#sorry my fellow denominations folks

[sselroloc]

Happy Holidays Ch. 1 🎄⭐💘🎄

[theshoesofatiredman]

lol this shit pisses me off so much sorry for going on a rant in the tags there are like. 45000 different sects of christianity all of them think they have the correct interpretation and correct beliefs and correct morals etc “like what book did you read🤨?” the book that brought about 45000 denominations that all believe they're correct you are more than welcome to think everyone else is incorrect but the condescension of someone daring to have a different interpretation when the religion itself has tens of thousands of denominations? absolutely wild to me which brings me to my second point even if it is the completely incorrect interpretation. like even if you can prove beyond a shadow of a doubt it's incorrect knowing the “correct” belief does nothing to mitigate the harm the “incorrect” belief caused it doesn't get rid of the culture surrounding that “incorrect” belief that allowed it to exist in that church/denomination to me it's like someone telling me my ex partner mistreated me & expecting the knowledge of that to cure all the trauma of the mistreatment that's not how this works “a Real Partner wouldn't have treated you like that” dope. still got mistreated. still have to work through that like. so often we're not having theological discussions about beliefs. we're talking about the things we learned or heard that were harmful discussions about correct vs incorrect beliefs are like Not Super Relevant usually and the other thing that pisses me off about sentiments like this is the victim blaming it's Your Fault actually for believing what your church told you for believing the people you were told you had to listen to for the sake of your eternal soul for doing what the people who claim to speak for god are telling you do and this extra super pisses me off when So many people are born into this and grow up in the church and often 1. do not have any say in what church they go to or the people they're surrounded by and 2. the people in said church (that Again. They Did Not Choose) are literally shaping their reality and morality and beliefs you're allowed to have your own beliefs and i get that it's frustrating that people are “wrong” about it but so often y'all are so preoccupied by telling the person talking about it that They Are Wrong and You Are Right that you lack any sort of empathy for the thing people are Actually talking about which is typically “i was hurt and/or the people around me were hurt by this” if you don't like the beliefs argue about it with your fellow christians who Actually hold them (also i'll delete this if you want me to i just get so irked about this lmfao)

I'm adding your tags to the post @deservedgrace because you're absolutely right and should say it!!! So often the conversation about what is Actually Correct Theology™ completely overlooks addressing the real harm that people experienced. And it is especially true when the reason something is Actually Incorrect Theology has nothing to do with the damage done but everything to do with whether or not there's scriptural basis. Because then it leaves all the people who were saying "this hurts!" out in the cold.

One of the most infuriating things about interfacing with sacred beliefs is there's rarely room for impact assessment. It didn't matter if the real human woman my friend was dating actually wanted to be kissed and wouldn't have felt "dishonored" or "mistreated" by him doing that. What mattered was that God said that it WOULD be dishonoring and disrespectful. When God says it, it doesn't matter whether the beliefs cause the world to burn down, because it is still righteous.

If religious folks put the lived experiences of people above their dogma, assessed whether or not their theological practice was righteous by the impact it had on the people involved, then I think the world would be a better place and they'd be a lot safer to be around. I think there are some people inside Christianity who are working to create spaces for people to heal from bad teaching and 'spiritual abuse'. But they likely would still clutch their pearls if asked to create the same kind of healing environments for queer people harmed by religious bigotry. Because ultimately they're not looking at the harm and saying the teaching is wrong; they're still looking at dogma first.

Me and anon both seem to agree that a god who says you can't kiss before marriage isn't one you should worship. The difference is that they think it because they believe the One True God™ doesn't require that, so any god that does would be false, and I think it because such a requirement seems like it would cause harm by giving people a lot of sexual shame and anxiety (and also larger problem of evil reasons lol). The level of care for other people involved in the methods of reasoning here is not the same.

“Idk call me crazy but I don't think you should worship a god who says you can't kiss someone before you're married.”

He literally didn't tho??

Same with drinking (which God didn't outlaw), and people still misread “being an alcoholic isn't that great of an idea” to start the Prohibition.

Like, what book did you read, bro?

When I was a Christian, I did not believe that you couldn't kiss before marriage. But I knew some Christians felt that way. I made this post after I had a long conversation with one such person. This person genuinely believes that not only is the kissing prohibition sound theological practice supported by scripture, but that he heard the voice of God tell him this directly. Hard to compete with that kind of revelation by asking for him to show where he gets that from the Bible.

However, perhaps a more salient point is that I'm an atheist - to me there is no existing divine revelation. God hasn't said anything. So it doesn't matter to me whether it's in the book or not, because real flesh and blood people sincerely believe it and let it impact how they live their lives. And I think those people should ask themselves if it makes sense to listen to the edicts of someone who cares so much about where they put their lips but doesn't seem to lift a finger to stop the rampant suffering and loss of life that's present the world over.

I assume from the wording of your ask that you are a Christian, in which case you are able to say: "God didn't say that." I will continue to ask: "why worship a God that says that?"

[blessedarethebinarybreakers]

Do you have any idea how to try a christain group/community for their lgbt opinions? Since starting Uni one of my favourite things is going to bible readings & stuff with the christain community. My other fav is the queer club. A lot of the people in the queer club has been surprised or anxious about me participating in the christain groups activities, & it has made me anxious in turn, but I don't know how to find out what their stance on lgbt people is without outing myself...

Hey there! I’m sorry to hear about your anxiety; I really feel you on wanting to know a church’s stance. 

It’s also hard to struggle with fellow queer / LGBT folks being wary of your faith. I’ve got a couple posts on that, to start with: this one on being both “progressive” and Christian; and this one on responding to fellow LGBT+ folks who are wary of Christianity. 

Now for figuring out a church’s stance -- check out this post as well as this post for similar issues. Basically, my advice is:

 See if the church in question shows up on gaychurch.org. If it does, it should be affirming!

If the church is affiliated with a specific denomination, you can google that denomination’s views on gay / trans / LGBT people. Some denominations allow individual congregations to decide their stance on LGBT stuff, though.

Check out their website! 

First off, do you see any rainbow logos? If a church is suuuuuper on board with LGBT stuff, they often will have at least one rainbow somewhere on their site ;) 

Look at their “about” section, or their mission statement if they have one, and see if they specifically say anything about the LGBT+ community. 

Even if there’s nothing specific, do they use language like “we believe that marriage is between one man and one woman” (bad) or “we welcome people of all orientations and gender identities” (good)? 

Some other concepts to watch out for that hint that this likely isn’t going to be an accepting church: “traditional,” scripture as God’s “inerrant Word,” “family values”...

You might also search their events section / calendar and see if they’ve ever done anything around LGBT issues. 

if they have a search bar, search the word “gay,” the word “transgender(ed),” the word “homosexuality,” the word “pride,” the words LGBT and GLBT....and see if anything positive (such as them joining in a Pride event) or negative (such as them hosting conversion therapy) shows up. 

