Only in Switzerland?

Ich habe mein Komputer en der Eisenbahn vergessen.

In 1985 I took a summer German class. Since that time, I've been able to count to ten and say "I have forgotten my watch." This week that finally came in handy. I was able to adapt that sentence to say, "I left my computer on the train."

Just in case you were wondering, that's a really embarrassing way to start a new job. Hello. My name is Robin. Can you help me call the train station?

Actually, the Swiss railway system has a very efficient Lost and Found department. Everything is sent to the Bern station and is handled there. They have an online claim form. They promise to get back to you within four days. Even so, I wasn't very hopeful of getting my laptop back. My only hope was that the conductor might have picked it up before the next stop. So after two days, I gave up. It's not like a coat that someone might have picked up by accident and not noticed for a week.

But. Being a Quaker and traveling away from home, I hadn't really paid attention to the fact that it was Easter weekend. So the train system was at about half staff from Friday until Monday. They didn't have their usual personnel to manage the Lost and Found office. But on Sunday night, before the four days were up, I got an email saying that they had found an item matching my description and with identification and 20 Swiss francs, I could pick it up in Aarau (where I left it) on Tuesday. I'm not staying in Aarau anymore so I called to ask if they could just hold it at the Zurich station and I would come get it on Thursday. They said yes, they could send it to Zurich but it would have to go back to Bern first and then to Zurich and I wouldn't be able to get it until Friday. So I went to Aarau. It's an extra 50 francs and another hour each way but better to just get it sooner.

Everyone at the FWCC meetings has been very sympathetic and kind. And we are comparing notes on the chances that I would have gotten my computer back in other countries. In San Francisco, I think there might be a 30% chance that a computer would have been returned, but I'm fairly confident that if an item made it to the Lost & Found, it would still be there two days later. In other places, or even on a city bus in SF, it would be even lower. In Switzerland, they have an 80% return rate on lost items that are reported to the railway system.

So besides a tremendous reminder of the potential integrity of human beings, I've learned several lessons.

1. Back up all your files before leaving home. My computer is not new or fast or fancy. The devastating part would have been losing all the files and photographs that are stored on it. Chris copied some of it before I left home, but not everything. There is NO excuse for not doing this. I have to take a deep breath every time I think about this.

2. Have a more explicit check list of items I'm carrying and check when I get off of any mode of transit. I think what happened this time is that I took my purse out of my backpack when I went through customs and so I had one additional item to keep track of on the train and I didn't realize I was missing one until I arrived at my lodging.

3. Start with the online system but then go to the station and talk to someone in person. Swiss railway employees, at least the ones in customer service roles, all speak English. Don't mess around in bad German. Ask for help and look at what they've written down to be sure that it is correct. A black laptop with a case is not the same as a laptop with a black case.

So, all's well that ends well. God is good. All the time.

It Builds Character

Yeah, I mean it like Calvin's dad always says. We use the phrase "it builds character" in our house as a semi-joke, whenever one of us has to do something they don’t want to do, whether that’s emptying the dishwasher or going on a family hike.

Today that phrase occurred to me as I started to look at the photos and blog posts about the QUIP conference in Indiana last week. I tried a couple of times, but had to stop. I am so sad that I couldn’t go. It sounded like it was going to be amazing, both the content and the fact that a lot of my Friends were going to be there. But it wasn't an option for me, and I'm envious, and it's probably good for me to deal with that and learn to get over it.

Part of me is afraid that something really important happened there and I WASN’T THERE. Like now they’ll all be friends and I’ll be on the outside, never quite part of the in-crowd. Really, I know that’s a script from my past and it doesn’t necessarily apply to this experience. But it helps me to admit it. I hope it’s useful to other people to hear me admit it.

I know I have written a lot on this blog about cool experiences that I have had. If I’ve made other people feel bad, I’m sorry. If you went to the QUIP conference, don’t stop posting about it because of me. (As if I had the power to make you, but I hope you know what I mean.) I will want to read all about it pretty soon, and it’s important to document what happened. I hope something important happened last week and that the Publishers of Truth will be stronger for it.

It builds character, both ways.

FWCC 2010, Day 1

Being Salt and Light:: Friends Living the Kingdom of God in a Broken World is the theme of the 2012 World Conference of Friends in Kenya.

