A core activity of the evening, in the upstairs apartments, was the matron of the house, resident activist extraordinaire, age 83, taking her supper in the living room, usually doubling as my office, and watching Easy Like Water, Glenn Baker's travelogue / documentary, about Bangladeshis pioneering new ways of coping with global warming, a good example to learn from then. Carol exclaimed several times "this is wonderful!" and gave Glenn really high marks for that movie.
In the meanwhile, we kept getting knocks and / or rings of the door bell, as we were signalling the availability of treats, by means of high end decorations and a bright porch light. The expected result, upon knocking on such a door, is wishes for a Happy Halloween and commercial brand candy.
The actual witches in the house had provided some decorations, JenQ in particular. When I say "high end" I don't mean extravagant. We had customized one-of-a-kind art. I contributed the pumpkin skull at the last minute, well into the evening, debraining it in the kitchen. Check the pictures.
Around this time of year and St. Patrick's Day, we tend to honor non-Christian or pre-Christian (post-Christian) roots. To one Friend I wrote:
A backstory re Witches is my wife's name was Dawn Wicca, and although not a practicing Wiccan (it means "wise woman" -- a chosen name to help her be one) she was quite distrustful of Christianity, but not of Jesus (whom she liked reading about -- a voracious reader). When she felt led to become a member of our Religious Society, she did so in such a way as to leave a clear audit trail (she was a bookkeeper after all): no, you don't have to identify as Christian to be one of "our brand" of Friend.
What do I mean by "our brand"? I mean "Beanite", named for the Bean family that came West, escaping the sweeping evangelism of Iowa that was changing the character of the people. Kinda scary. They founded what was called College Park Association in California.
When it comes to Christmas itself I have my Fourth King ideology (mythology). There's an acceptance of "Festivus" which is "A Festival for the Rest of Us" i.e. not-Xmas is holy too. From the Parliament of World Religions I learned to celebrate "days in common" i.e. it's not essential (to me) to distinguish the various winter holidays in denominational terms. Winter can be a hard time to get through, especially in the farther northern latitudes, a tunnel with precious little light seen at the end, going in. There's some blind faith involved, plus an inability to stop the cycle except by migrating south.
The latter is what Carol is planning when she sees a way open for an entourage (perhaps). Could we get a posse together, for intra-Quaker visitation? Portland Friends are always visiting faraway places but what about Greater LA?
Letting a Western Friend editor do all the work of piecing it together is too lazy for words. We should host some serious meetings amongst ourselves that aren't always following established patterns. Some good might come of it.
Carol's ethnic bias is anti-Halloween as she associates it with cruel taunting and worse by Protestants against Catholics. Her dad was Irish and perhaps this lore came down through that branch.
For me, orange and black imagery, and the hexapent ball (called a "global matrix" by some), go back quite a ways. There's the "skinning a cat" discussion of how to make a flat map from a globe, where said cat would be striped were Princeton colors involved (OSU uses those too).
Safe to say, I have owned it in my own way, but then in the traditional way as well: as a time for "traffic between the worlds". Not about teasing Catholics in this zip code.
Tigers feature in Glenn's movie by the way. Bangladesh is tiger country, all the more reason to scrutinize the action.
Lindsey took off with a bike trailer to pick up her order from Peoples, long in the planning. Our attempts at efficiency as a household might earn us the label Dymaxion in some dimension. That doesn't mean we're without lag, slack or waste. Just that there's some discipline.
Happy Halloween. I think I'll sip some Jack Daniels.
Maureen came buy earlier with an article from Harper's Magazine about high school debate. That was Tara's sport in high school and Maureen knows that and is looking for a Blue House reaction, preferably in writing.
I showed her some opening frames from Resolved, the documentary, just to acquaint her with "spreading" (which Lincoln-Douglas does not do). By the sound of what she read to me, the author's criticisms lay elsewhere. I may have some comments in a later journal entry.
Nirel came by earlier, eluding my sensors. In my "landing space for jets" mythology, she's one of the stealthier, puts down and leaves, refueled and resupplied, before anyone notices. More power to her, another "witch" in this story (or "elvynchyk" if you prefer).
Enjoy your winter scenario (if in the north).
Carol's ethnic bias is anti-Halloween as she associates it with cruel taunting and worse by Protestants against Catholics. Her dad was Irish and perhaps this lore came down through that branch.
For me, orange and black imagery, and the hexapent ball (called a "global matrix" by some), go back quite a ways. There's the "skinning a cat" discussion of how to make a flat map from a globe, where said cat would be striped were Princeton colors involved (OSU uses those too).
Safe to say, I have owned it in my own way, but then in the traditional way as well: as a time for "traffic between the worlds". Not about teasing Catholics in this zip code.
Tigers feature in Glenn's movie by the way. Bangladesh is tiger country, all the more reason to scrutinize the action.
Lindsey took off with a bike trailer to pick up her order from Peoples, long in the planning. Our attempts at efficiency as a household might earn us the label Dymaxion in some dimension. That doesn't mean we're without lag, slack or waste. Just that there's some discipline.
Happy Halloween. I think I'll sip some Jack Daniels.
Maureen came buy earlier with an article from Harper's Magazine about high school debate. That was Tara's sport in high school and Maureen knows that and is looking for a Blue House reaction, preferably in writing.
I showed her some opening frames from Resolved, the documentary, just to acquaint her with "spreading" (which Lincoln-Douglas does not do). By the sound of what she read to me, the author's criticisms lay elsewhere. I may have some comments in a later journal entry.
Nirel came by earlier, eluding my sensors. In my "landing space for jets" mythology, she's one of the stealthier, puts down and leaves, refueled and resupplied, before anyone notices. More power to her, another "witch" in this story (or "elvynchyk" if you prefer).
Enjoy your winter scenario (if in the north).
