Transcripts
Hey, gang, it's Mac.
Mac:And this week we're actually going to pull an episode out of the Wise Guys duo instead of the Wise Guys trio.
Mac:We just had some scheduling conflicts this week with the Wise Guys, and so we picked one from a few years back when just Stu and I were doing the podcast.
Mac:So it's called Fragile, and there's really some good nuggets in there.
Mac:I hope you'll enjoy it.
Mac:And we'll be back with you next week, the three of us, to share a little bit more of the wise guy wisdom.
Mac:Thanks for listening.
Mac:Okay, Mac and Stu here.
Mac:And you're listening to the Wise Guys podcast, where we go rogue as we apply wisdom to the everyday to help us do it and just a little bit better.
Mac:Wow.
Mac:In this episode, we're going to talk about just how fragile everything is.
Mac:Tough word, man.
Mac:That's a tough word.
Mac:We don't really admit that we know it intuitively, but, you know, in life.
Mac:But in light of that, we want to come from a place of poise and not fear.
Mac:It's not about the fear that it's fragile.
Mac:It's about how we're going to do it a little bit better.
Mac:So, you know, lots to this, man.
Mac:I mean, we're going to.
Mac:You're going to love this.
Mac:I know, Stu, because you're the movie guy and the TV guy, and we're going to.
Mac:We're going to go to a TV series for this episode.
Mac:So then let's just talk about how to do it a little bit better.
Mac:What do you think?
Mac:Huh?
Stu:Yeah, I love it.
Stu:Hey, Mac.
Stu:Yeah?
Stu:I mean, anytime we're talking about movies or TV shows, I always can find good nuggets of wisdom in any of them.
Stu:Absolutely any of them.
Stu:So this is exciting for me.
Mac:Yeah, I know you like it.
Mac:So good.
Stu:So let me say namaste to all of you beautiful, exotic cocktails out there.
Stu:We love hearing from you.
Stu:So please contact us on Facebook.
Stu:And Instagram is where we mostly post.
Mac:Yep.
Stu:Love to hear from you.
Stu:An email, you can go to our website, Wiseguys Life.
Stu:And for all of you who have been interacting with me on Instagram, which is Stu, the Maestro is my Instagram.
Stu:Thank you.
Stu:I try to comment back or like your comment whenever I see it, so keep them coming.
Mac:Yeah, we appreciate it.
Mac:No doubt, no doubt.
Mac:So.
Mac:So, yeah, so TV series, man.
Mac:And then.
Mac:And I'm not going to give a lot of lead in this to this to start with, other than just to give you a little bit of context, but I Want to.
Mac:I want to play a clip.
Mac:We're going to play a clip right from the show because I think that just sets it up.
Mac:And don't get.
Mac:Don't get worried about whether you didn't pick up all of it or not, and you didn't understand everything that this guy's going to say, because we're going to read it afterward and then we're going to flesh it out.
Mac:But this comes from a TV show called Friday Night Lights.
Mac:Oh, yeah, and it's a football thing.
Mac:There was a movie by the same name, but I happened to start watching it.
Mac:I watched it years ago, and I happened to start watching it again.
Mac:And right at the end of the first episode in the first season, there was this monologue.
Mac:And we're just going to play it for you, and I just want you guys to just.
Mac:Just let it sink in, because there's some great nuggets in this, and we want to flesh them out.
Mac:It's going to be great.
Mac:So listen up.
Mac:Here we go.
Stu:Give all of us gathered here tonight the strength to remember that life is so very fragile.
Mac:We are all vulnerable.
Stu:And we will all, at some point in our.
Mac:Fall, we will all fall.
Mac:We must carry this in our hearts.
Stu:That what we have is special.
Mac:That.
Stu:It can be taken from us, and that when it is taken from us.
Mac:We will be tested.
Mac:We will be tested to our very souls.
Stu:We will now all be tested.
Mac:So beautiful.
Mac:I mean, the context of it comes from a tragedy that happened in a football game.
Mac:And this is Coach Taylor, played by Kyle Chandler, just kind of given this monologue at the end of that first episode as he gathers around with his football players.
Mac:So such beautiful.
Mac:I mean, just a solemn time, but just golly, that thing's filled with nuggets, too.
Mac:I just want to flesh them out, man.
Stu:Yeah, for sure.
