How To Win An Argument Without Making Enemies

Look, if RantWoman had this down, this blog would not need to exist!

John K Samson - Plea From A Cat Named Virtue

Perhaps By the time RantWoman allows this to post, she will have more fully fleshed out the ministries of cats, and the threads about rest on RantWoman's journey onward after the 2021 FWCC / CMCA Section of the Americas virtual session.

The main point: yet another of RantWoman's exclamations of gratitude that modern Quakers have figured out that music nurtures both the light within and living people sharing lives together.

This particular meditation on music comes via the term "Recording Clerk" although Wikipedia, the only biographical resource RantWoman has consulted has nothing to say about Quaker Connections.

Words from a separate Meeting for worship about turning an old admonishment "Don't just sit there. Do something" on its head in Quaker expectant waiting terms: "Don't just do something sit there." RantWoman's official household Twitter coach, the Queen of Spades is definitely all over the idea of "just sit there."

John K Samson Millenium for All

John K Samson A Cat Named Virtue

The Weakerthans A cat named Virtue

John K Samson Interview by Nick Mount

John K. Samson Wikipedia Listing 

RantWoman posts for purposes of connection, but with other language nerd notes mainly about the nuances of  US vs Canadian dialects.

Mark your calendars; Sign up early Social Justice Fund Fundshifting Workshops

 RantWoman should just shut up and post announcements for really cool events. However, this is RantWoman and as long as phone and certain obvious email lists continue to be unavailable to RantWoman, RantWoman is going to permit herself a tirade. The tirade can be found at the bottom of this post. Readers should expect to have to scroll past the initial announcements.

But please, don't let RantWoman's need to have a tirade get in the way of a really great way to engage, copied verbatime from an email.

Hello Fundshifting Friends: We have two new activities to share with you:

• Giving Plan Thinking: A Social (Justice) Happy Hour--Thursday, April 15th; 5:30-7:00 pm: If you've already participated in an Anti-Racist Giving Workshop, this event is for you! We'll reflect on the successes and challenges of our current giving plans, spend time together updating or completing them, share resources and ideas, and discuss new opportunities for being involved in fundshifting work. To register: go to Giving Plan Thinking     

• Anti-Racist Giving Workshop--Thursday, March 25th; 5:30-8:00 pm: If you haven't participated in a workshop yet, this is your chance!  In this workshop we will come together to answer the following questions: How do we decide when, where and how much to give? How do our social and racial identities shape our relationships with money and giving?  What does it look like to center the giving of money as part of our anti-racist practice? SJF (Social Justice Fund) and CARW (Coalition of Anti-Racist Whites) have teamed up to present this interactive workshop where we will dig into these questions and begin to build our personal social justice giving plans. To register: Anti Racist Giving
• 
  

Please share the Workshop flyer with family, friends, and colleagues. And we hope to see you at one of these events.

Liz, on behalf of CARW

CARW = Coalition of Antiracist Whites. Look them up on facebook.

RantWoman's tirade in teh form of queries, SOMEWHAT more subdued than the whirlwind initially blowing up in RantWoman's head:

--Do I have to believe in #AbolishThePolice to find constructive ways to demonstrate that #BlackLivesMatter to me? Look, RantWoman thinks #AbolishThePolice is a good conversation to have steadfastly, but things like the abolition of slavery and women's suffrage both took a lot of talking about to get done.

--Do I need help from something like a resource fair to connect with this or other valuable local projects?

Interest Group on Disability because there needed to be one

 

 

Interest Group Outline

FWCC Section of the Americas Virtual Session March 19, 2021

Descapacidad, Diferencia, y dificultades  en comunidades espirituales

Disability, Difference, Difficulty and Spiritual Communities

Jeff Keith and Dorene Cornwell

 

Welcome and a few minutes of worship

 

Intros

Name, where you are from 

Choose at least one of:

Pronouns

          What you are wearing

          Who else is with you: Pet? Roommate? Service animal including service python? Elijah?