Here in the Section of the Americas, we’re considering whether we should drop most of our regular business to spend the next two years organizing a dozen smaller gatherings all over the Americas on this same theme. It would also be in conjunction with the FWCC World Office initiative entitled Mending the World: A Broken Covenant? Friends’ Responses to Global Change. It would be a big change, and it’s not a sure deal yet.

Some of the questions that came up today include basic questions of time and money and priorities. A few of the more interesting questions are:

How will committees continue to function if they don’t meet at the annual sessions?

How can we put the institutional resources (experience, time, organization, money) of FWCC to work supporting the energy of Young Adult Friends rather than trying to create something new?

Is this what God is calling us to do?

[It's only the end of the first day, and I am completely worn out, despite a nap in the middle of the day. The time change, my allergies, other minor ailments, all are depleting my normal energy and cheerfulness. And I still have to go to worship sharing in Spanish at 8:00 tonight. I’m just hoping I sleep better tonight.]

Going to meeting for worship anyway

In the Advices in PYM's book of Faith and Practice, it says, "Come regularly to meeting for worship, even when you are angry, tired or spiritually cold." This is good advice for me, because for the last several months, I have been generally two out of the three on any given Sunday morning. Not so much angry, but just indifferent.

Some weeks I was also sick, or one of my kids was sick, so we did stay home. No where in F&P does it say "Go to meeting even when you are sick." Really, it ought to say, "STAY HOME when you are sick. No one wants to listen to you coughing or shake your hand or breathe your germs." But this is a tangent.

Most weeks I manage to overcome the inertia of my cozy fleece bathrobe and the steady supply of hot beverages and toast that can be found in my own home in order to go to meeting for worship. Why? Not because of the inherent charms of our meetinghouse, which is usually too cold for comfort. Not because I feel enticed by the fellowship of Friends, or because I feel obligated to participate in the life of my meeting.

Lately, I go to meeting because the rest of my family is going. Everybody else is getting dressed and brushing their teeth and getting in the car, so I do too.

And honestly, once I'm there, I'm fine. I find peace and strength and new insights and connections to the Holy Spirit in meeting for worship. I talk to people; I'm friendly to newcomers; I hold babies while their parents eat lunch. You know, the normal community stuff.

But left to my own devices, I'm not so sure I would go. I'm sure I wouldn't have gone this morning. This is really a shift for me. Until recently, I would have said I always want to go to meeting for worship. A few years ago, I wrote a blog post that said exactly that.

Last week, the main insight I had in worship was that all the things that are hard for me right now are fodder for the journey. Learning these lessons IS the point of my life right now.

This week, my main insight was to understand how other people could feel like not going to worship. At least, not to be snotty about it.

And also to acknowledge that sometimes my family is a positive factor in my spiritual progress. Usually I complain that parenting slows me down, gets in the way of the ministry I really want to do. But today I recognized that the discipline I am developing as a parent is good for my spiritual life too.

Thank you God for the many blessings in my life. Even when I am blind to them.

What I'm Reading Now (or Not) -Tenth Month 2008

I miss writing every day. A week or so ago, I had a couple of hours to myself while waiting to pick one of my kids at a birthday party. As soon as I found parking, I went into a local doughnut shop and wrote in my journal for an hour. (Okay, I had a doughnut and some decaf too.) Afterwards, I felt physically lighter. Despite the doughnut. I just felt better for writing. I hope that, as I adjust to the new job and the new commute pattern, I will find time and energy for writing more often again.

And reading. I haven’t had much time or energy for reading anything that wasn’t about child care policy in California, or else written at the level of a fifth or first grader. (I highly recommend the books Guests by Michael Dorris and Triumph on Everest: A Photobiography of Sir Edmund Hillary by Broughton Coburn. I’m not so fond of the Akiko on the Planet Smoo series, but my kids love them.)

However, I made a commitment a few months ago to review books for The Ooze. Ahem. I am a little behind.

I should just admit now that I’m probably not going to read The Becoming of G-d by Ian Mobsby any time soon. Not that it’s not a good book. I’m just not that interested in “What the Trinitarian nature of God has to do with Church and a deep Spirituality for the Twenty First Century.” But if I was going to read a book with a real life interpretation of the Trinity, I would start with this. I think I met Ian Mobsby, sort of, at a Re-Imagine event a year or two ago. He's the Priest Missioner to a group called Moot which he describes as an Anglican Emerging & Fresh Expression of Church.

