Jack’s Winning Words 3/17/08
“Each player must accept the cards that life deals.” (Voltaire) I think of this in the light of basketball’s March Madness when teams long for the best “seeds” in the various brackets. I say to them, “Just play the game!” How about the life that is ours? Should we agonize over the lot that is our’s, or just play the game without complaint? Are you on Voltaire’s team? ;-) Jack

FROM L.K. IN OHIO: I keep playing; I keep complaining: I keep giving thanks!

FROM MOLINER, G.S.: I believe God is in control of my life, but I sure don't like it at times. Like now, I've been dealing with a right foot bunion - 2 operations - since surgery last Oct & I've still got 2 pins in my big toe. How's this for complaining. I know, I'm thankful that I have both feet, but still................

FROM GOOD DEBT JON IN OHIO: François-Marie Arouet (aka Voltaire) I think would mock and satirize “March Madness” and all of sports. If you borrow from Voltaire and Marx (born 40 years after Voltaire’s death), you could come up with, “Sports is the opiate of the masses, the sigh of an oppressed people.”
Voltaire perceived the French bourgeoisie (our upper middle management-the-fat-dumb and happy) to be too small and ineffective, the aristocracy (Kennedy’s/Bush’s/Clinton’s etc) to be parasitic and corrupt, the commoners (today those intellectually neutered by government schools and handouts) as ignorant and superstitious. To control the masses the aristocratic need only have a tiny part of the electorate beholden to them and keep the majority divided and fighting. They buy their control with money coercively taken from the majority divided (as well as their victims). The agony is not in the cards, but in learning you are not playing the game you thought you were.

FROM PR J.S. IN MICHIGAN: No! That would be Stoicism and Christianity is definitely not Stoic. We believe that the world can be changed and that we ought to be out there doing some of that changing. What is the sense of repenting if no change can be affected? We repent so that we might be forgiven (which changes the cards completely) and then change. So Voltaire can keep his Deistic Stoicism. JACK'S RESPONSE: I guess that means you don't want to play on Voltaire's team!

FROM M.L. IN ILLINOIS: a good quote for holy week. jesus turned out to play the cards dealt with courage and unending belief.

FROM P.O. IN MICHIGAN: Absolutely!

FROM MOLINER, C.F.: It doesn't hurt to argue with the "referee" once in a while. You CAN improve on the call.

FROM J.L. IN MICHIGAN: My favorite part of playing a game of cards, is wondering what is coming next....is it an ace or a 2! Isn't life like that? Wondering what is coming next? I'm pretty sure that was what the disciples were thinking 2000+ years ago....after Good Friday, what was coming next? It's in the cards!

FROM R.I. IN BOSTON: Life does indeed deal us some of the cards, but some we ourselves take from the deck. Choose carefully.

FROM B.S. NEAR ORLANDO: : I remember in 1944 when all the kids on the "A" team had joined the military, and the B team had no one to practice with, so those of us who had to go home and milk cows as soon as school was over, played these kids, and we beat them hands down, repeatedly. I probably didn't weigh more than 100#s dripping wet then. But we had a great determination to succeed, and we did. I wish I had that same motivation today, right now.