The Painting Project continues. The young men staining the Writing Porch and painting the Patio are younger than my sons. They call me Sir. I recall how it felt to be working on projects for people much older than me…not so long ago in my compression of time.

Reversals are obstinate boulders on the road of life. What appears easy is hiding the challenges. Murphy said what can go wrong will go wrong. I remember painting. Painting is one of the few crafts that I felt I could have made a living at if I had to. Yet with my best efforts, I always got paint on areas I should not have. The last time MJ and I painted the front door we taped it off and had drop cloths and supreme will and focus…only to still spill some red paint.

Mistakes must become our friends. Mistakes are learning experiences. I despised hearing this as a young man. As an old man, I know it is true. The peculiar thing about mistakes is that you have to admit them to learn from them. Often when I would ask a colleague to clean an area on Campus they would respond that they had already done so and that the result of the experience was what I saw before me. Upon a small demonstration of what a little elbow grease would do they looked on in amazement. Once the Dean of Morris Library reported that her new office furniture was getting nicks and marks on the chair legs. When I asked our technician to demonstrate how he vacuumed around the marred chairs he first assured me that he was not hitting them with a vacuum. He proceeded to hit them several times in short order before I told him I had seen enough. Sometimes a second set of eyes is a good thing.

Focus aids in quality control. Excellence can not be phoned in. This is true throughout life. Success requires immersion in the task. I desired to be valuable to Southern Illinois University, and I wanted a career. I wanted to be good at my profession and understand my University through its many offices and disciplines.

Politicians are surprised. They seek simple answers to complex questions. Marquee silver screen moments with no substance. Entertainment has become pervasive in our society. We have difficulty distinguishing truth from fiction. Perception is the reality in Hollywood…

The answers we seek can not be found in the warm fuzzy depths of our iPhones. We do not write cursive any longer. Really we do not write much because we do not read much. Conversation is becoming a lost art as we hide behind our technology. We are social on Social Media we do not speak to the person sitting next to us in the pew at church.

To reverse reversals we must engage in our world. Religious fatalism is not the answer. Christ was deeply immersed in the people of his time. Conspiracy Theories go down smoothly when there is nothing to combat their assimilation. Friends and neighbors tell us that our fatalistic ideas and dark perception of our country are correct to encourage us in our despondency.

We must admit we made a mistake…today is a new day…