Povey Prattle

(I use full names when I know folks well.   I use initials when folks are simply acquaintances of mine). Every once in a while I encounter A and R as they walk around the lake.   They have been wed for 42 years.   They hold hands as they walk.   I like that so much.   ( I am a bit of a romantic! ). I hadn’t seen them for a while until Wednesday last.   We chatted for a bit and they allowed that they had been visiting family members in Newburyport, MA.   (That happens to be one of my favourite Towns in Massachusetts, and had I been a bit wealthier I would have been happy to retire there). A and R told me that they had lived for many years in Natick, MA, and I told them of my sojourn in Cambridge, MA. A asked if I had been a teacher (there are a couple of well known Universities in Cambridge!) , and of course I let them know that I had served St. James’s Church there. A responded with something which made me very sad:   “We are Jewish”, he ...

Two wheel chairs, and a walker. B. is an ever smiling octogenarian.   His chief means of mobility is an electric wheel-chair.   He sets out most days in the chair as he takes his lovely Welsh terrier for a walk.   He has urged me to draw nearer, even as he assured me that his dog was a “sweetheart and a lover”. In due course I was able to convince him that my Penne is also a sweetheart and a lover, but that she is totally afraid of other dogs.   So these days B. and I exchange an enthusiastic wave and a hearty greeting even as we allow our dogs to keep their distance. R . also uses an electric wheel chair.   It belongs to her husband who needs it to “get around”.     R. is well able to walk, but she uses in the wheel chair at a fast clip, so that her four Sheep-dogs can get a vigorous work out.   She holds on to four leashes, as the four dogs trot in unison. They are the most gorgeous and well behaved dogs imaginable.   It is a joy...

She is as vital and feisty as they come.   At aged 86 she walks two miles each day, and never dawdles! Once in a while she’ll sit on a bench to catch her breath. Her name is Betty and she is legally blind.   So as we draw near I call out with my best cheerful voice “Betty, it’s Michael and Penne”. Penne knows who likes her, and who could not care less, so she always strains at her leash, tail-a-wagging, to greet Betty.   They have a mutual love affair.   Betty and I chat about “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”, or about the weather.     She has a great sense of humour, and responds with a broad smile to my silly jokes.   She also has a phenomenal memory, and in early part of the week she will ask me “how was your sermon at St. X’s?”   when on the previous Thursday or Friday I’d told her of an impending Sunday gig. Betty had been in the Marine Corps. She had started war time service as a “Rosie the Riveter”, but had found fact...

It all started this way.     I was raised by my parents and teachers thus:  (1) to “doff my hat” when greeting any woman in the street;  (2)to  be on the street side when walking with a woman;  (3) to stand up when any woman,  (or a man older than I)  entered a space in which I was already seated.     I cannot shake these old habits . As I walk out with Penne each day I am an inveterate “hat doffer”. I did so a couple of times when encountering a woman who not only walks, but “stops to smell the roses”.  She was never in a hurry, but seemed to savour every bit of beauty on her walks. One day I walked t’wards her and as I doffed my hat, she proffered a wee curtsy.   We each grinned and as I confessed my English heritage, so she told me that she was Swedish.   She went on to say that in “her day” in Sweden, as a man doffed his hat, so a woman would effect a little curtsy. So it is that each day ...

Penne and I encounter some interesting folks as we take our walks. Early each morning we encounter L .   She is dressed to the nines even as early as 6:30 a.m. She is greatly perfumed, so much so that I know that she is in the vicinity some 25’ before I see her.    L . has a dog, a Shih Tzu named Archie. “Archie”, according to L is stubborn and opinionated. Therefore she named him for the lead character in the old T.V. series “All in the Family”.    I believe that this gorgeous looking canine deserves greater respect.   So I always greet him not as “Archie”, but as “Mr. Bunker”. Tomorrow I will tell you about “Mrs. Sweden”   This is a web picture of a Shih Tzu, not of "Mr. Bunke r"

Some of the music at yesterday’s St. Boniface Church Eucharist led me down memory lane. The choir sang a spirited setting of the hymn “Fight the Good Fight” .  I “grew up” on the hymn in both elementary and high school morning worship. (The school day in the U.K. started with Christian worship – “way back then”). The hymn has gone out of fashion, perhaps because of the perceived militant tone of the first line.  But it’s not a bad text, based as it on words from Scripture. Fight the good fight with all thy might; Christ is thy Strength, and Christ thy Right; Lay hold on life, and it shall be Thy joy and crown eternally. Run the straight race through God’s good grace, Lift up thine eyes, and seek His face; Life with its way before us lies, Christ is the Path, and Christ the Prize. Cast care aside, upon thy Guide, Lean, and His mercy will provide; Lean, and the trusting soul shall prove Christ is its Life, and Christ its Love. Faint not nor fear, His arms ar...