Shownotes
In episode 14 of Podcaster Stories, I sit down with Eric Barnhart, host and founder of Urban Contemplatives and the Mindful Moment podcast.
With a tagline of “creating mindful moments for active lives”, each 15-minute episode features conversations with artists, musicians, writers, scientists, philosophers and others, exploring contemplative practices through an ecumenical Christian lens.
Topics up for discussion this week include:
- how Star Wars inspired his love for music, which inspired his eventual career
- how that love for music got him a degree in jazz piano, which led to him working in churches”creating mindful moments for active lives”how he’s met other like-minded folks through this association with the church
- why divisiveness is a global issue versus a beliefs issue
- how Eric’s seen the very best and the very worst of humanity over the last 25 years
- how the podcast came about due to the Covid pandemic
- why allowing yourself to hear your belief is more effective than being told what to believe
- how he deals with people that are trying to push their own agenda
- how shared learning through open dialogue is key to a positive community
- how Star Wars fans can be very similar to those with fervent beliefs
- why you can have polarizing viewpoints yet still agree on something if it connects with, or moves, you
- why none of us are experts – in life, in religion, in culture, and more
- why we need to stop fretting about the things that don’t really matter
- how Western culture still needs to catch up with other cultures when it comes to mindfulness
- how Thomas Merton played such a huge part in Eric’s life and goals with Urban Contemplatives and the Mindful Moment podcast
- how true Christianity is about humility and being there for others, no matter what
- how Mysticism creates fear in some Christian corners, and why it shouldn’t
- where Eric sees the podcast evolving over the next 12 months
- why good ramen is key to a happy life
- how his love of Jethro Tull helped him learn guitar, even when holding the guitar upside down!
- how the music industry has paved the way for content creators across all mediums when it comes to distribution and production
Settle back for an enlightening episode where Eric shares what may be the best pathway to peace in our lifetime.
Connect with Eric:
Contact me: danny@podcasterstories.com
My equipment:
- Samson Q2U Mic
- Focusrite Scarlett Solo 3rd Gen Audio Interface
- TRITON AUDIO Fethead In-Line Microphone Preamp
- Denon DJ HP-1100 Over Ear Headphones
- RockJam MS050 Adjustable Mic Suspension Boom
- Dragonpad Pop Filter
Recommended resources:
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp
Transcripts
It's important to take a moment to pause, right? It's
Speaker:important to remind ourselves, first of all, that each moment
Speaker:that goes by, I will not come again. We don't
Speaker:know how many moments are leading out in front of
Speaker:us. And because of that, it is a commodity. It
Speaker:is a resource that is not renewable. We, we, and
Speaker:we don't even know how much we got that. Right.
Speaker:And wow, that's heavy. You know, when you, when you
Speaker:take a moment to stop and think about that, just
Speaker:that little step can allow me to go, wait a
Speaker:minute.
Speaker:What am I worrying about right now? What am I
Speaker:forgetting about? Why am I forgetting about that thing? You
Speaker:know, what have what's really important? And I know I
Speaker:need those reality checks all the time.
Speaker:Hi, and welcome to Podcaster Stories each year we will
Speaker:have a conversation with Podcast. It was across all mediums
Speaker:and share their story. What motivates them, why you started
Speaker:the show at the growth of the show and more,
Speaker:but also to talk about their personal lives and some
Speaker:of the things that have happened, I've made them the
Speaker:person they are today. And now here's your host Danny
Speaker:Brown Hey guys. And welcome to another episode of Podcaster
Speaker:Stories will meet the people behind the voices of the
Speaker:show's, but listen to it this week, I have attic
Speaker:Barnhart and I hopefully I've said your son name, correct.
Speaker:Eric and if not, please feel free.
Speaker:You know, you know, like tell me if I'm on
Speaker:the, the chart and it is a hosted phone
Speaker:And all of the Mindful Moment podcast, which it looks
Speaker:to offer our listeners a break from our Urban noise.
Speaker:So Eric welcome to the show. I'm just going to
Speaker:hand over to you to give us a little introduction
Speaker:about yourself
Speaker:And to show. Sure. Well, first of all, Danny I
Speaker:want to thank you so much for being able to
Speaker:be a part of your podcast in this season and
Speaker:this particular episode, you know, I came, we sort of
Speaker:connected through our mutual podcast, host through captivate, a F
Speaker:M, which is fantastic. And Mark and the team we
Speaker:were there, brilliant folks. And we are a part of
Speaker:a group that is open only to people who are
Speaker:users or consumers of the platform or the different products
Speaker:that captivate and rebel may have put out. And Danny
Speaker:is one of the superstars I'm just going to give
Speaker:a shout out right now.
Speaker:Danny is one of the superstars of that group, that
Speaker:Facebook group. And I just always really appreciated the things
Speaker:that you have to say. I appreciate how helpful you
Speaker:are as a member of that community. It's like, okay.
Speaker:So if I want to be a part of a
Speaker:group, who would, I Danny Brown, that's what I want
Speaker:to be right there. And you should have been just
Speaker:so helpful and informative, and I've just really appreciate just
Speaker:our little interactions that we've had. So we've really met
Speaker:mostly online through that group and what it, what a
Speaker:great, a support group that is what a great team
Speaker:captivate is. And Danny, what a great member of you
Speaker:are. And so when I heard that you were doing
Speaker:a podcast or Stories, and you were looking for people
Speaker:like sign me up, because I would love to learn
Speaker:from folks like you who have been doing things like
Speaker:this, your own podcast for many years, and then being
Speaker:able to sort of flip it around on its head
Speaker:and be able to talk with other podcasts, because I'm
Speaker:sure you guys have had a few pints, you know,
Speaker:at the different podcasts and conventions and be able to
Speaker:swap stories back and forth.
Speaker:And I'm sure those are very compelling. I hope I
Speaker:will be able to hit at least come close to
Speaker:the bar of measuring up a fork for your episode.
Speaker:But thank you again for having me here,
Speaker:You know, for sure, for sure. And thanks so much,
Speaker:like you say to them in that group are awesome.
Speaker:It's like that's, to me, that's what the podcast is.
Speaker:A community is all about. It's just being there and
Speaker:there's no dumb questions, no wrong questions. So, and I
Speaker:appreciate that. Thanks to Matt.
Speaker:Absolutely. Absolutely. What was your question
Speaker:Again? How will you tell me? So after my little
Speaker:intro blurb there, I'm sure there's a lot more about
Speaker:the shop from, right. So how about Dan? Can you
Speaker:introduce yourself and the show itself?
