Resources for those Grab the Blind Person and Bless Them moments

God is bountiful. RantWoman has not 1 but TWO items to stash in her mental folder full of resources for those "Grab the Blind Person and Bless them" moments.

On the accumulation of well-meant microaggressions
https://haddayr.wordpress.com/2015/05/29/on-the-accumulation-of-well-meant-microagressions/

Protocol for Help
http://www.holliseaster.com/p/protocol-for-help/

College Reunion Reflections and Time Warp

RantWoman is not clear that her adoring public is clamoring for more evidence of RantWoman's mind wandering back and forth between the 1980's and the present, but RantWoman did promise...

RantWoman has no plans physically to attend her 30th college reunion but will accept a brunch invitation from the new alumni of the Two Dickinson St. Co-op. RantWoman will attend electronically with offerings of recipes and reflections and references to options in hi-vis garments conveniently created in "Safety Orange," and not just because orange and black are the school colors.

 The 2 Dickinson St Co-op, RantWoman's college domicile for 2 of her 4 years. RantWoman senior year lived behind the third floor window on the upper right. RantWoman liked the word co-op partly because RantMom also lived in a co-op when she was in college. RantWoman thinks RantMom's single sex co-op with a house mother who invited her charges in to watch Lawrence Welk on Saturday nights was, um, another world compared to 2D. .

For just one example:

·       RantWoman, you know that sit-in you had during finals week about divestment from corporations doing business in S. Africa? What do you have to say 30 years on?

 

o   Umm, yeah. RantWoman has a life and visible roles in matters of public interest. And RantWoman is STILL gosh-dangit going to risk candor and reflection.

 

o   Maybe RantWoman’s oddest regret: RantWoman thinks it would have been decidedly on-point to be better informed about the Truth and Reconciliation process that occurred after Nelson Mandela was released from prison. The best RantWoman can report is having listened to S African Quakers talk about what a big deal it was sometimes for people of different races just to pray together.

 

o   Oh and RantWoman learned in the remembrances after Mandela’s death about Mandela’s diplomacy with other African countries

 

·       Closer to campus.

 

o   The sit-in occurred because President Bowen gave a statement after the Board of Trustees meeting. The Board again failed to do anything in response to a student petition. The Daily Princetonian (“The Prince”) reported that Pres. Bowen said the matter was closed. RantWoman does not remember the exact wording. Pres. Bowen told angry divestment movement leaders that he was misquoted. The campus divestment movement asked Pres. Bowen to clarify or ask for a correction.  Pres. Bowen refused; he said if he asked for a correction people would think all the times he did NOT ask for a correction that what the Prince prints is true. Well, NO. Most of the student activists also sometimes got misquoted by the Prince, but that time…

 

o   While preparing for the sit-in RantWoman fielded a call from a wonderful African-American student who cheered on the sit-in but said he could not participate. He went to college on an ROTC scholarship and did not want to do anything to endanger his commissioning.

 

o   RantWoman was astounded by the LARGE percentage of her 2 Dickinson St housemates who participated in the sit-in. RantWoman has sometimes just had to grab for whatever unconventional success indicator comes along, in this case “highest participation rate of any housing unit on campus…”

 

o   RantWoman thinks it is VERY surreal to have a sit-in first thing in the morning, get scooped up and transported to the borough police, processed and released in time to make a final at 1:00 pm.

 

o   RantWoman has absolutely no regrets that one of the people RantMom met on her first tour of campus was a proctor (campus security officer) who wanted to know whether RantWoman would be willing to deliver summons for a disciplinary hearing to her numerous housemates who participated. RantWoman does not remember whether or not she just let the proctor deliver the summonses.

 

o   RantWoman has absolutely no regrets that she sent RantMom off to see what there was to be seen on Nassau St. while said disciplinary hearing took place.

 

o   By the way, RantWoman was flattered actually earlier in the year when she and other noted campus political activists featured prominently in the editorial page of the campus newspaper’s annual joke issue. The RantDad school of media consulting would say “I don’t care what you say about me, just keep saying it!”

 

 

·       RantWoman, do you still go to protests?

 

o   Sometimes RantWoman finds protests incredibly exhilarating. The reasons for this vary. Sometimes RantWoman is grateful also to have words and wit in public meetings!

 

o   Nowadays as a result of DNA Lotto and midlife vision meltdown, RantWoman goes about with Ambassador Thwack, the Badly Behaved White Cane and Anger Management Consultant. RantWoman knows several people blinder than herself who do not appear to get as stressed out as RantWoman does. RantWoman has learned she is about average in terms of some vision actually being harder to deal with that less vision. RantWoman has no particular interest in being average but has learned not to add dodging tear gas and irritable people to the mix. So sometimes RantWoman stays home, sees what there is to see via Twitter, or tries to send peaceful constructive energy.

 

o   RantWoman has also become Protest Curmudgeon:

 

§  NO, you may NOT abuse your children while on peace marches.

 

§  Dude, that female officer probably did not need to pepper spray you in the face, but ya know, she was probably tired and cranky and you certainly could have asked whatever you needed to ask about of one of the other officers who is more your size.

