Category: Life On The Margins

All the other things about living life outside the main stream.

Having My Say, Life On The MarginsLeave a comment

A Lot Of Noise Goin On…

RJ Walters

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…

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

Life On The Margins5 Comments

About Humanism…

RJ Walters

Over at my blog RedLetterLiving.net I spent five years exploring various forms of religion concentrating on Christianity in all its shapes.  I came away from that study convinced that the vast majority of Christian religions, of which there are thousands, spend very little time on the words of Jesus and it seems that many are now spending more time in the political realm than anything else. One glaring omission from that study was of Humanism.  As a then member of an Evangelical church, I was basically told that Humanists were the scourge of the earth.  They were all God-hating atheists who despised … Continue reading About Humanism…

Life On The MarginsLeave a comment

What To Do about Extreme Poverty In The USA?

RJ Walters

When you think about extreme poverty I’m sure you mostly think of third world countries. It is hard to imagine that over 3 million people in the US  live on less than $2 per day. According to the World Bank, 769 million people lived on less than $1.90 a day in 2013; they are the world’s very poorest. Of these, 3.2 million live in the United States, and 3.3 million in other high-income countries (most in Italy, Japan and Spain)… Even for the whole population, life expectancy in the United States is lower than we would expect given its national … Continue reading What To Do about Extreme Poverty In The USA?

Life On The Margins4 Comments

The Trouble with Lies…

RJ Walters

Being unable to read is illiteracy. That is tragic but something even worse is being able to read but choosing not to.  Of course, you know who I am talking about. We have never had a president in our history who was proudly illiterate until now.  He claims he is a genius and graduated first in his class at Wharton College.  A reporter recently found public records of those who made the Dean’s List during those years and Mr. Trump was never on the list. So how could someone who graduated at the top of his class not make the … Continue reading The Trouble with Lies…

Life On The Margins4 Comments

Satisfying Retirement and RJsCorner

RJ Walters

One of my regular blog reads is Satisfying Retirement from Bob Lowry. Bob’s blog is much more popular than mine and as a result of him mentioning RJsCorner in his blog list, I get quite a few referrals from it. Some of his readers who visit RJsCorner might be interested in how very different people can become friends. Over the years we have become pretty good blog buddies. At this point in our lives we share many of the same beliefs and feelings, but from his post of yesterday entitled  If Life Had a Do-Over Option, Would I ? and previous discussions we … Continue reading Satisfying Retirement and RJsCorner

Life On The Margins, XX - Everything ElseLeave a comment

Instagram, Here I Come..

RJ Walters

I will admit up front here that I have no idea of why the so-called social media is addictive to so many people, especially our younger generations.  But then again due to my Asperger’s characteristics I am not really attuned to much of any form of social interactions. :) But that doesn’t keep me for chiming in on this issue. Growing up in the 1950s and 60s I was never aware of much social pressure in my life. I tended to live inside my own bubble and was just not that affected by what others thought of me. I did … Continue reading Instagram, Here I Come..

Life On The MarginsLeave a comment

What’s It Feel Like For a White Man To Be A Minority??

RJ Walters

I know one of the reasons that we have the current incompetent in the White House is that too many white men are afraid of becoming a minority.  They are afraid of what will happen when their say is no longer the dominant one but instead one of many. For the most part white men have been dismissing minorities for decades and don’t want that to happen to them. They are afraid of many things but this is probably one of the major ones. If none of the clues on RJsCorner have given you a hint then I will bluntly … Continue reading What’s It Feel Like For a White Man To Be A Minority??

Life On The Margins, ReduxLeave a comment

An Ounce Of Empathy & Two Ounces Of Brains

RJ Walters

I am a dreamer, always have been and always will be.  When times are bad I dream of better times. When times are good I thank the Lord. I have always dreamed that every citizen of our country has at least an ounce of empathy and two ounces of brains.  I have come to doubt that belief, especially since the person in the Oval Office doesn’t even seem to pass the bill.  I guess this particular dream will have to wait a while before it can be realized. Now don’t misunderstand me, I don’t expect everyone to be overflowing with … Continue reading An Ounce Of Empathy & Two Ounces Of Brains

Life On The Margins3 Comments

$600 Billion, But….

RJ Walters

Annually we spend in excess of $600 billion on our military to protect us from foreign invaders at the same time the GOP is not willing to spend $20 billion to keep millions of us from dying of treatable diseases and ailments. I don’t know maybe it is just me but I don’t see an ounce of logic in that fact.  For one thing, we have not been invaded by more than a handful of discontents since 1812. Yes, I admit that by some fluke in structural design a handful of USA haters managed to kill three thousand or so … Continue reading $600 Billion, But….

Life On The Margins2 Comments

Making For A Better Life

RJ Walters

    I have been spending some serious time lately trying to come up with better ways to spend the remaining time of my life here on earth.  How can I be happier and less stressful about my life in particular and in general the world today? Several reasons probably prompted this search. One is that I turned 70 not long ago. This birthday hit me much harder than any other. I don’t think I really had a mid-life crisis so maybe this is my version of it to be called late-life crisis.  The other primary reason is my recent … Continue reading Making For A Better Life