Light: The Military HATES That Bernie Sanders Just Said ...

RantWoman has decided that this year's Hanukkah observance simply needs to be Jewish Lights in the world.
RantWoman aims to post by sundown every night of Hanukkah but may not make it.



Please note: RantWoman is mostly receiving the gifts of Youtube and expects to include Jewish composers, public figures... RantWoman also hopes the balance will be fun and light e ven though RantWoman has already queued up some beautiful music that is not only fun and light for tomorrow.

RantWoman also is definitely DONE with needing to work out some Nothing Appropriate rage always associated with the holiday that definitely does not need to get plastered over the entire tradition.

Rant Competition: Lewis Black | The Rant Is Due Best of Hanukkah

RantWoman definitely thinks Lewis Black overuses the F word. But BOY can he rant.

Advent Week One

Yes, RantWoman is fully well aware that Advent is not particularly a thing around many Quakers. It is a thing around RantWoman and that is enough. RantWoman suspects this year's advent observance is going to be a little like the annual exercise in pulling out old Christmas ornaments and contemplating weird Christmas gifts. 

(This year RantMom is promising to try to move about 3 large Rubbermaid containers of ornaments she has not touched in years along in the universe.RantWoman remembers a few items in the boxes that might come to RantWoman's house, but RantWoman strives to be judicious about that. RantWoman is trying to reduce some of her own accumulations.)

Weird Gift #1: RantWoman'sfascination with Compline at St. Marks' Cathedral.

RantWoman likes just to settle in and let the music carry her without worrying too much about believing in every word of the lyrics. RantWoman also likes to honor others' spiritual practices. Tonight RantWoman was watching at the right time to watch most of the members of the choir cross themselves at the end of one of the prayers.

Link for Compline the First sunday of Advent

Novembe r28 order of Service

Weird Gift #2 

First Sunday in Advent: Tamar from the Women's Lectionary

Weird Gift #3 Patriarchy is not that great for men either.

Part of the Tamar story above is about men being expected to marry their deceased brother's wife to carry on his lineage. One brother clearly does not want to. Another is too young. 

Weird Gift #4

RantWoman has already been envisioning a band of Quaker pundits willing to wade into the rivers of bilge memes and see whether wielding the right words well might POSSIBLY shift the channels even a little bit.  On rantWoman's mind tonight: Rep. Madison Cawthorn and his comments from a few days ago calling men to more in life that sitting at home masturbating and playing video games. RantWoman kind of wants to ask what is so wrong with either activity: Just think of all the trouble one can stay out of. But RantWoman is provisionally willing to wander into the modern quest for masculinity.

Politico: why the republicans can't stop talking about masculinity

Rep. Cawthorn's house webpage

Fourth Saturday Worship: Gratitude Controversy Humor?

 

The Christmas Cactuses of Gratitude
shy about sharing
their faithfulness in blooming year after year

Gratitude is a thing all year but in this officially designated time of feasting and gratitude, actual gratitude can be, well, messy

Waiting worship with invitation to center with the following windows into Spirit. Usually there is an hour of expectant worship and then time for freer exchange.

Fourth Saturday Worship Meditation prompts / queries for November

Peculiar gratitudes: are they a thing and what is a quakerly way to talk about them?

On Planet RantWoman, peculiar gratitudes have at least two forms:

--Schadenfreude and things one should not overdo gratitude about.

--Behaviors that do not look like gratitude but in fact reflect gratitude

If one is bizarrely fascinated by the rhetorical back and forth among certain voices in our public life, what does listening in tongues or listening beyond words mean? Does "Quaker Nice" mean one is just supposed to let bilge wash over the conceptual landscape? Where can one find center to enter the conversation?

Insights from attending or planning major Quaker events

Any seasonal anniversaries to hold in the Light?

The Zoom Coordinates

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Anniversary: The Sand Creek Massacre November 29, 1864

Gratitude for what we have matters.

So does getting history right

Representation matters. The word "Massacre" was included in the name of The Sand Creek Massacre National Monumen thanks to the work of Sen. Ben Knighthorse Campbell.

We study history to make amends and to try not to repeat it.

