Jack’s Winning Words 9/12/13
“Time you enjoyed wasting was not wasted.”  (John Lennon)  I read recently about time-sweepers, fictional people who sweep up all the time that is thrown away.  Maybe you see a sweeper out of the corner of your eye.  One hangs around me.  They’re at the office, school, wherever there are people.  What they collect is taken to the dump, never to be seen again.  I enjoy wasting time looking up stuff…like, time-sweepers.    ;-)  Jack

   FROM MICHIZONA RAY:  I have been learning as I continue to age, that my priorities adjust with the process of aging. What may have been "a waste of time" some years ago, is precisely the "right time" for it now. I suppose there is a "season for everything, and for everything a season".====JACK:  Or, as the saying goes..."I wish I knew then, what I know now."

 FROM HONEST JOHN:  How does one define "waste?"====JACK:  What is one man's trash is another man's treasure.  My daughter's garbage hauler is called, "Waste Management."  If wasted time is managed well, it is, ultimately, not wasted.

 FROM FACEBOOK LIZ:  downtime is a necessity in a busy world.====JACK:  I've found that some "good" ideas have popped into my mind while I thought I was wasting time.  I guess that time is time, no matter what we may be doing.  Sometimes doing on-the-job repetitive stuff could be classified as wasted time.  Just because you're paid for that time doesn't necessarily mean that it wasn't wasted.

 FROM FACEBOOK LIZ:  I do my best thinking in the bathtub. They say the sleeping mind goes to work on your problems overnight. Hence, the "aha" moments come morning.====JACK:  I get some ideas for Winning Words when I wake up in the middle of the night.  A friend of mine has a mind that works like that.  He keeps a recorder at his bedside and speaks the idea into the machine before he loses the thought.

 FROM TARMART REV:  Never know if the names depicted in the stories are actually true . . . I've heard some of the same stories told but having different characters named as the one being given credit for . . . however, one is told about a former President of the United States years ago that was called upon by his son to take him fishing for a day . . . the President wrote in his diary about the day being wasted and the son called it the best day of his life!!=====JACK:  I've heard preachers tell stories in sermons, making them sound like they really happened to them.  A seminary student began such a story by saying, "When I was in Persia...."  He'd never been to Persia, but was simply using a story that he had found in a book of sermons.  O be careful little mouth, what you say..." as the song goes.

 FROM TAMPA SHIRL:  Reading and traveling are my ways of wasting time.  I consider them as having a good time.====JACK:  I saw a list of 1000 ways to waste time.  Reading a book or traveling wasn't on the list, but forwarding e-mail stories to others was.====SHIRL:  I love to get forwarded emails.

 FROM BLAZING OAKS:   I LOVE TO HAVE A DAY THAT I CAN JUST PIDDLE AWAY...IT'S THOROUGHLY ENJOYABLE...NO PRESSURE, NO HURRYING,   NO DEADLINE....TIME TO READ, DO CROSS WORDS,  ORGANIZE A DRAWER, ETC. EVEN DOZE OFF IN THE RECLINER!  JOHN LENNON WAS ON  TO SOMETHING WITH THIS OBSERVATION! ====JACK:  My mother-in-law was a very active person, directing several choirs, playing for weddings and funerals, giving piano lessons, etc.  She was always on the go.  There came a time when she had to go to a nursing home.  One day, while sitting there in a chair, she said to my wife, "I feel like I'm just wasting my time." 

 FROM RI IN BOSTON:  You certainly find some published gems, and usually add some gems of your own...like today's end comment.