Oh Weighty Friend, How does thee prefer to be Eldered?

Oh Weighty Friend,

First, please bear with RantWoman. It's zucchini season or soon and RantWoman seems to want to vine all over the place.

Second, please forgive RantWoman if mentioning the teensy little tiny possibility that thee might EVER need to be eldered distresses you and just in case, bear with RantWoman about the following.

How does thee prefer to be eldered? In person? By email? In a box? With a fox? In a blog? On a log? Oh wait, should we leave Dr. Seuss out of here?

RantWoman remembers a conversation some time ago about service dogs. The conversation was not only about service dogs and you had been on RantWoman's list of people she MIGHT have spoken to of other pieces of the story. But the real problem is that you said "But we have allergies." RantWoman is sorry you have allergies and does not want to minimize the problem.

At the time though, RantWoman's brain was too full of other pieces of the story to ask you in person obvious questions: "Why should your expectations about service dogs be different at Quaker gatherings than elsewhere?" or "What can others do to help make the situation manageable for everyone?"

RantWoman is aware of and grateful for MUCH faithful work specifically about service dogs. This includes well researched information , including points findable on RantWoman's other blog if needed. RantWoman hopes if you have encountered service dogs at Quaker events you have found the experience manageable ?

RantWoman's own life abounds in service dog stories and can ALWAYS us holding in the Light about the topic. RantWoman also wonders whether others among us might need holding in the Light about something or other just to enjoy and participate in large gatherings?

For instance, at places like Annual Session small dogs on leashes with their humans in places like dining halls fry RantWoman's nerves. Sometimes poorly trained dogs do not know how to deal with Ambassador Thwack the badly behaved White Cane. A person with even less vision who uses a seeing eye dog can have worse problems. Sometimes dogs just bark so the blind person is aware of the dog. Sometimes unsupervised dogs are a serious nuisance and distraction for even the most well-behaved seeing eye dogs.

Sometimes Ambassador Thwack is just being indolent and lounging folded up in a RantWoman bag and shirking his "don't say I did not warn you duties as far as reducing RantWoman's odds of unintentional collisions with everyone and everything.
Sometimes RantWoman is knowingly wilfully not wanting to deal with Ambassador Thwack on top of food and drink and sort of appropriate exhortations like "Accept Help Dammit."
But since RantWoman is having thunderous leadings about people waring too many hats and trying to find many heads who know how to wear some hats, RantWoman is just posting this to the blogosphere and thinking about how to encourage Friends to OFFER if they see someone who might need a little help of some kind. RantWoman is also serious about OFFER / ASK first though. RantWoman supposes it would be good to uphold, say, the Annual Session Planning committee in thinking about such issues systematically, but we still are all ministers of God

As an aside, PLEASE be cautious even about well-meant offers before RantWoman has connected with morning coffee and oatmeal.

And while we are at it, PLEASE ask before you go around hugging people. RantWoman knows that misguided hugs and even pats on the back cand cause thunderous pain for people with some kinds of joint or back issues. RantWoman theoretically gets to invoke her "Be glad to have only your own problems" clause about the issue of hugs and too much "Grab the Blind person and bless them." RantWoman usually LIKES hugs but definitely prefers to ask or be asked first!
Oh Weighty Friend, thank you for reading all this. Do we need to talk in person specifically about anything here?
In the Light,
RantWoman