Good Morning Digital Neighbors & Friends! Hi there friends from across the Local's-verse - Refugees & Joyful Bigots, Dawn Patrol & Early Birds, Conversants & Lurkers, Triggeratti & Later Dayers and of course Phamily! Happy Sunday to each and to all. A little poem from Dinah Maria Mulock Craik and some more Mother Nature the day.
Mrs. Craik's poem on friendship is reflective of having a couple of good ones in your life. Sometimes you find a space where such people can gather together like many of the Local's communities. No one capable of rational thought and self-criticism wants an echo chamber, but rather a friend or community of souls that helps us be our best. Good friends/communities help us trim the dead growth and add clarity even and often when there is not complete agreement. No one capable of civility and reflection wants to be under the assault of constant personal attack or be subject to projected assumptions rather than sincere questions. Good friends/communities listen to us with compassion and question with thoughtfulness. Uneasy moments are inescapable if you ever talk about matters of consequence, but good friends/communities can weather such moments with patience. Good friends/communities can find bonds that defy spectators who scratch their heads and wonder what those friends/community have in common when there are fundamental differences. The fundamental commonalities are often only known in the living and listening, taking the time to desire to know the person/community before you. Happy Sunday Friends!
Friendship
Oh, the comfort - the inexpressible comfort
feeling safe with a person,
Having neither to weigh thoughts,
Nor measure words - but pouring them
All right out - just as they are
Chaff and grain together -
Certain that a faithful hand will
Take and sift them -
Keep what is worth keeping -
And with the breathe of kindness
Blow the rest away.
Dinah Maria Mulock Craik
Late Autumn in Brighton, Michigan | A late autumn scene
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.
Good morning, Digital Neighbors! Happy Monday to all good souls who visit and bring life to Locals and Substack. Each community has its own vibe, and I have sampled a few in the last six years. To this day I am thankful for Dave Rubin and his founding of Locals. I was burnt out on social media because of Facebook and its sanity-draining interactions. Between the coming of the Donald and the dance of the Covidiots, my confidence in social media as a way to connect with meaningful people and have actual conversations or dialogue was almost erased. People I had known for years lost their minds after the 2016 election and then doubled down during the Plan-demic.
Oh well—fond memories, and I am none the worse for wear other than weeding out friends and family members who have forgotten how to communicate or respectfully disagree. I am better off praying for them than seeking their company. I am always open to overtures of reconnection, but as I like to say: always invited, never expected. Off to ...
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.”
