Sweet People…At Church!
As I was attempting to perform my elder of the week, (how is that for a lengthy title), duties this past Sunday and was at the church much longer than a normal day of worship…I could not help but notice the sweet people that kept greeting me and not only engaging me in conversation but for whom I felt a feeling of family!
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In today’s world it is very comforting to worship and fellowship with a group of people that not only make you welcome, but who are concerned about you and who are always glad to see you.
Bob gave me the high five and called me the world traveler!
Mary greeted me with a wonderful smile…twice!
Wendi thanked me for my service…not once or twice…but three times!
Lisa told me how she enjoyed my Facebook posts and I, again, thought what a lovely person to take the time to give me an encouraging word!
Dorothy B. asked me how I was feeling and I said pretty good…but not like I did when I was 20!
Have you ever noticed how genuine human interaction and friendly people make you feel better? Over the course of a stressful week…sometimes you can feel a bit isolated and that you are siting on the bank of the, ‘slough of despond’…. only to discover that your friends are often experiencing similar challenges?
Over 20 years ago my family was looking for a church. Now… I was in my early 40’s and had been a member of my first church for 17 years and then a member of two other churches over the next 12 years. Two wonderful colleagues, Carol and Lee, who worked with Mary Jane invited us to First Presbyterian church in Carbondale, Illinois. Mary Jane, told me later, that she was fearful that I would not enjoy the visit…but on the contrary…I thought the church absolutely mesmerizing and wonderful!
The same Sunday that we attended First Pres a wonderful couple, Evelyn and Harold, drove to Elkville, Illinois, where we lived at that time, and brought us homemade cookies! The drive was significant…for people that they had just met! I can assure you that their demonstration of love and welcome for our family…meant the world to us!
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I had been a member just a short time when Carol asked me if I would be willing to serve as a trustee. I had been involved in all manner of church work for many years, which included; elder and trustee and sexton and preacher of funerals…among other needed and sundry positions. I did not feel that I had time to be on the board but I was deeply honored that my new church family expressed a great confidence in me. However, I could not say no to such sweet people!
Over this year Mary Jane had back surgery and the lovely members of our church brought us a plethora of savory meals to aid and help us. I can not describe how I felt when I saw the love that our little church had for us!
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Ro texted us during the surgery for updates on MJ’s progress…and in a very nervous and difficult time of worry and distress…her concern brought us great comfort.
First Pres in Carbondale has a dinner group where we attend a different restaurant each month. It is always a fulfilling experience to sit and chat and break bread with other members of the congregation and get to know each other’s fun and diverse and energetic life!
Pastor Kerry has written a play…yes you read correctly…our pastor writes plays…that will be performed next month in our fellowship hall! The play is entitled , Murder by Malbec.’
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It is a unique experience to be a part of a faith group that it is accepting of all and does not force demands or expectation on anyone…but rather emphasizes acceptance and welcome and faith and hope.
A Frightening Day!
In 2001…it was on Tuesday!
As I was preparing for work I was watching the Today Show on NBC, which was my habit it those early days of the new century.
Suddenly it was reported that, apparently, a small commuter plane had flown into the World Trade Center. Smoke and fire were billowing from a gaping hole in the upper floors of the gargantuan building.
We had visited Manhattan in May and the first of June, 2000. We took a city tour that stopped at World Trade Center I. As we rode the extremely fast elevator up to one of the upper floors…I felt an unease and could not shake it for the entirety of our time ini the building.
Included in the tour were cookies from a bakery in WTC I. The workers in the bakery seemed frenetic and concerned about something. Manhattan is much faster paced than Southern Illinois…but something seemed off regarding the entire ambiance of the building and the people that we encountered?
We again boarded the elevator and were whisked to the roof. The view of the city was breathtaking! As I was taking photos of Aaron and Jonathon and Mary Jane…a young couple laughed and remarked that I was blocking their view and as I apologized they smirked and continued their revelries.
I felt the building sway. The tour guide, from the Ukraine, told us that we would…but there was nothing like feeling it for myself!
