RJ's Corner

Celebrating Bad Grammar??

May 19, 2017May 20, 2017RJ Walters

I ran across a blog site today that celebrates bad grammar. The author claimed that using proper grammar was just too conformist. He wants to be a radical so he uses bad grammar. I kinda think that he has a deeper underlying reason?

Celebrating our mistakes in life leads to nothing more than going deeper and deeper down the well. Eventually we run out of light to even find our way back.

It’s kind of like that cable show that celebrates obesity. I think it is called something like “My Big Beautiful Life”. The star dances around, at least until she runs out of breath, as if to celebrate that she is 100 lbs over weight. She claims she never wants to be “normal”.

Next thing you know someone will show up celebrating cancer or pedephilia.

I have always said the the true source of these kind of things is simply laziness. Too many of us just don’t want to do the work to make ourselves better than we are. It seems that is a sad fact of life in today’s world.

Simple Yet Evocative

May 17, 2017May 18, 2017RJ Walters

I came across a blog site (The Drabble) the other day that spoke to my heart. Actually the site came across me by “liking” one of my very short posts. The words simple, yet evocative pieces that capture what it means to be human described the purpose of the site. Simple yet evocative says it all for me. It is hard to do both but when it is done successfully it is genius and many of the posts I reviewed on that blog did just that.

I have been on a “Simplicity” binge for about 5 years now. For me at least, life is just getting too complicated even in my retirement years. Everyone seems to be on a razor’s edge now and can’t see much joy in life. Since this is the only go-around we have if you waste your life with worry and fear it is indeed wasted and gone forever. It is definitely time for simplicity in my, and most others’ lives.

Getting back to the theme of this post. Simple yet evocative, is something that is very difficult to do. One of my favorite sayings is from a folk singer legend Pete Seeger:

Any damn fool can get complicated. It takes a genius to obtain simplicity.

It is easy to make things complicated. Just look at all those yahoos inside the Washington DC beltway for evidence of that. We need folks who can take complicated and give us simple answers. That is what most of those who voted for the current president were hoping for but the rest of us knew he was just too flawed to actually live up to any of his hyper rhetoric.

We also need simplicity from ourselves. Your life is not really as complicated as you think it is. Millions and millions of people have faced the same struggles as you are and still found joy and happiness and that is what I personally intend to do for my remaining years.

I naively think I will take a serious crack at Simple yet evocative here on RJsCorner. I think that melds very well with my desire to write some prose. Simple yet evocative is difficult to achieve but I think I am up to it. How about you??

Sunday’s Religion In America Series..

May 14, 2017May 14, 2017RJ Walters

My intention going into the new RJsCorner was that I would use Sunday to sometimes post about things religious. With that in mind I thought I would start a new series about the founding of the U.S. by people escaping religious persecution in other countries. I probably have a couple of dozen of these type communities I have visited over the years of traveling across this country. This post will start us off on this direction.

These posts will probably be more about our country’s history than religious beliefs. They will highlight communities throughout the country that were started by groups of people with a particular set of beliefs that oftentimes differed from sect they originally belonged to. So, it is hard to categorize them in one particular category. They will often be “Reports” in my journey In Search of America.

When most people, especially those from outside looking in, see Christianity they think of one homogeneous community with one set of religious beliefs. In reality that could not be further from the truth. There are over 35,000 different versions of Christianity and that number is increasing year after year. There always seems to be reason for one segment of a sect to separate from another. To many, like Martin Luther, latch onto one particular sentence of the Bible and disregard much of the rest.

Of course my personal bias will show through in these reports. How can that be otherwise? So, I want to tell you a little about my beliefs here. I currently do not call myself a “religious” person but I am an avid follower of the teachings of Jesus Christ. To me it just seems that most, if not all, of the current religious denominations almost ignore Jesus’ teachings and instead fixate on some words invented by someone long after his death.

Closing this post, this will be an interesting series for me and I hope you will learn a few things from it. In Search of America is a broad topic indeed and this is an important segment…

They Come And Go..

May 10, 2017May 4, 2017RJ Walters

Spring is my absolute favorite season. Everything springs to life after a cold and often cruel winter. The menagerie of flowers that quickly come and go is sometimes breathtaking.

Click on the picture to see a larger version

Creativity and Age..

May 8, 2017May 3, 2017RJ Walters

Let’s face it, most people believe that old people just can’t be creative. Of course, the definition of old varies widely among those with that belief. Some think if you are past 30 you are drained of creativity. You can call this bias if you want since it is pretty much ingrained into our society. I think the average age of the employees of Silicon Valley tech companies is about 30.

But in reality, some people get more creative as they grow older. A 2016 Information Technology and Innovation Foundation study found that inventors peak in their late 40s and tend to be highly productive in the last half of their careers. I had a couple of mundane patents when I was working in the corporate world but for the most part, I never considered myself to be creative until I left that world in my early 50s.

It was not until I opened up my own custom cabinets shop that the creative bug bit me. I designed and built a wide line of custom made furniture. No two customers wanted exactly the same thing so my creative juices were constantly used during that six year period. Like most things in my life, after I get good at something I usually also get bored with it and am ready to move on to something else.

In the twelve years since shutting down that furniture making shop my creative energies have gone into my photography and writing. I have done a lot of traveling in my region of the country and beyond. For me personally my creativity has grown as I have aged. Part of that might be due to the stifling atmosphere of many large companies. I can still remember one of my corporate bosses saying to embrace risk but to never fail? If you never fail are you embracing risk? That logic escaped me then and still does.

High Tech/High Touch And The Good Old Days

May 7, 2017May 6, 2017RJ Walters

Back in the beginnings of this technology race we are currently in there was a saying “High Tech/High Touch” meaning that as technology becomes more prevalent we need to also be exposed to more real thing we can feel and touch. That saying, along with so much more seems to have been lost on the ash heap of time. But I personally kind of enjoy seeing and visiting the time when we weren’t so dependant on our techie stuff.