Q: What do you get when you cross a Baptist and a Catholic?
A: A Quaker, apparently.
A little religious humor after the long writing absence. It is wildly amusing to me, though it would make no sense to anyone else.
So, I have been to two Quaker meetings thus far. During the first one I had my cell phone in my purse and it was on silent, but I could not stop worrying about it running out of batteries and breaking the silence with the continual beeping. This didn't happen, though I couldn't relax nevertheless. This morning I made a point to leave the cell phone in the car. As a result I was much more relaxed and was able to center down in the freeing silence. I liked the vocal ministry this morning: someone said not to forget the Spices of life. S for simplicity, P for peace, I for integrity, C for community, E for equality and S for stewardship. I knew the Quaker testimonies of Simplicity, peace, integrity and equality but did not know that they included community and stewardship. It was a pleasant reminder.
I have been thinking a lot about community lately, more specifically the ineffectiveness of virtual community. Despite the availability of so much technology people, as social creatures, still need the companionship of other people face to face. I have resisted this for so long. For instance, I attended a college of nearly 50,000 students for four years but made less than 5 friends. I didn't join any clubs or teams, and felt constantly lonely and out of place. I guess I found it hard to be with others for fear of being judged inadequate; my parents were very judgmental growing up so I thought everyone else was too. I am also naturally shy, and I have had to constantly work on being more open, trusting and direct with people. It's an ongoing battle with me. I liked the reminder that community is as important as those other virtues. Social networking websites do not fulfill the need for community. I'm considering canceling my Facebook for this reason, and also because the site rates poorly on the Integrity scale according to reports.
The stewardship issue also has been on my mind. By stewardship I mean taking care of those people, animals and possessions that I do have, being thankful for them and not seeking to own more than I need. This will also extend to doing my best for the land I will live on in the future, and doing my part not to ruin the environment. I can definitely, definitely improve in this area.
This book has been very inspiring. It's a collection of essays about how modern people have broken free from the modern over reliance on technology and the need to own more, more, more. Most of the essays are by plain Quakers, Amish or Mennonite people. I couldn't go as far as these essay writers (I am very thankful for movie making technology that put Harry Potter on an IMAX screen for me! And obviously I am blogging right now), but it is uplifting to know that there are alternative "subversive" lifestyles that a discontented person could adopt. I could cut down on my computer usage, for a start. There's also something special about creating things with your hands, and so I continue knitting, spinning and crochet.
(Gonna turn off the computer now)
