Mary Ann Blinkhorn has graciously invited me to participate in the 3-Days, 3-

Quotes Challenge.  The link to Mary Ann’s blog is:

https://mypenandme.wordpress.com

Mary Ann’s blog is extremely interesting and I highly recommend it!

The rules for the 3-Days, 3-Quotes Challenge are:

1. Thank the person who nominated you.
2. Post one fresh quotation for three consecutive days.
3. On each of the three days, nominate three folk who have not yet taken part to continue the challenge.

Todays Nominees are:

https://jonathonbrooks.wordpress.com

https://curiousrambler.com

https://dearlilyjune.wordpress.com

These are wonderful bloggers who write fascinating blogs!

Todays Quotation submitted by me:

“We are all in the same boat in a stormy sea, and we owe each other a terrible loyalty.”

-G.K. Chesterton

As 2015 draws to a close I cannot help but reflect on the past five years of my retirement.  At the conclusion of 2010 I stepped away from my career at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois after thirty-two years, two months and three weeks of service.  This was a job that by and large I loved for the entirety of my affiliation with the University.

I began as a Building Service Worker I, which is a janitor, and it was a great step up for me financially. My pay doubled from my former position outside the school and there were excellent benefits.  I determined, early on, that if I was going to work in the custodial arena…I wanted to be a custodial professional.  Through God’s grace and hard work promotions came quickly…and for the last twenty-five years of my career I worked as either the assistant manager of the organization or the manager.

The wonderful people that I was privileged to work with so enhanced my time there…and were much of the reason for what success I attained!

Yet when it came time to retire I had no regrets…as I was keenly aware that life does not go on forever.

Over the past five years Mary Jane, who retired just two months after me, and I have enjoyed some special times and some special people!  We have been able to accompany my wonderful brother-in-law Ron, who is more like my brother,  and his lovely wife Ira Kaye on several trips…including an annual visit to their condo in Destin, Florida.  The camaraderie we have enjoyed has been extraordinary and has added to the richness of retirement.

We have been able to visit Europe three times, two with our sons, and are planning a trip there in 2016 with Aaron and Jonathon.

Our reconnection with our dear friends of over forty years, Jeff and Margo, has been especially sweet and fulfilling.  They have lived in Europe for several years and our visits with them have been time travel in action…as it seems that we are all retuned to our young selves at the inception of our friendship.  Also, Margo’s dedication to writing inspired me to write more…which is something I have wanted to do for most of my life.

We were thrilled to join or friends Tammy and Sam and their son Zach at their condo on St. John, Virgin Island this past July.

I was honored to serve three years on the governing board of our church, called the Session, and Mary Jane is in the midst of her three year term on the board of Deacons.

In June Jonathon and I joined Kiwanis and are enjoying it very much.

I was asked by the Southern Illinois University Civil Service Council to be their representative on the local chapter of the State University Annuitants Association and have been honored to do so for the past three years.

So, what does the future hold?  I hope to write a book in 2016…I welcome your suggestions?  Also, I am excited about the potential trip to Europe…as we all love it profoundly!

I continue to hope to add my small voice in some way to understanding and tolerance among those I encounter;  for those who are different from me…but more often than not… so beautiful and to be emulated.

John Lennon was born October 9, 1940.  He would have been 75 years old this year.  He wrote the famous Christmas song, “So this is Christmas”.  The song is poignant in its’ simple message pleading for world peace.

” And so this is Christmas

For weak and for strong

For rich and the poor ones

The world is so wrong

And so happy Christmas

For black and for white

For yellow and red ones

Let’s stop all the fight”

The last verse of the song is, “War is over if you want it, War is over Now”

The other night I watched a presidential debate where it appeared that the contenders were trying to “out tough” their colleagues and prove who was the baddest among them and how eager they were to commit thousands of men and women to battle.  One presidential hopeful stated that, “He would carpet bomb the enemy and see if the surrounding ground would glow.”

