Planet Quaker

I didn't used to like the phrase "hold in the Light."

I used to think it was a cop-out, a politically correct way to say "pray for" without upsetting Friends who were resistant to the "Christ Talk" used by some (of us) other Friends.

When someone said "Is there anyone to be held in the Light?" I would say, when I thought there was, that I would like Friends to pray for so-and-so, or for me.

But you learn, you grow.

I came to think of holding someone in the Light as a comforting thing. Quaker theology holds, at least traditional Quaker theology holds, that it is encounters with the Light--Christ--that transform us, that conform us to the image of Christ. This is a scary process, at times, as the Light confronts us with those things about our lives that have to change and also gives us the wherewithal to make those changes. This is where the quaking came in, along with the tears and the moaning. It was as though, it was written by some, that which is described in the book of Revelation was happening in the hearts of Friends.

So, holding in the Light seemed to me like holding on to my dog in the bath, or my daughter's hand as she got a shot or her ears pierced. It was a warm, comforting thing done for the benefit of someone going through some thing difficult.

But Bonnie Tinker taught me a different take on "holding in the Light." Rather than comforting arms it was like "Get your butt into that Light. You and I both know you need to be changed in this regard and I'm going to stand here and make sure you stay there until the dross is burned off."

She was like the sheep dog, in way, getting me into the pen where I needed to be.

"Feed my sheep," indeed.

She never said it quite so bluntly (at least not to me) but when she was on the phone, as I wrote in my other blog, today, it made me apprehensive because I knew she was going to ask for time or money that I did not think that we had, for something I knew that we should support.

It was not a guilt trip she was laying on me. It was holding out a truth I knew and insisting that I look at it and, with integrity, act on it.

"...holds a fistful of rain tempting you to deny it."

I'm thinking that the difference between holding my daughter's hand when she wants to flee the doctor's office and having my heels nipped (in a loving way) to keep me going in the direction she and I both agreed I needed to go, were not so different.

Transformation is scary, it pulls me out of who I am, it calls upon me to lay down comfort and convenience and privilege--to pick up the cross, even the cross that, upon first blush, doesn't seem like it's really mine.

Community, of course, depends on strengthening the relationships with those upon whom my well being relies, whose well being depends on their relationship with me.

Bonnie alienated a lot of true-believing activists who took themselves as being of "like mind" to her because she wasn't about, and she implored against, shouting and politically overpowering those who were persecuting them. She understood that our enemies were not those shouting and spitting in our faces. Those people are captive of the powers--and it is the powers, especially the powers of retributive violence--that need to be overcome.

The only way we can set ourselves free from persecution is to set free those persecuting us. And the way to do that is to get into a place--we need to be transformed to the place--where we cannot do harm others and, no matter what they do to us, they cannot really harm us, either.

(Click on the "one quaker's take" link to read my other blog post about Bonnie, today).

July 03, 2009 07:05 PM

I'm pecking away at my iGadget's virtual keyboard, so I'm keeping this short:

Now that the book reading is behind me at FGC's Gathering, I feel freer to share how to order a copy of the book, whether for yourself, for a fFriend, or for your worship community:

1. Order from QuakerBooks. This is my preferred method because sales support FGC. And remember that FGC offers a discount on orders for a book study group, even if it's only for a handful of copies. NOTE: The book is NOT listed currently on the website, probably because QB received the books during Gathering. I imagine their website willbe updated in early July, after staff return to Philadelphia. See "Comments."

2. Order directly from Lulu.com. Discounts start at orders of 25, I think, but you can find an online coupon at RetailMeNot.com, under Lulu, I think.

Thanks for all your support, once again!

Blessings,
Liz

June 30, 2009 05:31 AM

25.29 km 82971.58 feet 15.71 mi 4698.00 seconds 78.30 minutes 1.30 hours 12.04 mi/hr

Dropped off a couple of bluetooth keyboard modules at the Stockholm Post Office. Continued on to see if I could locate a road which is in the OSM TIGER data but which I don't remember seeing. Conclusion: nope. Figment of somebody's imagination.

[Tags bicycling ]

June 22, 2009 09:35 PM

Pictures from this weekend's gathering of Conservative Friends (Quakers), held in Lancaster County PA and hosted by Keystone Fellowship Friends Meeting of Ohio Yearly Meeting Conservative.

Videos:

Arthur Berk on "Basic Christian Quakerism"



The Convincement Story of John L.: a particularly interesting story of a family's journey from the LDS (Mormon) Church to Friends.

June 22, 2009 06:08 PM

Check out The Nuclear Energy Debate among Friends: Another Round, in the July 2009 Friends Journal. The online version includes footnotes and links. This a response to the responses to an earlier article, A Friend’s Path to Nuclear Power . Some of the comments left here were also published in Friends Journal. Comments?

