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TheFreeQuaker
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A Quaker into decentralization, permaculture, simplicity, peace. Exploring the world one step at a time. Seeker of truth, separating facts from fiction. Always curious, often wandering. Here to learn, listen and grow. Opinions are works-in-progress. Will walk long distances for good conversation.

War is not the answer. This is a rallying cry for Quakers, who are part of a historic peace church. While many Quakers are pacifists, not all are. It's not a requirement. But it is one of our central testimonies to the world. We should always strive to create the conditions for peace and remove the impetus for war.

Below is a recording from FCNL, a Quaker lobbying group, on the crisis in Israel and Palestine.

"On Oct. 25, we gathered as a community in grief and action. Watch the recording for insights into what is happening in Israel-Palestine, the response from U.S. lawmakers, and what we can do as advocates to respond."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfpZtktPnvM

#Quaker

"On Oct. 25 at 6:30 p.m. EDT, we will gather as a community in grief and action. Join experts from the Friends Committee on National Legislation and American Friends Service Committee for insights into what is happening in Israel-Palestine, the response from U.S. lawmakers, and what we can do as advocates to respond."

https://www.fcnl.org/events/calling-ceasefire-israel-palestine-briefing

#Quaker

All around town, young squirrels are busy eating walnuts, chestnuts, and acorns. Then there is the murder of crows gathering loudly on Locust Street.

Some wonderful quotes from Bayard Rustin, the #Quaker civil rights leader.

"We are all one and if we don't know, we will learn it the hard way."

“To be afraid is to behave as if the truth were not true.”

"I believe in social dislocation and creative trouble."

"People will never fight for your freedom if you have not given evidence that you are prepared to fight for it yourself."

"You have to join every other movement for the freedom of people.""You have to join every other movement for the freedom of people."

"God does not require us to achieve any of the good tasks that humanity

must pursue. What God requires of us is that we not stop trying."

"To turn all we possess into the channel of universal love becomes the business of our lives." ~ John Woolman, #Quaker

We're called to look beyond our own interests and be a force for good. True wealth comes from lifting up those around us. True freedom obliges us to care.

Bayard Rustin (1912–1987) was a visionary civil rights activist, strategist, and key adviser to Martin Luther King Jr. An openly gay man and #Quaker, Rustin was instrumental in organizing the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Despite facing prejudice for his sexuality and beliefs, he remained steadfast in his commitment to nonviolent protest and justice, leaving an indelible mark on the American civil rights movement.

https://www.quakersintheworld.org/quakers-in-action/160/Bayard-Rustin

Another note on Jack Powelson... He died January 1, 2009, mere days before Bitcoin launched. I wonder what he would have made of all that's come after him.

In an moment of synchronicity, I picked up this book from my Meeting's library assuming it had a modern liberal perspective. I was pleasantly surprised to find classically liberal views blending progressive and libertarian ideas grounded in Quaker testimonies. Jack Powelson also wrote a blog called The Quaker Economist... a treasure trove for me to explore this winter.

From John P. Powelson, a #Quaker economist, and his short book "Seeking Truth Together: Enabling the Poor and Saving the Planet in the Manner of Friends".

i breathed in all my opinions

and told you how imperfect you were

you breathed in all the world

and created me

Consider, I may be wrong. Consider, you may be wrong.

I normally need to let my head clear out so I can see/feel the priorities. Unfortunately, that normally means eliminating the major time sucks on the internet: social media, news, and videos ... in that order.

