More ifferism!!! Good Morning Digital Neighbors, Lurkers, Conversants, Supporters, Members, Curious Seekers, Questioning Skeptics, Pilots of the Dawn Patrol, Flocking Early Birds and Later Dayers, Phamily & Refugees, ADD Irregulars and Vagabonds of the WSN! Happy Tuesday!
If we want to change our lives, we need to stretch our minds. - Wayne Dyer
Closed mindedness which used to be one of the familiar chides I experienced from Liberals back in the day really meant "why aren't you smart enough to agree with me." The Right was not without it excesses, absorption in self-righteousness usually linked to faith provided plentiful examples of hypocrisy.
A willingness to listen to others does not mean that we treat all ideas as equal. We can listen to others without agreeing with them, or least we used to be able to do that. The maligning of those who think and act differently from us frees us from listening to them or even ever questioning ourselves. That is cultic thinking. My frequent haranguing of the CABAL is caused by its willingness to silence disagreement, destroy careers and ruin lives. The Social Reformers of the 60's have either morphed into the Cultural Controllers or have simply passed and been replaced by the Controllers all the while claiming their mantle.
If you would win a man to your cause, first convince him that you are his sincere friend. - Abraham Lincoln
Sincere - an actual friend. Making time, trying your best to listen, asking questions of their story rather than judgment of their actions. There is a place for judgment and even condemnation of what we deem evil. The word condemnation often worries us because history is filled with countless examples of false condemnation because someone feared, resented or opposed another or their ideas/behaviors. Questions take time, but people, especially friends, are worth it. Judgment often takes little time and if our primate minds like one thing, it is mob violence against a target. Just venture on to Twitter, the targeting to individuals by mobs of inflated nobodies is a common occurrence.
If a person is to get the meaning of life, he must learn to like the facts about himself - ugly as they may seem to his sentimental vanity before he can lay hold on the truth behind the facts. - Eugene O'Neill
25% - There seems to be a many talking heads on the internet that think that 25% of people lack some serious part of being human. 25% lack a sense of humor and do not get humor at all. 25% seem to have no interior dialogue or capacity for reflection. 25% will disagree with the facts of a situation no matter how they are presented to them. I am not talking about the interpretation of the facts, but rather the actual "this is what happened as far as we can determine" either by footage or testimony. Both testimony and footage can be misleading, deep fakes are a real thing and people can be convinced of the opposite of the facts by their emotions. I am not sure how to address these 25% of partial minds. No sense of humor, no interior dialogue and no ability to be convinced by factual presentation are serious problems and actual hindrances in maturing personhood.
If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. - African Proverb
I like both of those simple admissions. Quickly & far are good things, and I tend to like distance over speed. Have a good day my friends!
Ooty India in August from a Brave search
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.
Good morning, digital neighbors! Happy Monday to all you fine souls scattered across the internet and patronizing the Rubin Report, Phetasy, Outspoken, and @Padre’s. A prayer for students, scholars, and all the rest of you lifelong learners — from Every Moment Holy, that treasure trove of beautiful prayer and prose. Have a great day, dear neighbors!
May I learn to love learning, O Lord,
for the world is yours,
and all things in it speak
—each in their way—of you:
of your mind,
your designs,
your artistry,
your power,
your unfolding purpose.
All knowledge is your knowledge.
All wisdom your wisdom.
Therefore, as I apply myself to learning,
may I be mindful that all created things
are your creative expression, that all stories
are held within your greater story,
and that all disciplines of order and design
are a chasing after your thoughts—
so that greater mastery of these subjects
will yield ever greater knowledge of the
symmetry and wonder of your ways.
Along this journey,
O Great ...
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.”