As I watched the Today show…soon there was an image of a large passenger jet plowing directly into World Trade Center II. The sight of this incredible event seemed surreal! We had just visited Manhattan…15 months before! I thought of our tour guide…and wondered if he was in the building? I wondered about the bakery and the bakers and waiters who had worked so feverishly? I considered whether or not if there were already tourist on the roof?
We had just moved into our new house in Carbondale March of 2000. My mother was living with us. The morning of 9-11-2001 I told Aaron and Jonathon and Mary Jane…that we may be at war!
The television news continued to get more dire. A jet had struck the Pentagon. The White House was being evacuated. A jet had crashed in field in Pennsylvania. All air traffic had been ordered to land at the nearest airport to them…and commercial and private flying had been ordered to cease!
We so enjoyed our spring visit to Manhattan. We had dined divinely! We saw the Broadway play of, Taller Than A Dwarf, with Matthew Broderick and Parker Posey. Sitting across from me was Leonard Nimoy….and behind us were Harvey Fierstein and Laurie Metcalf, who played Roseanne’s sister Jackie Harris, and is from Carbondale, Illinois. As we were walking back to our hotel we passed, the actor and actress, Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick, who apparently become uneasy by our noticing them and subsequently hailed a cab!
The sounds and the sights and the energy of Manhattan is addictive! Aaron spent half of the night looking out of the window of the Days Inn, that we were staying at, to watch the seemingly constant firetrucks and police crusers and limousines and ambulances that drove by our lodging!
We walked all over Time Square. We drank three or four Carmel Macchiato’s a day…there was a Starbucks on almost every corner to facilitate this endeavor.
I enjoyed Manhattan so much…I could live there! Once you become accustomed to the faster pace you learn that New Yorker’s are wonderful people!
I could not believe that all of the major television networks were within a few blocks of each other.
The night illumination…could be likened to living in another world. There is a palpable feeling that if you want to succeed at whatever your heart desires…you can do it in Manhattan!
And, so, I went to work at Southern Illinois University @ Carbondale. Most of my colleagues had a dazed look in their eyes and you could cut the tension with a knife.
My office was next to the power plant…and I ruminated whether we were undergoing a concerted nation wide attack?
I watched the towers collapse! It seemed more like an episode of the Twilight Zone!
I watched the news coverage for days…and weeks…and prayed that survivors would be found…and prayed for the rescuers…and I knew that they were willingly placing themselves in harms way!
Congress all went out to the front steps of the capital and sang the Star Spangled Banner!
Queen Elizabeth of the United Kingdom band played the Star Spangled Banner!
I obtained some pins of the World Trade Center from my dear friend, Cyndy!
President Bush promised that we would bring the perpetrators of the devastation to justice as he stood on the ruble heap of lost lives!
For a time we were not Democrats or Republicans or Independents….we were Americans!
Note: Photos courtesy of Google Search.
Skip Class and Don’t Buy the Book
A great Jonathon Brooks Blog!
Once I heard a fellow writer asked the question, “Who do you write for?” That writer replied, “Myself.” If the only person a writer is going to write for is their self then perhaps they should only write in personal journals. I believe a writer ought to write for their readers and for their self. The author needs an audience to appreciate or learn from their words. Readers need writers and vice versa. I don’t want my writings to be for myself; I want them to be for others to enjoy.
There is the saying about how some writers want to have written more than they want to sit down and write. I find this to be sad. Although I understand the saying. It can be difficult work to create something. Any artist is often prone to being their worst critic. Many with great talent compare their work to the…
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Plant and Service Operations Exemplary Work!
For my 32 years and 2 months and 3 weeks career at Southern Illinois University @ Carbondale I worked in the Building Services division of the Physical Plant. During those years I discovered that I was privileged to work alongside some of the most dedicated professionals that I had ever witnessed.
I was speaking with my friend, Peter, the other day and he mentioned the great physical improvements that had been made around campus in the past few years. One that is noteworthy is the Woody Hall renovation.
