Laughter decreases stress hormones and increases immune cells and infection-fighting antibodies, thus improving your resistance to disease. Laughter triggers the release of endorphins, the body's natural feel-good chemicals. Endorphins promote an overall sense of well-being and can even temporarily relieve pain.

Laughter releases the neurotransmitter dopamine, which serves as a reward for the brain, creates a sense of euphoria, and plays a pivotal role in our motivation to continue the behavior.

Enjoy the Fish Slapping Dance that was mentioned by Jeff.

And a great episode of The Carol Burnett Show. Enjoy!

In each episode, Jeff and Eric will talk about what emotional intelligence, or understanding your emotions, can do for you in your daily and work life. For more information, contact Eric or Jeff at info@spiritofeq.com, or go to their website, Spirit of EQ.

You can follow The Spirit of EQ Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Android, or on your favorite podcast player.

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Spirit of EQ

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Thanks for listening to Spirit of EQ

This podcast was created to be a tool to primarily help you to discover and grow your EQ. Science and our own lived experiences confirm that the better we are at managing our emotions, the better we're going to be at making decisions. Which leads to a better life. And that's something we all want. We're glad that you've taken the time today to listen. We hope that something you hear will lead to a breakthrough. We'd really appreciate a review on your podcast platform. Please leave some comments about what you heard today, as well as follow and subscribe to the podcast. That way, you won't miss a single episode as we continue this journey.

Eric: Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Spirit of EQ podcast. I'm Eric Pennington, and joining me, as always, is Jeff East. Hi, Jeff. How are you?

Jeff: Hi, Eric. How are you today? And all the people out there.

Eric: So, Jeff, I know, uh, we were talking prior to the to show that we were going to be exploring laughter. So I'm going to kick it to you to kind of, uh, take us down that Mary road.

Jeff: All right, I got a question for you, Eric.

Eric: All right.

Jeff: Now, if you laugh, you lose.

Eric: Oh, so I'm supposed to keep my sense of humor at bay?

Jeff: Yes.

Eric: All right.

Jeff: Which bear is the most condescending?

Eric: Um, I'm going to guess a grizzly bear.

Jeff: No. A pan? Duh.

Eric: I, uh, wanted to laugh, but because you told me I would lose, I held back, and I wanted to laugh because that's so freaking corny.

Jeff: Okay, what's brown and sticky?

Eric: Oh, my gosh, Jeff. Now you've got all these things going through my head. Um, uh, honey a stick. All right. Our producer, Brett, in the background began the laughter, and I chuckled a little, so I guess I lose.

Jeff: What would the terminator be called in his retirement?

Eric: I don't know.

Jeff: The ex terminator?

Eric: You know, considering that you have a background way, way back and in the extermination business, that would make sense that you would tell that bad joke. Um, so help me out, man. Where are you going?

Jeff: Okay. We're talking today about how laughter humor, um, can have an impact on your life. And when, uh, we went out to visit my daughter and her family in Texas for Christmas I don't know if this is good or bad. My daughter and my middle grandchild has inherited my sense of humor, so they were totally involved with this. So we had a bad joke contest, and I bought a book from Amazon, um, and had it shipped there so nobody could see it. They didn't open it until I got there, and it was $3 or something. So we just tear pages out of the books and hand them to each other and see who would laugh when somebody else told the joke. You can find these things on YouTube now. They're really funny. But, uh, that was probably the most favorite thing we did when we were out there. We're planning it again when we go out at Christmas this year. But just the idea to laugh at something silly sometimes, and bad dad jokes are about as silly as they could get. And I inherited my sense of humor from my dad, who was, um, always playing jokes, getting you to laugh some way or the other. And I'm really glad about that because laughter has a lot of things going for it that we don't think about. Things that, um, are physically beneficial, things that are mentally beneficial, um, um, relationship building things, um, like that that we don't think about and we've not had a lot to laugh about the last three or four years, and I thought that would be a good topic today, to remind people that laughter is just as important as anything else in your life.

