COLDSHOT PRODUCTIONS

5180 Canada Way

Burnaby, British Columbia

Canada, v5e-3n2

January 6, 2008

 
Prospective Investor,
Please accept this letter and accompanying documents as The Mario Coldshot Foundation/Coldshot Productions' application for a sponsorship with CLUB VIBES. We are a new Montréal-based charity dedicated to keeping kids off drugs and are in the process of making a drug-awareness documentary, Bring Your Own Brains, to be screened in Canadian and American schools.  Distribution is already guaranteed.
The film is geared towards the same demographic that makes up CLUB VIBES CLUB's target customers: teenagers and young adults. Thus, a sponsorship with CLUB VIBES would only serve to aid us in our quest to appeal to the youth of today to keep them off drugs. As CLUB VIBES is a brand they are familiar with, the appearance of the label will only strengthen our realistic portrayal of teens. In addition, a sponsorship would provide us with the necessary resources to make the best film possible for both audiences across Canada and the United States. Both the subjects in the film and the viewers are North American youths who can benefit greatly from this project. In addition to this, a dramatic portion of the film features a cast of real teenagers. A CLUB VIBES sponsorship in the film could come in a variety of forms during this section; a character could wear CLUB VIBES gear; during a skateboard sequence in the film, a character could ride a CLUB VIBES board, any of your products could find its way into the youth-oriented scenes in the film. Regardless of where the promotion is placed within the film proper, the CLUB VIBES logo and brand name will be included in the scrolling credits at the end.  Regardless of our humanitarian goals, sponsorship with us could provide CLUB VIBES with a great opportunity to promote their brand to countless numbers of teenagers and young viewers of the film.
Included in this package you will find a detailed project proposal. For more information and to view a teaser from the film, please visit our website at www.bringyourownbrains.com, or do not hesitate to call us personally at 778-688-4802

We look forward to hearing from you soon. Sincerely, Kyna Gaboriault

President

 

 

The Mario Coldshot Foundation: Official Project/Sponsorship Proposal

Please Visit: www.bringyourownbrains.com

 

 

 
Mission Statement:

 
The Mario Coldshot Foundation is dedicated to stealing young customers away from drug dealers and giving them the tools to have brighter futures. Through the creation of a fast-paced 25 minute documentary that speaks to youth in their own dialect and includes music from popular bands, the Mario Coldshot Foundation hopes to launch a counter-offensive against the music, films, television and other media which often show the drug lifestyle as desirable, harmless, and even cool.  We are convinced that communicating disapproval of drug use does not and will never work and instead avoids patronizing, believing that teens must be empowered into making their own choice. The Mario Coldshot Foundation is not an anti-drug campaign, but a pro-awareness one.

 
Vision:
Our vision is one of a country, continent and world without the problems caused by drug abuse. Kids realize potential. Families are not torn apart by addiction and abuse. Communities are stronger.

 
History:
The Mario Coldshot Foundation is a new organization. After 22 years in the audio-visual industry, Mario Trottier wanted to give something back to the community and founded The Mario Coldshot Foundation in Montreal. Soon he traveled to New York, Los Angeles and all through his own city, Montreal, documenting personal stories from youth affected by drug abuse.

 

 

 

 

Specifics of the Project:

BYOB: Bring Your Own Brains, is a twenty-two minute drug-awareness documentary film to be screened in schools and accompanied with a question-and-answer period. For the past year and a half, filmmaker Mario Coldshot has begun to gather footage of youth affected by drugs on the streets of Montreal, New York and Los Angeles. Armed only with rollerblades, his camera and an unflappable determination to make a difference, Coldshot has recorded footage both heartbreaking and inspirational. He did not approach his subjects as a documentarian, but as a friend, not condemning them, instead trying to understand how drugs took hold of their lives. As members of an isolated faction in an already isolated generation, they were eager to tell their stories.

 

 

 

 
Demographic Information:
Under the supervision of the Film Advisory Board, the film will be approved for youth over the age of 14. While it is of course very true that those younger than 14 also encounter drug temptations, we feel that the years after 14 are some of the hardest to navigate. In addition, by gearing this at a slightly more mature youth audience, the film can be more honest in its take on drugs, more unflinching in its portrait of down-and-out drug-abusing youth. If the camera does not have to turn away then neither will the viewers. They will want to see exactly what is going on. By informing them entirely of what happens on the very streets they walk to and from school on, it will influence them to make their own decision. No longer will drugs be simply something that authority figures tell them to abstain from, ending any attempt at conversation with a No. This opens a dialogue between those youth affected by drugs and those youth for whom drugs have the potential to affect.

 
Problem Addressed by Our Project:
Youth substance abuse and addiction. This problem is of course also connected to various other social ills, such as homelessness, crime and delinquency. Drug abuse does not solely affect the user.
In addition, we see a problem in traditional ways of convincing youth to abstain from drugs. Communicating disapproval does not work.

 
Example of Individual Subject:

• Karen:
  

A story with a happy ending. Karen began using cocaine as a weight loss aid at the suggestion of a friend. Years later, she had, among other difficulties, turned to prostitution, contracted Hepatitis and even dealt with the hardship of her children being taken from her by youth services. Thankfully, she's turned it around now and is living clean. Her story shows that no matter how far you may fall, you can always turn your life back around.

 
* All subjects have signed release forms consenting to their participation in this film. In many cases, they were eager to do so, wanting to make sure their story can be told as personally as possible, to strengthen the message.

 
Importance of the Project:
This film needs to be seen by teenagers. There is an alarming drug problem in our country and it must be tackled in original ways. Research and academic work is wonderful and useful, but it must be supplemented by emotional attacks as well. This is where BYOB, the drug-awareness documentary, comes in. Watching real testimonials from real youth (many of them Quebecois youth), discussing their ordeals with drug abuse will affect the young viewer on an emotional level. It will break even the hardest cynic, from the sarcastic class clown to the aggressive schoolyard bully. Statistics will not solely convince teens to stay away from drugs; they need to make the decision on their own. By showing them the truth behind what drugs can do to you, and having that truth delivered through the mouths of their own generation, the decision to abstain will be obvious.

 
Marketing Plan:
We are pleased to offer CLUB VIBES a wide variety of exposure. Most prominent will be the product placement within the film itself. During the fictional storyline of the film, a teen is tempted with drugs and eventually makes the decision to abstain. He is, for lack of a better word, the hero of the film. This character eventually leaves his friends behind on a skateboard---perhaps a CLUB VIBES brand board. It would not appear in bad taste or as an overly marketed move. This will simply present our character as your realistic teenage skateboarder who ride CLUB VIBES skateboards. It is a win-win situation; exposure for you and credibility for us. Distribution throughout schools around North America will give CLUB VIBES very large visibility and association with a socially-conscious cause such as ours.
In addition, CLUB VIBES will be acknowledged with a name and logo in the screening credits at the documentary's end. Logo and name will also be included on the website and in any other future endeavours related to BYOB that The Mario Coldshot Foundation undertakes.

