WW1 Redux

The Pity of It

Thomas Hardy

I walked in loamy Wessex lanes, afar

From rail-track and from highway, and I heard

In field and farmstead many an ancient word

Of local lineage like "Thu bist," "Er war,"

"Ich woll," "Er sholl," and by-talk similar,

Nigh as they speak who in this month's moon gird

At England's very loins, thereunto spurred

By gangs whose glory threats and slaughters are....

http://www.sonnets.org/hardy.htm

This poem is dated April 1915, so was written at a time when war frenzy had been whipped up and the first ever world war was under way. So it is a brave poem.  It is also a linguistic window into time...  a look down the time telescope back to the time when Dorset - Hardy's Wessex - was part of the ancient kingdom of the West Saxons.  

If Genesis tells the truth about our origins - as I believe it does - than all wars are civil wars - all wars are brother fighting brother.  And here it is so obvious- the language in the remote villages is signalling that these are the same people.  How was brother turned against brother so quickly, so easily, and so lethally?

And without that conflict and the punitive - and unChristian - treatment of the losing side, would Hitler have risen to power in Germany?  So the seeds were being set for WW2 even as Hardy wrote this.

Who are they "at root and bottom" of this?

The answer lies in the Inspired Scriptures.   And that is why for decades Jehovah's Witnesses were warning about 1914 - even though we did not then fully understand what was going to happen.

The Captain kindly chauffered me to the meeting this morning. We had a lovely talk about the cure for all our sickness, which included a reminder that we are getting this excellent training in how to teach not just for now - though now is urgent! - but for the great teaching work to be done in the millennium as, one by one, the dead are re-created from the ground of dust and wake to find themselves in Paradise.

Tom and Jackie were round on Friday night - and we had a fun evening together - lots of laughter.  It was a wild and stormy night though.   This morning was sunny with a clear blue sky, but as we drove along the seafront to the Hall, we saw that the sea had come over the road in two places - and it was close to coming over this morning

The Strange Behaviour of a Blog

A reader tells me my blog was behaving strangely in the early hours.  I don't know what was happening but can only hope it won't do it again.

Two beautiful handmade bookmarks arrived from Bea. They are made in Peru and obviously come from a scheme to provide income for those in the favelas.  They are so charming I feel they ought to be framed. I emailed my thanks.  And I replied to Kathryn and Aunt Jo  the old-fashioned horse-drawn way as neither of them is on the net.

Captain Butterfly is out getting the food for tomorrow's supper - Tom and Jackie are coming over.   Will he turn up with a deer slung over his shoulder, or a Cook's lasagne and several full shopping bags?

Its not, as Basil Fawlty would say, a proposition for Wittgenstein.

There is a weak wintery sun out now - and the Channel is calm.

I hope there will be no more blogstorms tonight.

The Shrunken Island (and The Great War)

The Captain took us out for lunch to Arundel yesterday.   Roast chicken for him, veggie lasagne for me.  The light was wonderful, because the weather was so strange. One minute that intense low Winter sunlight was making all the pebbles on the island shine like jewels, the next minute there would be a violent rainstorm. The water is still high and the islands have shrunk.  More rain on the way.

The water voles and rats have been flooded out of their homes in the banks.  Surely we could and should be providing them with warm dry nests?  When the earth is Paradise again...


The commemorations of WW1,  are starting, of course.  This from yesterday's GuardianTV review page:

"It wasn't that the series demanded a great historical debate on the causes of the war – though it did seem perverse that the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, the Balkans or European imperialism didn't get a mention – but it did require something to explain the war as more than a random series of events that happened to Britain. A week or so before the war began, there was a mass peace rally led by Keir Hardie in London: war was something few wanted and most believed should be avoided. And yet, within a week or so of the outbreak, Paxman informed us, Britain was united in a determination that this was a war that needed to be fought, without any nod to how or why the mood of the nation had undergone a U-turn.

