Povey Prattle

A colleague of mine once told me of a conversation he’d had with a pastoral advisor who asked: “How does it feel when you are walking towards the altar for the beginning of the Liturgy”. My friend related that as he walked down the aisle it “felt” as if his vestments were covered in velcro, on to which the congregants placed their hopes, dreams, fears, angers, frustrations, disappointments, unrealistic expectations etc. - so that by the  time he reached the altar he was carrying a very heavy burden.  But he was not able to divest himself of the burden at the end of the Liturgy. That conversation “came back to me” this morning as I remembered the dream I’d had last night.    In that dream I was present in some big service or other, and the bishop asked for a bible. I went to a table on which there were three beautifully bound but unused copies of the Scriptures.  I carried all three to the bishop, and he announced “I’ll take the Maynooth version” (There is no “Maynooth” version of

Nothing today More tomorrow

“I can’t stand you.  I’ll say this every day. Asshole” Those were the words with which my neighbour greeted me as I returned home this afternoon.  (We share a driveway, and our car-ports are “cheek by jowl” with no dividing wall.) I said nothing.  This neighbour has orally harassed me on a frequent basis during the years since I have lived here.  She’s done the same to many other neighbours. It’s not that I am perfect. But I am not an asshole. I tried “killing her with kindness”, especially when her mother died.  But I suppose that she could not “hear” this kindness. On one occasion I yelled at her (and called her a stupid woman) - it was when she alleged that my indoor cat had pooped on her driveway. I immediately wrote and mailed her a letter, in which I apologised for my intemperate words. My best strategy has been to ignore her; and to refuse to rise to her baits. So I ignored her this afternoon. I began to think that her words: “I can’t stand you.  I’ll say this every day.

Nothing today

Grover Cleveland was twice elected President of the United States, in 1884 and again in1892.   Since his terms in office were not consecutive he is counted as the 22 nd and the 24th President.   (He won a plurality of votes in the 1888 election, but his opponent, Benjamin  Harrison, having a majority in the Electoral College, became President). Cleveland was distantly related to Moses Cleaveland, for whom the American City of Cleveland is named.   (The lore is that the local newspaper requested the dropping of the “a”, so that the name could fit on the newspaper's masthead). Grover Cleveland was successively Sheriff of Erie County, NY; Mayor of Buffalo NY; Governor of New York State; and President of the United States of America Wikipedia has what seems to be a fair and balanced article on him. (see below)   Cleveland has never stood out as a great President. His virtues were in his diligence, hard work, honesty and incorruptibility.   He was in some ways a “plain and ordin

1.     Grover Cleveland can wait until tomorrow. 2.     My neighbour Ed and I drove through pelting rain last Friday to have lunch in the wonderful older district of Tampa called Ybor City.  We ate at a gay friendly restaurant called “Hamburger Mary’s.  The place was all but deserted on account of the very heavy rain.   It’s a nice enough place, but dammit,  the menu is filled with unhealthy foods.  I settled for a “Buffalo Burger”, being assured that buffalo meat has much less fat than beef. It was very tasty, though far too big.  I also opted for sweet potato fries in the belief that sweet potatoes are nutritionally good.   All well and good, but a $50 price tag  for two people  , (including a generous tip),  seems excessive in these days of recession. 3.     Bloated though I was, I knew that I needed to eat a wee bit of dinner. Fortunately I had some homemade “cabbage soup” on hand. This was a simple and healthy repast. (Vegetable stock, coarsely shredded cabbage, diced oran