After having an unfortunate dream on 21 Oct night i was extra cautious about my belongings which i needed to carry with me on the journey to my long awaited holidays.I was just passing days and time at office so that i could go to have a tension free,work and client conference free holidays with my family.I was not in the mood to see another any such dream which makes me wake up drenched in sweat.
On the day on which i have to travel i left office at around 1 pm (not on 12:30 pm as i did in my dream and i don't want to repeat all the things which i saw two days earlier) to avoid any bad omen. Came to my room,picked my luggage,double checked whether i am carrying my wallet and cell phone.Took auto to Metro station and finally reached NDLS railway station after facing all security measures incorporated at Metro stations.
Checked status of train on enquiry counter, my train was one and half hour late... i thought not a good day....again i checked my wallet and cell phone as i was extra cautious this time but not over smart.I started moving to the platform but before that i took a quick glance at the area around me,actually my eyes were searching for that telephone booth from where i made a phone call to my home in my dream but i was surprised to saw that there was no such telephone booth particularly in that area which i saw in my dream.
Took stairs to go on platform six where my train was scheduled to arrive with an delay of one hour thirty minutes.Crowd at platform left not a single seat as some train was already there which was about to leave.After taking one full round trip of platform i got a seat to sit.I checked my ticket which was kept inside the pocket of bag to confirm that if i lost my money than at least I'll be able to go home.My train ticket was not confirmed but it was Reservation against cancellation (RAC) so moreover my ticket was half confirmed in which i was required to share half seat with some other passenger and need to travel 1250 miles by sitting until or unless one of us bribe TC for a full seat or adjust our self on the ground of coach.I was thinking that if i get tired of sitting than i will take the opportunity to adjust myself at ground level once all the passengers of 6 seat get settled and ground level of AC coaches are clean as compared to sleeper coaches. I looked at my watch,still half an hour left for the train to show up.Suddenly another announcement declared that train is delayed by total 2 hours.God....why these guys don't tell exact information at a time,i must have gone to some near by place to kill time instead of sitting here on platform and watching passengers moving here and there.
I felt a very little and acute feeling of head ache as my ears were listening all the crappy and useless sounds there from last one and half hour.To avoid this, i took some short rounds as i was not in mood to lose my seat and i also wanted keep an eye on my bag which i kept at the place where i was sitting couple of minutes before.Reading novel which was in my bag came to my mind but i refused to do so as i did not wanted to read that story in that creepy atmosphere.
Another announcement declares that train is delayed by another half an hour which made it total of 2 hour and 30 minutes,this time railway gave explanation also.....they said "due to unavailability of platform we are not able to bring the train in....and it is standing on outer of NDLS rlwy station....".Ndls rlwy station has 16 platforms, all of them were occupied out of which 4 were under maintenance,so a total of 12 platforms.
person: 90 is my waiting number.
busiest Delhi to Mumbai route.
and that's why i am trying to see my status.
person: thanx for the information but i don't have cell phone with me.
checked his status with my cell phone and moved back to my seat.I thought he must not be in the mob who were wooing the display board but i got surprised when i found him standing there....may be his dad instructed him to not to believe on stranger in any means.
Suddenly i felt a drift in the mob present on platform, i came to know that long awaited train was arriving on the platform and that was the time when i need to leave my seat which was acquired by me from past 2 hours. Train halted and passengers started boarding deboarding,again tiff occurred between passengers boarding and deboarding.I managed to reach my half seat,kept my luggage below the seat and was sitting casually watching movements of peoples trying to get settle down with their luggage.I was wondering who will gonna be the owner of other half seat,actually i was waiting for that passenger to come.Its been only 10 minutes left from the departure time of train and still there is no sign of that passenger.I thought may be this person will board the train from next stop Mathura or he will be in some other coach.I took out my ear phones and started listening music as i was fresh at this time,no sign of acute head ache.
girl:Excuse me,is this your seat?
me :yes,but only the half one.
me :are you having the RAC on this seat number.
me :just settle down, i will be back.
Girl:"At what time this train will reach to Vadodara?"
me :"train is running 3 hours late and right time of reaching Vadodara is 8:30 am, so now it will reach around 11 am"
girl :"how come 11 am,according to delay in 3 hours it should reach at 11:30 am"
me :Ya that's true,but generally this train covers some time in night as it runs continuously in night due to no traffic of other trains on the track.
went out by saying that "you get settle down, i will be back" at that moment i went out to see reservation chart".She said "and what would be your answer if you were gonna lie?" i said "than probably i must have said that i have seen it on platform itself".
me : So you are going to Vadodara?
Shalini: What makes you say that i am going to Vadodara?
me : Well just now you asked me when this train gonna reach Vadodara,isn't it.
Shalini: Well,that doesn't mean i am deboarding there.Actually i am expecting my uncle to be there.
me : okay (before i asked her again and just opened my mouth,she said).
Shalini: by the way i am going to Bandra.
Shalini: and you to Surat,isn't it.
She took out a novel from her hand bag and it was Sons of fortune by Jeffrey Archer, i asked her "whether she is also a fan of Jeffrey Archer?" she said "who else here is also fan of him,are you" i said "yes,i am, as i have Shall we tell the president with me".I asked her "how is Mr Fletcher? (one of the character from sons of fortune)", she said "if you are in mood to tell me the climax than please don't do that" i said "No,i just want to know at which point you are right now".
She asked me "so...Ankit,what do you do?" i said " I am working as a software engineer in an Software MNC which has one branch at Noida"...okay she said (as usual) and "i am in the profession of event management and i am going to Bandra for an event", she told me about herself before i asked her.I said "well good to know you are in event management profession,but i didn't asked you about this"...she said "yes,but you were eager to know this,don't you".... i was out of words...she was so clever and quick....i said "That's why you are in this profession"...she didn't said any thing as she got what i meant by those last words of mine.
I was reading my novel as i was not getting any other thing on which our conversation can be continued.Train was running fast by passing stations and approaching Mathura.I or in fact we both were waiting for dinner to come which we ordered to irctc catering service.Due to delay in train at Delhi, pantry service got affected and dinner was served late.During the dinner i asked her what kind of event her company manages and i came to know that her company manages social shows which are performed by bands,singers and stars for charity which includes management of things like security,seating arrangements,stage arrangements,spacing arrangements,safety arrangements,catering arrangements.She belonged to safety and seating arrangements.
As it was already late,passengers started arranging their bedding to catch some sleep as all were tired by the wait which each one has to do for train.I was feeling tired but i or we don't have any other option other than sitting.In fact i quit thought of settling down on ground floor.I said Shalini to stretch her legs on the seat,she refused first but after some time she felt i was suggesting a good idea and she stretched her legs.I was reading my novel but as lights went off i was unable to read,so i went outside to get some light as i need to pass time.Shalini was resting out at the full seat,i thought may be she fell asleep on the full seat but i need to sit there also as i was not able to spend whole night standing near wash basin with a novel in my hand. I heard the sound of door which separates the non-ac and ac section of coach,when i turned back it was Shalini.I said "Hey,i thought you fell asleep as you were looking tired",she said she was not feeling sleepy and she was also not able to read her novel in the dark and feeling bored so she came out to have a chat.She asked me about my profession,she also has the same perception about software industry that our life is so cool and full of glamour.I cleared her that BPO life is glamorous and software life is cool because we work in an air conditioned environment,nothing other than this is cool about software life.
Train stopped at Bharatpur station, i asked Shalini whether she needs tea or coffee as i was going down to have one for mine,she agreed to have tea.I said "okay get inside to seat,i will be back".I went back holding two cups of tea in hand,hand overed one to her.As people around us were sleeping, we were not able to talk in normal pitch of voice.When Shalini was taking sip from her cup i was looking at her,she was looking fantabulous as blue light was falling on her face and got mixed with her fair complexion.I felt i was infatuated.She was silently sipping her tea, i asked her why she is so silent and not uttering any word.She responded back to this question and i was not expecting that response,she said "you were continuously staring me,what makes you do that?".I replied to her that "honestly speaking you are looking fantabulous at this time and i was not able to take my eyes off from you"....hmmm...she said...she said "you know what,i like your honesty,things which u said so honestly is good,but i don't know whether this is your honesty or you are flirting with me", i said " you are right, but this depends on you that what perception you had for me and how much you trust me in this".Shalini said,she was talking to me from the time when she boarded the train,girls normally don't talk to people if they have a bad perception about them.I asked her whether she is telling me any secret of girls or a reality.A reality of an normal person....i got the answer from her.
She said we should take some rest now as it is already 2:30 am,so we can spread our legs towards each other and i should not shy for keeping legs towards her....c'mon don't be so formal...she said to me... i kept my legs towards her but on the outer side of the seat.She closed her eyes but i didn't.She asked me to stop staring, i said i was not staring her as to stare her i should be able to see her face and her face was in complete dark shadow of above seat.She slapped me on my legs and continued to close her eyes and said "when was the last time you were serious,can't you give a straight answer to any question which is asked to you..... ",i said "sorry madam...i am sorry,now please continue your rest at 2:35 am".
Train was running fast to cover delayed time.I was looking out of glass window but I was able to see only my reflection as outside environment was completely dark,few things were visible when a small station comes.My phone was playing Is this love a song from movie Pyaar k Side Effects and i was asking that question to myself but i was not able to find the answer.I still thought that i have an infatuation.
