Resources from Pendle Hill Talk

Hi all - here are some resources related to the Pendle Hill conversation (last night) on the occasion of the publication of Pamphlet #500 - God Bless the Grass: Liturgies of Imperialism, Liturgies of Resistance. It was a really great experience to get to share about the pamphlet in this way. I loved seeing so many friends from all over the country join in as well. Thank you to all of you who came. Below is a list of resources and links for folks who want to do a little more follow-up or watch/re-watch/review what we did. See my previous post about the pamphlet here and if you'd like to facilitate a reading group Pendle Hill has a great resource. Let me know if you and your faith community decide to read the pamphlet together. I'd love to hear who is reading it and if I can come for a session to meet folks/discuss questions, I'd love to. Thanks! Wess * * * **From the event itself:** The video of the conversation can be found on YouTube. Please note, the video got a little cut off so you're missing about the first 5-10 minutes where we mostly listened to the song, God Bless the Grass from Seth Martin (link below). The link to the presentation slides can be found here - Keynote Share Presentation **Resources and footnotes and some background to the pamphlet:** * Parker O'Keefe - Artist behind the cover art above "Rise Like the Sun" (Guilford College '26) * Kairos books (Clergy, theologians, and activists from Union Theological Seminary and the Poor People's Campaign) - I owe a lot to the Kairos Center for my thinking on these issues. * We Cry Justice - Reading the Bible with the Poor People's Campaign - https://kairoscenter.org/publication/we-cry-justice/ (two chapters from Wess on Revelation here) * Souls of Poor Folks Audit - a study of poverty in the U.S. * https://kairoscenter.org/projects/songs-in-the-key-of-resistance/ * https://kairoscenter.org/projects/cultural-arts/ * Seth Martin/Mountain's God Bless the Grass * YouTube - Ballard Sessions Live #6 * Seth Martin on Bandcamp * James Alison's essay: Worship in a Violent World was deeply formative for me in thinking through this subject. * Doug Gwyn's book on the Lamb's War: * The Anti-War  * Relevant Works and Writings from Wess * Learn as we Lead: Victims of Empire and The Great Multitude in Revelation 7 * Let’s Get Bored Together: The Practice of Silence and Resisting the Attention Economy * Attention and Empire's Algorithms (Luke 10:25ff) * Q&A: A Quaker Perspective about the Issues of Empire and the US * Book: Resisting Empire: The Book of Revelation as Resistance * Book - Resisting Empire: The Book of Revelation as Resistance - Barclay Press * Study Guide - Rev. Grace Burton from St. Thomas Episcopal Church (Columbus, GA) ## Sign up for Gathering In Light Build Community. Share Light. Resist Empire. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.

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Attention and Empire's Algorithms (Luke 10:25ff)

_This is a sermon I preached at Camas Friends Church in Camas, WA about the Attention, Empire and the Good Samaritan on March 8, 2026_ ## Empire's Algorithms I have been thinking a lot about attention recently. Last fall I taught a first year class for Guilford students called "Boredom as a Superpower" that looked at the ways in which our ability to focus and hold attention is being targeted by technology companies. The class explored what we called boredom practices to help us slow down, be present, and get use to not always having input, stimulation, and distraction around us. The underlying claim of the class was, if we’re willing to allow ourselves to get bored it can increase our attention which can be like having a superpower today. Recently, I read and loved the book Attensity! A Manifesto of the Attention Liberation Movement. In the book they describe attention a couple different ways. Two that stand out to me are Bernard Stiegler’s idea that: > “to pay attention to is essentially to wait...What the attention waits on/for...is the infinite of the object” (15-16). A Quaker might add to this, waiting requires attention, and attention waits for when the Light or Seed of God becomes apparent in a person, situation, or in creation itself. Simone Weil, another French Philosopher, put it this way: > “Attention, taken to its highest degree, is the same thing as prayer.” As I think about it, ours is a movement of attention. **There is no Quakerism if we lose the ability to pay attention.** * * * Unfortunately, the dominant framework today is one that shapes our attention through constant streams of information served up through the “algorithms of empire.” These algorithms are not trying to serve the betterment of humanity; they’re trying to keep us hooked because it’s good for their bottomline. These things skew what and who we see as human, valuable, and worthy of our concern. These algorithms aren't just distractions; they're designed to shape us into their values. Values that I think are rooted in wealth for the few, suspicion of others, and stoking fear. Empire's algorithm wants us to see each other as enemies, as commodities, and as less than human. The authors of Attensity! use a shocking visual for this when they name the attack on attention as human fracking. Describing it this way: > “The new industrial-scale practitioners of human fracking have to pump vast quantities of high-volume, high-pressure (as in toxic), and I’d add addictive, slurry int our faces, at the scale of the whole population, to drive a bit of biddable attention to the surface” (33). Fortunately, we are not powerless against these forces. When I became a Quaker, my attention shifted. If there are dominant forces that want to shape our attention, then there are traditions and communities that have methods of resisting those forces. The Quaker tradition is one such attentional community/movement. Becoming a Quaker in college was part of a longer process of change for me that began when I was 13 and attending Catholic Mass. From that time forward, I was searching for a community I fit within and, in a sense, a pair of spiritual glasses that would help me understand the world and know what to pay attention to (and how to do it). My encounter with the Quaker faith was marked by both a deep sense of “these are things I already knew to be true but didn’t have language for it,” and “this is an new way of seeing myself and the world that is bigger and broader than what I currently have.” In other words, it confirmed in me some parts and pushed me to grow in others. This kind of faith spoke deeply to me and has, for the past 25 years, it’s what brought me to Camas in 2009, and what took us to Guilford College in 2015. It continues to shape how I interpret and see the world. I am here in front of you this morning because I believe that practicing faith in this tradition has the power to change ourselves and the world for the good. And nurturing, tending, and protecting our attention is on huge part of that. Emily reminded me recently that the CFC pastor before me Caryl Menkhus used to say, “The best way to know god is to learn how to pay attention. I can’t teach you how to pray but I can teach you how to pay attention.” That continues to ring true for me as we continue to work on questions of attention in my role as faculty at Guilford College. ## Attention and Suffering Our text this morning reveals something about what and who we pay attention to. Jesus uses the story of the Good Samaritan to illustrate a contrast in attention. First, you have the man victimized. Robbed. Beaten. Left for dead. While in the story this is an individual, we know that there are many communities in and outside America right now who are being terrorized, beaten, and left for dead by empire. Then you have the Priest and the Levite. These are people of power and privilege. It does not say why they do not see the man who is hurt worthy of compassion, but we know from our own experiences all the excuses and reasons why this occurs. The part that always gets me in the story is when it says “and when [each man saw] him, [they] passed by on the other side.” I read it as: They saw suffering, and they crossed the street. You can see without acting, you can be aware without paying attention. Maybe they saw but were distracted by biases or things they felt were more important. Maybe there was a cruel calculation about how much time they had vs. what they had to do. They took in information, but they did wait to encounter the infinite within the person. It is easy to imagine these men walking by this man, looking at their phones or pretending not to see while listening to their podcasts about living a good life. Whatever the case may be, they didn't see him as human, as worth their time, or worth caring about. This makes me wonder: what is happening with a person’s moral algorithm that enables them to turn away from or turn toward suffering? Then there is the Samaritan. Clearly the example within the story. The Samaritan pays attention and acts. Another definition of attention, this one not from a French Philosopher is: “Attention is what catalyzes awareness into action.” (The Attention Economy - Davenport and Beck - 15) The Samaritan is the one whose spiritual lenses enable a very different kind of action. That’s the real subversion within this text. The Samaritan is a stand-in for the unlikely hero, the unexpected person, and quite frankly, the one who, if you were the victim, you might not want their help. As Friends might say, “that name did not occur to me.” To put a finer point on the subversion of the place the Good Samaritan occupies in society, Clarence Jordan, a farmer and theologian growing up in the segregated South known for his work around racial equity and his founding of the Koinonia Farm (which was committed to racial integration, simplicity, and nonviolence), retells this parable as though it took place in Atlanta during segregation. In this remix of the story: The man beaten was white. Two white Christian men (a pastor and a worship leader) are the ones who pass him by. It is an African American man who, when he sees the white man beaten lying at the side of the road, and is “moved to tears.” He, whose own reality within society is radically marginalized, is the one who tends to the man whose reality is very likely just a momentary victimization. What we pay attention to tells us something about what we want to see. What we’re looking for. What we’re ready to act upon. It tells us something about the shape of our spiritual lenses, and for Jesus and his parable, it is a way of seeing that allows us to be moved to action. That could be because of a sense of shared responsibility, compassion, practices that shape us over time to pay attention to suffering, or it could be because of one’s own suffering or marginalization that keeps them awake to others. ## Our Shared Responsibility This past summer, I organized a handful of community service work days at Guilford College. The idea stemmed from something a Friend said during a business meeting a few months prior. They really stressed the point that Quakers - at least in NC - feel a deep sense of responsibility and care for Guilford which was going through financial hardship. And so if it needs help, they wanted us at Guilford to make space for folks to help. And so we put out a call. A number of people donated funds and worked to spruce up the welcome center for interested students and their families in the hopes that it will help with recruitment. What was even more amazing was it had to be one of the hottest weeks of the year. I remember thinking I’d never been so hot in all my life while waiting a railing black one of those afternoons. We had Quakers from the three surrounding meetings, and college staff/faculty, show up to put in some hard and hot work. When a faculty colleague was asked why on earth he was doing something like this during his summer off from college, he responded, “Guilford belongs to me.” Guilford belongs to me. Not in ownership, but in love. I hear echoes of the Samaritan seeing that beaten man and recognizing: this person belongs to me. In solidarity and in love. If the algorithms of empire teach us to pass by on the other side, “that’s not my concern,” “that’s not my problem,” too become increasingly detached, then the Quaker algorithm stands in contrast: “we belong one to another and are responsible for the places we are rooted and called.” We are the ones responsible for a better world. We are the ones responsible for healing the broken. We are the ones responsible for feeding the hungry. We are the ones responsible for giving compassion to friend and enemy alike. And this reminded me of funny and poignant saying from one of the old pillars of Camas Friends Church where I used to pastor. Ron M. shared this with me years ago that Jean Hansen made a cross-stitched for the meetinghouse that said: “If you’re looking for a helping hand, you have no further to look than the end of your own arm.” (Jean) I was curious about the origins of this, so so I looked the quote up to see if I could find the original. It’s from Sam Levenson so the time period matches. It went like this: > “Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, it's at the end of your arm, as you get older, remember you have another hand: The first is to help yourself, the second is to help others.” ― Sam Levenson I hear this as a certain way of seeing the world, a sense of co-laboring, co-responsibility for what we are creating, a solidarity with those who are struggling, in this we have come close to the Quaker algorithm of love. It is a commitment to trust that the work we are called to can be accomplished if we pull together and do the work. Love of God and Love of Neighbor is about a continual process of broadening compassion and solidarity. Our attention, not poisoned but protected, and aimed at the infinite things, the eternal, and of love can get us there. God is with those who find ways to expand and deepen love in the world with those who turn toward suffering. If only we’re willing and able to pay attention. May it be so among us. Queries: What and who do you see? What do you pay attention to? What do you notice? How might we keep love and compassion always in front of us, moving us forward?