 

§  NO, You may NOT protest capitalism with brand new projectiles. How about options that are organic, shade-grown, AT LEAST recycled????

 

 

Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing- Skip Cleavinger, Bagpipes

RantWoman is proud to admit: she has a thing for bagpipes.

RantWoman can certainly claim pride in heritage.

RantWoman also sometimes admires capacity to make a hell of a lot of noise audible at great distance from a performer.

RantWoman appreciates "The Google" for serving up this offering recently when RantWoman searched on "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing."

Free Will Astrology week of May 27

RantWoman still needs wise elders.

RantWoman has available Free Will Astrology for the week of May 27

CANCER (June 21–July 22): Only one fear is worthy of you. Only one fear is real enough and important enough to awaken and activate the numb part of your intelligence. So for now, I suggest that you retire all lesser fears. Stuff them in a garbage bag and hide them in a closet. Then put on your brave champion face, gather the allies and resources you need, and go forth into glorious battle. Wrestle with your one fear. Reason with it. If necessary, use guile and trickery to gain an advantage. Call on divine inspiration, and be a wickedly good truth-teller. And this is crucial: Use your fear to awaken and activate the numb part of your intelligence.


Hold in the Light an upcoming meeting and discernment process.

Lecture Notes / Blog Posts: John Kershner on John Woolman

Blog as filing cabinet item: wonderful resource. RantWoman trusts that readers will be able to find the rest of the series from this link.

http://www.jonrkershner.net/2015/04/the-theology-of-john-woolman-part-1-of-6.html

Remembrances of John Nash

RantWoman has too many other threads tangled to reflect as due on the recent death of mathematician and economist John Nash. So for now, some things that came in by email will have to hold the thoughts.


https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-like-glimpse-john-nashs-beautiful-mind-maurice-ewing-phd

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/world-lost-beautiful-mind-tribute-genius-john-nash-von-der-heydt



And eccentrically, after watching the moment from his Nobel acceptace speech in one of the linska bove, some other thoughts that were lurking in a different draft.

from something on the radio
...surrendering into grace....


From a blog post: a Good Fall
http://firstdaypress.org/a-good-fall/

Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing on Handbells

God has a twisted sense of humor.

RantWoman came to her office at the Friendly Neighborhood Center for Extreme Computing. It's Don't mess with comfort food, no matter how odiferous" day for Korean elders who come to lunch nearby twice a week.

Often there is music. Today the tune was Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. The words were in Korean.

RantWoman referred the problem to Youtube and was served up:

Prayer. Awe. Night of the Northern Lights

This is an absolutely spectacular northern lights footage.

Rantwoman offers it as a prayer, a primordial prayer with the thought that such things probably looked even more awesome to the ancients than they do to RantWoman's dazzled eyes.

Prayer from FOR Executive Director Kristin Stoneking in Connection with NPT Treaty Review Conference

These words speak to RantWoman's strivings, if not exactly to her condition, the state of her own spiritual compost heap. Here's to hope and groundedness, and reprinting verbatim from an email.

Dear (RantWoman) The month-long deliberations of governments in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) review at the United Nations ended today. Just before the talks began, FORUSA staff participated in the Peace and Planet weekend conference and mobilization for a nuclear-free, peaceful, just, and sustainable world. As we reported earlier, the weekend featured an interfaith service at the UN Church Center, powerful speakers at a mass rally in Union Square where the Global Wave 2015 -- a synchronized wave from all over the world to say goodbye to nuclear weapons -- was launched, and a march to the UN that clearly demonstrated to world leaders that the people want a nuclear free planet. I was blessed with the opportunity to deliver the homily at the interfaith service on the Sunday morning before the NPT talks began. As the outcome of this five year review appears to offer both hope of progress and evidence that our work as peacemakers must continue, I'd like to share that homily with you now by way of offering an ongoing prayer: In 1948, three years after atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, when the genocidal world war that claimed the lives of over 60 million had ended, Jacques Ellul, the French Philosopher and lay theologian, observed that never before had we as a society given more attention to our security, never had we invested more in technological solutions to our security, and yet never before had we felt so insecure. We have gathered here as the review of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty is about to begin because we know, as people of faith, that true security will never come from a weapons system. Security is not primarily a political issue, it is a spiritual issue. True security is the opposite of the mad grasping we experience when nation states spend billions on building and maintaining nuclear weapons systems. True security is letting go, it is waking up to the illusion that peace can be brought by some external technological means. True security is striving instead for life through the truth that we are all interconnected and interdependent; or, as Zen Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh says, "We inter-are." If we take the focus off security and strive instead to tend to each other's deep wellbeing, we will find a kind of thriving never attainable when mere security is the goal. As has been borne witness to in this conference, the structure of a society that relies on nuclear weapons for security will play out its logical conclusions that militarized communities are necessary, that mass incarceration is necessary, the repression of freedom is necessary, that nature is something to be used and abused.There is a connection between nuclear missiles in silos in Wyoming and Colorado and North Dakota and the automatic weapons aimed at protestors in Ferguson. There is a connection between nuclear arsenals that could annihilate life on this planet and the climate change we are now experiencing. This grasping for security is a death cycle. But the pursuit of peace through an acknowledgment of our interdependence is a spiral leading to ever greater abundance and life. We are connecting our struggles, and in so doing, connecting ourselves. We, as people from all faith traditions and spiritualties, must lift up a different way, not to death but to life. What is this way? Where does it begin? As peacemakers, we are called to bring hope where there is despair, faith where there is doubt, pardon where there is injury. We are called to the work of reconciliation which begins by bearing witness to the harm that we have caused, because that harm has not yet been healed. On Friday night (at the opening plenary), in sitting with each other in 45 seconds of silence as Daniel Ellsberg instructed us to do, envisioning the space between the dropping and the detonation of the bomb over Hiroshima, we were preparing ourselves to bear witness. In hearing the testimony of the children of the A bomb, we are not turning away from the hubris and the horrors of our nuclear past and present. In persevering for peace by protest and participation in the review conference, we are seeking to make right the grave moral injury to humanity and creation that nuclear weapons perpetuate. The work to create a world free from nuclear weapons is a gargantuan task, and it is easy to become overwhelmed with it. To be unsuccessful in it is to risk the survival of our planet, our natural world, our human species. But we need only to look into the faces of children and youth, to bring the overwhelm to scale. A few weeks ago, my son turned 13. In many spiritual traditions, this is the age at which persons begin to take on adult responsibilities within the community, to make commitments and contributions. He is a person with a peacemaker's heart. He is exploring nonviolence, and he especially finds comfort in the company of other pacifists. Our work is to support a vision for his decency and his life, and for the decency and abundant thriving of all children and youth, all creatures and species who will inherit the earth. It is individual, it is moment by moment, it is all of us. Our gathering here this morning, our proclamation throughout the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty review conference, and our ongoing quest for abolition through a global ethic of solidarity is the light in the darkness and the hope in the face of despair. May we be emboldened by that vision, may we be sustained by each other and may we be empowered by the spirit of life and goodness and abundance in the universe as we bring to fruition a nuclear free world. Amen. In service to a peaceful, just, and sustainable world, Rev. Kristin Stoneking Executive Director Fellowship of Reconciliation

