Jack’s Winning Words 2/28/14
“We know what we are, but know not what we may be.” (Shakespeare) Did you have a dream of what you wanted to be when you grew up? I wanted to be a fireman and never thought of becoming a pastor. Life has interesting twists and turns, doesn’t it? I believe in “free will,” but I also believe that God gives a nudge now and then. Today, we are where we are! About tomorrow,…Doris Day sang, “Que sera, sera.” ;-) Jack
FROM MICHIZONA RAY: Life (our time on earth) seems to be a huge crucible that holds everyone, molding and refining each one of us into the gold we are. Maybe this is why our latter days are called the golden years.===JACK: Let's hope it's not "old" fool's gold.
FROM HONEST JOHN: I wanted to run my Dad's Feed Store and/or be a farmer....so gardening has become an avocation.====JACK: Actually, instead of becoming a seller of the seed, you followed the parable and became a sower of the seed.====JOHN: And, a Caregiver to the growing plants...still do that in the garden.====JACK: You're right. It's one thing to sow the seed, but to be a true farmer (pastor) the plants that come up need to be cared for.
FROM TARMART REV: The best is yet to come for both of us, Jack! Maybe tomorrow, if God wills!! ====JACK: That's the optimistic way to look at the future.
FROM IKE AT THE MIC: You're a GREAT pastor! With your personality & wisdom I'm sure you've subdued many "fire storm" marriage relationships.====JACK: Whatever good comes from my ministry is because of the power and grace of God. I'm reminded of this song....
My God and I will go for aye together,
We’ll walk and talk as good friends should and do;
This earth will pass, and with it common trifles,
But God and I will go unendingly;
This earth will pass, and with it common trifles,
But God and I will go unendingly.
FROM HUNGRY HOWIE: So thus the chaplain role, see how things somehow work out====JACK: One of the sentences I often use when talking with people (after praying with them) is, "It'll work out," and it usually does.
FROM PLAIN FOLKS CHESTER: You became a fireman after all. You save people.====JACK: God does the saving; I simply try to raise the ladder.====PFC: That still makes you a fireman.
FROM OUTHOUSE JUDY: I wanted to be a forest ranger but there were no woman allowed at the time. So I became a legal secretary. How times have changed!====JACK: Yes, times have changed. Now, you could even be a pastor, head of General Motors, or maybe President of the United States.
FROM DS IN SAN DIEGO: Jack, I'm still wondering what God has in mind for me. I'm still "here" for some reason....I really believe that. You and my brother Roland (now Paul Roland) I believe are about the same age....you probably knew him. . FROM DS IN SAN DIEGO: Jack, I'm still wondering what God has in mind for me. I'm still "here" for some reason....I really believe that. You and my brother Roland (now Paul Roland) I believe are about the same age....you probably knew him. FROM DS IN SAN DIEGO: Jack, I'm still wondering what God has in mind for me. I'm still "here" for some reason....I really believe
that. You and my brother Roland (now Paul Roland) I believe are about the same age....you probably knew him. He has been in an alzheimer's care facility for the last year or so. I still talk to him and I try to bring up things he might recall from the "old days". He actually looks good, but boy, what the mind can do for you. I hope the good Lord doesn't have that in store for me. He has been in an alzheimer's care facility for the last year or so. I still talk to him and I try to bring up things he might recall from the "old days". He actually looks good, but boy, what the mind can do for you. I hope the good Lord doesn't have that in store for me.
He has been in an alzheimer's care facility for the last year or so. I still talk to him and I try to bring up things
he might recall from the "old days". He actually looks good, but boy, what the mind can do for you. I hope the good Lord doesn't have that in store for me.====JACK: I'm sorry to hear about your brother. I'll be offering a prayer for him today. We don't what's in store from one day to the next. All we can do is put our trust in God's grace. One of the hymns we used to sing at Trinity-Moline has brought me comfort. Perhaps it will relate to you. OUR TIMES ARE IN THY HAND - William F. Lloyd (adapted)-
Our times are in Thy hand; Father, we wish them there;
Our life, our souls, our all we leave Entirely to Thy care.
Our times are in Thy hand, Whatever they may be;
Pleasing or painful, dark or bright; As best they seem to Thee.
Our times are in Thy hand; Why should we doubt or fear?
Our Father’s hand will never cause His child a needless tear.
Our times are in Thy hand, O Lord, our Advocate!
Nor is that hand outstretched in vain, For us to supplicate.
Our times are in Thy hand; We’ll always trust in Thee.
Till we have left this weary land, And all Thy glory see.
====DS: If God has a face, I'll bet he smiles when he sees how people like you appreciate his blessings..
FROM WISCONSIN JEANNE: I am so blessed. From the time I was a little girl I wanted to be a wife, mommy, and teacher. I am and have been all those things and then God REALLY blessed me with something I had not even thought of when I was young - GRANDCHILDREN!====JACK: If God has a face, I'll bet he smiles when he sees how people like you appreciate his blessings..
FROM BLAZING OAKS: Reminds me of the plaque I have with "Please be patient...God is not finished with me yet!" We are "becoming" until we leave this Earth, but in the 8th decade, one feels pretty well "completed"! I wanted to be a teacher, which I didn't acccomplish until I was 40, but enjoyed my 24 yrs at it! Most girls in our generation wanted to be wives and mothers, (grandmothers!) which is still the most satisfying thing in my life. But the plus of world travel, a career, participation in sports and acting/singing etc. sure filled the cup "over the top!" I hadn't planned to be a pastor's wife but God had other ideas!! HA! Blessings abound!====JACK: I remember the story of a woman who had many medical problems. She was continually in and out of the hospital, but always had a cheerful disposition. During her hospital stays she had a way of passing that positive attitude on to others. Once, when she was registering again as a patient, she was heard to say, "I wonder what God has for me to do this time?" That reminds me of Hubert Humphrey. When he was in the hospital for the cancer that would ultimately take his life, he would be found going up and down the halls, greeting other patients and cheering them up. What a fine man!
Friday, February 28, 2014
Thursday, February 27, 2014
Jack’s Winning Words 2/27/14
“Home is where our feet may leave, but not our hearts.” (Oliver Wendell Holmes) What’s wrong? I Googled “There’s no place like home” and got a Motley Crue song. I expected Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz. In life, many of us follow yellow brick roads and leave home in the rearview mirror. The wrecking ball destroyed my home in Moline, but it didn’t destroy my memories. Do you have a “no place like” memory? ;-) Jack
FROM TARMART REV: Living it as we correspond today, Jack . . . I've found it took many other "feeling at home" experiences before I discovered this one over twenty years ago.====JACK: You have a unique ministry. It's not for everyone, but that why you do it so well...and the popcorn is a side benefit.
FROM PEPPERMINT MARY: i don't have to think back very far. i experience "no place like home" everyday when i step through the door, no matter which of the eight homes i've lived in my life. i love home. ====JACK: I read recently that "Home is where the pillow fits your head." Ahhhh!====MARY: exactly!
FROM TRIHARDER: I've recently befriended two guys who I went to high school with in Oak Park. I was never close with either. Peripherally friendly with one of the guys; not even a word to the other all through high school. The first is a "mad" scientist in SF; the second of the two is a photographer (not wedding) in Israel. The three of us lived in the same neighborhood in Detroit (near NW side), the Dexter/Joy Road/Davison neighborhood, a Jewish area in the mid 50s, it rapidly changed and became a "black" neighborhood. We all took a photo trip down memory land courtesy of Google Maps and made a real connection as friends through the pictures of google, each of us locating our homes and talking about the businesses that didn't survive -- the Dexter Theater, Dexter Chevrolet, the Grand River Theater, Velvet Peanut Butter, ... Quite a connection for the three of us. ====JACK: One of the benefits of the internet is that it allows us to "go home again" and reconnect with people who otherwise would be lost in the dust of the passing parade.====TH: In many cases for me, very meaningful people.====JACK: Most people have "meaning" when you get to know them.====TH: Some have the wrong meaning. Fortunately most do.
Present company included.====JACK: Wrong or right, the outcome is usually positive, when we seek to understand "the meaning" in the people we meet up with.
FROM RI IN BOSTON: On a sentimental journey there are a lot of stopping places. They are milestones of different sorts, but almost all seem to be linked to "home". Experiences like sliding down the straw stack in the field, swimming in the pond in the meadow, and eating a fresh juicy peach right off the tree in the orchard. In later years, going back to the home where I grew up, I found special satisfaction sitting in the shade of several tall trees that I planted as a kid, when they were hardly more than twigs. There are proud memories like coming up our driveway in the first jalopy I bought, or driving out the driveway of my girlfriend's home on our first date. There's a list of homes we've had since then, and each one has its own set of treasured memories.====JACK: Back in the 70s, Mary transplanted, into our front yard, a twig of a tree from from the property where our church was being built. It had a thin double trunk, until you pruned it. Mary held her breath. Now, it is a stately one-trunk beautiful maple shade tree. Thank you!====RI: That's the sort of thing I enjoy recounting. Thanks for remembering and telling me about it. On another note, I like comments of yours such as "made a withdrawal from my memory bank."
FROM QUILTING CAROL IN RICE LAKE: Our Lake Villa home is no longer standing, but like you we all have our happy memories of living there. I’m sure the school now owns the property. The mighty oaks are still standing.====JACK: I drove by that LV property a few months ago and made a withdrawal from my memory bank. Those were good old days.
FROM HONEST JOHN: My folks built our house the year before I was born it was on 11 acres I absolutely loved it there.====JACK: Didn't you once tell me that you had room for a big garden on that property? Those were the days when people grew a lot of their food. Why don't we do that anymore? ====JOHN: We had a vineyard, fruit trees, berries...it was a paradise for me.====JACK: Was there also a serpent?
FROM HCC CHUCK: WOW, I have many, Grandpa Cobb's old homestead still stands and is occupied by a cousin, the home I grew up in still stands but is owned by someone I do not know, we have lived in six homes in NY and Mich all still stand and hold many fond memories, one is lived in by our youngest daughter ====JACK: A few months ago daughter Beth and I stood in the street looking at the house in Grayslake where she lived as a child. We didn't know the people living there now, but a young girl came out and asked if she could help us. After explaining what we were doing, she invited us in to look around. She had lived in that house all her life and was excited to meet someone who had grown up in there, also. Maybe you can have a similar experience. Just go and stand in the street, gawking!.====CHUCK: Have done that and usually if someone is at home you get invited in for a tour Great help with memories
FROM OUTHOUSE JUDY: My yes, we do have some very special memories of homes we have lived in or had loved ones who lived there. When you leave someplace you love, you leave a little part of yourselves there too. ====JACK: Is the outhouse still standing out in the back?
FROM GOOD DEBT JON: As Samuel Smiles said in Home, “If they have enjoyed the advantage of neither the home nor school, but have been allowed to grow up untrained, untaught, and undisciplined, then woe to themselves—woe to the society of which they form part.” Maybe what we learn at “home” is just as important as the memories we have of home. Here is a song (lyric) I did about my memories of our old home (and Dad) in Reynoldsburg. My Dad died in 68 between MLK and RLK. Here is a link to listen if you wish: http://www.songramp.com/mod/mps/viewtrack.php?trackid=80833
MY DAD © 2010 Jon Hanson Lyric/melody: Jon Hanson Vocal and Guitar Dale Crockett
I used to work with Dad; sometimes he’d take me out of school
By the time I was eleven, I could use most any tool
He taught me how to frame a wall and how to hang a door
I saw how much loved my Mom and five kids he adored
MY DAD WAS A CARPENTER AND TAUGHT ME HOW TO BUILD
I LEARNED BY WATCHING HIM—SOMETIMES I SEE HIM STILL
DADS TEACH SONS MORE THAN WORK AND HOW TO BE A MAN
NOW THAT I’M A DAD—I THINK I UNDERSTAND
If Dad had lived we would have finished that house on Jackson Street
And I know of a couple of grandkids that he’d sure love to meet
He’d know his grandson serves in the Army just like his Grandpa
And maybe we could take a walk and he’d say son I’m so proud
CHORUS Bridge
It’s hard to believe God called Dad home more than forty years ago
When I look back on all I’ve built I know I wasn’t working alone
CHORUS Tag
I used to work with Dad...
====JACK: I remember when you once told me about your dad...so I know some of the rest of the story that is not in the song.
FROM WISCONSIN JEANNE: Our family farm in Irma WI and Bethany Lutheran Church with the beautiful red doors will always have a special place in my heart. ====JACK: As you may know, the church was sold at an auction and moved down the road to a farm property. It may have been the place where you lived...or close by. The owners have kept it pretty much like I remember it...but I remember the most the people who worshipped there when I was the pastor, people like your family.====WJ: Yes, the people who own it live in the place just before where our place was. I also have fond memories of you and many of the people who called Bethany "home".
FROM JT IN MICHIGAN: My memory is not as far back as yours but it sure lives in my heart. There is no place like Keego Harbor. It has produced some of the most important people in my life! (Of course that extends to the Keego annex (W.B.)====JACK: Keego Harbor is one of those places known for the people who have lived there. Even now, as in the past, Keego had character...and characters.
FROM GO BLUE IN OHIO: WINNING WORDS has taken on a life of its own, as it were. For a very long time now (when did you begin this effort?), WW has served as a continuing source of engagement both for mind and heart. It is certain that your readers, family and friends alike, have come to anticipate WW as a regular and most valuable form of soul food, sustaining and encouraging all of us to live on in ways meaningful and helpful to others. Whatever your initial intent with the first daily "publication" of WINNING WORDS, your enterprise has proven the highest friendship to many.====JACK: Winning Words got its start in 1992 with the gift of a computer disc from Daughter Jeanne. It was full of positive messages. I began sharing a few of them with family and friends...who suggested that I forward them to others. Slow, but sure, it grew. It now numbers about 400 who receive them. I post some responses (anonymously) on a blog. An internet "newspaper," West Bloomfield Patch, also posts them. One of the reasons I enjoy getting up at 5 am, is that I can sit down at my computer and set out the day's words. I call the people who receive them...C-WOW, my Congregation WithOut Walls.
FROM MOLINER JT: The Teske "Farm". Long time gone but the memories will last forever. Started today making the John Deere road 3 lanes each way. This is progress !====JACK: There were fewer cars and trucks in "those" days. During WW 2, Midvale Dairy even used some horses to pull their milk wagons
====JT: Yes- We sold milk and some cream to them. The Blood Bank now sits on their spot. (16th St) ====JACK: So....you know how to milk a cow? I never learned that skill.
FROM BLAZING OAKS: My oldest son John had a terrible time celebrating Christmas, when we no longer traveled to Moline, and Grandma Blaser's house. 2041 - 13th Street will always be a revered home to the Blasers, Bolms, and Oaks' families, and now I dare say, my family looks to "home" at the Oaks place, where we have all gathered for Thanksgiving for so many years, and most other Holidays, as well. Wonderful memories!! There truly is "no place like home", be it ever so humble....how thankful we are to be snug and cozy and safe inside, where love abounds!!====JACK: Do you remember the book, "Giants in the Earth?" The Norwegian immigrant family sought to make a home in the Dakota Territory, in spite of poverty, hunger, loneliness, locusts and snowstorms. As I recall, they lived in a house made of sod. I like what Edgar Guest wrote..."It tales a heap o' livin' in a house t' make it home."
FROM MW IN ILLINOIS: Now don't fall off your chair! with me replying! But this brought back a childhood memory, as a young girl, my family lived about 1/2 a block from the Lake Michigan lakefront in Waukegan. My older brother & sister would take my other sister & me and spend time on the beach.
Unknown to us,one day, there had been an oil spill, & guess who swam into it? My sister Alice & I. Mama was so mad, it took about a week to get rid of the oil & the smell. At that time we both had long hair past our shoulders.====JACK: Today, parents would "sue" over such an incident. Your mom probably said that you should know better than to swim in oily water. Times change.
“Home is where our feet may leave, but not our hearts.” (Oliver Wendell Holmes) What’s wrong? I Googled “There’s no place like home” and got a Motley Crue song. I expected Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz. In life, many of us follow yellow brick roads and leave home in the rearview mirror. The wrecking ball destroyed my home in Moline, but it didn’t destroy my memories. Do you have a “no place like” memory? ;-) Jack
FROM TARMART REV: Living it as we correspond today, Jack . . . I've found it took many other "feeling at home" experiences before I discovered this one over twenty years ago.====JACK: You have a unique ministry. It's not for everyone, but that why you do it so well...and the popcorn is a side benefit.
FROM PEPPERMINT MARY: i don't have to think back very far. i experience "no place like home" everyday when i step through the door, no matter which of the eight homes i've lived in my life. i love home. ====JACK: I read recently that "Home is where the pillow fits your head." Ahhhh!====MARY: exactly!
FROM TRIHARDER: I've recently befriended two guys who I went to high school with in Oak Park. I was never close with either. Peripherally friendly with one of the guys; not even a word to the other all through high school. The first is a "mad" scientist in SF; the second of the two is a photographer (not wedding) in Israel. The three of us lived in the same neighborhood in Detroit (near NW side), the Dexter/Joy Road/Davison neighborhood, a Jewish area in the mid 50s, it rapidly changed and became a "black" neighborhood. We all took a photo trip down memory land courtesy of Google Maps and made a real connection as friends through the pictures of google, each of us locating our homes and talking about the businesses that didn't survive -- the Dexter Theater, Dexter Chevrolet, the Grand River Theater, Velvet Peanut Butter, ... Quite a connection for the three of us. ====JACK: One of the benefits of the internet is that it allows us to "go home again" and reconnect with people who otherwise would be lost in the dust of the passing parade.====TH: In many cases for me, very meaningful people.====JACK: Most people have "meaning" when you get to know them.====TH: Some have the wrong meaning. Fortunately most do.
Present company included.====JACK: Wrong or right, the outcome is usually positive, when we seek to understand "the meaning" in the people we meet up with.
FROM RI IN BOSTON: On a sentimental journey there are a lot of stopping places. They are milestones of different sorts, but almost all seem to be linked to "home". Experiences like sliding down the straw stack in the field, swimming in the pond in the meadow, and eating a fresh juicy peach right off the tree in the orchard. In later years, going back to the home where I grew up, I found special satisfaction sitting in the shade of several tall trees that I planted as a kid, when they were hardly more than twigs. There are proud memories like coming up our driveway in the first jalopy I bought, or driving out the driveway of my girlfriend's home on our first date. There's a list of homes we've had since then, and each one has its own set of treasured memories.====JACK: Back in the 70s, Mary transplanted, into our front yard, a twig of a tree from from the property where our church was being built. It had a thin double trunk, until you pruned it. Mary held her breath. Now, it is a stately one-trunk beautiful maple shade tree. Thank you!====RI: That's the sort of thing I enjoy recounting. Thanks for remembering and telling me about it. On another note, I like comments of yours such as "made a withdrawal from my memory bank."
FROM QUILTING CAROL IN RICE LAKE: Our Lake Villa home is no longer standing, but like you we all have our happy memories of living there. I’m sure the school now owns the property. The mighty oaks are still standing.====JACK: I drove by that LV property a few months ago and made a withdrawal from my memory bank. Those were good old days.
FROM HONEST JOHN: My folks built our house the year before I was born it was on 11 acres I absolutely loved it there.====JACK: Didn't you once tell me that you had room for a big garden on that property? Those were the days when people grew a lot of their food. Why don't we do that anymore? ====JOHN: We had a vineyard, fruit trees, berries...it was a paradise for me.====JACK: Was there also a serpent?
