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Foot Reflexology Revisited

6/17/2020

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Coronavirus: A Historical, Mythical, and Philosophical Perspective

3/19/2020

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The Byzantine Empire was at it's absolute zenith when BLAM! a plague collapsed the entire enterprise. The roaring 20's gave way to the depression. The trust in government, institutions, and companies to be honest (and care for our best interests) collapsed into the disillusionment of the 1960s.

The Roman's might say these pivotal moments were caused by Fortuna turning her rudder. This mythical figure is a good object of contemplation. She represents a fundamental truth about the nature of life.
​
Fear not. We'll get through these Coronavirus times. We will evolve as a species for the challenge and the reminder that we are not outside of history or nature.
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The Brad Pitt Moment

3/4/2020

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This is a revision of an article I published exactly 4 years ago.  Now with video!

One of the most influential people in my life was a guy I knew for less than 2 minutes.  Compared to other stories I have this will seem super mundane, but stick with me... that's kind of the point.
I was working as a grocery bagger for Thompson's Food Basket in Peoria, IL.  One day I manned the register and soon got into the flow of quickly handling customers.
"Hey how's it going," I'd say perfunctorily.
Bleep Bleep Bleep.   I'd scan their items.
"That'll be 45.60$"
"Thanks.  Have a nice day."
Over and over I'd run them through like a blur.  I was a young man being assimilated into the machine of the modern, busy world where we plow through our day mainly lost in our heads.  Strangers around us interpreted as either obstacles or gatekeepers.
The next customer came up.
"Hey how's it going?" I said not looking up as I reached for his items.
"Good man.  How are you," this shapeless customer replied.   
"Good," I said as I begin to scan.  Bleep bleep bleep.
"No man," He said with authority, "how's it going?"
"Huh?"
I lifted my gaze up as if broken from a daydream to see a man in the prime of his life.  He was handsome, fit, and had all his attention focused upon me.  He was radiating a positive energy.  He seemed to genuinely be inquiring about my state without any kind of agenda.
"Oh... I guess I'm good," I stammered.
"Right on," replied the guy with a warm smile, still looking at me.
We finished the transaction and he went his way.  Never saw the guy again.  That's my story.

This happened over 20 years ago and I still remember it clear as day.  Why?  Cause a super cool Brad Pitt type of dude gave me all his attention for a minute.  He acknowledged me: a shy, skinny, socially awkward 16 year old who still hadn't kissed a girl.  For a moment I wasn't just a bumbling kid that handled groceries for minimum wage.  I was a bro.

Think about this:  Who was the Elvis of the Mayan Empire?  Who was the Michael Jordan athlete of the Mycenaeans?  Who was the legendary hunter of the Apache or the beauty queen of the Han dynasty?  Surely these personalities burned legendary at one point, but they are all forgotten now, just as this anonymous cool guy is nameless.  He could very well be dead.  His ego, just like that of all the Incan emperors you can't remember, has crumbled to dust; but the waves of energy he pushed out into the world live on.  Because of him I try (though often fail) to take a beat and acknowledge the people around me.  Because of him I'm writing this post.  
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I used to imagine one day I'd maybe change the world in a monumentally positive way, like Hellen Keller or Abraham Lincoln, and perhaps I still might.  But I strongly believe our real contribution occurs this day, when you walk out your door to grab a coffee, take the subway, or buy your groceries.  What kind of waves of energy are you pushing out into the world?  Let me encourage you to jump on the vibration of that nameless cool cat of Peoria, IL.  Take a moment to acknowledge people.  Pour a few seconds of all your attention into little genuine gesture of "I see you" or "I get you."  It could be the brightest spot in that person's day, and just maybe they'll remember it, and emulate it, decades later.
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Last Time This Decade

12/19/2019

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There will be many things you do this week for the last time in the decade. The last time you see certain friends, the last time you eat a particular food, and the last time you visit a special place. What’s the big deal? You’ll do it all again in 2020.....   Or will you?
As an experiment consider that these could be the very last times you do these things. Why would you entertain such morbid thoughts? Because one day it will be the last time, and most likely you won’t realize this as that moment passes. You will probably not give tit your full attention, lost partially in thought and preoccupied with the phone. 
How would you treat 2019’s last scenes as if they were final? How would you say goodbye to the friend you’ll never see again? How would you savor that meal? How would you soak in the atmosphere of your favorite spot?
Let’s give ourselves the holiday gift of placing full attention, appreciation, and intention on the decade’s final moments.

