25.74 km 84447.04 feet 15.99 mi 6957.00 seconds 115.95 minutes 1.93 hours 8.28 mi/hr
Went into West Stockholm to mail off a package, and into Potsdam to drop off a newsletter at the meetinghouse. A gorgeous day in Northern New York. Started the ride with 5% clouds, ended it with 1%. The sun was warm, the air was cool, couldn't ask for more.
Errg, home #verizon dsl connection acting up again. Bits and pieces of websites (including Gmail) are down on mulitple machines. http://twitter.com/martin_kelley/statuses/812345984
21.89 km 71821.76 feet 13.60 mi 3692.00 seconds 61.53 minutes 1.03 hours 13.26 mi/hr
Went into town for ... no reason at all. Just to ride. Stopped by Heather's place of work (Myler Chiropractic).
Doh! The sun on the deck must have gotten to me, forgot power cord @ work. Do I waste good karma of bike/train commute to drive back? http://twitter.com/martin_kelley/statuses/811347445
Putting newcomer #Cushycms.com thru paces w/Dreamweaver-built site. Embedded Google Map seems to knock it out. Anyone else using Cushy? http://twitter.com/martin_kelley/statuses/811275996
Excuse me while I continue to question the relevance of artsy websites that are hard to navigate & scream "aren't we full of ourselves?" http://twitter.com/martin_kelley/statuses/811247795
Enjoying first iced coffee of the season. My 3 morning/week job is w/in walking distance of half dozen coffeeshops, I get kind of spoiled. http://twitter.com/martin_kelley/statuses/811222811
This weekend more than twenty Quakers gathered in Chicago from across North America. We were brought together by Friends General Conference to become Quaker Quest trainers. Quaker Quest is a dynamic outreach program conducted by Meetings for Seekers. For those of you new to Quakerism, I’ll explain why I think this moment is so important.
For many years, Quakers in unprogrammed or “Silent Worship” Meetings have been reluctant to do outreach. Many Quakers have viewed outreach and proselytizing as the same thing. It’s grounded in a noble impulse to correct the perceived overreaching of other faiths. Most Quakers believe there are many paths to God and many have been upset by the “hard sell-- my way or you’re going to hell” recruiting methods of many fundamentalist religious groups. In recoiling from this, many Quakers have recoiled from any outreach whatsoever. Some Quaker Meetings even removed their phone numbers from the public directories. As this impulse settled deep into the Religious Society of Friends, many in the public came to see Quakerism as a closed society. This was never true and Quakers have always have welcomed newcomers. However, because of Quaker’s invisibility for the past few decades many people who might have found a home among Quakers either didn’t know they could become Quaker or simply didn’t know that Quakers still existed. In my travels, I constantly meet people who express amazement they’ve just met a Quaker. As a young woman in Dallas said to me last month, “You’re Quaker? I thought you were all gone.”
Many in the Society now feel called by Spirit to make wide the door to our faith. A growing movement is emerging to do outreach in America, to let the world know that there is another way to experience the Divine. As members of this movement, we all continue a deep acknowledgement that God will find people through many paths and religions and that the Quaker way may not speak to the needs of some. However, to hide Quaker process and Quaker community from Seekers is to abandon many people to loss and suffering. To offer spiritual hospitality to seekers is now a mark of our faithfulness to Spirit. We can do nothing else. Withdrawal from outreach, withdrawal from speaking, publicly and vibrantly, about our faith-- Quietism as some call it within the Society—is impossible.
For those of you who’ve been working faithfully in your Meetings to open the Society or who feel this calling now rise within you, know that your faithfulness is and will bear fruit. Understand that you have brethren who share your calling and who are creating services and systems to support you. The first part of this is Quaker Quest . However, Quaker Quest is just the beginning.
For those of you who are new to Quakerism know that you have arrived among us at an auspicious time. The renewal movement does not depend simply on those within the Society. It rests with all of you who seek Spirit. As Seekers you are the reason why we are throwing wide the doors of the Society. We need your help to gather us all as a great people who can transform our own lives and manifest the values in the world that we so earnestly share— joy, simplicity, integrity, equality, community, and peace.
