See The Circle At The Top Of The Picture?

I love when they show up in photos.  When I saw it was there, I went straight back out and took another picture just like it, to see if it was something on the lens, or a reflection, or whatever, just like I always do - and it's never any of those things - the circles aren't there in the repeat photos. 

 

I don't know exactly what they are or why they show up, but I like to believe that they're good, whatever they may be! 

 

I don't see them in outside pictures usually, and this one is way bigger than any of the others have been. 

 

Being as this is my MYSTIC blog, I'm going to say it's the beautiful spirit of this place, and will be watching out for me while I'm on the roof tomorrow! 

 

Sword, Spear, Shield, Spiral, Sickle, Song ... and Torques

When I think of the Celts I think of:

The sword

The spear

The shield

The spiral

The sickle

The song.

 

And torques.

Kimmy, here's your synopsis for Thoughts On Religion :)

These are MY thoughts, nothing more, nothing less.

God is the Creator. 

As such He imbues each of his creations with a part of Himself, as an artist transmits a part of him/herself into their work.

As His creations,within each of us is that part which has an inherent need to seek the Creator.

I believe in the Trinity:  Father, Son, Holy Spirit.

My personal instinct is that the Holy Spirit has female qualities, and is our individual Guide, Comforter, and Protector.

Jesus is the Son of God, the WORD of God, come to hug us in person, so to speak, and tell us in plain human words a thing or two.  He represents the connection between God and humanity.

It is up to us, each and all, to choose if/how we embrace the gift of spirituality.

The Bible is a Book through which the Spirit guides us if we're searching for something.  It was written,  translated, edited, and interpreted by men. (If it had been women, would it be the same Book?  Maybe not, but the message, the bottom line WORD of God, would be the same.) Men, products of their cultures and educations, also decided what to put in and what to leave out of it. 

I believe that the WORD of God, the message, will get through to us if we want it to, no matter HOW we choose to seek it.  The Spirit part of the Trinity sees to it.

From the get-go, LONG before Jesus walked the earth, humans recognized and acknowledged that we are not the be-all and end-all.  There's Someone or Something more than just us that we can't understand, control, or even really define.  A Mystery.

From the get-go humans have wanted to define, understand, and control EVERYTHING. 

I believe that humans have an instinctive need to seek the Mystery, to reach to the Creator, to connect with God.

Rome was not the first or only to recognize and take advantage of that need to forge individuals into a unified and organized force to be reckoned with. 

And that's about it for now.

2013 JUNE 29 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION

Somebody asked me what my beliefs are and why I believe them. 

I told him that I believe God imbues all of His creations with His Spirit; and that each of us responds to Him individually because, well because He made us and we belong to Him. 

I said it’s like every artist, ever – into each work we put a part of ourselves and it shows up in everything we create.  That’s how you can tell one artist from another, because no two are ever going to be the same.  Picasso is not de Vinci. 

God put a part of Himself into each of us before we drew our first breaths, just as artists imbue their pieces of art (in whatever form) with something of themselves.  It’s impossible to create something without putting a part of yourself into it. 

What about Jesus, where does he fit in? 

Ah, said I, He is one of the Trinity – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, I said, and then said that I personally feel that the Holy Spirit is essentially female.  What I didn't say because it didn't come to me until just now is that Jesus came to hug us in person, so to speak, and to tell us in human words a thing or two.  He represents the connection between God and humanity as well as being on equal footing with the Father and the Spirit.

Well, says he, how can you say the Holy Spirit is female?  You can’t say that’s the way it is ‘because you say so’. 

For me, yes I can.  For me, that’s the way it is.  I never said it’s that way for everyone, not even for ANYONE else.  It’s just MY way.  Nobody can prove otherwise and we’ll all find out sooner or later, preferably later.  Meanwhile, each of us decides for our own self.

Then he wanted to know if I believe the Bible is the Word of God. 

All of this was taking place in a few minutes as we were working, right? 

He wants simple yes or no answers and I don’t have those kinds of answers to give him. 

He wants me to cite my sources, concrete and verifiable. 

My personal belief is that Jesus is the Word of God and my source is the Bible he’s asking about, as well as the guidance of the Holy Spirit, but trying to explain that would have taken too long and it wasn’t what he was asking. 

