Happy Wednesday Digital Neighbors & Fiends! Good Morning Phamily, Refugees, Early Birds, Dawn Patrol, Supporters, Members and Visitors to these little havens of sanity, laughter and liberty.
We aren't all on the same page, but we respect wherever life may have lead you, the experiences that shaped you, the ideals you strive for, the questions that still churn in you. We may even disagree about some fundamentals, we may want different futures for ourselves or our children, but we are here because we are tired or the maligning of persons of differing opinions, attitudes, cultural or political nuances. We are here because we believe in discussion, nothing is beyond scrutiny, above question or beyond being held up to the test of humor and potential mockery. Ideas can be hammered ruthlessly if you can keep from the attacking of persons and the smearing of individuals.
It isn't easy, the default programming of current culture is to attack the moment our ideal suddenly comes into the question, or the curtain is drawn back and the wizard is exposed. Join the tribe or be the sacrifice! Giant caldron not included. 😉
Enlightenment and growth are not easy stepping stones, especially as we age, the weight of personal investment to long held ideals does not expand or contract easily. The reality that there may be multiple approaches to a given topic, multiple solutions to problems or multiple perspectives is less likely the more absolutely certain you believe you are. It doesn't mean we are all jaded skeptics here for the last stand of stand of liberty, but we all know the current climate on the streets, in the schools, at work and pervading culture is not one to make for a future any of us want. This is place to discuss, to debate, to often eavesdrop on meaningful conversations or ideas that we may not otherwise hear/read out there. Above all it is a place to meet people capable of humanity, accepting of reality, willing to return to what was once a given in society. It was never perfect, it never will be perfect, but there is a better way to live among the actual neighbors, there are better ways to maintain, sustain and grow culture. Enough Tom - on to some prose and vintage Thanksgiving Artwork!
A Conquest
It is a conquest when we can lift ourselves above the annoyances of circumstances over which we have no control; but is a greater victory when we can make those circumstances our helpers, when we appreciate the good there is in them. It has often seemed to me as if Life stood beside me, looking me in the face, and saying, "Child, you must learn to like me in the form in which you see me, before I can offer myself to you in any other aspect." - Lucy Larcom
And some Normal Rockwell - so easy to confuse with Joseph Leyendecker, similar styles and themes of American life.
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.
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.”
The Comforting of the Disciple
Now the Beloved often came into the Garden both because of the great joy He had in the Garden and because of the great love He bore the Lover and the Disciple. Often He talked with the Lover, but the Disciple because he was not yet perfected in Love could neither hear nor see the Beloved, though he often felt a strange joy, he did not know why. Therefore he was sorrowful, for it seemed to him that on account of his sins he would never find the Beloved. So weeping he came to the Lover and said, “Sir, I know that I am a very sinful man and I much fear that though I search all my life yet on account of my sins I shall never find the Beloved.”
In reply the Lover smiled gently and said, “My son, when you first came into the Garden do you remember what sort of day it was?”
“Yes,” said the Disciple, “I remember it. It was dark and gloomy as if no sunlight ever entered the Garden.”
“When you began to strip off your rich robes,” the Lover asked, “what happened to the day?”
“It seemed,” said the Disciple, “as if the sun had suddenly broken through the clouds and the whole Garden shone with glorious and celestial light: such light as shines daily in the Garden.”
The Lover replied, “Know that the Beloved Himself is the light of the Garden, so that when you began searching for the Beloved even then you found Him, for how can any know the desire to search for the Beloved if He had not already without his knowing revealed Himself to him.”
So the Disciple was greatly comforted by knowing that although he could not see or hear Him he had already found the Beloved, and he labored the more joyously to do the service of the Beloved.
