About the meaning of life, from those smarter than us.
I still remember reading the book Great Expectations in my early teenage years. It was a book written by Charles Dickens in 1861 about an orphan named Pip. It was unusual in that it was written in a first-person narrative. … Continue reading Low Expectations…
When you’re at the end of your rope, tie a knot and hold on. Teddy Roosevelt I have had more than my share of adversity in life, but that’s OK. Since it didn’t break me, it made me a stronger … Continue reading When You’re At The End Of Your Rope..
I have been struggling lately with my Artsy project. My patience is running thin right now. I want to do a better job at being artsy now, not some time in the future. NOW. So, I have to learn the … Continue reading Of Course, It’s Hard…
I don’t know if I am going to skid sideways totally worn out into my death, but I do have several body parts that will arrive in that condition. I have tortured my knees since an early age, so they … Continue reading What A Ride!!
It’s been a while since I put out a quote from one of my main heroes in life. Will Rogers speaks to me like no other person. He died almost a dozen years before I was born, but he left … Continue reading Tired Of Doing Nothing…
I read a recent article about Judi Dench, who is a famous British actress. In that article, she said The greatest thing of all is to have a sense of humor. And if you’re born with it, at least you’ve … Continue reading One Of The Greatest Things Of All…
With all my meltdowns lately, I have been looking for some way to let go of all the problems that I have no control over. It just seems that there is so much wrong with our country today that I … Continue reading Lighten Up!!
I am going to make some basic changes here at RJsCorner for this new year and decade. One of those changes will be to make my Dear Will Letters more frequent and more prominent on my corner. That is what this post is all about
Continue reading “Dear Will: What’s It All About”
They say personal letter writing is a thing of the past, but maybe that is something that has just been modernized via the electronic medium. Does it really matter that the message comes on a screen instead of paper and ink?
Continue reading “Dear Will:”
SOMEBODY IS ALWAYS TELLING US IN THE PAPERS HOW TO PREVENT WAR. THERE IS ONLY ONE WAY IN THE WORLD TO PREVENT WAR, AND THAT IS, FOR EVERY NATION TO TEND TO ITS OWN BUSINESS. Will Rogers It’s been a while since I have posted a quote from Will Rogers who is one of my primary heroes in life. The words above were written almost a hundred years ago and maybe things are different now, but the idea is still a valid one. I know that the world is much more connected now than then. Lindbergh had just made is … Continue reading Mind Your Own Business!
There seem to be all kinds of people who are trying to figure out why we have gotten into where we are in this world. Some point to one thing, some to another. In my opinion, for what its worth, the reason below is one of the primary causes of our current madness. [They say] Capital was for capitalists — everyone would be better off that way! LOL. What really happened was as predictable as it was grim — capitalists took all the capital they could possibly get their hands on, plundering society after society, and hid it in treasure chests buried around the … Continue reading The Other 90%
I want to say up front that Google doesn’t appreciate what I do. Their algorithm is prejudiced against me. They sometimes call me a “duplicate content provider”. Argh!!! When I started my personal blog over ten years ago, I set a foundation for what it would be. The first foundation was that it would pattern what my primary literary hero Will Rogers did. One of Will’s more famous quotes is “All I know is what I read in the newspapers.” That is he took a topic for his articles from what he read and gave it his own twist. I … Continue reading Seeking Wisdom – Will Rogers Style
I need more balance in my life and especially in my blogging. Part of my base character that is associated with my Asperger’s traits is I tend to become obsessively focused on something and everything else just falls by the wayside. The day-to-day insanity coming from the Oval Office along with the now weekly mass killings is putting me over the edge. I have to force myself to greatly diminish my attention to these subjects. To do that I am now going to try to broaden the scope of coverage here at RJsCorner. As you can see from the header … Continue reading I Need More Balance…
I have been thinking a lot lately about the mindset of those who think #CO3 is their savior/hero. Two words that seem to stick in my mind are “proudly ignorant”. A good portion of these folks just hates the fact that others think they are more intelligent than them. Even though they know that they are ignorant of many different levels they despise being told that fact. “How dare those liberals who think they are better than I am!!” To get down to the crux of it they just seem to be proudly ignorant. I admit that I am ignorant … Continue reading Proudly Ignorant
“Best doctor in the world is a veterinarian. He can’t ask his patients what’s the matter. He’s just got to know.” – Will Rogers This quote from Will came to mind recently while my wife was going to doctors trying to determine the cause of her recent ailments. In the last couple of months, she has had three emergency room visits, two of them by ambulance. We were in the ER practically all day each time. They racked up over $14,000 in tests and billing for their time and still can’t determine the cause for her symptoms. They just say … Continue reading The Best Doctor In The World…
In Will’s days checking your phone meant going into the parlor to see if it was ringing or maybe if someone else on the party line was using it. Phones were pretty valuable in those days and they didn’t cost $800 like many do today, especially since $800 was pretty much what a successful fellow made a year in Will’s time. But, I guess I better get to the point here. I read something recently that said that researchers have found that folks who are constantly checking their cell phones have higher levels of boredom and worse overall moods. I … Continue reading Checking Those Phones…
It’s been a few days since I visited a Will Rogers quote, so I spent hours going through my archives looking for just the right one to say what I currently feel. Well, actually, it took about one minute before I found one that grabbed me. But, spending hours just seemed more dramatical. I am not so much lately but for most of my life, I have been an avid reader. Except for my initial introduction to this novels and such via the Hardy Boys, Steinbeck, London, and a few others I have just not been that interested in fiction. … Continue reading Three Kinds Of Men…
In Will Rogers’ day during the Great Depression soup kitchens were where millions got their daily meal if they got one at all. I know a thing or two about soup kitchens as I volunteered in one for over eleven years. It was a very rewarding and eye-opening time for me I am not a “meat & potatoes” guy, but $1,000 for dinner seems pretty excessive. I guess if you are a billionaire or a CEO it probably only means an hour or so of work. The new remodeled Eleven Madison Park restaurant is now charging that and reservation are made months ahead! Eleven … Continue reading $1,000 Dinner!