The Bible we’re mostly familiar with is the King James Version.  It’s the result of men writing things down, men translating the words, men editing the translations, men deciding what stays in and what gets left out, and men interpreting the final product.

All of those men were without a shadow of a doubt the products of their cultures and societies and educations – you HAVE to take that into account.

If women had written, edited, translated, decided, and interpreted, the Word of God – Jesus – would have remained the same.  His message sounds loud and clear; it’s unequivocal and immutable.  BUT the BIBLE would no doubt be somewhat different from the one we know. 

On the one hand, sure it makes a difference who adapted what through the course of the centuries.  On the other hand, it’s not like we have to go poking through the Bible (as we know it) without a guide.  That’s the province of the Holy Spirit, to be our guide. 

A sincere desire for discernment (getting something meaningful to YOU out of whatever – whoever – wherever – whenever - … you’re trying to understand) will kind of automatically kick in the Spirit that is your gift as part of God’s creation. 

It’s one of those things you have to take on faith.  If you’re looking for peace, for example, you’ll find passages that bring you peace, or you’ll find someone near you that exudes peace, or you’ll notice a small flower living its own quiet little life in the midst of a crazy world filled with noise and distractions, or your own memory will supply you with a moment out of time that can still give you a peaceful easy moment. 

For me, finding what I need as I need it is a function of my reliance on the Holy Spirit for guidance.  It’s not a complicated concept, but just you try explaining it to someone who has never given it much thought.  Good luck with that.

When people rely on any given religion to provide them with what they need when they need it in a spiritual sense, instead of going straight to the Source, so to speak, things get a lot more complicated than they need to be, in my opinion. 

It’s just the opinion of a little old gramma lady, but it makes sense to ME.  You figure out what makes sense to YOU and go with that. 

The thing is that, from the dawn of Mankind, at least as far back as we can trace it, which is quite a long way (relatively speaking, from our perspective), we humans have had religion in one form or another. 

I haven’t the time nor the inclination to research all of them, but the ones I have learned a little something about all have one thing in common, no matter how different they are on the surface.

That one thing is that we humans are not the be all and end all.  Someone or Something is beyond our ability to thoroughly comprehend, beyond our ability to control, beyond our ability to even adequately define.  It’s a mystery. 

Now, as human beings we want to define, understand, and control.  That’s honestly just the way it is. 

Long LONG before Jesus walked the earth, people were trying to define, understand, and control.  That’s honestly just the way it was. 

It’s not like any one religion ever sprang full-fledged from nowhere, you know. 

Whatever our choice of organized religion may be (or not be as the case MAY be) the fact of the matter, as I see it, is that each and all of us HAS THE CHOICE to embrace or reject the gift of spirituality which is within us, each and all.

Every last human being on the face of the earth is different from every other, even identical twins.  We are each a unique individual. 

Differing societal norms in differing regions (or times), education, family traditions, individual experiences … all play a part in the choice each of us makes. 

Me, I seek peace, on all levels from personal to universal.  That’s MY thing, mostly.  And I found it a bit fascinating to discover, in the course of my research for an artword project I’m in the middle of, that the Gaelic/Celtic form of my name can be spelled Sidhelagh.  If you break it down, Sidhe means (besides being a label for various peoples and such) ‘PEACE’ and lagh means ‘law’.  Being already in the midst of a mystic piece of work, that bit of information kind of jumped out at me. 

My point being:  I trust in God (my God being the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit) to give me what I need when I need it.  If a definition of my very name helps to reinforce and validate my inherent need to search for peace, even such a small piece of random information can be a gift from my Guide. 

You know, there’s a Mystery within each of us.  There’s Mystery in every organized religion and guess what.  The SOURCE of the Mystery is the SAME.  It has always been, for as long as there have been humans on earth (that we know of), and no doubt will be for as long as time exists. 

We, each and all of us, have an inborn need to seek our Creator; this is my thought and my belief. 

Rome was not the first or only to recognize and take advantage of that need to forge individuals into a unified and organized force to be reckoned with.

Just sayin’.

That’s my ‘thoughts on religion’.

Ah The Little Ones Are Back!

Well, well ... what have we here?  Not the camera, not the light, because those things didn't change in the slightest between one shot and the next ... haven't seen the Little Ones about lately, so I'm a happy camper! 

 

I was taking pictures of myself to use as paintings for Sidhelagh, since I'm a little short on subjects (Duke wouldn't quite work very well for these purposes) - and these little guys showed up in this one photo!  There's another one up and back a little I think but it didn't make the crop.

