It was 48 degrees but it felt like 45. Chet’s mom had insisted that he put on his long underwear before he dressed in Halloween Costume. Chet told her that the Lost In Space Robot costume was very warm…but she was not convinced. So Chet complied with his mom’s wishes and he was just placing […]

A Cold Rain — The Jazz Man

Pastor Kerry’s sermon this morning expanded my mind! He told us that in a little over two weeks people who would identify as conservatives and people who identify as progressives will go to the voting booths across our country and vote for totally different people and that they will do so from their understanding of love as their faith community teaches them. I posted a quote from a progressive christian yesterday and saw quickly that where I read a inspiring message regarding helping the poor and needy and marginalized and oppressed on our shared home…the earth…my friends saw a darker writing. The quote began by stating that the Bible spoke more about how christians should treat the less fortunate, while on earth…and spoke little about the afterlife… I latched on to the message of helping others…but upon re-reading I could see how other readers might feel that the message of Heaven had been discounted… I think we all see our world, rather political or our faith communities, through kaleidoscope glasses.

Let me bring you into my little secret…I have a lot of conservative friends! I have conservative friends that I would do anything in my power to help. To consider a group of people as wrong or bad or misguided is to discount their sincerity and their humanity. I was visiting with a friend recently and I mentioned that the truth of most situations is neither to the extreme left or right…but usually somewhere in the middle. When we paint each other with demonizing labels and derogatory epithets…how are we solving the unprecedented division that our country is undergoing?

Have you watched on television when protests become frightening, where each side that is advocating an issue gets in the face of the other side and they scream at each other at the top of their lungs! If you have a position that you would like to share with someone who is of another mind…do you believe that screaming at them or labeling them or wishing them harm…is the best way?

Conspiracy theories are being given the credence of truth and reality. This is happening in a dearth of collegiality and fellowship and communication. If we are ever to understand each other we must first listen to each other…and consider why they have the point of view that they have. We can sit down at the same table and break bread together, but first we must stop the spewing forth of vitriolic verbal hyperbole and learn to see our common humanity…

After my mom and dad divorced I took to accompanying my mother to the grocery store each week…for several years. I liked to help her and to, perhaps, pick-up a savory delight that my young palate craved. I also throughly enjoyed buying a 12 cent comic book. Actually they were a dime when I began […]

Old Comics for a 63 Year Old Second Childhood… — The Jazz Man

We could see our breath as we walked the sidewalks of Eldorado! The windows had candles in them and the front porches had smiling Jack-O-Lanterns with a candle in the hollowed out middle of each to illuminate their sinister grins! Parker and Chet were following closely with me, Porter, and they both were taken with the spirit of All Hallows Eve! There were the typical costumes of Frankenstein and Dracula and the Wolfman…as well as contemporary outfits depicting President Kennedy and Jackie along with Russian Premier, Nikita Khruschev. We even had a classmate who was dressed up as the bomb…the Cuban Missile Crisis had ended just 3 days before Halloween! Our parents had all feared that we were going to be blown-up by the Russians…and our bomb drills at school had been daily! The bomb costumes were little more than bed sheets or cardboard that had been cut out to look like a cylindric weapon with a warhead drawn on the top of it…where the wearer’s head was. Everyone was breathing a sigh of relief that President Kennedy had exhibited the courage to stare down the Russians and that they blinked first… We were on our way to Eldorado’s well known Haunted House! It was a large victorian style home on Illinois Avenue that was directly across from the High School. It was said that no one had lived there in 20 years. Chet commented that he often saw faces in the long single paned windows as he was walking to Hillcrest School. He noted that although he had waved at the faces…they neither responded in anyway or returned the wave. When they arrived at the desolate yet magnificent structure they noticed that there was one candle in the upstairs window.

