I've woken up the past week dreading the day ahead every morning. My schedule has been uncomfortably full, I haven't felt able to sleep in without worrying about preparing things and arriving on time at social or other appointments, I've been having headaches, and a backlog of homework is accumulating. On the positive side, however, I've been able to see more friends and family!
On Friday, the dentist discovered yet another cavity, this time in a wisdom tooth. Immediately after the appointment I cycled to university. There, I realized that my class was cancelled. After cycling back home, I found that I couldn't eat anything since my anesthetic hadn't worn off yet, so went into an online class on an empty stomach. Then I ate, had a second online class, and then had an hour or two to spend before a dinner engagement. In that time, or after the dinner (I've forgotten which) I found out that I should have submitted a homework assignment online earlier in the day, although I'd been convinced it was due Monday. The no eating had been a little awkward, as I'd had very little to eat in the morning: I arrived a minute late at the dentist's and would have been later had I not limited my breakfast to 1 apple and 1 Pfeffernuss.
Fortunately the dinner engagement was relaxing and nice — a meal with extended family at a nearby Swabian restaurant. I ate fried dumplings on a salad and drank a pale beer. Meanwhile, the others had sausage and kale, Spaetzle with herbs or cheese or mushrooms, large mixed salads with sheep's cheese, or a Flammekueche (like a pizza). For dessert, they had half a portion each of Kaiserschmarren.
This morning I cycled through the faint fog and went bouldering with my siblings again, since my aunt has very kindly given me three weekends' entry to the gym. My arms (now unused to climbing) were not in trimmest fighting shape, so I wasn't very convinced of my ability to keep holding the grips properly. I reached the top of one of the climbing courses, and made tentative tries of other easy ones. But it was nice to be able to go again, either way, and to watch my siblings' acrobatics.
BEFORE THAT, I'd adhered to my new tradition of listening to a weekly church service on the radio. The local RBB broadcaster records Protestant and Catholic services alternately, from different houses of worship in the city and in Brandenburg; this time it was a Catholic church in Berlin. Normally I like the music (when it's good), the readings from the Bible, and the sermon; but this time the latter two left me quite perturbed. On the bright side, this meant that I stopped listening to the service after the sermon, and was able to go bouldering half an hour earlier than anticipated.
Last week, the Protestant church had what I remember as quite charming Bible readings, for example about every person having their own fig tree and quietly turning swords into ploughshares. This week, we were treated to Malachi. (I'm quoting the King James version, but of course the Catholic church uses a different translation.)
1 For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
2 But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.
The Bible isn't the most comfortable book to read anyway, so it's not surprising if it has quotations that I don't like. I was rather hopeful that, although the first reading might seem like a stinker, the next reading and the sermon would turn things around... Not so much.
The second reading came one of Paul's letters to the Thessalonians:
Neither did we eat any man's bread for nought; but wrought with labour and travail night and day, that we might not be chargeable to any of you: [...] this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.
To me, that sounds like a standard Scrooge comment on the virtue of workhouses for poor people. I was curious to hear how the priest would explain this passage in his sermon. Instead his sermon went off on a tangent, and didn't apologize for the Bible passage in any way.
At least it was ironically funny to hear the congregation recite 'thank you for your joyful message' whenever these dire readings were concluded.
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