My Little Gnudren,

It is the time of year when many letters are being sent and greetings are being exchanged. Once again Old Gnu has had an exchange of greetings from the DVLA, this time threatening to crush his car if he didn’t pay his road tax. Old Gnu thought he had paid online, but had obviously gone urgently to the toilet just before he pressed the pay button and had subsequently forgotten. He was horrified at the prospect  of his battered ol Ford Focus with 142,000 plus miles on the clock being crushed. Then he remembered that the kind DVLA were very considerate people and always asked if Gnu wanted to communicate with them in Welsh or English. Perhaps, he thought, a Welsh word had been mistranslated from the original Welsh document. In Welsh malwch eich car means crush your car. Can it be that the original Welsh document read cadwch eich car which means ‘keep your car’ and the translator hurriedly misread it? More glad tidings followed last week. It was a letter with menacingly large fonts from her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs. There was an accusation that Old Gnu had not paid enough income tax.

Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs never offer a Welsh option when you try to communicate with them, so there is no chance of mistranslation here. And perhaps Gnu brought this on his own head – (when you are employed by the Church of England you are regarded by HMRC as self-employed, so you have to fill in a tax return every year. At present it’s always in English. But who knows, one day it may be more inclusive and Old Gnu might be able to fill it in, in Welsh or even Armenian.)

My little Gnudren, hearken unto the voice of Old Gnu : whatever we may or may not owe Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs we do have one debt which we must spend a life time fulfilling. The blessed Apostle writes, 

“Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law.”

Romans 13:8 NIV

All this chimes in with Advent (which is nearly upon us), when we eat our daily dose of chocolate from our Advent Calendars. But we more importantly remember that a time will come when God will right the wrongs of this earth and his justice will prevail. Next week we shall be trying to sort ourselves out  with a General Distraction. Let’s hope that the Radio Times cover from 1984/1985, which at the time was slightly tongue in cheek, does not turn out to be a prophecy for our children and grandchildren.

Happy Advent everybody!

Vetus Pater Gnu
Academiae Musicorum et Theologia
Turris LA
XXIX  Mense November MMXIX