I walk campus daily. I never fail to see our dedicated Grounds staff busily at work…our campus is lovely!
For the past several days I have watched staff working on windows and using using high-lifts to reach them. Last week I saw Building Services staff washing windows.
I enjoyed visiting with my friend of over 30 years, Brad Dillard, who is the director of PSO. I told him that I did not know how he was able to hold it altogether with the numerous budget cuts that PSO had endured…including the last 20 years of my career! Brad responded that it was all attributable to his wonderful staff!
PSO staff love their University! They not only are dedicated to SIUC….but they daily perform herculean efforts to make it a success!
There is a constant at our University that is unmovable and unshakable and who can be relied upon in the darkest of times. The wonderful civil service staff is working for the recruitment and retention of our precious students…and our students know it!
Laughter!
‘A merry heart doth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.’ Proverbs 17:22 KJV
‘[Humanity] has unquestionably one effective weapon-laughter. Power, money, persuasion, supplication, persecution-these can lift a colossal humbug-push it a little, century by century, but only laughter can blow it to rags and atoms at a blast. Against the assault of laughter nothing can stand.’ Mark Twain
‘A good laugh heals a lot of hurts.’ Madeleine L’Engle
‘Always laugh when you can. It is cheap medicine.’ Lord Byron
‘And keep a sense of humor. It doesn’t mean you have to tell jokes, if you can’t think of anything else, when you get my age, take off your clothes and walk in front of a mirror. I guarantee you’ll get a laugh.’ Art Linkletter
‘As soap it to the body, so laughter is to the soul.’ A Jewish Proverb
My friend, Jeff, is a human joke machine! When we visit with him in Europe he has a phenomenal supply of funny anecdotes that keep us in stitches!
I have noticed that a person may be sad…but once their laugh mechanism is triggered…they are happy!
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Laughter is rather magical…don’t you think? I can be totally involved in serious matters, at least serious for a 62 year, and out of no where…something strikes me funny! Immediately I am consumed with the joy of the moment and often find it difficult to re-focus my mind and spirit in a more serious vein!
Often when women are asked why they were attracted to either their boyfriend or husband…they will respond that he makes them laugh!
I am a Jerry Seinfeld fanatic! I have watched every episode in the long running series on numerous occasions. Seinfeld is a master of timing and witty observations regrading mundane life occurrences.
It has been said that even a fake laugh has health efficacy? Also that compelling yourself to laugh will brighten you mood.
I have noticed my friend, Ro, when she is presenting Stewardship issues to our church, has a light hearted delivery that makes the physical needs medicine…easier to swallow!
I always loved the circus! However, I am like Kramer of Seinfeld in that he was afraid of clowns…and I do not like them much either! Tomorrow Aaron and I are going to see the latest Stephen King movie, IT Two, about a demon clown!
We have been raised to be serious and responsible adults. When we were children…we understood that everything was not as grim and serious as the big people made things out to be!
The world is full of mystery and wonder and joy and discovery! Life is a glorious gift that is bestowed upon us without an instruction manual or a roadmap. So many things that we encounter on our walk back to Jerusalem..are laughable and delightful…and if we are the only person in the crowded movie theatre that laughs uproariously as the funny line of act on the screen…then we ‘got it’ while the silent masses once again failed to get their money’s worth!
Note: Images of people laughing and Kramer photos are courtesy of Google search.
Preacher…Politician….Performer…Professor!
I love for someone to reach out to me and smile and exhibit kindness and consideration and concern!
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Have you ever interacted with someone who captivated your attention from the moment that you met them? This person simply engaged your mind and emotions and you thought that… what is it about them that is so interesting and intriguing?
I remember assistant pastor Beyler in the early days of our attendance at First Presbyterian Church in Carbondale. She customarily read a body of scripture at the beginning of Sunday service. I do not recall anyone that brought more life and meaning to scripture, simply by reading it to the congregation, than pastor Beyler. As I listened to her read…I felt that what she was reading had either happened recently or that I was part of the drama of the passage!
