We never see the fourth king in a manger scene.

Um, yes I know these weren't really kings.  They believed in following stars around though; my story keeps that element.

The fourth king had less adept court astrologers or had more travel snags, or for whatever reason, doesn't show until like July-August, somewhere in there. 

The holy family is gracious and accept the gift.  Jesus, precocious as always, is showing signs of future greatness.  The family is doing better by…

There is a quiet, open place in the depths of the mind, to which we can go many times in the day and lift up our soul in praise, thankfulness and conscious unity. With practice this God-ward turn of the mind becomes an almost constant direction, underlying all our other activities.

~ Kenneth Boulding, 1910-1993

We've heard a lot about "Quakernomics" lately, and indeed, the book by that title is a…

This title may seem a misnomer in the rear view mirror, but is meant with a touch of humor, given its abstract feel, and my application:  the mundane affairs of keeping our Meetings' records.

A group, for our purposes, is "a set of Friends" like a Committee (Standing or Ad Hoc), a Study Group (like Joe's Bible Study at Multnomah), or even just some annual mailing, PR for Annual Session lets say.

NPYM, the Yearly Meeting, joins the database as one more meeting, of the Yearly…

[ memo from npym-it-discuss, NPYM's IT Committee listserv ]

I found myself explaining to my class last night, about 20 people, mostly in California, that the difference between open and closed source software might be thought of in terms of board games. 



That gets me thinking about Quakers and their Game Nights.  We have them here at Multnomah.  Friends break out the board games in the social hall and go crazy.  We maybe haven't done that in awhile?  Simeon Hyde was an avid…

I live on the Pacific Rim, in Portland, Oregon, which has a Chinese Gate, marking a long history of East-West traffic.  The Dragon is pretty much a powerful creature but more often celebrated than demonized. 

We have parallels in the west, but in Genesis the serpent plays a decidedly negative role.  Although it's a "dragon" that St. George would slay, I think that…