Angelic? Intense and Challenging

Someone asked RantWoman and others recently about communities. It was one of those situations where RantWoman could go on for hours but opted to yield the mike after only a few minutes. RantWoman is not sure what if anything she said about “the blindness community, but here goes with a few vignettes, the sorts of presence RantWoman also sometimes winds up worshipping with during Meeting for Worship

Angelic

RantWoman has been lamenting the passing last spring of one of her favorite angelic troublemakers.

 

Below is a sample blog post.

https://rantwomanrsof.blogspot.com/2015/10/advocacy-gratitude.html

 

Angelic Troublemaker served countless roles. For instance Angelic troublemaker was on the WA Human Rights Commission when the first two cases filed under the WA antidiscrimination law were filed against organizations that serve the blind, by blind job seekers. She said the commission had NO problem finding in favor of the complainants.

 

https://rantwoman.blogspot.com/2015/11/fun-facts-and-rcw-4960.html

 

RantWoman’s last Angelic Troublemaker story, at least for now: Angelic Troublemaker told a story about one time taking a plane somewhere. The flight attendant said something about “I hope you do not think the extra blanket is because we think you will wet your pants.” Rantwoman is not sure to whom one complains about blatantly discriminatory behavior on airplanes, but Angelic Troublemaker reported that she got a new china cabinet out of the legal settlement.

 

One striking thing about Angelic Troublemaker’s memorial: there were MANY, many rich stories but there was absolutely no mention of any kind of faith tradition.

 

[RantWoman notes the 2018 passing of another pillar of the blindness community, Marlaina Lieberg, and still another pillar of the disability community, long time director of the Governor’s Commission on Employment of People with Disabilities, Toby Olson. In other words generational shift is a big theme in more than one strand of RantWoman’s life.]

 

Could Rub People the Wrong Way Friend

Next RantWoman summons memory of Could Rub People the Wrong Way Friend, a member of RantWoman’s Meeting and before her retirement a case manager for the Department of Services for the Blind. One of this Friend’s coworkers was also a fixture at Meeting. Besides quietly looking out for Could Rub People the Wrong Way Friend, he made xylophones, and lectured anyone who would listen about the difference between astronomy and astrology  

 

At about age 40, Could Rub People The Wrong Way Friend  had suffered two detached retinas and made a job transition from industrial physicist to social services case manager. RantWoman does not think it was a smooth transition. Could Rub People the Wrong Way Friend’s name came up at some point on the Council of the Blind email list and not exactly with fond recollections. Could Rub People The Wrong Way Friend earned her nom de blog because her former colleagues remembered her exactly the same way RantWoman does: “was a no-nonsense person who could rub people the wrong way.” Could Rub People the Wrong Way friend, in RantWoman’s memory read the Bible and served on Worship and Ministry

 

The Next generation

In fact Could Rub People The Wrong Way Friend is not remembered fondly at all in one of her client’s now-grown families sopecifically for giving mediocre / bad parenting advice that made a bad situation worse. Could Rub People The Wrong Way friend’s imperfections in her role notwithstanding, the now adult siblings, brother and sister are incredibly resilient and RantWoman is really grateful both to know them and to feel like some kind of an extra auntie in the family. Brother is part of the sound crew; he and his wife have two kids, and his wife is a great committed focused mom. Plus she appreciates it when RantWoman says that email list busybodies do not know what they are talking about as far as family housing suggestions. RantWoman, as of this writing, is not sure whether wife will, after a truly atrocious experience with her guide dog at a restaurant will be doing the necessary complaint filing about the restaurant or will just be avoiding the place like the plague in the future.

 

The sister, hereby dubbed Housing Advocate Extraordinaire, from the family also uses a wheelchair—and posts more than it would occur to RantWoman to post all over Facebook, a sort of mixed blessing as far as walking alongside lots of hard medical struggles with frequent references to prayer. And hey, RantWoman has a blog. RantWoman has now two years in a row been sighted guide at Convention, official jargong for the annual event, for the sister who uses a wheelchair. RantWoman has a number of stories of guts and focus, but her favorite one is here.

http://rantwoman.blogspot.com/2018/11/congratulations-to-star-center-founder.html

 

So what are the takeaways, besides a lot of “let our Lives Speak” intersecting with important paths to progress that benefit many people?

 

Uhhh, RantWoman is still an intense and challenging person.

 

RantWoman hangs out with lots of other intense and challenging people.

 

Being an intense and challenging person is, um, a survival skill and an absolute necessity, so how about people not take it personally!

 

 

Both of those points seem to be part of RantWoman’s call.