Yellow and pink balloons, one with a smiley face. Photo: By Madison Oren on Unsplash.
Eye - 21 August 2026
A Quakers' paradise, a reason to smile, and where are you?
A reason to smile
There have been enough heat waves that this summer could safely be deemed a heat ocean… but there is always light somewhere, and finding its glimmers can help keep us going when life gets tough. What has made you smile this week, Friends? Would you like to share your sunshine in Eye’s pages? Reach out via eye@thefriend.org!
Living in a Quakers’ paradise
The 1995 hip-hop song Gangsta’s Paradise by Coolio might not be the essential listening you’d expect Eye to recommend to Friends, but bear with me, my trusty readers!
YouTuber Wierd Ali Ruckavich has turned their attention to Friends in a video called ‘Quakers Paradise’.
In a string of inspiration that teeters on the meta, Wierd Ali cited the parodist Weird Al Yankovic’s Amish Paradise, which is in turn a pastiche of the hip-hop classic.
‘How on earth could Quaker history and values be translated into gangsta rap?’ I hear you ask. Well, here’s a taste of the first few lines:
As I walk past the church and I don’t even go in,
I talk directly to Christ about my good deeds and sins.
‘Cause I agree with the great George Fox,
that I don’t even need the help of any clergy to rock.
They say he quaked and trembled at his blasphemy trial,
but we took the word Quaker back after a while.
To join over a thousand viewers who have experienced the parody in full, visit: https://bit.ly/QuakersParadise.
All this might seem thoroughly frivolous, and Eye hopes watching the video makes you giggle, but there are a lot of factoids tucked into those four minutes. One comment reads: ‘I just learned half of Quakers are African and that the Quakers have a Nobel Peace Prize from this song.’
Now, Eye can’t draw this story to an end without sharing the first chorus. But be warned, there is earworm potential…
We don’t need no church advice
Living in the Quakers’ paradise
We talk directly to Christ
Living in the Quakers’ paradise
We must feel kind and wise
Living in the Quakers’ paradise
Just look for that inner Light
Living in the Quakers’ paradise
Are there any songs you think could be reworked with a Friendly theme? Ideas to eye@thefriend.org!
You are where?
What3Words is a website and app where every three-metre-by-three-metre square of the world has been given a unique combination of three words.
In a Facebook post to the Quaker Space group, a Friend shared that one of the squares in their Meeting house was ‘equivocal.cursing.lately’ and commented: ‘I won’t be using that on our outreach info.’
Others shared words contained within their Meeting, including: ‘them.cherubs.cherished’, ‘pheasants.scribble.doormat’, and ‘sudden.latest.improving’.
What words appear in your Meeting house, Friends? To find out, you can either visit what3words.com, type in the address, and explore the grid over a map of the building – or download the app to your phone and follow the instructions.
Have a play – if at first the words don’t speak to you, try clicking on all the squares that appear within your Meeting house, you never know what combinations might be waiting!
What3Words isn’t just for fun though, as one Friend shared in the comment section, it can be lifesaving, as it enables emergency services to locate you quickly and accurately – download the app for giggles, keep it just in case!
