The First Monday of the New Decade
I had not thought about it until I heard it on television this morning, this is the first Monday of our new decade. I actually like the sound of the words, new decade. When you think about it, we mortals do not get a plethora of, new decades? I have, at the beginning of this year, lived in 8 decades. A nice accomplishment for a 62 year old!
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I was back to walking our campus today. It was very quiet due to it being winter break. I walked through the Student Center and observed two students, a female and male, excitedly playing with what appeared to be a full body video game. They were bobbing and weaving and dancing about, impervious to the world about them, and they were getting wonderful exercise.
I listened as Jonathon and I were enjoying lunch, to a young man in a wheel chair and his caretaker. Their verbal exchange revealed that they were friends and enjoyed each others company. There was no lesser than and greater than…there was no healthy/disabled dynamic between them. They spoke as what they were, equals.
I reflected on the excitement and joy that can be experienced at Southern Illinois University @ Carbondale…if you want to access it. I remembered when everything about SIUC was a mystery to me and was intriguing and different from what I had experienced. I noticed that the staff at Building Services, of which I was a new member, wore, at least, three different uniforms. I was introduced to my, Custodian, and I ruminated on what my job duties would be…as I thought that I had been hired as a custodian? An African American gentleman entered the building that I was cleaning and announced that he was may boss and was I Brooks or Brandon! He was smoking an aromatic cigar and the smoke encircled his head like a wreath. Later that evening…my Custodian came over and asked me how I was doing and I told him that I had completed the cleaning assignment that he had given me and he responded by asking me if I had been upstairs yet? I said that I had not and he laughed and told me that the upstairs was my job also…
There is a newness to life each day that we live. Whether it be our first day on the job or our first home…or the realization that there is a job for us to do and a purpose for our existence.
So often we sell ourselves short. We believe the story of our lives that others have attempted to write for us. Perhaps we do possess the education or the verbal skills or the writing skills to succeed…so we have been told. We see others who for all empirical purposes seem to be rather ordinary and it is not apparent that they have angels wings or super powers?
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The reality is that all accomplishments and successes and battles won and victories…are secured by humans…that are just like us. There is no reason that you cannot be a success in your career and your life!
It is the first Monday of the new decade. Each day is the first day of the rest of our lives. Stop…and pay attention to your environment…take a long time to look at your surroundings…and you will see things that you have never seen before. The life that each of us has been given…is full of newness and infinite possibilities that awake anew with each morning.
Do not allow someone else to write your story. Take the authorship of it seriously. How you present yourself is part of your narrative. Present yourself with confidence and humility and a servant/leaders heart!
Star Wars Movies With Aaron and Jonathon
We just saw Star War: The Rise of Skywalker. I have been attending the Star Wars movies with Aaron and Jonathon for a long time. It has been a holiday tradition for the past several years. The first Star Wars movie came out in 1977. I graduated from Eldorado High School in 1975. I did not see my first Star Wars movie until the latter 1980s. One thing that I learned, quickly, is that my sons enjoyed not only the movie but the action figures that accompanied it. There was a 12 inch figurine of a Storm Trooper in their bedroom, when they were quite young, and when I asked what role that the action figure played in the story….They told me that the Storm Trooper was similar to a Private in the Army and that many of them are destroyed during the movie.
I, simply, like anything that my boys and I can do together! I often wonder how MJ and I became so lucky o have such fine men…for our sons. The first Star Wars happened before either of them were born…and it continues to this day.
It is another unseasonably warm day for winter, in our neck of the woods. It is 54 degrees on January the 5th. I have been watching an engrossing movie on Netflix called, The Messiah. It is the story of a young man who is of Jewish and Muslim lineage, first, leading a group of Syrians to the border of Israel. Subsequently after being jailed in Israel, he vanished from the cell and appears in, Dilly, Texas, where it appears that he stops a tornado from destroying a church. As the young man speaks to his captors and interrogators he has a an emotionally moving effect on them by telling them, private, information regarding their innermost thoughts and feelings. As his following continues to grown in the little Texas town of Dilly…he asks the minister of the church to lead them wherever he believed that God is telling them to go….And they end up on Washington D.C.
So, the thought provoking series presents the central question…is the young man the Messiah or is he a cult leader or a magician and a charlatan? Throughout the 10 episodes he, appears, to do Christ like feats…while his history and, other of his actions…seem very human and mundane.