 
Cost:
The suggested price for participation in BYOB  is in two installments. CLUB VIBES would pay $2700 before editing of the film is complete and then $1300 at distribution for a total of $4000 CDN. We would be happy to accept the full sponsor cost in a lump sum if this is easier for you.

 

Work Plan

 
Film Synopsis:

In addition to the documentary footage, the film is book-ended by a fictional storyline. A child dreams of when he will be a teen and able to attend parties. This dream soon becomes a nightmare when a malicious drug dealer enters the party, tempting him and his friends with drugs. Will he make the right decision? Perhaps, if he had the knowledge provided by the documentary portion of the movie. So, the film cuts to the footage Mario collected of drug victims before returning once more to the child as he wakes up from his dream, now armed with the tools to prevent drug use. The film speaks to teens in their own dialect, includes music from bands they listen to and is told at the fast-pace that they are used to. Just as the real-life drug victims were eager to tell their stories, so too will real-life teens will be eager to hear these stories from members of their generation, people they can identify with, who have lost it all to drugs. Marriages ruined because of cocaine. Mothers abandoning families to follow their addiction to a different city. Teenagers escaping the world through a hit of a crack pipe. The film shows teens as they really are, and how they want to be seen.

 
Future Projects:
We hope to make the film the eventual centre-piece to a veritable drug-aware community of youths. There are plans to premiere the film at Shawinigan High School and take "reaction footage" of the students as they exit the film. This footage could eventually be edited into the credits of the film itself.

In addition, we hope to launch a skateboard competition travelling to schools under the banner of BYOB (and perhaps CLUB VIBES as well). The competition could serve as a beacon of respectability for adults who frequently dismiss this subculture of youth as troublemakers (and even drug users). For the youth involved it will be a place where they can feel comfortable, drug-free, and take part in an active sport, promoting a healthy lifestyle.
Finally, our website, once funding is secure, will undergo a major overhaul, moving from a promotion for the documentary and a call for donations, to being an online hub for teens, complete with message boards, chat rooms, blogs, information on drugs and a corresponding MySpace page.

 
Timelines:

 
Primary Filming:
The majority of the film's footage has been collected by Mario Coldshot over the last year and a half. However, there is a dramatic portion of the film, with a cast of real LaSalle, Quebec teenagers yet to be filmed. Funding is required for equipment, crew and permit costs. Shooting will begin in February 2008.

 
Post Production:
November 2007. Editing, addition of music (which requires securing rights from the artist's) and translation to French to be completed during this time.


 
Distribution: We hope to have the film released into schools for spring 2008.
Distributors Audio Ciné Films (the largest and most experienced non-theatrical distributor in Canada) Intermedia (from Seattle, a distributor of educational films) and Distribution Access have all contacted us with interest and desire to take our film on.

 

 

Kyna Gaboriault

 
Phone: 778-688-4802

 
Email: candy681@msn.com


 
Website: www.bringyourownbrains.com

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JUNE 17, 2018
2018 Commencement speech by Stanford alumnus Sterling K. Brown
Following is the prepared text of remarks by Sterling K. Brown

Email
Nerd Nation! Class of 2018! How we doing this morning?! You hung over?! Did you even go to bed last night?! (Bwahahahaha)

That’s what’s up!

President Tessier-Lavigne, thank you so much for sharing those beautiful words with us this morning. And thank you for such a gracious welcome … it’s good to be home. In the future let’s try to “under-promise,” and “over-deliver,” you know what I mean? We don’t want the people expecting too much. Then, when I come off sounding halfway decent, everybody’ll be like, “Oh, my goodness, wasn’t that refreshing? That young man was so articulate. What’s the name of his show? I’m gonna watch it just for him!”

Before I get into the speech, I need to make one statement, and then pose one question.

Statement: I will, from time to time, be slipping into a dialect known as AAVE – for the uninitiated, that is African American Vernacular English. In some sections of the country they will refer to this dialect as “Ebonics,” but here, at Leland Stanford Jr. University, where it was taught to me by Professor John R. Rickford, we call it AAVE.

I utilize this dialect because it’s something I’m familiar and comfortable with. And since I’m home, talking to all my future fellow alumni of “The Farm,” I figured I might as well make myself as familiar and comfortable as possible.

I also use it (periodically), because sometimes, when driving a point home, I find “The King’s” to be somewhat lacking … Dost thou apprehend my perspective?

I wanted to make this disclaimer upfront, just in case anyone was concerned about where Randall Pearson – he does not have a Mohawk, he was still raised by Jack and Becky with the good hair, and he does not utilize the dialect of AAVE quite as much as ya boy (… but he might … who knows?).

Now for my question: Have any of you ever been asked to do something, that everyone automatically assumes you’ll be great at, but in the back of your mind, you have no idea what you’re going to do? You’re absolutely terrified of looking foolish, and loathe the fact that you ever agreed to do it in the first place? That for some reason or another, people consider you to be this deep thinker with profound insights to share with the world, while all along you feel about as deep as the shallow end of a kiddie pool?

If so … then welcome to the 127th Commencement address at Stanford University as delivered to you by Sterling K. Brown! (MTL – this is the way you “under promise.”)

Yo, real talk? I must’ve started this speech ’bout fifty-eleven times! Every time I started, it would be ah’ight … but I wanted it to be great. I wanted to give you all something special.

Because I’ve sat where you’ve sat. I’ve imagined what the next phase of my life would look like. I’ve celebrated with my friends and family. I’ve struggled through the quarter system for four years and I made it through to the other side. (Admittedly, as a drama major – but the struggle is still real.) You young people are the best of the best … and you deserve the best from me … and I have had a really hard time finding it.

The biggest hurdle that I’ve had to overcome in preparing this speech is one of my own creation. It was an unconscious story that I had about myself which has been forced to the surface through this particular exercise in public speaking, and it goes something like this:

“Brown (I say to myself), you are not a writer. You only got a 600 on your best verbal SAT score (#SoStanford #NeverWouldHaveAdmittedThat20YearsAgo). You haven’t written a speech of any significance since your junior year of high school when you ran for student council president. (I did win, by the way.) What makes you think you can just pull 15 minutes out of your backside when you haven’t put pen to paper for a public address in over 25 years?”

