Question: A poem

Why do we travel down wrong turns and dead ends?

Why does that path look different than it is?

Why do we see things through our own projective lens?

Why is reality different than vision?

Why do shared values manifest so differently?

Why do people hurt each other even while never intending to?

How can this be when all of us share the longing for love?  The dream of a better world?

  have always wanted it different, better for our children?

How can those shared aspirations wind up using different words?

   words which then separate?

How can the wish for unity and goodness get manifested in blue states and red states       

   (and minorities within each of those?)

How did we loose our way while trying to find each other?

Couldn’t it surely, somehow be that we will find each other even so?

Shouldn’t the arc of the universe bend towards cooperation, growth, unity, coming together, building, making it better? 

Maybe really that is the truth hidden in the current wars, is less wars than ever before?

Maybe that is the truth hidden in domestic violence, is less dv than ever before?

Oh Dear, not less starvation than ever before?

But more technology than ever before (created to solve problems and make things better)

Here we are all somewhere: tying a shoe, waiting for a bus, a little older than last year, settling about some things and striving around other things.

somehow picking out what we think should be important.

I want to die knowing I did what my soul came here to do.

My real grief is for our collective lost possibilities.

Do you want to know what I really think?

Do you also long for the earth healed?

Do you want to join the revolution?

Do you hear the voice of spirit? Of the Old ones? Of the Young ones?  Calling us?

Thinking as a Community

In Systems Theory if one starts at the level of a particle, to an atom, to a cell, to an organ, to a body, we reach the level we exist at- the level of the individual.  But from there it goes on to the community, the ecosystem, the bioregion, the nation, the continent, the earth, the solar system and the universe.  Systems Theory also states that each level is a holon- made up of the parts and yet more than the parts, and itself part of a larger system.  Evolutionary shifts or paradigm shifts occur when something changes from one level to the next.  

Therefore, it is useful to notice that we exist at the level of the individual and that is the level at which we do our thinking.   We think most of the time about ourselves and our needs and goals - sometimes we think about other individuals: our families, or members of groups we belong to, occasionally about our country or the planet.  But usually even when we do this we are thinking about how we are effected by those beings or what we want for those beings.  It is very rare for us to think collectively - to consider our decisions from the point of view of how they effects others on the other side the planet or generations to come.  And yet this sort of thinking is evolutionarily the next step for life on earth, and as we face crises like climate change and peak oil it is increasingly apparent that such thinking is critical for our very survival.

As a lifelong Quaker I realize that I have always existed in at least one context: my Friends Meeting where this sort of thinking on the community level is inherent.  Every business meeting run by consensus is a practice in thinking collectively, not individualistically.   I can be thankful for the practice I have at that, but it was a recent aha to realize how many of my fellow citizens have never had that experience.

Like most Americans I have grown up believing that I live in a Democracy. Recently I went to see the movie: Direct Democracy.  This movie shows among other things the experience of the people of Argentina when their government fell apart due to economic collapse.  People in rural areas got together in town meetings and discussed what they needed, from roads to irrigation improvement, etc.  The government had some funds for each regional area, but no means to govern or administer the funds; so they allowed the town halls to decide what they needed the money spent on and the would send them the money. 

The movie showed some of these direct democracy experiences of people arguing their cases to each other and then voting.  The movie also showed how after months of this if someone had come every month with a proposal, but did not get it passed because there were less people living in that neighborhood to support it, that eventually the whole group would vote yes on it out of a feeling that "it is their turn".  This is truly thinking as a group consciousness that I cannot imagine Congress every achieving.

While the people there’s experience started with direct budgeting, many workers also took over the abandoned factories left by their financially ruined "owners" and ran them as worker owned collectives making all the decisions for the business together.  In some of the scenes of town halls and worker collectives, the energy and excitement, and creativity is almost palpable to the audience!  There is an energy that is released when people have power over there lives that has been blocked by centuries of patriarchy, hierarchy, and capitalist power down models. 

