So here we are. Ecclesiastes chapter 12. I'll begin by reading verse 1 and giving some thoughts on that as Solomon is about to conclude. And then we'll move into verse 2 and continue on until we conclude this chapter. So beginning here in verse 1 and reading only verse 1, Solomon says, Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth before the difficult days come and the years draw near when you say, I have no pleasure in them. Now as we've been going through Ecclesiastes in chapter 11, Solomon had just reminded his readers that childhood and youth, he said, are vanity. They're transient. Our lives pass quickly. So he's saying, don't waste your opportunities. Prepare for the future. Because ultimately God will bring our lives into judgment. So he says, enjoy life with an eye on the kingdom. And so as he has just said that in chapter 11, he moves into his final chapter. And it's interesting how that when he enters into a chapter 12, into what we call chapter 12, this final chapter, he actually deals with the reality of growing older and how to prepare for old age. It's interesting how the Bible often speaks of length of days and refers to those as a blessing from God. And the length of days that we have is initially tied in with a life of obeying the Lord. Like he said in Proverbs 3, 1 and 2, my son, do not forget my law. Let your heart keep my commands for length of days and long life and peace they will add to you. So length of days are initially tied in with a life of obedience. Paul picked up on that theme when he was writing to the Ephesians in chapter 6, and he said that obedience is actually something that is a command with a promise. Ephesians 6, he said in verses 1 through 3, children obey your parents and the Lord, this is right, honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth. So obedience was tied in with longevity. And so as we are getting older, some of us, all of us actually, every one of us in this room is a little older than you were a second ago. So some people have a bit of a difficult time embracing the reality of aging. They consider themselves to be cool and young, no matter how old they are. You know, I know that to be true with Marie and me, not necessarily Marie, she's always cool. But for me, we were walking together a number of years ago now. We were in Disneyland and we were holding hands. You know, people think it's romantic. We're actually holding each other up. But as we're, as we're walking in Disneyland, I'll never forget this. We're walking just holding hands. And a young couple was walking towards us. And the young lady as she passed by said to her young man, how cute. And when she said how cute, I thought she must have seen some old people holding hands or something. And I looked behind me and she was saying that to us. And so it was eye opening for us. Not everybody wants to get old. Not everybody gets old comfortably. We always want to be cool, I guess. I was reading recently how that some of the groups from the 60s, you know, the 60s music and all, some of the groups from the 60s became aware of the fact that growing older was difficult for some. And they had so many, they had their hits and they wanted to do something with them. They re-released their songs, but they actually had changed the titles and all. And so I was looking at a list of the remakes from the 60s. Some of you are old enough to remember these, like Hermann's Hermits. Well, Hermann's Hermits brought out Mrs. Brown, you've got a lovely walker. And Credence Clearwater Revival, Bad Prune Rising. Marvin Gaye, I heard it through the grape nuts. The Who brought out Talking About My Medication. And the Troggs brought out Bald Thing. Carly Simon, Yerso Verico's Vane.  The Beegees. The Beegees, how can you mend a broken hip? Roberta Flack brought out, the first time ever I forgot your face. Johnny Nash, I can't see clearly now. The Temptations, Papa Goddard, Kidney Stone. Abba brought out Densher Queen. Leo Sare, you make me feel like napping. The Commodores, once, twice, three trips to the bathroom. Procal Herum, a wider shade of hair. And the Beatles, I get by with a little help from Depends. And so some of us have a difficult time. Those are dumb. Some of us have a difficult time getting older. And we want to remain young and all. And we don't realize that every day that we live is a blessing from the Lord.  But we also should be benefiting and growing in wisdom and understanding. So Solomon in this chapter is exhorting his readers to view the future, but to do so with thoughtfulness. And his instructions are basically encouraging people to wisely prepare now. Somebody once said, if I knew I would live this long, I would have taken better care of myself, you know? And so there's some truth to that.  And so that's what he's saying. So in verse one, remember now your Creator in the days of your youth, before the difficult days come and the years drawn near when you say I have no pleasure in them. So begin now.  And if possible, pursue him from your earliest days. Consider who made you and what you've been made for.  And the way he shows us how to do that is found in scripture and is made possible by the Holy Spirit. You see, God has given to us energy and God has given to us gifts and it's up to us to make sure that we use the energy and the gifts to bring glory to God. So dedicating all that you are to God starts in knowing that he's the one who created you. And that's why he says, remember now your Creator. We need to remember who it is who has created us. Dedicating all that we are to God starts with that. Psalm 100 verse three says, know that the Lord, he is God. It is he who has made us and not we ourselves.  So learn to regard yourself in a humble fashion because in doing so that develops wisdom in the way that you live is simply the result of recognizing that we are only creatures. He's the Creator. Like it says in Isaiah 64 verse eight. Now, oh Lord, you are our father. We are the clay.   And so when we understand our Creator that we are created. We are not the Creator, but we have been created that understanding prompts us to worship the one who is worthy of worship. It produces humility as well as dependence because he says, remember now your Creator in the days of your youth before the difficult days come and the years draw near when you say, I have no pleasure in them. Difficult days. The word difficult is a word in Hebrew that can be translated wicked or bad, adverse, unpleasant, sad, miserable, unhappy or harmful. He's saying difficult days. These kinds of days are inevitable. So be prepared for them. As we already saw the longer we live, the more opportunity we're going to have to have bad days. And the longer we live brings us to the time when we have to deal with old age. So if we build our lives on a solid foundation, he's saying we're going to have a better old age. Living unrestrained lives as a youth leads to difficulties as we age. Sometimes we suffer prematurely for the way we lived when we were kids. I have a friend more than one really who when he was young shared needles and now is dealing with hepatitis C. I've had friends who had unrestrained drinking as youth.  But I have friends who have suffered with or dealing with cirrhosis of the liver. One of my cousins died of cirrhosis. And there are numbers of people who unrestrained drinking and they ended up with cirrhosis. There are those who when they were young liked to fight a lot. They were violent. And as they've grown older, they've got aches and pains all over their body. They're still dealing with that. You see, if you live long enough, you eventually reap the results of unrestrained living. We know that dark days and evil days can come upon us. And because we do, we need to prepare ourselves by laying a solid spiritual foundation. And that's what Solomon is advising. He's saying, build your lives on a solid rock. Because when the storms arise, it won't be destroyed. It's like what Jesus taught us in Matthew 7. Two different people bailed the house. One on sinking sand, the other one on a solid rock. The storm hit both, but only the one on the rock remains.  And so if we're building our life on sand, it's going to crumble when the pressure comes. And so we need to learn to build our lives on something solid. Like Paul said in 1 Corinthians 311, no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is Jesus Christ. He said, build your life on Him. So remember now your Creator in the days of your youth before the difficult days come and the years draw near when you say, I have no pleasure in them. He says in verse 2, while the sun and the light, the moon and the stars are not darkened and the clouds do not return after the rain. So he describes now old age. This is a poetic description of growing older and you'll recognize that in just a moment. He's doing it poetically and he's doing it with insight. But what you have as we're about to go through this is really a poetic way of showing the human body as a house that is slowly deteriorating. That's the picture. And so he'll begin to do that as we go through these verses together. You see in Scripture the human body is often referred to as a dwelling place. In Job 4 verses 18 and 19, it says, if he puts no trust in his servants, if he charges his angels with error, how much more those who dwell in houses of clay whose foundation is in the dust who are crushed before a moth. In 1 Corinthians 316 Paul had said, do you not know that you are the temple of God and the spirit of God dwells in you? In 2 Corinthians 5, 1, we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands eternal in the heavens. And so our bodies in Scripture often are used as a picture of a house or how house is used to speak of our bodies. So what we have here, and he's going to be showing us, is a picture of a house that's falling apart and eventually returning to dust. So notice again, as he says in verse 2, he says, well, the sun and the light, the moon and the stars are not darkened and the clouds do not return after the rain. And so sun and the light of the moon and stars are not darkened and clouds. These are the difficult days that Solomon's referring to. These figures represent the advent of infirmities