Good morning, Digital Neighbors! Happy Tuesday, Friends & Refugees, Early Birds & Later Dayers, Conversants & Lurkers, PHAM & Misfits, Freethinkers & Questioners, ADD Irregulars & WSN Curators, Curmudgeons & Curmudgeonettas! I hope your week is off to a great start and that the demands of the day aren’t too burdensome.
Fred’s Retirement Philosophy: Every day is Tuesday — a day free of expectation and the burdens of the rest of the week. Tuesday is the freest day of the week. I like Fred’s philosophy; I hope to subscribe to it when I retire. While I enjoy the variety of these morning posts, I think I may make this a week of proverbs.
While one must earn the wisdom one possesses through reflection, introspection, and prayer (if you are a God-seeker), you can prime the pump with the wisdom of others. Their hard-earned lessons cannot replace our own learning, but they can accelerate it. That is one of the reasons I so enjoy quotes. Sometimes a simple sentence or paragraph can illuminate our lives and open the doors of understanding and meaning.
Oftentimes there are many things beyond our control, but our attitude is almost always within our possession. While there are influences that can compromise our attitude, weary it, or trigger it, how we feel and think is our responsibility. Blaming others or circumstances for it cedes the ground that is rightly ours. It is doubtful that any of us are rocks of stoicism and composure, but like many things, practice makes perfect. Well, enough preaching for a Tuesday. On to some proverbs!
It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness. — Chinese Proverb
All is not cream that comes from a cow. — Yiddish Proverb
When the mouse laughs at the cat, there is a hole nearby. — Nigerian Proverb
Candle - Sixteen Miles Out - Unsplash
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.
The Beautiful
Said the Disciple to the Lover, “Sir, before I left the world I heard certain men who were held in high esteem and thought to know the will of the Beloved say that those who loved the Beautiful did not love the Beloved but loved idols, yet in the Garden of the Beloved we are ever striving to create beauty for the pleasure of the Beloved. Were they then speaking the truth?”
The Lover answered, “Those who said this had never glimpsed the form of the Beloved nor ever truly sought Him, for all beauty is but the reflection of the beauty of the Beloved, although seen very dimly as in a dark and faulty mirror, even as all goodness is a dim reflection of the goodness of the Beloved. So it is that those who love beauty and goodness recognize dimly in them the form of the Beloved and though often in ignorance those who are seeking the Beautiful and the Good are seeking after the Beloved.”
