Storytelling and the Meaning of Life (1 of 2)

What I was doing. Engraving from courtyard in front of MPPC.

My Hijacked Story

When I was young, my dad would tell me stories. And then, as the story continued, he would stop, and it would be my turn to continue the story. The story game would continue as the hero would be controlled alternatively by my dad and I. But I played the game again a few weeks ago. Except this time, it was not with my dad and it was not a fictional story. It was my story. And the co-narrator was the doctor supervising me, my attending.

Like the stories we used to tell, the story she told was very different from the one I was trying to tell. In my story, I was a hard-working medical student with my shoulders in the yoke, and though I didn’t have the mental strength of others, I nonetheless would press on hard. In her version, I was a stupid medical student, lazy and unwilling to do what the work required. And for about a week, I forgot about my version of the story.

Victor Frankyl was a Jewish psychiatrist during WWII. He was captured by the Nazis and sent to a concentration camp. There he saw what kept men alive. It was not a sexual impulse as Freud suggested, or the “will to power” proposed by Adler, but it was meaning. Those prisoners who could put their struggle into a good story were those who survived. As soon as the events fell outside the story a person was telling, he gave up hope and ran into an electric fence or a bayonet. In Frankyl’s opinion, stories matter, maybe more than anything. The human soul cannot live without them. Frankyl escaped and survived the camps, ultimately founding a third Viennese school of psychotherapy (after Freud and Adler) called Logotherapy, whose focus is on helping patients find meaning to their lives.

So what was my story? I had two, and they were contradictory. That week, I lived in a tension. I experienced terrible anxiety: hands sweating, voice trembling, body trembling. I thought I was the Hardworking Ox, but I was treated like the Lazy Dunce. What was I? How had I allowed this to happen?

This happened because I believed a story that was false. I trusted my supervisor too much. Storytelling is serious business. Everyone but true friends will tell stories about you that benefit them. Business will tell about your being happy when you buy their product; this is the gimmick of every commercial. Government will tell about your being safe when you give up your freedom; this is the underlying message of every dictator. Society will tell about your being accepted when you conform; this is the bad kind of peer pressure. Bosses will tell about your being successful when you work hard; this is the cheese at the end of the rat maze. But none of these stories should be your story. None of these people actually care about you mainly because none of them actually know you.

After that week I remembered: “This is not my story!” And I began to win back my freedom. I wrestled in my soul to remember: “You are the Ox,” no matter how often I was treated like the Dunce. Slowly, I regained my confidence and my identity.

This episode taught me an important lesson. A prince in prison is still a prince. He will maintain his dignity, and not allow any jailer take it from him. His story will be about injustice, and about perseverance in the face of adversity. But if he ever accepts the story of his jailer, he gives up his crown and renounces his throne. So my readers, Princes and Princesses, do not listen to your jailers, masters or slave drivers. Tell your own story. Define victory on your own terms. Do not let their ideas of success or richness or happiness persuade you. This is why the Ancient Greek advice, gnōthi seauton, is so important; it is critical to “know thyself” if you’re going to tell a good story.

--> On to Part II - Telling Great Stories

Hunger Games, The Philosophy of The

My best Katniss impression.

*Spoiler Alert!!*

I went to the movies, my first time in a long time, to see the biggest opening day of a non-sequel ever. That’s right, I saw The Hunger Games (I read the book a month or two ago). The first thing to note is that opening weekends are crazy. The second is that the people watching the movie were not all adolescent teenage girls. A wide variety of ages and classes seemed to be present in the very, very long line.

In terms of adaptation, I tip my hat. The author was a producer, so I'm not terribly surprised that the movie was quite faithful to the book and the short cuts were on less important matters. It was shot well, and had enough "extra scenes" that it didn't feel like it was a duplicate of the book (ahem, Watchmen). It was cast very well, and they pulled off a good movie without famous actors (except for President Snow, who was very convincing and very creepy).

Of course, the book is better (isn't it always?). Nevertheless, the movie has two distinct advantages. First, the poverty of District 12 can be displayed visually with great power and contrasts powerfully with the Capitol. This effect was profoundly evident when they get off the train from District 12. I flashed back to my return from Kenya, stepping off the plane in LAX and feeling profoundly disturbed and confused by the glitz and glamour of the US; I had "reverse culture shock" as it is often called. The movie was able to create that moment for the otherwise uninitiated audience by making the Capitol downright strange and frivolous. Secondly and most profoundly was the irony involved in going to the movies. I paid $11 for entertainment about people paying too much for entertainment.

