60 Years in 60 Days 2016

 As of today there are 60 days left in 2023.  As it turns out, I have lived in 60 years from 1964 to 2023.  I had one of those ideas that generally gives me more stress than it's worth when I try to implement them.  The idea was simply this: Write one thing a day for the next sixty days about one of those years.  

I decided today to write about 2016 to start things off.  While it's true that the Cubs won their World Series that year on this day, that is not why I chose it.  I chose it to write about a friend's father.  My friend's father died 7 years ago on November 2, 2016.  His obituary appears here.  

I never met Dick Ciccone. I have only known his son  Rich since the beginning of the 2022-2023 school year when I spent the fall semester as a  long term sub at the same middle school Rich was starting at.  Besides teaching the same type of classes, we found that we had some things in common like having fathers who went to Notre Dame at the same time. Also, Rich could relate to the struggles I was experiencing helping my parents with difficult health issues as he had been through that already with his parents.  

This year I'm back at the school as a building sub and Rich and I have renewed our friendship.  He requests me to teach his classes  when he has compliance days or IEP meetings and I gladly do it as several of his 8th grade students were in my 7th grade class last year.  He lets me use his classroom as kind of a home base when I am not subbing in other classes and  I enjoy working with him and his students any chance I get.

Last month I watched a movie called Continental Divide.  I hadn't seen it for a while.  It features John Belushi playing a Chicago Newspaper columnist based on Mike Royko.  Mike Royko was one of my heroes growing up.  I started reading his columns in the Chicago Sun Times and then in the Chicago Tribune.  After watching the film I decided to see if I could find a biography about Royko. 

I was at school and the teacher I was subbing for had an off period, so  I was researching Mike Royko biographies.  I soon found out that one of the definitive biographies about Royko had been written by a F. Richard Ciccone who I recognized to be Rich's dad.  I popped into Rich's room and he reminded me that his Dad had been the managing editor of the Tribune when  Royko moved there  from the Sun Times.

I was already reading  a few books so I waited until I finished some of them before requesting  Royko: A  Life In Print by F. Richard Ciccone from my local library. It came yesterday and I told Rich  about how I wad going to pick it up after school while he was preparing me for his classes that I'd be doing for him while he was in an IEP meeting.  He didn't seem as thrilled about it as when we had talked about it last month.  I remember asking him if it was difficult to talk about his dad back in October as I was gushing about Royko and he assured me it was fine, so I really didn't understand his reaction and attributed it to just being distracted by the impending IEP meeting prep.  

I got the book yesterday and it is amazing. In the introduction and the first two chapters, the elder Ciccone immerses us in the world of Royko, also sharing that Mike Royko wasn't the only Tribune employee who could craft mesmerizing prose.  I attempted to tell that to Rich today and I immediately sensed the same expression I had noticed the day before.

That is when Rich told me that today was the 7th anniversary of his father's death.  He shared how difficult it can be as so many people view today with such positive memories.  I remember being at Rosati's around the corner from our old house 7 years ago and going crazy as the Cubs won the World Series. 

This is why I chose 2016. It reminds me that one person's best memories can trigger another person's worst. When I was in college there was a restaurant called The Sports Page and true to their name they had several framed front pages on their walls celebrating great sports achievements of the time.  One such front page celebrated the Bears winning the Super Bowl on January 26, 1986.  In another spot of the   front page there was an article about the upcoming space shuttle flight for teacher Christa McAuliffe.  Two days after the Bears won their Super Bowl The Space Shuttle Challenge exploded less than 90 seconds into its flight.

Every year I have lived so far houses someone's most amazing achievement and someone else's  biggest regret.  This of course is an understatement.  We can certainly say the same thing about each day I have lived. It is difficult to be on the lookout for both, but can so be beneficial. The book of Proverbs reminds  us that,  "A friend loves at all times and a brother is born for a time of adversity." (Proverbs 17:17 NIV). .With this in mind, we should always be on the lookout for opportunities to help our friends rejoice, grieve or even just remember over important moments in their past.  

  

Randy stonehill Keith Green story

Keith Green would have turned 70 today. Here's a clip of Randy Stonehill talking about the behind the scenes story of the classic tune Your Love Broke Through.