I started feeling as if some kind of weight are on my eyelids as they are getting down.I was feeling sleepy, i fell asleep but got awake as Shalini shifted her leg.Train was approaching Kota,I again fell asleep.I felt some kinda drift in train,some kinda creepy sound which generally produced by tyres of train, i didn't opened my eyes.I start hearing more lound sounds, sounds of people.I opened my eyes and looked at scared and horrifying faces of people.Some thing was going wrong, I looked at Shalini,totally scared and unknown of the fact what was happening.
Suddenly we felt heavy jerks, i assumed that our train is getting derailed and our coach is going to collapse.Oh my god was the word in my mind.As soon as the word derailed passed through out my mind,whole picture of catastrophic damages and loss of live flashes into my eyes.
The situation was like we all gonna die but i was not prepared to die, i dont't want to get died so early, i haven't seen the world, i don't want to die without having love of life.... Oh my god, Oh my god please save us,please save us all.... and then i felt that our coach is finally getting down as we felt lots of jerks and all the luggage was scattered on the floor.People were shouting for the help, i felt some thing hit my head, i lost my control on myself and became unconsious. Last thing i saw before collapsing was Shalini was lending her hand to support me.
Shalini:What......what are you talking ????
i didn't told her the whole story or the dream which i had last night.
me:Oh...i slept very long btw did u met your uncle?
me:Okay, lemme get fresh and compile my luggage as we are approaching to Surat in next 2 hours.
Shalini: So what are your plans once you reach your home?
me: nothing planned as of now, one thing which in my mind right now is to just have a good break and a good sleep in my mom's arms.
Shalini:Good, mine will be hectic once i will step in to Mumbai.
I got a glimpse of Tapi river and said "its time to go", she suddenly took out her cell phone and asked me my cell phone no.We exchanged our cell phone numbers so that we can keep in touch.
I asked her to just give me a call when she reach Mumbai, she assured me to do so..... I de boarded the train met my parents who were waiting on the platform and waived a final bye to her and moved on.
24 oct 08 was the day when i was supposed to leave Delhi for my long awaited Diwali vacations.Keeping things in my bag on daily basis as the big date was approaching so that i can avoid last minute packing hip haps... each time i see my bag i got a feeling that i am gonna have a good vacation.
Finally the day arrived and i left office at around 12:30 pm to reach railway station on time although New Delhi railway station is not so far from Noida but i kept an margin as i was very exicted and i was not in a mood to spoil this exictement.
1:30 pm i was standing at Metro station waiting for Metro to show up which goes towards New Delhi Metro station by runing on pair of rails 30 feet below the ground level.In the mean time i was looking at the advertisement which were fixed at underground station,while i was looking at the adds i came across a warning which mentioned to be aware of pick pocketers,i smiled at that warning and said to myself "i am smart enough".
Finally Metro train arrived and crowded platform become more crowded as people are jostling to get in the Metro.I got a leg space towards the other door to keep my both legs on the floor and heard some inside announcements which are used to run in a loop to keep inform travellers about pick pocketers and upcoming stations.
I was enjoying the standing ride in the Delhi Metro and hoping that may Mumbai also get an Metro so that people get a low fare air conditioned ride on Metros instead pushing each other to board local train and than stand in the mob which makes you suffocate if you are not on the door side of local train.My thought of Mumbai having a local train came to end when i heard an annoucement that Train is approaching NDLS (Rlwy code for New Delhi) and doors will open on right.I prepared myself to deboard the train by taking my bag on my shoulders.
Coolie: Sir, its Diwali time and today is Friday which results in more days of vacations for every one.
Me: Oh yeah, i forgot today is Friday.
Coolie:Sir, may i carry your luggage.
Me: No thanx, i only have one bag,i will manage.
Coolie: Ok sir, no problem.
I know he was thinking that i will not hire him so there is no point of wasting time on me.I moved ahead from there thinking that "being an software engineer how the hell i forgot that today is Friday", the answerable and favourable part of my mind said "C'mon exictement is the only reason",instantly other part of mind said " this man is over exicted" i said "Shutup.....just shutup both of you and stop fighting......" i just had a quick look at the people around me to confirm that they had not heard what i just said.
Okay, enquiry counter was next to check the status of train,Paschim Express scheduled to arrive at right time on platform no 6.I got a smile on face and thanked to God that train is at right time.
Taking my torned bag i started to move towards paltform and took one soft drink from the railway snacks counter and when i slipped my hand in pocket for the payment i felt nothing there, i got an hint that i got pick pocketed but i was not going to believe this.....i calmly put my bag down and started looking in other pockets of my jeans...vendor asked "what happened" i said nothing "i don't need that soft drink take it back"..... looked for a seat to put boms down and think what exactly happened very calmly so that i can recall if i had put my wallet somewhere else other than my pocket.
Soon i was googling my brain for the event of series that occured starting from my home to NDLS station.
Started from home --> hired auto-rickshaw to Metro station --> paid fare to auto-rickshaw driver --> this confirms that i had wallet uptill Metro station.
Took token from Metro station to NDLS Metro station -->paid fare again from the wallet.
Boarded metro --> deboared at Kashmiri gate--> change line2 from line1 --> boarded again for New delhi --> deboarded at NDLS Metro station. (Chances are may be i got pick pocketed in Metro).
Rewinded all the picture of past 2 hours in my mind but the fact is i got pick pocketed..... i came across that warning at metro station where i smiled and said i am smart enough....and now all that smartness went.I started counting what all the things i have lost and what actions i have to take now, my money,my train ticket,my driving license,my credit cards,my ATM/debit card, 2 passport photographs of mine (who cares about 2 passport photographs but a loss is a loss) that's it.
I was aware about the fact that i will not be able to catch the train to my home as i lost my Internet ticket, i can take another print out but i don't have money for that and Internet ticket requires an identification proof which also went with my wallet.I realised that i should call to my bank for barding any transactions made from my credit and debit card.
I realised that there is no point in sitting at the platform as i will not be able to board the train, i started to move out of station and suddenly i felt somebody's hand on my shoulder, when i turned my face back Ticket checking officer was asking me for ticket as they do with passengers who were going out of the station.God.... now how will i explain to him that from what i have just gone through an how will he react after listening my story.
TC: where is the ticket?
me:Sir, i had ticket but i got pick pocketed.
TC: Oh, good one young man.
me: Sir, i am not lying.
me: Sir, i camed here to board Paschim express but my tcket and all stuff got pick pocketed,trust me.
TC: I cannot trust you,c'mon pay the fine.
me: Sir, i don't have a single penny from where i will pay the fine, you can check me.
me: Sir, i am sure check me and you will not find anything from me.
me: I am sure check me.
He checked me throughly,he didnt got anything.He checked my bag, he again didnt got anything... he said "Abe bilkul khaali ghoom raha he kya" i said " Sir, i told you" than he said "Chal side me khada reh,tere ko abhi dekhta hoon" as in the mean time he missed some more passengers may be who travelled without ticket.I was standing at side just a like fool watching passengers passing me,suddenly TC moves a lil bit and it seems like he don't have an eye on me...i just run out of there through the door....and once i was out he was unable to do anything...i dumped him here but i didn't have any other option.
I was thinking why this happens that when you have ticket than no body ask you anything,but when you don't have ticket you always face an TC.
Suddenly the whole world around me seems to be unknown,i felt dejected as i have not a single penny.That day i uderstood the true value of money.
My situation was like a begger or some con man which are always seen at Ndls station asking for money, moreover like a con man which have a travelling bag with him and keep asking people that "i got pick pocketed and i lost all money, i need to go some x place can you please help me" and in response to this people just tell him to go away....but they don't even think that what if that person is saying truth and really needs help..... but why they should think like that as i was also among those who tell him to go away every time i came across such men and women.... today this happened to me that's why i am thinking from their point of view, today i need help that's why i am saying that may be the person is genuine and really needs help.
You know..... when you are in trouble only your near ones comes for help and at that time my mind helped me to change the idea to make a local call to STD call, yes my mind was suggesting me to make STD call to my home and tell them all this may be they can help me out.But i was asking my self how they will help me as they are 1250 miles away from here....i checked my watch it was showing 5:00 pm still official time....i got an idea.... without knowing operator at STD booth that i lost my money and don't have a single penny to pay his bill i called my home and briefed them all things and asked them to call at my office number with an extension of my roomy and instructed them to brief him all this so that he can come here and pick me up.....i also asked them to keep me ringing on the telephone number from which i am making this call for furthur information.
I got some relief that i will get picked up by my room mate, i got an confirmation call from my home on the same number and i asked them to reclaim the amount of my train ticket through internet as i was not able to board the train.Telephone operator was not able to understand what's going at his telephone booth and how come i was receiving calls at his booth.
I briefed him too and he don't have any other choice so he was also waiting for my roomy to arrive alongwith me so that he can get his bill,after all he is also working for his bread.
"Sir, we don't know whether he is in trouble or faking,but we can do some help from the perspective of humanity, if they really need help than they will need to make a phone call just like you did here so we can help them to make phone calls, we can make them to have some tea/coffee or something to eat as they have no money and who knows from how long he has not eaten up but don't give big amount of money in case he or she is faking out than this action will inspire them to con more and more peoples."
