Elections Popcorn Chairs

Planet RantWoman goes to Meeting and Meeting for worship.

Meeting for worship:
The punch line at the end when the Friend who closes Meeting asked does anyone want to offer Joys and Sorrows? The ENTIRE room burst out laughing!

The longer version:

First an opening message from our clerk about offering messages in worship.

Much popcorn regarding the outcome of the elections. Meaningful thoughtful popcorn, popcorn from both newcomers and people on RantWoman's frequent flyer list, just not popcorn that RantWoman fully remembers: a prayer of St. Francis of Assissi and the Gettysburg address from memory! Reflections in more than one voice on fear and struggle and we are all one country.

RantWoman is alas self-absorbed and was darned clear that she had concerns not related only to the elections and that others might too. So RantWoman rose to speak and amazingly something of this whole tangle made it out of RantWoman's mouth.

...we do not usually have an order of services...others share joys and concerns (in time for others to pray about ) ...please hold in the Light...general purpose it's November and...mother having surgery...family birthdays ...death anniversary made more poignant by frequent media mention of both Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen...leading to wear the T-shirt from last week's convention and to tell of repeated dialogues of the form "Really? God, Really? and more messages in the argument..nasty women, bad hombres and the entire basket of deplorables all one country and we need to talk to each other not rely on politicians or the media...new president elect groper in chief...not the first nor probably the last serial groper in the White House..technology execs who undoubtedly all have sexual harassment policies on paper but who are kind of shrugging their shoulders and nodding "whatever" when they could speak out...(what are we carrying forward for our daughters? another digression for another time) ...change.org petition suggesting that electors change their votes: can they do none of the above and draft say Condolezza Rice...?

[NO, RantWoman was NOT disturbed that the children entered while she was speaking! RantWoman went on a long time; RantWoman would usually wait to find a seat until ministry finished  if she entered worship while someone was speaking. But these are kids. Plus they wrote GREAT letters tot eh President Elect. Things like "don't start any wars," and "make people be nice to each other."

Meeting closed after the laughter about any more joys and sorrows. Many newcomers. RantWoman neither introduced Ambassador Thwack the anger management consultant masquerading as a white cane nor made an announcement about an out of Meeting event... Oh well. Such forbearance.

Last week RantWoman did a Lift up my eyes to heaven gesture and noticed two bulbs in our overhead lighting that are burned out. RantWoman thought the bulbs had been replaced by Wednesday. RantWoman was WRONG. Oh well. RantWoman still gets to be grateful both to have enough vision to see and to recognize the braille And You pattern in the lights

Adult Religious Education
Awesome session presented by and very meingful for people who have never heard of Bayard Rustin. RantWoman is pleased to collect some book titles and SEE whether some of them are new enough to be available in electronic format or through one of RantWoman's audio book options:
Time on Two Crosses: The collected writings of Bayard Rustin
Lost Prophet: the life and times of Bayard Rustin
Down the Line...Bayard Rustin
Strategies for Freedom: the changing patterns of Black Protest
The Invisible Activist

The chairs plunked so irksomely last week in RantWoman's preferred seating place have been dealt with. These are surplus chairs with no place to be stored, currently all destined to be sold; RantWoman is lobbying to sell fewer of the surplus chairs and make some of them available instead of folding chairs or in addition for the maniacs (and people with sentimental childhood attachment) who prefer the folding chairs.

RantWoman is ANNOYED that the person she spoke to about keeping the chairs flat out dismissed RantWoman's point of view: Actually RantWoman is annoyed with repeated experience with that problem and that person, but this week RantWoman arrived at Meeting well-rested, well-caffeinated and with other annoyances in queue ahead of repeated dismissals.  More specifically when RantWoman was compiling her hold in the Light list the phrase "grab the blind person and bless them" came clattering out insistently demanding further attention another time so stay tuned.

Chair seller almost never comes to Adult Ed. RantWoman does come late but does come almost every week to Adult Ed. So the amount of time RantWoman spends being uncomfortable in folding chairs adds up. But Chair seller person so irksomely blew off the cumulative effect that RantWoman slightly despairs that her concern will be remembered when the final decision is made about how many of the extra chairs to sell. However there was good conversation about other chairs, lovely solid chairs with arms recycled to our Meeting when the care facility where a member resided was getting new dining room chairs. Some of the recycled chairs are dingy, though not so RantWoman would notice. Other people do so PERHAPS it might be time to retire some of the orange chairs, EXCEPT that some people really appreciate being able to push against the arms when they rise. So RantWoman recommends keep some of all three: the orange chairs with arms, the upholstered leftover worship room chairs and the folding chairs, some of which date from our current clerk's childhood in our Meeting's first location!

And there is more: homelessness, saved for ....