Gottfried Finger: Sonata No.2 in D major for viola da gamba and basso co...

The season just needs some viola da gamba music.

Icons Child with adult face Knowing



Christmas Cactus in snowy window

RantWoman has been meditating about this reflection from Johan and Judy Maurer . RantWoman thinks some queries would be on point but queries right now are beyond her Light.

... We sang “Mary did you know” at church last Sunday.

*Mary did you know that your baby boy will one day walk on water? Mary did you know that your baby boy will save our sons and daughters? Did you know that your baby boy has come to make you new? This child that you've delivered, will soon deliver you*

The night before our son Luke had mentioned that he liked the French word “frisson” - the feeling you get when you hear an exquisite piece of music. “A thrill up your spine,” he said.

I certainly had that “thrill in the spirit” while singing “Mary Did You Know?" My mind went to the moment a friend of mine explained an early icon to me. It was one of those breakthrough moments, when I could never think the same way again. We were at the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, standing in front of this  icon - it’s called the Vladimir Mother of God. It traveled around a bit in the early centuries of its existence - from Istanbul to Kiev to Vladimir to Moscow, where it landed in 1395 and has been in Moscow ever since.

I was lucky to be at the Tretyakov with my friend, an art history professor visiting from Philadelphia. I’m not sure if I said my thoughts aloud or not. Perhaps she simply knew I was thinking, “That’s weird. That baby in the icon looks like a mini adult. Why did they paint Jesus not looking like the infant that He was?” The subtext in my mind was “What’s wrong with these painters? Didn’t they know what a baby looks like?”

In any case, she murmured to me, “Eastern painters felt that what was ‘real’ was the emotional reality beneath the surface. So that’s what they painted. Western painters at the time were held captive by the image that they saw.  It’s like they were constrained by what they saw on the surface.”

So I looked more deeply at the icon. I saw how tenderly he is looking up at his mother, loving her. I saw on his face that he knew the pain that was coming to her - just as Simeon said to Mary when he met them in the temple, “And a sword will pierce your own soul too.”

By gazing at the icon - and it was painted so we can gaze at it in prayer - we can see into their relationship. She is loving and protective, cradling him in her arms. But he looks up at her, knowing. In this knowledge is loving and tender. No ordinary baby would have known all that was coming. Depicting Jesus as an infant somehow misses that deeper reality. I’m grateful that now my eyes can see that.

So yes, in answer to the song, Mary knew.  The final verse is

*Mary did you know that your baby boy is Lord of all creation?Mary did you know that your baby boy will one day rule the nations?Did you know that your baby boy is heaven's perfect Lamb?This sleeping child you're holding is the great I am*

Yes, Mary knew, and what’s more, Jesus knew. It makes the Christmas season different for me, now. It brings Jesus’ death on the cross into Christmas, because Jesus knew. He knew of the Resurrection as well, of course - John 2:19-21 says, “Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.’ They replied, ‘It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?’ But the temple he had spoken of was his body.”

The Resurrection, and the birth that preceded it, is the triumph over the worst that human beings can do. The Resurrection shows that heaven can create again all that that humans may choose to destroy.  The birth we celebrate this month is only the beginning. Let us rejoice.

Large Children and an Electron Microscope



Christmas Cactus in snowy window

A meditation for large children confronted with He Whom We  SO Wish Were Not Elected.

From George Fox's journal, "...walk cheerfully on the earth answering that of God in everyone...."

Colossians 4:6 “Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know HOW to answer (that of God in) everyone.”

God, are you EFFing KIDDING? That of God in ...?

Get out your electron microscope. It has to be in there SOMEWHERE....!

Starving widows, original sin, holiday rat pups

RantWoman's Biblical preparation for worship: Library instead of Adult Ed. Meditation overdue about library but not today. Find the new large print KJV which has not found its way to a shelf yet. Read the rest of Habakkuk. Dig the strong language and symbolism. Let mind leak like a sieve about exact wording: any message will just have not to quote Habbakuk.

Then read of Anna, the widow who spent her days fasting at the temple shortly after the time of Jesus' birth. Fasting? Yea right! RantWoman is thinking widows said to be fasting were probably making a virtue of near starvation standard of living. Here God told RantWoman just to go to the end of early worship and not hyperventilate about widow prophets and their diets.

in RantWoman's Building lobby

There were two, count them two messages in the last 10 minutes of worship, not nearly as much message train wreck as 11:00 worship but still, RantWoman thinks, out of the ordinary. RantWoman meant to just creep in. But there was a long message about our society busily purging itself of public figures connected to any whiff of sexual misconduct. Also celebrate lots of unfamiliar faces in early worship:

Speaking of out of the ordinary, original sin showed up in 11:00  Meeting for Worship, an unusual occurrence among liberal Quakers, though not a concept unknown on Planet RantWoman, especially RantWoman's mental soundtrack at this time of year.

Oh Holy Night "...long lay the world in sin and error ..."

Random works by Jewish musicians trying to make a living, nothing to do with sin necessarily but also in the soundtrack along with Hanukkah greetings as appropriate..

Tom Lehrer: "...try and prove your sin is original..."

A message arising after Adult Religious Education. RantWoman missed ARE because she was called to Bible reading Friend heard of original sin in his childhood church but had not thought about it in decades among Friends until this week's Adult Ed.

