tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-43875076611526072232024-03-12T19:15:13.299-07:00felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causasKristin Lordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18052075819133204111noreply@blogger.comBlogger37125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4387507661152607223.post-69883361994944135122017-08-22T17:49:00.000-07:002017-08-22T17:51:33.271-07:00J is for Jails (and other forms of incarceration)<style>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "times";">This post is ©Kristin O. Lord 2015—17 </span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "times";">J is for Jails (and other
forms of incarceration)</span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "times";">After a hiatus of more than
two years, I am feeling my way forward again with blogging. What follows is a
truncated version of a post composed as a draft in the summer of 2015. Although
I have removed the most obvious anachronisms, it is to some extent a period
piece from the vanished world of the Obama administration. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "times";">For those who may wonder, I
have eschewed venturing into the basement while alone in the house except when
I have had no other alternative.</span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "times";">I. The basement</span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "times";">“Just a twenty-minute run
through the living room with the central vacuum cleaner,” I thought, “and then
I will be on my way to Vermont to my aunt’s ninetieth birthday party and my
passport renewal on Monday morning. I should also get to Meeting in Middlebury.
Since no one else is in the house, I will be out of here in no time.” It was an
unseasonably warm day in the middle of May back in 2015. This meant that I
needed to disconnect the cord to the dehumidifier and reconnect the one to the
central vac. I opened the basement door, as I had done hundreds of times in the
two decades that we have owned our current house, and turned on the light
switch.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "times";">I then closed the door to keep
the cats from following me. As I did so, however, the sliding bolt that some
previous owner had installed on the basement door —perhaps to keep their
animals or children upstairs— worked its way loose from the open position and
slid across the outside of the door, locking me in. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "times";">I was in a bit of trouble for
several reasons other than the obvious ones. Let me start with the basic
geography. Our house dates from the Victorian era.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>About two-thirds of the first floor of the
main part of the house has a Victorian-style basement underneath; the rest of
the main portion of the house and the almost equally venerable addition in the
back has a crawl space. There is only one set of basement stairs and no
windows. However, looking at my surroundings, I could see the hot water heater,
electrical switch plate, furnace, and a nearly full tank of No. 2 heating oil.
Aside from those necessities, one might find wrapping paper, sealed plastic
storage bins of Christmas decorations, and detritus of various kinds. It is too
damp to store much of value. Clearly, we don’t spend time down in the basement,
so we have had no reason to spend the money to install a land phone line.
Because women’s clothes often have no pockets, I don’t usually carry my cell
phone with me (and I wasn’t that close to leaving the house on the day I was
locked in). </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "times";">I looked at my watch. It was
shortly after 2:00 p.m. My husband and teenage daughter had been gone for at
least an hour. It was thirty minutes’ drive to the mall where they were
planning to run an errand. The errand should take no more than an hour, and
then they should be on their way back. Thus they should be back no later than
three.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "times";">In the interim, I tried in
vain to wiggle to lock back or finagle the door just so. I pressed on the smoke
detector and started shouting in the hope of alerting the next-door neighbors.
Now, as it happens, the walls of the main part of our house are of masonry,
about a foot thick. That means that I didn’t feel the minor earthquake we had a
few years back, but that also means that the neighbors probably wouldn’t have
heard the smoke detector go off even if they had been at the front door soliciting
for the cancer drive. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "times";">At about 2:45 a phone rang
upstairs. Great: the family at the mall think I have already left for Vermont,
and they probably won’t be back until late this evening. Maybe they were going
to see a movie. They usually go see thrillers and crime movies when I am out of
town. That’s it.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "times";">“I’m going to have to escape
from the basement,” I thought. I cast a gimlet eye on that tank of No. 2
heating oil. The master switch to the furnace was overhead —I did imply above,
I think, that the heat of the day meant that the circulating fan was running,
not the furnace <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">per se</i>— but, frankly,
having control of the master switch was not good enough, given the mere
existence of that fuel oil, nor was spending however many hours cleaning up the
basement. Besides, there was no toilet, and the only item resembling a
receptacle<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>that was readily apparent was
a plant pot with holes in the bottom. So, how was I going to break out? Because
of the dampness, we had removed any carpentry equipment of value years ago.
Rifling through that one drawer that might have something, I could find the
screwdriver we last used to repair the sewing machine. Elsewhere, my search
turned up an ice pick, two ski poles, and a garden shovel with a pointed end. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgynJlgSofMZhjYdK4R9vNsuof_UKqkGy_deexhl9g4EdTfeZwG_zDYbFq8zoZmZJHgEx2Uh4ZTuW1clSp6KS3ktxPmk0hyphenhyphenA4VKE4OGpzatOLfu7WY8idhmcXU554V1YyhU23CJDyvqQvk/s1600/Mount_mansfield_Jared_CBenedict_20040926.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgynJlgSofMZhjYdK4R9vNsuof_UKqkGy_deexhl9g4EdTfeZwG_zDYbFq8zoZmZJHgEx2Uh4ZTuW1clSp6KS3ktxPmk0hyphenhyphenA4VKE4OGpzatOLfu7WY8idhmcXU554V1YyhU23CJDyvqQvk/s320/Mount_mansfield_Jared_CBenedict_20040926.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Where the ski poles should have been used:</div>
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Mt. Mansfield, Vermont</div>
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Photo © Jared C. Benedict 2004 </div>
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Wikimedia Commons</div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "times";"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "times";">I efficiently got the door
handle off the door, but the hole was too small to work anything down to touch
the bolt. I went after the side door jamb nearest the bolt with the ice pick,
which broke off almost immediately. It was now 3:00. No sign of any humans, and
by this time the cats, far from trying to get into the basement, would long
since have hidden under a bed upstairs. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "times";">At this point I remembered
that falls on the basement stairs were notoriously dangerous. Indeed, I could
think of an example. At the very least, I needed to brace myself with the
railing against the inevitable ricochet of force if the ski pole managed to
dislodge the door jamb. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "times";">Success!! But even with about
a quarter to three-eighths of an inch of the bolt now visible, I couldn’t pry
it off with the ski pole or whack it away with the shovel. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "times";">Let’s get real: The door was
solid pine about an inch and a half thick. I had a weak right wrist and knee
not completely healed from falling off the ladder the previous summer. I could
try to use the shovel to break a hole in the door, but was that in my best
interest? In any case, it was an insult to humanity to think that I was
escaping from the Lubyanka. The thought of the Dannemora penitentiary in
upstate New York might have come to come to mind had I bothered to consider the
comparisons; I have driven by there many times, and two Friends from Middlebury
had an once had an extensive research and volunteer project at that “facility.”
However, the only successful escape from Dannemora in more than a century had
not yet taken place. The two prisoners who tunneled their way out some days
later were probably burrowing under the prison wall as I was contemplating
whacking the shovel against the basement door.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "times";">I whacked the door. Splinters
came off at the edge. I would be blasted if I would stay entombed without any
means of egress. It would be just my luck to have an emergency with the
furnace. There was no toilet. How long would it take for people to come back?
It was 3:15. No one was clambering up the front steps. I kept going. 3:30. I
was a third of the way through the thickness of the door, and the phone rang
again upstairs. I found a bag and a wallpaper brush to start removing
splintered wood from the stairs as I beat the door with the shovel.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "times";">By 4:15 I had chiseled a rough
opening over an inch in diameter and used the shovel and ski pole to dislodge
the bolt just enough to open it. I then locked the door from upstairs with the
same bolt (which, amazingly, was still more or less intact). I retrieved my
purse and found the two unanswered calls on my cell phone, to which I was
finally able to respond. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "times";">The other humans in the family
turned up an hour later, incredulous that someone with a weak wrist had even
wanted to break down the door. Why didn’t I trust them? Trust?? By that time I
had booked our handyman to repair or replace the basement door and install a
modern door knob and lock. I was on my way to the shower and in no mood to take
questions.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "times";">I was also in no condition to
drive to Vermont until the next day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>That evening my husband and daughter alternated between fearing that I
must have been out my mind just a bit (something they might have suspected
already), expressing concern that the more nervous of our two cats might be in
hiding for several days (in the end, she came out from under the bed at dinner
time), and sympathizing with me to the extent that being imprisoned, to all
intents and purposes, and for no good reason, would have been nerve-wracking.
Any reasonable person would have been frightened. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "times";">Looking at a Psychology 101
textbook would show that what I experienced was a classic example of the
fight-or-flight instinct. There is a rush of adrenalin, which explains why my
wrist held up through the entire “adventure.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>People react better or worse in such situations, depending on a variety
of factors specific to the circumstances, the society in question, and the
individual. I belong in the “worse” category, for a variety of reasons which I
do not wish to divulge at the moment, but which —believe me— would explain my
response. Those reasons were no doubt the basis of my husband’s decision to not
give me me a hard time for breaking down the door. Other people might not have
been so generous.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "times";">As I drove to Vermont the next
morning, I kept looking in the rear view mirrors. I was relieved when I saw no
unusual situations on the road and no unexpected sightings of police officers.
I kept thinking of how I might react if I were caught in the wrong place and
the wrong time by a police officer<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>—or
any other person wielding a weapon— who might have a negative presupposition of
my ethnicity, gender, or some other feature over which I had no control. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "times";">I missed Meeting for Worship,
my aunt’s ninetieth birthday party, and those relatives who got to the party
but who had to leave afterward. As those who read my “I” post of 2015 will
realize, I did manage to make the 10:00 a.m. appointment on the following
Monday in St. Albans to renew my passport, and I spent some time with my aunt
that afternoon on what was her actual birthday. Talk about privilege.</span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "times";">II. Jails as a paradigm of
social organization: a personal meditation</span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "times";">The French philosopher Michel
Foucault viewed much of a given society through the lens of how it metes out
discipline and punishment. In this regard, Quakers in English-speaking countries
in what is now the OECD have had an unusual trajectory, moving from the
persecuted to the privileged leaders of reform, while using the experience of
previous generations of Friends as the rationale. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "times";">It is difficult to believe
today that when the penitentiary was first developed, it was considered an
improvement on the status quo. Certainly the goal of rehabilitation is one of
the great social innovations, even if the means of solitary confinement was
disastrous. Solitary confinement entails taking the silence in Meeting for
Worship to the extreme, denuding it of the Friendly community upon which it
depends for both its spiritual division and sense of humanity. The Friends who
were instrumental in the development the penitentiary system thus anticipated
Foucault’s conclusion by using their religious organization as a social
paradigm to exact punishment.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju7u25qIaqO6lNjDQn6QuWko4eUROzI5YtaNcGq5k4qDenxv4Tj6xqu0NfT11KllqWFO1DvLgmi2fEZNHT2BzHSk3n6OQbF-8wgJUvCAxEuRDE4n4PhLzZMb8Ug8ORLhEjAbLgroG46ro/s1600/IMG_9611.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju7u25qIaqO6lNjDQn6QuWko4eUROzI5YtaNcGq5k4qDenxv4Tj6xqu0NfT11KllqWFO1DvLgmi2fEZNHT2BzHSk3n6OQbF-8wgJUvCAxEuRDE4n4PhLzZMb8Ug8ORLhEjAbLgroG46ro/s320/IMG_9611.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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Reconstruction of the chapel of the penitentiary of Port Arthur, Tasmania</div>
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The chaplain and the head guard could see the prisoners, but the prisoners could not see each other.</div>
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Photo ©Kristin O. Lord 2008</div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "times";"> </span>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "times";">What is my own experience with
this paradigm? Mercifully, it is not direct, as my reflections in part I above
will imply, although I suggest that privilege has been a much of a factor as anything.
</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "times";">I took the first level of AVP
(Alternatives to Violence Training) in the now-defunct Guelph prison in 1995,
but it became clear that I might have more to offer in another capacity, at
least at that time. This is one of several areas that I may wish to revisit
when I retire, although my rather strong visceral reaction to confinement
suggests that I need to think very carefully about any role inside a prison. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "times";">I have known Friends who have
volunteered at Dannemora, the prison in Guelph, and the Canadian federal
women’s prison in Kitchener. They have all given a great deal, in both time and
convenience. For instance, at<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the very
end of December, 2012, one Friend, a regular visitor at the local women’s
prison, gave moving vocal ministry at Meeting for Worship about how she had
spent a day of her Christmas vacation participating in the choir at the prison
chapel. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "times";">Where had we spent the
vacation? I started to fidget and look at my feet. I hadn’t done anything
remotely comparable. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "times";">Admittedly, Christmas of 2012
was not a happy one for us for a host of reasons. To complicate matters, one of
our cats died of an undiagnosed heart condition a week before the holiday, and
then inclement weather precluded our annual trip to Vermont. There was nothing to
do but to move up our trip to the local humane society, in this case the fine
organization in Guelph, Ontario to look for another cat. For purely selfish
motives, we wanted something to smile about, and we had no trouble finding that
something —or, rather, that someone. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "times";">When listening to our Friend
talk about the protocols for going into the prison, I realized that the
penitentiary was the model for the local humane society as well. At least in
this regard, Foucault is right about the prison as a paradigm for the broader
society. For instance, since many shelters have not been able to save the lives
of all animals who come into their care, the death penalty is a common part of
the system. Animals at the shelter we visited are kept in barred cages, usually
individually. Their feet cannot even touch the floor of the building due to
risk of infection. While the people who run their shelter give everything they
have and more to improve living conditions, animals can hardly be said to
thrive. Some react worse than others; given several animals who are identical
except for behavior, the one who has the fewest problems in the shelter will
probably find a home first. Although the Guelph Humane Society is filled with
caring staffers who give the animals more than most of us could muster, their
charges had understandable received relatively little attention over the
December holidays. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "times";">While the kittens at the
shelter acted as kittens and received the typical amount of attention from
visitors, some of the adult cats did not bother to wake up when people entered
the room. The one we had thought might especially interest us based on the web
profile —a sweet-looking two-year-old— gazed at us quietly and then lay calmly
in our arms. She seemed to be a good fit for a household whose surviving cat
was nearly a decade her senior. The fact that the staffer writing up her
profile described her as “playful” seemed incongruous — until she was at our
vet having her check-up after we had officially signed her paperwork. She
immediately attacked the computer cables in the examination room. When she came
home, she did not calm down for three weeks. She is still an extroverted,
high-octane soul. The six weeks she spent in the shelter in that puny cage must
have been pure torture.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhf034IXgGDV-RtPAKog65PtWfkkRilTXYnVpJdYfrRKU6LrJd9HdEn-bYgAmysBbP9pWgI024U6KwXPB102nM1nM6NkBiDLdsWBnc21xSQUTh3agRYM3-lnYmAhmFSJf9_1SQmPeRch8/s1600/Lucie+04_20_2017+IMG_0625.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhf034IXgGDV-RtPAKog65PtWfkkRilTXYnVpJdYfrRKU6LrJd9HdEn-bYgAmysBbP9pWgI024U6KwXPB102nM1nM6NkBiDLdsWBnc21xSQUTh3agRYM3-lnYmAhmFSJf9_1SQmPeRch8/s320/Lucie+04_20_2017+IMG_0625.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
the cat in question, about to break into a set of exams, despite a pillow as barrier</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Image ©Kristin O. Lord 2017</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "times";">If anyone wants to do an
animal experiment to assess how human prisoners react when let out of jail,
they need look no further than the typical humane society. (I have not yet
checked the scholarly literature to determine whether such a comparison has yet
been made.) Is there a better way to organize a shelter? Yes, there are healthier
arrangements for most animals (some need to be segregated for various reasons),
and the use of fostering is increasing. These alternatives require more space,
attention, and money, however, and only the best-funded organizations can put
them into place. That’s a real pity: in the longer run, fewer animals may be
returned to the shelter due to behavioral problems and mismatches with owners. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "times";">The crux of the problem is the
mindset that animals —whether human or non-human, quadrupeds, bipeds, furred,
feathered, or scaled— are disposable.</span></div>
Kristin Lordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18052075819133204111noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4387507661152607223.post-79585195728772901222015-07-17T08:30:00.000-07:002015-07-17T08:30:05.955-07:00I is for Inequality
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Times;"> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxUjmoQb8Slo6g-OMEcbPTzOTIVV3uXylys1Y7X2mt41AhtFhqmjwWfB2gjfTXaoyMLiXtG83CEFFEbXSg7cHi2HqBNhxXd-XhKy__Iw0hxTpyKx1a0CF78EWl4nZfre1RQ4uXbp9HqgA/s1600/IMG_2335.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxUjmoQb8Slo6g-OMEcbPTzOTIVV3uXylys1Y7X2mt41AhtFhqmjwWfB2gjfTXaoyMLiXtG83CEFFEbXSg7cHi2HqBNhxXd-XhKy__Iw0hxTpyKx1a0CF78EWl4nZfre1RQ4uXbp9HqgA/s320/IMG_2335.JPG" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The official Vermont historical site marker describing the 1864 St. Albans Raid<br />This photograph, and the others accompanying this post, are copyrighted to Kristin O. Lord, 2015.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times;">I.
A Somewhat Idiosyncratic Overview of Quaker Structural Inequality</span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times;">Inevitably, Friends are drawn back to
equality as one of our core testimonies. In many ways we walk the walk. Unprogrammed
Meetings lack ordained and paid clergy; programmed Meetings have a more
egalitarian relationship between the pastor and the other members of the group.
Decisions are made by the sense of the Meeting; one of the many features of
Quaker business practice is that the absence of voting is intended to ensure
that a larger or more powerful faction of Friends does not by itself carry the
day. On the whole, Friends have a powerful tradition and an excellent
contemporary reputation for gender equality and for speaking out on a broad
range of social inequities.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times;">Friends have never claimed, however, that
the decision-making process of Meeting for Worship for Business treats all
participants equally, or even all members equally. We have the concept of
“weightiness.” Despite the hackneyed aside that we will all become “weightier”
after the Meeting potluck, the concept corresponds loosely to the ancient Roman
idea of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">gravitas</i>, with spiritual
depth substituting for political experience. “Weightiness” is a certain <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">je ne sais quois</i> of spiritual
understanding, practical knowledge, and an ability to apply that knowledge to
the subject at hand. Inevitably, Friends are “weighty” in some areas and not in
others. Especially in areas of policy and theology, people can and do become
aggrieved if their views are not taken seriously, for whatever reason. Like
other entities, Quaker Meetings and organizations can become ossified and
resistant to new ideas. A newcomer may have a great deal of insight into a
dynamic which has bedeviled old-timers for years, by virtue of having no prior
vested interest. Will Friends listen to the newcomer? Maybe. Why or why not?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times;">Despite our reputation, we Quakers have
not always dealt with inequality effectively, whether in the broader society or
our own midst. John Woolman’s patient intercession with slaveholders in the
mid-Atlantic states was the single biggest factor behind the decision of
Philadelphia Yearly Meeting to make slave ownership grounds for disownment
(rescinding of membership) in 1776. (For those unfamiliar with Woolman, his
“weight” in the matter arose from a moral concern, which he first wrestled with
as a lawyer being asked to draft wills.) Friends were also active in the
Underground Railroad later on, but not all Quakers were on board with the
abolitionist movement. See, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">inter alia</i>,
the sobering article by Elizabeth Moger </span><a href="http://muse.jhu.edu/login?auth=0&type=summary&url=/journals/quaker_history/v092/92.2.moger.html"><span style="font-family: Times;">(<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Quaker History</i>
92.2 [2003])</span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: Times;"> about the
case in nineteenth-century Vermont of the Robinsons of Rokeby and Charles
Marriott. In terms of the composition of our Religious Society, until around
the time of the US Civil War Quakers in both Britain and North America
routinely “read out” (removed from membership) those with the temerity to marry
non-members who did not join Friends. The British political economist </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Ricardo"><span style="font-family: Times;">David Ricardo</span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: Times;">
ended up estranged from his own family of origin by choosing the religion of his
Quaker wife, but most Friends in that period who married outsiders were let in
again later, if at all, after a humiliating confession. Barry Levy, in his
study </span><a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/quakers-and-the-american-family-9780195049763?cc=ca&lang=en&"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times;">Quakers and
the American Family</span></i><span style="font-family: Times;"> (Oxford, 1988)</span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: Times;">, concluded that those who were so
punished were disproportionately the less well off. In other words, the
“weighty” Friends of this period prioritized the prosperity and theological and
social uniformity of the Quaker family at the expense of the ability of a
number of their young people to remain Friends as adults. (Why did the less
well off Quakers not marry Friends in the same position? Some did, but
impecunious Quakers were perceived as more attractive marriage partners in the
broader community and thus had a far better selection of mates there.) The
piano which my Quaker husband and I play in the living room was also <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">verboten</i> in that period, but it pales in
significance as a human rights issue, as important as it is to our well-being.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times;">II.
Inequality redux: An American Quaker Classicist takes another look at the
Confederacy and its afterlife</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times;">A month ago, June 17, 2015, nine of my
fellow Americans were targeted for murder at a prayer service at an African
Methodist Episcopal (AME) church in Charleston, South Carolina, simply because
they were African Americans. The church itself is one of America’s most famous,
in part because Denmark Vesey, one of its founders, was executed after being
implicated in a slave revolt in 1822. The alleged gunman in the 2015 massacre was
a supporter of white supremacist organizations and their iconography. This
iconography included, but was not limited to, the Confederate battle flag. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times;">I had been already been thinking of the
Confederacy this May when I went to St. Albans, Vermont to renew my passport.
St. Albans is an old railroad terminus, a quiet county seat about twelve miles
south of the Canadian border. Technically a city, it is the size of many Vermont communities classified as towns. “St. Albans” is also the answer to the trivia question,
“What is the northernmost point of land engagement in the American Civil
War?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The episode forms part of the
middle-school history curriculum in Vermont, and many of us who grew up there
remember learning about it. </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Albans_Raid"><span style="font-family: Times;">On October 19, 1864</span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: Times;">,
22 Confederate soldiers crossed over to Vermont from what is now Quebec, shot
up the town, robbed three banks, and slipped back over the border. There they
were captured by the British authorities who governed Canada at that time. The
Americans requested extradition but were turned down because the men were
soldiers obeying orders. The soldiers were then released. The British did, however, return to the banks the money they had
retrieved.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimh_tIhXG0bSwscx6HNyFL_sUl0_E2od4BwupYNfQs_1Glj7jaYrV6bB2VSuDxm_sZe-qEqiIFOb3rzbEB-bdlYGK_QIrGKoA0yNCDHrPgapJ4zEVLEM-Jl25DXqlCP49xFOB3FaVNjZY/s1600/IMG_2336.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimh_tIhXG0bSwscx6HNyFL_sUl0_E2od4BwupYNfQs_1Glj7jaYrV6bB2VSuDxm_sZe-qEqiIFOb3rzbEB-bdlYGK_QIrGKoA0yNCDHrPgapJ4zEVLEM-Jl25DXqlCP49xFOB3FaVNjZY/s320/IMG_2336.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The TD Bank in St. Albans, Vermont, May, 2015 (photograph ©Kristin O. Lord).<br />The only one of the three banks robbed at the time of the raid which is still used as such today, it is now ironically a US subsidiary of the Canadian company TD-Canada Trust ("TD" stands for "Toronto Dominion").</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Times;">From a British and Canadian perspective,
the St. Albans raid is a reminder of the uncomfortable truth that both the
British and the French unofficially favored the Confederates, in large part
because cheap Southern cotton fueled their industrial sectors. It is a credit to
the local Canadians that the St. Albans episode left a sour taste in their
mouths and that many did not wish to become involved further.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times;">Perhaps because we had and still have
family living all over the United States, when I was growing up I heard
relatively little at home about the Civil War <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">per se</i>. My father, who has seen far too many battlefields in his
own life (even one is too many), has had no desire to visit Gettysburg. Even my
maternal grandmother, who bristled at the sight of a Confederate battle flag in
one of my school textbooks, took pains to remind her friends that those of her
relatives who had moved to a state in the South as a result of a corporate
transfer, lived in a jurisdiction that was as American as her native Pennsylvania
and her beloved Vermont. This is not as easy a conclusion as it sounds. She was
born a mere 25 years after the war ended, and I was to learn much later (last
year, in fact), her paternal grandfather had fought as a Union soldier from
Pennsylvania and lived to tell about it for many years thereafter. (As far as I
know, this particular great-great grandfather is the only one of my
ancestors to have been involved in that conflict; the readers of this post who
are wondering if their own antecedents fought on the Union side can check the </span><a href="https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1877095"><span style="font-family: Times;">schedule of Union civil war veterans and widows in
the 1890 census</span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: Times;"> if those
relatives were alive at that time.)</span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNosVUEGWWAJ_xcmzpkLkasAf7JqE4tPZim8uxkltzanC1nhMfQFgdBN59Dk8NiYGsx6wHiIKYLUnUkTSLoyFC2gKlqACraLfp5_OSqKSq5aPzbDB0opgTarVFVA_EJdVoJyFT5UOM5-Y/s1600/IMG_2322.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNosVUEGWWAJ_xcmzpkLkasAf7JqE4tPZim8uxkltzanC1nhMfQFgdBN59Dk8NiYGsx6wHiIKYLUnUkTSLoyFC2gKlqACraLfp5_OSqKSq5aPzbDB0opgTarVFVA_EJdVoJyFT5UOM5-Y/s320/IMG_2322.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">St. Albans, Vermont, Civil War Memorial, May 2015 (©Kristin O. Lord)<br />Erected in 1940, this monument is one of an unusually large number of war memorials in the municipal square.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times;">I was born nearly a century after the
Civil War began. The belief of my parents and extended family that the Civil
War was long since over was reinforced by the pacifism of some of my mother’s
“side” and eventually by my own convictions. Although we had no wish to revisit
the Civil War, none of us, including or perhaps especially those transplanted
to the South, had any love for the values of the Confederacy. The reasons were
slavery and its Jim Crow successor. (One of my earliest childhood memories is
my confusion at being dragged away from a public water fountain and then a
public toilet in the South when I was about three; knowing my family, the labels
on the fountain and toilet could have been either “black” or “white.”) In this
sense the conclusions of historians have caught up with the “bred in the bone”
beliefs of many Vermonters handed down through oral tradition about the primacy
of slavery. When I was in high school, our American history books typically claimed that
broader economic factors, of which slavery was the perhaps the biggest single constituent part, were the main cause of the Civil War. More recently, </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Half-Never-Been-Told/dp/046500296X"><span style="font-family: Times;">Edward E. Baptist</span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: Times;"> and </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Slaves-Family-Classics-Edward-Ball/dp/0374534454"><span style="font-family: Times;">Edward Ball</span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: Times;">, along with many other scholars, have shown that convincingly
that maintaining slavery, and even expanding it is possible, was not only the driver of the Southern economy but the primary
reason the Southern states took up arms. There is also convincing evidence that
slavery is the reason that attitudes toward African Americans on the part of
many white Southerners did not eventually converge with those of their Northern
counterparts (</span><a href="http://scholar.harvard.edu/files/msen/files/slavery.pdf"><span style="font-family: Times;">Harvard Working Paper of Acharya, Blackwell, and Sen
2013</span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: Times;">).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times;">With the exception of my daughter, who
was adopted from China, my family and I are all primarily of Northern European
descent. It is a fair assumption that my immediate and most of my extended
family have always thought “slavery” upon viewing the Confederate battle flag.
Being a member of an unprogrammed Quaker Meeting in the North has only
reinforced those convictions. When I have traveled in the South, it has taken every
ounce of civility I have had not to make impolite comments about that banner or
about other Confederate flags and memorials.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My only
regret about seeing the battle flag taken down from the South Carolina capitol grounds
and elsewhere is that the blood of so many innocent people was shed before
people finally did it. (The fact that those people had to be of European or
south Asian extraction, despite <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/26/obama-clementa-pinckney-eulogy_n_7670800.html">the
splendid eulogy</a> for <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/26/us/clementa-pinckney-felt-called-to-spiritual-and-political-service.html?_r=0">the
Reverend Clementa Pinckney</a> by our President, Barack Obama, and despite the
fact that Pinckney was also a fellow South Carolina state senator, says
precisely what it seems to say about the balance of power in the USA.)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times;">When the issue of the Confederate battle
flag came up again this year, I decided to contact the local flag merchants
where I now live in Ontario. This was not my first attempt. A couple of times
in the past I had spoken with people selling flags; at least one of those
occasions involved people setting up a stall at work. Those previous sellers
were Canadians who were stocking the item primarily because it was popular at
NASCAR races, or because they knew people (undoubtedly white people) who wanted
it “for cultural reasons.” My objections were met with puzzlement. This time,
however, it was different. The business I visited in June —also in Canada— said
that they had never carried flags that were not officially used by existing
political entities. (They had no US state flags.) They immediately understood
and agreed with my objections to the Confederate flag. A second nearby business
initially stocked virtually every North American flag imaginable, including the
Confederate one, via its website but removed all traces of the Confederacy immediately
once events in Charleston made them aware of the problem. This occurred before
I was able to arrange to speak with the owners about it. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times;">Strangely enough, speaking with the
owners of the one flag business a few weeks ago did not bring me the sense of
righteous pleasure that I had anticipated. I usually approach these types of
situations with calm assurance, but as soon as I heard my Vermont accent coming
out of my mouth, I might have been speaking through dried (Quaker?) oatmeal. I
peered out the door at my car, which is one of those kinds of vehicles that
shrieks “tree-hugger” and not NASCAR. It hit me that I was hardly in the
position of those making a wrenching decision to give up flying a cherished
family heirloom; rather, I was every bit the descendant of a victorious soldier
lording it over those people who look a lot like me but whose economy, once at
least as prosperous as that of my own part of the country, had never fully
recovered from the time of their great-great grandparents to their own. While
the economies of both Britain and North America —including Northern and
Southern states alike— had become rich before the Civil War as the bloody
profits of slavery had circled through, the North was the beneficiary after the
Civil War from the foundation laid previously. To this day, most of us white
Americans outside the Old South (and well-heeled Brits and Canadians) reap the
benefits, with interest. (See Edward E. Baptist, cited above, on this point.) </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times;">The German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer
has a phrase for the spiritual analogue of what I had done when I spoke with
the flag merchant. It is called “cheap grace.” The hard part of discipleship is
giving up what one loves —at its extreme, even life itself— to act morally. If
I were to give a profane analogy instead, I could quote the Roman poet Ovid at <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Amores</i> 1.8.43: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">casta est, quam nemo rogavit</i>, “chaste is she whom no one has
asked.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times;">III.
A preliminary and very partial reading of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Go
Set a Watchman</i>, by Harper Lee, with an attempt to avoid the most egregious
spoiler alerts</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times;">By coincidence, Harper Lee’s recently
rediscovered novel, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Go Set a Watchman</i>,
has just been published against the backdrop of the discussion of how white
Southerners —and ultimately Northerners as well— feel and act toward their
fellow Americans of African descent. Once I felt confident that Lee had not
been bamboozled into publishing it —or perhaps even before —let’s admit it— as
curiosity was getting the better of me— I was determined to purchase a copy on
the day it was made available. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times;">As a Classicist, I have as much of an
advantage in approaching the differences between <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Watchman</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mockingbird</i> as
I do in my personal life when proclaiming that Confederate flags should be
relegated to museums. In both cases my preconceived notions work in my favor. Ancient
Greek writers were not bound by the type of unified book series that has won
such adherence in modern literature, although the modern idea of a sequel or
prequel was familiar to the ancient Greeks (Aeschylus’ <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Oresteia</i> sequence is the only extant example of a trilogy in
tragedy, but others are known to have existed). I not been able to determine at
this point, and may never know, whether Harper Lee herself ever studied Greek, but
Americans of her generation with her academic background usually had at least a
smattering of Latin and were familiar with the way Classical mythology worked.
That Lee took Latin in school is also highly likely given the name
Atticus for her male protagonist in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">To
Kill a Mockingbird</i>. The Atticus in Roman antiquity was the self-given <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">agnomen</i> (nickname) of the Roman
politician Cicero’s dearest friend, T. Pomponius Atticus. The word means
“Athenian” (i.e., “Attic” or “of Attica”), and Cicero’s friend chose it because
he spent most of his adult life in Greece.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times;">Greek myths, a rough approximation of a
story line that is as well known and iconic as the plot of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">To Kill a Mockingbird</i>, are quite flexible in how they are told. To
be sure, Ajax must fall on his sword and Agamemnon cannot survive his return
home from the Trojan War, but within such parameters myths themselves have many
local variations, and writers draw on those variations —either different
authors seeing the same myth in different ways, or the same writer using
elements of the same story at a different time. Thus the all-too-clever but
ultimately sympathetic Odysseus of the oral tradition that developed into the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Odyssey</i> becomes the unlikeable con
artist of Sophocles’ play <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Philoctetes</i>.
Aeschylus, Euripides, and Sophocles all have their own extant “takes” on the
characterization of Electra and Orestes, and their own approaches to the
evidence (or the lack thereof) that they are siblings. Heracles receives even
more divergent treatment, whether in tragedy, satyr play, or lyric poetry —
different in personality, behavior, and wives.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times;">For this reason I was not disturbed by
the news that leaked out about the discontinuity in Lee’s portrayal of Atticus
Finch in the two novels. After all, the Atticus in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Watchman</i> could not be any more disreputable than Odysseus in
Sophocles’ <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Philoctetes</i> (he turned out
to be much less so). In terms of the perceived quality of the works, Classical
scholarship provides some help here as well. Sophocles’ <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Oedipus the King</i> (ca. 429 BCE) may be compared with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">To Kill a Mockingbird</i> in its place in
the literary canon. If we wanted to remove <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Oedipus
the King</i> from its perch, the philosopher and literary critic Aristotle is
always there yanking it back. However, canons by nature present problems. In
this instance, if <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Oedipus the King</i>
epitomizes the successful Greek tragedy, what do we make of the other plays in
Sophocles’ Theban cycle? They tell different parts of the Oedipus story and contain
some inconsistencies. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Antigone</i>,
perhaps written ca. 442 BCE, presents less of an issue because of a smaller
overlap in content and because of its own centrality in the canon, but
Sophocles’ last play, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Oedipus at Colonus</i>,
written shortly before his death in 406/5 at the age of ninety, is a different
matter. It has far less action than <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Oedipus
the King</i>, more philosophy, and is the longest extant Greek tragedy. To the
extent that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Oedipus at Colonus</i> has a
dramatic reversal (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">peripeteia</i>),
essential to the Aristotelian concept of the best form of tragedy, it is in the
anticipated result of Oedipus’s curse of his sons Eteocles and Polyneices for
disloyalty. Not everyone likes the particular features of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Oedipus at Colonus</i>, great though it is. In the end, though, regardless
of whether a reader or theatergoer likes <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Oedipus at Colonus</i>, the three tragedies are viewed as independent
works.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times;">There is perhaps more of a gap in the
finished product between <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">To Kill a
Mockingbird</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Go Set a Watchman</i>
than between <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Oedipus the King</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Oedipus at Colonus</i> (some, including the
author of this post, would argue that there is little discrepancy in quality
between the two tragedies); a better comparison for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Go Set a Watchman</i> might be Sophocles’ earliest productions or the
more episodic Euripidean plays like <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Andromache</i>,
although unfortunately Sophocles’ first pieces are not extant. Nonetheless, the
degree of discrepancy in subject matter is similar to the approach Harper Lee
and Sophocles take to their subject matter over time, and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Go Set a Watchman</i> is an ambitious and thoughtful work of significant literary
merit. (cf. the initial review in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jul/12/go-set-a-watchman-review-harper-lee-to-kill-a-mockingbird">Guardian</a></i>,
which seems to me to have the best understanding of the newly published novel
of the ones I have seen so far.) And what a tale <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Watchman</i>
tells! It is unnerving, to be sure, but it is valuable precisely for the reason
that it wrenches people out of their comfort zones and compels them to examine
their own biases. For those who miss the other Atticus Finch, writing about
Atticus from a different angle in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Watchman</i>
does not make that Lee’s portrayal of him in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mockingbird</i> any less endearing; they are different books with their
own meanings. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times;">Watchman</span></i><span style="color: black; font-family: Times;">’s audacious approach to form and content
is better suited to 2015 than the late 1950’s. It is a book for our time and
one which we need, quite frankly, in the light of the Charleston church massacre, the
continuing attacks of arson on churches with primarily African American
congregations, and the inability of many American police forces to refrain from
assaulting and killing people of color who are in the wrong place at the wrong
time. Recent critical methodologies such as post-structuralism and narratology
are useful in unpacking Lee’s approach to form, and scholars can now bring
contemporary theories of cultural analysis, including gender studies and
postcolonialism, to bear on the content. Looked at via the lens of recent
critical advances, a first reading of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Watchman</i>
suggests that the awkward literary analogies and the occasional flatfooted
transition and description illuminate correspondingly awkward liminal states in
the character of Jean Louise Finch as the book proceeds. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>An immediate example is the second paragraph
on the first page. Likewise, Lee’s complex and occasionally disjointed use of
form and narrative techniques in different parts of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Watchman</i> underline Jean Louise’s sense of disconnection from the
various parts of life in Maycomb, as well as the inability of different groups
in the community to connect with each other, or —at least in some cases— their
public personas and their behavior behind closed doors. If the analytical
perspectives I have outlined here have any merit, critics and scholars can
debate the degree to which Lee’s approach is successful. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times;">The voice of Jean Louise Finch in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Go Set A Watchman</i> is that of a young
white Southern woman with inherited money and impeccably cut clothes. It does
not tell the story of the African Americans of Maycomb to any significant
degree, but it is specific on the reason for the breakdown in the relationship
between Jean Louise and Calpurnia, the Black woman who had been the housekeeper
and mother figure in the home headed by the widowed Atticus in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mockingbird</i>. The rupture is just what
Lee says it is: Jean Louise’s intrinsic category weakness as a white woman in
her place and time. Although Jean Louise tries to make it otherwise, there is
nothing she can do about it. Given that the book is focused on the character of
Jean Louise Finch, the novel cannot see far beyond the same barrier, and for
the same reasons.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times;">Although the characters in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Go Set a Watchman</i> are primarily white
Southerners from the 1950’s, I regret to say that some of the characters in the
book reminded me of Quaker weaknesses when it comes to equality, including my
own. Oh, we are not Klansmen —don’t worry about that. Most of us unprogrammed
Friends resemble, in socioeconomic status or aspiration, Jean Louise in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Watchman</i>, or Atticus Finch in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">To Kill A Mockingbird</i>. Reluctantly, we
admit to our weaknesses —often in the past tense— as a way of overcoming them.
Few would confess to being like Henry (“Hank”) Clinton, the gifted striver who
chooses to go along with racist views and actions out of financial expediency
and who lashes out at people that have the luxury of a financial cushion to
take unpopular stands. (There is that “cheap grace” issue again, although Lee
does not call it that.) Alas, in our Friendly circles more of us make the
unpleasant compromises than we would like to admit. Perhaps we are those
people. (No, of course we aren’t — how could we be? We have all read <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Faith and Practice</i>.) </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times;">Most crucially, as in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">To Kill a Mockingbird </i>and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Go Set a Watchman</i>, there are few Calpurnias
amongst unprogrammed Friends in North America. Most of us “white” Friends know
that this is wrong, but most of us do not spend several hours a week trying to rectify
it. Are we afraid that our concepts of “weightiness” (a.k.a., entrenched power
structures) would have to change? As we might say if we were honest, “We don’t
have time to get into this.” At out best, we may try to stop clutching our
purses and briefcases when a<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Black male
walks down the street (or, alternatively, we clutch our bags equally in the
presence of every stranger), but we mutter, to no person in particular, that it
is time to move on. We are always moving on, to a destination that is not always
clear, at least not to me.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times;">The American dialogue about the legacy of
slavery is only beginning to become honest and open, even among people of the
same ethnic and regional background. After the Charleston church shootings, I
phoned one of my relatives down South and mentioned the Union soldier who was
our mutual ancestor. This relative, the only one of my generation to have
actually been born “down there,” is a culturally sophisticated professional a couple
of years my senior. It was this person who was able to confirm a few years ago
that I was not simply retelling my mother’s account of the water fountain
episode in my childhood (my mother, who is no longer living, did not remember
the event in any case). I was able to describe the rather imposing exterior of
the building, which I have not seen since I was thirteen, and my relative explained
in some detail why we would have been there that day. In our most recent
conversation, after I remarked that our great-grandfather had fought on the
Union side, I heard the reply, “I didn’t know that. Thanks for telling me,”
followed by words in a familiar half-Vermont, half-Southern inflection, “I
could <u>not</u> say that at work around here (with my white colleagues).” It
has been 150 years since the end of the Civil War. I have spoken more frankly
with Germans about World War II.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipzmVdm4Jwup9-lcZKtaou2nsDdq69KjyNGi4SbpCCLFo9ekJG3gfybn_I7MDhLOSUamVak1xY6yU60Arfua0o79S1h9BrIjbfrVQKXD_QRyz6pwSQK9OpBOM_6G3FYzSZ270oc8OBj4E/s1600/IMG_2376.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipzmVdm4Jwup9-lcZKtaou2nsDdq69KjyNGi4SbpCCLFo9ekJG3gfybn_I7MDhLOSUamVak1xY6yU60Arfua0o79S1h9BrIjbfrVQKXD_QRyz6pwSQK9OpBOM_6G3FYzSZ270oc8OBj4E/s320/IMG_2376.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">St. Albans, Vermont, Federal Building and Custom House, photograph May 2015 (©Kristin O. Lord).<br />Built during the Great Depression with Federal funds, <br />the interior vestibule (not shown) is lined with slabs of Vermont marble.<br />For the lilacs in front, <span style="color: black; font-family: Times;">cf. Walt Whitman’s elegy <br />on the
assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, <a href="http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/174748">“When Lilacs Last in the
Dooryard Bloom’d”</a></span></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br /></div>
Kristin Lordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18052075819133204111noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4387507661152607223.post-34893300156797609922015-05-12T10:51:00.000-07:002015-05-12T10:51:53.390-07:00H is for Elijah Harper
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">H is for Elijah Harper</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSx6vbUHV7rmr7zJYiidYlIlaox043nvsdotN35A4l8C2HGDRpie9aVQayF3f-YVx3J-BWl4aZbJlgX32rCJATCJPB51Xu_1elySR5kX_YnKRXYFqiKqxce6bNSosGrU1GQg5RW_EqA_4/s1600/Parliamentwinnipeg_manitoba.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSx6vbUHV7rmr7zJYiidYlIlaox043nvsdotN35A4l8C2HGDRpie9aVQayF3f-YVx3J-BWl4aZbJlgX32rCJATCJPB51Xu_1elySR5kX_YnKRXYFqiKqxce6bNSosGrU1GQg5RW_EqA_4/s320/Parliamentwinnipeg_manitoba.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Manitoba Legislature, <br />where Elijah Harper made his stand against the Meech Lake Accords<br />(<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legislative_Assembly_of_Manitoba#/media/File:Parliamentwinnipeg_manitoba.jpg" target="_blank">photo </a>in public domain via Wikimedia Commons)</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Having an unusually
busy time at work this past six months has meant that I have had to temporarily
lay down my blog posts, so I can think of no better way to begin my 2015 Quaker
Alphabet Blog contributions than to serve up a reheated PowerPoint from my
Roman history class this past winter. This PowerPoint made a brief reference to
the Canadian political leader <a href="http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/elijah-harper/" target="_blank">Elijah Harper</a> (not a Quaker), who left this world much
too soon in <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/elijah-harper-key-player-in-meech-lake-accord-dies-at-64-1.1316388" target="_blank">2013</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Truth be told, when I drew
up my outline for the second iteration of the alphabet, I had already planned
to focus on Elijah Harper and, to a lesser extent, Stephen Harper, the current
Prime Minister of Canada, who shares the same last name as Elijah Harper but is
not, as far as I know, related to him. I had also planned to speak about the
myths of the foundation of ancient Rome and how they relate to historical
sources. However, the way I have connected Elijah Harper, foundation myths (the
technical term for stories of the foundation of a society or group), and the
role of a leader in society has evolved during this six-month hiatus from
blogging. The connections I see with Quakerism have also evolved. I shall also
lay most of my discussion of the policies of Stephen Harper and his government
over to a later post; in the interim, I kindly request that any readers
interested in Canadian Quakers and the government of Stephen Harper refrain
from trying to ascertain what I might say.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">All groups of people
—nation-states, ethnic and cultural groups, religious organizations, even
family groups— have what are called foundation myths. By “myths” scholars do
not necessarily mean that the stories lack historical accuracy (they may or may
not have a historical basis) but are taken as part of the commonly understood foundation
for the way a society operates. A typical example for schoolchildren in the US
is the story, probably apocryphal, of George Washington cutting down a cherry
tree as a boy and immediately confessing the deed to his parents because he
could not bear to tell a lie. Ancient Rome has several foundation myths, of
which one is the story of the abandoned twins Romulus and Remus being suckled
by the wolf, before the boys grew up and Romulus killed Remus. This story has a
number of features shared by other myths, most notably an impregnation of out
of wedlock and the miraculous survival of the offspring. In this case the story
involves the impregnation of the boys’ mother, the Vestal Virgin Rhea Silvia,
by Mars, the god of war. For scholars of Roman history, this myth tells us a
great deal of how Romans —whether the early Romans in a small town or the later
Romans in control of a great empire— viewed themselves. From the start to the
finish, they were the offspring of the god of war, able to achieve domination
by both miracles (the survival of the babies and the miraculous nature of
twinship) and brute force (stifling cultural taboos to kill one’s own flesh and
blood). From the very beginning, Roman religion, here represented by the Vestal
Virgin, was part of the fabric of society, even if not always pure and not
always given her due. In addition, as recognized by the Roman historiographer
Livy, it makes the beginning “more dignified.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">I had lots of visual
representations of Romulus and Remus and the wolf, as well as written versions
of that story and of the other main Roman foundation myths as told by the Roman
historiographer Livy (who was no fool as a historian) and other Roman writers,
but I still wanted to consider more broadly why foundation myths were important.