Eric: You make a great point to Jeff, um, around the last few years, and, um, I know for me personally, I made a very intentional effort. I made intentional decisions to continue to move forward. And I think one of the great things about that, and typically, as you probably can imagine, in my case, my wife gets the brunt of my stand, um, up routine, and fortunately, she does laugh from time to time. Um, and we're always going back and forth with one another. Um, and we've been, uh, just full disclosure for the audience, the Eddie Murphy, Dave Chappelle, Steve Harvey, jerry Seinfeld of the world have just totally ruined me because of their ability to take somewhat of the very ordinary and day in and day out and just bring it to life with humor.

Jeff: Yeah. The ordinary or the absurd. I might not be a surprise, but I'm a Monty Python fan. Beyond Monty Python in Search of the Holy Grail, which is still one of the funniest movies ever. Um, I love their TV show that they had, and you can find it, uh, different streaming services. The local PBS station used to show it on, I think, Saturday nights.

Eric: Right.

Jeff: Um, and there's so many things in that that are just so absurd. This is a thing, ah, I want the audience to do.

Eric: Right.

Jeff: Go on YouTube and look up the fish slapping dance.

Eric: The fish slapping dance. I think we'll get that in the show notes somewhere.

Jeff: I think it is the most absurd thing. It's not even a minute long, but if you have any sense of humor in you, you'll laugh at it. There's no socially redeeming, um, benefit to it other than having a good laugh. Um, growing up, one of our favorite family things to do, we would watch The Carol Burnett Show, which was just brilliantly silly most of the time with the cast. They had the things that Tim Conway would do to Harvey, uh, corman.

Eric: Yes.

Jeff: It's just fantastic. You can YouTube those. Just YouTube. Carol Burnett show. And that was a real bonding moment for the family. We just would die laughing at some of the stuff that they would do. And there's not a lot of places we can do that now.

Eric: Yeah. And it makes me realize, and maybe, uh, this would be for another show, uh, the, um, brilliance of the comedians.

Jeff: Um.

Eric: Uh, I think in many respects, especially in stand up comedy, it's kind of construed that they're just funny people. They know how to make you laugh.

Jeff: Right.

Eric: Um, and I know just full disclosure warning disclaimer when I mentioned this guy's name, um, if you did YouTube his stuff, you probably would find something that would offend you and that's Richard Pryor mhm. And one of the things about Richard Pryor for me, was not so much the content of the joke, but just how he used non verbal language and communication to pull you into the joke.

Jeff: Sinbad is another one that does that.

Eric: Okay. All right. Um, I'm familiar with him, but I haven't watched much of his stand up. Um, there was an old Saturday Night Live, um, episode, and again, this audience and I think our audience understands context here. I'm just using this not because of the content, what he was saying, but there's an old Saturday Night Live episode with Richard Pryor and Chevy Chase.

Jeff: I think I know where you're going.

Eric: Okay. And they're both sitting, like, at a table. And I want to say that it was a job interview or some other type of career counseling type thing. And Chevy Chase says something, and the camera immediately goes to Richard Pryor. And the expression on his face and he didn't speak for it seemed like forever. But you already started cracking up because you knew he was going to say something. And it'd be one thing, Jeff, if that was just he was waiting for the right time. He was gathering his thoughts. No, that was part of the humor, that delivery. I know sometimes what is it called? Comic timing.

Jeff: Yes. Comedic timing. Yeah. Yeah.

Eric: Um, so I find it even more so now. Sometimes it's not. I'll go in and just watch for that nonverbal communication mhm to begin getting me going.

Jeff: I hadn't thought about that when I was trying to figure out what we were going to talk about today. But you can share humor between two people. If you see something funny happening around you, and you look at somebody else and you see they're seeing the same thing.

Eric: Right. Uh, again, I might be mispronouncing this, so I apologize. Um, are they called gifs? The giffies?

Jeff: Yeah.

Eric: Is that how it's pronounced? Something like that, yeah. All right. Well, most of those have no audio. They're just, uh, you're observing a human being. And the one I always look to and think about are the ones that have the eye roll.

Jeff: Yes.