Swearing, Affirming and the British Parliament, via the BBC

A fun fast read about history and modern practices when it comes to swearing in members of the British Parliament:

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-32809040


Offered also by way of commentary about plenty of schools and maybe courts in the US which still do not seem to get it about freedom of religion.

Recently: the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide.

RantWoman has been noting a number of anniversaries, not least the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide, the growth in willingness to acknowledge the events as a genocide, and the questions of how one is to remember.

RantWoman notes this blog post as one testimony:

https://lightandlotus.wordpress.com/2015/05/13/no-justice-no-peace-the-armenian-genocide-and-black-lives-matter/

Masses of Mothers Day mentionings.....

This is being editted after the fact. RantFamily mother's day festivities were unusually festive this year, and this does not even count various motherhood themes entangled in other reaches of Planet RantWoman.

(Example 1. Various particularly piquant motherhood matters around RantWoman's Meeting. Hold in the Light so that even if they emerge with much quaking at least they emerge in Quakerese.)

(Example 2. Motherhood and apple pie threads: Peace camp events at Schlesinger Library seasoned with Protest Curmudgeon and local May Day celebration garnished with the legislative lurches of the special session)

RantWoman is trying to make LOTS of efforts to forgive. Unfortunately forgiving means first loudly and extravagantly naming what RantWoman is trying to forgive. Hold on for the ride. Holding in the Light does not hurt either.

First order of Business: RantMom got a rotten kind of phone call just as RantWoman was bringing over non-adventurous sushi for Mothers Day supper. RantBrother appears to have been trying to phone from some evil extortionist jail phone system. RantMom was NOT going to interact with the Robocall features in the first place. In the second place RantBrother is, last anyone knew, in Denver. RantMom says the weather there is cold and snowy so unfortunately, RantBrother MIGHT be better off being guaranteed of being indoors. Hold all and sundry in the Light.
   Update: Thank you Little Sister for using the online lookup to acquire the info that Rant Brother was indeed phoning from jail until his charges were dismissed in a hearing on Monday.

Also, hold in the Light O, P, P, N wholse mothers have all recently passed away and Wingnut whose mother and stepdad are having serious health and coping issues.

It's Mother's day and you want RantWoman to be centered for Meeting for Business????

Think all kinds of freight trains switching in the yard in the background. Take Little Sister for just ONE carload, tugged around by RantWoman's humble acknowledgement that one of the perks of being Auntie is that RantWoman gets to give the kid Back!.

Dear Little Sister

Look, it's your bad luck that your birthday and Mother's Day usually fall in the same week.  I am really glad you liked the pot of flowers I brought over for your birthday. I am glad it just made you smile when I admitted I lost patience on the greeting card front and did not even attempt to equal your standards in that realm.

Thank you by the way for asking me something about my health, taking 10 minutes to tell me all about more details than I would have thought to want of your interactions with the same topic and then for the 30 seconds it took me to say "Nope" and another 30 seconds to commiserate about insurance issues. Okay, it's petty of RantWoman even to mention it and it was YOUR birthday so you get to talk about anything you want.

