Recommended reading: Feminist Hulk and J's interviews at Ms. Magazine Blog

Here are links to the three interviews -- two with Feminist Hulk and zir "literary life partner," J, one with J alone -- at Ms. Magazine Blog.  I found that while reading these, I laughed uproariously, nodded, winced, and felt often like I'd found two like-minded souls.

Enjoy!

FEMINIST HULK SMASH EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH MS.!
http://msmagazine.com/blog/blog/2010/06/07/feminist-hulk-smash-exclusive-interview-with-ms/

FEMINIST HULK MEET MS. MAGAZINE: THE SEQUEL
http://msmagazine.com/blog/blog/2011/06/20/feminist-hulk-meet-ms-magazine-the-sequel/

Who's Behind the Mask of Feminist Hulk?  Only the Ms. Blog Knows!
http://msmagazine.com/blog/blog/2011/08/22/whos-behind-the-mask-of-feminist-hulk-only-the-ms-blog-knows/

Feminist Hulk make Stasa happy

You can take that any way you want; but what I'm talking about is, I love this quote:

It’s important to remember that Republican doesn’t have to equal conservative. Palin is an embarrassment for the many intelligent and dedicated Republicans who are tired of their party’s dependence on the far right. In a year when so much of the GOP’s agenda has appealed to conservatives by stomping on women (whether by trying to defund Planned Parenthood’s ability to offer pap smears–in a redundant effort to limit federal abortion support–or by trying to redefine rape), I think there is no greater sign of this problem than the laughable notion that Palin is the best female candidate they could come up with.

http://msmagazine.com/blog/blog/2011/06/20/feminist-hulk-meet-ms-magazine-the-sequel/

This quote is from Feminist Hulk's "literary life partner," J. (Jessica Lawson).

Why do I love it?

It's nuanced.

I've been following Feminist Hulk for a while, and I just finished reading all three of zir interviews with Ms. Magazine Blog.  Feminist Hulk is a fierce feminist, as fierce as I am.  This makes me happy.  And just as Hulk smash gender binary, Hulk smash us/them binary that divides women from each other and people from other people who share values with each other.  This also makes me happy.  (Yes, labels like "Republican" and "Democrat" are at times irrelevant.)   

It takes courage to cut across that either/or divide, whether it's in politics, religion, spirituality, culture, customs, etc. 

At its heart, feminism is about seeing through those artificial either/or divides, back to both/and.

At their heart, so are Quakerism and many forms of Paganism.

Feminist Hulk rock.

(And Feminist Hulk make Stasa happy.) 

All God's Quakers Got a Place on a Committee

We have an event at North Pacific Yearly Meeting Annual Session called Community Night.  It's like an open-mic night, or a a talent show, or a cabaret, but where each performer is a group within the Yearly Meeting: Monthly Meetings, Worship Groups, Preparative Meetings, Quarterly Meetings, the occasional Yearly Meeting committee or two.   

With profound apologies to Bill Staines, here are the results of the efforts of the Songwriting Committee of University Friends Meeting. 



A Place on a Committee

All God's Quakers got a place on a committee
We don't care if you're plain or pretty
You have to be a member for Worship and Ministry
But everybody's welcome on Hospitality

Religious Education is a good one, too
'Cause all our children really need you
Oversight's got a lot of clearness to do
And Building and Grounds has plenty, too

Our homeless neighbors share our worship space
And provide our Meeting with a measure of grace
Social concerns proceed apace
And the dish-washing tends to itself -- NOT!

Please take pity on the Finance Committee
They beg for money and they hardly get any
We value all our other seventeen committees
But nobody talks to Nominating

So we all got together for a Year of Discernment
It lasted eighteen months and it left us in ferment
We talked about our talent and commitments and souls
And how to share our gifts and time and anything we got now

All our Friends got a place in our Meeting
From setting out chairs to standing and greeting
Christian and Jew and Buddhist and Pagan
And all of our potlucks have options that are vegan!


