Campus Woods was joined by me once again… I cannot resist it when the Christmas decorations are adorning the trees! Also, I awakened this morning to a flock of geese on our pond. This does not happen often and it is a delight to see them enjoying themselves at Christmas time! As I enjoyed the […]

Safe Harbor — The Jazz Man

MJ has been wrapping Christmas gifts all morning. I can feel winter in the air. The days are getting shorter…just the way that I like them! Vintage Christmas songs are playing and I am in a holiday frame of mind… MJ and I were asked to light the candles on our Advent wreath for our Zoom church service and we had our red sweaters on and the wreath between us on the table. The lighting of the candles during the season of Advent has always been a special joy of mine over my 22 years at First Presbyterian. Each year a different family or couple or individual… lights the candles and also reads some comments appropriate to the season. I have discovered through out my christian walk that the more I know my fellow members of the congregation…the more connected I feel to our church.

Story captivates our senses and enlivens our minds! As my friend, Ro, spoke yesterday of her work on the Stewardship Ministry of our church…I felt a kinship and an appreciation for her efforts and what a blessing that she is to all of us! In today’s society of mistrust and conspiracy theories we have become increasingly insular. We all to often live in our own heads…but we have a hunger to hear the heart beat of another traveler. I often considered over my 32 years and 2 months and 3 week career at Southern Illinois University @ Carbondale that the way to recruit new students and to retain those that we had was to be able to connect with them through our personal accounts…our stories….of what SIUC meant to us… The same may be said of our church…we may love the sermons and the music and the programs…but we are inextricably tied to our faith community by the strong cords of our heartstrings!

The great motivational speaker, Zig Ziglar, said that he really did not care how much you knew until he knew how much you cared about him! The Story of the United States of America causes us to pledge our fealty to a nation that is based on an idea… The Story of Christmas and the Christ child and the manger and the wise men following the star…compels us to wait and seek his birth into our needy world.

We hunger to connect in a meaningful manner with our fellow human family. When the person sitting next to us in the church pew on Sunday morning becomes more that a smiling face…but rather a fellow traveler with many of the same challenges that we have faced…connection and engagement and encouragement is a natural outgrowth of our shared stories…

Santa Claus and his eight tiny reindeer and his home at the North Pole not only stirred my imagination as a youth…but still does! The idea of every child all over the world being visited by the ‘spritely old elf’ on each Christmas Eve…and his sliding down our chimneys as his means of entrance to our homes…is a narrative that brings a warmth to our hearts in the cold of winter. When I see a Christmas Tree or the ornaments that have been placed by many campus woods walkers, during the holiday season, a peace and contentment comes to my heart…from the story that gripped by imagination and tied itself to me…so many years ago! Often tears come to my old eyes when I hear the first words of a Christmas carol…because the story of Christmas lives in side of me…

Tiny Tim is among us. Poor Bob Cratchit is laboring for poverty wages in his penury and he and his family will gather around their Christmas table with little to feed them…but with full hearts… Perhaps we can locate the redeemed Mr. Scrooge?

Campus Woods was resplendent with Christmas Ornaments this afternoon! It had been a few days since I had walked there and I was amazed at how the adornment of the trees had multiplied! The temperature today is in the lower 50’s and many Christmas walking revelers were taking advantage of the late fall warm-up. I […]

Jingle Bells! — The Jazz Man

MJ and I have been busy this past few days. Although I think that is life for most of us during the holiday season! Christmas is my favorite time of the year and it seems to come around more rapidly each year. It appears to me that from Thanksgiving week until Christmas is a long period…until I live through it and then I realize’ that it is over in the blink of an eye! As I close in on my 10 year anniversary of being retired I know that it is vital to have a schedule and a purpose for each day of the miracle of life! The more I remain physically engaged and mentally active…the happier I am! The holidays bring an increased awareness for me, each year…and a focus on where I have been and where I would like to go.