Stu:And, you know, coaches are amazing.
Stu:Any of you who are listening or a coach, thank you for what you do.
Mac:Yeah, I mean, we.
Stu:We are literally having a whole amazing conversation based on something that a coach said.
Mac:Yep.
Stu:Right.
Stu:I mean, it's.
Stu:It's.
Stu:It's.
Stu:It's amazing out there.
Mac:I know.
Mac:Such work.
Stu:So I'm going to read what we just heard.
Stu:Right.
Stu:And I hope it's okay if I don't act it out, because I don't know if I can get that same amazing acting.
Mac:That we just heard.
Mac:We'll let that stand on its own.
Mac:It's all good.
Mac:Yeah.
Mac:Go ahead.
Stu:Okay.
Stu:You ready?
Stu:Yeah.
Stu:Here we go.
Stu:Okay.
Stu:Give all of us that have gathered Here tonight, the strength to remember that life is so very fragile.
Stu:We are all vulnerable.
Stu:And we will all, at some point in our lives, fall.
Stu:We will all fall.
Stu:We must carry this in our hearts, that what we have is special, that it can be taken from us.
Stu:And when it is taken from us, we will be tested.
Stu:We will be tested to our very souls.
Stu:We will all now be tested.
Stu:That went too bad.
Stu:Maybe I should check out.
Mac:You've done good, man.
Mac:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Mac:Read for.
Mac:Read for a show.
Mac:It's good.
Stu:Yeah.
Stu:So there's a lot of really great nuggets from Coach Taylor in here.
Mac:Yes.
Mac:And, you know, he starts out that we tonight, the strength to remember.
Mac:We need strength, you know, when we.
Mac:When we have to deal with the fragility of life in all of its aspects, it's going to take a strength to be able to navigate that well, whatever that might look like, you know, and, you know, just to acknowledge first and foremost and face the fact that there are uncertainties in life that we can't cling so tightly to our certainties.
Mac:I think we're going to talk about that in a second.
Mac:But just.
Mac:Just to even.
Mac:Just say in that hubris sometimes that we get that postures us that we got this and we're under control and control and it's all good, you know, that doesn't leave a lot of bandwidth.
Mac:That doesn't leave a lot of room for the possibilities, you know, of what else might come our way.
Mac:Right.
Stu:So, yeah.
Stu:You know, this reminds me of so many stories in my life when adversity happened, you know, some type of fragility occurred.
Stu:And it's.
Stu:That's when I really learned, Mac, the strength that is in me that I didn't know that I had.
Stu:And trust me, at the time, I wouldn't even have called it that.
Mac:Right.
Stu:But being able to.
Stu:So I point that out because everybody has this.
Stu:You all have, right.
Stu:Disability, whether you've had opportunities to nurture it or for it to even come out.
Stu:You know, it's different for everybody, but everybody has it.
Mac:We're way more powerful than we really realize now.
Mac:Have we cultivated it and is it going to manifest itself in the moment?
Mac:Maybe, maybe not, but it's there.
Mac:And we're talking about a strength that will transcend.
Mac:Although in the fragile moment, maybe it does take physical strength that you need to have in the moment.
Stu:Sure.
Mac:Right.
Mac:But more than that, there's an emotional and a spiritual strength that we talk all the time about cultivating.
Mac:And why don't we Talk about wisdom.
Mac:This is wisdom at its core.
Stu:Yeah, it is.
Mac:There's the strength, that wise strength that we want to try to build in all of us, for sure.
Mac:You know, but we have to do it not only individually, you and me, but there's also a strength that needs to be cultivated in the corporate sense as well, that we're in this together.
Mac:And so, you know, we need to take it even one step further beyond ourself in the mirror to say, what are we doing to be less fragile as a community, as a group, as a family, as a couple, whatever it might be, you know, this is a.
Mac:This is a combined effort as well.
Stu:Yeah.
Stu:So being intentional about building your.
Stu:Not only your physical, but your emotional, especially your emotional and spiritual strength is what the key is in this regard.
Mac:I agree.
Stu:So.
Stu:So the.
Stu:The next nugget that that comes is.
Stu:Is just talking about fragility, which is the.
Stu:The name of this episode.
Mac:Right.
Stu:And Coach Taylor, you know, reminds everybody that life.
Stu:Life is very fragile.
