locals: All Saint's, Alternative gift fair Nov 11th

Some non-churchgoers have told me they find All Souls/All Saints events to be useful rituals, so - for anyone who isn't at Laurell K. Hamilton's reading in Kane Hall tonight: All Saints' Evensong, 6:30pm tonight, at St Thomas church, 8398 NE 12th Street, Medina, WA.

There's also a debut All Souls Requiem Eucharist at St Mark's Cathedral on Saturday at 7:00 p.m.

The Cathedral Choir, under the direction of Mel Butler, will present the first performance of a new Requiem Mass composed by well-known northwest musician, Peter Seibert. The preacher for the service will be the Rev. Micah Daniel of Living Water Ministries in Renton, WA.

This service remembers all those who have died, particularly members of our diocese who have died as well as those who have died of HIV/AIDS.

And from 10:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. on Nov 11th, the Kirkland Interfaith Network presents a different kind of gift fair:

Booths selling needed gift items, like a flock of chicks for a family in Bolivia (through Heifer Project International), a window for a unit of affordable housing (through Habitat for Humanity) or Hopelink cards to help local families. For each item you purchase, you receive a gift card with an insert describing your gift, which you can give to the person you are honoring in this way. There will also be entertainment and refreshments. A large selection of items imported from developing nations will also be available for sale. St. John’s Episcopal Church, 105 State Street, Kirkland.

Sounds worth checking out to me :)

Quotable Jo Rowling :)

On parallels between Death Eaters and Nazi Germany in the 30s and 40s:

I wanted Harry to leave our world and find exactly the same problems in the wizarding world. [...] People like to think themselves superior and that if they can pride themselves in nothing else they can pride themselves on perceived purity. So yeah that follows a parallel [to Nazi Germany]. It wasn't really exclusively that. I think you can see in the Ministry even before it's taken over, there are parallels to regimes we all know and love. [Laughter and applause.] So you ask what lessons, I suppose. The Potter books in general are a prolonged argument for tolerance, a prolonged plea for an end to bigotry, and I think it's one of the reasons that some people don't like the books, but I think that it's a very healthy message to pass on to younger people that you should question authority and you should not assume that the establishment or the press tells you all of the truth.

And ( spoiler for the 7th book )

- JK Rowling, from a transcript at The Leaky Cauldron

women in the workplace

In 2006, Catalyst looked at stereotypes across cultures (surveying 935 alumni of the International Institute for Management Development in Switzerland) and found that while the view of an ideal leader varied from place to place — in some regions the ideal leader was a team builder, in others the most valued skill was problem-solving. But whatever was most valued, women were seen as lacking it.

Respondents in the United States and England, for instance, listed “inspiring others” as a most important leadership quality, and then rated women as less adept at this than men. In Nordic countries, women were seen as perfectly inspirational, but it was “delegating” that was of higher value there, and women were not seen as good delegators.
- from "The Feminine Critique" in today's New York Times

I end up wondering if women are perceived as being less good at what's most important, or if certain skills are considered "less important" because women are considered to be good at them....