Sustainability. Conference calls. Well-done eldering and interpretation.

RantWoman affirms upfront: she has a versatile God who gets things done all kinds of ways. RantWoman forgot to send out any last-minute reminder about Fourth Saturday Worship. Maybe because of that, the two people who got up and walked out of the room last month when a Time to Pray moment came up were absent this month. Instead RantWoman and someone else who uses bus travel time sometimes for time to pray moments to offer prayers on behalf of others worshipped well among the white noise of library HVAC mixed with exterior traffic. And RantWoman got to hear about the FWCC webinar about sustainability.

Things like that webinar are a very big reason RantWoman has not run away screaming from Quakerdom and instead wants to encourage others: Keep things in perspective but this is something COOL and worth spending time on.

RantWoman enthusiastically commends and recommends use of the many resources on Quakers and Sustainability found at FWCC Sustainability Conference 2020

RantWoman received the sign-up link for the recent Sustanability webinar but did not get around to signing up until after sign-ups were closed. RantWoman would be interested in participating in the call but going to the location where a group gathered was unfeasible due to the rest of RantWoman's schedule.

RantWoman particularly wants to commend:

--Meeting by conference call!!!!!!

    RantWoman understands there were 93 people or clumps of people represented on the call. Think of the carbon footprint involved in getting that many people together in person. Think how much fossil fuel one webinar saves!

   RantWoman understands that Zoom, the app used has video options. RantWoman has used other tools with video and can take or leave video. RantWoman feels blessed to be listened to about how she finds conference calls lovely because everyone is on the same footing visually.

    RantWoman also honors a voice saying "I am not entirely comfortable yet with this medium."

    Please hold RantWoman and those around her in the Light because RantWoman is still far too frequently called to pop off over one younger car driving Friend who insisted FOR A WHOLE YEAR that a needed meeting MUST occur in person and that it was just not possible to just try to do the best one can by conference call--or maybe more than one call in the same time spent dithering over scheduling and location and who was to be present. There is that part about forgiving 70 x 7 times but forgetting is a different problem.

   RantWoman is even going to indulge in carbon footprint crankiness regarding local travel: traffic congestion is so bad that in Seattle at some times of the day, adding even one more car to the roads ups greenhouse gas emissions for everyone travelling in the same corridor. RantWoman acknowledges that this point of view is a little bit fanatical and does not necessarily take into account travel necessities for some families.

   Right, and RantWoman gets to trust God about when it will be appropriate to blurt out data about RantFamily vehicles and times when in RantWoman's youth when everyone just walked, to the grocery store and the swimming pool, to church...

--The clerking and the process of sequential interpreting received VERY high marks.

--RantWoman appreciates that Friends on the call voiced sentiments RantWoman would have expressed, for instance about privilege, sustainability, and people who live well on MUCH less than most Friends in N America--INCLUDING RantWoman--take for granted.

--Friend who was on the call also remarked on a message about Genesis: RantWoman heard the comment as the Garden of Eden as perfection and humans, not just Eve, messed it up.

--RantWoman does not know what came up on the call about sharing thespecific experiences of different Friends' communities related to climate change and sustainability. The wildfires in Australia are one example. A minute RantWoman's Meeting wrote linking the starving orcas in the Puget Sound  to the need to adapt to all the different changes in transportation around our Meeting is another example. Most of all, RantWoman supposes, as a need not to be paralyzed by thoughts of "oh, it's too late" and instead to remain faithful, to trust that each of us, each of our communities have something to offer to support sustainability for all of us.