Braves vs. Phillies WILD Ending to Game 2 of NLDS | 2023 MLB Postseason

Dave Out Loud: Baby Humor from the 1930’s

Jesse White Tumblers @ Elgin 4th of July Parade

I went to the Elgin 4th of July Parade and took this footage of the Jesse White Tumblers. Jesse White started the tumbling team in 1959 as an  positive activity for youth.  I first saw the tumblers when they performed at Taste Of Chicago in the mid 80's and have seen them at least 20 times over the years. Jesse White served  as an elected official in the state of Illinois from 1975 to earlier this year when his  final term as Illinois Secretary of State came to an end.  

 

SJT: Richer Still in Grace

 *Note* I originally wrote and published this post on Friday September 8th 2023 and I inexplicably deleted 1/2 of it and then deleted the rest trying to fix it.  If I could explic it, it wouldn't be inexplicable. 

The post contained below is what I wrote Friday, to the best of my growing faultier by the day memory.

Love, Dave

On the first Thursday of each month, An internet community gathers to explore the spiritual ramifications of a given topic or to make their own spiritual observations off the topic.  This months host is Patricia Franz of  the Reverie Blog Her entry is Life At The Speed of Grace.

I really enjoyed her post.  I liked her idea that grace is shorthand for God.  I especially liked her poem featuring an adieuing owl and a blooming cucumber.  I spent a good deal of time reflecting on Grace and the idea of God's grace and here are some of my reflections.

Allen Levi is my friend. He is also one of my heroes.  I have only met him 4 times and these have always been at concerts he's playing.  Yet I consider him a friend and kindred spirit.  In my opinion Allen is a jack of all trades, master of all.  He is a former lawyer, a former judge (with a 20 year gap between these occupations).  He left law in the early 90's to become an independent singer  songwriter.  During  that time he took a year off from singing, writing, and touring to be his brother's caregiver as his brother was dying, of cancer.  He wrote an excellent book about his brother called The Last Sweet Mile.  He has also written a fine children's book based on his song Oliviatown.

Recently Allen finished his first novel.  It is  called Theo of Golden and is available for preorder at Amazon, Barnes and Noble and on Kindle.  His website has a link to a sample chapter. Levi also is or has been a beekeeper, bird enthusiast, book reader (volunteers each year to regularly read to a grade school class) and blogger.  And those  are just the things I know of that begin with the letter B.

I say all this because when I began reflecting on Patricia's post the first thing that popped in my head were Allen Levi song lyrics and since Mr. Levi isn't the household name that I think he should be, I needed to answer the question of who Allen Levi is before I could begin in earnest.  And earnest I am; so begin I shall. 

As I mentioned Allen Levi is one of my heroes. The lyrics that popped in my mind when I started reflection on Grace, is from his song. "Most of My Heroes". 

The 2nd verse starts:

All of my heroes are rich in imperfections.  All of my heroes are richer still in grace.

Levi continues

They are people who are weak and bruised and broken, But they know somehow they'll make it through the race.

Grace has been defined as unmerited favor.  It is one of the main manifestations of God's goodness.  We grow in grace as we grow closer to God.  This is probably the reason why Franz says grace is shorthand for God.  Levi makes a similar point in the song's chorus:

Most of my heroes are very simple people.  All of my heroes look a lot like you.

Accepting God's grace in your life is a transformative process.  The more grace we receive the more we are changed and the more we attribute that change to God.  Consider Levi's powerful yet whimsical bridge, . . . 

And if you brag on them like I'm trying to do, I can bet what they might say to you. They'd say "thanks a lot.", and blush as if it's just not true.

The book of Hebrews spends an entire chapter  (eleven)  talking about the heroes of the Old Testament.  The same phrase is used over and over again in the chapter to describe how these heroes operated and that phrase is by faith.  Without God's faith in God those heroes would not have done the things God made them able to do. 

When I think of my spiritual journey, I think of grace, I think of faith and mostly  I think of Jesus,  In Chapter 12 of Hebrews, the author segues from the Hall of Faith to Jesus himself :

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

 The spiritual journey I am on is one of faith and one of grace. I am being perfected on this journey by Jesus. He is my hero and as I grow in faith through his Grace I will grow to look a lot like Him. 

 For more Spiritual Journey Friday click here.