If Nothing Trickles Down What Will You Build

You can feel the difference between noise and reflection, and we’re choosing reflection today. We start with the real stuff: how we’re building these afterthoughts, what a packed weekend reveals when you reconnect with people who knew you before life got complicated, and why your roots are not a cliché they’re a foundation. Old memories surface, and we use them as information for growth, not as excuses, because a real healing journey means owning your patterns and tightening up how you live.

Then we pivot into the language we throw around online and at work. We talk overstimulation, spring break culture, and the way small social rules can flatten human nature. The big focus is mental health vocabulary: boundaries, gaslighting, narcissist, triggered, toxic. We break down what these therapy terms actually mean, how they get misused, and why accountability matters more than a label. If you want healthier relationships, you can’t outsource your triggers or use “boundaries” as a way to control people.

We also go political without playing team sports. From local meetings to national narratives, we challenge why candidates talk big issues but skip the needs of the community right in front of them. We question why lawyers so often become lawmakers, unpack how division keeps regular people fighting sideways, and land on a practical idea: stop waiting for anything to trickle down and start building across, down, and up with your neighbors.

We close with celebrity worship, forced opinions, and why face-to-face conversation still matters. If this hits, subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave a review with the one topic you want us to go deeper on next.

Transcript

Afterthoughts Format And Setup

SPEAKER_01 0:05

All right, man, we're here. Uh here to do some afterthoughts. One of these days I'll come up with uh some type of introduction. Uh but until then, uh AC and his afterthoughts. Uh let me tell you what, guys. Here's how I'm doing the show right now. And I'm always gonna give you some behind-the-scenes stuff to open up. So I built this show throughout the week, just building out notes and random thoughts that I have and things that come across. And what I've done the last two weeks is threw it in the chat GPT, synchronize them, right? Yeah, no, they're still in my dad or whatever. It's just my topics. I'm putting it on the internet, so whoever wants is gonna get it anyways, right? But, anyways, and last week I reviewed it, went in order, and all of that stuff, and I missed some topics and and and didn't know because I like built up to a certain crescendo, right? Well, this week, what I'm gonna do is I only read the first sequence or the first segment of topics. So until further notice, I'm just gonna go through the topics in order and see where it takes us. So to open up, we're gonna do a nice weekend recap. Man, I had a busy weekend, let me tell you. Uh Thursday, oh yeah, Thursday, I went to the iDoctor and went and supported some local youth, was gonna do some political stuff, but ended up cowering out, but it's all good. Uh, Friday, I get up and work in my yard pretty much all day. Uh, head down to Decatur, hang out with my man's Chris, bro. Let me tell you what, it was such a good time, and sometimes you have to remind yourself, and that was kind of a theme of my of my weekend. You got to remind yourself who loves you, and you you gotta be around those people. And this weekend, it was a great catch up time, you know. Uh hung out with Chris Friday, and I was thinking about it. I was like, dang, bro, me and Chris haven't hit each other up to hang out since undergrad, which is 2014 at the latest, excuse me, at the earliest. So you're like, man, we live 60 miles from each other. But that came from a conversation, and we are doing better, dog. And it was just bro, it was just great to catch up and and re-remember stuff. And that kind of flows into my Saturday. I went and hung out with um another group of friends from high school, and you know, your life, you you like backlog all of this information, and some people call it trauma, I call it information. And depending on how you process, it will determine what it is. And we were kicking it, and I'm like, dang, bruh, I forgot about that. Dang, I forgot I did this, I forgot we did that, I forgot y'all did this. Wow, y'all still do, bro. That's dope. And it brought back all of these different memories. And as I'm going through this healing journey, as I say to people, and they think I'm joking because of how I say it and how I view people who say those things. I'm serious because healing journeys are real. I just think everybody talking about theirs isn't actually trying to heal. But who am I? Because I'm talking about mine. Maybe I'm them, maybe they're their I was I, whatever. Uh, but it's reminding yourself of who you were in different situations and seeing where those characteristics still uh resonate today, you know, and you go, okay, that's why this doesn't make sense. Okay, that's why I oh bro, dang. I have been doing this for a minute, you know, or thinking, okay, so dog, never get too far away from your roots because that's that's your foundation. That's what keeps you anchored. And if you don't, you know, I mean, if you get too far away from your roots and and you know, those those that stump or you know, the you know, the big tree, you know, your tree's not fortified with wood, you know, good, firm, you know, that that gradually grows, and then you get those