How could I relate the story of Romulus and Remus to foundation myths that my
students might have encountered elsewhere? I could not count on my Canadian
students knowing about George Washington and the cherry tree. Those who were
history majors might well have known how the Magna Carta was bandied about in
English legend and life, but to unpack that would have occupied too much class
time, and I would rather leave that to specialists in British history. Instead,
giving the verbal caveat that as an American I really should not be going into
Canadian foundation myths, I went directly to a Canadian foundation myth that
my students might understand very differently from the way their parents did at
their age. If they understood the basic concept of what Canada is and
represents differently from their parents, they probably have one man to thank:
Elijah Harper.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">The legal and
administrative life of the federal government Canada is based on the equality
of English and French (both the language and the culture). To some extent, this
has always been the case since the establishment of the Canadian government in
1867; <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>visitors to Ottawa, the capital of
Canada, note that the Houses of Parliament are of the same general architectural
style as their British counterpart, but that the Supreme Court resembles a
French chateau. (insert photos of both) However, the parity of the British and
French as founding cultures was developed in its modern incarnation under the
aegis of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, himself half French and half English, in the
late 1960’s and 1970’s. This was partly a question of justice and partly a
result of<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the “quiet revolution” that
modernized Quebec society and led to demands by Francophones in Quebec and
elsewhere in Canada for equal services and recognition.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">The equality of the
French and English in Canada is a narrative that is meant to be both inspiring
and practical (my husband and I are two of the many English-speaking parents in
Canada to put a child into a bilingual French-English school program).
Unfortunately, the foundation narrative as it was presented in this form is —to
be blunt but polite— constructed on sand. Canada’s First Peoples, its indigenous
Canadians, i.e., the real founding peoples of Canada, were either omitted from
this account (in the late 1980’s it was not uncommon to hear talking heads on
the radio speak of Canada’s “two founding cultures, French and English”) or
mentioned in a footnote.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">This issue is not only
Canadian, of course. Foundation myths in North America and Australia tend to be
problematical in their own rights (the “doctrine of discovery” in North America
and the concept of <i>terra nullius </i>—no person’s land— in Australia are
especially shameful views of history), but almost any society comprised of a
variety of ethnic groups or arising from conquest of another people will have
complex accounts of how they came to be as they are.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">In terms of Canada, the
1982 Constitution Act is one of the many aspects of Canadian public life based
on the parity of the French and English contributions. Because the Parti
Quebeçois held the reins of power when the Canadian constitution was patriated,
the Quebec government has never signed the constitution, although Quebec and
Quebeckers have always been bound by its provisions. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">In 1987, Prime
Minister Brian Mulroney and the ten provincial premiers negotiated the Meech
Lake Accord, a package of constitutional amendments designed to encourage the
Quebec government to sign the constitution.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>A companion accord was negotiated in June of 1990. The two packages
required ratification by the legislatures of all ten provinces by June 23,
1990.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">The accords were
introduced in the Manitoba legislature with twelve days to spare. In order for
all of the work to be completed in time, the initial procedural vote needed
unanimity. Elijah Harper, an NDP MLA representing Rupertsland and a member of
the Red Sucker Lake First Nation, refused to provide that unanimity on the
grounds that the Native Peoples of Canada had not been part of the negotiations
on the Accords. Every day Elijah Harper took his seat in the legislature,
silently raising an eagle feather to show his filibuster. Ultimately, the idea
of Canada as French and English, and not native as well, was as dead as the
Meech Lake Accords.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">In sum, foundation
myths, such as were understood by both Romans ca. 500 BCE and Canadians in 1990
CE, give us vital information about the contemporary power structure or
ideology in a given community. These stories are transmitted in a way at least
partially independent of historical and archaeological evidence. The fact that
my students of 2015, most of whom were not born in 1990 and who are the
beneficiaries of a vastly improved high school curriculum, undoubtedly have a
different foundation account of Canada, is evidence not only of changes in
Canadian society but one small indication that Elijah Harper’s lone and
courageous stand was not made in vain.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">But let’s get back to
Elijah Harper and the circumstances around his position. Perhaps the most
common objection to his stand in 1990 was that, if the Quebec government did
not sign the constitution, for which the Meech Lake Accords were considered a
necessary precondition, Quebec voters would be more likely to approve a
separatist referendum. Was not Elijah Harper concerned about this risk, given
the large number of Indigenous peoples in Quebec and their vested interest in
keeping Quebec and Canada together? (See <a href="http://www.thestar.com/news/insight/2014/08/30/book_excerpt_the_morning_after.html" target="_blank">here</a> for an excerpt from the book <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Morning After</i>, by Chantal Hébert with
Jean-Charles Lapierre, which discusses the lack of foresight on the part of
federalists and separatists alike about this very problem in the Quebec
referendum of 1995.)</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">My understanding is
that for Elijah Harper, his filibuster over the Meech Lake Accords was a
question of means and ends. The just goal of a better Canada could not be
achieved through the means of the Meech Lake Accords as they were written.
Quakers have had similar concerns about means and ends since the foundation of
our Religious Society. We see this early on, in William Penn’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Some Fruits of Solitude and Maxims</i> (1682):
“</span><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A good end cannot purify evil means;
nor must we ever do evil, so that good may come of it (#537).” These same
ethical considerations are at the base of our peace testimony.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Looking at both the goal of a more just society (whether in
Canada or elsewhere) and the means of achieving it also entails looking at the
political process. The political process is necessarily somewhat messy and
imperfect; it also, by necessity, depends upon the separation of church and
state. In what ways can societies with a significant indigenous population be
better societies for their indigenous inhabitants?</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Here there are both problems and opportunities for Canada. The
opportunity is the chance for a renewed Canada, ultimately stemming from
proposals to both government and civil society organizations by indigenous
leaders. Canadian Yearly Meeting and the Canadian Friends Service Committee, as I will outline more fully in a later post, are among of a number of Quaker organizations worldwide with long-standing
concerns about Native affairs; its shortcoming is a dearth of indigenous members,
but it is nevertheless poised to be part of the solution. (See <a href="http://quakerservice.ca/our-work/indigenous-peoples-rights/" target="_blank">here</a> for a link to the CFSC website outlining Native initiatives.) There are, indeed,
significant numbers of individuals and organizations outside of Native
communities who feel likewise.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The most significant problem is that the federal government
has, at least of this writing (mid-May of 2015), failed to promulgate and promote suitable policy
initiatives and to make sufficient funds available. Please forgive me if I am
wrong, but that is how the issue appears to me, a taxpayer who would pay more
taxes if that is what the circumstances entail. The needs are extensive. One of the most obvious and
immediate is a commission of inquiry into the disproportionate number of
murders of Indigenous Canadians, especially women. The current government has
stated that such a commission is not needed. This position would be more
reasonable if there had been an official inquiry in recent years, or even if
all the necessary information was readily available, if all parties to the discussion had had the opportunity to make what they had to offer known, and if best practices were
being followed. It is true that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) has
recently made its <a href="http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/pubs/mmaw-faapd-eng.pdf" target="_blank">database</a> available, for which I thank them, and the average non-native taxpayer has
access to an increasing body of research. However, a commission of inquiry has
the resources and the legal mandate to call witnesses (especially the families
of the deceased), gather all of the evidence in one place, and make specific
recommendations. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I am one of many asking the current prime minister, Stephen
Harper, to reconsider his refusal to allow such a commission to be convened. In
doing so, I would like to reflect for a minute on that twist of fate by which
Stephen Harper and Elijah Harper coincidentally share a last name. I would ask
Stephen Harper how he would respond if the connection was more than
coincidence: if Elijah Harper, and by extension the other members of Canada’s
First Peoples, were his immediate family. The idea, I should add, is not mine,
but rather that of the Shawnee leader Tecumseh: “</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times;">Brothers, we all belong to one family; we are all children
of the Great Spirit; we walk in the same path; slake our thirst at the same
spring...” (“Tecumseh's Speech to the Osages in the winter of 1811-12,” recorded
by John Dunn Hunter, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Memoirs of a Captivity
among the Indians of North America</i> [1823]).</span></div>
Kristin Lordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18052075819133204111noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4387507661152607223.post-79753698870494717582014-11-11T11:50:00.000-08:002014-11-11T11:50:00.690-08:00G is for Grandmothers
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAiaRgJX8yygR2KDTySD_7ROzk57eHeKCZPfVkMBEzFIuaqmDVhFOhuP23TSr5KWeceN7sSDoMpW1THpnh0w7HJW9naTVwslwf8qLLV_EEZzlG-R1gEFwhjp4TN68hwX8nywvMYc8qVJg/s1600/IMG_6190.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAiaRgJX8yygR2KDTySD_7ROzk57eHeKCZPfVkMBEzFIuaqmDVhFOhuP23TSr5KWeceN7sSDoMpW1THpnh0w7HJW9naTVwslwf8qLLV_EEZzlG-R1gEFwhjp4TN68hwX8nywvMYc8qVJg/s320/IMG_6190.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Some of my maternal grandmother's prize-winning embroidery<br />photograph ©Kristin Lord 2011</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Glorious weather for
November 11, on this, the day World War I ended in the centenary year of the
start of the conflict. I wish my grandmother were alive to be here —my maternal
one, as I barely knew my paternal one, who died when I was three. (In fact, my
maternal grandmother’s reminiscence of her opposite number as “a kind lady and
so cruelly and unfairly poor, whom I always pitied as she carried cans of kerosene
down the road” forms the only information from my adolescence that I have of
her other than what my father and his siblings said.) I have been thinking
about my mother’s mother for several weeks, ever since I started looking into
the family’s rather tenuous Scottish connection in the run-up to the referendum
in Scotland a few weeks ago. She was the only one of my recent ancestors to be born
with a Scottish surname, and although the thought of locating anything with a
tartan on it probably never crossed her mind —at least in her married life— she
made sure her children knew about it. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">The area where I now
live in Ontario, while partially settled by Mennonites and others from
Pennsylvania, was the recipient of waves of Scottish emigration, from the early
nineteenth century well into living memory.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The town down the road from us, Fergus, was named for its Scottish
founder and hosts an annual<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Scottish
festival and holds a yearly “wear your tartan” day. A shop in town does a
thriving business in British foods and Scottish clothes and memorabilia and
will order anything in any tartan directly from Edinburgh. I went in there in
mid-September and ordered the dress tartan version of the scarf with the
assurance that I would have it by Remembrance Day, which is what Armistice Day,
the American Veterans’ Day, is called in Canada and the UK. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Why would I want the
tartan of my grandmother’s branch of the family in time for Remembrance Day? I
am one of those Friends who views the red poppy, ubiquitous in these parts, as
the equivalent to William Penn’s sword, but I wanted to wear something that
might be relevant, however remotely, to a family member alive at the time of World War I. Every
year I read Wilfred Owen’s poems “Schoolmistress” and <a href="http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/owen1.html">“Dulce et Decorum Est”</a> to my
unsuspecting Latin students, explaining how jingoistic interpretations of poems
by the Roman writer Horace (himself a hired mouthpiece of Caesar Augustus, who
chafed at the bit only <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">sotto voce</i>) were
part of a large-scale use of the Roman Empire as part of the propaganda for the
empires on both sides in World War I. I would then say something to the effect
of, regardless of what people thought about the war —and Owen, loyal to his men
after being invalided out to the <a href="http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/broughttolife/people/craiglockhart.aspx">Craiglockhart
War Hospital for Officers</a> and writing such scathing poetry, returned to the
front and died there a week before the armistice— they needed to consider the
colossal loss of life and the consequences of World War I on the twentieth
century and down to the twenty-first. Because of the enduring significance of
ancient Greece and Rome for politicians in the last century, those who have
studied any aspect of those cultures had a special responsibility to the
debate.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">My grandmother would
have had a smattering of high school Latin; her husband, trained in theology at
a reputable university, would have studied Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. But those
facts were only tangential to my idea of acquiring some scrap of the tartan to
wear to class around Remembrance Day. When I consider in what way World War I
was relevant to my family, I think of my maternal grandmother, for whom that
period set the tone for the rest of her long and complex life. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was of seminal importance to my maternal grandfather,
too; for reasons of his own (no one in the family belonged to a historic peace
church) he was publicly and bitterly opposed to it and all other wars and
managed to get out of going before a draft board primarily because<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_Service_Act_of_1917"> the war was
over shortly after a man well into his thirties was made eligible for the
draft.</a> (As far as I can determine, it was not a major factor in the line of
my father’s family from which I am directly descended; my paternal grandfather
was just a tad too young to serve.) Nevertheless, my grandmother became front
and center of my thoughts because she in many ways was caught in the cross-hairs
(so to speak) of the family events as affected by the larger situation. The
fact the she and my grandfather married in 1913, at a time that looked
reasonably auspicious for both herself and the world at large, despite some
storm clouds on the horizon that eventually enveloped all, only added to its
significance.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">By mid-October, the
tartan had not turned up. The story might have ended there except for one
evening after work, when, caught in heavy traffic, I missed the turn-off to the
expressway and ended up driving through the village of St. Jacobs, a community
which, ironically, I tend to avoid because of traffic. There, on the south side
of the road, was the St. Jacobs Scottish shop. I had been there several times,
usually with my mother, but had never found anything relevant to us to buy.
Since I was having to replace part of my wardrobe after the episode on the
ladder (see my recent posts under “D” and “F”), it might be worth checking
again to see what they had. I held out little hope of success, as my
grandmother’s maiden name is not one of the more common Scottish surnames and
the only time I had ever seen more than a swatch of the tartan occurred when I
purchased a couple yards of its white dress version in Edinburgh in 1978. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">About a week after my
detour through St. Jacobs, I walked into the shop. In the middle of the store,
immediately in the line of sight of any potential customer walking through the
door, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>hung the hunting version of the
scarf in question. Although the surname is not in the middle of the alphabet
(the scarves were alphabetized), for some reason it was in the front in the
center of the display, as if someone had deliberately placed it there for me.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">So I had the tartan.
Two days ago, mindful of the fact that I would need to read Owen’s poems on
Monday if at all (Remembrance Day is Tuesday this year, and I am teaching MWF
this semester), I sat in Meeting for Worship, thinking of my grandmother and
what I knew of her life during that period. Because she died when I was an undergraduate,
there is much that I might have asked her in more recent years; still, I knew a
great deal. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">My knowledge fell into
three categories: the consequences that my grandfather’s beliefs about the war
and many other matters held for his career and family relationships, and the
deaths of two family members: my grandparents’ first-born child (the only uncle
I never met) the day after Christmas in 1917 and my grandmother’s next-oldest
sister from the influenza pandemic that followed in the wake of World War I and
which was even more lethal than the war itself.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Just before Christmas
in 1917, my grandmother went by train with her three young children to the home
of her parents. Unlike the rest of my immediate ancestors, who hailed from
Vermont and New Hampshire, that grandmother was a native of a small town in
another northeastern state. (She and my grandfather met when he was serving a
nearby parish as a Universalist minister.) Trips home were an expensive and
rare luxury, and the young family intended to make the most of it. Disaster
struck on Christmas Day: her three-year-old son collapsed from spinal
meningitis and died on December 26, before my grandfather was able to reach his
bedside. My grandparents had lost their first child and at that time their only
son; my great-grandparents had lost their first grandchild and their only
grandson. Although the two daughters who were alive on that occasion both lived
into their eighties, and despite having other children, including two more sons,
all of whom became productive adults, my grandparents never completely got over
the loss of their first-born. When my grandmother was asked in later years how
many children she had, she invariably gave two numbers. Sometimes she added,
“And he (the oldest) was the brightest of the lot,” looking around at whatever
other family members who might be present, because these, the living
descendants, were invariably dissecting the problems of the world as armchair
Presidents while she spoke. Then, looking still more deeply at those around
her, she would continue quietly, “I really should remember that my others all
survived, when so many children in those days did not.” </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV9NtAJ6KjYeSgQM7Rcu7Oo82dvg2ADrDwT78XueLkKEq5JdaJNXfV3fi9TNfKrlW76CP98CHB_7krCBgfqRdjTffQQONARYZoC7X0rHtIT6AX4PVocjjURAiqVZuR28F9QxetKY0TyZw/s1600/IMG_1812.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV9NtAJ6KjYeSgQM7Rcu7Oo82dvg2ADrDwT78XueLkKEq5JdaJNXfV3fi9TNfKrlW76CP98CHB_7krCBgfqRdjTffQQONARYZoC7X0rHtIT6AX4PVocjjURAiqVZuR28F9QxetKY0TyZw/s320/IMG_1812.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Spirited, but generally respectful political discussions and a love of teacups: <br />a happier family legacy from my grandmother<br />photograph ©Kristin Lord 2015</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">At the end of 1917,
however, my grandmother’s triumphs as a parent —in particular, her push to get
her surviving children and even one of her sons-in-law into higher education,
against the wishes of a husband who was not interested in his progeny
benefitting from the advantages he himself had had— could not be foreseen. That
was perhaps just as well, because the financial disasters that befell the
family in the 1920’s and 1930’s were also just beginning at that time, and they
might have appeared unendurable. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Ultimately, my
grandparents and my two little aunts stayed with my great-grandparents for
about a month, during which time all hell (to use the term advisedly) broke
loose. “He and Grandpa (the children’s grandpa) argued for days about the
Bolshevik Revolution,” my grandmother later said of her husband, referring to
the Russian Revolution that had occurred a few weeks before their visit. “He
was in favor of it, of course, being a socialist as well as a pacifist, while
my father definitely was not. I kept expecting them to tell us to leave. I
still find it hard to believe that they didn’t, particularly Grandpa.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">More difficulties were
to come. My grandfather, who left his job as a minister after World War I broke
out in Europe but before the United States became involved, was increasingly
dissatisfied with his second and equally suitable career choice, teaching. Like
the revolutionaries in Europe, he turned against the whole “capitalist system,”
but with a much less secure financial basis. Later, he was to set up a small
publishing and itinerant bookselling business and even sent himself and his
family south as migrant farm laborers on several occasions. None of these
enterprises did more than keep the ever-increasing brood of children from
starving to death. My great-grandfather, foreseeing at least some of the
impending debacle, lambasted him during the 1917-18 visit because of his
financial irresponsibility. (We have independent confirmation of this in a letter
from the older man to his son-in-law that down to my mother’s immediately older
sister, which she self-published a decade or so ago in a book about my grandfather.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">After a month of
incessant disputes, my grandparents and aunts returned to Vermont. Among the
sorrows that my grandmother could not have foreseen was the fact that she was
never to see the next oldest of her four younger sisters again.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">There is one extant
photograph of my grandmother and her four sisters, all younger than she. (There
was only one boy, who died in infancy.) My mother’s younger sister has provided
framed copies of it for the entire family, and it is on my shelves in front of scholarly
commentaries on Euripides’ domestic dramas, a fitting location, I suppose, but
one chosen —at least consciously— for convenience. It is a studio portrait; all
of the young ladies are dressed in white. Taken around the time my grandmother
got married and left home, she appears confident and mature. She is on the left
in the rear. The next sister, strikingly tall, is to her right. In front of
them are the three younger ones: on the left, the one who ended up with an
adoring and adored husband and no children, and on the right, the one who later
fell —hard— for two difficult men in succession. In the center is the cosseted
youngest, a little girl with her hair swept up in an Edwardian bow. Imagine the
four daughters of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, with my youngest great-aunt
taking the place of the Tsarevich Alexei, and anyone can have a pretty good
idea of this portrait. (Because my family has requested that I not provide
photographs on the Internet, the picture of the children of Tsar Nicholas II —minus
the parents and making the appropriate substitution of the fifth daughter for
the young son— will have to do.)</span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgubkPQGh2gYz1zaHsBfrizuTHeFa8dhe3_T4spdahKPWo-_gokkErI5oRY8jlEwvYGFcTKIlQY4HkpXVEsFA7f5U7-IPfJqiEZGWxgGl9PVLy5mXCQKWLl15ZDpXnmwbm6aueGLbY573A/s1600/Family_Nicholas_II_of_Russia_ca._1914.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="260" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgubkPQGh2gYz1zaHsBfrizuTHeFa8dhe3_T4spdahKPWo-_gokkErI5oRY8jlEwvYGFcTKIlQY4HkpXVEsFA7f5U7-IPfJqiEZGWxgGl9PVLy5mXCQKWLl15ZDpXnmwbm6aueGLbY573A/s320/Family_Nicholas_II_of_Russia_ca._1914.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and his wife and children in 1914<br />photo via Wikimedia Commons</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">The second daughter,
the one in the upper right, is the one who was to lose her life in the
influenza pandemic. Like most the victims of this disaster, she was in the
prime of life: in her case, in her mid-twenties, with a husband and toddler
daughter. Although her husband remarried and had a number of other children, they
all kept in touch with my grandmother. I met the daughter in question, at the
time a middle-aged woman, when she came up to Vermont to visit her aunt, my
grandmother. She also stopped to see her cousins, especially the one of my
aunts who was within days of her in age. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">When I think of the
connections between my family and World War I, it is the great-aunt who died of
the “Spanish” flu who comes most closely to mind. Although World War I did not
“cause” this outbreak, if it had not been for the war and its disruption, the
consequences would have been much less serious. It is entirely possible that my
great-aunt might otherwise have lived to the same age as the rest of her
sisters, i.e., from their late seventies to their nineties. Rightly or not, I
consider her a casualty of the war. Because the pandemic raged for three years
(in the US, late 1917 to 1920), I was interested in exactly when in the
outbreak she contracted the virus. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">For this reason, after
Meeting for Worship two days ago I decided to go on line to try to retrieve the
year of my great-aunt’s death. I figured, correctly, that it would not be
difficult, especially as my quick search for my grandmother’s Scottish link
took me directly to the digitized inventory of the cemetery where my
great-grandparents are buried. I googled her first name, maiden name, and
married name. The first hit was, indeed, the cemetery, where there were several
people with my grandmother’s surname but not her. Although some of these tombstones
looked interesting and one in particular was worth a greater look, I first
scrolled down to find the data on my great-aunt. She was listed under her married
name along with the death date of 1919. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">The digital tombstone
contained a bit of a surprise: the first name under which we all knew my great-aunt
was in fact her middle name. A quick electronic detour confirmed that the first
initial was from the same first name as her mother, which in turn explained why
she was called by her middle name. This was news to me. Even more to the point,
I wondered if it would be news to my own immediately older first cousin on that
side, who was named for our great-grandmother. Her older brother, who is now
deceased, had uploaded the descendants of the line leading through my
grandmother’s mother (our great-grandmother) onto a genealogical forum about
twenty years ago, but the file is not user-friendly. Even if that initial is
available, it is hard to get to. In any event, thanks to my computer-geek cousin’s
diligence and the abundance of freely available digitized data from that
period, before the evening was over I was to find that my immediately older cousin
was the fourth woman with that name. </span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">The night, however,
was still young. About an hour into my search, I decided to go back to that other
tombstone that intrigued me, and maybe some others with the same surname if I
had time. Although I had learned a great deal from my grandmother about her
life, I was never able to get her to divulge a lot of information about her
family in her home town other than her sisters, parents, and to some extent her
grandparents (my own great-greats via her own mother). There was one occasion
when I was about twelve when I asked her about her extended family in that very
small town, but I conspicuously got nowhere. The discussion slammed shut at
World War I —not surprisingly, given what I already knew about the toxicity of
the dates in question. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I also got
nowhere with one of her younger sisters, although she had already developed
some dementia by that time.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">What I found on that
unfamiliar tombstone record with the all-too-familiar surname was the first and
middle name of a young man, the complete listing of a US infantry affiliation,
and a death date in the summer of 1918. The record of the tombstone immediately
above it in the online cemetery listing contained the first and last names<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and dates of another man and a woman with the
same surname, along with the words “father” and “mother.” Surely the young man
was related to my grandmother. There are only a few hundred people living in
that village, even now.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">An hour later I had
more information than I had bargained for. By tracing on-line military records
from World War I, I was able to ascertain, despite “incomplete” data on that
file, that the fellow in question was originally part of his state’s national
guard and that he was “grievously wounded” with the US forces in Europe after
initially having been listed as missing in action. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">He was also two years
younger than my grandmother and her first cousin. That became incontrovertibly clear
almost immediately from the census records of a generation prior, which showed
my great-grandfather and the man listed as “father” on the other tombstone described
as little boys a year apart in age. (As it happens, this information was not on
the on-line records of my computer-literate cousin. While my computer-literate cousin
might have had access to that information —in due course I will probably find
out, his own on-line submission contained information through our
great-grandmother’s line all the way down to him, his sister, and me, but not
—crucially— to this cousin of my grandmother, who was related to us through our
great-grandfather.)</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">The death of my
grandmother’s cousin as a result of injuries sustained in World War I might
have explained why I hit a brick wall when I asked her about her extended
family more than forty years ago, but I will never know. I would like to be
able to say that whatever details existed of that conversation came flooding
back to me once I learned the facts. When confronted with the data on the
screen, I seem to recall the conversation turning back at a point around the
time of the war at which someone had died — and that the person involved was
probably not one of the two relatives I already knew about. But that was more
than four decades ago, and my grandmother immediately slammed the door shut on
the discussion, never to resume it, despite promises to the contrary to someday
tell me more about her home town.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Numerous relatives on
various sides of my family have returned, sometimes miraculously so, from
battlefields around the world since the time of the American Revolution. We
have also had several who opposed all wars, including an uncle who was a
conscientious objector in World War II. I had heard of no one, however, who had
died as a result of combat, even in the US Civil War. In this respect, until
two days ago I had assumed that our family was unusual; given the cumulative number
of combatants, one would have expected casualties.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Why did my grandmother
remain silent? Surely I was the one kept in the dark —perhaps because of my own
anti-war convictions— and my mother’s generation knew. Surely my
computer-literate cousin must have shared the relevant information with his
younger sister. Surely my aunt who wrote a biography of my maternal grandmother
must have come across it.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">I made a quick
Facebook text message to that younger sister, that namesake cousin who is the
same number of years older than I as my grandmother was to her own cousin. No,
she had no idea about any of it —least of all about the fact that she was the
fourth woman on that side of the family with the same name. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Yesterday morning I
phoned my aunt, making a point of reaching her before I strode into class to
read the Wilfred Owen poems. Inexplicably, she knew nothing about her mother
having a cousin who perished from his wounds in World War I. She had spent
years going through a veritable roomful of family documents (admittedly before
the widespread digitization that made the facts almost literally drop into my
lap), but still she had no information. Since she had unearthed the
correspondence confirming what we knew about the arguments between my
great-grandfather and grandfather, perhaps she could at least speculate about
whether the opposite opinions that my grandfather and his father-in-law had had
about the war was the reason for my grandmother’s rather conspicuous reticence.
</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">At least as a first
impression, my aunt believed that the dispute was not a big factor, if at all,
in the absence of information. By the time even the oldest surviving children
were old enough to understand family discussions, the event was more than a
decade in the past. Visits were rare. Conversations would have centered on the
people who were alive at the time, particularly the children in the generation
after World War I. (My grandparents, with their large family, had children
spread out over two full decades.) Would my great-grandfather have thundered to
my grandfather when he next saw or corresponded with him with a speech like, “I
have a nephew who fought on the battlefields of Europe and now has died as a
result, and you, you pusillanimous jackass, you won’t even get an ordinarily
civilian job?” Probably not even that, my aunt averred. Even at the time, the
untimely demise of the other two people we knew about —not to mention my
grandparents’ impending financial ruin— were more pressing concerns. In other
words, my grandmother’s silence might not have been some sort of unwarranted <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">damnatio memoriae</i> but rather an
oversight. If so, the conversational brick wall I encountered with my
grandmother would have been the result of my age when we spoke.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">My aunt and I agreed,
though, that the loss of my grandmother’s cousin must have been extremely
painful when she heard about it.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">I have not given up on
the possibility, however remote, that I can shake the family tree for more
information. That particular aunt was by far my best hope, but not the only
one. In the interim, though, that might not be the most important
consideration. What remains is the reality that two men —my great-grandfather
and his brother a year younger— each lost a child in the third decade of life
and buried them in the same cemetery a year apart, decades before they were to
end up there themselves. The younger brother lost a son whom many might have
considered a hero, and whom a few might have viewed as a tragic victim of the
vile cud (to borrow two of Wilfred Owen’s words) of circumstances that never
should have arisen. The older brother lost a daughter as a result of illness
spread globally by that conflict. And finally, there was my grandmother,
related to all of them and married to a man of lofty ideals but with an
inability to carry them out to the benefit of herself and their children. She
was left to live her life in another small town in Vermont, far away from the
cemetery with the fateful tales to tell. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">And I was left to
secure the tartan around my neck, to read to my Latin students
Wilfred Owen’s account of the gas attack and “the Old Lie: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">dulce et decorum est pro patria mori</i>” (“It is fine and fitting to
die for one’s country”).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After that, all
that remained was to e-mail my other cousin one more time. Not only is she
named for our great-grandmother, she herself is a grandmother. Her grandchildren
are my first cousins twice removed on the younger side, the mirror image of
relationship to me as the young soldier, who was my first cousin twice removed
on the older side. As if to bring the family story full circle, her first-born
grandson is named for the preschooler who died in December of 1917. No one we
know, regardless of religious belief or political affiliation, wants him or his
siblings —or anyone else, for that matter— to suffer the fate of his antecedent
nearly a century ago. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Lest we forget”
must mean “never again, not to anyone.”</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Author’s note: because
of my older (and late) cousin’s uploading of some family information on a genealogical
forum, and because my aunt self-published her own research, a reader with
plenty of time on his or her hands could corroborate the information in this
account, complete with names and dates. However, I felt it best for me not to. Instead, I
would like to thank those relatives —my aunt, my immediately older cousin, and
her late brother— who made parts of this report possible, and those others whom I have no doubt driven batty in the last day talking about it. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg82waNeVNckWQry2PpQygKHL-ZzMltzlcHmgoTybYDn9U09HAdmtJKJQd99X7_N9vjUXY9K1NUIZ-KfIjMev6WSsGfOVi4FZhx4oUsgAe4J7guNaAoSSJhq-MW_CzYqoG6ciULh8kmCfI/s1600/IMG_1800.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg82waNeVNckWQry2PpQygKHL-ZzMltzlcHmgoTybYDn9U09HAdmtJKJQd99X7_N9vjUXY9K1NUIZ-KfIjMev6WSsGfOVi4FZhx4oUsgAe4J7guNaAoSSJhq-MW_CzYqoG6ciULh8kmCfI/s320/IMG_1800.JPG" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Aluminum luncheon pail inscribed on the top with the initials and surname name of my great-grandfather<br />photograph ©Kristin Lord 2014</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span></div>
Kristin Lordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18052075819133204111noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4387507661152607223.post-86885909184923573742014-11-10T20:32:00.002-08:002014-11-10T20:32:45.208-08:00F is for Fashion
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRH5hGiVDoi31jjPATwGijftZq2t8hJ4bicWGzyAVtoXCsPDl-yGS7dYY7fx_eJ-x8VFh3CFEWiC_cFm78RtZjQC58FddWCzRMNlBkH0P8OF1HLtZkMrP8QQnjmAXUmXCpCFvj9Y-32Io/s1600/IMG_3452.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRH5hGiVDoi31jjPATwGijftZq2t8hJ4bicWGzyAVtoXCsPDl-yGS7dYY7fx_eJ-x8VFh3CFEWiC_cFm78RtZjQC58FddWCzRMNlBkH0P8OF1HLtZkMrP8QQnjmAXUmXCpCFvj9Y-32Io/s1600/IMG_3452.JPG" height="213" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">signatories on waterfall monument depicting the 1848 Declaration of Sentiments</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><a href="http://www.nps.gov/wori/index.htm">Women’s Rights National Historical
Park</a>, Seneca Falls, New York</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Let us beware of this, of separating or looking upon ourselves to be
more holy, than in deed and in truth we are. . .Away with these whimsical,
narrow imaginations, and let the spirit of God which he hath given us, lead us
and guide us; and let us stand fast in that liberty wherewith Christ hath made
us free. . .This narrowness and strictness is entering in, that many cannot
tell what to do, or not to do. Poor Friends is mangled in their minds, that
they know not what to do; for one Friend says one way, and another, another.
But Christ Jesus saith, that we must take no thought what we shall eat, or what
we shall drink, or what we shall put on; but bids us consider the lilies how
they grow in more royalty than Solomon. But contrary to this, they say we must
look at no colours, nor make anything that is changeable colours as the hills
are, nor sell them nor wear them. But we must be all in one dress, and one
colour. This is a silly poor Gospel. It is more fit for us to be covered with
God's eternal spirit, and clothed with his eternal Light, which leads us and
guides us into righteousness and to live righteously and justly and holily in
this present evil world. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>—Margaret Fox, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://westrichmondfriends.org/Fell.htm">Epistle against Uniform Quaker
costume</a></i>, 1700</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Failure.... black and
blue is the new black. I was thinking more of failure than of fashion while
sitting in the wheelchair waiting for an x-ray after falling off a ladder in
the garden on October 28. The fact that I was wearing grungy yoga pants and the
shirt I had used the previous summer while painting our daughter’s room —not to
mention the reality that I was covered with dirt and scratches from rose bushes
and blackberry prickles— was the farthest from my mind. I was just glad that
the pruning clippers hadn’t hit me in the face when I went down. When I asked
the neighbor who took me to the emergency ward to retrieve my tablet computer
for me, I did not bother requesting a change of clothes. I didn’t know if I
could easily get out of what I was wearing and into something else —or at least
that was the story I told the people at the hospital.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">In the end, I missed
as much work time due to the computer problem that arose the next morning as I
did from the accident. Even the computer was fixed in a day. But that still
raised the issue of how to look professional while walking on crutches. More to
the point, can one look both Quakerly and professional while hobbling around a
classroom on crutches?</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Friends have always
had an awkward relationship to fashion. This has been true throughout our
history, for people of all ages, genders, and orientations. Margaret Fox, in
making a stand for personal privacy in dress against the nascent tide of the dull-colored
Quaker “uniform” worn among most members of our Religious Society between the
late seventeenth century and the middle of the nineteenth, was swimming against
a powerful riptide. She might as well have been sporting a bikini in the age of
the bloomers —and even the bloomers were radical for their era. Likewise,
Elizabeth Fry’s husband Joseph loved the opera, another activity verboten among
Friends of his day; he kept a set of non-Quaker street clothes in order to
indulge his passion incognito. All in all, in the first two hundred years of
Quaker history, Friends anticipated the late twentieth century dictum <a href="http://www.carolhanisch.org/CHwritings/PIP.html">“the personal is
political:”</a> if not gender neutral, Quaker attire had equally severe
restrictions on both men and women. It was designed with the testimony of
equality in mind, although Friendly lore has it that there was substantial
inequality in the cut and quality of fabrics. Traditional Friends’ attire also
aimed at discouraging the use of clothing as a means of sexual attraction.
Finally, utilizing fashion as a tool in boycotts was popular among some sectors
of our Religious Society in the time of Lucretia Mott (1793-1880), who
advocated the refusal to consume <a href="https://www.blogger.com/ww.nationalabolitionhalloffameandmuseum.org/lmott.html">all products made
with slave labor, </a>whether sugar or fabric dye. (The <a href="https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/discover/people-and-places/the-slave-trade-and-abolition/sites-of-memory/abolitionists/">dark
gray</a> that became ubiquitous among Friends in this period was in fact
related slave labor and harsh chemicals used to produce the dye.)</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">To ratchet up the
level of discomfort even further (are we wearing girdles or tightly fitting
neckties yet, Friends?), in the present era Quaker testimonies on equality are
related not only to ideas about competition for romantic partners but anxieties
about winning and losing in sports; these anxieties are in turn related for
many people to what physical condition they are in and what they look like. I doubt
I am the only Friend to have received a “mercy pass” in high school physical
education (no exaggeration: we were permitted to take PE modules as often as we
wanted, and I passed badminton on three occasions without ever making
legitimate contact with the shuttlecock more than ten per cent of the time). Likewise,
I doubt that I am the only one to treat it as a badge of honor. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">As a convinced Friend,
I seem to have gone in cycles when it comes to simplicity in dress. When I
became interested in Quakerism as a teenager, I emulated the peasant look of
the “back to the landers” ten or fifteen years my senior, without, however,
acquiring their hard-earned skills in gardening —a fact I was to rue as I fell
from the ladder that morning years later. I became so good at copying that
trend that I had my own bottle of lighter fluid to get bicycle chain grease out
of my long dresses. My parents refused to let me own torn or patched jeans but
otherwise despaired until I made an abrupt volte-face just before I sent in my
applications for my undergraduate years. My mother claimed later on, “I tried
to get you to take a healthy interest in your attire, but nothing changed until
you met those rich bitches at (that university).” </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">I was in a protracted
downward cycle in regard to fashion, though, in the morning of the ladder
episode. The glory days of ending last in a 10-k. foot race were sufficiently
far in the past that I had decided that going to the gym was yet another
activity at which I could not succeed. Admittedly, I had learned that wearing
contact lenses allowed me to whack a squash ball a modest percentage of the
time, but that raised my “mercy pass” from the days of doing battle with the
high school shuttlecock to maybe a C- if I was generous with myself. There were
other illnesses and setbacks. The only area in which I had absolutely refused
to capitulate was at the hairdresser, where I laid down the rule of no gray,
Quaker or otherwise. For my pains I earned at least 123 comments —I hereby
confess to having stopped reading at that number— on the Facebook page of the
Association of Bad Friends (an ostensibly humorous place where some Quakers
openly indulge in being good Friends) when I posted from the hairdresser about
restoring my original hair color.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">And then, there I was,
on the ground, faced with the choice of signing an armistice with the local ER
physician, physiotherapist, gym owner, and athletic trainer or else risk never
walking properly again. I also had to look presentable at work in all of this
—and truth be told, the situation once I opened the doors of the closet in the
master bedroom was not what I would have liked, using any metric at my
disposal. I signed the armistice.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">On the other hand, at
least I could take comfort in one fashion trend: perhaps as a response to the
Scottish referendum, I found plaids in style. I had collected a few among my
scarves over the years, and maybe I could acquire some others if they weren’t
too expensive. The tartan representing my maternal grandmother’s family name
might also make a good choice of scarf if I could order one in, and in the
interim, I could buy a red shirt and echo the days I had almost forgotten, when
I had the habit of wearing a red Stuart kilt to a Friends Meeting in England, earning
a partially tongue-and-cheek eldering from the clerk about the colour.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Whatever was going to
happen, I was sick of black. Gray looked good only to balance something more vivid.
On the other hand, some of those trendy leggings I kept eyeing at the mall,
when paired with the shorter skirts long ago tucked away at the back of the
closet, might keep my clothes from getting tangled up in the crutches. (I look
dismal in slacks, in case the reader is wondering why they are not part of my
workday attire, and I have only just gotten to the point of being able to put
on hose.) I would manage the problem of shoes. If the only footwear that could
handle my swollen foot with any degree of panache was more than I had ever paid
for shoes or boots, I would just have to “deal with it.”</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">I am tired of wearing black.
I don’t care whether The Law of Black Clothing was approved by the Friends
World Committee on Consultation or Anna Wintour of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Vogue</i>. And, if the august members of the Association of Bad Friends
want to come and get me, here I am: I have once again engaged in my monthly
ritual at the hairdresser, and my stylist (who happens not to be a Quaker) has
not yet used William Penn’s sword to cut my hair or stir the dye. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK08zZdbn2Thqhrau-uaeNcFfZPGE2M7FDDxu1CTITi6OlK3NYytP0p2JmW34bqOeWDGkH0tQ8WTtEluyg5hOdjC5zFaDjBlEiFl5Md9juRI_uT9ICc6-VLHs0TnFj0_Bi5mgoU2KKxJQ/s1600/IMG_3456.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK08zZdbn2Thqhrau-uaeNcFfZPGE2M7FDDxu1CTITi6OlK3NYytP0p2JmW34bqOeWDGkH0tQ8WTtEluyg5hOdjC5zFaDjBlEiFl5Md9juRI_uT9ICc6-VLHs0TnFj0_Bi5mgoU2KKxJQ/s1600/IMG_3456.JPG" height="213" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Note the Quaker attire
on some of the figures, <br />and read <a href="http://www.nps.gov/wori/historyculture/quaker-influence.htm">here</a> on
the Quaker influence of the early women’s rights movement</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br /></div>
Kristin Lordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18052075819133204111noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4387507661152607223.post-4197027424972817392014-11-04T10:20:00.000-08:002014-11-04T21:19:16.202-08:00E is for Elections (and Referendums)<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMa-WTZqXwjBpeWuCthPPeTJYIPlXyXv2AOH7y3YES5lyVwxpwIuKq48gXGg0lnO1AJB-rt72XLehviC7VX2m4wj6swMXpgHgM9FBrGZ9v03u4nDBygzvGUOnKEp_6R2TpB7jA9vvlaJI/s1600/photo1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMa-WTZqXwjBpeWuCthPPeTJYIPlXyXv2AOH7y3YES5lyVwxpwIuKq48gXGg0lnO1AJB-rt72XLehviC7VX2m4wj6swMXpgHgM9FBrGZ9v03u4nDBygzvGUOnKEp_6R2TpB7jA9vvlaJI/s1600/photo1.JPG" height="239" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cell phone photo taken in front of the Church of Our Lady<br />
and the Guelph Civic Museum, Guelph, Ontario, Canada<br />
in the run-up to the June 2014 provincial election.<br />
Front: Conservative (blue), New Democrat (orange and blue)<br />
Back: Green (green), Liberal (red and white).<br />
Photograph ©Kristin O. Lord 2014</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Edinburgh, Glasgow,
Dundee, Aberdeen, the western islands, the border regions, and many other
places: up to and during September 18, the people of Scotland lined up to vote
on their future. As an American currently living in Canada, whose two-year
sojourn in the United Kingdom was spent primarily in southern England, I
watched the events at a distance of both time and space. People who knew that I
had lived on that side of “the Pond” occasionally asked me what I thought.
Unless my interlocutor was a family member or a close friend, I replied that I
would discuss the matter after the polls closed and that my opinion was not an
informed one. The decision was the Scots’ own business. Not that I didn’t have
an opinion, of course. That would be unthinkable. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">My viewpoint might be
summarized by comparison to the way I felt about purchasing the new book <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/ww.randomhouse.com/book/224820/the-morning-after-by-chantal-hebert">The
Morning After: the 1995 Quebec Referndum and the Day that Almost Was</a></i>, written
by the Quebec journalist Chantal Hébert with Jean Lapierre, which was brought out
to high publicity in Canada just before the Scottish referendum. Hébert’s book
is the result of interviews with politicians and other public figures on all
sides of the referendum on Quebec sovereignty in 1995 and focuses, as the title
suggests, on what might have happened if the “Yes” vote had succeeded. (The
referendum was staged on a “50 per cent plus one” for victory for either side;
the “No” side narrowly prevailed at </span><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">50.58
per cent to 49.42 per cent</span><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">.) I began the book with great anticipation, having opinions that
could at best be described as conflicted. As a Vermonter who grew up just south
of the Quebec border and who has cousins and friends among the descendants of
the Quebec francophone diaspora, I had a basic understanding of the grievances.
Quebec was <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>also—and to a great extent
remains— my favorite part of Canada. On the other hand, as an adult who worked
in western Canada between 1989 and 1991, I had become annoyed at acquaintances
and colleagues in that part of the country who had never visited la belle
province, had no desire to do so despite having sufficient time and resources, seem
to give little thought for the million or so Canadian Francophones outside of
Quebec (a shortsightedness shared, to be fair, by those with many other
viewpoints), and saw the lack of geographical contiguity among the Anglophone
or bilingual provinces as the only significant consequence of a potential
Quebec separation. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">To cut closer to home,
however, I remembered how my husband and I had sat in our house in Ontario
awaiting the results, nervous in the knowledge that the mortgage on the home we
had owned for about six months was due for renewal the very next day. If we
renewed our mortgage on a six-month fluctuating rate as we had originally
planned, we would do well if the “No” forces were to prevail, as mortgage rates
were gradually declining internationally at that time. If, however, the “Yes”
forces prevailed, we were advised to lock in what we had for several years in
order to ride out the turbulence. Our bank manager at the time, a bilingual
native of the Montreal area, was savvy enough not to say what he or his family
thought about the referendum. He set us up with the floating rate and then gave
us a complicated set of prompts to follow on the phone if we needed to lock the
rate in. Finally, he tried to reassure us: “I think cooler heads will prevail.”</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">It might seem petty
for one household to be thinking of mortgage rates when the future of the nation
was at stake, but compromising the ability of millions of people to pay their
debts in a period of uncertainty would not be petty in the least. (I will leave
aside the question of whether trying to guess how rates might go and acting
accordingly is a violation of Friends’ testimony against gambling.) The issue for
the Quebeckers was whether the immediate risks were worth the benefit; all the
rest of the country could to was wait and hope that the power brokers on all
sides knew what they were doing.</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">The vaguely worded
nature of<a href="http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/quebec-referendum-1995/">
the Quebec referendum question</a> (</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">in
English, “Do you agree that Québec should become sovereign, after having made a
formal offer to Canada for a new economic and political partnership, within the
scope of the Bill respecting the future of Québec and of the agreement signed
on 12 June 1995?"</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">) did not give grounds for comfort. If Hébert’s meticulous research
and interviews are correct —and I see no reason to believe that they are not—
then the overall level of preparation inside Quebec was no better than the
quality of the question. Neither the voters nor sovereignist leaders had an
adequate blueprint for what a “Yes” vote would entail.</span></span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"></span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"></span>
</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Since then, the
government of Canada has tried to specify how any future Quebec referendum
would have to be worded <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and what level
of support would be needed (the criteria in the resulting <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarity_Act">Clarity Act</a> have reasonable
clarity, so to speak, on the process and the wording of the question, but the
majority needed has not been specified. At the moment, support for Quebec
sovereignty is low; indeed, the mere whiff of a possible referendum was the single
biggest factor in the Parti Québecois losing last year’s provincial election.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">I naturally brought my
feelings about Quebec to bear when I started to read up on what was going on in
Scotland. Like many in this neck of the woods, I was uncertain as to whether
the advice given by Canadians on each side of the Quebec sovereignty issue
would be good, and whether it would be heeded if it was. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">To be sure, those
involved in the Scottish referendum question had learned from the ambiguities
of the Canadian experience by setting up a simple question to be decided by a
simple majority. But as events unfolded, I was not merely waiting for whether
the Scottish “No” supporters would have the same belated response to the crisis
on their side as did former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien and his
associates. Despite receiving advice from their Canadian counterparts, they
did, in fact, nearly fall into the same trap until Gordon Brown took the stage.
