Malapropisms and Dogberryisms

These are maybe two words you have not heard used in conversation very often.

However, they describe a speech characteristic you have probably heard more than you realise...

You see, they are both terms given for when a person substitutes one word for a similar sounding word when speaking.

My dear hubby does this quite often.  Just yesterday he said 'installation' when he was referring to some 'insulation'.  ...and he definitely didn't want it installed anywhere!

Often someone will say 'there's a term to describe that'.  But so far no-one has known what the term is. So today I did a bit of a 'google' to find out.

So if you do it too, you are probably not getting Dementia, so don't worry too much. It may be just a slip of concentration or a result of tiredness. Hopefully most of the time the error will be harmless and even humorous!

And in case you are wondering where the descriptions 'Malapropisms' and 'Dogberryisms' come from, here is an extract from Wikipedia:

"The word "malapropism" (and its earlier variant, "malaprop") comes from a character named "Mrs. Malaprop" in Richard Brinsley Sheridan's 1775 play The Rivals.^[2] Mrs. Malaprop frequently misspeaks (to great comic effect) by using words which don't have the meaning she intends, but which sound similar to words that do. Sheridan presumably chose her name in humorous reference to the word malapropos, an adjective or adverb meaning "inappropriate" or "inappropriately", derived from the French phrase, mal à propos (literally "poorly placed"). According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first recorded use of "malapropos" in English is from 1630,^[3] and the first person known to have used the word "malaprop" in the sense of "a speech error" is Lord Byron in 1814.^[4]
The synonymous term "Dogberryism" comes from the 1598 Shakespeare play Much Ado About Nothing, in which the character Dogberry utters many malapropisms to humorous effect"

Sarah, honor and infertility

I have written on infertility before, since it is a topic very real in my own life. (see here and here for previous blogs)

But I have just read a blogpost on challies.com (the photo above is from that blogpost), about Sarah, Abraham's wife. The blogpost addresses the question of what must she have been thinking as she watched Abraham go off into the tent with her Egyptian slave, Hagar?

There are many great comments in the blog post and Challies is one of my favourite blogs to follow.  But from my personal experience and living and researching honour/shame contexts of Africa, I think the issue goes much deeper than he takes it.  By deeper I mean, the issue is more subtle.  

From a Western perspective, its so easy to be quick to judge and point out how 'off track' Sarah had got.  For sure she had wandered from her trust in God, but I doubt it was out of rebellion or gross disregard for God.  Especially if we are wanting to sincerely please God, Satan's temptations to sin are far more subtle.

Firstly I totally understand Sarah's personal desire to have a child.

But, from living in an African society where 'giving birth' has far greater significance than in our Western setting, I would not wish to be quick in my condemnation.  I wouldn't want to sit as a judge but rather learn from her as a fellow pilgrim who also faces temptations and a deceitful heart. Yes there is the reality of Sarah's idolatry - she had replaced God's word and wisdom with her own wish and wisdom.  We are all guilty of idolatry and again and again tempted to be idolators.  

What Sarah's story teaches me is that sin is subtle.  

But no matter how attractive sin is, no matter what it offers, no matter how logical it sounds, no matter how culturally acceptable it is, no matter how much pressure there is to conform, sin is still sin, and subtle or not it comes back to bite us. 

She also teaches me that 'helping God out' through human wisdom is a dangerous road to walk. It can be so very easy to leave the path of trusting God, to wander into relying on our own sense of 'participation' to solve our dilemmas or assist in our difficulties, especially when our culture may not see something as 'wrong'. 

She also teaches me that any good desire (such as to have children) that gets in the way of God's desire is idolatry.

She teaches me how 'easy' it is to rationalise sin or not 'see' sin for what it is.

She teaches me that a longing for significance or even a desire to help my husband gain honour must never usurp giving honour to God, God's way.

She may not have been consciously 'disobeying'.  She may not have awoken one morning and said, 'today, I've had enough of waiting for God, I don't trust Him anymore, I'm going to do this my way'.  

More likely she gradually began asking herself, 'Is there something I should do?  Maybe the way culture around me does it might be ok? Even though I want the baby to come from my body, maybe I should be willing to let go of that personal desire?  Maybe I should do something more to enable me to bring my husband an heir and the joy and honour of that heir?

Satan doesn't normally come with a big sign saying 'come this way, disobey God, and create a disaster', but rather he comes offering very plausible sounding arguments just like in the garden of Eden.  

Her story also teaches me that no matter how strong I am now and all my life in trusting God, it is never a guarantee of immunity from temptation at any point in my life.  Though maybe influential, my history doesn't automatically determine my present. Satan is the great deceiver, the father of lies and an angel of light.  

