As I walked the familiar streets of Eldorado this afternoon I heard a man say to his companion, ‘Well he looked kinda like him…but he has gray hair and he is wearing a cowboy hat.’

‘I can not wait to hear what the aliens have to say…perhaps they will have a solution to stopping war,’ Jane said gleefully! It had been discovered by our most powerful telescopes that we were being watched by residents of a planet that looked just like earth but was a thousand light years away in another galaxy. ‘I have always thought that there was life on other planets,’ said Chet with a wry grin. ‘Well, it stands to reason that with the countless planets that we are aware of and the untold planets that we are not that there has to be intelligent life in space somewhere,’ Neva J. said. ‘Where do you think that Phillip K. Dick got his inspiration from…he was in contact with aliens who told him many of the secrets of the universe,’ Billy B. added. ‘I bet that they are amazed at our technology and our civilization,’ Jane contended. ‘I hope that they do not want to have us for dinner,’ Chet laughed. ‘How are they watching our lives…we do not have a telescope that is remotely powerful enough to see what is happening on their world…which the scientist calls Earth 2.0…and the Hubbel Telescope has only recently revealed the similarities in their planet’s topography and ours,’ Billy B. noted.

The Flying Saucer landed in Eldorado, Illinois…not in New York City or London or Paris…but in the little Southern Illinois former coal mining town of Eldorado. This was a major event! The mayor of Eldorado and the town fathers and mothers came out to be the official greeting party for this singular worldwide event. CNN was there and the New York Times and ABC and CBS and NBC and the London Telegraph. When asked why they thought that the Aliens from Earth 2.0 would make their visit to Eldorado the Mayor said that he believed that Eldorado personified small-town America. He also mentioned that he had been a Science Fiction aficionado for his entire life.

‘I am sure that they have come to learn from us…we have unparallel science and understanding of the cosmos,’ said Daryl. ‘Dad…better known as the Wiz…told me that they may be more advanced than we are and perhaps are coming to warn us of imminent disaster, Daryl contained. The Wiz had told Daryl that the Earth could not continue down its destructive path and that our passion for war would ultimately consume us. Also, our disregard for our home and our constant pollution of the Earth may be coming home to our destruction.

‘Greetings Earth.’ said Ralph of Earth II. We are extremely happy to see you and feel what it is like to live on Earth,’ Ralph continued. ‘Do any of you have questions for me before I launch my presentation,’ Ralp asked? ‘What have you noticed about us that has impressed you,’ Jane asked? ‘Your love for your families and your consideration for your neighbors and friends,’ Ralph answered. ‘How is our technology and do we measure up to yours,’ asked Chet? ‘Well your technology is our technology two thousand years ago,’ Ralph answered. ‘You see…all of you are dead in our world and we are your ancestors that left Earth a millennium ago,’ Ralph noted. ‘Worldwide nuclear war destroyed most of humanity 2,000 years ago…a few of us escaped to colonize on Earth II,’ said Ralph. ‘I am the great-grandson of the founder of Eldorado…many times over…and that is why I wanted to visit the town that he loved so much,’ Ralph said with a tear in his eye.

‘Dead…you say…how could that be,’ asked Neva J? ‘By the time that the images of Earth reach our most powerful telescopes the inhabitant of Earth have been dead for over a thousand years…watching each of you is a wonderful history lesson,’ Ralph said dispassionately. ‘We have watched this day countless times…and wept for our past,’ Ralph said. ‘We all are a bit like the subatomic particles that can be watched in more than one physical place at a time…it seems that our relevance is in…the eye of the beholder…

I write in blogs of three and once in a while six or seven. I was on the beautiful Campus of Southern Illinois University University @ Carbondale this morning as well as on a trip to the Woods. I was amazed that many of the Campus trees are already resplendent with blossoms. When I saw them I wondered if winter had really taken place or if it was but a cold dream. This is our life. As we are coming home we find ourselves in what appears to be inextricable circumstances. We ask where has the Sun gone and if has God hidden from our upturned faces.

