(art by Christy Schee – ©Folding Hamster) With Liberty and Justice By Kriss Miller – Friend in Residence As the days begin to shorten and we head towards what will soon be Fall, we will leave here to face a democracy in crisis. It was pretty much unanimous. Every speaker during week 5, where the […]
Blog post by Friend in Residence, Kriss Miller Week 4, The Future of History, gave us time to consider both the darkness and light of our history. The speakers urged us to examine the complexity of our pasts with courage, honesty, and compassion. We were challenged to acknowledge the true costs of our actions and […]
by Kriss Miller – Friend in Residence How is It How is It how is it so much to ask to right the wrongs of the human condition to find the strength to hold space for the anguish of another how is it so much to ask that one’s body belongs to itself and not […]
by Kriss Miller – Friend in Residence It was a sunny day and a gentle breeze that provided the backdrop for Victoria Loorz to remind those of us sitting in the Hall of Philosophy of the importance of staying in conversation with nature. In the Interfaith series for this Wild week 2 of the […]
It was 8:45 in the morning when we stepped out into the crispness that is uniquely Chautauquan at this time of year. Gretchen and I walked to the daily Peace gathering. On the way, I noticed an odd piece of hardware, a slotted washer laying in the street. I am a maker of things. I […]
Week Nine: All Together Now from Emily Provance, Friend in Residence Friday afternoon, a few people lingered after storytelling, and Kathy Slattery (our house manager) offered leftover Italian ices. We chose between orange and raspberry-lemon. Then we sat on the steps and savored the melting tang on our tongues, rough concrete beneath our bare feet, […]
Week Eight: from Emily Provance, Friend in Residence If there’s ever a time to delve into brain and soul, the time is now. This week at Chautauqua, the institutional theme was “The Human Brain: Our Greatest Mystery.” The interfaith lectures centered on the human soul. We talked about the extraordinary power of the human brain, […]
from Emily Provance, Friend in Residence During worship Sunday morning, I watched a carpenter ant crawling across the cover of a hymnal. It started in one corner, made its way to the next, then turned ninety degrees rather than crawl right off the top. At the next corner, it turned again, then again at the […]
by Emily Provance, Friend in Residence“I was trying to make a vase,” the woman said, “but the clay wanted to be a creampitcher. It had a lip around it, no matter what I did. So now I have a cream pitcher. Andit’s beautiful.” The next night, well after dark, I found myself in the ceramics […]
from Emily Provance, Friend in Residence In the weekly Quaker House brown bag discussion, our speaker, Callid Keefe-Perry, talked about the similarities between Quaker worship and improvisational comedy theory. In one of those moments of perfect synchronicity, Callid’s internet connection dropped out repeatedly, leaving the rest of us to slide in and out of improvisational […]