Eric: I mean, ah, it's a pretty powerful thing. And communicates humor without an actual verbal delivery.

Jeff: Yeah. Because we have to admit there are times when we individually get into a situation where you can get laughed at, but when people share the non verbal, they're not making fun of you to you right. So it's maybe not as cruel, and then we'll talk about this a little bit later. And then there are times that you need to laugh at yourself, but we'll talk about that in a little bit.

Eric: Yeah. All right. So, um, one of the things that I really, uh, like, as you were doing your planning around today's, um, show, is the, um, idea that there are some benefits to laughter that go beyond just, hey, we had a good laugh.

Jeff: There's lots of benefits and, um, when you start putting them all together, you can see how they can have an impact on your attitude, your daily life.

Eric: So I've read, and I'm sure many in the audience have heard about and read that laughter is an important part of life, it's a stress reliever, and on and on and on. I haven't done research into all of that, but do you want to go there to talk about some of the things that laughter could do?

Jeff: Yeah, I think that would be a good place to go next. Okay. All right. So you mentioned stress, the stress benefits of laughter. Um, we've talked about how emotions are hormones and chemicals and things. Laughter releases those two, uh, cortisol epinephrine dopamine growth hormone actually, um, helps you with, um, endorphins and antibodies for disease fighting. So when you laugh, all those things are released into your bloodstream.

Eric: Wow. Yeah, because, uh, most of that, as it relates to the antibody stuff, that's like the T cells t cells are the big immune fibrous. Right. Wow. That really makes you wonder, um, and knowing that this is truly anecdotal, I mean, I'm sure there hasn't been any science studies, um, of note about it, but I know there is research that shows that this happens. Right. So it makes you wonder if we would be as sick. Uh, and I'm not just talking about covet and that kind of stuff, but I mean, in general, does laughter help our immune system? It seems that it does, yeah.

Jeff: And there's nothing wrong with that.

Eric: Uh, yeah. Um, and I'm a big believer, just personally, that anything that you can do, um, that is of a more natural deal, um, to help your body, that's a good thing. Mhm, I think, Jeff, this comes into, um, and if I'm jumping ahead or I'm taking us down a rabbit hole, is about this idea of intentionality. Mhm, right. Um, I know some people who they probably only laugh when they are sitting in the movie, mhm, everything else is very serious and very regimented, if you will. I'm not saying that to judge anyone that takes that approach, but imagine if it was like you were being intentional about it and I'll confess, make a confession. And if my son were here, he would say, this is absolutely true. I am a bit of a practical joker in my home environment. Right. So when my son was younger I don't do it as much now, but I have to be very strategic now because he's like 21. But when he was younger, first thing in the morning, he gets his bowl out and he puts his cereal in and he's making his breakfast. And then typically, when he would go into the pantry to get something out, I would take a cereal bowl and move it and just continue on what I'm doing, making my coffee. And he would be this. I just have the cereal bowl here. Now I'm just dying inside, and I'm trying to hold it in. Right. Mhm. That was intentional, right?

Jeff: Yes.

Eric: I didn't do it because I was thinking, oh, my gosh, this is going to improve his T cell production. Quite frankly, I thought it was quite funny that I moved to cereal bowl, and he's kind of wondering, where did they go? Uh, and what's interesting, Jeff, he started doing that to me. And it got to be we had this war of practical jokes going on. And it was one of those things where it did challenge me a bit because it was kind of like, okay, all right, now where did you put but anyway, intentionality? I think it's important.

Jeff: And I like this idea of the release that, um, we all get to the point where we make a choice. Are we going to laugh or are we going to cry about the situation or what's going on?

Eric: Right.

Jeff: And a good, hard laugh, I think, can release whatever it is that might be making you cry. I can remember, um, the little mission that some of us had, um, for a while, um, we had a praise team, and I was on it, and some other people are on it. And we would meet on Wednesday before Wednesday night Bible study to do our practice. And I wasn't always the one that started it, but most of the time I was just do something, say something, and get everybody to, uh, the point where we couldn't do anything else. And everybody, all of us looked forward the fun of playing music together. But that laughter together, that would happen. And it made the rest of the week better.