A lovely message about school children: even on good days, one little boy throws his pencils across the room a lot. The other kids just pick up the pencils and hand them back. Some school children dread holidays because school is one of their Safe places. The holiday collage making went well and the teacher is relieved to be on vacation.

A message from Friend who, the Friend says, Ardently Believes in Original Sin mentioning community in a way that made RantWoman season a leading about interrupting based on what RantWoman experiences as SEVERE disconnects in the realm of community. Then something about traumatized rat pups having trouble caring for their own offspring. RantWoman definitely had trouble getting from biology to original sin, but at least that trouble kept Rantwoman's brain from short-circuiting further about matters of community.
http://rantwomanrsof.blogspot.com/2017/12/remove-person-1.html

Oh, and RantWoman offered a prayer for the kids who dread vacation because school is their safe place (or unsafe in a different way than home).

Then RantWoman told the Christmas Chair story.

Readers who want the Christmas Chair story get to beg and plead in the comments, or ask someone who was in Meeting for Worship.

Meditations with Hanukkah--but no bunelos--woven in

Happy Hanukkah to those around RantWOman who celebrate

RantWoman is weaving Hanukkah thoughts among her holiday rambles. RantWoman also promised a binge blog effort of gifts and resources. Here are a couple itemsfrom the Facebook Friends Spiritaul Accountabilty page, listed here for possible ease of locating them again and also as a plug for the Facebook group.




A green tree menorah with red candles.
How Christmasy is that?

"This (thinking of the woes of the year) led us to wonder: how can we stay resilient enough to make it through the next year? Through the next three years?
If you’re rallying yourself and your spirit for 2018, here are 7 questions to help you build resilience:

1. What gift or contribution do I bring to the spaces I impact and the work ahead of me?
2. What are 1-3 things I want to let go of to help me stay resilient?
3. What places within me or in my life are asking for growth?
4. What have I let go of that I want to bring back into my life?
5. What am I not being honest with myself about?
6. What helps me bounce back when my spirit feels drained?
7. What boundaries do I need to set for myself or with others for my self-care and resilience?

7 Questions to help you build resilience in 2018


And furthermore:
As if from The Lord of the Rings

Alan Rabinowitz memorial January 7, 2018, 3pm, Centilia Cultural Arts Center

RantWoman is posting this memorial announcement as is without editorialzing except for one technological note from today's blindness tourism itinerary: the text in this graphical image hebaved very well when RantWoman saved the image from the original email and then used her screen reader's OCR function.

RantWoman has not tested steps for downloading the image from a blog post. RantWoman mostly wants her readers to recognize that she sometimes has to do and know how to do a whole lot of extra steps for things others take for granted.

That announcement: good intentions data

Offered without comment from our Weekly Bulletin:

 For many years we have been openly holding, at once, the community and worship needs of survivors of sexual abuse and past sexual offenders. While we are a safer place for children because of the awareness and education that this ministry has produced, we recognize that this ministry requires ongoing dialogue and engagement. If you have questions or concerns, we encourage you to talk to a member of the Care and Counsel Committee***. If you are a survivor of sexual abuse and would like to speak to someone in Meeting, please call (...). She can arrange times when she, or possibly others, can meet with you in a spirit of worship to hear concerns, share experience, or help discern what meeting resources might be appropriate to your needs. For more information, please see the yellow informational flyer on the bulletin board outside of the office.

The above is the good intentions.

RantWoman collects data about her Meeting and herself.

https://rantwomanrsof.blogspot.com/2017/12/more-great-moments-in.html

https://rantwomanrsof.blogspot.com/2017/11/many-shitty-first-draft-moments-sex.html

https://rantwomanrsof.blogspot.com/2017/10/how-large-is-large-large-print-bibles.html

https://rantwomanrsof.blogspot.com/2017/10/happy-birthday-rant-brother.html

https://rantwomanrsof.blogspot.com/2016/09/reprise-of-rant-past-and-blessings.html

Before a previous year's workshop,  Friend whose Title RantWoman omits told RantWoman "GO talk to your Counselor" when RantWoman was expressing something about kids who cannot talk to their parents. Turns out, three other people in the workshop asked questions relevant to exactly that topic.

***Previously another committee, one RantWoman served on was also listed in this announcement. The name of the committee was removed from the announcement after RantWoman spent a whole year on the committee trying to get the clerk of that committee to do worship sharing about what it means when people tell you stuff. Okay, so that kind of worship-sharing is not, Not, NOT that particular Friend's gift

Remove? Person 1

It would be enough for today to work at RantWoman's current meditations about really what a BIZARRE sequence of events are tied up in the Christ story.

It would be enough for RantWoman to meditate about expectations in the realm of the God as Personal Butler model of Divine Presence or even the what is one reasonably to expect of an elder, at least in title?

The tree before the lights go on

It would be enough for RantWoman to meditate upon the phrase "Walk gently upon the earth answering that of God in Everyone." This week, at least around RantWoman, a more realistic model of Divine presence might be the lost cellphone  in a crowded space problem. Signals are coming in. There is clear evidence that the phone is somewhere, but danged if one can actually locate the phone. Consider the following moments

From RantWoman's inbox this morning:

"Please remove my name from this discussion."

WTF Friend?????

RantWoman included you in this discussion with appreciation because you WROTE the draft minutes under discussion. But RantWoman ALSO includes you because of your role on Care and Counsel. RantWoman somehow has the peculiar, peculiar but apparently not necessarily realistic  expectation that care of a whole community sometimes involves interacting with email, prayerful participation not only in Meeting for Worship but also in the life of the rest of the Meeting.