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10 Rules to Diffuse AI Bro Arguments

Just got a wonderful zine in the mail yesterday from Power Tools of AI by Bart Fish: Power Tools of AIPower Tools is an art series focused on critiquing AI toolmen and genAI. Featuring zines, a newsletter and AI critical resources. On the cover they off these 10 rules worth sharing here (given my recent explorations on the subject with my questions and my short fiction piece). As you'll see, I added a few comments as well. _My suggestion, print this out, fold it up, and carry it with you._ **10 Rules to Diffuse AI Bro Arguments** 1. Nothing tech billionaires say, is inevitable. _[I would add, if your argument rhymes with or simply repeats what the billionaires say that's a major problem]._ 2. Tools don't train themselves to replace you. 3. Religions threaten that you'll be left behind. _[I'd add, it is White Christian Nationalist religions that threaten this. And plenty of liberatory religions are a major source of push back and resistance]_. 4. The best things in life are not efficient at all. _[Friction is good!]_ 5. Mass corporate piracy is wealth redistribution. 6. Anthropomorphizing AI is extremely dangerous. 7. AI is not intelligence, its marketing. _[And their designers are using addictive design just like they do in all the (social) media platforms.]_ 8. It's not an arms race, it's a race for control. 9. AI does not get the equity of all past innovations. 10. Exploitation is often disguised as progress.

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Meanwhile...Back on the Fediverse

TL; DR I worked with a friend only to develop a guide for introducing platforms like Mastadon for Quakers who are looking for an alternative to Twitter/Facebook/Instagram. See that guide below or find it online here: https://friendsonthefediverse.com * * * After a hiatus, I've been back on social media. This time I can be found on Mastodon here: https://theforkiverse.com/@wess. I've had a handle on Mastodon for 3 years but over the last year or more my usage slowed to a stop. It was not that long ago I was interviewed by Friends Journal and Thee Quaker Podcast on the benefits of Mastodon as an alternative social media platform. However, I've really needed to step back from social media and create space for myself from my phone, so I was much less active than I had been. But I missed the interactions I used to have on social media. Recently, Casey Newton and Kevin Roos, hosts of the Hard Fork podcast, started an experiment on Mastodon, creating a new "instance" or community on mastodon for their listeners. The episode is really fun to listen to and got me excited to re-engage. As is well-known, in October 2022, Elon Musk bought and quickly destroyed Twitter, turning it into a platform for promoting fascism and whatever else his heart desires, which also means banning anyone that challenges his corrupt worldview. I, like many, others moved over to Mastodon as a response. That involved deleting my Twitter account I had since Feb of 2007, which, if you know the history of Twitter, was basically the stone ages. Mastodon is also a social media platform that has been around since 2016. Frankly, it works a lot like "old" twitter with other really awesome extra features, including it doesn't have an algorithm, ads, and it's not owned, nor can it be owned, by techbros. I really like Mastodon, and think it's way better than Twitter from a design perspective and sense of community because of (most of) the people drawn there. It is an open-source, decentralized, social network that works across communities of users called "instances." I'm in the community called "TheForkiverse" which has certain moderation rules, particular settings, and a certain kind of vibe to it because it's made up of about 2,500 active users who are listeners of The Hard Fork and Search Engine Podcasts. Other instances work differently. You can follow anyone on Mastodon regardless of their community/instance. All this is to say it works way more like you'd expect a social media platform to work, even if it seems a bit confusing at first. I see the people I follow, not the things the company wants me to see. There is no black box behind the feed manipulated by those in charge to serve their bottom-line. It occurred to me recently that the Mastodon (which is a part of a larger network of platforms that work together called The Fediverse) is really Quaker friendly and it would be nice to have more Quakers and Quaker-adjacent folks give Mastodon a spin, especially if you're trying to break free from these other platforms. To me, there is a similar philosophy behind Mastodon as there is within Quakerism. Which led me to write this on Mastodon: > "The Quaker tradition is the Fediverse of Christianity." This line resonated with a number of folks including a new Quaker friend, Martin Kluber, who messaged me about it. We got to talking about how to make Mastodon and the Fediverse more accessible to Quakers. This led to the domain www.friendsonthefediverse.com and us working on a virtual pamphlet to share as a guide for all who are interested in joining and/or knowing more - whether Quaker or not. The Fediverse for Friends - A Practical Guide for Faithful Digital PresenceThe Fediverse for Friends - A Practical Guide for Faithful Digital Presence.pdf5 MBdownload-circle Here's Martin's blog post about the guide and some of his own background. I want to give props to Martin who did the lion's share of the writing of this pamphlet. He did a fantastic job. Give it a read and let us know what you think. Let me know if you have any questions, and more importantly jump in. The water is (still) warm. Link: https://theforkiverse.com/@wess

