Just as much as I get questions about my football career, I get just as many questions about this couple right here.  When I play the old four game, I play as a Falcons without a doubt. It's giving me the best chance to win it.


That night we had everything sort of sorted out until about two o'clock and then two o'clock is when everything sort of started in the afternoon the column started rising and and yeah we'd done all the township protection stuff we put all the grader lines in we did all the mulching it was all in place the township protection itself all in place about three weeks before the fire even got here because we had the six lightning strikes then we knew the fire would get here eventually just how long we didn't know it took from the 21st of November to the 30th of December for it to get here and it got here in a big way all the stuff we did with the township protection plan worked we saved the primary school the Telstra tower the NBN tower the list goes on and without that yeah it would have been a lot worse so we didn't have to go and put out fires where we've done the township protection plan so it was really good it worked well there we were cut off for two days with no power water we ran out of town water so there was nothing to the point where we just had a couple of the pallet loads of drinking water in the fire station which we were sharing in town and everything like that so yeah no water no power all the elderly sitting in the rec reserve for two days with with nothing and the community all banded together and cooked food and made everyone you know feel happy and tourism wise the canine races on the weekend my accommodation was full I was happy finally getting some tourism back but hopefully we get the caves up and running and yeah we're lucky to save this place the major infrastructure that we had here was saved purely because we could you know do what we did and then get out before the fire here all those reports you hear Buckins gone no it's it's looking better than this time last year I mean the paddocks are green yes there's no fences the trees are you know black um but everything's recovering so like the cave reserve itself is beautiful and green I lost all my paddocks and everything right up to my accommodation's doorstep on every cabin but now the paddocks are all green iridescent green you wouldn't even know there was a fire here looking at it


Item No. SCP-849 Object Class Safe Special Containment Procedures SCP-849 is currently contained in storage unit ████ located at Site ████. SCP-849 is to be kept in a sealed chamber measuring 5m x 5m, which is to be guarded by two security personnel at all times. SCP-849 is to be checked for leaks every three days. Any unauthorized personnel attempting to enter SCP-849 are to be detained by security, and given scheduled visits with the Site Psychologist ████. Use of SCP-849 must be authorized by one member of Level 4 personnel. Description SCP-849 is a sensory deprivation chamber first recovered by the Foundation from a health spa in ████. SCP-849 measures 3m x 4m, is white in color, and is filled with an opaque gray liquid. When touched by a human, hereafter referred to as the subject, this liquid instantly transports them and any items which are physically attached to them to a location designated SCP-849-1. SCP-849-1 takes the form of the subject's hometown, or a location the subject considers to be their home. This location is populated by civilian entities presumably produced by SCP-849-1, which takes the form of individuals the subject is familiar with, even as said individuals do not reside in a location being imitated. Time passes normally in this location, which has been confirmed by researchers measuring the time the subject has disappeared for. For the first 17 hours of being within SCP-849-1, the subject will experience an ordinary day, with the exception that every situation the subject finds themselves in will be resolved positively through apparent luck. The subject will typically make amends with civilian entities imitating individuals whom the subject has wronged or been wronged by during this period of time. After 17 hours have passed in SCP-849-1, the quality of the imitation will begin to rapidly degrade. Effects of this process include, but are not limited to, bizarre and nonsensical situations, illogical changes in civilian entity appearance and biology, and possible geometry. During the last 15 minutes of residing in SCP-849-1, subjects have reported the breakdown of physical laws such as gravity, often causing stress and anxiety. After 24 hours have passed, all subjects will be forcibly ejected from SCP-849-1.


Thank you. So thank you very much. As you know, in most of these speeches so far, I tried to speak and I would speak without any paper or any notes. But this moment, you might appreciate, is probably the highlight of my life, the highest point in my life now. Only one moment when I met my girlfriend may top it. Sorry guys, there's some things that are more important in life. But indeed, this is not in a water in receiving. I also know that. This is a huge trust, huge trust from all of you. This is a huge trust in the messages that I hopefully shared with you in my campaign. And huge trust that I heard what you told me in this campaign. And thank you for that. And thank you, Member States, who voted for me, who voted for my competitors. Because I know that you chose me not for the lack of choice. And I really want to acknowledge my strong competitors, Dr. Chaysa Bli, who contributed a lot to ITU, especially over the last 80 years as Director of Sanitation. Nisa, for type herself, from Samoa, who also worked hard in promoting the issues of the small island development states and other countries around the world. So I know that you chose, at least I take this mandate, to work with you in a way we discussed in our campaign. Of course, I cannot miss to congratulate Madam Secretary General-elect, Doreen Boden-Martin. It will be, I have to disclose, it will be the third time we work together. Actually, the third time she's my boss, let's be open. So, and I'm really looking forward to that. Of course, I want to acknowledge and thank the Secretary General, Hulin Jiao, for his last, I think, Christiana yesterday said 36 years in ITU, for the lifetime in ITU. And we really miss him, and I hope we'll find some ways to still leverage his expertise. Of course, I would like to acknowledge efforts of Deputy Secretary General Malcolm Johnson. It will be big shoes to fill, but I'm looking forward to do that. And also, Mario Manevesh, director, who will, I have to say Mario, will have a very easy job tomorrow, the commerce of all candidates, and so you should be. So, of course, I have to thank Mr. Chairman here at this conference, Ben, for really convening this conference so well. And he prepared for that nearly for as long as I was running this campaign. So really, we chose and the host country with the greatest value. But, of course, it's also the moment to acknowledge the people who contributed to this campaign. It's also the moment to look back a little bit and to say thank you to some people who contributed. And I'm sorry if this list will seem for you long, but this list is like a very, very, very small tip of the iceberg. And these are only the people who really, really, in the personal efforts, contributed to that. So, of course, I want to thank President of my country, Gedan Asnoseda, for the strong support and leadership in this campaign. It's really felt that I have the whole country behind me. Also, Prime Minister Girdasimonide, who always continues to support it, and then some of you may have seen her call to vote last week. This campaign was spearheaded by Minister of Transport and Communications, Marius Cordes, who you over the last days, I think, ought to know pretty well, and who is very easy to spot in the room if you haven't. The tallest guy in the room will be the Minister of Lithuania. I have to say that easily. Also, Deputy Minister Agnevitzukivich Ute, who managed to make it a whole government effort. But we had a lot of further people. So, this campaign engine was Communications Regulatory Authority of Lithuania, Chairperson here at the Chauvinis, here with us today. And we, of course, had Minister of Foreign Affairs supporting us at the highest level. But, you know, as the person that's going to specifically acknowledge is Ambassador Andrew Scrivers, who from the days, from