RantWoman THANKED you for some serious "show your work" minutes, expressed appreciation for the thought of someone not at Meeting for Worship for Business being able to figure out from the minutes what happened, and asked Friends to reflect on thoughts from RantWoman's many different experiences with the Quaker practice of hours and hours devoted to something called minutes.

RantWoman further made the same request she frequently makes these days: read as you are able and hold in the Light. Plus, RantWoman knows the Delete key exists and thinks people absolutely have the option of using it and not advertising the fact to RantWoman.

So WTF, Friend????

(And please excuse RantWoman if this morning's email also makes it hard to take another related effort seriously.)

Holding you in the Light and not necessarily promising to edit recipient lists.

In Light and Faithfulness

RantWoman.

Friends Journal Interview with Prof. Sa'ed Atshan

RantWoman REALLY needed this interview in FriendsJournal.org with Swarthmore Peace Studies professor Sa'ed Atshan:

Sa’ed Atshan is a graduate of Ramallah Friends School in Palestine and a professor of peace and conflict studies at Swarthmore College. In October 2015, we published “Realizing Wholeness: Reflections from a Gay Palestinian Quaker,” and saw it become one of our most widely read articles of the year. Since then he’s headlined a plenary at the Friends General Conference Gathering and written for publications such as American Friends Service Committee’s Acting in Faith blog.
In person, Atshan is soft-spoken and gentle; he chooses his words with care and precision. He is generous in giving thoughtful compliments in conversations, and he seems able to find that of God in even the most obstinate political conflicts. It thus came as a surprise when he became the center of a controversy played out in the pages of Philadelphia newspapers this February. We talked to him to find out how a peace and conflict studies professor deals with controversy and to understand the discernment of a public Friend in the era of social media and instant outrage.
Read the interview here



Christmas Cactus 12 11

RantWoman needed this article far more than one about "Why do we Tie up the Cat?" which also comes highly recommended.
Look world. RantWoman is busy. RantWoman is also a lazy slug. RantWoman is more likely to read the tying up the cat article if someone sends her a direct link so she does not have to poke her screen reader among search bar and search results.

However, RantWoman invites her public, adoring and otherwise to sit with the point that RantWoman may have gotten as much as she needs just from mention of the Typing up thecat article.

Equally important, RantWoman resides in the dominion of the Queen of Spades. The Queen of Spades may get scratchy and  extremely censorious about anything to do with typing up cats, even when asking about ceasing to tie up cats.

Minutes: Staff

RantWoman is reviewing draft minutes. This item is from only one section.

2017-11-4: Facilities Manager

...

-- Friends Center is more than light lunch. What is needed to support its work? To help answer, "who are we in this new community?" To serve not only ourselves as Quakers, but also the wider community

(RantWoman believes this item is intended to summarize RantWoman’s comments. RantWoman made reference to many changes happening around our Meeting, to need to pay attention to these changes, to discern how we might participate in public processes accompanying these changes, to look for opportunities, to consider how our Meeting might be a community resource. In other words, RantWoman spoke specifically in reference to matters that in RantWoman’s mind should absolutely be part of the property discernment process. RantWoman also referenced another Friend’s suggestion to restructure other positions and suggested some activities related to her comments above that might quite appropriately go into someone’s job description, maybe not right away but on the horizon. RantWoman is not sure which points made it out of her mouth last month and recognizes that minutes should reflect what was said. RantWoman is clear that this draft can be improved. Hopefully light about HOW to improve it will emerge in Business Meeting.)

-- There is a problem with our organizational culture: we put hard issues last on our agenda, discouraging discussion or questions. Friends may hold contradictory opinions regarding the spiritual importance of buildings, per se. When we are worried, we don't want to let new ideas surface. As this last message continued, various Friends began to stand to hold silence, and eventually the Clerk called for meeting-wide silence.

(HOLY SHHHH…! RantWoman missed the Friends rising. Rantwoman could not think of a better way to illustrate this speaker’s point than people rising to hold silence. RantWoman deeply appreciates the point that she is not the only Friend evoking the stand up so people will shut up response.

See https://rantwomanrsof.blogspot.com/2017/07/diligence.html  Not for this month’s minutes: RantWoman in July was speaking of an accessibility issue for a new tenant’s services. The topic has received much attention in email, partly BECAUSE so many people told RantWoman that her perspective was irrelevant, unnecessary, beside the point.  RantWoman should probably post excerpts from the email discussion.  RantWoman is also receiving feedback that she should not try to communicate by email, but the topical email exchange surfaced important information that RantWoman would not easily have found out trying to meander through committee channels. HOLY Shhhhh…!)

Not screaming. Pomegranates

Kid appreciation #1

RantWoman was at the most wonderful holiday party. There were many small kids there. A few of them were doing some kind of well-contained bouncy thing on a couch. All of them were cheerful. None of them were screaming. It was BEAUTIFUL, and Rantwoman was delighted to realize she has already met some of the parents.

RantWoman was offered a ride home before the kids started getting tired.

(insert big smilie emojis)

Kid appreciation #2: Pomegranates

Irrepressible Nephew turned 17 this week.

Auntie RantWoman supplied the customary pomegranate for the occasion.

