Abundance--of something?

Dear Readers

First you must choose your meme for today’s excursion to Planet RantWoman. Options include:

Random update for no reason software enhancement

Tinker Vs Des Moines First Amendment Supreme Court case upholding students right to wear black armbands to school during the Christmas season to protest the Vietnam war. This meme is here because RantWoman’s eighth grade history teacher cited as one of the most important Supreme Court cases ever, right behind Brown vs Board of education.

Blurred vision, double vision, and euphoria, the side effects of a long ago RantBrother pharmacological regimen. RantWoman does fine about blurred vision and double vision without any pharmaceutical help, but where the heck is the euphoria?

Biblical readings from Psalm 121, RSV, grade 2 NON-UEB braille or a Christmas passage from Isaiah 41 read with female pronouns for the divine, just to add another badass element.

Should we go with the Middle East themed bomb threats or can we work on the spending an hour and a half figuring out how to pray together angle?

Holiday manger scene with all the different symbolic creatures and personages, perhaps for Planet RantWoman as embodied in paper pasted to plywood with reinforced framing and sand bags and bales of hay to keep everything from blowing over in the howling Colorado winds of RantWoman’s childhood.

Some sort of ungainly holiday pageant, perhaps under coordinated second graders whose costumes are always askew or perhaps the sort of high schoolers RantWoman met on the bus the other day: RantWoman listened to enough of their conversation ALMOST to go all motherly on then and suggest they take care of their brain cells and get help about their substance abuse issues. Then the bus arrived at the stop for their school.

A scary, scary demon with horns and a giant cape…

　

RantWoman, we don’t CARE about a meme. Get to the Point.

Oh, but you must have a meme and you must also say Thank you, because that is the rule on Planet RantWoman even about "help" that is not helpful.

　

Are we ready? Get comfortable because this may take awhile AND wind around a bit. May the Lord Bless and Keep you and make his face to shine upon you and give you peace…

　

Welcome to Great Moments in Business Meeting, Accessibility Edition, Round 2 of the past year or so. Round 1 some readers may remember involved RantWoman daring to speak of wheelchair accessibility for services provided by one tenant. RantWoman is humble about whatever all added up to Madame Clerk needing to stalk out of the room. Tonight RantWoman will spare readers a Dial A Tirade sidebar about events after that business meeting. RantWoman greatly esteems the current clerk if only for pluck and fortitude. RantWoman also would not mind having different gifts herself and perhaps a meme other than the scary demon with big nasty horns that seems to appear to others whenever RantWoman tries to speak even very carefully of accessibility. Somehow the scary demon goes away when other people speak on RantWoman’s behalf, but that is pretty average #disabilityinchurch ableism and who the heck wants to be average?

Tonight we bring you Great Moments in Business Meeting, Accessibility Edition Round 2 starring Madame Clerk, Not an Idiot Friend, Self-Righteous Twenty-Something Friend, Friend who thinks growling at RantWoman will help, RantWoman, I’m not interested in your thought processes Friend, and a further cast of thousands. RantWoman invokes rather frank Noms de Blog with great caring, deep affection, and respect or at least as much of those as the love and care mentioned in the Still Didn’t get the Memo Committee on Email Immoderation announcement in the Bulletin. RantWoman also sincerely thanks Not an Idiot Friend and I am Not Interested in Your Thought Processes Friend for honest expressions of emotion, truly! Please understand RantWoman’s memory is imperfect, but this is how this month’s proceedings looked through RantWoman’s womky eyeballs.

　

The preparation: RantWoman has been seasoning a leading to work on disability issues for awhile. RantWoman has assembled an able adhoc committee though RantWoman selfishly would like to beg the time of a couple more Friends. RantWoman has drafted an outline of some topics, ideas, approaches and also wanted to offer Meeting for Business space to help shape the work. RantWoman has decreed that the committee will work some of the time by conference call and / or email. RantWoman has already had push-back from one committee volunteer about email, but email is an important part of RantWoman’s accessible work process protocol and RantWoman trusts that PushBack Friend will be able to cope. RantWoman has seasoned one idea enough to be ready to schedule a conference call.