Nor was there even a hint of an explanation as to why so many in Britain thought the war would be over by Christmas when, days earlier, the politicians had apparently been weeping at the devastation they knew was to come. Was it just that no one could conceive of a war lasting any longer or was there a collective denial? It may be there are no straight answers – easy or otherwise – but the questions do need to be asked if any sense is to be made of the war."

http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2014/jan/28/britains-great-war-jeremy-paxman-food-drink

Easy answers?   Yes and No.

Baldrick's (of Blackadder) explanation made as much sense as any political one I have ever heard.   Didn't he say that World War 1 started when a man called Archie Duke shot an ostrich because he was hungry?

Thomas Hardy seemed to understand something of the forces behind it in his brave poem called "The Pity of It".  Yet he was not a believer in the Bible, or in God.

And on August 30, 1914, the arresting headline “End of All Kingdoms in 1914” blazed across page 4 of the Sunday magazine section of The World, a leading New York newspaper. “The terrific war outbreak in Europe has fulfilled an extraordinary prophecy,” stated this feature article. “For a quarter of a century past, through preachers and through press, the ‘International Bible Students [Jehovah’s Witnesses],’ best known as ‘Millennial Dawners,’ have been proclaiming to the world that the Day of Wrath prophesied in the Bible would dawn in 1914. ‘Look out for 1914!’ has been the cry of the hundreds of traveling evangelists who, representing this strange creed, have gone up and down the country enunciating the doctrine that ‘the Kingdom of God is at hand.’”

How did they know?  Because 1914 is a very significant year in Bible prophecy.  It marks a time of great trouble on the earth, but on a "darkest hour before the dawn" basis.    I hope to get back to this as the year goes on.  

Midsomer Dentists

A trip to the dentist yesterday. All OK apparently.  Hurray hurray.  Not that a single one of my teeth would pass muster in Hollywood of course.

Audrey is now out of hospital and I spoke to her. She seems to be managing and has help coming in daily.   I also spoke to Lilian who is managing her new life, as you have to. As Tom is, without Jill. What choice do we have?  And I also did a card for Hazel who is now in hospital having her knee operation...

As I have probably said before, when  I was a child, I used to wonder why the grown-ups kept going on about their medications and what-the-doctor-said-to-them-when-they-had-their-tubes-tilted.   Wonder no more, Sue Knight.

In fact, you would probably love to know exactly what the doctor said to me when I had my tubes... No? Fair enough. Anyway, The Tunnel told me I was OK tube-wise.

The Captain and me were watching an old Midsomer Murders - one with my favourite, Sgt Ben, in it.  He is such a hero, always rushing to the rescue no matter what the odds.   Anyway, it started with the first murder, and the "psychic" lady who found the body clutching her hand to her heart and saying: "There are going to be more killings, I can sense it."    "Lady," the Captain and I shouted at the screen, "This is Midsomer, there are ALWAYS more murders. And pay attention to the theme music."

A lot of the victims would survive if they would only listen to what's playing in the background.

Benefits Street

I was up in the night a couple of days ago. Can't sleep, and all the horrors of my hospital stay come vividly back in the early hours. And if I brood on it too much I will end up cancelling my next operation.  So I got a cup of tea, turned on the telly, and found myself watching the last bit of an episode of Benefit Street.

The title was so off-putting, I hadn't bothered watching it before.  But I was surprised and shocked. I hadn't realised there were still streets where children played out, the front doors were unlocked and open, and everyone knew everyone else.   I haven't lived on a street like that since my childhood in Fifties England  - back in the days when sabre-toothed tigers roamed the primeval forest that still covered most of the UK.

Back then of course, every house had a breadwinner. And he worked - there was plenty of work post-war. But it was not well paid and nobody had much in a material sense. And the mothers were at home rearing us children of the post-war baby boom years, so it was all very convivial.

I remember it as a happy, interesting childhood, apart from the horrors of school.

I enjoyed Benefits Street, and will try to watch the next programme.  And I anxiously wondered what on earth those people are going to do if they do shrink the benefit system even further.

Jacks invited us over for a roast chicken supper last night.  She had a family crisis on - Captain B gallantly chauffered her around - and she is now a granny again - another little granddaughter was born. Early, but not too early, and mother and child are doing well.

