The cloudy and blue-patched sky this morning was charming. It occurred to me that we live with miracles all around us. Tunnel vision prevents us from seeing the majesty of nature. As we focus on our problems both real and not so real…we fail to see the forest for the trees. We have been placed in a Heaven on Earth and still look for unseen beauty. 

Faith helps us see the mystery and majesty that surround us. To believe in something greater than you is empowering. Dr. Martin Luther King saw the possibilities of the future for Civil Rights while he was in the Birmingham Jail. Nelson Mandela kept his vision of the abolishment of Apartheid over many years of imprisonment. 

Christ could see the Peaceable Kingdom…from the cross…

Many do not believe we are down for the count as a Nation. We still believe in the inherent goodness of the human family. 

The Christian message is not the message of controlling others. Many churches have not learned this valuable lesson. Some have fled church to obtain their freedom. 

Our marvelous planet is full of people who are not our clones. Their likes and dislikes are not necessarily ours. Why would we want to control them or legislate their personal lives when we do not understand their respective challenges. Do you want the government to dictate who you can love what books you can read or what you must think?

‘My mirror image winked at me,’ Jane said. ’This anomaly gives me significant concern…not normal and a bit scary,’ she continued.

‘Well that is a bit strange…but Neva J’s Mirror often reveals the mystery,’ Billy B said.

‘We are all connected…we are all members of the same family…each of us relies upon our neighbor,’ Chet noted with a smile.

‘As Larry David says in his new season of Curb Your Enthusiasm,’ The Mirror shows us an image of how we see ourselves while a photo shows us how other people see us.’

‘Neva J’s Mirror shows me as I would like to be with an outgoing attitude and a joy de vie…while my personality is introverted,’ Jane said.

‘I love what the mirror shows me about the beauty of life that I am missing…often I see the reflection of the intricate beauty and wonder that I miss with my eyes,’ Chet said. 

Neva J Jane Chet and Billy B entered the Massive Mirror and began their exploration of the Mystery of Life…

Sympathy when I was a lad was in short supply. It was a different time. I worked with the Wilis Boys for three hot days cutting corn out of a bean field and it was so hot my socks slipped off my feet. When the farmer came by he mentioned that I was a bit slow…and I probably was but it was not for a lack of trying. 

Neva J awakened me each morning with her favorite motivational speech, ‘Hit The Deck, Your Rubberneck!’ All my friends must be experiencing the same call to battle. 

Each evening it was already dark in the winter…I was tasked with bringing in the coal for the stove adjacent to the kitchen. Now the coal was not the expensive kind and thus it was full of clunkers and Neva J had cats and thus cat poop as well. 

I learned to not wait for someone to give me something. Neva J was dating a gentleman called Cracky who offered me a penny and when I said no thanks he lectured me on the value of a penny.

I really appreciate Horatio Algier’s Stories or Rags to Riches because I remember the rags. When I moved out on my own the day after High School Graduation…I learned what it was to be hungry. 

So, when I see a fellow human on my Journey back to Jerusalem I empathize with them. It is indeed possible to work very hard and have nothing. 

We must decide to do something about our problems rather than talk them to death. Decisions whether they are right or wrong are at least forward movement. Stagnation in organizations churches universities and countries results in folks not caring or refusing to become involved. Risk-averse we are…while Rome is burning we are tuning our fiddles…

Committees are where ambitious plans for improvement expansion and renewal…go to die. We must ‘Hit The Deck’ when the call goes out, ‘Who shall work in my vineyard.’

Another day in the Woods and it is even better on Sunday. I was watching a film the other night about a famous Life Magazine photographer who only filmed in Black and White. Black and White film has a timeless quality. There is also a subtle mystery to the image that can not be obtained with Color film. 

Vivian Maier’s Street Photography is primarily in Black and White. 

Time is depicted better in Black and White. We live in a world full of color that tends to distract from the images behind the brilliance. When we take the color away we see the bones of the subject of the photo. Often the raw emotion of the scene is depicted sharply. 

Often we see our world in Black and White. The color has drained from our artistic pallet. Life’s challenges come so fast and so frequently that we see them only in monochrome. At these times our reality seems overwhelming. Even the Christmas Tree lights do not sparkle. 

A Hawk saw me as I saw him and soon swooped down to let me know of my violation of his space. 

So is our time here on Earth. We rejoice in the kaleidoscope of color of our happy times and we focus more clearly and deeply on the subjects behind the color in our sad and serious moments. 