June 22, 2009 12:22 PM

You want to buy from a monopoly! Trust me on this one, and read on.

In the marketplace as everyone knows it today, monopolies are almost always bad. That's because they have a government-granted franchise which permits them to charge monopoly prices. When a monopoly has a franchise like that, they can restrict output, charge a higher price, and make more money. In a free market, without a franchise, anybody charging monopoly prices will soon have a competitor.

Okay, can you see it coming? A free-market monopoly, without a government franchise (like a license, or a copyright, or a patent), can only keep its monopoly by charging prices low enough to keep out competitors. Another way to say that is: a monopoly seller in a free market will always give you a better price than anybody else who might enter the market, otherwise ... they would.

Thus, you want to buy from a monopoly, but only if it's a free-market monopoly. And unfortunately, we've regulated them out of business. The only monopolies you'll see are charging monopoly prices, which they get away with because the government has given the monopoly in the first place.

A monopoly is a good thing, but only under conditions outside of our experience.

[Tags economics ]

June 22, 2009 04:34 AM

53.97 km 177070.10 feet 33.54 mi 9850.00 seconds 164.17 minutes 2.74 hours 12.26 mi/hr

Flew down to DC Friday to run an OpenStreetMap mapping party in DC Saturday. I scheduled my flights so I'd get here very early. Early enough, in fact, to go for a nice 34 mile ride on the Washington & Old Dominion trail. It's quite nice. The paving is in good condition, it's well signed, the road intersections are mostly protected, and it's long, long, long! A real treat.

But, I didn't bring my own bike. I rented from Bikes @ Vienna. They specialize in non-standard bicycles. They have recumbents (long and short wheelbase), tricycle recuments (tadpole and whatever it is you call the other design that has a long wheelbase, two wheels in the back, and one in front. They have tandems. AND they have crank-forward bicycles. The only thing they don't have are Rail-Riders

If you've never tried a crank-forward, you owe it to yourself to rent one from them. It's a more-or-less standard bicycle, except that the seat tube is quite slanted, and the cranks are about 18" forward of the usual location. Yes, it's a longer bike, thus a heavier bike. BUT with the flat seat, and the seat being much lower (because the seat tube is slanted, you can get the right distance to the pedals AND still be able to put your feet down with your butt in the seat), and the upright position, it's quite a comfortable ride.

If you have friends who don't like standard bicycles ("I can't put my feet down"; "I don't know how to ride a bicycle"; "I don't like that hard horn between my legs"), you should recommend a crank-forward bicycle to them.

They're not wimpy bicycles. I averaged 13.4MPH (moving average) on a foreign (not my own, not cleated) bicycle, and at one point was successfully drafting a pair of people on your standard road racing bicycle wearing your standard bicycle clothing, and riding, oh, probably 18-20MPH. Remember, I'm sitting upright!

[Tags bicycling ]

June 21, 2009 04:46 AM

What follows below are answers to what I suspect will be frequently asked questions regarding the creation of the book Writing Cheerfully on the Web: A Quaker Blog Reader.

I'm also intending to post a summary of the reading that QuakerBooks of FGC is sponsoring on June 29 during the week-long Gathering in Blacksburg, Virginia. If you're attending, please plan to come to the Gathering Store at 4:30 that day and say hello!

NOT-YET-ASKED FAQs

1. How did you select the pieces you included in this book?

There were a number of steps involved to gather up a list of potential blog posts to be considered.

First, I created an online survey for bloggers and blog readers to complete, and part of the survey asked about the blogs that they read frequently and any specific blog posts that have "lingered" with them or that they have referred back to over time.

I also asked some of the more experienced or prolific bloggers to identify some of their own posts that they refer back to or that they often link back to in subsequent posts. After all if they find their posts useful in a number of ways, perhaps other readers would too.

Those two things alone generated a few dozen blog posts for me to look at.

Then I began reviewing posts that a few respected bloggers had tagged in Delicious.com. Some had tags for "Quaker classics" or "Quaker foundations" or "Quaker traditions." That review added another few dozen posts.

Throughout the process, I also took to skimming individual blogs of Friends whose voices seem to have helped shape the online conversation and clicked on random dates in their archives. And the list continued to grow.

Lastly, I wasn't completely on my own in this work. I've mentioned all along that Chris M has been another pair of eyes, including helping identify blog posts for consideration and offering a second opinion if I was unsure of including a piece. Chris also was the primary "editor" for selecting blog posts from The Good Raised Up. (Thanks again, Chris!)

2. Is there anything that you wanted in the book that isn't there?

Oh yes!

I wanted to include a much longer introduction that explained the selection process, much as I described above.