Stu:And so.
Stu:And we.
Stu:We see that in relationships.
Stu:Divorce, right?
Mac:Right.
Mac:Well, yeah, you and I both have been divorced, and we see the fragility of that.
Stu:Absolutely.
Mac:Yep.
Stu:But even in.
Stu:There's a lot of circumstances in which there's fragility, but there's also fragility in different institutions and even religions and even our own government or democracy.
Stu:Right.
Stu:There could be a little piece could be fracture off, and metaphorically, a little piece could fracture off, and that shows the fragility in whatever it is, especially in religion.
Stu:You see this.
Stu:But.
Mac:Yeah, I mean, what you're saying is this.
Mac:That nothing is not fragile.
Stu:Right?
Stu:Yeah.
Mac:Sometimes we just don't think about certain things in that way.
Mac:Everything's fragile to some degree.
Stu:Right.
Mac:And so once we start to acknowledge that, number one, it won't come as such a surprise when stuff does go bump in the night.
Mac:Right.
Mac:And, you know, we tend to think of life as being fragile in itself, and we see it around us, you know, whether it's certainly life and death and sickness is certainly all that stuff that goes into how fragile we are or we've seen others be.
Mac:So we just.
Mac:I think it's a matter of just laying down some of that hubris that thinks we're not right to whatever degree we might think that we got this thing under control, this life thing or whatever, the relationship, the job, the circumstance, you know, it's all always subject to some chipping, you know, let alone breaking and falling apart.
Stu:Yeah.
Stu:And how do you.
Stu:How do you handle it?
Stu:Right.
Stu:When this Happens.
Stu:I mean, everybody.
Stu:I would.
Stu:If I were a bet bedding man, I would bet everyone listening to us has had something happen in their life.
Stu:Some type of fragility, some circumstance, some certainty that all of a sudden wasn't certain right.
Stu:Anymore.
Mac:Exactly.
Stu:You know, something shipped.
Mac:Yeah, it's right.
Mac:Right.
Stu:And how do you handle.
Stu:Do you handle it with, you know, dignity?
Stu:I mean, that's.
Stu:That's what you hope for, right?
Stu:That you can handle it in that way.
Stu:And.
Stu:And I believe everybody can.
Mac:I believe we all can.
Mac:Right.
Stu:So these things show up in a way that allow us to practice that.
Mac:Yeah.
Mac:And that's what this.
Mac:This is what we do.
Mac:What we do.
Mac:This is why we've had this podcast, you know, for 41 episodes now.
Mac:Right.
Mac:Is.
Mac:Is talking about as this stuff.
Mac:How do we do it better?
Mac:How do we cultivate the wisdom in order to navigate it all better with better outcomes?
Mac:I mean, this is what it's all about.
Mac:We all want to work together in that whole thing, but, you know, it's.
Mac:It's just not.
Mac:It's just not possible.
Mac:You know, Eric uses the coach, Taylor uses the word vulnerable.
Mac:We are all vulnerable.
Mac:We are again, to a certain extent, some more than others, and in some circumstances, more than others.
Mac:But it's impossible, impossible to live life without, quote, casualties.
Mac:It just happens.
Mac:We want to minimize them, you know, not eliminate them.
Mac:And that, you know, that.
Mac:Here's a story from way back.
Mac:We were talking about this earlier, but I remember, you know, I was in a place at one point in my life where from a religious standpoint, you know, you were.
Mac:You were the leader of the family, and you were the spiritual leader of the family.
Mac:And there was a incredible amount of pressure on the guy in the family, you know, to keep the marriage on the right track, to keep the kids in line and keep the kids healthy and all this.
Mac:I mean, we took upon ourself as the man in the family.
Mac:This whole way more than ever was designed or ever should have been expected.
Mac:And I'll never forget in a men's thing, we were doing one time that an old salt, he was a war veteran, he flew Jetson and were in the Vietnam War.
Mac:He just said, listen, listen, guys, can I just give you some perspective here?
Mac:Think about when a commander sends troops into battle, his expectation is never that there are going to be zero casualties.
Mac:It can't happen.
Mac:That's an unrealistic expectation.
Mac:What his expectation is, is to minimize, to the best of his ability, the casualties.