Another feature that I’ve seen come up a few times in “young adult” literature is absent parents. Katniss has a dead father and a mother who is severely psychologically withdrawn. Artemis Fowl has almost an identical dynamic; his dad died and his mom was homebound, so he had to raise himself with the help of a faithful butler (named “Butler”). Harry Potter was an orphan. Heroes for today’s teenagers are those who, against the odds, figure out how to grow up without parents.

I'd like to say a word about the Hunger Games universe. thing to note about Panem is that it is a world that contains Evil. It’s not as obvious that it’s a world that includes Good; virtue is clearly present and the Good is at least there by implication. But the Capitol is certainly Evil. President Snow is Evil. And, like any successful movie, this is almost a prerequisite for a good story (or at very least, a profitable one).

The other thought that occurred to me first in the book and then powerfully in the movie (the train scene) is that one of the other critiques is on the present American economy. We in the US live lavish and rather ridiculous lives which can only (presently) be maintained by people from poorer places sending stuff to us. As in Huxley’s Brave New World, we are so tranquilized by our entertainment that our thoughts are ever on trivial matters. People are living in horrific conditions all around us, but we can’t seem to care. Effie is the embodiment of this: ever concerned about desserts and manners when life and death are at stake.

Katniss, the protagonist, is strong, independent, resourceful, shrewd, courageous, and uncompromising. Perhaps most in conflict with the modern hero, she has loving kindness when appropriate and she is violently ruthless, when appropriate. She soberly faces the horror set before her with an unbreakable spirit. She does not cling to life, and would gladly lay down her life for her sister or friend.

I believe it is these virtues, forgotten and spurned by modern American code, which make her attractive. She is the exact opposite of the “good kid.” Her friend, Peeta, is the good kid. And he tries hard, makes a valiant move or two, but would certainly be dead without her. Before the Games, she lived by breaking the law and hunting outside of the gate. She was resourceful and taught herself; she was independent and owed nothing to the state or even her parents. She, unlike everyone else, was her own master. To really stand up to evil, the kind of evil in the Capitol, nice-guy morality fails. Katniss’ morality strikes a blow. And even in failure, it’s not a pitiable thing. Katniss is most certainly not one of those whose “cold and timid souls know neither victory nor defeat.”

What is the message of the story? Should you obey authorities? No; not when their laws are unjust. Is violence always wrong? No; sometimes killing is the right thing. Is evil a fiction? No, it’s very, very real. Is a strong government a good thing? No; it’s a great danger. She’s the ultimate teenage hero, rebelling against those above her with shrewdness and courage. And if I were an evil puppet master, this is exactly not the kind of idea I’d want floating around in teenage heads. Rebellion can be justified? Rebels can be heroes? But fortunately, those in authority are too smart for their own good. I’ve read critiques by more sophisticated thinkers who seem to think the movie is about reality TV, gender equality, football, or mindless violence (though one or two or three see something deeper in it). Sure, there is a critique of our being bloodthirsty and voyeurs. And so they content themselves thinking, “Ah, it’s just about reality TV and violent movies. Nothing disruptive.”

But the most important message of the book has been expressed variously by young teens as, “The government is bad, mmmkay?” and “The people in power want to keep it that way.” The government in the story is bad. And this is what America is (or will become). We must do something, and that something might include violent rebellion.

Those raising the alarm are not rare, but they’re rarely taken seriously. The average American never has to look at the American life and ask, “Is there something fundamentally wrong here?” Alarm raisers tend to get dismissed from the prophet Jeremiah to Ron Paul. Suzanne Collins is not being dismissed. Where fact and authority fail, fiction prevails. The Hunger Games is being embraced en mass. Not by prophecy scholars, political fear-mongers, or culture watchdog-ers, but average, everyday teenagers (and then everyone else).

