The Difference between Rich/Poor People?

One day, the father of a very wealthy family took his son on a trip to the country with the express purpose of showing him how poor people live.

They spent a couple of days and nights on the farm of what would be considered a very poor family.

On their return from their trip, the father asked his son, "How was the trip?"

“It was great, Dad."

Did you see how poor people live?" the father asked.

Oh yeah," said the son.

So, tell me, what did you learn from the trip?" asked the father. The son answered: "I saw that we have one dog and they had four.

We have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden and they have a creek that has no end.

We have imported lanterns in our garden and they have the stars at night.

Our patio reaches to the front yard and they have the whole horizon.

We have a small piece of land to live on and they have fields that go beyond our sight. We have servants who serve us, but they serve others.

We buy our food, but they grow theirs.

We have walls around our property to protect us, they have friends to protect them."

The boy's father was speechless. Then his son added, "Thanks, Dad, for showing me how poor we are."

* * *
Isn't perspective a wonderful thing? Makes you wonder what would happen if we all gave thanks for everything we have, instead of worrying about what we don't have. Appreciate every single thing you have, especially your friends!

Pass this on to friends and help them refresh their perspective and appreciation. Life is too short and friends are too few.

* * *

Archaeological Artifacts: Butuan Boat and Others

BOATS IN THE PHILIPPINES
• The Philippines has 7,107 islands
• Early Filipinos were a people of the sea: coastal villages or near rivers
* Boats were linked to many aspects of Filipino life: fishing, trade, warfare, “piracy” (trade-raiding for goods and slaves), travel, communication, dwelling
• “Boats are to Philippine archaeology what pyramids are to Egyptologists.”

• Kinds of ancient boats:
1. Banca
o Outriggers, usually dug out of a log
o Still seen on rivers and coasts today (Boracay, Pagsanjan, etc.)
o Also called: baroto, parao
o Features:
o Length: 3-10m, breadth: 1.5m
o Used for inland river network and important short-distance transports
o Some were small enough for one man to lift.

2. Barangay
o Also balanghai or balangay
o Plank-built, edge-pegged wooden boats
o first mentioned in 16th C. chronicles of Pigafetta
o Modern usage refers to the smallest political unit in government
o Declared National Cultural Treasures
o Oldest known pre-Hispanic period watercraft found in the Philippines
o First wooden watercraft excavated in Southeast Asia; it is only in the Philippines where a flotilla of such prehistoric wooden boats exists throughout the world.
o 9 specimens were discovered in 1976 in Butuan City, Agusan del Norte, Mindanao; 3 excavated.
o Dated 320, 990, & 1250 AD
o Builders of these boats demonstrated unity
o finely made without blueprints, using a technique still used by boatmakers of Sibutu Island (southern Phils)
o similar to the contemporary Badyaw/Sama Laut’s lepa boat (sea gypsies)
o used for cargo and raiding purposes; proof of Butuan as a major trading center

o Features:
o Length: 15m, breadth: 3-4m
o Large enough for 60-90 people
o Propelled by sail of buri / nipa fibre or paddling

o Similar boats in other regions in more recent times:
o Barangayans / cascos – used for rice cargo transport in Cagayan in 1920’s
o Benitans – seafaring Dumagats in 1910’s
o in the Batanes islands today


3. Caracoa
o Also korakora in Indonesia, joangas (king-sized caracoas)
o Highly refined warship, plank-built man-o-war in the 16th century
o Looked like a primitive and flimsy craft, hardly recognizable as a ship at all:

“They do not travel in boats or use oars, but only take bamboo rafts for their trips; they can fold them up like doorscreens, so when hard-pressed they all pick them up and escape by swimming off with them. (Chinese chronicles, 1225)”

o Similar to Viking ships, perfect for carrying warriors at high speed through reef-filled waters and dangerous currents, not for high seas or long voyages with heavy cargo
o Row of shields along the deck, and cannon on the bow
o Shallow draft for easy launching in shallow waters and beaching, but poor steerage in rough seas or unfavorable winds

o Features:
o Length: 20-25m
o Sleek, double ended, with a raised platform or fighting deck for about 100 warriors
o Double outriggers for 4-6 banks of up to 200 paddlers, which provided speed and stability
o Also propelled by square sails on tripod masts

o Gave a community superiority: enabled trade and raiding attacks
o those without caracoas established alliances with others by blood relations, marriage.


