Monday, December 31, 2007

Beefs (Faith & Practice)

So Quakers typically have this Joys and Concerns segment at the close of M4B wherein the bolder chronicle their thinking out loud in the minutes. I'm proposing we add, if only as a subtype of Concern: Beefs.

A "beef" would be close to a complaint, but not conveyed in a whiny tone, as if powers that be were responsible, but rather with a subtext of "and I will fix this" (i.e. I'm one of the powers that be).

So for example, I have this beef with capitalist coffee shop flatscreens that show all green freeway conditions, what a relief, but then with the next slide you realize this was just a pretty still life advertisement for some tantalizingly off screen subscribers- only service.

In reality so-called "big money" is apparently too cheap to share this information with an anonymous coffee shop public, commuters depending on such information, whereas in some socialist paradise some nebulous Bureau of Public Roads would be better looking out for the welfare of people, giving us the real deal, and winning brand loyalty on the side.

Per our standard Faith & Practice, you needn't go through the M4B recording clerk to register your Joys and Concerns, as in M4W you're free to offer them silently. Here again, beefs might enter the picture, somewhat in the tradition of New Years resolutions, i.e. "I will be more part of the solution than part of the problem on this one."