Planet Quaker

34.09 km 111843.18 feet 21.18 mi 7938.00 seconds 132.30 minutes 2.21 hours 9.61 mi/hr

A slightly shorter ride today, only 21 miles. Stopped to talk to a couple of friends who live on the way.

May 16, 2012 04:20 AM

This is just so depressing: the Facebook gorilla has bought its second mobile photo sharing app in recent weeks. Lightbox was a great app. It auto-posted to everything I cared about (Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Foursquare, Flickr) but also had its own beautiful website that kept it above the fray. Lightbox (my account is/was at http://martinkelley.lightbox.com/) was what Flickr should have and could have become and it let me enjoy the fantasy while also dual-posting to Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/martin_kelley), which has stored my photos since Mark Zuckerberg was in training diapers. For more on the Flickr that never was, see today’s piece in Gizmodo, “How Yahoo Killed Flickr and Lost the Internet.”

Lightbox is joining Facebook!
We started Lightbox because we were excited about creating new services built primarily for mobile, especially for the Android and HTML5 platforms, and we’re honored that millions of you have…

View post on Google+

May 15, 2012 08:22 PM

44.29 km 145300.60 feet 27.52 mi 10704.00 seconds 178.40 minutes 2.97 hours 9.26 mi/hr

27 miles seems like a decent ride. Not too long, not too short.

May 15, 2012 05:04 AM

Some good tips about polling your website’s audience to learn what they’re looking for. The author +Daniel Treadwell the developer of the Google+Blog plug-in for WordPress that lets you sync between the two.

Know your Audience
Last year with the release of Google+ it was made very obvious that a large amount of people have been looking for a new community that allows them to share their time, their art and their opinions with others in a way that was not previously available.

Once you have gained a significant amount of followers (and this amount is subjective and personal, what is a large number to one may not be to another) most people will start to wonder exactly what it is that their audience is most interested in

Google+: View post on Google+

May 14, 2012 09:45 PM

20.61 km 67629.25 feet 12.81 mi 9759.00 seconds 162.65 minutes 2.71 hours 4.72 mi/hr

Went up to Norwood to catch a train carrying windmill blades, each two flatcars long. One of the flat cars carries no weight -- and is just there as a spacer. The entire train was 6000' long, and fully half of it was empty flatcars. The train came from out west, and still have its Union Pacific power (two). They were handing off the train to the New York & Ogdensburg, which was hauling the blades to its port in Ogdensburg. From there, the blades were transferred to trucks.

I don't know how fast they were running most of the trip, but when they were pulling the train into the yard, they were only going 7 miles/hour.

May 13, 2012 12:40 AM

62.41 km 204745.81 feet 38.78 mi 17314.00 seconds 288.57 minutes 4.81 hours 8.06 mi/hr

The lawnmower needed a belt which wasn't in stock at our Tractor Supply store, and the one in Massena had it. Rather than ruin my bicycle ride by driving up to get it, I decided that the bicycle ride would BE going up to get it.

May 13, 2012 12:36 AM

President Obama’s been attributing some of his so-called “evolution” on same-sex marriage to his daughters. As he told ABC’s Robin Roberts:

You know, Malia and Sasha, they have friends whose parents are same-sex couples. There have been times where Michelle and I have been sitting around the dinner table, and we’re talking about their friends and their parents and Malia and Sasha, it wouldn’t dawn on them that somehow their friends’ parents would be treated differently. It doesn’t make sense to them and, frankly, that’s the kind of thing that prompts a change in perspective.

So where do Obama’s daughter’s independent friends come from? Like most tweens the likeliest answer is school–in their case, Sidwell Friends. It’s not unlikely that the “evolution” owed something to the Quaker environment there.

Most elite Quaker schools have only a token base of Quaker students and teachers, so we can’t assume that Malia and Sasha’s friends are Friends. Like many outward-facing Quaker institutions, modern Friends schools’ strongest claim to Quakerism is the values and discernment techniques they share with the wider world. They consciously transmit a style and pedagogy and create an environment of openness and diversity. Of course the Obama kids are going to rub up against non-traditional marriages at a East Coast Quaker school. And no one should be surprised if they bring a little of that back home when the school bus drops them off at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

NYTimes: Obama Girls Influence the President — Again
President Obama often uses his daughters, Malia and Sasha, as object lessons in explaining his reasoning behind important policy positions.