I recently re-read what is considered the author Arthur C. Clarke’s masterpiece, “Childhoods End” where he tells of Aliens intervening in the affairs of men and, at least in part, bringing peace and a ceasing of all of the tribal and petty squabbles of humanity.

Christians believe that the advent of the Christ child was to bring peace to the suffering family of man.

Is the answer further bloodshed  in what many religions believe is their god ordained righteous cause?

Two thousand years ago a homeless middle eastern couple were seeking shelter for the night…as she was “great with child.”

Is it to late to realize that if you believe that a higher power created humanity…was that higher power so small that it deems only a small segment of its’  creation worthy of life?  Could there really be no more war?

My mother was fond of the old nursery rhyme and American Christmas carol, “Christmas is Coming.”  She would say or sing almost every day of the Christmas season, “Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat.  Please do put a penny in the old man’s hat.  If you haven’t got a penny, a ha’penny will do.  If you haven’t got a ha’penny, then God bless you!

As I listened to her joyful refrain I could not help but realize that Christmas was a very special time of year.  I also understood that Christmas comes to all types of people including those who have plenty and those who have little…or nothing at all.

The beloved Charles Dickens classic,   “A Christmas Carol” illustrates the economic unevenness of England’s society in Victorian times with Bob Cratchit’s family so happy although lacking of material things but abundant with love, faith, and family.  While Scrooge has all the money he will ever need but is unhappy and cold and destitute of even a smidgen of happiness and blind to the meaning of Christmas.

This morning our church dedicated its’ annual offering of toys for those children who could be likened to the Cratchit family of old…who without the loving gifts of others would not have even a spare humble Christmas.

A former classmate of mine, along with one of his colleagues, has for the last several years collected coats for children whose parents do not have the money to buy them one.

As I was listening to the radio the other day I heard an interview with a pastor in Indianapolis, Indiana who’s church primary mission was to feed the homeless.  They had commissioned a controversial statue of Jesus laying on a bench outside their church with a cover over some of his body…but leaving his feet bare…with the nail holes in them.  The pastor said that he can see the work of art from his office window and that many times passers by think it is a actual homeless person until they see the feet…and suddenly realize it is a depiction of Jesus.

“Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?”  Matthew 25:44 KJV

So, tomorrow many of us will gather around our tables to enjoy an American tradition that hearkens back to the Pilgrims and Native Americans and the difficult beginnings of our country. During the Civil War Thanksgiving was declared a national holiday by former President Abraham Lincoln, who said in 1863 “Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent father who dwelleth in the Heavens.”

Former President Franklin Roosevelt established our modern Thanksgiving Holiday as the fourth Thursday in November.  This occurred in 1941…again during a time of war.

Many of us will gather with family and friends that we do not see often through the year…and we will have the best of intentions…but perhaps come up somewhat short in our goals of peace and harmony.

Mary Jane and my favorite Thanksgiving movie is Home for the Holidays with Holly Hunter and Robert Downey Jr. The movie aptly depicts the “beneath the surface” animosities and petty jealousies that often accompany holiday revelers at this time of year.

The Norman Rockwell beautiful depiction of Thanksgiving bliss entitled, “Freedom from Want” is what we are striving for.  Also his artistic depiction entitled, “Freedom from Fear” is so appropriate for our troubled time.

I was told as a young man that there will always be those who have more than you…and those who have less.  If I have a wish of this Thanksgiving let it be peace…and let each of us help our fellow travelers in this life.  Not just those who look like us…and worship where we worship…but those who are seemingly completely opposite from us.  There is much more that unites us than divides us as we race through the universe on this small blue dot.

G.K. Chesterton said, “We are all in the same boat on a stormy sea, and we owe each other a terrible loyalty.”

Have you ever visited a city and it just stayed with you?  I do not mean that you think about it once in  a while…but rather every week…sometimes every day.

