Charles (Chuck) Kensinger

Management

May 15, 2026

Some are leaders, and others are followers. We have heard this all our lives. If it is true. Which are you? That should depend on the situation you are in. At times, even the best leader should step back and allow others to take the reins.

Managers are leaders. The best allows others to lead when they show talents and abilities. I have often trained employees who eventually became department supervisors or managers. My management experience began with my first job while still in high school.

Does that seem unusual to you? I’ve gotten to know many leads, supervisors, and managers over the years who have started in the ranks and worked their way up in companies. You know that old saying, “The cream always rises to the top.”

The most important upper managers that you know of have most likely started at lower levels. What is the President of the United States? He is the chief executive. That means he is the top manager. He has lower management that works for him. Each Cabinet member also manages their staff as well.

Think about the people that you have voted for during the last few decades. Most of the candidates were governors, senators, and congressmen who began at lower levels of state government or even as assistants to others who worked in these offices.

The problems any business has can also crop up in government. Managers who try to bully their way through, around, or over employees seem to exist everywhere. I’ve noticed commercials on local TV for an attorney who is asking women to call her if their bosses are acting inappropriately

These are the worst cases of bad management, but there are a lot of poor managers out there in the business world. I would rather take some time to tell you what I learned from some of my best managers. Mr. Costello owned Dog N Suds on North Glenstone in the 1970s, and he taught me to treat everyone the way I wanted to be treated. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

Tom hired me as a salesman and promoted me to a store manager in three months. He then recommended me to be the assistant livestock manager at the wholesale company owned by the man who owned the pet stores. He and the livestock manager, John, then recommended me for my first purchasing position.

Gary hired me as a buyer and made me his purchasing supervisor with the intention of my taking his position when he moved from purchasing to another spot in the company. I learned from some of the best, and I have trained some of the best. Accept help and pass it on.

Reality programs

May 12, 2026

I have a problem with so-called reality shows. Can there be a survivor when no one dies? Everyone on the show is a survivor. The title should be Survivors. Big Brother just shows a group of people whose every move is recorded. And they know it. Keep in mind that a reality TV show may not have a script, even though each participant has an agenda.

They write their own scripts. I create dialogue as every writer does. Often it is done in our heads. Sometimes we write it down. Other times, we save it until we can use it at the appropriate time. I have certain lines I like to use. If you say, “That drives me crazy,” I reply, “That’s not a drive it’s a short putt.”

Saying that there is no written script for these shows does not make them reality. If you want reality, put together a program made of 100% security videos where all or most of those on camera do not realize they are being recorded. The problem with this is that it would be eavesdropping and therefore illegal.

If you want true drama, comedy, and spontaneity you should watch game shows. Especially the daytime ones where there are few questions that could be studied ahead of time. Jeopardy and the other knowledge related shows can be rehearsed with many different types of questions.

I think shows like that require the contestants to try out and prove that they will not stand there with a dumb look on their faces. Shows such as “Let’s Make a Deal” or “The Price is Right” allow people to act however they want and they encourage weird and unusual behavior.

The question I have about these folks is that they always look at the audience to receive help. Especially on Drew Carey’s program it appears to me that they select contestants that cannot or will not make their own decisions. When Wayne Bradey asks his players about their jobs, very few are managers that are required to know how to make split second decisions.

Even the women who look like they know the prices of groceries seem to know little about cars, vacations, or electronics. The men that shop for these products seem not to buy their own groceries, snacks or drinks, that’s why they are always looking at wives or girlfriends in the audience.

I’ve noticed some actual reality on these games. Some use their minds to weigh the odds and not take chances that are almost always easy to predict as losers. That brings me to another long-time contest called “Wheel of Fortune.” This is supposed to be like the brain busters with a gambling twist.

When someone risks their turn and what money they already have for the chance at a ten-thousand-dollar wedge which they never get to claim I cringe. LMAD also thrives on those who are into taking chances. I don’t understand risking a twenty-five-thousand-dollar car for a one out of three chance of gaining a prize that is not that expensive. I guess not everyone in LA drives.

And then there was one

May 10, 2026

No, I did not misquote the name of a famous Agatha Christy novel and movie. She is the last of the Clemens clan, belonging to James and Gertrude from Webster County, Missouri. She is my aunt. She has twelve siblings who made it to adulthood. Currently, we call her Aunt Amanda. I will save her the embarrassment of telling you what her parents and siblings used to call her.

