Jack’s Winning Words 1/31/14
“Sometimes change was good.  Sometimes it was exactly what you needed.”  (Jenny O’Connell)  It used to be that you changed oil in your car every 3000 miles.  Now, the car’s computer tells you when.  How do you know it’s time for a life change?  Every 3 to 5 years is a good time to assess your life’s direction.  Senator Everett Dirksen was once criticized for changing his mind on an issue.  He responded, “The only people who don’t change their minds are those in asylums, and those who are in cemeteries.”    ;-)  Jack

 FROM HONEST JOHN:  I embrace change.   I sometimes need to think twice so I don't jst change for the sake of changing.   We need some ruts, too.====JACK:  You're right!  The qualifier is..."sometimes!"  My son used to drive down busy Telegraph Rd on his way to work.  While other drivers were continually changing lanes, he noticed that if he stayed the course, he and the "changers" would often be side by side at each stop light.

 FROM DOCTOR PAUL:  Everett Dirksen!!!!  Now there is an interesting person that probably anyone under 40 has no idea who he was. I can still here that gravel voice of his. He was so colorful! We need more Senators like him!====JACK:  Michigan had some statesmen at senators, too....Vandenberg, Hart  and soon-to-be-retired, Carl Levin.====PAUL:  Right... And Williams and a republican who could never be endured by his party if he were involved today...Milliken.====JACK:  ....and let's not forget about HHH,     Hubert Horatio Humphrey.====PAUL:  One of the best and could have changed dramatically from where we are today. That would make an interesting book or movie!!====JACK:  I once met him personally...a down-to-earth individual.

 FROM TS IN INDIANA:  Speaking of cars - Somehow a couple of us here got on the subject of automatic transmissions in cars.  Today it is either automatic or manual.   Do you remember the names of the automatic transmissions when they first came out:   hydro-matic, powerglide, Fordomatic, Mercomatic, Power-glide.   Do you remember anymore?====JACK:  I remember cars that had push-button shifting, instead of gear shift sticks or levers....Chryslers and Cords...there may have been more.

 FROM PLAIN FOLKS CHESTER:  To change your mind is to admit you were wrong, and that's why so many folks resist it.====JACK:  I would put it more positively and say, "I've discovered a better way!" ====PFC:  That's because you are not afraid of being wrong.====JACK:  As it says in the Bible: "All have sinned (including me) and fallen short of the glory of God."

 FROM RI IN BOSTON:  Change is inevitable.  While it may not please us, such change may be very good for someone else, so it has positive consequences regardless of our indifference.  Seems to me we should just embrace change and see where it takes us.  It may benefit us in ways that we never imagined.  My father when he was a boy had a "bad tomato experience" and he refused to eat tomatoes again.  When my mother prepared spaghetti with tomato sauce, my father refused to eat it.  After I married and my parents came to visit us, my wife announced she was making spaghetti for dinner, which brought a complaint from my dad.  Nevertheless, when dinner was served the main course was spaghetti, but enhanced with butter, sausage and egg...no tomato sauce.  One taste and my father was hooked.  From that time on he never failed to ask for spaghetti again.====JACK:  Did he feel the same way about ketchup?  I had a sister-in-law who did not like real maple syrup.  She would only eat Log Cabin syrup.  Unbeknownst to her....her father would fill the empty Log Cabin container with maple syrup, and she didn't know the difference.

 FROM TARMART REV:  Consistency is a good practice and one that a person can count on . . . but sometimes change is a necessity because of a better opportunity or because of a circumstance that was not your chosen directive . . . like coming back to you later than usual this morning . . . an early morning notification from the dispatcher at 12:30 am called for some assistance at a home fire where 5 folk made their way out of their burning house . . . two hours later the fire was completely out, the family of five were placed temporarily in two motel rooms by our Salvation Army, and I had an opportunity to minister and direct as a chaplain with the firefighters, ambulance crew and law enforcement on the scene. At my age now, I happily slept in this morning letting the morning fend for itself without me . . . and it did quite nicely I must add.====JACK:  I wonder what would happen if, one day, I slept in and didn't send out Winning Words?  I would imagine that the world would keep spinning.

 FROM TAMPA SHIRL:  Life is all about changes and making decisions.====JACK:  Every moment seems ro present a fork in the road.

 FROM BLAZING OAKS:  CHANGES SEEM TO COME FASTER AND FASTER IN THIS HISTORIC TIME TRY GOING BACK TO YOUR OLD HOME TOWN, OR NEIGHBORHOOD, AND IT IS NEARLY UNRECOGNIZABLE!   IF WE CAN'T ADAPT TO CHANGE, WE ARE SUNK, EXCEPT FOR OUR UNCHANGING GOD;, THE SAME YESTERDAY, TODAY AND FOREVER!!====JACK:  Have you noticed????  When the sand in the top of the hourglass gets close to the end, it seems to run out faster and faster.  God's hourglass has an unlimited supply.

 FROM DOCTOR JUDY:  Really liked this a lot!! Thanks====JACK:  As Facebook puts it...LMTA.