I also would have loved to have had another year or so to have explored much more thoroughly the "early days" of Quaker blogging--before 2005, for example. Back then--not even 10 years ago!--a handful of bloggers were beginning to wrestle with themes and topics that set the stage for the "blogging boom" of 2005-2008.

Those initial bloggers used their names openly, commented on each others' blogs respectfully, and modeled humility and openness regularly if not imperfectly humanly. Those early posts were treasured but alas, many of them are lost because some of those Friends have taken down their blogs, making most of their posts irretrievable. Among these laid-down blogs are Alice MorningStar Yaxley's Public Quaker, Rob Buchanan's Consider the Lilies, and the blogs of Lynn Gazis-Sax and Joe G/Beppe, whose blog titles I've forgotten.

Likewise, a good deal of long-time bloggers who have had a significant number of followers are notably absent: Some have declined to have their posts included in the book because they are considering publishing on their own. But most "absentees" exist because of the short timeframe I had set for myself to get the book out, and because I didn't (and don't) scour, skim, or receive the RSS feed of every single blog like some Friends do. A few of these unrepresented Friends include Cherice Bock, Lorcan Otway, Peter Bishop, and Marshall Massey.

More generally speaking, I chose to exclude blog posts that had too many hyperlinks unconnected to Quakerism and posts that were guest pieces or that had overly long quotes by other Quaker bloggers or non-Quaker authors. As much as possible, I wanted the pieces in the book to be representative of the individual blogger.

3. If you could do it over again, what would you change about the book?

Some changes would be minor, like including the publisher on the copyrights page (e.g. "Lulu"). Other changes are more significant, like editing the back cover to identify the preface's author Brent Bill better (e.g. "Brent Bill, author of Sacred Compass...")

I'd also love to dedicate more resources--money and time--to the book's cover. A Quaker friend of mine who works in communications design did a couple of hours of pro-bono work to get the overall concept in place--a concept conceptualized by my partner Jeanne--plus another two hours to deal with details that arose later in the process. I didn't have the brain power left in me to think about images, artwork, or photos that could be used, but if I could do it over again, maybe I'd spend more time exploring those possibilities.

Oh, and I'd put time into writing a very thorough Acknowledgments page. I ran out of time, given the push to have the book ready in time for FGC's Gathering, and I worried I'd end up forgetting to thank some people for their support, so I took the easy way out and simply left the page out of the book entirely. I apologize for any hurt feelings out there.

4. Will there be a second volume?

I'd love for there to be a second volume of Writing Cheerfully on the Web--I'm not so sure I'm going to be the one to do it!

5. Would you publish through an online press again?

I've been thinking about this question a lot on my own. I find that it's kind of like living through a hellish remodel of your kitchen: going through the process itself was highly unpleasant--in my real-life case, we needed to reorder the cabinets three times--but a year or two later, I've completely forgotten how bad the experience was because I'm so happy with the end result! So in all honesty, I'd have to say "Maybe." And especially if I had a really long timeline and a leisurely way to go about it.

7. How can I or my meeting purchase a copy of the book?

You'll probably end up ordering through QuakerBooks of FGC--unless you are attending the FGC Gathering where you can pick up a copy (or two) at the Gathering Store. And FGC hopes to send along a couple copies of the book for book tables that FGC-affiliated yearly meetings have during their annual sessions, if they are occurring this year after the first week of July, so that's another opportunity to at least thumb through it.

BUT...

After the book reading on June 29, I plan to post a link directly to Lulu's "private" listing of Writing Cheerfully on the Web. That way, you can be free to order what you need. The online price will be $19.98, plus shipping and handling--but you'll be supporting the online press rather than QuakerBooks.

And then a number of weeks later, the book's listing is even supposed to appear on Amazon.com--but I want to discourage ordering from them. I have had a long and strong relationship with FGC and enjoy knowing that others are supporting FGC's work, one way or another.

Those are the questions I can think of for now. I guess I'll find out what the "Frequently Asked Questions" really are once June 29 is over. I hope I'll see some of you there.

Blessings,
Liz

June 20, 2009 10:05 PM

It's here. How can I tell? The fog is in and the kids are out. Which is why I've been dreading this week for months. But next week I begin a new commuting pattern, with more time to read on the way to and from work, and so I expect to have more time to write in the evenings after the kids are in bed.

This week marks nine months in my new job. I still like it and they still like me, but there's been a lot of adjustments in my life this year. Mostly painless, but change is hard, even when it's positive.

I think I need to set new goals for myself, just to help me sort through what are my priorities as I go along. My spiritual life seems to have taken a back seat to my family responsibilities in recent months. I don't know how much longer that will be true, but it feels rightly ordered for now.

