Commencement In The Pandemic
It was Commencement today on the campus of Southern Illinois University @ Carbondale. As I walked along the quiet paths of the beautiful surroundings…I heard the sounds of joyful people. I looked around to see a family and their graduating child. There, the new alumni of SIUC was in her cap and gown, posing for photographs to commemorate the special day. They were snapping photos near the fountain that is in front of The Student Services Building. As I was taking a picture of a resplendent tree, along the side of Anthony Hall, I could hear the same jubilant banter…that I enjoyed a few minutes earlier. When I looked around…the same family was on their way to take additional shots near Anthony. As I walked toward Morris Library I witnessed another, happy, family as they beamed their approval and love and pride in their graduate!
So, I was traveling toward…
View original post 497 more words
Pen Pals
This flash fiction story was originally drafted on a 1946 Smith-Corona typewriter.
Charlie had received a brand new fancy pen as a Christmas gift. Now he was in need of some paper and a pen pal. Who would make for the perfect pen pal? That was the serious question. Charlie thought about writing to his mom or dad. But he talked to them every new day. Mom and Dad were definitely not pen pal material. The boy was a hopeful romantic. What he needed was a young lady to write to. Now that would be amazing and astounding.
Sadly, Charlie did not believe most of the girls at school would appreciate his artistic endeavors. Twelve is often times an immature age. Charlie needed a mature young lady to be his pen pal. Then he thought of his friend Rebecca.
Rebecca was like a rainbow after the storm. She was chocolate…
View original post 307 more words
A Cardinal On Campus — The Jazz Man
There is a chill in the air on this early day in May. It rained all of the morning, but now the sun is shinning bright. Although I walk the campus of Southern Illinois University @ Carbondale, on a daily basis, I seldom see a cardinal. And, when I do see one they never remain […]
Someone Is Watching…And Listening
Have you heard it said that, ‘No man is an island?’ As members of a rather insular society, we have become accustomed to living in our own heads. Much of our western culture is based on the legends of the cowboy and the cowgirl who blazed the old west and took up squatters rights on a little parcel of land and transformed it into paradise. We are proud of pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps and carving a life for ourselves out of the hard Caliche clay. We Americans are a rebellious lot. We embrace the slogan of the great state of Missouri, ‘The Show Me State. So, as the years have gone by and we have heard so many urban legends of there being a person, that is skulking around the next corner, that is planing on doing us bodily harm…we have morphed into a country of loners, and tribes, and a people that seek only those who look like us and believe like us…and who practice our form of religion/politics. Our government was formed by our founding fathers to be a government of compromise. This fact would be illuminated in our three, equal, branches of government. We fled a king! We sought refuge from a one man, or one woman rule. We wanted to do our own thing. We desired to make our own rules, that were based on the English Common Law.
Our 2020 pandemic is having a transformative effect on our human need for others. As we see, and feel, the weight of truly being alone, we desire the company of others…that the cruel disease has temporarily removed from us. I think that in our solitude we are more together…than ever before. I spoke with my friend, Rob, today, and so enjoyed our conversation and our mutual agreement. When I have a mental image of one of my friends…I want to see them. We humans need each other. Communicating with another person enlightens and encourages and emboldens us for the journey of life. Often when we travel, my fondest recollections are of the people that I met and connected with. I relished the mystery and the pristine ancient beauty of Edinburgh, Scotland…but I remember the kind gentleman that I spoke with in the first restaurant that we visited. The Ghost Tour that we took of Edinburgh, during a rainy evening, was fascinating and frightening…but I recall the young woman who was dressed in the attire of a ghost and the garments of the forlorn. Our thoughts can seem scattered and dispersed…until we have the opportunity to share them with our friends or family…and then our mission becomes concise and clear.
We are a unique creation. Often…we do not want to be bothered…or troubled….or to share our concerns and thoughts and problems. The comfortable axiom of, ‘not my problem,’ is our credo…until we realize that your problems are my problems…and my joy is your joy! I am listening to the incomparable Norah Jones, as she sings Trying To Keep It Together.’ That would be all of us. We seek the answer in our own sweat equity! The real solution to our loneliness and sadness and tears…is each other…
Have a Good Day — The Jazz Man
I was in the drive-thru of the SIU Credit Union yesterday and today. It is a pleasant place to visit and see fellow human beings, through glass. The staff at the Credit Union has always been friendly…but in the midst of our 2020 pandemic…I am noticing it more. Their kind greeting when I pull up, […]
Pawns On Life’s Chessboard — The Jazz Man
I have loved the game of chess, and chessboards, for the majority of my life. I currently have two wooden sets, and one crystal set, and one portable set. At one time I had a marble set, that I purchased when we visited Juarez, Mexico, in the 1980s. Somehow the board was broken…and the warriors…dispersed… […]
Split Pea Soup
Pastor Kerry read from a children’s story this morning, in Zoom Church, and the subject was regarding a youngster who’s mom made a lot of split pea soup. The boy did not like the soup and finally could tolerate, no more! I related to the story, as my mother loved to prepare split pea soup. She assured me that it was healthy, whatever that means, and that it was good for me. I found it nauseating! I choked some down, while she was watching…and then found creative ways to dispose of the remainder that was in my bowl. Often, the split peas had cooked into a green mush… I reflected on why things that were good for me…were so awful…and at times distasteful? There were many forms of cuisine, in the 1960’s, that were of a questionable nature…as far as my palate could discern. We had liver and onions, every week, because the stringy meat had the reputation of building iron in your blood. My blood seemed strong enough to me. I enjoyed the onions…but the liver I chewed and chewed…and it still, was there! Then there was, egg nog, made with a raw egg…each morning. I poured this horrible substance out of the back door…when mom left the kitchen. Once again I was assured that the egg nog was good for me. Some glasses of the yellow substance, at times with nutmeg on top, made their way into my young system…while others nourished the grass… Mom was a wonderful cook. On Tuesday evenings we had spaghetti, which I prepared, since it was laundry day. I loved spaghetti, and I still do. On Friday night, which was grocery day, we had Totino’s Pizza. Tuesday and Friday helped lessen the shock of; split pea soup and liver and onions. I learned that some things that are supposed to be good for us…do not taste good.