associated with growing older. Old age is represented as a rainy season with clouds obscuring the sun and storms. The time of older age can have affliction, it can have sadness, it can have times of need. And the clouds not returning could speak of dry seasons, times that we needed refreshing. And so we speak in of our house, this body that is deteriorating. And now he begins to describe it in a little more detail, verse 3, in the day when the keepers of the house tremble and the strong men bow down. When the grinders cease because there are few and those that look through the windows grow dim. When the doors are shut in the streets and the sound of grinding is low. When one rises up at the sound of a bird and all the daughters of music are brought low. Also, they're afraid of height and of terrors in the way. When the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper is a burden. Desire fails. Man goes to his eternal home and the mourners go about the streets. And so he begins to share some things about aging. He's letting us know what it looks like. It says in the day when the keepers of the house tremble. The keepers of the house would originally speak of the servants who were to protect the home. But here it refers to our arms and legs because our arms and legs are used to protect ourselves. But notice he says in the day when the keepers of the house tremble and he says the strong men bow down. And so our arms and our legs and we're beginning to stoop. It's the picture here. In Psalm 144 verse one, it says, blessed be the Lord my rock who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle. So when you're younger, you have this confidence of strength. You know, women and men both have your strength. And a man, as he's a young man, especially if he keeps in shape of some sort, can have a strong confidence in his abilities and his physicality. You know, he has a sense that he's able to protect. He's got a sense that if somebody comes into the house that he's going to be able to defend his home. Why? Because he's a young man. And the keepers of the house, his arms and his legs are still strong. And he's still able to take care of the family. And he knows that. And men know that, you know, as much as today it seems that that sometimes the younger generation has forgotten that men have a protective place in homes and in society. And sometimes we seem to forget that a lot of men haven't. A lot of men have realized that that when they got married, they one of the things that they were given responsibility to do was to protect their home, to protect their family, to be the protector for the wife. That's what we're called to do. That's what men do. That's what our responsibility is, is to protect and to care for. And so when you're young, you have strength, you're able to do that and you have confidence. And yet when you grow older, you begin to be aware of the fact that you're not the same man that you used to be. You're not able to do the things that you one time were able to. And you suddenly realize that you're not the man that you once thought you were. You know, we used to think we were something, oh, we're Superman. And as a matter of fact, that's pretty much a job description for most of us. You know, we as men, you know, when we're kids and should you have gone out for Halloween and stuff like that, you know, and you dress up, many kids would dress up, men would little boys would dress up as superheroes and and and people thought how cute. But for men, that wasn't necessarily a costume. That was kind of like who they really thought they were.  I heard somebody say that all men think that they're Superman. He says, if you don't think so, he says, watch them when they're when they're moving and they put their their mattress on top of their car. And he said they're driving 50 miles an hour, but they're holding it with one hand because they know they're strong enough to hold that mattress down. You know, should the wind begin to lift it. And that's kind of what we are. Those are options. You know, Superman and Batman, Batman were options in life. You know, I could be either one because we think of ourselves as being Superman. You do. You know, when I was a kid, my, you know, my brother and I went into the garage. My dad was an upholster as well as a truck driver. And sometimes he'd be working on on couches. And we would go and we would take the cushions that he was working on and we'd take him into the backyard. And my brother and I would climb up into the patio and we would jump holding a sheet. We would jump off the patio like we were parachuting and we would land on top of the the, you know, the cushions and all. And I was six years old, seven years old. And I'm climbing on top of a house and I'm diving, jumping out and doing that kind of thing because we thought we'd never get hurt. We were invincible. I remember standing on a playhouse and I thought to myself, I bet I could do, you know, one of these cartwheels right off of this. And I'll never forget landing on my back and oh how much that hurt. I can still remember that. I can still remember as a kid wanting to be a spaceman because space, things were on TV all the time. And I went into the house and, you know, we used to get plastic bags that would have the oranges in it. So I took the plastic bag and I made it into my helmet.  I didn't know that when you breathe it's just going to stick to your face. And it did. And I started choking. I started actually about to pass out because I was killing myself. And my mom was in the kitchen watching say, good, good. No, she was looking. It's an accident. I'll tell them it was an accident. No, she's looking out. And she said, I still remember her as I was about to pass out.  She said your face was blue. I can remember my brother and me, my dad used to bring these small barrels home. They were cardboard barrels. And we wanted them to be our spaceships. And we went into the garage and we took a hammer and a nail and we put a hole in the center of one of the lids. Climbed in and dropped the lid on ourselves because we thought that that little nail hole would provide enough for oxygen to come in. And we were breathing in there and we were going wherever. And I can still remember my brother and me when we, all the oxygen, we used all the oxygen and what happened is the lid actually sealed so we couldn't get out. And we had gone into the garage and closed the garage door. I was about five. My brother was about seven. My mom would have come into the garage to find two babies dead in those containers. But my brother, I remember, I started to pass out. I mean I really did. I was just passing out in there because I couldn't push the lid off. I was just a little boy. And my brother, I still remember hearing the container fall to the side and him kicking and he kicked it open. Then he came and peeled off the lid for me and then the air. I still remember the air just rushing in and all of that. See when you're kids, you really think you're invincible. You really think you can do all kinds of things that you're never going to get hurt. That you'll always be healthy. You'll always be strong. You'll always be able to run. You'll always be able to jump. You'll always be able to take care of yourself. As you're young, that's what you think. But when you grow older, you begin to realize that it's not quite true anymore. As you grow older, he speaks of the keepers of the house trembling and the strong men bowing down.  You're no longer as strong as you used to be. You're unable to stand straight is the point of bowing down. You're not able to do battle anymore. He goes on in verse 3 and he says, when the grinders cease because they're few, what do you think the grinders are? Your teeth. The grinders cease because they're few. They're few. You lose your teeth. You're unable to chew your food anymore. In verse 3, he says, those that look through windows grow dim. Your vision begins to deteriorate. One of the interesting things about growing older is your eyesight dims.  Isn't that interesting? I'll let that set for a minute. In verse 4, when the doors are shut in the streets and the sound of grinding is low, when one rises up at the sound of a bird, when the doors are shut in the streets and the sound of grinding is low, it's difficult. Now there's a couple of ways that commentators picture this. When it says when the doors are shut, doors could be a picture of a person's mouth being closed, just no longer able to speak the way that he used to. The sound of grinding being low could picture the loss of teeth or no sound of chewing. But it can also be interpreted to mean that a person is losing their hearing. I heard about an older man who had serious hearing problems for many years so he went to the doctor and the doctor was able to have him fitted for a set of hearing aids that allowed him to hear perfectly. So he went back in a month to the doctor and the doctor said your hearing's perfect, your family must be really pleased that you can hear again to which the old man said oh I haven't told my family yet. I just sit around and listen to the conversations. I've changed my will three times. Again, three older men each with a hearing loss were taken a walk. One said to the other, Wendy, ain't it? No, the second man replied, it's Thursday. And the third man said, so am I, let's get a coke. So here's, your hearing goes. And verse four, when one rises at the sound of a bird. That's interesting because you don't sleep as well as you used to. There are sounds that will awaken you and it becomes more difficult for some to sleep. The lightest sound will awaken you. When it speaks of the daughters of music being brought low, you no longer will hear this song but when you do hear it and you begin to sing along with it you don't sing in tune. I still remember my mama when she was growing older and she really wasn't that old at that time when she said this but she would sing along with music all the time and I can still remember one day her saying to me you know I used to be able to carry a tune. And there's some truth to that. You just don't hear as well as you used to but you don't sing as well as you used to either. When he says in verse five also they are