We visited the Memphis Antique Archeology store in 2016 and a couple of months ago we managed to get to the original store in Le Clair Iowa. Having a DVR we watch this show when we are eating dinner. … Continue reading Le Clair – Antique Archeology
Who wants to totally live in our hectic world today. I have seen too many of my friends give up on our times and say they want out. That defeatist attitude seem to be taking over our world especially with the current Oval Office holder in charge. It seems that all of us need to get away from today at least for a little while each day. We need an “Altered State” that we can escape to. Somewhere where the world doesn’t seem so real. Just what that altered state ends up being depends on the person. Some like one … Continue reading Altered States..
Now that I have told you what I believe about the Bible I will go over a short list of things that are somewhat widely accepted by some twenty-first century Christian denominations but of which I basically disagree. Most of these topic titles are from texts of discussions I have had with Christians. I put them in a special category here because they were so deeply felt by others. All the words in the Bible are the words of Jesus (ie. every word and punctuation mark comes from God). This title came from a person fairly high in the LCMS Lutheran organization. He … Continue reading My View Of The Bible –Part 3.. Other Views
For this artsy Saturday I want to put up a picture from my many visits to northern Wisconsin. I don’t really remember exactly where this one was taken as it was in 1998 and there was no GPS at that time. But to me it absolutely reeks of serenity. Continue reading Serene..
Given my last post was about the “repenter” of Times Square I thought I would follow it up with a quite different version. click on any image to see a larger slideshow version Looking back on the posts this week it is interesting to see how they are all linked by common threads. I definitely wasn’t disappointed by the crowds and revelry on Times Square that Saturday night. :) Continue reading A Follow Up…
When we were in NYC the last time we rented a hotel room very near Time Square. It was pretty expensive but since this was probably our last time there we deemed it worth the costs. For those who don’t know it Saturday night in Times Square is all about partying. Thousands turn out to celebrate one thing or another. And then there are always a few to have a different agenda for that night. That is the topic of the picture below. I have seen this picture hundreds of time since it was taken in 2014 and almost every … Continue reading Times Square Repenter..
I truly believe that I am an optimist at heart but being one is down right depressing at times, especially these times. I have been thinking a lot about this lately and I have come to the conclusion that looking … Continue reading Getting My Hopes Up…
About a week ago I spent the day at the Des Plaines Valley Rendezvous near Chicago. It was a smallish event but maybe one of the most accurate ones I have been to. Here are some pictures of some the the recreators. It is sometimes difficult to think of Chicago as once being s fur trapping rendezvous. They certainly had a lot of enthusiasm for what they were doing. click on any picture to see a larger slideshow view Continue reading Rendezvous..
This post continues with my fundamental beliefs about the Bible. I have not come to these beliefs on a whim. They are the result of many years of thoughtful prayer and study. I am also not trying to prove anyone wrong. Everyone should come to God in their own way. So let’s get on with the final four areas of my view on the Bible. Some words of the Bible have infinitely more significance to our lives than others— The words through Jesus’ lips are the most important. Every other word is secondary at best. This is a major sticking point for some. … Continue reading My View Of The Bible— Part 2 .. What I believe (con’t)
My wife totally enjoys NYC. We have been there several times. This artsy picture was taken in Central Park on one of our visits. Continue reading Artsy Saturday..
Hey, I’m not ashamed to give someone credit for things that are accomplished even if it was only by accident or maybe serendipity. So, congratulations President Trump on starting to break the gridlock that has kidnapped our nation’s capitol for far too long. The GOP is starting to scream “He wants to work with the DEMOCRATS!!!” “WE HAVE BEEN BETRAYED!!” To all that I say It is about time. We knew going in that Trump was neither a Republican or a Democrat. The only thing he is for is to make himself look good. Nothing else really matters to him … Continue reading Breaking Gridlock…
It is so nice to see that despite the GOP resistance that renewable resources are replacing carbon based fuels. In more and more of my travels InSearchOfAmerica I see wind farms such as the one in the photo below. It is nice to see us harvesting wind the same way as the corn and soybeans in the fields below them. This one was taken in the northern part of my home state of Indiana. I am even looking to put solar panels on my micro-RV in the coming winter season. They cost just a fraction of what they did a … Continue reading Wind Farms..
