Worshipfully?

RantWoman, if you gripe about messages in Meeting for Worship, people will just think you are disagreeable and interrupting the flow of God. Some of them are even afraid to say anything in your presence.

Um, er,RantWoman is trying to be faithful to her Light. RantWoman favors an Abraham Lincoln quote aired recently in Meeting for Worship: RantWoman hopes she is on God's side and would not mind the possibility that she is mishearing something. Everyone in the story is loved by God. If we are all working on that love one another stuff, well, um....

And there could be many reasons, not mutually exclusive, why RantWoman notices a message.

--RantWoman almost always swoons when she hears an unfamiliar voice, perhaps timid, halting, not sure if they are to give a message and then overtaken. Sometimes RantWoman wishes they would be overtaken in the presence of a microphone. RantWoman hearing loss? What hearing loss? In any case, RantWoman is nearly always silently cheering: Preach it Friend!"

--The message comes via someone on RantWoman's Frequent Flyer List of people RantWoman wishes would do extra discernment now and then and pray either that what is on their mind comes also to someone else or that some other thought fills the space.. Remember the frequent flyer list includes RantWoman.

--The message is something that intrigues RantWoman piques her curiosity, that she maybe wants to ask more about, or that has touched her in some way, positive or...

--Yep, and if Friends are afraid... pray. Pray that if there is eldering to be had, it can be received.

Today's eruptions in relation to two messages a couple weeks ago.

Message 1: a wonderful rendering of the Girl from Ipannema about Quakers gathered together. The music had hope.

...and the message also made RantWoman think of the spectacular yelling match fight the RantSisters had one time at an otherwise empty bus stop in front of RantMom. There was yelling. There were a couple inappropriate words. RantMom was horrified. The RantSisters exchanged valuable information and felt much better afterward. RantWoman knows that songs are not supposed to evoke thoughts of public yelling matches but is still wondering whether a good public yelling match might help. RantWoman would even give permission to apply the phrase "strong women cat fight" if that would help clear the air.

Message 2 : in relation to a Friend's message from worship about reading John Woolman's journal and liking the thought of Woolman laboring individually with many friends in Meetings about the need to abolish slavery.

RantWoman heard particular interest in the laboring one on one angle.

RantWoman, this is God. How about you let me handle it?

Um God, you know that part about you have no hands but ours. Same thing for words. Words need to be held in the Light.. RantWoman's inner blowtorch kicked in; so far except for these electronic scribbles, nothing has made it out of RantWoman's mouth.

Consider:

--It took another hundred years for the US to get serious about abolishing slavery. Of course individual drops grow into torrents, but it's the 21st century. Slavery has been abolished. the effects of slavery linger in all kinds of inequities. There could be conversations about redlining, the school-to-prison pipeline...There would be community. There would be individuals bringing shared light...

--More to the point there is also a climate crisis. It is 116 deggrees in whatever town in Southern India had its mayor on the radio last week. The seawater is lapping at a causeway in Victoria, whose mayor was also on the radio. There are a million ways to fight climate change. RantWoman happens to favor things to do with public transportation but there are many options, options that build community and shared labor and well if that one-on-one laboring with is not to be had...there is still community to carry one along.