Popcorn, Pride, driving people bonkers?

Dear Beloved Community.

 

RantWoman’s various strands of document draft are bursting with popcorn kernel moments of provocation. RantWoman thinks it would be lovely if the strands of popcorn provocation would kindly comb themselves into straightforward linear commentary. RantWoman, humbly, is unclear that it would be wise to wait around for that to occur. Instead RantWoman needs to limp forward trying to step carefully around numerous conversational landmines and hopefully admitting rays of Light as needed.

 

Speaking of peculiar rays of Light, RantWoman invites readers to enjoy the following rant.

https://rantwoman.blogspot.com/2019/07/faith-parking-bikeshare.html  RantWoman does not apologize for tangling points she really means in with concrete ways to address things that annoy her but does hold all in the light as they read.

 

One, though definitely not the only way to encapsulate some of what is on RantWoman’s mind: RantWoman is still hearing LOTS of verbal and procedural “SHUT UP RantWoman.” Luckily that is not all RantWoman is hearing. Still, RantWoman invites all the many “shut up RantWoman voices to consider whether maybe possibly, “shut up RantWoman” is preventing Friends from hearing things RantWoman is, SERIOUSLY, deeply grateful for. RantWoman is not Miss Manners here, but RantWoman thinks one entirely welcome response would be “RantWoman, please say more.” RantWoman is REALLY clear about two points though:

 

--Much else has occurred in Meeting for Business. Say More belongs there too.

 

--RantWoman needs to ask for some specific reasonable accommodations and Friends need the opportunity to TRY AGAIN.

 

Lest we get too mired in gratitude though, let us switch to the recent democratic presidential debates. One of MANY peculiar rays of Light to arise via the recent Democratic presidential candidates debates came the first night from someone named Marianne.  RantWoman apologizes for not remembering her full name and does not apologize for the thought, based on various flavors of loopiness, that remembering her full name may not be in the cards.

 

Marianne whoever she is spoke at one point about “unnecessary chronic conditions.” RantWoman did not go back and review any clips; RantWoman is guessing Ms. Marianne meant conditions caused by environmental and workplace practices or by inadequate health care weak on prevention.  RantWoman though was deeply amused by the direction commentary on “Crip Twitter*” took. Writer after writer listed a large number of difficult, unpleasant chronic conditions they found to be completely unnecessary parts of their lives.

 

*Crip Twitter???? Language that is offensive when used to label someone is sometimes reappropriated by people proud to embrace an identity, a reality when speaking about themselves. RantWoman considers herself a pretty formidable word nerd though not a super giant scholar of Quaker lexicography.  At any rate, RantWoman is pretty sure this point of view has historically applied to the word Quaker, to the word queer, and even recently to the word “dope.”   Digression about the latter soon to be available on RantWoman’s other blog. Digression about this point and the word :”namecalling” due separately here.

 

And speaking of “namecalling,” have readers forgotten about RantWoman’s badly calibrated internal idiot detector? The idiot detector is kind of like a Smartphone camera: sometimes the idiot is in front of the idiot detector. Somethings the idiot is behind the idiot detector. The badly calibrated part:  sometimes there is more than one idiot within range. So if RantWoman were to say “I don’t want to think, but if I did..” ONE interesting tack might be to ASK RantWoman to say more. Scary thought? Maybe Rantwoman would manage to say GENTLY that  ignoring texts and emails, not being available at hours RantWoman considers sane for phoning, and then all sorts of last minute scrambles and other calendar related hiccups in the space-time continuum are what is on RantWoman’s mind. RantWoman could not care LESS whether everyone has same experiences with… and therefore RantWoman is not supposed to take it personally. On one hand, RantWoman does not take  it personally, more like “ya wanna hassle me? Get in line.” On the other hand, RantWoman is TRYING to say something others seem not able to say “Look, Friend, how is that working out for you? Can you see how the problem might get in the way of...”

 

How many other moments of word nerd fussiness can readers of this blog identify. Sure, Pride month is over, but can Friends deal with “Word nerd Pride?” For instance RantWoman knows several transgender people and is happuy to talk about pronouns. Alas, RantWoman is frequently called to embrace complexity and opine that for RantWoman pronouns are an essay question.

 

RantWoman lately has been tossing the phrase Disability Pride in the same salad bowl with the phrase “unnecessary chronic conditions.” RantWoman is still tossing around the concept of Disability Pride. Pride in DNA lotto? Pride in…? pride in NOT accepting the erasure of “unnecessary ….conditions.” RantWoman could find it easy to do Dial a Tirade here so readers are in luck: just hold the tangle in the light for now.

 

But there are other moments of word nerd fussiness on this blog as well.
RantWoman is still seasoning how to deal with one giant continuing spasm of word nerd fussiness:  RantWoman would be inclined to start with email but… RantWoman also has people offering speak on RantWoman’s behalf except that RantWoman has no confidence that messages will be delivered completely. RantWoman cannot deal with one on one conversation for reasons not related to the need for the conversation. RantWoman has no sense even of who would be good to help with conversation.
 
But RantWoman's main point:
Eureka, beloved community! We are at unity. RantWoman weirdly is NOT clear what to make of the last business meeting. But, just SUPPOSE,…we are actually at Unity? Suppose no one actually wants to deal with blindness, not the rest of the room, certainly not RantWoman. Does anyone think RantWoman enjoys needing to bore people with rambles about white canes and bungee cords? Does anyone think RantWoman enjoys being utterly unable to perform all that social lubricating eye contact and eye behavior that everyone else relies on like a crutch to prop up social interaction? Does anyone seriously think RantWoman enjoys … being able very successfully to perform a number of annoying blind person behaviors…driving sighted people bonkers (don’t anser that!)…a whole long list…?

 

News flash! “Enjoys” is not really the point? What does God require of us?  What about that “God ad personal butler model of Divine Presence? What opportunities for spiritual growth are tangled in this story? What openings does anyone suppose might arise, oh say in the realm of “doable even by Quakers younger than 60?”

 

RantWoman, humbly, is NOT called to disappear. RantWoman is NOT called indefinitely to honor a request to stay away from Business Meeting. On the contrary, if RantWoman were not already clear that there need to be some serious conversations about disability BEFORE the most recent business meeting, RantWoman is quite clear of that now.

 

Stay tuned for further developments and please hold the whole circus in the Light..

 

In Light and Faithfulness.