FROM HCC CHUCK: WOW, I have many, Grandpa Cobb's old homestead still stands and is occupied by a cousin, the home I grew up in still stands but is owned by someone I do not know, we have lived in six homes in NY and Mich all still stand and hold many fond memories, one is lived in by our youngest daughter ====JACK: A few months ago daughter Beth and I stood in the street looking at the house in Grayslake where she lived as a child. We didn't know the people living there now, but a young girl came out and asked if she could help us. After explaining what we were doing, she invited us in to look around. She had lived in that house all her life and was excited to meet someone who had grown up in there, also. Maybe you can have a similar experience. Just go and stand in the street, gawking!.====CHUCK: Have done that and usually if someone is at home you get invited in for a tour Great help with memories
FROM OUTHOUSE JUDY: My yes, we do have some very special memories of homes we have lived in or had loved ones who lived there. When you leave someplace you love, you leave a little part of yourselves there too. ====JACK: Is the outhouse still standing out in the back?
FROM GOOD DEBT JON: As Samuel Smiles said in Home, “If they have enjoyed the advantage of neither the home nor school, but have been allowed to grow up untrained, untaught, and undisciplined, then woe to themselves—woe to the society of which they form part.” Maybe what we learn at “home” is just as important as the memories we have of home. Here is a song (lyric) I did about my memories of our old home (and Dad) in Reynoldsburg. My Dad died in 68 between MLK and RLK. Here is a link to listen if you wish: http://www.songramp.com/mod/mps/viewtrack.php?trackid=80833
MY DAD © 2010 Jon Hanson Lyric/melody: Jon Hanson Vocal and Guitar Dale Crockett
I used to work with Dad; sometimes he’d take me out of school
By the time I was eleven, I could use most any tool
He taught me how to frame a wall and how to hang a door
I saw how much loved my Mom and five kids he adored
MY DAD WAS A CARPENTER AND TAUGHT ME HOW TO BUILD
I LEARNED BY WATCHING HIM—SOMETIMES I SEE HIM STILL
DADS TEACH SONS MORE THAN WORK AND HOW TO BE A MAN
NOW THAT I’M A DAD—I THINK I UNDERSTAND
If Dad had lived we would have finished that house on Jackson Street
And I know of a couple of grandkids that he’d sure love to meet
He’d know his grandson serves in the Army just like his Grandpa
And maybe we could take a walk and he’d say son I’m so proud
CHORUS Bridge
It’s hard to believe God called Dad home more than forty years ago
When I look back on all I’ve built I know I wasn’t working alone
CHORUS Tag
I used to work with Dad...
====JACK: I remember when you once told me about your dad...so I know some of the rest of the story that is not in the song.
FROM WISCONSIN JEANNE: Our family farm in Irma WI and Bethany Lutheran Church with the beautiful red doors will always have a special place in my heart. ====JACK: As you may know, the church was sold at an auction and moved down the road to a farm property. It may have been the place where you lived...or close by. The owners have kept it pretty much like I remember it...but I remember the most the people who worshipped there when I was the pastor, people like your family.====WJ: Yes, the people who own it live in the place just before where our place was. I also have fond memories of you and many of the people who called Bethany "home".
FROM JT IN MICHIGAN: My memory is not as far back as yours but it sure lives in my heart. There is no place like Keego Harbor. It has produced some of the most important people in my life! (Of course that extends to the Keego annex (W.B.)====JACK: Keego Harbor is one of those places known for the people who have lived there. Even now, as in the past, Keego had character...and characters.
FROM GO BLUE IN OHIO: WINNING WORDS has taken on a life of its own, as it were. For a very long time now (when did you begin this effort?), WW has served as a continuing source of engagement both for mind and heart. It is certain that your readers, family and friends alike, have come to anticipate WW as a regular and most valuable form of soul food, sustaining and encouraging all of us to live on in ways meaningful and helpful to others. Whatever your initial intent with the first daily "publication" of WINNING WORDS, your enterprise has proven the highest friendship to many.====JACK: Winning Words got its start in 1992 with the gift of a computer disc from Daughter Jeanne. It was full of positive messages. I began sharing a few of them with family and friends...who suggested that I forward them to others. Slow, but sure, it grew. It now numbers about 400 who receive them. I post some responses (anonymously) on a blog. An internet "newspaper," West Bloomfield Patch, also posts them. One of the reasons I enjoy getting up at 5 am, is that I can sit down at my computer and set out the day's words. I call the people who receive them...C-WOW, my Congregation WithOut Walls.
FROM MOLINER JT: The Teske "Farm". Long time gone but the memories will last forever. Started today making the John Deere road 3 lanes each way. This is progress !====JACK: There were fewer cars and trucks in "those" days. During WW 2, Midvale Dairy even used some horses to pull their milk wagons
====JT: Yes- We sold milk and some cream to them. The Blood Bank now sits on their spot. (16th St) ====JACK: So....you know how to milk a cow? I never learned that skill.
FROM BLAZING OAKS: My oldest son John had a terrible time celebrating Christmas, when we no longer traveled to Moline, and Grandma Blaser's house. 2041 - 13th Street will always be a revered home to the Blasers, Bolms, and Oaks' families, and now I dare say, my family looks to "home" at the Oaks place, where we have all gathered for Thanksgiving for so many years, and most other Holidays, as well. Wonderful memories!! There truly is "no place like home", be it ever so humble....how thankful we are to be snug and cozy and safe inside, where love abounds!!====JACK: Do you remember the book, "Giants in the Earth?" The Norwegian immigrant family sought to make a home in the Dakota Territory, in spite of poverty, hunger, loneliness, locusts and snowstorms. As I recall, they lived in a house made of sod. I like what Edgar Guest wrote..."It tales a heap o' livin' in a house t' make it home."
FROM MW IN ILLINOIS: Now don't fall off your chair! with me replying! But this brought back a childhood memory, as a young girl, my family lived about 1/2 a block from the Lake Michigan lakefront in Waukegan. My older brother & sister would take my other sister & me and spend time on the beach.
Unknown to us,one day, there had been an oil spill, & guess who swam into it? My sister Alice & I. Mama was so mad, it took about a week to get rid of the oil & the smell. At that time we both had long hair past our shoulders.====JACK: Today, parents would "sue" over such an incident. Your mom probably said that you should know better than to swim in oily water. Times change.
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
Jack’s Winning Words 2/26/14
“Never ask, ‘Can I do this?’ Ask instead, ‘How can I do this?’” (Dan Zadra) JFK had been President for only 15 minutes when he said these electrifying words, “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” The Peace Corps was one result. Every so often a country, an organization, a person needs a “We/I Can Do It” jolt Is there some challenge you see “out there” that needs doing? ;-) Jack
FROM LP IN PLYMOUTH: An interesting week of WW. Drowning at work lately. Just taken on more than I can do I think. To keep from spinning my wheels I try focusing on the top 3 things that I can do that day. Since can't isn't an option I guess this is my how.====JACK: It seems that in today's work world, fewer people are being called up to do more work. As I said to a friend yesterday..."You're not Superman!" You're not Wonder Woman, either. Prioritizing is a good way of answering the "how" question.====LP: My problem is when the priority of today doesn't help me prepare for the priority of tomorrow. Clearly I can look ahead. But to borrow an expression of a colleague sometimes we are just putting out fires. One day at a time... ====JACK: I wonder if that's how Obama feels while sitting in the Oval Office. But then he goes upstairs to his family. At the end of the day, close the office door and go home.
FROM HONEST JOHN: Sometimes the "How" question can lead to the conclusion "I can't.". As in "How can I be God?". Of course, some fools have reasoned that they could (Stalin, Hitler, Koch brothers) and have failed miserably.====JACK: One of the pitfalls of positive thinking is to believe that "I can do anything, if I just put my mind to it." I've always liked the story of Archimedes. Some things make sense in the abstract, but then reality comes into play.
FROM TARMART REV: Would welcome "some challenge" over "challenges" . . . but will start with one today . . . "I'm going to get out of bed!"====JACK: Isn't it a blessing that most of us don't even have to ask, "How can I get out of bed?" We just do it automatically. A friend of mine, with ALS, is now getting a machine which will allow him to communicate with a synthesized voice. It's not the same as the voice you and I use (and take for granted), but he and his family rejoice at the invention.====REV: We are truly blessed with helps that ease formerly complicated lives of many years ago . . . from hearts to limbs, we are greatly blessed.
FROM IKE AT THE MIC: A pot hole repair mixture,that could be dispensed out of an attached receptacle to the salt trucks or school buses when available....Just "thinkin"====JACK: Evidently you've seen (or hit) a pothole, or two, or more. I know that I have. How about a type of road construction which would make potholes impossible to form? Put on your "thinking cap."====IKE: I've thought of that already & my conclusion is that your suggestion requires 3 things: 1. Money 2. Top notch competent engineers 3. Honest non-corruptible politicians That's much more difficult & time consuming to achieve that an effective pot hole repair system to solve an immediate problem,but it never hurts to hope & dream..
FROM GOOD DEBT JON: I’ve been asking the second part of this question often lately. “How, can I do this?” It seems everything (career/hobby wise) I have done in the past has prepared me for the task at hand. I am amazed at how my past failures and lukewarm successes are now important skill sets in creating Stewardship for Life. Life (progress) requires questions. How can I do this? Who has done something similar in the past? What can I learn from that? Is there something about great nonprofits like; Habitat for Humanity, Housing Works, Twin Cities Rise, or DC Kitchen that I should adopt? Subtract? Add to? Have a great day Jack; I have to get back to editing a workbook.====JACK: We often build on the foundation laid by others. Most "creative types" realize that they are re-creators.
FROM BBC IN ILLINOIS: Wait a minute; I thought Eisenhower started the Peace Corps….I recall he started the student program my children travelled with at one point but perhaps my memory is going …already?====JACK: You'd better check your memory! Re-researching my info....The basic idea is credited to Hubert Humphrey. John Kennedy first announced the idea for such an organization in Ann Arbor, Michigan, at The University of Michigan, during the 1960 presidential campaign at a late-night speech, October 14, 1960. He later dubbed the proposed organization the "Peace Corps." A brass marker commemorates the place (the steps of the Michigan Union) where Kennedy stood. Critics opposed the program. Richard Nixon predicted that it would become "a haven for draft dodgers." I'll have to have Grandson Joe take a cellphone picture of it for you.====BBC: Ahh Just looked it up and Eisenhower’s program was “People to People” the student ambassadors travelling overseas representing the US. Thanks for helping me place a little bit of history. I was alive in 1960….barely
FROM FM IN WISCONSIN: You cannot spent ½ hour on a computer without experiencing this winning word – a win or a fix – a learning!====JACK: When I first started the using a computer, I was afraid that I would push the wrong key and "ruin" everything. That fear has vanished, but I occasionally do push the wrong key, and it often takes more than a half hour to get back on track.
FROM BLAZING OAKS: A few years ago, one of our missionaries to Haiti mentioned that they had no containers to send medicine home with patients who came to their clinic. Our AB women sent out a call to collect empty prescription pill containers, labels removed to send to Haiti. We were inundated with thousands of medicine containers!! I collected for the Great Rivers Region, and sent huge boxes of them, until the missionaries finally told us that they had several years worth to use up, and storage would now be a problem! A small thing but it made a difference to those people! There are needs everywhere in the world!! We can figure out the "how" ====JACK: That's a good follow up, showing :"HOW" something "CAN" be done. I can just picture the Haitian workers..."Enough, enough, enough!"
“Never ask, ‘Can I do this?’ Ask instead, ‘How can I do this?’” (Dan Zadra) JFK had been President for only 15 minutes when he said these electrifying words, “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” The Peace Corps was one result. Every so often a country, an organization, a person needs a “We/I Can Do It” jolt Is there some challenge you see “out there” that needs doing? ;-) Jack
FROM LP IN PLYMOUTH: An interesting week of WW. Drowning at work lately. Just taken on more than I can do I think. To keep from spinning my wheels I try focusing on the top 3 things that I can do that day. Since can't isn't an option I guess this is my how.====JACK: It seems that in today's work world, fewer people are being called up to do more work. As I said to a friend yesterday..."You're not Superman!" You're not Wonder Woman, either. Prioritizing is a good way of answering the "how" question.====LP: My problem is when the priority of today doesn't help me prepare for the priority of tomorrow. Clearly I can look ahead. But to borrow an expression of a colleague sometimes we are just putting out fires. One day at a time... ====JACK: I wonder if that's how Obama feels while sitting in the Oval Office. But then he goes upstairs to his family. At the end of the day, close the office door and go home.
FROM HONEST JOHN: Sometimes the "How" question can lead to the conclusion "I can't.". As in "How can I be God?". Of course, some fools have reasoned that they could (Stalin, Hitler, Koch brothers) and have failed miserably.====JACK: One of the pitfalls of positive thinking is to believe that "I can do anything, if I just put my mind to it." I've always liked the story of Archimedes. Some things make sense in the abstract, but then reality comes into play.
FROM TARMART REV: Would welcome "some challenge" over "challenges" . . . but will start with one today . . . "I'm going to get out of bed!"====JACK: Isn't it a blessing that most of us don't even have to ask, "How can I get out of bed?" We just do it automatically. A friend of mine, with ALS, is now getting a machine which will allow him to communicate with a synthesized voice. It's not the same as the voice you and I use (and take for granted), but he and his family rejoice at the invention.====REV: We are truly blessed with helps that ease formerly complicated lives of many years ago . . . from hearts to limbs, we are greatly blessed.
FROM IKE AT THE MIC: A pot hole repair mixture,that could be dispensed out of an attached receptacle to the salt trucks or school buses when available....Just "thinkin"====JACK: Evidently you've seen (or hit) a pothole, or two, or more. I know that I have. How about a type of road construction which would make potholes impossible to form? Put on your "thinking cap."====IKE: I've thought of that already & my conclusion is that your suggestion requires 3 things: 1. Money 2. Top notch competent engineers 3. Honest non-corruptible politicians That's much more difficult & time consuming to achieve that an effective pot hole repair system to solve an immediate problem,but it never hurts to hope & dream..
FROM GOOD DEBT JON: I’ve been asking the second part of this question often lately. “How, can I do this?” It seems everything (career/hobby wise) I have done in the past has prepared me for the task at hand. I am amazed at how my past failures and lukewarm successes are now important skill sets in creating Stewardship for Life. Life (progress) requires questions. How can I do this? Who has done something similar in the past? What can I learn from that? Is there something about great nonprofits like; Habitat for Humanity, Housing Works, Twin Cities Rise, or DC Kitchen that I should adopt? Subtract? Add to? Have a great day Jack; I have to get back to editing a workbook.====JACK: We often build on the foundation laid by others. Most "creative types" realize that they are re-creators.
FROM BBC IN ILLINOIS: Wait a minute; I thought Eisenhower started the Peace Corps….I recall he started the student program my children travelled with at one point but perhaps my memory is going …already?====JACK: You'd better check your memory! Re-researching my info....The basic idea is credited to Hubert Humphrey. John Kennedy first announced the idea for such an organization in Ann Arbor, Michigan, at The University of Michigan, during the 1960 presidential campaign at a late-night speech, October 14, 1960. He later dubbed the proposed organization the "Peace Corps." A brass marker commemorates the place (the steps of the Michigan Union) where Kennedy stood. Critics opposed the program. Richard Nixon predicted that it would become "a haven for draft dodgers." I'll have to have Grandson Joe take a cellphone picture of it for you.====BBC: Ahh Just looked it up and Eisenhower’s program was “People to People” the student ambassadors travelling overseas representing the US. Thanks for helping me place a little bit of history. I was alive in 1960….barely
FROM FM IN WISCONSIN: You cannot spent ½ hour on a computer without experiencing this winning word – a win or a fix – a learning!====JACK: When I first started the using a computer, I was afraid that I would push the wrong key and "ruin" everything. That fear has vanished, but I occasionally do push the wrong key, and it often takes more than a half hour to get back on track.
FROM BLAZING OAKS: A few years ago, one of our missionaries to Haiti mentioned that they had no containers to send medicine home with patients who came to their clinic. Our AB women sent out a call to collect empty prescription pill containers, labels removed to send to Haiti. We were inundated with thousands of medicine containers!! I collected for the Great Rivers Region, and sent huge boxes of them, until the missionaries finally told us that they had several years worth to use up, and storage would now be a problem! A small thing but it made a difference to those people! There are needs everywhere in the world!! We can figure out the "how" ====JACK: That's a good follow up, showing :"HOW" something "CAN" be done. I can just picture the Haitian workers..."Enough, enough, enough!"
Tuesday, February 25, 2014
Jack’s Winning Words 2/25/14
“Sometimes you win. Sometimes you learn.” (John Maxwell) This quote is the title of one of Maxwell’s (more than 60) motivational books. He makes the point that great lessons can be learned from our losses. It’s possible to turn a step backward into a step forward. Lincoln did that. Edison did it, too. Can you think of others? Maybe it has happened in your life. A failure is not necessarily always a failure. ;-) Jack
FROM TARMART REV: "Something beautiful, something good, all my confusion, He understood . . . all I had to offer Him was brokenness and strife, but He made something beautiful of my life!" (Bill and Gloria Gaither)====JACK: I remember the story of a man who got up and gave a testimony to his conversion. He had been an alcoholic, and Jesus performed a miracle in his life. "He turned wine into furniture." He had won, and he had learned.
FROM HUNGRY HOWIE: Sometimes you win. Sometimes you lose. Sometimes it rains. (Crash Davis in
Bull Durham).====JACK: You beat me to it. I was saving that quote for the first rain-out of the baseball season. Maybe I'll change it to..."Sometimes it snows."
FROM SBP IN FLORIDA: As per the most recent issue of Mental Floss: Steven Spielberg wasn't was turned down threes times for admission to film school Failing sixth grade was achieved by Winston Churchill. 600 rejections were experienced by Jack London before he sold his first story. There are more... Many among us who have "failed" have achieved using a variety of approaches.....Failures shut doors and open windows. A lot of praying is sustaining.====JACK: These are also examples of persistence. When I was starting a new church by going door to door, gauging the interest of people in the project, I made 2000 cold calls during the first year. I had it figured out that I would get one prospect for every 10 calls. So, I wasn't bothered by 9 turn downs, because I knew the next one would be a winner.
FROM MICHIZONA RAY: I think failure is failure; but at the same time it is not necessarily the end. An acorn takes a long time to become the oak tree that it is by design. We too might consider the process of life in a similar way. The victories and losses are only little guideposts in the bigger, more complete picture of one's life. In this sense, a victory is truly no more significant than a failure -- both a merely ingredients of the full life.====JACK: In the grand scheme of things, if every acorn became an oak tree...do the math! There would eventually no room for the beautiful flowers and you and me.====RAY: That's probably why every tree is not an oak tree; nor every person the same.
FROM QUILTIN' CAROL IN RICE LAKE: Sometimes it proves you are human and not “perfect” but still ok.====JACK: Perhaps imperfection in the mark of being human. The need for a "way out" is what makes us seek a leader, a Messiah.
FROM DR J IN OHIO: Steve Jobs… fired by Apple!====JACK: I'm thankful for the teachers who didn't "fire" me as I was finding my way through school. Maybe that's the difference between a true teacher and a company.
FROM SHARIN' SHARON: This quote makes me so happy because I think, coming from God, it is sometimes we win and God's deepest desire is we always learn (He never desires failure for us, we are the ones who do that to ourselves) so God also says "Sometimes you win. Sometimes you learn" and that's the truth of it all.====JACK: God's judgment is not like the world's judgment. He can separate the sheep from the goats.
FROM GOOD DEBT JON: I like this WW. Often failure is more memorable. Saturday, I put a solid state drive into my brand new computer (had it out of the box for 20 minutes) everything was great then I hooked up the old drive (to be a back-up) and restarted, nothing-black screen no way back. Sunday a friend at church and expert in computers fixed it, saying it blew up because I had two master drives. I guess the Biblical verse is true: "No one can serve two masters; not even Dell." This was an example of forced learning, but I won't forget."====JACK: When messing with computers, a little bit of knowledge can get you into big trouble...but without making mistakes, how do you learn. So, I still mess once in a while.
