Good Morning Digitial Neighbors! Happy Sunday ADD Irregulars, WSN Curators, Friends & Refugees, Early Birds & Later Dayers, Conversants & Lurkers, Phamily & Misfits, and you Bigots from Triggernometry which I don't frequent anymore but fondly remember. Happy Sunday to all!
I have said this often, but it bears repeating for my failing memory. After faith, I can't think of anything that matters more to my attitude than laughter and humor. Humor is such an interesting thing, it can build bridges faster than probably any other human experience and it can also alienate and enrage those who don't appreciate it. Scott Adams contends that 25% of humanity lacks a sense of humor, I don't disagree with him. Some people seem to laugh at nothing nor do they find humor in anything. I don't know if that makes them serious or just set on a default mental static state, sort of like a perpetual test pattern in their head when they are not engaged in thinking or actively responding, and even then it is a crap shoot.
There is a different between the unresponsive and the offended. The unresponsive are the duds that my Mom often complained about meeting far too often. To be called a dud by Peggy was one of the lowest comments she could make about an individual. Uninteresting, dull, unengaged, burners of oxygen and self made wastes of flesh did not rank high on Momma's list of people to accompany. The Offended of course are beyond the life sucking time stealers dullards, the Offended want you to know that your humor, thoughts or expressions are offensive to them. If they possess power they probably want you silenced, removed or punished in some way. It seems to be a pattern in humanity regardless of the time or community.
"I'm offended." That is your problem and yours alone. I am not saying that we shouldn't find something offensive, but you ought to know why you are offended and how to explain the nature of you offense rather than find some mob of mutually minded censors to bring their torches and pitchforks. It is good to remember that even if you can communicate your reasons for offense, it is still subject to question, criticism and mockery. The best defense against the mockers is to mock them back, none of are surprised that some of the biggest mockers are among the most thin-skinned pretentious people you can meet. If they can verbal spar with you without going on personal attacks and other ill-reasoned responses you may find a person your respect without necessarily agree or liking. It was a human experience just a century ago, but seems extinct now. The narrowing of the human mind seems inevitable when we surround ourselves with people that only agree with us, doesn't matter if you are Left, Right or indifferent.
I assume if you are here, @-Padre's, Phetasy or Rubin Report, you possess a sense of humor, you are thicker skinned than most of the sleep-walkers and can handle that disagreements and even potential mockery of something you value. When I find myself offended by something, I either bear it out patiently if it is in the public, no one has a right to venture forth and not find offense, but if it is my home, you can leave. If I enjoy the company of the occasional "offender" I will eventually say something out of concern, they then have the option of telling me to "get over it" or trying to show some consideration. The Old Farts at the Smokehaus who said God d#mn like it was going out of fashion when I first arrived in New Melle 11 years ago got to know me and were kind enough to stop using it so freely in my company. They could have told me to shove it and I would have found another place to hang my hat. I am thankful for their friendship and consideration, I try my best to return the favor.
The more you find to laugh at in life, the happier you will be. A few quotes to leave you with on this wonderful summer morning.
Good humor is a tonic for mind and body. It is the best antidote for anxiety and depression. It is a business asset. It attracts and keeps friends. It lightens human burdens. It is the direct route to serenity and contentment. - Grenville Kleiser
Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh. - George Bernard Shaw
Humor implies a sure conception of the beautiful, the majestic and the true, by whose light it surveys and shapes their opposites. It is a humane influence, softening with mirth the ragged inequities of existence, prompting tolerant views of life, bridging over the space which separates the lofty from the lowly, the great from the humble. - Edwin P. Whipple
Humor can get in under the door while seriousness is still fumbling at the handle. ― G.K. Chesterton
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.
@dr-robot Bill asked for a side by side comparison of the two calendars that were used in Roman Catholicism. One of the pre-conciliar calendar that was reformed in 1962 and then the post-conciliar calendar after 1970. Most of you will have no interest in this, but it was amazing that Grok completed this in about 5 to 8 minutes. Grok knows how I like things laid out, color preferences and with the right prompt this was done while we were playing a card game.
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.”