As the years progress and we lose first one and then another of the cousins and someday the last of the Clemens sisters, I want to take this Mother’s Day to honor my Mom, Mary. We are cheered by the memories and encouraged that even more are in store for our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.

I could tell you about my mother’s sisters and brothers, and I have in my book “Doulos.” You can read it as a paid subscriber to my premium materials. Whom I want to write about today is my mother.

Her name is Mary Francis Clemens Kensinger, which I know makes us sound like we are not true Americans. We are, and she began her life with the first three on this list. When she and Evan Kensinger were married, she, like 99% of her generation, took his last name. When you read that I have an Uncle Sam and say his pen name is Mark Twain, it is because she is a Clemens.

Our daughters and the other grandchildren called her Granny. When I was a kid, she talked about Irene Ryan, who played Daisy Moses on “The Beverly Hillbillies,” and when our oldest was born, she said she would be Granny. I completely understood why.

Mom was one of the reasons I know how to be a good parent and spouse. I received my share of spankings and other discipline types over the years, but I noticed that my sister and I were not given corporal punishment as often as our older brothers. We tried to follow that example with our girls. We spanked from time to time when we thought it was required.

Mom and Dad demonstrated what it meant to love with the Agape’ love of Jehovah as Paul describes. They were patient, kind, and faithful to each other. Mom demonstrated that to me often, no more so than when she described a conversation with one of Dad’s doctors.

Dad was diagnosed with schizophrenia when I was in high school, and Mom would take him to the hospital whenever his medication needed to be changed. This was a constant with that disease. Once she told me that she told the doctor that she was done. He asked her if she meant she wanted a divorce. Her response was, “Of course not.”

She said that what she meant was that she was done with dealing with the return of the symptoms and had delayed bringing him back as long as she felt was best. I never knew about this, and it was one of many things she confessed to me after he had passed away.

Thank you, Mom, for all you gave Cindy and I. Our marriage has been blessed by your example, and I work every day to love Cindy and our daughters the way you loved Dad and us kids. Thank you for the book title, also.

Seasoned Educator

May 9, 2026

That’s what Mrs. Jackson was when she was my teacher in the first and second grades. I’m not sure how much seasoning she had, but she looked older than my Mom and Dad. They were in their thirties, and I thought she must be somewhere between them and my grandparents.

My third-grade teacher was about my parents’ age. Most of my teachers through grade school and junior high were in that range between my parents and their folks, at least until 7th-grade gym. That was the coach’s first year out of college. After the first quarter, he and my Dad had a conversation.

He gave me the first “D” I ever received on a grade card. It was the only grade below a “B” that I saw on any report. When my father saw it, he asked me a lot of questions. Was I always in class and dressed out? Did I follow instructions, and did I try my best?

I told him that my grade was low because I could not do as many sit-ups, pull-ups, push-ups, or run as fast as my classmates. The next morning, when he dropped me off at school, he parked and went inside to talk to the coach. Next quarter, my grade was a “B” for both quarters.

In high school, I continued to have seasoned teachers, and in my freshman year, I thought that our Spanish teacher had a little too much seasoning for my classmate Vern and I. We were in the Spanish III class as freshmen. Our class was the first to have had Spanish since fifth grade.

The administration said that we had the equivalent of the first two high school classes. She disagreed and told us that if we did not pass the first test, she would make us take the first class even if we had to wait until the following year. The scores on our first test were tied with two seniors. We all had 98%.

After that, we had no more trouble with our instructor. Another first-time teacher came along in my sophomore year. She taught my favorite subject, chemistry, and she was a hot, newly graduated blond female. Not at all seasoned in the least. She was an enjoyable, fresh face for this teenage boy. I found out that you can be seasoned at some things without being very old. One of my classmates asked if we had to heat glass tubing before we bent it. I thought that was a dumb question because of my experience.

Experience is the best teacher is a saying I’ve heard forever. My business experience proved to me that my education was a very useful thing. When I began to work in an office, I did not rely on secretaries to type purchase orders or sales documents for me; I could do that myself.

In college, my typing and shorthand from high school enabled me to take notes fast and type them as well. I still have those notes in my files for reference in my writing when I need them.

When I had the opportunity to become a sales service specialist, it was necessary to use algebraic equations to determine drive speeds, ratios, belt and chain lengths, as well as numerous other things like torque and horsepower required for machinery. When someone says they never use those skills, they probably haven’t thought about all the ways mathematics, reading, and writing have to be used in our technological world.