FROM DB IN MICHIGAN: That is so true! Last semester in chemistry class, my last lab (titration) was an absolute disaster. While I dreaded doing it again last week, the lessons learned from last semester made last week's titration lab a great success! Thanks for the good words!====JACK: You have proved the truth of the adage..."You learn from your mistakes!" See, it can happen, when you pay attention.
“Sometimes you win. Sometimes you learn.” (John Maxwell) This quote is the title of one of Maxwell’s (more than 60) motivational books. He makes the point that great lessons can be learned from our losses. It’s possible to turn a step backward into a step forward. Lincoln did that. Edison did it, too. Can you think of others? Maybe it has happened in your life. A failure is not necessarily always a failure. ;-) Jack
FROM TARMART REV: "Something beautiful, something good, all my confusion, He understood . . . all I had to offer Him was brokenness and strife, but He made something beautiful of my life!" (Bill and Gloria Gaither)====JACK: I remember the story of a man who got up and gave a testimony to his conversion. He had been an alcoholic, and Jesus performed a miracle in his life. "He turned wine into furniture." He had won, and he had learned.
FROM HUNGRY HOWIE: Sometimes you win. Sometimes you lose. Sometimes it rains. (Crash Davis in
Bull Durham).====JACK: You beat me to it. I was saving that quote for the first rain-out of the baseball season. Maybe I'll change it to..."Sometimes it snows."
FROM SBP IN FLORIDA: As per the most recent issue of Mental Floss: Steven Spielberg wasn't was turned down threes times for admission to film school Failing sixth grade was achieved by Winston Churchill. 600 rejections were experienced by Jack London before he sold his first story. There are more... Many among us who have "failed" have achieved using a variety of approaches.....Failures shut doors and open windows. A lot of praying is sustaining.====JACK: These are also examples of persistence. When I was starting a new church by going door to door, gauging the interest of people in the project, I made 2000 cold calls during the first year. I had it figured out that I would get one prospect for every 10 calls. So, I wasn't bothered by 9 turn downs, because I knew the next one would be a winner.
FROM MICHIZONA RAY: I think failure is failure; but at the same time it is not necessarily the end. An acorn takes a long time to become the oak tree that it is by design. We too might consider the process of life in a similar way. The victories and losses are only little guideposts in the bigger, more complete picture of one's life. In this sense, a victory is truly no more significant than a failure -- both a merely ingredients of the full life.====JACK: In the grand scheme of things, if every acorn became an oak tree...do the math! There would eventually no room for the beautiful flowers and you and me.====RAY: That's probably why every tree is not an oak tree; nor every person the same.
FROM QUILTIN' CAROL IN RICE LAKE: Sometimes it proves you are human and not “perfect” but still ok.====JACK: Perhaps imperfection in the mark of being human. The need for a "way out" is what makes us seek a leader, a Messiah.
FROM DR J IN OHIO: Steve Jobs… fired by Apple!====JACK: I'm thankful for the teachers who didn't "fire" me as I was finding my way through school. Maybe that's the difference between a true teacher and a company.
FROM SHARIN' SHARON: This quote makes me so happy because I think, coming from God, it is sometimes we win and God's deepest desire is we always learn (He never desires failure for us, we are the ones who do that to ourselves) so God also says "Sometimes you win. Sometimes you learn" and that's the truth of it all.====JACK: God's judgment is not like the world's judgment. He can separate the sheep from the goats.
FROM GOOD DEBT JON: I like this WW. Often failure is more memorable. Saturday, I put a solid state drive into my brand new computer (had it out of the box for 20 minutes) everything was great then I hooked up the old drive (to be a back-up) and restarted, nothing-black screen no way back. Sunday a friend at church and expert in computers fixed it, saying it blew up because I had two master drives. I guess the Biblical verse is true: "No one can serve two masters; not even Dell." This was an example of forced learning, but I won't forget."====JACK: When messing with computers, a little bit of knowledge can get you into big trouble...but without making mistakes, how do you learn. So, I still mess once in a while.
FROM DB IN MICHIGAN: That is so true! Last semester in chemistry class, my last lab (titration) was an absolute disaster. While I dreaded doing it again last week, the lessons learned from last semester made last week's titration lab a great success! Thanks for the good words!====JACK: You have proved the truth of the adage..."You learn from your mistakes!" See, it can happen, when you pay attention.
Monday, February 24, 2014
Jack’s Winning Words 2/24/14
“Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.” (Vince Lombardi) Over 2800 athletes participated in the Winter Olympics, but fewer than 300 medals were awarded. Are gold, silver or bronze the symbol of success? In the Olympics, as in life, the reward is in the chase toward excellence. As Vince said, “Go “chase” the right thing.” BTW, why do you suppose Jesus said, “Be perfect?” ;-) Jack
FROM HONEST JOHN: Vince also said "Winning is the only thing". I would think, therefore, that his statement might be interpreted a tad different than the interp. that you put on it....====JACK: I think that the correct version of the Lombardi quote is: "Wanting to win...is the only thing." BTW, I'm glad that the Detroit Lions have hired Vince's grandson to be one of their coaches, because "we" want to win!
FROM DOCTOR PAUL: I'm reading a very interesting book "Who Owns The Future" it isn't a fast read, but it speaks to this issue of winners and losers====JACK: I think that it's about time to "retire" loser. as a pejorative word. ====PAUL: Unfortunately, economically, we are developing a working class that is losing economically.====JACK: Given time, things have a way of turning around. Sadly, we each have a limited amount of that product.====PAUL: Many of them become my coaches as they challenge me in seeing what I might say or do to bring about a solution to their inquiries!! 0:-/====JACK: The wise person is both a teacher and a learner.
FROM TARMART REV: Good word for the start of new week . . . chasing Perfection . . . "all I ask, to be like Him!"====JACK: Vince said that you'd be better off chasing excellence. In fact, that seems you are doing just that as you sit there at Target eating your popcorn and waiting for "customers."
FROM MICHIZONA RAY: I think it is right to chase perfection even though it is unattainable. It will eventually show one's limitation, while at the same time utilize all the "talents" with which one has been blessed as its steward. At any point of limitation, it becomes clear that one needs God. Our success and achievement is always insufficient. If it were not man would have achieved perfection by now! Paul seems to continuously talk about being "in Christ" and have Christ "in you". In Christ we find the perfection that without Christ we can do only the great things -- of which Solomon refers to as "vanity". So, let us be filled with the Holy Spirit in all that we do so that it is perfected by the Will of Him who is perfect.====JACK: When a dog chases his tail, all he gets is the joy of the chase and exercise. BTW, is the chase after excellence similar to the chase after perfection...never achievable, but always worthwhile?====RAY: I think that it is. If nothing else, one eventually discovers the vanity of one's own effort. Yet, as in the parable of the talents, one also will necessarily use all of one's talents in this vain effort. Is it possible to surrender before one even knows what one is surrendering?====JACK: Speaking of "knowing"....One of these days I'm going to use the Socrates quote: "I know that I'm intelligent, because I know that I know nothing." Perhaps you're aware of the mid-19th century "No Nothing Party" which had views similar to some of today's politicians.
FROM FATHER TIM: This was great!! You always have such great insights but this one was a homerun. ====JACK: I thought you might have said that it deserved a gold medal, and I would have replied, "I was just chasing excellence."
FROM BLAZING OAKS: I was thinking of those 2500 superior athletes who did NOT take home a medal of any color, last night during the closing of the games....so many who gave their all, but had only the experience to show for it. But I doubt any of them rued being there and competing. Imagine being included in such an elite group! They had all reached excellence in their field, but the slushy snow and ice made the going a bit rough this Olympics. I read Vince Lombardi's biography, When Pride Still Mattered" which both my athlete husband and coach son enjoyed (it won the Pulitzer Prize), and he was a complex, flawed and driven man, but powerful in what he accomplished in the troubled era of the 60's! His quote in the book was ,"Winning isn't everything, it's not even what it's cracked up to be....but WANTING to win is!" My son took that motto for his teams.( He (John)is in the IL coach's Hall of Fame, and in Springfield Athletic Hall of Fame BTW) I think Vince was a fascinating individual!====JACK: I think of the thousands and thousands of athletes who wanted to go to the Olympics (medal or not) and were not chosen. For the true athlete, the excitement is in the participation. I loved playing ping pong, but was never picked for the Olympics.
FROM PH IN MESA:: to show his listeners that they could not attain to perfection and that they should stop trying so hard and just accept the unconditional grace and mercy of God.====JACK: Thanks for a good answer. I'm going to use it in a conversation that I have planned for today.
“Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.” (Vince Lombardi) Over 2800 athletes participated in the Winter Olympics, but fewer than 300 medals were awarded. Are gold, silver or bronze the symbol of success? In the Olympics, as in life, the reward is in the chase toward excellence. As Vince said, “Go “chase” the right thing.” BTW, why do you suppose Jesus said, “Be perfect?” ;-) Jack
FROM HONEST JOHN: Vince also said "Winning is the only thing". I would think, therefore, that his statement might be interpreted a tad different than the interp. that you put on it....====JACK: I think that the correct version of the Lombardi quote is: "Wanting to win...is the only thing." BTW, I'm glad that the Detroit Lions have hired Vince's grandson to be one of their coaches, because "we" want to win!
FROM DOCTOR PAUL: I'm reading a very interesting book "Who Owns The Future" it isn't a fast read, but it speaks to this issue of winners and losers====JACK: I think that it's about time to "retire" loser. as a pejorative word. ====PAUL: Unfortunately, economically, we are developing a working class that is losing economically.====JACK: Given time, things have a way of turning around. Sadly, we each have a limited amount of that product.====PAUL: Many of them become my coaches as they challenge me in seeing what I might say or do to bring about a solution to their inquiries!! 0:-/====JACK: The wise person is both a teacher and a learner.
FROM TARMART REV: Good word for the start of new week . . . chasing Perfection . . . "all I ask, to be like Him!"====JACK: Vince said that you'd be better off chasing excellence. In fact, that seems you are doing just that as you sit there at Target eating your popcorn and waiting for "customers."
FROM MICHIZONA RAY: I think it is right to chase perfection even though it is unattainable. It will eventually show one's limitation, while at the same time utilize all the "talents" with which one has been blessed as its steward. At any point of limitation, it becomes clear that one needs God. Our success and achievement is always insufficient. If it were not man would have achieved perfection by now! Paul seems to continuously talk about being "in Christ" and have Christ "in you". In Christ we find the perfection that without Christ we can do only the great things -- of which Solomon refers to as "vanity". So, let us be filled with the Holy Spirit in all that we do so that it is perfected by the Will of Him who is perfect.====JACK: When a dog chases his tail, all he gets is the joy of the chase and exercise. BTW, is the chase after excellence similar to the chase after perfection...never achievable, but always worthwhile?====RAY: I think that it is. If nothing else, one eventually discovers the vanity of one's own effort. Yet, as in the parable of the talents, one also will necessarily use all of one's talents in this vain effort. Is it possible to surrender before one even knows what one is surrendering?====JACK: Speaking of "knowing"....One of these days I'm going to use the Socrates quote: "I know that I'm intelligent, because I know that I know nothing." Perhaps you're aware of the mid-19th century "No Nothing Party" which had views similar to some of today's politicians.
FROM FATHER TIM: This was great!! You always have such great insights but this one was a homerun. ====JACK: I thought you might have said that it deserved a gold medal, and I would have replied, "I was just chasing excellence."
FROM BLAZING OAKS: I was thinking of those 2500 superior athletes who did NOT take home a medal of any color, last night during the closing of the games....so many who gave their all, but had only the experience to show for it. But I doubt any of them rued being there and competing. Imagine being included in such an elite group! They had all reached excellence in their field, but the slushy snow and ice made the going a bit rough this Olympics. I read Vince Lombardi's biography, When Pride Still Mattered" which both my athlete husband and coach son enjoyed (it won the Pulitzer Prize), and he was a complex, flawed and driven man, but powerful in what he accomplished in the troubled era of the 60's! His quote in the book was ,"Winning isn't everything, it's not even what it's cracked up to be....but WANTING to win is!" My son took that motto for his teams.( He (John)is in the IL coach's Hall of Fame, and in Springfield Athletic Hall of Fame BTW) I think Vince was a fascinating individual!====JACK: I think of the thousands and thousands of athletes who wanted to go to the Olympics (medal or not) and were not chosen. For the true athlete, the excitement is in the participation. I loved playing ping pong, but was never picked for the Olympics.
FROM PH IN MESA:: to show his listeners that they could not attain to perfection and that they should stop trying so hard and just accept the unconditional grace and mercy of God.====JACK: Thanks for a good answer. I'm going to use it in a conversation that I have planned for today.
Friday, February 21, 2014
Jack’s Winning Words 2/21/14
“Everybody is a genius; but, if you judge a fish by his ability to climb a tree, it will spend its whole life believing that it is stupid.” (Einstein) Randy Best, a college grad, can’t read or use a computer, yet now heads a company which helps colleges develop on-line virtual classrooms. It’s especially helpful for those who can’t afford the on-campus experience. “Normally,” he shouldn’t be a success. What is success…really? ;-) Jack
EEC IN MICHIGAN: Interesting!====JACK: It's also interesting that Einstein was a slow learner as a child..."Einstein was slow in learning how to speak. He also had a cheeky rebelliousness toward authority, which led one headmaster to expel him and another to say that he would never amount to much. But these traits helped make him a genius. His cocky contempt for authority led him to question conventional wisdom. His slow verbal development made him curious about ordinary things — such as space and time — that most adults take for granted. His father gave him a compass at age five, and he puzzled over the nature of a magnetic field for the rest of his life. And he tended to think in pictures rather than words."
FROM RI IN BOSTON: Each of us has a part to play. I've known some persons who I didn't give much credit until I saw them confront a task that had me stymied, and they succeeded with it. There are people who criticize others for not achieving success, when those criticized actually like their lives...as the common expression says, "comfortable in their own skin."====JACK: It would be fun to look over God's shoulder as He writes comments about certain people who have been written off by the world's "experts." I don't want to look while he's writing about me, though.
FROM GOOD DEBT JON: Perhaps the hardest part (maybe even for geniuses) is finding where to apply your unique talents to make a difference in the world. I watched several of the videos at randybest.com, very inspiring. You are correct Jack, Randy Best is moving forward the way education is delivered. While online learning is not for everyone with new technology it is possible to create a bonding of teacher and learner and still have the learner to learner dynamic that is so critical in cohort learning. With SFL I will be promoting four themes, Financial Literacy, Attitude Management, Communication, and PDP (a written 10 year Personal Development Plan). I have found, If a person is cognizant of these four areas it helps them see how today's actions can radically change their future results. Of course it is easy for us old folks looking in the review mirror, the hard part is helping younger folks see the vision looking forward. Success to me is being able to answer satisfactorily, Did I Live?, Did I Love?, Did I Matter? Success is when you know you have mattered in your life and others. It was Eric Hoffer, in True Believer, who said," In times of change learners inherit the earth; while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists." What are you a genius at Jack?====JACK: I wouldn't say that I'm a genius, but in seminary I was taught to take the Bible and try to connect it up with life. I think I paid attention when that lesson was taught. In this life, it's important to see the big picture in situations and in people. I try to compose my Winning Words with that in mind.====JON: I think you do an admirable job with Winning Words, it's pretty evident that you have done a lot of good, for a great many folks, over a long period of time, the type of ministry you have with WW's just does not appear from an empty quiver. We very much appreciate your efforts, in my case I appreciate that you make me think.====JACK: I occasionally get a message, "Please remove me from your mailing list."====JON: So does the Pope… Not everyone appreciated Gandhi either
FROM DAIRYLAND DONNA: LOVE this quote! What success is not, is the ability to score high on standardized tests like politicians seem to think. So so hard these days for kids who do not do well on tests. Didn't used to be this way. The ability to help kids feel successful has been taken away from teachers. Sad. ;o(====JACK: Today's quote is based on a cartoon which relates to your comment about standardized tests. The cartoon shows a monkey, a penguin, an elephant, a fish, a seal and a dog. The teacher is saying to them, "To be fair, everybody has the same exam. Please climb that tree."----DONNA: All I can say is "Wow!" ;o)
FROM TARMART REV: . . . being the best steward of that which God has awarded us with and use to build upon for betterment?====JACK: So...God has appointed you to meet Jesus, who just happens to be disguised as a Target shopper (who likes popcorn)?====REV: I sure would share my bag with him (or her)!!
FROM TRIHARDER: Perfect!====JACK: If this is "truly" an Einstein quote, it proves that he is more than a mathematician.
FROM HAWKEYE GEORGE: 10% inspiration, 90% perspiration. (Einstein)====JACK: He also said: "Before God, we are all equally wise and equally foolish."
FROM BLAZING OAKS: I HAVE THE CARTOON DEPICTING THIS SAYING, (WHICH I LOVE!!) WITH A NUMBER OF ANIMALS ONLY ONE OF WHICH COULD POSSIBLE CLIMB A TREE (MONKEY) WHICH REALLY BRINGS THE POINT HOME. AS EINSTEIN REPEATEDLY EMPHASIZED - EDUCATION SHOULD BE TO "TEACH PEOPLE TO THINK"! NOT EMPHASIS ON ROTE LEARNING, ETC. HIS RECENT BIOGRAPHY WAS FASCINATING, AND GAVE EXCELLENT INSIGHTS INTO HIS COMPLEX LIFE! AND THE WAY HE THOUGHT AND DEALT WITH SITUATIONS.HIS PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS OFTEN SUFFERED!
APPRECIATE "GOOD DEBT JOHN'S" COMMENTS TODAY!====JACK: A good teacher knows how to evaluate students, using more than a standardized test.
FROM IKE AT THE MIC: Emerson has a poem on Success that finishes with "To know one other human being lives better because you have lived that is SUCCESS!" That's why I'm proud to be a member of the Optimist Club.
“Everybody is a genius; but, if you judge a fish by his ability to climb a tree, it will spend its whole life believing that it is stupid.” (Einstein) Randy Best, a college grad, can’t read or use a computer, yet now heads a company which helps colleges develop on-line virtual classrooms. It’s especially helpful for those who can’t afford the on-campus experience. “Normally,” he shouldn’t be a success. What is success…really? ;-) Jack
EEC IN MICHIGAN: Interesting!====JACK: It's also interesting that Einstein was a slow learner as a child..."Einstein was slow in learning how to speak. He also had a cheeky rebelliousness toward authority, which led one headmaster to expel him and another to say that he would never amount to much. But these traits helped make him a genius. His cocky contempt for authority led him to question conventional wisdom. His slow verbal development made him curious about ordinary things — such as space and time — that most adults take for granted. His father gave him a compass at age five, and he puzzled over the nature of a magnetic field for the rest of his life. And he tended to think in pictures rather than words."
FROM RI IN BOSTON: Each of us has a part to play. I've known some persons who I didn't give much credit until I saw them confront a task that had me stymied, and they succeeded with it. There are people who criticize others for not achieving success, when those criticized actually like their lives...as the common expression says, "comfortable in their own skin."====JACK: It would be fun to look over God's shoulder as He writes comments about certain people who have been written off by the world's "experts." I don't want to look while he's writing about me, though.