May 11, 2012 12:35 AM

May 07, 2012 03:23 AM

Some t-ball pictures from Francis’s t-ball league, the awesome South Jersey Field of Dreams. Album (12 photos)

May 07, 2012 03:07 AM

70.56 km 231491.59 feet 43.84 mi 15325.00 seconds 255.42 minutes 4.26 hours 10.30 mi/hr

Going to ride the Erie Canal Tour in July. Need to train for an average of 50 miles a day, day after day.

May 06, 2012 11:41 PM

29.44 km 96582.13 feet 18.29 mi 5244.00 seconds 87.40 minutes 1.46 hours 12.56 mi/hr

Rode on US-11 out to CR-47. Was going to go all the way down to US-11B, but I started to run out of daylight, plus the clouds which had rained earlier were starting to threaten. The ground is very saturated with water this spring.

May 05, 2012 04:19 PM

A must-read piece from Cory Doctorow for those interested in the changes in publishing, Why the death of DRM would be good news for readers, writers and publishers.  He’s predicting the end of DRM (digital rights management) and looking forward to a day when formats and readers are interchangable:

The cheap-and-cheerful manufacturers at the low end don’t have a secondary market they’re trying to protect, no app store or crucial vendor relationship with a big distributor or publisher. They just want a product that ticks the box for every possible customer. Since multiformat support is just a matter of getting the software right, what tends to happen is that a standard, commodity firmware emerges for these devices that just works for just about everything, and the formats vanish into the background.

Many readers and publishers have been upset at the recent Department of Justice accusations of price-fixing by major publishers. The real bad guy, we’re reminded over and over, is Amazon. The publishers are so scared of Amazon that they developed a pricing scheme (the “agency model”) that often nets them less money than they get from Amazon. But for all it’s market share, most of Amazon’s advantages come from smart salesmanship and a big-picture view that helps it develop an ecosystem that “locks in” customers (e.g., I use Amazon video on demand to watch TV, which means I get free shipping when I purchase from them, I get to “borrow” an electronic book a month, etc., which means when I wanted to buy an e-reader, it was really only a matter of which model of Kindle I would choose). As Doctorow points out, the most ubiqutious e-reader is the cellphone and most of us get a new one every two years–Amazon’s dominance could end relatively quickly with the right competition. Getting rid of DRM content levels the playing field.

I’m not sure I’m as optimistic as Doctorow that DRM is about to simply disappear. But I agree it’s what needs to happen. It would make Amazon just another seller. Publishers could stop focusing on it and start taking taking more responsbility for shaping the future of publishing. (Where might that be going? Five Reasons The Future Will Be Ruled By B.S. is a highly entertaining read and more correct than incorrect.) But gloom is not the forecast. A recent article in The Atlantic (chart right) persuasively argues that we are in a Golden Age of readership:

Our collective memory of past is astoundingly inaccurate. Not only has the number of people reading not declined precipitously, it’s actually gone up since the perceived golden age of American letters. So, then why is there this widespread perception that we are a fallen literary people? I think, as Marshall Kirkpatrick says, that social media acts as a kind of truth serum. Before, only the literary people had platforms. Now, all the people have platforms.

The other thread that’s been running through my head these past few weeks is a G+ post from Tim O’Reilly that pulls a quote from terrific quote from Hemingway (“How did you go bankrupt?” “Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.”):

I love lines from literature that crystallize a notion, and then become tools in your mental toolbox. This is one of those. Keep it handy, because you’re going to see “gradually, then suddenly” processes happen increasingly in the next few decades, not just in technology and in industries transformed by technology, but in global issues like climate change, and in politics.

May 04, 2012 11:30 PM

We went to see Dad in April, just the kids and me. It was a good visit, just a few days, but long enough for us to spend time together. We actually talked, which is new, and was really nice.

He’s actually doing very, very well. He had a scan last week and got the results on Monday. Apparently, his therapy is doing what it’s supposed to do–halting the tumors’ growth and even shrinking them a tiny bit. They’re small anyway, with the largest only 10mm now, so that’s good news.

And the side effects are manageable: he’s lost his sense of taste, gets very tired after lunch, and gets blisters on his palms, and his hair is going completely white. He also got an itchy scalp this time around, which is new. But his appetite is good, and his mood is good as well. I think he’s grateful that the treatment is working so well, and that helps keep his spirits up.