It is disturbing that even fresh teenage perspectives see the world with such cynicism. Why, to teenage eyes, does the Capitol of The Hunger Games look so much like Washington DC? The government of The Hunger Games is one where security and comfort have been made the highest priorities. Freedom was the cost. And with the cost paid, the peace and security were also lost. The way to fight it is with shrewd, bold defiance and virtue. This is the central political message, and perhaps the central message. And young people are listening.

Let Your Food Be Your Medicine

Super Stew nutrition facts and detailed ingredients can be found here.

I’ve completed another iteration on Super Stew. You may remember my use of Ted Kochanek’s chili recipe back when I was engaged in my Food Stamp Challenge. But the need for healthy, tasty food continues even if my $5 budget does not. The great things about the original recipe stand: low glycemic index (mostly beans and vegetables) and highly anti-inflammatory (heavy use of spices, nutrient-rich vegetables). If I had to target one thing in the American diet to change, I think it would be this. Just slowing down digestion a little bit would have dramatic effects on insulin response and our getting obese and diabetic. So the stew is good on that front (820 calories with a glycemic load of 35).

It’s also excellent in terms of being anti-inflammatory. The idea of inflammation seems to be our latest Grand Unifying Theory of Disease. I’ve heard more than one of my professors tell me that reducing inflammation will cure all our ills. I haven’t looked hard at the evidence for this, but it’s certainly a nice story, with lots of good correlations. For example, obese people have increases in markers of inflammation, and this then correlates with increases in insulin resistance and diabetes. A good case can also be made for atherosclerosis being an inflammatory state.

Maybe it’s true. But even if it’s not, the cure is delicious. Broadly speaking, things with potent flavor tend to be anti-inflammatory (garlic, hot peppers, etc). They also tend to be good anti-oxidants. So basically, the more flavorful your food, the better off you are. And that may be why McDonalds makes you sick. Lots of tasty macro-nutrients, but not much spice. The bottom line is this: the stew has lots of spices. 

I decided to buy spice from not-the-grocery-store, and having a 1lb bag of spice makes me much more liberal with it. I used 1 tablespoon of cayenne, black pepper, cumin, turmeric, paprika and coriander. This was all as per Ted’s instructions (except for measuring the spices). But Ted, as smart as he is, is Polish. And though he has grown considerably these last few years in terms of spice tolerance, he has discriminated against quarter-Mexicans (i.e. me) and our preference for hot peppers. To make up for this deficit, I added 3 jalapenos and 1 habanero to the mix (I chopped them finely and then sautéed them for a few minutes before tossing them into the pot).

Next, though it was highly anti-inflammatory, it lacked some of the better macro-nutrients that are known to be good for you. Particularly important for health is the eating of good fats. The day we started evaluating food on whether or not they were “low fat” was a dark day for our bodies. We need fats, and lots of them. Unsaturated fats in the form of olive oil may be the food item with the single best case for extending life. Old Greeks eating a “Mediterranean Diet” heavy in olive oil actually do live longer, as do people who eat like them.

I sautéed the vegetables in ¼ cup of coconut oil (way more than is actually necessary) to make sure the really-good-for-you medium chain saturated fats (esp. lauric acid) got into the stew, which increase HDL (“good” cholesterol). Also, I supplemented the stew with ½ cup of olive oil with monounsaturated fats that increase HDL and decrease LDL (“bad” cholesterol), as well as 3 oz of sunflower seeds (high in polyunsaturated fats, which increase HDL). None of these significantly affect the flavor of the stew, and the sunflower seeds provide an added crunch. In fact, with the amount of spices that are used, subtle changes to base ingredients are overwhelmed. Also, adding olive oil (if you buy in bulk) and sunflower seeds are both great ways to decrease the cost per calorie of the stew.

Omega-3 fatty acids are also really good for you, and as far as I’m aware, the only supplement from a vitamin store that has good evidence behind it (esp. for heart disease) for healthy people. The argument is that we get way too much Omega-6 because we eat way too much corn-fed red meat. So I added 2 oz of ground flaxseed to the stew, giving a daily “dose” of Omega 3’s, as well as bringing the fiber total in one bowl just over the FDA daily recommendation.