I get the impression that Sarah was busy 'doing what was right in [her] own eyes'.  It is more likely she rationalised sin rather than outright rebelled.  Both are wrong and equally shameful in God's eyes and dangerous to our walk with God, but both are not equally obvious.

Culture around Sarah in those days would have found it quite acceptable to have children by another woman so as to create an 'heir'. (see a previous blog about this practice right now in Africa even in the church)

Ancient near-east culture is very similar to the African culture all around me, where a woman has very little honour until she has given birth - until she is a mother. 

Challies' blog mentions that she already had honor and it may have been a certain kind of honor in some ways (she was at least married and they had some wealth), but where it mattered she didn't have it - she wasn't a mother. Culturally she was a failure as a wife and thus in a position of shame. (We must also remember that she and Abraham were called by God to leave their family and home place - a challenge in effect to leave all their earthly honour behind and live separated and as wandering outcasts in the eyes of those around them.) 

In honor/shame cultures the honor of becoming a mother and the honor for a man of having a son/heir is of paramount importance.  To have your line, your name, continue after you is vital. This would have been particularly significant in the light of Abraham having to leave his family 'name' to start again under no more re-assurance than God's promise that He would give him a new name and family.(Gen 12:1-3)  Sarah was a wife who not only was not a mother, but who was unable to give her husband an heir.  The fact that she got to the age she did without compromising was remarkable.  But we can't live on yesterday's faith.

And that is a challenge to me.  It is so easy to roll along in our Christian life in the 'power' of yesterday's walk with God - like a roller coaster only moving on the momentum from previous moments.

The challenge is big - to not fall back on human wisdom and reasoning, to not set standards of right and wrong by culturally acceptable ways, to not rationalise sin, to not seek mis-placed honour and to not grow impatient....to 'check in' with God on everything - to acknowledge Him (remember Him and seek His will and desires) in everything (Prov 3:5,6) and pray without ceasing! (1 Thess 5:17)

Sin is subtle and we must look more than superficially at our own situations, choices and thinking. We must not be impulsive but 'take every thought captive' unto obedience to Christ (2 Cor 10:5). We must not neglect exposing all our ideas to the light of God's word (Ps 119:105), we must not underestimate the deceitfulness of our own heart (Jer 17:9), we must not cease to keep our 'eyes fixed on Jesus' (Heb 12:2) depending on Christ alone as our only 'hope of glory' (Col 1:27).

For sure, Sarah teaches me that times of great faith don't exclude me from temptation (Jesus' temptations confirm that), nor does it vaccinate me against sin and failure and the deceitfulness of my own heart. (Sarah is listed in the Hebrews 11 (v11) 'great faith' chapter, and yet instigated one of the most major 'sins' of history - that has continued to the conflict between Jews and Muslims to this day). 

BUT She also teaches me through this passage though that repentance and renewed faith after failure is possible - following the Hagar/Ishmael fiasco we are told in v11 that she received power from God to conceive as she considered God faithful to His promise.

I will close by quoting the final paragraph from Challies blog post:

"Where is God asking you to simply wait and trust? Where have you lost faith, or where is your faith wavering? Where is God slow to fulfill his promises to you, slow to answer prayer, slow to grant you the gift of understanding? Look right there and you may see displaced and then misplaced faith. Look right there and you may see how you have begun to come up with your own devious plans, even plans that directly contradict the clear, revealed will of God. Look right there and you may just see an idol taking root. Look right there and plead with God to restore your faith in him and his promises."

Bush Bird Surprise reminders of Matthew 6:26

Living in the bush is (mostly) so much fun.  You just never know what will happen next!

God's amazing creation brings so many reminders of His care and provision.

Remember the verses about birds in Matthew 6:26 about not being anxious or worrying: "Look at the birds of the air....your Heavenly Father feeds them..."

I was reminded of that on two occasions this past week when I heard a noise outside my window.

The first was a huge flock of little birds the size of a finch descending into a tree at twilight with all the noise of a huge loud protest meeting!  It reminded me a little of lorikeets grouping together into trees at the local shopping mall near where we lived back in OZ just at dusk, also with unbelievable noise like they were all giving their account of their day all at once! (Unfortunately my bird book seems to be a little limited as I haven't been able to yet figure out exactly what type of bird it is)

The second was just yesterday when I didn't hear any bird-song, but rather what sounded like a lot of loud and large wing flapping all at once - a sound I'd not heard before.

