REAL LIFE lyrics

REAL LIFE, THE IDEA

A Small College Musical by Steven G. Smith

Lyrics to the Songs

1. PROLOGUE
At Creighton Malone's Ph.D. commencement. He is wearing cap and gown and paces back and forth alone on a bare stage.
MALONE: It was nice to hear remarks from the U.N. head
About a strategy for peace in the global community.
And the books he referred to, I have read.
But I don't go along with his analysis,
And indeed I don't think his ideas go deep.
If you ask me, he could use philosophy
And a trained man like me. Not gonna happen.
I've got a degree now, I'm holding the goods
But as for a future, I'm still in the woods.
Is somebody out there willing to pay me to be me? Me, Ph.D.
I was a T.A. too, I've got all the teaching tools;
I can feed the hungry and I can suffer fools.
Is somebody out there going to let me join their team?
A place committed to the best in thought--
Committed also to the best in life--a green oasis in a land of drought--
Where will I arrive?
And how do you suppose they do things there?
Do they have a good department?
Is it the kind of school where the students care?
Can I afford an apartment?
Of course, I'll have a place to lay my head
If it's Boston, or the back of beyond.
What counts is how I earn my daily bread,
Asking questions. Of whom?

2. ATTITUDE! APTITUDE!
The Southeast West Virginia College gym is set up for the school year's opening convocation. President J. Thurston Dalton and Dean Katherine Ammon hold forth from a raised stage.
J. T. DALTON: Attitude! Aptitude! Key resources you possess!
Aptitude! Attitude! Join them and you get success!
We have the right programs, we have the best tutors.
We're ancient as Romans, we're new as computers.
Now add in our students (including commuters)
And you have the formula for success.
Attitude! Aptitude! Be the one who answers Yes!
Aptitude! Attitude! Match them and you get success!
AMMON: We promote maturity of informed, inquiring minds
Marked by critical ability and respect for all human kinds.
Studies show the stages of progression to enlightenment.
Of course, we don't make sages, but we cultivate development.
Many future leaders start with us their accomplishment.
Some will learn procedures in our renowned student government.
Our horizons are worldwide; we have a global studies accent.
Of course, we don't buy a plane ride, but we cultivate development.
J. DALTON: It's a question of attitude!
AMMON: Studies show--
J. DALTON: Aptitude!
AMMON: --how we know!
J. DALTON and AMMON: Key resources you possess!
J. DALTON: Attitude!
AMMON: Studies show--
J. DALTON: Aptitude!
AMMON: --how to go!
J. DALTON and AMMON: Join them and you get--
J. DALTON: You get--
AMMON: You get--
J. DALTON: You bet--
J. DALTON and AMMON: Success!

