We were watching 'Rocket Boys' early this morning.
I see the hunger in the eyes of the young men to be more than their community can offer them and I wonder how the parents cannot see the dreams and visions of more that are in the minds of their boys.
When my son was playing baseball, he asked me a pretty tough question. He said, "Mom, do you think I am good enough to play in the majors?"
I am not naive enough to believe that a child asks those questions without a dream of something greater in mind.
With great care, I began to answer him. Having been blessed with parents who were conscious of the possibilities of the world that COULD be available with work, I told him, 'Bud, you can be ANYTHING you are willing to work to achieve. Anything. And if this is where your future leads you, then I'll support you all the way.'
He smiled contentedly and said, "I don't know if I'm good enough, but I thought I'd ask you."
I was thankful that a higher power than me had given me the answer.
Everyone wants their children to succeed and everyone wants their children to have opportunities that they didn't have. Sometimes, the realities of life, like for the Rocket Boys in Coalwood, encroach upon the possibilities of what could be supplanting it with the painful life choice of what MUST be.
When the circumstances of life dictate reality over dreams, reality usually wins out in convincing fashion. But in the process, a little bit of that individual dies. Even if, in the very recesses of their soul, a fragment of the shattered dream remains as a twinkling ember of desire that could spark the fires of imagination, the need to pay the bills and make the dinner and put the kids to bed keeps the spark only a tiny light drowned out by the halogen glare of daily life.
But sometimes, the hunger for more gnaws at the insides of a person until it must be set free to seek other ways to feed the desire. It is then that the courage to be more than circumstances would seem to allow can blossom into a raging fire of desire, hope and effort. This combination combines into a fuel more potent than any other and it can launch our dreams skyward, where truly, there is no limit except those imposed by self.
Recently, my baseball loving son decided that he wanted to follow in the footsteps of the astronauts and scientist who have launched their dreams and their hearts into space. He wants to become an aeronautical design engineer.
When he asked me the same question, but this time substituted the new dream that has supplanted the old, I knew what I had to say.
'Bud, you can be ANYTHING you put your mind to and that you are willing to work to achieve. And I'll support you all the way to the stars.'
In a voice that has now deepened and a resolve that has just recently come into focus in his eyes, he said, "I know, Mom, but I just had to ask."
Wherever he winds up working when he completes the education that he will need to become his dream, he will be the lucky one.
Instead of working for money, he will be working to fuel his dreams and ambitions. And everyone knows rocket fuel is a powerful motivator. Just look at where it took the Rocket Boys.
September 29, 2007
September 27, 2007
Kid Nation
I don't think so.
Face it, from the time the 1960's rolled into being, the people who decided that 'the next generation' should be in charge changed our perspective, our beliefs and our society on a national level. Not all of that change has been for the better, either.
Now, in their infinite insanity, the people who have brought reality out of life and into a television set near you bring us "Kid Nation".
"We can't solve our problems as adults because we never learned to work together as children." Or at least that is the premise behind the program that is sure to demonstrate that as a whole, children are just that - CHILDREN. As for the adults behind this moment of ludicrous television, all I have to say is "Put down the peyote and come up for a breath of fresh air!"
We cannot stuff them into adult scenarios and expect measurable successes on this program because they HAVE to offer a safety net. We can't turn these kids loose on each other or tragedy would strike. Can anybody spell 'Lord of the Flies'?
When adults on reality shows get hurt, the medic staff swoops down and patches them up or takes them to a medical facility. Likewise, the children on kid nation get supervised by adults, doctors, nurses, tutors and, as an added little bonus, get a warm water slip and slide tower for their efforts in assembling rudimentary plumbing from pre-cut pipes on one of their little "manufactured challenges".
Although I have studied the pioneering time period extensively, I cannot find one concrete reference to the pioneers having either option offered to them. I imagine the luxury of having a doctor at their beck and call would have saved the pioneers from a plethora of aggravating and distressing circumstance. Not to mention saving quite a few from that pesky death thingy.
Louis L'Amour said it best when he wrote "I've seen tenderfeet sicken and die from things that wouldn't harm a ten year old girl born in the West."
