‘All Day…all night…Angels watching over me…my Lord…’ The old Spiritual song has been rummaging around in my head. It is a good thing and fits with my philosophy of life since I was a child…that we all have a Guardian Angel. So many times I have believed that I was a goner or that destruction awaited me around the next corner of my path…when suddenly what men meant for evil…God meant for good.

October 10, 1978, is the day I began working for Southern Illinois University @ Carbondale as a Building Service Worker I…which is a Janitor. I was thrilled to have a job that could become a career and double my income and have wonderful benefits. My Pastor and Friend told me to be a friend to everyone…and I took his advice. I made it my mission to become friends with all that I encountered. Prior to my first promotion, a colleague told me that I was going to get the job as he had spoken to one of our foremen and the person told him that everyone liked…Jay. I did not develop so many friends by false friendly rhetoric or self-serving compliments…but by a genuine desire to uplift those that I interacted with and to demonstrate my respect for them. I met people on a daily basis that had different religious and political beliefs than me…and I chose not to talk about those issues. Now lest you think that I came from easy and bright circumstances…not the case. However…I did feel that I was a blessed man to be given the opportunity to work at SIUC. I was happy and possessed an air of contentment with having a position that was respected in the Southern Illinois Community…and I did not feel that anyone owed me anything.

The negative side of management was a learning process for me…and I strove to create a positive atmosphere even when dealing with terminations. None of us are perfect and we all have a plethora of motivations for what we do. We, humans, are complex and it is vital to respect the uniqueness of each person that crosses our lives. The diversity of our human family is what makes it so beautiful. The goal of making everyone your friend is a worthy assignment. Our attention is immediately focused on another person who has our best interest at heart.

Through the years I observed members of the University Community who in their effort to be perceived as professional…sacrificed their humanity. Genuine is compelling. When a person is being real with me…I am mesmerized… When I hear a canned speech…I am insulted…

Our trees are heavy with ice from the Ice Storm yesterday and the night before. I think that it was the most freezing rain that I have witnessed falling in Little Egypt for many years. The interesting development is that our streets and walkways are by and large clear while the trees are a winter wonderland. We enjoyed a lovely birthday meal with our friends, Joan and Jim, this evening at Hunan’s Restaurant. Both Joan and MJ have birthdays occurring close together in February. The pleasure of joyful routines is to be savored like fine wine. We all enjoy holidaying in Maine and spend each visit talking about the wonders of our favorite state.

The Ice Harvest is one of my favorite, Dark, Christmas Movies. Although the movie is set during the Christmas Season…everything about it is cold from the iced-covered landscapes to the hurtful and duplicitous emotions of the characters in the film. I reflected on the cold and unfeeling manner that I have seen wonderful people at my beloved University, Southern Illinois University @ Carbondale, treated after they have worked for countless hours both unsung and unrecognized. I thought of how many who can spin a good yarn and sell ice cubes to Eskimoes…are lauded and lifted to the highest seat of career advancement…while others labor in the dark in the hold of the great ship…go unrecognized year in and year out. Certainly, our University has paid a price and is currently paying a horrible price for the abdication of its responsibility to its most valuable citizens. More times than I care to remember, when I was working as the manager/administrator of the Building Services department, I was told that this person or that person was trouble or that I did not want to hire them or associate with them…only to insist that I discover for myself my opinion of the maligned person’s value to the organization. More often than not my most powerful and skilled staff came from those who others sought to marginalize…

I tire and am weary of watching our and other nations’ government officials insist that they are foursquare behind the Ukrainians. Mothers are running for their and their small children’s lives. An old man of 80 years is signing up to fight the Russians. The President of Ukraine says…’ We are alone…’

God help us…when our turn comes…

Prime Minister Neville Chamberlin proclaimed after a meeting with Adolf Hitler, ‘in his 30 September 1938 remarks in London concerning the Munich Agreement and the subsequent Anglo-German Declaration.’ Wikipedia. ‘The phrase is primarily remembered for its bitter ironic value since less than a year after the agreement, Hitler’s invasion of Poland began World War II after France and the United Kingdom declared war on Germany following Hitler’s refusal to withdraw from Polish territory.’

No one believed Putin would invade the entirety of Ukraine…but he did. Western governments thought that he was an incrementalist…but he is not. War does not follow the asymmetrical line of anticipated outcomes. World War I began with much less than what has already happened last night. The appeasement of Mr. Putin has proven to not be the answer. The former presidential administration continues its bizarre effusive obeisant comments regarding the Dictator of Russia.

Backing up to a Bully…engenders continual backing up and backing down…until the democratic governments are no longer recognizable… Bullys look carefully for fear in the eyes of those that they are bullying. We believe that we have grown beyond armed conflict…until armed conflict presents itself. Megalomaniacs have no borders.