He’ll be moving house this week, which is a big deal for him. The house he’s moving from is one that he and my stepmom built together over 30 years ago. I remember when the land was just that–a piece of land, full of wild grass and random trees. Now it’s a home, the home where I grew up. I’ll miss it, and so will he, but it’s too much maintenance for them anymore. So they’re moving to a single-story place with a smaller yard and vinyl siding, so less upkeep. Next time I visit (in July or August), that’s where they’ll be. Pretty weird…

May 04, 2012 03:16 AM

Hard to believe, but a huge racetrack of international renown once sat on Moss Mill Road just east of Hammonton, NJ. The site is now indistinguishable forrest, with a typical Pine Barren sand trail that follows the old oval. I haven’t explored it yet but hope to soon. Just Google for Amatol Raceway and you’ll find lots of pictures and accounts.

May 03, 2012 12:50 AM

I was surprised, about a decade ago, to find someone who proclaimed himself a Christian and a Biblical Literalist (his capital letters) - but who didn't think the Sermon on the Mount applied to him.

He'd been talking on a political forum about how the best thing to do to pacifists was punch them in the face, wait for them to get up, ask them if they were still pacifists, and if they said yes, punch them in the face again, then repeat. Yes. That was his gentle version.

I asked him how it squared with his proclaimed faith and the Sermon on the Mount that's generally front and center in Christian conversation, and he said, no, no, the Sermon on the Mount is "kingdom teaching". It's a nice idea now, but only tells you what the kingdom to come will look like. In the meantime, it doesn't apply to Christians.

I was puzzled, but over the next few years later I found more discussion of this approach, which seems to come from the dispensationalist interpretation of the Scofield Reference Bible. If you take the notes to the Sermon on the Mount in that Bible literally, you can reach that conclusion, exempting yourself from considering the Sermon on the Mount (and its parallels, and many other similar passages) obligatory.

The notes (which are now out of copyright) read:

Having announced the kingdom of heaven as "at hand," the King, in Mat 5.-7., declares the principles of the kingdom. The Sermon on the Mount has a twofold application:

1. literally to the kingdom. In this sense it gives the divine constitution for the righteous government of the earth. Whenever the kingdom of heaven is established on earth it will be according to that constitution, which may be regarded as an explanation of the word "righteousness" as used by the prophets in describing the kingdom (e.g.) Isaiah 11:4 Isaiah 11:5 ; 32:1 ; Daniel 9:24

   In this sense the Sermon on the Mount is pure law, and transfers the offence from the overt act to the motive. Matthew 5:21 Matthew 5:22 Matthew 5:27 Matthew 5:28 . Here lies the deeper reason why the Jews rejected the kingdom. They had reduced "righteousness" to mere ceremonialism, and the Old Testament idea of the kingdom to a mere affair of outward splendour and power. They were never rebuked for expecting a visible and powerful kingdom, but the words of the prophets should have prepared them to expect also that only the poor in spirit and the meek could share in it (e.g.) Isaiah 11:4 . The seventy-second Psalm, which was universally received by them as a description of the kingdom, was full of this.

   For these reasons, the Sermon on the Mount in its primary application gives neither the privilege nor the duty of the Church. These are found in the Epistles. Under the law of the kingdom, for example, no one may hope for forgiveness who has not first forgiven. Matthew 6:12 Matthew 6:14 Matthew 6:15 . Under grace the Christian is exhorted to forgive because he is already forgiven. Ephesians 4:30-32 .

2. But there is a beautiful moral application to the Christian. It always remains true that the poor in spirit, rather than the proud, are blessed, and those who mourn because of their sins, and who are meek in the consciousness of them, will hunger and thirst after righteousness, and hungering, will be filled. The merciful are "blessed," the pure in heart do "see God." These principles fundamentally reappear in the teaching of the Epistles.

(line breaks and emphasis added)

Though this certainly strikes many of the components of the earlier description of the Passivist conversation, it has many other consequences. (American premillenial dispensationalists did, for a long time, find other reasons to stay out of activism beyond what they considered strictly religious, but returned as a force in the political world over the past several decades.)

I've never found Scofield's reading of the Bible to be anything close to literal or even to resemble plausible. I can't propose this approach as an acceptable path away from Passivism.

April 29, 2012 09:10 PM

I've spent a lot of the last few years contemplating the difference between "pacifism" and what I call "passivism" - sometimes dismissively, sometimes appreciatively.

