Winning Words 5/28/13
“Sometimes you’ve got to jump off cliffs and grow wings on the way down.”  (Ray Bradbury)  One thing that is not on my “bucket list” is to jump off of a cliff using one of those wing suits that the birdmen wear.  I don’t even want to go skydiving.  But I do like to watch Rocky and Bullwinkle.  Ray Bradbury is writing about those life experiences that feel like jumping off of a cliff.  I’ve had a few of them.  Have you?    ;-)  Jack

 FROM HONEST JOHN:  Marriage is certainly one of those experiences...no one is prepared for it.  You had better grow some wings or you are sure to crash.====JACK:  I wonder if that's why fewer people are choosing marriage?  No need to jump off of the cliff.  No need to worry about having wings.  The rationale:  "Marriage is just a piece of paper."====JOHN:  I think you are right...and they are the losers for it  My guess is just what you were pointing at....the commitment of marriage is a big one....public and full of problems if it breaks down...it is so much easier to just live together and pretend at marriage and then walk away when it doesn't work....I think a lot of people will be left lonely and unfulfilled because of it....but that is just what I think....time will tell

 FROM WALMART REV:  ...my mind just goes "splat" when I think about it!====JACK:  "Under his wings I am safely abiding..."  In our "distress" His wings become our wings.

  FROM FACEBOOK LIZ:  i like rocky & bullwinkle, too.====JACK:  Also Boris, Natasha, Dudley, Peabody, Sherman and Fractured Fairy Tales.

 FROM LP IN PLYMOUTH:  I fly to Seattle today. Tomorrow I give my first ever invited lecture. I'll be the visiting professor! Here's hoping my wings work because I feel like this is a really big leap. Ack!
Thanks for the WW today. Timely as usual. :)====JACK:  There always has to be a first time.  I remember my first sermon preached in Odgen, Iowa.  I still have a copy of it.

 FROM ME IN NEWPORT BEACH:  A few years back I saw a Norman Rockwell exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery in DC.  The exhibit included the original, many very large size oil paintings of Norman Rockwell that are owned by Steven Spielberg George Lukas.  Both men, who became story tellers themselves, were strongly influenced by the Rockwell story telling magazine paintings that adorned the covers of Life Magazine each week for many years.  The exhibit included a video created and narrated by Spielberg and Lukas where they articulated the influence of Rockwell on their careers.  One painting, which I am sure you have seen at some point, is of a little boy crouching down on a high dive looking over the edge down at the pool.  This original oil painting hangs over the office desk of Spielberg and in his words represents "...how he feels every time a new movie of his is released..."  Your winning words today bring that exhibit and story to mind.====JACK:  I was able to Google that painting.  Rockwell was a genius in putting feeling into his work.

 FROM BLAZING OAKS:  I TAUGHT R.BRADBURY'S BOOK THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES, WHICH WAS ALWAYS A HIT WITH MY 8TH GRADERS. QUITE AN IMAGINATION, AND FERTILE MIND!!  I WOULD SAY OUR DECISION TO CHANGE PROFESSIONS, AND ENTER THE MINISTRY WITH TWO SMALL BOYS IN TOW, WAS A JUMP OFF THE CLIFF FOR US. COMPLETELY CHANGED THE FOCUS OF OUR LIVES AND MANY PRIORITIES.  WHAT  BLESSINGS IT BROUGHT US, WHICH OF COURSE AT THE TIME YOU HAD NO IDEA HOW IT WOULD ALL PLAY OUT !!====JACK:  We used to have a slogan hanging from out kitchen light...LET GO AND LET GOD.  Letting go is so hard to do in so many situations.

 FROM PLAIN FOLKS CHESTER:  Reminds me of when Sundance and Butch were trapped on the cliff and Sundance wouldn't jump because he couldn't swim, And Butch said. "Hell, the fall will probably kill you anyway!" Sometimes you need to leap, but it doesn't hurt to look first.====JACK:  I thought that I was daring....until I experienced vertigo.  How do those iron workers do it?

FROM OUTHOUSE JUDY:  Lots of them but I managed to survive.  I loved Fractured Fairytales! ====JACK:  Sometimes circumstances push us off the cliff...sort of like the mother robin pushing the babies out of the nest on our front porch.  Our daughter has put leafy tree branches below in case their wings don't work.  God is like that.