Demur / Demure?

Thoughts which by HEROIC measures of Divine Mercy did not make it out of RantWoman's mouth  during the most recent Adult Religious Education:

Question: do you find it helps to come do presentations like this in person?
RantWoman to herself: Friend, I know there are people in this room who can and will be able to help. If you personally do not feel able to take on anything new, could you please perhaps just hold the entire situation in the Light?

Question: ...overpopulation...?
RantWoman to herself: Friend, we are talking about a three-year-old child who needs a live human with a law degree and whose mother is now 18. That means the mother was probably 15 when the child was born and 14 when the child was conceived. Can you possibly imagine how "overpopulation" might just not be the first thing on anyone's mind with respect to that situation?

Question: ...not our children....
RantWoman to herself: Their parents and relative only scrub our floors and harvest our food, and serve us our fast food and clean up after us all kinds of ways. What do you mean not our children? They are essential partsof our community!

RantWoman to herself: ..and furthermore... between the birthers and the government-issue ID to vote and Ebola paranoia and ... could it possibley be RACISM????

Navy hopes to dramatically increase Olympic Penninsula Overflights without public review.

RantWoman posts the following basically verbatim from email; RantWoman has NO TIME to edit into something tighter but hopes this material might reach people who have a leading and capacity to comment in an informed way.

RantWoman is responsible for the choice of headline:
NAVY hopes to dramatically increase Olympic Penninsula overflights withoutminimal  public comment or environmental review.

The official window for comments closes October 31. In a nutshell, the Navy plans to take large swaths of the Olympic National Forest and use them for its Northwest Electromagnetic Radiation Warfare training program. It already has a training area in Mountain Home, Idaho, but according to their environmental assessment, the justification for not flying the additional 400 miles to Idaho is the savings in jet fuel and the ability of personnel to spend more time with their families. In return for that, at least 36 new supersonic EA-18G "Growler" jets will fly directly over north Olympic Peninsula communities and cities for 260 days per year, to do 2,900 training exercises for 8-16 hours per day using 14 towers that emit enough electromagnetic radiation to melt eye tissue after brief exposure.
>
> No public notices were published in any media serving the north Olympic Peninsula, which is why the Navy reported no public comments were received on its Environmental Assessment. It implied no public interest, but nothing could be further from the truth. Only one, poorly-advertised public meeting was held, in Forks, a drive of several hours from the more populous communities. The Navy, when asked, refused to schedule more public meetings, and it was only a public outcry that kept the comment period open for an extra two weeks, until October 31.
>
> I'm just an ordinary citizen, unaffiliated with any organization, but I'm encouraging you to brush up on this and comment using the links below, and to share this with your friends and acquaintances who care about the environment and our quality of life in this beautiful corner of the world.
> Thanks.
> Karen Sullivan
>
>
>
> #####
> A compendium of information on the Navy's proposed Northwest Electromagnetic Radiation Warfare training in Olympic National Forest and Olympic National Park.
>
> Included below are some news articles, videos and links to official government web sites concerning the Northwest Electromagnetic Radiation Warfare training area being proposed by the Navy and awaiting the final approval of the Forest Service for use of their roads. The physical location is in the National Forest immediately adjacent to the Olympic National Park, but also so close to private lands that concern is high for injury to people who may get too near the boundary. The potential harm to nonhuman species is largely unaddressed by the Navy's plans.  See maps in articles. Flights would originate from Whidbey Island and go directly over the North Olympic Peninsula cities to reach the West End. The San Juan Islands are also likely to see increased military activity in their skies. 36 jets will fly up to 2,900 training missions for 8-16 hours per day, for up to 260 days per year. They will coordinate with 14 radiation-emitting towers on the ground.
>
> The gathering place for information if you're on Facebook: More than a thousand "likes" in a couple of days to this Facebook page that was set up after the Navy's lone meeting with the public in Forks, to cover this issue: https://www.facebook.com/protectolypen
>
> If you are not on Facebook, here are some links.
>
> The Navy's environmental assessment for the project: http://tinyurl.com/PDN-Electrowarfare.
>
> Deadline of October 31, 2014, for public comments-- email to Greg Wahl at gtwahl@fs.fed.us or sent to Wahl at 1835 Black Lake Blvd. S.W., Olympia, WA 98512
>
> Rep. Derek Kilmer's email address for your comments:  WA06DKima@mail.house.gov
> Contact page for Derek Kilmer: https://kilmer.house.gov/contact/email-me
> Contact page for Sen. Maria Cantwell:  http://www.cantwell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/email-maria
> Contact page for Sen. Patty Murray:  http://www.murray.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contactme
>
> Recent news articles sketch out the issue: 
> Be sure to read the COMMENTS under each of these Peninsula Daily News articles:
> http://www.peninsuladailynews.com/article/20140928/NEWS/309289934/0/SEARCH
>
> The better of the articles in PDN, this one goes into health effects:
> http://www.peninsuladailynews.com/article/20140926/NEWS/309269975/0/SEARCH
>
> 10/16/14_Seattle Times_Front page above the fold:
> http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2024799865_electronicwarfarexml.html
>
> http://www.theolympian.com/2014/10/18/3376770_navy-plan-for-radar-detection.html?rh=1
>
> Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics (not endorsed by the Forest Service) page, with a photo of what the Navy's portable radiation emitters look like when fully arrayed:  http://fseee.org/index.php/ground-truth/sound-off/1003983-no-olympic-war-games
>
> Letter from above organization opposing granting the Navy a special use permit for its electronic warfare program. It raises the issue of encroachment on private property:  https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bz8MRyTv82TaUjhnMGhLd0g0bjVZU1otd2lsNlR5Y21rT0dF/preview?pli=1
>
> US Forest Service's official NEPA documents and information page on the Navy's proposed Electronic Warfare training for the Olympic Peninsula:  https://cara.ecosystem-management.org/Public/CommentInput?Project=42759
>
> Option "C," the no action alternative, is what we citizens are demanding. http://www.nature.nps.gov/protectingrestoring/DO12site/02_Ovrvu/027_alternatives.htm
>
> Navy admits jet noise is a problem:  http://citizensofebeysreserve.com/blog/a-major-win-navy-admits-noise-problems-in-port-townsend-and-san-juan-islands/
>
> Petition (as of Oct 24 there were more than 2200 signatures): : https://www.change.org/p/us-navy-do-not-put-any-camper-sized-trucks-with-electromagnetic-radiation-equipment-to-conduct-war-exercises-with-military-aircraft-from-15-sites-in-clallam-jefferson-and-grays-harbor-counties
>
> Videos by Nancy Botta of comments and questions at the 10/14/14 meeting in Forks with the Forest Service and the Navy; these are very revealing of the Navy's attitude:
> http://vimeo.com/album/3091035
>
> Other news articles:
> More jets for Whidbey/Noise for PT (no mention of warfare training in it)
> http://www.peninsuladailynews.com/article/20141011/news/310119987/0/SEARCH
>
> http://kuow.org/post/potential-navy-war-games-alarms-peninsula-residents#.VEBnCxBAPKA.facebook
>
> http://www.peninsuladailynews.com/article/20141008/NEWS/310089985?fb_comment_id=fbc_663391683767853_664262417014113_664262417014113#f29a646edc
>
> First article done by Christi Barron:
> http://www.forksforum.com/opinion/277005121.html
>
> World Health Organization (WHO) undertakes a health risk assessment of radio frequency and electromagnetic fields: http://www.who.int/peh-emf/publications/ch-03-rad-fields-inside-body-PC-2014-09-29.pdf?ua=1
>
> American Academy of Environmental Medicine study on human health effects: http://aaemonline.org/emf_rf_position.html
>
> Video: Nature study on the effects of electromagnetic radiation on bird migration: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LjTQAFdFF1c
>
> Effects of aircraft overflights on national parks: https://archive.org/stream/reportoneffectso00nati/reportoneffectso00nati_djvu.txt
>

Friends New Underground Railroad Benefit October 31

Hop on the Halloween Train Dance and Auction

Friends New Underground Railroad
A Benefit to SAVE LGBT UGANDANS

Join us Halloween Night! Friday, October 31 – 7-10 p.m.
Olympia Friends Meetinghouse
3201 Boston Harbor Rd. NE

Download and share the poster:

 

 

and the 4-up flyer:

---

 

For more information about Friends New Underground Railroad see FriendsNewUndergroundRailroad.org.

