A smile is a frown turned upside down. Smiling is good for your health and mental wellbeing. Smiles beget smiles. When someone smiles at me I feel happy.

I had a boss who once admonished me to not smile so much lest the person I was smiling at think me silly or up to something. I continued to smile. I had another boss who told me several years later that I must stop telling people that they looked like a champ. He noted that no one liked it and were just being nice to me not to say to me of their displeasure. I surveyed my staff and asked them if they felt my statement with the express purpose of uplifting them had offended them. They universally replied that the kind greeting not only made them feel better but that they looked forward to it.

I have engaged in endeavors that I would not have had it not been for a sincere smile. A smile is the artistry of the soul revealed on the canvas of the face…

We are shut-ins. We do not know what to expect from those we meet or what our reaction should be. A smile makes a stormy sea calm. The acceptance we crave and a smile is an open door that says come on in, take your shoes off, and throw your coat on the floor…

‘Are you hungry stay for supper, are you weary we have a big feather bed and a wash basin for you in the guest bedroom,’ Smile admonishes. ‘Allow me to wash the dust from your aching feet and enjoy a glass of homemade wine with us by the fire,’ Smile says with a smile.

‘I was rejected in my family home…shunned and chastised and marginalized for who I am…cast out in the cold and hunger was my only companion,’ Child of Want said. ‘People passed by and frowned and sneered and laughed at my poor circumstances, ‘Child of Want continued.

‘Tonight we shall feast and we will kill the fatted calf…rest will be your friend and peace your quilt,’ said the Smiling man with a voice like rushing waters and sad eyes…

Summer is knocking at our door. Hope is in the air unease is in the air. Such is life. A dear friend often asks folks in his organization where they want to be in five years. A good practice is to focus on the future. We want to stay on track. A former pastor told the congregation this admonishment on many occasions. The track is good when we feel at the end.

The United States has felt a bit off track for some time. Shall we form our Republic according to our religious doctrine? We chastise other countries for doing the same thing. The Muslim faith endures criticism for this practice. I am old. I am old enough to remember before the Moral Majority and religion’s resurgence into secular government. Many point to the guardrails of our lauded three equal branches of government. The guardrails are damaged and in need of infrastructure crusade.

Was it alright and good that African Americans were marginalized for the majority of U.S. history? ‘A woman’s place is in the home was often said,’ when I was growing up. It was not been so long ago that women were not permitted to vote. Gay people have been a vital part of our society since its inception. Those who desire a theocratic form of law and society are basing their template on their understanding of scripture and the agreement of their constituency. What are they to do when other faiths in the Christian Life are not in line with those in power?

The reality of political expediency is that you are in vogue today and outside looking in tomorrow.

Neva J taught me that everyone is precious and worthy of being treated equally. Making fun of others was verboten. People of goodwill agreed that defamation and ridicule was a sign of ignorance.

Is a Dictator the answer when their daily decisions are based on how they feel at the moment and who bows and grovels at their feet? In our money-obsessed land shall we acquiesce to the old axiom that who has the gold makes the rules? Supplication is a necessary skill in Dictatorships. Are we longing for our limited understanding of human life to be the rule of the day? Are we willing to be on the losing end of this proposal at any time?

‘I have never seen such beautiful robes and your crown is majestic, the light of your countenance is more brilliant than the Sun,’ the people said. ‘We need not look for Christ to come to save us now that he has sent you,’ the people continued. ‘We have been practicing the ultimate bow where we touch our faces to the floor before your luster and sheen,’ they continued.

‘Has anyone told the Great Leader that he sleeps through the Royal Hearings and is naked,’ the janitor asked?

Over my retirement days, I have focused on the joy of living. Although we have enjoyed travel joy is not inherent in travel. Life is full of small gems. Now as a younger man, I knew that my happiness would be contained in what I could acquire. It seemed that those around me took a similar quest to gather the wheat in the barn.

