October 24 Disabilities Awareness Item

Dear Friends

Today’s rant includes some observations and suggestions about Meeting life and also some topics that the press of time is probably going to save me from indulging my temptations to ramble too far about. Well probably. As I write I have been pulling out themes and asking myself which themes are specific to me, which speak to things going on in others’ lives as well as mine, and what do I wish Meeting would do about the topics. I am curious what themes or comments in these areas stick out for others. You are welcome to ask me more detail about my thoughts; I am likely to be led to share at least somewhat selectively whether you ask or not. Again, if others emit contributions to my disabilities awareness efforts before I get around to mine, I am happy to share the trouble and to TRY to take the day off.

Today’s to-do list (Meeting Friends might or might not care about anything past about the first 3 items):
Here is a shameless promo link about an upcoming PBS documentary called Lives Worth Living on Thursday night. Check local listings:
http://rantwoman.blogspot.com/2011/08/lives-worth-living-pbs-documentary.html

I confess, I have two televisions I do not even plug in, and I need to check listings myself. 10:00 sounds too late to invite myself over to anyone else’s house, even some of my more TV-positive neighbors. But I mean to watch somehow and would be curious if Friends watch it about reactions.

Quality of Worship: what if for spoken ministry we decided to do that Human Microphone thing all the Occupy protests are doing? Would people be able to hear any better? Would people passing through be appalled? Would all the people with long protest experience who are very grateful to be sleeping in their own beds feel a glorious sense of solidarity? Would all the Friends who might come to a Meeting retreat about equality but would not necessarily go anywhere near Occupy Seattle be nonplussed? How might our much-eldered Friend with the ministry of audible eye rolling react? Would anyone realize the Human Microphone thing is charmingly retro, evocative of 19th century hymnody and brilliant for “what if the power were to go out even if we had a movable mic?” Should we just start with announcements?

Quality of Worship: It was wonderful to see both Nasturtiums in Salad Friend and Mr. Nasturtiums in Salad Friend at Meeting. Mr. Nasturtiums in Salad, also known as Walk Cheerfully Answering that of God inEveryone Friend had a stroke a few months ago and now lives in an adult family home and uses a wheelchair. It is wonderful to know that they came on ACCESS and that their trip on ACCESS was a positive experience. was also glad to see they found our entry sufficiently accessible, and to think about how much it must mean to Nasturtiums in Salad Friend to stillb e able to worship with her husband.
When I think about Meeting life, although I have rich and colorful experience with bus blessings, that of God aboard Metro, and the peace testimony as realized in the “crip fight” section at the front of the bus, I hear lots of people talking in different ways about time and difficulty of travel. Does this suggest to me any need for more scheduling of events to make the most of time spent traveling and time together? I also in a few cases hear comments where I wish care committees were better informed about ACCESS, how to use its services and how to deal with its exasperating features. What do others hear in this area?

Sartorial decision: what do Quakers look like? If I were to decide to go be part of the faith community contingent to Occupy Seattle, the invitation says to wear clerical garb. Quakers are all ministers of God. In our meeting, two big themes are basically denim and Birkenstocks or Dayglo yellow and bicycle gear. What do Quakers look like to you? What fashion advice do you have about what to wear to Occupy Seattle? Decision of the day: skip the faith community visitation.

Make agenda for meeting I have to facilitate on Wednesday. I get to facilitate because quite awhile ago I persuaded someone else that things would go much better if she shared the task. Now for BIG starters, people at least feel heard.
Work with Blind Next Door Neighbor, one of two surprising volunteers who spoke up when the question of me sharing the facilitation task came up last month. Surprising volunteer #1 used to be a secretary for a local department store executive but she had a stroke fairly young. Now she has to tell us almost every month about the shunt in her head and MAYBE the information and referrals function at the Friendly Neighborhood Center... will manage to connect her with ways to avoid what most concerns her about her experience but maybe not. Anyway, she is on tap to help facilitate next month.
Blind Next Door Neighbor’s catch phrase is “my mother raised me to be a health independent person who happens to be blind.” We get reminded of this frequently,sometimes seemingly at random, sometimes in exact conjunction with some increment of inappropriately assumed need for assistance or offer of help. Anyway, maybe people need a break from whatever my stock utterances are. Work out what parts of the meeting Blind Next Door Neighbor gets to facilitate. Help Blind Neighbor figure out who she wants to ask to be a spotter to help her identify people to call on. Think about whether to suggest that we all look for ways to connect aspiring facilitators with training workshops and ways to practice?
Review some ground rules. The most obvious: one person at a time because at the Friendly Neighborhood Center… people all tend to talk at once when things get hot. I went to a meeting facilitation workshop awhile ago where those in attendance had a go-around and mentioned three different sets of “ouch language.” Maybe meeting under the care of the holy spirit is supposed to obliterate the need for ouch language, but in my experience even God cannot move very easily among us without some kind of shared language.
Do I need to ramble about facilitating while blind, interpreting while blind, interpreting while blind for the facilitator, interpreting for the facilitator while blind and trying to do simultaneous interpretation of other interpreters’ heavily accented English? To be honest, somewhere in here I hit an “it’s TOO MUCH” threshhold, but….

For now skip some possible rambles about disabilities awareness and protests, parenting and protests, parents with situations to hold in the Light, public image and protests,…

In the Light.

(RantWoman)