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The Virtue of Hardship & Tuesday Trail Runs

5/14/2019

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Our culture is obsessed with comfort. Collectively we have been coddled by modernity. We want more legroom, softer mattresses, and any vehicle that will save us from physically moving our bodies. Get in a time machine and travel to any generation before us and you'll be the softest, most sensitive soul around. Our hunter/gatherer ancestors, whose genes we still carry, would be stunned. Perhaps they are stunned inside of us at this very moment.

Suffering, inconvenience, and exertion are part of life. Just like one must experience heartbreak to get love, and betrayal to grasp trust; we must truly learn how to hold suffering to appreciate its absence: the sweet state of being at ease. 

There is also a life principle at work. Accomplishing the best stuff involves pushing past challenges and imagined limitations. To become a better person one must take the Hero's Journey, walk into the dark cave, and face some tough things. If we don't learn how to frame hardship properly on the front side of life, it will find us truly unprepared on the backside. 

The easiest realm in which to learn the virtue of suffering is in the physical. For that reason I organize Tuesday Trail Runs. Once a week we interval run up a small mountain in about 7 stages. The idea is to complete each segment with almost nothing in the tank and RPMs hovering at the edge of the red zone. Often I'll cry out in relief at the breaks as the powerful sensation of exertion giving way to rest floods my body. The more tension I hold on the segment, the more powerful the wave of glorious release. 

On the trail the mechanisms of the self defeating mind get real clear. The first ascent triggers a cacophony of arguments to quit or walk.
I treat this first chunk as chance to watch the modern mind's resistance to exertion. It's a phenomenal exposé of excuses. 

On the second segment I cycle through empowering narratives to replace the weak ones. 
  • Positive self talk - "I'm Jonathan Legg. I've done this and that. I swallow hills like breath mints."
  • Addressing the haters - All the grade school bullies, all the naysayers, and the disbelievers think I'll give up. I'll stop running. Well just watch. 
  • Tapping into the ancestor DNA - For hundreds of thousands of years... millions... our Homo Erectus and Homo Sapien ancestors successfully ran down prey and escaped predators. Their genes are inside us. They are fairly out of place in this modern world (which has something to do with all the anxiety we feel), but running with others on a trail is their jam. 

For all other segments I settle on the technique that works best: Mindfulness and presence. 
  • I watch the trial and surroundings intensely
  • I smell the trail
  • I feel the air on my skin 
  • I feel my body parts moving 
And, most importantly, I zone in on that sensation of hardship.. that feeling that's making my face grimace, my legs burn, my lungs heave.
  • What does this sensation exactly feel like in my body? 
  • Up to what level can I just hold the energy and keep chugging?
  • Must I grimace or can I smile? Does it have to be serious or can in be playful?

Hardship is a fascinating state that most of us work so hard to avoid. I encourage you to start a practice where you can hold and examine it. You'll find that what you were afraid of isn't so bad. It isn't bad at all. There is a side of you to  explore there.

 If you find yourself in LA, join me on my trail runs






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NOTW: A Bad Idea We All Believe

12/13/2018

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There is a misguided concept that runs deep in Western culture. Christians express the idea with the acronym NOTW (Not of This World). Neo-spiritualists rephrase it by saying "We are spiritual beings having a human experience." And most of us carry this frame by imagining ourselves static capsules, encased in flesh, walking through a foreign (and often hostile) environment. This is  a complete illusion of separation in an interconnected universe, where everything leans on something else. It's a misconception that undoubtably leaves us all feeling disconnected and anxious, and puts our planet in peril. 
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​Here is a quote from gotquestions.org, a Christian site (highlights added):

"We are still surrounded by all the horrors and tragedy of this life, but this is not our life. The knowledge that we are not of this world gives Christians hope even in the darkest times; hope that this will pass and at the end of it we will be in heaven with our God, face to face forever. This cracked and broken place is not where we belong, and it is not where we will stay.

The appeal of this philosophy is evident. The challenges we have as a species are stressful. Watching the news is like consuming anxiety. What a relief to completely wash one's hands of all global problems with zero guilt. Stand by, ride it out, and grab your flight to paradise.

But what if this conjecture is wrong? It's impossible to verify stories of an afterlife. We see, hear, taste, smell, and feel the world every day. If this reality, confirmed by our physical senses, is our home then NOTW becomes a disastrous manifesto of non-responsibility. A bad idea that has spread past Christianity. 


Recently I was at the University of Santa Monica, a school offering a spiritual degree in philosophy. This same concept was passed around in different clothing. One man, addressing the entire room with a microphone, began a long, rambling thought with, "We all know that this world is not our home..."

This perception even permeates the secular world. Look up from your screen and you'll likely feel a sense of subject and object with everything you see. There is a clear border between "you" and "not you". But is it really so distinct?

