A Quiet Life
We are enjoying another day of fall like temperatures. Cooler weather and the promise of fall bring out the best in me! I am of the Baby Boomer generation. We were all told that we could be the president of the United States…and we have witnessed that promise fulfilled. We B. Boomers set out early in life to seek our fortune and fill our days with something to occupy our time…24/7. Do you recall when there was a push by educators to enroll their children into nursery school and then Pre-K…and then Kindergarten. We were admonished that if we did not seek to enrich our kids almost from the womb…that they would be woefully behind. I not only worked a full-time position….But regularly worked 20 or more additional hours per week…for free… While I was working all those hours I was taking university classes as well. The hectic manic pursuit of being busy…leaves you exhausted and out of touch with you family…and yourself!
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Have you ever taken a holiday and subsequently packed so many activities into the two weeks that you are not only not refreshed but left wondering was it really worth it? We spent a month in Europe in 2014. For the first two weeks we stayed strong. The third week…we were tired…and the fourth week…we were struggling to climb all of the steps in Florence, Italy. Holidays are like fine red wine…they are meant to be sipped slowly and savored…
The older I become the more I understand the intricacies of the quiet life. Certainly 2020 has afforded ample opportunity for a walk on the quiet side. We humans need down time. We require long periods of reflection and meditation on the beauty of just being here… We are consumed with social media and 24/7 satellite or cable news. When you expose yourself to news that makes you anxious and depressed…on a daily basis…you are missing the forest for the trees. Media can warp your opinions on many issues if you do not take a healthy break from it. Often we are exposed to politicians and pundits who are performing for what they perceive as their voters. You are not witnessing the real person…but the cardboard cut-out theatre version. Our views and passions are set by actors and jokers. and court jesters…and clowns… that you would not want to have a cup of coffee with…
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We enjoy pastoral paintings. Many of us enjoy being renewed by nature. A happy life does not have to be a life filled with busy work and stress and sour stomach! As I sit on the writing porch enjoying the cool breeze and the peaceful setting…I am grateful for the quiet life.
The Struggle — The Jazz Man
I was in Morris Library today and was once again inspired by the large brass bust of our former president, Abraham Lincoln, with his Saluki face mask adoring his countenance. I was heartened to see all of the Grounds workers manicuring our lovely campus and preparing it for the beginning of the fall semester. Indeed this is the beginning […]
Pumpkin Spice Thoughts
I am on the writing porch enjoying a new experience…writing after dark. The temperature today has been ‘to die for,’ as my buddy Ron often says! Ron and Ira Kaye visited us yesterday and we had a wonderful time visiting Von Jakob Winery with our masks affixed and not only socially distanced but one of the few groups on their large patio with the majestic view.
Before our friends arrived MJ asked me what table runner she should put on our dining room table, and I chose one with fall colors. You see, fall begins for me on August 1st! You may retort that I am a month and 3 weeks early…and I would not disagree. But then again…I love fall and anything that I love I stretch out for as long as is humanly allowed!
Today it was time for Wal-Mart once again. MJ and I were pleasantly surprised that we saw no one who did not have a face mask on! When we rolled into the coffee aisle…there was Pumpkin Spice coffee…and now I know that there is someone who agrees with me on the beginning of fall.
I enjoy the popular holiday song from the Broadway musical Mame entitled, ‘We Need a Little Christmas.’ ‘The song is performed after Mame has lost her fortune during the Wall Street crash of 1929.’ I think that we need a little fall now with all of its rich colors and cool climate and the hope of halloween fun and Thanksgiving fellowship…and Christmas delights!
Nothing is forever. When I was a child I recall waiting for Christmas to arrive…and a year seemed like 10! When I began my career at Southern Illinois University @ Carbondale I was disillusioned when I was passed over for the position of foreman…twice. I thought that I would never advance in the organization…I was 28 years old…
I wonder if we do not make many decisions in the heat of the moment and at the height of our emotions… at the time? Having almost arrived at the ripe old age of 63…I have experienced disappointments and reversals and felt that I must take my stand and have my say and ‘Damn the Torpedos’…unleash the lifeboats…and as that great sage of my favorite Christmas movie, Christmas Vacation, hath said, ‘We are going to have the merriest Christmas since Bing Crosby tap-danced with Danny F…… Kaye!’ There is nothing wrong with a quiet life. What seemed earth shattering at one stage of my life…is nothing but a memory now. I have never been sorry for remaining silent and listening and reflecting…but I have regretted on many occasions…speaking…
Ron and Ira Kaye and MJ and Aaron and Jonathon and I reminisced about past adventures on Friday. The temperatures were comfortable, as fall should be, and we planned future sojourns. Our current distress will end…a vaccine will be found…and we will be wiser…and perhaps a little more quiet…as we contemplate the richness of life…and the goodness of God…
Bipolar Happens
Please enjoy a wonderful blog by Jonathon Brooks!
