Now Also on Ko-Fi!

As regular readers will no doubt be aware, I invite those who wish to support this blog to subscribe to my Patreon. I’m gratified by the support that some of you have given – it lets me know that people value what I’m writing, as of course do comments, shares and so on. You can be sure that I also look at my page views and see when a post is popular, which usually means that people have shared it more widely, which is great.

Financial support is not more important to me than that sort of moral support, but is, obviously, different. It means I can spend more time on the blog, and it can mean that my financial situation is a little less precarious, all my sources of income being variable and not entirely within my control. So when you support me and my blog financially, you make a practical difference to my life, as well as encouraging me to write more.

Modern Christmas and Equality

The kitten is not impressed by Christmas excess.

As I noted in my recent post on Quakers and Christmas, albeit in passing, the way we “do Christmas” in this country (and in some others) raises profound concerns regarding equality – particularly regarding economic inequality. This is something that I would expect to be of deep concern to Quakers, considering our long-standing testimony to equality and general concern for the well-being of our fellow people; it is also something that I think should be of concern for others that support such ideals of equality and social justice, from whatever source that conviction arises. It also leads to significant environmental impacts, but for now I'm concerned with the human impact of consumer culture – the environmental side of things can wait for another post.

A Christmas Prayer

My mind is drawn, today, to those who face particular difficulties at this time of year.

I think of those who are impoverished, struggling to meet the cultural expectations of how one is supposed to “do Christmas”.

I think of those who are bereaved, and going through Christmas without a loved one.

I think of those of fragile mental health, or who are physically limited, coping with the social expectations that go with this season.

I hold all these people in the Light, and hope that they may know comfort from the Spirit, however they understand it.

Written December 2017

Openings Is Now On Patreon

You may have noticed, in recent weeks, a survey on the sidebar of this blog, asking if you might support a Patreon for this blog, along with my recent post about money. Well, I appreciate those who submitted an answer to that very simple question, and I've decided to move ahead with the idea. I do so in a spirit of living adventurously, not knowing what it might bring – but certain that it won't work if I don't do it, so I may as well do it.

Money (It's a Gas)

It's something Quakers, it seems, don't like to talk about very much. Our personal circumstances especially, but I've even found that we tend to be reluctant to get into too much detail about our organisational finances unless we really need to. Anyway, it's personal circumstances that come into this post.

A lot of Quaker bloggers out there are either retired, or blogging in their spare time while earning from a day job – or even being able to blog in relation to their day job, if they are in a Quaker-related job. I'm not in that position. Indeed, due to various circumstances, I am reliant on state support. While I do various things self-employed, this doesn't earn enough to live on. There is a pretty decent system of support in this situation. Or there was. It's being taken down and replaced with a much worse system, but that is (for now) fortunately not a current issue for me. However, to get the support I do get, I need to be able to demonstrate that I spend my time on things that could plausibly make me money to live on. Not all my time, but enough of it.