National Park Service site

Smithsonian magazine article

#IndigenousHistoryMonth

#CivicsForLauren even though the massacre site is not in her district.

North Columbus Friends Hybrid Quakerism 101 Nov. 18

 Interesting item the #Quakers hashtag turned up today.

Anyone is welcome to join in on Thurs for #Quakerism101 hybrid event. This months a panel talk about principles of #Quakerism. Join for supper, the discussion, or both.
Message for details or acc. needs #ColumbusQuakers #Quakers#ReligiousSocietyOfFriends #SPICES#Testimonies pic.twitter.com/abqfDLcHNl

— North Columbus Friends/Quakers (@NorthColumbusFr) November 14, 2021

For the record, RantWoman is interested in how Quakers do hybrid events, how Quakers do (or in zones around RantWonan don't) make good use of hashtags, and invite people to make Access needs known

Less is More. Say the words: BLACK LIVES MATTER

Minute in Support of Black Lives

(Clerk of Peace and Social Concerns) 

University Friends Meeting, in support of the testimony of equality, acknowledges and strongly affirms that Black lives matter. We acknowledge that this is a symbolic first step, and thus commit to study and continuing work with those in our society who are experiencing systemic discrimination.

Peace and Social Concerns brought this to Meeting for Business in October. Now we seek your ideas on how we move forward. Please send your ideas or suggestions on how you as an individual or how we as a Meeting might work together in support of Black lives here in the Seattle area or nationally.

 

RantWoman has been arguing with herself about how to receive this news. RantWoman promises to distill some advice but first, some experiences.

"It's about darn time! Took ya long enough!"

Earth to RantWoman: in UFM history, which minutes have you felt able to engage about as opposed to just observe?

Earth to RantWoman: if you are going to fall asleep when offered the King County Equity training in connection with some volunteer transportation advocacy and still not get around to watching some videos with important information, MAYBE you should just chill and go watch the videos and not get impatient with other people's seasoning.

 "....thus commit to study and continuing work with those in our society who are experiencing systemic discrimination...."

Do I smell OTHERING?

RantWoman, can you TRY to talk about the issue lovingly? What if you scare people away? 

Let us all learn the terms "calling in,: "laboring with..."

and Disability??? 

RantWoman has a LONG list of disability-related topics on her mind...

Not kidding. RantWoman as a pretty privileged white person gets to finesse this one all kinds of ways in all kinds of spaces. Why would Quakers be any different. RantWoman's favorite example for now: this summer Pacific Yearly Meeting was experimenting with an "Ouch, Oops, Whoa" framework for calling out moments of systemic racism. The Ministry committee discerning about how to do process imagined that such examples would show up in plenaries and God did not disappoint. When someone outlining the schedule completely mangled the name of a keynote presenter, RantWoman did not manage to bang her Zoom Rainse Hand in time to scream WHOA before the speaker moved on. RantWoman is grateful to know other people also noticed and is holding in the Light the Friend who mangled the presenter's name. 

Ouch also recurred in Daily worship. One Friend kept offering a message RantWoman must have slept through. The second hand version of the message RantWoman gleaned from Friends of Color sharing about it in the daily opportunity to debrief the experience called to mind a woman from Spokane WA. Rachel Dolezal is a white woman who proclaimed herself "transracial" and served for a number of years as president of the Spokane NAACP.  Friends at Pacific YM Annual Session labored considerably about the repeat messages. RantWoman opted just to hold in the Light.

OK, part of the reason RantWoman opted just to hold in the Light: RantWoman found the process of the daily debriefing illuminating and RantWoman means to post about another sequence of efforts. AND every day, a person of color from HI kept making sweeping generalizations about white men in wheelchairs. RantWoman opted to call out and not focus on that. RantWoman actually would have been happy to talk further to that Friend about other interesting comments, but the social realities of Zoom make it harder to chase someone down for a less public conversation.

RantWoman also gathered comments about experiments at North Pacific YM annual session. It meant a great deal that, as with Pacific YM Annual Session, the clerk every morning read an announcement about working with the process. RantWoman also collected comments about how the daily White People working on issues sessions went. RantWoman is responsible for not getting herself there but was interested to hear about one approach that invited Friends to discuss one question in many angles and a different approach that tried to rely on the one person at a time non-interactive blops of comment during Worship Sharing. 