What I enjoyed about the first season is the similarities that I saw between the Christ of the Bible and the young man depicted in the Netflix presentation. Often, Jesus did not perform his miracles among many people and the broadcasting of them was by word of mouth or pen to parchment…the Bible. Much of Christ’s accomplishments are delivered to us by oral history that has been written down. Many characters of the Bible felt the personal magnetism of Christ as they interacted with him on a one on one basis. Choice is paramount in the human condition and the following of the Messiah.
God is talking to everyone!
So, in a world of Star Wars and Messiah…we reach for the Cosmos! We seek something that is beyond our concrete earthy identity. There is meaning and purpose and mission…beyond the physical reality of what we can see, hear, taste and touch…the fifth dimension is what intrigues us and compels we spiritual creatures, contained in earthly bodies…to seek the reason for our existence.
In a world that is heating up from global warming. In a land that is on fire! In a land that adheres to the despotic fever dreams of an ill leader, in the land of the free and the home of the brave…are we fighting for the right as God gives us the right…or are are we fighting for our own narrow and myopic idea of life…as a member of the human family?
‘Your Mission… Should You Choose to Accept It
‘Your mission…should you choose to accept it…’
When we Baby Boomers were young, there was a television show called, Mission Impossible, that was about a secret spy organization that worked internationally. The actor, Peter Graves, who lead the team of suave and sophisticated government agents, would listen to a, reel to reel tape recording of the mission of the group…should they choose to accept it, and the tapes would self destroy in a matter of seconds after the message had been heard. We even remember when Leonard Nimoy, Spock, was one of the spies on the show. Of course current audiences are familiar with Mission Impossible due to the multi-million dollar movie franchise, staring Tom Cruise.
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‘When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,’
‘When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill,’
‘When the funds are low and the debts are high,’
‘And you want to smile, but you have to…
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January 2, 2020…Christmas is Coming!
The Christmas tree is back in the Christmas Closet. Almost all of the candy and fudge and holiday sundries are eaten. Our town still has its Christmas decorations up, but then again it is only January 2nd. Southern Illinois University @ Carbondale returned to work today. I remember returning from 33 Christmas holidays. I was always a bit pumped from the residual holiday cheer, and a bit apprehensive as to what surprises the New Year would bring. Often Budget concerns seemed to be paramount in January, for the University. The beginning of the calendar year marked the half way point of SIU’s fiscal year. This was a crucial time, especially if Spring Semester enrollment was down. Also, financial reversals such as the Sate calling back a portion of the, already appropriated, budget for the remainder of the fiscal year. SIUC, even in its diminished position, still is the economic engine that drives the Southern Illinois region.
The same could be said for many families personal budgets. Christmas is a time of giving…but sometimes we give beyond our means. When this happens, during the splendor and majesty of the holiday season, we believe that if we can purchase just one more present or enjoy one more party…or take the Christmas Cruise that we have desired for so long…all will be well and we will be happy…and our joy will be at its zenith. I recall the opulent 80’s. As I stood in the queues at the, thriving, malls in St. Louis, Missouri or in Carbondale, Illinois…I watched, sadly, person after person attempt to pay for their items with as many as 5 or 6 credit cards…before finding one that was not denied. In fact it occurred to me that the retail economy was being fueled by debt. I had a colleague that would say, every Christmas Season, that he was still paying off, ‘Christmas 1980’…if the current Christmas was 1990.
So, life has returned to the normal that we understood before the holidays. Regular, and normal, and to be expected…is good. I have found that the optimum times that I have been able to excel or improve have been devoid of the extremes of debt, or of actions that were spawned by emotion rather than rationality. As the manager/administrator of the housekeeping department at SIUC I sought to follow the clear road of success that my predecessors had trail-blazed…long before my arrival. Positive change is incremental. Watching positive change taking place is not dissimilar to watching a year progress. Looking out of my loft window as I write this piece, I see rain and a basic gray sky. It looks like January 2, 2020. It has the appearance of nothing happening. But, that would be a mistaken assumption. Everything that we are and everything that we know is in transition. I am morphing…as I am writing. The question is do we want to take the fork in the road that leads to improvement or do we prefer the road that leads to the same results that we have obtained throughout our life?
Every now and then we get a little spark of the divine! For a short time we see more clearly what our opportunities are, and what God’s purpose for us is. But then we get tired…and we become stressed…and anger or sadness or guilt or grief…steps in and we take a detour. Illness wrests our attention away.
But, today it is January 2, 2020…and it can be a good year…accompanied by challenges.
Avoid potholes!
Happy New Year!
Are you busy planting, cabbages?