Originality isn’t easily attained. It’s easier to follow the crowd than to think for one’s self and sing a unique song. In the story of my life I have followed the crowd and I’ve followed Christ. Following Jesus led me out of my misery and saved me in a way that none of my peers or seniors ever could’ve done. I fought like heaven to become one-of-a-kind.
I’ve heard before that every case of bipolar disorder is different. I’ve heard that no two cases are ever alike. I have bipolar; it does not have me. With confidence I know that I was born with this devastating mental illness. I rejoice in my savior and in who I’ve fought to become.
Whatever unfairness or sorrow that comes our way we always have a choice to make. We can wallow in despair or we can sing praise songs. We can stay in…
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‘Man of Steel and Velvet’
‘Though I may not be here with you, I urge you to answer the highest calling of your heart and stand up for what you truly believe, ‘Lewis wrote. ‘In my life I have done all I can to demonstrate that the way of peace, the way of love and nonviolence is the most excellent way. Now it is your turn to let freedom ring.’ Rep Lewis wrote this shortly before his death and requested that it be posted by the New York Times after his death.
‘Lewis was one of the ‘Big Six’ leaders of groups who organized the 1963 March on Washington and he fulfilled many key roles in the civil rights movement and its actions to end legalized racial segregation in the United States. In 1965, Lewis led the first of three Selma to Montgomery marches across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. In an incident which became known as Bloody Sunday State troopers and police then attacked the marchers, including Lewis.’ Wikipedia
‘In an interview with CNN during the 40th anniversary of the Freedom Rides, Lewis recounted what he and the original Freedom Riders endured. In Birmingham, the riders were beaten with baseball bats, chains, lead pipes, and stones. They were arrested by police who led them across the border into Tennessee and let them go. They reorganized and rode to Montgomery where they were met with more violence, and Lewis was hit in the head with a wooden crate. ‘It was very violent. I thought I was going to die. I was left lying at the Greyhound bus station in Montgomery unconscious,’ said Lewis remembering the incident.’ Wikipedia
‘Representative Lewis was admired throughout Congress and the United States and the world! There was a book written many years ago entitled, Man of Steel and Velvet, and Mr. Lewis exemplified that title. ‘The poet Carl Sandburg wrote, ‘Not often in the story of mankind does a man arrive on earth who is both steel and velvet, who is as hard as a rock and soft as drifting fog, who holds in his heart and mind the paradox of terrible storm and peace unspeakable and perfect.’
We live in a time of racial strife that I have not witnessed…and I grew up in the 1960s Never has there been a more herculean need for many to take up the cause of racial understanding the equal treatment of all races in our beloved country.
Let us do a thought experiment. If you are white…imagine that you are a black man or woman or boy or girl. Consider that you began your life’s journey loving white people. You wanted to be like the white movie and television actors that you saw on the screen, whereas if you grew up in my time that was about all that you saw on the large or small screen. When you began to attend school…members of the dominate race in America began to call you the ‘N’ Word… You soon received the ‘Talk’ from your parents on the restrictive personal performance you must adhere to if a police officer pulls you over. Your parents had fear in their eyes as they were telling you how you must behave… When you apply for a job…you understand the qualifications for the position and you know that you far exceed the written guidelines…but you do to get the job…one of the bosses white friends receives it…who has little to no qualifications… You seek to rent an apartment and the landlord tells you that there are no vacancies…while an hour after you have left a white person is welcomed with open arms…because there a lot of vacancies!