Oddly enough, the Kid Nation plumbing assembly challenge sort of made me mad. There are absolutely no references to having fresh clean water chugging through PVC pipes somewhere out on the open plains of what was yet to become America. The poor old pioneers had to strain the particulate matter, live and not so live, from their water so they could take in what was available in sloughs or rank pools of water when the creeks ran dry. Beggers couldn't be choosers which is why some of the beggers and whole lot of the choosers lie in mostly unmarked graves across the expanse of the westward migration route.
I can only imagine how the pioneers would have welled up in great fat tears to have fresh, clean running water along their trek to the great unknown. Likewise, the ability for Abner and Luke to shuck off their boots at the end of a 15 mile day for a quick romp on the slip-n-slide would have not only made them feel more refreshed, but certainly would have made the evening pass more pleasantly for them and their wives behind the old Conestoga flaps later on that night.
What Kid Nation purports to do is an interesting goal. But what it lacks is the ability to keep bribery from the forefront of human endeavor. A $21,000 gold star would make Huey, Louie and Dewey turn on each other like ducks on a spit.
If they really wanted to help the 'next generation' truly be better than we are, then how about the prize for each level of attainment being a deferred reward, like COLLEGE TUITION for Associates Level, then on to Bachelor's Level and so on.
And I have no problem giving prizes that are useful. But I seriously doubt these kids, any of them, have an annuity towards their own retirement.
Yeah, I'm laughing too.
The fact that is being played out in front of us is a visual of that old saw "HE WHO HAS THE GOLD MAKES THE RULES" and in this case, the broker of the gold is a group of morally bankrupt old farts in the studios who have smoked so much weed they can't tell a good idea from a withered fistula.
No wonder everyone is hoping someone else will come to the earth and take over. At least it would be different.
Face it, from the time the 1960's rolled into being, the people who decided that 'the next generation' should be in charge changed our perspective, our beliefs and our society on a national level. Not all of that change has been for the better, either.
Now, in their infinite insanity, the people who have brought reality out of life and into a television set near you bring us "Kid Nation".
"We can't solve our problems as adults because we never learned to work together as children." Or at least that is the premise behind the program that is sure to demonstrate that as a whole, children are just that - CHILDREN. As for the adults behind this moment of ludicrous television, all I have to say is "Put down the peyote and come up for a breath of fresh air!"
We cannot stuff them into adult scenarios and expect measurable successes on this program because they HAVE to offer a safety net. We can't turn these kids loose on each other or tragedy would strike. Can anybody spell 'Lord of the Flies'?
When adults on reality shows get hurt, the medic staff swoops down and patches them up or takes them to a medical facility. Likewise, the children on kid nation get supervised by adults, doctors, nurses, tutors and, as an added little bonus, get a warm water slip and slide tower for their efforts in assembling rudimentary plumbing from pre-cut pipes on one of their little "manufactured challenges".
Although I have studied the pioneering time period extensively, I cannot find one concrete reference to the pioneers having either option offered to them. I imagine the luxury of having a doctor at their beck and call would have saved the pioneers from a plethora of aggravating and distressing circumstance. Not to mention saving quite a few from that pesky death thingy.
Louis L'Amour said it best when he wrote "I've seen tenderfeet sicken and die from things that wouldn't harm a ten year old girl born in the West."
Oddly enough, the Kid Nation plumbing assembly challenge sort of made me mad. There are absolutely no references to having fresh clean water chugging through PVC pipes somewhere out on the open plains of what was yet to become America. The poor old pioneers had to strain the particulate matter, live and not so live, from their water so they could take in what was available in sloughs or rank pools of water when the creeks ran dry. Beggers couldn't be choosers which is why some of the beggers and whole lot of the choosers lie in mostly unmarked graves across the expanse of the westward migration route.
I can only imagine how the pioneers would have welled up in great fat tears to have fresh, clean running water along their trek to the great unknown. Likewise, the ability for Abner and Luke to shuck off their boots at the end of a 15 mile day for a quick romp on the slip-n-slide would have not only made them feel more refreshed, but certainly would have made the evening pass more pleasantly for them and their wives behind the old Conestoga flaps later on that night.
What Kid Nation purports to do is an interesting goal. But what it lacks is the ability to keep bribery from the forefront of human endeavor. A $21,000 gold star would make Huey, Louie and Dewey turn on each other like ducks on a spit.