those coverings of your roots, right? So that water is it continues to flow up, you know, you eventually die. So make sure you you're you're deeply rooted in good soil and and you don't get too far away from your roots because sometimes when we do, uh life has a way of uh chopping us down. Uh but if we're anchored, for anchored, then we'll have new life spreading out and the tree will continue to grow. Uh, I heard some stuff at work today, and it's like no personal shot um or anything uh at at who I heard it from. But dog, I I heard a man said he was overstimulated today, and that just didn't sit right with me. I know that's my toxic masculinity. I'm working on it as we talked about last week or maybe two weeks ago, whenever it was. I'm a hypocrite, so are you. So what? Uh but yeah. That's all I got on that one. Oh, yeah. Take spring break back to the beach. I don't I don't even want to get into grown people going to spring break because that's just really weird behavior, very creep behavior, uh, very pedophilic type behavior. Because I'm gonna be honest with you, I don't really want to party with the kids, man. We we we party differently. But take it back to the beach. Part of the beach being great is you're on the water, you can do outside stuff, you can do cheap stuff, you could camp out, you know, back in the day before the commercialization of all of this stuff. But get it out of this, the real cities. You know, the real cities are for the people who can afford the real cities or are stuck there. That's not spring break. I mean, I know they did freaknik in Atlanta, but that was before Atlanta was Atlanta. You know what I'm saying? But going to Houston, an already thriving city, no, you have to go somewhere that's untapped and turn it up. You you have to go somewhere that doesn't have a thriving tourist economy and start putting money in those people's pockets, and you keep doing it and keep doing it, and then they eventually kick you out, like they did in Panama City because they uh fall in love with the city and they get tired of you tearing up their city. But point being, that's what you got to do. You can't go, you can't go to the major cities. But, anyways, moving on, man, let's let's look at some of this weird societal stuff. So, you know, we celebrated uh St. Patrick's Day last week, and I was listening to Jimmy Kimmel uh because I listened to the late night talk show host, not necessarily for entertainment, but to see what narratives are being pushed in different directions, you know, you know, stay abreast of what's going on. Gotta put that disclaimer out. Uh, and he talked about how they were told his kids they can't pinch the kids at school on St. Patrick's Day, you know, because it's, you know, you don't want to bully them and stuff. It's like, come on, man. Let kids be kids, you know. Stop trying to govern every part of life and every part of human nature, you know. I understand that we want to create safe spaces, but be part of creating safe spaces is creating tough times, creating adversity, creating situations that you may not ideally want to be in. It's annoying to get pinched. But you know what? If you wear green on this day, you don't get pinched. Booyah. You know what I mean? And that feeds into the celebration of the day and the commercialization of the day. Because if we can't pinch people, why are we wearing green? Why are we buying the St. Paddy's Day shirts? Oh, to go get hammered? Sure. But let the kids be kids, man. Uh, something a bit more serious. So I was sitting in a meeting yesterday, uh, one of the political sorts, and listening to politicians talk, and then start to think about all these different politicians and the tracks that a lot of them take. Who thought it was a good idea to make lawyers politicians? I mean, just think about it. And and this is no shot personally to any lawyers. I know lawyers, you know, they're great people. I think it's a necessary profession because we don't understand the law as the common person. So one who doesn't understand the law might say, Oh, yeah, it's a great idea to make the lawyers make the laws because they understand the laws better than anybody. And in my mind, I'm like, no, lawyers don't make decisions, they make recommendations. Hopefully, informed recommendations, but lawyers don't make decisions. You you hire a lawyer to advise, whether it's, you know, legally if you're fighting a crime or an alleged crime, or if it's for your business to protect it. But at the end of the day, they're legal counsel, they're not legal decision makers. The military, they have lawyers. Lawyers don't make decisions, they make recommendations. So I'm like, why would we make these recommenders now decision makers? You know, and then I go. Which means finding interpretations of the law or technicalities in the law to prove their case. But that doesn't mean these are the people who are trying to find a solid definition of the law and get what's in the best interest of the law. No, they're trying to use the law to get what's in their best interest. I think that's what a good lawyer should do. But I don't want the same person who deals in the nuances of laws actually constructing my laws. Do I think some lawyers should be legislators? Absolutely. Do I think some farmers, business owners, military members, athletes, teachers, educators, whatever, people from all walks of life should take part in the legislative process? And I mean directly as being a legislator, you know, whether it's locally, state, or uh federally. I