the very beginning, being Ambassador Geneva, to now being Chair of International Organizations and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, you know, believe this and there, and push that. As well as, you know, our ambassadors in New York, Ambassador in New York, Chris Polowskas, and Ambassador Geneva, Darius Tanullis. One moment also, I'm very proud here to stand in front of you, not only as Lithuanian candidate, an out-elect person, but also someone who had the full support of European family. And I really thank you from the bottom of my heart to all European colleagues who are really standing by me all the time and providing huge family background. I always felt I could fall and it would catch me. You know, I know also sometimes, and I need to do that because this speech will be for me for the record. So also, some people who stood and believed from the day one. And, you know, in Lithuania, we have a member of parliament and big advocate of global Lithuanians, Dalia Stonovičuta, who, from the first call, said, well, let's do it. And then she actually got a lot of people who believe it's a deal. So last, but not least, before my appearance, which I also have to thank, is our campaign engine. And Doreen would be happy to hear that my engine of campaign was all women. So, and that's really was this strong leadership that made this campaign happen. So of course, a lot of you are knowing her in cabbage in many roles, but you should also know she was the campaign from beginning and she manages campaign all the time. And her colleagues, Gentara Ribinskina and Rosa Karoliena, who stood by her side. But we also create great diplomats in Geneva, Vitovalunita, in Brussels, Cristina Semene, in New York, Cristina Dikaita, who ran this campaign as a joint-up campaign as possible. And some of you may, if some of your embassies want to learn how to ensure the connection between Brussels for Europeans and Geneva and New York for everyone else, you can really learn from them. It was such a seamless campaign. And finally, in the capital, Ignevrylowskite and Gittarino-Scheidt. What they also, of course, I cannot forget of thanking my parents, who were always with me, you know, from the day one, believing in me and provided that support. You know, you always know that you can go far. If you know if you fall, you have a safety net. And they provided me for all my life and up to today here. So, ladies and gentlemen, tonight I have to be open. We will celebrate. Tonight we'll celebrate and I hope you'll join us. And some of you could join us last night, know that we know how to celebrate, as a thing. So, I hope you'll join us tonight as well. But tomorrow, the real work starts. And tomorrow, you know, of course, we'll have elections and I want to wish good luck to all the candidates for director positions and radio regulation, board positions, the council. But we'll also, the conference, we have to remember, it feels like a highlight, but the conference is only beginning. And this conference is crucial of setting the ground for the ITU for the coming years. And we need this conference to succeed. We need to have a solid and sustainable financial basis for ITU for the next four years to come. We need to ensure that the ITU is fit for the times operationally, that we can deliver to you, that we'll learn from the best managerial practices. And I look to you to provide a strong direction for the ITU to help us all to respond to the challenges of today and opportunities of tomorrow. One last point, ladies and gentlemen. When I campaign, I said very clearly, I promise that if I, whatever I can, ITU will always be the place for everyone. Big or small, powerful or not powerful, rich or not that rich. Today, I have to add, for those who voted for me, for those who don't vote for me as well, you know, for everyone. And I will be guaranteed for that. Because in these tense times like we are, the only way we can find solutions if we come together to look for them. And we do that with open hearts and open minds. So ladies and gentlemen, your excellencies, let's work hard to bring the digital future for all. And most importantly, let's do that together. Thank you.


Hello everyone. We have lightning rounds starting now. The first speaker is Parvez. Good evening everyone and I am Parvez and I am going to talk about the next five minutes about EFARM and who we are and what's the technology landscape of EFARM. So who we are? So we are a group of engineers, architect and designers who enjoy solving business problems through technologies and we strive for excellence to enable our customer to gain the competitive advantage in the ever-changing marketplace. How do we achieve it? We achieve this by our passion of learning, design thinking and best engineering practices. Our nimbleness and commitment to strong engineering culture has enabled us to quickly adapt and be ahead of the curve. So this slide is a little bit about our history. So how did we start it? We started in 1993 as a product engineering organization and then we slowly moved, we focused mainly between 2012 to 2015 on product development and then when we saw that the whole industry landscape is changing and now the industry is no more product driven but it's becoming more consumer driven. So we started focusing on and involved ourselves as a platform engineering and orchestration organization. Some of the key verticals that we work with, so if you see we work with almost all verticals and then we also have a partnership with the most of the usually born organizations. Some of the product that we use in everyday life, we were behind developing many of the product that we love to use in our everyday life. Let's talk a little bit about our culture and what EPAM stands for, what are the values we have. So the first thing is that we have value for the individuals. So we perceive that our people are actually the source of our success. We don't believe in micromanagement and we judge by results and we provide limitless opportunities for our smart, self-motivated, proactive individuals within the organization so that they can grow. We encourage and motivate people to grow. We have a lot of internal tools that helps our people to grow in their career path. As an organization, we tolerate mistakes and we believe that from every mistake that there is something that we can learn. We act as a team. We treat each other with respect and we communicate very openly. We have a very transparent culture. We don't follow in hierarchy. We encourage the best ideas to come from anywhere within the organizations and we collaborate seamlessly with each other. And also we value our diversity that we have in our workforce. Stripe for excellence is another key EPAM value that we strive to achieve high standard of excellence. We believe in continuous learning, development, innovation and improve and then we take pride in our engineering accomplishments. As an organization, we have a very high focus on our customer. We try to build long-term customer relationship by delivering quality and superior value. We focus to understand what is our customer's main business needs and drivers, how we can help them in achieving their business objectives. And we are responsive, responsible and straightforward and direct and we are very honest in dealing with our customer. Last but not the least, we act with integrity. We act legally, honestly and ethically and we always take responsibility for our actions. What are the technology areas that EPAM works on? I have divided into four main technology areas. One of them is the core engineering where we work on product development, on engineering excellence and on core technologies like Java, Python, Golang. Then we have another area within EPAM which we call as advanced technology where we work on next-gen architecture. Agility, how do we develop agility in the product? And then on some evolving technology trends within the industry like IoT and we have our garage where we do a lot of R&D activities. The third main area within EPAM is the intelligent enterprise where we work on building enterprise applications for our clients. We do a lot of work on data, take the raw data and produce some analytics from it and then obviously we work on application and cloud management. The fourth major technical area within EPAM is digital engagement where we work on strategy and design and work on various e-commerce applications and on mobility applications.


