Jack’s Winning Words 5/15/14
“Talking with a friend is nothing else but thinking aloud.”  (Joseph Addison)  The average Facebook user has 200 “friends.”  The World Record is 6,223.  I don’t have that many, or even 200, but I do have some people that I can be with and “be myself.”  I’ve read that “a friend is someone who knows all about you and still likes you.”   You may not realize it, but Winning Words allows me to think aloud in front of YOU.    ;-)  Jack  

FROM MP IN MICHIGAN:  I like you.....====JACK:  I appreciate our "sit down" times together.

FROM FACEBOOK LIZ:  & i get to "think back." thanks!====JACK:  I'm not going to "unfriend" you for that.  In fact, that's something I like about your responses to Winning Words. ====LIZ:  happy to count you among my friends!

FROM HONEST JOHN:  Read the Non Sequitor comic in the Free Press today.   I think you will love it.====JACK:  Today's "comic" is a good example of why the strip has the name that it does.  I think that it's time for the church to reconsider "The Sermon" as a name for the sermon.

FROM TARMART REV:  ...appreciate "Winning Words"...appreciate our friendship...appreciate the challenge to see if I can up with a witty reply each weekday!!====JACK:  The thing I like about you is not necessarily your wit, but how you take "the faith" that is yours and put it into action.  Which reminds me of two American Indians looking at a smoke signal in the distance.  One asks the other: "What does it say?"  He replies, "Heap big smoke, but no fire."  Some preachers (and politicians) are like that. 

FROM IKE AT THE MIC:  On this thought my favorite quote is "Always be yourself! because the people that count don't mind & the people that mind don't count."====JACK:  I remember a time when I talked informally with Billy Graham.  It seemed like friend-to-friend conversation.

FROM SHARIN' SHARON:  I like it that you try to encourage and inspire your readers to be the best they can. The sentence which struck me is "A friend is someone who knows all about you and still likes you." I also read daily meditations from Henri Nouwen and he stresses constantly that we are most intimate with each other when we allow each other to touch our woundedness. You've found another way, right from just being able to sit at your computer and send out and receive back our struggles in carrying our crosses. We get a lot out of thinking aloud in front of you too!!!!! ====JACK:  Sometimes it seems easier to "talk" to an inanimate computer screen....but nothing beats face-to-face.

FROM RI IN BOSTON:  Talking openly with a friend is everything.  Having someone trustworthy with whom to talk about anything is priceless.  I have someone like that, with whom I used to start the day over breakfast, talking about a range of issues, that gave me a fresh outlook for the rest of the day.  We don't do breakfast anymore, but I still get a lift in the morning from the thoughts he passes on to me.====JACK:  When we first came to Michigan we opened an account with the Detroit Bank and Trust.  Now, they've changed their name to ComericA Bank.  I miss the word, Trust!  I wonder if there are still banks with the word, trust, as part of their name?  "Trust" is a very fragile thing.  You only allow good friends to handle it.

FROM ME IN NEWPORT BEACH:  I wonder if Donald Sterling feels the same.  My response is purely a reaction to the quote and nothing more is implied or need be inferred.====JACK:  He said of his girlfriend, "I wish I had just paid her off."  I would not call their relationship, a friendship!

FROM FLYING CHUCK:  Keep thinking out loud Jack. I like it.====JACK:  We need to do it person sometime.

FROM GOOD DEBT JON:  Tell that to Donald Sterling. He needs to start thinking before talking, with friends, or anyone….  Especially news media…====JACK:  I wonder if Donald really has any friends.  The saying, "Friends don't let friends drive drunk," should be changed in Donald's case to: "Friends don't let friends operate their mouth without first putting their brain in gear."

FROM GUSTIE MARLYS:  I believe it!====JACK:  Or, as we were taught in confirmation class..."It is most certainly so."

FROM BLAZING OAKS:  OH HOW I MISS MY HUSBAND AND TWINNER, WHEN IT COMES TO TALKING FRANKLY!!  I DON'T DO FACEBOOK AT ALL...IT REQUIRES MORE T IME THAN I AM WILLING TO SPEND...A LOT OF MY FAMILY  DO KEEP UP WITH OTHERS IN THAT WAY. WE ALL NEED SOMEONE WE CAN "THINK ALOUD" IN FRONT OF, AND WHO ACCEPTS US UNCONDITIONALLY. (BESIDE JESUS....!)  HOPEFULLY WE ARE THAT PERSON FOR A FEW OTHERS...====JACK:  I was encouraged to put Winning Words on Facebook, but I think that it seems more personal (one on one) when the message goes out individually.  I really do think about certain people and how the WWs might come across to them.

FROM KF IN MICHIGAN:  I think I have 12 Facebook friends. I really only use it to keep up with out-of-towners.====JACK:  Although I have a Facebook account, I don't know that I have any friends.