Some of you, as seekers, live in places where Quaker communities already exist. You simply need to find them . For others you may live in places where there are no Meetings. Do not let this hinder you. Quakerism is a set of practices, shared in community, designed to help you hear the stirrings of Spirit in your own heart. If no Quaker community exists near you, be the seed that creates one. You can be the heart of the renewal movement and you have Friends to help you.
I think David Isenberg is a little frustrated with me, because he keeps snarking at me about economics. The problem is that not only does he not "get it", he doesn't understand that he's not getting it. It's like the guy who adds 2 plus 2 to get 5, and then when you say that he's bad at math, he says "Oh yeah? Well I know that 3 plus 4 is 8!"
From the looks of things, David is good at finance -- at least that's what his later posting is about. Trouble is that finance is not economics. Finance tells you how much, but economics tells you why. Finance can let you determine that two things have the same value, or the same cost, but only economics can tell you why people would buy one versus the other.
This seems to be a fairly commonly executed fallacy. Many many people feel free to criticize economics and economists, when it's clear that they don't know the first thing about economics. I think that's because they, like David, confuse finance for economics. They figure that they can balance their checkbook, so they know as much as somebody who has studied economics for years and year. At least, that's my best guess, but I might be wrong.
[Tags finance, economics ]
Chocolate cupcakes for the party with friends...
Glazed Strawberry Pie for actual birthday dinner with family...
(It was too hard to put 10 candles into a pie without a top crust, so we compromised on one giant candle to wish on.)
Prepare one baked pie shell and allow time to cool.
Wash and hull six cups fresh strawberries.
Using the smallest berries, crush enough to make one cup strawberry puree.
Cover and refrigerate the remaining berries.
In a heavy bottomed saucepan, combine 1 cup sugar and 3 tablespoons cornstarch.
Stir in 1/2 cup water, then the strawberry puree.
Cook over medium heat, stirring continuously, until the mixture thickens and the gel is clear.
Remove from the heat and stir in 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice and 2 tablespoons butter until the butter is completely melted. Let cool to room temperature.
When the the crust and the glaze are cooled, cut the pointy ends off the reserved strawberries and set aside. Thinly slice the rest of the reserved strawberries and fold into the glaze. Spoon the glaze into the pie shell. Arrange the strawberry points in a decorative pattern on top of the glaze, pressing the cut sides into the glaze as far as you can without the glaze running over the sides of the crust.
Refrigerate pie until serving time. At the last minute, top with sweetened whipped cream.
Thanks to Marilyn Moore's Wooden Spoon Dessert Book. The birthday boy went on and on and on about how good it was.
Oh what the heck, sure I'll queue the Last Shadow Puppets album again Link http://twitter.com/martin_kelley/statuses/809850065
55.78 km 183015.11 feet 34.66 mi 12577.00 seconds 209.62 minutes 3.49 hours 9.92 mi/hr
Wow, what a great ride. Of course, I got back in at 8:50PM ... perhaps a little late given that I'd lost most of the light at 8:35. But I was on back roads at that point and nobody overtook me (I would have gotten off on the shoulder if they had).
Rode from Knapps Station to North Lawrence on the Rutland Trail. I wanted to see the nice
new bridges that "they" had put in. Here's one of them:
I had heard that Harry Dow (et al) had purchased a section of the trail, but I didn't realize that it was the closed section. This is great stuff!
Burt Bacharach tribute on the radio now, I just don't think I'm ready for this stuff to get retro cool... http://twitter.com/martin_kelley/statuses/809456261
May 13, 2008 6:00- 8:30 pm
65 Ninth Street, San Francisco, CA 94103, Near Civic Center BART & Muni
How did traditional practices like plain dress or plain speech arise and how did they affect early Friends? What are the postmodern equivalents? What criteria can or do we use? How do we get the exteriors of our lives in order so that we (and God) can do the inner work?
We will read some explanations of old and new testimonies of plainness/simplicity and discuss our own postmodern criteria for plain living.
We will each choose a practice to “try on” and write a brief statement of our own beliefs & commitments in this area.
Come for unprogrammed worship at 6:00, followed by a brown bag supper at 6:30, and discussion at 7:00. Worship and the shared meal will be integral parts of the workshop, come as early as you can. Childcare available. Expect Christian and inclusive language.
This is the first of two evenings that are also trial runs for the workshop "Primitive Quakerism/Postmodern World" that Robin Mohr will lead at the FGC Gathering this summer.