Mac:And that cast a whole new light on in that story in my life at that point, on being the dad and the husband and the friend and the father and, you know, all that kind of, you know, stuff that, you know, stuff's gonna happen and sometimes happens out of your control.
Stu:Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Stu:I mean, just mentioning, mentioning that perspective, it reminds me of all the different occupations in life that I have more risk than others.
Stu:Right.
Stu:I mean, we're fortunate, you and I.
Stu:We don't have.
Mac:Right.
Stu:We don't have that.
Stu:But think about, well, military, you just talked, right.
Stu:That there's big risk there.
Stu:But think about our.
Stu:Here's easy one to think about.
Stu:Think about our police, law enforcement, our firemen running in the.
Stu:Into a fire to help people.
Stu:Right, right.
Stu:I mean, you think about like, you know, roofers, it's dangerous up there.
Stu:I mean, you see those guys up there, you think that, you know, hey, yeah, no big deal, but I mean, that's dangerous up there.
Stu:How about like oil drill drillers and riggers and, you know, gas and mining.
Stu:Oh, my gosh.
Mac:Right.
Mac:But these guys go to risk.
Mac:And women, not just guys, men and women put their lives at risk, certainly for a paycheck.
Mac:I get that too.
Mac:But at the same time, they do it because it produces a commodity that makes our life better.
Stu:Yeah.
Stu:So I thank them for that.
Mac:Absolutely.
Stu:Well, when you're thinking about this, like, how do you.
Stu:How can you be in life knowing that there's going to be casualties?
Stu:Right.
Stu:Like, we don't want the casualties.
Stu:So I guess when I'm thinking about this, Mac, I'm thinking, how can I have any.
Stu:How can I be at peace with this?
Stu:You know, with.
Stu:With this thought.
Mac:Yeah.
Mac:And again, this is.
Stu:This is where we're understanding, right?
Mac:This.
Mac:When we cultivate the wisdom and we cultivate these things that we always talk about, a peace comes to us.
Mac:It's not the objective.
Mac:I mean, we can't go to get peace, but it's the product of doing the right cultivation.
Mac:You know, when I thought about this vulnerability and this fragility.
Mac:You know, we were talking earlier about this, that when you see a package and it's stamped with the word fragile on it.
Mac:Right?
Stu:Yeah.
Mac:What's always on the package, too?
Stu:Oh, I know it's on there.
Stu:Handle with care.
Mac:Handle with care.
Stu:Right.
Mac:So everything to a certain degree needs its amount of care that we need to give it.
Mac:If it's.
Mac:If it's fine Crystal, we've got to handle it with kid gloves.
Mac:I mean, we've got to be very, very careful with It.
Mac:And I'm going to put a relationship in that same vein that when we're gifted with relationships in our lives, those are fragile things that we need to handle with care, you know, other things, maybe not so much, you know, with, with the diligence of something like that, but they all have their degrees of handling with care.
Stu:Yes.
Mac:Our responsibility.
Stu:Yes.
Mac:That we have.
Stu:Yes.
Stu:Right.
Mac:So.
Stu:Well, as we.
Stu:As we move into this next nugget from Coach Taylor, this one.
Stu:This one is probably one of the tougher ones for me because I.
Stu:And I bet for a lot of people, because you want to maintain a level of control in your life, it's just natural.
Mac:Sure.
Stu:Right.
Stu:And the way.
Stu:The way he said this is.
Stu:And we will all, at some point in our lives fall, we're all going to fall.
Mac:Right.
Stu:We're not.
Stu:We're not always going to get it right.
Stu:At some point we're going to trip, we're going to fall.
Stu:And it's just.
Stu:It doesn't matter how much preparation you've done and planning.
Mac:Right.
Mac:Yeah.
Stu:It's just.
Stu:It's just part of life.
Stu:It's going to happen.
Mac:Yeah.
Mac:There's.
Mac:You can't prepare for every contingency.
Mac:You're not in control.
Mac:And when you're falling, you know, we talked about this earlier.
Mac:Falling from what?
Mac:You know, we're going to fall.
Mac:We're going to fall from perfection.
Mac:We're going to fall from the thought of control.
Stu:You know what, you hear that the phrase fall from grace.
Mac:Fall from grace.
Mac:We're just not going to do it well.
Mac:We're going to fall from our idea that we put for ourselves the pedestal that we put even ourself on, or even other people that we put on the pedestal that when they fall, how do we react?