Speaker:Sure, absolutely. A poor Danny is going to probably have
Speaker:the most stream of consciousness interview a person. I think
Speaker:for this episode, you're probably going to ever have the
Speaker:bottom line for the show is we create a Mindful
Speaker:Moment for active life. That's our tagline. And I my
Speaker:name's Eric Barnhart, I've been a musician pretty much since
Speaker:shortly after coming out of the womb, I started playing
Speaker:on my brother's Fisher-Price toy xylophone when it was about
Speaker:two and a half. And I believe you are like
Speaker:me or a fellow geeks. So you will appreciate this.
Speaker:The first movie that I ever saw on the theaters
Speaker:was a star Wars. Also, I would talk very fast.
Speaker:I have to remind myself not to talk so fast,
Speaker:but that being said a, so I used my Fisher-Price
Speaker:toy xylophone and my star Wars action figure at the
Speaker:time to play at my little mallets on the xylophone.
Speaker:Yeah. So the Chewbacca was great because he had a
Speaker:nice round head. I think C3 P a was also
Speaker:pretty good, coz it was still fairly round. You can
Speaker:get a good thing or a fader you think would
Speaker:be good, but that little angle that on the, on
Speaker:the helmet, on the back and you kind of a
Speaker:mess things up, but I think of it. So I
Speaker:started playing hot cross buns and Mary had a little
Speaker:lamb on, on my Fisher-Price, but actually with my brothers,
Speaker:I had already a very early age. I was stealing
Speaker:things for my older brother without him noticing. And a,
Speaker:he took the Fisher-Price and we pick out a little
Speaker:note and my parents eventually went. That actually sounds like
Speaker:something that doesn't sound like him, just banging stuff and
Speaker:figured out pretty early on that I was very attuned
Speaker:to picking out Melody's and just had a general affinity
Speaker:for music in general, had the record player of the
Speaker:vinyl.
Speaker:You know, you know where to start with from here
Speaker:to stay up to seven. I actually was eight old
Speaker:enough to remember seeing star Wars. So that should date
Speaker:me somewhat of a, of my existence thereof. A but
Speaker:the record players, I would list them all the time.
Speaker:And eventually my parents bought me a, a toy organ,
Speaker:the play, because we didn't have keyboards back in the
Speaker:day. And so I would play on that for hours
Speaker:and learning star Wars, one of the melodies for sure.
Speaker:I had that and just had had music in my
Speaker:background for years and years and years. And that led
Speaker:me to lots of different things. Basically, I got a
Speaker:degree in jazz piano and come up with a focus
Speaker:in composition, a at the university of Miami and Florida
Speaker:international led me to go down and do that.
Speaker:And as part of that, I'd never a really experienced
Speaker:working in church's as a context growing up, we didn't
Speaker:really go to church growing up or any of those
Speaker:kinds of things. But some of the folks that I
Speaker:met at the university of Miami and for the international,
Speaker:very active and their churches, and one of the things
Speaker:I came to be discovered, Oh, there's a lot of
Speaker:work in churches. And I ended up getting connected to
Speaker:that right around 94, 95. And I started playing with
Speaker:different campus ministries there as an both on the piano
Speaker:and singing. And so I've been working with a church
Speaker:ministry context since around 95 or so.
Speaker:And from that, gosh, it's been twenty-five years now. So
Speaker:we are urban contemplative sort of arrived this whole podcast.
Speaker:This, there is a lot of backstory and a different
Speaker:rate, pretty much where this comes from. So Arabic a
Speaker:template is a creating mindful moments for active lives is
Speaker:essentially the extension. If you will, of a sort of
Speaker:a mission I've been on for a long time, in
Speaker:the sense of, of how to be able to take
Speaker:the things that I have experienced over in my life
Speaker:that have been very positive spiritually and in the community,
Speaker:since things that have really grown me personally, and I've
Speaker:seen benefit, people are also in community things that have
Speaker:helped myself and others to put things like divisiveness, put
Speaker:things like a one upmanship building our own kingdoms, if
Speaker:you will.
Speaker:And I'm going to try and avoid as much, Christianese
Speaker:the jargon that comes around, you know, Christian churches and
Speaker:what not, because there's plenty of it, just like anything
Speaker:in the tech world and the music world. So I'm
Speaker:going to try and speak as plainly as possible. And
Speaker:that's another thing that are being kept up to this
Speaker:is about, we try to not use things that make
Speaker:us feel like an exclusive elite club. Okay. So the
Speaker:goal of Urban contemplative is, is to try and create
Speaker:a community with these things that are in our embodied.
Speaker:First of all, being a what's called ecumenical, which is
Speaker:just a big, fancy word for, Hey, guess what? You
Speaker:know, if you're Baptist, if you're Methodist, if you're an
Speaker:Anglican, if your Catholic cool, if you're, I don't know
Speaker:what the heck I am cool.
Speaker:You know, if you were Buddhist, if you're Hindu, cool,
Speaker:come hang with this. That's not, you know, we're not
Speaker:about wearing a specific hat were not about championing or
Speaker:a particular a doctrine write we're here because we are
Speaker:trying to figure out what makes this world tick. What
Speaker:makes us tick? What makes, what makes life happen and
Speaker:how can we experience it for ourselves in ways that
Speaker:are fuller or richer? What are the things that we
Speaker:can do to be a more positive force in ourselves,
Speaker:in a community, in the lives that we lead? So
Speaker:that's sort of a nutshell about, or pre contemplative as
Speaker:what we are trying to go from much of where
Speaker:that came from.
Speaker:My, like I said, I have been involved in serving
Speaker:churches and working on different kinds of the campus ministries.
Speaker:And I'm, I think you have a tech background, is
Speaker:that right? Danny no. Yeah. Okay. So like, like any
Speaker:kind of irregular sort of community that you're working in,
Speaker:you know, you're gonna have a great experiences and not
Speaker:a great experiences. Right. And so being in something like
Speaker:this for 25 years, I seen some really great things,
Speaker:some really great ways to be able to, you know,
Speaker:to, to love your fellow man, to if you know,
Speaker:to love humanity, I've seen, it's a really bad ways
Speaker:to do it. Right. And what, what I've really tried
Speaker:to do enduring a template is, is sort of distill
Speaker:the things that I've seen.
Speaker:Wow, this has really worked over here. This has really
Speaker:worked over here. This is really worked over here, lets
Speaker:champion those things. It makes something that helps to foster
Speaker:that. Does that make sense? No, it does.
Speaker:Yeah. And, and I think as well as like you,
Speaker:obviously the, the, the podcast is called Mindful Moment, but
Speaker:the actual project, if you like that the white a
Speaker:project is the Urban contemplative is correct.
Speaker:Exactly. Right. So the, and the, the way that Mindful
Speaker:Moment came about was actually sort of down the road.