A new decade has arrived. I have been retired for 9 years. It seems like yesterday. I remember my boss, Plant and Service Operations Director, Phil Gatton, saying the most complimentary things about me…and my thinking that I would like to meet the person that he was talking about. I had a sketch of a speech, prepared in my mind, to give…but…when Phil finished speaking, it dawned on me that my career was over. For over 32 years I had lived Southern Illinois University @ Carbondale. With my best efforts to stifle the waterworks…I could not help shedding a few tears at the imminent change in my life. I had thought about the University on my holidays and weekends and when I was sick. I had been witness to the Campus at its best…and at its worst. Retirement had seemed like a pipe-dream…and unattainable! Then, like watching an approaching train…
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A New Decade
So, what kind of year have you had in 2019? Many of my friends have had difficult years. There has been a lot of illness…or else I notice illness more since I have gotten older? I have friends that have been, not only disappointed but disillusioned by reversals in their careers. I have friends…who have lost loved ones…and they felt, so very alone…during this holiday season.
The political climate in the United States is more divisive and destructive than I have witnessed during my 62 years on this earth. Beloved family and friends have parted ways because of political disagreements. Secular political parties have been equivocated with; God’s chosen…or abject sinners.
Denominational churches are loosing members…across the board. We are in the midst of a change in how we understand church and God’s plan going forward.
We humans are extremely susceptible to cultish devotion. Just as the Israelites demanded of Aaron that he fashion for them a god that they could worship, in the wilderness, when Moses was on Mount Horib receiving the Ten Commandments…for 40 days. We seek a man or woman to lead us and to show us the way. This type of faith has a basic flaw in that it takes the relationship of the individual to God…away…and replaces it with a fallible human being.
At the conclusion of a terrible storm…is a rainbow.
I watched a movie, last evening, called, Anesthesia. The movie illustrated the futility of focusing on the, standard model, of success. The model would be to receive a good education and get a well paying job and obtain all of the physical accoutrements that accompany a upper middle class life style…only to discover the hollowness of the fulfillment of the ladder of success. I notice, when MJ and I are enjoying a meal in a restaurant, that many families are, all, peering at their smart phones, until the food is delivered…where they then eat.
Loneliness is a predominate condition of the human family. We seek our social interaction though media, and we ignore or are afraid of human, one on one, contact. The happiest people that I have met, are those people who have relied on their friends and family, and their ever expanding social circle, to ground them in the ultimate meaning of life.
The opportunities ahead of us are endless. If you want to write a book, write it. If you want to loose weight, loose it. If you want to be more fulfilled…talk to others…help others….read and reflect. Each day is a miracle in microcosm….our greats gift we, often, fritter away as if it is meaningless…TIME!
We have been handed a precious treasure…something that is far greater than; money, or fame, or position, or power….LIFE!
As Clarance, the angel, in the movie, It’s A Wonderful Life, told George Bailey, ‘You really had a wonderful life, George.’
It is the Little Things…Kid
I just discovered how to make the format on my blog, larger. It was so small, I could not see it! I had searched for several days for a format button, and found none. I wrote a blog, recently, that had so many spelling errors in it…I determined that I required and, desperately, needed a larger font.
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I remember, when we began attending First Presbyterian Church in Carbondale, Illinois, over 21 years ago…that we provided, large print bulletins, for those who wanted or needed them. I thought that the print was so large…and now it is just right.
We took the Christmas Tree down this morning. It was a beautiful tree! Five nativities returned to their 11 month a year homes, and the Christmas Closet…is full. The Brooks home is ready to welcome 2020.
We were going to enjoy our New Years Eve dinner at a fine local restaurant, Keepers Quarters, but were saddened to learn that it has chose not to be open on New Years Eve due to having only 10 reservations. We were one of the 10. So, we were relieved to discover the Kokopelli will be open. We are attempting to create a new tradition of going out on New Years Eve…rather than our decades long tradition of my watching the Waterford Crystal Ball drop, in Manhattan, and my going in to wake MJ and wish her a Happy New Year…by waking her with a kiss!
Each Christmas Season, I search for the moments that were memorable and that struck me with their emotional weight, and their feelings of peace and comfort and happiness.
I throughly enjoyed distributing the Christmas gifts from our church board, called the Session in the First Presbyterian Church, and the genuine expressions of gratitude and excitement and awe that the recipients demonstrated. Thus far, as an elder for personnel, I have experienced a great joy from the staff of our church.
As we made our annual sojourn to St. Charles, Missouri, the day after Christmas…I was excited to discover that the local tobacco shop had, boxed, a pipe smoking kit that held all of the accouterments to facilitate, joyful pipe smoking. There was a corn cob pipe, just as Frosty the Snowman used, and an ounce of Christmas Pipe tobacco, and pipe cleaners and a, tamper, and most importantly…directions on how to smoke a pipe.