‘I am so excited about our bike riding adventure,’ Jane said with summer glee. ‘I can think of little else that I like more than riding around on bikes as the Wind In The Willows characters when Ratty said to Mole, ‘there is nothing absolutely nothing – half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats,’ Jane continued.

‘How about we follow Ratty’s advice and mess about in boats,’ Chet suggested. ‘We can rent a boat at Campus Lake, he said. ‘It will be a lovely day and we will pack our lunch with a little Merlot to slake our thirst,’ Chet said with a wide smile.

‘Merlot and sausages will be in the picnic basket,’ Neva J announced. ‘Scones for dessert and pudding, she added.

‘Will we mess about on bicycles another time,’ Jane asked?

‘This is great and unlike anything I have previously done,’ Billy B said with a whistle. ‘Does any of you remember the thick woods around the Lake,’ he asked?

‘Hello friends where do you hale from,’ Badger asked? ‘Will you join us for some meat pies,’ he asked?

‘Who are you speaking with,’ Mole asked Badger? ‘Come in friends…I have lost my eyeglasses,’ Mole said.

‘Your home is lovely,’ Neva J said to Badger. ‘I see that you have quite a wine collection,’ she added.

‘Mr. Mole are these your glasses, they have thick lenses like mine,’ Chet said.

‘I have a stigmatism,’ Mole said. ‘We Moles have poor eyesight, he added.

‘Ho Ho Ha Ha, who do we have here welcome to Badgers home is that your fine boat tied up at the dock,’ Mr. Toad asked? ‘We do not often receive our friends the humans in our little neck of the woods,’ Toad said.

How did we get here when we were on Campus Lake,’ Chet asked? First, we were in Campus Woods and then your Woods,’ Chet mentioned.

‘We appear when we are thought of it is a bit of magic,’ Ratty noted. ‘We are alive in your minds and hearts,’ he continued.

‘We encapsulate the joy of living…the simplicity of thought becoming wishes come true,’ Badger said as he passed the meat pie…

So, Memorial Day has passed and the swimming holes and pools are open. We look toward summer with a sunny disposition. The woods have returned to a quieter mode.

‘What is it,’ the kindly lady said. ‘I thought you might be checking your phone to see which bird was making the lovely tweets, she added.

I was slightly startled when I saw her because I neither saw her walk up nor did she appear again after walking off into the woods with no evidence of transportation. I looked for her for the next two hours, but she never appeared again. She was old like me. She ambled like me. She talked with me like she knew me. She did look familiar.

I often refer to my Guardian Angel. Maybe I met her today and did not know it. Stranger things have happened. We do not realize who is watching us. We assume that we are going it alone. How many times have we been the recipient of close calls that went in our favor?

We people of faith are sure that God is watching us. There is a popular song with that title. We feel alone and that we live on an island that no one visits. Maybe our unseen benefactor is standing nearby and watching our journey.

Hope brings faith. Faith brings hope. How were many of us desperate and undone transformed into the success story that we became? How many of us have felt the presence of a Helper with us. We are spiritual creations. When I ponder the existence of God I know he is real when I see the goodness of my fellow humans.

Churches fail in their primary mission when they squeeze out every ounce of the Holy Spirit in favor of the academic discipline of the Bible and eschatology.

Theology is primary in developing Christians. However, if you only consume meat and never indulge in a cool drink of water you will be very thirsty.

When I think of the trajectory of my life I trace the poor boy who had nothing to the old man who has a peaceful life I know my Guardian Angel was with me.

‘Well it is finally here, Memorial Day and the opening of Pounds Hollow,’ said Jane with exuberance!

‘I have thought about it since Christmas and of little else,’ Chet remarked. ‘Mom and I left a wreath at the graveside of my Dad who died in World War II,’ he continued. There was a Memorial Day Remembrance at the cemetery and the bugler played taps and I got tears in my eyes,’ Chet said with a downcast gaze.

‘Uncle Dutch Neva J’s brother went missing in WWII and Grandma A gathers the family each year to share stories of him,’ Billy B said.