FROM GOOD DEBT JON: Perhaps the hardest part (maybe even for geniuses) is finding where to apply your unique talents to make a difference in the world. I watched several of the videos at randybest.com, very inspiring. You are correct Jack, Randy Best is moving forward the way education is delivered. While online learning is not for everyone with new technology it is possible to create a bonding of teacher and learner and still have the learner to learner dynamic that is so critical in cohort learning. With SFL I will be promoting four themes, Financial Literacy, Attitude Management, Communication, and PDP (a written 10 year Personal Development Plan). I have found, If a person is cognizant of these four areas it helps them see how today's actions can radically change their future results. Of course it is easy for us old folks looking in the review mirror, the hard part is helping younger folks see the vision looking forward. Success to me is being able to answer satisfactorily, Did I Live?, Did I Love?, Did I Matter? Success is when you know you have mattered in your life and others. It was Eric Hoffer, in True Believer, who said," In times of change learners inherit the earth; while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists." What are you a genius at Jack?====JACK: I wouldn't say that I'm a genius, but in seminary I was taught to take the Bible and try to connect it up with life. I think I paid attention when that lesson was taught. In this life, it's important to see the big picture in situations and in people. I try to compose my Winning Words with that in mind.====JON: I think you do an admirable job with Winning Words, it's pretty evident that you have done a lot of good, for a great many folks, over a long period of time, the type of ministry you have with WW's just does not appear from an empty quiver. We very much appreciate your efforts, in my case I appreciate that you make me think.====JACK: I occasionally get a message, "Please remove me from your mailing list."====JON: So does the Pope… Not everyone appreciated Gandhi either
FROM DAIRYLAND DONNA: LOVE this quote! What success is not, is the ability to score high on standardized tests like politicians seem to think. So so hard these days for kids who do not do well on tests. Didn't used to be this way. The ability to help kids feel successful has been taken away from teachers. Sad. ;o(====JACK: Today's quote is based on a cartoon which relates to your comment about standardized tests. The cartoon shows a monkey, a penguin, an elephant, a fish, a seal and a dog. The teacher is saying to them, "To be fair, everybody has the same exam. Please climb that tree."----DONNA: All I can say is "Wow!" ;o)
FROM TARMART REV: . . . being the best steward of that which God has awarded us with and use to build upon for betterment?====JACK: So...God has appointed you to meet Jesus, who just happens to be disguised as a Target shopper (who likes popcorn)?====REV: I sure would share my bag with him (or her)!!
FROM TRIHARDER: Perfect!====JACK: If this is "truly" an Einstein quote, it proves that he is more than a mathematician.
FROM HAWKEYE GEORGE: 10% inspiration, 90% perspiration. (Einstein)====JACK: He also said: "Before God, we are all equally wise and equally foolish."
FROM BLAZING OAKS: I HAVE THE CARTOON DEPICTING THIS SAYING, (WHICH I LOVE!!) WITH A NUMBER OF ANIMALS ONLY ONE OF WHICH COULD POSSIBLE CLIMB A TREE (MONKEY) WHICH REALLY BRINGS THE POINT HOME. AS EINSTEIN REPEATEDLY EMPHASIZED - EDUCATION SHOULD BE TO "TEACH PEOPLE TO THINK"! NOT EMPHASIS ON ROTE LEARNING, ETC. HIS RECENT BIOGRAPHY WAS FASCINATING, AND GAVE EXCELLENT INSIGHTS INTO HIS COMPLEX LIFE! AND THE WAY HE THOUGHT AND DEALT WITH SITUATIONS.HIS PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS OFTEN SUFFERED!
APPRECIATE "GOOD DEBT JOHN'S" COMMENTS TODAY!====JACK: A good teacher knows how to evaluate students, using more than a standardized test.
FROM IKE AT THE MIC: Emerson has a poem on Success that finishes with "To know one other human being lives better because you have lived that is SUCCESS!" That's why I'm proud to be a member of the Optimist Club.
Thursday, February 20, 2014
Jack’s Winning Words 2/20/14
“I haven’t had a TV in 10 years. It’s more fun to be with people than with a TV.” (Chuck Palahniuk) Author Paula-nik is 52 today. I remember coming across some of his stuff a few years ago and wondering, “Who is this guy?” His story is far more interesting than a television show. But, isn’t that the way it is when you get to know people? Think of some of the ones who are more important to you than a big screen TV. ;-) Jack
FROM TS IN INDIANA: Isn't this the truth. Sue and I have gotten into a routine of leaving home in the morning and going to a local Panera for a coffee. This usually involves a little walk as well. What interesting people we have met there, and developed some good friendships - and learned a lot about the area. The TV normally doesn't come on until late in the day, and hopefully not more than an hour or two. ====JACK: I first remember going to "Panera" when it was called, St. Louis Bread. I suppose your TV time includes Judge Judy and Wheel of Fortune..
FROM TARMART REV: Back in the late 70's I was asked by the Senior Pastor to fill in for him on his daily 5-minute telecast, "Good Morning Springfield" which came during a cut-away from "Good Morning America!" . . . I remember seeing myself bigger than life right up front in the TV screen . . . looked like the professional wrestler at that time, 300 pound, "Haystack Calhoun!" . . . I was standing on the same spot where our senior pastor stood, while being taped for the telecast each weekday . . . being quite larger than he was, it wasn't a good idea . . . needed to be moved back . . . next time I was taped sitting behind a desk. ====JACK: Maybe that was the day Chuck Palahniuk decided to no longer watch TV.
FROM GOOD DEBT JON: Yes, I could go a long time without FNC, MSNBC, CNN, etc. I do enjoy, Shark Tank, and The Good Wife on network TV, loathe most sports on TV (I do watch some football). Often being with people is enjoyable, but reading, writing, and studying or creating something useful is far more fulfilling for me than TV.====JACK: Most of us are not comfortable with extremes, whether it's watching TV or listening to politicians.
FROM RI IN BOSTON: Offhand, just about anyone I know is more interesting than what comes out of the TV. "Boob Tube" describes it well. The medium is simply a means of pounding us with advertising. In England people pay a monthly fee and get TV that's void of commercials. In our country we pay monthly for cable TV, and yet we willingly watch and listen to all sorts of commercials...like dummies we accept that. My favorite features on TV are the ones where someone at an upstairs window throws their TV to the paving below. Bravo!====JACK: You and Chuck must enjoy one another's company...while the rest of us are watching Honey Boo Boo.
FROM MOLINER JT: Pastor Dan still,at 42, doesn't have a TV. He does "peek" at ours from time to time. ====JACK: How does he do with the 10 Commandments?
FROM BLAZING OAKS: I DON'T WATCH TV ALL DAY, BUT I'D HATE TO BE WITHOUT IT...LOVE TO WATCH THE BALLGAMES, GAME SHOWS (JEOPARDY, WHEEL OF FORTUNE) OLD MOVIES AT TIMES AND RIGHT NOW THE OLYMPICS. LOVE TO READ, WHICH I OFTEN DO DURING COMMERCIAL BREAKS, PUTTING ON THE "MUTE" BUTTON..ALSO GET WEATHER ALERTS! RIGHT NOW ITS A TORNADO "WATCH"...:-( I THINK MOST OF US GET OUT AND ABOUT DAILY, AND TALK TO PLENTY OF PEOPLE WITHOUT GIVING UP ALL TV. AS MUCH AS I READ, I'M NOT FAMILIAR WITH THIS AUTHOR! MY FRIEND DIANE JOHNSON HAS A RECENT BOOK PUBLISHED "FLYOVER LIVES". SHE'S FROM THE QUAD CITIES CK HER OUT!====JACK: As my mother-in-law used to say, "All things in moderation." You check out Chuck, and I'll check out Diane.
FROM SBP IN FLORIDA: Thoughts" The promise of TV has been disappointing in many ways. But... it does bring us the Olympics, PBS offerings, weather forecasts and alerts, FOOTBALL, as well as Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! And when I think of what life could/would be for the elderly, lonely, homebound, etc.....it's a gift. As for Chuck Palahnuik, I Googled him, and as a result I wonder why after reading one of his books , anyone would read more.====JACK: But, you have to admit that having a face to face interesting conversation is better than any TV show. BTW, don't be too hard on Chuck. Read about his early life. "We are who we were." A selection of his Brainy Quotes bears this out, too.====SBP: In its recent issue, Mental Floss has listed 16 people who tried and tried again....including Bill Gates, Rudyard Kipling, and Oprah Winfrey......A lot of surprises and I am sure there are more. And I Googled Chuck Palahnuick Quotes (at several websites) and, in them, for me, there's depth and poignancy and some that leave me feeling unsettled. Thank you, once again, for thought provoking WWs and for sharing the responses. Good conversation even though its not face to face.
“I haven’t had a TV in 10 years. It’s more fun to be with people than with a TV.” (Chuck Palahniuk) Author Paula-nik is 52 today. I remember coming across some of his stuff a few years ago and wondering, “Who is this guy?” His story is far more interesting than a television show. But, isn’t that the way it is when you get to know people? Think of some of the ones who are more important to you than a big screen TV. ;-) Jack
FROM TS IN INDIANA: Isn't this the truth. Sue and I have gotten into a routine of leaving home in the morning and going to a local Panera for a coffee. This usually involves a little walk as well. What interesting people we have met there, and developed some good friendships - and learned a lot about the area. The TV normally doesn't come on until late in the day, and hopefully not more than an hour or two. ====JACK: I first remember going to "Panera" when it was called, St. Louis Bread. I suppose your TV time includes Judge Judy and Wheel of Fortune..
FROM TARMART REV: Back in the late 70's I was asked by the Senior Pastor to fill in for him on his daily 5-minute telecast, "Good Morning Springfield" which came during a cut-away from "Good Morning America!" . . . I remember seeing myself bigger than life right up front in the TV screen . . . looked like the professional wrestler at that time, 300 pound, "Haystack Calhoun!" . . . I was standing on the same spot where our senior pastor stood, while being taped for the telecast each weekday . . . being quite larger than he was, it wasn't a good idea . . . needed to be moved back . . . next time I was taped sitting behind a desk. ====JACK: Maybe that was the day Chuck Palahniuk decided to no longer watch TV.
FROM GOOD DEBT JON: Yes, I could go a long time without FNC, MSNBC, CNN, etc. I do enjoy, Shark Tank, and The Good Wife on network TV, loathe most sports on TV (I do watch some football). Often being with people is enjoyable, but reading, writing, and studying or creating something useful is far more fulfilling for me than TV.====JACK: Most of us are not comfortable with extremes, whether it's watching TV or listening to politicians.
FROM RI IN BOSTON: Offhand, just about anyone I know is more interesting than what comes out of the TV. "Boob Tube" describes it well. The medium is simply a means of pounding us with advertising. In England people pay a monthly fee and get TV that's void of commercials. In our country we pay monthly for cable TV, and yet we willingly watch and listen to all sorts of commercials...like dummies we accept that. My favorite features on TV are the ones where someone at an upstairs window throws their TV to the paving below. Bravo!====JACK: You and Chuck must enjoy one another's company...while the rest of us are watching Honey Boo Boo.
FROM MOLINER JT: Pastor Dan still,at 42, doesn't have a TV. He does "peek" at ours from time to time. ====JACK: How does he do with the 10 Commandments?
FROM BLAZING OAKS: I DON'T WATCH TV ALL DAY, BUT I'D HATE TO BE WITHOUT IT...LOVE TO WATCH THE BALLGAMES, GAME SHOWS (JEOPARDY, WHEEL OF FORTUNE) OLD MOVIES AT TIMES AND RIGHT NOW THE OLYMPICS. LOVE TO READ, WHICH I OFTEN DO DURING COMMERCIAL BREAKS, PUTTING ON THE "MUTE" BUTTON..ALSO GET WEATHER ALERTS! RIGHT NOW ITS A TORNADO "WATCH"...:-( I THINK MOST OF US GET OUT AND ABOUT DAILY, AND TALK TO PLENTY OF PEOPLE WITHOUT GIVING UP ALL TV. AS MUCH AS I READ, I'M NOT FAMILIAR WITH THIS AUTHOR! MY FRIEND DIANE JOHNSON HAS A RECENT BOOK PUBLISHED "FLYOVER LIVES". SHE'S FROM THE QUAD CITIES CK HER OUT!====JACK: As my mother-in-law used to say, "All things in moderation." You check out Chuck, and I'll check out Diane.
FROM SBP IN FLORIDA: Thoughts" The promise of TV has been disappointing in many ways. But... it does bring us the Olympics, PBS offerings, weather forecasts and alerts, FOOTBALL, as well as Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! And when I think of what life could/would be for the elderly, lonely, homebound, etc.....it's a gift. As for Chuck Palahnuik, I Googled him, and as a result I wonder why after reading one of his books , anyone would read more.====JACK: But, you have to admit that having a face to face interesting conversation is better than any TV show. BTW, don't be too hard on Chuck. Read about his early life. "We are who we were." A selection of his Brainy Quotes bears this out, too.====SBP: In its recent issue, Mental Floss has listed 16 people who tried and tried again....including Bill Gates, Rudyard Kipling, and Oprah Winfrey......A lot of surprises and I am sure there are more. And I Googled Chuck Palahnuick Quotes (at several websites) and, in them, for me, there's depth and poignancy and some that leave me feeling unsettled. Thank you, once again, for thought provoking WWs and for sharing the responses. Good conversation even though its not face to face.
Wednesday, February 19, 2014
Jack’s Winning Words 2/19/14
“We work to make our good better and our better best.” (Team Slogan) I saw these words on a sweatshirt in church on Sunday. After the service the girl told me they were the slogan for her 8th Grade volleyball team. It’s a good slogan for any organization, a church, a business—even for us, personally. Success is a step by step process. That volleyball slogan can be a “life” inspiration. Why not post it by your desk? ;-) Jack
FROM MICHIZONA RAY: It seems that the slogan fits the process of the open-eyed life doesn't it? Whether it be volleyball, one in a 12-step program, or the experience(s) of repentance. We "strive" more for the "perfect" more than we achieve it. Even if I know I will never achieve perfection, it is worthy of keeping my eye on it. ====JACK: The pursuit for perfection sometimes reminds me of the myth of Sisyphus. Even the best of teams suffer losses...but, then, rise up and begin their quest again.
FROM TARMART REV: That would be a better idea than I had this morning, the best yet!!====JACK: How would you rate the Target popcorn, compared to others that you have tasted? Good, better or best? ====REV: Target has a policy of popping their corn every 20 minutes or so . . . usually very fresh and often still hot . . . haven't found any lately I like better . . . theater corn is often too salty for me . . . we have a gas station/car wash/oil change business all-in-one with a large popcorn machine inside that says, "help yourself" . . . it has been a successful trademark of theirs for many years . . . I enjoy "helping myself" often when patronizing them.====JACK: Since you're a "regular," does Target give you a special rate...or free refills?
FROM RI IN BOSTON: Some sweatshirts and tees I've seen, with the slogans imprinted on them, should be burned. The one you tell about is a "keeper". Inspiration can come from unexpected sources. ====JACK: I like it when teens aren't embarrassed to express what they believe in...whether I agree with it, or not. It's called, Free Speech.====RI: That's right. It's also reassuring to see examples of dedicated teens with positive attitudes, in contrast to so many reports we see about angry and destructive young people.
FROM BLAZING OAKS: These WW brought back a little saying from grade school days we had to memorize! "Good, Better, Best, never let it rest, until your Good is Better and your Better, Best!' Hadn't thought of that in years! That's a lifetime goal, for sure. There is always room for improvement, isn't there? The bright sun and warmer temps make for positivity weather-wise!====JACK: Mary and I received a breadboard for a wedding present. Painted on it were the words, "Grow old along with me. The best is yet to be." ...not good or better, but best.
FROM SB IN MICHIGAN: Your “Winning Words” for today reminded me of a slogan that my mother taught me when I was a youngster: “Good, better, best – never let it rest until your good is better and your better is best.” Not sure whom she was quoting, but it’s a memorable slogan.====JACK: You're the 2nd one who has mentioned the words your mother taught you. Isn't it interesting how the mind works...able to recall things learned as a child?
FROM SBP IN FLORIDA: The last of life for which the first was made Our times are in His hand Who saith, "A whole I planned. Youth shows but half: trust God: see all, nor be afraid." Rabbi Ben Ezra.....(Robert Browning) ....and many more verses follow....but I've loved this one a looooong time. And like "Good, Better, Best"....WW continually stirs recall as well as research.Thank you.====JACK: Browning makes you think! His poetry is not doggerel.
FROM PH IN MESA: as a kid I learned this poem: good, better, best. never let it rest! make your good better, and your better best!====JACK: You're the 3rd "old-timer" who's indicated that the memory bank is still in operation.
FROM PLAIN FOLKS CHESTER: If you are happy, you are successful.====JACK: Looking back....Were you successful in your business?====PFC: Was very happy. We did great work and our clients were loyal. There were 15 of us and we all were pals. Still see several of the on a regular basis. Successful? I'd say so.
“We work to make our good better and our better best.” (Team Slogan) I saw these words on a sweatshirt in church on Sunday. After the service the girl told me they were the slogan for her 8th Grade volleyball team. It’s a good slogan for any organization, a church, a business—even for us, personally. Success is a step by step process. That volleyball slogan can be a “life” inspiration. Why not post it by your desk? ;-) Jack
FROM MICHIZONA RAY: It seems that the slogan fits the process of the open-eyed life doesn't it? Whether it be volleyball, one in a 12-step program, or the experience(s) of repentance. We "strive" more for the "perfect" more than we achieve it. Even if I know I will never achieve perfection, it is worthy of keeping my eye on it. ====JACK: The pursuit for perfection sometimes reminds me of the myth of Sisyphus. Even the best of teams suffer losses...but, then, rise up and begin their quest again.
FROM TARMART REV: That would be a better idea than I had this morning, the best yet!!====JACK: How would you rate the Target popcorn, compared to others that you have tasted? Good, better or best? ====REV: Target has a policy of popping their corn every 20 minutes or so . . . usually very fresh and often still hot . . . haven't found any lately I like better . . . theater corn is often too salty for me . . . we have a gas station/car wash/oil change business all-in-one with a large popcorn machine inside that says, "help yourself" . . . it has been a successful trademark of theirs for many years . . . I enjoy "helping myself" often when patronizing them.====JACK: Since you're a "regular," does Target give you a special rate...or free refills?
FROM RI IN BOSTON: Some sweatshirts and tees I've seen, with the slogans imprinted on them, should be burned. The one you tell about is a "keeper". Inspiration can come from unexpected sources. ====JACK: I like it when teens aren't embarrassed to express what they believe in...whether I agree with it, or not. It's called, Free Speech.====RI: That's right. It's also reassuring to see examples of dedicated teens with positive attitudes, in contrast to so many reports we see about angry and destructive young people.
FROM BLAZING OAKS: These WW brought back a little saying from grade school days we had to memorize! "Good, Better, Best, never let it rest, until your Good is Better and your Better, Best!' Hadn't thought of that in years! That's a lifetime goal, for sure. There is always room for improvement, isn't there? The bright sun and warmer temps make for positivity weather-wise!====JACK: Mary and I received a breadboard for a wedding present. Painted on it were the words, "Grow old along with me. The best is yet to be." ...not good or better, but best.
FROM SB IN MICHIGAN: Your “Winning Words” for today reminded me of a slogan that my mother taught me when I was a youngster: “Good, better, best – never let it rest until your good is better and your better is best.” Not sure whom she was quoting, but it’s a memorable slogan.====JACK: You're the 2nd one who has mentioned the words your mother taught you. Isn't it interesting how the mind works...able to recall things learned as a child?
FROM SBP IN FLORIDA: The last of life for which the first was made Our times are in His hand Who saith, "A whole I planned. Youth shows but half: trust God: see all, nor be afraid." Rabbi Ben Ezra.....(Robert Browning) ....and many more verses follow....but I've loved this one a looooong time. And like "Good, Better, Best"....WW continually stirs recall as well as research.Thank you.====JACK: Browning makes you think! His poetry is not doggerel.
