When Janie attended NYLF in Washington DC earlier this year, she had occasion
(responding to a question on the subject of religion), to mention that she was a Quaker.
One of her seminar-mates, a young man named Robert from Connecticut,
told her that he was amazed. He thought Quakers were like Okapis, cryptids thought to be lost
in the mists of time, mythical or extinct entities.
Jane, who knows her cryptids (Link) assured him otherwise (although I must say that contemporary Quakerism is something I think George Fox might find it difficult to recognize.)
All this being said, sometimes I worry that my strong, talented, but essentially gentle daughter,
is made to experience fortune’s outrageous slings and arrows a little too
fiercely in what I’m finding increasingly to be an ugly and mediocre time.
When you’re up, they’ll love you to death; when you’re down, they’ll steal your last
breath, the man said with good reason. So, if you’re thinking of messing with Jane,
don’t. I’m conflicted, not as natural a
Quaker as she is, and I will stop you in your tracks and fill your
footprints with cement.
The Move: Don't Mess Me Up (Link)
Hi Curtis, Did Jane visit the Friends Meeting House on Florida Avenue when she was in DC? It is on my route, and I pass the welcoming stone building most days. You frequently come to mind as I drive by. Nell
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately she didn't. NYLF (stands for National Youth Leadership Forum -- it was essentially a week-long high school seminar in national security matters, including military aspects of the subject) was wall-to-wall scheduled. It was a very valuable experience for Jane and exposed her to a lot of information you don't frequently find in a contemporary liberal private girls school. She met kids there from 48 or 49 states. We'd love to see the DC Friends Meeting. Visiting Meeting Houses is generally fascinating. They come in all shapes and sizes. But central to Quakers is the fact that the building isn't the Meeting. The people (members and attenders) are. In Tuxedo Park where it's beautiful gearing up for a kind of arduous summer. Curtis
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