Quaker Meeting House History Chester County

This item has SO MANY misconceptions and misstatements and confusions and deviations from other known history that one hardly knows where to start.

Reddit discussion on quakers, anger, finding that of God within

Interested in being a Quaker but have trouble with religion: a reddit discussion.

http://www.reddit.com/r/Quakers/comments/2mla0y/interested_in_being_a_quaker_but_have_trouble/


Various threads of gratitudes:
--lovely play of themes about worship and centering and anger and inner Light

--more conventional evangelical get saved stuff later on in the comments.

--better success with reddit and JAWS athan I previously remember. Probably partly a JAWS version issue.

‘The Daily Show’ Has White People Explain Why Latinos Are So Damn Terrif...

RantWoman is not ashamed to admit she sometimes consumes material that is both appalling and tasteless.

Tacoma gratitudes

RantWoman is falling down on her resolve to exude more gratitudes. This is a problem among other things because RantWoman has a sense of needing a giant chill pill. RantWoman has a sense of needing... Will she achieve...?

Anyway, travel gratitudes:

"...I went to Thailand."

"...I went to Hyderabad..."

"...I went to Arizona..."

RantWoman:  I went to Tacoma!

RantWoman is DEEPLY grateful for the ministry of guest bedroom and car rides supplied by a combination of Tacoma Friends. Aside from the immediate help needed so RantWoman could participate in the annual convention of the WA Council of the Blind, the ministry of guest room and car rides comes with the opportunity to get to knowFriends RantWoman has been in meetings with but does not  know well. RantWoman is VERY grateful.

One of RantWoman's tasks was to hold a live meeting of the committee she chairs. It is a committee full of people who are as intense, passionate, annoying / difficult as RantWoman. It was a great meeting, but can Friends imagine why RantWoman might have ducked away for a light supper alone.

RantWoman's menu as recommended by the bartender: basically tater tots and bacon. Really good bacon. Two kinds of sauce.Some fancy hotel bar name. Washed down with a brand name combination of sugar, caffeine and fizz. Fuel for revolution or at least quest for a specific flavor of world domination? Stay tuned. But next time RantWoman will press for details before ordering.

RantWoman means to pen a separate message about Business Meeting while Blind. Think Pledge of Allegiance. Think young missionary voluntters to help lead people around. Think moments of total sonic free-for-all. But Business Meeting happened.

After the convention RantWoman stayed and went to worship at Tacoma Friends. RantWoman came in rattled. There are lovely plants. There is worshipful space. RantWoman came in debating whether to introduce Ambassador Thwack the badly behaved white cane, whether to mention other canes, Myrtle and Ethel, and Sugar Cane and candy Cane. The first message to rantWoman: just put all that STUFF down and LISTEN.

RantWoman was deeply grateful just to worship. RantWoman was also grateful, during close of worship, to be given words of prayer about the election, the time between election and new legislative sessions, and the work of Friends Committee on WA Public Policy. RantWoman was heard; news of this came with a request duly fulfilled to put some version of RantWoman's thoughts in the newsletter. Flattery will get you everywhere.

Then, after two days of hotel food, RantWoman wrapped up the weekend with a rtruly awesome Quaker potluck: two kinds of vegetarian stew, various other items, oh and leftover Halloween candy in honor of all things meandering between worlds.

Harvard Business School Item on Listening, Clearness Committees

RantWoman is always deeply amused when quaker practices spill over into and get interpreted by domains such as the Harvard Business Review. To wit:

https://hbr.org/2014/11/an-exercise-to-become-a-more-powerful-listener/?utm_source=Socialflow&utm_medium=Tweet&utm_campaign=Socialflow

Service dog guidance, AGAIN

Dear Friend Whose Title RantWoman Generally Omits:

Recently RantWoman had a conversation with you where the subject of service dogs came up in passing. RantWoman KNOWS there are people with dog allergies. RantWoman would happily also skip many doggie behavior concerns, not to mention some dog owner behavior concerns! Nevertheless RantWoman suggests you consult with the NW ADA Center current guidance about Service Dogs:
:
http://nwadacenter.org/factsheet/service-animals-frequently-asked-questions

In particular, although the service dog we observed does have identification,  a service dog may or may not have any specific identification. It may or may not work on leash. We are a public accommodation and we cannot ask about any ID. We CAN, according to this guidance as what command(s) the animal is trained to perform. We can also always ask anyone with a dog in public to address behavior issues.

Here there are two forks in the road of this post: a parallel, single standard of Truth item addressed to a volunteer at the Friendly Neighborhood Center for Extreme Computing  I know you have a schizophrenic brother and are tired and worn down from that. Nevertheless we are a public accommodation and we do not get to ask people about their Mental health issues. However, we CAN try to partner with a neighboring organization, get some TRAINING, and develop capacity that would benefit you AND others.