At NPYM Annual session, God even delivered an ouch moment in an offhand comment during Sunday Morning Bible Study. RantWoman happened to be Zoom hosting the Bible Study which was running long and on the same Zoom link as Meeting for Worship. The ouch statement generated a clarifying back and forth and the Zoom session was freed for the next event. RantWoman has been sitting with a small possible technological Oops and resolves to season the point further.

Oh wait. Maybe less is more!

RantWoman here gives herself permission to be a little half-baked and in need of an editor.

This sounds really freeing!

What does community care and support of individual leadings mean?

What does it mean to listen to the voices of for instance people of color?

Black (non-binary) lives matter--on the bus

What does it mean to listen to the voices of Friends of color?

Aboolition, Suffrage, same gender marriage and the fine Quaker practice of laboring with

Algorithms! Does your life involve algorithms, creating them, propagating them, validating them? Given abundant evidence that many modern information systems embody horrendous bias and perpetuate bias on many levels, what opportunities does your work provide to live out #BlackLivesMatter?

Yorkshire Festival of Storytelling

 Friend Sea Gabriel writes

The Yorkshire Festival of Story starts today, and is amazing. Specifically, Jon Buckeridge (https://yorkshirefestivalofstory.com/artist/jon-buckeridge/) is absolutely fantastic. His retelling of the Odyssey starts today and is about 10-15 minutes a day throughout the program. His Once and Future King is the best storytelling I think I've ever seen/heard (it's a one-human production).

I am also presenting twice: once a talk on the process of composing a liturgy with Simon Watson, the Friend in Resident at the Airton Meetinghouse in the UK; and once on the entangled history of white supremacy and Norse Myth (https://yorkshirefestivalofstory.com/?s=sea+gabriel), in case you're interested.

Sign up NOW.

Center the voices of people of Color: Daily Show’s Roy Wood Jr.: “Racism is Getting Craftier and Craftier”

RantWoman wants to celebrate recent approval of a #BlackLivesMatter minute.

RantWoman also celebrates the invitation to Friends to offer suggestions as to what Meeting and individuals might do.

RantWoman does not particularly care whether Friends want to hear from RantWoman. RantWoman is deeply interested in others' points of view, both points of view that resonate with RantWoman's concerns and points of view that indicate need of that old Quaker custom of laboring with.

RantWoman offers this suggestion to Center the Voices of People of Color.

RantWoman also urges readers to attend to the voices of Friends of Color though that probably merits a different media stream.

November Remembrances

RantWoman below presents offerings from a guest blogger, an always articulate person with a disability. Guest Blogger asks that RantWoman keep Guest Blogger's identity anonymous. Guest Blogger notes that the text is rougher than one might prefer. RantWoman though wants to hold the commentary and collect some of the resources mentioned.

November is the Month of Remembrance and contains Veterans' Day, Thanksgiving and is National American Indian Heritage Month

Thursday is the 100th anniversary of interring The Unknown Soldier. 1921 saw the US recovering from a horrible word war fought with inhumane means and recovering from a worldwide epidemic which killed over 6 million. 2021 the US is extricating itself from its longest war and in the middle of a worldwide epidemic with over 5 million killed so far. 

In my opinion, equity should include me ability to heed the talent and intellect of others, even if their context is different than my own. 

To that end, I recognize that The Great Law of Peace informed the writing of the founding documents for the US. (U.S. Congress Concurrent Resolution 331, October 21, 1988). A short explanation is in this 5-minute documentary, The Great Law. The statesmen from the League warned the founders of instances where their document would cause the very problems that the US nation faces in 2021. 

In both cases, we can learn from the past and others. Please respect our veterans, people who have served you, on November 11th. And please broaden our knowledge of history to include all who contributed, especially, First Nations.

Do not cast over your shoulder behind you the warnings of your nephews and nieces should they chide you for any error or wrong you may do, but return to the way of the Great Law which is right and just. Look and listen for the welfare of the whole people, and have always in view not only the present, but also the coming generations, even those whose faces are yet beneath the surface of the ground—the unborn of the future Nation.

from The Great Law

Long version

November is called the Month of Remembrance. It starts with All Hallows Day when we remember those that went before us and it follows All Hallows Eve (Halloween). 

