A little perspective, like a little humor, goes a long way. - Allen Klein
Good Morning Digital Neighbors! It is not easy to be hopeful every day. Some days the cultural trick or treating only yields black pills. There have always been black pills in the news, too many bad things happen and it is easy to predict more. The good, however your perceive it, takes effort to achieve and maintain. The bad, only takes neglect and inattention, and there is plenty of that to go around in human nature to make the vast majority of us exceptionally vulnerable.
It is easier to predict doom and gloom since a lack of effort, attention and direction almost always leads to a worse future. Closing your eyes to the reality of black pills does not change their existence and impact. Turning up the air conditioner on your burning home or perfuming your outhouse does not change the reality of the building, only a momentary perception. When that falsified perception returns to normal the unperfumed outhouse is inconvenient, the burning house in ruinous and deadly.
Obsessing about black pills often narrows your awareness too much and leads to the Great Pumpkining of your beliefs. You are certain, your friends are waiting for the confirmation, and tomorrow arrives with no real change in the level of confirmation. You are more convinced, they are more skeptical and the potential dismissal of your obsession and the straining of your relationship may be headed down the road of permanent dismissal or division.
It doesn't help when vocations like journalism abandoned the verification of stories and data and rather chose to focus on the polish they apply to any given story. The lies are old and worn, but continued application of polish perpetuates the lie and its lifespan. The ability to bury the data and obscure the facts make the pursuit of truth all the more difficult. Journalism had its high mark back in the 70's in the golden days of Watergate and they have been in self-serving since then. (Not all, but most.) It was the precipice that preceded their fall through inflated pride and the desire for fame and greed. That the vast majority of journalist abandoned the original charter to report what they uncovered and instead what to tell you how to think, feel and uncritically accept is a profound loss for society. One of the former gatekeepers to those in power is now just another seat at the table deciding how to maintain their status.
Another black pill is the compromising of science. I am not sure when it happened but 2020 pulled back the curtain that it had already taken place. Have scientific results been as compromised as long as journalism? Journalists have had 50 years of narcissistic massaging, are scientists in the same boat? Are scientists (again not all, but the ones the gatekeepers propose to us) just another seat at the table consuming the future? I don't mind disagreement about the meaning of the data, I think that is what good science does, I have a problem when they look at the same data and call it two different things. I guess that leaves mathematics as the last bastion for unquestioned data and agreeable facts.
Tiresome and depressing. Just checkout. Most do. The Exploiters of indifference appreciate when you and I do just that. NOPE! As Nancy Reagan would say in her ill-fated drug program - just say NO. But saying no is just the beginning, what can one do to honestly vaccinate themselves against such assaults to common sense and humanity?
Unplug - be it prayer, meditation or friending silence, mute the exterior chatter at some point during the day, the longer the better, just not completely. This is not to be confused with being enslaved to a glowing screen, but the opposite. Detox by de-teching. Non completely, but for discernible and observable periods of time.
Choose wisely - Mindful consumption applies to multiple areas in life. What we eat, what we think, what we choose for our leisure makes all the difference in what our body, mind or habits will become.
Rediscover beauty - Nature, the arts, literature. Only nature is the uncompromised source of beauty, the arts and literature can be compromised by the same problems mentioned above and the madness of the artist or author can drag you away from beauty and instead deepen the darkness. Sense their vibe and choose wisely.
Cultivate good friends - At least one good friend who is that wonderful balance of similarity and dissimilarity to keep you engaged and growing. A good friend can help us from obsession but also encourage us when we are passionate. It is one of the most difficult challenges of a friendship when we want to encourage one another to see as clearly as possible and at the same time we don't want to become blinded by a singular obsession. Good friends call us on our bullshit, be it our actions or obsessions but do so in a way as to help us reconsider what we are doing, not to humiliate, intimidate or shame us.
Exercise - find your thing and DO IT. Maybe go for a walk in nature and get a two for one in handling the black pilling of our lives. Find a friend to exercise with and help each other to be accountable. I hate exercising, but I try to walk everyday. I know I need more. I need more cardio and better eating habits, period. Listen to a an audio book or music that frees your spirit while you exercise, again double up on the resistance to the black pills.
I am sure you good souls on Locals have your own methods to resist the darkness while not ignoring it. Have a great Thursday my friends & neighbors.
November Barn Photograph by Rhonda Taylor
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! I will be away this week at Convocation and mostly offline. I will check in to keep the email from piling up, but I will not be doing my morning missives, checking in for Teams Coffee Talk, or any other posting throughout the week. Please know that you will be on my mind and in my prayers.
Our Vicar for Priests sent out this message to the faithful to explain the nature of the Convocation:
Once every four years for the past four decades, the priests of the Archdiocese of St. Louis have been called together by our Archbishop for a week-long Convocation. It is a time of prayer, enrichment for ministry, and fellowship in priestly fraternity.
As the experience of priestly life and ministry in our Archdiocese continues to evolve — particularly as priests are called upon to pastor multiple parishes simultaneously, and as communities as large as 1,800 to 2,000 households are increasingly served by only one priest — opportunities for enrichment for our priests, such as ...
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.”