I also realised this thing that we should not bully them and try to find out whether he/she really needs help or just faking out.I was so tired by all this and i was feeling sleepy, i wanted to catch some sleep as i was not overconsious about my luggage as bag was not having any thing expensive other than my clothes......suddenly i started hearing sound of my mobile.....i was aware that i was not having my cell phone with me and it must be some body else phone which was ringing so i continued and didnt opened my eyes...but it was continuously ringing as if it was waiting for me to pick up....i heard the voice of my roomy "c'mon get up you are getting late,c'mon get up from the bed" i got amazed that why he is saying like that infact he should say "Hi Ankit,lets go home".
I felt a kick on my bom and when i opened my eyes i was at my room,lying on my bed and my cell phone was ringing with Alarm tone..... i was not able to understand what's happening there....i just took up my phone,shut the alarm off and when i saw the date an time on it, it was 22-oct,8:00 am.....i took my head in my both hands and said "OMG that was a dream and still two days has to go for my journey"......when my roomy reappeared in room i thanked him...he asked "thanx for what" i said "for nothing...just wanted to thank you".
That dream taught me some thing about over smartness and a way to handle con mans.... or i should say a man who lost his money and need help.I realised that what kind of misfortunes and at what level a person can have in a day.
Who says life teaches the lesson.....i think some times dreams also teaches you.


text:
using System.Collections.Generic;

namespace Serenity
{
    public interface IChainable
    {
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Good to see you here this morning, church. Do me a favor if you would. Go ahead and grab a Bible. Turn to James, chapter 1. That's where we're going to be anchoring out of here. As you're turning there to James, chapter 1, as has already been mentioned, Matt is gone here for a few weeks on vacation with his family, getting some time together.
In that absence I have the opportunity to think through where we need to press into, where the Lord would lead us here to press into these next few weeks. For me the one thing I've noticed over and over at this campus for a while in the short time I've been here, honestly, is the great deal of suffering by which many of you even in this room have walked through, not only this past year, but maybe in the past few years here.
Almost to an incredible weight of all the different places I've been, suffering is always there, but there's something about this particular place. It just seems like the number of folks who have walked through cancer here, the number of folks who have tragically lost loved ones, the number of circumstances that we've just seen so many in our body walk through in the past year that have been so painful and difficult, it's one of those things.
From my vantage point, you're not really sure if it's just the "We're going to play the numbers on this thing. When you get 5,000 people at one campus, you're going to get 5,000 of everything. So it's just all going to be there. Maybe it's just the numbers," or you don't know if this is kind of an Acts 5 type of deal when the disciples were arrested, beaten, released, and they came out rejoicing because they were counted worthy to suffer.
You just wonder, "Has God appointed us for a certain reason or not to suffer for his name's sake?" Regardless of what it is, suffering is part and parcel to life. My hope is for the next few weeks here we can spend some time really laying some foundations of what it means to have a healthy, biblical perspective on suffering and how to respond appropriately as the Lord would have us in the midst of suffering and to do so.
So this week we're going to take a look at God's purposes in trials, next week we're going to look at our specific response as believers in trials, then we're going to spend some time looking at our hope that we have in the midst of trials, and then finally we'll conclude with our security in the midst of trials. Again, laying a foundation or, if nothing else, for many of us in this room a fresh reminder that we need to kind of bathe in in terms of God's perspective of trials.
C.S. Lewis said this really famous quote when he said, "God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world." So there is a place and there is a purpose and there is a perspective of suffering we need to have heading in. To do so, we're going to start with a classic passage in the book of James. We're going to spend this week on the first half of this chapter and next week on the last half.
If you're not familiar with James, many would agree this is most likely Jesus' little half brother, who would eventually be appointed one of the leaders of the Jerusalem church along with Peter. He's writing to a very interesting group of Christians at the time. These were some impoverished, blue-collar Christians who had been oppressed by the wealthy ruling authority of their day.
Because this was such a new embryonic little church, many of these were brand new believers, new converts to Christianity, probably very immature to some degrees in their faith and had been blindsided by the difficult time they're having in living out what it was they believed. In many ways they were shocked by how quickly life was getting difficult.
Specifically in verse 1, we notice something about the audience of this letter. It's written to the twelve tribes of the dispersion. These were Jewish converts who had been scattered outside of Jerusalem because of persecution and in their scattering were encountering much persecution. So the thought here is again early on they were discovering the Christian life wasn't as easy as they thought it was going to be, that following Jesus Christ was costing them more than they probably originally had intended.
Has anybody ever been there, by the way? Has anybody ever felt that before, where you come to faith in Jesus Christ, and whether it's due to your own faulty thinking or deception or whether it's due to some joker on TV who lied to you, who tried to tell you that somehow because you follow the sovereign and supreme God of the universe and you're his adopted child, he's not going to let anything bad happen to you.
The more you follow Jesus, the healthier you should get, the more money should be in your wallets, the more people will like you and love you. Life should be blissful and peaceful all your days, only to come to find out it's probably actually the exact opposite, isn't it? Many of you who have put your faith in Christ soon found out after following Christ that, man, things got even more difficult.
In some ways new trials began to set in. Maybe because of your faith in Christ your parents began to turn their back on you and friendships began to get severed. Maybe there are some circumstantial hardships. Maybe you lost your job. Maybe you suffered the tragic loss of a loved one. Maybe some diagnosis came along of some chronic illness or terminal disease you found out you had.
Has anybody ever felt that way in the midst of a trial? I know I have felt that way many times. It's exactly what the audience of James's letter here was feeling as well. What James is going to do in verse 2 and following is he's going to provide for these struggling and persecuted Christians a biblical perspective concerning why trials exist and then what a healthy Christian response should be when you find yourself going through them.
If you're a note taker, if you have a pen and you kind of like to outline things, next to verses 2 through 4 just write the word perspective. How do you perceive as a Christian the hard times you're going to go through from a theological point of view? Then in verses 5 to 11, write the word response. Once you have had a correct biblical perspective, how do you then proceed in that trial when life literally turns into a sinkhole that is swallowing you alive? Lastly, by verse 12 you can write the word result. For what purposes will God ultimately use that trial in your life? What is the eventual hope?
Before we get into this, let me just ask a question here. Is there anybody in the room who has not gone through a trial ever in your life? Anybody? I just want to make sure how applicable this is, because if you're in here and you've never gone through trials, chances are you're under the age of 5, you've never had a spouse, you've never had kids, you've never paid a bill, you've never publicly proclaimed your faith in Jesus Christ, or you're not human.
Maybe you're a Cyborg that's among us here today, or you're dead. One of those scenarios. We have no hope for you, but for everybody else who knows what a trial is, knows how painful a trial can be, let's take a look at how James shows us the type of perspective we're to have on trials.
Look at verse 2. The first thing he says is, "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds." Notice first of all, what he didn't say in verse 2. He didn't say, "Count it all joy, my brothers, if you meet various trials." What does he say? When. The idea of trials in a Christian's life, the idea of trials in anybody's life, is they are a required course in God's economy.
There is no exemption that you can kind of CLEP out of this somehow and miss out on trials in your life. None of us has that. We're all going to walk through trials. In fact, if anybody knew about suffering in our Bible, it's Job. Even Job said, "As surely as sparks fly up from a fire, so a man is born for adversity. He is born for trouble." It is part and parcel to life. James shows us none of us can escape a life of testing, a life of trial. Notice also the word various there. It's a word that means plentiful, meaning trials won't just be one and done.
It's not as if you just have this one trial and then your hope is, "If I can just get through this trial, then everything is going to be easier." You're going to have all sorts of trials, a variety of trials, an abundance of trials. I can't tell you how many collegians would come to me in my years as a college pastor and just go, "Shea, I just cannot wait until I get married because then life is going to be so much easier on the other side," and I'm like, "You fool. You have no idea what's waiting for you." It's wonderful.
I remember my dad caught up in corporate world. I remember having a conversation one time about, "Man, I just hate these crooked CEO's who are all about the money here, who are so deceitful. They're lying and they're corrupt and they create such back corporate environments. If only I could just switch my job and get a healthier corporate environment, that would be fantastic." Do you know what he did? He did. He switched jobs in the middle of it, and he landed this incredible job with this company called Enron, and it worked out really well for him.
Let me just tell you. You can't escape trials. It's like digging out of one cell and then climbing right back up into a different one. They will find you. In fact, the Greek word there for the word meet, when you meet trials, some translations say, "When you encounter trials," the Greek word literally means to walk into, meaning you don't have to go looking for it. You're just going to walk right into it. They are out there, they are waiting for you, and they will hunt you down.
James's main point here is when you encounter the abundance of trials that you're going to encounter, when they find you, and they will, what is the perspective you're to have, not as the rest of the world who does not know God, but as a Christian? What's the perception you're to have in this trial? He says there in verse 2 you're to consider it all joy. That word all, by the way, is in first primary position in the Greek, meaning you can't pick and choose how to look at different trials. Big trials, little trials, all of them need to be perceived with an attitude of joy.
I don't know about you, but the very first time I ever came across this verse was right before my college year, right at the start of college, when I got dumped by my first girlfriend. Somebody slid this verse along to me right here and said, "Hey, brother. You just need to view this with joy." I thought, What in the world? Who would write such a thing? Surely James was under some other influence besides the Holy Spirit when he wrote this. Surely James was single when he wrote this and never had been dumped, because anybody who has been dumped knows that ain't joy. That ain't fun.