Trouble logging into @verizon dsl, resetting modem takes me through their spyware installs. Thank goodness for neighbor's insecure wifi! http://twitter.com/martin_kelley/statuses/809033221
20.42 km 66992.06 feet 12.69 mi 6143.00 seconds 102.38 minutes 1.71 hours 7.44 mi/hr
Went for a ride on the Christopher Muka section of the Rutland Trail.
I'm one of those people who believe that I should not ask a question that I myself would not answer; I should not ask others to do a thing I myself would not do.
In light of the interview I conducted with Brent Bill recently, I thought I'd have a go at interviewing myself, using the same questions that I asked Brent.
And no, I didn't know I was going to write this post at the time that I sent my questions to Brent.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1. What was my first experience when I began to have an inkling about having an inner compass?
I would say I was in 5th or 6th grade, maybe even a year or two younger. I remember that the girls I hung out with on the playground often wanted me to tell them if I liked their dress, if I liked their jewelry, if I liked their new shoes. And because we were all eager to be friends, they would add, "It's okay, you can tell me the truth."
Let's just say that those girls on the playground and I had very different ideas of what "pretty" was. Even though I somehow knew that it would be bad if I answered their questions truthfully (as opposed to tactfully, but what do little girls know about tact?!), I also knew that I didn't want to lie; that somehow lying went against something very deep within me, something without words.
I had very few friends growing up, as you might imagine.
2. What trends have I noticed among contemporary Friends, either towards or away from the understanding of an Inward Teacher? Is there something that seems to move Friends toward a clearer understanding? away from it?
As regular readers of The Good Raised Up know, I am best versed in Liberal Friends and somewhat versed in Conservative Friends. When I think of "contemporary Friends," it's these two groups I consider and speak of.
I've noticed two trends. One is a renewed interest among some Friends, regardless of age or length of time connected with Quakerism, to understand more fully the depth and breadth of our faith tradition.
I have observed Friends asking one another what certain traditional words or phrases mean, everything from "What's a leading?" to "What does 'obedience' mean?" I've also seen a few more Friends begin wrestling within meeting when things get dicey, rather than just disappearing and going elsewhere. I think some of the blogs have lent themselves to this renewal, curiosity, and hunger as well. And a good deal of these Friends seem to able to "fall into worship" and wait for movement of the Spirit if they are having difficulty.
The other trend is towards "More of the same," which includes giving more weight to individual preferences and "good thoughts" as compared to giving more weight to Spirit-led, corporate discernment.
I encounter this attitude among many long-time Liberal Friends who seem to have unknowingly, unintentionally attached their personal sense of who they are as Friends to some institution, committee, or event. If someone younger or newer to the meeting or to Quakerism feels a prompt and suggests that things may be done differently, a number of these older Friends dig in their heels or shake their heads and say, "This isn't how we've done it; I don't think we should do things differently now," almost as if some are saying, "I've been a Quaker for so-many-years, and new openings or leadings have no place here without my consent"; or this: "We've never looked to Quaker history to help us in the past, so why should we start now? Early Quakerism is dead, so how could it help us, the living?"
Being complacent about spiritual growth and turning our backs on our history creates a barrier between us and the Inward Teacher. Being loving and compassionate towards one another, and affirming that each of us has the ability to shed new Light on a situation invites the Inward Teacher in, and we demonstrate a greater willingness to be Taught.
3. What is one thing I am afraid or hesitant to tell other Quakers about myself?
Right now, I would say that one of the things I'm hesitant to tell my meeting about myself is how sad I feel that those who seem to know me best are not Friends at the monthly meeting, with whom I worship once a week, but rather fellow bloggers--Friends who I don't worship with in any regular way and who I don't see but once a year, if that.
Contrary to what some non-blogging Friends may believe, there have been many heartfelt, authentic, deep, and respectful exchanges online that have in turn led to rich and lasting friendships.
I cannot quite put my finger on why I feel known by many Quaker bloggers, particularly the earliest ones, and why I feel less known by Friends in my monthly and yearly meeting. Some of it has to do with feeling as though I am being received with joy, or at least curiosity, when I write a post or when I show up at a gathering of some sort. Some of it has to do with a feeling of mutuality: that I feel as though I know the other person as well as she or he seems to know me.