However, one of the signs of disorder in my inner life is that my physical space becomes cluttered. The living space I share with others is doing all right, and my desk at work looks fine, but my desk and files at home, where I keep the paraphernalia of my ministry, is reaching the tipping point. Figuratively and literally. So I see that there is work to be done here, probably when it seems most inconvenient, but all in good time.

Happy summer to all of you!

June 18, 2009 09:59 PM

Haha! xkcd notes that some problems are simply hard to solve. That attempting to impose a solution is necessarily an improvement. That sometimes it makes the situation much, much worse."

[Tags xkcd, economics, legislation ]

June 18, 2009 05:27 PM

36.72 km 120457.38 feet 22.81 mi 7358.00 seconds 122.63 minutes 2.04 hours 11.16 mi/hr

Went for a tour of abandoned and/or disused roads in the Town of Stockholm. First I went up Cook Road, then down Blind Crossing Road, (which are just dirt roads), then down Munson Road (which is decidedly abandoned, used only by ATVs), then over to Green Meadows Rd. The north end of it is essentially Joe Vitaly's driveway since he's the only person who lives on that road. His house is a little three-story hippy cabin, with solar panels and a windmill. Looks like a very comfortable place, although it might be hard to get to his house in the winter. He's got a field, woods, and river frontage, so it's quite a cozy setup. There's a few more abandoned roads I could have ridden on; more if I don't mind getting my feet wet.

Found two interesting markers. One looked like the corners of a checkerboard, and the other like the head of an arrow less the shaft. Both of these are obviously pointing at survey markers; the first an iron rod and the second a nail in the pavement. I speculate that they're ground markers for a set of aerial photos.

[Tags bicycling ]

June 18, 2009 02:55 AM

22.04 km 72294.80 feet 13.69 mi 3791.00 seconds 63.18 minutes 1.05 hours 13.00 mi/hr

Moving average speed was 13.4 MPH according to MyTracks. Not a bad speed for a mountain bike. Had the whole drivetrain replaced today. Or, at least, everything which touched the chain. It was all horrifically worn and stretched out. But now, mmmmmm, smooth and quiet.

[Tags bicycling ]

June 17, 2009 05:59 AM

19.32 km 63395.19 feet 12.01 mi 5050.00 seconds 84.17 minutes 1.40 hours 8.56 mi/hr

Awwwwws! Saw a tiny tiny baby fawn with its mommy. Heather laughed at how cute it was and that scared it into running away.

[Tags bicycling ]

June 14, 2009 05:30 PM

28.07 km 92086.89 feet 17.44 mi 5931.00 seconds 98.85 minutes 1.65 hours 10.59 mi/hr

Grrrr, had some mechanical trouble. Chain is jumping teeth. Seems to be a bit better after cleaning the chain. Will wash and lube it Saturday to see if that helps.

I'm feeling like 20 miles is a minimum ride these days. Anything less and it's not hardly a ride.

[Tags bicycling ]

June 13, 2009 05:00 AM

51.41 km 168680.73 feet 31.95 mi 9468.00 seconds 157.80 minutes 2.63 hours 12.15 mi/hr

Had to go into town to Lance's to send a fax. Headed out to Parishville, and beyond.

[Tags bicycling ]

June 11, 2009 05:05 AM

Earlier today I posted an excerpt of an interesting article on Anabaptism on my Tumblr blog and it's engendered quite a conversation on Facebook about testimonies and empty forms, etc. It's true that any form of spiritual discipline can get twisted into look-at-me heroism or lets-talk-anything-but-God group conformity.

The answer isn't to give up testimonies or to hold onto them even tighter, but instead to constantly remind ourselves about their purpose: to learn how to live as an attentive people of God. Here's what I wrote on Facebook:

I've been a mostly bicycle-riding vegan for decades, an outspoken pacifist and a frequent plain dresser. All of these practices have aided my spiritual growth but also have unearthed new sources of pride for me to wrestle with. The self-examination has been practice in discernment.

I often think back to the story of the Good Samaritan. What mattered wasn't how he was dressed or whether he was riding a bicycle. No, what mattered is that he knew enough to know he was being called to sacrifice something: to get covered in a strangers blood, to aid someone who might resent him for it, to lose money he had earned to put someone up for the night. Maybe he had practiced this discernment of self-sacrifice by living a testimony that had challenged him to navigate between loss and pride, and maybe he had been brought up in a community where the value of love was prized above all. The important thing is he knew to stop and be a true neighbor.

June 10, 2009 10:38 PM

13.10 km 42971.28 feet 8.14 mi 2294.00 seconds 38.23 minutes 0.64 hours 12.77 mi/hr

The perfect day for a ride; not too cool, not too hot. Too bad I didn't have time for a longer ride.