I am still working my way s-l-o-w-l-y through The Emerging Church by Bruce Sanguin. I was put off by the cheesy author photo and the fancy chart in the middle when I first picked it up, but then for some unknown reason I looked at it again and realized that it’s like a “how to help your existing congregation be more emergent” book of instructions. And interesting. But I got into just at the point when I have no real time to help anything or anyone be more emergent/convergent/religious. And I’m not sure how realistic it is. Like I said, I haven’t had a chance to try any of it. But it sounds nice.

And then today I got another package. A book and a CD. Hey, that’s cool.

The CD is called Evensong Rising. Or maybe that’s the name of the band, or both; I’m not sure.

The album is put together like a worship service. You know, Processional, Adoration, Offertory, Doxology, Preparation, Sermon, etc. I googled Stanwich Church, which is referenced in the liner notes, and it’s the Congregational Church in Greenwich, CT. I think this is the band for their evening service.

The sticker on the shrinkwrap says “Featuring the hit single Satisfied Evensong Rising ignites the Ancient/Future Worship Movement” Who knew? It’s way better than most of what passes as Christian rock. Good production quality. And it’s not all the same tempo, or same genre even. The lyrics are a mix of old hymns and modern twists. Mostly indie rock type stuff. I liked the song “Unto Him” more than “Satisfied.” But then I’m a sucker for a good fiddle line.


But the book. The book is A New Kind of Christian by Brian McLaren. His book from 2001 about the pastor and the science teacher. I’m not sure why it needs a new set of reviews from The Ooze Select Bloggers, but I’m glad to have a chance to read it. Maybe it will work as subway reading, better than some of these other more academic texts I’ve been reading.

Getting Things Done

In honor of my last week of job-free, child-free time, I am getting my home office in order.

I started by checking David Allen’s book Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity out of the library. (I had read about it on Wess Daniels’ blog.)

The good news is that I am already using elements of his system, so it doesn't feel foreign or undoable to me. I expect I will assimilate a few more tips and not worry about working the whole system exactly.

The next step was collecting all my stuff. Which is a project in itself. I have done this before, but not in a while. This meant walking around the house and collecting all the stuff that belongs in my office, pulling everything off the shelves (and out of the file drawers) in my office that isn’t where it belongs, and then writing down all the things I know I have to/want to/might do on separate pieces of paper. This established one giant “in box,” or rather a set of “in” piles which took up almost half the floor of my office. Just that much took most of the morning.

The second half of yesterday plus the first half of today were spent sorting through the piles. Allen has a great flow chart for sorting through “in.” The most important advice was to just start at the top and keep going, although I did cheat a little by first culling out the things that took up the most space or were the most destabilizing in my piles – like books and odd shaped things. My in box is now empty. I made it thus far without hyperventilating or crying, but only by resorting to the aid of sufficient chocolate.

I also spent some time last night clearing out my email. There are still way too many old emails in my inbox, but that will be a longer term project that I’ll have to come back to later.

I like the idea of sorting tasks by where I can do them. I have been working through my list of things that will take under two minutes. That may be the best advice in the book, that I hadn’t heard before.

I still need to move my project files to more functional containers, but I'm giving myself some time to think about that.

Now I have to actually get some of the other things on my task lists DONE.

Cranky at PYM

Maybe next year M&O can schedule an open mic time for spontaneous lectures about sociology and cultural sensitivity. Because I've heard some good ones this year.

Maybe then we wouldn't have to hear them all in meeting for worship.

Just because one speaks slowly in measured tones doesn't make it ministry. At least it's not taking me to a deep place of worship.

Dear Lord, save me from my judgmental mind and from well-meaning but undisciplined Quakers. Please grant me patience, compassion, and wisdom. Help me not to hold it against each new Friend who rises that the last speaker annoyed me. Amen.

[edited 8/4, 11:17 am]

From 600 to zero in five minutes

Six hundred. 600. That would be the approximate number of unread posts in my Bloglines subscription as of this morning. I had no idea it had gotten that high.