To challenge the idea here are a few questions to ponder:


  • We all currently carry more bacteria DNA inside our skin than human DNA. Is this bacteria also NOTW? Are they spiritual beings having a bacterial existence? Does the bacteria have any idea that they are assisting a human in necessary body functions (like digestion), or do they believe they are also distinct  creatures making their own choices?
  • Around 6 million years ago there was just one creature which eventually branched to become humans, chimpanzees, and bonobos. Are chimps and bonobos also NOTW or spiritual beings having a primate experience? How about bottlenose dolphins which have bigger brains than humans? Exactly where is the line between worldly creatures and spiritual ones?
  • In all our cells there is oxygen that came from flora. Our muscles are made of protein which came from animals and plants. Our system requires minerals like calcium, zinc, and magnesium. Are all these things NOTW or do they become spiritual entities only after entering our mouths and lungs?

"Hold on Jonny", one might say, "there is a difference between the body and the spirit." We have a spirit that is NOTW... that's the real us. OK. Let’s think about our spirit and how it might resemble the person our friends and family know. 

What makes Jonathan Legg different than you?
  •  We look different.
  • We have different affectations.
  • We perceive events differently. 
These differences are mostly attributed to our DNA (a worldly thing) and early childhood experiences (which occurred in this world). In fact, almost everything that defines us comes from the physical organization of our bodies and brains.

Imagine a steel bar falls off a construction site and lands on my head. Instantly the brain is reorganized. My travel stories and a sense of adventure disappear.  The new man remembers nothing about Jonathan Legg. However, he is a much more peaceful and kind person. When this man dies what does his spirit feel like: Jonathan Legg with his sense of adventure or the man who doesn't like to travel, but is extra compassionate?

The steel bar is unnecessary. This restructuring is happening every day.

This brain (and body) of ours is constantly reorganizing in a slower fashion. Brains at 2 years, 30, 90, and 'recently dead' are assembled differently, with profound affects on perception and behavior. Which version determines the characteristics of the spirit? Would a person to be lucky to die at 30 (to have a spirit in its prime), unlucky to die with Alzheimers, and terribly unfortunate to die while in a coma? 

If this undocumented spirit, flying off into eternity, resembles none of these personalities, with no cognition of former selves, why do we cling so tightly to this phantom?

Here is the answer: the "spirit" is an escape capsule for the ego. A doomsday shelter for the pending identity apocalypse. 
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We live in an era of individualism unknown to our tribe-centered ancestors. The constant anxiety we feel in this modern age stems from our hyper-inflated, separately packaged egos. Egos that are culturally isolated from their environment, disconnected from each other,  and terrified of their mortality. We cling to NOTW theories out of fear. They are sequels scripted to give the ego the happy ending of a Hollywood action hero. 

​Like many sequels there are some serious flaws with Jonathan Legg Part 2: The Real Jonathan:
  1. Somewhere deep down we all doubt the NOTW plot. It's a serious stretch. The constant flow of air, food, and water constantly rebuilding us is a reminder that we are incarnations of the earth itself... and that we will return to it. 
  2. The writers of the sequel were thinking small potatoes. They were fearful the whole movie would collapse if the hero dies, so they keep him/her alive throughout the most improbable situations, like Dwayne Johnson sputtering back into motion after taking 5 bullets and falling off a balcony. 
  3. We are fussing with this sequel script on the set of the first film. While we look down at the dog-eared pages (of a movie that will probably never get made), the opportunities to contribute to the production happening right now are passing us by. 

What if we drop the sequel script and pay closer attention to the original movie that is in production right now. Let's look at it fresh as if all the characters, including us, are entirely OTW.

What if we embrace the fact that we are part of this planet just like the plants, birds, and whales? The air we are breathing at this very moment came from a tree that needs sun. The sun is crucially a certain distance from this earth. The sun's distance is governed by forces that extend beyond this solar system to the farthest reaches of the universe. This would make us a glorious arrangement of pieces which connect both down and up into the entirety of existence.. a continually changing assortment which is remarkably conscious in the here and now.

Who needs a far-fetched, piddling sequel? The original is a timeless classic. 
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Why We Feel So Lonely

11/16/2018

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Half of Americans suffer from loneliness. In my travels I've seen its prevalence around the world. The world, however, is spilling over with people. How is this possible?