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I was visiting with a friend of mine recently and we were discussing the fact that many people are in the wrong profession. A leader of others must seek to care for the people that they are charged with leading.
‘Leadership is not being in charge, it is about taking care of people in your charge.’ Simon Sinek
Politicians reach their constituents by touching something inside of them that resonates with their bedrock beliefs. Whether you are a fan of our current president or not…he dramatically connected with enough voters, in the last election, to win the electoral college.
I remember JFK! This man had a charisma that excited and energized the country! When he proclaimed, ‘Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country’…thousands joined the peace corps…or entered government…or were inspired to become the best that they could be!
I remember president Reagan…I voted for him twice! I was inspired by his vision of America!
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My mother loved FDR! President Roosevelt told out country in the midst of the Great Depression that, ‘The only thing that we had to fear…was fear itself!’
I recall Pastor West inspiring me to think more about and write about the homeless and the indigent and the immigrant and she gave me a love and appreciation for the Gay community…that I had formulated in my mind…but had not verbalized!
Pastor John Somers taught me the true meaning of humility. John was a pastor of a long-standing career and some significant notoriety in the Southern Illinois region. Yet he was the most humble minister that I have ever known!
Pastor Archer took a great interest in me when I was a young man. He mentored me and taught me what it was to be a gentleman. I have endeavored to follow his example up until and including this day.
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English professor Carol Burns inspired me to attain an academic degree. She was my professor for English Composition 101…and she counseled me that I could attain any academic success that I sought! We read George Orwell’s ‘1984’…in 1984!
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Chancellor Jo Ann Argersinger inspired me and thousands of other Southern Illinois Carbondale community members! She loved the University with a vitality that was palpable! She believed that all members of the University were equally important to the success of the institution! Her brief time as chancellor was a breath of fresh air for our school!
There is a spark of inspiration or charisma…or anointing…that is present in the most successful leaders of our churches or our government or our dramatic performers or our teachers!
It is incumbent upon us to recognize the same flame of inspiration that touched the early christians is still accessible today…to those who seek it!
Do we want God’s will for our brief journey in this life….or do we want to stick…rigidly to the script or our mission statement and our rigid formulaic dogma that we have been involved in for 50 years?
Do we desire a political leader who is compassionate toward all of God’s creation and is grounded in logic and science and truth…or do we want to let our bias and our prejudice and our misogyny and our xenophobia…rule our actions and our, at one time, soft and pliable heats?
The $1000,000 question is….are you a member of a church that you are comfortable with their basic tenants and teachings? Are you convinced that your minister cares about you and empathizes with your needs and concerns and is there for you when you need spiritual counseling?
Is the political rhetoric that you hear on a daily basis…consistent with the concrete reality that you observe with your eyes and hear with your ears?
We were at the Orthopedic Institute this morning and Mary Jane had the most delightful Physician’s Assistant examine her regarding progress resulting from a medical procedure. This young woman, Misha, had a natural affinity and charisma for patients and her interaction with my wife was some of the nicest that I have witnessed. We both left her office upbeat and encouraged!
Let us strive to be the person that those who we meet and interact with and those lives that we touch…are uplifted and enhanced and made better by our brief presence!
Let’s Stop The Precipitous Slide…By Returning To What Works?
‘Nursing program earns IBHE approval’
‘Carbondale, Ill. – The Illinois Board of Higher Education today (Aug. 6) approved the creation of a nursing program for Southern Illinois University Carbondale.’
‘Pre-nursing students can enroll in the Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) degree program this fall, taking core classes before the full nursing curriculum starts in fall 2020.’ SIU News
The work that Interim Chancellor John Dunn, and others, have done to facilitate the creation of this nursing program in partnership with Southern Illinois Healthcare is an outstanding addition to Southern Illinois University @ Carbondale and the entire Southern Illinois region!
Former Chancellor Carlo Montemagno proposed a police academy as a component of his academic restructuring program. It was protested by some students and he said, in 2018, that he would leave it to the faculty to determine if there was a police academy or not?