Now, more often than not sometimes church websites are a logistical nightmare and/or never get updated (sigh!!) and searching them for clues can be hard. If you find that to be the case, you can use a google search to search for the key words I listed above across their whoooole site. Has the pastor once mentioned “homosexuality” in a sermon? Has there been a youth group event about welcoming LGBT youth? If the word “gay” has ever appeared anywhere on their site, google can tell you: instructions for how to search within one website using google can be found here.

If you can’t find anything on their website that makes their stance clear, use an email account that the church won’t link to you to send the pastor a question about their views on LGBT people. 

It could be something like: “Dear Rev. ___, I am considering visiting your church but before I do so, I would like to know your views and your church’s views on LGBT people. Would your congregants be comfortable with a gay person sitting in the pews with them, or a trans person using the bathroom that fits their identity? Do you believe that God affirms LGBT people? Thank you for your time.”

I hope this helps, anon! If anyone has more tips for this person, please share!

[kyledpotter]

Why I Care About Christian Unity

I was a Christian for about a week before someone told me that I wasn’t a Real Christian. 

I grew up in a non-religious family in Appalachian Kentucky. I attended church a few times at the invitation of various friends, but it never piqued my interest. People came together, sang songs, and listened to a man talk about how to be good. I did not imagine that I needed the help. As a lad of 15, though, I became interested in the idea of religion. What was it? Why did people have it? How did they practice it? Was there a god on the other side of it? (You see, this was in the late 90s, long before the invention of prestige television.) I went along to services with some friends, curious as to what I might find. 

We only had protestant churches where I lived, and as a theologian, I understand now that in Appalachia, we only had baptist churches. The “independent, fundamental” Baptists were angry baptists. The Methodists were baptists who had lady preachers. The Pentecostals were loud baptists. The folks of the Church of Christ were self-loathing baptists. During my first bout of church-going, I found folks who were very interested in talking about Bible translations, how a woman should dress, and how long a man’s hair should be. I did not find this exciting. During my second bout of church-going, I met people who enjoyed sermons about how to be good, so that they could go to heaven when they died. I didn’t think the former question was very complicated, and I thought the latter concern to be jumping the gun a bit. 

A third bout of church-going saw me investigating an actual Baptist church. A fat old man offered expository preaching from the Gospels, every Sunday. For the first time in my life, I could recall hearing two sentences in a row about Jesus. These folks offered me two things: actual interest in Jesus, and real kindness. I’d not gotten this from very many adults. As I listened to the preaching and held a Bible open in my lap, I became more interested in the poor man of Palestine who spoke for God, and who showed what really mattered to God. Jesus healed people, drove out their demons, spoke kindly to those with ears to hear, and announced divine judgment against the hard-hearted. 

I was smitten. 

After six months of this, I realized that I believed this stuff. I was baptized, and proceeded in earnest to do just what the Baptists told me to do: to read the Bible, and to pray. When I came to faith, I was certain that Jesus was the best-kept secret I’d ever heard of. Everyone I knew owned a Bible - sometimes several - but no one had told me anything about Jesus. Maybe their churches weren’t reading the good parts of the Bible, like in my early church-going? I started telling the folks at school about him. I was shocked to discover two things: first, that all of these folks said that they had heard of Jesus, and second, that this didn’t matter nearly as much as obeying all the rules in the Bible so that you could go to heaven instead of hell. Perhaps the Baptists had forgotten to tell me about hell (it did seem to be in the Bible, after all), but they had showed me in the text where Jesus was most certainly the opposite of all that other stuff. 

This is how I first learned about denominations. The students explained that they were Real Christians because they attended a non-denominational church, like they had in Bible times. Anyone else was not a Real Christian, even if they wanted to be, because they attended the wrong church - usually this meant a denominational church. They told me that I could only be a real Christian if I was baptized at the right time, and in the right way, for the right reasons. They were all very concerned that they might fail to keep all of the Bible rules, even though they were members of the Real Church. I didn’t yet have in mind what Jesus had said about good trees bearing good fruit, but it seemed very obvious to me that the Real Christians never cared if someone like me met Jesus or not, while the Fake Christians in my church did. I threw my lot in with the Fake Christians. I’m still not sorry for this. 

The Vine and the Branches, by Solomon Raj

When I left for college, I wanted a better prayer life. Many of the Christians around me were fixated on whether and how Christians should divide from one another on the basis of a woman’s standing in their churches, or doctrines they’d developed about just what kind of mystical perfection and power that we should claim for our unread Bibles. Being a good Baptist, I insisted that fellow Baptists show me from Scripture that Jesus wanted me to lose sleep over these questions. I continued to snore through their debates. 

I found my next step in the life of prayer with a little help from other Fake Christians. Christian folk artist Rich Mullins introduced me to the lapsed and laicized Catholic priest, Brennan Manning. An inter-denominational group of charismatic Christians turned me on to Henri Nouwen, and the Book of Common Prayer. I discovered that the folks who weren’t so interested in being Real Christians - Protestants and Catholics alike - were pretty happy to learn that I’d met Jesus. They were really interested in talking about Jesus, and being changed by Jesus. They reminded me of why I’d become smitten in the first place.  

These experiences planted the seeds for some things that I hold true. 

First, Christian division is truly a scandal: a stumbling block that makes it harder to believe that God has acted to save us and heal us through Jesus Christ. Jesus said asked the Father to make us one so that the world would know that the world would believe. The reverse is also true: that the our divisions give the world good reason to disbelieve. 

Second, neither a denominational label nor the lack of one, nor any other brand name will tell you whether any particular person or fellowship has been transformed by the love of Jesus, and walks in the power of God’s Spirit. 

Third, the sad reality of Christian division has separated some Christians from the gifts that the Spirit has on offer for our healing and transformation. Some churches have a hollowed-out theory and practice of preaching. Many of us don’t understand what my baptists understand about the necessity and joy of fellowship. Some churches only partly remember the gifts of baptism and eucharist. Many Christians fear and despise basic Christian practices, because they imagine them to be the preserve of Catholics, Baptists, or Pentecostals alone. 

We could have something better. 

The Initiative is a network of Jesus-followers committed to building a culture of Christian unity through friendship and shared mission. Our motive is Jesus’ prayer in John 17, that Christ’s followers might be one as Jesus and the Father are one. We seek to respond to Jesus’ desire rather than resist it and to end the scandal of Christian division. 

Join our conversations as we recover the purpose of Christian unity, its basis in Christ’s saving work, and learn to practice it through purposeful friendship.

[firefighterkingdom]

#5 Washington St. Fire Fighters: Hit Hard Early During COVID-19 & Review

Today we have a treat with a special guest and fellow professional fire fighter Dennis Lawson from Washington State. Dennis is the president of the Washington State Council of Fire Fighters (WSCFF) and also a 33 year veteran of the fire service who has served in multiple roles over the years and brings tons of knowledge.

Dennis goes over some of the early COVID-19 reactions from Washington State who was hit hard early on, had some of the first U.S. deaths from the coronavirus, and had several fire fighters test positive. He goes over many topics from the public safety and view from a fire fighters perspective. And discusses some of what to look for going forward.