Both sides

May 8, 2026

That’s what the newscaster said. They were going to give both sides of a political story. Why are there only two sides? One is true, or one is false, right? Not necessarily. Often, these reports include the truth from two sides and no others. It can be hard to sift the truth from the spins that we all like to give to what we say.

What other positions are there in politics other than Republicans and Democrats? When you go to your precinct to vote in your primary election this year, look at which parties you must choose from. You should have at least three, including an issues-only ballot. In Missouri, we must choose only one party’s candidate.

When I talk about what Jehovah says in the Bible, you may hear this as my spin on the truth. To me, it is the truth. This is just two sides of the story. There are many religions, and then there are those that do not accept any gods and believe that when life ends, everything is over.

Every opinion we have is probably opposed to someone else’s beliefs. I have friends who are Republicans, Democrats, or other political party supporters, and then there is me. I am one of those weirdoes who believe that you should vote for the person and not consider any party affiliation.

There are many other ways in which we put ourselves on different sides. There is a group that calls itself Black Lives Matter, and I agree with them. I just take their beliefs a little further. I belong to ALM, All Lives Matter. We are not in opposition to BLM or any of the organizations that stand for anyone’s rights.

We include all lives of all colors. There is another group whose initials are BLM. Their name is Blue Lives Matter, and they support the police. When I was a kid in Springfield, MO, our officers’ uniforms were brown, like many sheriffs’ offices use. That would really be confusing to have three different BLM organizations.

Having an opinion about things is necessary, but taking a side against others is not. I am a follower of Jesus. If you want to know what that means, I will tell you as much as you want to hear. Years ago, at a new job, I had a fellow employee come into my office and say, “I hear you are a Christian.” And I acknowledged that I was. Then he asked, “Are you going to try to make me one?” “Do you want me to?” No was his reply, and I simply asked him to let me know if he had questions about it. He never asked, even though he often came in to talk about a host of other things.

I hated it in school when we had to choose which team to be on in classes. I preferred speech and debate to sports, where you were assigned a side in debate and had to alternate. I often adopt this policy when discussing controversial issues. Just because I give reasons against what you say is correct does not mean I disagree. I may be voicing opposing ideas I have already heard.

Know your own mind, keep an open mind to show that you know you are not always correct, and be willing to have an open discussion without sounding like a person who is closed to any other opinion.

Waffle Cone

May 7, 2026

This is one of my favorite ways to eat ice cream. Whether it is rocky road, butter brickle, brownie fudge, or one of my other favorite flavors, it is always enjoyable. What is not enjoyable is when we or others waffle on decisions. If you are not familiar with this term, I will explain.

Do you have a boss, friend, or someone else who says one thing and then changes their mind? You know the situation. They say do this or that, and then when you start the process, you are told that was not what they meant. It is your fault. It is not because they changed their mind. That is waffling.

It can also be used for those who have trouble making up their minds. This is not as bad as the previously mentioned folks who change your instructions along with their minds. At times, these occurrences are humorous, while others are frustrating.

One of our Presidents many years ago was shown as a waffle in political cartoons because he often changed his mind on whether to sign legislation sponsored by his party. Of course, the artist supported the other candidates. No politicizing there.

I believe everyone should have the right to change their minds. Where I draw the line is when I am asked to change more than once. I had a boss who had this tendency. I never proceeded with a project until I was certain it would not cause extra work.

I have always attempted to have integrity, and part of that is communicating clearly and not moving on to a project until all decisions have been finalized. Jesus told us that a man does not build a tower until he counts the cost, and a general does not attack until he has checked whether he can win with the forces he has.

In my career, I have not been completely diligent about analyzing my own talents and abilities before accepting a new position. I took a marketing director position even though I had no experience or training in that position. It required writing copy, shooting photographs, and making layouts for brochures and catalogs.

These were procedures with which I had a great deal of experience. When I took my first purchasing job, I had already learned about almost every product that I would be responsible for acquiring. This was done as I was a salesman and a manager at retail stores. When asked if I could do the job, I immediately replied yes. It was no a brainer for me.

I was an office manager with a company for a total of eighteen years when our branch manager started fighting breast cancer. I was required to step into her duties and be both the office manager and the branch manager. During my time at these two positions, I also made calls as our salesman and was able to increase the sales for the branch significantly.

