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.

Last night we experienced a phenomena that last occurred thirty-three years ago.  The moon was a super moon and was closest to the earth in its oblong orbit.  The eclipse was the last in a series of four eclipse that spanned two years.  This unusual event can happen as often as twice in a century or it can skip a few centuries.  It is often called a Blood Moon due to the red orange color it becomes when it is in the Earth’s shadow.  Some religious leaders believe that the tetrad or occurrence of four eclipse within two years signals an event is going to occur that will change the world forever.  They point to several Biblical prophecies that state that the “moon will be turned to blood” in the end time.

Irvin Baxter who runs End-time Ministries in Plano, Texas notes that, “…Previous tetrads have had stark consequences for Jewish people.  The Spanish Inquisition took place before the tetrad of 1493-94.  The tetrad of 1949-50 occurred just after the founding of Israel.  The tetrad of 1967-1968 occurred as the Six Day War was fought in Jerusalem.”

John Hagee of John Hagee Ministries is on record since 2008 in saying the current tetrad signals major change.

NASA says not to worry about the current Blood Moon phenomenon as they know of no comet or asteroid currently on a collision course with Earth.

I can say that it was fascinating to observe.  A cosmological occurrence like the eclipse last night once again assures humanity that we are very small in an extremely large, complex, beautiful, and mysterious universe.  Yet, although we are small we have the ability to contemplate our position, place, and mission in something so much greater than us.

It was with great excitement and some fear that our family visited the storied city of New York fifteen years ago.  We called it our Great Eastern Vacation…and indeed at that time in our lives it was probably the most ambitious  journey that we had embarked upon accept for our Great Western Vacation, but that is for another blog.  One of the first things that I noticed was that traffic on the streets of Manhattan did not seem to follow any particular recognized rules of the road.  Car horns were honking  constantly…many times at me…and virtually all of my fellow drivers were either taxis, limos, police cruisers, or buses.  Many of the taxis appeared to be especially beat-up.  As I was attempting to park in front of a hotel, to check on reservation availability, a limo driver jumped out of his vehicle and began to vehemently curse the car just in front of me that had taken his perceived parking spot.  Whereupon the angry chauffeur then saw a friend of his and suddenly ceased cursing and greeted him warmly.  Mary Jane hurried into a Days Inn, the third hotel we had sought reservations at, while I tentatively waited with Aaron and Jonathon.  When she returned to tell me that we had reservations for the night but that the price went up June the first…I responded that whatever the price we must book the room for the second night and get off the road before we had an automobile accident.

The unusual sights and sounds of the city were almost overwhelming to our rural eyes.  Staying near Times Square and Broadway we traversed the evening streets and I was struck by the empirical fact that all of the major television news networks were within a few blocks of each other.  We passed many homeless and one poor soul who had a sign around his neck that stated people could curse him for a dollar.

Just the noise of the fire trucks and the crush of humanity below our hotel window was a sensory experience unlike anything in the mid-west.  Frank Sinatra sang that he wanted to wake up in the city that never sleeps…and I finally realized what he meant.  The excitement of being at the nexus of the financial and entertainment world in the United States was a strange and compelling elixir.

We attended our first Broadway show, “Taller than a Dwarf” with Matthew Broderick and Parker Posey.  As we sat just a few rows back from the front I looked to my right and there was Leonard Nimoy setting in the row adjacent to mine on the other side of the aisle.  As we walked back to our hotel after the conclusion of a wonderful production, although it seemed the critics did not agree, either Aaron or Jonathon exclaimed that Kevin Bacon and his wife Kyra Sedgwick had just walked passed us.  Low and behold it was the famous couple and so we did what country people do and stared from a distance at them.  As more tourists noticed who they were they quickly hailed a taxi and departed the area.

June 1, ‘2000’ was our bus tour of New York with the highlight being a tour of the World Trade Center. We toured the South Tower.  I noticed that I felt strangely uneasy the entire time that I was in the tower.  I had no idea why and usually I am not given to feelings of trepidation.  One year and three months and ten days later…the horrific tragedy of 9-11 occurred.  We all wondered if the tour that we had taken just a short time before was in the South Tower that sad morning.  We also thought of the many employees that we had seen and encountered and knew that certainly many of them lost their lives in the horrific tragedy.

As I watched the Republican candidates for President debate last night I could not help but wonder, where have all the Statesmen gone.  The posturing, preening, and pandering of the majority of the unwieldy group would be somewhat entertaining if you were watching a comic movie…but quickly becomes frightening when the reality is that one of the narcissistic cadre will be the Republican candidate for President of the United States.  How has our great nation lowered it’s aspirations for the preeminent elected leader of our country to the basement level of applauding bigotry and misogyny as admired speech in the spirit of the candidate being bold and saying what he thinks?  How is it that a candidate breaking unions and putting thousands of workers on the street or forcing members of the working middle class, which is the backbone of our country, into minimum wage jobs… progressive policies and courageous leadership?

As we all know from our ninth grade civics class our government is designed by our founding fathers to be shared power.  The writers of our constitution did not want another king.  Thus they designed political decision making to be collaborative or a compromise system.  There is supposed to be a middle ground that statesmen and stateswomen can agree together for the good of our collective endeavor where each side gain some of their initiatives and loose others or modify them.

A prime example of dysfunction in government is our current Illinois mess.  Although we are supposed to have a new budget July first we have yet to have even the outlines of an agreement.  Our local University, Southern Illinois University, fears massive layoffs and course reductions while much of state services are being mandated by the courts to be paid at last year’s spending levels…resulting in the very real possibility of an eight to twelve billions dollar deficit by the end of the fiscal year.  The deficit being compounded dramatically due to our new Governor Rauner’s allowing state taxes to be reduced costing the states coffers over five billion dollars.  This fiscal nightmare is magnified by the fact that Illinois was, with the additional taxes, three to five billions dollars in deficit.

It was announced a couple of days ago that since there is no budget the state will soon cease to pay all employees and retirees health, dental, and vision insurance claims that are state funded.  This places the price of our elected leaders intransigence and fiscal malfeasance squarely on the backs of the poor working class citizens of Illinois.

The late Senator Paul Simon of Illinois was a Statesman.  Toward the end of his life my wife and I were at a book signing whereupon he greeted us warmly and inquired as to how we were doing.  When Mary Jane, who had gone back to school and earned her masters degree at age 40, mentioned that she was looking for work commensurate with her recent Workforce Education masters degree he asked her to make an appointment with his assistant for him to talk with her in his office at Southern Illinois University, where he would see if could help her.  Now let me say that we did not know the Senator other than he being a member as we were of the SIU community nor had we worked in one of his campaigns or donated any money to his political causes.  Senator Simon had been out of politics for several years and had become the Director of the Public Policy Institute at SIU.  This Statesman was respected on both sides of the aisle during his years in the Senate and at his funeral both Senator Edward Kennedy and Senator Alan Simpson spoke eloquently regarding Paul Simon’s political skills and his love for humanity.

Speaking your mind and the courage of convictions is indeed important in politics and as a mark of a strong leader.  President Ronald Reagan told Soviet Premier Gorbachev to, “Tear down this Wall,” and something great occurred that benefited humanity.  President Lyndon Johnson spoke his mind and the Civil Rights Bill of 1964 became the law of the land and we all our better for it.  Dr. Martin Luther King had a Dream…and was spat upon…and jailed…and killed…and he changed our world for the better.

Let each of us as voters…and the people responsible for our lawmakers and Chief Executive ponder our responsibility to obtain the leadership that we deserve.