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Resisting Empire Study Guide

Last year, Rev. Grace Burton-Edwards of St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Columbus, GA wrote to me with a great surprise. She was leading a study group within her church on my book: Resisting Empire: The Book of Revelation as Resistance. She invited me to meet virtually with her church for an evening of conversation and questions it was a great time. But that's not all, she also told me she wrote a 60-page study guide for the book! She's granted permission to share it with you all here. It's really quite amazing all the work she's put into it, including adding current political and contextual pieces, which keeps the text fresh and relevant. If you have interest in reading, or re-reading the book, on your own or with a group this study-guide is ready to go out of the box. I also like seeing the way she embedded some of the Episcopal tradition (Book of Common Prayers, for instance) into the text. If you're an Episcopal, you'll appreciate that aspect and if you're coming from another tradition or background you will get a peak into the gifts of interfaith dialogue. Download it and enjoy. Resting Empire Study GuideResting Empire Study Guide.pdf4 MBdownload-circle Thanks, Rev. Grace and St. Thomas for sharing.

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Some Questions I Have About AI

These are some reflections after a panel discussion on AI that happened at the college where I work. The panel was made up of about 8 students and faculty. It turned out to be mostly one-sided with most folks on the panel and in the audience being anti-AI. Those who were AI advocates or AI-curious got quiet and felt like the space was not conducive to other view points. AI discourse has already risen to a level of challenge where folks feel strongly one way or the other on the issue. Here are some of my reflections and questions that came out of experience and what I'd do if there was a next time: It is clear to me that there are folks across the spectrum: those using AI without qualms but mostly keeping it invisible, there are some who are using it in more visible ways and talking about it, and there are some who are abstaining altogether. The panel revealed a lot more concern and unease about AI than the folks who planned it anticipated. I think we all expected there to be far more support for AI. The questions certainly leaned that direction, which may have also created some of the reaction. My guess is that the questions were likely AI generated, or at least AI consulted, so it is no wonder it leaned that direction (I was in the role of moderator for the panel but did not come up with the plan or questions). I think the unease reflected in the group reveals a larger trend with AI: people are not all falling in line and getting on board. Even the Super Bowl was criticized by having so many AI ads by a lot of places. Clearly people's feelings are all over the place and do not match the AI hype that the billionaires want us to accept. As someone who follows all of this very closely, and yes, I have used AI to build apps, redesign a website, help with scheduling, and answer plenty of questions, I find myself far more on the skeptical-to-anti side of this conversation these days. Therefore, the central question of "responsible AI," as the assumed ground for a framing of AI, is not where I think we should start. This idea of "ethical uses" codes an assumption of acceptance and inevitability that I think we should call into question, if not challenge and reject. In other words, for conversations on this, I'd lead with "How are you feeling about AI?" And leave room for each person to have many different feelings about it or none at all. Then I'd want to ask, "How has that changed over the last year or two?" "Are there any contradictions you are personally experiencing related to AI?" I personally started out much more curious and interested in AI and have become increasingly concerned as I've seen what it can do, how it is being used, how it is being forced into everything. This is not to mention its impact on the environment (and here), let alone on humans. For one example, just last week an autonomous AI agent doxed a programmer for rejecting its code. And it was just couple weeks ago Grok on X/Twitter was "undressing" women with only a few words prompting it. Things are moving incredibly fast. Now that AI is helping develop AI it is going to go faster still. Our tendency as humans is to see technology moving fast and try and adopt it just as quickly. And while this has always been a hazard, I think the development of AI is on a whole other level. It fits well within what Ronald Wright called the "Progress Trap:" > “The pursuit of progress through human ingenuity (often using technology) that results in humans creating more problems for themselves in the long run.” - A Short History of Progress Moving on, another question to ask is, "If you have any, what is your experience of AI?" We don't need to assume everyone has used AI. I have students who won't touch it with a ten-foot pole. My 16 year hates the thought of it. And then there are a lot of folks dabbling, and doing cute things like it is a harmless new app in the app store. AI's power is much more than that but if you're working with someone using AI to add words to a cat photo, they're in a very different headspace than those who are aware of (or building) MoltBook. This question seeks to gauge what level people are dipping in/out. These things are not static and I think our perspectives will continue to shift based on complexities and types of work they are doing. An AI transcriber of a meeting is one example. Writing a full on research paper complete with citations, proofreading so the AI isn't detected, bibliographies all with Grammarly is another. Using AI for proposal building and then giving that proposal to another person to implement is another. What about building a simple website or personal use app for a specific need? Then there's the baked in features of Gmail that email into buckets like _social_ and _promotion_. And don't forget the cars that fired their drivers. There are so many different ways it shows up, often meant to be invisible like so many other things under capitalism, hard to disentangle and hard to fully reject. A concern I have is AI is being coerced onto us in a number of ways. Take Zoom for example. If you're not comfortable with Zoom AI try to turn it off. If you're not uncomfortable with it, think about how quickly technology has totally consumed all areas of our privacy in such a short time (thanks iPhone and Covid). Turning it off is a whole process that takes time and you will like need to read documentation from Zoom like I did in order to do it. Why is it being forced on us in so many of our apps? When I recently installed Chrome, I went to turn off all the AI features only to find that it had an entirely separate Gemini app running in my Mac's Menu Bar weeks after I thought I shut it all off. Now I've turned to Firefox's Zen Browser sans AI. I've been looking for apps with no or very little AI. They are hard to find. Why are we having to opt out? I want a world where we opt in to AI not out. I believe AI should be about consent and transparency. If you use it, name it. Could we model that kind of openness in our communities? **Other questions I think are worth asking:** What do you do when colleagues use AI for work without telling you? A number of folks I interact with on Mastadon have recently written that they have colleagues using ChatGPT during conversations and in chats back and forth with them. I have had colleagues send me proposals for projects to work on totally generated by AI some have told me some have not. How do you approach the proposals for work for you to do totally generated by a machine that you will likely be responsible for implementing? How do we talk with/address colleagues doing this? Screenshot from Claude Ad during Superbowl distinguishing their brand OpenAI's ChatGPT which is using ads in their app now. Are all AI platforms the same? How are they each as companies programming, designing, and impacting the AI narrative? (I am looking for an article I read that showed how Gemini is programmed to get around teacher's trying to trick AI into revealing AI is being used but cannot find it currently - stay tuned). How are AI apps incorporating addictive qualities of social media into how AI functions (like sycophancy). What should we do about verification? Verification of personhood, verification of truth and reality? With the autonomous AI bots of apps like OpenClaw, with the internet finally be overrun by bots and will humans need to make a new AI-free zone to connect with each other? Will human need new forms of identification that span the physical and digital world so we can trust sources, interactions, and whose really talking to us? How do we think about the different kinds of tasks and uses for AI? And are there tasks/uses that are more or less justifiable? I tend to think about AI in three buckets currently: process oriented (AI as a part automating things that are not AI), task-oriented (coding, processing emails, etc), creation and thinking-oriented (creating proposals, generating ideas, reading/writing papers, emails). I'm not settled on these but it's how I've categorized these things so far. I heard a metaphor from the reporters over at Hard Fork who said that AI is like using a forklift and using our brains is like weightlifting. I so rarely need to use a forklift in the work I do, and weightlifting is really good for the fitness of my brain. I sent this to a loved one the other day because I know they've been sucked in by AI: > Don’t offload your thinking to AI. Your brain, your thoughts, your words, and spirit are irreplaceable and even if you can use AI to do those things doesn’t mean you should. Keep sharpening your mind and abilities. Do the hard thing. Take the time to develop your own voice and workflows. That’s what will keep you relevant when the machines try to do everything else. What are the impacts of AI (and tech more generally) on human development, behavior, practice, and community? What is the impact of AI on the planet, water, the economy, politics, etc? What does this look like outside of the pockets of consumers but in the hands of empires, militaries, and dictators? And given these questions, then I think we could realistically arrive at a question like: is there a responsible uses? AI, like all other forms of technology, will seek to force our ethics to adapt. Will we let these billionaire tech companies set the parameters for these conversations or will we hold on to our own ethical traditions and practices as we navigate these challenging waters? How will this new information be taken in and incorporated into these traditions in meaningful ways? --- As you can tell from the tone of this article, I am concerned. I am a realist in the sense that I think we need to be informed about these things, we need to - at some level - understand what they are doing and can do - but if I ever did, I no longer think we should actively accept technological progress without question. Even if its fun and cute and feels like magic. The tech-bro billionaires do not have our best interest in mind and to think anything other than that, I believe, is fooling ourselves. I worry that we will feel like we need to keep up with AI and add it to everything we do. There is and will continue to be a proliferation of organizations jumping on the AI hype with "Course and Centers for AI this and that." We will try to normalize it so we feel relevant. We may even fall into "assumed ethical use" which is our way of believing that because we see ourselves as ethical, we will use it in ethical ways, and we are not as susceptible to the power/influence these companies exercise on us as those who are not like us. My perspective is that we slow walk all of this in favor of our longstanding traditions, (Quaker) principles, and commitments to each other. Let us consider the impact of these things on our community, on our own development, and our watersheds, and where do we want to go as a species? And what if our institutions mostly abstained or abstained in certain ways focusing on the in-person, tangible, and very nature/human powered intelligence all around us? How might that look and feel? A friend of mine, CN, summarized these things when she wrote in response to some of this: while this may not being going away, let's work towards a framework of AI that includes: consent, opting out, community, and institutional abstinence, etc. Let's reach for something far better than _artificial_ intelligence. Thanks for reading, Wess Haw River Watershed (Greensboro, NC) PS - This was 100% human made out of organic intelligence (OK, and some Fireweed Coffee).