Long ago when Irrepressible Nephew was considerably smaller than his gurren 6'4" Auntie RantWoman rebelled against the mountains of plastic toys piling up at Little Sister's house after gift-giving occasions. RantWoman wanted to supply experience. RantWoman chose...peeling a pomegranate.

Irrepressible Nephew thought this was great fun. So did Auntie RantWoman. Bad Auntie! Think pomegranate juice drips. Think carpet in rental apartment. Little Sister did not think this was fun.

Oops.

Came round another gift-giving occasion. RantWoman bought another pomegranate. Little sister raced for some newspaper to catch the pomegranate drips. The household lived in that apartment long enough that the pomegranate drips fell under "normal wear and tear."

This year, family gathered at Little Sister's. Little Sister was out procuring food when RantWoman arrived. RantMom did not understand the point of giving the gift early for "appetizer."  Irrepressible Nephew received his gift with great gratitude, peeled it over the sink and shared with RantWoman! Yeah Kid.

Sorry News Sorry happening

Sorry is all over the news these days. Close to the RantWoman message manglement service:

1. I'm sorry (but I cannot apologize for things I cannot help like bieing blind or being sensitized to ...) / I am sorry that is happening  > has happened to you. RantWoman is hearing the latter with appreciation, but that alone is insufficient. Please hold problem in the Light for now.

2. RantWoman read something in email very sloppily and misstated an issue. RantWoman found it very easy to apologize partly because she had the offending email right in front of her without having to dig it out of email archives with screen reader. RantWoman supposes here it would also be topical to go off at great lenghth about all the ocular and software / computer interface issues that impede reading comprehension.  RantWoman is meditating about that point, some need to meet in person issues, and RantWoman being true to her Light when the problem is not ONLY sloppy reading. Hold that point in the Light.

3. I'm sorry and excuse me. The equivalents in Russian are confusing because the concepts slice and add up differently. Example from RantWoman's experience decades ago: the street currency exchange, cough, entrepreneurs who would approach foreigners with "I'm sorry. Do you want to shange dollars into rubbles?" (Thought bubbles: as soon as I stop laughing we can talk; RANTWOMAN save the #trumpRussia #followthemoney meditations for another thread PLEASE...)

Louis the BlindChristmas Elf

RantWoman is mixing various holiday moments into her usual rambles about transit, endless usability testing...




Christmas Cactus 12 4

A sweet item about Louis the Blind Christmas Elf
http://mosen.org/louis/

Faith Responses to Homelessness, Via Faith Action Netowrk and events TOMORROW

Faith Responses to Homelessness

We are deeply troubled by the news last week that the City of Seattle budget will result in the loss of 300 shelter beds, transitional housing, and support services, even as we enter year two of the declared homeless state of emergency—see news articles from Crosscut and KUOW for some of the story. We honor faith communities who for decades have opened their doors, their parking lots and their hearts to provide survival services for those impacted by homelessness, often in conjunction with SHARE/WHEEL, Catholic Community Services, Compass Housing, and other community partners. We want to make sure your voices are included in response to this crisis.

The Church Council of Greater Seattle, in coordination with social services agencies across Seattle, is organizing a meeting on Wednesday, December 6 at 10 AM at Plymouth United Church of Christ, 1217 6^th Avenue. This meeting will be an opportunity for faith communities, impacted folks, and service providers to come together and strategically coordinate a united response. While FAN staff will be at the Budget and Policy Center conference that morning, FAN Governing Board chair Rabbi Aaron Meyer of Temple de Hirsch Sinai, which has hosted a shelter for decades, will join the meeting. Please email Erica West at ewest@thechurchcouncil.org with any questions about the meeting. Budgets at the local, state and federal levels all have moral implications.

After the meeting, attendees are encouraged to join the Women in Black vigil at 12 noon at the Seattle Justice Center (5^th & Cherry). Women in Black (men are welcome) will stand silent vigil for the nine outdoor/violent homeless deaths in our community in November alone. With these deaths, the 2017 outdoor/violent death count—at 87—far outstrips the number of deaths during any other calendar year. We encourage you to reach out to the mayor and your city council members in support of shelter.

---

Stand Together against Muslim Ban

Also this Wednesday, Dec 6, we encourage you to join a rally outside the U.S. Courthouse (1010 5th Ave, Seattle) beginning at 1 PM, as the Muslim Ban continues to work its way through our court system. The State of Hawaii filed for another temporary restraining order against the third version of The Muslim Ban, and the case will be heard on Wednesday at 2:00 PM at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, William K. Nakamura Courthouse. This is particularly important given yesterday's news of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to lift the injunctions and let the travel ban take effect (see NY Times article).

Please join us to hear testimonials of those impacted by the ban. Faith leaders are especially welcome to wear their clerical garb and stand in unity and support. A group reading of portions of the constitution is also planned. Show your support for the Muslim community and a vibrant, diverse America where all are welcome!

---

Protect Hotel Workers from Harassment

With our friends at Unite Here Local 8:
As the current moment sheds light on the pervasiveness of sexual harassment and assault throughout countless professions, we join together in solidarity and with shared experience to support the women of Seattle’s hospitality industry.

Hotel housekeepers are predominantly immigrant women and women of color who work for low wages at great risk: in Seattle, 53 percent have reported experiencing sexual harassment or assault on the job. Through their leadership, voters passed an initiative in November 2016 to combat through law exactly the types of behavior now garnering national attention and outcry. The Seattle Hotel Employees Health and Safety Ordinance shows that it is possible to craft public policies that support women, embrace our values, and offer workers genuine recourse to respond to harassment and assault.