Nor, for that matter, was I fundamentally interested in the minutiae of the
legal or even the practical positions of the Scottish nationalists, as
fascinating as I found them. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">As crucial as these
events were for the outcome, I ultimately wanted to see how the Scots handled the
democratic aspects of the referendum and what we in other English-speaking
countries could learn from them. I did not have to wait long to see our lesson
in democratic process —a lesson many of us sorely need to learn. The Scots took
pride in registering everyone, including teenagers aged sixteen and seventeen,
and encouraging maximum participation. We Americans in particular could benefit
from that. Secondly, although there were some problems with civility, by and
large outsiders heard about exemplary behavior among the Scots. As a prime
example, both the winning and the losing leaders held their remarks until they
had had some time to sleep. There was no Jacques Parizeau, one of the Quebec sovereignist leaders from 1995, claiming that <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Parizeau">“we lost to money and the
ethnic vote.”</a></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Best of all, at least
from this perch on the other side of “the pond,” have been the attempts by
cultural and religious leaders in Scotland to keep the differences that had been brought
out into the open from festering. Religious leaders, including Friends, have
taken a major role. Time will tell whether these attempts in Scotland will be
successful, but the history of both Quebec and Ontario over the past nineteen
years might have been quite different had there been a major cohort of leaders
(political, social, or economic) in the late 1990’s whose main goal was
reconciliation. More than a decade passed before Jack Layton, a Canadian social
democratic politician with roots in both Ontario and Quebec, was able to bring
to the electorate a vision that could appeal emotionally and intellectually to
a significant range of voters in all parts of the country. Layton sadly died of
cancer not long after his greatest electoral success in the spring of 2011, but
he left a legacy of respect on the part of many Canadians for each other,
regardless of how they felt about the policies of his party. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Speaking as a Quaker, I
am convinced that the greatest gift we as Friends can have in the electoral
process is one of seeing that of God in one’s political opponent. William Penn,
a consummate politician as well as a competent theologian, famously claimed
that <a href="http://qfp.quaker.org.uk/passage/22-01/">“love is the hardest
lesson in Christianity.”</a> It is an equally hard lesson in the secular
political sphere, as many voters in Toronto were able to attest when they saw
Toronto mayor Rob Ford’s controversial tenure in office come to a tragic
conclusion after his diagnosis with a rare and aggressive form of cancer. (Rob
Ford’s brother Doug ran for mayor in his place and came second in last week’s
election; Rob Ford himself was reelected to city council and will take office
if his health permits.)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">It may be detrimental
to the political process for Friends to proclaimthat our business practices are
“beyond democracy;” they are, at least in some respects, but Quaker business
meetings do not involve millions of people making a decision at the same time. In
particular, we need to remind ourselves —and that includes yours truly— that
the Religious Society of Friends is a Religious Society that has members and
attenders from many political parties, and from none. This is true in all
countries in which I have known Friends and attenders. There are Friends whom I
have known for years whose voting preferences are unknown to me. In the United
States, the Friends Committee on National Legislation, a non-partisan Quaker
lobbying organization, has performed a particular service in this area with its
annual <a href="http://fcnl.org/about/history/snyder_award/">Edward F. Snyder
Peace Award</a>. Winners have come from both political parties (in fact, one
winner, Senator James Jeffords, later became an independent) and have won the
prize for a wide variety of reasons. The winners have not always acted
consistently with Friends’ concerns in other areas, but FCNL has wisely emphasized
the courageous decisions taken when they have.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Some queries for those contemplating Friends
and the political process of democracy (written on the morning of the 2014 US
midterm elections, they day after my own absentee ballot was safely ensconced
in the ballot box in my home town in Vermont):</span></u></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">1. Do you cherish all
people who run for public office as children of God? If you are fortunate to
live in countries in which politicians from major parties are not Nazis,
fascists, Maoists, Stalinists, and others of similar descriptions, can you
refrain from inappropriate language and comparisons and encourage others to do
likewise? Do you show gratitude for the public service of others, even if we
disagree with them? </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">2. Do you take the
time to become informed in the political process at all relevant levels of
government, and to vote if you are eligible to do so? Are you able to articulate
our own positions thoughtfully? Do you consider the effects that your vote may
have on others, especially those whose life circumstances differ from your own,
and on the environment and economy of both the relevant jurisdiction(s) and the
world at large? Do you help others exercise their right to vote? Can you
consider appropriate ways to support candidates or parties if the circumstances
arise? Do you take the risks of voter disenfranchisement seriously and work to
prevent them, particularly when these risks are the result of a history or patterns of
discrimination? </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">3. What can you do to
encourage qualified citizens from all walks of life to run for public office?
Do you see the gifts of the quiet, methodical “servant leader” or “retail
politician” who is able to achieve lasting results by building coalitions in
the same light as the charismatic speaker with more obvious political talents?
Both types of leaders are needed, as are the individuals who do not feel
qualified to run for office themselves but who develop ideas and run the
infrastructure of campaigns.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">4. Are you realistic
about<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the fact that even politicians and
parties whose policies are generally compatible with your own, will not agree
with you all of the time? How much do you feel that you have to agree with a
politician or a party in order to cast your vote in that direction? In particular,
to what extent can or should you expect political figures and parties in a
secular context to support Friends’ concerns about peace, gender issues, social
and economic equality, and the environment? Can you respect the viewpoints of
family and friends, including others in our own Religious Society, who come to
different conclusions on these points?</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">5. Are you able, whether
as individuals or a Religious Society, to deal with both the strengths and
weaknesses of coalition building?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">6. Do you do what you
can to reduce the excessive influence of money (whether individual or from
corporations), connections, and family dynasties on the political process? In
what ways do you work to ensure that people running for office all have a fair
opportunity to be heard, regardless of family background, ethnicity, access to
advanced education, gender, age, or orientation?</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">7. Do you have a good
layperson’s understanding of how your government works? If the choice were up
to you, would you as a Friend make any changes to the type of representative
bodies and how they are elected? In what ways would any changes benefit the
full range of members of society? What unintended consequences might there be
if changes were made?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">8. If your preferred
party or political leaders lose an election, can you reach out appropriately to
the winners? What if the situation is reversed? Do you treat the decisions and decision-making processes of other voters with respect, regardless of your own views?</span></div>
</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-vSdPKwh4_1ZDxH9lMBy9y78ZPu-mO71mDWvkzniiVPooSsclNHBnxEk16b4M__VWYWuWE-6zpbVFbXg46F8eJ0Ihoy0w6Pb3t9lO9hU4VjDaXMkULuPuzQPVQBp5lNz-eG70vkXVnYw/s1600/IMG_5972.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-vSdPKwh4_1ZDxH9lMBy9y78ZPu-mO71mDWvkzniiVPooSsclNHBnxEk16b4M__VWYWuWE-6zpbVFbXg46F8eJ0Ihoy0w6Pb3t9lO9hU4VjDaXMkULuPuzQPVQBp5lNz-eG70vkXVnYw/s1600/IMG_5972.JPG" height="320" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo taken (but never posted) in contemplation of a request in the <i>New York Times</i><br />
for voters to show their polling places for the 2008 US Presidential primaries.<br />
A number of American expatriate voters uploaded photos of mailboxes and homes from around the world.<br />
Here I set up my dining room table as a polling place.<br />
In Vermont absentee ballots are often now sent out electronically<br />
(although they must be returned in hard copy).<br />
photograph ©Kristin O. Lord 2008</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span></div>
Kristin Lordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18052075819133204111noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4387507661152607223.post-54431818492194705382014-09-29T19:27:00.000-07:002014-10-03T05:29:09.358-07:00D is for Disabilities<style>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMX0oNFQbr3NS-ea7TcPWClNouFIr9zhLCU0QoNRLQ1toUncclJxowEI8KqxexdbNDV5shyphenhyphenDJbMoJiRwhornaWHQ2XsIcWkSY6SNKBn6tRcWKPJYRRY0_XmjVAEOWU4YOtnmIYkt52h3s/s1600/IMG_0487.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMX0oNFQbr3NS-ea7TcPWClNouFIr9zhLCU0QoNRLQ1toUncclJxowEI8KqxexdbNDV5shyphenhyphenDJbMoJiRwhornaWHQ2XsIcWkSY6SNKBn6tRcWKPJYRRY0_XmjVAEOWU4YOtnmIYkt52h3s/s1600/IMG_0487.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">photograph ©Kristin Lord 2014</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">The dog days of late
August have been a memory for the past two years due to unseasonably cool and
wet weather in the northeastern provinces and states.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As we headed into Labor Day weekend, I saw no
reason not to spend my last free morning taking down some overgrown foundation shrubs
from a four-foot painter’s ladder, especially when routine yard work usually
costs more to hire than I get paid. </span><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">“Let’s
just clip the tops to my height and then saw off the base,” I thought.</span>
The first one went down quickly. No reason at all to
hesitate on the three others I had in my sights, at least not until I was three
feet in the air and heard a “snap” emanating from my right knee. After a few
minutes of excruciating pain, I was relieved to walking toward the shed, the
clippers in one hand and the ladder in the other. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Before five more
minutes had elapsed, I was on the ground twice more. The ladder had long since
spiraled off to the left, while the clippers narrowly missed my head. One of
the neighbors, hearing my torrent of Anglo-Saxon expletives, came running and
grabbed my cell phone for me from the car, while a second neighbor offered to
drive me to the hospital. I was down a third time before she could get me
there. On the proverbial pain scale of 1 to 10, these four falls were each at least
a 9. The only way to get through this was not to fall again.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">The x-ray showed
nothing broken, which left me with a provisional diagnosis of a soft tissue
injury. “Can I drive?” I asked the attending ER physician. “I’d play that one
by ear, since you have hurt your right knee. Press down on the foot rest on the
wheelchair and see how you feel.” “The foot rest is broken.” “Then try the edge
of the foot rest.” “Thanks.” For once, there was no pain. I’d play it by ear, I
thought, literally and figuratively. If I could press down on that
malfunctioning wheelchair part, then I could probably use the piano pedal. If I
could manage the piano, then I could probably drive, and if I could drive, I
could work. It also followed that there was no reason to make more than minor
changes at the office. Indeed, I had already solved one problem while waiting
for the x-ray. I asked the ER physician for a physiotherapy requisition, got
fitted with crutches, and phoned our neighbor to come get me. Meanwhile, my
husband would pick up our daughter from her own work. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">I got home, made my
way in through the small step at the back door, and sat down to work-related
paperwork. I even managed to get upstairs to bed and downstairs the next
morning. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">I was going to be just
fine. See?! Left to my own devices, I went out the back door
on my crutches, checked my safety in the car, then drove to nearby Fergus and paid some bills. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Before I did that,
however, I whacked away at more of the paperwork that was sitting on my hard
drive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Little did I know that that would
be no more successful at that than attacking the sapling in the back yard the day
before. The Apple gurus in Waterloo, 30 minutes away, had told me a month
before that I was unlikely to need any more work on my computer, but if I did,
they would have to replace the memory board under warranty. Of course, the memory
board took that moment to go haywire. And of course, the .05 per cent of my
work that was not saved externally or emailed was the .05 per cent I needed for
a letter of recommendation and for the start of term after Labor Day. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">The folks at Apple
were good at scheduling an appointment, once they had located my extended
warranty. They even understood why I no longer had my hard
drive hooked up to my Time Capsule (too many lightning strikes to the house
—that is apparently a common problem). Although the staffers made no
promises, they were optimistic that I could get the files onto my external hard
drive and memory sticks, which I could then install on an older machine, and
they even hopeful that I would have my “good” laptop back before I started
teaching the next week.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">All I had to do was
drive to the Apple Store in Conestoga Mall by 7:30 that evening. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">No, let me rewrite
that last sentence: all I had to do was to check my privilege. There is no
public transportation where I live. My ability to continue working while
temporarily disabled was entirely dependent upon being able to drive and having
access to a working vehicle. I also have a moderate amount of third-party
coverage for physiotherapy, thanks to the fact that the other adult in the family has a job with benefits. Single-payer medical care got me
through the hospital. My work is of the sort that can be managed by an employee
on crutches with insignificant adjustments (one of my departmental colleagues
worked from both crutches and a wheelchair at different times over many years).
This matters a lot, since I did not have to worry about losing my job. It also
matters because I might not have been eligible for workers’ compensation, given
that contract academics are not usually paid over the summer and that the
accident occurred at home in August. In sum, I was lucky that I did not have to
ask about the law but rather was able to turn up for work on schedule.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Along the way, I
discovered many other areas in which I could no longer take ordinary activities
for granted —not just the running or the sports that I had planned to take up
again but perhaps never can. (The jury is out on whether I will make a full
recovery, or even whether I should have an MRI, for which there is a waiting
list in Ontario.) Like most jurisdictions in O.E.C.D. countries, </span><a href="http://www.aoda.ca/"><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Ontario has legislation covering disabilities</span></a><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">. Like most public
employees in these jurisdictions, I have been required to attend a briefing on
this legislation. Over the Labor Day weekend, I refreshed my memory about both
the law and its limitations in a hurry, grateful at every step of the way (so
to speak) that as these problems go, I was on the lower end of necessary
accommodations, and that at least some of them would likely be temporary. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<a href="http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/enable/rights/ahc7bkgrndra.htm"><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Both the law and best
practices in many countries require “reasonable accommodation” </span></a><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">to provide equal
access to the complete gamut of venues, services, and activities for anyone who
would otherwise be eligible if he or she did not have a disability. In many
cases, there is a difference between the minimum required and what is truly
equal access. For instance, the leader of our seminar at work gave the example
of a blind student taking a survey course that had one chapter on art and
architecture. “Reasonable accommodation” would at the minimum entail replacing
the unit on art and architecture with a mutually acceptable alternative, such
as having the student read a story or a play that made reference to art or
architecture in addition to the plays already assigned for everyone else. A
better approach would be to work with the student to make as much of the
section on art and architecture as possible available in a format which that
student could use, if necessary by getting expert assistance. The law, however,
recognizes that there are practical limitations to what may be feasible.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Despite generally
noble intentions, “reasonable accommodation” and universal access are easier
concepts to develop on paper than to put into practice. Most communities have a
large number of private houses that have been turned into businesses or
semi-formal public places, and not all meet standards of accessibility, whether
literally or in practical terms. Modern public facilities vary enormously in
accessibility. Some are superb. The new main entrance to the library at Wilfrid Laurier University, my employer for the last decade and a half, was designed with universal access in mind (photograph below). It is also carefully engineered to fit into the rather awkward slope between the library and the surrounding ground and buildings. The planter at the front will have a community garden (unfortunately, not edible at this point), and there will be more seating. Cannon Design, the architectural firm behind the project, did a splendid job actualizing the desires of the library staff. By coincidence, it was opened a day or two before my accident, and was almost immediately put to use by yours truly.</span><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNu6EJrDgpt9U9kRMjpbzdvT39YE9Qwx-52PWG6ET3IhYwVqdyDMt0yaYg0RDAOBefet1iu1dkNmLOmiORbmCTsQjskVQEUVnjtdpUfMHIl2kW8RWfx5CRZfLwTTqUNSbdDLV9rpE0hdc/s1600/WLULibrary2ndpic30Sept14.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNu6EJrDgpt9U9kRMjpbzdvT39YE9Qwx-52PWG6ET3IhYwVqdyDMt0yaYg0RDAOBefet1iu1dkNmLOmiORbmCTsQjskVQEUVnjtdpUfMHIl2kW8RWfx5CRZfLwTTqUNSbdDLV9rpE0hdc/s1600/WLULibrary2ndpic30Sept14.JPG" height="239" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wilfrid Laurier University Library<br />
Universally accessible main entrance<br />
Architect: Cannon Design, Toronto, Ontario<br />
photograph ©Kristin Lord 2014<br />
with thanks to Nancy Willing and Gohar Ashoughian of the WLU Library for information on the project</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Conestoga Mall in Waterloo and Stone Road
Mall in Guelph each have an ample supply of accessible parking. In fact, they appear to have more than the two major shopping
malls in the Toronto area that we visited on consecutive weekends, despite the malls in Toronto being several times larger. On the whole, I have ended up with more problems in Toronto than that good city surely deserves. I had to
cancel plans to attend a large public event held at the downtown convention
center in Toronto because the nearest subway station was closed and there was
no place to sit down at the function.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">The </span><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">most
egregious example of lack of access I have seen so far<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>turned up when I phoned the Ministry of
Transportation of Ontario about my temporary accessible parking permit. The
staffer at the office of the MTO nearest my home, in a building that it had
occupied for no more than a decade,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>rather apologetically informed me that either I or someone appointed by
me would have to retrieve the application from the Ministry in person, as it
was not available on line. In order to get the application processed in a
timely manner, I would then have to return the form with documentation, again
in person. (I am unclear as to whether I could have delegated that part of the
procedure, but in any case it was moot because of scheduling issues.) Doing so
locally would entail walking up and down twelve cement steps. Otherwise, I
could drive 30 minutes to the village of Arthur or use the outlet near my
office, 30 minutes away in a different direction but obviously more convenient
for me. Unfortunately, the MTO outlet near my office had a thirty-minute wait
at an off-peak time and no tag and number system allowing people to use one of
the few available chairs. A kindly woman let me cut ahead of her to retrieve
the form, which took a matter of seconds, but it would have been inappropriate
to do the same when finalizing the document, a much longer procedure. I drove
to Arthur, where I was the only client there.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">What works for one
person may not for another. While the manager of the local supermarket was more
than happy to offer put me into a motorized cart, that may be overkill for
someone with crutches or a cane. (A friend who uses two canes to get around
mostly shops at smaller food stores.)</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Disabilities are
expensive as well as time-consuming, a point seemingly lost on many of those who set the rates for people
who are on longer term disability pensions. There are noticeable increases in
living expenses even for someone in a short-term and relatively straightforward
situation, as shopping for groceries at the deli or on line usually costs more
than going to the supermarket. (Once again, I was lucky to have family members
able and willing to shop from my grocery list and to have a good and
reasonably-priced deli in the area.) Modifications to vehicles and housing are
unaffordable for many people who need them, even in wealthy countries, unless
they have access to public or private insurance. People who cannot drive often
have other impediments. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">I have been fortunate
to have escaped the worst of what could have happened. Despite the issues of
parking and access to certain venues, I have experienced a great deal of
generosity from family, friends, colleagues, and medical professionals. In
particular, I racked up one of those debts that can never be repaid from a
friend with a more serious disability and one of longer duration. She had
invited me to join her at a restaurant for lunch before she knew of the
accident. On the day we met, I could not find her vehicle in the parking lot. I
must have arrived first, I thought, and so I left her the one accessible spot —
but in a scene reminiscent of O. Henry’s short story “The Gift of the Magi,”
she had placed her own car in such a way that the accessible spot would be left
for me. In the end, neither of us took it, and we each ensured that the other
made her way safely from the restaurant to her own vehicle. That same friend
urged me to do everything reasonable to ensure that I could walk safely without
a cane or crutches before the onset of ice and snow, lest some of my leg
muscles atrophy over the winter, leaving me with more permanent damage than
would otherwise be the case.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">We never know when we
or another person will become disabled, whether physically or intellectually. Students
in one of my classes once wondered about the extra table and chairs located haphazardly
at the front of the room. I replied that they were probably there in case a
student came in with crutches or a wheelchair, although admittedly they should
be better arranged and labeled. </span></div>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">The spot was occupied
for its intended purpose before lunch the same day.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Some queries for Friends and Quaker
organizations: </span></u></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">In what ways do we
ensure that we are aware, both as individuals and as a Religious Society, of </span><a href="http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/disabilityandhealth/types.html"><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">the range and types of
disabilities</span></a><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> (of all degrees and likelihood of permanence, whether visible or
non-visible, including health and mobility-related, psychological, social,
learning, and developmental disabilities), the status of current legislation,
and our moral obligations as believers in equality? Do we get competent
professional advice when we are unsure what to do?</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Do Quaker-related
facilities meet the highest standards of accessibility law and practice? If
buildings are grandfathered in under previous law, what is being done to bring
them up to code? If buildings are not accessible, do Friends’ business sessions
and other decision-making meetings take place in them? What about parking and
public transit routes?</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">What procedures do
your Meeting have to ensure that all members and attenders have, to the extent
possible, equal opportunities to participate in the spoken aspects of Meeting
for Worship and Meeting for Business? Large Meetings may have the money and the
justification to install a hearing loop, but what can be done in smaller
Meetings? At the very least, agendas and supporting documents can be posted and
the text of proposed minutes run by people who need a written summary.
Likewise, are Meetings able to ensure that those with visual impairments are
able to access minutes of Meetings for Worship for Business? Can we make it
possible for those with limited mobility to participate in discussions
electronically?</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">If Meetings for
Worship are held in private homes, to what extent are those homes universally
accessible (at least one entrance, toilet and sink, and suitable seating)? Do
the homeowners have adequate liability insurance? Do they tell people in
advance about any companion animals that may be part of their household?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Do Friends Meetings
take reasonable precautions concerning ice build-up (if relevant) and fall
prevention?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Is programming for
sessions such as Quarterly, Half-Yearly, Area, and Yearly Meetings designed to
be accessible to all? </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Do Quaker children and
young people with exceptionalities (whether physical, psycho-social, or
intellectual) have access to the same range of Quaker-oriented programming and
facilities as their peers who are not so affected? If not, what can reasonably
be done to rectify the imbalance?</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Do nominating
committees ensure that adult Friends and attenders, regardless of disabilities,
have suitable opportunities to serve the Meeting and/or larger Quaker bodies?
Can Friends “think outside the box” about what might constitute ideal
qualifications for a position?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Do Friends label foods
brought to potlucks and other gatherings, and do they try to provide a variety
of options so that everyone will have something to eat, regardless of food
restrictions? (Ann Arbor Meeting, in Ann Arbor, Michigan has an excellent </span><a href="http://www.annarborfriends.org/PotluckIngredients.pdf"><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">form </span></a><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">that can be filled in by
people contributing to potlucks.)</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Are Friends aware that
others, both inside and outside of the Meeting, may have chemical allergies and
sensitivities that preclude being near people wearing perfume and cologne?</span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFILrro3gWdVuCJWxzSqh9BnmudGZra11ylSbjB8qjwON_V0BBkESc4Zp32-0vviFgydqryhGPAx3tbIg5Ahpwm8ZYziTH_vJOcloaXc6N7bEewj1MvX7rZn7NvR8Gh0LODgRdAsYzayY/s1600/IMG_0129.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFILrro3gWdVuCJWxzSqh9BnmudGZra11ylSbjB8qjwON_V0BBkESc4Zp32-0vviFgydqryhGPAx3tbIg5Ahpwm8ZYziTH_vJOcloaXc6N7bEewj1MvX7rZn7NvR8Gh0LODgRdAsYzayY/s1600/IMG_0129.JPG" height="213" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">For many with physical disabilities, back-country hiking is beyond their wildest dreams.<br />
A trip to the local supermarket is equivalent to running a marathon.<br />
Johnson Canyon, Banff National Park, Alberta<br />
photograph ©Kristin Lord 2013</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br /></div>
Kristin Lordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18052075819133204111noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4387507661152607223.post-57917034597913613462014-08-20T18:22:00.000-07:002014-08-20T18:36:23.854-07:00C is for Construction<style>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGF-K5nAj8ttmo9c5TINUR6mD5BzIsVyYL-aTVkbyUogQo1IxQYEmcfM1wI7191wlUBZ7ggqFV9rkpT_nUYOdZmG-vRxsjkgCttwhTptbwo4wZHB70zFQ6JkskYOXvh4J3nNQqEsJMgUc/s1600/IMG_0467.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGF-K5nAj8ttmo9c5TINUR6mD5BzIsVyYL-aTVkbyUogQo1IxQYEmcfM1wI7191wlUBZ7ggqFV9rkpT_nUYOdZmG-vRxsjkgCttwhTptbwo4wZHB70zFQ6JkskYOXvh4J3nNQqEsJMgUc/s1600/IMG_0467.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Construction sign south of Fergus, Ontario, Canada<br />
August 2014<br />
©Kristin Lord 2014</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Cynical or merely
realistic, I allow extra time for road travel in July and August because it is
construction season in the northern hemisphere. This year there is more of it
than usual because the northeastern quadrant of US states and Canadian
provinces had such a brutal winter. Then add issues of population growth and
aging infrastructure. Finally, as is apparent from a recent article in the
Toronto </span><a href="http://www.thestar.com/news/city_hall/2014/05/21/what_to_expect_from_a_summer_of_road_repair_and_beyond.html"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Star</span></i></a><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">, going into what the locals call Hogtown (although there are no
longer any hog processing plants within the city limits) is asking for trouble due
to refurbishment of one downtown artery and preparations for next year’s Pan Am
games. We could be forgiven for mistaking the lines of SUV’s and articulated
delivery vehicles extending from Pearson (the main Toronto airport) to Guelph
Line for the snorting sows and boars of a century ago. The advice for enduring
southern Ontario traffic is to be centered and keep one’s temper for the
inevitable.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Expecting problems to
arise is not always the advice that springs to mind from either the Bible or
the writings of early Friends. Admittedly, the Apostle Paul speaks of looking
“through a glass, darkly” in I Corinthians 13:12 (perhaps in part because of
the imperfections of mirrors in his day), but our eyes may light more often
upon the summation of the commands in the Sermon on the Mount at Matthew 5:48.
The King James version is elegant and succinct: “Be ye therefore perfect, even
as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” It is also a literal translation
of both the Greek New Testament (</span><span style="font-family: "New Athena Unicode"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">ἔσεσθε οὖν ὑμεῖς τέλειοι ὡς ὁ πατὴρ ὑμῶν ὁ οὐράνοις
τέλειός ἐστιν</span><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">)
and the Latin Vulgate (</span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Estote ergo vos perfecti, sicut et Pater vester cælestis
perfectus est</span></i><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">).</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Every translation is by its nature an adaptation, and modern
scholars, before attempting an up-to-date rendering of this passage, have tried
to clarify its context. First and perhaps foremost, the very fact that the line
begins with an imperative (“Be”) and is followed by a comparison (“as” or “just
as”) reminds us that as human beings we are not perfect. God is the example for
us to emulate. Nevertheless, for those worrying about the potential
psychological impact of perfectionism, parsing the syntax in this way may not
offer much consolation. Drilling into the Greek can be equally uncomfortable:
the word </span><span style="font-family: "New Athena Unicode"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">τέλειος </span><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">(<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">teleios</i>) in the
King James as “perfect,” means either “perfect” or “complete,” as does the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">perfecti</i> of the Vulgate. For similar
ideas expressed elsewhere in the Bible, commentaries direct us to Leviticus
19.2: “You must be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy” (REB).</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Scholars are left to consider in what way we should drive
for the ideal. Since Matthew 5:48 is the summation of Jesus’s commandments
about love and moral behavior, the Revised English Bible translates it as “</span><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">There must be no limit
to your goodness, as your heavenly Father’s goodness knows no bounds.”</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">We are left with the
question of how to square the emphasis on striving for perfection or
completeness with the message of Christianity as a religion of hope and
forgiveness —indeed, of the idea that humans are prone to lapses in judgment
and morality and need to be able to pick themselves up and go on. Here chapter
13 of Paul’s first Epistle to the Corinthians, which contains the related word </span><span style="font-family: "New Athena Unicode"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">τὸ
τέλειον </span><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">(<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">to teleion</i>), best translated as the
English abstract noun “perfection,” is illustrative. This is the familiar
passage often read at weddings, and the same one read by British Prime Minister
Tony Blair at the funeral of Princess Diana. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">1 Corinthians 13 is
subject to much interpretation. In this case, the King James Version, redolent
as it is for the culture of English-speaking countries, does not do modern
readers a favor. Nowadays we may speak darkly, in the sense of enigmatically
(“After hearing of the murder, she spoke darkly about a strange vehicle having
been left in the gully overnight the preceding week”) but we do not use that
expression for sight.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">The general outline of
the passage, however, is clear if we consider the geographical and social
context and the Greek. Corinth in Paul’s day was, as it is now, a seafaring
town, located on a narrow isthmus between the Aegean Sea and the Gulf of
Corinth. People who drive through the Isthmus of Corinth on the modern
superhighway between Athens and the Peloponnese, where Sparta is located, can
see from one side to the other. In the heyday of the Greek city-states, Corinth
was a wealthy community, chock-full of artistic masterpieces; it was also
caught in the middle of every war that hit the eastern Mediterranean. Not
surprisingly, given its strategic location, Corinth was sacked by the Romans in
their conquest of Greece about two centuries before Paul preached in the area.
The Romans looted every piece of art they could carry and smashed the city. To
Roman writers of a later generation, the destruction of Corinth stood in the
place that people of the post-World War II generation speak of the destruction
of Dresden in Germany in February of 1945. Cicero, in discussing his theory of
the “just” war in his book <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">de Officiis</i>
(<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">On Duties</i>), more or less holds his
nose when justifying its destruction. He writes, “</span><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">I wish they had not
destroyed Corinth; but I believe they had some special reason for what they
did—its convenient situation, probably—and feared that its very location might
some day furnish a temptation to renew the war” (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">de Officiis</i> 1.11.35, translation by Walter Miller).</span><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">By Paul’s time Corinth
was once again a thriving seaport. Like other communities of its sort, it
attracted people from other places wishing to better themselves. Some succeeded;
others did not. Many were lonely; there were tax-collectors, sinners, and
prostitutes. The church itself was subject to growing pains and quarrels about
belief and, so it seems from the letter, about much more mundane matters. The
more sophisticated among them would have been well aware of the history of the
town and its losses at the beginning of Roman rule. No wonder Paul speaks about
the primacy of faith, hope, and love, and emphasizes human growth and maturity
from childhood to adulthood. The metaphor of growth from childhood to adulthood
(“when I was a child...”) at 1:13.11 shows that this process is normal.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">In this passage
perfection equals completeness. When perfection or completeness (</span><span style="font-family: "New Athena Unicode"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">τὸ
τέλειον) </span><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">comes
to pass, that which is a part of the whole (</span><span style="font-family: "New Athena Unicode"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">τὸ ἐκ μέρους</span><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">, a phrase which is
much more compact in the Greek than the English) shall pass away. There is no
time given for such completeness, but it is implicit that the perfection is not
of this world.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Now we get to the
“glass, darkly” section. The Greek reads, </span><span style="font-family: "New Athena Unicode"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">βλέπομεν γὰρ ἄρτι δι’ ἐσόπτρου ἐν αἰνίγματι, </span><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">“For now we see
through a mirror in a riddle.” The word </span><span style="font-family: "New Athena Unicode"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">αἴνιγμα </span><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">(<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ainigma</i>
in our spelling), whose English derivative is “enigma,” is the standard word for
a riddle or a problem that is difficult to solve. We see this word, for
instance, in Oedipus’s taunt to the seer Teiresias that he, Oedipus, cannot be
the man who killed King Laius (who turns out to be Oedipus’s biological father)
in line 392 of Sophocles’ play<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> Oedipus
the King</i>. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The word </span><span style="font-family: "New Athena Unicode"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">ἔσοπρον
</span><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">(<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">esoptron</i>) is the standard word for a
mirror, and it is the most common translation (the word <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">speculum</i>, a hyper-literal rendition of the Latin Vulgate,<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>is occasionally used to convey the idea
of moving through various levels of “seeing,” but for women, at least, the word
has a connotation that is definitely not what Paul had in mind). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">But what does a mirror
have to do with a riddle? Isn’t a mirror what we use to see many entities,
including ourselves, clearly? It turns out that the answer is yes and no. Yes,
we hope for clarity. However, a mirror reverses left and right, and mirrors in
antiquity never provided close to the likeness that we see today. </span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOi7t4cQv1HlP7eq3_Kq7uG7PpGCCT-gUGj6BuL_fi_M29crMkVC_en8zlUNPVppaJaFsYsg1ZrOhNUcQaXBh6E6uDsZ8-SHeSUxa6xxBrM6kOMQ8XfXNRDYfUFdQV_B2vOIr0cExGyxQ/s1600/Roman_mirrorUdimuWikimediaCCommons.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOi7t4cQv1HlP7eq3_Kq7uG7PpGCCT-gUGj6BuL_fi_M29crMkVC_en8zlUNPVppaJaFsYsg1ZrOhNUcQaXBh6E6uDsZ8-SHeSUxa6xxBrM6kOMQ8XfXNRDYfUFdQV_B2vOIr0cExGyxQ/s1600/Roman_mirrorUdimuWikimediaCCommons.jpg" height="281" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mirror, Roman period<br />
uploaded by Udimu for public usage<br />
Creative Commons License, Wikimedia Commons</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Secondly, the concept
of seeing indirectly is an idea that would have been familiar to most people in
Paul’s day who had a reasonable reading knowledge of Greek. The passage that
would have come to mind is the allegory of the cave in Plato’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Republic </i>(514a-520a). (In this regard,
see, among others, J</span><a href="http://books.google.ca/books?id=wbxCUYarQc0C&pg=PA23&dq=1+corinthians+13+plato&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Zi_tU_D7IND9yQSrioCoDw&ved=0CEoQ6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=1%20corinthians%2013%20plato&f=false"><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">. Philip Wogaman, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Christian Ethics: A Historical Introduction</i>,
2011<sup>2</sup>, p. 23.</span></a><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">) In the cave people who have been imprisoned since childhood see
only shadows of puppets reflected from a fire; even when they are turned to see
the puppets, an activity that<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>initially
hurts their eyes, they have not seen the physical beings that these puppets
represent. The prisoners need to go into sunlight in order to see the “real”
people, animals, and what-not that the puppets represent. Once again, they are
blinded until their eyes adjust and they are able to see clearly. Since Plato
is speaking metaphorically, ultimately abstract concepts (for instance, justice,
beauty, courage) take the place of physical ones, and the sun comes to represent
the idea of the good. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Plato’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Republic</i> is a work of pagan literature,
and Paul’s idea of the good is part of a monotheistic mindset. Nevertheless,
the progression in types of vision is the same. When Paul describes people
“then” seeing “face to face,” they will have the same wholeness of knowledge
that Plato described earlier. (The word “to know” is the same in classical and
New Testament Greek.) In the interim, we have faith, hope, and love (</span><span style="font-family: "New Athena Unicode"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">ἀγάπη, </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">agape</span></i><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">, the non-erotic love sometimes translated as “charity”). Also, it
happens that this passage is not the only one in the epistle to refer back to
Plato; if we substitute </span><span style="font-family: "New Athena Unicode"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">ἀγάπη</span><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> for </span><span style="font-family: "New Athena Unicode"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">ἔρως</span><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">eros</i>,
or erotic love), Paul’s description of love is reminiscent of that of Agathon
in Plato’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Symposium</i> 174a-d (see </span><a href="http://books.google.ca/books?id=n8ucl2t1y-0C&pg=PA55&dq=1+corinthians+13+plato&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Zi_tU_D7IND9yQSrioCoDw&ved=0CFAQ6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q=1%20corinthians%2013%20plato&f=false"><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Thomas L. Cooksey, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Plato’s Symposium: A Reader’s Guide</i>,
2010, p. 55</span></a><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">As we know, the path
to perfection can lead to despair, and Jesus himself was no stranger to it. For
Quakers, George Fox provides a detailed description of both the ideal and the
less-than-perfect reality. When considering what Fox asks his followers to do, people
often refer to the letter to ministers which he dictated to Ann Downer in
Launceston jail in 1656. The main portion of this letter ends with the famous
command, “Be patterns, be examples in all countries, places, islands, nations,
wherever you come, that your carriage and life may preach among all sorts of
people, and to them; then you will come to walk cheerfully over the world,
answering that answering that of God in everyone.” This passage is sufficiently
important in the development of Quaker thought that it is cited without the
surrounding context at the end of <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the
Advices and Queries of Britain Yearly Meeting’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Quaker Faith and Practice</i>. However, Fox’s command is part of a
longer discussion of how to build the church; this discussion showcases a
metaphor of the back-breaking work —especially with seventeenth-century
technology!— of making the soul into fertile ground. He advises us that “none
are ploughed up but he who comes to the principle of God in whim which he has
transgressed.” (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Journal</i>, Nickalls
ed., p. 263; see citations in Britain Yearly <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Quaker Meeting Faith and Practice</i> 2013 for sources for the complete
document)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">George Fox himself was
known to suffer from periods of disillusionment; today we might be likely to say
that he suffered from episodes of depression, which is now considered to be as
much of an illness in its own right as heart disease or diabetes. In 1647,
after leaving both the priests of the Church of England and the dissenting
preachers, he felt that “there was none among them all that could speak to my
condition.” He came to find that “all my hopes in them and in all men were gone.”
The culmination of this period is hearing the voice which said, “‘There is one,
even Christ Jesus, that can speak to thy condition,’ and when I heard it my
heart did leap for joy.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Understandably,
George Fox wonders why God tormented him for so long, not only with isolation
but with all sorts of temptation. Fox writes that the Lord answered that “it
was needful I should have a sense of all conditions, how else should I speak to
all conditions; and in this I saw the infinite Love of God. I saw also that there
was an ocean of darkness and death, but an infinite ocean of light and love,
which flowed over the ocean of darkness.” (passages in the last two paragraphs
from George Fox, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Journal</i>, Nickalls
edition, p. 19 and 33; sections 19.01 and 19.03 in most recent Britain YM <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Quaker Faith and Practice</i>)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">I was mulling over
these passages and what they might mean for me personally a couple of weeks
ago, as I was attending <a href="http://www.festivalofthesound.ca/about-us">the
Festival of the Sound</a>, which features primarily chamber music in the
village of Parry Sound, about two hours north of Toronto on Georgian Bay. James
Campbell, the director of the festival, asked all of us in attendance to list
ten pieces for instrumental solo or chamber ensemble we would like to hear next
year; slips were available in the foyer. I asked a staffer for elaboration as
to whether he was going to count up the ten answers seen most often (e.g., five
thousand requests for Beethoven’s “Moonlight” Sonata), or whether we should
include ten pieces that were perhaps not heard as often. She suggested making
more than one list and including both types of suggestions. In the end, I wrote
two lists.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">My husband submitted
no list of his own but was curious as to which selections I put on mine. As he
is an aficionado of Frédéric Chopin, he was not disappointed to find Chopin’s
first Ballade on my list, but he was curious as to why <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">numero uno</i> on my first list was Beethoven’s Sonata no. 21 in C
major, opus 53, dedicated to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Count_Ferdinand_Ernst_Gabriel_von_Waldstein">Count
Ferdinand Ernst Gabriel von Waldstein</a> and known by the name of the
dedicatee. (For those who wish to hear it, I attach a link to one of the
magisterial performances of </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3l18HTo5rY"><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Daniel Barenboim</span></a><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">; as far as I can
ascertain, Barenboim has given the requisite permission for a complete set of
his Beethoven sonata performances to be uploaded onto YouTube.) My husband
prefers Chopin because of the relatively compact range of emotions (strange as
this may sound) in each particular piece. I prefer Beethoven precisely because
of the kinds of unexpected and abrupt incursions of fear, anguish, and
temptation in a piece written at least nominally in the open and optimistic key
of C major. In reality, of course, neither of us disparages the preference of
the other; it is more a question of who ranks 9.9 and who achieves 9.95 on a
scale of 1 to 10 among the pantheon of the immortals of the piano.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Musicians and
musicologists have a wide range of opinions about the Waldstein sonata. For
intermediate-level pianists like myself, it is a painful reminder of where we
stand on the pianistic totem pole, since the Waldstein is fiendishly difficult
even for professionals to play. (Indeed, the scales in one section have been
adapted because of the changes in the construction of the instrument since
Beethoven’s time.) As a Quaker educator, it is a reminder of the Divine message
that Fox received of the importance of experiencing all conditions in order to
speak to all conditions; if my initial forays into Beethoven’s self-entitled
“Sonata facile” (“Easy Sonata”) no. 19 in G minor, opus 49.1, make me feel
foolish, it is an important insight into how students who claim to be “not good
at languages” might feel when taking a foreign language class. Professional
pianists apparently either thrill to its challenges and its musical
achievements (e.g., Vladimir Ashkenazy, Daniel Barenboim, Alfred Brendel) or
dislike the piece. </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sviatoslav_Richter"><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Sviatoslav Richter</span></a><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">, the great Soviet
pianist who left a magnificent recorded legacy of just about everything else,
never performed the Waldstein as far as we know. Anton Kuerti, for his part,
has a wonderful recording of the Waldstein in his complete Beethoven cycle, but
the liner notes exhibit some concerns about the way the piece is constructed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Jan Swafford, in his
newly released biography of Beethoven, takes a middle road. Although he points
to the Waldstein as one of the composer’s major breakthroughs, exceeded in his
middle period only by the “Appassionata” sonata a bit later, Swafford notes why
the beginning of the Waldstein, in particular, sometimes sets people on edge.
Briefly put, it breaks the standard compositional rules about the use of
themes. Swafford writes of Beethoven’s pieces of motifs and that the beginning
of the first movement of the Waldstein is “an accompaniment in search of a theme.”
(</span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Beethoven-Anguish-Triumph-Jan-Swafford/dp/061805474X"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Beethoven: Anguish and Triumph</span></i><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">,</span></a><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> 2014, p. 372)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Perhaps only Beethoven
can break the rules in this way. The abrupt changes of mood and key signature
in the Waldstein sonata, however unexpected, are not random or without purpose.
In the first movement of the Waldstein, we may feel that we have foiled a home
invasion, only to have the armed robbers chase us down a darkened street, which
in turn turns into a blind alley or a construction zone. The hints at
redemption are brief and all too often dashes. How can the tension thus created
be resolved? Finally, after the brief and meditative <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Introduzione</i> (introduction) that takes the place of the second
movement originally written for the sonata, Beethoven does release the tension,
bringing in the short but triumphant theme of the rondo (the third and final
movement) which wins its own battle over the forces of darkness.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><a href="http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beethoven%27s_musical_style">The music of
Beethoven's second period</a> —<a href="http://www.lcsproductions.net/MusicHistory/MusHistRev/Articles/BeethvnPeriods.html">a
time in his life</a> when he was surrounded by, shall we say, an ocean of
silence— prefigures both the horrors and the beauty of the world one to two
hundred years later, as well as musical innovations by much later composers. As
my husband and I were talking about Beethoven and Chopin, we came to the
inevitable road construction and considered whether to turn on the hourly news.
