Forty-three years ago I was one nervous Newton. MJ and I had been engaged for two months and this was the day of our wedding. Looking back it appears that we did not believe in long engagements. After the minister pronounced us man and wife and she put her little hand in my large one…I […]

43 Years — The Jazz Man

Today MJ and I were in search of a lighter quilt. So we made haste to Bed Bath and Beyond. The Bed and Bath are self explanatory…but what about the Beyond? It was also time for me to purchase an anniversary card..tomorrow is our 43rd…which is a neat trick for we young people to pull off… I had not visited our mall, which is about 3 miles from our home, for over a year. What a difference a year makes. Our favorite burger restaurant, S & B’s, closed right at the beginning of the 2020 Pandemic and will not reopen. Aaron and Jonathon and I spent many an enjoyable Saturday sitting at the huge bar and sipping a Dragon’s Milk. I likened the bar to the television show Cheers…’Where everybody knows your name.’ I peered through the windows of the shuttered happy place…and was sad to see that it had been totally cleaned out accept for the marble bar. Just down from our closed restaurant is our closed Macy’s Department Store. My favorite occupant of the now vacant Macy’s space was the St. Louis based, Famous Barr, which had been a journey destination for our family when we traveled to St. Louis, Missouri. I recall attending the grand opening of Famous and Barr in our town. I pondered that the benefits of St. Louis had found the little city of Carbondale. Now I look through the glass front of the empty Macy’s and remember the many enjoyable times that I spent in the store. I was such a frequent visitor to the store in it’s early days that everyone truly did know my name…

Jonathon bought a Stratego Game and we played it yesterday. It is a game that I thoroughly enjoyed playing as a youngster. It is a game of military strategy. it is somewhat reminiscent of chess. Jonathon won the first battle…

Some of our businesses have closed temporarily…while other have moved away. I remember when our mall had a large Montgomery Ward Department Store and a Sears Department Store and as well as a multitude of clothing stores and restaurants and during Christmas Season you could not find parking and the police directed traffic. It was a main street under one roof. People went to the mall to see…and be seen. It was not so many years ago that Toy stores were in every town. We had a Ben Franklin Dime store in Eldorado and it was resplendent with toys and action figures and model kits of cars, planes, and monsters, and all manner of things for young crafts women and men to not only glue together but to also paint with little bottles of model paint of every color in existence.

Retail has changed dramatically with the advent of the internet and thus Amazon. Our 2020/2021 Pandemic has devastated small businesses. The reduction of students attending our University has diminished the support necessary to retain financial viability for many businesses in our town. Seeing problems is so much simpler than devising solutions. Souther Illinois University @ Carbondale is working and succeeding in a heightened recruitment and retention of our precious students. Small business successes is commensurate on offering something that your customer needs and thus far has not been able to obtain. Engaged and proactive customer service is more valuable than the Biblical Gold of Ophir! I have purchased items big and small… many times during my life simply because the person that waited on me was so nice to me…

Home is a wonderful feeling. When we feel at home…we feel secure and safe and wanted and loved and appreciated. Those businesses…and churches…that make us feel at home…we return to…again and again…

I walked the beautiful Campus of Southern Illinois University @ Carbondale today. This was not a terribly significant event as I have been walking Campus for 43 years. What makes the walk noteworthy is that this is the last day of winter…and it feels like it. There was a cold wind and lovely blossoms on the budding spring trees. Nature is transitioning just like we are. We have several good vaccinations and our new President has already fulfilled his campaign promise to vaccinate 100 million Americans in his first 100 days. He has been in office 57 days. You have heard the saying, ‘It was the best of times…it was the worst of times.’ That is where we find ourselves, we are taking two steps forward and one step back.

I received so many heartfelt condolences for our lost friend, Parker. Thank you from the bottom of my heart! Her end of life was peaceful and resplendent with duck hearts to eat and hugs and kisses…and tear filled eyes… The Brooks home is without canine companionship for the first time in over 30 years. Much of our lives were centered around our members of our dog family. Aaron and Jonathon have difficulty remembering life without the Boston Terrier’s or our precious Black Lab.