In Michigan the Statehouse was filled with white men wearing Nazi swastikas and carrying semiautomatic weapons. Some of them called for the death of Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer or her beheading… United States Attorney General, William Barr, when responding to a question at a Congressional hearing this week, said that he did not know about the incident. This was after he had explained that he had to keep order in Portland, Oregon and at the recent incident in Lafayette Park in Washington DC where upon the firing of pepper spray and subsequent injury of many protestors…president Trump had a photo op, holding a Bible, in front of St. Johns Church…
We must engage in Representative John Lewis life long battle of non-violence…and sit down together at a long table…and break bread and fellowship..and learn of our shared humanity… We must become men and women of steel and velvet!
Let us get into some ‘Good Trouble!’
‘What You Crying About…Man?’ — The Jazz Man
The rain is falling…again. I accomplished my house cleaning chores this morning as the lady who does our cleaning has not been able to do so for 3 months. It is comforting how easy it is for me to slip into my one time career of Building Services. I spotted a deer family earlier. They appeared to be as pleased to see […]
‘It is Darkest Just Before the Dawn’
It is Tuesday in Little Egypt and hope is on the horizon. MJ told me that there was a left over pork chop for my lunch and my thoughts strayed to the Oscar wining movie, ‘Driving Miss Daisy,’ of a few decades back. The marvelous actor, Morgan Freeman, who played the character, Hoak, who was employed by, Jessica Tandy’s, character, Miss Daisy, as her chauffeur. At one point in the movie Miss Daisy thought that Hoak had stolen a can of salmon from her and proclaimed as much to her son, Boolie, played by former Saturday Night Live alum, Dan Aykroyd. When Boolie protested that his mother was mistaken…she would hear nothing of it until Hoak arrived and pulled from his coat pocket a can of salmon to replace the one that he had consumed for lunch the day before. He noted that the chop that she had left for him was a ‘bit stiff.’ My chop will be fine…
I read where Dr. Anthony Fauci said that we may have a vaccine for the coronavirus by October…now this is good news! That will not be the end of Covid-19…but it could be the beginning of the end.
So often or present life circumstances seem overwhelming and insurmountable…when if we could see the rainbow that is just behind the clouds…we would take courage! I have been in employment situations that seemed to restrictive and where my opinion was not only not valued but ridiculed. It is a terrible feeling and throughly demoralizing. I have also experienced these ‘valley experiences’ changing in a seeming moment… and I was on top of the mountain!
Have you ever been Gaslighted? The 1944 psychological thriller, ‘Gaslight is a film adapted from Patrick Hamilton’s play Gas Light [1938] about a woman whose husband slowly manipulates her into believing that she is going insane.’ Wikipedia. The film is a compelling study of mental manipulation of one person upon another. I have witnessed ‘Gaslighting’ in both politics and religion. I have also have witnessed it and been the recipient of the Machiavellian maneuver …both in religion and the work place. One of the oldest manipulation techniques of ministers or managers is to cause a person to begin to believe that their stand for right and wrong is out of step with the group think and the reality of the organization. Women have been experiencing ‘Gaslighting’ by abusive men for centuries.
When you are placed in a position where you are disfellowshipped or ostracized until you pledge allegiance to the company line…you have been gaslit… If all your fellow lemmings are following each other off of a steep cliff…and you decide to remain behind… If someone in authority creates an untenable situation for you…and then convinces you that your state of affairs is your fault…you are being gaslit. When you are set up for failure…and then you fail…and are subsequently chastised and castigated for your failure…you have been gaslit!
Many people in some type of authority see their mantel of leadership as a license to use people for their own agenda. This agenda does not include those who disagree with them. I regularly hear politicians utter the clarion call that they are going to bring religion back to the classroom…but which religion are they talking about.
This life afforded us so many opportunities. There are many more chances that the proverbial second chance! In fact each morning is the golden opportunity to create yourself anew! We are only as place bound as we are willing to relinquish and to accept. We humans are a bit like the moulding clay of the sculptor. With a creative push here and a pull there…and the smoothing out of our rough edges…we can be a masterpiece!
Our Future is Bright…If We Want It To Be? — The Jazz Man
I wrote a dystopian fable yesterday…and it scared the author. I reread it 10 times or more and thought of deleting it…as it is not my genre. However, I believe the fiction that I wrote could be one of a thousands of scenarios if we do not take Covid-19 seriously! There is an old saying that you can dash your head […]
via Our Future is Bright…If We Want It To Be? — The Jazz Man
The First Year…..