All right, welcome. This is Robert Sanchez, host of Firefighter Kingdom. Welcome back to the Firefighter Kingdom. We have a great person today, a friend of mine, definitely a person that’s well-educated in the fire service and the IFF, which we’re both proud union members of. I’m here with Dennis Lawson, president of Washington State Council of Firefighters in Washington State, a 33 year firefighter there in Washington. Dennis, glad to have you on here. It’s always an honor talking to you. Tell us a little bit about yourself, brother.

Dennis Lawson: Hey, Robert. Hey, thanks for extending the invitation. As you mentioned, I’ve got 33 years on the job, getting ready to start my 34th year. I’m currently a battalion chief here with Central Pierce Fire and Rescue just outside the city of Tacoma. Second generation firefighter, my dad worked for Tacoma Fire Local 31. My brother is down south in Vancouver, Washington. Married, couple of kids. Enjoy, really, the fire service a great deal. I spent most of my entire fire service life as part of my local, Local 726. Actually the year I got off probation is when I started in on my board, and I’ve been on my executive board for, well, I guess it’d be almost 33 years now, or getting ready to start my 33rd year. Held all the different positions concurrently like you described. State Council president, we represent right around 8,500 firefighters here in the state of Washington, 127 locals. Geographically we’ve got 11 executive board members and Secretary-Treasurer Greg Markley and myself are the two principal officers, and an office in Olympia, which is our state capitol. So a pleasure to be here. I hope that gives you a little idea of who I am.

Robert Sanchez: Yeah, very nice. That’s a mile long of accomplishments there, man. I know you’re a great leader and Dennis, we definitely bleed IFF. We’re instructors with the IFF and it’s always nice seeing you. Welcome, Dennis. He’s also a fellow pep instructor with the IFF with me. We travel across the country. We have the luxury and the honor to teach firefighters all across the country. And I’m happy today, I was thinking of today as I was driving to work just how lucky to have you on today talking about Washington State and the early COVID-19 virus that hit your state. Early in February that it hit, more than it hit any of the other states throughout the United States. And Dennis, tell me, you’ve been a firefighter for going on 33 years, right?

Dennis Lawson: Yeah. Yeah. Just getting ready to start my 34th year next week.

Robert Sanchez: Nice. Congratulations, man.

Dennis Lawson: Yeah, thanks man.

Robert Sanchez: So I bet you’re anxious to retire, and I’m not sure if your wife is, she wants you home so much or not, but …

Dennis Lawson: Yeah. Thanks Robert. Yeah. She’ll probably agree with you on that.

Robert Sanchez: So I know you’re a hard working man, and glad to have you on, and I appreciate for being on with us today. Just being a friend and just having the honor to teach with you with the IFF, that’s why I brought you on, because I knew you’d be a person with a lot of knowledge on the early COVID 19 issue that happened. And not that you really wanted to, got thrown into your guys’s plate there in Washington state.

So in early February, I know you guys got hit pretty hard specific to the Kirkland fire department there. Tell me about it. When they got hit so hard, how did they deal with it? We all say we’re ready. We all prepare as firefighters. We all know the training we go through, and we come out of the Academy, we do all these trainings, we think we’re ready to go, but sometimes you get ready to go and you get hit in the face with a hammer sometimes and it just happens. You can’t prepare for everything.

Dennis Lawson: That’s exactly right. In fact, it was interesting because you mentioned Kirkland and really what happened was it was a Friday night, and before we actually got the, the news went bad. And Friday night we had planned to have a conference call with the general president and some leadership back at the IFF. And then before Saturday morning … And the Friday night conversation was going to take place was regarding the first death, what they described in the first US death, and it happened at a nursing home here in Kirkland, Washington. And before, it was about 3:00 AM, things went completely sideways because at that point in time, we started to put our firefighters in quarantine.

And I think just to make sure everybody understands, but we had a couple different words that we were not familiar with, quarantine and isolation. And quarantine was for those folks who were initially exposed, and isolation was for those folks then who had tested positive. And in Kirkland, Kirkland’s a progressive department, they got good leadership, they’ve got a really good strong union president, good fire department, good history, very active at the IFF level. And what was concerning to all of us was is that if it’s going to happen to Kirkland, it’s probably going to happen to a lot of other people. And so it really, like you said, slap in the face. It was definitely cold water put on us at 3:00 AM.

Robert Sanchez: Absolutely. And sometimes it’s one of those things where it’s not going to happen to me, or it’s not going to happen to us, and Kirkland seems like a fair sized department. I was looking at them online and stuff like that. And that just goes to show that it can happen to you. It happened to Kirkland. And so how did it, I don’t know if crippling is a correct word, but how did it cripple them? How many people in early February did they have have in quarantine?

Dennis Lawson: There you go.

Robert Sanchez: Can you hear me?

Dennis Lawson: You’re back on.

Robert Sanchez: Okay, Thanks.

Dennis Lawson: Yeah, I lost you for a couple of seconds.

Robert Sanchez: Sorry about that, technology now with COVID-19.

Dennis Lawson: You got a virus in your speaker.

Robert Sanchez: Yeah, I’m sure it is. Yeah. So we all talk about Kirkland, it’s not going to happen to us as a fairly decent sized department. But it did happen to Kirkland, just shows that it could happen to anybody. So how did they deal with it? Because how many, at the initial stage when they started getting infected, the firefighters, how many got infected and how many were in quarantine initially?

Dennis Lawson: Yeah, initially about 17. And that number, and so that happened really quick like I mentioned. As soon as they had the death, they started to figure out … And again, progressive department, they were able to identify through tracking some of their run calls that they had been going to the same facility. And then all of a sudden they got the one death, and then they got another death, and they started looking. They started putting common denominator and that facility was the common denominator. Then they backtracked and started pulling the records up of who had responded there. And they put, initially I think was 16 or 17 people in quarantine right away. And for them, that’s pretty much a couple stations worth. And they actually took a station, they closed the station completely down and used that as a quarantine facility.

Robert Sanchez: Geez. Okay. That’s pretty crippling for a department that size. I can only imagine even the department that I work for, that would definitely, it would cause a lot of problems cause it puts a strain on the community. It puts a strain on firefighters. Talking to more people, on one of our other episodes in our podcast we talked about PTSD. We always talk about that, on the Dr. Rogers on here. And he happened to ask me, “How was it stressful being COVID, are they getting PTSD from it?” And I said, “Well, I’m sure eventually some firefighters may, but I think just the stress of knowing that you potentially have to respond to these calls and the stress of putting on masks and gowns and making sure you don’t have it and making sure your family’s not going to get it if you get it, that’s just adding stress to the job.

Dennis Lawson: Right. I think you touched on it pretty good. For the most part we come into the fire service with, I think a little bit of understanding that we potentially could have some exposures. At times the job can be very difficult. But we drew the line, I think most of us, and said that, how’s the family impacted? We don’t want to take what we’ve got, if we were exposed on a fire to a carcinogen, if we develop cancer as a firefighter, our family’s not going to get that because it’s not contagious. Right? But you get this virus, something like this where you could take home to your loved ones … And a lot of families, depending on where you are in our country, you may have multiple generations in a household. You could have grandkids and grandparents still living with people. And both of those are on the very high ends of that spectrum, older or maybe very, very young.

