Pages tagged "Personality"

Dear Editor: I just yesterday received my printed copy of the September/October issue of Western Friend. Being newer to the Society of Friends, I wonder occasionally if my self-confident, nearly unrelenting sole-proprietor personality – an anti-violent celebration of life in friendship, healthier living, and occasional long streams of profanity – is contradictory to the seemingly tranquil serenity of the Society of Friends! I am inspired by your “From the Editor’s Desk” statements, especially, “Let’s play the Massively Multiplayer Offline Game called The Valley of the Shadow of Death.” Your statement appeals to both my sense of humor and spirituality. I suppose I need not explain your appeal to my sense of spirituality. In terms of humor, I am imagining the juxtaposition of your statement with a speaker in high places (such as major media, financial, or political spokesperson), offering a public suggestion – with the enthusiasm of a pre-teen cartoon character – to play a multiplayer offline game. Perhaps I am easily amused!

Friends use the word Light a lot.  They use it as a metaphor to point towards an experience.  But Friends use this basic expression so casually that I fear it has become conventional and trivial. We don’t much think about what the Light (as experience) means or where it comes from or why we need it. Nor are we aware of how we got into the dark in the first place. Like many metaphors, Light is better understood when it is placed in a context. My experience is that ego, imagination, and condition are factors that provide a helpful context for considering the Light.