Song for the afflicted - 2

Intro

The description

The key

Filling the key

snippets

Intro

What if i told you the Bible from a spiritual perspective actually tells us very clearly what’s going on?

That It describes the Way we have to traverse, and the landscape it passes through?

That it consists of four ‘grounds’, and that to pass through the first three to get to the end ground there is something we have to understand, and then to work that understanding out, to enact it, to move to the next ground? And then in the last ground just something to enact? (just add that up, 3 x understand something, 3 x act on it + 1 act = 7, yes, that number seven! we’ll get back to that.)

That this description already starts in Genesis, the creation, the garden of eden, it’s four rivers, adam and eve, the consequences of the ‘fall’, the patriarchal story of the twelve tribes coming to be etc, Egypt, the exodus, moses, the Law, the whole Torah, it’s commandments and feasts, the entrance into canaan, the coming about of israel, the divided kingdom, all of it, is all explaining this story?

Stronger yet, It even gives us a diagram that functions as a map, as it were.

That the New Testament (of course, the OT too) is word for word perfect? No mistakes were made in the different re-tellings of the Gospel story, they’re clarifying things too, including and especially each rendition of the single act of crucifixion our wonderful Saviour underwent? That the New Testament adheres so strongly to this concept of four grounds, and the seven things involved that it actually reflects that pattern of 4, 7, 4, 7, and then Revelation comes barreling along?, with its seven churches again showing the pattern? 

We all search for an understanding that will de-mystify the process that we know we have to undergo, yet nowhere is that information to be found. 

Do understand that i say this humbly - allow me to show you. Allow me to describe the part of the elephant i touched.

John 4:24

God is Spirit, and His worshipers must worship Him in spirit and in truth.

God is Spirit, and so we can best understand and worship Him by looking at the spiritual side of what we’re being told. But what does the spiritual world consist of? 

Not in all translations, but Luke 9:55 has a continuation that goes

and He said, “You do not know what kind of spirit you are of. 

Well, let’s start with this -

Our spiritual world is entirely inside of ourselves. My spiritual world is inside me, yours inside you. And the Word is speaking exactly to this spiritual world in each of us.

Let me make one disclaimer.

I am simply one person, working on a vast field with no companions, so i have in no way figured out everything, or am able to explain everything, and here and there may even have taken hold of the wrong end of the stick. I try to limit myself to only what i know to be true, where i am still figuring out i say so. This is a road of discovery. Just don’t think everything is the wrong end of the stick, then you do me no justice. 

It is the afflicted i am talking to, not the satisfied. Also, because there’s so much to say, i meander a lot!

Matthew 7:5

You hypocrite! First take the beam out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

Well, that’s a bit harsh, but i mention this because i don’t want to give the impression that concentrating on your own spiritual growth implies abandoning our brethren, or that this contradicts in any way the command to love one another, or that it is not important to bear fruit..

We first focus on our own understanding and spiritual growth, to be of good help to our brother.

1 Corinthians 3:2

I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for solid food. In fact, you are still not ready.

Isn't it time to be ready for solid food?

Milk, milk everywhere, and not a crumb to eat, to paraphrase.

I’m going to speak of unfamiliar stuff, which is not going to be easy to ingest, never mind digest. Initially you might feel uncomfortable, like the first time you eat brussel sprouts. This is uncharted territory. 

Let me make my case, and then go look for yourself. I am not contradicting anybody, there’s nobody to contradict. What i have to say is new only because it’s not been spoken of yet. It’s been there in front of us since the Word was codified, i’m not making anything up.

Now me explaining things means i’ve pre-chewed it (yuk), or more hygienically, pureed it, meaning we're still talking infant food here, and that's not the purpose. So only as much as is needed will be shown, from then on you're welcome to work (chew) for yourself.

I’m going to show the key to unlocking the secret of the solid food.

But first let me describe this spiritual world. It’s going to sound strange, like i am indeed wearing a colander on my head. If i can back up what i am saying thru the Word, can you not at least ponder on this?

Then i will talk about the key, and how to fill it, because the key is also a map.

