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The Perfect Picture

RJ Walters

I have about 20,000 pictures in my personal portfolio. Probably one-third of them could be deleted and not really missed but that is beyond the purpose of this post.  I have a list of about a hundred or so that are 5stars. One of the top ten in that category is shown below.  I entitle it  “Box of Eggs”.  I think my attraction to this picture is because of its symmetry. My Aspie traits are particularly honed to order and symmetry. I found the picture in a Des Moines museum some years ago. So, for this artsy Saturday, I give you a “Box … Continue reading The Perfect Picture

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Everybody’s Happy But Me…

RJ Walters

Sometimes I get the feeling that I am the only one in the world that doesn’t lead an “Ozzie & Harriet” life. I know I am dating myself with that phrase as it refers to Ozzie and Harriet Nelson which was a TV show eons ago. :)  They were America’s ideal fantasy couple in the 1950’s. It seems my wife and I are constantly arguing about almost everything.  If I say up, she says down.  I have it seems more than my share of health maladies that plague me. Bad bones, a prostate the size of a watermelon (just kidding), a … Continue reading Everybody’s Happy But Me…

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The Land of Opportunity.

RJ Walters

We need the above quote now more than ever. With #CO3 trying to shut down our shores to keep everyone out, we must remember that is simply NOT what America is about. That paranoia is driven by the 25% of us who fear one thing or another.  #CO3 and his supporters see others different from them as potential competitors for jobs or at the worst as those who might do us harm or threaten their lifestyle or even their very lives. America has been and will be again the land of opportunity for each us who are willing to put the work in to … Continue reading The Land of Opportunity.

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(WS) I’ll Tell You What the Bible Says…

RJ Walters

While waiting for my car to be serviced recently I browsed a Barnes & Noble store.  I don’t do that often anymore as most of my purchases are now e-books. When I came upon the Bible section it suddenly caught my attention as to the number of books by people who propose to “tell” me about what the Bible says. For those who are unfamiliar with my history in this area, I spent several years diligently reading the Bible from cover to cover desperately trying to glean everything I could from it. Of course, before I even started that task I … Continue reading (WS) I’ll Tell You What the Bible Says…

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Patterns

RJ Walters

All my life I have been inexplicably attracted to patterns. I  never understood why until one day in the last year or so I discovered that a strong attraction to patterns is one of the characteristics of Asperger’s Syndrome.  At that time I discovered that I have many others. Now that I have a name for so many of the things I was troubled about in my youth, it gives me a peace that I have been searching for all my life. Walls, such as this one in Galena Illinois are simply beautiful as far as I am concerned. They, like … Continue reading Patterns

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Over The Hill…

RJ Walters

Being over the hill is probably the most often used phrase for getting older. When you turn forty, at least for my generation, you were considered over the hill. My hero Will Rogers certainly was an inventive guy. The way he looked at life such as the words above is what inspires me. I have never really thought about it much, but I never did get the feeling that I was on top the hill.  My life has just been happening day-to-day.  Uphill-downhill seemed more like potholes in life. When I finally reached retirement, or should I say when it reached … Continue reading Over The Hill…

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My Life Sucks…

RJ Walters

I think there is a pretty fair part of the folks in this country who think their life sucks. They haven’t had a raise in umpteen years. They have to have someone to blame and that person is often those they see as getting the “breaks” in life. It’s pretty hard for them to admit that for the most part “my life sucks because of me”. That reality just doesn’t sink for most of us.  They say they are stuck in an area with no good paying jobs but they never consider moving to a more prosperous area.  They say the only … Continue reading My Life Sucks…

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A Nice Change…

RJ Walters

Since this is my “aging week” here on RJsCorner, I will flat out tell you that I am thoroughly enjoying my “golden years” and yes they are proving to be golden.  All my life I have fretted about the future. What will I be when I grow up? Is there some other occupation that I was really built for? Since I am a weird person, should I remain a bachelor? Should I try to get another job or just retire? So many questions about life when you are young. Now don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed every minute of my time … Continue reading A Nice Change…

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Turning Back the Odometer…

RJ Walters

I like old cars and I am kinda proud of passing on some of my experiences in life here on RJsCorner. Yeah, there are things, actually quite a few, that I would like to have been different but even the undesired things are an important part of my life’s experiences, that looking back have made me who I am. If I hadn’t been deaf I wouldn’t have the level of empathy that I do. If I had not grown up in a single very stoic parent household I wouldn’t have the understanding of such things as I do. As another … Continue reading Turning Back the Odometer…

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Bragging About It…

RJ Walters

This and the next few posts are to honor of the new header above about Will’s quote on old age.  I don’t know quite what the definition of “old age” is but I kinda think I might be getting there. I just don’t understand how I got all the way to this point in my life? It seems like yesterday that I was in college working my butt off to pay for school and to graduate. Admittedly my high school memories are pretty sparse now. I played those years out in the background as a shy kid who was totally clumsy in … Continue reading Bragging About It…

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Breaking Down The Myths About Deafness

