A New Years Resolution or A Tolkien Gesture

 Today is J..R.R. Tolkien's birthday.  I have long been an admirer of his work.  It started when I went on a field trip in school to a puppet version of The Hobbit.  On the occasion of my first trip to Mackinaw Island, my parents purchased me a set of his Lord Of The Rings Trilogy.  It was never actually intended to be a trilogy, it was published in 3 parts due to it's bulk and in case it proved to be a failure.

It of course was not a failure, being one of the best selling and most loved books of all time.  I on the other hand have failed many times in my attempts to read or even listen to the entirety of Fellowship of The Rings, the first installment of the work.  This is a cause of some embarrassment for me, and also a point of friction between myself and my son, who had read all 3 installments while he was still a tween. 

I am actually a much bigger fan of his fellow Inkling C.S. Lewis and generally read all 7 books of Chronicles of Narnia every year.  I have decided in honor of Tolkien's birthday that I will attempt yet again to read this magnificent tome.  Two years ago I was successful at my attempt to finish Moby Dick, this year I hope to finish LOTR. I will start  to read it this Winter and attempt to complete it by the end of Spring.  If I still haven't finished it by the beginning of Summer, I will complete the rest by listening to an audio version.  I will give myself to September 2nd, which is the day Tolkien died.  This years it falls on my eldest daughter's 25th birthday, and  thus a easy to remember due date.  If all goes well I will repeat the process in 2025 and 2026 for the final 2 installments.  I will update my progress here with my installments of Last 5 Next Ten. 

Wordless Wednesday: Beautiful Christmas Tree

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First Poem Of The Year

 

I have written my first poem in a while, and it turns out also to be my first poem of the new year.  

Juggling

Why do I juggle?

Why Do I struggle,

with the pressure of every demand?

Why do I struggle?

Why must I juggle

When God has each ball

well in hand?

Why do I stumble?

Why do I grumble

constantly rehashing my plight?

Why do I grumble?

Why must I stumble

instead of choosing to walk

in the light?

Why can't I stop

Juggling and Stumbling

Struggling and Grumbling

Living a life based on fear?

Why cant I give up on 

Trying and Crying

Believing the lying

That I whisper into my ear?

The answers are found in the questions.

Truth is more than suggestions.

Poetry Friday is being hosted this week by Marcie Flinchum Atkins.  Click here to join the fun.  .

New Years Eve

2023  was a good year.   For the firsts semester of 2023  we got to work at the same school together.  In April we celebrated 25 years of marriage together.  

As soon as the school year ended, we went  to Greece  to celebrate said anniversary.  It was indeed amazing.

Besides hobnobbing with Greeks I also spent a lot of time near geeks as well.  After completing a Geek triathlon  of a comic book convention, a renaissance faire and a Doctor Who convention I went to my first Rubik's Cube tournament.  I had family members, plausible deniability and fun at each event.  

Rubik's Cube Convention Madison, WI

Randy Stonehill, Phil Keaggy concert South Holland IL

2023 was a good year and  I am hopeful that 2024 will be one as well.  I am also hopeful that 2024 will be a good year  as far as this blog goes.  

60 Days in 60 Year: 1982

I usually think of a year to write about and then a topic comes to mind when I think of the events of that year,  This time I had an idea for a topic and I thought of 3 different years that could fir the topic.  Those years were 1976, 1979 & 1982.  The topic was discovering that the world can be a scary place.  I finally decided on 1982 but let me tell you about the local events in 1976 , 1979 and 1982 and then dig a little deeper on 1982.

In 1976 a murder occurred on the street where I lived.  I was 12 years old at the time and  one of the 3 victims was just a year older than me.  His name was Michael Columbo and he and his parents were killed by his sister and his sisters boyfriend.  Patty Columbo is still in prison for the murders and Frank Deluca died in prison earlier this year.  Michael Columbo would have turned 60 this year.

In 1979 John Wayne Gacy was arrested for a series of brutal murders rapes mutilations of young men my age and living in suburbs near mine.  He received the death penalty some 15 years later.

Both these cases changed my view of the world a little.  When a brutal murder  occurs on the street where you live, in a house that would later be on your newspaper delivery route it's going to effect you.  When boys your age are being abducted in neighboring suburbs and being raped, murdered and buried it is more than unnerving.  It makes you wonder if you are truly safe. 

In 1982 when I was still in high school the unspeakable hit close to home again.  When I say close to home, I am not exaggerating at all.  Tylenol capsules filled with potassium cyanide were sold at two grocery stores, one in Arlington Heights which neighbors my home town of Elk Grove Village  and the other in Elk Grove 4 blocks from my house.  This was in my senior year of high school and occurred at a store my family had been buying groceries, including Tylenol my entire life.   

A 12 year old girl from my hometown was one of the seven who died.  She stayed home from school because of a stomach ache was given one Tylenol and died within hours.

As heinous as the first two crimes, they Tylenol murders to me was equally as perverse.  Especially when you consider the crime has still not been solved more than 40 years later.  Also the randomness of the victims, anyone who  bought products from either of those grocery store was a potential victim, which means I was a potential victim.  It is one thing to think that I was a target demographic of Gacy, but another thing entirely to realize that I was buying groceries at that store when there were tainted Tylenol available for purchase.  It is chilling.

This case also singlehandedly changed how products are manufactured.   Johnson & Johnson, the manufacturers  of Tylenol, not only responded to the crisis by recalling 31 million bottles of their product, but also introduced tamperproof packaging and child-proof caps.    They lost quite a bit of money in the process but  received well deserved praise with how they handled the situation.

Evil (read about any of these cases and the word evil, will come up again and again) is an age old problem.  Encountering it on my street, in my town, and near my town isn't unusual, as it exists everywhere.  But seeing such extreme examples of evil , may have been one reason why I was always on the lookout for good.