[Tags bicycling ]

June 04, 2009 04:03 AM

20.38 km 66867.76 feet 12.66 mi 4088.00 seconds 68.13 minutes 1.14 hours 11.15 mi/hr

No time, no time for a longer ride; have to do with a 12.6 mile ride.

[Tags bicycling ]

June 04, 2009 04:03 AM

Severin Borenstein of UC Energy Institute spoke May 5, 2009 at MIT: Meeting US Energy and Climate Challenges with Rational Policy (video) Borenstein talks about various aspects of energy policy, the difference between GHG tax and cap and trade (not so much because we’re going to have to tweak whichever method is chosen), renewable portfolios, etc. Borenstein [...]

June 04, 2009 03:22 AM

The InterAcademy Panel short statement (pdf) on ocean acidification (2 pages) includes some information that I haven’t seen elsewhere. Headline messages • Oceans play a critical role in the global carbon cycle by absorbing about a quarter of the CO2 emitted to the atmosphere from human activities; • The rapid increase in CO2 emissions since the industrial revolution [...]

June 01, 2009 06:40 PM

For about two weeks, I've been able to see the light at the end of the tunnel. For the past ten days or so, it hasn't looked like the light has been getting any closer. *big sigh*

Maybe today was the breakthrough: no additional glaring typos to fix edit; no weird footer or page-break screw-ups. And I've ordered a "proof" of the book, because this time I think I'm that close.

So I thought I'd share a few more specifics here on The Good Raised Up about the upcoming book. (Are folks tired yet about hearing about this? I know my partner is, and I'm eager to SHOW and not TELL, one of these days....)

1. The title will be Writing Cheerfully On The Web: A Quaker Blog Reader.

2. It will be about 270 pages. Quite a bit more than the 150 or so I was first imagining!

3. It includes the writing of 32 Friends across the Quaker spectrum in more than 50 essays. It doesn't include the writing of all the Friends I wanted it to, for a variety of reasons. I find I'm suffering a bit of "editor's guilt," despite my feeling clear for having selected what I did.

4. Sections include:

• Ministry & Worship


• That Of God


• Reclaiming And Re-examining Our Traditions


• Convergent Friends


• A Friendly Look At Christianity, Jesus, And The Bible


• Openings And Personal Story


• Love As A Testimony

There also will be an index of blog URLs for blog-posts that are included, as well as a "selected and very incomplete" bibliography.

5. My hope is that the organization of the sections and the sequence of essays within each section will allow readers who are less familiar with the Quaker blogosphere to have the opportunity to make a journey similar to our own: seeing topics repeated (and not necessarily in a section of the same topic); seeing one blogger mention another blogger who later writes a piece that holds the reader's interest; and resonating with at least some of the ideas they come across.

Thanks to everyone who completed the survey over the winter (that was an enormous help!) and to all those, far and wide, who have offered words of encouragement. I hope that the next time I post something here about the book, it will be to announce that it's finally here, but if the last weeks have taught me anything, I know now not to promise that that'll be my next news.

For the moment, though, I thought I'd share the Introduction that, God willing, will appear in the opening pages of Writing Cheerfully On The Web.

Blessings,
Liz

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

INTRODUCTION

When I first heard the words “blog” and “blogging,” I immediately was made uncomfortable by the sound of them. I had the feeling I was being asked to try some exotic drink that had flavors and spices I had never had before, like a mixture of mango, yogurt, and cardamom. Developing a taste for something completely foreign, like developing a willingness to explore new technology, requires ten to fifteen exposures to it before one ultimately either accepts or rejects it.

So it was that my introduction to blogging first began in my home and then expanded into seeing and hearing the word “blog” used in the media. Additional exposure to the new concept came out of a conversation with an early blog-adopter Quaker friend and ultimately fledged into the blog I now maintain for my Quaker writing.

When I first entered the world of these online, semi-interactive web-logs – out of which comes the contraction “blog” – there were only a handful of active Quaker ones. The blog writers weren’t from my own monthly or yearly meeting, so even if they were saying the very same things that local Friends had been saying all along, I heard these new voices with fresh ears. Sometimes God needs to find new messengers in order for us to hear God’s message.

Also, the blog writers were from across the spectrum of the Religious Society of Friends, though I didn’t know that until I was already captured by the spirit, warmth, and Truth that I found in their writing. As a Friend with Liberal roots and Conservative leanings, the stereotypes I had swallowed whole – about Evangelical Friends, programmed meetings, and Quaker pastors – had been shattered in a matter of days after I began reading Quaker blogs.

As unpredictable as God can be sometimes, the anonymity of the Internet allowed me to peer behind the electronic curtain and get a glimpse of who was serving up those spiritually exotic messages. When I saw who they were, I wanted to spend time with them, not just at their blog’s website but at their kitchen tables and in their living rooms.