3. WHAT IS A CLASS?
A classroom. Professor MALONE initiates students ELIZABETH DALTON, RAY BATTLE, KIRK WHITLINGTON, and JANE MARY COLAPIETRO into philosophy.
MALONE: What is a class, class? Tell me.
Why should we pass an hour this way?
Do not assume we know what this room is for.
What do you think is a class?
What do you say a class is?
What do you pay your school money for?
A prudent measure? Could it even be a pleasure?
What do you say is a class?
E. DALTON: A class is a group formed to learn.
MALONE: How?
BATTLE: A teacher gives them information.
MALONE: Why not from a book, then? Tell me.
You can take a look whenever you like.
All in your power. No early hours!
So help me: why not from a book?
WHITLINGTON: You know the rest--
Because the teacher knows what's best!
Because he gives the test!
MALONE: Aaaahh! Why get on such a silly ride?
Isn't there something alive inside this?
BATTLE: You wish.
MALONE: I won't tell you what a class is--
Won't tell you, but I'll wonder out loud.
We are the question--that's my suggestion--
We have to learn who we are. You see?
Not just you, not just me. [Writes key words on blackboard to invite student comment. On "Truth":]
BATTLE: Well, truth can't lie in words--
MALONE: Not even as you speak right now?
BATTLE: 'Cause people mean different things, fuzzy things I hear.
They don't quite understand their own pronouncements anyhow.
And yes, they lie with numbers, but the math is clear.
[On "Beauty":]
WHITLINGTON: Clear, but who cares?
Clear--so what? Can you love a number?
BATTLE: So what did you write? Oh, "Mazda"! Good night!
MALONE: Is that one example? A car's a beautiful sight?
WHITLINGTON: It's not just a car, it's Zoroaster's Lord of Light.
All color in the world does he provide.
Mazda is Manet, Mazda's Matisse,
Mazda is Madison Avenue and my sweet aunt, Bernice,
And Mazda is also a smooth ride.
[On "Reality":]
COLAPIETRO: I touch the ball--I take a shot--
If there's no charging call, two points I got.
I call that reality. The end to wait-and-see.
That score is in the bank for every shot I sank.
E. DALTON: It's a game!
COLAPIETRO: Sure it's a game. That's why we play--to have it made.
Like class today is for the grade.
Don't ask for more; just post the score.
They can't deny it. They can't get by it.
[On "Duty":]
E. DALTON: There should be a payoff. Someone should feel good.
Better yet, lots of people should.
What's defined as progress? Is it yours or mine?
No one should be made to toe a line.
MALONE: But let's not talk of duty in the abstract.
Let's consider choices we might make in fact.
A business is a human institution; it makes a certain social contribution.
WHITLINGTON: Morally accountable!
BATTLE: Handicapped accessible!
MALONE: We have to be responsible to assess
The ethical requirements for business.
Now we need a reference for the bad and good--
What's the biggest firm in our own neighborhood?
BATTLE: That would be Poultry Pride.
WHITLINGTON: A blot on the countryside.
MALONE: Wait! Here's the deal: we're setting up our food production,
But we should not be biased by the profit we might make.
So let me add a feature to my introduction:
We don't know what positions in the system we will take.
We're behind a Rawlsian veil.*
COLAPIETRO and E. DALTON: A Rawlsian veil?*
MALONE: We have to know the kinds of things that happen;
We need a fairly comprehensive map.
So think some more about this local enterprise.
Think where the real difficulty lies.
WHITLINGTON: But there's an upsetting issue--
BATTLE: We'll need some facial tissue?
WHITLINGTON: How are chickens treated? I hear horror stories.
They get crammed in cages--it's outrageous.
MALONE: This is philosophy, now. This is evaluating the world.
Think without stopping--
COLAPIETRO: Spill without mopping!
BATTLE: This is phi-la-la-sophy.
MALONE: And we got Truth!
BATTLE: Math!
MALONE: And we got Beauty!
WHITLINGTON: Mazda Lord!
MALONE: We got the Real!
COLAPIETRO: Two!
MALONE: And we got Duty!
E. DALTON: Yes, we do.
MALONE: And we can take a shot at putting everything together.
Once again: We got Truth!
STUDENTS: Truth!
MALONE: We got Beauty!
STUDENTS: Beauty!
MALONE: We got the Real!
STUDENTS: Ooh!
MALONE: And we got Duty!
STUDENTS: Duty!
ALL: And we will use these ways to figure out these days--
So it's one, two, three, four, go!

*THE RAWLSIAN VEIL: Political philosopher John Rawls has argued that reasonable decisions about our basic social arrangements require us to disregard our actual positions in life--we should design society from behind a "veil of ignorance."

4. I DON'T KNOW NOW
After class. The heir apparent to Poultry Pride shares with MALONE her doubts about the future.
E. DALTON: I'm not sure what the qualifications are for philosopher king;
But I'm an easy evaluation--I lack everything.
I've got no glowing dream, I've got no wishing star;
Yet friends and family seem to think I'll go quite far.
But I don't know how, because I don't know now
Whether to head this way or that way instead.
I do well--I can handle tasks, you can tell,
Sometimes even flawlessly. Nothing is too hard for me.
I'm in touch, I relate, but not very much
Do I have an opinion on--haven't reached any Rubicon.
Doesn't a real person need a thesis, a basis?
Otherwise, why not yield your space?
Haven't bought, haven't figured out, haven't fought,
Haven't been in a great debate. I should start if it's not too late.
But I don't know how, because I don't know now
Whether to head this way or that way instead.
No, I don't know how because I don't know now--
Don't know what a really good life looks like,
Even looks like, even looks like yet.

