Worship through play on planet RantWoman

Illustrate Mess

RantWoman is in a party mood, sort of, as much as RantWoman is any good at partying. Hang on because a party really did occur, it's just that RantWoman has to get STUFF out of her system.

RantWoman, why ya gotta bring up all this STUFF? This is supposed to be fun, play, worship, SAFE.

--because what is safe and what is safer and...?

--because very large overwhelmed four year old shows up sometimes even when it is not always "safe" and is not good at sticking around when "Go talk to your therapist" is kind of on-point?

--because anxiety because RantWoman cannot think of a more anxiety evoking comment than "go away and deal with your anxiety?

--because baby Quakers wilt and run away from the concept of "Clearness committee.," never mind any sense of whether anyone knows how to do a clearness committee anyway?

RantWoman, Baby Quakers? okay, Friends needing to be labored with? Friends God keeps trying to get messages to? 

RantWoman, CHILL, let the experience be. So what if a bunch of scary figures are running in and out of the season?

RantWoman's party history: As a kid, at slumber  parties, RantWoman had a tendency to, well, slumber. Oh boy. This sounds promising.

Ice Cream or crafting a minute: tell us a fun fact--appropriate for this party's audience--about yourself.

RantWoman recently was listening to a radio program about one of the first openly lesbian parents in Britain.  The main story was about a woman who had a child through artificial insemination. At some point her relationship status became public and some hair raising child custody concerns arose. RantWoman sometimes wonders what it would have been like for kids growing up in NPYM to travel all around the Yearly Meeting being spokes kids for same gender relationships, so different from the complicated families who now show up at holiday parties. 

RantWoman's forms of outspokenness were some of the time a lot more subdued. Blind Roommate spent really a lot of time reading up on the case of Sharon Kowalski and Karen Thompson. This was the early days of the AIDS pandemic where partners all over the place were being denied access to gravely ill loved ones. RantWoman remembers for example sitting in a hearing in college in support of a physics grad student's request for the university to add something about sexual orientation to the university's anti-discrimination statement, hanging in spaces where every woman there was assumed to be queer regardless.

RantWoman's best (?) queer themed party moment: one year at NPYM Annual Session, most of the queer quakers were nearby eating ice cream. RantWoman and another word nerd holed up to wordsmith the minute.

Inclusion time?

What happens if the blind kid wants to plan the office holiday party

 Nasturtiums in Salad Friend keeps beading.

Nasturtiums in Salad Friend, aka Friend with a Ministry of Beading came up in a conversation with RantMom. RantMom and Nasturtiums in Salad Friend now live in the same retirement community. Nasturtiums in Salad Friend used to bring lots of beads to many Quaker events. Now she mostly doesn't bring her beads and knack for both beading technique and creating space for people to talk. Her centeredness is also inspiring RantMom right now as retirement community goes through changes.

RantWoman, what is Nasturtiums in Salad Friend doing at this party?

Uhhh, RantWoman does not always recognize fun until well into...

Just come to the party. Be in the moment.

RantWoman recently participated in a wonderful Adult Religious Education session dedicated to worship through play. RantWoman found it a wonderful event, perhaps partly because of having spent time in book groups with some of those present talking about body reactions to stress and suggestions about behaviors related to racism. Still, it took RantWoman a bit to settle in and just go with it. RantWoman's impressions are in no way meant fully to encapsulate the process of the work.

The first step, a query: What gives you courage? For RantWoman, a sense of being loved by God no matter what. Okay RantWoman recognizes this could be problematic for several reasons. Also a sense of both drawing inspiration from and wanting to make the world better for people younger, and just sometimes dogged tenacity  / subborness / bullheadedness.

Okay, now draw an object with your dominant hand without looking at the paper. Tell your inner critic just to cope for now. RantWoman has done this exercise before and knows how it will turn out for her. RantWoman's eye's don't fuse so if RantWoman tries to draw what she sees, odds are really good that the lines won't line up, the closed figures won't close properly, and if everyone is really lucky there may in place be two lines where other people would see only one. RantWoman was also needing to deal with muscle cramps or some bodily glitches and twitches and wasn't sitting down. RantWoman is glad others commented and reported experiences similar in some ways to RantWoman's previous experiences. RantWoman at that point was fine with not even trying to look at pencil drawings over Zoom. 

Somewhere in here there was some kind of invitation to openness, to listening through the whole body. RantWoman must have taken it to heart in spite of not remembering more detail.

Okay, now, a longer time. Use your non-dominant hand. Practice gratitude... RantWoman does not remember the exact terms of the invitation to draw or capture. The word that stuck with RantWoman was mess. Draw and we'll report back.

RantWoman by this time was also having trouble feeling gratitude for highly vision-intensive exercises. Since it was Zoom, RantWoman admitted in the chat to being grouchy and asked Friends to describe their next drawings a little more. RantWoman is grateful for the Friend who asked RantWoman to say a little more about her comment in the chat. It felt so nice to be seen that it was easy to be a lot less grouchy out loud. Then RantWoman went outside to do some of the thinking part of the exercise.

The 20 minutes passed really fast. RantWoman decided she needed a visual and the picture at the top of the post is what came from RantWoman's phone camera.

RantWoman really liked the report back and Friends sharing about what the experience was like for them. RantWoman remembers Friends sharing the blobs with better explanations: more than one Friend reported either drawing class or some work or academic reason to draw. More than one Friend reported being in some kind of creative practice. One Friend realized they were trying to draw wings and need more practice. RantWoman made everyone else go before she did and was glad everyone had time. Most importantly, RantWoman had plenty of time to talk about weird visual experiences, ways she uses her non-dominant hand, the weird and wacky world of RantWoman's visual experience. 

RantWoman is very grateful to feel listened to, very grateful for Friends presence even if it's a pretty weird journey. RantWoman is also grateful, after YEARS of making what to RantWoman seemed like simple doable requests to deal with issues arising because of midlife vision loss, to have people say "yes" and even have fun about describing their blobs! 

RantWoman is tagging this #NDEAM because plenty of work places include exercises where for one reason or another a person with a disability has to make decisions about how much to disclose of what is painful, difficult, and even impossible. RantWoman likes to think of one Friend from eastern WA speaking about a transgender person who came to her workplace: that person talked about how much more energy they had for work when they were not spending all their energy hiding. RantWoman realizes she has probably said this many times before but RantWoman has no energy to cover, hide her disability. RantWoman is working REALLY hard to deal with the overgrown 4 year old. RantWoman is NOT called to go away and RantWoman is happy to suggest ways Friends could spend a lot of energy more elegantly for everyone.

Dul-Sayin’ - Why Low-Income Neighborhoods Have Fewer Trees | The Daily Show

Readers who maybe are squidgy about more journeys to Planet RantWoman are invited to enjoy Dulce Sloan and then try to use their imaginations about how RantWoman might manage to related the video to:

--talking to cherry tomato plants

--new neighborhoods with not enough trees, few balconies, too many cars and RantWoman's quest for world domination in certain directions

--National Disabilities Employment Awareness Month #NDEAM and #WeekWithoutDriving both of which last all year around Planet RantWoman

--the burdens of demanding to meet in person in a city afflicted, even post lockdowns and after light rail opened, by some of the worst traffic congestion in the country

--why repeatedly, to RantWoman's ear, misspecifying problems too narrowly, gaslighting RantWoman about her perspectives, turning down RantWoman's offers of help might possibly conceivably perhaps lead to massive distrust of, say, discernment activities.