(RantWoman is glad to hear that some RantWoman presence in a public input process MAY have something to do with cutting your exposure risk for specific idiotic features of your nearest bus stop and will look forward to full details about new concrete! RantWoman will also try to manage such self care as helps maintain faithfulness about the ocean of endless similar problems to stand firm upon .)

RantWoman already outdid herself with minimalist greeting cards. RantWoman is still glad to have a sister and this time it's Happy Mother's Day time. Plus now RantWoman has a whole blog so things are going to get way more verbose than when rantWoman was chronicling Irrepressible Nephew's growth 500 characters at a time via  alpha pager.

Now Irrepressible Nephew stands over 6'2". No mmore standing on Auntie's shoulders to be Tall Monkey. He gets there on his own. His shoe size is larger than his age. He barely admits in public that  he knows the adults he is related to. RantWoman is heartened to hear of some teachers and a church youth pastor and adults from a school friend's family who all seem to be important presences.

RantWoman humbly acknowledges,  if Irrepressible Nephew were RantWoman's kid, he would probably have a whole different set of complexes. RantWoman really appreciates the ways you are trying to do a better job than our parents did about many topics. RantWoman appreciates this and then RantWoman plows into topics where there is still some kind of OWWWW.

Take Irrepressible Nephew's birth and care of minor children if a parent is unable to do it, only one of the MANY corners at the RantWoman Yucky Topics Festival corner of the RantWoman Spiritual Amusement Park. Also a topic sort of perennially on RantWoman's mind due, among other things, to Little Sister REALLY needing a whole village anyway because of multiple medical issues.  

RantWoman remembers the RantParents doing wills and talking about who they wanted to raise the RantProgeny if the RantParents died but that was kind of before people started doing advance directives.  But here's the thing: RantWoman's Meeting community is blessed with many children and families, some of whom also have hard things around the edges. RantWoman went to a certain Advance Directive event. RantWoman had much to say but did NOT say everything on her mind. It's not like talking about circumstances involving advance directives sounds like a way to have a real fun time for her Meeting's parents, but was rantWoman's reticence depriving others of push to think about....?????

 [long narrative, digression?]: When Irrepressible Nephew was born, Brother in law was in Guatemala and Little Sister had a high-risk pregnancy for a whole bunch of reasons. RantWoman has no idea whether anyone tried to encourage Little Sister to think about bad possibilities. RantWoman also has ZIP expectation that Little Sister would have received any questions about the topic well.

As it was, Irrepressible Nephew was born c-section and Little Sister developed some kind of infection. The hospital was ready to discharge the baby on the schedule one would expect for healthy newborns, but Little Sister was a patient several days longer. The hospital told Little Sister that if she had someone else with her in the hospital 24/7 to take care of the baby that he could stay with her. Otherwise there were going to be issues of CPS or Auntie suddenly having a newborn to take care of. Auntie RantWoman immediately inspired confidence too: her first effort to change Nephew's diaper resulted both in her getting peed on and the diaper somehow getting attached basically backwards.

Little Sister scrambled. A couple of Little Sister's Friends and RantWoman traded off for overnights but some of the time during the day Little Sister was getting help from the teenage Latinas in her church. RantWoman decided that as long as the atinas were over 12, the legal age for babysitting Auntie just got to observe. Little Sister was really motivated to be a mother and RantWoman is glad things worked out, but RantWoman wouldn't have minded a smoother path, not to mention fewer recapitulations...
  
Earth to RantWoman: do you EVER manage anything less that fire hose level of intensity...?

Honestly, not so far but keep hoping and Happy belated Mothers Day.

Mothers Day Hair Meditations: Curly and Fuzzy and a brother in between

God has a TWISTED sense of humor. RantWoman sat down to write a Mother's Day item for Little Sister. That is still seasoning.

Instead RantWoman offers the birth stories of RantMom's 3 children, at least in terms of hair:

RantWoman was born with a full head of curly hair. Family lore: RantDad had lunch with one of RantWoman's auxiliary backup grandmother / namesakes before coming to see RantMom at the hospital. Auxiliary Backup Grandma was scandalized that RantDad ate green onions for lunch. That truly did not bother RantMom.

RantWoman was too little to remember much of RantBrother's appearance on the scene. He had hair too. RantDad said a forcep mark on RantBrother's cheek made him an ugly baby. Poor RantBrother especially since RantWoman was also WAY too young to appreciate a sibling.


RantWoman remembers RantMom being pregnant with Little Sister, talk of a seed in a tummy. RantWoman does not remember details of RantMom going into labor or going to the hospital. RantWoman does remember Little Sister, Fuzz, coming home from the hospital with the whole family, RantDad driving, RantMom in the front seat with the baby, in the hoary mists of prehistory before newborns were not allowed out of hospitals and into cars without a car seat. RantBrother sat behind RantDad;  a toddler-aged RantWoman peered over the other side of the back seat at the new baby. She had hardly any hair, very light colored and no eyebrows that RantWoman could see even though RantWoman already had her first pair of glasses.


If RantWoman were a more focused writer or drawing more easily from wells of magical realism, RantWoman MIGHT try to spin a whole fountain of "go talk to your counselor" themes into better narrative, but for now RantWoman is going to trust her Light about including the item below in the same blog post even as she leaves readers guessing about how threads connect.

