Worshiping in another Quaker Meeting

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

Vassalboro,
how many times I’ve driven an hour to worship,
even my own home Meeting

sunflowers outside the window
a gray morning
ten of us, now eleven

so many of the surnames from Dover
arrived here and abouts

edgewalkers
part of a message

the Zoom view of the Meeting room
shows only me
surrounded by white walls

“green walling,” a term I just learned
no, a green washing
by conniving corporations

a carpenter tells me of working on the renovations
of the schooner American Eagle

all new to me
but not for long

Is this how A.I. is supposed to improve our lives?

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

I don’t know about you, but I’m finding myself spooked when another social media platform suggests I “friend” someone I know has deceased. It’s not just a one person, either.

It’s even scarier when the next suggestion in their line is a former lover who scooted off from our engagement.

Even if there are some things I’d like to clear up with them, I must admit it’s too late for this round of mortal life. In one case, I was set for reconnecting only to hear she was in the final stages of Hospice care.

Another disturbing reaction to these pitches is the seeing how hard it is to remove an outdated site by anyone other than the account holder. Yes, as I was saying about deceased. Perhaps you’ve been a member of a group that’s run into a similar problem, where someone set up the site and then moved on without leaving the administrative details. Beyond that I’m seeing instances involving people who live alone, or did, and receive no obituary. That’s where I find this can get creepy.

As I said, how about you?

Can we really communicate with the dead?

Shelter-in-place boredom? You kidding?

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

This post was supposed to appear four years ago but somehow it fell through the cracks. With a few tweaks, it retains relevance, IMHO.

Here goes, from back in Dover, New Hampshire:

~*~

Catching up with my dentist, now that his office is open again, we noted our astonishment that so many adults were complaining of being bored during the official shutdown of most businesses, schools, churches, and public services.

Bored? I repeated my adage that boredom is a luxury of the teenage years – most adults I’ve known simply don’t have time for it. Alas, it must say something about the people I associate with. (Well, frankly I find most TV to be boring, but others might say the same thing of the operas I’ve been streaming every night. ‘Nuff said there.)

My dental doc, meanwhile, expressed his gratitude for the time off as “paternity leave” he suddenly had to devote to his two- to four-month-old daughter, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, as well as time to catch up on a pile of desired novels. Not a bad combination.

We also touched on studies of the eye damage being done to children under age two by their extensive use of digital screens. Well, and their need for boredom to allow essential self-exploration, discovery, and growth, too.

On my end, I have to acknowledge how little cash I’ve used since March 11, the last time I went to the bank. Mostly, it’s been plastic, which fortunately hasn’t spiraled out of control.

What did you discover in this period of changed focus?

What’s love got to do with it?

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

In research for my novel What’s Left, I wound up learning about the people we now call Roma. I won’t say how it applied, but it was an eyeful.

For instance.

  1. All Roma are expected to marry – and to another Roma, not an outsider.
  2. In many tribes, the parents arrange the marriage.
  3. Rejection of a formal proposal is considered a disgrace.
  4. Acceptance leads to the negotiation of a bride price to compensate her parents for their loss.
  5. A festive ceremony may follow a few days later, signifying the engagement.
  6. No formal ritual is required as a wedding itself, though some tribes turn the occasion into a multiday celebration.
  7. Wedding gifts almost always consist of money.
  8. After the wedding, the bride is never seen in public without wearing her headscarf.
  9. They settled into the groom’s parents’ home, and cannot move to a place of their own until after the birth of their first child.
  10. The couple cannot refer to each other as husband and wife until their first child is born. Up to that point, it’s only their first names when speaking to each other or about the other in public.

Gee, we haven’t even touched on the death customs and rituals.

Drawn from Gypsy at larp.com.

 

A multiparty political system is predicated on a loyal opposition

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

Its origin, I’ve heard, arose in the Quaker peace testimony of 1662, with its refusal to swear oaths. Before that, political factions were supported by their own armies. The Quakers, or Society of Friends, promised to hold firm to their beliefs and yet not coerce others to their stand. Persuasion was another matter altogether. And William Penn, in the colony of Pennsylvania in the years we knew it as the Holy Experiment, insisted on having at least two candidates for every public office.

The Quakers not only refused to bear arms but also conducted their faith community business by consensus, without ever taking a vote. Minority opinions were respected, often leading to a third solution superior to the original options. This was not, do note, a compromise, seen as the lower common denominator, but rather something superior.

Theologically speaking, we sensed that Christ had a better answer for us, if we would only listen. “Mind the Light,” as we said.

Flash ahead to today’s death grip in the United States, where one party has steadfastly stood to obstruct anything proposed by an administration other than theirs. President Obama learned the hard way that they wouldn’t participate in crafting a third way. And he faced their open disrespect, which continued during President Biden’s term. Just look at the F— Biden flags for confirmation. Or their chants of “Lock her up,” regarding T-guy’s first opponent. Not that they would acknowledge the same for their guy, for far better documented reasons.

The Don Old, as we’ve seen, has significantly worsened the conflict and is threatening to imprison those who don’t agree with him.

The conundrum with a democracy could rapidly pivot on what to do with a disloyal opposition.

This could get very ugly, indeed. Before and after the national election.

Acid test diarist: Ned Rorem (1923-2022)

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

The first I became aware of Rorem was, I believe, through the Paris Review, possibly set as some very wild topography. Oh, the possibilities it presented!

Over the years, Rorem became a classical music composer I knew of vaguely rather than directly. I may have even heard a few of his songs in recital. And then, in Dover, I was gifted his Paris Diaries one Christmas.

Baring his private scribblings to the public did lead to some notoriety for their candor, even snideness, much of it about celebrities in the contemporary fine arts world, yet the gossip also reveals much about himself, intentionally and otherwise.

Wandering through the broken pedestals in Rorem’s pages has been a guilty pleasure for many. These days it can be seen as a history, too.