This Is The Day

This is the day that the Lord hath made.

We will rejoice and be glad in it.

The River Beach

 

Do you ever go to the beach?  We don't live near an ocean, being almost dead center in the North American Continent, but there are rivers in the vicinity. 

Our beach isn't very big, but we like it.  It's free, for one thing.  Then there's the convenience of being able to sit and read on ground that's soft compared to the concrete that surrounds the swimming pools. 

The water lures the kids and they bring me collections of pebbles, fallen feathers, and tiny snail shells. 

I don't know.  There's just something about it that clears my mind and lets me relax.  The children love it.  The company's good, fun, and easy-going. 

For a long time I never even thought about going to the beach; once I did, we were hooked.  Now we wait for the weather to get warm enough.  It doesn't have to be warm enough to swim, just warm enough to be outside without parkas and mukluks.  Basically that means as soon as the ice is off. 

If you haven't been to the beach lately you maybe ought to try it.  When the sun glitters off the ripples and a little breeze comes out of nowhere; when the children find beauty and joy in a simple pebble; life kind of stops and records the joy for future reference. 

You never know when you're going to need a moment of joy; it's good to know those moments are right there in the library of my mind, easy to get to when I need them.

QUAKER MINISTER ANN BRANSON BORN 1808 JOURNAL AVAILABLE ON LINE

For the past several days I have, in what little spare time has been mine, been working my way through a 'journal' written by Ann Branson, who was born in Ohio in 1808; she died in 1891, also in Ohio.  She would have been a cousin to one of my ancestors. 

From her journal entries she was apparently far more devout in her faith than any of us that I know of or have heard of to date.  Or maybe it's just that she recorded that part of her self more thoroughly than any other ... it's impossible to say. 

Her cousin Asa Branson gets credit for getting her words put together, and the Friends of Ohio get credit for preserving them, to the best of my knowledge. 

At any rate, I have been wishing that the women of our family in generations past would have written journals, so that we could 'get to know them' ... and now here IS one!  Maybe there are more and we just haven't found them yet.  One can hope. 

Dr. Peter Saul of Australia Speaks on a Tough Topic: End of Life

I saw a video clip of Dr. Peter Saul talking about the choices we make, or fail to make, regarding our own end of life care.

He reminds us that with increasing longevity comes not more years of youth but more years of old age, and that frailty comes to us all.

Dr. Saul refers to two of the most imortant questions of our lives:  1)  If you can't speak for yourself, who do you want speaking for you? and, 2)  Have you talked to that person about what your wishes are should that time come?

My personal interpretation of his message is that all of us are responsible for making choices not only about our lives as we go along through them, but about the ends of our lives.  I'm not talking about suicide or euthenasia, but about the fact that each and all of us need to take just a little time (while we have it) to prepare ourselves and our loved ones for the ultimate inevitability of life - it ends sooner or later.  HOW it ends is up to us for the most part, barring violence or a natural disaster of some kind.

There are information packets available at any medical facility that explain the options and procedures involved, and access is as easy as stopping in and requesting the information.  The forms will make you think, and give you a format through which to make your wishes known in case you're ever in a position where you can't speak or write them in person.

More important than filling out forms is making sure those closest to you know in no uncertain terms exactly what it is that YOU want for YOURSELF when your time comes.  Tell them flat out and put it in writing so there's no chance for misunderstanding. 

The thing is that, except for the thinking about it and making your choices, the whole process need take only a few minutes.  Once you've gotten it straight in your mind, write it down and then tell those who need to know, giving them copies of your written words. 

If you leave it up to others to decide, without having given them any type of guidance, you aren't being fair.  So just do it and get it over with.  Then you and your family don't have to think about it again until the time comes sometime down the road - and when that time DOES come they will know what to do, which will relieve them of much stress in what will no doubt already be a stressful time.  It won't be THEIR call, but YOURS. 

For the record, my choice is simple.  No interference whatsoever, period end of discussion.  Nothing.  This goes beyond "No Code" and "DNR (Do Not Resuscitate)" for me.  It means render no aid and I mean that literally. 

