Gratitude: Hanukkah, Trevor Noah

RantWoman's peculiar gratitude of the moment is to wish there were not nearly so much astounding raw material for the world's humor machines. This video is from before the election. The language is considerably less than churchly well depending on whereyou go to church. RantWoman is more than bad friend enough to laugh very hard anyway. Enjoy.

Gratitude from Junior High long ago

This moment summoned from RantWoman's past, the hoary mists of Last centruy by meandering thourgh a social media moment involving the brave modern--or not so modern--world of middle school:

One of RantWoman's odd memories from seventh grade was a girl who must have been in one of RantWoman's classes but who did not sit near enough to RantWoman to know each other well.

RantWoman has a vague memory of this girl being a bit of a stoner. RantWoman does not remember why she has this impression except for one funny momeny in a stairwell between classes or after school.

Other girl: "Wanna fight?"

RantWoman "No. (huh? we barely know each other certainly not well enough even to know whether we have anything to fight over.) "

Other girl: "Wanna smoke weed?"

RantWoman: "NO. (Don't smoke weed with strangers--probably NOT a message RantMom would have thought to offer, but nothing about the conversation made RantWoman remotely interested anyway.)

Upon sober reflection, probably just as well RantWoman did not say something like "Wanna go to the library and read Flatland?"

Hanukkah Overabundance: Poopy Diaper Problems

Peculiar Gratitude of the Day: "Poopy diaper problems!"

A long deceased member of RantWoman's Meeting, Rock-Climbing Octogenarian was very fond of babies. However when the babies started to cry or developed baby realities like poopy diapers, they got summarily handed back to their parents with a cheery "She's Yours!"  RantWoman has been told that her maternal grandmother had a similar policy about behavior issues. Heck even RantWoman has been known to quip that one thing about being Auntie is that one gets to Give the Kid Back sometimes.

RantWoman has been staring into the coming Trumpling whirlwind and lo, similar Light has flashed in the middle of the vortex. There are just some problems where as long as a certain party is in charge, "She's YOURS" is the perfect place to start policy conversations:

--The Flint MI lead poisoning water crisis caused by republican emergency managers trying to save money: She's YOURS. Now YOU fix it. RantWoman actually finds herself dizzy with the thought that this point did not come up in a certain campaign...

--The education system and a certain billionaires cabinet nominee who has no previous connection to public schools: just imagine if the public schools had as many resources as all your team's private schools have per student. Imagine the results....Now, it's Yours to FIX... (RantWoman means to keep this idea on a very short leash, but...)

And Hanukkah worthy Fare:
Fish soft Taco and Sweet Potato Mexi Fries (tm)

Matters Electronic and otherwise

For orientation, a Friend's meditations about another Meeting's Meeting for Business jogged RantWoman's memory and tempt her to post more than necessarily should be posted unseasoned. This post is basically meditations on matters of electronic communications, with a digression not ripe for further detail about being faithful to various Quaker testimonies. Toward the end buried for now in a blizzard of esoteric techie minutia is a REASONABLE ACCOMMODATIONS request which hopefully RantWoman will summon presence to make more concisely and to be patient about. Hopefully.

For those who like to nerd out about matters of electronic communications, there is a link to further meanderings at the bottom of thist post. Basically the path to unity is long and tangled and RantWoman keeps taking vigorous exception to other people's pronouncements. Aren't we all glad for continuing revelation and shared discernment no matter how disconnected the shared discernment is!

The part of meditations about RantWoman's most recent Meeting for Business that should not be posted unseasoned has to do with lawyers and wordsmithing of a minute and leadings and shared discernment about a Meeting position. Hold said discernment in the Light. Hold in the Light RantWoman's ability to broaden a discussion to more general themes and then to admit to LOTS of experience talking with different lawyers about said generalized topic.

Then hold in the Light either getting to clarity about wording or getting to clarity that needing to nail down clarity of wording is not the direction the discussion is headed.

While we are at it, hold in the Light RantWoman's utter inability to stay completely in scope at least as defined by others even if what needs to  be seasoned for this moment really IS only one sentence in a minute. God is telling RantWoman pretty firmly that there is more to be said....

In the meantime, speaking of lawyers RantWoman's other thematic experience with lawyers is the moments when RantWoman has needed legal advice and first had to seek legal help about applicability of the magical phrase "reasonable accommodation" before anything can happen about the topic RantWoman has sought advice about.

In this case, RantWoman's main REASONABLE ACCOMMODATIONS request is just for people to LISTEN to her perspective, not to talk over her without attention to RantWoman specifics, not to whine because RantWoman is not automatically "nice" when being silenced, and not to take it personally when RantWoman is called AGAIN to say "just because it works for you does not mean it works for me."

RantWoman's other specific REASONABLE ACCOMMODATIONS request (yep, a vocabulary check on top of everything else, and topical because of the matter being seasoned) is to consider RantWoman's points specifically about list archives and the matter of Reply/all.

Welcome to life around RantWoman's inner blowtorch and no, sorry, readers do not get away just with putting up with lumps of coal in a Christmas stocking.

Who knew deciding on an email distribution list platform could be so COMPLICATED?

RantWoman!

RantWoman's Meeting has begun a mailing list experiment, a list for ANNOUNCEMENTS, a list people are requested not to do Reply/All to. Back to this point when RantWoman decides to compare notes with another mailing list practices.

The platform chosen in Google Groups. RantWoman is familiar with this platform, familiar as in email is one thing, but when RantWoman interacts through the Google Groups portal, the keyboard tricks RantWoman relies on with her screen reader do not work. RantWoman can get away with screen enlargement but this is slow, aggravating, and not RantWoman's first choice. When the selection of Google groups was announced, RantWoman finally took some time to read help files and to learn that n the accessibility picture has improved over time. There is reference to this point in RantWoman's comments below.

RantWoman was informed that the guidelines, not reported here, came from some article in Friends' Journal. RantWoman has asked for help pointing her to the exact article. Silly RantWoman: RantWoman figures someone who has a link to the article could easily email to RantWoman. This would save RantWoman a whole lot of extraneous screen reader chatter and allow her to focus more of her energy on the article content. Sigh RantWoman possibly overestimates others' fluency with electronic media.

   RantWoman can probably bloody well go find the article herself, except RantWoman does not have a paid subscription to FJ. RantWoman went to the FJ site and put in a term RantWoman guessed MIGHT take her to the article. RantWoman got invited to have a paid subscription.

    RantWoman would love to have conversations with QuIP about Quaker publications and library practices. RantWoman's Meeting has a wonderful libbray. If RantWoman could still read print, RantWoman would save paper and read the article at the library. Enough said for now.

Back to the mailing list guidelines found at Our Mailing List guidelines PDF: RantWoman has two beefs with the guidelines.

Who is going to Moderate, a single person or a team / committee? RantWoman strongly recommends a committee. So far that recommendation has not been heard. RantWoman does not apologize for being fairly insistent about the value of checking out different features and thinking things through but hey, RantWoman is versatile and can let things unfold...

Has the intended tool been checked for accessibility by the people who are going to use it? The guidelines make NO mention of this, so welcome to another unplanned trip to exotic Planet RantWoman.

RantWoman here is just going to excerpt some emails. RantWoman KNOWS that many readers really do not want more detail than "RantWoman had to go to a lot of extra trouble to figure out the interface for Google Groups," but Merry Christmas and here is the detail anyway!

Begin First Email Excerpt:
Honestly, I wish the question "does it work with a screen reader?" were
part of the decision process about whether to use a given tool BEFORE the
tool is selected.  In the case of Google Groups, the answer is yes for some
screen readers and no (or unknown) for others. Luckily I have access to the
Windows screen readers it works for. Unluckily I have an android phone so
it amuses me that the help mentions Voiceover for Mac /iPhone but even
though Android is a google product the help does not mention So no Google
groups on my phone with Talkback. And accessibility is always  a moving target
as different parts of the software chain needed get updated in different
cycles. But I get ahead of myself.

Tonight I used the search string

JAWS google groups

to see about accessibility issues.

The good news: The interface is similar to blogger so MAYBE somethings from
Google groups will also be useful in Blogger. There is stuff in Google
groups help that should be useful but here are the comments I wrote when Google  asked whether the results are useful.

1.  Group the results by most recent first. I really do not mind skipping all the results about things that do not work in 2013 when it is now 2016.

2. It is okay I guess to have the info about tabbing around when I want to know about navigating by headings or links on a page. Okay but not terrific.

3. The keyboard shortcuts page is fairly useful. I am not sure how iintuitive I will find the individual letters, but I will try. Also I find it sort of vexing to have to read all the way to the bottom to get the part about "TO make the keyboard shortcuts work turn off the JAWS virtual cursor.