On a rather sad note now, our passenger bus has rammed into a container truck in central Pakistan, killing 28 people and wanting at least 40 more. Police say the bus was current workers from the industrial city of Siakot in the province of Punjab till their hometown in the remote district of Dharagasi, Kaziz Khan. The investigation into the cause of the accident was still underway, but initial findings suggested the bus was speeding on a damaged road. At least 40 passengers were wounded and were being treated in the hospital.


Good afternoon. Hi. My name is Ricky Cassidy and I've been hosting this show for about six segments now. Thanks to a great friend of mine, Dennis Azaki. I have sad news about Dennis. When he invited me to come on this, he was alluding to his not well. He understated it. He passed away this week. He is sorely missed. He got me into this as a friend and he had named the show after his particular interest, which was land and politics. Dennis, for those of you that didn't know him, was one of the few Japanese people living or growing up in Anahola, Kauai, which is on the east side, very rural and very Hawaiian. He had three or four brothers, all of which were accomplished. He himself specialized in surveying. Guy was tough as nails, went all over the Pacific as a surveyor with some really great companies, came home and started arguably the best surveying and engineering company on the island. With a close friend of his, Wayne Wada, they grew up together in Anahola. I segue this in part because I want to jump over to my guest today and give him a little context and you, the audience, of what I'm doing here. Dennis's proclivity for land came because he believed in surveying. He extended that into a true depreciation of land policy and how it's changed over time and he would argue what was best for local people in terms of the trend in adding regulations to development or liberalize them. He's a bear on tax policy, did not want property taxes going up for us. And of course then he segue that into politics because that would be the regulating force behind it. Where Dennis and I kind of intersect was an appreciation of land, my particular appreciation for land, slightly different. I do market research and I see lots of people outside of Hawaii coming here to buy land and to live here high quality of living. And that gets me over to my guest today whose expertise is aloha shirts and where we intersect on that is that aloha shirts have been wildly successful. Perhaps even a surrogate for buying Hawaiian land you get to buy a Hawaiian aloha shirt and live that quality of life without being in Hawaii. And he and I, old friends talk long about things. His father and I, my father did, we're both businessmen and we grew up in that context and I'm going to let him kind of talk a little bit about how he got into the business. And the kinds of things that resonate with him and then resonate with the locals and then resonate with the rest of the world. So Dale, take it over. Thank you, Ricky. I've just had a passion for aloha shirts ever since I was, I can think all the way back to third grade. My dad was a shirt maker when I was growing up and about the third grade my father came home with a whole bunch of aloha shirts for me that I could wear to school. And they were very unique and one of the patterns had beach boys wearing blue macahas those were long shorts with stripes on the sides playing the ukulele wearing the coconut hats having the aunties in the background doing the hula. And I wore that shirt, I think, until it was bread bearing, you know, it's just, it was just my favorite shirt echoed the spirit of the beach at Waikiki. Down when there were more coac canoes on the beach in Waikiki than there were hotels, you know, there was the Royal and the Moana and there was all these great bronze beach boys and, you know, at the end of the day they would always wear these really neat shirts that were Hawaiian shirts, aloha shirts. You would. And they kind of set the hook on me early on one that they were these ocean going guys, they, you know, almost had gills on their sides they were always in the water doing something really exciting. And then they wore these great gorgeous shirts that kind of connected them to a place which was that beach and Honolulu and Waikiki. So it's just been something that kind of grew with me early on and then I started working with my dad in the 70s. And, you know, many years, I was able to get the name Kahala, which was a early garment manufacturer started in 1936. And it had been a dormant name for a long time. So I was able to change our company to Kahala by HRH, which was the other label we were using. And we went out and stole a lot of shirts and started developing our prints with artists or textile artists or fine artists and we started really having fun with it and doing prints that we thought would identify with our customers.  And from Avi, we went with John Severson and then we got to work with, you know, John started Surfer Magazine, he was a fabulous artist living in Maui and I used to go over there and work with him, we'd work together. And we started working with Yvonne Chang, a notable artist on the island of Oahu, her art hangs in many of the banks and finer homes throughout the islands. And I was able to conjure her into thinking about doing textile designs and it took a long time, but we ended up working with Yvonne and had a great relationship and have worked with many other fine artists, textile artists, many people all around the world to create all the designs we've done. We've done well over thousands of designs over the years. It's really trying to, I think, capture that spirit of Hawaii that you and I appreciate that we grew up with and echo that on fabric and shirts. So we kind of communicate to people that we respect this place, we appreciate this place and we admire all the attributes of the Hawaiian islands that we can put into a shirt. And they come and wear them and smile and be happy that we're replicating something that he speaks of a wonderful spot. One of the things I thought was so cool when I came home from Hawaii and I'd been gone, say, from 76 to 90, 90 something like that. He had started Kahala with Avi, who was a very strong and powerful artist in the sense that is, that was the effect of his clothes. And what struck me was your palette of being bright and colorful and cheerful and powerful. And I don't mind if I'm wrong, but I'd come from, in part, living in England, where the palette of that fashion was taken off of the Moors, meaning mustards and light and dark browns and gray skies and the whole thing. They did it very well. Burberry is a world fashion, world-renowned TM pattern. But again, it's not a bright color. What I liked about that bright color is it resonated. I moved back to Hawaii from Silicon Valley and there's a whole bunch of guys over there that just started buying that stuff and showing up at the office. And so you want to speak about, you know, what happened there? I mean, you did do colors probably stronger than a lot of other people in a different way than C. Jams did, which is pretty bright, but not very detailed. And then the success you had in California and other places. Yeah, thanks, Ricky. You know, I think Cams, Dave Rocklin was, you know, he was a genius and he was our hero and he's in large part why I even thought about going into the garment industry. And he had the freedom to fail and he would do things that were brighter, say, than most other companies. But, you know, he kind of had something for a little bit younger generation that was speaking out and getting more attention where our shirts were a little bit calmer. But we also wanted to have really nice color combinations in our shirts. Our shirts were geared for the downtown comma, I know, businessman. We had button down collars and half pocket shirts, much like what Ren Spooner had done. So we were, we were selling to the businessman so in the banker and the guys trying to conduct business so you can't make them too bright. But you don't want to put anybody to sleep either.  