So I just went through and clicked on them and they disappeared. I think I read about 10 posts in their entireties. This is my proof that I am not obsessed or addicted to Bloglines. I can just stop whenever I want to.

However, in retrospect, like 30 seconds later, I should have gone through and deleted the ones that I basically haven't read since I subscribed to them. But now they're all at zero, so it doesn't feel so urgent anymore. But I will next time.

92 feeds. That is too much for me. How many do you have?

No rest for the weary

This weekend, I have a Quaker Center Board meeting to clerk, a nominations report to prepare, and a 10th birthday party to bake for. And it's my mother's birthday and then it's business meeting and mother's day and then the ten year old's actual birthday. And I'm in the middle of writing a book review, and a whole backlog of blog posts and magazine submissions half done or still floating in my head, which are going to drive me crazy until I get them down on paper. And next week is the first local evening workshop which is serving as a trial run for part of my FGC workshop this summer. No wonder my housekeeping is veering into the disaster zone.

Feel free to vent here too about your crazy to-do list.

A big lumpy mess o' prayer

I didn't finish the book review I wanted to publish last Friday.

I didn't write the post I wanted to have for today.

I'm still encountering situations where anger and compassion are wrestling for control of me.

My vocal ministry in meeting for worship yesterday was that unlike in writing for other human beings, I don't have to express myself in clear, precise language to bring my problems to God.

In prayer, I can just offer up the whole lumpy mess and say, God, I have this big lumpy mess. And then, often, I feel like God sympathizes with me. Which is comforting.

But in the next breath, I am reminded that God sympathizes just as much with all the other people implicated in my messiness. God already knows, right? God knows all the separate threads of what I did or didn't do or should have done. God knows the difference between my expectations and other people's commitments; what are the facts and what are my feelings about everything. Being able to relax into that sense of being known and loved helps me to tease out the separate threads for myself.

But I don't have to have it all together to pray about it.

I don't even have to know what I mean when I say God sympathizes with people.

Gross Domestic Product

I’m sure that when you read the title some of you were afraid this essay would be about poop or leftover oatmeal or something. But no. It’s about economics.

For anyone who’s not clear, and even I had to look it up to be sure, Gross Domestic Product is generally defined as the total of the monetary value of all goods and services produced within a country’s borders.

GDP is often cited as the main economic indicator of the health of the economy. An official definition of a recession (like the news media and politicians keep talking about) is two quarters in a row of decline in GDP. However, there are some drawbacks to using GDP as the sole indicator of economic well-being of a country.

For one thing, GDP does not account for any of the resource costs involved in that production. For example, many economists, professional and amateur, have written about the fact that the environmental degradation required to produce goods and services is not accounted for.

Another major point of discussion is how to account for the “informal” sector. Goods and services that are produced and distributed but not bought or sold through the ordinary retail system. This might include union carpenters who moonlight as handymen or the people who sell televisions by the side of the road.

One of the largest elements of informal labor is housework. From cleaning your toilet to making dinner to knitting Christmas presents – a tremendous amount of labor and materials are consumed but not accounted for. If you work as a maid in a hotel, that is counted as part of GDP. If you change sheets for your grandmother, even if she slips you five dollars for it, that is not counted.

So why the economics lesson? It’s because I am reconsidering my own economic participation. Over the last couple of years, I have not contributed much to the official GDP. I just did our income taxes and I had none last year. But I did a lot of work.

One estimate of the fair market value of a housewife’s labor would be $138,000. Which does not include the services I provide as a fundraising and organizational development consultant for a number of Quaker organizations. Or writing this blog. (More on that note in a minute.)

At various points in my career, I have felt more and less concerned about the economic value of my work. Over the years, I have earned between $3.35 and $75.00 an hour. I have complained heartily about being nothing but a wet nurse. I have railed against the injustice of the gaps in my career that are associated with child bearing. I have also been really grateful for times when I haven’t had to feel conflicted about staying home with a sick child.

Right now, I’m pretty happy with the mix of homemaking and ministry in my life. I’m managing to both write and make dinner almost every day. I feel like my contributions to my family, my local Meeting and the wider Quaker world are being recognized as valuable even if I’m not getting paid.

