| Jim Barns

Our local mental health association recently announced a public forum for mental health awareness.   

| Jim Barns

This year four special Charlottesville people have passed on. I salute them for their contributions and simply because I immensely enjoyed their company.

| Jim Barns

Back by popular demand are more greatest thrills…

| Jim Barns

Earlier I described some great thrills I have witnessed, now some unsettling chills in my life.

| Jim Barns

Abraham Lincoln once said, "I don’t like that man. I must get to know him better."

| Jim Barns

I am an emotionalist/sentimentalist, thrill of victory/agony of defeat kind of person.

| Jim Barns

In a recent posting, I wrote about people finding the right job and most likely it won’t be doctor, lawyer, or architect!

| Jim Barns

I am steeped in the world of sports, but I have decided to not add my voice to the mighty wind of commentators. This will be an exception: The Masters.

| Jim Barns

 "Unexpected kindness is the most powerful, least costly and most underrated agent  of human change."

| Jim Barns

How many times have we heard, "You, too, can be a lawyer, doctor, or an architect"?

| Jim Barns

     "A man’s not supposed to cry." -Marvin Gaye

| Jim Barns

Within a few years four directors of large Charlottesville non-profit organizations were fired. 

| Jim Barns

Someone once said that he wished that he still had "the genius for living" that he had as a child. I have been long aware of this and delight in that genius. The curiosity, spontaneity, mirth, and knack for having fun out of so little.

| Jim Barns

My first sports event was when as a five year old I saw the Baltimore Orioles in their 1954 debut. I have been a sports fan ever since. My recall of hundreds of games is a bit of a blurred continuum. Mostly I can recall great dramatic moments.

| Jim Barns

We recently saw a documentary on singer/social activist Phil Ochs. People, like me, know the name but not much else. Now I know. He was an intense performer and organizer for civil rights and, then, the anti-war movement. He wrote and performed a steady stream of songs related to his intense commitments.

| Jim Barns

Immediately after the shootings in Tucson, people held forth on how the nasty rhetoric in our current politics might encourage violent acts like this. Mark Shields, a public tv commentator and as reasonable a man as you can find, believed it could influence unstable
characters.

| Jim Barns

Each year there is published a listing of the most popular names in the United States. My boomer generation from WASP suburbs matched the list in my day: John, Mary, Tom, Mike, Susan, etc., all the standards. In this era of very creative African-American names, the names of previous black generations match mine. I know black women named Sharon, Cynthia, and Janice.

| Jim Barns

Issues, character and experience aside, I believe the personalities of our presidential candidates have made an important and, in one case, a deciding difference. Put simply, undecided voters often may vote for the man they feel most comfortable with.

| Jim Barns

It was 1974 and I was in a downtown Boston ice cream parlour struggling to choose a flavor. To my right, I heard some chuckling. It was a college housemate, and he said that the knew it was me because I couldn’t make up my mind. It stung a bit, but given Jon’s jovial, let’s-not-take-anything-seriously nature, I had to go with his amusement.

| Jim Barns

Over the last 20 years, I have had over a hundred letters and columns published in Charlottesville. Reader appreciation has been my pay and the following letter inspired the most responses:

| Jim Barns

A friend has a fun pursuit with her brother-in-law, counting how many celebrities they’ve seen. They are both well over a hundred now. This has inspired me to recount my less frequent encounters with famous people.

| Jim Barns

In my career in the public library, I served people one on one. In that role, I received much feedback, usually favorable. I was always aware that such affirmation is not the norm for many jobs. Many people rarely or never receive a thank you or praise for doing their job. Some barely get acknowledgment for being a person.

| Jim Barns

The summer of 1967 was a time of personal upheaval and new perspectives. I, a backward homebody, toured Europe with high school friends and finished with two weeks of liberating hitch hiking in Ireland.

| Jim Barns

For troubled, lonely people there is always the possibility of some good samaritan coming along to offer comfort (letter tributes to acts are newspaper regulars, though they are more likely to be about a car breakdown than an emotional breakdown). But, no, it is mostly for friends or relatives to come through for us when we’re alone. We should always be on alert.

| Jim Barns

The pause that refreshes. Put a nickel in the machine and out popped a shapely bottle of tasty effervescence. A few gulps and you were on your way. It was a Coke and it was six ounces.

| Jim Barns

Years ago my wife and I were in D.C. and we went to Jack’s Boats on the Potomac to rent a canoe. Jack’s is in Georgetown and a short walk from a very hip and expensive world. No double lattes at Jack’s.