5. WE DON'T DO IT THAT WAY
   The Records Office. Malone approaches the object of his budding interest, Melba Matthews, the Registrar, with a proposal to change the title of his Introduction to Philosophy course to "Chicken Ethics." This, he points out, will accurately reflect what the class has decided to study. The Registrar is not amenable.
MATTHEWS:   You want to file a grade? I'll help you, no delay.
     You want to check who's paid? Just ask and I'll obey.
Some things you want will probably be okay, but
In this case, you're off base.
We don't do it--we don't do it that way.
You have a plan that makes all kinds of sense to you.
You have a plan that takes a tempting point of view.
Good plan--good reason--freshest I've heard today.
Nice try, you're a nice guy, but
We don't do it--we don't do it that way.
I hear the first academy was Plato's.
They held a discussion of the laws.
We may be relatively small potatoes,
But in this one respect we're the same because
To get along we need a settled way to go.
We need concrete procedures channelling our flow.
Ideas are like rosebuds, gather them while you may, but
We can't play, we can't stray,
We don't do it that, we don't do it--we don't do it that way.

6. DEEP SPACE/SEMI-PSEUDO
   NICK KOPERNIC, a physics professor, tells MALONE that most students prefer to take astronomy for their science requirement. "Ah. The heavens," mocks MALONE. The physicist and the philosopher stare at a blackboard . . .
KOPERNIC:   Take off--people like the idea: flying.
Shake off all the dust of a dirty world.
Deep space. Deep space.
So far--would you like to discover stars?
So far--but the secret of stars is here [pointing to blackboard].
Deep space. Deep space.
MALONE: Deep down--necessarily not apparent.
Home base--once we reach it with reason. Deep space.
KOPERNIC: Deep space.
MALONE: Deep space.
KOPERNIC: Deep space.
MALONE and KOPERNIC: There is talk of a closed frontier,
But it keeps pushing back right here
Where our thinking goes deeper, drawn into the endless sweep of
Deep space. Deep space.
MALONE: So far--definitions can draw the mind--
As Socrates asked, What is justice? And found a city!
KOPERNIC: So wide--new equations can change our lives--
Einstein wrote space into time and mass into energy!
MALONE: And what is energy?
MALONE and KOPERNIC: Deep space. Deep space. Deep space.
KOPERNIC: But you know what? People think anything's out there.
MALONE: If it's possibly "scientific"?
KOPERNIC: Or better still, if "scientists are baffled"!
MALONE: I love it when scientists are baffled.
KOPERNIC: What if I told you I read there is a ten percent chance of rain?
(No big deal.)
But what if I told you instead we may be living in alien brains?
This isn't in your control. It doesn't come under the things you can know.
Tell me we're ready to roll.
Just don't become too crass and crudo, and don't come on like the Holy See,
And you can push that semi-pseudo, you can talk with me!
MALONE: A notion you might entertain:
The government wants us to stay where we are!
So even with passports and planes we never actually depart!
The planet is who knows how large--
Even if this makes it small in one way.
Admit it's an interesting charge!
I wouldn't stoop to using judo; I wouldn't make anyone unfree.
You can take or leave my semi-pseudo, just talk with me.
KOPERNIC: The truth is out there . . .
MALONE: It's pseudo-possible . . .
KOPERNIC: Semi- . . .
MALONE: Pseudo- . . .
KOPERNIC: Oh, my . . .
MALONE: Oh, no . . .
KOPERNIC AND MALONE: We're in deep space!

7. RESPONSIBLE
   The classroom. Are chickens relevantly similar to humans for moral purposes?   Adapting an argument from The Merchant of Venice, COLAPIETRO has asked,   "Hath not a chicken eyes?"]
MALONE: Who do you feel responsible to?
E. DALTON: I'm not sure.
BATTLE: Too much to carry.
COLAPIETRO: It isn't pure.
WHITLINGTON:   It's kind of scary.
MALONE: What is it to be responsible to something?
E. DALTON: Like with my mother.
BATTLE: With my father.
WHITLINGTON: Any other.
COLAPIETRO: Don't bother me!
MALONE: Does it hurt to see--recognize who's "we"?
Does it make you sad to find you haven't been a friend
To friends you should have had?
How do you measure out what you owe?
E. DALTON: When it's your own call.
COLAPIETRO: That's hard. Too hard.
WHITLINGTON: You've got to give it all!
BATTLE:   Are you retarded?
MALONE:   When do you tell the others yes and no?
E. DALTON: Check the price you pay.
BATTLE: Where are we, farther down the line?
WHITLINGTON: It won't be settled till doomsday.
COLAPIETRO: Don't lose your spine, anyway.
MALONE: Where's the vital clue to what you ought to do?
Heed the loudest cry? Read responsibility in someone else's eye?
Who? [Going up to the chicken on the blackboard] Who's there?
Who? Who? Who? Who? Who? Who? Who?