do think that should happen. And I think those people should have legal counsel who they have reviewed their proposals and uh their bills to make sure that it's legally sound. But I don't want the person who, the people whose job it is to manipulate the law to now get into the room and start making laws, because guess what? These people know how to manipulate the law. And I'm not even this isn't conspiracy or calling them bad actors, it's just thinking about natural human instinct. If you're able to write laws that benefit you, whether it's you directly or you maintaining your job, and you're able to, you know, put things in there that the average person wouldn't see, understand, know, even smart people. Why? Because they haven't spent the time learning the law, learning how to study the law, learning how to interpret the law, understanding the counterpoints to their legal interpretation and so on and so forth, right? I don't think it's the safest place for your average everyday human being who's on this rat wheel going to work, doing a couple extra curriculars, maybe a date night here or there, or a party here or there, or whatever you do in your spare time to then be governed by lawyers. Then you know judges are lawyers too, so just a thought, you know. Uh something kind of tied in into the overstimulated man thing, right? Because do I think we get overstimulated? Yes. Do I think it's important to understand when you're overstimulated? Yes. Do I also think it's a good place of reference and context for people around you who are dealing with you to know that you're overstimulated? Yes. But in saying that control your triggers. So I came across this post on the good old Instagram this week, and it was talking about these different psychological terms, right? Let me see if I can find it. Let me see if I can find it. Oh man. Oh, here we go. Please stop misusing these therapy terms. So I'm gonna go through the terms and the definitions and then give you a little feedback on it, right? Boundaries, what we think it means. Cut off people when they frustrate you or telling people what they can or can't do, what it actually means, taking responsibility, responsibility for how you show up with clarity, limits, and follow through. So boundaries isn't, hey, I'm setting my boundaries, and if you cross this, you know. No, it's like, hey, I don't tolerate this behavior. If you want to be with me in my life, associated with me, then you have to move this way. You can't just talk about setting a boundary and then not following up with it, because that's not a boundary, that's just words out of your mouth. A true boundary is tied to the way that you're living your life. And when those boundaries are crossed, right, you you fortify that part of your wall. Or if you decide to let your guard down and allow that person in and continue to cross those boundaries, you don't blame them for crossing the boundary. You blame yourself for allowing the boundary to continue to be crossed and expecting something else. You know, oftentimes we try to project our thoughts, actions, feelings, and responses on other people. And I think that leads us down a dark road of constant failed expectations. You know, I remember at times in my life having conversations, and it and you get into an argument or a debate and you start talking past each other. And you'll say, Hey, I have a problem when you do X, Y, Z. And the response is, Will you do it? And it's like, yes, I do, but it's consistent with my behavior. See, this is now an inconsistency in your behavior. I don't have a problem with the behavior, I have a problem with the inconsistency. But if we focus on the behavior, then we're talking past each other. And that's what we often do with people. We want their response, we want their way of life, we want their decision to be ours. What we would do. And then when they don't do what we want them to do, we're disappointed. But if we start looking at it, and not what we want them to do, but what we expect them to do based on their history, or not even having an expectation, just responding to what someone does, then you're less tri you're less triggered, you're less bothered, but more importantly, you've now actually created a boundary that is enforceable both on another person's end and on your end. Again, this is my layman discussion of it. Because I'm not a psychologist either. I should have said that first. I just don't like people misusing words because words have meaning. Gaslighting, what we think it means. You disagree with me, so you're gaslighting me. What it actually means: a pattern of manipulation that makes someone question their reality or sanity. I don't think that needs much more, you know what I mean? You see the difference? Just because I disagree with you, or I'm viewing it through a different lens as you, and it's probably why we disagree, doesn't mean I'm telling you, I'm trying to manipulate you and tell you that you're insane. I'm just telling you I disagree. The total difference. You're just telling them that they're wrong. I think that's different than the intentional. Like, no, you don't know what you're talking about. You're crazy. Like, I don't even know why how you think of that, why you think that. I wouldn't I would know. Yes, you would. That's what I believe gaslighting is, and and so on and so forth. But let's keep going. Narcissist. What we think it means. You acted rude and selfish, so you must be a narcissist. What it actually means: a consistent pattern of entitlement, lack of