Jack’s Winning Words 9/18/13
“Once you start keeping score, winning’s the bottom line.”  (Al McGuire)  Recently a friend of mine told me how his team lost the championship by 1 point.  Afterward he was crying in the locker room.  His father came up, and without a word, gave him a kiss on the cheek.  “It was the only time I can remember that my dad kissed me.”  Perhaps the game was lost, but maybe winning or losing a game wasn’t that important.    ;-)  Jack

 FROM SHARIN' SHARON:  You're right on these WW today too. We've been chalking up the harvest number of pounds of vegetables, fruits and herbs from our community one-acre farm that we donate to Forgotten Harvest. We get excited as the number goes up and thinking we may even beat last year's total. But I feel sad thinking about the people we're trying to help to have food and how they have to be calculating all the time their limited resources and no number probably feels good to them, maybe no change in the pocket or purse, constantly getting evaluated by all kinds of assistance workers and always "coming up short" in one way or another and how it must feel to be always compared, not qualified for this job, for that apartment, for this medical assistance program, for that class at the school, I'm sure it ain't easy being poor and asking for assistance and probably if we can just grow a tomato and give to that person without any number or evaluation on it no-how, it might be sort of a liberating tomato to eat--freedom from comparison and winning and losing.  Thanks for your WW and stimulating our thinking about life.====JACK:  We may be sympathetic toward people who have to depend on food banks.  For most of us, it's harder to be empathetic, nor having walked in their moccasins  It reminds me of the old Scottish table blessing..."Some have meat and cannot eat. Some no meat but want it. We have meat and we can eat and so the Lord be thanked."

 FROM TARMART REV:  . . . "it's how you play the game that always counts the most" . . . someone once told me.====JACK:  I didn't know that you were acquainted with Grantland Rice.  Over 60 years ago, he wrote:  “For when the One Great Scorer comes  To mark against your name,  He writes - not that you won or lost -  But HOW you played the Game."====REV:  ...my sub-consciousness brings those things to light every once in a while…It seems as though I rarely remember who said them or where I remember hearing them spoken?!?! 0;-/

 FROM TRIHARDER:  “It was the only time I can remember that my dad kissed me.”  Really? ====JACK:  Yes!  My friend told me that he can still remember the scratch of his father's whiskers...after all these years.====TRIHARDER:  I still kiss my children every time I say hello and every time I say good bye.
Your message is as much about a child remembering his only kiss from his father as it is about winning and losing.====JACK:  You captured the essence.    Parenting can be done in different ways.

 FROM PL IN MICHIGAN:  How sad... It took his son's hurt to give him a kiss!  We need more father's kissing their sons much more compared to teaching their sons on how to use a gun.====JACK:  Sad?  I don't know about that.  Maybe it was the way it was in those days.  I can't remember receiving a kiss from my dad.  He didn't teach me to use a gun, either.  But, he did play catch with me and teach me to play baseball.====PL:  That's good that you have those memories.  I think there is too much "macho" expectations to being a father..not just in the past but today, too.====JACK:  Maybe that helps explain the bellicose behavior of male-led nations in much of the world. ====PL:  Exactly!!!  Recently we saw the one act-one woman play of Golda Mier..absolutely riveting!  Isn't it interesting how we view women like her and Margaret Thatcher?====JACK:   Would Hillary be that kind of person?

 FROM HAWKEYE GEORGE:  That's very nice.====JACK:  I think that more than a few readers will be able to relate to this real "human interest" story.

 FROM HONEST JOHN:  Losing is only acceptable after the fact.   To go into a contest willing to lose makes no sense.   Why bother?====JACK:  I think of people who have a  interest in helping those who participate in Special Olympics.  When they run with the runners, they "win" by "losing," but not making it look too obvious.====JOHN:  I remember playing at Wimbledon...a great "memory".    I think I beat Laver there....How about you?====JACK:  Kids today get all kinds of trophies.  I got ONE, and I still treasure it....2nd Place in a YMCA ping pong tournament.

 FROM MICHIZONA RAY:  I remember one particular game that our little guys took quite a beating (very rare indeed). Afterwards, a mother came up to me and mentioned "how cute" the boys were. I remember looking at the scoreboard to see if there was a place where "cute" was acknowledged and given "points". I suppose winning or losing is really just an issue of what the game assigns points to/for. That day ---we were simply playing in the wrong game!  I remember another team I coached that never lost a game the entire year. They usually won with relative ease. I remember how I almost wished a team would beat them so that they could experience the benefits that only losing provides.One experiences a a skewed perspective of him/herself by winning or losing exclusively. ====JACK:  Men are from Mars, women are from Venus.  I think that you, basically, are a very competitive person.  It's cute, that you are who you are.

 FROM PLAIN FOLKS CHESTER:  Doesn't sound like Vince Lombardi to me.====JACK: Yogi wrote a book..."I Really Didn't Say Everything I Said."  Vince could have written a similar book.  Coaches before him ised the "Winning is everything," statement.  He improved upon it by saying,   "Winning isn't everything. The will to win is the only thing."  I agree with that.====PFC:  It's hard to know who said what these days. They're not around to ask. But we know Who's on first.====JACK:  Lou died in 1959 and Bud in 1974.  They are long gone, but "Who's on First?" lives on.  Baseball's Hall of Fame has a gold record of the routine in its collection of important items related to baseball.

FROM TAMPA SHIRL:  You win some, you lose some. but it's how you play the game that counts.  Unfortunately, the Rays seem to be on a losing streak-as well as the Bucs.  It is much more fun to win,  of course.====JACK:  As the Cubs' fans say, "Wait until next year." 

 FROM BLAZING OAKS:  LOVED THIS...I THINK MODERN-DAY FAMILIES DO MUCH MORE PARENTAL KISSING...I KNOW NY SONS AND GRANDSONS KISS THEIR CHILDREN A LOT, EVEN WHEN THEY ARE ADULTS!  SUPPOSE IT DEPENDS A BIT ON YOUR EMOTIONAL MAKE-UP THOUGH. SOME PEOPLE ARE NOT DEMONSTRATIVE AND NOT COMFORTABLE SHOWING EMOTION.====JACK:   There are several things that modern families do that are a change from the past.  More reliance upon fast food for meals is one.  I miss meatballs, mashed potatoes and gravy  and baked corn, with chocolate pudding for dessert, topped with a dab of real whipped cream.