Unfortunately, these policies are disputed, and employers have attacked Seattle’s law. The Seattle hotel industry has publicly taken the side of those accused of harassment, arguing on their behalf in court and asserting that the stakes for the accused are greater and more important than those of victims. It has been a year since Seattle made history with the passage of Initiative 124. We cannot go backwards.

Please take action and sign Unite Here Local 8's petition: #MeToo: I Stand with Hotel Housekeepers.

---

Support I-940 to De-Escalate Washington!

FAN has supported I-940 from the beginning, and we want to help De-Escalate Washington to reach the finish line! Contact fan@fanwa.org and we’ll send you petitions to collect signatures at your holiday events and in your faith communities. Here are a few updates from the campaign:

• The I-940 Campaign has now collected over 261,000 signatures, surpassing the amount needed to submit to the Secretary of State. In order to assure qualification, we need about 89,000 more—now under 21,000 signatures needed from volunteers. Keep up the good work! Make sure all your friends, neighbors, family, and co-workers have signed it, and return your filled petition as soon as you can.
• Initiative 940 is very much needed in our state. The total amount of Washingtonians killed by law enforcement this year is 36 — Washington now rates the 6th highest in the country of loved-ones killed by police in 2017. By comparison, Massachusetts—the state closest to ours in population—has had five deaths this year through violent interactions with police.
• U.S. Senator Patty Murray recently endorsed I-940! She also sent an email to her supporters requesting I-940 assistance—the first time this has been done for an initiative campaign! Leaders throughout our state have endorsed De-Escalate Washington's common-sense policy change.

Financial donations are also needed to reach the finish line. You can support De-Escalate Washington with a contribution here.  

You are appreciated! Together, we will change the law to make everyone safer in Washington.

---

FAN is honored to be listed by Seattle Met Magazine as one of 20 Great Nonprofits to Give to in 2017 and Beyond. Help FAN the Flames for justice year-round; support FAN with a donation:

Experiment: Community Discernment

RantWoman is absolutely clear publicly to post the following item and the comments / questions as an experiment.  Is anyone else besides RantWoman interested in seeing comments from other Friends, not just routing everyone's comments to the Campus discernment Committee?

If interested, please post comments. RantWoman moderates comments but very minimally and aims to publish comments as quickly as possible.

RantWoman will also send the blog link to the campus discernment committee email address.

First the text of the intro email.

I’m sharing this message on behalf of the UFM Committee on Campus Discernment. The link shown below leads to a website with a 16 minute video about Gethsemane Lutheran Church’s decision to develop their downtown Seattle property. This is one story about one faith community’s decision to redevelop. We are sharing this video with the UFM community because we think it is a well-presented depiction of the decision-making and development process for Gethsemane Lutheran.

As we continue our research we look forward to finding and sharing stories about the property stewardship decisions of other faith communities and non-profits.

http://www.sacredlandcommonground.org/

Sacred Land | Common Ground: Interfaith Housing Forum<http://www.sacredlandcommonground.org/>
www.sacredlandcommonground.org
Bringing together people of faith and nonprofit housing providers to meet our community's needs for more affordable housing
(...)
Thank you,
Nancy Helm

[RantWoman: if you would like to share comments or questions with the whole community, please leave a comment. RantWoman moderates comments but will aim to post as soon as possible.]

RantWoman notes:

--The video about Gethsemane talks about how the church worked with different issues, deciding to work with a partner, having to regroup when one of their financing options did not pan out.

What stands out to Friends about the video?

Question: RantWoman is wondering how management of the parts of the structure where ownership is shared is working out.

--There is also a downloadable PDF which lists all the projects mentioned on the website, their organizational structure, financing, target populations, and other info. The PDF is well worth the read just to get some ideas, though there is also a mountain of possibly unfamiliar terminology.

Technical note: RantWoman has successfully downloaded the guide and read it with interest.
However, the download link behaves weirdly for RantWoman. RantWoman somehow suspects her assistive technology and advises readers just to look on the page above near the bottom for the download link.

Questions for after reading:
                      
--What more would Friends like to know about any of these projects?

--Do Friends understand the significance of building different sizes of apartments?

--RantWoman suspects that contact info for some of the churches / projects may be out of date.

--RantWoman wonders about the current funding capacity of some of the financing options mentioned.

--RantWoman is not posting thoughts which came up at a retreat about financing

--The website is kind of half-done, like the developers ran out of resources. Lots of links do not work. One link that does work is the downloadable resource guide. RantWoman is being careful not to make assumptions about whether the umbrella group that  created the website is or is not functional.

In Light and Faithfulness

Zany questions for UFM Campus Discernment process

RantWoman is QUITE well aware that more zany questions from RantWoman may or may not be the least bit helpful to the campus discernment process. RantWoman offers the questions here in humble hope that they will spark other questions and that out of these questions increased clarity about how to work at our different paths and current problems might emerge.

