If the Mountain Won't Come to Muhammad...

"If the mountain won't come to Muhammad, then Muhammad must go to the mountain" is a phrase coined by Francis Bacon, probably based on a Turkish proverb.

Well, the Much Honored Bock McMillan, laird of Southern Charm and prince of Cascade Falls etc., etc., has for some time been pressured by his old friend Francis to come visit him in Rome. 

The laird has made up one ridiculous excuse after another for not going, the truth is possibly that he is a bit overwhelmed that his old pal, the seminar student Jorge has suddenly become a sovereign like himself since being elected Pope of the Roman Catholic Church, the Bishop of Rome and Sovereign of the Vatican City. (The man may actually, however hard it may be to believe, hold more titles than the laird.)

Anyway, Jorge wasn't having any more evasions so he saw to it that he could travel to the lairds first life home in style. Ostensibly he will be in Lund from the 31st of October to the1st of November to commemorate the 500th year anniversary of the Protestant Reformation with other church leaders. However, the two of them know the true reason. They are to hang out, drink some beer and/or wine, eat pasta and talk about bygone days. 

It seems, that the laird - once he got over his exasperation and surprise - is looking forward to the reunion.

A Piece of My Family History

"It has to be done today! He is coming home next week, I might as well do it right now before I return home." she told herself. The young woman stepped out of the maternity ward at the hospital in Lund on a warm summer morning on the first day of September 1930.

Her name was Nelly. She was a small woman, fit with sturdy legs, clear blue eyes and a determined look on her face. She was dressed in a light summer dress and had a small hat on her light blond hair, as every decent married woman had in those days when they went outside. On one arm she carried her newborn child and in the other hand she held the small suitcase with essentials that had been packed for the trip to the hospital a week earlier.

Nelly walked the short distance from the hospital area to the town center in a steady pace. It was a market day at Saint Martins Square and there were many people about. The square was filled with market stalls where the farmers from the surrounding countryside were selling off their goods.

She found a place to leave her suitcase and then she looked around to see whom she could approach with her offer.

Onlookers could see her approach young women or young couples, one after the other, speak to them shortly and see them shake their heads and back away from her with eyes filled with pity, disgust or unbelief at her unusual request. Nelly did this for several hours until she met a couple that did not instinctively shun her. 

The couple listened quietly as Nelly told them that her husband, who was a sea captain, was coming home in the immediate future after more than a year at sea. She had had an extramarital affair during his absence and had given birth to a son only seven days earlier. Nelly told them that she could not keep the child, because her husband would never accept a bastard son. The couple, who were in their late thirties, looked at each other. Tage and Ragnhild had been married for several years and had tried - unsuccessfully - to get children. Finally Tage nodded and smiled at his wife and they both turned to Nelly and told her that they would accepted her offer and would take the boy into their care. 

The infant boy and his birth certificate (where Nelly's husband the sea captain was noted as father) were passed to the couple. They made their goodbyes and parted ways.

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My father would not meet his birth mother again until in 1948, when he was eighteen. He was sent to Nelly by the military when he was going to start his military service to require information on which of four alternatives his correct surname was. They supplied him with the address of his mother and told him not to return until he had the answer. 

My father took my mother along to the meeting with Nelly, At this time Nelly had divorced the sea captain and had shortly afterwards remarried the man with whom she had strayed in her marriage. Nelly and her new husband by then had five more children together. Both of them, my paternal grandparents, told my father that his true surname should be (McMillan) after Nelly's new husband.

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I have pieced together the information above from our family mythology and the Swedish population records.

My first life family never really had a close relationship with my paternal grandparents although we would meet them occasionally, with very long intervals. There was no affection wasted on us by my grand mother, although my grandfather was a kind and caring man who tried - unsuccessfully - to make up for her lacking social skills.

The Shortest Days 2014

In my hometown of Lund, Sweden, today sunrise occurred at 08:35 AM CET and sunset at 03:36 PM CET. We had daylight (sort of) only for 7 hours and 57 seconds. Tomorrow on December 22nd we will have approximately the same times for both sunrise and sunset but the day will be less than a second shorter.

After these two days the days will get steadily longer everyday until the Summer solstice occurs on June 21st 2015, when we will have daylight for 17:32:40. Further north in the country the swings in daylight are even more dramatic, where the sun never rises or sets North of the Polar Circle.

It isn't at all strange that we Scandinavians go crazy with mood swings during winters and summers.

Upcoming Events

My hometown in first life is Lund, located in the province of Scania, which consists of the peninsula in the far south of Sweden. It is believed to be one of the two oldest cities in present-day Sweden. Every fifty year or so there is a new stick, brick or piece of glass unearthed that predates the city's origin with another 100 or so years. At the moment it is believed that the city was settled in circa 990.

There have been few changes in the street system of the city since Middle Ages, although the old ramparts of clay that used to surround the city are mostly gone.

The city was made an episcopal see of the Roman Catholic church in 1048 and a cathedral was built here. Lund Cathedral School (Katedralskolan) was founded in 1085 and is considered to be the oldest school in Scandinavia and one of the oldest in Northern Europe. The school still exists and was indeed the senior high school of the laird himself.

The province of Scania formed part of the kingdom of Denmark up until 1658, when Denmark was forced to give it up to Sweden after a devastating defeat. Denmark didn't completely give up it's attempts to take the province back until 1710. The region did not become a part of Sweden proper until 1719, but had the status of conquered "foreign land" until that year.

Until the early 19th century, a ruthless policy of forced assimilation was employed by the Swedish government in what until then had been a linguistically Danish region. As part of the assimilation policy a university was founded here in 1666.

Lund University is today the largest in Sweden (and indubitably the best as it is the lairds alma mater) with more than 42,000 students, although not all of them live here. The 30,000-35,000 of them that do live here make out a big bulk of the cities population of 83,000 inhabitants. Every year we get a new influx of another 10,000 students as approximately the same amount leave to continue their lives somewhere else.

What the students do greatly effects the rest of us and mostly we love them for it.

Every fourth year since the late 19th century the students in Lund have a carnival (Lundakarnevalen) which usually brings a staggering number of visitors to the city. 2014 is another carnival year and it will be celebrated between May 16 through May 18. which means my small city is going to have circa 400,000 visitors during the three days, mainly on Saturday and Sunday when there is a carnival parade through the city center.

We will enjoy it, endure it and be happy to see the end of it - until we start longing for it to come along in four years time.