John Burkholder

Growing up in a small town in central Illinois, it was flat, corn or beans, and the only pretty part of it all was a park called Weldon Springs. My sophomore year spent in Arizona, opened my eyes about how to live somewhere and see beauty wherever you are. The part of the town where I lived was at the bottom of a knoll and had a gorgeous view of the Superstition Mountains. After moving back to Clinton, I noticed different things within town that made it beautiful. That was the start of my photography hobby.  After graduating, I joined the Air Force. I was in Texas, Maine, New York, and all during that time, traveling and living, I saw the beauty of the view.  There is a British TV show called An Idiot Abroad. In one of the shows, the “idiot” made an extremely insightful observation. While visiting Petra in Jordan, he was sitting in a small cave hovel across from the entrance to Petra. He said, “I would rather live in this small cave looking at that beautiful entrance than live inside P

 Depression is something I have long battled over the years. 2020 has been adding a special something to the amount of depression everyone is dealing with. My normal depression has teamed up with quarantine depression...and now, as the daylight shortens, my seasonal depression will add that little extra to it that I am finding impossible to fight. Allergies aren’t helping either. I have been taking my allergy medicine in the morning and evening as my doctor prescribed, but this year seems to be especially brutal. COVID, flu season, allergies, the stack of depressions...I am coming to my wits end.  I check in with the doctor using telemedicine, but I feel like the normal checking for symptoms, blood work up, and listening to lungs is now not necessary? I get it. This pandemic is nothing to blow off. But how many people sick from other things are being affected because COVID has taken over the medical community? Why is it there are so many selfish people willing to risk the lives of othe