Quaker Pagan Reflections

There's a bumper sticker I really love, that's something like "The people who could really run the country are all busy teaching school." I'll spare my readers my thoughts on running the country in the midst of this politically-loaded election year. But I will say that the people who normally run this blog have indeed been busy teaching school. Along the way, however, I did accept an invitation from Erik of Executive Pagan to do a guest blog over there. And for my reflections on teaching as a spiritual activity in general and on teaching spiritual practices in particular you should wander over to Executive Pagan for a visit. (If you don't follow Erik's blog regularly, I recommend it; he's one of the most thoughtful and literate Pagan bloggers I know.) Erik will be back in the saddle at his own blog at the end of this week; I hope to have some new content up at this site by the end of the weekend, too, perhaps focusing on where nature meets Quaker i...

Each year, in my classroom, I deal with the echoes of 9/11/2001. This year, after the Pledge of Allegiance was recited over the loudspeaker, instead of the usual brief moment of silence, our principal reminded us of what day it was, and asked that we remember those who died. A slightly longer moment of silence ensued. For me, even an extended "moment of silence" is at once too much and too little remembrance: just enough reminder of the day to awaken my grief, but nowhere near enough time for me to center down, remember properly, and share my sadness with God . I've got the kids to teach, the attendance to take, and I will not be able to do those things if I let myself really honor that particular anniversary in the brief moment our school deems appropriate. Mine is a school system that is small, rural, and far from Manhattan. Few families have connections in New York. But we have sent a number of graduates or members of our community into the military, and some ...