Povey Prattle

Wow!  What a good day. After walking with Penne a couple of times this morning I shopped for some good produce (parsnips, green peppers, sweet onions, egg plant, parsley, tomatoes, spinach etc.) at our local Mennonite owned fruit and vegetable market. Next I took out some old and tired shrubs from my garden, planted some new hibiscuses, thinned out and transplanted some oyster plants, then dug in some good cow manure, and spread some mulch. After lunch (a bowl of my home made cabbage and tomato soup) I settled down to listen to the Metropolitan Opera’s live production of  Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville” broadcasted on our local Public Broadcasting Station. Even as I listened to the Opera I continued to read John Updike’s 1974 novel “A Month of Sundays”. Opera over I made another batch of Baba Ganoush – a healthy enough snack which I will munch on a bit of sliced and toasted baguette. Dinner was a stir fry with onion, green pepper, parsnip and carrot (these two first par-boiled)

The anti-hero in John Updike’s 1974 novel “A Month Of Sundays” is the Revd. Thomas Marshfield - a disgraced pastor. In the novel the minister Thomas Marshfield is portrayed as the son of another ineffectual minister. “Thomas” describes a part of his youth. He says: **   “I did not confuse my father and God...... Nor was God in the Churches.  In general the churches, visited by me too often on weekdays – when the custodian was moving the communion table about like a packing case, and seeping up the chewing gum wrappers that insolently spangled the sacrosanct  reaches of the choir -  bore for  me the same relation to God that billboards did to Coca-Cola:  they promoted thirst without quenching it”. **  ( A Month of Sundays”  Alfred A Knopf, 1992   page 22)

Back at SCTI  (Sarasota County Technical Institute) for my second (of two) cooking classes today.  Once again I worked with Joyce, a snowbird from Montreal, Canada. We made Ratatouille Latkes (latkes using eggplant instead of potato), and Baba Ganoush. It was “cooking made simple” because all the ingredients had already been diced, chopped, cut or quartered by the full time culinary students at SCTI. Joyce and I agreed that the classes could have been more challenging.  Either of us could easily have made this week’s dishes and last week’s (Toasted Israeli Couscous, and Chicken/Chorizo Basquaise) from a recipe at home.  Neither of us learned new skills. But the camaraderie was good and I doubt that I would have ever made the Couscous or the Latkes without the inspiration of the classes. So if I think of the classes as “trying new recipes” (rather than learning new skills) then I will concede that it was a worthwhile endeavour. It was also fun to observe the other participants.  

As Penne and I walked this morning we came across a wonderful sight.   There they were; two gorgeous woodpeckers. We watched as they hopped up and down a tree trunk, always in synch with each other, and often playing “peek-a-boo” from either side of the trunk. It was a joyous and delightful sight.  The birds seemed to be utterly oblivious to our presence. About then my friend Bill came by, having a workout on his in-line skates (which he does every morning).   Bill is a “techie".  He had his I-phone at the ready and took the following photo’.   One of the woodpeckers is clearly visible on the left, and you can see a bit of the other on the right.  (It was difficult to take a photo’ as the birds rarely rested from their dance). Good photo’ or not, it was a splendid moment. As Bill skated away I cried out “ain’t evolution wonderful”.  It was a serious comment. Bill concurred. As a Christian I see no conflict between the biblical accounts of “creation” and the scientific a

The Dermatologist has me on a cream called CARAC  to help clear up some of the pre-cancerous spots on my face and scalp.  The freezing method is never very efficacious for me, and the celebrated blue light treatment did nothing. CARAC works, but it’s a messy business. The places where it is applied get red, inflamed and bloody.  (I look a mess).   Then they dry out and get so damn itchy, before, in due course the scabs fall off. The cure is but marginally better than the cause.  If only I had a bit more melanin! But the messy cure is surely better than full blown skin cancer.

The phrase “going to Church” is one that trips off our tongues very easily.   What we mean is that we are travelling to a particular building for a religious service or some other event which is part of our religious heritage. For the Church is not a building – we all know that well.   The Church is the people of God, gathered together by the Holy Spirit, to obey and serve God by being Christ’s body in the world. That’s the theory.  But folks join with the Church on Sunday mornings for a host of reasons.   For some it is habit.   For some it is because of Holy Communion.   Others gather to read Scripture and to hear it being taught.   Some folks are drawn by the music.  Yet others seek a moral foundation for their lives -  or possibly for the lives of their children!   Others are seeking “sound theology”. I would place a check mark (in English english a “tick”) alongside most of those “reasons”. But in my more honest moments I know that none of them tell the whole t