8. REAL LIFE
In the Student Lounge. Newspaper frenzy is mounting with reference to a possible athletics scandal at Southeast West, but--is this really worth taking seriously?
E. DALTON: Everyone wants to know when it's time--
When you're undoubtedly in your prime--
When to be willing to make a big fuss--
When to be totally serious.
E. DALTON and COLAPIETRO: Real life. Real life. Real life. Real life.
E. DALTON: In real life, the school cocoon is finally shattered.
COLAPIETRO: In real life, we wonder why we ever thought school mattered.
E. DALTON: In real life, your membership means more than lines on a transcript.
COLAPIETRO: In real life, the heat is on, but your own pot boils.
E. DALTON: In real life, you've got to dig, but you dig in your own soil.
COLAPIETRO: No more fake arguments!
E. DALTON and COLAPIETRO: It's an end to silly assignments!
WHITLINGTON: Isn't it here you can speak your real mind?
Isn't it here you find an audience?
Isn't it here you are given real time?
E. DALTON: In real life, they don't write you up for getting in your room late.
COLAPIETRO: In real life, you don't have to live with a neurotic roommate.
E. DALTON: In real life, you can eat real food;
You don't get cafeteria okra stewed!
COLAPIETRO: In real life, you don't have to beg; you make enough to live on.
E. DALTON: And you decide for yourself when to answer a question.
WHITLINGTON: But where are the good questions? Where are the bright ideas?
You think they're wherever you look--
E. DALTON and COLAPIETRO: Yeah, we finally get to read a good book!
Read a good book!
E. DALTON: I can learn to negotiate life in a big city.
Set up my own household, keep a dog and a kitty.
COLAPIETRO: Or take off and explore the world. I'm not planning to stay home!
See the mountains and the deserts, see Paris and Rome!
BATTLE: I, for one, want to know where we stand.
I'm tired of living in fairyland.
Everyone's praising this nice little place,
Wearing a totally bogus face.
COLAPIETRO: Ray, repeat after me:
On the day of graduation, we'll receive our liberation.
COLAPIETRO and BATTLE:
On the day of graduation, we'll receive our liberation.
COLAPIETRO, BATTLE, and E. DALTON:
On the day of graduation, we'll receive our liberation.
ALL: Real life. Real life. Real life.
Real/real life/life, real life. Real/real life/life, real life.
Real/real life/life, real life. Real/real/real/real--life!

9. WHAT CAN WE HAVE A COLLEGE WITHOUT?
Night. The President's office. J. T. DALTON has confronted AMMON with an unexpected need for budget cuts for next year.
AMMON: What can we have a college without?
J. T. DALTON: Austerity is never welcome;
No one likes to be hard pressed.
But this is not a perfect planet, and we can only do our best.
AMMON: The need to cut expenses seems to be beyond all doubt.
But what can we have a college without?
J. T. DALTON: We can't be all things to all people.
We ought to nurture our chief strengths.
Our basketball team is quite special.
To save it, I'd go any lengths.
Now, let's take a look at academic programs.
Many smaller classes we can surely trim?
What's the fat, the fluff--must I draw you diagrams?
We have faculty whose service here is slim.
AMMON: But our accreditation standards we already almost flout!
What can we have a college without?
J. T. DALTON: Only cost-efficient operations
Will stand up in the current squeeze.
We have a lot of business majors but few in the humanities.
AMMON: We can't fail to offer English--so I firmly determine.
We can't have our Global Studies without Japanese and German.
We can't give up History--guidance counselors would see.
J. T. DALTON: There must be something else
That would cause less trouble--not so noticeable.
What haven't you yet mentioned?
AMMON: Well--Classics and Philosophy.
J. T. DALTON: Yes! Philosophy!
AMMON: What?
J. T. DALTON: Philosophy!
AMMON: But--!
J. T. DALTON: Philosophy!
AMMON: Cut--?