I just returned from a four-day road trip InSearchOfAmerica to the Chicago and Rockford IL area. It was quite a trip and made up for the very disappointing one that preceded it. One site I just came upon ended up one of the most enjoyable. It was at the Nicholas Conservatory & Gardens. The special exhibit on display was from the artist Bruce Munro. From his book that I purchased it stated that he captures light based themes. I will be talking more about that in some coming posts but for now I wanted to give you an idea … Continue reading Playing With Light…
On my recent road trip I came across an eerie place. I try to avoid Interstate highways whenever possible so that means that I come across the “bones” of America so to speak. By that I mean towns and other … Continue reading Eerie Place..
I will admit up front here that I have no idea of why the so-called social media is addictive to so many people, especially our younger generations. But then again due to my Asperger’s characteristics I am not really attuned to much of any form of social interactions. :) But that doesn’t keep me for chiming in on this issue. Growing up in the 1950s and 60s I was never aware of much social pressure in my life. I tended to live inside my own bubble and was just not that affected by what others thought of me. I did … Continue reading Instagram, Here I Come..
For the next three Sundays I want to bring over some slightly edited posts of things I discovered about the Bible while blogging at RedLetterLiving.net. These posts were from early 2014 but my feelings about the topic really haven’t changed all that much. I have been spending quite a bit of time lately thinking about the Bible and my experiences with it over the last decade or so. Around 2003 I decided to take up a serious study of theology and in particularly those around the words of Jesus. I naively thought I could get some clear directions for my … Continue reading My View Of The Bible ..
I have always been attuned to Shaker furniture and symmetry. It is probably the most beautiful form to me. This picture was taken during one of my many trips to Pleasant Hill Shaker Village near Lexington KY. Continue reading Shaker Symmetry
I know one of the reasons that we have the current incompetent in the White House is that too many white men are afraid of becoming a minority. They are afraid of what will happen when their say is no longer the dominant one but instead one of many. For the most part white men have been dismissing minorities for decades and don’t want that to happen to them. They are afraid of many things but this is probably one of the major ones. If none of the clues on RJsCorner have given you a hint then I will bluntly … Continue reading What’s It Feel Like For a White Man To Be A Minority??
Sometimes beauty show up when we least expect it. That is the case with the pictures below. Who would have thought that marbles and eggs are beautiful? But, at least for me, these pictures prove that they can be. I really don’t know how I came to associate these two pictures together. The marbles were taken at a prairie museum in a high plains State and the eggs were taken four years earlier at a Des Moines museum. Somehow they both crossed my mind simultaneously to make this post. If we just stop and take the time we can find … Continue reading A Bunch of Marbles & A Box of Eggs..
I ran across an interesting very concise history of the period between 1870 and 1970 and how it may just be repeating itself today. It is worth a read if you have a couple of minutes today. Economically Speaking, We Are Living a Rewind of American History | HuffPost Continue reading We Are Living a Rewind of American History
Believe it or not the pictures below were not taken fifty years or more ago but just six months or so ago. I am old enough to remember visiting a few hardware stores like this one when I was a kid in the 1950s. I think that is where I inherited my fascination with nut & bolts and such. I don’t know how long this store can survive but I hope it lasts forever. It doesn’t hurt that it is in a pretty rural area of Indiana. :) Continue reading Old Time Hardware Store..
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. Edmund Burke I don’t necessarily call, at least yet, our current times evil but none the less the Edmund Burke quote above applies to where we are as a country. Too many of us decided to sit out the last election cycle and what we got is the result. I certainly hope that this is a lesson learned and election participation increases dramatically in the coming years. We can no longer allow a radical fringe minority to choose our country’s leadership. Good men … Continue reading For Good Men To Do Nothing..
One of the major problems, that is besides their political leanings, is too many evangelical churches preach the “Sit Back and Wait Syndrome”. I know, as I did so myself, that it is too easy to just ignore your Church’s current beliefs in order to preserve your “country club membership”. Taking a stand against something often times means you’re asked to leave as you don’t believe the “right” things. That can be hard on your social life but do you really want to put that ahead of your spiritual life? The “SBAW” syndrome goes something like this: Everyone of us … Continue reading The Sit Back And Wait Syndrome..