Putin desires to reestablish the former Soviet Union. When I was a child in the 50s and 60s…I believed that the Soviet Union was fully capable of bombing the United States and my little town of Eldorado, Illinois. Everyone that I knew fully believed that Russia was not only our enemy but that we were in danger of a nuclear strike at any time. When the Cold War ended…it seemed that many thought that we had joined hands and began to sing, ‘Kumbaya.’ History has proven that nothing could have been further from the truth.

Many of my neighbors and friends had dug backyard bomb shelters in the very real fear that Russia was fully capable and willing to bomb our little community. When I began working at Southern Illinois University @ Carbondale I oversaw the custodial maintenance of the Engineering and Technology Building on the Campus. In the tunnels that spider-webbed throughout the campus…there was tin after tin of Civil Defense foods and toiletries and cups and kitchen items to see the population of Carbondale and the surrounding Southern Illinois region through a Nuclear Attack. Those items were placed in the Campus Tunnels by the World War II Generation…who knew the catastrophe and the vagaries of War.

President Ronald Regan said of his productive relationship with Soviet Union Leader Mikhail
Gorbachev…’ Trust but Verify.’ Gorbachev seemed to be a Rusian leader that had a desire for peace…Putin is not…

Billy B. loved his Bomb Shelter. His dad had the hole dug for it back in 1961 and he and Chet had played Daniel Boone and Stony the Army Man in it…for the past year. They enjoyed the mystery of a little room in the earth in their backyard.

1962 promised to be a special adventure. It was already October and that was the month that both Billy B. and Chet were very fond of as they were both born on October the 24th… Chet said, ‘Have you noticed how Mrs. K has been talking a lot about our class being aware of the difference between a fire alarm and a bomb alarm?’ Billy B. said that he not only had noticed the increased emphasis on School Bomb Drills but that he had wondered how walking out to the hallway and kneeling with your head against the wall…and then covering it with your hands…would protect you against an atomic bomb? Chet said, ‘Yes…and if we did not file out in a single-file to the hallway…we ‘Duck and Cover’ under our desk…and how does that protect you against a Bomb that destroys schools…and not just desks?’

Billy B.’s mom and dad seemed increasingly preoccupied with Walter Cronkite and the CBS Evening News. There was adult talk about a missile attack on the United States…and missiles that were dangerously close. Billy B.’s dad moved some cots into the Bomb Shelter…and Billy B. and Chet planned their joint Birthday Party. Chet said that his mom had been crying when she watched the news and had begun reading her Bible often. Neva J. told Billy B. that the three of them and Chet and his mom, Thelma, was going to start spending the nights in their Bomb Shelter.

Billy B. wondered why his mom had given him his birthday gift of a Big Swinger Polaroid Camera…4 days early. He began snapping photos of mom and dad and Chet and Thelma….. and a brilliant light that filled the sky…and looked like a mushroom…

Mylo has become quite a man about town for the week and one half that he has lived with his new family. He never seems to worry or fret about his taxes or other human worries. He has no need to travel as his new home is a magnificent adventure that he is still exploring. He has quickly learned that kisses are the key to success. He has developed a round little belly…

Once in a while he become a bit aggressive with ‘Bear Bear’

But…then again…we all have our moments. The thing about Mylo is that he accepts the life that the Creator has given him…with gusto. He does not waste time thinking about who likes him and who does not. He does not plan his financial portfolio. His needs are simple…but direct. We can learn some elements of a happy life…from Mylo…

Spring is on its way and with it many joys for our souls. The blooming of flowers and the singing of birds…and ‘The sound of the turtledove…’ We look for the Big Event…the excitement of doing something that we have never done…the sound of the symphony and our transportation to another reality…another stupendous universe…somewhere special that we have never been before…we seek to enter Alice’s Looking Glass… How sad it is that we do not realize that we live in a magical and mystical place that is unlike any other in the Universe…and we have the key to its’ delights…

Spring has sprung in Little Egypt…but not permanently. Yesterday I was at Campus Lake and a Merry Band of Minstrels was singing and dancing and filming it all for the internet. They added joy to the lovely day of temperate temperature and lovely blue Lake water and the swimming ducks and the lone Goose who surveilled the scene. Today the rain clouds have moved in but the rain has yet to begin. Mylo is enjoying ‘Rough-Housing’ with his mommy. He is a provider of a plethora of kisses and some little bites as well.