End First Email Excerpt and detail overload.

Second Email excerpt from item seasoning in Drafts folder
3. I am going to continue to attach accessibility related comments to announcements until I hear back that at least a FEW people GET MY SPECIFIC POINTS. The specific nugget I promised: why it is really helpful to have discussion go to the archives and why I put others through my previous comments about screen readers and all the things I had to go through to use what other people just take for granted:

--I actually get (and send--urk) a lot of email. When I want to look up old email, I do not search visually. I use the search bar. (Y'all can probably save time doing that too and I would be happy to say more if you are interested.). Even though I think I am pretty smart about searching I still wind up with more emails than I am looking for.  If material from the announcements list goes to the google groups archive AND I have taken time to figure out the  particular keyboard shortcuts for Google groups then I can search only in the group archives and cut down on having to weed through extraneous materials with my screen reader. If anyone would like some blindness tourism about the screen reader experience, feel free to request...
End of Second Email excerpt

RantWoman is perfectly well aware that she is talking about email list platform functionality that she as a certified geek cares about and that others less encumbered by techie fascinations might not even care about.

Tough.

RantWoman at this point is kind of hard-wired with some tolerance for answering basically tech support questions from other people newer to technology. However RantWoman can only answer the questions if she herself either knows what is going on or can guess where to point people. So RantWoman being able to navigate ... is a GOOD thing for many....

And furthermore, yes, a few people are specifically being eldered. RantWoman encourages readers to hold them all in the Light and RantWoman is happy to entertain complaints and comments from people who recognize themselves or someone they know.

"it works for me and I don't see why it doesn't work for your..."
Friend, you are a very weighty Friend. RantWoman has been TRYING to have this conversation with you for ...  You are still a weighty friend and you are STILLL MISSING THE POINT.

"...but I'm a lawyer and ..."
Friend, RantWoman likes you fine. Soooo, for now RantWoman is not going to regale you with every single complicated leglal matter where RantWoman has had to cold-call lawyers and then also get advice from an ADA lawyer.

"...I am (former supposedly topical role...and I am going to tell you how it might be without asking you what issues you are most concerned about."
Bless your heart Friend. You get multiple opportunities to read about RantWoman's perspective whether you asked for them or not.

A further link, posted here for ease of locating when rantWoman is clear about trying to have more discussion in person. Translation: this blogger is at least as wordy and abstruse as RantWoman. Sigh.
http://mybizmo.blogspot.com/2015/04/quaker-communications.html

Hallelujah, it's a Christmas melange, with SILENT Monks

RantWoman is falling behind and variously out of sequence about Hanukkah and peculiar gratitudes.

First Day Worship: almost entirely silent with one lovely message about a family name that means frankincense in German and connections to new beginnings.

RantWoman spent a bit of worship seasoning one of her standard Russian novel messages. A theme of RantFamily Christmas celebrations has been God being present for everyone, from performance of a piece called Misa Criolla and discussion of the vernacular mass (the Rant Family is protestants but still) to the different walks of life represented by the traditional nativity story and manger scene.

This time, RantWoman was seasoning a message about Fidel Castro's passing, about someone RantWoman knows who talked both about how some of his family suffered during and after the revolution and about the role Cuban education and medical support and leadership of the non-aligned movement gave voice to many strivings for the Other Than Superpower segments of the developing world. RantWoman also finds reason to hope in the sequence of countries lining up in the UN Security Council sending a message to Israel that no matter what the #PEOTUS is crashing about trying to promise, Israel will NOT have carte blanche...

Maybe if RantWoman were a trained sermon writer... words would have lined up and made it out of RantWoman's mouth, but not so much this time.

and we will not even try to go near the question "What is the problem billionaires have thinking about everyone having health care?" also tied up with Castro and Christmas and ...

In other news, RantWoman managed not to bring a brass ensemble to Meeting for Worship on First Day and will hold off on convening the God Talks to RantWOman Through Pipe Organs So We Must Buy One Committee at her Meeting as long as the rant Family can make it to the holiday spectacle ( pun / false Russian cognate intended) at Little Sister's Presbyterian church.

Gratitudes:

RantWoman and RantMom discovered burgers and chocolate milk and a shared order of French fries at a newly remodeled neighborhood fast food outlet make fine Christmas Eve fare. Look there is something fried here. Happy Hanukkah with candlelight at church to boot.

Little Sister has a New Wheelchair which she claims is very uncomfortable despite some other awesome features. Everyone RantWoman knows on planet Obamacare who has needed wheelchair repairs or new wheelchairs has had to endure repeated cycles of worse service and worse paperwork screwup and delay than ever.  Little Sister was already 2 years overdue and her chair was literally falling apart when the new one got ordered. It has tons of spiffy features. The one that MOST THRILLS RantWoman is LIGHTS, front and back, white yellow in front and red in back with a flashing hazard option.RantWoman THINKS she will be able to resist both lecturing Little Sister about driving around the mean STREETS with NO VISIBILITY FEATURES WHATSOEVER and plastering the new chair with reflectivity features.

Irrepressible Nephew no longer needs Auntie's shoulders to help him reach the ceiling. This year he just reached up and flattened his hands back against the ceiling at RantMom's house.

The RantFamily has medical vulnerabilities and difficulties around the edges but it's REALLY nice when things are managed well enough that no one goes to the ER.

We even had a holiday phone call from RantBrother piquantly appreciated the results of the November vote at least as far as access to good weed. Okay, so NOT RantMOm's favorite topic, but how about we dedicate the following silliness to RantBrother just on principle:

Thank you note to The Orange One

Dear Mr. President-Elect, Oh, Great Orange One, #PEOTUS

RantMom taught RantWoman always to write thank you letters  even if one is not entirely charmed by whatever one is expected to express gratitude for.

In that spirit, RantWoman humbly wishes to thank you for all your recent comments about military buildup, modernizing nuclear arsenals, and nuclear proliferation but only to the good guys. RantWoman sincerely thanks you for an occasion to post this item served up while RantWoman was exploring other frontiers of extremely bad taste.



Sincerely,

RantWoman

Hanukkah 2016 theme and

RantWoman hereby proclaims this year's Hanukkah celebration theme to be Peculiar Gratitudes." something in the spirit of "Thank you so much for smashing our oil supply so we had to scrounge and what we scrounged lasted 8 days."

RantWoman also promises at least a few references to something or other just plain nutritionally appalling.

NO, RantWoman does not promise theological nuance. If by the grace of God and NPR RantWoman accidentally gets near grounded theology, please do not feel obliged to tell RantWoman lest she get inappropriately diverted from the path to such insights.

Love and Light to a happy couple

RantWoman wants heartily to congratulate two weighty Friends who have long been married under care of our Meeting but are getting legally married today.

RantWoman wishes them as much joy and community connection going forward as they have now. RantWoman is also peculiarly grateful they are having a family celebration and RantWoman does not have to add another party to her calendar.

Humbly, this is not only because family seems like plenty. It is also because RantWoman is feeling sort of sour and cranky and should not necessarily overdo presence in public.

Love and Light to the Happy Couple though!

Advent Week 4: Villa-Lobos Fantasia; Katherine Weintraub, Soprano Saxophone

With the days FLYING by faster than RantWoman ever hopes to catch up with, RantWoman is still all theologically muddled. RantWoman began today's quest for musical enhancement far differently from where she has wound up, for which we are all to be grateful.

Merry Christmas with prayers and warm other seasonal greetings to all!

Not Chirstmas exactly neither

And lo, the Lord spake unto RantWoman and did not succeed in soothing her INSISTENCE that Tom Lehrer is somewhere between entirely too apt and FAR Too tasteless even for RantWoman.

First in honor of the latest intelligence / stupidity about who meddles in whose elections,  who hacked whom and who ignored which warnings and what is or is not rigged, satire with playlist for even more stark sarcasm.




And lo, the interwebs served up the above item when RantWoman, overcome by urges to deliver lumps of coal many directions, asked her search engines for videos of Poisoning Pigeons in the Park in order better to preach the sermons on her mind:

--NO! DO NOT feed the pigeons.

--Nor the waterfowl neither

--Cats? Songbirds? Ecosystem!

Poisoning Pigeons in the Park 1953


Poisoning Pigeons in the Park, Decades later No, NEVER MIND. RantWoman does not get to deliver any lumps of coal until she washes the Poisoning Pigeons in the Park meme out of her brain. Hold RantWoman and the blessed pigeons and the nation and the holiday frenzy and the electoral college and... in the Light.