I got up to take a look and saw a sight I have never seen before. Two families of birds - one of Grey Hornbills and one of Red Billed Wood Hoopoe and 3 squirrels in the tree outside the window.  Hornbills I have only seen on their own, and the Red Billed Wood Hoopoe I've only seen two or at them most three together.

It soon became clear that the reason there were so many was that these were parents and babies.  Why the Red Billed Wood Hoopoes were also with the hornbills I'm not sure.  The young birds were a little clumsy in their movements and looked less like they really knew what they were doing as they pecked at branches and leaves alongside their parents doing a similar thing.

One of the hornbills even landed on the window sill right outside the glass I was looking through and for a few seconds we were only about 2cm apart - nose to nose....until I moved slightly and he got a fright and flew off - I never imagined I would ever be so close to such a bird!  

The photo below is of one of the young ones - apart from being a bit smaller and fluffier it is yet to develop the distinct white mark above the eye.

The Red Billed Wood Hoopoe babies were easy to spot as their heads were still really fluffy and their beaks were not quite fully mature and were still black instead of the parents red.  Altogether there were about 6 or 7 of them along with the 3 hornbills. (In the photo below you can see two others on the tree trunk behind the one in the centre of the photo)  I wish I could have got a photo of them in flight - they have beautiful white strips across their wings to match the tail.

The squirrels tried chasing after some of the birds but of course the birds could easily fly to another branch.  In the end the squirrels gave up and ran off.

I tried to get some photos even though the gauze flyscreen obscured them a little.

And then within about 10 minutes they were all gone and flown off to the next stage of their lesson for the day!

Meanwhile, I had also had another lesson from their Creator and mine - He who provides for them will also provide for me!

KFC with an African twist!

Instead of chips there is cooked maize meal - that's the phalatshe (or 'pap' as it is often called)

Instead of coleslaw there is morogo (bean leaves with some vegetables)

Instead of gravy there is chakalaka - a hot and spicy tomato and onion relish

So there it is - KFC a-la-Africa!

How the Germanwings Air Crash tells us that there is something more than just physical life....

I'm going to paste below a copy of a blogpost recently posted at challies.com  entitled 'The way the world works' (scroll to end to find it) - as a reflection on the recent Germanwings Airline crash where the Pilot deliberately crashed the plane ending his own life and the lives of all those on board.

In part it talks about how foundational our desire to 'preserve life' is. 

and said:

"We do it all to diminish the likelihood of our own demise"

 "Life is the most precious thing" and "Both civilization and civility stand or fall on this simple agreement".

These comments were all in the context that 'life' means physical life, and all that sounds profoundly correct from a Westerner's perspective.  

A Major Assumption

But there is a major assumption occurring here - that there is only one kind of life - physical life.

In our part of the world, physical life is important to some degree, but there is something greater.  

Physical death and demise is not feared as much as another kind of death and demise - psycho-social death and demise!

We are not only physical beings.  We are also psycho-social beings.  

Even our physical beginning is inextricably linked to the most intimate of all 'social' relationship interactions of two people - our mother and our father. (Yes I know we westerners with our technology have tried to turn it into a biological only issue through IVF, donor sperm etc, but I'm talking about how God meant it to be)

Another type of life preservation - another type of death

Psycho-social or 'relationship' death is of higher priority here than physical death.  In fact it has actually been said to me that 'we as Africans don't really fear physical death as much as relational death'.  You see for an African physical death doesn't end relationships. 

Ancestors are very much treated as part of the family still - to be consulted, pleased and honoured. In fact it elevates a person's position to become an ancestor - its a place of even greater power.  So relational death of rejection and ostracism is greatly feared.

If you read a previous blog post in which Monica Lewinsky speaks about shame, you will see that intense shame is intense 'death' - separation, rejection, demise.  It is the end of one's identity.  One becomes a 'nothing', - even less than a 'nothing'.....despised and rejected.

Pastor Charles Price quoted a statement by Pastor Stuart Briscoe in a podcast I heard not long back which said 

"When God created Adam, he created an individual. When God created Eve, he created society".  

Or as the old proverb says 'no man is an island'.  Our identity is not solely based on our individuality.  

Relational Identity

Even in the West we have this inherently in our names - we have our individual name (what we call our 'christian name') and we have our family name (what we call our 'surname').  

Our life is defined by factors that go beyond our own skin. Firstly, even in our 'individuality' we are meant to relate to our Creator, but on an earthly level we are also designed to relate person to person and thus part of the functionality of our design is that our identity is partly gained by our place in society. Our Western 'physical' emphasis culture often forgets this reality even though it continues to function all around us and influences so much of our lives.