Better days are ahead for us! This Christmas Season brings us the blessing of the welcome news that the United Kingdom is going to begin vaccinating some of their citizens next week…and that there are two pharmaceutical companies that have developed Covid-19 vaccinations that are 95% effective…and that there should be FDA approval on December 10th. The name of the boy that is hidden under the cape of the Ghost of Christmas Present is ‘Ignorance’ and the Girl is named ‘Want’ in the Dickens classic A Christmas Carol. The children are emaciated. This year we can rise above ignorance and do our best to ameliorate want…

All politics are local…we have been told. Also, want and fear and ignorance…are local if we choose to endeavor to lift the heavy burden of our neighbors. Jesus explained to us; ‘ For I was hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger and ye took me in: Naked and you clothed me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, when saw we then hungred, and fed thee? Or thirsty and gave thee drink? When saw we a stranger and took thee in? or naked and clothed thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.’ KJV Matthew 25: 35-40

Cyndy Green, my assistant of many years, would decorated our offices at Building Services in a jovial and festive adornment of Christmas Trees and Santa’s and Holly and Ivy… Cyndy is one of the most pleasant people that I have ever known! Her holiday exuberance was a vital addition to our Christmas joy! It was the happiest time of the year…where we all took a moment to reflect on how blessed that we were to work at Southern Illinois University @ Carbondale…and to appreciate the special people that were our colleagues! We took a pause to reflect on how quickly our careers were whisking by us…and subsequently our lives. When you are working…your work life is inextricably connected to your home life! Happiness at one usually equals happiness at the other…

One of my first Building Services Christmas Parties was held at Muckelroy Auditorium in the Agriculture building. Joe Mayer was my supervisor and he cautioned me to beware of the coffee urn on the right as it was spiked…heavily…and he knew that I was a christian and probably did not want to imbibe alcohol… The auditorium was full and there was Mr. O’Hara, Superintendent of Building Services, and he was like the president of the university for me…he had hired me! As the dinner progressed…in walked Vice President Dougherty, who we all called ‘Doc’, and Mr. Tony Blass who was the Director of the Physical Plant. Doc went to each person in the room…including me…and asked our names and told us how he appreciated our work and wished each of us a Merry Christmas. I was throughly impressed! I wanted to be like…’Doc!’

I came from a place where no one seemed to know me or care about my welfare…other than my precious mother… MJ and I spoke with a car sales person the other day and I appreciated the kind demeanor that he had and the sales training that he had obviously received…as I received the same…so many years ago… I reflected on the wonderful gifts that God has given our family…and I was humbled that I had not done more to pass on what we had received…

Porter yawned and rubbed his eyes…they felt like that they had sand in them. Beside him was Parker and Chet and Steve…but Neva was not present. ‘Were are we,’ Parker asked? Chet replied that during the height of their excitement at the North Pole, Mrs. Claus, or CC, had asked them to follow her into […]

A Christmas Tale — The Jazz Man

MJ and I spent the bulk of yesterday car shopping. It had been nearly 12 years since our last foray into the deep and dark woods of acquiring a new means of conveyance. We have a rich history of holding on to our vehicles for many years… The last new automobile that we purchased was in 1999! The first Subaru that we test drove had a feature that when engaged…virtually drives the SUV for you! Now I am sure that this knowledge is commonplace to most of you and that many of you have a vehicle that performs this amazing function on a regular basis…but for MJ and I it was a bit like the Flintstones visiting the Jetsons!

Cold has been the name of the game in our neck of the woods for the past few days. Winter has arrived along with the holiday decorations and Christmas Trees…and the Laughing Santa… Life has been so stressful for millions across our planet as we seek a hiding place for our 2020 pandemic. Often we do not realize the toll that the majority of this year has taken on us as we have watched friends and loved ones become ill…and succumb to the virus.

The United Kingdom will begin vaccinating some of their citizens next week! This is wonderful news! We are turning the corner of the road out of the darkness of Covid-19…and on the horizon….is light…

I have met a lot of people in my life…and most of them were good folk! Many more of my fellow human beings have endeavored to help me…than to hurt me… I have had some share of struggles, but the good has always outweighed the bad. Many of the worries that kept me up at night…evaporated with the morning mist. There are always helpers… In dark moments there is someone who cares about you and who wishes you good health and prosperity and peace.

As we drove home I listened to Bing Crosby sing White Christmas…and I remembered so many Christmases past. I remembered driving to Salem, Illinois to enjoy Christmas dinner with our family…and Aaron and Jonathon were much younger….and at the conclusion of the celebration we drove to Gatlinburg, Tennessee to spend some holiday enjoyment with our dear friends, Faye and Steve. I had the goal to arrive at Gatlinburg before midnight of Christmas. I vividly recall standing on the balcony of the condo that we had rented and looking at the lights of the city…and the smoke on the mountains… Have you ever noticed that the smell of a new car…is intoxicating?