I cannot afford and flatly REFUSE to accrue the bills associated with even one day of a hospital stay or an emergency room visit, let alone a nursing home or hospice care.  Finances aside, I figure my life is my own to do with as I please, to the very end.  I accept the responsiblity for my own choices - AND I accept the responsibility for seeing to my own health and well-being to the best of my ability.

I am most assuredly not averse to life!  I love mine and fully intend to live it to its utmost.  That means that I try to take the best possible care of myself that I can.  When I'm up on my roof, I'm not likely to fall off and break my neck because when I'm up there I'm CAREFUL.  I take precautions to protect myself.  I accept the fact that it's MY responsibility to prevent both accidents and illnesses.  If I fail, I die.  It's as simple as that.  It's nobody's responsibility but my own to keep me going.  

Keep in mind that where a person is on their 'life-line' makes a big difference in what their choices will be.  A young parent with a family to raise would probably NOT make the same choices that I've made, nor should they (in my opinion,they need every possible chance they can get to raise those families and live their lives fully).  I work in a nursing home and on more than one occasion I've had someone tell me that they wished the thousands of dollars being spent to keep them there every month could be going instead to a young family who needs it, or to put someone through college.  True.  More than one person has told me that.  I never want to be in a position where I would be saying the same sort of thing.  I love my job and I love my people more than I can say ... it's just ... thought-provoking at times.

My daughters are well aware of my choices and they know the words to say should they get a question from someone someday:  "Let her go."  Or, more likely, and I'm laughing aloud as I write this, they'll say:  "Let 'er RIP, Mom!!!" (so very PUNNY we are!)  along with:  "You GO girl!"  and:  "I love you, remember the rules!" or "On the road again!"  Because they know that, relatively speaking, it will after all be only a brief separation for us. 

Ha.  Little do they know; it will be no separation at all seeing as how once I have my wings ... I'll be there.

Revelation 22:20

Sometimes it seems as though there's always so much to try to get done that I forget for a time that what really matters is NOW, this very moment. 

Because we truly do not know that we will ever have another. 

When He does come, what else is going to matter?

'Vengeance is MINE,' saith the Lord. And a good thing too, saith ME.

If there's one thing I'm certain of it's that the Wrath of God has got to be far and away more creative and effective than anything I could come up with. 

So I say it's a mighty fine thing not to have to worry about it. 

By Divine Decree no less, I am commanded to 'Let Go and Let God' as the saying goes. 

RELIGION-SPIRITUALITY-MYSTICISM

In my neck of the non-woods almost everyone is basically pragmatic, sensible, well-grounded, realistic, grumbly at times, unimaginative, and essentially content. 

Religion is fine, spirituality is suspect, and mysticism belongs in fiction stories. 

Religion, to me, means ritual performances that may or may not have much, if any, impact on the lives of those who participate. 

Spirituality, to me, means the individual connection each person has with the Maker. 

Mysticism, to me, means pretty much what the term says:  mystery.  It’s a sacred and personal search, if you will, for that mysterious whatever it is that eludes us by definition (else it wouldn't be mysterious) yet abides in and with us at all times.  The paradox only adds to the allure, and the inability to truly understand makes the quest that much more compelling.

A culture focused on pragmatism can and will make a place for a local nut, as long as said nut is a familiar face from decades back and can be classified as basically a Lutheran, a Baptist, a Catholic, a Seventh Day Adventist, or whatever. 

Ah well, this nut is long familiar in this neck of the non-woods, and not offensive generally. 

Besides, the only ones who are likely to have access to my inner nuttiness are the ones who bother to read my words, and that would be the few who know me better than anyone else … being INFJ is something they’ll at least have a basic comprehension of although I doubt many, if any,  will really get what that means. 

It’s a label to help others understand where I’m coming from. 

And that’s neither here nor there I reckon. 

This blog site is where the mystic things can find a home right along with religious and spiritual things, as to me they are pretty well integrated. 

Dreams and/or moments of ‘something’ are so hard to wrap in words, even poetry … but I’ll try.

Call me weird; some things in life ARE weird.

Yes SIR, Ma'am, Sir !! vs Crazy and Full of Crap

You know, the more I think about it, the more I realize that I probably did the right thing back many years ago when I declined all the recruiters who tried to sign me up for military service. 

Do NOT get me wrong here - I have the utmost respect and admiration for our military personnel, and for authority and those who wield it well.

