There was a television show many years ago called The Defenders. The Defenders were lawyers and a bit above my interest as a youngster. I like the title of the show. Are we not all defenders at many points in our lives?

For many years I felt the need to defend my wonderful colleagues at Southern Illinois University @ Carbondale. I still feel that need but all the leaders I knew have shuffled off the scene. During my 32-year 2-month and 3-week career, I noticed the marginalization and disconnect that the University administration had regarding their civil service staff. A Chancellor told me on more than one occasion that civil service staff came last. I did not need to be told what I already knew.

Civil Service staff are the backbone of our campus. Without us, nothing would operate and the university would collapse. One of the biggest gaps in understanding is the talent in the civil service community that university leaders never avail themselves of. There is an inherent elitism in the academic community.

Defending is honorable. When someone is being diminished step into the gap and take their part. Silence is acquiescentce. Averting our eyes is subjective blindness to suffering.

So it goes with the pain that surrounds us. We Christians want to go to heaven. Now many of us believe that the blessed place will only contain those like us but what if the poor of the land surround us and tell us of their memories of us. Will we say that we were busy? Will we claim ignorance as to their plight on earth?

I am reading a book entitled Nuclear War. It is the most detailed account of what comprises nuclear war including the lead-up to it and its development as well as the aftermath. It is not a fiction story.

The book points out that an incoming nuclear warhead can not be detected for anti-missile assault until it rises over the horizon. Then the ‘Star Wars’ protection is not better than a bullet shooting another bullet. It usually fails.

I have wondered what was just over the horizon. Perhaps good is coming my way or evil. The limitations of being human are profound. Some suspected that over the horizon was the end of the earth. There you fell to oblivion.

Our telescopes are out and extended. Our sailor has climbed up to the crow’s nest. The navigator has plotted our course and the waters are choppy with ten-foot waves.

A lighthouse appears at the crest of the horizon. Everyone is seasick as the sailboat tosses and turns and rises up when the massive wave strikes it and then precipitously falls back to the ocean floor. Walking is unheard of and crawling is the order of the day.

A Seamonster appears before us. The Monster is hydra-headed and mad. His massive tail whacks the bow of the ship and sends it reeling in a pirouette. Now we can not see the lighthouse as we are dizzy from the Seamonster spinning our sailboat and the sky has turned dark as night. The monster is between our line of sight and the lighthouse. We struggle forward as the ocean behind us has fashioned itself as a black hole and is swallowing everything that it can draw into it. The ship’s captain waves at us as he is drawn into the black hole and cries for us to release the bombs.

The lighthouse is peaceful. It has the spirit of love and harmony the message of Christ.

Cicadias are chirping. Ants are building a new home… ‘I guess we showed them,’ the old man said from his home in the earth…

This has been one of those ‘Easy Like Sunday Morning’ Sundays. The weather is not too hot or cold, and the living is easy. Life seems to have a laconic pace that requires little effort. Jonathon and I put our new Dyson Vacuum together. It was easy which is highly unusual. Domino’s Pizza was on sale, and we said two for us.

I had an opportunity to see friends from my work days yesterday. They are getting younger and I am getting older. They greeted me with such enthusiasm and smiles that it brought a tear to my eye. I remember how I worried night and day that we could keep my little department viable to ward off the contracting of services. I felt that it was my mission to protect each one of my colleagues.

There is peace in not concerning myself regarding what people think of me. My friend Jo Ann told me that she always knew that I would never do anything that I did not believe in. I could be called The Contrarian. My life has often been on the outside of the circle looking in. This has transpired when I perceive that there is a fundamental difference in which fork in the road to take.

I am dismayed at leaders who seem to have misplaced their backbone. How do they live without a backbone?

We get just a few days on our earth. We tear down barns and build bigger ones. We take the Bible and fit the scriptures to support our parochial beliefs. As religion declines in our nation we lift up the god of politics and all that it can afford for our team.

The Slow Train affords time for introspection. Think about who you are and why you feel the way that you do. Uniqueness is not a flaw or a fault. The courage to stand for what you believe is a virtue.

Friday evening is calling. Or as the old song said, Working For The Weekend. My first job at Essex International afforded me some sad countenanced colleagues, especially on Monday mornings. Folks appeared ill. I was in my customary good humor as it was my first job and a daily challenge. But on Friday the veil lifted and the Sun showed through. So it goes with us at the Low Table. We work for our bread from morning to night and hope for some extra amusements for the kids. We want to be treated fairly and with a circumspect eye toward our common humanity.

