Government Issue vehicles

RantWoman is somewhat observing 12 days of Christmas with attention to various and sundry as who have showed up over the holidays, at least by phone, email...

Today is observation with attention to RantBrother lately in MT and indoors during subzero weather albeit under different circumstances than he told RantMom earlier in the month.

The bad news: whatever blessings in the realm of previous ways to live indoors RantBrother told RantMom about had dissolved by the time of RantBro's holiday call to RantWoman.

The good news: at least RantBrother had the sense to find a way in out of the cold.

The good news: RantBro is motivated to seek work.

The bad news: RantBro is interested in more mysterious law enforcement, the kind of job that comes with "a government issue 4x4 and a government issue .45.

Is this:

--redneck trashtalk that any red-blooded Monanan should just know to blow off?

--still yet more unrealistic 'bro thinking about employment

--yet another job possibility that we all get to be thankful has SCANT probability of actually turning into actual paychecks? Hallelujah! Praise Jesus. Amen!

--simply what RantBrother presence means today...?

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Faith Healing Pipe Organ Family Feast

RantWoman is seasoning items to write under the influence of pipe organ lingering after Christmas eve worship RantWoman had rich worship experiences and expects several deliveries.

Faith Healing, Radio Broadcasts on Christmas morning about the faith of non-Christians:
A self-identified pork-eating, alcohol-drinking, premarital sex having Muslim woman who grew up in the US spoke. She explained how her father came to grips with her intent to live with her boyfriend. Her father asked, "Does he believe in a force greater than himself? ... Does he believe in gravity?" Well, yes. Then the boyfriend was Muslim enough for her father.

Faith Healing irreverence, not particularly Christmas-themed except that the thought muddled to the surface during pre-holiday bustle., perhaps in connection with solstice-themed reflections on subsistence challenges after the solstice before spring produce begins to appear:
To everyone who thinks God is supposed to fit into 30-second soundbytes, RantWoman notes that 19th century Russian novelist Fedor Dostoevsky got paid by the cuarto. If he had kept it short, his family would have starved. RantWoman has no suggestions about how to handle that point in the age of expectations about soundbytes, in the age of Twitter, a medium RantWoman peculiarly actually adores.

Faith Healing, Grace: RantWoman's worship thoughts were more Luke Chapter 1, geneology of Christ including WOMEN, and C Wes Danilels "You can't out-scandalize God" http://gatheringinlight.com/2013/12/23/a-new-family-portrait-matthew-1/  than ministry in quaker worship from the book of John about men of good will / men with whom God is pleased.

Faith Healing, Nelson Mandela 1.
The fake sign language interpreter on stage at Nelson Mandela's funeral has inspired the Seattle Deaf and interpreter communities to address longstanding concern with a person who apparently has been misinterpreting the Seattle Men's Chorus for decades.
Here is RantWoman's contribution to the conversation, with multiple links to a blog by members of the deaf community.
http://rantwoman.blogspot.com/2013/12/letter-to-frank-stilwagner-of-flying.html
The short, boiled down version: hearing people think the "interpretation" is very artistic or some darn thing: Deaf people find the signing linguistically useless and people who train ASL interpreters find MUCH to object to. Holding the situation in the Light never hurts.

Faith Healing, Nelson Mandela 2:
On the bus on RantWoman's way to Christmas Worship, RantWoman and RantMom's cellphone conversation suddenly lurched from family dramas and Christmas stockings to Nelson Mandela. RantMom's box of Christmas decorations moved from MT include the historical Rant Children stockings custom sewn by RantMom. There is a stocking for each Rant child.

This year, RantMom's display expressed her fervent hope that all her children might be able to bear each other's presence. RantWoman knows several mothers who do not have that expectation. RantMom has been clearly told this is not necessarily a reasonable expectation right now; it's a moot point anyway since RantBrother is in MT, indoors at least.

RantWoman is not sure how the conversation got from stockings to Nelson Mandela, but it did. Somehow 26 years of principled study on Robben Island came up, as did the diplomacy spoken of by lots of African leaders. RantWoman got stuck on the stockings and things already restimulated from seemingly innocent words in the Christmas eve worship. At SOME point it might be reasonable to have some moments of Truth and Reconciliation, but RantWoman was definitely not called to try on the bus. RantWoman already, earlier in the fall had to tell RantMom that RantWoman thinks some outside help would be extremely helpful and on point for RantMom. Or, hypothetically, there is always the option of Quaker worship groups with someone else who maybe possibly might have certain life issues in common. Would RantWoman do that on purpose? Uhhhh...RantWoman would not mind if God got that done but would still want prayerful care of the situation if that occurred, but first RantWoman would have to drag RantMom to....

Faith Healing: extra guest
This year the RantFamily Christmas feast included a friend of Little Sister's family, another guy from Guatemala so Brother in Law had someone to talk to. Guy from Guatemala was being Christmas guest because his wife has gotten into some odd mindset involving faith healing and other challenging themes. RantWoman is sorry that faith healing gone overboard meant Guest could not have Christmas with his daughters but was delighted he was part of the Rant family feast!

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I Want a Hippopotamus For Christmas. Only a Hippopotamus will do

It's fourth Sunday of Advent or God present amidst all the messiness of life and family members are gathering 'round with all their giant Personalities and Issues and Holy-day Expectations and Clamor and Fuss and Frazzle and sundry other attractions that RantWoman is more than Bad Friend enough not so secretly to really enjoy, along with some FRUITCAKE. Uh, the fruitcake has not arrived yet.

Sensible Auntie would like to speak of a spirit of giving, of generosity, of thinking of the delights of others.

Sensible Auntie has gotten distracted from such centered efforts by "O Quaker Auntie." O Quaker Auntie is very relieved. Recently on one of the Rant Sister's Sunday parallel journeys to our respective houses of worship Little Sister thrilled the likes of O Quaker Auntie. Little Sister is not actually as charmed by the thought of middle school Nerf War at her house of worship as RantWoman might have suspected.

Okay, and...?

Little Sister further confessed another moment in the world of middle schooler and Nerf weaponry: Irrepressible Nephew knows how to modify the Nerf Blaster,  something RantWoman suspects looks even more like a weapon than ordinary Nerf Ware. In particular, Irrepressible Nephew knows how to modify his Nerf Blaster so that it fires better or something. Bad Auntie, inadvertant setter of less than perfect examples just wants to hide under the bed and really does not want to know more details of this armament modification.