This time around, I subbed out beef for chicken (Whole Food was having a sale) and it worked out wonderfully. Also, because my available time is spotty, I cooked a LOT of stew, tripling Ted’s recipe and making about 24 meals worth (~20,000 Calories :). Also of note, I started shopping at Whole Foods because it ends up being cheaper for me (“Natural” foods go for a premium at Safeway). The total cost of the all-organic ingredients (except the chicken, which was free-range) was $75, bringing my meal cost to about $3.12. All in all, this is a recipe that is actually good for me, probably saves time (vs. fast food), fills me up, and tastes delicious. The iteration will continue! I notice I’m lacking vitamins B and D; I will continue to endeavor to make this the perfect “desert island” food that is also a cure to American disease!

[My apologies for lacking citations… I’ll try to come back and add them later]

Lusting Like Jesus (Part 3)

Fire. It's symbolic for passion.

So are we to destroy our desires? Should we find a way to siphon off this explosive gasoline? Or should we strengthen our desires for truly good things?

Jesus advice would seem to be the latter. I have been studying the Sermon on the Mount and one of the things that most shocked me was how strong Jesus emphasizes consequences. It's not "because it's the right thing to do" but because, "your Father … will reward you openly." Far from being some obscure verse, it seems to me to be a central theme of the central sermon in the Bible. By my count, 29% of the verses in the Sermon explicitly mention consequences.

And why not? Jesus didn't come to abolish the law, but to fulfill. He gave us desires as he gave us the Law, and Christ has come not to abolish but to fulfill. He comes so that we may have life, and have it more abundantly. Not death, or physical oblivion, or personal dissipation (Nirvana), or reincarnation. Life. Bodily life, with all its rude hungers and thirsts and lusts. Bodily life will not be abolished, but fulfilled. He is the bread of life which fills our bellies, the living water which soothes our cracked lips and dry tongue, the bridegroom who comes as the ultimate fulfillment of our desire for ecstasy and intimacy. And to make sure we don't go floating off into the clouds before the time, He provides us with physical bread, H₂O, and holy sex. Aquinas was right when he said, "No natural desire is given in vain."

The problem, as I see it, is that our desires are not strong enough. We are insufficiently lustful. Jesus warns us that if we look at a woman to epithymeō after her, we have committed adultery (Mat 5:28). And then Jesus desires (epithymeō) to eat the Passover (Luk 22:15), the disciples to see Jesus (Luk 17:22), and Paul that the Hebrews would be diligent (Hbr 6:11). Only if we hunger and thirst after righteousness, will we be filled. We need to redeem our corrupt desires, not jettison them.

Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased. -CS Lewis

If we had a Godly lust for food, mere bread would not satisfy. If we had a Godly lust for drink, tequila would leave us feeling inhibited and sober. If we lusted after the Divine mystery, we would be bored with any amount of mere sex. Lewis is exactly right. We are far too easily pleased.

According to the great Christian thinker Thomas Aquinas, proper desire is at the core of the Christian message:  “Three things are necessary for the salvation of man: to know what he ought to believe; to know what he ought to desire; and to know what he ought to do.” Contemporary Theologian John Piper also asserts that proper desire is critical to Christian flourishing. In “Desiring God,” he argues that the chief duty of man is, as according to the Wesminster Confession, to “Glorify God and enjoy Him forever.”

Desire is like gasoline. It is dangerous indeed, but it is dangerous like a fuel. And Christianity is a religion that needs to move. The world is not where it should be. It needs to move, and we, the Church, are called to be engines of that movement. And to fuel us, the engines, God proposes to use the gasoline of desire. Of course, just as easily as it can get you to go to grandma’s house, gasoline can power your car over the edge of a cliff; gasoline can run tanks or ambulances. So it is critical that our desires be good. Without desire, our dynamic religion is broken down on the roadside, out of gas.

So let us not make sacrifices without benefit, but let us make sure we get a good deal. Let us focus properly on ourselves. Let us have insatiable lusts. And then we will be walking in the footsteps of our Lord.

Christian Sacrifice as Good Business (Part 1)
Christianity: The Egocentric Religion (Part 2) 
Lusting Like Jesus (Part 3) 

Christianity: The Egocentric Religion (Part 2)

There is probably salt on this food. Probably.

Should we be egocentric? Or should we care about others? Should we be selfish, or selfless?