The road ahead has so much to offer each of us. It has been said that, ‘While there is life…there is hope!’ We have hope. We have hope for a future where we each think of our neighbor’s welfare and their health and happiness. I often wonder how all of us christians meditate and ruminate and ponder how glorious Heaven will be…and we never consider that there will be many people that we discounted and marginalized and shunned…while we trod our earthly path…

Sadly we see each other through a myopic ocular device. There is so much more that unites us than divides us. The dream of travel and good health and freedom from our 2020/2021 Pandemic is in front of our noses…and yet we incessantly debate the minutiae of our bias and our prejudice and our faux political/religious doctrine. We are so proud of our new shoes…while our neighbor has none…

As I write from my loft office I see a Great White Heron fishing for dinner. The backyard pond is in it’s full glory. My neighbor his walking her dog…I remember walking Parker yesterday… Tomorrow we will visit with Uncle Ron and Aunt Ira Kaye and Cousin Paige. A visit to the Wine Trail…and fun…and a return to the new normal…

Today is Parker’s last. Her health has progressively declined since her boyfriend, Brody, died at the first of January. Twelve years ago I noticed St. Francis Animal Care as they brought many of their clients to a pet food store in our town. I saw a collie and told MJ that perhaps we should consider […]

Goodbye Parker…Our Friend — The Jazz Man

I have just returned from my second Covid vaccine. Both the National Guard and the Jackson County Health Department are thoroughly professional and friendly. As of tomorrow our family will have all received our second dose. It is a good feeling and one that we have sought for over a year. I saw our friends, Joan and Jim, at the Civic Center and thought about the plain fact that we are all in this together.

Recently I have had my interest renewed in the terrible malady of bullying in the work-place and the herculean emotional and mental and physical ramifications that good employees undergo rather than face the very real fear of retaliation. All to often university administration and management and others tend to keep their heads firmly planted in the clouds while the precious staff, that they are responsible for, are maligned and screamed at and undergo bizarre and at times, obscure judgmental religious speech, in the form of brow-beating members of their staff. Environmental studies reveal that one of the prominent complaints from rank and file employees is that they are bullied and undergo stress by their supervisor’s unwarranted work demands and verbal statements that are not only unrelated to their job requirements but should be taken to the Labor Relations Board.

When I became a manager at Southern Illinois University @ Carbondale my primary goal was to treat my colleagues in the department like I wanted to be treated…like family… I had first hand knowledge regarding the deleterious effects of draconian management. I had witnessed staff cry and be forced to take disability for mental and emotional distress. I have counseled several people over my 25 years as a manager/administrator at SIUC who were considering suicide. This problem is real and can not be ignored.

The blindness to staff abuse is a direct result of administrators and managers not wanting to do the hard work of investigating the problem rather than simply taking the slanted advice of the person that they should be investigating. When I became the superintendent of Building Services…as well as the 12 years that I was the assistant superintendent of the department…I had an open door policy. I invited and encouraged all of the members of Building Services to come and talk with me at any time that they felt the need. I informed my immediate staff that if they were doing their jobs properly and treating their staff with respect and as a servant leader that I would back them…but if there was abuse or bullying of staff by their supervisors…I would take the person who was being bullied’s side. I did not recognize Carte Blanche support for management…

Tears are being shed. Sleepless nights are happening. Emotional and mental and physical distress is battering the lives of people who need their jobs and are dedicated to the vision of the institution and the success of our precious students…will someone simply pay attention…will someone care…will someone do the job of an administrator and manager and investigate the suffering of the poor and dedicated… and the backbone of our University…to ensure that everyone is seen and appreciated…and treated like a member of the Saluki Family?

Winter has 4 days remaining. It is a chilly 59 degrees today. Two days from now I receive my second jab of the Pfizer vaccine. While the United Sates is succeeding at the new President’s goal of 100 million Covid vaccines during the first 100 days of his presidency…Europe is undergoing another group of lock-downs due to a third wave of the Pandemic. We are, as the old axiom goes, ‘So close and yet so far!’ Texas has removed all of its restrictions surrounding the virus and that is including the wearing of face masks. College youth are flocking and flooding the beaches of Florida and rejoicing in no fear of the scourge that their parents and grandparents have told them about…but we are no where near Herd Immunity… Sadly…time served in the lock-down of our 2020/2021 Pandemic does not give we prisoners a reduction in our Coronavirus sentence.

Welcome spring…say we survivors of the ice and snow and blistering winds of arctic air! We are thinking of Hawaiian shirts and shorts and no socks and straw hats. The President told us to prepare for backyard cookouts on the 4th of July…and we are already writing the menu. Travel to Destin, Florida and Booth Bay, Maine…is in our future…we think…but not quite yet… Our winter has 4 more days…and it will not be hurried by our impatience. The stark realities of our Pandemic are ‘sport coat lapel grabbing’ and ‘face slapping’…as in the Francis Ford Coppola movie classic, The Godfather. Marlon Brando, The Godfather, slaps the character, Johnny Fontaine (Al Martino) around the face and tells him, ‘You can act like a man!,’ after he starts whining about not getting a movie part that he desperately wants.’ And so it goes…with us… We are neither in a movie nor a children’s bedtime story…this is real life…and the caviler ignoring of the basic health principles that have kept us safe thus far we do at our own peril!