I can and do take orders from those who outrank me, sometimes because I respect them as people who know more than I do about whatever it is and sometimes just because of rank.  If they outrank me the rebuttable presumption is that they do indeed know more than I do about whatever it is and it would behoove me to pay attention and learn.  Until/unless proven otherwise, that's my take on things.

I also know and respect my own limitations. 

A very long time ago, back in grade school, a teacher mispronounced a word that I knew well.  I tried to ignore it, really TRIED to just let it go.  But my classmates would assume that was the way to say that word and eventually one or more of them would make fools of themselves over it, and THEN how would I feel?  Plus it just bugged the ever-livin' heck out of me that an EDUCATOR was making a preventable mistake and passing it on to kids.

Finally she said it wrong one too many times and I raised my hand and told her the right way to say it.  She told me I was wrong (when I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that I was NOT wrong) and that just made it worse.  She continued, said it wrong again, and I think I just said the right way out loud.  I was not wrong and I was not going to just let it go, not after she tried to embarrass me like that.  Had my dander up a little, that did.  Anyway, I said it the right way a couple of times.  That got me 'THE LOOK' but as I was being so insistent she told me to go get the big dictionary and look it up. 

I think she was trying to prove me wrong and take me down a peg or two.  Maybe even throw me all the way down to the bottom of the ladder.

I tell ya.  It was a Hermione Grainger moment, which really aren't all that great when it comes down to it.  But what was I supposed to do, let my friends grow up thinking that was RIGHT? 

She should have looked it up her own self in the first place instead of assuming she knew what she didn't know.  It would have saved both of us the hassle. 

Just so you know, tortilla doesn't rhyme with Attila.

My point is that even as a little kid if I knew something was wrong and knew how to fix it or do it right, I could only let it go on for so long before I took the blasted bit in my teeth to try to correct it - and damn the torpedoes. 

By the time we got to high school my classmates had long since figured out that if I was willing to argue a point it was because I was absolutely certain before I opened my mouth. 

I loved geometry.  You had the givens to go by, but a particular problem didn't always have only just one way to be solved correctly.  One time a teacher who didn't know any better yet marked one of my problem-solving methods wrong.  Before I argued, I re-checked my steps and decided it was NOT wrong.  He still tried to argue with me about it, until he went all the way through it step by step and it worked just fine.  I got the credit for it, and from then on if my work turned out a little different from everyone else's, he went through it himself FIRST and only marked it wrong if he could prove where I had made a mistake.  It was good for  him. 

A new kid in school started arguing with me about something I knew I was right about.  Rather than put all of us through the whole thing, my classmates told him, 'Never argue with her when she's right.'  THEY knew.  If I wasn't certain-sure, I wasn't about to argue in the first place.  Discuss or debate maybe, but not make a flat statement of fact. 

Back to the point.  HAD I entered the military, what would have happened if one of my superior officers was ever significantly wrong about something I felt strongly about?  I'd have been kicked out in no time flat for insubordination, that's what.

I was insubordinate (crazy and full of crap as he put it) to a man I married and I have the fractured vertebra, TBI's, and a permanently damaged eye to prove it; not to mention the PTSD which was harder to deal with than the rest put together but not as insurmountable in the long run.  He took me to a marriage counselor to prove I was wrong (hmmm...he was a teacher too, come to think of it), and then to a priest, and then to a protestant clergyman, and then we went to domestic violence training together (he dropped out; I didn't), and then he tried like four different perpetrators programs.  Everyone he went to was also as crazy and full of crap as I was.  At least I wasn't alone in my insanity. 

I don't know if he ever did find someone to agree with him.  No doubt I WAS crazy and full of crap; I think it was the dominant traditionalist training in him that brought out the Quaker and Huguenot in me.  He NEEDED for me to be the wrong one; the alternative was just unacceptable to him.  I just couldn't manage to wrap my head around that concept enough to concede, comply, and recant.  I've just stayed crazy and full of crap.  As my family history research is revealing, I come from several very long lines of people who have been as crazy and full of crap as I am, so I blame it on my DNA.

For the hundreds of years that I've been able to back-track there seems to be a severe shortage of people of my lineage who have been able to snap to attention, salute, say 'Yes SIR, Ma'am, Sir!' and then just sit down and shut up in the face of a situation that is flat out wrong.  From our crazy and full of crap perspective, of course. 

So be it. 