Now, I can already see your beautiful John Forbes Nash-like minds at work preparing your rebuttal. Allow me to give them voice: “Mr. Brown (because you’re respectful), you’ve won all these awards over the past couple of years for these roles you’ve played … and we’ve heard your speeches! What are you talking about?”

To that I say, “Yes, I’ve been blessed to win a few things, and yes I’ve GIVEN a few speeches … but I did not WRITE THEM DOWN!” Bullet points. I make a few bullet points then I shoot from the hip. That’s pretty easy for me. That’s familiar. But THIS … this is very new …

And anytime you do something new, usually, inevitably, there is fear. Especially if you’ve ever suffered from perfectionism – I wouldn’t imagine any of you Nerds who have busted your hump to get into the dopest university in the country would know anything about that.

Here’s the thing I had to remind myself about Fear. As a human being, it is my goal in life to become the best version of myself, which is ultimately (I believe) divine. If all of my life is comfortable and convenient, I rob myself of the opportunity to grow, to stretch, to expand.

When I feel fear, as uncomfortable as it may be, I know I’m in the right place. Whether you’re 22, or 42, never allow fear to keep you from expanding your definition of self.

MTL, and Senior Class presidents, by inviting me to be your commencement speaker today, you have provided me with an opportunity to step into the unknown where possibilities are limitless. And while I may have silently cursed you a few times while I was writing this thing, please allow me now to thank you for providing the landscape for my own individual growth. (Namaste.)

Now, back to the hell of actually writing this thing!

Since we’ve already established that I was working under the rather destructive, self-inflicted narrative of “I am not a writer,” I turned to the writings of others. And this was very helpful. Freshman year, as part of what was then known as CIV, my focus was philosophy, and it was a personal revelation.

Particularly, as a young man who was raised Christian in St. Louis, MO, I was quite stunned to find that no one religious group, nor individuals who subscribed to no particular faith at all, have a monopoly on wisdom. There was a wealth of philosophers, and philosophies to consult besides The Gospels and Proverbs. The latter still hold a special place in my life, but so too, now, do the former. From the perspective in which I live my life today, the divine is accessible to all.

So I consulted my “Big Three.” “Big Three; Big Three!” (Chest thump) Socrates, Plato, and Lao Tzu. Quite a few pearls of wisdom from these sages. Allow me to read just a few that helped me get the ball rollin’.

Socrates

An unexamined life is not worth living.

#StayWoke. Do you ever think about what you’re thinking about, or do you treat your thoughts as if they’re real and you have no control over them? No answers here. Just questions. I think that’s how Socrates would have preferred it. Next quote …

Beware the barrenness of a busy life.

There will be an enormous pull when you enter into the real world to be busy. Always doing, always hustling and bustling. Have you contemplated the importance of stillness? Is being busy the same as being productive? Hmm …

I am not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world.

Ooh, I like this one! Nationalism v. Globalism. This is very … Black Panther! Who you responsible for? Are you your brothers’ and sisters’ keeper? Or are you responsible for only your “own” people? Or your own path, for that matter?

And lastly, the one that really landed on me …

I know nothing except the fact of my ignorance.

Can I get an amen?!

Do y’all know some of the people you’ve had deliver this commencement address?! I’m talking Multiple Supreme Court Justices, Multiple Mayors of major metropolises (I looked that up. It’s the plural of metropolis, but it sound funny, right? “Metropolises”). Tech Titans who only need one name – Gates, Jobs. And of course, The Queen … or at least that’s what we call her in “the community,” but for the uninitiated … I’m talking ’bout Oprah.

Now from where I’m sitting, these people know something. They make laws, run cities, make BANK, move the culture!

While me and Socrates, on the other hand, are swimming in a sea of ignorance as vast as the Pacific itself. Just don’t know nothing.

People … I’m the dude, who takes the words of another dude, and makes it seem like he came up with them himself … that’s what I do for a living! (I really can’t believe y’all got me up here talking to these young people, man. This is crazy! )

But then I take a breath, and I remember, my speech doesn’t have to look like anybody else’s. My speech, is MY speech. They can’t do what I can do, any more than I can do what they do. So why try? And it’s not FOR them. It’s not even for me … it’s for you. It is a reflection OF me, and hopefully, it is AUTHENTIC to who I am as a person. But when I place the focus on where it truly belongs, on this gorgeous opportunity to be of service to the future of this country, the future of the world, I stop worrying about how I compare to others, and I just give you the best that I got.

Let’s move on to Plato, shall we? First quote … this one inspired me throughout the entirety of my speech …

The beginning is the most important part of the work.

“Just write something, Brown! It don’t have to be perfect. It don’t have to be pretty. You can tell ’em you write in AAVE later and make it seem like a conscious choice – they won’t know! But write something!”

One more from Plato…

We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.

This one was big. It was big because it reminded me of another quote that changed my life.

The quote is by Marianne Williamson and it goes like this …

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us most. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and famous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that people won’t feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in all of us. And when we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

Graduates of the Class of 2018: Do not be afraid to let your light shine! It is your birthright … it is your responsibility! Because we grow together.

I remember working on a commedia piece in grad school, and my teacher was asking me to do something that was incredibly uncomfortable (as are frequently the requests made by faculty in an acting conservatory program). Let me remind you, I loathe looking foolish. And he knew that, and did not allow me to recede into my fear. He would not allow me to use that as an excuse to keep from moving forward. He told me, “It’s not about you, Sterling. We’re all learning from your experience.”

Have you ever walked into a room and felt the energy of the room change? Better yet, have you ever been in a room, and had someone walk into that space and felt it shift for the better? … or for the worse? My Momma always told me, “When you visit someone else’s house, leave things better than the way you found them. That way you’ll always be asked back.” You wanna be that person that changes the room for the better. You wanna be that person that they keep asking back. You do that by turning on your light!

Sometimes when I’m at the gym, on the treadmill, getting in my little cardio, frequently I say in my head, I say, “This stuff is for the birds! I wanna go home. I’m done!”

And then I’ll look up, and I’ll see someone letting their light shine, and I am reminded of the luminescence that is me.

Some people will say that’s my competitive nature coming out. Sure, that’s one way of looking at it. But I choose to see it as my inspired nature coming out.

I am inspired by the excellence of others.

I strive for personal excellence. There is no sense in doing something if you’re not going to try to do your best. But also, because I know that it inspires excellence in others! I gotta pay it forward. The inspiration can’t stop with me!

You guys, my friends from Stanford are some baaaaaad men! I got two lawyers (one who’s transitioning into standup comedy because he knows that’s where his light shines brightest), a judge, a urologist (great at dinner parties, btw), and a doctoral student in communications with a sub-discipline in performance studies.