This item is dedicated to RantBrother and to RantWoman's current efforts to see whether MAYBE possibly RantMom might SOMEHOW intersect with some mental health services. Hold in Light.

What it's like when your rapist appears as "People you may know" on Facebook
Spoken word; TRIGGER WAARNING, which is why this comes as a link instead of a video:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/20/kevin-kantor-people-you-may-know_n_7100968.html?ir=Technology&ncid=tweetlnkushpmg00000046

Great non-Moments from the wonders of Peaceful Protest: SATIRE

RantWoman is filing this because it made her laugh.

https://thenib.com/great-moments-in-peaceful-protest-history-44bdadb44cf?gi=2be68f713638

State of Society Report 2014-2015

University Friends Meeting (UFM), Seattle WA

State of the Meeting Report 2014‐2015
 

The 2014-2015 year has been an active one for University Friends Meeting, with many activities and decisions nurturing the presence of the Spirit in our community.
 

The Meeting approved a recommendation from Worship & Ministry to renew our ecclesiastical endorsement of Natasha White Marsh's chaplaincy at the Swedish Medical Center, Group Health Hospice, and at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, which is required to maintain her board certification as a chaplain. The Meeting approved and supported member Pablo Stanfield’s continuing peace ministry in Cuba teaching mediation skills and other classes and then united in recognizing this ongoing ministry here as well. We recognized and celebrated the longtime service to our preschool children of our First Day School teacher Katherine Spinner.

Thoughtfully and patiently working through a number of issues in our community has helped us understand the distinction between consensus and sense of the Meeting. Friends affirmed the need to address each other respectfully and to value the perspective of those who are unable to unite with decisions of Meeting.

Financial support is part of being involved in the life of the Meeting and the Treasurer's report indicates cash and total assets are healthy despite some fairly substantial building maintenance expenses. A major contribution also helped maintain the building fund.

Work on the UFM building grounds replacing plantings with native species and removing or

trimming trees is almost complete with many people volunteering time. Friends Center
Committee continues to provide twice-monthly light lunch, organizes the summer picnic,

sponsors a Thanksgiving meal, hosts the Christmas and other potlucks, and helps with retreats and memorials.
 

UFM planned and hosted the fall Pacific Northwest Quarterly Meeting on the theme “Weavin

Together Our Inner Journey with Our Outer Life and Action”.
 

The Education Committee has promoted intergenerational connections within the Meeting by inviting members to sign up for opportunities to match families and older adult members. They have also participated in joint meetings with the parents and children from Salmon Bay, South Seattle and Eastside Meetings. QuEST continues its mentorship program for their Fellows, matching interested Fellows and mentors from the Meeting. Work is underway exploring the possibility of building connections between QuEST and Quaker Voluntary Service.

Friends from UFM have been actively involved in Friends Committee on Washington Public

Policy, which supports and coordinates Quaker participation in public policy development and implementation in Washington State. In February, more than 20 persons traveled to Olympia to participate in Quaker Lobby Day, meeting with legislators to share their views on criminal justice, economic justice, and environmental issues.
  UFM Peace and Social Concerns committee is working with Olympia Friends in their work supporting the New Friends Underground Railroad in its work supporting LGBTQ Ugandans

fleeing their homeland. P&SC also prepared a letter expressing support for repeal of the Authorization of the Use of Military Force (AUMF), in the same spirit as the one endorsed by 2014 NPYM at Annual Session.

Members of the UFM community have also been participating in the U District Improvement

Area meetings in anticipation of a rapid rise in density of the U-District as the nearby light rail station is completed and high rise offices and condos are built in the neighborhood. How can UFM maintain itself as a spiritual community nurturing its members and providing care for the homeless in the midst of heavier traffic, less parking, rising living costs and a new mix of people nearby?

Junior Friends from Eastside, South Seattle, and University Friends Meetings meet each month at UFM to spend Quaker-style time together, worship together, and plan activities. A Junior Friends room has been designated and is being decorated with pictures, Friendly phrases, and a Quaker history map. To raise money for a service trip to Guatemala, Junior Friends from all three Meetings hosted a Guatemalan Dinner attended by over 40 people, offered Parents Night Out childcare events, and solicited donations. The trip to Guatemala with other Junior Friends in NPYM was a success, including touring sights, living with local families, doing service work with a women’s cooperative, and worshipping together in beautiful surroundings of the Maya highlands.

 

UFM continues its relationship with SHARE (Seattle Housing and Resource Effort), providing space in our worship room for homeless persons to sleep each night.

By providing inclusive, spiritually centered activities in multiple ways, including committee

spiritual sharing groups, Quaker 8 dinners, adult religious education, Junior Friends meetings, intergenerational childrens’ education, two gathered worship sessions each First Day, evening mid-week worship, and support of the SHARE homeless project, UFM weaves networks of connection among members of its community. Common to all these activities is time taken to open ourselves to the presence and motion of a loving Spirit and letting it guide us in our decisions.

