The Carpet, oh the Carpet.
How many meetings for worship with attendance to bizniz have gone astray due to questions of carpet?
WHO THE HELL CARES about anyone else's MfWwAB except the ones at RantWoman's Meeting? God/dess will have plenty to do just at RantWoman's Meeting.
RantWoman the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting the same results.
Who ya talkin 'bout, RantWoman or those other...?
There are questions of carpet on the agenda, new carpet for the Worship Room.
This should be a great good thing. The old carpet has been removed and the plywood under it looks like plywood. God shows up anyway but RantWoman thinks God concurs that covering the plywood back up would be fine. There have been discussions of squares that could be rearranged when signs of wear appear on the most heavily travelled areas. There have been discussions about color. There have been discussions about sound absorption. All well and good and RantWoman has not felt strongly called to weigh in.
RantWoman admits she had options to participate in more up-close review but she opted to stay out of clamor and thus possibly missed chances already to comment. Hold that problem in the Light.
There is a nice prewritten report distributed with the Meeting materials. So WTF could possibly be out of place?
The pre-written report has 3 names on it and ONE recommendation. RantWoman admits to Bad friend reflexes about two names who historically proclaim how much fun they have had working together and yet miss important points....
RantWoman also perpetually has a drill-down reflex. RantWoman wants to see the data that went into the recommendation. RantWoman imagines a table with two or three alternative choices and a list of criteria / ratings that went into the recommendation.
The recommendation WOOL carpet.
One problem: RantMom is allergic to wool. RantMom does not have asthma attacks but after spending her youth raising sheep and sewing things for Colorado State Make it Yourself with Wool contests, RantMom now breaks out around wool. RantWoman does not really expect RantMom will be running around the worship room barefoot or rolling around on the floor. But it does occur to RantWoman to wonder whether anyone who might sleep on the floor of the worship room will have similar issues.
The first screen of search results for wool carpet allergy yielded completely contradictory articles about wool and allergies: either wool is very good for people with allergies or it harbors allergens worse than synthetic materials. RantWoman regrettably did not have time to read more critically of all these results and is unlikely to get anything read between now and Business Meeting.still, it does occur to RantWoman to want to know...
The other problem: when RantWoman put wool carpet allergy into the search engine of her choice, the first screen of search results helpfully also served up words of VOC's, Volatile Organic Compounds, like the glue sometimes used to install carpets or chemicals infused into the product during manufacture. So now RantWoman also wants to know what will go into the installation process and whether Friends will be expected to steep themselves in vile new carpet fumes for months after the installation. RantWoman herself does in fact get headaches in such situations, so inquiring minds want to know...
Bless us oh Lord and this the carpet. Bless us especially because RantWoman is seasoning calls about other items on the agenda as well....
Saturday, July 30, 2016
Sunday, July 24, 2016
Dr. Ursula Franklin 1921-2016
For as much time as RantWoman has spent around the history of arms control and anti-nuclear weapons activism, RantWoman is ASTOUNDED that she has never heard of Dr. Ursula Franklin, that is until today when notice of her passing surfaced when RantWoman searched on Twitter for #quakers.
Dr. Franklin discovered that her own children's baby teeth contained strontium-90, an isotope found in the atmosphere because of above-ground nuclear testing. This discovery led to an international campaign to ban atmospheric nuclear testing.
"It was a little disconcerting because it was my teeth," her son, Martin Franklin, recounted. "I was seven or so at the time and while other children had the tooth fairy, mine were being tested for strontium-90."
CBC / Toronto Star Obit
U of Toronto statement
Ursula Franklin entry: the Canadian Encyclopedia
Dr. Franklin discovered that her own children's baby teeth contained strontium-90, an isotope found in the atmosphere because of above-ground nuclear testing. This discovery led to an international campaign to ban atmospheric nuclear testing.
"It was a little disconcerting because it was my teeth," her son, Martin Franklin, recounted. "I was seven or so at the time and while other children had the tooth fairy, mine were being tested for strontium-90."
CBC / Toronto Star Obit
U of Toronto statement
Ursula Franklin entry: the Canadian Encyclopedia
Thursday, July 21, 2016
Two white women launch 'White Nonsense Roundup' to unburden people of color
RantWoman thinks the name of this effort is SO on point. RantWoman appreciates their efforts VERY much but also would not limit efforts to social media. This is NOT because there is not enough to do just in social media.
Stay TUNED!
Stay TUNED!
Wednesday, July 20, 2016
Cleveland Braces for Impact | Full Frontal with Samantha Bee | TBS
Full disclosure: Samantha Bee uses the F word and some other forms of "humor RantWoman is less than delighted with. However, RantWoman appreciates perspective on many things in this video!