Rarely having an explicit discussion about it, we are exceptionally proud of one another. By challenging ourselves, we challenge each other to be the best possible version of ourselves. I surround myself with people who let their light shine!

Yo, not to mention the hottest chick in the game, rocking my chain, fellow graduate of the class of ’98, double major in English and African American studies, proud member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority incorporated, Omicron Chi chapter. Writer, singer, actor, producer, and proud mother of two future Stanford graduates to boot, Ryan Michelle Bathé … you are the brightest light in my life! Thank you for shining with your boy!

Ah’ight…

Almost forgot the third of my big three, Lao Tzu. That’s like leaving Randall at the hospital, man! My bad.

The author of the Tao Te Ching’s wisdom is so pure and simple, it requires very little explication. Here we go…

When you are content to be simply yourself and don’t compare or compete, everybody will respect you. (Right?)

When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.

Briefly, when I first got to Stanford, I thought I had it all figured out. Major in Econ, go into business, or finance, make BANK … and take care of my family. It made sense. It was the prudent thing to do. And while I had always loved acting, it just wasn’t practical.

In my mind, a career in acting was reserved for the children of the wealthy who didn’t have to worry about making a significant contribution to the livelihood of their communities …

Of their families.

But the call of the stage never waned. The desire to illuminate the human condition was always the thing that gave my life the greatest sense of purpose (see what I did there, MTL?). I had to let go of who I was, in order to become who I am. And, if you wish for your light to shine continuously, it is a process you’ll have to go through over and over again.

Lastly …

A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.

Now, this is for my homies, similar to myself, who battle/have battled with perfectionism. Goals are good. They give us a sense of accomplishment. They help establish a road map of the general trajectory of our lives. And hopefully, that trajectory is onward and upward.

However, do not be so obsessed with getting the pudding made, that you forget to enjoy the process of making it. Because most of life is the process. You spend way more time on the journey than you do at the final destination.

Think of perfection like an asymptote. The journey towards it is infinite, but the destination can never be reached.

If you’re able to take that journey and enjoy it, knowing that there will always be endless room for improvement, then you be ah’ight.

If you still fool yourself into thinking the end point of perfection is something that exists, and can be attained, I worry that you may miss the beautiful curve of a life well lived, never enjoying where you are in the moment, always wishing you were someplace, something, or someone else.

In conclusion …

Fear can be a great motivator, so long as it doesn’t overcome your desire to move forward.

You have an opportunity/responsibility to leave this world better than you found it. And you do that, by being brilliant! By letting your light shine!

And don’t worry about anybody else’s light. Don’t try to compare yours to anyone else’s. If you have found that thing, that purpose in life that gives you access to maximum enthusiasm, trust that!

I’m not talking about a job, nor a career, for that matter. I’m talking about a calling! That thing that forces the metaphorical lampshade from your soul, and mandates that everyone wear sunglasses in your presence because you just that damn bright!

This is not a selfish act! Because now, those who fall within your sphere of influence, know that what is possible for you … is possible for them, as well.

And when you see someone shinin’, don’t hate! Do not tear that individual down! Celebrate their success as if it were your own! Because whether you realize it or not, we rise and we fall together.

Hey, the name of the show ain’t “Us vs. Them!” It doesn’t highlight the things that differentiate us. The show is called …”This Is Us.”

We spend so much time vilifying anyone that doesn’t see the world through the same lens as ourselves. And I include myself amongst that group. The dark side of the force is incredibly appealing. The possibility of being a Sith or a Jedi exists within us all. When folks disagree with you, welcome the opportunity to further clarify your own position for yourself. It doesn’t have to devolve into animus. And believe me, I say this as much for me as I do for you.

Dialogue with those of differing perspectives helps us develop empathy. As an actor, I do not have to like every character I play. It helps, but it’s not a necessity. But I do have to understand them. And I cannot judge them as I tell their story.

The Dalai Lama says, “Education is the proper way to promote compassion, and tolerance in society.” I remind myself of this frequently: Intolerance is still intolerance, even when it’s for the intolerant! Don’t give way to hating. Do not give anyone the power to rob you of your light!

One of my dearest friends from Stanford was Andrew Jacob Daher. We lived in Uj together freshman year, and, with the exception of the year he spent abroad at The London School of Economics, we spent every other year either across the hall from each other, or right next door. He had a beautiful mind. And an exquisite soul. I remember once freshman year, somebody tried to put AJD on front street and they said, “Yo, Andrew, why you always hanging out with all these black people, man?” Sans hesitation, Mr. Phi Beta Kappa in Econ, with his hat pulled real low over his eyes, said, “Because I’m down.”

Yeah, Andrew was white, and in just being himself, affectation-free, he had as much soul as anybody in that dorm … and in case you forgot, I’m talking ’bout UJAMAA!

In Andrew, I found a kindred spirit. Someone who was always looking for new ways to improve himself. We studied together, worked out together – the first time I ran the steps at this stadium, it was with Andrew.

I remember one night in Burbank, Stern (we got a bad draw number, what can I tell ya), Andrew and I were working on an Econ 180 problem set. And I Was Strugglin’! Frustration was getting the best of me. And this dude … who had finished his problem set long ago, stayed up with me damn near ’til the sun came up, and made sure I finished my work!

He would not let me fail!

I got a few stories like that about AJD. I won’t bore you with them all …

I wish I had a few more, but unfortunately … Andrew died the year after I graduated.

“Multiple traumatic injuries” sustained when he fell from the third story of the building where he worked.

Whether it was intentional or not is unclear.

There is a tree and a bench in Lagunita Court in remembrance of one of the brightest beings I’ve ever known in my life. Bright like intelligent, yes. But bright like LUMINOUS!

Andrew Jacob Daher is one of the only people I know who always did his absolute best! And even though he’s been gone for 19 years now, I still find myself saying, “One day, when I grow up, I’m gonna be just like Andrew.”

My son, his namesake, is here today. When I see my boy, and I say his name, I smile. Because my friend still gets to be a part of my life today.

Class of 2018, no one is an island unto themselves. We have all benefited from, and been supported by, the communities which have nourished us along the way. Our families, our friends, our teachers. The easiest way I can think of showing your appreciation for their investment in your “human capital,” is by shinin’!

You are Stanford grads now! You get to walk around with an S on your chest! – why NOT shine? And remember, this is not a selfish act. This is the way we give permission to the world to collectively step into the light!

I shine for my city! (Big up, St. Louis.)

I shine for my family!

I shine for my friends!

I shine for you #chocolatecardinal

I shine for you, #NerdNation

I shine for you Andrew Jacob Daher!!!!