I remember for years (especially during the Bush years) meeting with progressive groups who desperately wanted change. After complaining about what we did not like, the groups seemed at a complete poverty of ideas about what to do that would bring about change.  Mostly people could only think of writing to Congress which then evoked feelings of hopelessness in many in the group.  I could not understand why even group who saw Congress as completely broken, made up bought politicians could only think of this as an avenue for change.   After watching the movie it is now clear to me why.  

Most people have no experience of direct democracy.  They have no experiences in their lives of belonging to a group that has brought about any type of change.  They have no experience of influencing a group decision or taking charge of a situation and making it different.   Quaker's call ourselves a peculiar people because of our very different style of worship, but I realized after watching this movie that we have another unique experience - that of direct democracy where every one of our voices count and where everyone of us equally runs our Friends Meeting.   Perhaps this also explains 350 years of our feeling the audacity to think we can change our country if it needs it.

I have decided that the most radical question I can ask people these days is:  "What communities do you belong to?"  And to try to encourage and create experiences around me where people experience thinking as part of a group.  And I am extremely thankful for the way Quakerism has formed deeply in me the knowledge that humans can function as a collective body.

Occupy Your Heart

One of my favorite signs from pictures of Occupation sites around the US is one that says:  "Occupy Your Heart".  When I first saw it I thought of it as not a serious sign - like the ones that accuse Chase Bank of being "a reverse Robin Hood" or the one that said:  "I will believe in Corporate Personhood when Texas executes one".   However, as I thought about it more I realized it is actually quite profound.

For you see, when you really study what Wall Street employees have done in the past few years, leading up to the crash and afterwards, when you study what corporate CEO's have done, when you study what the 1% have done to help grow their wealth, when you study the way the Koch Brother's have paid for phony studies to bias the Climate Change dialogue.....well I have been saying:  "How do these people get up in the morning and look at themselves in the mirror?"  Which is a much more judgmental and polarized message than the one that invites the reader to occupy their heart.  What would the US look like if we all occupied our hearts?  If corporate CEO's could walk in the shoes for even one day of a single mom of color in the inner city would their heart still make the choices it does?   If the bankers had to actually see the people being evicted from their houses would they occupy their hearts?  If the brokers who were making money by betting on the market crashing had to explain it to the Seniors who lost their entire pensions how would their hearts then feel?  What if the Koch brothers had to have dinner with  some citizen's of the Maldives would it touch their hearts?

But I don't want to only focus on those that we call the 1%, I want to focus on the rest of us in the 99%.  If we occupied our hearts would we remember that most of the planet lives on a little less than two dollars a day when we are trolling the malls at Christmas buying things we probably don't really need?  If we did not feel that we need things to be "convenient" would we take bags to the grocery store with us and spare the petroleum in the bags?  If we weren't always in a rush would we drive the speed limit and use less gas- or actually have time to take the bus, or a bike or walk, rather than add more carbon to the planet?  If we occupied our hearts would we give more to charity and buy less lattes'?  If we lived in our hearts would we find time to do contribute to our communities rather than watch TV?

And on the deepest level of all I want to ask:  Why don't we occupy our hearts?  How often do you feel freely your love for others?  What stops you?  What makes it scary to give and receive love?  What are the hurts and scar tissue that we have accumulated?   How have we used those as accuses to not keep loving or not keep trying for a planet and a community were we all know our connection to each other and honor those as sacred?  2012 is around the corner - what would you do differently if you lived next year fully in touch with your heart?

How a City Shapes an Occupation

I’m watching how group dynamics develop and are shaped by the differences in settings and historic influences in each city.  I am responding to reports from friends and from occupation websites, or other media.  I have been comparing Seattle where I live, with NYC, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Boston. Wall Street as we know picked a private park that did not have regulations defining a “closing hour” and thus protesters have been able to sleep in the park.  Despite some efforts on the part of the owners to close it for “cleaning”, they have responded to the pressure of having thousands there and so have not closed it.  Being a large population center has also brought people in droves.