In 2012 we visited Paris with our dear friends.  I had read for many years of the beauty and majesty of the City of Lights…but when I finally saw it in person the words that I had read did not begin to adequately describe the surreal glow of history and the present brought together in such a peaceful atmosphere.  As we walked along the Seine and admired the cathedral of Notre Dame…watching the old and young alike seemingly with no greater purpose than to live life in peace and enjoyment of the camaraderie of our human experience.

It appeared to me that the elderly did not give up…as so often is the case in my country…but rather were walking with their canes and their beloved dogs…and were living life in all of its’ glory and pain…for as long as it lasted.

From the window of our apartment that we were staying in I marveled that I could still see the Eiffel Tower with its’ brilliant lights although we were several miles from it.  The Tower is huge!  It is a statement of the life and liberty of the French people.

Now, terrorist have committed an unimaginable crime of death and destruction.  I cannot fathom how people could be so dedicated to the destruction of human life and subsequently attest that it is in the name of a higher power.  It is easy for some to say…that it must be the Syrian refugees…when in fact they are fleeing just this type of horrendous carnage and destruction.  So often we seek simple “blanket explanations” to difficult issues that require serious investigation and deep reflection.

The Tricolor is now proudly displayed across the Earth in sorrow and solidarity with the French members of our family.  The strong beautiful people of Paris will not be defeated…the lights of Paris will be back!

“Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breath free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me:

I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”

Emma Lazarus’ inscription on the Statue of Liberty is profoundly noble in it’s eloquent simplicity.  Indeed we are a nation of immigrants…if you are not Native American your ancestors were not born in the United States.  The promise of Ms. Lazarus’ inspiring inscription has never been perfectly implemented but it has the been the shining beacon for people from across the planet to escape oppression, genocide, hunger, and suffering.

I have been watching the mass exodus of Syrians from their war torn country into Europe.  At last count over one million Syrians have flooded Europe in search of the basic necessities of life…that so often I take for granted.  I wonder what would we do if this influx of desperate humanity was seeking refuge in the United States?  What would I do if a desperate Syrian family needed shelter in my home?

During World War II Jewish refugees sought shelter by the light of the lamp beside the golden door…and were turned away…only to be returned to a fate that ought to be unimaginable.

Visit any city…I visited Indianapolis recently…and homeless were numerous around people enjoying seemingly a “need for nothing.”  I heard it said that often we who have avert our eyes from those who have not…in order to not realize that a fellow traveller in this life is suffering…and perhaps we could help a little.

So, we are going to build a wall our candidates for President tell us. A wall that is  stronger and more formidable than ever.  Perhaps like the Berlin Wall.

There is an old saying, “Things Change.”  Heaven help us if there ever is a day that comes that a despot takes over the land of the tired, and the poor, and the huddled masses…and our neighbors to the South are prosperous…and guarding the Wall.

When I was a youngster I asked for a Big Swinger Polaroid Camera for Christmas.  To my pleasant surprise I received one.  It was larger than the Swinger and gray while the more popular Swinger was white.  It also made larger pictures.  I immediately set about becoming a photographer.  Upon snapping the picture it subsequently exited from the front of the machine.  After pulling away the paper cover from the photo you actually could see the scene developing before your eyes.  Once the development was completed there came with every pack of Polaroid film a bottle of solution with an applicator enclosed for the purpose of applying onto the finished print to ensure that it would not fade.

My son Jonathon began telling me about a new Polaroid camera that was digital but also had the capability to print small pictures on Zinc paper.  At first I was somewhat skeptical until he received one for his birthday in April…and I saw firsthand what an interesting little camera that it was.

I had to have one!  So, for my birthday in October I received one…and have been snapping photos ever since!

The following photos are from our birthday celebration for our son Aaron.  In the pictures are also his mother and I as well as his brother Jonathon.

Last is St. Elmo Steakhouse in Indianapolis…the birthday dinner!

I might add that I was able to give each family member hard copies of the pictures that they wanted to keep with them!  Not bad…eh?