If they really wanted to help the 'next generation' truly be better than we are, then how about the prize for each level of attainment being a deferred reward, like COLLEGE TUITION for Associates Level, then on to Bachelor's Level and so on.
And I have no problem giving prizes that are useful. But I seriously doubt these kids, any of them, have an annuity towards their own retirement.
Yeah, I'm laughing too.
The fact that is being played out in front of us is a visual of that old saw "HE WHO HAS THE GOLD MAKES THE RULES" and in this case, the broker of the gold is a group of morally bankrupt old farts in the studios who have smoked so much weed they can't tell a good idea from a withered fistula.
No wonder everyone is hoping someone else will come to the earth and take over. At least it would be different.
September 25, 2007
The Natural
I am admittedly a baseball fanatic. When I see movies about baseball, it reminds me of every single reason I love the game. While watching 'The Natural' tonight, it brought everything full circle again.
There was an article on ESPN that talked about what a horrible example Roy Hobbs character was in the movie. The wickedness, the indulgences and the affairs of a man who should have been perfect because his game was perfect. I had to wonder if the man who wrote it saw the same movie I did.
I saw a deeply flawed young man who put his entire life on the line for baseball. He left behind a girl who believed in him for a meaningless encounter with an almighty strange woman that became far more than a one night stand. Far from merely changing his life from farm boy to a man of experience in the world, that one encounter almost killed him and certainly silenced that voice of reason that tries to whisper to us all.
From that moment on, everything he did until the end of the movie was simply a struggle to fill the void which he had created in his own life that was left by the death of his father and then, later, by Roy's choice to make baseball the be all and end all of his life. It is in the end of the movie when he is at his most vulnerable that Roy becomes more than the sum of his parts.
Confession comes in a hospital ward as the once girlfriend now grown woman stands at his bedside while Roy recouperates from the complications of having been shot many years earlier. Iris knows far more about what is really going on in life because she has raised his son without his help, a task in that day and age that most certainly wasn't applauded or understood, in order to see Roy fulfill their shared dream of his success on the diamond.
The unexpected happens when Roy in making his confessions of past indescretions and sins states to Iris, "I guess there are some mistakes you never stop paying for...". In that moment of quiet reflection over his own miserable failures and poor choices in life, Roy is beginning to see what his obsessions in both baseball and personal habits has truly cost him over the decades that passed from farm boy to man.
The answer that resounds for him and for the rest of us trying to get through life the best way we can is both merciful and profound. Iris tells him "I believe we have two lives. The life we learn with and the life we live with after we learn." There is a truth in that statement that reveals a great deal about how our Father in Heaven laid out the plans for our life here on this earth.
We were not sent here because we were to be the embodiment of complete perfection. Rather, we were sent here to learn by skinning up our knees and by scraping our chin and by crying the bitter tears that come through disappointment and loss. We were sent here to learn happiness that is a lasting, comfortable feeling from the fleeting emotions that accompany those times where we may just have been having fun.
Most of all, we were sent to learn and then take what we have learned and become a complete person through those lessons both good and bad. And that becomes the second life. Within that redemptive phase that begins from the moment that we truly 'get a clue' about who we are and where we are going.
There are moments in 'The Natural' where this complex drama is played out in crystal clear format. The denouement of the movie is one such moment. As he is down to his last strike, Roy is suffering. The entire crowd is suffering with him, but is unaware of both the extent of his personal crisis, which is being played out before their unknowing eyes, and of the pressure that the collective hopes of every fan is weighing upon his soul.
Iris stands in the opening of a tunnel, and Roy's son, not quite sure the full purpose of what is happening before his eyes, is somewhere in the grandstand. Looking onto the spectacle of human endeavor before her, Iris believes in Roy in a way that can only be described as eternal. She knows him to be more than he appears to be and knows that he can make right all that has been so very wrong for so long.
Iris has absolute faith that Roy can create a miracle in front of the people who only seek to see what their faith and trust in their flawed hero has purchased. Not only does he make a lasting moment in time, he does so even with the baggage, the pain and the sorrows of the past life from which he learned bringing literal blood flow from his wounded body.
