Good Morning Digital Neighbors! Happy Thursday ADD Irregulars & WSN Niche' Wanderers ! Hello again to all you Friends & Refugees, Early Birds & Later Dayers, Conversants & Lurkers that roam the Report, PHAM & Dawn Patrol (Still miss ya Al @NoChance ) in Tribe Phetasy, Triggeratti, Fascinating People and Bold Bigots at the Nometry and finally all you Seekers of Sanity and Civility that gather over at Tusliville!
A successful individual typically sets his next goal somewhat but not too much above his last achievement. In this way he steadily raises his level of aspiration. - Kurt Lewin
Strive to be more. Whatever you think your gifts are, the talents you possess, your something to contribute to the betterment of the human endeavor, work at it. Expect failure, realize that excellence is the fruit of persistence as well as innate talent. Expect little recognition, you are doing it because you can and because you are more alive doing it. Every artist knows this, and even in the most dull of us there is some artistic muse waiting for that moments of awakening and expression.
Talking only and always about your feelings, struggles, identity, sexual preference, pronouns, or race make you a selfish bore. The key to that statement is ONLY & ALWAYS. If those are your only talking points, if that is your passion, you have failed to grasp Kurt Lewin's quote and instead have morphed into a parody of humanity.
It is great to integrate your feelings (but not be possessed by them), it is great to own your struggles (know the experiences that were most formative). Claim your identity (LOL - screw that crap - know your story. you are in the wonderful dance of receiving and co-creating your story - know that and your identity will become apparent to you without being a navel grazing clown). Understand your sexual preference (with the actual people you love and don't overshare with the rest of us and demand acceptance, approval and accolades when it is not our experience. Sex is intimate, personal and something more that other experiences of life, no longer trivialize it as just another thing. It is not.
Obsess about pronouns and race - you have just given me a social warning just like the stripes on a skunk or the quills on a porcupine. Heed the warning signs and avoid the stench and the quills, go hug them and don't be surprised what you get. Pronouns are for other people to talk about you, your name, if you choose to change it, is yours. The moment you feel I need to know your pronouns so I can engage with you is when you have told me I am better off not engaging with you. I will happily call you by whatever name you desire, some will make me smile or laugh (El Conquistador), but I will not use pronouns when you are in my company just so you know I humor your emotional injury. Race - make your it your story, try to avoid making it a weapon you wield against others as a means to control conversations, compel others, avoid questions & criticisms, or demand special treatment that excuses behavior.
Don't be among the ONLY & ALWAYS. Have a great day dear neighbors!
Iceland photo - Isn't it always December there?
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.”