Replying to Avatar mleku

i'm like a cat with water currently, it scares the shit out of me.

dairy allergies - as in lactose intolerance or A1 protein?

lactose intolerance is a lot less common than you'd think, and problems with A1 protein are usually in addition to other immune irritants, and switching to A2 (jersey) or goat or sheep milk often helps if the problem is the specific type of casein protein.

i also have discovered that drinking a lot of cows milk means you really need to get more fibre. goat milk has a lot of fibre (and vitamin C) but even still, fibrous fruit is a good addition to deal with it. i have to be very careful around seed fibre sources, if the fibre mass glues up on top of my half wisdom tooth it triggers a reaction that causes swelling and pain in the tooth and generally in my mouth.

one of my mother's siblings nearly died as an infant due to A1 allergy, it caused him to have severe brain swelling, and goat milk saved his life, though sadly, his brain was already damaged.

i'm looking at what else might be causing my allergy before i take milk out of the equation because of how it is improving my skin and muscle growth rates. if i get water retention, that only ensures i have a motivation to get out and do a really good hard walk. if it's an elimination issue, then again, the walking is essential to promoting that process and getting to the end of it.

there is so many allergens in the food supply now that an elimination program is the only way to really get to the bottom of it.

corn seems to be a big one, i can smell the traces of the oils everywhere in other things, in meats, in milk.

anyhow, yeah, you really should be drinking milk if it does you good. the more healthy you are the better for your family, it's not greed, it's need.

For them, it was the A1 protein. Their fine with goat milk, thank goodness.

Replying to Avatar mleku

it's a meme that is rising in these circles, and the more who bite the bullet and get clean and tell their stories and prove the benefit in their work is going to make it grow and grow.

the only thing i would add is that milk is really really really good. fresher the better. i am by necessity needing to do a lot of long walks up and down steep slopes, and so i've also started to work out, and i have seriously never been this buffed, i'm regaining my soft skin.

i am still suffering some kind of immune/infection issue though. a rash that has broken out primarily on my feet where a lot of walking led to abrasions in the knuckles of my toes. it's a rash i've had before at various times, and i can't tell exactly what causes it, but my suspicion is that it is something to do with bacteria, it seems to specifically affect my pores, and forms red bumps in a broad area especially near joints, and before this started, at first there was straight up blisters, and on and off especially my legs have had water retention.

i'm pretty sure that this is in fact the death of massive amounts of bad things that have been living in my blood.

just prior to this all starting, i did a weekend of intensive coffee drinking, maybe 6 or 7 a day for 4 days in a row, hardly slept. caffeine metabolises primarily into uric acid, and it is difficult for the kidneys to eliminate it, and previously i had a condition related to this called gout, which had some features in common, flaring up mainly in my feet, but also knees, hands and elbows. i'm pretty sure it's just the natural process of accumulating microcrystalline uric acid and the gradual elimination. the fine capillaries get blocked up for a time and the blood slows and the color darkens because of the low oxygen levels in these areas.

very likely this makes the areas start to directly send garbage out through the skin, and thus through the pores, where the stomata are then swelling up with gunk that is not flowing out well.

i'm just keeping up the water and whenever the condition gets bloaty and a bit painful I put on my shoes and really go hard with a walk. out the back of my place there is a road that climbs to a height of about 800 feet high or so, in a space of about 2 miles. this walk really gets the blood pumping, and afterwards, my fluid retention abates substantially.

another thing that I think helps is having a good soak every day in sea water. the brine draws out the water under the skin (osmosis) which carries some of the garbage with it.

i don't know how long this process will take but i am quite certain it's not an allergy, but rather the drawn out process of the consequences of so much caffeine in my blood. i know for sure it's related to my blood viscosity because concurrently my blood pressure is up, not severe, like it was before, but still bad.

because the main path of elimination here seems to be via the skin, and lymphatic system, drinking lots of water and driving the lymphatic pumps with walking are the best ways to deal with it.

anyhow, bravo! most here are still chugging coffee, drinking beer, and wishing they could be free. they will be encouraged by our progress.

We used to receive raw milk from a local farmer. It was the best. Unfortunately, we gave it up because the rest of my family had dairy allergies and it felt like a bit much of a luxury for just me. But, man, did I love it.