Dennis Lawson: So we, yeah, I think you’re right, Robert, I think that’s something PTSD hasn’t manifested yet in that right away. But I think down the road, it could. We’ve been really pumping out peer support groups, making sure that our members talk to each other, we keep an eye on each other. We’re tracking sick leave to make sure that, not for tracking sickly to see who’s using it, but more or less to see if we see any trends related to how people, a bad call, something went different for a day for somebody. So we’re doing those kinds of things.

Robert Sanchez: Absolutely. So as a great leader that they have in a state, they’re fortunate to have you, are they doing okay now in Kirkland? Obviously they’re being well taken care of, but are they recovering from the situation in February?

Dennis Lawson: Yeah. I think Kirkland again, they describe that epicenter, right? That was the initial hit. Everybody had it. But about 15 minutes west of Kirkland’s the city of Seattle, that’s our biggest city in our state. And they had a number of people who also who were in quarantine. Based on pure numbers, I think there’re around 950 members in their union. And I want to say somewhere around 30, 40 members of their department alone had testing positive. And so those are pretty good, those are high numbers. And some of the other departments on our east side of our state, we may have some combination departments, volunteer paid, and we get two positives out of a department of 10, and that can cripple that department.

Robert Sanchez: That’s a big hit. Absolutely. Yeah. Well, good. I’m glad to see they’re recovering from it. And I hate to say this, but I think the rest of the United States, especially fire department wise, and I know I was paying attention when you talked at our legislative conference and also when you had the kitchen table with with Harold Schaitberger, the general president, I was listening and I think we got a lot of information. I think I even called you about some issues we’re having here in New Mexico. And we learned from you guys. It’s sad that it came to hit you guys first, but that’s what firefighters do across the country is the brother and sisterhood, the men and women that work in the fire service across the country definitely came out and help each other out. And we learned from you guys and, and what you guys had to deal with. And-

Dennis Lawson: You mentioned the learning part, there was a couple of things we learned right away. One was that the IFF, you mentioned them. They put out that toolkit. And I think when I addressed the group back in DC on the legislative conference, I had glanced the tool kit, but I didn’t get into it. Quite honestly I was looking at something like, this is a virus that’s going to take place in China. It’s going to stay over there. It’s not going to manifest in the United States. Thinking that we’re so much above those things. And it really hit us all. So I think that, I don’t want to say apprehension, but it was just really just not the … I should’ve been much more aggressive. So that’s something I learned.

Dennis Lawson: The other thing that I’ve expressed to our executive board, and we have 11 board members in the state of Washington geographically placed out there, and we do a lot of really good things. But one thing that we were not really deeply entrenched in was our Department of Emergency Management. Because we do a lot of politics stuff, so we’re talking to the people we’re talking maybe to the County directors or executives, but we didn’t get into the Department of Emergency Management. We didn’t have anybody who was able to get into Department of Health, places like that where they’re making some decisions that really we should have labor voice at.

And so we really made a strong push in King County, and King County has King County Medic One, which is probably one of the best in the country. They always talk about how good they are, and they are very good. We were able to crack that right away and get labor involved. We had two of our board members that got onto a conference call really from that first week on. And they valued our input because we were really the people out on the streets, and it made a big difference. So a couple of real lessons learned, things that we would do different, things we’ve talked about already for gearing up what comes up next. Or if we get a resurgence of this virus, we have to be prepared at least in our state to continue to keep moving forward.

April 4th or so is when I think they talked about us hitting our peak. It was about a week before, maybe 10 days before they had anticipated. And we’ve done well, we flattened out as they described. That’s a word everybody wants to use. And I cautioned even our state, and we’ve talked about this, we have weekly conference calls for our board, is that flattening out doesn’t mean the virus is gone. It still means that people are getting sick. It’s just at a pace that it doesn’t overwhelm everything. And the unfortunate part is people still die. And really that’s the sad part because this is going to be around for a while for it.

Robert Sanchez: Absolutely. just the way it’s looking, I think just watching it and seeing of course the news and everything else, it just, it’s hard. Nobody’s been able to predict what it’s going to happen. We all, like myself, I thought it was just a flu virus, everybody’s in a panic. But even just being in the field and being on the firetruck, I see that it’s not a panic. Look what’s happening in New York. How do you explain that? So across the country, the numbers in some States aren’t as high, but how do you explain New York? How do you explain their morgues are full? They’re having to get trucks to put the body from people who are suffering, who passed away or expired from the COVID-19 virus. So, it’s real and it’s out there, but I’m just hoping that with the four stage plan that the States are having right now that it’s done correctly and we can work it out where it brings us from that curve.

Dennis Lawson: Right, right. I know in the state of Washington, I mentioned our four phases and part of that’s putting our state back in service, back to business. I’m not sure how you guys are doing down there. The economics here, a little concerning. We have municipal fire departments, and we have County fire departments, fire districts, and I work for a fire district. It’s basically, it’s a city, there’s counties, it’s a combination of a bunch of things. But I’ll use Seattle as an example. Their hotels are running at 20% occupancy, if that, right now. They canceled the entire Alaska cruise season, or at least up until probably late August. And so they won’t be running cruises out of there. Our airport’s probably at 10 or 15% capacity.

Dennis Lawson: This has completely crippled a lot of things. And so our municipalities who rely on tax dollars, really the sales, that’s going to be a significant problem for them as they move forward. And so we’ve talked about using our DVP, Mickey Walsh trying to get some of the same things we teach when we do our prep stuff in negotiation, starting to forecast using our municipal financial analysis, getting the IFF on board and making sure that we’re preparing our people. We’ve talked about, maybe it’s a really good time to maybe consider rolling contracts for one year instead of getting full blown into a deep contract negotiation and not knowing what the numbers look like as we move forward. I’d hate for our members to give up stuff and then things turn around rapidly. And on the other hand, I’d hate for us to say that we’re going to get something and then have to give it back.

Robert Sanchez: Absolutely. Yeah, so we’re having the same problem here. We have the city of Santa Fe, which is the capital of New Mexico, and the city firefighters, even the County firefighters in Santa Fe, they’re struggling because Santa Fe really relies on gross receipt tax, right? They rely on tourism. Tourism is huge in Santa Fe. And looking at the numbers, talking about MFAs again, we’re getting into that and we’re making sure to have a municipal financial analysis to see, do they have money? And they don’t have money. That’s there, we could see it.

Robert Sanchez: But yeah, so if we’re planning for the future and it’s definitely we’re going to have to be creative on contracts, and it is going to have to be a give and take in this situation, especially if we know exactly what the money is. And so it is concerning. We start coming into brown outs and layoffs and hopefully we can prevent pay cuts and cutting our benefits. And we just had a huge bill pass our last legislature, which is a funding our pension, which is good for firefighters. And here we are again, having to, hopefully it doesn’t come up and we have to deal with that.

