Povey Prattle

Ben and I strolled downtown today for the Farmers’ Market, augmented for one day by many wholistic and organic booths. On a lovely sunny morning it was great amble around. There were many odd booths with this, that and the other solutions for this, that and the other health and diet issues. I remained aloof - smug in my knowledge that a diet with many vegetables, fruits, beans and grains - together with daily exercise is far superior to “quack” solutions. But I did buy some good scallions! Later I motored up to “Sam’s Club” - a division of Wal-Mart, to get some of their “Fair Trade” coffee. The place was mobbed. “ What recession?” I wondered. There were many food samples “for free”, and I came to understand that many folks go to “Sam’s” each Saturday to eat their “free lunch”. A quick chat with three of the clerks confirmed my hunch. I am not a great fan of “Wal-Mart/Sam’s Club”, but the prices are right. And Sam’s Club is one of the few places at which I can purchase “F...

I bought a shirt this week. No big deal, except that it was a clerical shirt. I’ve owned but two of these since retirement - one long-sleeved (which I never need to wear in sunny Florida) – the other one short-sleeved (it’s seen better days). Now that I have changed my parish affiliation as a “Retired Priest Associate” to St. Boniface Church, Sarasota, FL from a parish in Englewood FL, I decided that I should look spiffier on Sunday mornings. I cared deeply for the Rector and people in Englewood, but the 45 minute journey has made it difficult for me to be involved there, except on Sundays. St. Boniface is much nearer. It is a progressive parish with a fine Rector (Ted Copeland), and an Assistant Rector (Andie [Andrea] Taylor) who was a good friend and colleague of mine in Massachusetts. See http://www.boniface.cc/ A reader of my blog has been seeking photo’s for the web site of a Quaker – photo’s of folks from all over giving the peace sign. I sent in my photo’, together with ...

‘Twas just last Monday (27th October 2008) that we learned that Senator Barack Obama would be visiting SRQ today (Thursday 30th October 2008) – just five days before the General Election. I so much wanted to attend, but not alone. So I was pleased to hear that my friends Mike and Charles would attend. We walked together today to the Ed Smith Stadium, just over a mile away from my home. We arrived at 7:50 a.m. and already there were about 2,000 people in line ahead of us. And they began to arrive, thousands and thousands in the line behind us. The Stadium gates opened as promised at 9:00 a.m., and the line moved quickly through “security”, staffed by Sarasota Police, (who were incredibly polite, professional, and efficient). Mike, Charles and I were in our seats by 9:30 a.m. with an hour and a half to wait. In the crowds streamed, ‘til we totalled nearly 13,000. The program started on time with “wind-up” speeches by local politicians. A great cheer erupted when we saw the arrival o...

I am convinced that Church pews are an invention of “the devil”. There we sit, in uncomfortable seats, arranged in straight rows, awaiting a word from the “experts” on the raised platform (Altar or Pulpit), up front. Thus we are reduced to passive listeners. Our attention is on the “lecturer”. How much more healthy would the Church be if, at various services, we were all transformed into active participants. That’s why I re-arrange the seating when we have our weekly prayer service in the wee Chapel at Resurrection House. That Chapel has but 8 chairs, arranged in two rows with a central “aisle”, facing the altar. In this arrangement we look at the backs of people ahead of us. I set the chairs out in a circle so that we see each others’ faces, and thus give attention to each other more than to the leader “up front”. In rows we are listeners. In a circle we are participants. Or so I believe. In fact, at St. James’s Church in Cambridge we were locked into late Victorian pews. But when I l...

My brother Martyn is certain that I am weird or at least quirky. I believe that he is right. See, for example, the picture above - a record of my autumn planting. Do we not plant bulbs each autumn? But there is more evidence of my quirkiness. When I was a kid there was a tripe processing factory within 400 yards of my home. When the Ford’s tripe works began to process the tripe, the entire area stank. My mother, on one and only one occasion, cooked tripe and onions. None of my sibs, nor I could stomach it. It was not so much a matter of the taste of tripe, but its texture was incredibly unpalatable. As was the memory of Ford’s tripe works. But about three weeks ago I had a “yen” for tripe and onions. I mentioned this to my pal Ben, and he told me how much he liked tripe. So I made a mess of tripe and onions, (with ham and chorizo) today. Ben and I savoured every mouthful. Ain’t that weird? But, before you give up on me, do please view these aerial photo’s of Sara...

Justus D. Doenecke is a noted historian who most recently taught at New College, Sarasota - the Honours College for Florida’s University system. (see Storm on the Horizon: The Challenge to American Intervention, 1939-1941 for a sample of his work). Justus is a lector at All Angels by the Sea Parish on Longboat Key, Sarasota. He is one of the finest lectors I’ve ever heard. He reads the passages from Holy Scripture with clarity, and with obvious knowledge of what they are trying to say. Justus read at All Angels this morning. I cast down my bulletin with the printed scriptural texts, just for the pleasure of hearing him read. What a gift! Prof. Doenecke has the gift of being able to read clearly with intelligent understanding. For that I am entirely grateful.