It seems that we like to assert that Christianity is about others, not ourselves. But who did Christ come to save? Individuals. I’s. Ego’s (Greek for “I”). And what is the fate of the individual? The Christian heaven is not an individual soul (e.g. Hindu Ātman) dissolving into a universal spirit (Brahman) like salt dissolving into water. It is every tribe, tongue, people and nation worshipping before the throne of God; a Church full of selves. We do not worship God by becoming less ourselves (selfless). We worship God by becoming more ourselves. Indeed, Jesus didn’t recommend dissolving salt in the ocean, but putting it on food. Salt brings out individual flavors. It makes mashed potatoes and green beans more themselves and thus more different; the potatoes become more potatoey and the green beans more green beany.

The word “Selfless” doesn’t appear anywhere in any popular Bible translations (KJV, NKJV, NIV, ESV, NLT). “Selfishness” is absent from KJV, NKJV, NIV, and ESV, and appears only twice in NLT. “Selfish” itself is used only a handful of times and never in the Gospels. Being that the Bible does not talk about it at all, I contend that selflessness is not a Christian virtue. Selflessness is a virtue born of a false dichotomy in a zero-sum world. You or them. If you are benefitted, it is because you hurt them. But we don’t live in a zero-sum world. That which most benefits me, most benefits God and others.

Of course we’re supposed to love our neighbors. But that doesn’t require self hatred or self neglect. The more alive we are, the more of our true, uncorrupted natures we express, the more love we give to others. I can love best when I am acting as God created me to be, when I am being more David-ish. So too when you are self-ish. When we are being purely and rationally self-ish, we can truly see the joy of service and perform it; we can remember the satisfaction of charity, and do it. The best days of my life have not been days of taking, but of giving. The days that I really acted or thought in ways that most benefitted me in short-term satisfaction and long-term eternal reward, the days I most expressed myself and my nature, the days I’ve been most properly selfish have been my best days.

Being egocentric, focusing on oneself, on the “I”, and seeing real and true Divine value in it is Christian. The Great Commandment itself is predicated on selfishness. It cannot be completed without self love: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” It presumes self-love is universal and necessarily central. So, insofar as Christianity is an egocentric religion, it is a realistic religion. There is no alternative. Jesus acknowledges the self-love He created people with, and then uses that to argue for love of others.


Christian Sacrifice as Good Business (Part 1)
Christianity: The Egocentric Religion (Part 2) 
Lusting Like Jesus (Part 3) 

Christian Sacrifice as Good Business (Part 1)

The modern distillation of Christianity seems to be “Don't be selfish, be selfless.” We create a dichotomy between ‘selfishness’ and ‘selflessness’ and put all the righteousness on the selflessness end. The things that “I want” need to be eliminated for the things that “God wants.” My desires are sinful, and I need to sacrifice my desires to God.

This is more or less what we hear in Sunday school and growing up. But is it true? I recently saw a 1950’s interview with Ayn Rand and her philosophy, based on self-interest, disgusted the Christians I was watching it with. She characterizes sacrifice as evil and says that, “The world is perishing from an orgy of self-sacrificing.”

We generally define sacrifice as giving up something for nothing. In the proper Christian sense, sacrifice is an exchange. It is the selling of something less valuable to get something more valuable. And usually, far more valuable. The merchant sold all that he had to buy the pearl; the man sold all that he had for the field with the treasure. And it is not just humans which make exchanges. God, too, constrains Himself and follows these principles. These parables work bi-directionally. Did not God also sell all that He had to obtain the Gentile gem, the pearl, or the field of the world containing his treasure, the Church? Not even the most 'selfless' act of the Crucifixion was giving up something for nothing; it was an exchange.

Is there every something we can ‘sacrifice’ to God that will truly impoverish us? How many of us, standing before the Pearly Gates, will have that nagging feeling that we probably helped one too many orphans? Will we regret any hour ‘sacrificed’ to pray? Will any of us deem the Kingdom for which we give our lives not good enough?