Holiday gifts: Killer Sudoku

Lead RantWoman not into temptation, but first provide RantWoman the link to the temptation she wishes not to be led into:


Killer Sudoku Online

Advent Week 3: Jacqueline du Pré - Kol nidrei Op. 47 - Max Bruch ..Y Sevilla

RantWoman continues this year's Advent observance by posting things that have nothing to do with Christmas.

RantWoman read up enough about the Kol Nidre to realize it is a prayer customarily done on Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement. RantWoman may or may not be led to expand on matters of atonement just now. In the meantime, two notes:

1. This setting of the prayer for 'cello is VERY difficult. Very difficult as in for instance a good bit up high on the fingerboard in the tonal range usually reserved for the violin. Very difficult as in, rather than needing to atone for .. some people should leave the performance to much better cello players.

2. RantWoman recommends savoring the music and not worrying too much about theology or timing. Just let the music work at least for now.

Quaker Speak: How Do Quaker Meetings Do Outreach and Welcome Newcomers?

RantWoman's brain is scurrying around crazily like a puppy on new linoleum meditating about many threads of storing and organizing information but RantWoman is glad to collect both the this QuakerSpeak video and the link to the equivalent in Russian. RantWoman will now return to the rest of her frenzy.

Quakers.Ru Introduction to the video and trasncript translated into Russian

In Bed, Shot by a jealous lover

Off -Color Jokes Friend said a number of times that she hoped to die in bed shot by a jealous lover. Her husband passed away several years ago, and RantWoman has little info about any possible Jealous Lover candidates.

Off-Color Jokes Friend has been slowly fading away for a number of years, shrinking in height, seeing and hearing less and less, till the best way of greeting her was just to reach and hold her hand for a few minutes. Even then her eyes still sparkled as this sweet little old lady presence came up with some or another joke.

If you want to remember Off-Color Jokes Friend, ask RantWoman for instance in person whether she can reconstruct the joke whose punch line is "...but I had to mow the lawn."  NO PROMISES, which is one reason there is no spoiler alert.

Off-Color Jokes Friend's passing was announced during Joys and Sorrows last First Day. There is a memorial pending. RantWoman does not imagine her passing was as dramatic as Off-Color Jokes Friend hoped.

Off-Color Jokes Friend was one of two committee members twice RantWoman's age when RantWoman was clerk of Peace and Social Concerns committee during a certain 1999 Trade Ministerial. She also was one of several elderly women with macular degeneration who have all passed away since RantWoman compiled her list of 13 names in her Meeting suffering some kind of severe vision deterioration.

RantWoman will miss Off-Color Jokes Friend.

RantWoman is also deeply grateful for all the Friends who helped bring Off-Color Jokes Friend to Meeting so that RantWoman did not have to brave long bus rides to see Off-Color Jokes Friend in person.

Advent Week 2: Frosty the Snow Man Meow

And for our Second Sunday in Advent, another amazing round of Honest Jewish Guy trying to make a living composing holiday music, with certain thematic flourishes which also evoke remembrances of RantDad's numerous efforts, some more on target than others, to match music with the requirements of the season and the available musicians, as well occasionally as theology.

Trumpland in Wallingford and wandering in Social Media thickets

No RantWoman, you do NOT need to wade into this Twitter spat.

Iljeoma Oluo on Incident in Wallingoford and police response

No, you do not. The last time you waded into a Twitter storm involving ... you got harassed for days by a parade of (pathetic guys who might have a better chance of getting laid if they would dial back...). No You do NOT need to wade in, and furthermore you just being another mouthy white person might or might not help..

Tough. RantWoman is already there, in guise of generalized Sensible Auntie on behalf of many current and former teenagers. In a nutshell

--Youths of color walking from school to the Boys and Girls club in their neighborhood.

---sidewalk turf spat with one grumpy white guy who is suspicious of what is in backpacks and calls police about "8 black suspects"

--different white guy driving a work vehicle accused of assaulting on youth and hurling racial epithets

--police show up

--police at first claim youth just ran away and claim interviews with witnesses do not corroborate youth's story."

--one of youths is charged for damage to van driver's vehicle. Police also release other "known to police" commentary including multiple references to other events involving same youth in same neighborhood. (RantWoman points out that "known to police" could refer to a variety of circumstances)

--conversations erupt in social media. RantWoman's contributions:
    --LOTS of Trumpishness about in the city. By Trumpishness, RantWoman means:
         --more than one Muslim woman either being violently assaulted or threatened
         --a blind friend walking her dogs on a Saturday evening who encountered drunk guys yelling about "defectives like you"
         --a jump from every once in awhile to about every day or so hearing some kind of blatantly racist comment on the bus, way past the number easily handled just with RantWoman's well-honed just time to pray reflex.

    --Would be entirely appropriate for cops to interview the youths actually involved not just other witnesses who may or may not have been in a position to see or hear all that went on.

   --Youth who are willing to talk to police but cannot rely on parents migthwant to ask for help from another trusted adult, a theme that MIGHT have been topical around the RantFamily for sure

--cell phone video surfaces in social media. youths do cellphone video of police interviews;
Cellphone videos posted to Facebook

--police department tweets that further investigation is occurring and then...crickets...

--This evening RantWoman logs into facebook. The employee in the company van has been suspended pending investigation. Employee is a union member. RantWoman does not read all 113 comments but there is much frothing at the keyboard about how the guy should be summarily fired. Ummmm, folks, we WANT unions. We WANT process. RantWoman is glad the employer is engaged and RantWoman does NOT want to give the guy a pass. But RantWoman thinks lots of process needs to play out yet.

The longer version
After finally reading the latest of the Twitter thread and looking at cellphone video posted through Facebook mobile and therefore invisible until one is on a platform where one signs in to facebook, a few thoughts:

Grumpy white guy gets into sidewalk turf spat with group of African American youth headed from school to Boys and Girls club.

Grumpy White guy yells at youth to "Move!" Youth laugh.

Grumpy white guy probably feels severely dissed. He  calls cops and complains about 8 black youths ganging up on him.

(Editorial comment: this probably could have gone better from both sides. Maybe grumpy white guy is just being grumpy. Maybe grumpy white guy for instance sees badly and cannot see room. Maybe grumpy white guy feels entitled to his path just because, but...   Okay okay one OF COURSE could certainly scream #whitesupremacy but MAYBE it would be helpful to put combinations of people in rooms and see what could be talked through.)

Grumpy white guy worries about what is in backpacks. NEWS FLASH: they are coming from school. What do you THINK is likely and quite appropriately in their backpacks?

Artisan Electric van guy is driving by slowly because of school traffic. He thinks youths are ganging up on grumpy white guy so that is his point of engagement. In context I tend to believe the youth about language and attitude.

Police show up. There is cellphone video of interview BUT at first police say the youths ran away and "independent witnesses" do not corroborate story."

See above.... RantWoman is glad actually that employer and union are engaged and doesrecommend seeking Light and Lessons well seasoned.

Again! The Dakota Access Pipeline's Reservation Reroute

RantWoman is grateful there are other people in the world who also tell more of the Truth than the world necessarily wants to hear.

This video is anachronistic. RantWoman is not posting of snow and water cannons and people getting shot in the head with rubber bullets and emergency proclamations and various official edicts. Hold all such entanglements in the Light.

Pulitzer Prize for database of police shootings The Daily Show - Wesley Lowery Extended Interview

Wesley Lowery, Pulitzer Prize for database of police shootings RantWoman in just collect the data and then see what light comesmode is very impressed.

Happy Birthday RantDad: Have some nice Bassoon Quartets!

Happy Birthday RantDad. RantDad would be 82 today. RantWoman is fondly remembering being able to surprise him with a visit on his 60th birthday, his last. Today RantWoman celebrates the music continuing.

RantWoman also takes note, it is the first Sunday of Advent. RantWoman really does not care whether other Quakers keep that celebration or not; it is important in the cycle of RantWoman's attention to matters spiritual.

RantWoman thought of marking this year's temporal coincidence with some nice Christmas music for bassoon quartet. However, the internet served up a bassoon quartet who play together just for the exuberant joy of playing together. The Boulder Bassoon Quartet tours all over Colorado and even has an album; RantWoman suggests using your search engine of choice for ordering information.

Keep listening for a Contrabassoon quartet and MUCH more irreverent bassoon esoterica.





RantWoman also awards honorable or dishonorable mention for both making rantWoman laugh and going just a little too far for a RantDad remembrance
Rainn Wilson, The Basson King performs on Stven Colbert

Plu, here's a book for the mean-to-read list if only because of all the threads lumped together after the colon in the title
Rainn Wilson's book The Bassoon King: my Life in Art Faith and Idiocy

Standing Aside--After the Fact: minutes conniptions.