Parker asked Elvira, the elf, if she could turn up the heat in the North Pole castle, as she was cold. Elvira left and returned with a 3 electric space heaters… Elvira told the group that the Geo Thermal heating system for the massive dwelling was broken and that they did not have the money […]

Santa’s Dilema — The Jazz Man

This is the coldest day I have experienced for sometime! It currently is 36 degrees and it feels like 27 degrees. That is winter in Little Egypt! I am in the Writing Loft…as it is much to cold for the Writing Porch… I have so many collectibles and chotskies surrounding me, both on my desk and my file cabinet, that I am constantly entertained. I often think that once I have departed this mortal coil…others who see my surroundings will say to my sons…what was your father’s interests…and they will answer…diverse… Just in front of me I have a stature of Shakespeare and Hamlet along with a Russian Nesting Doll of former former Soviet Union Premier of Boris Yeltsin, with all of the other Russian leaders…back to Czar Alexander III…nestled inside. Along with these are an Alaskan Polar bear and David Copperfield and figurines of Norman Rockwell’s ‘Freedom From Fear and ‘Baby’s First Step.’ A unique piece of art that I purchased in New Orleans that depicts Paris, France and Snake Bowl that I purchased the other day at the St. Louis Art Museum and which was crafted in Nicaragua. There also is an old timer Kalidscope that Aaron gave me as a Christmas gift a few years back and a Waterford Crystal Sail Boat purchased in Ireland at the Waterford factory. There is a wooden cross from Mexico and a pewter figurine of a Innkeeper made by the Franklin Mint from my favorite antique shop in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. There is a handcrafted box from Aruba and a painted pewter, well proportioned man with a red sport coat and a white shirt and tie…with a bulging belly and a bald head…that reminded me of me! I unpacked my prize Christmas gift from my friend JoAnn, who told me that she had gotten a Renaissance Santa…for a Renaissance man…

My spirit was lifted this afternoon as I walked the path of Southern Illinois Universities Campus Lake. The communal Christmas decorations had begun! Christmas is hope…for a better day! For we christians the weeks of Advent brings to our hearts an anticipation of the arrival of the Christ Child. I saw a photograph of an old tree that was split to make room for a young and new tree growing inside of it. I think that we may feel much the same way as we begin to receive our vaccines for the 2020 pandemic and are able to return…not to life as we knew it…but to a revelation of life as we were meant to live… Life has been as Thomas Hobbes wrote in Leviathan: ‘No arts; no letters; no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear, and danger of violent death; that life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.’ Soon…we are going to be given a second chance… or as the angel told George Bailey in the storied holiday movie, ‘It’s A Wonderful Life,’ ‘You see George, you’ve really had a wonderful life. Don’t you see what a mistake it would be do just throw it away?’

Blind Pig is good beer! It is manufactured in Champaign, Illinois…which is the home of the University of Illinois Flagship Campus. It is called Scary Cherry Milk Stout. I am little frightened…but not in excess… Thanksgiving was lovely…although we missed our family! I still got very sleepy after dinner…and it was ham instead of turkey. Each time that I received a text or a message on Facebook from my friends and family…it made my day! There is a 24 hour Alfred Hitchcock marathon on Turner Classic Movies and I have noticed scenes in these movies that I never noticed before.

Customarily we are up early on Black Friday to travel to St. Charles, Missouri for their magnificent Dickens Christmas. The cobblestone streets are lined with; Tiny Tim, and Scrooge, as well as Santa Claus and St. Nicholas, and elves and horse drawn carriages! The pandemic has kept us home this year. I watched the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade yesterday and a tear made its way to my eye as I marveled at the holiday spirit of the performers… I have never witnessed such an active Santa Claus on his massive sleigh as he danced and gestured in a wonderful manifestation that next year…it will be better!

I think of the countless families that had an empty chair or chairs at their Thanksgiving table… If you have not lost a loved one or a friend…it puts everything in a humbling perspective… We really have nothing but each other… Love is the magic ingredient of the holidays…when it is missing…a large hole exists in our hearts!

So now we look towards Christmas. We will not give a greater gift than to reach out to someone that we do not speak to on a regular basis. When I know that someone cares about me it a Balm of Gilead for my soul… I have many friends and loved ones from a christian life of over 50 years. Many of these people invited me to their tables…when I had little to eat. They kept me in their homes. They treated me as a member of their family… Have you ever experienced someone speaking with you…and you knew that God was using their voice….to bless you?

The majestic Brooks Christmas Tree has taken it’s place at the ranch! MJ and Jonathon and I have been working on the project all day. We think that it looks especially good this year with Aaron’s Little Town Christmas Village underneath its boughs! As I was retrieving the decorations from the Christmas Closet…I felt like […]

Thanksgiving Eve — The Jazz Man