The game of life requires determination. I walked my 10 thousand steps today…just after noon. I was waiting on the furniture delivery folks and the walking was good activity for someone who hates to wait on people. I often reflect on MJ and my sons, Aaron and Jonathon, and think of how I felt when I was their ages. Aaron is 39 and Jonathon will soon be 37. I had some physical aliments then…that I do not have now…and posses new ones that have arrived with the Golden Years. Needless to say there are pressures and stresses and struggles at every stage of our lives. For instance…I never enjoyed running. Not in grade school or high school. I was never in that big of a hurry… I have noticed that we humans seem to endlessly debate ephemera. We have our political ideology and our faith…and we want you to share them with us…

I was watching a little boy on the news this morning that had Covid and is left with a racing heart and has lost the ability to read and write. There is a term for him…’A Long Hauler.’ A young woman was in the same news segment and it is reported that she has gone from an A student to just barely able to pass her school studies. The little boy’s name is Norman and he was asking Dr. Fauci what the answer for his physical aliments was…to which the good doctor replied that thus-far we do not know enough about Covid to provide him with an answer to his dilemma.

I recall needing to earn the next promotion and the intrinsic importance of keeping a good job. I was in the trenches with those who had more month than money and seemingly never enough to address the vacillating vicissitudes of life. Everything that has value in this life requires hard work and a focused dedication of efforts.

Happiness is a constant search. It does not emanate from a chemical substance or the peculiar fairy dust of specific happenings. Substantial happiness often ensues from the ability to defer pleasure for the greater good for your life. Working toward a goal and achieving that goal is a satisfying vocation. Often it is the plodding turtle rather than the racing hare that wins the race… The ability to stay on the path and take enjoyment in the small gifts of life…results in a peaceful and satisfying journey.

The Daybed has arrived. Parker took one look at it and attempted to get on it. She is very pleased that her human family has purchased her a luxurious bed. We did not tell her that it was not for her. It is 64 degrees and sunny. Spring has come to Carbondale. One of the […]

Accepting Others…Without An Agenda — The Jazz Man

It was especially warm for Christmas Day. Billy B. woke up early and decided to make some Maxwell Houses Coffee for his breakfast. It had snowed about 12 inches last week and the temperature had been below zero for several days. The snow was so deep that Billy B. could not get his Camry out of the driveway but he could extricate his new Subaru Forester through the snowy depths. It had been bone chilling cold and treacherous to drive on the roads…and now it seemed like summer time in the south. It was 80 degrees on Christmas morning. Pauly and Danny were happy with the warm and actually hot weather…and Steve and Susie, being a bit older than Billy B. and his friends, knew that an 80 degree Christmas in Chicago was extremely unusual…

George and Helen proposed a barbecue for the holiday due to the summer like temperatures. Billy B’s parents, Neva and Jefferson, were all in for an unusual celebration of Christmas 1963. Chet was on his way over and Parker had called Billy to ask if she could come over and watch him open his Christmas presents. Billy B. could not help but notice that the ‘Leave It to Beaver’ street that he lived at had a strange sepia color… There was a knock at the door and when Billy opened the door, uncle Lester was smiling and presented Neva with a bag of Lottaburgers. He had just consumed his two hamburger breakfast at the local burger emporium and he was ready to join the Bump family for a Christmas celebration. Billy’s dad, Jefferson, swore and said, ‘It is as hot as Hell on Christmas!’ Billy B. considered the prescient words. Chet arrived and announced that he had received a life size animated figure of the Actor Fess Parker’s rendition of the television character…Daniel Boone. He went on to say that Daniel Boone referred to him by name and that he seemed to know him. There was Parker at the front door. Parker said that her mom and dad were asleep and that she could not awaken them… She noted that her Christmas Tree seemed to be on fire and could not be extinguished. She had received a Barbie and Ken doll and they had apparently taken over her home and had asked her to leave the premises. Just before she had left to go to Billy B’s house, Ken had pulled up in a Jaguar and Barbie had ran out of the house to get into the sport’s car. Something about this 1963 Christmas did not seem normal.

Chet remarked that they were traveling in time and space once again. They were apparently in an alternate universe or ‘Hell’ as the christian doctrine speaks of…and everything was Topsy Turvy. Action figures had taken on life of their own and the winter temperature for Christmas Day had become erratic and the hope for their future was contained in a Black Hole…

‘Come and get it,’ said Helen…as George turned the Ribeye Steaks. ‘The beer and Coca Cola is ice cold…and the Steaks are red-hot….intoned George!’ It was 110 degrees now…it was Christmas Day in Chicago…and there was a figure in the shadows that was watching the festivities….

Well, the mysterious figure was none other than uncle Lester. Billy B. began to shake as if he had the chills that he had experienced with a skin infection that he had undergone for sometime last year. ‘Wake up Billy…wake up,’ said Lester. ‘You were having quite a nightmare,’ he went on to say. ‘What is the date today,’ Billy B. asked. ‘Why it is March 2nd,’ Lester replied. Billy discovered that it was neither Christmas nor Halloween…and he was still 6 years old…and that he did not own a Toyota Camry nor a Subaru, Forester…and that he had not heard of either type of automobile. He did know his dad’s Harley Davidson motorcycle and the joys of riding between his mom and dad on the exciting machine. He also vowed to not eat before bed…as the dreams were bizarre….