Passivism comes from a plausible reading of the New Testament. It gets used on defense:

"I don't do X because I'm imperfect and it's God's to change."

It also gets used on offense:

"You shouldn't do X because it's God's to change and who do think you are you imperfect person, you hypocrite."

It can bring arguments to a sudden end, as people who've deployed it for offense have frequently also used it for defense, and find criticism of this point personally, well, offensive.

How do you get here? It's not difficult to proof-text, even just from the Sermon on the Mount. Citations are from Matthew, in the King James Version. (I cite the KJV because it's a translation whose creators' biases run largely against my own.) I've bolded verses I've personally heard deployed to criticize other people or to justify inaction.

Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.(5:5)

Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. (5:7)

Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. (5:9)

Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.

Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: (5:11-12)

I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.

Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee;

Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.

Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison.

Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing. (5:22-26)

Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth:

But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.

And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also.

And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain.

Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.

Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.

But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;

That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?

And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?

Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.(5:38-48)

Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? (6:25)

But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. (6:34-35)

Judge not, that ye be not judged.

For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.

And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?

Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?

Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye. (7:1-5)

That's a large part of the Sermon on the Mount, much of which repeats in the Sermon on the Plain (Luke 17-49). Matthew 22:31 provides the oft-quoted "Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's."

It's not just Jesus' statements, but what he does. He regularly dines with the unjust (tax collectors, or publicans as the KJV calls them), bringing salvation to the house of Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1-9) and following up with a parable (19:12-27) about how "unto every one which hath shall be given; and from him that hath not, even that he hath shall be taken away from him." (Luke 19:26).

Jesus heals the servant of a centurion, "a man under authority, having soldiers under me" (Matthew 8:9) and says of him, "I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel" (Matthew 8:10). He defends the woman who took "an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his head", in a feisty conversation with his disciples:

Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper,

There came unto him a woman having an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his head, as he sat at meat.

But when his disciples saw it, they had indignation, saying, To what purpose is this waste?

For this ointment might have been sold for much, and given to the poor.

When Jesus understood it, he said unto them, Why trouble ye the woman? for she hath wrought a good work upon me.

For ye have the poor always with you; but me ye have not always.

For in that she hath poured this ointment on my body, she did it for my burial.

Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her.

Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went unto the chief priests...

See where questioning Jesus about wasted wealth takes you?

When one of the disciples cuts off the ear of a servant of the high priest, come to take Jesus to his trial and crucifixion, Jesus immediately heals him. (Luke 22:50-51).

In Acts 8:26-40, Philip baptizes the Ethiopian, "an eunuch of great authority... who had the charge of all her treasure" without ever stopping to question that authority.

Paul has similar moments. Perhaps the most startling today is Colossians 3:22, "slaves, obey your masters," which the KJV broadens a bit to servants:

Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh; not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but in singleness of heart, fearing God;

The Letter to Titus reinforces that:

Exhort servants to be obedient unto their own masters, and to please them well in all things; not answering again;

Not purloining, but shewing all good fidelity; that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things. (Titus 2:9-10)

Another piece from Paul, Romans 13:1-7, is a classic text often used to argue that Christians should obey the civil authority regardless of what it does:

Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.

Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.

For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same:

For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.

Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake.

For for this cause pay ye tribute also: for they are God's ministers, attending continually upon this very thing.

Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour.

There are others, but this list is, I think, most of the foundation.

After reading all this, can you still imagine daring to interfere with the workings of the world? (Yes, that's next.)

April 29, 2012 01:08 AM

I’m part of a discussion at the Pendle Hill conference center outside Philadelphia next month. Everyone’s invited. It’s a rare chance to really bring a lot of different readers and media producers (official and DIY) together into the same room to map out where Quaker media is headed. If you’re a passionate reader or think that Quaker publications are vital to our spiritual movement, then do try to make it out.

Youtube, Twitter, podcasts, blogs, books. Where’s it all going and who’s doing it? How does it tie back to Quakerism? What does it mean for Friends and our institutions? Join panelists Charles Martin, Gabriel Ehri and Martin Kelley, along with Quaker publishers and writers from around the world, and readers and media enthusiasts, for a wide-ranging discussion about the future of Quaker media.