 

During 2014-2015, UFM gained four new members while losing 7, for a total of 151

members. We mourned the loss of long time members Mike Yarrow, Faith Adams, Lenore Arnautoff, and Bill Long.
 

University District Business Improvement area

RantWoman knows perfectly well that her blog as quaker journal model of content curation is already way too raggedy. Cope. RantWoman thinks there might be some value in collecting links related to public processes in the U-district.  If someone has other ideas....

First, an item RantWoman penned for her Meeting's newsletter after a discussion of minutes where RantWoman completely mangled the point that someone else who so far has not acquired a nom-de-blog had also presented on the topic.



Major changes will be coming to the University District over the next several years. New Light Rail stations will be opening and there will also be transit and other changes. Many in the area expect zoning changes to promote transit-oriented development, increased housing density as well as other economic activity.

One important forum to discuss these impending changes is the U-District Partnership http://udistrictpartnership.org/ For the last 4 years, the U District Partnership has been promoting extensive conversations among community, business, academic leaders, faith communities, and homeless or social services advocates. Friends interested in knowing more are encouraged to sign up for the U District Partnership email list.

In June 2014, in connection with the U District conversation on Homelessness and the U District Partnership, UFM Meeting for Business approved a minute petitioning the City of Seattle to create a new larger U District Business Improvement Area in the U-District. The Finance and Culture Committee of the City Council is working on an ordinance that will define the boundaries, financing, and governance of the BIA.  Friends can find the calendar and video record for these hearings at  http://www.seattlechannel.org/mayor-and-council/city-council/20142015-finance-and-culture-committee#mayor-and-council/city-council/20142015-finance-and-culture-committee/?videoid=x53619&_suid=14289545956070021373954600313272

Tip: the hearings always open with a poetry reading. Finance Committee currently anticipates that UFM's financial assessment will be very modest but hot topics in the hearings include the boundaries of the BIA, how other categories of property owners will be assessed and the scope of authority granted to whoever manages the BiA, expected to be the U District Partnership. Friends are encouraged to inform themselves as they have time and as this process evolves.

From Council Member Licata's blog
http://www.seattlechannel.org/mayor-and-council/city-council/full-council?videoid=x54221

The hearing of the Full Council on April 24, 2015 enacting the revised BIA
http://www.seattlechannel.org/mayor-and-council/city-council/full-council?videoid=x54221


The entire string of Seattle City Council Finance and Culture Committee hearings on same.
http://find.seattle.gov/search?q=university+district+Business+improvement+area&btnG=Go&client=seachannel_frontend&proxystylesheet=seachannel_frontend&output=xml_no_dtd&filter=0&site=seaChannel&filter=0

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY MOM

RantWoman seems to be in "less is more" mode as far as Mothers day verbosity.

HAPPY Mothers Day MOM! 

Love and Giant Prayers!

Another Journey to Planet RantWoman: Peace Camp, Decisions, reflections.

RantWoman decided not to heed whatever warning Youtube is trying to convey; RantWoman wants to highlight the following video from http://peacecampherstory.blogspot.com  particularly because it discusses a very intense and time consuming Quaker moment, one RantWoman was not present for. Is RantWoman just harboring unreasonable expectations about matters closer to home? Either way, savor this history.



Some reflection questions RantWoman posted to the Peace Camp Facebook group:

Hey Peace Camp Wimmins!

First THANK YOU to Hershe and Estelle and all the people who have pulled this event together! You are awesome. I actually am not sure I wish I could be there. For one thing I am fussy about carbon budget and air travel and I have plenty to keep me engaged in Seattle but I absolutely salute all your work and care of this history and all the messy things tangled with it in my mind.

I wonder whether anyone besides me is game for a little focussed reflection.

Here are some questions on my mind. MAYBE I will get something written by the weekend, probably not even though I wish... but either way....

What has stuck with you the most about the Seneca Women's Peace Encampment / Women's Encampment for a Future of Peace and Justice?

Did anyone notice, somewhere maybe in the 1990's when the Soviet Union fell apart, the SS 20 missiles were withdrawn from Eastern Europe, and the cruise and Pershing missles I think were also redeployed or replaced?

What is your most important focus of activism / public witness / (choose your term: RantWoman has been liking public ministry but that sounds too churchy for some RantWoman audiences) today?

What do you consider some of the most powerful manifestations of nonviolence since peace camp?

What kind of spiritual practices do you do today?

What if any faith community do you participate in?

I think it was Gloria Steinem who said "To be female and conscious anywhere on this planet is to be in a constant state of rage." Discuss.

The military services are opening up combat roles to women and same-gender marriage is now the law in a large percentage of US states. Do these evolutions change your thinking about the intersections of feminism and nonviolence?

What other questions do you wish someone would ask you?

I hope it's an AWESOME celebration.
(RantWoman)

Vocabulary: gender communications SAMPLE

Dear Readers,

The following is only one of the many themes distracting RantWoman from thoughts of travelling off to Boston for this weekend's PeaceCampHerstory Celebration.

As if God were not already sending along far too many ways for RantWoman to be, um, Hard to Take, RantWoman offers a need for vocabulary lessons.

