Winning Words 4/11/12
“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.” (Dr. Seuss) In my reading last week I came across a chapter that asked, “How do you respond to the threat of climate change?” Nothing you do will stop it entirely. So… do you do nothing? Or do you do something to make things better for future generations? Is it a moral responsibility to practice conservation? ;-) Jack

FROM SHARIN' SHARON: I think it is a moral responsibility to at least care about the earth and all the other people living on the earth. What I struggle with is is it then also a moral responsibility to live sacrificially? And how does a person go about living sacrificially sufficient to being obedient to God's Will as He is taking care of ALL the people on the earth. It's extremely difficult to make lifestyle changes in communities where there is so much material abundance/blessings? and to analyze the situation when there is so much avoidance.////FROM JACK: Life is made up of daily choices. I read recently of a man who sits in stoic silence day and night believing that in this way he best serves his God. Using the mind that God has given us, we each have to choose what it is that seems right. In Sunday School we used to sing this little song:
Jesus bids us shine
With a pure, clear light,
Like a little candle
Burning in the night.
In this world of darkness
So let us shine—
You in your small corner,
And I in mine.

FROM ILLINOIS LIZ: A friend who owns local coffee shops, and smokes, made a good point. She is an avid recycler @ home, and wonders why businesses that create huge amounts of waste (like hers) r not required to recycle. Also, she laments the high mercury content in our local air... smoking is minor by comparison. I worry about the new mercury lightbulbs which gov't has somehow "legislated."////FROM JACK: It's often hard to "practice what we preach." Inconsistencies have a way of creeping into our life. I remember when we used to play with mercury in our chemistry labs. We'd coat coins with the substance to make them slippery.

FROM TAMPA SHIRL: We didn't call is conservation, but our generations was taught not to waste and not to litter. Les and I were on the Mall in Washington, D.C. the day after one of the first Earth Days and the entire place as trashed with litter everywhere. We have days down here in Florida where volunteers clean up the Gulf and beaches because people haven't been taught to care about others.////FROM JACK: During WW 2 we were "forced" to recycle. To motivate people to do things voluntarily doesn't produce the same results. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't try.

FROM BLAZING OAKS: Good old Dr. Seuss; He got his points across with humor and rhyme: Bill sometimes used his stories in sermons, especially THE SNEETCHES. I did a seminar program on The Gospel according to Dr. Seuss, using videos of his stories, and Gospel parables, with discussion groups. I dressed as "The Cat In The Hat" Ha! Fun to do. My children are avid recyclers, and most of the g.children are too, much more conscientious than I, but I am a bear about littering on the highway or our parks and streets. I once turned in the license plate of a van in front of me, which let a bunch of fast food debris fly out their windows onto the shoulder of the road. I wonder if anyone followed up on that ?! I guess with our ingeniousness in dealing with world problems, there will be a solution for all the tons of debris that modern civilization produces. We can do our miniscule part...////FROM JACK: The importance of one! Dr. Frank Laubach used the phrase, "Each one teach one," to combat illiteracy when he was doing missionary work in the Philippines.

FROM PLAIN FOLKS CHESTER: Fix it up, wear it out, make it do, do without" A Sampler one of my friend's wife made. Good advice.////FROM JACK: We used to repair many more things in the olden days. I recall having the shoemaker nail a round leather patch over a hole in the sole of my shoe.

FROM CL IN MICHIGAN: Yes I think it is a moral responsibility but it appears that others do not agree. ////FROM JACK: The sense of morality is not the same in everyone's mind.

FROM DR J IN OHIO: one of my favorite Seuss quotes for sure!////FROM JACK: How about this one? “Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.”

FROM CZB IN COLORADO: Love this quote! Posted it to my fb page on his birthday. He was very wise. ////FROM JACK: Theodor's mother, Henrietta Seuss Geisel, often soothed her children to sleep by "chanting" rhymes remembered from her youth. Ted credited his mother with both his ability and desire to create the rhymes for which he became so well known.