Mac:Think about circumstance.
Stu:Think about this past year, Mac, meaning, you know, throughout the pandemic and everything going on there, there were a lot of people that.
Stu:That fell from a level of comfort.
Stu:A lot of reasons.
Stu:I mean, it could be I, you know, I lost my job.
Mac:Right.
Stu:It could be I can't go anywhere.
Mac:You know, that was an extrovert.
Stu:And here I am stuck at home.
Mac:Yeah.
Stu:You know, I mean, there's a lot of.
Stu:There was a lot of falling, let's call it bad things, you know, happening that, you know, we didn't really have any control over for the most part.
Mac:No, I agreed.
Mac:Yeah.
Mac:We fell from the norm, even.
Mac:But again, with that norm, with all the things you're talking about there, a certain amount of hubris came that.
Mac:That we can't fall from it.
Mac:I mean, you never even thought that you could.
Stu:Right.
Mac:You know, you just never even prepared.
Stu:Not going to get me.
Mac:Right.
Mac:Yeah, I'm good.
Mac:I can handle that.
Mac:Right.
Mac:You know, kind of attitude.
Stu:I'm not going to lose my job.
Stu:Right.
Mac:Exactly.
Mac:Well, and here's part of the problem.
Mac:We weren't humble enough when we came into the equation to just hold the stuff a little bit more loosely to think, wow, okay, you know, this.
Mac:This is more fragile than I think it is.
Mac:So therefore, let me just approach the circumstance or with life with a little bit more humility and not quite as much posturing in it all.
Mac:And, you know, our comfort.
Mac:We just.
Mac:You just mentioned we fell from kind of a lot of our comfort as well.
Mac:When life is going well, we're comfortable, and there's nothing wrong with that, by the way.
Mac:All right.
Stu:That's good.
Mac:It's good.
Mac:Okay.
Mac:We're not trying to say that.
Stu:Enjoy it.
Stu:Live in that moment when it's going on.
Mac:Absolutely.
Mac:You know, it's good because we work toward those moments.
Mac:Of course we do.
Mac:You know, wisdom helps us to experience more and more of those kinds of moments as we want, but what it doesn't do is eliminate the possibility that we're not going to have those moments.
Mac:That's an attitude that we got to just lay aside, we got to put down.
Mac:And there's.
Mac:Again, there's the fall that we fall from that sort of pedestal that we put ourselves on, even thinking that that can't happen to us.
Stu:So, you know what's interesting.
Stu:So the last, you know, the last point we talked about the nugget was vulnerability.
Stu:And then we talk about the fall, and with vulnerability, we were talking about feeling at peace.
Stu:And to me, there's a connection with being humble and feeling peaceful.
Mac:Absolutely.
Stu:I mean, there's.
Stu:There's a complete.
Mac:I get it.
Mac:Yes.
Stu:Straight line between those two for me.
Mac:Well, again, you made a great.
Mac:That's a great point because we talk about all the time cause and effect.
Mac:Cause and effect.
Mac:Cause and effect.
Mac:That so often we want to pursue the effect when we haven't gone to the cause.
Mac:You know, it's that whole fruit and root thing we've talked about over the years over and over again, that if we focus on the root, we're going to get the fruit.
Mac:But if we focus on the fruit and we're not cultivating the root, the tree is going to die.
Mac:Okay.
Mac:I mean, you know, you're not going to get any fruit.
Mac:You Know, so it's.
Mac:It's.
Mac:That analogy we've used over and over and over again, comes right out of the Bible, by the way.
Mac:But so, you know, with that, you begin to move into something a little more esoteric and a little bit more as Coach Taylor now, you know, he brings into the equation.
Mac:He brings some mystery into the equation.
Mac:Right.
Mac:He brings the heart into it.
Mac:He says, we have to carry.
Mac:We have to carry these things.
Mac:We have to carry it in our heart.
Mac:We must carry this in our hearts.
Mac:Must carry the pain.
Stu:Oh, wow.
Stu:Yeah.
Mac:You know, we carry this.
Mac:We carry the sorrow.
Mac:We carry the guilt maybe that we could have in that circumstance, you know, over the fall that we've made or that, you know, that we've seen someone else.
Mac:In the case of the program, it was this young man getting hurt, and he'll never play football again, you know, and that's painful.
