Inconvenienced Again

Faithful readers of this blog (thanks to both of you) may remember that on January 3rd I suffered a seizure that landed me in the hospital for a few days. (See I've been Inconvenienced). At the time it was felt that this was caused by a sudden drop in blood sugar, mainly because a timely jolt of dextrose brought me out of it. It made a certain amount of sense because I am a type 2 diabetic and was taking metformin to keep my blood sugar levels down.

On Tuesday May 26th I suffered a second seizure. Like the first, it took place in my home before I had even risen from sleep for the day. Again the ambulance was called and again I was rushed to the hospital. This time, however, the EMT's measured my blood sugar first, determined that I did NOT have low blood sugar, and did not administer dextrose. I came out of the seizure anyway. So the good news is that my loss of consciousness apparently did not result from low blood sugar. This in turn means that my life was probably never seriously in danger. Further good news, now that a CAT scan, MRI, and EEG have been done, is that I don't seem to have any tumors or internal bleeds that might explain the seizures. The bad news is that I am therefore one of millions of people who definitely have a seizure disorder (or "convlusive disorder") of some kind,but no one knows why. Fortunately there are medications that can prevent such seizures and I am now taking one of them.

Other differences between the two seizures [too much informtion alert for the delicate of sensibility]: this one involved urinary incontinence and also left me sore all over and lame on one side apparently from convulsive tightening of the muscles when it was taking place. In both cases, it took several minutes after emergencing from the seizure for me to remember a lot of mundane facts (such as my address and what day it was) and to orient myself.

Anyway, that's what happened. Not much more to say about it except that I now feel much much better.
- - Rich

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Mel Long: 1947 - 2008

The following was originally posted In July 2008:

Because of an excessively busy and sometimes complicated life, I haven't blogged in quite awhile, and have been procrastinating about finishing some posts on issues that seem important to me.

Right now, though, issues don't seem so important. I feel compelled to say something about Melanie Dee (Mel) Long, a woman whose goodness and vitality very much deserve to be celebrated. Mel died on June 28th in an automobile accident in Brattleboro, Vermont. I learned of this through a phone call from a mutual friend two days later.

I haven't seen Mel in 35 years or more and had only the most minimal contact by mail over the past decade. Yet news of her death came as a terrible blow. To give you a sense of who she was, I am going to draw on a published obituary, a blog item about a memorial for her, and a couple of pieces of her own writing.

The obituary for her was published at the Brattleboro Reformer's website. Lest this obituary someday disappear from the paper's website, I would like to quote it here (minus information on surviving family members that they might or might not want me to quote:
Melanie Dee "Mel" Long, 61, of Brattleboro, died in a car accident on Saturday, June 28. Mel worked as a gardener and pruner in the area and had also done work in the fields of reflexology, massage and dance. She was a regular at the Brattleboro Farmer's Market, offering hand and foot massage. Mel leaves her sisters...her nephew...and nieces. She was predeceased by her parents, Arthur and Dorothy Long. Mel especially enjoyed contra-dancing at the Greenfield Grange. She loved singing and harmonizing, and she played fiddle and guitar. She was deeply drawn to beauty in nature and loved hiking Mount Monadnock, and one of her very favorite places was Sunset Lake. Mel recently said that she loved growing her own vegetables at her new home on Black Mountain Road because it made her feel connected. Mel was very spiritual, feeling one with living creatures, and she had an affinity for aspects of Native American traditions. In the past couple of years she had enjoyed studying and practicing Spanish. She also cared deeply about other women who struggled emotionally as well as financially. FUNERAL NOTICE: Mel's sisters are planning to hold a memorial remembrance/celebration of her in the Brattleboro area at a later date.Friends and acquaintances who would like to come and/or would like to be in touch with her family at this time are invited to contact....


