DUNDRIDGES

From My Perspective - - -

TIME Magazine features a page entitled “10 Questions” that are posed to different people of note, as well as some who influence both society and culture because of the positions they hold and/or enunciate. In the September 30, 2013 issue, there are “Ten Questions with Richard Dawkins – The evolutionary biologist on new words, his education and, of course, God.” The interviewer, Belinda Luscombe, asks about the new words he has and is introducing to the English language. One of the words is “meme”, coined in 1976, meaning: “a cultural item that is transmitted by repetition in a manner analogous to the biological transmission of genes; an idea or element of social behavior passed on through generations in a culture, especially by imitation.” Obviously, his word “meme” is a derivative of or play on the word “mimic”.

His attempt with the word “dundridges”, a word not yet in the dictionary, “…comes from a character in a novel by Tom Sharpe. A ‘dundridge’ is a minor official who has no flexibility, no discretion, and no humanity.” When he was pressed to use his word in a sentence, his example was: “The dundridges of the passport office are refusing to give me a new passport because I misspelled my name.” It I an interesting exercise in terms of vocabulary, however there is no shortage of descriptive words already in use. “…The Second Edition of the 20-Volume Oxford English Dictionary contains full entries for 171,476 words in current use, and 47,156 obsolete words. To this may be added around 9,500 derivative words included as subentries. Over half of these words are nouns, about a quarter adjectives, and about a seventh verbs; the rest is made up of exclamations, conjunctions, prepositions, suffixes, etc…If distinct senses were counted, the total would probably approach three quarters of a million…”

There is an interesting account in II Samuel 16:5-8 that may illustrate that “dundridge” types have been around for a long time. The text indicates: “Now when King David came to Bahurim, there was a man…whose name was Shimei…coming from there…cursing continuously as he came. And he threw stones at David and at all the servants of King David. And all the people and all the mighty men were on his right hand and on his left. Also Shimei said…when he cursed: "Come out! Come out! You bloodthirsty man, you rogue! The Lord has brought upon you all the blood of the house of Saul, in whose place you have reigned; and the Lord has delivered the kingdom into the hand of Absalom your son. So now you are caught in your own evil, because you are a bloodthirsty man!" When David’s mighty men offered to silence Shimei, II Samuel 16:9, “Abishai said to the king: Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Let me go over and cut off his head…” David restrained him. Even though the barrage of curses, stones and mud was being inflicted upon him, we read in II Samuel 16:10-14, “So David and his men continued along the road while Shimei was going along the hillside opposite him, cursing as he went and throwing stones at him and showering him with dirt. The king and all the people with him arrived at their destination exhausted. And there he refreshed himself…”

If you were being subjective to one throwing stones and mud/dirt at you, along with invectives, how would you respond or react? David’s approach was that God was aware of what was occurring and he was in God’s hands regardless of that which Shimei was doing. The text doesn’t indicate what Shimei continued to do while David and his entourage sought rest and refreshment. Shimei was doubtlessly relentless and continued his outrageous behavior for as long as he could. We read about Shimei in II Samuel 19:16-23 as King David is returning to Jerusalem. Shimei pleads for forgiveness for what he had done – and – David grants it. David does warn Solomon that Shimei is not one who can be trusted. When Solomon becomes King, he puts Shimei to death. Was he a “dundridge”? He was one man who sought to cause great harm to another. A lesson to be learned is that one should never desire to retaliate for a wrong done. God knows and God is the unerring Judge. We should always remember Romans 12:19, “Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord.” The Message Paraphrase states verse 19, “Don't insist on getting even; that's not for you to do. I'll do the judging, says God. I'll take care of it." It’s always better to trust the arm of God than the arm of the flesh. Consider these things with me.