Appreciation: travelling minister

RantWoman has heard much appreciation of Friend Joe Snyder's visit to the Marysville Worship Group. Friend Joe seems to have been well-led as far as queries and well-used as far as inspiration for that community's life.

RantWoman offers appreciation for an incidental conversation with elder Dave Fabik about membership clearness committees. RantWoman appreciates that Multonomah MM is trying to get FOUR people together for one clearness process. RantWoman does not feel called to elaborate about what she was led to share of great clearness committee moments in her own Meeting except that RantWoman's Meeting seems to do well most of the time getting TWO people together on a membership committee.

Strike that reticence even if it is a free association digression: one comparatively recent clearness committee member remarked after discussion in Meeting for Business that the Friend being admitted to membership had expressed concern about specific names but every single name had spoken of a reason to admit him to membership. RantWoman's posthumous formulation after a short but draining illness: RantWoman is glad this Friend found a spiritual landing place among us, but the landing was going to be bumpy wherever. RantWoman also treasures young Friends who came to us about the same time as this Friend and who all appreciated his regular greetings.

RantWoman still does not know quite what to do with the other clearness committee moment. The most recent mention of it was in front of other Friends before a clump of college students doing ethnography about Friends' customs. In response to some kind of question about membership, RantWoman blurted out "if you slug two members of your membership clearness committee, you are probably not going to be admitted to membership." Part of what RantWoman does not know what to do with: neither of the two Friends remarked AT ALL afterward about RantWoman's comment even to ask which incident RantWoman might have referred to or how RantWoman was connected to it.

RantWoman is collecting moments from Friend Joe Snyder's visits to TWO meetings in Seattle. TWO because:

1. RantWoman needs LOTS of listening and actually likes listening to different strands of Quakers.

2. RantWoman lives close to one and needed a Friday activity.

3. Of COURSE RantWoman went to the Sunday potluck event at her own Meeting.

Friday's meeting touched on shifting eras within Meetings and also personal lives. There undoubtedly was more but that is what stuck with RantWoman

RantWoman also mentioned that a good wedding is always a joy, and a good wedding that includes many strands of life outside Meeting is even better.

A funny takeaway from Friday: last summer RantWoman was all cross because a Friend from her own Meeting was not able to talk about what RantWoman found COOL about an interest group at Annual Session on vocal ministry: many voices. Voices unfamiliar to RantWoman. Friend Joe working with a much younger elder. Turns out Friend Joe also found the group  too big and unwieldy.

Plus too many people straggled in or introductions took too long. RantWoman deeply esteems introductions but they did take too long. Okay, sure, but what happened in the time available was to RantWoman COOL, and RantWoman would not have minded at least a tiny bit more capacity to talk about it. Mleah. [Can anyone besides RantWoman pull out the joy from these comments? What all is being balanced here?]

In other words, the things RantWoman found COOL and energizing are also stressful and challenging. There. MUCH Better.

But on to Sunday, abundant potluck food, a number of youth, two adults younger than RantWoman and a generous number of old-timers. Also a confession from the Clerk after Friends shared on the queries: it would have been good specifically to try to draw out the youth among us.

OMG. Offering a blessing OUT LOUD . A blessing for abundance and for all the hands and labor that got the abundance to our tables. A blessing RantWoman absolutely endorses.

Where is joy  / life comments with RantWoman quibbles:

We can do Potlucks!
[yes, in the evening, but RantWoman has food handling concerns if Friends try to do potluck after Meeting for business. The number of people needing to heat / rehat over time when there was time to do it might be too much for light lunch after meeting for Business. RantWoman will not stay if the traffic jam is too bad.]

A sense that, Meeting has made progress about important issue: needful actions not happening if we rely only on volunteers so we write a job description and see what our offer will buy us. That's the upside of the speaker's this year vs last year. That is not the whole story.

For instance RantWoman at one point blurted out that the Business Meeting where one piece of the work was approved could be characterized as "Push around vulnerable women." RantWoman is grateful that someone not a Business Meeting gasped about the comment. Anyway, much is still unclear. Much is seasoning hopefully not only in a long tangled interwoven trademark RantWoman email.