I have often heard that just before a person dies that their life passes before them in a few seconds much like a movie on fast forward.  When I was much younger I assumed that this had to be impossible due to the numerous events that happened during a full life…especially of a person of advanced years.  How could a complex and varied experience life boil down to a mini documentary?

My birthday is the twenty-fourth of this month.  It transpires during my favorite season of the year, autumn.  I feel more creative during this time of the year and I have more energy.  My  friend Steve,  of over forty years,  was born on the same day as I.  Although he is a little older.  In December my high school graduating class of 1975 is having our forty year reunion.  It seems like yesterday…most of them I have not seen since graduation.  Their yearbook appearance is frozen in my mind.  Mary Jane and I laugh when from time to time we remark that someone whom we have not seen in a few years is looking older…as we wonder what their reaction was to our appearance.

When I started working  for Southern Illinois University in 1978 I thought that it would never end.  At the conclusion of this year I will be retired five years.  My sons are thirty-three and thirty-one…not long ago…it seems…they sat on my knee and their mother and I dreamed of their future.

Life is much like a book and there are chapters contained therein.  As James Taylor sings, ” The secret of life is enjoying the passage of time.”

I was watching a series on PBS the other night where the commentator stated that our visual reality was only what our eyes along with our brain allowed us to see.  He went on to say that our brain composes a visual reality from the limited information that our eyes send to it…and that our reality is not the same as another human’s visual brain story.  Sounds like science fiction doesn’t it?  But apparently this is science fact.

It has been said that, ” Life is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.”

Jesus said, “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another, as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.  By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” KJV

William Shakespeare said, “All the world is a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts,…”

And now for some photographs from Southern Illinois University at my favorite time of year:

I am told to expect white cake and triple chocolate ice cream Saturday as we travel to Fischers, Indiana to celebrate my birthday with Aaron my oldest son.  It does not get any better than that!

During our visit to England in August of 2012 I was so hoping to see Stonehenge.  For a moment it appeared that time constraints would not allow us to travel there from our hotel in Red Hill until our dear friends Margo and Jeff volunteered to drive us there with a stop first at the Wiltshire village of Avebury which is ninety miles west of London and twenty miles north of Stonehenge.  Avebury is the home of the largest know stone ring or henge in the world and is calculated to be older than Stonehenge.

When we arrived at Avebury it was misting rain and so I elected to leave my camera in the car so as not to get it wet.  This turned out to be one of the more uninformed decisions that I have made in some time.  We entered the visitors area where a woman told us about touring the Avebury Henge as well as the report that there was a new crop circle in the field adjacent to the stone circle.  Avebury Henge is 1401 feet in diameter and sprawls over 28 acres.

Now the stone circles at Avebury are fascinating and their purpose has been lost to the obscurity of history.  Formed in the Neolithic Age around 2500BC they were rediscovered in modern times by John Aubrey in 1649 who stumbled upon then when he was fox hunting.  He said that, “Avebury does as much exceed in greatness the so reckoned Stonehenge, as a cathedral doth a parish Church.”

Having been surrounded by the mysterious stones of the Avebury Henge I really believed that there was probably nothing that could be more mysterious until we climbed a steep hill and beheld an extremely large and painstakingly intricate crop circle.  The design and pattern seemed to be geometrically perfect…somewhat otherworldly.

The above pictures are of Avebury Crop Circles…but not the one that Mary Jane, Margo, Jonathon, and I saw on that misty mysterious Avebury morning.  When we returned to the United States Mary Jane found a picture of the exact crop circle dated the day that we saw it…she bookmarked it…and now it is gone from the web site.  As we were walking along the hill peering down on to the field with the amazing art work formed upon it I noticed a man and woman that I could have sworn that I had seen on the History Channel, on American television, who investigated crop circles…they looked as amazed as we did.  The proprietors of the visitor’s Inn said that the circle had appeared overnight….As they often do.