Hi there, lovers! Today, we are talking about... Ooh, glinnis. Uh, glinnis. Unattractiveness. And it should come as no shock that when you Google it and look through all the books, what actually makes people ugly is their personality versus their physical attributes. It isn't until somebody opens their mouth and says... I used to play football against someone in high school. Aren't you kind of small to play football? Some are. Um... I've never been, uh, barista. Do you call yourselves? No. No. I'm half Ecuadorian, Mexican, and Spanish. You must be, like, the richest person in your family, then. I have that. That's weird. That our brain actually makes the final decision and says, Yeah, that person is ugly. In no particular order, the first oogletrate is concededness. Now, concededness is an overinflation of self, of worth, and an emphasis on material value. Now, this is my general rule of thumb. Self-confidence is extremely crucial. So when I walk into a room, I tell myself, You're strong. You're smart. You's important. You are beautiful. You are capable. But Common Sense says, Don't you ever, ever, ever, ever say those things out loud. When you overvalue yourself, they tend to drastically undervalue you. For example, when you go shopping, you see a shirt that you like. Oh, it's like a dope-ass shirt. You pick it up, see that price tag, and then all of a sudden you're like, This plain-ass, born-ass, non-cut, properly-ass, bad-sown-ass shirt. So when we see somebody who, again, puts himself in this pedestal, it makes us want to take our acts out and chop them right on down. This one is actually known as the anti-sex equation, neediness and constantly questioning your importance in other people's lives. Now, a needy person has told themselves that they are not enough and they want to fill that gap with other people's opinion on themselves. So they are constantly on the prowl for attention, affirmation, acceptance, things that we all inherently want, but when desperation is attached to that, it creates the exact opposite effect.  When we're around somebody who needs from us and who wants from us, it creates a repulsion. So in effect, the person who is needy tries harder and that pushes them further and further away from the goal and people. In the spirit of number three, I'm going to keep this one short and sweet. A very ugly quality is wind-begary. Somebody who doesn't have that internal shut-up-up clock. Everyone's favorite topic is themselves. Everyone's favorite question is, what can you do for me? So when we're around somebody who's completely oblivious to that and goes on and on and on about themselves or their interests, it again creates this severe desire to get away from that person and never return. Off the back of that is selfishness, narcissism and cheapness.  Selfishness is about having an obsessive and exclusive concern with one's own needs and desires. Not to be confused with self-fullness, which I actually believe in. And self-fullness comes from Maslow's hierarchy of needs that says, once all of your basic needs are met, you can then look onto the needs of others. Now a selfish person, that staircase never ever finishes. They are constantly trying to get more. And last but not least is grimness. Somebody who lacks luster for life, lacks compassion for others because they fail to see the good in the world. Now a grim person is necessarily a clinically diagnosed depressed person, but just somebody in general who complains a lot. Now if you sense you might be on the grim side, perhaps it's a part of your sense of humor, I would definitely try to be mindful of that. Because while a little bit of self-depreciating humor and negativity and sarcasm can be good, a lot of it can be extremely repulsive. And here is a basic and very simple cure if you do err on the side of grim. Forcing yourself to smile. This creates the exact same endorphins and neurochemicals in the brain to be released. A fake smile is just as good as a real smile.  In addition, it's great facial yoga and prevents wrinkles.  If you have one, I didn't list right down below. So we all get to know and steer clear from that trait. Also, here's where things get fun. I didn't just make this list. I went and tested it out. I went on a first date and I essentially enacted all of these characteristics to see if the person would still want a second date. So this is all a part of Shambudi is your perfect date season two. If you guys recall season one is where I went on 10 first dates without the help of hair makeup and wardrobe to see if I could create 10 strong connections with complete strangers. That season was a massive success. So we went on to season two where every episode I'm trying out a different psychological experiment on the first episode though, which is up right now. I did exactly what we just talked about. I made myself into my date's ideal physical type, which happened to be the actress Priyanka Chopra. But on the flip side, I made myself the opposite of the mental type. I'm half Ecuadorian, Mexican, and Spanish. You must be like the richest person in your family then. That's weird. That's a weird thing to say. Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to make you feel weird. I was the first to go to college. That's amazing. Yeah, that makes sense. I wasn't the first to graduate though. What does that mean? Because I didn't graduate. Oh, okay. Did the weed get in the way of that? So you guys can actually go and watch how this date went down. If you guys recall from season one, the guys on these dates thought they were on a blind date show. They didn't realize that I'm a trained professional and I was there to mess with them in copious amounts of ways. So his reactions were insanely priceless.  It's a streaming service like Netflix or Hulu. In addition, if you are an AT&T customer, you get one year for free. My name is Shanbudi, and I have over 10 years of experience as a sex and relationship educator. Last season, I gave you some universal bonding tips. This season, we're going to try 10 different experiments on 10 different first dates. The question is, which one's going to work for you? You can become someone's ideal match by mimicking their parent. No, looks are not enough alone to make you feel a true connection with someone. I'm Shannon. Nice to meet you. So I'm stroking the bottle, and as I'm doing so naturally, the lemon bursts and squeezes. So juicy. What's your most treasured memory? My divorce. I'm joking. Oh, sorry, I wasn't listening. One more time? I'm sorry, I'm so distracted. This is dating etiquette 101. Pay attention. It's the beauty inside is everything. My hypothesis, 80% of my subjects will say yes to a second date, and 8 out of 10 of my experiments will be a success. I think the experiment's working. Watch closely, and one of these theories will work for you. Let's show you how to be the perfect date. I get it, girl. Oh, yeah, I get it, girl. Yeah, I get it, girl. And if you don't know, I get it, girl.


Hello beautiful souls, welcome back to Art of Awakening and I just want to share something that I'm finding really concerning right now. It's a trend that I think is accelerating online and I feel like it is really, it's a tactic that the quote-unquote dark side uses to control people and to control people's minds and to get us to be in kind of a divided state, right, to pit people against each other, okay, and so I don't go on Facebook very often but I just saw a couple days ago this meme that was posted by a friend of mine and I just want, I just feel the need to call it out. I couldn't find the actual one but it's very similar. We're not coming for their guns but so why are they coming for our birth control? All right so at the face of it, first of all this is meant to be triggering, okay, it's meant to get the emotions up in a tizzy. I am not even going to go into these issues right now because to me the real issue is not these issues, okay. The real issue is that these kinds of things are being used to control and manipulate people and get people into a state of mind that is kind of paranoid and pitted one against each other, okay, so and the tactic I'm talking about is the sound bite, okay, so we're not coming for their guns, why are they coming for our birth to control? Notice what it's doing, first of all it's taking two issues and it's kind of scrambling together without really a lot of logic and second it's pitting us against them, we, they, we, they, it's getting people to identify in these camps these kind of tribal camps and there's absolutely no nuance altogether and and I do want to say you know if this person is watching I'm not trying to call you out and because I know this person is a highly spiritual person doing a lot of really good work in the world and I'm calling this particular one out because it caught my attention but I think this is something that all of us are being exposed to a lot, it is really, really tempting to jump into this kind of way of communicating and I'm sure I'm not exempt either but I feel like it's something that we all need to really start watching for as you know people who are wanting to connect more with the light because when we're, when we jump on these little sound bites what they do is that like they bring us into separation mentality because a sound bite is just that it's a little teeny tiny pixel of an idea, okay and and so we have to be really cognizant of any time there's one of these issues that's polarizing and we're seeing so, so many of them now it's almost impossible to even just go through life or say something that doesn't become polarizing in somebody's mind but what a sound bite does is it takes that polarization and amps it up a lot okay because it takes it out of context and turns it into this little kind of just like you you have to jump on it and take sides it's very dividing it's polarizing and it pits people against each other and this is actually one of the tactics that's used in propaganda and you know also in persuasive writing to try and get people to find that a common enemy with whoever it is that's that's posting so I just want to just call this out because if we want to create more peace in the world we need to create more harmony and in order to create more harmony we have to look at things more holistically we have to be able to see all sides of an issue peace has a lot to do with um creating greater spheres of understanding which requires nuance and what sound bites do is they shred any semblance of nuance it becomes all black and white and you're either uh with me or against me you're on my side or you're not you're an ally or you're an enemy and that's what the world is moving towards right now apparently that may be something that the world needs to go through but I feel in my heart that as lightworkers we're here to rise above that okay we're here to sow the seeds for the world that is to come again this isn't about these issues it's about the bigger issue of what's happening here but if you look at either of these issues that are being called out I guarantee you that if you brought people together that are on opposite sides of both these issues and really started drilling down and really got them in the same room with each other and talking to each other and learning about their hopes their fears their aspirations they would find more in common than that then they have differences and that would be where you could start maybe starting to explore some solutions that actually address the the the root problems that these issues are symptoms of okay because guns are not a root problem and neither is birth control okay and that's true of most things out there we've got all these little tribes that are forming right and and I call it toxic tribalism because it's like you know choosing the sides and then you got to fight and defend that to the death and and that's what we've come down to as a society is like okay