Monday, July 11, 2016
Ramadan after Ramadan
RantWoman finally spoke up at Ramadan at her NotFGC event.
RantWoman spoke up partly on behalf of people she knows who are muslim and who MIGHT possibly be more drawn to participate in the state affiliate of the NotFGC event if every single person offering morning invocations did not have some kind of identifier marking them as explicitly Christian.
Oh, no, not discussion of religion and with explicit language to boot. RantWoman has NO problem with explicity language as long as there are different strands of explicit languages. Others have other views.
At NotFGC, got shows up in discussion of resolutions. Discussion is run at a brisk space, with options to speak for and against but with time limits: 2 minutes / statement.
TWO WHOLE MINUTES: hardly anyone RantWoman observed used their full two minutes, but people did use enough time for RantWoman to recognize that the topic of explicit language has been discussed.
. If there are not balancing statements for and against, debate is curbed quickly and a vote is taken. IN this case, the resolution failed but RantWoman has been left with a sense that some care has been taken. In any case please hold RantWoman's twitches in the Light.
Feedback:
One of the public comments, reflected above "Oh God, do we have to talk about religion?"
In private, someone else: Right on!"
Thank you.
Sincerely,
RantWoman
RantWoman spoke up partly on behalf of people she knows who are muslim and who MIGHT possibly be more drawn to participate in the state affiliate of the NotFGC event if every single person offering morning invocations did not have some kind of identifier marking them as explicitly Christian.
Oh, no, not discussion of religion and with explicit language to boot. RantWoman has NO problem with explicity language as long as there are different strands of explicit languages. Others have other views.
At NotFGC, got shows up in discussion of resolutions. Discussion is run at a brisk space, with options to speak for and against but with time limits: 2 minutes / statement.
TWO WHOLE MINUTES: hardly anyone RantWoman observed used their full two minutes, but people did use enough time for RantWoman to recognize that the topic of explicit language has been discussed.
. If there are not balancing statements for and against, debate is curbed quickly and a vote is taken. IN this case, the resolution failed but RantWoman has been left with a sense that some care has been taken. In any case please hold RantWoman's twitches in the Light.
Feedback:
One of the public comments, reflected above "Oh God, do we have to talk about religion?"
In private, someone else: Right on!"
Thank you.
Sincerely,
RantWoman
Tuesday, July 5, 2016
Blessed Ramadan agiain
RantWoman again extends Blessed Ramadan wishes to those around
her who observe Ramadan including the young woman who rang RantWoman up
yesterday at Target.
Possibly RantWoman should stop there.
But why? This is RantWoman after all! Readers who are not up
for another unsolicited trip to Planet RantWoman are not entirely excused but
RantWoman has no control over anyone’s decision to leave.
Every day there is an invocation. Today’s was particularly
Christian. RantWoman is glad that version of Jesus works for the speaker.
RantWoman is not necessarily vehemently opposed, but is led to the question
above. One of the scholarship winners who also is studying church music offered
a quote from Corinthians about walking without sight but with faith. RantWoman
also found that quote touching in context but Rantwoman is not quite sure
overall what to make of all this being prayed over.
Every day there is also a pledge of allegiance. Pledging
allegiance to a flag is excuse us idolatry., though peculiarly RantWoma has no
problem with the idals reflected in the rest of it. Still on grounds of
resisting idolatry, RantWoman THINKS she gets to be glad that one day the
volunteers present to help lead people around were Jehovah’s witnesses who also
resist saying the Pledge of Allegiance. Today’s volunteers were Mormons. RantWoman
is still working on being appropriately
gracious when offered help especially since she needs help less than others but
still sometimes needs help.
But STAY TUNED. RantWoman’s local chapter of said blindness
organization is the host chapter for our state convention in November in
Seatac. RantWoman means to see whether some Quakers might be interested in
volunteering
Perhaps that is finally enough for today. God bless us in
all our tangled matters of faith or Not faith and again, Blessed Ramadan.
Sunday, July 3, 2016
Respect the Stairs, with time warps.
Stairs! That's it. RantWoman a few days ago had a text message exchange about "Respect the stairs."
RantWoman has been cheerleading for a Friend who fractured her hip getting ONTO her bicycle. Friend has been posting all over Facebook and is doing really well, but the stairs time warp is from before she went home after surgery. Friend and her husband live up about 20 stairs on a second floor. Friend needed to be able to get up the stairs in order to go home from the hospital. This took practice for an extra day with a physical therapist before Friend landed on her couch with attention from cats and devoted husband. Friend has now been down and back up her stairs several days in a row. It is only RantWoman still a little bit in a stairs time warp.
