azurelunatic: Vivid pink Alaskan wild rose. (Default)
Azure Jane Lunatic (Azz) 🌺 ([personal profile] azurelunatic) wrote2004-02-14 08:30 pm

Mote in the eye; the Friends practice Heisenberg.

Naomi says that she thinks that the directive about the mote in one's neighbor's eye is meant as a directive as to where most of one's energy should go. Naturally, pull the sodding great pole out of one's own eye before hollering about the neighbor's mote, but... if you're in a position to note the mote, mention it as a courtesy. Don't go around on mote inspection; that's what's the bad thing, and not your duty. But, if you're helping them with their makeup, and have occasion to see the mote, let them know. But it's not something to go out of the way to do. If I had huge issues in my journal, would I go to the support boards and be helping out? No. I'd be working on my own journal. But if I saw a journal with something I knew how to fix offhand on my friends page, I'd let my friend know that if they wanted, I could help, or I could share how to work on that issue right then.

I was raised at least quasi-Quaker, and the Friends have the tradition, the belief, that to observe anything is to become involved in it. By witnessing something, I am obligated to evaluate whether or not I can be of help, and how best to apply the help. And, if I can't be of help, perhaps someone that I know can be of help, and I can be of intermediate help in passing along the information about what I witnessed.