- Jibobo was his name! A
brother who died at birth to my mom who thus had eight children was
named by me, since I found no one else named him. "Jibobo"
sounded good to me; he was in order just before me; we were the two
centers of the eight. Then I went to Occidental College and
someone picked up on my cryptic reference to the family of grace
that echoed my high school valedictorian speech on "The Family."
As a freshman at Oxy, having come off a short one-month stay as a
student at UCLA, I had mixed feelings about the social forces flying all
about the campus life. I held tight to my sense of family past
and future by use of the rhetorical tool of "Zigabob Society" that
saw grace easily reaching to each person, to the sands of Mars, and to
the far reaches of the Universe and beyond, as I studied calculus,
astronomy, English, and history. Most of my energy was spent on
high-jump training for the coming 1960 Olympics, mixed with thoughts
about a monastic vocation. I joined the Trappist community briefly
just after attending Oxy for a semester and half and after jumping in
the Olympic Games. I am sure the Zigabob item was misunderstood
as intended; I kept my highest treasures while first exploring.
And Jibobo is still the name of the brother that I will meet
later. ~ Joe Faust
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