@Kathleen: one of the improvements I would make is to be clearer about what I wanted them to end up with at the end of the session. If I get a chance to do it again I’ll get a written paragraph or two out of each of the groups, a sort of draft testimony to present.

As it was, responses were all over the place. Where they had already spent time thinking about an issue as Friends they were very articulate (Relationships group: “Are you treating the other person with respect? Are you honest?”). Where it was a trendy cause they had trouble getting out of the stock individualist answer (Transportation group: “Hybrid cars are good, but it’s even better to use public transportation and ride bicycles.”) Most groups were somewhere in-between and maybe a third stayed close to shore with tautological answers (“X is good except when it’s not”).

It’s all good, of course. The official take-away message is that behaviors can bring us closer to God or push us away, and that it’s okay for a group to set community expectations of behavior. The “medium is the message” message is that there are weird-dressing Quakers who crack open 1843 Books of Discipline to see what they say. Who knows what might stick. This was a blip in a week of late-summer fun and as I left the smell of burning sage wafted out of the dining hall in preparation for the sweat lodge. It was nice being in the space where I played a wacky game of pick-up volleyball game with Kody way back when he was a high schooler!