Cancer/writing Journal #99a

 I thought of simply adding some comments to entry #99 to cover what I have to say.  However, right now I am thinking the comments will be long enough to warrant a new entry.

1.  Use of the word gentile to refer to myself in relationship to the Amish in the infusion room.  I just made that up.  Although it does get at the wide gap between the Amish and those outside that world, it is not a term that they use, so far as I know.  The question came up during the writing group when the piece was discussed.  It was first noted that I correctly did not capitalize "gentile" and I did make a conscious decision regarding that.  I was a gentile in a more generic sense.  Someone in the group noted that Mormons refer to non-Mormons as Gentiles.  Someone else said that the Amish refer to non-Amish as "English".  Their origin was German so I suppose they saw the dominant ethnic group as being the Other.

2.  I offhandedly refer to the material used for the Amish woman's cap as "organdy."  As it so happens, this is the correct term for the material.  However, I did not draw from my great fund of knowledge regarding material in coming up with that.  Instead, I asked Perplexity AI what the material was that Amish women used for their caps.  I learned that it was either muslin or organdy.  I went to Google Images, entered "organdy" and bingo, there it was.  I was more than moderately pleased to be able to come up with the right term.

3.  I would like to report on a story I recently heard about the Amish dealing with the larger society.  There was a criminal court proceeding with an Amish defendant.  The Amish community turned out in force for the hearing as a kind of support, I suppose.  When the judge entered the courtroom, the bailiff ordered all in attendance to rise.  The Amish did not, considering that they were being asked to bestow an honor upon man that should be reserved for God.  The judge got all angry and a stir arose out of the matter.  After some consultations, the Amish decided, as an accommodation to the larger society, to go ahead and stand when the dumb judge came in.  Dang good of them I think and then the judge thinks that notions of courtroom decorum should trump religious conviction?  Don't get me going.  

It reminds me of a story of King Charles II of England meeting with the Quaker leader, William Penn.  He really was supposed to remove his hat in the presence of royalty.  He didn't for the same kinds of reasons the Amish did not initially stand up.  Charles II, fine king that he was, made mention that hats are to be removed when in the presence of royalty so he removed his own hat so that the obligation would be fulfilled.  Someone should have told the judge that story.  I don't care what else Charles II did, I remain his fan based on how he dealt with William Penn.

My wife, who likes historical fiction, especially British kings and queens before all the Georges, had a crush on Charles II for a while.  The residue of it probably still remains.  He had a very difficult time of it prior to the Restoration, during the English Civil War and the time of Oliver Cromwell.  She sees that as pretty well neutralizing any debauchery that occurred during his reign.

Charles II's father, Charles I, was the one who was beheaded by the Roundheads during the Civil War.  She once read a novel sympathetic to the Royalists generally and Charles I in particular.  She cried when she reached the point where Charles I was executed.  I told her that I bet she was the most recent person in the entire world to weep over the beheading of Charles I.  Very possibly there have been more since then.  As for all throughout the last 380 years or so who have wept at his execution?  I will guess 500,000, give or take.  Going to Perplexity AI will not help me on that one although it really is a remarkable source of information.