IYM AYF Retreat

By Madelyn George

It was just a coincidence that the first annual Tsunami retreat was held around the same time that a real live one hit Southeast Asia. The title was invented through the reasoning that Quakers start out having tremors, followed by quakes, but then skip straight to retreats. It is only logical that adult young friends should have "tsunamis". We ask that you use this terminology in your own yearly meeting if you are led to do so.

The second annual gathering of Adult Young Friends of Illinois Yearly Meeting was held January 11th to the 13th at Evanston Friends Meeting. Twelve of us were in attendance this year compared to eight people in 2007. At this rate there should be about 180 of us by the year 2020. We trickled into Evanston on Friday and spent the entire night playing games. On Saturday we woke up bright and early to the sound of the new fire alarm system. Apparently making pancakes isn't as easy as we thought. Then it was off to the aquarium in Chicago where we thoroughly enjoyed the free admission, and I particularly liked the giant sea turtle. From there we headed back to the meetinghouse for our business meeting, followed by dinner.

That night in a workshop led by Greg Woods we watched the documentary "Why We Fight", which looks at the history of US involvement in foreign wars. The discussion that followed was an intense one for many of us, and lasted until after midnight. I think most of us emerged from it having learned a lot about ourselves as we cope with complex feelings about our country's politics. Before the night was over some of us participated in the production of a film concerning maggot-like aliens that bore a striking resemblance to Quakers in sleeping bags.

We attended meeting for worship with Evanston Friends the next morning, and then said our goodbyes. At this point I guess it's some kind of tradition to say something funny about how there is no crying in baseball, but I don't really get that joke. Sorry Friends. But seriously, I'm really excited to report on the strength of IYM's group of young adults. At this stage in our lives it can be hard to keep track of each other, but it's so important that we do because otherwise certain alien videos would not be spread throughout the world via youtube. The date and location of next winter's Tsunami should be announced this summer. I hope to see you all there! With love, Madelyn

In photo: Casey Kashnig, Jon Wixom, Caryn, Madelyn George, Chris Earp, Greg Woods, Jesse Joe Snyder, Choz Howard-McKinney (in the exact middle), Carrie Seltzer, Brianna Murtha-Zee, Meg Nelson, & Lucas Young.