Opinion

I’m surrendering a chunk of space this week in my column to someone with a message that is more significant than anything I had on my mind today. Susej Burks Thompson, my youth group leader when I was a teenager, posted some of her thoughts Monday night on faith, prayer and our relationships with God or any other higher power.

“Stop hurting each other” was all I could get out as I looked at the congregation.

I left the river on Thursday to attend part of the Missouri State School Board meeting at Emory Melton Inn. They don’t put fish on the agenda, but I have an item for the board on behalf of students. Bring back sodas and energy drinks! I’ve had many students promise they’ll behave better if you give back “my precious Red Bull.” There’s also a potential for behavior improvement — at least the kids won’t be tired or asleep!  

It’s not every day we have the state’s leaders in our backyard. That was the case on Thursday as the entire State Board of Education, the commissioner of education and multiple staffers, 21 in total, met with Cassville’s superintendent and assistant superintendent, as well as multiple school board members.

I would like to talk to you about seed. As we enter springtime and begin to plant our gardens this year, I find it most convenient to sow some seed here.

Frequently, here at the Barry County Museum we are asked the question “When did the Courthouse burn?” The simple answer to this question is that the Barry County Courthouse never burned down, but rather the old courthouse was torn down to make way for the new courthouse at the same location in 1913, and this same building remains to this day. However, no matter how many times we repeat this information, many people still enter the Barry County Museum each year under the assumption that at some point in history the Barry County Courthouse must have burnt.

Jordan and I are now more than three months into business ownership, and I cannot even begin listing everything we’ve learned. From bookkeeping to ad design, printing management to sales and digital advertising to distribution, we’ve been leveling up our skillsets much quicker than either of us anticipated just six short months ago.

I was at the historic Barry County Courthouse on election night a couple weeks ago and saw community service in action.

Our lives don’t tend to follow a straight line. Forward-thinking high school dreamers rarely end up with the exact career or lifestyle forecast by the goals they formulated at the starting gate of their journey.