Class of 2018, it is your time, now! Do me a favor, will ya? Take your light and show us the way!

God bless you …

I love you …

Thank you for having me.

Campus Life

University Affairs

Commencement 2018

Let nessance

Volume III-The Universal History of the World
---------------------------------------------

------------Edited and Hacked----------------

In the time men would call "Middle Ages", knights in glistening armour rode forth to serve GOD, and their kings, and life was a stately procession winding through a landscape marked by castles and cathedrals.

Such it was said, was the will of GOD. Hidden away in the castles and cathedrals libraries, manuscripts, that held the science, poetry, and wisdom of two thousand years of life and discovery, dusty and unread.

Their new fortunes gave guildsmen power. The wisdom in these books, he told the merchants was "more valuable merchandise" than the rarest goods of China and Arabia.

Their philosophy was called humanism because it began with the study of mankind instead of the mysteries of GOD.
Art was a matter of everyday importance. Scholars like  artist were of great demand. Men of learning were considered a necessary adornment for any court, and education was the mark of a gentleman.

And when the invitation of movable type made it possible to print books by the thousands instead of hand copying them one by one, the scholars did a masterly job of editing the Ancient Writings.

The Middle Ages had been a time of waiting and caution. The republic's government, like its money, was in the hands of a new set of aristocrats, a few important merchants who belonged to the great guilds. They resolved to over throw their aristocratic masters. The story did not begin very hopefully. The people had elected a new council. Instead of holding public office himself, he saw to it public council was filled with his friends. The people did not realize they had less to say about their government than ever.

His agents roamed Europe in search of OLD MANUSCRIPTS. Many of the Books were Greek. His wild adventures kept him in constant trouble with the city of Judges and the head of his monastery. He could bring to life the stories of the BIBLE by showing them as though they had happened in the countryside of Florence. To celebrate the betrothal he proclaimed a public holiday and staged an old fashioned tournament. The conspirators decided to do their killing during the Party. It was important, of course, that both Brothers be killed at the same time. The killings were postponed until the next morning, Easter Sunday. The hired killer had refused to practice his trade in church and two Monks volunteered to take his place.

The cathedral was jammed with worshippers. This was the killers signal to strike. The two Monks acted less quickly. His friends surrounded him to his palace. when he went to the council chamber to take charge of his government, the councillors stared at him in wonder, then put him under arrest. He called out to the men he had brought with him but no one came. Still the crowd was unsatisfied. The killings went on for months, until hundreds of men died. The King was impressed with his courage, he was pleased by his gracious manner and gradually he was convinced by his arguments for peace. The bells of the cathedral rang out to proclaim the PEACE.

For many townsmen the streets were outdoor living-rooms. Beggars huddled in doorways and beside the steps of churches. Side by Side the ugliness and cruelty were Beauty and Wisdom. The apprentice artist usually spent twelve years leaning his craft.

"I want to work Miracles" he said. By miracles, he meant paintings that showed the thoughts and feelings of men as well as what they looked like. He studied the movement of their arms and legs, the ever-changing expressions on their faces. He learned to watch the light and shadow that in an instant could change the look of a face or a mountain. when he began to understand how "nature's machines" worked, he tried to invent machines of his own.

He had been educated by the Humanists, he was himself a scholar and poet, and he was fascinated by the ideas of the ancient philosophers.

In 1471, a printing press with moveable type, a german invention, Books now that only the rich could afford tow own, could now be printed in great numbers and at much less expense.
"Now the most stupid thoughts can in a minute be put into thousands of Books and spread around the world", he grumbled.He might call it a Golden Age but the truth were in their account books.

  "Fair is Youth and free of Sorrow
   Yet how soon it's joys we bury
   Let who would be now be merry
   Sure is no one of tomorrow"

And the priceless collections of books and art were stolen, scattered, or destroyed.

  "Never so sweet a gladness
   Joy so pure and strong...
   Cry with me now, cry as I cry,
   Madness, Madness, holy madness"

Rich and Poor alike shuddered at the thought of doom, swore to reform their ways, and the Renaissance city turned backwards, to the Middle Ages. Then the spell began to fade.
If he walked through a fire and came out unharmed, his claims were true; if he burned they were false. He was a trouble maker, they decided, and they ordered their officers to arrest him. He was tortured, tried, and condemned to die. At last the Republic had it's Liberty. But nothing was as it once had been.

The Foreigners had come once; they would come again. In the Middle Ages the crusaders came there for their chain-mail, and it was said entire armies were outfitted in a few days.

Later the fashions of war changed. Indeed they made a show of their strength and wealth. It discouraged invaders and rivals and over-ambitious relatives. They frightened their subjects with harsh laws, rewarded them with pageants, and impressed them with magnificent palaces.

Brothers, nephews, and cousins, busily plotted one another's downfall. One met a sudden, well planned death, and his brothers, not wishing to share his fate, agreed to share the Family Lands instead. Any citizen who disobey faced forty days and forty kinds of tortures.

Of course he sent his soldiers around to make certain the dogs were well fed, whether the peasants ate or not. He had long envied his brother's wealth and now meant to take it from his brother's son.

He was a coward, who frantically fled to safety at the first sign of a fight. The people welcomed him with joyful shout;
"Long Live the Count and down with the taxes."

Since he was still a coward he also bought courage. While they squabbled their father's generals deserted and claimed the town as their own. At last the young duke and his Brother agreed to divide the shrunken dukedom. His hands it were said were fed on human flesh. He rarely went out where his subjects could see him, and he changed his secret living quarters in the palace so often that even his councillors often had difficulty finding him. He tried to buy his commanders' loyalty with high salaries, and sent spies on them, just to be sure. In his youth, he had marched with the army commanded by his father, a commoner whose skill in battle had won him friendship of Kings. He had learned how to command men. He disciplined them strictly. Many rulers and cities sought his services. This he thought, was what he wanted; and this, he swore to himself was what he would have.

Now they were free. They were determined to have no new master. He lived simply, worked hard,and treated his subjects as justly as he treated his soldiers.

For important guests of state,there was a special treat. He also gave displays of dreadful cruelty,Citizens were tortured in public squares, merchants were insulted and dragged off to prison,-all so that the Duke could show off his power. His years at court had taught him to be cunning and ruthless.

Some citizens complained that she was too proud and too extravagant. Not as an architect or military engineer, of course, but as a painter and planner of pageants and holiday decorations. Sometimes he rushed from the streets, added one or two strokes of paint to one figure, the left again, sometimes he sat for hours, staring at the picture and adding nothing. Desperate for money and soldiers, he disguised himself and fled to Germany, to seek the help of the emperor. While he was gone, his officers gave up the fight.