 

This week contains Veterans’ Day (Thursday) when, for the 100th year anniversary, anybody (not just the President) can lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. In 1921 they were trying to heal after a horrific world war fought by horrific means and had just survived a pandemic that killed over 6 million worldwide. Today, the US is ending or longest war with over 5 million worldwide killed in a pandemic. Lest we forget. 

 

At the end of the month is a national holiday proclaimed by a President to try to heal a nation after a horrific war that pitted family member against family member with calls of succession and demolishing the Republic. Today, aggravated by technology, we are pitted family member against family member with calls for dividing (succession) some states and a call for demolishing the Republic. (on the dark side, the first Thanksgiving in the 1600's was to celebrate the massacre of Native men, women and children that had assembled for celebration and ceremony.) 

 

And all of November is National American Indian Heritage Month https://www.nativeamericanheritagemonth.gov/ 

 

Humans still bow to peer pressure listening to the loudest or most numerous voices. Neither veteran's or First Nations fall in that category.  

 

Military personnel are called service men and service women because warriors are not about war (War and the Soul, Dr. Edward Tick) but about service. They contend with the physical and mental injuries acquired in service to your freedom to pursue your career path and life. On Bainbridge Island lives the Principal Investigator of Strong Angel. A US military operation in the late 1990's to expand its vison to humanitarian aid / disaster response (HA/DR). Ask those in Sierra Leone about the US military contribution to ending the Ebola epidemic. There is usually a technology field experimentation at least once a year focused on HA/DR. First Nations have the highest enrollment in the military per capita for cultural, not economic, reasons. Again, a devotion to service. What will you be doing on Thursday, November the 11th? 

 

One aspect of equity, in my opinion, is recognizing the talent and intellect of others who may not be following the dominant culture's definition of talent and intellect. One myth I hear around Thanksgiving is that the US is the first democracy or republic on this land. That is not so. From Benjamin Franklin to the "founders" writing the first documents of this government, all consulted with the statesmen of the League of Five Nations about their Great Law of Peace. (U.S. Congress Concurrent Resolution 331, October 21, 1988) The Great Law dictates how governance, separation of powers, reaching decisions on case, question or proposition, that the women select the Chiefs that sit in Council, and if those Chiefs do not live up to the moral code, remove said Chiefs from "office". Immigration, emigration, how to deal with other Nations, how a member of another Nation may sit and speak in Council, how Council is conducted (open every session with The Words Before All Else - or Thanksgiving Address), Rights of the People, and War. The Great Law provided for expansion of the Law and economic gain to other territories by way of the war club. Ask the Hurons and the Mohicans. 

 

When commenting on the founding documents of the US, the League pointed out errors that would cause the very problems the US government and its citizens have faced - in the civil war, in the Great War and the now. The Great Law had been created from the work of the Peacemaker, who had brought people together after decades of horrific wars. For expediency's sake, the US document writers ignored the advice. The Great Law and the League existed for between 800 and 1000 years. We face rancor and dissolution after only 250. 

 

 

In late July, 1787, twenty years after the Stamp Act Congress, John Rutledge found himself chairing the Committee of Detail at the Constitutional Convention … Rutledge's biographer states that he opened the meeting with some passages from the Great Law of the Iroquois. The main passages relate to the sovereignty of the people, peace and unity. Rutledge had asserted earlier that a great empire was being created so it must be firmly rooted in American soil. 

 

The below is from: 

Kaianerekowa Hotinonsionne - The Great Law of Peace of the Longhouse People 

translation by Akwesasne Notes 

©1970, 1994 by Akwesasne Notes, Mohawk Nation.  

This material may be reproduced for educational use only. 

 

Roots have spread out from the Tree of Great Peace, one to the north, one to the east, one to the south, and one to the west. These are the Great White Roots, and their nature is Peace and Strength. 