----------------------

Permissions update


The Songwriting Committee had no idea this would be of such interest to other Friends, and is humbled and honored by all the interest that's been expressed.  

After consultation with the Clerk and some of the Elders of the Meeting, I (Stasa) have been asked to say:  

• Performance: Permission granted by University Friends Meeting for use for religious / spiritual performance only, with attribution to UFM for the words.  (We cannot, of course, grant permission from Bill Staines for use of the tune.  His contact information is here.)  

• Links: Feel free to link to this page or to RantWoman's page if you would like to link to the lyrics.  (This page: http://aquakerwitch.blogspot.com/2010/07/all-gods-quakers-got-place-on-committee.html.  RantWoman's page: http://rantwomanrsof.blogspot.com/2010/07/all-gods-quakers-got-place-on-committee.html.)  

Thank you, Friends!

Peterson Toscano: "Jesus Loves You! But I've Heard Rumors"

I am FB friends with Peterson (am I name-dropping?), and I just loved this series of status updates when they appeared. And I loved the comment threads that followed. Because Peterson has such a wide range of friends with such a wide range of takes on what he posted, the comment threads were sometimes just as funny, thought-provoking, and illuminating as the status updates themselves.

In his blog post, "Jesus Loves You! But I've Heard Rumors," explaining this whole process, Peterson writes:

On May 25, soon after I arrived in the England for what would be a six week tour that included Northern Ireland, Wales and Sweden, I began a series of Twitter messages that began “Jesus Loves You!” My hope was to do one a day for 31 days, and I did it! My Twitter is attached to my Facebook status and to this blog, so LOTS of people got to see the updates and especially over on Facebook many people commented adding their thoughts.

Check it out... and I hope you get as much out of them as I did. :)

New playlist: Passover 2009

Passover 2009: Songs from our Seder

12 songs, 36.5 minutes
Name Time Album Artist

• DoDi Li, 4:00, Elkins, Notorious

• Would You Harbor Me, 1:49, Camaradas, Three Altos - Amy Bernstein, Paula Pederson & Sarah Thompson

• If Not Now, 1:47, Roots And Wings, Linda Hirschhorn with Vocolot

• Harmony, 2:14, The Earth Will Turn Over, SheWho

• Not By Might, 2:55, Roots And Wings, Linda Hirschhorn with Vocolot

• Keep On Moving Forward, 4:24, Roots, Rock & Revolution, Emma's Revolution

• Lo Yisa Goy, 3:24, Fire Within, Libana

• Peace, Salaam, Shalom, 2:16, One X 1,000,000 = Change, Emma's Revolution

• Birkat Shalom/Blessing For Peace, 1:57, Full Glory/Songs Of Hope, Consolation, And Joy, Juliet Spitzer

• Esah Eiynai, 2:25, Full Glory/Songs Of Hope, Consolation, And Joy, Juliet Spitzer

• LongHairedRadicalSocialistJew, 3:32, Rocket Science, Hugh Blumenfeld

• Por la tu puerta, 5:56, Live Do Not Immerse!, Broadside Electric

Mid-Winter Gathering 2009 Epistle from Friends for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Concerns

[note: this should soon appear on the relevant page of the FLGBTQC website.]

02/15/2009

Dear Friends General Conference and Friends Everywhere,

We send loving greetings to you with this letter, as well as an invitation.

We are gathered at Camp Adams near Molalla, OR for the 2009 annual Midwinter Gathering of Friends for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Concerns. During our time together, we have been exploring this year’s theme “Faith Calls for Justice on the Same Terms.” On our first evening together, we heard stories from and about our spiritual pioneers (both in modern and biblical times). We spent time in worship and worship sharing. We tended to the business of our beloved community. We participated in interest groups on a variety of offerings including trans and other queer concerns, Walt Whitman, Love Makes a Family, singing and others. On Saturday evening, we were blessed with a one-person play by a member of our community who has written about trans folk in the Hebrew and Christian scriptures. During all of these times, as well as in fellowship around meals, during walks in the woods surrounding the grounds, and in private conversations we found a blessed time to renew our spirits and support each other.