Now he was a wanderer, going from city to city in search of work, still filling his notebooks with ideas for inventions, still dreaming of making miracles. Again he put on a disguise but he was captured and taken to France. For years he was held a prisoner in one of the French King's castles. He consulted his councillors and men who had travelled widely in Europe, asking them who best deserved this honour.

Actually it was not a development state at all. It's Duke paid an annual tribute to the Pope for the privilege of governing his family dukedom himself. It all depended on their rulers - the ambitious dukes or counts or sometimes, commoners who gained riches and power.

It's dukes d'Estes, had to come to power in the last days of chivalry. Here Nobles ad Ladies posed on furniture decorated with gold. In hidden alcoves, courtly couples whispered of love, and scholars argued noisily about the meaning of Greek Words.

There were many stories and many versions of the same story handed down from minstrel to minstrel. The adventures were wild and impossible. There were winged horses, people who turned into trees, and fortresses that melted away with a magic word. In the practical age of learning and discoveries there was no place for romantic knights, but people liked to read and remember. Of course chivalry was dead or out-of-date.

Now he decideth for his children power and wealth were not enough, they must have learning as well. The boys were students like their father. At sixteen she married him and went on making wishes for gowns embroidered with jewels, a court, to play with, and a title of Duchess. She learned to write poetry in Italian and essays in Latin, to talk politics with diplomats, and painting with artists, to sing and dance and play clavichord and flute.

Visitors to her father's court came away exclaiming about her brilliance, and a half of a dozen rulers sent their ambassadors to ask the duke to wed to their sons. She could ride all day and dance all night and never seem tired.

She seemed to know the right thing to say to every-one, scholars, and diplomats, poets and painters, Kings and commoners. She had the boldness of a man yet kept her womanly charm. Princes, popes, and generals were flattered to be called her friends, and a poet named her 'La Prima Donna Del Mondo', the First Lady of the World.

"Your Excellency," she said, "is indebted to me as never husband was to wife. You could never repay me".

They were also taught to play music and judge paintings. Italy had never known a school like this before. He was merely copying the Ancient Greeks, who had tried to bring up their sons to be "complete men". Healthy bodies, strong character, and minds full of wisdom, the schoolmaster said were the Greeks goals and his. They were also goals of the men whom the word would come to call "Renaissance Men", men who strove to do everything well and came close to succeeding.

For twenty years, he taught as many as he could, the girls as well as the boys. Hs first pupils began to take their places as the leaders of cities and states and he was pleased when he heard they were govern themselves.

Learning added to power and wealth did not always bring such happy results, however. His talents and education simply made more dangerous villains. Even his poetry served his villainy. He had in fact the qualities of a good ruler except the wish to be one. His ancestors were famous for their double dealings. He was kindly and generous to his subjects. But the projects in which he took greatest pride, was in his library. It included thousands of volumes of history and law, of poetry and music , of religion, mathematics, and military tactics, all bound in crimson and silver.

He set the example himself and his court became famous for its grace and polished manners. He called it The Book of Courtier, though he might well have called it How to be a Gentleman. A gentleman he said, must be skillful in war, and an expert at riding, fencing; swimming, jumping, running, and other sports. But  he warned that a gentleman should never be so expert at such things that people could say he was showing off. In fact, the mark of a true gentleman was that he did everything perfectly, gracefully, but with no sign of effort. He must understand Greek and Latin, know poetry and history, and speak and write well. The ladies, indeed, were most important: "No court, however, great it may be, can have any beauty or brightness in it, or any mirth, without women, nor can a gentleman be gracious, pleasant, or brave, unless he is stirred with the conversation and love of women." They must be gracious, learned, and polite.

It was translated into French and English, and people all over Europe rushed to buy it. Indeed they had become a strict code of conduct for our new age, a code which gentleman of the Renaissance could follow as the knights once followed the code of chivalry.

The stories of many of Italy's ruling families ended with defeat and flight, or destruction and death. He was a commoner, a courtier, without a court, a diplomat whose cunning no one wanted to employ. He went to live on country estate that belonged of his father. By day, he played the country gentleman, but at night he lived again in the world of diplomats and kings.

He turned to writing, and at first he wrote about governments of the people, republics of Rome, conquered the Ancient World. So he wrote the Book called 'The Prince'. "It is not necessary for a Prince to be merciful, faithful, sincere, religious", he wrote, "For that would make him dangerously weak. But it is most necessary for him to seem to be these thing." It was useful of course, if a Prince through his shows of goodness could win his people's loyalty and love.

Few men had spoken so harshly of mankind, and none had called treachery a good thing in a King. He was a handsome, intelligent, witty, gracious and well loved hater, with the neatest piece of diplomatic trickery that Italy had seen in years, he outwitted a group of noblemen who conspired to murder him. They even agreed to leave their soldiers behind when arriving to his castle for a friendly conference.He described it in great detail in his book, as an example for ambitious Princes. He called for the help of allies he had courted with favours, promises, and gifts. None of them came to his aid.

These men who followed the harsh code of the Price took their places beside the gentleman who live by the code of the courtier. As he crept out of the city, disguised as a poor friar, he
swore that he would one day return in Triumph. But first, he thought he must look to his career in the church.

The young cardinal was not alone in hoping to make his fortune in Rome. Rome had known every sort of splendour and evil.
Memories of unmatched elegance and unbelievable ruins of temples and arenas built by Ancient Emperors.

For the ways of Church and business and politics, the work of scholars are artists, and the very safety of the city depended on the man the cardinals executed. He was a diplomat, a finance minister, and sometimes a general. Not every Pope brought learning a gaiety to Rome. But innocent was wise enough to win the favour of the Romans by adding new buildings to their city. But at least his officers kept order in the streets.

For the first time in years it was possible to go about the city without running the risk of getting robbed or murdered. The Pope himself became famous for his good humour, "Rome was a free city," he said, "where everyone can say what he likes."

There were for instance the strange sudden death of churchmen. Surely such convenient deaths were no accident. Most of the stories told about  the Pope and his family were probably untrue, but the Romans, were willing to believe any evil whispered about them. In site of the gossip, malaria, not a poison, that struck down the Pope and his son. The Pope in armour was startling a sight.

Together the paintings seemed to sum up the wisdom and art that were the glories of the Renaissance. He loved his work and he loved the life. He enjoyed the warm companionship of friends, the charm of plenty women, expeditions and parties. His art was agonizing labor for him and life seemed to have been planed for his own special annoyance. All that he asked of patrons was the time it took "to find the figure" in a block of marble by chipping away at the stone bit by bit. But people were reluctant to hire an artist who worked so slowly. They were, they write, usually out of jobs, somehow they usually were.

