As Way Opens
For some of you, if I asked you where you were the day President Kennedy was shot, you would have a very specific answer. It probably has been burned into your memory. For some, I have even heard how a song on the radio or a smell in the air takes one back to that very moment. Actually, I can relate.
For me it was not the assassination of President Kennedy, but rather the Challenger Space Shuttle disaster on January 28, 1986. This has all come back into focus for me as I have been watching the Netflix docu-series, Challenger: The Final Flight.
In 1986, I was in 7th grade at Central Lutheran School in New Haven Indiana. The day of the disaster, my social studies teacher, Mr. Mollering had asked me and my friend Chris, to go make sure Mrs. Holly, our librarian, was recording the Challenger launch for us to watch at a special assembly planned later in the day.
Chris and I were always doing fun projects for our teachers, and both of us were excited about NASA and space exploration. Mrs. Holly, Chris and I were standing in the library reading nook where the TV and VHS recorder were located. We were excited about watching the first teacher travel into space. Knowing our excitement, Mrs. Holly decided to give us passes and allowed us to watch the launch with her in the Library. I can still remember us cheering as the Challenger cleared the tower and began its journey into space.
That was when everything went wrong. We heard the NASA technician say those two horrific words – major malfunction. Chris and I stood staring at the TV, not a word came out of our mouths. Mrs. Holly immediately burst into tears and she drew us into a big hug. I still can smell her perfume. Holding each other we just stared at the TV in utter dismay. Mrs. Holly gained her composure and went over and turned off the T.V. and recording and took out the VHS tape. She then asked us to accompany her to the principal’s office.
Only Mrs. Holly, Chris and I were aware of what had happened, because the entire school was going to watch the historic launch during a special assembly at the end of the day. Holding the tape in hand, we followed Mrs. Holly into Principal Richert’s office. He was always happy to see us, but immediately could see that something was wrong. He moved swiftly across his office to close the door behind us and ask us if we were alright. Again, Mrs. Holly began to cry. Chris and I burst out saying, “The Space Shuttle blew up.”
Today, I think things would be handled much differently, but we were allowed to go back to our room that day and share the news with our teacher and friends. A few moments after returning to our room, the principal announced the sad news over the PA system, said a prayer and asked us to take a moment of silence. I remember two 8th graders who were in charge of lowering the flag at the end of the day heading out to bring it to half-staff. To that 12-year-old me, it seemed like months before the world came back to center.
Now, I know as the pandemic began many were talking about the graduating class being born around 9/11 and graduating in a pandemic. I also know many who remember other momentous days in history as if they were yesterday and use them as life markers. Yet, lately it seems the world is in such chaos, nothing seems out of the ordinary or worthy of our pause – or maybe we simply do not take the time to pause because we expect tomorrow to bring another headline, another death, another atrocity for us to process. It seems they are coming quite rapidly in 2020.
I have been thinking a lot lately about what my boys will remember and the significance of these days. What will they tell their children? How will they frame the story? What lasting impact will they carry with them from 2020?
Also, I am starting to realize that the year 2020 is having a very similar toll to that of President Kennedy being shot or the Challenger disaster. But it is not just one event, rather a culmination of many tragedies coming to fruition all at once. We are all being changed in this time. We all will remember, tell stories, and grieve these days for years to come.
So, as we Quakers do, I want us to take good minutes of this time, even write eloquent memorials in our diaries and journals. I want us think about what we are learning and the changes taking place, and how we are growing and evolving into better human beings. As the scriptures say,
“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” (James 1:2-4)
I have a feeling we are going to be fine - actually better. Let’s persevere TOGETHER through all that 2020 will bring.
Grace and peace,
Bob
Quaker-Affiliated Organizations
We are coming near the end of our fundraising efforts for the WYM and FUM 2020 fundraisers but have had very few contributions. Please give these causes your prayerful thought and, if you are so led, make your contribution this week to assist our brethren in Belize and Turkana, Kenya. Thank you for your consideration.
WYM and FUM 2020 Mission Projects: Each year Western Yearly Meeting (“WYM”) and Friends United Meeting (“FUM”) designate mission projects for us to consider and help. WYM is a Quaker organization of which First Friends is a member and consists of approximately 32 monthly meetings located in Indiana and Illinois. FUM is a Quaker international organization based in Richmond, Indiana and consists of a number of yearly meetings around the world. These mission projects are the primary way that folks at First Friends can assist Quakers in parts of the world that can use our help.
