Martin Luther King Day with Bells and Broccoli

Worship via Planet RantWoman:

worshipful centering

in RantWoman's head:
(Will anything tidy make it out of RantWoman's mouth about Martin Luther King Day this year? Tirade about the taming of an icon?Recent Colin Powell quote about President Obama, something like "They should all stop pretending. Their behavior has nothing to do with the content of his character and everything to do with the color of his skin." Rant about #blacklives matter protests, the military, whether or not it's racism when a Target customer asks a very tall but very well disguised First Lady to help her reach something of a high shelf, the glorious fact that the First lady even goes to Target ....)

Bong,

Bong,

Bong,

The bells of beloved Alma mater every hour on the hour one night when the student masses were led to camp out in front of the administration building in connection with some kind of anti-apartheid protest. RantWoman does not even apologize for not remembering the precise details. The Bong Bong Bong is the important part. Talk about way to discourage protracted protests. Bong! Bong! Bong!

Digressions available about pre-graduation sit-in, the African American supporter who called RantWoman with a ringing endorsement and said he did not feel he could participate because he was going through college on a ROTC scholarship and did not want to mess up his commissioning, South Africa's black majority,  the voices of whites like Nadine Gordimer,Truth and Reconciliation

Bong

Bong

Bong

What would it be like if the bells sounded on the timeline for Muslim call to prayer as apparently was proposed and then withdrawn at Duke University?

Bong

Bong

Wonderful speech by British Muslim for Oxford Debate about Muslim culture including particularly all the Arab world's contributions to mathematics while Europe was moldering in the Dark Ages.

Bong

Bong.

Twitter statistics:
Half of the world's population is under 30.
Median age of Christians in Europe: 42. Of Muslims: 32

How are well-educated white people of the developed world called to live within these realities?

Bong

Bong

Bong

Three different conversations that should lead people in Meeting to clearness committees and RantWoman so does not even want to try with ANYONE from Care and Counsel and is so thinking about a "Clearness Committees for Dummies" resource off the internet.

Bong

Bong

(RantWoman CHILL OUT. Just because the last clearness committee for yourself, the first couple questions caused you to realize that the questioner had no clue where to start about ...)

Bong

Bong

Bong

(Are there words supposed to make it out of RantWoman's mouth during worship?)

Bong

Bong

Bong

lovely worshipful silence.

Message about article from December 2014 Friends Journal article about a family who chooses to live below the poverty line in order to avoid liability for war taxes.
http://www.friendsjournal.org/choice-poverty/

Friend offering message thinks its wrong for parents to choose a life of poverty on behalf of their children.

RantWoman thinks of a certain bassoon-playing RantDad

RantWoman thinks of Frida Berrigan writing about visiting her parents in prisons over Christmas.

RantWoman thinks of the large percentage of African American families who must visit family members in prison.

RantWoman thinks that having a very overweight freaky bassoon-playing professional musician father might be plenty and she should be glad her father was not Frida's father Phillip Berrigan.

Hey Wait a Minute.

Parents motivated to resist war taxes also tend to be motivated to find their children good resources that are free or very low-cost.

Having very low income SOMETIMES frees families from timewasting entanglements and cultural attachments and creates space to be filled with other rich experiences..

RantWoman counts her family, a college classmate whose father was a poet,  among those able to live very well on low incomes. The circumstances are all different and do not necessarily involve war tax resistance. RantWoman thinks of some families in her Meeting and leaves the question of war tax resistance as a question mark.

Wait a minute.
90% of the students in Seattle public schools qualify for free and reduced priced lunch. These are not the children of war tax resisters. These parents do not choose this reality. RantWoman is much more strongly called to think on behalf of these children than she is the children of war tax resisters.

(Are there words supposed to make it out of RantWoman's mouth in worship or is RantWoman just supposed to continue as before with the rest of her life?(

Worshipful Silence

Message from parent of hope that their family is on right path.

Bong,

Bong.

Bong.

Recycled Message Friend rises and speaks of eyes, specks, logs, and leaving matters to God.

Eyes.

Specks in others' eyes.

Logs in one's own.

Crash.

Rattle.

Earth to RantWoman. You know, So Out of Order Friend whome you are trying to figure out how to organize a conversation with? You know you make her STEAMING MAD sometimes?

Yesssss! (Look, by the time that Friend is Steaming Mad, RantWoman usually is too. RantWoman is deeply afraid that in that situation, NOTHING good is going to make it out of her mouth. And at this point, RantWoman does not even want to hazard a conversation one on one when people are not steaming mad.)

And you are enjoying it a little too much.

What?

Making that Friend Steaming Mad!

Busted! Okay God, now what?

Of late, RantWoman has had the most peculiar success looking for elders among ...The Association of Bad Friends on Facebook.

After worship God prodded RantWoman to take the matter of Steaming Mad Friend off to consult this resource. The number one most resounding response about how to deal with Steaming Mad Friend was broccoli, followed by an espresso machine and reference to steam engines.
And if RantWoman had any doubt about signs, on top of the broccoli from the Bad Friends the menu at the most recent gathering of a very beloved potluck group featured a magical cruciferous culinary synchrony: cole slaw with red cabbage, roasted brussels sprouts, cauliflower and coconut curry.  As one commenter put it, a whole new take on crucifixion."

Okayyyy God?