A Quaker Memorial Day
While much of the U.S. population is involved in or watching Memorial Day events centered on those killed taking part in our wars, I hope Quakers will make room for a different approach to this observance.
A Quaker Memorial Day
Category Archives: Stories-Quaker
More Mysterious Quakers & More Quaker Mysteries
More Mysterious Quakers & More Quaker Mysteries–
Updated: With A Special Book Giveaway (See Below)
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Sample A Quaker Mystery: “Murder Among Friends”
Sample A Quaker Mystery: “Murder Among Friends”
What’s a holiday break good for if not bingeing? Not on booze or pills, but the foods of the season, and then either some classic video — or even better, some good escapist fiction.
Which brings me to A Quaker Mystery: Murder Among Friends.
It’s summer, 1991, shortly after the first Gulf War. A Quaker conference is gathering at a Friends-founded college in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, to see if the various branches can learn to get along. Quaker Bill Leddra has just arrived with Eddie Smith, who’s Clerk of the Lavender Friends Fellowship.
On the way, they listened to a fiercely homophobic radio sermon by the Rev. Ben Goode, an empire-building rightwing preacher based nearby. Goode’s thundering about “taking back America from the perverts” set them both on edge. And then . . .?
Continue reading Sample A Quaker Mystery: “Murder Among Friends”
A Quaker Christmas Story: Candles In The Window
A Quaker Christmas Story: Candles in the Window
– Part I
Abram Woodhouse was late, and he knew it. But even so, as the daylight faded he climbed the path up Castleberg hill on the north edge of Settle.
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A Continuing Quaker Thumbprint on Japanese (& World) History
A Continuing Quaker Thumbprint on Japanese (& World) History
Recently, there’s news about how the Japanese prime minister is about to dump the antiwar provisions of Japan’s constitution — which have kept Japanese troops from fighting in other countries for seventy years.
Hey — what could possibly go wrong?
There have been loud street protests there against this impending change. Good on them.
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For Friendly Summer Reading: Two New Books
For Friendly Summer Reading: Two New Books —
Quaker Stories & Friendly FAQs
#1–
So you know I’ve been interested in Quakers and Quakerism for decades.
I began exploring this interest by writing stories about Friends in 1977.
Beginning in 1989, I was asked to read my Quaker and other stories to campers and adults at Friends Music Camp, at the Olney Friends School in Ohio, where Friend Peg Champney was the founding Director. I’ve been invited back to read more of these stories every summer since.
Now I’ve collected nineteen of these stories in a new book, “Posies for Peg.”
A Quaker Story of Remembrance — and Maybe Prophecy
A Quaker Story of Remembrance –and Maybe Prophecy
Pirates Six, Cubs Three
Sometime in the 1980s.
I wasn’t having a good night. And I hadn’t had a good day. Needleman in the Washington office had called just after lunch. He said they wanted me there, right away. I had to help the boss get ready for a big hearing before the Defense Systems Commission tomorrow. I told him I’d promised to take the kids to a ballgame.
Needleman wasn’t impressed. “They play ballgames in Pittsburgh every night, Nelson,” he said. “We get a chance at a hundred million dollar contract once every ten years, if we’re lucky. This hearing could win it for us. The boss needs your data, and he needs you here to explain it to him. Tonight.”
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Coming Friday: A Quaker Valentine Story
Eating Dr. King’s Dinner – A Moderately Long Holiday Read
On February 1, 1965, I was arrested in Selma, Alabama with Dr. Martin Luther King and 250 others. Here’s what happened that day, and how I ended up eating Dr. King’s dinner.
I – Blocking the View, Blocking the Road
That morning, I was too tense to eat. Keyed up and ready, my thoughts were full of armies marching to battle.
It was February 1, 1965. I was part of a nonviolent “army” – or at least a battalion – set to march in Selma, Alabama that day. Our objective, the territory we hoped to occupy, was downtown, the Dallas County jail; we planned to capture it by getting arrested.
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Yes – January 27. Why I Always Wake Up Screaming On This Date . . .
It’s My Recurring Quaker Nightmare . . . .
All the gory details are here, now:
