Hanukkah Day 3. The Maccabeats, Fire

RantWoman might expect "we got the fire.." from certain flavorsof Christians. RantWoman would not at all have expected to hear it for Hanukkah. Yet here it is.





RantWoman might expect "we got the fire.." from certain flavorsof Christians. RantWoman would not at all have expected to hear it for Hanukkah. Yet here it is.

--In the spirit of not expecting... RantWoman needs, gratefully, to grab the Hanukkah theme of what seems completely inadequate to a need lasting and lasting and lasting 8 days or a whole feast of loaves and fishes. The bakery where the loaves will come from seems still to have many wacky things going on so let's not get TOO carried away, but...

--RantWoman is very grateful for Blow Things Up software which enables her to appreciate the visuals of this video. Video description is beyond RantWoman's Light so in terms of sowing interdependence, please ask someone nearby for this if you need it.

--In terms of "we got the fire," RantWomanhas a certain amount of nuclear power plant themed academentia (a master's thesis, to be precise) in her past. So RantWoman has felt like a spectator with an odd view of Iran's civilian nuclear energy and uranium enrichment saga. That was before an Israeli's social media comment, secondhand, a couple weeks ago while everyone RantWoman knows who works for the federal government was subjected to unintended paid vacation: "You don't have a government and the government you don't have is talking to Iran."
    The important thing for the moment: RantWoman is grateful that parties to talks about uranium enrichment have recognized that a bunch of UN resolutions cannot just rewrite the terms of the Non-Proliferation Treaty. RantWoman sees the recently concluded multiparty agreement about this issue as HUGE steps forward. RantWoman would not mind if it were within her Light to write this thought in more polished terms but let us start where we are.

Hanukkah Day 2 Worship Aids

Thanksgiving; RantMom
RantWoman apologizes. She remembers generalized gratitude during Thanksgiving Meeting for Worship; she does not remember gratitude as precisely wrought as some years. Or maybe RantWoman was also too busy being tender toward RantMom. RantMom is recovering from pneumonia. She is recovering slowly. Hold her in the Light.

RantWoman is grateful too so far to have resisted several rounds of temptation toward SERIOUS Bad Friend behavior during Meeting for Worship, and not just on Thanksgiving when RantMom could probably still elbow an ill-behaved RantWoman in the ribs if the occasion required it.

--RantWoman continues to have all sorts of issues with certain printed worship aids but so far RantWoman has managed to resist any thoughts of a braille marathon on the offending documents explaining her point of view. RantWoman is seasoning a rather different suggestion. Please hold in the Light RantWoman's seasoning of what to do with these thoughts.

--Remember that clip of Shout to the Lord sung to Led Zeppelin?
http://rantwomanrsof.blogspot.com/2013/11/angry-birds-led-zeppelin-samson-delilah.html
SO FAR, RantWoman and probably other worshipers are grateful that urges to play the clip in Meeting for Worship have yielded to the prospect of utterly pathetic performance as squeaked out by one of RantWoman's new auditorily underpowered Android devices

Hanukkah, Peculiar Gratitudes, Inner Blowtorch Day 1

RantWoman feels led to celebrate the historic convergence of Thanksgiving and Hanukkah with 8 days of Dark and Light, peculiar gratitudes, possibly tasteless observations, and questionable reflections all illumined in RantWoman's Inner Blowtorch. By the grace of God(dess?) perhaps RantWoman will even include some reflections on the actual history and story behind the celebration.

Or RantWoman will ask Adam Sandler:
http://rantwoman.blogspot.com/2013/11/thank-you-adam-sandler.html

Please, hold this all in Light and stay tuned

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 COUNSEL COMMITTEE

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.

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
 

What does George Fox say video

Partly a blog as filing cabinet item so RantWoman has some chance of finding this again. Partly a confession: RantWoman would a WHOLE lot rather watch a video than read George Fox's journal, though the video does mke RantWoman think harder about sometime POSSIBLY reading his journal.

Truth, Heart, Healing

Truth, Heart, Healing


Lucy Duncan and Nionu Spann
at Philadelphia Yearly Meeting.

http://www.afsc.org/friends/truth-heart-healing-working-spirit-transforms

worth being able to find again.

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

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

Scientific American: how does meditation change the brain?

How does Meditation Change the Brain

http://www.scientificamerican.com/video.cfm?id=how-does-meditation-change-the-brai2013-10-30&WT.mc_id=SA_Facebook

2014 Pacific NW Quaker Women's Theology Conference: Mark your calendars

Pacific Northwest Quaker Women's Theology Conference Teaser
If you have never attended but the idea of a conference of women talking together of our spiritual lives sounds even slightly intriguing, please sign up to learn more!


Mark your calendars: June 11-15, Menucha Conference Center, Corbett OR
Subscribe to information updates at http://pnwquakerwomen.org/conference/

While you are at the webpage, check out the Epistle from the 2012 conference, in either English or Spanish.

All are welcome who are interested in their personal spiritual growth, in exploring together with other women their faith journey, and in experiencing the unique community that the Pacific Northwest Quaker Women's Conference nurtures.

Coffee Strong Fifthe Anniversary Party Nov. 10

Join Coffee Strong’s Fifth  Anniversary Dinner and Silent Auction

November 10th,

4:30pm – 8:00pm 

Daybreak Star Indian Cultural Center in Seattle.