Dennis Lawson: Right. So you mentioned legislation, how have you guys done on any presumptive type coverage or anything like that in your state?

Robert Sanchez: Well, so our legislature finished in February, mid February. So we didn’t get a chance to even work on that issue. But we did have an executive order, and we have a great governor, Michelle Lujan Grisham here in New Mexico, she’s pro firefighter a hundred percent. And so is our legislature, both our Senate and our House, but she came out with an executive order which basically says that per our presumptive bill that we already had in place, it basically explains to the municipalities and the counties that if they get this on duty, it’s going to be presumptive. It’s presumed that it happened on duty. So it swings a bigger hammer if you will, on that executive order. It’s not what we wanted, it’s not legislature, because like I said, our legislative session was over. But it’s something definitely we’re already in the works.

Robert Sanchez: I just got off a zoom call with my executive board of my presence in my state. And we talked about how important politics are now, right now at this time, because we’re going to have to get the right people in there that understand firefighting, would understand what we’ve done, firefighters and what we’re doing for them to make legislation that that helps us for presumptive issues. We all know, Dennis, that we can actually say right now, and I could say with confidence that we weren’t held up with these last couple of months because of the billionaires and the CEOs. We were held up because of the transit workers, the semi truck drivers, the factory workers, the firefighters, the healthcare workers, the police officers. So it’s the working men and women of the United States that kept us afloat, and they still are. So I’m happy to say that for sure.

Dennis Lawson: Yeah. I agree with you a hundred percent. Our governor, we have governor Jay Inslee, and he’s been very outspoken. Especially when this thing happened, of course Mike Pence, vice president of the United States flies out here and they have a conference call, and for the most part everything went pretty well. And then that information of course gets taken back to the White House, and unfortunately you hear that some comments made there probably aren’t appropriate from the White House regarding our governor. Our governor has done a good job for us. He’s very much been in our corner for a number of years. He was a former state, or I should say congressional member at one point in time, and he’s dialed in on our issues. And he did the same thing.

Dennis Lawson: He didn’t have an executive order, but he did, he put a policy down, policy directive through our state labor and industrial workers’ comp. And that’s the way, we’re same way as you are. Our legislative session had ended. We will go back. We have language right now that’s currently in place that says that infectious diseases. And we also have language in there that talks about respiratory, which COVID is very much a respiratory disease. And so we’re going to go ahead and firm these up as we go back in. We’ve got a board of, they call it a board of epidemiology, it’s our doctors that will be starting to work on this during the interim right now. So we’ve got a few things we’ve got to continue to work on, but I’m thankful that, like you said, we have good people, good support, and our governor, our House, our Senate as well.

Robert Sanchez: Very good. Yeah. So we’re lucky here in New Mexico. I hope other States learn from us and learn from you. We’re definitely learning from you now, all the information you’ve laid out in our legislative conference, just even being on the kitchen table with our general president. And I’ve been lucky to work with team district also. DVP [Lima’s 00:21:19] Doing great for us. We’ve had several zooms with probably 160, 70 participants, and it was real informative. And some of the information they got I know was from you and from your state. So I appreciate that.

Robert Sanchez: So I was just going to ask you, so would you change anything on the way that it happened? Obviously, we try to be prepared the most we can. Was there anything that you think that we could change that if we ever had another pandemic, in the fire service?

Dennis Lawson: Yeah, I think like I mentioned, I think we have focused so hard on the political part of our state organization, working on our legislation, where I think we needed to be much more entrenched into our communities. And it doesn’t always have to be our executive boards from our state groups, but our local need to take, as an example, the city of Seattle, they have a Department of Emergency Management just for the city of Seattle. And I know president Stewart from up there was trying to do those things to have his members’ interests taken there, but that doesn’t happen in all the different cities. And so that’s one strong lesson we learned.

Dennis Lawson: The other one was just simply just to make sure that we have really good communication. And I think for the most part we did really well. We tried to reach out. When we talked to the IFF, we wanted one consistent message. We wanted the IFF message. We wanted the seventh district message, which coincided with our state message, because we knew right away if we start to go different ways, we’re going to have a problem with fracture, shows little signs of weakness. And then probably the other thing that if I was to do something different, maybe a little bit earlier on, maybe treat it like a fire incident where you actually have a command type system, command board. I took on probably more than I probably should have initially. I figured it took me about maybe 14 days to figure it out that this is not sustainable.

Robert Sanchez: Right. And we all would do that. As a leader, you’re going to do that.

Dennis Lawson: Yeah. So I really realized on a couple of board members, our vice president, our secretary of treasure, and a couple of key board members, just, “Okay, can you do this?” We have a standing health and safety committee. And I really, I tasked him to do a lot of work and he did a really good job. Kevin is his name, fantastic guy to work with. Just those little things like that. So the delegation, because like you said, we all want to do those kinds of things and maintain a lot of our own work. So yeah, just little things. Maybe if I was probably, as we gear up, maybe just a little bit more attention to what the IFF is putting out, just because they know. Like I said, I saw it, I read it. I just didn’t think it was going to happen to us.

Robert Sanchez: Right. Yeah. We talked about that earlier. Do we ever think it’s going to happen to us? That’s a part of the issue that we have, is we have tons of resources out there, we have tons of information. But as firefighters, we’re constantly on training, and online training, and training in the field, and we just sometimes it becomes just a, we just do it and go with the flow and just do it. So I think that we need to start paying more attention to some of this stuff, even as far as wearing masks and gloves on duty on calls. We all knew we used to wear gloves, but we weren’t real religious in doing what we’re supposed to do in the first … We were supposed to be wearing gloves and face masks anyways on calls. But there’s a lot of times that we weren’t doing it. We lacked on it. So it definitely woke us up, gave us a wake up call.

Dennis Lawson: That’s a good point too, is the PPE part, is that I think it’s important for people to realize that the individuals in Kirkland had the appropriate gear on for the type of call. They got dispatched to a low blood sugar call, now how many of us would wear a gown, the whole bit? Right? Well, they get there and the person was, basically they were unconscious, unresponsive. So they had to begin CPR, and they didn’t have time to put all their gear on. That was one example. The other example was a patient that fell out of bed. Well, they fell out of bed because unfortunately, they had passed away. So they get there, they work on them.

Dennis Lawson: But I think from the fire service standpoint, maybe we need to look a little bit different. Instead of N95 masks, maybe we should go to a different mask that has cartridges like an APR. We went to those things early on, so everybody has issued an APR. A little bit more money, but the cartridges are good for a very long period of time. You decon them, they’re quicker to get back in service than most anything else. And so I think that would be helpful. Just, what are we wearing? Is the type of gear that we wear on an EMS call, is that appropriate? Does a gown give us the best protection? So I think those are the kinds of things, and I’m glad Pat Morrison from the IFF and a few, Jim [Brinkly 00:26:07] And a few other people are just, they’re starting to look into those different things.