And, you know, oftentimes back in those days we did a lot of reverse print. So you take the fabric that are making the shirt on the right side, which we did for the tourists because they liked it brighter. We made it reversed for the downtown comma and a businessman. And that made it a lot more subtle.  John Severson did great art that was a lot more colorful. He pushed the envelope quite a bit with what he was doing for us. We had some other guys like California artists, surfer Ron Anderson, his were really colorful and probably some of our best sellers too. So we had a variety of artists and we were doing 150 designs a year. So we had, we had all spectrums, you know, super bright and in the middle and softer. And one of the things that you and I had as an experience was going to the Philippines and we walked into their major shopping. I think call it Magnum or whoever it was just we walked into the store start looking at shirts and lo and behold were a bunch of Hawaiian shirts. And the irony was, and you pointed it out was that they had reversed the reverse. So they seriously had copied this and then instead of the words being backwards, they were now forwards. And it was crack up. But the fact that we could that this was going on in the Philippines when we went there maybe 20 years ago also kind of reflects back to how it spread. My guess is principally on on the West Coast and then it went to the East Coast. And if you did, you know, that many designs a year. What, if anything, can you say, was there any segmentation in the market in other words, was there a West Coast popular. Look, as opposed to Hawaiian as opposed to East Coast.  And the resort visitor likes things brighter and come on I like some a little bit more refined a little bit more dressed up but down color. California liked it fun. And we really weren't selling the resort world in California we were selling the Newport Beach guy and the San Diego guy beach community stores is really who we sold to. So they're wearing the reverse print Ivy League shirts a flacket with shorts and real happy in Balboa Newport and Diego and areas like that. In Florida, we sold a lot of fish shirts, fish were King in Florida, everybody fishes in Florida. So not they didn't really understand the reverse so as much, but they do understand all their favorite fish so after going there fishing with other the for it for it ends. And spending time there, we really started doing a lot of fish designs, which they really accepted and appreciated. So with that experience you also went through the Japanese bubble, you ended up selling Kahala and moving over to Patagonia. In the middle of that, for some reason you decide to write a book of the last person on earth that I would have expected. I tried to convince and you wouldn't listen to any of my bad advice, but in so doing that. You then you got a chance to see the Japanese market in their taste. You got to see Patagonia which basically is a cold weather cold water company. How they dealt with a lower shirts or just fabrics and designs any any thought about that. Well that's kind of two questions in one so first. You know I worked on the book, and that was something that was really intriguing to me because I've been in the industry. And I knew a little bit about the history. And if you remember you were helpful in introducing me to the Chun family. Oh, Richan was noted as the first person to ever create yellow shirt because he registered the name. And I met somebody in the Musashia family, Mrs. Musashia. And she said, you know, I wouldn't make the first a lower shirt, but you know the pocket on the street he got all the credit, but no big deal, but I wouldn't make them. So you had this interest of these Asian diversity in downtown Honolulu a block away from each other. And they were using Japanese copy create fabric for women's rose and women's gowns and women's clothing. And they were they were making those into shirts. And that's really how the whole thing started between El Richan and then the Musashia small, you know, specialty stores. Not, you know that that has grown an enormous business and you want to think of how many millions of lower shirts have been made since 1935. It's going to be amazing. And in 1935 in August, like a week after John Barrymore goes into the store to the Musashias and says he wants a shirt. There's the picture of Shirley Temple at age five down at the harbor where 10,000 people came out to meet this childhood rock star. He's wearing a Musashia shirt, Sailor Moku's charm bracelet. And from there it really starts with the movie stars and then we've got Duke Honolulu and he starts wearing them. Then you've got all the Hollywood stars that wear them in movies. And it really starts to go nationwide in America from Hawaii to California and New York. Then we've got our best ambassador, Duke Honolulu. He's an Olympic champion. He's a sheriff. And he gets hooked up with Kahala in the late 30s. He's an ambassador with them. He goes with a company in New York called Cisco and they have national distribution for all the finer better men stores throughout America. And they're making beautiful rayon short sleeve long sleeve shirts. All the guys in the movie Here to Eternity, Bing Crosby and Bert Lanz Kaster, all those guys are all wearing Here to Eternity shirts. So that helps get spread them out internationally, you know, beyond the shores of Hawaii. So it's been an interesting, you know, ride for the yellow shirt, Elvis Warrom, Tom Selleck Warrom. We've got, you know, George Clooney Warrom in the movie Descendants. He wore a shirt that we made. So, you know, the Obama wasn't so big on him. He censored Aloha shirts for the APEC Summit, I think back in 2011. But, you know, they've had a lot of endearment from a lot of international people. Yeah, they have, they do have legs in the sense that they've traveled. And what I was then going to say was, Patagonia picked them up, but also the high end retail stores you were describing going back just recently to the East Coast and doing a book signing at a very high end retail store that was the brainchild of Ralph Lauren, who himself was very successful taking a basic look and just expanding on it. Wildly so. I was in England when he started. Sidebars that I came back home to Hawaii, got one of your shirts that said HRH on it. To get back to England, the customs guy looked at the shirt saw HRH and he wondered. Allowed, and he actually took the shirt he said is, has this been sanctioned by the royal family. Royal Highness. So, you want to comment about Ralph Lauren and that experience that would be great. I love to it's funny because HRH my dad was Howard Robert Hope and labels made because he used to gamble on on Wednesday nights with all the buyers for all the better bigger stores and all the other manufacturers all together and they, those guys all called my dad HRH and so we had those labels laying around as a joke. And when I started working with them. I needed a label and he said use this like I don't want to use that you don't have a choice. Yeah, you know, and just for a second with Patagonia Pataloja. Now Patagonia was a company that made clothes that was going to save your life Pataloja was something that you could wear to be more relaxed and have fun and Pataloja really came from real son. You know, our great ambassador of a law and women's surfing champion from the West Side Macau real son. Yeah. And she befriended the shenards when they came out to Macau to a surfing contest and she ended up going there to work for them. And she designed prints for Pataloja. And then she also wrote a note to Melinda Yvonne's wife, their co owners of Patagonia. And really said that there was time for them to consider a book on Aloha shirts. So in, you know, 10 years ago we published a book with Patagonia on the Aloha shirts. That's 384 page book and it's really great because it honors Rell's wishes. Yeah, it's pretty special. That I did not know. Yes, she was a great surfer. Oh, and