As I was progressing in my career it seemed that retirement was out of my grasp. Reversals happened and a bad supervisor or two. I would look out my window and see the happy retirees and what appeared to be their carefree lifestyle and wonder how that feeling of freedom must feel. I watched my friends travel and enjoy the fruits of their labors as I was pushing the stone uphill like Sisyphus. When it rolled back down I wondered if life is but a long-playing 33 & 1/3 vinyl record. When the needle reaches the end the listener simply places it back at the beginning.

I moved from Eldorado the day after I graduated from Eldorado High School. I had plans to become a minister and study the Bible and do anything that was not in Eldorado. Now that I have become old nothing pleases me more than a photography trip to Eldorado. Mom woke me each morning with her battle cry of ‘Hit The Deck…You Rubberneck!’ I can see the 57′ Chevy full of myself and mom and Jackie Brooks and often my cousin Brenda on our way to Pounds Hollow to swim and eat hot dogs and hamburgers while away the summer hours.

Home is contained in our hearts and it is projected onto our environment. Our sense of place is a spiritual thing and is different for each of us. Home is my sons Aaron and Jonathon. Home is MJ and we will celebrate our 45th anniversary on the 24th of this month.

You remember how you felt when you were so sick and you thought that you might die. Then, suddenly you were well again and the weeping of the night gave way to the joy of the morning?

Perhaps we must learn to enjoy rolling the stone up the hill as our honest and dignified vocation. We are getting our exercise and building muscle. We do not have time for worry as the stone takes most of our concentration and focus.

Reflection is important to our arrival home. The surprises that we were taken aback by that turned out to be good things for us and that pointed us home. The love that was shown to us and that is being demonstrated to us by our fellow homeward-bound travelers…is inspiring! Our lives have many chapters and each of them is part of our story. Enjoy your homeward-bound story as you put the key in the lock of the front door and enter into refuge and safety and hope and peace.

Longing is a bedrock emotion that we all possess. We come into our world crying and cold and wondering what the heck just happened. Soon we find the kind faces of our parents and wonder where we are and how did we arrive. It is not long before we are told by our mom or dad that we have achieved one year of age. What is so special about one year old…we think before we dive into the birthday cake. Often there is a table of our supposed friends surrounding our revelry and we think who are these people and what am I to them. Seemingly overnight mom tells us that it is time for us to go to school. We think about what is wrong with me staying home with you…it has been a sweet ride so far. The school has all kinds of kids. There are skinny kids and fat kids and nice kids and those who are not so nice. The teacher asked the class who could write their name and I put my hand up. Thus I was chosen to go to the blackboard and demonstrate my prowess for a precocious five-year-old. Soon the teacher said, ‘Oh my Bradley…that is not your name…you can take your seat.’ Thus the challenges of first grade.

We seek our place in the chaotic and beautiful world that we did not ask to be a part of…but now that we are here…we attempt to navigate our surroundings. We make a lot of mistakes. Slowly we see opportunities and hurdles to jump and hills to climb. We roll down many of the hills similar to Jack & Jill. We want to be adults as it appears that they have all of the fun and they can stay up as late as they like and they even drink coffee and beer. We discover that adulting is hard…Herculean Hard! Instead of taking advantage of our ability to stay up late…we seek naps and rest and regeneration on a daily basis. There are many doors before us…but so many seemed to be locked…others have been slammed in our faces. We sit in our corner and decide that the brass ring is just out of our reach and the gold star has been given to someone else and the cloud with the silver lining is not over our heads after all.

Perseverance is the key to success in our maelstrom existence. We look for inspiration beyond mendacity. The light of loved ones and friends and the Helpers of our world speaks to us in our quandary. We see in other humans the light of God and his smiling face and feel his love. Love is a word that is difficult to define…you know it when you feel it or see it…or experience its healing of your soul.