empathy, and exploitation of others. The actual psychological diagnosis of MPD is only present in one percent of the population. Hey dog, stop calling people narcissists. Triggered. What we think it means. The situation or person made me very uncomfortable. What it actually means, an exaggerated emotional reaction to a deeper, unresolved world. And here's where I want to spend a little bit of time. Because I've always said here, because it's a common sense thing, uh no one else can pull your trigger, and it's not people's responsibility to manage your triggers, it's our responsibility to manage our own. Now, if you become aware of something that is a true trigger, yes, you should respect that. But at the same time, there should be respect on the other side that hey, I am respecting what you have going on, but I can't be expected to walk on eggshells when dealing with you, and that's hard, you know, because accountability is hard. Saying that this is my responsibility is hard when you can pass it off to somebody else, and the thing that really sticks out to me is the emotional reaction tied to a deeper, unresolved wound. If you see that something truly triggers you, right, you see that you're acting out of character, you're responding irrationally, and it stings. You owe it to yourself to ask why, and you owe it to yourself to explore it. And me personally, some people say, you know, now's not the time, but you keep putting stuff on top of that that that trigger, it's gonna be too much weight, and then it's gonna snap, and now you've been triggered. So resolve that wound if for nobody but yourself, resolve that wound for those who love you and care about you so you don't push them away, so they don't trigger you and truly trigger you. But with a lot of the psychological stuff, again, from somebody who has common sense and also somebody who talks to uh varying levels of people in the mental health uh profession, both personally and professionally. And I mean for my like in my personal life, and I go to them professionally for help. Everything is about you, and these tools are here to help you deal with you so that we can better deal with each other as a society. All right, toxic. Well, we think it means this relationship feels difficult or inconvenient. I do think that's kind of a uh a very simplified version of what people call toxic, but I think we can agree that toxic is overuse. What it actually means, a pattern of extremely harmful behavior that consistently damages your emotional or mental well-being. So it sounds to me like a self-destructive thing. And just something to throw out there for those people who use toxic regularly in their vernacular, understand if you continue to deal with that quote-unquote toxic person, you are also equally um, if if not even more toxic, because that person may not be aware, truly aware, and believe that their actions are problematic. But if you know and accept your actions to be problematic, but you continue to keep yourself in that situation, you know. Now that's uh extremely harmful behavior that consistently damages your emotional or mental well being. And this came from Doctor is a counselor, uh faithful counselor. Named Dr. Deborah Fietta, M-A-U-L-P-C. So this was a post that she put out, and I thought it was just something worth sharing. Let's see what we got next. I don't know. I don't want to talk about that. So to fear uh get a little bit more serious and get back to something that we're going to talk about a lot here because I think about it a lot. It's just, you know, we talked about race division last week and how yes, race division is true, race division is a thing, but it's just a tool. Same thing in the political division. So I talked about sitting in a meeting yesterday with politicians, and then today I did the exact same thing. Both local meetings uh here. And one of the most interesting things I saw was so much of the demonization of the other side. I saw so much of, and you know what? Even the Democrats were on board with this, or even the Republicans were on board with this. It's like, yeah, they're people. I get we have these ties to these parties because we've been told that based on our system, and if we're being honest, the easiest way to get some kind of change is through a two-party system. Uh, also, the easiest way to maintain the status quo is to have only a two-party system. So, yeah, you have good structure, it insulates itself and all of this stuff. So it often benefits both sides to have the people clash. And if you believe what I believe, that our political actors, although well-intentioned, and I do believe most join for the right reasons, even if that right reason is they think they know what's best for whatever body they're governing. I I do believe that to be the right reason to join in politics. Uh, because if because you think you're doing it for the people, you know, even if you're doing it for yourself, that's not why I think people should join public service. But at the same time, public servants, in order to do that, you have to be somewhat of a selfish person, you have to be into yourself, you know. But if you follow the money, and again, I'm not calling our political uh figures puppets because that gives off the wrong message, but they're guided, and and not because they're politicians or weak. We're all guided, you know. On on whatever platform you're watching this on, listening to this on, there are certain guidelines that they require. And guess what? I'm gonna meet those guidelines. So I'm