Speaker:So we definitely started with Urban and templates Urban and
Speaker:template is a we'll sort of my pet project. And
Speaker:it actually came out of a worship project study that
Speaker:a, basically a homework assignment that I had to do.
Speaker:So I did my masters degree at a place called
Speaker:the Institute for worship studies. And there are two, two
Speaker:years or four main classes. And the third class is
Speaker:called post. Well, it used to be called postmodernist, postmodernism
Speaker:and Christianity. Now its called Christianity and contextualism because I
Speaker:think there's to many posts post, post, post, post post-modernism
Speaker:now.
Speaker:So I was like, yeah, well that's a scrap that
Speaker:title basically. How do you communicate the good news in
Speaker:your context, wherever you are, your, your town, your culture,
Speaker:your socioeconomic spread, you know, all of the, all the
Speaker:demographics are all the analytics As we podcasters would say,
Speaker:all right. And so that class, then the final project
Speaker:was hay. If you see something that needs to be
Speaker:changed, what, what do you think first off needs to
Speaker:be changed in your, in your context, but with the
Speaker:wherever you work. Right? And so my case, it would
Speaker:be, I was a music director. I'm a music guy
Speaker:at a church here in travelers, outside of Greenville, South
Speaker:Carolina. So that was my context and the degree and
Speaker:the question was, what do you see? It, it needs
Speaker:to be fixed.
Speaker:What do you think might be things that you can
Speaker:do to improve? And if you were to improve them,
Speaker:how would you do it? And so that little question
Speaker:set off a chain of it events that basically led
Speaker:to me launching a five Oh one C3, which originally
Speaker:was called
of people didn't know they were Latin as well as
Speaker:we thought they might could even pronounce the name. Right.
Speaker:So we switched it to him contemplative, which was the
Speaker:name of basically the target audience in that worship project.
Speaker:We call it that person in the urban contemplative and
Speaker:So switched it, Durbin develops. So from that worship project,
Speaker:we launched basically sort of a, an experiment if you
Speaker:will on, okay.
Speaker:If we were going to do worship in a way
Speaker:that ministry me personally, that connects on things that I'm
Speaker:missing, what would it look like? And what we see
Speaker:so much of this Danny is honestly been born out
Speaker:of, you know, you can probably already tell Eric talks
Speaker:way too fast. Eric runs and guns Eric's talks to
Speaker:stream of consciousness. Eric needs to slow down. Right. Okay.
Speaker:And so much of what I found after working for,
Speaker:for so long in churches, you know, I would love
Speaker:to dedicate a time to where I just chill out
Speaker:and I let God speak. And I listen and hear
Speaker:what God has to say.
Speaker:I would love to take the time where I can
Speaker:instead of having to do, do do. And instead of
Speaker:having to listen to a talking head, a tell me
Speaker:about God, how about just like God told me about
Speaker:God. And so many of the things that we do
Speaker:in order for contempt, actually most of the things were
Speaker:really born out of this since really? For me personally.
Speaker:Yeah, I have, I know I had this need. I
Speaker:wonder if other people do too. And so we launched
Speaker:a little test, run a little, get together with a
Speaker:few friends. We invited and folks seem to like it
Speaker:and it seemed to work. Okay. So lets go, lets
Speaker:go ahead and try a few more. So it was
Speaker:just these little gatherings as we call them that we
Speaker:did for about a year, year and a half.
Speaker:And folks really started to enjoy it. We started to
Speaker:refine to retool and essentially what it was, it was
Speaker:myself on a keyboard or piano depending on the venue
Speaker:and on vocals, a friend of mine who also works
Speaker:with me and place a Tre on the guitar and
Speaker:vocals and that we had a cellist and a violinist.
Speaker:And so that was our band. I'm a musician by
Speaker:trade. I have been teaching since 1995 and working in
Speaker:churches, playing piano. I was a lounge people in a
Speaker:hotel player, four or five nights a week for over
Speaker:10 years. So that's, that's my background. So that's, that's
Speaker:what I know I can bring in do well to
Speaker:a Contact it's like that. And so that's what we
Speaker:did. We would take music that we shaped to be
Speaker:almost like a film score music.
Speaker:Right? So what are the soundtrack of things that you
Speaker:could hear, but not be so on and intent that
Speaker:it will take you out of being able to sit
Speaker:still and to let your mind wander and to let
Speaker:it connect and be able to say, okay, let's focus
Speaker:on this topic. That was our goal is to be
Speaker:able to create a space where people could listen to
Speaker:God and a group. And it's really challenging for 21st
Speaker:century people, because if you want to make a human
Speaker:being uncomfortable and this day and age to tell them
Speaker:to sit in a room with 20 other people that
Speaker:they don't know that well and silent. Yep.
Speaker:And I can imagine, I mean, I find silence so
Speaker:uncomfortable even with some of my closest friends at the
Speaker:time. So you are, you're always thinking, Oh, I should
Speaker:be breaking the sound. So it should be saying something,
Speaker:you know, so I can imagine, excuse me, I can
Speaker:only imagine what that would be like. You know, we
Speaker:have 20 strangers as you mentioned,
Speaker:And I'll tell you the daddy working with church and
Speaker:for so long, there, there is a section called the
Speaker:confessions and the Assurance's and other types of prayer. Right.
Speaker:And so we wanted to give folks an opportunity to
Speaker:be able to sit there and be able to sort
Speaker:of dwell within silence and listen to God, but we
Speaker:don't do it in most churches. Western church does not
Speaker:do that for that exact reason because you know, okay,
Speaker:let's pray. Let's pray silently now. Okay. So now we
Speaker:can just move right on it because even the people
Speaker:leading, it were not that comfortable with it with just
Speaker:direct silence. So what we try to do musically is
Speaker:we just try to create this little, this little backdrop,
Speaker:if you will, sort of the, the film score, allowing
Speaker:people to, okay, I don't hear the person next to
Speaker:me breathing.
Speaker:They don't hear me shuffling about. And that kind of
Speaker:gives me sort of that space. I'm creating an acoustic
Speaker:space around them and around myself. So, okay. We, we
Speaker:sort of feel safer, secure that people were not being
Speaker:a self-conscious were not self-policing and self monitoring, everyone. And
Speaker:folks that really resonated with that. And go ahead.
Speaker:And you had mentioned that obviously it's for anybody and
Speaker:everybody, regardless of, you know, Rogers police, creed, you know,
Speaker:what your religion, your affinity or a affinity towards that
Speaker:is not even a word and you have an affinity
Speaker:for it. I'm going to put that down and I'm
Speaker:like a website or, and one. Yeah.