The lights of the Eldorado High School football field created some comfort for the 3 as they walked up to the front door of the Haunted House. Parker looked thorough the leaded glass of the front door and saw a fire dancing in the living room fire place. The fire looked inviting as it had begun to snow…on Halloween. When they entered the front vestibule of the house they heard a jolly gentleman’s voice laugh and extort them to enter and enjoy some freshly cooked popcorn balls that his wife had just prepared! On the davenport was a rotund man with a full white beard and he and his smiling wife…both dressed in red… The lady of the house asked each of the 3 their names and then told them to call her Mrs. C and her husband Mr. C… She noted that they had both been busy all day in the toyshop and that this was their busy time of year! Porter asked if they made a lot of toys…and Mr. C laughed heartily as fragrant smoke curled from his Meerschaum pipe! ‘Why yes Porter we have a heavy work load all year round…but especially so… once fall arrives,’ said Mr. C. We actually are visiting my brother here in Eldorado…and his large home is more than adequate for our projects. Mrs. C referred to her brother-in-law as K and mentioned that he was upstairs and that he liked to keep to himself until Christmas gets a little closer… She went on to say that he was European and that they did things a little differently than we do.

K was often a companion of Mr. C and frequented; Austria and Bavaria and Hungary…along with Northern Italy…at times. Suddenly K called out to the downstairs throng and bellowed, ‘Do I hear the voice of children?’ Mrs. C called out for him to stay upstairs and not interfere with her and Mr. C’s visitors as they were some nice young people enjoying fresh popcorn balls and Halloween.

Peeking around the newel post of the elaborate stair way banister was a creature with the face of a goat. As he stepped into the warm living room his cloven loves tapped on the wooden floor. He smiled and his long red tongue seemed to reach half way down his hairy chest. ‘Krampus,’ said his brother with some mild irritation…’do not frighten the children…’ Krampus replied that he was out of hot chocolate and he wanted to get some more…and asked Parker and Porter and Chet to join him in the kitchen and he would pour them up each a large cup…full…with marshmallows…

October is whisking by too quickly! I was taking photos of the lovely leaves on the SIUC campus on Sunday…and when I returned to engage in some additional photography I noticed that the brilliant colors of the leaves and their abundance on the trees had already changed. Usually my birthday week, October 24th, is prime […]

Enjoy Today! — The Jazz Man

Our little group of 4 Brooks set out for Walker’s Bluff Tasting Room last Saturday. Both, Legends, which is the primary restaurant, and the Tasting Room are beautiful establishments! We went to Legends due to a wedding being held at the Tasting Room. Everything about the magnificent structures speaks of quality and promises an enjoyable experience! It had been sometime since we had been to Legends. The young woman who waited on us was welcoming and friendly…and kind. We immediately felt at home! I ordered a Pumpkin Martini. Soon the bartender came to our table and apologized for not having one of the liquors that goes in the drink and assured me that he could make me almost anything else that I desired. I ordered my favorite martini for the past 20 +

years…a Dirty Martini. The mixologist was so accommodating that I enjoyed the drink more than I have enjoyed my standby…for 2020! Everyone was masked and socially distanced and the milk of human kindness flowed freely…

Jonathon and I were at campus woods Sunday. When we first met on campus he had been telling me about his friend, Crystal, giving him a wonderful mug and how that it had Ray Bradbury’s famous novel, Fahrenheit 451, artistically rendered on the outside of the cup. So, when we arrived at campus lake…there was Crystal and Jonathon introduced me. She told me that she had read many of my blogs and that I sounded like an interesting person. Her kind words were welcome and appreciated in our pandemic isolation!

‘A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.’ Proverbs 25:11 KJV. I wonder how often that I have been short tempered or cross or indulged in criticism that went from constructive to petty and pedestrian and nonproductive. We all find ourselves in a puzzle and maze that does not yield to easy answers. We need each other! When we believe that we are not a part of a community…we are of all women/men…most miserable…

Understanding our neighbor and our friend and our family may seem like a tall order? What about understanding those whom we have not met…a person from another race…or religion…or someone from the LGBTQIAP Community? How about Republicans sitting down with Democrats and attempting to understand each other and find common ground to build on for all of the American people rather than their political base?