4. Burial boats
o To transport the dead in the afterlife
o Ex. In a rock shelter in eastern Masbate: a sawed-off banca with human skeletal remains
o Similar practice seen in
o Egypt: Cheops ship buried with pharaoh Khufu in 2600 B.C.
o Norway (Vikings): Oseberg ship in 9th C. and Gokstad ship in 850


• Boat-building methods
1. Dug out (using single trees)
o Used for banca

a. A panday (master shipwright; also iron-worker, goldsmith) selects a tree (usu. Lawaan, a strong hardwood) wide enough for a canoe 120 cm wide to be hewn from a single trunk

b. Outer form is carved into shape: hull is sharp at the bottom, pointed at both ends, and V-shaped, with sides no thicker than a board.

c. Interior is hollowed out.

d. Working alone, finishes it in 8-10 days.

2. Plank-built (joining planks of wood), shell-first
o Used for larger vessels, like the barangay and caracoa
o Typical of SE Asian boat-making technology; same style once popular in Scandinavia to the South Pacific (3rd century B.C. – today)

a. Build the hull like a shell first.
o Plank by plank, carved to fit; made of a local hardwood (doongon)
o Planks are pegged edge-to-edge every 12cm using hardwood pins or dowels that are19cm long ((Tagalog version was sewed or laced with holes and rattan strips)
o Most distinguishing feature of the planks: succession of flat, rectangular protrusions, or lugs (tambuko in Visayan), carved from the same piece of wood as the plank, on the inside of the boats

b. Shell is left to season (dry out) for a month or two.
c. Planks are removed one by one, all the broken pegs removed and replaced.
d. Shell is reassembled:
i. Sugi (matching)
ii. Os-os (tightening) – planks are left so tight one can hardly see the joints between them, making the hull strong, as if it was carved from a single block of wood
iii. Pamota (closing)

e. Hull is completed with the insertion of ribs and seats: a semi-circular flexible frame is pressed down across the planks and is lashed to the tambukos with cabo negro palm fiber, providing a flexible bulkhead that reinforced the hull

*This technique required the planks to be carved to shape in advance—no mean feat of carpentry in a boat the size of the Butuan examples! Even in 25-m warships, each of these planks was literally hand-carved out of a half a tree-trunk with an adze.

*Chinese medieval author in 14th C, recognized the essential features of the plank-built boat--light, flexible, and nailless.:

“They make boats of wooden boards and fasten them with split rattan, and cotton wadding to plug up the seams. The hull is very flexible, and rides up and down on the waves, and they row them with oars made of wood, too. None of them have ever been known to break up.”

f. Addition of wooden outriggers: to stabilize and increase effectiveness of sail power
g. Tripod mast: 2 poles fastened together like an inverted “V” with a third leg at the centerline.
h. Sail: woven from buri or nipa fibers (not cloth)
i. Paddles: 1m log, with a leaf-shaped blade 20 x 40 cm, that were sometimes used as chopping boards for preparing meals.


• Who used the boats? Who owned the boats?
• Only means of transportation: inter-island. All economic, social, and political contacts depended on boats.
• Caracoas were used mainly for trade-raids by harbor princelings with limited capital
• Malacca Filipinos’ fortunes were not based on petty commerce as the Philippine trade: rather, they came from ship-owning and the underwriting of large-scale export ventures in China markets
a. Regimo Diraja, a tycoon who sent junks to Bruneu, china, Pasai, Siam, and Sunda
b. Surya Diraja, annually sent tons of pepper to China

• What do we learn about life in ancient times?
• Barangays serve as a testimony to the long tradition of Filipino ingenuity in boat-building and seamanship.
• 17th C. Spanish dictionaries of Philippine languages had extensive vocabulary entries concerning seafaring and seamanship
• There was a well-established maritime trade network based on densely populated coastal communities, from which both native and imported goods were distributed.
• Presence of Spanish-speaking slave on the Luzon caracoa may not have been an isolated phenomenon
• European explorers recognized the superiority of local boats over their own in Philippine waters
a. Successfully used for exploration, trade, and quelling the natives, where European designs were less successful
b. Caracoa fleets were employed by the Spanish colonial regime to fight the Moros

• The construction and use of boats has been essential to the development of the Philippines, and craft with similar features still plays a major part in the islands today.

