In shame

Carolan is putting me to shame with her artistic and creative blogs.  I'm making progress, though, with my tapestry of a canal boat that she gave me for my birthday.  Appropriately enough, I've been doing most of it while on our boat.  I'll bring it on our holiday next week.  It's great therapy.

Leavy is looking out the window with suspicion.  She doesn't trust anyone any more.  You should see how fuzzy her hair is from the wash she had earlier today.  Leavy and hair-driers don't match so she ended up staying wet.  Pippa was also washed and is sleeping off the exhaustion of it all.

Gerry Ryan

I'm watching the Late Late Show.  They've put on a show that is a tribute to Gerry Ryan, who died suddenly earlier today.  It's amazing to discover who was really friendly with him.  Pat Kenny seems to have been particularly close to him, which is a bit surprising.

Ian did it!

This time last week Ian was sure he wouldn't make a deadline for handing in his dissertation for this coming Thursday.  Today he handed it in, two days ahead of schedule.  Brilliant!

I intended to stick to my schedule of cycling to work twice a week, having started up again only last week.  It was zero degrees this morning, though, so I'm afraid I'm not going to make my twice this week as I need the car tomorrow and Thursday.  I chickened out on Monday as I was too tired from my trip to Dublin in the early hours of Sunday morning to catch a ferry.

The poor seeds in the garden and greenhouse are likely to suffer from the cold nights.  If the volcanic ash falls on us maybe it will be warm enough to heat them up again.  Or, maybe not.....

My thought for the day

Here is what I ended up saying to Yearly Meeting (well, approximately):

I was asked to speak at the first of an open series of evening discussions that we held in Limerick, and spoke under the title “Quakerism – development of thought and action”.  I found I needed to prepare carefully, reminding myself of the Quaker history I have been steeped in all my life.

This reading, and the discussion series, led me to further reading on the people and history of Quakerism.   I realised that early Friends came up with some amazing ideas and practices that have stood the test of time.  Listen to the peace testimony as presented to Charles II in 1660……..

We utterly deny all outward wars and strife, and fightings with outward weapons, for any end, or under any pretence whatever; this is our testimony to the whole world.  The Spirit of Christ by which we are guided is not changeable, so as once to command us from a thing as evil, and again to move unto it; and we certainly know, and testify to the world, that the Spirit of Christ, which leads us into all truth, will never move us to fight and war against any man with outward weapons, neither for the kingdom of Christ, not for the kingdoms of the world.

Would we come up with something like that now?  The words may be old but the spirit shines through.

Over the years our Quaker brethren have come up with all sorts of innovative thought and action that was ahead of their time – in my profession of human resources management I particularly feel we owe thanks to the Quaker businessmen of the 19^th C who thought of the welfare of their workers and introduced pensions, healthcare and the concept of holidays, items we now take for granted. 

That brought me to wondering whether we are set up to support new and creative thinking that challenges our current ways of living.  We seem to spend a lot of time doing business.  Does that sap our energy?  Do we step lightly to business meetings knowing that we will change the world?  I suspect not.

Having said that, I have always loved our business practices – the way we carefully consider items such that we can move on together.  I wonder, though, whether we need to re-think how we carry out our business, and harness our spiritual energies, in our new age of electronic communications.  How should we harness the benefits of technology in communications?

·         Imagine being able to have a meeting without moving location. 

·         Imagine doing this and retaining our Quaker discernment and sense of the meeting in decisions.  European Young Friends hold their committee meetings on Skype.

·         Imagine holding Meeting on the web.  Some isolated European Friends already do this.

·         Imagine being inclusive of all those younger members who find business meetings difficult, or don’t find them practical to attend.

·         Imagine putting our annual epistle into 140 characters on a Tweet and sending it around the world. Would it be read more than our current epistle, and what message would it hold?

·         Do any of you enjoy the Quaker discussion groups on the web?  Or, visit our web site that has so much care and attention given to it? Or, use the Quaker resources on line to find something, or for inspiration?

·         Imagine having a query that dealt with electronic communication?  What would it say?

      Do we think carefully before sending an e-mail, considering the impact on those who will receive it?

      Are we inclusive in our communications, arranging within our Meetings for those who do not have access to e-mails to receive the communication?

      Is everything we send necessary for the receiver?

      Is this the best way to communicate, or should we speak first?

Many meetings send minutes around to everyone by e-mail.  At a recent meeting in London they were looking for e-mail buddies to ensure those without e-mail don’t miss out on communications. 

Some may say that use of new technologies will exclude older Friends, but I believe that we currently exclude younger Friends by not using them.  

Of course it doesn’t make sense to do everything electronically.  We need to meet.  We need the camaraderie and the sharing that happens person to person.  Our whole being centres on the presence in our Meetings.  Something stirs when one or two are sitting in the presence of God.

Maybe, though, our occasions for meeting could be freed up a bit more from business if we used electronic processes more for the routine. 

What would we do instead when we meet?

Our meetings may then be free to consider matters of overall policy and thought, and new ideas.  I particularly enjoyed a recent session in MQM where Cork Friends arranged for us to talk to each other in groups.  I’ve been attending MQM for years and still hadn’t had a chance to have discussions with Friends from other Meetings, always going to QM to attend to business or listen to someone talking to us. 

I thought it would be worth considering what the “Tweet” would be for what I’ve just said – so no more than 140 characters:

Early Friends were inspirational.  Would new technologies free us up to let the spirit shine through?  Are we ready to meet this challenge?

Has spring sprung?

We are warned of a cold week ahead.   I planted all sorts of things this weekend and my greenhouse is almost overflowing with seeds.  I'm going to have to find blankets to wrap up the pots if the promised freeze arrives.  The weekend was so nice and mild, and fresh growth is showing all over the place, so it will be a terrible pity to go  backwards.  I suppose, though, it gives me an excuse to postpone, yet again, returning to cycling!

I really ought to be working on my "thought for the day" for delivering at Yearly Meeting.  There's always tomorrow..

My new car is cool

I had a great weekend in London with Carolan, and visit to Ian in Bristol.  We packed a lot into the weekend.  "Oliver" was great, and I highly recommend it if you are in London.  I made it to the theatre with 1 minute to the start.  That was pretty good going considering that I left Shannon at 5.15pm and flew to Heathrow.  The show started at 7.30pm.

Anyway, on my return home I had to go to a meeting in Cashel in Monday.  I managed to end it early on discovering that my new car had finally arrived and was available.  It is hard to believe that it has green credentials when you look at its size, but I've just bought a tank-full of diesel and the dashboard tells me I should get 1,100 kms from that fill.  We'll see!

Yo to London

I'm going to London tomorrow and am really looking forward to it.  Carolan and Ian, here I come!  Timing is tight as I'm attempting to get from Heathrow to Drury Lane in under an hour, and that's assuming the plane arrives in on time.  I hope to make at least some of the performance of Oliver.

Saturday is Carolan's birthday, and we are going to visit Ian in Bristol.   I've just discovered my "feeds" aren't working and that there was a treasure trove of Carolan's blogs from this week to read.  What fun!

My new car is still not available.  It's next week now, hopefully on Monday evening.  I'm looking forward to getting it.  It's a Skoda Superb Greenline, and is much more eco friendly than my current Honda CRV.  I've enjoyed the Honda, though.