Rushing's Ramblings

I never considered myself poor when I was growing up until a former high school classmate mentioned recently that she didn't realize she had been poor as a child until she was an adult. Our small community consisted of identical houses adjacent to a petroleum plant.  All our fathers worked in the plant.  There was a school for grades one to twelve, a grocery store, a post office, dry cleaners, and a gas station. While her comment gave me pause for a minute, I still don't have the same perception of our childhoods. We didn't have everything we wanted, but we all had everything we needed. Most of our fathers had been in WWII and eagerly accepted jobs at the petroleum company plant when the war was over. We lived in houses provided by the company that sat on land owned by a local rancher. I was in middle school when the company allowed employees to buy homes. I wonder if it was a good deal or if families had a choice, as the land the houses sat on still belonged to the r...

I must have been around six or seven when my father decided to shoot a wild turkey for our Thanksgiving dinner. He also thought our hunting expedition would be the perfect time to teach my older brother and me to shoot rifles. We were enthusiastic wannabe hunters, so the three of us went on a bitterly cold November day in the Texas Panhandle to find a turkey in the Canadian River bottom. The Canadian River, a tributary of the Arkansas River, begins in the Sangre de Christo Mountains in New Mexico and flows through the Texas Panhandle on its way to Oklahoma. When it reaches the drought-prone Panhandle, the river becomes a trickle of water in many places. Yo u might think of the Panhandle as flat, and you'd be right, except for the area around Borger and Phillips. Palo Duro Canyon, the "Grand Canyon of Texas," is located 75 miles south of my hometown. Since the Panhandle is over 3,000 feet above sea level and semi-arid, much of the land is unencumbered by trees and...

Next door to the rehabilitation hospital that I managed a few years ago in south Florida was a heart hospital. The heart hospital was built a couple of years after my hospital opened. An indoor bridge separated my office from Dr. Smith's, the chief cardiac surgeon. Dr. Smith was originally from Dallas. I had lived there for many years before moving to south Florida, so we had something in common and instantly became friends. He had a lot of time on his hands, as the heart hospital was rarely at capacity. Seven hospitals within a 15-mile radius also had state-of-the-art cardiac programs, each touting theirs as the best in South Florida. At one time, there was an agreement between hospitals that they would specialize in different areas of medicine. Hospital administrations soon discovered the significant revenue from cardiac procedures and started their own heart hospitals. Subsequently, many cardiac beds stayed empty. Although cardiac surgeons are paid handsomely, they maintain t...

Reiki was developed in Japan in 1922 by Dr. Usui as an alternative form of medicine to reduce stress and promote healing through light touch, which transfers energy from the practitioner to the individual. Although I had heard of Reiki in the past, I had never experienced it personally. When I managed a rehabilitation hospital for those with recent strokes, amputations, head injuries, etc., I was contacted by a group of people who practiced Healing Touch, a similar treatment method. I agreed to let them use my hospital to train practitioners. We were cautious in introducing this to patients, as they were required to consent. Most patients were open to Healing Touch and reported feeling better and more relaxed after the sessions. I consider myself open-minded and wanted to give Reiki a try. A close friend has a daughter named Heather Elizabeth, who has her own Reiki practice. Heather Elizabeth is a licensed master's level social worker but found traditional psychotherapy me...

Nelson Mandela is always at the top of my list when asked whom I'd like to meet. I was fortunate to have lived in South Africa while he was President, although I only lived there for one year of his presidency. I never had the opportunity to meet him, but I remember trying to get a glimpse of him when I passed his compound in Johannesburg. I'm currently reading  The Prison Letters of Nelson Mandela . I had recommended the book to my book club because of my admiration for Nelson Mandela and the many fond memories of living in South Africa. When I suggested it, I didn't realize how tedious the book would be. The book, over 600 pages, not only contains his letters for 27 years of imprisonment, but almost every page has a quarter of footnotes in the tiniest font imaginable.   When I first started reading the book, it was apparent that each letter he wrote was with the censors in mind. Many of his letters never reached the recipient because they were deemed subvers...

I didn't know what I would be doing after I retired. I imagined some volunteering, writing, consulting, and meeting new friends. I wanted to live close to my daughter and grandson, so I drove from Florida to Seattle with my dog and brother.   A year in Seattle was enough for me to abhor spending nine months out of the year in drizzly weather with very little sunshine and daylight that lasted for about four hours. Three months of beautiful sunshine, hiking in the splendor of the Cascades, and being surrounded by like-minded folks were not going to keep me in Seattle. My grandchildren were still a priority, so I made plans to move to the Texas Hill Country for the more significant part of the year while flying back frequently to spend time with the grandbabies.   The drive across the country from Seattle to Texas in the latter part of October two years ago was eye-opening. While polls and news sources predicted a Hillary landslide, you wouldn't know it by the thousa...

They go to their lily-white churches in their Sunday-finest clothes where they can see and be seen.  They listen to their whitewashed sermons filled with platitudes and non-controversy.  They say prayers for their daughter's "A" or a new car or the approvals of financing on a new house. They continue to support the most amoral man ever sitting in the White House.  A man filled with hate, racism, misogyny, and an admitted sexual predator.  A man makes fun of a disabled reporter, women who don't meet his definition of attractive, women who have been sexually assaulted, and the list goes on.  A man runs his hands all over his daughter and claims he would date her if she weren't his daughter.  A man who lies to energize his base--most going to church every Sunday.  A man who celebrates because a man like him was recently confirmed as the newest Supreme Court Justice. When Jesus hears so-called Christians support politicians who lie, cheat, and ste...