Ultimately, the online conversation that was started through blogs has grown to the point where there have been conferences, workshops, meet-ups, and interest groups, all focused on our peculiar faith tradition and the practice of it. Friendships from across the schisms are mending our historical rifts, if only one blog post at a time. More of us are coming to understand who we are, not as a monthly or yearly meeting, not as British, Australian, or American Quakers, but as the Religious Society of Friends.

It’s a bit like having a sudden interest in exploring the family tree – not necessarily tracking the ancestors who generations ago settled the homestead, but rather searching for the extended family members and distant cousins who are here-and-now, living half a country or more away, and we’ve just now discovered we come from the same tree and have the same root. The world of Quaker blogs has helped a number of us learn more about our Quaker extended family.

There’s another motive for this Quaker blog reader. In recent years, different Friends have repeated a few questions:

I’ve heard that there’s a movement among Friends called “Convergence” but that it’s only online. Is that true and what is it?

How can I get my worship group involved in discussing some of the major threads that have emerged on the Internet without requiring everyone to read all the Quaker blogs that are out there?

Is there any way for non-web users to be a part of the conversation that’s been happening online?

Hopefully, this book will help Friends address these questions. An online class for college students is one thing, but a book group allows for a different sort of community-based learning.

Now: the Internet moves information so quickly between an event and its participants that I want to add a few words about the disadvantages of placing somewhat-flash-in-the-pan blog posts into everlasting typeface.

Blogging is both interactive and contemplative, especially among Friends. For the most part, we Quaker bloggers engage in a serious amount of online listening to each other as well as wrestling with the topics we encounter. We are unusually intentional with our online responses to one another, whether leaving a comment or raising a challenge.

Subsequently, as we have read the comments and the insights of other bloggers, we have considered the Light and Truth they have brought us.

God’s speaking to us through one another’s blogs changes us.

But the writing that is included here in this book has not changed since its original appearance on the Internet. A blog post written in 2006 may not accurately present the current understanding or view of the same blogger today, but it does represent the measure of Light that was available to the blogger at the time.

For some of us, writing a blog is a hobby, an avocation, and most bloggers write as they wish and as they are led. For others of us, the blog is an expression of part of the ministry we’ve been given. A few bloggers have been appointed care-and-accountability committees, and a few others have invited Friends to serve as blog elders to provide guidance and help with discernment as needed.

Blog posts, and consequently the writings contained in this book, are like the messages that arise out of open worship. Some will add to the deepening and enrichment of the worship experience. Others will bring us up out of it a bit, but both experiences perhaps give us a large or small kernel of Truth to reflect on more thoroughly later. Not everything will speak to our condition, at least not right away, and perhaps never at all, but some of it undoubtedly will.

Sometimes the Quaker world of blogs has been thought of as a "conversation." For those who are less familiar with the Internet, blogs allow online readers to add their own reflections and questions in a section dedicated to comments. The comments on a blog in turn will often generate more comments, either by other readers or by the original blog writer who often responds to the comments offered.

I tell you this because that dynamic of conversation is removed from this book. Only the blog posts and none of the comments are included. That leaves you and perhaps others in your local faith community to begin your own conversation:

In what ways does a particular post not only speak to your condition but shed new Light for your understanding of Quakerism?

Where do you disagree with the blogger? What gets under your skin and why?

What about this particular post helps you rethink what you had thought about another branch of the Quaker family tree?

Which parts of the book feed you and which parts leave you hungering for more?

What wouldst thou say, were thee to blog?

Ultimately, the volume you hold in your hands is an indicator of how a particular cohort of Quakers have gone about the business of grappling with and exploring the Quaker faith tradition, including investing in it and embracing it as our own.

These writings, and the conversations they inspire, reflect the extent to which we are ready to engage in a rigorous and vibrant Quakerism.

– Liz Oppenheimer, Minneapolis
Fifth Month 2009

-----------------
Full disclosure: I didn’t want to be solely responsible for selecting which, if any, posts of my own should be included, so I asked for – and pretty closely abided by – the recommendations made by a blogging Friend, who has helped me in any number of ways as the project got underway.

June 01, 2009 04:39 PM

I spent some time this week with a young man who told me that he didn’t like to be alone. He said that when he’s alone his head gets filled with unpleasant memories; things he did that he should not have done, mistakes he made, things he wished never happened. It was uncomfortable for him, he said, and so he did everything he could to keep from being by himself.

I didn’t say anything to him then but the next day I had the occasion to be with him, again. I told him that everyone is like that, to some extent, which is why all of us have so many radios and televisions and computers, why we spend so much time with hobbies and working, why some people drink and use other drugs, why gossip and sports are such popular past times.

