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Being alone in the world…

RJ Walters

  I know that I am not the only person in the U.S. who is deaf. In reality there are more than three million of us around. About two million of those are like me who went deaf as an adult. That means for Indiana where I live there are about forty thousand of us around. But since I am not active in any deaf clubs or organizations I seldom come across another deaf person in my daily life. When I do I am most often too surprised to try to effectively communicate with them. So, to me being deaf almost … Continue reading Being alone in the world…

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I Believe:

RJ Walters

I believe that each of the 39,000 Christian denominations believe that they most faithfully follow Jesus. Each believes Jesus imagined the church as looking just like them. I believe that it is arrogant for any of us to suggest that we alone have most accurately discerned the true intentions of Jesus. I believe that we tend to root around in Scripture until we find a verse that supports our preference, then crown our view the only biblical one, even when other verses contradict it. This is why theological claims purporting to be biblical must always be given a very careful … Continue reading I Believe:

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Connecting with my Soul Mate…

RJ Walters

  Boy do I remember my wedding day. I suspect that most of us do. Of course for those who have been married multiple times the wedding day might get intermingled in our minds (ha). Fortunately I found my soul mate the first time around but it did take a while. I was on the teetering edge of forty years of age when it happened. I was beginning to think that marriage was just not going to happen for me! Even at forty I was still somewhat shy around women. I grew up without any female presence in the family … Continue reading Connecting with my Soul Mate…

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If Only…

RJ Walters

If only we put as much enthusiasm into our academic accomplishments as we do our sporting activities. The rest of the world is at our door ready to eat our lunch. Why is this? One reason is because academically their children are now surpassing our in math, science and other critical subjects. Anyone that has any concept of what the 21st century will be about knows that technology will play a very prominent role. Anyone who know much about technology knows that it starts with basic knowledge of math and science. One of the reasons we are about to lose … Continue reading If Only…

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War is not the answer for ANY question….

RJ Walters

  I recently read an article that proudly made the point that the U.S. military is the largest minority employer in the country. It went on to argue that if our military complex were proportioned like the rest of the world there would be many more people without jobs. The United States which makes up four percent of the world’s population maintains over 60% of the worlds military complex! Another way of saying this is that each U.S. taxpayer pays more taxes for military expenses than thirty people in just about any other country in the world. Is it any … Continue reading War is not the answer for ANY question….

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The Stock Market Needs a Good Dose of Ritalin

RJ Walters

Will Rogers – What would he say about…  Today’s stock market As I mentioned elsewhere in this blog, Will Rogers is a hero of mine. He was plain spoken half breed Indian from Oklahoma who became world famous during the 1920’s and 30’s.  If you haven’t had a chance to read any of his books or some of his daily newspaper posts then I would highly recommend you do so.  I never tire of reading him and I have read much of his work over a dozen times now! So, to start this new category out in the spirit of … Continue reading The Stock Market Needs a Good Dose of Ritalin

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I Believe….

RJ Walters

I regret to believing at one time that the sole value of Jesus rested in his ability to usher me into heaven. I  believe the principles Jesus articulated, summarized in the Sermon on the Mount, is the critical foundation for His true church I  believe that the fullness of the Holy Spirit is my  inheritance. I daily reflect on Jesus’ words to be filled with the Spirit. I believe that religious institutions committed to communal uniformity seldom ask questions. The risk of straying beyond conventional answers is too great. And the journey goes on… Continue reading I Believe….

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Where are the Milestones??

RJ Walters

One of the problems I have faced with retirement is the question “Where are the milestones?” I have up until retirement gauged most of my life by its milestones. They go something like this: Starting School My first communion Becoming a teenager Getting my driver’s license Graduating high school Deciding on college Being able to drink “legally” Graduating college Getting my first full time job Getting married Getting my first promotion Retirement Ok, so now I am at the last milestone on the list. What comes next? What is there to look forward to now? I have viewed my whole … Continue reading Where are the Milestones??

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Waiting for God to answer my prayers???

RJ Walters

I am a Christian and one of the places in the Christian Bible says “Ask and it will be Given”. I don’t think I have ever taken that to mean that if I asked God for $1,000,000 that it would show up on my doorstep the next day. I do know God doesn’t work like that. If He did the U.S. which claims to be mostly Christian would be a country of super millionaires with the resulting hyper-inflation which would make the money worthless! No, I didn’t think would give me “stuff” simply because I asked for it. I know … Continue reading Waiting for God to answer my prayers???

