ways of doing

As a community we are doing several things. First to me is providing a space for people out there to join us, ask what Quakerism is, and get straight answers. We are doing our best to provide for their needs. I am not always sure I can discern their needs, in an online environment.

Second, when they ask for resources, we are piling them on. The people in the meeting know a lot - they know the books, the things to watch, and places to look. Most of these have ended up in my e-mail. My solemn promise is to get to them and put them here; I've been busy and haven't done it. Look for it in the next few posts.

This is partly because the chat became a sensitive place. We copied the chat, a couple of times, because of the resources, and we'd forgotten that the chat was part of the meeting, and we were making an effort not to record the meetings. We are still making that effort. We are not recording the meetings, and we are not copying the chat.

Tonight it seemed we were zoom-bombed; we heard some things that don't really belong in Quaker meeting. I'm not sure if it was maybe just someone's roommate, or someone was bombing us or what. I muted them. There is no place for zoom-bombing in a Quaker meeting.

This may contradict my first-stated objective which is to be there for people out there. Maybe sometimes what they need is a place to come and be themselves and have us not ban them for life. I didn't ban them for life. I simply muted them temporarily, until we could figure out who was making all that noise.

Maybe ten people were there tonight. Many were the usual suspects: from Texas, from Kentucky, from England, from New York City, from North Carolina, from Kentucky, from Mississippi, from Arizona, and from New Mexico of course. I missed a few also, I believe. I didn't mean to ignore you. It gets big and it's possible for people to remain quiet, and get through as only an observer. It is another solemn promise that I will not ignore you, and, insomuch as possible, we will hear from everyone, if they are willing to speak.

The silence, or at least what there was of it, was very nice. Stay in touch!