Quakers have addressed this phenomenon. Fox, Penington and others in the first generation saw this as Christ, or the Light, or the Spirit working in us—showing us the parts of our lives, as manifested in these uncomfortable thoughts, that need to be addressed.

If we paid attention to these, fearlessly and humbly holding these things so as to deal with them, repenting of them (such repentance going beyond mere remorse but also including a resolution to not repeat them and even to acknowledging the wrong doing to others and seeking reconciliation with them) then we would be changed, transformed spiritually, and moved along toward the maturity, the wholeness, the fitness for God’s purposes called “perfection" in the Quaker patois.

If we dismissed this discomfort—either by fleeing from the opportunity to experience it or by rationalizing our behavior ("He had it coming," or "Sure, it was wrong, but under the circumstances, what else could I do?")—then our hearts, as those of Pharaoh and those addressed by Isaiah and Jeremiah, would be hardened and it would be even more difficult for us to hear and heed the voice that was calling us.

Buddhist spiritual literature, and that of other traditions, contains similar writing. Things with which we are uncomfortable about our past should be “held” and “felt” and we can, in contemporary American Buddhist terms, become “softened” to them. This is part of the spiritual transformation sought and sometimes named “enlightenment.”

I don’t know that any of this sank in with this young man, who is not apparently spiritual in any way. Perhaps what I had to say will never be useful to him, perhaps someday, in the context of some other experience, it will come to mind. I cannot say that it will, or even that it was my intention that it should. It was just the right response to what he revealed to me about himself.

This was not a moment of intentional evangelism, although it has been interpreted as such by a Friend with whom I shared it. Perhaps it was, notwithstanding my lack of intention. I am reminded something George Fox wrote in his Journal. It is something to the effect that he never converted anyone to Christ. All he did was lead them to it and leave them there. Christ, he often is quoted to have said, has come to teach his people, himself.

So I don’t know what any of this will mean to him. What I hope, though, is that he will come to know that all of us share his discomfort at being alone to some degree or another, that when he is alone he is not really alone, at all, and that when he feels uncomfortable with things he has done he is not being punished—he is being changed.

June 01, 2009 10:39 AM

Faithful readers of this blog (thanks to both of you) may remember that on January 3rd I suffered a seizure that landed me in the hospital for a few days. (See I've been Inconvenienced). At the time it was felt that this was caused by a sudden drop in blood sugar, mainly because a timely jolt of dextrose brought me out of it. It made a certain amount of sense because I am a type 2 diabetic and was taking metformin to keep my blood sugar levels down.

On Tuesday May 26th I suffered a second seizure. Like the first, it took place in my home before I had even risen from sleep for the day. Again the ambulance was called and again I was rushed to the hospital. This time, however, the EMT's measured my blood sugar first, determined that I did NOT have low blood sugar, and did not administer dextrose. I came out of the seizure anyway. So the good news is that my loss of consciousness apparently did not result from low blood sugar. This in turn means that my life was probably never seriously in danger. Further good news, now that a CAT scan, MRI, and EEG have been done, is that I don't seem to have any tumors or internal bleeds that might explain the seizures. The bad news is that I am therefore one of millions of people who definitely have a seizure disorder (or "convlusive disorder") of some kind,but no one knows why. Fortunately there are medications that can prevent such seizures and I am now taking one of them.

Other differences between the two seizures [too much informtion alert for the delicate of sensibility]: this one involved urinary incontinence and also left me sore all over and lame on one side apparently from convulsive tightening of the muscles when it was taking place. In both cases, it took several minutes after emergencing from the seizure for me to remember a lot of mundane facts (such as my address and what day it was) and to orient myself.

Anyway, that's what happened. Not much more to say about it except that I now feel much much better.
- - Rich

June 01, 2009 10:00 AM

I'm experimenting with Quaker Quote of the Day for the QuakerQuaker Twitter account. You should be able to read them on Twitter here. Extended versions will be on QuakerQuaker's new QOTD blog.It's hard to pack a good quote into only 140 characters so there will be some shortening, but the full piece should give it a bit more context.

I'll be mostly quoting historical Friends but I might throw a living person in there once in awhile. I won't use a quote book to deliver the same adage you've heard a million times before. I'll also try not to chop it up into a meaning that goes against the author's intention.