Billy walked into the kitchen…and there was Daniel Boone making waffles…

Many happenings in my long life have resulted in me changing my attitude. As a child I had developed a dark attitude due to my mom and dad divorcing when I was 5 years old. I felt emboldened and secure in this rationale reaction to what life had handed me. My mother was extremely unhappy […]

A Change In Attitude — The Jazz Man

Spring is on its way! Although winter seemed exceedingly long…it was really only 3 months. There are a few days of it remaining. Our treadmill died…after 15 years. This unfortunate occurrence transpired without me using it for the last 12 of those years. So, it was off to search for new treadmills today. MJ has been an avid treadmill aficionado for 30+ years. The weather for the first day of March is serene and sunny in our neck of the woods. There is neither a hint of the snow and ice that we received last week… or the deluge of rain that we received over the weekend. It appears that the stage is set for a glorious spring and the return of life to our land.

Small things are a special gift. MJ told me many years ago that I had a photographic memory for minutiae. I recall when we were standing in a castle in Ireland and our tour guide was trying to remember the title of an American movie that she wanted to reference in the tour and I spoke out, ‘This Is Spinal Tap.’ And I was correct…although I had never seen the movie. I continue to enjoy ephemera. Jonathon picked up a Mr. T figure for me at Electric Larry’s Shop, yesterday. Mr. T was a member of the A Team in a popular television show of the 1980’s. The first lady at the time, Nancy Reagan, sat on his lap for a commercial to, ‘Just Say No,’ to drug usage. One of Mr. T’s catch phrases was, ‘I pity the fool!’

My daily thoughts are filtered through two unusual prisms. The first would be scripture as I have been a christian for over 50 years…and the other would be television and pop culture and movie references. Entire scenes from the television show, Seinfeld, come to mind almost daily.

Our future is bright if we have eyes to see the light over the darkness. Life is lived by most of us in the manner that we receive it. If we are looking for deceit and despondency and destruction…we will find it. If we are searching for hope and happiness and halcyon days…we will discover them. The decision is ours. Spring is upon us. New life and hope and promise is ours. Lets forget the painful past and look toward the brilliance of our our future. As long as there is life…there is hope…

Jonathon was my able assistant today….as he often is. Whether it is installing a front door knob, that I calculated would take us an hour…and it ended up taking us 4 hours. Our task was to shampoo Parker’s room, which used to be one of Aaron’s 2 bedrooms. MJ’s new Daybed is coming to live with us this Wednesday. We have a new carpet shampooer. It works better than any that I have had for home use. Since we had the task of preparing Parker’s room…which contains her kennel…I thought why not shampoo my loft office as well. We did the loft office first and then the necessary job. About two thirds through the task we noticed that the machine vacuum was not retrieving much solution that had been applied to the carpeted floor. Needless to say we discovered that Parker’s hair had stopped up the vacuuming process. So…we removed the hair and went back over the wet carpets to see much dirty water. As has been said, ‘A job worth doing is worth doing well.’

I was reminded, by Jonathon, that I had probably done many hours of carpet extraction at Southern Illinois University @ Carbondale. I answered that had shampooed carpet untold hours at the University. Early in my career I was placed on a Carpet Shampooing team of two. My partner in the endeavor was, Ardell, and he kept me laughing the entire shift. He was a natural comedian. We should shampoo 25 – 30 rooms per night. Often I worked through my lunch and my breaks. I literally loved cleaning carpets. A few years later I became the assistant superintendent of Building Services and continued to shampoo carpets, by myself, due to our superintendent having a slow down policy designed to create so much dirt that the University Administration would be forced to provide us with more help. I inquired with the Administrative Aid to the President of the University as to whether she thought that their carpets needed cleaning and she said that they did and then asked when the carpet crew would be doing the task. I informed her that she was looking at the Carpet Crew and that I was going to shampoo their carpets that same night. Later when I became the superintendent of Building Services I formed a Carpet Crew that cleaned carpets on a nightly basis.

Life is improving! Things are getting better. We have been frozen in amber…but now we are breaking free. MJ has secured the airline tickets to Destin, Florida in May. We customarily traveled to Destin each year of our retirement for several years. Now I know how precious those trips were! We visited Europe 4 times in 6 years. I thought that we would visit Europe every 2 years as long as we were physically able to do so. We visited our favorites state, Maine in 2019, but could not make the trip due to our pandemic in 2020. We plan on visiting Maine in 2021. Life has been as if we hit the pause button…but now we are turning the corner…with a renewed understanding as to how interconnected that we humans are.

All of our life experiences are inextricably united into the person that we are. We are the sum of our aspirations and our experiences. We either choose to grow or we choose to die. I prefer to the opportunity to grow and learn new things and become more than my biases and fears…

Our weather is a bit cooler today at 45 degrees but it is a vast improvement over last week. There is a residual of snow left from the over 9 inches that we received a few days ago along with a sheet of ice. Today on campus you could only witness a little snow that had originally been plowed into a large piles.