RantWoman is also flipping well interested in comparing notes about the questions other people pose. RantWoman can live with the possibility that some of her questions have absolutely no resonance with others. However, RantWoman has specific experience with more than one member of the campus Discernment committee dismissing RantWoman's perspective where RantWoman turned out to have important insight. RantWoman is being faithful to that Light and inviting shared discussion

RantWoman acknowledges but does not apologize for flinging around a whole bunch of jargon. RantWoman and, she imagines others, can explain the jargon and / or suggest resources to explain it more fully. RantWoman thinks a certain amount of wading into jargon is going to be absolutely necessary for centered discernment. RantWoman also thinks drawing together resources to help people deal with jargon is a task that could be accomplished by drawing in people who might only want to commit to that and not to more or not to more right now. But then RantWoman is a language nerd and is prone to the same problem lots of other people have: if one has one set of tools all problems look like something where that set of tools is needed.

RantWoman also deeply appreciates a couple phone conversations where project manager brain insights have at least been heard.

That said, the last retreat dealt with some interesting numbers ranges. Are there circumstances that could blow those projections? Amazon going belly up? The current regime annoying the world badly enough that foreign investors stop investing in Seattle?

What do we think higher education or at least the UW might look like in 20, 50, 100 years. Hint: reviewing the UW master plan could be a shared educational experience but answering that question probably requires more thought.

Are there opportunities for our Meeting in connection with the community resources supposedly generated in the upzone / BIA process? What options are there for researching / monitoring this. Hint: the U district partnership has a monthly email list. Anyone can sign up; if people read the emails, conversations can probably help information and ideas flow in our community.

Is there anything we can do to influence what happens in our immiediate vicinity or to make our neighbors aware of us as a faith community or other resource?

Lots of Friends have expressed interest in affordable housing development. Would we have the same or less interest in affordable housing on our own property if we were able to use our voice to help ensure that more affordable housing gets created in the U district and in the city as a whole? Should we honor friends led both to work directly about our property and about the region as a whole?

What circumstances within our community or changes in our immediate vicinity  could make it absolutely necessary to move?

What changes in pedestrian (and vehicle) traffic can we expect as the new Light rail station opens?

What is our commitment to staying in the University District, particularly if escalating real estate prices make it unaffordable for many in our community to continue to live in Seattle?

How many different threads can be researched at once?

There. More than enough for now.

In Light and Faithfulness.

RantWoman

Signs: Habakkuk Print, typography



Largeish Print Bible open to Habakkuk

On the bus, pretty much on RantWoman's preferred Sunday schedule, RantWoman found herself asking God for a sign: worship? Adult Education? Something else.

Scratching the pedestrian path, god said "library. new (sort of) large print Bible. Has it even been catalogued?"

RantWoman found the new Bible still in its plastic covering. RantWoman ripped of the covering and asked God to point out to her where to read.

Habakkuk?

From Habakkuk chapter 1, message manglement, visual ambiguity

Behold the law is stacked? or the law is slacked?

We heathen or ye heathen?

Habakkuk 2:2 Autocorrect? death by Spell checker?

Write the vision and make it plain upon the table?

Meaning graffiti the table ? or just write the vision on a tablet?

At this point, God said, RantWoman STOP. You already have what you need, Habakkuk. You do NOT get to nerd out about visual vocabulary exercises. Just GO TO WORSHIP, NOW!

Reading Saturday notes

RantWoman's version of Saturday Night Live, offered partly in response to invitation to share more of her daily vexations. Okay. RantWoman is sharing. RantWoman is unclear how many people actually WANT her sharing. RantWoman is clear to share in her blog and to email links.

It's past time for RantWoman to be ASLEEP. RantWoman is not asleep. Not only is RantWoman not asleep, RantWoman is feeling called to fill the interwebs with tonight's verbal splatter about her experience reading in various formats.

RantWoman convened her monthly Blindness and Low Vision Technology Meetup today. The first technology needing attention was adjustments for new chairs at the friendly Neighborhood Center for Extreme Computing.

Various computer technologies came up. In particular, the work of reading manuals while learning the technology used to read the manual is a recurring theme. RantWoman has to listen practice, repeat. Then RantWoman has to take a break and come back and repeat it. This is a lot more work through a screen reader than it is visually whine.

The Victor Reader Stream came up. The Victor Reader looks to RantWoman a little like a hand grenade, not that RantWoman knows a lot about hand grenades. The Victor reader has tactile buttons for reading audio books distributed by the National Library for the Blind and physically Handicapped. No, RantWoman does not know enough about how to use the Stream to provide the help asked for today. The Friendly Neighborhood Center... does n fact own one, a donation that RantWoman accepted. RantWoman would like permission to take the Stream away from the noise of the Friendly Neighborhood center to test and play with. So far permission to do that has not happened. Grrrr..

Digital Talking Book player: RantWoman ADORES her Digital Talking Book player for terrific tactile buttons, NO SCREEN, and a bunch of other reasons that merit their own post. Books can either be downloaded orrequested on cartridge in WA through the WA Talking Book and Braille library. The NO SCREEN is perfect for bedtime. RantWoman tends to set the reader to read for half an hour, by which time RantWoman is usually though not always asleep.

Read until fall asleep comes with interesting risks.

For awhile RantWoman was reading Bishop Tutu's book on the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Parts of that book definitely should NOT be read at bedtime RantWoman is not sure what it means for he r own psyche that she can fall asleep while reading this, but the images definitely come back in the daytime.

Or consider Breme Brown: she has really interesting speech patterns. She reads her own stuff. She includes lists that are supposed to be helpful mnemonics  and article references. Almost pointless if not able to write down or find easily. In other words more work than RantWoman should attempt at bedtime.

