Happy Friday Friends and Digital Neighbors! Busy day at the parish yesterday and all the volunteers gave generously of their time and energy. A few have very strong preferences for how things ought to be which doesn’t always lead to a spirit of cooperation.
Red Barn Around Fall Foliage Photograph by Susan Candelario. On to the quotes & photo.
A man must consider what a rich realm he abdicates when he becomes a conformist. - Ralph Waldo Emerson, Journals
Do not think you are on the right road just because it is a well beaten path. - Unknown
Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect. - Mark Twain, Notebook
Somewhere between being a complete contrarian and total conformist is the path to individuality and community. Everyone works out the mixture for themselves. That you are on Locals, whichever community you have joined, means you probably value the contrarian side of the fence a little more at least in terms of freedom and individual expression. If you wanted conformity, there are plenty of legacy social medias were you could have remained. The freedom to question, to disagree, to express yourself and yet not be a self-righteous ass or dismissive jerk to those with different opinion or experiences seems to be a better balance than herding along or sitting silently in forced compliance.
Of course there are attitudes, ideas and behaviors that need to be mocked on the extremes, and in our neglect some extreme ideas and creeping conformity have crept out of academia and other cultural bastions. It is somewhat ironic that there can be diversity in almost every area of life except thought. Wrong-think is the greatest of evils. I suppose we all have different attitudes or ideas that would be on our personalized list of mockables. When people mock what you appreciate, it can give you a bad case of the collywobbles if you are not confident in what you hold dear.
COLLYWOBBLES - Stomach pain or sickness from nervous anxiety. Noun | cahl-ee-wahb-uhls | Nineteenth century. English.
Today marks the three hundred and thirtieth birthday of the Frenchman François-Marie Arouet, better known by his nom de plume, Voltaire (1694-1778).
Born into a bourgeois family during the reign of Louis XIV, the “Sun King” (r. 1643-1715), Voltaire suffered tragedy at a young age when his mother died. Never close with his father or brother, Voltaire exhibited a rebellious attitude toward authority from his youth. His brilliant mind was fostered in the care of the Society of Jesus, who introduced him to the joys of literature and theater. Despite his later criticisms against the Church, Voltaire, throughout his life, fondly recalled his dedicated Jesuit teachers.
Although he spent time as a civil servant in the French embassy to the Hague, Voltaire’s main love was writing—an endeavor where he excelled in various genres, including poetry, which led to his appointment as the royal court poet for King Louis XV. Widely recognized as one of the greatest French writers, and even hyperbolically referred to by ...
Padre - Tom Miller invites you to a Coffee Talk, Speakeasies, Schmoozes, Tea Times, Afterhours and other gatherings.
https://teams.live.com/meet/93792382189049?p=DiBHsYfuECPgDrG7vO
2026 Coffee Talk with the ADD Irregulars
Thursday, January 1, 2026
6:00 AM - 8:00 AM (CST)
Occurs every day starting 1/1 until 12/31/2027
Coffee Talk - Daily beginning at 6:00 AM Central Time Zone - USA
White Pilled Wednesday - A break from the heaviness of news and current events to focus upon things more personal & positive for the first hour of Coffee Talk.
Afternoon Chats - Most Tuesday, Friday & Sundays 2:00 PM Central
Other chats as posted in the community.
Quite apart from the fact that I utterly admire, even love, her, this is the best possible response to an idiot, who, in his defense, asked a pretty good question.
https://x.com/TBifford/status/2087992591279407133/video/1?s=61
The Beautiful
Said the Disciple to the Lover, “Sir, before I left the world I heard certain men who were held in high esteem and thought to know the will of the Beloved say that those who loved the Beautiful did not love the Beloved but loved idols, yet in the Garden of the Beloved we are ever striving to create beauty for the pleasure of the Beloved. Were they then speaking the truth?”
The Lover answered, “Those who said this had never glimpsed the form of the Beloved nor ever truly sought Him, for all beauty is but the reflection of the beauty of the Beloved, although seen very dimly as in a dark and faulty mirror, even as all goodness is a dim reflection of the goodness of the Beloved. So it is that those who love beauty and goodness recognize dimly in them the form of the Beloved and though often in ignorance those who are seeking the Beautiful and the Good are seeking after the Beloved.”