being guided. You know, there are certain topics you may not want to talk about, there are certain things you can't say, you don't want to use slurs, you don't want to actively and disrespectfully offend people. So you're guided, you're guided by something, we're guided by our religion, our moral principles, uh, our ethics, our money, our family, whatever the case may be, we're all guided by something. So again, politicians, who does it benefit to guide politicians? Uh, people in business. Why? Because you need money to fund the government, you need money uh for a community to function. Uh, who makes the money? The entrepreneurs. So who needs to work together? The politicians and the entrepreneurs. Guess what makes uh more money? A government that's in public service or entrepreneurs who are in private business? Oh, yeah, you're entrepreneurs, right? And then don't add the public money to the entrepreneurial. Oh, then you've got just money out the yin-yang. So, anyways, these people want to protect their interests, and you know, they'll incentivize people, but also our leaders' interests can be aligned with these same business interests, right? Uh, think about it. If you have a 401k, you're invested in the stock market doing well, even if you have issues with the whole stock market itself. But you now have a financial, you know, you have your finances tied to that. Same thing with politicians, they're being guided by by their stability, their security, like all other humans are, right? It's just on a different scale, and the stakes are much larger, and you like to expect more. That's why this there's a select few who get to get to have these jobs. So if we believe that the someone's guiding the politicians, wouldn't that wouldn't it make more sense for the common man to, I don't know, figure with each other about our smaller problems that keeps us not focused on things that are happening at the top, or see the ways that they tie the things that are happening at the top to our day-to-day problems. Because let me tell you, one thing I I I took away from both meetings, uh, and there were a lot of takeaways, but when it came to candidates speaking to the people, none of them spoke about what they could do for the people sitting there, the people who are going to cast those those votes. They talked about what's going on in Washington, they talked about what's going on across the world, but they didn't talk about, and they even talked about what was what was going on in the state at large, but they did not address how what they want to do in office will help support the local Cartersville community, how they're going to advocate for the wants, needs, and desires of the people in Cartersville. And I get you can grab these these national interests that we have, but how much of our day-to-day is are affected by national interests, international interests. They're not. We believe that they are because of trickle down, but if you know anything about about things trickling down, it takes forever and it never really comes down in hole, right? Because it gets caught up in stuff and and and things happen, you know. Somebody might take a little bit here. Uh, you got some you got some weeds in your gutter, so it just so it just blocks them up and they just sitting there and and and the water's not flowing out. Oh, the sun done came out, so now we've had some evaporate. So now we got we still got less making it out of the gutter. That's trickle down economics, that's trickle down power, that's trickle down anything. Right? So if everybody believes in what the next man has to do because it's gonna trickle down, well, you're never gonna focus on what you need to do so that you can grab something from up top. If it doesn't come down, you can go get it. You know, like the ground is flat until you dig in it, and sometimes you have to go down and you have to go out to get up. So instead of waiting on something to trickle down, instead of us fighting about a donkey and an elephant, let's dig across. Let's dig down, right? Those of us, those of you who no matter where you fall on this, you dig across, build community, you dig down to help build up. That's how you build a step. You can't just step up, you gotta dig down into the dirt to create the foundation for your step. And then you dig some more, you'll get another one. You don't want to keep digging too deep because you don't want to drop. So then you got to dig out, right? And then you can build another step. And now you got three steps, right? And then you see your man's over there digging. You say, hey, we're gonna use this, all y'all over here, y'all move over here, right? And then we're gonna dig up this area, okay? We're gonna build the steps out of this, but we got enough space to house everybody over here. So then we're gonna take all of these steps and we're gonna build a staircase, and then we're gonna be walking up. But remember, the people above us, if they're not trickling down, but digging down, right? And digging across, some of them are coming together, right? And they're moving people from this side to that side so they can dig down and then, oh golly, it's done opened up because they done removed some of the blockages while we was waiting for everything to trickle down. We done open this whole, we done hope open up this whole new level. And as they're digging down, as we digging down and building up, we just elevate the floor. So reach back and reach across so that you can build up. Just don't wait for it to trickle down. Not wet.

