Thanks, Claire, Pamela, Amanda, KayR, JohnM, Anita, and Non-theist Friends,
As a further leading in this f/Friendly conversation ...
I went into an independent Apple Mac Computer store yesterday in Berkeley to get a replacement electrical cord since mine has two holes in it which I had patched with electrical tape, and in talking with the person who worked there, she mentioned - in a Mac store - how computers still weren't very friendly (e.g. the file structure etc). I asked about whether she thought voice technologies would change this, but she thought that interacting more with people was the important thing re computing and the internet, and machines. She was encouraging folks, and me in our conversation, to cultivate the people side of life, vis-a-vis computers and machines. I appreciated her perspective (and even teach about inquiring about this social scientifically - http://worlduniversityandschool.org/InfoTechNetworkSocGlobalUniv.html - with a focus on the 1990s when computing was becoming widespread due much to the graphical user interface in browsers, re questions of alienation vs sociality, where, in a Castellian vein, many sociological studies were showing that sociality was increasing online, but in a very decentralized way - think the plethora of social media sites with email today, s well as the distributed information technologies of the internet.
So then I asked the lady, whom I was getting the power cord from, about whether face-to-face group video would bridge the people-machine questions she was addressing. (I also asked whether she felt the same about cars as about computers, re machines and people). And she said she hadn't been in group video before. But that she, working in a Mac store, had gone to meditation workshops in Berkeley on loving kindness (and peoples in the SF Bay Area in 2018 have their own relationships with questions of alienation re work, post the freedom-seeking movements of the 1960s/1970s and related envisioning of a better world / new society) with her partner (a man, she said explicitly), and thought with regards to this loving kindness workshop that people (i.e. people skills, soft skills?) re computing were what are important in life, again re the ubiquitous machines in our lives. In this day and age, who'd a thunk? :) I mentioned something about developing World University and School ( https://wiki.worlduniversityandschool.org/wiki/Nontheist_Friends_(atheist_Quakers%3F) ), and how even re the workshop she had taken, that TEACHING loving kindness online - that is people skills - would be a possibility, and also thought to myself how Quakers have long somehow taught a related kind of friendliness, which they / we sometimes capitalize as Friendliness, and to which we NtFs perhaps add non-theistic thinking to (but different from a Buddhist practice of teaching loving kindness). (I think the owner of this store is both Asian and quite 'Berkeley,' and possibly attuned to the 'spirituality' of Berkeley - re meditation - which has a quite long history itself).
It also occurred to me that Quaker Meeting and Quaker schools have a long history together. Kids sit in Quaker Meeting at Westtown School, and Sidwell Friends' School in DC, for example, and most all of the other Quaker Schools as well. It's part of Friends' education. And I think Quaker Meetings in school settings are learning opportunities for both adults and kids as well.
What I appreciate also about Quaker Meeting - and online especially, having now participated in, and sat in Meeting in, a fair number of online Quaker Meetings - is very similar to what I appreciate about on-the-ground Quaker Meetings / Silent Meetings ... the centering down (a kind of inner releasing action - what I think of a de facto relaxation response), the attuning, the community, friends ... the sharing ... the connecting. And I see, re this woman's thoughts, an opportunity in online N-t Quaker Meetings to even teach or explore further kinds of
Quaker Meeting
Satori experiences
meditation - relaxation response
meditative courses - eg on loving kindness, and other Quaker and NtF themes
Friendly SPICES (simplicity, peace, integrity, community, equality, stewardship)
... as well as centering down, plus.
(As I've mentioned in the past, I have challenges with the 'worship' word re Quaker Meeting, and not only with my NtF leanings).
I also think if an online NTQuaker Meeting were held regularly - Sundays at 9am Pacific Time, for example? - that a few people and NtFs would begin to participate in this, and that this would grow with time. (I'd perhaps do some Yoga asana and breath explorations during this while online as well, unobtrusively). And re World University and School, too, it might be an opportunity even with regard to teaching about NtFs, in and around NtF Quaker Meetings online ... as well as and especially for teaching online friendliness re computing / the machine world we live in ... in group video, for example ... simply by beginning to sit in Quaker Meeting together online, for example, but this could also be a way to bring NtFs together more fulsomely and harmoniously, for those who might be interested. (I'd eventually like to explore facilitating music-making online ... parts' singing in real time, for example, with related learning, and where IT might help ... and as a far-out way to increase friendliness - singing together in parts - SATB - as human information technology itself).
Just adding my 2 cents to this NtFriendly conversation.
Friendly cheers,
Scott
- https://wiki.worlduniversityandschool.org/wiki/Nontheist_Friends_(atheist_Quakers%3F)
- https://wiki.worlduniversityandschool.org/wiki/Quakers_-_Religious_Society_of_Friends
- https://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/search/label/nontheist%20Friend
- https://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/search/label/Quaker
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Hi Pamela, KayR, Amanda, JohnM, and NtFs,
Am not sensing a lot of interest in an online Nontheistic Friends' face-to-face Silent Meeting in the manner of Quakers on this list. If you wanted to explore facilitating one, click on the "New Live Event" from your gmail account here - https://www.youtube.com/my_live_events?filter=scheduled - in the top right of this page, and explore getting into a free Google group video Hangout yourself. Then when you'd like to invite NtFs (Nontheist Friends), send out an email to this list.
Friendly greetings,
Scott
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