Health concerns are debilitating. Financial reversals are robbers of sleep. Domestic issues are divisive and destructive. We seek someone who will be our mentor. We long for someone who cares with a concern that we do not feel every day. Easter is coming. We, Christians, take Easter seriously. This is the story of Jesus Christ who had a loving and caring message for humanity. His message is a blessing if you are an agnostic or atheist. There is little to find fault in loving each other as you love yourself.

We look for the good among the bad. We seek love among the hate. We seek hope among the despair. Good is just beyond the veil of tears. If we conscientiously pull the veil back we are exposed to the profound meaning of life…to help other travelers on the path back home.

Stop…meditate…pray…help someone who is unseen and unheard and unloved…and you will see the cloud with the silver lining and the throughline of the meaning of life…

Temporary problems dissolve in the light of our halcyon experiment. Once we decide that there really is nothing that we can not overcome as long as our Team is with us…our focus becomes clear and our purpose is grounded in our sense of place as integral members of the story of mankind.

I love clouds. Today has provided the most unusual variety. Many are of the wispy kind. Their profile against the azure blue sky is compelling. As I have aged I look up more all of the time.

What a new halcyon gift this life is! Even when life is the darkest there is light just ahead of us. We had a lovely Birthday Weekend for MJ! Dinner at the Global Gourmet on Saturday night and brunch on Sunday. She says that she has not enjoyed a Birthday Dinner so much in many years. Mission accomplished!

Aaron told me over Birthday Dinner that he admired me and called me a humanitarian. I was humbled and honored by his kind words. I told him that I had experienced a childhood marked by some sadness when my mom and dad divorced and then the pain that my mom suffered. I felt very dark and morose and had a very dim view of life…until I saw that mom looked to me for emotional support and thus I determined that I would find the good in the midst of the bad. This is a turn in the road for me that has served me well throughout my life. Most days I have to remind myself of my vow as a youth and then I feel better and all is well with the world.

We all are seeking a home. We want to feel wanted and needed and a part of our family and our community. So many of us feel lonely and often alone. Bad things happen to us and we tend to dwell on the suffering. However, there are so many others who are counting on us. It has been said that no man is an island. We feel lost in a crowd and are quite certain that others would not understand our struggles. Senator Fetterman checked himself into the hospital to receive treatment for depression. What a courageous man! Help is close by if we will avail ourselves of it.

Actually, our walk back home is short. It feels long because we are in the midst of it. When we look back on the walk back to Jerusalem…we will see that it was but a moment. We see our fellow human beings through a ‘Glass Darkly’ thus assuming that they do not care or have better vocations than being our friends. In reality, they are searching just as we are for companions and teammates to join them on this lives bumpy and rocky road!

I watched the most interesting documentary last night. A French couple was Volconaligist in the latter part of the last century. The film footage that they captured of active volcanos was breathtaking. I identified in part with them as I love to observe nature in all of its forms. This intrepid couple was infatuated with their and our home…earth. We live in a volatile sphere in the cosmos. All is calm for some time…and then the eruption of the magma and chaos…and confusion…and yes…death. But…what a beautifully magnificent and awe-inspiring journey…

‘I’ve grown accustomed to your face,’ the song lyric proclaims. Indeed life with its ever-changing hues and prisms brings us innumerable opportunities to become accustomed to a person or place or condition. So many years ago when I began working at Southern Illinois University @ Carbondale I started on the second shift. The hours were 5:00 P:M: – 1:00 A:M:. At first, my working hours seemed very strange but I determined that I would get used to them as I had secured the best job that I had ever had.

The vacillating vicissitudes of our lives can deliver us lifestyles that are onerous for us and damaging to our psyche. Being Food Insecure is a terrible condition that millions across our planet have become horribly accustomed to. Their waking hours are spent primarily in the search for enough coins to purchase the very basics of sustenance. Poverty and food insecurity and lack of economic opportunity are generational self-fulfilling prophecies made by conditioning people for many years. Finally, they become accustomed to their lot in life as members of the Untouchable Cast.