Unfortunately, this happy balance is not to last. In 2008, I will need to bring more cash into our household. Why? Because the financial aid system for our children’s school expects that once all your children are in school, both parents will be employed, for money. They can’t make me go to work, but they will adjust our assistance as if I were earning money. So I’m looking for work.

But if I were working 15-40 hours a week on a paid job, I would have to give up some of the other activities that fill my days. Our house cleaning standards, even such as they are, will probably decline. I will have to step off at least one, maybe all five of the Quaker committees I serve on. I probably won’t have time to be costume mistress for my kids’ school plays. Certainly it will affect my traveling ministry with convergent Friends. And this blog will surely suffer.

But I hope my blog won’t die. It has brought me much joy, many new Friends, and provided a discipline of writing that has served me well.

Part of my efforts to find ways to make writing pay was the addition of the Google ads to my blog. I was hoping it would cover the purchase of new reading material. Well, so far, they’re earning about $1 a month. Which is pretty close to covering my actual costs of writing this blog, since I only use free online services. It would just about keep me in pens and notebook paper for the first drafts of my posts. However, Google only sends you a check when you reach a total of $100. So in about 10 years, I’ll get paid back. Ummm, that’s not actually going to work very well. So I’m looking at other forms of writing for a living.

Suggestions are welcome. Prayers are welcome. Sympathetic ranting about the warped economics of family life in postmodern America is also welcome.

Here’s my current prayer:
May God help me to find the right balance of GDP and domestic harmony.

When a committee falls apart

What do you do when something you’ve worked hard to develop, and then let go of, falls apart?

I’m on two sides of that dilemma right now, in two different Quaker organizations. One where I’m agonizing over my former labor of love, and one where I’m picking up the pieces, and feeling bad for the ones who put so much into it before.

Who’s responsible when the clerk of a committee fails to do their work? For real reasons, but still, the work didn’t get done?

And what if you were worried that this would happen all along?

Is it the other committee members? Didn’t they notice that they hadn’t had any meetings or received any emails or phone calls? What responsibility does a committee member have if the clerk doesn’t provide any leadership?

Is it the clerk of the (monthly, quarterly, yearly) meeting? The ministry and oversight committee? Does anybody check to see if all the committees are functioning properly?

Is it the nominating committee who proposed a person who was not capable to the position? All the people who could have done it but said no? The body of the meeting that approved the person?

Me, who had concerns but didn’t say anything, trying to trust the discernment of the nominating committee, knowing that other people had probably turned down the position, and most of all, not wanting to be asked to do it any more?

What if the previous clerk was rightly led to stop? What if the previous clerk stepped out of the way in a healthy and helpful way? Met with the new clerk, gave the new person all their materials, advice, and best wishes?

In both cases, I thought the transition had gone pretty well. I was wrong.

But in one case, I’m still a consumer of the work of that committee. I depend on it functioning. And I’m angry that the situation has come to this.

I’m praying for patience and compassion.

I’m trying to find the right balance between helping where I can and NOT stepping in to solve the whole mess.

I’m trying not to eat a whole batch of oatmeal chocolate chip cookies in my anxiety.

I’m trying to discern what further action I should take. Should I let more people know? Will it all come together in the end? What lessons does God want me to learn from this? Only time will tell.

I’m also trying not to make things worse by writing too much about the specifics here on my blog. But I know that this kind of situation happens in lots of meetings and non-Quaker organizations. Have you handled a situation like this before? Gracefully or badly?

Which Salinger character are you?

Because I'm sick, I'm pretending I'm taking the day off of work. I took an online quiz from a blogger that I read. I might even update my facebook profile. Isn't that what other people do when they're sick?

Which member of J.D. Salinger's dysfunctional Glass family are you?

You are Zooey. You are intelligent, determined, and have a quick sense of humor. You have compassion the lost, broken, and forgotten. Unfortunately, you also judge too quickly and have a tendency to alienate people. Not that you care.
Take this quiz!








Quizilla |
Join

| Make A Quiz | More Quizzes | Grab Code

Well, I did do some committee work already and some laundry too. I think it's time for my nap now.

I voted!

And I know I really live in the suburbs now because I had to drive to my polling place.

Sick, a little bit

A kid with a cold and laryngitis. Me, with a cold and symptoms that are not discussable in polite company. But so many good things happening to write about. Sigh.