God in Isan

God has gone totally wrong in his arrangement of the world of mankind. The Inquisitor is now sure.

Anyone who is around sixty or older and was brought up in Flanders has undergone it: a Catholic upbringing, unless your family was firmly anti-clerical. And even then, if you were raised at home without God, God continued to play a role in your world. In primary school you could choose: religion or 'ethics' for the non-believers. The latter direction always had at most two or three students in those years, only later would there be more.

There were the processions to Mary or some saint that your village was devoted to and everyone who took part in them was more important than those who watched. You came to the town hall, the post office or some other public building and there was the cross. Proverbs and sayings had sprung from biblical stories. There was the first communion around the age of six and the big communion around the age of twelve, the latter being preceded by months of solid indoctrination by a pastor or vicar on Wednesday afternoon. And also: secondary school was coming and then it was prestige to get into a Catholic school, they had name and fame, public schools were for the plebs. People grew up in those years where politics was actually just the same as it is now: left and right are fighting each other, at the time it was the Catholics who were at odds with the socialists and liberals.

A young and critical person thinks in his youth, fortunately there was the opportunity to get to know other religions. In the north, with the Dutch as it was called at the time, there were Protestants. De Inquisitor could do little with that, it seemed to him just the same, but without the stone and wooden statues that stood en masse in churches and chapels in Flanders.

Next came the Beatles. Yes, they played a role in De Inquisitor's religious concerns. Because Hinduism appeared. Fascinating, but in the end it turned out that walking behind sacred cows, Brahma and Krishna and others was not for him either.

Islam was also not for De Inquisitor, he had already heard about it during the many hours of religion lessons. Kind of the same again he thought, just different names. Moreover, he was led to believe that they were the archenemy, infidels. Strange because those Muslims also say that.

For a moment he took a closer look at lesser-known worships practiced by local tribes in Africa and South America, but that was just funny in his opinion.

Thus De Inquisitor slowly but surely became an atheist, also because religion has little interest in a late teenager, who has other things to deal with. First there were the girls, the football, then the insight that food had to be put on the table and preferably as much and as quickly as possible. Ah, those years between the ages of sixteen and twenty-five. Plenty of energy, the world is at your feet. He stopped thinking about religion. For years until he ended up in Thailand around the age of thirty-five. Beholding Buddhism, first as a tourist to the well-known temples and the associated images, later becoming acquainted with the practice of it by his Thai neighbors.

And completely immersed in that matter after moving to Isaan. The Inquisitor approached it more carefully now, more patiently. He wanted to know if it was something for him, as an atheist he respects every religion and he also realizes that people need it, find comfort in it. But after a few years of patience he didn't like it either, it's all about money and power, was his conclusion.

And so it is that The Inquisitor still thinks a little under the influence of Catholicism. His first curse is still "God damn it." He expresses his surprise with a sung-out 'jeezuschristus'. Indignation always brings to mind the thought of 'how the hell is that possible'. All this still, after fifteen years of living, living and undergoing in the middle of a Buddhist society.

And last Saturday The Inquisitor came to know that a possible God has done his job completely wrong. There were boat races on a lake not far from home. The whole area gathers early in the morning, the villages and hamlets each have a team and compete against each other. That makes people excited, exuberant and the merchants know it. They have transformed a huge site into a kind of festival. Food stalls, drink stalls, market stalls of all kinds make it pleasantly cluttered. Young children have also been thought of: bouncy castles, trains on a track, fairground attractions. And of course a large stage, colorfully decorated, which is already in full use. Singers and singers with young girls in fairly scarce clothing dancing next to them. At a large volume, of course.

A large square has been left in front of that stage to let dance enthusiasts do their thing.

And behind it, Toeii, neighbor of liefje-lief and De Inquisitor, has set up an open bar. Quite rare in the area: Chang beer on tap. He has spared no expense to make it attractive, huge fans make the heat a little bearable. So the love and The Inquisitor will not see anything of the boat races, it's fun there under that sail, especially because the youth now appear in full and immediately start dancing.

The beers come regularly because in the long run there are many people around the table, good people who, like De Inquisitor, also pay for a round, moreover, there are quickly snacks on the table that can combat the alcohol. The noise, the crowds, the beers and the heat make De Inquisitor somewhat melancholic.

Actually, he would like to join the dance, but the heat and the sun are a good excuse. And yes, standing among those late teens is not everything when you are in your early sixties, although older Isaaners don't care about that and let themselves go. The Inquisitor catches himself peeping at that youth. Ah, that exuberance, that gaiety. Also, the mutual seduction tricks are nice. Young men try to impress, young women respond. It starts with trying to stand out, to stand out. Hairdressing is a nice way to do that and you do see crazy things but nobody is bothered by it, on the contrary. Clothes too, what an improvisation. Not having the money for fancy but expensive clothes, and yet those girls can do something about it. Beautiful things, crazy things. But especially seductive clothing, strangely enough they have no hesitation. All those youth, tireless because their energy increases as time goes on. Those dance moves, a leg emerging from the oversized slit in a long skirt. Hips that turn, then slow, then fast again. The carefree fun they have among themselves, unconcerned about the environment.

And there you are, early sixties. Slowly got tired by the volume of the music. Scorched down by the heat and the dust. And yes, The Inquisitor is a little jealous.

God was wrong. He should have saved that energy for later in life, so that you can finally apply all your life experience. God should have let the beauty come in later life, not in youth only to lose it later. God should have saved the stamina for later. God should have given the youth a saggy body with stiff muscles and let it all grow to the pinnacle of fitness.

God should have sold that whole process the other way around.

Even sweetheart is exhausted when they get home. Just forty. Not to mention The Inquisitor, who didn't even go dancing. Stepdaughter, who of course had let her sixteen-year-old enthusiasm go all day, immediately disappeared into her room to continue that via social media. It was only eighteen o'clock, but only the dogs had been fed and the day was over.

But it was fun. And he looks forward to the coming days. Which he is sure will go smoothly, both physically and mentally. It is needed. But God was wrong, that's for sure.