The GOP and particularly the Evangelical segment seems to be against so many things. Anything to do with below the belt issues or invented since the Victorian age they are against. You name it and they seem to be against it. There is a simple solution to this. If you are against it then just don’t do it. If you believe it is wrong to eat meat then don’t do it, but don’t expect everyone to follow suit. If you think it is wrong to date and especially marry a person from another race then don’t do it, but don’t … Continue reading Well Then Don’t…
To me certain things are necessary to call something beautiful. Most often they are form, symmetry, and color. Just the right combinations of these three almost always result in something being beautiful. To add the adjective “creative” to the beautiful tag means something that didn’t exist prior to the beautiful thing. Most often that is a man-made creation. Being a car guy the picture below is one of those objects. I was not enthusiastic about the Avanti line when it was created in the 1950s by Studebaker or when it was resurrected by the Avanti Car Company in 1963. But … Continue reading Creative Beauty
I have visited Galena Illinois four times since the picture below was taken in 1990. The town just seems frozen in time to when U.S. Grant occasionally lived there. Since the picture was recorded on film and then rescanned it doesn’t have the resolution to be a large scale photo but that doesn’t reduce it beauty. It was taken in the early morning sun from Grant Park which is across the river from the town center . Now onto my story about Galena. My wife is a gamer, not the online kind but she does spend hours each week … Continue reading Galena…
I have said this before but I think it needs refreshing. You are never too old to stop dreaming. Here I am in my seventies and still dreaming of what I want to do in my future years. Yes, some … Continue reading Dream On… Dream On…
This is the fourth and final post of Philip Gulley’s book entitled If Grace is True. Universal Salvation is not something I intended to find during my extensive study into the words of Jesus but that is where I was led. I didn’t consider this for many years. I actually thought my experiences rare. I was one of the chosen. I was special. Now I know the truth. God whispers his love in every ear. He isn’t interested in declaring his love to a select few. He doesn’t limit his presence to Vatican City, to the halls of seminaries, to … Continue reading God Whispers In Every Ear..
I have been fascinated by gardens just about all of my life. I think it started with Mrs. Forester when I was six years old. She was a very old lady, at least in six year old terms, who lived next to us in urban Indianapolis. I don’t know if she was widowed or just a spinster but she was always nice to me even though I was probably a pretty hyperactive kid that most old people have little tolerance for. Mrs. Forseter’s back yard seemed like it was a palatial estate when in reality it was probably no more … Continue reading A Gardening I Will Go…
I am a dreamer, always have been and always will be. When times are bad I dream of better times. When times are good I thank the Lord. I have always dreamed that every citizen of our country has at least an ounce of empathy and two ounces of brains. I have come to doubt that belief, especially since the person in the Oval Office doesn’t even seem to pass the bill. I guess this particular dream will have to wait a while before it can be realized. Now don’t misunderstand me, I don’t expect everyone to be overflowing with … Continue reading An Ounce Of Empathy & Two Ounces Of Brains
This past weekend I traveled to Elwood Indiana for a visit to the Elwood Glass Festival. While there were some bright points to the trip it was generally disappointing in that the “Glass” part of the festival has been for … Continue reading Elwood Indiana Glass Festival
Almost ten years ago I started my first blog called RedLetterLiving. It was about living by the words of Jesus. I was concerned that even though Christianity was founded on the idea that Jesus was the Christ few current Christian denominations seemed to put much weight on his actual words. Little did I know that this study would go on for six years before I had fully answered my initial questions to at least my own satisfaction. I’m not sure when the organization Red Letter Christians was started but I think it was about that same timeframe. Two much more famous … Continue reading The Teachings of Jesus Are Very Hard To Follow..
I don’t know how many readers ever look at the quotes I rotate through the header of RJsCorner. I try to change them weekly but sometimes that task falls in the proverbial crack. In the current header is a quote from Thomas Jefferson about staying too long that seems especially relative to the folks in Washington DC. Too many in our national congress have overstayed their time there, especially in the leadership roles. I truly believe that the GOP leader in the senate is one of the basic problems with that institution’s gridlock. What will it take short of death … Continue reading Staying Too Long..