There is a hint of sweetness in the air. The trees on the SIUC Campus are budding and some blooming. Aaron and Jonathon and I get our second vaccine this week. We are feeling somewhat excited about the return of a new normal to our lives. I enjoyed watching the squirrels this morning on campus […]

A Time Of Renewal — The Jazz Man

Billy B. was on his way to the theatre. He was excited about just making the journey as it had been over a year since he had attended the movies. Going to the movies had been a life long passion of his. When he sat in the darkened auditorium and watched the larger than life actors portraying their roles on screen…he was transported to other worlds and times and places. This morning he had engaged in his daily regiment of walking on campus and noticing the natural beauty of the well kept grounds. A flock of loudly honking geese had flown over and he mused that they were returning home after the long and cold winter. He noticed that his legs ached and that his movements were more deliberate than in his younger days. When he sat for a season…he wanted to continue to sit a while longer. Once that he was moving the lubrication of his rusty hinges seemed to enable continuing movement. He could walk 10 thousand steps if he did not stop to smell the roses. Billy had seen the photo of a friend who was in hospice care on Facebook. There were his loved ones around him and their smiles accompanied by their sad eyes.

Chet was waiting for him at the Orpheum Theatre front door. ‘What were you doing and where have you been,’ asked Chet? ‘I was contemplating writing a story about what it feels like to grow old,’ Billy B. replied. He went on to say, ‘Have you ever felt like you are experiencing things that you already have experienced…but you can not seem to remember where or when?’ Chet answered, ‘They call the feeling, deja vu.’

‘Riddles: ‘Brothers and sisters have I none, but that man’s father was my father’s son…’

‘How can a son be his own father?’

As the movie progressed Billy continued to write his first book in his head. It would be about the ending of a Pandemic in the year 2021. He would be the main character and would be 63 years old and living in the largest town…or small city in Southern Illinois…Carbondale…the home of Southern Illinois University.

Then…Billy B. awoke and there he was on the porch of his ‘Leave It To Beaver’ house in Sauk Village. He was waiting on Danny and Pauly to come over to play…and he had the definite thought that this house was nice as compared to others that he had lived in….he was 4 years old…

Wednesday I observed many buds on the trees at SIUC. Today some of the buds are blossoming. The natural cycle of life is working and our deferred hope for a brighter future is budding out on our barren tree of life…as well… We are on the precipice of embracing more normalcy than we have experienced in over a year. A year is a long time in the annals of a human life.

Harold’s Chicken is delicious! Jonathon brought us home some wings…and I did not realize how good that this delicacy could be…but I do now. The American Rescue Plan is a good thing. Millions of Americans, who have been devastated by our Pandemic, will receive sorely needed help. We have not been through a minor tragedy…we have undergone the worst Pandemic in over 100 years. Some say that there is work for those who want it. I do not believe that is remotely true for everyone and the trite observation certainly does not feed their hungry and starving children. The Hospitality industry has been decimated and many of our local restaurants have shuttered their doors for good…due to not having funds to remain open. It is widely reported that the American Rescue Plan is the greatest outreach to the middle class and the poor…since President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932. I was watching a Republican Senator from Mississippi brag about how many Mississippians will be helped by the Bill…but he neglected to mention that he did not vote for it… I agree that all of our citizenry should be expected to work and provide for themselves and their families…but that is difficult when you have lost your means of employment due to no fault of your own. Covid is a crisis like none of us have lived through…and many of us did not survive.

Humans are an intrigal component of nature. The rhythms of our lives are in sync with nature’s clock. We can no more separate ourselves from the earth and the stars than the air or the trees or the animal kingdom…of which we are members. I regularly see deer or squirrels or ducks of geese or Great Blue Heron…and I wonder what they are thinking about the condition of the earth and their predatory animal neighbors…humans?

So now we are,’ coming up out of the wilderness…leaning on the arm of our beloved…’ Many of us have gone through; denial…and then acceptance….and then sadness…and now joy in the morning! Churches will reopen for in person worship. Movie theatre’s will again have an in person audience. The Brooks will be flying to Destin, Florida…and in the fall…to Booth-bay, Maine…and we will have an increased appreciation for how in a moment our life can change…and what a blessing normalcy is…