In Philadelphia they occupied a construction site in the center of the city, so they also have not received pressure to move until just recently when they received a letter from city council saying that it now needed to be vacated so construction could start and “claiming that they had agreed to move at that time.”  So OP has started to consider whether they need to move or face arrest.  In the meantime because they are two blocks from Friends Center (the complex the house Friends Journal, the AFSC, and Central Philadelphia Friends Meeting) the protesters have been able to use the kitchen there to feed thousands, and the bathrooms and to have General Assemblies there when it rains.  They have just officially voted to have General Assemblies (GA)’s there whenever the weather is inclement.  I have wonder how having that much support structure and lack of threat of arrest has allowed them to focus on the protests themselves.  The influence of Quakers is so pervasive in Philly that my impression is their GA process is also much better.

In Chicago they chose to be on the Federal plaza outside the Federal Reserve branch that is in Chicago.  The police slowly cordoned off areas to finally only a small amount of sidewalk was left and now they have to be careful to not block people trying to walk on it or they can be arrested for that.  City Ordinance makes it illegal to sleep on the sidewalk, so there is no where for Chicago protestors to sleep.  How OC protestors have handled that is that they are sleeping in cars that they can park on the street at night (but not day)  They have a uhaul they pay for and put their stuff in every night, and they take turn having two hour shifts staying up protesting with signs during the nights.  This I have to say seems so much more sensible and healthier than the sleep deprivation marathon that my Seattle comrade’s have set for themselves!   They were proud that they had no arrests as result.  They have however for two Sat’s in a row tried to occupy Grant Park a few blocks away and play cat and mouse with the police there who will allow them to set up tents but arrest them the minute they go in them.  This has resulted in arrests in Chicago.

In Boston they had two sites, one in Dewey Square across from their Federal Reserve bank and the other in a Conservancy park that actually had posted a very supportive letter about the demonstrators being in the park. Dewey Square had the mayor's permission and had about 50 tents and permanent supply tents. This second Park space was set up because the first became to crowded.  On the night of Oct. 10th the police in riot gear encircled it and then forced all the media away and arrested all the protesters, first approaching a Veteran's for Peace group and beating them.  The mayor and peace blamed their violence on the "anarchists".

But here is Seattle….the site that was chosen Westlake park is a small triangular cement park in the heart of the shopping district.  (Some say the financial district but I don’t see Seattle as really having a banking headquarters.)  There is an ordinance declaring the park closed at 10Pm every night, and it is illegal to sleep in any Seattle park.  So every night at 10pm the hassles with the police start.  The police will allow people to lie on the ground, but any camping gear results in arrest – this means even a camping pad, or an umbrella over you that touches the ground!   There was a call last Sat for “the night of 500 tents”  (They did feel the park with about 150 tents – it isactually too small for 500)  So many people came to support that the police did not want to arrest and so played this game all night where they would walk around, accompanied by a protester who would shout “we are coming to visit your tent” and if the police found the people in the tent with eyes open “not asleep” they did not arrest them.  But when this was repeated Sunday night they came at 3am and arrested everyone there, damaging many tents in the process. 

Sleeping in the park was allowed during the first week while the Mayor tried to negotiate with them claiming always that he favored freedom of speech.  He tried to offer them to move to City Hall where he said they would not be arrested and where they could use the bathrooms at night.  Frankly I thought that was a great offer, but it is true our City Hall is on the edge of downtown and protestors felt this was not visible and that it was all a ploy on the mayor’s part to marginalize our movement and control it.  After the police harassed people so much they could not sleep at night half the protestors moved there anyway to get a good nights sleep, but after two weeks they are closing that site because a lot of homeless non-protesters were coming there and stealing gear, and the protestors at that site felt unsupported by those at the main site.  The cops have taken at Westlake to shining their car lights all night on the protestors and walking around kicking those laying down.  There were numerous GA discussions of possibly moving sites, to including a Community College about 1 mile away which would pass on a general vote but be blocked and fail to win supermajority.  The campers themselves are very divided on this proposal.  Some want to as they are desperate for sleep.  Others define this as defeat or retreat.  This week it has finally passed to on Sat have a Halloween march and move the camp.

