Povey Prattle

Memory is so odd. * It is random. * It springs up without advance notice. * Who knows how it is triggered? For example   as I was walking with Penne on Thanksgiving morn I, all out of the blue, recalled these words from the King James/Authorized version of the Christian Bible (first published in  1611) "lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness" ( James 1:21) WOW 1 From where did this memory spring? WOW 2 There is a deliciousness in  17th C English which has all but disappeared from 21st C speech and writing.  It   is a lovely, poetic and evocative phrase. WOW 3 I often love to be naughty.  I would be more than glad to partake in a "superfluity of naughtiness". WOW 4 Care to join me?

I promised to myself that I would not go to any store on Thanksgiving Day.   It’s not that I am likely to rush off to the late opening (bogus) “sales”, but I have been known to go to the local supermarket to get this or that. I made this promise for a couple of reasons.  Firstly: as a wee act of solidarity with the retail sales clerks/assistants/associates that have to work on holidays, when they should surely be allowed an un-interrupted day with friends or family. Secondly: to free myself from the tyranny of what I call recreational shopping - a habit of many retirees who have “nothing better to do”. I kept my promise. There was a minute of wavering when I realised that I needed some corn starch to thicken up the gravy. Would I drive a mile to the store to buy some?  No, I remembered that my good neighbour Jean almost certainly had corn starch in her pantry, and that she would give me a couple of tablespoons worth.  That she gladly did. My dog Pen...

1. My good dog Penne has an ear infection which has been bothering her greatly. Following a visit to the Veterinarian and an $89 bill for medicine she should be “all better” within a week. 2. Today I facilitated the prayer service at Resurrection House (a day shelter for homeless people in SRQ).  I do this every week. One middle aged woman prayed that the oceans would open up so that all who had died at sea would be released and then walk out.  Her prayerful logic was that Moses had parted the Red Sea so that people could walk to freedom. A twenty-something man prayed “for the person who stole my blanket last night” 3. A joke via my Staten Island cousin Kippy:  A priest dies   and is waiting in line at the Pearly Gates. Ahead of him is a guy who's dressed in sunglasses, a loud shirt, leather jacket and jeans. Saint Peter addresses this cool guy, "Who are you, so that I may know whether or not to admit you to the Kingdom of Heaven?" The guy replies,...

So, when I decided to retire to Florida in 2006,  Judy Beers of Wakefield MA, the parish secretary at St. James’s Episcopal Church in Cambridge MA, urged me to be in touch with her Sarasota friends, Ron and Charlotte Thompson. That I did.  Ron, Char and I “hit it off” immediately . In due course the Thompson’s met my SRQ  friends:  Barbara Dunne, Kay Dohoney, Ben Morse and Bob Lewis. (I knew Kay and Barbara from my Pittsfield, MA days). Ron, Char, Ben, Bob, Kay and Barbara like each other immensely. Next in 2011 I was privileged to introduce my brother Martyn and his son Sam (from the U.K.) to the Thompsons, and to Bob, Ben, Kay, and Barbara. “It worked”. I am glad to say that “it worked” again in 2012, when Martyn visited again with Sam (who brought his friend Toby). Earlier this year Ron’s sister and her husband Den retired to Sarasota.  Now they are part of this circle of friendship. And the circle gets bigger. For my first cousin Janet a...

  Love Story      I will seek and find you . . I shall take you to bed and have my way with you I will make you ache, shake & sweat until you moan & groan. I will make you beg for mercy, beg for me to stop. I will exhaust you to the point that you will be relieved when I'm finished with you. And, when I am finished, you will be weak for days. All my love, . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Flu Now, get your mind out of the gutter and go get your flu shot!

My good pal Ben and I went to see a production of Wm. Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” at Sarasota’s Asolo Repertory Theatre this afternoon. I know very little about theatre, but when the actor who played Duke Orsino spoke the very first lines of the play “If music be the food of love, play on..” I guessed that there might be a problem. “Something” did not seem right. Ben has spent a lifetime in and around professional theatre. At the intermission (I called this “half past twelve -  bad joke!), he began to expound about the shortcomings of this particular production. I respected his professional judgment. So we quit, and went home. As I thought about this I “knew” from where Ben was coming. For you see, as a retired Priest I often cringe at the sloppy, casual, or unfocused ways in which various Priests in various parishes lead the liturgy.  My professional judgement is offended, and I often want to get up and leave, (I did so once). It’s not that...