Povey Prattle

As Prepared for Delivery... “We the people, in order to form a more perfect union.” Two hundred and twenty one years ago, in a hall that still stands across the street, a group of men gathered and, with these simple words, launched America’s improbable experiment in democracy. Farmers and scholars; statesmen and patriots who had traveled across an ocean to escape tyranny and persecution finally made real their declaration of independence at a Philadelphia convention that lasted through the spring of 1787. The document they produced was eventually signed but ultimately unfinished. It was stained by this nation’s original sin of slavery, a question that divided the colonies and brought the convention to a stalemate until the founders chose to allow the slave trade to continue for at least twenty more years, and to leave any final resolution to future generations. Of course, the answer to the slavery question was already embedded within our Constitution – a Constitution that had at is v...

So I didn’t go to Church today after all. The reason is that I have a torn muscle in my back - and walking is difficult. This too shall pass. But that’s not the whole truth. To be honest, I didn’t see the point of attending any Church, only to get mad at the Liturgy. I want Palm Sunday to be more radical than the Episcopal Church offers (see Prayer below) . But I am too much of an Episcopal Snob to attend one of the few “radical Protestant” Churches in the area. So I have bummed around all day. I made a few ‘phone calls to dear friends; stopped by to see Ben; and rested my aching back. The “Fisher Crows” have been lakeside all day. I suspect that they are waiting for one of the tiny Muscovy Ducklings to fall by way side. Boy are these Crows noisy and aggressive But they’ve had some diversion from the Ducklings. Across the lake is a Kumquat tree with its fruit just ripening. From time to time today the Crows have raided this tree. And then they dealt with a s...