Mel apparently had quite an impact on those who met her at the Brattleboro Farmers' Market, for they held a memorial service for her (separate from the one that is planned by her family as mentioned in the obituary). This memorial was documented at the blog Rara's Market Watch. If you link to this website you will see two photographs from the memorial. One of these photographs includes a picture-within-the-picture of Mel herself. She is the woman in the picture on the white table who is wearing blue and is pointing at or touching her heart.

A number of other things about Mel are illustrated in a letter she once wrote to Communities Magazine. I'd like to quote that letter in full:

Dear Communities,
I was thrilled to discover a magazine about community living--thank you! I was very excited to read "The Reunion of Souls," by Nann Emerson Chase in the summer issue, about a community based on spirituality and in which the focus of relationships was to assist each other spiritually. ... As I read I started to get an uncomfortable sense of a lack of humility in the author, but brushed it off in my eagerness to find kindred souls. I've frequently experienced connections with people from other shared lifetimes and was deeply identifying with the words of the author.
Suddenly I read a sentence that stopped me short: "Here we mean someone of the opposite sex, as we believe homosexuality is not of the divine pattern." I've been "out" as a lesbian for 21 years, and though I'm quite familiar with this narrow kind of thinking, it always startles me coming from people who claim to be spiritually "evolved" ...
It's easy to bring our old beliefs about right and wrong to our new spiritual paths without realizing it. I come up against this again and again as I pray for humility, and for Love to be the strongest force in my life. In this society we learned that self-love is wrong, and so we don't want any part of humility because it feels like self-deprecation. It took me many years to realize that this isn't so. It's an aspect of true love of self, accepting the humanness and fallibility of the ego along with the divinity of each person.
In closing I'd appreciate it if you'd print the address of M.A.I.Z.E., the lesbian country magazine from Serafina, New Mexico.
Mel Long
Brattleboro, Vermont

This letter feels to me like a great example of who Mel was. It certainly illustrates her enthusiasm: After all, her first sentence began "I was thrilled...", the second began "I was very excited...". In the time that I knew her, Mel didn't use those words lightly, though she used them often. She really was "thrilled" and "excited" by people, by ideas, and by the possibilities of spiritual growth. The letter illustrates her lifelong interest in community, and explicitly mentions her "eagerness to find kindred souls."

The way she pointed out that writer of an article "lacked humility" and had "narrow ideas" was typical of Mel as I knew her, in that it was forthright to the point of bluntness, but still kind (Read it again, with all the surrounding material to see how she is seeking points of common ground with those she critiques). Her similar forthrightness about her own sexuality was also typical of her. She believed in her own humanity and dignity and defended the same for everyone else, regardless of their sexuality. She carried a special "concern" (as Quakers would call it) for the rights of women. And finally there are her wonderful and subtly balanced words about Love and humility. I had never heard her thoughts about humility before, and I see that she says it took her many years to come to the view that she expressed.

One other piece of her writing (literally her actual penmanship this time) is at this URL. It is a letter written in 2005 to the Water Resources Panel of the State of Vermont urging some restraints on the size of engines in motorboats in the Somerset Reservoir. "It is so important," she wrote, "to have wildernesslike waters for people to have quiet, solitude and see wildlife. It is also important for the wildlife itself!"

Read full article here...

Talk to an Ecumenical Gathering in NYC

I still intend to post some more about my Meeting's welcome leaflet and the issues related to it. However, my limited energies for writing were diverted for a time into the preparation of a talk I gave at an ecumenical prayer service in the neighborhood of 15th Street Meeting. I thought this talk might be of interest to my blog readers. Here it is:


Greetings to you, my brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus. I am here as a member of the 15th Street Meeting of Friends, also known as Quakers. We are one of the many faith communities in this neighborhood that has endorsed this ecumenical worship service. I am pleased to join with you in prayer for Christian unity. I am grateful to Immaculate Conception Church for hosting this event, and I am grateful to the other participating faith communities for the part they are playing as well.

