Good Morning Digitial Neighbors! Happy Cinco de Mayo to all you ADD Irregulars, WSN Imbibers, Friends, Refugees, Phamily & Misfits. Humor is a funny thing, not everyone has the same sense of humor and some people have no sense of humor at all. As I have said often, after faith, humor has been the greatest blessing in my life for keeping me grounded and attentive in my perspective. Sure, I am a bit off and warped at times, but mostly healthy and every grateful. Life is not as non-stop laugh track, of endless fun, but it is surprisingly good and even the rough chapters can yield good results down the road.

Offense is also a funny thing, it is found in the offended rather than the offender. It is something culturally conditioned and shaped by the various elements that contribute to a vibrant culture. When fully engaged with life and attentiveness, I know what offends me and what doesn't. I am the possessor of my emotional state and my mental response. Most days I would say master of my state as well, but the moment you think you have your crap together you usually step in it. Tread lightly!

If you are looking to find offense, life offers you an endless bitter buffet. It doesn't have to, but some have chosen to set their sights on anger rather than laughter or attentiveness as their main emotional/mental resting attitude. The pseudo-satisfaction and faux-joy of outrage, injury and insult is their participation trophy for wasting effort on all the wrong endeavors of life. It is a isolating reality, and yet these Embitters can find a type of company in the mobs that they manage to form. It looks like a community, but isn't. It is more often than not a unity against something rather than a unity for something. Not always, but often. Anyways, back to the Embitters, if you know one or many, you know a person who is slowly letting their humanity die on the altar of self-importance and outrage.

I'll settle for the alternating currents of laughter and meaning in my life with a lot of ordinary happening in between them to keep me open and curious about each new day and each person I meet. I'm not everyone's cup of coffee, especially once they know I am priest and have a given set of expectations that typically come with that, but I do my best to be me and be faithful to the Master.

I miss the days of my childhood in the late 60's & 70's, we seemed to have thicker skins and more laughter as a culture. It was not perfect, but there appeared to be more forbearance and a willingness to laugh at ourselves rather than looking for offense. Humanity is funny and culture pushes us into funny avenues of life, laughing at that is better than being bitter about it. Learning that others may laugh at something you find dear is part of getting along. With attentiveness, one can gauge the level of playfulness or spite, welcome playfulness, and give spite a double-barreled blast of humor and derision that it deserves. Many can dish it, but not take it. Well enough rambling for a Friday. Happy Cinco de Mayo dear neighbors!