Eric: So I'm going to take you back to, um, this is probably, what, two months ago, three months ago, spirit, um, of EQ. We had a company meeting, and we're in this conference room.

Jeff: Okay.

Eric: And you and one of our partners, um, um, know a gentleman who has a name that for me. I wasn't expecting it, but I thought it was very funny. You, mhm, and our partner, right? We're just having a conversation. So, um, have you heard from Herman Dick lately? Uh, I had water in my mouth, Jeff. Do you remember?

Jeff: Oh, yeah.

Eric: Uh, the water was expelled from my mouth all over my computer screen. And I have to tell you, audience, I know that may be a little off color, what I just said, but his name was truly Herman Dick.

Jeff: By the way, if you're listening, Herman, no. I love you.

Eric: No. I don't know what it was about when I heard the flow of his name, and it just made me and you remember I had a difficult time recovering. I mean, my eyes I'm starting to cry. I'm grabbing tissues. And please don't judge me, audience, again, off color. But I can't tell you, once I had come down the release. Uh, it was like this endorphin thing, right. I had a bit of a high from that. And it also got elevated because you were just cracking off at me, cracking up. And it just kind of crescendoed. Um, I'll confess, Jeff, at the time, it wasn't like I said, oh, that name is funny to me. I'm going to laugh. It's not that kind of intentionality, but I mean, it was spontaneous, but the result afterward, it was, it was kind of euphoric.

Jeff: Mhm. That's great. How did you feel the rest of the day?

Eric: Oh, it was a lift. It was an energized. I'm an exercise person. Right. You know that. And, um, when people talk about runners high, I know what that feels like. It is like a, uh, high. Once you have you're in motion and you're doing it, and the intensity level, there is a high. And I don't necessarily would say that it felt the same, um, as much as it was, um, euphoric in nature. Um, and there are certain comedians, there are certain movies, you can think back to a certain scene and you go, oh my gosh, every time I watch that, I cannot stop.

Jeff: I got to share a movie story. My daughter and I, like I said, for better or worse, has inherited my sense of humor. We went and saw in the theater the original Naked Gun, leslie Nielsen, Leslie Nilson, totally. Like I said, no socially redeeming qualities, just an hilarious movie. And there's a scene towards the end where Frank, uh, Drebbn. Uh, Leslie Nielsen is talking about how his life changed since, uh, Priscilla Presley. Yes, her character came into his life and he's doing this monologue. Um, and he's talking about, since I've met you. Um, I'm noticing things like the dew on the grass and roses and the sunshine. Stoplights. My daughter and I were the only two people in that theater that busted out laughing when he said that.

Eric: Right.

Jeff: Because I still like watching that movie because it is so silly. But that was just so absurd and it was just dropped in in the same tone of voice. And then he continues some other stuff.

Eric: Right.

Jeff: But to me that is genius when somebody can do something like that and it went over everybody else's heads.

Eric: And that can happen, right? I mean, everybody is unique in the things that really hit that button. Um, so since I've taken you down that rabbit hole, I'm going to pull us back onto the road ahead to continue.

Jeff: And you mentioned exercise. There's exercise especially to a good hard belly laugh. It works the diaphragm, it contracts the ABS and your shoulders, even gives your heart a workout. It's just not going to be a long one, but it's there. And that's part of it, too. It gets the blood going.

Eric: This makes me think about, uh, Jeff, um, and I know you'll probably come to this, um, in a little bit. But, um, you mentioned the sort of that three year window of the, uh, age of covet and what that's done to folks. I wonder, um, just how much, um, because I think one of the things that left us vulnerable prepandemic, was we're not a very intentional society outside of those things that were intellectual pursuits. Ah, I'm a commercial banker, I'm an attorney at law, and I do that work, and I do all these things. And I think many times we took laughter for granted, maybe. Um, but that just again, I'm not.