FROM PH IN MESA: as a kid I learned this poem: good, better, best. never let it rest! make your good better, and your better best!====JACK: You're the 3rd "old-timer" who's indicated that the memory bank is still in operation.
FROM PLAIN FOLKS CHESTER: If you are happy, you are successful.====JACK: Looking back....Were you successful in your business?====PFC: Was very happy. We did great work and our clients were loyal. There were 15 of us and we all were pals. Still see several of the on a regular basis. Successful? I'd say so.
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
Jack’s Winning Words 2/18/14
“I need some positivity out of you. You fought hard, and that’s all that matters.” (Morgan Miller to husband, Bode) Bode Miller had expected to do better in this year’s Olympics slalom and was expressing frustration to his wife. Sometimes a spouse has a way of putting things into proper perspective. Grantland Rice originally wrote: “It’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game.” A medal for Morgan! ;-) Jack
FROM TARMART REV: You and I are truly blessed to have experienced our many years of a faithful marriage . . . meet so many nowadays who fail to invest in such.====JACK: A pastor needs a spouse who will tell it like it is. "You are not God!"
FROM FACEBOOK LIZ: she is a smart lady!====JACK: To know "what matters" is a sign of wisdom. I was impressed with Morgan.
FROM DAIRYLAND DONNA: Missed the meeting this morning. Had to snow blow 2 driveways and then took some time to take some snow pictures. ;o) I am ready for a little melting to take place. ====JACK: As far as this winter goes, we're ready for some positivity!
FROM PLAIN FOLKS CHESTER: Good for Morgan. I hope Bode learned from the experience. ====JACK: I've learned a few things from my wife. On 2nd thought, more than a few.
FROM OUTHOUSE JUDY: It's probably very hard for those athletes who spend most of their life with a dream to get to the Olympics and then to get there and not meet their own expectations. I was watching when she said those words to her husband and he took the words very gracefully. It's so easy to say and so very hard to do.====JACK: What we don't know is how much they've been through together. But in the average married relationship, it's usually plenty.
FROM BLAZING OAKS: I THINK BODE'S WIFE IS VERY CRUCIAL TO HIS WELL-BEING. THEY SEEM SO CLOSE, AND SHE SEEMS TO STABALIZE HIM. HE HAS BEEN THROUGH A LOT, AND I FEEL THE CONDITION OF THE SNOW IN SOCHI HAS BOTHERED HIM MORE THAN MOST MY SON USED TO TELL HIS FOOTBALL AND WRESTLING TEAMS, "WINNING ISN'T EVERYTHING, BUT WANTING TO WIN IS!" CERTAINLY THE OLYMPIC COMPETITORS ALL HAVE THAT "WANT TO WIN" ATTITUDE IN SPADES! OR SHOULD I SAY IN ICE AND SNOW?!!====JACK: Bode's on the "downhill" of being able to compete as an Olympian, but he has been a winner in many ways, especially in the wife-picking event.
FROM HR IN MICHIGAN: I watched her on TV and was also impressed. A lot different from Lombardi’s quote about winning isn’t everything it is the only thing. Did you see that horrible interview that Bode had to endure after he won the bronze in the Super G. It was shameless in exploiting his pain. ====JACK: But we watched that interview, didn't we? And by watching, we learned that Bode was a true human being. And later, he defended the interviewer by saying that she was just doing her job. Class!
FROM GUSTIE MARLYS: I think the Media could have stayed out of his face tho. They just egged him on till he broke!====JACK: I felt uncomfortable, too. Some reporters don't know when to quit...but I still watched.
FROM TAMPA SHIRL: That was exciting and hard to watch. We had seen where Bode practiced in Alaska years ago.====JACK: Did you ski on the same hill where Bode practiced?
FROM PLAIN FOLKS CHESTER: Mine was a great teacher!====JACK: There's a slogan...You should fall in love head first. A lot of people fall in love eyes first.
“I need some positivity out of you. You fought hard, and that’s all that matters.” (Morgan Miller to husband, Bode) Bode Miller had expected to do better in this year’s Olympics slalom and was expressing frustration to his wife. Sometimes a spouse has a way of putting things into proper perspective. Grantland Rice originally wrote: “It’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game.” A medal for Morgan! ;-) Jack
FROM TARMART REV: You and I are truly blessed to have experienced our many years of a faithful marriage . . . meet so many nowadays who fail to invest in such.====JACK: A pastor needs a spouse who will tell it like it is. "You are not God!"
FROM FACEBOOK LIZ: she is a smart lady!====JACK: To know "what matters" is a sign of wisdom. I was impressed with Morgan.
FROM DAIRYLAND DONNA: Missed the meeting this morning. Had to snow blow 2 driveways and then took some time to take some snow pictures. ;o) I am ready for a little melting to take place. ====JACK: As far as this winter goes, we're ready for some positivity!
FROM PLAIN FOLKS CHESTER: Good for Morgan. I hope Bode learned from the experience. ====JACK: I've learned a few things from my wife. On 2nd thought, more than a few.
FROM OUTHOUSE JUDY: It's probably very hard for those athletes who spend most of their life with a dream to get to the Olympics and then to get there and not meet their own expectations. I was watching when she said those words to her husband and he took the words very gracefully. It's so easy to say and so very hard to do.====JACK: What we don't know is how much they've been through together. But in the average married relationship, it's usually plenty.
FROM BLAZING OAKS: I THINK BODE'S WIFE IS VERY CRUCIAL TO HIS WELL-BEING. THEY SEEM SO CLOSE, AND SHE SEEMS TO STABALIZE HIM. HE HAS BEEN THROUGH A LOT, AND I FEEL THE CONDITION OF THE SNOW IN SOCHI HAS BOTHERED HIM MORE THAN MOST MY SON USED TO TELL HIS FOOTBALL AND WRESTLING TEAMS, "WINNING ISN'T EVERYTHING, BUT WANTING TO WIN IS!" CERTAINLY THE OLYMPIC COMPETITORS ALL HAVE THAT "WANT TO WIN" ATTITUDE IN SPADES! OR SHOULD I SAY IN ICE AND SNOW?!!====JACK: Bode's on the "downhill" of being able to compete as an Olympian, but he has been a winner in many ways, especially in the wife-picking event.
FROM HR IN MICHIGAN: I watched her on TV and was also impressed. A lot different from Lombardi’s quote about winning isn’t everything it is the only thing. Did you see that horrible interview that Bode had to endure after he won the bronze in the Super G. It was shameless in exploiting his pain. ====JACK: But we watched that interview, didn't we? And by watching, we learned that Bode was a true human being. And later, he defended the interviewer by saying that she was just doing her job. Class!
FROM GUSTIE MARLYS: I think the Media could have stayed out of his face tho. They just egged him on till he broke!====JACK: I felt uncomfortable, too. Some reporters don't know when to quit...but I still watched.
FROM TAMPA SHIRL: That was exciting and hard to watch. We had seen where Bode practiced in Alaska years ago.====JACK: Did you ski on the same hill where Bode practiced?
FROM PLAIN FOLKS CHESTER: Mine was a great teacher!====JACK: There's a slogan...You should fall in love head first. A lot of people fall in love eyes first.
Monday, February 17, 2014
Jack’s Winning Words 2/17/14
“Great lives never go out; they go on.” (William Henry Harrison) Harrison’s presidency lasted only a month, but he is still among those honored today on President’s Day. Lincoln usually comes out on top as the “best” president, with Washington as next. But all presidents generally have some really good qualities. Do you have any favorites beyond the Top Two? Of those I’ve known, I like the one I first voted for. ;-) Jack
FROM GOOD DEBT JON: I think it was Dr. Stephen Covey that said, "Live, Love, Leave a Legacy." I say, no one of these is less important, though at first glance it seems legacy would be the hard one. When we invest in the lives of others, we have a chance to send messengers into a time we will not see. That is legacy for common folks, a president or billionaire may leave a legacy, but is such a legacy from life and love, or of simply infamy or wealth? I suppose each has its enduring qualities. The legacy of Mr. A.C. Bennett that was my father figure is one that stands out for me, he was neither rich or famous, but changed my life forever. For every famous saying of Lincoln, I can quote one from Mr. Bennett.====JACK: Your response caused me to think of the word, muse...a source of inspiration, a personal guide. ACB seems to have been a muse for you.====JON: You may be right, though I usually think of muse as coming from internal sources, I suppose I have internalized much of what ACB taught me.====JACK: A dictionary is a great help in understanding more about words than we think we know.
FROM TS IN INDIANA: Now you've got s all wondering. You are implying that you voted for either Washington or Lincoln, but I know better. Was it Kennedy (my first) or Eisenhower? Calvin Coolidge seems to be re-surfacing also. I'm hoping to read more on him, but right now I think he could be high on my list.====JACK: "Give 'em hell, Harry!"
FROM HONEST JOHN: In my time I have liked Truman, Ike, Ford and Clinton the best. They ave one thing in common....pragmatic in their ways....not hung up on an ideological path.====JACK: Some of my favorites didn't win...Adlai Stevenson and Hubert Humphrey.====JOHN: I could never have voted for Stevenson he was too hung up on his ideology he thought we should practice universal disarmament and unilateral disarmament.====JACK: I voted for him because he wasn't ashamed to wear shoes showing a hole in one. I could identify with that, because I, too, had shoes like that.
FROM HAWKEYE GEORGE: Eisenhower?====JACK: Nope! As you might have guessed...I was on the losing side those times.
FROM RS IN TEXAS: Speaking of great lives that went on (and good stories about them), there's what should be a great movie (if it's as good as the book) coming out this Christmas - Unbroken. Here's a link to a sneak peek on Yahoo - http://movies.yahoo.com/blogs/movie-news/first-look-angelina-jolie-unbroken-full-patriotic-feels-014401724.html.====JACK: Thanks for the heads up on what promises to be a "Winning Words" film. Zapperini's quote: "Never give up, no matter what." Truly, a great life story.
FROM SNOWBIRD AA: so you voted for Lincoln!====JACK: I would have.
FROM FACEBOOK LIZ: reagan!!!====JACK: Did you know that he was once the President of the Screen Actors' Guild (union)? He was also a baseball announcer on a station that reached the Tri-Cities (before they were known as known as the Quad-Cities and also the Quint-Cities).====LIZ: he also was a democrat, originally.====JACK: Some people say that they vote for the candidate, not the party.
FROM BLAZING OAKS: I came to admire Truman after he left office. His bios and other things I've read about him, show a courageous and also "down-home" guy of great integrity! Carter has continued to make his life count for others; He was an "outsider" in the White House, and had no cooperation, poor guy! Like you say, probably all presidents have some good qualities...the job certainly ages anyone who takes it on!! Happy President's day (sleet and snow here...) and God Bless and protect Them!!====JACK: I chose a quote from a rather obscure President, because I thought that I should get to know more about him. Neil Johnson (MHS and Augie - Did you know him?) went on to become an historian at the Truman Museum. He also dressed as Truman and gave talks to groups, as though Truman were speaking.
FROM OUTHOUSE JUDY: So you actually voted for Lincoln...LOL. I liked Theodore Roosevelt after Lincoln and Washington. All of those early Presidents faced so much hard-ship. I believe all of our presidents have had heartaches and headaches while in office. We thank God for them today!====JACK: I wonder if the outhouses at the White House were painted white? I think that Teddy Roosevelt was the first President to have indoor plumbing at the White House.====JUDY: It would be interesting to find out. When I have some time, I will commence to find out and let you know. I'm glad Teddy had indoor plumbing!
FROM DC IN KANSAS: How about their wives? Yesterday we had a presentation by Richard Norton Smith on "First Ladies." Tonight he is going to talk about Mary Lincoln. This is an interesting slant on history. Martha Washington? Woodrow Wilson's wife? etc.====JACK: My vote for best 1st Lady is Eleanor Roosevelt. Who will be the 1st Gentleman?
FROM CK IN MICHIGAN: Jack did you vote for Washington?====JACK: Was he a Democrat?
FROM SBP IN FLORIDA: What happened to FDR a well as Truman? My folks were very appreciative of the positive occurrences during the FDR administration.====JACK: When the FDR dime first came out, someone handed me one and, asked, "Does this smell rotten to you." Some things never change. It's a blessing that we live in a democracy.
FROM TARMART REV: In my life time, I enjoyed the personality and presidential professionalism of Reagan...Nixon commanded my attention as he spoke up to the time of Watergate...Truman and Eisenhower were the fist two presidents that I can recall.====JACK: Do you ever talk politics while eating popcorn with your "customers?"
FROM FM IN WISCONSIN: Truman for me too, and the first Bush and Ford.====JACK: It's almost unbelievable how Wisconsin has been transformed from the Progressive State that it once was.
“Great lives never go out; they go on.” (William Henry Harrison) Harrison’s presidency lasted only a month, but he is still among those honored today on President’s Day. Lincoln usually comes out on top as the “best” president, with Washington as next. But all presidents generally have some really good qualities. Do you have any favorites beyond the Top Two? Of those I’ve known, I like the one I first voted for. ;-) Jack
FROM GOOD DEBT JON: I think it was Dr. Stephen Covey that said, "Live, Love, Leave a Legacy." I say, no one of these is less important, though at first glance it seems legacy would be the hard one. When we invest in the lives of others, we have a chance to send messengers into a time we will not see. That is legacy for common folks, a president or billionaire may leave a legacy, but is such a legacy from life and love, or of simply infamy or wealth? I suppose each has its enduring qualities. The legacy of Mr. A.C. Bennett that was my father figure is one that stands out for me, he was neither rich or famous, but changed my life forever. For every famous saying of Lincoln, I can quote one from Mr. Bennett.====JACK: Your response caused me to think of the word, muse...a source of inspiration, a personal guide. ACB seems to have been a muse for you.====JON: You may be right, though I usually think of muse as coming from internal sources, I suppose I have internalized much of what ACB taught me.====JACK: A dictionary is a great help in understanding more about words than we think we know.
FROM TS IN INDIANA: Now you've got s all wondering. You are implying that you voted for either Washington or Lincoln, but I know better. Was it Kennedy (my first) or Eisenhower? Calvin Coolidge seems to be re-surfacing also. I'm hoping to read more on him, but right now I think he could be high on my list.====JACK: "Give 'em hell, Harry!"
FROM HONEST JOHN: In my time I have liked Truman, Ike, Ford and Clinton the best. They ave one thing in common....pragmatic in their ways....not hung up on an ideological path.====JACK: Some of my favorites didn't win...Adlai Stevenson and Hubert Humphrey.====JOHN: I could never have voted for Stevenson he was too hung up on his ideology he thought we should practice universal disarmament and unilateral disarmament.====JACK: I voted for him because he wasn't ashamed to wear shoes showing a hole in one. I could identify with that, because I, too, had shoes like that.
FROM HAWKEYE GEORGE: Eisenhower?====JACK: Nope! As you might have guessed...I was on the losing side those times.
FROM RS IN TEXAS: Speaking of great lives that went on (and good stories about them), there's what should be a great movie (if it's as good as the book) coming out this Christmas - Unbroken. Here's a link to a sneak peek on Yahoo - http://movies.yahoo.com/blogs/movie-news/first-look-angelina-jolie-unbroken-full-patriotic-feels-014401724.html.====JACK: Thanks for the heads up on what promises to be a "Winning Words" film. Zapperini's quote: "Never give up, no matter what." Truly, a great life story.
FROM SNOWBIRD AA: so you voted for Lincoln!====JACK: I would have.
FROM FACEBOOK LIZ: reagan!!!====JACK: Did you know that he was once the President of the Screen Actors' Guild (union)? He was also a baseball announcer on a station that reached the Tri-Cities (before they were known as known as the Quad-Cities and also the Quint-Cities).====LIZ: he also was a democrat, originally.====JACK: Some people say that they vote for the candidate, not the party.
FROM BLAZING OAKS: I came to admire Truman after he left office. His bios and other things I've read about him, show a courageous and also "down-home" guy of great integrity! Carter has continued to make his life count for others; He was an "outsider" in the White House, and had no cooperation, poor guy! Like you say, probably all presidents have some good qualities...the job certainly ages anyone who takes it on!! Happy President's day (sleet and snow here...) and God Bless and protect Them!!====JACK: I chose a quote from a rather obscure President, because I thought that I should get to know more about him. Neil Johnson (MHS and Augie - Did you know him?) went on to become an historian at the Truman Museum. He also dressed as Truman and gave talks to groups, as though Truman were speaking.
FROM OUTHOUSE JUDY: So you actually voted for Lincoln...LOL. I liked Theodore Roosevelt after Lincoln and Washington. All of those early Presidents faced so much hard-ship. I believe all of our presidents have had heartaches and headaches while in office. We thank God for them today!====JACK: I wonder if the outhouses at the White House were painted white? I think that Teddy Roosevelt was the first President to have indoor plumbing at the White House.====JUDY: It would be interesting to find out. When I have some time, I will commence to find out and let you know. I'm glad Teddy had indoor plumbing!
FROM DC IN KANSAS: How about their wives? Yesterday we had a presentation by Richard Norton Smith on "First Ladies." Tonight he is going to talk about Mary Lincoln. This is an interesting slant on history. Martha Washington? Woodrow Wilson's wife? etc.====JACK: My vote for best 1st Lady is Eleanor Roosevelt. Who will be the 1st Gentleman?
FROM CK IN MICHIGAN: Jack did you vote for Washington?====JACK: Was he a Democrat?
FROM SBP IN FLORIDA: What happened to FDR a well as Truman? My folks were very appreciative of the positive occurrences during the FDR administration.====JACK: When the FDR dime first came out, someone handed me one and, asked, "Does this smell rotten to you." Some things never change. It's a blessing that we live in a democracy.
FROM TARMART REV: In my life time, I enjoyed the personality and presidential professionalism of Reagan...Nixon commanded my attention as he spoke up to the time of Watergate...Truman and Eisenhower were the fist two presidents that I can recall.====JACK: Do you ever talk politics while eating popcorn with your "customers?"
FROM FM IN WISCONSIN: Truman for me too, and the first Bush and Ford.====JACK: It's almost unbelievable how Wisconsin has been transformed from the Progressive State that it once was.
Friday, February 14, 2014
Jack’s Winning Words 2/14/14
“In love, one and one are one.” (Jean-Paul Sartre) The oldest surviving Valentine is from the 15th Century... “Je suis desja d'amour tanné Ma tres doulce Valentinée...” It was sent by the Duke of Orleans to his wife, and is probably where the word, lovesick, originated. Sartre’s words echo the Bible verse, “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” Einstein, who can explain math, asks, “Who can explain love?” Can you? ;-) Jack
FROM TARMART REV: . . . more impressed with those attempting to act it out, even though they might not have it down perfectly!! Both the giver and the receiver most generally benefit from it.====JACK: There were those who thought Cole Porter's song, "Let's Fall in Love," should be banned because of lyrices like this..." And that's why birds do it, bees do it Even educated fleas do it Let's do it, let's fall in love."
FROM EMT SINGS IN MICHIGAN: I like this a lot! I saved it and put it in my scrapbook. ====JACK: My aunt made a scrapbook for me when I was a child. She also gave me crayons...which I used to scribble on most of the pages.
FROM BLAZING OAKS: I have a "thought" by Emily Matthews posted in our bedroom which to me, is an excellent insight into long-lasting love: "When I first said that I loved you, there was no way that I could know How the feelings that I had back then would deepen and grow---
Now I realize how true love builds on all that's gone before,
And I know that with each passing year, I'll love you more and more."
Those of us who have been fortunate to have such a love, are truly blessed! And even after 12 yrs of widowhood, the memories are precious!! HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY! I am enjoying a lovely bouquet of pink roses, carnations, and baby asters sent by my family...the love goes on!====JACK: ...and the beat goes on. The children learn from watching their parents.