So sadly the very sleep deprived “camping protestors” have become more and more angry with the cops which worries me because I do not see a spirit of non-violence instead I see more and more of a spirit of “them vs us”.  I worry that our original choice of site has set us into conflicts with the police and then each other which has detracted from our work.

Some where last week I read that there was a national conference occuring of police chiefs and that they would surely be comparing notes on how to handle their occupations.  "Oh dear I thought" and of course we have seen the esculating of police violence from Boston to Oakland, to various arrests around the country - often violently.  Last night the police rioted on the protestors in Occupy Oakland - causing a severe head injury to an Iraqi vet among the protesters by hitting him in the head with a tear gas canister.  And then as his companions rushed to his aid firing another round on them. How sad indeed that this man came home safely from Iraqi without the concussion injury that so many soilders get, only to be wounded by US police!  It reminds me of the righteous anger of an African American Vet in NYC screaming at the police: You think you are tough, you are hurting unarmed civilians.  They have no guns. Is this what I fought for?  There is no honor in this!  How can you look yourselves in the mirror.

Let us hold in the Light all the brave protesters struggling around the country to see the change we were promised and never got!

99% Rising Up!- A Non-Violent Occupation

You may not know because of the media blackout, that the US is occupied by non-violent protesters who are taking back the US from the major corporations!  It of course started with

Occupy Wall street

23 days ago.  If you have watched Capitalism: A Love Story by Michael Moore this is basically what he called for at the end of his rather damning indictment of Wall Street.  By last week it had spread to LA, Chicago, Seattle, etc.  But still a handful of cities –but then it exploded!  By Sat. 70 major cities and 600 communities were occupied.  Today the website: occupytogether.org (the central organizing website) lists over 1300 communities (go there to check for occupation closest to you!)

Here is a beautifully written story about the Occupy Wall Street demonstration.  http://www.nationofchange.org/we-danced-waiting-police-who-never-came-1318262783  The previous Saturday when 700 protesters where (misled) onto the Brooklyn Bridge by police and then sat down – 700 were arrested making is the largest act of mass act of civil disobedience in decades.  The media has gone from a total black out to what I would now call circus reporting – which is to go and focus on the strangest people there or other ways of trivializing what is going on.  For accurate reports one can go to Facebook/occupywallstreet or one can also find lots of live footage on youtube.

The Groups across the country are committed to a “horizontal process” by which they mean non-hierarchal and consensus based decision making.  Every day they have a “general assembly” where they make decisions.  The Occupy Wall Street group has written a beautiful “Declaration of Occupation”  (Despite the media’s claim that they have no focus and are protesting for “everything”.  I think the media is having a bit of hard time understanding how globalization and corporate personhood has far ranging impacts.)  Click here to read their statement  http://occupyseattle.org/resource/official-statement-occupy-wall-street

A unifying slogan of groups across the country is “We are the 99%” referring to the fact that 1% of the population control 60% of the wealth in this country.

I did go down to Occupy Seattle on Friday (which is at the plaza on the corner of 4^th and Pine).  Unfortunately, Seattle’s general assembly is now happening every day at 6:30 which is when our family eats dinner, so I have not been able to go to a general assembly.  But I did participate in a mini march from the mall to city hall the protest the 10^th anniversary of the US invasion of Afghanistan – how very, very sad.  I also went to one of the many committee meetings that were taking place (they have committees for legal, first aid, food, safety, donations, webpage, etc.).   These tend to meet at 4pm.   I went to the outreach committee, responsible for helping bring more people in.   Because the city will not allow them any microphones or amplification, in order to hear each other they have established a process whereby when someone is recognized by the facilitator to speak they say:  “I have a proposal”  then the group echoes back “I have a proposal”   “that we contact union 47” “that we contact union 47”   It works, but boy if Quakers think consensus if slow….imagine having to repeat everything in small bites, so everything is said twice and then agree!  The one advantage I see this has is that it really discourages long winded people!

