Ministry of observing and Prayer

It was 37 degrees outside according to the radio when RantWoman left home praying about where to go. God suggested that if RantWoman was already in danger of being late for the locking of doors at one Meeting, it would also be okay to skip the underwhelming chairs and just do ministry of presence at her regular Meeting. RantWoman was well-rewarded with sun, warmth, and conversations and meditations about among other things growing up in the land of NPYM even if not a Quaker growing up in general and wishes for families of today.

9th Avenue NE
and lane off Roosevelt NE

One of RantWoman's many twitches related to traffic and climate change is maybe possibly to go a little overboard about the phrase "Walk Cheerfully on the earth answering that of God in everyone." Okay, RantWoman has a lot of near-misses about the "Cheerfully" part. Oh, and the "answering that of God..." part might go better both if some Friends were at least slightly conversant in God language and if God were better about huge non-subtle signs instead of stuff that shows up all covered in muck that RantWoman has to wipe through first.

But the walking and the tracking of pedestrian flows and walking paths to and fro, for instance between bus stops and destinations, are kind of second nature, not even second, just hard-wired in. Hard-wired in as in, RantWoman's particular flavor of transportation nerdery grabbed hold both of the dramatic increase in pedestrian flows expected when the Brooklyn Ave. light rail station opens and the 90,000 new people expected in a neighborhood just over the University Bridge in another neighborhood where there is much conversation about bike and ped infrastructure.

By infrastructure, we also mean car vs bike / ped accident hotspots at several intersections to the N of us along the much prized Protected Bike Lane many Friends use to get to Meeting from the North. RantWoman has NO expectation that solving the accident hot spots is Meeting's job; RantWoman DOES think Friends with leadings to pay attention to the actions by responsible public officials reflects good stewardship and responsible participation in the wider community.

Plus there are two 25-story buildings going in across another street. Will all those new people need places to worship and pray and even just gather?

RantWoman has NO illusions that her perspective and awareness will necessarily be central to decisions down the line; RantWoman IS clear that talking about the changes occurring can help build community among people experiencing the changes now. But what opportunities for connection is the community missing if the paths people get to Meeting by get brushed off as "unnecessary detail. What if "be patterns, be examples..." inspires someone who meets a Friend at another meeting? What if someone going to the UW wants some kind of easy time commitment to help them manage stress or a way to share something they are already learning about?

RantWoman will sometime answer a call to explain about youth spent walking to school in the snow, uphill, both ways, but mercifully not barefoot. Today though RantWoman is just collecting traffic safety related observations. RantWoman actually was surprised how long she was called to stay put. In that time, some traffic highlights.

The left side of the picture is a hill with sidewalks, public right of way, on both sides of the street. While RantWoman was present, there was only one really bad episodeof peds coming up hill not on sidewalk and at high risk of getting hit by cars coming around the corner. The episode was worse than average. The person not only walked at a diagonal on the upper part of the walk where cars sometimes come around the corner too fast to see random pedestrians, the person also walked a diagonal on the lower part of the road before the turn. Bad Friend sentiment: "Okay, go ahead! Delete yourself from the gene pool if you must, but please try not to do it when RantWoman is around." Worse Friend sentiment: the "I pray for you" list is NOT where you want to be!"

Not everyone can walk and shamelessly, frighteningly jaywalk. Some people need to load into cars. This works as well as RantWoman expects when the vehicle being loaded is facing S so that the passenger side of the car is toward the Meetinghouse. But RantWoman observed more than one car parked facing NB will trying to load passengers with the passenger side out in the street, not along the curb. This makes RantWoman nervous about risk of the passenger, frequently someone with a cane or walker, getting hit by something coming up the hill or around the corner behind the vantage point of this photo. RantWoman supposes since she observed this exact concern for a yellow cab ride a couple weeks ago, that RantWoman could at least call the cab company and suggest that their drivers not do that anymore.

One large ladder fire truck was barely able to turn R to go NB on 9th. RantWoman is simply noting the observation without further comment for now.

Ministry of staying put: it was a GORGEOUS day. RantWoman sat out so long she is a little afraid of a sunburn. RantWoman finds herself probably inappropriately capable of coming up with REALLY BAD IDEAS to address some sentiments on her mind. Today though when RantWoman prayed about whether to stay put or move, (RantWoman is not specifying where in case the thought of visibility becomes more urgent another time.) the message came back: stay put. The sunbathing is better here and there is more to muddle out of the praying.

Enough for now.

In Light and Faithfulness.

RantWoman