Bless us oh Lord

This post brought to you by the phrase "standing aside," as offered in an email about minutes and NOT picked up in the resulting minutes.

This post dedicated to Melania Trump, lately enduring slings and arros from the press because her English is less than idiomatic. RantWoman dares any of the people commenting about Melania's English to conduct a whole media event in their second language. Monolingual commenters have NO CALL to comment on Melania's English.

This post further dedicated to a Russian > English interpreter for a Putin press statement as part of the credentials presentation for 19 new ambassadors to Russia. THis event also featured Putin's comments about the US election: he seems pleased. The interpreter's grasp of terminology was excellent; he just made almost every mistake native Russian speakers tend to make about syntax in English

What with the rampages of the new Groper in Chief on the horizon, more torrents seething from her recent "Really, God, Really? " exercise among the blind, and the latest mutations of family medical melodrama. RantWoman's queue of options for conniptions, crankiness, and overly generous irascibility is already too long.  RantWoman did not realize until now that it still is not long enough and RantWoman is called to cough up yet further fulmionation, this time in relation to MINUTES and Quakerese, in particular the phrase "Standing Aside."

Did Gawd Herself write the phrase "standing aside" on some Quaker stone tablets somewhere? Will the entire flow of all that is holy grind to a halt if the minutes do not use that exact phrase? Wherein lies the source of RantWoman's call to conniptions? Should RantWoman just chill out, go home, feed the cat and go to bed so shecan come back to other urgent concerns tomorrow?

Apparently not.

The situation as rendered in draft minutes with nom de blog and RantWoman's proposed corrections [in square brackets].
Approval of Monthly Meeting Minutes
The minutes from the September meeting were approved as distributed and modified. Friend who Offers Strong Ministry respectfully expressed his concerns about [ASKED TO BE RECORDED AS STANDING ASIDE FROM]  the minute passed [APPROVED] during ninth month regarding the use of the Washington State Parks for Navy SEALs training.

(Editorial comment: the minute under discussion came from another Monthly Meeting. The presentation had overtones of "but of course we all agree..." At least on Planet RantWoman life is more interesting when no, in fact, we do not all automatically agree. )

The longer version, borrowing from the archives of the Still Didn't Get The Memo Committee on Email Immoderation, wherein the Recording Clerk was specifically supplied with the precise intended Quakerese, and in context too.. Readers can you find it?

Dear Friend Who Offers Strong Ministry

Thank you again for asking to be recorded as standing aside from the
minute about training flights from Whidbey Island over state parks.  I
am sharing this with Clerk, Recording Clerk, and Clerk of Peace and Social Concerns just to satisfy my process fussiness.

As Clerk said, it is kind of unusual to record something like that
after Meeting has already acted, but in this case, I think it is
entirely appropriate to record that in this month’s minutes.

The next just process point: do you get the bulletin by email? If so
you should also be getting the documents for business meeting. I
personally really appreciate the opportunity to think about things
before Business Meeting. But I also think it’s important to have
complete discussions in business meeting. If someone cannot be at
Business Meeting for something they have concerns about, it is
worthwhile to ask to postpone the item.

For myself. Part of the value of discussions in Business Meeting is
learning the range of people’s views and experiences related to the
military and the Peace Testimony.  For example, I understand your
point that if the Navy is going to rely on expensive extremely complex
technology, they need to practice. However, I do not automatically
feel safer if the navy cannot have conversations about carbon
footprint and the ecological impact on wildlife and on people’s
enjoyment of the parks. I consider it my patriotic duty to exercise
the rights I have to question my government. I also think it is good
for the navy to have to work within real life constraints.

Often in Business Meeting hearing the substance of people’s concerns
is only part of the task; the other part of the task is figuring out
what we want to sign onto and what we ask of ourselves as a Meeting.

Sometimes as in this case, if a minute has been written by someone
outside our Meeting, we might or might not want to try to fuss too much with
the wording. Sometimes I like having our Meeting do its own minute that first
mentions the outside minute and what we ask Friends to do with it
(keep studying, unite in  agreement…) . I do not remember for this
minute whether we did things like ask the clerk to send copies to our
congressional representatives or publicize on our website.

Anyway, If you want to talk further about this specific topic,
probably more than one person on the To list would be glad to talk
further. But maybe it is also just worth thnking about the process
points as other topics come up in the future.

In the Light.

RantWoman

And since when is standing aside over different understandings of  the Peace Testimony a task for "Go Ask your Search Engine?"  Of Course! When people rely on the interwebs and accessibility tools rather than Holy writ in print form.

The first definition offered by Google:
stand aside
phrasal verb of stand
1. take no action to prevent, or not involve oneself in, something that is happening.
"the army had stood aside as the monarchy fell"

Some other dictionary references
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/stand-aside

http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/stand+aside

'mkay. Juding by the first page of search results, not a specific Quaker usage, but what about Faith and Practice? What about it. RantWoman generally favors precise terminology and is pretty sure Standing Aside IS mentioned in Faith and Practice, but darned if RantWoman is going to go check just now..

Next conniption topic?

The Worry Sisters League

The Worry Sisters' League is (choose one or more as led):

1. Something that really, really definitely needs to exist even though it does not yet have a formal charter.

2. As with Friends who consistently answer a different but somewhat similar sounding question to the one asked, also symptom of uneven but collective hearing lost, aural befuddlement, the inadequacy of  individualized hearing assistance solutions of varying cost and technological sophistication , and a Sign From GAWD Almighty that RantWoman's Meeting maybe should again think about the question of a movable mic system to enrich the community at Adult Religious Education.

3. In context of a presentation about Bayard Rustin, a reference to antimilitarist heroes War Resisters League  .
Shameless plug: RantWoman is thrilled to run across may resources she will revisit including some excellent antiwar swag (nothing hivis, sigh). RantWoman will try not to have a temper tantrum about the lack of materials available in electronic format. Instead RantWoman will be very glad to read that training materials have been translated into a number of other languages.

RantWoman will also put on her must-do list to mumble and inquire about whether or not the US ratifying the Marrakech treaty might have anything to do with making materials available in electronic format, but what is a day without something for RantWoman to rant and ramble about.

Film and Facilitated Discussion: Doctrine of Discovery November 23 2016

The Art version, with graphics and everything

The Text Version, more readable for screen readers
Movie

doctrine of discovery

Unmasking the Domination Code

Initiated as a Papal declaration in 1455, the “Doctrine of Discovery” has been a fundamental moral & legal justification for European colonization for the past 500 years.

Indigenous people have been resisting myriad forms of domination, genocide & resource greed for 500 years, including now at Standing Rock, and elsewhere.

There is a budding movement to have the Catholic Church join some other Christian traditions in repudiating the Doctrine of Discovery as a beginning of atonement & apology to Indigenous peoples.

On this evening before Thanksgiving, come learn more about the historical roots of genocide & resource extraction in North America, as well as Indigenous resistance & resilience.

A facilitated discussion is included

Wednesday November 23, 2016

7:00 pm (Doors open at 6:30 pm) Movie 61 minutes

University Friends Meeting - 4001 9th Avenue NE, Seattle, WA

Limited parting on north side of bldg. and off 40th St. Bike parking avail.

FREE EVENT

Donations to support native communities gratefully accepted

questions, contact

Jeff Smith (JSmith@afsc.org 206-799-5719)

Ruby Phillips (rubydoobe@gmail.com, 206 323-5503)

Cosponsored by

All Are Welcome for Thanksgiving Worship and Potluck Feast

Got Plans for Thanksgiving? RantWoman reflexively invites any and all to

Meeting for Worship, 11 am.

Potluck Feast, 12:30 pm

(help with cleanup if your holiday is not complete without some dishwashing around 2:30-3:00)

University Friends Meeting,

4001 9th Avenue NE

Cool things about Thanksgiving at RantWoman's Meeting: First, messages tend to be both very grateful and insightful. Also Thanksgiving way more than Christmas is when there are lots of people who never come the rest of the year and even people who show up for the feast and skip worship.

RantWoman also blesses Meeting's Thanksgiving celebration for satisfying RantMom's need dating from crowded family celebrations for a crowd, and a crowd where the flow is something more than RantMom's dear "I must invite my children over and feed them" holiday reflex. Furthermore, this year RantMom's right arm (she is left-handed but still) is in a sling after some carpal tunnel surgery. At home, RantMom has various adaptations, but BOTH RantSisters this time are able to come over and help. RantWoman for instance went over yesterday to do dishes and leave behind some peeled mandarin oranges.

RantWoman tells the Rant Family, if they want to find RantWoman that is where to look!

Join us!