REFERENCES

Brown, Roxanna M. ed. Guangdong Ceramics from Butuan and other Philippine Sites, Oriental Ceramic
Society of the Philippines, Makati, Metro Manila, June 1989
Evangelista, Alfredo E. Soul Boats: A Filipino Journey of Self-Discovery NCCA 2001.
Kasaysayan: The Story of the Filipino People, Volume 2: The Earliest Filipinos.
Kasaysayan Online. http://www.filipinoheritage.com/crafts/boat/filipino_boat2.htm
Primavera, Jurgenne et.al. “Handbook of Mangroves in the Philippines-Panay"
Scott, William Henry. Searching for the Prehispanic Filipino
http://www.jtesoro.net/trarchives/categories/vietnamese/
http://www.tourism.gov.ph/explore_phil/place_details.asp?content=thingstodo&province=108

SUGGESTED READING
Bernad, Miguel A., S.J. “A Booming Inter-Island Trade", page 645, Filipino Heritage (The Making of a
Nation) Volume III.
Casino , Eric S. "A Family of Boats", page 711, Filipino Heritage (The Making of a Nation) Volume III.
Clark, P., Green, J.N., Vosmer, T. and Santiago, R. (1993) The Butuan Two boat known as a balangay in
the National Museum, Manila, Philippines. International Journal of Nautical Archaeology, 22.2.
Green, J.N., Vosmer, T., Clark, P. and Santiago, R. (1993) Interim report on the Joint Philippine–Australian
Butuan Boat Project, October 1992 Report - Department of Maritime Archaeology, Western
Australian Maritime Museum, No.65.
National Museum website, http://members.tripod.com/philmuseum/archaeo.htm
Nigos, Joel V. Two faces of Agusan del Norte Sept 11, 2005.
http://beta.inq7.net/lifestyle/index.php?index=1&story_id=49830
Patanne, E.P. "The Barangay", page 755, Filipino Heritage (The Making of a Nation) Volume III.
Sy, Dionisio. "Butuan Through the Ages" (1970) http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Cyprus/8446/bc.html

THE SEVEN SINS IN OUR WORLD

1. WEALTH WITHOUT WORK.
2. PLEASURE WITHOUT CONSCIENCE
3. KNOWLEDGE WITHOUT CHARACTER.
4. COMMERCE WITHOUT MORALITY.
5. SCIENCE WITHOUT HUMANITY.
6. WORSHIP WITHOUT SACRIFICE.
7. POLITICS WITHOUT PRINCIPLES.

---- Mahatma Ghandi

parable of the vineyard

This is an excellent parable on entitlement, feeling cheated out of a fair deal, and minding one's own business, as Aslan says in Narnia, "I am telling you your story, not hers. I tell no one any story but his own."

* * *

Jesus told his disciples this parable:

“The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out at dawn to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with them for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard.
Going out about nine o’clock, the landowner saw others standing idle in the marketplace,
and he said to them, ‘You too go into my vineyard, and I will give you what is just.’

So they went off.

And he went out again around noon, and around three o’clock, and did likewise. Going out about five o’clock, the landowner found others standing around, and said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’

They answered, ‘Because no one has hired us.’

He said to them, ‘You too go into my vineyard.’

When it was evening the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Summon the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and ending with the first.’

When those who had started about five o’clock came, each received the usual daily wage. So when the first came, they thought that they would receive more, but each of them also got the usual wage. And on receiving it they grumbled against the landowner, saying, ‘These last ones worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us, who bore the day’s burden and the heat.’

He said to one of them in reply, ‘My friend, I am not cheating you. Did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? Take what is yours and go. What if I wish to give this last one the same as you? Or am I not free to do as I wish with my own money? Are you envious because I am generous?’

Thus, the last will be first, and the first will be last.”


Reflection:

In this parable, Jesus used the images of a vineyard, a landowner and the laborers. The vineyard is our heavenly home, the landowner is God and the laborers are the believers.

According to this parable (Matthew 20; 1-16), latecomers were paid the same lump sum as the early birds. This suggests the equality of all the disciples in the reward of inheriting eternal life.

