Introducing “Donnie Laws: East Tennessee Outdoors” (published 4-4-2023; article #401)

7/1/2007 photograph in Cades Cove by M. Fearghail, as included in 7/28/2022 article.

Introduction

Greetings, dear reader! My prayer is that you are well. Mrs. Appalachian Irishman and I are doing well enough. Thanks for asking!

This brief article introduces Donnie Laws' YouTube channel on Appalachian history, stories, and more! My 7/28/2022 article on Cades Cove referenced very kindly his 7/19/2022 podcast about Cades Cove. I came across his channel by reading Tipper's 7/27/2022 article on Blind Pig & the Acorn. Howdy, by the way, to both Tipper and Donnie! We're just trying to keep the Appalachian heritage tradition a goin'!

Donnie Laws' channel is the second entry under the “Appalachian Heritage” section on the lower right of this website's main page. I added his YouTube channel to that section today.

Introducing Donnie Laws!

I've only met Donnie Laws online. I'd like to meet him, look him eye-to-eye, greet him, and shake his hand! He lives somewhere around these parts in east Tennessee. Our conversation, with a few cups of strong coffee, would be interesting.

This article highly recommends Donnie Laws' YouTube channel! Earlier today, I commented on his 3/3/2023 podcast, "Donnie Laws Channel Talk in the Studio,” on Donnie Laws: East Tennessee Outdoors. His channel started on 1/15/2015. As of today, he has produced 646 videos and has 143,000 subscribers. The quality and quantity of his production work astound and inspire me.

Donnie, as I figure that he prefers to be called, and I look to be about the same age. We're definitely in the same generation. I do believe that we share the same traditional Appalachian values. Unfortunately, those biblically based values are fading. Donnie's YouTube channel and Tipper's website are two of numerous attempts to uphold those fading values. My website attempts to do the same.

At any rate, you are encouraged, dear reader, to visit and sit for a spell with Donnie Laws on his YouTube channel. I visit there often. I haven't subscribed, since he produces about three podcasts a week. I'd rather avoid getting that many email notifications. Instead, I just drop in unannounced. Donnie always welcomes my online visits.

Conclusion

By the way, what did you think about my first podcast, from 3/29/2023, on House Mountain? It's only three minutes long, and it's included in my 3/31/2023 article.

Yesterday, a brother in Christ and friend published a reference to the following article: “Unbelievable Poll Shows American Values Are Dying, and Fast.” The Political Insider, by Kathleen J. Anderson, 3/31/2023. The article states in part:

Like my parents, if my grandparents were alive today, they would be sad over how life in America has changed, almost as if what it means to be an American has completely changed… and not for the better.

A recent Wall Street Journal poll has found that the core fundamental values that made America are collapsing.

During my routine monthly chiropractic appointment today, Doc. Art and I expressed similar thoughts on the moral decline of this once great nation.

The conclusion to my 3/31/2023 article states in part:

My hiking theology is that life has good points and treacherous points, behind and ahead of us. We see several good points. We endure several bad ones. We, however, continue onward and upward.

The heavenly mountain is calling, and I must go! The ridgeline is closer than it was. I see the good and bad spots behind me. I can't see what's ahead of me. By faith, I shall reach the heavenly bluff. The everlasting view there will be spectacular!

Dear reader, if you have not already started, please go to the mountain. It should be calling you. You must go.

The written prayer in this article is that folks will stop slipping and falling at that “treacherous switchback” and keep climbing to the ridgeline. May it be so, dear Lord!