a great woman. Unfortunately, she never got mad at me for giving her a low score when I just the surfing heat unlike some of the bigger male surfers who really could do me some harm. But I would have given her a 10 for just battling out. Yeah, no, she was an she had an extraordinary grace. You and I love the water we love surfers we've loved in the water you get authenticity it's kind of hard to hide. And one of the great things in my life, although my dad at the start was somewhat skeptical whether surfing was good for me or not did kind of create my business career by five or six years was, you know, following something that you loved, because it was that really powerful awesome cool. It was life giving. And we have seen that many more people jump into it but that the same standard of, you know, be fun in the ocean as well as competency in dealing with it. And then kind of like a lower shirts did the number of design modifications improvements on for one of the better word aquatic toys and how big that aquatic toy industry has become. There must have been. Not just in your life is the crossover between the lower shirt in Waikiki and the surfing. One of your better prints was a surfboard design in which you incorporated arguably the best surfboard designer I've ever seen. Dick Brewer. Hopefully, nobody's that's still alive will call up and say I was better than Dick, but tell us a little bit about working on on, I mean, on surfboard templates it's not easy. You know, Ricky, back in the days when we would go down to Tongs, I was at Bessie Winkler's house one day and and Joey Cabell came in and he told me that he was meeting Dick Brewer to design a board. And I looked at him and he had it all drawn out on graph paper. And I went, wow, you're, you're, you're, you're really, you know, pretty deliberate about what you want. And he goes, well, the surfboard shapers only as good as the information he gets from the surfer. And I was like, wow, you know, and that was pretty amazing. So I always followed Dick Brewer fell out of 16 in those days.  And I knew that he was the quintessential shaper for the surfing stars if you would in our lifetime. And so we asked Dick if he would draw out all the meaningful boards that he did in his career.  But we added some sort of mid century modern blocks of color, blotches of color in with these boards. And we created that print about 20 years ago. It's still I think Kahala is number one print today. They're doing it really, really well. And they've also used it as the salt and pepper shaker print. Now, in first class in Hawaiian Airlines, they have a little origami shirt, and then they they do it as a little, little salt and pepper holder, and it's the Dick Brewer shirt. So it has it has life way beyond just being a sure but that's everybody's favorite shirt. For sure. So let me get into an argument. I lost with you wrongfully so. When you started the lower ship book captivated me I said okay great this is a product where you can go to Omaha. And, and people go, Oh, reminiscent of when Bruce rounded endless summer. And he showed it in the Midwest, and crowds came and went, Wow. So, from that epiphany of sorts. I started saying, Okay, what else what are the other products that you can do a book on and take do a book on what are the other Hawaiian products that you can do a book on go to Omaha, and they go, aha. And there wasn't many. You let me struggle a little bit on on on identifying it. So I did do the Hawaiian support. I said, Okay, not that they'll recognize it, but it's unique to Hawaii. I branched out a little and I said the Hawaiian detective movie with Charlie Chan to Tom Selleck I kind of like that one. That probably would have made money. And then the other was the Hawaiian hotel room. And in recognition of the name of this segment also Dennis is hockey. It was that kind of thinking that attached somewhat to the reality that over our lifetime we've seen more and more people move here and real estate prices go up and up and more and more resort. Being built. Now, here's the money question. Leaving everything else I set behind. Are we at it? I mean, when we grew up, there's hardly any tourists now. I think I can say there's too many. Do you have any thought about, you know, that and and and what it means for the future both you and I would have to agree that that our business relies on repeat buyers. But I mean, as a Kiki Hokaina. Child of Hawaii. What do you think? Well, you're kind of taking us away from the lawyer sure. Subject here but you know obviously if they all come and they all want to buy a lawyer shirts and we think it's a good thing right. Right. That's what that's what my father did when he started his business. He was making shirts for the visitors. In those days there weren't that many hotels or stores and as we grew up there were more stores more hotels more people jets. You know people weren't coming on boats anymore they went from prop planes to jets and more jets more airlines. And you know today we've got kind of a saturation point. I believe where everything is pretty, pretty stressed out. You know our oceans are very, very full. And we don't have enough bathrooms for and we don't have enough facilities for them. We're really lucky sometimes here on this island, if the number one beach in Hawaii. A puna has running water. So I think we've stressed out our natural spots and our places where everybody wants to go. We've advertised them to the extent where they're being overcrowded I mean look what's happening everybody wants to go to your island to go to Kawaii go to Honolay go to high end up. And that's been stressed out so you know, sure it's all great for business good for hotels car rentals and everything else but what's the cost to the, to the island to the land to the island. I think, you know, those are questions that we, we need to ask the days when people came to visit in our parents generation. They came on the learning there weren't too many of them. They were treated like royalty they were treated by the kings on the beach, all the beach boys, and they had an experience that was incredible. And they left being touched in their hearts that these wonderful people, men, women, you know, gals at the end of the day would they play ukulele and sing songs and the girls would do the little right there on the beach where their moomus. And they'd wear a lay and share flowers with their guests. And that was pretty incredible. Today everything's plastic lays and too many people so. So, you ask a question about a little bit earlier about going back to the mainland going back to the Hamptons and, and doing a little book talk in that double RL Rostler and store. And I will say that the aloha spirit back there was really alive and well people want to know about Hawaii. They want to, in their minds, be able to put a little space in there for a future trip to go to Hawaii They all came out to probably one of Rostler and best stores double RL is the pinnacle of what he really wants to do. They're curated beyond belief they're the most elegant stores I've ever been in. And that store was packed I mean there was no standing room, but people came to learn about the shirts they came to learn about Hawaii. And to get a little taste of something that they know they want to have a part of. They want to come here they want to see what we have.  All out of the images of the aloha shirts that were in my book, but the baker who did them gets five stars. She replicated Jerry Lopez's board that's in the book. With the patio print that Michael Cassidy did on the board.  Which I fear it's heading more in that direction than maintaining the elegance that we once have. The reason why I had you here was to talk about the spirit, the spirit does infuse the land, but the spirit goes beyond the land across the ocean everywhere. We're way past our time. And realistically, but this is a nice moment. I appreciate it. Thank you. Yeah, you bet, Rick. Thanks for having me with you today. Appreciate it. Good fun. Aloha. All right. Take care. Aloha. Mahalo.