Robert Sanchez: Well, that’s good. Yeah. I think that definitely when this is, hopefully it ends and we get a vaccine or something to help us out with. But I think we’re going to come up with these ideas, what’s better, what worked and what didn’t. We’re all going to learn from our own mistakes unfortunately, but that’s just the way life is in general. Right?

Robert Sanchez: So just one last thing, so how’s the firefighters out there as far as mentally? Are they holding together, or have you seen any difference? I know we talked about the stress of them.

Dennis Lawson: Yeah. I think for the most part, again, the unknown is the worst part, right?

Robert Sanchez: Absolutely.

Dennis Lawson: You go to a fire call and you got it in front of you, and you pull your line, whether you’re fire tack or you’re doing exposure or whatever it is, you got something you know what you’re dealing with. This one, you just don’t know. And I think for the most part, you know how a firehouse can be. I think a lot of times you can feel the dynamics, you can feel when there’s tension in the air in a fire station. And some of that is because people are just not really sure what’s going on.

Dennis Lawson: And like I said, we’ve utilized our peer support, support teams, to make sure that they’re reaching out, talking to people, putting things out. We actually started in different organizations, mine included, brought back a safety week a little bit earlier. So we had, because just some time to make sure people are staying really focused on themselves. Our call volume’s down. I’m not sure about you guys, but we’re down about 20% here. And I think that is because people don’t want to go to the hospital right now, because I think they’re fearful that they go to the hospital they’ll catch a virus from somebody already there.

Robert Sanchez: Absolutely.

Dennis Lawson: And so, yeah. Is that what you’ve experienced as well?

Robert Sanchez: Yeah, definitely the call volume is down. And I think, yeah, they’re staying home, whereas most people are, and taking it serious. And yeah, I think that we do, when we respond to calls a lot of them are, they’re saying, “I don’t want to go to the hospital because I don’t want to catch COVID, or coronavirus.” And that makes a lot of sense. So I think that also shows that sometimes maybe not everybody needs to go to the hospital like they think they should, because they’re totally fine after that.

Dennis Lawson: We’ve been saying that for a long time.

Robert Sanchez: And don’t get me wrong, it’s an honor for me to be a firefighter, but sometimes we got to definitely look, is this something that I really need to go to the hospital for? Because it was really causing a huge backlog in some of our hospitals here in Albuquerque, New Mexico. But I think people are realizing now that maybe they don’t need to go to the hospital all the time.

Dennis Lawson: I think you’re right. I think you’re right on that. Yeah.

Robert Sanchez: But definitely, I just wanted to thank you. I know you have a family with career firefighters. Your brother and your father is also a firefighter, were firefighters, are retired, right?

Dennis Lawson: My brother is active down in Vancouver. My dad was Local 31 in Tacoma. He passed away. It’s been a number of years now.

Robert Sanchez: I’m sorry.

Dennis Lawson: It’s okay. He was a tiller man for years. Some good fire calls. I’ve got great memories of hanging out at the fire station when I was really little, going down there and playing basketball with all the guys, and doing those kinds of things. And then he moved up, he went into the Fire Marshall’s office and retired as the Fire Marshall for department.

Robert Sanchez: Very cool man. So you come from a line of firefighters. And your brother’s in Canada, right, being a firefighter?

Dennis Lawson: No, Vancouver, Washington.

Robert Sanchez: Oh, Vancouver, Washington. Okay. My apologies. So that’s nice, man. Well, thanks Dennis. It’s always been a pleasure. I like talking to you every time we talk, we have a good conversation, and I miss having a beer with you, man. And when you see we’re instructing, and we’ll get back together when we start being instructors again, the United States, hopefully we start traveling.

Dennis Lawson: Yeah, I’m hoping that the IFF convention still goes off.

Robert Sanchez: Me too.

Dennis Lawson: I’m not sure what that’s going to look like or how we’re going to do it, but I’m sure if we get back there together, it’d be nice to dip a beer and say hi to ya.

Robert Sanchez: Absolutely. Yeah. And you’re always welcome in New Mexico. Come and have a beer. Hope you and your family’s doing well.

Dennis Lawson: You too buddy.

Robert Sanchez: And thanks again for the information. We definitely learned something.

Dennis Lawson: Let me know if I can give you something, I’m more than happy to share it.

Robert Sanchez: Thank you, sir. I appreciate it.

Dennis Lawson: All right buddy. You take care.

Robert Sanchez: You too. All right. So signing off, that’s it for Firefighter Kingdom. Thanks for being in the Kingdom, firefighters and community. Thank you Dennis for the being on the podcast, it’s always an honor having you on here. A leader like yourself, educating firefighters across the nation. And again, thanks to Vince Trujillo. He’s the mastermind behind everything. He makes me look good. I know it’s a hard job. Again, signing off. Thanks again, Dennis.

Dennis Lawson: All right. Thank you.

The post #5 Washington St. Fire Fighters: Hit Hard Early During COVID-19 & Review appeared first on FireFighter Kingdom.

from FireFighter Kingdom https://ift.tt/2AAy6H3

[bountyofbeads]

Finally an Evangelical pastor speaks up about Trump's vitriolic speech. Sadly though he only speaks up after the vitriol is directed at him. I guess caging children and families, Trump denying Hurricane Dorian victims who've lost everything safe passage to the United States, saying there were fine people were on both sides in Charlottesville and many other disgusting things Trump's said and done wasn't enough.

Following the article I've posted the open letter Pastor Jonathan Carl wrote to Trump. It's worth the time to read.

Trump accidentally tweeted an insult at a pastor. Here’s how the pastor responded.

By Julie Zauzmer  | Published September 9, 2019 at 6:34 PM EDT | Washington Post | Posted September 10, 2019 5:26 PM ET |

The Rev. Jonathan Carl glanced at Twitter and laughed out loud in disbelief.

The president of the United States had just tweeted at him, a Baptist pastor in Kentucky who up until now hadn’t had any reason to be the subject of national attention. And President Trump was, online, in public, out of the blue, insulting him.

The president had mixed up Jonathan Carl, the Kentucky minister with fewer than 375 Twitter followers, with Jonathan Karl, the ABC News reporter whose journalism had ruffled the feathers of the commander in chief.

Carl’s laughter soon turned into concern. Trump had called Carl a “lightweight reporter.” And some of Trump’s ardent fans weren’t happy with Jonathan Carl — not realizing that he wasn’t Jonathan Karl.

The “drive-by tweet” brought on “intense vitriol and hatred,” Carl said. He was suddenly experiencing what many of Trump’s intended Twitter targets go through almost daily: a barrage of infuriated tweets from Trump’s followers.

The pastor stopped laughing. And on Monday, a week after his evening as a sudden Twitter target, he published an open letter to Trump.

“Although I was an accidental casualty caught in the cross-fire of your ‘lightweight’ tweet, your attack was very purposeful and hurtful. Many others, whether American citizens or global citizens, feel wounded and hurt by the shrapnel and side-effects of your ongoing Twitter attacks,” Carl wrote in his letter.

