Today I have two Quaker events via zoom. The first is a fringe event from the Yearly Meeting Gathering which was supposed to be at Bath but is now online; it’s a discussion about Quakerism and politics, which promises to be interesting. Unlike Anglicans who can be very reluctant to ‘get involved in politics’ – though that’s changing to a degree – Quakers have never shied away from political action and have been at the forefront of movements such as the Abolition of Slavery and more recently the anti-nuclear campaign. In fact it was via CND that I first came across Quakers and found them impressively calm and thoughtful.
So that promises to be interesting. The second event is something I’m much less enthusiastic about, ie filling in our safeguarding forms. I’m entirely on board with the need for safeguarding but as for the procedures it’s a bit like doing accounts: yes, I want to know how much money I have but can’t someone else do the figures? In fact I become quite Homer Simpson-ish when faced with these things and start whining, ‘Can’t someone else do it?’ Alas, no-one else can so I’ll have to bite the bullet and fill the damn thing in this evening.
There’s also an upcoming discussion about the Swarthmore Lecture which Tom Shakespeare delivered in August. This discussion has been so long delayed that I’m going to have to listen to the lecture again; I do remember at the time being completely underwhelmed by it. But my guess is that we’re going to discuss the content of the lecture rather than the quality and that it might be somewhat unQuakerly to rant about how unsatisfactory I found it. Anyway, I’ll see what I think when I watch it again.
Apart from that my Nano novel is on track; I’m more than half-way through at 26,000 words and reasonably pleased with what I’ve done. So that’s all good.
Last night I finished watching Small Axe: Mangrove by Steve McQueen. I’ll come to a review of that by and by.
Kirk out
Sarada Gray 