I meet many people at the meetings that Kim or Stephanie host at our house. Last night, about ten people came to our house to discuss an anti-war action. Fortunately, they were all animal lovers, so all four of us could be in the living room with them. This particular evening one woman was new to the group. The person running the meeting is called the "Chair", which confuses the dogs a great deal. "Chairs can’t talk." I try to explain that humans use the same word for many different things, which is one thing that makes understanding them so difficult. Anyway, the Chair told the new woman to feel free to ask any questions she had at any time. Everyone introduced themselves and the meeting had a friendly tone. But the longer it went on, the more confusing it got.
This is a snippet of the conversation:
MAN ONE: Let’s ask JRP to get us into the REMO Foundation–they have a good relationship.
WOMAN ONE: JONAH is a better bet, besides which Mary is an idiot.
WOMAN TWO: Mary is just going through a hard time. You know that Rachel left her.
GROUP: "NO! When did that happen?"
CHAIR: Let’s focus. JONAH or JRP?
NEW WOMAN: Who is Jonah?
MAN TWO:. JONAH is a group. It stands for Justice Over …something. I can’t remember. Bob…somethingorother runs it.
MAN THREE: Murphy, but I thought he left.
WOMAN TWO: He was going to, but then his job in Bhutan fell through.
GROUP: "No! When did that happen?"
And so on. This poor woman is supposed to ask any questions she has, but where would she begin since every sentence raises a question for her? At the end of meeting, the Chair said to woman (who looked sadly like a cat caught in headlights), "I hope we will see you again." I thought, "I doubt it."
Ruby slept through the whole meeting on the new woman’s lap. She wanted her to feel welcomed. The woman liked that a lot and patted Ruby throughout the meeting. For myself, I prefer to pick the biggest lap and settle down on it. I don’t really care what the person thinks about me being there as long as they don’t disturb me. To insure minimum disturbance I usually flex my claws a few times.
But I digress. These activists who want to build a "movement" have got to learn the rudiments of plain speaking. They speak in gibberish. As the meeting was ending, Brooklyn (one of the dogs) barked at something out the window. MAN TWO said, "If only we could understand what barking meant." I thought of something I have heard Kim say, "Back at you, bub." Not that I know who Bub is.