If any man or any Nation outside the Five Nations shall obey the laws of the Great Peace (Kaianarekowa), and shall make this known to the statesmen of the League, they may trace back the roots to the Tree. If their minds are clean, and if they are obedient and promise to obey the wishes of the Council of the League, they shall be welcomed to take shelter beneath the Tree of the Long Leaves. 

We place at the top of the Tree of Great Peace an Eagle, who is able to see afar. If he sees in the distance any danger threatening, he will at once warn the people of the League.  … 

 

The Chiefs of the League of Five Nations shall be mentors of the people for all time. The thickness of their skin shall be seven spans (tsiataniioronkarake), which is to say that they shall be proof against anger, offensive action, and criticism. Their hearts shall be full of peace and good will, and their minds filled with a yearning for the welfare of the people of the League. With endless patience, they shall carry out their duty. Their firmness shall be tempered with a tenderness for their people. Neither anger nor fury shall find lodging in their minds, and all their words and actions shall be marked by calm deliberation. 

 

After he pledges to the Chiefs of the League that he will live according to the Great Law of Peace and exercise justice in all affairs, his pledge is received by saying: 

We now do crown you with the sacred emblem of the deer's antlers, the emblem of your chieftainship. You shall now become a mentor of the people of the Five Nations. The thickness of your skin shall be seven spans, which is to say that you shall be proof against anger, offensive actions, and criticism. Your heart shall be filled with peace and good will. Your mind shall be filled with a yearning for the welfare of the people of the League. With endless patience you shall carry out your duty and your firmness shall be tempered with tenderness for your people. Neither anger nor fury shall find lodging in your mind. All your words and actions shall be marked with calm deliberation. In all your deliberations in the Council of the League, in your efforts at law-making, in all your official acts, self-interest shall be cast away. Do not cast over your shoulder behind you the warnings of your nephews and nieces should they chide you for any error or wrong you may do, but return to the way of the Great Law which is right and just. Look and listen for the welfare of the whole people, and have always in view not only the present, but also the coming generations, even those whose faces are yet beneath the surface of the ground—the unborn of the future Nation. 

 

(The other myth I've heard is that Turtle Island was sparsely occupied so the land was for the taking. In reality, Turtle Island population was greater than all Europe at the time. All immigrants, both willing and unwilling, took part in reducing First Nation population to less than 1/10th of its original numbers.) 

 

Learn History: Let's talk about Little Rock, history, and making the case....

How to live #BlackLivesMatter: learn history!

Desi Lydic and Roy Wood Jr. Put Major Court Cases on Trial | The Daily Show

RantWoman, why are you posting this here instead of on your other blog?

Because fine something to laugh at. Start there

Hosea (Come Back To Me) - Kairy Marquez / Jonatan Narváez (Cover) - Cath...

Some weeks FCNL witness Wednesdays feel to RantWoman heavy with all that needs to be held in the Light with respect to the nation's capitol. Some weeks it is simple fellowship evolving as the week's messages coalesce. Today RantWoman was relieved to hear that, while others also feel the prompt's peacefulness, RantWoman was not the only attender whose brain was not staying peaceful, cultivating messages that might be too personal or too lengthy for worship. Here, unapologetically:

Worship conundrum: when a person who says they don't sing posts a song lyric for a prompt, is it acceptable to screen share a video of the song?

Asking for a Friend.

After worship, RantWoman had to flip through several versions to find one she liked.

What came to RantWoman, besides literature brain chirping "Who is talking? What is someone coming back to?" was

--Hold in the Light some REALLY divisive local elections

--The holiday season is upon us. It would be perfectly fine with RantWoman if there were no Christmas frenzy until after Thanksgiving. Apparently, RantWoman does not get a say in the matter, but somehow the song seems apt. The Rant Family has several birthdays and other occasions between now and Christmas, and the "don't let fear keep us apart" thread seems apt. 

--Come back to me with all your heart is something RantWoman can weave into many Do Better Next Time strands.

On Trevor Noah Rep. Dan Crenshaw - Immigration Policy, Critical Race Theory & Climate C...

If ya show up on Trevor Noah wearing an eye patch, RantWoman WILL look you up.

Rep. Dan Crenshaw official bio

Being called to post does not equal endorsement