Photo: by Firmbee.com via Unsplash.
Back to basics: Joseph Jones on the Friend’s new website
‘Sometimes the only way to work out what’s important is to get rid of everything that isn’t.’
When people ask me what Friends mean, exactly, by simplicity, I cheat. I quote a much-forgotten essayist called William George Jordan. Jordan mostly wrote what we might now call self-help books for the Victorian era, some of which don’t stand up to contemporary scrutiny, but he had his moments. Although he wasn’t a Quaker he sometimes sounded close to it (if we can forgive him the universal male pronoun): ‘The true Christian’s individual belief is always simpler than his church creed, and upon these vital, foundation elements he builds his life… He cares naught for the anatomy of religion; he has its soul’. Here’s the bit I quote: ‘Simplicity’, he said, is ‘restful contempt for the non-essentials of life.’
Now, sure, a Quaker probably ought not relish that word ‘contempt’, but as a rebuttal to the seductions of excess I confess I rather like it. You eventually have to figure out what the essentials are, of course, but beginning with the non-essentials can be a helpful exercise. I’m not trying to be spiritually profound here: you can start with your kitchen cupboards, or your wardrobe. Sometimes the only way to work out what’s important is to get rid of everything that isn’t.
‘As the swan glides elegantly over the water, there’s some frantic kicking going on beneath the surface.’
We’ve been going through this process recently with our new website. The range of digital possibilities is dizzying these days, but, as Paul told the Corinthians, while everything is permissible, not everything is beneficial. Did we really need that whizzy widget or clever click-system? A simpler website, we realised, would make us more accessible, more readable, and ultimately more useful to the Society of Friends.
Here comes the catch, though: being simple is awfully complicated. As the swan glides elegantly over the water, there’s some frantic kicking going on beneath the surface. And believe me, we’ve been doing some frantic kicking under the surface. A robin is sometimes a red-breasted bird with a beautiful song. It’s also an insectivorous passerine of the muscicapidae family, if you need to know. We needed to know.
It was a reminder that even if you realise that the first step to simplicity is to simplify, it doesn’t always feel like that when you’re in the middle of it. You’ll tell us soon enough if we’ve hit the mark, I know. It might also be something you consider as you enter a Yearly Meeting with simplicity on the agenda. But like I said, I wasn’t trying to be spiritually profound.
Joe is editor of the Friend. Our new website is accessible now at the usual address: <a href="http://www.thefriend.org.
">www.thefriend.org.
Comments
But where is the PDF of the current/recent issues?! Simple to scan through and home in on articles to read in detail - much simpler than having to go back to a contents window for each article.
By Angus Winchester on 28th July 2024 - 8:55
How can I find the PDFs of the issues?
By Friends House Moscow on 29th July 2024 - 10:23
On my profile, I think but am not certain that the date of expiry of my subscription is given in US English form- month/date/year rather than the form in Europe, day/month/year. Some Friends may find this confusing.
I would like a link on the page for each article, linking to the next. It would help me move through the articles as I would through a paper copy.
By Abigail Maxwell on 8th August 2024 - 9:38
As an online subscriber to The Friend, I am used to reading the magazine on my laptop, starting on the first page and proceeding sequentially, occasionally stopping to save or share or print a particular item. The new website makes that more awkward or difficult, I’m afraid.
Henning Sieverts
Norwich QM
By SHSieverts@aol.com on 8th August 2024 - 14:34
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