I would like to say, before beginning my reflection, that I extend my sympathy and condolences to all here who knew Richard J Neuhaus and who are grieving his recent death. I knew him only by reputation: as a respected and sometimes controversial public figure, and as a brave spokesman for the many causes he believed in. Those of you who knew him as a pastor, a spiritual counselor, and a friend must be feeling his loss all the more acutely. May God bring comfort and consolation to you.


I have been asked to reflect on the passage we have read from the prophet Ezekiel. It is a challenging passage, and it addresses precisely the subject we are praying about this week: the need for unity among God’s people. I will recap the passage briefly and then ask what it has to say to us today.

Ezekiel’s message in this passage - - and even more so in many others - - could be called a multi-media message or an audio-visual message. He not only heard a message from God: he also saw and felt it. He not only proclaimed that message to the people: he acted it out and performed it in front of them so that they would not only hear but also see what God was trying to tell them. In other parts of the book of Ezekiel, we learn that he had visions of flying creatures with four wings, visions of wheels within wheels turning in the air, and - - in an earlier part of the very same chapter from which we just read - - of a valley of dry bones which, when preached to, became clothed with flesh and came alive. Ezekiel was a very intense prophet and his message was nothing if not urgent and impassioned.

In today’s text the imagery is a little tamer than that but it is still very vivid. God told Ezekiel to take two sticks. I picture them as long poles. He was to label each stick with the name of one of the tribes into which the Hebrew people had been divided: Judah for the first stick and Joseph for the second. Then he was to join them together so that they would “become one in your hand”. I picture him here as holding the two sticks above his head for everyone to see, holding them end to end with his hand covering the place where they joined, and showing the people that when held that way they appeared as one long stick.

This visual teaching was to be backed up with a verbal explanation. When the people asked Ezekiel what he meant with his little demonstration, Ezekiel was to answer:

Thus says the Lord God: I will take the people of Israel from the nations among which they have gone, and will gather them from every quarter, and bring them to their own land. I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king over them all. Never again shall they be two nations, and never again shall they be divided into two kingdoms. They shall never again defile themselves with their idols and their detestable things, or with any of their transgressions. Then they shall be my people, and I will be their God. My servant David shall be king over them; and they shall all have one shepherd. They shall follow my ordinances and be careful to observe my statutes

.

I am sure that when Ezekiel said and did all this he had the full attention of his audience. I am not so completely sure of how they felt about this message. Were they glad or not? On the one hand, he was promising them the very thing that we are praying for today. He was promising them a restoration of unity. They had been separated from each other and God was promising to bring them back together. They had been scattered among the people of other nations and God was promising to gather them in. They had been conquered and oppressed by foreigners and God was promising to give them back their own land with their own government. This must have sounded like very good news indeed.

On the other hand, this unity and ingathering was going to come at a price. The people were going to have to live by God’s laws again. God saw them as having “defiled themselves” and as having transgressed. They were going to have to change. I remember how eagerly I responded in my youth when Bob Dylan sang “The Times They are a’ Changing.” I also remember they very different reaction of some people in my parents’ generation. Every change that is experienced as a promise to some is also experienced as a threat to others, and perhaps as both to most of us.


What does this passage say to the people of today and particularly to the Christian people of today? Do we, like the tribes of Judah and Joseph, suffer from disunity and division? If so, do we sincerely wish to overcome these problems and are we in earnest when we pray to the Lord for healing, reconciliation and unity? If we are in earnest, do we dare to hope that our prayer will be answered? If it indeed is answered, are we prepared to embrace the changes that God may require of us in the process?

My answer to the first question is “Yes, we do suffer from disunity and division.” It goes almost without saying that this is true of the planet at large. We know that nation still lifts up sword against nation, with horrible consequences for soldiers and civilians alike. We know that social and economic classes are pitted against each other in a struggle for economic survival. We know that there is a growing gap between the poverty of the world’s poor and the wealth of the world’s elites. But what is true of the world at large is also true of our Christian Churches. Not only do our various denominations continue to be separate communities, many of them are also riven by internal tensions and divisions. Nor is this just a matter of honestly holding to different beliefs. All too often, these divisions are characterized by mutual suspicion and animosity. It is not yet universally true that people can tell we are Christians by our love for each other.