CIA whistleblower  Ray McGovern will speak.

This will be a gathering of over two hundred  peace and justice activists and supporters of service member and  veteran rights from around the Puget Sound region.

Workshop on Christian Hegemony and Privilege November 9

Join CARW & friends for this exciting workshop with Paul Kivel...

Living in the Shadow of the Cross
Understanding and Resisting the Power and Privilege of Christian Hegemony

A Workshop by Paul Kivel

When: Saturday, November 9th at 1-4pm

Where: Jackson Place Cohousing (800 Hiawatha Place S Seattle, WA 98144)

Please join the event on Facebook.

Workshop Description
Over the centuries, Christianity has accomplished much which is deserving of praise. Its institutions have fed the hungry, sheltered the homeless, and advocated for the poor. Christian faith has sustained people through crisis and inspired many to work for social justice. Yet, although the word “Christian” connotes the epitome of goodness, the actual story is much more complex. Over the last two millennia, ruling elites have used Christian institutions and values to control those less privileged throughout the world.

As our triple crises of war, financial meltdown, and environmental destruction intensify, this talk/workshop will dig beneath the surface of Christianity’s benign reputation to examine its contribution to our social problems. Living in the Shadow of the Cross reveals the ongoing, everyday impact of Christian power and privilege on our beliefs, behaviors, and public policy, and emphasizes the potential for people to come together to resist domination and build and sustain communities of justice and peace.

Paul Kivel is the award-winning author of several books including Uprooting Racism and Boys will be Men. He is a social justice activist and a nationally and internationally recognized educator who has focused on the issues of violence prevention, oppression, and social justice for over 45 years. Paul is the director of the Christian Hegemony Project and has conducted thousands of talks, trainings, and workshops on diversity, men’s issues, the challenges of youth, and the impact of class and power on daily life.


*****Location & Accessibility: In an effort to make the space accessible to guests with chemical sensitivities, please refrain from wearing scented products and fragrances like cologne when you attend.

The event will be at the Jackson Place Cohousing common house dining room, at 800 Hiawatha Place South, Seattle, 98144. It is by buses 7,14,48,8,4,36,60,ST550, and is wheelchair accessible & ADA-compliant. From the intersection of Dearborn & Hiawatha, head up the hill a half block then take a right in the alley, and a right onto the terrace. There is very limited parking off the alley, which should be saved for those who require an accessible space.

Sponsored by: Jewish Voices for Peace, Coaliton of Anti-Racist Whites, Tools for Change.

About CARW: http://carw.org 


RantWoman accessibility tirades:
*****Directions helpful for people with vision impairments and for people who find it easier to climb stairs than to deal with hills: Jackson Place co-housing is located on the SE corner of Dearborn and Hiawatha Pl. S, one block E of Rainier Ave. S. Both the northbound and the southbound buses on Rainier Ave S stop N of Dearborn; the stoplight at Rainier and Dearborn is helpful for crossing streets.

Once you arrive at the SE corner of Hiawatha Pl. S and Dearborn, if you continue S on Hiwatha, there will be the first of two stairways going up from the street to the terrace level. Take the first stairway and turn Left at the top of the stairs to find the Dining room.

*****The dining room at Jackson Place co-Housing is wheelchair accessible provided one arrives by car and is able to park in one of the available spaces. If one arrives by bus, do not underestimate the significance of "up the hill!" The hill is steep enough that people who use manual wheelchairs will almost certainly appreciate someone helping to push them up the hill. People who use power chairs or scooters are invited to use their judgment about center of gravity issues.

*****The dining room at Jackson Place co-housing is also fairly live accoustically and some people with hearing impairments find it difficult to hear there.

Watercolor Show and Silent Auction to Beneffit Indigenous project in Suriname

An invitation from watercolor artist Ruth Yarrow:

To raise funds for a wonderful project led by  indigenous people in Suriname and our Mennonite friends Sarah Augustine and Dan Peplow, I am putting up an exhibit of my watercolors at the 

Seattle Mennonite Church,

3120 NE 125th St., 98125, just east of Lake City Way.

The opening will be on Sunday,November 3, from 11:15 am to 1:00 pm.

I am donating the paintings, new frames, mats and work of  cutting the mats.

The total income from this silent auction goes to the Suriname Indigenous Health Fund.

Minimum bids will be $100.

The exhibit will be up from November 1 to December 15, and bidding will close promptly on Sunday December 15 at 12:00 Noon. I hope you can make it!

Media Item about Bangor Explosives Handling Wharf

Mostly a blog as filing cabinet item on RantWoman's mean to write more list:

KOMO 4 TV aired an extensive segment in its Problem  Solvers series, titled "Unacceptable Risk?" on October 28th.
Subject: the Bangor Second Explosives Handling Wharf currently under construction . You can read the transcript and see the entire video of  the segment at this link:
http://www.komonews.com/news/local/Navy-building-controversial-explosives-handling-wharf-near-Seattle-229639501.html?tab=video&c=y

The report is very thorough. It features Ground Zero’s Glen answering questions about the project. Glen continues with a serious effort to stop this very expensive and risky project in court.

RantWoman's mean to write more points:

--As RantWoman recalls from casual conversation, this project has some pork barrel aspects; now that its principal sponsor, Rep Norm Dicks, has retired, there may actually be some possibility of cutting it.

--What with the deficit and all, could the Navy maybe....?