I can’t even imagine why, but yesterday early morning I woke up with Willie Nelson’s song “Of All The Girls I’ve Loved Before” stuck in my thoughts. I would wake up a dozen times between 3am and 7am and the song was still there. But I had managed to change the words to show my love for my wife of 35 years. I worked on … Continue reading Yvonne’s Song
I spent the first day of this new year trying to figure out how I will live in the next 364 days. I also spent New Year’s Eve looking at what I accomplished in 2022. Before I go any further, I must admit that the whole decade before 2022, I was mostly in the caregiver hermit mode. My wife’s health continued to decline year after … Continue reading Looking Back So I Can Look Forward
Something I pride myself in is being a disruptor. The status quo bores me! Usually, in today’s world, by the time something becomes the status quo it is no longer relevant and is in serious need of change. An important part of life is to realize that change is constant. There’s nothing you can do to prevent that. Sure, you can stick your head in … Continue reading I Am A Disruptor, But…
Sometimes I wish I could take back that time when I discovered I am an Aspie. I think that moment to some degree kind of ruined the rest of my life. But, perhaps the most damaging part of that was what was done by the website Medium because it provided me daily with hundreds of articles about Aspergers, and only Aspergers. When I discovered that … Continue reading It’s All About Masking And Maybe The Medium…
It’s time for another Aspie post here on RJsCorner. This one is about Aspie obsessions. I’m sure I have posted about this before, but I don’t specifically remember it. So, I will give you a brief story about Aspies and obsession. Here is a quote from a reliable source about Aspies and special interests. I recognized this trait in myself from an early age. I … Continue reading I Just Couldn’t Help Myself
I have visited over 40 State Capitals in my travels around the U.S. and this is one of my favorite pictures. It is from the Capital Building of Connecticut in Hartford. I visited there during my recent trip through that beautiful State. I will have much more to say about that in an upcoming on-the-road post. At that time, I will give you a full … Continue reading EPS – Favorites
It has been at least 60 years since I read the book Don Quixote. It took me almost a lifetime to understand about “aiming for too big or impossible goals”. I do remember that he went around the country fighting battles that were simply impossible for him to win. All my life I have looked for problems to solve. It’s not that some of the … Continue reading No More Windmills…
They say that envy is one of the most common emotions. There is even a commandment about it. I never thought of myself as having envy, but in reality I have probably lived with it most of my life, and sometimes it even seems to drive my life. Except for my electronic gadgets, I am not much of a “things” person, so I don’t envy … Continue reading I Am Secretly Covered With Envy…
It was a year ago this Thursday that my wife drew her last breath. Of course, I am having some serious emotions about that. I decided that to commemorate her life, I will write some heartfelt posts about her this week that will allow you to get to know her. Writing is what I do best, so I think that is the most appropriate way … Continue reading Remembering The Love Of My Life – Her Early Years
This is my last post on my recent 6,000-mile trip through the South and Southwest. The lessons learned from that trip will last me a lifetime, or at least what I have left of it. I am ready to declare what I discovered, and maybe more importantly, act upon those discoveries. Let’s start with a high-level look back on the trip: I must live more … Continue reading On-The-Road Epilogue # 8 – Wrapping It Up…
It was a year ago today that started the beginning of the end for my wife. She had just suffered her 4th and most severe heart attack that would in 78 days result in her death. Those 78 days were the most stressful of my life! Being an Aspie I had more emotional breakdown during that time than I thought was even possible. For me, … Continue reading RetComLife #36 – A Different Mindset…
Vicariously is not a word I often use here on RJsCorner, but it has been entrenched in my being from a very early age. I began life as a very dysfunctional kid in an ultra-dysfunctional family. I didn’t know that at the time, wisdom showed me that fact much later. I know I am not unique in this situation, everybody has their own story, but … Continue reading Vicariously … (800 Words)
As far as I am concerned, everyone wears a mask. It is just the way we cope in the world. I have read so many articles in the last few months from those who have autism about wanting to tear off their mask and become their “real” selves. If everybody did that, the world would become totally unhinged and chaos would likely become the norm. … Continue reading Unmasked vs Unhinged.
I have been struggling about six months now, trying to decide whether to call myself autistic. My main trouble with that is that I just don’t relate to what the general population thinks is autistic. To them, there are two classes of autism. The first is the savant, that is a person who is exceptionally talented in one area of life. It is estimated that … Continue reading I Choose Asperger’s
The trouble with living on the margins is that we too often get trampled by the mainstream herd. The mainstream is like a massive herd of cows, or maybe I should say sheep. It is kind of like a super-tanker, it can’t be turned quickly. Trying to get the mainstream to understand those on the margins is a very long-term thing. It simply doesn’t happen … Continue reading The Trouble Of Living On The Margins.