And when they asked the artist to do a huge wall painting in their council chamber, he had no choice but to agree. He disliked painting as much as he loved carving, but he needed the money. He wanted a tomb for himself, a monument so big and so splendid that even after his death Rome would never be able to forget him, he returned with the plans for a marble monument, two stories high and decorated with 40 statues. Here at last were an artist with ideas as grand as his own. They also had the same angry temper, the same unbending pride. Over the years they argued, shouted, threatened, each other time and time again, never to speak or meet again and together Rome its greatest masterpieces.

There were 343 bodies to do, 343 heads nearly a quarter of an acre in background and no assistant he would trust to touch any of it. The one reward for his hours of painful labor was the fact that upon his scaffolding he could be alone in his work. He divided the space into more than 100 panels. Each a separate picture, but skillfully planned. It firmed a en of one great design. The stories, these pictures told were parts of one great story, the story of GOD and the world he made. His religion was a religion of strong feelings, and the figures on is ceiling we as powerful as those he carved from the stone. Best of all, he remembered it was his duty to guide men toward heaven, he saw no reason why they should not enjoy their time on earth. He certainly meant to do so himself while he worked at these jobs, the young artist found time for dozens of other projects.

It was one of policy, a safe one, and one that was most necessary for a Pope who had to deal with powerful monarchs. The Emperor however was not too anxious to involve himself in a religious feud. But the hopeful beginnings led to a series of disasters. Unfortunately he did not know how to solve them either. He was cautious when he might have been bold and dawdled when he should have acted and trusted allies whose promises were false.

Never in 2000 years of wars and violence had the Romans suffered such cruelty or know such terror. They killed without reason--women as well as men, the patients in a hospital, the people who sought refuge in the churches.

  "Your money or your Life", was their cry.

And those who had nothing to pay were tortured and killed. Meanwhile nature had dealt a kind of justice to the warriors who had treated Rome cruelly. It had not occurred that they had all helped to bring about the disasters that had come to them.

The Church was divided because too many churchmen cared more about riches then religion. But it was easier to blame the Pope. The Church at last began a program of reform, and the Pope once more became a man of honour and esteem. It's scholars were more than content to pore over their old books, in the quiet of the studies.

He had become a legend in Rome. He in fact had no mind for anything other than his work. As always he finally had agreed to do the job. He was haunted by the fear that he would not live to finish them.

"I' am so OLD", he said, "that death often pulls me by the cape and bids me go with him."

Many architects questioned wether it would stand up at all: these tombs were his last greta projects and something of a puzzle to everyone who saw them. The descendants of the settlers commanded mighty warships that ruled over the Mediterranean.

For 800 years, Venice celebrated the sea with a curious ceremony. Wedded to the Sea, Venice turned it's back on the and, the mainland of Italy.

It the Pope and the Emperor and did not enter the costly contest for land and power among the rival Italian states. Then the time of expansion came to an abrupt end.

Yet in it's last years of greatness, the city was made more glorious than it had ever been. In design and decoration the church was a mixture of Eastern and European magnificence. The names of aristocrats were written in the Libre D'oro or Golden Book, and they-- a thousand men or so --governed the city of more than a hundred thousand.

The city seemed to live in an endless carnival. Masquerading was it's favourite sport. Companies of players and dancers performed in the theatre and poets spouted verse in it's taverns. His verses so funny, his writing so popular and in his fame widespread that none of the men he made fools of dated wanted to punish him.

"I have struck terror into kings", he boasted and it was true. The King appointed him "painter, Engineer, King's Architect, and state Mechanician, and, for once, his titles and his jobs matched his talents. He sketched inventions in his notebooks, and amazed physicians with his knowledge of human anatomy, and delighted the King with his courtly conversation. He loved tournaments and duels, and looked on war as a chivalrous contest of courage. But underneath the decorations the chateaux were a solid fortress.

"Abandon yourself to nature's truths and let nothing in the world be unknown to you". Once a Monk but now a Poet. He was like a man dining on bread and water.

He tried to write about them all, splashing words onto his pages as though he feared they would fly away if he didn't catch them in an instant. The court lived according to his whims. The noblemen competed to become his favourites, and his favour shifted from day to day. They wore the Crown but their mother had the Power. France had indeed caught up with Italy. The way of the government was not tailored to fit frenchmen. The people were relieved when she
and the last of her sons died. He kept his Italian longings under control, and in his time, France again became a Nation, united, strong, and French.

Magnificence was very nice, he said, if one could afford it, but no King with a country to run and people to feed could afford to pretend.

"Que sais-je?" -- "What do I know?" -- had become the motto for the new humanists of France, scholars, and philosophers who looked on the world and themselves with cautious return.

The pictures were so crowded with sharp details of nature and life that they might have almost been coloured photographs. But the world in these paintings were richer and more brilliant than any other captures.

Then gradually the arts of vigorous countries started to blend together. They called him "Prince of the Humanists" and he taught that of humanism was a promise of hope in a world that too long had been enslaved by fear and despair. Indeed, in the ideas of the Ancient Philosophers he found new reasons for living a life of religion. Over the years too many churchmen had translated and changed the meaning of the BIBLE to suit their own beliefs. For nearly 35 years he strove to add to his collections. Her towns were poverty stricken, her farmlands unsown, and her army and navy devastated by series of disastrous foreign wars.

They were sure that England with only a woman to lead it would soon be easily conquered.

"I know I have the Body of a weak and feeble woman," she had told her people, "but I have the heart and stomach of a KING!"
The Queen also had the charm and wit of a lively woman, and a fiery temper that matched her red hair. But the people loved seeing the Queen, and she did her best to let as many of them see her as possible.

Temporal Limitations

Temporal Limitations...

This primitive reality was meta-physically inflated. The developments in historical circumstances, impulse towards words, activity and transformation, universally applicable. It would be useful to investigate the writings of the FATHERs, the Masters, of the spiritual life, and the mystics; Divine Commission.

Religion is the relation with the "Other", the "Numinous", the mysterious, whatever word we use to describe that which is quite unlike everything else, unlike it and distinguished from it, not merely as truth is distinguished from goodness, or the realm of physics from that of the Biology but in a very special sense.

The religious genius, the religious disposition, achieves that capacity for creative vision and moulding that closeness to the fundamental reality of things.

Psychology, however, can do more than indicate that we are in the presence of something very special; of a state of affairs which is oppressed, not merely in conceptual propositions, but is a living attitude in the way, that is in which personality and life are built up, by means of words which are double of an existence or form of life to which nothing in any other man corresponds.