Spirits are lifted around the Books’ home this week as we have all received our first dose of the Covid Vaccine. MJ got her jab a few weeks back and Jonathon received his Wednesday and I Thursday and Aaron today. I wondered if I would ever be able to receive the Vaccine. After waiting a year, much of which was the development and testing of the various vaccines…and then the protocols for who gets their jabs first…it seemed a possible dream to be a recipient of the life saving vaccine. I was amazed at how few people were availing themselves of the Vaccine yesterday when I received the first dose. The Vaccine was being facilitated by the Illinois National Guard and the Jackson County Health Department. I had a 1:00 P:M: appointment and arrived a full 30 minutes early and was taken right in…there was 1 person ahead of me. MJ’s hairdresser told her that she had been told that there is vaccine that is thrown away every day because not enough people are availing themselves of it. Indeed there were several tables staffed by soldiers and they were petitioning me to come to their table.

I feel different after having received my first jab, as the British say, and I find myself looking toward the future with a heightened sense of safety and security. Our world has undergone pandemics in the past. Polio was a horrible scourge and tuberculosis was feared by millions…but science, by God’s grace, defeated those devastators of the human family. We are in the process of coming out of a life changing pandemic. It is our duty to look forward and embrace that light that is before us. Whatever good feeling and emotion that we feel…let us share that encouragement with another! When a little light shines upon our darkened path…let us grab the lantern and hold it in front of our caravan…to show the way…one step at a time…for our fellow travelers.

A few weeks ago I mentioned to MJ that we should be seeing the first hints of spring at the end of February. Shortly thereafter we received the first a significant ice storm and then the largest snow that we had partaken of in the last 17 years. That was last week…today I am writing […]

Adapting To Change — The Jazz Man

It is 52 degrees this Monday. Last week our numbers were in the single digits. We are experiencing the melting of a 9 inch snow. My friend, Mark, told me that we have not had a snow of the magnitude that we received since 2004. Jonathon and I struggled for over an hour in the endeavor of pulling his car out of our driveway so he could drive to work. A substantial snow and ice event will make clear what the saying, ‘So close…and yet so far,’ means. In our neck of the woods we natives all remember the blizzard of 1978. I recall when people in Eldorado, Illinois regularly put snow chains on their tires to facilitate their being able to drive their cars on the snow and ice. In my youth virtually all automobiles were rear wheel drive and they were like bumper cars at the carnival when a little snow fell. Many of the automobile models of the 1960’s and 1970’s were extremely sensitive to cold and consequently would not start when the weather was frigid. During my childhood the homes of the day had virtually no insulation and single paned windows. Often the houses were not built square and had gaps big enough to throw a cat through and the wind found its way into your living room and all other rooms that you inhabited. I lived in a house that I had to put Duck Tape all around the front door facing and along the threshold to ensure some semblance of normality and to aid in keeping the babies teeth from chattering.

Where will you go first once the pandemic fear has lifted? My friend, Linda, asked me that and I responded that I would go to Destin, Florida and then Booth Bay, Maine. After those two journeys…Edinburgh, Scotland is in our sites… It is amazing how much we can change if we are properly motivated. I saw an elderly lady today, and I am old, who was walking carefully with a walker along the clear pathways of Southern Illinois University @ Carbondale. She caused me to reflect on the many senior Parisians that I observed when I visited Paris. The walked with canes and walkers and hunched shoulders and stooped backs…but with a determination that was inspiring. We Americans often take to our rocking chairs on our front porches when we retire. We enjoy the absence of the, seemingly, life long requirement to work at least 8 hours per day and we rejoice in our freedom from labor. In just a few years our joints begin to stiffen and our eyesight grows dim and our hearing abates. Soon we move inside our homes to the recliner and the ability take a nap anytime…and the sap in our tree subsides. Then, when challenges arise we are certain that we are not longer able to address the needs before us…

Life is for the living and our physical bodies are made for movement. I have been dedicated to walking at least 10 thousand steps per day for a month now…and I feel better for it. Our pastor, Kerry, told our church yesterday that he was going to continue to present us with new things to keep our minds active…and I heartily agree! Travel is one of the methods that keep life interesting and engaging and compelling for me. When I travel I am exposed to different cultures than mine and new and, often, improved, ways of thinking and analyzing problems that are before me. Travel improves my perspective of my place in the world and how I can improve my appreciation for life.

I have an appointment to received my first shot of Covid 19 vaccine this Thursday. I can think of few happenings that I have been more excited to know is coming my way. We have lived in primarily a lock-down mode for a year. Every occurrence of socializing, which includes grocery stores and doctor’s visits…is a calculated risk. We are, ‘coming up from out of the wilderness, Leaning upon our beloved’…as the Song of Solomon says. We are battered and a wounded…but we are not beaten… Life continues for our family…the human family…let us let us lean on the arm for our beloved as we walk out of the woods of our Pandemic Night…