May 30, 2009 03:03 PM

Nation by Terry Pratchett
Paris to the Moon by Adam Gopnik
Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Eyewitness: Sports by DK Books
Eyewitness: Flying Machines by DK Books
The Mysterious Edge of the Heroic World by E.L. Konigsburg
Chasing Redbird by Sharon Creech
Counsel to the Christian Traveler with Meditations and Experiences by William Shewin, edited by Charles Martin
Strength in Weakness edited by Gil Skidmore
Bloom County (assorted) by Berke Breathed
Paul Revere's Ride by Xavier Nig
The Wonderful O by James Thurber
The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan
Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley and Me, Elizabeth by E.L. Konigsburg
Wall-to-Wall Baby Blues by Rick Kirkman and Jerry Scott
Exiles: Living Missionally in a Post-Christian Culture by Michael Frost
Holiness: The Soul of Quakerism by Carole Dale Spencer
Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future by Bill McKibben

Really, I'm carrying the Quaker books around but I'm staying up late reading the kids' books. I just didn't want a whole month to go by without posting anything.

May 29, 2009 10:47 AM

19.35 km 63486.54 feet 12.02 mi 3401.00 seconds 56.68 minutes 0.94 hours 12.73 mi/hr

Just a short ride today. Not enough time for a decent ride, but the day was so beautiful I couldn't not ride.

[Tags bicycling ]

May 27, 2009 06:37 AM

39.06 km 128146.82 feet 24.27 mi 9903.00 seconds 165.05 minutes 2.75 hours 8.82 mi/hr

Gathered a BUNCH of street addresses along May Rd., Pig St., and the eastern portion of Reynolds Rd. Gonna enter them into OpenStreetMap shortly.

[Tags bicycling ]

May 26, 2009 01:17 AM

Thanks for the suggestions and comments about a possible title for the upcoming Quaker blog reader. I've got news!

First of all, I'm very close to settling on a title. It's based on an earlier suggestion, with one change:

Writing Cheerfully on the Web: A Quaker Blog Reader.

I've got to make a decision about the title in the next few days.

ALSO...

Quaker author and fellow blogger Brent Bill has agreed to write a short preface! There are not enough "Thank thee's" in plain speech to express my gratitude. I am humbled that he said yes. (Thanks again, Brent!)

And that's not all.

My goal is to have the Quaker blog reader available by June 23 and hopefully about a week earlier. It would initially be available through Lulu.com, and whenever that time is, you all will be among the first to know! The price is up in the air, though, since I don't have a page count yet... but the page count is quickly approaching 200 or more. The Quaker blogosphere has generated a lot of good reading!

And the final bit of news:

FGC and I have been working to arrange for a session at the Gathering for me to introduce and talk about the Quaker blog reader! If any of you will be at the Gathering this summer, please pencil in 4:30-5:30 on Monday, June 29 and join me as a presenter. I'd love to have some company talk about blogs, the book, the Convergent conversation... (I don't know that anyone has proposed an interest group--I know that I haven't!) Any and all of you are welcome, or encourage someone from your meeting who is attending the Gathering to look for this session. Keep in mind: This isn't quite firm--much of it depends on having copies of the book on site!--but my sense is it will be a go, God willing and I don't get ahead of my Guide...

The hope is that QuakerBooks of FGC will also sell the Quaker blog reader, since they already sell Martin's Quaker Ranter Reader. Woo-hoo!

Thanks to everyone for your support.

And blessed be to the One who seems to have had me in Its care all this time.

Blessings,
Liz

May 20, 2009 09:02 PM

A short post to inspire and get inspired: I'm starting to configure the various sections of the Quaker blog reader that I've been editing, with support from Chris M.

It's exciting to see the chapters start to organize themselves and to see what were once originally online blog posts being transformed into what look more and more like pages from a book!

I look at the various sections that I have in my spreadsheet of blog posts. They include Worship & Ministry; A Friendly Look at Christianity, Jesus, and the Bible; Convergent Friends; Love as a Testimony; Reclaiming and Reexamining Our Practices; That of God; and Openings and Personal Story. By far, the longest section is on reclaiming and reexamining our practices, so that might be broken down further as I get into organizing those posts.

It's a relief to see progress being made, believe me!

From time to time, I step away from the computer and the typesetting and the copying-and-pasting, and I begin to consider what This Thing wants to be called, other than "the Quaker blog reader."

Here are some of my own thoughts:

Found! Quaker Renewal Across The Branches

Reclaiming And Reexamining Our Quaker Faith And Practice

Love, Convergence, and Renewal Among Friends in the 21st Century

Or, is "Quaker Blog Reader" enough?

What I really want, though, is to know what title or words would catch your attention for such a book? It's likely the final title--or any tag line under it--will be a criss-cross between what's offered, but I'm awfully tired of thinking through this on my own right now.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

Blessings,
Liz

May 14, 2009 11:15 AM

15.91 km 52188.67 feet 9.88 mi 3898.00 seconds 64.97 minutes 1.08 hours 9.13 mi/hr

Tandem ride. Actually longer than 10 miles because the GPS didn't kick in immediately.

[Tags bicycling ]

May 13, 2009 07:08 PM