choose your stand and then defend it to the death we can see where that's heading right um you know why not choose your stand to the best of your ability based on what you believe to be true and right and then open your eyes and ears and listen to other people's experiences and start to really look at well can I look at this from a different perspective even if it's something you feel especially if it's something you feel really really strongly start listening to them and listen to their rationale and listen to their fears and listen to especially listen to why you know what is it that they're trying to create you know most people are trying to create a better world what does their better world look like and why and you're not going to agree with everything that they say and you shouldn't right okay this isn't about just radical acceptance and whatever okay because right now we need to stand in our truth and we need to set our boundaries and stuff but are you thinking about the boundaries are you testing your own boundaries that's super important we need to be questioning freaking everything okay and that includes our own deeply held beliefs my beliefs have changed so radically as I learned more about um spiritual principles and have gone through some painful experiences um my beliefs have shifted a lot but now I look at my reactions and my beliefs and I can actually back them up okay so whatever you choose it's like what are you backing up and is it just regurgitating what you're seeing through sound bites because if I can tell you if you're just regurgitating sound bites be really careful because that is likely to feed the dark if you're tempted to to post a meme like this or something it's like really look at feel into the energy of it is there anything constructive about what what you know what you're posting if it's a meme or something like that or is it actually going to be fueling enmity fueling hate pushing people apart pushing people into different camps I think it's it's important to talk about these issues we need to talk about them but we need to talk about them in a nuanced way in a way that people can be vulnerable and not get their heads bitten off okay and and that's becoming more and more rare so I feel like as light workers you know addressing these these kinds of issues can we be creative and find ways to hold space and find ways to bring people together and you know even if they don't discuss their differences at least find ways to get people looking at their commonalities okay because once you have really strongly defined commonalities then you can cash through this because we really there's some neighborliness right some brotherly love between us we're never going to get through this without building brotherly love okay so if you're gonna post a meme think about that can you post one that facilitates brotherly love okay you are loved you are not alone you were going to be free


The Jazz Equation, written by Malik Sisei. Characters Gavin, Kiana Frida, Janet. Setting, two locations. The dining room, Gavin's bedroom. This play. The dining room is lit up by lamps who will turn or accent candles. The walls are light brown and tan patterned about the room. Center stage is a large dining table with six chairs. Stage right is the door entrance and upstage center is a door leading to the kitchen. Adjacent to the kitchen door is a replica of Jacob Lawrence's apartment on the wall. Over upstage left is a couple steps leading upstairs. Downstage left is the vinyl collection Two Rows Deep. The vinyl player sits in front of the collection. A large chandelier has been dimly lit for some time. Gavin's bedroom is minimal and will always be set up somewhere near downstage right or moat if large enough. There will be a desk, twin full bed and a corkboard with several postings up. The fourth wall will play as a whiteboard for both spaces. Pro-M, darkness. We hear a loud drag from a woodwind instrument that leads into a heavily energized tune. The instrument is its own band. The solo instrument transforms into a full coal train song as the lights slowly come up on our souls. Silhouetted in the light is Frida Neptune and Gavin Neptune. Their figures are seen but facial expressions are missing. Frida writes on the fourth wall facing the audience. Gavin is writing profusely with a youthful clinging, Frida. What's the answer? Seven. And then? Writing a bit more. 21. There you go. Okay, good challenge. No challenge for me this time. Frida writes, when she finishes, she drops to chalk, wipes her hands and turns around towards Gavin. He struggles with the equation for a moment but then reaches a Eureka. He writes his work down profusely. 16. Three is right, but 16? Wrong, Gavin, come on. Hey, hey now, I taught you better than that. Sorry, mama. It's okay. She walks behind him and rubs his shoulders. She gives him a kiss on the forehead. Just listen for a moment. You hear how he's playing? He's cracking a code, developing a sense of his formula. Then he attacks the score. Listen to Coltrane, listen to him. They listen for a moment. All you need to do is listen to the equation. What's it telling you, honey? Gavin takes a moment. He listens to the music and hits another Eureka, writes aggressively. As this happens, Frida slowly vanishes. 12, it's 12, right? Mama? Mama? He stands and slowly looks about the room. A light reveals Gavin's front. He is alone. Blackout, scene one. Lights come up on the autumn household. Esperanza Spaulding's I Know That You Know plays on vinyl in the background. Janet Autumn is dancing about the space, organizing and cleaning for company.  She wears worn wire glasses with a tan cardigan. She can read the layers of life for each person she comes across. Janet. Mr. Neptune will be here any minute. She hums to the song and grabs a couple of notebooks and pencils to place on the table. The record starts to skip. Don't just say you're coming down. Come on now, Harry. Janet goes to the kitchen as Kiana enters in a dance. Kiana is a sharp, savvy teenager.  She carries her backpack, blasting a hip hop song in her headphones. Janet returns with molasses cookies and white grape juice. She sets the refreshments on the table. She takes a glare at Kiana. Took you long enough. I had to finish my meditation. I told you to finish that earlier. Remember, before your shower, help them earbuds, child. Isn't it too early for cookies? They're from Mr. Neptune. All the teachers filled out a survey of their favorite snacks. Kiana reaches for one, but her hand gets slapped. For Mr. Neptune, but for you. Reaches in her back pocket and takes out a zip lock of cell phone periods. Am I a child, mom? Yes, in fact, you're 16. This is the best age for the most nutrition. Keep a healthy mind. You said this all my life. And it's a fact. It's power food. Powerfully lame. Hey now. Kiana reluctantly takes out a piece of celery. She smizes as she takes a bite. Janet moves to Kiana and begins to rub her shoulders. Now, you remember what I asked of you, right? I will get the work done. You already know it. You need your hands. Now, you know I ain't talking about that. I'm talking about your mouth, running it all through the day, using it to distract. It sounds like I do it on purpose. Takes another bite of celery. Now we know you can solve anything easy, but for this, you need to just show you are able to listen and apply that all Mr. Neptune instructs, okay? So don't mess this up for us by being too bold, Kiana. This is a carefully observed study. To get you brownie points with a school board? You better act right, girl.  After a moment, Janet moves back to comfort Kiana's shoulders. Okay. How about this? You can pick out three records to listen to during class. You're joking, mama.  Excited. Kiana jumps up and runs to the vinyl. She's hands across the piano run. Well, maybe not my Curtis Mayfield or my Aretha. Just aim for something more instrumental, less words, baby. I know exactly which to pick. Kiana swish through the vinyl. She spots a couple and picks them out as she names them. Oh, floor of Purim. Joe Henderson. Kiana has a tough time choosing, but then. Oh! And? As she pulls the record out, letters fall to the floor. Quickly, Janet slides the record back into place. She pulls out a different option. Here, Freddie Hubbard. That's perfect. He puts the letters back into the sleeves. I listen to Skylark all the time. I ain't never listened to that record before. Well, look it up there on spotty. You can listen to it there. Spotty? Yeah, that cloud music your generation listens to. Spotify? You get what I mean, girl. Mama. What you want? Kiana stares at the collection. Janet looks at Kiana cold. Esperanza fills the space. I saw the letters on the records. Why are you so focused on that? Leave that be. Those letters ain't got nothing to do with calculus.  Okay, nothing interesting up there. Well, turn nothing into something. Go on up there. Kiana exits. As she leaves, the record begins to skip.  He takes the record off and places it aside. She examines the stylus. Like you're speaking for yourself or something. Here I come. Janet goes to the door, enters Gavin Neptune. He is a younger man in his late 20s.  He carries grief with him that often gets in the way of his work, but yet he tries to persevere. He enters the space with much enthusiasm. Wow. Hello, Mrs. Miss Autumn, Janet Autumn. No marriages in my lifetime. Miss Autumn, nice to meet you. I wish I could have came a bit sooner, but there were some detours I was unfamiliar with getting here.  Detours teach you a lot about the roads, offer you options just in case. You know, you never know if you need those back streets. Used to have a friend where we treat our love like formulas. Like what's the route to our love? What's the navigation? Are you asking me? Oh, oh, never mind that. Let me take your coat. Ain't it windy out there?  A bit, yeah. Felt like the wind was telling me something. I could feel it brushing my car on the way here. Beautiful house. Thank you, Mr. Neptune. Oh, yeah. I'm sorry I didn't even introduce myself. I know who you are. She rubs Gavin's arms sentimentally. They make eye contact for a moment. Gavin grows confused by the communication, but discovers something. How'd you know? Know what? What do you mean? I thought I loved me some molasses cookies. I was wondering immediately. I just ate a few of them this morning and it was mad I didn't make more. No, white grapefruit juice too? Stop playing. Oh, black women know me best. Yes, we all do. Kiana! Mr. Neptune is waiting for you. Gavin begins to set up his materials, couple textbooks, laptop, journal of notes, and a special set of eraser markers. He looks up and stares at the whiteboard on the fourth wall. Gavin. Interesting. What is that, Mr. Neptune? This whiteboard, it feels real. He rubs the board with a particular care. He feels strength from it, as though a message from his past. He gets leery-eyed and then snaps back. Real familiar. He retreats to his laptop. Janet steps forward as though she wants to say something, but then backs away. What did I say, girl? Janet exits. Alone, Gavin looks up and around him. He takes a journey over to the vinyl. He examines the collection with enjoyment. He then walks over to stare at Jacob Lawrence's apartment painting. He gains admiration on his face, but then remembers a somber memory. Eventually, his eyes move to the whiteboard again. He takes a couple eraser markers and begins to write an equation. Suddenly, Janet returns. She's just finishing breakfast in her room. My mistake. She'll be down soon enough. No worries. I'm quite patient. I just need her to have a new look on the year. She is a very bright young lady and will, you know, she will go to the moon and beyond. I absolutely believe it. I can't agree more. Calculus is a quite high level for a grade, at least in comparison to her peers. It may actually be too easy for her. You should hear her teachers effortless outside the box. Extraordinary. No, academic extraordinaire. Extraordinaire? Wow, which my teacher's called me that. Truth be told, they didn't say that. I'm just hyping my baby up. Speaking of extraordinary, you're one of those prodigies, aren't you? I'm just a labored math as well. Now stop all of that. Us black folk need to walk into our gifts. You have a gift, sir. Don't deny it. You're right. You have a gift. Keanna enters unnoticed. Earbuds back in. She carries an instrument case in a Rubik's cube, almost solved. Well, be wary now. This is a strong-minded one. Master manipulator. She'll try to cry her way out if she has to. Don't fall for it. She here for math, not social. Keanna drops the instrument case near her chair. It spirals Janet and Gavin. This must be Keanna. Yes. This is Keanna. Keanna, introduce yourself. Keanna does a half-ass wave. Janet stares into her soul. Hi, I'm Keanna. She sits and continues to fiddle with the Rubik's cube. Janet pulls an earbud out of Keanna's ear. Nice to meet you, Keanna. Well, I guess it's about that time I get to the school. She grabs her coat and purse. Keanna stands to go place the vinyl on a record player. Peach. Lead, the school board is setting up the fall school drive and setting up the boxes all over the building. Better get there before they give me the bummy cardboard to decorate. Thank you for being here for the next 10 weeks, is it? I was told by the district that I was a temporary sub only till week two. Who told you that? I can trigger the email. Please. Gavin brings up the email to Janet. A moment of reading things over, she becomes agitated.  