Flavors of Post-Election Spiritual Detox

Note to Self:
When the queue of Things to Rant About is overflowing, consider plan b, items on the mean to read list, a blog post that speaks to my condition and a video which of course RantWoman COULD rant and cavil about but is NOT GOING TO. (such restraint!)

Publishers Weekly list of 6 books for post election spiritual Detox

Faith To Move Mountains: Blog post from long before the election

Unplug from Lunacy; Immerse in Beauty as needed.

Recently RantWoman was asked, basically for good free music options.

One of RantWoman's very favorite options in this vein is the weekly compline service at 9:30 pm every Sunday at St. Mark's (Episcopal) cathedral.on Broadway in Seattle. A capella men's voices, a different set of pieces every week, the serenity of sound resonating in stone, and of course people listening.

The video below explains many things much better than RantWoman can.

RantWoman resolutely offers readers permission they should not need or wait around for to unplug from lunacy and immerse ourselves in beauty as needed.

Elections Popcorn Chairs

Planet RantWoman goes to Meeting and Meeting for worship.

Meeting for worship:
The punch line at the end when the Friend who closes Meeting asked does anyone want to offer Joys and Sorrows? The ENTIRE room burst out laughing!

The longer version:

First an opening message from our clerk about offering messages in worship.

Much popcorn regarding the outcome of the elections. Meaningful thoughtful popcorn, popcorn from both newcomers and people on RantWoman's frequent flyer list, just not popcorn that RantWoman fully remembers: a prayer of St. Francis of Assissi and the Gettysburg address from memory! Reflections in more than one voice on fear and struggle and we are all one country.

RantWoman is alas self-absorbed and was darned clear that she had concerns not related only to the elections and that others might too. So RantWoman rose to speak and amazingly something of this whole tangle made it out of RantWoman's mouth.

...we do not usually have an order of services...others share joys and concerns (in time for others to pray about ) ...please hold in the Light...general purpose it's November and...mother having surgery...family birthdays ...death anniversary made more poignant by frequent media mention of both Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen...leading to wear the T-shirt from last week's convention and to tell of repeated dialogues of the form "Really? God, Really? and more messages in the argument..nasty women, bad hombres and the entire basket of deplorables all one country and we need to talk to each other not rely on politicians or the media...new president elect groper in chief...not the first nor probably the last serial groper in the White House..technology execs who undoubtedly all have sexual harassment policies on paper but who are kind of shrugging their shoulders and nodding "whatever" when they could speak out...(what are we carrying forward for our daughters? another digression for another time) ...change.org petition suggesting that electors change their votes: can they do none of the above and draft say Condolezza Rice...?

[NO, RantWoman was NOT disturbed that the children entered while she was speaking! RantWoman went on a long time; RantWoman would usually wait to find a seat until ministry finished  if she entered worship while someone was speaking. But these are kids. Plus they wrote GREAT letters tot eh President Elect. Things like "don't start any wars," and "make people be nice to each other."

Meeting closed after the laughter about any more joys and sorrows. Many newcomers. RantWoman neither introduced Ambassador Thwack the anger management consultant masquerading as a white cane nor made an announcement about an out of Meeting event... Oh well. Such forbearance.

Last week RantWoman did a Lift up my eyes to heaven gesture and noticed two bulbs in our overhead lighting that are burned out. RantWoman thought the bulbs had been replaced by Wednesday. RantWoman was WRONG. Oh well. RantWoman still gets to be grateful both to have enough vision to see and to recognize the braille And You pattern in the lights

Adult Religious Education
Awesome session presented by and very meingful for people who have never heard of Bayard Rustin. RantWoman is pleased to collect some book titles and SEE whether some of them are new enough to be available in electronic format or through one of RantWoman's audio book options:
Time on Two Crosses: The collected writings of Bayard Rustin
Lost Prophet: the life and times of Bayard Rustin
Down the Line...Bayard Rustin
Strategies for Freedom: the changing patterns of Black Protest
The Invisible Activist

The chairs plunked so irksomely last week in RantWoman's preferred seating place have been dealt with. These are surplus chairs with no place to be stored, currently all destined to be sold; RantWoman is lobbying to sell fewer of the surplus chairs and make some of them available instead of folding chairs or in addition for the maniacs (and people with sentimental childhood attachment) who prefer the folding chairs.

RantWoman is ANNOYED that the person she spoke to about keeping the chairs flat out dismissed RantWoman's point of view: Actually RantWoman is annoyed with repeated experience with that problem and that person, but this week RantWoman arrived at Meeting well-rested, well-caffeinated and with other annoyances in queue ahead of repeated dismissals.  More specifically when RantWoman was compiling her hold in the Light list the phrase "grab the blind person and bless them" came clattering out insistently demanding further attention another time so stay tuned.

Chair seller almost never comes to Adult Ed. RantWoman does come late but does come almost every week to Adult Ed. So the amount of time RantWoman spends being uncomfortable in folding chairs adds up. But Chair seller person so irksomely blew off the cumulative effect that RantWoman slightly despairs that her concern will be remembered when the final decision is made about how many of the extra chairs to sell. However there was good conversation about other chairs, lovely solid chairs with arms recycled to our Meeting when the care facility where a member resided was getting new dining room chairs. Some of the recycled chairs are dingy, though not so RantWoman would notice. Other people do so PERHAPS it might be time to retire some of the orange chairs, EXCEPT that some people really appreciate being able to push against the arms when they rise. So RantWoman recommends keep some of all three: the orange chairs with arms, the upholstered leftover worship room chairs and the folding chairs, some of which date from our current clerk's childhood in our Meeting's first location!

And there is more: homelessness, saved for ....

Invitation to Worship after Election Day

No matter who wins the election, we are all going to wake up after #electionday needing to be one country together. Many feel particular need for prayer and spiritual renewal in this anxious time.

All are invited to regular Midweek Worship at University Friends Meeting, unprogrammed waiting worship in the manner of Friends with messages arising according to promptings of the Divine.

Wednesday November 9, 6:45-7:45 pm or longer as led, and Wednesdays following
UFM worship Room,
4001 9th Avenue NE,
Seattle WA

The Carpet Strikes Again

Not really the carpet. Carpet remnants, and surplus chairs and in the social hall not in the worship room.

Today  RantWoman entered the worship room, sank her feet into the cushiony softness, and thought about how much harder she would have to work to make a clattery racket than when the floor was bare plywood. RantWoman has mixed feelings about new acoustics; the bare plywood fosters echoes and resonance, but RantWoman is mostly already used to and grateful for new carpet in the worship room. .

Another worshipper equivocates about visuals. He commented about the grain of the wood and occasional imperfections covered by some kind of glue or spackle. RantWoman also acknowledges some interest in, say just finishing the plywood.

But now there is carpet and carpet we will live with and be grateful for--in the Worship Room.

In the social hall, on the other hand carpet remnants linger. along with what some have determined to be an oversupply of upholstered chairs we do not have space to store, or at least an oversupply for all except the largest memorials or weddings. The carpet remnants  have landed on one of our wonderful wooden bench  / storage areas. Unfortunately, they have landed on the one that is closer to where Adult Religious Education Meets. RantWoman really LIKES sitting on that bench for Adult Ed. RantWoman would like to do this EXCEPT that this week the wooden bench was both covered with rolled up carpet leftovers and blocked by stacks of surplus chairs roped together with caution tape..

And yes, as sometimes occurs, Friends arrive at meeting with their hearts and souls already full and their fuses short about fun new inconveniences! Here almost verbatim is the gentlest email RantWoman can manage about actually solving the problem.

Hi Friends,

Whose idea was it to leave a big ugly unwelcoming row of stacked chairs taped together with caution tape in the middle of the social hall where people sit during Adult Education?.

May we PLEASE as quickly as possible agree to put the carpet remnants
on the other wooden bench and figure out other options for the chairs.
I would be glad to suggest places to put the chairs where I think they
would be out of the way but still usable.

I actually think we should consider keeping SOME of the chairs others
want to give away and I do not even know who to talk to about this.

I really like sitting on the wooden benches. I find the hard seat
and wall comfortable. The looking across the room is easier on my
wonky eyes than sitting in a group. Sitting on the benches means I can
leave space close to speakers for people who have worse hearing issues
than I do and I can still hear from where I sit.

The upholstered chairs are considerably more comfortable than the folding
chairs. Last week the chairs were unbound and about 6 wound up being
used by latecomers to Adult Ed. It was possible to move the carpet
remnants to the other bench so I could sit in my preferred location.
Usually when I sit on that bench by the time Adult Ed ends, other
people are sitting there too. And although the number of latecomers
for the QuEST presentation was greater than usual several latecomers
also usually come.