afraid of height. That's an interesting thing too because he says of terrors in the way you're afraid of height. They can't walk up hills anymore. They fear falling down or tripping as they're walking. My dad when he was growing older, my dad was a truck driver and my dad one day said to me you know son he said I'm realizing I'm growing old and I said why is that dad and he says well you know he says I'll be in the truck unloading it. He said I've always just jumped off the tailgate and hit the ground and walked to the cab and driven away. He says and I did that today he said and the pain from my heel went all the way up to my head. He said and he said just the pain of and that there's some truth to that. You know I was in my backyard a while back now I've got a three-foot retaining wall in the backyard and you gotta understand you know when I was a kid I was I was I was a paratrooper. I mean I was in the second I used to jump out of planes and I was standing there looking saying I wonder if I should sit down and just I think I used to jump out of planes 1,500 feet in the air and I'm looking at three feet saying should I take the chance and so that I understand that I understand that very well. When they're walking and notice this is interesting how he puts it terrors in the way they're afraid they're going to trip over something as they're walking and again I might as well use myself as an example. I you know you don't recover as quickly when you hit something you know I've already fallen down our stairs more than once in my you know I'm not paying attention which is what happens I guess hit the edge and there you go hit the ground but I was walking in the in the in the main sanctuary coming from my office and we had some things set up on the on the platform there and it was pitch black and I nightline I can't see a thing in the dark at all and so I was walking and I didn't see that there was a prop that was in front I couldn't see it it blends in with everything else it's just pitch black but as I was walking my right foot hit directly on this this heavy object and it popped my hamstring popped my hamstring you know and oh if you how many of you have had a popped hamstring so you know what I'm talking you know what I'm talking about you know your do you know you can hear things inside your head you can hear the sound like that and it sounds like like it's a pop like that and I went and I went oh my oh my you know so I am very aware of things in front of me and so you know as I'm reading this I'm going check that one off check that one check that one off yeah you have to be careful where you're walking because they get nervous that they're going to trip over something he goes on in verse five and he speaks of the almond tree blossoming almond trees have white blossoms and so this speaks of the hair that is turning white the grasshopper becomes a burden desire fails so your hair is going white the grasshopper is a burden you're becoming weaker desire fails your zest for life begins to grow dim and so he's just speaking about life and what happens as you're going older and older and then he says in verse five man goes to his eternal home and the mourners go about the streets and so he's speaking about the deterioration of the body he's picturing it like a house he's picturing it as things that are just going down and all and it's the bottom line here when he says a man goes to his eternal home he finally dies that's the picture and he's mourned as he goes to his grave and so he's speaking of a life that has grown older and a life that began to fail and then finally he goes to his eternal home so he's just speaking about worship the lord while you're young and able to and be prepared for the inevitable aging that will take place and so he says again verse six remember your creator before the silver cord is loose or the golden bowl is broken or the picture shattered at the fountain or the wheel broken at the well then the dust will return to the earth as it was and the spirit will return to god who gave it remember your creator before the silver cord is loose the golden bowl is broken now when he speaks of this wealthy people would have golden bowls hanging from the ceiling with a silver chain so the chain breaks the bowl is shattered and what is he saying he's saying death strikes the wealthy as well as the poor he says in verse six the picture is shattered at the fountain see what it is is the pictures would be drawn up by a line that were attached to a wheel so once again it's a picture of death it's a well with a picture that's dropped down to take water but it breaks when the machinery stops working the water of life stops flowing as a picture so when the heart stops pumping the blood stops circulating death has come and what happens at death verse seven well the dust will return to the earth as it was and the spirit returned to the god who gave it the dust will return to the earth as it was so that reminds us of genesis in chapter three because out of the ground god formed man out of the dust and when adam sinned god gave a curse to him it's found in genesis 319 he said in the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground for out of it you were taken for dust you are and to dust you shall return ecclesiastes earlier said in chapter three verse 20 I'll go to one place all are from the dust and I'll return to dust so the body is pictured as being planted it deteriorates but the spirit comes before God that's why Hebrews 9 27 is important to remember it is appointed and to meant to die once and after this judgment and so we need to remember that according to Romans 14 12 each of us shall give account of himself to God and so he's pointing that out he's saying your body will die ultimately it deteriorates it goes back to the dust dust to dust and the spirit will return to God who gave it and so we need to be aware of the fact that we will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ we all will be given an account of ourselves in one form or another when we stand before the judgment seat of Christ as believers we stand to receive rewards but those who stand before God without Christ stand to receive judgment so each of us need to understand that our life when we're young seems to be like it's going to go on forever as you grow older you begin to see the symptoms of age and become aware of the fact that one of these days you're going to close your eyes for the very last time and because that's true we need to be prepared for that inevitable time when we will die we have to be aware of that now that's not something that we like to talk about as a matter of fact is something that people do their very best to avoid talking about but the fact is that the everybody who lives ultimately is going to die it's a one by one ratio everybody's going to die unless the rapture takes place and we're going to be with the Lord which I anticipate and look forward to very much but in the event that I should go home before the Lord I should die before the Lord returns then they're going to plant my body in the ground that's what's going to happen and the dust returns to dust the Spirit goes to the God who gave it and because I will see him face to face I need to be prepared for that because I one day will see him I need to be ready for that and that's what Solomon is warning us about he's saying listen just look at yourself look at your body look at the things that you once could do and what you cannot do any longer think about how hard it could be even just to get up in the morning climb out of bed and get yourself ready to go to work think about how tired you're getting think about how you used to get up early and stay out late and you could you know you could cut yourself you could slice yourself and just watch yourself heal when you are young and now it seems like you never you ask yourself where did I get that bruise from how that happened how can my how come I can't tie my shoes anymore and you start asking yourself these questions because it's true it all happens that happens and he says you got to be ready should the Lord give you the length of days that you want these are the things that you're it's not like we're getting younger every day and as as depressing as that can be to some people it's a fact and Solomon knows that he knows what it's like to be young he knows what it's like to be middle-aged and he knows what it's like to be an elderly man and he's saying these are the things I've learned from chapter one all the way to chapter 12 he says I've seen it all I've done it all I've heard the music I've had the feasts I've had the land I've had the business I've had the riches I've had the women I've had everything I've had song I've had wine I've had it all I lived anything I wanted I never denied myself of I could afford anything I wanted I was the richest man I could do anything I wanted but you know what time hits us all it's what he's saying and when you used to get up and just say I'm going to go and do something now you have to plan just getting out of bed okay if you put your left foot out and the swing your right foot you may be able to make it you know that's kind of what you do so remember your creator in the days of your youth plan your life accordingly I've I've talked to younger people recently about certain things and and one of the things I've been saying to younger people and I'll say to this group here there's some younger ones in here too I said should the Lord tarry should the Lord tarry and you get to the age of retirement are you prepared are you prepared because even as a young person I've said you need to get into the habit of living on less than you make you need to get into the habit of putting something aside money that you're not going to touch for any reason at all money that will go into your retirement account because if you don't do that now and you start too late you may not be able to make it on the social security that you're going to gain when you should start taking it I have a friend of mine who didn't begin to prepare for retirement until he was 60 years old 60 years old you need to prepare you need to put some put something away your youth is not guaranteed and your health