Cold December air has invaded Carbondale, Illinois. It is less than two weeks until Christmas. The Christmas ornaments have returned, in part, to Campus Woods…and vaccinations for Covid-19 are on their way across the United States! I watched hard working and diligent staff package the Pfizer vaccine vials in dry ice with a temperature gauge to ensure that the vaccine is kept at its required extremely cold temperatures…and then the loading of the pallets on to the trucks…and the the starting of the semis massive engines and their departure from the loading dock… People cheered and clapped and tears came to their eyes as the first glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel of our 2020 pandemic…was happening before our eyes!

Life is not a battle of who has the better argument…or the most loud vocalization of their particular point of view. All success is incremental and it requires the hard painstaking work of every one of us to succeed! The health of our nation and our world is not commensurate upon celebrities and charismatic icons…it is about the detailed minutiae of work and labor and dedication to a larger principe than the individual.

Laughing Santa was my buddy in Chicago. I remember his plastic jovial face and his little red suit and his cap, that was affixed to his head, and the crank that protruded out of his back…that when I turned it the most uproarious laughter issued forth from my pal! As a child between 1 and 5 years old…he was Christmas to me! He only came out during the holiday season…and he always flashed me a wise and knowing look that said that he understood all of my childhood wants and needs and that he was present just for me! My mom made a big deal out of Laughing Santa. He was made by the Gund company and she had purchased him for me on Michigan Avenue. I swear that for his day and time…he was the epitome of Christmas toy technology! My neighbor and friend, Steve, had several marionettes. Steve and his sister, Susie, often brought the marionettes over to my house and conducted puppet shows for mom and me. Their expertise in the maneuvering of the puppets transported me to another world! As I sat and watched the antics of Punch and Judy and their cohorts I released that the world was as wide open and exciting as I was willing to expose myself too! During the holiday marionettes shows…Laughing Santa would join me in my emersion into the universe of puppetry. I loved marionettes so much that I requested one for Christmas…and received it!

Marionettes are a fact of life for each of us…if we are not careful… There are always people who want to pull our strings and have us become a part of their puppet show. The question is as to whether we will submit to the will of another who does not have our best interest at heart…or will we choose to think for ourselves and and be the operator of the strings and the master of our own puppet show?

Santa’s laughter planted in me a happy feeling of peace and love for Christmastide. Christmas is a reset button for our lives! It is a time of pause…and consideration…and recognition that we do not have to continue in a sad and forlorn state of existence. We can change…for the better! We can transform to a second father for ‘Tiny Tim’ and make the season of goodwill last all year long!

There was a massive Christmas Tree in Chicago…with mom and dad and I sitting under it. There was marionettes for Christmas and holiday music playing on the stereo, that covered one wall of our living room, and a special candy that I can not totally remember…but the sweet smell of it…says Christmas to me…60 years later…and…Santa laughed!

It was warm yesterday…but the temperature is more seasonal today. A few days ago I wrote of the disappearance of the Christmas ornaments along the walking path in Campus Woods. There were as of a little while ago today…several new ornaments! This is direct evidence that the Grinch can not steal Christmas! I have heard most of my life that we become old too soon and wise too late… Since I retired from Southern Illinois University @ Carbondale. Life is not meant to be taken fast…it is meant to be savored…slowly. Between the cacophony of television and on line media…our senses become somewhat numb to the quiet and peace of nature and friendship and serious and lengthy intricate thought… I fear that our thoughts and beliefs and emotions are molded by news and political and religious commentary. If left alone I wonder if we would witness a more congenial and collegial relationship among peoples?

Here we are in the midst of Advent. The 3rd Sunday of Advent is tomorrow. We patiently wait for the birth of Jesus…for whom there was no room in the Inn…and was compelled to be born in a manger among the donkeys and sheep and the wise men of the east…and Mary and Joseph. Jesus was born into a world of religious elitism and demagogy. He entered a world where the temple had been overrun with money changers and capitalist who worshiped the shekel more than the promises of God… And, so, today we fine ourself in a society that applaudes and honors and worships financial gain…and looks down upon the needy and the hungry and the homeless…as obviously having some type of character deficit…or out of the favor of a God who bequeaths and bestows financial riches on his chosen and who turns a blind eye on the suffering humanity that are at our doorstep and who sleep rough outside our favorite 5 star restaurants…

