Good Morning Friends & Digital neighbors! Happy Tuesday and more goodness from -e h, Erin Hanson, this young Australian poet has some very creative words and images. To boot she is so young, at 26 I was just starting to figure out what I ought to do as a recently ordained priest.

Age is a funny thing, and I tend to notice age in about the same micro-second that I guessing your gender/sex (they are the same) and your possible ethnic background. None of that matters in terms of your personality, character and attitude, time and interaction will reveal the potential friend, associate or neighbor you might be. I try my best to resist the generational assumptions that get made about the Silent, Boomers, Gen X (My homies)😉, Millennials and Gen Z. I prefer not to pile on about the lousy work ethic of the young'ns, the fragile feelings of young adults, the cynicism of my generation, the ruined landscape of Boomerville and the frustrations of the Silent's who fought for one world and now to leave something far different behind.

I know those are stereotypes and unkind generalizations, but we should admit that they exist sometimes from experience, often from humor and sadly as a form of soft othering that feeds the heart of bigotry. I tend to think we all suffer from unquestioned assumptions, presumed generalizations and unaddressed bigotry. I try my best to self monitor those weeds in the world of thoughts and relationships when they are brought to my attention. I also try not to go ape-shit wild (think of the gorilla beating on the American Tourist luggage commercials) when such trespasses happen by others in causal conversations. Repeated trespasses among friends & family can be addressed with direct kindness, rather than militant rage and punitive lecturing.

So all this morning rambling has been really a setup for the love of the individual, the person before me, the personalism that serves as a compass in my own way of being Tom and relating to others. I so appreciate the exception (or perhaps it isn't an exception and I just don't know enough such souls for it to be normative) when I come across them. Thank you Erin Hanson for the girl in the sunshine dress, I hope I appreciate the ones I meet along the path. I have met so many and they have inspired to do more to bring joy and laughter, understanding and empathy to a world growing more impersonal in its consumption and self-obsession. Thank you Local's friends for some of the new sunshine your have brought into my life. Happy Tuesday Friends!