Heather Cox Richardson, in her blog Letters From An American, has cited "Alison Durkee of Forbes magazine today that Trump’s military strikes in Iran have already cost U.S. taxpayers more than $1 billion. The three F-15E Eagle jets lost to friendly fire on Sunday cost $90 million each. Transporting troops, ships, and aircraft to the Middle East cost about $630 million. Missiles and weapons systems are also expensive—a drone is about $35,000, and a Tomahawk missile costs millions—and the two aircraft carriers in the region together cost at least $13 million a day. And then there are the costs of operating aircraft, and so on."

If Americans want to know why their infrastructure is failing, why the cost of electricity is through the roof, why we don't offer our young people free college, and why healthcare is a luxury and not a right --- THIS IS YOUR ANSWER.

Billions for the military and crumbs for everything else.  

People should be highly offended by this and not just because of the gross expenditure of money, but also because of the wanton destruction of human life.

The Quaker peace testimony is based not only on the teachings of Christ to love thy neighbor, but also is rooted in non-coercion (Phillip Gulley). Coercion, in its many forms, is the root of violence. "Do what I want you to do or else!"  People are manipulated with every manner of coercion from threats of violence to violence itself.  

We have normalized it. We accept it. We have enshrined it.

What? Enshrined it?  Surely not?

Who has the right to fine, tax, imprison and kill -- all enforced with the threat of violence or actual violence? And able to do these things with immunity from consequence?  Yes, the state.  Enshrined in law. Americans have given a monopoly on the right to use violence to the state.  And when we see it in action (whether it be suffocating George Floyd with a policeman's knee, Shooting non-violent protesters in Minn, or starting foreign wars) we are shocked.  

What we need to understand is that the rot runs deep in human culture. It is not an American phenomenon.  It lies just below the surface in all of us. 

So what is the antidote to coercion and violence?  

To answer this just imagine the last conversation you were engaged in. The one where you were just waiting for an opening in the dialog to put your 2 cents in.  That kind of communication, a discussion (a dis-cut-tion), where there is zero listening, a lack of consideration, and no discernment of what is going on.  This is the root of coercion.  It starts there and escalates.  

Witness the recent so-called "diplomacy" with Iran.  Two sides sit down at a table to work out differences in foreign policy and one side has half its navy amassed in the Mediterranean and Red Sea threatening to unleash an "epic fury" if they don't get what they want.  

Is that diplomacy?

Sounds like coercion to me!   

Expectant listening is the practice of having no agenda.  No demands. It is the kind of listening that leads to discovery.  Something that surprises you.  Something that might actually have you change your mind. Something you could hear that might alter what you were "absolutely sure of." 

Expectant waiting is not merely psychological sovereignty over knee jerk reactions, but at its best is two (or many) gathered as one willing and open to discover what can arise from nothing.  

~ Joseph Olejak

This was the only message in meeting for worship today.  It left me so upset and triggered.  

Love for this too?  

What is the messenger referring to: 

• the billions of dollars of graft and corruption engaged in by the White House? 
• the theft of our private data by DOGE? 
• the taking of SNAP benefits away from poor children, the handicapped and disabled? 
• the kidnapping of heads of state? 
• the firing of lethal weapons at fishing boats in the Caribbean sea? 
• the summary execution of Americans in the streets of Minneapolis, Minnesota? 
• the turning of the DOJ, the FBI and other government offices into tools for political vendettas? 
• the kicking in of doors by ICE without judicial warrants?
• the jailing of 70,000 people of color in just the last few months?
• the export of people to CECOT in El Salvador? 
• the so-called "Dept of Peace?" 
• the ...  list is too long to even contemplate ...   

Can I love any of this?  

It is hard to express my revulsion for what has happened in the last year.  As a Quaker who has worked for peace it is very hard to use the word love for any of this ... should I?  My prefrontal cortex that controls my higher brain centers forces me to consider my values and what I hold dear and say no to violence, yet my lizard brain wants to pick up arms and fight the injustice.  I'm neither happy nor proud to admit that, but it's right there alongside the revulsion. An inconvenient duality. 

I keep raising the question in my mind -- could I love Hitler? Stalin? Pol Pot? Mao? Or any other crazed homicidal nut with a desire to hurt people. 

Don't we have a duty to protect these people?  But how? 

My queries today are: 

• How do we protect and defend ourselves and others from our own government? 
• Is standing with a protest sign enough? 
• Is complaining to a supine congress enough? 
• When do we take a stand and say ENOUGH? 
• At what point do we simply stop cooperating and say THIS WILL NOT STAND!

Honestly, I'm at the point where I'm willing to be that guy standing in front of the tanks in Tiananmen Square declaring with my body: YOU SHALL NOT PASS! One person is a start and a symbol, but (for real) it is going to take all of us. 

~ Joseph Olejak

“My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.” — Maya Angelou.

