Thursday, November 24, 2011

Giving Thanks, Yet Again

Blasted Tree

Happy Thanksgiving to all our American readers — and everyone else, too, for that matter.

Dymphna wrote her wrap-up to our Autumn Fundraiser on Tuesday, which amounted to an early Thanksgiving. However, one of the features of our quarterly fundraisers is that donations always continue to trickle in, even after the final wrap-up, making our thankfulness extend through the rest of the week.

A new country may now be added to the list of donors: Luxembourg. As far as I can recall, this is the first gift from Luxembourg we have ever received.

Other latecomers checked in from Australia, Florida, Illinois, Norway, Pennsylvania, and the UK. Once again, our gratitude goes out to all of those who contributed to a happy Thanksgiving here at Schloss Bodissey.

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We’ve pointed out repeatedly over the last few years that our times seems to have a 1938 feel about them. There is a widespread sense that an enormous storm will soon shatter the illusory calm that has prevailed for the past four decades in the Western democracies. It’s impossible to predict exactly when the first lightning bolt will strike, and the crucial moment may not be as clear-cut as the invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939.

As if the demographic crisis, the suppression of civil liberties, the Islamic incursions, and the Iranian nuclear threat weren’t enough, we now face an economic catastrophe that may well destroy the major currencies and wipe out the European Union along with our prosperity.

So the gratitude we feel for all that has been granted us by Providence is tempered by the melancholy sense that all we have now will not last much longer, for 1939 is surely bound to arrive.

With these somber thoughts in mind, we revisit a poem by Louis MacNeice written in the late 1930s. Like the poet, we remain grateful for the sunlight on the garden, while it remains:
The Sunlight on the Garden
by Louis MacNeice

The sunlight on the garden
Hardens and grows cold,
We cannot cage the minute
Within its nets of gold;
When all is told
We cannot beg for pardon.

Our freedom as free lances
Advances towards its end;
The earth compels, upon it
Sonnets and birds descend;
And soon, my friend,
We shall have no time for dances.

The sky was good for flying
Defying the church bells
And every evil iron
Siren and what it tells:
The earth compels,
We are dying, Egypt, dying

And not expecting pardon,
Hardened in heart anew,
But glad to have sat under
Thunder and rain with you,
And grateful too
For sunlight on the garden.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Happy Thanksgiving Baron and Dymphma, and to all of my old friends on that side of the pond.

Seneca III

Anonymous said...

From Sapa Tapa my tag. Reading this blog, which i have just discovered, reminds me of how it feels here in the UK right now.

We have a co-alition government doing everything they can to subjugate free speech, thought and right of expression. Look at the way the EDL are persecuted!

Promises of stricter border controls were all lies.

The government instigation of greater input action from the public has been a big con. Enough numbers are gained to ask for a debate and the government impose a three line whip (basically a ban on MPs' supporting the debate)to stop free discussion.

The EU are taking more control of the UK, and to add insult to injury, we are paying more for the privilige.

The Deputy PM is angling for the minority (used loosely) vote by proclaiming blacks are being racially neglected by the banks, and are amongst the highest population in our prisons.

Soon, something is going to snap here in the UK. When it does, all those protesting about unfettered immigration, Islamic extremism, EU subjugation and loss of freedom will be reported by our state sponsored media (Biased Broadcasting Corporation) as racists or fascists.

Believe me, we are not. We want our country back and are taking slow but positive steps.

Sagunto said...

As a Dutchie (no "European"), I will most certainly give Thanks if and when the EUSSR is dissolved along with the illusion of prosperity it generated. May the same fate befall on this overseas monstrum called the "North American Union", and I'll give Thanks once more. But my biggest, most heartfelt Thanks I will give, when the day comes that we, the people (not some politician) have cleared our lands of Islam.

Happy Thanksgiving, you guys.

Certa bonum Certamen

Sag

Anonymous said...

ChristianInfidel says:
I wish a Blessed and Happy Thanksgiving to Baron and Dymphna, and to all your supporters! Among so much else for which to be grateful, I give thanks for people like you all.

A`Cuara said...

We will give thanks, from a joyful heart, in faith, to God Who watches over us, and gives us our sunlight for our gardens. We look forward with joyful expectancy to the day when Jesus Christ rules on the Throne of His father David. In that day iniquity will have been judged and Islam will not even be the unpleasant memory it is. Until that day we will gaurd the Joy in our hearts with thanksgiving to God in Jesus Christ for ALL He lovingly provides. A`Cuara

1389 said...

Thanks very much to both of you for all of the excellent work that you do!

Anonymous said...

We’ve pointed out repeatedly over the last few years that our times seems to have a 1938 feel about them.

I would agree with the feeling on the international scene. At the same time, as I had said before, I think that, domestically, the times have an 1850 feel about them.

Having the two come at the same time is troubling indeed. In the meantime, I am thankful for what I do have, and continue to hope for better than worse outcomes.

Thank you for all that you are doing. Anyone who doubts the power of words or ideas only has to come to your blog to learn better.

Peace,
Bill