Mac:And we.
Mac:And is in as a coach.
Mac:Right.
Mac:And all the other people that circle around in that.
Mac:Do we care any guilt in that scenario about what happened to him in this case or others that we're responsible for?
Mac:Remember my example about my kids or my relationship with my wife or whatever it might be as the guy.
Mac:How much guilt do I carry when stuff doesn't always go right?
Mac:But we do.
Mac:We bring these into our hearts, and now we have to figure out how to deal with them, you know?
Stu:Yeah, absolutely.
Stu:And he moves right into that.
Stu:What we have is special.
Stu:Life is a gift.
Stu:I mean, we've been saying this already, but it truly is life.
Stu:And here's the thing, Rogers, you know this.
Mac:Yeah.
Stu:I mean, we're not telling you anything you don't know.
Stu:Maybe this is a reminder.
Stu:Maybe some of you are feeling like your life isn't a gift right now.
Stu:It's still a gift.
Mac:Yeah.
Stu:No matter what's happening right now and appreciate it, there's always something to appreciate because it can be taken for.
Stu:I mean, not just life, but there's a lot of things can be taken from you.
Stu:Right.
Stu:I mean, one of my workout partners twisted her knee, and so she's on crutches.
Stu:And, you know, the way I am in the gym, sometimes people don't like it when I'm.
Stu:What do they call it?
Stu:Toxic positivity.
Mac:I can see you doing that.
Mac:Yeah.
Mac:Okay.
Mac:Yeah.
Stu:I'm like, that other leg is working great for you.
Stu:Like, we can go do some, you know, leg extensions with that one.
Stu:And they're like, be quiet.
Mac:Yeah.
Stu:I mean, you know, I just.
Stu:But this is.
Mac:You're Putting lipstick on the pig here.
Stu:I mean, what we have is special and it can be taken.
Stu:So appreciate it.
Mac:Yeah.
Stu:You know, and it's just a good.
Stu:In our opinions, I think, Mac.
Stu:It's just a good perspective to have in life.
Mac:Yeah.
Mac:You know, I totally agree.
Mac:You know, sometimes it's hard to see that.
Mac:It really is hard to see.
Mac:And we tend, like, you hear you were joking about it.
Mac:But we do this, and we're taught to do this, especially more and more that we take.
Mac:Which are sometimes horrific, you know, situations, whether it's in our own life or other people's lives.
Mac:And, you know, our first reaction, you know, might want to be, well, let's see, how can we spin this for the good?
Mac:And I'm not saying that there isn't good in all circumstance somewhere along the line, but at some points it's really hard to see that.
Mac:And sometimes you just have to sit with the shit, you know, I mean, it just.
Mac:Yeah, it just is, man.
Stu:Right.
Mac:Just is what it is.
Stu:Right.
Mac:And yet the perspective that you're talking about is let's.
Mac:At some point, you have to rise a little higher to look.
Mac:Now, what can we do with this?
Mac:You know, what.
Mac:Where can we weave in some amount of goodness into this scenario?
Mac:Because again, like.
Mac:Like Coach Taylor said it, what.
Mac:This gift that we've been given is the experience of life.
Mac:Not just the fact that we're living, breathing entities, but it's the whole experience.
Mac:You know, from in the dash, right?
Stu:You heard that?
Mac:The dash right on the tombstone.
Mac:What's the dash?
Stu:Yeah, yeah, that's.
Mac:It's from the beginning to the end, you know, it's special.
Mac:It's beautiful.
Stu:Don't miss it.
Stu:You know what I always say, Mac?
Stu:There's never nothing going on.
Mac:That's right.
Mac:And it's the humanity part and the spiritual part.
Mac:You know, we talk about that all the time.
Mac:For us, it's inseparable, you know, that they're.
Mac:That humanity is so special, but our humanity is enhanced, in our opinion, by our spirituality as well.
Stu:Yes.
Mac:You know, we can't take that component out of it, regardless of where you might be coming from, where.
Mac:We just totally believe in that.
Stu:Absolutely.
Mac:And I think, you know, that there's.
Mac:There's a certain amount that's built into all of this as well, about uncertainty.
Mac:Life is uncertain.
Mac:We do have some certainties that we can cling to, but in general, the minute we try to have everything so absolutely certain, we're just setting ourselves up for that fall that Coach Taylor Just beautifully reminded us of that.