Or as RantWoman said above, just sit with all the scary things and Do Better Next Time threads flying off RantWoman's keyboard, watch Dulce Sloan and hold the whole drama in the Light.

Posted without comment Am I Good Enough to be a Quaker?

Feet. Shoes. Dance Party

Disability? Not Disability? Half and Half? No Matter what, as part of #NDEAM2021

Today's Witness Wednesday prompt for reflection offered by Bobby Trice

"Why try to work uphill for peace, justice and freedom on Capitol Hill at a time when cynicism about the character and operation of government and government officials is widespread, and when disillusionment about the church and organized religion is so common and so vocal? Because religion should be vital and relevant and because the health and the future of democracy rest upon responsible participation by informed and concerned citizens."

--E. Raymond Wilson, Uphill for Peace: Quaker Impact on Congress (1974)

Part of what came to RantWoman is about what has and has not changed over the span of RantWoman's lifetime, too much for Meeting for Worship and RantWoman is not even attempting to comb out those reflection threads here. The quote could have been written yesterday and at how many other points in history.

RantWoman has one foot in the world of blindness, one foot in the sighted world,

One foot in a spirit centered world of public ministry, one foot in the world of activism / advocacy where too much talking about one's spiritual center sometimes gets in the way of shared discernment,

One foot in the world of Quaker self-congratulation about for instance Friends' role in the movement for Women's suffrage, one foot in the world of the West where, please excuse RantWoman, women had the right to vote in several states years or even decades before the ratification of the 19th amendment.

One foot in radical nonviolent witness and one foot in wonky highly technical public meetings about transportation infrastructure.

Finally what came to RantWoman after all the one foot / the other foot thoughts: that's a lot of conceptual feet for one two-footed body, and somedays RantWoman has no idea which foot is on which side of the body.

RantWoman has big feet. One time RantWoman made a speech about feet bigger than either of two people but that it would take the whole room to fill their shoes.  RantWoman is intrigued by the history of those gone before at FCNL. And RantWoman thinks it will keep taking a lot of people to fill their shoes.

RantWoman, the dance party? Come on. You and a lot of moving bodies?"

Yeah. There are many ways to enjoy a dance party even when one has to work hard at not plowing into people or only plowing into the right people.

 

Word Nerd: What Are Your Favorite Quaker Words or Passages?

QuakerSpeak publishers of Truth in modern media--with a transcript for both accessibility and searchability.

There. Enough tech nerd #a11y lexicography commentary to more than qualify for part of RantWoman's binge blog.

RantWoman is all for Leading, Way will open.

RantWoman particularly notes a Friend of Color speaking about the word "Oversight."

RantWoman is for the time being filing that Friend's comments in her "do better next time" basket.

Gifts from Fourth Saturday Worship

The nuggets from Worship and after worship

Observance of a beloved relative's birthday and a bit of story and geography from the life.

Eugene Friends Meetinghouse has achieved all-gender restrooms.

The Leonard Cohen quote about Ring the Bells that still can ring and cracks where light comes in Be prepared for RantWoman to speak of bells that go thud in a carillon of bells that all ring together.

The Bells of Nassau Hall

RantWoman needed the bells to help hold the 275th anniversary of the founding of Princeton. Nassau Hall, the older of two administration buildings, during the period when Princeton was called the College of New Jersey, briefly served as the US Capitol. RantWoman feels no call to look up the history of Nassau Hall, only to note that the bells toll every hour day and night and at times for special occasions.. They are far enough away from dorms that only the lightest sleeper would be disturbed--except when students are holding a protest encampment on the front lawn demanding that the University divest from companies that do business in South Africa.

RantWoman was at Princeton during a time when many campus activists advocated in various ways for the university to divest from companies that do business in South Africa. RantWoman remembers neither what sparked the sleep-in nor why it ended, though the latter may have had something to do with finals week. RantWoman only remembers waking up every hour all night. This far past all that, RantWoman thinks of South Africa through the voices of Trevor Noah and Duduzele Mtshazo. RantWoman also has to concede that she nowadays has to take better care of her sleep or try to take better care. But if a Bong- bong- bong sonic motif shows up, try to listen for the language of the story.

RantWoman's efforts to create the space by posting in chat. 

Posting this much text in chat when it has to be reposted every time a new person enters is a bad idea. The text has to be posted in two parts and RantWoman did not figure out a slick way with her screen reader to remember what she had just posted. RantWoman said this is an experiment. RantWoman also can speak of many accessibility reasons to treat the chat as worship space. However, RantWoman will think about how to Do Better Next Time.

Welcome to Fourth Saturday Worship, an experiment about many things

Queries:

Humans have assumed stewardship of the power and glory of nature. What is glorious about trees whose roots rear up our sidewalks and gigantic storms?

What comes to mind from the word touchpoints?

Please consider sharing something about yourself with Rename or in the chat

Examples: preferred pronouns, the watershed or native land where your are based, Quaker geography.

Please treat the chat like worship space. If something rises that seems to belong in chat please trust yourself about offering it but please do not overdo it or start conversations until close of worship. 

If people join by phone I will read chat items as they appear taking acar to leave space between all messages.

I have enabled automated captioning, imperfect as it is.

Let us settle into worship

 

Election Discernment and one Friend on Serving Outside the Quaker Community

RantWoman is trying to Deal With the upcoming local elections from a position of centered discernment while also trying to stay clear of anything that might smack of theocracy. Well, of course God IS telling rantwoman... Anyway, RantWoman seeks a path through the late race barrage of negativity in several directions. This latter is worse because it tends to show up in RantWoman's snail mail box as glossy foul-smelling PAPER, some of which RantWoman does not even try to read.

For anyone who follows the Port Commission and especially for anyone who wonders what the heck the Port Commission is big shout out because the phrase "Port Commission Candidates' Forum" in RantWoman yields better material than in the typical voters' pamphlet.

As for City of Seattle races, RantWoman wants there to be good dialogue and functional government. For awhile RantWoman considered several options to game her thinking. For now though, RantWoman is all about just vote how she feels and figure some of the people she votes for may lose and trust that dialogue will ensue from voters' choices.

As for voices of people of Color and in particular Quakers of Color, RantWoman invites Friends to consider:




For another view, Recent Trevor Noah with Ta Nehisi Coates

Ring the Bells that Still need to be rung.

 Okay God, what is RantWoman supposed to post for today's #NDEAM binge blog entry?

God said, first paraphrase Leonard Cohen Ring the Bells that Still need to be Rung

And then play some Nassau Hall Bells

RantWoman, WHERE are you going with this?

Yes, sometimes one starts to write and goes where things go.

Disability and Religion are two challenge zones in the world of employment.

Today for instance, RantWoman's email streams abound in discord.