This year, perhaps more than any since the Cuban missile crisis, when we were
both small children, the world seems a foreboding place. There have been wars,
police brutality, and bloodshed, whether deliberate or accidental. Diplomats,
negotiators, and jurists from various places have set up deliberations with the
best of intent, but they have not as yet (August 20, 2014) succeeded. Last week
Robin Williams, a brilliant and beloved comic actor, who suffered from
depression in the past, succumbed to his personal despair. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">The weather, too, has
gone awry. In some parts of the North American continent, there is too much
sunlight and not enough rain, leading to record-breaking droughts and forest
fires. Here in the northeastern states and provinces we have had more than one
summer polar vortex after the winter ones, leaving us with the household
furnace running on July and August mornings when we are accustomed to heat
waves. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Ultimately,
construction seasons come to an end (see the linked article by Chris Johnstone from the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/resilience-hope-behaviour-bad-news" target="_blank"><i>Guardian </i></a>website as to how to remain confident about this). In the political sphere those who desire
peace and understanding are not willing to give up, and Friends are unstinting
in their support of them. Likewise, in the personal realm periods of despair
often lead to new growth. If, however, someone is not experiencing gloomy
periods as a normal “construction season” but rather as endless red lights, or
if one sees ditches (literal or metaphorical) ahead, it is time to call for
help.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdVKQ8UtBathG0qspPzVYhkZPLzM6UzwSOzp7Q24uvtW5LV7Z7g7nF0sX-3_Eh-7z0h4OF6AjeKj1RHp2-WYwKTBCn1zzIBwpVjC2y9gFmjiWVNP79jZSQOdPQZdw8ZiYir5iyYVFU3Qs/s1600/IMG_1435.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdVKQ8UtBathG0qspPzVYhkZPLzM6UzwSOzp7Q24uvtW5LV7Z7g7nF0sX-3_Eh-7z0h4OF6AjeKj1RHp2-WYwKTBCn1zzIBwpVjC2y9gFmjiWVNP79jZSQOdPQZdw8ZiYir5iyYVFU3Qs/s1600/IMG_1435.JPG" height="213" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Darkness and light: sunset on Georgian Bay, Lake Huron<br />
August 2014<br />
photograph taken during intermission at the Festival of the Sound<br />
©Kristin Lord 2014</td></tr>
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Kristin Lordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18052075819133204111noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4387507661152607223.post-38527409972954814992014-08-12T09:08:00.000-07:002014-08-12T09:08:26.312-07:00B is for Blessings and Benedictions (and for what happens in between)
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Before we sat down to
a formal dinner at an educational institution which shall remain nameless, the
head of that institution was required to recite a Latin grace. My host, who had
studied Latin all the way through high school, elbowed me: “Psst! don’t smirk. [The
head] doesn’t know Latin, as you are about to learn.” Soon enough we heard,
“Bennie DICK tuss: Bennie DIE, cat!” One could have been forgiven for thinking
that the poor man had endured one too many nights of Bennie the tom cat tussling
with other felines in the alley behind his home and, taking him to the vet to
be neutered, was secretly wishing for a one-way trip. In reality, only one
syllable was significantly mispronounced: replacing “dee” for “die” would have
made the Latin comprehensible as “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Benedictus
benedicat</i>,” or, “Let the Blessed One bless.” Minor accent reduction on some
of the other vowels would have been icing on the cake that we pictured
ourselves about to consume.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">“Benedictus benedicat”
is a lovely non-sectarian blessing that works on a variety of occasions, but it
is incomprehensible if we do not know the language. (History does not relate why no
one took this fine person aside at the beginning to explain the pronunciation, but it is probably related to
concerns about disrupting the academic pecking order.) Likewise, the way
unprogrammed Quaker Meetings begin, end, and progress through their central
portions is a mystery to those who have not experienced them. Unprogrammed
Meetings for Worship do not begin with an invocation, do not contain a creed,
and do not end with a formal benediction. The old playground rhyme runs,
“Quakers’ Meeting has begun. No more laughing, no more fun. If you show your
teeth or tongue, you will have to pay a forfeit.” When I first attended a
Friends Meeting, I figured that worship would not begin with the recitation of
that rhyme (if it had, I would have been sunk, as I had paid multiple forfeits on
the playgrounds in my youth in northeastern Vermont, lorded over by better-behaved
classmates who had even less of an image of what a Quaker Meeting entailed). But
I had no idea that the beginning was simply a critical mass of people sitting
down together in an appointed place at or near the appointed time, and that it
ended with a handshake. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">People who have a
basic familiarity with the unprogrammed flavor of Quakerism are familiar with
our concept of waiting upon the Divine in silence, and of vocal ministry
arising out of that silence. An intellectual understanding, however, does not
make it easier to grasp in practice. It turns out that people —or, at least, a
cross-section of Virginians in a recent psychology study— do not like being
asked to sit alone in silence, even for as little as fifteen minutes. The
authors of this study (actually an aggregation of eleven related studies),
reported in the July 4, 2014 issue of </span><a href="http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-07/uov-dsi063014.php"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Science</span></i></a><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">, found that some 64 per cent of male and 25 per cent of female
subjects would rather administer themselves an electric shock than sit alone in
silence for fifteen minutes in an unadorned room without electronic devices,
reading materials, or any other form of entertainment. All of the participants
had previously indicated that they disliked electric shocks. Having
participants prepare briefly before entering the room seems not to have made a
difference. A review of this study published in the journal </span><a href="http://www.nature.com/news/we-dislike-being-alone-with-our-thoughts-1.15508"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Nature</span></i></a><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> </span></i><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">supports these
conclusions.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Clearly, Quakers,
along with Zen Buddhists, practitioners of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Spiritual Exercises</i> of St. Ignatius of Loyola, and others versed in
contemplative traditions, would have no trouble sitting in silence in an
unadorned room for fifteen minutes. (Although the article in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Science</i> does not specify how the
volunteers for the studies were recruited, presumably people falling into these
categories were excluded.) Does the fact that we typically worship in groups
make a difference? It does, for a variety of theological and cultural reasons,
but most of us could, and many of us do, sit alone in private worship for a
reasonable length of time. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Does the fact that
many adult Quakers were socialized before the advent (or at least the ubiquity)
of electronic devices make it easier to develop the habit of silent worship? While
Friends are too small a group for most psychological studies, the answer is
almost certainly “yes.” Even as early as the late 1980’s, Ursula Franklin, a
Quaker metallurgist and philosopher of science from the University of Toronto,
shared her concern about the intrusion of technology into silence (see links to
her article </span><a href="http://wfae.proscenia.net/library/articles/franklin_commons.pdf"><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">“Silence and the
Notion of the Commons”</span></a><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Soundscape</i> 7, 1994 and
her </span><a href="http://www.cbc.ca/ideas/massey-archives/1989/11/07/1989-massey-lectures-the-real-world-of-technology/"><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">1989 Massey lectures</span></a><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">, later revised, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">inter alia</i>). More recently, commentators
such </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Pursuit-Silence-Listening-Meaning-World/dp/0767931211/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1407854327&sr=1-3&keywords=silence+technology"><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">George Prochnik</span></a><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> have raised concerns
—indeed, alarms— about how the noise and busyness of modern life have crowded
out silence, while </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Alone-Together-Expect-Technology-Other/dp/0465031463/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1407854511&sr=1-1&keywords=sherry+turkle+alone+together"><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Sherry Turkle</span></a><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> has written about the
related problem of the overreliance on technology and the decline of social
interaction.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">If the Quaker
tradition of silent worship is to attract newcomers and retain its young
people, it should consider how this recent research might be used to revamp our
outreach and religious education. In suggesting this, I realize that a
data-driven approach may not be popular. There is no small irony in the fact
that unprogrammed Friends, who often have a high level of formal education and
a better than average understanding of scientific concepts, sometimes eschew
the results of scientific research as it applies to us. “Knowing something
experimentally” in the words of George Fox means knowing something through a
combination of faith and experience —possessing what one professes— and not
learning something through the scientific method. Nevertheless, when we have
relevant research at our disposal, what are we waiting for? More research? In
this case, further studies, while useful in determining which types of introduction
to silence may be successful, are unlikely to disprove the basic premise that
the average person has trouble with his or her own thoughts, and that the
situation is getting worse, and not better.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">The researchers who
conducted the study summarized <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Science</i>,
along with the reviewer in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Nature,</i>
suggested that one way to help beginners deal with silence is to give them
specific suggestions about something to think about and ways to direct their
meditation. (The researchers looked at mindfulness training specifically, but
did not limit their suggestions to any particular approach.) Introductory
pamphlets tend to be strong on theory but have less specific guidance, because
of concerns about being prescriptive, but here is where being a bit more
prescriptive could be helpful. The British<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>introductory brochure,</span><a href="http://quaker.org.uk/sites/default/files/your%20first%20time%20in%20a%20qm.may%20pdf.pdf"><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> Your First Time in a
Quaker Meeting</span></a><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">, suggests using images of light and advises people <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>to “bring whatever is pressing on your mind to
the Meeting.” This is very good, but it might be even more effective to reframe
this idea as a Query, by adding a further sentence or two: “Friends often consider
what is on our minds and then ask ourselves in Meeting, ‘In what way can our
daily thoughts and concerns, however mundane, relate to our spiritual lives, the
lives of our fellow human beings, and life on earth? Conversely, in what ways
can silent worship nourish and deepen all other activities of our daily lives
and the lives of those around us?’” (My inspiration for this sentence is part
of Query 2 in the 1985 <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Faith and Practice</i>
of New England Yearly Meeting, “Do all other activities of your meeting find
their inspiration in worship, and do they, in turn, help to uphold the
worshipping group?”)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">The Quaker Advices and
Queries are often used for just this purpose of focusing a Meeting and planting
seeds for potential vocal ministry. It is likely that they should be used more
often. Perhaps, when members of the Committee of Ministry and Counsel (or
Elders in Yearly Meetings that have them) notice a reasonable number of
visitors —or perhaps even one visitor— the committee might authorize one of its
members in advance to make an ad hoc decision to read a brief selection from
the Advices and Queries, along with a brief explanation of what they are.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">In the interim,
introductory brochures should be more specific about how Meeting for Worship
begins. (We are clear about how it ends.) Saying that it begins when Friends
sit down in the specified location at the appointed time to wait on God in
silence is not enough for a newcomer, who may still expect a delegated Friend
to stand up after a few minutes and say words to the effect of, “Welcome to
Podunk Friends Meeting on this glorious/rainy/snowy Sunday morning. We welcome
all of you to wait upon God with us in the silence and, if, so moved, to
provide a brief vocal message, which we call ministry, arising from that
silence. Our worship will end with a designated person beginning a handshake around the room in about an hour.” We need to say that there is no invocation, or call to worship, of
any verbal sort, although in our silence we may well reflect upon the phrase
“Benedictus benedicat.”</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqquzXhxL5yG9yGON-XkbBAK-sBG1WH0yluUEZWuJmtJtV3Nr1l2FF9gcvymL2YRw1Q97ZETXB7YflL_QHGPMUTeu75oZs7sfBNuRYpdSA7QsMlmzGLF-ONWvtDXF-3dEZCH47Aomh0sc/s1600/LucieApril2014iPad.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqquzXhxL5yG9yGON-XkbBAK-sBG1WH0yluUEZWuJmtJtV3Nr1l2FF9gcvymL2YRw1Q97ZETXB7YflL_QHGPMUTeu75oZs7sfBNuRYpdSA7QsMlmzGLF-ONWvtDXF-3dEZCH47Aomh0sc/s1600/LucieApril2014iPad.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Not everyone has trouble relaxing in silence for fifteen minutes,<br />even if some might consider resting on a coat atop a snow scraper<br />supported by the back and arm of a bench to be rather uncomfortable.<br />photograph ©Kristin Lord 2014</td></tr>
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Kristin Lordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18052075819133204111noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4387507661152607223.post-92167963515181337902014-07-10T08:44:00.000-07:002014-07-10T08:44:14.149-07:00A is for Art and Artists<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1aPUG_A8FwsFGg47x0Gaj9zQZv9KuFzLRNCb0XCC0849kmze5ERLAZ_cfIU1YkJE59IgHNxZH7uFwI3hNNfSrlBU-e7dVus76GxDh8f9l6nX2eGQZ1qY9SjNshZRdtQoIj3IQzZOweJA/s1600/Edward_Hicks_-_Peaceable_Kingdom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1aPUG_A8FwsFGg47x0Gaj9zQZv9KuFzLRNCb0XCC0849kmze5ERLAZ_cfIU1YkJE59IgHNxZH7uFwI3hNNfSrlBU-e7dVus76GxDh8f9l6nX2eGQZ1qY9SjNshZRdtQoIj3IQzZOweJA/s1600/Edward_Hicks_-_Peaceable_Kingdom.jpg" height="267" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Edward Hicks, Peaceable Kingdom, 1826<br />National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC"<br />implicit public domain as artist died over 100 years ago<br />photograph uploaded via Wikimedia Commons</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">After digging into the
draft revisions of New England Yearly Meeting’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Faith and Practice</i> in the early 1980’s, I felt a sense of unease.
There were no references in the main body of the text —or, for that matter, in
the Advices and Queries— to art and artists in an medium. Since Friends were
encouraged to send questions and concerns to members of the revision committee,
I wrote about that concern and two other questions I had to the only person on
the committee whom I knew. I received an almost immediate reply. The response
to my inquiry about the arts could be summarized as, “Whoops!” If I had
seen the draft the year before, when I was still in England, Friends might have
been able to make substantive changes, but there were limited opportunities to
do so at that point. As far as I can tell, the only reference to the arts in
the 1985 <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Faith and Practice of New
England Yearly Meeting of Friends</i> is the paragraph “Art is Part of Truth,”
from Elfrieda Vipont Foulds’ “Living in the kingdom” (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">William Penn Lecture</i>, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, 1955, p. 14). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">It was thus with some
trepidation that I opened Stephen W. Angell and Pink Dandelion’s magisterial <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Oxford Handbook of Quaker Studies</i>
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013). There were discussions of music
included in numerous chapters. I was delighted, but I began to worry when the
index revealed nothing under “art” or “painting,” let alone “sculpture.” To my
relief, however, the problem was with the indexing and not with the text
itself. With the exception of the omission of the Pulitzer-Prize-winning
cartoonist <a href="http://www.pym.org/william-penn-lecture/home/2012-signe-wilkinson/">Signe
Wilkinson,</a> Roger Homan’s article “Quakers and Visual Culture” was exactly
what readers could wish for in both theory and breadth. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Most unprogrammed
Friends of my acquaintance have well-developed musical tastes, and a number of
unprogrammed Meetings incorporate music into some aspect of their Quaker
experience. The visual arts, however, have been a tougher sell, at least in the
decoration of Meeting Houses. The concerns early Friends might have had about
graven images are not a factor in most people’s personal lives today; the issue
is the theological basis of our corporate life. Physical representations of
crucifixes and the life of Jesus are as much an outward representation of
religion as are the physical sacraments. Even if Friends put aside those
concerns, given the wide range of views modern “liberal” unprogrammed Quakers
have about Christianity, it is hard to come to a sense of the Meeting as to
what kind of representation we should have on our walls. Although Friends'
Meeting Houses are not consecrated, the feeling that walls in the Meeting room
should be plain —with a few exceptions, maybe, for posters from Friends’ House
in London or FGC or FUM, if posted in discreet locations such as the entrance
or above the door— is as much a sacred norm as its opposite. (See also the
detailed discussion in Homan, 2013, pp. 494-500.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Expense and permanence
are two other issues with the visual arts. If Friends pick a hymn which grates
on someone's nerves, it is usually over in five minutes. People who dislike
hymn sings altogether can have Meeting for Coffee before Meeting for Worship.
On the other hand, a work of art that is donated by someone in the group may
end up as a blob on the Meeting House walls for the next twenty years, with
Friends not wishing to offend the donor by removing it or, in a vain hope to
save face, moving it to the most inconspicuous location on the premises.
At least, that is what many Friends fear would happen. Whether it would is
another matter.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">There are pragmatic
considerations as well, whether with paintings or with other possible outlets
for artistic expression in the Meeting House. A colorful area rug, even if
safely secured beneath a table, can invite allergies in some people, as can
seat cushions, as much as the latter are needed by other individuals. Curtains
harbor dust mites. As a result, unless a Meeting is fortunate enough to own a
historic property built when one of the few artistic outlets for Friends was
cabinet making and Meeting House design and or has both the resident
architectural know-how and the money to construct an engaging modern structure,
Quakers are all too often left worshipping in rooms with all of the
psychological warmth that one might expect from the people who invented the
penitentiary. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkIFbkNk0VfR7xImwqKE0k6qb4VU_WxzEsb5xbQFYHXUeNPwG3iGGM2ZN_GV2YLHMIEEi6idaumf4vw6VmBo7BELM6VjoT68wzlxA5x2sjylmF4iEyc_PCSBTAyGYuVnyBCm23Gw3oNEE/s1600/IMG_9611.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkIFbkNk0VfR7xImwqKE0k6qb4VU_WxzEsb5xbQFYHXUeNPwG3iGGM2ZN_GV2YLHMIEEi6idaumf4vw6VmBo7BELM6VjoT68wzlxA5x2sjylmF4iEyc_PCSBTAyGYuVnyBCm23Gw3oNEE/s1600/IMG_9611.JPG" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlibn0drsfT60lb8PIQH6El7ir8f8kLUwkikSDG0PB2DlYbw2Vhk6LzwD94PJe3tH7zy2p5sJhQ2fRT10ZzkF82HDTYAGvBkb5kFDa1NHJk2EP2HwJ8LO5PAcaG8i8905WEwoGrsu8K6w/s1600/IMG_9606.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlibn0drsfT60lb8PIQH6El7ir8f8kLUwkikSDG0PB2DlYbw2Vhk6LzwD94PJe3tH7zy2p5sJhQ2fRT10ZzkF82HDTYAGvBkb5kFDa1NHJk2EP2HwJ8LO5PAcaG8i8905WEwoGrsu8K6w/s1600/IMG_9606.JPG" height="213" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The chapel at the penitentiary, Port Arthur, Tasmania, Australia.<br />It is designed so that prisoners worshiped without seeing each other.<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><br />Although Quakers did not design this particular penitentiary, the English Quaker James Backhouse did visit the area.<br />photographs ©Kristin Lord 2008</span></span></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span></span></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> </span></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Theologically, we are
supposed to search for the Light within. I know. But as the Good Book reminds
us, “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Some Friends wrestle with
leaving ecclesiastical music behind when they join our Religious Society.
Speaking personally, I have no shortage of opportunities to enjoy and even make
music. What I miss is an attentiveness to a sense of God as expressed in
material culture. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">There may not be much
a Meeting can do about a Meeting House that is an unprepossessing box on the
outside except to plant window boxes, but a lot can be done with paint,
lighting, plants, and the color and texture of any carpet and upholstery in the
Meeting room. There might also be some way to modify benches that are
excruciatingly painful to sit in for an hour. I attended a Meeting for two
years that had benches like that. The Meeting room was well-proportioned and
painted in a color to show off the midday sun, but, oh, those benches. After
about a month of sitting there and watching Friends walk in wearing nothing but
muted colors and muttering sotto voce about the seating, I saw red and I started
to wear red. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Most Meetings that own
their own premises have rooms available other than the Meeting room. There may
be more flexibility here in terms of visual representation, although Friends
frequently do not take it. Quakers have produced visual artists and art
projects of some repute. It is high time that more people, especially children
and visitors, knew more about their work and their connection to Friends. (Note:
the links to commercial websites in this section are not an endorsement of
their businesses but are meant to give an idea of the resources available.) Few
Meetings have the resources to pick up a reproduction of a sculpture of <a href="https://www.potina.com/">Sylvia Shaw Judson</a>, whose work graces a number of public and private spaces (e.g., the <a href="http://www.chicagobotanic.org/sculpture/index.php" target="_blank">Chicago Botanic Garden</a>); a number of Meetings, however,
have a competent photographer in their midst who could take and have framed a
high-resolution picture of Judson's statue of Mary Dyer, who was executed for
her faith in 1660, in front of the Massachusetts State House on Boston Common.
The Philadelphia Museum of Art sells prints in its on-line store of two
paintings of the nineteenth-century Quaker folk artist <a href="http://www.philamuseumstore.org/istar.asp?a=29&search=%22deptpaper+classpst%22&sortby=&numperpage=20&pos=20">Edward
Hicks</a> of <a href="http://www.newtownfriendsmeeting.org/aboutus/Hicks.html" target="_blank">Newtown Friends Meeting</a> in Pennsylvania, who is known for his many versions of the Peaceable Kingdom. Amazing to
say, there are still signed prints of <a href="http://www.fritzeichenbergprints.com/index.htm">Fritz Eichenberg’s</a>
woodcuts available. In the UK the <a href="http://www.quaker-tapestry.co.uk/">Quaker
Tapestry Project</a> sells photographs of many, if not all, of its panels; the
prints may be ordered in various sizes and shipped worldwide. With a bit of
luck it might be possible to locate reproductions of landscapes by the English
painter<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/artists/samuel-lucas">
Samuel Lucas</a> or botanical watercolors by <a href="http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Vaux_Walcott">Mary Vaux Walcott</a>,
the Philadelphia Quaker known for drawing and cataloguing <a href="http://whytemuseum.blogspot.ca/2011/05/mary-vaux-and-charles-walcott.html">the
flora of the Canadian Rockies</a>. (The many copies from the work of the latter
shown on the Internet may or may not be in the public domain.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Meetings are
understandably reluctant to accept original offerings from individual members
and attenders, given their desire not to offend the artists we have in our
midst. Under what circumstances could this reluctance be reconsidered,
especially given the number of Quaker quilters who would be happy to produce a
wall hanging on a theme chosen by their Meetings? Are there opportunities to take
and display high-quality photographs of historic Meeting Houses? Is there
someone who knows the traditional Quaker art of silhouette drawings and can do
them in First Day School for both wall decoration in those rooms and for
parental keepsakes?</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9KPguH6b3stbubWnLlcyVNX3b3Yb5oPBHy0bVtTelLelT1bgz_9XRJD1RX49vfsjMCvVCTaCDcj7dilatPquOOoJB3LkvC6daP8PPnkLFlLZjDZlQSoCSjmCrlxGB0htvAFg7lQ2MF_o/s1600/IMG_0264.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9KPguH6b3stbubWnLlcyVNX3b3Yb5oPBHy0bVtTelLelT1bgz_9XRJD1RX49vfsjMCvVCTaCDcj7dilatPquOOoJB3LkvC6daP8PPnkLFlLZjDZlQSoCSjmCrlxGB0htvAFg7lQ2MF_o/s1600/IMG_0264.JPG" height="213" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Friends Meeting House, Sparta, Ontario, Canada<br />an excellent example of traditional Quaker architecture<br />photograph ©Kristin Lord 2013</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilbm_fF0V54Ax65B4HGoxRYk4Dvj2oeOz2p9aEDv-ToHEIcqCfS5XBDunStQnyzalUU7Wf4BXjWkBZa4KMAzSxsm-Jz7NBtl9zMbiY9LEobp0SZm2-Bcyxj0rN8ukpvZdIRhbL6sCgaY0/s1600/IMG_0271.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilbm_fF0V54Ax65B4HGoxRYk4Dvj2oeOz2p9aEDv-ToHEIcqCfS5XBDunStQnyzalUU7Wf4BXjWkBZa4KMAzSxsm-Jz7NBtl9zMbiY9LEobp0SZm2-Bcyxj0rN8ukpvZdIRhbL6sCgaY0/s1600/IMG_0271.JPG" height="213" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Interior of Sparta Meeting House<br />traditional Quaker craftsmanship at its finest<br />photograph ©Kristin Lord 2013</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Some Meetings may be
able to consider the work of practicing Quaker artists and/or architects when
building or renovating their premises. Not every Quaker community is in the
position of <a href="http://friendshouston.org/">Live Oak Friends Meeting</a> in
Houston or <a href="http://chestnuthillskyspace.org/">Chestnut Hill</a> in
Philadelphia, with both the need for new facilities and the resources to
commission an artist of the caliber of <a href="http://jamesturrell.com/">James
Turrell</a>, but more Meetings might wish to consider smaller-scale
installations of the size of the stained glass designed a few years ago by Tony
Serviente for the new Meeting House in <a href="http://torreswrites.wordpress.com/2011/11/07/quakers-embrace-new-stained-glass-window/">Ithaca,
New York</a>. (This is different from inheriting stained glass, as did <a href="http://valleyfriends.org/about/why-we-have-stained-glass-windows">Valley
Friends Meeting</a> in Harrisonburg, Virginia, which acquired stained glass by
purchasing property owned by another denomination; Kitchener Area Monthly
Meeting in Canada has for its part some Art Nouveau green stained glass panes
that came with the property.)</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVPSwBrpXS7i1xTGglfyNxSFHLsJ4gYcKP9IQnQCUu04N_6VfNqg6GRexunLYJhO5_KYW2QzfUa6EzJtD3vu9PKaJSAGHY0LPgxzcCWG2FBnRkFft5zxWnDTPOzP0HUrayJdwHPGTdxx8/s1600/IMG_5179.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVPSwBrpXS7i1xTGglfyNxSFHLsJ4gYcKP9IQnQCUu04N_6VfNqg6GRexunLYJhO5_KYW2QzfUa6EzJtD3vu9PKaJSAGHY0LPgxzcCWG2FBnRkFft5zxWnDTPOzP0HUrayJdwHPGTdxx8/s1600/IMG_5179.JPG" height="213" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rear addition of Friends Meeting House, Hanover, New Hampshire, USA<br />The addition, containing a Meeting room, was designed by Treat Arnold,<br />a member of the Meeting.<br />photograph ©Kristin Lord 2011</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Finally, Friends
should encourage the artistic education of their young people and find ways to
give moral support the careers of Quaker professionals in the field, regardless
of whether their works are to the taste of individuals in a given Meeting and
whether they have the means to make a commission or purchase. To that end I
would encourage Meetings to consider whether they have the resources to support
an institutional membership in the <a href="http://fqa.quaker.org/sandman.html">Fellowship
of Quakers in the Arts</a>. It would be a small way to start righting an old wrong.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9P2760vvmLojTAq_WxVJnDqPwJu9cVX2R1Dy02mcHoKOtvk0bZtGn-SqYxlt6GvMvchzJjko7TiVjLTgcjvlF9WlbTL7JXf8k2XlQtR1wtBM44NULF3rP716LWR-mJCCegAK4-ZuuoIo/s1600/Inside_Blue_Mosque_3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9P2760vvmLojTAq_WxVJnDqPwJu9cVX2R1Dy02mcHoKOtvk0bZtGn-SqYxlt6GvMvchzJjko7TiVjLTgcjvlF9WlbTL7JXf8k2XlQtR1wtBM44NULF3rP716LWR-mJCCegAK4-ZuuoIo/s1600/Inside_Blue_Mosque_3.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Sultan Ahmed Mosque ("the Blue Mosque"), Istanbul, Turkey:<br />restrictions on the use of graven images and requirements for simplicity<br />do not necessarily mean abandoning aesthetic pleasures.<br />photo by Christian Perez via Creative Commons License<br />(Wikimedia Commons)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPt4wOmEx6PGKojyMdbiiiK2UBtHXfmv9WAqupMjBPVhKDX6cDx3ZIzSuP9rFcOlS2yKYKcPD8XPKX8-eon_Iuh95bBtxOIuMQVsIUFPMHEv22ck0W2QFD68VguAdDi3uOn3iBGYBQoEU/s1600/Edward_Hicks_001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPt4wOmEx6PGKojyMdbiiiK2UBtHXfmv9WAqupMjBPVhKDX6cDx3ZIzSuP9rFcOlS2yKYKcPD8XPKX8-eon_Iuh95bBtxOIuMQVsIUFPMHEv22ck0W2QFD68VguAdDi3uOn3iBGYBQoEU/s1600/Edward_Hicks_001.jpg" height="272" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Edward Hicks, "The Residence of David Twining," 1845-8<br />Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Collection, Williamsburg, Virginia<br />uploaded to Wikimedia Commons via the Yorck Project<br />(artist died more than 100 years ago, presumed public domain image)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Kristin Lordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18052075819133204111noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4387507661152607223.post-76465432304440068732014-07-04T20:54:00.001-07:002014-07-04T20:54:32.979-07:00Z is for Zebra Crossings (or part of what I learned from British Quakerism)
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic5J9Mn_Kp7OCiL21p4W2_bJrdzH70NAITmABjMs7Fd8w9SLx4JTRKvT3V46ZisG3iV06SQxVrYfdADgLWTj6yfYkIS80ZxXA6w1RcRwxkbslVIVM6l9E4p97oZ1H-9e7oXxTawbUWpS0/s1600/Abbey_Road_LondonWillMcC.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic5J9Mn_Kp7OCiL21p4W2_bJrdzH70NAITmABjMs7Fd8w9SLx4JTRKvT3V46ZisG3iV06SQxVrYfdADgLWTj6yfYkIS80ZxXA6w1RcRwxkbslVIVM6l9E4p97oZ1H-9e7oXxTawbUWpS0/s1600/Abbey_Road_LondonWillMcC.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Abbey Road, London, 2004:<br />the same zebra crossing shown on the cover of the Beatles' album by that name<br />photograph taken by Will McC/Gallery and uploaded to Wikimedia Commons</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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<a href="http://www.devon.gov.uk/types_of_pedestrian_crossings"><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Zebra crossings and
now pelican, puffin, and even toucan and pegasus crossings</span></a><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">: on the west side of
“the pond” (i.e., the north Atlantic), highway crossings with such names would
be located in a zoo. What the English call a zebra crossing is merely a garden-variety
pedestrian crossing, labeled PED XING on US road signs. For some years we have
also had all-way traffic stops at some of the busier intersections. We have
even begun large scale-imports of vehicular roundabouts, along with lots of
appropriately colorful language that hasn’t changed since the time of Chaucer
(or perhaps Beowulf). However, we are not yet sophisticated or “clever” enough,
as the English would say, to have as wide a variety of pedestrian, bicycle, and
equine crossings, let alone such imaginative names for them.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">On Independence Day
(a.k.a. the Fourth of July), the day on which the process resulting in “two
nations divided by a common language” officially began, it is worth considering
what I learned from the country from which my own became independent. In
particular, I will take a look at just a few of the many insights I gained from
English Quakerism. Although there are reasons not to lump a nation-state and
its Friends together, my husband has a point when he says that there are no people
more typical of (name the country) than Quakers from that country. Anyone who
doubts this can take a look at my Facebook page, assuming that I allow them to
do it. One can usually distinguish the Canadian, English, and US Quaker
commentators at a glance, without looking closely at the names of the
politicians —let alone checking the “current cities” of those writing.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Admittedly, my
qualifications for looking at “the Mother Country” are a bit rusty, although my
bona fides include a degree from a British university. Still, all those days
waking up to the front page of the British version of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Guardian</i> on my iPad and following world events on the
electronic version of the BBC must count for something. I checked those sites
yesterday, I have done so at least three times already today, and, God willing,
I will no doubt do so before breakfast tomorrow. So, before I break all the
advice in the Advices of every Yearly Meeting and raise a toast with a glass of
California Chardonnay to a glorious Fourth, I will honor the special
relationship with an afternoon cuppa of Earl Grey.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">To wit:</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">I. To have a single Yearly Meeting without major schisms over more
than 350 years allows British Friends to feel a part of the world community of
Quakerism without undergoing an identity crisis. </span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Yearly Meetings in the
USA and Canada tend to look at where they stand on the continuum of
conservative unprogrammed, liberal unprogrammed, programmed, and evangelical. Several
Friendly umbrella groups have institutional members with very different manners
of worship and ways of looking at the broader culture. In particular, some
North American Yearly Meetings (Baltimore, Canadian, New York, New England, and
Southeastern) belong to both Friends General Conference (FGC) and Friends
United Meeting (FUM). Painful differences have arisen between the group of
dual-affiliated Yearly Meetings and the group of Yearly Meetings connected only
with FUM. British Friends may have more uniformity amongst themselves, but they
seem to find it easier to agree to disagree about aspects of Quakerism as a
global movement. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">British Friends have
unprogrammed Meetings, which made it have easy for an American with the same
worshipping experience to cross the pond. When I have attended Meeting for
Worship in England, my hosts are to some degree relieved not to have to explain
what we are about to do. On the other hand, I have often felt they were
disappointed that I was not from a programmed Friends Meeting or church, as
they were hoping to learn more about those branches of Quakerism and to show off what they had to offer.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">II. The British tradition of staffing the civil service with people
of exceptional credentials is almost certainly related to the thoroughness of
the Church Government sections of the three British editions of<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> Faith and Practice</i> published since
World War II. This thoroughness has its advantages.</span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Meeting officers from
a wide range of Yearly Meetings elsewhere find the British materials very
helpful and sometimes adapt them to their own needs.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Admittedly, the fact
that the United States has fifty states plus the District of Columbia, while
Canada has ten provinces and three territories, all with distinct legal codes, has
more than a bit to do with the broad strokes with which North American Friends
paint that section of our books of discipline.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Perhaps the greatest difference is the degree of detail with which
marriage procedures are discussed. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Quaker
Faith and Practice</i> of Britain Yearly Meeting has a lengthy chapter about
how Quaker marriage procedure fits into every type of marriage license in the
relevant jurisdictions. While New England Yearly Meeting’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Faith and Practice</i> has an excellent overview of Friends’ procedure,
the legal portion mostly directs readers to the statute numbers for the six New
England states.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">When British Friends
approved marriage equality for same-gender and opposite-gender couples in 2009,
they had no trouble envisioning </span><a href="http://www.quaker.org.uk/quaker-view-same-sex-marriages-22-march-2010"><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">how Quaker marriage
would look as part of an updated legal code</span></a><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">. Indeed, it is my understanding that when
the new legislation was going through Parliament, Friends were sufficiently
knowledgeable that they could work with officials on the relevant sections of it. Ultimately, a full
update showing both the procedure and the Quaker principles behind it was
available on their web page before the new law came into effect. This not only
explained Friends’ marriage procedures to Quaker newcomers and the broader
community but seemed, at least to this observer, to help demystify to the
public at large how changes in the law of the land could work in tandem with
religious traditions. Jurisdictions in the United States have fewer types of
marriage licenses and somewhat simpler procedures, but showing the “nuts and
bolts” of how marriage equality works in those American Meetings that have
approved it might help to reassure those who on the fence about supporting it. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">III. Whether or not the custom of serving afternoon tea is, in
anthropological terms, a secular analogue for the Eucharist, it is vastly more
refreshing for the spirit than a quick drink of<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>“dishwasher” coffee and a much wiser use of resources than a drink after
work.</span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">As I indicated in a
previous post, my Quaker friends in England took serving tea very seriously,
perhaps even more so than their peers outside of our Religious Society. Even
thirty years ago, however, there was a range of opinions about what foods
should be served with it. One Friend, who had family members living long-term
in Washington, D.C., said simply that it was foolish to be doctrinaire about
the menu items. Besides, with an American guest she had the perfect excuse to bake
her grandchildren’s favorite brownie recipe. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">English friends now
tell me that cafés selling quality European and North American-style coffee have
made inroads in their country. No doubt this has improved the local brew (although
I would never know, as I don’t care for coffee). The real benefit to the coffee
shop, though, is providing another way for the fellowship of sharing food and
drink to be raised to the spiritual — or, failing that, to the aesthetic
sublime. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">In the USA and
Canada,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>coffee and tea shops are finally
coming into their own as places inviting serious refreshment and conversation
and not just opportunities to down enough caffeine to keep awake on the roads. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Of course, our British
—and Irish— friends (and some Friends) have also made the food-friendly pub a
place for a slow and healthier drink instead of a quick drink, in case one is
wondering about other liquid refreshments — but I am not going to go there.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggKqVCpCqvK8Y2bdJN3YTPfATDnYSgbMu8xhU-8oiSoVU5HkCH4-WhLb5fCyCTZRdHHmcLool4LodYhoC_OUDDdKmHzpUFsP6gYO4O5-I7U5bLLEs8wkYWm1xp0yAq-FG2lAhnKcfCzlw/s1600/IMG_8469.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggKqVCpCqvK8Y2bdJN3YTPfATDnYSgbMu8xhU-8oiSoVU5HkCH4-WhLb5fCyCTZRdHHmcLool4LodYhoC_OUDDdKmHzpUFsP6gYO4O5-I7U5bLLEs8wkYWm1xp0yAq-FG2lAhnKcfCzlw/s1600/IMG_8469.JPG" height="213" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">English Portmerion "Botanic garden" teapot<br />raspberry-yogurt tart a variation of one found in <i>The Stonyfield Farm Yogurt Cookbook</i><br />photograph ©Kristin Lord 2013</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">IV. If Friends in the north of England and Scotland can mount a
flower rota (list of names of people providing weekly floral arrangements) in
small Meetings in the dead of winter, so can people in Canada and the northern
United States. </span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">If we don’t, it is a
question of culture and planning. Families in the UK have similar work-life
balance issues to ours and often less disposable income, so we have no excuses.
(See my previous post on the subject, which was laden with the usual excuses,
including the exception —record-breaking cold— that proves the rule.)</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">V. English Friends know just as well as their compatriots outside
the Religious Society that money and good ideas are not the same.</span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">There is a reason that
booksellers here can sell the English edition of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.housetohome.co.uk/homesandgardens">Homes and Gardens</a></i>
at a minimum of ten dollars a whack and still turn a profit. It is easy to
visualize how ideas from their stately homes can look attractive on a budget.
Not only that: the editors also show rooms that are genuinely put together on a
budget but which —not to put too fine a point on it— do not look cheap.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Friends believe that,
while we all have different talents and skills, ideas and insights can come
from any source. That idea has been handed down to us from Quakers in seventeenth-century
Britain. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">VI. Even if the government of the United States has behaved
abominably overseas and/or at home, and even if outsiders sometimes look upon
the culture of the USA as being the product of parvenus and weapons fanatics,
don’t be afraid to show a broader picture. </span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">It is unseemly for
anyone to brag. Nevertheless...</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">The USA is the home of
mass shootings but is also one of two major English-speaking countries with an
annual secular Thanksgiving celebration. The other, not surprisingly, is
Canada; although the Canadian event occurs about six weeks before its American
counterpart, they are similar in most other respects. People who visit either
country for an extended period of time tend to miss the occasion when they
leave. Perhaps the biggest reason is that, although many religious
organizations do something special at Thanksgiving time (and while the American
version is connected with the Pilgrims of Massachusetts), the modern holiday has
an ethical component that is consistent with the separation of church and
state. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Likewise, don’t be
ashamed of American achievements in<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>“high” literature, film, art, music, and cuisine, or of social
advancements.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">My UK friends have
given this kind of example as a parallel: the same time as the British were
granting independence to India and other parts of their empire (where the local
inhabitants had not always been well treated by the British), they were also
establishing the National Health Service for socialized medicine. The NHS set a
standard for a number of other countries and was one of the British
achievements featured in the opening ceremonies to the 2012 London Olympics.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">VI. Finally (here I am speaking both literally and metaphorically),
my British friends of all faiths and backgrounds emphasized how important it is
to mend fences with all of one’s children, including the obstreperous and
overtly rebellious ones — the loud and obnoxious adolescents. </span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Someday they might do something important.</span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglzDAUEGiAWAvnqR9TsIhb4tz9HKBjL4emlkgHsfQMMzyneJFMY7lPTDLtBhA2Eow5gusSlo1IEwVTYL-vNQikYXLh3BS2CBGcUdF_iT2NXrCg6u08kbhyIdLIrGLbTC3w1lhtIZBCXJ8/s1600/Barack_Obama_Michelle_Obama_Queen_Elizabeth_II_Buckingham_Palace_LondonByUSGovtEmployee.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglzDAUEGiAWAvnqR9TsIhb4tz9HKBjL4emlkgHsfQMMzyneJFMY7lPTDLtBhA2Eow5gusSlo1IEwVTYL-vNQikYXLh3BS2CBGcUdF_iT2NXrCg6u08kbhyIdLIrGLbTC3w1lhtIZBCXJ8/s1600/Barack_Obama_Michelle_Obama_Queen_Elizabeth_II_Buckingham_Palace_LondonByUSGovtEmployee.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A moment of pride for people on both sides of the "special relationship:"<br />the first African-American President and First Lady meet Queen Elizabeth II<br />at Buckingham Palace in 2009.<br />photograph by a United States government employee on official business<br />and thus in the public domain (via Wikimedia Commons)</td></tr>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">In any case, you will want to get to know the grandchildren.</span></b></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbEL-Jj8UlmL5QjBBnWePAws0NCbendWAXhiXBxQBRfq93sKDE3-xZEZRkEIKGX4pT6XUXHPmQmi_NwSKolJKf85OBCZQmZhIQwxuxfvFt6d8FCoBsGmvTQ61xAJMkWTbgxfDi9eOYxys/s1600/Sir_Winston_S_Churchill1942USgovtemployee.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbEL-Jj8UlmL5QjBBnWePAws0NCbendWAXhiXBxQBRfq93sKDE3-xZEZRkEIKGX4pT6XUXHPmQmi_NwSKolJKf85OBCZQmZhIQwxuxfvFt6d8FCoBsGmvTQ61xAJMkWTbgxfDi9eOYxys/s1600/Sir_Winston_S_Churchill1942USgovtemployee.jpg" height="320" width="256" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sir Winston Churchill, 1942<br />photograph by a US government employee on official business<br />and thus in the public domain (via Wikimedia Commons)<br />"If my father had been American and my mother British,<br />instead of the other way 'round, I might have got here on my own."<br /><a href="http://www.winstonchurchill.org/learn/myths/myths/he-had-mayflower-ancestors" target="_blank">Churchill</a> to a Joint Session of the United States Congress, 26 December 1941<br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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Kristin Lordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18052075819133204111noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4387507661152607223.post-56722494792150599052014-07-03T19:40:00.000-07:002014-07-03T19:40:37.824-07:00Y is for Yersinia Pestis (and other plagues and evils)
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIs1et-ffs9yL0GIxPNQG0wppXXrD5Gb_q7MxcXxahQw_RASKWexX9XSBVT_WdxvUUycCDs_hcy1A49px1PsZa98xkGUqtrKFOAIgtsh250S4nKVpLof6hF9Ci0cjqAcntUXzqjhip1ns/s1600/Yersinia_pestis.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIs1et-ffs9yL0GIxPNQG0wppXXrD5Gb_q7MxcXxahQw_RASKWexX9XSBVT_WdxvUUycCDs_hcy1A49px1PsZa98xkGUqtrKFOAIgtsh250S4nKVpLof6hF9Ci0cjqAcntUXzqjhip1ns/s1600/Yersinia_pestis.jpg" height="231" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Yersinia pestis</i> bacterium, viewed through a scanning electron microscope<br />photograph in public domain<br />source: Wikimedia Commons</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> <b>I. The Time Warp, Part I:</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Yanking and tugging,
my then-boyfriend (who has long since become my husband) and I managed to get
my bags from the Gatwick train onto the sidewalk. It was early July of 1981. We
were going to spend the night camped out on the seats in the departure lounge
at the international terminal, and then I would snag a stand-by ticket for
Boston. By having the two of us keep watch over the luggage, nothing would get
stolen. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">He slept (or it seemed
to me that he did); I did not. The next morning, my ticket in hand, we decided
to cut up some cheese for breakfast. I knew I had my Swiss Army Knife when we
were eating pizza on the train, but that morning it was nowhere to be found. I
was very careful of that knife; it was a birthday present from my parents the
year before and I was aware that I shouldn’t brandish it too much in public, so
maybe it was already in my suitcase, although I had been planning to use it to
cut up more food on the plane. I found a plastic knife, and we had our cheese. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">By the time I got onto
the aircraft, I had searched my baggage three times for the Swiss Army Knife.
Upon reflection, I realized that it had probably gone missing on the train,
either stolen or lost between the crevices of the seat, when I slipped away for
a minute and left it with half a slice of pizza. How I was going to explain
that one to my parents was beyond me. However, I did have some money from them
for this year’s birthday. If used prudently, I could pick up one item on sale
that would be “the birthday present;” the rest would pay to replace the Swiss
Army Knife, and no one would be the wiser. If anyone used the original to
commit a crime over the summer, I was not in England and I had an alibi. In any
case, my fingerprints were not on record.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">I settled into my seat
on the plane. The flight attendant asked if I would like the day’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">New York Times</i>. There was nothing
unusual in the news except for one item in an inside page, a follow-up to a
piece that we had probably missed because of work constraints.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><a href="http://www.aids.gov/hiv-aids-basics/hiv-aids-101/aids-timeline/"><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Some 41 men</span></a><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> were suffering from
an exceptionally aggressive stain of the rare Kaposi’s Sarcoma, and neither the
Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta nor anyone else knew what to make of it,
except that it was possible that the sarcoma was secondary to something
sexually transmitted. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><br />
“There is as yet no evidence of contagion,” read the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">New York Times</i> article. By the end of the year, that statement was
proved to have been as tragically naive as later generations would find the
thought of the open display or use of pen knives on public transportation. That
we were personally unaffected by neither of the ensuing disasters was primarily
a question of luck. In the instance of HIV/AIDS, our good fortune was the
result of not needing a blood transfusion in those early days of the epidemic
and the fact that we happened to be heterosexuals in a low risk pool in England
and North America. Those in a high risk pool would have had no idea what they
had done to get there — not until months or years later, when the disease was
better understood but the damage was already done. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Likewise, we were
nowhere near an airport on September 11, 2001. Amongst our immediate circle,
one of my old friends from high school decided at the last minute not to fly from
New York to a conference in California; another high school friend, a banker
whose office was in another part of the Trade Center complex, also happened to
be out of harm’s way. In terms of both the 9/11 attacks and the HIV/AIDS
epidemics, many, many others were not so lucky.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">II. The Time Warp, Part II:</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">I feel a similar sense
of unreality reading the 1665 portion of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Journal of George Fox</i>. I do not mean to imply that his circumstances were
similar to my then-boyfriend’s and mine in the summer of 1981, only that all of
our situations may look out of kilter through the lens of history. In late 1664 and
1665 (pp. 474-500 in the Nickalls edition), George Fox was playing a game of
cat and mouse with judges in the north of England, while Margaret Fell had been
imprisoned with a sentence of praemunire, indefinite preemptive detention. He
was once again in trouble for refusing to take the oath to the King, on the
grounds that he was following the Biblical injunction for his “yea” to be “yea”
and his “nay,” “nay.” The judges described in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Journal</i> did not wish to imprison him; it was becoming clear that
Quakers were not causing civil unrest, and from the vantage point of the Crown
it was more worth their time to use the loyalty oath as a way to imprison Roman
Catholic dissidents, thus helping secure Protestant hegemony. Nevertheless, the
authorities had not yet accepted the Quaker movement, or other Protestants, for
that matter. At different points Fox tied up the courts by noting what we
nowadays might call “accidental-on-purpose” errors in the indictments or the
transcript of the oath itself. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMDYrKv0VCI4HnncKGE5XAedWxiiRDwiQxAFjLHMvvGOFsO7u2Sphqse_knLfWOgsOdUnDRPnWxkQSqvjXszP2PLix31lJRswce9BOQaY896PDfqUkdJ9-i_xAglmdqeo0EA3Bkwg0tig/s1600/Scarborough_CastleHumphreyBoltonGeographOrgUKCCommons.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMDYrKv0VCI4HnncKGE5XAedWxiiRDwiQxAFjLHMvvGOFsO7u2Sphqse_knLfWOgsOdUnDRPnWxkQSqvjXszP2PLix31lJRswce9BOQaY896PDfqUkdJ9-i_xAglmdqeo0EA3Bkwg0tig/s1600/Scarborough_CastleHumphreyBoltonGeographOrgUKCCommons.jpg" height="217" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Scarborough Castle<br />photograph by Humphrey Bolton of geograph.org.uk<br />uploaded from Wikimedia Commons under a Creative Commons license</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Ultimately, George Fox
was imprisoned in Scarborough, and other Friends were banished, in an episode
that would have appeared to some members of the broader public, even at the
time, as cruel and pointless. It seems especially pointless —indeed, it looks
like absolute lunacy— when we consider that the real danger in England that
particular year was far to the south, in London. That danger came in the form
of the plague.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The type of plague that
devastated the population of London and its suburbs from 1664-1667, primarily
from the spring of 1665 through the late winter of 1666, is now widely
considered to be pneumonic plague, deriving from a form of the bacterium <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">yersinia pestis</i>. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Yersinia pestis</i> infects fleas and closes their foreguts. When they
try to feed by biting a human being, they regurgitate the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">yersinia pestis</i> bacterium into the wound, thus infecting the
person. The fleas are carried by rodents. In the pneumonic form of the plague,
transmission occurs between people, through droplets spread by coughing; the
mortality rate of untreated pneumonic plague is close to 100 per cent.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">In the outbreak at the
time of George Fox, the carrier was the black rat (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">rattus rattus</i>), which traveled in maritime cargoes to England from
the European continent. According to the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.pepys.info/1665/plague.html">Diary<span style="font-style: normal;"> of Samuel Pepys</span></a></i> and other sources, it was identified in
Amsterdam in October of 1663 and arrived in London in May of 1665.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It quickly defeated any attempts at
quarantine. Before the pandemic petered out in the first half of 1666, <a href="http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/contagion/plague.html">somewhere between
75,000 and 100,00 people had died</a> in London and its immediate vicinity out
of a population of about 460,000.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Determining
the number of victims was complicated by the lack of a central secular office keeping
statistics of births and deaths. London relied on parish registers for its
weekly Bill of Mortality, a system which was highly inaccurate given the number
of people in the city who interred their dead elsewhere or who were not
Anglicans registered in a local parish. This latter number included Roman
Catholics, Baptists, Jews, Friends, and others. It was well known at the time
that Quakers did not report the deaths of their own group to the parish
registrars (cf. Samuel Pepys’ diary note of August 31, 1665); instead, they
kept <a href="http://books.google.ca/books?id=_NxY6b_OyUgC&pg=PA333&lpg=PA333&dq=quakers+black+death+1665&source=bl&ots=AGHDsurwAH&sig=5Ulag0VsRS67gjucdDjfi8Ii2MY&hl=en&sa=X&ei=lUaxU8LRDsbO8wH7mYCoCg&ved=0CB4Q6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=quakers%20black%20death%201665&f=false">records
of their own</a> and used their own burial grounds for a number of plague
victims, including some who were not Friends and whom they may have nursed and
buried to their own detriment. Like others, Friends were heavily hit by the
plague. Because of Quaker business contacts with the Netherlands, Friends were
reasonably well informed by the standards of the day. George Fox (pp. 493-4)
refers to a plague-infested ship sailing to Barbados that included Quaker
passengers; the captain was a ruthless man who kept the Friends below deck,
suffering the loss of most of his seamen in the confined quarters. (For the
overall demographics and death rates of Friends during the period that includes
the plague, see <a href="http://www.cairn.info/resume.php?ID_ARTICLE=ADH_126_0017">Gill Newton and
Richard Smith</a>, “Convergence or divergence? Mortality in London, its suburbs
and its hinterland between 1550 and 1750,” <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Annales
de démographie historique</i> 2013/2 no. 126, pp. 17-49; and <a href="http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=8639813&fileId=S0025727300071088">John
Landers</a>, “London’s mortality in the “long eighteenth century”: a family
reconstitution study,” <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Medical History</i>,
vol. 35, suppl. S 11, Jan. 1991, pp. 1-28.)</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">While London was
buckling under the weight of the plague, George Fox was trying to keep from
becoming a statistic of the conditions in Scarborough jail. The warden himself,
Sir Jordan Crosland, was well disposed toward him; it was the squalor in which
Fox was forced to live that nearly did him in. In the middle of 1666, as the
plague burned itself out, Fox learned that only an entreaty to the King would
have a hope of securing his release. John Whitehead and Ellis Hookes, together
with Esquire Marsh, went to Sir John Birkenhead, the Master of Requests, in
August to see about having Fox released. Birkenhead obtained the order to free
him, which he sent to Crosland up in Scarborough. George Fox was released on
September 1, 1666, having been given a letter of safe passage by the warden.
