Abroad

It`s been a dazzling week of travel and culture–a Chinese-Thai wedding, a visit to my godfather for an Italian dinner, the purchase and custom-fitting of a suit, learning about the Thai cats with two colors of eyes (who were in the process of moving to a new location), and now on to Japan (and having seen the cool Ghibli Museum), we`ve been in a lot of beautiful places and enjoying a lot of family time.

Traveling summer

As I set up for international travel this summer (lots of it), I’m debating how to trim down the load to lug around. Thankfully, we bought a Mac Air last summer, so toting the computer will be a breeze, plus photo processing will be simpler with transferring the pics onto the web for sharing (very important for family relations). Gear-wise, everything is much smaller than ever. Nice.

What I’ll miss the most is the Internet access from the phone. It’s back to paper–maps, directions, checking prices and schedules–and no cell phone calls when you’re lost. Ugh. What would be great is if there were free wifi, which would solve a lot of this. I doubt it will be there, though.

And lots of quiet time, just plain not speaking to people and reading a lot–yeah! Thanks to my language deficiency, I’ll be talking on an as-needed basis–fine by me!

Facebook and Twitter: Quaker 2.0 technologies

Today’s Times article on Facebook captures a lot a great insight into the connundrum of web 2.0 and it’s meaning to social networks of the future.  Covering the connective and disruptive power of uniting social groups under one public communication tool, journalist Brad Stone brings the wonderousness of reuniting families who have been long separated or estranged with the tragedy of a exec who Facebooked his way to being fired after he criticized a co-worker.

Quaker plain speech, as translated into our 21st century world, offers itself as a strong way to move between all social networking groups.  Characterized as simple and democratic speech, plain speech doesn’t depend on who you are talking to, but offer something to everyone who hears it.  The simplicity of the message can bring unity between people and remind us that something that is said online should match with what is said in public.  Aren’t they one and the same in today’s interconnected world?

Of course, privacy settings, visibility status, multiple/fake accounts, and development of niche social networking sites can continue our sectionalized online life where speech can remain segregated between groups.  However, interconnections can now be built between disparate areas of online speech via RSS, cross-posting, and other push-technologies (a la “your Twitter is in my Facebook” one-post-to-many-sources solutions) where there were previously fixed separations.  Web 2.0 technologies giveth and they can taketh-away,

Now, more than ever, “let your yea be yea and your nay be nay” (Matthew 5:37) brings bearing to an ever-connecting world.  Quaker plain speech, simple and caring, can bring light where conflict arises, take away the power of “truthiness,” and help build a stronger connection between the inner and outer self.

Headphoneless: connecting to community

As part of a conference on Convergent Friends I went to a few weekends ago, I realized that one of my urban tools, headphones, were getting in the way of my connection to my community.

One of my previous posts mentioned my love, fascination, and complex relationship I have with my noise-canceling headphones.  I fell in love with them and their blessed ability to remove noise, creating a better BART ride, lower the volume on my iPod, and promote a calmer traveling experience.  What I didn’t count on was my disconnection from the world.

Public transit’s great, but I do miss the solitude of the car–listening to the radio or my own mix was a great way to pass the time and educate myself when I was growing up traveling those long Maine-distances between towns on the country roads.  Nowadays, I plug in, walk out my door and have a 30-minute walk/transit to work and do the same thing with headphones and iPod.  But what’s missing?  Why do I continue to isolate myself from others, the same as in a car, while being in community with my fellow travelers?

This idea came to me when we discussed the concept of “Quaker plain”–how early Quakers, in their quest to be closer to God avoided distractions in the physical world.  Clothing became functional, avoiding frills (even shirt collars and belts were forgone for collarless shirts and suspenders), speech became more direct, and other moves toward a simple life so as to give more attention to God.  I realized that my headphones were not creating silence, but creating a distraction from the world, an ability to trade a personal, inward growth and satisfaction over the challenges and beauty the world offers.

One idea that developed from that discussion was having an Internet Sabbath, a day free of digital connection.  I could hear groans in the room.  These days, this is pretty challenging for many young Friends.  But this, in truth, is another distraction.  Yes, a useful tool, but not a necessary one–like a collar.  I’m noticing, however, that there is something developing among young Friends called “New Plain” which this might fit into.

Beyond print: Quakers and the media (revisited)

Well, it’s been a while since I last looked into the topic of Quakers and the media; mainly, I was looking at movies, television, radio and other basic forms (other than print) to find where a person new to Quakerism or a Quaker looking for images of him/herself in the media to help reinforce or discover how the mirror of the media reflects.   It seems like these days, new media forms are challenging the old for eyeballs, multimedia has become more searchable with help from the Internet, and people are moving more toward the online world for actual interaction with media, rather than simply letting it reflect.  Here are a few ways Quakers are making it into the modern media environment (beyond print):

• QuakerQuaker: So here comes QuakerQuaker, revised into a new shape and form, to bring Quakers together online using the social media network of today (aka the Internet).  Lo, and behold, one of the coordinators, Martin Kelley, brought a video camera to the recent gathering of Convergent Friends and captured modern day Quakers for the world (yes, I’m in there too…).
• New York Yearly Meeting Minute on Torture: A quick overview of what a “minute” is among Friends, along with a wide panapoly of Friends reading it back; a great collaborative project for a video
• Penn (of Penn & Teller) speaks out on Quaker atheism: Even serious folks are taking Quakers seriously
• “I Believe” visits Quakers: helpfully, this video shows up in some search results, but can be hard to dig up; nice job with the big picture, Denis Wholey!

This is just a beginning–I’m sure you all have your favorites.  I’m just amazed at the variety of tools (note: Google video, YouTube channels, and even intermingling media using blogs with video streaming feeds).  As Quakers often are underrepresented in traditional media and are, as Martin Kelley said, “little more than a rounding-off error in religious America,” I’m just thankful that I can create a more engaging mental model of modern Quakerism than what’s chosen by the big media to be presented to me.