My answer to the second question is more hopeful: Yes, we do earnestly desire to overcome disunity and we are in earnest when we pray for reconciliation. There is something within us, no doubt sown in our souls by God himself, which yearns for brotherhood and sisterhood. This is felt by all kinds of people, not just Christians. I think it must be because of this yearning that people all over the world responded so hopefully to our recent elections here in the United States. I know that I myself yearn for Christian unity. I imagine that each of you, looking within, can say the same.

My answer to the third question is tentative, but also hopeful. I think we do dare to hope that our prayer for unity will be answered. God may not go so far as to make the Quakers into Roman Catholics or the Roman Catholics into Baptists. We may still need to put our own signs on the sticks that represent our different communions. But if we are willing to be lifted up by Him and to acknowledge Him as our Living God, it does seem possible that he can hold these different “sticks” together and wield them as one to do His work. What that work may turn out to be, I do not know. Maybe God wants us to become a people who are able together:

• To practice hospitality for the stranger and alien,
  
• To practice peace toward each other, our neighbors, and even our supposed enemies,
  
• To live the gospel in our daily lives, becoming channels of Peace and Reconciliation in the world around us.

How wonderful it would be to find ourselves used in that work, and to be able to give Him praise and thanks for the privilege of serving Him in this way.

As for the fourth question, the answer to that is at this moment still open. Let us hope that we are prepared to embrace the changes that God may require of us. We are by and large a privileged people living in a privileged land. We have been asking a lot from the earth, from our fellow human beings, and from our other fellow-creatures on this planet to support and sustain the life to which we are accustomed. God, in justice, may ask us to change this. If we are excessively attached to the things we own and the ways we live, it may be very difficult for us to accept these changes.

Likewise, our very divisions have in some ways become comfortable for us. We do not have to spend much time with people that we fundamentally disagree with, or even with people whose customs and habits are different than ours. The patience and tolerance it will take to achieve real unity and begin to work together may also be difficult for us to cultivate. My deepest hope is that with God all things are possible. Imperfect creatures though we are, we are nevertheless indwelt by something from God that can teach us, in the words of Quaker George Fox “how to live and what to deny”. We are meant to be in unity with Him and with one another. We are meant to be “one in His Hand”. And by his grace we can be indeed.

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I've been inconvenienced

I haven't worked on my blog in more than a week. I think I would have done so over the past weekend, but on Friday morning I suffered a seizure (the first one in my 61-year-old life) and spent the weekend in a local hospital.

I'm feeling much better now and went back to work today, but I'll be conserving my energies for awhile longer before getting heavily back into blogging. The seizure was apparently due to medication I've been taking for my type 2 diabetes; it (or something) caused my blood sugar to suddenly plummet. Thanks be to God for my wife, Janet, who saw me seizing and called 911.

- - Rich

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As of today, at Least for a While - Brooklyn Quaker will screen comments on this blog.

Friends,

I just added the following comment to my most recent post, and then thought it might be a good idea to also make it a post of its own.


Friends,

I've decided to implement moderation on my blog's comments, at least for awhile. I will review each comment before it appears in order to keep the discussion on topic and - I hope - to keep it civil and respectful.


It may sometimes take me awhile to review comments. I apologize if this is frustrating. If for any reason I decide not to post a given comment I will try to explain why to the commenter. (Provided that I am able to do so that is - I'm not yet experienced in how the moderation system on blogger works).

- - Peace and Friendship,
Rich

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My Meeting's Welcome Leaflet - -

I left a comment on a quakerquaker video yesterday, stating that I think it would be better if we Friends, when doing "outreach" or "advancement", would talk less about ourselves and more about God. The following text is an example of what I think would be an improvement. It happens that I wrote it myself, so bias cannot be excluded. Nevertheless, it has been used at 15th Street Meeting, a famously "liberal" meeting for several years. Currently we make it available both as a handout at Meeting and as a tri-fold leaflet kept on display in a box on the fence around our yard. I'd be curious as to how Friends elsewhere feel about it.

