Salt and Light in someone else's sermon

(another blog as filing cabine item)

This item caught RantWoman's eye because it APPEARS to be drawn on the same passage as the FWCC Salt and Light events. RantWoman cannot find the reference, but...

http://www.life-and-faith.org/2011/02/lead-to-gold-or-sinner-to-saint.html

RantWoman is interested in the "everything is better through Jesus" thread of the sermon EVEN though it does not articulate nearly as well as the Salt and Light event in Seattle a more universalist conception of the love of God and the power of example amid the corruption of the world.

RantWoman is also interested because:

--The blog entry is from a sermon delivered at a house church in Spokane.

--The author was a poet and interested in poetry before his conversion.

--The church website articulates a clear sense of mission outside its walls, lists organizations the church supports, AND, for the commercially-minded among us shamelessly hawks church gear.

--The author is dealing with glaucoma and if RantWoman has time maybe she will skim the blog for what threads weave in from that.

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Sea Chantey Friend

Steve Lewis of Port Townsend Meeting was devoted chanteyman, mariner, and host of the Chantey Sings at the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival. Friends who knew Steve (were) invited to a potluck and memorial Chantey Sing for Steve on Sunday, March 13th from 5 to 9 pm in Seattle.

As with any good memorial occasion, RantWoman is still fondly processing email for this recently deceased Friend at moderate remove from the dates of his passing and one or more actual memorial events. RantWoman notes that Steve had a rich life full of f/Friends from many strands of life. RantWoman expects an official memorial will at some point emerge from Steve's Meeting, but RantWoman is going to weigh in on her own behalf.

The memorial event RantWoman went to in Seattle had wonderful biography about Steve growing up in upstate New York among many figures of the local civil rights movement. There were also many mentions of Steve's interests in and teaching about matters maritime including both oceanography and the skills and crafts needed for sailing and navigation.

RantWoman grew up far inland and just is not as well-steeped in such topics as people more native to the seagoing life. For this reason alone, RantWoman greatly esteems others' knowledge and experience in this realm. RantWoman also admits that a good listen to sea chanteys from all over will quickly teach one lots about geography and trade--in forms a lot more fun than videos.

RantWoman remembers Steve's smile, clear enough that even RantWoman could see it. RantWoman remembers Steve's sly wit and grin at one of the memorials for his mother-in-law when RantWoman gently teased about cancer treatment being a heck of a weigh loss plan. RantWoman also remembers Steve's smiling admission that he and his mother-in-law both sometimes rolled their eyes lovingly in the direction of his wife. RantWoman means to borrow this eyes rolled with love theme for another post, but first Steve gets to be fully memorialized in his own right.

Finally, in memory of Steve,a TERRIBLE joke he was fond of telling:

"Let me tell you about Gandhi. You know how he went around everywhere barefoot. And he fasted a lot so he had really bad breath. So can we say he was a super callused fragile mystic plagued by halitosis?"

See, I warned you, it's a TERRIBLE joke and someone who will be much missed.

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Love and healing the Earth

Blogroll I don't want to lose track of:

Timely:
from FOR on Disarmageddon in April
http://forusa.org/resources/14/disarmageddon-pentagon-action-peace-environment


Waging Nonviolence: Reverend Billy's Church of Earthalujah
http://wagingnonviolence.org/2011/03/reverend-billys-church-of-earthalujah/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+WagingNonviolence+%28Waging+Nonviolence%29




Robin Mohr on her vision and new job as FWCC Secretary.
http://robinmsf.blogspot.com/2011/03/i-am-not-in-charge.html



YAR on what do we accept as real / pacifism / reconciliation
http://young.anabaptistradicals.org/2011/03/22/what-do-we-accept-as-real/



Wess Daniels on love and the encarnation
http://gatheringinlight.com/2011/03/21/love-was-the-first-motion-john-1/

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Rob Bell by blog

RantWoman's filing cabinet model of blogging:

Victoria Pearson
Evocative of Barclay plus universalism plus "feminist God-seeker"
http://www.quakerquaker.org/profiles/blogs/will-the-real-christian-please




Young Anabaptist: Rob Bell and the Anabaptists
http://young.anabaptistradicals.org/2011/03/23/love-wins-the-book-review/



Peggy Parsons raves
http://sillypoorgospel.blogspot.com/2011/03/and-fit-us-for-heaven.html


Wendy McCaig mentioning Rob Bell before talking about her experiences of Quakers
http://wendymccaig.wordpress.com/2011/03/27/mud-slinging-christians-dreaming-of-another-way/

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Morning Light

RantWoman is posting partly in an effort to demo some blogger features so she can explain them to other screen reader users. RantWoman promises to avoid further technical digressions, except to the extent that the technical digressions are somehow theoretically on RantWoman's path to more solid economic presence in the world.