Some consider flourishing to be synonymous with thriving.  Flourish comes from the French word for flower - fleur.  Thrive is a Norse word which means "to take."  Flourish can also be a dramatic gesture (I always think of one of the three musketeers making an entrance)

As a person who loves words and the etymology of words, I think these differences are instructional. I'd even go so far as to say they are essential to understand the nature of human flourishing. When we consider a flower that is growing and beautiful and radiant it takes nothing, but is integral to its environment.  In my mind, I connotate thriving with taking and plunder. 

So what is it?  

• Is flourishing just what we can get our hands on or is it more? 
• Is it about money and power acquisition? 
• Can a person flourish in a vacuum?  For how long? 
• Can a person flourish for long without the community flourishing too? 
• What are the essential elements of flourishing? 

Positive psychology has quite a lot to say about flourishing.  Some of the key components are in the PERMA Model from developed by Martin Seligman, flourishing is built on five pillars: Positive Emotions, Engagement (flow), positive Relationships, Meaning, and Accomplishment.

If you've been around as long as I have you might recall "Debbie Downer" from SNL.  Someone says something and sure enough Debbie chimes in with some horrific story.  Essentially her life is defined by tragedy.  Many are depressed and miserable.  Many feel just getting to neutral (neither happy nor miserable) is a win.  Positive emotions is not being a Pollyanna, naively chipper no matter what, but it does involve adopting a view of life that we have some agency when it comes to our emotions.  We are not adrift in a sea of misery. We have a rudder, sails and even oars if necessary -- we can navigate!  Physical movement is a great navigation tool.  Remember the penguin in Happy Feet?  I used to love to run as a child.  It made me happy.  When I need a "pick me up" I literally pick myself up and move.  

And navigation is intimately related to engagement with our environs.  This part is critical because like the flower we are rooted in our environment. I was once told by a motivational speaker that if you look at the 5 people you are closest to you can predict with pretty good accuracy your future.  

• Who are you rooted with? 
• What are the content of those conversations? 
• What are you doing or not doing or know you should be doing but are avoiding doing? 

Yes, relationships.  It takes some time to find your peeps. Is the relationship nurturing? Reciprocal? Expansive. Explorative? It is easy to fall into old stories; especially with old friends.  What keeps the relationship alive?  Is it the past or engagement with the future? How do you celebrate? 

Which is another way of saying what is important? Meaning.  Here's a tip from Seligman,  The self is completely impoverished soil for well-being. If you think about some peak experience where you were happy and in flow of life the odds are you were not alone. It happened in community.  When I consider meaning, of course, I place it in a Quaker context.  I derive enormous well-being, sense of belonging and meaning when I am in a gathered meeting waiting on a message from spirit.  The deep knowing that I am not alone.  I am part of something much greater and infinitely more intelligent than myself.  But to really get the bang the real prize is parlaying that knowing into gifting your time and energy to others. 

Accomplishment.  What are you good at? What can you accomplish?  Do you have the discipline to finish things?  They say it takes 10,000 hours to get good at something and then from there one can aspire to virtuoso or master / legend and pass that skill on. 

I want to end with Nietzsche's three stages of spiritual transformation—the Camel, Lion, and Child—describe human development from obeying others' values (Camel), to rejecting them (Lion, saying "No" to "Thou Shalt"), and finally to creating one's own values (Child, saying "Yes" to life).  

• ARE WE ONLY FOCUSED ON "NOT THAT?" 
• WHAT ARE YOU (WE) A "YES" TO? 
• WHAT ISLE OF SANITY CAN WE SAY "YES" TO (outside of the systems that keep us in the bondage of duality)

"For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways" ~ Psalm 91:11

Query for today: 

• Are we alone?
• When we walk do the Angels and Christ also walk with us?  

Maybe it depends on if we ask for that guidance or not?  I was once told by a clairvoyant that when we are children the angels are with us always and take care of us, but when we become adults we must actively ask for their help.  

That'd be prayer. 

I kind of don't like the idea of prayer as a "beseeching for self interest" exercise ... but ... in the context of being accompanied by our angels I think it might be apropos. So I ask for guidance to walk in the light and ask that my angels walk with me and guide me in the ways of righteousness.  By righteousness I mean literally "right standing with God."  This is not IMHO moralizing about what other people are doing, but what I AM DOING.  It is entirely about my relationship with the divine. 

I like the Quaker idea of "do your best with what you have been given."  Not everyone is going to be Moses or MLK and hear the Burning Bush or See the mountain top, but we all have our own capacities.  And I truly believe that "when we ask it is given."  It might not be today or tomorrow, but time unfurls the gifts of the spirit as they ripen. 

We can also ask for help from each other.  As humans progress toward becoming more whole and complete in their own development with the help of the spiritual world they are naturally supportive of others on a developmental path; and this support furthers not just one but both. 

If the divine = love then all of our striving inwardly and outwardly is to arrive at a place in which love is present. Love that is free of ego but love that is also self-aware and aware of others.   

The Christian impulse in our time (from ONE AD onwards.  2000 plus years) is to realize that love is the way and to ask for help in that endeavor.  We are not alone. 

