!

En vis mængde bitterhed resulterede, hvilket kan ses på whatsapp, men misforståelser er misforståelser, og sådan noget sker af og til.

Men tilfældigvis var der også en ekstra stor måne i går aftes, hvilket ledte til nogle lidt rørende whatsapp-beskeder.

Kirkemedlemmer tror, at vi for tiden lever i de ”sidste dage”, og de er altid på udkig for at se tegne på Jesu genkomst. Jeg har bemærket, at mange af dem bliver meget begejstrede over usædvanlige naturlige fænomener (såsom orkaner, jordskælv, røde sole osv), fordi de tror, at sådanne fænomener er tegn på, at vi bor i ”de sidste dage” og at Jesu genkomst er overhængende, selvom Lois er mere skeptisk. Det er lidt demotiverende måske at forvente for ofte enden på verden og at blive skuffet derover atter og atter.

Men jeg finder deres simple tro meget rørende også, må jeg indrømme, selvom den måske er lidt naiv. Så vidt jeg ved, kan denne slags måne ses hver 150 år eller deromkring. For kirkemedlemmerne er Trump det største tegn på en overhængende genkomst, selvfølgelig, og de var alle meget glade for at se, han blev USAs (og den frie verdens) præsident, ingen tvivl om det.

De virker ikke at blive bekymret for hans moralske standarder, af en eller anden grund, men de har tendens til at være lidt naive, når det kommer til politik. Jeg mistænker, de ser Trump som Guds instrument. Gud er ved at udnytte ham til at fremskynde verdens ende, Jesu genkomst osv, tror de.

Senere på dagen får jeg en email fra Steve, min amerikanske svigerbror, der henviser til en interessant artikel af Neil Carter, en amerikansk politisk kommentator, om Trumps valgsejr. Han beskylder hvide evangeliske for at ”falde i søvn ved rattet”. Uden deres stemmer (på 81%) og trofaste støtte, uanset hvad han gør, ville det parti, der for tiden forsvarer Trump, fjerne deres beskyttelse og kaste ham for løverne, metaforisk set. Det republikanske parti ville forsvinde næsten natten over, uden at hvide evangelikere pålideligt dukker op for at stemme på dem.

Som Michael Gerson for nylig sagde om hvide evangeliske, har de ikke længere den refleks, der giver en brækfornemmelser (metaforisk set!), når det kommer til Trump. Uanset hvad han gør, forsvarer de ham, eller giver ham endnu en chance.

Hvor er den profetiske stemme blandt evangelikere, der opfordrer "Guds folk" til at modsætte sig principløse ledere, der misbruger deres magtpositioner til at styre en nation i en farlig retning, spørger Carter.

Carter mener, at de er tavse, fordi Trump lefler for den laveste fællesnævner blandt dem: deres desperate trang til at blive erkendt i den nationale arena efter at have mistet kampen for kulturel dominans i den moderne verden. Trump lover at få alle til at sige "Glædelig jul" igen (som om de ikke allerede gør det, og som om det tilkommer presidenter at tvinge folk til at sige noget som helst).

06:00 Jeg fortsætter med at kigge lidt på nettet. Jeg ser, at Sylvia, Lois’ kusine i Melbourne, har sendt Lois en email. I går gav jeg hende en alternativ email-adresse, fordi hun havde problemer med Lois’ normale email-adresse.

Lois og jeg har været lidt bekymret over Sylvia i et par måneder. For første gang i årevis sendte hun os ikke noget julekort eller kalender, og hun ikke har lagt noget op på Facebook siden midten af november. Jeg bemærker, at hun lige er begyndt at lægge ”likes” osv op på Facebook igen, startende i tirsdags.

Tilbageblik til april 2016: Lois og jeg tilbringer en uge

hos Sylvia, Lois' kusine, in Melbourne og omegn,

på vej til at se vores datter Sarah og hendes familie i Perth.

Sylvia, en enke, skriver i sin email, at hun har fundet sammen med Rod, en høj, mager mand i samme alderen, som hende. Hun beskriver Rod som sin ”partner” og de bor sammen i weekenderne. På hverdage bor de adskilte – Rod arbejder stadig og han bor i en anderledes by, end Melbourne.

Sylvia er medlem af samme kirken, som Lois, og desværre har hun været nødt til at holde op med at gå i kirke, fordi kirken misbilliger forhold udenfor ægteskab. Men der virker som om, hun ikke er for meget bekymret over det aspekt. Jeg tror, at kirkemedlemmer nogle gange begår utroskab (de er kun menneskelige), men de er nødt til at "tilstå" og "fortryde", inden de kan holde deres medlemskab aktivt. Lois har nu det svære problem om, hvad hun skal sige til Sylvia i sit svar: stakkels Lois!!!! Hun bliver nødt til at støtte sin kusine uden at angribe sine kirkes principper, hvilket er ikke ret nemt. Men hun er altid meget diplomatisk, ingen tvivl om det.