isn't either you need to be responsible with your finances you need to be careful not to be living on a paycheck that you haven't even drawn yet you need to be careful that you don't take your credit cards and just charge them up and because you're going to be able to pay them off because ultimately you've discovered that at the lowest rate that you're paying you will pay for something over and over and over again through the course of a lifetime you can stay paying on the same object for eight five eight five ten eight eighteen years you can do that because the interest that you have if you're only making minimum payments you will pay for a long time for something you forget you bought in a few years be careful take some money out of your check put it away don't use it used to call it saving for a rainy day now it's just saving to live later on but see a lot of people don't do that what a lot of people do is they really assume that they're always going to be healthy they assume that they're always going to have strength they assume they're always going to have a job they're always going to be able to and that's just not true it's not it's not guaranteed to anyone I remember the first house that I bought I remember the first house my dad and now we're talking and and my house payment for my first house was five hundred dollars a month and and I and I thought because I was making five dollars an hour and I thought man this is you know that term house poor I thought man you know I'm all I'm going to have is a house that's all I'm going to have and my dad said to me son there's going to be a day when you think that five hundred dollars a month was cheap well I'm in that day now but I said I hope I never see that day dad because my wife and I had just gotten out of an apartment that we were spending a hundred and seventy five dollars a month for see so everything just continued through inflation to be where it is right now and I if you'd have told me that you couldn't buy a house in chino for less than four hundred plus thousand dollars if you'd have told me that 30 years ago I just said you're nuts are you kidding me in a house in chino for almost half a million dollars or more you've got to be kidding me you know but that's true now isn't it you can find a home now in and I love the city of chino by the way it's a great city but I never would have thought that you would get a two or three bedroom house because a hundred thousand dollar house when I was a kid was like a mansion so the idea of preparing a lot of people haven't really gotten into that put something away prepare for the future be aware of the fact but not only materially but invest spiritually remember now in your days of youth your creator because God could be working in your life and making you mature and strong and wise in his ways and you can become an elder to somebody who needs instruction because you've been faithful in the word of God and if you start young you're adding on to that every day through your reading and your prayer and your fellowship and your service to God and all the other things that pertain to discipled life and what happens is you live a life that is blessed and though your body does deteriorate and though you do have that time when you may be stupid and when you're not as strong as you used to be and all of those things you're prepared to see the Lord because ultimately we will see him everyone's going to stand before him every knee will bow every tongue will confess the Christ is Lord so we need to be prepared now start now in your preparation because the future is now and that's something to be aware of to be aware of he says in verse 8 vanity of vanity he says to preacher all is vanity so after 12 chapters of writing he returns to how he opened the book he had said that in chapter 1 verse 2 after many years of life Solomon had learned deep lessons after experiencing every form of pleasure and possessing great wisdom he says it all sums up in these words it's vanity everything under the sun holds promises that are never fulfilled and so he concludes in verse 9 moreover because the preacher was wise he still taught the people knowledge yes he pondered and sought out and said in order many proverbs the preacher sought to find acceptable words and what was written was upright words of truth the words of the wise are like goats the words of scholars are like well-driven nails given by one shepherd and further my son be admonished by these of making many books there's no end and much study is wearisome to the flesh as a wise teacher desiring to impart knowledge he says I remained a student and as a student he thought through what he encountered and he would continue seeking further instruction because he desired to find acceptable grace-filled words and wanted to communicate the truth one of the things that I'm discovering as I am growing older also is that I have a deeper hunger for more of the things of the Lord than even when I was younger I want to know more I want to have more insight in all and that's basically what he's saying he says he pondered and sought out said in order many proverbs he sought to find acceptable words and what was written was upright words of truth he wanted to communicate the things that he was learning and to be proper as he did it and he speaks of the words of the wise being like goads they're goads they're like well-driven nails he said because they've been inspired they're inspired by that great shepherd and then he says in verse 12 and further my son be admonished by these of making many books there's no end much study is wearisome to the flesh and that's true I can't even imagine how many books are on the face of the earth but going to any library and you'll see thousands and thousands of volumes and many pastors have hundreds of volumes sometimes even thousands of volumes you know I had a friend of mine Steve Mays and Steve Mays was well known for his personal library which he had thousands of volumes of books thousands of them an entire room with shelves that were eight feet to nine feet tall with books and in the writing of books and the making of books there's no end there's there's so many books and so many things that have been written so you can pursue intellectual knowledge but you're going to discover it doesn't produce wisdom there are more books than you can ever read and studying them only makes you tired why is that? well it's because if you're only written if you're only reading books written with man's knowledge and man's wisdom well man's education only produces arrogance and it also produces the dryness of spirit and the more you learned the more ignorant you realize you are and that's a fact the more you know the more you know that you don't know if I will because when I was a freshman in college I knew more than my professors but after two or three years I realized how little I knew because the more you study the more you realize there are things you've never even thought of and I remember my pastor Chuck who has forgotten he had forgotten more than I had ever learned and there there are times that I had a young man who a while back now had said some things somewhat insulting to me and I was sharing with a pastor friend of mine and I said yeah this fella had said such and so and he laughed and he said you have bibles older than he is and I said you know that's true I never thought of it that way the longer that you live the more you realize you don't know it's the younger people it was me as a younger person it's a trait of a younger person to think they already know everything so what do you do you start to read and you start to study because you want to have information but after a while you realize this doesn't fulfill me there's only one thing that does and this sounds very very basic and it really is not to say that we shouldn't read because we should not to say we shouldn't go to school because they think if the Lord puts it on your heart to learn then you should of course but one thing I've discovered that the only true knowledge is Jesus Christ that's that really is and all that he's given to us in his word and that that is what's given me life it's the words that come from Christ and so you can have worldly wisdom and you can be respected by everybody but the true knowledge is of God it's through Jesus Christ and so he says in verse 13 let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter fear God and keep his commandments for this is man's all God will bring every work into judgment including every secret thing whether good or evil fear God because that's what we've been created to do ultimately we stand before him so be prepared for that day Psalm 44 21 reads would not God search this out he knows the secrets of the heart in Romans 2 16 God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel but we think we're hiding from God he sees very clearly he sees it all he sees it all so live openly before him live openly before men and if there's any word that he has after 12 chapters it's fear God keep his commandments this is God's all because in knowing him you know everything you need to know fear God keep his commandments