The WYM project for 2020 is for the benefit of the Belize Friends School. The school needs financial assistance for its operating expenses and the WYM goal is to raise $15,000. You might recall that in 2017 WYM also designated Belize as its project but monies raised at that time were designated for re-locating the school and expanded ministries including community services and the starting of a Friends meeting. Many of you knew Dale Graves, a member of Mooresville’s West Newton Friends, who poured his heart and soul into the Belize school and surrounding area and was the driving force that enabled the Belize school and Friends meeting to become what it is today. While Dale is no longer with us, there is no doubt that Dale would be very proud of the ongoing efforts to improve the Belize school and Belize Friends meeting.
The FUM project is to assist the Friends in Turkana who are celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of Turkana Friends Mission. Turkana Friends was founded in 1970 in Kalokol, Kenya. It began as a project of East Africa Yearly Meeting and FUM. Turkana Friends Mission has grown from one location to a vibrant multi-site Quaker community that, among other things, oversees six nursery schools and six primary schools. The number of meetings in Turkana Friends Mission has increased dramatically in the past few decades from seven village meetings in 2002 to twenty-five meetings in 2019.
We at First Friends Indianapolis seem far removed from our fellow Quakers around the world and FUM and WYM are organizations that help connect us through worthy projects each year. Please help these Quakers in Belize and Turkana as you are led. Checks should be made to First Friends with a notation as to whether the monies should go to (WYM) Belize, (FUM) Turkana, or split between these projects. Thank you.
Joys & Concerns
Congratulations to Tim Y! Tim retired on September 15th from the Forum. We wish him congratulations for a lifetime of serving our elder population.
Announcements, Reports, & Opportunities
How to Put Your Garden to Bed for the Winter
In the last garden article I suggested crops gardeners can plant for cold weather. The void left by pulled crops can be filled with quick-growing microgreens and salad leaves that thrive in colder temperatures. Focus watering chores on plants still maturing like greens and squash. Cut winter squashes before the first frost and let their skins harden by putting them in a sunny place. Beans produce until the first frost if picked continually. Leave potatoes above ground to dry for a few hours before storing. Store surplus root crops in a frost-free shed or garage. Stop watering tomatoes to encourage ripening of fruit. Harvest and then dry herbs. Harvest Swiss chard throughout the winter.
For those gardeners ready to shut down their plots for the winter, including our Community Gardeners, here are some suggestions. For your benefit, follow these steps before the weather is miserable and the ground is hard and difficult to dig.
1. Dig up roots of spent plants. Compost them if you have planned for it and if they are disease-free. Extinguish weeds by uprooting and throwing them out before they go to seed. You will thank yourself for your vigilance when spring arrives and your plot is not completely overwhelmed with weeds. By disposing of spent crops you may have less disease, fungi and bug pests in the spring. Community Gardeners may place waste in the dumpster to the east of the garage or in the pile of brush to the north of the garage. If crops were healthy you may prefer to chop them into small pieces to aid decomposition. Dig them into your plot as fertilizer unless you believe your plot needs to be rotated for next year’s crops and you need to replace nutrients depleted by this year’s specific crops. In rotating crops you may consider a rotation of fruiting crops following leafy crops, leafy crops replacing root crops and root crops going into former fruiting crops beds. This helps in replenishing soil nutrients and suppressing disease.
2. A fine way to refurbish the soil is to plant cover crops. They look good, keep weeds down and enhance the soil. They do not blow away and are less work. Clover, buckwheat, oats and rye are good cover crops. When killing frosts are just a few weeks away, the best cover crops are oats and rye. You may undersow cover crops around unharvested veggies. Sow seeds on soil surface around crops to form living mulch that suppresses weeds, buffers the soil from temperature and moisture extremes and helps plants such as tomatoes avoid cracking and blossom-end rot. Earthworms and helpful soil organisms will benefit. Time the cover crops so they do not compete with crops you are just sowing. If you planted cover crops ahead of planting crop seeds, turn cover crops under at least two weeks before you expect to plant veggies. FYI, the Indianapolis Public Library has seed libraries which sometimes supply cover crop seeds. The last two years they have had oats.