It is a type of redemption that we seldom see in this kind of detail. While not exactly a sinless savior for the Knights, Roy becomes a sort of sacrificial lamb who willingly takes his swings to save the life of Pop Fisher and the rest of the team. They don't totally understand what he is suffering for them to win, they only know that Roy is doing it because he wants Pop to win and the team to be a success.
With Iris and the son he never knew he had looking on, Roy not only delivers the thunderous blow that lifts the coach, the entire team and its' fans from the clutches of the evil Judge and his conspirators, but it brings Roy back into a position to become the kind of man that Iris always believed he really was.
Balance is restored and he can go back to the town that gave him his honest start and help Iris finish raising the child he helped bring into the world, before the world pulled him away.
And it all happened in the 80 minutes of a movie.
No wonder I love baseball. Even when it is depicted in a movie.
There was an article on ESPN that talked about what a horrible example Roy Hobbs character was in the movie. The wickedness, the indulgences and the affairs of a man who should have been perfect because his game was perfect. I had to wonder if the man who wrote it saw the same movie I did.
I saw a deeply flawed young man who put his entire life on the line for baseball. He left behind a girl who believed in him for a meaningless encounter with an almighty strange woman that became far more than a one night stand. Far from merely changing his life from farm boy to a man of experience in the world, that one encounter almost killed him and certainly silenced that voice of reason that tries to whisper to us all.
From that moment on, everything he did until the end of the movie was simply a struggle to fill the void which he had created in his own life that was left by the death of his father and then, later, by Roy's choice to make baseball the be all and end all of his life. It is in the end of the movie when he is at his most vulnerable that Roy becomes more than the sum of his parts.
Confession comes in a hospital ward as the once girlfriend now grown woman stands at his bedside while Roy recouperates from the complications of having been shot many years earlier. Iris knows far more about what is really going on in life because she has raised his son without his help, a task in that day and age that most certainly wasn't applauded or understood, in order to see Roy fulfill their shared dream of his success on the diamond.
The unexpected happens when Roy in making his confessions of past indescretions and sins states to Iris, "I guess there are some mistakes you never stop paying for...". In that moment of quiet reflection over his own miserable failures and poor choices in life, Roy is beginning to see what his obsessions in both baseball and personal habits has truly cost him over the decades that passed from farm boy to man.
The answer that resounds for him and for the rest of us trying to get through life the best way we can is both merciful and profound. Iris tells him "I believe we have two lives. The life we learn with and the life we live with after we learn." There is a truth in that statement that reveals a great deal about how our Father in Heaven laid out the plans for our life here on this earth.
We were not sent here because we were to be the embodiment of complete perfection. Rather, we were sent here to learn by skinning up our knees and by scraping our chin and by crying the bitter tears that come through disappointment and loss. We were sent here to learn happiness that is a lasting, comfortable feeling from the fleeting emotions that accompany those times where we may just have been having fun.
Most of all, we were sent to learn and then take what we have learned and become a complete person through those lessons both good and bad. And that becomes the second life. Within that redemptive phase that begins from the moment that we truly 'get a clue' about who we are and where we are going.
There are moments in 'The Natural' where this complex drama is played out in crystal clear format. The denouement of the movie is one such moment. As he is down to his last strike, Roy is suffering. The entire crowd is suffering with him, but is unaware of both the extent of his personal crisis, which is being played out before their unknowing eyes, and of the pressure that the collective hopes of every fan is weighing upon his soul.
Iris stands in the opening of a tunnel, and Roy's son, not quite sure the full purpose of what is happening before his eyes, is somewhere in the grandstand. Looking onto the spectacle of human endeavor before her, Iris believes in Roy in a way that can only be described as eternal. She knows him to be more than he appears to be and knows that he can make right all that has been so very wrong for so long.
Iris has absolute faith that Roy can create a miracle in front of the people who only seek to see what their faith and trust in their flawed hero has purchased. Not only does he make a lasting moment in time, he does so even with the baggage, the pain and the sorrows of the past life from which he learned bringing literal blood flow from his wounded body.
It is a type of redemption that we seldom see in this kind of detail. While not exactly a sinless savior for the Knights, Roy becomes a sort of sacrificial lamb who willingly takes his swings to save the life of Pop Fisher and the rest of the team. They don't totally understand what he is suffering for them to win, they only know that Roy is doing it because he wants Pop to win and the team to be a success.
