Jack’s Winning Words 6/28/16
“To read without reflecting is like eating without digesting.”  (Edmund Burke)  One of my favorite books is Poems of Carl Sandburg (Google: Grass Carl Sandburg).  I reflect and digest that one.  In the Bible, Proverbs, Job and the Parables of Jesus are favorites.  There’s a message beyond the words in each of them.  In this busy world there seems to be too little time for contemplation.  And we’re the lesser for it.  Have you “reflected” on something lately?    ;-)  Jack

FROM MICHIZONA RAY:  Kierkegaard might have understood this comment best. He said that understanding only comes through reflection. I think he's right -- like have a drawer full of great food recipes and no kitchen! Another person noted (of whom I cannot remember) the knowledge is something another can simply give to you; but understanding for how to use the information is a gift. I would say that that wisdom is having the knowledge and understanding how to use it -- with the added blessing for knowing when!====JACK:  You're right!  What good is it to own a car, but not know how to drive it?  What good is it to have knowledge, but not know how to use it?

FROM HAWKEYE GEORGE:  Interesting that I'm ordering Carl Sandburg, by Harry Golden from the St. Ambrose Library.====JACK:  Another Golden book that you ought to read is, Only In America, especially he chapters...Why I Never Bawl Out a Waitress...and...The Show Must Go On.

FROM BLAZING OAKS:  Read "The Rainbow Comes and Goes" by A.Cooper and G.Vanderbilt during vacation, and really liked the idea they presented of Rainbows in and out of our lives. I'll remember to look for the rainbow to re-appear, during sad times, and be thankful when I'm enjoying "Rainbow" times. It was an interesting look into two well-known celebrity lives.  Also "When Breath becomes Air", the recent best seller, is thought-provoking. Philip Yancy's books, even old Andy Rooney, not to mention all the marvelous theologians who have inspired and edified us. We are so lucky to have the access to good readings in every genre, the only down side is too little time to peruse even a small percentage of them!!  Such a good and true quote today. Reading is my greatest pleasure!====JACK:  Do you use an e-reader?  Some of my friends do and really like it.

FROM ANNE IN WATERFORD:  Yes. Job.  A friend of mine told me recently that her Mother, wife of a Presbyterian minister in Indiana, told her to read Job.  This was the week before her wedding when she had returned home from her teaching job in Pontiac.  My friend is 84 and lost her husband when she was 62.  This is the first time I have pondered Job.  There are so many layers.  I think of my Mother , Irish, who often asked us to "Offer it up."  I spend more time reading the Bible these days.  Reading is my favorite pastime.====JACK:  When Martin Luther would come to a tough passage in the Bible, he said that he'd just "tip his hat" and go on to something else.  Job can be a puzzler, but when you look at the message rather than at the details it takes on clarity

FROM OUTHOUSE JUDY:  We all turn to ash and Grass points it out eerily.  Life isn't the ultimate, thankfully.  It's hard to even imagine the horror of how some people lived and died.  We have visited many Civil War Battlefields and the Holocaust Museum.  We see the horror read about it but I truly believe we have a very hard time digesting it all.  There is so much on the television and the news we are getting immune to the inhumanity.  Its difficult to turn off our minds to the bombardment of the different media and reflect on my love of reading.====JACK:  At burials (and on Ash Wednesday) these words are spoken: "Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust."

FROM BB IN ILLINOIS:  Last night I attended The Iran Deal: A Reassessment at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.  If you have an hour…worth a listen.  The incredible depth of understanding, experience and perception certainly made me reflect.  We listen to “60 Minutes” or CNN and think we have a grip on issues?  Listening to these two veterans with 40+ years experience as ambassadors in the middle east put it all in perspective.  I don’t even know enough to have an opinion!  Couldn’t agree with you more on reading and reflecting and just taking the time to mull things over in general.  I recently read that being connected on devices has a negative effect on the brain in that people no longer have sufficient time to properly process the input they receive.  ====JACK:  I've found that the "American mind" is being directed by sound bites..many of them being unsubstantiated.  People tend to forward all kinds of stuff, because it suits their prejudice.  There's not enough reflection.

FROM TARMART REV:  Jack’s Winning Words, of course!!====JACK:  ...and the pictures you post on Facebook.