At the onset the laborers did not mind it when other workers came and worked with them. Dissatisfaction and grumbling set in when they became victims of their own expectations. The workers hired earlier thought they were entitled to a bigger pay since they had worked for a longer period than those hired late in the day- These men didn't realize that as far as the landowner is concerned, he did not renege on his commitment to them. The master kept his bargain with them. The master did not cheat them. He gave them what they agreed to take.

This parable specially speaks to those who may feel superior or favored because of their heritage or favored position and to those who may feel superior because they have spent so much time with Christ.

How many of us feel a certain entitlement for serving and working for the Lord. Or how many of us sometimes fall prey to the trap of self-righteousness and comparing ourselves with others. There is a tendency at times to equate our faith and its expressions (example-the frequency, intensity and length of our prayers and sacraments) to the amount of blessings we expect to receive.

Yes in all earnestness when we pray we should do so wholeheartedly and have expectant faith. However our minds, hearts and spirits must still be predisposed to God's infinite wisdom. That He will answer our prayers in the way that is best for us.

Even in the secular aspect don't we encounter people who, by virtue of their position or power seem to lord it over to us. They drive through our streets with sirens announcing their passing, expecting most to yield and make space for them. Or they go to a place and expect everyone else to give them the best seat in the house, serve and bow to them. Perhaps in a worldly sense this is a reality but certainly not in God’s kingdom. This also serves as a reassurance of God's grace that everyone, different we may be has as much right to His kingdom equally. We just need to surrender ourselves completely to Him.

In our individual walk with Christ we must bear in mind to focus only on Lord and on our Journey. Not to look at our neighbors' walk. It is of no concern to us what others get other than share in their joy and good fortune.

God in all His goodness, compassion, generosity and wisdom knows what is truly best for all. He plays no favorites. He loves whom He loves. None of the late comers earned the full day's pay but the householder granted it to them out of his goodness and generosity. So too, we late comers to faith in the true God cannot earn a reward from God but rather we receive it because of God's generosity.

This comes as an encouragement to all those who have just surrendered themselves to the Lord or those who may have been sidetracked and have recently returned. The Lord loves us all. His grace is freely given to all His children May we draw encouragement from this reality and seek Him earnestly today. He loves us dearly and seeks a lasting relationship with each one of us.

The Council of Elders
St. James Renewal Movement

The Light Of Christmas

By Panjee Tapales Lopez
December 26, 2004 | The Philippine STAR

Editorial Comment: Fed up with the increasingly materialistic and consumerist encroachment on Christmas celebrations, some parents are swimming against the tide to find new ways of instilling reverence, devotion and quiet contemplation to the season, especially for the sake of the children.

It is the day after Christmas. By now, all gifts have been opened and put aside, and families are feasting on leftovers.

There is a welcome calm in the air. The feeling is almost languid; a sharp contrast to the maddening rush of previous days. It is a peaceful silence that descends, at last, after weeks of preparation.

As I write this, days before Christmas, I can feel the anticipation in my children. Every day, my older son checks our festival table to see what has changed or arrived on the manger scene. Ours is not one that appears, complete, on the first day of December. The first Sunday of Advent, rocks, stones and crystals appear on the nature table. The second Sunday, plants begin to appear. The third Sunday, animals appear and the fourth, shepherd and then the Holy Family. In her book Festivals With Children, Brigitte Barz says, "The kingdoms of nature – stone, plant and animal – which, through man's fall into sin, have themselves fallen from paradisal existence, are waiting for the becoming of man, of the sons of God, in order to find their own salvation through that of man. We have reason to be deeply thankful for the sacrifice which these kingdoms have brought and continue to bring to us." Thus, our Nativity scene is built. This week, the fourth and last of Advent, the shepherd and the angel appear. Soon they will see Mary and Joseph and, on Christmas Eve, the Christ Child. And then my sons will know it is time to open their presents.