We will begin with some worship at 7.00pm If you’d like a delicious Pendle Hill dinner beforehand please reply to the Facebook event wall (see http://on.fb.me/quakermedia). Dinner is at 6.00pm and will cost $12.50

This is part of this year’s Quakers Uniting in Publications conference. QUIP has been having to re-imagine its role over the last ten years as so many of its anchor publishers and bookstores have closed. I have a big concern that a lot of online Quaker material is being produced by non-Quakers and/or in ways that aren’t really rooted in typical Quaker processes. Maybe we can talk about that some at Pendle Hill.

April 27, 2012 08:16 PM

19.00 km 62350.25 feet 11.81 mi 3758.00 seconds 62.63 minutes 1.04 hours 11.31 mi/hr

Low 60's, but windy. Still needed a coat, but it was a nice ride anyway.

April 14, 2012 03:01 AM

On a late lunch, just finished “Conflicting Views on Foreign Missions: The Mission Board of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of Freinds in the 1920s” by Tesuko Toda from the Fall 2011 issue of Quaker History.

Sounds like a page turner, right? But it’s interesting history that’s still resonating. Toda’s piece sheds light on a generational sea change that happened among the evangelical-leaning subset of Philadelphia Friends (a minority of the Orthodox yearly meeting):

When the story begins, Friends interested in mission work have to organize independent of the yearly meeting. Over time they come into the fold but it’s right when younger Friends are giving up the idea of bringing Christianity to the heathens for the idea of international fellowship (a similar attitude change was happening throughout Protestant denominations).  Toda writes:

Young Philadelphian Friends did support foreign missions, but did not support conventional ones. Actually, none of them approved of foreign missions aimed at conversion. Although some pointed out the advantages of Friends missions, no one insisted on denominational missions. What kind of foreign missions did young Philadelphia Friends think was suitable for the new era (the 1920s), then? The first point to be noted is that young Philadelphia Friends unanimously had a negative view of traditional missionaries.

There’s a lot of back-and-forth in the group but it finally funnelled its energies into the still-new American Friends Service Committee. The AFSC had been set up to support conscientious objectors in World War I and there was no expection that it might continue after the war. That it did was because it better represented the internation fellowship model.

I’m not going to write a full review but those of you interested in the sociological history of that kind of bold, “let’s change the world” energy in Friends should look it up, as should those curious about how generational shifts sometimes play out in yearly meeting politics.

April 13, 2012 07:43 PM

A nice post from Micah Bales on the necessity of not just the cross, but resurrection as well:

Of course, [the persecution and betrayal] is not the part of the story that motivates me. I am not seeking to be abused and betrayed, let down by my best friends and hunted by those in power. I may recognize the necessity of suffering, but by no means do I seek it out. I think most of us gravitate towards the triumphant victory and joy of Jesus’ resurrection.

It seems to me there are three essential components to the Jesus biography: the teacher, the martyr and the resurrected Spirit. When we dismiss or discount one piece, we limit our understanding and motivation to act.

The first part of the Jesus puzzle is the ministry of Jesus. This is the most palatable to religious liberals. This is Jesus the wise rabbi, the activist, the social change agent who may or may not have any claim of divinity to him. This Jesus gave the inspiring speech of the Sermon on the Mount, the one who saved the wedding party with the water-to-wine trick, who had a folksy parable for every occasion. Without this Jesus we both loose sight of the need for the humility of the Beatitudes and forget our responsibility to the economically and spiritually poor. Just about all of our testimonies come from the Sermon on the Mount: it’s our guide for what the Kingdom on Earth should look like.

The second Jesus was the Jesus of the cross, the martyr who  went willingly to his death. Stop and think: he knew what was coming and he kept following his fate. This is the Jesus who inspires us to act in the face of overwhelming odds. Friends and our anabaptist brethren are fond of urging one another to “take up the cross” in our own lives, even if that makes us misunderstood or unpopular. When early Friends tried to discern the leadings of the Holy Spirit, one of the tests of a course of an action was not wanting to do it. Without Jesus of the cross we double-guess any inexplicable leadings we’re given and run from the impossible.

But life isn’t just drunken parties and tortured deaths. The final Jesus was the resurrected one, the son of God come back to tell us there is more after this life, who stays with us through the miracle of continual Pentecost. There’s more to life than our physical world. This Jesus is essential for us mystical unprogrammed Friends: this is the Messenger come knocking on the doors of our heart to admonish and guide us. When we sit in silence on First Day, this is the Jesus we wait upon; he is the Light to whom the first Friends testified.

