Are you a Christian? A man tells his story

Chapter 1

Just Look Around you!

––––––––

On New Years eve 2015 my mom was looking forward to a fun night of country dancing at a nearby church event.  We had just finished a wonderful Dinner with our dear friends Corbett and Trenah Marler and their daughter MaeAnne.  Mom loves Red Lobster and that is where we ate and enjoyed a gift exchange.

Then we peeled out of the restaurant parking lot and went to the dance. After we arrived mom and my brother Brad went to the bathroom.  Five minutes later I heard my name called telling me mom had fallen.  She slipped on the floor and was hurting.  A paramedic was there and with the help of a couple of men we made it to the car and home.  We thought it was a bruise, so for several nights mom nursed her leg.  There was no sleep in our house as my mom tried everything to work through the pain she was suffering.  It was during that time that I felt the need to write.  Mom had been wanting me to have another book published so maybe now was the time.  It was between 1 am and 3 am two days after her fall that I was feeling that urge and so I started to put down what was going through my head.

Every day I walk into work I see people who have their own issues and problems.  They may have families that are dis-functional.  Their kids may be having personal difficulties.  Their parents may be ill or their job may be pushing them to the limit.  Everyone has something going on.

All you need to do is talk to people and you will discover that everyone has some kind of problem that is weighing on them.  For each person there is some point where they ask the question, why is this happening to me?  Is there a God?  Does he care?

The answer is never easy because it is very difficult to explain!  Nobody wants bad stuff to happen.  The one phrase that is often used is God has a reason and that response resolves absolutely nothing. So, we are right back to where we started.  We just don't get it.  And yet, would we be better off if there was no God at all?  Would things be better if faith was tossed out the window?  If you had a choice between being a Christian and being an atheist would it not be better to be a Christian?

Let me tell you a little bit about my own world to show you why I think it is better to be a Christian.  What I am going to share with you may sound like some bizarre stuff because I am not going to tell you about some great Sunday School experiences.  Instead, my world was quite absent of any kind of religion for quite a long time.

When I was a boy,  my dad suffered a lot and I saw it with my own eyes.  I did not like it.  I did not want to watch my dad suffer like he did.  And yet he did.  It was the result of a Black list that happened to him when he worked at a company in up state New York near Albany. 

I thought what happened to my dad when I was a boy was so wrong, and all I could wonder was why did it happen to him and to us?  My father had issues with the company he worked for and finally it all came to an end. However the ending was less than pretty.  Since the business was huge and the main employer in town, their word was all it took to destroy my dad's life.  General Electric is a world wide corporation that manufactures a lot of important products.  In the case of my dad a few people who worked there did what they could to ruin him.  I watched with my own eyes my father and eventually my whole family go through things that no one could or would believe unless they saw it themselves.

As I grew up I really questioned everything because there was no reason a decent and honest man like my dad should have to deal with that kind of garbage.  None of this should have ever happened.  Why did my dad get treated so badly when he was such a good man?  It made no sense.  I knew he was a Loner and for that reason any social interaction was just not for him.  But so what?  He was a Loner, who cares?  He never went to parties unless maybe there was food and drink where he worked and maybe he would indulge in an adult beverage and eat and chat for a couple of minutes. That was it.  He told me that his best friend at the Knoll's was a guy named Freddy Marcelli and that Freddy never invited him to any parties because he knew dad would not attend.

Yes, my dad was a Loner but how does that solve the riddle of why all the bad happened with G.E.?  My dad was my hero and I wanted to honor him with every success I could have.  How could I honor him if I went against his ways and at the same time how could I be successful if the way he did it ruined his life?

I had no religion.  I said I was Protestant because I was baptized Methodist but the Bible was just a book to me.  Therefore my values were my parents values which essentially took me back to where my dad was.  However, one thing did stand out.  Because Earl Meanor was a Loner he did not interact with people a lot and therefore his ideas were his point of view.  I had the opportunity to go out into the world and see with my own eyes what I could have and that was my chance to break out of the box I was in.  I was holding on to the values of my family with one hand and stepping out into the world with the other hand.  I discovered later on that what I did by going out on my own was exactly what he wanted me to do.  I will explain later.

I decided that I could change what happened to my dad for my own  world by being willing to interact and socialize and connect and get to know others.  My only obstacle to success was me.  I had very limited interaction with people as a boy and as a teenager except for being at school and knowing people in that environment.  That was it!  As a result I had to learn the hard and long way of how to navigate the social scenes and that learning curve is still a big one.  I was polite, old fashioned, friendly, honest and once in a while attended church.  Yes, I got along okay with people but so what?

I was moving forward very slowly.  I held on to  a wrong view of everything because of what happened to my family.  My dad had great insights but he was not out in the world like I was and he was not seeing the things I was seeing.  My mom and dad and brother were great people but they were so sheltered and so inward they were not allowing themselves to see the world I was seeing.  At the same time when I told my story about what happened to my dad and the black list he endured no one believed me!  That does not happen anymore was what I heard.  The more I told my story the more I heard that from people.

You see what dad went through was sort of unique in that the work he did was very secretive and he was involved with projects with ties to the government.  He was an engineer working at an atomic lab.  He was not a book keeper or school teacher or truck driver.  He was very, very smart and therefore in a very tough spot.  The place he worked valued a certain social structure for everything.  Yes your work was important but who you knew and who liked you was even bigger.  My dad rejected that aspect and as a result was punished.