Unfortunately for RantWoman's desire to live in denial, O Quaker Auntie got summoned to a confession that Irrepressible Nephew's school peers greatly esteem this skill. Irrepressible Nephew goes to school in another neighborhood so inorder for Nephew to realize his prowess, a teacher signs off on kids making the exchange at school under the teacher's supervision.

O quaker Auntie is stuck inventorying reasons possibly to hyperventilate. O Quaker Auntie is also meditating upon a number of youngish men she knows who have grown up in the bosom of Quakerdom who have gone off to join the military because they "needed structure." SO FAR O Quaker Auntie is managing to let Irrepressible Nephew and his parents find their own paths about the modified Nerf Weaponry. So far...

Remember Worse Auntie? Bad Auntie sets bad examples unintentionally. Worse Auntie says things like "you're darn right I did that. So?" or "You;re complaining of some or another RantWoman excess. What if RantWoman fears the world actually needs MORE of that very Behavior?"
--put Azalea into the search bar to find one piquant Worse Auntie Moment.

--RantWoman actually thinks maybe the world needs MORE of "Grab the Blind Person and Bless them." This happens all the time to RantWoman; RantWoman can attest that it also happens worse to other blind people. RantWoman thinks that every time this occurs on the way to a Quaker event she should remember to complain and exclaim LOUDLY.  RantWoman thinks she should do this for three reasons:

1. RantWoman has perhaps been remiss in taking really a VERY long time to start complaining of this in her life. Ask RantWoman if you really want timeline.

2. Maybe other people who hear RantWoman ranting will learn that this behavior is insane and even more optimistically that they too could speak up when they observe someone doing this or other behavioral cousins such as Grab the Blind Person and Drag them into traffic, Grab the Blind Person and Argue with them about walking route in traffic, or worst of all Grab the Blind Person and Impose someone else's physical needs on the Blind Person's choices.

3. MAYBE if RantWoman talks enough about her range of experiences, people will figure out which just have to be held in the Light and which really, really need more intervention and even immediate  intervention.

Well, maybe

--RantWoman thinks maybe service dogs is another area the world needs MORE, not less of. For LOTS of conversations, a service dog is a service dog is a service dog and the human handler is the embodiment of responsible animal stewardship. In reality:

1. Not every blind person takes appropriate care of their companions; RantWoman has been dreading the possibility of meeting one such challenged blind person.

2.  LOTS of people get their doctors to certify that it will be beneficial to live with an animal and then drag the animal everywhere, whether or not the dog gives even faint impression of finding this enjoyable. O Quaker Auntie is spending a good bit of time being pet furniture around one such creature!

3, Another RantWoman pet peeve, no matter how many certifications an animal has: feeding the dog human food and worse feeding the dog at the table.

4. And this is not even to mention intercultural issues and problems for people expected to help service dogs and their handlers get around even if the people themselves have dog-related PTSD.

Anyway, rather than go on about service chickens a service lizard, and the occasional service python, service emu or service gecko, even Worse Auntie is TRYING to get into the holiday spirit. In fact, Worse Auntie is just thinking about this fabulous hit:

I want a hippopotamus for Christmas. Only a hippopotamus will do.
http://youtu.be/7oOzszFIBcE
warning: closing trailer contains just SCANDALOUS language.

Worse Auntie also notes this historical example of communication from RantMom, should RantWoman ever have wandered near the idea of asking for a hippopotamus for Christmas:
RantWoman this is your mother. You will be getting a sweater. And you will write your grandmother a thank you letter!

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Unpacking one's knapsacks: Maine Wabanaki Reach

Blog as filing cabinet item about a project in Maine with Native Americans that RantWoman is fascinated to hear of.

http://mainewabanakireach.org/volunteer/

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Remembering / Preventing the Sandy Hook Shooting

RantWoman thinks some readers will be grateful only to look at the two items here as a memorial to the Sandy Hook Shootings.

First, a father of one of the murdered boys at a retreat with Thich Nhat Khan



Next, " Love all the Children" writing from Lucy Duncan
http://www.afsc.org/friends/love-all-children-disarming-our-hearts-after-shootings-sandy-hook-school

RantWoman readers who read the above and wonder where the hell the real RantWoman has gone will have another opportunity to find out shortly.

RantWoman is deeply moved by Lucy Duncan's words here. RantWoman is also happy to hold the cares of grieving parents who might not be anywhere near ready to think about all the other grief beyond them.

RantWoman does not hold these parents because she is Wonder Quaker. In fact, RantWoman alternates between "too much Buddhism makes me want to punch people" and "okay, may we sit with that.  RantWoman holds these parents in particular care because RantWoman remembers a time when she was deeply grieving the passing of RantDad. Somewhere along the way, someone said something that RantWoman now remembers as something like "What? You think you are the first person who has ever grieverd or the only person grieving?"

RantWoman remembers being TERRIBLY affronted and thinking that was just RUDE.

Rude?

And also incredibly helpful.  Uhhh ...

For now just hold this community in theLight.

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Day 8 Gratitudes and

Gratitude for current struggle
http://nbclatino.com/2013/12/04/film-justice-for-my-sister-becomes-movement-for-eradicating-violence-against-women/

Gratitude: The anniversary of the Montgomery Bus Boycott
http://www.montgomeryboycott.com/overview/

Gratitude for struggle: Nelson Mandela, July 18, 1918-December 5 2013.
RantWoman will write minutes today that begin:
"The meeting (conference call) opened with a period of silence and particular appreciation for the life of Nelson Mandela."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-25249520

"I was not a messiah but an ordinary man who had become a leadedr because of
extraordinary circumstances."
For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.
"education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world."




Josh Groban and Aretha Franklin at mandela Day 2009, You  raise Me up.
http://youtu.be/OqUBHTy0PRM

Brenda Fassie, Vuli Ndela with Mandela
http://youtu.be/wFBGeQL6Gzk


Seems the Biblical sins of our fathers visted on the seventh generation may apply among mice exposed to bad smells too. RantWoman apologizes for not having acitation, but since the point is thematic resonance, perhaps her readers and bear with the problem.