Janet looks up at Gavin trying to regain some composure. She begins to dial. As that happens, Joe Henderson plays as Keanna returns to her seat. She hums to the tune, visibly annoyed. You ready? Okay, Mr. Neptune is here for you, Keanna. Please give him your undivided attention. As for this mess, I will figure it out today. Class is now in session. Janet exits. Gavin and Keanna have a stare off.  She's just being difficult. Good morning. Morning. Where's the beginning of the year spirit? She stares down his soul. Okay, a Rubik's Cube. My mama said for me to bring out something interesting for Mr. Neptune, you to see, so. She slides a Rubik's Cube across the table to Gavin. That's my interesting thingy. You got a few moves left, though. Yeah, I've been trying to figure it out on my own. No manuals, no videos, just all brain power. I'm stuck on the last bit. Oh, that's quite a challenge here. Let me see. Gavin starts to slowly move the Rubik's Cube in place. Eventually, he picks up the speed and solves the rest. There we go. Oh, I'm... Well, thanks for solving it for me, Mr. Showoff. I'll be sure to stop my year-long process over by redoing everything again. Sorry. It's just muscle memory. You'll pick up everything you did like you've known for years. She stares him down again. He places the Cube down. Can we get on with it? We will, but first, I'd like to get to know you, Miss Keanna Autumn. Gavin begins to walk around the room, takes observation of things he sees about the space. So I hear you are effortless, outside of the box, extraordinary, no, academic extraordinaire. I've heard. That makes you part of a gifted group. Young, black and gifted. That's right. You know you are a prodigy, though. Isn't that the same as gifted? They can play as synonyms, but I think there's a difference. I mean, gifted is that you are above average, better than most. But a prodigy? That means you are exceptional in things that only so many people in the world can achieve. It means you can invent a world-changing piece of technology, recreate policy for United Nations, bring lights to Africa. I mean, anybody can do these things, but a prodigy may have a leg up on making those things live on longer than the average person. I don't wanna do any of those things. Just examples, what would you like to do? Music. Which explains the case under the table. Keanna places the instrument case on the table. That looks more interesting than a plastic cube. I'm so used to it being by my side, I forget it was there. I can see that.  My mom had been having a collection since she was nine years old. Knows jazz and funk like the back of her hand. Study in the case. Saxophone? A soprano.  My daddy. He was a composer, used to play every instrument, at least know how to play each of them. I haven't seen him in years though. Just disappeared and left me lonesome, like they all do. I barely knew my father either. Everybody knew him though, under his alias. I never knew why he was so common to strangers, not in comparison to his own. Maybe he will return someday? Yeah, he's the only parent left and I don't even know.  Beat. Brief enters the room and the music cuts out. As Keanu stands to flip the vinyl, does it himself. You know, Coltrane was a prodigy. He created a whole system just for himself. Coltrane's circle of fizz, based off of the, circle of tones, based off the circle of fizz, but different. He created a better form of looking at music, just to help him play better. Now that's bold, but it worked. Felt like reconstructing language. That man was a giant. He wasn't all that. Uh-oh. Be careful, your mama might slap you for miles away. I know plenty who mastered it better. I mean, Rassan, Roland Kirk, Kamasi, Washington. We listening to Joe Henderson. Yeah, but Joe Coltrane laid the groundwork. And before him, Charles Parker. And so on. Remember those who came before? I guess you're right. Play something for me. I'm not set up. Plus I left my sheet music at school. It's all math, just improvise. Shiana gives in. She takes out the saxophone and sets up the ligature. She's to play, but becomes nervous by Gavin Stair. After a few squeaky notes, she stops. Just not right now. How about we get into that math, huh? I don't get to ask you nothing. Well, I'm open ears. You got a girlfriend? Who wants to know? You're not going to tell me? Well, whoever's asked and should know that it's none of their business. I'm grown enough to know a little bit. Come on, why not? That's the thing. You don't need to know a teacher's personal life, period. You're in my house. Searching up the place at that.  You were asking me up a serum about what I want to do when I grow up. Your questions seem pretty personal to me. There's a fine line. Black men want to get defensive as soon as you ask them a personal question. Excuse me? Come on, the question's harmless. And now we move it on. Let's just start with some questions. He goes to the board and begins to write something. What was your mother like? I have him because he's cold. He sits in one place. I mean, you talk about your daddy, but not. She passed. I'm sorry. What was her name? Frida. Frida Neptune. How'd she? Hey, can we just, not today. Keanu, open your textbook to. We all got to go someday. Why are we so afraid to talk about the end? I mean, you can't just focus. We're grateful. Gavin, count these emotions in the moment. Sorry, Keanu. Really, I am. I just can't talk. Open your textbook to unit 1.1, page 12. I never knew my mother. She opens her textbook. Blackout, scene two. It is the afternoon. Gavin and Keanu have wrapped up the session. Gavin is erasing on the board while Keanu is doing homework, listening to music on her earbuds. Janet stands next to Gavin as he erases. Then I tell them, how dare you think you can casually have private meetings without, including the entire school board first. They think I'm still just a committee member. No, sir. I am your community outreach. Thank you very much. If it wasn't for me, this school wouldn't be. This school wouldn't be but loose plastic in the river. Useless, but also a danger to the ecosystem. But I see now that they are still in a danger. Now, I done dealt with mistrust in my life plenty. I don't need my job to be giving me anxiety like this. They excluded you? I called them and asked about the substitution guidelines for independent study. Now, last week, we had a clear cut meeting about this with the administration. Students would like to choose their teacher. Most of the board thought that decision was difficult, but I objected to the finish. Said these students should find a teacher that they feel comfortable with, understand them deeply to gain a fruitful relationship. And I felt like that was the best way for the students to get the most out of their independent study. I talked to them, asking about why they only put you two weeks when Keanu wanted you as her teacher for the semester. Not no measly old, two weeks. Yeah, I'm going to look back at Keanu. Interesting. What makes you say that? No. Was she acting up? This girl? No, not at all. It's just that. Done. What? Nothing, child.  We got to set up the podcast in a few. Great work today, Keanu. Keanu gives him a menacing stare and then exits. Gavin begins to pack up. You were saying? I don't know. She was real focused today, but her energy is telling me something different. Telling you what? Spit it out, sir? Janet, I don't know if Keanu wants me as her teacher. I know what you're saying now. She does this with all of her teachers at first. A little skepticism, challenging the work, then she'll eventually fall into trusting you. Just takes a bit of time. She's just getting to know you. That's her way. She deals with trust just like me. I know, but I feel she would get used to me at this point, right? Especially given the lack of black teachers alone. I'll ask you this. How can you understand the photos on the wall without knowing who lives in the house? It's the first week, Mr. Neptune. Take it easy. Keanu picked you for a reason. You have to breathe. I guess. Janet's point of views. They both take a few breaths together. The energy shifts. Did that help? It did. My mother used to meditate all the time. Just take your time with it. You can only do so much. At the end of the day, Keanu won't know all there is to know about capitalism from you. It's up to her to find what she'll need it for later in life.  Understand the importance of everything, the brass, the woodwinds, the strings, the percussion. But then you shape the song so you know who is leading what. What is the tone? How is it working cohesively with the band? A composer's work is not easy. You got to practice all the time to find the niche and even respect in some cases. See now, I'll tell you, Keanu, see that girl is a woodwind. You can't tell me otherwise. She is a leading instrument and would need a solo for every song on the list. Every solo? She really is a musician. Been playing since she was real young. We must be proud. All this music here, you'd be surprised if she didn't have any rhythmic bones inside her. It's a collection, 47 years strong. Some you can't even buy in stores anymore. Sure, they get copies online and at certain stores, but ain't nothing better than an original. Originals have a different type of longevity.  