Some are in churches where increasing demands are placed on the congregation to provide money for the leadership’s targeted needs which often enhances the leader’s own bank account. The minister gets increasingly wealthy and the members become increasingly poorer. Yet many of these folks have become accustomed to their subservient lifestyle in order to achieve the pronouncements of the minister. Many at Jonestown 45 years ago willingly drank the Kool-Aid in their blindness to the bizarre situation that they found themselves in.

Certainly, the New Normal has touched all of our lives at one time or more. Our Pandemic changed our world and it is yet to be ascertained how deep the movement of the geological plates of our world has been disturbed. We learn to live with the changing chapters of our lives. Readjustment is required. A sense of place is necessary. Faith in something bigger than we are is essential.

It is another warm day but the temperature is dropping now. I had a little walk on Campus and enjoyed it very much. I have been visiting Giant City State Park daily for the past several months…but today I did both. It has been said that the years are short but the days are long. I do not find this the case. The days fly by like a weaver’s shuttle. Each day gives me a sense of place. The older I become the happier I am with who I am. I am happy with my Southern Illinois Roots. I have found a renewed interest and affection for my second hometown…Eldorado… like Chicago was my first. MJ and I have had the opportunity to travel to several countries and yet I am content and pleased with my home.

I recall in my youth wishing that I had the family of some of my friends or the lifestyle that they enjoyed. Even at a young age, it dawned on me that I really had a good heritage, and decided that I would not trade it even if I could. Often I reflect on things and actions that I took place in my life. Some of those actions were deemed controversial by others. I worked diligently as did MJ to befriend some people who after years walked away from us. I would not change a thing as I know that my actions were who I am. There is something to be said for being your authentic self. Agreeing with others is a pleasant enterprise and a comfortable vocation. Agreeing for the sake of being agreeable…is hypocrisy.

Understanding the feelings of others has been my passion. As a manager/administrator at Southern Illinois University @ Carbondale I had many friends…but also some who did not like my management style and very possibly did not like me. Those people received my undivided attention. I endeavored to treat them fairly and as a partner in the success of our department…which they were. Some of these folks came to appreciate my manner of management and we united in our dedication to excellence at SIUC. Today when I visited our Campus and since my first day of employment on October 10, 1978…Southern Illinois University @ Carbondale was and is my home.

I am at home at Church. I have the same sense of place that I have had for 55 years. I know that I am supposed to be there. I have always offered my heartfelt advice to church leaders and have taken that responsibility seriously.

You are a unique creation of God. You need not pattern yourself after another nor apologize for your individual personality. We are members of the history of our home…earth. As we play our role in the Stage Of Life we are fulfilling our sense of place and our presence in our life. Each of us has a distinct role in our grand experiment. Each of us is vital to so many in our lives. We touch more people than we are ever aware of. My Blog tells me that at times hundreds of people have viewed it. Perhaps only 20 or so have pushed the like button…but hundreds could have read it and been influenced by it. This is our life…only a few have hit the like button…but untold numbers are watching…

I grew up living in Tornado Alley. My stepfather was so afraid of tornados that he would wake my mom and me up so that we could run to his car and attempt to outrun what he believed was an imminent tornado. It was my job to grab Chetah his mean chihuahua. Cheetah loved only Earl and she would regularly show me her fine teeth in a snarl. Mom decided that she was no longer going to the car to outrun the oncoming tornado as she deemed it futile. I continued to go…several times a summer…although I told Cheetah that if she bit me…I would leave her behind for the whirlwind.

The wind is unseen but very vocal! It wakes me up at night…but Mylo and MJ sleep right through the gale. Seemingly from out of nowhere Wind blows into our lives and brings change. Whether it be a Derecheo like we experienced in May 2009…or the Wind of Life Changes that bring a new normal to our lives.

