Povey Prattle

Rejoice and be merry!   Soak up all the joys of Christmas. This blog will take a rest for a few days. Check in again on Monday 27th December 2010.

This season brings many memories.   I spent one Christmas in Chester-le-Street, Co. Durham, England with my friend Marilyn Draper.  I cannot remember why I did that, nor do I remember our hosts. My Mum came to the U.S.A. for my ordination to the priesthood in Dec 1976.    She was with me for my first American Christmas, spent in Fitchburg with the late (and sorely missed) Al and Doris Williams. Two years ago I was in Beaufort, S.C. for Christmas.  It’s a lovely town. One year long ago, (maybe 1982) I flew home to Bristol on Christmas Day to be with my family.  ‘Twas an overnight flight (Boston, to New York City, to London); thus I arrived in the U.K. on Boxing Day.  My family members had a delayed Christmas dinner at the home of my oldest sister Maureen.  I fell sound asleep at the dinner table. Back in the fifties of the 20 th Century, Mum and my oldest sister Maureen would make Christmas Puddings and Christmas cake in November....

I got up at 3:00 a.m. today to look up into the heavens, and see the total eclipse of the moon. It was a gorgeous and awesome sight.    The created and evolved universe,  as I experienced it in this eclipse, led me to awe. My camera was inadequate to the task of photographing what I saw, but that did not matter. For the enjoyment of  a moment of  beauty is important in and of itself, whether or not it can be encapsulated in a photo', a poem, a painting, a recording, a video, or a narrative. By 3:15 a.m. I was back in bed, where I slept soundly until 5:15 a.m. At 6:45 a.m. Penne and I took our early morning two mile walk. By 7:30 a.m. I was able to enjoy a mug of coffee out on my Lanai.    There I enjoyed a more local beauty as I looked out on the pond.  I will never tire of what I am privileged to see every day.  I hope to be ever grateful for this "human-made" glory.

I am reading a book about “Bertie”, the Prince of Wales and the son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. “Bertie” became King Edward VII of the United Kingdom (22 January 1901 - 6 May 1910). The book is entitled “Edward the Caresser” Those who remember anything about the English (and later the United Kingdom) monarchy will find that to be an extremely funny title. For more about Edward VII   see  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_VII_of_the_United_Kingdom

Last Friday night as I drove home from a party in Venice (Florida!), I tuned into the Public Radio Station which come out of Ft. Myers, FL.  I was all ears as I listened to a “World Vision” programme about women in Afghanistan. I was glad to hear of the ways in which the gifts and abilities of women are being celebrated in Kabul.   I could scarcely bear to listen to the fate of many young women outside of the capital.  They are girls really, who are married off at a very young age, and then become virtual slaves in the homes of their husbands.   (Often the mother-in-law becomes the slave-master.   She is repeating her own experience from when she was a child bride). Many of these girls can “take it no more” and they are led to suicide. The preferred method is by self-immolation.  These children will douse themselves with petrol, and then set themselves afire. In the book “My life as a Traitor” by Zarah Ghanramani, the author relates that i...