So there I wasn't

So there I wasn’t

 RantWoman is around a couple people who complain they do not have time to pray. RantWoman is fond of telling such people that if they do not have tie to pray, perhaps they just have not spent enough time on the bus. RantWoman has ridden the bus in many cities, a few world capitals. RantWoman has ridden with live chickens and pet ferrets. As far as RantWoman knows no heffalumps and woozles.  RantWoman LOVES the bus. Regardless, it is ALWAYS time to pray on the bus.

 Friday, RantWoman had made her weekly trek to a mailbox near an old address and was happily headed back south on the E line chatting on the phone with RantMom

 “…Mom, we’re already past the Aurora Bridge. I will be downtown in a few minutes…”

 

Off the bus, walk a block to make a transfer in front of Benaroya. No performance means no concert crowd and no classical muzak at the bus stop. Never mind. RantWoman, a woman on a mission systematically to keep riding bus route segments currently on the possible chopping block, passes up the bus that merely goes near her house and waited for the one that goes straight to her door.

 

Silly RantWoman.

 

That means there were 3 hospitals and 2 “institutes for the legally challenged” between RantWoman and home. After RantWoman boarded, the bus was SRO past the second hospital. The number of personalities on board seemed approximately equal to the number of bodies; sometimes this cannot be assumed. Some of the personalities had enormous volumes of belongings though. RantWoman and Ambassador Thwack the White cane still managed to maneuver into a seat, and even a seat facing forward. Be grateful. Be very grateful.

 

It was the beginning of the month so people with substance abuse issues have money to buy their substances. Beer does not really improve bus legs,  a combination of balance, strap grip strength, and ability strategically to collapse one’s body temporarily into unoccupied space. Bus legs, among other things, keep standing passengers from falling into every lap the twists and turns of bus travel might direct them to. Okay, time to pray.

 

Also time to wriggle one’s hand to Smartphone. Twitter to text messages from@seattlePD: bus passenger grazed by bullet on bus route RantWoan had recently transferred off of. Far north of downtown. Sheesh. More gunfire. Say a prayer. The text said only “grazed.” Wish they were just talking about cows. Say another prayer anyway.

 

RantWoman realized from overhearing lots of conversations that she was riding with vast floods of information about lived homelessness. RantWoman was not necessarily grateful to swim in all those currents. Say another prayer. Be glad only to have one’s own problems. Say another prayer on that account. The women with enormous amounts of luggage were headed for a shelter. Eventually they decamped and the bus rounded one of its last turns to RantWoman’s home.

 

Ring, buzz.

 

Smartphone announced someone on RantWoman’s lists both of angelic troublemakers and night owls. Words passed of “due diligence” and “quality assurance” and standing to complain and the RantWoman had to disembark.

 

Home.  Cat fed. Purchases stowed. Email open. RantWoman either furiously pouring forth words or dozing. L A Theater works on radio. Play about autism and parenting. Striking.

 

Ring. Buzz.

 

Smartphone announced RantMom. It was late. RantMom should have been asleep and better yet in bed too. Suck in breath. Okay who is going to the ER?

 

RantMom: “…watching the news. Are you all right?”

 

RantWoman: “…I am fine Mom. I wasn’t there…I love you (I am so relieved no one from our family is headed to the ER) Big hugs. Sleep well.” RantWoman did not mention all the luggage or besotted riders. Just “I love you.”

 

Quaker Worship Pt 1: The Challenge of Sitting in Silence

Another silent worship link from Johann Maurer at Can You Believe?
http://johanpdx.blogspot.com/2014/09/silent-worship-i-wouldnt-last-five.html
RantWoman would prefer to mash this all up with a video by Mike Huber from West Hills Friends Church about the difference between safety and comfort. The video is posted in the Freedom Friends Church group on Facebook and RantWoman, who is not as sophisticated as she might like to pretend about matters media cannot figure out a way to link to it here. But if that is the worst thing RantWoman has to grumble about...

Boris Grebenshchikov: Heaven is getting closer

Аквариум. Небо Становится Ближе (ВДНХ_020814)

RantWoman is hereby invoking Russian rocker Boris Grebenshchikov and taking a break from:

--Everything in the news to do with Putin, Ukraine, bombed out cities, NATO summit ... including more sanctions

--Gratuitous fretting on behalf of Sometime to be Ex Ferrener Husband headed for a visit to his mother just n time for RantWoman to fret about whether banking sanctions will have any impact on his trip, as well as the usual reasons to fret about Ferrener Husband and current Russian socio-cultural environment.

Anyway, cue the music





For a sampling of bio:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Grebenshchikov

Friends Journal Author Chat with Chuck Fager on Progressive Friends

RantWoman has the two books mentioned here on her mean-to-read list. RantWoman wishes this meant that she has also noted the titles, but no. RantWoman will just have to listen to the video to refresh her memory.

Points from the interview that stick in RantWoman's mind:
--Read the Bible. It shapes lots of people's thinking. There are powerful stories there. Knowing the stories is useful when talking to / laboring with others.

--RantWoman digression: RantWoman gets annoyed with Quakers, even wise and weighty Quakers like Fager talk as if history and theology began in the 1600's with George Fox. RantWoman still means to read the book but needs to whine and sit with this problem anyway.