RantWoman would like a steady infusion of tea to counter the pollen from the lovely cherry blossoms. RantWoman will settle for being glad she can detect new pink fuzz on a row of trees near her abode.

The nighttime temps are also holding steady enough above freezing that RantWoman expects very soon to succumb to temptation and GET HER HERBS PLANTED and out onto the balcony.

Yesterday was our Meeting's annual book sale. Easter is late. Quarterly Meeting is early. It's a La Nina year which has nothing to do with anything but sounds nicer than fretting about triple disaster earthquake / tsunami / nuclear power plant events in Japan. Anyway, the book sale seems early because of other schedule contortions.

Despite RantWoman's fitful efforts to avoid acquiring more PRINT, RantWoman is reflecting on two acquisitions at her Meeting's annual book sale, the Reina Valera edition of the Bible in Spanish and a first edition copy of Reweaving the Web of Life, a book on feminism and nonviolence. RantWoman has enough people in her life who care about the Reina Valera to justify the shelf space. The first printing of Reweaving the Web... has Blind Roommate on the cover and RantWoman's previous copy long ago got lost in some move. Still, RantWoman is reflecting on how differently she feels about some of the chapters now than when she first owned the book.

RantWoman is still vexed by Barclay, lately in connection with Worship. Those assembled last night like Barclay's thoughts about what actually happens during silent worship. RantWoman demurs, though, about Barclay's vehemence regarding music, forms and schedules. Perhaps God showed up more reliably for Barclay than for RantWoman; RantWoman generally has to make regular and orderly time allotments--and still sometimes needs more on top of that.

This month, RantWoman's computer is still ill. SOME of the time RantWoman is finding this good discipline forcing RantWoman to do numbers of things in more measured and intentional ways. RantWoman went back to reading visually, with a magnifier. This was painful enough that RantWoman is glad to have printed the next chapter in larger print. RantWoman still gets to whine and grumble about it being so tough to skim. Yeah, right and RantWoman gets to be happy to have enough vision both to try to skim and to have something to complain about. Or Rantwoman gets to think in terms of mobile devices...or...


RantWoman is grateful FINALLY to have hit some good conversations about things on her mind. There is more to say, but such as have already occurred also need more chewing and Quaker process is still inching along.

RantWoman MEANS to post some reflections from last weekend's Salt and Light event in Seattle. RantWoman is vexed: RantWoman offered to take notes and needs to treat the notes seriously. However, RantWoman showed up as well. Stay tuned.

The short version: RantWoman was listening to sermons on a few short Bible verses as well as stark and powerful accounts of living the Peace Testimony under VERY challenging circumstances, and RantWoman felt strongly eldered just to get over it about a whole bunch of topics not really to her taste and comfort. The topics are still not to RantWoman's taste, but RantWoman has decided just to get over it and work with who and what is available.




RantWoman is holding queries from the following post:
http://aquakerwitch.blogspot.com/2011/03/happy-eostara.html


What signs in nature tell you we're on the balance point between Winter Solstice and Summer Solstice, between Brigid and Beltane?


What's happening in your own spiritual life that reflects what's happening in nature?


How are you still stuck in the cocoon or shell of winter?


What environment are you emerging into?


How are you transformed as you emerge from your shell or your cocoon into spring?



RantWoman has an email correspondent on a non-spiritually-themed email list whose outgoing mail has Bible passages in the footer. Today's message:


faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who
comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek
Him.
--Hebrews 11:1,6 (NASB)

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Allergic to Cuddle Puddles

Queries:

What helps our community nurture the spiritual development of our youth?

Do our community activities provide space for different young People to grow on their own spiritual paths.

Does RantWoman even have any business commenting since she is not a parent and only very occasionally visibly an Auntie around her Meeting?