Jeff: Going to say this because of any political one way or the other. One of the things that made Ronald Reagan such a great politician was his sense of humor when he was speaking to people, whether you liked I'm not saying I'm on either side about his political beliefs, but as a communicator, as a communicator, he used that in his talking to people. And I think that relaxed people, and they heard what he was saying better. And I think we need more of that.

Eric: Well, and you know what's interesting, and you probably remember that prior to any presidential election, I believe it's in New York, there is a dinner, and each of the candidates come, and it's really kind of like a roast. Um, but they get up and they talk, and most of it's self depreciating humor. Um, if I'm saying that right, self deprecating humor.

Jeff: I don't know either.

Jeff: Uh.

Eric: And obviously in America politics, that's like sports. Um, it's very important to people. Lord only knows how they got to be there. But that's another subject. But one of the things that I enjoyed about that one, and you can probably YouTube it, is that both of them, their humanity came out mhm. And I think in the age that we live in, because as you know, Jeff right, we tend to like, we identify them and label them as it's almost like either an enemy or a friend. Enemy or friend. It's that very dualistic mindset. But what was cool about this dinner is that you could catch the humanity in each of them. And I get it. Everybody out there is probably saying, oh my gosh, she is a this, oh my gosh, he did that. And I get it. But my point is, I think humor does bring us down to the more human to human perspective, if that makes sense.

Jeff: Well, and it's interesting you say that, because of the next column or the next heading that we're going to talk about is perspective.

Eric: All right?

Jeff: Um, I'm sorry. It's the next one after this next one.

Eric: All right.

Jeff: Distraction.

Eric: Distraction. Okay.

Jeff: It can take you away from whatever. It's not going to cure whatever problem you might be facing, but it can take you away from it for a little while. So you can gather the strength to deal with it so that you can be more on an even keel when you deal with whatever it is.

Eric: Well, you can come back to the intentionality again with I mean, I don't know if this is the same with you and your wife, but there's times, depending on what the week is like, um, one of us will suggest a movie or before we suggest a movie that will both agree nothing heavy, right. If we're going to watch anything, it's got to be a comedy, right. It's not a conscious thing as much as unconsciously. We know if ah, we're looking at something heavy considering what kind of week we had it's because we see the value in the laughter.

Jeff: Back when VHS was a thing.

Eric: Yeah.

Jeff: The first two movies that we actually bought were money python, in search of the holy grail and young frankenstein. Uh, now we have them digitally, but, uh, those are two go to movies for us. It's totally silly, but brilliantly done.

Eric: Yeah.

Jeff: So, yeah, the distraction, it can take you into a place that you have these things that we're talking about before. The chemical, uh, hormone thing, the stress of getting rid of the stress and things. So yeah, distraction.

Eric: And I think it is also, um, i, uh, know for me, um, just individually, Jerry, um, seinfeld's, uh, Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee was an on purpose, deliberate deal for me because I knew that that show would deliver pretty much every time. A uh, great deal of laughter for me. Mhm, and it's just like I want to laugh. So I think there is when we talk about the things that are subconscious, but I think there's some of this that definitely is. I mean, it's the healthy type of distraction.

Jeff: Yeah. I have XM in my car and one of the favorites that I have is one of the comedy channels. Um, okay, I'm going to listen to that for a little bit because I need something. But then perspective. Um, when you were talking about the two politicians, that probably gave you a different perspective of both of them through what was happening during that.

Eric: Jeff, I mean, I'm interrupting you, but you really hit on a really big point there. Because one of the things that also made me realize is that there are a number of media sources in our society now, be they're on the right or on the left, that basically have created people who really are not as good or bad as they truly are. The old, old saying about typically somewhere in the middles where you find the truth uh huh. Type deal. Um, I think that and I think in some ways watching that kind of did that. What you just were talking about this realization of like, well, wait a minute, if I was starting to think that they were this but then now when their guard is down and it's just and I get it. Somebody out there is going to write us and say, well, they've been coached. And they have a laughter consultant that just feeds them. That's not really them being funny. Okay, whatever. But I think as much as I could detect, there was a sense of humanity to them.

Jeff: Mhm, um, that levels the playing field between us normal people. I can't think of any other way you see the humanity in someone.