Aaron gave me a gift of ancestry.com for Christmas. Today we noodled with it. What a hoot to find ancestors from the 16 hundreds and not only the British Colonies but England, Ireland, and Scotland. You certainly see what a great cast of characters you are associated with. 

We tend to surmise that what we are doing is of profound importance. How could anyone before us have done much more than struggle through life when we are winging on the wispy clouds of modern convenience. Alas, we are only singular members of a great story…a chapter of a majestic novel.

Those who came before us faced many of the challenges that we face. On winter nights they looked up at the stars and wondered what the Secret was. Disease did battle with our ancestors and took some of their young. They sought a new world of acceptance. They looked for a land where they could develop a sense of place and breathe the air of freedom. 

Our ancestors sought shelter food and fellowship with their fellow humans. Peace and prosperity were to be desired. Freedom from fear was a prime motivator. Hope was a Northstar. 

They lived with neither the iPhone nor the internet. Often you parted ways with precious family and did not see them for years or ever again. News traveled slowly…there were not many conspiracy theories unless you wrote them yourself. 

Leisure was rare and it was difficult to stay awake to enjoy it. Folks would travel to see their neighbor and knock on their door to announce their arrival…they could not call them on the telephone…

Most people kept their business to themselves and thus they were a mystery that made them interesting. Talk was indeed cheap and actions spoke louder than words. It was not easy for the conman or the scam artist to overtake our ancestors…they were much too busy with the real world…

The World was a mystery that was yet to be discovered by our ancestors. Exploration was a high calling and worthy of reverence. We knew little of anything that was more than a few miles from where we were born. Everything had a newness and a freshness about it and slept under a benevolent moon…

I was reminded by a Facebook post from Jerry’s wife Betty Jo that it was the eleventh anniversary of his passing. I met Jerry in October 1978 when my foreman Jim brought him to Thalman Hall to introduce him to me as a new employee. Jerry was the Business Agent for Local #316 Service Employees Union. I joined the Union and found a new friend.

Jerry helped so many people it is impossible to count them all. We had good jobs that most of us developed into our careers at Southern Illinois University and we had Jerry to thank for that. 

Jerry was a friend to a little guy like me. He was my friend when I had none at SIUC. In the last chapter of my career, he was a confidant and key advisor. 

Jerry’s advice was actively sought by University Chancellors and Presidents. Jerry had your back…he had my back…

Jerry was wise. He could positively correct his friends and they left with their dignity intact. We will not see his kind again…he was one in a million…

‘Did you know it is one month since Christmas,’ Chet asked?

‘Yes and if I shut my eyes I am still there,’ Jane responded. ’Time is a mystery to me…at first I thought that a year took forever to go round and now I wonder if a year is about as long as a week,’ she continued. 

‘When I woke up this morning I could have sworn that I saw the Christmas Tree,’ Billy B uttered in some disbelief. ’I remember taking it down just before New Year’s Eve…and yet there it was…

‘What are you guys waiting for…we will be late for the Christmas Party at the School,’ Neva J said with a wide grin. 

Before them was the Giant Santa on the Square and the elaborate Christmas decorations strung from one side of the street of Eldorado to the other side. Holiday shoppers lined the street and there were the melodies of Carolers along the brilliantly lit path. They were on their way to Grandma A’s house for a Christmas gift exchange. 

‘Oh my goodness a Daniel Boone Action Figure…it was just what I wanted Grandma A,’ exulted Billy B! ’For you I have a new Bible and a case to keep it safe,’ Billy B noted.

‘Who is the man talking to Aunt Beulah,’ asked Neva J? ’He looks just like my brother Dutch who went missing in World War II,’ Neva J said with a tear in her eye.

‘It is Dutch…he came home this morning as it is Christmas Day,’ said Grandma A with a wink,’ ’You know I have always said that he would come home one day,’ she continued. 

‘Dutch has not aged a day since his WWII photo of 1943,’ Neva J marveled. ’In fact, he looks the same as he did in 1933 when he twirled me around as we played Merry Go Round,’ she said with some visible passion. 

‘I hope you saved me a turkey leg…you know it is my favorite part of the Bird,’ Junior said. ’Come and let’s celebrate Christmas in the Country as we have before,’ he continued. 

‘It is Dad…but how could that be…he left sometime back,’ Billy B asked? 