“In love, one and one are one.” (Jean-Paul Sartre) The oldest surviving Valentine is from the 15th Century... “Je suis desja d'amour tanné Ma tres doulce Valentinée...” It was sent by the Duke of Orleans to his wife, and is probably where the word, lovesick, originated. Sartre’s words echo the Bible verse, “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” Einstein, who can explain math, asks, “Who can explain love?” Can you? ;-) Jack
FROM TARMART REV: . . . more impressed with those attempting to act it out, even though they might not have it down perfectly!! Both the giver and the receiver most generally benefit from it.====JACK: There were those who thought Cole Porter's song, "Let's Fall in Love," should be banned because of lyrices like this..." And that's why birds do it, bees do it Even educated fleas do it Let's do it, let's fall in love."
FROM EMT SINGS IN MICHIGAN: I like this a lot! I saved it and put it in my scrapbook. ====JACK: My aunt made a scrapbook for me when I was a child. She also gave me crayons...which I used to scribble on most of the pages.
FROM BLAZING OAKS: I have a "thought" by Emily Matthews posted in our bedroom which to me, is an excellent insight into long-lasting love: "When I first said that I loved you, there was no way that I could know How the feelings that I had back then would deepen and grow---
Now I realize how true love builds on all that's gone before,
And I know that with each passing year, I'll love you more and more."
Those of us who have been fortunate to have such a love, are truly blessed! And even after 12 yrs of widowhood, the memories are precious!! HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY! I am enjoying a lovely bouquet of pink roses, carnations, and baby asters sent by my family...the love goes on!====JACK: ...and the beat goes on. The children learn from watching their parents.
Thursday, February 13, 2014
Jack’s Winning Words 2/13/14
“Don’t take yourself too seriously—Take God seriously!” (Micah 6:8 The Message Translation) Pr Eugene Peterson thought that some people were missing the meaning of the Bible, because they were misunderstanding words. So, he translated the words in a way that related to modern thinking. I have 13 different translations of the Bible in my library. But “the only Gospel some folks read is the Gospel according to you.” ;-) Jack
FROM BILLY THE KID: Amen!====JACK: When God "speaks," he's not kidding around.
FROM TARMART REV: As the old preacher shouted from behind his pulpit, "The King James Version was good enough for the Apostle Paul!! So, it's good enough for me!! Praise, God!!"====JACK: I remember when the Revised Standard Version was published as a new translation of the King James Bible. A Bible-Belt pastor stood in his pulpit with a blowtorch and actually burned a copy of the RSV as a protest. ====REV: I'd bet Southern Baptist or Pentecostal/Holiness (sure could have been A/G in "them there" days!).====JACK: I'm sure it wasn't a Lutheran, because Lutheran scholars were involved in the translating process.====REV: I recall that fact . . . we had a contributing scholar with the NIV . . . a professor of mine at Central Bible College in Springfield, Missouri by the name of Stanly Horton . . . rated high on the list of those quite knowledgeable of the Hebrew language.
FROM DC IN KANSAS: How? Isn't Peterson missing something?====JACK: As I understand it, he was trying to get the thought across, rather than giving a "word by word" translation. Maybe that's what we try to do in our sermons. I like what he's done with Micah...."Take God seriously!"
FROM BLAZING OAKS: I LOVE "THE MESSAGE" PARAPHRASE WHICH IS SO UNDERSTANDABLE. I HAVE IT SIDE BY SIDE WITH "THE NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE" WHICH IS SUPPOSED TO BE THE MOST ACCURATE WORD FOR WORD LITERAL TRANSLATION, EVER. MAKES FOR AN INTERESTING CONTRAST! AND WHO COULD ARGUE WITH THESE WORDS FROM MICAH?. WHO WAS IT SAID, "HE MUST INCREASE, AND I MUST DECREASE...?" I LOVE THE COTTON PATCH GOSPELS, TOO! AND OFTEN USE MY "EVERYMAN'S BIBLE" FOR S.S. PREP. IT HAS A LOT OF "OUTSIDE" INFORMATION AND CHRACTER SKETCHS WHICH ARE EXCELLENT!====JACK: For dependable reference, I like my Oxford Annotated RSV. The cover binding of it is coming apart. J.B. Phillips is my favorite N.T. translation.
“Don’t take yourself too seriously—Take God seriously!” (Micah 6:8 The Message Translation) Pr Eugene Peterson thought that some people were missing the meaning of the Bible, because they were misunderstanding words. So, he translated the words in a way that related to modern thinking. I have 13 different translations of the Bible in my library. But “the only Gospel some folks read is the Gospel according to you.” ;-) Jack
FROM BILLY THE KID: Amen!====JACK: When God "speaks," he's not kidding around.
FROM TARMART REV: As the old preacher shouted from behind his pulpit, "The King James Version was good enough for the Apostle Paul!! So, it's good enough for me!! Praise, God!!"====JACK: I remember when the Revised Standard Version was published as a new translation of the King James Bible. A Bible-Belt pastor stood in his pulpit with a blowtorch and actually burned a copy of the RSV as a protest. ====REV: I'd bet Southern Baptist or Pentecostal/Holiness (sure could have been A/G in "them there" days!).====JACK: I'm sure it wasn't a Lutheran, because Lutheran scholars were involved in the translating process.====REV: I recall that fact . . . we had a contributing scholar with the NIV . . . a professor of mine at Central Bible College in Springfield, Missouri by the name of Stanly Horton . . . rated high on the list of those quite knowledgeable of the Hebrew language.
FROM DC IN KANSAS: How? Isn't Peterson missing something?====JACK: As I understand it, he was trying to get the thought across, rather than giving a "word by word" translation. Maybe that's what we try to do in our sermons. I like what he's done with Micah...."Take God seriously!"
FROM BLAZING OAKS: I LOVE "THE MESSAGE" PARAPHRASE WHICH IS SO UNDERSTANDABLE. I HAVE IT SIDE BY SIDE WITH "THE NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE" WHICH IS SUPPOSED TO BE THE MOST ACCURATE WORD FOR WORD LITERAL TRANSLATION, EVER. MAKES FOR AN INTERESTING CONTRAST! AND WHO COULD ARGUE WITH THESE WORDS FROM MICAH?. WHO WAS IT SAID, "HE MUST INCREASE, AND I MUST DECREASE...?" I LOVE THE COTTON PATCH GOSPELS, TOO! AND OFTEN USE MY "EVERYMAN'S BIBLE" FOR S.S. PREP. IT HAS A LOT OF "OUTSIDE" INFORMATION AND CHRACTER SKETCHS WHICH ARE EXCELLENT!====JACK: For dependable reference, I like my Oxford Annotated RSV. The cover binding of it is coming apart. J.B. Phillips is my favorite N.T. translation.
Wednesday, February 12, 2014
Jack’s Winning Words 2/12/14
“There’s always a little truth behind ‘just kidding,’ a little emotion behind ‘I don’t care,’ a little pain behind ‘I’m OK,’ a little need behind ‘Leave me alone.’” (Truth Quotes) Good Human Resource people are able to read between the lines when handling personnel issues. The ability to pick up on the hidden meaning of words would serve us well in getting along with people. Be on the lookout for unspoken messages. ;-) Jack
FROM HONEST JOHN: I tend to shy away from the term "always". Otherwise I would agree with that assessment.====JACK: I take it, then, that you've never sung the song, "Always," to your wife .====JOHN: No, but World War One Flying Aces ALWAYS call infantry in the trenches Poor Blighters. ====JACK: You made me look up, blighter...====JOHN: Snoopy was an incredible character....I think, my favorite.====JACK: Our granddaughter heard my wife use the expression, "poor thing," and asked her, "What's a poor thing?" When Snoopy sees himself as a WW 1 flying ace, he teaches us things that we might not know about that time in history.
FROM TARMART REV: Today's WW is definitely one for my archive of treasures...reading properly the various expressions before me...humor, sarcasm, etc very often come with deeper meaning...I know that firsthand as one who has demonstrated it on many occasion.====JACK: Let there be no equivocation!
FROM FM IN WISCONSIN: So needed in every relationship ====.JACK: Your response reminds me of this wife/husband conversation. He: "What's wrong?" She: "If you don't know, I'm not telling you.".
FROM SHARIN' SHARON: Good WW. Unspoken messages are tricky. They always drive me to God because above all I don't want to misread them and further hurt the person but think, say or do something that is helpful.====JACK: I guess we don't have to know every hidden message. Some people seem to be satisfied to "suffer in silence."
FROM RI IN BOSTON: Those Truth Quotes reveal some unexpressed attitudes that exist in most of us. Those expressions are somewhat akin to Freudian slips, where persons make an inadvertent mistake in speech, exposing the person's actual subconscious attitude. It seems we want to get our message out there, but not too blatantly.====JACK: Sometimes I say to myself, "I don't care," when I really do.
FROM BLAZING OAKS: These words are excellent. I forwarded them to my family! Pete Seeger, who recently passed away, once said, "It is a very important thing to learn to talk to people you disagree with." You get some unique insights if you do this! Yes, we are all unique, even if you are (were) an identical twin! You are YOUnique to bring WW to us each day!! Kudos, Jack!====JACK: What was unique about your twin compared to you? Like two peas in a pod? Maybe that saying isn't true, especially if you compared the DNA.
FROM PLAIN FOLKS CHESTER: ... and a little resentment behind, "Have it your way."====JACK: Yes, that's another one. Can you think of others?====PFC: ,,, and a little jealousy behind, "Congratulations!"
FROM FACEBOOK LIZ: always a lot of truth behind "just kidding."====JACK: When I hear that one, I almost always wonder if they really are....just kidding.
.
“There’s always a little truth behind ‘just kidding,’ a little emotion behind ‘I don’t care,’ a little pain behind ‘I’m OK,’ a little need behind ‘Leave me alone.’” (Truth Quotes) Good Human Resource people are able to read between the lines when handling personnel issues. The ability to pick up on the hidden meaning of words would serve us well in getting along with people. Be on the lookout for unspoken messages. ;-) Jack
FROM HONEST JOHN: I tend to shy away from the term "always". Otherwise I would agree with that assessment.====JACK: I take it, then, that you've never sung the song, "Always," to your wife .====JOHN: No, but World War One Flying Aces ALWAYS call infantry in the trenches Poor Blighters. ====JACK: You made me look up, blighter...====JOHN: Snoopy was an incredible character....I think, my favorite.====JACK: Our granddaughter heard my wife use the expression, "poor thing," and asked her, "What's a poor thing?" When Snoopy sees himself as a WW 1 flying ace, he teaches us things that we might not know about that time in history.
FROM TARMART REV: Today's WW is definitely one for my archive of treasures...reading properly the various expressions before me...humor, sarcasm, etc very often come with deeper meaning...I know that firsthand as one who has demonstrated it on many occasion.====JACK: Let there be no equivocation!
FROM FM IN WISCONSIN: So needed in every relationship ====.JACK: Your response reminds me of this wife/husband conversation. He: "What's wrong?" She: "If you don't know, I'm not telling you.".
FROM SHARIN' SHARON: Good WW. Unspoken messages are tricky. They always drive me to God because above all I don't want to misread them and further hurt the person but think, say or do something that is helpful.====JACK: I guess we don't have to know every hidden message. Some people seem to be satisfied to "suffer in silence."
FROM RI IN BOSTON: Those Truth Quotes reveal some unexpressed attitudes that exist in most of us. Those expressions are somewhat akin to Freudian slips, where persons make an inadvertent mistake in speech, exposing the person's actual subconscious attitude. It seems we want to get our message out there, but not too blatantly.====JACK: Sometimes I say to myself, "I don't care," when I really do.
FROM BLAZING OAKS: These words are excellent. I forwarded them to my family! Pete Seeger, who recently passed away, once said, "It is a very important thing to learn to talk to people you disagree with." You get some unique insights if you do this! Yes, we are all unique, even if you are (were) an identical twin! You are YOUnique to bring WW to us each day!! Kudos, Jack!====JACK: What was unique about your twin compared to you? Like two peas in a pod? Maybe that saying isn't true, especially if you compared the DNA.
FROM PLAIN FOLKS CHESTER: ... and a little resentment behind, "Have it your way."====JACK: Yes, that's another one. Can you think of others?====PFC: ,,, and a little jealousy behind, "Congratulations!"
FROM FACEBOOK LIZ: always a lot of truth behind "just kidding."====JACK: When I hear that one, I almost always wonder if they really are....just kidding.
.
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
Jack’s Winning Words 2/11/14
“I’ll never be perfect, but I’ll always be unique.” (Unknown) A new means of IDing people is a “face scan.” Each of us has individual facial characteristics, so a camera can scan a crowd of thousands and pick out a certain person. Fingerprints, DNA, eye scans all underscore the fact that we are unique. In the Bible we read, “The Lord says, ‘I know my own.’” If you ever feel forgotten, remember…God sees you as unique. ;-) Jack
FROM TARMART REV: A great picture for me to pause and ponder today as I go forth out into and among the masses. "God is watching me" . . . only do that which brings honor and glory to Him and bless those he has given His life for (even though they may not be aware of it as of this day . . . the makings of a good sermon, Jack!! Thanks-====JACK: As you sit and talk with a variety of people today, try to see something unique about each one.
FROM HONEST JOHN: And Plato is verified...our humanness which is Perfect is "Imperfected" by the world into which we are born.====JACK: Perhaps it is the imperfection of the ones conceived and born in sin that spoils the world.
FROM RJP IN NAPLES: As I have always said, YOU are uniquer than most!!!!!!====JACK: One of the unusual things about me is the ability to recall "unusual" experiences that I've had with church members, like the time you invited me out to lunch at one of your favorite hangouts.
FROM OUTHOUSE JUDY: This hit the nail on the head. We are YOUique! If God knows the numbers of hair on my head, you know we are all unique!====JACK: A hair stylist once hired someone to count the hairs on a human head. The total was 135,168; 6,000 in a beard and 7,000 in a mustache.
.FROM PLAIN FOLKS CHESTER: Perfectly unique?====JACK: Thankfully, God sees me as unique. He'd have trouble seeing me as perfect.
FROM FACEBOOK LIZ: LAL. precisely why i never post personal photos on facebook.====JACK: I wonder at some of the Facebook pages that I read...Too much personal stuff. But. I guess that I'm in the minority.====LIZ yes. the couth minority
FROM SBP IN FLORIDA: "Unique" and a variety of other defining words.... For me, "Just AS I Am" sums it up....all five verses.====JACK: That hymn was written by an invalid woman who had a sense of uselessness.. A good song to sing when we feel "down in the dumps."
“I’ll never be perfect, but I’ll always be unique.” (Unknown) A new means of IDing people is a “face scan.” Each of us has individual facial characteristics, so a camera can scan a crowd of thousands and pick out a certain person. Fingerprints, DNA, eye scans all underscore the fact that we are unique. In the Bible we read, “The Lord says, ‘I know my own.’” If you ever feel forgotten, remember…God sees you as unique. ;-) Jack
FROM TARMART REV: A great picture for me to pause and ponder today as I go forth out into and among the masses. "God is watching me" . . . only do that which brings honor and glory to Him and bless those he has given His life for (even though they may not be aware of it as of this day . . . the makings of a good sermon, Jack!! Thanks-====JACK: As you sit and talk with a variety of people today, try to see something unique about each one.
FROM HONEST JOHN: And Plato is verified...our humanness which is Perfect is "Imperfected" by the world into which we are born.====JACK: Perhaps it is the imperfection of the ones conceived and born in sin that spoils the world.
FROM RJP IN NAPLES: As I have always said, YOU are uniquer than most!!!!!!====JACK: One of the unusual things about me is the ability to recall "unusual" experiences that I've had with church members, like the time you invited me out to lunch at one of your favorite hangouts.
FROM OUTHOUSE JUDY: This hit the nail on the head. We are YOUique! If God knows the numbers of hair on my head, you know we are all unique!====JACK: A hair stylist once hired someone to count the hairs on a human head. The total was 135,168; 6,000 in a beard and 7,000 in a mustache.
.FROM PLAIN FOLKS CHESTER: Perfectly unique?====JACK: Thankfully, God sees me as unique. He'd have trouble seeing me as perfect.
FROM FACEBOOK LIZ: LAL. precisely why i never post personal photos on facebook.====JACK: I wonder at some of the Facebook pages that I read...Too much personal stuff. But. I guess that I'm in the minority.====LIZ yes. the couth minority
FROM SBP IN FLORIDA: "Unique" and a variety of other defining words.... For me, "Just AS I Am" sums it up....all five verses.====JACK: That hymn was written by an invalid woman who had a sense of uselessness.. A good song to sing when we feel "down in the dumps."
Monday, February 10, 2014
Jack’s Winning Words 2/10/14
“Never think that God’s delays are God’s denials. Hold on; hold fast; hold out.” (Comte de Buffon) I saw a cartoon of a man praying, “God, don’t put me on hold again.” The Lord doesn’t wear a wristwatch, so answered prayer isn’t governed by time. God responds as would a loving parent. Sometimes, “Yes,” and sometimes, “No.” And, “Let’s wait awhile.” I appreciate the Lord’s Prayer…”Thy will be done.” ;-) Jack
FROM TARMART REV: Speechless this morning, Jack . . . but appreciative of your word!!====JACK: Do you really ever find yourself at a loss for words?
FROM SHARIN' SHARON: Truly enjoyed your WW this morning!!!! And think I will write them out and memorize them to share with others. Usually people tend to think God's "No" is a denial and meant to "take something away from them". How wonderful to realize that God isn't like that but actually always giving everything we need. God is good all the time, all the time God is good. Thanks, I needed to get these WW!!!!====JACK: Some people get confused when reading parts of the Bible, but there should be no confusion when it is said that God is the ultimate "loving parent." God's children are truly blessed.
FROM OUTHOUSE JUDY: These words are some of my favorites! I wonder if Comte de Buffon was the same count who's last name became a new word: Buffoon. Perhaps not. But his words are so very true. In this fast paced "want it now" world, there are times we just have to sit back and wait. God knows what we need and it's not always what we want.====JACK: Comte de Buffon was anything but a buffoon. Besides that, the word, buffoon, has its origin long before Buffon was born. You're right, tho, in saying that "instant gratification" is a sign of the times.
FROM BLAZING OAKS: It's hard to be patient, or have hope when you've prayed a very long time about something that is dear to your heart, but what choice do you have, really? You just have to trust that for some reason that particular petition isn't God's will for whatever reason. We can't see WHY it wouldn't be within His will, but we don't know everything! Keep holding on...! Good reminder today, of who's ultimately in charge.====JACK: I do more than appreciate the petition..."Thy will be done." I depend on it. Martin Luther explained the petition this way: "The good and gracious will of God is surely done without our prayer, but we ask in this prayer that it may be done also among us."
FROM JT IN MINNESOTA: David passed away on January 25th. I am still a bit overwhelmed and trying to keep up with things I need to do. Seems like the winning words have fit my occasions very well during this change in my life.====JACK: Keep doing what you did in the days before the 25th...One day at a time! You lived the "care" in care-giver. We continue to remember you in prayer.
FROM JR IN ANDOVER: The “Blind boys of Alabama” sing “Holdin’ on! Holdin’ on!”.====JACK: I'll have to see if good old Youtube can come through for me. (PAUSE) I was only able to pull up a few bars of the song, but I did reads the lyrics....Interesting!
“Never think that God’s delays are God’s denials. Hold on; hold fast; hold out.” (Comte de Buffon) I saw a cartoon of a man praying, “God, don’t put me on hold again.” The Lord doesn’t wear a wristwatch, so answered prayer isn’t governed by time. God responds as would a loving parent. Sometimes, “Yes,” and sometimes, “No.” And, “Let’s wait awhile.” I appreciate the Lord’s Prayer…”Thy will be done.” ;-) Jack
FROM TARMART REV: Speechless this morning, Jack . . . but appreciative of your word!!====JACK: Do you really ever find yourself at a loss for words?