RantWoman admits to spending quite a bit of energy in recent years TRYING to generate vocabulary lessons, and vocabularly lessons that do not just involve dusty pamphlets RantWoman cannot read but maybe possibly involve shared conversations and resources in a variety of media and maybe possibly a sense of We are all ministers of God and RantWoman in fact having things to contribute to the conversation, not just take.

Hear that Library Committee?  (RantWoman has not asked very directly so if not, it's OKAY for now.

Hear that Worship and Ministry Committee????

Hear that Care and Counsel Committee? If not RantWoman will be really glad to resend some email!!!! Okay RantWoman admits at one point, she was perfectly well aware of the vocabulary being applicable to herself and wanted to share a resource. Unfortunately the first website where she looked had been updated and RantWoman did not spend much time trying to look for the vocabulary in other places she knows to look.

Hear that Nominating Committee? Not so RantWoman has noticed exactly.

But today RantWoman will stick to a more limited domain, Gender communication Vocabulary Lessons

The meaning of the term mansplaining is amply and abundantly documented and RantWoman invites readers to use the search engine of their choice if they need more detail.

Gender Deafness Disorder: a condition affecting many men. Those afflicted are frequently unable to make sense of things said by women and magically cured when the exact same thought emerges from the mouth of a man.

Male Monologue Syndrome: this condition takes many forms. A classic can be described as a man exhibiting evidence of thinking "there is a woman in front of me. She certainly must want to hear me talk."

Quakers are the land of peace and enlightenment and stalwarts in the women's suffrage movement...and therefore magically cured of this, absolved of any need to contemplate unexamined male privilege...?

Um, NO! Not so much.

And is it more charitable to let people writhe in suspense and misery or just to...?

Uhhh, consider the following conversation snippet which may or may not resemble actual conversation anywhere around RantWoman.

I am not interested in your thought process Friend "...and let me tell you about my draft board story..," in context not a COMPLETE non-sequitur but RantWoman is TRYING to have a conversation with "I'm not interested in your thought processes Friend" about something else.

Oh good, and now Conflict is a Gift of God Friend also needs to tell his draft board story too..

Hold RantWoman and everyone in the vicinity of the RantWoman Inner Blowtorch in the Light.

Talk A lot Magic 8 Ball

Gee RantWoman, you talk a lot in Meeting for Business.

Imagine a Magic 8 ball with a number of responses pre-installed:

1.. Well, ya know, RantWoman is not currently ON a committee where she MIGHT find both closer personal fellowship and an outlet for at east SOME of what exercises her in Meeting Life. So the ONLY place to hear RantWoman is Meeting for Business, and that is actually NOT the best place for RantWoman to hear others, ask questions...

2. RantWoman would be thrilled, Thrilled, THRILLED if at least some of her concerns SOMETIMES made it out of others' mouths.

3. Everyone is entitled to MY Opinion

4. Minutes of exercise. Minutes of exercise. RantWoman on and off has one Recording Clerk that really is all about minutes of exercise. That means that if one reads a sequence of minutes one can usually see how a position has evolved and solidified. RantWoman has a continuing concern that her Meeting's minutes are way too boiled down. RantWoman actually thinks she MIGHT have a better sense of people understanding key concepts and people's thinking evolving if the work of Meeting for Business reflected more minutes of exercise.

5. What exactly are people avoiding if all anyone can talk about is how much RantWoman talks in Meeting for Business????


You are supposed to be mindful...

Mindful? As in Read your mind?

Look, RantWoman cannot read minds. She cannot read faces. Rantwoman's natural state is darned obtuse in the first place. If you think RantWoman talks to much....  If RantWoman says something you do not understand, consider finding a way to ask for clarification.

That is not actually what RantWoman said. The first time the subject of RantWoman talking too much came up, RantWoman said something along the lines of  "sometimes I do consecutive interpreting. Then it is my job to do half of all the talking in a conversation. So NO, I would not necessarily notice any imbalance in other situations.

RantWoman has in fact been paying attention to the talking too much concern. Hold that point in the Light.

Not SPICE? STEP PETS PEST: Let's Talk About Quakers | Lucy Moon

...getting headspace...

The testimonies, according to Lucy Simplicity Truth Equality Peace

Helen Chaya: I am not thinking of war today.

A really enjoyable album RantWoman discovered while on a path elsewhere.

The website
http://helenchaya.bandcamp.com/


The Album
http://helenchaya.bandcamp.com/album/i-am-not-thinking-of-war-today


ENJOY!

Definitely buy the album if you can.

And enjoy in its own right, independent of the whole hrd of elephants along on the rest of today's journey to Planet RantWoman.

Blogging Against Disableism: Shipwreck? Soundtrack Ray Stevens - I Need Your Help Barry Manilow

Jesus Christ on a Pizza Crust!
(Yes, RantWoman knows that utterance is blasphemous by definition. COPE.)


It's Blogging Against Disableism Day.
http://blobolobolob.blogspot.com/
RantWoman invites readers who might be terrified of more RantWoman fountain to stop here and pick another blog post from this link, read it and chat up RantWoman about it. because there is no way RantWoman is going to get read anything near as much as she might like.