~ Joseph Olejak

In the book, Walking In The World As A Friend, Nadine Hoover asks the questions: 

• How do I experience the Living Spirit? 
• How am I tendered by this Inward Grace? 
• Can I notice when I’m rigid and soften in my body, mind, thoughts, feelings, soul, or spirit? 
• How do I let love abide in me, turn to love, and feel loved and loving towards others and nature? 
• What do I need to bring into my life or let go of to feel the sacramental wholeness of life in every moment?

In a conversation I had with my friend, Christopher, this morning he reminded me of the tautology (a statement that is true by necessity or by virtue of its logical form) that when we experience love, give love, receive love and generate love through compassion and empathy that is the living spirit.  

Love is the essence of the Christ impulse (or however you wish to name it).  

John 15:15 states that Jesus no longer calls his followers servants but friends because he has made known to them everything he learned from his Father. This shift signifies a relationship of trust and intimacy.  As Quakers we call ourselves Friends for a reason.  We relate to one another as sharing an experience of the living spirit.  In our own way Spirit moves through us.   And it moves in a particular way ... through the deep respect and love we have for each other as seekers on the path to greater understanding; accepting of our foibles and missteps as well as our moments of insight into the continuing revelation.

As Nadine Hoover put it: "Love is to feel a tender affection for and a sense of the preciousness of another, while free
to take leave without ill judgment or retribution."  What a pleasant counterpoint to our current social situation in which harsh words, anger and violence seem to be the "norm." 

Thoughts of anger, violence, hatred, revenge and the like are like the sharks circling the disabled vessel in Homer's painting, The Gulf Stream.  These are the farthest from love and bring us no closer to the movement of Spirit. 

What is deeply important now is to observe how we act toward not only our beloved ones but also the least of those amongst us and the ones we wish to revile. To maintain decency and equanimity in the face of our own disgust is vital.  It may be our access to love and how the spirit moves within us. 

~ Joseph Olejak

Christ, was prophesied in scripture as a "root out of a dry ground" (Isaiah 53:2)

A few weeks ago in meeting for worship someone mentioned this scripture and I've been thinking about what it means for my life? What was Isaiah pointing to? 

When I am faced with challenges in life I often give it over to a higher power.  I know as a human with plenty of challenges I have limited capacities to solve problems.  I also know that when I sit in quiet worship I can tap into sources of understanding that my "thinking mind" may not have access to. Sometimes called a "peace beyond understanding." My mind is the ground that I'm used to using, but that ground can be dried up with stress, worry, and anxiety. 

And yet, the spirit of Christ is with us.    

Some of the questions I am contemplating this morning are: 

• Can we give over our cares to a higher power? 
• Am I required to white knuckle solo through every challenge? 
• Am I too proud to ask for help? 
• Where did I get the notion that I'm in this existence all alone? 
• Where does the line between burden and asking for some assistance lie? 

We can feel both humbled and deeply supported by the notion that Christ is with us. That spirit infuses so much in our community. It arises at the moment we realize that we are not alone (a root out of dry ground) and when connect with the spirit of Christ (a root that arose out of dry ground)  

I'm okay with being both a supplicant and a supple root.  It's not either / or but and / both.  We can move between these spaces of supporting others and at times asking for what we need.  

Photo credit from Meta AI with human prompts by Joseph Olejak 

~ Joseph Olejak

There are people that you meet that have a powerful effect on the course of your own life.  Bob Elmendorf was one of those people for me.  

As I was cleaning my house today at about 4:30 a bird flew into my home out of the pouring rain.  All the doors and windows were closed.  It stopped trying to fly through the plate glass window and then perched on the TV.  

"How did you get in here?" I said to the bird.  

He just cocked his head to one side as if to say "don't you know?" 

I opened all the doors and windows and out he flew.  

A few minutes later my phone pinged me.  It was a message from Bob's neighbor in Malden Bridge letting me know that he had passed.    

Bob loved to feed the birds and was always letting me know which bird he'd seen and whether the bears had toppled over his feeders.  

The first time Bob interacted with me at the Meeting was to let me know that my committee "assignment" was with OPJ.  Bob had an unconventional way of handling Nominating Committee. 

The truth is that Bob Elmendorf was a force majeure when it came to Outreach, Peace and Justice.  Bob would talk to anyone about anything related to any one of those items; whether it was over a chicken at potluck or a coffee and savory scone at the Old Chatham Cafe & Bakery.  He didn't care a whit about being a "Quiet Quaker."  He'd whip out those little palm cards and invite everyone he  came into contact with.  

He took Outreach seriously.  

When Bob left our meeting for The Eddy it left a great hole not just in the life of the meeting but in OPJ.  I'd been quietly taking over those responsibilities as clerk, but always felt inwardly "how the heck can I fill Bob's shoes?"  

Bob was a hard act to follow.  

When that little bird flew away it was Bob"s way of saying "I'm in the Bardo now, I've passed over. I'm like a bird. I've taken flight from this world and am ready to move on to the next."  

Farewell Bob.  Many loved you; including me.  

~ Joseph Olejak