Because i am using the (his)story that is described in the Word, i use the terminology of the Word. These terminologies were used to describe spiritual concepts, which we cannot directly grasp using our language which was designed to communicate concepts of the physical world, so even my explanation is a shadow explanation. Also, i am stating many things simplistically, not getting into full detail yet, it’s too much at once, first the concepts.

The description

In a way each one of us is a complex multi-faceted being, made up, almost schizophrenically, of multiple personae, and each of our very thoughts can be considered to take up a life of their own. As we ‘grow’ a ‘male’ and a ‘female’ persona create a new child, and so on. This is how our spiritual world inside us can be described, think about it and see how this correlates to the psychological and emotional world inside us (hearts and minds).

Let me quickly explain this male and female thing before you question my sanity. If one thinks of a thought, we have the conceiving of the thought, the understanding of it, and then the acting upon that thought. Consider that male and female, described functionally, not in sex gender.

Both genders, here in the physical world, have the same make-up. When you look at our building blocks, our chromosomes, only one pair of the twenty three pairs is there to differentiate us physically, the sex chromosomes. (later on i’ll comment further on those chromosomes.)

Look, these thoughts are not every single individual thought, they’re full fledged conceptualized thoughts. Ideas.

The male side has to do with conceiving the idea, the female with the practical expression of that idea, bringing it about in the world. I can also describe it as the decision and the execution. It’s a point of function, the sex gender is for the physical world.

There is so much more to this, which goes a long way to explaining why the unfortunate gender-based treatment of males and females in our physical world are shadow types of the spiritual reality. In the end, as the true spiritual beings we are, it doesn’t matter if we’re male or female. We’re just stuck with being what we are physically while here temporarily.

The men of proverbs 31:10-31 fame sit in the gate, exchanging thoughts.

And the good wife seems to be doing all the work, doesn’t she?

In the physical world, we make a big thing of the gender difference, throw that all overboard for now, we’re talking spiritually here, i give an example a little further down that explains what i mean better. 

So, how does sex and procreation translate spiritually, then? Well, let’s go to Genesis, adam has a rib removed from him which creates eve. This happens while adam is in a deep sleep, we don’t know how. Ring a bell? The the parable of the farmer sowing seed, and the seed germinates and grows while he sleeps, he knows not how. A seed of thought. A plant of expression. Ready to bear fruit with a seed inside of it, a new child who builds in turn on that what his parents have made. And the process repeats. We don’t know how, we just know there’s a rib (the usual translation), involved, which enables adam truly to say flesh of my flesh, and bone of my bone.

And no, to the biologically inclined objectors. The seed does not turn into a plant, the plant (rib) comes out of the seed. The remaining husk of the seed dies off, but then, so did adam…It’s eve who is the mother of the living, it’s in her name. Just for completeness, the plant only dies off after having produced fruit, which contains new seed inside of it. Now a plant is a lower form of life, with a different purpose, adam didn’t immediately die once eve was produced out of his rib… Let’s say to an extent the plant (life - of seed to fruit cycle) is a shadow type of a human (life), as our physical existence is of our spiritual, it is also not a full comparison. But there is a reason i’m saying this, to do with death, much later i will explain.

But, biology always supports God. He made it.

So, spiritually, the real description of generation is embedded there with adam and eve, the further generations in the story get locked into the limitations(sex, procreation etc) of the physical world. The shadow of the spiritual reality moves further behind the veil of physical ignorance.

Think this is ridiculous?  Remembering there is a war going on between the forces of good and evil, ponder daniel’s ‘inexplicable’ vision of the bear with three ribs! between its teeth…heard a satisfactory explanation of just what those ribs imply?

 I’ll give one in a moment. Need to make one more point. But first…

We abound with thoughts, and this is happening with all these thoughts all the time, to the point that we inhabit a thought-world inside of ourselves with a population akin to the physical.

Let me expound. Thoughts which produce no actions are like dry bones, there’s no wife to produce children, new rational thoughts off the previous thought, with. 

And actions taken without thought are like wanton women without husbands. And a thought interacting with an action not generated from that thought is a good way to describe adultery, with bastard children as offspring.

A thought interacting with another thought without actions is an abomination, because only interaction of a thought with its corresponding action builds a rational further thought. Think it’s not so? When you’re thinking along, and thinking you’re only stringing thoughts together, you’re actually also testing the validity of the thought before stringing the next one. That testing is an intellectual performance of an action.