FROM SHARIN' SHARON: Truly enjoyed your WW this morning!!!! And think I will write them out and memorize them to share with others. Usually people tend to think God's "No" is a denial and meant to "take something away from them". How wonderful to realize that God isn't like that but actually always giving everything we need. God is good all the time, all the time God is good. Thanks, I needed to get these WW!!!!====JACK: Some people get confused when reading parts of the Bible, but there should be no confusion when it is said that God is the ultimate "loving parent." God's children are truly blessed.
FROM OUTHOUSE JUDY: These words are some of my favorites! I wonder if Comte de Buffon was the same count who's last name became a new word: Buffoon. Perhaps not. But his words are so very true. In this fast paced "want it now" world, there are times we just have to sit back and wait. God knows what we need and it's not always what we want.====JACK: Comte de Buffon was anything but a buffoon. Besides that, the word, buffoon, has its origin long before Buffon was born. You're right, tho, in saying that "instant gratification" is a sign of the times.
FROM BLAZING OAKS: It's hard to be patient, or have hope when you've prayed a very long time about something that is dear to your heart, but what choice do you have, really? You just have to trust that for some reason that particular petition isn't God's will for whatever reason. We can't see WHY it wouldn't be within His will, but we don't know everything! Keep holding on...! Good reminder today, of who's ultimately in charge.====JACK: I do more than appreciate the petition..."Thy will be done." I depend on it. Martin Luther explained the petition this way: "The good and gracious will of God is surely done without our prayer, but we ask in this prayer that it may be done also among us."
FROM JT IN MINNESOTA: David passed away on January 25th. I am still a bit overwhelmed and trying to keep up with things I need to do. Seems like the winning words have fit my occasions very well during this change in my life.====JACK: Keep doing what you did in the days before the 25th...One day at a time! You lived the "care" in care-giver. We continue to remember you in prayer.
FROM JR IN ANDOVER: The “Blind boys of Alabama” sing “Holdin’ on! Holdin’ on!”.====JACK: I'll have to see if good old Youtube can come through for me. (PAUSE) I was only able to pull up a few bars of the song, but I did reads the lyrics....Interesting!
Friday, February 07, 2014
Jack’s Winning Words 2/7/14
“There comes a time when you have to choose between turning the page and closing the book.” (Josh Jameson) Sometimes “closure” is difficult. Perhaps a disappointment in life…a family matter, a job change, a death…How do you bring closure, or as in The Field of Dreams, how do you “ease the pain?” Every book has an ending…to be remembered or to be forgotten. In fact, there’s a library out there. ;-) Jack
FROM MK IN MICHIGAN: Beautiful way to look at life. Thank you, I needed that this morning. ====JACK: Some people need a cup of coffee to begin the day. I start off the morning by sending out my Winning Words, like the sower sowing the seeds.
FROM MICHIZONA RAY: Temporality is probably one of our most regular and daily challenges. Things we don't like, seem to last longer than we would prefer; and that which we do like, seems to end too soon. There is a season for all things, and all things a season...as it is written. Everyone and everything born owes a death, and just as in yesterday's WW theme, "acceptance" brings me some peace with its understanding -- even though I experience difficulty with accepting the timing. In the end, what value is a "legacy" to the dead? Is it simply a wish to exist in a library or memory beyond one's own season? There is always something of greater significance happening in the world than the entries of my life chapters. Someone is having heart surgery today, there is a funeral, a baby born, a decision to start something significant, and a decision to surrender.a wish for control of something beyond one's capacity, and more...so, we have eternity where the the book is always open!====JACK: Is "temporality" a word of your creation? If so, it's a good one. It reminds me of the Ecclesiastes message that there is a time (and an end) for everything. One morning, when my mother-in-law was in a nursing home, she was told that her room partner had died during the night. Her response was, "Here today, gone tomorrow." That's reality...like it, or not.
FROM TRIHARDER: Yes! There is a book that continues and continues and I should be finishing. ... But, that another story (so to speak) ====JACK: It's sad when someone who holds 'em doesn't know when to fold 'em. I hope that I know when to fold 'em...and not have to have someone tell me. We don't know what the future holds. My step-father used to pass out a card to people which read...“FORGET ABOUT YESTERDAY, PLAN A LITTLE BIT FOR TOMORROW, AND LIVE LIKE HELL TODAY.”
FROM TL IN HOUSTON: Jack, on this, my last day at my current job position, and the beginning of a new position within the company tomorrow, I give glory to the Father God Almighty who speaks through you.====JACK: I looked about a job change as a calling. There's a hymn which begins, "God calling, Yet shall I not hear...?" Best wishes as you answer "His" call.
FROM TARMART REV: . . . in some respect we are closing the door today on this week's postings with Jack's Winning Words . . . if you are like me with sermons preached, posting posted and articles read and worth keeping, the library (or archives as I call it) becomes a great resource center for another opportunity to build upon and share from what was formerly presented. It has been good for me to never lock that door. ====JACK: I'm already planning next week's WWs. If you're like me, when one door closes, I look for another one to open, hoping to experience something exciting.====REV: True as well...I've had my share as well, even wondering if there might be one or more in store before I leave Planet Earth!====JACK: Speaking of leaving Planet Earth, have you ever sung this song?
This world is not my home I'm just a passing through
My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue
The angels beckon me from heaven's open door
And I can't feel at home in this world anymore
Oh Lord you know I have no friend like you
If heaven's not my home then Lord what will I do
The angels beckon me from heaven's open door
And I can't feel at home in this world anymore
FROM PLAIN FOLKS CHESTER: Sometimes, when you close a book, a door opens.===JACK: You've been reading the Yogi "Quote Book" again.
MILTON BERLE: "If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door"
FROM OUTHOUSE JUDY: A few of our doors won't open...they're frozen shut. However, I know what's behind them....it's always interesting to look behind locked doors...sometimes it's fun and sometimes it's downright scary.====JACK: Did you know??? Half moon and star cutouts in outhouse doors are mainly used in lighting the outhouse itself. This however dates back to Colonial age whereas not all individuals are capable of reading. The half moon cutout was intended mainly for women while the star cutout is for male.====JUDY: Yep, it's in one of my Outhouse Books. The holes for the moon and the star also let out some of the odor. They usually faced the outhouses toward the winds. Aren't you glad we don't have to use those outhouses now? There is a program on now about Alaska. Most Alaskans use outhouses!
FROM CWR: You return to Michigan..............====JACK: Is that turning the page, or closing the book?
FROM SHARIN' SHARON: My great dilemma is whether to not close the book because if I do it too soon and without having achieved any understanding, I may be doomed to repeat a chapter and thereby suffer greatly once again from my mistakes. It kind of all depends whether the past stays in the past or whether it keeps coming up to haunt oneself.====JACK: Sometimes it means putting a bookmark in the place and coming back to that page when you're up to continuing. Time can be a healer.
“There comes a time when you have to choose between turning the page and closing the book.” (Josh Jameson) Sometimes “closure” is difficult. Perhaps a disappointment in life…a family matter, a job change, a death…How do you bring closure, or as in The Field of Dreams, how do you “ease the pain?” Every book has an ending…to be remembered or to be forgotten. In fact, there’s a library out there. ;-) Jack
FROM MK IN MICHIGAN: Beautiful way to look at life. Thank you, I needed that this morning. ====JACK: Some people need a cup of coffee to begin the day. I start off the morning by sending out my Winning Words, like the sower sowing the seeds.
FROM MICHIZONA RAY: Temporality is probably one of our most regular and daily challenges. Things we don't like, seem to last longer than we would prefer; and that which we do like, seems to end too soon. There is a season for all things, and all things a season...as it is written. Everyone and everything born owes a death, and just as in yesterday's WW theme, "acceptance" brings me some peace with its understanding -- even though I experience difficulty with accepting the timing. In the end, what value is a "legacy" to the dead? Is it simply a wish to exist in a library or memory beyond one's own season? There is always something of greater significance happening in the world than the entries of my life chapters. Someone is having heart surgery today, there is a funeral, a baby born, a decision to start something significant, and a decision to surrender.a wish for control of something beyond one's capacity, and more...so, we have eternity where the the book is always open!====JACK: Is "temporality" a word of your creation? If so, it's a good one. It reminds me of the Ecclesiastes message that there is a time (and an end) for everything. One morning, when my mother-in-law was in a nursing home, she was told that her room partner had died during the night. Her response was, "Here today, gone tomorrow." That's reality...like it, or not.
FROM TRIHARDER: Yes! There is a book that continues and continues and I should be finishing. ... But, that another story (so to speak) ====JACK: It's sad when someone who holds 'em doesn't know when to fold 'em. I hope that I know when to fold 'em...and not have to have someone tell me. We don't know what the future holds. My step-father used to pass out a card to people which read...“FORGET ABOUT YESTERDAY, PLAN A LITTLE BIT FOR TOMORROW, AND LIVE LIKE HELL TODAY.”
FROM TL IN HOUSTON: Jack, on this, my last day at my current job position, and the beginning of a new position within the company tomorrow, I give glory to the Father God Almighty who speaks through you.====JACK: I looked about a job change as a calling. There's a hymn which begins, "God calling, Yet shall I not hear...?" Best wishes as you answer "His" call.
FROM TARMART REV: . . . in some respect we are closing the door today on this week's postings with Jack's Winning Words . . . if you are like me with sermons preached, posting posted and articles read and worth keeping, the library (or archives as I call it) becomes a great resource center for another opportunity to build upon and share from what was formerly presented. It has been good for me to never lock that door. ====JACK: I'm already planning next week's WWs. If you're like me, when one door closes, I look for another one to open, hoping to experience something exciting.====REV: True as well...I've had my share as well, even wondering if there might be one or more in store before I leave Planet Earth!====JACK: Speaking of leaving Planet Earth, have you ever sung this song?
This world is not my home I'm just a passing through
My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue
The angels beckon me from heaven's open door
And I can't feel at home in this world anymore
Oh Lord you know I have no friend like you
If heaven's not my home then Lord what will I do
The angels beckon me from heaven's open door
And I can't feel at home in this world anymore
FROM PLAIN FOLKS CHESTER: Sometimes, when you close a book, a door opens.===JACK: You've been reading the Yogi "Quote Book" again.
MILTON BERLE: "If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door"
FROM OUTHOUSE JUDY: A few of our doors won't open...they're frozen shut. However, I know what's behind them....it's always interesting to look behind locked doors...sometimes it's fun and sometimes it's downright scary.====JACK: Did you know??? Half moon and star cutouts in outhouse doors are mainly used in lighting the outhouse itself. This however dates back to Colonial age whereas not all individuals are capable of reading. The half moon cutout was intended mainly for women while the star cutout is for male.====JUDY: Yep, it's in one of my Outhouse Books. The holes for the moon and the star also let out some of the odor. They usually faced the outhouses toward the winds. Aren't you glad we don't have to use those outhouses now? There is a program on now about Alaska. Most Alaskans use outhouses!
FROM CWR: You return to Michigan..............====JACK: Is that turning the page, or closing the book?
FROM SHARIN' SHARON: My great dilemma is whether to not close the book because if I do it too soon and without having achieved any understanding, I may be doomed to repeat a chapter and thereby suffer greatly once again from my mistakes. It kind of all depends whether the past stays in the past or whether it keeps coming up to haunt oneself.====JACK: Sometimes it means putting a bookmark in the place and coming back to that page when you're up to continuing. Time can be a healer.
Thursday, February 06, 2014
Jack’s Winning Words 2/6/14
“Correction does much, but encouragement does more.” (Goethe) I was surprised to learn that Goethe was home schooled. Besides being taught the basics, he also learned to appreciate dancing, fencing, good books and puppet shows. You see—he was more than just an adult philosopher. Most of us are more than what people see on the outside. If you were to reveal an “unknown” about yourself, what would that be? ;-) Jack
FROM DOCTOR PAUL: I have very unusual friends!====JACK: As I wrote to Judy, LMTA.
FROM TARMART REV: . . . no longer, "unknown"!====JACK: What are the indicators that you are known by the shoppers and employees of Target and Walmart?
====REV: . . . repetitiously being there in the same seat and generally the same time, always greeting the same persons and new ones as well with eye contact, a smile and a greeting that hopefully makes them walk away feeling appreciated for who they are and a desire to renew that same feeling the next time we meet . . . I meet many new friends this way and enjoy their compliments and graciousness towards me as well . . . ====JACK: Some people might mistake you for the "official" store greeter.
FROM ME IN NEWPORT BEACH: I like Christmas lights and decorations...I am sure not surprising to you.====JACK: Your "growing up home" was a standout in the neighborhood at Christmastime. Even your Christmas tree had to have each light positioned just so. Did you inherit the meticulous gene?
FROM BLAZING OAKS: Outwardly gregarious, social, upbeat, a "leader"...but really "close" to only family and a few friends....Goethe is so right, in rearing children, or in the work place, encouragement works so much better than "correcting". Most of us learn this through experience! :-)====JACK: Someone I know was talking to a friend about the friend's "gregarious" husband and said, "It must be a barrel of laughs around your house." She just rolled her eyes. I'm sure that this doesn't apply to you.
FROM GOOD DEBT JON: Few people would know I have generally given up on politics after reaching total apathy for both major parties. Not monitoring politics has given me new life and peace of mind. You can miss FOX News or MSNBC for 6 months turn it on and the narrative is pretty much the same. "Fox: You'll never believe what the Obama Administration has done now, etc. or MSNBC: Tea Party Extremists block, _______blah, blah, blah…"====JACK: I didn't know that...but I do know that you are busy with other things, like trying to develop a program that will raise funds for someone in need.
FROM PH IN MESA: I am stunning handsome on the inside!====JACK: Ooh! I just ate my supper.
FROM KF IN MICHIGAN: I am a very tall person on the inside : )====JACK: No wonder so many people look up to you.
“Correction does much, but encouragement does more.” (Goethe) I was surprised to learn that Goethe was home schooled. Besides being taught the basics, he also learned to appreciate dancing, fencing, good books and puppet shows. You see—he was more than just an adult philosopher. Most of us are more than what people see on the outside. If you were to reveal an “unknown” about yourself, what would that be? ;-) Jack
FROM DOCTOR PAUL: I have very unusual friends!====JACK: As I wrote to Judy, LMTA.
FROM TARMART REV: . . . no longer, "unknown"!====JACK: What are the indicators that you are known by the shoppers and employees of Target and Walmart?
====REV: . . . repetitiously being there in the same seat and generally the same time, always greeting the same persons and new ones as well with eye contact, a smile and a greeting that hopefully makes them walk away feeling appreciated for who they are and a desire to renew that same feeling the next time we meet . . . I meet many new friends this way and enjoy their compliments and graciousness towards me as well . . . ====JACK: Some people might mistake you for the "official" store greeter.
FROM ME IN NEWPORT BEACH: I like Christmas lights and decorations...I am sure not surprising to you.====JACK: Your "growing up home" was a standout in the neighborhood at Christmastime. Even your Christmas tree had to have each light positioned just so. Did you inherit the meticulous gene?
FROM BLAZING OAKS: Outwardly gregarious, social, upbeat, a "leader"...but really "close" to only family and a few friends....Goethe is so right, in rearing children, or in the work place, encouragement works so much better than "correcting". Most of us learn this through experience! :-)====JACK: Someone I know was talking to a friend about the friend's "gregarious" husband and said, "It must be a barrel of laughs around your house." She just rolled her eyes. I'm sure that this doesn't apply to you.
FROM GOOD DEBT JON: Few people would know I have generally given up on politics after reaching total apathy for both major parties. Not monitoring politics has given me new life and peace of mind. You can miss FOX News or MSNBC for 6 months turn it on and the narrative is pretty much the same. "Fox: You'll never believe what the Obama Administration has done now, etc. or MSNBC: Tea Party Extremists block, _______blah, blah, blah…"====JACK: I didn't know that...but I do know that you are busy with other things, like trying to develop a program that will raise funds for someone in need.
FROM PH IN MESA: I am stunning handsome on the inside!====JACK: Ooh! I just ate my supper.
FROM KF IN MICHIGAN: I am a very tall person on the inside : )====JACK: No wonder so many people look up to you.
Wednesday, February 05, 2014
Jack’s Winning Words 2/5/14
“Good morning…Let the stress begin!" (Office Sign) Recently I saw that sign on an office wall. Yes, it’s only Wednesday, but are you longing for TGIF? I saw an article: “4 Ways To Handle Stress.” #1—Give yourself a positive pep-talk. #2—Take a few deep breaths, or walk away for a minute or two. #3—List some things you’d rather be doing. #4—Change your position or something in the room. What helps you? ;-) Jack
FROM LP IN PLYMOUTH: How does thinking about what you'd rather be doing lessen stress? Maybe it depends on the cause of the stress. I guess for me #1 or #2 sort of help but I've not (consciously) tried #4. Always good to get a new trick for the bag ====JACK: Getting an e-mail from a friend is a good stress reliever for me. It gives the mind a new direction.====LP: I'll have to make a note to read your blog for the day and see if others post their best bets. Btw does #2 include prayer?====JACK: I kept these letters on the edge of my desk facing my chair...D.F.T.P. Don't Forget To Pray. I got the idea from a successful businessman who said that he would pray before making important decisions. I now have those initials posted by my computer.
FROM TL IN HOUSTON: Your daily inspiration!====JACK: For me, it's the responses I get...from people like you.
FROM TARMART REV: A bag of popcorn at Target, looking for and visiting with a good friend like yourself, Jack!!====JACK: Do you keep a separate bag for those who stop by, or do you let them dig into yours? BTW, Who has the best popcorn, Target or Walmart?====REV: ...they dig into mine, often taking a hand full...Target makes it a policy of freshly popping theirs every 20 minutes or so...smell of hot popped corn draws folks over to it...they win my vote for the best.====JACK: Do you keep a hand sanitizer bottle on the table?
FROM TS IN INDIANA: Blow My Top!====JACK: You seem like such a calm and peaceful individual. It guess Mount St. Helens seemed calm and peaceful, too, before it blew its top in 1980.
FROM RI IN BOSTON: The humor borne in that office sign should be enough to deflate a lot of the stress.====JACK: Architectural offices that I've visited often seemed like peaceful places, but I'm sure that there were times when that was not so.====RI: In the normal course of the work the office was quite calm and high-spirited. Deadlines for putting documents out for bidding created the most stress. At Y's office it was pandemonium when he would come into the drafting room a day or two before the due date and say, "I want to change..." and no one was about to object. Computer drafting today makes it easier to deal with changes like that.
FROM MICHIZONA RAY: Stress is part of our natural alert system that warns us in circumstances that may be dangerous to the preferable state of our physical existence (walking in the street and hearing a car horn. Stress motivates a behavior that serves to eliminate the stress). Distress is a result of our personal responses to situations (wishing it were Friday while knowing it is not, or wishing another was different than (s)he actually is, etc.). In other words, distress is when we wish things might be different then they actually are; yet we choose this fantasy, which isn't true. This contrast distinguishes "reality" from "truth". Acceptance of our circumstances first, is the best way to relieve distress...and this ain't easy! If one thinks just a little deeper about acceptance (peace) versus non-acceptance (distress), one can see how the latter parallels self-idolatry, self-importance, selfishness, and the like -- it is no wonder that the fruit of such things is distressful! ====JACK: A tee-shirt reads: 2 BLESSED 2 B STRESSED.
