Povey Prattle

Tired and bored with my own company I took myself to the Sarasota Mall on Thursday afternoon to lollygag and people watch. These are favourite activities of old farts such as I. It was a sad mission. The Mall was “dead”. “Yes Virginia, there is a recession”. There were few people to watch, and the four “anchor” stores (J.C. Penny, Sears, Macy’s and Dillards were devoid of customers). I did see a middle aged couple testing a mattress in Sears. I hung around, hoping to witness something naughty, but they simply lay there, apparently bored with each other’s company. Yes, they lay there for 20 minutes at least. The mattress salesman was nearby. I could tell that he was also bored. I also knew that he knew that there would be no sale. The couple were simply tired. I too was bored and tired, but I had no-one with whom to share a mattress. (Well, there was that cute mobile ‘phone salesman .... but of that you do not wish to hear!) Lollygagging over, I left the Mall. Still bored, I...

Like many folks of my generation, I grew up to despise cabbage. In England (and probably in the U.S.A.) it was served limp and overcooked. Truth to tell, it is a wonderful vegetable, and within the cabbage family “Savoy” is the tops. I bought a Savoy cabbage today. I ate some of it stir-fried, with a wee bit of cut up shoulder steak and some mushrooms, together with some pre-made polenta, adding some low sodium soy sauce for flavour. ‘Twas not exactly gourmet cooking, but it was a feast fit for Kings, or for old Queens. Let’s hear it for Savoy Cabbage.

I had dinner this evening with my good neighbour Ed Green. We ate at a chain steak-house. Despite it being a chain I enjoyed a most delicious rib-eye. Good food indeed. Our waitress wanted to be our best friend, but we were more interested in good food than new friends! Ed is the neighbour who told me that there is no such thing as a Palm Tree. He is almost right. Palms are palms are palms, and not all of them grow to be as large as trees. They are members of the Arecaceae (palm family) The Arecaceae, also known as the Palmae family, is comprised of about 200 genera and 2,500 species. Palms range from tiny understory plants to towering trees, and are found throughout the tropics and subtropics. Some commercially important palms include coconut (Cocos nucifera), date (Phoenix dactylifera) and oil palm (Elaeis guineensis). Florida has many palms, but only one native – the “Sabal Palm”. It is featured in our State Seal. Also known as the Palmetto, it is also the state palm of South Caroli...

Thanks for the comments on yesterday’s entry. They are well taken. Since my blog is not a discussion board (thank goodness!) I’ll be sparing in my response. First: Yes the Church has much to answer for in her failure to live the mind of Christ. But it is not only the Church. I too will stand before the judgement seat of Christ. Second: I know that the Church has perpetuated horrors on some good people. She has been evil in the way that she has inflicted wounds, wounds which defy all attempts at healing. Third: But not all who have been wounded by the Church have been mortally wounded . There are hurts which can be forgiven and forgotten. (I’ve had to do this with parents, family members and friends, and with the fundamentalist Church of my youth). Sooner or later I knew that in hanging on to old hurts I was simply self hurting - there were many things which I could simple “let go”. (I was whining about my fundamentalist past one day when a wise friend said “but that is but ...

As a retired Christian priest I am a sitting target for the “shots” fired by my atheist, agonistic, and semi-believing friends. Sometimes their pot shots are so silly as to be laughable. Sometimes I think that their comments are simple rude or impolite. Sometimes I know that they are wrong, or stupid, or irrationally biased against religion. For instance, I often hear “there have been more wars caused by religion than by any other thing”. This is set forth as if it were a fact, and that the record of history would bear it out. If this is so, where is that record of history? Show it to me please! I need data! And as you search for that data, do please look into the history of wars, and find out how many have been caused by colonialism; by the expansions of empires; by the hatred of other tribes; by racism; by tribal conflict; or by non-religious ideologies ( e.g. Nazi-sm, Fascism, Communism, Nationalism, Monarchism and the like). Do the math(s), and get back to me! Of course, ...

Sermon for Trinity Sunday 2009 The Revd. J. Michael Povey, at St. Boniface Church, Siesta Key, FL. Some four years ago a parishioner in Cambridge, MA asked me an odd question. “What” he enquired “would cause you to leave the Episcopal Church?” I think that he wanted me to say something about sex. I replied “I would leave the Episcopal Church only if we explicitly and deliberately denied the doctrine of the Holy Trinity”. I believe that God the Holy Trinity is at the heart and core of who we want to be as Christians in the Episcopal Church. God the Holy Trinity is far more important and much more exciting than sex! Back in my seminary days one of my co-students would have occasional melt-downs when, overwhelmed by sadness and despair, she would disappear and hide somewhere on the campus. We loved her and cared for her well being and one of the faculty members would be despatched to find her and to bring her home. One dark night the vice-Principal of our college sallied forth, flash l...