Southern Illinois University @ Carbondale needs programs that are in demand for todays students! No matter your love for the purity of academic pursuits and the joy of learning and expanding your mind and scope in today’s world…you still have to earn a living!
In the early 1990’s SIUC had many two year associate degree programs that were infinitely popular! The University was at it’s zenith in enrollment with almost 25,000 students on the Carbondale campus. The Chancellor, at that time, stated that we wanted to be more like the University of Illinois and perhaps surpass them. Subsequently we gave our associate degree programs to the junior colleges…and that was the beginning of our enrollment decline!
As I was walking my beloved campus today…I saw many eager students who are actively engaging in their higher education. I reflected on the thousands of students that it has been my honor to know over the past 41 years! So many of these scholars found their destiny and careers and callings…at Southern Illinois University @ Carbondale.
A University for first generations students!
A University of multiple generations of one family!
A University for peoples from over 70 nations!
A University that welcomed African American students…long before the civil rights movement!
A University that was accessible for the disabled….long before it was required by the American Disability Act of the 1990’s!
A University for the working middle class!
A University that has a theatre program that is on par with Broadway!
As I was walling through Morris Library I saw my friend, Wendi, who is a professor in the theatre department. She was showing her students good books regrinding costume designing. Wendi is a wonderful example of the dedication of the SIUC faculty!
I hail from the civil service ranks. My career at Southern was 32 years and 2 months and 3 weeks…and I have returned almost every day to her…for the past 9 years!
Civil service staff are the engine that keeps the great ship of SIUC running! Without them…there would be no University!
I watched the young people that were in Wendi’s class…and I was heartened and took renewed hope…we are going to be alright!
‘I Remember Mama’
My dear mother passed away in October of 2013. She and I experienced many difficult times together and we had a bond that was unbreakable.
Mom was born in Mt. Vernon, Illinois and she had five siblings from the Askew side of the family and five half brothers and sisters from the Quinn side of the family. She spoke of the Quinn’s often being hungry and having to search for persimmons to eat…to stave off starvation. The Quinn siblings were; Beulah, Guelda, Dutch…who went missing in World War II, and Donald…who had a heart attack from shoveling snow. I can not recall the fifth Quinn’s name? The Askew’s were; Vema and Gene and Wanda and Neva June…my mother, and Rosebud…who died in infancy.
Mom went to work in the shoe factory at the age of 16. She told me that she was so tired of being poor and thus did not finish the last two years of high school. Later, after she and my dad moved to Chicago, became a switchboard operator at the Hilton Hotel and on one occasion she put a call through from Nicky Hilton!
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Mom and dad married after he returned from the pacific theatre of World War II. She believed that he had a girlfriend in the islands due to his sending her photos of native women with bare breasts.
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I was born in St. Mary’s Hospital in Chicago and we lived in the city for the first two years of my life. We then moved to Sauk Village on the south side and enjoyed a, “Leave It To Beaver,’ type lifestyle for a few years. Mom had friends, Ivy our neighbor from across the street, and Helen from next door…and she loved to do the Twist…as sung by Chubby Checker!
If I have any altruism…or love and concern for others who are less fortunate than me…it came from my mom! Mom regularly searched for someone to help! If you were hungry and she had a five dollar bill…you soon would have $2.50!
Mom was an active listener. If you needed a confidant…she would spend all of the time required to hear your concerns and problems and then would console you, from her heart, and tell you, ‘It is going to be alright Kiddo!’
Our short-lived happy and care free lifestyle in Sauk Village was upended when my dad found another love. In an effort to attempt to repair their marriage we moved to Eldorado, Illinois where my grandmother Askew lived as well as my aunts, Vema and Guelda and Wanda..
After moving into a ghost house on Illinois Avenue, that was directly across from the Eldorado High School, I discovered what rats looked like, and how large they can become, and I understood what it was like to be cold!
The Eldorado move did not solve the relationship dilemma and dad left…only to return one last time and give me four silver dollars…and bid me farewell.