10. TELL ME WHAT TO PLAY
The Student Lounge, early in spring semester. WHITLINGTON is plinking on a cheap electric guitar he got for Christmas. The agenda here is to get ELIZABETH DALTON to take him more seriously.
WHITLINGTON: Tell me what to play, if you want some music.
Or do I have to ask you, task you, mask you--do I have to wait?
Let me see a sign if you're gonna choose it.
I need you to trace it, taste it, waste it, then I'll make it mine.
E. DALTON: Tell me what to say; make me a suggestion.
Offer me a grip, don't slip, don't trip me, make me go astray.
We can get some good out of such a session,
Given that we're striding, guiding, siding, trying like we should.
WHITLINGTON and E. DALTON: What shall I play?/What shall I say?
WHITLINGTON: Turn on all the lights, let me make a landing,
'Cause you know I'm heading, betting, dreading chances of a fight.
Now can we begin to reach an understanding?
'Cause you know I do refuse to lose you, 'cause I want to win.

11. PLEASE STOP THE MUSIC
Malone has just gotten the news that his position is terminal.
MALONE: Please stop the music for a minute.
It's time to listen to reason.
All they said we would try--just a beautiful lie.
We've got important things to tend to.
Don't start smoothing things out.
A discouraging word's overdue to be heard.
Everyone here is part of an agreement to serve a noble aim.
BATTLE and WHITLINGTON: Aim!
E. DALTON and COLAPIETRO: Aim!
MALONE: I say, if they kill us for convenience, then it's a noble shame.
Please stop the music for a minute.
I just saw--the building's on fire.
Tell me what do we do--tell me what do we do.
Please stop the music for a minute.
Don't try beguiling me now.
Got to look for the worst--got to watch ourselves first.
I think the walls are shaking.
Bad guys are breaking down the door.
Tell me what do we do--tell me what do we do?

12. LET'S GET EM
This is the fight song heard during the Sub-Appalachian Athletic Conference Championship women's basketball game.
VARIOUS:
Let's get em--let's get em now--let's get em--let's show em how
Let's get em--let's beat em bad--let's get 'em--let's make em soooo sad
Get em, get em, get em, get em
Let's get em--let's knock em down--let's get em--mess em all around
Let's get em--let's beat em up--let's get em--let's give em some trouble
Trouble, trouble, trouble, trouble
Get em, get em, get em, get em
Let's get em--let's get em now--let's get em--let's show em how
Let's get em--let's beat em bad--let's get em--let's make em so sad, so sad

13. JANE MARY
Security chief Wesley Pound wants basketball star Jane Mary Colapietro to start going out with him again. Not till graduation, she says.
POUND: Jane Mary--it's not working out. I can't carry the burden of doubt.
Could be that you weren't made to love a cop like me.
But Jane Mary, I'm sure that you're my good fairy, I look at your eyes,
And even when they're closed I know a cop they see.
I like your style, I'll play your game, but don't call me names, Jane Mary.
The things you say, I wonder, are they really necessary?
Jane Mary--I'll never forget Wilkes-Barre, the day that we met:
Inside the city limits you were thumbing rides--
I said, I'm sorry, it's against the law. But don't worry, I'll drive you as far
Away as you'd like to go with me in my black-and-white.
Take out that gum, put down that ball, stop being so athletic.
And don't quote those books you like to read, don't try to seem poetic.
I think it's time we had a talk and maybe cleared the air.
You need something pink and frilly and soft to wear. Wash your hair!
Jane Mary, abandon me not. I'll give it all that I've got
To be the kind of man you want, voluntarily.
I'm not so bad, I'm just a guy who's tried to be ordinary.
But I never knew a girl like you, and that's the truth, Jane Mary.

14. NO ONE ELSE CAN LOVE FOR YOU
MALONE complains about the difficulty of courting MATTHEWS; the course of love should run smoother. KOPERNIC says, "Oh? How about when your society thinks you're strange and dangerous if you're not married but legally prohibits you from marrying anyone you might love?"; MALONE says, "Oh . . ."
KOPERNIC: When happiness approaches with a certain face,
Someone else will tell you that it's out of place.
Different people take different views, but no one else can love for you.
You know it's hard to understand what's hers and his,
And even harder, what a soul mate is.
You decide if ideals are true--no one else can love for you.
Love's a winter under feet of snow, its food buried in a secret den.
Lucky love is warm at ten below, because this winter never ends.
Lovers can get rid of all the bars between,
But others have to fit them in a family scene.
Good solutions are far and few, but no one else can love for you.
In love, you have to crouch and wait;
The roads are guarded and the ground is bare.
You'll be hunted if you stand up straight. Rarely is a helper there.
When happiness is finally close enough to hold,
The one you want to love may still be cold.
That's the hardest of loves to do, but no one else can love for you.