With Iris and the son he never knew he had looking on, Roy not only delivers the thunderous blow that lifts the coach, the entire team and its' fans from the clutches of the evil Judge and his conspirators, but it brings Roy back into a position to become the kind of man that Iris always believed he really was.
Balance is restored and he can go back to the town that gave him his honest start and help Iris finish raising the child he helped bring into the world, before the world pulled him away.
And it all happened in the 80 minutes of a movie.
No wonder I love baseball. Even when it is depicted in a movie.
2 things
First off, did you ever notice that when something seems to be going along really easily, that you have misread the directions?
Then, secondly, the following is a small collection of statements that seems to reflect some minor truths in my life.
Enjoy!
There is nothing worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept. (Ansel Adams)
When we ask advice, we are usually looking for an accomplice. (Joseph Addison)
Definition of Insanity: Doing the same thing the same way and expecting a different outcome. (anonymous)
Life isn't like a box of chocolates - it's more like a box of jalapenos. What you do today might burn your rear tomorrow. (anonymous)
Let the world know you as you are, not as you think you should be, because sooner or later, if you are posing, you will forget the pose, and then where are you? (Fanny Brice)
Never deprive someone of hope; it might be all they have. (H. Jackson Brown, Jr.)
Don't be afraid to give your best to what seemingly are small jobs. Every time you conquer one it makes you that much stronger. If you do the little jobs well, the big ones tend to take care of themselves. (Andrew Carnegie)
Eight cardinal virtues:
1. Be clean both inside and out.
2. Be a person who neither looks up to the rich nor down on the poor.
3. Be a person who loses, if need be, without squealing.
4. Be a person who wins without bragging.
5. Be a person who is always considerate of women, children and old people.
6. Be a person who is too brave to lie.
7. Be a person who is too generous to cheat.
8. Be a person who takes his share of the world and lets others have theirs.
(George Washington Carver)
A man is about as big as the things that make him angry. (Sir Winston Churchill)
No lions are caught in mousetraps. To catch lions, you must think in terms of lions, not in terms of mice. Your mind is always creating traps of one kind or another, and what you catch depends upon the thinking you do. It is your thinking that attracts to you what you receive. (Thomas Dreier)
There are all kinds of courage. It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends. (Albus Dumbledore - from the Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling)
Everything can be taken from a man but one thing; the last of the human freedoms—to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way. (Viktor Frankl)
Then, secondly, the following is a small collection of statements that seems to reflect some minor truths in my life.
Enjoy!
There is nothing worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept. (Ansel Adams)
When we ask advice, we are usually looking for an accomplice. (Joseph Addison)
Definition of Insanity: Doing the same thing the same way and expecting a different outcome. (anonymous)
Life isn't like a box of chocolates - it's more like a box of jalapenos. What you do today might burn your rear tomorrow. (anonymous)
Let the world know you as you are, not as you think you should be, because sooner or later, if you are posing, you will forget the pose, and then where are you? (Fanny Brice)
Never deprive someone of hope; it might be all they have. (H. Jackson Brown, Jr.)
Don't be afraid to give your best to what seemingly are small jobs. Every time you conquer one it makes you that much stronger. If you do the little jobs well, the big ones tend to take care of themselves. (Andrew Carnegie)
Eight cardinal virtues:
1. Be clean both inside and out.
2. Be a person who neither looks up to the rich nor down on the poor.
3. Be a person who loses, if need be, without squealing.
4. Be a person who wins without bragging.
5. Be a person who is always considerate of women, children and old people.
6. Be a person who is too brave to lie.
7. Be a person who is too generous to cheat.
8. Be a person who takes his share of the world and lets others have theirs.
(George Washington Carver)
A man is about as big as the things that make him angry. (Sir Winston Churchill)
No lions are caught in mousetraps. To catch lions, you must think in terms of lions, not in terms of mice. Your mind is always creating traps of one kind or another, and what you catch depends upon the thinking you do. It is your thinking that attracts to you what you receive. (Thomas Dreier)
There are all kinds of courage. It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends. (Albus Dumbledore - from the Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling)
Everything can be taken from a man but one thing; the last of the human freedoms—to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way. (Viktor Frankl)
September 24, 2007
Lifehouse "Everything" Skit
This is an amazing representation of just what Jesus Christ CAN do for each of us.
http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=ee73e63418003b47d7d5
http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=ee73e63418003b47d7d5
September 23, 2007
Gifts & Talents
How many times have you heard someone say "I don't have any talents"?