Speaker:And I think Webster Merriam, just add, you know, they've
Speaker:got your regardless in their own. Yeah.
Speaker:So was that a main Deanne? Have you found it
Speaker:like, especially, maybe in early days of good in the,
Speaker:the project and on the podcast together, but more so
Speaker:of the project, I guess, did you have any sort
Speaker:of a button heads or are people that were bringing
Speaker:in too much of their own beliefs and trying to
Speaker:make that the core if you like, or is that,
Speaker:is that not a little bit something if you had
Speaker:to do
Speaker:That's a great question. And the reality is that we
Speaker:have had people when they first, so first inquire about
Speaker:the group. So Hey, I saw this on Facebook and
Speaker:it says you have some Latin and there does that
Speaker:being your Catholic. And I'm like, you, you can almost
Speaker:smell it coming a mile away. The sort of the,
Speaker:the presuppositions that's, that's, that's a way of putting it.
Speaker:It was like, okay, if I'm going to look at
Speaker:this, I've got to see it through this lens. And
Speaker:is this approved by whatever my particular, you know, set
Speaker:of beliefs will approve, generally speaking, those people we'd out
Speaker:quickly.
Speaker:And you know, I have had people who come in
Speaker:and, and, and, and, and, and I very much, so
Speaker:we will encourage conversation. We will encourage dialogue. So people
Speaker:will come at things from a particular angle of, Hey,
Speaker:what do you, what do you think about doing this?
Speaker:You or I was uncomfortable with this context. What did
Speaker:you mean by that? And that's actually the exact kinds
Speaker:of things that we look for in terms of conversation
Speaker:afterwards, and as a part of our Facebook group's we
Speaker:want to talk through things now, if we want, we're
Speaker:not looking to proselytize at the same time, like I'm
Speaker:not trying to make anybody a Presbyterian. I'm not trying
Speaker:to make anybody a Catholic. I'm not trying to make
Speaker:anybody or anything, because one of the things that I've
Speaker:really resonated with, there's a group called
It's out in the sun, Southern France, and a structure,
Speaker:a group. There are monks. I'm actually a really cool
Speaker:guys, but they basically, when they bring in a brother
Speaker:they'd been around since the forties and brother, Roger Lee
Speaker:latched him. But when they bring in a new brother,
Speaker:they, that person may come from any background and they
Speaker:tell him, Hey, don't give up being Anglican, Anglicans. Cool.
Speaker:We liked the fact that you are Anglican. So please
Speaker:identify as Anglican because you know, I'm over here, I'm
Speaker:Presbyterian or I was Baptist. Do you know I am
Speaker:Baptist? And the way that you see the world and
Speaker:the way that you see God is going to be
Speaker:through a different lens, just like an all of us,
Speaker:you know, you could be, you have no affiliation and
Speaker:you're going to see the world differently.
Speaker:Just, you know, Danny you going to see things differently
Speaker:from how I see it and affirming that your coming
Speaker:from a totally different perspective, you're a different subjective participant
Speaker:in an objective reality, right? So you are going to
Speaker:be seeing things that I will never have seen. You're
Speaker:going to have experiences that I've never experienced. And what
Speaker:we try to do is a firm that truth. And
Speaker:we affirm the fact that w I can grow, buy
Speaker:what you Danny have to say. You know, what your
Speaker:perspective is because it's going to be, we could be
Speaker:talking about the exact same thing, but through your lens,
Speaker:I will see something totally, I may never have ever
Speaker:seen or experience. And that's going to enrich who I
Speaker:am and enrich my understanding of that thing and a
Speaker:view.
Speaker:And if myself, does that make sense?
Speaker:No, it does that. I know you mentioned Ellie are
Speaker:huge star Wars fan. Yes. First movie you saw was
Speaker:a star Wars. Same. Here are some of those 77
Speaker:as a, an eight year old, white, amazing. The big
Speaker:short, when it started to try, it comes over here.
Speaker:And that was that it was sold. But yeah, so
Speaker:to, to use the, and the star Wars example, I
Speaker:guess the last year at I polarized fans. Oh, did
Speaker:we don't have a middle? So I guess to that
Speaker:point, you can have that polarized point of view because
Speaker:two people will see it was a great star Wars
Speaker:movie ever, or it was a worst star Wars movie
Speaker:ever. Right. I still think fire at the front of
Speaker:madness is up there. It was the worst, but we'll
Speaker:see it. So how do you sort of encourage that?
Speaker:I, I know you mentioned it, that it comes with
Speaker:an openness and, you know, you're not forced and people,
Speaker:if you like to give up on their own beliefs,
Speaker:how do you encourage the sort of, of openness when
Speaker:it can be really polarizing?
Speaker:No, that's, that's, that's, that's a great question as well.
Speaker:And that's something that we have to think through on
Speaker:virtually every episode I do. But before I, before I
Speaker:answer that I will have to address the fact that
Speaker:I am honored and humbled to have a star Wars
Speaker:reference as a parallel to, you know, are analogous to
Speaker:anything that I would do. I will say this. And
Speaker:that's, that's a great a way of saying it be,
Speaker:I remember reading, I got Ray, the actress. Thank you.
Speaker:Yes, these are real. So it's saying, Oh gosh, the
Speaker:star Wars fans, their rough. How about the big, yeah.
Speaker:Especially with the vinyl, the movie and just mad they
Speaker:can read it. Yes, they can. They can. And, and
Speaker:that's such a great analogy because in so many ways,
Speaker:star Wars fans are just, you know, we're a cult
Speaker:following just, you know, you got the Luke warm areas
Speaker:that, you know, the, what they call the M the
Speaker:fair-weather fans, you know, when the new movie is up,
Speaker:but then you got a, you know, I have probably
Speaker:a good 0.1, two, three for, I have a rug
Speaker:or of the millennium, Falcon to my studio.
Speaker:I was at the top right now and I'm sitting
Speaker:on, okay. So this is a pretty, you know, devoted
Speaker:for falling. And the fact is that we can still
Speaker:love the same movie. Right. And, and hate on it
Speaker:at the same time. And I am not a person
Speaker:who I'll listen to all the different samples of why
Speaker:this and that, like, okay. But you know what, at
Speaker:the end of the day I went and saw the
Speaker:movie and I liked it. You know, it was star
Speaker:Wars. I loved him, you know, and while I can
Speaker:see that person's perspective of why that may not have
Speaker:been something that okay. Sure, sure, sure. But the bottom
Speaker:line for me is whether it was Canon, whether it
Speaker:was not Canada, whether it was just a thought out
Speaker:of the other thing is the bottom line is why
Speaker:is it a, what's a story that I enjoyed, you
Speaker:know, did it take me in that?
