Where am I in QuakerQuaker in replying to a Profile comment?  Sheesh.  Um, we may not take the same Exam.  Don't pretend you can see over my shoulder necessarily.  "How effective an Activist were you?" is maybe the only question on my interview with Jesus, who knows?

Hi Forrest. Thank you. I was particularly struck by your words:

"The idea of anyone being, not 'a liar', but simply mistaken, or seeing from another perspective, seems to be largely inconceivable to the religious worthies of that time... or that, at least, was my impression from a small dose of their pamphlet wars [like very slow internet flame wars, yes?]"

I agree. My impression is that those Children of Light who do not establish themselves in outward leadership positions on either side (to impose an outward form on others) manifest a supple spirit guided by the inward light filling their conscious and informing their conscience so that identity rests firmly in Presence itself is not lost or overshadowed by outward forms such as anger, fear, ideology, institution, tradition, etc. 

The Spirit to impose outward forms and institutions on the consciences others is as alive today as when Wilkinson felt it needful to speak against it just 25 years after the Children of Light gathered in England. On the flipside, the Comforter is as alive today as when the Children of Light gathered together around 1650ish in England. The Light is alive in many of us today filling our conscious and guiding our conscience so that we know the original witness of the Children of Light through direct personal experience of Presence within. What a blessing to know in ever present faith that the Light is eternal and shines within ... a beacon ever before our mind and heart directing our journey in all things and all our activities in daily life. And that the darkness of outward forms, institutions, practices, and traditions, can be overcome in the Light itself.

Forrest, those are some keen observations.

"Fox was clearly a man of great faith, but where the mission he hoped to perform for God seemed at risk, it seems as if it was hard for him to trust God's purposes to God... That's been a subtle and powerful test of faith for many of us, yes?"

I agree.

Hi, Forrest.

Glad to be connected.  I'm at a library conference till Friday.  I'll be in touch after that.

Blessings,
Mike

"side of mountain... warmer than overall atmosphere, same height. flexible tube, held by warmth?"

Yes, side of mountain.  The steeper the hill, the less cost for the chimney for a particular height. 

The air inside is warmer than the overall atmosphere.  Making the air inside hotter increases the power output.  The site engineer picks a particular maximum rated temperature, installs insulation suited for that temperature and the control unit enforces that maximum temperature.  Solar hot water control units already do this.

The Manzanares experiment was 600 feet high.  A chimney of 3,000 feet was once proposed. 

A flexible tube puffed out by the warmth is one option.  If so, the turbine would be at the top of the tube.  A flexible tube with air-filled ribs would stay puffed out.  From a minimizing the air pressure standpoint, putting the turbine halfway up the chimney puts only half the stress on the chimney.  The positive  pressure would be highest just below the turbine and the negative pressure would be highest just above the turbine.  The final option is a non-flexible chimney built out of concrete/whatever or a chimney with a solid (dirt?) bottom and flexible tent top.  Yes, tent poles are allowed inside the chimney if they don't cause too much air friction.

On my to do list, put a proposal together for Allete Clean Energy, not too bad an outfit.

Hi Forrest!

I have just accepted your "friend" invitation......but I should just let you know that I am a lousy friend -- if Facebook is an indicator.  A loving acquaintance set up a FB site for me about five years ago, and a couple of loving family members periodically install new photos, but I pay scane attention to it.  Not only am I perplexed by the technology, but the zippity-doo-dah nature of FB just depresses me.  Hopefully, however, i will do much better at following the conversation here; that's the plan, anyhow!

Thanks for the friend request!  Blessings on your musical endeavors!  :)

The site is for ongoing commentary. It needs bright and honest people to comment on the Bible verses, people who won't either wallow in uncritical acceptance or automatically dismiss them -- but take an open look at why they're there and why they're the way they are, whether for 'all-too-human' purposes or God's.

Since you'd written about having to fight yourself free from dogmatically-imposed interpretations of the Bible and to see what you could find in it by yourself, I hoped you might still be interested. My wife & I spent a few months attending the weekly Torah study at a good synagogue; and it seems to be a different sort of experience when people can just say what comes to them about a passage. (More people would be [potentially] even better...)

Greeting from Paraguay dear friend!

Thank you, Forrest, for your well wishes! I am honored to be your friend.

Why?

to bleed truth.

Already the wound has scabbed over;
already I've almost returned
habitually again wading through universal
sticky wet outpour of normal
life as we do it to ourselves

and I want to know how it happens
that hearts can fall open but
hearts just keep themselves clutched shut
There is so much truth,
so very very very very...

"I used to hope that poor people would turn out to be The Good Guys. And then I saw they were playing the same games as everyone else, only for smaller stakes."

   [ a rich contributor to San Diego's 'Street Light' (defunct: 1997-2004)]

I am not, like Roger Zelazny's Corwin, "an evil that exists to oppose other evils."

But I do sometimes find myself in such a role, and don't really like it, don't like being conflicted between saying what I know and looking good. Don't like incurring or feeling hostility.

It's possible that the worst effect of poverty is "being subject to definition by the people who relegate you to poverty." True of the "sinners" of Jesus' day, true of that whole US population born into the 60's, true of all the people born since, deprived of real hope by a real, continuing, "closing of the American mind." [That lid didn't just fall; it was slammed.]

Politics and religion can't help but interact. There's a religion-and-politics of forgiveness and healing; there's a religion-plus-politics that prefers to justify the "strong" versus the weak. Probably everyone drifts into that second camp from time to time.

But whether or not Jesus approves me or my ways... We know what side God sent him to uphold.

...

"Difficulty arises... because we are afraid to let go of what we think we know and be what's left. We're reluctant to ease up on the tight sense of control we exercise over ourselves because life is hard enough as it is. We don't want it any harder. "If I stop controlling myself to be one way rather than another, who knows what might happen? If I let go of every pretense and instead be genuine, things might get worse. Who knows what devil might be lurking in my depths?" But it's also beginning to dawn on us that we have blindly believed false and inaccurate concepts about who we are, and have been ignorant of our true nature until now simply because we've been taught otherwise, and that maybe we're different from what we've thought ourselves to be..."

[Erich Schiffmann, in Yoga: The Spirit and Practice of Moving Into Stillness]

Thanks for the request!