‘Time is a mystery,’ said Brock as he passed around the black-eyed peas…

Identify what we do. We seek others of like mind. I was speaking with the nice Park Attendant yesterday and enjoyed our mutual affection for the beauty of the Woods. Cities are fascinating but the loss of nature’s splendor is a great loss to the city dwellers. At times I wonder if we have fashioned for ourselves a bit of a false existence. We have the joy of striving for success and heaven knows that the struggle to make a living is a time-consuming proposition. Offices are our workplace in today’s world. Office politics can be deadly.

We visited the Catacombs at Palermo, Sicily and I vividly recall seeing the dead dressed in their best clothes and lying along the walls of the grave site with the remnants of their earthly bodies on full display. It was a jarring experience. A little girl was perfectly preserved and looked as if she was asleep and would soon awake to ask us what we were looking at. We were so close to them that you could easily reach out and touch them…I did not feel the urge to do so. Most appeared as if they did not realize the moment that death overtook them.

Pastor Kerry sent us a note from NPR that spoke of the increase of folks who claim no religious affiliation. How did this happen? Have our faith communities not done their job? Is life among the catacombs frozen us in a death smile that masks our reality?

A savior we seek. A strong man who will proclaim what we must do and will take the pesky thought process away from us so that we may be afforded additional time in our manufactured reality.

Truth has become a malleable concept. Truth is what serves our needs at the moment its utilization will benefit us the most. Time is a precious commodity. We seek more of it or at least the power to slow it down. Busy we are while we tilt at windmills. Tomorrow we will set our minds on the research of hard subjects. 

Feelings are conditional. Ours are important. Others we can not be concerned with. If they have made the wrong life decisions it is on them…we have our hands full making our own wrong decisions. We hate the immigrants and want them to return to where they came from. We are immigrants…

Question, we must those whose moral compass is not synchronized with ours…do not open our closet…it has been some time since we cleaned it. 

‘I shall wear my tuxedo this evening for the Ball,’ He Said.

‘My new gown will make a statement at the festivities…it is my most flattering dress,’ She said.

‘My Priestly robe shall be an attention getter at the Kings Celebration…all will defer to me…as a man of God,’ Priest said.

‘Women can not resist my charms…I have the ‘Kavorka-like, Kramer,’ Romantic said with a wicked wink.

‘Today I am a married woman and I will wear my wedding dress,’ Bride said.

‘God created me in his image…and I will never change,’ Rosalee said…

‘Why is it so dark in here and dank…and I can not see the reason for us all lying down when it is a Ball…’ Cassanova said…

It is a heat wave in Little Egypt. Almost 50 degrees. A few days ago the weather was in the single digits. As I walked in the Woods this morning, a little friend joined me. A little brown dog with a collar on and a skittish nature. I noticed that he did not come too close to me but when I thought he must be gone he seemed to turn up again. I walked over to the Visitors Center where a Park employee drove up and asked me if he was my dog. I replied that he was not but that I was worried about him as he seemed to have lost his master. The nice Park Staff took a photo of Little Brown and was going to inquire about his potential owner…although he did not know that he was the dog they were missing. He went on to say that he knew he had not seen me with a dog previously. He mentioned that a person in the Visior’s Center had told him that I took a lot of photos. I replied that I had 20,000 and that I had been visiting the Park for nearly two years. We agreed that the Park was a beautiful place to visit and that we liked the winter views better than the summer. 

I thought of loading up Little Brown and taking him home but feared that his owner would be unhappy. I also knew that MJ and Mylo would not be pleased with an addition to the family. There are a few campers at Giant City who may have been missing their dog. I did notice that once I was done speaking with the attendant Little Brown disappeared. Perhaps he went home. 

The Woods has a captivating allure for me that few other places possess. There is an inherent serenity in my Woods visitations. Politics and divisiveness melt away in the beauty of nature. The trees are not worried about who will be elected President in 2024. The peace of our past and the promise of our future is before the Woods Visitor. The din and clang and clash of we humans arguing about who is the best Christian and who comprises the True Americans is silenced by the winter Woods. 

Our churches are a bit lost because they have lost the script of what Christians are supposed to offer to the hurting and lonely the needy of our land. Love and acceptance are what Christ offered. He had neither Church Bulletin nor Church Program to entice the masses of his day. He was a person who did his own thing. He enjoyed a drink with his friends and the company of those who had been marginalized by the religious society of his day.