And from Johan Maurer
http://johanpdx.blogspot.com/2013/12/myths.html
withs riffs on fathers and sons, peace in the middle east...
The last of 8 nights of Light: RantWoman needs to declare time warp and inner blowtorch blazing in order to come back and riff on the interfaith psychodynamics behind why RantWoman does not have the most positive associations ever with dreidls. It's one of those circumstances that could have come together MANY ways. It just happens that in the realm of the RantFamily dreidls are a fine shorthand. But What's on RantWoman's mind deserves its own space and RantWoman does not want to try to compete with Nelson Mandela.

But in the realm of peculiar gratitudes and love managing gnarly realities, RantWoman is REALLY grateful both for various abuse prevention educational events around her Meeting and grateful that parents show up and interact in much more centerd and informed ways than the Rant Parents ever could. And.....

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Day 7 Lucid Email

RantWoman's peculiar gratitudes for the seventh night of Hanukkah this year:

SO FAR, RantWoman has resisted the temptation both to send Care and Counsel Committee one of RantBrother's less than lucid emails and then to ask which members of the Still Didn't Get the Memo Committee on Email Immoderation Care and Counsel might find helpful to invite to the discussion.

RantWoman supposes that others might be grateful that RantWoman herself has to contend with some people and tendencies that fully qualify for service on the Still Didn't Get the Memo committee. In particular:

  --RantWoman keeps trying to do projects with people whose first language is not English and who definitely prefer that RantWoman figure out how to talk to them rather than write email. Can you say Growing Edge?

  --RantWoman has benefitted greatly from the services from Obsessive Compulsive Receptionst, OCR for short. OCR is TERRIBLY competent, as in so competent and diligent that she sends RantWoman emails that are even more oppressive than some of RantWoman's and sends them even later at night. Besides the issue of how to work with several issues arising from these traits, one of RantWoman's peculiar gratitudes is that MAYBE she will be able at some point to cite these interactions as part of the diversity on steroids experiences of the Friendly Neighborhood Center for Extreme Computing. Maybe.

--RantWoman has another colleague at the Friendly Neighborhood Center who RantWoman might nominate for service on the Still Didn't get the Memo Committee. Put Attack Receptionist into the search bar. This is Mr. Attack Receptionist. His first concern: he definitely still wants to be involved and contribute. One of the main things he is involved with is sending email about how he is not available due to illness or dialysis. The second thing he gets involved with is the kind of intemperate emails that cause one's colleagues never ever to want Mr. Attack Receptionist to speak on their behalf in any kind of a visible communications role. But he likes baseball. Run with that?


Anyway, RantWoman appreciates:

--Recent, comparatively LUCID email from RantBrother

(RantBrother seems to have quit drinking several months ago. SOMETIMES he can now talk about how probably it was not a good idea as shift manager at his job to come to work plastered. )

--Awhile back, RantBrother's email themes made an interesting progression. For a long time RantBrother would from time to time send RantWoman email detailing a long enemies list. One interesting point was the starting date of the enemies list; another was that at a certain point, it did not seem like he was adding new enemies. RantWoman was not able to evaluate any action items in the enemies list but Literature Brain was interested to note a shift at one point to a "They're trying to kill me" list and a list attached to different events and geography.

RantWoman has inner blowtorch blazing for a whole bunch of reasons. Maybe RantWoman will spell out enough of what is one her mind to fit into 8 days of Hanukkah. Maybe RantWoman will declare a time warp in order to hold the whole story. Hold the thought in the Light.

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Hanukkah Day 4 Do you hear what I hear?

A popular Christmas Carol, interpreted....



RantWoman dedicates this post and the video clip to

--everyone anywhere overendowed with prodigious capacity to mishear and have brain misfire, particularly if the misfire involves the kneejerk gift of blurting out highly insistent utterances.

--everyone anywhere who, for any reason up to and including auditory hallucinations hears things that go winging past others. RantWoman recommends not overdoing the auditory hallucinations, but when things are going by anyway, the people being flown past cannot necessarily tell the difference anyway. We must try to be tender with such.

Tender? This is RantWoman!?!?!?


But RanWoman,what does this have to do with Hanukkah?

Uhhh,  I dunno but it's the first Sunday of advent.

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Email: The Gospel According to, oops well, Care and Counsel.

RantWoman, God, and the Still Didn't Get the Memo Committee on Email Immoderation are feeling called to hold worship sharing with the, oops well, Care and Counsel Committee at RantWoman's Meeting about the subject of email. RantWoman proposes to serve as Recording clerk and to record minutes of much exercise in a separate entry. RantWoman is still seasoning the matter of what queries to begin with.

 

RantWoman hopes that God shows up in words, but notes a peculiar God historical tendency to show up in burning bushes, pillars of cloud, commandments etched in stone tablets, plagues, pestilence, planetary inundations, and sundry other difficult to parse manifestations.

 

RantWoman is not sure which members of the Still Didn't Get the Memo Committee... are going to show up, but the committee includes a particularly large membership with a number of different qualifications:

--Generic Customer Service Friend

--Veteran Tech Support "Users always Lie; They don't know they lie; they don't mean to lie but they Lie. Now what was that symptom again?" Friend.

--Mental Health Triage Friend

--Out of Control Spiritual Accompaniment Friend

--Data Nerd / What is trending over time Friend

--Lots of ways to agree about measures to make email manageable but not sending is not an option Friend.

--Language Nerd and Literature Scholar Friend

--Magical Realism So what if the timelines are non-linear Friend

--You're always asleep when I'm awake Friend

--You barely know me and I barely know you but I am supposed to know you are a resource Friend

--It takes days and days of phone tag to reach you Friend

--I actually think sort of slowly and LIKE being able to use my search engine to think over bits of the conversation again Friend

--If you don't understand something, have you considered asking for clarification? Friend

--If you don't understand something, who might you refer the problem to Friend?

--Look, really sorry the message is not coming in palatable form but have you considered that it might be your job either to figure it out or to connect the sender withsomeone who can Friend

--I talk about Service Dogs all the time. You think I don't know when to quit aboutservice DOGS. How about we talk about service CHICKENS? Friend

--Really sorry God is not showing up on your schedule Friend.

--You say you dislike email but you actually do much better by email sometimesFriend.

--Sometimes I get so upset I cannot talk Friend.

--You like to talk; I need to send email Friend

--Have you considered the possibility that what I am talking about applies to your day job too Friend.

 

RantWoman acknowledges that The Still Didn't Get the Memo Committee... could perhaps get things off on better footing by losing references to the "Oops Well" part of the Care and Counsel Committee moniker. RantWoman acknowledges this, but she showed up warts and all and the worship sharing needs to happen regardless.