Dawn did her talk very cleverly, getting all but one of the allocated Scriptures in by using the "Reasoning from the Scriptures" book as her outline. It was as extempore a talk as I have ever been involved in in the Ministry School I think, and it seemed to go well. So that was another good learning curve for me.  She cast me as an unbaptised publisher, worrying about answering the questions that we get on the doorsteps.

It is never an easy thing to do - to go door to door with the Bible.  But we do know it is a real priviledge to know the truth and to be taught how to teach it to others.

A Housebound Life and a Tropical Butterfly

an old Indian Leafwing (Kallima paralekta)

One problem is what to put in my blog...   did nothing yesterday.  Well, I did a load of washing, and dusted and polished everything that couldn't get out of my way. Apart from the bedrooms. The polish and duster are sitting in our bedroom reproaching me even as I type.  And I sat out in the balcony in the wintery sun to do my studying - we are back in Genesis again - where it all went wrong for us.   But the noise drove me back in again. They are drilling something out there.   Flood defences are being strengthened along the river.

The Captain and Butterfly Mark went to Wisley to see the tropical butterflies.  I might capture a picture to make today's blog a bit more attractive.  I packed Col a sandwich and piece of cake, but assumed they would eat at the restaurant. However, they both shared the lunch!  So I wish I had put two pieces of cake in now.  I still have freezer supplies, but must think about baking again next week.

Dawn has managed to get her talk written and is coming round at lunchtime so we can go over it. I am assuming it will be:  "What makes you think there is only one religion that is right?"

A difficult one in these days of interfaith.  But Christianity is an uncompromising religion.  And these are the Scriptures we will be using:

Ephesians 4:4,5:  "One body there is, and one spirit, even as you were called in the one hope to which you were called;  one Lord, one faith, one baptism;"   One Lord, one faith, one baptism.

Matthew 7:13-14: “Go in through the narrow gate; because broad and spacious is the road leading off into destruction, and many are the ones going in through it;  whereas narrow is the gate and cramped the road leading off into life, and few are the ones finding it."       The road to life is narrow, it does not allow for many different beliefs and practices.

Matthew 7:21: “Not everyone saying to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the kingdom of the heavens, but the one doing the will of my Father who is in the heavens will."    The one doing the will of God... which means knowing who the true God is, studying his word, and doing it to the best of our ability.

John 10:16:  “And I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; those also I must bring, and they will listen to my voice, and they will become one flock, one shepherd."    One flock, one shepherd.  One congregation, all being taught and shepherded together, not many different ones.

John 17:20-21: “I make request, not concerning these only, but also concerning those putting faith in me through their word;  in order that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in union with me and I am in union with you, that they also may be in union with us, in order that the world may believe that you sent me forth."  One united flock, united in the same teaching, and by strong bonds of love.

I don't know how many of those Dawn will cover in the 5 minutes we have though.

A Case for Sherlock Holmes

Its 8.30 this Winter morning and someone has stolen the English Channel AND our Green. In its place they have left a misty veil of whiteness. And please shut up about it being a heavy fog, as I want Benedict Cumberbatch to come round and solve it.

A reasonable nights sleep, with the beginnings of a nightmare that stopped.   The Captain and I were doing that incredibly foolish thing that people in scary stories do. We were going into the mysterious dark old house. At night. On our own. No lights working.   We stepped through the front door. All was dark and creaky, except for a small open fire burning somewhere.   "Why are we doing this?" I thought crossly, and dragged us both out again.  Outside was an atmosphere of bleakness and depression.  And then I woke up.

What it did remind me of was how bleak the world could sometimes look until I knew what the Bible had to say about it.  And I wondered again - suppose I had known from a child?  Many of the principles my parents bought me up with were Biblical ones, I am grateful to remember.

I am Dawn's householder this week, so she will be round for a practise session before Thursday night.  I warned our Service Overseer that, all going to plan, I won't be on the school again until about 2 months after my operation. That is assuming it is on time, and goes well...