Mom was devastated and I determined that I was going to stick by her…and she in turn stuck by me! She slowly recovered and began to take photography classes through an adult education program and we decided that we were not going to be defeated!
Mom and I stood in Commodity lines, which was a program for the poor whereupon semi-trucks would open their doors and throw government cheese and potted meat and powdered milk to the poor masses…of which we were part!
Mom re-married a stable and hard working electrician, Earl Fitzsimmons, who provided a nice lifestyle for us. We could enjoy hamburger again rather than split pea soup.
For the last 40 + years of her life Mom was a dedicated christian. She loved Jesus and she loved to help anyone in need… of a hand outstretched!
Mom made me eggnog almost every morning for many years. I hated it…and it made me wretch! However, I would never say that to her…I loved her too much to hurt her feelings! I would throw the eggnog out the back door of our little house in Eldorado..when she left the kitchen…and once in a while…I would drink it if she did not leave the room!
After Earl died in 2001…Mom came to live with us. She was already well into Alzheimers Disease…and it progressively got worse. When my step-father passed I was thinking at his wake…that we were going to have to find a nursing home for mom…when Mary Jane said that she wanted for us to take her in. I was overcome by her expression of love for her mother-in-law!
I remembered the many hours that mom and Mary Jane would talk, over the years,…and mom would listen intently…and she loved her daughter!
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Labor Day Fairytale II
The conclusion of the Labor Day Fairytale!
So, there the Bump family was…at the hospital with Jane Bump’s twisted ankle! She was pleading for pain pills, and this was before oxycodone and she swore that she truly believed that she was dieing! The doctor arrive and subsequently x-rayed the injured area only to discover that it was but a light sprang. He bandaged it and prescribed St. Joseph Baby Aspirin.
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Now, Jim was taken to St. Mary’s hospital in Chicago and examined for the severe blow to his chest by the errant Jai alai ball that hit his at 87 miles per hour directly bin the center of his chest. He was found to be fine from his Jai alai injury but suffering from his 40 years of smoking and counseled to quit immediately!
George had decided that it was time to introduce Billy B. into the mafia lifestyle and he had…
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Peace Be With You
We have a custom in our church of passing the peace. This consists of the congregation shaking hands with their neighbor and saying, ‘peace be with you.’ I have not really thought about what we are saying to each other and wishing for each other until today.
A wonderful lady in the church wished me peace and then said, ‘you do not understand how great that wish is until you do not have it.’ I responded that I not only agreed with her but that I had experienced what it was like to not have peace.
On numerous occasion in my life I have felt the lack of peace. Peace is not a rubber stamp for christians. It is a daily seeking of God’s plan for your life and a giving of our worries to his care.
I have been in work situations that gave me great anxiety. Having much responsibility and no authority is a killer of peace.
I have witnessed illness stalk my family and I have spent many sleepless nights worrying about the outcome.
When my sons are unhappy…I am unhappy…and I rack my brain trying to come up with a solution to their dilemmas!
Perhaps you are in a marriage where you are not appreciated and your best…is never good enough?
It could be that your best efforts at making a living for your family…falls short of your bills and commitments and the needs of those that your are responsible for?
Is your supervisor treating you like chattel? Are you expected to conduct yourself like a wholly owned subsidiary of the boss?
Do you seek to be heard…do you have an opinion that that varies from the politically correct one?
Would you like to be acknowledged for who your, really, are? Would you like to be recognized for your place in society…whether it is Gay or Straight…Black or Hispanic or a member of the multitude of cultures that make up the melting pot of the United States of America?
Would you like to hold your head high in the congregation of the human family and say that, I am transgender and I am proud of who I am…and this is me!’
Would you like to say that I have a mental illness and I am alright and I am whole…and I am part of your community….all I desire is acceptance!
When God talks to you and reveals truths for your life and peace to your soul…would you like to share that with others without judgment and dogma entering the conversation?
Peace is like the firefly that we attempted to capture in jars when we were children. It is fragile and dainty and a bit like fairy dust. It exists for a moment in time…and then must be sought anew!
The Happy Traveler 