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Playing “Deaf & Dumb”…..

RJ Walters

As I have mentioned before I went deaf in 1988. Learning to cope in a hearing world has been one of my most strenuous challenges. Most people, whether they want to admit it or not, have preconceived ideas of who a deaf person is and for the most part I don’t fit into that mold. I am deaf but have maintained my ability to speak relatively clearly. But since I have almost no feedback I often have problems controlling the volume of my speaking. With an IQ of about 130 I am somewhat intelligent person.  I am at best a … Continue reading Playing “Deaf & Dumb”…..

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I Missed My Big Brother

RJ Walters

Here is a picture of my big brother taken standing on the bumper of a 1950 Buick I think. He was probably seven years old at the time. That would have made me about four. My big brother did the usual things that big brothers do. He often teased me and sometimes mistreated me but that was what was expected of big brothers. I think he was about twelve or so when my mother took him and abandoned my father, me and my younger brother to move to Florida and soon marry a man of much more wealth than Dad. … Continue reading I Missed My Big Brother

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I Believe….

RJ Walters

  I believe  that there is a spark of God in every human being. When one human kills another for any reason he is also killing a small piece of God. I believe that all people are created equal in the eyes of God. I believe that the first story of creation in Genesis 1:27 is more accurate than the second one in Genesis 2:21. The first says man and woman were created together and equal. The second story mimics the times it was written and makes woman subservient to the male. I believe that violence contaminates the very soul … Continue reading I Believe….

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Around the Homestead…

RJ Walters

Let’s use this post to show some pictures of my current homestead. Since we live in the country we have a variety of critters who visit us regularly. We also have plenty of room for flowers (although weeding them is another story).  We don’t get out in the gardens much this time of year as it is just so darn hot out there! I wish we could move our homestead to Maine in the summer. That reminds me I need to show some of my Maine pictures too :) . Continue reading Around the Homestead…

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Retirement Investment Advisers…

RJ Walters

  I think most investment advisers are actually in the “anti”  retirement business as they scare us out of it by insisting that the you need as much income in retirement as you did before! They actually seem to be discouraging us from thinking about actually retiring!  But then again they make their living taking a “small” percentage of your money in the process of  fixing your mistakes and getting you ready for your retirement years! I guess that needing as much money after retirement as before might be true to some who have maxed out a bunch of credit cards, failed … Continue reading Retirement Investment Advisers…

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Books on Retirement Living….

RJ Walters

Yeah, I’m probably pretty typical of a retiree in that I have read several books on what to do in my retirement years. To be quite frank none of them have been terribly useful to me! But that does not mean they were not worth reading. They did incite me to think about various things. Most retirement books are pretty generic: Get a hobby, enjoy the simple things, adjust your spending…. But there are tidbits of useful information out there. Just don’t expect a paradigm shift as a result of reading a retirement book. One of the things that retirement … Continue reading Books on Retirement Living….

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Wild Turkey!!

RJ Walters

No this post is not about hunting or eating but about drinking!  We visited Wild Turkey distillery during our stay in Louisville in April 2010. The large buildings, there are scores of them in the area,  in one of the pictures is where they age the bourbon. The present factility is very old but they are about to move to a new one.  I’m not sure that is a good thing? I’m not a big bourbon drinker but I do enjoy an occasional Manhattan. :) Continue reading Wild Turkey!!

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Laverne & Shirley???

RJ Walters

  My wife Yvonne was born in a small town in northern Wisconsin in the 1940s. When she graduated from high school she decided it was time to move to the big city. Milwaukee that is. After spending some time housed at the local Y she ended up sharing an apartment with a girl friend from the same small town. From the stories she tells they had quite an adventure together and some of those adventures included some big city boys. Anyone over fifty or so should be now saying that sounds like the old TV show called  Laverne & Shirley? … Continue reading Laverne & Shirley???

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Starry Starry Night…

RJ Walters

When I was young I guess I was sometimes a pretty serious guy as I often thought about what the future would be like. I enjoyed sitting out in the dark of night looking at the stars and thinking about what my life would be like “x” years in the future. I would lie down on my back in the grass and look at the stars for hours at a time. One time I thought I was meant to be an astronomer but I learned that looking at stars and really knowing them are two different things. One requires just … Continue reading Starry Starry Night…