I have no idea yet who made the decision to stack the chairs the
unwelcoming way they were stacked this week. I have no idea whether
anyone from Adult Religious education committee was consulted about
the chair stacking, and I would like to HOPE that committee members
would be observant enough of people's historical sitting preferences
to suggest alternatives. However,perhaps if we start with the point
that I DO NOT apologize for making an issue of the problem this week,
we can also get to better options quickly.
Thank you all in advance for help about this.

In the Light

(RantWoman)

Hallelujah - Pentatonix Holiday album

RantWoman has a STRICT no Christmas before Halloween rule.

This video and the accompanying Christmas album surfed on RantWoman's e-streams before Halloween but have been held for what RantWoman considers a decent interval.



Note: RantWoman considers use of this tune for a holiday album, um, bold.

Horrible enough for Halloween

Carpet Celebration

In appreciation of softness underfoot and a whole lot less clatter.



Worship room with new carpet on a sunny day

Further Gratitude via Twitter

How to Deepen Quaker Meeting for Worship

Because RantWoman needs this and so does everyone in worshipping range

Water is Life!

Protest Curmudgeon showed up at this afternoon's Stand with the Protectors of Standing Rock occasion at Westlake Plaza.  #NoDAPL

Protest Curmudgeon was hoping for prayerful presence. Protest Curmudgeon took note of many presumably native faces and fewer of the usual protest suspects from RantWoman's corners of the world.

Protest Curmudgeon spent a whole lot of time wishing the sound system worked better.

Protest Curmudgeon's other main activity: trying not to step on exuberant children embodying Brownian motion. RantWoman is glad of children; she just continues to prefer not to step on them.

After not very long, Protest Curmudgeon opted for...SHOE SHOPPING. Protest Curmudgeon just was not getting anywhere with Prayerful Presence.

Protest Curmudgeon requires that footwear fit; Protest Curmudgeon also prefers at least a little daylight between her look and "Your mother wears Army Boots."

Protest Curmudgeon Listened to the Water is Life chants; Protest Curmudgeon contemplated the summer sandal closeout sandals, none of which would have fit RantWoman anyway, but there is also the small matter of RAIN.

Sure, Water is Life

And this is Seattle.

RantWoman aims to keep her feet both warm and dry! And no, just getting RantWoman the right footwear will not chill her out about urgent concerns.

Water is Life, indeed.

Joys Concerns Timing

Further musings from the God-Spells according to RantWoman regarding Joys and Concerns.

No, RantWoman has not just been reading too much Mary Daly Intergalactic Wickedary of the English Language.

Yes, RantWoman emphatically does feel entitled to inflict her views, unfiltered, in whatever literary excess they come to her, not only on the, um, officially proclaimed pastoral care committees but also in the we are all ministers of God light on the whole entire bleeping  internet. RantWoman further thinks it should be a freaking job requirement for service on such committees both to be able to talk of diverse experiences and to listen. RantWoman would further like a sense of time and invitation to do so.

In fact, people who repeatedly, repeatedly, multiple times pass up opportunities to try to have shared centered discussion in person can darned well expect to read about it on the internet and can try to work in time whenever to talk further. And if it turns out that RantWoman has also multiple times been available for tough situations when others have not, you are welcome.

RantWoman's experience is uneven on talking listening time and willingness dimensions. RantWoman does not particularly apologize if the mere mention of this experience is occasion for public embarrassment.  Sometimes, dang it, public embarrassment is exactly the point. sometimes on the other hand, realism and movements of the Divine are sufficient.

RantWoman acknowledges that she herself may be far exceeding expectations about insufferability. RantWoman reminds readers of the limitations of the God as Personal Butler model of Divine Presence.

With that, RantWoman is going to do the best she can to stick to Joys and Concerns and not wander off on yet another tangent, this time aimed at someone not available due to being deceased  about "How can it be that you do not pray?" RantWoman has a really different understanding of prayer than the one that evoked RantWoman's question.

RantWoman's experience is that sometimes people need lessons in comparative religion. RantWoman feels a need to offer such here. Joys and Concerns is  the Quaker equivalent of Greetings and prayer requests  or passing the peace or various other ways of phrasing opportunities for particular sharing. Meetings where there is a formal invitation to offer Joys and Concerns tend to offer the invitation toward the close of worship.

RantWoman dances several directions about Timing and Joys and Concerns, and the general concept of unprogrammed worship with the content left up to movements of the Divine.

RantWoman is a choir director's kid. RantDad spoke sincerely of choosing music carefully for different parts of the service, whatever the organist did for a prelude, a nice choral introit, an anthem. RantDad also went round and round with the succession of pastors he worked with about when to have time for greetings and prayer requests: after the introit? After the offertory before the sermon? RantWoman never really got to hear the pastors' sides of these conversations and generally has a sense of God showing up regardless of the timing. RantWoman is unclear why this sense never quite took root with RantDad.

RantWoman does not quite know what to suggest when someone has just spoken of a concern such as a death in the family and someone from Worship and Ministry decides it's time officially to proclaim it time for Joys and Concerns. Moments like this have occurred several times recently; these moments make RantWoman cringe and tempts her to blurt out things like"WTF do (Friends) have just been talking about?"

Look, RantWoman is a flake. RantWoman cannot promise to remember concerns  beyond the moment RantWoman leaves the building. RantWoman tends to spend a lot of her worship time basically trolling for Divine Intervention anyway, so if you want RantWoman to pray about / for you / Hold you in the Light / sending energy in your direction or just avoid singeing you around her Inner Blowtorch, GET YOUR REQUEST IN EARLY,

RantWoman has standards about what concerns she will utter once the children have come back to worship. News reports about rampant sexual harassment, a young adult Friend's concerns about sexual harassment and her Meeting's inability to write a policy while other Young Friends are explicitly avoiding certain elders fall into RantWoman's should be worthy to be spoken of early. Alas, if RantWoman has not shepherded her thoughts into worship-worthy words, not even just "Please hold in the Light,  before the children enter, RantWoman does not expect children to bear such burdens. This does not means that the concerns are any less concerning!

There.

RantWoman has a sense of also owing the world some gratitudes and other meditations but RantWoman is going to close with links from previous meditations about space and time in worship and what spills out and how Friends get tapped ....

http://rantwomanrsof.blogspot.com/2010/02/popcorn-factory-minority-report.html

RantWoman notes with interest another blog post from someone at the very same Meeting for Worship and who offered one of the sung messages.
http://questforadequacy.blogspot.com/2010/03/called-to-be.html

Industrial Strength Joy

RantWoman continues her meditations upon the practice of asking Friends at the close of worship to share  "Joys and Concerns." Tonight's topic is "Joys, salted with Concerns."

RantWoman finds it interesting that people need to be invited to share their Joy. However, RantWoman has noted that the formal invitation has elicited joys from a number of usually diffident people. RantWoman apologizes for not remembering specific joys and only noting the fact of people who rarely or never speaking In worship offering something. RantWoman also notes appreciation for new grandchildren, for a new abode for an aging elder....

Maybe RantWoman should just ask Eye Roller Friend whether, whatever the concerns lurking in his ministry, does he also hear others' joys?

And then there is RantWoman.

--Much as RantWoman really does want to hear from new voices, sometimes new voices make RantWoman want to fidget and growl something like "Oh Come On! OUT WITH IT, oh and if you are called to speak could you please bleeping SPEAK UP for all the people with hearing loss in the room?"

But in RantWoman's experience  growling things like this tends to dampen the flow of joys. So, maybe, maybe, as long as Worship and Ministry still kind of reeks of a certain "we don't have to talk to..." could the people offering invitations to share Joys and Concerns please pretty please also try to remember to encourage people to speak up?

--RantWoman notes with joy that one newcomer just did not even register the latest public witness from Eye Roller Friend about the practice of invited Joys and Concerns!  RantWoman is delighted that the worship spoke to her.

--RantWoman also notes with joy that because of forgetting to get an announcement about midweek worship into the bulletin, RantWoman got divinely dragged to her feet to make a live announcement and thus to have real conversation with another newcomer who might be interested in coming to midweek worship.

As for RantWoman's joys:

--There was the week that beloved aunts and uncles came to town. They put up with the Rant Family's transit-only regimen. They all seemed to have a good time anyway despite some other event-planning oopses. RantWoman missed seeing spouses, because they all make sweet couples. Alas, having them come to town without spouses cut down dramatically on the combinations of people who cannot abide each other's presence for very long. Is there joy in this realism?

--Brother-in-Law is seeing MUCH better after long-needed cataract surgery. If RantWoman wants gentle soothing grateful joy, she might have stopped there. No such luck!

    --RantWoman is glad for fresh updates during a recent shared bus ride with Little Sister.