RantWoman has posted before about Bibles. Here is today's Light.
Recently RantWoman visited a store called Sight Connection now in a new location of Aurora  in N Seattle. RantWoman could write a whole treatise about PENS, her purpose in going there.

The pens that helped find the Bible

RantWoman also suggested to someone she knows who both works there and has other topical certifications that it would be AWESOME to put cane-friendly directions from the nearest bus stop(s) on the website. But the important thing for this blog:

Most important RantWoman also scored a "Giant Print" King James Bible which she has already donated to her Meeting's library. RantWoman will appreciate KJV for poetry though not contemporary concepts. RantWoman was so happy to put her hands on a book without waiting around for mail order that RantWoman can just cope. RantWoman may also still think about options for other editions and even bigger print, but here's to initiative.



Holy Bible, "Giant" print

Odor Itinerary and Olfactory annunciations

Bless us oh Lord for RantWoman has been called to add to her daily olfactory itinerary.

Most days RantWoman trundles along fine with average pleasurable cooking smells, occasional recognition of people because of their lingering tobacco smoke, and the disagreeable daily immersion in weed residue RantWoman did NOT vote for when she voted to legalize weed. Today however, RantWoman's olfactory menu includes multiple bonus irritations.

I Won't Wash My Hair Friend has kindly subtracted perfume. RantWoman thinks the I won't wash my hair gesture would not be necessary if said Friend were to get crazy and actually promote TALKING WITH rather than yelling AT RantWoman, but that is another story. RantWoman has no idea whether her olfactory reaction to said Friend was due to hair care products, residual aromas in clothing, sunspots, the Presidential Twitter feed, North Korean missile tests... The point is RantWoman was clear to move.

While fleeing Mysterious Residual Aromas Friend RantWoman fell into a cloud of .... drum roll please...laundry detergent. Mercifully, RantWoman finds the chemical odors more bearable than flowery laundry products. Not THAT Much more bearable but RantWoman had already come in late and moved once and decided just to bear with.

Ahhh, but God was not done with the aromatic annunciations. This was only 9:30 worship.

RantWoman entered 11:00 worship closer to the top of the hour than average. RantWoman walked by the first section where she had been sitting earlier. RantWoman was nearly overcome by a WALL of mutually reinforcing perfume odors. God is RantWoman glad she as a rule does not sit in that section. At least the prevailing aromas were different from the earlier hour.


Comes now Coffee Hour and a conversation with RantWoman about a visit to the other Friend's house. RantWoman mentioned a strong odor of mold somewhere. It's the northwest RantWoman notices mold smells often. RantWoman speaks up about it less often. It turns out that Friend and her husband were trying to track down a small leak in their plumbing. Ugh. RantWoman's nose does not lie.

The rest of RantWoman's day was olfactorily unremarkable until... RantWoman hit the empty elevator in RantMom's building as RantWoman was headed home from Sunday Supper. Talk about perfume overkill. Blecccch!

Thought Bubbles and Memorializing

The question is, would life be better, fuller, richer, more centered in the Light, more rooted n Truth if EVERY thought bubble in RantWoman's head made it out of her mouth?

Consider this moment from an attempt to elder RantWoman:

"(Kindest Editor EVER Friend) rose at 11:55..."

RantWoman thought bubbles:

1. LOOK Friend, Kindest Editor EVER Friend VERY rarely rises to speak. When he does, it does not matter whether it is 5 of or 25 after the hour,. It does not matter whether Kindest Editor EVER Friend just reads from the book of Ephesians or an old telephone directory, we LISTEN!

2. Kindest Editor Ever Friend was speaking of a long friendship with a couple, one of whom died more suddenly than RantWoman and it seems others expected. RantWoman wanted to hear every word Kindest Editor EVER Friend wants to offer.

3. Kindest Editor EVER Friend is of course way more evolved than rantWoman and would never THINK to read as mentioned above.

Now we will return to our main rant streams.

In Light and Faithfulness

RantWoman

More great moments in....

Possibly readers who already have more than enough drama in their lives should grab another look at the Christmas cactuses and skip the rest of this item.  Everyone needs to hold in the Light as they read, prelude to most recent Business Meeting

Christmas Cactuses Week of Nov 27

The following exchange is not dissimilar to actual conversation. PLEASE hold this whole fiasco in the Light.

Dear RantWoman,

(attached please find the item we discussed by phone)

I’ll be out most of the afternoon and evening.

I’d prefer not to hear responses you have until after business meeting.

This is going to be painful, please take good and gentle care of yourself.

Friend who is decidedly not living up to other Noms de Blog.


Response RantWoman is seasoning and given things that actually happened clear to post:

Dear Friend

First, thank you so much for needing RantWoman to call YOU to elicit the above email. . RantWoman keeps reiterating that her phone accepts incoming calls. Thank you also for at least delivering by early afternoon the day before Business Meeting instead of 10 pm. And by the way thank you so much as well for the openness RantWoman hears like nowhere to discussion before this is presented.

RantWoman cannot decide whether just to howl with laughter.

"I’d prefer not to hear responses you have until after business meeting."
Would this be (committee) trying to be in charge? What if we let God be in charge instead?

"this is going to be painful. Please take good and gentle care of yourself." WTDF????? What kind of S&M for Dummies guidebook is RantWoman supposed to find to make sense of that non sequitur? Thank you for acknowledging that you were in fact asking for YOURSELF to be held in the Light.