Speaker:I enjoy the stories because that's what I'm going to
Speaker:see a movie I'm going to go. I'm going to
Speaker:a movie a, because I want to see a story
Speaker:with characters that I want to feel vested in and
Speaker:see something happen that moves me. That's entertaining that I
Speaker:Connect with that makes me go, wow, JJ Abrams talking
Speaker:about the first movie. He said, you know, his little
Speaker:bar of what they decided, went to the cutting floor
Speaker:and what they kept in and said, what do we
Speaker:just delight in? I remember him saying that in an
Speaker:interview, what something is just a, I just feel like
Speaker:this has got to be in there, you know? And,
Speaker:and so he w I thought it was the perfect
Speaker:director for the first of the last three horrible choice
Speaker:for them.
Speaker:It's nice to see, but again, that's my opinion. And
Speaker:that's cool. Like, I don't know, I hold it loosely.
Speaker:And so when we go in and we talk in,
Speaker:turn it back around to Urban a template is I
Speaker:hold it loosely a first off, you know, I try
Speaker:and do as much as I can to not make
Speaker:opinions and to not make convictions axioms, because a first
Speaker:of all, what do I know? I'm just a dude.
Speaker:You know what I'm saying? I'm like, dude, no, there
Speaker:is no one person in this world. Please forgive me
Speaker:Pope. But there is because I'm sure he's listening to
Speaker:this podcast, right. Can you speak dedicated, listen to a
Speaker:conference? Oh, I would really open up to get you
Speaker:in trouble. So, but the point is, is that there,
Speaker:there is no one that has the direct access Line
Speaker:to God over everybody else, but you know what I'm
Speaker:saying?
Speaker:And so were all trying to figure this out together.
Speaker:And so remembering that number one. And so when we
Speaker:go in to whatever we do, I try and frame
Speaker:it from that perspective. Like, I am not an expert.
Speaker:In fact, when we have our gatherings at our meetings,
Speaker:I would say straight up what we are not, we
Speaker:are, none of us are experts. You know, that's built
Speaker:in to my script because we aren't, no one is,
Speaker:you know, have I been doing this a little bit
Speaker:longer that somebody's maybe sure it does that mean that
Speaker:they're not going to have anything insightful to say to
Speaker:me if they didn't, I'm not sure I'd want to
Speaker:be doing gatherings. Right. I think anybody who steps through
Speaker:that door or listening to this podcast are joined my
Speaker:Facebook community group, you know, and is engaging with us
Speaker:on a topic, has something to say whether or not,
Speaker:if it's something that I'm going to agree with, whether
Speaker:it's not going to be something that is going to
Speaker:profoundly shape the next step, you know, it doesn't matter
Speaker:as much as it is that the conversation itself is
Speaker:happening and I need to be opened because, you know,
Speaker:one of the, the fun phrases is a teachable moment.
Speaker:Dan, do you know, you'll have a teachable moment and
Speaker:I have, I have a 17 year-old. So, so you
Speaker:hear all of these fun things, but yeah, I think
Speaker:every moment is a teachable moment. You know, when we
Speaker:talk about Mindful moments and why we call the Podcast
Speaker:that it's because I think every moment we need to
Speaker:be mindful of, you know, we only have, you know,
Speaker:we were talking about my wife's birthday this weekend earlier,
Speaker:and, you know, she just made it out of the
Speaker:trip around the sun. We only get so many of
Speaker:those. And we don't know when our trip may come
Speaker:to an abrupt halt. We don't, nobody knows, you know,
Speaker:nobody measures are the days, you know, of a Usually
Speaker:of, of, of how that works, you know, best laid
Speaker:plans of mice and men, you know? And so it's
Speaker:important to take a moment to pause, right?
Speaker:It's important to remind ourselves, first of all, that Each
Speaker:moment that goes by, he will not come again. We
Speaker:don't know how many moments are leading out in front
Speaker:of us. And because of that, it is a commodity.
Speaker:It is a resource that is not renewable. We, and
Speaker:we, and we don't even know how much we got
Speaker:that. Right. And wow, that's heavy. You know, when you,
Speaker:when you take a moment to stop about that and
Speaker:think about that, just that little step can allow me
Speaker:to go, wait a minute. What am I worrying about
Speaker:right now?
Speaker:What am I fretting about? Why am I forgetting about
Speaker:that thing? You know, what have, what's really important? And
Speaker:I know I need those reality checks all the time.
Speaker:I don't know about you, Danny, but, you know, I'd
Speaker:get my head down and I just plow and sometimes
Speaker:completely forget, Oh, wait a minute. You know, what did
Speaker:it even happen today? And why was I doing what
Speaker:I was doing today? And I personally need to build
Speaker:more and more of these moments of my life to
Speaker:where I take pause and say, okay, it's where I'm
Speaker:going. Is that what what's really important? Is that what
Speaker:I really wanna spend and look back? And if it
Speaker:was gone, you know, tomorrow is that a day I
Speaker:would've spent that way.
Speaker:Where am I lining myself up? I think these quests,
Speaker:these are such important questions that our, our, our Western
Speaker:culture is beginning to embrace more. I see you, you
Speaker:see the mindfulness buzz, you see a lot of it,
Speaker:you know, meditation, mindfulness is a lot of these things.
Speaker:These are great things. And one of the things that
Speaker:I want to be able to encourage is to be
Speaker:able to do that and not just on a personal
Speaker:level, but on a community level, to be able to
Speaker:read from those kinds of things. You know, I come
Speaker:at it again from a Christian perspective. And so that,
Speaker:that's sort of the, the way I know how to
Speaker:frame it and how has it, but gosh, I mean,
Speaker:I've, I hear great things. You know, Thomas Merton was
Speaker:one of the pioneers of the 20th century monastic movement,
Speaker:brilliant guy.
Speaker:And pretty much all of the cats that I run
Speaker:with Dick Thomas Merton is the Bombe. And they would
Speaker:use that term really all the monks. No, they would
Speaker:not use that term. So Thomas Merton, who was essentially
Speaker:the icon for so many monastics and still is today.
Speaker:In fact, he was sort of a, he laid the
Speaker:groundwork for a, a group of monks who are not
Speaker:far from where I live here and in the Charleston
Speaker:area that at MedImmune Abbey, they are part of the
Speaker:search in order. And I've, I've gotten to visit their
Speaker:several times a day for a great spiritual retreat center
Speaker:there that is open to anyone. And I learned a
Speaker:lot of what I have taken and important in Irving,
Speaker:a template it's in our gatherings, as well as our
Speaker:Mindful Moment series from visiting there as well or other
Speaker:sources.