During our meeting for worship with attention to business a letter from the clerks of the 2009 FGC Gathering was read. While we were glad to learn of the work being done to help ensure the safety of our families who are planning to attend this year’s gathering in Virginia, we were also saddened that once again the Gathering is being held in a place where state laws and constitutions have been re-written to take away our civil rights, including freedom of religion and equality. It is with great sadness of heart that we realize how difficult it is becoming for FGC to find a site for the Gathering where this is not the case. More and more, our families fear that they will not be allowed to make medical decisions about their loved ones or they fear that authorities may not recognize their adoptions, civil unions, and legal marriages. We continue to face the nightmare that loved ones may find themselves alone, while we are prevented from being with them at the times they most need us!

We remembered with gratitude that FGC joined with us in creating opportunities for witnessing to the power of God’s Love in our lives and in our marriages the last time the Gathering was in Blacksburg, and that they stood with us and spoke out for us at that time. We also remember with gratitude the loving minute approved by the FGC Central Committee a few years ago affirming “Our experience has been that spiritual gifts are not distributed with regard to sexual orientation or gender identity. Our experience has been that our gatherings and Central Committee work have been immeasurably enriched over the years by the full participation and Spirit-guided leadership of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer Friends. We will never go back to silencing those voices or suppressing those gifts. Our experience confirms that we are all equal before God, as God made us, and we feel blessed to be engaged in the work of FGC together."

We acknowledge and appreciate the many times FGC and our meetings have stood for us and with us by approving minutes of support and acknowledging and celebrating our unions and families. We still have work to do. We are now led to invite you to explore ways you, our meetings and faith communities can walk with us in witnessing to the World what we know experientially; that God’s love is indivisible and is not withheld from anyone or any couple seeking to live faithfully in holy union. Our silence and the silence of supportive faith communities make it easier for those claiming to speak with the authority of faith to insert their religious doctrine into the laws that govern our lives, as witnessed recently with the passing of Proposition 8 in California.

Today we are called to:

• Invite FGC and our meetings to join us in bringing Quakers together to help us all understand what is meant by “that which God joins together.” Many meetings struggle with the issues marriage raises. What are the differences between marriage as a civil institution and as a “God anointed” union? How can Friends help in the struggle for full marriage equality for same sex couples?

• Invite FGC to join with FLGBTQC to consider together how and when to bear witness to our experience as a faith community concerning queer marriage and civil rights in part because many sites (like in Virginia) will give us Opportunities to witness to the power of God’s love in our lives and in our families.

• Invite FGC to convene a Gathering or small conference whose theme would be “Who so ever God has joined together” which would address issues of marriage, family and relationships of all orientations and gender. We would suggest that Friends from all “sides” of the marriage question be invited to participate.
  

• Invite our meetings to provide support committees for LGBTQ members and their families when meetings are discerning whether they can or cannot take their marriages under the meeting’s care or when those Friends are made vulnerable because of faith-based witness around civil and constitutional rights in the wider community.

• Invite meetings to participate fully in civil discussions and legislative activism to help speak Truth of our experience of God’s Love for all. Our work can minister to others as we share our own ongoing process as models for other faith communities. We see this as an Opportunity for our meetings to speak publicly to our deeply rooted experience that God calls us to lives of Love and that Love takes many forms.

• We ask FGC, monthly meetings and yearly meetings to raise up the issues of equality and the ways in which our LGBTQ families are most in danger when they travel or seek help, whatever those meetings’ views on LGBTQ marriage.

We want to affirm to you all the power of the witness that our straight allies bring to our own lives and in the wider community. We do not experience this issue as simply a matter of marriage rights, but as a need to affirm and recognize that it is the richness of diversity that has strengthened and nurtured this country and our faith communities through the ages. Friends have long witnessed to a testimony of equality and we ask Friends to join with us in asking our government for equal protection and equal rights for all people.