To answer that question it's worth looking at how humans evolved. The Pharaohs of Egypt seem like long ago, but this was a recent event in the totality of our history. For 95% of  this time we lived in tribes of 20-100 people that were completely egalitarian . Our ancestors hung out with all their family, friends, and homies all the time. They worked together, played together, grieved together, and constantly had each other's backs. Everything was shared. There is a strong possibility (as reflected in some modern day hunter-gatherer tribes) that they had no words for "mine" or "yours".  Their concept of autonomy was much different than today's idea of individualism. 

Flash forward to 2018. The tribes are gone. We are encouraged to believe that success means having your own house and living in it alone (or with a small nuclear family). The 4,000-5,000 ads you see in a day prod you to distinguish (i.e. separate) yourself from the pack: wear a better watch, drive a snazzier car, have cooler gadgets. "Exclusive" is an alluring word in marketing, but who is being excluded? Perhaps it's you.

Johann Hari, in his book Lost Connections, has called materialism a "junk value", comparing it to fast food. It hits the right signals in the brain but does not deliver the goods. Multiple studies have shown that people who think happiness comes from accumulating stuff and superior status suffer higher levels of depression and anxiety. This doesn't keep marketers from trying. That's the nature of today's economic game.

The philosopher Epicurus emphasized three things for human happiness: Friends, freedom, and thought.  Author Alain de Botton has demonstrated how advertisers consistently link these three virtues to their products:​

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Cracking beers with buddies (we crave the friends more than the beer)
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Breaking free with a new SUV (A change in lifestyle can lead to a more lasting sense of freedom)
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Finally you can regain your lost sense of child-like playfulness at the resort. Can't we arrive at the same state by a train of thought that leads to not taking our lives so seriously?
​On top of all the advertising misdirection there are a couple more doozies: pervasive religious beliefs that the earth is, in fact, not our home; and agriculturist ideas that nature is our enemy. Whoof! No wonder why so many folks feel like lonely soldiers trudging through a hostile world. 

The good news is we have the power to break free of this matrix and reform what we lost. If you were born in the bottom 95% of human existence you were born into a tribe. From the day you popped out of momma everybody in the group had your back. That tribe had an intimate relationship with nature, from which it did not consider itself separate. Today we get to form our tribes. It is, thankfully, not that hard to do. The toughest part is taking those first steps. Something I will ponder in an upcoming blog post. ​







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Belgrade Training: In Praise of Weights

6/11/2018

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"You need to eat more protein," said Jelena as she squished my arm in her grip. 

At the legendary Muscle Planet gym in Belgrade I got a refresher course on pumping iron from a Serbian who's stacked up titles over a bodybuilding career. We met in Cyprus while filming a Road Less Traveled episode in January. I lamented about falling off the gym routine. She invited me to Belgrade  for a restart.
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Would you also like to lead an adventurous life for as long as possible (in the spirit of Jack Lalain , Georges Hérbert, and Laird Hamilton)?  The carbon machinery moving our consciousnesses through the world must endure without a breakdown. Good diet, rest, flexibility, cardio, and weight lifting are all critical components in this endeavor. 
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The weight part, which I've sadly neglected recently, has undoubtably saved me from injury more than once. I've fallen off Japanese castle walls, Dutch titanium poles,  and rugged Welsh cliffs. Indian wrestlers piled me into the dirt, MMA professionals threw me to the mat, and Thai kickboxers tossed me out of the ring. Core and back strength from compound weight exercises are key in maintaining a body that can take some dings and keep chugging.

In Belgrade one of Serbia's fitness icons got me back under the iron.

Article in Serbian covered by Telegraf's Jasmina Stakić
Photos and video by Maja Dobrić
Follow Jelena Jaksic on Instagram

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Here are my favorite compound exercises: (Proper form is critical when putting your body under weight. Never compromise form to lift heavier). 
  • Bench press
  • Inclined dumbell press
  • Pull ups
  • Squats
  • Deadlifts
  • Clean and press
  • Rows
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Travel Romance 2.0 - Revisiting an Overseas Lover

4/10/2018

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So you had a little travel fling.. right on! Romantic connection is a beautiful, enlivening thing, It's a mind expanding experience (if you are actually taking interest in the contents of each other's brains). 
 
Now you're back home and still flirting over a texting app. An invitation appears: "Come back and see me." You flip open your laptop and start browsing flights. 