RantWoman sat down to try to write one teeny tiny blog post about SOMETHING from Bad Friend Monthly Meeting of the Society of Irreligious Fiends, a Monthly Meeting that may or may not bear ANY resemblance to any Meeting In RantWoman's vicinity. RantWoman was HOPING to highlight some some ploddings of progress and, well....


RantWoman started to write one teeny tiny blog post and it was as if the Titanic plowed into that iceberg. Well, maybe shipwreck is not the right metaphor but whatever it is, it may take RantWoman longer than 1 day to write. and RantWoman is clear that NOW is as good a time as any to do some more of it. There are a WHOLE bunch of problem that just are not going magically to solve themselves especially if one gets stuck being "charitable," forgets the bit about "love your neighbor as yourself" meaning one has to love and take care of oneself.... But back to "it."


"It" comes with
--RantWoman thanking someone for being really public about a current family challenge--even though RantWoman also becomes crabby thinking about the RantFamily dealing REALLY badly with a not exactly parallel challenge when the RantChildren were teenagers. Topical data: RantBrother being the biggest pothead in the string bass section of orchestra was only part of a one-time RantWoman comment about "If anyone had been willing to talk, there would have been plenty to listen to."
   RantWoman's counterpart in that conversation missed a point RantWoman was trying to get to about ears in a community but RantWoman remembers being really gratified at an event to hear that others were thinking along lines similar to RantWoman's.
  But today, the comment clattered back to the top of RantWoman's emotional compost heap. RantWoman offered someone a concert flyer. The offer was declined on behalf of someone else whose  father, like RantDad, also fit the description "a brilliant music teacher (for most of his career) to everyone except his own children." Also somehow topical "every music teacher in the state knew RantDad because..."


--RantWoman convening a committee she chairs outside of Meeting, all full of accessiblity concerns and churning of the communities working on them.


--RantWoman revisiting the query "What is Meeting missing out on if RantWoman does not live in Integrity about her situation?"


Example 1: RantWoman thought it reasonable to ask to speak to all of the Oops Well committee about things to do with disability. RantWoman's first request was met with "That's not going to happen." HUHHHHHH! RantWoman was too stunned even to explode properly. Eventually the Friend Whose Title RantWoman Pointedly Omits got the message about meeting with all of said committe BUT when the Meeting occurred,  rather than say much at ALL about RantWoman's accessibility needs, the first thing RantWoman was called to do was to report on a meeting others had not been present at.


     But, in addition to NOT knowing better than RantWoman did what her needs were at the moment, RantWoman collected datathat more than one member of the Oops well committeeactually had not thought about important aspects of another topic on RantWoman's mind.


Example 2: EVERY WORKING AGE ADULT in RantWoman's Meeting ought to expect that someone somehow somewhere along in their career will make a reasonable accommodations request, a request that no amount of "you  don't need to interact with that person or that email" chatter will erase. For instance "please email RantWoman minutes and agendas far enough ahead of meeting times that RantWoman has SOME prayer of interacting with the documents before she gets on a bus to come to a meeting."

   RantWoman at the time she made this request THOUGHT optimistically that it was a reasonable request. But the person who RantWoman made this request of was CHRONICALLY incapable of responding to this request. This problem rattled into RantWoman's head recently because  Requested  Friend reported at a social event that he had been learning how to make documents "accessible." RantWoman knows there is a good bit of technospeak involved in the term "accessible documents." RantWoman laments that it did not occur to her just to say "well, the first element of accessibility would be getting the requested electronic copy into RantWoman's hands in a timely way." RantWoman apologizes for depriving her community of this simplifying information but also notes that it took MULTIPLE years before her Meeting reliable showed signs of getting the point.
   RantWoman is THRILLED that LOTS of things are getting emailed to her in a reasonable way. RantWoman gets close to being thrilled that at least some of the time, when not everything makes it into the first bulk email, people also understand that they should email any supplemental materials to the whole list because RantWoman applies her "Am I the only one with this problem test and realized that others might also appreciate...

   And RantWoman has decided or thinks she has decided just to forgive the Friend who one time wanted to help RantWoman read something on his laptop without accessibility software.  Apparently RantWoman is wavering because RantWoman needed to tell same Friend something sarcastic about recently interacting with a young developer wanting RantWoman to find some teeny tiny box in the corner of a screen and RantWoman was too polite to say to nice young developer what she said to Friend "which part of legally blind do you not understand?" Further HINT: you can enlarge text till the cows come home, but if you do not also enlarge menus, cursors... and the user is not super adept at keyboard shortcuts and...


Finally, it's spring. Whatever  pollens that fry RantWoman's nostrils this time of year are out in abundance. The timing of the pollen, some respiratory elements of both RantWoman's first detached retina, and RantDad's detached retina have made RantWoman wonder whether the pollen is to blame. Sure, blame the pollen. RantDad's detached retina happened at a symphony rehearsal while he was playing his bassoon. RantDad did not play the upcoming concert because he was in Denver for surgery.


But the RantChildren and our supervising adult hosted a teenage french horn player in town to play that concert. RantWoman does not remember exactly why Teenage French Horn Player needed to play this song, but RantWoman thinks is an awesome soundtrack and is seasoning a leading to rewrite it in Quakerese for this occasion.