Name:Daniel Home: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada About Me: I used to believe that evolution was reasonable, that homosexuality was genetic, and that people became Christians because they couldn't deal with the 'reality' that this life was all there was. I used to believe, that if there was a heaven - I could get there by being good - and I used to think I was more or less a good person. I was wrong on all counts. One day I finally had my eyes opened and I saw that I was not going to go to heaven, but that I was certainly going to suffer the wrath of God for all my sin. I saw myself as a treasonous rebel at heart - I hated God for creating me just to send me to Hell - and I was wretched beyond my own comprehension. Into this spiritual vacuum Jesus Christ came and he opened my understanding - delivering me from God's wrath into God's grace. I was "saved" as an adult, and now my life is hid in Christ. I am by no means sinless, but by God's grace I am a repenting believer - a born again Christian. My complete profile...
The Buzz
Daniel's posts are almost always pastoral and God centered. I appreciate and am challenged by them frequently. He has a great sense of humor as well. - Marc Heinrich
His posts are either funny or challenging. He is very friendly and nice. - Rose Cole
[He has] good posts, both the serious like this one, and the humorous like yesterday. [He is] the reason that I have restrained myself from making Canadian jokes in my posts. - C-Train
This post contains nothing that is of any use to me. What were you thinking? Anyway, it's probably the best I've read all day. - David Kjos
Daniel, nicely done and much more original than Frank the Turk. - Jonathan Moorhead
There are some people who are smart, deep, or funny. There are not very many people that are all 3. Daniel is one of those people. His opinion, insight and humor have kept me coming back to his blog since I first visited earlier this year. - Carla Rolfe
If this works it will let you play one of the songs I grew up with at Christmas time.
Whenever I hear Heintje sing, I think of my Oma and Opa.
UPDATE: The original snippet with the imbedded audio of the song Oma'tje Lief stopped working. So I put up this youtube video of "Ich bau dir ein schloss". Both grandparents on my father's side emigrated from Holland (Netherlands), and while we saw my mother's parents pretty much every weekend, we only rarely saw my father's parents except at Christmas. Without fail, we Heintje albums would be playing in the background - whether it was a Christmas thing or they always had Heintje playing I still wonder, yet the effect in my life has been that I get very sentimental about Christmas time, and dearly love to hear Heintje sing. The kid (these recordings are from around 1955) had an amazing gift - simply breath-taking. Let me know if you agree.
Jim - this one is in german as well, but it is a song to, you guessed it, his mommy. It is pretty much what you would expect - Mom do not cry, fate will unite us again, whenever life brings me pain, I will know your heart prays for me. etc.
Quite a talent. I wonder if he continued to sing as an adult.
Did your dad speak any Dutch to you in the home where you grew up? (I'm making a presumption that he learned from his parents.)
I remember visiting Holland when I was a student in France. The Netherlands were my favorite country visited in Europe (although I now wish I had visited Greece). Among the reasons I enjoyed the country so much include the hospitality of the Dutch. I was welcomed into a home one Sunday night after a bus driver dropped me off on a lonely street late at night, after I showed had him the very-long name of a hostel in a book so he dropped me off at a street by that name. After he drove off, I was well and truly lost, but welcomed into a home of some people whose door I noticed was ajar. My best memories came from Holland.
Not to mention the stunning landscapes and the food! The cheese is the best, the pickled herring is delicious, and they have something that I've yet to taste anywhere else - it's one of my favorite treats in the world - salted licorice! (Double Zout, if I recall correctly?)
Oh, and I forgot to mention that of all the European peoples, the Dutch enjoy the reputation of being able to speak the most languages. (Although only one person in the home into which I was welcomed spoke English, but it made the evening all the more interesting that way. They were a group of friends enjoying a late meal together and I was invited to the table.)
Susan, he did continue to sing, but not with the potency you hear in his youth. To be sure, as an adult he just sounds like any other adult singing.
I am a great lover of cheeses, and while my Dad loved pickled herring, and while I had some as a young man and didn't gag like I thought I would - yet I don't eat any (ever!) today.
I do like the salted licorice though, my Opa used to get some from Holland all the time (you can't get it locally!) Loved the stuff.
My father was born in Holland, so he spoke Dutch and English. My mother was French, so she spoke French and English. But my Opa wasn't very nice to my mom when they were first wed (My father became a ward of the court at 14, and living on his own he married my mom (who was 16) when he was 17). My Opa had no say in the matter, and he made no secret that he felt that my father had made a grave mistake in marrying my mother, and whatever else happened the end result was that my mother was dead set against any of her children learning Dutch. I picked up some words, and I learned a lot of French, but I never learned Dutch, and my Father never spoke it to us.
I highly recommend licoriceinternational.com/ if you're ever interested in ordering salted licorice. (Click on the Dutch Licorice link on the homepage.) I placed an order there a few years ago, after the birth of my daughter (I treated myself in celebration) and was not disappointed (in either one). I haven't ordered from them since, but this conversation has whet my appetite, and I may be due for a fix.
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powerful sentiments with this music.