I got to enjoy a day off today because bankers don't work on Veterans Day. Of course the day belongs to our Veterans and they deserve our respect and eternal thanks. I did enjoy the day off and it turns out to be the second consecutive Monday I was off. Last time it was intense reactions to my big problem that is chronic bad knees and the overall body complications from RA. One week later I am still battling to find a rheumatologist to take me on as a patient. I need some meds and a plan. Other than that I'm well.
Wendy's mom is getting used to her permanent residence status at a local nursing home. She has been almost extensively flat on her back for over a month now and seems to be making no tangible progress. Her apartment is almost cleaned out thanks to some dedicated friends and the efforts of Wendy and her sister. Yes Wendy is back to always doing too much; overdoing it just like she did before her medical scare about 8 weeks ago. At our weekend event with the old Jaycees family Wendy demonstrated the ability to "hang" but long walks around the hotel/casino proved to be a great struggle for her. At least she is getting better slowly but surely and is back to enjoying the visits with the baby once a week.
I mentioned a little about the Jaycees event Wendy and I attended and thought I would give more info in this post. I was recruited to join the Jaycees back in 1981 by a co-worker/friend named Chuck Dickey. Since we worked together we often met throughout the day to discuss plans to be a good productive Jaycee. Since the organization was a leadership training groups with a community service component smart employers encouraged key personnel to consider joining and getting active. Also known as the Junior Chamber of Commerce, the organization became the perfect outlet for me to do more than just work all day and go home and just be at home all night. I embraced a local chapter leadership position, won a nice shiny award at my first convention and was hooked. However in that first year my favorite thing I did was personally a deliver a huge Thanksgiving Food Basket to an elderly and poor citizen who was raising a grandson. Her place was ravaged by her poverty still she greeted us with open arms, expressed profound thanks and offered to cook us a meal. Honestly, that is where I really was hooked.
In the Jaycees my friend Chuck rose to the level of state President and he tapped me to be his Enrollment and Growth VP. We traveled the whole state and I saw more of Louisiana than in my entire past. We had a great year, we grew in membership and now I am receiving a huge national award at a huge national convention. Just two short years later, after another great friend Blair Broussard served as President, I was elected the 48th President in Lake Charles La. It was one of the most profound years of my life; from May 1987 through May 1988. By now I had the leadership skills to lead a 7,500 member organization, sit for newspaper and even a TV interview, attend huge national meetings where I was in the same room with President Ronald Reagan, my hero, shook the hand of both Senators Bob Dole and John McCain and then the picture I still cherish, shaking the hand of soon to be President George Bush. I rubbed elbows with Danny Thomas, Jerry Lewis, Mr. T and began to expand my travel as a Jaycee not just across Louisiana but the United States. Wendy and I were developing everlasting and enduring friendships. When my term was over our dear friend Pat Witty succeeded me as state President but in a huge surprise I was tapped to serve the organization as a National Vice-President serving 5 states, Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Virginia and Nevada. One of the great highlights that year was an all expense paid trip to the World meeting in Sydney Australia. It was quite a ride but one day it was over. A few things "Jaycees" endured but mostly friendships, even if we all did not see each other face to face for years.
I completely bowed out of the organization by 1991 or so after receiving one last invitation to be a motivational speaker at something called Hours of Power in Tulsa Oklahoma. Fast forward to this past weekend. As time and changing cultural things made the Jaycees much less popular these days an effort was put together to have a reunion for Jaycees from the 90's and before. With all the drama around Wendy's mom and then Wendy's own hospital/medical scare we only hoped to be able to attend. We made it. Wendy and I just spent three glorious days in Marksville at the Paragon Casino reuniting with over 100 Jaycees and friends from around the state, from Thibodaux to New Roads to Shreveport to Lake Charles to St. Martinville to Simmesport, to Houma to Lafayette to Jonesboro to New Iberia to Columbia to Ponchatoula to Baton Rouge to Monroe to Leesville to Lutcher and Gramercy and beyond. You know getting together with people you have not seen in some cases for 30 years was so great, lots of laughs and smiles and yes tears. It also helped us to relive all the good works we did for others and reminded me that it was Jaycees where perhaps the servant heart of a deacon was first realized.
So the weekend is over, the memories are vivid and they will last as we return to work and I return to my active ministry. I needed this weekend to remind me how much I loved the Jaycees and must continue to cling to those memories and those years and to cherish and redevelop some really incredible friendships. Two months ago one of our group and a past state President, Alan Detillier, past away. His presence was so missed. At his funeral I was honored to assist as a Deacon, along with a brother Jaycee, Deacon Tommy Benoit and in the prayers of the faithful I borrowed two lines from the Jaycees Creed about God and serving one another. I would like to conclude this article with the entire Creed:
We Believe
That faith in God gives meaning and purpose to human life
That the brotherhood of man transcends the sovereignty of nations
That economic justice can best be won by free men through free enterprise
That government should be of laws rather than of men
That earth's great treasure lies in human personality and
That service to humanity is the best work of life.
I did not realize until Saturday night when we recited this together that this so mirrors my call to minister as a Permanent Deacon because service to humanity is the best work of life when God is my real meaning and purpose.
God Bless the Louisiana Jaycees, all my dear friends and please keep sending prayers for Wendy, her mom and the ministry entrusted to me by my creator who allows me everyday to experience the great treasure of human personality.
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