Jack’s Winning Words 1/5/15
“You raze the old to raise the new.”  (Justin Chen)  Chen could be talking about Detroit.  Old buildings are being torn down (about 200 a week) or being rehabbed.  Plans are in the works for a new Detroit.  Change is happening; in fact, it’s always happening.  The challenge is to see that positive change takes place in our lives, as well.  I like this time of the year when we say Goodbye to the old and Hello to the new.    ;-)  Jack

 FROM HONEST JOHN:  When I first came to Detroit.   (1963).  , it was a vibrant beautiful city....Then it became a wreck.   Now is a kind of Easter event for it.====JACK:   I'm reminded of Ezekiel's encounter with the Lord.   "The hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones.  He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry.  He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”  I said, “Sovereign Lord, you alone know.” ====JOHN:  In some way, I think, it helps to have known the bones before they collapsed....I personally think the New Detroit will be quite different than the Old Detroit....====JACK:  Thomas Wolfe wrote:  “You can't go back home to your family, back home to your childhood, back home to romantic love, back home to a young man's dreams of glory and of fame, back home to exile, to escape to Europe and some foreign land, back home to lyricism, to singing just for singing's sake, back home to aestheticism, to one's youthful idea of 'the artist' and the all-sufficiency of 'art' and 'beauty' and 'love,' back home to the ivory tower, back home to places in the country, to the cottage in Bermude, away from all the strife and conflict of the world, back home to the father you have lost and have been looking for, back home to someone who can help you, save you, ease the burden for you, back home to the old forms and systems of things which once seemed everlasting but which are changing all the time--back home to the escapes of Time and Memory.”

FROM TARMART REV:  I'm with you, Jack . . . whether we are in tune with it or not, change is invariably true!!====JACK:  In the hymn, Abide With Me, Henry Francis Lyte wrote..."Change and decay in all around I see:  O thou who changest not, abide with me!"

FROM RI IN BOSTON:  Many of us join the people of Michigan in cheering Detroit on, and hoping for a strong resurgence.  We remember when the city was a primary contributor to the strength and wealth of our nation, and a staunch patron of the middle class.  Many years ago when I was going into the field of urban design, I applied for a position with the Detroit City Planning Department, which at the time was among the best in the country.  Detroit had strong leadership then and the future looked bright.  Regrettably, leadership in the city gradually passed on to men who were unqualified, and more interested in providing for themselves than for the citizenry.  Like the cities of Europe that rose again after the devastation from WW2, enlightened leadership and commitment will bring Detroit back again.====JACK:  There are many resurrection stories, most notably the one that happened on Easter Sunday.  The early Christians adopted the phoenix bird as a symbol of the resurrection, altho I've seen more of the butterfly lately.====RI:  The response today from Honest John mentioned his arrival in Detroit in 1963, when it was a "beautiful city".  Coincidentally that was the year that I applied for a job in the Detroit City Planning Department.  I was offered a position there, but I chose an alternative offer from a large architectural firm in suburban Detroit.  There I had an exciting 12 years on the design team that produced the World Trade Center in New York. ====JACK:  ...and your wife, too!  

FROM ANON IN FLORIDA:  Interesting! My daughter, Stacy and her husband attended a Buddhist Letting Go ceremony. "This time of Year." The premise was "to release the old (especially guilt, to use this way of forgiving others and yourself." The participants wrote down things they wanted to let go from 2014 and burned them in a fire...and reflected how they wanted to be in 2015....open to joy, gratitude and self care and forgiveness. Not as vast as razing Detroit, but made a personal release....freeing to build.====JACK:  I tried to make the connection (razing/raising) as to how new beginnings can relate to the city as well as to individuals.  "Letting go" is an important step to take before rebuilding.

FROM LH IN MICHIGAN:  I was thinking about today’s winning words and I remembered something I heard a woman say before Christmas:   “You can call Detroit ‘down’; but you cannot call Detroit ‘out’ ”.  I thought that was a wonderful way for her to express her optimism for Detroit’s future.====JACK:  Your response reminds me of the poem by Myra Welch about the old violin.
Twas battered and scarred, and the auctioneer
 thought it scarcely worth his while to waste much time on the old violin,
 but held it up with a smile; "What am I bidden, good folks," he cried,
 "Who'll start the bidding for me?" "A dollar, a dollar"; then two!" "Only
 two? Two dollars, and who'll make it three? Three dollars, once; three
 dollars twice; going for three.." But no, from the room, far back, a
 gray-haired man came forward and picked up the bow; Then, wiping the dust
 from the old violin, and tightening the loose strings, he played a melody
 pure and sweet as caroling angel sings.
 The music ceased, and the auctioneer, with a voice that was quiet and low,
 said; "What am I bid for the old violin?" And he held it up with the bow.
 A thousand dollars, and who'll make it two? Two thousand! And who'll make
 it three? Three thousand, once, three thousand, twice, and going and
 gone," said he. The people cheered, but some of them cried, "We do not
 quite understnad what changed its worth." Swift came the reply: "The touch
 of a master's hand."
 And many a man with life out of tune, and battered and scarred with sin,
 Is auctioned cheap to the thoughtless crowd, much like the old violin, A
 "mess of pottage," a glass of wine; a game - and he travels on. "He is
 going" once, and "going twice, He's going and almost gone." But the Master
 comes, and the foolish crowd never can quite understand the worth of a soul
 and the change that's wrought by the touch of the Master's hand.

FROM FM IN WISCONSIN:  There was an article in our local paper – WE energy purchased a farm close to their new energy plant – they didn’t need or want an old barn on the property.  A museum in Caledonia is attempting to preserve old buildings, a railroad depot etc., and asked if they could have the old barn.   WE energy quickly said YES and then offered to dismantle the barn and pay the cost of moving the ‘barn’ to the grounds of the museum.   “We have not because we ask not!” ====JACK:  A barn razing/raising!