As I say, I can and do thoroughly respect and admire worthy people in authority.  I can and do take orders well enough - right up until I'm ordered to do something I can't reconcile with my own crazy and full of crap personal integrity.  That's where the trouble comes in.  I can cite you any number of instances when my code of ethics has differed from that of the people who thought they could order me to do something and I would automatically comply, right or wrong, and it's landed me in the soup.  So be it.  I can't become other than I am.  If their expectations are otherwise, I can't help that. 

Anyone who honestly believes that I'm going to snap to attention, salute, say 'Yes SIR, Ma'am, Sir!', do whatever they say without question, and then sit down and shut up had maybe better re-think their position. 

I'm not one to indulge in confrontational shouting matches, power struggles, or pissing matches.

Sometimes people who don't know me very well yet mistake pacifism for passivity.  Their views may lead them to believe that here is a doormat who lets people walk all over her. 

Up to a point they are right.  There are very few things that are worth getting all bent out of shape over.  People want to know how come I don't stick up for myself when someone does me wrong; they want me to fight back when someone 'attacks' me. 

What they don't understand is that in almost every instance the other person's need is far greater than my own.  Whatever has gotten them all riled up almost never has anything to do with me personally.  Am I going to expend energy ( which would be better utilized elsewhere) swatting at flies when it's more simple and easy to point the fan at them and blow them out of my way?  Insignificant issues (to me) aren't worth the bother.  If whatever it is happens to be significant to the other person, what does it cost me to let them have what they need in these little things?  Nothing.  It's nothing to me, so what the heck.  I have to prove nothing; if they have a need to prove something, that's okay by me. 

Up to a point.  If/when that point is reached ... well ... it doesn't get to that point very often these days. 

I'm not a littel kid in grade school any more, not likely to challenge authority over the mispronunciation of a word or any other insignificant little item.  My tolerance line has moved, but it is still there. 

I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have been one of those famous Quaker women who got tied to cart-tails and whipped through villages and towns to get them and their big mouths out of Puritan territory; I'm also fairly certain that I WOULD have been one who hid escaped slaves for the Underground Railroad.  I've hidden and helped a number of women and children escape. 

Because somewhere along the line I've gotten the distinct impression that 'if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem'.  In other words - IF you recognize a need, and you are ABLE to help, you MUST help in whatever way you can.  You don't have to try to fix everything all by yourself, but if you CAN help but DON'T you're not doing the right thing and your conscience is going to smite you but good. 

And some of this stuff HAS to be genetic.  I swear.  Well no, I don't really SWEAR, but you know what I mean.  When my eldest daughter was in grade school she stood up to a teacher over a wrong that was going on.  Being in the right, she didn't get into trouble; the point is that she had it in her to do that, even at such a young age.

I don't think any of my girls are going to be the 'Yes SIR, Ma'am, Sir!' kind - and I'm right glad about it to tell you the truth.

Have You Ever Heard A Quaker Preach?

No? 

Me neither.  I have, however, heard some fine Southern Baptist preachers, my dad being one of them, and one of our family roots is Quaker.  Elizabeth Harvey Day (married John Day; their daughter Elizabeth married Thomas Branson) was an early Quaker minister in America, in the 1600's.  A later Branson woman, Ann from I believe Illinois or maybe Ohio, during the Civil War era kept a 'journal'.

In my mind's eye I see a group of people, such as I have read about, sitting together quietly in their faith, respecting one another and each his/her own self as they tune themselves individually and as a group in to that still small voice, searching their own souls and making their own peace with the Creator. 

It's a quiet time as each and all are in meditation, following their own individual path to their Maker. 

I think that it is maybe during these quiet times, in the midst of busy lives, their connections with themselves, each other, and God are strengthened. 

But I know that silence has not always been the order of their days ... histories have records of times when they did not keep their silence. 

I think that maybe the quiet times are necessary, because the strengths they bring to each and all might be very much needed when the time comes for the silence to be broken.  Without that strength, who would have the courage to follow their faith, to do what is right in the face of apparently insurmountable odds? 

I won't go into all of the historical people who have impacted our American society as well as the world at large, in more ways than one could count, large and small.  You're perfectly capable of looking them up yourself. 

All I'm saying here is that, while I have never personally heard a Quaker preach, if I ever did it would probably be worth listening to.  It's my impression that, with a few notable exceptions, they aren't all that big on preaching - but if they feel led to do so they don't pull any punches.