RantWoman finds herself in a paradox: in a few short months RantWoman will pass the half-century mark. Despite an utter lack of grounding in educational practices, RantWoman finds herself lately meditating about many questions of Quaker upbringing, religious education for Quaker youth, young people's experience of Quakerism, transmission of Quaker traditions, and absorption of newcomers into the Society of Friends.

At the same time RantWoman has more than once recently found herself nearly if not definitely the youngest person in the room and strongly led to elder her elders. RantWoman will spare her readers the details of this occasion. RantWoman is not sure how she feels about these seemingly contradictory pulls but is to be true to the Light she is given.


One such recent occasion where RantWoman was nearly the youngest person in the room: Sarah Hoggatt, part of the editorial team for Spirit Rising, the book by young adult Friends from around the world, conducted a recent Adult Discussion Hour. The discussion was part narrative about the work of producing the book, part reading, and part Question and Answer. RantWoman quite enjoyed Sarah's presentation; alas RantWoman currently has a leading not to purchase Quaker materials unless they come in a format she can interact directly with and RantWoman did not buy the book. If RantWoman decides to have someone read it to her, likely there is a copy in the Meeting library.

RantWoman is substantially older than Sarah Hoggatt but except for one person RantWoman is not sure of, RantWoman was the youngest person BESIDES Sarah.


The subject of "cuddle puddles" came up. Apparently one of the hundreds of pieces submitted was an item about how to do a cuddle puddle, basically the teeming, touchy-feely mass of youth leaning against each other on the floor that occurs during many gatherings of Quaker youth. Sarah was not raised Quaker; the idea of a cuddle puddle was as foreign to her as it was to RantWoman when RantWoman came to Quakers. Sarah also said she had recent experience and really liked the experience.

To be honest, cuddle puddles are one of the things that make RantWoman glad she was NOT raised Quaker. Even at her most perky, RantWoman did not even do very well at slumber parties. RantWoman tended to, well, slumber. Besides, the thought of doing a cuddle puddle with the fine specimens of both male and female adolescent awkwardness RantWoman worshipped with during junior high and high school has an astronomical "ewwwwww" factor: RantWoman considers it a complete act of Divine mercy that everyone was way too stiff even to consider the cuddle puddle concept.

RantWoman does not even necessarily lament a comparative dearth of campfire cuddle experiences at church camp. RantWoman in fact only ever attended church camp once: she was drafted at the last minute as a counselor for a cabin full of homesick 10-year-olds who spent their whole week fretting about the remote possibility of being eaten by bears on the way to the restroom at night. RantWoman is no expert about bears, but the cabin was far enough into the middle of a well-populated camp that RantWoman is pretty sure, for better or worse, the bears would have been afraid to come near.


RantWoman came to the Baptists of her youth at a point when cliques were already well-formed. The nicest girl RantWoman's age never came to Sunday School and RantWoman found the other two most frequent girl attenders, well, tiresome. RantWoman found herself VERY grateful for a couple adults who observed the other girls being, um, tiresome and reached out directly to RantWoman. RantWoman's spiritual development definitely needed stiffer stuff than cuddle puddles!


But back to Spirit Rising: RantWoman's favorite inquiry, from Really Good Questions Friend, was "but what unites all these people in spite of all these different practices and traditions?" RantWoman does not remember what Sara H responded. RantWoman thinks it might be sufficient to say "Well, someone, somewhere, somehow has called or heard them call themselves Quaker AND they committed to dialogue together on that basis."




Meanwhile, for further heresy on the Quaker child-rearing front:

The Quaker Ranter's kid gets baptized
http://www.quakerranter.org/2011/02/gregory-gets-baptized/


Why the Quaker Ranter's kid is getting baptized
http://www.quakerranter.org/2003/11/are_catholics_more_quaker/
(read the comments too)



Quakers and aging: topical but may or may not speak to younger Friends:
http://eajenkins.wordpress.com/2011/01/17/just-enough-power/

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Name signs

Here is another story of abuse and abuse survivors.

The Good Raised up about Tom "Bigfoot" Tannehill, a deaf man connected with recent news of a large number of abuse cases connected with a Catholic priest in Milwaukee

http://thegoodraisedup.blogspot.com/2011/03/tom-bigfoot-tannehill-and-his-ministry.html

Read the blog entry yourself for the details.