RJ Walters

On my post a while ago entitled “Life’s Lesson” I said there were ten things that I have learned in my life that I aim to put forward for your consumption here on RJsCorner. It is important to me and I kinda think it should be important to each of us that when we come across myths about living, we should do what we can to dispel the ones that are false. The three primary myths I have encountered that demand my personal attention are related to are deafness, autism, and old age. Of course, I am intimately familiar with … Continue reading Breaking Down The Myths About Deafness

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Repeal The Second Amendment

RJ Walters

Now before you jump on me with your rants, I am not trying to take your guns away from you. Being a history nut I realize that the second amendment is presently not interpreted as it was when it was originally written.  The primary part of it was the first words “In order to establish a well-regulated militia.” The underlying fear back then was that now that the federal government has a standing army it poses a threat to the security of the separate states, so each state needs its own standing army, just in case. But today, conservative courts have … Continue reading Repeal The Second Amendment

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The Passing of Sneezy…

RJ Walters

I regret to tell you that the Snow White team recently had a death among its members. Sneezy, after years of sneezing, had a heart attack. His system just could no longer take the stress. But the good news is Snow White has already found a replacement. The new member is, like the other six, is a little man but he has the illusions of being a giant. He also doesn’t seem to have the ability to tell the truth about much of anything. We don’t know if his untruthful ways are the result of just plain ignorance or maybe some … Continue reading The Passing of Sneezy…

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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…

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Skeptical

RJ Walters

Skeptical is one of my favorite words, I have been using it more and more in the last year or so. Just do a search for that word here on RJsCorner, and you will probably find a couple dozen posts using it.  I think most of you know the meaning of the word but just to be sure I will present it here. I guess my “Question Everything” stand is the source of my fascination for this word. I am skeptical about most things, but one thing I am perpetually skeptical about is what comes out of the mouth of the … Continue reading Skeptical

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For Some, The World Is Very Small Place

RJ Walters

I am a person who almost demands constant change. Doing the same thing over and over again is very boring to me. Maybe I am different from most in that regard?  I recently saw a TV show where an old person proudly proclaimed that he still lives in the house he was born in. My first thought was that he certainly lives in a tiny world. To never venture outside what may be comfortable to you is to stagnate as far as I am concerned. I can’t imagine remaining in one place for my whole life! I know in my … Continue reading For Some, The World Is Very Small Place

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I Am Old…

RJ Walters

Ok, I will admit it for at least the argument of this post, I am old.  I don’t mean to get morbid but I am likely in the last decade of my life.  Being old, besides all the aches and pains, is kind of freeing. We just don’t care as much about what people think of us than we used to. Our image is pretty much set in stone at this point in our lives so making a fool of ourselves now it not a big thing. One of the things at the new RJsCorner I plan on doing pretty … Continue reading I Am Old…

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To My High School Friends – I’m Coming Out Of The Closet

RJ Walters

I got to say immediately that no I am not declaring that I am gay. Instead, I am openly declaring here and on my personal Facebook page that I am a liberal/progressive in my social and political leanings.  Many of my high school friends are likely pretty hardcore conservatives who watch Fox News on a 24/7 and most likely voted for the #CO3 (current Oval Office occupant). I have avoided putting my blog posts on Facebook because I didn’t want to make any of you uncomfortable. Each of my daily posts here at RJsCorner will now proudly rest on my personal Facebook page. If any … Continue reading To My High School Friends – I’m Coming Out Of The Closet

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Free Range Cackles

RJ Walters

I want to finish up on the preliminaries of the new format here on RJsCorner. As I told you a few posts ago cackles are about laying eggs. I want to assure you that the eggs I lay are free-range. My thoughts that are generated into posts weren’t pinned up in some dark place before or after they were laid.  They come fresh out of my mind onto virtual paper. But like all children,   my posts must be nurtured and fed to be worthy of your purview. So they sit around in my chicken coop (better known as the Draft … Continue reading Free Range Cackles

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Will Rogers – About Religious Beliefs

RJ Walters

A regular part of RJsCorner is going to be looking at Will Rogers quotes and seeing how they apply in today’s world. So, this is the first of many in that area. Even  80 years ago it seems that there were more than a few who thought religions did more damage than they helped. I think what Will was saying is that “Bible thumpers,” and whatever they are called in the other religions, are the most intolerant of differences of faith.  They are just convinced that they are the only one who has got it right. This is what gets … Continue reading Will Rogers – About Religious Beliefs

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Will Rogers – My Hero

RJ Walters

For this morning’s cackle, I want to talk about Will Rogers. He is the reason I started RJsCorner 8 years ago. I have been reading him since I was a kid. For all you people that don’t know anything about what happened before 1980, I want to give you a little snort of Will and his words. Will was born way back in 1879 in Indian territory now known as Oklahoma. His roots were in the Cherokee nation. He started out in Vaudeville doing rope tricks in the Ziegfeld Follies but became world famous for his writing and his radio … Continue reading Will Rogers – My Hero

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My Kind Of Generation…

RJ Walters

I gotta admit that I was a hippie during the 1960s. Maybe not to the degree that I wanted but still a hippie. I had to work a full-time job, had college classes and the studying that goes with it, so that didn’t allow much time for anything else. But at least I was a hippie at heart. It’s good to hear that the students in the most recent school shooting are becoming avid activists for gun control and the rest of the kids in the nation are now joining them. Before long you might even be seeing campus demonstrations. Who knows. I see the kids in Great Britain are getting into it to support them. I have heard talk that one of … Continue reading My Kind Of Generation…

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Why are the posts now called cackles??