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A Shot of Light - PDX/Camas Here We Come

Dear Friends I am headed to Portland, OR and Camas, WA with my wife Emily in a couple of weeks. I wanted to share out more specifics about that trip, plus a few other updates while I have you on the line. ## **Agenda for Portland/Camas Visit** **Saturday, March 7, 2026 - Camas Friends Church (10:00 AM)** **Title:** Endless Revolution - The Lamb's War and Framing Quaker Relationships to Empire Today **Description:** In this workshop, we will explore the early political and theological context of both the early Church and Early Friends, explore the Book of Revelation as a basis for understanding their relationship to empire and "the Lamb's War." We will look at what, if anything, the Lamb's War has to do with Friends Today, and consider some practices of resistance that may be meaningful as we consider our own relationship to the American Empire. There will be presentation and small group discussion in this workshop. **Sunday, March 8, Camas Friends Church (10:30 AM)** Bringing a prepared message on Exodus 17:1-7 during meeting for worship. **Sunday, March 8 at 2:00 PM @ Reedwood Friends Church** **Title:** "The practice of silence as resistance in an attention economy." **Description:** In today's world, the practice of silence is not just a style of worship, but a way of resisting the attention economy. We will look at silence, and "practices of boredom," as practices of resistance and how they help us in a world inundated by technology meant to steal our focus. Finally, we will consider how we might weave these practices into daily life, outside Sunday gatherings, in order to strengthen our resolve and imaginations for what is possible. I hope that if you're in the area you can join us for one of these times. ## 🔗 Links of Interest * Here are some of my favorite analog tools I'm using right now. * I'm working on something really exciting and will share more here once it's done - here's a teaser. * I complete a bucket list item I didn't know was on my bucket list: I taught a class from inside our homemade igloo. * Notes on the Gathering in Light Website redesign. ## 🧠 Last Word The Progress Trap: > “The pursuit of progress through human ingenuity (often using technology) that results in humans creating more problems for themselves in the long run.” - Ronald Wright - A Short History of Progress Peace and Blessings to you all! Wess Daniels Haw River Watershed (Greensboro, NC)

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Gathering In Light Redesign

**A Redesign of Gathering In Light** I've been working on the redesigned of the site over the last few weeks using Claude Code. I have always enjoyed working on website designs, and have a number of favorite custom designs in the history of Gathering in Light: The new site takes heavy inspiration from the 2007 version of the site built by two friends in LA at the time. The grid theme allowed for posting of "blog posts" or shorter posts, and featured posts. This setup for two different kinds of content was originally inspired by an earlier theme "Shiny" that a friend ported for my use. The 2007 theme featured a new logo and bright yellows to play of "Light" in the site name. Here's that theme: 2007 Theme Custom Designed for Gathering In Light by two friends from LA I've not done anything personalized since that point and since moving away from Wordpress, I've only been using templates built into my new platform ghost. With the emergence of Claude Code, I decided I'd try my hand a redesigning the site based on Ghost's design features. While I don't know enough to code from the ground up, I do know enough of the behind the scenes for what is necessary using Claude. With enough time I was able to build the whole site, and with plenty of patience and lots of trouble-shooting too. Now it look and works the way I want it to. **A quick aside about using AI:** > I must say that my relationship to AI has shifted quite a bit to being a proponent of it to being pretty against it (when it comes to using AI for thinking, creating ideas, writing, summarizing, etc). However, using something like Claude Code for a use like this where I am extending my abilities for my own personal use only feels slightly better. I wouldn't try to make money off of this or pass it off as my own work. I wouldn't try to package it and sell it either. I want to reiterate that I'm actively looking to remove AI from a lot of my apps - I see so many places where it is being forced on us. Here is one place where I see it differently, at least for now. I've added some new features and now display three types of content: newsletters, featured posts, and blog posts. This allows the site to continue to adapt to the various ways I am using the site. I've also added a sidebar to point folks to "editor's picks," an old school blogroll, and a few more tricks under the sleeve (see the footer). Take a look around and let me know what you think of the new site: Gathering In LightBuild Community. Share Light. Resist Empire.Gathering In Light **Design Features of the new blog theme compiled by Claude Code:** **Layout & Structure** * Three-column layout: left sidebar, main content area, and journal column * Responsive design — sidebar hides at 1024px, columns stack at 768px for mobile * Warm, off-white background with clean card-based design **Homepage Sections** * A Shot of Light — latest newsletter pinned alongside a featured/pinned post, styled as matching cards with feature images, excerpts, and reading time * Subscribe CTA bar — email icon with call-to-action on the yellow background, linking to Ghost's portal signup * Featured Articles — curated featured posts (with deduplication from the pinned spot) followed by recent essays * Journal — right column with shorter blog post entries **Left Sidebar** * About Me — author photo and bio pulled from site profile * Editor's Pick — four hand-curated posts tagged editors-pick * Categories — icon-labeled links to Newsletter, Essays, Blog Posts, Sermons, Quakerism, and Teaching * Blogroll — links to favorite sites with RSS icons **Footer & Fun Zone** * Streamlined footer with Connect section (Email, Mastodon, BookWyrm, Ghost Fediverse, Signal) * Layout toggle — buttons to switch between single column (I), two columns (II), and three columns (III) * Vibe toggle — four CSS themes with localStorage persistence: * Normal — warm off-white with golden yellow accents * Pink Panther — dark background, hot pink accents, Pacifico script font * Punky Brewster — deep purple background, rainbow gradients, Fredoka One font * Inspector Gadget — dark steel background, electric blue accents, Share Tech Mono monospace font * Layout and theme preferences saved across sessions via localStorage **Typography & Color** * Libre Baskerville serif for body text, Source Sans Pro sans-serif for UI elements * Link color inspired by the green from the cover of A Convergent Model of Renewal * Golden yellow (#F7D000) primary accent color drawn from the site logo * Hyperlinks styled with green text and yellow highlight background on post and page content **Other Details** * Lazy-loaded images with IntersectionObserver * Smooth scrolling for anchor links * RSS feed link in the footer * Google Fonts loaded for the 80s theme variants