Hello, my name is JT Williams and this is my book, A Story of Stories or Why I Write. There once was a child, a curious girl, who loved reading stories. Her books were her world. The library she'd visit with dad once a week and there in those quiet rooms knew tales she would seek and when she had chosen a new book to read she'd carry at home a prize precious indeed and comfortably into a corner she'd sink to ponder its pages, to listen, to think. Like wings the words soared as they bore her away to fantastical places each night, each bright day. In her mind she would travel to worlds near and far her route was the ocean her ship was a star. Of forests and rivers and magic she read the tales of the living the myths of the dead of giants and children and witches and queens of creatures with voices of magic unseen but as she grew older the stories she craved were those of her own world her home life her days she yearned now to learn of the person she'd be the challenges waiting the future she'd see but the story she wished for the ones with her in had not yet been written had not yet been seen so where would she find them these tales of her life of her friends and her family her joys and her strife it was she who must tell them it was she who must write the books that she needed her words must take flight she thought and she wondered she dreamed and she penned the tale of her childhood from beginning to end now others could read it this book all her own she had shared with the world and by skimming this stone by sharing her story for others to read she had made a connection she had planted a seed a book is a journey a learning a spell a space to get lost in a deep place to dwell a comfort a challenge a mystery a thrill a long conversation a climb up a hill to read is a wonder a magic our own a way of communing when we are alone each book can transform us each story we know breathes life into us and helps us to grow so visit your library take time out to choose the stories you wish for the books where you'll lose yourself in the pages and perhaps find yourself too who knows just which book will be perfect for you and if you can't find it then maybe it's time to create your own story or poem or rhyme or lyric or folktale or drama or song whatever you write there's no right or wrong so what will your book be what words will you choose what pictures will grace it what tools will you use you might write with a friend or you may work alone but have fun as you now make a book of your own thank you


Hey, John. Please join me in a moment of centering silence. And now please remain seated for our in-gathering hymn. And the words appear in your order of service. Good morning. Welcome to the First Unitarian Society of Madison. This is a community where curious seekers gather to explore spiritual, ethical, and social issues in an accepting and nurturing environment. Unitarian universalism supports the freedom of conscience of each individual as together we seek to be a force for good in the world. My name is Karen Rose Gredler. And on behalf of the congregation, I would like to extend a special welcome to visitors. We are a welcoming congregation.  Newcomers are encouraged to stay for our fellowship hour after the service and to visit the library, which is directly across from the center doors of this auditorium. Bring your drinks and your questions. Members of our staff and lay ministry will be on hand to welcome you. You may also look for persons holding teal-colored stoneware coffee mugs. These are FUS members knowledgeable about our faith community who would love to visit with you. Experienced guides are generally available. And I happen to know there's one available today to give a building tour after this service. So if you would like to learn more about this sustainably designed addition or our national landmark meeting house across the parking lot, please meet near the large glass window on your side of the auditorium after the service. We welcome children to stay for the duration of the service. However, because it is difficult for some in attendance to hear in this lively, acoustical environment, our child haven back in that corner and the commons all along the back are excellent places to retire if a child needs to talk or move around. The services can still be seen and heard from those areas. Also, this would be an excellent time for you to turn off any electronic devices you have with you that might cause a disturbance during this hour, especially your cell phones. I'd now like to acknowledge those individuals who are helping our services run smoothly. On sound, we have David Burials. Our lay minister is Tom Boykoff. Our greeter is Patty Reardon. And our ushers are Mary Savage, assisted by her hubby Bob at the doors. Ann Hett upstairs, Jay Roberts, who was pulled into service, and Gail Bliss, who was also recruited from the lobby. So as you know, we need more volunteers, especially for the usher duty, where we need three or four people every week. So if you're so inclined, please see someone in the library and learn about how to get your name on the list. Ross Woodward would very much like to talk to you. Hospitality, meaning coffee making and any other drinks they have back there, this morning is being done by Sandy Plish and Chip Quaid. So we thank them all. Please notice the announcements in the red floors in your order of service. Insert, I don't know why I couldn't say that word. Please note that there are a lot of interesting things coming up and some more information about this weekend. So please look at this. Again, welcome. We hope today's service will stimulate your mind, touch your heart, and stir your spirit. As we enter into this time, put away the pressures of the world that ask you to perform, to take up masks, to put on brave fronts. Silence the voices that ask you to be perfect. This is a community of compassion and welcome. You do not have to do anything to earn the love contained within these walls. You do not have to be braver, smarter, stronger, better than you are in this moment to belong here with us. You only have to bring the gift of your body, no matter how able. Your seeking mind, no matter how busy. Your animal heart, no matter how broken. Bring all that you are and all that you love to this, our time together. And if you will rise now in body or spirit to join together in our words of chalice lighting, we light our chalice, symbol of our faith, for truth sought through a questioning heart and an attentive mind. And for love pursued through obstacles inside and outside our own human heart. And for forgiveness and all it entails, the place where truth and love meet and merge. And before we join together in song, if you'll take a moment to greet your neighbor. Please be seated. If you arrived here today with a sorrow so heavy that you need the help of this community to carry it, or if you hold in your heart a joy so great that it simply must be shared, now is that time. The sharing of joys and sorrows is our time in the spirit of acceptance and support to share with one another some special event or circumstance that has affected your life or the life of a loved one in recent days or weeks. This is not a time for general announcements or political opinion. And as you share, please remember that those listening are not limited to the people in this room as our service is broadcast over the web. So for the next few minutes, anyone who wishes is invited to step to the front of the auditorium, light a candle using the microphone, briefly share with us your message. You may also come forward to wordlessly light a candle and return to your seat. And if you are unable to come forward for any reason, please raise your hand. Tom will bring the microphone to you, and we will light a candle on your behalf. I will begin our sharing today. Tom, if you will, light one candle for Roberta Preston, Bobby, as we know her. Bobby has been admitted into hospice and we hold Bobby and her family in our hearts and we send her our love and our support. I'm gonna show you guys, put it next to your mouth. Put it towards your mouth. Just put it towards your mouth. Can you hear me now? This first candle is for Janet Stonesifer, who was taken to the hospital last Sunday and had a pacemaker inserted and is now resting at home. She's quite tired and rests a lot. So we need to hold her in our prayers and chuck too. The second candle is for Eva Wright, who is coming along quite well. She too does tire easily, loves receiving cards, and we're glad that she's doing a little better every day. Good morning, my name is Pam and I have a great joy. I just completed all of my surgeries and procedures and treatments for breast cancer and now I just need to heal. So I'm very, very grateful, thank you. I light a candle for my grandma, who passed away at the age of 83 about two weeks ago and I hope that my grandpa and my aunt and dad will do well with healing and I know that she's in a happier place now. I have a request to ask for your prayers, your concerns, and your eyes and your