88

Last week Red Baron turned 88, and this is a round date. I have to quote once again Gustav Adolf's Chancellor, Ochsenstierna, commenting on the progress of the Swedish invasion of German territory in the Thirty Years War, "Would not have thought in the beginning to come so far."

On the one hand, 88 symbolizes fortune and good luck in Chinese culture since the word eight sounds similar to the word fā (發, which implies 發財, or wealth).

©Neo-Nazi Numbers

On the other hand, 88 is a popular white supremacist symbol standing for a neo-Nazi abbreviation. H is the eighth letter in the alphabet, and right-wing radicals exchange the number 88 as an acronym for "Heil Hitler," a phrase banned in Germany.

       

Neo-Nazis use it as an identifying mark, just as the first Christians outed themselves in sketching a fish. Legend has it that if an early Christian met a stranger, he or she would draw half of an ΙΧΘΥΣ* on the ground. If the stranger completed the sketch, they would both know they were Christians.

*The acronym Ichthys stands for "Ἰησοῦς Χριστός, Θεοῦ Υἱός, Σωτήρ" and translates as 'Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour.'


I spent my birthday and a few days in Berlin with some relatives. On the evening before, I went to the Deutsches Theater.

On my way from the hotel along the Kapelle Ufer, I followed a line of cobblestones tracing the Berlin Wall's site.

I passed our National Debt Clock that - running back before Corona - now has reversed and is speeding up due to the war in Ukraine at 3817 euros per second.

This time I saw the theater building in full daylight and noticed on the left the bust of Heinz Hilpert, another giant of the German theater.

During my studies, I saw a few Hilpert stagings in Göttingen.

How much time … left? That is a good question. Anyway, young people with their drinks had a good time in a little park in front of the theater.

This time the performance took place at the Kammerspiele, translating to "intimate theater," although it simply means a smaller auditorium. The Kammerspiele is in the adjacent building left to the Deutsches Theater.

The theater performance was Albert Camus' La Peste (The Plague), an adaptation of his novel for the stage. For nearly two hours, one actor played all the characters, sometimes rapidly changing seats on chairs facing each other and switching voices too. 

It was an outstanding acting, memory, and physical performance. Unfortunately, the acoustics were terrible, and although Red Baron had activated his hearing aid, much of the text was swallowed.

In an essay, Albert Camus developed the following thoughts,  "We all must die, but before this evil before death, man/woman cries out from within for justice. Historical Christianity has responded to this protest against evil with the proclamation of the Kingdom, with eternal life that requires faith. But suffering wears out hope and faith, and death remains alone and without explanation. The masses, tired  of suffering and dying, are masses without God."

 Doctor Rieux decides: His place is at the side of those suffering.

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