The existence of the prophet, and that of the apostle too (Cor 4:9) contain "A Priori" the necessary in an equation between mission and being, between office and authority.

There is an ALIEN element intervening which has to be accepted and assimilated and the psychological process consists in the reconciliation of this dichotomy.

The cry on the cross cannot be explained in terms of the psychology of religion, it points to the serious reality of an existence that is beyond our comprehension.

"Development" means self-emergence from a generative milieu. But it is possible to conceive of another type of growth according to which the living thing is only partly determined by what is inside of it. For the rest, it acts against stimuli, received from it's environment and by so doing forms itself into something NEW, and to so, a limit that is "A Priori" indeterminable.

A man's intelligence can be of many varying degrees, from the purely negative, through the average, to the extraordinary.

"GENIUS", means that a particular endowment, a power of knowledge or creativity, action or feeling, is so intense, so productive, so utterly obedient to it's inner controls, that it ploughs remorselessly through received convention, until it reaches original primordial truth. GENIUS is that disposition in MAN which makes it possible for the fundamental processes of mind, for the BAsic Power of mankind, for the tendencies of history and the COSMOS to come fully into their own. GENIUS is always the disclosure of some GIFT not merited but given and presupposes a corresponding disposition for hard work and self-denial. GENIUS is a marginal state exposed to the dangers of all such states.

The works of the mystics appear to be more profound, more powerful, more moving, more sublime. Man is not only an individual, like a plant or an animal but a person. "PERSON" is at once something obvious and yet logically incomprehensible. All of what we can know about a MAN is supported and determined by that essential content of significance indicated by the word "I".
In this way we can form a picture of the NATURE and LIFE of any MAN and the picture is more detailed and sharper in outline the more acute our observation, the more vivid our appreciation of that persons CONTEXT and background, the greater our powers of correlation.

Anyone who says that he does understand, does not know what understanding means. Every MAN can be set in his historical perspective; we can show his life has been determined by preceding circumstances in the political, economic, and intellectual spheres.

We correlate all the DATA: -has current ideas and literary opinions are reproduced in him; his relation to his environment, family, friends, work, social group, nationality, how his emotional life and his IDEAS are conditioned by all these things as soon a CONCEPT is the expression of an intelligible reality. A CONCEPT is what human thinking attains when it has managed to become master of an object by abstracting it from the conditions in which it exists in the world. The category of originality is rooted in one of the prime questions of BEING in question of the ORIGIN. It plays a prominent part in early mythological thoughts. All primitive theogenus and cosmogonies are an answer to the question where everything comes from; about that which itself has no beginning but given existence to all else furnishing all things with LIFE and ENERGY.

The QUESTION about the beginning---- about the arch---- is the first systematic question arising from the impression that it does not exist of itself, and the impression made on us by what is, but points back to something else. Wonder than gives way to philosophical inquiry and evokes the counter question; where is everything going? From these two questions arises man's predicament, theoretical and existential. Everything comes from the origin, endowment, achievement, and destiny. This too receives a philosophical and scientific elaboration. The question of both ultimates affects everything. Here we have to do with one of the "SCHEMATA" of all investigations, perhaps most fundamental of all originality.

It has grown out of nature as a whole and is ultimately re-absorbed by nature. It has grown out of the combination of circumstances, one must postulate when talking of TREES. For in MAN, there is something produced, his Spiritual Soul.

This gives rise to the dialectic structure of history, from this, too, comes the fact that there is no ultimate finality in any historical phenomenon.

The TREE has it's origins within this world, man, with his spiritual soul is projected into it. This advent, is no adventure of some divine hero but is undertaken under commission and with POWER.
The form in which this HOLY WILL is expressed, as it is concretely manifested through the facts of daily existence in "HIS HOUR". This direct determination the "WILL" dominates every inner spiritual situation.

Thus, FAITH, too is a "BEGINNING". It is a true FAITH. Containing a lust of derivative elements. But then essence of FAITH always eludes psychology. But the core of FAITH in all cases is always rooted in the ETERNAL. It escapes beyond all these temporal considerations. FAITH is in the WORLD but not of it. It neither derives from the WORLD nor merges into it. It has a duty towards it but is never it's slave. It knows more bout the WORLD than the WORLD know about itself.

This "US" is a tremendous word. He distinguishes reality from appearance, truth from deception. So there are two "KERYGMA" messages proclaimed truth. "TRUTH" means that the temporal acquires it real, uncaring for us in an eternal perspective, that Being becomes intellectually clear, when it is seen in the light of the IDEA and corporality of the WORD. He himself is the creative WORD who alone makes communication at a ll POSSIBLE. He is the IDEA which makes all things TRUE in the SPHERE and the LIGHT of his words, all true Statements are TRUE. That being so, any concept of "THE TEACHER" which we might be able to build up from our experience is left far behind. We have gave forward to something unique. The power he has and exercises is of a different ORDER.

Even if MAN were not prepared to BELIVE in the possibility of MIRACLES he would still sense the power conveyed by these stories and would  have to face up to the phenomenon they represent.

It was the power of a colossal personality of a deep recollection of Soul, of a completely Free WILL perfectly attuned to it's HOLY mission in a word, the PAINTER OF PRESENCE.

Love Market

Casanova used lemons as contraceptives. 

Note for the future reference the effect of weird sexual facts on audience engagement. The liberalization of sexual values during the twentieth century is an economic story. This new "technology" along with changes in education and equality has completely transformed the sexual landscape. Premarital sex is strongly tied to family income. A successful marriage is one of the mot important things in life. This is the story of Jane who, Jane chose another path. Their promiscuity was not the result of a lack of moral fortitude. What are those economic forces? And so the answer to "Should I sleep with him tonight?" Was fated. AlwAys on the prowl for the perfect. "Would you be to pay 300 $ every three months to have drugs injected into your balls?" This could be a winning strategy. Condom use appears to go back three thousand years.  Diaphragms became available in 1882. Giving her the option of sex with a condom has reduced the cost of premarital sex by 20000$. In fact, statistically speaking 45% of sexually active woman will become pregnant. These specific costs that I am talking about don't include the daily wearable and tear that raising children alone imposes on a woman; imagine a buyer on the sex market who has the option.of buying unprotected sex from two different sellers. Buyers on the sex market should remember the old adage you get what you pay for. This steady rise in university enrolment has had som sequences for those who are not able to take that step. Of course, tuition is not the only reason why some students can reasonably expect never to go to college. One of the reasons women have abstained from sex in the past was fear that having a sexual history would send a bad signal to any potential husband.  We have just assumed that there are some benefits to promiscuity. The point is that while more sex makes people happier having more sexual partners does not.