Columns & Editorials

Several years ago, a naïve me walked into the Kaufman County Courthouse and paid a licensing fee for a business name. I wanted to open a junk store. I wanted a bucket of rusty things for sale that sat so close to a stack of vintage doilies and those fabric calendars from the 50s that one would have to be careful of the orange hue you could pass along if you touched recklessly. I wanted antique books and faded velvet settees and antler sheds and old chiffon prom dresses and handmade candles and primitive corn husk dolls and creepy portraits of 19th century people I don’t know – all available for purchase to likeminded folks who understand what is lost when we lose interest in the making of the things. And, trust me, this world has lost interest in the making of the things. My husband was not a fan of this idea. He reminded me that I was the only person he knew that carted around creepy portraits and vintage dolls with crackling faces. So, reluctantly, I shifted the perspective of this “company” of mine to something more valuable… me. I would stage events with my collections. You could hire me to do your wedding or your baby shower – I collect vintage high-top baby shoes, too – or your commercial chalk art. Except, my idea of staging a wedding involves heavy furniture, U-Haul rentals, a makeshift flower shop, and my own manic brain that is prone to suddenly turn on a dime because I now see that we MUST have a mime performing, or a working 1890s carousel, or a French accordion player, or puppies instead of flower bouquets. I’m an enneagram 4 wing 5, after all. It’s all about emotions. I have beautiful ones, and I want to share them with the world. Actually, what this column is about today has nothing to do with my disturbed noggin. It’s that old company name of mine, still protected by the county for another 4 years. I was going to call my venture “Lost & Found.” My tag line: all good things must be lost in order to be found.

Dear Aunt B,

AN UNEXPECTED RUSSIAN ENCOUNTER

I often think of how life continually evolves and the systems that evolve or should evolve with it. Medicine, transportation, technology, and agriculture are examples of areas where evolution resulted in greater efficiency, ideally less waste and greater service provision. In our professions we must evolve to stay current and relevant. If we choose not to evolve, we will probably find ourselves phased out in favor of innovative, efficient, and effective replacements. It’s odd that education has not fully evolved with the times. The lack of comprehensive evolution in education is concerning.

My heart breaks for the people of Ukraine as innocents including children are being killed by the Russian attack. The resistance of Ukrainians against unprovoked carnage in their country has been an inspiration to freedom loving people around the world.

In the current state of our education system, not surprisingly, student achievement has taken a hit. With no one stepping forward to take responsibility for two years of learning loss, inconsistent instruction, and teacher attrition unlike anything that has occurred in the last decade, the blaming and fingerpointing continues to swirl, looking for a place to settle. As education leadership debates responsibility, little seems to be improving in our schools. It’s time to examine responsibility and develop a plan for moving forward.

It’s unfortunate but true: If you’re a woman, you face more obstacles than men in achieving financial security. And that means you may well need to put in some extra effort.

“I would tell people to look at all the beautiful things around you: the birds, the trees, the sky, flowers and your family. How could such beautiful things be caused by an accident?” asks Anna, age 9.

It appears the number of Churches that are nothing more than Spiritual traps are growing in this country. The Gospel is being softened and preached to please the members rather than preaching the pure Gospel. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is not soft or pleasing to lost people. Being a true (born again) Christian is almost like a soldier behind enemy lines. They have to stay alert continually because Satan has many traps to cause them to turn away from GOD. We Christians are all in the same boat so to speak. The battle ground between GOD and Satan is in our minds. When Jesus died on the Cross He defeated the Devil and now the Devil can only try to persuade Christians to yield to the temptations he uses to cause us to sin against GOD and break fellowship with GOD and other Christians. All humans have received the nature to sin against GOD from Adam when he disobeyed GOD and ate from the tree of “death” in the Garden of Eden.

Dear Aunt B,

Back in the early 90s, there was this phenomenon known as the infomercial. We’d never heard of the internet. The Oregon Trail had yet to be invented. Cell phones came in huge satchels that looked like briefcases, which made them problematic for people who carried briefcases, since why would one carry 2 briefcases? There were no influencers, because there was no real way to globally influence. Pagers were all the rage. So, how could we inform the masses that there was new stuff to buy? There were two basic ways. You could pay for an ad at the back of your favorite magazine (mine was Victoria because I would rather pretend to be a fine, distinguished lady than come to terms with 3 kids under 4 and a wardrobe made from puffy paint sweatshirts where you couldn’t tell what was paint and what was baby spit up) or you could pay for a 2 am television spot to sell your wares. And, that is how, one night way after the Knot’s Landing reruns had ended, I would up nursing a baby and meeting makeup artist Victoria Jackson in an infomercial about her too special to be sold in stores makeup line. All hail the birth of the MLM age. Guess what? I ordered the makeup. 6-8 weeks after they processed the paper check I mailed them, I received a faux tortoiseshell case of, what turned out to be, some really good makeup. Since that experience, I’ve chased that good MLM dragon for over 30 years, never having that pleasant interaction again, until recently. Abandoning my bad experiences with multi-line marketing tragedies like liquid vitamins, shopping clubs, fitness memberships, and even lipstick, I decided to give a certain skin care line a spin. I’m not naming the line. It gets a bad rap for being an MLM to begin with, but pretty consistent good reviews for quality. Instead of going in blind, as I did with the 1991 makeup line, I decided to actually use the google as a verb and do some research. And, now we dive into the topic at hand, the almighty bois d’arc tree. Because, who knew how life affirming a tree could be?

Schools nationwide have been struggling with yet another problem mid-pandemic: A lack of substitute teachers. Texas has not been immune from this concern. According to a news story on the ABC 8 News website, Grapevine-Colleyville ISD needed 147 subs to cover teacher absences. They managed to secure 81. A principal for GCISG expressed sadness for the students and correctly stated, “It is the students who will pay the price” for the lack of staffing.

When you hear “estate planning,” what do you think of? For many people, these words evoke images of immense wealth. But estate planning isn’t just for the wealthy – it’s for everyone. And it’s about more than preserving wealth – it’s about putting you in control of your own legacy. But how can you achieve this worthy goal?