Sunday, September 06, 2020
I was a little miffed by how hard it was to feel the spirit in a zoom meeting. This is partly because I am in charge of this meeting, and have to keep a wary eye out for zoom-bombers, etc. It's also because the family computer, which I now use instead of the old one, has a problem of its own whereby the charger doesn't work unless you hold it just so.
But anyway to get back to our meeting, which by the way was Cloud Quakers, I ended up having two messages. the first was one I was brooding about related to an old Quaker greeting, "How does truth fare in thy home?" to which you cannot simply answer "fine thank you." It was the Quakers' attempt at getting away from all falsehoods especially those associated with greeting and such things. I said that this Quaker greeting to me was an example of how hard Quakerism could be - always evaluating your own truthfulness.
Now it later came out that "Authentic" had won the Kentucky Derby, beating "Tis the Law," - well that part didn't come out, but it was interesting anyway. But that reference to a horse and to the Kentucky Derby led me to tell another story, more spontaneous, that was also important.
It so happened that the other night, upon coming home on windy, wooded mountain roads, my son and I decided to stop and see this one skull that had been placed in a tree. We had both seen it the night before. The fork of the tree was maybe five feet high, and lodged in there was a skull which we assumed to be a deer skull.
We drove down from the ridge through the woods at night, all the way down a long, windy, but paved road to near where the tiny sixteen springs bridge is. There it was - the skull in a tree. It eerily reflected the car's headlights in the night. But when we took a good look at it, it was a horse skull! Actually I'm not sure of that, not being an expert on skulls. But it looked to both of us to belong to a horse, not a deer or elk. So we left it alone, and didn't bring it home.
The story kind of spooked out the Quaker meeting, I thought, but it was completely usual for around here. We see a lot of skulls, and a lot of skeletons of larger animals. it would not be unlike some line worker, working on clearing trees from the roadways and power lines, to simply find a skull and place it in a tree. it doesn't really seem all that spooky if you live out here.
Nor does this story even relate to what had been on my mind earlier. It just came. Horses are part of our natural environment. This one was truly authentic.
But anyway to get back to our meeting, which by the way was Cloud Quakers, I ended up having two messages. the first was one I was brooding about related to an old Quaker greeting, "How does truth fare in thy home?" to which you cannot simply answer "fine thank you." It was the Quakers' attempt at getting away from all falsehoods especially those associated with greeting and such things. I said that this Quaker greeting to me was an example of how hard Quakerism could be - always evaluating your own truthfulness.
Now it later came out that "Authentic" had won the Kentucky Derby, beating "Tis the Law," - well that part didn't come out, but it was interesting anyway. But that reference to a horse and to the Kentucky Derby led me to tell another story, more spontaneous, that was also important.
It so happened that the other night, upon coming home on windy, wooded mountain roads, my son and I decided to stop and see this one skull that had been placed in a tree. We had both seen it the night before. The fork of the tree was maybe five feet high, and lodged in there was a skull which we assumed to be a deer skull.
We drove down from the ridge through the woods at night, all the way down a long, windy, but paved road to near where the tiny sixteen springs bridge is. There it was - the skull in a tree. It eerily reflected the car's headlights in the night. But when we took a good look at it, it was a horse skull! Actually I'm not sure of that, not being an expert on skulls. But it looked to both of us to belong to a horse, not a deer or elk. So we left it alone, and didn't bring it home.
The story kind of spooked out the Quaker meeting, I thought, but it was completely usual for around here. We see a lot of skulls, and a lot of skeletons of larger animals. it would not be unlike some line worker, working on clearing trees from the roadways and power lines, to simply find a skull and place it in a tree. it doesn't really seem all that spooky if you live out here.
Nor does this story even relate to what had been on my mind earlier. It just came. Horses are part of our natural environment. This one was truly authentic.
