PENN VALLEY FRIENDS MEETING
FRIENDLY CONNECTION
Volume 12, Number 10 June/July 2017
Calendar
July 16: Query Seven, Home and Family
July 18: Greater KC Justice Coalition, 4:30 p.m.
July 23: To Be Announced On June 10, Penn Valley Friends gathered in a special session to July 30: To Be Announced discuss the option of offering the AFSC office space, which will become vacant in August, to the Kansas (and by implication August 6: Business Meeting Missouri) branch of CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations. After a fine potluck supper and a spirit-filled meeting, August 13: Picnic and camp- we decided to take this step. Some Friends are currently working fire singing with CAIR on a contract.
August 20: Query Eight, It might be useful to share the vision statement of CAIR: Personal Responsibility CAIR's vision is to be a leading advocate for justice and mutual understanding. August 27: TBA CAIR's mission is to enhance understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and Sept. 3: Business Meeting build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding.
Sept. 10: Alzheimer’s and We feel that our Quaker values are compatable with the CAIR Dementia vision and that we are called to offer a hand to these neighbors.
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What’s inside this issue?
Page 2: June query notes – on Education Pages 3: About this and that Pages 4: Ira Harritt retires Page 5: on God, St. Francis and lawns Page 6: poem; Grandmother, by Ray Young Bear
QUERY SIX – EDUCATION Sixth month, 18th day, 2017
How can we most effectively foster a spirit of inquiry and a loving and understanding attitude toward life? What effort are we making to become better acquainted with the Bible, the teachings of Jesus, our Judeo- Christian heritage, the history and principles of Friends, and the contributions of other religions and philosophies to our spiritual heritage?
In what ways can we encourage an educational process that is consistent with the values Friends cherish? How do gender based expectations affect the goals we set and the way we learn? Do we take an active and supportive interest in schools, libraries and other educational resources in our communities and elsewhere? How do we prepare ourselves and our children to play active roles in a changing world?
Fostering a spirit of inquiry in and out of the Meeting is a wide-ranging process. We address it specifically in Meeting by provided all manner of programs for the adults and First-Day School for the children. Sometimes these deal with Quakerism, some with other religions and often with topics that help us walk in someone else’s moccasins. Bible study before meeting provides a unique approach that may challenge those who have studied Bible elsewhere.
Friends kept returning to storytelling as a way of relating to those who are different from us. In First Day School, Echo (Linda Ray) read aloud the popular young adult novel, Wonder, about a boy who was born with a seriously deformed face and his experiences when he finally emerged from his space helmet and went to school. This story is told from the points of view of many characters and encouraged our kids to carry that kind of inquiry into their own lives. We realized that we must use all our faculties, body, mind and spirit, to stay open to the world in the way some in this excellent book learned to do.
It’s easy to forget that more and more programs are being created that help children and adults approach others with open minds. There is extensive anti-bias work being done with pre-schoolers, for instance, and Scattergood Friends School provides a model of a teenage community of seekers.
We wish we could do more to help our larger education system, and the parents of all children, foster a spirit of loving inquiry in children from birth. This could change the world.
ABOUT THIS and THAT
Grace Pearson at the Climate Rally
Grace Pearson, once a little kid in the Penn Valley First Day School, had her picture on the front page of the Kansas City Star on Saturday, June 3, along with her mom, Kristina, and her grandfather. They were part of a small but well- reported group that gathered at the Federal Building on Friday to express their dismay at the president’s plan to withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord.
The article noted that Sly James, along with many other mayors, has submitted a plan to the United Nations, vowing to strive meet the agreement’s goals on reducing greenhouse gases.
Find the video on the Star’s website at http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article154154784.html
Barb Luetke is writing a historical Quaker novel, currently called Sparrows. Those who have read draft chapters have given it great reviews. Barb writes out of the silence almost every morning from four to 6 o'clock. She is looking for a publisher. Any ideas that are not self-publishing and include distribution are [email protected]
Volunteer Opportunity
Lolly Ockerstrom and Karin McAdams attended a planning meeting on May 19 for the World War I resisters symposium, which is going to be held on the weekend of October 19-22. An exhibit, which will include a replica of the cell in which Brethren resisters were held at Alcatraz, will first be at the World War I Museum, but after the symposium it will move to Rainbow Mennonite Church for a week.