Every year, we celebrate Advent this way. It begins with the Advent wreath with four candles. We light one candle on the first Sunday, add another on the second and so on. We sing a song and read an Advent story. The Advent stories follow the same pattern as the manger scene. The first week, the theme of minerals is present in the story. The second week stories of roses, pine, trees and the like are told. Then stories of animals. And finally, stories of human beings. These all revolve around the journey of Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem. In this way, there is a coming together of a picture in the child's soul that is also built up and added on by the week. I find that this is a wonderful way to experience inner preparation, which is the soul mood of Advent. The lighting of one, two, three, then all four candles on the Advent wreath, also gives an experience of light that becomes more and more full as Christmas approaches.

There was a time when I would have my house all decked out by December with a dizzying arrangement of Christmas balls in bowls, beribboned candles, all kinds of ornaments hanging festively on a bright, bright tree. Today, I do things very differently. The perimeter of the house is lit with blue and white capiz balls and some stars. It's still a bit spare and maybe I will add a bit more next year, but I like it that even that has taken me time to complete. My tree builds up, too. I have 30 red fabric roses that appear at the tips of the tree and are completed with three white fabric roses by Christmas day. The roses growing out of the green symbolize the triumph of the eternal over the temporal, which is what the Christ gave us when, at the age of 33, he gave his earthly life for the salvation of mankind.

On the 24th, I stay up to prepare our secret room. There, a tree with real roses and real candles appear. Early morning of the 25th, my children are led by their father to this room. We sit quietly before the tree where I will read a short Christmas story before the presents are opened. The 24th is a special time for me as a mother. Alone, late into the night, I reflect on my life and the significance of the season as I carefully trim the tree. The air is cool and flavored with the scent of pine needles and roses. Next year I know that I will give up the tree of fabric roses and find a more creative way of incorporating the gifts, so that the tree with the real roses stands out. Every year our Christmas celebration evolves to mirror the changes in our lives.

I have the Manila Waldorf School to thank for helping me understand all this and bringing it into the lives of my children. In school, the children have the same type of meaningful celebration. They have the Advent wreath, stories and songs woven into the curriculum. On the last day of school, kindergarteners are treated to a beautiful puppet show and then given gifts their teachers made themselves.

The Acacia School in Sta. Rosa – a Waldorf-inspired school – has a very special Christmas celebration. The parents, teachers and children meet at dusk then the fathers take the children for a twilight walk around the area. When they leave, the teachers and mothers get busy trimming the tree with fruit, nuts and real candles. This year, one family with a baby became the living Holy Family. When the children returned, they were met with the image of the real Holy Family. The scene was illuminated with kerosene lamps and candles. Christmas carols were sung and a father read a story from the Gospel of St. Luke. After that, there was a moment of silence and then the singing resumed as the angel took a lantern and led the children to the secret room. There, all the lights were off and the children were met with a beautifully lit tree. Everyone gathered around the tree and the teacher called each child by name and gave him a gift from Baby Jesus. These gifts were made by their parents. Not one was bought. After that, the children took turns snuffing out the candles on the tree, the lights were turned on and the fruit and nuts were picked off the tree by the children to eat.

Parents of the school always say it is magical to see the faces of the children. They comment on how quiet the children become. There is no need to tell them to be silent or to behave. The whole scene is taken in and an inner silence flows out, wrapping the entire celebration with awe, wonder and reverence. Reverence. It is only in remembering what Christmas is truly about that we can bring this back into our homes.

The season is, after all, about an inner preparation; the journey towards the Second Coming. And so it is only right that our outer celebration mirrors this process. Where Advent is a time of preparation and restraint, Christmas becomes a time of fulfillment, hence the opening of presents and a more outward celebration.

I think of all the tragedies that have befallen the country just this month and the depth of loss some of us are experiencing and I cannot help but feel their spiritual significance. Indeed, Christmas is the darkest time of the year. The nights are longer and the atmosphere is cold and inward. So many people struggle with sadness, depression and loneliness during the holidays. I have read that this has to do with the need for all of us to enkindle the inner light of the Christ in our hearts. It is through trial and darkness that we consciously find the path to that Light again.

My Christmases have become simpler but much more meaningful. In my village, Christmas officially begins the day after Halloween and I have to tell the children that it isn't Christmas yet. Through our Advent celebration, I manage to instill in them the spirit of restraint and waiting; the quiet process of an inner journey. I struggle against the tide every year, but I know that Christmas needs to be meaningful again. For the children. For myself.