If you don’t do that, you’re usually described as insane…irrational.

Giving a twist here, aren’t i? That’s why homosexuality is so wrong, it’s a physical ‘shadow’ of a spiritual abomination which can only produce irrational offspring, in fact, which stunts spiritual growth full stop. Same for actions with actions.

Back to adultery, as an example, forgive any inaccuracy in portions of the following statement, i’m showing how things work, take the starting-point thought of the concept of acknowledging the existence of God. the female action engendered from this is fear of God (emotional responses are also actions). Why, because part of the acknowledgement of the existence of God entails awareness of His justice, and of our sin, and so the resulting (emotional re-) action is to feel fear, of Him. this is intended to inspire, encourage, nudge us, to create a child concept of listening to Him, to His counsel, and to worshiping Him. but if that female fear (re-)action then lies down with any other concept, like let’s say the concept of security derived from material wealth and possessions, it will create a child concept of listening to and worshiping mammon. Adultery and idolatry. So, once you know the Lord, fear only the Lord, He is the only thing to fear, fearing anything else means adultery is taking place, producing bastard offspring that perform idolatry.

So this whole epic of a story in the Bible of the children of israel et al with its huge cast spanning centuries is spiritually actually a reflection of what’s going on inside us, the diverse characters typifying our diverse thoughts and actions.

Mind boggling concept, isn’t it? Well, once one accepts this of course. I’m working on that.

Now the physical epic spans many generations, it cannot otherwise, but spiritually there are only four generations of importance. The generations involved in the process after we are born again the second time. Those of you who know your torah should be able to recollect the amount of times we see God condemning actions till ‘the third, even the fourth’ generation, subtle insertions speaking spiritual truth hidden in plain sight.

The Bible does this frequently all over. It’s just waiting for us to see it. I mean subtly without one noticing, there are also countless clear examples of four. They weave into this seamlessly, once you are aware of what i’m trying to make clear.

The patriarchs start reflecting this, abraham, isaac, jacob, and then the twelve sons.

The root of what becomes the children of israel, the twelve tribes.

But there is another way this is reflected, epically. Looking at those twelve tribes, the nation israel, we see they start in egypt, where joseph has gathered the patriarchal family which multiplies, then they move through the wilderness, and enter canaan, and that seems to stop there, but that has to do with the burden of the children of israel, they progress through the three first stages, and their progress is halted, their sight partially veiled, for the sake of us gentiles, so we can get on board as well. So what is this fourth stage? Jebus, which so stubbornly could not get conquered, till david managed it. That part of the story was again a shadow, waiting for the true conquering of the fourth stage to happen, our Saviour entering the world and triumphing over it. That, as so much of what i’m describing, takes a whole tome to fully explain, but let me continue.

These are the four generations, or stages, or lands, or, as i refer to it, the grounds, that comprise the spiritual path this composite persona that we are have to cross.

The generation in egypt has to work through everything needed to be learnt in egypt,

what needs to be learnt in turn is composite, not just one idea and action, then produce their offspring who go to the next ground, etc. 

I use the word grounds because this all started from contemplation of the parable of the sower, and what can i say, one thing led to another.

So, the first ground i will now describe as egypt, the second as assyria, the third as israel, and the fourth as jerusalem.

Why assyria? Well, i’m going into what happens frequently all through the story, places change names as the story progresses (canaan becomes israel for instance), and the places themselves change as the story progresses. They morph simply because the physical story (and characters for that matter) cannot all take place in one spot. For now, let me cryptically say egypt is south, and wilderness is north, at this stage it’s not yet assyria north of the land israel, because israel doesn’t exist yet, and the israelites aren’t there yet.

Even gender changes sometimes, where a he suddenly is referred to as a she. This happens mainly in the prophets and the psalms, but those who are at home in the Word will be able to bring instances to mind. Based on what i’m explaining, that gives an opportunity to pause and think…

Back to why i say it’s Assyria.

Isaiah 19:25

The LORD of Hosts will bless them, saying, "Blessed be Egypt My people, Assyria My handiwork, and Israel My inheritance."