Penn Valley people, among others, have been invited to be guides for the exhibit. On Monday, October 23 volunteers can get an orientation, and then they can choose a night to help. The exhibit will probably be open from 4-8 pm. each evening. This will be a fine opportunity for getting to know other people in the peace community.
IRA HARRITT RETIRES IN STYLE
A full house of loyal and loving friends came to honor Ira Harritt on June 24 as he prepared to retire from the Kansas City chapter of American Friends Service Committee. He has served AFSC with perseverance and imagination for over 30 years, and a variety of speakers, including our own Jim Kenney, told stories of their adventures with him over the years. During supper, members of the Green Spirit Band sang many songs that the seasoned activists in the audience were sure to recognize.
Among Ira’s many accomplishments have been empowering youth through Help Increase the Peace (HIP), supporting racial justice by coordinating the Greater KC Network to End Apartheid and Racism, working for peace in a myriad of ways, including the Turning Combat Boots into Plowshares exhibit and many others, and lately opposing military spending through Move the Money. Right now he is coordinating a new coalition of social justice groups called The Greater Kansas City Justice Coalition. We at Penn Valley Meeting will miss Ira’s energy and inspiration and are glad he’s not leaving Kansas City, at least for a while.
God on Lawns
Imagine the conversation The Creator might have had with St. Francis on the subject of lawns:
God: St. Francis, I am so perplexed. I’m looking down on America, and I wonder what happened to the dandelions, violets, thistle and stuff I started there. I had a perfect no-maintenance garden plan. Those plants grow in any type of soil, withstand drought and multiply with abandon. Their nectar attracts butterflies, honeybees and flocks of songbirds. I thought I’d see a riot of color by now. But all I see are green rectangles!
St. Francis: The suburbanites started it, Lord, and now it’s spread to the cities and even to farmhouses. They started calling your flowers “weeds” and went to great lengths to kill them and replace them with grass.
God: But it’s so boring! It’s not colorful. It doesn’t attract butterflies, birds and bees. It’s finicky about weather. Do they really want all that grass?
St. Francis: Apparently so, Lord. They work hard to grow it and keep it green. They begin each spring by fertilizing it and poisoning any other plant that crops up in the lawn.
God: The spring rains and warm weather will make the grass grow really fast. That must make them happy.
St. Francis: Apparently not, Lord. As soon as it grows a little, they cut it.
God: They cut it? Then do they bale it up, like hay?
St. Francis: Not exactly, Lord. Most of them rake it up and put it in bags.
God: They bag it? Why? Is it a cash crop? Do they sell it?
St. Francis: No, sir. Just the opposite. They pay to throw it away,
God: Now let me get this straight. They fertilize the grass so when it grows they can cut it off and throw it away?
St. Francis: Yes, sir.
God: These Americans must be relieved in the summer when we cut back on the rain and turn up the heat. That surely saves them a lot of work.
St. Francis: You’re not going to believe this, Lord. When the grass stops growing so fast, they drag out hoses and pay more money to water it so they can continue to mow it and pay to get rid of it.
God: What nonsense. At least they kept some of the trees. That was a sheer stroke of genius, if I do say so myself. The trees grow leaves to provide beauty and shade in the summer. In the autumn the leaves fall to the ground and form a natural blanket to keep moisture in the soil and protect the trees and bushes. Plus as they rot, the leaves form compost to enhance the soil. It’s a natural circle of life.
St. Francis: You’d better sit down, Lord. There’s a new circle. As soon as the leaves fall, they rake them into bags and pay to have them hauled away.
God: And where do they get this mulch?
God: No. What do they do to protect the roots in the winter and to keep the soil moist and loose?
St. Francis: After throwing away the leaves, they go out and buy something they call mulch. They haul it home and spread it out under the bushes in place of the leaves.
God: And where do they get this mulch?
St. Francis: They cut down trees and grind them up to make the mulch, Lord.
God: Thank you, Francis, I’ve heard enough.
St. Catherine: Lord, it’s time for the movie! It’s called Dumb and Dumber, and….
God: Never mind. I think I just heard the whole story from St. Francis.
GRANDMOTHER
if i were to see if I heard her shape from a mile away a voice i’d know so quickly coming from ihat it would be her. a rock the purple scarf i’d know and the plastic and her words shopping bag. would flow inside me if I felt like the light hands on my head of someone i’d know that those stirring ashes were hands from a sleeping fire warm and damp at night. with the smell of roots. Ray Young Bear