Merry Christmas Eve to all! Good Morning Digital Neighbors & Friends! Happy Friday Refugees, Phamily and Triggeratti! Hey there Early Birds, Later Dayers, Dawn Patrol, Day Walkers and Fascinating People! Oh, I have forgotten you Beautiful Bigots😉 or Conversants and Lurkers!

Over on Triggernometry I have been posting Christmas Far Side's. Day 10 of A Christmas Far Side 🎅 If you aren't celebrating it or acknowledging it, it is 1 day until the 25th. Life goes on, I hope you get a present. 🎁 OFF WE GO!!! The Daily Far Side, day 10! 🎄🎅🎁

Continued prayers for @ffoster & @KonstantinKisin and their recovery.

To all my Local's friends - the best gifts we share are not all the things under the tree. I imagine we all know that, but materialism is an easy sell and a seductive trap. Things can be very comforting, and missing all the essential things is destitution after all, but chances are if you visiting here destitution is not in your foreseeable future. You may have struggles and economic worries, but real poverty was at a historic low prior to the Covid-saga.

https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2018/09/19/decline-of-global-extreme-poverty-continues-but-has-slowed-world-bank

The gifts that really matter are the virtues and attitudes of the heart & mind that we share with others. Thank you to so many of the members of these various communities for the gifts of self they have shared since my joining here. There is so much humanity present in the communities. Nobody is perfect, we all have our struggles and darker inclinations, but the drama of other social medias seems to be absent for the most part. Perhaps there are Local's communities were that old tech drama of trolls and emotional vampires still abound, but I somehow doubt it.

@DaveRubin willingness to interview anyone so many years ago was one of the main points of attraction to me. That he often had as sense of humor was a bonus. @BridgetPhetasy @ffoster & @KonstantinKisin all followed along the same path in varying degrees. The Creators are great, but some of them barely interact with their communities, and others are much more present. The ones just mentioned grace us often with their presence, posts and comments in the community. I appreciate their humor and thoughtfulness, it is a great combination for gathering like minded souls. The people attracted to their gatherings on Local's are a very real gift to me. People of humor, passion, culture, politics and varied hobbies and pastimes dominate the communities. I have learned more about different musicians, different facets of history and science that might otherwise just slip past me. So many have shared their passion for cooking, pets, exercise, reading and varied windows into life. There even seems to be a good balance of vulnerability when people have their trials, I haven't seen too much over-sharing that can often become a poison in communities when some have nothing but pain, sorrow and "poor me" to share with no foreseeable change in attitude. God bless them, they are often people who need others but suffer from self-sabotaging behavior that seems to only perpetuate their condition. Perhaps they are among us, but unlike other communities they have gotten the help they need or found the people that can befriend them and help transform their story. Life can be so difficult and lonely for more than we might imagine, sometime a simple word of compassion and expression of kindness can be a real day changer.

Sure there is the occasional obsessive self-promoter or slightly abrasive clod in these communities, but once muted you never need to worry about them again. They get to be them, you get to be you, and never your paths shall cross for the drama that is so typical among the mentally and socially ill seated behind their glow-screens.

Merry Christmas Creators & Supporters! Merry Christmas to you members too, but then again all you can do is like or ignore it.