Good judgment comes from experience and a lot of that comes from bad judgment – Will Rogers It’s time I put out a post on the new quote in the header above. I think experience and wisdom often go hand in hand and as Will says learning from mistakes is a big part of it. I personally think I can remember more details of the things I got wrong than the things I got right. Due to my Aspie characteristics, I made a lot of social mistakes. Looking back I can see where opportunities were presented to me that I … Continue reading Good Judgment
Will Rogers is my favorite source for quotes but sometimes I discover wisdom elsewhere. 🙂 In this case, it is Socrates. For those who might not know the guy, he lived 2500 years ago and is credited with being the founder of Western Philosophy. His words above are probably more relevant today than when he originally spoke them. Now I know this message is very counter to capitalism and if it were fully practiced in the USA our current economic foundation would likely collapse. Our economy depends on each of us spending more and more, so developing the capacity to enjoy … Continue reading The Capacity To Enjoy Less…
The topic of this post is the new quote in the header above. I imagine everyone with an IQ above a cucumber knows who I am talking about. #CO3 thinks he is the greatest human being ever to walk the earth! But, I guess there are also some around, who do have the IQ of a cucumber who agree with him. I’m sorry Will, but I gotta improve what you said here with some similar words of my own. This one just seems more appropriate to today’s primary situation, doesn’t it? If my quote is applied, #CO3’s greatness is about … Continue reading No Man Is Great If He Thinks He Is – Will Rogers
Being over the hill is probably the most often used phrase for getting older. When you turn forty, at least for my generation, you were considered over the hill. My hero Will Rogers certainly was an inventive guy. The way he looked at life such as the words above is what inspires me. I have never really thought about it much, but I never did get the feeling that I was on top the hill. My life has just been happening day-to-day. Uphill-downhill seemed more like potholes in life. When I finally reached retirement, or should I say when it reached … Continue reading Over The Hill…
I don’t know why I seem to be so fixated on sounds lately let alone poultry stuff. My daily and weekly posts here are RJsCorner are now named after sounds (cackle and squawk) that chickens make. I need to get to the underlying reason for this. 🙂 I lost my hearing thirty years ago, and since then my brain has forgotten what many sounds sound like. Sadly one of those areas is musical instruments. I used to play the guitar, not terribly well but to my own satisfaction, and I really enjoyed that pleasure. Now when I see a musical instrument … Continue reading A Lot Of Noise Goin On…
A regular part of RJsCorner is going to be looking at Will Rogers quotes and seeing how they apply in today’s world. So, this is the first of many in that area. Even 80 years ago it seems that there were more than a few who thought religions did more damage than they helped. I think what Will was saying is that “Bible thumpers,” and whatever they are called in the other religions, are the most intolerant of differences of faith. They are just convinced that they are the only one who has got it right. This is what gets … Continue reading Will Rogers – About Religious Beliefs
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
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…
Even though I was never a Boy Scout, I am a person who tries to be prepared for the challenges I will be facing. If I want to discuss a controversial topic I try to study both sides to see where my feelings might reside. “Think For Yourself” is one of my primary mantras in my life. I simply don’t let others tell me what to think. But then again, maybe that is one of the reasons I was never a Boy Scout (ha). Then I see the current Oval Office occupant who is totally unprepared for the many challenges he faces. I know he never dreamed he would actually occupy that prime real estate, he was just having fun dissing people. Maybe that is an excuse for being … Continue reading Being Prepared…
I am going to do a little ‘explainin’ on this post about the foundations for RJsCorner. Everyone knows that a good house has to have a good foundation in order to survive. Since RJsCorner has been going on for almost … Continue reading Tongue In Cheek..