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Aaron got me a wonderful pipe made in Italy. When I tried it…I was amazed at the wonderful and delightful pleasure of the Italian craftsmanship.
Christmas Day was as warm as spring. Many of the Christmas revelers played, Throw the Bag Into the Hole, outside in the brilliant weather. Tara and Mike got MJ and I the largest bottle of wine that I have ever seen! It contains 3 liters. It took both of us to retrieve it from it’s box.
I am the proud owner of a new Polaroid One Shot camera. It reminds me of my, fabled, Big Swinger Polaroid camera, from my childhood. The fascination of watching a photo develop before my eyes…has always brought me…great joy!
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I think of so many of my friends who are worried about up-coming health tests to be accomplish and the subsequent health diagnosis. We have experienced both the fear and trepidation of illness and the life affirming good prognosis. It really boils down to the fact that the greatest Christmas gift that any of us have…is the gift of life. More often that we should…we spend our lives concerned about ephemera and fluff and issues that have no lasting relevance on our happiness or health.
Shall we enter into our new decade…realizing that each day is a miracle in microcosm and that each one has more monetary value than all of the riches of the world.
Movies @ Christmas And New Year — The Jazz Man
We have had a long and rich history of attending movies between Christmas and New Year. The habit began in the latter 80’s and continues to this day. This was my plan to continue the joy of the Christmas Season throughout the, over week long vacation that I enjoyed before Christmas and thru New Year’s Day. When I began working at Southern […]
Only Believe
Another year approaches. The last one zipped past me…like a thief in the night! We humans are very conscious of our years…since there are not an abundance of them…even if you live to be 101!
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There are many things that happen to us that we have no control over. Yet, there is also much of our life that we can change…if we only believe. Each morning brings each of us a renewed list of choices, that can either benefit us or hurt us. Many of our hurtful choices are little more than bad habits. The remedy for the bad habits is to develop good habits. Sounds easy, dose it not? Not so much…unless you believe that you can!
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I remember wanting to engage in writing, for most of my life. I purchased a word processor in the late 1980s and simply knew that the magic of having the, very modern and very hip, word processor in my humble abode…would inspire me to write….
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I recall deciding in the early part of the last decade that I was tired of being overweight and vowing that I was going to lose the excess pounds. Just under 100 pounds later…I felt like a new man!
I, vividly, am transported back to being 12 years old and deciding that I wanted to be a christian and now I am 62 and have never given up on my journey back to Jerusalem.
When I was hired as a Building Service Worker I at Southern Illinois University @ Carbondale, I determined that I was going to be a professional and excel in the field that I had been hired into.
Much of the battle in realizing our dreams and visions and hopes for a better tomorrow…is between our ears! We know that there are concrete barriers that prevent us from the success of attaining our goals. We are satisfied that our lot in life is much harder than our neighbor and our friend…and even other members of our family. Sometimes we see the dark cloud that is hovering over our head…
Success is repetition. If you can eat less food for one day…it is little more than the popular shampoo commercial that admonishes us to; ‘Wash…Rinse…Repeat.’ The greater gift that we all share is…life. It is full of opportunities and excitement and interesting challenges…that can enrich and enliven and energize each of us!
As we age we tend to think that we have done it all and seen it all and that life has no mystery and adventures ahead for us. Nothing could be further from the truth! Winston Churchill became Prime Minster of the United Kingdom when he was 65 years old.
You may think that you are in your 60’s…and that life’s pinnacles have all been climbed. At First Presbyterian Church, where I and my family attend, there are several people in their 80’s and 90’s who are still climbing the mountains of life…and doing so with determination and gusto!
Do you want to write a book…then begin writing, with the goal of completing your treatise during the first year of our new decade!
Do you want to lose weight? Stop eating for entertainment. Small meals throughout the day…stay away from, excess, carbohydrates and sugars. Eat a lot of vegetables and fruit.
Do you remember the feeling of being excited about each day and what it would bring? Help someone everyday…and your excitement and anticipation and joy of life will renew daily!
‘For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as I also am known.’ I Corinthians 13:22 KJV
Often it is difficult to see the forest for the trees. Our Screens our crying out to us…all the day long! Whether it its our IPad or our IPbone or our IMac or our, multiple, flat screen televisions…we see the good life, as defined by our capitalist and consumer orientated society…is just beyond our grasp.
We hear our politicians tell us what they are going to do for us…we know that they are lying…and they know that they are lying.
As a high school student, I believed that, one day I would be a leader in a company. I had nothing to base it on and little to no encouragement .