Christian Sacrifice as Good Business (Part 1)

Christianity: The Egocentric Religion (Part 2) 

Lusting Like Jesus (Part 3) 

Most Popular Posts of 2011

A crowd. I don't think any of them read Arena-Man

Hey everybody! Today I’m going to reflect on the top five most popular (in terms of page views) posts on Arena-Man in 2011. The year was an exciting time for the blog. It’s the first time that I made a concerted effort to write something weekly (and usually post it). So here are the top 5, picked by you! Counting down from number 5:

#5   Review: “Finding the Love of Your Life” by Neil Clark Warren

I’ve long been of the opinion, first expressed by a pastor of mine, that any two Christian people can have a successful marriage. To disabuse me of this notion, a friend recommended I read this book. So I reviewed it and then critiqued it. Warren’s basic idea is that good selection is all-important, even more important than anything else you do in relationship. He’s got a lot of good ideas about what exactly needs to line up, and has since writing this, become the most successful matchmaker in the history of the world (via eHarmony). This post got popular because (in addition to it being totally world-stupifyingly brilliant like all my articles ;) not much is written online about Neil Clark Warren. This article got popular because (probably young) people were told about Warren, and Googled him.

#4   Family and the Meaning of Life

When I was at home, I felt my ambition wane for a brief moment. It was a specific moment sitting on the back porch of my parents’ home, relaxing, spending a quiet morning with God and getting the warm feeling, “This is what life is about.” I think I’ve since shifted myself back into the stream of Action, but it is not to be forgotten that the domestic life is Good, and perhaps the ideal life. “My epiphany was that my sword will one day be beaten into a plow because there will never again be a reason for me to leave home. Man’s destiny is domestic.” I have stories as to why all my other stories got clicks, but I don’t know about this one. Maybe others are feeling the same way.

#3   Fairy Tale Romance – Real Life

In this article, I summarized the condition of the present dating world and conclude that Fairy Tale Romance is impossible only because we believe it to be so. It’s natural and proper for men to make early and ridiculous promises and declarations of love, and this would work if men kept their word. But they don’t and so by the time we’re ready to get married, we have a lot of broken promises behind us. My assessment of the present problem is: “We have locked away our still-beating heart in a black coffin. The passions of the living heart seep out of the coffin like a vapor and drive Twilight sales into the millions, while the thick lid prevents any real corporeal Romance in. Perhaps it is irony that Edward, the great romantic hero of our age, is dead. Mr. Darcy has been replaced with a pale, cold, lifeless, blood-sucking, sun-fearing creature of the night (with really sexy hair).” If we are to find love, it will be a risk; prudence is not minimizing it, but in taking it. I love that this article inspired so much discussion. Some people agreed with it. Another made a heartfelt confession about a situation in her life. People were real and honest. It was the closest to web community that I’ve seen.

#2   My New Girlfriend

I was inspired when I took Solomon’s personification of Wisdom seriously, when I actually thought of Wisdom like a girl. I saw the passage afresh, and wanted to pass this experience on to others. But you can’t just say “Hey guys, think anew about something old!” At least I can’t say that effectively. So I decided to play a dirty trick on all my well-intentioned would-be matchmakers (and all friends who are concerned with such personal matters). So I wrote about Wisdom as if I just started dating her (after, of course, changing my Facebook status to “In a Relationship”. I fooled a lot of people and I hope (though highly doubt) many grew wiser by it. The length of time of the deception ranged from zero seconds (someone who figured it more likely that I would change my Facebook status for a teaching purpose than actually get a girl) to several months (people who read the first paragraph of the article, smiled, and never read the part about my explaining it to be a metaphor). It was rather awkward to explain about my girlfriend (in their mind) of 3 months who turned out actually to be a metaphor.

#1   A Defense of Alexandra Wallace

I never guessed at 3am when I posted this, that it’d end up my most popular post for 2011. I defended the racist girl at UCLA as her YouTube rant started to go viral on Facebook. It was a practical lesson in the tides of Internet opinion, shifting and fickle. In the gap between my UCLA Facebook friends freaking out and larger news sources picking it up, Arena-Man was one of the few websites to talk about Alexandra Wallace. And with so inflammatory a title, it got clicks. But more than a lesson on internet traffic flows, it was a lesson on human nature. Hers, mine, and particularly, on those who so violently and perversely hated her. What could have been righteous indignation was transmuted into licentiousness or raw rage evidenced by Googlers who found this article with searches like “Alexandra Wallace Porn” “Alexandra Wallace life is ruined”. This also marks Arena-Man’s first identified troll (message board dissident). A very enlightening experience for us all.