Flashback

Yesterday was a good day. Even though we still are on holiday, or furlough as it is supposed to be called in the Army, I still have to get up before 7 to get Lukas up and ready for school, which starts at 8 AM. Maria is also staying with us. She has got herself a summer job as a relief worker at a nursery, and yesterday she also had to get up early. When I had got them both out of the house I was seriously considering going back to bed, although I ought to get some work done on an essay. Before I had the chance to choose between those two options, Maria returned. There were problems with the Metro and although her question was phrased as "What shall I do?" she was really asking "Will you take me in the car, Dad?". Off we went. The nursery is on Amager, an island which is part of Copenhagen. It is also where I grew up as a kid, so it was like a trip down memory lane.

After I returned I spent the next couple of hours reading and going through notes for my essay. I re-part part of Eddie Gibb's "Church Next", a book I would recommend to anyone in Christian leadership, and also "Organic Community" by Joseph R. Myers, another thought provoking book and tried to get to grips with the structure of my essay. Went for a bike ride in the afternoon. I am considering setting a target of a certain distance I want to ride every week. In Manchester I could ride to work (15 km each way), but here the distance from home to the office is only 1 km, not enough to get your pulse up. Managed 15 km at a good speed and felt good, and hot when I returned. And then it was I had a flashback. Lukas and Lisbeth was sitting in the living room working on Lukas' home work in history. Lisbeth handed over to me. Her knowledge of Danish history is undoubtedly better than mine, but since her cooking also is a whole lot better, I accepted the challenge. It was hard work for Lukas. Not only did he have 15 questions to answer, based on 12 pages in his history book, he also had to both read and write in Danish. As we sat there, answering questions concerning the plight of workers in Denmark in the first half of the 19^th century, the thoughts of Karl Marx and the beginning of the Social Democratic Party in Denmark Lukas suddenly said: "I am not sure I can manage this. All this homework every day. Learning to play a brass instrument Wednesday afternoon and delivering commercials Friday. I think it will be too much."

It was then I in my thought was transported back to flat 12 in Bruninieku street in Latvia. It was also the second week of school and Maria was ready to throw in the towel and go back to Denmark. There was a lot of homework, and everything in a strange language (that time it was English). Even the maths homework needed to be translated, so she could understand it. Now Lukas, although not quite as emotional about it as Maria had been (to be fair, she was some years younger then than he is now), was at the same stage. I could sympathise with him and maybe even felt a slight twinge of guilt for the things we put our children through, but was glad I could share the story about Maria, who ended up doing quite well (that is Danish understatement) in school. Don't know if it made am impression, but we managed to press on a finish all the questions. Wonder what the homework will be today? I hope it is something I will be able to understand.

The subject introduced us to the word proletarians and also bourgeoisie. I must have read it somewhere, can't be my own thought, but I did put forward that yesterday's proletarians are the bourgeoisie of tomorrow. Thinking about it this morning I realised that usually the radicals of yesterday are the establishment of tomorrow. What a horrible thought. Wonder if there is anyway of being an established radical or if we might as well just give in, accept a role as the established, protectors of the past and existing and therefore the persecutors of the radicals? Guess I soon will find out.