I am still pondering why people are so different in this world today. Why are there those who celebrate that they just don’t care much for other’s circumstance and places in the world. They are almost exclusively in a world centered around themselves. Everything else is just “Not my thing”. This especially troubles me with I then hear them say that they are also “real” Christians? I think I have latched onto one of the reasons for this and that is that their world is just too small. Psychology has shown that very young children are by nature pretty selfish. … Continue reading Your World Is Just So Small
Here is a snippet from Facebook that got my attention. :) Continue reading Dear God…
We all recognize that like most other things the Internet is shades of grey. There are things on the Internet that are now so essential we wonder how we ever got along in the world without them. Being just a few clicks away from possible answers to anything we might ask is almost unbelieveable to this guy who spent hours in library card catalogues to research compositions for various college classes. But then of course there is the downside. Pornography is part of that but I really believe that anonymity is just as damaging in some ways. I know there … Continue reading Owning What You Say..
After more than a year of this stuff I am utterly tired of the statement in the title of this post! I am tired of people around the president trying to calm the effects of the latest bomb Mr. Trump seems to launch almost daily. Yes, I recognize that without the white supremacists vote he would likely not be president. I recognize that it is an important part of his base that he doesn’t want to offend since there is a slight chance that he may need them again. But even with his massive ego he needs to realize that … Continue reading “What He Really Meant…”
This is insane, and mainly because God patently hasn’t taken care of any of these things. Humans do these things and humans do stuff to mitigate or eradicate them. God’s still on holiday, where he has been for a few thousand years. Source: Lazy and Incoherent Theology: God Will Take Care of It I know that many of Mr. Trump’s supporters are evangelical Christians who believe that everything that happens, and especially his election, is God’s will. When things happen that they don’t like or can’t reconcile with their beliefs then they fall back on “God works in mysterious ways.” … Continue reading God’s Still On Holiday..
Just a quick snippet today to focus on the highlight of my EAA day recently. I am not really a plane guy but it was certainly worth the time. Especially when I came across the car with an airplane engine. It made my day complete. Continue reading A Car With An Airplane Engine??
EAA stands for Experimental Aircraft Association and they are located in OshKosh Wisconsin. Having married a northern Wisconsin girl over thirty years ago I have driven past their headquarters many many times. They have an annual airshow at the end … Continue reading EAA Airshow..
This is part 3 of my review of the book entitled “If Grace Is True” by Philip Gulley. It is indeed hard to comprehend the fullness of God’s grace. Man puts many obstacles in the way of understanding it and unfortunately as the below quote says the church which should be about removing obstacles seems instead seems intent on putting many of them in place. Many versions of church tell us that God can’t stand to look at us because we are just too sinful. They tell us that God sees us as no more than a piece of snot. … Continue reading The Fullness of God’s Grace…..
I know the topic of paperweights sounds very boring. A paperweight can be a rock or just about anything with enough weight to hold down a stack of paper. But when you see some of the glass paperweights from around … Continue reading Paperweights..
Being a deep thinker I often wonder where our biases and prejudices come from. :) Are we born with them. Do they come from those around us or do we come up with them on our own? I kinda believe it is the middle one. If you grew up white in the South in the 1950s and 60s and most everyone around you were segregationists then it is very likely you also would become one. If the people you look up to to learn about life think one way you are probably more than likely to think that way too. … Continue reading This Is What You Are To Believe…
“Intolerance is the first sign of inadequate education. An ill-educated person behaves with arrogant impatience, whereas truly profound education breeds humility”. —Alexander Solzhenitsyn I will come out of the closet here and admit that I get a weekly subscription from the “The Week” magazine which is a decidedly progressive publication. When I cam across this quote in the “Wit & Wisdom” column on the July 21st issue it got my attention. 72% of Democrats and Democrat-leaning Independents believe that colleges and universities have an overall positive effect on the country. But 58% of Republicans and Republican-leaning Independents feel these institutions … Continue reading Intolerance And Education…
One of our favorite satellite TV shows is Antique Archeology. My wife and I record everything we watch so we are only briefly exposed to the commercials. That being the case we usually watch this show while we are eating dinner. It always amazes me how the people they visit are obsessed with their “stuff”. They often have thousands of items and are not willing to sell anything unless it is a duplicate. But I am getting off my intended track here. :) Last year when we were on our way to our Disney World adventure we stopped in Nashville to … Continue reading Antique Archeology.. Nashville Store
