Latest / Eye Opener Society / A Tribute to Michael (Just Us Thinking) | Grief, Legacy, and the Power of Community

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A Tribute to Michael (Just Us Thinking) | Grief, Legacy, and the Power of Community · Eye Opener Society

• 0:02
  You know, sometimes there's tragedies in life, and we try to go on.
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  We try to move on with our own life in spite of that.
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  And this is very real to some people. My name is Gary Dean, and this is Eye Opener Society.
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  And this is a really special episode, and there's going to be some mixed emotions.
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  If everybody would just stick with me, I guarantee you I'm going to open up
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  some things that might help pretty much everybody.
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  But I've got to tell a little bit of a backstory Most
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  people already know That this church started way back when Third Eye Meditation
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  A podcast And then my stepdaughter Hannah came on And we rebranded to what we
• 0:45
  are Eye Opener Society In 2022 And.
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  I always sat and tried to find some podcasts To listen to myself You know,
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  I always spoke about the Bell Witch podcast.
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  I had swells on my show, which was so beautiful for me because it was every
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  Sunday morning, just like now, I turn on the Bell Witch podcast,
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  sit back and listen and enjoy.
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  I picked up so many others. Some of them are still not around like the Jake
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  and Josh show, but Josh is still around.
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  He sometimes jumps on Twisted Tales with Chris or tell and it's nice to see
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  Chris with Twisted Tales on you know YouTube after his whole Spotify fallout but good shows um,
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  There's Ouch, Was That a Ghost, the NDT podcast, of course, Bell Witch podcast.
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  And then I had Urban Lady Prepper, who's also still, I listen to her all the
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  time. She was on this show. She now has a book out.
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  So it's great to see these shows that branched out or they just kind of stopped
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  happening for whatever reason.
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  It's a community and much like us, a society.
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  Because we formed at one point with Josh from the Jake and Josh show,
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  the Podluminati, and we just all got together as podcasters to help other podcasters out.
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  And we tried to give new podcasters some ideas, focus, direction,
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  help with shout outs and all that.
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  And it became kind of tight.
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  I had the Matt and Monica podcast. I discovered them and I said,
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  wow, they have something. And they did. They really became big.
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  And then tragedy struck them. And I was so, I don't know, it bothered me because
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  it's like, wow, I talked to them a lot and I was promoting them a lot.
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  And, you know, we had a couple conversations together and tragedy struck them
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  where, you know, Matt lost his children.
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  God rest them, man. It was a real tragedy. And I was taken back by it I was
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  like, these are people I know And you just don't expect that to happen And obviously no one does.
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  But they moved on, and I know it's still a true struggle for them.
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  It has to be. I don't know them, but to be honest, there's actually something
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  in the background that I never spoke about with them based on their tragedy
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  because there was a few things.
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  I was really upset, and I jumped into a lot of things, but that's maybe another
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  podcast for another day.
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  But one podcast, just us thinking.
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  I used to love listening to Just Us Thinking.
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  I listened to them back when they were just doing more or less stories about their travels and all.
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  And it was Rebecca and Michael and Mikey.
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  They were family, husband, wife, son. Son did all the background audio-visual stuff for them.
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  In the early days, I remember listening. I said, wow, these are great people.
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  These are kind of the people they're the kind of people you
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  would meet while you're out traveling you'll probably sit down in a bar have
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  a beer with them and some burgers and share some stories they were just that
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  type of people you know where you could feel good talking to them about things
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  and just make a friend and talk and they helped out to pod luminati of course and um.
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  Michael had contacted me once wanting some business advice.
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  And I said, well, that was interesting because I didn't know what he really
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  wanted me to do or what he knew I knew.
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  But, yeah, I'll help you out. And we had a really good conversation based on
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  the direction he was going with his podcast and all.
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  And we sat. We had a good, I think it was a good hour talk. And it was really great. And I helped him.
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  And that was good. But he thanked me so much because he's seen me as a neutral
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  party to, you know, the thing he had going on. And he thought I can help.
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  And that was a good feeling. I like it. And he was really cool.
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  And then more recently, because he also, they had just us thinking,
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  just us tasting, just us traveling.
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  Then there was Echo Aura Productions that I promoted a couple times where he
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  had a whole nother series of podcasts.
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  And he ran Where he does merchandise And t-shirts And He designed my Shirt with
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  the logo The purple one You usually see me wearing on that And that came from
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  Echo Aura Productions Great fantastic work And.
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  It struck me weird because I think the last show I listened to was their last one in February.
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  It was the Super Bowl, and I believe they were sitting there because they went
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  from like a regular kind of talk show to a comedy show because Michael just had this way about him.
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  It wasn't like comedy, like telling jokes, but it was just funny stuff that
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  happens in life, their observations, the way they see it, just regular talk
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  between the family and funny things, and it was always a good listen.
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  So, yeah, they were talking about, I believe, the commercials for Super Bowl and all.
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  And a lot of their stuff came across my TikTok all the time.
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  And like just one after the other. And it was always good to hear.
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  So that was February. And nothing came across my TikTok feed,
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  which I didn't seem strange because TikTok, when they changed owners,
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  I know it changed the whole feed and what you've seen.
