Again, my sincere thanks to Mary Ann Blinkhorn for nominating me for the 3-Day, 3-Quote Challenge.

The link to Mary Ann’s blog is: https://mypenandme.wordpress.com

The rules for the challenge are:

1. Thank the person who nominated you.
2. Post one fresh quotation for three consecutive days.
3. On each of the three days, nominate three folk who have not yet taken part to continue the challenge.

Todays Nominees are:

https://cindyknoke.wordpress.com

https://julieriso.wordpress.com

https://restlessjo.me

These are bloggers that are well worth reading!

Todays Quotation submitted by me:

“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.”

-Confucius

I have often heard  people state that if they had been in Nazi Germany that they would not have stood by as six million Jews were forced from their homes and livelihoods and taken to concentration camps…and then to the gas chambers.  These same people go on to say that they would not have stood idly by as their neighbors who were yesterday respected members of the community, their friends and colleagues…suddenly were ridiculed and made to wear a yellow Star of David…to identify them as somehow no longer part of the accepted society…and thus spat upon and shunned.

When General Eisenhower forced the German populace of Hitler’s time to go to the concentration camps…and observe the unparalleled suffering, starvation…genocide that had been perpetrated upon this ethnic, religious, political outcast group…they averted their eyes…and said that they had no idea.

A young woman stood silently at the campaign rally of the leading Republican Candidate and his disciples, as they had been instructed by their leader, ridiculed her and screamed at her, and under their leader’s shouted commands…removed her forcibly from the meeting hall.

Surely basic logic does not lead us to believe that because a person is of a ancient religion that they are evil or that they want to do their fellow humans bodily harm?  If that is the case then shall we extrapolate this hypothesis to christians who have harmed others in the name of their religious…or political agenda?  If we read just a cursory study of history…we note numerous “Holy Wars” including the Inquisition.

If it is acceptable, in the Parallel Universe of the New United States, to now block entire religions from entry to our country that was sought out for the express purpose of freedom of religion?  Then, shall it be acceptable in the future for certain entire denominations or segments of the christian faith, when a fraction of their group perpetrates evil in the name of that faith, to be screamed at and removed for standing silently in protest…when we want the world to emulate our “freedom of speech?”

What if we wake up tomorrow…and our leader who has promised us economic revival and absolute security from the undesirables… suddenly adds us to the list?  It cannot happen again…we have learned our lesson…it is happening now!

Mary Ann Blinkhorn has graciously invited me to participate in the 3-Days, 3-

Quotes Challenge.  The link to Mary Ann’s blog is:

https://mypenandme.wordpress.com

Mary Ann’s blog is extremely interesting and I highly recommend it!

The rules for the 3-Days, 3-Quotes Challenge are:

1. Thank the person who nominated you.
2. Post one fresh quotation for three consecutive days.
3. On each of the three days, nominate three folk who have not yet taken part to continue the challenge.

Todays Nominees are:

https://jonathonbrooks.wordpress.com

https://curiousrambler.com

https://dearlilyjune.wordpress.com

These are wonderful bloggers who write fascinating blogs!

Todays Quotation submitted by me:

“We are all in the same boat in a stormy sea, and we owe each other a terrible loyalty.”

-G.K. Chesterton

As 2015 draws to a close I cannot help but reflect on the past five years of my retirement.  At the conclusion of 2010 I stepped away from my career at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois after thirty-two years, two months and three weeks of service.  This was a job that by and large I loved for the entirety of my affiliation with the University.

I began as a Building Service Worker I, which is a janitor, and it was a great step up for me financially. My pay doubled from my former position outside the school and there were excellent benefits.  I determined, early on, that if I was going to work in the custodial arena…I wanted to be a custodial professional.  Through God’s grace and hard work promotions came quickly…and for the last twenty-five years of my career I worked as either the assistant manager of the organization or the manager.

The wonderful people that I was privileged to work with so enhanced my time there…and were much of the reason for what success I attained!

Yet when it came time to retire I had no regrets…as I was keenly aware that life does not go on forever.

Over the past five years Mary Jane, who retired just two months after me, and I have enjoyed some special times and some special people!  We have been able to accompany my wonderful brother-in-law Ron, who is more like my brother,  and his lovely wife Ira Kaye on several trips…including an annual visit to their condo in Destin, Florida.  The camaraderie we have enjoyed has been extraordinary and has added to the richness of retirement.

We have been able to visit Europe three times, two with our sons, and are planning a trip there in 2016 with Aaron and Jonathon.

Our reconnection with our dear friends of over forty years, Jeff and Margo, has been especially sweet and fulfilling.  They have lived in Europe for several years and our visits with them have been time travel in action…as it seems that we are all retuned to our young selves at the inception of our friendship.  Also, Margo’s dedication to writing inspired me to write more…which is something I have wanted to do for most of my life.

We were thrilled to join or friends Tammy and Sam and their son Zach at their condo on St. John, Virgin Island this past July.

I was honored to serve three years on the governing board of our church, called the Session, and Mary Jane is in the midst of her three year term on the board of Deacons.

In June Jonathon and I joined Kiwanis and are enjoying it very much.

I was asked by the Southern Illinois University Civil Service Council to be their representative on the local chapter of the State University Annuitants Association and have been honored to do so for the past three years.

So, what does the future hold?  I hope to write a book in 2016…I welcome your suggestions?  Also, I am excited about the potential trip to Europe…as we all love it profoundly!

I continue to hope to add my small voice in some way to understanding and tolerance among those I encounter;  for those who are different from me…but more often than not… so beautiful and to be emulated.

John Lennon was born October 9, 1940.  He would have been 75 years old this year.  He wrote the famous Christmas song, “So this is Christmas”.  The song is poignant in its’ simple message pleading for world peace.

” And so this is Christmas

For weak and for strong

For rich and the poor ones

The world is so wrong

And so happy Christmas

For black and for white

For yellow and red ones

Let’s stop all the fight”

The last verse of the song is, “War is over if you want it, War is over Now”

The other night I watched a presidential debate where it appeared that the contenders were trying to “out tough” their colleagues and prove who was the baddest among them and how eager they were to commit thousands of men and women to battle.  One presidential hopeful stated that, “He would carpet bomb the enemy and see if the surrounding ground would glow.”

I recently re-read what is considered the author Arthur C. Clarke’s masterpiece, “Childhoods End” where he tells of Aliens intervening in the affairs of men and, at least in part, bringing peace and a ceasing of all of the tribal and petty squabbles of humanity.

Christians believe that the advent of the Christ child was to bring peace to the suffering family of man.

Is the answer further bloodshed  in what many religions believe is their god ordained righteous cause?

Two thousand years ago a homeless middle eastern couple were seeking shelter for the night…as she was “great with child.”

Is it to late to realize that if you believe that a higher power created humanity…was that higher power so small that it deems only a small segment of its’  creation worthy of life?  Could there really be no more war?

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.