Well, hello there, my beautiful lovely internet friends. Welcome back to my channel. My nubbin on the table is not like a gimmick This is genuinely how I sit whenever I have something in front of me because it relieves a lot of pressure from my hips for whatever reason So this is what we're working with today first and foremost the main topic of today's video is a pretty heavy one Check the description down below for a content warning. This is a topic I'm very passionate about and I believe needs to be spoken about but it's not gonna be for everyone and has the possibility of making your day a little more gloomy but secondly I have a very large announcement a project that I have been working on for months in the background with one of my good friends that I am So excited to finally introduce to you to finally show you guys to get you involved No, it's not merch or anything you're buying or anything like that all the details are at the end if you're interested What we're talking about today is a bit of a blast to the past not many of you know this But when I first started on YouTube, it was not Footless Joe It was a channel called Trauma Talk where I talked about figuring out how to live again dealing with PTSD after a number of sexual assaults that occurred to me how that sort of fractured who I was and the Process of like coming alive again and figuring out how to live But the way that our society deals with subjects like sexual assault Still has a lot of really big problems in it And I don't think that there is a better way to possibly illustrate that than the way that a very large and well-known YouTube creator Responded to the allegations of a lot of people saying that Russell Brand had assaulted or used them So you may be familiar with this creator's face if you also spend maybe too much time on the internet Just pearly things I have been aware of Hannah for quite some time You may know her for hits such as women are too stupid to vote Maybe she just said women shouldn't vote. I'll fact-check myself on that one She's like the anti-feminist of social media and has just found a way to make money by pandering to a very specific Community of men online doesn't matter if I think that's sincere or not Her words still matter because she has millions of viewers tuning in to listen to her here are some highlights from her interview on Pierce Morgan super big name This is all very mainstream and also from her podcast about the allegations against Russell Brand Russell Brand has had a ton of accusers come out against him and it's always the same thing It's like ten years later these chicks that had consensual relationships Convince themselves that they were I mean, I'll give you guys like Six months to report it. If you don't report it within six months. I where is the confusion? How do you not know if you were assaulted? What that means is feminists got in their ear and convinced them that it was Well, and you're telling me that a guy that has women throwing themselves at him 24-7 had to rip somebody that doesn't make sense to me.  Okay, I'll give you six months. Well. Thank you so much for your generous Time-offer pearl. That's not how this stuff works, unfortunately the first thing that becomes abundantly clear is that pearl has a great deal of ignorance on the topic of victims of sexual assault and abuse it is Incredibly common for it to even take years before a victim of this type of crime Comes forward even to like trusted people in their lives about what has occurred let alone authorities the reporting rate for sexual crimes Is very low and it is very common for it to come years and years later now in the vast Majority of cases. This is not because someone has been convinced or they talked themselves into no something really did happen I should totally ruin my life by bringing this public accusation forward I should totally re-traumatize myself and Absolutely destroy my life by bringing this thing forward and being publicly crucified for it It's because oftentimes it takes our brains that long to understand what has actually occurred So I'm gonna be sharing some of my own personal experience in this when I was I did report It two weeks later my experience with our legal system Was very traumatic no justice was served coming forward to the police was a very bad experience for me It took me two weeks of being in shock and being like there But there's no way this person that I love that I care about that I've spent almost a year of my life with There's no way that they would actually do that like that couldn't that couldn't happen to me there This is a misunderstanding. I'm overdramatic. I'm overreacting. Hi, it's editing Joe here quick note One of the biggest factors in my head for not coming forward sooner was also that I didn't want to ruin his life Yes, you know, he did this thing against me, but I don't want to ruin his life over it There was a lot of motivation to protect this person that I loved and cared about even though they did this atrocious thing And that's also a really common response It took me two weeks to come forward go to the police start that process And then it was a process of years of therapy to work through that to understand that there was still so much There's no way that could have really happened right because it is so mind-blowing that that kind of a violation can occur and additionally realizing that someone can truly Take control of you that that kind of violation can occur it can oftentimes be easier for our brains to believe Hey, that was my fault. I misunderstood. I did something wrong Yeah, this horrific thing happened and everything in my body says that wasn't good, but it's not that big of a deal I forget if I've ever actually talked about this publicly or not. So here we go That was not the first time that had occurred to me There was another time and that was never reported to police because it took me seven years talking about this kind of stuff of speaking about it publicly of being invited to give speeches places about Surviving so it took me seven years of being in therapy to work through something else to realize that yeah I did say no and no and no and no and then eventually I just shut up But I'm sure that was like that was giving consent because I didn't like keep saying no I just shut up like I had all of the pieces in front of me knowing I said no verbally many times and then just going numb and dead And cold and silent that's not consent and I know that I would never think that is consent for somebody else But I could not believe that that is what had really occurred that that was the level of violation that that was also If you do any research at all you will find the majority of the time It takes people a long time to come forward because of how our brains respond to trauma I'm gonna put some resources in the description down below so you can continue to do your own research on this and hey Pearl if you're seeing this video I would love it if you check out those resources so you can be more informed and giving your opinions to your millions of followers and perhaps Not spreading super harmful misinformation the second thing my blood pressure was already spiked at this point But but the second thing that she said that kind of sent me over the edge was you know these men are rich and powerful They don't need to anybody women are throwing themselves at them all the time You know it's such a trope It's such a trope now for women to come forward years after the fact and accuse these poor poor innocent people of these things Does that happen? Yes, absolutely that has occurred. Does that happen commonly? No, absolutely It does not please go look at the research and statistics the idea that this kind of crime that sexual violation is about sex It's understandable that someone would come to that conclusion right like that's the point of the crime Except that it's not sexual assault is not Primarily about sexual gratification. It is about power and control these men don't need to take sex from anyone You know they could they could have anyone that they want It's a very ignorant statement to make because it is common for people in positions of power and authority Unfortunately to weaponize that power and control we just start to see this trope too many times where men that are rich and famous Get women that falsely accuse them of Stuff that happened years ago, and it all and it just seems like a bitter X And it's not a trope that women and let's be really clear on this people in general because this is not a gendered issue Yes statistically more women experience Cool crimes than men do but if you look into it The numbers are not that different and it is even harder for men to come forward about this kind of stuff Which breaks my heart because knowing what it was like as a woman It was horrific if anything it's like an exhausting old story that it's people in power who continue to take advantage of people What that means is feminists got in their ear and convinced them that it was assault They've expanded the definition of all of these words to make them subjective for example abuse is now emotional abuse now There's financial abuse, so they expand the definition so much that we don't even know What it is anymore like I said Pearl is kind of like the anti-feminist So it does not surprise me that she's bringing up feminism as the reason why people are convincing themselves that they were I think that is a very ignorant way of looking at things but throughout the rest of the video She talks about you know feminists have made up things like emotional abuse and made up things like financial abuse You do know those are real things right those are things that occur we have words for them now She talks about you know abuse used to be when a man would hit a woman and now it's all these other Yes, it is all of these other things because there's not just one form of abuse There's not one way that always occurs it is nuanced and I don't I don't think that that is that radical of a concept to understand When I hear people who don't seem to know what they're talking about talking about victims of soul They seem to think that that person who has been victimized should behave as if they are someone Who has not just underwent trauma there are changes in your brain that occur There are neurological physiological things that happen when you experience severe trauma like this and so often the Expectation that is placed on victims is to behave in a very specific rational logical Normal way when you have gone through something like this it changes you there are parts of you that just shut down when you talk about physical violation of physical violence of this magnitude it is such an outdated and Willfully ignorant position to take well that if it really happened He would just come forward to the police and he would just say it immediately and he would seek help because we know from years Understanding how this works that is not how this works You're not gonna think and behave in the same way as someone who hasn't experienced those things I feel like that is a pretty easy thing to understand and yet we continue to have these conversations and when I listen to Pearl honey You're the reason why It was so damn difficult to come forward and when when you're there