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Updating My Tools

This morning, after listening to the most recent episode of the Pen Addict, I was inspired to create an "analog defaults" page with the pens and notebooks I use everyday. If you're interested in pens, paper, and notebooks or what I use for those things head over to my Analog Tools page. Analog ToolsThese are my “analog defaults.” Inspired by Brad over at Pen Addict, these are the analog tools I use everyday. For those of you who have been following along for long enough or know me in person, you know I love pens, good paper, and notebooks. I try to alwaysGathering In LightC Wess Daniels

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Story Boarding Fiction

Some of what I have been doing in my morning writing and research time is trying my hand at a dystopian short story about AI going to a Quaker meeting. I hope to share that here sometime soon, once I find myself out of the editing phase. Since I have not written much in the way of fiction, I'm finding it challenging and invigorating. I love the ways it's stretching me to think outside my normal writing habits and conventions and the world it put me into which I found helped me think about some of my themes in a very different way. One of the challenges is that the short story is a bit too long, clocking in somewhere around 5000 words. I want it tighter. Shorter. Punchier. So after a couple rounds of edits, thank you, Emily, I decided to do what I wish I would have done in the first place; story board the whole thing. I didn't think to do this before even though that is how I have often write. My typical process is: Research, notes, and ideation > sketchnotes / story board > draft > space to breath and reflect on what is the core of what I'm writing > edits > final. Story board for a short fiction called "What Canst Thou Prompt?" Coming soon. Even though I did this process backward, the story boarding was still very helpful. I was able to go through the story and draw out the main sections/themes I wanted to communicate. It helped me see where I was getting a little bogged down in extra details, dialogue, or went off the path for awhile. The places that felt to confusing to draw will be the first to get cut. I also realized I had about 2 pages that came after where I want the story to end. I'll need to deal with that as well. I'm looking forward to going back through the draft with the story board in hand to see where that takes me next. Stay tuned. Wess

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Gathering In Light

Build Community. Share Light. Resist Empire.

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Scenes from an Igloo (Class)

<figure class="kg-card kg-gallery-card kg-width-wide"><div class="kg-gallery-container"><div class="kg-gallery-row"><div class="kg-gallery-image"><img src="https://www.gatheringinlight.com/content/images/2026/02/IMG_2225.jpeg" width="2000" height="1500" loading="lazy" alt="" srcset="https://www.gatheringinlight.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/02/IMG_2225.jpeg 600w, https://www.gatheringinlight.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/02/IMG_2225.jpeg 1000w, https://www.gatheringinlight.com/content/images/size/w1600/2026/02/IMG_2225.jpeg 1600w, https://www.gatheringinlight.com/content/images/size/w2400/2026/02/IMG_2225.jpeg 2400w" /></div><div class="kg-gallery-image"><img src="https://www.gatheringinlight.com/content/images/2026/02/IMG_3006.jpeg" width="2000" height="1125" loading="lazy" alt="" srcset="https://www.gatheringinlight.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/02/IMG_3006.jpeg 600w, https://www.gatheringinlight.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/02/IMG_3006.jpeg 1000w, https://www.gatheringinlight.com/content/images/size/w1600/2026/02/IMG_3006.jpeg 1600w, https://www.gatheringinlight.com/content/images/size/w2400/2026/02/IMG_3006.jpeg 2400w" /></div><div class="kg-gallery-image"><img src="https://www.gatheringinlight.com/content/images/2026/02/IMG_3745.jpeg" width="2000" height="1500" loading="lazy" alt="" srcset="https://www.gatheringinlight.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/02/IMG_3745.jpeg 600w, https://www.gatheringinlight.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/02/IMG_3745.jpeg 1000w, https://www.gatheringinlight.com/content/images/size/w1600/2026/02/IMG_3745.jpeg 1600w, https://www.gatheringinlight.com/content/images/size/w2400/2026/02/IMG_3745.jpeg 2400w" /></div></div><div class="kg-gallery-row"><div class="kg-gallery-image"><img src="https://www.gatheringinlight.com/content/images/2026/02/IMG_3738.jpeg" width="2000" height="2667" loading="lazy" alt="" srcset="https://www.gatheringinlight.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/02/IMG_3738.jpeg 600w, https://www.gatheringinlight.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/02/IMG_3738.jpeg 1000w, https://www.gatheringinlight.com/content/images/size/w1600/2026/02/IMG_3738.jpeg 1600w, https://www.gatheringinlight.com/content/images/size/w2400/2026/02/IMG_3738.jpeg 2400w" /></div><div class="kg-gallery-image"><img src="https://www.gatheringinlight.com/content/images/2026/02/IMG_3754--1-.jpeg" width="2000" height="1500" loading="lazy" alt="" srcset="https://www.gatheringinlight.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/02/IMG_3754--1-.jpeg 600w, https://www.gatheringinlight.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/02/IMG_3754--1-.jpeg 1000w, https://www.gatheringinlight.com/content/images/size/w1600/2026/02/IMG_3754--1-.jpeg 1600w, https://www.gatheringinlight.com/content/images/size/w2400/2026/02/IMG_3754--1-.jpeg 2400w" /></div><div class="kg-gallery-image"><img src="https://www.gatheringinlight.com/content/images/2026/02/IMG_3756.jpeg" width="2000" height="2667" loading="lazy" alt="" srcset="https://www.gatheringinlight.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/02/IMG_3756.jpeg 600w, https://www.gatheringinlight.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/02/IMG_3756.jpeg 1000w, https://www.gatheringinlight.com/content/images/size/w1600/2026/02/IMG_3756.jpeg 1600w, https://www.gatheringinlight.com/content/images/size/w2400/2026/02/IMG_3756.jpeg 2400w" /></div></div></div></figure><p>As <a href="https://wessdaniels.micro.blog/2026/02/02/we-built-an-igloo-in.html">I mentioned earlier</a>, I built a homemade igloo this weekend with my kids.</p><p>As a result of all this snow we’re getting here in North Carolina, we had a remote day today at the college where I teach. With having classes today, I knew I had Zoom on the docket for today. But I hate teaching over Zoom, so I wondered how could I make this a bit more interesting?</p><p>And there it was in front of me: I could teach on zoom from the Igloo!</p><p>Why not?!</p><p>So I did it. And it was a lot of fun.</p><p>The student who is T.A.ing for me asked if she could join so I invited her along as well.</p><p>The setup was simple.</p><p>I brought out a couple of crates to sit on with cardboard for a little cushion, some hot tea for each of us, a candle for a little heat, and my laptop.</p><p>You should have seen the faces of students when they logged on. 🤣 Honestly, that was worth the whole thing. But it was fun to use it as a silly backdrop and talk about it as things came up. The igloo was really cold, which seems obvious, but I expected it would get warmer as time went on. It did not. M. and I had to step out of the igloo to warm up for a moment because toes and fingers got frosty.</p><p>I think by Friday the igloo will be gone so this was a once in lifetime - at least up to this point - opportunity and I’m glad we did it!</p>

