Povey Prattle

In the England of my youth and young adulthood it was common to refer to one's father, or school head-master, or boss as "The Old Man". (I am told that this was frequently used in former days the U.S.A. , but that it is now all but obsolete on these shores). "The Old Man". My good nephew Daniel Povey told me that he, his fiancé,  and his brother Mike would spend some time with "The Old Man"  today to celebrate  " the old man's"   birthday. It made me giggle to realize that Dan was referring to his father,  my brother Andy who is six years younger than I! Maybe I am "The Older Man".

I usually do a little meditation and prayer every night before I go to sleep - Just part of the routine. Last night, I decided to go visit Pete Seeger for a while, just to spend a little time together, it was around 9 PM. So I was sitting in my home in Florida, having a lovely chat with Pete, who was in a hospital in New York City. That's the great thing about thoughts and prayers- You can go or be anywhere. I simply wanted him to know that I loved him dearly, like a father in some ways, a mentor in others and just as a dear friend a lot of the time. I'd grown up that way - loving the Seegers - Pete & Toshi and all their family. I let him know I was having trouble writing his obituary (as I'd been asked) but it seemed just so silly and I couldn't think of anything that didn't sound trite or plain stupid. "They'll say something appropriate in the news," we agreed. We laughed, we talked, and I took my leave about 9:30 last night. "Arlo...

Please add my friend Donna and her husband Jack to your prayer list. Donna had her appointment today with a Cancer Surgeon at Moffett Cancer Center in Tampa.  The news was not good.  He has concluded that with the evidence he has on hand, there is enough proof that she has a ”proximal femur chondro Sarcoma”.  In layman’s terms that is a cancerous tumor with in her femur.  He does not plan on doing a biopsy because it appears to be completely within the bone and has not spread, therefore even a biopsy would open it up to the surrounding tissue unnecessarily.  They have scheduled a further CAT scan to insure that her lungs are not involved, which seems to be the only other possible worry, that happens next Tuesday and then one more session with him later in the week and she will be scheduled for surgery as soon as possible.  They will remove her left femur bone from the hip socket down to mid-leg.  The GOOD News in all this is that it appear...

The more things change, the more they stay the same .  (Or more famously plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose   an epigram from Jean-Baptiste Alphones Karr.) THE MORE THEY STAY THE SAME . In 1830 there were food or "Swing" riots" in England.  These  so-called  riots were in fact legitimate protests by agricultural workers who found themselves out of work, impoverished, and starving,  as a result of  increased mechanization of farm work.. It was said of them " The Swing Riots had many immediate causes, but were overwhelmingly the result of the progressive impoverishment and dispossession of the English agricultural workforce over the previous fifty years, leading up to 1830.  In parliament Lord Carnarvon had said that the English labourer was reduced to a plight more abject than that of any race in Europe, with their employers no longer able to feed and employ them" Lord Carnarvon apart there were other responses from middle...

I had planned to write a screed regarding the stupid and ignorant xenophobia of the right wing-nuts who are up in arms about the Coca Cola commercial at the Super Bowl. (Nativists such as the anti-Coca-Cola faction are always up in arms about something or other, and they do not allow facts to get in the way of their thinking). But T.V.  anchorwoman Brenda Wood of WXIA in Atlanta (the home of Coke) has done my work for me, and she is far more eloquent than I could ever be. See http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/02/04/watch-a-local-anchorwoman-destroy-conservative/197912 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  Please also note that 1. Over 200 languages were spoken by American Indians long before Europeans reached our shores. (None of those languages was English). 2. In the present days United States, Spanish was spoken by that country's colonists from 1513 onwards, long before any A...

Pride and admiration for one's Homeland is both understandable and admirable ( provided that such pride and admiration is capable of  an honest and fair critique), Without such a critique such pride and admiration can lead into blind loyalty, patriotism and nationalism. My beloved United Kingdom  has its fair share of xenophobia.   It has been so since I was knee high to a grasshopper, and for centuries before that. Such un-critical nationalism is but  a few steps away from xenophobia, and such xenophobia points the way to dangerous hatred. Take for instance this poster about a missing child. Boy oh boy this is heart wrenching.  Who could fail to be moved by this tale of a missing child? BUT no such child exists. THERE is no Amy Hamilton. SEE the fine print. DAILY B-ALE is a right wing anti Muslim faction in G.B. THE 'PHONE # is for an (innocent) Insurance agency ====================================================== ...

I am a bit weary of so many sermons which say "God loves, and God loves everyone" - and nothing more .  Given the chance to preach this morning I avoided any mention of God's love, and instead I preached a sermon (from two of the three the assigned bible passages) which I hoped would have a bite. The good news is that a number of worshippers said after Church "that made me think",  Oh yeah!  That's why I preach. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sermon for 2 nd February 2014.   The Revd. J. Michael Povey at St. Boniface, Siesta Key, FL Malachi 3:1-5; Luke 2:22-40   The Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his Temple.   Malachi is not a name.   There was no person named Malachi.   The word means “messenger”. This messenger is writing about two thousand six hundred years ago.   * “ when the Temple had been rebuilt, the provinc...