Cafe' Ground Zero

Another beginning, Friday May 25th of 2007

At the library in Jailzburg of Jesting Illy-annoyz, a state of no returns or low returns, depending on your roll of the dice or attitude or both.

Very little time left.  Was visiting Mom in the nursing home, Heartless which used to be Ameri-karma in the north side caddy corner to Cottage Cheese Hospital.  Mom is turning fetal on us.  Not nice to look at but we love her and are trying hard to deal with it, or maybe we are taking shit easy.  Who knows.  Got to go now.  Blog to you later, alligator.

Reading the entire dictionary, systematically

Today's word will be teratology, the science and study of monstrosities or abnormal formations in organisms.

Three minutes past midnight

Is there a muezzin chanting somewhere?  How many people are this minute praying, meditating, chanting, or dancing the tantric dance?

I must to bed hie meself.  Andale' pues.

This day shall be another day. 

Telling the Quaker Stories

What some of you all know as the Quakers, we call ourselves The Society of Friends.  We began in the middle of the 17th century -- that is, 1652.  Back in those days, there was much trouble, much change.  In the established Church of England, it was quite a show and tell. There, as well as in the dissenting churches, what some folk call Protestant, faith was more often than not taken for authority in the Good Book, the Bible, or the declaration of belief in some formal creed or dogmas.  Many folk started to shy away from all this ostentation and "I believes," and strayed away from these sects.  One by one, or in groups, they turned within their own minds in search of a religion of personal experience and direct communion with their Higher Power.
     George Fox had been born in 1624.  He was one of these seekers.  Even as a wee lad, he was a serious one, thoughtful too, often taking the Word of God deep into himself, going away from the world into the quiet to reflect on the meaning of what he had heard.  When he was nine and ten years, or but a year shy of a score, after some had urged him to act in violation of what he felt in his heart to be true to the Word, he decided to leave the home of his mother and father, his own childhood home, so's he could seek the true way.
     For two years squared, he wandereth through the Midlands of England, as far south as London.  And though he did consult with various ministers and professors, what we called those who professed their faith in Christ, not one could help give rest to 'is troubled soul.  Then, at one point, as he recorded in his Journal:

...when all my hopes in (Christian ministers and professors) and in all men was gone, so that I had nothing outwardly to help me, nor could tell what to do, oh! Then I heard a voice which said, "There is one, even Christ Jesus, that can speak to thy condition," and when I heard it, my heart did leap for joy. ...My desires after the Lord grew stronger, and zeal in the pure knowledge of God and Christ alone, whithout the help of any man, book or writing.

So it was that in the year 1647 of our Lord Jesus Christ, at the age of twenty three,  George Fox began to preach the Word.

[Adapted from "Historical Introduction'" from  Faith and Practice, last revised June 2002, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting).

A complex question - but what to do?

by: hajgora7 (28/M/Georgia, USA)

07/03/05 08:14 am Msg: 51 of 51

I've retreated from some of the threads, and plan to abstain from posting while I take a sabbatical. However, I will say this: in the words of my genteel wheel-chair bound friend, an elder from the Maryland Quakers,"It is a pity that those who carry racial grudges, resentments, and hate are responding to injuries or hurts, whether real or imagined, in such a way (as have those such as glaurels, quagmire s., kubla, and big casino) for don't they know that they are drawing to themselves the corresponding hate and fear of those within the racial minorities which will destroy them?" We denounce violence and injustice, and would like that there be a solution which will be just for all, one in which individuals such as quag will not be deprived of economic and social justice. However, there are others who will perhaps not have the patience and clarity to develop a solution which is fair for all. There are those who will respond with a knee jerk impulse to beat down or strike out at what they perceive as a "clear and present danger." Perhaps it is time to talk, before events brew to a boil.

Last Thurday

It was on this day in 1870, in London, Charles Dickens dropped dead at
his chair at the dinner table. He died of a stroke, or apoplexy as it
was called then. He was 58 years old. In the months before he died, he
must have already suffered a stroke--he spoke in his letters of
weakness and deadness on the left side and of not being able to pick
up things with his left hand.

There was an evil spirit at work in the warehouse Thursday morning. 
 We got insanely busy with the labels, the high picks, 
and I beeped my horn frenetically as I sped to accomplish both tasks. 
 "The preacher" tried to minister to me in the midst of a crazy moment, 
and I told him,"Shut up, Don."  He responded,"I'll pray for you." 

I replied, "Look, thanks; I'll pray for you too, but right now, just leave me alone."

Tomorrow is First Day, Sunday

A good time to resume the path.  — Posted 4 weeks ago on 43 Things. 

Again, tomorrow is First Day.  Oh what a joy to have a fresh start each week, at least! As God wills

 

May 07, 07:54PM PDT
Revised today.

The New Life controversy

Here is a thread that is developing on the New Life Church and the Harper's article:  http://post.messages.yahoo.com/bbs?.mm=GN&action=m&board=17926098&tid=christiantopicsandconcerns&sid=17926098&mid=127&n=1

Meeting Place by the Old Live Oak

Meeting Place by an Old Live Oak is still a happening place, although it's had its troubles-- by this I refer to the sidebar which has slipped down to the bottom of the page.  You can still see it, but you have to press your "End" button, or scroll all the way down.  No, not on this blog, G-d forbid.  However, we'll be working on it as much and as fast as time allows, hopefully getting everything squared away by Memorial Day weekend.  Just joking.  Hopefully sooner.  In the mean while, like they say at the Meetings, keep coming back, it works.