Tough Study

"RantWoman, it might hurt your feelings..."

Umm, we're across a big lake from each other. The worst thing that might happen is ai might get mad and throw my phone across the room, but I need my phone so that is unlikely to happen. Now, you were saying....

Turns out, RantWoman, aka Tough Study Friend collected feedback quite similar to feedback she has collected from others about more or less thinking in entire Russian novels all at once without leaving room for people to digest and interact with small bites. RantWoman peculiarly appreciates getting feedback from multiple sources, even when the feedback adds up to, among other things, GEE, RantWoman, you are a Tough Study!

Friend Worried about Hurting RantWoman's Feelings clearly got enough of a shared venture that brief excursions to Planet RantWoman enriched rather than impeded needed flows!

RantWoman also collected specific feedback and concerns about the problems that were, from RantWoman's perspective the original point of the call.

Score 1 for the phone not getting thrown across the room at all!

Releasing Friends: An author chat with Vonn New and Viv Hawkins

Blog as filing cabinet item

Thought Processes

The following may or may not resemble actual conversations in RantWoman's vicinity over a considerable spell of time. Believe it or not, the following is also about the best RantWoman can do as far as keeping low, soft persuasion, holding much up in the Light Fiercely and in a spirit of Love and Truth.


The most recent conversation, as processed by the RantWoman communications manglement service:

RantWoman (Just lighten up...Your turn.....I am not interested in your thought processes.

Bless your heart, Not Interested in Thought Processes Friend. You have now been yelled at more than one First Day by multiple people, NOT just RantWoman, about the need when you close Meeting for Worship both to SPEAK UP yourself and to encourage other people to Speak up.

This week RantWoman heard one particularly timid newcomer. That is RantWoman heard timid newcomer mumbling but heard no words.

But someone else had already asked YOU to speak up and YOU forgot to encourage other people to speak up and for once RantWoman decided that more public yelling would not make a timid newcomer feel more welcome.


RantWoman (Just lighten up...Your turn.....I am not interested in your thought processes.

Bless your heart, Not Interested in Thought Processes Friend. You have now been yelled at by multiple people, NOT just RantWoman, about the need when you close Meeting for Worship both to SPEAK UP yourself and to encourage other people to Speak up.

RantWoman admits "yelled" might not be strong enough. One time when you said "Seriously?" RantWoman snarled back "YES, Seriously!" Think of it as RantWoman channelling a long deceased and much beloved Friend known for exhorting EVERYONE To speak up. RantWoman is still a lot younger, not as petite, definitely not as limber, and the accent is all wrong, but SERIOUSLY!


RantWoman is thinking partly of the time she first introduced herself at Meeting. RantWoman has no memory of the speak up issue; RantWoman only remembers how welcoming it felt that several people came up and resonated with something that RantWoman had said. RantWoman hopes Timid Newcomer felt well welcomed but RantWoman AGAIN encourages you both to SPEAK UP and to encourage others to speak up.


Echoes from a good while ago:
RantWoman I am not interested in your thought processes.

Really, I hadn't noticed. You ignored half my requests to make an event more accessible for me but the ones you got DID make a difference. And we all discovered a couple more issues that it has taken a LONG time for people to get.

RantWoman I am not interested in your thought processes.
Sounds like a few other people aren't either, but why the heck did you invite me to the party?

RantWoman I am not interested in your thought processes.
Rotten Truth: in RantWoman's experience, you talk a lot and listen poorly and RantWoman is not necessarily that interested in YOUR thought processes either, but we are all called to be in community so how are we going to deal with it?

And lest anyone feel singled out for the opprobrium of public eldering all over RantWoman's blog, here are a couple links from previous efforts to elder ...
http://rantwomanrsof.blogspot.com/2014/05/mothers-day-leftovers.html
http://rantwomanrsof.blogspot.com/2012/01/when-spiritual-overseers-isnt-bad.html

RantWoman I am not interested in your thought processes...

Yes, there would be a freight train of other sore topics rumbling in the background.

Hold the rumbling in the Light.

Or set it to music.

Or....

Weaving: Quarterly Meeting Digested

A phrase RantWoman is still enthusiastically massaging after the most recent Pacific Northwest Quarterly Meeting: "Public ministry."

--Public ministry rather than activism

--Word nerd / word cloud digression: advocate / agiitate / activate as opposed to plop plop plop fizz  fizz of activism.

--Blog as public ministry?
  Really, RantWoman?
  Seriously?
  Yeah!

RantWoman already said she is a "show your work" recording clerk.

There is also that bit about Friend in Progress / Continuing Revelation / gardens and paths from the meditation  Just take RantWoman and EDITTING. RantWoman has been thinking about positive experiences where RantWoman hands someone Way Too Much and says "help." And "help" turns into take out and put back and clarify and rephrase and trim and prune and all those things that people wish RantWoman would do instantly to their tastes...

Anyway,
Collected posts of the last Pacific Northwest Quarterly Meeting:

The always elegant Iris Graville at BloggerByConvincement
http://bloggerbyconvincement.blogspot.com/2014/10/inward-activismoutward-prayer.html

Lynn Fitzhugh:
http://thefriendlyseeker.blogspot.com/2014/09/corporate-witness.html

RantWoman goes there and back again, partly aimed at broader audiences that Quakers alone
http://rantwoman.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-lentils-leaf-legroom-with-side-of.html


Other topical materials:
http://rantwomanrsof.blogspot.com/2014/09/interest-group-list-fall-2014-quarterly.html

http://rantwomanrsof.blogspot.com/2014/09/quotes-for-reflection-worship-sharing.html

http://rantwomanrsof.blogspot.com/2014/09/bad-friend-interest-groups.html

Random Language and literature moments: God, Google, and Devices

Random RantWoman language and literature experiences featuring various devices and softwares:

 

Tweet from a Friend:  “Today I taught my phone the word ‘genderqueer’!”

If you put the marshmallow man in the particle accelerator….

 If you drop the Hostess twinkie package off the roof…

 

A pdf RantWoman can tell she actually would be interested in:
Way of the Spirit participant’s article in Western Friend Nov 2012

Never mind all that, if you send the pdf here to RantWoman’s devices, be prepared for RantWoman’s android phone to offer to connect RantWoman with some paid online Optical Character Recognition process. If you send said PDF to RantWoman’s screen reader, Mr. JAWS will mumble “empty document, empty document,” at least until one invokes the OCR options in the newest versions.