Another method to replenish your soil is to dig in fertilizer. Fertilizer can include disease-free crops you have chopped up for easier breakdown, organic commercial mixes or dead autumn leaves. Smooth out the soil so you don’t have big holes. If you use compost, turn the contents a couple times in the fall and move it from the edges to the center of your plot. You may want to put down weed-block fabric and stake it or weigh it down with rocks or bricks. It does disintegrate eventually. You may prefer plastic although it is not environmentally friendly and may disintegrate into messy pieces that blow everywhere or embed into your crop soil. (Plastic can be used to heat up the soil and retire a bed for a season, during hot temperatures, to sterilize soil and kill nematodes, their eggs and pathogens.) You can use cardboard, newspaper and carpet to retard weeds, but they should be weighted down. Carpet may become a moldy mess. Newspaper may blow everywhere. Cardboard will come apart eventually but is easier to clean up than newspaper. You can obtain it from boxes and cartons at grocery and appliance stores. If you use these materials, be sure to mulch over them with organic, commercial mulch or other types of organic mulch or weighted fabric that will not blow away. Remove remnants when spring arrives.
If you prefer to leave the soil bare, after cleaning up your plot, frost can penetrate and expose pests.
3. You may want to put down new soil, depending on steps you took above. Applying additional soil is a standard step for springtime but it can be done in the fall instead or at the close and opening of the planting season. Organic raised bed soil can be purchased. It may contain poultry meal, kelp meal and worm castings. Commercially produced mixes are already pH balanced for growing vegetables in a raised bed. It has large granules, drains easily and provides adequate airflow for roots. Raised bed soil does “shrink” each season since beneficial soil microbes consume earth to create nutrients for garden crops.
Remember, healthy soil is a key consideration in creating a healthier organic garden. Taking these steps now will make you breathe a sigh of relief in spring when you compare your plot to others that did not receive TLC in the fall. You will have fewer weeds. Furthermore, by working in your garden you will benefit from fresh air, sunshine and exercise. You will provide your own body with more microscopic biodiversity that helps to improve your health!
Sources used include kellogggarden.com, Find-It-Fast Answers for Your Vegetable Garden by Fern Marshall Bradley and Small Plot; Big Harvest by Lucy Halsall.
~Nancy
Help out First Friends this election! As you may know, First Friends will be a polling location this upcoming election, November 3rd. We are looking for volunteers to help us in the meetinghouse that day. If you are able to help, please contact the office at office@indyfriends.org or 317-255-2485.
Participate in our "Sponsor a College Student" project! Just select a college student and send them notes, cards, treats, etc throughout the school year so they hear from someone at the Meeting and feel connected. Our college students this year are Ellie A, Ally H, Sam H, Eli S, Chelsea T, and Kendal T. If you’d like to participate, please email the office at office@indyfriends.org, and we’ll give you the mailing address of a student so you can send your support. Please consider connecting with our students this year!
Meditational Woods Bird of the Month for October:
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker – Sharing the Table
Recently Naomi and I have started thinking about possibility of celebrating Thanksgiving this year with our normal gatherings of family and friends in which we “share the table.” It may look much different!
Of the seven species of woodpeckers that appear in Indiana each year, the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker is the one true migrant. Nesting up north in Michigan and Canada, this bird passes through the Meditational Woods on its way southward. Unlike most other migrant bird species, the southern journey may end right here. Central Indiana is the northern edge of its wintering grounds, and so the bird can be expected in September and October, and again in March and April heading northward, BUT could be in our woods all winter long!
The unusual name comes from the bird’s habit of drilling parallel rows of holes in sap-bearing trees in order to drink. The sapsucker may extend the holes to form large patches in which the sugar water pools attract a myriad of “guests”: ants, beetles, butterflies, and even hummingbirds. During our first months of marriage, my wife and I worked at a camp in Connecticut, and I got to watch this feasting unfold at a black cherry tree. Each day, hummingbirds would come and insert their bills into the holes for the sweet liquid. By the way, both sapsuckers and hummingbirds will eat the ants and beetles that dally too long at the table. It is not likely that we will see this feeding behavior in our woods here at First Friends, as it is confined mostly to the nesting grounds.
Yellow-bellieds can always be recognized by the large white vertical wing bar. The genders are identical except for the red throat in the males, which is white in females. Immatures lack much of the red and black, but still have the white patch on the wing, and are much more spotted with grayish brown.
I have seen Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers here at our woods in late March, mid-October, and early December. ~Brad J
CORRECTION: Serenity Now! In an earlier newsletter issue, the small group Serenity Now was inaccurately described. Please see below for more information about this group.