It's an admirable move. The mark of a romantic soul. However, let's adjust expectations and strategy before buying that ticket. Misadventure may await you. Are you ready for it?
Consider this:
  • There will be a disparity that didn't exist before - When the love began you had an agenda. You were traveling around Europe on a rail pass, or paragliding the Alps, or on some work project. You carved time out of that mission to make the romance happen. You may have been traveling with friends. You carved time out from hanging with your buddies to make the romance happen. The lover carved time out of their scene to be with you. These time choices send an appealing signal. Now you have no homies to hang with and you have a singular agenda. Meanwhile, they still have their friends to see, their work to do, their hobbies to pursue, etc. It's a whole different dynamic. There is an imbalance.
  • The chemistry may not be there the second time around - How many romances have fizzled on the second or third date? Happens all the time. You both get a little familiar and discover unpalatable differences. He actually drinks way too much. She doesn't like the outdoors at all. It sure is nice to discover these differences down the block instead of oceans away.
  • You could easily be stepping into a love triangle - Super common. Rocco tells Maria he needs a break. Maria goes out with her friends and meets you. Romance ensues. You're more exciting than Rocco has been for years, but you're also an unstable bet for anything long term. You go home which cements this point. Rocco comes back into the scene but he is halfhearted. Maria, feeling underappreciated, invites you back. When your ticket is booked she lets a little intel leak, giving Rocco a strategic hint: He better up his game.. there is a competitor on the way. Rocco doubles down to ward off the threat. He's all flowers and candlelight dinners now. You sit in the hotel room wondering when she's going to meet up. Enjoy your stay.

These are ever present possibilities, but don't be dissuaded. Instead, change your perspective and approach:
  • Have an agenda - Come into the town with some purpose. Shoot a short film, take a yoga course, visit every crēperie in town and blog about the experience. Now you've got your own stuff going on... good for the relationship parity, and good for you.
  • Prepare for absolute disaster - Develop a plan B in case things go in a direction you don't want to walk. Find a destination nearby you'd like to explore and be ready to turn your trip, or part of it, into an exploration of this new place.
  • Suggest neutral ground - Instead of going to his/her homecourt, why not go somewhere that is new for both of you. A spot where neither person has work or friendship obligations. Find a special place where you can have an adventure together, sealing that moment in time as something uniquely shared between the two of you.

Revisiting a travel fling is always a toss of the dice, but with the right preparation you can stack the odds in favor of a winning roll. By setting a realistic frame and controling expectations one can have a memorable trip no matter which numbers turn up. And remember the goal is that both people end up feeling empowered from this interaction. Let's all leave a trail of beautiful memories in our wake. Be honest. Be kind. Be your best self. 
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A Healthy Ego (and How Yours Is Being Hijacked)

4/2/2018

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The "fearful creature" mentioned in the video has pointed out that I did not provide any solutions for what author Johann Hari has called the "ego addiction", an unhealthy attachment to self that is isolating us from each other. Here are my best ideas to scale that back:
  1. Meditation - One of the gradual effects of prolonged meditation practice is witnessing the non-duality of existence. Over time it begins to tear the curtain of the separate self. A specific kind of meditation, called Loving-Kindness, is designed to transfer feelings of well-being to others.
  2. Travel - When journeys are about connecting with the people (as opposed to checking off landmarks), deep commonalities with the rest of humanity will appear and resonate like gospel.
  3. Tribe - Cultivating a group of inspirational friends, peers, and mentors within a framework of honesty and vulnerability will go far to put an ego in healthy balance.
  4. Psychedelics - I hesitate to write this because of the failure of language* and malicious political policy**. The scientific community has recently returned to these substances for their value. As a device for deconstructing the ego nothing works faster. Eat three grams of psilocybin mushrooms and within an hour something akin to mythological phenomena will occur, shredding the illusion that you are a lonely soldier trudging through a foreign world.  But... This is advanced level shit. You must be ready to scale the perilous mountain to see the oracle, arriving with intention and respect. You must heed the principles of set and setting. You should have a knowledgable, trustworthy***, and calm sitter to guide the initial experiences.
  5. Books - Lost Connections by Johann Hari, Civilized to Death by Christopher Ryan (preorders), Sapiens by Yuval Harari, and a healthy amount of serious fiction (which is shown to make us more empathetic). 

* The term "drugs" is used to cover everything from caffeine to aspirin to crack to magic mushrooms. Clearly there is a difference between sipping a cup of coffee and injected heroin into a vein. We need new vocabulary that does not lump all mood altering substances under the same tainted banner. 

** The "war on drugs" has been one of the most destructive and evil forces humanity has unleashed on itself, responsible for many more deaths than the drugs it purports to combat. It is fueled by hypocrisy, racism, and greed. To uncover the full perniciousness of these policies I'd recommend the documentaries 13th and America's War on Drugs as well as the book Chasing the Scream.

*** I've heard terrible stories of charlatans taking advantage of the vulnerable. Specifically if you plan to go to South America to experience an Ayahuasca ceremony vet your shaman very carefully.
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