And it is a Sunday so always a very special time in the Church Year to have the Fourth Sunday in Advent precede Christmas Day immediately. Memories of childhood flood through my brain of getting ready for the early evening service where I sang in the choir and then going to the late service even though I was not yet a teenager. It was the only time that I remember as a child staying up late (my mother would have stayed home with the little ones at late service). Surrounded by all of my family in my memories as we generally walked to Church in those very youthful days. It was a very special time. Of those nine people only five of us are still living ranging in age from 68 to 84 and spread all over Canada as it turns out. My parents have nine grandchildren (we were seven children) so their footprint not that large and the number of great grandchildren is eleven. Interesting really. My mother had one brother and he and his wife did not have any children and my father was an only child.
One of the people that I work with on the obituaries for South Collegiate discovered an error in one of the posted obits and sent me an email to mention it but it was one that I didn't do and I do not have access to correct the upload anyway. When I checked the original obituary in the newspaper the writer had used the word family instead of designating son or daughter which I must admit I would have done as well since the name Chris can be either male or female and I wouldn't have taken the chance to suggest other than family as a word to describe the children of the individual mentioned but mistakes do get made and I am sure it will be remedied. I did take on this project because of an appeal for help and do not regret doing so but can only be responsible for what I do do and can repair! So I am willing to continue with my small part in the project although when I took it on it was mentioned that other volunteers would be recruited if the task becomes too heavy which is a great idea actually. The baby boomers are aging now and the classes that followed my year in school were huge in comparison to mine. I skipped Grade 4 and that placed me with people born during the war so my class sizes were definitely smaller right to the end of my time in school.
I wonder what the service online will be today. Last week's was most interesting. Really it has been lovely going to all of these Churches in England. It was something we did do when we were traveling. These ancient places of worship constructed lovingly by our ancestors are a reminder forever of God in our midst although He doesn't make His presence known He is watching and waiting for us to do the right things in our lives.
I completed the first five blog posts for the Siderfin Book and will publish them every second day. I noticed that I had not put in the fiche number on some of the earlier baptisms and will correct that in the actual book. This is such a good second proofreading. One's mind sharpens as one proceeds through a task for sure. I am out of practise proofreading for sure as I have not produced a lot of writing for a while that required footnoting. My blog has been dominated by the crises in the world these last couple of years.
Is withdrawal defeat? Is it a statement that the initial invasion was simply a total misunderstanding of the situation? I think one would say that the world would gain from a withdrawal and we do not need to declare it a defeat but rather a realignment of relationships between two sovereign countries. If Hitler had seen that when he invaded Poland World War II would never have happened if he had withdrawn from Poland as demanded (we had already allowed him far more leniency than we should have but the Great War (WWI) was on everyone's mind). It is about respect for sovereign countries. The Soviet Union no longer exists by their own fault; they invaded Afghanistan and the resultant conflict sent them into bankruptcy and the Soviet Union disintegrated. The statement by Putin that so many Russians were left in other countries is easily remedied; they could just go back to Russia if they do not want to live in the country where they currently are; they have no right to that country; sell up and go home! One of my great beliefs is that you either become a citizen fully of the country where you live or you leave and go back to whatever you left. Do not expect the new country to pamper your whims with regard to your former allegiance.
What is happening in Gaza is entirely different. Hamas invaded Israel and Israel is into resolving that and the only resolution that works is elimination of Hamas because Hamas says they will keep on invading Israel so they must be eliminated. The Palestinians in Gaza have permitted this to happen on their watch; although I do feel great sorrow for the loss of life in Gaza there are nine million plus Israelis who also need protecting. Being able to protect one's country doesn't mean that you can not fight back and eliminate the aggressors. It is a mistaken thought on the part of Palestinians that Israel is guilty of anything; Hamas is responsible for all deaths both in Israel and in Gaza - Hamas attacked Israel. You either fight them today which we, the allies, did in the Second World War after Poland was invaded or you fight them tomorrow but why give the aggressors a chance to regroup and regain strength. Take them down and eliminate them; that works. But it is dreadful to watch for sure. Guard against dictatorships because that person at the top that is often elected to the position has only one goal - domination and generally it does over time extend beyond the borders of the country that elected the dictator simply because the dictator is greedy and wants more and more. There are lots of examples in our world history of that greed and where it leads the world. When the totals were tallied up for World War II China, Germany, Japan and the Soviet Union had a lot of deaths (the Soviet Union had the most and their fight was heroic for sure although overall not perhaps as heroic as China; their movement to the west is legendary protected by the Flying Tigers (American mercanies)). Totals included China 20 million, Germany 9 million, Japan 3 million, Soviet Union 27 million, but we must also match that up against population and percentage wise. China in 1950 was 550,000,000 so 4%. Germany in 1946 was 65 million so 14%. Japan in 1945 72,000,000 so 4%. The Soviet Union in 1941 was 195 million so 14%. War is very costly in human lives and these numbers are somewhat rough since only the Soviet Union is looked at pre-war and war end.
Not sure how many blog posts will actually publish the book as I want to try to keep each blog to around twenty pages. Likely I will have the entire book up online before I have finished serializing the book. I am keen to get started on the Pincombe and Blake Books and will likely begin early in the new year. 2024 is coming very quickly now and one wonders what will present itself in this fresh new year.
Russia withdrawing from Ukraine would be nice; Hamas vacating Gaza would be another gift and Sudan resolving their conflict would be a third gift; gifts that one can pray for in this new year to come. God deserves such gifts and the people who are responsible already know who they are and their duty to God; if not fulfilled then they will follow the fate of Satan for that is what they are - satanists.
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