I think a large part of it, though, has to do with having a shared understanding of what a vigorous and vibrant Quakerism is and then a willingness to engage in it, inviting one another to do the same.
...Why is it that bloggers seem less afraid of words like discipline, obedience, faithfulness, eldering, and minister than do the Friends with whom I worship?
4. Given how much the secular world has crept into our Quaker faith--attending to busy schedules; watching the clock towards the "end" of Meeting for Worship; individualism; etc.--what two or three things of Quakerism might I wish would creep into the secular world?
Sometimes I wish that more of our political leaders and more "everyday Americans" would be comfortable with paradox... or at least be more willing to be in the creative tension of paradox for a little while longer than we currently are. Maybe that would make us more slow to take up arms; more hesitant to leave our partners when times get dicey; more deliberate in slowing ourselves down when our impulses start to "drive the bus."
I also wonder what our society would be like if we spent less time talking, persuading, berating, dictating, indoctrinating... and spent more time listening, observing, tending, nurturing...
5. I was raised in a Jewish household and am only recently beginning to appreciate Scripture and its place in contemporary Quakerism.
Recently I've begun wondering if there are certain stories or passages in the Torah, the "first five books," that Quakers draw on for teachings--aside from "Love thy neighbor" and "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, and with all your strength..." (Deuteronomy 6:5)
It seems as if Quakers don't draw on the Old Testament in anywhere near the same proportion as we do with the New Testament, yet Jesus was Jewish. I'm finding I want to hear from Quakers who are better versed than I in Scripture as to what elements of the Old Testament do Friends look to for guidance; and is there a reason we don't hear many Friends quote these [Hebrew] texts? (...or am I just worshiping in the wrong meeting?)
Now this is a question I truly can't answer fully! For one thing, it's such a new question for myself that I've hardly had time to consider it.
Off the top of my head then, I might conjecture a few things:
1. Is it easier for us, as pacifists, to find a good many more teachings about nonviolence in the life of Jesus and in the Gospels than it is to find similar teachings in the Hebrew texts?
2. Is it that the Hebrew texts, which are three to four times as long as the Christian ones, are harder to plow through because of their length? Also, do the details of who begat whom and the 613 commandments distract us from the meaty stories of Noah, Moses, and Esther?
3. Is it that the many worshipers who find their way to Quakerism come from a Christian background and in their own religious upbringing, were exposed primarily to the New Testament...?
So my question remains:
If Jesus was Jewish, and if two of the primary commandments of Christianity--"Love the Lord your God..." and "Love your neighbor as yourself"--come from the Jewish texts, why do Quakers seem to pay so little attention to the much larger portion of Scripture, the Scripture that Jesus himself presumably drew on?Blessings,
Getting ready for date night, which at this very moment means clearning up place so that it's at minimal acceptability levels for babysitter http://twitter.com/martin_kelley/statuses/807609987
Still early in data but first results show amazing analytics numbers on new savestmarys.net campaign site. Link http://twitter.com/martin_kelley/statuses/807532159
Trying online video conferencing software, research for client. Anyone have favorites I should look at? Should look professional. http://twitter.com/martin_kelley/statuses/807298624
This weekend, I have a Quaker Center Board meeting to clerk, a nominations report to prepare, and a 10th birthday party to bake for. And it's my mother's birthday and then it's business meeting and mother's day and then the ten year old's actual birthday. And I'm in the middle of writing a book review, and a whole backlog of blog posts and magazine submissions half done or still floating in my head, which are going to drive me crazy until I get them down on paper. And next week is the first local evening workshop which is serving as a trial run for part of my FGC workshop this summer. No wonder my housekeeping is veering into the disaster zone.
Feel free to vent here too about your crazy to-do list.
An update to Save St Mary's campaign Julie's gotten so involved with. She's now finished typing in a 1990s-era church history and put up a report of today's rally, along with some pictures. Very cool.
Hey Jeff @hipp2bsquare, welcome to Twitter, now share something trivial with us all! http://twitter.com/martin_kelley/statuses/806684933
33.08 km 108514.70 feet 20.55 mi 6387.00 seconds 106.45 minutes 1.77 hours 11.58 mi/hr
Rode out to a friend's house on Bagdad Road. Upwind all the way out, and on the way back, the wind was pushing me up the hills.
Last updated:
May 16, 2008 05:10 AM
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Contact: Russ Nelson
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