Happy Saturday Digital Neighbors & Friends from across Locals! Dear Refugees, Phamily and Triggeratti! Good Morning Dawn Patrol & Early Birds, Conversants, Lurkers and Fascinating People! I haven't forgotten you Beautiful Bigots, Supports, Members and Visitors to these great communities.
Not all Local's communities are experienced equally - some like, RR, Phetasy & Triggernometry (and I am sure many more) are very active and the Supporters have created a community with the Content Creator, others seems mainly to be a place where the Content Creator does his or her thing and there doesn't seem to be much interaction among the Supporters. 🤔 To each their own. 😊 One can only be active in so many communities as it is. I do like the fact that I can support CC without really spending much time in their communities like say Malice & Scott Adams who I am sure have active and great communities. Thank you @DaveRubin for Locals, and all the Content Creators and their Supporters for the communities they have created. On to a few quotes! I have posting quotes & commentary on friendship this week so we have a couple more to complete it today.
We cannot tell the precise moment when friendship is formed. As in filling a vessel drop by drop, there is at last a drop which makes it run over; so in a series of kindnesses there is, at last, one which makes the heart run over. - James Boswell The Life of Samuel Johnson
One which makes the heart run over Time together, shared experiences & stories, laughter, discussion, respectful disagreement, and that view of the future horizon while not exactly the same, is compatible even if not similar. Life, God, fate, or fortune, whatever brings people into your life that become good associates or future friends are a blessing. You don't need many, I have said that pretty much all week, but one or two keeps our ship balanced.
It is a general mistake to think the men we like are good for everything; and those we do not, good for nothing. -George Savile A Character of King Charles the Second
Good perspective - as Grandma Lavin was fond of saying: "There is good is worst of us and bad in the best of us." Weigh carefully those who you make friends as well and perhaps even more those you dismiss, disregard or condemn as other or beneath you. Othering, tribalism and team sport politics will be the ruin of societies. Patience, consideration, kindness and charity are discarded virtues that once oiled the gears of society. Not perfectly, the past has sins a plenty, but we were moving forward. The gears do not run well on grievance, resentment, irrational fear and and eagerness to categorize and condemn. We are moving backwards these days.
Everybody, my friend, everybody lives for something better to come. That's why we want to be considerate of every man - Who knows what's in him, why he was born and what he can do? - Maxim Gorky The Lower Depths
Something for me to remember in my wanderings about with the neighbors. I hope you all have a great day my friends!
Barn In Colorado Springs. Photo By Dave Soldano
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.
XIII
The Proud Minister
One day there came into the Garden a man in torn clothes badly bruised and cut, who said to the Lover, “In the name of the Beloved I demand your help.”
So the Lover and the Disciple let him in and dressed his wounds and prepared the best of the vegetables from the Garden for him to eat. When his wounds had been dressed and he had eaten and rested the Lover asked him how he had fallen into this plight, to which the man replied, “I was Minister of the Beloved in a city near this place, where I preached His gospel and expounded His doctrine to the people. I pointed out to them how their sins had made them wholly hateful to the Beloved and how therefore they were utterly beyond the range of His love and He would condemn them to eternal torments, whereon some fell into despair and wept bitterly but many were angry. One day the magistrates called me before them and begged me to leave the city and preach elsewhere for they said I had made many people so angry and desperate that they feared there might be a riot and they might not be able to protect me but that I might suffer some injury. I, however, very zealous for the Beloved and believing that the magistrates only feared that their own sins might be proclaimed, preached the more vehemently, denounced the magistrates and made it abundantly clear that the whole wicked city was foredoomed to eternal punishment by the just provision of the Beloved. Whereon a mob, stirred up no doubt by the corrupt and venal magistrates, fell upon me with sticks and stones, nearly killing me and driving me out of the city in the state in which I came to you.”
“My friend,” said the Lover, “this was not a good deed of yours, for besides denying the unfathomable compassion of the Beloved, you have by your obstinacy caused these people to commit a grievous sin, and this cannot be pleasing to the Beloved, that through you who profess to be His minister the people should become worse. Surely you remember that He Himself said, ‘If they persecute you in one city flee to another.’”
Therefore the man was very angry, and cursing the Lover, said, “I see that I have had a very false report of you and I do not believe that you are a servant of the Beloved at all. When I came to you so injured for the Beloved’s sake you set before me only herbs and fruits although the garden is full of birds which you could have killed to make me a worthy meal. I shall proclaim everywhere that you are no true servant of the Beloved but a mere falterer who dares not suffer in the cause of the Beloved. Be sure that you are foreordained to eternal torments who suffer nothing here.”
For the man was so blinded by his own pride that he could not perceive the scars on the hands and feet and the brows of the Lover nor how the cloth beneath the armpits of his tunic was dyed with a red dye. So he went out of the Garden cursing and shouting.
But the Lover looked sad and said, “A man like this does much harm to the cause of the Beloved, for by thus speaking falsely about the Beloved he may bring men to fear Him but none to love Him, and by love alone can any man approach the Beloved.”