He hurled the same insult back at Trump that Trump had mistakenly leveled at him — but then turned it into a theological point. “Let’s be honest, you are a lightweight too,” Carl wrote. “We all are. God is the only heavyweight who knows it all and gets it right all the time.”

He pleaded with the president: “Please don’t make the Twitter-universe such a dark and depressing place. It shouldn’t be a place to argue, fight, or jockey for position. We can disagree and debate without childish name-calling. You can make Twitter a better place.”

Carl, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Washington Post, is the lead pastor at South Fork Baptist Church in Hodgenville, Ky. According to an online biography, he is an Iraq War veteran, holds a PhD from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and is raising three daughters with his wife.

His church is part of the Southern Baptist Convention — the nation’s largest Protestant denomination, and one of its most Republican-leaning.

Sixty-four percent of Southern Baptists described themselves as “conservative” to Pew Research Center, and 9 percent described themselves as “liberal.” Last year, Vice President Pence showed up as a surprise guest at the denomination’s annual convention, where he thanked more than 9,000 attendees from churches “to the Southern Baptist Convention for the essential and irreplaceable role you play in America.”

But Carl didn’t mince words for the president. “Your heart must be in a dangerous place to have such a consistent flow of defamation and disrespect towards so many,” he said.

He interspersed his own comments throughout the letter with quotes from Abraham Lincoln, a president who never got to use Twitter but still came up with plenty of bon mots. Carl said that he passes Lincoln’s birthplace, which is now a National Park Service site, in his church’s town of Hodgenville, almost every day on his commute.

Perhaps Lincoln would not have been overly fond of Twitter, based on one 1861 quotation that Carl selected from the great emancipator: “I am rather inclined to silence, and whether that be wise or not, it is at least more unusual nowadays to find a man who can hold his tongue than to find one who cannot.”

Dear Mr. President,

I’m a Casualty of Your Drive-By Tweeting War. We all are.  Last week you tweeted an insult my way.  It was an accidental mis-tweet of course, I’m just an ordinary citizen (Jonathan Carl) and not worthy of POTUS attention like ABC News reporter Jonathan Karl. Nonetheless your drive-by tweet quickly brought a spectrum of intense vitriol and hatred my way.  Although I was an accidental casualty caught in the cross-fire of your “lightweight” tweet, your attack was very purposeful and hurtful.  Many others, whether American citizens or global citizens, feel wounded and hurt by the shrapnel and side-effects of your ongoing Twitter attacks.

In light of the lessons of my wounds I thought I would share a few personal thoughts as well as some helpful wisdom for us all from a well-admired man whose birthplace I pass almost every day.

“We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection.” Abraham Lincoln, First Inaugural Address (March 4, 1861)

I’m not mad at you, I’m sad for you.  My first reaction was to laugh out loud at your mistake when I saw your tweet.  My second response was sadness and compassion for you.  Our words overflow from our hearts and can quickly evidence the health or sickness of our souls.  Your heart must be in a dangerous place to have such a consistent flow of defamation and disrespect towards so many.

“I am rather inclined to silence, and whether that be wise or not, it is at least more unusual nowadays to find a man who can hold his tongue than to find one who cannot.”

Abraham Lincoln, Remarks at the Monogahela House (February 14, 1861)

President Trump's Mis-Tweet

Be Slow to Tweet. It is wonderful that you want to communicate frequently with your constituency and the world.  Exercise self-control and be more patient and selective with your correspondence.  Please don’t make the Twitter-universe such a dark and depressing place.  It shouldn’t be a place to argue, fight, or jockey for position.  We can disagree and debate without childish name-calling. You can make Twitter a better place if you choose a platform of love instead of hate. As everyone’s mother used to say, “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t tweet anything at all.”

“In times like the present men should utter nothing for which they would not willingly be responsible through time and in eternity.” Abraham Lincoln, Second State of the Union (December 1, 1862)

Apologize more.  Everyone makes mistakes.  All of us have regrets about past things we’ve said and wish we could change.  When you mess up, please learn to say you are sorry and admit you were wrong.  Even to ordinary folk like me.  Such humility goes a long way.  Aim to own up and stop trying to coverup, hide, deny, or ignore your faults.  No-one is perfect.

“Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition. Whether it be true or not, I can say, for one, that I have no other so great as that of being truly esteemed of my fellow-men, by rendering myself worthy of their esteem.” Abraham Lincoln, Address Delivered in Candidacy for the State Legislature. (March 9, 1832)

Be humble. You called an experienced reporter a “lightweight.”  Let’s be honest, you are a lightweight too.  We all are.  God is the only heavyweight who knows it all and gets it right all the time.  That should keep things in perspective for all of us.  You are not the ultimate Commander-In-Chief.  May we all be reminded of our national motto, “In God We Trust” and be more faithful to Him, avoiding the temptation to trust more in a politician, party, or post.

“I rejoice with you in the success which has, so far, attended that cause. Yet in all our rejoicing let us neither express, nor cherish, any harsh feeling towards any citizen who, by his vote, has differed with us. Let us at all times remember that all American citizens are brothers of a common country, and should dwell together in the bonds of fraternal feeling.” Abraham Lincoln, Remarks at Springfield, Illinois (November 20, 1860)

Choose kindness.  Goodness speaks much louder and more effectively than harsh words.  Gentleness builds up instead of tearing down.  The world is hateful enough.  Meekness is not a weakness, but a strength.  The world needs more light and hope.  My prayer is that you grow into a bright beacon of joy and peace in a traumatized universe.

“This struggle is too large for you to be diverted from it by any small matter.” Abraham Lincoln, Speech to the One Hundred Sixty-fourth Ohio Regiment, Delivered at Washington, D.C. (August 18, 1864)

Let’s Keep Things In Perspective.  At the end of the day, being right or wrong on social media regarding the prediction of a catastrophic weather event like Hurricane Dorian isn’t the main issue.  Thousands of souls are suffering and they need our prayers, encouragement, and support.  We need good leaders.  Please lead us well.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Carl, A Lightweight Husband, Father, Pastor, and Latest Trump-Tweet Casualty

Posted September 9, 2019 by Jonathan and Brittney Carl

[livinginworldz]

  So, today I have the pleasure of interviewing Contessa Lacombe. I have known OF her for quite some time, most prominently through her region Brigantia as well as through her Elemental Jewelry line, but had not ever really had a one on one chat with her. I was glad to finally have a chance to sit down and get to know Contessa a bit better. Amazing how I’ve been here for almost five years and still have so many people yet to meet!

Inside Halcyon Keep with Contessa Lacombe

Moonrise Azalee: Well, Contessa, I would like to thank you so much for taking the time to meet with me this evening!

Contessa Lacombe: I just feel honored!

Moonrise Azalee grins – It’s funny because I have known you for quite some time, but never really had a chance to sit and get to know you better, so I’m very glad to have the chance to do so now.

Contessa Lacombe: You know, we need to sit down and talk to more people, don’t we? There are lots of people I know, but I never really spend time with them. I need to change that!

