Francis Berger
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And My Sioux Name Would Be . . .

6/5/2019

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In the film Dances with Wolves, the Sioux tribe John Dunbar befriends give him a Sioux name based on what they witnessed in the following famous scene.
I thought about this scene today when I went out for a run in the fields surrounding my village. I am by no means a running enthusiast. I have never felt inspired to enter races, join clubs, or run marathons. In fact, when time permits, I prefer going for long walks. Nevertheless, I do enjoy jogging in nature a few times a week. It's a good way to get my heart rate up a little and it helps me counterbalance my sedentary job where I often spend eight or more hours sitting behind a desk.

Running in the fields around my village is particularly enjoyable. The land is relatively flat and the scenery is lovely. For example, on clear days, I can see the Alpine foothills and the Schneeberg in the distance. Another positive is I always encounter many kinds of wildlife during a run, from cranes and ducks near the river flowing through the landscape, to the small clusters of red or roe deer grazing in the fields near the thickets. Occasionally, I inadvertently flush out some pheasants or catch the attention of the local fox, an intensely curious fellow that often stares at me from beneath the cover of an elderberry bush. But the animals I encounter most are rabbits, more specifically European hare. 

Though abundant in other countries, the European hare population in Hungary is relatively small. Having said this, they seem to be quite plentiful in my region because I never fail to encounter at least three or four during a run. Like the fox, the hares are often curious when they see me approaching and choose to dart away only when the distance between us is less than ten meters. Sometimes they decide to run in the same direction I am running, and for a half-a-minute or so it almost seems as if the rabbits and I are out for a run together. 

As a result, I have decided my Sioux name, were I ever honored with one, would simply have to be - Runs With Rabbits. 

Granted, it's not nearly as magical (or manly) as Dances with Wolves, but as far as I know, there are no wolves in Hungary. Besides, Runs With Rabbits would still be far better than the only other possible options - Breathes Too Hard or Sweats Too Much. 
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Short Explanations for the Daily Bell Ringing in My Village

6/4/2019

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The church in my village, named after St. Stephen of Hungary, is a mere three hundred meters from our house, and the steeple is visible above the tree tops in the distance. The belltower is functional and marks the time with five distinct tolls from two different bells. Four higher pitched tolls note the passage of every quarter hour – one toll for quarter after the hour, two tolls for half past the hour, three tolls for quarter to the hour, and four tolls for the full hour. This is immediately followed by a deeper bell that marks the hour. In addition to this, the church bells toll daily for longer periods three times during the day.

Bell One – Get to Work, Peasants!

The morning bells serve as a communal alarm clock and ring at exactly five o’clock in the morning. They signaled it was time to head into the fields to begin the day’s work. Of course, very few of the village’s residents actually work in the fields today, but the morning bell ritual has remained. I personally like the morning bells, but I have read stories about residents in other, less-traditional villages and towns raising successful petitions against the morning bells and getting them stopped altogether. Luckily, the morning bells do not seem to bother anyone in my village, and it is my sincere hope that I will continue to hear them every day at dawn for as long I remain in this world.

Bell Two - Victory at the Siege of Belgrade

The noon bells, which are rung universally in Catholic and some older Protestant churches around the world, commemorates The Siege of Belgrade, an important event in European history that has been all but forgotten everywhere outside of Hungary.

In 1453, the Ottoman Turks conquered Constantinople and ushered in the end of the Byzantine Empire. After sacking Constantinople, the Turks turned their eyes toward conquering Europe. They initiated a campaign up the Balkans and sought to crush the Kingdom of Hungary before continuing their jihad against the rest of Christian Europe. Luckily for Europe, the Magyars decided to put up a fight and repelled the Ottoman onslaught from July 4–22, 1456. The Hungarian victory essentially ground the Ottoman advance to a halt and spared Europe from the Ottomans for seventy years.

During the battle, Pope Callixtus III ordered the bells of every European church to be rung every day at noon, as a call for believers to pray for Belgrade’s defenders, though the noon bell has since been attributed to the international commemoration of the eventual Hungarian victory at Belgrade. Apparently, news of the victory at Belgrade arrived sooner than the Pope’s order in some countries. As a result the ringing of the church bells at noon was thus transformed into a victory commemoration. The Pope never withdraw the order, and Catholic and the older Protestant churches continue to ring the church bells at noon to this very day.

Bell Three – Evening Mass or Time to Go Home to the Wife and Kids

The evening bell rings at seven in the winter and at eight in the summer and apparently marked the beginning of the daily evening mass a century ago, but daily evening masses have since dwindled to weekly evening masses. Nonetheless, the bells continue to ring every evening. People in my village now refer to it as the “time to stop drinking at the village pub and go home to the wife” bell.
​
For reasons I cannot explain, I always yearned to live in a place where I could hear the ringing of church bells on a daily basis. Now that I live in such a place and hear church bells daily, I have a deeper understanding of why I had yearned for such a thing in the first place. 
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Mednyánszky - Allegory of Death and New Life

6/3/2019

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I am continuing to make my through the work of László Mednyanszky (spelling of name varies) who I consider to be Hungary's best landscape painter. Known affectionately as the Wandering Baron, Mednyánszky also painted many portraits and scenes from the First World War. I have yet to examine his portraits and other paintings, but during my online searches, I stumbled upon an obscure study he painted some time toward the end of the nineteenth century.

