Letters - 01 July 2022
From Zoom to Notices
Zoom
Anthony Gimpel (17 June) was pleased to be back in his Meeting place, as I am sure everyone would prefer to be, but for some people it is not possible. While Zoom is not exactly the same, it is of great value for us.
He felt that it did not seem ‘genuine and complete’ and he doubted that it ‘can be a substitute for reality, let alone be real itself’. That may not be true for everyone. I’m not interested in debating in what way this might or might not be ‘real’, but I can say that I find it a valuable way of taking part in worship and maintaining contact with my friends that would otherwise not be possible.
David Hitchin
Once upon a time there were some Friends. They liked to Meet together regularly, so they built a nice Meeting house where they could Meet. They went on meeting there for more than 300 years.
One day, a terrible sickness broke out in the land. They were told not to meet in case they passed the sickness on to one another. They could not go to the Meeting house any more, which made them very sad.
One of the Friends was out walking and found a strange black oblong object in the road. It had ‘Apple iPad’ written on it, but it did not look anything like an apple.
Anyway, he polished the iPad to clean it up. To his amazement a huge giant appeared. ‘Who are you?’ said the Friend in astonishment.
‘Ho, ho, ho!’ said the giant. ‘I am the genie of the iPad. My name is Zoom.’
‘Can you help us please?’ asked the Friend. ‘My Friends and I like to meet, but we can’t meet any more in case we make one another sick.’
‘I can fix that,’ said the genie, laughing loudly. ‘I can arrange remote access video conferencing on a cloud-based peer-to-peer software platform so that you don’t have to go to that dreary old Meeting house any more, but can stay at home, where it is far more comfortable. You just have to click on the link.’
The Friends were delighted that they could start Meeting on the magic Zoom facility, and soon some of them even forgot where the Meeting house was.
After a while, the sickness was not so serious, and some of the Friends remembered the old Meeting house and wanted to meet there again. They decided to remove all the wires and screens which had been set up for Zoom.
When Zoom heard about this he was very angry. He went straight to the Meeting House to see them and said: ‘I am in charge of communications here. All communications must be done on Zoom.’
‘But some of us prefer in-person communication,’ said one of the Friends. ‘You have been very helpful, Zoom, and we would like to continue to use your services for special reasons, but we don’t want you to be in charge.’
When he heard this, Zoom became furious. He stamped and waved his big arms in the air. The Friends were very frightened.
Then someone brave held up a copy of faith & practice. When he saw this, Zoom roared and grimaced and waved his arms. But then he gradually dissolved into thin air, and was never seen again.
So the Friends were able to sit down and enjoy an in-person Meeting for the first time for more than two years, although they continued to use Zoom for special reasons. And they all lived happily in their Meeting house for ever and ever.
Moral: Like water wings and alcohol, Zoom should only be used by people who can do without it.
A Friend
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