In fact as the West loses its 'God perspective' on life, instead of a person's primary relational identity coming from their relationship with God, and only secondarily from relationships with people, one's sole 'relationship' identity is drawn from other people.  So if that 'horizonatal' relationship level breaks down, a person has nothing else by which to gain relational identity.

Interestingly the Pilot of that crashed Germanwings aircraft is said to have suffered from depression for many years and was almost unable to complete his training because of it. He was also the brunt of ridicule from workmates and nicknamed 'tomato Andy' for being a flight attendant before becoming a Pilot. His honour/dignity/identity was being eroded. He was still suffering from depression and had a 'sick note' to take the day off on the day of the crash, but was hiding his ongoing problems from his employer. I read in another article that he had told a former girlfriend he would do something to make people "know my name and remember me". 

This young man didn't just suddenly have an idea to end his life and the life of others.  He felt the reality of 'death' already, and felt that others were to blame for it.  Psyco-socially he already felt 'dead'. His name was no longer Andreas to his co-workers but 'tomato Andy'. So though some may not understand his logic, he felt that the way to get his 'life' back (ie be remembered as a 'somebody' with power instead of a despised 'nobody' in the world of Pilots) was to be someone who's name would be remembered forever. He would be infamously 'famous'.

The problem is that Satan's lies never bring long term good, and now he has inflicted upon his family and girlfriend the same ridicule that was inflicted on him.

Though we may read in horror and point the finger because we feel he broke humanity's 'most foundational agreement' to preserve physical life (as the blog post said), other members of humanity broke their 'most foundational agreement' with him long before that - to consider his life and identity as a psycho-social relational being.

A local christian friend was walking to the bus stop here recently and got into conversation with a man also walking to the bus stop.  As they walked, a reckless speeding car whizzed past them.  My friend made a comment to the man about how dangerous that action was.  The man replied with "what's wrong, if he dies, its just his time".  There was neither a belief by the driver or the man, that preservation of physical life was a high priority.

An 'All Humanity' Issue

 As Christians highly influenced by Western mindsets we can think that the only form of life the world is concerned about is physical life. 

 It's not true.  And what might be extreme here in Africa , is also present in the Western world.  

Actually it's present wherever there is humanity.  

And its not so extreme - misplaced maybe, but not extreme.  

When relational life is most important, physical life isn't the priority.  

When relational life feels already dead, physical ife is unimportant.  

When relational life is dead, a person will be willing to lose their physical life. 

And deep down, no matter who we are in our world or what culture we come from, relational life is actually what is most important.

We look at a man who's relational life was limited to other human beings and when that ended among those he desired recognition and acceptance and honour from, he counted himself as already dead and was willing to lose his life for a 'cause' --the mis-placed preservation/elevation of his own name.

Living for an earthly name or heavenly name...

But lets look at our own lives - God calls us to die to self and all its earthly desires for relational acceptance, earthly honour and a name for ourselves.

We must count our relationships with other people as 'irrelevant' or 'dead' in comparison to our relationship with God (ie as extreme as 'hate' is different from 'love' Luke 14:26), and die to the need for affirmation from people. Then there will be a natural outflow of a willingness to lose our earthly 'relational' life that will result in a willingness to also lose our 'physical' life if need be.  Yes we will value the life God has given to us and to others - BOTH physical and psycho-social/relational, but we will not elevate it to a position God never intended it to be. 

In a rightly placed way we will be willing to lose our own life (both relational and physical) in regards to the horizontal (person to person), when we have found the fulness of true abundant LIFE on the vertical level (us to God). 

When we have assurance of our identity in Christ and our name is recorded for eternity in the Lamb's Book of Life, we don't have to be in bondage to seeking identity on this earth and a way for our name to be remembered and recorded 'forever' on an earth that will pass away.

But as we relate to those around us, whether its in the West or in Africa, we must never forget, that life is more than preserving this physical body.  People are more than a physical body and live for more than just preservation of their physical bodies.  The gospel is far more than just giving hope in the midst of physical death.  If we don't apply the gospel to the whole person, as scripture does - both physical and psycho-social, we will prevent people from coming to understand the truth of the gospel in all its fulness.

Here's the challies.com blog post in full if you want to read it......

The Way the World Works

The world only works when life is held as precious. Each of us wants to live more than we want to die. We are overwhelmed by the longing to not die, and consumed with the desire to go on living. 

A thousand times a day we make subconscious choices that preserve our lives. We brake when we come to a stop sign. We replace the battery in the smoke detector. We hold on to the handrail. We fasten the safety belt. We double-check the dosage. We do it all so we can continue to live. We do it all to diminish the likelihood of our own demise.

