Home of the Wanderer

There are three crucial issues I believe to be facing us in the world right now, and they are, as I have lately been discussing with some of my close friends, all closely interlinked.

One is our reliance on hard power to dominate the world – the good news is that this will eventually destroy us, if we continue in this path, just as it did the Soviet Union in the cold war. The bad news is that, on the way, there will be tremendous human suffering. The worse news is that we face other another more pressing issue. Read the rest of this entry »

Robin Mohr’s recent comment brought to mind a question that has been with me in recent years: does anyone wait for the results of a clearness process before deciding that they are getting married? Given the number of happy marriages with which I am acquainted that seem not to have done so, is it necessary? Have we ever, as a Society, had this as a practice?

From what I’ve seen, such discipline would seem to be a thing of legend. And then I consider a couple who called off their wedding plans twice before finally (after ten years, I believe, and on the third attempt) getting clearness to marry. It was hard for them, but I believe they both consider it to have been appropriate to wait. Read the rest of this entry »

For lunch, I finished the final bowl of last week’s soup, and started pondering what to make this week.

I pulled out my spreadsheet of local seasonal foods, and started looking through the protein section. Since I knew I’d be sharing the meal with a pesca-vegetarian, I ignored most of the meat, and my own allergy to mushrooms left many other local protein sources off the menu. Thus, I was down to seafood, and I thought – hey, why not make a clam chowder?

So I did, but without any clams. The store had none. Instead, I used cod.

And I didn’t exactly follow Mark Bittman’s recipe, either. Nor did I follow this (inspiring) recipe. I knew I wanted to make another mirepoix, though, and that this time I wanted to do a white mirepoix (with parsnips instead of carrots, to keep the broth clear). So I went and got parsnips, celery, an onion, a leek, a few potatoes, some parsley, and the cod.

After washing, peeling, and cutting everything, and starting the stock brewing, I sautéed the various veggies together “until the onions [were] transluscent and the potatoes [started] to brown.” I added the broth, and simmered it all together, the broth barely covering the rest.

It was fun to watch the potatoes disintegrate into the chowder.

Five minutes before dinner was due to be served, I added the cod. Immediately before serving, I added the cream (actually, Silk creamer), salt, and pepper. I very nearly forgot the parsley, and I’m glad that I didn’t because it was absolutely essential to the flavor of the food.

I took a bunch of pictures, but I haven’t yet figured out which wordpress plugin I want to use for photoblogging.

“Quaker Dating” by Betsy Blake | QuakerYouth

I would *totally* sign up for a Quaker dating site. As a matter of fact, I have. I’m not convinced yet about http://www.quakersingles.org – they have 65 registered users, and no way to filter search results by age or location. In the meanwhile, I’m using http://www.okcupid.com (where I’m registered as heaventwig).

I’ve been thinking, for a couple of years now, about a Young Adult Friends (YAF) workshop on Quaker romance. I was hoping this blog post might talk about such a thing, or try to address some of the questions that come up for me about what it means to date as a Friend. I guess you did that to some extent in raising the issues of discipline and the desire to pair with another Friend, which both seem relevant to me. Read the rest of this entry »

First, start water boiling, then take some old celery that’s starting to go bad, trim off the nasty bits for compost, and chop the rest for the stock-water.

Chop the ends off two onions, one red and one yellow, and strip their skins, putting all the trimmings into the stock-pot. Take the ends off a bunch of carrots, and peel them, putting those trimmings into the stock… and thus begin your mirepoix. Add to it the trimmings from a fresh stalk of celery. Read the rest of this entry »

Carrots, braised with a little sugar; Brussels sprouts, boiled and then sautéed in a little butter (still Earth Balance, really), finished with lemon; red cabbage sautéed with red onion; baked russet potatoes; and bay scallops sautéed in butter and glazed with a lemon-tarragon sauce.

It’s all about the blend of colors.

From a recent email to a dear friend: Read the rest of this entry »

This year on Armistice Day a dear friend of mine said, “next year in peace.” There were tears in my eyes as I considered the faith, hope, and despair wrapped up in that phrase – as in the ritual phrase from the Passover Seder: “next year in Jerusalem.” Hope for peace, faith that we will achieve it, and despair at seeing it in our lifetime. These phrases bring to my mind echoes of our common exile from a birthright that I believe rightly belongs to all beings – to live in harmony with each other.

It will be a treat! There are many tales about Granny Sage’s fish stew, and of its effects. If you want to know more, or to find out why I don’t have anyone on whom to test the storied properties of the stew, get in touch. I’ll be glad to tell you in person.  (And no, I don’t mean I’ve lost my committee – they’ll be here.)

Our purpose and our mission is to have fun learning, practicing, and teaching others about alternatives to violence by embodying creative responses to conflict in the public sphere with an invitation that uses street theater to expand and transform ideas of what’s possible in relationships among people, and makes accessible tools, ideas, and infrastructure to implement these possibilities. All are encouraged to join with us in pursuit of our purpose in adherence to our principles. Read the rest of this entry »