Letting Go

Anyone following this trail of essays on mental health might find themselves feeling sorry for this old fool.  That is not my intention.  About ninety-eight percent of my troubles have been the consequences of my own decisions.  Does that make them less painful?  No.  Becoming aware of consequences directly related to one’s own decisions relieves […]

Kansas City City Market, Beignet, and Moody Football Fans

We invested a day at the Kansas City City Market.  Today, in fact.  A Sunday and the Chiefs are playing – but we have a DVR and are recording the game.  We are at the market to meet family and are hoping that we do not inadvertently hear the score of the game.  We did […]

I Am Woman, Stand By Your Man – Helen Reddy vs. Tammy Wynette

Helen Reddy gained notoriety on her first hit “I Am Woman” (1972).  Her hit stood in stark contrast to Tammy Wynette’s “Stand By Your Man” (1968). Released just four years apart – these two songs reflected the division in a changing culture from the 1960’s to the 1970’s.  In 2015 we stand at another reflection […]

Just One More Alcoholic Story

Note from Ohg Tone – I am just passing this story along.  I changed the names to protect all. By-line: Tommy C. Last January we started a new Al-Ann group at our Alano Club in St. Joseph, Missouri.  We have just finished restoring the room. http://alanostjoe.com/2014/08/09/new-hope-al-anon-has-a-fresh-look/ About a month ago, while working on that room, […]

Probiotics and the Relationship Between Mind and Body

In a culture that promotes the use of food additives like High Fructose Corn Syrup, probiotics is an area that is well worth a personal investment.

Smoking Alcohol – No Calories and No Brains

Drugs and alcohol – the elixirs of a giddy walk down the path of doom and despair – have many different modes of ingestion.  Until about five hundred years ago alcohol and drugs caused few problems for mankind.  It was about that time that some Chinese bricklayer working on a really big wall discovered that […]

Choosing the Right Coffee House

To get started in finding the right experience with coffee, you have to choose a coffee house. This is important because there are a lot of coffee houses out there that are expensive and cushy, but do not fall into the “micro-brew” coffee house category. Micro-brew coffee shops will roast their own coffees on the […]

Obama, Racism, And Gun Violence in South Chicago

A family buried their daughter today.  15 year old Hadiya Pendleton was killed earlier this week by that crazy phenomenon of irrational gun violence.  Did I mention that Hidiva was black?  Did we note she was killed on Chicago’s South Side – the epicenter of gun violence in new reports.  This is tough to talk […]

Grand Canyon 2012 Winter Expedition II

The Stuppy & Clark Expeditionary Force

Bryan Stuppy, LISW, LADAC, a leading psychologist in New Mexico, has asked me to join him on an Expeditionary Force to study the effects of primal living in a nomadic tribal environment.  The ruse has been established.  The ‘tribe’ thinks they are to study the effects of man-made flooding in the Grand Canyon.  In reality […]

Boy Scouts – False Prophets – Eject Gay Eagle Scout

According to the St, Joseph, Missouri, News Press, “A 19 year old Boy Scout has lost his job at Camp Geiger after disclosing that he is gay”.  Words like ‘hypocrisy’ come to mind.  That boy was “trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent,” and what did that get him? […]

“…Universal Masculine Purity” – The Conservative Ideal

Are we ready to return to the morale of Victorian England?   It was the age of ‘class structure’.  It was the age of male domination.  It was the age of female submission.  It was the age of child labor in textile mills.  It was the age of long work days and poor health and nutrition.  […]

Finding Meaning in the National Debate About Debt

We have had a major crisis in our house recently that started with a heated conversation about our budget, and I thought that I would share the events that led to our household meltdown so that we might learn from my mistakes and apply those lessons to our national debate about money. It was budget […]

Lessons On Exercise For Seniors – And The Need For Stretching

I am a senior.  That is somewhere between middle age and elderly.  Everyone wants to live a long time but no one wants to be old, as the saying goes.  I am just another person trying to delay feeble living.  I have learned a few hard lessons along the path to regular exercise. I wrote […]

Sins of Our Father – and Other Life Prejudices

At some point in each or our lives we have to ask ourselves – who am I?  Social order forces the question.  We cannot live a complete life without someone challenging at least one of our belief systems – and often our entire concept of proper culture.  Prejudices must be examined and rethought – for […]

Latino Food Section At Walmart, As Seen By A Redneck

Down the road in St. Joe, Mo, there is a pig processing plant.  I think they slaughter like 2,000 pigs a day – and it takes a gob of Mexicans to get the job done.  They have about 2,500 workers, about one fourth of which are either Hispanic, Latino, or just plain old Mexican.   Most […]

Underemployed – What Does This Mean?

Underemployment has taken on several new meanings in this struggling economy.  David Shuster of MSNBC asked one of his guests what the term means – the response: “It means that people are working part time in stead of full time.  What?  It seems as if the pundits just make stuff up to fill their 30 […]

Weight Loss Myths – And Why People Believe Them

My Doctor said, “Don’t worry about your weight, worry about your health.”  That philosophy works for a skinny guy like him,  In my case, I am healthy.  All of my blood work comes back in the normal ranges.  But I also carry almost forty pounds over the recommended weight for my somatotype.  When I was […]

Brainwashing Tiger Woods – Failures of Addiction Therapy

Future psychologists will look back on this era of addiction treatment in much the same manner that they presently look back on 19th century mental asylums. The real sadness is that progressives in the present mental health community already recognize the deplorably foolish tactics of many addiction treatment centers.

Clutter, Hoarding, Pyschological Diagnosis or a Busy Family

So what is it with people who hoard ‘things’ – who place their ‘things’ around the house with indiscriminate frivolity? Is this just a value system learned in childhood, the symptoms of a life too busy to sort through the ‘things’, or are these people nuts and require treatment with Tiger Woods? And the more important question: Am I one of ‘those’ people?

St. Joseph, Missouri, Urban Trail in Winter

I happen to be in St. Joseph, Missouri, today.  The NFL playoffs brought me to town to visit old friends.  We arrived early and I decided to take a hike along the City’s Urban Trails.  The scenery is spectacular in Winter.  But the scenery points out the enigma of St. Joseph Leadership.   Check out the […]

George Carlin on Saving The Planet

Check out George Carlin in this youtube video.  What is your take?  Is Carlin opposed to modern environmentalists – or is Carlin being sarcastic? Check it out – what do you think? Listen closely – what is Carlin’s message? I agree wtih Carlin.  The planet will be fine – but we humans will no longer […]

The Freegan Insurrection

My wife and I have been attempting to evaluate our lifestyle for some time now, hoping to live out our values as followers of Jesus and to create a sense of equity in our lives with the less fortunate. We have taken up recycling and composting, selling off our excess and getting back to the […]

Thoughts on Misunderstanding Charity

The holiday season is upon us, and everyone is geared up for the giving season. I think that a conversation on the merits of charity is essential at this stage of the game. I read an article on Trying To Follow a while back about clothing drives. It has some great fodder for conversation. In […]

5 gifts that can change the world

It is that time of year when I scramble to get the last gifts before all of the other saps try scrambling to get the last gift, thus, I beat the crowd  My family has been trying to get away from the obligatory knick-knack purchases that we have always ended up getting for those that […]