--Should one delete everything to do with disability from a resume until it's absolutely necessary to disclose in order to request an accommodation?

--Should one plaster all of one's advocacy, awards, offices held and tools used all over one's resume.

Views are DIVIDED! Ditto for many oher affiliations.

Okay, who the heck gets to call themselves blind anyway? Readers interested in a romp through this part of Planet RantWoman's linguistic landscape are invited to leave pleas for such as comments. Suffice it to say, RantWoman is probably not going to contribute this essay by a US theologian and activist Ched Myers, of whom RantWoman had never heard until her blog roll served up On the "blind" leading the "Blind"

RantWoman, you're losing us.

Yeah. And in a spirit of let one's life speak, RantWoman invites readers to use their own search engines.

Happy 275th Birthday Princeton

 

If one is allergic to getting run over every day is a good day to #DressLikeATrafficCone . Even better if it's orange and black day. Happy birthday #princeton. #walkability #princetonRising #Princeton275 pic.twitter.com/AlM5kmKeg8

— Dorene Cornwell (@DoreneFC) October 22, 2021

RantWoman means to celebrate the 275th Anniversary of the charter of the College of New Jersey which 100 years later became Princeton University.

RantWoman means to craft a thank you letter, fully acknowledging that some of the high points of RantWoman's Princeton experience definitely may not look like thank you letters.

RantWoman means to offer piquant observations about gender equity, women's studies, women in STEM., coeducation, and lore about gender issues from before coeducation

RantWoman should probably have a lot to say about US racial history, area studies, humanities

RantWoman has things to say about student sit-ins, eclectic academic choices, famous alumni and now-famous classmates. Also great sit-ins of yesteryear, cat-themed civil disobedience, work study at the computer center...

But none of that is going to happen tonight,

RantWoman directs readers to today's #NDEAM post from her other blog

Think Sustainability

Next, cool things that have happened since RantWoman graduated:

--The Coop were RantWoman lived celebrated its 40th anniversary a couple years ago!

--The restrooms in the math building tower are all now unisex. When RantWoman was in school there were women's restrooms on floors 1-3 where there were offices and classrooms, floor 8, and floor 13, a top floor meeting space.

--There is now a whole certificate program in translation and interpreting

--A Student uprising led the University to agree to take a deeper look at the institutions racial history and in the meantime to rename buildings to remove the name of Woodrow Wilson.

And that's all she wrote for tonight.

Happy Birthday Princeton on behalf of That Cat who also sends a shout-out to all campus cats everywhere.#Princeton275 #BlackCats #CatsOfTwitter .

That Cat also says the human better not come near her with any more orange ridiculousness pic.twitter.com/E7mVM6GIdd

— Amb. Thwack Vaxxed & Masked (@AmbassadorThwa1) October 22, 2021

Fourth Saturday Worship: October: THREE pm pacific

A contemplative pumpkin image
from my phone's gif library

 Fourth Saturday Worship time has rolled around again. Zoom coordinates at the bottom of this post. Please NOTE: I am experimenting with starting times and will begin at 3 pm Pacific 

The library branch where we have sometimes met in person has not yet reopened its meeting spaces, but a link is offered here in general celebration of libraries. Montlake Branch of Seattle Public Library

Since Fourth Saturday Worship continues to be virtual, I am specifically sharing the invitation by email with some Friends I have connected with. Please let me know if you would like to stay on a mailing list.

Fourth Saturday worship is an hour or so of expectant worship and then time to comment further on queries and then time for further worship sharing or visiting.

On my mind this month are touch points, story arcs and weather modelling. I am curious what lLght comes to Friends but here is more of what comes to me.

Check this blog for a Coming Soon post about today being the 275th anniversary of the founding of Princeton with many touch points and story arcs.

Happy Birthday Princeton post from RantWoman's other blog

For weather modelling see: Cliff Mass on the strongest coastal cyclone in NW history The science fascinates me. The graphics drive me crazy. Judging by the article, it seems unlikely that this worship time will be disrupted by major pacific storms, but in case it is please consider this an invitation to worship as you are able.

Join Zoom meeting

Meeting ID: 859 4336 5336

Passcode: 665344

One tap mobile

+12532158782,,85943365336#,,,,*665344# US (Tacoma)

+13462487799,,85943365336#,,,,*665344# US (Houston)

Dial by your location

        +1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)

        +1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)

        +1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)

        +1 929 205 6099 US (New York)

        +1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)

        +1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)

Meeting ID: 859 4336 5336

Passcode: 665344

Find your local number: https://us06web.zoom.us/u/kd2q1KBvKK

Quaker Action in the West on Prisons and Detention Centers virtual event Monday Oct 25

It COMPLETELY warms RantWoman's heart to see this announcement!

RantWoman is not sure this exact meeting will fit into RantWoman's schedule. Plus the QuakerSpeak video talks about chiseling away however one can. One of RantWoman's ways of chiseling is to support organizations such as Disability Rights WA because they do very powerful #DisabilityJustice work around incarcerated (and otherwise institutionalized) people with disabilities, another category of people vastly overrepresented in US prisons and detention centers.

Quaker Action in the West on
Prisons and Detention Centers

Mass incarceration is a central pillar of institutional racism in the United States. It undermines children, pillages savings, and tears families apart, while dehumanizing over two million people. If we are committed to ending racism, we must be committed to ending this system.

Many Quakers around the country are involved in prison service. They founded the Alternatives to Violence Project and are active there and in the restorative justice movement. They work to eliminate the death penalty. They write letters to prisoners, hold worship services in prisons, and visit people on Death Row. Some are also involved in political advocacy to change the prison system, stop the school to prison pipeline, and restore civil rights and provide opportunities for returning citizens. Two major Quaker organizations have adopted ending this system as long-term goals – AFSC as “prison abolition” and FCNL as “eliminating mass incarceration.”

Join us to hear summaries of what some Friends in the West are doing in and about prisons and detention centers – and share your own experiences.

Our focus will be on detention systems, including immigrant detention.

Monday, October 25, 2021
90 minutes starting at
6:30 PM Pacific Time = 7:30 PM Mountain Time

Please click here to register for this event.

Registration is not required, but it will help us to continue sharing information among Quakers activists focused on prisons and detention centers.

Click here on October 25, 2021, to join this event.
Meeting ID: 288 711 054
Passcode: 593327

Click here to watch the QuakerSpeak video: "How Quakers Can Help End Mass Incarceration."

 

Disability? And who is causing it?

Happy #NDEAM

RantWoman is posting these items together. RantWoman promises to find more of a disabilty theme than the US is poisoning the world and spreading diabetes everywhere.

RantWoman is something of a Charlemagne fan even though she considers it slightly blasphemous (or Quakerly, RantWoman can't decide which) to proclaim oneself a god.

Readers not easy with the phrase  "dismantling white supremacy" are invited to cope with "decrackerify.."

RantWoman humbly acknowledges that RantWoman's soul may have gotten stuck on this post exactly BECAUSE, like a number of other strands in RantWoman's life where the conversation is about race and , people with disabilities are nowhere to be found

 

Sam Bee on trash, diseases...

and Hasan Minaj on truly gross manifestations of US imperialism and why some things labelled "free trade" are gross and should make decent humans barf.