In our world of hidden agendas and conspiracy theories and flat-out political lies…presented with a straight-face…the pending Ukraine Crisis is real and Putin has designs on the former Soviet Union nation. There is promised for our future…’Wars and Rumors of Wars,’ and a war between Russia and Ukraine and their allies…would be devastating… It has been said that ‘Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.’ Contrary to seemingly popular opinion…there is a major difference between Democratic Countries and Dictatorships. There can be no comparison with representational elected governments and dictators who stay in power by violence and squelching their political opposition. In recent years, and especially during the last administration, it seems we have forgotten the danger of the Russian Bear and its’ designs on our democracy…

Brinksmanship is, ‘The art or practice of pursuing a dangerous policy to the limits of safety before stopping, especially in politics. In a game of brinksmanship, it is possible that one side will collapse suddenly.’ We are witnessing Cold War Brinksmanship in 2022.

Life moves forward at its’ increasingly rapid pace with happiness and peace and beauty…and danger and War…and pain and suffering. An understanding of the fluid nature of our lives is a help in times of trouble. We desire and cultivate a love for our fellow man…but there are evil people in our world…that do not deserve our obeisance. We must seek the good and eschew the evil. The more that we reach out to others…the happier we will be. The United Kingdom’s Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, said during World War II that we must, ‘Jaw Jaw…rather than War War…’

I have been thinking about the promise of America. Others have pointed out that America has not lived up to her promise of being a beacon of light…and sadly this has been true on many occasions. You do not have to look far to see our failure to fulfill the Emma Lazarus poem, The New Colossus affixed to the base of the Statue of Liberty. Yet people are dying to come to America. Ms. Lazarus wrote in part, ‘With Silent Lips. Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled massed yearning to breath free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!’

Americas’ Promise captivates the hearts of marginalized and suffering and destitute people across the globe. One of the most lovely freedoms of the United States is its’ freedom of speech…freedom of the press. You can inform the Emperor that he is naked… We are called a Melting Pot due to our diversity. Our philosophy is that our differences make us stronger and wiser and fulfill our Elected Representational form of Government. If you do not believe that the people ultimately decided who their President is…just look to the last Presidential Election…

American is loud…and it is messy…and at times it seems chaotic…but it still shines as the hope for oppressed people across the earth. Our great sins of slavery and prejudice and oppression of minority populations are inexcusable and intolerable…yet we are still the country of ‘Rags to Riches’…we are still the nation of Horatio Algier… We are a nation of people who continue to examine ourselves and to seek a better way and to build a longer table rather than Gulags for our political enemies.

I have been a Christian for the majority of my life and yet have failed on numerous occasions. I have watched as many churches have become unrecognizable political/religious hybrids of the message of love and inclusion that Christ taught. Many times I have been disappointed in the religious life that I have encountered….but I have never given up on Christ.

Money and power corrupt men’s and women’s hearts and pervert the Dream of the United States….but the Dream lives on in millions of Americans…

Christmas is on my mind…but then again it is on my mind throughout the year. I am enjoying an Old Fashioned made by MJ and contained in the Christmas Carol glass that Jonathon got for me as a gift this past Holiday. The wind is ferocious today. A cold front is moving in. I had to place my Tilley Hat Wind Strap under my chin…and it was almost not enough. We had half of our lentil soup and Nann bread and baklava on Monday and are planning on returning to the other half this evening. When we retrieve Mylo from his playpen we have observed that he unfailingly greets us with a multitude of kisses. He is learning quickly. MJ and I continue to play cards and she beats me handily almost every game.

We are waiting on the edge of our seats and with bated breath to see what is going to happen between Ukraine and Russia. Certainly obsequious obeisance and

romantic platitudes that are in total agreement with the leader of Russia at the expense of disagreement with the president’s own key advisors…was not the answer. Putin understands power…and little else. It is refreshing that our President and his administration have returned Russia to its rightful place as our sworn enemy. As former President Reagan said of the Soviet Union…’ Trust but verify.’

Russia has had an imperative design on defeating and capturing the United States since not long after World War II. Premier Nikat Krusheve proclaimed that he would defeat the U.S. without firing a shot… Russia thinks that the West and NATO are a bit slow on the uptake as they use the same tricks that they have used on us for almost 80 years…and they often still work…

Lackadaisical Effect has afflicted many of the citizens of the United States. We have adopted the position of Mad Magazines’ Icon…Alfred E. Newman…’What Me Worry.’ I read and hear on a regular basis statements and observations regarding Civil Defense during the Cold War. The comments usually entail our extreme preparation for Nuclear Catastrophe during the Cold War…and how these preparations are dated and somewhat humorous and no longer needed… My question…Did the Nuclear Bombs go away? Did our enemy’s attitude toward us suddenly turn to acceptance and cooperation…and love?

Duck and Cover are vivid in my memory. Bomb Sirens in school sounded differently than fire sirens…and we kids were taught the difference. The Cuban Missle Crise was real…and I lived through it. Bomb Shelters were real…many of my neighbors had one in their backyard.

‘Those who forget the lessons of the past…are doomed to repeat them…’