Moonrise Azalee smiles – I agree! Which is one reason I really like doing these interviews. I love to find out more about the people who call InWorldz home. How long have you been in InWorldz for now?

Contessa Lacombe: I think that I first traveled here in about 2010, but I didn’t spend much time here at first. Then, a few years ago, maybe in about 2014 or 2015?, I decided to give it another go.

Moonrise Azalee: What made you decide to come visit again, and give it a second chance?

Contessa Lacombe smiles. I’m sure it’s a story you’ve heard before. I was in another big grid, it was just getting much too expensive, and so forth. I LOVE to build things, and I really wanted to have an entire sim again. Plus, I wanted to have more fun, not spend so much time working. I had been hearing good things about InWorldz, so I popped in, and I’ve been here since. I love it here.

Moonrise Azalee: That IS in fact a story that seems to be a bit of a common denominator for many. The stability of an established alternative grid as well as lower prices. And a bit more laid back than the ‘Big Grid’. Was there anything you found particularly challenging here?

Contessa Lacombe: Mostly the fact that there weren’t as many designers here to offer items like hair, skins and clothing. I kind of have an addiction to hair and shoes…it’s true. The search engine was a bit wonky at the time, so it was difficult to find things sometimes. But, you know what? You can do without a huge amount of hair and just have a few really good ones! And, you can learn how to make more things for yourself. It’s great fun! And, InWorldz has given me something more valuable than all of that! Community and friends.

Moonrise Azalee: I am a bit of a hair addict myself – and in fact found a new hair store I quite love – I’ll share the landmark of it. I think that is a challenge for many people who come from the big grid to here. Especially in the beginning, it was like being a pioneer! You mention community and friends, you have a lovely region here in Brigantia – do you want to talk a bit about it?

Contessa Lacombe: Oh yes, I do love my little home. Brigantia is medieval/fantasy in theme, and we like to do roleplay here, although it is very laid back. You might catch us in or out of character, especially when we dance! Brigantia is like a big layer cake. You can pop into the ground floor and think…where is that big castle I saw a photo of? Well, keep looking. There are portals and secret doors that lead to all sorts of places. Brigantia is very loosely based on Avalon, so it is a haven. We have a small group of permanent residents, as well as a close neighbor, Oldwyck. But we are joined to several sims via portals.

Moonrise Azalee: That’s wonderful – one thing that I always think of with Brigantia is your Fireside Chats. Can you share with our readers what that is about?

Firelight Circle http://places.inworldz.com/Brigantia/77/162/2120

Contessa Lacombe: The Fireside Chat is on Tuesdays at 4pm IWT. It is our version of the bardic circle. We began by always telling stories and such, but now we may do that or we may just chat OOC. It’s great fun. We have a group of regulars, but everyone is invited. Now, on Fridays, we have P.I.E. *grins*

Moonrise Azalee: Now.. what is P.I.E ? Because its nearly dinner… and im hungry.. and im thinking ‘warm apple’

Contessa Lacombe: Oh, now, that’s a very secretive society. *grins* Princesses In Exile.

Moonrise Azalee: So DEFINITELY nothing to do with desserts. Well then! *grins* I know another thing you are well known for is your Elemental Jewelry. So you definitely are a busy woman! Are there other things you are working on that we might not know about?

Contessa Lacombe: As a matter of fact, yes. My friend, Pak, and I are have been building like crazy. We are going to open a new shop, Guild. It will be a hodge podge of all sorts of things people might need or want. Buildings, furniture, household goods, just all sorts of things. We plan to offer them at very reasonable prices. Our goal is not to make a big profit, but to just help people get established and find what they might need.

Moonrise Azalee: That sounds really wonderful Contessa. Will they be medieval themed?

Contessa Lacombe: Not entirely, although that is our first love. I know that there are many very talented people with fantastic shops – and  yes, I still shop and purchase from other folks. I like to support fellow artisans.- but we are trying to have lots of different types of things

Moonrise Azalee: I think that’s a wonderful idea. Most certainly, with there being almost as many grids around as there are people who use them, it has caused a saturation which has resulted in more people in more grids – and that of course means some folks have left InWorldz to explore other grids , or even returned to the Big Grid. So I am always glad to be reminded that there are still so many projects going on. I love to see these new start ups, driven by the innovation of our really fantastic residents.

Contessa Lacombe: Yes. I want to promote IW as much as I can. I do visit the big grid occasionally. There are many wonderful things there to explore. But, there are also many wonderful things here, and I would like to see more exploration. There is a great opportunity coming up in July…the InWorldz Home & Garden Tour. This spot, The Halcyon Keep, will be part of the tour. I want to encourage people to participate, I know I will. It’s an opportunity to see places you never knew were here. I can’t wait! I am hoping that many people will continue to explore Brigantia after a small glance, and also our kindred sims of Oldwyck, Mysthaven, and Aerion.

Moonrise Azalee: I love wandering them myself, and have done so often. I still have a little home in Aerion as well 🙂 Speaking of places to discover – are there places on your region you would like to share in particular?

Contessa Lacombe: You need to see it all! *smiles* If you go to our Welcome Center, you can pick up a notecard with a self-guided tour. There is much to see, so you may need to make several visits. Also, there is a quest you can do! And prizes! The tour card will lead you all about the sim and through most of the portals. And if you don’t see what you are looking for, just give a yell. We love visitors. I especially love this spot we are in. But, there is a very warm, welcoming tavern on the ground floor, with the beginnings of the village. Then, the “forest”, with more village and cottage industries. There is a “dark tower realm” where a dark wizard is imprisoned……muahaha. Oh, an ice skating rink. And…there are ruins under the sea!

Moonrise Azalee: I do need to come visit more. You reminded me of so many of my favourite places here ❤ thank you SO much for letting me come visit today, I can’t wait to go explore and take some pictures to share with our readers.

Contessa Lacombe: Thank you so much for coming to visit. I do look forward to your blog posts and hope to see many more places mentioned that we can explore.

Moonrise Azalee: Absolutely. I love that even after so much time there is always more to share and discover!

Contessa Lacombe: It’s always going to be a work in progress.

Moonrise Azalee grins. Well feel free to hit me up if you ever want to share some more pics with me! in the meantime, I shall let you and the lovely Celeste (whom has arrived while we were wrapping up our chat) visit, while I go wander and take pictures! Take care!

Contessa Lacombe: I will! You may be sorry you said that! *grins*

(click on the thumbnails below to see full sized)

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The Lady’s Tower

The Lands

Ceridwen’s Cauldron Tavern

In the Mines

Underground tunnel to the Shrine

The Shrine

Elemental Jewelry and Welcome area

The Dark Tower Realm

The Crystal Cavern

Halcyon Keep

Meieval Market

Ice Skating in Brigantia

Faces of InWorldz – Contessa Lacombe So, today I have the pleasure of interviewing Contessa Lacombe. I have known OF her for quite some time, most prominently through her region Brigantia as well as through her Elemental Jewelry line, but had not ever really had a one on one chat with her.