Plus, RantWoman recently stumbled across the most interesting reference to the word "oversight" not in sense overburdened with the historical weight of enslavement but in a more egalitarian, shared oversight "we all take care of each other" sense. RantWoman WISHES she could remember which blog roll item she saw this in. RantWoman also would not mind some umbra of a penumbra of a sense that anyone else on Care and Counsel committee cares about RantWoman's inquiry. RantWoman is aware of needing to hold someone in theLight about medical matters as well. Finally, if someone calling Dial a Tirade gets a busy signal about this topic, oh well, there are plenty more tirades available. Please hold that point in the Light along with the entire gigantic Still Didn't Get the Memo Committee on Email Immoderation.

The following item appeared recently in the monthly newsletter at RantWoman's Meeting.

 

CARE AND COUNSELCOMMITTEE

Thoughts on UFM Email

While email is a tremendous benefit to us, at times it can be a burden. Care and Counsel Committee put together the following document to help fellow members. It is common when in the midst of an email problem that we feel the need to help the other person understand our position or make our points more firmly. In these guidelines below, we suggest another tack: Whenever you feel the need to set things right, instead wait calmly. If after due consideration it is still necessary, briefly state your position once and move on.

Too Long: One strategy for long emails is to skim them looking for questions or requests. Limit your response to answering the questions or requests directly and briefly. This will greatly reduce how much must be read and understood, but still gives the other person a specific response. It represents a midpoint between ignoring an email and taking on the burden of reading and responding to an overly long missive.

Too Numerous: If you are receiving too may emails from another member, consider taking a break and filing for future perusal. Once your good feelings return you can limit the amount of mail you read from the other person by setting aside a period of time, say 10 minutes every Monday, to read and respond to their emails. Take the rest and file them for later.

Confusing: If the email is confusing and there are no requests or questions in it, then take whatever understanding you may

have from it and move on. If there are requests or questions in it that you cannot understand, simply respond by letting the

writer know that.

Unkind: A good rule of thumb is to read the first few sentences and ask yourself if you feel good about reading further. If continuing to read is digging a hole of bad feelings, then stop digging and move on. If you want, let the writer know that for you to read the email, he or she will need to rewrite it with kindness.

Writing Email: The other side of reading email is writing email. Kind, compassionate, and thoughtful emails that come quickly to the point and put any requests in the first sentence are the mostly (sic—RantWoman) likely to receive an audience. Put aside longer or heated emails until you have the chance to revise them to a paragraph or two of kind, compassionate, and thoughtful words.

Care and Counsel Committee,

 

RantWoman, this is God. If the entire Still Didn't Get the Memo committee shows up  and everyone talks one blop at a time, this one worship sharing is going to take millenia.

RantWoman , musing: ...could just forward to Care and Counsel one of Rant Brother's "I'ms still mentally ill and I still want firearms" emails, perhaps seasoned with more "I didn't tell you about my day" details than anyone wants to interact with about why it's IMPORTANT that people like RantBrother have places like the Friendly Neighborhood Center for Extreme Computing  they can come to read and send email.

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Peace? Tantrums. Hammer Strokes.

RantWoman apologizes. This item is from a recent issue of her Meeting's newsletter. RantWoman finds the passage evokes an entirely unseemly desire just to have a temper tantrum or even ...

PLEASE hold that urge in the Light and remind RantWoman "use your words...."

ON PEACE

Advice

Peace is the state in which we are in accord with God, the earth,  others, and ourselves. We know that true, lasting peace among us can finally be attained only through unity in the life of the spirit. We work to create the conditions of peace, such as freedom, justice, cooperation, and the right sharing of the world’s resources. As we work for peace in the world, we search out the seeds of war in ourselves and in our way of life. We refuse to join in actions which lead to destruction and death. We seek ways to cooperate to save life and strengthen the bonds of unity among all people.

 Queries

Do we live in the virtue of that life  and power which takes away the  occasion of all war?

 Do we refrain from taking part in war as inconsistent with the  spirit of Christ?

 What are we doing to remove the causes of war and to bring about the conditions of peace?

 Where there are hatred, division, and strife, how are we instruments of reconciliation and love?

 How do we communicate to others an understanding of the basis of our peace testimony?

 As we work for peace in the world, are we nourished by peace within ourselves?

 On the other hand, two really different items that speak greatly to RantWoman's condition in spite of sundry controversies and conversations needed.

First from Russia
http://johanpdx.blogspot.com/2013/11/prophets-cynics-and-tricksters.html

Next closer to home:
http://robinmsf.blogspot.com/2013/11/cups-of-tea-and-hammer-strokes.html
 

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Angry Birds, Led Zeppelin, Samson, Delilah: Tim Hawkins

RantWoman is certain that the world is entitled to more ofthe churnings ofRantWoman's spiritual compost heap. RantWoman is certain of this, but the press of events has RantWoman onoverdrivethat all she is doing is grabbing bits of others' oeurve.

For better or worse, the items below amuse RantWoman deeply. Plus RantWoman's family is theologically multilingual and for instance RantBrother would probably laugh very hard. RantWoman PROMISES not to try Led Zeppelin in Meeting for worship, even by air guitar. Shout to the Lord might not play well anyway...

Tim Hawkins: the "Angry Birds" in Corinthians and "Shout to the Lord" set to Led Zeppelin
http://youtu.be/fgo2dcivomQ

Tim Hawkins' Youtube buddy Bob Smiley on Terrorist toothpaste
http://youtu.be/F27NMq7kxVw


Understand, RantWoman suspects liking TimHawkins qualifies her as a serious BAD  Friend on multiple grounds. Cope, and have some more disturbing material
Tim Hawkins Prayer Squeeze
http://youtu.be/iGi-iHq69us

Tim Hawkins Hey There Delilah
http://youtu.be/_wxy-SMSqPM

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Psychology Today on Vicarious Trauma

RantWoman spends a certain amount of time reflecting about the needs for spiritual care of people in many different work circumstances. Here is an item about professional interpreters that RantWoman can especially relate to.
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/talking-about-trauma/201308/vicarious-trauma-and-the-professional-interpreter

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Spooky, HIPAA Meets the Prayer Chain

RantWoman celebrates the season of Halloween and all Saints day and Samhain and numerous topics muddling back and forth between conscious and subconscious.