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Coming to PNW this March

<p>I’m visiting PNW Quakers putting March (7-8) for three "talks." The first is a workshop I'm offering at the Sierra Cascades Yearly Meeting of Friends Quarterly Meeting in Camas, WA (Camas Friends Church). </p><p>Here’s the working title and description:</p><p><strong>Endless Revolution - The Lamb’s War and Framing Quaker Relationships to Empire Today</strong></p><p>Description: </p><blockquote>In this workshop, we will explore the early political and theological context of both the early Church and Early Friends, explore the Book of Revelation as a basis for understanding their relationship to empire and “the Lamb’s War.” We will look at what, if anything, the Lamb’s War has to do with Friends Today, and consider some practices of resistance that may be meaningful as we consider our own relationship to the American Empire. There will be presentation and small group discussion in this workshop.</blockquote><p></p><p>More to come.</p>

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Updates

Hi all, I wanted to send a short newsletter because there's a bunch of stuff going on that I thought you'd like to know about from some upcoming travel to coffee discount codes! I hope to send another update or two soon now that the crush of the semester is almost over. And more importantly, I hope that you all are finding peace and joy in this season. ## **Pros and Cons of Seminary Discussion** Tuesday, December 9th - 7:30-8:30pm Seminary Wess - While working on my doctoral research in Birmingham, UK (2007) I'll be sharing this Tuesday on a panel discussion with some great Friends/Quakers on the subject of The Pros and Cons#ministryjourney of Seminary. _Thinking about seminary—or reflecting on your own journey? Join us for an honest conversation with three panelists as they share how seminary shaped their lives and ministries, what they wish they’d known, and advice for prospective students._ 🗣️ Panelists: ✨ C. Wess Daniels— Director of Friends Center & Quaker Studies at Guilford College ✨ Rachel Guaraldi — Pastor, chaplain, and ESR graduate ✨ Christina Repoley — Founder of Quaker Voluntary Service; VP at the Forum for Theological Exploration 📅 Hosted by Public Friends & Quaker Leadership Center Be sure to register today at: https://tinyurl.com/PF-ProsandCons ## **☕️ Fireweed Coffee News** ### Espresso, Coffee Collab and a Discount for You I think most of you know I own a small coffee roasting business here in Greensboro called Fireweed Coffee Co. This holiday season we have a couple fun, new, offerings: **Public Universal Blend is Back for a Limited Time:** The coffee collaboration we did last year called Public Universal Blend (to honor the queer Quaker minister, Public Universal Friend) is back up on my Fireweed Coffee Company Website and available for a limited time over the holidays. **New Espresso Blend:** I've been working on an espresso blend and have finally released it to the public. It's a blend of light and medium roast coffees that is absolutely delicious. You can order it online here. **Discount for Readers:** If you'd like to order some coffee to send as gifts or for yourself, here is a 10% discount as a thank you for being readers of this website. It is good on single orders or monthly subscriptions. The discount will last through the end of this year. Discount code: "gatheringinlight" ## **Quakers, Empire, and The Lamb's War** ### Discussion at Chapel Hill Friends - Sunday, December 14. I'll be leading First Day School on the subject the Lamb's War this coming Sunday. If you're around the Chapel Hill area, I'm sure Friends wouldn't mind having some guests. I'll let you know how it goes as this has been a new area of research for me over the past month and a half. ## Silence as a Practice of Resistance (and more) ### March 6-10 - Visiting the Pacific Northwest to Travel in Ministry I'll be visiting Portland, OR and Camas, WA and speaking on a variety of subjects including _Silence as a Practice of Resistance in the Attention Economy_ at Reedwood Friends Church. I'll also be speaking at Camas Friends and doing some work with Sierra Cascades Yearly Meeting of Friends. If you're in the area, I'd love to see you at one of the events and connect if possible. _More info on this in the coming months._ ## 🔗 Links of Interest * Just about finished reading Ted Chiang's, _Exhalation_ _._ It was my first book I've read by Chiang and I really enjoyed it Chiang's version of science fiction. * I'm looking forward to seeing the 4.5 hour version of Kill Bill in the theaters over break. * Is six-seven brain rot? The case is strong. * I love this - The Latest Defense Against ICE: 3D-Printed Whistles * This tickled my growing interest in mending and repairing things: How to Fix a Typewriter and Your Life. * The podcast / blog The Pen Addict is adding a lot of fun to my life recently. ## Micro-Blog - I'm A Trapeze Artist Since I've mostly extracted myself social-media (with a post to IG about once every 6 months), I had a bit of a hole in my life. I wanted to place to share short posts, links, and other things I come across that I find interesting (or want to find later). Therefore, I started a "Micro-Blog" a few months ago and am working under my old Tumblr title: I'm A Trapeze Artist. I'll add a link to it from this blog for easy access. Feel free to dig around there and bookmark it if you'd like. The title is inspired by a line from Bob Dylan: > _You don't necessarily have to write to be a poet. Some people work in gas stations and they're poets. I don't call myself a poet, because I don't like the word. I'm a trapeze artist._ Peace and Blessings to you all! Wess Daniels Haw River Watershed (Greensboro, NC)

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The Underground Railroad Tree at Guilford College