Setting your mind on what you need to do and getting it done is the best way to live your life. I’ve been laid off twice and fired once from jobs. The one I lost for cause claimed that I wanted to be terminated.

I returned the day after I was let go to return my keys, and a former employee was at my desk. They wanted to give my position to someone else and did not have the decency to just tell me that. That is not waffling; it is the epitome of bad management. Whenever I hear someone is considering working there, I don’t explain myself; I just tell them to stay away from them.

Dumb Donald

May 6, 2026

I know that Bill Cosby has been disgraced for the crimes he has been convicted of. As a kid, I listened to his albums and watched him on television. I predate some of you enough that I remember him in the sixties when he first talked about Fat Albert, Russell, Weird Harold, and Dumb Donald.

You don’t remember these friends of Bill? You might have seen them on “Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids” in the seventies and eighties. Dumb Donald was the one who wore the stupid-looking stocking cap that covered his entire face. Many comedians use characters that are not intelligent.

This is a common tactic with writers of books and scripts. Tim Allen’s Tim the Toolman character in his stand-up comedy routines became the situation comedy “Home Improvement.” Allen played the bumbling, often imbecilic host of a local cable television show called “Tool Time.” His sponsor was Binford Tools; all of this is from the minds of Mr. Allen and his writers.

The point I want to make here is that we all have our times when we are not highly intelligent. Al Borland is Tim’s assistant on his tool episodes. Al is a qualified contractor and extinguishes his boss when he sets himself on fire, rescues him when he glues his head to a table, or helps him repair the house that he blew up with a clapper device.

The problem is that, like this pair, we all need someone to help us. Al may be an excellent carpenter and contractor, but he is boring, hence the name Borland, and a failure in relationships. Sometimes Tim sabotages his own marriage and must go to his neighbor, Wilson Wilson Jr., for advice.

With all his knowledge, we soon learn that Wilson also has his own flaws. He is not intelligent about everything, either. “Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids,” “Home Improvement,” and Tim Allen’s second series, “Last Man Standing,” all serve to educate us that we are all good at some things and really dumb at others.

Albert is obese, Russell is too timid and lets his older brother and others bully him, and Harold has his strange yet funny and endearing moments; these are what made that cartoon a classic, which became a live-action movie in 2004. Television and movies have many critics, but they can add to our knowledge and experience if we pay attention.

Think about what you watch and analyze what it can teach you. When “The Neighborhood” was first aired, we viewed it, and even though I thought Calvin Butler and his new friend Dave were both idiots in their own ways, they have spent the last few years teaching me more about friendship and race relations than most of us can grasp on our own.

In one of the early episodes, Marty, Calvin’s youngest son, makes a statement that blacks cannot be racists because they are racial. As you watch these shows, you see that Cedric the Entertainer and the cast and crew are pointing out to their audience that none of us knows as much as we think we do. To some extent, we are all Dumb Donalds.

Queen of the house

May 5, 2026

Roger Miller wrote and recorded a song entitled “The King of the Road” in 1965. Jody Miller responded with “The Queen of the House” later that year. Miller’s King was what we called a hobo, and now is referred to as a transient or homeless. Jody’s character was a mother who cared for her husband and children and enjoyed the process.

At our house, we also have a queen who is named Essa, the cat. She has lived here for over a year and was royalty when we brought her home from the Humane Society. We called her a princess. Now she has claimed us, the house, and the dog, and acts like she owns the place and we are her servants.

When she first arrived, she was very timid, slunk around the house, and was afraid of Biscuit, the dog. She kept her belly close to the ground and was frightened at any sound. Now, she only runs when the Ring chime sounds and retreats to our bedroom, where she has her hidden holes.

Life is easy for her now since she seems to have been a stray from birth and does not like any humans other than my wife and I. We hope that she will eventually decide that our children and grandchildren are safe as well. It took months for her to accept us, and she saw us every day.

For those of you who have never had a cat, I need to tell you something that we have known for years. Dogs have owners, cats have staff, and Essa considers us her people. We feed her, play with her, and clean her litter box. When she hears us getting treats for Biscuit, she lets us know she wants hers as well.

In the mornings, it is play time and breakfast time, whether we are ready to get up or not. She always goes somewhere for her morning and afternoon naps and doesn’t care if we don’t know where she is. Bedtime is another activity time, and we must play the games that she wants.

She attacks the dog each time he comes in from outside, and sometimes, to get her away from the door to go out, he must chase her to another room. She does not care because she views it as play.