How can we hold all each of the aspects of tthe Guide and Comforter together in our spiritual life and with our religious community?

April 12, 2012 12:06 AM

From Callid Keefe-Perry, a vlog entry on the apparent discrepancy between what Friends think they want to be doing (outreach) versus what they think makes for a healthy meeting (deep worship), as indicated by a just-released survey from Friends General Conference, the umbrella organization for many of North America’s Liberal Friends.

Callid says:

there’s a disconnect between deep worship as a mark of health, and outreach as the most important thing to do. We try as people to make things happen that are beyond our control. If we really attended to deep worship, if we attended to rooting our communies in a sense of discipleship and discipline, then outreach and care for community, and leading by example would come from that. Those things are fruits; their root is living in the presence, living in gospel order. I’m concerned that in the hustle and bustle of outreach and making things work we might miss that still small voice. [Loose transcript, lightly edited]

There is much we can do to promote community awareness of Friends (aka “outreach”), but I suspect the greatest effect of our efforts is internal–raising our own consciousness about how to be visible and welcoming. Friends are always getting free publicity (just this morning I finished Jeffrey Eugenides’s The Marriage Plot, whose final pages are practically an ad for our religious society, and there’s the seeker-producing mill of the Belief-o-Matic Quiz). What if visibility isn’t our biggest problem? Callid’s post reminds me of something that Robin Mohr said when I interviewed her “Eight Questions on Convergent Friends” for Friends Journal:

Though it may be different in other places, San Francisco always had people visiting; there was no shortage of new visitors. The key was getting them to come back… I don’t think the Convergent Friends movement is necessarily going to solve our outreach issues, but it can absolutely change the retention rate.

April 10, 2012 01:13 AM

36.00 km 118121.34 feet 22.37 mi 9404.00 seconds 156.73 minutes 2.61 hours 8.56 mi/hr

First ride on the Rutland Trail this season. Needs a bit of chainsawing and brush chopping. And it seriously needs all the ATV mudpits filled in.

April 08, 2012 10:11 PM

30.95 km 101545.21 feet 19.23 mi 9494.00 seconds 158.23 minutes 2.64 hours 7.29 mi/hr

Rode into town to go for a ride on Clarkson's single track. Either I'm just getting better at single track, or else I'm starting to learn where the twists and turns go, because this was an easier ride for me than the last time a few weeks ago.

April 08, 2012 12:33 AM

Google threatens/promises to blur the line between reality and virtuality even more with their new glasses. Complete with gratuitous ukelele subplot.

The big-G explains:

A team within our Google[x] group started Project Glass to build this kind of technology, one that helps you explore and share your world, putting you back in the moment.

Of course, if Google or someone else does start selling these, expect another round of water-cooler punditry around the way we’ve lost touch with the real world. Might just be right this time, of course.

April 06, 2012 04:02 AM

I have a goal of riding every named Rail-Trail in New York State. There are many more railbeds not used for trains anymore which are also ridable. They are usually unnamed, unsigned, and unpublished. I speculate that this is because the owner is either indifferent or away. I've ridden some of these but I'm more interested in getting the named trails ridden first. I'm maintaining the list of NY rail-trails on my Rutland Trail website.

Rode the Town of Edwards trail a couple of weeks ago, and last weekend I rode the South County, the Walden-Walkill, and the Hurleyville trails.

Trails I've ridden:

