Happy Saturday, digital neighbors! Good morning to all of you wherever you might find yourselves today.
A few final thoughts (and quotes) on laughter and humor. After faith, humor is the thing that has most changed my life for the better. Without it, I’m certain I’d be in far worse shape—and so many talking heads on the internet seem utterly devoid of it. I often mention my appearances on The Rubin Report, Phetasy, and TRIGGERnometry, but I really should add Scott Adams to that same list of content creators, talking heads, and podcasters who strike an excellent balance of humor and serious discussion. There are plenty more, of course, but one can only listen to so much in a week.
A good conversationalist learns their own proper blend of humor and seriousness. Scott Adams has often said that at least 25% of people have no sense of humor at all. I suspect the number is higher. Too many people’s absence of humor has left them bitter souls. Take life seriously, but take yourself a little less so. The further you move toward the extremes of political engagement, the harder it is to maintain a sense of humor. And if you do manage to keep one, it tends to be the cynical, sarcastic, biting kind that wounds more than it refreshes.
I can think of nothing worse, when it comes to giving meaning to your life, than making politics your sole passion and interest. That we’re here in these communities is a sign we’re aware of politics but not consumed by it. You know the consumed types—you probably talked to a few of them last Thanksgiving. Buckle up; you may see them again soon. Happy Saturday, dear neighbors—may your day be touched by laughter and joy.
“There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humor.” ― Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol
“Laughter is wine for the soul—laughter soft, or loud and deep, tinged through with seriousness—the hilarious declaration made by man that life is worth living.” ― Seán O’Casey
“Laughter is poison to fear.” ― George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones
Breitenwang, Tirol, Austria- Pexels - Lucas Allmann
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! Blessed Sunday to all your fine digital neighbors scattered across the internet. If you want to harvest joy, cultivate gratitude. Even if you don’t believe in God and you just happened upon your life, gratitude for the giftedness of it all is the seedbed for joy. Without the work and effort of sustained gratitude, our joy will be random and happenstance. It will be more of a fleeting experience in life rather than a sustained one.
For Disciples, joy is the fruit of the Holy Spirit and a choice we must make daily. It never means we ignore the challenges and difficulties in life, but we choose what we will allow to possess our heart and command our attention. It is one of the real differences between those striving for spiritual maturity and fullness in Christ and those who settle for less. Those who settle for less will be blown around by their feelings and unexamined impulses. No one can ever claim complete self-possession and fullness in Christ (perhaps a ...
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.”