--"You want to be a Quaker elder? Just keep breathing." Fager is openly skeptical of anything that smacks ofcorrupting power structure but at least recognizes the value of informal circles of accountability as long as the titles are not enshrined in some mantle of untouchability. RantWoman particularly notes a different conception of elder that definitely encourages the involvement of younger people and attention to process, holding work in prayer, listening to things a minister might not hear. But RantWoman again digresses. Sigh.

Fager notes that the most progressive and reformist Quakers have often been minorities within their own Meetings. RantWoman is relieved actually to recognize this. As the band of Quakers in her Meetng have meandered through John Woolman's journal, RantWoman herself has been channeling two contradictory streams of thought. On one hand, RantWoman keeps saying she would like to read journals by Friends who write things like "We had another visit from that tiresome scold John Woolman." On the other hand, RantWoman's spiritual center really does seem to reside in seeing beyond the edges of current reality. And no, HOPEFULLY that is not just the natural fuzz in RantWoan's eyeballs.

RantWoman is sobered by reminders that part of the point actually of Quaker community is that people understand the call of the Divine and movements of Spirit differently.  And RantWoman does mean to read the books!




For people who like to scream through text with a screen reader rather than listen at reasonably human speeds there is a Friends Journal page with the text of the conversation. If RantWoman finds it easily it will show up here; if not readers can use their search engines as well as RantWoman can.

Further digression about interacting with the text. RantWoman thinks closed captioning is cool. Ferrener Husband learned a whole lot of English from closed captioning. But RantWoman is impatient and uncentering and sometimes just scream through text with a screen reader. This might or might not mean RantWoman finds what she is looking for, particularly if she does not have a specific search string. But it gives RantWoman the illusion of speed. Sigh.

How To Tell Someone They Sound Racist

Something real but gentle to represent when trying to live past #ferguson :




A link with more resources
http://rootsofjusticetraining.org/2014/08/29/when-there-is-no-peace-where-are-the-saints/


Some other links that speak to RantWoman's condition
http://forusa.org/features/nonviolent-protest-accountability-ferguson/13015

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/08/18/1322691/-The-Seamy-Underbelly-Of-Ferguson-Starts-To-Appear?detail=email#



http://secondcitynetwork.com/discussing-race-racism-black-friends-dos-donts/

NPYM 2014 Annual Session Epistle

RantWoman can you EVER just receive an epistle or a state of society report or... without some overpowering need to opine, expound, mouth off, fulminate, roil the waters?

In a word, NO, but here to get the juices flowing is the official epistle of the 2014 NPYM Annual Session. RantWoman thinks the epistle definitely deserves its own post and promises to opine separately, and possibly more than once.


North Pacific Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends
Annual Session 2014 Epistle

To Friends everywhere,

Throughout this annual session at Pacific University in Forest Grove, OR, we sat in silence with each other, spoke honestly, and allowed ourselves to be open and vulnerable.

Our Friends in Residence, Ken and Katharine Jacobsen, presented the theme, “Transformative Power of Spirit in Community: Finding Light in the Yearly Meeting.”
They shared their fears that illness would prevent them from serving us in the way they had originally intended. Accepting the disappointments of life teaches us humility. After speaking about trusting the two-way motion of love, Katharine asked us to release our expectations for Annual Session. We were reminded that we gather to re-consecrate ourselves so that nothing gets left out of the healing work of the Divine. We put effort into making sure our business was spirit-led by pausing frequently for worship.

The high-school age and young adult Friends led a plenary session in which they demonstrated comfort with a measured pace of speaking and silence when responding to the query: What is the Spirit asking us to do? Some spoke of treasuring their community and feeling safe to speakabout their faith. Others shared concerns about the health and future of the Yearly Meeting.They invited older Friends to join them in deep conversation.

Many of us were inspired by FCNL’s example of how the Spirit leads people to action. Rather than feeling helpless in the world, we were called to find our voice as part of our witness. We approved a minute urging repeal of the Authorization for Use of Military Force.

During our last annual session, we made a commitment to the children of the Yearly Meeting to hire a paid children’s program coordinator for Annual Session. Having the coordinator has allowed the children’s leaders to focus on the children and activities rather than administration. He has also been reaching out to the monthly meetings to find children’s program leaders and nurturing the connection between Annual Session and the children. Youth committee is now freer to work with the monthly meetings on developing children’s programs and sharing information.

We have struggled the last few years in engaging all of the monthly meetings, preparative meetings, and worship groups in the business of the Yearly Meeting. Some of these meetings have reported being overwhelmed by the amount of input requested from Yearly Meeting. This had become a burden. However, at a recent gathering of the committee that coordinates the work of Yearly Meeting, there was an unexpected rise in energy. We made a change in structure that invites participation rather than requiring it, hoping that more voices will be heard. At the same time, all of us are exploring ways to keep connections open.

We are still wrestling with the tension between approaching our business worshipfully and having enough time for all of our business. We approved a minute urging repeal of the Authorization for Use of Military Force.

At the heart of our annual session is our worship. Ken Jacobsen asked that we come together to remember that we are a part of something greater than ourselves. We are to release ourselves from our words and stories. Then we can return home to the wordless mystery of God. This is followed by receiving messages, invitations to participate in creation. Finally, we are called to respond fully to the motion of love. What is love asking of us today?

On behalf of North Pacific (Yearly Meeting) Friends,
Tom Rawson
Presiding Clerk

Jesus Is My Friend by Sonseed

RantWoman is FAR too much of a Bad Friend just to leave this treasure safely contained in the Association of Bad Friends group on Facebook. Instead RantWoman hereby drags the connection over to her very own blog. '

Nuff said?