Good Morning Friends & Digital Neighbors! Bless Sunday to all of you who celebrate this day of worship and Happy Sunday to the rest of ya's!😉

Sometimes I just need a reminder of how I want to see my neighbor. It is too easy for me to fall into seeing people as espousers of ideologies, practitioners of virtue or vice, members of movements and political affiliations all the while forgetting that before anything else they are human.

That doesn't mean I am naïve in terms of dealing with proponents of toxic attitudes and practices, that doesn't mean that I don't seek to safe-guard both my life from the worst of them and my mind from the stupidest of them, but I always want to begin with their humanity, even if by all indications they have made a mess of their humanity. I am a fan of well-armed and well-prepared peace and pray I never have cause to use lethal force to defend myself or my loved one, and hope to remain vigilant and aware.

If you are the praying type, praying for their well-being, enlightenment, conversion, whatever you call it is praiseworthy. If you are not the praying type and believe that a Flying Spaghetti Monster is a better bet than a dubious personal Deity, perhaps hoping for their potential mental awakening is a good thing. Either way, praying to some deity or just trying to make a good run at clarity & rationality, we want to embrace good discernment that allows us to recognize potential partners in the human endeavor as well as identifying those with active malice that would bring unprovoked harm upon their neighbor.

There are terrible ideologies out there and people of acquired malice as well as the mentally disturbed whom we cannot ignore. But still, they are human in the end. No one forfeits their humanity, they can forsake their civility, they can become enslaved with vice and vile practices, they can show themselves unfit for life in society, but still human.

The C. S. Lewis reminds me of the bigger picture that I espouse. Have a great Sunday my friends!