Chocolate cake and a good steak or at least a good burger

 Happy Birthday RantBrother.

RantMom gave RantWoman a number to text to last week. There was no response. One could make up many stories about why.

And thanks I guess for tripping over the topic while talking about "Oh, OWW's" while trying to connect a mom with the right help for problems her now 14-year-old daughters have struggled with since at least age 5. RantWoman says "forgive yourself." Sometimes Ambassador Thwack attracts WAY worse "Oh OWWWW" stories on the bus.

For right now. just happy birthday and no arguments about diet and saving the planet...

Love, 

RantWoman

20 questions for Disability Inclusive employers

 RantWoman, really? Employers? Shouldn't this item go on your other blog

20 questions for disability inclusive employers

Happy #NDEAM.

Which of the practices suggested DON'T apply just because it's a faith community instead of a workplace?

Shouldn't faith communities be places people can practice...?

Footwashing?

 RantWoman, think of foot washing. Just THINK of it. Thinking of it worked for me.

RantWoman and a merry band of mostly Quaker Bible scholars have been amblings through the gospels of Mark and John, but the "think of footwashing" advice came from a different direction.

Footwashing? 

(Please note: RantWoman has decided to go image-free. Readers who need images are invited to use their imaginations.)

Will anyone even know what it refers to? 

Let Dr. Internet 'splain: I give you NCPedia The practice does not occur only in the South

But I'm NOT Jesus. Besides what if they just think "yuck, gross, weird? Besides it's the 21st century and around here most of us have modern plumbinc."

So, what if I just get them all pedicures instead? Wait. Noxious chemicals. Economically precarious immigrant labor? Ummmm

#POTUS45 Tells Republicans Not To Vote If ...

We interrupt our ritual string of #NDEAM disability themed  harangues to celebrate...

Can this be an answer to prayers????

It's not enough that the FORMER President and his minions are getting their own supporters KILLED by steeping us all in anti-vax madness. Now FORMER President Orange Foolius (Wait. How do you say that in Quakerese?) is telling people who have drunk his flavor of Koolaid NOT TO VOTE????



God works in mysterious ways?

Lord have mercy on us all!

White Cane Safety day DANCE PARTY, but first....

Readers who are really, really REALLY impatient to visit Ambassador Thwack's options for #WhiteCaneDay dance parties. just scroll down. Readers game for more visits to Planet RantWoman, please keep reading.

First, the newest QuakerSpeak video.
Understanding Quaker Faith Through the Journal of George Fox


Yeah, yeah, there are the parts about submission to a power greater than oneself, a really useful concept sometimes, and seeking and guidance. The thing RantWoman is most in awe of though: GLASSES GLARE. RantWoman deals all the time with photographers and videographers who want to wipe out the issue. Glasses are just as much a part of RantWoman's picture as Ambassador Thwack or as a wheelchair is for many people RantWoman knows.

On the road between sidewalks and  #ClimateChange

ODOT Observes Pedestrian Safety Month with a White Cane Safety Day Podcast

.

White Cane Basics from Vision Australia

Perkins School info about White Canes, via the hadley School Twitter

@VisionAustralia is hosting a dance party. RantWoman failed to collect info about catching it on  video.

CCLVI Low Vision Coffee Hour: 11am ET, 8am PT, 5am HT

It's White Cane Safety Day! The white cane is a symbol of independence to many. What does it mean to you? Come and learn about the first ever National White Cane Safety Day. How can we use this day to educate the public about this helpful and useful tool? Be sure to attend and share your favorite cane story.

Sponsored by Council of Citizens with Low Vision International https://cclvi.info

Join the call:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82950768948?pwd=WThWSU91QzFGc05abUdsMUh6SHlLZz09

One tap mobile: +13126266799,,82950768948#,,,,*225843#

Phone: +13126266799

Meeting ID: 829 5076 8948

Passcode: 225843

And finally the dance party

ACB Get Up & Get Moving Dance Party: 2pm-8pm ET, 11am-5pm PT, 8am-2pm HT

Join us in Zoom or on ACB Media 4 (Café) for the Get up and Get Moving Dance Party to celebrate White Cane Day. We will be playing chart toppers to inspire you to dance, starting with the 1960s, moving a decade each hour until we reach today's hits. Great music, fun facts, trivia and prizes, and special entertainment will all be part of this six hour event. Help us celebrate ACB's 60th year and the importance of White Cane Day the ACB way!

2pm ET: The 60s with facilitators: Dan Dillon and Tony Stephens, DJ: Darrow Loucks, and host: Sheila Young;

3pm ET: The 70s with facilitator: Dan Spoone, DJ: Darrow Loucks, and host: Cindy Hollis;

4pm ET: The 70s with facilitator: Leslie Spoone, DJ: Darrow Loucks, and host: Monica Svopa;

5pm ET: The 90s with facilitators: Tom Tobin and Sheila Styron, DJ: Larry Gassman, and host: Belinda Collins;

6pm ET: The 2000s with facilitator: Terry Suarez, DJ: Larry Gassman, and host: Kolby Garrison;

7pm ET: The 2010s with the Get Up and Get Moving Committee, DJ: Darrow Loucks, and hosts: Cindy Hollis and Kolby Garrison.

Sponsored by ACB Get Up & Get Moving www.acb.org/GUGM<http://www.acb.org/GUGM>

Listen on ACB Media 5: www.acbmedia.org/5<http://www.acbmedia.org/5>

Say to your Amazon device, "ask ACB Media to play 5."

Join the call:

https://acb-org.zoom.us/j/84812059141?pwd=SjJwWjdoVTY1UU1nNk5IMjlheFBlZz09

One tap mobile: +13126266799,,84812059141#

Phone: +13126266799

Meeting ID: 848 1205 9141

Passcode: 909704

If you catch it in time, 6 hours of American Council of the Blind White Cane day Dance Party

Blue flu vs miscreant squatters

This post is dedicated to every police abolitionist absolutist who reads this blog or is running for office in Seattle who might be willing to engage in, say , a strong women / strong Friends catfight with RantWoman about police accountability, resources, community living and pandemia.. #pandemic

Part one: more provocative thoughts from Beau.

Cops with "less lethal" weapons are no substitutefor a functioning mental health system

Closer to home we have an exciting blend of

--pandemic themed staff retreat "for safety," staff turnover, buck passing

--mention of low staffing levels, long response times, run around by both public and contracted dispatchers

--drug addled miscreant squatters with no respect for anything including themselves busy terrorizing.. some of whom are too terrified of retaliation even to call the cops..

It will not be only police who clean up the mess. Right now the watchwords are document, document, document

And hold in the Light

and miss me please with the "abolish the police" rhetoric.

Maybe when we come out the other side, a few of the druggie miscreants will be able to say "getting busted was the best thing to happen to me."

Jesus, movement building, peace with policing and prayer breakfasts?

RantWoman, WHY are you putting all these items in the same post? 

Because God tells me to?