For the last twenty years I have re-read the book shown on the right. Due to all the stuff that has happened in my life this year, I almost forgot about this annual tradition. I would have to say that this is probably the most insightful book I have ever read. It was published in 1994 when both sisters were over 100-years old. These two … Continue reading Having My Say About “Having Our Say”
The New RJsCorner is taking a pretty serious shift from past content. Politics, and the ugliness that it entails, is no longer part of this site. The primary focus is now learning about the diversity of man, and accepting and maybe even celebrating those who are different from you. It is about my primary shift to a positive focus. I will leave the negative things … Continue reading Welcome To The New RJsCorner…
“My wife’s death five months ago yesterday caused me to do some pretty serious soul-searching. It made me realize that I was just going-with-the-flow in too many areas of my life. I was aimlessly moving from one day to another without much purpose. When I found out how quickly things can change, I become more determined than ever to live the rest of my life … Continue reading Resetting my Life Goals
I have been casually studying of Aristotle for many years, and have recently started another book about him. He was definitely a dreamer/thinker that I could never even imagine being. It is amazing to me how so many of his thoughts still apply today. Since he is one of my heroes, it just seemed natural that I look to him as to what he said … Continue reading The Pursuit of Happiness #4: According to Aristotle
All my life I have been stuck between two worlds. Perhaps the most severe is when I went totally deaf 34 years ago. It was obvious that I was no longer in the hearing world, but by the same token I wasn’t, and never would be, in the Deaf world. The isolation that resulted was frustrating, depressing, and almost tragic. But that would not be … Continue reading Stuck Between Two Worlds…
I have made it no secret here on RJsCorner that I struggled through life trying to figure out what was wrong with me. My very narcissistic mother who abandoned me when I was nine years old did nothing but amplify those negative feelings I had about myself. In hindsight, I am kind of glad she left, as I don’t know how much damage she would … Continue reading Finding Yourself In Your Differences
I have been blogging for almost fifteen years now, thirteen of them here at RJsCorner. I will soon exceed 5,000 posts here, and for the last five years or so, the posts are, as my header says, is a daily journal about my view of the world. I don’t imagine very many of you have visited older posts I have written over the years, but … Continue reading About Journaling… One More Time
While this question is maybe not be directly associated with my RetComLife, it is central to where and how I live the remainder of my life. So, I think it deserves your attention in this category. Given my recent experiences, I now realize I don’t want to waste a minute of the time I have left on this earth. My procrastination time is quickly disappearing. … Continue reading RetComLife # 12 – What Do I Want To do With The Rest Of My Life?
I have always been enthralled about the Michelangelo’s painting on the ceiling chapel of God touching man. If God is the omnipotent being with all the wisdom of the universe, then just to touch his finger would probably make me the smartest person in the world. I’ve been struggling the last few months to try to figure out what I want to do with the … Continue reading The Secret Of Life…
I had an epiphany of sorts the other day. Since I am now in a retirement community, I am around older people every day. A big majority of them either use walkers or canes to get around. There are over one-hundred independent living apartments in my community that share a common dining room. During each meal, but especially the dinner hour, there are almost as … Continue reading RetComLife #11 – The Wheels of Life
I’m sure most people think of hospice as that short period that ends the suffering of terminal patients. This post will try to explain that this description is simplified at best, and actually somewhat misguided. As my wife continued her final eight days in hospice at our new home at the best senior community in our region, she was without pain because of the regular … Continue reading End of Life Trauma #9 – The Final Week.
I never thought I would describe myself as being a victim of PTSD, but when thinking about what I went through during the end-of-life three-months with my wife, the description seems to fit. That is what this post is all about. I am glad to see that PTSD is no longer confined to what a soldier faces on the battlefield. It rightly applies to so … Continue reading PTSD…
I have been away from RJsCorner for more than two months now dealing with health issues of my beloved wife. I will start off with the end and then take you through the process to how we got here. My wife of 36 years passed away on Wednesday and was buried yesterday. Yeah, we had our spats like all married couples did, but she was … Continue reading End Of Life Trauma – Starting At The End
The above headline came from CNN on my daily news feed this morning. It sounds pretty dreadful that 153 hospital workers have refused to be vaccinated. These are the types of titles that get all the attention. The greater shock value the more likely they will be seen. CNN, and just about everyone else, knows this. The problem is that the title is a very … Continue reading Refusing The Vaccine…
Day 4 We went to the Canada Science and Technology Museum before trying to check into our hotel. They had a lot of neat exhibits there and a wall of fame that had about thirty pictures and related bios there. I recognized a few, but not many, names on that wall. Of course one thing they did invent here was the snowmobile. Here is a … Continue reading On-The-Road Canada: Day 4-7 Ottawa
There is a difference between worshiping Jesus and actually doing what he told us to do. I remember the documentary entitled “From Jesus to Christ” in 1998 on PBS Frontline. It was the serious beginning of my spiritual search for meaning. Becoming more familiar with the actual events of the period of the first 150 years of the common era (CE) helped me understand how … Continue reading RLL – Worshiping vs Following
Some people are forced to the margins, some seek them out, but for most it is likely a little of both. Being marginalized against your will is most often a bad thing. But sometimes good things can come from being forced there. Things that result in positive action. A case in point is the Republican Party’s attempts to keep people of color from voting. That … Continue reading LOM – Some Are Forced, Some Seek It Out…
I recently watched a new episode of Last Tango In Halifax which is a British TV show about two retirees who were in love in their youth meeting again and getting married. I have to say I am watching much more British TV now than ever before. Endevour is probably my favorite. But, that’s another post… Anyway, on that show, one of the retirees mentioned … Continue reading LOM – I am A Word Collector
The cartoon above from ProgressiveChristianity is probably the most effective way to counter those like the previous Supreme Court Justice Scalia. He proclaimed that he always looked at the constitution as what the founding father intent was. In other words he viewed the world with 18th century eyes and ignored anything since then. When the Constitution was written, it was law that African Americans were … Continue reading What About The Founding Fathers??
Sometimes I cling to the margins with my fingernails, and sometimes I stomp on them with both feet. I haven’t been in the mainstream for so long I don’t even realize what it is anymore. I have been deaf for going on thirty-five years now and believe me that requires some serious margin clinging. It just amazes me how the mainstream has no idea of … Continue reading Deaf People Cling To The Margins
For this Revisit Wednesday I bring you a post from June 2012 about a topic that I have always had trouble with and that is that women are supposed to know their place. “Knowing your place” has throughout history been a tactic to keep segments of society subservient to the ruling class. The very idea bugs me to my core. *****************June 2012 *********************** 1 Timothy … Continue reading Women Be Quiet!!!
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