We batten down the hatches and trim the mainsail and steer our boat to have the Wind at our back…and wait to see the moon and stars…once again. We had a Black Lab who became so nervous that we had to give her a nerve pill several hours before a storm. She wanted to climb onto our bed and then place herself on the headboard…where there she felt safe…a bit like Earl’s Car I think.

A light breeze brings smiles and harmony and laughter and peace…a tornado brings devastation and death. Such is our lives. We long for the cool breeze on a hot summer day and we fear the destruction of Wind gone amok… There is no playbook or manual to prepare us for every eventuality…there is great comfort in scripture. Our little Blue Orb is a manic and destructive place to live. There are people with love and care in their hearts…and those who wish their neighbors ill. There is the placid sea of tranquility and there is the ‘Slough of Despond.’ We have the pristine view of the mountaintop…the thirsty view of the desert…and the lowest view of the deepest valley where the sun does not shine.

We get it all on our majestic and mad and merry rollercoaster ride of life…what an experience!

Being Human is to have competing thoughts. For instance, most Americans have a poor opinion of Congress but have high esteem for their individual congresswoman or man. We doubt God’s love for us until someone demonstrates that love to us. When we hear the truth we do not accept it if it does not align with our definition of truth. We seek faith as it was explained to us by our friends and neighbors and clan. Many happenings in our lives are so bizarre and over the top of our understanding that it is easier to assign a story to the occurrence that fits with our sense of place in reality.

I understand a bit about the history of Holiness Churches. By the way, the old title of Holiness Churches was worn at one time by both denominational and nondenominational churches. In their heyday, these churches did not believe in going to the theatre or having a television in your home and no dancing or drinking or basically any pleasure of the flesh other than perhaps eating. Now, these folks on a wholesale lot accepted and proclaimed our last President as the second coming of King David of the Old Testament. Of course, the rationale was that King David had his peccadillos…remember Bathsheba. Mind you I am not making light of this belief as it is firmly in the hearts and minds of many churchgoers. Many in the Christian faith seek a Benevolent Dictator. An Authoritarian who has the mantle of God on his shoulders and who must be obeyed because they are sent by God.

Perhaps by our dogma and our hard-wrought doctrine…we are closing the door to many who seek sanctuary and solace and love in what feels like an unloving world. Could it be that we came into our church with a good job and a loving family and perceived status and placement in our community…while others are seeking somewhere to belong…where they are accepted for who they are…they are coming as they are…’ Just as I am, without one plea But that Thy blood was shed for me And that Thou bids me come to Thee…Oh, Lamb of God, I come, I come…’

‘Why to Pray…,’ we say. ‘No one is listening…,’ we say! Yet time and chance happen to each of us…and then we pray. Many are agnostics and others are atheists…but each of them would like to believe…

If you have faith…you have questions. I have been a person of faith for 55 years…and I have questions. During my early faith journey, I heard some concerning analogies made to reason or rationale as to why one person appeared to be healed of God and the other was not. These contentions seemed to range from the people who were praying for the person who got better and became well again must have been praying more fervently…or God respected the one more highly than the other due to their righteous life, and this included how much they gave to the church, and finally that God has a plan and it is not for we mere humans to understand his awesome purpose…

Turkey and Syria have lost upwards of 40 thousand people to the devastating earthquake that hit a few days ago…and now another has struck. Now, these people are God’s creation…his children… Some will say…’Well have they accepted Jesus as their personal savior,’… So the answer is that God is very clannish…or he only likes the members of his Club….or He keeps a running score and tabulates it daily on the petty and minuscule bias of humans as they struggle for water and food and to exist…

How is it that we religious folks are bedrock certain that our denomination and theology is not only the best…but the only true path back to Jerusalem…back to God? How did the inhabitants of one little planet in our galaxy which is one of the millions of other galaxies decide that we would divide our faith and walk into so many divisions that no one can really explain how they came to be?

Is God at fault or does the chasm of doubt lay within each of us for fashioning Him in our own image…