Good morning, Digital Neighbors! Blessed Sabbath and Saturday to all you fine souls scattered across these intentional communities. While I like to share something prayerful or meditative for a Saturday, I have enjoyed this little detour into proverbs from across the world. Most of us are familiar only with the self-titled Book of Proverbs in Scripture, but every culture has acquired wisdom and insight into life.
This current age in the West seems marked by the abandonment of wisdom and the acquisition of absurdity. It is one of the things I pray for often: the reform and renewal of our culture. I pray that individuals will return to faith—and if not faith, at least to the threshold of common sense and reason. While I have great moments of concern and chapters of outrage that I have often written about on Locals over the past six years, the rest of my day is not all that concerned or wound up with the news of the world. It is entrusted to God. I know of His providential goodness and believe in the final victory to come.
Emotional outrage is a poor substitute for meaning. I think the two are often confused, even among more enlightened people. Perhaps people simply need an emotional release; exercise would probably be a better choice, but to each his own. Sadly, for many if not most of our neighbors on the Left side of culture, emotions are sovereign. There is no convincing someone who has enshrined their own feelings and, knowingly or unknowingly, worships at the altar of self. If their company is a flock of fellow self-congratulatory narcissists, the likelihood of questions, doubts, or a changed attitude is next to nil. Such company becomes a cocoon with no transformation—more like a grave than a place where we might gain new wings of flight. Enough rambling. Off to some proverbs for your Saturday amusement:
God gives every bird its food but does not drop it in the nest. – Danish Proverb
He who would make a fool of himself will find many to help him. – Danish Proverb
He who is no good to himself is no good to another. – Yiddish Proverb
He who is being carried does not realize how far the town is. – Nigerian Proverb
Patience and the mulberry leaf become a silk gown. – Chinese Proverb
Monarch chrysalis - Joshua J Cotten - 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.”