Fox and Crosland remained on good terms for the rest of Crosland’s life.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">September 1 was to be the
last day of calm that the English people were to see in the year 1666. On
September 2 a massive fire broke out in London, consuming much of the city over
the course of three days. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">It would be lovely to
say that George Fox, a man ahead of his time in several major areas of
religious and social thought, was a visionary in his understanding of the fire.
Unfortunately, that would not be true. Fox had had a vision of such a conflagration:
“And then I saw that the Lord God was true and just in his word that he had
showed me before in Lancaster Gaol. <The people of London were forewarned of
this fire>: yet few people laid it to heart but grew rather more wicked and
higher in pride.” (p. 503, as edited by Nickalls) Fox, however, did not
entirely succumb to the sentiment that the people of London had received their
just deserts. When he learned the details of the fire, he noted with sympathy the
many people of both sexes (Friends and others) who went naked or in sackcloth,
which he took as signs of repentance and not trauma, as we might today. Fox
then proceeded to condemn the authorities, who tended to whip, imprison, or otherwise
abuse these devastated men and women.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">In many respects, we
are all people of our time, whatever that time is. During the great plague of
1665 Londoners, like others who suffered from the bubonic or pneumonic plague from
the late Middle Ages through the Early Modern period, killed cats and dogs in
the tens of thousands, with the thought that these animals had spread the disease.
We now know that rats carried the fleas and that cats in particular were one of
the few types of assistance available. Likewise, although we have all been
taught to view Schadenfreude as morally reprehensible, it is understandable
that Fox would feel some perverse sense of Divine justice.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">The <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">New York Times</i> article from July 3, 1981
describing what we now know as AIDS-related sequelae is also a product of its
period. Indeed, we hope that future generations will look back at ours and
consider our scientific knowledge to be primitive at best. In particular,
tomorrow is not too soon for an exponential increase in our ability to deal
with Ebola, a pestilence that is even more pernicious and terrifying than
pneumonic plague. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">As far as the Swiss
Army Knife is concerned, many of us who carried them with us in our carry-on
luggage when we flew a generation ago wondered what the authorities were
thinking when we were allowed to do it. On the other hand, our pride in airport
security —whether justified or not— is as much a deadly sin as the pride George
Fox perceived in the Londoners in 1666. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">We are all proud. To
provide a rather petty example, for nearly 33 years I managed to securely move
my replacement Swiss Army Knife (i.e., birthday present number two) from my
purse or briefcase to my checked luggage. I felt rather pleased with myself
after all this time. Then, after I used it to clip a snagged fingernail en
route to a wedding reception a few days ago, it turned up missing. It’s not in
my purse, camera bag, briefcase, or car. My father would hardly be upset this
time; he had to replace his after it was confiscated at the entrance to the Smithsonian.
My husband had to give up his knife last year when he ran out of time at
airport security to mail it back home. I bought him another of the same type
for an anniversary present.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeoxsogVRGqXYM3ElbEsa3sZRgRep2zTbixRPcIo8ca35z3ytmzY9pxkpLnjeyf425wqNx9oKp9Uekz3gc5KAFxvPK5gXbSl-vVx5Wtfz4FkrczHAFwYIXA3eCsQVDL4PS549o4RpqgW8/s1600/The_Great_Fire_of_London,_with_Ludgate_and_Old_St._Paul%27s.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeoxsogVRGqXYM3ElbEsa3sZRgRep2zTbixRPcIo8ca35z3ytmzY9pxkpLnjeyf425wqNx9oKp9Uekz3gc5KAFxvPK5gXbSl-vVx5Wtfz4FkrczHAFwYIXA3eCsQVDL4PS549o4RpqgW8/s1600/The_Great_Fire_of_London,_with_Ludgate_and_Old_St._Paul's.JPG" height="320" width="264" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Great Fire of London, with Ludgate and Old St. Paul's<br />anonymous artist, ca. 1670<br />Yale Center for British Art<br />painting in public domain<br />uploaded from Wikimedia Commons</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span></div>
Kristin Lordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18052075819133204111noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4387507661152607223.post-51687230673050540432014-06-29T21:25:00.000-07:002014-06-29T21:25:20.149-07:00X is for Xeriscapes and Xerophytes
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">I. Xeriscapes: a
working description</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">It has been
exceptionally wet in the northeastern part of North America for about the last
eighteen months, as I noted in my previous post on ruts. However,
climatologists have warned us that this surfeit of water is, indeed,
exceptional. We should be designing gardens and public spaces that require less
water. The gardening catchword of the decade —if not the century— is xeriscape.
According to the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Shorter Oxford English
Dictionary</i>, a xeriscape is “a style of landscape design suitable for arid
regions, which aims to minimize the need for irrigation and other maintenance
by the appropriate choice of plants and other features; a garden or landscape
designed in this way.” A xeriscape differs from natural landscaping in that
plants are chosen for water conservation and not necessarily because they are
indigenous to the area. It also differs from zero landscaping, such as the use
of gravel interspersed with few to no plants. A xeriscape is not necessarily a
Zen garden. Although less water is used in a xeriscape, it can still be full of
plants. Some of those plants will be xerophytes, which are plants requiring
little water. (For those who are curious about why words are spelled as they
are, “xerophyte” is a word of completely Greek origin, with “o” as the
traditional “cement” between two Greek roots; “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">xeri</i>-” is used in “xeriscape” because the word is a hybrid with one
Greek (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">xeri</i>-) and one Germanic root
[“scape,” backformed from “landscape”], with the “i” in between the two roots
typical of words with two roots of Latin derivation.)</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVR34zcJrAn1kXL8kXFzXRku8sy-X60rlvg3GRdbUI4JGXXCydZ3SZucRnX3THnx55cHWIZaKSh8fYV-ve8Db88nZZ1MEyIVrFScxMZyQWvwXFqUfUQ0LN8snTkUWJK1c5jcMERV3J-UU/s1600/IMG_0488.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVR34zcJrAn1kXL8kXFzXRku8sy-X60rlvg3GRdbUI4JGXXCydZ3SZucRnX3THnx55cHWIZaKSh8fYV-ve8Db88nZZ1MEyIVrFScxMZyQWvwXFqUfUQ0LN8snTkUWJK1c5jcMERV3J-UU/s1600/IMG_0488.JPG" height="213" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Native bluebonnets growing wild near Waco, Texas, April 2014<br />The bluebonnet (any variety of lupinus subcarnosus, lupinus Texensis)<br />is the state flower of Texas and is suitable for xeriscapes in that part of the continent<br />because it requires little water.<br />photograph ©Kristin Lord 2014</td></tr>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Although I first
started considering xeriscapes when I visited my husband’s native Australia and
attended conferences in Waco, Texas and Tucson, Arizona,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>we need to be thinking of xeriscapes even if
we are sitting within an hour’s drive of </span><a href="http://nativeplants.evergreen.ca/search/view-plant.php?ID=00412"><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">the Great Lakes</span></a><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> or hail from places
like the Green Mountains of </span><a href="https://stars.aashe.org/institutions/university-of-vermont-vt/report/1766/OP/water/OP-T2-47/"><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Vermont</span></a><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">, which have had record
flooding various parts of the jurisdiction. This is tough to believe for those of us who
spend four months per annum digging ourselves out of snowbanks, or one month
dealing with mud season and worrying about leaky basements (or worse), but
increasingly the flip side of having too much water will be having too little. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqpJl_-BnK9_WpnDVDsvhZobV_CZswcvgFQkje4P7oOthNmXe2jWlE6kl9-2uS7NDamRzORfsZqlpsW7P8rQu9dgpv3AvBDl0msXvJ3Mpu7Egd1TmfhJaMHJAPBPcKj3_ZfnxQVoOP8Wo/s1600/IMG_7087.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqpJl_-BnK9_WpnDVDsvhZobV_CZswcvgFQkje4P7oOthNmXe2jWlE6kl9-2uS7NDamRzORfsZqlpsW7P8rQu9dgpv3AvBDl0msXvJ3Mpu7Egd1TmfhJaMHJAPBPcKj3_ZfnxQVoOP8Wo/s1600/IMG_7087.JPG" height="320" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Xeriscape with native plants and statue of wildcats,<br />University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona<br />photograph ©Kristin Lord 2008</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">II. The xeriscape as a
political metaphor</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/29/upshot/why-world-war-i-matters-to-todays-economy.html?action=click&contentCollection=The%20Upshot%C2%AEion=Footer&module=MoreInSection&pgtype=article">On
the centenary of the assassination of Franz Ferdinand</a>, we might consider
the possibility of designing xeriscapes for all sorts of political relations.
One of the many problems that afflicted Europe in the summer of 1914 was that
no political or military leader dared slacken the pace toward mobilization of
his nation’s armed forces, lest he be perceived to be blindsided by an
opponent. There was also no margin for error in communications. Human beings
and their institutions are imperfect; inevitably, there needs to be a margin
for error and misunderstanding.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">There was, of course,
a grotesque mockery of the xeriscape in the middle of World War I in the form of the no man’s land. Some of this land is wired off even a century later because of
the risks of unexploded ordnance. However, here I am primarily thinking of a
landscape of the mind as well as of the soil. How many conflicts have been
resolved or prevented in human history because at least one of the leaders
sought time for cooler heads to prevail? How many conflicts might be prevented
in the future if we assume at the outset that resolution will take time and
patience? Can we strengthen multilateral organizations by mandating a
cooling off period in cases where one does not already exist? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">In a world in which
communications move 24/7 it is sometimes difficult to remember that humans
cannot work forever at fever pitch. It is important to assume that problems
will not be resolved right away, that grounds rules and good will (both of
which require patience) need to be established at the outset, and that there
may be failures before there is success. On the smaller scale of contract
negotiations involving labor unions, jurisdictions typically require
cooling-off periods with different types of outside facilitators before a labor
stoppage (strike) can occur. Likewise, various types of larger-scale
negotiations have typically been set up in a way that assumes that progress is
incremental and that setbacks may occur on the way to longer-term gains. An
example of the latter is <a href="http://www.mediate.com/articles/corry.cfm">former
US Senator George Mitchell’s leadership</a> in negotiating the Good Friday
Agreement. <a href="http://www.pon.harvard.edu/daily/international-negotiation-daily/when-international-negotiation-stymies-the-best-mediators/">This
is not to say that negotiation always succeeds</a>; the Middle East peace process
bedeviled even Mitchell with his skills. On the other hand, breakthroughs may occur
with different people and under somewhat different circumstances. An example of
the latter is the agreement with the Syrian government to surrender its
stockpile of <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/29/opinion/sunday/the-fate-of-syrias-chemical-weapons.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=c-column-top-span-region%C2%AEion=c-column-top-span-region&WT.nav=c-column-top-span-region&_r=0">chemical
weapons</a> and to sign the Chemical Weapons Convention. <a href="http://news.sciencemag.org/chemistry/2014/06/chemical-weapons-watchdog-chief-celebrates-syrian-disarmament">The
round of negotiations that led to this agreement</a> was based on a proposal by
Russian President Vladimir Putin after previous attempts had failed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">On the whole,
multilateral organizations and the global capacity for negotiation are <a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/editorials/nationalism-and-the-lessons-of-world-war-i-100-years-on/article19381723/#dashboard/follows/">better
developed than they were one hundred years ago</a>. What can we do as Friends
to further strengthen this capacity and to encourage patience?</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">III. A xeriscape for
the spirit</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Spiritual leaders
often speak of landscapes, desolate or otherwise, as a metaphor for the human
condition. According to the New Testament, Jesus spent forty days in the
wilderness while he was wrestling with temptation. The word from the Greek New
Testament, ἐρημόν, is the same word as “desolate,” “empty,” “isolated.” Thus it
is sometimes translated (to my mind mistranslated) as “desert;” we may compare <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">desertum</i> in the<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Latin Vulgate, although in this situation the
Vulgate should also be understood as “wilderness,” just as it is in the King
James rendition of the Old Testament line, “the voice of him that crieth in the
wildness” Isaiah 40:3). In the same manner, the spiritual journey of John
Bunyan encompasses virtually every type of land form imaginable, as does John
Milton’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Paradise Lost</i>. Whether a
landform is completely wild or is partially tamed, it speaks to the human
spirit and its travails in its particular ways. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Since physical xeriscapes are designed as a hedge (so to
speak) against desertification, erosion, and a whole host of other ecological
evils, then we as Friends also need to think about how we might create
spiritual xeriscapes. We should begin by noting that a xeriscape differs from
what we naturally see in an arid region (or in the “dryness” that Howard
Brinton speaks about for our religious lives), although if a xeriscape is
designed in one of those regions, it might mimic it in certain respects. A
xeriscape is made, not born. In this sense it differs from one of those phases
of aridity that we all go through. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhopFXvArZUkW3BS1MXp5_MXJAT7IjsvIQbGMUYNygbH145qP1KEd4lrQhiLU4flkriCD9IrayN3Fm5pMo3sXoJWZ_c5RRp64BOsjVodfPiLVxgRzk6ChfP5KweV9H8buL1v7x3Od3mPg/s1600/IMG_9392.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhopFXvArZUkW3BS1MXp5_MXJAT7IjsvIQbGMUYNygbH145qP1KEd4lrQhiLU4flkriCD9IrayN3Fm5pMo3sXoJWZ_c5RRp64BOsjVodfPiLVxgRzk6ChfP5KweV9H8buL1v7x3Od3mPg/s1600/IMG_9392.JPG" height="213" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A xeriscape is made, not born:<br />Hoodoos in the Alberta badlands south of Drumheller<br />are examples of natural features and not a xeriscape.<br />photograph ©Kristin Lord 2013</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Friends have a mixed record in preparing their members
against periods of dryness and doubt. Great religious music and art have the
advantage of sustaining people during times of reduced input. Those are not the
strong suits of unprogrammed Meetings, nor were they intended to be, although
the best Meeting House architecture has been known to center a frustrated
spirit. Instead, Friends have tended to emphasize the renewable feast of the
community, whether the Quaker community or the broader community of humanity,
when God seems distant. Community, when understood in this sense, can bring
people back to God. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Unfortunately, the Quaker ideal of the perfectibility of
humanity may not be as enticing during periods of spiritual frustration; people
may be more drawn to the sentiments of the philosophers Immanuel Kant and
Isaiah Berlin, who were for their own reasons at pains to remind us, “Out of
the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made.” (<i>Idea for
a General History with a Cosmopolitan Purpose</i> (1784), Proposition 6<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">)</i> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(<em><span style="font-family: Times;">Aus so krummem Holze, als woraus der Mensch gemacht
ist, kann nichts ganz Gerades gezimmert werden</span></em></i><em><span style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">). A
“forest” of committee work can be the last responsibility a Friend needs, even
if it is what the Meeting needs from that Friend (and sometimes what the Friend
grasps at from desperation). Short courses and study may or may not achieve
beneficial results. It is not simply Calvinists who speak of good works as
being insufficient for the spiritual life.</span></em></span></div>
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<em><span style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Many have noted that accessibility to the
physical landscape, be it a natural park or a garden, is a necessary condition
for spiritual well-being. And yes, that landscape, if it is designed by human
hands, undoubtedly needs to withstand the lashings of thunderstorms and
drought. While such ideas are a commonplace of poetry and art, especially in
the genre of the pastoral, they need to be restated in an era in which new neighborhoods
are sometimes constructed without parks, and school days often lack recess or
gym classes. </span></em><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It is not accidental
that Fox had his great spiritual awakening while climbing Pendle Hill in 1652.<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"></span></span></div>
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<em><span style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">IV. The xeriscape and the poppy: a
particular example</span></em></div>
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<em><span style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Considering the disruptions of nature during
World War I begs the question of symbolism of the red field or corn poppy <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papaver_rhoeas" target="_blank">(</a></span></em><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papaver_rhoeas" target="_blank"><em><span style="font-family: Times; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">papaver
rhoeas</span></em></a><em><span style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papaver_rhoeas" target="_blank">)</a>, which grows
wild along the edges of agricultural fields in Flanders. It was prolific between the trench lines and the no man's lands on the western front during World War I due to the disturbance of the soil. It is now used as an
ornamental in places where it is not indigenous, particularly in temperate
climates in North America. A generation or two ago stands of red poppies were
planted as far north as the gardens of the Chateau Lake Louise in Banff
National Park in Alberta. Lake Louise is one of the most quintessentially
Canadian locations, and the red poppy, with its black center, is reminiscent
not only of the poem “In Flanders Fields” by the Canadian poet John McCrae but
also of the dress uniform of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (“the Mounties”),
which is occasionally seen in the national parks. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One can still find postcards and puzzles
showing the vermilion spread of poppies blossoming in spring, and a restaurant
at the hotel is named The Poppy. There was only one problem with the red
poppies: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>they were non-native plants
suited to a climate that received more rainfall than the area around Lake
Louise. Although Lake Louise is fed by glaciers, the area is drier than in some
other parts of Canada. Lake Louise averages <a href="http://climate.weather.gc.ca/climate_normals/results_e.html?stnID=2409&lang=e&dCode=&province=ALTA&provBut=Go&month1=0&month2=12"><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">569.3 mm in annual precipitation </span></a>(snow
and rain together), whereas Kitchener, Ontario, not far from Toronto, receives
an average of <a href="http://climate.weather.gc.ca/climate_normals/results_1981_2010_e.html?stnID=4832&lang=e&dCode=0&province=ONT&provBut=Go&month1=0&month2=12"><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">916.5 mm</span></a> and Vancouver in the
west gets <a href="http://climate.weather.gc.ca/climate_normals/station_metadata_e.html?StnId=889"><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">1,189 mm</span></a>. For this reason the
horticultural experts at the park required the area to be replanted with
drought-resistant native poppies.</span></em></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVryK7F8AZS20JlrI-VloWVTRVEZeNNx92M21RUijTGgS35_v30O7Jf20gfU1_OGb5hRsskOMl510CilEKCh0PunSDhhSiqm101eVAUb60RrvJ8eg46uwT6Zi1CX7dCmKCa8H9YywVdYs/s1600/IMG_9784.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVryK7F8AZS20JlrI-VloWVTRVEZeNNx92M21RUijTGgS35_v30O7Jf20gfU1_OGb5hRsskOMl510CilEKCh0PunSDhhSiqm101eVAUb60RrvJ8eg46uwT6Zi1CX7dCmKCa8H9YywVdYs/s1600/IMG_9784.JPG" height="320" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">drought-resistant native poppies in garden at Chateau Lake Louise<br />photograph ©Kristin Lord 2013</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ4FkyLR1ofRB1M5ex2bnJl7VFz-MaIPIyBAt_UPvzLsg6sNKBc5bpPqxlor_EF2FokYSeH4BUrlYpCYj_xoQJKIDMwLPhpNVxs_9IoMPq4KluncCxSPCe3tPqGLU30P_5nPLmAC69GBo/s1600/IMG_9629.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ4FkyLR1ofRB1M5ex2bnJl7VFz-MaIPIyBAt_UPvzLsg6sNKBc5bpPqxlor_EF2FokYSeH4BUrlYpCYj_xoQJKIDMwLPhpNVxs_9IoMPq4KluncCxSPCe3tPqGLU30P_5nPLmAC69GBo/s1600/IMG_9629.JPG" height="213" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lake Louise, Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada<br />photograph ©Kristin Lord 2013</td></tr>
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<em><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10.0pt; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The author would like to thank
the limo driver who stopped on the way to the airport at Waco so that she could
photograph the bluebonnets. She would also like to thank Susan Brown for
reminding her of the red poppies traditionally planted at Chateau Lake Louise.</span></em><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"></span></i></div>
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Kristin Lordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18052075819133204111noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4387507661152607223.post-75578792132620797942014-06-20T11:13:00.000-07:002014-06-20T11:13:47.150-07:00W is for Weddings
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<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN2g82Mo41znkS9neAvNEAlHdjCak5ifWIUqN0nOsDyXR-rtI_4N3fB90GP4ZxnofVBwNDiaNVBfPP4Evn2oem5ckuiflS1hiupXkU1fWhUVC2J0l4TELH_5zjSZQEdgmDMXjCw0WBz1k/s1600/Ggardenpic1Jun99.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN2g82Mo41znkS9neAvNEAlHdjCak5ifWIUqN0nOsDyXR-rtI_4N3fB90GP4ZxnofVBwNDiaNVBfPP4Evn2oem5ckuiflS1hiupXkU1fWhUVC2J0l4TELH_5zjSZQEdgmDMXjCw0WBz1k/s1600/Ggardenpic1Jun99.JPG" height="213" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">peonies from my parents' garden<br />My mother provided most of the flowers (a different year than these) for our wedding.<br />photograph ©Kristin Lord 1999</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
We
Quakers in unprogrammed Meetings tend to receive more questions about weddings
than just about any other subject, with the exception of the peace testimony
and the Meeting for Worship itself. Indeed, now that “high season” for nuptials
is upon us, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>many of us who are or have
been married will find ourselves attending weddings outside the Religious
Society and fielding questions from a fellow guest who comments, in all
innocence, “That was a lovely ceremony. It reminded me of ours. What was yours
like?” If we were married under what we Friends call “the care of the Meeting”
or otherwise had a ceremony with Quaker elements, then we say “Not exactly,”
and hope that the best man is about to make a speech. We don’t care what kind
of speech it will be. As much as Friends enjoy talking about Quaker traditions
(and, especially, giving our own spin on them), that isn’t the time. (I am going
to a colleague’s wedding tomorrow, and I wonder if this question will come up.)</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
If
marriage reflects most of the fundamental elements of a culture, then Quaker
marriage is a microcosm of our own lives as a Religious Society. For this
reason, Friends view the wedding as only one day (albeit the one without which
others do not exist) in what we hope will be a life-long relationship. It is
also not surprising that the Quaker wedding ceremony is a form of the same
Meeting for Worship that forms the focus of our spiritual lives.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
So,
Friends and friends, here is my “take” on Quaker marriage procedures. Bearing
in mind that unprogrammed Friends in different places have different procedures
(here are links to those in <a href="http://qfp.quaker.org.uk/">Britain Yearly
Meeting</a> , <a href="http://quaker.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/CYM_Organization_and_Procedure_2012-8x11.pdf">Canadian
Yearly Meeting</a>, the most recent revisions from <a href="https://neym.org/faith-practice/part-4/chapter-5">New England Yearly
Meeting</a>, as well as the generic <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quaker_wedding">Wikipedia</a> article on
Quaker weddings), I speak as an amateur photographer who takes candid shots at
weddings of all types:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>we need to have
lots of “takes,” and we know that not all of them will come out....</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u>The practicalities of Quaker marriage
procedure: </u></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
The
aspect of the traditional unprogrammed Quaker wedding that most confuses the
general public is the fact that we do not have a designated official such as a
minister or priest to marry us. So, just how do unprogrammed Quakers go about
getting married, and what are the traditional beliefs about the procedure? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>First, for someone to get married under the
care of a Quaker Meeting, one or both parties must be either a member or an
attender well known to the group. There is no need for both parties to be Quakers:
episodes in the movie <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Friendly
Persuasion,</i> when Friends were forced out of Meeting for marrying
non-members, were an emblem of a dying tradition; demographic and humanitarian considerations
entailed an about-face by approximately 1860. If neither party has a personal
connection to a Quaker Meeting, the couple is almost invariably advised to go
elsewhere, perhaps using Quaker elements in their wedding if they so desire. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
Secondly,
the couple involved need a reasonable amount of lead time. Two months is the
absolute minimum in North America, but three or four months is the lower bound
in practical terms. (Friends in the various parts of the United Kingdom have
their own legal timetable.) The couple writes a letter (“We, A. and B., with
thus-and-such a connection with Monthly Meeting X, desire to be married under
its care on approximately Month/Day/Year” is all that is needed) and sends or delivers
it to the Meeting, usually to the clerk. The letter is then added to the agenda
at the Monthly Meeting for Worship for Business. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
What
happens next depends to some extent on the jurisdiction; I will describe a
composite of North American unprogrammed Meetings. Unless there is a
spectacularly obvious problem (e.g., the couple is completely unknown to the
Meeting), those present appoint a committee to meet with the couple and present
a recommendation to the next monthly business session. This committee is called
the clearness committee and consists of several people. Some Yearly Meetings
specify four Friends, and others are less definite; British Friends do not
always use a clearness committee. The purpose of the clearness committee is to
ascertain to the extent possible whether there is any impediment to the
marriage of the couple and whether the Meeting is the right entity to take the
marriage under its care. In other words, the Meeting needs to be clear that it
is acting wisely by doing so. (The slang term couples sometimes use for this
procedure is “passing Meeting,” in the same way students talk about passing
their exams.) </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
While
the proceedings of a clearness committee are confidential, a committee will
generally try to ascertain whether one or both of the couple has a reasonable
connection to the meeting, if immediate family members are comfortable with the
proposed marriage, and whether there are “red flag” issues that might suggest
caution or a delay. Each party is also addressed privately on the off chance
that there is some issue that could derail the proceedings but which may be
problematical to address before the entire group (for instance, if a potential
spouse has an alcohol problem). Members of a clearness committee usually do not
have any professional expertise in counseling, pastoral or otherwise, and they
are aware of this limitation. Clearness committee meetings are not meant to be
a judicial cross-examination, although people often fear that this could be the
case. Quakerdom is full of couples who phone city hall on the day before their
clearness committee meeting out of fear —usually unjustified— they would need to make alternate
arrangements. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
Only
when the both the clearness committee and the Monthly Meeting recommend taking
the marriage under its care can invitations go out. At this point the Meeting
also appoints an oversight committee. These Friends may or may not be the same
people as the clearness committee. The oversight committee is responsible for
helping the couple with practical arrangements and keeping, well, oversight, to
ensure that ostentation is avoided (although that usually is not a problem,
given the costs of weddings) and that Friends’ procedures and customs are
followed. Members of oversight committees tend to find pleasure in being useful;
they may need to make a dash to the florist or salt the Meeting House driveway,
depending on circumstances. The oversight committee also needs a draft of the
couple’s intended promises, to ascertain that they are consistent with Quaker practice
and any requirements of the specific Yearly Meeting and jurisdiction. These
promises are ideally kept short enough that they can be memorized, although
people sometimes make longer declarations. Finally, to the extent humanly possible,
committee members also encourage the couple to feel comfortable coming to them
if they encounter issues in their marriage. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
Once
the vows have been approved, the couple will need to find a calligrapher to
write out the Quaker marriage certificate. The Quaker marriage certificate
documents the religious procedure from the Monthly Meeting approval through to
the ceremony itself; this in turn provides the legal basis for the Friend who
represents the Meeting to sign the government marriage license. The specifics
of the document vary according to Yearly Meeting, the wording of the promises,
and whether either or both members of the pair have a name change upon
marriage. The linked <a href="https://neym.org/faith-practice/appendix-3/marriage-certificate">example
from New England Yearly Meeting</a> is typical. Couples take care to get the
certificate done well, as they may want the certificate framed and displayed in
their home.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
The
couple will also have to make sure the legal requirements are met. Because
their are no ordained clergy involved with unprogrammed Friends, these
requirements vary according to jurisdiction and are in addition to those needed
for ordinary marriage licenses. In some places, the clerk of the Monthly
Meeting signs on behalf of the Meeting; in others, such as the United Kingdom
and Canada, each Meeting has a registering officer.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
For
a religion with simplicity as a core testimony, Quaker marriage procedures and
the theology behind them may seem complex. Fortunately, Quaker weddings
themselves are reasonably straightforward. Depending on the jurisdiction, the
needs of the people involved, and whether the Meeting owns its own premises,
the ceremony may or may not be held in a Meeting House. (Meeting Houses are not
consecrated, so these requirements are legal and practical and not theological.)
In addition to space for the guests, the venue is typically set up with two or
three benches or six or eight chairs at the back of the room. This special
seating is for for the couple, the oversight committee, and any attendants. (In
traditional Meeting Houses, these seats called the “facing benches,” as they
face the rest of the worshippers.) There will be a small table in front of the
couple, which will hold the certificate during the ceremony.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
The
guests assemble. They rise when the couple walk in together holding hands. Soon
all are seated. Since music has long been a part of Quaker weddings, very often
there is music until the couple sit down and the ceremony “officially” begins.
Once people are seated, an experienced Friend (often a member of the clearness
and/or oversight committee) explains how Quaker weddings work for the benefit
of guests who may be unfamiliar with them. Those present then sit in expectant
silence until the couple rise and say their promises. The traditional promises
are in simple language. Britain has a fixed set of choices for the declaration,
as described in Section 16.42 of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Quaker
Faith and Practice</i>. The traditional New England version, “In the presence
of God and before these friends, I, A., take thee, B., to be my spouse/wife/husband,
promising to be a loving and faithful spouse/husband/wife unto thee as long as
we both shall live” is similar to both the British and other North American
declarations. If rings are used, they are exchanged then. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
At
this point a Friend appointed for the task reads the Quaker certificate, which
the couple sign. Depending on the jurisdiction and the couple’s preferences,
the legal documents may be signed now or after the ceremony. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
Once
the couple has signed the certificate, the marriage ceremony becomes more like
an “ordinary” Meeting for Worship, with opportunity for those to speak who are
so moved. There are a couple of exceptions to the “ordinary:” sometimes the
couple will make prior arrangements for a short reading or a musical offering
(which can be useful if they are afraid guests will be reluctant to provide
vocal ministry), and the couple end the Meeting by kissing. The guests then
shake hands, and the couple leave, often to more music. As soon as possible,
everyone present signs the Quaker marriage certificate.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u>Religious considerations behind Quaker
marriage procedures:</u></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
Friends
believe that we are married by God when we stand and make our marriage
declarations to each other. Theoretically, since Quakers’ words are supposed to
be their deeds, some Friends do not believe that the marriage guests are needed
as witnesses. (As of June 1, 2014, this is the stance of the author of the relevant
Wikipedia article; check also the Oxford book.) Before someone says that the
human race cannot function with so little bureaucracy, it is worth remembering
that the ancient Romans required neither witnesses nor paperwork for their
marriages, and for some of the same reasons.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
However,
the weight of Quaker history and theology says something very different about
witnesses. This is made clear in Britain Yearly Meeting’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Quaker Faith and Practice</i>: “It was important to early Friends that
their marriages should be recognized in law, and they instituted the witnessing
of a certificate by all present.” (Sect. 16.04) Likewise, the Quaker marriage
certificate typically reads, “and they, as witnesses thereof, did hereby set
their hands” (or words to that effect). Those present at a Quaker wedding are
the embodiment of the Meeting as a community— “the priesthood of believers,” as
it were— who rely on and offer the same Divine assistance that the couple
promises to seek in their life together. Witnesses also allow for recognition
by the state. While the Meeting does not <u>marry</u> the couple (Quakers
emphasize that people are “married <u>under (or in) the care of</u> the Meeting,”
which is different from “married <u>by</u> the Meeting”), Friends have always
believed in the importance of being able to have our marriages receive legal
recognition. The emphasis on legality is in part because of our belief in
equality —that our marriages are equal to anyone else’s— but also because of
our history of surviving persecution. While this may seem like a historical point
to opposite-gender couples in English-speaking jurisdictions where Quaker
marriages have long been accepted under the law, when our members and attenders
in same-sex relationships were denied the same right, many Friends quickly saw
that there was nothing “historical” about the persecution.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u>Some frequently asked questions (with a
note that if twelve Quakers answer these questions, there may be thirteen
answers to some of these questions):</u></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1. Are there requirements or restrictions
on who is invited to the wedding?</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
Since
the Meeting has a theological and practical role in Quaker marriage, members
and attenders of the Meeting(s) involved are invited in addition to friends and
family. Babysitting is often arranged for small children. If the Meeting is
large, those who do not know the couple well will use discretion if the turnout
appears likely to be high. In any case, it is appropriate to set a reasonable
deadline to reply to this open invitation.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">2. Do Quakers always use the traditional
Quaker marriage procedure? For instance, if someone is marrying someone who is
not a Quaker, can Quaker marriage traditions be combined with those of other
faiths?</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
Not
all Friends use the traditional Quaker marriage procedure, for a variety of
reasons. Sometimes people want or need a smaller guest list. Not everyone has
the time or the inclination to meet with a clearness committee. Some are not
living near a Meeting. Others have a relative or friend who is licensed to
perform marriages and whom they would like to ask to serve in that capacity. In
these cases, people often design a ceremony with some or mostly Quaker elements
but arrange an officiant (religious or secular) from elsewhere.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
The
rate of intermarriage between Friends and those of other faith traditions, or
of none, is very high. Therefore, it is very common to see weddings combining
elements of Quaker and other faith traditions. A period of silent worship, with
guests encouraged to offer vocal ministry, and a Quaker-style marriage
certificate tailored to the couple’s needs are common choices. Unless one
partner has no religious affiliation, these weddings are typically not under
the care of the Meeting, although the couple may still ask for an informal clearness
committee.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
When
Friends get married outside of the Meeting, the Meeting will try to find some
way to wish them well. As far as this author knows, there have been no ecclesiastical
sanctions for a Quaker from an unprogrammed Meeting marrying someone from
outside of Friends, or marrying in a non-Quaker ceremony, for about 150 years.
We welcome spouses and partners who are not Friends to participate in the life
of the Meeting, or not, as they feel so moved. Friends are delighted when
children join the family, whether or not these children are raised as Quakers.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">3. What happens if the couple belong to
different Meetings? </b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
One
or both Meetings may be involved. It depends on circumstances and personal
choice. If more than one Meeting is involved, the main considerations are that
legal requirements are met and that reasonable efforts are made to ensure that
people from both Meetings can attend. My husband and I did this ourselves, with
Meetings from two Yearly Meetings in different countries. (That’s not as exotic
as it sounds; one Meeting is in Canada and the other in New England, and the
driving distance between them is less than between many places in either
country.) We asked if one Meeting could handle the clearness and the other the
oversight; they were kind enough to oblige. Friends from both attended the
wedding. Come to think of it, the person who did our certificate was from a
third Meeting.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
Sometimes
Friends will “borrow” the Meeting House of another Meeting for the ceremony.
(This could entail involving a third Meeting in some cases.) In this case,
Friends from the host Meeting are also welcome as guests.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">4. Are there attendants (bridesmaids and
groomsmen)?</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
The
Wikipedia article says that Quaker weddings do not have attendants, and this
author knows of many people who did not have any. However, she also knows of Friends
who did. For those who do not plan to have attendants, it is worth considering well
in advance who will handle the bouquet and rings (if the couple plan to use
rings). </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">5. Why are Quaker brides not “given away?”</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
Friends
have always believed in the equality of wives and husbands, and they have never
believed that a daughter was the property of her parents (or a son the property
of his, for that matter). In anthropological terms, Quakers are known as
pioneers in the “companionate marriage.” In the earlier periods of Quakerism,
when the monthly business sessions were divided between men and women, the
women’s Meeting for Business handled requests for marriage, thus providing an important
power base for Quaker women.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div style="border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-element: para-border-div; padding: 1.0pt 4.0pt 1.0pt 4.0pt;">
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Then in the marriage union, the independence of the
husband and wife will be equal, their dependence mutual, and their obligations
reciprocal.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 1.0pt 4.0pt 1.0pt 4.0pt; padding: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>—the nineteenth
century Quaker feminist leader Lucretia Mott, on the benefits of gender
equality for marriage; "Speech of Lucretia Mott, Philadelphia, 1849,"
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 1:
1848-1861</i>, pp. 375. This passage is an excerpt from a much longer
discussion of Quaker weddings and marriage as an institution in the broader
culture.</div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">6. Do Quakers make good use of their clearness
and oversight committees, or are they bureaucratic hoops? </b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
If
clearness and oversight committees are doing their job, they can be helpful in
a variety of ways. Sometimes these are unexpected and may even occur after the
fact.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
Given
that the workings of such committees are personal and confidential, I will
insert a personal anecdote —admittedly an extreme one— to give some idea as to
how clearness and oversight function in general terms in a Quaker context. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
After
my husband and I had been married about ten years, we decided to sell our first
house and buy another. The new house was in a different location; I got the
idea for that location based on a comment a member of our clearness committee
had made when we met with them. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
We lost
our initial offer when we refused to participate in a bidding war. (Is a
bidding war a violation of Friends’ testimony against gambling, or is it not? Is
a “bidding war” violent in definition and practice?) Late on December 23 of the
year in question, a day when I was struck by a car while walking across the
street and my husband passed several hours watching prisoners from the local
penitentiary being brought into the hospital in handcuffs and chains in order
to access medical attention as I, too, was checked out (I had only cuts and
bruises), our realtor phoned that the house was again available. He could fax
the forms to us in the morning; we merely needed to round up two witnesses who were
not related us. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
Now,
where can a Quaker couple get two witnesses on the morning of Christmas Eve?
You guessed it. We phoned a member of our oversight committee from a decade
prior, a Friend who we knew was at home over Christmas. She and her husband
were happy to meet us right away. Her husband, also a Quaker, was by
coincidence retired from a bank (not from our bank, just to clarify). I hobbled
into their living room. They sat us down and immediately asked why were
planning to move, if we both felt clear that it was time to move, if we could
afford to buy the house, and why we were drawn to that particular property.
Would it meet our needs for at least the medium term? Would we need to
renovate? What did it look like? Did we have pictures? We answered the
questions. Only then did the pens come out. We moved in on April 1 of the
following year. We still own the house. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZFZhjb8ubmWwvnA07qq-9xx_9BdNXnpCJwqSs8wyv-wM4jL1RmKSVhDDGxJoZdlovNRU64DCpW5Iwy5EMSv8ssBjC86HHg7kaDqb_sl2OAfVynhE-50MMJjl26PGyfJO1uBDRzcfsFkc/s1600/IMG_8091.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZFZhjb8ubmWwvnA07qq-9xx_9BdNXnpCJwqSs8wyv-wM4jL1RmKSVhDDGxJoZdlovNRU64DCpW5Iwy5EMSv8ssBjC86HHg7kaDqb_sl2OAfVynhE-50MMJjl26PGyfJO1uBDRzcfsFkc/s1600/IMG_8091.JPG" height="213" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Christmas tree" on Christmas Day, many years later<br />photograph ©Kristin Lord 2012</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">7. Do Friends have a particular procedure
for divorce, and do they permit divorced couples whose former spouses are still
living to marry under the care of the Meeting?</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
Friends’
Meetings recognize divorces promulgated under civil law. Quakers themselves
have no procedure for divorce, although those in the process of a separation or
a divorce sometimes request a clearness committee or ask the Meeting to help
them in some other way to mark this change in their lives.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
Most
Yearly Meetings whose local Meetings are entirely or predominantly in the
unprogrammed tradition have procedures permitting the remarriage of divorced
persons after the manner of Friends, provided that discretion is used by the
clearness committee (if any) and the Meeting as a whole. In Britian, area
meetings are given discretion whether or not to permit such remarriages (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Quaker F & P</i> Sect. 16.27). Friends
will be particularly concerned about the well-being of any children involved. They
will also need to ascertain that divorce decrees are final, and that any person
who has been divorced has all necessary documents in hand before remarrying, especially
if the new marriage is in a different jurisdiction from the divorce.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">8. Do Friends permit same-sex couples and
those who are transgender to be married under the care of the Meeting?</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
Depending
on the Meeting and the jurisdiction, the answer can range from “yes” to “no.” As
in civil law, the situation is rapidly changing, and Friends should seek local
advice. The comments below are a reflection of the author’s understanding as of
June 1, 2014 and are not a substitute for the most recent official information.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<a href="http://www.quaker.org.uk/samesexbriefing">Britain Yearly Meeting</a>, the
oldest Yearly Meeting among Friends, approved marriage equality in 2009 and
requested that Parliament do the same, which would permit them to marry
same-gender couples in the care of the Meeting. Legislation to allow this came
into effect earlier in 2014. <a href="http://www.samesexmarriage.ca/equality/quakers.htm">Canadian Yearly
Meeting</a> supported marriage equality under civil law when that subject came
up in 2003, but at the same time it noted some local differences in its own
practice. Still other Yearly Meetings cover more than one jurisdiction and
Quaker tradition (programmed or unprogrammed); both factors may result in a
range of what is possible. For example, Quaker Meetings in Vermont use
identical procedures for same-gender and opposite-gender couples, as is true under
civil law, but not all Meetings in other New England states have this policy,
despite having civil marriage equality in those jurisdictions. Conversely, most
(or perhaps all) Yearly Meetings in the pastoral tradition do not take same-sex
marriages or commitment ceremonies under their care. (source for information on
pastoral Meetings: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The</i> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Oxford Handbook of Quaker Studies</i>, 2013,
pp. 452-5, with references updated to ca. 2011) Friends for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual,
Transgender, and Queer Concerns maintains a list of relevant marriage <a href="http://flgbtqc.quaker.org/minutes.html">minutes</a> (decisions).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">9. Do Quakers ever use pre-nuptial agreements?</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
This
is not a topic typically discussed in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Faith
and Practice</i>. That said, because Quakers are concerned that the legal and
social rights of all family members be upheld, it would be surprising if some
Quakers did not have “pre-nups” to protect the rights of children from a
previous relationship, or to separate family and business finances. As a
general principle, Friends might be concerned about possible abuse as well as
appropriate use of such arrangements for either children or spouses, whether it
is a first or subsequent marriage for one or both partners.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
Friends
Meetings that support marriage equality in jurisdictions where same-gender
marriage is not a part of civil law often make obtaining a suitable legal
package a precondition for taking a same-gender partnership under the care of
the Meeting. (See <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Oxford Introduction to
Quaker Studies</i> for citation on the latter.)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">10. What are the rules for photography and
videos?</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
Guests
are not usually permitted to take pictures of any sort during the ceremony
itself. People will be told if there is an exception. With permission of the
oversight committee, some couples hire a photographer to unobtrusively
photograph key parts of the ceremony, and/or to make a video for family members
who cannot attend. (The key word here is “unobtrusively.”)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">11. Given that potluck dinners are an
integral part of Quaker culture, who provides the food at the reception?</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
This
depends on logistics and preference. Information will go out in the invitation
if a potluck is involved.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">12. Can a couple who has been married under
other auspices have their marriage be taken under the care of the Meeting at a
later stage?</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
Yes.
The procedure is similar to that of a wedding, although there are no legalities,
and there is not always a ceremony involved. Having an existing marriage
brought under the care of the Meeting is a matter of choice, however. Quakers
recognize marriages solemnized elsewhere and thus do not require members to get
married again according to Friends’ usage.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">13. Is alcohol allowed at the reception?</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
This
varies. Much depends on the jurisdiction, the specific venue, the Meeting, and
the beliefs of those involved. Many Meeting Houses do not permit alcohol on
their premises, and some Meetings do not allow alcohol at any Meeting-related
event. There may be questions of insurance liability as well as principle or
legal constraints. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">14. Is dancing permitted at the reception?</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
This
author has not heard of a problem approving dancing at a reception for a
marriage held in the care of an unprogrammed Meeting, but the overall
parameters for the reception need to be sorted out with the oversight committee
before invitations are sent out. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">15. Can a couple have a destination wedding
under the care of a Quaker Meeting?</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
Since
the Meeting needs to know one or both of the parties involved,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the answer is probably “no,” unless that
destination is one where the couple have substantial long-term connections. The
cost of travel for participants may also be an impediment. Finally, there no
Quaker Meetings in some of the places people consider for a destination wedding.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
However,
the comments under #2 above provide several options for incorporating Quaker
elements into a destination wedding whose legal requirements are handled
outside of the Meeting.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b>16.