The stairs story is also of the "you think you have it bad, let me tell you about my...:" genre of social interaction. RantWoman has experienced an overabundance of such ministry from other people at moments of great personal pain. Just sayin', MAYBE forgiving but definitely not forgetting. OH WELL.
Frankly, this communication zone can be either really annoying if one's own problems are distressing enough thank you very much or an opportunity for a less distressed perspective. RantWoman in any case is deeply grateful for Friend's grace in bearing with the story.
RantWoman remembers stairs being just agony right after she broke her leg in fifth grade. The fifth grade classroom was on the third floor. There was no elevator. Fifth grade on Darvon was not any less boring that fifth grade without Darvon. And fifth grade band with not one but TWO percussionists who had legs in casts for the winter concert also challenged RantWoman's general level of pluck. In any case, when RantWoman's Friend was talking about going home from the hospital, RantWoman definitely recommended Respect the stairs.
The broken leg came from brand new Christmas ice skates. RantWoman skipped out to the rink after school. It was January, plenty cold so the ice mostly was in great condition. There was an ugly torn-up patch of ice in one corner of the rink. RantWoman did not see it in time to avoid it. RantWoman realized she was going to fall but did not want just to land hard on her behind. Instead she executed some kind of a maneuver that MAYBE highly trained skaters with very strong leg muscles pull off without incident.
Not RantWoman.
RantWoman has no idea what happened. RantWoman only remembers not being able to stand and half crawling, half dragging herself around the rink to the benches outside the ice house. RantWoman sat for a long time, tried to stand, finally asked someone to call RantDad. RantDad could sometimes freak out about the requirements of parenting, but he did really well that time: "If you can't put weight on it we are going to the hospital."
The Rant Family lived in CO, in a town where as some people put it college students tended to major in skiing winter quarter. Almost every year there was at least one kid in school with a broken leg. That night in the ER, there was already a kid with a broken leg ahead of RantWoman as x-rays came back and RantWoman had to wait for a cast. Kid ahead of RantWoman in line had a rough time of it. RantWoman remembers little good or bad about her own casting. After she got a cast that came all the way up past her knee, the cast got really warm, not a terrible thing on a cold winter night.
RantDad bundled RantWoman into the car and painkillers also entered the picture. At home it was determined that RantWoman could sleep on a rollaway bed in the dining room for a few weeks. This was fewer hops to the bathroom than RantWoman's upstairs bedroom. Plus, painkillers wear off overnight and after a few days of agony first thing in the morning, RantWoman and RantMom figured out that a glass of milk or OJ and the first painkiller of the day could happen before RantWoman tried to drag her leg out of bed without causing excruciating pain at the fracture site.
Again, RantWoman is very glad that friend with fractured hip is doing really, really well. RantWoman peculiarly is also having some symptoms in the zone of her old break and cast; RantWoman is trying to decide whether the symptoms might somehow have anything to do with the long ago break. RantWoman is trying to decide this but so far she has neither Googled obsessively about the question or consulted a human with an actual medical degree. Why would that be any fun?
RantWoman has been cheerleading for a Friend who fractured her hip getting ONTO her bicycle. Friend has been posting all over Facebook and is doing really well, but the stairs time warp is from before she went home after surgery. Friend and her husband live up about 20 stairs on a second floor. Friend needed to be able to get up the stairs in order to go home from the hospital. This took practice for an extra day with a physical therapist before Friend landed on her couch with attention from cats and devoted husband. Friend has now been down and back up her stairs several days in a row. It is only RantWoman still a little bit in a stairs time warp.
The stairs story is also of the "you think you have it bad, let me tell you about my...:" genre of social interaction. RantWoman has experienced an overabundance of such ministry from other people at moments of great personal pain. Just sayin', MAYBE forgiving but definitely not forgetting. OH WELL.
Frankly, this communication zone can be either really annoying if one's own problems are distressing enough thank you very much or an opportunity for a less distressed perspective. RantWoman in any case is deeply grateful for Friend's grace in bearing with the story.
RantWoman remembers stairs being just agony right after she broke her leg in fifth grade. The fifth grade classroom was on the third floor. There was no elevator. Fifth grade on Darvon was not any less boring that fifth grade without Darvon. And fifth grade band with not one but TWO percussionists who had legs in casts for the winter concert also challenged RantWoman's general level of pluck. In any case, when RantWoman's Friend was talking about going home from the hospital, RantWoman definitely recommended Respect the stairs.
