Worship: Bus, oatmeal, bananas

Has RantWoman mentioned the spiritual and physical gifts of bus ridership, in say the last 10 minutes? By Gifts, RantWoman means: time for things other than driving, an above it all visual perspective from riding in the biggest passenger vehicles on the road, much greater physical comfort at least for RantWoman than in many cars, the always spiritually enriching er challenging frisson that comes from finding that of God among which ever strands of rolling anthropology project one is travelling among on a given day, and never to forget that sometimes blurry line between bus reality and worship.

Never mind. Time for another journey, involving various modes of transportation,  to exotic Planet RantWoman. RantWoman was on one of her cyclical bus journeys from A to B. RantWoman opened one of the daily bible apps on her phone.  And the Lord Spake Unto RantWoman....

The Lord said "Okay RantWoman, this time the Text to Speech will work. We will not ask whether the reason it did not work last time you opened the app was something you and your device did or something that someone else complained about and got fixed. The point is this time it will work and you will be grateful.

"It will work and you will be grateful and then, when you are already praying for things to soothe your soul and not further inflame your need to elder others, when you are on fire with concern about divisiveness and the logistics of trying to round up immigrants and the human rights outrage of the day, in the daily meditation I will send you Rwanda, and Rwanda at and after the period of fear mongering and  genocidal killings among people not very different from each other."

Holy CRAP God, can't we just tell people to use their search engines on the phrase Africa Great Lakes Initiative  stick to conflicts and soap operas closer to home.

Apparently not.

RantWoman went about the rest of her day and the activities due at her destination and then at home. First  activities presided over by the Queen of Spades, She who Will NOT be disregarded, She who Demands a minimum daily requirement of Human cat furniture time. Laundry was also involved. So was missing an always wonderful Quaker event. Sigh.

And lo, the next day the Lord or at least NPR Spake unto RantWoman. First it was the 75th anniversary of #EO9066, the executive Order that led to the internment of over 100,000 Americans of Japanese Descent.

Then a death notice, a death notice for a convicted terrorist. Even convicted terrorists deserve lawyers, but this convicted terrorist got stuck in RantWoman's mind because of issues to do with the last of his lawyers and her interpreter.  The short version: the lawyer and the interpreter both wound up facing charges. Court interpreting was not the interpreter's regular beat. One thing led to another and the interpreter wound up being a code of ethics case study of many things not to do for a  professional association meeting RantWoman once attended. And the lawyer lingers in RantWoman's highly unusual sampling of Life Experiences Involving Lawyers.

Lo, the Lord again spake unto RantWoman. The Lord suggested that since RantWoman had not gotten her act together to tend to various matters of breakfast food supply, RantWoman should go in search of ...oatmeal at a nearby newly remodeled fast food emporium, and this before it was time for Oatmeal people to ride the bus to Meeting.

The bus ride and other events transpired and RantWoman settled into worship.

The Lord again spake unto RantWoman, several times: "RantWoman don't go to Rwanda today. Your audience will not get there with you."

"And the lawyer message: that's a message for another moment."

As it was, God served up a seriously Quaker banquet:
 A lengthy message from a travelling visitor exhorting those worshipping together to get over / examine / repent of unearned privilege. The ministry went on a good while with several pauses. It earned at least 3 audible eye rolls from Eye Roller friend, but the speaker seemed not disturbed.

 Two messages related to the Internment. deal with history, moral ambiguity, and how much human gestures like treating the people in the camps like human beings, spending scarce fuel and tire resources to bring necessities to the camps and being willing to hire them after the war mattered

RantWoman does not remember whether there were other messages during worship, but Joys and Concerns overflowed with a headier mix than people's individual prayer requests and celebrations.

RantWoman finally was given the right Please hold in the Light words to speak both about moral choices in the matter of mass undocumented immigrant roundup logistics and about a personal connection where she can do exactly NOTHING except pray

Then another Friend, new to Meeting and ardently eloquently seeking spiritually,  also offered passionate ministry about how by the hundredth time someone calls one a Nazi it gets a little tiresome and we need to love listen to.. people who voted for and support The Orange One (RantWoman's term; the speaker was more respectful than RantWoman is capable of being.)

RantWoman DEEPLY reveres Love Our Trump Voters Friend but is going to have to season how to say more or what will respond to his specific seeking.

Start Small. Yep. RantWoman has a goodly number of Trump voters in her life as well. And yep, "how to be a better Christian" around such people also seems like a HIGHLY topical question.

RantWoman is not clear to Blog about Love our Trump Voters Friend's highly exotic to RantWoman transportation issue except to insert her own perspectives: RantWoman really DIGS having elbow room while travelling at times when the bus is not overcrowded.  RantWoman also acknowledges some inconvenient truths about this problem. RantWoman promises to season. In the meantime, RantWoman's quest after the latest iteration of transportation conversation: how to get both  the bananas and the eggs home unscathed by bus.

For now, may the Lord bless and keep the bananas and the clerks who best just hand the bananas to RantWoman to bag!