What are the traditions for gift giving?</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
Like
everyone else, Friends differ enormously in their needs. People will usually
say what their preference is, either in the invitation itself or informally by
word of mouth. If someone says “no gifts” and a guest wishes to give one, it
may be possible to make a donation in the couple’s name.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
I
will give another personal anecdote as a cautionary tale about the sentiments
that may be involved in wedding gifts. Although we were married a generation
ago, we still have most of our wedding presents and think of the givers when we
use them. The first breakage occurred several years after we got married. I was
out of town, and my husband came home to find out that the cat had stepped into
a cut glass fruit bowl we had received, and smashed it. I was so upset that
only several hours later did I realize that she could have bled to death before
anyone discovered the accident. (As it happened, I found a near clone for the
bowl in a shop the next day. The cat lived to be nineteen.)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">Acknowledgements: in addition to the members of our
own clearness and oversight committees and their spouses, I would like to thank
my step-mother, who coincidentally asked a number of questions about Quaker
marriage procedure while I was writing this post and no doubt got more than she
bargained for.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIIujsK-suIo6nfr-JPvBh5x1gJT1DhkPyCB8prPFxV2FHb5dIDlJtS7oACnoXyejKueZAZw35Is9BCbkYEBhlgCdYYlwj-DttvyPDy76KFYFoCxe_Ikd0Q7cx5KNFdPBtFcrjOIemvcQ/s1600/IMG_0996.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIIujsK-suIo6nfr-JPvBh5x1gJT1DhkPyCB8prPFxV2FHb5dIDlJtS7oACnoXyejKueZAZw35Is9BCbkYEBhlgCdYYlwj-DttvyPDy76KFYFoCxe_Ikd0Q7cx5KNFdPBtFcrjOIemvcQ/s1600/IMG_0996.JPG" height="213" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"wedding gift:" see discussion above<br />The flowers were from a birthday gift.<br />photograph ©Kristin Lord 2014</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br /></div>
Kristin Lordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18052075819133204111noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4387507661152607223.post-39475142511655965802014-06-20T09:52:00.000-07:002014-06-20T09:56:38.636-07:00V is for Vermont<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-JR3MWBCdSw3clISOtNUMoyd1WUqUWxa3Dp_9AAwL2zRDx74uSfsueDwXV2mIzMQOyaWIvyzKc7UpvKxViqvwPp7OUnN622AjnqHGsOvZq4a2nwiCnQRm2vB-WqLPOV6D2aquzt0dV8w/s1600/IMG_0927.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-JR3MWBCdSw3clISOtNUMoyd1WUqUWxa3Dp_9AAwL2zRDx74uSfsueDwXV2mIzMQOyaWIvyzKc7UpvKxViqvwPp7OUnN622AjnqHGsOvZq4a2nwiCnQRm2vB-WqLPOV6D2aquzt0dV8w/s1600/IMG_0927.JPG" height="320" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Statue of Ceres, the Roman goddess of agriculture<br />
dome of the Vermont State House, Montpelier, Vermont<br />
carved by Dwight Dwinell as a copy of a wooden original by Larkin Goldsmith Mead<br />
photograph ©Kristin Lord 2014</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Virtually since the
beginning of English settlement in the state of Vermont, Quakers have been part
of the area's religious and social fabric. In the early part of the nineteenth
century, Ferrisburgh Quarterly Meeting in western Vermont formed an active and
healthy contingent in New York Yearly Meeting. During this period the word “Quaker”
became part of street names not only in Addison County, where the town of
Ferrisburgh is located, but as far east as Quaker Road in East Montpelier in
the middle of the state. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjstN8lID7ncwZl3h7eSZW2LXBRI9WVT6Pud4ATKycfVoMtzP5P1ggodj2MFOgkbfO7jrk37ja4wcdyxkND04l5ehrtjoOWwuWqXpsefAvBYaXQb2Dc7bS_Wd5AwgXdRJ8QgEqK8AN7grg/s1600/IMG_0913.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjstN8lID7ncwZl3h7eSZW2LXBRI9WVT6Pud4ATKycfVoMtzP5P1ggodj2MFOgkbfO7jrk37ja4wcdyxkND04l5ehrtjoOWwuWqXpsefAvBYaXQb2Dc7bS_Wd5AwgXdRJ8QgEqK8AN7grg/s1600/IMG_0913.JPG" height="213" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Not that far from Quaker Road:<br />
Vermont State House, Montpelier, Vermont<br />
designed by Thomas Silloway, 1858<br />
photograph ©Kristin Lord 2014</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Ferrisburgh Quarter
was affected by the same theological divisions as the rest of New York Yearly
Meeting in the nineteenth century. These were painful to all involved. More
difficult still is the realization that those Vermont Friends who were active
Abolitionists in the period leading up to the Civil War were not supported by
either their Monthly or Yearly Meetings. This is despite the fact that slavery
was forbidden in the state from the time of Vermont's first constitution in
1777. Rowland T. Robinson and Rachel Gilpin Robinson, the Quaker couple known
for their work on the underground railroad, were effectively forced out of
their Meeting in 1845. (See <a href="http://muse.jhu.edu/login?auth=0&type=summary&url=/journals/quaker_history/v092/92.2.moger.html">Elizabeth
H. Moger</a>, “Quakers as Abolitionists: the Robinsons of Rokeby and Charles
Marriott,” <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Quaker History</i> 92.2, 2003,
52-59.) This inconsistency in Quaker belief and practice will, unfortunately, not
be unfamiliar to readers of Donna McDaniel’s and Vanessa Julye’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.fgcquaker.org/resources/fit-freedom-not-friendship-quakers-african-americans-and-myth-racial-justice">Fit
for Freedom, not for Friendship<span style="font-style: normal;">.</span></a></i>)
Nevertheless, the Robinsons persevered on their work against slavery and helped
send a number of women, men, and children on their way to safety in Canada from
slavery in other US states. The Robinsons’ Ferrisburgh home, <a href="http://rokeby.org/">Rokeby</a>, has been meticulously restored and is the
most significant example of Quaker history in Vermont as well as a treasure of
the Abolitionist movement.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">During the second
two-thirds of the nineteenth and the first part of the twentieth centuries, the
number of Vermont Quakers declined precipitously. Friends increasingly moved to
states further west, while those remaining often married neighbors who were not
Quakers. By the time Quakers stopped “disowning” members for marrying people of
other faiths —not to mention such </span><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">“offenses”</span>
as owning musical
instruments— the damage was done. Eventually, only two historic Friends Meeting
Houses, both owned by New York Yearly Meeting, remained. They were from the
Gurneyite tradition of Friends and had long since adopted a pastoral manner of
worship. One of these two Meetings, Monkton Ridge, amalgamated with the local
Methodist church several generations ago and was officially <a href="http://www.swarthmore.edu/library/friends/NYYM/monktmm.xml">laid down in
1996</a>. A Methodist minister serves the congregation, although <a href="https://sites.google.com/site/monktonfriendsmethodistchurch/home/history-of-mfmc">Friends
still own the building</a>. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJDRnTXIo11YMDNtey6MPFfRkZ-p-XYh7DRtn98ATMvfzjvDlCpp7AMXIwhh4A22uihCdbKEggoRjyGWPWKHA-AbOKoVeWNlONqNEfkhQsroGk6pA91hNg97ugnOjB-woJeyg6vVQTRW4/s1600/IMG_5106.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJDRnTXIo11YMDNtey6MPFfRkZ-p-XYh7DRtn98ATMvfzjvDlCpp7AMXIwhh4A22uihCdbKEggoRjyGWPWKHA-AbOKoVeWNlONqNEfkhQsroGk6pA91hNg97ugnOjB-woJeyg6vVQTRW4/s1600/IMG_5106.JPG" height="213" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Friends Meeting House, South Starksboro, Vermont<br />
photograph ©Kristin Lord 2007</td></tr>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">The other historic
Meeting, South Starksboro, underwent a different trajectory. Perhaps the
best-known product of this Meeting is Joseph C. Greene, a physician from
Buffalo, New York, who grew up in South Starksboro and who had t<a href="http://www.addisoncounty.com/pages/area.asp?content=bristolsmalltown">he
Lord's Prayer inscribed on a large rock in Bristol</a> one town over as a
warning to ox cart drivers who were cursing the muddy roads. (Modern motorists,
who spent several years waiting for the replacement of the nearby bridge after
severe flooding, will comment that neither the circumstances nor the language
has changed much.) The last member of the original community, Elizabeth
Birdsall Young, died in the Middlebury area in 1976. No doubt, as she watched
the congregation dwindle around her, she began to wonder what would become of
Vermont Quakerism. But change was afoot, and toward the end of her life,
Elizabeth Birdsall Young was able to get a glimpse of it. (Note: I am perhaps
the youngest Friend to have been introduced to Elizabeth Birdsall Young. It was
she who confirmed that Joseph C. Greene had come from her Meeting.)</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">The change came from
unprogrammed Friends. By the 1950’s there were small Meetings in Burlington,
Vermont and Hanover, New Hampshire, one of the towns on the eastern side of the
Connecticut River that was added to the latter state as a condition of Vermont
becoming the fourteenth US state in 1791. As befits its location, a reasonable
percentage of the participants in Hanover hail from Vermont. These Meetings,
affiliated with New England Yearly Meeting, became the <a href="http://neym.org/meetings/by-quarter/northwest">Northwest Quarterly
Meeting</a> in 1958. (This latter date should be readily accessible in the
Yearly Meeting archives, although I do not have the source at hand.)</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">These unprogrammed Meetings
were filled with some Friends who had grown up in Vermont or New Hampshire and
had returned home after studying or living elsewhere, where they had
encountered Quakerism. <a href="http://www.thevermontstandard.com/2011/09/susan-webb-obituary/">Susan
Webb (née Howard) </a>who had grown up in Burlington and with her husband,
Kenneth Webb, founded the Farm and Wilderness Camps on Quaker principles in
1939, was an example of this post-war contingent. Thomas Day Seymour
Bassett, another Burlington native, was an archivist and authority on Vermont
history; he came to Friends as a conscientious objector during World War II. (See
<a href="https://vermonthistory.org/journal/69/vt691_202.pdf">Samuel B. Hand’s obituary</a>
for Friend Tom in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Vermont History</i>,
winter/spring 2001, 141-2.) Most of the “new” Quaker contingent, however, were
among the plethora of newcomers who were attracted to the natural beauty of the
Green Mountain State and who found the area increasingly accessible to the
cities in the Northeast, especially once the Interstates were completed. This
larger body of newcomers, regardless of background or political or religious
tradition, had a chance to start over and, in the parlance of a later
generation, to “reinvent themselves.” The earlier arrivals found a lower cost
of housing, assuming that they were selling an existing residence and were not
entirely dependent on the commensurately lower salaries; that was, of course, a
big assumption. They found the local inhabitants welcoming...</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">up to a point. The
white clapboard houses snow-girt at Christmas were not so beckoning when most
people in the neighborhood had a choice of relatives three generations deep
with whom to spend the holidays. More prosperous suburban communities with less
ice on the roads began to look attractive to some of the new arrivals.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">The traditional views
of many Vermonters, initially endearing to outsiders, became annoying at town
meeting and election time. Even through the 1970's most of the so-called “real”
Vermonters voted Republican —unless they lived in Burlington or suburban
Chittenden County, both of which were already suspect. Susan Webb, representing
a rural district in southwestern Vermont in the 1970’s, served as a moderate
Republican. (See the obituary of Susan Webb linked above.) The newcomers, on
the other hand, were politically varied, and a reasonable number were what a
later governor and Presidential candidate, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Dean">Howard Dean</a> (himself a
native of the New York City area), called <a href="http://www.npr.org/programs/specials/democrats2004/transcripts/dean_trans.html">“the
Democratic wing of the Democratic party.”</a> Only in the last generation or so
has Vermont become the bluest of blue states and the home of “the People's
Republic of Burlington” of Doonesbury fame, where the independent Socialist
politician Bernie Sanders made his political breakthrough. (For those who might
wonder, I come from an “old” Vermont family, but one that is politically and
spiritually diverse; one of my mother’s favorite memories was running across
Bernie Sanders on Church Street in Burlington shortly after he was first
elected to Congress.)</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Yet many of the new
arrivals stayed. The Quaker community blossomed. Once again, many Friends were
from out of state (disproportionately convinced Friends) or newcomers seeking a
fresh faith community in their new home, although others were long-time
inhabitants. Monthly Meetings were established in Putney, Bennington,
Plainfield, Middlebury, Wilderness (near the Farm and Wilderness Camps), and
Barton in Vermont and in the western New Hampshire community of Keene. A few
years after Elizabeth Birdsall Young passed away, the ownership of her old
Meeting House, which had been opened once or twice during the summer and on
Christmas Day, was turned over to New England Yearly Meeting. There were enough
Friends between Burlington and Middlebury to keep it viable year round. The
property was renovated in 1985, and before too long <a href="http://south-starksboro.neym.org/index.html">South Starksboro once again
had a Monthly Meeting</a>. This time, however, it was an unprogrammed Meeting
in New England Yearly Meeting. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">There are now several
hundred Friends in Vermont, of a wide range of interests and from many walks of
life. Quakers have made particular contributions to education, social services,
small and medium-sized businesses, and the arts. Regrettably, Quakers have not
added appreciably to the ethnic diversity of the state, but neither have most
other people. This problem, along with the increasingly precarious social and
economic footing of many Americans, is among the principal moral issues
affecting Vermonters both inside and outside our Religious Society.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">If I, as an expat
Vermonter who votes by absentee ballot, might comment on some of the challenges
facing Friends there, I might look at two other areas: outreach and the peace
testimony. Neither is is unique to Vermont, but both have factors germane to
it. Quaker Meetings have done well in Vermont since the 1960's thanks to
population growth and increasing political and religious diversity —not to
mention the foresight of Friends who established a <a href="http://kah.kendal.org/">Kendal</a> retirement community in nearby
Hanover, New Hampshire— but further growth may require more effort. The
unprogrammed Quaker reluctance to “proselytize” has left Friends unable to
capitalize effectively on the growth of secularism and the increase in the
number of people seeking spiritual alternatives. This is a real shame in
Vermont, which is now ostensibly the state in the country with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irreligion_in_the_United_States#Tables">the
highest percentage of people without religious affiliation.</a> I hope that
Friends in the Northwest Quarter will be able to take advantage of the new
outreach initiatives of Friends General Conference.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">In terms of the peace
testimony, many Americans believe that we Vermonters have it lucky. Classmates,
colleagues, and “capital and small f” friends from out of state post quotations
from Vermont politicians on their Facebook pages and are overtly envious that I
am privileged to vote for them. By and large, they are right, but we as Friends
have to reckon with the fact that our Congressional delegation and our governor
have all supported posting a squadron of <a href="http://www.leahy.senate.gov/press/leahy-sanders-welch-shumlin_on-afs-selection-of-burlington-for-f-35-basing-">F-35
fighter jets</a> in the Burlington area. <a href="http://www.burlingtonquakers.org/minutes.html">Burlington Friends Meeting</a>
is one of a number of organizations and individuals attempting to stop this
plan.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">There is also the
matter of military recruitment. Because of its solid high school completion
rates and academic standards, Vermont is a prime target of recruiters. The high
cost of in-state college and university tuition does not help matters. Add to
that a tradition of military service that in some cases goes back generations,
as is true in other parts of the U.S. Vermont had one of the highest number of
Union fatalities per capita in the Civil War (see especially the information
from <u style="text-underline: #386EFF;"><span style="color: #386eff;"><a href="http://www.civilwar.org/education/civil-war-casualties.html">civilwar.org
</a></span></u>and <a href="http://vermonthistory.org/research/research-resources-online/civil-war-research-resources">the
Vermont Historical Society</a>). Although the percentage of Vermonters who died
in Vietnam was lower than many states, it was still significant. It had the
highest per capita casualty rate in the Iraq conflict, which makes it at
outlier among relatively prosperous states. (See the study by Charles Maynard in
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2621124/#!po=43.7500">Population
Health Metrics</a></i>, January 6, 2009). Thus, for cultural reasons and
several other factors, there is sometimes pressure on young people to enlist. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSPncHdCY_zInmdiqa_Qitu92zYg16Fyqnab6GNa_4EDuHO2t4TesPbjE02FS4K1it3xL2tUBZuav0RBPG78QO0Evs_z9hcl0RDNkyiTtkmXVmPutHxKK5vVn0YbnOSLl4IxPplYjNHkU/s1600/IMG_0966.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSPncHdCY_zInmdiqa_Qitu92zYg16Fyqnab6GNa_4EDuHO2t4TesPbjE02FS4K1it3xL2tUBZuav0RBPG78QO0Evs_z9hcl0RDNkyiTtkmXVmPutHxKK5vVn0YbnOSLl4IxPplYjNHkU/s1600/IMG_0966.JPG" height="320" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">door of state office building, Montpelier, Vermont, 1949<br />
across the street from the State House<br />
building designed by William Freeman<br />
of Burlington (VT) architectural firm <a href="http://www.vermontmodern.com/Home/architects-designers/freeman-french-freeman" target="_blank">Freeman, French, and Freeman</a><br />
photograph ©Kristin Lord 2014</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Finally, Vermont’s
rural hunting culture, which is often different from political affiliation, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_laws_in_Vermont">makes gun control a
difficult sell</a>, although there are some signs of progress. For instance,
Governor Peter Shumlin, a liberal Democrat, posed on his FaceBook page last
fall with the carcass of a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/WCAXTV/posts/10153471896375442">deer</a> he had
shot and wished all of his supporters a safe and happy hunting season. (As a
vegetarian, I admit that I was not amused.) <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/22/peter-shumlin-guns-economy_n_2741061.html">Shumlin’s</a>
views are complex, as are those of Senators <a href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2013/01/19/169713517/a-gun-owner-from-the-left-sen-leahy-leads-the-debate">Patrick
Leahy</a> and <a href="http://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sanders-votes-for-background-checks-assault-weapons-ban">Bernie
Sanders</a> and Representative <a href="http://www.addisonindependent.com/201301welch-backs-gun-control-laments-congressional-fighting">Peter
Welch</a>.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">As Friends, we have a
distinctive peace testimony and social witness. How can we best bear witness to
Vermont's motto, “Freedom and Unity?”</span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiizRuJrV9iBXzIG_W5ffYyNp1_3W7m6JOEt_Lb8E46-0Bmuk1r4IJMn0FyDAOumDv_f_qRoCwDBJZVCMzoyVkG0WN2dOA9iPL2bZSUAnnCtt_qYHvEV5N-pCPu5EHoSxZU2tvL3Fer1zc/s1600/IMG_0968.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiizRuJrV9iBXzIG_W5ffYyNp1_3W7m6JOEt_Lb8E46-0Bmuk1r4IJMn0FyDAOumDv_f_qRoCwDBJZVCMzoyVkG0WN2dOA9iPL2bZSUAnnCtt_qYHvEV5N-pCPu5EHoSxZU2tvL3Fer1zc/s1600/IMG_0968.JPG" height="320" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">close-up of door of state office building, Montpelier, Vermont, 1949<br />
photograph ©Kristin Lord 2014<br />
<br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">The author would like to thank her father, Arthur Lord, for making it possible to take the photographs in Montpelier.</span>Kristin Lordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18052075819133204111noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4387507661152607223.post-86872018727429662892014-06-11T11:27:00.000-07:002014-06-11T11:27:20.912-07:00U is for Universalism and Unitarianism
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Under normal
circumstances, the local Friends Meeting would have not have asked someone
living twenty miles away from the new Unitarian church to join the Quaker
delegation at the dedication ceremony, but a number of Friends had scheduling
difficulties on the night in question. I felt honored to attend, and not only
because of the similarities in outlook between Unitarians and many unprogrammed
Meetings. My maternal grandfather was a Universalist minister —the
Universalists are the other part of the “UU’s,” the joint <a href="http://www.uua.org/">Unitarian Universalist Association</a> in the US.
Admittedly, he left religion altogether around the end of World War I, but he
was an exception. <a href="http://www.hartlanduu.com/">The First Universalist
Society of Hartland, Vermont</a>, was founded in 1802. My ancestors were in the
town at the time of the American Revolution and were long-time members before
my grandfather came along. </span><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">Members
of the church were helpful to a relative who was a conscientious objector
during World War II. My maternal grandmother, the last “card-carrying” member
of that congregation, was a devoted Universalist until her death in the late
1970’s.</span>
I could only regret that she was not alive
to hear about the occasion. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPrzj9wxWec3wfPdKsJNr6_pxF8ww8mgIxHmtNmbQFqDVLYkdZWpj6yZhu7t1DZVFfXsKZ9YDQk4sw31Ynn4goq03h93cG_sbh-6bhDNWNd-yfWHdW5HqkaMFcSVW4htq_Z7qgdqBvaYU/s1600/IMG_0835.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPrzj9wxWec3wfPdKsJNr6_pxF8ww8mgIxHmtNmbQFqDVLYkdZWpj6yZhu7t1DZVFfXsKZ9YDQk4sw31Ynn4goq03h93cG_sbh-6bhDNWNd-yfWHdW5HqkaMFcSVW4htq_Z7qgdqBvaYU/s1600/IMG_0835.JPG" height="320" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">First Universalist Society, Hartland, Vermont<br />©Kristin Lord 2014</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Although some time has
passed since that gathering, and the church in question moved to larger
quarters a few years ago, the spiritual and cultural familiarity of that
evening has stayed with me. In my case the cultural associations were indirect,
though my grandmother and her oldest sister rather than my parents. Because
there was never a UU church available at a time when my parents were moving to
a new community (in one town, the church had closed, while in another, one
opened about a year after my parents had settled in somewhere else), I have
never personally been a member of that Association. The connections were
nevertheless there, waiting to be aroused from hibernation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The approach to worship, the choice of lyrics
in the music, even the decor —the minister was sitting in a virtual clone of my
grandmother’s favorite wing chair— all were familiar. The initial lines from
one of my favorite poems of William Blake, “The Divine Image,” </span><span style="font-family: Times;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>formed one of
the hymns: “To Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love/All pray in their distress;/and to
these virtues of delight/Return their thankfulness.”</span><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> (Blake traveled in
the same circles as Joseph Johnson, who was in turn associated with Joseph
Priestley and other Unitarian reformers.) Downstairs in the Sunday school rooms
were posters showing Emily Dickinson, Clara Barton, and members of the
philosophical school of the New England Transcendentalists. Hundreds of miles
away from New England and an ocean away from Britain, I saw the New England
culture of my childhood and the British connections of my late adolescence in
front of me.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">The ideas behind what
became the <a href="https://www.blogger.com/n.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universalist_Church_of_America#Early_America">Universalists</a>
and <a href="https://www.blogger.com/n.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unitarianism">Unitarians</a> arose
independently with different people in a variety of locations, with the
Protestant Reformation as it developed in Britain and New England providing the
catalysts to the modern form of both. The fundamental belief of Universalism is
in the universal nature of salvation. Since God is a God of love, the Deity
would never create a person knowing that that individual was destined for eternal
damnation. The Unitarians believed that that God was one entity and that Jesus
was fully human; in contrast, the view of Christianity as adopted by the
Councils of Nicaea in the fourth century CE was that God was three persons,
father, son, and holy spirit, who together form the Trinity. My mother used to
put the differences between the two groups and between them and Christianity
quite succinctly: “The Universalists do not believe in Hell and damnation,
while the Unitarians do not believe in the Trinity.” (It was the belief in
freedom from damnation which brought in my grandmother, who had witnessed the
tail end of the Wesleyan Revival movement in nineteenth century North America
and who was from that more traditional background.) These core beliefs became
the nucleus of many others. The current Unitarian Universalist Association, formed
from the two groups in 1961, has embraced <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_pluralism">religious pluralism</a>.
Only a minority of members of the current Association would consider themselves
Christian.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Many unprogrammed and
some programmed Friends have a favorable view of Universalism, and the
practical ramifications of Quaker and Universalist Universalism (so to speak)
are similar; but the two movements are very different in the way the concepts
developed. The Universalists’ belief is ultimately one about the afterlife, or
eschatology. Friends, on the other hand, have from our earliest days in the
seventeenth century CE believed that it is the understanding of the Inward
Light (the manifestation of the Holy Spirit) that is universal. This was the
experience of Mary Fisher, the seventeenth century Friend who visited the
Ottoman Empire (“the seed of them is near unto God,” as cited in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Quaker Faith and Practice</i>), and to some
extent <a href="http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/history/20018/william_penn%27s_legacy/933335">William
Penn</a>. To put this belief in philosophical terms, the Quaker belief is
ultimately one of knowledge, or epistemology (for a discussion of the latter,
see Jeffrey Dudiak and Laura Rediehs in Stephen W. Angell and Pink Dandelion, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Oxford Handbook of Quaker Studies</i>,
2013, pp. 511-12). Whether this universal experience of the Inner Light leads
to the kind of religious pluralism understood by modern Universalists in that
denomination is another matter. John Punshon, in his <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Letter to a Universalist </i>(Pendle Hill, 1989), advocates for Friends
reclaiming their Christian roots; establishing mutual respect and tolerance
between faiths is what creates world peace. Daniel Seeger takes a different
viewpoint. Writing in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Quaker
Universalist Reader Number 1</i> (1986) and elsewhere, he speaks of the kind of
religious pluralism that entails participants to be grounded in one religion.
For Seeger, that religion is Christianity. In fact, even among contemporary
liberal branches of Quakerism, Christianity is a theological and cultural
foundation. (For a broader understanding of the complexities of modern Quaker
Universalism, see the resources of the <a href="http://universalistfriends.org/">Quaker
Universalist Voice</a>, Ralph Hetherington's 1993 Pendle Hill pamphlet <i>Universalism and Spirituality</i>, and the summary in J. William Frost’s discussion of
modernist and liberal Quakerism in T<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">he
Oxford Handbook of Quaker Studies</i>, pp. 88-89.)</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5fAwjL-AQJBSUOkd7E_aLcxw6pxTYeN06IkT8oB44aSuYPPnS9B3uF5mfbVEV-ZnpFu3unIYR9H1vfIhisHqhOqFUsnB-KkFlxnuQ6w7ZKsMR_TczYirZOrVCE6mq4jfPBqDQ2kDRh84/s1600/Sultan_Ahmed_Mosque,_Istambulbetter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5fAwjL-AQJBSUOkd7E_aLcxw6pxTYeN06IkT8oB44aSuYPPnS9B3uF5mfbVEV-ZnpFu3unIYR9H1vfIhisHqhOqFUsnB-KkFlxnuQ6w7ZKsMR_TczYirZOrVCE6mq4jfPBqDQ2kDRh84/s1600/Sultan_Ahmed_Mosque,_Istambulbetter.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sultan Ahmed Mosque (colloquially known as "the Blue Mosque," Istanbul<br />Upload via Wikimedia Commons<br />This mosque had already been built by the time Mary Fisher visited the area.</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Speaking about Quakers
and Unitarianism is equally complex. Neither George Fox nor Robert Barclay, the
author of the first methodological theology of Quakerism, refers to the
Trinity. William Penn, on the other hand, does. In <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.hallvworthington.com/Penn/Answers.html">Keys</a></i>,
Penn is quite specific about Friends’ acceptance of the doctrine, citing
scriptural documentation in I John 5:7, the passage as it stands in the Greek
manuscripts, not with the gloss “</span><em><span style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">in heaven: the Father, the Word [Jesus], and the Holy Spirit; and these
three are one</span></em><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> added” which appears in some Latin manuscripts. Despite some ambiguities
as to what exactly the early Friends meant by the Trinity,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>a basic accord with it is understood in the
affirmation used by Friends in the <a href="http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=46304">Toleration Act
of 1689</a>, which ended much of the persecution against early Quakers. (Stephen
W. Angell’s article in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Oxford
Handbook of Quaker Studies</i>, pp. 160-61, contains an up-to-date summary of
the scholarship concerning Quaker beliefs about the Trinity.)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">The limitations of the
Toleration Act of 1689 made me blush scarlet when I first visited yet another
Unitarian church, this time the First Unitarian Universalist Church in
Winnipeg, Manitoba. The topic of the day’s sermon was the history of
Unitarianism. After brief references to Michael Servetus and other Continental
reformers, the minister provided a biographical sketch of Joseph B. Priestly,
the English Unitarian theologian, political theorist, and chemist. More than a
century after Friends were living reasonably freely in England (albeit without
access to university education),<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>J.B.
Priestly was forced out of London; one of the places he stayed in his exile was
Pennsylvania, which in turn was inhabited by many beneficiaries of the
Toleration Act of 1689. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Changes to the
Toleration Act that removed the requirement for Christians to accept the
Trinity came only in 1813. When the Winnipeg Unitarians greeted me with great
warmth during coffee hour upon learning that I was a Quaker, I responded with sorrow
that Friends’ determination to ensure their own acceptance in the Toleration
Act had inadvertently left no room for the early British Unitarians when they
came along later. (Talk about the law of unintended consequences!)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Both Friends and
Unitarian Universalists have been instrumental our own ways in developing the
separation between church and state that was enshrined (so to speak) in the US
Constitution, and which has in turn become a part of the legal foundations of a
number of Commonwealth countries. This is one of many areas which we have in
common. We share a commitment to gender equality and a strong social witness,
as well as support for science and the life of the mind. Seekers using <a href="http://www.beliefnet.com/Entertainment/Quizzes/BeliefOMatic.aspx">the
on-line tools of Beliefnet</a> sometimes get similar answers for both liberal
Quakerism and the Unitarian Universalist Association. When I wrote in an
earlier post of the importance of other Friends Meetings and other religious
groups as a “home away from home,” our<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>“UU” counterparts are a superb example. Indeed, one Meeting known to me
has pooled resources for religious education with the local Unitarian
Universalist church. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">When “UU” friends and
acquaintances speak about differences between Quakerism and their own
traditions, the contemplative tradition of the Meeting for Worship and the
sense of the Meeting which forms the basis of our corporate business practices are
subjects of great interest to them. In terms of contemplation, some members of
both groups have worked with labyrinths. I do not think it coincidental that in
a single week I was photographing a labyrinth at a Universalist church and
invited to walk one that was being set up at a Quaker Half-Yearly Meeting.
(Unfortunately, scheduling problems prevented me from walking either.) Conversely,
one of the great treasures of the Unitarian Universalist tradition —not only
for themselves, but for all humanity— is providing a spiritual home to
interfaith couples and families. Friends also have much to learn from their
excellent religious education for both children and adults. Finally, Friends
can benefit from the Unitarian Universalist breadth as a part of world
religion, while at the same time offering the variety of world-wide Quaker
experience as it relates to the Christian Oikoumene.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10.0pt;">In
writing this post, the author would like to acknowledge the generosity of the
First Universalist Society of Hartland, especially the minister, Paul S. Sawyer,
to her family in ways that can never be repaid. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She would also like to thank the hospitality
of the <a href="http://www.grandriverunitarian.ca/">Grand River Unitarian
Congregation</a> (Ontario) and the <a href="http://www.uuwinnipeg.mb.ca/">First
Unitarian Universalist Church of Winnipeg</a> (Manitoba) at different times
over the years.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times;"> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJD-dJlILpJ8PTO7QZZi6mqoixWfZRe1Ll5lczcCnhOm2DTBBqzip95zGWDysgWMnCNgcRlGj8lZjr-l_WPRd8_g6M9xvMZFD1OR1d05rTk4YdNTEelW2uULGhoQJvc5z6TbDZMVRp-Fk/s1600/IMG_0842.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJD-dJlILpJ8PTO7QZZi6mqoixWfZRe1Ll5lczcCnhOm2DTBBqzip95zGWDysgWMnCNgcRlGj8lZjr-l_WPRd8_g6M9xvMZFD1OR1d05rTk4YdNTEelW2uULGhoQJvc5z6TbDZMVRp-Fk/s1600/IMG_0842.JPG" height="213" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">the labyrinth at the First Universalist Society, Hartland, VT<br />©Kristin Lord 2014</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span></div>
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Kristin Lordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18052075819133204111noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4387507661152607223.post-18356033294451557142014-05-28T09:29:00.000-07:002019-04-11T19:11:08.997-07:00T is for Ten Years<style>
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<span style="font-family: "times"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">“...for ye have no
time but this present. Therefore prize your time for your souls’ sake.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">--George Fox in Letter
5, to his parents </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">I. No time but this present:</span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Tough decisions are
not supposed to be made in haste. We have the aphorism, “Marry in haste; repent
at leisure.” Membership in the Religious Society of Friends is often compared
to marriage. Friends believe that both should ideally be life-long and
life-changing commitments. Indeed, the comparison of the church to the bride
goes back to the Bible. For this reason it is not surprising that, as
common-law relationships have now often become accepted alongside formal
marriage, many would have a similar relationship to our Religious Society. (For
a discussion of this and related issues, see Alastair Heron, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Caring, Conviction, Commitment: Dilemmas of
Quaker Membership Today</i> [1992] and <a href="http://www.twmuseums.org.uk/slavery/_files/research-zone/QS132%20final.pdf#page=110">the
surveys discussed by Mark S. Carey, Pink Dandelion, and Rosie Rutherford in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Quaker Studies</i> 13/ [2009] pp. 238-245</a>.)</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">I raise the issue of
complexities regarding membership at the outset because of the paradox that the
ability to change religious affiliation that we see in many western countries
may make it harder to commit. Again, the parallel to marriage is useful. It is
a commonplace of sociological research that people who have experienced their
own divorce or that of their parents are more reluctant to marry (or remarry,
as the case may be) than otherwise similar peers. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">So, what can I say
about membership? I will make the typical disclaimer cum biographical
statement, although some details are atypical. I am a convinced Friend who
became involved with Quakerism as a teenager. My parents belonged to a variety
of ‘mainline’ Protestant denominations and also had connections at different
times with the Unitarian Universalists. I attended what was at the time a
Preparative Meeting under the care of a Monthly Meeting over an hour away.
(This is not uncommon in North America, but British Friends may wish to bear in
mind that Monthly Meetings here are not usually deliberately set up to be
groups of several Preparative Meetings; for instance, Jesus Lane Preparative
Meeting in Cambridge, England would be a Monthly Meeting if it were in New
England or Canada.) That Preparative Meeting was being nudged into becoming its
own Monthly Meeting in a process rather similar to a long-time attender being
encouraged to apply for membership, but they were only initiating the process
when I applied. I thus applied for and was accepted into membership into a
Meeting which I never physically attended, because I obtained my driver's
license only around the time I met with the clearness committee that considered
my membership. (I had been to other Meetings, though.) This made me the
youngest founding member of the “new” Monthly Meeting. Because of the vagaries
of my life, I have participated in some six other Meetings in four Yearly
Meetings and visited numerous others in different parts of the world. I have
retained my membership in the first Meeting, however, in part because I was a
founder but also because I vote by absentee ballot in a town within its
catchment area. I contact the local Congressional delegation with some
regularity, usually about issues of Quaker concern. I was married under the
joint care of that Meeting and the one of which my husband (another convinced
Friend) is a member. The Meeting I currently attend is quite small and
encourages Friends in its midst who are members of other Meetings to
participate in a wide variety of Quaker business, including clearness
committees of all types. I have handled the gamut of membership issues.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">I may not be the best
person to talk about membership, but, like other Friends, I have my opinions.
First and perhaps foremost is the infrequency with which we invite attenders to
consider applying for membership. Although we Friends talk about transparency,
the discussion of membership (at least in the unprogrammed Meetings familiar to
me) is taboo because of our concerns about proselytizing. I learned just how
taboo when I was a teenaged attender and was considering applying to a college
that had a Quaker history. In those days, applicants with a Quaker background
of any sort were encouraged to self-identify (that question became illegal
under human rights legislation probably around the time “to self-identify” became
a verb in English, and no doubt for related reasons). I asked the clerk of the
local Preparative Meeting whether she would back me up if I made such an
identification. “Of course, I would be happy to write a letter explaining your
situation, but I think you should apply for membership. It is a pity that
Friends almost never invite attenders to take this step. My husband and I
attended (our previous Meeting) for ten years and were never asked or even
encouraged to apply. We kept thinking we were unworthy. Finally, we gathered up
our courage and asked about joining. They said, ‘We were wondering what took
you so long.’ Ever since, I have felt that Quaker practice on this point was
wrong, and not just because no one should feel the way we did.”</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">I applied for
membership a few months later, coincidentally a matter of weeks after putting
down a deposit to attend a college with no Quaker connections. Over the years,
several Friends who were much older than I and who worked on membership issues
have spoken with me with the thought that at some point I might have some
influence, however minor, on the broader discussion. Although all of these
discussions have been important, that first statement cut to the core.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">When Friends who have
been attenders for some time inquire about membership or moot about the
possibility indirectly, I retell the story about the people who waited for ten
years under the fear that they were “unworthy.” I explain briefly what
membership entails and show them a copy of whatever document the particular
Yearly Meeting has that discusses the process. In some Yearly Meetings it is<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> Faith and Practice</i>; in Canada, it is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Organization and Procedure</i>; still other
Meetings have pamphlets, of which Philadelphia Yearly Meeting provides <a href="http://www.pym.org/publications/pym-pamphlets/becoming-a-member/">an
excellent example written by Jennifer Goetz</a>. However, I do wait for at least
a broad hint from the other party: I think this is as proactive as my Friend
from high school days ever got. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Buttonholing
individuals about membership is no doubt contrary to Quaker practice because of
our history of being on the receiving end of persecution. There are other
reasons we usually wait for someone to approach us, rather than the other way
around; most notable is the concern that some attenders have had a negative
experience with a denomination with its own expectations of membership. So,
within these parameters, what can we do to encourage membership? Meetings that
have regular discussions of Quaker testimonies and topics can put membership
into the rotation if they have not done so already. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Such discussions can
and probably should include information about how to apply and what really goes
on in a clearness committee meeting. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Faith
and Practice</i> and general guidebooks keep the description on clearness
committees for membership general <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>because of the variety of circumstances. The
description in Howard Brinton’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Guide to
Quaker Practice</i> is typical: “It is the committee’s duty to ascertain whether
or not the applicant understands the beliefs and practices of the Society of Friends
and is in substantial agreement with them and intends to conduct herself or
himself accordingly.” (p. 47, 1993 edition) However, people are often terrified
of these meetings, and not only because there is the chance, however unlikely,
that they might be encouraged to wait awhile. My thesis supervisor gave
me more of an idea of what was likely to come up in my dissertation defense
than most Friends tell potential applicants for membership (or marriage, for
that matter, if one wants to carry forward that earlier comparison). When the
latest person to apply for membership locally asked what the clearness committee
was likely to discuss, I had only the information listed above. And yet we tell
people that a clearness committee is not the Spanish Inquisition.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">II. Some Queries for those contemplating membership or serving on a
clearness committee for membership:</span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Neither a thesis
advisor nor a clearness committee can or should anticipate all questions in
advance. No one wants to give or hear answers that are completely rehearsed,
but a list of questions for people to think about in advance would not hurt. It
might help attenders decide if they were ready to apply for membership. Here is
a list, drawn up primarily for those in unprogrammed Meetings who do not have
an expectation that Friends will support a formal statement such as the
Richmond Declaration. Some of these questions are of the sort that might come
up in a clearness committee, although we would have time for no more than a
fraction; others are more likely to be used for an attender's own reflections.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">A. <u>General issues
of experience and comfort level:</u></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">How long have you been
attending Meeting for Worship? Are you able to make attending Meeting a
priority to the extent that physical proximity to the Meeting and other
considerations such as work and family commitments allow? If these practical
considerations are onerous, in what other ways can you contribute to the life
of your Meeting? If you are physically distant from a Friends Meeting, are you
aware of what resources your Yearly Meeting may have for you?</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">If your Meeting allows
attenders to participate in Meeting for Worship with attention to Business,
have you done so? If you are able, can you contribute to the Meeting
financially if you have not already done so? How can you contribute to
committee work or other responsibilities that allow Quaker Meetings and organizations
to function, if such efforts are feasible for you? If a personal problem not
relating to Friends (e.g., issues at work or family illness) were to arise, are
there Friends with whom you would feel comfortable discussing it? If someone
inside the Quaker ambit does or says something that makes you uncomfortable in
belief or practice, how might you respond? </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Membership in the
Religious Society of Friends is through the Monthly Meeting, but it is
nevertheless a membership in the worldwide Religious Society. Have you visited
other Meetings and larger Quaker gatherings or Quaker-affiliated programs
(e.g., Quarterly or Half-Yearly Meeting, Yearly Meeting, Friends General
Conference, Friends United Meeting, Powell House, Pendle Hill, or Woodbrooke)?
If you move, can you anticipate participating in a new Meeting? Friends have
often accepted members, including students, who expect to move in the
foreseeable future. We are experienced and (we hope) helpful in assisting with
such transitions.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Do you have a rudimentary
understanding of Quaker history and how Quakers in your area are organized
(i.e., Monthly and Yearly Meetings), and do you inform yourself of broader
current Quaker concerns?</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Friends often have
periods of dryness in their spiritual lives. Also, sometimes people come to a
new faith community with the feeling that the community perfectly meets their
needs. Friends are human beings and Friends’ organizations are comprised of
human beings; we are fallible and have at least our share of warts. Can you anticipate
dealing with a period of dryness or disappointment while maintaining your
membership in our Religious Society?</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">B. <u>Quakers and the
family and close friends:</u></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Most Friends have
family members who are not Quakers. Indeed, this is often the case even inside
one's immediate household. How do members of your family view your interest in
Quakerism? If differences arise, as in the religious education of children, how
might you approach them? If you are currently single or unpartnered, can you
envisage a Quaker life for yourself if in the future you have a spouse or
partner with no interest in Quakerism? Can you discuss your beliefs with family
and close friends if the subject comes up without feeling the desire to try to
win them over, or without being defensive if any of them try to do the same?</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">C. <u>God and
Christianity:</u></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-family: "times"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">The Friends in this
Yearly Meeting do not have a creed or formal statement of belief (see
introductory paragraph for Friends that do have a formal statement). Nevertheless, you should have a broad familiarity with the religious traditions of Quakers, how they have developed, and the range of such beliefs today. </span>What have Quakers
traditionally thought about God and Christianity? What is your understanding, within
the Yearly Meeting you now attend, about such beliefs today? Allowing for human
limitations in describing the range of their own religious experiences, how
would you describe your own beliefs about God and Christianity? How comfortable
are you with the range of belief within your Yearly Meeting (or a lack of
diversity, as the case may be)? In particular, how do you feel about the
Christian history of the Religious Society of Friends?</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">How do you perceive
the relationship between religion and science?</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">D. <u>Vocal ministry
and the general conduct of Meeting for Worship:</u></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">How do you feel about
vocal ministry in Meeting, or the lack thereof? If your Meeting has long
periods or silence and/or plenty of completely silent Meetings for Worship, how
would you feel about attending a so-called “popcorn Meeting” with lots of vocal
ministry, or vice versa? Can you listen respectfully to a message that may not
be meant for you, but which may be meaningful to another? </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Are you familiar with
Friends’ principles about the outward sacraments (water baptism and communion
with bread and wine or juice)? How do you feel about these?</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">If your Meeting is
completely unprogrammed, how do you feel about the lack of designated periods
for music in Meeting for Worship? If you enjoy religious music, are there other
opportunities, inside or outside of the Religious Society, that provide what
you need in this area? Likewise, how do you feel about the absence of religious
art in most Quaker Meeting Houses?</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">E.<u> Quaker
testimonies: </u></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">There are a number of areas of community, national, and global concern in which Friends have traditionally been active. These concerns come out of core beliefs, which we call testimonies. Quaker testimonies include,
but are by no means limited to: sincerity or integrity, equality (whether of
gender, social status, education, or other aspects of the human experience),
simplicity, and peace. Modern Friends have also developed a testimony of
environmental concerns, including the welfare of species other than our own. In
addition, the testimony on integrity has led Friends to use affirmations rather
than oaths.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Friends approach these
testimonies in different ways. How do you approach these testimonies yourself?
Does it bother you if another Friend has a different response to one of these
testimonies than you do (e.g., differences of belief and practice about the
peace testimony or views on gender, marriage, and sexuality)?</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">F. <u>The world of
Quakerism:</u></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">The Religious Society
of Friends has members and attenders all over the world. For historical and
other reasons, they differ enormously in the way they understand Quaker belief
and practice. Traditionally, the organizational “building block” of Quakerism
is the Monthly Meeting, called a “church” in some parts of the world. Monthly
Meetings in turn belong to broader organizations, usually Yearly Meetings that
meet annually (often with regional gatherings that meet more often); these are
in turn connected to the Friends World Committee for Consultation, which
represents Quakers from all over the world. Do you have a basic idea of the
range of Friends in the FWCC and what their beliefs are? </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">If your Yearly Meeting
is part of another Quaker organization, such as Friends General Conference
(FGC) or Friends United Meeting (FUM), do you have a basic
understanding of what that organization is and what its beliefs are? People in
North America should be especially aware that some Yearly Meetings have dual
affiliations with Friends United Meeting and Friends General Conference and
that tensions have arisen due to differences in beliefs and expectations among
members of these two umbrella groups. These Yearly Meetings are: Baltimore,
Canadian, New England, New York, and Southeastern.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "times"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">The Religious Society of Friends is a living organism. As such, it is changing and developing. In what ways can you see yourself contributing to any changes that might occur? If any current trends make you feel uncomfortable (and many Friends have felt such discomfort), what are they, and how can you relate to them? Remember that there is no one answer to questions like this.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">G. <u>Other questions
and concerns</u>:</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Is there anything you
would like to ask a clearness committee?</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">III. Other issues related to membership:</span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">I have some broader
issues in mind as well. Committees on Ministry and Counsel or their equivalent
can keep up with people who are in the process of drifting away, if only to
maintain the conversation and have accurate contact information. (I have known
of membership clerks being approached by Ministry and Counsel because they do
not have current addresses of all members, only to reply that membership clerks
are likely to be in the same position.)</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">We might also consider
saying something similar to what some other religious organizations put on
their monthly newsletter: “those who are interested in knowing what membership
in the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) entails should feel free to
contact the clerk, the membership clerk, or a member of the Committee on
Ministry and Counsel/an Overseer (with names and contact information).” A
letter applying for membership is sent to the clerk, but it is important to
make it clear that the clerk is not a stand-in for a member of the clergy.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">One final point: when
the subject of raising the age limit for people on the “temporary list” (called
“junior members” in some Yearly Meetings) came up in Canadian Yearly Meeting, I
was one of many who were generally supportive. Times have changed. Whereas
previous generations of Friends might have been likely to have permanent jobs
and even children by their twenty-sixth birthday, the cut-off for many
temporary lists, this has been unrealistic for some time. Although others have
worked for some time and written at length on the subject, I also would
encourage Yearly Meetings (and Monthly Meetings, where flexibility exists) to
consider raising the age limit or to look at ways in which people who otherwise
move a lot might feel comfortable applying for membership in our Religious
Society.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Despite the noblest
intent of all concerned, Friends who have served on committees to look over the
membership list (the name and participants of such committees differ according
to Yearly Meeting and sometimes within Yearly Meetings) sometimes have tales to
tell about people who have applied for membership in the Religious Society of
Friends and been accepted into it, only to sink into disillusionment later.