This past week, I was asked to give a few remarks for a fundraiser at New Garden Friends Meeting for the organization, Every Campus a Refuge. If you don't know about "ECAR" you need to check it out. It was started at Guilford College by faculty member, Diya Abdo in the fall of 2015 (NPR). > In September 2015, Pope Francis called on every European parish to host one refugee family. This simple yet powerful appeal resonated deeply with Dr. Abdo, sparking a revolutionary idea: Why couldn’t colleges and universities, with their abundant resources and supportive communities, serve as sanctuaries for refugees? About ECAR - Link The first chapter was at Guilford College and our first family moved in not that long after. Here is a very well-done, short documentary about that first family. ECAR has grown to more than 2 dozen campuses and has supported many refuge families. I'm really proud of Guilford's involvement in this program and inspired by the work that Diya Abdo and her team has accomplished over the last 10 years to support vulnerable families. My invitation was to speak of the local Quaker history with the Underground Railroad and our famous Witness tree that we visit on tours we give. The overlapping narratives of "sanctuary" in history of the Underground Railroad and present work of ECAR is important link for all involved. Below are my remarks. * * * This week my staff and I gave 10 underground railroad tours. Each tour consisted of 30-50 students from local schools and churches. Just last year, we took more than 1000 people back into the Guilford woods to share stories of the underground railroad. Many of our visitors are students from local schools, Guilford college, but we also have community leaders, religious folks, Quakers, out of state visitors, and alumni all joining to learn more. For those of you who haven't been on a tour, we always end at what we call **the witness tree.** The witness tree is a beautiful old Tulip tree that dates back well before the 1800s. We believe that it somewhere between 250-300 years old. This Tulip not only towers over the rest of the trees on the hillside where it stands, but its girth takes at least 12 middle schoolers to wrap around. We know because we've recently tested! We call it our Witness Tree for two main reasons. This was a tree that stood watch during the active years of the Underground Railroad in the New Garden Woods. The tree was there when an enslaved women named Ede fled David Caldwell's plantation (found where the botanical garden now stands) and hid there with her infant child until her child got sick and Ede decided to seek help from the Coffin family. It stood watch in the woods alongside the oaks and shagbark in 1817 when the first recorded journey of the Underground Railroad out of New Garden Woods took place as Levi Coffin and Freed Blackman, John Dimrey, traveled north to ensure John would not be re-enslaved by men who believe they had an inherited right to his body and intellect. The Tulip's canopy stood proud while an enslaved man—known only as Hamilton's Sol—worked for the freedom of those like him who were bound. Sol collaborated with Levi and Vestal Coffin to find people on the plantations most in need of escaping the bonds of enslavement. Our tree was a Witness to the more than 3000 freedom seekers who found safe passageway on that invisible train that ran through these parts: often at night, often in the cold, always with the support of others who believed another world was possible. A few years ago, we had a remarkable visitor to the campus: Robin Wall Kimmerer, the Potawatomi botanist, author, and environmental activist, best known for her book _Braiding Sweetgrass_ joined us on a walk through the Guilford woods to visit the Witness tree. Her wisdom that day left a deep impression on us. But there was one thing she said that changed everything about the way I understand the story of the underground railroad. Next to the platform where our guests sit to listen to stories and observe the Tulip at a distance that protects the roots of the tree from too much human impact, there is a sign that reads "Tulip Poplar dates back before 1800." A harmless enough sign at first, but Robin Wall Kimmerer pointed out to us that "poplar" names the tree as an object, the kind of lumber that the tree is to become. The name Poplar undoes the name Tulip by marking the tree, not as a subject, as she is when we talk about her as the Witness to the work of freedom and justice, but as an object meant to be cut down and turned into something "useful" for human consumption. But to remove poplar and refer to this Tulip tree as a Witness reminds us of the tree's subjectivity, agency, life and community exists outside of human maintenance or control. The tree has its own reciprocity with all the living things around it. This hit me like a ton of bricks: The tree as subject, like all the other living things that Robin Wall Kimmerer talks about, means that where I once saw the Underground Railroad as a powerful multiracial coalition, I now see that the circle of liberation expanded to include more participants, more allies: members of the more-than-human world. When we broaden the circle like this we are not just talking the power of a multiracial coalition but a multi-species coalition of justice and freedom. > "The trees, all act as one because the fungi have connected them. Through unity, survival. All flourishing is mutual. Soil, fungus, tree, squirrel, boy - all are the beneficiaries of reciprocity (P. 20)." Wall Kimmerer And of course this is always the kind of pattern reflected in the most successful movements of love and justice in our world. These are the ones that do not restrict circles or narrowly define who is in and who is out, as though justice mainly comes from being sure one is right rather than one is free. This pattern of extending the circle, looking for all the helpers everywhere, having the imagination possible to see that all of God's creation is living and bends towards justice and freedom is an imagination we desperately need more of in our world. Óscar Romero, Archbishop of San Salvador, who was assassinated while serving communion to the poorest in his community once wrote: > I don’t want to be an anti, against anybody. I simply want to be the builder of a great affirmation: the affirmation of God, who loves us and who wants to save us. Quaker Abolitionist John Woolman put it even more simply when he said, > "Let Love be the first motion." This is the pattern I see in the very origin story and ongoing work of Every Campus a Refuge. Expanding the circle of welcome, love, and justice into a coalition that exceeds our most imaginative movements. I mentioned earlier, this is a second reason why we call it the Witness tree: it is a witness to us and of us part as a part of this ongoing story and struggle to create a new world. It witnesses us as part of this ancient tradition of resistance, inviting us into the struggle and the dream what it takes to imagine a beloved community in Greensboro, in North Carolina, in the United States of America, and all around the world. What will the tree witness of us today?

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The Widow as Unsettling Force - Luke 18 Commentary

I was asked to write for the Political Theology website for the upcoming lectionary reading, Luke 18:1-8. This parable is well-known sometimes thought of as "the persistent widow and corrupt judge." My reading takes it in a different direction. Like all of Jesus' parables, this one has quite the hidden shock. Here's the pitch: > This parable is very much about the widow being a “new and unsettling force in the complacent life” of this unrighteous judge and the structures which incentivize his brutality. To speak of the widow in terms of unsettling force is anything but a stretch in this text. In fact, I think you might be surprised at the turn that is coming. Read more on the political theology blog: The Parable of the Widow as an Unsettling Force | Political Theology NetworkThis parable is very much about the widow being a “new and unsettling force in the complacent life” of this unrighteous judge and the structures which incentivize his brutality. To speak of the widow…Political Theology NetworkC. Wess Daniels

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A Shot of Light - Getting My Head Above Water

