
The Meeting House by Mark Reigelman II, on the Rose Kennedy Greenway in Boston, Mass. Photo excerpt © Sarah Nichols (click for full dimension)
Imagine my surprise when I tucked in to watch the latest episode of Catastrophe, a lewd and hilarious comedy series thatâs streaming now on Amazon Prime Video. In the second episode of the showâs fourth and final season, main character Rob, an American in London played by Rob Delaney, gets a visit from his sister, who has become a Quaker. She takes him to visit a Quaker meetingâhis first time. Robâs encounter with Friends is played for laughs in a way that highlights the comic place of the Religious Society of Friends: weâre the âstraight man.â
Perhaps no stereotype about Quakers endures more than our straitâlacedness. In much of the public imagination we are silent, unflappable to the point of impracticality. In Catastrophe, Rob is intrigued by meeting for worship and attracted to Friends, but after a few deep conversations and return visits he eventually storms out after finding this friendly, goodâhearted group insufficiently workedâup about the state of the world. The temper Rob tries to suppress, while very human, doesnât seem to fit with the laidâback Quakers he meets (including, notably, a tremendous deadpan performance by Geoffrey Burton as Robâs Quaker foil). Itâs a tidy resolution to a shortâlived subplot, but hey, I consider it a small victory whenever Quakers register enough to warrant a brief bob above pop cultureâs water line.
Our cover features The Meeting House, a 2017 installation by the artist Mark Reigelman II. Itâs a lemonâyellow structure inspired in part by Pembroke Meetinghouse, the oldest surviving in Massachusetts, and itâs been sunk at a jaunty angle into a lush lawn in Bostonâs Rose Kennedy Greenway. To me it speaks of Quakersâ simplicity and peculiarity, but also our persistence even if our angles donât parallel the worldâs. And I canât help but take it as a reminder not to take ourselves too seriously.
One piece in our pages this month merits a bit of explanation. Don McCormickâs âFox News: George Fox Speakingâ originated as a sketch performed at Pacific Yearly Meetingâs annual sessions by an ensemble of the meetingâs teenagers. We are told it âbrought the house down.â
As always, we welcome your feedback. Corny Quaker jokes are welcomed, as wellâwe might even run a few in the Forum.