Because God is versatile and speaks in different ways

Because I know darn well an editor and making 3 blog posts might be more on point, but I need to celebrate abundance. 

Because RantWoman does not want to lose the meat of the content having an extravagant tirade about WTF real accessibility means and why explaining over and over all the dimensions of access / accessibillity to one's faith community has a lot in common with the average workplace and therefore this item also qualifies as observance of #NDEAM 

An exhortation and provocative piece from email

Quoting Friend Joe Snyder of Multonomah Meeting because the email is highly germane to the conversation:

Dear Friends,

   I just suffered through a large meeting of folks wanting to improve (or in some cases perhaps abolish) policing in Portland where there was considerable discord and disrespect for others.  Then along comes this message from Wess Daniels which seems to address some of it, and certainly addresses some issues we have as Friends.  It is a long message, but I found it worthwhile, and I would encourage you to share it widely as yousee fit.

Wess Daniels on Quaker exceptionalism, Jesus and Movement Building

Peace and Policing: Friends Journal article

From recent RantWoman commentary on an article she came across in Friends Journal

I came across this piece tonight.

When Peace Requires Police

I like it a lot. I like that it includes voices of color. I like that it seems better grounded than other recent items which have crossed RantWoman's path. 

Because RantWoman has wound up on the ChangeWashington Email list

RantWoman generally prefers to buck the trend of algorithms giving her only one flavor of thinking about anything. RantWoman is posting part of a fundraising appeal verbatim in all its cringeworthy glory mainly as an excuse to also post some protest comments on the other side of the video.

Friends— According to Change Washington adviser and former Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best, Seattle is at the precipice. In her words, city leadership will determine whether we “turn and keep [Seattle] the top-tier world class city that it is or if we’re going to just let mayhem and destruction take us in a different direction.” Change Washington is excited to share with you the first of a series of videos to be released in the coming weeks that feature Chief Carmen Best. Take a moment to watch Chief Best as she explains in her own words some of her motivations for resigning and her thoughts on the upcoming November election. Consider supporting Change Washington’s partnership with Chief Best by investing in our Chief Carmen Best Public Safety Initiative. Donations will keep Chief Best as the face of public safety in our region as Change WA holds public officials accountable through focused and relentless communication infrastructure. Click here to make a donation today! Next week, Change Washington will release more from Chief Best on the police staffing crisis and constructive police reforms. You can support Change Washington’s partnership with Chief Carmen Best to make Seattle a safer and more livable city by donating to the Chief Carmen Best Public Safety Initiative here.

RantWoman means to write a more thoughtful piece about upcoming local elections but some cringeworthy themes.

This wing of the public is sick of police officers who are dawdling about getting vaccinated and RantWoman has particular scorn for officers who won't wear masks when asked 3 times by Harborview ER nurses.

Much of the public is sick of MANY forms of over policing including dumping all manner of "less than lethal" chemicals and projectiles all over neighborhoods. This wing of the public is completely unsympathetic to pleas for more resources if one of the things more money will be used for is resupply all the noxious tools overused during the past year's protests. 

This wing of the public is sick of what one city attorney categorizes as misdemeanor court full of attempts to police poverty and disability.

RantWoman means to consult one of her walking encyclopedia services for some estimate of where the social safety net presently is because RantWoman's instinct is NOT to give the police more money but to do more about the problems some want to police our way out of. 

This wing of the public would like to inspire an able journalist or two to look at, well, how much exactly does it cost to feed and maintain any hand-me-down equipment offered local police departments as side effects of the last 20 years of war.

Prayer breakfasts?

RantWoman, you almost forgot about prayer breakfasts. Prayer breakfasts at their best can draw people of good will with diverse points of view together in an exercise in shared civicpiety. Do you think you stand any chance of even getting invited Uhhh

The bench is back! And so is glass in the bus shelter

RantWoman, it was a GORGEOUS sunny fall day. You had a delightful physical therapy appointment and came home with revived enthusiasm for exercise s that can even be done during Zoom.

So WHY ya gotta be all...?

RantWoman was thinking about stewardship--and departed Friends and nonprofit realities. 

One departed Friend, EXTREMELY Difficult Talented Musician Friend is on RantWoman's mind in connection with a non-Quaker self-advocacy organization and officer responsibilities and things one ought to take care of before one departs for other realms. Extremely Gifted Musician Friend served on Facilities committee at a time when there were almost no other volunteers. RantWoman understands that his obsessive and imperious style brought just as much happiness (NOT!) on facilities committee as at the self-advocacy nonprofit. RantWoman wonders both what would make facilities committee a more enjoyable experience and whether somehow Extremely Talented Musician Friend ever found performers able to handle his style.  Being able to accept rather than fend off help would not have been terrible either, but Facilities Committee still...beckons

The other departed longtime attender Friend was a real estate agent who served on Finance committee and attended the quieter of two Meetings for Worship. RantWoman finds herself curious about when movements of the holy spirit intersect with the day to day work of Finance committee. Longtime Attender Friend was part of one RantWoman household home purchase. Longtime Attender Friend kept trying to interest RantWoman's household, were no one at the time had a car in locations that only had bus service during peak hours on weekdays. Probably it's just as well that RantWoman's idiot detector shorted out, went silent, and sent RantWoman out looking in RantWoman's neighborhood on her own. RantWoman is reasonably calm about other moments arising from the home purchase but does honor both real estate agent awareness gaps and the general question of movements of the Holy Spirit on Finance committee.

Speaking of stewardship and a tenant RantWoman connected with meeting

Current Scrabble Club status

But back to the day's walk. The weather was amazing, the perfect season to be trying to walk RantWoman's way through a seething mound of resentments

For some reason or no reason obvious to RantWoman the sunny day made RantWoman think of a First Day a few weeks before the Go Away and Only Come Back When People DIE edict was issued. RantWoman was at the Meetinghouse late after worship. RantWoman thinks she may have retreated to the library. There were still people in the kitchen cleaning up after coffee hour. RantWoman does not remember why she stayed late but when she emerged from whatever she was doing, every single door in the place was wide open. No one else was around. No one had even attempted the usual close up process. RantWoman did all the pieces she knew to do. 

RantWoman remembers not being able to secure one door but did close the gate, go home and send a tartly worded email several directions. Note RantWoman's detractors would probably say "spammed the known universe." RantWoman's reward, besides the aforementioned "Go Away and Only Come Back when People DIE" edict was at least getting to preview a greatly improved and versy specific list of closing up procedures.  

The sunday morning fortress effect. Don't be late

What is all that trying to teach:

And more importantly, RantWoman WHY ya gotta splatter all that all over your blog?

Why is a metaphysical question. Just please keep holding the whole soap operate in the Light.

Besides, once one makes it up a bumpy tree-root tangled sidewalk to the nearest bus stop. look, look!

Never mind the graffiti.
There is glass
back in the bus shelter

Some days, one should
just enjoy the graffiti

The bench is back!
Even better than glass

Just breathe.
Celebrate the trees and clouds.
Then get along with the business
of buying cat litter

Where have all the homeless people gone and when is RantWoman pro-homelessness?

