Winning Words 3/4/11
“We must accept finite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope.” (MLK Jr) Some coal miners were trapped underground. After a period of days, a faint tapping was heard. It was a Morse Code message. “Is there any hope?” I can’t recall whether or not they were rescued. But life traps us in certain situations at times, and we cry out for assurance. Our hope: The Infinite overcomes the finite. ;-) Jack

FROM PRMD IN MICHIGAN: Wow! Thank you, Jack, for this one. “The Infinite overcomes the finite.” What great news! I will use this for my Ash Wednesday sermon with your permission. We are finite, but we have hope.
FROM JACK: It's hard to improve on what MLK had to say about hope overcoming disappointment. Hope is one of the keys that helps open many doors.

FROM GF IN FLORIDA: Good morning. FROM JACK: I remember, when I was in grade school, that the class would sing....
"Good morning to you; good morning to you.
We're all in our places with bright shining faces.
What a wonderful way to start a new day."
A "Good morning" from you.....What a wonderful way to start a new day.

FROM RI IN BOSTON: Hope and love are both infinitely available to us, if we choose to have them. They are positive and optimistic characteristics in a person, but there's no assurance that expressing them will bring the results we desire. To continue hoping and loving, and expecting the best from them is, I suppose, a matter of faith. FROM JACK: Referring back to yesterday's WWs....Hope and love, on our part, are simply matters of choice. Often, life (not the circumstances of it) is what we want it to be.

FROM SH IN MICHIGAN: You know this WW is so true. Sometimes our little family, or our little congregation or our little city, state, country is going through such a turmoil that we just pull ourselves inward, like pulling ourselves into a hole for protection but someone, someone in the hole starts tapping to get the attention/help from someone on the outside and God is always out there ready to help us get over our finite disappointments and get out of the life that was trapping us and our response to turn so much inward upon ourselves. Trying to deal with a finite disappointment right now and appreciate these WW. FROM JACK: "Finite" means that something has an end. "Hope" means that disappointment doesn't have to be infinite. As a previous WWs put it: "Keep on truckin'."

FROM PEPPERMINT MARY: hope springs eternal! FROM JACK: From an Essay on Man written in 1733 by Alexander Pope
Hope springs eternal in the human breast;
Man never Is, but always To be blest:
The soul, uneasy and confin'd from home,
Rests and expatiates in a life to come.
Of course, since 1733, we've come to understand that "man" refers to mankind. Incidently, on this day in history....On March 4, 1933, the start of President Roosevelt's first administration brought with it the first woman to serve in the Cabinet: Labor Secretary Frances Perkins....AKA, Feisty Frances.

FROM BLAZING OAKS: As Christopher Reeve observed, "Once you choose to hope, anything is possible". He certainly paved the way for great progress in treating paraplegics! Eleanor Roosevelt said, "Hope is the most important word in the English language". and I like Norman V. Peale's quote:"Once you live with HOPE in your heart, in your mind, and in your spirit, you have discovered one of life's most powerful secrets of success!" As it tells us in Job 11:18..."you shall be secure in Hope." We have to have it, to be, and remain, positive people! Good quote! FROM JACK: An acrostic by Meital R, using the word, H.O.P.E.
Happiness rediscovered
Omens of happiness found in just a smile
Positive feelings of what is to come
Events will turn out for the best

FROM JF (A HAM) IN NOVA SCOTIA: Also proves the "if all else fails" capabilities of Morse Code. Some years ago, an accomplished South American ham was dying and in an apparent coma. A ham friend visited him and tried tapping Morse on his hand. He was able to respond in similar fashion and they were able to have some dialogue before he passed away. FROM JACK: I wonder if young Tom Edison's mind was stimulated because of his knowledge of the Morse Code. Thanks for that story of friend being able to communicate with a friend in a coma, by using "the" code.

FROM CWR IN B'MORE: ....good one !! Thanks.... FROM JACK: "Good one" is in the mind of the beholder.

FROM ILLINOIS LIZ: The Chilean coal miners didn't lose hope. And it paid off! FROM JACK: That's a good example. And, there are people living around us who are examples of hope, too. We celebrate them and the ways in which their challenging circumstances, too.

FROM OUTHOUSE JUDY: Profound words...good words...eternally hopeful words!
FROM JACK: I'm reminded of a song by Pete Seeger...
Words, words, words in my old Bible.
How much truth remains?
If I only understood them while my lips pronouncred them
Would not my life be changed?

SENT BY DB IN MICHIGAN: "Life without God is like an unsharpened pencil - it has no point."