Humans have the propensity to praise themselves if they fall in feces and come out smelling like a rose! So often we become enamored and endeared to our temporary condition. We become convinced that if somehow we got a break in life or a ‘leg-up’ or were in the right place at the right time…that we are anointed with some type of brilliance…or that we no longer breath the same air as the great unwashed…we are breathing a rarified air that is meant for God’s special children… The Hope of Christmas illustrates to us the mean and poor circumstances that the Christ child entered into the world of humans. A carpenter’s son and his mother great with child out of wedlock…and the pungent smell of the stable and the bleating of the goats and the braying of the sheep…and the brilliance of the star that the wise men followed…

Perhaps it is the lighting of the Advent Candle. Perhaps it is the joy of a Christmas Carol. Perhaps it is a Christmas prayer that the New Year will bring good health and peace…and love for all mankind…

The cries of the Con men and women of the world are shattering our ears! I worked around more than one university leader who found themselves in distress and endangered as to their continued viability and employment. I listened to their assessment that the university and my job and many others were not only in danger but soon to be lost…when in reality their narcissism had convinced them that whatever happened to them…as they were all powerful and all important…would happen to the poor line workers and diligent laborers who supported their success…unappreciated! The Christ child is coming…the hope of our world is about to appear…and he is not coming because of the rich and powerful and mighty…he is coming to minister and bring hope to the poor of the land…

Christmas Eve had finally arrived! Parker woke up to her dreams of the numerous colorfully wrapped gifts that were under her Christmas tree. It was a nine foot live fir tree and she and her father and brother and sister had hiked into the woods to cut it down and drag it to their staton […]

The Abduction of Christmas! — The Jazz Man

As I was waiting on Jonathon to join me, on his lunch hour, for a festive campus woods stroll..I noticed a couple of folks furtively doing something with the random Christmas ornaments that had been hung on the trees along the path. I have been walking the path for 42 years and for many of those years persons, unknown, have been decorating the trees along the paved walking route through the woods. Not long into December you will begin to see a Christmas ornament here and there and the lovingly decorated foliage adds tremendously to the holiday spirit of the woods travelers. Soon after Christmas the ornaments begin to disappear. There is one pine tree that is usually fully adorned with Christmas Tree decorations. Last year it was festooned with berries and popcorn. As Jonathon and I passed the two diligent workers the young lady glared at me with the focused gaze of one on a ‘Mission from God!’ We quickly discovered that their busy hands had been engaged in stripping all of the Christmas decorations. Out of all of the years that I have enjoyed the holiday splendor of the woods, I have never witnessed the abduction of all of the holiday regalia over two weeks prior to Christmas!

Now let me explain that I am. not a Forestry major…but I do drive a Subaru Forester… I am understanding enough to realize that perhaps there was a good reason for the ‘Grinch Who Stole Christmas!’ Perhaps there was a fear for the wildlife of the special Campus area? I can attest that I have been a regular observer and photographer of the annual Christmas Woods Christmas Decorations… and I have never witnessed either broken ornaments or evidence that the squirrels or deer were trying to consume the bright objects. I have witnessed for over 60 years…Christmas lights and ornaments adoring many live trees across my region and in many cities that I have visited. Speaking for myself…the annual random Christmas decorations at our Campus Woods have represented a spirit of hope and a better future for our planet. Especially in the year of our 2020 pandemic….the experiencing of the love and concern of the good people who took time to lift the spirits of their fellow human family…was a blessing to me…

On to more positive thoughts! Once again I had the distinct honor of delivering our church board’s gifts to our church staff. As a Personnel Elder I can think of no other duty, accept for our achieving a Covenant Pastorate for our Pastor, Kerry Bean in our First Presbyterian Church of Carbondale, that I enjoy more than the delivering of a Christmas gift to our precious church staff! Without our church staff…we would be lost…and their contribution to the uplifting of our congregation and the enrichment of our christian experience…is immeasurable!

I have been reflecting on the wonderful civil service staff at Southern Illinois University @ Carbondale. These dedicated people keep our University running and if it had not been for their dedication…we would have been closed…long ago! All to often they work and suffer in silence! Humble and dedicated professionals their hearts and lives are committed to the success of SIUC! Many of them, do to their low pay, qualify for food stamps. They not only have not received a pay raise in several years…they have not received a cost of living raise! They complain little and continue to take on more and more job duties…believing that University leaders will see their extreme toil and unparalleled dedication to the vision and the mission and the dream of former University President Dr. Delyte Morris…that they will be recognized for their total immersion into the educational experience of our University’s most precious citizens…our students…