 In other words there are many pathways to enlightenment; creating PDF’s readable by screen readers is subject to rude detours sometimes.

 

 

Dear Google,

Remember awhile ago when RantWoman said she is not sure whether to worry more about God reading her email, the NSA reading her email or the mad marketers of Google reading her email and e-footprints. Score one for whichever  combination of God and Google served up for free via the Google play store, a wonderful image file of excerpts of John Woolman’s journal about slavery. Who cares whether RantWoman wants to subject it to one of her OCR options. RantWoman finds the mere existence of such an electronic artifact deeply amusing.

 

Wonder what would happen if RantWoman asked Google something like “Find me some electronic versions of journals from the sort of Quakers who would say things like “We had another visit from that tiresome scold John Woolman. He is SO sincere but…”

 

 

Dear Google, RantWoman means it. Please do not translate the site in question. Since you are reading on RantWoman’s Android phone in English, when you detect a change in language, RantWoman would find it AWESOME to be offered the option of having the text read in the language it is written in. RantWoman would even be willing to tolerate a setup round of Google finding relevant voices and asking permission to download them. Even though RantWoman is not overflowing with confidence in machine translation, RantWoman notes that there are definitely languages RantWoman would be happy to have translated because the voice will not mean anything anyway but would like to deal with those sites on a case by case basis.

 

Assault with weapons 7

RantWoman feels this peculiar call right now to chronical gun episodes in her physical or conceptual  vicinity. This one occurred within spitting distance of RantWoman’s apartment, around the corner at a time when RantWoman was home. RantWoman thinks she was dozing and woke up from the sirens but did not register the event until she read about it in various mobile phone info streams.

Approximately 12:30 am yesterday morning, a 63-year-old man was sleeping in his car when two car-prowling miscreants tried to break into his car. The older man dealt with these intruders using his .357 magnum.  The two car prowlers wound up in the hospital “with non life-threatening injuries;” the older man wound up in jail because the detectives investigating the incident considered his continued firing excessive.

RantWoman feels called to say a prayer for all involved. RantWoman does not particularly want to excuse gunfire, but nevertheless can make a case that intruding into a person’s sleep late at night ought to be understood to be more dangerous and objectionable than, say, playing one’s radio too loudly next to someone else’s car at an intersection. RantWoman thinks it would be very fair for the car dweller to find his way to safer sleeping space as a result of this episode.

 

Pan Africanist: Dr. Ali Mazrui

RantWoman posts the following reflections as humble expressions of condolences for Dr. Mazrui's family. It might never have occurred to RantWoman to have any idea who Dr. Mazrui is except for the accident of attending university and reading for one of Dr. Mazrui's sons Jamal. RantWoman humbly notes that her shortcomings as a reader did not impede the younger Mr. Mazrui who now a leading advocate about accessibility issues.

Here is the death notice from Democracy Now with a long list of book RantWoman will put on her Mean to Read list.
http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2014/10/16/pan_africanist_scholar_ali_mazrui_dies

The above link includes a link to a 2009 Democracy Now episode including an interview with Dr. Mazrui.

RantWoman took particular note of:

--Dr. Mazrui's comments about the significance of President Obama's election

--Dr. Mazrui's comments about passing up an opportunity to dine with  Prince Charles because they are both on the board of some British educational institution: "it's a long way to go for a banquet." Dr. Mazrui does take note that Prince Charles has tried to change the language under which British kings are crowned from "Defender of The Faith(presumably the church of England" to "defender of Faith."

--Dr Mazrui's comments about former Libyan leader Moamar Qaddafi's proposal for an all-African confederation. Dr. Mazrui admits the idea intrigues him but says Qaddafi's time line is too short.

RantWoman notes that the post starts the video with the segment from 2009 about Dr. mazrui but RantWoman encourages readers to watch the whole segment. The rest of the video includes remembrances of Rwanda specialist Anita DaForge who died in a plane crash shortly before the 2009 segment. There is also an interview with a representative of HumanRights Watch. In short, a very rich episode and a more than worthy way to remember Dr. Mazrui.

Birthday Presents to Self

RantWoman’s birthday is in July.  RantWoman realizes it is possibly childish still to feel entitled to birthday presents in OCTOBER. Cope! Feel free to hold in Light and scroll to some other flavor of content.

 

Late-breaking news: part of RantWoman’s birthday present to herself is to name the following points:

 

--RantWoman is not just going on and on about pets and Little Sister’s household to be self-indulgent. RantWoman sees patterns and needs to test the patterns various ways.

 

--It’s October. A whole bunch of ghosts are muddling back and forth between worlds. Cope.

 

--Little Sister tells the whole bus her life when it suits her. Rant Woman rides some of the same bus routes and sees this. RantWoman also sees a lot of the crap that happens to Little Sister and her wheelchair on the bus. RantWoman sometimes more hears than sees: RantWoman lives earlier on shared routes than Little Sister and counts herself luck sometimes to get a seat facing forward out of the “courtesy area” with all the wheelchairs and shopping cart s and…

                Anyway, Little Sister who tells the whole bus her life recently told RantWoman to shut up in a way that only confirmed RantWoman’s concerns for RantMom and less so for Irrepressible Nephew and his dad. Then there would be echoes of moments from teenage RantFamily years when people not talking about big things was damaging to everyone. SOME circumstances are different and there Is this sister dance: RantWoman can see that about SOME things Little Sister is trying to do things really differently than the RantParents did. But for other points, NOT SO MUCH. So think of this long verbose exercise as RantWoman being true to her Ligh, refusing to shut up and, before she hands it off to God, trying at least to be sparklingly clear about what all she is handing off to God.

 

--A few things recently have caused RantWoman to reflect on the flow of things being VERY out of control medically and otherwise for Little Sister. Some of this RantWoman has been around to watch and that has been really, really hard sometimes. Some of the time RantWoman has also had really intense things going on and has not really asserted that around Little Sister. Now, thanks to LOTS of people including RantMom, brother in Law and sundry medical and mental health professionals, things being MUCH better but still very fragile. Plus Irrepressible Nephew is a TEENAGER and his father is approximately as much at sea as ever.

 

--Little Sister and RantWoman have this together / pull apart thing going on. We have had it our whole lives. Ask either of us about sharing a bedroom, or not, both when we had to and when we did not have to. As adults, we seem at times to magically summon parts of each other’s lives that we might rather not have to pull out and look over at any particular moment. More lurid details available but pets are probably sufficient for now.

 

--Little Sister recently had (ANOTHER) surgery, this time for rotator cuff issues. This surgery is not as intense as several things that have happened to Little Sister, but the surgery and recovery involve some specific points of concern at least in terms of what RantWoman observes.

 

--Little Sister shares with RantWoman various points of concern about Irrepressible Nephew and some of the circumstances he hangs out in, not to mention the dreaded topic of SCHOOL. Little Sister is the Mom, and Little Sister seems to be impervious to information RantWoman acquires in the course of her own activity. RantWoman does not necessarily care whether the info gets used but does think listening would be a really good place to start.

