Hey, before we dive in, I just want to say thank you so much to everyone who contributed during the Max Fund Drive.

It is now complete. Thank you. We did really well. We're still sort of doing all the calculations, but it went great.

Thank you for everyone who joined, who upgraded, who boosted, and who's been a member all along. We really appreciate

we literally could not do it without you. Dang it, I just quoted Faulkner a few weeks ago,

but I think I have to do it again. Same quote, too. It's from his novel Requiem for a Nunn.

Great title, Faulkner. Can't wait to read that one.

Yeah, I'm dissing Faulkner, but just his titles. The quote, though,

The Past is Never Dead. It's not even past. I've got to say it again this week, because it keeps

being true, especially in regard to

traumatic events that you experience, especially when you're young. Those events form the

you that you become. And often, usually, they are events that you hadn't processed at the time.

You didn't have the knowledge. You didn't have the tools,

the help. And listen, some people who talk about that issue of early trauma,

some of these people, and I'm trying to stay polite about this, are really full of shit.

The idea that you can snap a finger and get over those events, that you can elect,

you can opt to just get over them, you can leave them in the past by simply choosing to do so.

It's the same kind of idea as just smiling more to cure depression.

Like, thanks, Simpleton.

To say you can get over foundational trauma or leave it behind by merely deciding to do so is ridiculous.

It's like deciding that you will simply win a game of tennis without actually putting in the work of playing.

You got to play. You got to return serve and play the lines and find times to smash it.

You got to build up a sweat. It's going to take a while.

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