It is 70 degrees today in Little Egypt. I am on the writing porch and the door to the house is open! Christmas Eve is 2 weeks from today! Santa’s elves are busily working… Hope and light are invading our hearts! We are going to emerge from our 2020 pandemic…and we will pay closer attention to what matters and the heart cords of human love and kindness…that make our lives have meaning…

Campus Woods was joined by me once again… I cannot resist it when the Christmas decorations are adorning the trees! Also, I awakened this morning to a flock of geese on our pond. This does not happen often and it is a delight to see them enjoying themselves at Christmas time! As I enjoyed the […]

Safe Harbor — The Jazz Man

MJ has been wrapping Christmas gifts all morning. I can feel winter in the air. The days are getting shorter…just the way that I like them! Vintage Christmas songs are playing and I am in a holiday frame of mind… MJ and I were asked to light the candles on our Advent wreath for our Zoom church service and we had our red sweaters on and the wreath between us on the table. The lighting of the candles during the season of Advent has always been a special joy of mine over my 22 years at First Presbyterian. Each year a different family or couple or individual… lights the candles and also reads some comments appropriate to the season. I have discovered through out my christian walk that the more I know my fellow members of the congregation…the more connected I feel to our church.

Story captivates our senses and enlivens our minds! As my friend, Ro, spoke yesterday of her work on the Stewardship Ministry of our church…I felt a kinship and an appreciation for her efforts and what a blessing that she is to all of us! In today’s society of mistrust and conspiracy theories we have become increasingly insular. We all to often live in our own heads…but we have a hunger to hear the heart beat of another traveler. I often considered over my 32 years and 2 months and 3 week career at Southern Illinois University @ Carbondale that the way to recruit new students and to retain those that we had was to be able to connect with them through our personal accounts…our stories….of what SIUC meant to us… The same may be said of our church…we may love the sermons and the music and the programs…but we are inextricably tied to our faith community by the strong cords of our heartstrings!

The great motivational speaker, Zig Ziglar, said that he really did not care how much you knew until he knew how much you cared about him! The Story of the United States of America causes us to pledge our fealty to a nation that is based on an idea… The Story of Christmas and the Christ child and the manger and the wise men following the star…compels us to wait and seek his birth into our needy world.

We hunger to connect in a meaningful manner with our fellow human family. When the person sitting next to us in the church pew on Sunday morning becomes more that a smiling face…but rather a fellow traveler with many of the same challenges that we have faced…connection and engagement and encouragement is a natural outgrowth of our shared stories…

Santa Claus and his eight tiny reindeer and his home at the North Pole not only stirred my imagination as a youth…but still does! The idea of every child all over the world being visited by the ‘spritely old elf’ on each Christmas Eve…and his sliding down our chimneys as his means of entrance to our homes…is a narrative that brings a warmth to our hearts in the cold of winter. When I see a Christmas Tree or the ornaments that have been placed by many campus woods walkers, during the holiday season, a peace and contentment comes to my heart…from the story that gripped by imagination and tied itself to me…so many years ago! Often tears come to my old eyes when I hear the first words of a Christmas carol…because the story of Christmas lives in side of me…

Tiny Tim is among us. Poor Bob Cratchit is laboring for poverty wages in his penury and he and his family will gather around their Christmas table with little to feed them…but with full hearts… Perhaps we can locate the redeemed Mr. Scrooge?

Campus Woods was resplendent with Christmas Ornaments this afternoon! It had been a few days since I had walked there and I was amazed at how the adornment of the trees had multiplied! The temperature today is in the lower 50’s and many Christmas walking revelers were taking advantage of the late fall warm-up. I […]

Jingle Bells! — The Jazz Man

MJ and I have been busy this past few days. Although I think that is life for most of us during the holiday season! Christmas is my favorite time of the year and it seems to come around more rapidly each year. It appears to me that from Thanksgiving week until Christmas is a long period…until I live through it and then I realize’ that it is over in the blink of an eye! As I close in on my 10 year anniversary of being retired I know that it is vital to have a schedule and a purpose for each day of the miracle of life! The more I remain physically engaged and mentally active…the happier I am! The holidays bring an increased awareness for me, each year…and a focus on where I have been and where I would like to go.