Perhaps you have been the one who has uttered the words.
There is not a person who has ever drawn a breath on this planet who has no talents or gifts. It is contrary to the laws of God.
What most people mean when they say 'I have no talent' is really more on the lines of "I have no talent that could make me rich and famous" or "I have no talent that other people can watch and enjoy like singing or juggling."
I watched a couple of women after choir practice tonight who were talking about quilting and making tiny little gifts of love and comfort for premature infants. They have a gift. Their talent is in taking pieces of cloth and making something more than just a rag. Instead, they can create the wonderous comfort of a quilt that brings an almost immediate sense of 'home' to its recipient be they young or old.
Other women and men at the rehearsal were chatting about subjects ranging from vocational skills to martial arts talents and everything in between.
All too often, I believe we are more than willing to let the Devil talk us out of believing that we DO have something to offer our fellow man and the world at large. We self-deprecate and act abashed and sometimes downright ashamed of the gift that is ours because it isn't flashy when compared to the gift of another.
Our Sunday School lesson today talked about our gifts and talents and it made me realize that my life has been blessed by the application of a whole multitude of talents that lie within the heart and mind of other people who were kind enough to share their time with me.
While I cannot do all or even a generous portion of the things that have been done for me, I CAN make myself appreciative of the administration of their gift in my behalf.
I believe that is honestly the reason that we all didn't get the same things. We are supposed to care for and support each other. We would have no impetus for so doing if we all individually had every conceivable gift or talent that was had by mankind at large.
Becoming thankful for what I am and can do is a tough job sometimes. I want to see what it is like for someone else over the fenceline. On those rare days when I take the time to self-assess, I have to come to the startling conclusion that who I have become is a direct result of how I either did or did not use my talents that God saw fit to bless me with in my life.
Thank you, Father, for making me unique. Even if that is hard to take sometimes. No matter what life may dish out, I am glad I get to be on this journey of discovery.
Perhaps you have been the one who has uttered the words.
There is not a person who has ever drawn a breath on this planet who has no talents or gifts. It is contrary to the laws of God.
What most people mean when they say 'I have no talent' is really more on the lines of "I have no talent that could make me rich and famous" or "I have no talent that other people can watch and enjoy like singing or juggling."
I watched a couple of women after choir practice tonight who were talking about quilting and making tiny little gifts of love and comfort for premature infants. They have a gift. Their talent is in taking pieces of cloth and making something more than just a rag. Instead, they can create the wonderous comfort of a quilt that brings an almost immediate sense of 'home' to its recipient be they young or old.
Other women and men at the rehearsal were chatting about subjects ranging from vocational skills to martial arts talents and everything in between.
All too often, I believe we are more than willing to let the Devil talk us out of believing that we DO have something to offer our fellow man and the world at large. We self-deprecate and act abashed and sometimes downright ashamed of the gift that is ours because it isn't flashy when compared to the gift of another.
Our Sunday School lesson today talked about our gifts and talents and it made me realize that my life has been blessed by the application of a whole multitude of talents that lie within the heart and mind of other people who were kind enough to share their time with me.
While I cannot do all or even a generous portion of the things that have been done for me, I CAN make myself appreciative of the administration of their gift in my behalf.
I believe that is honestly the reason that we all didn't get the same things. We are supposed to care for and support each other. We would have no impetus for so doing if we all individually had every conceivable gift or talent that was had by mankind at large.
Becoming thankful for what I am and can do is a tough job sometimes. I want to see what it is like for someone else over the fenceline. On those rare days when I take the time to self-assess, I have to come to the startling conclusion that who I have become is a direct result of how I either did or did not use my talents that God saw fit to bless me with in my life.
Thank you, Father, for making me unique. Even if that is hard to take sometimes. No matter what life may dish out, I am glad I get to be on this journey of discovery.
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