While I was there the outreach committee decided they would take to General Assembly, the decision to adopt the Wall Street declaration and come up with our own set of local demands.  Tonight, I understand that will be acted on.

Seattle is a city of rain and the occupation here has been kept alive by people being willing to sleep in the park overnight!  The liberal mayor is allowing them to stay, but last Wed after a week or so, made the police arrest anyone who would not pack up their tent.  So they are having to sleep out without tents.  The mayor has opened up a vacant lot behind city hall for them to sleep in at night and has allowed the “organizing canopy tent” to stay up overnight.  For those of you local – there is a list of things on their website that they need to keep going – please consider buying some of those things and bring them down.  On Friday I brought toilet paper and trash bags and packing tape – now their needs are different.  They are taking turns sleeping in the park without tent while others sleep at city hall.  There are a series of small protests that go out every day from the site to other sites.

When I came home Friday and talked about it my husband said:  “Well this is good, but how will it change things?” Without stopping to think the first words out of my mouth was:  “Well it will certainly make it harder for people in Congress to dismantle Social Security and Medicaid with the cities of the US occupied – harder to not pass the Job’s bill.”   But then this began to percolate in me more when I learned the next day that really truly 600 communities were occupied.  I realized that the word “demands” which is often used by protesters in a way which is a bit grandiose in the sense that we are rarely in a position to demand anything, was actually appropriate here.  I realized that in fact if every Congress person has cities in their district “occupied” with citizens and voters who are fed-up and not taking no for an answer – you actually are in a position to demand change.  Activists have been saying for 4 years that no real change will come out of DC unless there is a movement – well now there is one!  So I realized “hmmm, how long till it is so big that a nation wide general strike can be held.   So I started focusing in earnest on demands.  Below is my not all inclusive list.  (Please respond with your additional ideas).  I have to say there was a freedom in writing this to ask for things we really want that I have rarely felt in my life….try it you will really enjoy it.

Demands

1. An End to Corporate Personhood
2. An increased tax on the wealthiest 2% of America
3. A 6 month wind down to the Wars in Iraq, Afghanistan , Libya and Korea = zero US soldiers occupying those countries.
4. With the “war savings” restore human services to their previous highest level and pay down the national debt- taking our descendants out of debt.
5. A jobs bill that spends money on infrastructure and puts American’s to work
6. An end to subsidies for oil and coal.
7. A subsidy for Alternative energy so we can really get it going.
8. Cancel all consideration of the Tar Sands Pipe Line
9. Set Carbon goals for the US that will aggressively move us to 350 parts per million carbon and sign international treaties to this effect.
10. Abolish the Federal Reserve
11. Create a State Bank in every state.
12. End the illegal foreclosures, refinance all predatory loans.
13. Enforce Corporate monopoly laws
14. Break up Montsanto and Blackwater and the 3 Media monopoly stranglehold
15. Create real Net neutrality
16. Create universal health care in the US
17. NO cuts to Social Security and Medicare- ever
18. Stop producing weapons of mass destruction and immediately begin the unilateral disarmament of the US
19. End the death penalty
20. Reinstate the Glass-Stegall Act

For those of you who know the actor Wallace Shawn, he was interviewed at Occupy Wall Street and said: "I don't know about other people, but I only have one life, so I don't want to live it in a sewer of injustice.  Life is short – it is time to make it count."  These comments remind me of Joanna Macy who is talking about the time of “great turning” that our society is in says:  “What an exciting time to be alive”.  I could not agree more!