Speaker:But Thomas, Merton came from that same order, the Cistercian
Speaker:order, the banana order, his number one goal was to
Speaker:go see how other folks practiced meditation, contemplation, a contemplative
Speaker:prayer. And you know, where he dreamed of going was
Speaker:Tibet, because those guys who had been doing it that
Speaker:way, even longer than Christian had, even if you go
Speaker:back to the desert part of, so if these guys
Speaker:are pros at this and you know, if you will,
Speaker:it's like, I want to see how these guys do
Speaker:it. And he has actually where he, he, for years
Speaker:and years and years, he wrote about it, wanting to
Speaker:do it. And then he actually ended up dying there
Speaker:through a tragic accident. Finally got to go, wow. And
Speaker:then died there. But he was able to comment some
Speaker:on his own experienced there.
Speaker:And it pretty much affirmed everything. He thought that it
Speaker:was going to be like, Oh, like these guys were
Speaker:amazing. And so as the guy who had basically been
Speaker:devoted to contemplative life, contemplative prayer, to go and go,
Speaker:wow, these guys are amazing. We can learn from anyone.
Speaker:You know, if we humble ourselves, if you know the
Speaker:whole idea, the whole Christian ethos, they've the entire gospel
Speaker:story. When you look at Christ and you look at
Speaker:what Paul said about Christ and Philippians, he has he's
Speaker:God guys, listen, you have a problem listening to somebody,
Speaker:maybe a different perspective than you. Okay. He's God. Back
Speaker:up for a second.
Speaker:He is God, he came to earth and they didn't
Speaker:come to earth. Yeah. All right. I'm here. We are
Speaker:going to solve all the problems. Y'all carry me around,
Speaker:you know, one of those cute little seat, things like
Speaker:that, you forgot the names on them, you know, right
Speaker:in your shoulders, you know, like Cleopatra and I've got
Speaker:8 million minions to do my every bidding. Now. That's
Speaker:not how he humbled himself. He, his final processional, the
Speaker:final week of his life was started on a donkey.
Speaker:You know, it, it wasn't a Alexis, it wasn't a
Speaker:Tesla, it was a donkey. Okay. And so our model,
Speaker:and that's one of the reasons why I love Christian
Speaker:and I love the story of Christianity the narrative of,
Speaker:of what we're talking about it.
Speaker:Because I think there are so many great things that
Speaker:are embodied with the person Wars trying to emulate, who
Speaker:is Christ, that guy. He would talk with anyone, everyone,
Speaker:anywhere. And we talked with the woman at the, well,
Speaker:she was a Samaritan from John for, this was a
Speaker:woman who you, no, nobody would tell she went to
Speaker:the Well at noon, because that way she could avoid
Speaker:everyone because she was the outcast. And she was like,
Speaker:Hey, what's up? And she was like, wait a minute.
Speaker:What do you know? And that is what we tried
Speaker:to emulate with what we are trying to be about.
Speaker:We try and be humble ourselves. We try not to
Speaker:presume. And so that, that's our goal. We try and
Speaker:a lot, we try and create space. And, you know,
Speaker:it's a funny just by doing that well, we'd out
Speaker:a lot of people because we don't know what I
Speaker:do.
Speaker:It's funny. I don't know how much background you have
Speaker:around Christianity or churches or what not, but by doing
Speaker:what we do, but by sort of being labeled contemplative.
Speaker:So by being labeled part of contemplative prayer, that goes
Speaker:hearkens back to the same tradition called Mysticism. And that
Speaker:term does not sit well with evangelicals, especially in mainstream
Speaker:conservative evangelicals, which I have worked with a lot over
Speaker:the years, which is funny. In fact, most of my
Speaker:gigs that I've worked with have been in fairly mainstream
Speaker:conservative Presbyterian churches over the years, the term MS, this
Speaker:is my heard very early on, was like, no, I
Speaker:mean, this is something. And so I'm like, Oh, what
Speaker:is it?
Speaker:And so that's the worst thing to do with me.
Speaker:And by the way, it was like, More, I don't
Speaker:know why we shouldn't check that out. Yeah. You don't
Speaker:have like a four-year-old or a really, really okay. How
Speaker:do we go? How do I not find out about
Speaker:it as she Googles over his shoulder? Or, you know,
Speaker:so, and what I have come to experience over the
Speaker:years is, is yeah, exactly, exactly. That in terms of
Speaker:do some great things over here in this tradition, that
Speaker:because just like the reformation, the capitalist system, you know,
Speaker:baby bathwater kinda thing, a lot of things got thrown
Speaker:out. And part of that is just giving space and
Speaker:being able to listen to God. And, and those are
Speaker:some of the things that a lot of people, and
Speaker:you mentioned, you know, this is really good.
Speaker:You know, this, these are the things we need to
Speaker:do, but in practice, they don't really happen that often.
Speaker:Or if they do, there are very limited supply and
Speaker:So Berbick and templates is a Mindful Moment, which is
Speaker:a spring out of that. It has really come up
Speaker:as a response to saying, Hey, I think we're missing
Speaker:some of these other great things that also happened in
Speaker:there. Traditions guys, I think we could really benefit from
Speaker:this. And so as a supplement to what you guys
Speaker:do on Sunday morning, because I'm not going to tell
Speaker:you how to run your show. You know, if this
Speaker:is what you want to be, this was awesome. And
Speaker:I think is doing some great work, I think is
Speaker:very beneficial. I'm not going to change the DNA of
Speaker:Western church is not, my goal was not my call
Speaker:and is not, my idea is not what I do
Speaker:write. I'm just a guy who wiggles my fingers for
Speaker:a living. I'm a piano player, a code, or, you
Speaker:know, I, I wiggle my fingers write, but I can
Speaker:wiggle my fingers over here and give you some people's
Speaker:space.
Speaker:And so that's what we do, but just by being
Speaker:associated with that, unfortunately, because of the divisiveness that is
Speaker:rampant in our world, just by identifying positively with something
Speaker:we're going to be associated negatively by other folks. And
Speaker:that's unfortunate, but it is what it is, the folks
Speaker:who are open to it. Right. And were going to
Speaker:try and still engage in dialogue and have conversations with
Speaker:people who are open to skeptics. Like what's this what's
Speaker:this Mysticism thing. In fact, my very first conversation was
Speaker:with the guy that I've ever interviewed about a Urban
Speaker:templates. With he actually was a, a, a former church
Speaker:member. I had worked at a church where it that's
Speaker:how I met him. And he comes from a thought
Speaker:of that background. And he said, Whoa, what are you
Speaker:talking about really with this?
