3.19.2006

The QHD movie, continued

At the end of the first session of the morning, Peggy and Marge asked us to think big, to dream about what would be the four scenes in the trailer for the movie about the next 100 years of Quakerism. I thought of three in the fifteen minutes allotted for the exercise and one a few days later.
  1. Convergence of Friends from various branches releases energy to build a vibrant Quakerism with children choosing to be/stay Quakers
  2. Quakers take over and implement the 10 year plan to end homelessness
  3. Quaker scientists, engineers and homemakers re-invent new way of life without fossil fuels
  4. In five years, no one in America will say, "I thought Quakers were all dead."
So which one of these is the most likely to really happen? I'd say #1. Because it's already happening. QHD was a great example for me.

#2 is a pet project at our house. Chris M. is involved in developing the plan for the county where he works right now. We have both worked on housing, poverty, and neighborhood development issues for years. I know that other people had their own pet social justice issues that they'd like to see Quakers take on en masse - the public education system was another one of my favorites.

#3 is interesting to me, particularly because of the mix of who I think will have to work on the problem. I don't think that high technology will be able to solve this. I think that individual, practical men and women, people in the householder stage of life, will have to be a big part of the solution. Still this is a long shot. Or maybe not - see one of my very first posts, on The End of Oil
or better yet, read one of the long and eloquent rants by The Earth Quaker, who taught me everything I know about the end of oil.

But #4. This is the one that came to me in my kitchen a week later. I probably wouldn't have thought of it at QHD because I was trying to "think big." And this doesn't seem like such a big goal. But in fact it would be a huge shift. In part this appeals to me because it's possible to point out that this does not actually require "proselytizing." The point is not to convert everyone, or anyone, to Quakerism, just to make sure they know we exist. But the stealth agenda would be just that. I really think that if more people knew about Quakerism, more would want to join.

In any case, this is an achievable goal, anytime we put our minds to it.

Labels:

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

2 Comments:

Blogger Liz Opp said...

Hey, Robin.

Looks like my original comment got lost in cyberspace... around the time that our internet service went down.

Here are two thoughts:

1. Commission theatrical activist and Quaker blogger Peterson Toscano to produce something along the lines of "The Woolman Code" or "Lamb's Wars: The Quaker Menace."

2. Make your own tee-shirt by using something called "word clouds" from your own blog (or someone else's blog or website).

Blessings,
Liz, The Good Raised Up

3/19/2006 4:59 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Robin, I am on board with all four of them, but especially #2 and #3 - I love that our tradition has done so much to help the whole world (sometimes at the expense of our ownselves) and i think we ought to get back in that line of work.

3/20/2006 11:17 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home