Jesus answered when asked, ‘Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Thou shalt love the Lord they God with all they heart, and with all they soul, and with all they mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love they neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.’ Matt 22: 36-40. KJV

Porter and Parker were discussing the story of Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman. Chet asked them if they had recovered from the hayride that would not end…yet? Chet went on to tell them that Buddy had not only not been to school for the past 3 days but that his mother had reported him […]

10-10-20-20 — The Jazz Man

I was buying some food for our Black Lab and our 16 year old Boston Terrier yesterday. The store owner asked me if anyone had ever told me that I had a distinguished voice? I thanked him and considered to myself that I have always thought that my voice sounds a little strange…but at almost 63 years old I have become accustomed to it. The kind Pet Store owner went on to say that my voice had a soothing quality…somewhat like the actor, James Earl Jones. Indeed, no one has ever likened my voice to that of the dulcet tones of Mr. Jones!

Today I was talking with Pastor Kerry. He said that he enjoyed my photos of Southern Illinois University @ Carbondale…and that seeing it through my eyes he felt that it was a welcoming place. I pondered both the comments of the Pet Store owner and my pastor. Both took me by surprise and caused me to think about the impression or influence that each of us have on others who we do not realize that we are influencing. I have always admired those who have the ability to cause those with whom they come in contact…to feel better! Pastor Kerry is one of those gifted individuals. Each time that I speak with him…I feel better for the experience! If we could see the heavy steamer trunks…and the large valises…and the luggage of our complicated lives that we are caring on our shoulders and our backs and pulling behind us…we we would appreciate each other more fully… When a person is seeking to uplift me and to make my burdens a little lighter…during our 2020 pandemic…I am grateful… I watched, from the comfort of my porch as Pastor Kerry preached his outdoor sermon, last Sunday, in a 15 mile per hour wind and 50 degree temperatures…and so many of our church members assisting to make the first congregational gathering, since the pandemic, of First Presbyterian Church of Carbondale a success…and I thought thank God for people who care about the spiritual and mental and emotional welfare of others!

MJ and I agree…where did 2020 go? I have a theory! Our 2020 pandemic has forced us into a life without the customary little breaks whereby we mark our walk through a year… Without the semi-regular visit to our favorite restaurant or bar…or the theatre or a vacation or a mini-vacation…we have lost touch with our time clock! It seems that we should be entering spring…and we are in the fall. I was taking photos of the SIUC Campus this afternoon and I marveled the the autumn colors are vibrant…while I had a dim memory of spring and summer. I think that each of us need to tell each other…that it is going to be alright…

Good times are around the corner! Yes, the corner is a little further than we first imagined it…but it is well within our field of vision! We will travel again…and take lengthy holidays…and celebrate birthdays and weddings and our favorite memorable occasions! This is not the end of our strange new world…but it is the beginning of the end… God is in his heaven…and his emissaries are our next door neighbors and our pastors and our coworkers! Listen to those who care about you and love you! Do not be to quick to criticize…be quick to listen and to understand…

Two days from now will be my 42nd anniversary of being hired at SIUC! October 10th is a holiday in the Brooks home! That is the day that our lives changed for the better and the benefits of a position at the University made all of the difference in the little home of the Brooks! In those days I wanted to be a minister…but it did not seem to be in the cards for me. In those days I dreamed of being successful in sales like my minister at the time was…and like my best friend had become… In those days I had the vision of becoming a leader in some area…as a classmate had told me in high school study hall when she said that she saw me as a leader with a brief case and many people working under my direction. My pastor had told me, when I had nothing and no immediate prospects of obtaining anything, that he had a dream of me becoming a leader of men and that many of my fellow congregants would be working for me. He also said that in the dream I had purchased a brand new automobile! I laughed as Abraham’s wife Sara laughed when the angel told her that she was going to bear a child…when she was much to old to do so… Both of the minister’s dream forecasts came to past…