    --At Christmas dinner last year, RantWoman asked Brother In Law an innocent question and somehow got to ophtho triage: a big cloud in one eye? Oh. Any blood? No. Flashes of Light? No? Haloes around lights? No? Anything that seems to move. Yes a Little. How long have you noticed? Months. And has it gotten suddenly worse? No. Okay, you definitely need someone with more medical credentials than RantWoman but it's probably not a Go Straight to the ER Do Not Pass Go Do not Collect $200 situation. One of RantWoman's joys: See, See RantWoman called it correctly.

   --The next point of joy: Obamacare means Brother-in-Law has insurance. It does not mean it is easy to find a provider who takes that insurance. Nor does it fix some other language access and general nerve-wracking fussiness. So joy means joy in perseverance through a LOT of hassles

May everyone's life be filled with such direct and unmitigated experience of the Divine?

Placebo that!

Lately RantMom has tired of watching Alton Brown sauté onions; her current Food Channel fave is "Chopped," a competitive cooking exercise where four contestants vie for a top prize won by cooking 4 courses each using some bizarre basket of ingredients, ingredients that are difficult to work with alone never mind in combination..

There is a panel of judges. Sometimes the judges have WILDLY varying opinions:

"The slightly caramelized jalapeno syrup on the corn bread crust simply makes the dish."

"The syrup makes it watery and you might as well have just burned the glop."

RantWoman's Meeting has been experimenting with Joys and Concerns or with corralling  / explicitly inviting them at the end of worship for several months. Reviews about Joys and Concerns are running about as divergent as the Chopped Judges right now.

RantWoman,how can you POSSIBLY compare Meeting for Worship to a Chopped episode?

God is Bountiful!

"Oh I love Joys and Concerns." RantWoman promises to elaborate. Actually RantWoman feels fully entitled to inflict her approximately 17 strands of opinion on the blogosphere. Stay Tuned.

Slight paraphrase, Eye Roller Friend repeatedly being true to his Light: "My sorrow is that Worship and Ministry continues to perpetrate this stupid practice." "True to his Light" is probably not the phrasing some reviewers would use, but this is RantWoman,

Remember, as a recent speaker put it, that the Quaker tradition was founded by a guy so full of his understanding of God that he would visit churches and give them two-hour lectures about how they are doing this faith thing wrong.

This also was before professional football.

RantWoman herself has been known to proclaim "I know from Sermons. If you would like it longer, I would be happy to elaborate. In this case, RantWoman is happy to tell anyone who complains about Eye Roller Friend's utterances that, well yes, he could be channeling George Fox at even greater length.

Newcomers to RantWoman's meeting, of which there seem to be a steady and inspiring
flow are not going to realize

1. that Eye Roller Friend's ministry of audible eye rolling has subsided quite a bit over many years of worship with us, eldering, conversation, and from some corners condescension.

2. RantWoman considers audible eye rolling a splendid accessibility ministry. RantWoman knows that lots of people roll their eyes sometimes about what form of God shows up in worship. RantWoman appreciates that at least when Eye Roller Friend ministers through throat clearing and general audible rumbling,, RantWoman can bloody well tell he is rolling his eyes.

Occasionally God and  Eye Roller Friend line up actual words instead of just well-timed throat clearing. Eye Roller Friend's latest verbal ministry involved a position that RantWoman would characterize as grappling with the Divine; RantWoman suspects Eye Roller Friend might think RantWoman is just being deliberately obtuse and completely missing the point of the word "placebo." If it's a placebo, bring it on. Maybe it can save RantWoman from getting body and psyche entangled in some pharmaceutical company's patent and profit regime.

Oh wait, save the pharmaceutical matters for still another thread.

RantWoman has multiple strands of opinion about the Joys and Concerns. RantWoman feels fully entitled to inflict her opinions on the universe or at least the thickets of interwebs where people read what is written her. Furthermore, RantWoman feels NO CALL one way or another to filter her Light through Worship and Ministry Committee. Friends worship is about direct and unmitigated oops unmediated experience of the Divine, never mind conversations about when the Divine does or does not look Divine. RantWoman is pretty sure God can handle it. RantWoman is less sure about...

Please hold RantWoman and those around her in the Light.

Matters PRINT

Good News and Bad News in the realm of Quaker / general PRINT and the library at RantWoman's Meeting.

The Good News: an email exchange involving the phrases large Print Bible and Amazon. As with everything to do with Amazon, RantWoman is never 100% confident that what will arrive is workable, but RantWoman is happy enough to send off a couple comments and will be grateful for
whatever emerges.


The other news, the RantWoman can you possibly go a single day without something to gripe about?" moment.

NO!
This item from the weekly bulletin:
"Take a break from the daily bustle and noise: a chance to spend a Saturday morning with Friends and a Pendle Hill pamphlet, *Saturday, October 15 from 10 am - 1 pm*.  We will meet in the social hall and pick a pamphlet from the wide selection on hand.  Read. - Discuss with Friends, and Eat potluck lunch together."

This event occurs periodically, usually on the third Saturday of a month. No matter how much RantWoman might LIKE to spend time with her community in this way. RantWoman has a standing conflict. So far this has meant RantWoman has passed up the opportunity to fly into a lather
about assumptions that everyone will either read PRINT, download some very early pamphlets that are free online, or pay to order the dang pamphlet electronically as a PDF. Stay tuned for RantWoman's leading to expand an understanding of "library."

Please hold all involved in the Light.

And if things go REALLY well, RantWoman will consider reading with earbuds in public something RantWoman HATES and only puts up with when feeling terribly accommodating.

Hold All Involved in the Light, and if anyone else wants to listen to a pamphlet read iwtih a mechanical voice at squirrels on steroids speeds, consider this an invitation, a fabulous blindness tourism opportunity....

An Exit Ramp for Trump Supporters

Useful for many situations I expect

Harvard Business Review: How to Build an Exit Ramp for Trump Supporters

International Delegation of women attempts to sail to Gaza

International Delegation of Women attempts to sail to Gaza. See full YouTube Playlist. Spread the word. Ask governments to object to seizing unarmed vessels in international waters.




No, of course the timing of this prophetic witness has nothing to do with either Jewish Holy days OR the which side is doing a better job of bombing civilians outrage in Syria.

Prayers all around!

Happy Disabilities Employment Awareness Month!

RantWoman reminds her readers that October is National disability Employment Awareness MOnth, a thematic modification from when RantWoman last went on a daily binge blog about disabilities awareness.

Topical hashtags #NDEAM , #InclusionWorks
also thematically related #disablepoverty, #votedisability #cripthevote #disabilityvisibility

In honor of the occasion,

HuffPo Important Comments about Ableist Language


Six Ways Your Social Justice Activism er Quaker Meeting Might be Ableist

Quaker Speak: How Many Quakers Are There in the World? (And Where Are They?)

I think God has a twisted sense of humor. I think God told a whole bunch of people with really divergent ideas of faith and faithfulness they are all Quaker and then turned them loose and told them to go forth and live according to their beliefs and figure otut what they have in common.
This Quaker Speak episode has a cool map of where Quakers are (Kenya and then everywhere  else ) The video also has some cool thoughts to prepare for World Quaker day which also sometimes masquerades as Reformation Sunday. This year World Quaker Day will be October 2.

Faith and Climate Action Conference October 8 University christian Church

RantWoman ENTHUSIASTICALLY endorses the upcoming Faith and Climate Action conference coming up October 8 and University Christian Church in Seattle.

RantWoman had visions of reproducing graphics and raving in detail about proposed program but RantWoman has decided to punt and point readers to any of several options for signing up!

Sunburst in Stained Glass

 KEYNOTE SPEAKER:

JAY O’HARA, CO-DEFENDANT OF THE LOBSTER BOAT BLOCKADE, CO-FOUNDER OF THE CLIMATE DISOBEDIENCE CENTER & CO-LEADER OF THE PIPELINE PILGRIMAGE BLOCKADE.

Faith and Climate Action: via the Church Council of Greater Seattle

Faith and Climate Action: via Faith Action Network

faith and Climate Action via Unitarians

Blessings, Bountiful Blessings!

May the Lord Bless us and keep us and make his / her ./zir face to shine upon us!

Uh wait, the blessings are so bountiful RantWoman does not quite know what to do with them.

Blessing 1:
RantWoman received lovely fun feedback. Youthful public officials are reading and ENJOYING RantWoman's tweets about an esoteric transportation related topic.

OH GOOD. RantWoman enjoys her efforts, AND RantWoman is NOT going away.

Hold both points in the Light.

Blessing 2:

RantWoman is featured in her Meeting's bulleting in the following form:
Query: What are we doing to make the larger community aware of our Friends Meeting?