God has been joining members of our LGBTQ community in loving marriages and relationships for long before these modern times. We are certain that some day civil laws will be enacted that legalize and recognize LGBTQ marriages and other civil rights. We have faith that God will continue to bless our lives. We have hope that civil rights will be in our life times. We know that Love, radical Love, will prevail.

With love and on behalf of Friends for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Concerns,



Karen Lightner and Neil Fullagar, co-clerks
Friends for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Concerns (FLGBTQC)
(contact info available here)

Not-quite-OT: Scottish Country Dancing

Some of you know that one of the things I am passionate about is Scottish Country Dancing, and that I also teach it. (I, half-jokingly, posted instructions for the dance Wild Geese to the Brigid poetry slam.)

Here is a video (link here) to a group of very ordinary dancers doing an amazing thing -- setting a world record for the number of people dancing together. These are all dances I've done, and the Eightsome Reel is one of my favorites, and which I haven't had the chance to dance in much too long.

Note the intergenerational and social aspects of this! :) Also note the really amazing St. Andrew's Cross that the combined sets make when viewed from above.



And here is a video (link here) to another group of Scottish dancers (country and highland) doing something very clever and very silly...



Enjoy!

Poetry for Brigid, IIa: "Wild Geese," (J8x32) 3C (4C set) RSCDS 24

Dance may be poetry in motion. This "Wild Geese" is a Scottish Country dance, a dance form I love and which I teach. - sm

The Wild Geese (J8x32) 3C (4C set) RSCDS 24

"The Wild Geese" is a 32-bar jig for three couples in a four-couple set, from the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society Book 24.

1- 8
1s+3s set advancing & balance in line, turn partners right hand, 1s cast to 3rd place while 3s lead up to 1st place
9-16
3s+1s set advancing & balance in line, turn partners right hand, 3s cast to 3rd place while 1s lead up to 1st place
17-24
1s lead down & back to 2nd place
25-32
2s+1s dance right and lefts

courtesy of minicrib

"What's this empire coming to?": a politically-correct ancient Roman holiday

More stuff to make you think about perspective. This piece, from NPR, had me laughing out loud. Click here to listen.

What's this empire coming to?

Now they want us to stop greeting people with "Io Saturnalia!" "We have all these different cultures in Rome," they tell us. "We shouldn't offend anyone," they tell us, "We've got to be inclusive."

We've got the barbarians from the north with their tree decorations and their fire rituals. And the weirdos from Gaul, cutting mistletoe with a golden sickle. And the Mithraists, the Zoroastrians, the Isis cults, and, of course, those characters who hang out in the catacombs. "Hail, Winter!" we're supposed to say now.

I ask you, what next: we lose the feast? We stop the Solstice parties? No more honoring Ops, goddess of abundance?

I was buying some greenery down by the Forum the other day, and there's old Macrobius with some Visigoth chick, and she goes, "Gut Jule." And I go, "Hey! In this country, we say, Io, Saturnalia! Maybe you should go back to where you came from." Then Macrobius goes, "She can't, she's a slave."

Whatever.

At this time of year, the Visigoths sacrifice a pig and burn a special log that they dance around, instead of acting like normal people and going to the temple of Saturn.

I swear, I was at this party over at Septima Commodia's house the other day. She always has a Saturnalia party. Anyway, she decorated the place with prickly green leaves. "It's holly," she said, "The latest fashion from Brittania. They all do it in Londinium."

It gets worse.

She had this statue of some goddess from Ultima Thule or somewhere, name of Frigga, sitting right there on the dining room mensa. I mean, this is darned near blasphemous. I'd be scared about what the lares and penates would do if I put that thing in my house. But Septima Commodia just said, "Oh get over it! We're cosmopolitan here." Cosmopolitan. That's what they call it.

Well, by Jupiter, I live in Latium. I'm a Roman. And this empire was founded on the principle that the gods, our gods, must be honored at the appropriate time and in the appropriate way. None of this foreign heretical nonsense or these strange customs from Germania or Hibernia or Palestine. I say, "Io, Saturnalia!" and if you don't like it, you can leave.