absolutely I hope people who will believe you there were people who believed me those people were life-changing for me There are also a lot of people who will not believe you who will blame you for it We'll say horrific things about you that just Retraumatize what you've already experienced even very well-meaning people well-meaning people in my life said some pretty Horrific shit to me about what occurred let alone the people who didn't know me let alone Talking about this publicly years later on the internet with my first channel Trauma talk like I remember releasing a video here about getting a restraining order and what that process was like this video came out like years ago And I knew what the comment section was gonna be and I was not disappointed Well, I was like deeply disappointed, but I wasn't naming names. I wasn't calling anyone out I was talking about what my experience of getting restraining order against someone who had raped me was like and I got comment after comment calling Me a whore calling me a liar saying this never happened to you as if they know anything about my life was it I wasn't accusing anyone in particular. It wasn't a public figure I was just sharing my experiences and I just had a litany of comments about what a lying sack of shit and a Slut and like that is also what you very Unfortunately have to expect if you're coming forward with with these kinds of allegations and honestly This is the downside of living a super promiscuous life for men is that they become rich and successful later and all their ex-girlfriends Magically believe that now they were abused seemingly often when a story breaks about a celebrity or a politician Being accused of something like this generally not one Accusation right like oftentimes it'll be one and then three and then seven and twelve the stories kind of multiply and people look at that and Squint their eyes like oh, that's clearly people are lying for attention for money because of media conspiracies Whatever one of the reasons why when someone brings an accusation forward other people tend to also begin telling their stories Is because you realize oh my god, I'm not alone I wasn't crazy that thing really did happen to me and maybe I've tried to bury it down Maybe I've tried to forget about it But I'm seeing that this person who hurt me also hurt another person There is strength in community in numbers in coming forward together for me the most dangerous thing about Being a victim of this kind of a crime was the intense isolation that I felt so isolated from anything in everyone I thought that the stuff that I was feeling there's no way anyone else could feel that but when I began Talking about it and connecting with people and realizing. Oh, it's it's not just me That is the thing that saved my life So when you see people coming forward with their stories after someone else has spoken up that makes perfect sense to me Psychologically and that dear friends leads me into the big announcement something I'm very excited and anxious to share with you and I invite you to join us live all the information is on Screen also in the description, but I'm starting a podcast with my best friend now I know I know I know every youtuber has a podcast, right? This was inevitable, but one of my very best friends Aaron from life of Palos you guys might be familiar with him He's also a youtuber here, but he and I have been besties in real life for like five years now We are starting a live streaming podcast called turbo dude.  Okay, we're gonna be talking about subjects not about amputation gender Relationships dating marriage topics like this like the stuff I just talked about today with Pearl There is a very large community of people online It's called like red pill community content think people like just pearly things and or take fresh and fit the whatever podcast That are talking about what I believe are things that need to be discussed because our society is not doing a great job Teaching people how to connect how to date how to have conversations about healthy relationships There's this big push for traditional values traditional marriage We need to go backwards because going forwards isn't working for us what it means to be a woman What it means to be a man everything in between and this is stuff that is fascinating me for years And so we are starting a weekly live stream podcast right here on my YouTube channel We're gonna be bringing in a panel of guests to talk with us every week Aaron and I had conversations about this kind of stuff for years and we weren't seeing a lot of good Public discourse that wasn't from the red pill community About these topics like a lack of perhaps a more moderate and nuanced and calm Perspective I also think we're both pretty level headed that we'll be able to talk to people I hope so who like very much disagree with us and to have a civilized conversation about them. Yeah Yeah, a little bit of class. Yeah I was really about to say that I was like Hopefully some class to this space because I do feel like it is lacking a little bit And so that is what we are striving to bring like I said details up above and down below and I can't wait to see you there So join us tonight live. This is a live streamed podcast It took so long to get the equipment right for this guy neither one of us have any background So I never go live with stuff. So this is kind of a big departure from normal. It's true I never go. You don't I don't but I'm ready. So join us tonight Pacific which is nine o'clock Eastern And I'm also very excited to share with you more of who I am as a full person because for like five years now I've created content around amputation disability mental health grief trauma, you know little things like that But it's mostly been about my life as an amputee. The reality is that is like that's a portion of my life That is not what I spent the majority of my time thinking about or what defines me as a human being So I'm very I'm so looking forward to hearing other people's opinions to sharing mine to be able to show you guys 31 who is interested more of who I am as a person and not just as an amputee because I am actually a person True story didn't know if you knew that. Thank you for joining me for today's video and this announcement Stay tuned for my next video where I'm gonna be watching people blow up prosthetic sockets to all my patrons over on patreon Thank you so much for your continued support and to you my dear viewer Thank you so much for spending a few minutes out of your day here with me today You could be anywhere else in the world doing anything else But you chose to hang out and chat with me for a few minutes and I truly appreciate that I love you guys. I'm thinking about you and I will see you in the next video. Bye guys


Live from San Francisco, it's theCUBE. Covering Oracle Open World 2016. Brought to you by Oracle. Now, here's your host, John Furrier and Peter Burris. San Francisco, for Oracle Open World, this is Silicon Angles theCUBE, it's our flagship program. Where we go out to the events and extract the symphonoids with the number one live broadcasting at tech events. Here also CNBC and Bloomberg, a little bake-off. I'm John Furrier, my co-host, Peter Burris. Our next guest is Yazdala, who's the head of HCM Cloud in Asia Pacific, otherwise known as APAC, welcome to theCUBE. Thank you very much, guys. So thanks for coming on, I really appreciate it, because one of the things that we always talk about is the global landscape of IT and the globalization now is certainly impacting many things. On the cloud side, it's highly impactful. Regions, availability zones, things of that nature become part of a new infrastructure being developed. But APAC, in particular, China is the big elephant in the room there, is that the dynamics are different. High adoption of mobile, high adoption of cloud native, means the whole on-prem thing is not so much legacy, it's really growing differently. This teases out the global trend around what users want. They want content, they want stuff in format that they're used to, in this case, mobile. Can you share, take a minute to share the context of what HCM does, and how do you take HCM and make it mobile and cloud native? So I think that you touched on a bunch of really good things there and Asia Pacific, and when we're sitting here in the US we don't realize sometimes how massive it is and how diverse the cultures are. We have six separate regions in Asia Pacific, and you've got China up in the North, you've got India in the Southwest, they couldn't be more different. The, I think a couple of interesting things. One, HCM as a concept is relatively new in Asia Pacific, even amongst large companies, and so the idea that they've got to provide a separate set of services, software solution for their employees. Large companies will get it, especially the multinationals, but some of the regional players have never really thought about why they need to move from Excel to something that's more regimented. The other piece of it is that technology-wise, and almost all of those markets, the populations have leapfrogged, right? That's why their mobile is so much more advanced than ours because they didn't have an interim period. They went straight from landline to smart feature phones to smart phones. High speed internet too, big boom. Absolutely, I live in Singapore, I only am accustomed to 4G, like that's my norm.  