Dear Friends, Happy September. Is it really September already?! Living life in submission to the academic calendar makes August a complete blur. Between my wife, Emily, our three teenagers, and my work at Guilford College, the "getting ready for start of school" becomes a sort of mantra in the Daniels household. I did better this year in that weeks leading up to the mayhem. I had enough foresight to schedule a haircut and some "personal recovery time," right after the major crush of everything starting. Even still, the lesson for me this year is that the start of school is a bit of a misnomer. It's really the getting ready, the start, and then about 2 weeks after when we're getting into the rhythm that occupies a tremendous amount of energy, will power, and coffee (plug-in product placement). This Friday, the end of week 3, I am feeling more in the flow of things, more breathing room, and like a have a better sense of what I have on my plate. This means I'm finally able to sit down to write to all of you. **A couple Guilford-focused updates:** First, we succeeded in raising over 6 million dollars in the first half of the year which enabled the college to close out the fiscal year with a balanced budget. A tremendous of love, support, and energy went into helping Guilford get to more stable footing and I'm really proud of what our staff and faculty have been able to do. Because of this, and a number of other initiatives on campus, I am very optimistic about our accreditation review that is coming up in about a month. I know that a number of you, readers of this newsletter, were apart of giving to the college and I want to thank you for your support as well. Another really exciting piece of news, if you haven't heard, is that we've managed to entered into a conservation easement for 160 acres of the Guilford College woods. This is something a number of us have been asking for and dreaming about long before I got here. The easement is with Piedmont Land Conservancy. Guilford will receive money for the woods, which will then be locked into a land trust. We will continue to be able to use it as we have been but it will protect the woods from ever being developed. We all breathed a sigh of relief when this was agreed upon. Photo by Yuwei C on Unsplash For my part, I am teaching two classes and one independent study (advanced topics in Quaker Studies) this semester and I'm loving all of it. The highlight class is a new one I've been developing and talking about extensively. It is a first year seminar class called, "Boredom as a Superpower." **Here's the pitch:** _Do YOU like being bored?! In this class, we will look at boredom as a superpower that can help you resist the disconnection and fast-paced information, endless notifications, doom scrolling, and the always-on nature of our lives. Practices that help us slow down, or "get bored," will help grow our capacity for awareness, focus, deep work, and creativity. How are we going to get bored, you ask?_ * _Take notes in class by drawing pictures_ * _Have class with no tech_ * _Practice having a prolonged conversation with another person_ * _Let mind wandering lead to creativity_ _Join us as we challenge ourselves with practices like joy-strolling and discover how mastering boredom might become your greatest superpower for success at Guilford._ I'm loving the class and the students who decided to take a college class on boredom so much. I've got 19 first years in the class as so far as I can tell they are all game for the kind of stuff we're doing in the class. So far, in class, they go without cellphones or technology, we've done hand sewing (cellphone sleeping bags), spent time in silence out at the Guilford College lake, and learned how to build a fire (not as easy as they thought) that we then used as a centering point for more silence and conversation. I'll tell you more about this class soon, but wanted to share one of the things that's been bringing me a lot of joy right now. Some photos from my visit to California ## Updates from Visit to California I mentioned in my last note that I was headed to California for Quaker Connect work. For those of you who are Quakers reading this, if you're interested in knowing more or applying to be in the next cohort we are accepting applications now. Quaker Connect is a Quaker renewal program that I helped design and am working very closely with. This led to an opportunity to travel out to Northern California and work with a couple Quaker groups there (San Mateo Worship Group and Santa Cruz Monthly Meeting). I also enjoyed a visit to Wednesday evening worship with San Francisco Friends. I won't share the specifics of the work I did with these groups but I am really pleased with what both groups are doing. I had time to worship with each group, conduct some interviews, learn more about the contexts their meetings are in, some of the challenges and opportunities they face, and spend time with the apprentices who are in our program. A couple of things that stood out to me about the process: I think that Quaker Connect provides the support and permission apparatus, if you will, for meetings to try things they may not try or push themselves to do without it. I already see all kinds of things our groups are doing that are a result of their involvement in the program. A second thing I saw, is that energy begets energy in a meeting. If folks are excited and trying new things, it's is possible to get others excited and pull people in. Both groups are regularly seeing new people visit and more engagement. Some of the questions that ran across where around loneliness and community. A lot of folks are looking for friendship and camaraderie in this difficult political and cultural climate. Friends who are able to create welcoming, low-threshold experiences for new folks to enter into are finding that people genuinely want to build new (and more) connections. I also heard ongoing desire for more religious education, discussions around God-language, and how to remain centered as a meeting in such trying times. There is no one answer fits all, but I do think meetings who are willing to ask and continue to wrestle with these questions will find ways forward that can strengthen their community. For the next couple of months all of the meetings in Quaker Connect are trying their first experiment, trying something new that is "safe to fail," for at least 6 times, creates an opportunity to learn by doing, and see how meetings might address some of their leadings and challenges. I'm eager to see what their findings are and will report back here when I have more to share on how the program is going. Feel free to email with questions about any of this if you'd like: wess@gatheringinlight.com Our dog, Magnolia, out on the front porch during our morning reading time. ## Wess' Notepad: _A few notes on things I've been exploring and enjoying recently_ * I just finished Dilla Time by Dan Charnas. This biography of Detroit's famous, although under known for how much impact he had, Hip-Hop producer is so incredibly good. If you like Hip-Hop history, love Dilla or 90's Rap, music theory, cartography (yes), and learning about folks like Common, Questlove, Q-Tip, and more you're going to love this book. * I've been reading more lately. My best time for reading is in the morning after my workout and dog walk. I like sit on the front porch with coffee for about 30 minutes with Emily and our dog, Magnolia (see above). A big part of this is my own "boredom practice," inspired by class. I set my phone out of the way and on do not disturb, keep a Life Noble Memo next to me for thoughts, ideas, and quotes that pop-up while I'm reading and then just try and focus for about 30 minutes. In this case, a boredom practice, as we're calling it for the class is really just about doing something with focus and attention for a period of time, and pushing past the urge to distract yourself with the phone or anything that gets you off track. Below is an activity I've done a few times to gauge how often I look up or get distracted. This is the 2nd and 3rd attempt combined on one page. This is an activity I borrowed from a friend and am planning to do with my students soon. Attention Timeline for morning reading * I've been enjoying the app Fable to track my books and reading. * The Disappearance of Literary Men Should Worry Everyone - NY Time Opinion piece * Here's what happened when I made my students put their phones away - Another interesting article from NY Times. * I love this piece from Austin Kleon - How to Make a Map of Your Mind. * Rev. Barber and others have written A Pastoral Letter to Donald Trump after hearing him say he “want(s) to try to get to heaven if possible,” but that you are hearing you are “really at the bottom of the totem pole.” Lastly - Happy Anniversary to my wonderful wife of 24 years (don't tell her I put a picture of us in this week's newsletter or this may be my last year (And newsletter)! 🤣). Best, Wess Daniels Greensboro, NC (Haw River Watershed) ## Sign up for Gathering In Light Build Community. Share Light. Resist Empire. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.

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Wess is Traveling West

Dear Friends, Next week, I travel to Northern California for some renewal work with Quaker meetings in San Mateo and Santa Cruz as a part of the Quaker Connect program of FWCC (applications are open for the 2026 cohort if you're interested). If you're in the area and would like to connect let me know, I have a little wiggle room in the schedule and would love to see folks. Also, you're invited on **August 2nd to a Monthly Potluck at the Santa Cruz Meetinghouse** where I will be hanging out and hosting a discussion on Quaker renewal. **Find more information about that event:** Aug 2, First Saturday Monthly potluck at the Meetinghouse: Singing, Meal, & Discussion with Wess Daniels — Santa Cruz Friends MeetingAug 2, First Saturday Monthly potluck at the Meetinghouse —join for all or part: 4-6 The community Song Circle--do you have a favorite song? Meet others who have been participating in this Circle for quite a while.  Then, whether or not you come to the singing, we’ll follow witSanta Cruz Friends Meetingdeborah burton Beyond this trip, things are moving along at Guilford College. My summer has been busy. Recently, I coordinated some community service days on campus to help beautify our welcome center. As those things tend to go, it was a lot of fun and we were able to get plenty done in a pretty short amount of time. It was fun also incredibly hot! On Tuesday afternoon, my colleague, Mark, and I were painting railings and I realized the sweat dripping from my face was hot. I turned to Mark and I said, "I don't think I've ever been hotter than this in my life." Despite that, working together with the folks who came out to help was really meaningful and has shifted the way I feel about that space and my work on campus. I mentioned some of this learning in my recent message: Attention and Empire's Algorithms. The other big thing I've been working on is supporting the work of a General Education Curriculum revision. It's creative and big picture work and I'm really enjoying it. I feel confident that we will have something compelling to share soon and while student's don't typically go to a college for its GenEd, I do think that it has the power to shape the culture and experience for our students. For that, I'm very excited. Soon, I'll write about my First Year Experience class, Boredom as a Superpower, and what all is going into that but I'm not quite ready just yet. If you'd like to get the weekly updates with how the college is doing please send an email to _president@guilford.edu_ to request being added to the list. ## **Notepad:** _A few notes on things I've been exploring_ Just finished reading Jeff Vandemeer's newest book, _Abolition_. If you're read the Southern Reach series, you'll enjoy it. It's very well-done and as creepy as the rest of them! Let me know if you like Vandemeer's work! As a lover of stationary and pens, I've been digging my new Rollbahn spiral bound. I like that they are less expensive than the Baron Figs I've been using for ages (and still love). Plus, I love the spiral bound graph paper with perforated tear-out edges. I like the versatility and the way it lays completely flat, which works perfectly for note-taking and drawing. I picked up a Caran D'Ache gel pen when I was in Los Angeles a few months ago, and while I really like the size, weight, and body, the clicker with the refill (I went with a refill so I could get a smaller tip) is not great which has been a disappointment. Life Kit is a great podcast put out by NPR if you're not subscribed. They've been really putting out some strong episodes over the last few months including this one on living a creative life. I can't believe I haven't shared this yet. My good friend Ashley Wilcox wrote a really moving piece for the Modern Love column of the New York Times titled: Why I Lied About Being Married. It's a MUST read. Just learned about the Trump Action Tracker. This is a great website where, “Each action is mapped to one or more of five broad domains of authoritarianism, helping to make sense of a deeply concerning political trajectory.” via Kottke. The $2,000/week summer camps aiming to cure teens of phone addiction. You don't need to pay for a summer camp, come to Guilford College. We're working with students on this all the time. I love this from the Kairos Center - A Matter Of Survival Mini Zine Folding Tutorial Thanks for reading and hope you all are well! Wess Daniels Haw River Watershed (Greensboro, NC).

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