Intentional Acts of Kindness

A month ago a colleague of mine died suddenly, one day after his 60th birthday.  He had a big birthday party with friends and family. A mutual colleague had flown to WY to be with him and then, as planned, the two of them went on a day hike the next day.  Towards the end, 1 mile from the trail head, Bob collapsed and, as was later established, died instantly of a massive heart attack.  Our mutual colleague emailed 60 of us who responded with a sort of online memorial service, sharing our shock, are sadness and our memories of Bob.  Bob had a huge heart (ironically considering how he died).  He was very kind to everyone, quick with humor and to aid another.  Someone asked his wife if she wanted flowers or donations or what, sent where?  Her response was she said "Do an act of kindness in memory of Bob". 

It seemed a perfectly fitting memorial.  My problem was I thought of several things I was already scheduled to do that were acts of kindness. Well, those did not seem to count - they would have occurred anyway.  What was big enough, or special enough, or not premeditated enough, or planned enough to count as the act of kindness for Bob?  While I was trying to figure this out, I noticed that my family members were irritating and pissing me off in any number of ways which was leaving me feeling very justified in responding in snarly ways. That when it felt like they were standing on my "emotional shoes" that I felt quite justified in getting them "off" my shoes. I certainly was not acting in kindness towards them.  Oh Bob, I hear you calling.

However, this was not as easy as it seemed.  I would notice time and again, after not being kind that I had forgotten my resolve.  This is really very embarrassing for a Quaker.  Hardly, walking over the earth answering cheerful to others, huh?  In fact, I do not think I have enough consecutive hours in, to in anyway, to say I have honored Bob yet.  

So today in Meeting for worship I was reflecting on this, trying to understand the problem and how I can get a handle on this and turn it around.  I was also aware of it being 9/11 and my feelings of judgment of this country that in our grief over 3,000 dead, we have caused the deaths many times over of American soldiers, Iraqi and Afghani soldiers and thousands of civilians.  I realized that just like me, this country in its pain and vulnerability reacted to protect itself and feels justified in doing so.  As I continued to wrestle with this, I saw the part of me that I feel I need to defend, a hurt little girl, and I mentally could pick her up and put her on God's lap.  From that vantage point I could feel the peace from which to be loving, compassionate and kind.   I hope that our country too can find its way to God's lap.

Quaker Outreach - or Letting our Light Shine

Recently at my Yearly Meeting, the opening night we did a series of short exercises to help us get to know each other.  Everyone got in a circle clockwise from oldest to youngest one.  The oldest was born in 1922, and we all cheered.  The youngest were 4 HS students who were in the room.  But for me the exercise confirmed my worst fears.  We raised our hands:  "everyone born in the 20’s, everyone born in the 30’s" (both about 10 to 15 people – what you would expect in age groups diminished by death), "everyone born in the 40’s" – the largest group in the room – probably 80 of our 200, the Baby boom.  “everyone born in the 50’s”  another huge group – the tail of the baby boom.  Probably 75 people.   There I was, the very last person born in the 50’s, born just two days before the 60’s started.  As I have my whole life, I felt not quite part of that group and anxiously looking over my shoulder to see who was coming behind me.  To my dismay, I saw 4 people in the ‘60’s, 3 in the 70’s and 3 in the 80’s and the 4 high schoolers born in the ‘90s.     My heart sank as I don’t think the 15 of us will be able to run the Yearly Meeting in 25 years!

Ok, I will grant you, it may not be quite as bad as it seemed.  The people in the 60’s thru ‘80’s are all working.  Some did not take off from work and arrived later in the week.  Some may have been out of the room putting children to bed.   However, I know because all the time I try to figure out who is “behind me”….there are not that many.  I also realized during this exercise that for the oldest members they look behind and see the huge bulge of baby boomer Friends and feel assured that there are capable hands to take over from them when they die.  For those born in the boom, in the 40’s and 50’s, they stand in a thick grove of trees and see lots of comrades, healthy numbers and nothing to worry about.   For me though serving among those born in the 50’s I was always the youngest in the room.  I was always waiting for the young people to come…..and they did not come.  In the my twenties and thirties I thought “well people this age don’t attend churches in great numbers”, but my the time I hit my 40’s I felt very worried.  Now in my 50’s when I think of it, it is more of a feeling of panic- deep fear for the survival of unprogrammed Friends in the world and now also a grief.