ears for the elder black woman, still unaccounted for these past two weeks on the east side of Madison. She suffers dementia and I know her African family longs for her return. If you will light one last candle in the spirit of life and love to lift up every joy and hold up every hurt that remain quiet in the silence of our hearts. And if we can now rise in body or spirit to join in our next hymn as our children and teachers leave for classes, please be seated. Once upon a time, there was a blacksmith who worked hard at his trade. The day came for him to die. The angel was sent to him and much to the angel's surprise, he refused to go. He pleaded with the angel to make his case before God that he was the only blacksmith in the area and it was time for all his neighbors to begin their planting and sowing. He was needed. So the angel pleaded his case before God. He said that the man didn't want to appear ungrateful, that he was glad to have a place in the kingdom but could he put it off for a little while and the man was left. About a year or two later, the angel came back with the same message. The Lord was ready to share the fullness of the kingdom. Again, the man had reservations and said, a neighbor of mine is seriously ill and it's time for the harvest. A number of us are trying to save his corpus or another. The blacksmith would just shake his head, tell the angel where he was needed and decline. Finally, the blacksmith grew very old, weary and tired. He decided it was time and so he prayed, God, if you'd like to send that angel again, I'd be glad to come home now. Immediately, the angel appeared as if from around the corner of the bed. The blacksmith said, if you still want to take me home, I'm ready to live forever in the kingdom of heaven and the angel laughed and looked at the blacksmith in delight and surprise and said, where do you think you've been all these years? He was home. I'll be ashamed to turn, turn, till the turning, turning, turning. Thank you. It's a joy to have the society choir back again. When I was a child, the priest who served our Catholic church loved a hymn called, here I am, Lord. It goes something like this. I, the Lord of snow and rain, I have borne my people's pain. I have wept for love of them, they turn away. I will break their hearts of stone, give them hearts for love alone. I will speak my word to them, whom shall I send? Here I am, Lord, is it I, Lord? I have heard you calling in the night. I will go if you lead me. I will hold your people in my heart. We sang this hymn week after week, so much so that I could stand here and sing the entire hymn to you from memory, even though I haven't really thought of it in probably over 20 years. It was this refrain, I will go if you lead me. I will hold your people in my heart that really stuck. This was the peace that Father Collie wanted us to remember. Each week after we sang that hymn, he would reinforce this message of care, of giving, of taking to heart this idea that we are the ones who are here. We are the ones being sent to love, to remember, to heal. There are many who believe that helping, that service is who we truly are. In that seminal work, how can I help? Ramdoss and Paul Gorman wrote, caring for one another, we sometimes glimpse an essential quality of our being. We may be sitting alone lost in self-doubt or self-pity when the phone rings with a call from a friend who is really depressed. Instinctively, we come out of ourselves just to be there with her and say a few reassuring words. When we're done and a little comfort's been shared, we put down the phone and feel a little more at home in ourselves. We're reminded of who we really are and what we have to offer. Father Collie was this magnificent Jesuit priest who brought the stories of the Bible alive. All of us, young and old, listened to his stories on the edge of our seats because when he talked about these ancient tales, they actually made sense. They made us laugh. They made us question our place in the world and understand something more about who we are and what we are meant to be doing. I will never forget the Sunday when he brought up the parable of the loaves and the fishes. Do you remember this one? It's also known as the Feeding of the Five Thousand. The story is usually interpreted to highlight Jesus' miraculous abilities. When read in this way, the emphasis is on Jesus' special relationship to God and how this relationship allowed him to turn five loaves of bread and two fish into enough food for everyone. When Jesus prayed, God worked a miracle through him. The food meant for maybe a dozen became more than enough for five thousand. Father Collie reminded us that like all the stories in the scriptures, this one could be interpreted in another way. What he said that morning stuck. Jesus performed a miracle that morning, he said. The miracle was that he spoke words that opened people's hearts to one another and taught them the power of sharing, the power to give, the power to receive, the power of community.  When Jesus brought out the loaves and the fishes that he and his companions had with them, when he blessed the food and offered to share even though it never would have been enough, he convinced everyone else present to share with the group what they each had. Some may have had fruit in their pockets and his generosity moved them to share it. Others had loaves of bread tucked away in the bottoms of their bags and when they saw what was happening, they decided to share as well. In this way, the whole community created a great miracle and because they shared, everyone had not only enough but more than was needed. The Buddhist teacher Jack Cornfield would tell us that this is what is to be expected. We all have without exception, he writes, a very deep longing to give, to give to the earth, to give to others, to give to society, to work, to love, to care. That's true for every human being and even the ones who don't find it, it's because it has been squashed or somehow suppressed in some way in their life but it is there to be discovered. We all long for that and there's a tremendous sorrow for a human being who doesn't find a way to give. One of the worst of human sufferings is not to find a way to love or a place to work and give of your heart and your being, opportunities to give arise everywhere. One thing I've come to understand is that it isn't the bold initiatives or the grand strategies which make a difference, it's the small moments, the times when you have brightened someone's day with a smile or a call, remind it them that they are not alone in their struggle. Rabbi Neckman of Breslov, a Hasidic master once said, it's very easy to criticize others and make them feel unwanted. Anyone can do that. What takes effort and skill is picking them up and making them feel good. A favorite poem of mine is this one from Naomi Shahib Nye, entitled Kindness. Before you know what kindness really is, you must lose things. Feel the future dissolve in a moment like salt in a weakened broth. What you held in your hand, what you counted and carefully saved, all this must go, so you know how desolate the landscape can be between the regions of kindness. How you ride and ride, thinking the bus will never stop, the passengers eating maize and chicken will stare out the window forever.  You must see how this could be you, how he too was someone who journeyed through the night with plans and the simple breath that kept him alive. Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside, you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing. You must wake up with sorrow. You must speak to it till your voice catches the thread of all sorrows and you see the size of the cloth. Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore. Only kindness that ties your shoes and sends you out into the day to mail letters and purchase bread. Only kindness that raises its head from the crowd of the world to say, it is you I have been looking for. And then it goes with you everywhere like a shadow or a friend. Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore. A kindness that flows naturally out of the recognition of our connection, our oneness, our place in this web. As we move around this world and as we act with kindness perhaps, or with indifference, or with hostility toward the people we meet, we are setting the great spider web a tremble.  And that in turn another. And who knows where the trembling stops or in what far place my touch will be felt. Our acts have reverberations which are felt way beyond our imagining. Kindness is sometimes viewed as one of those worn out virtues lacking in charisma or clout. And yet it encompasses meaningful acts of love, words of encouragement, reverberations beyond our knowing, generosity and healing. No wonder Abraham Joshua Heschel near the end of his life said, when I was young, I used to admire intelligent people. As I grow older, I admire kind people. Caring, giving, kindness, these are essential qualities of our being human. Yet there are two parts of this important to remember. First, the words of the poem. Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside, you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing. We have many ways to distract ourselves from suffering, from sorrow, and from the fact that they are both there in others and ourselves. Denial, abstraction, constant activity, these are all ways in which the mind reacts to suffering and attempts to restrict the natural compassion of the heart. As we reach out, we often pull back because the pain is too raw, the suffering too close to home, the feelings too intense. This is a lesson of caring, to truly care for another. We must learn the gifts of openness and presence. This is no easy skill. It takes practice and time and courage. We must learn to be open without judgment, without turning away to the beauty and the pain of another. Sitting with each other in our grief, holding a hand to say, you are still here, I am still here, and you are not alone. This is a gift we give to each other and to ourselves. And this is a second piece. We need to loosen our hold on that beloved proverb it is better to give than to receive. Let's replace it with, from you I receive, to you I give, together we share and from this we live. When we give to another, we're saying you have value in my eyes. You are important to me.  When we receive from another, we are acknowledging that we are not entirely self-sustaining, that we need one another, that we are vulnerable. Giving and receiving is a dance, and many of us are quite comfortable with the giving. Few are good at the receiving. Sometimes we are caught off guard in our unsure how to react. Other times we're embarrassed by the attention. Questions begin forming in our mind, how do I feel about this person? What is my past experience with her? How does she want me to react? Is this gift something that we really want? What will he want in return? Just as giving requires us to practice openness and presence, receiving requires us to practice emptiness and letting go. Our minds are so full of our own stories, our own ideas, preconceived notions, assumptions, that it's difficult for us to empty ourselves and simply receive a kind gesture, or a gift given with gratitude and compassion. It requires letting go. Letting go of our need to direct our lives and control the outcomes. Letting go of the stories that we use to understand ourselves, simply accepting what comes. The truth is that we need each other. Not a one of us can be spared, and the only way we can succeed individually and together is in the giving and receiving that keeps our world whole. This congregation, every congregation, is a community of revolving care receivers and caregivers. Here in this place, we can be strong enough to care and vulnerable enough to receive. The classic notion that the pastoral work of this congregation is done totally by the ministers is simply not the case. We are blessed with a lay ministry program, a network of care and support. People who offer comfort, kindness, help, and healing to members and friends. These are people who model openness, presence, emptiness, and letting go. They have experienced joy and woken with sorrow and have come to this work with the realization that only kindness makes sense. In a moment, we'll be recognizing them and the work that they do here.  They are here for you. If you are being stirred this morning to join them, to offer yourself up as one who would like to do this work, come and talk with me. Anne Lamott posted these words a few days ago. Last night at Arbor Lawn United Methodist Church in Fort Worth, the last of 14 cities on this book tour, a woman in her late 20s raised her hand and asked, what is the big picture? I do a lot of things that I love and value, but I don't have a clue what it all means. The crowd was actually hushed, as if I might have the secret launch codes and could answer this for all time. I said, welcome to the monkey house, stealing one of Vonnegut's titles. Everyone of every age roared with friendly laughter because we're all in the same boat. We all think we missed school, the day that the visiting specialist stopped by our second grade classroom to distribute the pamphlets on what is true, who we are, how we are to live with the great mystery of life, how to come through dark times, how to awaken. We're all sort of winging it, trying to learn self-love and respect, trying to be here now sometimes and live lives of meaning and joy. This is what I said to her. You do a lot of things that you love and value. That's the big picture. You've learned about radical self-care, about putting your own oxygen mask on first, yet also have discovered that we can only be filled up by service, by giving. Ram Dass said that he thought that when it was all said and done, we are all just walking each other home. That's the meaning, I think. That's the big picture. That's why we are here. May we hold one another in our hearts and may we feel the deep responsibility and gift of walking each other home, home to beauty, to wholeness, to peace. Blessed be. I now invite you into the giving and the receiving of the morning's offering. It is an outreach offering. You can read more about our recipient in your order of service. We thank you for your generosity. Ministry is all that we do together. Among the many opportunities, the lay ministry team lives this out in tangible ways through the work they do each day. Lay ministers come to this work with a compassionate heart, ready to be present, to listen deeply, to companion on the journey. As the professional ministers, Michael and I cannot be everywhere when there is a need. Lay ministers hold a special role in this community for they serve as an extension of the ministry that we do. Lay ministers are committed to this work. They participate in regular meetings and receive skill-building opportunities throughout the year. Their dedication and commitment is palpable and strong. So today we pause to honor and bless our lay ministers. So will the lay ministers present please stand? There are many more of them. They're just mainly an 11 o'clock crowd. We are grateful for your role in this place. You work in coordination with us and serve this community as compassionate listeners and companion others on their journey. You have our trust and our respect. We thank you for your service and we ask, are you willing to serve this congregation as you are able and do what you can to build and maintain this beloved community? With open hearts and welcoming hands, will you listen and care for members and friends with whom you are matched? If so, please say we will. And if the congregation will rise in body or spirit, to all of you, I ask, will you members and friends of this congregation support these lay ministers in their efforts? Will you trust them and open your hearts to the gifts they have to offer? If so, please say we will. With full and grateful hearts, we thank you for your service and your presence in this beloved community. And now that you're already up and standing, if you'll join together in hymn number 301, please be seated. Before you leave today, I just want to remind you in that three short weeks, you will be able to sign up for Select to Connect events. So since it's only three weeks away, we wanted to make sure that you know what it is. These are events, dinners, picnics, sporting events. They are a fantastic way for people to get to know each other better. They are events created by our members and friends, by all of you. There are already some submitted on the FUS website that you can look at. And speaking of events, I'm hearing from Sally who is out there in the Commons staring at me. Sally is here staffing the table each weekend. What she tells me is that many of you are speaking with her or with Becky about these great ideas that you have for events, but the confirmation and information isn't coming in. So we really want Select to Connect to be a great success, both in making connections and also raising some much needed funds for the budget. I'm asking for your help today in thinking about an event, an activity that you can host. My family is once again doing a winter solstice family celebration. It's crafts and snacks and all to welcome back the sun. It's simple and it's easy and it's fun. If I can do it, you can do it. Trust me. Michael and Sasha and I are going to host a yet-to-be-announced get-together. But whatever it is, it's going to be fabulous. So Sally is out at the table in the Commons, stop by after the service, talk to her about an event, tell her that you'd like to do something but you don't know what. She has amazing ideas. So thank you for thinking about hosting and then thank you for remembering to sign up to attend some of these events in just three weeks. And now our closing.  The ones gathered here with you are seeking wholeness and know that you are doing the same. As you leave this place, may your hearts remain open, may your voices stay strong, and may your hands always, always be reaching out. Blessed be and go in peace.