‘Freedom is not free,’ Neva J said. ‘Many live to be old and never see danger while others are cut down in the prime of life before they have even started their journey, she remarked.

‘I noticed that most of our little Southern Illinois towns and villages have a stone monument erected to the fallen in war,’ Chet said. ‘Every name represents a person who was once alive and seeking all of the possibilities that life had to offer them,’ he continued. ‘They left suddenly wives and husbands sisters and brothers and children behind to live the majority of their hoped-for life without them,’ he said.

‘Perhaps we should not go out of respect for the fallen,’ Jane said.

‘I think that we must live our lives of freedom that they paid the ultimate price for, if they were with us they would be at the beach for a picnic and a cool dip in the lovely waters and playing with their kids and loving the air that they were able to breathe,’ Neva J said with dignity.

‘Perhaps Uncle Dutch and Chet’s Dad and many other family members of those at Pounds Hollow today will roll out their beach towels and watch their family and friends enjoy what they purchased for them,’ Billy B said…

Thunder is rolling like the Rolling Thunder Review of Bob Dylan fame. Southern Illinois is a land of storms. Storms have a bit of a calming effect until they do not. I am watching the neighbor’s cat looking around and wondering what all of the fuss is about. The rock creeks of the woods were alive with rapid-flowing water this afternoon. Memorial Day picnic celebrations had been rained out. I wore my trusty raincoat but was hot.

We sit in our little stick houses much like one of the Three Little Pigs and we know because we read the story that the wolf can come and huff and puff and blow our house down. A real thought but not heartwarming.

A flock of geese just flew over and announced their concern. The picture is forming that we live on the razor’s edge. So we have an ever-present reason to believe in God.

Storms enter our lives and it appears that all is lost and then the sun shines again. We laugh and frolic as children at play. Forgetting the bad times and focusing on the good. Does prayer change things? We may not know but we know that it makes us feel better. Are there miracles in the world…just look around.

Storms have always been in the political arena. It seems of late they have come to stay. We humans are enough for me to believe in God. Humans are intricate and capable of performing miracles.

The single mother raising her kids and living a challenging life who never complains and the kids feel like they are millionaires because of Mom’s love.

A young veteran who loses his legs in combat and yet has a wonderful and full-of-life attitude stands taller than most.

The homeless woman sits outside the fine restaurant and when you pass her by she says God Bless You and you feel her sincerity.

The randomness of destruction and devastation is pervasive. A tornado hits one home and skips the next. If we are the spared ones do we think well it is good that we have been paying our tithes and offerings or do we set about helping our neighbor who needs so much in this cruel moment…

The Woods was full of families enjoying Memorial Day picnics. The shelter that I customarily relaxed from my walk-in was full of happy eaters. I love the idea of picnics. It is replete with family friends and happy times. I do not enjoy the experience of eating at an open-air picnic table as my fly friends will not stay off the potato salad.

During my halcyon days in Eldorado, we picnicked often at Karel Park. There was Aunt Vema Guelda and Wanda…the three sisters of Neva J. They admonished me to eat up and I have taken that sage advice up until and including today. Uncle Bill would smile broadly and run his tongue between a gap in his front teeth. Cousin Brenda was her usual lovely self and often talked with me with her slow drawl of pleasant words. Grandma A was the center of the family the matriarch. A good-natured woman who listened more than she spoke. Cousin Billy was talking about his favorite monsters and science-fiction movies. Uncle Ed sat back with the air of contentment that a retired farmer with a lot of money emanates.

Neva J brought her Roast Beast and Christmas Coffee Cake her specialties. We spoke of the Vietnam War and the

possibility that Billy would soon be drafted. Church was a ready topic of discussion. Some scandal had hit the church that many of my family were members of and Billy told me that the lead minister of the movement who had the initials TM stood for ‘Tit Masher.’ He laughed and I wondered why he would want to mash tits.

Chet came along to some of the family picnics and loved the big family affair. Chet had been adopted and had no family outside of his mother as his dad had passed away suddenly. We enjoyed exploring Karel Park which seemed humongous to me. There was a large pond in the Park. Uncle Bill fished there after the Picnic Feast.