And it is not just our own life that we regard as precious, but all life. Just as we make decisions to protect our own lives, we make decisions to protect others'. We tighten our children's seatbelts. We put the knives up high. We pay the salaries of police officers. We stop and help when we spot even a stranger in distress.

Life is the most precious thing. The world only works when we maintain this tacit agreement that life is precious, that I will do all I can to preserve both mine and yours, that you will do all you can to protect both yours and mine. Both civilization and civility stand or fall on this simple agreement.

The alternative is unthinkable. The alternative is cars swerving to meet oncoming traffic, bicycles drifting out of the bike lane, toddlers roaming at will, hospitals empty and unstaffed. The alternative might even be a pilot setting his aircraft so that it gradually coasts straight into the ground.

The world reacted with horror—justified horror—when they learned that Andreas Lubitz had deliberately crashed Germanwings flight 9525, taking his own life and the lives of the other 149 passengers and crew members. The reason for our shock is that he violated the agreement. He chose to take life instead of perserve life.

There are a hundred explanations for this desire to protect and preserve life. But the only one that really makes sense, and the only one that is compelling enough to believe, is that God is the creator of life, and that he has given life intrinsic value. He has made us this way, and deeply ingrained it within each one of us. To recklessly endanger life is to reject both the giver and his gift.

This, then, is why we react with such utter horror to what Lubitz did. He chose to diminish the value of his life, and the lives of each of those 149 people. We know intuitively that this is an outrage, the deepest kind of transgression. And it scares us. It terrifies us. It is unfair, unjust, unconscionable, unthinkable. And yet there it is, emblazoned in the headlines: He did it, and he could have done it to us. He rejected the most basic information, and broke our most foundational agreement.

Shame and Infertility

I have blogged about Infertility before, but the issue came up again in a discussion with someone today.

They told me of a Pastor who is in the process of divorcing his wife because she has not been able to bear them any children.

In a culture where there is inherent shame in being childless, there is the added belief in many churches that God will never allow a Christian to be barren.  This Pastor has obviously decided that the shame before the eyes of people around him in his culture and in his church is much greater and more important than any shame before God for choosing to divorce his wife for unbiblical reasons.  

(This reminds me of the story of Hannah in the Bible, who in her great distress and sadness, and shame in her society, went to the temple to implore the Lord to answer her prayer for a child.  And what happens....the priest who should have been the one to bring comfort and encouragement, piled on more shame by accusing her of being a drunk.)

The story really hit me.  I personally know how hard it is to be barren and not having the joy of having one's own children by birth (or even formal adoption).  My heart goes out to a woman who has to also endure the shame from her culture and her church, and now the complete rejection from her husband all because she has not been able to give birth to their child.....and to make matters worse - the very person who is supposed to be shepherding his home and his church flock and giving them the comfort and love of Christ, is the one handing out the greatest shame. Oh the pain that must be in that lady's heart.  May she know the comfort of God's loving arms and her honour in Christ despite the judgement of shame by those around her.

There is also a belief we have heard articulated here that God will honour His children and His name and thus would not allow His children to be shamed in the eyes of people looking on, thus He would never deny a woman being able to give birth to a child.  The problem is that a cultural understanding of what is 'honour' and what is 'shame' is superimposed onto those same terms in Scripture.  I had a significant conversation with a lady just recently on this topic.  She was making a decision to not return to her home country after leaving Botswana, based on the fact that she believed God would not want her to be in a situation that would be shameful in the eyes of her non-Christian relatives back home, since she was not returning home with great wealth and gifts. (we have come across this issue more than once). She believed that as a Christian not being able to fulfil cultural expectations, she would bring shame on God's name.  She thought it was a very good reasoning process based on out of context verses in Scripture that say "Anyone who believes in Him will never be put to shame"(Romans 10:11).  

Thankfully I had opportunity to explain that the shame that we are saved from is ultimate shame before God and others on judgement Day and for eternity, and that on this earth as Christians there are many times when we will be called to bear shame in the eyes of others for not fulfilling their expectations of us (personally or culturally).  There is a need to understand biblically what it means to honour God's name.  Firstly a person has to understand how God defines honouring His name.  Honouring God needs to be on the basis of obedience to His word not on the basis of how we feel we should 'culturally' protect His name.  We are not called to be God's protectors, but His humble obedient servants.  And once again we see a need to explain that how God wants to be honoured is not disconnected from his law.

It's people like that Pastor and his wife, and my friend, who we long to have an understanding of what it means to honoured in Christ and freed from the shaming of others.  We long for them to understand the truth of Scripture and experience the freedom and courage they can have in Christ.