Jack’s Winning Words 3/13/14
“God created the world, and we created borders.”  (Sojourners Magazine)  Think of the fences built and wars fought because of borders.  Disease cares not about borders, nor does the weather.  Even the Roman Catholic Church recently ignored traditional borders and named a Latin American Pope.  4-yr-old Ben was asked by the plane attendant where he was from, and he innocently replied, “I’m an earthling.”  Aren’t we all?    ;-)  Jack

 FROM MICHIZONA RAY:  It is so true how much stock and importance we put in these arbitrarily determined distinctions.Whether it is a border of a nation, a race, a culture, a society, or even a family, we have tendencies to lose ourselves in them, as if they determine us. I prefer Ben's idea, although I would add.child-of-God before earthling.====JACK:  Who am  I to deny your comment on "child-of-God," but it does introduce a faith concept that not everyone would accept.  As I was reading the newspaper this morning I noticed how much of the "news" was defined by borders.

 FROM HY YO SILVER:  Clever.  I like that one.====JACK:  One of the issues that disturb many people about Congress is the perceived obsession with political borders

 FROM HONEST JOHN:  Wasn't Ben creating boundaries by saying he was an earthling?    Can we say we are Universelings?    Even that may be a boundary if there is more than one  universe.    "Child of God" May be the only citation free from boundaries.====JACK: You're expecting pretty much of a 4-year-old to philosophize about concepts like that.  Ultimately..."We are dust, and to du st we shall return."  Carl Sandburg's poem, GRASS, has this interesting thought..."Pile the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo, Shovel them under and let me work-- I am the grass; I cover all.
And pile them high at Gettysburg
And pile them high at Ypres and Verdun.
Shovel them under and let me work.
Two years, ten years, and passengers ask the conductor:
What place is this?
Where are we now?
I am the grass.
Let me work."

 FROM IKE AT THE MIC:  I enjoy playing with words & obviously you do with  your "Winning Words"'in that spirit wouldn't it be more appropriate for us to be identified as "earthlinks" instead of earthlings? ====JACK:  That's better than being called a "nudnik."

 FROM TARMART REV:  From one 'earthling to another' . . . "Keep you light shinning, Jack!!" ====JACK:  I like the concept that we are all passengers on the same spaceship called, Earth.  Does that mean that when the astronauts fly into space, they leave the spaceship for a while?===REV:  They always seem to return . . . evidently,  they haven't found anywhere or anything better as of this date.

FROM BLAZING OAKS:  Hannah Arendt's quote (Boston Globe) seems to fit somewhere here:"The true dividing line between people is whether they are capable of being in love with their destiny"....Is that seeing the glass half empty or half full?  We Earthlings "back in the day" had no concept of many galaxies out in endless space, as we do now, and Earthly boundaries are constantly changing, due to war and weather, so Child of God just may be appropriate, for those of us who have that belief!====JACK:  Some "religious" insist on bringing God into the boundary issue with "your god" and "my God."  Is it possible that there are no boundaries with God, even though some religious writings seem to indicate that there are?====OAKS:  CERTAINLY POSSIBLE!  WHO CAN KNOW THIS SIDE OF ETERNITY?!

 FROM PLAIN FOLKS CHESTER:  Well, it seams to me that God DID make some borders... land and sea... heaven and earth.====JACK:  You forgot male and female.

 FROM PH IN MESA:  God sees no borders, boundaries, barriers, or flags.  just his world.  would that we could do the same!====JACK:  Let's start with churches.

FROM TAMPA SHIRL:  Yes, and we have just added another to our family with our first great grandchild born March 11 in Kill Devil Hills. NC.  It is a wonderful world in which we live. The electronic era is fantastic since the pictures are sent immediately via the iphone.====JACK:  When listing place of birth, I put down Des Moines.   It will be more exciting for your grandchild to put down, Kill Devil Hills!