And when she passed, I came back home from school. I was making life out there in Austin, but I had to come home to preserve my mother's legacy. The collection taught me a lot about life. Versus his hand across the vinyl? She had a written list of all the records, alphabetically. She didn't trust anybody with that list, except me. When I walked into the house after it was scary, but I felt her legacy so strong, I had to walk inside. I found that list began counting every record so that I knew no one tanked it. She kept all of them there, huh? Yeah, well, except one. Love Supreme. Janet becomes nervous. We hear faint saxophone playing as though in another room. That's the only one. I don't know, I thought she would take that record to the grave. Who knows? Whoever else knew that collection. My theory, somebody named Pluto might know. Pluto, how long's it been? About two years now. Where can I listen? To what? Y'all preparing a podcast. You got episodes out? Oh, of course. Janet searches through her phone to find her podcast. After surfing through, she asks trouble getting there. I don't know. Technology working against me today. You need my help at all? Keana can get me in, I'm sure of it. Keana! Right, she's playing away. Well, let me write it down for you. She's finding people with no card and pencil. She writes down the name. The Empowerment, I call it, yeah. A podcast about our history. Every episode we talk on a moment in history, a record that was released at the time and an art piece that reflected the times. Why didn't you tell me sooner? Never came up. That sounds great. I'll listen tonight while I'm grading. What's the topic on tonight? The Great Migration. Black folk moving up to the North for a better life. Decades of discovering what it meant to be black beyond the institution of slavery. The record we gonna talk on is gospel train. Ever heard of Sister Rosetta Tharp? And then for the arts, I just realized we ain't picked one out yet. Janet's curious about the room and ponders on an idea. Suddenly, she turns around and stares at the painting. Jacob Lawrence, perfect. I ain't did an episode on him yet. Seriously writing things down. Never heard of him before. Well, tune in this week. I got plenty on him, several books. Oh, I'd love to tune in. Mm-hmm. As a matter of fact, I got a copy of The American Struggle upstairs. Let me go grab it for you so you can read it. It won't do no harm to lend it to you. Janet Ed. Gavin takes a moment to glance at the painting. He looks closely and notices something. That's not the only copy of something in this house. The music stops as he continues his journey and immediately engages with the vital. He creates a drum tune from the tapping of his finger to the music. He wonders of the many stories, conjuring and elevations that push off the melodies. With curiosity, he pulls a few out from their places, taking a look at the selection. He is amazed. As he goes further down the collection, he pulls another as letters fall from the collection. Uh-oh. Picks the letters up and begins to place them back. But suddenly, he spots a familiar name of the same biology, Frida Neptune. Gavin builds some anxiety and a sense of confusion. He paces, but then realizes where he is. Gavin puts most back, but keeps a few for himself. He places the letters in his backpack. Kiana enters with the cases for the equipment. Mr. Neptune? Your mother's lending me a book. She's looking for it still. I know. I have it here. She pulls out a Jacob Lawrence book. She slides it across the table. Happy learning. Is that the wrong book? I don't know. It feels like we've, I'm sorry for earlier. Why do you keep apologizing? Right. Gavin exits. Kiana stares at the door. Blackout. Scene three. We hear a melody in the darkness. Light comes up in two places. Janet's living room in Gavin's study. Kiana plays her sax as Janet reads from a script into a microphone. Gavin is grating as he occasionally looks at his backpack. These scenes are happening simultaneously. Janet. So we see at this point the ways in which our desires for freedom evolved. We started to declare a revolt from the confines of enslavement to the migrations that we saw as opportunity beyond America's institutions. Gavin takes a moment to pause on his work. He stares at his backpack. While we still are within the bounds of that institution, we must be thankful for the ancestors who sacrificed, became martyrs, and put their livelihoods at risk to prove there is a chance to become more than what was offered when the first boat hit the shore. Gavin piques with anxiety. After a moment, he resists. He powers his backpack and dissects it for the letters. He mouths Frida Neptune. He rips a letter open and begins to read. He recognizes handwriting all too familiar. Empowerment is tricky, but attainable in a love language. Am I right? If we look hard at history, we will know. At this point, empowerment exists everywhere in life. Our organizations, streets, schools, households, mental health, our babies, our art. Gavin begins to tear up. He catches his tears fall on the page. He rips open another letter for clarity. He reads. Maybe that's what Jacob Lawrence and Sister Rosetta thought were trying to say in their work. Just like those proud generations of freed black folk moving up the country to better themselves, we still are looking to move up. But this time, in the latter toward our secure freedoms, the betterment of who we are, not what we are. Gavin sits in bitterness. He rips open the last letter in his possession. Because who we are is human. Let's not forget that the color of our skin is beautiful and majestic. Whether you consider yourself magical or not, you are power. You have power, like a friend of mine once said. Gavin steers out into the audience as he also mouths. Our time has been here. We all just got to see it together. Until the next time, until the next step, y'all. We-e-m-p-o-w-e-r. Good night. See you. Kiana clicks the space bar to stop the recording. Gavin falls in his desk chair, blackout. Scene four. One week later, back lights come up on a one-syllabetic Kiana and Gavin. The energy is intense as Gavin pushes equations off the board to Kiana. She is exhausted but determined. And this one? 23. Good. Next. Uh, 13? Quick. Next one. Am I getting an interview that's right? Kiana, let's talk more work. What is this one? Uh, I don't know. Eight, I think. You think? Goodness. You sure say goodness a lot. Focus, Kiana. I'm tired. This isn't a competition, is it? Focus. I'm tired. He surrenders. Fine. Let's take a break. Kiana drops her pencil in agony.  Gavin paces in check for time but is overly self-aware. I'm sorry if that was a lot. You still apologizing too much. Isn't this worth apologizing for? Not if you're adding to the fire, you're claying your pen now. I thought you said she would be here in 30 minutes. Is that why you're rushing? Board meetings sometimes go over. There's a lot to do in the fall time. You think it'll be any longer? They wrap up soon over at the school. Why? You might have been delayed to wait. For what? I think it would be more appropriate if I talked with her before we continued. So I'm getting them all wrong. No. Most of your answers were right. Then what, Gavin? It's Mr. Neptune. I would like you to call me that. In awkward pause. Kiana rolls her eyes over to the vinyl. She takes her time to pick out records. Why do you do this? You what? I don't get the hype. Oh, and that math drill didn't do it for you? My mother was an arts curator. The way she worked, she had to do more than just curate. She had to draw out all the budgets, how they distributed to each section of the museum, and also the size dimension so that everything fit right. It sounds like a lot, but she loved doing all the numbers. She'd play the right music and just jot away. Older she got, the tougher it became to remember things. Alzheimer's is genetic in our family, so she taught me some things to help her stay afloat. She realized I fell in love with it right away and it all came back full circle. Well, ain't that sweet. OK, Kiana. Really? That's adorable. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do you miss out the most about her? I'm, let's get back to the lesson. My mother passed when I was born. Never got a chance to meet her. Sometimes I have these dreams of coming out of the womb and seeing her face light up. It's a dream I know, but reality and imagination come together sometimes. Sometimes I wish of real memories like that, you know? Mother and daughter time. I'm so right. Too much. What happened to your father? I think he just gave up. He was too sad, I guess. He used to say all the time, you look more and more like your mama every day. You think you would have kept me, but he didn't. Left me at a church with a blinking instrument case. I don't know. Gavin moves towards Kiana for a sense of comfort. Me feels real tricky. The vulnerability can heal wounds. That's what Janet would say. You can be open with me, Gavin. Kiana, I'm your teacher. And so what? And so I would like to teach. You call these subjunction drills teaching? Am I a child?  I know you ain't here to teach today. You're here for something else. I saw you take a letter. I did not take those letters. You ain't slick, Gavin. It's Mr. Neptune. So what? Is this what you're doing? Tell your life story and then bash the curriculum? This ain't nothing. But sorry-ass equations made by some sorry-ass of a man. Oh, right. So this is what Janet warned me about.  I'm not lying. Then what is it then? I've been pacing here back and forth, trying to understand the trigger that I caused to push you to be bothered. Was it the Rubik's Cube? Asking Ms. Musician to play a song? Too many apologies? But then I think about it. And it's nothing. Nothing at all. I have never had any issues with a student until you. The prodigy. Yeah, sure. I know she may ask some hard questions, but I didn't think she would be so nonchalant about her learning. Kiana feels his words becoming emotional. Janet enters somewhat quietly. Gavin doesn't notice. But then I say, Gavin, have patience in your students. They aren't as arrogant or disrespectful or as irritating as you make them out to be. They're just learning. But turns out I was wrong about you. Hear all those things. Now I ask, Kian, why would you choose me as your teacher if you don't even care? Kiana turns around.  Gavin becomes immediately regretful. Janet is stunned, but still unnoticed. Because I didn't choose you. That's why. Gavin turns around and sees Janet. Kiana exits. Janet takes a glance at Gavin as he looks down pitifully. Mr. Neptune, I think today's session is canceled. Gavin nods in agreement and begins to pack up supplies, as he does so he remembers the letters. Janet, I think.  Who do you think you are?  I'll help you. You ain't all that, OK? You ain't that at all. You don't know nothing about my child. You hear me talking to you? Listen, I don't know what planet you came from, but you don't talk that way to my child.  And you just brought it all down with this mess? I just, we don't do that in here. But you'll bury a lie, won't you? Excuse me? Gavin takes out the open letters and places them on the table. Janet is confused, but then connects the dots. She suddenly becomes more hollow. You knew my mama? You speak in nonsense. Your favorite, Frida. You knew her. Why didn't you just? You've been looking through my stuff. You've been stealing? They just felt I. You those weren't meant for you. She's been writing to you. She's been writing since I was born. What happened? What did she do? Mr. Neptune, you invaded my space. You are now an intruder. I need you to leave now. Really? You don't understand. Leave! Don't make me call someone to get you out. Gavin zips his backpack. He puts on his coat and exits. Janet lets out a large exhale. She gathers all of the letters from the table and then has a moment. She then goes to the vinyl and pulls out the rest of the letters, about 10 of them. She spreads them out on the table and looks in somberness. Janet sits and begins to open one of the letters. Blackout. Scenes five. Lights come up on two locations. Gavin is in his room tossing and turning. Another, Janet getting into movement and freestyle dance. She places on a vinyl to help the scene's tone. A jazz record. The lights are dim in Janet's living room as she begins the motions of dance. She is in tune with the part of herself she often neglects, yet is filled with anger and regret. She stops occasionally in the dance to collect that emotional labor. Gavin falls into a dream sequence.  