Jack’s Winning Words 2/25/15
“Blessed are they who see beautiful things in humble places where other people see nothing.”  (Camille Pissarro)  Pissarro was an impressionist artist, able to see things with eyes different from the ordinary person.  Monet and Renoir could do the same.  Detroit has a Land Bank, staffed with people who are able to see possibilities in dilapidated houses and weeded lots.  Neighborhood by neighborhood, the “impressionists” are hard at work.    ;-)  Jack

FROM MICHIZONA RAY: I hope they can pull it off. Detroit was such a great city so many years ago. It's a real tragedy to witness its decay. I think these "impressionists" along with the fresh eyes of youth, who know nothing of Detroit as it used to be, can generate a place of their own, and a new spirit. I hope so.====JACK:  That's the point of Pissarro's quote.  Somebody has to see possibilities and, then, do something about it.  Too many are content to sit on the sidelines and be "naysayers."  Blessed are those who say, "Yes, we can!"

FROM TARMART REV:  I enjoy looking at many of their booths at the Eastern Market when visiting the Detroit area . . . "Home Grown!!" signs hanging on their post.====JACK:  The Eastern Market is under the spell of the impressionists.  Nothing like the ubiquitous Walmarts and Targets.

FROM FACEBOOK LIZ:  the impressionists are my favorites.====JACK:  "Art is in the eye of the beholder."  My "eye" favorable to impressionism, too. 

FROM ST. PAUL IN MESA:  you are such a fan of Detroit, Jack.  good for you!   and yes,  cities can surely be reborn after a disaster.   maybe stronger and better than ever.  time will tell.====JACK:  Many people comment on what Detroit was like in the past.  I like to envision what Detroit might be in the future.  It's like it is with us.  Wed can go through the photo album and see what we looked like in the past.  We'll never be that way again.  What's important ...What do we want to be in the future?  Time will tell!

FROM TAMPA SHIRL:  That is definitely happening in Tampa in dangerous and rundown places. It is amazing to see the differences from 50 years ago.  Downtown 50 years ago along the Hillsborough River looked like a warzone because all of the warehouses had been knocked down.  Today we have an art museum, a park, a performing arts center, etc.====JACK:  Visionaries are not always accepted by a community.  George Bernard Shaw was a visionary when he said,, "You see things; and you say “Why?” But I dream things that never were; and I say “Why not?”. 

FROM JT IN MINNESOTA:  I met with our Support Group of persons with memory loss and their caregivers today.  One caregiver talked about small miracles every day.  His spouse has severe Alzheimers and is able to do nothing.  He continues to care for her at home and told about the daily miracles he experiences.  Your WW spoke of that to me. ====JACK:  Thanks for making the connection.  Scrolling the "net", I came across this..."Hundreds of years ago a wandering scholar named Muretus lived. He was very educated but also very poor. He became very sick, and he was taken to the place where the destitute were kept. The people who cared for him did not know that he was a scholar and that he understood the scholar’s Latin. One day the doctors were discussing his case in Latin and they were saying that he was a poor creature of value to no one and that it was hopeless and unnecessary to expend care and money on attention to such a worthless human. Muretus looked up and answered in their own Latin, “Call no man worthless for whom Christ died.” Because of God’s grace like Muretus said, none of us are worthless. In fact, in God’s eyes we each have infinite value."  (Catholic PalTalk)