President Lincoln told us at Gettysburg that, ‘these dead shall not have died in vain-that this nation under God, shall have a new birth of freedom and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.’ We do not have a king in the United States. We elect one of our peers for a time to lead us and then he/she shall return to what the rest of us are doing…living in a democracy.

High Tables and Easy Living change our perspective. We love the sound of our own voice. The Little People annoy us. We decide that we will make God in our own image.

The reverence we had for our institutions. We Littles knew that some wise women and men were looking out for our best interests. Law was the great equalizer and justice was blind according to the statue of Lady Justice.

‘Mr. Justice and Madame Justice we are down here,’ Littles called out. ‘We can see you…can you see us,’ Littles continued in desperation?

‘Did any of you hear a squeak or a small whisper,’ Mr. Justice asked? ‘I thought I saw a flash before my eyes as I peered down at the floor but decided it must have been some ‘overdone stew or a bad potato,’ Mr. Justice continued.

‘I am a bit chilly and the cold air is coming in through the Court House Door that an intruder had left open,’ Madame Justice said with a shiver. ‘We must not leave the door open as the varmints will get in and then what shall we do,’ She continued…

MJ and I talked with our favorite Vet Dr. Brandy Doggett. She told us of her recent vacation and made us want to follow in her footsteps. Mylo enjoyed the conversation as well.

I thought as Dr. Doggett was talking and her animation in explaining her recent holiday that she made my day just by vicariously experiencing her joy.

I love to refer to the famous play Waiting For Godot. We seek him here we seek him there and yet he is with us and we do not realize it.

I saw my old friend Brent yesterday. I was employed by Brent in the vocation of carpet laying when I was 20 years old just before I was hired at SIUC. He was so nice to me. I had at that time never worked for a kinder boss. When we talked a bit yesterday I could only see Brent of 46 years ago. Brent exemplified how a good boss acts.

At times we desire others to comply with our restrictive mold of how we think they should be. Shame on us for putting people in a box. We are unique. We seek others who will see us for who we are and not their pigeonhole portrait of us.

Perhaps God will tap us on the shoulder. Maybe he will reveal himself to us in a burning bush. Could he be in the gold of our cathedrals? Does he have a special message for us that we are to share with the world?

We are a bit broken. We want the big event. Cymbals are in order as is the bass drum. Trumpets shall peel their resounding call to arms and the Heavenly Choir will join in with the old hymn Onward Christian Soldiers.

We seek the elusive imprimatur of God when he is standing next to us in line at the grocery store.

Look into the eyes of the person next to you and you will see God…

Never bemoan your age as it beats the alternative. Grandma A said that if you live to be 100 life is short. With age comes wisdom we hope. With age comes experiences some good and some instructive.

Age brings self-actualization. Your eyes fail but you can see more clearly. What we have been dithering with and playing trivial pursuit now we value and cherish.

‘Welcome to your beginning, He said. ‘You have made it through the door and now comes the fun part,’ He continued. ‘At the next station She will provide you with a Welcome Pack of all the necessary items you will need for the next stage of your journey,’ He smiled as He patted Baby on his back.

‘Burp,’ Baby uttered with a satisfied sigh. ‘Oh my goodness excuse me I do not know where my manners are,’ Baby apologized.

‘Not at all it is a common occurrence upon arrival at this stage of the journey,’ She said with a look of benevolence. ‘We have been waiting for you for some time and now your big day is here,’ She continued.

‘I noticed that you call me Baby no one has called me Baby since I was born and that was 90 years ago,’ Baby observed. I was a mover and a shaker as they say somewhere,’ Baby said with a look of accomplishment. ‘I commanded men and held high office I even have the title of President,’ Baby said with a wink.

‘As I mentioned this is your big day you have made it through the door you have friends here that are longing to see you,’ He said. ‘It is all in the Welcome Packet it takes some adjustment to become accustomed to the change but you will,’ He noted. ‘The contemplation of the never-ending vastness of God is intriguing, He said.

‘You keep saying that I have made it through the door, ‘Burp…Yawn,’ and what is the door,’ Baby asked?

‘All that you have done was done in the foyer you were not yet in the House and now you are inside…it is all in the Manual,’ She said with steady joy.

The wind is blowing a cool breeze. We have had a lot of wind lately. With wind comes change. I wrote of The Wizard Of Oz the other day and you will remember the tornado that carried Dorothy to the Land Of Oz. They were ‘not in Kansas anymore.’

Change surrounds us in our little corner of the world. Restaurants and businesses seem to close regularly. Our mall is a ghost town as retail struggles to operate a brick-and-mortar store in our online economy. Churches are shrinking. Politics/religion has replaced traditional faith venues. Power and money are lauded as supreme accomplishments while the poor beg for bread.