A confusing statement, and what i’ve explained so far does not clarify it, i will later,  it has tremendously positive implications for the world at large.

But for now - My people who know Me, those whom I fashioned by My counsel, My inheritance because it’s Jesus speaking here, and His inheritance comprises the subjects of His kingdom. (it being OT - isaiah does not yet mention jerusalem His bride)

You will really have to do your homework at this stage of my explanation to see that for instance, just going far back and far forward, the names of the four rivers flowing out of eden correspond to these four grounds, and the territories mentioned in 

luke 3:1 -

In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, while Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, 

• also refer to these four grounds.

(nothing gets mentioned for no reason, but to fully understand luke’s verse you have to know what the names of the territories mean, the history of their coming to being and even the bloodlines of the characters involved. It won’t make much sense if i tell you now because the concepts haven’t been explained yet. This is what i’m trying to make clear, mostly everything one can either understand with this basic foundation, or work at it till understanding. God says in the Book that He WANTS us to understand. It’s just set apart for those who want it hard enough to work at it. He tells us so in deuteronomy 30:11, where He is talking about us having to follow His commandments. But we can only follow properly when we understand properly. 

Oh, oh, oh, where is wisdom to be found? That what really is not meant to be understood is also clearly described as such.)

But now having made the next point (the point of the existence of the four grounds), as promised i’ll just clarify the bear with three ribs between its teeth of daniel’s vision a bit better.

This is a horrible vision! What that vision is saying is the bear is destroying the females of all first three grounds, nothing left to bear fruit and continue to the fourth! It’s devastating to know that when reading it. A slaughter of the child-bearers. 

I’m going to take a moment to start touching on something i said earlier regarding the gospels. There is no disambiguation between them, they are in fact reflecting each ground. And i have already started explaining why there are three synoptic gospels, and one all on it’s own. The synoptics are referring to the first three grounds that the chosen people are temporarily limited to, for the sake of the rest of the world, in fact it’s where anyone can get to through their own hard work, the actual spiritual work required, converting and becoming an israelite, as it were. I’m not referring to my little work of understanding the spiritual aspect.

And john, the one all on its own, is the real thing, entering the city. The actual surrendering of oneself and in fact not working anymore. It’s the seventh day of rest, after all. The surrendering is the hard part.

Don’t worry, i will back up what i’m saying and expand on it much further. Right to the crucifixion(s).

The short version? Focus exactly on those differences between the gospels, don’t try to explain them away. They’re deliberate.

So, what exactly is the meaning behind these four grounds?

A first explanation in one word answers is to be found in the names of leah’s first four sons.

Reuben see

Simeon hear

Levi attach

Judah praise

it’s woefully underappreciated, names have meaning, both people and places.

Basically, i’ve been expanding on the number four, and its significance in the Bible.

Let me continue my explanation by bringing in the number seven, that number recognized as the one of completeness. It’s four expanded, if you like, the four places expanded to comprise the seven people inhabiting it. What do i mean by that? So we have a male and female out of rib in the first ground, creating a male child to inhabit the next ground, female out of rib, and again a male for the third ground, female out of rib again,and then a last child. Seven.

Now, correctly people understand that adam is an archetype of Jesus, but when we enter the spiritual jerusalem Jesus Himself, not an archetype, is the Man, the Husband, the King, and we are the bride, the female (the queen, if you’re prepared not to get big-headed about it, always watch out for pride). So in the fourth ground the child is no less than virgin daughter jerusalem, the famous bride at last.

Ok, i’ve given a basic idea of the spiritual reality, enough to get started with. I am now going to have to ‘prove’ my case, and, how could it not be, make even more claims that in turn will need to be proved. i told you i’m giving  something new, i hope i’m making clear just how vast this newness is. 

Even though many things i say are by themselves not new, some are, what is new is i am connecting the dots, as it were, and placing things in the correct order so we don’t misunderstand.

The key

Matthew 5:14-15

You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a basket. Instead, they set it on a stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.

We, each of us, are a lamp. Unlit, dimly lit, partially lit, or shining brightly in full flame.

Exodus 25:31-40 (The lampstand of the Tabernacle)

Then you are to make a lampstand of pure, hammered gold. It shall be made of one piece, including its base and shaft, its cups, and its buds and petals.