SERENITY NOW is a book-based discussion group supporting healthy relationships and communication through self-awareness and an understanding of how personal history influences present relationships. It meets the third Thursday of each month and is still welcoming new members. The next meeting will be Thursday , October 15, from 10 a.m. to noon in the Friends Meditational Woods, weather permitting. The group is reading Trust: Mastering the Four Essential Trusts by Iyanla Vanzant. The October meeting will focus on Part 2, Trust in God:Ch. 5 Villa NovaCh. 6 God and GravityCh. 7 Building a relationship with God. For questions, contact the office at office@indyfriends.org.
Oak Leaf: Meeting for Reading would like you to join us from virtually anywhere in the world as we discuss The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women by Kate Moore The Curies' newly discovered element of radium makes gleaming headlines across the nation as the fresh face of beauty, and wonder drug of the medical community. From body lotion to tonic water, the popular new element shines bright in the otherwise dark years of the First World War. Meanwhile, hundreds of girls toil amidst the glowing dust of the radium-dial factories. The glittering chemical covers their bodies from head to toe; they light up the night like industrious fireflies. With such a coveted job, these "shining girls" are the luckiest alive ~ until they begin to fall mysteriously ill. (goodreads.com) Carolyn T will be leading the discussion in via Zoom starting at 7 pm on Tuesday, October 27, 2020.
A Public Announcement from Member Terry T, Retired Physician: Please Get Your Flu (Influenza) Shot Now ~ Per the CDC today at CDC.gov: “Everyone 6 months and older should receive ‘a yearly flu vaccine’” Unless your doctor has diagnosed a moderate-to-severe recent illness (then get flu shot when better) or a history of Guillain-Barré Syndrome.
If you have questions, discuss with your doctor or read online cdc.gov or discuss with me. We still have 30,000 to 60,000 Americans die a year from influenza. If we have less flu patients sick and on ventilators the medical community can give more time and ventilators to Covid-19 patients. In over 30 years my practice gave at least 240,000 flu shots with no “major” problems but probably saw at least a hundred flu deaths.
Also keep up to date on all your other recommended vaccinations or check with your physician or a reliable medical source or me. All the CDC recommended vaccinations are safer and less costly than the diseases they cover. In college a friend died from Meningitis, my practice lost a mother to chicken pox and probably well over a hundred pneumonia deaths. As a child I knew 3 people with polio and in medical school I saw a rabies patient (not pretty). In Kenya in 2008 they had just lost a lot of children to measles and this year Syria has dealt with diphtheria. In May the WHO was worried that the world was behind on 80 million children’s vaccinations and this has grown. It is good that we are not traveling much because the world and the USA is losing its “herd immunity.” Please keep up on your preventative care visits and immunizations as you can. ~Sincerely, Teresa T, MD
FUM Job Available: Coordinator of Global Ministries ~ Friends United Meeting (Richmond) seeks a full-time, highly organized person to join our staff team as the Coordinator of Global Ministries. The Coordinator of Global Ministries will be an active member of the Global Ministries Team. This person will provide administrative support for FUM’s field-staff and global ministry partners by coordinating schedules, communications, financial activities, and overseeing assigned programs. For more information and to apply, please see the full job posting here: https://www.friendsunitedmeeting.org/news/global-ministries-coordinator
Recycling Event! The Shalom Zone plans to have its yearly recycling event with Recycle Force on Saturday, October 31 from 10:00am to 2:00pm. If an item runs (or used to run) with a plug or a battery you can recycle it! This year it will be held at Epworth United Methodist Church, 6450 Allisonville Rd. A $20 donation is required for televisions and appliances containing Freon (fridges, freezers, ac units and dehumidifiers). Other monetary contributions are greatly appreciated. This is a great opportunity to clean out your basement, garage, closets, attic and responsibly recycle unwanted electronics and appliances. If you have items that are heavy and you need assistance to move them, please contact the office at office@indyfriends.org and we can arrange to have the items picked up. For more information, view the flyer here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1w6uaIgilMNlIk8Hw9URMPgNHcNE8_1BE/view?usp=sharing
Please Continue to Send in Your Stamps! The Right Sharing of World Resources stamp program continues during the pandemic. Please save used stamps and bring or mail them to the meetinghouse. Proceeds from the sale of these stamps benefit RSWR, which helps women and their communities in Africa and India. Also, ff you know someone who will be traveling out of country, ask them to pick up some foreign stamps if convenient, and bring them to you or send them to First Friends. As always, save your own used stamps!