Stu:You know, there's.
Stu:This is reminding me of a sermon series called Breathing Room.
Stu:Right.
Stu:And it's where.
Stu:It's where we learned how to build in breathing room into your life so that when things do happen, then you.
Stu:You have the ability to respond and react and to, you know, do it better than you could have if you had no room.
Stu:If you had no breathing room.
Stu:Exactly right.
Mac:That's such a great phrase.
Mac:And I love that whole series and those.
Mac:We've used those words for years after we heard that because, you know, we talk about this all the time.
Mac:That what helps us get the breathing room and what do we do with the breathing room when we get it?
Mac:And that's.
Mac:We want to be animated and directed by what we would call the spirit, something bigger and greater than our ability to be able to see and do and grasp.
Mac:And once you couple those two things, my cognitive ability, my smarts, my intuition, my, you know, some other things that I've cultivated or you've cultivated or any of you out there now, you couple it with what you don't know and the power that we're given to be able to see beyond those seeable things.
Mac:Oh, my gosh, that's great.
Mac:I mean, to.
Mac:Then to deal with the uncertainty.
Mac:We're not as worried about it.
Stu:Right.
Mac:It comes with a poise.
Mac:We develop a poise, A spiritual poise and a life poise that just.
Mac:It's one of those.
Mac:I want what that guy here gals got.
Mac:I want what they have.
Mac:Yeah.
Stu:I want to be around them.
Stu:Maybe some of it will rub off.
Stu:Exactly.
Mac:Yeah.
Stu:Right.
Mac:I want someone of that.
Stu:I have said that before.
Mac:Yeah, sure, sure.
Mac:Yes, man.
Mac:I want some of that.
Mac:Okay.
Mac:That's all good.
Stu:Yeah.
Mac:Yeah.
Stu:Wow.
Stu:So the.
Stu:The last bit of what Coach Taylor says is that we.
Stu:We will be tested.
Stu:And here's what.
Stu:What caught me, Mac, in what he said.
Stu:He didn't just say we will be tested.
Stu:He said we will be tested to our very souls.
Mac:Yeah, man, that's so deep that.
Stu:Yeah.
Stu:That without those four words in there to our very souls, it has a whole different meaning for me.
Mac:I agree.
Stu:But it's, you know, it's the natural flow of life that.
Stu:That we're.
Stu:I mean, we're constantly being tested.
Mac:Right.
Stu:All the time.
Mac:Right.
Stu:And.
Stu:And.
Stu:And to me, Mac, and you know, this.
Stu:And.
Stu:And to you as well, because we've talked about this.
Stu:This isn't.
Stu:This isn't a God thing.
Stu:This isn't being tested by God.
Stu:We're not.
Stu:We don't think in that way.
Stu:And we realize there's some of you out there that may and that's okay, but we just feel like God is there walking with us in it whenever it's going on and whatever we're being tested with, you know, God's walking with us throughout that.
Stu:Right.
Stu:Is how we see it.
Mac:Yeah.
Mac:It's.
Mac:It's again, life is going to bring all of its own, on its own, and I get your soul.
Mac:Right.
Mac:That the beauty of our spirituality or of our relationship with God that we have is that we're linked together.
Mac:That that strength is there for us as life tests us.
Mac:Not because there's a capricious God that's, you know, deciding today to bring something bad into my life, you know, but, you know, as we're tested, you know, some.
Mac:One thing that we can do and that's to just take time out to evaluate how am I doing?
Mac:You ever ask ourselves that question?
Mac:You know, I learned this several months ago really late in life.
Mac:Right.
Mac:Somebody suggested this.
Mac:I can't even remember what the source of it was.
Mac:Was.
Mac:Look, after you go through your day, maybe you don't.
Mac:Can't do this every day of your life and you probably shouldn't.
Mac:Right.
Mac:Because life's not all about just being evaluated.
Mac:But, but ask the question, how'd I do today?
Mac:You know, test yourself, you know, give yourself the grade.
Mac:You know, how did I do?
Mac:And that can help you purpose to do it a little bit better, right?
Stu:Yeah, absolutely.
Stu:Absolutely.
Stu:Yeah.
Stu:And one thing that I think about in this regard is when I'm being tested is there's always learning going on.