Once again it was a dark morning at the Bump house. Billy’s mom was busily preparing what appeared to be cross between grits and oatmeal…with a grayish color. Billy greeted her with a hearty good morning to which she replied, ‘what’s good about it?’ Billy’s good humor could not be deterred as he and Chet were in the midst of working on a science project regarding climate change, and they were about to write their final paper on their study. Billy’s dad, Junior, came in to the kitchen wearing his motorcycle hat and leather jacket…with his concealed carry Glock 9 in his front pocket. Junior had been relegated to day-work for some time. He recalled the halcyon days when he had a steady job in Chicago. He had been a mechanic for the big semi trucks. The money had been good and the lifestyle had been solid middle class in the suburbs. He and Neva had enjoyed their upwardly mobile habits and believed that they would last forever…after all that is what they had been told… When the recession that ultimately turned into a depression hit…it was a shock to them and all of their friends.
Billy and Chet met in a chat room that was called, euphemistically the ‘Zoom-Room’ and began talking about their climate change project…that they had been working on for five years. They discussed meeting in person and decided that this would not be a prudent idea as Bill had a gas mask but Chet did not.
President Buttigieg was on television and speaking about the need for Americans to submit to being tested daily…before they leave their house. He noted that the restrictions that the United Kingdom had placed on our visiting their country would not be lifted if we did not comply with their health and safety requirements. Europe had made crystal clear that Americans were not welcome in any of their countries until we met their minimum standards. Also, South Korea and Russia and China would except Americans within their sovereign borders.
Most of Broadway had been shuttered…although they had made the decision to reopen due to their fear of economic failure. When patrons had died in the aisles and performers on stage…the allure of live theatre had lost its luster…
Wall Street had attempted several reopenings and had been forced to permanently close when there was not humans left to man the computers. It had been remarkably resilient for years…doing relatively well while the unemployment ranks swelled to over 100 million souls…and then there was either no one to tally the statistics…or they seemed to lack importance…as the virus raged onward!
It had been a long time since the Bumps had attended a physical church service in their church building. Many had suggested that the church reopen and that the pandemic was over and that perhaps it was little more than a political hoax… But when 3 of the founding members of the church had passed away from the virus…the leadership thought better of attempting a reopening until…and if…the virus was brought under control…
Some were old enough to remember the political and social backlash…when the virus began.
First the movie houses shut down. This was a pastime that Billy enjoyed immensely. But there was Netflix and Hulu and Amazon Prime…until there was one to operate the sites…even though the yeoman work was accomplished by computers. Direct TV and Dish were good at home entertainment…until few had the money to pay for the services and then the companies ceased to charge for their services…and soon there was no more service…
There had been a political and religious outcry to the governmental mandate of wearing face masks…but that seems so pedestrian now…
The Grim Reaper had such lovely garments on and he spoke in dulcet tones that assured the skeptical that the virus was a hoax and a scam and that they would not only be in excellent health but they should be emboldened in their righteous stand against government intervention into their God given rights of free speech and free action… None of us knew that the virus would morph into an instant killer…
The epidemiologist that are left…are working on 100 varieties of the original virus. The United States…long ago…ceased to bury their dead…they burn them in humongous pyres outside of our cities…
Statues were erected to Dr. Anthony Fauci…throughout America…
Few that are alive now… can remember how it all began…in the first year of our pandemic…2020…
Love and Fear on the Blue Dot Planet
Please enjoy an encouragement from Jonathon Brooks!
I was just now thinking about how love casts out fear. Our world can be a frightening place. The coronavirus is frightening. Humanity’s selfishness is frightening. Hatred of our fellow life traveler is frightening. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth and a wrong doing as payment for a different wrong doing are all the frightening stuff that can be witnessed daily on our blue dot of a planet. Love overcomes these fears.
I made a dedicated decision to follow Christ out of myself and into the life Jesus had for me when I was 18 years young. Jesus has conquered many of my sins and vices and fears. Life is not intended to be lived and fueled by hatred and fear. Life runs infinitely better on love.
It is hard work to go to work on one’s soul. Change is difficult. Following Christ was not…
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The Happy Traveler 