The original save date of this post was September 26, conveniently the same month an Amazon Fresh store opened in RantWoman's neighborhood. RantWoman thinks she penned this partly in connection with a police blotter item about someone waving a gun near the Walgreens across the street from the Amazon Fresh store.

It's almost as if there are some light rail stations opening in one zone where RantWoman travels frequently and a well-known shopping entity is trying to make a go of it in another of RantWoman's frequently traveled zones. In BOTH cases, the number of sketchy looking people hanging out in the vicinity of .. is WAY down. RantWoman has no opinion beyond the observations. 

In other homelessness news,   RantWoman wants to thank both Mayor Durkan and Gov. Inslee for extending eviction mortoria

Gov. Inslee extends eviction moratorium

RantWoman is also finding it difficult to have ANY sympathy for gun toting miscreant squatters. RantWoman does not in the least lament the following police blotter item. Miscreant squatters gun play draws police call  RantWoman does note that "eviction moratorium is, on the building grapevine, cited as one reason the miscreant squatters persist. RantWoman is relieved to learn that the phrase "eviction mortatorium" includeds provisions to Deal With.

Let us just leave things at that fornow.

Ana Garza G'z | bio - Able Muse

RantWoman is going for a two-fer, observing #NDEAM with a brilliant independently employed poet / translator... and oversving #LatinxHeritage month with the voice and references to several Latinx artists.

Ana Garza G'z | bio - Able Muse

The link above includes links to a number of poems. It landed here simply because of references to soonets about Deuteronomy

RantWoman will also shamelessly promote a parallel entry from her other blog.

Hispanic Heritage month item

Truth in advertising? Too much truth in advertising.

 Today's #NDEAM meditation, at risk of telling too much of the truth. 

Please forward if you know anyone in the target age group who might beinterested.

...a faith-based lobby group, but people definitely do not have to be .. to apply. ... signed onto the Disability Mobility Initiative and the recent effort in support of continuing to have opportunities for remote testimony. The website lists some past accomplishments and the 3 working groups list issues they are currently working on. Participants in this program would be working with someone involved in one of the working groups.

RantWoman does NOT promise the experience would be free of ableism, microaggressions, condescending or patronizing comments. RantWoman does promise  there are people who care, people who get it at least some of the time, and even people willing to learn. In other words, a realistic workplace situation.

...if this is the right opportunity for someone in the disability community. Because the opportunity is all remote, maybe it's also a good match for someone east of the mountains.

And yes, there is a stipend, not a huge one but greater than zero.

Apply by October 15 for 2021-2022 Young Quaker Voices program

 This program of Quaker Voice brings young adults into contact with issues in the state legislature, encouraging their active engagement in the legislative process in ways that reflect Quaker values. The model for the program is the Advocacy Corps of the Friends Committee on National Legislation.

Quaker Voice recruits the Voices among young adults ages 16-30 and trains them on the legislative process. Each Voice joins a working group, develops background materials, and tracks legislation on an issue. The Quaker Voice legislative advocate provides training for the participants, along with Quaker Voice citizen advocates, on the state legislative process and lobbying visits. The YQVs extend the capacity of the working groups to follow issues but they do not engage in lobbying as part of the program.

Full Application for Program 

Quaker Voice home page

RantWoman encourages anyone from the specified age range to apply.

Also, RantWoman is posting this as today's #NDEAM entry for a few reasons:

--Quaker Voice will be working with our lobbying partners about a few disability specific pieces of legislation

and 

--RantWoman knows people with disabilities are interested in all kinds of things so something from one of the working group programs interests you, go for it. Apply. 

Note: whether or not to disclose a disability during an application process is a very individual decision. 

RantWoman is not rendering a legal opinion about many issues in WA, but RantWoman as a former vocational rehab client who now books people for trial work experiences and internships.

--RantWoman has learned a good bit of lingo about job readiness and vocational rehabilitation from her own experiences and from supporting others. RantWoman will be glad to be part of conversations about such topics if that would be helpful. 

--RantWoman has particularly fond thoughts about Quaker Voice because RantWoman served as Recording Clerk while she was busy learning new skills and adjusting to midlife vision loss. 

--If you apply and pick the right topic to work on, you could wind up working with RantWoman!

. 

Register now for Oct 24 Quarterly Gathering of Sierra Cascade Yearly Meeting

 Who is SCYMF

Check out the People link for a list of congregations at SCYMF website

From the  Contact Us  page

Join us in building an inclusive coalition that uses Quaker process to discern who we are, to find common ground, to help us identify the continuing steps in our life together as part of Sierra-Cascades Yearly Meeting of Friends.

The Quarterly Gathering

Friends: It’s time to register for our October 23, 2021 Zoom Quarterly Gathering. Registration is required since we will not be publishing the Zoom link to the public. Send your name, email address and church/meeting affiliation to registrar@scymf.org or reply to this email. The schedule for our Quarterly Gathering is: 

Saturday, October 23rd
10:00 to 10:45 am – Music and worship led by Ruba Byrd, Eugene Friends 

11:00 am to 12:30 pm – Workshops
12:30 to 1:30 pm – Break for lunch
1:30 to 3:45 pm – Business session
4 to 5 pm– Small group sessions 

 

Workshops 

 

1. Singing Your Prayers  

 

Workshop Description:  

We will create a safe space to experience different   ways to pray through spontaneous singing. We’ll explore prayers of joy, gratitude, grief, and healing for ourselves, others, and the world. You can choose to sing in your own private space, or with a few others (or both). ALL levels of singing ability are welcome. Just be open to listening to the Spirit and letting song-prayers arise. 

 

Workshop Provider:  

Ruba Byrd is the pastor of Eugene Friends Church, a faith community where singing together has been sorely missed this past year! She’s learned some nourishing ways to sing together on ZOOM and looks forward to sharing them. 

 

2. Why we cannot be silent about Palestine 

 

Workshop Description: 

 A brief history of Palestine and then discussion guided by participants' interest on a variety of possible targets including home demolitions, US unrestricted aid to Israel, the arrest and detention of children by Israeli forces, annexation, illegal Jewish settlements in the West Bank, Boycott-Divest-Sanction, Apartheid. 

 

Workshop Provider: 

 Cynthia Gilliam is an Arab-American advocate for Palestinian human rights. She formerly attended Reedwood and West Hills Friends. She is affiliated with Multnomah Monthly Meeting in Portland, Oregon, which is a member of North Pacific Yearly Meeting.  

 

3. Approaching mission from the bottom up - building friendships and ministry through language learning 

 

Workshop Description:  

We will examine non-colonial missions - approaching missions as a learner.  We will discuss five roles that follow the model of Jesus as we build cross-cultural relationships. 

 

Workshop Provider: 

Dr. Betty Sue Brewster and her late husband Tom are the authors of the LAMP book (Language Acquisition Made Practical) and have taught language-culture learning to cross-cultural workers in over 7o countries around the world. 

 

4. What is People Care All About? 

 

Workshop Description:  

This workshop introduces the work of the SCYMF’s People Care Committee, starting with a brief background of the committee’s origins, and an explanation of our work. We will then lead participants in a spiritual care exercise. Then the workshop will explore ways churches/monthly meetings provide care to people in need of healing. We hope to hear participants’ thoughts about how our committee can support that work 

 

Workshop Provider: 

Norma Silliman attends Camas Friends and is clerk of People Care. 

