Povey Prattle

I return to my first visit to Florida with my pal Joe. The Epcot Center and Daytona Beach “turned me off”. And ‘though it was great to see Al and Doris Williams in Leesburg, I did not think highly of their Town. Nonetheless there were bright moments. 1. Al and Doris drove Joe and I to a neat restaurant which was either by the sea, or by a river. As I check my maps I suppose that they took us to Crystal Rover, or to Homassa – each place being some 40 – 50 miles west of Leesburg. I seem to remember that it was a rainy day, and also that our lunch place was “cool”. 2. When Joe and I returned to Leesburg after our trip to Sea World we ate dinner at an independent Fried Chicken joint. (We’d asked Doris and Al not to prepare dinner for us so that we would not be bound by the clock) . In memory I think that we ate the best Fried Chicken ever - so good indeed that I cannot eat KFC, nor bear to smell it. 3. On leaving the Fried Chicken joint, we dis...

I take up where I left off , before I was so rudely interrupted by last evening’s storm. The storm reminded me that I miss technology. (By the way, do you remember the good old days when we did not have mobile ‘phones, therefore we never lost them!) Up until to about four years ago if a person mentioned Florida I would immediately respond “I hate Florida”. That “hatred” arose out of two visits. I got thinking about the first visit when I was cut-off from Facebook for about 36 hours. The technology in my first visit was at the Epcot Center. More about that in a bit. ================================ Some 20 or more years ago, my friend Joe and I drove away from Pittsfield, MA in my trusty Mazda 323, bound for Florida. We drove down Interstate 95, but I cannot for the life of me remember where we stayed en route. My guess is that we had one night with the Haulers, Don and Barbara, who then lived in Mclean, VA. I do remember that when we crossed the GA/FL line I thought “we are her...

A PASSAGE FOR THE G20 MEETING James 5.1-12 5Come now, you rich people, weep and wail for the miseries that are coming to you. 2Your riches have rotted, and your clothes are moth-eaten. 3Your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be evidence against you, and it will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure for the last days. 4Listen! The wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. 5You have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. 6You have condemned and murdered the righteous one, who does not resist you.

A terrific and wondrous storm just passed through. Thunder, lightning and rain in super-abundance. It was great. But it also knocked out all the great and wise words I had written for tonight. So I'll simply say: Thank goodness for wonderful storms Thank goodness for food, shelter, and my good pets And I will try to be wise tomorrow. jmp (P.S. no promises!)

TO MY FACEBOOK FRIENDS 1. I have not been able to log on to Facebook for 24 hours. The Fb folks have been unable to help so far. 2. If I have not responded to your Facebook postings, it is because the “system” has failed, and I cannot connect with Fb. 3. Even though you may be able to read this on Facebook, I cannot so do! 4. If you can read this, please let me know at poveconect65 –at- Comcast.net. Then at least I will know if my notes are reaching Fb 5. I am working with Fb to resolve this - wish me luck please. IF ALL ELSE FAILS - you can read my musings at http://jmichaelpovey-retiredpoveinsarasota.blogspot.com/ luvjmp

This morning, a radio announcer here in the USA announced “today is the first day of autumn”. The he added that the equinox was at (Daylight Savings Time) 5:18 p.m. in our eastern time zone. It was not until later in the day that it occurred to me that he had said “autumn” and not “fall”, the usual North American word. Both words have good and ancient pedigrees. “Autumn” comes via older French languages, and “Fall” via older Germanic languages. My heritage leads me to prefer autumn. I hear it as a softer and gentler word than fall. Had I lived before the 16 th /17 th centuries in England, I would have called the season “Harvest”. The great migration in that era from the countryside to the town/city led to the abandonment of “Harvest” for “Autumn”. You’d never have guessed today that we had entered autumn if you lived in my neck of the woods. It maxed out at 100F ! And for friends such as Andrew McGowan in Melbourne, Australia, today began the first day of spr...

"they squawked in very direction. a flock of jackdaws combining together, a rabble of adolescents, a gang of youth, a whirlwind raising dust under the pressure of air currents, people whom nobody who was mature enough either in the fear of God or in years would pay any attention, they splutter confused stuff or like wasps rush directly at what is in front of their heads". Gregory of Nazianzus ( A.D. 329 - 390 ) as quoted in Charles Freeman's "The Closing of the Western Mind" (Knopf 2003) ================================================================ (Would also describe many modern Church Committee meetings; the proceedings of the U.K. House of Commons; or the activities of the U.S. Congress - jmp)

Some folks on the conservative right in America (Evangelical and Fundamentalist Christians/ Libertarians/ Constitutional Party Members/ NeoCon Republicans etc) are asserting that no one has the “right” to Health care. I’ll suppose at one level that they are correct. Life is certainly as much a matter of responsibility as of rights. Maybe no human being has even the “right” to food and water, let alone health care. Perhaps our world will do best if we accept the thesis of the “survival of the fittest”. (Not to be snide, but it’s strange that Evangelical and Fundamentalist Christians would buy into an evolutionary world view). Religion and Politics apart , here are some quotations from the Declaration of Independence, and the Preamble to the Constitution. From the Declaration of Independence We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Lif...