Interestingly, since it is the Friendly Neighborhood Center..., people sometimes tell us things they most definitely are not required to tell us. Recently a customer walked into the computer lab and announced to no one in particular that she sometimes has problems with her mood. RantWoman's thought: thank you , I guess for telling us. Customer is from East Africa; judging by her accent and high level English, she might have attended British schools. On the way to Meeting RantWoman rant into Customer at the bus stop. Customer was definitely having trouble with her mood.

Customer encountered others who spoke her language. The encounter did not sound friendly. RantWoman tried to speak to Customer; that will have to wait until Customer comes to her better self. Maybe an opportunity will arise for Information and Referral. Meanwhile, RantWoman will hold in the Light.

OR, the other fork in the narrative: RantWoman will be happy to howl self-righteously about Wonder Chihuahua the Therapeutic Canine Presence at Little Sister's Household. RantWoman has already commented in as much length as led about animals inside Little Sister's household. One additional detail: Wonder Chihuahua has his humans trained that he should not be left unattended even in a proper dog crate. Thus Wonder Chihuahua goes out in public whenever all his humans are out.
The other possibly topical detail: Wonder Chihuahua has received some uneven obedience training, in Spanish. RantWoman quaintly thinks a proper service dog should, at a minimum, not flunk Basic Obedience as often as Wonder Chihuahua. Should Wonder Chihuahua ever show up at Meeting, despite RantWoman's best efforts,  RantWoman invites anyone who speaks enough Spanish to notice the Basic Obedience issue to feel free to address it with Little Sister! Sigh!

Holy Crap, in three acts

Dear, God, thank you ever so much for recent HOLY CRAP moments in the churnings of RantWoman's spiritual compost heap!

Please, everyone within range of RantWoman's Inner Blowtorch and capacity for scorching phrasing, please, please, please hold this entire post in the Light.

Act 1
A long time ago when RantWoman was serving her Yearly Meeting in some capacity she does not remember, RantWoman was part of a conversation about sending a couple Friends from her Yearly Meeting away to study at the feet of Weighty Friend from Far Off Philadelphia.
RantWoman is pretty sure she is the one who pointed out that airfares are basically the same East to West as West to East and back, but that more people from her Yearly Meeting would benefit if the mountain came to Mohammed, the masses of simple Quakers who might benefit from instruction rather than sending a trickle of people east. RantWoman's comment resulted in Weighty Friend From Far Off Philadelphia coming west and doing a special session on clerking for many Friends from her Yearly Meeting.

Weighty Friend from Far Off Philadelphia came west but RantWoman for some reason wound up not among those included in his session. So for better or worse, RantWoman is unencumbered by direct learning from said Friend. Said Friend was also unencumberd by the opportunity to learn of blind person in Meetings issues. RantWoman is unsure she herself was even trying to address blind person in meetings issues yet, possibly because this was while RantWoman was pretending things were fine, just fine, really until the gift of labelling. Sigh. RantWoman notes this tartly because at some point later in her particular version of Quakerism the melodrama, RantWoman was engaged in dialogue with Weighty Friends who teach clerking about exactly her own experience.

Weighty Friend # 1 suggested that RantWoman ask Weighty Friend from Far Off Philadelphia about his experience with blind people in meetings. RantWoman duly emailed him. He emailed back that to his knowledge he had never dealt with blind person in meetings issues. ONLY THEN were weighty Friends locally ready to engage directly with RantWoman's experience.

Act 2.
...I don't like it (sudoku)...feels like we're held hostage...
Hostage. Hostage. Hostage. Did you not read RantWoman's latest Women's Theology conference reflections,  say something about dragging others along on a journey they would not necessarily choose either http://rantwomanrsof.blogspot.com/2014/05/reflection-paper-redacted-with-glimpse.html?

Act 3.
RantWoman woke up at 4 am one year during Annual Session stunniingly, resoundly clear to persist in dealing with blind person in Meetings issues.
But another circumstance intervened.
RantWoman why did you spend so much time on....?
You, Friend, should be grateful that Friend's help deal with it NOW concerns took precedence over scorching the airwaves with fury.

RantWoman why did you spend so much time on...?
RantWoman actually did not spend a lot of time. RantWoman looked from time to time. RantWoman noticed things. RantWoman sent email. RantWoman noted a couple moments where, if there had been no return email, RantWoman would have taken other steps. There are MANY other pieces RantWoman is clear NOT to spell out.
 
RantWoman why did you spend so much time on,....?
Here RantWoman's inner Data aggregator kicked in around her meeting.
--Parent of special needs child.
--Parent of special needs child.
--Parent of special needs child?
--Parent of special needs child?

Holy crap. The number is not as large as when RantWoman did a mental census of people around her Meeting with severe vision issues, but there are things to hold.

Okay, God, NOW WHAT?