Beisbol, Brooklyn Ave, and witness

 RantWoman is no longer a #link21 Virgin. RantWoman also needs another exercise in geeking about about walking directions / wayfinding. RantWoman will also be too happy to remind reders both of her personal fixation with sidewalk issues and of her ability to talk about the connections between sidewalks, climate change, racial equity...

Remember, this is blog as Quaker journal. Polish and sequential think are not necessarily to be expected.

RantWoman forgot to mention that she is THRILLED that Link is finally open. RantWoman remembers conversations in the early 2000's about routing of the train and siting of the University station. The 2004 discussions included one version that would have connected tracks somehow to the I 5 ship canal bridge and then run an offramp right through UFM property. That option proved unfeasible on multiple grounds. So at long last we all get to be thrilled with the new tunnel and station location.

RantWoman is likely to continue just to ride the bus to the U district. However, if RantWoman just wants to go visit RantMom, the train may be just the thing.

RantWoman's previous meditations on travel options and walking routes

It was a cloudy and cool morning. RantWoman decided just to take the train for a first visit to the UNIVERSITY Station.

It was a cloudy and cool morning and RantWoman did NOT get hit by a very quiet (Boo electric cars) SUV making a left turn into a fast food restaurant driveway.

It was a cloudy and cool morning and as is consistently to be hoped the needed elevator was working.

All hail Mariners fans. RantWoman wondered why the train into downtown was full. The train emptied out a lot at Stadium station. Ah yes. Header to the playoff or no? No it turned out later, but that is as much as RantWoman understands of this point in the baseball season. RantWoman understands that the ability to be conversant about baseball can bean important social lubricant. RantWoman also believes God is fine about RantWoman having deficits in this area; RantWoman is unsure about many humans.

Selfie

But RantWoman digresses. 

The ride to the U District was uneventful. It's much easier to find one's way around a new thing if there aren't crowds and crowds of people. RantWoman easily found her way to the NE 43rd St exit. The first corner to the west, Brooklyn Ave has no curbs but instead quarter circle installation of yellow domes on all four coners of the intersection. RantWoman has no idea what mobility teachers tell totally blind people about ways to deal with this practice, but there it is. 

RantWoman decided on a whim to start with Google's suggestion to walk S on Brooklyn Ave, but RantWoman planned only to walk as far as NE 42nd St and then walk her own directions to Meeting.

Brooklyn Ave NE is indeed MUCH quieter than Roosevelt way NE. RantWoman walked S on the west side of the street. The sidewalk is indeed acceptable, new for part of the block and acceptable all the way to the end of the block and NE 42nd St.  This week  the construction fencing along the N side of 42nd between Brooklyn and 12th Ave NE has been pulled back away from the sidewalk so it's easier to walk without fear of tripped over the bases of the fencing.

RantWoman should tweak some details of her previous post above but the main point is that RantWoman found a routing that is more elegant in RantWoman's eyes than the one suggested by Google. 

The Meetinghouse

Tree appreciation and
a downhill view

RantWoman spent a good spell in worship, with particular appreciation for trees that are not causing problems for any of the sidewalks she needs to walk on.

Later on a return trip to the station, RantWoman retraced her route to NE 42nd st and the walked N on the W side of 12th Ave NE. It's a pleasant walk with grass on the L side of the sidewalk most of the length of the block though there is one driveway between buildings toward the N end of the block.

RantWoman does not recommend having to cross NE 43rd here because it seems like sometimes there could be a lot of traffic and there is no traffic signal. RantWoman did successfully cross both directions at ND 43rd and did find the station for the next leg of her trip.

Forgiveness, Grace, and Francisco Mignone - Sonata No. 1 for Two Bassoons

Enquiring minds want to know, have readers figured out  what the opening picture is?

RantWoman hopes readers will enjoy the music. Reading the rest of this is optional

Listening to Cai Quirk speak of eir writing and art always put s rantWoman in mind of genders and bodies and why, why, why does society try to fit all bodies into the same size gender boxes.

Sometimes listening to music puts RantWoman in mind of more than the music. RantWoman thinks it was in the middle of this piece that she suddenly went "Oh, OUCH" about RantDad's personality. Yes, how to take care of gifts and...Oh, OUCH.

As to what to do upon colliding with such revelations, keep listening and hold in the Light

Time Travel with In-person Brown bag Lunch

From Gleamings: In-Person Brown Bag Lunch

October 3

The Community Building Committee is organizing a brown  bag lunch for the greater UFM community outdoors at the  meetinghouse. It is open to everyone who wants to attend, even if they do not attend in-person worship. We’ll gather on October 3 at the rise of 11:00am Meeting for Worship. We have elected to do this brown bag style (i.e., bring your own lunch) so that there is minimal prep and clean up. 

This is also just before the Pastoral Care Committees retreat,  so we encourage those attendees to join. We hope to see you there!

Oh Hell. RantWoman was already feeling all trippy and time-travel-ly about a previous pastoral care committee when what to RantWoman's wonky and variably itchy eyeballs should appear but the above announcement. RantWoman is not sure the announcement is an invitation to a historical inventory of many Do Better Next Time themes, seasoned with the terms life-changing medical events, vocational rehababilitation and faith communities as SOMETIMES fertile grounds for the kind of recovery implied by rehabilitation.

RantWoman found it frighteningly easy to rattle off just such an inventory. RantWoman will now season whether to dump here, to email selected participants, or just to leave things be.

But first RantWoman offers Light as it arrived in connection with Quarterly meeting,  in connection also with time and Zoom connectivity allowing RantWoman to sojourn among many geographical clumps and theological flavors of Friends, but mainly her local Quarterly Meeting.

Take me to your virtual
Quarterly Meeting.
Try, try, try to catch up on sleep

Quarterly Meeting? 

One of RantWoman's time travel zip back and forth hiccups involved communications about accessibility matters for an event to be held before a previous Quarterly Meeting. One Friend in the picture, notorious for in RantWoman's experience being hard to reach, perhaps not realizing what the conversation needed to be about suggested holding the needed conversation at Quarterly Meeting. Perhaps for now we file that history with the messages that kept coming to RantWoman AT this year's Quarterly Meeting about the need to figure out how to get along better in order to deal with climate change.

Cherry tomato plants, squashes, trees

RantWoman has written previously of how Quarterly Meeting drew on the work of Joanna Macy. One exercise sent people away to worship for 20 minutes with some non-human being and the let Zoom pair people up to talk about the conversations. RantWoman asked one Friend afterward and that Friend shared that she had talked to a cherry tomato plant that had borne enough fruit to feed the Friend's household as well as many neighbors, but that the cherry tomato plant was done for the year. 

RantWoman was paired with a Friend whose cherry tomato plant had gotten all spindly and dried up but had borne some fruit. The plant told the Friend that its pot was too small and the Friend had not watered it enough, but it too was done for the year and the Friend would do better next year. RantWoman is grateful for mention of eyes and glasses and Zoom and also for resonance with "Do Better Next Time" themes even though RantWoman is CRYSTAL clear that some of the Do better next times need more people that the Zoom pairing.