What in the world does this mean? Who would say that? What kind of person would say, "Hey, bro, I know the wheels are falling off right now. I know life is tragic for you, but this is joyous. This is the sweetest time in your life. Just embrace it"? Who comes in and goes, "Hey, guess what, guys? I got prostate cancer. Isn't that awesome? Let's just receive this with joy, sweet Jesus"? Is anybody going to say that? Nobody says that. At first, that exhortation sounds really foolish until I came to understand exactly what James was getting at.
Notice the imperative in verse 2. It doesn't say, "Act joyous in the moment that you encounter trials," but rather, "Count it as joy." Some translations say, "Consider it as joy." What James isn't doing here is dismissing the emotion of trials. He's not telling you when trials come you just need to put on that smile and, "Yes!" He's not telling you that. He's not dismissing the emotion. He's not wiping away grief and pain.
I know some of you in this room I've seen and sat with you in the ashes of pain that you've walked through in this past year. I've been in some of the hospital rooms with you. I've officiated or co-officiated some of the funerals in here. What James is not doing is saying, "Hey, when trials come along, you do not need to have grief. You do not need to be broken. You do not need to be wounded. You do not need to have sorrow." He's not dismissing the emotion of it.
This is a mathematical term that is applied towards the believer here that you have to have a different perspective than the rest of the unbelieving world. You have to calculate. You need to consider. You need to count what is happening to you through a completely different lens, and that is one of joy. What does that mean?
It's viewing this trial through a different lens than the rest of the world. It's having a theological view of your hardship in such a way that doesn't allow your mind to conclude in what you see to hopelessness and despair, to assume that because what's happening to you there is just nothing else that could be but hopelessness and despair.
James, having a divine understanding, a theological understanding of suffering, says, "No, there's something happening here that you can't see." Because of that the Christian can find a joy, not necessarily happiness that's fleeting, but a joy that can transcend the circumstance because you know something to be true about what's happening here.
Verse 3 tells us that in trials in God's economy are literally the testing of our faith. That's what's happening there theologically. A trial is the basis for which my faith in Christ, my proclamation of faith in Christ, will be tested. Literally, the word tested is the word proved. It's validating what I confess to be true about God that it's actually true when the wheels fall off, not just when things are good.
What's the very next line say at the end of that story? They immediately got into the boat and headed out across the lake as if Jesus is about to test something. You know the story. They go out on the lake. The wind and the waves start crashing over them. They're straining at the oars, and here comes Jesus walking on water. Instead of believing this is Jesus and Jesus has the power to control this situation as they just saw, they think he's a ghost, and they miss it.
God always uses a testing. God is in the business of making sure our faith and our worship in Christ isn't just theory, but in many ways it gets tested in the acid bath of reality. So God is in the business of using whatever means, trials included, to develop within us something that is so precious even if it means using the worst of pain to do it at times.
If that's you, if that's where you are, I want to affirm that as an honest struggle with some honest questions, but I want to encourage you to hang in there. That is exactly what we're going to deal with next week in verse 13 and following when we deal with the problem of evil and how God uses it in his sovereignty to accomplish his goodwill and how we are to respond and how we're not to respond in those particular settings.
For right now, what James is trying to do is he's simply trying to shape the perspective a Christian is to have concerning trials, because you know you can have an attitude of joy because God is working something out in you and through you that maybe you can't see right now. James says in verse 3 that one of the goals of trials in our lives is to produce steadfastness or, in some translations, endurance or perseverance.
It's the Greek word hypomone, which means to abide or to cling or to sink deeply over the long haul. James says one of the purposes of trials is to bring you to the place where you can trust God in a whole new category, in a way you couldn't have otherwise before. The ultimate goal James says in verse 4 is to make you complete, to perfect you, so you lack nothing. It's to work out within you the character of Christ.
In many ways trials in God's economy become the divine chisel that takes away what ought not be, both in helping us wean from unhealthy attitudes and actions that would not portray the image of Christ needing to be manifest in us, but also weaning us from our own propensity to look to ourselves for our own self-sufficiency and instead cling to Christ for his sufficiency, not just for a season, not just to make it through this trial, but over the long haul. That's what steadfastness is.
In verses 2 through 4, do you see the perspective we're to have concerning trials? We're not to view trials as some sort of cosmic accident from a God who's just toying with us, detached from any purpose in a way that leaves us in continual hopelessness and despair, nor are trials God just puppeteering evil over us and taking us through what we feel is unneeded pain so we can spend the rest of our days just angry and bitter at God for what he has done. That's not the lens by which a Christian is meant to view trials. Those aren't God's purposes there.
Instead James paints a picture for the Christian here to view trials with joy as an act of faith for what God's divine plan is working out in our lives to produce in us what we could not produce on our own. That is a trust and a Christ-likeness that makes Christ look glorious and allows him to be sufficient over the long haul. That is where you can find an infinite joy that transcends circumstances, not a finite happiness that fades away with each trial that comes and goes.
James says, "Well, here's what you do." In verse 5, for those of you in trials, "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him." The word wisdom there is the biblical term for God's enigmatic ways, the plan of God that you and I just can never seem to figure out. Isaiah says his ways are higher than our ways. Our finite minds can't comprehend his infinite ways.
God's wisdom is almost the complete opposite of everything we've been taught in our culture. It doesn't work like man's wisdom works. When you're going through a trial and you don't know what to do, you're going to pursue God's wisdom, not man's; but understand, in pursuing God's wisdom, it isn't like man's wisdom.
The answer may not come like you think it should come because God doesn't operate on man's wisdom. He operates on his own, which is perfect, which is holy, which is sovereign, which is good, which is loving. That's how God operates. Oftentimes, he will ensure your needs are taken care of long before you feel your wants should be.
You're sitting there praying, "God, I have no clue what's going to happen right now. I don't know why this is happening. I don't know why me. I don't know why now. I don't know how I'm going to make it through this, but, God, I know something to true about you. I know you're good. I know you're sovereign. I know you're holy. I know you're loving.
Do you think you pray a prayer like that and God is up in heaven just going, "Nope, not going to happen that way. In fact, to be honest I had actually completely forgotten about what happened with you. I was up here pressing buttons, and all of a sudden this happened"? Do you think God is doing that? No, God delights when his children come to him on their knees in an attempt to empty ourselves of our wisdom in exchange for his wisdom. God delights in that. So we can cling to him. We can trust him. We can believe him.
What in the world does that mean? Does that mean when I come to God I need to come in 100 percent confidence and articulate perfectly what it is I need to say to him to get what I need in that moment? No. Does that mean there's no room to struggle and doubt? I wrestle in my own doubts. I struggle in it, but this is the exhortation in this verse. When you come to God, you come all the way. You come in full trust.
Here's what this means. Any of you dads in the room, have you ever tried to teach your children what it means to trust you during swim lessons? Have you ever done this? It's an amazing phenomenon that happens. In the past few years with my three daughters, I've been walking through this. Here's how it typically plays out.
You have your son or daughter on the edge of the pool. Usually they have their floaties on or something. They're sitting there, and where's dad? He's in the pool. What's he saying? "Jump. Just jump. Right now. Jump. I've got you." By the way, moms are horrible at this. Dads are about 50 feet off. "Jump. I got you." Moms are right up there, "Jump. Oh, you don't want to jump? Come here, baby. I got you. We'll deal with this next month." That's how moms do it. Dads…no. That's why I have to use dads in this illustration.
They're sitting there. "Jump. I am your father. Now jump." What's the kid thinking? The kid is right there on the edge of the pool, just kind of shriveled up, looking over at the water, looking back at mom, wetting themselves. They're sitting right there on the pool, and they're terrified. What's going on within them? Do you know what's going on within them?
In that moment, they're double-minded, because they're conflicted about what they know to be true about dad and what they know to be true about water and concrete edges. They're conflicted. That's what it means to be double-minded. "I trust you, but I don't like what is in front of me. I don't like these circumstances right here." You're split, and what's dad doing? "Jump. I'm your dad. I'm not going to drop you. You're not going to die on my watch. I've got you, and I will carry you. I will hold you. You can just jump," but that kid is torn.
In the same way, God says in the pool of divine trials you can't have both. You can't come with a half-trust in God and a half-trust in your circumstances. You can't be like that kid in the pool who believes dad but thinks the circumstances are greater than him. You have to come fully trusting that your God, your heavenly Father, is good and he will not drop you. That's what it means to have unwavering trust in the moment of trial. God's intent is in the darkest hours of your life, whatever it may be, you can cling to him. You can trust in his wisdom that's going on behind this trial, and you can know he will carry you through.
In verse 9, he's going to give two specific examples, two specific camps, that both struggle with trials. One was the poor people of the day. The other was the wealthy of the day and the big gaps that occurred between those two. He speaks to both of them about what it means to rejoice in the midst of trials. He says in verse 9 and following, "Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, and the rich in his humiliation…" I love the way the New American Standard translates this verse. It says, "But the brother of humble circumstances is to glory in his high position…" In other words, the first guy he's speaking to is this lowly, broken guy who has never known what it's like to have anything. He's going to equate the rich and the poor with trials, with hardships.
So the poor guy has always known difficulty, has always struggled, has always been hand-to-mouth, and it has always come the hard way. He's in the midst of this situation. He's watching everybody else flourish and assuming that's blessing and watching his brokenness and concluding that's judgment. He's struggling in that.