Read the comments for a RantWoman inquiry that is just about as far as RantWoman dares go in opining about matters of Deaf Culture, a topic of extreme importance to Ferrener Husband and therefore something RantWoman has at times wandered into just by association. Just for a teaser, RantWoman promises a bit about Ferrener Husband's name sign for RantWoman at the bottom of this entry.

Meanwhile, lest anyone try to pretend that this particular item is only about the Deaf, RantWoman means to hold the following excerpt thought:

God's love for him--including God's love through me--isn't diminished because of
his shortfalls. Maybe God's love for us, and God's love through one another,
even becomes more necessary, more warranted when we fail.

These days, when I have an opportunity to respond to someone who I'd rather view as a monster or think as someone to be fearful of, I will need God's grace to remind
me that we are each a Beloved Child of God, with a story that at the very
least might need telling, and at the very most, might need healing.

Perhaps RantWoman should stop there, but RantWoman is reflecting on various flavors of awkwardness around her Meeting about the Safest Sex Offender on the Planet, about even talking about him to the degree necessary to support our community's role in the treatment program he continues voluntarily, about the conflicting needs and preferences articulated by different members of our community who identify as survivors of abuse, and about the practical and spiritual necessity of talking about unpleasant realities, unpleasant possibilities just in the course of tending to community life.

RantWoman lately has been seasoning what if anything of RantWoman life experiences she is called to offer for further conversations on these themes in her Meeting.

Among the items currently on RantWoman's mind:

--RantWoman has previously written obliquely of a volunteer on one of her projects who one day rather flamboyantly announced that he is a pedophile. He says he has no interest in actual activity, but definitely is interested in pictures. To say the least, better grounded souls than RantWoman might Roll their eyes at such a revelation. RantWoman found herself thinking "Thank you so much for telling me, now I can cross you off any childcare list." RantWoman also figured that it is not inconceivable that he has neighbors with similar interests so instead of just bouncing him from the project, RantWoman gave him a VERY stern "For your own safety..." admonishment and landed squarely on the side of rules designed to protect everyone and coincidentally topical in other terms as well.

--When a new director of an agency serving disabled people arrived in town, RantWoman introduced her to someone RantWoman greatly esteems at another agency serving disabled people. The two of them immediately bonded and started a long discussion about sexual assault statistics among the populations they serve, in both cases much higher rates than among the general population, compounded by substantial barriers to finding help. Perhaps it is just as well RantWoman was not led to say something like "I'm so glad you two found something to talk about."

--RantWoman lately has had more than one conversation with different people who assemble one person's name, various behaviors, and the term sexual harassment. The person with the behavior issues uses a wheelchair. Everyone who complains can walk and get away, albeit in a couple cases with difficulty. RantWoman herself composed an email specifying behaviors she considers unacceptable for herself but omitting the specific term sexual harassment. However, it also fell to RantWoman to articulate to others who can help RantWoman observe the point that one person who cannot walk and get away might in fact not mind what look to RantWoman like even more egregious behaviors.

RantWoman is a little afraid that speaking of these messy Truths around her Meeting will cause some to run away screaming, almost as fast as talking about the Safest Sex Offender on the Planet himself. RantWoman is also praying for the centeredness not to lose patience with others in any conversation. To say the least, Divine Presence duty is unlikely to be dull!


Now for Ferrener Husband's name sign for RantWoman: A name sign is sign-language shorthand for someone's name. Sometimes the name sign evokes a specific physical characteristic such as a mustache; often a name sign will in some way use the initial of a person's written name.

Ferrener Husband and his parents and all his brothers are Deaf; their actual hearing ranges from nearly stone deaf to able to be helped a lot with hearing aids. At home when RantWoman visited the local sign language was used in preference to anything spoken, except for when someone wanted RantWoman to hear. Ferrener Husband was educated entirely in schools for the Deaf in his homeland.

RantWoman and Ferrener Husband have been separated for years and happily so. The separation happened before the main events of RantWoman's vision meltdown, but RantWoman did not have great vision even before that. RantWoman took a long time to figure out that Ferrener Husband's name sign referrinhg to RantWoman, an ASL pun on RantWoman's first initial, basically also amounts to "Four-Eyes" in the hand signal lexicon of many playgrounds. RantWoman can cite many daunting aspects of interactions with Ferrener Husband, but RantWoman also decided in context that usage is kind of sweet.

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