          Any access needs

          A Fun Fact about you, maybe disability-related

          Something you hope to take away from this interest group

 

Discapacidad, diferencia, dificultad y comunidades espirituales. Este grupo explorará los temas del título reflexionando sobre las siguientes interrogantes: 

Milagros - ¿Qué son? ¿Existen?

Cuando hablamos de discapacidades y dones, ¿a qué nos referimos?

 

Disability, Difference, Difficulty and Spiritual Communities. This group will explore the themes in the title reflecting on the following queries: Miracles? Are they a thing? Are they not a thing?

When we talk about disabilities and gifts, what do we mean?

Closing worship     

Miscellaneous notes

Zoom and flow of Interest group.

If you have video, please turn it on while speaking

Please use Raise hand which is *9 on phone

Please be sparing about chat to everyone.

Suggesting resources is cool

If there is someone who can only use the chat, listen.

Brave Space / Confidentiality / Narrative Theology

Dorene’s Access needs:

           Pay attention to others’ access needs. For example,

People who lip-read can leave Zoom in active speaker mode.

           Please remember to turn video on before speaking if possible.

I cannot see faces very well especially in Gallery View. So let’s all watch for each other and help hold moments of distress.

 Screen share visual accessibility is very limited for me so I always like or files shared in the chat.

I am unlikely to use screen share myself. I use 4x screen magnification which I can turn down if needed. However, even at 2x, me moving around on the screen can give other people vertigo. But I am happy to email people before or after with what I have presented. 

Why do I ask what people are wearing?

I have been going to a series of webinars c

alled CripCamp. Crip Camp is about the intersection of disability and BIPoC issues. All sessions have both ASL interpretation and a live transcript. They now use a model for chat of write in questions, someone reads and then presenters answer.

            I have discovered that one of the most fun things about the panel intros at the beginning of the session is when people describe what they are wearing. So as another way to connect, let’s try it. I only want to know that you are zooming in your sleepwear if there is something really interesting about your sleepwear.

 

How it came about.

 When RantWoman registered for this year's section meeting, she indicated that she was interested in doing an interest group on disability. Initial followup noted that some topics had more than one person offering. RantWoman wrote to inquire and was put in touch.... 

When in touch, RantWoman and ... both admitted we had no idea what we were supposed to do but that we were clear that an interest group was needed. Four phone calls later spaced over several days, the first part of the outline above emerged. 

The miracles question is partly related to a passage in Acts about Peter healing someone who had asked him for money. Among topics that came up in planningL what if one prays for a miracle and the requested miracle does not happen. RantWoman also would have tried to comb out threads about miracles in interpersonal form. In the event, miracles did not really come up.

The second part of the outline is RantWoman recycling snark. It was not shared except  with...

The actual event:

RantWoman would not actually say Friends got too far past introductions. But that meant safe space to talk in real terms about different experiences and things Friends came to the group with.

RantWoman likes a question she remembers as something about barriers. Truthfully, probably no one can ever remove all barriers. The point is more to have different ways to do things, to recognize that two people with the same issue may very different ways of dealing with it. Continuing revelation and openness to new approaches also seem relevant.

Translation / interpretation was a group effort. RantWoman is self-absorbed and only looked up "desprendimiento de la retina."

One additional language note: capacidades diferentes came up; RantWoman much prefers diversas capacidades which also came up.

RantWoman hopes others also felt the event was well held. RantWoman felt well used.

Go the f**k to sleep, read by Samuel L Jackson

Peculiar child-reading reflections

 

Go the F To Sleep as read by Samuel Jackson

Yes, RantWoman is making readers with delicate linguistic sensibilities do an actual click to interact with the video.

And no readers do not have to wander too far into a digression about whehter "click" is ableist because it excludes people who can't click. People who can't click have all kinds of technological options for translating "click" into something they can do. RantWoman invites Friends curious about such to leave a comment and RantWoman can respond either in private or for public consumption.

But back to the content of the video: RantWoman honors every parent who is exasperated as the parent here. RantWoman especially honors self-awareness in interplay described in a radio interview between a daughter who jokes back to her father along the same lines.