Neva J taught me to show good manners. Do not speak ill of others. Do not engage in name-calling. The Bible tells us to welcome the stranger. Zaccchaeus climbed up in the Sycamore Tree to see the Lord as he passed by. He was a short man and a tax collector. Our churches are dying as we have buried the line of Christ’s message in our dogma and doctrine and our nationalism that we call Christian.

A revelation to some would be that Christ did not preach his earthly message to white Europeans… The folks who populate the pages of the Bible are from the Middle East…

We are a bit like Little Brown…we are looking for our home…

I think I can slide down this little hill and need not worry about the newly formed ice. This is what I thought just before I fell like a sequoia tree and broke three ribs. So, there is some ice this morning and I am cautious about getting out for my daily Woods Walk until the temperatures rise. Ice is a cruel taskmaster. It is not a respecter of persons. It cares not who it throws in the ditch or breaks a rib or two…or three…

‘If we are going to ice skate we had better get at it,’ Billy B called out to the happy tribe.’ ’It has been below freezing for a week and the pond should be safe for our Olympic Training,’ he continued. 

‘I can try out the new ice skates that I received for Christmas,’ Jane said with a happy grin. ’I wondered we would receive enough days of below-freezing weather this winter to allow us to have a New Year’s Skating Party,’ she went on to remark. 

‘I remember when Old Jim skated on the Pond many years ago and has not been heard from since,’ Chet said with a worried look. ’The rescue crew found no hole in the ice but they did find a peculiar shadow on the top of the ice that looked amazingly like Old Jim,’ he said.

‘Old Jim was a loner that’s for sure,’ Neva J said. ’In church, on Sunday morning he always sat on the back pew and said little to anyone other than smile,’ she observed.

‘Over there by the tree line is the Shadow of Old Jim,’ said Chet as he skated over to it. ’Sometimes the Shadow is in a sitting position while at other times it is standing, he explained. 

‘Well where there is a Shadow there must be a body…don’t you think,’ Billy B asked?

‘Ripleys Believe It Or Not took photos of the Shadow many years ago and they are on display in Gatlinburg, Tennessee at their Showroom,’ Neva J said. ’Old Jim was never much more than a Shadow during his life with his extreme quiet and rectitude…he loved that he was the town mystery and wrote a story about it,’ Neva J continued with a haunting laugh. 

‘Come over here and see what I am seeing…there are four Shadows on the ice,’ said Future Child. 

‘Why they are Shadows with no bodies to cast the shadows,’ said Future Father.’

‘Shadows with faces…and they are all smiling…,’ Future Mother said with alarm…

We live in a world that emphasizes the big and the bold. Who can run the fastest…who is the richest…how large is your skyscraper. I watched Fran Lebowitz the other night as she expounded on New York City. She mentioned that people eat more than they did when she was young. Indeed Restaurants are proud of how large their portions are.

In MJ and my heyday, I love driving a big car. The bigger the better.  They seemed to glide down the road. The V8 engine would transport you from 24 mph to 95mph in a moment and the need for speed seemed real. During the 80s the McMansion became popular. Why have 2,500 square feet when you can have 5,000? The Yuppies or Young Urban Professionals were lauded and applauded. Wall Street was the hero and the movie character Gordon Gecko was to be emulated.

We loved the McMansions until we discovered that they were terribly expensive to maintain with utilities and property tax. Soon we learned that the Globe was getting hotter and we were culpable. The humongous automobiles were expensive to fuel. Our supersized homes had a lot of unused rooms.

Today MJ and I finished our house cleaning duties for this cycle and I found it strangely satisfying. Simple duties that often are not done properly. The joy is in a job well done.

I have all that I need, yet I seem to require less and less. I heard an owl the other night. I wondered what he was communicating. He seemed intent regarding his important message. 

Chachkies I love them! When I happen upon one that I have been looking for I am filled with joy. 

Mylo is a big dog in a small package. He is a delight! 

The struggle to be seen and heard and to have Voice is exhausting. There is joy in watching others on their journey and then writing about the observations. 

‘Keep your accounts on your thumbnail,’ has been said. ’Let you yay be yay and your nay be nay,’ the Bible tells us.

The tumult and the struggle in the arena of ideas are worthy to engage in…if you can better the lives of others. If your struggle is to climb the ladder of success it is often hollow. When you get to the top you say is this all there is…

I enjoy traveling but I equally enjoy and I think a bit more…staying home. I do not require big events to be happy. The smallest of life surprises bring me joy…