States of Meeting: the world does NOT fall apart when....

Why editorialize about only one State of Society Report when one is up close and personal with the genesis of two. (Accessibility note: the final versions have not been posted anywhere yet so RantWoman promises links and diatribes later.

Meeting number 1: Salmon Bay Friends.

There are several people at Salmon Bay who have become dear to RantWoman. RantWoman wants to honor gifts and TRY not to throw fits. Still:

--There are a number of Friends connected with Salmon Bay, including the current clerk, who are working hard pursuing various kinds of education. Maybe RantWoman should have been more insistent. RantWoman so wanted the report to say something along the lines of "We see you. We are glad you are here. We are rooting for you even when we can't see more of you."

--Zoom autocaptioning is not equipped for the joys of baby chatter during worship.

--Speaking of seeing, RantWoman NEVER has problems with vision metaphors, well probably almost never. On the other hand, RantWoman is intrigued by mention of the figure in Alice and Wonderland who seemed to alternate between seeing things very large and very small. Apparently, there is some evidence that this is a real neurological phenomenon. It did not even occur to RantWoman to put this into the State of society even though this perception pattern is an apt metaphor for many things.

--Speaking of gun violence, any number greater than 0 of shootings in or near schools is too many. RantWoman reads police Twitter feeds to know that shootings occur depressingly often, mercifully not every week but too often near particular schools. This year there was a shooting at a school not on RantWoman's usual list. A young Friend, as well as the daughter of another couple RantWoman knows go to that school. One possible mark of being a cool Quaker parent--or at least a self-employed work at home parent is when one's child's friends all list that parent as an emergency number.

--RantWoman cannot figure out what to say about ups and downs of disability matters. Assume there is candor, holding in the Light and that there are ups and downs.

Meeting number 2. South Seattle Friends.

RantWoman sort of stumbled into teaming up with a very weighty Friend. Two different sets of queries went out to the meeting email list. Wonderful replies came back, telling many meaningful stories. RantWoman and CoAuthor Friend quickly agreed that we did not feel like trying to boil the life out of anything trying to shorten the offerings. We further agreed that state of society reports are now mainly distributed electronically so we figured the process can cope with a longer than average offering. Many people greeted this with enthusiasm even when RantWoman also added a number of blind-person specific accessibility notes. See. See world. The planet does NOT stop when there is actual space for such things.

--RantWoman did not sign up for a lifetime gig so probably the report and go back to its more usual customary length.

RantWoman has more to say about the subject of disability. Suffice it to say, there is more to say about plenty of room for improvement even though the topic assuredly has not made the world blow up in two meetings.