My signal drops roughly. So they're way ahead of the game in that regard. What's also interesting is because of that leapfrog effect, if you look at cloud adoption overall for us in APAC, more than half of our new customers are new. They've either never used Oracle before, in some cases they've never used enterprise software before, and they're going straight to the cloud. So they don't have a legacy issue of having to migrate from an on-premise environment to cloud, they're going straight from whatever their in-house system was to whatever's the most modern thing that we can offer, right? So that's a huge piece of it. The other piece that you touched on, which is a huge focus for us, is the concept of employee experience. CMOs have known this forever, that customer experience is paramount. If I could provide you a strong experience as a customer, you're more likely to buy. Employers, especially in Asia, are just kind of coming onto this, that if I could provide my employees with a really good work experience, they'll stay. They'll be more engaged, they'll be more productive. I'll make more money as a business as a result. And they'll be better to their customers. And they'll be better to their customers. Those are all statistically true, right? It's like 68% better customer service if you have engaged employees. So they're just kind of coming into that. There's cultural issues that have prevented them from really adopting that in the past. And so having the ability to look at technology to enable that, right? If you've got a platform that is your people platform, forget about human capital management, something that all your people use, and that you can use to help your people drive a new culture and new behavior. That idea is new to them, but that's what's really taking off. It's also kind of new to everybody in many respects. We've talked about it for years, but it never has quite matured the way we hoped it might. It still looks a lot like HR. Are you an employee? What benefits do you have? As opposed to we're really developing our people here strategically. Now, one of the things that Oracle is starting to do, and John and I were talking about this in the initial segment, is the idea that while Oracle's cloud announcements talking about bare metal, it's really its relationship with its customers through applications that are probably going to be a significant advantage in this whole evolution of the industry. Oracle's starting to bring people on board who understand those horizontal functions and use them as a vehicle for reaching out to specific classes of customers. Talk to us about it. That's a great point. And actually, I'm an example of that, right? So I've been with Oracle for about a year now. I don't come from big enterprise software as a background. I've been working in the HR domain for 20 years, always in HR services, but I think what Oracle is doing more and more, and I'm not the only example of this, is to find people and leaders who can come into the organization and be transformative, not just on the product perspective, but in the way we go to market. How do we talk to our customers? How do we stop selling technology to tech people and start selling people management to the HR leadership? How do we sell the employee experience to the people who are responsible for providing a strong employee experience in their companies? So that's a key piece of it. And you know, the other piece is volume-wise. You don't realize in a consumer world we're used to huge numbers now, right? I think Facebook has 1. something billion users per month and WhatsApp the same thing. Instagram the same thing. In an enterprise software world, especially at Oracle, we don't have billions of users, but I'll give you an example in Oracle HCM Cloud globally, we have 15 million employees of our clients using and interacting with our platform every day, right? And a crazy number, if I can give a big one, because everything that we do has a social and collaboration tool built into it, we are transacting I think 2.8 trillion social transactions per day on our platform. 2.8 trillion per day. 2.8 trillion. So think about that, because social and collaboration is built into every aspect of our cloud apps, every time you want to take an action, it's always going to be easier, just like in your normal life, to share it as a message, right? Rather than enter a document into someone's personnel file, you just add a quick note and you can do it from your mobile phone. So, and that's what's changing the behavior. It brings up the user experience and brings up another aspect called developers, right? So, one, social brings that organic data set, which was traditionally a top-down software model. That's right. Right, so okay, reports come in, evaluations, whatever, classic forms, a database. Now you have all kinds of new data coming in. That combined with the fact that developers are now part of it, where new features can be developed. We saw Larry Ellison doing the chat bot on stage. Again, it's kind of a sexy demo, he did business cards, I made a joke on Twitter, oh, who needs business cards? The world finds you these days, but people got a laugh out of that, but the point is that's one random example of someone could build the best how to get new business cards apps on the planet, and that might not come from Oracle. So, how do you guys enable this developer in HCM to be extensible? So, I'll give you an example, right? The challenge for us product-wise is how do we keep up with the same pace of change that we see in consumer technology, right? This is always going to be a challenge, but it's a goal for us. So, I'll give you an example. If we know that your phone has a million features on it that allow you to have a camera take pictures, also enter data, also save, also access the internet, right? Then when you come back from this conference, why shouldn't you be able to scan your receipts into an expense system with your phone? And why shouldn't it use optical character resolution to then immediately import all the data from that receipt, right? That, our product does that today. So, this is an example of us trying to keep up with consumer technology. To your point, how do we take that further? And in APAC, where we have 25 plus countries that we're working in, how do we then localize it to the individual markets? And that's where we want our partners and our developers to step up, right? So that they can start creating templates that can be used for multiple clients, not just for one. You see that as core of the strategy. Absolutely, it's one of the strong elements of the strategy, because if there's a solution to a problem that we have in Thailand and one of our partners has solved it, that's a template that they should be able to load up to the Oracle Store, the Oracle App Store. So localization, can't ask the localization question without being in Europe. You got to know that Europe, Asia, Pacific, how do you guys deal with that? Because China's China and you have other growing areas, like you mentioned Thailand, it's loading, it's mobile. So there's a few key things that are intrinsic for us. One is language, obviously. And so from a language perspective, our mission is to have as many languages as possible. We grow as our customer base grows, right? So we don't have every language in the world yet, but as we get to critical mass in certain markets, that's definitely becomes part of the roadmap. The second piece is regulatory. So we need to be abreast and in line with all of the data sovereignty laws and rules. We have to be in line with all the HR practices and regulations, they vary dramatically by country in Europe and Asia Pacific. And so that's also key to our development cycle. We're never going to release something that's not in line with the market where we play. Talk about the kind of scale customers get, because one of the benefits of cloud is that you have the same software that could run for a mom and pop, small, medium-sized business and large enterprise. Yet you guys have a nice ratchet, I will say. I guess that's a word to use. Way to variably charge for more usage, but ultimately the benefits of the customer is what, the same software? That's what Mark Herd was talking about this morning, which is that on its own, cloud being cheaper is an excellent reason to move to the cloud, but that's not even the most important part of it. Because it's a subscription-based service, because we charge per user per month, because we ramp, we grow as our clients grow. We have, in Hong Kong, one of the world's largest banks is using some of our tools. At the same time, using the same tools is a textile manufacturer, a clothing manufacturer in Bangladesh that makes our t-shirts for sale in America, right? Using the exact same product. So if a banker is making a million dollars a year in Hong Kong or London, is using the same product that someone who works at a sewing machine all day long, to me, that's democratization of the solution. They're paying a similar price point, they're getting the same product. They may not use it to the same robust effect, but that's their choice. Final question, what could customers outside of Asia Pacific learn from some of the trends in Asia Pacific? That would translate. I mean, obviously cloud native is a trend you're seeing here. Again, Peter and I were talking about it with Matt Eastwood. The customers have to change how fast they can change will be a function of getting out of their own way, if you will. But if you could take a data point away from the Asia Pacific success, is there things you could point out that? Absolutely. So in North America, we love to talk about mobile first. Oh, we've got a mobile first design philosophy or companies will talk about how they're only going to build an app. They're not even going to build the desktop version. In APAC, that phrase doesn't exist. Everything is mobile first. People don't own desktops. It's a tablet and phone environment. I've seen a 14-year-old girl in a food court holding like an iPad mini up to her ear, because that's her phone. The behaviors are completely different. They're living in some sort of futuristic world of 4G everywhere, even underground. And I use a seven-inch screen as my telephone. Everything in Asia is about mobile first. And WeChat is a huge driver of that. It's something that we don't even talk about in the US. WeChat is, if they could get away with it in the US, they would do it. Foursquare and Messenger and WhatsApp and YouTube and Econ platform and everything, Tinder rolled into one as one app. And it is the de facto platform, especially in the Chinese speaking world, that everyone's using. If you aren't adapted to that, adapted to that, we integrate well with WeChat. You're missing the boat. Some of the things we talk about on theCUBE all the time, it seems, sometimes things seem weird now. Like people holding an iPad up to take a video at a theater or a movie or a concert. But now, can you imagine how weird it will get with virtual reality? We're gonna be walking around with headsets. People are gonna be walking around looking like this. We're already seeing that with Facebook 360. Yeah, and with all the drone stuff, a lot of companies getting started around the self-driving cars, what you can bump into.  