We Are All Temps
So many experiences in our daily lives help to foster the allusion that we are employed full time in the human species game of life. Our childhoods go on for an interminable amount of time and it seems that from Christmas to Christmas takes about five or more years! Then we are focused on our education and the successful completion of it can take 20 years! Then there is the student loans to pay and the starting of a family and the mortgage and taxes and insurance and food and transportation and all of the rest! We look up one day and we are in our middle years.
When I began at Southern Illinois University @ Carbondale I was at the end of my 20th year. Joe Ragsdale, a counselor, at what was called in those days, Personnel, told me that I could elect to stay out of the state retirement system for up to three years if I chose. The annual retirement contribution was 8% and I made $11,000.00 per year. I was sure that I was making a brilliant move by stating out of the retirement system for as long as I could as I did not think that I would ever retire!
After 32 years and three months at SIUC I was standing at my retirement reception and it dawned on me that my career had gone by like the blink of an eye! So many of my friends were there and when it came my time to speak I could do little more than give into the tears that welled up in my eyes!
I had a heart condition from birth and I remember a team of doctors in Chicago talking to my parents as I sat on a table. I can still see my dad’s eyes full of tears. At times I wondered if I would see adulthood and at other times I worried that I would get my boys raised. Both have happened and I have enjoyed almost nine years of retirement…and hope to enjoy many more!
As I walked the Campus today I reflected on the many vagaries and challenges that the University that I love has undergone! I have witnessed it at it’s enrollment zenith and at the lowest enrollment that it has had in many years. I have confidence that it will rebound and return to the glory and mission that has been it signature and hallmark!
‘O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stones them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered they children together, even as a hen gathered they children together, even as a hen gathereth her chicken under her wings, and ye would not!’ Matthew 23:37 KJV
‘My days are swifter than the weaver’s shuttle, and are spent without hope.’ Job 7:6 KJV
I have likened this life as the audition or the foyer for eternity! As my grandmother Askew often said, ‘if you live to be 100…life is short!’
There are countless shiny baubles that distract us from our brief time on life’s stage. The procurement of money is one of the big ones! Also the nativism and prejudice and bias and xenophobia and misogyny that we are taught! We are easily distracted by faux fame and fortune and notoriety! Petty jealousies and personality differences can seem to be all important, at the time, and a few years later it is difficult to remember what the disagreements were even about.
While all of the distractions are happening before our eyes and assaulting our ears and keeping us awake at night as we plot and scheme and plan our enemies destruction…our limited time on the stage…our audition…is coming to a close.
‘If we could look into each other’s hearts and see the challenges each of us faces I think we would treat each other with more love, kindness, compassion and patience.’
Rye Whiskey and Life on Mars
A possible future!
The evening breeze was pleasant. Phobos and Deimos were full, and shown brilliantly in the dark night sky! Anna was listening to the rain music that had been playing for the last hour or so. The music was so captivating that it was difficult to put into words the feelings that it engendered and the emotions that arose from listening to it. Anna often thought that without the soothing of the rain music she could not endure her new home. As she peered out of her window wall she was amazed at the transformation that the landscape took. First it was a desert and the sand dunes were resplendent in the light of the afternoon sun. Then it was the coast of Maine and the waves of the Atlantic Ocean were rhythmically beating against the rocky shore. Finally she witnessed with amazement the depths of the Pacific Ocean and the…
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We Are Sick…And We Need A Doctor!
We have been to the Cielo Vista Mall in El Paso many times. We have also shopped in the Walmart that is next door to the mall. Yesterday morning 20 people were killed and more than 24 were injured when the shooting suspect, Patrick Crusius of Allen, Texas entered the Walmart at 10:39 A:M: Mountain Time. Mr. Allen is white.
‘The gunman’s sister was one of nine-people killed in a shooting early Sunday in downtown Dayton, Ohio, police said.’
‘At least 27 others were injured when Connor Betts, 24, fired in a popular nightlife district about 1:00 A:M:, authorities said.’ CNN
Twenty-six people were injured and the shooter was apprehended in less then one minute…Dayton was the 250th mass shooting this year!
I recall being admonished by friends and family through the years to be careful about traveling to certain countries…as they were dangerous. It had not occurred to me until my last visit to the United Kingdom where a middle Englander told me that he was afraid to visit the United States due to the gun violence!
I remember when a mass shooting would captivate all of the major television networks and dominate our news media for days on end due to the horrific tragedy and rarity of the occurrence. On the networks the regular Saturday night fair continued uninterrupted and many Americans thought how tragic and sad… and offered their thoughts and prayers.
The constitutional right of the second amendment does not say the the right to bear arms is the right to endure two mass killings in one day and 250 in one year…and the year is far from over!
Why is it that so many of our elected political leaders are speechless and mute when it comes to speaking out against gun violence? How can it be that the NRA has hamstrung the Senate and the House of Representatives and the President of the United States in such a complete manner that they have no answer to the carnage…but to offer their thoughts and prayers?
Our current Administration often points to terrorism being a product of Muslim extremist…but the majority of gun violence in our country is perpetrated by causacion men who are white nationalist. It is not brain surgery to deduct that a successful mass killing begets another mass killing.
Now, the powerful legislatures and President and Governors…area quite certain that they are insulated from the ‘American Carnage’, to borrow a well worn term from former presidential advisor Steve Bannon…and from the President himself, but the randomness and evil of the plethora of mass shootings in our beloved country can happen anywhere at any time? Perhaps I can speak philosophically regarding my ‘God given rights to bear arms as set out in the second amendment to the Constitution’…until my family is murdered while they are shopping for school supplies!
Social media has aided in the proliferation of Hate Groups in our country. Disenfranchised and lonely white men have found a group to identify with and they aspire to be a star of the white nationalist movement! The President of the United States constant hate filled speech toward brown and black people as well as Muslim people has enhanced the hidden hate that many… quite…prejudice and bias people have held in their hearts for years and has emboldened them to take action on their fever dream of violence as the answer to their ‘straw man’ upon which they blame their lack of success and failure to achieve economically in our capitalist dominated society, that honors those who make a lot of money…and discounts those who do not.
When you are poor…you understand the poor! When you are marginalized…you understand the marginalized! When you are the victim of bullying…and misogyny…and prejudice…and xenophobia….you understand the abject feeling of alienation and suffering and loneliness that these assaults…bring!
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
Guns…in and of themselves are not the answer to the problem….political speech and action for the people that elected the leaders to represent their interests…is!
We should begin today with a study of gun violence in this country and what are the root causes for the Armageddon…that we are experiencing!
A Wrestling Match
Another Jonathon Brooks literary 💎!
For many years now I have loved the New Testament Bible idea of fighting the good fight. Fighting isn’t always senseless or unnecessary. Fighting can be a good, or great, pursuit. I have fought for every ounce of happiness I have ever enjoyed throughout my adulthood. I have fought to follow Christ. I have wrestled with God. I have fought to become a good man. I have fought to say farewell to the devil. I have fought to live a life full of light and to share this light with friends and strangers. The good fight is a high aspiration and noble pursuit!
If you are fighting battles for the right reason I sincerely hope you win the wars. It is easy and tempting to say the words, Woe is me. The stuff worth having in life is attained often through wrestling with difficulties. Perhaps many are close to achieving…
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The Happy Traveler 