Slow down you’re moving too fast, got to make the morning last… The above words come from an old Simon and Garfunkel song entitled “59th Street Bridge Song” otherwise known as Feelin Groovy. Even in the 1960s many … Continue reading Just Because You Can Doesn’t Mean You Have To…
“I don’t suppose there ever was a time when everybody knew as little about what they were talking about as they do today.” – Will Rogers, 19 September 1933 How does ignorance come to outshine wisdom? Of course, that is not true for all of us but the percentages seem to be drifting in that direction as our recent elections showed us. The religions of 81% of Evangelicals who put Trump in office requires all their members to proclaim that the earth is only 6,000 years old. They refuse to accept any scientific knowledge that says differently. Ignorance has trumped … Continue reading Ignorance Outshines Wisdom
This will be my first “official” report looking at the Washington DC loony bin from a drone level view. Here goes: Healthcare – The GOP continues to try to formulate a health care plan that will abolish Obamacare. They have had 7 years to put this together but like usual in the loony bin, they wait until the last minute. It seems they can’t agree within their own party what it should look like. The RadCons don’t want anything, while others don’t want to cause anyone to lose coverage. I guess they are having a vote sometime today and I’m willing to … Continue reading Week 12 Inside The Loony Bin – Healthcare & The Supreme Court
I have been remiss to put out a gallery post of my visit to the Spirit of Vincennes Rendezvous this past May. Since I am a Hoosier I know I am supposed to see George Rogers Clark as a hero … Continue reading Vincennes Rendezvous
Will Rogers is perhaps my primary hero in life. He is the reason I started up blogging ten years ago and still today I try to follow his philosophy when blogging here at RJsCorner. < blockquote> From Will’s Facebook page Like Will I can tell from a mile away those folks who only watch Fox News for all their info about the political world. Their obsession with fear of almost everything shows through in much of what they do. Like Will I try to think for myself but I don’t make up facts to align with my worldview. Common sense can explain … Continue reading Never Just One Source…
From my friends at the Will Rogers Institute. It is a down right mystery this year. 🙂 Continue reading No Accountiang For Taste…
This thing about being a hero, about the main thing to it is to know when to die. Prolonged life has ruined more men than it ever made. Will Rogers July 1928 I have been avoiding one of my heroes of late and that is a shame. Will Rogers has as much to teach us in the 21st century as he did almost a hundred years ago. I’m not much of a sports guy but from what I can get from it there are too many heroes that just don’t know when to hang up their cleats or whatever they … Continue reading Being A Hero…
I see in the debates how the GOP candidates for president constantly comment about how bad things are. I wish someone would ask them point blank whether they think things are worse now than when the last Republican president left the Oval Office? It would be very interesting to see how much spin they could put on that question. In that same light, it is a strange dichotomy how Wall Street is so anxious to get rid of Obama and put another conservative in the White House. During the eight years of the Bush administration the stock market went for … Continue reading There Will Always Be Sob Stories…
Some people seem amazed that I have put out about 400 posts a year for over five years here at RJsCorner! But in reality I usually struggle to limit it to that many! 🙂 I often, like today, have at least twenty posts ready to go online. No, I don’t spend all day at my computer writing. In fact I usually spend no more than part of a couple of days a week engaged in generating posts. I know my blogging process is probably unique to me but maybe some of you can learn something from it. My process for … Continue reading Being Creative…
A lot of Americans believe quite deeply that many of our societal and economic ills can be traced back to the crumbling institution of marriage. But even if you take that as an article of faith, “fixing” marriage is a problem with no ready solution…. Source: Can America really ‘strengthen marriage’?. I admit I was drawn more to this article because of the graphic above than its subject but once I started reading I found that it appears no one really knows how to fix marriage. Not the Conservatives, not the progressives. To many of our millennials and beyond it … Continue reading Strengthening marriage?
Here we go again! America is running true to form, fixing some other country’s business for ’em just as we always do. We mean well, but will wind up in the wrong as usual… Will Rogers June 22, 1931 I seem to have been ignoring one of my heroes of late. It seems that my op-ed posts are taking over RJsCorner. I gotta do something about that. After all life isn’t always about what is happening in the world. In fact it is even pretty far down in a sane person’s priority list. But who ever accused me of being … Continue reading Here We Go Again… Even Eighty Years Later…
Carson insists no other candidate has received the level of scrutiny that he has. Asked on NBC whether he is getting more than President Barack Obama and former President Bill Clinton, Carson replied: “Not like this. Not even close.”Scrutiny of his past is par for any major candidate for president, not only Carson. Obama’s citizenship was questioned and he later released a birth certificate showing that he was born in Hawaii. Clinton’s marital dalliances were probed during his 1992 campaign. The Miami Herald staked out then-Sen. Gary Hart’s townhouse in 1987 and caught him in an extramarital affair. Hillary Clinton, … Continue reading I’m Being Picked On….
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