Category: Having My Say

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Botanical Gardens & Industrialists

RJ Walters

Kennett Square PA  – Longwood Gardens Longwood Gardens consists of over 1,000 acres of gardens, woodlands, and meadows in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. I have visited there a couple of times.  It was the home of Pierre DuPont for most of the early 1900s. He spent a considerable portion of his vast fortune on the lands and the buildings but he had much more to pass on to his heirs. Some are still living lavishly off his wealth even today. Continue reading Botanical Gardens & Industrialists

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Autodidacticism….

RJ Walters

They teach themselves from an early age, have many deep interests, rather than just one. And they are very persistent, even in the face of rejection…. One interesting thing that’s emerged is that so many of these highly creative people are autodidacts. They are people who teach themselves. That makes them almost misfits in the educational system that they get put into. It would be nice if educators were aware of the existence of autodidacts and the need to give them slightly different education experiences, to nurture them. SOURCE: Connecting strength and vulnerability of the creative brain. The source quote … Continue reading Autodidacticism….

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In Search Of America (finally)

RJ Walters

A Quick Note I have been doing daily posts over at my new blog InSearchOfAmerica for about a month now and I think I have finally settled on what fits best there for me. I originally got the idea over a year ago and have had a few false starts since them. The current format fits me very well. It is primarily about pictures with a twitter length comment. As the posts progress the mosaic that the site is building will become a picture of what I have seen in my search for America.  It you feel like it give … Continue reading In Search Of America (finally)

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Writing My Material….

RJ Walters

  An important part of my daily read is the Will Rogers Facebook page as shown above. It, along with the half-dozen books about him on my bookshelf give me a lifetime of material for this blog at RJsCorner. Will inspires me for his wit, wisdom, and humor. But maybe even more so for his endurance as he put out thousands of  “posts” of his day. Will inspires me with his method of delivery.  One of his most famous quotes is “All I know is what I read in the newspaper” and then he would proceed to put his spin … Continue reading Writing My Material….

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Raising The Minimum Wage….

RJ Walters

But the problem is we have structured our economy in this sort of death spirally way, where huge profitable organizations like Wal-Mart pay poverty wages to a million workers, and then taxpayers make up the difference in social services programs like food stamps and Medicaid and rent assistance, and so on and so forth.  It’s as morally repugnant as it is economically inefficient. It’s a fact that Wal-Mart earned $27 billion in profit last year. They could afford to pay their bottom million workers $10,000 more a year, raise all of those people out of poverty, save tax payers billions … Continue reading Raising The Minimum Wage….

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Kids and Restaurants…..

RJ Walters

Is the message on this sign outside Old Fisherman’s Grotto, a Monterey, California restaurant, clear enough for you? …. ”Cue the controversy. Since the local news covered the policy on Tuesday, it’s made headlines, prompted debate on social media, and produced a slew of new mostly negative reviews on Yelp. Most take aim at owner Chris Sake, with comments including “Good luck catering only to couples and groups of childless hipsters,” “Don’t go here unless you want to support Mr. Scrooge,” and “The sign is really low-class. Shame on you people.” Calls and emails to Sake and Old Fisherman’s Grotto … Continue reading Kids and Restaurants…..

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Afraid Of The Consequences…..

RJ Walters

Yes, ministry can be brutal. One of the most sobering statistics I found in my research is that for every twenty pastors who enter the ministry only one will retire from ministry. I had no idea how many pastors struggled with depression and frustration regarding their ministry roles. You write that 80 percent of pastors (and 84 percent of their spouses) are discouraged in their ministry roles, that 40 percent say they have seriously considered leaving the pastorate in the past three months, and that 70 percent say they don’t have a single close friend. Those are some really astounding … Continue reading Afraid Of The Consequences…..

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Compassionate Engagement…

RJ Walters

Many of us are too busy or distracted to sustain a life of compassionate engagement. We live lives of hurry, worry and striving, finding little satisfaction in our manic work and recreational activities. Instead of being free to create beauty, nurture relationships and seek the greater good, many of us feel stuck in lives dictated by the need to pay bills or maintain a certain often consumptive standard of living. We can’t have it all—the prevailing level of consumption, a life of deeper meaning and relationships and global equity and sustainability. To realize these good dreams we must adjust our … Continue reading Compassionate Engagement…