Month: March 2018

Having My Say2 Comments

Will Rogers – My Hero

RJ Walters

For this morning’s cackle, I want to talk about Will Rogers. He is the reason I started RJsCorner 8 years ago. I have been reading him since I was a kid. For all you people that don’t know anything about what happened before 1980, I want to give you a little snort of Will and his words. Will was born way back in 1879 in Indian territory now known as Oklahoma. His roots were in the Cherokee nation. He started out in Vaudeville doing rope tricks in the Ziegfeld Follies but became world famous for his writing and his radio … Continue reading Will Rogers – My Hero

Having My Say2 Comments

My Kind Of Generation…

RJ Walters

I gotta admit that I was a hippie during the 1960s. Maybe not to the degree that I wanted but still a hippie. I had to work a full-time job, had college classes and the studying that goes with it, so that didn’t allow much time for anything else. But at least I was a hippie at heart. It’s good to hear that the students in the most recent school shooting are becoming avid activists for gun control and the rest of the kids in the nation are now joining them. Before long you might even be seeing campus demonstrations. Who knows. I see the kids in Great Britain are getting into it to support them. I have heard talk that one of … Continue reading My Kind Of Generation…

Having My SayLeave a comment

Why are the posts now called cackles??

RJ Walters

Welcome to the new and improved RJsCorner. Before I get into anything serious, you may think it’s kinda strange for me to now call my daily posts “Morning Cackles”?  I got a reason for my madness. First off, for you city folks,  a cackle is a short and abrupt sound that hens make after they lay eggs.  My morning posts going forward will be short (250 words or less) and to the point. Paying respect to my poultry friends is one of the reasons for the name of my posts. But I gotta admit that the main reason is that the … Continue reading Why are the posts now called cackles??

Having My Say4 Comments

It’s Time For A New Chapter @ RJsCorner…

RJ Walters

I have decided it’s time for a new chapter here at RJsCorner.  It’s time to shake things up. I am putting out too much gloom and doom lately. Who wants more of that in their lives? I want to make my posts a regular part of your daily life. To do that they need to be more concise so you can read them in under two minutes (one minute if you are a fast reader :) ). My decision to move InSearchOfAmerica photos and most corresponding stories to Flickr albums also affected this change. At an even more basic level, I need to … Continue reading It’s Time For A New Chapter @ RJsCorner…

Having My Say2 Comments

Hard History

RJ Walters

I came across the story below and it amazed me that less than 8% of students in the cited survey knew that the Civil War was fought to preserve slavery. Here is a little bit about that: Just a third of students correctly identified the law that officially ended slavery, the 13th Amendment, and fewer than half knew of the Middle Passage. Most alarming, though, were the results to this question: Which was the reason the South seceded from the Union? a. To preserve states’ rights b. To preserve slavery c. To protest taxes on imported goods d. To avoid … Continue reading Hard History

Having My Say2 Comments

Imagining Their Stories…

RJ Walters

Because I am deaf I have a game I play quite often when I am around people, especially those I don’t know.  In my early years of deafness before closed-captioned TV was widely available is when this thing started. Since there was no sound to what I was seeing I made up my own storyline. It would have been interesting to discover how closely my story matched up with the writer’s version but of course, I never was able to discover that. Getting slightly off the subject for just a little while, I never used to think that I was a … Continue reading Imagining Their Stories…

Having My SayLeave a comment

Creativity

RJ Walters

I am finally convinced that I am a pretty creative person as my mind constantly wanders into unimagined areas of thought. In my retirement years, I have done a pretty good job of cultivating my creative processes.  But I am always looking for ways to unleash my creativity to new areas and levels. When I ran across this article from the New York Times it gave me a different way to think about creativity. We all have fantasies or, if you prefer, ideas. I will give them a different word: “Seeds.” These seeds are the germ-line of books, short stories, songs, the … Continue reading Creativity

Philosophical Thoughts4 Comments

Faking Religion

RJ Walters

At one time or another everyone who is true to their thoughts doubt religious beliefs. I found it surprising to see that even Mother Theresa doubted on a regular basis that God even existed.  The more I studied religious documents including the Bible the more doubt I had as to the beliefs of the variety of religion that I was then a member of. …according to a recent study in the journal, Society and Mental Health, individuals who consider leaving a faith, but do not, tend to experience more depression than those who decide to leave… There are good reasons to not … Continue reading Faking Religion

Having My Say2 Comments

It’s Important To Take A Stand.

RJ Walters

I am a fiscal conservative. That makes me a man without a party. The one steady thing I admired about the Republican party, at least until recently, was that they didn’t like debt. “If you were against President Obama’s deficits, and now you’re for the Republican deficits, isn’t that the very definition of hypocrisy?” Senator Rand Paul said as he held up passage of the budget bill for a few hours — perhaps until he realized that the definition fit him, too, since he had voted for the tax cuts that will blow up the deficit. Source: The Republicans Have Become … Continue reading It’s Important To Take A Stand.

Life On The Margins2 Comments

Turn Your Wounds Into Wisdom

RJ Walters

I get weekly quotes from iHearts143Quotes to help me understand life. This one particularly got my attention. It might seem strange to some but I have often said that  I am a better person because of my deafness. What I mean by that is that through the challenges I have faced because of my deafness has made me much more aware of those who struggle in life. My empathy factor went up several orders of magnitude because of my deafness. I have come to realize that my inflictions and afflictions (ha) add to the quality of my life. I was … Continue reading Turn Your Wounds Into Wisdom

Life On The MarginsLeave a comment

Dispelling Myths vs Reimaging

RJ Walters

Yesterday’s post was all about spin and how we too often try to reimage something because makes us uncomfortable.  It was primarily about the fact that we need to dispell the myth instead of just re-naming the condition.  Today I want to talk about why this topic is so important to me. As I have often said, being deaf is a major part of my life but it is not what I am about.  I almost never say I am a deaf man but instead say I am a man who is deaf. There is a critical difference between the two. If … Continue reading Dispelling Myths vs Reimaging