Pets are often called fur babies, and this is evident in the fact that they act like children. They want your attention even when you are busy and are jealous of everyone else in the house. Welcome to parenthood.

They make me think of Cindy and I as a couple. We are who we are, but sometimes it feels like I am a dog and she is a cat. She is the queen of the house, and I am here for her when she wants to play or just lie down and take a nap. Are you there for your spouse despite your differences?

God is with you

May 4, 2026

Whether you want Him to be or not on May the fourth. Star Wars fans have adopted today as their unofficial holiday because they like to say, “May the Force be with you.” If you did not know it, the creator of this franchise, George Lucas, is not a believer in a personal God like Jehovah or Jesus.

This is why his characters believe in a Force or do not. These opponents have a disagreement about this force as well. Some say there is a good one and a bad one, while others believe there is only one and they follow the true force. In my opinion, it is not a force but a farce.

So, in view of that, let me say, “May the farce be with you today.” I am working on a book entitled “Cosmic Flatulence” to deal with this kind of thinking. Most have heard of the Big Bang theory, not the TV show, but the theory that explains the origin of our universe.

If it were not created by a supreme being, it would have to be an accident. The problem is that if nothing existed, how could nothing cause a bang? I have decided that whatever exploded must have come from somewhere or someone. As a seventh and eighth-grade boys’ Sunday School teacher, we had a similar problem.

I was in a small room with several young men, and a cloud of gas became evident because of the fragrance we could all smell. There were times one would say, “Me bad” or something to that effect, while the others laughed. More frequently, there were no claims of ownership.

This is why this book will bear the name “Cosmic Flatulence.” It is the Big Bang theory, but giving credit to the one who produced what caused the explosion. If you do not want to admit that there was someone here before us, then I will identify the source of the gas, and you can argue that you came from a fart that exploded and just accidentally became our universe and life as we know it.

I do not have that much faith. I must believe it, someone or something. George Lucas put his faith in something that he called “The Force.” I cannot accept this concept either. Both seem absurd to me. Why would an unexplained force create our world and universe? What is it or their motivation?

Yahweh, the I am of the Bible, is not some inanimate, uncaring idea. He is made up of the Father, the physical embodiment we call the Son, and the Holy Spirit, which makes us just like our creator, who said they would create mankind in their image. That is why we have a soul, body, and spirit.

Two-Hundred-Fifty, One-Hundred, Fifty

May 2, 2026

In twenty-twenty-six, we are celebrating three major anniversaries. The first is on July fourth. It is not the first in the year, but without the Declaration of Independence, this country would not exist, and probably neither of the other two.

We all know that in July of 1776, the founding document of this nation was first signed. My wife and I have been counting the years since the bicentennial in 1976. We are that old. Those of you who are twenty years younger than us do not recall that nationwide celebration.

That was before laptop computers, flying cars, and cell phones. Oh, that’s right, we still do not have flying cars, even if they were predicted by 2015. The Cubs have won the World Series; we have had three children; our parents have gone to Jesus; our girls and their husbands have given us twelve grandchildren.

Jesus still has not returned for all His children. As I said before, He has come back for some of our family and friends. This great country of ours is still great, even though some thought we needed to be made great again. Gas and other prices have continued to increase, as have our wages, but not at the same rates.

We have driven sections of the US highway for over half of the time they have existed. That is the one hundred years in the title. Many of our travels have been along routes 60, 65, 13, 160, and many more. Maybe in another twenty years, we will celebrate the Interstate system.

You’ve heard of those first two, but I want to tell you about one that will arrive at the end of May. You can attend these celebrations at little or no cost in many locations around our country. The fifty-year event I am talking about is by invitation only.

Cindy and I will have been married for half a century this year. I told you that we have been around long enough to remember the bicentennial at that time. What this means for us is that, unlike some of our contemporaries, we are still alive. That may not seem like an accomplishment to you. I heard a man who had reached his one-hundredth birthday a few years ago tell a reporter that the key to living that long was not to die.

We can give you a few other tips about staying together this long. The main one is to love each other. For those of you who follow me, you know that love is not something you fall into or an emotion; it is a commitment to a lifelong relationship that you are willing to work to keep alive.

The chief attribute you need to succeed is a willingness to cooperate and compromise with your spouse. Love and tolerance are needed to reach the fiftieth anniversary as Cindy and I will this year. Stay tuned for more about our lives and love together.