Da vi i en uge boede hos Syliva i 2016, var vi ikke klar over, hvor ensom hun var, selvom en af hendes 2 sønner stadig boede derhjemme, og hendes anden søn og hendes datter bor i nærheden. Der er ofte problemer med sønner og døtre, når en ældre enke starter et nyt forhold. To af dem er okay med Sylvias valg, men den tredje indvender mod det, lader det til – yikes, stakkels Sylvia!!!!

08:30 Jeg skynder mig ind i køkkenet og laver to kopper te. Jeg tager dem med op på soveværelset og hopper tilbage op i sengen til Lois. Vi drikker vores te, står op og spiser morgenmad.

10:00 Vi går hen ind i landsbyen og køber brød, kød og ost hos Waghorne’s, den lokale slagteren. Nigel, forretningens ejer, har desværre mistet sin kone for et par uger siden: vi tror, det var kræft af en eller anden art. En plakat på disken giver detaljer om begravelsen osv. Men jeg tror, at Lois er den første til at bemærke, at plakaten giver de forkerte detaljer – når det kommer til begravelsens timing, står der ”januar” i stedet for februar, og det er uklart, hvornår begravelsen begynder og hvor den finder sted (to af de vigtigste af de fem ”hv”-er).

Det er en trist anledning og vigtigt at detaljerne er akkurate, ville man formode. Ingen virker at have tiden til at læse korrektur nu til dags, af en eller anden grund.

På vej hjem smutter vi ind i postkontoret og køber et par børnemagasiner til vores 3 børnebørn i København. Vi kommer hjem og slapper af med en kop kaffe i sofaen.

11:30 Jeg går i gang med at læse flere sider af John Trevisas ”Dialog mellem en herre og en ekspedient”. Lyndas U3A ”Making of English”-gruppe har sit næste månedlige møde i morgen eftermiddag, og denne middelengelske dialog er gruppens nuværende projekt.

Jeg falder over et par interessante ord i dialogen. Det engelske ord ”lewd” opstår mange gange i teksten. Herren og ekspedienten taler meget om ”lewd men”, lader det til. På moderne engelsk ville dette udtryk betyde ”gamle gris”. Og ”lewd behaviour” er en forbrydelse, der dækker en masse forskellige akter, tror jeg. Ifølge de angel-saksiske juridiske systemer henviser dette lidt gammeldags udtryk til sådanne akter, som for eksempel krænkelse af blufærdigheden (blottelse), voyeurisme (vindueskiggere osv), offentlige sexakter (ekshibitionisme), uanstændige telefonopkald mm.

Det viser sig imidlertid, at ordet ”lewd” indtil det 14. århundrede kun betød ”uddannet” – ordet beskrev dem, der ikke var gået i skole, med andre ord, ignorante eller uvidende personer. Ordet ser lidt mærkeligt ud: det eksisterer ikke i noget andet germaniske sprog, og ingen ved, hvor ordet stammer fra. Hvor fascinerende.

Jeg bemærker, at der er mange ord, der har flertalsformer, som er det samme, som dets entalsformer. I dag har vi kun ord for visse dyr i denne kategori (1 sheep, 2 sheep osv), men i det 14. århundrede var der andre ord af denne type, så vi ser ”1 thing” men også ”2 thing”, det samme som på moderne dansk (1 ting, 2 ting osv).

Hvor fascinerende! Lois synes, jeg er sindssyg, men det springer jeg over.

13:00 Frokost og bagefter en gigantisk eftermiddagslur.

18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad og ser lidt fjernsyn. Vi er trætte af en eller anden grund – vi bliver gamle, ingen tvivl om det. De viser et gamle afsnit af Top of the Pops fra den 14. februar 1985.

Lois og jeg så ikke dette afsnit, da det først blev sendt af BBC-kanalen, fordi vi boede i USA mellem 1982 og 1985, sammen med vores 2 unge døtre, Alison og Sarah. Men i februar 1985 var vi allerede begyndt at tænke på den kommende august måneden, når vi ville være nødt til at flytte tilbage til Storbritannien.

Alison og Sarah led dengang af skoldkopper, mindes jeg, at de blev sygemeldt i nogle uger fra deres skole. Der var en masse sne på jorden og de hyggede sig med at bruge deres små sleder i baghaven, der havde en sjov skråning lige udenfor bagdøren.

Lykkelige dage!!!!