The broken leg came from brand new Christmas ice skates. RantWoman skipped out to the rink after school. It was January, plenty cold so the ice mostly was in great condition. There was an ugly torn-up patch of ice in one corner of the rink. RantWoman did not see it in time to avoid it. RantWoman realized she was going to fall but did not want just to land hard on her behind. Instead she executed some kind of a maneuver that MAYBE highly trained skaters with very strong leg muscles pull off without incident.
Not RantWoman.
RantWoman has no idea what happened. RantWoman only remembers not being able to stand and half crawling, half dragging herself around the rink to the benches outside the ice house. RantWoman sat for a long time, tried to stand, finally asked someone to call RantDad. RantDad could sometimes freak out about the requirements of parenting, but he did really well that time: "If you can't put weight on it we are going to the hospital."
The Rant Family lived in CO, in a town where as some people put it college students tended to major in skiing winter quarter. Almost every year there was at least one kid in school with a broken leg. That night in the ER, there was already a kid with a broken leg ahead of RantWoman as x-rays came back and RantWoman had to wait for a cast. Kid ahead of RantWoman in line had a rough time of it. RantWoman remembers little good or bad about her own casting. After she got a cast that came all the way up past her knee, the cast got really warm, not a terrible thing on a cold winter night.
RantDad bundled RantWoman into the car and painkillers also entered the picture. At home it was determined that RantWoman could sleep on a rollaway bed in the dining room for a few weeks. This was fewer hops to the bathroom than RantWoman's upstairs bedroom. Plus, painkillers wear off overnight and after a few days of agony first thing in the morning, RantWoman and RantMom figured out that a glass of milk or OJ and the first painkiller of the day could happen before RantWoman tried to drag her leg out of bed without causing excruciating pain at the fracture site.
Again, RantWoman is very glad that friend with fractured hip is doing really, really well. RantWoman peculiarly is also having some symptoms in the zone of her old break and cast; RantWoman is trying to decide whether the symptoms might somehow have anything to do with the long ago break. RantWoman is trying to decide this but so far she has neither Googled obsessively about the question or consulted a human with an actual medical degree. Why would that be any fun?
Friday, July 1, 2016
Honoring Those Known Only To God (full length)
A very important part of the story of Avis Wanda McClinton and Upper Darby Monthly Meeting.
Ramadan Kareem in time for Friday prayers
Part of RantWoman's daily Ramadan reflection has been general holding in the Light for Muslim extended families who RantWoman has seen gathering each evening in RantWoman's building. RantWoman plans to be present in prayer but not in person as Seattle area mosques observe Jummaah, the last Friday prayers of Ramadan.
RantWoman is NOT proud of the following realities in the Seattle area:
".(in recent weeks)...at least four mosques (in Tacoma, Redmond, Northgate and Kent) ... have received serious violent threats (one perpetrator has been arrested and is currently being charged) but many others remain anonymous and at-large. It hasn't been publicized but attendance at mosques (especially by women and children) has sharply decreased since these threats have been made. (The CAIR WA office) has been urging many officials to make public statements against these threats but have come up short. This is one of the holiest months (Ramadan) for Muslims worldwide. It is a time when those in the community are most encouraged to go to prayers (especially evening prayers that start after sundown). Many in our local Muslim community have become discouraged and fearful.
RantWoman is grateful for local Friends with leadings and capacity to offer presence drawing on FCNL's #LoveThyNeighbor campaign.
http://fcnl.org/resources/toolkit/love_thy_neighbor/
And another article
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/five-myths-about-sharia/2016/06/24/7e3efb7a-31ef-11e6-8758-d58e76e11b12_story.html
RantWoman is NOT proud of the following realities in the Seattle area:
".(in recent weeks)...at least four mosques (in Tacoma, Redmond, Northgate and Kent) ... have received serious violent threats (one perpetrator has been arrested and is currently being charged) but many others remain anonymous and at-large. It hasn't been publicized but attendance at mosques (especially by women and children) has sharply decreased since these threats have been made. (The CAIR WA office) has been urging many officials to make public statements against these threats but have come up short. This is one of the holiest months (Ramadan) for Muslims worldwide. It is a time when those in the community are most encouraged to go to prayers (especially evening prayers that start after sundown). Many in our local Muslim community have become discouraged and fearful.
RantWoman is grateful for local Friends with leadings and capacity to offer presence drawing on FCNL's #LoveThyNeighbor campaign.
http://fcnl.org/resources/toolkit/love_thy_neighbor/
And another article
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/five-myths-about-sharia/2016/06/24/7e3efb7a-31ef-11e6-8758-d58e76e11b12_story.html
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