By Joe Rector joerector@comcast.net Something about family warms our hearts, even though all of us have plenty of ghosts in our closets. Those relatives bring more happiness than sadness, more good memories than bad dreams. I’ve been thinking of three uncles, my mother’s brothers, and saying a silent “thank you” for their presence in my […]
By Joe Rector Maybe it’s that I am more often grumpy these day, or perhaps it’s that I am more observant of the things that occur. Just maybe it’s because the filter that set a five-second delay between my thinking and saying things is gone. Whatever it is, I’ve discovered that some things just raise […]
By Joe Rector joerector@comcast.net Here in the volunteer state, news stories dripped in over the last couple of week. Oh, Christmas and New Year’s Day have come, and a peppering of break-ins and fires have made the nightly news programs. For the most part, however, not much occurs during this time of year. The result […]
By Joe Rector After running my mouth hundreds of time during my life, I’m ready to accept that uttering “never means never” is just deluding myself. Over and over again, life and the situations that arise demand changes in what we do or the way we do them. Some of the never moments involved our […]
By Joe Rector Over the weekend Amy dispatched me to purchase a quartz heater. Its purpose is to knock off the chill in our family room. At one time in life, I might have objected because heaters smothered me and had me taking off layers of clothes. Things are different these days because I sit […]
By Joe Rector joerector@comcast.net Life offers plenty of signals to individuals to let them know they are getting old. Some come when we try to physically perform at the level we did a few years ago. Of course, some of us see the signs when we notice gray or thinning hair, paunches where flat stomachs […]
By Joe Rector It’s those sounds from childhood that stay with us for a lifetime. Even when every curtain in the house was pulled and the only light on in the house was the one in the bathroom, we boys knew when Daddy came home. It was that sound of white gravels in the driveway […]
By Joe Rector Since the demise of the U.S. economy in 2008, too many Americans have lost their jobs. In Tennessee 424,000 parents have lost them, and that number doesn’t include the people who are no longer looking for work. (Kids Count Data Center) It’s a sad situation, one that breaks the hearts, hopes, and […]
By Joe Rector I’m fascinated by business pitches on television. Some of them, such as E Trade or Aflac, are funny. Others like Northern toilet paper or Viagra are nothing short of inappropriate. One thing is for sure: none of them paint life as it really exists. One particular subject confounds me. It’s the commercial […]
By Joe Rector Okay, let’s try to sort things out. The House of Representatives Republicans don’t like Obamacare. They want to defund it, delay it, or do anything else to stop its implementation. So, they refuse to fund the budget with a continuing resolution unless provisions to kill the law are included. Democrats in the […]
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