Speaker:And so it was a great conversation. And I think
Speaker:I changed some of his pre-suppositions, but you know, Oh,
Speaker:this is actually not so scary. Oh, okay. You're not,
Speaker:you know, sacrificing goats that what you do, you are
Speaker:not, you know, a snake handling or, or anything. And,
Speaker:you know, no Virgin is, have you ever been sacrificed
Speaker:for the cause you were all good. And so it,
Speaker:and it's at that might actually be helpful. I could
Speaker:use some of that. Okay.
Speaker:No, you have just, you have just finished season what
Speaker:I believe of the, the, the show. Yup. And you've
Speaker:got seasoned to plan and out, or yeah, I know
Speaker:we were speaking to her a little bit of a,
Speaker:you've got a lot of content that you can reuse,
Speaker:but because you got the video is a statement that
Speaker:was one of the things. What, what, what, what are
Speaker:your plans for the, for the podcast over the next
Speaker:12 months and beyond
Speaker:Danny I have so many plans, so many plans will
Speaker:take over the world. No. So the, so Mindful, Moment
Speaker:essentially happened at launch in April 12th. I thought it
Speaker:was our first episode because we had been looking for
Speaker:some time towards launching a supplement. Our gatherings are happening
Speaker:monthly. Right. And several of the folks said, Hey, these
Speaker:things are great, but we would love to have something
Speaker:to help us with continuity. You know, we really are
Speaker:able to take time out, but we want to help
Speaker:develop our own contemplative practices on a daily or at
Speaker:least weekly basis. So is there anything that you can
Speaker:do? And I was pretty maxed at the time. So
Speaker:I said, yeah, if that's something that we can do
Speaker:down the road and then Covid and everything got shut
Speaker:down and said, okay, well, you know, the thing that
Speaker:we looked at about a year down the road let's
Speaker:do that now.
Speaker:And so we did, and I really didn't because of
Speaker:that, I had not been able to put a lot
Speaker:of the prep time into planning before launch. So much
Speaker:of this was hitting the ground running saying, okay, we
Speaker:need to take this idea, but we've done. We need
Speaker:to make it into a format. I didn't even know
Speaker:it was going to be a podcast. Like until the
Speaker:week before I said, we need to do something and
Speaker:we need to help our community in this, you know,
Speaker:in these uncertain times a, you know, we need to
Speaker:do something that helps them through this, this whole new
Speaker:level of anxiety and stress while we can't meet. And
Speaker:so we started developing, I just started figuring out, okay,
Speaker:it can't be long. I'm going to be 10 to
Speaker:15 minutes.
Speaker:I still liked the components of having time for prayer
Speaker:and having a conversation like we've been doing. Boom Mindful,
Speaker:Moment, that's pretty much how it came together. And the
Speaker:first couple episodes were okay. And as we kind of
Speaker:kept forming it, forming it, it sort of jelled and
Speaker:coalesced into something of what we have now, all that
Speaker:being said that was season one, 12 episodes seem to
Speaker:work really well. And it really worked well for a
Speaker:pacing. It really worked well for our structure. I have
Speaker:had many people from our community go, ah, I hate
Speaker:to tell you this, but I like the Mindful Moment,
Speaker:but other than your gatherings, I'm like, okay, well, I
Speaker:mean, that's an affirmation will take, it will run with
Speaker:it. It will, we'll see how we can use that
Speaker:to inform everything that we do.
Speaker:And so season two is coming up to launching in
Speaker:September, and now that we have a format that we
Speaker:had sort of settled upon them. I think that folks
Speaker:really, like we took the month of July off, we're
Speaker:going to take pre production in August. We're taking all
Speaker:the awesome ideas that I really am ripping off from
Speaker:Danny and using Calendly and all the different structure like,
Speaker:Oh, that's, that's, that's a good way to do that.
Speaker:Danny thank you. Yes. I will do that with my
Speaker:guests going in forth. And so we are taking all
Speaker:these different ideas and in terms of getting our guests
Speaker:lined up, getting guests, contributors, musically, for our musical reflections,
Speaker:they are going to be doing that several folks who
Speaker:have agreed to do that. So really excited about that.
Speaker:Our conversation guests that would be bringing on a, we
Speaker:have been doing zoom videos in the past because I
Speaker:thought I'd just be work. And I didn't know whether
Speaker:we would want to use video content later down the
Speaker:road. So I said, you know what easier to say
Speaker:no to something we already have and saying yes to
Speaker:something that we don't have and suddenly half, you know,
Speaker:and so we test pilot a couple video content down
Speaker:the road. We are going to start putting that in
Speaker:our membership section for those who want to have a,
Speaker:to be able to support us and have sort of
Speaker:the, the, the premium content. And that's definitely the model
Speaker:that we are going to be going towards is having
Speaker:the Mindful Moment, Podcast B sort of the, the, the
Speaker:freemium, the, the, the, the quality content that we offer.
Speaker:We'll always be free, that we will always have provided
Speaker:for a community at large, or those that want to
Speaker:do more of a deep die for those that want
Speaker:to be able to know more what's going on, our
Speaker:conversations we'll be structured, going forth at we'll definitely have
Speaker:a 45 minute Mindful Moment bit that will go with
Speaker:the episode's.
Speaker:And then I'll be asking other questions for each guests
Speaker:that they we'll be able to get at if they
Speaker:want to delve more into sort of that conversation that
Speaker:I have with that person.
Speaker:Okay. Cool. And not launched in September, correct?
Speaker:Yes. So, whatever that first, September six. So I want
Speaker:to say this is
Speaker:Okay. And that's yeah, because you're you publish weekly, correct.
Speaker:On the show.
Speaker:Yes, exactly. So we have 12 more episodes and we
Speaker:run a September through November. Yep.
Speaker:Okay. And you were just doing 12 episodes per season
Speaker:that's to your,
Speaker:Exactly. So the structure will be 12 episodes one month
Speaker:off, so I can regain my sanity and then one
Speaker:month preproduction and then watch another 12. Mm.
Speaker:Okay. So just to flip that a little bit, and
Speaker:this is something that I'd just like to ask the
Speaker:guests, because I'm always curious about the dancers to come
Speaker:back for anybody that might know, you have to think
Speaker:they may not know your reasonably well, our Annabelle to
Speaker:this being, listen to the show and started to think
Speaker:they've got an idea of who you are. What are
Speaker:the one thing that may surprise some of the news
Speaker:about you?
Speaker:Oh my gosh. Wow man. So many things. Okay. I'll,
Speaker:I'll do two things. One is my, my current, a
Speaker:culinary goal's, I'm trying to learn how to make good
Speaker:ramen because yeah, because if we have like one ramen
Speaker:shop in town, that's it, and everywhere I've, I've, I've
Speaker:been able to travel a lot over the last few
Speaker:years, I've been able to go to London and to
Speaker:Iona and to Scotland, by the way, Scotland, best cider
Speaker:I've had yet. So I'm a big cider fan and
Speaker:a fiscally cross shout out to those guys are fantastic.