Certainly some have applied when they had insufficient experience outside their
local Meetings and were dissatisfied with a new Meeting in a different town.
Some rethink their spiritual values and go elsewhere, the same as other people
come to us. But does that make the idea of membership a hot potato? I hope not.
The fact of a divorce does not by itself preclude remarriage under the care of
our Religious Society (at least in the Yearly Meetings familiar to me).
Likewise, we all know that “divorce” from membership happens from time to time.
When people leave our Religious Society, it is important not only to see
why the Friend wishes to leave (like a marital divorce, such separations
are occasionally called off) but also to ensure that the process is “no fault”
and transparent. Friends try to arrange visitation for the member who wishes to
resign not only to ensure that such a person feels “clear” about the Meeting
(and vice versa) but to reduce the risk of hard feelings. Occasionally we have
had a happy reunion later.</span></div>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiHyUnlMrL3SDJNU05Jimm-_8IPghNR1O1AbwbPKltQfjA8hSiLulmAWD00AP971bYMMa7Bl1sSrCgpxnk6nTqoCBkJsB_JjEP6a3pkcQ2NbiG5r_aMv_AECRqLyXVgoS_3KHZJfJ8Fhw/s1600/IMG_0264.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiHyUnlMrL3SDJNU05Jimm-_8IPghNR1O1AbwbPKltQfjA8hSiLulmAWD00AP971bYMMa7Bl1sSrCgpxnk6nTqoCBkJsB_JjEP6a3pkcQ2NbiG5r_aMv_AECRqLyXVgoS_3KHZJfJ8Fhw/s1600/IMG_0264.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Exterior of <a href="http://www.spartaquakers.com/" target="_blank">Sparta Meeting House,</a> Yarmouth, Ontario<br />
photograph ©Kristin Lord 2013</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Kristin Lordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18052075819133204111noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4387507661152607223.post-66658563445368430682014-05-28T08:19:00.000-07:002014-05-28T08:19:46.253-07:00S is for Second Chances
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjckdEYMjltuOHUt7iHQddRYJGMGwIZ8SO1JTpAO7NG2TSqWVjXqabyk6ysgNQ86vh_s3v3qcgvt7X8b55qxWHDB8LTF9EVMEZhVtHGWh0p0oyUiP5z9tVo4ByEoD0PumWDn2ehbcb7aUA/s1600/IMG_0594.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjckdEYMjltuOHUt7iHQddRYJGMGwIZ8SO1JTpAO7NG2TSqWVjXqabyk6ysgNQ86vh_s3v3qcgvt7X8b55qxWHDB8LTF9EVMEZhVtHGWh0p0oyUiP5z9tVo4ByEoD0PumWDn2ehbcb7aUA/s1600/IMG_0594.JPG" height="213" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Native Design inserted into the floor<br />between Air Canada Centre and Union Station<br />Toronto, Ontario<br />A reminder that Toronto's old nickname for itself was (and maybe still is)<br /> "Toronto the Good"<br />photo ©Kristin Lord 2014<br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Serious study of early
Christianity is not my field. I specialize in authors who were what we now call
pagan. Right now I am devoting most of my research activities toward the Greek
poets Sophocles and Euripides, although I have given conference talks on
Catullus and Vergil, who are both on the Roman “side.” Nevertheless, in the
final week of my introductory Roman civilization class I touch on what the
Mennonite theologian John Howard Yoder calls the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantinian_shift">Constantinian shift</a>,
namely, how both Christianity and the Roman Empire changed when Christianity
changed from the faith of the persecuted to the religion of the Roman Emperor
under Constantine I (“Constantine the Great”) and ultimately of the Empire.
This transformation is of particular interest to Quakers and other pacifists in
the Christian tradition because it was part of the change in the attitude
toward military service inside and outside of the early Church. In short, as a
result of the changes in the period up to and during the rule of Constantine it
became acceptable for Christians to serve in the Roman army, and the Roman army
was for its part Christianized. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">It might be argued
that Constantine I, as a leader of exceptional ability, was instrumental in
giving the western part Roman Empire a second chance that lasted for the better
part of two hundred years. There is much to be said for this. As it happens,
though, I think of Constantine as the emperor of second chances for another
reason. He was involved in decisions about several movements within early
Christianity that are now considered heresies. One of these movements was <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donatism">Donatism</a>, which took a severe
view about the readmission the Christian fold of both parishioners and clergy
who had returned to paganism under duress during the persecutions of
Constantine's immediate predecessor, the emperor Diocletian. The Donatists
believed that people were out of the Christian fold once they were out. They
were especially concerned about restoring priests and other leaders to position
of authority, as they believed that the sacraments needed to be administered by
a holy person in order to be considered sacred. Other people in the early
Church believed that penance was there precisely to allow for people to be
forgiven for making mistakes. If we consider the latter approach to be the way
Christians normally believe —and by and large Friends adhere to it— it is, at
least in part, because this view was accepted by Constantine and worked well
for a huge number of people under different circumstances throughout later
history. Although there are multiple reasons why the “orthodox” concept of
forgiveness won out, it is worth noting that the pagans themselves were quite
willing to give people a second chance to return to paganism by performing
rituals in the non-Christian state religion. The Christian church needed to
have a more attractive set of ideas, and being exclusionary would have ceded an
important point to the pagans.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">How do we view second
chances today, in both religion and society? I have been thinking about this
question for several reasons, both spiritual and political. A telephone
conversation a couple months ago with my father put the political aspect into
high relief. “What is the deal with your mayor?” “I” don’t have a mayor, and my
Dad knows it. I am an American expat who votes in the same Vermont town of <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>roughly 400 voters where he was on the
checklist until he moved to another small Vermont town. Neither of these
communities has a mayor. The rural municipality of Centre Wellington in the
Canadian province of Ontario, where I now live, does have a <a href="http://www.centrewellington.ca/council/ccinfo/Pages/Joanne-Ross-Zuj.aspx">mayor</a>.
A hard-working public servant who is respected by people across the political
spectrum, she lives a few blocks away from us, but my father would not know
that. In any case, when I replied, “What mayor?” he knew I was pulling his leg,
as he had been pulling mine a moment before. My father lives on a
sparsely-populated mountainside and has chosen to eschew Internet access, but
one could never accuse him of being ill-informed. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">I expect almost every
person reading this blog knows to whom the phrase “your mayor” refers if the
person hearing the question lives in the same province —maybe even the same
country— as the mayor of Toronto, Ontario. Everyone, it seems, has an opinion
about Rob Ford. (For an overview see <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rob_Ford">Wikipedia</a>, the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.thestar.com/yourtoronto/robford.html">Star</a></i>, the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/news/robford/">Huffington Post</a></i>, and
the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/toronto/topic/Rob-Ford">Globe and
Mail</a></i>.) People who live in parts of Ontario outside of Toronto feel
especially justified in having one because all Ontario residents and taxpayers
have a vested interest in seeing Toronto succeed as a livable and cosmopolitan
city. Every year that Toronto fails to get a grip on its traffic problems adds
to the expenses all of us will have to pay when it finally does make progress
(see recent articles in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/murtaza-haider/toronto-commute-times_b_5280934.html">Huffington
Post</a></i>, the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.thestar.com/business/2013/11/29/the_high_cost_of_gta_commuting.html">Star
</a></i>and the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/toronto/constant-gridlock/article18406658/?page=all">Globe
and Mail</a></i> for different perspectives on this issue). And that is just
the beginning.</span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1mcOSf2Ts_7XvqUG4SPwUuR_X4C9fHYMXO2ngEejRbo9yq89yMI3btISdO2g4Zq9vxNkq_4WFg4Zj0ST8VHK6VBLq3ofThquUGTrgaOq2WuJ6KuakKdnt_yvVxySMWcvIRgO5M7n-zgE/s1600/1280px-122_-_Toronto_-_Septembre_2009.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1mcOSf2Ts_7XvqUG4SPwUuR_X4C9fHYMXO2ngEejRbo9yq89yMI3btISdO2g4Zq9vxNkq_4WFg4Zj0ST8VHK6VBLq3ofThquUGTrgaOq2WuJ6KuakKdnt_yvVxySMWcvIRgO5M7n-zgE/s1600/1280px-122_-_Toronto_-_Septembre_2009.jpg" height="85" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Panoramic Photograph of Toronto, September 2009<br />Martin St.-Aimant<br />reproduced with permission via Wikimedia Commons</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">A number of serious
political commentators in the United States and elsewhere have been trying to
figure out why a significant portion of the Toronto electorate has given mayor
Rob Ford a multitude of second chances. From recent polling, he can probably
rely on a core support of around 30 per cent of the electorate for his
reelection in the fall (<a href="http://www.cp24.com/news/2014-municipal-elections/rob-ford-s-popularity-hits-historic-low-1.1834808">although
that support has been dropping lately</a>). Part of the answer to this
conundrum is that conservatives in Ontario and elsewhere can be political or
social conservatives, or both. Canada has a Conservative party, called by
somewhat different names with different coalitions of voters in various times
and places, and also has people who are conservative with a “small c” who do
not vote for that party. In Ontario, people who are attracted to the
conservative end of the political spectrum are more likely to be the
small-government types and may have libertarian beliefs as well. This is Rob
Ford’s general platform. Only a few are Bible-belt conservatives; in fact, they
run the range of ethnic and religious backgrounds, although they tend to be
socially conservative to some extent. (Municipal elections in Ontario are
officially non-partisan, but municipal politicians run under partisan banners
when they move to provincial or federal politics, and vice versa. The Ford
family is associated with the Ontario Progressive Conservatives.) On the other
hand, the politicians who try to appeal to this part of the electorate, even
with a diverse and increasingly secular crowd like Toronto, often take a “tough
on crime” approach. Mayor Rob Ford and his brother, Counsellor Doug Ford, will
not be able to appeal to this latter demographic indefinitely.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Pollsters have so far
found that the <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/how-toronto-mayor-rob-ford-could-win-again-1.2614581">“Rob
Ford Nation”</a> can be divided roughly into two overlapping groups: those who
agree with his economic approach and those who feel themselves hard done by
elites. Although the Ford family is very wealthy, in political terms they are
populist opponents of political, social, and —especially— intellectual elites.
They also have the poise and charisma from which their opponents can learn a
great deal (but probably not emulate, as experience can take someone only so
far in the absence of innate talent). In sum, there is a core group in
Toronto and everywhere else in Canada and the United States that is sick and
tired of being lectured at by people with advanced degrees. (In contrast, the
late Jack Layton, the distinguished Canadian leader of the New Democratic
Party/NDP, a social democratic party, had the kind of charisma that allowed him
to attract wide support despite having an earned Ph.D.; his widow, Olivia Chow,
who is also an intellectually engaged politician, is one of Ford’s opponents in
the upcoming mayoral race.) For whatever reason, the Ford brothers seem to have
an instinctive understanding of economically stressed people of average
education.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Even these facts do
not explain everything about Rob Ford’s popularity, let alone the degree of
sympathy some have for him. (For an overview see Robyn Doolittle, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Crazy Town: the Rob Ford Story</i> [2014] <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">passim</i>, especially chapter 16.) Like
many people, I have been trying to figure out what it is. The possibility of
redemption is a part of it, and I will get to that in a minute, but related to
redemption is the question of whether Rob Ford is a tragic figure. To a great
extent he is a tragic figure, in the technical terms that would be familiar to
a student of Greek tragedy. (Rosie DiManno of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Star</i>, a fine journalist who has been following the Ford brothers for years, has a
different definition and comes to <a href="http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2013/11/01/mayor_rob_ford_not_worthy_of_our_pity_dimanno.html">a
different conclusion</a>.) Aristotle, whose understanding of tragedy and the
ideal tragic figure forms the basis of much western thinking on the subject,
believed that the ideal tragic figure is —in layperson's terms— of high status
and better than average, but not blameless. The example Aristotle gives is Oedipus
in Sophocles’ play <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Oedipus the King</i>.
To a great extent, Rob Ford meets this description, although for different
reasons. Ford is indisputably of high social and political status; while he is
no intellectual, his ability to “read” a large swath of the electorate, strike
a hard bargain with labour unions (despite the controversy surrounding that
bargain), and, perhaps most significant of all, to stay out of criminal court,
shows that he is no fool. Many have underestimated him at their peril. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">In Aristotle's view,
the reason the ideal tragic character is successful is that he causes the
audience watching a tragedy to experience a catharsis, i.e., an emotional
release, of pity and fear as this character moves from good to bad fortune over
the course of the play. (It is also possible, indeed likely, that the tragic
characters themselves experience this catharsis, although this depends on
interpretation.) The catch, once again, is that this character must be of the
sort Aristotle recommends. If the person is completely innocent (for example, a
toddler dying of a horrible disease), then one feels a sense of horror and
outrage rather than pity and fear. If someone is a base character, then those
watching his downfall feel he has gotten his just desserts. Indeed, some members
of the Toronto electorate, and, by extension, some Ontario taxpayers, are
feeling just this sense of revulsion. If nothing else, Rob Ford is a polarizing
figure.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Mayor Ford's
outrageous behavior is closely related to his substance abuse problems; for
this reason, following his decline over the past year makes me feel a sense of
pity and fear rather than revulsion or outrage. I have seen others suffer
horrific effects of addiction, and, like many people, it is frightening because
we know that many good people could be in the same situation but for a roll of
the dice of heredity and environment.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Aristotle claims that
the ideal tragic figure undergoes a reversal (in Greek, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">peripeteia</i>), from good to bad fortune because of something called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">hamartia</i>. Classical scholars nowadays
translate <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">hamartia</i> as error,
specifically, as D.W. Lucas puts it in his commentary on the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Poetics</i>, an error arising from “ignorance
combined with the absence of wicked intent.” (Lucas, 1968, p. 302) For
instance, Oedipus in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Oedipus the King</i>
kills his father and marries his mother because he does not know that he was
adopted. While we cannot say that Rob Ford acts out of ignorance in the formal
sense of the term, the very nature of substance abuse problems often makes it
impossible for the person suffering them to understand them in a way that
allows them to act on them. I am giving a contemporary description of
cognition, but one that is still relevant given what addiction does to the
brain. Such an effect was not unknown to the Greeks. In Euripides’ tragedy the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bacchae</i>, the character Pentheus, who is
forced to participate in the rituals of the wine-god Dionysus, becomes unhinged
to the point that he kills his own mother in a Bacchic frenzy. Aristotle himself
uses the word <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">hamartia</i> in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Nicomachean Ethics</i>, one of his other works,
to refer to someone whose error occurs because he is drunk or angry; in this
case the individual, although not seeming to be ignorant, actually is so
because of these mitigating factors (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">EN</i>
1110b.25-30; cf. Lucas, p. 301).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Thus, as the situation
stands now (<a href="http://www.thestar.com/news/city_hall/2014/05/27/mayor_rob_fords_return_unclear_to_his_brother.html">May
28, 2014</a>), Rob Ford seems to me a tragic figure in the Aristotelian sense,
except that he is living his life and not acting on stage. Those who are not
convinced by this approach, Rosie DiManno probably among them, might consider
how Rob Ford's time in office compares to another model of ancient Greek
tragedy —and, indeed, Greek thinking about human behavior. In this model, which
we see on stage in some of the plays of Aeschylus, a character becomes too full
of himself or herself. Such an individual shows a kind of overweening arrogance
with a bit of verbal and/or physical violence thrown in; the Greek term is
hubris, which can also be found in Athenian law for verbal harassment or
physical assault. This hubris invites the envy (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">phthonos</i>) of the gods or other humans, or both. Inevitably, the
individual involved makes a reckless error in judgment (the Greek word is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">atasthalia</i>), which in turn results in
his or her destruction. The trick for a writer turning this kind of person in
to a character for the stage, or for a journalist describing someone in the
media, is to humanize him or her so that the audience can relate —which,
I suppose, brings us back to that whole “pity and fear” shtick.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">However, North
American society is influenced not only by the ideas of ancient Greek tragedy
but also the concept of redemption, which comes through Christianity and other
religions. In fact, even Oedipus gets a second chance on the Greek stage, in
the later play <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Oedipus at Colonu</i>s by
Sophocles. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">When it comes to Rob
Ford and redemption, the people of Toronto and Ontario are waiting with bated
breath, as he undergoes inpatient treatment at a facility north of the city.
What can I say about Rob Ford from my vantage point as a Quaker? As both a
Friend and a human being, I can only hope and pray that his treatment is
successful. If I were a Toronto voter looking for policies in passable tune
with Quaker values, I would consider other mayoral candidates. Nevertheless,
when listening to Rob Ford speak about the influence of elites and his sense of
himself as an outsider (whether or not this is justified), I remember that
George Fox had issues with the elites of his day. Some of the people to whom
Fox appealed held roughly the same positions vis à vis the power structures in
society that the “Rob Ford Nation” has now. George Fox upended the religious
power structure by saying that one did not have to be educated at Oxford or
Cambridge to be a minister of the Gospel (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Journal of George Fox</i>, ed. by John L. Nickalls [1975], p. 11). He succeeded
to a great degree because of his ability to create an alternative
organizational structure for religion. Although the men and structures to which
George Fox objected were spiritual elites, given the way England worked in
seventeenth century, they had enormous temporal power as well. Both Oliver
Cromwell and King Charles II had to be reassured that George Fox and his
associates were not aiming to overthrow their physical authority. The first —and
one of the most eloquent— expressions of the Friends’ peace testimony, <a href="http://www.quaker.org/minnfm/peace/A%20Declaration%20to%20Charles%20II%201660.htm">the
letter to King Charles II</a> in 1660, was this very reassurance.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">If George Fox was able
to appeal to people who felt unsupported by the social structures of his day,
might a less divisive figure than Rob Ford appeal to voters of varying degrees
of affluence who are disillusioned by conventional politics? This is unlikely
on the face of it, as lower taxes seem to be the “third rail” of politics for
this group today. On the other hand, the situation demands thinking outside of
the box, and a truly original and gifted politician will have ideas that we
have not yet considered. It is possible that Olivia Chow (on the left) or John
Tory (on the centre-right) or perhaps one of the other candidates could become
this type of leader if winning <a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/toronto/mayoral-debate-focuses-on-rob-ford-despite-absence/article18861916/">the
election</a>. Certainly, whoever wins the election will need to gain the
respect of people who voted for someone else.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">How can Quakers, who
are relatively small in number, help to bring about new ideas and encourage
mutual respect? One of the major problems Toronto (and some other cities like
it) faces is that it is a “forced marriage,” created by the Ontario government
some years ago, of the urban core with some of its suburbs. People in different
parts of the city often do not meet, except perhaps on a superficial level, and
their children will probably not be educated together unless they attend the
same university or community college. It might be very helpful if some of the
religious groups in the area could facilitate informal discussions among both
leaders and “ordinary” people who might otherwise never meet, much as Quakers
have done with international political leaders through the <a href="http://www.quno.org/areas-of-work/high-level-policy-engagement">United
Nations</a> in New York and Geneva.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Regardless of the form
Toronto politics ends up taking, I am optimistic about the longer-term
prospects of the city. God willing, all of us will have second chances, whether
these opportunities are financial, political, educational, or spiritual.
Although North Americans believe in the importance of these second chances, we
are not always taught to use them well. When considering the life trajectory of
leaders, be they Constantine, Rob Ford, or George Fox, it is instructive to see
how they did or did not use their second chances, and how we may learn from
what they did.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtoeskCN9JK-2xCKWqI_odfxQBHO0Bl5yqh65Pc3fCNBmn_CeXjT5FXMpDVJWnwa-Jn4kSNBiql1LtRqHBPTrUC1ZWlEcXxq-zDzw_ozhBEp9vPxnvRdFulXthCTcXwS1lUupFeyH-Lx8/s1600/IMG_0598.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtoeskCN9JK-2xCKWqI_odfxQBHO0Bl5yqh65Pc3fCNBmn_CeXjT5FXMpDVJWnwa-Jn4kSNBiql1LtRqHBPTrUC1ZWlEcXxq-zDzw_ozhBEp9vPxnvRdFulXthCTcXwS1lUupFeyH-Lx8/s1600/IMG_0598.JPG" height="213" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Native Design inserted into the floor<br />between Air Canada Centre and Union Station<br />Toronto, Ontario<br />photo ©Kristin Lord 2014</td></tr>
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Kristin Lordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18052075819133204111noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4387507661152607223.post-84673393926986467532014-05-22T20:11:00.000-07:002014-05-22T20:11:09.525-07:00R is for Ruts
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEpm7vVe3tCMukkp9v5QDEsvkT1eux-gE0o1xqUhIsrA9pFPVqaEoFQmAhR9C2Ewt256-YP0yDrmhfriwqj6-MiaAkwV8g7SfMJ1GKznMJkLOifEBoAfVAqvi_I2yj-wPHp06XioU25ys/s1600/IMG_0626.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEpm7vVe3tCMukkp9v5QDEsvkT1eux-gE0o1xqUhIsrA9pFPVqaEoFQmAhR9C2Ewt256-YP0yDrmhfriwqj6-MiaAkwV8g7SfMJ1GKznMJkLOifEBoAfVAqvi_I2yj-wPHp06XioU25ys/s1600/IMG_0626.JPG" height="213" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The street near our driveway in Canada, high and dry (thank goodness)<br />and in the peak of repair <br />©Kristin Lord 2014</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Rural dwellers in northeastern
North America know that we have a fifth season: “mud season,” which usually occurs
between the end of winter and the beginning of spring, although a late December
or January thaw can cause the same effect. Mud season often coincides with
maple sugaring season, as the sap runs when the weather goes above freezing
during the day but plummets below it at night. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">To all accounts, this
was the nastiest winter in this quadrant of the continent in at least a
generation, and for many people there were spring floods and axle-gripping mud
baths as well. That said, the single “muddiest” episode, at least in my mind,
occurred about 20 or 25 years ago. My husband and I were driving up from
Bristol, Vermont to my parents’ house in Ripton on the Ripton-Lincoln Road, a
dirt road with spectacular daytime views, which is real estate jargon for
precipitous dips and inclines. It was about 8 p.m. and misting rain. My parents
had insisted that the road was passible. They were so rarely wrong about highway
conditions that we kept going even after we started slipping on that first
hill. I was driving a Dodge Colt; between its standard transmission and new
winter tires it had passable traction. Unfortunately, traction was not the
issue. The size of the wheelbase was. When one of the tires got stuck up to the
axle in mud, I had no choice but to get out and make my way to the only place
with lights on, a winterized cabin in the distance on the left. (Almost no one
had cell phones then, and in any case the area is still in a dead zone.) </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">My husband stayed with
the car since he wasn’t as familiar with the area. About four feet into my trek,
the mud sucked my left shoe off my foot. Wearing only a sock, I managed to get
to the cabin. The owners let me in to phone my father. Since my father has that
kind of alchemy with cars that will allow him pull a mid-sized Mercedes or an
SUV out of a ditch with a small Toyota pickup, he had no trouble with the Colt.
We didn’t even have any problems retrieving my shoe.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">When we got to my parents’
house in Ripton, my mother greeted us at the door. The dining room rug was
white with blue trim and she wanted to keep it that way, so she thrust an old
towel at my feet. “Oh, I am sorry I forgot to tell you.” She pulled a strand of
hair back around her ear. “Your uncle phoned yesterday and said that he had
trouble on the Lincoln-Ripton Road.” My uncle owned a large domestic pickup. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">So that’s what Vermonters
mean by ruts. We don’t mean bad jokes about Rutland City, Rutland County, or
Rutland Town. (“Rutland” is an English place name that apparently has nothing
to do with bad roads.) Ruts are different from the kind of dry spells we
Quakers are told about in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Faith and
Practice</i>. A physical rut typically yields to a truck with a chain; at the
worst, maybe we need some cement blocks in the back for ballast. It’s similar
with a rut in one’s mind. The psychological equivalent for the chain is usually
a deadline. The chief difference between the different types of ruts, however,
is that while a rutted road usually becomes somewhat more passible in a dry
spell, a mental rut can lead to a dry spell. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">This year, the winter
of 2013-14, was a nasty winter for ruts of all kinds. Before the first half of
winter term was over, we had to replace the hot water heater and the furnace
(both in weather that was well below zero Fahrenheit) and have the oven looked
at, all the while fielding calls over departmental and family matters. Most
spectacularly, like millions of others, we had damage from an ice storm at 6
a.m. on the Sunday morning a few days before Christmas. A downed tree limb tore
off the electrical line to our house from the street, arcing perilously close
to the neighbor’s car, and also destroyed the “stack,” the fixture connecting
the line to the meter and the house. We were lucky, though, as the power
company employee who removed the line from the road told us to phone an electrician
before anyone else got up or we might spend Christmas in the dark. Others
didn’t receive such prompt advice and were not reconnected until Christmas eve,
when the thermometer had plunged to near-record cold. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We were deeply grateful to the three wise men
who sorted us out.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Our two cats (both
indoor cats) were quick to weigh in on the ice storm. Since we were uncertain
how long we would be without heat and power, we booked a room at a pet-friendly
hotel in town and tucked them into their cat carriers. As we stomped out the
back door, trying to keep from slipping on the ice-encrusted snow and dodging branches
that were still collapsing in the darkened neighborhood, it occurred to our
feline contingent that their annual physicals might have been less stressful.
The older, more introverted one became “haired out,” shall we say, although the
younger thought it was a great adventure. Over the winter, I related to the
older cat more and more but kept thinking of the younger as more worthy of
emulation. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQiax0tlolGtPIBUvmXTp6Hi0dFOtn2EMDd9q8CGxdL8xd0MSGxDp7QFCevmZbwjl7pTjB2A9-gfJVI6FiBhr56IdhLpnKGqUIb1u03g788jhz3cd35EOqpvwmeEXHIDB_npcPN3s22YY/s1600/IMG_0624.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQiax0tlolGtPIBUvmXTp6Hi0dFOtn2EMDd9q8CGxdL8xd0MSGxDp7QFCevmZbwjl7pTjB2A9-gfJVI6FiBhr56IdhLpnKGqUIb1u03g788jhz3cd35EOqpvwmeEXHIDB_npcPN3s22YY/s1600/IMG_0624.JPG" height="213" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">For some cats life is just an adventure which one can then sleep off.<br />©Kristin Lord 2014</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Mud season brought a
record season of potholes and flooding, and even city dwellers who drive those “very-un-Quakerly-cars-that-dare-not-speak-their-names”
were worried about losing their mufflers. Those vehicles are actually the best
ones to have for such conditions, as galling as it may be to people who own the
more economical ones, but I digress. Was I going to be punished by the
automotive gods for buying a “relatively-Quakerly-car-to-the-extent-that-one-exists?”
SO... WHAT WAS that rumbling in the exhaust system? It kept deteriorating for
the three weeks I had to wait for an appointment. The mechanic was thoughtful,
but, like everyone else, he needed to be paid. “Just wheel bearings. They sometimes
sound like a holey muffler. You can drive to work and back just fine, but, no,
I wouldn’t go off to Vermont with the car acting like that.”</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Then came the
miracles: when the spring rains hit, the repairs that we had made last year
after a sink hole opened up in the back yard managed to forestall basement
flooding. Then the grades got done in the nick of time, and some other issues
were resolved. I was grateful, or so I thought...</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">A week after the car
was repaired, I was at my desk with two stacks of library books, thinking that
this would be the most productive summer in years .... <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and then I got bogged down in updating a petty
bibliography. The gears in my mind had become completely gummed up with some
unknown ooze. On Sunday I fidgeted at Meeting. On most days I practiced the
piano for the requisite daily hour, to no avail, becoming more nervous about
the adult “performance class” in June. I was staring past the ruts and thinking
about a dry spell ahead. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">I turned to Howard
Brinton’s advice in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Guide to Quaker</i>
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Practice</i> about ruts (although he does
not use such vocabulary) and dry spells. His advice about dry spells was not what
I had hoped to read: </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoQuote" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">The autobiographies of Friends nearly all report
intervening periods of dryness when God seems far away and the very meeting for
worship is formal and unfruitful. Almost everyone passes through such stages
which should not become times of too deep discouragement. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u>Drought is eventually followed by refreshing rain...</u> </b>Growth
should not be hurried. (1993 edition, p. 19, emphasis mine)</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Rain? Thanks a lot,
Friend Howard. Rain is what they need in California and Australia. Maybe my
problem is a simpler one of self-examination: “an obstacle may be ... merely a
mind too busy with routine affairs.” (p. 17) Let’s hope that this is the
impediment; it looks more straightforward and is certainly plausible. (He also
cites “selfish or degrading desire,” which I cannot entirely rule out.) But Howard
Brinton is right that some problems do come to an end. I remember that after
retrieving my shoe from the mud all of those years ago, I somehow cleaned it up
along with its mate and wore them for the next year. The socks came out of the
wash unscathed. I think I finally got rid of them last week when I cleaned out
my dresser drawers.</span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWMQj8T_EMysCN5wDR-40nc6G9IbtheuXNlgsrTG_uRNScjXYYkliKYj2WKxH90Le8tK6yYJ0DPrScqMA86VmtLGsP0FyDKrDjEie1trQIeN7LcHHpMg3Ee9NR_DVDjKUUZMARekQtoic/s1600/Stockbridgebarnnew.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWMQj8T_EMysCN5wDR-40nc6G9IbtheuXNlgsrTG_uRNScjXYYkliKYj2WKxH90Le8tK6yYJ0DPrScqMA86VmtLGsP0FyDKrDjEie1trQIeN7LcHHpMg3Ee9NR_DVDjKUUZMARekQtoic/s1600/Stockbridgebarnnew.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Stockbridge, Vermont in the summer of 1997.<br />This area was cut off in the flooding that occurred <br />during post-hurricane Irene in 2011.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br /></div>
Kristin Lordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18052075819133204111noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4387507661152607223.post-31729995676649560122014-05-17T21:10:00.000-07:002014-05-17T21:10:03.725-07:00Q is for Queries and Advices (about paid employment)
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Quakers do not have a
creed, but we do have a tradition of Advices and Queries. Both are
encapsulations of Friends' testimonies and practices; both are designed to
make us reflect upon how we view our beliefs and put them into action. If an Advice or Query gets under one's skin a bit, then it may be doing its job; on the other hand, material that is not relevant for one person may be for another. The
principal difference between the Advices and Queries is that Advices are written in prose, while
Queries are in the form of leading questions. Indeed, because of the
similarities, some Yearly Meetings, such as Britain, have amalgamated related
Advices and Queries. The most effective Advices and Queries are those that
speak to core Quaker values but which can be updated, either on their own or as
a complement to new such contributions, as needs and ideas change. An example
of the latter is the increasing emphasis on environmental concerns, which arise
naturally from Friends' traditional testimonies of equality, peace, and
simplicity.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">I had occasionally
read of individuals writing their own Queries and/or Advices as a way of bringing their own
lives into clearer focus (an article by <a href="http://www.friendsjournal.org/2009120/" target="_blank">Mark S. Carey</a> in <i>Friends Journal</i> in the October 1, 2009
issue provides an excellent example) but had never done so myself until contributing
to this blog. Because of recent and upcoming changes at work I have decided to
write some related to employment. With this set of Queries I am concerned about
paid employment, although unpaid labor, especially internships, is also
relevant to many of these Queries.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">A note to readers who
are not Quakers: while the use of Queries and their specific formulations may
arise out of the values and practice of the Religious Society of Friends, others
may find them beneficial. Please feel free to substitute your own religious
tradition, if you have one, for "Quakers" and "Friends," or
supply any relevant secular philosophy. The only Query that is particular to
Friends (and a few other groups) is the one on oath taking, but even there,
oaths and affirmations, especially those of loyalty, may cause a wide variety of
people to be skeptical. The Advice about lawsuits does not derive from an
absolute prohibition, as there are examples of cases involving Quakers and
their beliefs that have gone to high courts (in the USA, one may compare the Supreme Court cases Tinker
v. Des Moines on the rights of high school students to free expression and United States v. Seeger
on conscientious objection, although these cases are not related to the
workplace). Furthermore, while some faith communities do not have a specific
peace testimony or pacifist tradition, all responsible religious traditions and
leaders that I know of wish to reduce the incidence of enmity, violence, and
strife —wherever and whenever they arise.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">A bit of personal
background information: except for a brief hiatus in the winter of 2001, I have
been a contract academic employee at the same Ontario university since 1999. My specialty is Classical Studies. I
have also been employed by other universities in Canada and the United States.
I have been connected with the bargaining unit of my faculty association, which
is a recognized labour union in the Province of Ontario, since its inception. I
have served it in formal and informal capacities, including the Bilateral
Committee on Contract Academic Staff Office Space. In 2010 I organized and
chaired a panel presentation and discussion on contingent faculty (also known
as "adjuncts" and "contract academic faculty" or
"contract academic staff" at the annual meeting of the Classical
Association of the Middle West and South (CAMWS).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">1. When investigating
new employment or changes in a current job, do you look at how the opportunity
reflects Friends' beliefs and your own values, as well as your career goals,
financial needs, and personal and family considerations? Try to ensure that
contracts are clearly written and mutually understood, with questions and
concerns resolved in advance. To the extent possible, anticipate any major
ethical conflicts that may arise in this position, and consider how you might
deal with them. Will you be required to take an oath or affirmation; if so, how
will you respond? If asked to provide medical information as a condition for
undertaking or continuing employment, is this necessary and appropriate? If a
conflict does arise, use it whenever possible as an opportunity to develop
strategies to reduce the incidence of similar issues in the future. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">2. One of the oldest
Queries among Friends is, "How are love and unity maintained amongst
you?" While this Query was originally aimed at maintaining harmony within
the Quaker community, it may be reframed for the workplace, regardless of how
secular that may be. Friends should be mindful that those they meet on the job
are human beings first and parts of an administrative hierarchy second.
Remember that we are all children of God, and work as equals with those whose
backgrounds and viewpoints differ from your own. Be prepared to be challenged
by different perspectives and new ideas.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">3. Friends'
testimonies of peace, equality, and integrity sometimes put people in workplace
situations that may be uncomfortable at best. Act justly and fairly, whether
you are an employer, employee, or both. If you employ others, in what ways do
Quaker principles intersect with your responsibilities and the law? Regardless
of your own position, do you seek avenues for mutually satisfactory resolutions
when conflicts arise, either among individuals, or between those categorize as
employees and management? Remember that some may be particularly vulnerable,
particularly those of limited finances or who belong to groups that have been
and often continue to be marginalized or oppressed. Do you strengthen
opportunities for mediation? Avoid gossip and tale-bearing and maintain
confidentiality as needed, while working toward transparency when this is
possible and appropriate. Recuse yourself from actual and potential conflicts
of interest. When differences arise, listen to all sides before arriving at a
conclusion. People on all sides of a situation may need support; indeed, Quakers
have often been asked or felt called to assist those who have taken an
unpopular stand or who are accused of wrongdoing. Remember that disputes
sometimes have innocent bystanders, and that it may not always be obvious who
they are.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">4. Regardless of how
your workplace is structured, remember the rights of all to fair employment,
and be aware your rights and those of others under the law. Do your part to
help rectify labor laws that you believe are unjust or that leave employees
with insufficient livelihood. If you are in the position to do so, ensure that
job searches are ethical and transparent, and that they meet the requirements
of the law and any union contracts. What are the laws concerning discrimination
and harassment where you are, and how can they be improved? If there are unpaid
internships where you work, is this appropriate? Although mindful of the needs
of employers, be aware that people require stability in their jobs in order to
support themselves and their families. In what ways can you ensure that those
needing accommodation because of religion, family responsibilities, and
disability receive support in accordance with the law, and with good will and
to the satisfaction of all concerned? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">5. Consider the role
of labor unions and collective bargaining for various sectors of the economy.
At the same time, however, be aware of realistic constraints on wages and
benefits, and the need for businesses in the private sector to provide a
reasonable return on investment. Globalization may affect your workplace in
various ways. To what extent do the pay and working conditions in your
employment, community, and country aggravate or improve economic and social
mobility, while still providing appropriate rewards for merit and risk? Does
your work situation help you and others plan for illness, retirement, or
disability? If called to represent others, as on a workplace committee or
tribunal, do you have or can you develop the qualifications to do so
effectively while respecting the rights and responsibilities of all? If you are
a member of a labor union, or a manager with oversight of union members,
try to anticipate what you might do if there is a strike or lockout. In
the event of a workplace dispute or disruption, consider how Friends'
testimonies may help defuse anger and frustration, while being aware of your
own emotions and limitations. Remember that third parties may be hurt, and that
all sides in a labor dispute may try to involve these third parties. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">6. Friends often work
at large entities that serve others, such as educational institutions,
hospitals, stores, offices, and factories. How do you relate
to people who are not employees where you work, but upon whom your work may
depend? If you become aware through your employment of injustice in the broader
community, in what ways can your work help to prevent or remediate it? Consider
how your understanding of Friends' testimonies may help provide a needed
perspective on discrimination. Examine the possible systemic roots of such
problems and seek ways to alleviate them, being especially mindful of any privilege you might have. Be aware of how your workplace and
your own job or career might address environmental concerns.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">7. Problems at work
are inevitable. Can you see ways in which you might help keep them from
escalating? If someone should break the law, how might you respond? Consider
the right place for legal assistance, especially if you find yourself on the
receiving end of discrimination, harassment, or threats, or if you are asked to
break the law or to enforce an unethical law. If you are faced with a crisis at
work, can you get help in confidence, such as appropriate legal advice or personal
counseling, or assistance from a bargaining unit or employee association? In
what circumstances, if any, might a committee of clearness or concern from your
Meeting be right for you? Friends should particularly consider the moral and
practical implications of lawsuits. In general, if a crisis arises, try to view
it as an opportunity — for yourself, for others, or both.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">8. Be mindful of your
use of time on the job. Consider the needs of any family members while accepting your responsibility toward your employer and yourself to avoid inappropriate
interruptions. Avoid procrastination. What is the appropriate use of technology
where you work, and what is its abuse?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">9. Be sure to care for
yourself. If you find yourself depressed or anxious due to workplace demands,
or if you find yourself using alcohol or other substances inappropriately, seek
help promptly. Does your employment encroach on your needs and
those of any family for adequate exercise and leisure, a balanced diet, medical
attention, and rest and sleep? If you have a companion animal, does your
schedule allow you to care for it properly? A vacation does not have to be
expensive; can you take one? Do you take the legal holidays to which you are
entitled or, if not, are you fairly compensated? Can you take parental or elder
care leave? Do you have time to visit friends and family and to fulfill your
responsibilities as a member of our Religious Society?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">10. Know in advance
where you can get immediate assistance if you should find someone with a
medical emergency, or acting or about to act as a danger to him or herself or
to others. Do not try to deal with these situations directly unless you are
trained to do so. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">11. Even if you work only
for yourself, your workplace will have questions of governance. Wherever you work, consider the
rights of any stockholders and investors and any fiduciary responsibilities </span><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">in addition to legal requirements</span>. </span><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Those who
work directly or indirectly as civil servants often face special issues
and may bear the brunt of broader political pressures. </span></span>Those considering going into business or restructuring an existing one might examine the
place of employee-owned companies. </span><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">If you own or share
ownership of a small business, what plans do you have for the day when you will no longer be connected
with it? If you work for a non-profit organization, how do your values mesh with its governance, goals, and mandates? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">12. Despite the best
of intentions, not all workplace problems can be resolved satisfactorily.
How can you and others best move on if the need arises?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Original material ©Kristin Lord 2014 </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1hYZOI14xmXoTBJfB0mjav1z0CLdr54JfrT4zqm2P5VTazqvkLWt4SlETERjNfpBY7X7bFQPIoLh7PKqzzsstR0mt3Y_NQUYdaZ-gnCXji6IvUuSRRjGChXgFLivDSDAXEtbejNd8tgU/s1600/IMG_0518.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1hYZOI14xmXoTBJfB0mjav1z0CLdr54JfrT4zqm2P5VTazqvkLWt4SlETERjNfpBY7X7bFQPIoLh7PKqzzsstR0mt3Y_NQUYdaZ-gnCXji6IvUuSRRjGChXgFLivDSDAXEtbejNd8tgU/s1600/IMG_0518.JPG" height="213" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">If you find yourself swimming with the sharks at work, <br />maybe you should take a day off and visit them at the aquarium.<br />Ripley Aquarium, Toronto, Canada<br />©Kristin Lord 2014</td></tr>
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Kristin Lordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18052075819133204111noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4387507661152607223.post-20765877399932554242014-05-15T18:53:00.000-07:002014-05-15T18:53:18.813-07:00P is for the Peace Testimony<style>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgytpKcn4klBI1a8ZgbmjQi58p-HM-CLtOqVgICaIrOFS_r5ckO7ED-mMG7o7DW2E9paH6HMB5fvMzZ6CkD45nH_CgTfqda81obxzh6vxo47Y9CSvRaBdAaUlvjLR4zJgpXW9QCvrQqsMs/s1600/VernonWhiteWikimediaDSCN1999TavistockSqConcObj.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgytpKcn4klBI1a8ZgbmjQi58p-HM-CLtOqVgICaIrOFS_r5ckO7ED-mMG7o7DW2E9paH6HMB5fvMzZ6CkD45nH_CgTfqda81obxzh6vxo47Y9CSvRaBdAaUlvjLR4zJgpXW9QCvrQqsMs/s1600/VernonWhiteWikimediaDSCN1999TavistockSqConcObj.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Conscientious Objectors Memorial,<br />Tavistock Square, London, England.<br />Photograph by Vernon White, provided via Wikimedia Commons</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><br />People were waiting in
line for coffee at work one morning a few years ago when someone commented that
every day, week, or month had some significance attached to it by one or more
organizations: religions, legislative proclamations, charities —whatever. We
started talking about days and months that were of particular relevance to us
and then, no doubt, went off and looked days up if we had nothing to contribute
to the conversation.For instance, </span><a href="http://www.aspca.org/blog/june-adopt-shelter-cat-month"><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">June is Adopt a
Shelter Cat Month</span></a><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">, while the </span><a href="http://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-worship/worship/texts/the-calendar/holydays.aspx"><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Church of England</span></a><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> has a Commemoration
for George Fox on January 13, the day of his death in 1691. (When I first saw
this, to my great delight, in a British version of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Book of
Common Prayer</i>, I realized that human progress is not always an illusion.)
