I bought myself a watch for Christmas. What I really wanted to do was buy a new battery for my old watch. But the cost of a new battery was $6.41 and the cost of a new BETTER watch was only a few pennies more at $8.88. AND much bigger, I mean a lot bigger. two inches! Big. Fancy! Merry Christmas to me!
I needed a watch. I grew tired of asking people what time it was. I only wear it when I work balloon gigs and when I go to meeting. My new watch really fits my persona better than the old watch which was stainless steel and so GQ. Not the new one - BIG numbers so I can from 18 inches away!
I usually arrive early to meeting. As I sit, my BIG watch shows 9:46AM...I'll sit in my spot and chant quietly. I'm usually the first Friend sitting. I then take in who arrives before 10AM. Yesterday there were 4 people who arrived before 10. A good many walked in right at 10am, for a total of 11 that were "on time".
7 Friends arrived after 10:30AM too. I counted 34 people at rise of meeting. Do the math.
A year ago I would have steamed for the entire hour over these lateness numbers. But not yesterday. Since my decision to expect very little from CFM, I don't stress over lateness or mindless behavior.
BTW: Most the time, the majority of Friends sit after10AM.
So, go ahead Friends, arrive late. Really late Friends. Stomp your feet coming to your seat. Jingle those keys. Dig through that bag. Gurgle that water. Get settled late. Keep your cell phone on vibrate or beep away my Friends. It doesn't matter to me any more.
More to come...
Monday, January 26, 2015
Sunday, January 25, 2015
Au contraire mon fraire!
Now I've the time to write. And there's something that happened at meeting today I wanted to share.
The Christian bucket "Kingdom of God" was swung around the pyramid today in vocal ministry and the J word was used too. I really didn't hear anything else because my brain was frozen on the words Kingdom of God. Funny coincidence; I just finished watching the movie of almost the same title just a few days ago.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Heaven_%28film%29) Great cinematography and set design representing authoritarian secularism with eloquent passion on film. The worst features of religions...fields of blood.
Getting back...what my brain heard first was the "eye of the needle" passage, (Matthew 19:24) the old bible theocratic saw paraphrased; those who are saved are inside the kingdom and those outside will be destroyed.
The zealous point of this share, I think, is all forms of Christianity will cohere nicely together within the walls of the kingdom. Inside we are all brothers and sisters reciting the Our Father together in harmony. Kumbaya. But what about me and Jeff and Martin, the Jews among us?
All this talk about the Kingdom brought back old programming - those who don't believe are second class citizens. Burn!
Au contraire mon fraire! The new pope - Pope Francis to the soul rescue. Open those gates Huffington Post!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/22/pope-francis-good-atheists_n_3320757.html
"The Lord created us in His image and likeness, and we are the image of the Lord, and He does good and all of us have this commandment at heart: do good and do not do evil. All of us. ‘But, Father, this is not Catholic! He cannot do good.’ Yes, he can... "The Lord has redeemed all of us, all of us, with the Blood of Christ: all of us, not just Catholics. Everyone! ‘Father, the atheists?’ Even the atheists. Everyone!"...We must meet one another doing good. ‘But I don’t believe, Father, I am an atheist!’ But do good: we will meet one another there.”
Pope Francis
The Christian bucket "Kingdom of God" was swung around the pyramid today in vocal ministry and the J word was used too. I really didn't hear anything else because my brain was frozen on the words Kingdom of God. Funny coincidence; I just finished watching the movie of almost the same title just a few days ago.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Heaven_%28film%29) Great cinematography and set design representing authoritarian secularism with eloquent passion on film. The worst features of religions...fields of blood.
Getting back...what my brain heard first was the "eye of the needle" passage, (Matthew 19:24) the old bible theocratic saw paraphrased; those who are saved are inside the kingdom and those outside will be destroyed.
The zealous point of this share, I think, is all forms of Christianity will cohere nicely together within the walls of the kingdom. Inside we are all brothers and sisters reciting the Our Father together in harmony. Kumbaya. But what about me and Jeff and Martin, the Jews among us?
All this talk about the Kingdom brought back old programming - those who don't believe are second class citizens. Burn!
Au contraire mon fraire! The new pope - Pope Francis to the soul rescue. Open those gates Huffington Post!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/22/pope-francis-good-atheists_n_3320757.html
"The Lord created us in His image and likeness, and we are the image of the Lord, and He does good and all of us have this commandment at heart: do good and do not do evil. All of us. ‘But, Father, this is not Catholic! He cannot do good.’ Yes, he can... "The Lord has redeemed all of us, all of us, with the Blood of Christ: all of us, not just Catholics. Everyone! ‘Father, the atheists?’ Even the atheists. Everyone!"...We must meet one another doing good. ‘But I don’t believe, Father, I am an atheist!’ But do good: we will meet one another there.”
Pope Francis
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