Known only as "An Allegory of Death and New Life", this simple study is Mednyászky's only explicitly religiously-themed painting I have come across thus far. As far as I know, Mednyánszky never took this image beyond the visual notes phase. Perhaps he considered it too simplistic. s Or perhaps he feared he could not capture what he truly wanted to capture. Whatever the case, I find the simplicity he depicts here both alluring and uplifting, and I am certain the finished painting would have been both intensely moving and comforting. 
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Mednyánszky - A Study - Allegory of Death and New Life
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Green Politics: A Radical Shift in Consciousness

6/2/2019

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In keeping with my goal of reducing mass media exposure, I have not read much or listened to much concerning the European Parliamentary elections that took place last week. Nevertheless, I am aware of the notable gains many Green parties made this time around, particularly in countries such as Germany.

Toward the end of last week, I caught a snippet of some media talking head praising the success of the Green Party as "a radical shift in consciousness" in Europe, one that was "very much needed."

Europeans, who have actively chosen to commit demographic suicide by refusing to have children, now strive to save the planet for "future generations."

Yeah, that's radical a radical shift in consciousness, all right.  

It is incoherent, strategically evil nonsense like this that has turned me completely off politics in the past month or two. The radical shift in consciousness the talking head referred to is no shift at all. Even if it can be qualified as a shift, it is a purely horizontal shift along the political spectrum. The Green Wave is, at best, a restricted shift in materialist thinking. These kinds of shifts solve nothing and do not address the core disease eating away at our terminally ill civilization. If anything, this radical shift will only exacerbate the disease and hasten, what has surely now become, our civilization's  unstoppable decent into full-blown chaos followed by an inevitable collapse. 

I will grant this much to the talking head - a radical shift in consciousness is needed above all else, but the only real radical shift would be vertical, not horizontal in nature. A true radical shift in consciousness would involve a shift toward deeper things and higher things. A true radical shift in consciousness would be religious in nature; more specifically, a true radical shift in consciousness would be Christian in nature. Not some rehash of Churchian doctrine, but a true Christian Renaissance inspired by a recognition of the divine within rather than mere obedience to the divine without. 

But Europeans are obviously not ready to commit to such a radical shift, regardless of how much it is needed. So cue the apocalypse and have faith in the idea that every new beginning stems from some other beginning's end.
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Home Renovation

6/2/2019

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Three years ago I purchased an old house in a small village in western Hungary, and I have spent the last three summers renovating it. The major renovations – plumbing, electrical wiring, flooring, bathroom remodeling, kitchen instillation, interior remodeling, painting – were all completed the first summer. I dedicated the next two summers to roof repair, insulation instillation, and a furnace upgrade.

This summer I plan to tile the terrace floor and put some faux brick ceramic tiles on the terrace’s exterior walls. I also plan to convert one of the outbuildings on the property into a sort of summer kitchen, complete with an outdoor grill, oven, and fireplace. If I have enough time and money, I may begin to remodel my small brick barn and convert it into a workshop/storage space.


Working on houses runs in my family. For example, my father has built four houses in his life and has completed countless renovations projects as well. I helped him on three of the houses, which was a wonderful experience. It’s worth noting that my father is a chef by training, and I am still amazed by how he learned the ins-and-outs of construction and home repair in his spare time next to his full-time job.

I inherited some of my father’s skill in construction, but nowhere near the same level. This means my renovation efforts often take twice as long as they should and involve some humorous errors and omissions that often force me to backtrack, deconstruct the error, and start all over again. Needless to say, I leave potentially dangerous tasks like electrical wiring and plumbing to the professionals; otherwise, I try to do as much as I can myself. Though I have immensely enjoyed working on my house, I remember to keep it all in perspective and not obsess about it.


I say this because home construction and renovation has evolved into somewhat of a fetish in our contemporary world. The countless television programs focusing on house design, construction, house-flipping, and renovation attest to this. There is nothing inherently wrong with building and fixing up homes, but I suspect our current obsession with all things real estate has much to do with our spiritual emptiness and the rampant materialism of our societies. At best, building or fixing up a home provides some meaning in life– at least for a little while.

My father was ahead of the curve in terms of building and renovating. He built and sold homes as side projects in addition to his full-time job long before home construction became a hip and popular thing to do on television. To be sure, my father was motivated by profit when he built and sold houses, but it never developed into an obsession, and he never lost sight of the bigger picture. Although house building provided him with some meaning, he did not allow it to supersede higher meaning.

I keep this in my mind while I work on my own house during the summer. I avoid the “keeping up the Joneses” trap and only complete projects I can pay for out-of-pocket, which means my house still has plenty of bare light bulbs hanging on wires, unfinished trim, and under-furnished spaces. But I would rather complete the renovations as money allows than go into debt in exchange for some instant gratification.

And I suppose that is the best thing about my old house here in Hungary. Unlike the vast majority of homeowners in the West, I was able to buy my home with cash. Avoiding the mortgage trap was a lifelong ambition of mine, and after more than a decade of living in rented apartments, I am glad I have been able to achieve this goal. Having no mortgage means I possess the house rather than having the house possess me. And I will not allow it to completely possess me in any way, shape, or form, even in the midst of an enormous bathroom overhaul.

​This old house has given me some breathing room. It has allowed me to loosen the chains of material necessity a little, which in turn has allowed me to focus more time and energy on more important things. There is no way I would sacrifice that for the sake of granite kitchen countertops I cannot, at the present time, afford. No way at all. 
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