Today, </span><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2014/may/15/conscientious-objectors-in-literature-first-world-war"><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">May 15</span></a><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">, is </span><a href="http://www.ppu.org.uk/coday/"><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">International Conscientious Objectors Day</span></a><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">, a date chosen for reasons that I
have not yet been able to determine. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">The history of war is
taught all too well; the history of pacifism rarely merits more than a mention in
the school curriculum, with the exception of those schools affiliated with the
historic peace churches. I learned this myself recently when I was discussing
the Grade 10 Ontario history curriculum with our teenaged daughter. Despite
having two Quaker parents who have used the term “peace testimony” with some
regularity, she had never heard the phrase “</span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conscientious_objector"><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">conscientious objector</span></a><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">,” at least in the
sense (to use the definition from the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Shorter
Oxford English Dictionary</i>)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>of “a
person who for reasons of conscience objects to military service.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Part of the
explanation in this case is that our daughter is in a form of French immersion
and has had all of her social studies classes in French. She thus has to learn
both the history and the terminology and with some justification gets concerned
when her Anglophone parents provide information that will not be on any exam
but will entail learning words for which she will lose points if she gets them
incorrect. While the term “draft” might be unfamiliar, “conscription,” a word
the same in French and English, would result in a detailed response from her
about the (Canadian) War Measures Act of World War I and the introduction of compulsory
military service in Canada in World War II. Her meticulous notes contained
references to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">pacifistes</i> (in this
case, Mennonites and Doukhobors were given as examples, primarily in regard to
World War I), but there was absolutely nothing about what happened when a
pacifist was faced with conscription in wartime, other than the fact that
Canadian <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">pacifistes</i> were
disenfranchised during World War I. At that point, I went to Robert Bothwell’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Penguin History of Canada</i>, which covers
the issues in the school curriculum in more detail. Since I went to high school
in the US, I had only a passing knowledge at best of the Canadian history of
conscientious objection. The <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Penguin
History</i> was more helpful on the point of the Mennonites and Doukhobors, but
not much more enlightening on the whole. (See <a href="http://mcccanada.ca/peace/co/history">here </a>for a description of the
history of conscientious objection in Canada from a Mennonite perspective.)</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">A few days later, I
approached the Friend on Ministry and Counsel (a committee in some Yearly Meetings
that handles the combined responsibilities of Elders and Overseers in the UK)
whose job it was to set up monthly discussions on topics of Friendly interest. This
Friend is one of the more perceptive thinkers about Quakerism that I have come
across, so I expected that a thoughtful reply. I cleared my throat: “Maybe we should
talk about the peace testimony from the historical perspective and include
conscientious objection. It’s not taught in the schools. After all, the
centenary of World War I is upon us, and there is all that nasty stuff about
<a href="http://kristinlord.blogspot.ca/2014/03/k-is-for-kitchener-horatio-herbert.html" target="_blank">Lord Kitchener</a>, for whom the city is named.” (I had already told him about what
I had learned about Lord Kitchener.) “Yes, we should be doing the peace
testimony soon, but I am not so sure about newcomers being interested in
conscientious objection. Why do you think it should be a priority?”</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Our Friend had a
point. Canada has never had peace time conscription, in part because both World
Wars were controversial in Quebec. While the US had the draft through the Vietnam
era, the youngest people affected by the US draft are now older than the
newcomers whose needs are at the forefront of the discussions. The Young Friend
we both know who, like a number of his generation, moved from the US to Canada
because he felt his own ability to apply for CO status (and, in all likelihood,
to be accepted for it) was unjust when so many others had no alternative to
being sent to Vietnam or <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>crossing the Canadian
border, is now a grandfather. (Those who left the US during Vietnam later received an
amnesty, but that is another story.) The cases of the recent US service people
who came to Canada recently for similar reasons to the young men of the Vietnam
era, but who were sent back in a completely different political climate, would
in all fairness come at the end of a discussion aimed at newcomers, not at the
beginning.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Why, then, is
conscientious objection relevant in a country that has had no conscription for
nearly 70 years? First, Quakerism began in England in a time of social,
political, and military turmoil. The question of serving in the army of either
Oliver Cromwell or the king was behind the development of what came to be known
as the Quaker peace testimony. It was the rationale for Friends’ famous </span><a href="http://www.quakerinfo.org/quakerism/peace"><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">reply to King Charles II</span></a><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> in 1661, “</span><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">We utterly deny all outward wars and strife and fightings
with outward weapons, for any end or under any pretence whatsoever. And this is
our testimony to the whole world.” </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">The times in the
history of our Society when male Quakers did not have to think about at least
the possibility of being “encouraged” to sign up, if not drafted (and for
female Quakers to have been faced with these issues at second hand), have been
far fewer than the times when male military service was almost universal. Even
today, the United States has Selective Service registration for almost all young
citizens and immigrants from 18 to 25, which also applies to the tens of
thousands of dual citizens living in Canada and elsewhere. Because the
resulting database can be use to set up conscription at short notice, people
who would wish to declare themselves as conscientious objectors in the event of
conscription are advised to start preparing a </span><a href="http://quakerhouse.org/powerpoint.php"><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">dossier</span></a><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> as soon as they turn 18. Such
documentation is also required if someone enlists and then develops moral
objections along the way. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Then there are the
countries with conscription, Russia and Ukraine being among them. In some of
these nations, conscientious objection is very difficult to obtain (cf. reports
from the </span><a href="http://ebco-beoc.org/"><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">European Bureau for Conscientious Objection</span></a><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> and the </span><a href="http://www.qcea.org/work/human-rights/conscientious-objection/"><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Quaker Council on
European Affairs</span></a><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> on cases in Europe alone). In others, conscientious objection is
not allowed under the law, despite the efforts of the </span><a href="http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/ConscientiousObjection_en.pdf"><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">United Nations.</span></a><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> (The main problem is
that </span><a href="http://www.refworld.org/pdfid/494f8e422.pdf"><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">it is not explicitly
recognized</span></a><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">
by human rights conventions.) People have gone into self-imposed exile to avoid
military service, even if they are entitled to desk jobs; others have gone to
prison. Their comfort is that the fate of others has been and occasionally continues to be
worse.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">While Friends, like
members and attenders of other historic peace churches, have often been
conscientious objectors to military service, not all have taken this stand.
Richard Nixon is an example of the large number of American Quakers who fought
in World War II. Conversely, conscientious objectors come from all religious
backgrounds, or none —not just the historic peace churches. A member of my own
extended family, a conscientious objector during World War II, fell into this
broader category.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">The modern concept of
conscientious objection first developed in the United Kingdom and some other
English-speaking countries such as the US and Canada during World War I. It was
revised and expanded during World War II and has undergone further development
since, with court rulings and laws in various countries that permit
conscientious objection on philosophical grounds and not necessarily strictly
religious ones. Generally, conscientious objection must be to all wars that one
might reasonably be asked to fight in at the time asked, and not particular
ones. (It was the latter issue that sent a number of young Americans to Canada
during the Vietnam era.) Men —and it is still almost always men, except for
women requesting to leave the military for reasons of conscientious objection—
have to prove their cases before assessors whose credentials vary depending on
the country (and often within parts of the same country). If someone is
approved for alternate service, that service can be non-combatant (e.g., in a
military medical corps or ambulance service) or civilian (e.g., working as a
hospital orderly or doing manual labor). Absolute objection, that is, the
objection to any form of alternate service on the grounds that doing so frees
up someone else for war work, has not been accepted in the last century the
English-speaking countries known to me. Although all “conchies,” as they were
called, suffered greatly during World War I, the Absolutists such as the <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/york/hi/people_and_places/religion_and_ethics/newsid_8342000/8342995.stm">Richmond
Sixteen</a> and the <a href="http://www.ppu.org.uk/coproject/coww1a4.html">Harwich
“Frenchmen”</a> were initially sentenced to death and later had their
punishments commuted to hard labor. (See my previous discussion on Lord
Kitchener re the Richmond Sixteen.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">In any case, objector
status is not easy to obtain, and laws are not always fairly applied. For these
reasons, and for countless others, Friends have always opposed military
conscription. Even in places where there is no obligatory military service,
conscientious objection is also relevant, both in its own right and as a
broader moral issue. Soldiers who enlist may develop moral objections for a
variety of reasons. The United States has for some time recognized the rights
of these men and women to a discharge on grounds of conscientious objection,
despite difficulties in its application. <a href="http://www.admfincs.forces.gc.ca/dao-doa/5000/5049-2-eng.asp">Canada</a>
has done so since <a href="http://mcccanada.ca/peace/co/history">2004</a>. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">In the broader sense,
we are all “conscripted” as taxpayers to pay for past, current, and future
wars. For US taxpayers in particular, putting two wars on credit cards, so to
speak, raises a huge number of ethical concerns, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>which include the fact that some of the debt
is held by countries such as the People’s Republic of China, which has a large
military in its own right. Court decisions have not backed up the right to
conscientious objection to these taxes, and those of us who work for third
parties all have automatic payroll deductions. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Service as a
conscientious objector requires its own kind of heroism. Those who have put themselves
in positions of danger have often run risks similar to those of combatants. In
other cases, the sacrifices are different, but that does not mean that they do
not exist. Officials in the Carter administration in the US in the late 1970’s
briefly considered the possibility that women, as well as men, would have to
register for the draft. Since I was of the age in question, I started
considering who might help me assemble a dossier if need be. I spoke with a
Quaker who had done alternate service as a conscientious objector in the
mid-twentieth century and had then served as a draft counselor during the
Vietnam War. He had no problem agreeing to a letter (which, as we now know,
never needed to be written), but a few weeks later after Meeting he took me
aside unexpectedly and spoke quietly. “There is always a price for
conscientious objection. You may or may not know what that price is or will be.
It may be then or later. You may pay the price, or it may be someone else. At
the time may not even know the person who will pay. But there is always a
price.” </span><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkAB_JZUzEcdglANIhThpMwWoF9zg6LZSOH283SgUCqegJaGNVjrLefXKOXRc55J1Zz43c_8I-_odeynLjYpl1pxmWCFbwalwHKxr-p58RCbVzY67rocEn84oNYB-z_tmqfS5iSEGy_So/s1600/MarkBarkerWikimediaConscientious_Objector_memorial,_Tavistock_Sq_Gardens.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkAB_JZUzEcdglANIhThpMwWoF9zg6LZSOH283SgUCqegJaGNVjrLefXKOXRc55J1Zz43c_8I-_odeynLjYpl1pxmWCFbwalwHKxr-p58RCbVzY67rocEn84oNYB-z_tmqfS5iSEGy_So/s1600/MarkBarkerWikimediaConscientious_Objector_memorial,_Tavistock_Sq_Gardens.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Inscription on Conscientious Objectors Memorial, <br />Tavistock Square, London, England.<br />Photograph by Mark Barker, made available through Wikimedia Commons</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
Kristin Lordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18052075819133204111noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4387507661152607223.post-57629781436055804072014-05-14T21:04:00.000-07:002014-05-14T21:04:40.511-07:00O is for One Per Cent(ers)<style>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">“Occupy Wall Street!” “Support
the 99 per cent!” Social and economic inequality has been increasing in most<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/may/13/pay-inequality-britain-economic-recovery" target="_blank">,</a>
if not all, OECD countries since the 1970’s, with the result that <a href="http://www.vanityfair.com/society/features/2011/05/top-one-percent-201105" target="_blank">the top one per cent of income earners</a> —and even more so, the top .1 and .01 per cent of
earners— have taken home the overwhelming preponderance of growth over the past
generation. (See <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/i/income/income_inequality/index.html" target="_blank">general articles</a> on the <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/12/05/u-s-income-inequality-on-rise-for-decades-is-now-highest-since-1928/" target="_blank">USA</a> and <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/may/13/pay-inequality-britain-economic-recovery" target="_blank">Britain</a>.) Although many scholars, politicians, and organizations (including
the major Quaker service organizations and familiar groups such as England's
<a href="http://www.jrf.org.uk/" target="_blank">Joseph Rowntree Foundation </a>and the secular <a href="http://www.equalitytrust.org.uk/" target="_blank">Equality Trust</a>) have been trying to <a href="http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2014/01/12_questions_about_income_ineq.html" target="_blank">publicize</a> this issue ever since
it became apparent, others started paying attention in 2011 when loosely
organized groups started “occupying” (i.e., camping out 24/7) in
high-visibility areas like Wall Street and the “City” (the financial district
of London, England). Soon other groups were occupying locations in other cities
around the world, or holding demonstrations, vigils, and marches in support of
greater equality of both opportunity and outcome. This spring, the French
economist Thomas Piketty’s book <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Capital
in the Twenty-First Century</i>, which focuses on wealth and income inequality
in Europe and the USA since the 18<sup>th</sup> century, has sold out at
amazon.com, where it held the number 1 rank. Not surprisingly, given our long
tradition for social reform, a number of Friends supported the Occupy movement
(indeed, there is a FaceBook page entitled Occupy, Quakers), and some
participated. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">I will leave a formal
reply about the Occupy movement to Friends who participated and scholars with
the expertise to evaluate it. What I would like to do, however briefly, is to
consider how Quakers might fit into <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/14/business/economy/the-politics-of-income-inequality.html?_r=0" target="_blank">the broader picture</a> of who has what in the
English-speaking countries most familiar to me (the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_inequality_in_the_United_States" target="_blank">USA</a> and <a href="http://www.conferenceboard.ca/hcp/details/society/income-inequality.aspx" target="_blank">Canada</a>, and to some
extent the <a href="http://www.social-europe.eu/2012/01/lonely-but-content-the-uk-one-percent/" target="_blank">UK</a> and <a href="http://www.treasury.gov.au/PublicationsAndMedia/Publications/2013/Economic-Roundup-Issue-2/Economic-Roundup/Income-inequality-in-Australia" target="_blank">Australia</a>). These are the observations of an armchair
observer who knows much more about Julius Caesar than the Gini coefficient
(which measures the degree of economic inequality in a society), so if I am way
off base, please bear with me.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Because Friends are
such a small percentage of the populations of each of these countries, hard
data are next to impossible to come by, both historically and for the present
day. For example, the Pew surveys on <a href="http://www.pewforum.org/2009/01/30/income-distribution-within-us-religious-groups/" target="_blank">religion</a> in the USA group Friends with
mainline Protestant groups. However, it is my understanding that in the four
countries best known to me, Friends historically were not drawn from the
poorest sectors of society. Basic literacy and numeracy were needed for
contributions to the life of the Monthly Meeting; with the Quaker emphasis on
female participation in Meeting decisions, education was necessary for girls as
well as boys. It is thus not surprising that prosperity followed for some
Friends, and that for others there was tension. For instance, in Colonial
Pennsylvania, the research of Barry Levy (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Quakers
and the American Family</i>, 1988) has shown that Quaker young people who
married other Friends and thus stayed with Quakers were better off than the
average; those with fewer means had better luck attracting marriage partners
from outside the Religious Society. In those days, Friends who “married out”
were obligated to leave. Quaker religious leaders apparently knew the
demographics of those forced out, and, at least at that time, preferred to
maintain in-group cohesion at the expense of economic diversity within the Religious
Society. It is not a pretty picture. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">In England, Quakers
could not attend university until the early nineteenth century, but a high
level of basic education and in-group cohesiveness fostered an entrepreneurial
culture. With the rise of capitalism came some stunningly successful Quakers
and Quaker families in a variety of countries. Abraham Darby was one of a
number of Quakers and others active at Coalbrookdale (see especially <a href="http://www.academia.edu/176771/Sublime_cascades_water_and_power_in_Coalbrookdale" target="_blank">Paul Belford’s 2007 article in <i>IndustrialArchaeology Review</i></a>, a citation for which I owe his team member Ron Ross).
Barclays and Lloyds banks, some of the great chocolate manufacturers (Cadbury,
Rowntree, and Fry), and Clarks shoes —along with many other businesses— all
have Quaker roots, although they have long since become parts of corporations.
If we had been talking about “the one per cent” or even the “point one per cent”
in Victorian England, Friends would have been reasonably well represented.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Quaker employment
patterns shifted away from big business with the availability of higher
education and nearly universal secondary education. Increasing urbanization and
the shift of unprogrammed Meetings, at least, from an internally cohesive group
connected through intermarriage to one with a large percentage of people
entering and leaving in each generation reinforced these trends, as did Friends’
emphasis (at least in relative terms) on gender equity and social reform. As a
result, we now see Friends in unprogrammed Meetings in a variety of small
businesses and a wide range of professions, especially those that might be
considered altruistic in nature. While these trends have long been apparent
anecdotally, we now have some formal data — two carefully drawn surveys, both
from Britain Yearly Meeting<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">̛</i>— that
confirm them. 58.0 and 68.0 per cent of respondents had obtained at least an
undergraduate degree in the 1990 and 2003 surveys, respectively (Mark S. Carey,
Pink Dandelion, and Rosie Rutherford, “Comparing Two Surveys of Britain Yearly
Meeting: 1990 and 2003,” <a href="http://www.twmuseums.org.uk/slavery/_files/research-zone/QS132%20final.pdf#page=110" target="_blank"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Quaker Studies</i></a>
13/2 [2009] p. 241). (Note: Friends from programmed Meetings in the United
States may share some or all of these features, but I have neither the formal
data nor the informal “feel” for those groups of Friends which would allow me
to test this hypothesis.)</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Given that people with
better than average access to higher education and/or other kinds of social
capital are more likely to prosper (or at least have a hope of holding their
own) in an increasingly unequal world, how many Friends might be in that lofty
one per cent? This is an unpopular question, theologically and in other
respects. While we believe that talents differ (including, no doubt, the talent
for making and saving money), equality is a fundamental Quaker belief. Add that
to the usual taboo in most English-speaking countries about money and... well,
I might find it easier to get a few Friends to help me update <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Towards a Quaker View of Sex</i>.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Judging from the
article in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Quaker Studies</i>, the two
recent UK surveys did not ask about individual or household incomes. (If they
had, maybe there would not have been a 75 per cent response rate to the
questions.) However, we do know something in general terms about the top one
per cent of wage earners in the <a href="http://www.kiplinger.com/article/taxes/T054-C000-S001-where-do-you-rank-as-a-taxpayer.html" target="_blank">United States</a>, <a href="http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/median-family-income-in-canada-is-76-000-statscan-survey-shows-1.1449641" target="_blank">Canada</a>, and the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/society/datablog/2012/jun/22/household-incomes-compare" target="_blank">United Kingdom</a> —
and perhaps other countries as well, although I have not looked (I do have to
work tomorrow). The figures from all of the countries are sobering, including <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/15/opinion/kristof-its-now-the-canadian-dream.html" target="_blank">Canada</a>, where income inequality is not quite as severe. In terms of Canada, there are some problems with the <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/m/touch/canada/story/1.1032770" target="_blank">methodology</a>
(disclaimer: one of the statisticians cited is a family friend and a colleague
of my husband), but by and large <a href="http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/nhs-enm/index-eng.cfm" target="_blank">Statistics Canada</a> has a reasonable idea of <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/who-are-canada-s-top-1-1.1703321" target="_blank">who these high-income taxpayers are</a>. 38.8 per cent are in management; 14.3 are in health; 13.7
in business, finance, and administration; 11 per cent in education, law/social,
and community/government services; and 9.9 per cent in natural sciences.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">However, just because
11 per cent of “the one per cent” are educators and another 14.3 per cent are
employed in health care, it does not follow that the converse is true, i.e.,
that 11 per cent of educators and 14.3 per cent of health care workers are be
members of that one per cent. All of these sectors employ vast numbers of
workers, and only a few are part of the crème de la crème. To provide another
example, salaries of educators, civil servants, and those health care workers
who are officially part of the broader public sector in Ontario, Canada's
largest province, are published annually if their income is $100,000 Canadian. Those
who make around the cut-off for the one per cent are a vastly smaller group and
tend to be clustered in a very few areas. (See <a href="http://www.fin.gov.on.ca/en/publications/salarydisclosure/2011/" target="_blank">here</a> for the list published in
March of 2011, which corresponds to the tax year in the 2011 household survey,
and <a href="http://www.fin.gov.on.ca/en/publications/salarydisclosure/pssd/" target="_blank">here</a> for the most recent figures.) </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><a href="http://www.workopolis.com/content/advice/article/how-much-money-are-we-earning-the-average-canadian-wages-right-now/" target="_blank">Journalists</a> and
<a href="http://www.bls.gov/bls/blswage.htm" target="_blank">statistical organizations</a> have also looked at salaries of many other
professionals. The typical physician in general practice in the <a href="http://money.usnews.com/careers/best-jobs/physician/salary" target="_blank">USA</a> and Canada
and the typical <a href="http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/16/the-toppling-of-top-tier-lawyer-jobs/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=1" target="_blank">lawyer</a> are not part of that one per cent, except maybe at the
very bottom end, let alone the nurses, social workers, school teachers, small
business owners, and tradespeople who make up most our membership. (Also, very
often the salaries quoted are averages, and not the median, which is usually
lower.) Thus, while it is impossible to know how many Friends belong to “the
one per cent,” it is a reasonable back-of-the-envelope guess that the number is
probably not much out of proportion to the general population. In terms of that
point one per cent and the zero point one per cent who are the real movers and
shakers, <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-17112572" target="_blank">there will be very few Friends.</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Does that let us off
the hook, either individually or as a Religious Society? Not at all. First, the
access to education and other forms of social capital available to many Friends
means that the median individual and household income among members and
attenders of unprogrammed Meetings is almost certainly greater than the
national median, and that the poverty rate is lower, although the clustering of
Friends in such fields as education and social work will lower the median
salary. This relatively high level may be especially true of household income,
given the high labor force participation of Quaker women. The improvements in
women’s education and work force participation in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_income_in_the_United_States" target="_blank">two-earner households</a>, from
which many Quaker families have benefited (and which have indeed been necessary
in a period when individual incomes outside of the elite have been stagnant or
declining), have exacerbated the tendency toward economic inequality. These
factors create numerous barriers to outreach and participation; I will discuss my
understanding of them in later posts. (Ethnicity is a confounding factor here
as well; once again, that will be the focus of another post.)</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Secondly, the fact
that trends in middle and working-class incomes have been unfavorable will also
increasingly push those already in our midst toward a bimodal distribution of
wealth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The traditional incentives of partial
financial support to attend Quaker gatherings may not do the job as well as
they once did. There may also be a need to see in what ways, if any, tax codes
in various countries might permit Friends Meetings to support young people in
their post-secular education.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Finally, the United
States, Britain, and Australia all have Quaker-affiliated or Quaker-founded
educational institutions and social organizations (e.g., retirement communities
and children's camps) that were either developed during the heyday of Quaker
capitalism or have been established primarily for the needs of those with
above-average incomes. Admittedly, a number of Yearly Meetings also have camps
for young people that cost about the same as those run by the Y or the Scouts, and
Woodbrooke has a huge range of options at different price points, including
some on line; but here I am talking of high-end facilities of various types
that serve a much smaller number of people. Please don’t get me wrong: I am
happy to see the children of high income earners learn Quaker values (they are
vastly preferable to the alternative), I am delighted at an increasing number
of options for retirees, and I am pleased that virtually all of these organizations
are engaged in broadening their base through financial assistance. I am also
aware that many people make enormous sacrifices to be part of these
organizations, and that sometimes they do so because of a dearth of
alternatives. Nevertheless, does the preponderance of high-priced institutions
with “Quaker” as part of their institutional DNA take away some of our energies
from helping those who on the whole have much less social capital and who
desperately need alternatives for education or living? For instance, the Roman
Catholic Church in the United States probably accomplishes significantly more
for the education of disadvantaged young people than we do, on a per capita
basis as well as an absolute one. (Disclaimer: family members have attended
Quaker schools or secular institutions with similar demographics, and my own
undergraduate alma mater, which I attended on financial aid, shares many
features with Quaker ones.) </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Meanwhile, my whole
discussion about “the one per cent” is geared to generally wealthy countries
whose citizenry is not representative of the world as a whole. Indeed, Quakers
in developed countries are not representative of Friends in the world as a
whole. Neither <a href="http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/features/a-different-world/2001128.article" target="_blank">education</a> nor income in most of the world is what most readers
of this blog are likely to see around them. Looked at from this perspective,
even if we are not part of a global “one per cent,” we are certainly part of a
cohort of exceptionally well educated and privileged individuals. Other than
getting in line if we want a hard copy of Piketty’s 696-page tome, what are we
going to do about that?</span><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4bNYKiJzFbFy7hXGHr-xoAWJuho86v4QfuyqOsfRu4OPfSc5a-VOmd_nKzWmkDZktGEfFa1TZLJFpnqe3l-ApkteQpDp_85ciSIUPrWMbW26SQdDZ9wBZVqMNFmRjc3k7QVmw0oSE-i8/s1600/ElorarosesB98.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4bNYKiJzFbFy7hXGHr-xoAWJuho86v4QfuyqOsfRu4OPfSc5a-VOmd_nKzWmkDZktGEfFa1TZLJFpnqe3l-ApkteQpDp_85ciSIUPrWMbW26SQdDZ9wBZVqMNFmRjc3k7QVmw0oSE-i8/s1600/ElorarosesB98.JPG" height="215" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times;">Abraham Darby Climbing Rose<br />photographed at our house<br />©Kristin Lord 1998</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
Kristin Lordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18052075819133204111noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4387507661152607223.post-50412706780826735962014-05-13T07:35:00.000-07:002014-05-13T07:35:31.546-07:00N is for Nice and No
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj107PVgT2KYSLa8t1dFm9ltQYcAiOGUtejAqA8UU8OR5xl9QJhFohgWe2pBZngrbHfilU_6wkPRAn0ZxZ-1Fh8Z934aIOhzHLw-pk06OIjFHIdqMuu7J_nFBttc_1ry9Kj6OipLSJV6BY/s1600/IMG_0604.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj107PVgT2KYSLa8t1dFm9ltQYcAiOGUtejAqA8UU8OR5xl9QJhFohgWe2pBZngrbHfilU_6wkPRAn0ZxZ-1Fh8Z934aIOhzHLw-pk06OIjFHIdqMuu7J_nFBttc_1ry9Kj6OipLSJV6BY/s1600/IMG_0604.JPG" height="213" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">The napkin rings are from Ten Thousand Villages.<br />The dinner napkins were purchased in 1989 in Winnipeg, Manitoba.<br />photograph ©Kristin Lord 2014</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Nominating Committee:
because of several months of bad weather and issues getting some key positions
filled, we have not yet given an important report to Monthly Meeting. As the
person who is first named on the committee and usually the one with the most
viable car, in the end it is my responsibility. Everyone has been very polite
about the situation, but the job has to be done, both filling the positions and
giving the report. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Upon rereading the
previous sentence, maybe I should eliminate the word “polite” and insert “nice.”
The etymology of the latter word (according to the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Shorter Oxford English Dictionary</i>, “nice” is from from the Latin <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">nescius</i> “not knowing,” which is in turn
a form of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">nescire</i> “to not know,” via
Old French) shows exactly the quandary we are in. If Friends will allow
me, in the interests of confidentiality, to provide a composite picture of many
nominating committees of more than one organization and to put my own example
first, I might suggest that sometimes we are nice because we don’t know what
else to do. No one wishes to upset his or her neighbor, or the Friend calling
from the Nominating Committee, and people hate to disappoint by saying “No.”</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Thus “Nice” and “No”
are in a sense opposite. If we are nice, then we are most reluctant to say no,
even to unreasonable requests for service in money and time. Many women in
particular were raised to think that, if we are being “nice,” we should
acquiesce to any and every work-related project and pick up articles of
clothing that able-bodied people leave on the floor. The social reality that
many women have been raised to be compliant makes it harder for people to
believe us when we say “No” to unwanted sexual favors, despite the persistence
of double standards of sexual behavior. (As my friends in women’s and gender
studies would undoubtedly remind me, the linguistic and social history of “nice”
and “no” when it comes to sexuality makes writing about theology look straightforward
by comparison.)</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">As Friends, we are
discouraged from waffling behind the screen of social convention, although we
have euphemisms of our own when we wish to avoid giving offense. For instance,
we all know that “the name of that Friend would not have occurred to me” means
that the speaker believes that the Friend in question quite emphatically does
not have the right credentials for whatever is under consideration. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">If Quakers have heroes,
inside or outside of our Religious Society, then they are often the ones who
have refused to go along, regardless of the price. And those heroes do not
always have to say “No” in as many words. Think of the statements of Martin
Niemöller <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_they_came_..." target="_blank">(“First they came for the Socialists...”) </a>and Rosa Parks. All Rosa
Parks needed was a physical refusal and the pointed use one word, “may” instead
of <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“can,” in “You may arrest me.”</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">In terms of work,
successive Quaker committees revising editions of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Faith and Practice </i>are quite adamant about the importance of the word
“No.” Section 3.09 of most recent version of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Quaker Faith and Practice</i> of Britain Yearly Meeting begins:</span></div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="font-family: Times;">It
is not expected that any Friend should attend every meeting or sit upon innumerable
committees. Decide what is within your physical and spiritual capacity, and be
responsible in your attitude to what you do select. Be as regular, faithful,
and punctual as possible in your attendance. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Rewriting <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Faith and Practice</i> is hard work; the
Friends who wrote that statement would have been the first to know when to call
it a day. Nevertheless, to be true to the old Query, “Are love and unity
maintained amongst you?” a refusal may still be “nice” in the best sense of the
word.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">And yet, an anecdote
from my own Quaker experience provides a cautionary tale of the difficulty of
one human spirit holding the potential for “nice” and “no” in proportionate
measure. Friends may recall that George Fox considered telling the truth, to
let yay be yay and nay, nay, among his central testimonies —indeed, the one
upon which the others depend; this insistence in turn entails the use of
affirmations in place of oaths. A man made of weaker material than Fox would
have failed to achieve any of his goals, and yet Fox’s consistency of principle
and practice had a price. Some years ago, an older and experienced Friend stood
up in a group of New England Quakers who were admiring the visionary nature of
the first chapters of George Fox's <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Journal</i>.
“I am going to ask you all a question: would you invite George Fox to your home
for a formal dinner party?” Need I add that this Friend was a cook and host of
legendary abilities.</span></div>
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</div>
<br />
Kristin Lordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18052075819133204111noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4387507661152607223.post-75216102725015188042014-05-12T14:47:00.000-07:002014-05-12T14:47:06.580-07:00M is for Military Matters (at work)
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<b><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Part I: On Teaching
Ancient Greek and Roman Civilization </span></b></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Sed cum plerique
arbitrentur res bellicas maiores esse quam urbanas, minuends est haec opinio.
Multi enim belle saepe quaesiverunt propter gloriae cupiditatem, atque id in
magnis animis ingeniisque plerumque contingit, eoque magnis, si sunt ad rem
militarem apti et cupidi bellorum gerendorum; vere autem si volumus iudicare,
multi res exsisterunt urbanae maiores clarioresque quam bellicae.</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>—Marcus Tullius Cicero, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">de Officiis </i>1.22.74</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But although most people think that affairs of war are
greater than those of peace, this opinion must be refuted. Indeed, many have
sought wars because of desire for glory, and this occurs notably among men of
great spirit and talent, and all the more if they are suited for a soldier’s
life and are desirous of waging war; if, however, we wish to judge truthfully,
many affairs of peace have been greater and more distinguished than those of
war. (English translation by Kristin Lord)</span></div>
</div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHVo0f-YvwxYE22wnVkR56ZiHNXMDV94QNad75dlstR5jipUmE2dU1dB9EF4OAfjYeH0I6QTN7lnC4VGrne_KiUBHycDpmYVhbp8bW9un2neYZ_W5A9SH6jJ3V4lDTwAzid9WeEU3Bxos/s1600/libraryCelsus.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHVo0f-YvwxYE22wnVkR56ZiHNXMDV94QNad75dlstR5jipUmE2dU1dB9EF4OAfjYeH0I6QTN7lnC4VGrne_KiUBHycDpmYVhbp8bW9un2neYZ_W5A9SH6jJ3V4lDTwAzid9WeEU3Bxos/s1600/libraryCelsus.jpg" height="320" width="274" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Library of Celsus, Ephesus, Turkey, 117-120 CE<br />photograph ©Kristin Lord 1997</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">More than once, I have
heard the comment from non-Classicists that the standard university survey course in Roman
civilization should be named Fascism 101. “Only after the midterm,” I reply. The midterm
covers material up to and including the assassination of Julius Caesar on the
Ides of March (March 15), 44 BCE; the countdown to the final exam begins with
Caesar falling dead in the Theater of Pompey, which was being used for meetings
of the Roman Senate because the Senate House was being rebuilt, and covers the
authoritarian rule of the emperors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Admittedly, I introduce the Roman legion, the main Roman fighting force,
early on because its development mirrors that of the state as a whole. And no
one can escape the reality that something rare and precious in the body politic
of ancient Rome perished forever with Tiberius and Gaius Sempronius Gracchus,
the great political and social reformers who came to untimely ends nearly a
century before Julius Caesar has his comeuppance. Finally, let’s face it: the
Roman legion, along with gladiators and animal fights, is one of the main
reasons some people sign up for the course. Every time I teach it, there are
students who enter the class already knowing the strategies of most of the
major battles. A few of them are more familiar with the different types of
catapults and siege engines than is a typical doctoral candidate in mechanical
engineering. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">In short, although I
may emphasize the social, political, and economic aspects of the history of
ancient Rome when teaching a general survey course, there is no way to avoid
the hobnailed sandals of the Roman legions as they march their standards across
much of Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. There is always the moment
when I show the photos of these standards, with my stomach turning as I point
out what would have been the obvious comparison to my parents’ generation: the
standards used by the Nazis in their iconography. Classicists may sometimes
seem like a quiet bunch researching and teaching an obscure discipline, but
collectively the profession has at least its share of responsibility for the
propaganda behind the wars and genocides of the last century, when most of the
time the type of work we do was much less obscure. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">My Quaker friends
sometimes ask how I can abide teaching such material. Saying that I am a
language and literature specialist who does somewhat more Greek than Latin
extricates me for only a few minutes. Someone will inevitably ask about the
atrocities committed by both the Athenians and Spartans during the
Peloponnesian War, the internecine conflict that ate up any peace dividend the
ancient Greeks might have gained after fending off the Persians early in the
fifth century BCE. For those of us who saw that the peace dividend after the
Cold War was of short duration, there is a lesson to be learned, but that is
not their point. “Surely your students are there to learn about the military
tactics and the marital patterns of the Spartan warrior class, not which
philosopher thought which type of matter was the fundamental building block of
the universe.” </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Even if a large number
those who sign up for electives in Greek and Roman civilization are doing do,
at least in part, because of a long-standing interest in military history and
the related issues of brutal combat “sport,” that does not make it a poor
reason to enroll. Short of learning about coups d’état in the ancient
Mediterranean as a way of advocating armed insurrection in the present day —a
position which I have never seen at work and which I hope I never will— there
are no bad reasons to choose a course which crosses a such a huge number of
disciplines and provides numerous opportunities in every lecture to think
critically about our own society. Social and military history, literature,
philosophy, gender studies, material culture and architecture, technology,
agriculture, sports, economics, and environmental studies are some, but by no
means all of the fields we touch upon over the semester. Despite increasing
enrollments in all of our courses, we encourage critical thinking and synthesis
through writing. Besides, when it comes to military history, I have known more
than one member of a Quaker peace committee to sublimate frustrations at work
by aiming to get the Romans to defeat the Vandals, Huns, and Visigoths via a
computer simulation. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">How, then, do I teach military
history and combat “entertainment”? I emphasize that my goal is not to teach
people to think as I do (even if I wanted to do so, that would not be
appropriate), but rather to encourage a deeper understanding of conflict and
its causes, as well as their expression in literature and art. I start my
discussions of military hardware and gladiatorial combat with the confession
that these are not my areas of expertise and interest, and that, even if they
were, my class time is limited. Paper topics are set up to accommodate
particular areas of discussion. Inevitably, that leads to upwards of a third of
my Roman Civ. students writing essays on gladiator figurines —a sobering
statistic now that the course enrollment has been increased to 180 students!—
but once again, that is not the point. The reality is that the minimalist
approach is unsatisfactory for all of us. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Two years ago I
revamped the discussion of the Roman military to include Cicero’s substantial
contribution to the development of what is called the just war theory (a
subject that is already discussed in Wheelock, the textbook that is used by
those students who take Latin) and, in the brief space at the end of the
semester when we cover the development of Christianity, a brief reference to
pacifist and non-pacifist thought in the early Church. The latter turned out to
be a necessity because a few (admittedly, only a few) students who had heard of
it somewhere else wrote on their exams that “the Roman empire collapsed because
the soldiers were Christians, and as Christians they refused to fight.” My
discussion of the just war theory has met with mixed degrees of interest in
both Latin language and Roman survey classes, but those who have looked at it in
depth have run the gamut of professional interests and, to the limited degree
that I can tell, underlying beliefs about war and peace. Indeed, some of the
most perceptive responses to short essay questions on Cicero have been from
students with no philosophical or religious objections to the use of military
force <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">per se</i>, but who are looking for
ways to reduce the incidence of it. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">More people have
responded to my decision to include two fifty-minute PowerPoints on the Roman
economy and environmental issues in the Roman world. Many students have found
it distressing that the Pax Romana, the generally peaceful period in the “high”
Roman Empire in the first two centuries of the Current Era, reached its limits
not only against more nimble invaders, but also sputtered when confronted with
problems in the food supply, disease, and instability in climate. All of <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>these became major factors in the third
century CE. The success of the Roman legions, which were stretched rather thin
through most of the empire, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>depended on
the acculturation of millions of people, a decent standard of living, and, most
of all, food. This is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">panem et circenses </i>(bread
and circuses), if one likes, but almost all of my students are concerned about
the prospect of environmental instability in our own day leading to social
instability, or worse, disruptions in the food supply. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">On the Greek side, one
of the most popular paper topics for my class this winter was failures and
successes in peace treaties and negotiations during the fifth and early fourth
centuries BCE. Once again, Quakers would not find most of these papers written
from a pacifist perspective, but would nevertheless see a number of thoughtful
discussions of Greek arbitration. For the final exam, the most popular question
allowed students to compare issues drawn from two lists which I provided in
advance. The first list covered any major event from the First Peloponnesian
War (460 BCE) through the trial and death of Socrates (399 BCE); the second
list included about a dozen major events in the last century, such as issues
leading to the outbreak of World War I, the Treaty of Versailles, the Cold War,
and Canada-US relations since 1945. The latter list emphasized topics the
students would have seen in high school history (I had access to the Ontario
curriculum when designing the question), although they were encouraged to look
at secondary literature while approaching all aspects of the question. </span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Part II: What can
Quakers say about the tendency to encourage military service as a means of
funding higher education?</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Encouraging
post-secondary to think more broadly about issues of war and peace, regardless
of the conclusions they may draw, may come to naught if an increasing number of
them cannot afford to attend college or university. This brings me to the second military matter that
I see in my work as an academic and one which happens to be especially relevant
this week, given that International Conscientious Objectors Day is upon us on May
15 (see <a href="http://www.ppu.org.uk/coday/" target="_blank">here</a> to a link from the Peace Pledge Union describing the day). Very often in the United States, and to some extent in Canada and other
English-speaking countries, students who are having trouble paying for their
educations are encouraged to sign up for the military. This raises a number of troubling concerns. Here I am not talking
about students who whose wish to pursue a military career arises from their own convictions (although I would support those who have doubts about such service, as well as the appreciable number of people who have changed their views about the armed forces once confronted with what military service entails), but rather those who see few alternatives. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Friends and others
have done a superb job of trying to find legal ways out of the military, primarily in
the US, for those who have enlisted in the armed forces, but who have
come to object to military service on moral grounds. While some of these men and women signed up out of conviction, a large number did so for economic reasons, including support for post-secondary study. One of the best examples
of this work is that of <a href="http://www.quakerhouse.org/" target="_blank">Quaker House in Fayetteville, North Carolina.</a> Other
Friends have tried to help those who have heard of soldiers coming to Canada
during the Vietnam and tried to follow their example. This has <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">NOT</b> been successful, despite the use of
all available legal avenues. The policy of the Canadian government has long
since changed. The young people involved in recent years have been deported
back to the US and court-martialed. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">(Note
to anyone reading this post who is either thinking of following suit or encouraging
someone else to do so: I urge you to Contact Quaker House in Fayetteville and/or the <a href="http://girightshotline.org/en/about/" target="_blank">GI rights hotlines</a> in the States.) </b>Finally, the <a href="https://afsc.org/resource/counter-recruitment" target="_blank">American Friends Service Committee (AFSC)</a>, a number of Quaker Meetings, and non-sectarian peace organizations such
as <a href="http://www.centeronconscience.org/" target="_blank">the Center on Conscience and War</a> have worked at counteracting the
all-pervasive nature of military recruitment by helping young people find ways
of achieving their goals without enlisting. Thanks to the efforts of the Canadian Friends Service Committee (CFSC), a Canadian brochure which covers this topic can be found <a href="http://quakerservice.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/CRbrochure-revised012011.pdf" target="_blank">here</a>. More work on counter-recruitment can and should be done,
in all English-speaking countries.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Other than publicity
(which is a serious problem in and of itself, especially to those who have been
raised in a military culture), perhaps the biggest impediment to encouraging alternatives to
military enlistment for people who want to attend college or university is indebtedness. Most young people from English-speaking
countries who need help funding their post-secondary education will turn to
loans. Students from lower-income families are the most likely to be steered to
loans and the least likely to complete their degrees, making them reluctant to
become indebted.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">What can we as Quakers
say about that? </span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpD_RE732dj426OH9VZvEPub5HQeNGQAT-tvwvSj8596maaldhteYr11a_IvEQhc_1BnXL7HubWj9bzRNv5k5w9XYXjPYqHiM2xm9GsaX455eENNj5n9G02ClHgdDPckN7hL-habAMxZw/s1600/KStettenheim1979.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpD_RE732dj426OH9VZvEPub5HQeNGQAT-tvwvSj8596maaldhteYr11a_IvEQhc_1BnXL7HubWj9bzRNv5k5w9XYXjPYqHiM2xm9GsaX455eENNj5n9G02ClHgdDPckN7hL-habAMxZw/s1600/KStettenheim1979.JPG" height="320" width="221" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Another photograph of Kristin Lord by Peter Stettenheim.<br />This was taken two years after the first one.</td></tr>
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Kristin Lordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18052075819133204111noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4387507661152607223.post-17614368479826532862014-05-11T14:34:00.000-07:002014-05-11T14:34:36.569-07:00L is for Leningrad, Part I
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Leningrad, USSR; known also as St. Petersburg, Russia (Russian Санкт-Петербург/Sankt-Peterburg) from 1703 to 1914 and again from 1991 to the present; renamed Petrograd from 1914-1924; known less formally as Peterburg and Piter (publicly when the city has been named St. Petersburg; privately and courageously when it was called Leningrad)</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCNGOOuasyEADz-ipLlkt-xrf8KK23Nl34FkbMH6dl7PWH2Wxtye9VjhL0InfBKYQyCA6MNUFGVHce1YNjuF_7CebFGeBYk-JP6sOOScT7odvW_-_XA_O-Er87xd7SePrklBcjekzXlv8/s1600/Panorama_of_Saint_Petersburg_from_Palace_Bridge.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCNGOOuasyEADz-ipLlkt-xrf8KK23Nl34FkbMH6dl7PWH2Wxtye9VjhL0InfBKYQyCA6MNUFGVHce1YNjuF_7CebFGeBYk-JP6sOOScT7odvW_-_XA_O-Er87xd7SePrklBcjekzXlv8/s1600/Panorama_of_Saint_Petersburg_from_Palace_Bridge.jpg" height="107" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Panoramic view of St. Petersburg from the Palace Bridge in 2009; <br />taken by "Panther" and uploaded from Wikimedia Commons under a Creative Commons license. <br />Until about ten years ago, students at the Department of Russian for Foreigners at the university stayed in a dormitory in an area partially visible behind the columns at the far left.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Lermontov (known to
Russians primarily by his first name and patronymic, Mikhail Yuryevich) was the
most popular poet of Russia's literary “golden age” in the nineteenth century after
Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin. One of Lermontov’s most distinguished poems,
“Death of the Poet,” contains a bitter lament at the death of Pushkin in a
duel. Pushkin, for whom a duel formed the climax of his own “novel in
verse,” <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Evgeniy Onegin</i>, did not take the
implied warning to heart, or at least he was unable to overcome the cultural and all-too-human
temptations. Neither did Lermontov: four years later he also was to die in a
duel. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Although I read about
the cause of Pushkin’s demise when I first studied Russian in high school, I
learned the details when I was studying in the summer program at the Department
of Russian for Foreigners at Leningrad State University during the late 1970’s.
Students in the program took a field trip in a bus that retraced Pushkin's last
days. Many of the historic buildings were still standing or had been rebuilt
after World War II. The bus driver and the Russian literature lecturer, a professor
from the regular philological faculty invited along for the occasion, both
showed such intimacy with the subject matter that the duel might have taken
place the previous year, not 140 years before. One of them —I no longer
remember who— </span><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">
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one point quoted the famous Pushkin opener, “Не дай мне Бог сойти с ума,” “God
grant that I don't go out my mind.” </span>
The context was not the same as the original, in which Pushkin has a reverie of
slaking his madness in the wilds of nature, only to be brought back to his
senses by remembering that the insane were locked up. But we all were inclined
to think Pushkin must have gone right over the top when he agreed to yet
another duel (he apparently was connected to as many as twenty-nine), regardless of what
the biographers had to say about his motivations.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">God grant that I don't
go out of my mind. About ten days after we arrived in Leningrad, I stepped out
onto the sidewalk from the foreign students' residence, looked up into the
brilliant early summer afternoon, and realized that my parents' tax dollars,
and mine, too, whenever I had a summer job, had helped to purchase missiles
that were programmed to head right at me (although of course that was not the
intent). I had joined Friends about a year before, in part because of my
support for the peace testimony, but never before had I been cut to the core,
as Margaret Fell would have said. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">We were in the period
of détente under Presidents Carter and Brezhnev, but anyone could have been
forgiven for not knowing it. The acronym used by US defense planners during
that period was MAD, for Mutual Assured Destruction, i.e., the possession of an arsenal big
enough for the USA and USSR to be able to guarantee to annihilate each other,
and then large enough still for whatever was left of the US to come back and finish the job. If it
sounds like lunacy, it was (and still is, as both sides have massive
nuclear stockpiles to this day); but no military planner or mainstream politician was
going to step away from it on his own, any more than Pushkin could walk away
from challenging Georges D'Anthès, who was reputed to have tried to seduce
Pushkin's wife, Natalya Goncharova.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">But step away we all
did. The Cold War ended with the demolition of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the
unification of East and West Germany, and the demise of the Soviet Empire.
Millions of people benefited from the physical and moral courage of Soviet
President Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev and Pope John Paul II, from the
recognition of President Ronald Reagan and his advisors that the West had in
President Gorbachev a partner for peace —and from the determination of
countless others, many of whom will never be publicly known. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">However, if we thought
that the post-Cold War status quo would remain indefinitely, we were naïve. As
I write about Leningrad, on Mother’s Day in 2014, Russia has annexed Crimea,
and separatists in eastern Ukraine are holding a referendum on autonomy. While
no one expects another Cold War, no one knows what will happen next. God grant
that we don’t go out of our minds.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyAcWfLChhiNN9qonshjcIbP4Gskx7olE-4zJ9nH6LSsA7ZoEsPj0x8s8eo3-zegpn0IRIJG2HYrN4t-e5B0Zw1bOKP3nWamlNTfbiOtEFVhDo_3WNby5XIBPJz5-8JhyWxOpjxiZGgsM/s1600/KbyStettenheim77.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyAcWfLChhiNN9qonshjcIbP4Gskx7olE-4zJ9nH6LSsA7ZoEsPj0x8s8eo3-zegpn0IRIJG2HYrN4t-e5B0Zw1bOKP3nWamlNTfbiOtEFVhDo_3WNby5XIBPJz5-8JhyWxOpjxiZGgsM/s1600/KbyStettenheim77.JPG" height="320" width="212" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kristin Lord, a few months before studying in Leningrad.<br />photograph by Peter Stettenheim</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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Kristin Lordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18052075819133204111noreply@blogger.com0