These past couple of weeks, we've put before you our preschool minister Carl Brower and the fact that his young 9-year-old daughter Katherine had been diagnosed with a malignant tumor behind her right eye. Like you and I, if we were in that situation, the temptation in that moment is to go, "Why is this happening? Did we do something? Is God punishing us right now?" Anybody can have that temptation.
I love Carl because Carl, though it has been painful, though they have shed tears, and it has been hard to walk through this diagnosis, his hope is firmly planted in Jesus Christ. He sent out a tweet the day she got diagnosed. This is what he said in the tweet, very simple but very profound. "God is good. Our daughter has cancer. Those two statements do not contradict each other." It's Carl in the midst of grief and in the midst of pain, learning Christ has a glorious purpose that's going to be made through this. He, therefore, can perceive this with a sense of joy.
James says you find yourself as a lowly brother and broken situation, you rejoice because you know God is doing something amazing in and through this trial. James also says for the rich man as well. "You too need to rejoice in your humiliation." What does that mean? One of the thoughts here in this passage is the other camp James is speaking to are the wealthy, but in particular a group of wealthy folks who had recently lost their wealth. It had been stripped away, and in the midst of it they're in humiliation. They're in shame because they had all this stuff and it has all been taken away.
James says, "You need to rejoice in your humiliation of wealth because of a great lesson you are learning right now." That lesson is in the second part of verse 10 and following. "…because like a flower of the grass he will pass away. For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits," meaning you just learned a priceless lesson that riches and wealth are temporary.
If God takes it all away, then you rejoice in that trial as well. Why? Because you just found out what it means to cling to Christ for your sufficiency and not your wealth. I think it's interesting. Of all the godly people I've met in my life, like really-loved-Jesus, godly people, when I've asked them what has shaped them the most, it has never been the times of prosperity and blessing. It has always been the trials. That is where God shapes us the most.
It's in those moments that everything gets stripped away. There's nothing else to trust in but Jesus Christ to pull you through. Nothing else becomes more sufficient for you than him. He has always been your sufficiency. You just don't see it until everything gets stripped away. In other words, if all you get in the midst of your trial is more of Jesus, then you boast in it. You boast in it, and you rejoice in it. You glory in it, because that is worth everything.
Paul put it this way in Romans 8: "For I consider the sufferings of this present age, the present time, are not even worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." Having a proper perspective of trials, you not only understand God is currently doing something in and through you in the midst of this trial, maturing you, sanctifying you, making his name glorious through this issue, but you also realize he has something for you on the other side of this thing called life.
There is a day coming when there will be no more suffering. There will be no more pain, no more sorrow. There is always for the believer a crown that follows the cross. That's what our hope looks forward to. More on that in week 3, but do you see right now why verses 1 thru 12 are here? What James is doing is he's establishing for the Christian God's greater purposes in trials, how to perceive those trials, not as some cosmic accident by a God who's puppeteering evil in your life.
You're to see trials with joy because you know who God is and the fact that he is using this painful time to accomplish something within you that goes far beyond in his wisdom what we can even fathom or imagine. He is working it out to produce in us a steadfastness, an endurance, a trust over the long haul that will make Christ look great and will ultimately press you further into his sufficiency as the One you can cling to in your time of need.
I don't know where you're at this morning. I don't know what trials you're walking through right now, but I can tell you there's an enemy who wants to deceive you right now, who wants you to believe that God is inflicting this upon you, that God has abandoned you, that he has forsaken you, but I want you to know if you're a believer in Jesus Christ, Christ has paid all the price for you. There is no more condemnation, and he is allowing this in your life for a reason.
You're going to have to get to the place where you're not trusting God based upon what you see, but based on the faith you have in his character, that he is good, he is sovereign, he is loving, he has not abandoned you, he has not forsaken you, and you're going to have to take that by faith. You're going to have to anchor in and allow the Holy Spirit to teach you something in this and comfort you in the midst of it, as painful and as horrific as it may be.
We know for a fact trials happen usually for one of three reasons. Usually, it's because of sometimes our own sin that puts us into some pretty cruddy situations and inflicts collateral damage back on ourselves and others, or it's the sin of others that have victimized you and led you into some pain and trial. Quite often it's just simply from living in a fallen and broken world, waiting for a Redeemer and our hope to come.
Wherever you're at right now, I want to encourage you. First, don't walk in this thing in isolation. Almost all the times we encounter people in the church who ping the pastors here and kind of go, "Hey, I'm suffering right now in this thing," usually they never let us know when it's at a two or a three. They let us know what it's about a nine or a ten.
Secondly, when we know, almost always the individuals are in isolation and don't have a community to walk with. God has not wired you for that. Here at the Village we have opportunities for you to press into home groups, to do gospel-centered community together, to have kind of some Aarons who can come alongside you like Moses and hold your hands up in a time of trial while the battle wages. They can be that for you.
For those of you who are walking through just a season right now of such intense trial and you are in a place where you need some specialized care, I want to let you know we have Recovery every Thursday night at 7 p.m., where you can come here and you can find support and encouragement and accountability, and we will press you into the Lord and cover you with gospel-centered community in that place. You can process those trials through a gospel-centered lens, and we can begin to see the healing that needs to happen there. I want to encourage you to press into that.
Wherever you're at, anchor yourself in the hope of the Lord. Let's pray and we'll continue next week.
Father, we thank you that you have not forsaken us. We thank you that you have not left us alone in this life. When the trials come and they come as floods, Father, we can have an anchor firmly fixed in you, an unwavering sense of hope that you give us. Father, I just pray for this room. I pray for wherever we're at, God, that whether you would use this today as a reminder or maybe some of this is the very first time they've heard some of this, that you would use it to lay some foundations in our lives and perspectives of suffering so we may not view these trials in blasphemy towards you.
Father, I pray that we may use these trials through the lens of a loving God, who doesn't let anything happen in our life outside of your sovereign control and your sovereign purposes, and we can cling to the hope that you are good. So I pray for healing and peace in this room as we continue to walk through the suffering that's yet to come. We love you, and we thank you in Jesus' name, amen.


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America's biggest music festivals are more skippable than ever
Events like Coachella, Lollapalooza and Bonnaroo have only become less attractive for the average fan to attend.
America's biggest music festivals are more skippable than ever Events like Coachella, Lollapalooza and Bonnaroo have only become less attractive for the average fan to attend. Check out this story on USATODAY.com: https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/music/2019/03/25/americas-biggest-music-festivals-more-skippable-than-ever/3237097002/
Maeve McDermott, USA TODAY Published 8:11 a.m. ET March 25, 2019 | Updated 1:21 p.m. ET March 25, 2019
Woodstock announced the lineup for its 50th anniversary three-day celebration. Artists including Jay-Z and Halsey are among the headliners. Brian McCollum, USA TODAY
"Music festival season?"
For fans in 2019, what was once a summer run of several marquee music events has, over the past decade expanded into a full-year push, from festivals like Coachella and Bonnaroo unveiling their lineups in January, through the glut of summer music festivals and into music events that have sprung up in warmer climates in the fall and winter. Now, it's possible for concertgoers to somehow engage every month of the year with what were once branded "summer" music festivals.
Last week saw the rollouts of the Lollapalooza and Woodstock 50 lineups, and despite their drastically different locations, the tops of their lineups didn't look much different from Coachella, Governors Ball, Boston Calling, Bonnaroo and the rest of America's biggest festivals.
The best advice for fans clamoring to get tickets? Save your money, considering music festivals have turned into a homogenized gimmick for big businesses that barely allow concertgoers the serendipity of discovering new acts.
Festival culture is here to stay, with Nielsen Music estimating that 23 percent of the U.S. population attended a music festival in 2018, up from 18 percent in 2017, the biggest year-over-year growth of any kind of live music event.
But, save for the music fest superfans, or VIP attendees looking to splurge on a special weekend whatever the cost, America's biggest music festivals have only become less attractive for the average fan to attend, from the often-prohibitive costs to the homogenization of many fests' lineups.