• Auburn Fleming Trail,
• Ballston Bike Trail,
• Black River Recreational Trail,
• Bog Meadow Brook,
• Canalway Trail (Rochester/Greece),
• Cato Fair Haven Trail
• (again, partially)
• Catskill Scenic Trail (west of Stamford),
• Catskill Scenic Trail (east of Stamford),
• Cayuga Hojack Trail,
• Corning Bike Path,
• DnH Canal Heritage Corridor North,
• DnH Canal Heritage Corridor South, (partially)
• Dutchess Rail Trail,
• Fonda, Johnstown and Gloversville Rail Trail,
• Genesee Valley Greenway 1 (partial),
• Genesee Valley Greenway 2 (still partial, but more),
• Gorge Trail,
• Harlem Valley Rail Trail,
• Hudson Valley Rail Trail,
• Jim Schug Trail,
• Jim Tedisco Fitness Trail,
• Joseph B. Clarke Railtrail
• Lehigh Valley Rail Trail (Naples),
• Lehigh Valley Trail North (Rush),
• Lehigh Valley Trail North (Crittenden),
• Lehigh Valley Trail (Rochester/Rush/Mendon),
• Maple City Trail,
• Mohawk-Hudson Bike Trail,
• North County Trailway,
• NYO&W Woodridge Rail Trail
• NYO&W Hurleyville Rail Trail
• Ontario Pathways Rail Trail,
• Orange Heritage Trailway (the unimproved eastern end),
• Orange Heritage Trailway (the official paved section),
• Oswego Recreational Trail,
• Pittsford Railroad Loop Trail,
• Putnam County Trailway,
• Railroad Run,
• Rivergate Trail,
• Rochester, Syracuse n Eastern Trolley Trail,
• The Rutland Trail (many many times),
• South County Trailway (southern portion)
• South County Trailway (northern portion)
• South Hill Recreation Way,
• Spring Run Trail,
• Tannersville Bike Path (Huckleberry Multi-Use Trail),
• The Uncle Sam Bikeway,
• Town of Edwards Nature Trail,
• Vestal Rail Trail,
• Wallkill Valley Rail Trail,
• Walden-Walkill Rail Trail (which I had called the Shawangunk Rail Trail),
• Warren County Bikeway,
• Zim Smith Trail,

Trails I haven't (yet) ridden:

Allegheny River Valley Trail, Canalway Trail (partially ridden), Chautauqua Alison Wells Ney, Chautauqua Brockton Area Recreational Trail, Chautauqua Brocton Area Recreational Trail, Chautauqua Laurie A. Baer Trail, Chautauqua Nadine and Paul Webb Trail, Chautauqua Nancy B. Diggs Trail, Chautauqua Ralph C. Sheldon Jr. Trail, Chautauqua Village of Mayville Trail, Cheektowaga Trail, Clarence Akron Pathway (still need to ride the other half), Genesee Valley Greenway (still need to ride it end-to-end), Lehigh Memory Trail, Lehigh Valley Linear Trail, Newstead trail, NYO&W Liberty Rail Trail NYO&W Parkville Rail Trail PatMcGeeTrail, Philip A. Rayhill Memorial Recreational Trail, Portage Trail, Sodus Point to Wallington Trail (doesn't really exist yet), Tarrytown Lakes extension, White Plains Greenway (bicycles prohibited, so I'll be walking this),

April 05, 2012 12:54 AM

16.18 km 53074.73 feet 10.05 mi 4058.00 seconds 67.63 minutes 1.13 hours 8.92 mi/hr

Rode the Walden-Walkill Rail Trail, plus a bit more. The railbed between the two communities is nicely paved, with park benches, and structured road crossings and trailhead parking relatively nearby. There's a bit more to the north which is ridable. It dead-ends at River Road because beyond that are the grounds of a prison. It would be nice if they could make some provision for bypassing the prison, because about another two miles north is the Walkill Valley Trail. In principle, depending on property ownership, that railtrail could be extended all the way to Kingston.

April 05, 2012 12:44 AM

30.61 km 100411.38 feet 19.02 mi 10607.00 seconds 176.78 minutes 2.95 hours 6.45 mi/hr

Rode the Hurleyville Rail-Trail. Even though the sign on the trailhead says "No ATVs" and "No Snowmobiles", ATVs seem to be the only users of the trail. That may be because ATVs have turned the trail into a sandpit to the east, and a mudpit to the west. Still, if you can get past the 1/4 mile of hellish terrain, the trail becomes much better; tolerable even.

I rode to the east all the way to South Fallsburg, which I had explored about a year ago. The old railroad station is now the police station, much expanded. Beyond that the railbed is overgrown where it isn't people's front yards. Rode to the west all the way to the Quickway (NY-17), where the railbed is cut off.

April 05, 2012 12:22 AM

37.87 km 124242.57 feet 23.53 mi 8941.00 seconds 149.02 minutes 2.48 hours 9.47 mi/hr

Rode the northern portion of the South County Trailway on Friday. They finished paving it last October. I had visited it in March of 2011 and rode the southern portion of the trailway. I tried riding through the unimproved section, but it was far too muddy. Now, it's gorgeous new pavement.

Now, there's just one impediment to having one complete off-road rail-trail. There are a couple of metal scrapyards in Elmsford which make for about a half-mile of unpassable ROW. Like, really impassable, with fences and crap piled on the trail.

