Blob Thing says:
Oh yes, I was having a very good time at the Quaker place. Much as I like a good sing and even a dance sometimes I do like the quiet and the worship there had certainly been quiet. I was glad that my person had given me something to read so I would have a better idea what was going on and that the whole thing wasn't just a bunch of people in a room having a nap or thinking about what to have for lunch or whether they should give Henrietta some flowers or some chocolates for her birthday. Knowing that something meaningful might be happening within each of the people there was excellent. And perhaps too there was something happening between them, even though it was so quiet.
Only three people spoke. The first one got it wrong. She started off by saying that she was sure that at that time everyone was thinking about a particular subject. Well I wasn't thinking about it at that time. I was thinking about what I was reading and then I'd looked at people's faces and then I'd started wondering why the worship room contained a piano when the worship didn't include any music. My person told me later that she hadn't been thinking about that particular subject at that time either. Maybe lots of people hadn't been. At that moment she was still thinking about the two words she had spotted in the book I was reading.
It's true that the subject was worth thinking about. A few days previously a Member of Parliament had been murdered and that had touched people. I wonder how much it still touches people. It seems to me that humans are quick to forget and any promises they make to change things are soon left behind when the next event happens. Each tragedy becomes an excuse to not do anything as a result of the previous tragedy. And then very little changes most of the time. And some of those people in parliament even use a tragedy for their own purposes. When everyone is distracted they quietly make a law that would cause an outcry if anyone noticed.
Now, I am autistic but I am quite happy to sit quite still for an hour. I just can. But I know autistic people for whom it would be very difficult. I think my sister Winefride might have a lot of difficulty with it. She would want to get up and enjoy the flowers and the light and the way the pieces of dust play in that light which is something I find intricately beautiful too. Winefride can spend ages watching the light and I know she enjoys it so much. She tells me so in her face and in the manner even though she can't tell me in spoken words. I love my sister. My person says she knows autistic people who say that they wouldn't be able to sit still for the hour, at least not without it becoming majorly painful in their head. They would have to get up and pace around or get really flappy. Or just not be there. And I wonder whether the inclusiveness of Quaker worship could cope with someone pacing and flapping and being gloriously who they are.
Anyway, worship was over and someone said there would be lunch downstairs. We were nearly last to get down to the lunch because my person wanted to take some pictures first. I wanted to go and look at the art work too. I like art work. I like it that there was art scattered around the building. Not just that colour wheel, but tapestries, paintings and lots more. There were even some poems someone had written. They were all sitting on a table as if that person had written their verses and made one copy of each to be picked up by whoever saw them.
I like that Quakers like creativity. The book I was reading was just the first chapter of a big book called Quaker Faith and Practice. It's a good book. Some of it is a bit boring I think, just dull information on how the different meetings happen and how the organisation functions. I don't need to know any of that but I guess it's all very useful and interesting if you are a Quaker - or a Friend as they are really called. The book has an entire section called Creativity. It contains lots of good writing from different people.
I am happy to learn that the Quakers have been able to change. One of the writers tells how the Quaker founder was against all kinds of music because it "burdened the pure life, and stirred people's minds to vanity." Now they see music as important and that for some people it is an essential part of their spiritual lives. I am glad. Another writer in the book says he believes in the "absolute necessity of the arts." If anyone has the book, he's writing in paragraph 21.36. It's pretty glorious. He says the arts "make possible the impossible and reconcile the irreconcilable." Isn't that special?
Gosh I do like this book. It's so much more full of life than other church things I've read. In comparison, Calvin comes across as the dead man he is, the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England seem devoid of the life of God, and even the Catechism of The Catholic Church feels very bland, no matter how well written it is and how well it explains Catholic belief.
Enough about the book. It was time for lunch. Lunch. I like lunch. As we walked down the stairs my person explained that lunch would be simple. Quakers believe in simplicity - at least in their lunches. We would be having bread and soup and cheese and fruit. I liked the sound of that. It was great. We had three different soups to choose from, all of them home made. I chose this one and it was very, very tasty.
And after my bowl of soup and some bread and some cheese I was satisfied. But there was soup to spare and I decided that a second bowl would be very nice indeed and I'd try one of the others. And it was very, very tasty too.
We were sitting with some interesting people. Creative people. One of them did a lot of music performing and some writing. One of the others said that she runs a theatre company for young people and is involved in other theatre things too. My person says that there are quite a few creative people who go to worship in that place. I think everyone is creative. Everyone has the spirit of creation within them and can meet with it, harness it and become creation in the world. It might not necessarily be writing or dancing or painting or music. It might be the creativity of science or the creativity of relationship building or the creativity of running a beautiful social project. But everyone is creative. Everyone. You. Yes, you.
And so I sat with the people around me and I joined my person in chatting with them. It was very nice. I liked it that the silent people upstairs were not silent people downstairs.
After lunch, when it was time to go, I had a little walk round the building. There were lots of pretty things to look and, and a library of interesting books too. There was also a visitor book. I must try to remember to get my person to sign it for me if we go again. The Quakers have a regular magazine. Here it is. the Friend.
I think the advice in this picture is advice that we could all do with hearing, listening to and heeding.
Make time for the friend. Or at least make time for a friend. Friendship is very important. I don't know what I would do without my friends. It would be very lonely. I know that some people haven't got friends and there might be lots of different reasons for that. It makes me sad. So make time for a friend. Maybe make time for someone who is without friends.
One last picture. My person has got lots of pictures to share too but she's a bit lazy and has hardly written anything for her blog in ages so I don't know when or even if she will manage to share her pictures of the meeting house. Outside the back of the house is a little garden. The flowers were so pretty. Once a month they have something called Meeting for Worship for Gardening. Gardening is worship. Meeting is worship. I like that. I like it a lot.
I was really glad that my person had taken me to the Friends' Meeting House. It had been a super, super experience. I don't know that I'd want to go there every week or even join them. But I'd like to visit again sometimes and be among these good people and their religious service that doesn't have sermons. Yes, I'd like to go again.
And at that point Blob stopped talking and fell into silence.
[1544 words]
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