The RantParents never ever would have used such language. Their alternative was probably more unfortunate, only one of the family threads that regularly gets recycled in RantWoman's spiritual compost heap.

T Vail Palmer Remembered

 Settle DOWN RantWoman. You absolutely are entitled to full-blown rant about things to do with memorials. Just for     now, try to let Vail's presence rub off on you. 'kay? And MAYBE let loose a leading it is perfectly reasonable to wish would land on the right person.

RantWoman has never met T. Vail Palmer. RantWoman only knows him through people he mentored. Usually one only goes to memorials if one knows the deceased or wants to offer specific support to someone close; a time or two RantWoman has gone to a memorial out of a sense of protocol. This time RantWoman had a clear leading to go.

RantWoman jotted down a few impressions.

RantWoman appreciated the music chosen, everything from "There's a wideness in God's Mercy" to something of Bach.

There were a number of remembrances from family. These made it clear both that Vail has a wonderful family and that they havea rich history. RantWoman did not note details beyond that.

RantWoman is touched by one remembrance, something like "he was very gentle, but he knew you would want it to be correct." RantWoman is going to TRY to live up to both sides of that standard whenever her badly calibrated Idiot detector goes off. 

RantWoman always enjoys knowing memorial nods from family members. There were several even RantWoman could see in Zoom

One Friend recalled a belief in "the ministry of all whether recorded or not."

One Friend invoked the Martin Buber quote "not I it but I thou."

One person spoke of how Vail's grandfather loved Ministry and Counsel meetings because he had a bent toward philosophizing

Vail pointed out that Marx 12 times in Das Kapital referenced John Ellers late 17th century Congress of Industry. Vail recognized Christian roots in socialist ideas.

Vail every year read an MLK speech in Albany; he believed in putting out true things. Friends noted that he was an awesome reader and the Lutheran Church recognized this.

Vail had a profound need for meeting for worship. Before the pandemic Friends who helped him get to worship began to have concerns because of his frailty and need for a walker.  The last time one Friend saw him they had a conversation because maybe Friends should not be bringing him out in the pandemic.

Vail's comment, as reported at the memorial: "I can accept the wisdom of that and you'll come for me when it's over."

The Friend continued. "Vail did not believe in hell and was agnostic about heaven, I hope he was pleasantly surprised and is in Meeting for Worship."

Memorial photo album

Personal preparation for the FWCC Section of the Americas Virtual Session. Here. There. on Video

RantWoman here compiles some video moments as part of her preparation for the 2021 virtual FWCC Section of the Americas Session.

From the planning committee materials

1. A lovely concise video about how to work with an interpreter.

2. A highly visual exercise full of noodly music. There is a map of the Americas with each country, whether they speak English (Here) or Spanish (Aqui) along with the number of Quakers in each country. RantWoman figured this out grudgingly because there is nothing audible to describe the content of the video for people who don't see well.    

Noodly music and no audio description

On RantWoman's Own Initiative

And because RantWoman will Zoom host a couple social times, and because RantWoman needed to refresh her own vocabulary and speak to her needs, but with apologies if the posting makes the planning committee feel unappreciated.

1. Here are two Zoom in Spanish videos that might be useful both for
some Spanish speakers and for people like me who can benefit from
topical vocabulary reinforcement.

About 16 minutes, has a couple things a really basic user may find overwhelming
Tutorial paso a paso de como usar Zoom
Como usar Zoom Poco a Poco

Como Usar Zoom Poco a Poco

Starts out pretty basic and instructions for joining meeting are very
early in the video
37 minutes and aiming at Zoom hosting.
Totorial Paso a Paso de como usar Zoom

2. Both of the videos have things that a very beginning user probably
will not care about but I like to things better than the item in
today's bulletin:

--The Zoom is in Spanish. I assume when people download Zoom in a
Spanish speaking country that they probably get the Spanish version
without having to do anything different.

--The screen shots are much easier to read. The video sent out today
is probably spot on for Spanish speakers in the US but I could not
read the text in the screen shots at all even with magnification.

And Gather Town

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