As this happens, we see Frida Neptune appear, silhouetted between the two. She is the guided spirit. The scenes are happening simultaneous. She. Gavin looks around for the voice but cannot see. Voice. Mama? Is that you? Where are you? Giving energy to light. Gavin gets out of bed and begins to look around for the voice. I'm lost without you. You are found without me. What that mean? Baby, you need to be present. I can't. You can. I don't know. I taught you better than to hang in the things that are unchangeable. Just lost, mama. What did I teach you about binomials at 11? Binomials? What did you learn? That X equals? Na, na, na, baby. Look at the board. Gavin spots the binomial on the fourth wall. He walks forward and begins to examine it. Now what's it? That equation telling you? It's telling me that, that. Suddenly, we hear writing. Gavin becomes stunned as he sees the equation being solved without his hands.  Even if it was a whole, it can be a fraction. But that's not the point, G. The point is that two numbers work to make one. That even though both are gone and moved on, that they made a place for the answer. The binomial isn't busy grieving because they worked to solve the answer. That's all they care for. That's all they love to make this happen. Solving X was like? Bringing your baby into the world. That even when those numbers were frustrated, tired, sad, angry, grieving from other numbers, they knew they time was coming. But they wanted to leave something behind for someone to admire, be inspired by. A number to look up to. Gavin, you are the X factor. You are why I can be allowed to be here, free of all the chains that are humanity. I am but energy that propels you to solve that next equation. Some nights I think about all those days where you sat in front of this board solving all that could be possible. Sometimes impossible. When we solve it together, you cannot imagine what to do with it anymore. Use it to share that knowledge. Use it to bring the next generation. Do right by that. And hopefully one day you can bring me a grandchild. Can you do that for me, baby? I'll try. And G, make right from your faults. You may get the answer wrong, but there's always room to try again. You hear? Gavin takes a moment to think and then realizes her request. I'll try. I promise. Gavin falls back to sleep as his light fades to dark. The light remained on Janet. She has danced to exhaustion. She sits on the floor and begins to sit with her sadness. At a glance, she looked to the letters ribbed but unread. She crawls over and grabs one by the remnants of her last bit of energy. She opens the page as Frieda returns in the silhouetted light. My lovely Pluto, I used to cry about Mars, not Mars really. Mainly the rover.  Sounds like I'm a big baby. I feel like the rover was all alone up there, doing a man-made deed in a man-made shell. Sometimes I want to be there, be that if the rover could, it would turn itself off and interrupt with the life forms there when humans weren't looking. Don't call me crazy. Robots have their own feelings and goals, too. If you ask me, the rover never wanted to be placed on Mars to help humans colonize materials. The rover grew up in these science labs, studied the flaws of its mission just like the flaws in all of us. Then, when the time was right, they shot her up, and sometime later, Mars. Then the rover had her own plan she could fulfill, want to escape and experience life not held by the idea of a scarce Earth and fear of losing to the next country, but simply to live in another place far from what is known to really find themselves. I know it's a simple moving vehicle with cameras and panels and handles and wheels, but I'm jealous. Pluto, remember when we wanted to go to Mars? Be alone completely from the world, remember? We were 17 when we planned to create our own rocket out here. The empowerment craft, we called it. Just pack the rocket with our favorite snacks, bring our VHS tapes, and then combine our vinyl collection, bring all our oils and do our rituals every day, hoping we could make a safe flight. Create our own space suits and deck it out with gold, glitter, and black magic. Sometimes I wish we could have stuck to this. Sometimes I wish we could go back to that time. We were grown enough to know better, but young enough to dream. I never stopped giving up on our dreams. No matter what we went through, even in our later years, that's why I changed my name to Neptune. Just so you know, no matter how many planets or stars or organisms count you out, Neptune will always be next door to send some love to infinity. If you ever get this, I hope you know I loved you until the end, no matter how far apart we are, hopefully soon we come so close again as Neptune was for Pluto. Your favorite, Frida. Janet crunches the letter up. She sits with the words as the lights slowly fade. Blackout, scene six. One week later, we hear a well-played saxophone rift playing in the darkness. Lights come up to Janet writing notes for the next podcast, except she's not writing. She is distracted by the saxophone, tapping her pencil to the familiar tune. The playing stops. How's that, mama? That's the best you've done. That's the best you've done it, baby. You're really holding in. And come on down now. Take a break. In that moment, Janet takes out a small box and sets it on the table. She rearranges herself for a gentle surprise. Keanna enters. Mama, why are you stiff like that? Janet comes to the box. Keanna does a point back to herself as to say, is this for me? Janet responds back with a head nod. Keanna takes a few giant steps toward the box. She does this in a humorous way that tricked Janet to laugh. Keanna opens the box and inside is a golden necklace with two bubbles attached. Mama, what's this? It's Neptune and Pluto, two neighboring planets. Pluto isn't a planet. As far as I'm concerned, Pluto has always been a planet in my book. That's not the point anyway. Janet sits Keanna down, holding her shoulders. Keanna holds up the necklace. The point is that these two are friends. They rely on each other. They are the most distant from all planets, not a whole lot of heat, just a cool. But they are OK with that. They are so different that they love the cold, so much so that the others got envious of their love. Some other planets even tried to adjust their axis around the sun, just so they could gradually move away from it and embrace the cool. They have a love like no other and are still out there, plotting their destiny. Since when do planets have their own minds? Keanna, we are all energy. Everything out there speak for themselves, even Earth itself. Janet helps Keanna put the necklace on. And energy hits Keanna as though a torch was passed. She becomes reminiscent and thankful. Ever since I saw you come through that door that early afternoon, I knew you'd be the perfect mother. I just didn't know. I did everything that day to convince you that I was the one. I saw your tactics, child.  Plus, it didn't take a whole lot for me to know you was the one I wanted to adopt.  I didn't need no sperm cell to prove that. I still think a lot about those children there. I hope they found safe homes. Who knows, it's been eight years. Keanna kissed his baby again. It would seem the reciprocated kiss was unexpected. Janet holding it together. Hmm. You think Mr. Neptune's into me? Child, please! People slap on their ear. You need to stay seated with that mess. The way y'all was arguing last week, it didn't seem like you liked him at all. I mean, but in two years. You are something else. He too old. You too young. In a discussion. I'm joking, mama. I don't mind Mr. Neptune. He's just, just be overthinking sometime. Like, it's cute, but it make me mad at the same time. And he's super dramatic. But I think I can work to open him up a bit. Man, Niggas is so sorry. Keanna, come back. Sorry. I don't like his tone. But in the same way, I ain't never had a teacher be so passionate. Maybe we can sit down, come up with a better way of communicating and then we can be all right. I know Houston doing that. He ain't coming back here. Why not? Don't you still have to finish the observation? I don't need a person like that yelling at my daughter. He was rude and don't need to be here. But what about the board? It's not about the board. I didn't go through life much too often putting myself in front of others. Often giving everyone the best foot forward. Well, not anymore. I sat and left too many traumas hanging on my walls. Now they reek with regret. I'm tired of it. So I'm cleaning up and washing them down. The board ain't gonna fire me because they need me. I know it and they do too. But nothing beats what's here when you get home. A betrayal could sit in the shadows near your umbrellas all your life if you ain't doing nothing to remove them. No, no, no. I'm turning on the lights. Look, Keanu, you may not understand this now, but part of having Mr. Neptune here was for a friend. And I have to accept that I failed her now. It is what it is. No need to conversate about having him back because he's a doorbell rings. Keanu stands to go look through the cover. Guess who it is? I'll answer it. Instead of opening it or Keanu unlocks it, she then backs up a distant, crosses her hands and stands in a sensual but aggravated posture. It's open. Gavin enters. He carries a ruffle bag, likely what he needs to teach. He holds a vanilla colored folder in his hands. As he makes his way deeper into the house, there is a large overhanging awkwardness mixed with some silence, but eventually. Good afternoon, Janet. Good afternoon, Keanu. Can we help you, sir? I just wanna stop by and drop off materials for the transition. That's it? I also wanted to send a more formal apology. I'm sure you may not need that right now, but my mother taught me better. You couldn't mail all that? See what I mean by dramatic? It's so confused. Get out.  But... Janet looks into Keanu's soul. Keanu exits. Places the folder on the table. She's right. I could have mailed it. I'll get out of here. I loved her. My... Janet nods as Gavin sits down. They share a moment and look at the whiteboard. Janet looks over to the vinyl collection. We were crate diggers. So we said back then, we used to go through every shop, concert, rummage, dumpster, just to find the right records. Frida loved jazz. More than anyone I had ever known. But she loved cold train the most. We'll go to the depths to find a record of his. She looked for one that she couldn't find for years. 12 years. Janet nods to the vinyl collection. She goes to a special compartment, different from the rest, and pulls out a love supreme. She slides it over to the table to Gavin. He becomes overwhelmed. He looks through the casing to see if it's real. Found it hiding behind a stack of rolling stones at electric fetus in 87. Whoever was trying to keep this vinyl secret is mad as hell to this day. It serves. I promise. She had her signature inside every case. Remember? That's how you knew. Were you Pluto? To her Neptune, baby.  I couldn't imagine you would've. We weren't friends then. We had been friends all our lives though. Shared the same records, milkshakes, bed. Our whole lives were in perfect sync. One night things changed for me. It was her 21st. When we left the Prince concert, I looked at her different. She had on a beautiful orange romper. Her hair braided down to her waist. Eyes that made you see all of Lake Superior. I told her, I love you.  