I mean, is that, is any of that going on in Asia right now? The virtual reality stuff kicking up pretty strong? So we are seeing a lot of adoption of, just anecdotally, I can tell you, living in Singapore, I've seen people flying drones in morning, noon, and night. Pokemon Go is epidemic, as they say. But, you know, bringing it back to HR, Pokemon Go is a great example of this, right? We were just talking about this at an event a few weeks ago. You're right, walking around mindlessly looking down at our screen is becoming a new normal, unfortunately, I think there's some safety concerns there. But, put it in an HR context. If your first day of work, maybe you work at a bring-your-own-device company, maybe you don't, they slide a phone over to you and they say, open the app. They'll see you in four hours, your onboarding begins now, and you pick it up. And now you're in a Pokemon Go environment, but instead of catching all those weird animals, you're trying to find your next meeting, right? And so you've got an interactive 3D map of your office and it says, now go find the benefits guy. Now go find the person who's going to be your onboarding buddy. It's like conference space. Go chase the surge for the conference room. Just opened up. Exactly, exactly. I mean, but this is the new software model. This is not a top-down driven. It's really thinking about the user experience at the center of it. For us, a huge push is what can we learn from consumer marketing? What can we learn from consumer and customer experience and bring that to the employee experience? Because their expectation is to have at work what they have at home. All right, final, final question. What is the biggest change in HCM that people aren't talking about that's on the horizon or happening now? It is on the horizon. We are starting to implement pieces of it, but I think health and wellness is a key piece. And I think especially in a health cost market like the U.S., where every company wants to reduce their healthcare costs, it'll become huge eventually. But in APAC, where I think adoption is usually a little bit earlier, if somebody wears a Fitbit and somebody uses an HR platform, we integrate with Fitbit, by the way. I don't think it's too far in the future. I also don't think it's far-fetched, even though it sounds big brother.  We know you've got a $2 million deal at three o'clock. Locks. And we want you to calm down. Take a happy pill. But then you take it a step further and you say, so what we've done is we contacted your manager. I've also got the nutritionist on the phone and she has the inventory of your pantry. She's going to recommend what raisins and nuts you need to eat in order to chill. We've got a visualization coach on the other line who's going to bring you to your happy place.  Totally agree with you. In fact, that's one of the reasons why we call, we talk about the internet of things and people. That's right. Where, in many respects, virtual reality becomes an actuator for turning insights from ACM and other things into advice and recommendations and specific guidance for people because at the end of the day, value is still created by people. And you know, everybody has a tendency to look at something like that that sounds dystopic and say, oh, that's the advent of the Borg. That's not what's going to happen. It's always more gradual than that. People are starting to wear smartwatches. They're starting to wear FitBits. We're starting to integrate. All these things will happen gradually and we'll be comfortable with it in a weird way. Yeah, it's great conversation. Peter, that's great to get that research agenda item out that we're doing really relevant to this conversation. It's about the people. It's why we love theCUBE. Interviewing with the best people. Thanks for sharing this great insight about ACM and Asia Pacific. My pleasure. It's nice to meet you guys. At this CUBE live here in Oracle of World in San Francisco on the show floor. Biggest booth in the area. That's the CUBE. We'll be right back with more of this short break.


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Why no contact is not the end of the narcissist You may have tried very hard to make things right with the narcissist You may have been trying to get their attention You may have been texting them all the time, but they just replied with one word answers Or maybe they replied hours later after you texted them It just seems like they weren't interested in you. You couldn't get their attention So eventually You just gave up You stopped trying you stopped texting them you went no contact You decided to move on You focused on yourself Maybe you met someone else Because you spent so much time pursuing the narcissist You spent so much time chasing after them not getting your desired outcome or result You accepted that nothing was going to change Contact is not the end of the narcissist Because once you go no contact It's only a few days or weeks until they come back It's only a few days or weeks until they hoover you Until they start texting you again Until they re-idealize you They love bomb you and now they're giving you compliments They're buying you gifts They're trying to get your attention Which can leave you very confused Because it makes you wonder why would they want you now After you went no contact After you left them alone After you forgot about them and moved on No contact is not the end of the narcissist Because they seek validation They seek reassurance They need attention, but when you're still communicating with the narcissist You're giving them attention You're giving them your time and energy You're making them feel important So they get what they want They get your attention Even if they don't really value it Which is why when you go no contact with the narcissist They suddenly come back When you're giving them lots of attention They don't appreciate it and they already know what you want They know that you just want to solve this situation Which is naturally what they're going to withhold from you Because they don't need anything from you in return Since you've already given them your attention Which they don't value once you've given it to them They're more attracted to you when you withhold your attention When you go no contact They want to come back Rather than when you give them all of your attention Then they just take you for granted They have no interest in making it work with you They play games and cause disruption Because at that point they don't even care Since they've already got your attention Your focus is already on them No contact is not the end of the narcissist Because as soon as you go no contact That's when they come chasing after you They only seem to value you When they think you want nothing to do with them Because they know that they're nothing And they assume that if you want anything to do with them You can't be anything great It's only when you leave and move on with your life That they then realise you have something Because they can't recognise the value in anything they possess They always take it for granted Which is why they're always trying to provoke envy and jealousy within you Because they can only gain satisfaction with what they have By experiencing it by curiously fooling you But when you stop caring about the narcissist That's when they suddenly start worrying about you That's when they suddenly develop this curiosity About what you might be doing without them You may remember a time When the narcissist said or did something And you didn't want to be around them And then suddenly they started pursuing you They were trying to get your attention They were chasing after you Because they were trying to get validation They need your energy They want to know how you feel about them They want to see your reaction And when you're constantly reacting to them And letting them know how you feel They don't want to hear it They have no interest in anything you have to say They will be more focused on themselves and their own lives Whenever you try to get close to the narcissist Or you try to improve your relationship with them They always back away They always have some excuse for why they can't act right They always play games Whenever you tell them how you feel They mock you or ignore you Because deep down they know they don't deserve to be loved They know they're not worthy of it Which is why they cannot accept it So when you try to build anything meaningful with the narcissist When you try to improve the relationship They will back away Or they will cause disruption Because they don't feel comfortable in functional environments They thrive in dysfunction Because a functional environment only reveals their flaws And their inability to experience love or joy Which is why when you try to create a functional environment with them They're only going to tear it apart And then they're going to blame you for everything that went wrong They're going to act like it's because of something that you did When you pursue the narcissist They will run away But as soon as you go no contact They will pursue you When you focus on your life They will come running back But I'm not saying that going no contact is a bad thing You cannot win with the narcissist So your only option is to leave But it's important to be aware of what will happen when you do leave The narcissist may act like they don't care about anything While you are with them But when you go no contact You will see a different side of them Because they cannot deal with rejection So be aware That even though you may have gone no contact with the narcissist It doesn't mean that's the end of the narcissist The end is only the beginning Thank you for watching I hope this video resonated with you Please like Comment Share And subscribe If you would like to donate My PayPal link Is in the video description Couching inquiries You can email me at Couching.com Thank you for watching And I'll talk to you soon