Jack’s Winning Words 8/9/21

“If you want to see the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.”  (Dolly Parton)  Over the Rainbow , from the Wizard of Oz is a favorite of many.  After the storm the rainbow offers  blue sky with no clouds, dreams coming true and  troubles melting  like lemon drops.  Who wouldn’t want that?  Dolly’s had many difficulties in her life, but she’s discovered that be “hanging in there,” the rainbow appears.  Several of her more than 3000 songs speak of her religious belief.  What do you expect…over the rainbow?  ;-)  Jack

FROM ST PAUL IN ST PAUL:  wow!   3,000 songs!  what a career after coming from such poverty.  and one of 12(?) children from Appalachia.===JACK:  Yes, impressive... But Fanny Crosby wrote over 8000 hymns...and she was blind.  But, Dolly is impressive in her own right.===SP:  can you imagine a hymnal with 8,000 hymns???===JACK:  I can imagine today's young people asking: "What's a hymnal?"===SP:  good point.  if it's not on a screen,  they may have no interest at all.    kind of sad, really.===JACK:  Times change.  Customs change.  "Change and decay, all around I see.  O, thou who changest not, abide with me." (272 Lutheran Book of Worship)

FROM "MAD" SCIENTIST:  I’m a rainbow seeker. I’ll go out in a sunny rain even. To me, the rainbow as a covenant (Genesis 9) translates to a smile from God.===JACK:  True story.....A little girl was told that God made the rainbow.  She responded...."and he even stayed in the lines!"

FROM WILLMAR REV:  "Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high  There's a land that I've heard of once in a lullaby.  Somewhere over the rainbow, skies are blue  And the dreams that you dare to dream,  Really do come true."   A pastor friend of mine often says, "What's true in the physical is often true in the spiritual?!" 0;-)===JACK:  The physical word, HOPE, also has a spiritual meaning...and the rainbow is a physical/spiritual sign of HOPE.

FROM SR RD:  That  God  is in control of both the rain and rainbow, huh?😏🙏 ===JACK:  God is the Creator.  With the concept of Free Will, I don't see God as the Controller.  A parent sometimes allows the child to drive the car by him/her self.  God created nature.  Is nature then left to control itself?  Just wondering....without the answer.===RD:  More about Dolly:  Dolly Parton's lasting legacy... 

 In 1990, the high school dropout rate for Dolly Parton's hometown of Sevierville Tennessee was at 34%.

 Research shows that most kids make up their minds in fifth/sixth grade not to graduate.

 That year, all fifth and  sixth graders from Sevierville were invited by Parton to attend an assembly at Dollywood.

 They were asked to pick a buddy, and if both students completed high school, Dolly Parton would personally hand them each a $500 check on their graduation day.

 As a result, the dropout rate for those classes fell to 6%, and has generally retained that average to this day. 

 Shortly after the success of The Buddy Program, Parton learned in dealing with teachers from the school district that problems in education often begin during first grade when kids are at different developmental levels.

 That year The Dollywood Foundation paid the salaries for additional teachers assistants in every first grade class for the next 2 years, under the agreement that if the program worked, the school system would effectively adopt and fund the program after the trial period.

 During the same period, Parton founded the Imagination Library in 1995: The idea being that children from her rural hometown and low-income families often start school at a disadvantage and as a result, will be unfairly compared to their peers for the rest of their lives, effectively encouraging them not to pursue higher education.

 The objective of the Imagination library was that every child in Sevier County would receive one book, every month, mailed and addressed to the child, from the day they were born until the day they started kindergarten, 100% free of charge.

 What began as a hometown initiative now serves children in all 50 states, Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom, mailing thousands of free books to children around the world monthly. 

 On March 1, 2018 Parton donated her 100 millionth book at the Library of Congress: a copy of "Coat of Many Colors" dedicated to her father, who never learned to read or write.

 Happy 74th Birthday Dolly Parton! 

 

FROM BLAZING O0AKS:  My g.daughter in law saw a double rainbow just last week, and called us to "get out, and see it!". The upper one was pretty hazy, but the lower one was beautiful!Our God-created world is full of natural beauty, it seems the laws of nature remain constant. What a Wonderful World, as one of my; favorite songs reminds us!!===JACK:  I wonder if there was a double rainbow on the day of your birth?