~ by Diane Roberts

Snow... snow... and more snow... in Seattle!

So, here we are in Seattle for the year... where I nearly didn't bring my winter coat with me, thinking to make do with layers of fleece, wool, and Gore-Tex. After all, the average low here in December, the coldest month, is 36 F.

I'm glad I brought my heavy coat. First, we had a week where temps didn't get above freezing, with record cold -- mostly in the 20s F, but then we dipped down into the teens. Then, in the last week and a half, we've had three -- count them, three -- snowstorms which have stopped the city in its tracks. As soon as things get moving again, we get more snow. With ice underneath.

It's rather astonishing.

But, this did make for a beautiful Winter Solstice.

Amazingly, some hardy souls did make it to our house to celebrate with us on Saturday night. Getting home was a bit of a challenge for them, but everyone seems to have made it back safely.

Beloved Wife and I live two blocks from the Arboretum, and less than a mile from the Lake Washington Ship Canal. We've had two beautiful walks -- one Saturday night through the Arb (where, at 1:00 am, people were still out sledding!), and one Sunday afternoon through the marsh boardwalk. I will post pictures. :)

We've had several more inches of snowfall since then.

We are well and truly snowed in at the moment. Wow!

Political and religious humor

I've seen this several times now, and it never fails to make me smile:

Barack atah Illinois
Eloheinu melech ha'olam
Hoo-ray p'ri ha-electoral landslide.
Amen.

-----------------

Traditional Hebrew blessing:
Baruch atah Adonai
Eloheinu melech ha'olam
Borayt p'ri hagafen.

Blessed are You, Lord our G-d,
King of the Universe,
Creator of the fruit of the vine.

Feminized Hebrew blessing:

Brucha at elilah,
elohaynu malkat ha’olam,
borayt p’ree hagafen.

Blessed are You, Goddess our Goddess,
Queen of the Universe,
Creator of the fruit of the vine.

"You Can Vote However You Like"

Too cool!

And in the interview, these kids are more articulate than a lot of adults I've heard...

Links:
video
interview

The Rightous Mothers: "Old Fat Naked Women for Peace"

My friend Julie Middleton sent this to me. For more information about this video and The Righteous Mothers, click here.

Fall back: returning to standard time

Next weekend in the US, we will "fall back" -- set our clocks back an hour, returning to standard time from daylight saving time.

For more information, click here.

Why do I care about this? For one, the time the sun rises, the time it sets, and how much daylight there is in between, are part of how I measure the seasons and the time of year. Daylight saving time, I admit, messes with this sense for me; whenever we transition between standard time and daylight saving time, it takes me a while to re-adjust. "Springing forward" is harder for me -- an hour less of sleep, when I'm not much of a morning person to begin with, although I do appreciate the extra hour of light in the evening, when I can truly appreciate it. "Falling back," of course, is easier for me -- an hour of sleep gained back from earlier in the year; an hour of light gained in the morning. On the other hand, no longer having that hour of light in the evening tells me even more emphatically that winter is on Her way, and that Winter Solstice is around the corner.

We're living further north this year than I've ever lived, and we'll have the least amount of light -- the fewest hours of daylight -- on Winter Solstice than anyplace I've lived. But then, on Summer Solstice, we'll have the most...

A good fall to you, and blessed be!

Google, Halloween, and energy-saving tips

So, as a Friend who experiences the Divine through the Earth, I have a concern for ecology.

Right now, I'm entertained -- and pleased -- by Google's energy-saving tips campaign:

"Haunted by high energy costs? Here are some easy ways to save."

Their "Haunted House" takes you through what to do if you are "haunted" by different things ("Ghosts: Hear that eerie moan? That's the sound of warm air escaping up your chimney. Close the flue damper when the fireplace isn't in use"). It's both cute and practical. And their calculator will help you determine both how much money and how much energy you save by the actions you're already taking. Plus, they have an advanced tips section.