More: Transgender Coachella attendees say they were denied bathroom access
The 10Best music festivals in North America
As temperatures begin to creep up, music festival season is fast approaching, and each year, more and more events are joining the lineup, expanding and diversifying the music festival circuit in North America. Our panel of music festival aficionados has hand-picked 20 essential festivals from coast to coast where music fans can see dozens of artists in one place. For the last four weeks, our readers have been voting for their favorites, and the results are in. Amy Harris, Invision/AP
10. Coachella • Indio, California • The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival (Coachella for short) in Indio, Calif., is an annual, outdoor, two-weekend fest in April that features a wide variety of music, from electronic to indie to rock – plus art exhibits, too. Coachella launched in 1993 with Pearl Jam, and has since featured a long list of musical faves. On-site camping is a popular way to enjoy the tunes during this festival that kicks off the summer music season. Photo courtesy of Zoe Meyers/The Desert Sun via USA TODAY NETWORK
9. Austin City Limits Music Festival • Austin, Texas • Inspired by the long-running PBS series Austin City Limits, the Austin City Limits Music Festival takes over Zilker Park for two weekends featuring more than 140 up-and-coming and world-renowned acts on eight stages. The festival ranks among the largest in the country, attracting some 75,000 music lovers per day with a lineup of pop, rock, alt-country, folk, blues, gospel, EDM and R&B. Photo courtesy of Julian Bajsel / Austin City Limits Music Festival
8. Fortress Festival • Fort Worth, Texas • Fortress Festival has already made a big impression in its first two years of existence. This event in Fort Worth takes over the Cultural District for a weekend of music and art. The lineup at the 2019 event includes Leon Bridges, CHVRCHES, Rae Sremmurd and Khruangbin. Photo courtesy of Robert Hein / Fortress Festival
7. Bottlerock Napa Valley • Napa, California • What's better than stellar California wine? Stellar California wine served to the sound of live tunes. Each May BottleRock Napa Valley features rock 'n' roll, food and wine from some of the best producers in California and the world. Only in Napa does a music festival have a staff of sommeliers! Photo courtesy of AP Photo/Eric Risberg
6. Desert Daze • Lake Perris, California • Desert Daze started in Joshua Tree but has since relocated from the desert to the sands of Moreno Beach. The three-day festival is on the smaller side, so crowds don't feel overwhelming, and it's one of the nation's most aesthetically pleasing music festivals thanks to a series of surreal art installations. Past talent has included My Bloody Valentine, Tame Impala, Iggy Pop and Courtney Barnett. Photo courtesy of Shane Hirschman / Flickr
5. Old Settler's Music Festival • Tilmon, Texas • Old Settler's Music Festival celebrates roots and Americana music with four days of live performances, camping, an arts market and family friendly activities. Headliners have included Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, Brandi Carlile, Balsam Range, American Dreamer and The Jeff Austin Band. Photo courtesy of ©Wayland D. Clark
4. Outside Lands • San Francisco • The Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival takes place in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park every August. The festival began in 2008 and has since earned a reputation for its eco-friendly efforts, like solar-powered stages. The 50,000-plus attendees enjoy music, along with beer, wine, art and more. In fact, the thoughtful wine pairings make Outside Lands stand out from other music fests. Photo courtesy of FilmMagic / Outside Lands
3. Life Is Beautiful Music & Art Festival • Las Vegas • Life Is Beautiful debuted in 2013 in the newly revitalized neighborhood of East Fremont in Las Vegas. Today, the three-day festival attracts more than 175,000 attendees and top talent, like Lorde, Blink-182, Muse, Wiz Khalifa, The Lumineers, Major Lazer, Arcade Fire, Duran Duran and Childish Gambino. Photo courtesy of Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic for Life Is Beautiful
2. Riot Fest • Chicago • Riot Fest is a multi-destination music festival taking place each year in Chicago. It began in 2005 as a weekend of punk and rock and continued to expand to include a full carnival. Yup. "Corndogs. Ferris wheels. Your Music." That's the short description. Fans at Riot Fest have watched bands like the Misfits and Dead Kennedys. The goal is simple and pure: to throw unforgettable shows. Photo courtesy of David T. Kindler / Riot Fest
1. Musikfest • Bethlehem, Pennsylvania • MusikFest was founded in 1984 with 295 performances on six stages. Today, this event in the town of Bethlehem has grown to include 500-plus shows on 16 stages over the course of 10 days, with some 900,000 music lovers in attendance each year. Past headliners have included The Chainsmokers, Lady Antebellum, Brad Paisley and The Goo Goo Dolls. Photo courtesy of RaubDaub / Flickr
A majority of the country's biggest fests cost nearly $100 per day for passes alone. Factor in travel – flights, hotels, shuttles, parking and camping passes and other transportation and lodging costs – as well as any food, drinks or merchandise, and the price of attending these festivals can run into the thousands of dollars, with Money magazine pricing a 2018 Coachella trip for a "typical traveler" at over $2,300 per person. With Nielsen estimating that frequent live-music attendees in 2018 spent an average of $247 per year on tickets, that doesn't come close to covering a three-day pass for many music fests.
And all that money spent for what? It's become increasingly common to see a mix of the same 15-20 names headlining nearly every one of America's biggest festivals, and even a quick peek at this years' lineups reveals the same trend.
Childish Gambino is headlining the trifecta of Coachella, Lollapalooza and Bonnaroo, with other artists falling in the middle of the festivals' Venn Diagrams including Ariana Grande (Coachella and Lollapalooza), The Strokes (Governors Ball and Lollapalooza), Tame Impala (Coachella, Lollapalooza and Boston Calling), The Lumineers (Bonnaroo and Woodstock 50), The Killers (Forecastle and Woodstock 50), Lil Wayne (Governors Ball and Lollapalooza) and Twenty One Pilots (Boston Calling and Lollapalooza).
That's no change from last year when the festivals' headlining slots were dominated by names such as Eminem, Jack White, The Weeknd and Travis Scott.
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Yes, there are functional benefits to many of the big music festivals booking the same few headliners – mainly, that music fans can see marquee names at whatever event is closest geographically to them, instead of, say, flying across the country to see Beyonce at Coachella in 2018, because that was the only festival she played. Plus, there are hundreds of non-headlining acts on these festivals' bills that can provide the music discovery that many fans seek out from these big events.
And yet, the homogenization of music festivals has stripped the character away from the summer's largest events. Instead of seeing more once-in-a-lifetime booking choices at these fetes, like 2012's surprise Tupac hologram at Coachella or Beyonce's groundbreaking set last year, the lineups look more similar than ever. Seeing a Childish Gambino against the Chicago skyline in Chicago or in a dusty Tennessee field at Bonnaroo will likely be exactly the same, save for a different backdrop for fans' Instagram photos.
The solution, for fans not ready to give up on the idea of music festivals completely, is to go smaller and seek out festivals that are centered around a genre, community or theme. Many musicians have begun curating their own festivals, like Wilco's Solid Sound in Massachusetts, Pharrell's Something in the Water in Virginia and the Roots' eponymous Picnic in Philadelphia. Afropunk is an annual celebration of black culture in Brooklyn, the larger-scale version of which is Essence Fest in New Orleans. Seeking out music festivals hosted in collaboration with art spaces or independent record labels can also narrow the field to the most eclectic offerings, including Basilica Soundscape in New York and Levitation and Marfa Myths in Texas.
With the number of festival options that are more affordable, diversely programmed and accessible to more music fans around America, it's never been a better time to seek out a new festival to attend this summer –-- and to skip shelling out for the same old behemoths.
Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival posters from 1999 to 2019
Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival poster 1999 Vickie Connor/The Desert Sun
Coachella's 2019 lineup Courtesy Goldenvoice
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Last edited on Jun 12 2013. Submitted by Walter Rader (Editor) from Sacramento, CA, USA on Oct 25 2011.
prefix used with an hour of the day. A humorous variant of "the crack of dawn", usually used to point out that the time is, in fact, late in the day.
I woke up at the crack of two.
Last edited on Oct 21 2010. Submitted by Walter Rader (Editor) from Sacramento, CA, USA on Sep 21 2009.
Last edited on May 07 2011. Submitted by ms. wanna be me from Arlington, TX, USA on Nov 18 2009.
another person's car (used with or without permission) to drive to a location and acquire illegal drugs.
He wouldn't press charges against his friend for taking his car since it turned out to only be a crack rental.
He was driving someone else's car... but the cops didn't file grand theft charges because they suspected it was just a crack rental.
Now that we've gotten the stuff, we have to get his car back to him - it was just a crack rental.
Last edited on Nov 17 2015. Submitted by David R. from West Hollywood, CA, USA on Jul 19 2005.


Web designer, front end developer, illustrator and type nerd.
4 Should the [sketch] and [sketch-3] tags be merged?
8 ¿Se puede "traspapelar" un e-mail?
5 What's the Spanish expression for 'boilerplate code'?
5 ¿Se utiliza "cuatezón" literalmente o como insulto?


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Detroit Medical Center CEO to Make $2.41M in Total Compensation
Staff - Thursday, November 3rd, 2011 Print	| Email
Detroit Medical Center CEO Mike Duggan is scheduled to make $2.41 million in salary, bonuses and several years of stock options this year, according to a Detroit Free Press report.
Mr. Duggan's total compensation this year is up from 2009, when he made $1.98 million, according to the report. Nashville, Tenn.-based Vanguard Health Systems, which bought DMC last year and turned it into a for-profit system, is now responsible for setting Mr. Duggan's pay, and roughly $1.3 million of his total compensation is in stock options that he can start receiving next year through 2019.
Mr. Duggan said he and his wife plan to start a foundation next year in which all of his stock option proceeds, post-tax, will help pay for scholarships for the children of DMC employees, according to the report.
Three other Michigan healthcare executives earn more per year than Mr. Duggan, according to the report. Philip Incarnati, president and CEO of Flint, Mich.-based McLaren Health Care, made $5.57 million in 2010; Joseph Swedish, president and CEO of Novi, Mich.-based Trinity Health, made $3.82 million in 2009; and Dan Loepp, president and CEO of health insurer Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, made $2.75 million in 2010.
Related Articles on Detroit Medical Center:
Detroit Medical Center Opens $7M Orthopedic, Neurosurgery Unit at Huron Valley-Sinai
Nearly 1k Physicians With Detroit Medical Center Ties Opt for Competing PHO
Detroit Medical Center CEO Says Patients, Physicians Returning to System After Vanguard Buyout


text:
The First Art Newspaper on the Net Established in 1996 United States Thursday, July 18, 2019
Critics to Artdaily
Christie's to offer David Hockney's masterpiece 'Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)'
David Hockney (B. 1937), Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures), acrylic on canvas, 84 x 119 3/4 in., Painted in 1972. © Christie's Images Limited 2018.