15. REAL WORK
ELIZABETH DALTON gets excited in a class report on economic ethics.
E. DALTON: Well I don't know what my new ideas are,
Or what forms they'll take.
But I hear the sound of justice under all the noise we make.
"Oh, but this is what we do." "Oh, but this is tried and true."
I won't let you put me to sleep!
"Be patient, girl. You know it's not a perfect world."
But I don't think the world is cheap, way down deep.
You get a job--you're gonna be given a paycheck.
Did someone buy your mind? No!
Does money talk? Yeah, but we're the ones who speak it.
We're not deaf or dumb, let's not be blind.
And the workers take their pay;
And the workers take their work conditions.
No one asks them what they want to do.
But if the work is real--if a business is really worthwhile, then
Everyone should have a share, make it theirs.
Living around us are millions who should be partners and peers.
But they couldn't tell you the meaning of words like "goal" and "career."
They're singing anthems for the weekend, grinding it out for a dime.
In the field, the shop, the office--basically killing time.
Killing! Killing!
MALONE AND STUDENTS: Killing!
E. DALTON: You may seek or you may be handed a chance to
Open possibilities.
Let's begin a bigger conversation,
And we can end the freeze.
ALL: And the workers take their pay;
And the workers take their work conditions.
No one asks them what they want to do.
But if the work is real--if a business is really worthwhile, then
Everyone should get a share, make it theirs.
E. DALTON: So I don't know yet. But I will go--
ALL: Get it!

16. BETWEEN US AND MONDAY
Late in spring semester, a quiet time in the Records Office--MATTHEWS in a relatively receptive mood, and the terminal MALONE imagining a weekend getaway.
MALONE: It's early Sunday evening, there's fire in the sky.
The sun is on the mountain line.
And now the light is fading to bring along the moonrise.
Sit awhile and rest your eyes.
Let darkness creep in, mysteries will deepen.
If anybody wants us, they'll have to come and find us.
There's a long night between us and Monday.
And later Sunday evening, darker all the while--
Harder still to reconcile.
Nothing we can do will make us extra time,
But don't give in and say goodbye.
I feel I'm being cheated to have to go to sleep.
If anybody wants us, they'll have to come and get us;
There's a whole world between us and Monday.
MALONE and MATTHEWS: Before the morning will come
Rain on the rooftops, rain in the lake--
Rain on the window will awaken you.
MALONE: The end of Sunday evening, clouds across the sky;
I see nothing if I try.
And you don't have to think of how we might appear,
As long as you are sleeping here.
I'll go down dreaming of weekends evergreen.
If anybody wants us, they'll have to come and get us--
There's a sunrise between us and Monday.
travel, and build a house, and have children . . .

17. FINALE
In the gym for spring commencement.
STUDENTS: Real. Real. Real. Real.
We're the pride of the college educator.
We're the leaders of tomorrow, or later.
Some of us are out of here, some of us are in.
None of us can very well tell you where we've been.
Real life. Real life. Real life. Real life.
BATTLE : I wanted answers that are ironclad.
The college taught me that they can't be had.
WHITLINGTON: I want some room just to show my stuff.
Finally someone's giving me enough. Mazda!
ALL: Real life. E - I - E - I - E - I - E - I -- real life.
E. DALTON: Now I'm flying on the big trapeze;
I see a gleam in my responsibilities.
COLAPIETRO: Well I've known success, and I've known distress.
But the end's the same; there's always a next game.
ALL: We'll arrive--keep up this drive--we think we'll thrive in real life.
Real life!

18. THE SOUTHEAST WEST ALMA MATER
ALL: Southeast West, we are your loyal warriors in life's battle royal,
Flinching not from hardest toil in the cause of truth.
Standing proud by all fair virtue, trusting good can never hurt you,
Nor will troubled times convert you from the cause of truth.
Oh, Southeast West, among the best of places of great enterprise--
Southeast West, so richly blessed, your worth we realize.