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48 Windows

• Authored by:
• Billy Jivetti

[This article is abridged from a longer version, which is at: https://westernfriend.org/media/48-windows-campaign-unabridged]

On Wealth (May 2020)

A Vision from 2050

• Authored by:
• Hayley Hathaway

Thirty years ago this spring, we faced a global pandemic. Over the course of just a few weeks, all of our schools shut down, restaurants and bars closed, movie theaters went dark, and tens of thousands of businesses were shuttered because of a contagious virus. We watched real-life horror stories: people dying in hospital hallways, morgues beyond capacity, and a health care system completely unequipped to meet the needs of working doctors and nurses. The formal economy tanked.

On Wealth (May 2020)

Alchemy

• Authored by:
• Roni Burrows

A spoonful of pure gold Needs a roomful of ore:       Dug, crushed, ground,       Reacted, leached, extracted,       Purified with electricity, with fire.

On Secrets (July 2020)

Secret Sauce

• Authored by:
• Jaimie Mudd,
• Daniel Mudd

Sometimes, “our world needs us to share secret delights and the secret recipes that feed our souls. This special soul food is ‘a revealing, guiding and discerning aspect of God’s presence within,’” says Doug Gwyn in Words in Time, Sink Down to the Seed (1996).

On Secrets (July 2020)

Engaged Mysticism

• Authored by:
• john heid

Dear Editor: Thich Nhat Hahn’s Engaged Buddhism offers a worthy moment of reflection on the notion that Buddhist practice is “merely to be” (“From the Editor’s Desk,” May/June 2020). There are innumerable stories of Buddhist “responsiveness” from Maha Ghosananda’s engagement of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia to the enduring presence of Japanese Buddhist monks and nuns at the School of the America’s vigils at Ft. Benning, Georgia; from the epic nonviolent resistance to Chinese occupation in Tibet to anti-nuclear and anti-war vigils around the world. The list goes on. . . One of the Bodhisattva vows is to end suffering, even as suffering is never ending.

On Secrets (July 2020)

48 Windows Are Being Fitted

• Authored by:
• Billy Jivetti

Dear Friends: My story, “48 Windows,” ran in Western Friend, May/June 2020. Through the readership, I received donations from twenty individuals and one Meeting – Kalamazoo Friends Meeting in Michigan. With your support, we raised about $4,000, enough for thirty windows that have now been fitted.

On Teachers (September 2020)

Friendly Spousal Abuse (2)

• Authored by:
• Ann Birch

Dear Editor: The author of “Secrets in the Friendly Home” describes a life uncannily like the one would still be living without a late-life separation and divorce.

On Teachers (September 2020)

Santa Fe Friends House

• Authored by:
• Philip Balcombe

Dear Editor: In response to Tyger Wright’s letter, “Growth Versus Preservation,” July/August 2020, I must express my distress at the impression it leaves that Friends in Santa Fe are insensitive to Quaker values and our inheritance from our beloved Olive Rush. As a visitor to our Meeting, Wright can be forgiven for not understanding the larger context, but our situation is far more complex than the “either/or” choice implied in her letter. The Meeting has struggled with this issue for four decades; the resulting divisions continue to cost us a great deal.

On Teachers (September 2020)

2050 Predictions (2)

• Authored by:
• Hayley Hathaway

My article certainly was an experiment in speculative fiction. I think that trying to create a strong, inspiring vision is one of the most important first steps in making change. Many of our movements have failed because we assumed that general support from most of the populous was enough to make big policy changes, when in fact, it’s usually a small, very dedicated, creative, and strategic group of single-minded folks that make change. I’m motivated by Sunrise Movement and how they are learning from and teaching lessons from the past, while also carrying forward their unique perspectives as young people who literally have no choice but to “Fight for our Lives.”  ~~~

On Teachers (September 2020)

Twenty Nickels Make a Dollar

• Authored by:
• Keith Scott Dickerson

Although I thought I had gone to medical school to become a clinician, it turns out now, twenty-plus years into my medical career, that I actually went to become a teacher. Early on, it became apparent that others viewed me as a good teacher. I did indeed enjoy teaching, so I chose to become a physician teacher of resident physicians and medical students, a role I have filled for the last sixteen years.

On Teachers (September 2020)