Mac:Right.
Stu:Is how I choose to look at it.
Mac:Yeah.
Stu:And so for me, learning is just a.
Stu:A lifelong habit.
Mac:Yeah.
Stu:That I have.
Stu:Right, right.
Stu:And.
Stu:And I.
Stu:I hope that for everybody because we're constantly learning and that to me makes life fun and, you know, and it's okay to, to grow if something changes.
Stu:I'm.
Stu:I'm okay with this.
Stu:Some people get nervous about it, but I think it's.
Stu:I think it's very healthy.
Mac:Well, I think it helps you overcome the victim mentality as well.
Mac:You know, that there's.
Mac:You move from everything's happening to me that to.
Mac:I'm learning from this to be better, you know, that kind of thing.
Mac:So it's such a perspective and it builds up a resilience, I think, to, to that fear factor to that victim mentality sort of place that you sink into.
Mac:So.
Stu:Yeah, for sure.
Mac:You know, that's Beautiful.
Mac:Love the Nuggets.
Mac:Coach Taylor, thank you for the Nuggets.
Stu:He did a great job.
Mac:You know, whoever wrote that.
Mac:Yeah, the think tank there was awesome.
Stu:I like it.
Mac:You know, but.
Mac:But where we.
Mac:You know, where we land the plane at the end is we kind of just bring all of this together and that's.
Mac:We want to do it a little bit better.
Mac:Right?
Mac:We always talk about that.
Stu:Yes.
Mac:So, you know, hopefully we've given you some perspective, and Coach Taylor's given us some perspective that we've fleshed out to cultivate wisdom and poise, resilience, even the humility, and a perspective that can embrace all of it, all of life, all of this, all the fall, with some dignity and peace, you know, that we all want that, I think.
Stu:Yes.
Mac:We're hoping that we gave you guys some Nuggets to help you be able to do that this week.
Mac:That was our intent anyway, as we did this episode.
Mac:Right.
Mac:What do you think?
Stu:That's a.
Stu:That's a great takeaway.
Mac:Yeah.
Stu:Yeah.
Stu:I love that.
Stu:We definitely need to put that in the.
Stu:In the show notes.
Stu:Exactly.
Mac:Yeah.
Mac:And you'll find him there.
Mac:So, you know, we're going to end, as always, with our Mystic Mag Nugget.
Mac:And really, this is not Mac this week.
Mac:Okay.
Mac:This comes and.
Mac:You sent this to me this week.
Stu:Yes, I did.
Mac:And it was from Night Birdie.
Mac:You know, she was on America's Got Talent, right?
Stu:Yes, she was.
Stu:Yeah.
Mac:And here's what she said in that, you know, in that interview, if you will, or in that audition.
Stu:Right.
Mac:Because she had cancer.
Mac:And it was a beautiful story if you look her up.
Mac:Night Birdie.
Mac:Right?
Mac:I'm so much more than the bad things that happened to me.
Mac:Isn't that beautiful?
Stu:Yeah, I love it.
Stu:When she said that, it blew me away.
Mac:It's beautiful.
Mac:You know, and only thing that I kind of twisted a little bit to encourage us.
Mac:That's a beautiful saying.
Mac:I don't want to take away from it, but then do the same thing and substitute we for I.
Mac:We're so much more than the bad things that happen to us, you know, and put that more corporate perspective on it.
Mac:I love it.
Stu:So, so true.
Mac:Yeah, man.
Mac:Good stuff this week.
Mac:Yeah, brother.
Stu:What a great perspective.
Stu:I love ending with this.
Mac:Yeah, I'm here with the coach, too, you know, Coach Taylor.
Mac:I got Coach Stu with me, man.
Mac:So, you know, he's.
Mac:He's told stories over the years, and it's beautiful the way he affects his.
Mac:His kids.
Mac:It's.
Mac:That's always a great story.
Mac:So anyway, thanks for listening this week.
Mac:We hope we brought some value into your life, right?
Stu:Absolutely.
Stu:Yeah.
Stu:Thank you all, all you Rugers.
Stu:We'll see you again next week.
Stu:So until then, take care of yourself and each other.
Mac:Okay?
Mac:All you roguers, it's Mac and you may now unbuckle your four point harness.
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Mac:And keep asking the whys.
Mac:We love having you part of the conversation.