 

--Both Little Sister and RantMom are sharing with RantWoman concerning points and indications that a particular situation has some points of strain.  RantWoman is doing the best she can to encourage RantMom to speak in appropriate channels, but RantMom currently sounds so cowed and frantic about a couple topics that RantWoman figures she will keep doing the same “things are working fine, fine, fine” thing she is really good at. Plus Little Sister is actually WAY better at some forms of help such as helping RantMom navigate health care than RantWoman is. Would RantMom be any good at calling in reinforcements? Ummm, she has a computer god godsend from her church, who helps a lot on that front but…

 

--RantWoman’s life currently abounds with people blithely stepping on all sorts of RantWoman emotional landmines by exhibiting exactly the same behaviors that put the landmines there in the first place. Often enough it is entirely reasonable to ask people to STOP the behaviors. Hold that point in the Light.

 

Now, time for some Pet Matter

This year, RantWoman’s birthday brought tidings other than the unmitigated appreciation to which RantWoman feels entitled. RantWoman thanks readers in advance for bearing with the whole telenovela segment; RantWoman also blesses anyone who thinks they should just go watch something written by professional writers. RantWoman promises no commercials at least!

 

First, even though it was RantWoman’s birthday, Little Sister took up much of the family communications energy. Little Sister got released from the hospital after her latest adverse interaction with gravity. Coming home entailed much conversation about new and old hospital bed, new an old wheelchair, sundry other details RantWoman may decide to massage separately. Whine.

 

Second, Mr. Nasturtiums in Salad Friend, aka Trombone and Deliberately Mismatched Socks Friend picked RantWoman’s birthday to decamp to other realms. RantWoman does not want to hold spirits in this realm a second longer than they are supposed to be here, but this Friend’s departure is not the sort of present RantWoman would have asked for.

 

An actual present from RantMom came weeks later.

 

This post is RantWoman’s present to herself. Please hold the need to do that in the Light along with the entire cast of telenovela figures.

 

RantWoman hereby acknowledges both gratitudes and rather pointed birthday presents to self in the form of telling history from RantWoman’s point of view in HOPES of getting to points that RantWoman can deliver unto Little Sister whether or not Little Sister will…

 

First gratitudes in the form of appreciating RantMom’s interactions with mail order.

 

--At Christmas RantMom gave RantWoman the most wonderful muzzy 100% acrylic sweater. RantWoman would be predisposed not to be crazy about acrylic but RantMom did not pretend it was anything else. The color is lovely and unobtrusive. The sweater is soft and roomy with sleeves that are long enough. RantWoman has been completely charmed. RantWoman has been completely charmed even though the buttons have one by one been losing their matching fabric button covers. RantWoman actually does not really care whether the buttons are self fabric or the white under structure; it’s having some of each that screams low-end mail order in a way that RantWoman has decided not even to apologize for. Thanks you RantMom.

 

RantMom did equally well at RantWoman’s birthday. RantMom asked. RantWoman conceded that some of her sleepwear is too far along the road to rags even for RantWoman. RantWoman said Sleep wear, same mail order as everyone goes to. RantMom SCORED, new sleepwear that both is longer and has sleeves that are long enough for RantWoman. So thanks you again RantMom!

 

Now, in flagrant display of wretched excess, RantWoman’s gift to herself

 

Awhile ago RantWoman penned the following reflection about a civic festivity that occurred on RantWoman’s birthday this year.

http://rantwoman.blogspot.com/2014/07/kittyhall-thank-you-letter-and-morality.html

At the time, even though a whole giant parade of other Little Sister pet sagas showed up, RantWoman decided that talking only about cats and hamsterama would be enough. RantWoman’s birthday present to herself is to give into the temptation to go on at even greater length. Think of this post as an invitation to bingewatch the whole saga. Again, no commercials at least.

 

In between the Queen of Meow and her brother and the matter of hamstrama and also therafter, among the pet moments in Little Sister’s household:

 

--101 Dalmatians returned to the silver screen. Little Sister and her Husband wer e enchanted with Dalmatians. First came Delila, then awhile later Samson. Samson turned out to be deaf and went back to the breeder to be replaced by Nerón. Somewhere in here Little Sister nad Husband moved to a real house with a yard. Then dogs became adult and somehow Husband also thought they needed a Rottweiler.

Muñeca the already adult Rottweiler, aka Muñeca the Rottweiler lapdog,  came to live with the Dalmatians, about the time Delila also had puppies or maybe a little before. Little Sister realized belatedly that three adult dogs and a litter of puppies was Just TOO MUCH. At the time RantBrother was living in the basement of RantWoman and Ferrener Husband’s abode. RantBrother expressed interest in adopting Muñeca; RantWoman, aka Sucker Landlady agreed even though that meant that some of the time the Rottweiler lapdog might be on a long leash outdoors.

The dog really was a sweetheart about that and also about visitationsfrom the Queen of Meow who would sometimes lurk in the dog’s vicinity but just out of reach of the long chain. At numerous points, RantWoman found herself very grateful that brother and Rottweiler had each other; for various difficult reasons RantWoman does not want to comment further about Muñeca and RantBrother.

 

Back to Little Sister: RantWoman recalls considerable murkiness about training of puppies and new homes before Little Sister and husband hightailed it off to Guatemala. This narrative I only about pets, not about everything that happened between that trip to Guatemala, returns to Seattle and for Husband back to Guatemala and finally back to Seattle, and current pet matters so fast forward:

 

Little Sister and Nephew’s Father conceived nephew. Then Father went back to Guatemala and Little Sister was a single mom living in places where pets were not feasible for a couple years, like maybe 4+.

 

Cue the goldfish and a very exuberant preschooler. Bless the souls of several goldfish who gave their lives teaching Irrepressible Nephew  that goldfish really do not like to be petted, no matter how much Irrepressible Nephew liked to try to pet them. At some point Irrepressible Nephew developed interest in and capacity for more appropriate pet maintenance. Irrepressible Nephew is also really persistent in his desires; RantWoman would also say his mother finds it easy to go overboard anyway.

 

As much of the roster as RantWoman remembers:

Goldfish,

 Some other kind of fish

 Some saltwater fish in a separate vessel

 An ant farm

 A fire belly toad contributed by one of Little Sister’s caregivers who thought another cage was exactly what a household already full of trip and fall hazards needed!

 Some frogs

 Two guinea pigs, one of whom RantWoman thinks may still be resident. The guinea pig eats kale; sometimes the nephew does too. The guinea pig also bears with more petting than goldfish would.

 The hamster population explosion that starred in the hamsterama blog post above

 Some axolotls who may still be resident

 

Two ball pythons that abruptly had to be given away as wild animals

 Frozen mice to feed the ball pythons, technically dead so not pets but part of the pet circus.

 Two bearded dragons

 Some crested geckos that also eventually found new homes after Little Sister’s housing agency reminded Little Sister that the number of pet habitats far exceeded the number permitted on their lease. That reminder arrived awhile ago and RantWoman is unsure which 5 containers plus Wonder Chihuahua now reside at Little Sister’s house.

 Various things above eat crickets so the menagerie also includes crickets to feed them.

 Something above ate a particular breed of presumably delectable high-protein cockroaches. One day on the Sunday bus road to religion, Irrepressible Nephew informed RantWoman that the cockroaches were fit to feed the President! Please note: no one has any intention of getting close enough to the President to offer him cockroaches, but should he be interested…

 

Remember the dog Little Sister wanted to adopt after the Hamsterama episode? Hamsterama meant that instead of getting a dog at the Animal Shelter, Little Sister and her family got Wonder Chihuahua the Therapeutic canine presence from Craigslist. Some medical or mental health professional has certified that a dog would be a Therapeutic Canine Presence. This which is why Wonder Chihuahua got to join the household despite the no dogs clause in the family’s lease.