Reference "...we have confused an 'implicit Quakerism' with not knowing how to talk about our faith - or not being willing to do so." "We fail our Quaker ancestors and tradition when we remain silent about our faith away from our Meetingroom's doors." LizOpp, RantWoman blog, 9-28-10

Now if only RantWoman had a search string to find said post faster than the baths involving the post date.

Blessing 3: Praise Jayzus!

"I'd love your feedback.."

Do you REALLY want RantWoman's feedback. It starts with "Thank you for inviting me to the party." Stay tuned for Further Light. Warning: high probability that Inner Blowtorch will be involved.

Blessing 4: In other news
Praise Jesus.

RantWoman is packing for Quarterly Meeting, theme something to do with Getting Along with Each other.

Oh Holy Jesus!

RantWoman found her "F*CK WAR" T-shirt.

It used to say "F*CK WAR" in Russian, a la Tatu's US television appearances where one network's censors caught the profanity after another one did not. NOw "F*CK WAR" has been laundered into invisibility --to everyone but RantWoman.

The "F*CK WAR"  events of 2003 have morphed / mutated into multinational multiethnic  regionwide fiascoes.

Praise jesus?

Blessing 5: Bless us oh Lord and these thy servants.

RantWoman's current Light about why Quaker Voice in / on / over / under WHATEVER WA Public Policy is just not doing it as a new name for...

Sometimes being a Quaker is about LISTENING. RantWoman hears a number of voices resonating with her concern that there is a need to STFU AND LISTEN about several matters related to racial and Economic justice. RantWoman has clear leadings about further steps in this regard and is VERY grateful for someone who does LISTEN and does offer feedback RantWoman digests.

Please hold this whole circus in the Light.

US bombs still maim as Obama prepares to visit Laos

A blog as filing cabinet bearing witness to the lingering consequences of US warmaking and the need for responsibility and reconciliation

Bus Blessings Grapevine Edition

Will this new item make it out of RantWoman's mouth during the wondrous recently proclaimed specially fenced off section of worship called Joys and Concerns? Stay tuned and in the meantime celebrate it now while it's fresh in RantWoman's memory:

News from a bus ride on the way to midweek worship with someone who turns out to be a former neighbor of Friend who Brings Odd Teas and who misses her as a friend!

Friend Who Brings Odd Teas has moved to AZ where her sister lives and the condition that makes her life really difficult for herself and for lots of people around her is doing a lot better. Is it the family support? The Climate? RantWoman has no idea. RantWoman is so glad to hear of the friendship from the former neighbor in the building where Friend Who Brings Odd Teas used to live.

RantWoman is also a little intimidated: Friend Who Brings Odd Teas was a pillar of the Saturday shower time our Meeting ran as a ministry to homeless people in our neighborhood for awhile a few years ago. RantWoman considers this ministry extremely valuable but has never managed even the slightest leading to show up personally and support its operation.

Perhaps that is enough said but RantWoman definitely sends blessings in the direction of AZ.

Knocking 'em off left and right

Dear God

Would you maybe, please, pretty please shepherd the following thoughts out of RantWoman's mouth in at least SLIGHTLY more genteel terms:

Bless the Lord Oh My Soul. Beloved Friend from another Meeting is now not merely suffering from Dementia but rather deceased, RantWoman no longer has any cause to fret about him needing an extra set of eyes to find his way around the men's room next year at Annual Session. Bless the Lord Oh My Soul with particularly tender thoughts toward Beloved Friend and his wife of many decades.

Oh and knocking off other Beloved Friend just because breast cancer had recurred and she did not want any more treatment. Really? Must you? And especially must you without even a chance to say goodbye. Really! Must you?

In faithfulness,

RantWoman.

Reprise of Rant Past and Blessings

Reprise of Rant Past

http://rantwomanrsof.blogspot.com/2011/09/freight-train-first-week-of-school.html

As part of RantWoman's beginning of the school year blessings, RantWoman wishes children sensible adults who, for instance, can listen to matters of staring in the lunchroom or other problems that cannot necessarily be helped and as adults walk alongside kids experience.

And yeah, sure, if you as an adult, say a teacher, need to take a mental health day over something or other involving a child, think of the kid and what the reasons for your mental health day mean for the kid!

Iris Graville: My First Time in Meeting for Worship in Russian

Iris Graville: My First Time in Meeting for Worship (Russian from quakers,.ru)

Russian Translation: my first time in Meeting for Worship

RantWoman collects essays about how people become Quakers.

RantWoman is curious how this experience looks to Russians. RantWoman apologizes for not being organized to type in Russian, but will post any comments left in response to the question.

RantWoman is generally skeptical of machine translation and  and may or may not get around  to holding a machine translation bakeoff to illustrate the problems behind RantWoman's passion. Oh happy day.

Whack in Half. Boil till Mushy. Run through Strainer

RantWoman has a pretty good idea who left the box of small and mostly underripened pears at Meeting on Sunday. RantWoman has heard previously of pear abundance on a certain tree actually near where she lives.

The box of pears was still there Wednesday after midweek worship and RantWoman had a ride home. RantWoman scooped up the entire box and the Rehabilitation of Written Off Food Products Division of the RantWoman test kitchen went to work.

(No, RantWoman did NOT snap a pic with her cellphone. NOr does RantWoman have any patience with image libraries. Use your dang imagination! Oh wait!)



Looking Delicious

RantWoman's approach:

Whack in Half.

Boil till Mushy while otherwise puttering at home.

Run through Strainer:

Voila: about six quarts of Pear Sauce distributed between fridge and freezer!

Not a strategy one really wants to rely on to feed a whole family for the winter.

Not particularly the option one wants after The Big One hits.

But simple and yummy enough to brighten RantWoman's diet for a few days as fall demands her body shift gears anyway.

Quaker Brain Candy: Thank you Phillip Gulley

Such is the state of the world,, such is RantWoman's state of mind:

Lately, RantWoman has really been enjoying newly discovered Quaker Brain Candy, otherwise known as Quaker pastor Phillip Gulley's novels about Harmony Friends Meeting. Harmony Friends Meeting is a fictional faith community loosely based on the life of the Friends Church in IN where Gulley is the pastor.

RantWoman as been delighted to discover these works via the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped. Some of the time RantWoman finds it still far too tempting to whine about audio books; life is better when RantWoman just shuts up and listens. RantWoman IS on principle allowed to speed things up and to be grateful for human voices and a storage algorithm that keeps speech comprehensible much more nicely at higher speeds than any of RantWoman's options for computerized voices. Now your are welcome for the free unsolicited trip to Planet RantWoman.

Readers already at least a little bit familiar with small town Hoosier culture and the various tropes of holiness Christianity will probably get the humor more easily. By Hoosier culture RantWoman means both being passionate about a televangelist and the local boy who has risen through the city civil service to be in charge of all 39 manhole covers in town.

Also hard to miss: the "Friendly women." The Friendly Women are not in fact so friendly. They leap to collisions with frightening ease and then shamelessly gossip. Other more enjoyable stories do emerge; nevertheless beware the friendly women, for about the usual ladies church circle  reasons.

Then there is Dale Hinshaw, known for charming commitments such as spreading scripture messages via helium balloons or in chicken eggs (don't ask; read the books!)
He generally has a dour attitude about life and lives in permanent fear of democrats, liberals, and sometimes even his pastor's scriptural understandings. That is part of what makes the books fun!

Now RantWoman will return to the various topics short-circuiting in RantWoman's brain.

Happy Reading.

Leaning on the Everlasting Arms Through The Decades

Because the world desperately needs this historical stylistic sampling of ways to render "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms."

Back to School Blessings: Coloring Outside the Lines - Tom Rawson & Friends

It's time again for RantWoman's annual back to School blessings!

But first a video



This video calls to mind kindergarten. RantWoman did not need to decide to color outside the lines. RantWoman did this naturally, at least at the beginning of the year.

RantWoman thinks she must have gotten new glasses mid year because she remembers dramatic improvement in her ability to color inside the lines probably after Christmas vacation.

Blessings to all kids who color outside the lines naturally and blessings that they find teachers who can nurture them as they are!

Particular blessings to kids when coloring outside the lines means help of some kind is needed; may that help be promptly forthcoming!

This video also reminds RantWoman why, even though birthday parties at school might have been fun, high school orchestra made RantWoman REALLY glad for a summer birthday. Orchestra tradition was that birthdays were feted by renditions of Happy Birthday in any key or no key. There are modern composers who would be VERY proud.

Blessings for everyone in high school now and everyone whose life looks much more tolerable long after high school!

Blessings for music and art programs and all the ways people learn, for the parents who listen to the practicing, and for the progress when people practice!