Reflections on my time as a Palm Beach (Lake Worth) Quaker

 What is a friend? is it someone that always agrees with you? is it someone that never ruffles your feathers? Is it someone who never gets angry?  Does a friend love you or just like you during the sunny days? When does friendship end and when? This isnt just a question about Palm Beach Quakers, but also about Quakers meetings in general.

 John Palozzi is a trip. We were sitting around the lunch table after worship and Doug (?) started talking about brainwave frequencies as indicators of meditative state. I laid them out: beta alpha gamma theta And then John piped right up: "there's also the Q wave" ... as a way of saying that Quaker silent worship had another brain frequency.

 It's very odd how apparently bad things turn out good. And it is regrettable that I did not employ non-violent communication to express my unmet needs. But at a deep soul level, I needed to go. I was getting great gains from the Silence there. And let's also be clear: the people who attend there need to be there and they are getting what they want at this moment in Spacetime. But my search for community since then has been nothing short of amazing. And I would not have done it had I stayed there and did my best to remain married  to them And please stop all nonsense about me graduating to something better than them. Again: it's about what brings you joy. And clearly I was not totally receiving joy in certain material concerns. I had an old friend named Lisa Rippy and she said: "I see it like a checkerboard... where people are basically just making the moves that work for them" LET ME REPHRASE THINGS: My search for community has been agonizing. I did not know how

 The Quaker so-called consensus process is the complete opposite of sitting and waiting for God... at least in my experience of it. The egos are flying and the pressure to have your way is immense.  When a person stands aside, it is similar to getting out of the way of an oncoming 18-wheeler. You arent doing it because it is right, true or good... or most importantly because it is God's will. You are doing it because everyone else in the room wants things their way and you are tired of these people tearing into your subtle body with their resentment. And it isnt just the Lake Worth meeting where this happens. Note this: https://www.reddit.com/r/quakerism/comments/17y5bxa/i_can_give_examples_of_monthly_meetings_which/ And non-Quakers who take a rational objective evaluation of Quaker consensus critique it as follows: https://berkeleyjournal.org/2015/05/26/the-theology-of-consensus/   Quaker meetings have a huge uphill battle in reconciling the truth in silence (the spiritual plane)

  Rabbi Silver, I learned of your call to action at the Palm Beach Quaker meeting. I am the sole individual opposing the Palm Beach Quakers joining PROTECT democracy. Of course, nothing is stopping individuals in Palm Beach Quakers from joining PROTECT democracy individually. But my concerns and questions in response to your call to action is below.  You wrote “an entire political party supports insurrection and threatens the liberty and natural beauty that we cherish in America.” what political party are you talking about? what specific ways does this party support insurrection? what liberty and natural beauty is threatened? You wrote “In Florida, Governor DeSantis seeks to impose a right wing, Christian theocracy upon the rest of us” what makes you think that he seeks to impose a right wing, Christian theocracy? You wrote “They seek to replace democracy with demagoguery” what specific comments or legal/political action supports your viewpoint? who is ‘they’? You are aware that you ca

Rabbi Barry Silver wrote the following to invite Palm Beach Quakers to be listed as a member of his organization PROTECT Democracy: Hello fellow progressive activists: On this Memorial Day, our basic rights and freedoms are under attack. Patriotic Americans fought and died to preserve our freedom, while today, an entire political party supports insurrection and threatens the liberty and natural beauty that we cherish in America. In Florida, Governor DeSantis seeks to impose a right wing, Christian theocracy upon the rest of us, dismantling the separation of church and state, which the founders of this nation established to ensure that the soil of America would not be soaked in blood as it was in Europe. They seek to replace democracy with demagoguery, education with indoctrination and to torch our freedoms rather than let the torch of freedom burn brightly as a beacon of hope for the world. Learning nothing from the past, they threaten to reinstate the horrors of yesterday by aligning