Six branches are to extend from the sides of the lampstand - three on one side and three on the other. There are to be three cups shaped like almond blossoms on the first branch, each with buds and petals, three on the next branch, and the same for all six branches that extend from the lampstand.

And on the lampstand there shall be four cups shaped like almond blossoms with buds and petals. For the six branches that extend from the lampstand, a bud must be under the first pair of branches, a bud under the second pair, and a bud under the third pair. The buds and branches are all to be of one piece with the lampstand, hammered out of pure gold.

Make seven lamps and set them up on the lampstand so that they illuminate the area in front of it. The wick trimmers and their trays must be of pure gold. The lampstand and all these utensils shall be made from a talent of pure gold. See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.

If there is a secret, this is it. There's a little bit more, but the description of the menorah is key to unlocking the deeper spiritual meaning to be found in the Word.

Note the order, a first pair of branches, then a second pair, then a third, and lastly, the central stand itself. Seven in all. Three pairs and one stem.

(three score and ten, those are the years of a man’s life, very famous, excepting that’s not exactly how the quote in psalm 90:10 goes, it says 70, and for some 80, but three score and ten does get used elsewhere.) 

The 22 cups also have significance, everything has, ok, before we unlock the key - for the curious…Spiritual reality reflected in physical biology, pretty cool.

This is reflected in the 22 letters of the hebrew alphabet, with all the significance imbued in each letter and numerical equivalent, for those who dive into that, and in our chromosomes.

We have 23 pairs of chromosomes that make us what we are, 22 pairs of autosomes, that’s us spiritually, and then the (physical)  sex chromosome pair x-y, there is a fascinating video on youtube explaining a rabbi’s (mordechai kraft) interpretation, which explains  the sex chromosome distinction using the hebrew alphabet, called ‘The hebrew language is the dna of creation’, from 2011/12, in it he explains male and female really interestingly between minutes 50:30 and 55:30. That’s the x-y chromosome in rabbi-speak. The functional difference. If you have the time the whole thing is interesting.

I didn’t get the concept of male and female spiritual functionality from him, but boy did it confirm to me that i was on the right track…

There’s a bit more about this 22, that i’ll get to later, this is just to not let the chromosome comment i made previously hang in the air.

But hey, i want to keep you curious, based on the rabbi’s visually drawn usage of the letters, look at jeremiah 31:22, what woman encompassing a man, and why is it new?

Right, back on track.

And now to explain what little bit more is required to unlock the key.

Isaiah 11:2

The Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him -

the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,

the Spirit of counsel and strength,

the Spirit of knowledge and fear of the LORD.

Time to ask a difficult question.

What is the second birth? 

As much as people would love it to be so, it’s not when they get baptized in water, although it may happen then, that’s happy circumstance.

John 3:3 -

Jesus answered him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, except anyone be born from above, he is not able to see the kingdom of God." -

In our first birth we are infused with the breath of life by God (Genesis 2:7 Then the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being.).

It is only when what Jesus is saying in john 3:3 comes about that we are spiritually born. 

When does this happen? This happens when we start on our path to God, once having been called by Him (Hosea 11:1 - When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of  Egypt I called My son). Look, when one gets baptized in water, who knows why? but when one hears the call of God, that’s a different story, that is something very compelling. 

How? Just as we physically are made in image, so our spirit is made in image.

And just as we are an imperfect image, so our spirit image is imperfect, or we’d go straight to heaven, or something.

The spirit we receive is an image of the Holy Spirit itself. Think not? Read john 3:6 very carefully. -

Flesh is born of flesh, but spirit is born of the Spirit. -

When the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus at His baptism by john and remained on Him, there was no talk of anything being ‘born’ OF the Holy Spirit, the Spirit Himself remained on Him. Befittingly so. As isaiah 11:2 also states, using the word ‘rests’. 

I can't see the Holy Spirit Himself being ‘born’ in each of us.

I think a better wording would help, but i hesitate to try, i might bring error into the attempt to bring clarity here, everything of the Spirit is extremely difficult to grasp in our physical world.

