Monday: breakfast, lectionary, mutter

Enviva Nordic Dalian 580x98 arriving to load wood pellets for the converted from fossil fuel power plant at Studstrup, Denmark. Bright turquoise color: she's new to me, don't recall having seen her before.

Breakfast, one slice toasted Good Seeds bread, folded, lightly buttered on one side, layered with one can of Agostino Recca flat fillets of anchovies in olive oil. Second mug of black. 

Intending to try a jar of Ortiz brand anchovies, highly rated as best by many folks, but more costly than anything even remotely close at $70 for three glass jars. 


My pizza I order, or prepare at home, with double anchovies, and cooked it makes no difference what brand of anchovies. But my favorite ways are anchovy sandwich as this morning, and on saltine crackers. Why do I say this? Because some readers have told me they enjoy hearing about my eccentric breakfasts. Top favorite remains six or nine oysters from my gallon bucket of oysters, depending on their size, neatly laid on whole wheat bread, broiled in the toaster oven as I stand in the rectory kitchen in Apalachicola looking out the kitchen window.

Yesterday on the way home from church we stopped by Tarpon Dock Seafood, starting yesterday they are trying being open from Noon on Sundays, bought a seven pound red snapper, prepared for baking; and two pints of oysters. Enjoyed one pint, salt and touch of pepper vinegar; the saltines are to nibble, while the snapper baked for Sunday dinner. Yes, martini.

But my Monday blogpost is to print the lectionary readings for the upcoming Sunday. Below and then some muttering that has null to do with anyone but me, therefore not published to be read, but to be shed of it.

Acts 1:6-14
1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11
John 17:1-11
Psalm 68:1-10, 33-36


The Collect
O God, the King of glory, you have exalted your only Son Jesus Christ with great triumph to your kingdom in heaven: Do not leave us comfortless, but send us your Holy Spirit to strengthen us, and exalt us to that place where our Savior Christ has gone before; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.

The First Lesson
Acts 1:6-14

When the apostles had come together, they asked Jesus, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” He replied, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a sabbath day’s journey away. When they had entered the city, they went to the room upstairs where they were staying, Peter, and John, and James, and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. All these were constantly devoting themselves to prayer, together with certain women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, as well as his brothers.

The Response
Psalm 68:1-10, 33-36


1 Let God arise, and let his enemies be scattered; *
let those who hate him flee before him.
2 Let them vanish like smoke when the wind drives it away; *
as the wax melts at the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God.
3 But let the righteous be glad and rejoice before God; *
let them also be merry and joyful.
4 Sing to God, sing praises to his Name;
exalt him who rides upon the heavens; *
YAHWEH is his Name, rejoice before him!
5 Father of orphans, defender of widows, *
God in his holy habitation!
6 God gives the solitary a home and brings forth prisoners into freedom; *
but the rebels shall live in dry places.
7 O God, when you went forth before your people, *
when you marched through the wilderness,
8 The earth shook, and the skies poured down rain,
at the presence of God, the God of Sinai, *
at the presence of God, the God of Israel.
9 You sent a gracious rain, O God, upon your inheritance; *
you refreshed the land when it was weary.
10 Your people found their home in it; *
in your goodness, O God, you have made provision for the poor.
33 Sing to God, O kingdoms of the earth; *
sing praises to the Lord.
34 He rides in the heavens, the ancient heavens; *
he sends forth his voice, his mighty voice.
35 Ascribe power to God; *
his majesty is over Israel;
his strength is in the skies.
36 How wonderful is God in his holy places! *
the God of Israel giving strength and power to his people!
Blessed be God!

The Epistle
1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11

Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that is taking place among you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you are sharing Christ's sufferings, so that you may also be glad and shout for joy when his glory is revealed. If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the spirit of glory, which is the Spirit of God, is resting on you.

Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you. Discipline yourselves, keep alert. Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour. Resist him, steadfast in your faith, for you know that your brothers and sisters in all the world are undergoing the same kinds of suffering. And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, support, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the power forever and ever. Amen.

The Gospel
John 17:1-11

Jesus looked up to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed.


”I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them. And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.”

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Probably should wait till September 14th to be thinking about this, but at this age and being a double-high-riskee in the covid19 era, it's never too soon for anything. Could be too late, but never too early. 

Aging, I'm thinking about aging. Not so much contemplating whether or not to do it, I'm already there, wondering how it is that the twenty-something looking in the mirror sees some incognito ancient gerontological specimen peering back. Maybe if I open the medicine cabinet he'll try to sell me a pillow.

Yesterday I read an article "What Old Age Is Really Like" and put it down thinking, It takes one to know one and she hasn't got here yet, how is she an expert on us? I'm the expert.

What's it really like? There isn't an answer. No two of us are alike any more than two fingerprints are alike. I'm not an old person, I'm the same as my senior year at Bay High, a person who's lived this long and still going. Not too long, but this long. It's just that I have more memories than you do. And mine are better than yours too.

Do I have a favorite Time? Sure, my forties. Why? None of your business. Maybe my teen years. Early twenties, one Navy tour, the destroyer, USS Corry, named after William Merrill Corry of Quincy, Florida,

you can keep the rest. Naively as a new ensign and jay-gee, I thought the whole Navy would be like that and converted USNR to USN to stay; it wasn't. It takes a particular personality and mindset to be right for it and happy with it, and I loved it as long as I felt like a naval officer.

What might I do different. Well, you see, the standard thought process is that I wouldn't change a thing because if I did I wouldn't have the same children, and yes, I agree with that. But I wouldn't have the same children if a million different things, so thank God my ship was in port that week and not the week before, nomesane?! If I were told I could start over, I'd say No Thank You. But what I'd do differently if God said Tom (he calls me Tom) you have no choice you MUST start over, I'd ask How far back? 

If my grandmother Mom were told she could start over and what would she do differently, she'd stop Alfred from leaving on the Annie & Jennie that January midnight in 1918. And then there would never have existed this particular mix of whatever it took to make a human a person who's sitting out here on 7H porch hoping for a few more weeks of springtime and contemplating old age, no longer from afar, but from within. I'm just a person enjoying life, even if it's suddenly become risky to go outside. 

Always, wherever I've been, I've been and known myself as part of the team, whatever team I was on. Working at my father's fish house, working for the Food Service Division at UFlorida, wardroom USS Corry and all the rest of my Navy tours. A loner in business and at seminary and being rector in several parishes. Otherwise a team member. Even now, I don't feel like the odd or old one out, I'm inside looking out and it's just us folks. I'm not outside of me looking on and wondering How much longer can that old guy last. 

How old do I feel? I remember when I was thirty-five a Navy commander, and maybe I still feel like that. Often I'd like to be forty again; or forty-two, living in Pennsylvania and working from WashDC and driving my new Cadillacs 35,000 miles a year. I remember thinking and saying Fifty-five is old enough. I was fifty-seven when my father died at eighty-two and now I've outlived him by almost three years. All of a sudden eighty-four but still feeling part of the team, so What's the big deal.

Here's some stuff though, an advantage of hindsight, which is to say life and living, aging and age. Looking back, I know exactly what I did wrong each time, and I'd never make that mistake again. I was pretty naive then, and am no longer naive, at least, not about those things.

Think I'll keep the rest of these thoughts to myself.

T+