I hope that you have all had a meaningful Christmas and that today you can take a moment to sit together and enjoy the silence, warmth and fullness of the season.

* * *

Manila Waldorf School: 374-2922. Acacia School, Sta. Rosa: Please call Ivy Esguerra at 0917-8907799, Yvette Manotoc at 0917-8173493 or Trina Galvez at 0917-8121394. Call after the holidays! You can also e-mail magisip@yahoo.com

pinoy jokes

Boyfriend to Girlfriend, may LQ: What did you take me for?! Granted?
***
Guard, answering the telephone: Hello?... Ah yes, for a while. Please hang yourself.
***
Starlet in an interview: If the odds are against me, then I will against them.
***
Inday Badiday asks a starlet about her mother's burial:
Inday: Kumusta ang libing ng nanay mo?
Starlet: Successful naman po.
***
Army officer to cadet:
Officer: "Do you know why I ask you to stand?"
Cadet: "No, sir."
Officer: "Ok, why?" (anlabo!)
***
Teacher to students: Baka gusto nyong ibilad ko kayo sa covered courts.
***
Teacher: Class, I want you to watch sex scenes.
Class: What Teacher!???
Teacher: What's wrong? It's a beautiful film starring Bros Welles! (Bruce
Willis) Class: Aah, Sixth Sense!

***
Sa isang examination:
Student: Mam, pwedeng gumamit ng liquid paper?
Teacher: Ang kulit naman! Sinabi nang pad paper lang eh.
***
A reporter interviews a politician about the Philippine economy.
Politician says: Talagang mahirap ang buhay natin ngayon. Pero slow by slow, we will success.
***
Teacher: Sorry, class. I'm late. My mother died three years ago. And now
she's dead. (Ano daw?!)
***
Heard in a fastfood chain:
Yaya: Ma'm, gosto po ni Mark ng KIDNEY MEAL!
***
Teacher: What is ur name?
Student: Dell.
Teacher: What is ur old? (maybe she meant how old are you?)
***
In a restaurant:
Waiter: Sir, How do you want your egg?
Customer: Side in, side out.
***
Mom interviews her daughter's suitor:
Mom: What's your course?
Suitor: Geo po (for geology).
Mom:! Ahhh... Geo-rnalism. Ok yan. (ok nga!)
***
Guy to Girl: I love you. This is not a ball. ("Hindi ito bola" in English)
***
Teacher to students: Okay, form two straight circles and find your height alphabetically!
***
Teacher to students: Okay class, it's time to go home. Form a line and pass out slowly.
***
Angry teacher to student: I want you to bring your father and your mother, especially your parents, understood?! Bring them tomorrow in front of me, right here, right now!
***
Emcee, in a party: The next song is the favorite song of my best friend, and neither do I!
***
Posted in an establishment: None ID, nothing entry.
***
Teacher: Oy, magdala kayo ng chip ahoy bukas ha.
Student: Miss may "s" yon...
Teacher: Ah, sorry. Chip ahoys!
***
Two lousy-in-english friends talking to each other:
Friend 1: Am I raining outside?
Frien! d 2: Not yet. Sprinkle only.
***
In an awards night, presentor goes: And the winner for Best Comedy Show is
Okay Ka, Pare Ko! of IBS channel 13. (Ever heard of that?)
***

Alma Moreno, in her show introduces Nora Aunor who comes in late:
Finally, please welcome, the late Nora Aunor

***
JOLOGS ONE-LINERS
"The more the manyer."
"It's a no-win-win situation."
"Burn the bridge when you get there."
"Anulled and void."
"Mute and academic."
"C'mon let's join us!"
"If worse comes to shove."
"Are you joking my leg?"
"It's not my problem anymore, it's your problem anymore."
"What are friends are for?" "You can never can tell."
"Well well well. Look do we have here!"
"Let's give them a big hand of applause."
"Been there, been that."
"Forget it about it."
"Give him the benefit of the daw."
"It's a blessing in the sky."
"Right there and right then."
"Where'd you came from?"
"Take things first at a time."
"You're barking at the wrong dog."
"You want to have your cake and bake it too."
"First and for all."
"Now and there."
"I'm only human nature."
"The sky's the langit."
"That's what I'm talking about it."
"One of these days is not like the other."
"So far, so good, so far."