Winning Words 12/30/09
“The drama of life begins with a wail and ends with a sigh.” (Minna Thomas Antrim) Here’s another good quote from Minna. I like Ecclesiastes 3, where the writer says, “For everything there’s a time---to be born and to die.” Cartoon figures often appear at this time of the year showing that truth---the old bearded man with a scythe, and the happy baby with a banner announcing a new year. It’s time for an end & a beginning! ;-) Jack

FROM PC IN MICHIGAN: I have chosen not to wish my friends that the New Year bring them blessings, but rather, to encourage them to take note of the many, many blessings each of us has bestowed upon us already. You are one of such blessings for me. FROM JACK: Thank you.

FROM PRJS IN MICHIGAN: Reminds one of the seven stages of life....
FROM JACK: Are you referring to the Talmud?--Seven times in one verse did the author of Ecclesiastes make use of the word vanity, in allusion to the seven stages of human life.
The first commences in the first year of human existence, when the infant lies like a king on a soft couch, with numerous attendants about him, all ready to serve him, and eager to testify their love and attachment by kisses and embraces.
The second commences about the age of two or three years, when the darling child is permitted to crawl on the ground, and, like an unclean animal, delights in dirt and filth.
Then at the age of ten, the thoughtless boy, without reflecting on the past or caring for the future, jumps and skips about like a young kid on the enameled green, contented to enjoy the present moment.
The fourth stage begins about the age of twenty, when the young man, full of vanity and pride, begins to set off his person by dress; and, like a young unbroken horse, prances and gallops about in search of a wife.
Then comes the matrimonial state, when the poor man, like a patient ass, is obliged, however reluctantly, to toil and labor for a living.
Behold him now in the parental state, when surrounded by helpless children craving his support and looking to him for bread. He is as bold, as vigilant, and as fawning, too, as the faithful dog; guarding his little flock, and snatching at everything that comes in his way, in order to provide for his offspring.
At last comes the final stage, when the decrepit old man, like the unwieldy though most sagacious elephant, becomes grave, sedate, and distrustful. He then begins to hang down his head towards the ground, as if surveying the place where all his vast schemes must terminate, and where ambition and vanity are finally humbled to the dust. MORE FROM JS: Actually, I was thinking of my good friend Wm. Shakespeare!!!
FROM JACK:
All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.
Then the whining school-boy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans every thing.

FROM L IN ILLINOIS: Not just a new year, but a new decade. Here's to 2010!