RJ Walters

Welcome to the new and improved RJsCorner. Before I get into anything serious, you may think it’s kinda strange for me to now call my daily posts “Morning Cackles”?  I got a reason for my madness. First off, for you city folks,  a cackle is a short and abrupt sound that hens make after they lay eggs.  My morning posts going forward will be short (250 words or less) and to the point. Paying respect to my poultry friends is one of the reasons for the name of my posts. But I gotta admit that the main reason is that the … Continue reading Why are the posts now called cackles??

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It’s Time For A New Chapter @ RJsCorner…

RJ Walters

I have decided it’s time for a new chapter here at RJsCorner.  It’s time to shake things up. I am putting out too much gloom and doom lately. Who wants more of that in their lives? I want to make my posts a regular part of your daily life. To do that they need to be more concise so you can read them in under two minutes (one minute if you are a fast reader :) ). My decision to move InSearchOfAmerica photos and most corresponding stories to Flickr albums also affected this change. At an even more basic level, I need to … Continue reading It’s Time For A New Chapter @ RJsCorner…

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Hard History

RJ Walters

I came across the story below and it amazed me that less than 8% of students in the cited survey knew that the Civil War was fought to preserve slavery. Here is a little bit about that: Just a third of students correctly identified the law that officially ended slavery, the 13th Amendment, and fewer than half knew of the Middle Passage. Most alarming, though, were the results to this question: Which was the reason the South seceded from the Union? a. To preserve states’ rights b. To preserve slavery c. To protest taxes on imported goods d. To avoid … Continue reading Hard History

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Imagining Their Stories…

RJ Walters

Because I am deaf I have a game I play quite often when I am around people, especially those I don’t know.  In my early years of deafness before closed-captioned TV was widely available is when this thing started. Since there was no sound to what I was seeing I made up my own storyline. It would have been interesting to discover how closely my story matched up with the writer’s version but of course, I never was able to discover that. Getting slightly off the subject for just a little while, I never used to think that I was a … Continue reading Imagining Their Stories…

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Creativity

RJ Walters

I am finally convinced that I am a pretty creative person as my mind constantly wanders into unimagined areas of thought. In my retirement years, I have done a pretty good job of cultivating my creative processes.  But I am always looking for ways to unleash my creativity to new areas and levels. When I ran across this article from the New York Times it gave me a different way to think about creativity. We all have fantasies or, if you prefer, ideas. I will give them a different word: “Seeds.” These seeds are the germ-line of books, short stories, songs, the … Continue reading Creativity

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Faking Religion

RJ Walters

At one time or another everyone who is true to their thoughts doubt religious beliefs. I found it surprising to see that even Mother Theresa doubted on a regular basis that God even existed.  The more I studied religious documents including the Bible the more doubt I had as to the beliefs of the variety of religion that I was then a member of. …according to a recent study in the journal, Society and Mental Health, individuals who consider leaving a faith, but do not, tend to experience more depression than those who decide to leave… There are good reasons to not … Continue reading Faking Religion

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It’s Important To Take A Stand.

RJ Walters

I am a fiscal conservative. That makes me a man without a party. The one steady thing I admired about the Republican party, at least until recently, was that they didn’t like debt. “If you were against President Obama’s deficits, and now you’re for the Republican deficits, isn’t that the very definition of hypocrisy?” Senator Rand Paul said as he held up passage of the budget bill for a few hours — perhaps until he realized that the definition fit him, too, since he had voted for the tax cuts that will blow up the deficit. Source: The Republicans Have Become … Continue reading It’s Important To Take A Stand.

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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

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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

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Religion And Global Conflict

RJ Walters

It is becoming more and more recognized that religious beliefs are and have most likely always been one of the primary sources of conflict in this world. Here are some words about the underlying reasons for this: “Religion often becomes the master variable,” Harris says. “It provides a unique reward structure. If you believe that the thoughts you harbor in this life and the doctrines you adhere to spell the difference between an eternity spent in fire or one spent on the right hand of God, that raises the stakes beyond any other reward structure on earth.” Tribal tendencies are natural … Continue reading Religion And Global Conflict

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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…

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About Wisdom…

RJ Walters

Wisdom has been on my mind lately. But before I get started on this topic I need to distinguish between two types of perceived wisdom,  gut wisdom and learned wisdom. Gut Wisdom — Gut wisdom is that feeling you get when you think you instinctively know something. It’s what your gut tells you is the truth. I know the current Oval Office occupant says he is REALLY SMART but I think his self-conceived wisdom is just his biases toward the issue at hand. He may be gut wise but he is definitely not learned wise. I have to include my … Continue reading About Wisdom…