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capri0mniWhy today, of all days in the year? It's William Penn's birthday. And it's United Nations Day.
Since (most) Quakers today speak like (most) other people today, and since I'm not in any position to engage in Three-Dee Space Dialog, I'd thought I'd share some actual quotes from William Penn, so you could get a taste of how real Quakers really did talk (or at least, write).
Because my brain is currently steeped in a story centering on a child, this quote speaks particularly clearly to me, today:
And this passage, too, speaks to me, having recently been engaged (actively as well as lurkingly) in various discussions on the strengths of online friendships, and friendships across "unconventional spaces":
Both of these passages are from The Fruits of Solitude (1693)
(BTW, the image in my icon was painted by a Quaker -- Edward Hicks -- back in his day, Quakers generally frowned on decorative arts, because those arts are often used as a means to flaunt privilege and inequality. But the people in his community realized that painting was the way he spoke his truth most clearly, so he was not censured for it the way some others might have been [except by those who disagreed with his truth])
Since (most) Quakers today speak like (most) other people today, and since I'm not in any position to engage in Three-Dee Space Dialog, I'd thought I'd share some actual quotes from William Penn, so you could get a taste of how real Quakers really did talk (or at least, write).
Because my brain is currently steeped in a story centering on a child, this quote speaks particularly clearly to me, today:
(quote)
Children had rather be making of Tools and Instruments of Play; Shaping, Drawing, Framing, and Building, &c. than getting some Rules of Propriety of Speech by Heart: And those also would follow with more Judgment, and less Trouble and Time.
(unquote)
And this passage, too, speaks to me, having recently been engaged (actively as well as lurkingly) in various discussions on the strengths of online friendships, and friendships across "unconventional spaces":
(quote)
Friendship is the next Pleasure we may hope for: And where we find it not at home, or have no home to find it in, we may seek it abroad. It is an Union of Spirits, a Marriage of Hearts, and the Bond thereof Vertue.
(unquote)
Both of these passages are from The Fruits of Solitude (1693)
(BTW, the image in my icon was painted by a Quaker -- Edward Hicks -- back in his day, Quakers generally frowned on decorative arts, because those arts are often used as a means to flaunt privilege and inequality. But the people in his community realized that painting was the way he spoke his truth most clearly, so he was not censured for it the way some others might have been [except by those who disagreed with his truth])
