What brings people together?
Why start an article with a question (or two)?
Because it is a big one as we think of the current state of our country.
The root word for reconciliation is “conciliare,” a Latin word meaning to bring together. Add the “re” to it and you get “to bring back together.” To my thinking that means what was once a less contentious, more harmonious relationship among people has been severed and should be reconnected.
Or should it?

I received an email from a friend last week with the subject line “Anosognosia.” Wouldn’t that be a wonderful word for the National Spelling Bee? The text began, “This is a big word which few can define and fewer use.” Define and use? Most of us would be happy just to be able to pronounce it!

“Boys it is time to go home and eat dinner, get some rest, then come back and finish plowing and hoeing this tobacco patch.” This tobacco happened to be on a 30-acre farm in Kettle Hollow that Dad had bought for the tobacco allotment. We unhooked the mule, put her in the pasture, put up our hoes, climbed into Dad’s 1948 Dodge panel wagon and started home. It was early July of 1958. Arriving home about 11:45 a.m. Daddy said, “Boys it’s about mail time and I forgot before driving up the hill to our home. So, you need to go and meet Edd and bring the mail, while I get dinner ready.”

Opioid abuse across the country is at epidemic proportions, and the abuse is at its worst in poor rural communities. Of all 50 states in the US, Tennessee ranks third in opioid abuse. Opioid use has ravaged the rural Appalachian region of East Tennessee, both with its prevalence and with its destruction of families.

The City of Painview was represented by Vice Mayor Richard Phillips and Police Chief Brandon Ford at the recent Walk for Victims in Wilson Park. The Walk for Victims is an initiative by Attorney General Jared Effler to draw attention to victims rights and is part of a national one first proclaimed under President Ronald Reagan.

While your college student is home on break, you might want to have a discussion with her or him about the benefits of chiropractic treatment during the school year. After all, chiropractic treatment is not just for older adults with back problems. It’s beneficial for all people and college students are among those poised for benefit.

Do you like it when somebody tells you not to do something? I don’t. Why? Like most people, I like to think I know better. Unfortunately, over the years I have found out the hard way that I’m usually wrong and I should have listened. There were times the outcomes were no big deal and at others times they were could’ve been dangerous.

Someone recently stated: “We’re churning out a generation of poorly educated people with no skill, no ambition, no guidance, and no realistic expectations of what it means to go to work.”
In the mid-1940s one Union County teacher in a rural two-room school estimated that he expected 20% of his students to go on to high school. This was higher than a colleague who expected that only about 8% of her elementary students would go on to high school. Interestingly, those teachers had “length[s] of term [of employment] expected” at eight months, one with a monthly salary of $83.

In large bowl combine first 7 ingredients. Transfer mixture to greased 9 inch pie plate
Drizzle with butter. Sprinkle with paprika. Bake at 350 F. until lightly browned, 35 to 40 minutes. Makes 6 servings.

I may be writing this for myself because I am a bona fide Type A person. I’m always engaged in some activity, making lists to check off, with my mind constantly engaged in problem solving or accomplishing some goal. And worthy things do get done for church and family, but it can come with the cost of exhaustion, burn out, and self-imposed stress. One way to improve things is to take time to get away to a quiet place and be still for a little while.