Unholy meditations?

Warning: this post is basically free of explicit gore, but readers who want to bypass autopsies and gun violence may want to mouse over to some other offering.

RantWoman has mostly muddled past the need to do Sudoku in Meeting for Worship, although she is not above dipping in just to fry other Friends' nerves. More to the point, RantWoman also is mostly attending worship on Zoom with no time to get into Sudoku on the bus. RantWoman has found no electronic Sudoku that works without freezing up with her phone accessibility tools. More's the pity.

But wait. RantWoman has a NEW vice: RantWoman now attends Zoom worship on one device and, un-Quakerly drum roll pleas...,looks at Twitter / X on another.

Hush now. RantWoman will be too happy to go on about the still small voice in a small electronic box. RantWoman does not want to hear what a cesspool Elon's sandbox has become. RantWoman goes there willingly, does not engage with trolls, and gets a read on all kind of things RantWoman would much prefer people not think. Hold that in the Light.

Surprisingly to RantWoman, sometimes Twitter yields Light topical to some or another frequent theme in RantWoman's mental Yucky Topics festival.

This week's Bad Friend Yucky Topics festival started from a question a collaborator asked RantWoman that was partly what happens for an autopsy and what about informed consent?

Bad news when it's gun violence there is no informed consent. Hopefully there is "informed" but legally there is no choice about autopsy. Nor do autopsies always get done on the timeline preferred for Muslim burial practices, a topic where locally there is a weary sense of "we have been working on that for years. RantWoman has not been working on this topic. RantWoman just has a network of people she can call to stich together connections for people who ask RantWoman questions connected with the recent death of a 15-year-old. A gun was involved. Therefore an autopsy was required. The Twitterverse contains indications that the death was accidental but precise details were beyond what was needed in the autopsy conversation.

Last week in worship, RantWoman was holding all this in the Light--and swiping away on her phone. During Worship, the Twitter thread du jour was about clearing a gun, making sure it is unloaded before handing it to another person, and then even if one has just seen someone clear it, clearing it again. Apparently this is a common trust gesture among people well-schooled in gun safety.

RantWoman wouldn't have the foggiest idea how to clear a gun. RantWoman does not particularly want to (need to) know this BUT RantWoman's mind wandered in a surprising direction: would mandatory gun safety classes in high schools keep young people from doing stupid things with guns???

That to RantWoman seems like a FAR more desirable option than active shooter training.

These thoughts came along with the anniversary of the Sandy Hook mass shooting. RantWoman's YouTube ad stream alternates between all sorts of very discrete ways to concealed carry and Sandy Hook dad Mark Barden's please to sign a petition about banning assault rifles. The awkward celebration point: in recent ads Mark Barden looks a lot less distressed and more centered than previous rounds. What a thing to need to keep grieving about though.

And at least two more school shootings this week, along with another spectacular moment of gun violence RantWoman will try to tackle separately.

See where worship....