LONDON.- In its November Evening Sale of Post-War and Contemporary Art, Christie's will offer one of the most quintessential canvases of the 20th Century, David Hockney's Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures), 1972 (estimate in the region of $80 million). Representing a culminating apex of the artist's two most celebrated motifs— the glistening water of a swimming pool and a double portrait – Portrait of an Artist is an immediately recognizable and iconic image in Hockney's diverse oeuvre. Having graced the covers of numerous artist monographs, starred in various exhibitions – including his traveling retrospective organized by the Tate Britain, the Centre Pompidou, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2017-2018 – as well as the 1974 cult Hockney film, A Bigger Splash, the present canvas firmly stands its ground among Hockney's most celebrated works.
Alex Rotter, Co-Chairman Post-War and Contemporary Art, Christie's, remarked: "Christie's is honored to offer Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures), which stands as one of the great masterpieces of the modern era. David Hockney's brilliance as an artist is on full display with this monumental canvas, which encapsulates the essence of the idealized poolside landscape, and the tremendous complexity that exists within human relationships. With this painting, Hockney cemented his placement within the realm of history's most venerated artists, and come November, it is poised to become the most valuable work of art by a living artist ever sold at auction."
An often-told story of two compositions—the first destroyed over months of working and reworking, Hockney originally conceived the composition for Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) from the accidental, almost surreal juxtaposition of two photographs on his studio floor—one of a swimmer underwater, taken in Hollywood in 1966, and the other of a boy staring at something on the ground. Intrigued by how together, the disparate clipped images made it appear as if the boy was staring at the swimmer, this double-portrait arranged by chance impelled for Hockney a substantial dramatic charge.
Chief among his courtier of muses is the standing figure in Portrait of an Artist, Peter Schlesinger. Hockney met the eighteen-year-old Schlesinger in 1966 while he was a student in one of Hockney's advanced art classes at UCLA. For the next five years, Schlesinger would prove to be the great love of Hockney's life as well as a favorite model. The two lived together in California and London, mixing with Hockney's expansive social circle as a prominent couple in the worlds of art, film and literature. Throughout the late '60s as their relationship deepened, Hockney's desire to capture the intensity of his feelings for Peter, as well as his physical beauty, contributed greatly to the artist's sudden shift towards a more naturalistic approach to his work. However, the much younger Schlesinger was far less gregarious than Hockney, and tensions between the pair grew gradually before a heated fight in Cadaqués in 1971 led to the end of their relationship—leaving Hockney distraught.
Created during a highly productive period following the devastating end of the artist's relationship with Schlesinger, Portrait of an Artist is a powerful testament to the therapeutic power of painting. And out of his great sadness, came a time of extraordinary creative output.
Hockney had begun the painting in October 1971—as documented by Jack Hazan, who recorded its progress in his movie titled A Bigger Splash, about the end of Hockney and Peter Schlesinger's five-year relationship. Hockney first resolved to paint Portrait of an Artist in 1971, but after months of struggling through the composition abandoned the first incarnation of the canvas around the same time as the dissolution of his romance with Schlesinger.
In early April, Hockney began the canvas anew in preparation for his exhibition the following month with André Emmerich Gallery in New York. Hockney travelled to Le Nid du Duc—director Tony Richardon's house in the South of France—to take further preparatory photographs for the painting, taking his studio assistant Mo McDermott as a stand-in for Schlesinger and a young photographer named John St. Clair as the swimmer. Hockney took hundreds of photos, which came to cover the wall of his studio. Using those images, Hockney worked on the painting with great passion for eighteen hours a day for two weeks, completing it the night before it was to leave for the New York exhibition.
Another chief source of inspiration for Hockney is the image of the pool. Hockney's discovery of his most famous subject matter corresponded to his arrival in Los Angeles nearly a decade earlier. Already celebrated as an enfant terrible of Contemporary art by the time he left the Royal College of Art in London in 1962, Hockney had first traveled to California in January 1964. The place held a magnetic draw for the artist, who had immersed himself in the potent idealism of its sun-drenched landscape, and the California that he had found in magazines, movies and the gay novels of John Rechy. Here, he felt free to invent the city, giving it a promptly recognizable, iconic form. "[Los Angeles was] the first time I had ever painted a place," Hockney later explained. "In London I think I was put off by the ghost of Sickert, and I couldn't see it properly. In Los Angeles, there were no ghosts... I remember seeing, within the first week, the ramp of a freeway going into the air and I suddenly thought: My God, this place needs its Piranesi; Los Angeles could have a Piranesi, so here I am" (D. Hockney, quoted in S. Howgate, David Hockney Portraits, exh. cat., National Portrait Gallery, London, 2006, p. 39).
Deeply attuned to the history of art, Portrait of an Artist recalls the images of the classical renditions of the bather placed in an idyllic background found in Western painting since the Renaissance. The convention is a metaphor not only for the harmonious relationship between the human figure and nature, but also represents a world that is uncorrupted and pure. Employing a combination of a graphic designer's eye for composition, an illustrator's technique, the precision of a photograph and a painter's sensitivity to color, Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) not only conveys the essence of the Californian good-life that had inspired him a decade before, but also stands as a vivid testament to a once in a life-time love.
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-General Manager Abraham Washington is standing mid-ring and welcomes everyone to the 50th FCW television show before the opening montage airs.
Sheamus warns Angel that he'll smack the good looks off his face. After an exchange of wristlocks, Sheamus is sent to the floor following a dropkick from Angel. At the time of this match Sheamus was still on the ECW roster and had just finished his feud with Goldust. Sheamus grounds Angel for an extended period. Angel escapes a suplex attempt by hitting Sheamus with a knee. Angel with a springboard cross body for a nearfall. Angel with an enziguiri and mooonsault for another nearfall. Sheamus nails a bicycle kick for a nearfall of his own. Angel takes Sheamus down with a superkick and follows up with his 450 splash off the top for the big win.
WINNER: Justin Angel in 8:21. A great showcase win for Angel on the 50th show.
-A video package aired with highlights from the first 50 episodes of FCW. Included in the video were Batista, Ric Flair, John Cena, country music legend Charlie Daniels, Jack Swagger, Dolph Ziggler, Drew McIntyre, Abraham Washington, Tiffany, Alicia Fox, Rosa Mendes, Yoshi Tatsu, The Hart Dynasty, Sheamus, and most of the FCW regulars.
Apparently this was a match booked by Washington as a result of Gabriel barging into his office and demanding a title shot a couple of weeks ago. Gabriel attempts a gut wrench suplex early on, but Riley grabs onto the second rope. Gabriel hits a few running forearm shots, but Riley counters with a sidewalk slam. Out of nowhere, Gabriel hits a variation of the Rude Awakening to obtain the victory.
WINNER: Gabriel in 3:13. Gabriel seems to be performing with some added passion since his gimmick change. Riley's stock must be plummeting.
-After the match, ring announcer Rosa Mendes interviewed Gabriel. He said he was one step closer to proving that anything was possible. Gabriel said his ultimate focus was on the FCW Heavyweight Title. Riley dove through the ropes and blindsided Gabriel until a group of referees were able to stop him.
Before the match, Escobar explained his actions last week. Escobar said he built FCW from the ground and accused the fans of tossing him aside like a dirty rag doll. He said the fans and Banderas were out of line. Banderas shines early with a variety of dropkicks. Escobar takes control after some brawling and a neckbreaker. A horrible exchange took place in mid-ring where they each visibly missed chops and kicks. Banderas connects with a running step-up enziguri in the corner, but Escobar was able to grab the ropes to break a pinfall. Banderas climbs to the top and leaps off with a flying crossbody. Escobar rolls through the move and grabs the tights for the cheap win.
WINNER: Eric Escobar in 3:27. A train wreck of two different styles. Banderas is better suited working with smaller opponents who can adapt to his lucha style (like Croft last week).
The winner of this match will become the #1 contender to Angela's Queen of FCW title. By title, I mean just the right to call yourself Queen since no belt actually exists. When explaining the rules Rosa Mendes broke down and screamed that the title should be hers, but then composed herself enough to introduce the competitors. Thankfully, Tiffany didn't cut a promo before the match. Tiffany takes out Serena & Alicia with a double clothesline. Alicia does a wild bump through the ropes to the outside. Serena surprises Alicia with a nasty clothesline of her own. April leaps off the top rope and takes out Alicia & Serena on the floor. Back in the ring, Alicia misses a spin kick and Tiffany tosses her to the floor. April boots Tiffany in the face and sends her outside as well. Serena hoists April up in a torture rack position, makes April's head almost touch her feet (think Awesome Kong & Christy Hemme), and then dropped her to the mat for the pin.
WINNER: Serena Mancini in 3:00. Much better than it had any right to be. Serena & April looked very good here.
Slater attempts to run away from both opponents, but eventually gets caught and punished for his efforts. Reks takes out Hennig & Slater at ringside with a plancha as we head to break less than two minutes into the match.
Slater, still wearing the cast on his arm, works over Hennig with a headlock. Hennig channels his father and connects with a running dropkick and a rolling neck snap onto Slater. The fans begin a dueling "Lets go Joe/Let's go T-Reks" chant. Reks hits Slater with the High Tide elbow drop for a nearfall. Reks crashes and burns on a moonsault attempt. Hennig quickly runs over and catches Slater in the Perfectplex for a nearfall. In an innovative spot, Slater takes out both men with a dropkick/clothesline combination. Reks executes his Burning Hammer finisher, but Hennig is able to get the shoulder up. Reks scores with a springboard dropkick to both men. Reks tries to pin them individually, but both are able to kick out. Hennig & Reks struggle with one another on the second rope. Reks punches Hennig and sends him tumbling to the floor. Slater runs up from behind and hits Sweetness off the second rope to obtain the title.