Thank you also for other great moments from the phone conversation.

RantWoman guesses she is supposed to appreciate your nurse concern to "give the patient as little time as possible to worry when something is going to hurt." In RantWoman's experience, when it is going to hurt to pull pins out of a healed fracture or do physical therapy, RantWoman has been offered painkillers in advance.

RantWoman goes to the eye doctor several times a year. These visits come with an assortment of REALLY BRIGHT LIGHTS, not very comfortable measurements and other joys such as the provider waving their had across RantWoman's face to see whether her eyes track together. No, they don't. Next question. The point is RantWoman knows things are going to be unpleasant and RantWoman shows up anyway. RantWoman knows many other people deal with even more unpleasantness on a regular basis and this conversation's nurse thing is just not making sense.

Yep. You SHOULD feel publicly eldered by email. RantWoman POSSIBLY could have somehow found kinder delivery, but the out in public part is also though not worded as such a big fat  PLEASE HOLD US IN THE LIGHT to our whole community.

In Light and Faithfulness

RantWoman

PS. Ordinarily RantWoman would reiterate a willingness to sit in  a clearness process with others who are distressed, but RantWoman would like to suggest that you have too much anger yourself to be able right now to sit in Clearness with others. RantWoman has no idea what to do with that problem but is firmly holding it in the Light.

What if the US just hired the North Korean Rocket Scientists?

Some days RantWoman's penchant for peculiar mental excursions just should not be let out in public.

More in a moment.

First, RantWoman's Christmas cactuses always make her absurdly happy. Hence a recurrence of this week's photo.



Christmas Cactuses Week of Nov 27

Now back to our program. Congress is trying to pass the most outrageous bill ever perpetrated by the plutocrats holding sway over the Republican party. Congress is trying simultaneously to increase military spending and slash social programs. Between the State Department losing over 60% of its career ambassadors, and whatever rumors of Rex Tillerson's exit as Secretary of State mean, nothing good is happening at the State Department, just when we need MORE diplomacy, not less.

Also, this week North Korea launched ANOTHER missile. This is getting old, and the thought of a desperate parasite infested starving soldier defecting does not help: if a member of the military is in that bad shape, imagine the rest of the population. But Hallelujah: the missile they launched could be launched at a different angle and ... Don't panic. DO NOT Panic.




Now back to our program. Congress is trying to pass the most outrageous bill ever perpetrated by the plutocrats holding sway over the Republican party. Congress is trying simultaneously to increase military spending and slash social programs. Between the State Department losing over 60% of its career ambassadors, and whatever rumors of Rex Tillerson's exit as Secretary of State mean, nothing good is happening at the State Department, just when we need MORE diplomacy, not less.

Also, this week North Korea launched ANOTHER missile. This is getting old, and the thought of a desperate parasite infested starving soldier defecting does not help: if a member of the military is in that bad shape, imagine the rest of the population. But Hallelujah: the missile they launched could be launched at a different angle and ... Don't panic. DO NOT Panic.

This afternoon's dance of despair on Facebook took RantWoman's internet streams toward...Tom Lehrer. At first RantWoman was thinking about how quaint the lyrics are: a whole bunch more countries have nuclear weapons. The world's population is more than double what it was when the song was written. Lots of flavors of war are perking along quite nicely BUT at least we have not so far turned the whole planet into a cinder.

RantWoman is not quite up to the task of updating the song for example with references to North Korean dictator Kim Jun Un, but mention of the US swooping up a rocket scientist formerly employed by a truly odious dictator does fill RantWoman's head with weird ideas about how to save money: just hire the North Korean missile development team. They are obviously getting the job done for a whole lot less money than the Pentagon spends on its military hardware. It would be very Trumpian just to hire them and replace those overpaid folks from the US.

And if US spending priorities continue in the direction they seem to be headed the North Koreans could soon  feel right at home.  :-(((

Eye contact--or not--in times of crisis

RantWoman Early Christmas present of the week.


Christmas Cactuses Week of Nov 27

RantWoman wants to express gratitude for this facebook post and for the flow of comments under it. RantWoman could request permission of the original poster and could then use her name. OR RantWoman can just deeply appreciate both the words and the generosity of Likes for RantWoman needing to have a small tantrum about the subject of eye contact in times of crisis.


"You know how when your flight is especially bumpy or the airplane is making unusual noises, you look around and think, Well, I guess these are the people I'm going to die with, I hope they're decent people and we can all go down together giving each other what little comfort and solidarity there is in this disaster?

 "Yeah, some days that’s how I feel about all you guys. Or the people I walk past on the sidewalk, or, you know, all the humans on Earth in December 2017. Probably we’ll get through the turbulence and maybe we’ll land with just some bruises after the main engine falls into the ocean, but just in case, let’s make meaningful eye contact for a second."

RantWoman's offering:
How about may we each offer each other heartfelt acknowledgment of our shared existence even if we have to have really good tantrums to do it? I CANNOT offer meaningful eye contact. My eyes do ALL kinds of things they are not supposed to and if meaningful eye contact is required I am just going to have to have a really spectacular tantrum. But if we can make each other laugh or extend a hand or share a hug or just shake our heads together in shock and disbelief and horror and humor and whatever else shows up....

In Light and Faithfulness

RantWoman