Povey Prattle

Bert Lucas was the chimney sweep. He lived on the other side of the railway bridge from our home. That meant he lived on the wrong side of the bridge - for he lived in Easton and we in Whitehall. He was a little, wiry man who plied his trade on a bicycle. Chimney sweeps in England did not wear top hats, and they swept the chimneys from the bottom up. “Go tell Bert Lucas we need our chimney swept” my mother would say. “He’s the best”. Of course he was “the best” - every trader my Mum patronized was the best in his class. No matter that Bert Lucas was the only chimney sweep in our area - he was still the best. Mr. Haskins was the greengrocer. His was a gloomy little shop. In winter he would purvey a dismal range of root vegetables, cabbage and shriveled up apples. We believed that no-one ever shopped there, but somehow he stayed in business. Every once in a while I’d be sent to Mr. Haskins’ shop to get spuds or parsnips. He would shuffle out from some nether region of the sh...

He’s there most mornings. A man in his late sixties, and his dog. I see them as I take my 6:00 a.m. walk. The man smokes. I suspect that he’s forbidden to do so in his home. He waits there, ambling for a few yards every now and then. He also waits. I commented on this to him yesterday “Life’s odd isn’t it?” I said, “just hanging around waiting for your dog to poop”. He laughed a good laugh and agreed. And he cleans up the poop before he leaves the lakeside. Some folks think that we are in an unique mess in the Episcopal Church. I think “it has ever been thus”. But we are in a crappy time, when we seem to be hanging around waiting for sundry Bishops in Texas, Pennsylvania or Wisconsin to poop. Poop they do, and then expect our Primate or the Archbishop of Canterbury to clean up the mess. “Carry your own plastic bags Bishops!” I have a friend, a wise and now retired Episcopal Priest, who lives in Maine. Years ago we were at a dreary “Clergy Day” in Western Massachusetts. We, ...

Happy New Year. Today is Rosh Hashanah , the Jewish New Year, and a celebration of the beginning of Creation. Apples dipped in honey is a traditional food for Rosh Hashanah. Sounds good to me! By the way, it's also year 2000 in the Julian Calendar. This is the calendar used in Ethiopia, and particularly in the Coptic Church there. An Ethiopian was talking on NPR yesterday. He related that his people are most adept at using both the Julian and Gregorian calendars. Without having to think about it they will use the Julian calendar if writing a cheque in Amharic, and the Gregorian if they are doing the same thing in English. Cool! And Happy New Year!

You can't do that here - more's the pity. "Here" is the Glen Oaks Ridge Condominium Community where I live. "What we can't do" is hang out the laundry. It's against the rules. God forbid that our neighbours should see our knickers! And "more's the pity" is the truth. There is something beautiful to be seen in a line full of laundry. In Italy they hang their laundry on their balcony rails. I swoon whenever I see it. But a trip to Italy is not on my horizon, so I content myself by looking at an 18" x 14" framed photo' which hangs on my dining room wall. I bought it at an art show in St. Armand's Circle, Sarasota. It shows some lovely tenement buildings in one of the Cinque Terre. There it is - lovely laundry against fading and peeling stucco. Lest you should think that my love of drying laundry is an odd thing - well the poet Richard Wilbur loves it too, and sees laundry and more than laundry. Here is his ...

Richard Wilbur is a Pulitzer prize winning poet, a great translator of French playwrights (especially Moliere), and the librettist for "Candide". He is also a friend of mine! Here is one of my favourites. (Check the biblical reference). It is used with Mr. Wilbur's permission. Matthew VIII,28 ff. Rabbi, we Gadarenes Are not ascetics; we are fond of wealth and possessions. Love, as You call it, we obviate by means Of the planned release of aggressions. We have deep faith in prosperity. Soon, it is hoped, we will reach our full potential. In the light of our gross product, the practice of charity Is palpably non-essential. It is true that we go insane; That for no good reason we are possessed by devils; That we suffer, despite the amenities which obtain At all but the lowest levels. We shall not, however, resign Our trust in the high-heaped table and the full trough. If You cannot cure us without destroying our swine, We had rather You shoved off. Richard Wilbur

If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. (Psalm 139:8) All last week (Sept 2nd -8th ‘07) I was thinking about Psalm 139. Part of it was the liturgical reading last Sunday (Sept 9th ‘07). On Tuesday I was at Resurrection House in Sarasota, the day shelter for homeless people where I volunteer. I was listening to M as he told me the trials and woes of his life. I asked of he’d like to come to the Chapel to pray. That’s what he wanted to do. I asked “are you Jewish or Christian”. (I had guessed that he is Jewish). “I am Jewish” he said, “does that make a difference?” I reminded M that Jesus was a Jew and that Jesus had never been a Christian, and then I began to read from Psalm 139. I had often wondered what the second part of verse 8 meant. Then it hit me If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there My homeless brothers and sisters make their beds in hell every night. M and I prayed to the G-d of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the Holy One who makes ...