Speaker:And it pairs well with the murder blue cheese, but
Speaker:I also had an eye on it, the best blue
Speaker:cheese I have ever had, and the best cider, both
Speaker:at Iona in Scotland, but so being able to travel
Speaker:and as part of that goal, I, I try ramen
Speaker:wherever I go, whatever in the new shops.
Speaker:And we honestly have one of the best ramen shops.
Speaker:I have eaten right here in Greenville, South Carolina, but
Speaker:it's one place. So I'm trying to take my really
Speaker:Meeker culinary skills and trying to figure out how do
Speaker:I make this? So that's been my latest projects, the
Speaker:musical, a thing that a lot of people probably don't
Speaker:know about me. It was just funny because people encounter
Speaker:me from different perspectives. You'll see me at the lounge
Speaker:piano gig, right? Like, Oh, he must be really into
Speaker:this, or they'll see me at church. Oh, you must
Speaker:be really into this to see me play it at
Speaker:the contemporary service. So he must've really be, and the
Speaker:contemporary music, then you'll see me play me at the
Speaker:traditional services where I'm playing in Oregon. Oh, you must
Speaker:really be into this. So, you know, everyone has a
Speaker:piece of my favorite band of all time bar none
Speaker:Jethro Tull.
Speaker:Oh, wow. Okay. Yeah, absolutely. In fact, if you can't
Speaker:see this on the Podcast, so I'm going to show
Speaker:it, I'm going to scribe it this right here. Danny
Speaker:this is a, this is a dream fulfilled of many
Speaker:decades. This is a Martin, Alex. He won a left-handed
Speaker:guitar. So when I was in my teens, my brother,
Speaker:who was a horrible musician, he will tell you right
Speaker:off the back, hi, John, if you are listening, what,
Speaker:what a great taste of music couldn't hold a tuna
Speaker:in a bucket. I'm, you know, the size of Texas
Speaker:where he lives. And, but he loved you if they
Speaker:are tall. He's the one that got me interested in
Speaker:Jethro tol, but he, he asked me to right out,
Speaker:back, back in the day, you know, we didn't have,
Speaker:you know, ultimate guitar.com or the, the app's for it.
Speaker:So it, can you transcribe wish you were here by
Speaker:pink Floyd for me. And I'm like, okay, I'll try
Speaker:and figure it out. So I had borrowed his, you
Speaker:know, 20 to $20 pawn shop guitar, trying to figure
Speaker:it out one day. And he came in and saw
Speaker:me. So what are you doing? I'm like, Matt, I'm
Speaker:just doing, you know, bro, when you asked to do
Speaker:and trying to figure out a chart, it's like, no,
Speaker:no, that's not it you're holding it upside down and
Speaker:backwards. Oh. And you know, because I'm lefthanded and so
Speaker:on. And to this day, I could not figure it
Speaker:out for me. I've tried the other way. And so
Speaker:you guys are near the, just put it off because
Speaker:I've always studied piano and I'm like, all right, I
Speaker:don't really have any excuse. Well, in February they said,
Speaker:you know what? I have always wanted to do this.
Speaker:And so I ordered myself a left-handed guitar and it's
Speaker:a Martin
model off of Ian Anderson.
Speaker:Who's the lead flutist or a singer. And, and basically
Speaker:the genius behind you, if the toll that is modeled
Speaker:off of his Martin, Oh 16, and why he, that
Speaker:he used to play, which was a, a, not quite
Speaker:a parlor size acoustic guitar. And he used silk and
Speaker:steel strings back of the day. So that's what I
Speaker:have. So because it still strengths and a basic, it
Speaker:was, it was the cheapest Martin I could find that
Speaker:was about the same size, same kind of body style
Speaker:and a contemporary built because the Jethro Tull acoustic guitar
Speaker:sound of the seventies and Aqua lung. Was it okay
Speaker:album, but you know, pretty much that Mr. On the
Speaker:gallery, that's probably my standard right there for the acoustic
Speaker:guitar sound.
Speaker:I just love it. And then of course it goes
Speaker:to the songs to the woods, have your horse's album,
Speaker:but all of that period and the seventies that is
Speaker:the acoustic guitar that I love and I will cherish
Speaker:a day. So I'm finally teaching myself. I have started
Speaker:thick as a brick, the opening riff, I'm going to
Speaker:get it so that most people would never know that.
Speaker:How is that? How's that?
Speaker:No, that's awesome. I like Jeff. The tone when you
Speaker:mentioned that you listen to them a lot, but w
Speaker:when I was a kid growing up, my uncle would
Speaker:play in the background. You're out of the time we
Speaker:would go visit my uncle. We have Jeff Rotella. And,
Speaker:and to your point, like the guitar on that, even
Speaker:as a six or seven year old kid or whatever,
Speaker:but it was at first like, Whoa, what's this amazing.
Speaker:This has been like a real blast. I really appreciate
Speaker:your coming on today. And I've really enjoyed the chat.
Speaker:It's I think its like it always interested and how
Speaker:people approach religion and spirituality and then belief system and
Speaker:how that blends and mixes with other people's because often,
Speaker:like we mentioned, we can get us a big disconnect
Speaker:and to see it come together and, and try to
Speaker:open up to everybody and, and learn from each other.
Speaker:I think that's something we need more of in the
Speaker:world for sure. And I know that the lessons of
Speaker:that today's episode is going to hopefully take that away
Speaker:and you know, they start asking more questions of themselves
Speaker:and how to, to be better to people. For sure.
Speaker:So for people that want to connect with you, I
Speaker:haven't listened to the podcast, check out the, the, the,
Speaker:the, the program check out the, you know, the gatherings
Speaker:of the eye, I'm going to assume pre Covid. They
Speaker:would be a physical governance, but now it's all online.
Speaker:Yeah. So can people join in as like a zoom
Speaker:guy that and how can people connect with you?
Speaker:Yes, that's it. Thank you. Thanks for asking that. And
Speaker:thanks for the kind words. I appreciate that. So right
Speaker:now we are not doing that. We haven't done gathering
Speaker:during this time. We have been focusing almost exclusively in
Speaker:the podcast going fourth. One of the plants that we
Speaker:have, and we were talking about this earlier too, is
Speaker:adding video content more and more. One of the things
Speaker:that I've learned from Mark and, you know, through rebel
Speaker:base and through captivate and just observing other content, creators
Speaker:is a live streaming is a great thing. And of
Speaker:course, one of the thin