Today, our medical authorities are telling us to do some pretty non-typical things to protect ourselves from our 2020 pandemic. Social distancing is contrary to our social nature. Wearing masks in businesses and supermarkets and banks…seems onerous and cumbersome. Yet the resulting benefits…namely the saving of our lives…and the lives of others…causes me to embrace the procedures and processes.
‘The first strain of the Spanish flu wasn’t particularly deadly. Then it came back with a vengeance.’ History
‘The horrific scale of the 1918 influenza pandemic – known as the Spanish flu – is hard to fathom. The virus infected 500 million people worldwide and killed an estimated 20 – 50 million victims – that’s more than all of the soldiers and civilians killed during World War I combined.’ History
‘While the global pandemic lasted for two years, a significant number of deaths were packed into three especially cruel months in the fall of 1918. Historians now believe that the fatal severity of the Spanish flu’s second wave was caused by a mutated virus spread by wartime troop movements.’ History
We are living in the midst of a pandemic. It is humbling. I was listening to the BBC this afternoon as the mental health aspects of the fear of the Coronavirus and the preventive measure of stay at home orders, surround our planet. In Illinois we are rapidly approaching the two month mark for social distancing restrictions. This is difficult medicine for we humans. Especially if you live alone. We all have fears. Of late they have been placed under a massive magnifying glass! As is everything with life…one pressing problem does not give way in order to facilitate the entrance of a bigger concern. No, we have to deal, mentally and emotionally, with each of the issues that come down the train tracks…even when we are…running along the train Trestle seeking a place to jump off on to the safe side of the tracks…
So, we brothers and sisters are blessed to live in a time of the internet and Zoom…and FaceTime. We are not nearly as alone as our ancestors during the Spanish flu. I am encouraged, as I have written on several occasions, to attend our First Presbyterian church service, via Zoom. Each Sunday when I see the smiling faces of my fellow congregants…I know that our little family is not going through this alone…and that we have a computer screen…full of friends!
Over my 62 and 1/2 years I have read and studied and enjoyed the demonstrated fact that we seek learning. We seek education. We thirst for knowledge. However, along with our genetical need to understand, and our respect for science…we are, sadly, a warlike people. We fight over oil. We kill and ask our young to kill in the name of politicians…who have ulterior motives. We want more…which means that our neighbors…have less. Perhaps we can emerge from our universal experience of battling our 2020 pandemic… with the understanding that we need each other…that we are all one people…that we all fear the darkness…and that we are all traveling toward the light!
‘And he shall judge among the nations,and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.’ Isaiah 2:4 KJV
Cheers to Authentic Friendships
Over the last six weeks I’ve caught up with three old friends I had not spoken with in years. Talking over the phone with them brought me great joy! Rob and Jared and Zach were some of the first friends I made while working at Lentz Dining Hall with Southern Illinois University Carbondale. I began to work at the campus dining hall in February 2009. Zach and Jared and Rob were all freshmen at SIUC. I was the front door greeter and I was in love with my job.
For the first few weeks on this job, during my lunch break, I would sit alone. I was not for certain that the students I was greeting would want me to sit with them and I was a little shy. After about three weeks I decided to ask permission to join a table of students who were always friendly to me…
View original post 247 more words
Some Good Changes…During Our 2020 Pandemic
MJ and I were able to take Parker and Brody, who turned 16 years old yesterday, to have their nails clipped and a well needed bath. I will not miss the click…click…click of their long nails as they trod across the wooden floors. Janet, of Southern Paws Pet Services, came out to our car and retrieved the furry Brooks kids, and they will return them in the same manner at 5:00 p.m. I was sporting my handcrafted face mask, that my friend, Wendi, made for me and MJ and Jonathon. MJ said that it fit me well… Janet, beamed when she saw us! We were glad to see her…and she was glad to see us. I believe that we all were thinking that we have survived, thus far, and we are all part of the accosted and beleaguered human family…
Jonathon and I walked campus earlier today. I am struck…
View original post 351 more words
May Has Returned — The Jazz Man
Did you ever dance around the Maypole? It seemed that each May 1st our grade school teachers would relish in our Maypole dance. I have never been much of a dancer. Many in the class enjoyed the experience! I would have rather watched them, dance. Today marked my fourth and concluding day of grocery shopping […]
The Happy Traveler 