We told each other that all the time, but this time I said, no, I love you. I want no one else. Now, me and Frida had our fair share of bad relationships, but she was the only one I felt I could ever count on. And when she said it back, I love you too. It seemed all of the world's problems left the earth. I had all my protection. No asteroid could hit us. I'll always remember our favorite things. Walk down to the metro station nearby pass, the old homes, cafes, and this little art studio. Now in the 80s, your mother used to say she was the Thelma Golden of Minneapolis. Used to bring such great work here. But that great work made her busy. Over the years, it seemed our time together slowly digressed. I didn't think nothing of it at first, but eventually it got to me. Things became hard. So then I asked her, are you still in love with me? She assures me, says everything will be okay. Then the worst day of my life came. I was walking into the metro station alone. I passed by that small art studio and that spot freedom. Holding hands with some man. Happy and not a care in the world. I looked up and all of the world's problems returned and began to rain down on me. Years of love lost down the drain. I walked in that studio and cussed up a storm called everything in the book. Embarrassed myself in front of all those people. Then I ran out. It wasn't until a few paces that I tried to turn back. Ain't nobody chasing me. Ain't no one coming back for me. So I never saw her again after that. Never? I got one call. She called and said for us to not let our friendship go. All our love is still there. I said, not anymore. I hung up for her for his sins. And then. The car crash. She sent me letters every month. I took them and I shoved them in the cubby somewhere. But she was sorry Janet.  My dad left before I could know him.  She carried a lot on her shoulders. I remember some nights looking up to her just writing profusely in tears. I imagine she was regretful about things. She was wishing things could return. And I imagine she was missing you through it all. Throughout my life, I looked at my mother and I could always tell something was missing. I didn't know Omar left, y'all. Yeah, well, he's dead to me. My mother's legacy is still alive. But how did he know it was me? Doing all this, can you just tell me from the beginning? Frida loved math. No wonder you're gifted. But she loved it so much. We used to do things as a formula. Some equation is solved to understand. She would lay out all these scavenger hunts for me to discover a new vine or she would have puzzles made that show full pictures of us. I had never thought were captured before. You know, one time, she blindfolded me in the middle of the woods and told me, find your way out. Left you in the woods? I would honor her by making this another puzzle. Maybe her son would solve. Oh. So, did I solve it? What do you think? Gavin stands and looks around a bit. He stares at the painting, then the collection and then back at the board. Suddenly, it hits him and he stares down at Love Supreme. He picked up the record and walks over to the vinyl player. He lays the record down and brings the silence to stalls. Janet and Gavin share a fruitful stare. Suddenly, Kiana enters calmly, acknowledging the moment. She sits on the lower steps studiously. Gavin and Janet share a deep look as the front light dissipates. All that is left is a silhouette of the characters frozen in place. End of play.


This is stock number 21J4, we are here at Summit Automotive in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. You're new and used Jeep and Jeep Wrangler headquarters and today we're excited to show you this brand new 2021 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon in Sarge Green Clear Coat. This is the first 2021 we've received on our lot. It is also the first Sarge Green Wrangler we've had and it's a really good looking. This one has the 3.6 liter Pentastar V6 motor with e-torque on it. It also has the 8 speed automatic transmission. This one's going to get you 285 horsepower, 260 foot pounds of torque, 24 miles per gallon on the Highway 20 city for a combined total of 21 miles per gallon. And Sarge Green is quickly becoming one of my favorite colors I've ever seen on a Wrangler. It's a really bright green but not too bright and if you want to check out all the photos of this vehicle in the upper right hand party screen is a link to our website, click that and check us out there. This one comes with the special painted and polished aluminum lip rims, BF Goodrich All Terrain KO2 tires. These are LT28570R17s with an all terrain tread pattern on them. This one does have the plastic fenders. You get the Granite Crystal Jeep and trail rated logo outlined in the red. You get the black Rubicon lettering with the red outline on it. Those stickers, this one has the LED lighting group. So you get the LED headlamps, you get some performance LED there, LED halo lamps right there and the LED running lamps in the fenders. You also get the LED fog lamps, red tow hooks, Granite Crystal 7 slotted grille inserts. Get the sport hood on there as well. Notice it has the little sandals on the hood piece there. It also has the Jeep climbing up the side of your window. You get the Torx 50 indicators on there so you know what Torx wrench to use. You also get the rock rails which come standard with the Rubicon package. We'll take a look at the original window sticker so feel free to pause this. I'm not going to go through everything mainly just the main options on the vehicle. You can see it has the Sarge Green clear coat, the 3.6 liter e-torque 8 speed automatic transmission. This is all the things that the Rubicon gets you standard. Sarge Green is a $245 option. Leather trim seats are $14.95. The cold weather group which gives you heated seats, heated steering wheel and remote start is $9.95. This one has the LED lighting group which is $12.95. The 8.4 in premium audio which is $18.95. Safety group, an advanced safety group, blind spot and cross path detection as well as the forward collision warning and adaptive cruise, advance brake assist and automatic high beam control is $8.95 and $7.95 respectively. 8 speed on Mac and 3.6 is a $3,000 combined total and the three piece color match hard top is $23.95. Those special rims are $9.95 and your total MSRP is $54.195. If you want to get your summit price in the upper right hand part of your screen is a link to our website. They're your miles per gallon and your safety ratings on the vehicle. We're going to finish our outside walk around here. This one has the heavy duty four wheel disc brakes. You get the red shocks part of the Rubicon package as well. Notice you get the backup parking sensors here. The matching spare tire and rim and then that is your heavy duty, I'm sorry your HD backup camera. So I'm not sure if this is new for 2021 or not but they have the all weather subwoofer back in here. If you remember they used to do that on the JK's I think in 2015 they started putting them in the floor back here for the subwoofers. Now I don't know if that's the same for the four doors or not but obviously for the two doors it is. So that seat folds up like so. You can also remove it by pulling this down and then it will release and you can roll it out of there but to get it back up you just push that down, grab this strap and then it will lock into place. Notice these bars are color matched up here. Got three bolts on each side, one on the top so four total on each side and then two quick disconnects to get this rear hatch off. And then you also get holders for your door hinges and roof and windshield bolts. Underneath there are your jack tools. You get the JL badge on the back there for four door, two door, overall length and wheel base and water forwarding capabilities.  You also get the LED license plate lights back here. You get a really good idea of that Sarge green in the sun there. Color matched top, I think it looks great. You get the black fuel door. You get the heated mirrors with the blind spot monitoring in them. You get the leather trim seats, you get the red stitching, the red Rubicon stitched into the backrest. They all have side curtain airbags now, driver seat height adjuster, factory floor mats, auto headlamps, power mirrors and power locks. As we hop inside here you can see it has the seven inch LCD display, outside temp and compass display as well as the digital speedometer. Get the leather wrapped steering wheel with the red stitching. Here's your adaptive cruise controls, normal cruise controls, Bluetooth information center controls and then you have audio controls on the back. This one has the 8.4 4C radio, AM FM and Sirius XM radio capabilities, this one has the factory navigation system. You can also do a project your cell phone to the screen through Android Auto or Apple CarPlay and then if you've got a different navigation system such as Waze or Google Maps you can project to the screen and use that. Instead in fact we did a video on how to connect your Android Auto in the upper right hand part of the screen if you want to check out how you can do that right there. This is also where your HD backup camera shows up. Now those are dynamic grid lines, they're going to turn as you turn that steering wheel and that center line lines right up with the middle of the vehicle so if you put a hitch on here it would be lined right up with that center line and it would be really easy to hook up to any trailer or anything that you might be hooking up to. You can also do your climate controls here, notice you do get the dual climate controls, you can do your heated seats and heated steering wheel controls there, notice you got the Wrangler with the backup camera there, that's pretty cool and you can do the backup camera without actually putting it in reverse.  You get a media center here with a USB aux and USB-C, 8-speed automatic transmission, 4x4 shifter on the floor, keyless entry with the remote start, still has that slide out key like so or flip key, remote start, heavy duty, always know which key you're gonna be carrying. Looks like the front hard top pieces come off exactly how they were for the 2020, you get the SOS and assist buttons up there, you also get home link buttons for your garage door security systems and lane systems and looks like it has an auto dimming mirror. Take a look at the back seats, that's your case for your front hard top pieces, is just a two-seater back there, those seats are trimmed out nicely like the front seats and it does come with floor mats back there as well. So not much has changed on the Wrangler for 2021 but Sarge Green definitely a very very nice color and we'll do one more final walk around here I would personally like to thank you for checking out the video today and hopefully from this HD video you will have gotten a really good idea of the overall color and looks and styling of this particular Jeep and to see more pictures of this Jeep or one of our other 450 new and used cars, trucks, SUVs, minivans, Wranglers, you name it we got it go to our website www.summitauto.com full pictures and descriptions of every single vehicle from two locations all at summit auto.com and if you'd like to check out more HD videos you can go to youtube.com slash summit auto remember to like subscribe and share on this video and all the videos that you see there in fact in a second you will see links to subscribe to our YouTube channel on your left a link to more Wrangler videos like this one on your right if you have not been to our website on the bottom link to this vehicle on our website click those check us out and we're super excited to be offering the 2021 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon in Sarge Green clear coat thanks again for checking out the video


