Winning Words 7/6/12
“If people sat outside and looked at the stars each night, I’ll bet they’d live a lot differently.”  (Bill Watterson)  In the urban area where I live it’s hard to see the horizon, because of trees and buildings.  I miss the times and places when I could see the full sky at night, with the big and little dippers, shooting stars and the moon.  It was a time for appreciating the wonder of it all.  “Stuff” mattered less.    ;-)  Jack 


FROM MM IN FLORIDA:  Jack, hi...got me on two things this morning...download google sky map on your phone and face up towards sky at night for a detailed map.   And I always told my friends to travel because even if you sit on a bench all day in a far away city you'll learn more than just sitting at home. ////FROM JACK:  Thanks for the Google suggestion.  Whether you sit on the bench at home or in some far-away place, it makes no difference, unless you are looking to "see" something.  If we really looked at the world around us, we might live differently, too.

FROM NORMAN IN FLORIDA&INDIANA: I AGREE:  OR LOOK AT THIS ...http://www.youtube.com/embed/mcbHKAWIk3I  ////FROM JACK:  You're right.  There are wonders as we look up; there are also wonders below.  Your youtube link is outstanding.

FROM RJP IN FLORIDA:  One of the true pleasures of living in Florida is relaxing in the pool at night under a full moon or a clear starlit night. During the day we have some wonderful cloud formations as we are on the outskirts of the Everglades. It all gives us a real appreciation of the beauty of the Creators work. ////FROM JACK:  As you may know, Michigan's slogan is..."Si quaeris peninsulam amoenam, circumspice.  (If you seek a pleasant peninsula, look about you.)  Since Florida is also a peninsula, you could adopt the same slogan.  In all of this magnificent world...Look about you!

FROM GOOD DEBT JON:  And far enough out you hear no whine of a truck or freeway a ½ mile away…////FROM JACK:  Maybe some cheese with your whine would help.  If there's no sound in space, was there really a BIG BANG?

FROM OUTHOUSE JUDY:  What a wonderful thought.  We spend a lot of time watching the night skies.  It's something we have always liked to do.  In August, we watch the meteor showers.   We don't have the trees and buildings around us but we do have a lot of light "pollution".  Bill Watterson had a great idea though....we would all be better off if we looked up more!////FROM JACK:  That's a good theological thought....Look up more!////MORE FROM THE OUTHOUSE:  Here is a site we check out for Star Gazing.  They also tell you when to watch for the Northern Lights... spaceweather.com.  There's a place called The Headlands International Dark Sky Park...a 600 acre park west of Mackinaw City.  It's open 24 hours a day and they encourage you to go after dark to stargae.  It's on 2 1/2 miles of Lake Michigan and it's pitch black all the way to Wisconsin.  The Headland's also has a weekly  email update on stars which can be seen in the skies.  It's emmetcounty.org/darkskypark/

FROM TRIHARDER:  I LOVE the sky.  Full moons, sun rises, sunsets, rainbows, constellations, starlit sky  ////FROM JACK:  Do lightning bugs count?////.TRIHARDER RESPONSE: I remember seeing my first lightning bug.  I thought they were fictional!  I was about 10.  I was amazed.  And, yes, they are part of the evening environment.
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FROM PH IN MINNESOTA:  i recall in 1959 (?) when Russia first put up Sputnik, we laid out at night on the lawn looking for that basketball sized satellite all the while missing the incredible marvels of the heavens created by the Creator.  we humans are a funny lot sometimes...////FROM JACK:  Sometimes the things that are around us all the time, we tend to take for granted....like certain people.

FROM GUSTIE MARLYS:  I remember a time when the Men's Club at BLCA brought the boys BB team out for a dinner at church.  The boys got out of the van and looked up in the sky at all the stars!  They had never seen them before!////FROM JACK:  When I was growing up, there's was a man in our church who was an astronomer.  He lived on a farm and had a big telescope housed in a dome and located on a high hill.  He would invite church groups to come3 out and gaze at the stars.  I was amazed to get a close-up look at the moon.

FROM KG IN COLORADO:  We saw the Southern hemisphere constellation -  the Southern Cross - in Ecuador last week!////FROM JACK:  I never knew that the Southern Cross was represented on the Australian flag.  I never knew that the constellation tells a story.  A large fish lived in the waters of the river known as the Milky Way.  This fish carefully avoided the traps set by the sky people and swam by countless bright water lilies which the people on earth saw as stars. He finally came to rest under a large rock.  Two brothers, looking for food, saw the fish and killed him with a spear.  They made two campfires, cooked and ate the fish.  The campfires represent two stars of the Southern Cross.  The other two brightest stars are the brothers.  The fish is in the dark area of the constellation known as the coal sack.  Did you know that? 

FROM JM IN DC:  One of the first things I noticed moving from Colorado Springs to DC was that the sky never gets dark.  It looks like pre-dawn all night so my telescope has not been used at all here.  Some day we will get back to CS, but not any time soon!////FROM JACK:  Don't go back to the Springs until they get those fires out.  Telescopes don't work well in smoke, either.

FROM PRFM IN WISCONSIN:  Star light, star bright, first star I see tonight.  Wish I may, Wish I might, have the wish I wish tonight.    We would pray more and wish more if we saw the stars more!////FROM JACK:  I like the song, When You Wish Upon A Star."

 FROM BLAZING OAKS:  That is a plus, living on the lake...the stars are vivid, and plentiful, and the moon is gorgeous. A pleasant place to be. "Those lucky enough to live by the water, are lucky enough!" as one of my wall hangings proclaim. And I have a pillow that reads, "Heaven seems a little closer in a house beside the water." both true.  My daughter who lives in Hyde Park, Chicago, loves to come here and watch the sun set, and used to bring her telescope to study the stars at night. There sky is smog-overcast and they seldom see many stars.////FROM JACK:  As fire department chaplain, I was called out last night, because of a lake drowning.  Your comment about "Heaven seems a little closer" by the lake can have more than one meaning.