One often sees luxury housing developments advertised as ‘exclusive’. The positive implication of this has always puzzled me. Exclusive means someone is excluded: it inspires me to ask who is excluded. And yet when I ask, those around me don’t seem to hear my question as a pointed criticism, as …
I have just spent most of a day thinking about a friend who recently died. I had the opportunity to join her family and friends at her funeral. I knew – and was content to hear from those who knew my friend longer and deeper – that she was not …
Someone has died, someone I know who was around my age. I didn’t know her for long, but I feel I had a bond with her. Her way of being made it easy to be close with her. I have been thinking about what will change in the world with …
What to do in a situation when one side is being violated? It seems straightforward to chose the victim’s side – but how many of us do that? Do we look for excuses to not chose the victim’s side – he seems so nice, surely that story is not true…. …
I have met evil. I can tell you I would not have even thought to say those words before meeting evil a year ago. And I haven’t been in a formal war zone, I haven’t seen people being shot; I have been here in Northern Europe speaking with quite ordinary …
[Originally published on the Quaker Council for European Affairs website, qceablog.wordpress.com] As an inhabitant of the Brussels ‘bubble’, I would say that every week brings something interesting. This year has been particularly eventful with the elections for the European Parliament and then the restructuring of the European Commission. This final …
I have been a Quaker for 22 years. ‘Unprogrammed’ or liberal Quakers, as you may know, don’t have pastors or other leaders. Community leadership role are usually rotated after a few years, and it is the community which makes decisions together to act in the world. A few years ago, …
[originally published on qceablog.wordpress.com] I was recently invited to participate in discussions on the role of religion in public affairs. The discussions were fascinating: depending on the religion from which one views the question, the answers differ. The question is, how can religion play a role in increasing environmentally and economically …
I am a curious person. You probably are, too. Most people are curious, although some learn to express their curiosity about others through speaking our judgements. If you look behind the criticism of someone’s shoes, their lifestyle, their choice of work, often you can see the unvoiced curiosity: how do …
I am suffering a bit from familiar foibles. You know what I mean: those foibles in other people and cultures – always easier to spot than one’s own. They make me grumpy – or, maybe I am already grumpy and therefore I notice how people in one country talk rather …