Enjoy!

Tongue-In-Cheek Quaker Alphabet Soup: NPR, NYT, and DNC/RNC Quakers

I suppose I should have expected a number of political messages in Meeting for Worship this First Day, after the historic Democratic National Convention this last week, and with the also-historic Republican National Convention coming up this next week. But as you can see, I was nonetheless unprepared for just how many political messages there were this morning!

For some actual, and quite good, information on branches of Quakerism in the US, see the Quaker Information Center's pages on Quaker Branches and Branches Today.

I have realized, both with today's messages in Meeting for Worship, and over the last few weeks of worship, that there really are more kinds of Friends in the US than I had earlier realized.

Oh, I knew about the "Big Three"; and not very long after I began worshipping with Friends, I felt like I could explain them reasonably well:

• Friends General Conference (FGC)
• Friends United Meeting (FUM)
• Evangelical Friends International (EFI)

And during our Mid-Winter Gathering of Friends for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Concerns (FLGBTQC) in North Carolina in 2007, I learned there are commonly considered to be five main branches of Friends in the US; and that in NC and some other areas, there are commonly considered to be one or two more. To FGC, FUM, and EFI, we add:

• Conservative Yearly Meetings (CYMs) -- Iowa Yearly Meeting (Conservative), or IYM(C), North Carolina Yearly Meeting (Conservative), or NCYM(C), and Ohio Yearly Meeting (Conservative) or OYM(C) (not to be confused with Ohio Valley Yearly Meeting, which is FGC-affiliated)
• Independent Monthly Meetings
• Holiness Quaker Churches

There are a few unofficial, unorganized-as-of-yet, kinds of Friends as well:

You may also be familiar with the term "NPR Quaker." This refers to the phenomenon of Friends who rise during Meeting for worship and begin their ministry with the phrase, "I was listening to NPR this morning, and..."

Recently, I've learned of at least two more kinds of Friends, and I expect to encounter another next week.

A few weeks ago, Beloved Wife and I discovered that there are also "New York Times Quakers" -- folks who begin their ministry with the phrase, "I was reading in the New York Times this morning about..."

And today, we learned there are DNC Quakers! These are Friends who begin their vocal ministry with phrases such as, "I was watching a lot of TV this week during the Democratic National Convention, and..."

I think that next week, we will encounter RNC Quakers: "I was listening to so-and-so's speech during the Republican National Convention, and..."

So, to our list of alphabet soup, we add:

• NPR Quakers
• NYT Quakers
• DNC Quakers
• RNC Quakers

...right?

(Yes, I am kidding.)

A day with Our Lady of the Earth and Sky

Our Lady of the Earth and Sky (OLOTEAS) is a non-denominational Pagan church here in the Seattle area that a Quaker Pagan friend of mine is a member of. She invited me to sing with the chorus for their open, public ritual in August, centered around the current state of the global food system.

So first, there was a rehearsal at my F/friend's house last Wednesday. I know and feel comfortable with her, and so it didn't occur to me that I'd be working with a whole bunch of strangers! Folks quickly put me at ease, and we worked hard and had fun.

The piece we were singing for ritual is "Barge of Heaven," which is recorded on Reclaiming's Second Chants: More Ritual Music. (If you click on the MP3, be warned that it's likely to get stuck in your head.) It's a song I've known for years, but never had the chance to perform, or sing in ritual. So this was a neat opportunity. The plan was for us to sing while the participants were doing a spiral dance. (That part, by the way, was way cool to watch.)

"Barge of Heaven" is also, if you really pay attention to the lyrics, a highly suggestive song. While we of course noticed this, it wasn't until one of our on-site rehearsals that we were communally attacked by fits of laughter. We managed to sing through them, which impressed me to no end. :)

Although we were very focused while singing during ritual, once ritual was over, we found ourselves again overcome by silliness, this time with a need to share. We formed a chorus line, singing while kicking in unison and other silliness, with an appreciative audience egging us on and becoming as breathless with laughter as we were.

