Good Morning Digital Neighbors! How about another week visiting the fun world of Oxymoronica? How about some morning quotes from the Friar and commentary with your morning or mid day beverages? YIPPIE SKIPPIE!!!🤣

Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them. - Paul Valery

Some things never change. Back in the 80's there were numerous complaints about lobbyist and special interest groups, you usually only heard about them during election season and when the media wanted to do a hit piece on a particular politician (90% of the time Republican and only 10% the inescapable Democratic scandal.) In our post-2020 world politicians seem even more disconnected from the populace. They are the Lords & Ladies and we the plebs need to be appreciative of what they do for us. "Fighting for you in Congress every day!" 💩🗣️

Since so much of the populace is too lazy or too self-involved to even vote, I can only hope that something like term limits and age limits might one day be put in place. I am not holding my breath. Too many in the States are happy with what they think is a caretaker system rather than being engaged in the life of the State themselves. The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men. - Plato That quote seems more true than it ever has in the past.

Every reform, however necessary, will by weak minds be carried to excess, that itself will need reforming. - Samuel Taylor Coleridge

I am a big fan of reform, personal, familial, relationally, communal and societal. The easiest to pursue is personal and relational in my humble estimation. Good friends are open to change and hopeful growth in their relationship with you. Friends that grow together often end up being the ones who are there for the long haul, sometimes for a lifetime. We are blessed if we find one or two of them on our pilgrimage. Ones that come along late in life are a real boon, you get to share with one another all the stories they weren't part of experiencing.

Familial & Societal are the most difficult areas to reform or renew. Often times the dynamics of families are set in stone and for those in comfort or authority there is no desire to question the norm or change the situation. The toxic breathers don't mind the emotional or mental pollution, and if you aren't one of them, reform or removal is often the only recourse if you don't want to face inevitable suffocation. Reforming family dynamics is a battle of love and frustration, if you really don't love them you will be greatly frustrated. EVEN if you do love, them, you may in the end have to go the route of removal for your own sanity. I hate to encourage people to walk from people they love, but if family dynamics are not open to question, discussion and possible change then they are more about control and compliance than love and respect.

Regarding societal change & reform, only fear and pain bring about rapid and often regrettable change. Please refer back to 2020 and two weeks to flatten your freedoms. I am not saying societal reform is impossible, but I have no idea how it is going to happen today short of some cataclysm that wakes everyone back up to the basics that once shaped life. Reform yourself & your friends and insulate yourself as much as possible from the madness of this current age without cocooning away form the world. It is hard to find the balance between closing your eyes to the mess which will lead to a terrifying moment of awakening and ingesting too much of the mess that you become mentally ill from its toxicity. Wisdom, patience and perspective seem to help me most days. Venturing on here and talking with people of good thought and open perspectives (some similar and others different from mine, but not hostile) seems to provide a good ballast for the rest of the gunk of politics and internet dramas. Well enough musings, Happy Monday ADD Irregulars and Vagabonds of the WSN!

Eastern Washington wheat fields (Came up in a search for August photography)