What could he have done to be punished like that?  One thing for sure was he would answer people with his honest opinion.  For example, when there was a big hubbub on the news about desecrating the American flag my dad reminded everyone that the United States Post Office marks up the flags that are on stamps.  No one liked that opinion so when they pressed him he said, it does not matter to me if they put a xxxxx in front of the flag it would not change my love for my country.  That response was recorded in his employee file among other things and later used against him.

What does this have to do with my second page or the question that I pose with this book?  The second page is my adult revelation.  Yes my dad had an horrendous experience at his job and in fact earlier in his life too.  Yes my dad did feel pushed by people to do what he did not believe in.  He resisted and was punished.  And just like everyone else who faces things that  are obstacles and like mountains that must be overcome I had to overcome some big issues and try to find answers at the same time.  I also had to remember that every person in my neighborhood can tell  a story that will bring you and me  to tears.

The point I hope to make here is that there came a time in my life when I finally got it!  My eyes were finally opened to what is really important.  The people I meet, the experiences I endure and the decisions I make will add up to a life where I discover what is more important than anything.  That is knowing Jesus as Savior and doing all that is possible to follow him and seek his face.  For most of us that is easier said than done.  We get so distracted by everything that a walk with God sounds good but maybe for the pastor or youth minster or maybe the Sunday school teacher but you and I will need to pass for now.  Unfortunately, that is the wrong answer. When Jesus commanded us to seek first the kingdom of God that instruction was for every person who follows him.  Every person.  He is not a  respecter of persons in that regard  or any other way.

Am I saying to you that my upbringing was meaning less and not worthy of discussion?  Not at all.  It formed who I am and has made me the man that I am.

That is why I will share more about who I am, what my dad  went through, my mom and brother and other members of my family.  However, we will also not forget the other people we meet every day who also have lives that are challenged and where they too are hurting like anyone else.

But what about God in this picture?  Does life really have anything to do with him?  The answer is yes, every day we live is all about him.  The only problem is way too many people choose to ignore His importance or cannot see why he would be important to them.

What will it take  for us to see the truth?  What will it take for you and I to decide if we are truly following Jesus.  Am I a Christian? Are you a Christian?  That is what this book is about.

Chapter 2

The Knoll's Restaurant

––––––––

After high school my dad served in the army.  He was released just before hostilities began in Korea and started working at an atomic power lab outside of Schenectady called the Knoll's Atomic Power Laboratory.  He was a quality control technician. An engineer skilled in radiography, photography and non destructive testing. To say he was smart is an understatement.

I say an engineer but he never described himself that way.  All I ever heard him say was that he was  a non destructive tester working on atomic material.  How could he get such a job that eventually required him to have a security clearance?  I am assuming because my Uncle Wayne Meanor worked at the main General Electric Plant in downtown Schenectady.  I have no proof of that but it is the only thing that makes sense.  After all, how many Meanor's are there on the planet?

Soon after he started working there he frequented a restaurant.  It may have been a year or two or three but soon after he found himself eating at that restaurant  he met my mom.  My mother tells me she knew the second she saw my dad that he was the one.  Handsome, clean, sharp looking, Earl Meanor was a quiet man and mom was a waitress there. Her mom and dad owned the place so she helped out. Martin and Mary Cummings built the restaurant and house next door after Martin had won a lawsuit from a local company for a work place injury. Martin was mom's step father but mom said he treated her like his own daughter.

Mary liked dad but would not admit it out loud, partly because he was often a smart-alik.  Whenever dad walked into the restaurant Mary would go over to him and start telling him all about the stuff that was just making her day go bad.  In response  dad walked over  to the old juke box and put a quarter in to play a song that he really liked sung by Pat Boone that seemed to fit the occasion.  It was called Aint that a shame.........my tears felt like rain. When the song started, that was enough to make Mary walk away in disgust.  She knew that my dad was laughing the whole time and that made her even more furious.  Despite the teasing she always ran to my dad when she wanted to blow off steam!

I am not sure how the first conversation started between mom and dad but they did start talking to each other.  One thing my mom did share was that both dad and mom were smokers.  However, dad did not inhale.  For him it was just something to do.  He told me once that in the service a prankster tried to pull a fast one on him by offering him a cigarette spiked with some pungent gag juice.  Instead he just puffed on it and stunk up the room.  The prankster was not too happy about that.

Together as they were talking they both agreed to quit, put their cigarettes in an ash tray and never smoked one of those again.  Two or three years later they were married by a Justice of the Peace.  Mom was raised Catholic, dad had been baptized Baptist but was agnostic.  He did not want a church wedding so a judge was the next best thing.

A few years later my brother and I were born.  Once again the religion issue popped up briefly.  Mom wanted us baptized but dad said no to signing a paper as Catholic.  Since dear friends of theirs were Methodist we were baptized Methodist.  That was our religion.  Non practicing Protestants.

By this time my dad was getting very bored with the Knoll's.  If you were not in the inner circle and out drinking and schmoozing with the guys you were out. Dad was out. He was written up for being late for work even though mom was the culprit in that and for phone calls mom made to him while he was at work.  He got in trouble for traveling to Niagara Falls on his honeymoon.  The boss called him into the office and told him that since he was working on sensitive government material he needed permission to leave the country.  The Niagara Falls my mom and dad went to were the ones on the Canadian side.  That was silly enough but there were some other things put in his file and used against him.  Anytime he got into an argument with his supervisor he was written up.  Anything that he did that was good was either ignored or taken out of his file.  He even got into hot water for challenging the traditional scientific community. In his opinion Albert Einstein was