FROM WATERFORD JAN: If rational action can't solve or get rid of the stress, I try to cope with the stress as decently as possible. When I remember that there's help I should have sought before I tried to deal with the stress, I ask God to help me and then keep on keepin' on. ====JACK: I saw a cartoon showing someone praying: "God, don't put me on hold, again." Like a good parent, God doesn't always give us what we want right away.
FROM DAIRYLAND DONNA: Spring!====JACK: Probably my favorite season. New life!
FROM BLAZING OAKS: Ha! I bought that sign for daughter Sarah when she was assoc. Dir. of American Hospital Association in Chicago. It's a good one. Even that sense of humor would help to dispel some stress! A recent email intoned "No amount of guilt can change the Past, and no amount of worrying can change the Future". So that just leaves the Present to deal with, and with prayer and peaceful assurance, we soldier on....a sense of humor often helps save the day!====JACK: Soldier on! Now, there's an expression that I haven't heard in a long, long time. Some pastors do not use "soldier" hymns, because they want to promote peace. "Onward, Christian Soldiers," for example. You probably know of others.
FROM FACEBOOK LIZ: quiet time.====JACK: We used to have a guy in the office where I once worked who was a whistler. He was pretty good and tried to imitate Elmo Tanner. You can listen to Elmo do "Heartaches" on Youtube.
FROM CK IN THE AIR: Sometimes just your words in the morning ! Thanks for taking the time Jack ! Have a great day!====JACK: Are you permitted to hang any signs in "your office?"
FROM BBC IN ILLINOIS: Stuck (next to a very very large person with luggage who was sleeping on the el this morning) but thankful for a seat at all…I began reading digital Sports Illustrated. In any case, I read the pairs figure skating article about ice dancing and discovered that Bloomfield Michigan is the epicenter of the sport and has been so for quite some time. I had no idea. Wonder if you’ve ever seen a practice? ====JACK: Yes, Meryl Davis, the ice dancer, lives in the same community, West Bloomfield, where I live. And Charlie White lives close by, too. Several gold medal figure skaters have trained in the area. I've seen some practices, but not fesaturing "stars" of the sport.
FROM MOLINER JT: It's difficult to handle stress with 6.2 more inches of snow last night. I can only watch as Max shovels. She loves it. Anyway that's what she tells me.====JACK: You probably shoveled your share when you lived on the farm, or did you use the John Deere?
FROM JE IN MICHIGAN: What I do is do the task/assignment that I least want to do. Then the stress dissipates because I’ve gotten over the big issue. I’m working on one right now. Not only is this one hard to tackle, it’s vague and involves LOTS of people. I’m trying not to cause work for others and just handle it. When it’s done, I’ll take the deep breaths.====JACK: Sometimes it's good to let something simmer... unless simmering is used as an excuse to put the stress-producing task off, hoping that it will go away..
FROM OUTHOUSE JUDY: There are two things I do when stress hits: give it to God, and clean. ====JACK: You're a combination of Martha and Mary.
FROM IKE AT THE MIC: Avoiding "stressed & depressed people" & mingling with OPTIMISTIC ones..====JACK: If you ever want to help effect change in this world, you have to mingle with all kinds. But, you're right...mingling with the stressed can be stressful.
“Good morning…Let the stress begin!" (Office Sign) Recently I saw that sign on an office wall. Yes, it’s only Wednesday, but are you longing for TGIF? I saw an article: “4 Ways To Handle Stress.” #1—Give yourself a positive pep-talk. #2—Take a few deep breaths, or walk away for a minute or two. #3—List some things you’d rather be doing. #4—Change your position or something in the room. What helps you? ;-) Jack
FROM LP IN PLYMOUTH: How does thinking about what you'd rather be doing lessen stress? Maybe it depends on the cause of the stress. I guess for me #1 or #2 sort of help but I've not (consciously) tried #4. Always good to get a new trick for the bag ====JACK: Getting an e-mail from a friend is a good stress reliever for me. It gives the mind a new direction.====LP: I'll have to make a note to read your blog for the day and see if others post their best bets. Btw does #2 include prayer?====JACK: I kept these letters on the edge of my desk facing my chair...D.F.T.P. Don't Forget To Pray. I got the idea from a successful businessman who said that he would pray before making important decisions. I now have those initials posted by my computer.
FROM TL IN HOUSTON: Your daily inspiration!====JACK: For me, it's the responses I get...from people like you.
FROM TARMART REV: A bag of popcorn at Target, looking for and visiting with a good friend like yourself, Jack!!====JACK: Do you keep a separate bag for those who stop by, or do you let them dig into yours? BTW, Who has the best popcorn, Target or Walmart?====REV: ...they dig into mine, often taking a hand full...Target makes it a policy of freshly popping theirs every 20 minutes or so...smell of hot popped corn draws folks over to it...they win my vote for the best.====JACK: Do you keep a hand sanitizer bottle on the table?
FROM TS IN INDIANA: Blow My Top!====JACK: You seem like such a calm and peaceful individual. It guess Mount St. Helens seemed calm and peaceful, too, before it blew its top in 1980.
FROM RI IN BOSTON: The humor borne in that office sign should be enough to deflate a lot of the stress.====JACK: Architectural offices that I've visited often seemed like peaceful places, but I'm sure that there were times when that was not so.====RI: In the normal course of the work the office was quite calm and high-spirited. Deadlines for putting documents out for bidding created the most stress. At Y's office it was pandemonium when he would come into the drafting room a day or two before the due date and say, "I want to change..." and no one was about to object. Computer drafting today makes it easier to deal with changes like that.
FROM MICHIZONA RAY: Stress is part of our natural alert system that warns us in circumstances that may be dangerous to the preferable state of our physical existence (walking in the street and hearing a car horn. Stress motivates a behavior that serves to eliminate the stress). Distress is a result of our personal responses to situations (wishing it were Friday while knowing it is not, or wishing another was different than (s)he actually is, etc.). In other words, distress is when we wish things might be different then they actually are; yet we choose this fantasy, which isn't true. This contrast distinguishes "reality" from "truth". Acceptance of our circumstances first, is the best way to relieve distress...and this ain't easy! If one thinks just a little deeper about acceptance (peace) versus non-acceptance (distress), one can see how the latter parallels self-idolatry, self-importance, selfishness, and the like -- it is no wonder that the fruit of such things is distressful! ====JACK: A tee-shirt reads: 2 BLESSED 2 B STRESSED.
FROM WATERFORD JAN: If rational action can't solve or get rid of the stress, I try to cope with the stress as decently as possible. When I remember that there's help I should have sought before I tried to deal with the stress, I ask God to help me and then keep on keepin' on. ====JACK: I saw a cartoon showing someone praying: "God, don't put me on hold, again." Like a good parent, God doesn't always give us what we want right away.
FROM DAIRYLAND DONNA: Spring!====JACK: Probably my favorite season. New life!
FROM BLAZING OAKS: Ha! I bought that sign for daughter Sarah when she was assoc. Dir. of American Hospital Association in Chicago. It's a good one. Even that sense of humor would help to dispel some stress! A recent email intoned "No amount of guilt can change the Past, and no amount of worrying can change the Future". So that just leaves the Present to deal with, and with prayer and peaceful assurance, we soldier on....a sense of humor often helps save the day!====JACK: Soldier on! Now, there's an expression that I haven't heard in a long, long time. Some pastors do not use "soldier" hymns, because they want to promote peace. "Onward, Christian Soldiers," for example. You probably know of others.
FROM FACEBOOK LIZ: quiet time.====JACK: We used to have a guy in the office where I once worked who was a whistler. He was pretty good and tried to imitate Elmo Tanner. You can listen to Elmo do "Heartaches" on Youtube.
FROM CK IN THE AIR: Sometimes just your words in the morning ! Thanks for taking the time Jack ! Have a great day!====JACK: Are you permitted to hang any signs in "your office?"
FROM BBC IN ILLINOIS: Stuck (next to a very very large person with luggage who was sleeping on the el this morning) but thankful for a seat at all…I began reading digital Sports Illustrated. In any case, I read the pairs figure skating article about ice dancing and discovered that Bloomfield Michigan is the epicenter of the sport and has been so for quite some time. I had no idea. Wonder if you’ve ever seen a practice? ====JACK: Yes, Meryl Davis, the ice dancer, lives in the same community, West Bloomfield, where I live. And Charlie White lives close by, too. Several gold medal figure skaters have trained in the area. I've seen some practices, but not fesaturing "stars" of the sport.
FROM MOLINER JT: It's difficult to handle stress with 6.2 more inches of snow last night. I can only watch as Max shovels. She loves it. Anyway that's what she tells me.====JACK: You probably shoveled your share when you lived on the farm, or did you use the John Deere?
FROM JE IN MICHIGAN: What I do is do the task/assignment that I least want to do. Then the stress dissipates because I’ve gotten over the big issue. I’m working on one right now. Not only is this one hard to tackle, it’s vague and involves LOTS of people. I’m trying not to cause work for others and just handle it. When it’s done, I’ll take the deep breaths.====JACK: Sometimes it's good to let something simmer... unless simmering is used as an excuse to put the stress-producing task off, hoping that it will go away..
FROM OUTHOUSE JUDY: There are two things I do when stress hits: give it to God, and clean. ====JACK: You're a combination of Martha and Mary.
FROM IKE AT THE MIC: Avoiding "stressed & depressed people" & mingling with OPTIMISTIC ones..====JACK: If you ever want to help effect change in this world, you have to mingle with all kinds. But, you're right...mingling with the stressed can be stressful.
Tuesday, February 04, 2014
Jack’s Winning Words 2/4/14
“Don’t be so humble. You’re not that great.” (Golda Meir) This is a typical Golda quote. Another…”You never find a better sparring partner than adversity.” Born in the Ukraine, she grew up in Milwaukee. Meir became Israel’s first woman leader in 1969. 45 years later, the USA is still thinking about having a female president. Golda was humble, and she was great. She was “The Iron Lady” years before Thatcher. ;-) Jack
FROM HAPPY TRAILS IN NOVA SCOTIA: A Ford colleague of mine in the late 70s had a poster of Golda displayed in her office at WHQ...the text on it said, “Yes, but can she type?”====JACK: I once asked Mary Barra if she'd be willing to serve as Youth Leader at the church I was serving. She would have done that, except that her work at GM didn't allow her the time.
FROM TARMART REV: Remember both well . . . I'm ready again for such a leader, either a man or a woman of that stature . . . "humble and great"!!====JACK: Do you have any female pastors in leadership positions in the AG Church?====REV: We do...both on the younger side (most everyone any more is on the younger side of me)...one is a licensed pastor who assists her husband with our worship and the other is a precious young single lady pastor who heads up our world and home missions outreach and our outreach to the Somalian community here in the Willmar area.====JACK: I was thinking of the national scene.
====REV: Yes as well...along with missionaries , evangelists and pastors, we have an ordained regional representative who is a woman minister...a first time in this regard.
FROM SBP IN FLORIDA: My Mom worked at Smith's market "on the hill" in Moline. The Smith's were Jewish. Golda Meir was in the area (statewise), came to visit the Smith's on a workday and Mom met her! Mom was awed...especially later when Golda became such an influence.====JACK: It's always a thrill to meet someone "famous" under ordinary circumstances.====SBP: Todah!
FROM GOOD DEBT JON: Excellent stuff this morning. Love it. Have a great day, Pastor, I am off to Starbucks working on a video script for SFL.====JACK: Did you mean SFL, or SNL?====JON: Most days SFL Stewardship for Life, http://SFLToday.org====JACK: I thought that maybe you'd get the joke--SNL, "Saturday Night Live," or did you just choose to ignore my sense of humor?
FROM DOCTOR PAUL: I saw a one woman play at the JCC last summer on her life. The challenges she faced both within her country and the wars were incredible. I had so much respect for her. I wonder if Hillary is this generation's Golda?====JACK: I wonder if Golda would be photogenic enough to be selected as a USA presidential candidate?
FROM RI IN BOSTON: That's a great quote from Golda Meir, and very applicable to all of us. In the context of the universe we are all insignificant. You offered a couple of other acute observations regarding women...that at this late date we in the U.S. haven't been convinced women are qualified to be President, and that Golda Meir pre-empted Margaret Thatcher as an "iron lady"====JACK: Are there any famous female architects, or is the glass ceiling still unbroken? Some church bodies still will not also females to be pastors or priests.====RI: I don't believe you can classify them as "famous" but there are a few women who have achieved well in architecture. Some of them got their recognition in partnership with their husbands, not on their own, such as Allison Smithson and Denise Scott Brown. Those two are an older generation. More recently there are some women who have advanced in architecture on their own, like Laurinda Spears who was a founding partner of the firm Arquitectonica in Florida. I've read that Ms. Spears parents had some wealth and bankrolled some early projects for their daughter to get her started, but she took the ball and ran with it. Her name isn't common among architect achievers but she has accomplished a lot. Perhaps one of the most recognized these days is Zaha Hadid, an Iraqi expatriate who went to London and impressed enough people to get her going. She has had a number of major commissions in Europe, and I think there's one in Cincinnati, and they're getting publicized. While abroad, I looked at some of her work, and it disappointed me.
FROM PH IN MESA: this one I love. Jews seem always to have such a keen sense of humor about the subtleties of life!====JACK: You've probably noticed that many of the great comedians are Jewish.
FROM BBC IN ILLINOIS: Enjoyed this one; thanks.====JACK: I enjoy listening to the song, "It's hard to be humble, etc." You can find it on Youtube.
FROM BLAZING OAKS: In my experience, average people are more apt to have low self-esteem, rather than an elevated opinion of themselves. "A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us." (Jane Austen) I read a quote yesterday, which seems relevant here: "Many people would be frightened if they looked in the mirror and saw, not their face, but their character." Good thought!====JACK: I remember a mother telling of the success that her daughter was having in the business world Her husband cautioned, "Now, don't brag." Is it bragging when we tell of the successes of our children...and grandchildren? Let me tell you about mine...
FROM OUTHOUSE JUDY: "Oh Lord ain't hard to be humble, when you're perfect in everyway".....great song!====JACK: Do you remember the expression, "Eating humble pie?" It means to apologize for making a humiliating mistake.====JUDY: I'm very acquainted with humble pie as I have eaten it a lot! ====JACK: Humble pie is a derivation of "umble pie," a medieval meat dish made out of deer innards (the scraps) that not many people wanted to eat.
FROM FACEBOOK LIZ: prefacing people with "first this or that," perpetuates stereotypes.====JACK: It's better than saying, "last."
FROM KF IN MICHIGAN: I just checked out "Iron Lady" again good movie....a good woman from humble beginnings!====JACK: I was surprised to learn that Meir was called The Iron Lady before Thatcher.
.
“Don’t be so humble. You’re not that great.” (Golda Meir) This is a typical Golda quote. Another…”You never find a better sparring partner than adversity.” Born in the Ukraine, she grew up in Milwaukee. Meir became Israel’s first woman leader in 1969. 45 years later, the USA is still thinking about having a female president. Golda was humble, and she was great. She was “The Iron Lady” years before Thatcher. ;-) Jack
FROM HAPPY TRAILS IN NOVA SCOTIA: A Ford colleague of mine in the late 70s had a poster of Golda displayed in her office at WHQ...the text on it said, “Yes, but can she type?”====JACK: I once asked Mary Barra if she'd be willing to serve as Youth Leader at the church I was serving. She would have done that, except that her work at GM didn't allow her the time.
FROM TARMART REV: Remember both well . . . I'm ready again for such a leader, either a man or a woman of that stature . . . "humble and great"!!====JACK: Do you have any female pastors in leadership positions in the AG Church?====REV: We do...both on the younger side (most everyone any more is on the younger side of me)...one is a licensed pastor who assists her husband with our worship and the other is a precious young single lady pastor who heads up our world and home missions outreach and our outreach to the Somalian community here in the Willmar area.====JACK: I was thinking of the national scene.
====REV: Yes as well...along with missionaries , evangelists and pastors, we have an ordained regional representative who is a woman minister...a first time in this regard.
FROM SBP IN FLORIDA: My Mom worked at Smith's market "on the hill" in Moline. The Smith's were Jewish. Golda Meir was in the area (statewise), came to visit the Smith's on a workday and Mom met her! Mom was awed...especially later when Golda became such an influence.====JACK: It's always a thrill to meet someone "famous" under ordinary circumstances.====SBP: Todah!
FROM GOOD DEBT JON: Excellent stuff this morning. Love it. Have a great day, Pastor, I am off to Starbucks working on a video script for SFL.====JACK: Did you mean SFL, or SNL?====JON: Most days SFL Stewardship for Life, http://SFLToday.org====JACK: I thought that maybe you'd get the joke--SNL, "Saturday Night Live," or did you just choose to ignore my sense of humor?
FROM DOCTOR PAUL: I saw a one woman play at the JCC last summer on her life. The challenges she faced both within her country and the wars were incredible. I had so much respect for her. I wonder if Hillary is this generation's Golda?====JACK: I wonder if Golda would be photogenic enough to be selected as a USA presidential candidate?
FROM RI IN BOSTON: That's a great quote from Golda Meir, and very applicable to all of us. In the context of the universe we are all insignificant. You offered a couple of other acute observations regarding women...that at this late date we in the U.S. haven't been convinced women are qualified to be President, and that Golda Meir pre-empted Margaret Thatcher as an "iron lady"====JACK: Are there any famous female architects, or is the glass ceiling still unbroken? Some church bodies still will not also females to be pastors or priests.====RI: I don't believe you can classify them as "famous" but there are a few women who have achieved well in architecture. Some of them got their recognition in partnership with their husbands, not on their own, such as Allison Smithson and Denise Scott Brown. Those two are an older generation. More recently there are some women who have advanced in architecture on their own, like Laurinda Spears who was a founding partner of the firm Arquitectonica in Florida. I've read that Ms. Spears parents had some wealth and bankrolled some early projects for their daughter to get her started, but she took the ball and ran with it. Her name isn't common among architect achievers but she has accomplished a lot. Perhaps one of the most recognized these days is Zaha Hadid, an Iraqi expatriate who went to London and impressed enough people to get her going. She has had a number of major commissions in Europe, and I think there's one in Cincinnati, and they're getting publicized. While abroad, I looked at some of her work, and it disappointed me.
FROM PH IN MESA: this one I love. Jews seem always to have such a keen sense of humor about the subtleties of life!====JACK: You've probably noticed that many of the great comedians are Jewish.
FROM BBC IN ILLINOIS: Enjoyed this one; thanks.====JACK: I enjoy listening to the song, "It's hard to be humble, etc." You can find it on Youtube.
FROM BLAZING OAKS: In my experience, average people are more apt to have low self-esteem, rather than an elevated opinion of themselves. "A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us." (Jane Austen) I read a quote yesterday, which seems relevant here: "Many people would be frightened if they looked in the mirror and saw, not their face, but their character." Good thought!====JACK: I remember a mother telling of the success that her daughter was having in the business world Her husband cautioned, "Now, don't brag." Is it bragging when we tell of the successes of our children...and grandchildren? Let me tell you about mine...
FROM OUTHOUSE JUDY: "Oh Lord ain't hard to be humble, when you're perfect in everyway".....great song!====JACK: Do you remember the expression, "Eating humble pie?" It means to apologize for making a humiliating mistake.====JUDY: I'm very acquainted with humble pie as I have eaten it a lot! ====JACK: Humble pie is a derivation of "umble pie," a medieval meat dish made out of deer innards (the scraps) that not many people wanted to eat.
FROM FACEBOOK LIZ: prefacing people with "first this or that," perpetuates stereotypes.====JACK: It's better than saying, "last."
FROM KF IN MICHIGAN: I just checked out "Iron Lady" again good movie....a good woman from humble beginnings!====JACK: I was surprised to learn that Meir was called The Iron Lady before Thatcher.
.
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