Jack’s Winning Words  5/31/22  “Our dead are never really dead until we have forgotten them.”  (George Eliot)  I seldom miss going to a cemetery on Memorial Day…ever since I was child.  It wasn’t a sad time.  It was a time to hear stories about relatives, about my dad’s friend who died in the 1918 flu epidemic.  The cemetery, for me,  has been a place for remembering.  Some of the stones are weather-worn, the dates have faded.  Some of the graves are new.  Such is life.  We’re born, we live, we die.  But people never really leave us until we have forgotten them.  So, if there is that someone who you are mourning this year, pause at a cemetery, any cemetery, and offer a prayer of thanks for their life.  ;-/ Jack FROM HONEST JOHN:  Are any of your people buried at Riverside?    My grandparents are there….up near the Deere monument.    We went there every Memorial Day (Decoration Day’.     I heard there about my Grandfather…my Grandma still lived.    Never have forgotten those stories.   Peace,  ===JACK:  Most of our cemetery visits were to Galesburg, my father's hometown.  The only thing I know about Riverside is the statue of The Black Angel.  That was a scarey place when we were children.  I think IK saw it once or twice when I was a teen.  My mother was an ardent Cubs fan, and I went to Galesburg after  the Cubs won the World Series and attached a button to her headstone...CUBS WIN!.  My son visited there this weekend and said that the button is sstill there.  FROM FACEBOOK LIZ:  i find comfort and peace at the cemetery...===JACK:  Then the place has served its purpose.  I find my family's "plot" to be a place of rmembrance. FROM DAZ IN CO::  I miss the ceremony at Pine Lake Cemetery. That was a good time for remembering.===JACK:  Because of Covid, it's been a virtual observance for a few year.  Back to live this year.  About 75 in attendance withe WB Police Honor Guard.  It's similar to what the celebrations "used" to be like. FROM ST PAUL IN ST PAUL:  well said,  Jack!   Rabbi Kushner says that memories are the one thing that death cannot take away.   and i would add photos and mementos too.===JACK:  There's something about a tombstone that I like...the letters aged by time and the weather.===SP:  i preached last year at East Union, MN for LSS.  that country church was established in 1856,  two years before MN became a state.   their cemetery had a couple of graves of men who had served in the Civil War and also a couple of graves of persons killed in the Lakota Sioux Uprising in 1862.  talk about old and weathered tomb stones!   some were not legible at all but an old man at the church took me around the cemetery.  fascination stuff for a history buff.  ===JACK:  What a privilege to be able to preach at such a place as that old church...and to walk amongst the saints of old.  Did you feel their presence there?  There's a religious song with the line about Jesus: "I felt His presence there."  Eeerie, when you think about it.     FROM CR:  I can’t remember if I shared with you a link to the essays of Heather Cox Richardson, historian and professor. She writes frequently and shares her work with anyone interested.  I enjoy the historical context she offers to current events.  She’s available to follow on Facebook, Twitter, or  you can sign up for emails.  I thought this one was quite interesting. ===JACK:  I always like it when people give me "follow up" information. FROM SR RD:  This is exquisite, Jack!!!  Thanks.===JACK: "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder."  Is it wrong for the creator to admire his work?  I happened to like this Winning Words, too.