‘Did you see him,’ Chet asked? ‘He is about six inches tall and is under that oak tree over by the pond,’ he continued. ‘He said for you to come over and that he would introduce himself,’ Chet smiled.

‘Hello Billy B are you enjoying the picnic,’ the Gnome asked? ‘My family and I have enjoyed so many picnics at the Park and we rarely have to bring anything as we follow the faith of The Borrowers,’ he said matter of factly. ‘My wife is Earline and I am Edgar, the children are Eskek and Euripedes,’ he informed.

‘My goodness you are a bit small do you have any trouble with the giants among you,’ Billy B asked.

‘No they have no knowledge of us they have decided to focus on their jobs and their human concerns while we while away our days in Gnome Bliss, Edgar answered with a wink. ‘We see much and reveal little but we savvy we understand the ways of humans,’ he said.

‘What will happen with the Vietnam War,’ Chet asked?

‘The United States went into Vietnam slowly but will exit quickly,’ Edgar said.

‘Will RFK become president in 1968,’ Billy B asked?

‘Haters will prevent this from happening our leaders tell us that you humans will not leave war until you learn of our ways of peace,’ Edgar sadly noted.

‘Will church become a safe place for all people,’ Chet asked?

‘Only when they decide to follow the message of Christ,’ Edgar answered with tears in his eyes.

‘Ask the humans if there is any potato salad left that the flies have not sat on and hamburgers and some Oscar Mayer Weiners,’ Earline said.

‘Come to the table and dine and let me introduce you to the family,’ Billy B said with a happy dance.

‘Come and sit by me and fill your little plates until they are overflowing do I have a story to tell you,’ Neva J said with verve!

‘Do I have some special Merlot Wine for you pretty lady made by my family,’ Edgar said with a wink and a smile…

Did you ever try to walk backward? A few times in my early adulthood, I walked backward while the store owner walked forward as we carried a piece of furniture. I got pretty pretty pretty…good at it as Larry David would say.

Walking backward is a bit dangerous. You can not see where you are going. You do not have eyes in the back of your head as I often swore Neva J did. Yet in many societal arenas, we seem determined to master the Paula Abdul song ‘Two Steps Forward and One Step Back…opposites attract.’

MJ pointed out to me that my Father’s Day gift from her had apparently done a ‘Ping-Pong’ delivery route in the suburbs of Chicago for an entire day. How is it that we can no longer write our name and not read cursive? We sit down to enjoy a fine restaurant meal and everyone is mesmerized by the flashing photos and videos on their iPhones.

Much of our thinking has been contracted out or Privatized to social media television and conspiracy theories that are given the elite position of…’It could be true or as George Costanza said on Seinfeld, ‘It is not a lie if you believe it.’

The bedrock of norms has been co-opted by some who lie in almost every sentence and fear not that they will be held accountable. As our brains become less agile for lack of use we laugh and wink at our coming calamity. After all, haven’t they been telling us for all of our lives that the end of the world is coming. We are still here. Let’s have another piece of pie and another cup of coffee…

Reading is fundamental the TV commercial told us last century. ‘A mind is a terrible thing to waste was popular in the 1980s.’ Now AI is here and our robotic assistants will soon be our masters.

A proud European country had lost a major war and their indebtedness was massive. Their economy had tanked and the value of their currency was measured by the wheel barrel load. A nondescript outcast artist and budding insurrectionist with a quirky salute and a funny mustache said follow me and I will make you rich and powerful. The people said sounds good to me… Then the decline. Former friends were now vermin. The people were concerned about the purity of their blood. The Vermin looked humorous with the big yellow stars. You did not need a stress ball when you had living stress balls that you could beat with your bats and listen to them cry out for mercy. The people felt better for the easy decision to quit thinking for themselves and let the funny mustache man who goose-stepped and primped and preened before his speech do their thinking for them. Periodically there was a stab of rueful remorse and regret…but after all…the People were still here and need not worry for their sins…they had a sin-eater.