It's good to be with folks who can laugh about religion and spirituality. And sex.

There were about 70 people in circle, which I understand is slightly smaller than many OLOTEAS events. Ritual was good, and satisfying. (Something which can be a real challenge with large-group, open/public ritual.)

I found myself really glad to be heading to Meeting for Worship the following morning: I needed quiet worship. In ritual, I often find that I want more extended grounding and centering time after raising energy than is customary in a lot of groups, or than other people in circle with me want or need. Another way in which my Quakerliness makes itself known. :)

So, I had a lovely visit with OLOTEAS folks, and plan to visit again. Folks were warm and welcoming, which helped some with that dreaded introvert feeling of being one new person among a ton of strangers who must all know each other (and really well, too). It was also a real gift to spend so much of my day outside in a lovely place.

Overheard at Registration

These days, Beloved Wife and I usually arrive at Friends General Conference Gathering a day early so we can help at Registration the day Gathering begins.

My favorite spot to help out is at the Housing table. This is where people who have problems with their Gathering housing come to get them solved. This presents assorted challenges for us housing volunteers, but we still manage to have a fair amount of fun.

Late in the day Saturday, I'm sitting at the Housing table with the incomparable Barbara A. and another volunteer. The Workshops table is next to ours. Business has finally slowed down, so we're all breathing a little.

A Friend, well-known to all of us, approaches the Workshops table and inquires brightly, "Can you tell me where my workshop is?"

A volunteer at the Workshops table replies as cheerfully as if she hadn't given this answer forty gazillion times to Friends who really should know this by now: "If you look in your packet, it's listed in the Final Program."

"Oh! You actually want me to read that stuff you give me!" the seeking Friend twinkles, clearly laughing at herself.

At which point Barbara intones gravely and severely, "Friends are encouraged to read the Final Program and all other relevant materials in their Gathering packet."

The rest of the Housing and Workshops volunteers try not to crack up.

The Friend who's trying to find her workshop waves her hand and says, "I'm marching in a different Light."

Whereupon we all crack up, and much merriment is had by all.

Not-Zen Kitty

After wrestling for several hours with the budget proposal for Friends for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Concerns, I surfed over to I Can Has Cheezburger to rot, I mean rest, my brain, and found this. It amused me:


Hee.

Seasonal Solstice Salad

This is one of those recipes that is so time-of-year specific that it seems perfectly appropriate that it was our dinner on the summer solstice. Stasa and I went to the farmers' market this morning and found that the first new potatoes of the year were in. We also got a bunch of young beets there, and later at the food co-op I found that they still had local asparagus, although the asparagus season is just about over. I think I probably won't be able to cook new potatoes and asparagus together again until next summer solstice.

Solstice Salad

1 pint young beets (minus greens)
1 pint new potatoes
about 1 pound asparagus
four ounces feta, crumbled
olive oil
kosher salt
pepper

Grease a baking pan with olive oil and roast the beets and potatoes at 350 until done, shaking every ten minutes or so. Remove vegetables one at a time, as they finish cooking. Set aside to cool; once cool, cut into bite-sized pieces if not already small enough.

Wash asparagus, trim ends, and cut in 2 inch lengths. Heat olive oil in a large cast iron skillet until hot (the French say, "let the pan surprise the vegetables.") Add asparagus and about 1/2 tsp kosher salt, saute until cooked through but still firm-textured.

Put cooked vegetables in a bowl and add pepper to taste. Once mostly cooled, add crumbled feta.

The sweetness of the beets, the different sweetnesses of the new potatoes and the asparagus, and the salt of the feta somehow complement each other beautifully, even though this isn't a combination I would have thought of without seeing all the vegetables at the market.

We have been eating a lot of asparagus this spring, usually sauteed in olive oil as it is cooked here. I'm sad that the season is over! I have been in Germany twice in my life, both times during early spring. As a result, one of the few German words I know is Spargel. I mentioned this to a German friend, and she said, "Well, it's an important word!" I couldn't agree more.