And I want to get along better with her culture and also I have to speak to my mother-in-law and it's a big problem that they don't speak English and I only speak a bit of Chinese so we really can't have a conversation. And I already recommended to the others that they study Esperanto but they are really poor and don't have a desire to study it so there's not that much that I can do and I am young, old and beautiful so it seems that I have to study Chinese. And I already studied it a bit but after a while I just read it and then recommended it and read it and recommended it and I thought that that was the fact that it was really difficult to find the best starting point when you want to study Chinese because the language is so bad in English for example, they use bad writing Chinese have tones, strange sounds for English and Esperanto speakers and so on and so forth it's just a really bad language in English so now when I decided to learn the language I studied the tones and I really needed a lot of time to really listen to the tones in Chinese because for those who don't know the Chinese Mandarin the Chinese that I study have a total of 20 tones for example, the word ma is the first and then you have the second which is ma and then ma and ma there are a lot of tones and it's really difficult for me to listen to them even after a long study of the tones but I think that now I can learn something or listen to them and then I decided that I would use PIMSLA to study Chinese and PIMSLA is a really good language to study languages but when you want to study Chinese it's not that good because if you, for example when I first started using PIMSLA if you can't already listen to the tones you probably can't speak the Chinese but 100 tones it's a big problem because the tones, if you don't use the tones right it all changes the meaning of the words and then I decided that I would just use PIMSLA and I would study the tones and it's another big problem a lot of tones in Chinese have the same sounds but all the same meanings and then it's a big problem because there's the same sound for a lot of different tones and I really can't remember all of them and I think that I can improve my I suppose the tone of your words and then I decided to study the writing of the Chinese language so here's the book that I use it's called what's in Chinese and in fact I think it's a good idea to learn the signs of the Chinese language so here's the first sign you can see the etymology and you can see why those words are the same even when English speakers are totally different so for example now I want to present you some signs and remember that I'm not a Chinese speaker I'm a beginner so here's the first sign it means good and in fact it's a combination of two separate signs the first sign is a verb and the second is a verb so the history or the etymology of that is that in ancient times Chinese thought that it's a good situation if you have a verb and a verb it's interesting and in fact it's easy to memorize so here's the second sign and I apparently like this sign it means peace or content and in fact again it's a combination of two signs or maybe one sign I don't know about that I don't know what it means but I don't know if it's the same state sign and this sign means segment and this sign is a verb so the word for peace is a verb under a segment so if you have a segment for your etymology or for your verb you live peace here's another interesting sign this sign means a verb or a sign and the verb again is a segment and the sub-part means again a verb or a sign and the idea is that words or written signs are so important as verbs and you have to protect them you have to put them under a segment interesting, isn't it? so now I have to show you these two signs at the same time that are very interesting so look at this sign it means sky or maybe a day and look at it deeply and now this sign is the sign for an etymology there's a big difference between the two this sign has a head can you see, there's a head missing on the sign of the sky so according to me, that means there's a head missing on the sky so the sign for an etymology is very important so look at it and again it's a segment of two separate signs the sub-sign means the sub-sign means so the vote for an etymology is great so the last sign what I want to show you is the sign for an etymology and looking at this it has three separate signs we have the sign for the sky the sign for the sky and the sign, this complex sign here is the sign for the sky so to etymology in ancient times in China you need an etymology, an etymology and a sky so, I already have an etymology I already have a segment but there's a head missing so maybe I'll just name my cat on the head so if you liked this video about my progress in the study of Chinese just write below and I'll make a video about my progress just if you want to see that of course I'll always make it in Esperanto so if you liked this video like it, share it, subscribe to my channel if you haven't subscribed yet and I'll see you all in the next video and if you're not there I'll find you and I'll create a sign for you and as always, thank you very much for donating to Patreon and you're Loupe, Tommy Linsley, Shane Power, Alexander Tollfess and Cold Arm, Robert Nielsen, Jay Zeig, Napples Jaffigadier, Sarah S.C. and Slavish Galayev and if you want to donate to my channel you can find the link below in my description


ethics in the age of AI when we worry about the ethical implications of new technology. In our familiar debates we worry about there are four main worries. First, our robots coming for our jobs. Second, will algorithmic prediction and decision-making in hiring and lending and criminal justice freeze in place unfairness embedded in past practices. Third, will surveillance capitalism essentially mean that privacy is over? And fourth, will misinformation and deep fakes in the polarizing effect of social media undermine democracy. So jobs, fairness, privacy, and democracy, these are consequential considerations. What I would like to explore with you today, however, is an even deeper worry, a more fundamental question about the ethics of AI and new technologies. And the question is this, will technology change what it means to be human? To begin to think about this question, let's start with AI in the movies. Harrison Ford, he's 81 years old, but in the recent remake of the Indiana Jones series, they needed him for part of the movie to be younger, 40 years younger. Now, they couldn't do it very effectively with makeup, so they used AI-enabled digital de-aging. Let's just see what people think about digital de-aging. Harrison Ford appearing for part of the film, thanks to the AI technology, as 40 rather than 81 as a moviegoer. How many find this troubling? And how many think it's fine, just like the use of makeup in times past? Raise your hand if you find it objectionable or troubling. Digital de-aging. A handful of people do. How many don't? How many think it's just like makeup? You think you may need it. Maybe it should be applied beyond the movies. Now, digital de-aging is only the beginning of the question posed by AI in moviemaking and in the arts because the same technologies that enable the filmmakers to de-age Harrison Ford could be used in a more ambitious way. Harrison Ford is still with us. But what about great actors of the past, great stars, whom we would love to see in a new role, wouldn't you like to see Humphrey Bogart, for example, not in a rerun of Casablanca, but in a new movie? Bringing him back, so to speak, for a virtual comeback performance. Now, let's take a vote on this one. How many would find that prospect cool, appealing, attractive? And how many would find it troubling or objectionable? Let's see what people think about that. How many are okay with it? How many think it might be cool even to bring back actors from the dead to play in a new role? Only a handful. You're not big Humphrey Bogart fans. All right, how many object? Most people object. But why would you object? Who will we have microphones? Who will tell us what's objectionable? Yes. Well, wait, wait, tell the microphone gets to you. Yeah, go ahead. That he did not have agency to decide his role. Yeah, so he wouldn't have given his consent. He's long past. And what if he had signed a waiver before he passed? Then would that remove your objection? Then it would be okay. He had created the parameters of which where his image could be used. Yes. So so long as he agreed, as long as he has agency specific, though, around the parameters, his agency, you're not a lawyer by any chance. I am not. You're not. Okay. Now, let's all right. Let's push forward with that question. Now suppose he had given a waiver, maybe actors that is part of their wills just as we have living wills could, if they chose, agree to be to star in a new role in a virtual comeback performance. In that case, is there still anyone who objects? Is there a remaining objection? A number of people do still object. And who will who will tell us why? What would be troubling? Go ahead, retail. Let's get you a microphone. I think the question is for the rest of us. Did we consent to them coming back? Do we know that we're watching an AI generated image of the past? And if we lost something about human dignity in the process of taking humans post death, recreating them based on their essence and their identity and projecting them forward in time in some digitally recreated way. So you want truth in advertising. You want there to be a disclaimer that might be easy enough. But the second point that you've raised is about dignity. The dignity of the actor, even an actor who has agreed in advance, we're seeing a performance that, well, is it his or her performance or is it something else? And is human dignity somehow implicated? I put this question about the virtual comeback performance. To a young actor and director, Michael B. Jordan, rising Hollywood star, he starred in the Creed boxing series. He's the successor to Rocky and a number of other films, just Mercy among them. Here's what he had to say about the virtual comeback performance. Let me ask an extreme version of this as the technology gets even better. Suppose there were an actor from the past, a long ago actor whom you admired, and though they're no longer living, you say to yourself, it would be my dream to be able to cast them in this movie. I mean to come to mind in the Sydney Portia and Heath Ledger. Can you even imagine what it would be like as a director, but also in human terms, to be able to cast Sydney Portia today in one of your movies and to have that virtual actor act the new role with the same look and stance and gesture and tone of voice and bearing as he brought to his earlier role. I will be a fool not to entertain it, but there's something unsettling about it from where I stand today. All right, that's what I want to get at. What's unsettling about it is what exactly? That's not his free will. That's not the man's free will. I'm making that decision for him. So it's unsettling because Sydney Plotchy did not consent in advance. I get that. And that's an important moral consideration. But suppose he had, he'd written you a letter saying, I'm willing, I trust you, then it would still be unsettling all that. I think so. Okay. So there must be another reason beyond his consent. What would that other reason be? And I see where you're getting at and I love it. And I'm trying to articulate it. It's just a feeling of authenticity that's just not there. I can't explain it. Authenticity. And you've spoken about presence, human presence. And even the best virtual come back. Yeah. Can't capture human authenticity or human presence. I don't think so. The certain people that they walk in the room, you feel them. I've been in rooms, certain people walk in, you feel them in there. I can't describe it. I don't think digitally created thing can have that. See, as Michael B. Jordan thinks it through in a very reflective way, in some ways replicating the discussion we had about this question. He began as we began with consent and agency. But then as the discussion unfolded, he identified a value beyond consent that seemed to be at stake. And in our discussion, Rita mentioned human dignity. Michael B. Jordan described it as authenticity and human presence. It's, as he pointed out, it's not easy to explain exactly what that means. But there is something, it seems, a deep human value at stake here beyond consent, beyond choice, beyond the waiver form signed in advance. Now, let's continue to explore what's at stake in human terms for our use of new technologies by shifting from the movies, from art, filmmaking, to matchmaking. A growing number of young people meet their mates, their life partners online through the use of dating