RantWoman is sort of a sorehead about many things to do with service dogs. Currently RantWoman tries to avoid too many opportunities to bite her tongue in public. Wonder Chihuahua and his boy have charmed RantMom sufficiently that when Nephew overnights with Grandma or when RantMom gets her children together to feed them, Wonder Chihuahua usually comes along. Even RantWoman admits he is an engaging beast. Plus he takes up a lot less space than two Dalmatians and a Rottweiler. Also, the need to walk the hound is sometimes an excellent defuser for various flavors of tensions that boil up from nuclear family interactions.

 

Care of the menagerie, even the comparatively constrained menagerie currently resient consumes LOTS of family energy.

 Irrepressible Nephew and his father do bilingual pet care and two-way vocabulary acquisition. Nephew’s father also helps hold the line about No New Pets or NoNew Pets without proper ways to care for them or … RantWoman considers this pattern much more positive than other patterns that make her regularly want to mumble phrases like “bilingual social worker” an Bicultural parenting support. Enough said for now.

 

Irrepressible Nephew and Little Sister and sometimes nephew’s father spend a lot of time going to an from to pet stores for crickets. The family are good customers. Little Sister an Irrepressible Nephew are good at schmoozing up the staff so that extra crickets or opportunities to display one of the lizards come along from time to time. One of the standard particularly low-cost cricket selling destinations also offers Irrepressible Nephew a work opportunity to clean their salt water tanks in exchange for pieces of coral.

 

That’s the up side. The downside: the cheap cricket store is two bus rides from home and one is a suburban express. Irrepressible is (RantWoman editorializing: FINALLY) learning to do single route rides but the cricket and coral store is too far to send him alone. Little Sister an Irrepressible Nephew spend a lot of Saturdays on expeditions to the pet store. Lately Little Sister has been laid up after (ANOTHER) surgery so RantMom has been helping facilitate these journeys.

 

Please bear with another RantWoman is a sorehead digression. RantWoman used to work nearby and also knows that there is a big ugly high-traffic, serious pedestrian challenge intersection between the Park and Ride where the bus stops and the pet store. Irrepressible Nephew probably finds it easy to cross. Little Sister fights off every RantWoman effort to ensure that she and her wheelchair can be seen in traffic. She’s a grownup. Grumble.

 

And then there is RantMom. RantMom has a hearing loss that is getting really frustrating, especially in traffic. RantMom has eye issues that she takes care of with serious wraparound shades. These give her a certain Speed Racer look, but RantWoman is not prepared to evaluate how they affect her interactions with traffic. RantMom recently was complaining about a short pedestrian signal. And about telling irrepressible Nephew just to go ahead!

 

Time running out on this telenovela segment. What would RantWoman like to happen at least about the pet store expeditions?

 

--Could Brother in Law be the chaperone? Do not get RantWoman started about Little Sister’s household bus issues.

 --RantWoman will if given a chance speak to Nephew: Look, keep an eye on Grandma about that ugly intersection, PLEASE.

 

--Could Irrepressible Nephew get crickets closer even though they are more expensive for awhile. RantWoman would be happy to rant about the value of people’s time but the list of rant options is already too long.

 

--Could we just point out that ONE difference between Auntie and Grandma is what the tyke will get away with?

 

--RantWoman could just STFU. Look if RantWoman were succeeding about that, there would be no need for the blog. Please if you have made it this far, just hold the problem in the Light.

Peace, Social Concerns. Threshed. Blogged.

The Following Blog Post

http://controlroom.blogspot.com/2014/10/threshing-session.html

represents:

--One window into the intersection of blogging, threshing sessions, and the recording of movements of Spirit?

--Thematic resonance with  the idea which comes and goes at RantWoman's Meeting of assigning all Peace and Social Concerns to Worship and Ministry?

--More interweaving of newcomers learning Quaker ways and oldtimers?

--Opportunity to reflect on the point that navy blue furniture in a white room offers WAY better contrast than grey chairs against grey carpeted walls of the chamber where such threshing customarily occurs in RantWoman's Meeting. RantWoman is not necessarily in a position to opine about whether greater contrast leads to greater clarity or more centered discernment but does note the visual contrast point.

The post from which the above item is linked

http://worldgame.blogspot.com/2014/10/revised-org-chart.html

represents:

--Hallelujah, a path to re-energize AFSC?

--The perfect riposte to someone from RantWoman's Meeting both nostalgic for the time when the local AFSC office overlapped considerably more with Meeting than presently and completely, at least to RantWoman's ear, disengaged from the idea that Quakers reaching into and cultivating ties with wider communities might be a GOOD thing?

--Important insight about peacemaking among Quakers, that is among different flavors of Quakers?

--More darned Quaker navelgazing but this time with a clever picture?

Is RantWoman the only one who craves not only this sort of discussion but also meaty spirit-centered engagement with the problems and passions of our day?

Okay, so RantWoman's individual engagement in these realms is also presently bumpy:

--RantWoman's plate of late has been FULL with a Recording Clerk role.

--RantWoman awhile ago got asked to rejoin Peace and Social Concerns by a member of Nominating Committee awash in swirls of unaddressed conflicts,  unexamined privilege of several flavors, and hunger for more of spirit. Can you say NO LEADING WHATSOEVER?

Hold all and sundry in the Light, PLEASE.

Festival of Dangerous Ideas: Pussy Riot

Blog as filing cabinet item.

Note: RantWoman has a high tolerance for leftoid rags but also notes important commentary and documentation.

First dangerous idea: RantWoman has abandoned squeamishness about use of this band's name.

http://www.themilitant.com/2014/7835/783551.html
The Militant (logo)
Vol. 78/No. 35      October 6, 2014

Pussy Riot members address ‘Festival of Dangerous Ideas’
BY LINDA HARRIS
SYDNEY, Australia — Prison camps in Russia are “like the detention  centers in Australia,” said Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, one of the members  of Pussy Riot who had been imprisoned in penal colonies for protesting against the regime of Russian President Vladimir Putin. She spoke to an  audience of some 1,500 people at the “Festival of Dangerous Ideas” held  in Sydney Opera House Aug. 31.

Before the festival, Tolokonnikova, joined by fellow Pussy Riot member Maria Alyokhina, met with Sydney activists protesting the Australian government’s policy of mandatory imprisonment of refugees who arrive by sea in remote detention centers.

Tolokonnikova said some people proposed they boycott the festival  because of a connection between some of the festival organizers and  Transfield, the company that runs the detention centers. It is much more important for us to come and join those fighting here to close these centers, they both said.

During the Sochi Olympics held in Russia, Tolokonnikova said, “We were against people boycotting the Olympics. We needed their support in Sochi when we were whipped by the Cossacks during our [protest] performance.”

The two activists also spoke out against the Russian government’s war against Ukraine and against Washington’s wars. If the U.S. was not involved in military aggression around the world, Tolokonnikova said, Putin would not be able to use this in attempting to justify his assault on Ukrainian sovereignty.

Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina spent nearly two years in prison in Russia. They were convicted on charges of “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred” after performing a “punk prayer” in Moscow’s Russian Orthodox Cathedral of Christ in 2012 condemning political repression by thePutin
regime.

“Pussy Riot started in reaction to an authoritarian regime,” Alyokhina said, and is “continuing as an international movement.” When traveling to other countries they look into the conditions in the prisons and try to meet with those involved in different struggles, she said. “If any support is needed, we will always be super happy to offer all the help we can,” she said.

Since their release in December 2013 they have continued to speak out against the Putin regime in face of a rise in attacks on political rights in Russia. They formed Zona Prava, a human rights organization to fight for prisoners’ rights. Its application for legal status has been denied three times.
 “Our conclusion is that you should never trust the government,” Tolokonnikova said to applause. The second conclusion, she added, “is that if you resist you will get results.”

The drug laws are used politically in Russia, as they are in many other places, Tolokonnikova said. About half of all convictions in Russia are related to drug charges. Less than 1 percent of those who get charged are acquitted — “so few we don’t even know that word.”

Alyokhina described the brutal conditions in the penal colonies, with prisoners working 16 hours a day, seven days a week. Women produce police uniforms on ancient sewing machines, year after year. “Obviously this doesn’t make anyone love the police system,” she said.

We and the other prisoners never lost our sense of humor, Alyokhina said. We all worked together one day to sew a set of clothes for a tiny, miniature Russian cop.

The Russian labor code does not apply to prisoners, and they have no access to legal representation or medical care. “These are things we are campaigning around now,” she said. “All these things are possible to change,” Tolokonnikova said.

Asked about attacks on gay rights in Russia, Tolokonnikova said that the regime scapegoats sections of the population in an effort to divide and weaken all those who oppose the conditions working people face there. Today gays are being blamed by the government for economic and social
problems, like immigrant workers before them.

Memberships laid down; Minutes.

Mental soundtrack to Meeting for Business:

--Saturday night cello riffs from annafritz.com and the Gospel of Treebark: leave it in the ground, turn the trains around.

--Wait just a second: Quakers in WA can talk all we want about Lummi treaty rights, the EPA Environmental Impact Statement, and gigantic shipment safety issues. BUT where is room for the Crow nation in MT who have treaty rights to sell that coal and to get the best deal they can for it? What is anyone besides RantWoman who can only keep harping, called to do about this point?
--Never Mind all that: take another run at clarity about much less detailed points from minutes for last months where RantWoman, with her Friends Committee on WA Public Policy hat on asked about Friends' engagement about climate change. RantWoman did not actually know that there is a statement on climate change signed by umpteen Quaker organizations. RantWoman considers adding mention of that to the conservation program reflected in draft minutes the most she can reasonably pray to have reflected of her thoughts which got slightly squashed last month. But maybe not everyone is called to live on that wonky edge whereorganizational development and  Quaker statements and intent meet public policy.

--bong... bong... bong... bong.... RantWoman turned the notifications volume on her Smartphone WAY down but she could still her the text messages coming in about #fergusonOctober. RantWoman specifically decided to leave the soundtrack with prayerful notes of faithfulness remembering both the firing of Dr. Eddy Moore and a listening to Black Clergy meeting RantWoman could neither attend nor pry any committee clerks away from another Meeting to attend. It's not really that committee clerks have any role automatically; it's just that all the people RantWoman knew to invite were committee clerks due at another meeting. Don't let...get in the way...;more hats needing new heads?

--RantWoman's brain was also full of a multistrand presentation in Adult Education about Latinos and WA.

But onward:

The Care and Counsel committee of RantWoman's Meeting from time to time brings to Meeting for Business recommendations that memberships be laid down. This month there were two:

--No Longer Wants Anything to Do With Friend. No Longer Wants Anything To Do With Friend, RantWoman thinks, showed up in a comment stream forom another acquaintance in common on Facebook. RantWoman did  not make any effort and No Longer Wants Anything To Do With Friend has not responded to multiple inquiries from Care and Counsel. Plus he has a new husband and by all accounts a new faith community. Sayonara with remembrances of foster-parenting with No Longer Wants ANything To DO wWIth and his ex wife: they bravely accepted into their hearts and foster care three sisters and then help sue the state of WA trying to get the girls needed help. Bravery and heartbreak and former spouses with many reasons not to speak to one another. Say a prayer including for girls who must be young adults by now and say goodbye.

--Friend Known to Us As, also apparently known as.... Friend Known to Us is deaf. He is responsible for Meeting hiring sign language interpreters when needed and for Meeting having an actual TTY for making direct calls to deaf people. (RantWoman note: that may not be the most important technology today, but tough!) When RantWoman was new to Quakers, Friend Also Known as edited the Meeting newsletter. Apparently Friend Also Known As has some legal problems of the Absolutely Hold in the Light sort. Sigh. And Say Goodbye. And ....

Oh, and now, actually editting the minutes, in addition to the moment noted already:
--A sentence deleted about exactly WHY something will not be renewed. Upon holding in morning Light, RantWoman thinks PROBABLY it is not necessary to be as blunt about reasons for a decision as the draft minutes were. HOWEVER, RantWoman thinkts it might still have been on point to say something like "After laboring about several issues for a number of years..."

--Addition of the phrase "from unallocated reserves" to a minute about money added to a budget line midyear. RantWoman definitely supports clarity about where money goes.

--A thread where RantWoman definitely meant to speak of discernment within her Meeting perhaps leading to greater community discernment but that got recorded only as discernment in a broader sense. RantWoman is unclear whether those who commented could hear the difference between what RantWoman said and what got recorded. Upon reflection in the light of a new day, PERHAPS it is RantWoman who was too limited in her thinking. Perhaps, except that RantWoman definitely meant her comments last month as a gentle kick in her Meeting's rear. RantWoman is trying to decide whether one commenter's snippiness mean RantWoman really was heard... Hold this all in the Light and blame Mercury being in retrograde, as opposed to usual RantWoman muddle if something remains confused!

Further riffs on the hours and hours doing something called Minutes theme:
--RantWoman tends to be a show your work recording clerk and to use minutes of exercise to record threads of discussion. RantWoman values the communion of shared discussion and finds it interesting to see how conversations evolve over time. RantWoman also finds minutes that record only decisions very sterile

--RantWoman likes careful use of terminology such as "unallocated reserves," nonprofit status, non--partisan...

--That said, RantWoman knows of no accounting dictionary anywhere that uses the phrase "peanut-buttered across two quarters..." with quite the same flair as one former treasurer.

--RantWoman likes a clear sense of where, usually which committee or body, something has come from, what instructions seem clear from minutes of exercise, and where topics get sent back to even if there is no other action besides sending the topic for more work.

--RantWoman heard mention of the idea of sending draft minutes out for Friends' attention say a week before Meeting for Business instead of on Fridays. RantWoman is unclear about this idea:

   --RantWoman thinks there is community value in hearing points of concern more than once and shared wisdom is needed sometimes for corrections.

   --RantWoman thinks this might burden Recording Clerks with lots of phone calls for clarification.
  --RantWoman thinks of two States of Society reports where email alone was definitely not sufficient for clarity and does not want that to be a precedent s far as minutes.

But RantWoman Recognizes that light may arrive differently to others.
Sigh.

Ask me for money, and...

RantWoman never minds repeating her exhortation: go ahead, ask me for money!