SPEAKER_00 31:46

But anyways, um where else do I wanna go? Honestly.

Celebrity Worship And Forced Opinions

SPEAKER_01 32:00

All right. Here's where I'm gonna close out because I don't want to talk about everything.

SPEAKER_00 32:06

Um celebrity worship.

Talking Face To Face Matters

The Models We Choose To Follow

Closing Plans And Sign Off

SPEAKER_01 32:15

Jay-Z's headline of the roots picnic. He's doing uh he's doing Yankee Stadium 20, or excuse me, 30th anniversary of Reasonable Doubt, and then the 25th anniversary of the blueprint. Two great albums, by the way. But let me tell you what, I don't want to hear Jay-Z outside. And then you're doing two, you don't do concerts, you're doing two different concerts on the two days that you're actually doing your own concert and everybody's going crazy and putting out, hey, don't hit me up. I don't even get free tickets. Uh-uh, uh, hey, boy, who I don't know who I gotta call, but I gotta get my tickets. And it's like, dang, bro. That man walked to the urino like I do. I know he has a lot of money, I know he's a great musician. But I'm starting to even question how do I properly support artists because I like music, and I want them to be compensated for what they do, and sometimes I want to go to live shows because I enjoy that. But at what cost? At what point are you now worshiping these people? I don't know, I don't know, and that's another thing about worship. I saw a post, and I'm not even gonna pull the whole thing up because the post was talk asking what was Ryan Kugler's take on the queer community. Cares, and it's not because it's the queer community, and I'm not a member of that community. He's a movie maker. Who cares what he thinks about everything? Who cares what he thinks about race? He made a movie and we enjoyed it, and people bought it. I I come from a place to where, yes, I want to be ethical in the business that I do, but I'm also a human being and understand that we live in an unethical world, and I don't expect everybody to do things the best way. If I know that there's extreme exploitation going, let me stop lying. I wear Nikes, I'm unaware of most of the exploitation. What happens to just I like this, I buy this? And I'm not saying don't have a soul, but who cares about people's political thoughts and political beliefs? There are people who express theirs, let them express them. Respond how you feel. There are people who don't, they don't have to. Why does LeBron James have to have uh a stance on Israel? Why does Ronnie Coogler have to have a stance on the LGBTQ plus IA community? Why? What if his stance is, hey, not for me, do what you do? What if his stance is based on how I grew up, I don't believe in that? What if his stance is, hey man, I believe people can be fluid and do whatever the hell they want, and I'm down with to be around it. It's again not my lifestyle, but it doesn't bother me. Or it's hey, I don't have a problem with it, but stay over there. What does it matter? Did this man sign up to advocate for this community? And I am not speaking to Ryan Kugler anymore. I'm not speaking to the queer community anymore. I'm speaking to anybody who especially has a platform, has an audience, can get people to show up and spend money or show up and get their ears to have a stance on everything. If somebody asked me today, what is my stance on? I don't know. XY medicine. I'm gonna say I don't have one because it's not my bag, I don't read into it. I got my stances on the pharmaceutical industry as a whole. But I can't talk about a company or a drug because I'm not well read into it. And even if I am well read into it, it may not be something I want to share. It may not be something I want to advocate. Again, I was at these political meetings today, and you know, they're giving out their merch and their memorabilia and signs and stuff, and I'm like, man, I never put a sign in my yard. I don't know if I'd ever publicly endorse a candidate. I'll give you my political thoughts, I'll give you my opinions, my theories, my analysis. I'll bring you great political conversations with people who can from different walks of life who can provide different expert opinions come soon. But my politics shouldn't matter unless we're doing politics. Unless we're voting for something, unless we're doing direct political action, why does someone's politics matter? Oh, I don't want to be associated with somebody who thinks like this. Okay. But what if you're doing a if you're if you have a common goal for good and it's not being nothing's being inhibited by it. What if this person is a terrible like I mean, think about some of the stuff we're saying in the Epstein files. Think about all of these different um controversies we've seen throughout history. Some of these people are well decorated, decorated, well-revered figures. Still some janky, you know what I'm saying? Still janky, they still have their flaws. So why now do we have to put all of our thoughts and opinions on our sleeves? I think it's crazy. Another quick thought. Uh, I thought the Jason Whitlock and Cam Newton conversation is a very important conversation. It's not gonna get the repost, the retweets, and so much uh the of the attention that it deserves. But I thought it was an important conversation because you take these two figures, big personalities, say things, and they've been talking past each other for months, and now they finally talk to each other. I