WINNER: Heath Slater in 8:00 of what aired to capture the FCW Heavyweight Championship. Great showing by all three men.
-A repeat airing of the video package highlighting the first 50 episodes closed the show.


text:
Destination Prague
The Doctor and his companions investigate the many mysteries of the fantastic city of Prague.
Phill	on May 8, 2016 at 2:42 AM
SHORT TRIPS: DESTINATION PRAGUE
As Short Trips collections go, Destination Prague is more unusual than most: as a linking theme, it features stories set in one specific location — Prague — and it features a number of authors new to Doctor Who but apparently familiar in other circles. Unfortunately, it isn't very good: the setting is predictably repetitive, and many of the authors struggle with the material.
Midnight in the Café of the Black Madonna — Sean Williams — The first story to feature Prague somehow separated from Earth. There's an interesting alien race on display, and Pertwee is well-presented with a moment of surprising poignancy at the end. This is a solid start to the anthology, though it's emblematic of this anthology's odd decisions when it comes to ordering its stories.
Room for Improvement — James A. Moore — Oh, what an ironic title. Bad characterization: Hartnell sounds nothing like the Doctor, and every supporting character, Ian included, is nothing more than a cipher positioned to ask "What is it, Doctor?" in increasingly breathy tones. The social commentary is amateurish, the resolution lacking in drama.
Life from Lifelessness — Keith R. A. DeCandido — The first of many explanations of the Golem story in this anthology. DeCandido easily captures the Doctor/Romana relationship, and makes for an entertaining and surprisingly forthright story.
The Long Step Backward — Mike W. Barr — Very odd story about evolution that features a believable presentation of what happens when disagreements occur at the highest levels of academia in a universe of alien monsters and retrograde mutation. Hartnell does much better in this story as well.
Strange Attractor — Paul Kupperberg — A second story with Prague cut off from the rest of Earth, this one uses a heady sci-fi concept involving an alien being who is a literal embodiment of entropy. It's well-written enough, though it sort of undercuts the story when the Doctor defeats his foe by pointing out how ridiculous it is.
Gold and Black Ooze — Robert Hood — A third story with Prague cut off from the rest of Earth, and a second explanation for the Golem. Unmemorable, but for the wonderful perspective writing of Peri subsumed by the ooze, which makes the story worthwhile.
The Dogs of War — Brian Keene — Wait, what? By the year 2400, a race of sentient dogs developed by human science rise up, take over, and reduce humanity to a feral slave species that runs in packs? Didn't this sound idiotic to anyone else at the submission stage? Also, what does this have to do with Prague?
Sunday Afternoon, AD 848,988 — Paul Crilley — A fun little time-twister of a story, sort-of-involving Time Lords and a refreshingly lighthearted McCoy/Ace pairing. The comedy double-act is cute, too — overall, this is quite entertaining.
Nanomorphosis — Stephen Dedman — The first of two stories about Kafka's Metamorphosis, and it's quite interesting. The robot police, assembled where needed by nanomachines, are fascinating, and I loved the idea of the Doctor, Sarah, and Harry running around Prague with a giant cockroach as a de facto companion. The resolution is sub-Agatha Christie, but it doesn't detract from an otherwise entertaining story.
Spoilsport — Paul Finch — One of the best jobs of writing Pertwee that I've seen in quite a while. I find that Pertwee stories work much better if the author can achieve a note-perfect capturing of the Doctor, and Finch certainly does that. The subject matter is perfect, too — supernatural phenomena with a scientific explanation — and it involves just enough of Prague to be appropriate. Good stuff.
War in a Time of Peace — Steve Lockley & Paul Lewis — A fourth story with Prague cut off from the rest of Earth. It's mostly unmemorable, but it does present one interesting character: a general doing what he thinks is the right thing in light of very limited evidence. Solid enough, for what it is.
The End of Now — Chris Roberson — Another oddly earnest season 17 story, complete with the sci-fi trope I've never understood of the unusual character who speaks in incorrect tenses. It works here, though, with the constantly shifting perspectives and times, and Roberson tries, somewhat successfully, to ground the threat in human desire.
Suspension and Disbelief — Mary Robinette Kowal — So short it's over before it starts. What's with the deus ex machina thing? "Inconsequential" would be the best word here.
Leap Second — Bev Vincent — More Time Lords, more time travel, and more conflicts in academia. This is competently-presented, to be sure, but everything is starting to blend together by this point in the anthology and I'm finding myself with less and less to say.
Lady of the Snows — James Swallow — Despite being the fifth story involving Prague cut off from the rest of Earth, this is the best story in the anthology. It's a heartbreaking story — Yan is a desperately lonely yet sympathetic artist who meets and falls in love with an amnesiac Charley — with a brilliant perspective on the Doctor, floating in and out of events. I don't think it's a coincidence that Swallow is one of the few authors in here who's written Who before.
The Time Eater — Lee Battersby — A third explanation for the Golem here, and a badly-written Troughton, compensated for by an excellent Jamie. The ending is poignant, which makes up for the incomprehensible proceedings leading up to it.
Fable Fusion — Gary A. Braunbeck & Lucy A. Snyder — Perhaps the worst writing for any set of regulars in any published Doctor Who media in history. I don't know who these characters are, but they bear as much resemblance to the seventh Doctor and Ace as I do. This completely ruins the story — the rest of it doesn't even matter. And this took TWO authors?
Men of the Earth — Kevin Killiany — A fourth explanation for the Golem myth, and this one contains a run-of-the-mill sci-fi debate about mining for precious raw materials threatening a previously-unknown species. Again, it's not a bad story by any means, but it's not especially interesting.
Across Silent Seas — Tim Waggoner — It's almost exactly the same story as "The Time Eater," except much better-written: Waggoner nails Troughton, and even gives him an interesting, if sudden, recent history to lend credence to his inner moral conflict. Very good stuff.
The Dragons of Prague — Todd McCaffrey — Ludicrous, cavalier rewriting of Earth (and Doctor Who) history aside, this is delightful. McCaffrey clearly knows these regulars, and puts a perfect Tom Baker on the page. I also enjoyed the central conceit — a cooking contest — that gave the story a very Doctor Who-ish twist of absurdity.
Omegamorphosis — Stel Pavlou — The plot is silly at best, incomprehensible at worst, but Pavlou makes up for it with his scenes between the Doctor and Callum. The last paragraphs in particular are beautiful — shame about the Master, who really adds nothing by his presence.
Overall, Short Trips: Destination Prague has some distinct flaws: first, it's terribly repetitive, with several stories seeming incredibly similar. Doctor Who has presented multiple explanations for historical events in the past, sure, but never multiple times in this close proximity! The setting is too limited: most stories strike me as wanting to "do Prague" by talking about the Astronomical Clock, the Golem, Kafka, etc. — but when these features turn up in almost every single story, they turn into an eye-rolling game of "spot the reference" by the end of the book. Secondly, it's obvious that most of these authors have limited experience writing Doctor Who: only a few stories have commendable presentations of the regulars, and many feel more like Star Trek plots, complete with technobabble resolutions. I see this anthology for the experiment it was, but unfortunately I cannot deem that experiment a success.
Recommended for completists only.


As technology changes rapidly, at the same time, your IT skills also becoming out of date. Learn these skills to survive in the future.
Many digital technology projects need these skills. Learn and apply quickly is the mantra to survive in the digital world.
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This article includes a one-page preview that quickly summarizes the key ideas and provides an overview of how the concepts work in practice along with suggestions for further reading.The U.S. Army's Opposing Force (OPFOR) is a 2,500-member brigade whose job is to help prepare soldiers for combat. Created to be the meanest, toughest foe that soldiers will ever face, OPFOR engages units-in-training in a variety of mock campaigns under a wide range of conditions. Every month, a fresh brigade of more than 4,000 soldiers takes on this standing enemy. OPFOR, which is stationed in the California desert, always has the home-court advantage. But the force being trained--called BLUFOR--is numerically and technologically superior. It possesses more resources and better, more available data. It is made up of experienced soldiers. And it knows just what to expect, because OPFOR shares its methods from previous campaigns with BLUFOR's commanders. In short, each BLUFOR brigade is given practically every edge. Yet OPFOR almost always wins. Underlying OPFOR's consistent success is the way it uses the after action review (AAR), a method for extracting lessons from one event or project and applying them to others. AAR meetings became a popular business tool after Shell Oil began experimenting with them in 1998. Most corporate AARs, however, are faint echoes of the rigorous reviews performed by OPFOR. Companies tend to treat the process as a pro-forma wrap-up, drawing lessons from an action but rarely learning them. OPFOR's AARs, by contrast, generate raw material that is fed back into the execution cycle. And while OPFOR's reviews extract numerous lessons, the brigade does not consider a lesson to be learned until it is successfully applied and validated. It might not make sense for companies to adopt OPFOR's AAR processes in their entirety, but four fundamentals are mandatory: Lessons must benefit the team that extracts them; the AAR process must start at the beginning of the activity; lessons must link explicitly to future actions; and leaders must hold everyone, especially themselves, accountable for learning.