Eric: Yeah, because I think if you don't see the humanity, it becomes really challenging.

Jeff: And the small group that I meet with, we do books normally, and it's called The Book of Joy. And it's an interview over about a week interviews over about a week of two of the most, um, unusual best friends, the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu.

Eric: Oh, yes, I remember that book.

Jeff: And those two people, um, they belly laughed all through the guy that was writing. It was just amazing about how their sense of humor was. Their, um, non big headedness I don't know how to say it, but they both have, um, a great sense of humor and they shared it. Dalai Lama dealing with the displacement of his people, you know, Desmond Tutu dealing with apartheid and the reconciliation he was part of the reconciliation trials, or whatever they call them. Um, and they kept their sense of humor, but both of them had health problems and everything else. So that book really helped me understand more of the importance of humor.

Eric: Of humor.

Jeff: Yeah, it's a great read. Somebody wants to get I mentioned it before, there is a social benefit of laughing together. Um, if you're at a comedy club and the comedian is on, the audience is together. So we've got that going on. Uh, I mentioned before, uh, my family out in Texas, my family growing up there were social benefits to us about, um, like I said, watching the Carol Burnett Show. That was on, I think, Saturday nights. And on Wednesday night, one of us would go, do you remember what Tim Conway did to Harvey Cormann? That was a shared thing. And we all bust out laughing again.

Eric: Because it was so ridiculous.

Jeff: Right. So there's this social benefit. And then the other thing is, I know I've mentioned this lady before on the podcast, Jeannie Robertson, who just passed away. She talked about being that person in a group that can find the humor in whatever situation it is, even if it's a bad work situation, but can see some kind of a humor in it. And that includes, you said deprecating, or however you say it, we'll get somebody correct us.

Eric: I think it's self-deprecating.

Jeff: Okay, sounds good. But even if it's at your own expense a little bit. But that person that can change the mood of the group you're in to elevate it out of despair. I mean, we've all been in work situations where you know it's going to suck. It just is going to be that way. Yeah.

Eric: Because you know what? Um, I haven't seen the movie, um, which now is a good prompt for me to think about seeing it. It's about Martin Luther King Jr. I think it's called Selma. Um, it uh, might have been a different movie, so I may not have seen. Right. But this was after, um, they had been arrested and obviously it wasn't just a polite arrest with handcuffs and walking them into a cell. Uh, they were hit and such. And I guess after they were released, king, uh, was talking to one of his associates and the associates said, are you alright, Martin? And he said, yeah, I think so. But I tell you one thing, that white boy really has a great right cross. I guess he must have been hit in the jaw by this, uh, police, um, officer. And it just dawned on me yeah. Um, the ability to find humor even in because let's face it, Jeff, in that situation, that police officer, if he could have, he probably would have thought, I would shoot you if I could. It went that deep. But for King to be able to come out of that and find some humor in a very difficult situation yeah, and that's not my call, too. If somebody tells you that they've been diagnosed with a serious disease, that you immediately go to making a joke. That's not my point. But even in this movie, though, I mean, it wasn't King himself. This actor did a wonderful job.

Jeff: Of.

Eric: It wasn't one of the things where he said, hey, let me tell you something that was funny when we were getting arrested, it was like that comedic timing thing. It was just like, this is a moment to.

Jeff: Release. You made me think of something. This has, um, happened during World War II, during the Battle of the Balls, when the German army broke through and it was just chaos for the Americans. And uh, some troops from the 101st Airborne were surrounded in basstone and the German general sent a delegation in to ask for their surrender. So that there's no sense in destroying the city. There's no sense in all you dying because we outnumber you ten to one. And the general, his name is Anthony McAuliffe, and this is my favorite all time quote that he sent back to the general. Nuts. That's the only thing he sent back to the general. And that rallied his troops around him when they found out that's what he told the general.

Eric: Interesting.

Jeff: Wow. I didn't know that. Yeah, it's so simple. And it just changed the morale of all the people around them and totally confused the Germans.