don't think they're friends, I don't think they're gonna be friends, I don't think they're gonna hang out anymore. But I thought it was important to have the sharing of ideas, the differences of perspectives hashed out uh man to man, these were two men, across from each other because it's easy to talk boldly, it's easy to disagree with somebody when they're not there. It's much more difficult to do it in their face, and whether you do it in their face or not, it it lets nobody else, the people having a conversation, know where everyone stands. If you know that somebody will do a video about you, but they won't talk to you. Well, I I know who they are. You may not have total clarity on the issue, but you got clear, but you get but you get some you get some clarity, things become more clear. So it's important for us to have conversations with those that we disagree with. I'm telling you, if you talk to strangers, they'll talk back. And oftentimes when we talk to people, we get out, we get off of the internet, we stop isolating, we stop hiding behind our classes and our parties and our race, and we just have honest conversations, real conversations, genuine conversations with people. You find out we're not so different, you and I. Last thing. Just the real last thing. I grew up wanting to be like Jesus and Martin Luther King. Those were like top two. And then I got a little bit older, and then I wanted to be like Michael Jordan. These are like the three staples of what I wanted to be when I grew up or be like. And then you get older, you get more distracted, and you have all these other things in your face, and you change course, and then maybe you you get on a good path. But but you find yourself wandering a lot, trying to figure out exactly where you fit in in life. But getting back to the core of it, man, I grew up wanting to be like Jesus, so that often leads first, you know. Do unto others, you have them do unto you. The golden rule, you know, karma. And even with that, even when I do unto others in ways that I wouldn't want them to do unto me, when the return comes around and I'm honest with myself, I go, well, I dished it out. There are certain things in life that I accept because of how I've lived, decisions that I've made. And yeah. But that comes from my foundation and wanting to be like Jesus. I grew up in a church. So yeah, it's and I get so confused when I when I see people intentionally misuse this word for hate. I'm not talking about everybody who who's out here uh uh not who preaching but not preaching the gospel because I truly believe that there are many, many people uh who are misinformed, improperly taught, uh not called, and don't know it. You know, you gotta watch out for these false gods and these false teachers. A lot of the things that look good ain't good. A lot of the things that are in line with who Jesus wasn't what we see in those who are leading us to Jesus. So when I think about that, you know, I think about the them expect the people expecting Jesus to come in on a chariot and all of this stuff again. That's what I was taught. That's what's in the the book, uh, as I understand and remember it. He came in on a donkey. Simple man, hung out with regular. People. He wasn't into all the titles. He could mix mingle in different crowds. And wanted and was truly a man of the people. So I take that. And then I think about Dr. King, you know, talking about, you know, judging people by the content of their character, not the color of their skin, you know, nonviolence, because I'm a big nonviolent guy, believe it or not. I don't think beating people up really changes much. I mean, it's natural, you have to do it to some degree. It's human. But if you want me to do something and you beat me up, that's not necessarily going to make me do it. And then if I do it, I'm going to want my get back. Now, can I get it? Different situation. Depends on how much leverage you have. But neither here nor there. So I take the examples that I took from these people. And even now, golly, they it drives so much of my studying and where I'm at today. And a lot of it's academic studying, you know, it's it's it's comparing things to what's going on in the world. And I'm so happy. And I really wish I would have stayed on this route of wanting to be like Jesus, wanting to be like Dr. King. And the last one was Michael Jordan. And the thing about Michael Jordan was just turn on the TV and it looks good. It just looks better than everybody else. Just basketball played, just in a beautiful way. And I'm a big LeBron fan. I watched his entire career. And he and I say he's my goat, but there's only one GOAT. And I'll just say Michael Jordan looked different. Uh you start adding context, different conversation, but it just looked so different. It was just better. He's the best. Everybody said he was the best. And that's what I wanted to be. And that's what I want to be. Now, what that is, what that looks like, I have no idea. But I just know I'm gonna keep following Jesus. Uh keep studying Martin and keep trying to perform like MJ. Uh, and hopefully that lands me where uh I'm supposed to be. All right, man. Y'all have a great week. I'll be back tomorrow with Parlay Peak for uh Washington Wedding. We've been off for two weeks, but uh, we'll be back with an action packed episode tomorrow. Y'all have a good one now. Y'all have a good one now. I said that like we on the phone or something.