Email: Oh Dear!

There are two emails from RantWoman to Dear Friend the beginning of the Compost conversation that RantWoman uncharacteristically did not cc to anyone else. As RantWoman and Dear Friend get ready for our Clearness Committee, RantWoman has had to revisit them. At this point, RantWoman is likely to print one copy of each and bring it along to her Clearness Committee meeting.

RantWoman also decided they needed to be forwarded to the Meeting Clerk and the clerk of Nom Comm. One reason is that the second of the emails references something unrelated that RantWoman hopes but is not sure she has discussed with those people previously.

In RantWoman's even more outspoken youth, she used to be able to get herself into trouble with email any time of the day or night. RantWoman has mellowed considerably and acquired at least a SMALL measure of self-discipline. Now, MOST of the time RantWoman KNOWS she has to send anything she writes after 10 pm to the drafts folder overnight. One of the emails in question was sent at 10:02. RantWoman does not ENTIRELY regret sending it the way it went out anyway and at this moment is glad it exists as a point of departure for other conversations. This does not mean it is a brilliant example of Spirit-led communication, open-hearted seeking, conflict resolution--on either party's side, but since the conflictants were miles away from each other and venting, RantWoman considers that said email is healthier than many alternative scenarios.

RantWoman is quite clear that some questions about how her nomination unfolded are a matter for Nominating Committee. Since Nominating Committee at this writing has not grappled with RantWoman's latest questions and comments, RantWoman is going to delegate matters to them. RantWoman during this interval had several good helpful conversations about her Sudoku habit and other things. Dear Friend also kept asking RantWoman to go for a walk to talk about things to do with her nomination. Actually Dear Friend ONLY wanted to go for a walk. RantWoman's schedule did not easily accommodate that at that point and RantWoman kept trying to talk to Dear Friend by phone.

The first email documents RantWoman's frustrations about how Dear Friend was interacting with the phone at that point. Something else caught RantWoman up short the first time she reread it. What the heck did she mean? RantWoman was willing to have a conversation with Dear Friend. Even though RantWoman and Dear Friend go for walks together all the time and RantWoman really enjoys that, going for a walk did not sound appealing at that point and the word that caught RantWoman up short has a red flag aspect that now gets fed into our Clearness Committee. Oh Boy.



On a different topic, RantWoman this morning realized a couple more problematic points.

First there is the part about how recognizable different characters are. RantWoman realizes the Compost thread includes enough information that a large number of people can probably identify Dear Friend. How many of them could easily identify RantWoman without knowing more of the situation is a different problem. RantWoman is struggling about two contradictory standards. On one hand is our YM's query about being careful of the reputations of others; on the other hand is the question of struggling with difficulties in a spirit of love and truth. RantWoman is simply noting the struggle at this point.

The second problem is that a couple of recent entries include conclusions RantWoman has drawn from conversations with Dear Friend. RantWoman has communicated to others why she considers the conversations problematic and probably needs also to communicate that point to Dear Friend. RantWoman is also quite comfortable that her Meeting may take such facts as they get offered and draw other conclusions. That, one supposes, is discernment. For now RantWoman has other things ahead of that on her problem list.