writing - Quaker Ranter

Quakerly competition?

Martin Kelley — Wed, 13 Feb 2019 20:11:02 +0000

A quick update that we at Friends Journal have extended the deadline for an upcoming issue on Friends and competition. It’s a really interesting topic and I’d like to see some more articles to choose from. In my “Editor’s Desk” post trying to drum up writing interest, I dug through the FJ archives to find previous discussions on the topic. I’ll excerpt a few here:

If you look back through Friends Journal archives, you’ll find warnings against competitive behavior. In 1955 Bess B. Lane of Swarthmore (Pa.) Meeting wrote that schools should “Place emphasis on cooperation, sharing, rather than on competition” and wondered if “competition is being overstressed in our schools.” In 1972, Christopher H. Anderson, then a senior at Wilmington College, had stronger words. He contrasted his Quaker education with public schools, which he said “breed a social conformity, an intellectual blandness and a repugnant spirit of competition.”

If you know anyone who is interested in the topic, please forward this along!

Just a moment…

www.friendsjournal.org

Hey y’all, let’s start a blog!

Martin Kelley — Wed, 02 Jan 2019 19:50:54 +0000

Okay, it’s not specifically Quaker–it’s not actually at all Quaker–but I like the thinking behind Why You Should Start a Blog in 2019 by Ernie Smith in Tedium. Long-time readers will know I usually have at least a post a year in which I blog about blogging. This time I’ll let Ernie talk about the rationales and needs for a blogging culture:

We could use a little momentum. A decade ago, as I was getting started with this, platforms like Facebook took advantage of our desire for a simpler option and used it to silo up our data, lock and key. We lost an exciting blogosphere in the midst of all of this—and the first step towards getting it back is by realizing that ownership should be a first class citizen, whether or not we eventually give away those words, sell them, or keep them close to our chest. A blog that you own, that you pay the hosting bill for? That’s the first step—a form of expression that should be the future (because after all, how awesome is it that anyone can own a printing press?!?) but somehow became the past.

I haven’t been updating this Quaker Daily Read as much as I’d like over the last month or so. That’s partly the result of an early December vacation and then the chaos of late December holidays with the family. I’m sure I’ve missed some great posts that I should have shared but there’s also days when I run through my RSS collection (I use Feedly to follow about a hundred or so blogs) and find nothing particularly fresh or interesting. I’d love to see more of us trading the Facebook dopamine-rush immediacy for some more thoughtful writing and conversation.

https://tedium.co/2019/01/01/2019-independent-blogging-trends/

Humor in Religion

Martin Kelley — Thu, 20 Dec 2018 20:22:59 +0000

I’m a little nervous soliciting Quaker humor but it’s become part of my job description… Friends Journal is devoting a whole issue to “Humor in Religion” next April. The writing deadline is January 7. A frightfully serious list of things we’re looking for is below.

Just a moment…

www.friendsjournal.org

Meeting as Covenant Community

Martin Kelley — Sun, 24 Jun 2018 14:26:15 +0000

Steven Davison, writing in his blog, Through the Flaming Sword:

The purpose of a covenant community is to provide a home for this transforming work. That means that joining a meeting that is a covenant community invites radical engagement with our spiritual lives on the part of our fellow members, who are to be the vehicles for God’s transforming work.

Meeting as Covenant Community

Creativity and the Arts

Martin Kelley — Fri, 01 Jun 2018 09:00:10 +0000

Happy first of the month. The new issue of Friends Journal is up and it’s a great one: Creativity and the Arts. This is actually the first issue on the arts since the magazine went to color in 2013. Here’s a bit of the introductory Among Friends column written by yours truly:

This overt distrust of the arts faded away a long time ago. Today, the sheer volume of creativity among Friends is impressive. When we put out a call for this issue, we had far more submissions than we could possibly print. A dozen more artists told us they would love to write something but were too busy creating to do so at this time. Faced with a bit of a dilemma, we’ve created a sampler: each of the articles in these pages represents a different facet of creativity among Friends.

Throughout the diverse disciplines of visual arts, music, writing, photography, community-based art, and performance art, a common thread harks back to the concerns of those earlier Friends: there’s still a conscientiousness around art.

I’ll talk more about individual articles as we feature them but in the meantime, feel free to leave me your initial thoughts in the comments below. Bummed that you didn’t write anything? The issue on Meetings and Money is looking for submissions.

Just a moment…

www.friendsjournal.org

We don’t need God?

Martin Kelley — Sat, 05 May 2018 17:41:04 +0000

Jeff Kisling responds to the clickbaity Guardian piece about Quaker don’t need God

My experience that ‘conservative’ Friends do believe in God. But I have heard many Friends say they have not themselves had a personal experience with God. I often wonder what that means for their spiritual life. Having been blessed to have had such experiences myself has been so meaningful, in so many different ways, in my own life.

https://kislingjeff.wordpress.com/2018/05/05/we-dont-need-god/ a

What are Quaker Values? Here are some answers.

Martin Kelley — Thu, 03 May 2018 01:05:00 +0000

A new issue of Friends Journal is up online: “What Are Quaker Values Anyway?” The phrase “Quaker values” has become a common way to explain our connection to one another but I wonder if we’re using it too casually (I talked more of “Quaker branding” in an Editor’s Desk post trying to drum up submissions). This issue also has writing from our fifth annual (fifth?!?) Student Voices Project. I’m really happy how the issue came out. You can read much of it online without a subscription:

Just a moment…

www.friendsjournal.org

Have we abandoned all hope for a viral Quakerism?

Martin Kelley — Wed, 25 Apr 2018 22:57:32 +0000

So a curious statistic: so far no one has submitted any articles for the August Friends Journal issue, “Going Viral with Quakerism.” Is this a sign that we’ve all just given up all hope of Quaker spirituality making a difference in the world?

Probably not: there are many issues for which we only get submissions in the last week before deadline (or the week after deadline, which is not to be encouraged). But if you are thinking of writing, or have been meaning to encourage a friend with vision to send us something, then by all means sit down in front of a keyboard.

Also, the issue after that is non-themed. If you’ve ever had any questions for writing a general submission, let me know in the comments or direct message me. I’m writing something about that process this week.

Just a moment…