Silent Meetings for Worship on Zoom!
We will be gathering for Meeting for Silent Worship at 9 am every Sunday
Join us for Meditation every Monday at 11:15 am
Wednesday Unprogrammed Worship meets every Wednesday at 7 pm.
Courtyard Friends: Weather permitting, join us as we meet in person simultaneously with our Zoom Friends on Sundays, Mondays and Wednesdays in the courtyard (6 feet away) at the Meeting House. Wear a mask, bring a chair, and a tablet or phone if you’d like to personally sign onto the Zoom link from the courtyard. Restrooms are available.
Kent F Invites You to a New Small Group! Several months ago, Bob Henry, Beth Henricks and I were talking about the possibility of a small group for Quakers interested in two things. First was to learn more about the Quaker spirituality and traditions. Second was to develop a little group of Friends who could share their lives and insights.
Bob and Beth suggested John Woolman’s Journal. Frankly, I had never heard of it. However once I started looking into John Woolman and his Journal, it seemed to be the perfect first book. His Journal lays out his spiritual development and how he practiced it in North America between about 1740 and his death in 1772. In addition to his spiritual development, Woolman was active as an abolitionist during the years before the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. The question of slavery was not something that was of interest only in the South. Slaves were a fact throughout all of the original colonies, and they remained a very contentious topic in the development of the Declaration and the Constitution.
I want to invite you to join this group at the Meeting House for this first book. We’ll meet four times, 7:00pm, alternating Mondays starting October 12 and continuing on October 26, November 9 and 23. We’ll cover about thirty pages each time.
About eighteen months ago we started a Men’s Book Group that has met regularly on alternate Thursdays come rain, shine, snow or Covid. The format is that books are suggested by members. Everybody comes prepared. We model our Quaker belief that everybody shares. My thought is that this new group will follow the same approach.
If you’re interested in more information, please contact the office at office@indyfriends.org. The group will be limited to eight — seven plus me.
What Will You be Doing on Election Day? ~ One of the many challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic in an election year is that elections officials foresee a shortage of poll workers. Typically, the majority of poll workers are over the age of 61, and over a quarter of them are over 70. Because they are the most susceptible to the virus, many of these seniors have indicated they will not work the polls this November.
Where does that leave us on Election Day?
One solution is for younger Americans to step up.
Did you know that in Indiana, high school students as young as 16-18 can serve as poll workers? And that Indiana law treats this service as an excused absence from school? Requirements vary depending on what county you live in, but the non-partisan WorkElections project has gathered all the information you need to apply, wherever you live (https://www.workelections.com/). For all ages, if you want to be a poll worker, some training is required and (unless you're in high school) you must be a registered voter in your county of residence to work at one of its polling places. See the WorkElections website for specific county-by-county requirements.
At a pivotal moment in American history, when many of our most pressing problems can seem insurmountable and it's hard to know just how to help, you can act. You can enable others to perform one of the most sacred of civic duties: voting on Election Day. By serving as a poll worker, you will be doing something non-partisan, a matter of civics, not politics. And in the 2020 Elections, you can claim to have helped your neighbor--and defended democracy.
For more information, see or share a flyer here: https://bit.ly/2PCBUvs
Small Group Meetings. If you are part of a small group that would like to meet at First Friends – or are interested in joining a group – please let us know. First Friends has opened the building to small group meetings. All gatherings are limited to 10 and participants will be required to wear face coverings and follow other social distancing protocols. Many small groups who choose to meet in person will also meet via Zoom so people can still attend virtually if they prefer—ask your small group leader how they will be meeting. If you are interested in joining any of the below groups, please notify the office at: office@indyfriends.org or 317-255-2485.
Our current available meetings:
· Unprogrammed worship - Mondays at 11:15am
· Unprogrammed worship - Wednesdays at 6:45pm
· Unprogrammed worship - Sundays at 9:00am
· Men’s book group (John Woolman’s Journal)
· Oak Leaf: Meeting for Reading
· Men’s book club
· Serenity Now
· Women’s book club
· Men’s Threshing Together
· Seeking Friends book class
· Kids Pre-k through 1st grade Sunday School class
· 2nd - 5th grade Sunday School class
· Youth Group
Queries for the Week
(From self-led guide)
1. What does it mean for me to be a Quaker, today?
2. Where am I working to share my “Light” in the world?
3. Who helps to sustain the joy of the creative spirit in me?