Good Morning Digital Neighbors! Greetings to all you Vagabonds, Visitors, Members, Supports, Lurkers and Contributors to Rubin Report, Phetasy, Triggernometry and At Padre's! I do enjoy using the names more so than just the community names, but it helps to break out of patterns that can just become routine and try to keep the fresh and animated. It is hard to cultivate rituals in life and not have them slip into the robotic. I often share with my flock that being mindless about our actions is parked right next to be selfless in out acts. We want to strive to be selfless and not mindless in our worship and our living.
Stosh @Stosh in the Triggernometry community offered some interesting feedback about expectations as they are experienced in family life. I appreciate his and everyone's feedback to these morning musings.
I have always fest that a lot of the animosity and family alienation you discuss (when it happens) comes from expecting a bunch of specific, seemingly random or small things from children or grandchildren, and not expecting them to act on the broad principles we've passed on to them in a patient, thoughtful upbringing.
I think it is both the small things and at times the overall climate in the household. In many homes I suspect it is random things that playout in family life that are really not disruptive or alienating. Those are almost always laughable when remembered especially at family gatherings and other moments of reminiscing.
In other cases there are widespread dysfunctions in families that goes beyond the random incidents. My parents were a good mix of the patient, thoughtful upbring they wanted to communicate compromised by issues of alcoholism (my father) and bi-polar issues (my mother). Overall, it was a workable mix for me and my sister but not for my other siblings. Of the six of their children, 4 felt fairly alienated and withdrew from closer involvement with my parents in their adult lives, and two of us remained closer. None of them very disowned my parents or separated from them in major way, more avoidance and preoccupation than anything else.
All of this leads up to my morning quotes on perspective. Stosh's comments and many of your from these various communities on my morning posts always contribute to my own further reflection and refinement of my views as well as deepening my understanding and appreciation of them. I have always found the challenge of perspective one of acknowledging feelings and thoughts about a particular issue or experience without ignoring the feelings only to have them come back with a vengeance. A silence to violence syndrome is a very common experience for those who ignore their feelings until they explode.
The other more common and frequent danger is giving feelings free reign and having them completely distort the experience and your ability to process it. I think we see this plague all the time in the cult of victimhood and projection of perpetual offense and grievance. It is a bitter irony that those most decrying their victimhood often use it as club of submission to ensure their will is indulged. "I'm a victim - shut the hell up and accept my issues without question" seem to be the most effective way to ensure you ability to compel and coerce others. I suspect the vast majority of Local's members are here because of their weariness with such things. Perhaps one of the saving graces of such distortions of victimhood are their breaking points and eventual pushback by those who formerly had patience and empathy for their plight. On to the quotes and a barn photo! Happy Tuesday my friends!
The only thing you sometimes have control over is perspective. You don't have control over your situation. But you have a choice about how you view it. - Chris Pine
A little perspective, like a little humor, goes a long way. - Allen Klein
Once you put everything in the right perspective, even bad times can be an opportunity to refresh your appetite, your desire. - Alex Zanardi
The beauty of an old barn - Noah Bradley
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.
OK. I take back everything I said against A.I. Bring it!
https://x.com/owengregorian/status/2110364534489624759/video/1?s=61
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.”