RantWoman wrote up a sloppy draft of her ideas and hoped to work on them with the Care and Accountability Committee named in her direction but other members of said committee pushed in other directions. In other words, the Care and Accountability Committee is part of the impetus for focused work.

RantWoman also would have taken her draft ideas to the pre-business meeting planning meeting called Coordinating Committee, but RantWoman and Madame Clerk agreed that conversation about business meeting could happen later in the week. At that point Madame Clerk demurred: she did not want to bring anything to business meeting that had not gone to Coordinating committee, BUT RantWoman would be allowed to make an announcement and have a table at lunch afterward. This option is NOT preferable on Planet RantWoman because RantWoman finds noisy environments hard to deal with; also RantWoman was due at Irrepressible Nephew’s birthday.

Apparently God had other ideas anyway, other ideas in the form of hours and hours (well not really but close) fussing about minutes and other moments as below.

Meeting for Worship with attention to business opened as usual: welcome, reading, introduction of people visiting or attending Meeting for Business for the first time. God and those in attendance made it through announcements and the first two items with little fanfare. Then it was time for minutes. RantWoman appreciates Madame Clerk allowing her to ask how many others besides RantWoman read the draft minutes when they come out by email on Friday. RantWoman was pleased to have a sense that several Friends do, but RantWoman could not see and did not ask for a precise count. RantWoman also pblutly spoke of need to be honest about what works and what does not work. Hence some detail here. RantWoman is VERY grateful for many things that make a great deal of difference. RantWoman wants Friends to understand what matters, and RantWoman is ruthless about freeing everyone of things that do not work.

　

RantWoman was called to offer two corrections to a previous month’s report about the Care and Accountability Committee. RantWoman will spare readers all the details of the discussion. Are RantWoman’s corrections factual? RantWoman spoke only to things she specifically remembers saying. The Recording clerk had already discarded her notes. She also acknowledged considering what to record of RantWoman’s previous month comments with others, though when RantWoman emailed after reading the minutes on Friday, Friend Recording Clerk said she would only corrections in the "worshipful" space of Meeting for Business. Sigh. RantWoman is an all life is a prayer Quaker and figured Light might show up many ways.

One of RantWoman’s corrections is somewhat redundant to something already in the draft minutes but RantWoman specifically remembered speaking to it and wanted it in the minutes. Another referred to a long ago nominating committee conversation, a conversation from before the era of the person who then spoke. Would the points of concern to RantWoman even be in the old committee minutes? Should corrections appear at all? Should they appear in the current month’s minutes or with the previous month’s minutes? RantWoman deeply blesses the Friend who underscored RantWoman’s points but more Friends kept wanting to weigh in about this month or last month and the clerk keep asking the room whether there was unity about what to include. No. More discussion. Round and round.

Somewhere in the round and round NOT an idiot Friend spoke of feeling deeply hurt by the juxtaposition of his name and the word Idiot. RantWoman tried to respond to the pain and apologize. RantWoman wonders after the fact whether she should also apologize for failing to speak up for a long long time about utter exasperation with Not and Idiot Friends communications practices. In any case, RantWoman was speaking her truth as comfortingly as she could manage and this was not enough for Self Righteous Twenty Something Friend. Self Righteous Friend was so offended he thought RantWoman should leave or, others insist, leave for the day and so apparently did the rest of the room.

RantWoman had already spoken of moments in Quaker history when a Friend is called to stand or in this case sit alone. RantWoman was very clear she was not going anywhere and not just because of being ferociously not in unity to leave from the very discussion she is led to have. RantWoman was not going anywhere on grounds of safety for everyone. RantWoman is large, legally blind, and not well-coordinate when she is upset or angry, By that time Friends had tried to surround RantWoman and RantWoman was clear to sit.

One Friend voiced outrage and stomped out. RantWoman was told others apparently also stomped out.

So the rest of the room decided to sing and then leave.

Jesus Christ on a pizza crust with Kimchi and Goad Cheese!

PLEASE hold us all in the Light.

Sincerely

RantWoman.