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  But I didn't see their show. So I was like, all right, well,
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  you know, after doing this so long, a lot of podcasters take breaks,
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  you know, something happens about, hey, I can't handle this anymore.
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  And so, you know, since February, I didn't hear anything and I didn't really think much of it.
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  But just recently, Rebecca reached out to me and told me that Michael passed away. And.
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  What really bothered me about that, I think, really, is just the fact that,
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  you know, I don't have my finger on the pulse as much with these other podcasts
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  just like we used to when we were a group. And I'm not saying that's a bad thing
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  because, like I said, we're all busy doing our own things.
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  And I'm so wrapped up in the church and getting that started and working with
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  Lizzie and trying to move forward. And you lose touch.
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  And that was kind of, you know, the problem I had. And so when I heard that,
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  not knowing because, you know, wow, you know, it really hit me.
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  And I was like, wow, that's just, it's tragic. But here's where things are going to change.
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  Because, you know, now that I open our society as a church, I'm a minister and Lizzie's a minister.
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  We're going to be touching on a lot of this stuff because you know what?
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  Michael left behind some very beautiful people. And I'm not going to say that
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  he left them behind because you know what? He didn't.
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  He's still here. He's, you know, energy.
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  Regardless of what the family believes in, and this is not to,
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  you know, upset them or anything. It was great because my meditation,
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  I remember Michael called me out on a couple of his episodes about meditation.
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  He poked a couple of jabs at me, and it was so much fun.
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  That's why I really enjoyed the show. And like I said, there was a personal touch to that.
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  But From what I believe And The way the church works It's You don't have to
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  follow Everything that This church believes You need to believe in yourself
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  And that's the most important thing And one thing Rebecca had Mentioned to me Also was that,
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  How inspiring. She found all of my, you know, little shorts that I do on YouTube,
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  TikTok, and, you know, I just do these things usually just off the top of my
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  head. I got to come up with something.
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  And I try to be as inspirational as I can.
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  And it's just the goal. And it's never directed at anyone, but it's just general
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  things that I talk about that I believe in.
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  And I hope that they do inspire somebody. And when she told me that,
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  I felt really, you know, I was caught in between the tragedy and the focus of moving ahead.
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  And my deepest sympathies go out to them. But you guys are not alone.
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  And I will support you in any way.
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  But the biggest thing that everyone, not just his family, his friends, his listeners,
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  everybody, we're all going to go through something at some time because our
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  physical bodies that we carry around, these vessels, they contain energy.
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  And whatever you believe is what you believe but
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  energy cannot be created destroyed if you want to get into the whole scientific
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  side of it but really we're carrying around so much more our time on this earth
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  is always short we're here for purposes we're here for reasons no matter what
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  it is even if we are just doing a little comedy show but michael had a whole empire he was building.
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  And I still believe it's going to go on.
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  And I believe that his family is going to pick up where he left off and things
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  are going to rise, at least I hope so.
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  But no matter what they do, I know they're going to move ahead and I know they're
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  going to continue to be strong. It's going to be hard. It's going to be a struggle.
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  And this is what happens. This is the process.
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  And at some point we're going to realize the powerful impact all of us have
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  on life whether we're here or not and this is where i want to build everybody
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  up and let you know that no matter what you have something special don't ever think you do not.
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  Every little thing you do sets off an effect it's and it goes out into the cosmos
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  it goes out to the universe.
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  You could be doing something huge or you could be doing something really small.
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  Don't ever think it's insignificant and it doesn't mean anything.
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  Michael did a lot and I've only known him a very short time and I didn't know
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  him personally and I don't know his whole background or anything,
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  but what I did know of him, he left an impact.
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  He left a show that I used to love to.
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  And he left behind a memory that he had on me. The conversations I did have
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  with him. They're going to stay with me.
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  And because those memories are staying with me, that means Michael is still here.
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  And he still means something to me. And this I feel about anybody that was lost
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  in my life. They're still with me thanks to the memories.
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  And we shouldn't always dwell on, like I said, We shouldn't always worry about
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  the past But the past holds memories And it builds us to whom we are And that's
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  how we get to live And that's how we keep moving forward And when you're as
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  close to somebody like the family,
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  Wife Children It's going to be harder But they're going to have the strongest Memories,
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  And that should be the motivation I'm very happy that I can motivate and inspire That means a lot,
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  But it's never going to take the place Of what Michael left behind because that's
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  so much stronger and so much more powerful than I will ever be.
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  But if you, the audience, are going through tragedy or you know somebody that's
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  going through a loss, tragedy, whatever it may be,
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  you might not know it, but you might be having an impact on somebody in a very
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  inspirational way to help motivate them.
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  Many of us don't know what to say. It's difficult.
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  But If we sit back and think about it Or just us thinking We're going to remember,
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  That memories are going to be strong And they're always going to be there And
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  as long as you're here Honor that,
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  Honor the memory of those that are lost My name is Gary Dean This is Eye Opener
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  Society And I just want to say Thank you to just us thinking,
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  And thank you to Michael for the inspiration that was placed on all of us,
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  May you rest in peace.