Another way to think about this is: what was happening in the Society of Friends in the 80’s (when those born in their 60’s were coming of age) and in the 90’s when those born in the 70’s were coming of age)?  Clearly in the 60’s and 70’s Friends were front and center in the civil rights movement, the women’s movement and the Peace movement – so lots of baby boomers saw us and saw our values and joined.  The ‘80’s and ‘90’s were quieter times in the nation and in the Society of Friends – but apparently young people did not find us as a result of our low visibility.

I don’t think it is just my Yearly Meeting – I think a similar exercise could be done in Yearly Meetings around the country with similar results.  I think this sheds a whole different light on the so many State of the Meeting reports that say that nominating committees are having a hard time finding enough people to serve on committees.  It is not just because we are all “busy”; it is because there are not enough of us! I think if we all don’t want 15 people to be running our Yearly Meetings in 25 years, we need to be shining our Light to our community so that those who need and want Quakerism can find us.

Several years ago my Quarter had a theme  “Don’t hide your Light”.   I was asked to be on a panel about the subject.  Mostly it was addressed from the point not hiding our individual gifts and beauty.  But I talked about it from the point of view of Quakerism and Quaker outreach.  Afterwards, I led an interest group on outreach – about ¼ of our attenders showed up to it!  Just out of spur of the moment curiosity I asked us to start by going around the room and asking everyone there how they first found Quakerism.  (Since then I have continued the experiment by asking different Friends as I meet them – with very similar results).  The stories were interesting, but disturbing to me in one similarity – how accidental the encounter was and how hard it sometimes was to find Quakerism. 

A frequent theme was people “church shopping”.  People would describe the frustration of seeking and not finding what they wanted – years spent in churches that did not fit them.  They would describe things like going to check out the Unitarians and discovering the Quaker’s meeting in the basement.  Quite a number had found us by seeing a Meeting House sign and wondering….   But more sad to me were the stories of people who knew well some Friend – a coworker or a distant relative and being impressed or interested by what the Friend said, but NEVER being invited by the Quaker to visit their church.  (Including one story where the person broadly hinted to their coworker with no result).  In these stories usually years to decades later something made them decide to find the nearest Quaker Meeting to them and go. 

Quite commonly positive exposure to Quakers through Quaker camps, schools, relatives or the peace movement made people tuck away the idea of Quakers until some moment moved them to find us.  A number of people described how hard it was to find a Meeting while actually trying.  (They looked up Quakers not knowing it was listed under Friends, etc.)  There were only a few stories of people who knew a Quaker and were invited to come to Quaker Meeting.  But all the stories pretty much end the same way.  “When I finally came to my first meeting, I sat there in the silence, in relief and new I had finally found what I was looking for.  I was home.”

Friends, we can do a better job than this!  We can do better than listings that only a person who already knows the name of the Meeting can find.  Or Meeting houses whose sign do not speak to passers by.  We can do better than failing to invite the people we know to share one of the joyous experiences of our lives out of…shyness? Embarrassment? The fear of evangelizing?  I don’t believe anyone would fear evangelizing if they heard some of these tortured stories of true Seekers trying to find us!

In my therapy practice often if I ask people about their spiritual life, they will tell me: “Well I have no Religion, but I am a spiritual person.  I believe in God or something greater than myself…but I don’t like the dogma and rituals of the Church.  I wish there was someplace where I could go and just be a spiritual person; a place that supported my spiritual life.”  As a therapist it really is not appropriate to evangelize, so I just smile and nod.  But often I feel sad that these seekers will never stumble across the knowledge of the very thing they are looking for.  Friends we can do a better job than this.