Better days are ahead for us! This Christmas Season brings us the blessing of the welcome news that the United Kingdom is going to begin vaccinating some of their citizens next week…and that there are two pharmaceutical companies that have developed Covid-19 vaccinations that are 95% effective…and that there should be FDA approval on December 10th. The name of the boy that is hidden under the cape of the Ghost of Christmas Present is ‘Ignorance’ and the Girl is named ‘Want’ in the Dickens classic A Christmas Carol. The children are emaciated. This year we can rise above ignorance and do our best to ameliorate want…

All politics are local…we have been told. Also, want and fear and ignorance…are local if we choose to endeavor to lift the heavy burden of our neighbors. Jesus explained to us; ‘ For I was hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger and ye took me in: Naked and you clothed me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, when saw we then hungred, and fed thee? Or thirsty and gave thee drink? When saw we a stranger and took thee in? or naked and clothed thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.’ KJV Matthew 25: 35-40

Cyndy Green, my assistant of many years, would decorated our offices at Building Services in a jovial and festive adornment of Christmas Trees and Santa’s and Holly and Ivy… Cyndy is one of the most pleasant people that I have ever known! Her holiday exuberance was a vital addition to our Christmas joy! It was the happiest time of the year…where we all took a moment to reflect on how blessed that we were to work at Southern Illinois University @ Carbondale…and to appreciate the special people that were our colleagues! We took a pause to reflect on how quickly our careers were whisking by us…and subsequently our lives. When you are working…your work life is inextricably connected to your home life! Happiness at one usually equals happiness at the other…

One of my first Building Services Christmas Parties was held at Muckelroy Auditorium in the Agriculture building. Joe Mayer was my supervisor and he cautioned me to beware of the coffee urn on the right as it was spiked…heavily…and he knew that I was a christian and probably did not want to imbibe alcohol… The auditorium was full and there was Mr. O’Hara, Superintendent of Building Services, and he was like the president of the university for me…he had hired me! As the dinner progressed…in walked Vice President Dougherty, who we all called ‘Doc’, and Mr. Tony Blass who was the Director of the Physical Plant. Doc went to each person in the room…including me…and asked our names and told us how he appreciated our work and wished each of us a Merry Christmas. I was throughly impressed! I wanted to be like…’Doc!’

I came from a place where no one seemed to know me or care about my welfare…other than my precious mother… MJ and I spoke with a car sales person the other day and I appreciated the kind demeanor that he had and the sales training that he had obviously received…as I received the same…so many years ago… I reflected on the wonderful gifts that God has given our family…and I was humbled that I had not done more to pass on what we had received…

Porter yawned and rubbed his eyes…they felt like that they had sand in them. Beside him was Parker and Chet and Steve…but Neva was not present. ‘Were are we,’ Parker asked? Chet replied that during the height of their excitement at the North Pole, Mrs. Claus, or CC, had asked them to follow her into […]

A Christmas Tale — The Jazz Man

MJ and I spent the bulk of yesterday car shopping. It had been nearly 12 years since our last foray into the deep and dark woods of acquiring a new means of conveyance. We have a rich history of holding on to our vehicles for many years… The last new automobile that we purchased was in 1999! The first Subaru that we test drove had a feature that when engaged…virtually drives the SUV for you! Now I am sure that this knowledge is commonplace to most of you and that many of you have a vehicle that performs this amazing function on a regular basis…but for MJ and I it was a bit like the Flintstones visiting the Jetsons!

Cold has been the name of the game in our neck of the woods for the past few days. Winter has arrived along with the holiday decorations and Christmas Trees…and the Laughing Santa… Life has been so stressful for millions across our planet as we seek a hiding place for our 2020 pandemic. Often we do not realize the toll that the majority of this year has taken on us as we have watched friends and loved ones become ill…and succumb to the virus.

The United Kingdom will begin vaccinating some of their citizens next week! This is wonderful news! We are turning the corner of the road out of the darkness of Covid-19…and on the horizon….is light…

I have met a lot of people in my life…and most of them were good folk! Many more of my fellow human beings have endeavored to help me…than to hurt me… I have had some share of struggles, but the good has always outweighed the bad. Many of the worries that kept me up at night…evaporated with the morning mist. There are always helpers… In dark moments there is someone who cares about you and who wishes you good health and prosperity and peace.

As we drove home I listened to Bing Crosby sing White Christmas…and I remembered so many Christmases past. I remembered driving to Salem, Illinois to enjoy Christmas dinner with our family…and Aaron and Jonathon were much younger….and at the conclusion of the celebration we drove to Gatlinburg, Tennessee to spend some holiday enjoyment with our dear friends, Faye and Steve. I had the goal to arrive at Gatlinburg before midnight of Christmas. I vividly recall standing on the balcony of the condo that we had rented and looking at the lights of the city…and the smoke on the mountains… Have you ever noticed that the smell of a new car…is intoxicating?