RantWoman has been jumping up and down intermittently with questions and reflections about what is desirable as far as shared understanding of confidentiality for members of pastoral care committees, members of care committees, RantWoman KNOWS this topic is complex. ONE problem is that when RantWoman has tried to speak and hear what others understand, RantWoman keeps hearing in response only "shut up" and "we don't have time." RantWoman is unclear whether that is all that is being said but is VERY clear that is what she is hearing.

Please hold that problem in the Light and feel free to stop here.



RantWoman is WAY overachieving about questions and concerns and means to start here with some elementary medical confidentiality. RantWoman needs readers' prayers in advance.



First RantWoman HOPES to convey that it IS possible to share meaningful information with more than enough cover phrases HOPEFULLY to convey the meaningful part without compromising confidentiality. In particular, the issue from RantWoman's perspective is either facts already known from a patient's relative or information from a public Meeting for Worship. Rantwoman is TRYING to hear a concern but is hyperventilating from her own life experience.



Second, RantWoman is going to find it REALLY difficult to have a sensible conversation about the topic if there cannot FIRST be room for RantWoman to ask Friends prayers specifically over one soap operaesque story and one long ago but still intermittently throbbing awful story from one of RantWoman's particularly frequent flyer spells of eye care.



Let's start with RantWoman's vast frequent flyer experiences.

The soap opera item: RantWoman spent the prep period for one of her hospital eye experiences listening to her doctor and the nurse from the hospital gossip about an office romance at the doctor's office. The office romance led to an unintended pregnancy and a wedding; RantWoman never quite knows what to do with the thought of medical practitioners experiencing unplanned pregnancy but found herself grateful for an update a few months later when opportunity finally presented itself to ask her own doctor how the situation turned out. RantWoman really did NOT need to know of the soap opera, but as long as she did....





Now the throbbing, RantWoman has trouble talking rationally about the item she means to season event. Warning: medical trauma details.



Once upon a time RantWoman had to have surgery for a detached retina. There are various ways to treat a detached retina. RantWoman wound up needing the most invasive wrap a band around the eyeball, fill the eyeball with a gas bubble and then keep one's head face down for a couple weeks while the gas bubble pastes the retina back where it belongs. The procedure is invasive; swelling can happen for LOTS of reasons.



(RantWoman is also aware that swelling can happen over issues not paid attention to because of not being appropriately documented in a medical chart or not acted on if it was there. RantWoman mentions this point because the possibility that it is on point. RantWoman also mentions this point with reference to a paper medical chart approximately the thickness of War and Peace. For better or worse, in spite of one "not appropriately documented" probability, RantWoman remains with the same medical group. One reason is that even as the office struggles with electronic medical records, RantWoman's current doctor gets out the entire three volumes of "War and Peace" a couple times / year and reviews some historical information available only in the paper chart. But RantWoman is getting ahead of herself and muddling time frames again.)



At the time of RantWoman's surgery one of the staff at RantWoman's eye care practice was the daughter of someone in RantMom's church in MT, someone who more than once transported RantMom when she herself was planning a trip to Seattle. RantMom was on the church prayer chain. RantWoman assumes that the other mother was too. As soon as RantMom heard that RantWoman needed surgery, there was probably a call to the prayer chain. Also afoot, a trip to Seattle with the Motoring Mothers due in Seattle the day after RantWoman's surgery, exactly at the hour that RantWoman expected to be at her one-day followup appointment.



RantWoman TOLD RantMom that she fully expected to be at her appointment and that the motoring mothers should just go to the other daughter's workplace. RantWoman assured RantMom that the other mother SHOULD know how to get to her daughter's workplace; RantWoman assumes she had been there many times.



RantMom INSISTED on stopping by RantWoman's apartment. RantWoman of course was not there. Then there was some further communications fiasco with Little Sister. Then daughter staffperson came to see RantWoman mid-appointment wanting to know where our mothers were.



Mid appointment meant that RantWoman was in the middle of some consent process needed to stick a needle in RantWoman's eye to drain fluid and reduce pressure. And somehow daughter staffperson also needed to reassure RantWoman that she had told her mother nothing! Of course not! It was the prayer chain. It had not even occurred to RantWoman to worry about the daughter sharing info inappropriately--UNTIL the daughter staffperson was fretting about it while RantWoman was trying to cope with the consent form and the probably should not happen need to stick a needle in the eye issue!



Somehow cellphone calls elicited the info that RantMom and the other Motoring Mother were using a payphone and a fast food place RantWoman would never have taken either of them to. FINALLY RantMom absorbed the point that she should just come to RantWoman's eye care provider.



Lately, literature Brain keeps telling RantWoman there are elements of this story in common with what RantWoman has come to see is probably a BIG "hold in the Light" issue from a recent series of conversations. Probably, but RantWoman does not apologize: she is completely incapable of working with the other conversation because she keeps tripping over her own needle in the eye issues before she can even TRY to talk rationally.



The other story: a while ago for a couple weeks a death / obituary / memorial announcement about a new attender's spouse ran in the weekly Bulletin at RantWoman's meeting. The announcement also evoked appreciative ministry in our second Meeting for worship from a medical provider who spoke in worship of getting to know the deceased over time. Ministering medical provider would not, from Meeting life, know the spouse but RantWoman does.



RantWoman has learned from the spouse the circumstances of the deceased passing. They involve the medical specialty and organization where the ministering medical provider works. IF RANTWOMAN HAD TO GUESS, RantWoman assumes that ministering medical provider knows the deceased through work though of course RantWoman would never ever expect the ministering medical provider to say as much.



RantWoman attended a memorial and met one of the deceased's children who also happens to be a medical provider. RantWoman was given the words to say: IF RantWoman had to guess.... expressed great admiration. The other medical provider thanked RantWoman for her words.

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One at a Time PLEASE

Dear Parents,

RantWoman LOVES your children, really she does. RantWoman loves having a community that includes kids, parents, crusty curmudgeons, and people with all kinds of life experiences that might not be obvious just sitting in Meeting for Worship.

RantWoman is Auntie, not a parent. RantWoman REALLY digs being Auntie, for one thing because she gets to Give the Kid Back. RantWoman considers it her holy duty to cheerlead parents doing the fulltime job. In other words, RantWoman means well! And sometimes RantWoman's good intentions work; sometimes they do not.