As happens when you walk in the woods every day it rained today.
I purchased a raincoat in St. Louis a few years ago. During my years at Southern Illinois University, I carried an umbrella. I like rain. I am looking at my cypress tree just outside the Writing Porch, which glistens with the newly fallen drops. I shine a bit after a rain walk.

Rain has a calming effect on me. When it is raining I see the world in a special light. Daily activities usual hustle and bustle become quiet as the rain falls. There is time for pause and reflection. Space for contemplation and reflection. We require a quiet place to assess what we have done and what we are preparing to do. Multitasking is a myth. Focus is the reality.

MJ and I had some dear friends that we regularly had dinner with. When we joined them in their lovely home for cocktails and Hors d’oeuvres over-sparkling conversation. Then was dinner which was often an exercise in Haute cuisine. There were so many unique tastes, textures, and red wine that it was easy to be overwhelmed. As the after-dinner drinks were served it was apparent we were all Dog Tired. What had begun with the beauty of anticipation ended in yawns and heartfelt goodbyes.

Folks like us require rest and downtime to recharge our batteries. We are not Energizer Bunnies. Our circuitry has to reboot. Rain does that for me.

Words spoken in haste are words from a tired mind and mouth. Mylo is in the best of humor early in the morning. He growls in the evening when his wishes are not fulfilled. So it goes…

Perhaps fresh rain could be a medicine in our political life. A time of serene thought and meditation. Plans that come from the people we were before the fiery rhetoric and passion for winning captured our hearts and minds. Return to youngsters and devoid of climbing the ladder of success no matter who falls off as we ascend…

‘I have packed plenty of Merlot and Oscar Mayer Wieners for Chet,’ Neva J grinned from ear to ear. ‘You know this Memorial Day the Orpheum Theatre is erecting a giant movie screen to show the movie The Blob,’ she added with a joyous shiver. ‘Steve McQueen is the Cat’s Pajamas,’ she said.

‘I am going to wear my Creature From The Black Lagoon costume and once it is good and dark I will emerge from Pounds Hollow Lake and trudge through the audience on the beach,’ Billy B said with some satisfaction, ‘Everyone will be so emersed into their fear of the Blob that they will not notice me until is too late,’ he smiled.

‘I heard that there is a blob-like substance around the beach where you enter the water that the Park Rangers have not been able to identify,’ Jane said with a concerned look. ‘I hope it does not crawl up my arm and eat me,’ she said.

‘As for me I shall be modeling my Lost In Space Robot outfit which is a hit with the kids,’ Chet said. ‘It is high time to throw off the shackles of school and kick off the Summer Vacation with a bang,’ Chet observed. ‘I hope that our teachers will be there for this unprecedented movie and swimming event which is certain to become an annual event,’ he continued.

‘Look at all of these people laying on their beach towels and sipping their Merlot and Peppermint Schnapps,’ Billy B observed. ‘Dad is smoking this new pipe that I gave him for an early Father’s Day gift,’ Billy B smiled knowing that he had done well and that he was a good boy.

‘Please only swim in the designated area as The Blob has been found in the campground and attacked a Ranger who had to be rushed to the hospital,’ Steve McQueen said to the audience. ‘I do not know how I got here but this is live and in real-time,’ he continued.

‘That does not compute,’ said Chet dressed as the Lost In Space Robot.

‘My God it is the Creature From The Black Lagoon,’ cried out Buddy. ‘He is roaming through the crowd on the beach and what is that gelatinous material that he is covered with,’ Buddy said with fear in his voice!

‘Breaking news from Pounds Hollow that several people watching the film The Blob contracted a blob-like substance on their arms and legs and have been admitted to Ferrel Hospital for treatment,’ WSIL Channel 3 announced on the 5:00 P:M: news. ‘On a related note actor Steve McQueen noted that he was at the event to promote his new movie and things got a bit out of hand after the Creature From The Black Lagoon spread fear and a gooey substance throughout the Memorial Day gathering…