Eric: Oh, I'm sure I had to have thrown them off. Like, that's not what we expected.

Jeff: Right. Right. So, yeah. Just being able to change what's going on around you and I don't know, I don't think I'm going to go through that part. I'm. Just going to end it with a story. All right? Okay. Um, my friend Dennis and I, um, we used to go on motorcycle trips, and we've had lots of adventures because we, um, just did. And we were on a trip. And I am not a camper because I want to. At that time, we were campers because we were on a budget. And, um, so we were camping at a small campground just south of Cherokee, North Carolina, blue Ridge Mountains, smoky Mountains. And we were there at a time of year where there'd been a drought and fire warning signs up all over the place. So we were at the campground, and we couldn't have a campfire, but we had a little stove that a friend of ours give a, um, backpacking stove. It's the kind that you put the fluid in the home, and then you pump it up and you light it, and whatever you're cooking just sits right on top of it. It's perfect for motorcycle rides. Well, it didn't go well, so first time we tried it was at this campground. We sat this little stove on a, uh, wooden picnic table in the middle of the wooden or tinder ah, uh, dry forest. And we were going to use it. So we pumped it up and turned it on and put the match there. Well, that fuel just came out and just spilled all over everything and caught on fire. Oh, my God. So we're sitting there going, okay, we're going to be the two guys that burned down the Smoky Mountains. That's the first thought that went through my mind. Right. So what do we do? What do we do? What do we do? We're in panic mode, almost. And there was a little tiny stream that was running right behind our tent, maybe not even a foot wide. That's all it was because of the drought situation. So I thought, okay, I grabbed our frying pan. Dennis took the spatula we had, and he swept it into the frying pan. And I was going to take it down and throw it into the little creek. And as soon as he did that, it just billowed up, burning the hair off my arm. Dennis has got something beating because the tip picnic table is still on fire. Oh, my God. So I take two or three steps, and it did that bill up. So I threw it at the little creek, and it rolled down the embankment a little bit and stopped on its base and started working perfectly like it's supposed to. Our next door tent neighbor just looked at me and said, do you have to do that every time? What else can you say? We got it all under control. Nothing burned down. There was some scorch marks on the picnic table. I didn't have hair on my right arm, and the little stove was kind of melted a little bit. We went back and looked in instructions and figured out what we had done wrong and then it was perfect. But do you have to do that every time?

Eric: That's.

Jeff: Good. I use that story sometimes when I'm talking to people about being prepared for something, mhm, and I think it's just a good illustration of we were not prepared for what we were doing.

Eric: I'm still back on the, uh, tent neighbor's comment. That's some good comic timing.

Jeff: I know, it was just perfect. And they did a totally deadpan yeah. Do you have to do that every time?

Eric: Oh.

Jeff: My. We've talked about noble goal before, and I have a definite noble goal, but I have what I call my noble task. My noble task every day is to.

Eric: Get six people to laugh back, uh, to the intentionality.

Jeff: And intentional, um, sometime it might be hopefully there's a bunch of people that just laughed about us almost burning down the Smoky Mountains. Um, but yeah, if you can just do that for me. If I can make somebody laugh, that's a win. Yeah, because I know it now more intellectually, but I've always known the power of humor and laughter and I just hope we can get to the point where we could do that. Not in the hurtful way you talk about some comedians and things. Some of it is just so hurtful I can't listen to it. But in a fun way, a way that ah uplifts people. I think that is so important. If we can get back to more of that.

Eric: Yeah, I'm with you on that. And, um, I would just throw out again, I know I've probably worn the word out is the idea of intentionality. Mhm, i, um, think most people are understanding now that waiting for it to just spontaneously happen, um, is probably not the wisest pursuit. If you know it's something that's going to benefit you, then you need to move and go forward to make it that way, to make it happen. Um, again. Jeff, I look at the seismic change that has occurred. It will be those who are intentional that, um, are going to have a good life despite all this rapid change. No doubt. No doubt. Well, that brings us to the end of, uh, today's episode. We really appreciate you tuning in and we look forward to the next time that we're together.

Jeff: Take care.