I believed that I could be thin…and I attained my goals in under 6 months…soon to be so again!
I believed that I could write…and I do so, almost, daily.
I know that challenges and opportunities are, just, ahead for each of us in 2020…our new decade. Shall we greet them with vigor and happiness and the strength of understanding, that we are part of a massive Play that God is both the writer and director of…and that we must play our part…well!
2020
I remember the dawning of the year 2000…like it was yesterday. I was watching the, late, ABC News Anchor, Peter Jennings, when the Waterford Crystal Ball dropped in Manhattan. We were afraid of Y2K. It was, widely, believed that all computers, including those for Wall Street, would freeze-up when the century changed! Many people had gathered food supplies and water and medical items…for the coming disaster. I considered that I had 10 more years to work before I would be able to retire. Our cable television service, shortly after midnight, showed all of their pay per view channels for free…for a few hours. The, controversial, Presidential election, had been decide in favor of George W. Bush, by the Supreme Court of the United States ruling that the vote recount was to cease in Florida.
I have wondered how it felt to have lived in the Roaring Twenties? Having been born in 1957…I did not imagine that I was going to be one of those people that lived in two centuries. When I would study the history of persons in the 20’th Century that were born in the 19’th Century…they were as foreign to me as if they had been born on another planet. To be around in the, 0’s, or the teens, or the 20’s,…was obscure and ancient history! I pondered how much the 20’th Century must have changed after the death of persons who had lived, only during its’s first half?
Life has, already, changed a-lot in our new century. On a personal level MJ and I have lost both of our parents over the past 20 years. Our sons have become men. We have gone from working every day….To retirement.
We have witnessed the longest war in history, in Afghanistan. The country altering, 9/11 occurred…and we have never been the same!
MJ and I have been blessed to travel to Europe on 4 occasions and Aaron and Jonathon have accompanied us 3 times. We were able to rekindle our life-long friendship with our dear friends, Margo and Jeff, who have lived in Europe for many years. This was a big deal to us and one of the highlights of our retirement!
Yesterday, we so enjoyed being with our, soul-mates, Ron and Ira Kaye, and our Niece, Tara and her husband, Mike…and our nephew and niece, Tyler and Paige. After the wonderful dinner that Ira Kay had prepared and the coffee, infused with Bailye’s Irish Cream, I marveled, as I sat on the reclining sofa, at the maturity and, wonderful personalities of Paige and Tyler!
We are planning on joining Ron and Ira Kaye in Florida, next month, and we are looking forward to the fellowship.
So, the 20’s await MJ and I, in our senior walk. We have reached the state that we spoke of in our youth. We are not longer the young people…nor the, harried, middle aged parent of teenagers,….We are members of the Golden Years Group!
At the conclusion of 2020 I will be retired for 10 years. The time has passed like a thief in the night!
I write, almost daily, and have since 2014…when I visited Margo and Jeff, in Nice, France, and observed her dedication to writing. I think that my writing and my walking/photography have been two of my premier pleasure and hobbies for the retirement years.
Pope Francis said, in his Christmas Homily, that God loves all of humanity. This truth has been my revelation of faith of many years…and has been enhanced by my 21 years as a member of First Presbyterian Church in Carbondale, Illinois, and my travels over my retirement.
I was captivated by a beggar outside our flat, in Venice. He sat on the steps, near our door, each day of our stay, in the magical city. His eyes were angelic and his demeanor was…Christ like….
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A handicapped man in Edinburgh, Scotland, asked me to assist him in rising from his wheel chair…to facilitate his ordering his dinner at a local restaurant. As I spoke with him, his compassionate heart…gripped mine! He welcomed me to Edinburgh and told me of his love for the United States and his desire to visit my country.
We stayed with the sweet people at their, several hundred year old, farm house, in Tuscany, Italy. The couple was delightful and the wife was eccentric and unique and, unparalleled, in her quirky persona! The, extremely, narrow, dirt road to the ancient farm house, was like the Biblical Jericho Road, there was room for just one…automobile! I was amazed at how, Jeff, negotiated the twisty and turn path to reach the summit of our destination! His driving skills are magnificent!
We attended a town celebration in, Montecatini, Italy…which was at the base of the mountain that the farm was located on. This was a village celebration….Yet we were made welcome as if we were native to the region! As I sat and enjoyed a sausage and a beer that I had purchased at the kiosk at the festival…I looked down toward the far end of the table that we were seated at…and I nodded at my host…and smiled, a broad smile, and he nodded back at me with an equal, toothy grin…and we were one family!
The Happy Traveler 