Let me just say this, God calls us, Jesus mentions that He has not lost one of those His Father has given Him (john 6:39 and john 18:9), so God the Father calls us and gives us to Jesus, and Jesus is the one baptizing us with the Holy Spirit (john 1:33), and it is OF the Holy Spirit that we are born again. Can one not think of all this happening at the same time? (i risk causing a trinity argument, but I’ll bring a completely different trinity into this later.)

Be that as it may, at some stage we get born again.

So, from that Seven-fold Holy Spirit are born  we, each of us, also a seven-fold spirit. 

Just let the understanding evolve, we have been made a spiritual being… 

So, now using the description of the menorah, a mapping process of isaiah 11:2 can take place.

Now, just about always, as you'll see later, the mapping takes place from 'outside' to 'inside', but as this what Isaiah is saying is coming directly from the Lord, from ‘up’ there to ‘down’ here, as it were, the mapping process takes place from 'inside' to 'outside'.

 We have fallen ‘down’ and we need to get back ‘up’. From ‘down’ here the order of going ‘up’ again is the reverse of looking down from ‘up’ there. Hope i didn’t lose you, Don’t sweat it, just follow what i’m saying.

The central stand itself is known as the Spirit of the LORD, the third (innermost) pair of arms are wisdom and understanding, respectively, the second (intermediate) pair of arms counsel and strength, and the first (outermost) pair of arms knowledge and fear of the LORD.

Refer to the diagram  to visualize. I have included one diagram, filled with everything i am going to lay out in this article, please just let everything on the diagram unfold with the telling. (Oh, my apologies, i am not able to get the diagram into this article, my ignorance, that’s why i posted it beforehand)

To explain, each arm is a separate 'entity', I'll call it for now, and for us everything works from outside to inside.

What is required is for us to make progress in lighting the lamp so that each arm and the central stand come to flame, for the lamp that we are to shine brightly. Accumulating the oil as it were.

Bear with me as I go through these simple steps, I'm working on clarity here.

The first step in spiritual progression is to gain knowledge of the Lord, our Creator. A male thought conceiving this, seeing it. reuben.

This results in a realization of one's plight as a sinner, as such a rib is taken from the conceived idea, creating the female who expresses fear and trembling - the fear of the Lord. This gives birth to a child, moving on to the next ground, the next pair of arms.

Then, that mother-fear that gave birth to the male child makes it pay attention to the counsel that the Lord, through the Word, advises, the commandments, in a nutshell. The concept of hearing what will save us. simeon.

Heeding this counsel, expressing it in one’s actions, is the strengthening required for  one to follow it and give birth to the next child, to the next ground.

And now, having knowledge of the Lord, and following His counsel, this child  acquires wisdom, and attaches himself to the Lord. (this is not explained well enough yet, that will become clearer a bit further down the line). levi.

Said wisdom leads to an understanding of how to live and the expressing of it.

(the expression of understanding in one word - unity - we’re talking brotherhood.)

And that, once properly expressed, gives birth to the child in the last ground who receives the Spirit of the Lord to fully dwell in us. Is it a surprise that this child can only think of praising the Lord? Judah. It’s what we do in jerusalem.

These are what is known as the seven Spirits of the Lord.

There are more occurrences of seven concepts grouped together in the Word, and now I'm going to make another statement.

These occurrences of seven can ALL be mapped to the menorah.

Now I am aware that theologically one is advised to refrain from directly connecting these multiple occurrences together, people have tried to no avail, although i did see some who had gotten far enough to map Isaiah’s seven spirits in the correct sequence to the menorah, but it stopped there without continuing for not understanding the significance.

Because there’s one last little thing more required to  unlock the key to the solid food.

(If i may say so, this is essentially the one thing that i have to bring to the party, as it were, took a while to spot this, just never realizedl the enormity of it.)

Every FIRST time something grouped in seven distinct concepts is mentioned is definitive, don’t think, map it to the menorah, then think what it is saying. Oh, and we're talking a complete suite of seven, partial groupings and subsequent groupings don’t count. Isn’t the Word amazing? It just requires this one little trick, and everything makes sense and can flow.

See why that ordering of the Books of the canon as we know them now was choreographed all along? Because that put matthew before mark, for instance, for those who know what i’m talking about.