RantWoman also considers it the community's job to cheerlead parents and to nurture our children's growth and development. RantWoman sees no reason growth and development are incompatible with that glorious time at the end of worship when children come, meeting shortly closes, and thenthere are ANNOUNCEMENTS, love 'em or hate  'em. RantWoman personally really appreciates announcements--when she can hear them.

RantWoman has been trying to have a community conversation about the principle that one person talks at a time during announcements. RantWoman's Meeting includes a whole bunch of people who hear badly. The worship room is covered with sound muffling carpet all over the walls. RantWoman's Meeting is not any more blessed with people who find it easy to SPEAK UP than anywhere else. And RantWoman thinks there are lots and lots of people who will appreciate it if children and adults can learn to talk ONE AT A TIME. This does not have to be perfect and there is plenty of time for people to grow into this, but RantWoman has become clearer and clearer that this is reasonable.

The first time need to speak to this issue came to RantWoman there were MANY new families with LOTS of children in worship and RantWoman was more than willing to make allowance for "new" and very young children. Meeting for Worship featured the next in a series of "hold it in the Light" messages about a youth struggling with more teenage challenges than average. RantWoman does not remember what all came up during announcements except for an announcement of a death of another challenged youngish person who few people in the room knew. Announcements ran long and the many children were exuberant, vocal and understandably not on topic.

RantWoman found her stomach churning and had to sit with a whole bunch of personal issues before being clear to go home and do a customary RantWoman email. When RantWoman brought up her concern and the suggestion about talking one at a time, she received return email suggesting she just go worship somewhere else where there are no children. Fortunately for the future of quakerdom, there are no such options within RantWoman's one bus on First Days travel constraints. RantWoman has not heard back about any other ideas but RantWoman is PRETTY sure kids AND grownups can work this out.

If you would like to hold this topic in the Light, focus on growth in shared worship, and stop here, please feel free.




If you are game for another ride at the RantWoman spiritual amusement park, thank you and read on.
Warning: it's a spiritual amusement park. RantWoman reminds readers of her past as a Russian literature major and throbbing literature brain symbolism habits. Think parallelism between different scenes with common elements. Think long complex novels whose authors got paid by the cuarto. Think long complex novels where the characters are all referred to by multiple names. RantWoman has also dabbled in Latin American magical realism; one feature of that genre is that timelines are sometimes, to say the least not linear.

In other words, RantWoman pointedly does not guarantee easily digested nibbles. In fact, if people insist that God show up only in easily digested nibbles, Worse Auntie is likely to show up and foam at the mouth about who the heck are any of us to argue with God and why does anyone feel entitled to God as personal Butler, God perfectly sculpted in dainty easily digestible bites? Nor unfortunately can RantWoman guarantee there is anything to be fixed though Holding in the Light nearly always improves the experience.

RantWoman recently had a conversation with a Weighty Friend about a Famous Founding member of our Meeting. Famous Founding Member expected his children who came to Meeting to sit through worship from day one. Famous Founding Member claimed that this practice is why all of those children remained Quakers as adults. RantWoman notes this without further comment.

RantWoman is an oldest child. Especially with a young RantWoman, the RantParents did not necessarily have a great grasp on the concept of "age appropriate. RantWoman learned early that Mommy was a better person all week if she had a good experience at church, and RantWoman learned that the church service was usually a whole lot more interesting that whatever childcare options were available. RantDad as choir director usually could keep an eye on the Rant children from the front of the church 

RantWoman was also on the learn to sit still side of the sit still or get spanked when we get home norm of parental behavior expectations. RantWoman is not sure she is grateful to Little Sister for reminding her recently of this divide, but it does partly explain some of RantWoman's twitches around uncorralled children in worship: a stew of "someone is going to get spanked," "where ARE their parents?" "How come they get to run around and I don't?"

RantWoman reminds herself that she is a Quaker not a Presbyterian anymore and children are SUPPOSED to be allowed to breathe. Than RantDad shows up with his bad vision and unacknowledged frustration shrieking at young children who do the bobble around thing all young children do. RantWoman remembers being terrified about RantDad yelling; now unfortunately RantWoman can relate to the frustration but she considers it her holy duty to TRY to keep a handle on the shrieking.

Next come RantWoman's bus nerves. RantWoman has written extensively of the vast realms of rich spiritual experience and spiritual challenge available aboard the average public transportation system. Today's topic is children, small people who need to stay connected to the big people they get on the bus with while everyone quickly and safely gets stowed, small people who sometimes speak better English than the big people they get on the bus with, all kinds of situations where it helps if everyone pays attention to safety and courtesy.

But RantWoman, someone will say, it's Meeting for Worship, not the bus. Um, RantWoman's bus nerves have a single standard of Truth. They cannot tell the difference between the bus and Meeting for Worship. Sometimes on the bus that is a GOOD thing.

But RantWoman that's YOUR mental health issue. Can't you just go talk to your counselor (times 2 with a theme and variations motif)?


WARNING: TRIGGER ALERT for additional trauma!
Very Funny. RantWoman has a new mental health provider. About the second time RantWoman had an appointment with new mental health provider, there was ...ta-da...massive disruption in bus service all over the city for several hours because one of the humble public servants who drives buses got shot in the face by, please excuse RantWoman speaking plainly and HOLD THE GUY IN THE LIGHT --posthumously because of police action, an idiot with a gun who could not pay his bus fare.

RantWoman of course was affected by the massive schedule disruptions but had no idea initially what bus route was affected.

RantWoman managed an alternative routing that at least got RantWoman to her appointment but got her there very late. Not late enough to cancel, but late enough to exchange info: new mental health professional rides the route affected by the shooting all the time. RantWoman rides that route sometimes too. And when RantWoman's bus nerves want to flare into hypervigilance mode, RantWoman needs only to think about shooter on a bus at rush hour on a bus with lots of family destinations on the route.

Maybe other people can bear with RantWoman and her multiple time sequences and all the joy and tragedy and scarieness and love sitting in worship and can join RantWoman in holding THE BUS in the Light too.

And maybe we all get to count our blessings that Meeting for Worship usually is not as scary as the bus.

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Brother Blessings; NOT firearms

RantWoman has been trying to practice gratitude.




WARNING: RantWoman has been trying to practice gratitude around topics that absolutely are NOT FUN.





As far as absolutely gorgeous red and orange leaves this year, it's easy. The absolutely exquisite leaf palatte is getting mixed up in way too much fog and real actually existing fog, not just the peculiarities of RantWoman's vision, but practicing gratitude about leaves is a piece of cake.