I wish I lived near the ocean. Whenever I go to the beach for a week or two, you'll find me in the water or playing with the kids in the sand. I don't join the others shopping. I don't sit in a chair and read a book. I'm in the water for hours at a time, only coming out to drink some water and rest a couple minutes before going back in. When I'm done with that, I eat a big meal, take a nap, and then read.

It's a significant time investment I usually only make for people I see regularly. I've had to start from square one, building up understandings gradually. If someone believes Twinkies are health food, they may be miles from even getting to the starting line. Plus everyone's entry point is different - for me it was human rights, sparked by an Andreas Antonopoulos interview in 2016. For one person, it could be finally grasping inflation. For another person, it's freedom.

I ran a Bitcoin meetup for about 5 years. Every now and then a guy would show up just wanting to debate. I learned not to bother.

I recently finished “There Is No God and He Is Always with You”. He cleared up so much confusion I'd been carrying for decades. It also improved my experience of meditating by connecting it to something larger than me ... but not in a new agey way. I can't overstate how much I appreciate his pragmatism.

Replying to Avatar mleku

being completely drug free is a gift that just keeps on giving.

i am starting to be able to organise my work, achieve things, schedule my time better... 100% if you have AD/HD, you need to stay tf away from caffeine, alcohol and nicotine.

all three of them make attention deficit worse. caffeine radically increases anxiety and impulsivity. nicotine shortens your flow period down to about half an hour at best.

i think overall, caffeine is the one that diminishes attention span the most, and the most subtly.

every time i watch people #coffeestr posting i feel sad for them that they think this stuff makes them function better.

maybe, in an emergency, when i have to be awake at normal sleep hours, once in a year, to, for example, help keep someone alive until they can get to acute care at the hospital, but otherwise, the shit just makes you anxious, ruins your concentration and sleep, and long term, lowers your blood pH, which has a net result of reducing oxygen carrying capacity, increasing the chances of embolisms, spider veins, and all the fun stuff like strokes and heart attacks.

fundamental to the swinging sixties, rock and roll, speed and coke memes is the idea that humans, after 300,000 years as a species, and millions of years of animal evolution, has suddenly made a mistake and we need to be hooked up to constant supply of caffeine to do things that we used to be able to do at least 2x as much, 2x as long, and 2x as hard.

you just have to go out and see some of the crazy stuff that people built 400 years ago and ask yourself "did they need coffee for this?" the answer is "there was no coffee you numbskull".

you also have to ask yourself, if the american indians only smoked tobacco when there was a spat going on between two families, or two tribes, or two braves, whether smoking tobacco is going to help your ability to assert yourself.

and alcohol - the only reason they invented beer was as a way to get hydrated while the water supply was terrible. said beer was only like 1-1.5% and you basically can't get drunk on it before you can't put any more in your gut. similarly, wine brewed up to about 3%, owing to how rich in sugars it is, you aren't gonna put away enough of that to get drunk either.

it used to be a sign of poor character, in all of the cultures where these drugs were first consumed, to use them on a daily basis to the point of noticable physical effects.

if you want to have any success in your life, you can gain a good 20-30% more out of yourself just by ditching these drugs.

don't be stupid like me and wait until they are nearly killing you to realise you have to stop.

💯 I'm glad you're making this connection with ADHD. I was diagnosed as an adult, finally understanding so much about my childhood and adulthood struggles. I'd already given up alcohol since even two beers caused a depressive hangover lasting days. Nicotine I quit 20 years prior. About 6 months ago, I noticed coffee was making me feel worse immediately after drinking it - a pattern I'd experienced many times over the years. A while back, I went caffeine-free for a few months months and felt great. So I quit again. I definitely think more clearly, sleep better, and have steadier energy all day.

Eliminating most sugar also had a huge impact. I used to struggle with low blood sugar. A high-carb, high-sugar diet caused my estrogen to spike 8x normal and testosterone to drop to half-normal. As a guy, I was moody and short-fused. Switching to a high protein/fat and low carb/sugar diet was life-changing - it saved my marriage and made me a much better person to be around.