RantWoman thoroughly appreciates the varieties of Quaker content blossoming across the internet.

Some of the time, RantWoman greatly esteems all the things that come her way via blog roll from QuakerQuaker.org  . RantWoman has not checked lately but also has memories of uneven accessibility experiences. RantWoman has a list of web locations she means to check more systematically. The list is long. RantWoman sometimes just decides God is going to have to get her messages in the channels she finds easy to use. If anyone is thinking of trying to fix or to communicate to wahtever platform hosts QuakerQuaker that they fix things, RantWoman recommends seeing whether another screen reader user has happier experiences.

Finally, RantWoman cannot find evidence anywhere on teh Quaker Quaker website that there is any kind of support and accountability process. It's possible RantWoman is just missing this but RantWoman considers this important.

And now, an actual fundraising appeal from quakerquaker.org:

Thanks to everyone who stepped up in June when I sent out the last funding appeal. You were all very generous! Unfortunately QuakerQuaker doesn't quite have enough monthly supporters these days to reliably cover the expenses and the coffers are empty again. There are some three-month bills coming due next week and parts of the network will go dark unless they get paid. If everyone gave a small one-time gift or signed up for the $10 monthly support, we should have these immediate bills covered and keep the site humming for another few months. Other options for support are listed on our Donations page. All amounts truly do help. Thanks everyone! As always, I love hearing from readers and learning how you all use QuakerQuaker! If you only follow it from the QuakerQuaker.org site, do check us out and follow the community onFacebook,Twitter, or bydaily email. In Friendship, Martin Kelley, your Quakerquaker host Visit QuakerQuaker at: http://www.quakerquaker.org/?xg_source=msg_mes_network To control which emails you receive on QuakerQuaker, click here

Several quakerquaker items that grabbed attention

RantWoman is posting these links to her own blog to enable her to find them fast.

RantWoman does not guarantee that, without review, she will be able to have a conversation instantly. Hold that problem in the Light.

About Meeting for Worship, a Gathered Meeting
http://transitionquaker.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-amazing-absence-of-quaker-worship.html

About Testimony on Integrity
http://mamacitalujan.blogspot.com/2014/10/quakers-testimony-of-integrity-part-i.html

Colin Saxton, General Secretary of Friends United Meeting: pretty Christian language so please try to listen in tongues, hear energy and hope.
http://fum.org/energizing-equipping-connnecting-for-work-of-god

Lynn FitzHugh on Prayer and Action
http://thefriendlyseeker.blogspot.com/2014/09/corporate-witness.html

The Seventies are.... Friends and local witness about military issues for the CURRENT millenium

The Cut to the Chase Queries:

What are the spiritual needs of people with different kinds of recent military experience?

Do Friends even realize that there are young people among us who have recent military experience, not to mention cousins, parents,...?

Friends in our Meetings have various experiences both as conscientious objectors and with military service. How might Friends with these experiences share their Light with people who come to our community with war / military experiences?

How do Quaker parents cope when their children decide to enlist?

How many among us are familiar with:

--The nearest GI coffeehouse, Coffee Strong outside Joint Base Lewis McCord?

--The realities of different conscientious objector cases connected with current wars.

--The dynamics of the poverty draft and trading military services for immigration relief?

--the devastating challenges faced by returning veterans and returning vets' being overrepresented among the homeless, those with substance abuse and mental health issues?

--Screening programs, such as they are to assist troops returning from deployment, to assess their risks of PTSD, self-harm and other mental health issues, as well as access to services through military health systems and the Beterans' Administration?
--The Demise of Don't Ask Don't Tell, the expansion of combat roles for women....?

--Friends' and others' efforts to ensure that parents and youth have to OPT IN to having information shared with the Selective Service and military recruiters rather than having to OPT OUT?

RantWoman is cataloging all these concerns for seasoning; RantWoman thinks there is much work, the hats of advocacy roles looking for new heads. All RantWoman can do is call out...
Readers who want to interact further for current connections about the points raised above would be forgiven for stopping here and using your search engines. Or leave a comment and RantWoman will consider leadings to comment further or offer referrals.

Readers who want to pair the quest for current faces with peering into the past, please read on.
(Tactless RantWoman tirade: World War II is OVER. Korea is Over. Vietnam is OVER. It's a new millenium. RantWoman is TRYING not to Dis anyone's experiences but summons us all:  how are Friends called to be present in current situations?)

RantWoman's Meeting is in the midst of an interesting exercise about indexing minutes.

RantWoman's Meeting is blessed with software professionals who own scanners and have time to migrate some or all of minutes to the electronic world.

Based on a recent Adult Education session, RantWoman feels well heard about one suggestion: that some of the deciding what to index include reviews of Big Decisions, how they are reflected in minutes of Business Meeting and / or supporting committees.

Unfortunately, hearing RantWoman about one suggestion just generates MORE suggestions queries, quibbles, and general querulousness.

Gifted Historian Friend (who has other noms de blog) did an Adult Education presentation covering several topics, some of which get their own posts. RantWoman early on in the session insisted on collecting one piece of data about those assembled. RantWoman was born in the 1960's. RantWoman asked and no one present was born in a later decade; those born in earlier decades were unwilling to share their birth decades, though RantWoman has a pretty good idea in most cases.

(RantWoman tartly notes that Adult Ed currently occurs in a time slot where there is no child care. RantWoman is meditating about whether this point resonates with anyone else's concerns.)

But back to conscientious objection. Gifted Historian Friend extracted from minutes:

--Comments about one young CO who openly sought Sanctuary at the Meetinghouse after either going AWOL or not appearing in the first place, RantWoman is unsure which.

--Minutes of personal support for one Friend led to sit in at the Selective Service

--Collection by Meeting of letters from young people, okay young men, documenting their faith in case the Selective Service came calling.

--Accounts both of support for young men going to Canada and for medics returning home and enrolling in special training options customized based on their experience as military medics.

--Longstanding support for draft counseling through the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) or when AFSC laid it down by Friends with strong leadings regardless of what AFSC did.

Appreciating these opportunities to peer into the past do not lessen RantWoman's clarity about the queries that open this post.

Some Items on Racism and Friends and faith and faithfulness

First, RantWoman is not going to make it to the following event but has asked to remain on the mailing list:

Faith Action Network A Partnership for the Common Good

FAN joins United Black Christian Clergy and Church Council of Greater Seattle to specially invite you to join us tomorrow evening for a conversation on Racial Equity in Seattle: Tuesday, October 7, 6:30pm at True Vine of Holiness Church, 7817 S. 125th St, Seattle, 98178; 6:30pm light refreshments, 7:00-8:30pm Community Discussion. The evening will be facilitated by the City of Seattle Race and Social Justice Initiative as a listening session for input from the faith communities on their priorities and Strategic Plan Process. Please join us for this important discussion! Please RSVP to Emmanuel Mancilla at emancilla@thechurchcouncil.org Here are two stunning articles from Friends Journal. http://www.friendsjournal.org/experience-african-american-quaker/ Read the comments. They are as stunning as the events recounted. http://www.friendsjournal.org/dear-friendgood-white-person/ I would be interested in what Friends make of these articles as well as the whole issue. Other Items: A powerful tribute to Dr. Eddie Moore, founder of the White Privilege Conference who, until his recent dismissal was Director of Diversity at Brooklyn Friends School: http://willoughbystreetjournal.blogspot.com/2014/10/remembering-dr-moore.html From Sojourners God's PoliticsBlog http://sojo.net/blogs/2014/10/03/racial-justice-our-divine-duty?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sojourners%2Fgods-politics+%28Sojourners+God%27s+Politics+Blog%29

Why Didn't you leave: HuffPost item with multiple links

RantWoman thanks Peggy Senger Morrison for two stories:

--On one of Peggy's trips to Africa, she was helping a widows support group. Peggy reported that, when the women heard about rights expressed in various UN documents, one of the students said something along the lines of "Teacher Peggy, we would be glad to have husbands even if they beat and raped us."