By way of further gratitudes, RantWoman spent 15 minutes one morning this week trying to figure out why there was no connecting to the internet. It took RantWoman all that time to figure out that The Queen of Spades had somehow disconnected the cable between modem and wall. RantWoman is grateful not only to have solved the mystery but also that The Queen of Spades seems to have cut back on her tech support efforts.



But RantWoman is a VERY Bad Friend sometimes. For instance, RantBrother appears to have come to town for good. His common sense seems not to have arrived, but RantWoman is celebrating his absolutely amazing capacity to enlighten her. RantBrother is just top of the line, on par with the best of the best entertainment aboard Metro when it comes to little known facts of demography, sociology, history, political economy, and RantFamily tree.



RantWoman deeply appreciates learning of alleged cousins RantWoman had no idea existed, RantWoman is amused that these alleged cousins all seem to have either worked in law enforcement or been involved in cocaine dealing, and RantWoman devoutly hopes not both.



RantWoman has been tending to matters of gun violence and I 594 proposals to require universal backgroun checks for gun purchases. RantWoman has been reflecting on moments where she HOPES universal background checks would prevent tragedy: a friend who managed to buy the gun he shot himself with despite multiple hospitalizations the previous year for suicidality.



RantWoman's gratitude in this area in the realm of RantBrother: among many allegedly on target facts RantBrother keeps asserting about himself that he has passed the next of whatever test he needs to be able to carry a gun for some mysterious law enforcement purposes. RantWoman thinks that whatever mysterious law enforcement connections are about to hire RantBrother have already been stringing him along for years; RantWoman is grateful they do not appear any more forthcoming on the paid work front than they have been for multiple decades.



Plus RantWoman finds herself deeply grateful that RantBrother has trouble coming up with bus fare because that means he also is probably unlikely on his own to come up with money for any kind of firearms. But RantBrother is one of hundreds, maybe thousands of people with mental illness filling conversations with chatter about firearms, so RantWoman enthusiastically recommends signing the I 594 Universal Background Checks for gun purchases petition anyway!

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Hah! Found them, or some of them

RantWoman has meant to collect some blog items in some way or another about children in worship. RantWoman meant to pen meditations on the topic and has been called to go a different direction. However, RantWoman does not want to lose track of the links.


A new thing
http://transitionquaker.blogspot.com/2013/09/see-i-am-doing-new-thing.html
A community that does not exist
http://gatheringinlight.com/2013/09/04/a-community-that-does-not-yet-exist-luke-14/


Rituals and Children

http://aquakerwitch.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/ritual-outline-for-meeting-for-worship.html


Mindful Parenting
http://www.communityofmindfulparents.com/practicing-meditation-changes-you/

Gil George Resisting Security
http://extrovertedquaker.wordpress.com/2013/08/27/resisting-security/


Suzanne Kromberg Quakers and Emotions: reflections on climbing high
http://quakersusanne.wordpress.com/2013/08/10/quakers-and-emotions-reflections-on-climbing-high/
Interesting reflections; interesting queries

Kathleen Carmack Williams in Friends Journal
http://www.friendsjournal.org/bringing-children-to-worship/

Wonderful Meeting is a muscle guest post from SF MM on Gathering in Light
http://gatheringinlight.com/2013/09/03/meeting-is-a-muscle-teaching-worship-to-children/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+GatheringInLight+%28gathering+in+light%29

Wes Daniels about Listening.
http://gatheringinlight.com/2013/08/14/listening-as-an-act-of-faith-hebrews-11/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+GatheringInLight+%28gathering+in+light%29

Wes Daniels about Children in Worship with a link to the Friends Journal article
http://gatheringinlight.com/2013/08/19/thoughts-on-bringing-children-to-worship/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+GatheringInLight+%28gathering+in+light%29

Chris Mohr
http://chrismsf.blogspot.com/2013/08/approaches-to-having-children-in-quaker.html

Nancy Thomas about dysfunctional families in the Bible
http://nancyjthomas.blogspot.com/2013/08/dysfunctional-families-in-mission.html


And Robin Mohr about hopes for First Day School
http://robinmsf.blogspot.com/2013/08/my-hopes-for-first-day-school.html

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Waiting, not Silence, Waiting, and hope and ...

RantWoman collected this item off QuakerQuaker way back in August when RantWoman also collected some other blog links about children and worship. RantWoman cannot find the other links in her Drafts folder but there are enough layers here for part of what is on RantWoman's mind.


Today, August 30, 2013

Posted by Joan Gunn Broadfield on 8th mo. 31, 2013 at 8:47am in Quaker Talk

Many things swirling in my consciousness:

■punishment

■silent

■waiting

■disarm



Punishment:

Why have we not given this up years ago as Friends? We could join the Mennonites as beacons in the world of restorative justice. Today, as our President contemplates how to answer the unfathomable chemical weapons unleashed, he keeps using this concept. Payback time. That is what it amounts to. Friends, at the time of 9/11/01, were saying Justice Not revenge. Where did our efforts go in the last 12 years? Have we taken this to our hearts and do we live it in our lives? I know I have been trying, and I know it is not easy.


Silent - and Waiting:

Having read Wess Daniels sweet piece about children and worship, I saw again the way we describe our quite still worship as 'silent'. We all do this. But describe our aspiration? The word silent becomes its own goal, disconnected from spirit. Do we fear people we do not know speaking? Are we hoping for children who will 'behave'? What can we do to change our descriptor so that it says more what we yearn for?



From Wess's blog, I think he and I want the same thing: a place where we are entering the connection to the divine.. we are waiting.



Perhaps we can begin here to substitute waiting for silent when we talk about our worship. Some one or group began to do this a while back... If we all pick it up, Over time it will change. George Fox does not use 'silent' when he speaks of worship in his journal. It was a word he used to stop people from speaking, and a word he describes people's responses to what he has said or what is happening.

SILENT is a place of nothingness. But the divine is not nothing.

WAITING shows an action. We are waiting for divine connection.

Disarm:

As I sit here today in prayer, with the conviction that military action in Syria will do nothing good, I yearn for the president to consider a disarming act. I pray that the focus will be on the people of Syria, not on punishing a nation for a horrific act. I have heard from those who have suffered abuse from parents that when well-meaning grownups in the store have chided parents they see mistreating their children that the children get more abuse when they get home. Whether or not we have gotten it right about the gas, there are ways our military responses have shaped the middle east in particular ways. What might the U.S. begin to do that would be disarming?