apps. Suppose those apps could get good enough, accurate enough, drawing on a big enough pool of data so that they could generate a list of the three best life partners for you or for your son or daughter. Here's the question. If that were possible, would you rely, I'd like especially to hear from those who are still updating age, or you can answer on behalf, that's right, you never know, or you can answer on behalf of your kids. Who would you trust more to generate that short list? The app or, thinking now of young people, your mom. Now, the mom's in the room, you may have a stake in this, a special state, but you can vote out of your conviction. So how many would rely more on the app to come up with the short list? Only a handful of people. How many would rely more on your mom? In this group, in this group, mom beats the app. Now, I put this question, I put this question to a discussion with a group of young people in their 20s and 30s from various European countries, and some from North America, who we gathered for a Socratic style discussion for a Dutch television program in an ancient amphitheater in Greece, to discuss some of the fundamental ethical questions of our time, including AI, matchmaking, and the marriage prediction app. You go with the app. Yes, because he knows every character, perspective of yourself, he knows you well. Yes, yes. So I think he can search for a better match than my parents who would see me at home or when I'm visiting them, even though they raised me up, there was a time that I left home and created my own life. There's a life at home and a life outside of home. So I don't think they are totally capable of searching somebody who fits me in both situations. But the app doesn't have that God feeling, and I want to connect with a woman on a spiritual level, and the app can't feel that. So we can trust me, my mama. Trust me. My mama knows this type of thing. She knows me from the inside out. So if I come home with a girl, she would, she would notice her like two seconds. No, no, no, no. It's not good for you. But I think the question is, and being a mama boy as well, I think the question is, is there any space for a mistake, even in choosing a partner to marry? Is there any space for imperfection? Because this thing works very well. It's not the algorithms that we have now. It finds the exact perfect match. But don't we want to leave something out of that perfection for something as big as marriage? Well, I don't know if you've ever been in a relationship, but if you have a perfect match, then the mistakes start happening, right? So there's plenty of room for mistakes if you have a good connection. And that's what I'm saying. I'm married, and I don't know if a perfect robot would have found exactly my wife. She would have landed top three. Well, I think if it helps you find, this is going to sound very clinical, but a list of potential partners that have a good match, it helps it because it takes away a lot of the clutter of finding somebody who you have a good connection with. Is that actual clutter or that's part of what we call love dating? What about the sexual part? How will the machine know if that's a click? How will your parents know? No, no, but what I mean is there's got to be a personal connection, I guess, or some kind of thing, because the machine will never know. But I think Sergio's question underlies, if you take away all the forging and the surging, you take away a lot of human experience because you miss all the mistakes and wrong dates and the wrong things. So I might have actually switched back. But there's something Sergio said, I don't know whether this app would have my partner in that top three. So it makes me doubting right now with go for that machine. You're changing your mind. I don't know. I'm really, because of his arguments, because I'm thinking I'm married. Would that machine pick this guy that I'm married to? I don't know. Now, Socrates never had it so good in those amphitheaters or in the ecclesia. But what do people think of the arguments you heard back and forth about whether an app, even with big data, even with machine learning as sophisticated as it will become, whether a machine, a smart machine, can outthink in the domain of matchmaking and love human judgment. What's your sense of it now? On that philosophical question, how many think that in principle, as machine learning becomes more sophisticated, that in principle it can do better than it will be able to supplant, even in matchmaking human judgment. How many think so? Raise your hand. A handful of people do. And how many don't think so? Now, the majority do not think so. Why not? Why are you skeptical? Yes? Let's get the microphone. People are not a fixed moment that a machine can test you. People get older. They change. Things happen. And the feeling that a young gentleman expressed can predict better than a machine. That's my opinion. Because people change, you say. And the machine can never even in principle keep up with the way we evolve as human beings. And that, of course, makes a difference on who the best match will be. Those who think in principle a machine, a smart app, will be able to do better than your mom or your friend or perhaps you yourself in identifying the best match. What would be your answer to the arguments you heard from the young people and from the argument just now that we change? Who has a reply? Who has faith in the app and has a reply? Yes? I think it's not about the change because the app could adapt and evolve. I think it's more about the memory and the emotion that you won't get. And I'm surrounded by young people. They are using all this app and I'm playing with it because I'm too late for me. But they're coming back from this app because they are missing this memory, the creation of the moment, to create the love ending moment. So I think this is about that, where the app cannot make it. So you think the app cannot make it? No. Cannot do better than human judgment. And if it can bring the change of a person, but it cannot create the memory and the emotion? The memory and the emotion. And what did you think about the participants in the discussion who spoke about the clammy hands, the clumsiness, the missteps, the false starts, the imperfection, the vulnerability that are constitutive, as he saw it, of what learning to love is about. Do you agree with that? Yes, totally. I think this is the moment needed that the app does not bring. The key moments for me. I don't know if this is my opinion. I think it's key moment to bridge the love and bring this emotion. The app, you are keeping so many steps.  Killing so many steps. Even if those steps seem inconvenient, but keep the microphone there. Even if those steps seem inconvenient and difficult, and on the face of it, the steps or experiences to be overcome. But it's exactly what I think Seville was saying. It's a way to know. It's a learning curve. So the app is killing this learning curve. You're skipping them, and perhaps you're going too fast. So I feel you have to have this moment. And again, I have young kids, and they're talking about the moment where we were seducing in a bar, in the dance floor. I mean, they're missing that part. And they said, you are in a good period of time in the 80s, 90s. I don't know. Some people can relate here. Right, right. So it's easier to swipe into scroll than it is to have these encounters and missteps. In the contrary, I think it's better to have this encounter moment that's Yes, yes, better than scrolling. So here, let's get this. I know a lot of marriages that I would say are relationships that would say opposites attract. My daughter's very intense. She found the guy was totally laid back. Because if they'd both been that intense, can the app do that? But I know a lot of marriages where you say, boy, those people are opposites attract. And also in any good marriage, people grow together. Can the app actually predict that these are two people who can grow together? Right. The opposites attract point, I was going to ask, whether in principle, you could program the app to take account of that. But the second point about the way in which people grow together in companionship and love, that seems hard to imagine an app being able to capture. Well, now thank you for deepening this discussion, which turns out, is not really about the technology as much as it is about what it means to seek friendship and companionship and love. I'd like to turn to another human experience where technology is offering to make really possibly faithful change in the way we live and in the way we die. There are even now companies that will enable you to create a digital avatar of yourself based on all of your social media posts, your emails, your personal data. And when you die, you will be able to bequeath access to that data, to that avatar, to whomever you want, to your loved ones, to your friends, or for that matter, to the public, enabling them to engage in ongoing conversations with you. So that, let's say, your great-great grandchild could introduce you to his or her prospective mate and ask you what you would think. This would not be simply a digital avatar that would enable you as a kind of chatbot to reminisce about your past, but also to give your characteristic reactions to novel events, whether in the news, whether in the world, or whether in your family. Virtual immortality, virtual immortality. Let's see what people think about virtual immortality. How many would be tempted by it to use that facility, a digital avatar? Just a couple. How many would not? Most people would not. I asked Michael B. Jordan what he thought, and here's what he said. Your grandmother, suppose it were possible for her to have done that, so that you could spend more time with her now. Sounds like you, well, how would you feel about that? Oh, man, selfishly. If the knee-jerk reaction is, yeah, of course, I'll do anything to see her and feel her and be around her again. It's something that's so foreign that my mind can't completely wrap my brain, like I can't wrap it around the experience of what that would be. If I could tell in the slightest that it's not that, I would reject, I wouldn't want nothing to do with it. Because the tech-mediated connection you feel might obstruct or corrupt the spiritual connection? 1000%. How she smelled, how she touched the way she looked at me. There's no algorithm, there's no emails or texts or phone calls, not enough information for me to look beyond her eyes and how she used to look at me and talk to me. There's nothing, there's not enough. You have a conviction listening to you, Michael, that we're not data all the way down. And if you're right about that, then even the best AI chatbot couldn't capture, it might even obstruct the spiritual dimension of life. It may trick you for a while. It can think your own projections of sadness and the want of those things would make you hear what you want to hear and see what you want to see. We do that all the time with the relationships that we have now with jobs and relate friendships, relationships and experiences, we somehow toward reality so you can be okay and cope and deal with it. And so to go back to the question with which we began, will technology change what it is to be human? Your answer is? For some, yes. But for me, no. So here is the most fundamental question posed by the age of AI and chatbots and big data. Beyond worries about jobs and fairness, about privacy and even democracy, is the deeper question about whether human authenticity, dignity, human presence are fundamentally at stake. Will new technologies lead us? Are they already leading us and our children to confuse virtual community and human connection for the real thing? Because if they do, then we may, here's what I think we learned from this discussion, then we may lose something precious about what it means to be human. Thank you very much.