Jack’s Winning Words 6/6/17
“What you put into your mind before you are 21 is like a bank account.  You will be drawing on that for the rest of your life.”  (Yo Yo Ma)  Today is National Yo-Yo Day.  Can you do yo-yo tricks…walk the dog, around the world?  But on to YoYo Ma, the famous cellist.  He sees knowledge as an important investment that will pay dividends for a lifetime.  Thinking back…morality, a spiritual life, family values, basic education…all learned before 21.    ;-)  Jack

FROM RI IN BOSTON:  Yo Yo Ma is one of the brilliant talents in the world, and his philosophy about early influences in our lives is brilliant too.  I thank my parents again and again for their guidance with morality, spiritual life, family values and basic education.  They invested in me, but I'm the one who continues to receive the dividends.====JACK:  I see your parents as "salt of the earth" people.  We don't hear that expression much anymore, but it has a biblical origin.  Matthew 5:13  "Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted? it is good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men."  Salt also expresses negative concepts; for example, in the Middle Ages, salt was spread on land to poison it, as a punishment to landowners who had transgressed against society in some way.  In a positive sense,  'the salt of the earth' referred to the value of salt. This is shown in other phrases, for example, the aristocratic and powerful of the earth were 'above the salt' and valued workers were 'worth their salt'.  'The salt of the earth' was first published in English in Chaucer's Summoner's Tale, circa 1386 (Ye been the salt of the erthe and the savour).====RI:  Thanks for that response regarding my parents...you judged rightly.  I know of the biblical reference about salt, having read it just recently in my daily scripture reading.  Salt has forever been vital in making our food palatable.  From our years of residing in the Detroit metro area I often heard that the city was built over a vast salt deposit, and that they took  advantage of it for de-icing the roads every winter.====JACK:  Don't you wonder how all of that salt came to be under Detroit?  This world is ever changing in ways we can't imagine.

FROM PR CH ON CAPE COD:  He’s also an incredible person.  My music minister’s sister-in-law worked in the offices of Carnegie Hall for years.  She said when Yo-Yo came, he treated the custodial staff with the same respect he treated other musicians, anyone and everyone.  While at Swarthmore College, I went in to the Curtis Institute of Music once to listen to a cello masterclass.  6 students played- one I didn’t think played very well.  And I was thinking, “OK. Yo-Yo, pick up the cello and show us how it’s done!  And he did what he did for the other 5.  He complimented one thing, and focused on one thing that needed work, and picked up the cello only briefly to demonstrate something without showing off at all.”  A lesson in being kind, considerate, and an excellent teacher. Blessings to you this day.  JACK:  I'll bet he puts his pants on, one leg at a time, too.  My home pastor got an honorary D.D. degree and people began to refer to him as "Doctor" instead of "Pastor."  I remember him saying that he got the degree, because he raised some money for them.  "The D.D. stands for, Donated Dignity."  As a college student, I would often lead the liturgy wearing his robe with the velvet stripes on it.  The college/seminary people didn't think that was too cool.  His response was, "Jack, do think that Jesus cares?"

 FROM ST PAUL IN ST PAUL:  good words today.  Jack.  thanks.   would that the whole world knew and believed this.  i am concerned about all the crap that is being put into some young minds these days.====JACK:  Put your mind at ease.  God is still God.  I remember "America First" as a rallying cry for isolationist prior to WW 2.  I also remember when the RSV came out as a translation of the Bible into modern language....  A pastor said, "If the King James Version was good enough for Saint Paul, it's good enough for me."  (true story)  My young mind survived.

FROM GUSTIE MARLYS:  Clem could do all kinds of tricks with a yo-yo.  Me—I can make it go up and down!====JACK:  ...but I'll bet that you could jump rope better than he could.

FROM OUTHOUSE JUDY:  "They" say a child's personality is complete by age 4 including his learning path.  That's scary for a lot of children who don't get the chance to develop their abilities.  But I do believe you can learn as long as you are alive.  Basic morals are learned also and hopefully by 21 you have learned positive morals.====JACK:  It's an old proverb..."You're never too old to learn."

FROM BLAZING OAKS:  I read in Benjamin Bloom's book on early education, that a child's capacity for learning is pretty well set by the age of THREE! He was instrumental in getting pre-schools for disadvantaged children for that reason, to give them a fighting chance in school...I think our generation, with more stay-at-home moms, had an advantage in learning family values, and cultural values and morals were certainly more unified and raised the bar much higher than exists now. The WW words today seem to ring true, and YoYo Ma is worth listening to!====JACK:  We usually think of exploring in terms of finding new lands.  There's much exploring yet to be done in the human mind,,,and in the gene pool, too.