Long after the exercise was done, RantWoman had a conversation with a cherry tomato plant she had grown on her balcony, years ago when RantWoman had a building manager who tolerated growing things on balconies. RantWoman's plant also had too small a pot, got spindly, bore a little fruit. Mostly it told RantWoman that 4 floors up there are no pollinators and RantWoman didn't hand pollinate well. In the realm of do better and new openings, RantWoman realizes there are new staff and as the community comes out of COVID, maybe some energy could coalesce about growing and respectfully tending plants in big pots on the patio. That would require serious neighbor skills. But it could be better than now.

RantWoman has peculiar visions / hopes that all the balconies on new housing being built near RantWoman will sprout urban gardens. Plus it's orange food season, so RantWoman wound up talking to squashes unavailable anywhere near her household except with digressions about grocery shopping. RantWoman was thinking of plants that grow all over the place, of gourds and finding water,  

Never mind building rules.  Balcony squash growing should probably never be a thing unless one has a really big balcony. The squashes kindly pointed out that RantWoman is unlikely to summon the effort needed to sign up for, let alone tend to a nearby P-patch and then suggested that RantWoman still needed to be faithful to her Light about grocery shopping, cars and new housing and transit. Luckily some trees RantWoman lives near also told RantWoman they are there; she needs only to look out her window, or off her balcony and honor the reality that she has much better treescapes than many new apartments.

Then cars, as in too many cars entered the conversation. RantWoman tends to continue conversations in her head even after other people exit and the cars point made RantWoman collide with another Do Better Next Time point to hold in the Light.

The Four-person Exercise

After everyone had a Meeting for Business, genuine gifts at Community Night, and a good night's sleep, there was more work to be done.

This time Zoom was to group people in 4's. Friends were to take turns going around each playing one of the roles:

--State an Intention or a Leading

--Be the voice of doubt

--Be the voice of an ancestor

--Be the voice of the future. 

RantWoman, to be honest, did not even note the words of anyone else's cycle except her own.

RantWoman stated an intention to continue to be a pain in the ass about accessibility and disability inclusion.

The voice of doubt: What makes RantWoman think she can do good trouble? This Friend has previously basically also used the term "good trouble" about exactly this topic. The short answer: RantWoman is doing plenty of trouble. Now can we try and get to Good trouble? The longer answer: the call does not go away even when RantWoman desperately wishes maybe she could just stop caring. 

But RantWoman, National Disability Employment Awareness Month? Some of this soap opera is definitely not up to what you would like to expect of yourself, right? Um, well, if workplaces were up to the standards RantWoman hopes the entire Diversity Equity Inclusion industry would also disappear. Since we're not talking ideal on either side and the problem is NOT GOING TO DISAPPEAR, let's keep at it. 

Yeah, yeah and There are still two voices: Disabled people should have equal access to jobs and fulfilling careers. Also, no one's ability to survive should depend on their value to capitalism?

Does RantWoman have a clearness committee? RantWoman burst out laughing. Life in community is one long clearness committee?  That is a good thing considering RantWoman's experiences with actual clearness committees. But maybe part of Good trouble is to help grow community  capacity to DO actual clearness committees, to DO BETTER NEXT TIME.

The Ancestor Voice left RantWoman with the words: less belligerent more civil as well as questions. Does RantWoman really INTEND to be a pain in the ass (or is that a side-effect of the call)? The ancestor voice suggested aiming for humor, lightness. RantWoman's immediate reaction "there's NOTHING funny about...(and RantWoman WILL in fact flirt more with standup comedy)." 

RantWoman also has ancestor voices in her head that make her say, Friend, elder, you keep missing my point and ducking things RantWoman is pretty sure would help but let's try for teamwork to share the load. In that vein, RantWoman is grateful to have spent all week zooming with early to mid-career professionals speaking climate change fighting for equity building inclusivity nurturing Truth to their professional elders.

Apparently RantWoman did not make clear enough that the call to make Good trouble starts closer to her community and THEN extends outward. The Voice of the Future said past generations have screwed up transportation royally. Thank you for recognizing need to change  trajectory about how to get around without less price for the planet. Perhaps it has to be okay that nothing had particularly made it out of RantWoman's mouth about generations of disability experience and the lurches and faltering steps of progress and learnings and relearnings and continuing revelation. RantWoman will also grab the phrase "stay in relationship" and not worry that RantWoman had in mind many spheres when voicing her intentions.

RantWoman has been sitting for a long time with how easy it was to pen a "Do better next time" email, with comments from various Friends and with what to say before today's pastoral care retreat.

RantWoman, why you gotta post this stuff all over your blog?

Because one on one conversations are exhausting.

Because the community needs to be held in the Light.

Because George Fox said be patterns, be examples but did not say if you are being bad examples, just Stop it.  NOT everything is a bad example but there are some TERRIBLE moments and RantWoman does NO ONE any favors by pretending people are going to figure that out on their own.

Because one conversation about burning bridges made RantWoman think of a job interview question where the right answer was burn the box, burn the box of limited thinking. Be open to new thinking. The first part of a definition of accessibility is people being willing to talk about it to open their minds. Besides, the University Bridge near meeting is a drawbridge. Drawbridges go up and down.

Okay, okay, RantWoman is going to distill two emails and put the most incendiary language in a cover email.

I exactly get that some of my communications have been AWFUL. I feel very badly that more than one thing I would characterize as trying to grow community awareness or capacity has been taken personally and not succeeded as intended. I get that a number of people do not fee appreciated and in a sense they are correct: there are points I absolutely DO NOT appreciate and think the community can do better about. I am glad the world is bigger than a number of individuals and I am NOT CALLED TO GO AWAY

--various other professional and family experiences, some of which I can predict flare up for different reasons at different times of the year and for other reasons.

....

I am grateful for a response any response and the Friend who responded offered several comments that made me want to expand and clarify a few thoughts.

1. I have a therapist. She is very good. I see her as often as I can afford and pay out of pocket in preference to the options covered by my insurance. In terms of working out complex situations therapy timeis limited and not the right venue for circumstances involving otherpeople.

2. Friend, I asked about a process described as "Composting for Renewal" because people make choices about who to speak to about concerns and because then I get to discern what needs to happen further with the information supplied.

3. There are several points here that relate to officers responsibilities and nonprofit basics. I will say more about  what I have in mind in another message

4. The phrase Truth and Reconciliation came up in FLGBTQC worship. It seems on point along with the general point that when someone makes accommodations requests, the time to deal with them is promptly, not when some other organization muddles through a process. I would welcome an invitation to expand on what I am talking about.

5. I said September is hard for me and simply holding in the lightmatters. That was one of the points behind my message at the close of worship at QM but not of course the only point since I mentioned others who need to be held in the Light.

And RantWoman AGAIN posts the following links

Specific Asks

On Eldering, to be held in the Light

And finally, this week's item from Johan Maurer

A post on conflict, worship, community, history