--In Peggy's most recent book "Miracle Motors: a Pert Near True Story" there is a chapter about doing a talk in the morning about experiences with domestic violence and in the afternoon having MANY one-on-one conversations with women who, for a very large number of different reasons just CANNOT leave.
RantWoman has had little time to wade into current news items about domestic violence and the NFL but here is a blog as filing cabinet item should RantWoman eed to say more.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/12/why-didnt-you-just-leave_n_5805134.html


RantWoman holds all these situations in the Light and also holds in the Light people around these situations for whom itis seldom obvious what will help.

Johan Maurer on Functional Ecumenism

Blog as filing cabinet item.

Johan Maurer on Ecumenism and Friends structures

http://johanpdx.blogspot.com/2014/10/functional-ecumenism.html

If it saves one life? Exchange about I 594

RantWoman thanks YouTube for another Vote yes on I 594 No on I 591 posting:

Morning Oatmeal with Multiple

Morning Oatmeal with Amazing Artist Friend

One good thing about someone RantWoman is very fond of crashing on her couch: RantWoman also gets more sleep because she does not just fall asleep in front of the computer but instead gets dressed for bed and becomes properly horizontal in her bed before falling asleep. This morning everyone woke up with oatmeal on our minds and when it was prepared sat down to chat.

RantWoman remembers some time sequences before and after Amazing Artist Friend started speaking of the several of her. RantWoman does not apologize if the time sequences are hard to follow. RantWoman is confident that the key points should emerge regardless.

How did you first recognize...?

Amazing Artist Friend now she does not lose time but in the past has told RantWoman of numerous moments when something happened or others told her something happened and she has evidence of it happening but no conscious memory. This makes sense of some RantWoman experiences around Amazing Artist Friend; some of these experiences could be REALLY annoying without this frame. RantWoman does not remember any specifics except the ones that Amazing artist Friend has told her involving other people. RantWoman THINKS talk of events with no conscious memory may have been what made RantWoman's own counselor stop questioning RantWoman about the issue of there being several of Amazing Artist Friend.

Amazing Artist Friend reported just sitting at a desk or a table and looking out a window and having this sudden sense of someone else walking into her body. Amazing Artist Friend said no one would have been able to tell just from looking at her sitting.

How many are there of you?

21 or 23, we are not sure.

And on average for multiples?

16

Dang? RantWoman only hangs out with overachievers?

And did the Buddhist meditation help?

Amazing Artist Friend said that she felt lucky not to to have to fight the denial some multiples have to overcome. Amazing Artist Friend said for her, the experiences of alters emerging tended to come with very strong emotions attached, but she was able just to work with new alters as objective realities, not something to be fought or hidden from.

And were you seeing a counselor when all this happened.

Yes, but she didn't get it. She said things that made some of Amazing Artist Friend's selves suicidal and then took it personally when they spoke up about this.

RantWoman remembers some Ai-yi-yi phone conversations about this. Amazing Artist Friend is fairly retrograde technologywise and RantWoman would have had to call rather than email.

RantWoman remembers calling more frequently for awhile.  RantWoman also remembers a phone conversation about how whoever came to the appointments, they would all probably be better off if they let Amazing Artist Friend be available to sign the billing paperwork.

Amazing Artist Friend said things got to a point where she was having to drag some of her selves to appointments and she refused to do that anymore. So she asked around and found ...another multiple!

Amazing Artist Friend says it's like gaydar.

Hunted: new HBO documentary about gays in Russia

Posted with prayers for many people RantWoman knows

The Daily Show
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Indecision Political Humor,The Daily Show on Facebook

In Memory, Stephen Seymour, Russian Interpreter

RantWoman posts this unedited except for some format fussing from one of her translator lists a couple days ago. There are things it might occur to RantWoman to edit, but RantWoman is touched by the late Mr. Seymour being remembered for his translations of his wife's poetry. More often it's the wife supporting her husband in this way.

In Memoriam: Translator and interpreter Steven Seymour
May 22, 1946 - Sept 23, 2014

Today is the 9th day commemoration meeting in New York.
 Steven Seymour was a professional interpreter/translator who had worked for years as a contractor to the US State Department at the Geneva negotiations on nuclear arms control and disarmament, as well as at the US Embassy in Moscow. In recent years, he had been working on literary translations from Russian, Polish, and French.

The first collection of Steven Seymour's wife, renowned poet Vera Pavlova, in English, If There Is Something toDesire, translated by Steven Seymour, is published by Alfred A. Knopf.

Vera Pavlova was born in Moscow. She graduated from the Gnessin Academy, specializing in the history of music, and is the author of fourteen collections of poetry,four opera librettos, and lyrics to two cantatas. She is currently oneof the best-selling authors in Russia.

Video: Poet Vera Pavlovadiscusses the unique satisfaction she feels when Steven Seymour translates her poetry.
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/features/video/199

Steven and Vera met in 2001 at19.00 p.m. in Spaso House, the residence of the U.S. ambassador to Russia. WhenVera met Steven, she met someone who already knew her poems by heart. After working in Moscow for 8 years, Steven returned to the United States where he continues working as an interpreter. They have been together for twelve years and married for seven. This personal touch gives Seymour an immediate advantage in translating his wife’s work.

Vera: “Almost all of my poems of the last ten years are dedicated to my husband. It’s easier for him to translate because he’s lived through it and he knows the context.”

Seymour: 'The main differencewith translating Vera is that my other clients don’t argue with me.'
“Most couples argue over who should have done the dishes – we argue over the rightword in a translation,” Vera Pavlova said with a chuckle. “It’s incredibly cathartic and makes the rest of our family life very peaceful.”

Vera Pavlova:
Когда последняя бедазатмит все наши горести,отправлюсь за тобой тудана следующем поездене потому, что нету силобдумывать последствия,но - вдруг ты что-нибудь забыл? -Таблетки, галстук, лезвия…

Translation by Steven Seymour:
Whenthe very last griefdeadens all our pain,I will follow you thereon the very next train,not because I lack strengthto ponder the end result,but maybe you forgot to bringpills, a necktie, razor blades …


Vera Pavlova:
Богачам, нам нечего терять.Старикам, нам некуда спешить.Нам ‒ подушки прошлого взбивать, будущего угли ворошить,нам ‒ о самом главном говоритьна излете медленного дня,нам ‒ бессмертных наших хоронить:мне тебя, потом тебе ‒ меня.

Translation by Steven Seymour:
We are rich: we have nothing to lose.
Weare old: we have nowhere to rush.
We shall fluff the pillows of the past,
poke the embers of the days to come,
talk about what means the most,
as the indolent daylight fades.
Weshall lay to rest our undying dead:
Ishall bury you, you will bury me.

Eternal Memory.