Songs of the Spirit

 

Free for the price of postage

which is about $2.80, anywhere in the US, media mail, if I'm not mistaken. I'll pay for the little brown envelope and the trip over the 8700-foot James Ridge, that I need to make in order to mail it.

It is a Quaker songbook. I got about a dozen of them once, for free, on the understanding that I'd pass them along to someone who could use them. They are still taking up space. My children are not singing Quaker songs, and I'm losing my hearing. I'd be glad to send them along. Write me.

As Way Opens

As Way Opens, new Quaker pop art exhibit

illini shalom quilts

I told the Quakers the story of the quilts tonight - it came up in the context of mixing Quaker and Jewish practice. I am almost done with the first of three Illini shalom quilts, which I will explain, but showing it brought out the story of the original quilt which I will share.
In the 70's, someone gave me about a dozen army shirts. I loved the color which, if you are not stuck on army and army things, is just a kind of dull olive green. The material was soft but extremely durable. But I found that I couldn't wear these shirts, because it triggered returning Vietnam vets and, after all, I wasn't a vet. I'd missed the war because of age although it was also true that I was opposed to it and I think everyone knew that just by looking at me, or knowing me.

So, unable to wear these shirts, I thought it was quite a shame and I waited for an opportunity to use them. The idea came to me to make a swords-into-plowshares quilt and I waited to find the shape of a plowshare and figure out how to do it. I also saved up old jeans figuring that I'd sew the army shirts onto them for my main pattern. My plan was to give it to my daughter who was born in 1978.

But alas, it took me longer than expected, thirty years in fact. One reason was that I really didn't know what I was doing and did nothing to find out. When I was inspired to work on it, I did, sometimes for months at a time, but then I'd put it down, sometimes for years. I lost the idea of the plowshare and in the end did bowties.

It was only when she had a daughter herself that I finally got finished, and that's why it took thirty years. I gave it to the granddaughter, in the end, knowing full well that her mom would have to take care of it. With the next quilt it took eight years but I gave that one to the second granddaughter, who lives outside of Carbondale; that one has Saluki colors, red and black and silver, turning into pink and gray.

Granddaughters three, four and five are all Jewish, and all live in a small town up in central Illinois. Shalom is peace in Hebrew, and is represented by a shin, the letter with the three fingers. I will show this one. By "Illini" I mean it was intended to have a dark blue back, and goldenrod threads, Illini colors, but one uses the best one can get during a pandemic, and this first one is more like blue and gold. The intention is for it to be Illini, so I'm hoping maybe the intention will show through, at least when there are three of them. They will all be different, yet somewhoat similar too.

Most people don't see the shin when they look at it; it just looks like a quilt. That's ok with me, that she will be one of the few that know it's a shalom quilt. She'll still rest knowing that peace lays down upon her like a blanket. It has a history, and she can show her cousins and sisters, who will have one kind of like it. Will show, I promise.

Quaker in times of Zoom renaissance

I have had some success with Cloud Quakers. I can now count on about a dozen people weekly and most of them are regulars. We have a community. We have agitation for more of the things that meetings offer - social hour, Quaker introspection, discussion of Quaker topics. I am inclined to go with the need, but I'm busy; I have at least four grown kids in a pandemic and a shelter-in-place order statewide (New Mexico) to deal with (these are teenagers, hard to keep shut in at home).

I have said repeatedly, I was mostly interested in having one good meeting (my own closest meeting is 30 miles through the mountains, down 5000 feet, through White Sands and Tularosa Basin desert, up another range of mountains, ~120 miles total to Las Cruces, too far). I have one good meeting. Though I am kind of an entrepreneur, and eager to jump on the situation to the benefit of Quakerism, I haven't really. I've been too busy.

But this may change. People want what Quaker meetings give. We are Quakers, and need community. If you have people to practice your religion with, you have a religion; otherwise you just have yourself, trying to live a good and decent life. We support each other in living by the testimonies - by integrating peace and justice and non-violence into our daily actions - and our communities are a vital part of that equation.

Lately a Spanish-language Quaker zoom has started. I am overjoyed, and hope that it catches on. I think it will. I think there's lots of room on zoom for us Quakers, and the sooner we get up there, the better Quakerism will be.