YOU ARE WELCOME TO WORSHIP WITH US

If this is the first time you are joining us – or even if it is not – you may be interested in the following questions about Quaker worship as it is practiced here.

Q: Who or what do Quakers worship?
A: Quakers worship God: the same God who is recognized by Christianity, Judaism, and Islam and worshipped by billions of people throughout the world. Quakers believe that God is a living Spirit who can be known and worshipped by anyone.

Q: What sacraments, forms or rituals do Quakers use in their worship?
A: There are different kinds of worship services at different Quaker Meetings. The kind we practice at Fifteenth Street Meeting is called “unprogrammed worship” or “waiting worship”. Its premise is that God’s own Spirit will guide us in how best to give God the worship God is due. Therefore we do not plan any ceremonies or rituals or prepare any hymns, sermons or prayers of our own devising. We come together in silence and wait for the moving of the Holy Spirit.

Q: What do the worshippers actually do?
A: What we try to do is quiet our minds, open our hearts, and listen to the Spirit. There is no prescribed way to do this. The key is an attitude of expectant waiting and a willingness to obey whatever inner promptings God may inspire. We are also alert to hear the messages that may come to us through our fellow worshippers.

Q: Is there a minister or priest in the Meeting for Worship?
A: Potentially, all are ministers. Vocal ministry occurs during unprogrammed worship when someone present feels deeply moved by God to offer a message to the assembled Friends. The words of the message may be words of praise, thanksgiving, comfort, reassurance, moral challenge, or spiritual insight.

Q: What is the difference between “vocal ministry” and other kinds of speaking?
A: Speaking that does not come from a sense of leading is not ministry. Discussion and debate are not ministry. Friends do not “answer” each other’s messages during a meeting. There is no strict limit on the length of messages, but usually “less is more”. It is easy to “outrun the Guide” when giving lengthy messages.A period of silence between messages offers the needed space for reflecting on what is said. Therefore those who offer messages should be careful not to rise too quickly after someone else has spoken.

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Just asking

When reading Quaker outreach materials, I often find that views are attributed to early Friends without any evidence being offered. No doubt sometimes those views really were the views of early Friends, but sometimes I fear that contemporary writers are projecting their own views back into the past. Here is a case in point, where the truth of the matter is unclear to me. I'd be interested in others' perspectives. (Note: I'm not asking whether the views in question are true or are good theology, but whether they really were, as stated, the views of George Fox and other early Friends).

The Quaker Finder website has a list of "Frequently Asked Questions" about Quakers. One of the questions is "How Do Quakers View Christ". And part of the answer is

Quakerism is concerned with life in this world rather than the next, and has no theology of heaven and hell. George Fox taught that redemption through Christ and the Second Coming should not be thought of as past and future events. Both can only be experienced in the present, as spiritual truth, independent of history. He believed that "Christ has come to teach his people himself," and that we can be as Adam was before the Fall if we open our hearts to the Inward Teacher.

I have the uneasy feeling that this description of George Fox's beliefs is at best a half-truth. I can see from his writings that Fox said Christ has come to teach his people himself and that we can be as Adam was before the Fall if we open our hearts to the inward teacher. I'm not so sure that Fox ever said the Second Coming "should not be thought of as a future event", though maybe he did, and I'd be willing to find that out if someone can provide a quote. I'd be a little less suprised if the word "only" were inserted into this statement, so that it said the Second Coming should not be thought of only as a future event.

As for the statement that "Quakers have no theology of heaven or hell", I would be astonished if anyone could prove this from documentary evidence. It's almost impossible to prove a negative, anyway, of course. But also it seems to me that there are things scattered throughout Quaker writings over the centuries that seem to indicate an interest by at least some prominent Friends in our eternal destiny.

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