I am praying... and emailing from FCNL site my prayers to our President.

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Current Trauma Reading

RantWoman reads, desultorily while trying to parse tables as they get read aloud: Trauma Stewardship: an everyday guide to caring for self while caring for others by Laura van Dermool Lipsky and Connie Burk

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_2_14?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=trauma%20stewardship%20an%20everyday%20guide%20to%20caring%20for%20self%20while%20caring%20for%20others&sprefix=trauma+steward%2Cstripbooks%2C694


Especially after reading this article, http://hnn.us/article/148298  RantWoman means to read Chronicling Trauma: Journalists and Writers on Violence and Loss by Doug Underwood.
http://www.amazon.com/Chronicling-Trauma-Journalists-Violence-Communication/dp/0252036409/ref=la_B001HD14H2_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1347488071&sr=1-1



Quibbles:

--RantWoman read fast and did not hear a single woman mentioned in the interview. RantWoman finds herself with interesting reflections on this point. Are there no women journalists whose traumas might illuminate something about their writing. Or is the world of women just too different so that such stories would better be written and analyzed by a woman?

--RantWoman suspects based on description of lots of table that she might find some of the content hard to absorb orally and will aim for reading options that allow visual enlargement too.

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Awash. Living Water

RantWoman has been awash in the Living Water.


Living Water round 1: OR Coast, Newport OR. A timeshare right on the water.

Part A: RAIN SQUALLS. Exuberant racket from seagulls sea lions, seals slurping up waste from a nearby fish processing plant. Memorial benches along the boardwalk commemorating sailors lost at sea. Some years there were people listed from multiple vessels. Probably stormy years.

Part B. Deepoe Bay. Waves crashing against walls of waterworn igneous formations, leaving tidal pools behind as the waves return to the sea. A view of Boiler Bay. Not called that because the water looks like it's in a boiler, though it does. Boiler Bay because a ship called the Boiler sank there.

Part C: No Tsunami Option vacation with #disasterprep included:

http://rantwoman.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-no-tsunami-option.html
RantWoman tried to walk up the tsunami evacuation hill. It would be a tough haul for RantWoman, never mind about RantMom. Go walk the boardwalk and listen to sea lions barking. They are loud and smelly and close, an improvement over an excursion possibility: cold and dark and smelly after an overpriced elevator trip down to some sea lion caves. Anyway, bank on the "no tsunami" option.

What means "we seek an earth restored" here?

Living Water, Round 2: 500-year floods down mountain valleys in CO. 22" of rain in a day or two; more water than usually falls for a whole year. Lots of roads along mountain valleys just GONE. RantWoman is peculiarly fascinated when Acts of God make human efforts crumble. The good news is RantBrother kadeit through a couple days of work doing flood cleanup before his body rebelled. Now he is back to looking after his own fashion for other work. The rest of family are poking at psychic cleanup options after his last visit.

Living Water: Quarterly Meeting.
Call down the fire of your justice; Call down the rain of your love. Ummm, wildfires burning miles to the south at the beginning of the month are by now a non-event. We still need rain, even in Friday traffic out of town or over the pass.

Plenary Bible Passage about a Samaritan woman and a Jew sharing water at the well. A big deal that they are drinking together even though the woman misses out on the Living Water because she does not know who Jesus is. Interesting approach to brand appreciation.
Plenary Promo: Friendly Water
http://www.friendlywaterfortheworld.com/
If RantWoman were going to go all intercultural on the #disasterprep efforts, she MIGHT want something like this in her home disaster resources.

Worship Sharing queries include no floods or tears; messages came about both, with riffs on brothers / parenting / loss / living / growing / mourning / hoping.

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Howling About Dimishments Aunts and Uncles Division

On howling about Diminishments, relatives edition.


RantWoman is still aglow with the family warmth surrounding RantMom, 3 pairs of aunts and uncles, and RantWoman herself after a LOVELY excursion to the Oregon Coast. The glow endures even after numerous rain squalls, chattering sea gulls, rambunctious and smelly sea lions, lots of views of waves crashing ashore, other such seaside attractions.

The Howling about Diminishments part: EVERYONE, EVERYONE there was struggling with various physical frustrations, listed here with the Retired RantRelations' former professions.

RantWoman and RantMom were both counting our blessings to be there. The last time RantMom and her siblings tried to gather on the OR coast, they wound up at the last minute diverting to MT to help RantMom ease into the routine of treatment for her second cancer. RantWoman could not even help. Instead RantWoman got surgery for a second detached retina, a gas bubble in her eye and some no-fly orders.

This time RantWoman and RantMom got to get there and back primarily on public transit. RantMom especially found it a challenge to scramble in and out of one of the available vehicles but was otherwise comparatively spry for this visit.

But the maladies rundown:

Aunt Schoolteacher: now blind in one eye and struggling about things visual because of glaucoma. Not necessarily easy to chat much with RantWoman but seems to have some good social support.
Uncle Schoolteacher: painful to stand very long because of back and knee issues as well as neuropathy in feet lingering after long ago cancer treatment.

Aunt Office Manager: numbness in hands, in theory because of carpal tunnel issues.Needed to borrow RantWoman's fingers to open a bottle of laundry detergent.
Uncle Bus Driver: approximately deaf as a post. Wears hearing aids unevenly. Stand facing him to talk and he lipreads with enthusiasm. Do not expect him to interact with anything said to his side or from behind.

Aunt Travel Agent: on blood thinners and eschewing green vegetables after harrowing medical events in summer that turned out to be lots of small blood clots in lungs.
Uncle Beer Boiler Tender: walks a couple miles every day to keep serious heart issues under control.

Multiple people needed to put in their teeth in the morning before trying to say much.


The family has a tradition of trying to do a whole jigsaw puzzle over their time together. This means everyone is invited to participate. Some of the everyones ONLY do puzzles at reunions; some only look on and silently cheerlead. This year's puzzle got put back into the box in bigger chunks than it came out of the box. Save it for next time.

RantWoman sat through a conversation about dementia and personality changes and spent a certain amount of time thinking / trying not to think about present day RantMom.

There was mention of various teenage and preteen grandchildren. They did not seem to be missed.

And still RantWoman came back aglow.

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