Change is a bit like the Kansas Tornado that Dorothy and Toto experienced. It is difficult to keep your balance. So what do we do? Do we hide our heads in the sand in the Ostrich fashion? Or shall we work to make our society better?

Lonely people are all around us. Make a friend. Bring them to Church as a social event. They might like it. Do not talk about it but rather illustrate Christ’s gospel.

Don’t focus on your friend’s favorite political candidate but rather on what politics was designed to do by our founding fathers. There is a separation of church and state for a reason. Politics does not belong in the church and religion has no place in politics.

Support small businesses. They are the backbone of your community.

Age is change. The pitfall of we Golden Years folks is the inability to adjust to our new reality.

I spend almost every day in the woods. My appreciation for our Earth grows exponentially. An observation from my years of empirical study has illustrated that humans are the species that are out of sync with our home. Our artificial life in the name of progress and money has given us a skewed opinion of what is important.

The joy of living is dependent on our home. Without Earth, we are lost and undone.

My carefree summers were spent at Pounds Hollow Lake. It was there that my love of nature first appeared. I learned that nature did not judge or condemn but was a loving presence.

MJ and I took two Alaskan Cruises and marveled at the Calving of the Glaciers and what that meant for our future. Soon the Glaciers will be gone.

We come from the Earth and to it we will return.

Earth Day is not just for young people. All of us have a manifest stake in our little blue orb.

Earth is our Diamond. We should polish it and cherish it. We will never get another…

Whimsy is whimsical. It brightens our lives. Without it, we might slide into the Follower camp.

‘Come with us we are the Followers, membership forms are at the desk and we even have our own buttons and hats,’ Cracky announced with a wide toothy grin.

‘What are the precepts of The Followers,’ asked Chet? ‘It appears that you have your own club and what then are the dues for joining and the goals of the organization,’ Chet continued.

‘Our motto is Don’t Make Waves and fidelity to mediocrity,’ Cracky explained. ‘Whatever worked in the past will certainly be good enough for now and in the future,’ he noted.

‘We have our own club and we call it Whimsy,’ Jane said. ‘We like to have fun and not take ourselves too seriously,’ she explained. ‘We are playful and unpredictable we seek to drink the juice of each day and let the overflow run down our chins,’ Jane laughed.

‘Of course, being a member of Whimsy does not make us irresponsible as that is the point, we have much responsibility and need a counterbalance to our worries and woes that we find in Whimsy,’ Billy B said.

‘We Followers do what the leader tells us and that saves us much worry and doubt as we do not have to concern ourselves with what we want but only what the Boss wants,’ Cracky said. ‘If the Great Leader told me to jump off of a cliff I would do it without thought,’ he continued.

‘Thoughts and opinions and research is the backbone of we Whimsical and propels us into a thorough enjoyment of fantasy when we get the opportunity,’ Chet noted. ‘At times being whimsical has been equated to frivolous when in fact Story and Poem and Play fuels our serious endeavours, Chet said with a satisfied gaze.

My goodness, it appears there is a serious discussion transpiring, SC said. ‘Can you help me unload my Subaru as I have brought out-of-season toys for all of the children of Eldorado,’ SC continued.

‘But it is only April,’ Cracky said with some wonder in his voice!

‘What better time to be surprised by Christmas gifts than April, I have a special one for you,’ SC said with a wink and a nod…

The Wizard Of Oz was a perennial favorite of my youth. Dorothy Scarecrow Tinman and the Cowardly Lion’s search for the Wizard was a quest that involved the yellow brick road and good and bad witches not to mention flying monkeys. The story had it all.

Wizard Of Oz had all of the answers to life’s persistent questions but he was unattainable and ensconced in his castle away from the little people. He was a massive big head that must be obeyed without question. His assistants demanded obeisance shown for Mr. Wizard. The marvelous appearance of his big knowing head and fiery rhetoric ensured he had all the answers. He was the leader.

As I watched the movie Civil War one of the characters who was a veteran reporter for What was Left of the New York Times told a new reporter that once you meet the human who is the leader it is usually disappointing as they were not the great leader that they portrayed themselves to be. The final scene of the movie illustrates this.

The Emporer loved his new clothes. All his sycophants agreed that he had the most luxurious royal garments. The Emporer was naked.

It is possible to look behind the Wizard Of Oz’s Curtain. Ignore the self-serving comments and bloviating. Look and see if what the Wizard says matches what he or she does. Measure if love is the motivation of the Wiz…or lust. Power is a compelling aphrodisiac.

Is the Wiz a leader for good or a sleepy old man with a child mind and the instincts of the schoolyard bully?