April 04, 2012 11:52 PM

Last weekend I attended a symposium called “Ageless Grace: Women in Leadership in the Church and in the World” at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University. There were two main presenters with two responders on stage, and then a period of questions and answers after each. The first presenter was Melanne Verveer, U.S. Ambassador at Large for Global Women’s Issues. The second was M. Cathleen Kaveny, Professor of Law and Theology at Notre Dame University. It reminded me of all the things I loved about my education at a Jesuit university. For Quakers and for Roman Catholics, on our best days, we share a fearless approach to knowledge as a reflection of God in the world.

What follows is not a description of what the speakers said. This blogpost began as I was asked to share my reflections and reactions at the end of the day, but then the event ran over time, for the best of reasons, and I didn’t get to speak, so I’ve tried to arrange my notes into something slightly more coherent. I may still edit this further for a longer article. As a Quaker, an alumna and a woman in church leadership, I was grateful for the opportunity to reflect on my practice with other women theologians.

Some of what I treasure most about Quaker tradition are the examples of my foremothers. Women who preached the Gospel and traveled far and hard in response to God’s leading.

Women many people have heard of, like Lucretia Coffin Mott and Elizabeth Fry. And like Mary Dyer, who was hanged on Boston Common for daring to preach her Quaker heresy in Massachusetts Bay Colony. Or Margaret Fell, the nursing mother of Quakerism, who wrote a tract in 1667 called “Women Speaking: Justified, Proved and Allowed of by the Scriptures, All such as speak by the Spirit and Power of the Lord Jesus and how Women were the first that Preached the Tidings of the Resurrection of Jesus and were sent by Christ’s own Command, before he ascended to the Father, John 20:17.” For more examples, I recommend the book, Daughters of the Light by Rebecca Larson.

These examples are a gift of Quaker history. It’s not that the Religious Society of Friends is or ever has been free of sexism but no one can point to our tradition and say that’s the way it’s supposed to be.

Inspiring examples of Quaker women are not all long ago and far away. It’s not only the province of extraordinary individuals whose example we could never live up to. They include women who are teaching alternatives to violence right now. Women who are pastoring and preparing to preach, right now.

Inspiring examples also include the women who spoke that afternoon. Women who are letting their lives preach as well as their words. Women who are advocating for truth and justice in their church and in the world.

Women my age and younger have so many examples before us. It’s getting a lot harder to be the first woman to do anything. On the other hand, we won’t have to be the first to do everything.

One benefit of the breadth and length of history is seeing multiple examples of how to be a woman in leadership in the church and the world. For me, it is deeply important that I can be a mother and a minister. But not everyone has to do it my way. God calls each of us by name, not by category.

Another gift of Quaker theology is our understanding of the role of the Holy Spirit - how God is speaking to all of us all the time. Our job is to listen, to try to understand with all our faculties, and to obey God’s leading. But fear gets in the way. I think fear is the single greatest obstacle to hearing and obeying when God calls us to change our minds, our practices, our society, our church institutions.

God’s guidance is more like a sacred compass than a GPS. Jesus gives us a steady point to steer by and gauge our progress, not step by step directions to our destination. (Thank you, Brent Bill, for the metaphor.) Two clichés that come to mind as appropriate for this discussion are “the bigger the ship, the longer it takes to turn it around” and “it’s always darkest before the dawn.”

I did get to have my little input after all. The last question that was read was mine. I asked, “Do you think that all the chaotic, painful events in the relationship of church and society these days are the death knell of religion or the birth pangs of a new role for the church/faith community in the world?”

And here’s my answer: Of course it’s both. A lot of old structures are dying, and some of them are thrashing around and shouting loudly on their way out. But because human beings have an innate capacity for and need for spirituality, new ways of being religious are being born. Those structures that “encourage flourishing,” as Cathleen Kaveny put it, will survive.

I pray for the strength and grace to follow God and lead Friends into ways that encourage flourishing.

March 25, 2012 10:17 PM

23.90 km 78396.11 feet 14.85 mi 4231.00 seconds 70.52 minutes 1.18 hours 12.63 mi/hr

Went from Potsdam to Hannawa to Browns Bridge and back home. Stopped for a few minutes to visit friends, so my pace is actually faster than that.

March 24, 2012 04:53 AM