RantWoman welcomes the process of discernment about changes happening around us
[said later: we need more conceptual practice about realizing actual discernment than one paragraph in the newsletter. Not said: other things RantWoman is seasoning.]

Trust [??? Predictability and trust are not synonymous. How easy is it to upset the apple cart? How resilient are we when...?]

Willing to hang in there.

Try something new if this does not work. [YES! But some who need the Try Something New message are not in the room. Are we actually getting to something new?]

RantWoman does not remember the exact words behind what got scribbled here as "Public face;" RantWoman thinks they have something to do with reputation in the community. RantWoman also appreciates that the words prompted her to share comments from a visitor unfamiliar with Friends who observed a sense of worshipful space in our worship room.

So what would Radical Safety mean?

Please forgive RantWoman because things were said that did not register.

Then a Friend was led to lead the room in "Love is something if you give it away, give it away you end up having more."

m'kayyy?

Yep. RantWoman is a musician's kid. RantWoman thinks music is wonderful and almost always enriches our community.

AND

RantWoman cannot always just sing a happy song and forget other pieces.

Give some love away to the homeless wheelchair users who cannot access one new tenant's services.

Give some love away to RantWoman because Little Sister uses a wheelchair, because RantWoman has LOTS of friends who use wheelchairs, and not even being able to acknowledge things, even hard things, to do with wheelchairs MAKES RANTWOMAN'S HEAD EXPLODE.

Give some love away to the screwed-up government contracting fiasco that results in a beloved Friend having to endure RIDICULOUS waits for his paratransit ride home from worship.

Give some love away to everyone dealing with hearing loss or at LEAST give some State of the Meeting love to lots of experiments with mobile mics. If RantWoman is still not feeling heard, she is in fact literally not being heard. EVERYONE needs to be held in the Light about this. RantWoman finds hearing loss INCREDIBLY frustrating. Shhh. don't tell anyone. Hearing loss? Who RantWoman too...?

Give some love for conversations where some present complain about things wandering off topic and have to be told that a large percentage of the topics they consider off-topic have something to do with disability so NOW What? Put not one but TWO of those historical voices on Personnel Committee?  Torture the new Recording clerk and Personnel Committee about what is actually meant by one moment in minutes? Ummmmm, stay tuned.

Give some love away for one Friend who says " well I think we are finally figuring out ableism." Then give some love away for RantWoman who wants to say well, if you think you get ableism, how about mentioning it with all the other 'isms in the State of Society?

Mention ableism even if it is only the trip to exotic Planet rantWoman that no one really signs up for and RantWoman keeps going there anyway.  Sure, okay, off-topic at least until RantWoman  cannot find the large print bible she donated to the library [the prodigal book has been found, catalogued, and findable with other Bibles. Hallelujah!]

Radical safety like can we talk about housing choices? Issues like some in our Meeting are doing quite nicely thank you very much based on property appreciating in value. Others are struggling to find housing they can afford. Seattle in general is dealing badly with huge need to upzone to make more space in the city for residential housing, neighborhoods trying to meet housing demand by allowing accessory dwelling units (backyard cottages), thoughts in some quarters that tiny houses are preferable to tent encampments (yeah, and...)

RantWoman is still sitting with a phone conversation with a Friend who refused to shake RantWoman's hand in closing worship. RantWoman decided the issue needed conversation--in daylight. RantWoman even reached Friend on the FIRST try by phone. Ding. Ding. Ding. Phone tag makes RantWoman SO crabby.

Understand, RantWoman really is trying to be faithful to some difficult Light but to do it as kindly as possible.

Friend complained of a sense that RantWoman always wants the last word. Friend has complained of this before but not in a way where RantWoman can speak to a specific moment. Friend also used the phrase "exercise in domination."

RantWoman is not even asking forgiveness for the following thought bubbles:

Okay Friend, who is in charge here, you, RantWoman or God?

Okay Friend consider yourself loved. Consider the love given away though if you wourld prefer RantWoman would be happy to charge.

But for now Friend does kind of get the last word:   a specific link as requested for articles about difficult people. RantWoman much prefers specific links rather than having to pick through search results with a screen reader. RantWoman had almost forgotten about the request by the time the links arrived and RantWoman will reflect further in a future post.