bless

There's more than one ever-pure spring here, called from the rock in some earlier age by a man of the cloth. Guðmundr blesses the earth and a stream pours forth.

This water is plenty clean for pool water -- very clean for pool water -- but it's no Guðmundarbrunnur. If it were, what would you talk about? After commenting on the temperature (Þessi er sko ekkert heitur heitur pottur, þessi -or- Þetta er nú almennilegt!) you will see the inevitable hair go by, and you can say Djöfull er vatnið skítugt í dag.

Oh, and there is always politics. Tonight the conversation has already heated up before your arrival: the banks, deregulation, the crash, the villains in suits, helvítis útrásarvíkingar and who is to carry the blame. Thence to Western values, imperialism, human rights. Interventionism, isolationism, kugun kvenna and hverjum er ekki sama.

The one that looks like a biker is talking current events. The other -- older, with his bike club number (in the 1000's) tattooed on his shoulder -- is talking history. It's not his business, our business, if people are oppressed somewhere else. Let them sort it out. No people can be oppressed indefinitely.

But they can be wiped out, can't they, or nearly so? It's happened before.

Oh, but only if they let it happen!

Jæja. Time to hit the showers. Djöfull er vatnið skítugt í dag.