The Spiritual Grind

Monopoly, Gecko Tails, And The Art Of Not Growing Up

Dr. Jenni and James Season 2 Episode 66

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0:00 | 48:08

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What if the fastest way to heal your mood is to act like a kid for an afternoon? We explore how “childlike rediscovery” can pull you out of fear and back into wonder, using small, tactile joys—board games, flea markets, ping pong, even a velvet-skinned crested gecko—to reset your nervous system and soften a hard week.

We share honest stories about being blindsided by life and why worry never prevented a single plot twist. From laughing at mispronounced “autopilot” to remembering childhood resilience—building forts from tall grass, drinking from garden hoses, learning to water-ski the rough way—we map a simple practice: try something playful, feel what it does to your body, and keep adjusting. That iterative approach works in the spiritual lane, too. Test different tools like meditation, breathwork, Reiki, crystals, chakra work, yoga or massage. Let what helps evolve with you. Some rituals stick, others fade. The point is curiosity, not perfection.

We also reflect on the contrast between then and now—prices, paychecks, analog adventures versus digital defaults—and what those shifts teach us about presence, value, and choosing experiences that bring us back to life. If you’re craving a reset, start tiny: shuffle a deck, text a friend, take a short walk in the rain, or hold something alive and gentle. Lower the bar for joy and let it compound.

If this resonated, tap follow, share it with someone who needs a lift, and leave a quick review to help more seekers find the show. And peek at Lucidiumworld.com for our 35% off pre‑release with limited beta spots—come play with us as we build something joyful together.

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Opening Banter And Today’s Theme

SPEAKER_00

Good morning, everybody. Welcome back to the Spiritual Grind. We're in studio with myself and Dr. Genie. Good morning.

SPEAKER_02

Good morning.

SPEAKER_00

Well, it's a beautiful or rainy day in Florida.

SPEAKER_02

It definitely is cloud cover.

SPEAKER_00

Hey, but I've done walk the two miles over almost three miles today. Do you have a topic of the day?

SPEAKER_02

No, you know me. I just kind of go show up and roll with the punches, man.

SPEAKER_00

Understood. I have a pretty good one, I think.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah?

Defining Childlike Rediscovery

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. It's called childlike rediscovery.

SPEAKER_02

Ooh. Okay. Does this have anything to do with me wanting to go by the Monopoly and make the kids play with me?

SPEAKER_00

Well, yeah, it was kind of like, well, because it's a it's a great attitude to have to, you know, be childlike and rediscover things that you don't know that could be fun now. Just because you didn't like it years ago, don't mean you don't like it now.

SPEAKER_02

Right. I think it's always kind of just a rediscovery. Yeah. Like you're always just testing to find that uh, you know, like we teach, find that feel-good place.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And trying different things out. And I find myself, uh, you know, and I don't want to keep harping on medical stuff, but we went through a uh pretty big major life thing. And so I find myself in that place of wanting to find that frequency again. And so I keep saying, I'm gonna buy some skip boat cards and Monopoly while the kids are here. The kids are visiting and make them play card games and board games with me like they did when they were kids.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, mom, come on.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, and we went to the flea market yesterday and I started to buy me a little gecko lizard, just you know the crested gecko. Yeah. Trying to find that frequency again after our little, you know, catastrophic event that happened, man.

SPEAKER_00

It's been a crazy seven days, but that's okay. I'm not gonna focus on it because we're gonna move forward with childlike positive attitudes.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I may go into the flea market today and go buy the lizard that well, we may have to walk because they're hungover and not getting out of bed.

SPEAKER_00

Right. Yeah, he said he sent a message that said he had big plans this morning to go sit on the beach before the sun came out and then wake and then he woke up at twelve.

Board Games, Flea Markets, And Geckos

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I was thinking maybe they would be here by now and they could pop in and be uh guests on the podcast today and say hello, but yeah, they're no, they had a little too much wine last night. They're recovering, I think, from their partying last night.

SPEAKER_00

Well, they had a great bounce back from their first Airbnb episode. Yeah, their first one wasn't quite up to par, so they actually changed and they walk in and get great and get greeted by cockroaches. That's pretty bad. Yeah. But anyway, so it's more of a childlike behavior. Because here's the thing that that uh mirrors to us, you know, they're in town on vacation and they fall right into a lot of the times. Like last time, they just fell right into being kids.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. And it's they usually do when they come.

SPEAKER_00

Instead of having to be adults, they want to come be kids with around their parents.

SPEAKER_02

Right. And that's usually what ends up happening. Like the last time they were here, we spent the time, the majority of the time, playing Pokemon and Yeah, trying to find Pokemon card Pokemon cards and getting Pokemon cards and just kind of hanging out and being a bunch of kids, man.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah, yeah. They did, they stayed home, they just wanted us to cook and wanted to play games the whole time. And and that's okay. And so that's where we are because I too need to rediscover fun and excitement as well. Yeah, because we've been so focused for over three years on our journey with the health because we went down a little roller coaster and and we kind of lost our well, not just health, but we were juggling our own job. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Uh the J O B job.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Of course, your cat's headache.

SPEAKER_02

That was the cat in her head. Of you know, still doing our job, which r required us to be basically as the head managers, kind of on duty all the time. And we put in hundreds of hours sometimes a week sometimes, depending on especially around holiday.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, right now we'd be busier than crap.

SPEAKER_02

Oh yeah, yeah. And then juggling the health issues through all of that. It's been a crazy couple of years. And so I think we're just going back getting back to what we teach, which is finding those things that bring us in alignment with that next joyful thing, that next joyful thing.

SPEAKER_00

Yes, totally.

SPEAKER_02

And now that the app is kind of um autopilot about it. It is a little bit. It's on allopilot, so it gives us a little more. Yeah, I know. He looked at me for those of you that wonder what it looks like on video. It said the word Alo.

SPEAKER_00

Alopilot.

SPEAKER_02

Odd. And he snapped his head and looked at me. I was like, yep, that just happened.

SPEAKER_00

Because we're on allopilot.

SPEAKER_02

Alo. Alo.

SPEAKER_00

I don't even think you said pilot, you said pilo. Alo pilo.

SPEAKER_02

Alo.

SPEAKER_00

I'll have to look that up. You'll have to look at it when you edit it.

SPEAKER_02

Hey, hey, allo.

SPEAKER_00

And so today's big plans when the kids do show up. If they do, who knows? We plan on going and getting some cars and you're gonna make them play skip bow or monopoly with you.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And that's okay to do.

SPEAKER_02

Right.

SPEAKER_00

It's okay. And that little lizard yesterday was pretty cool.

SPEAKER_02

They were. They're quite beautiful. They're called crested geckos.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, they are pretty and they're fun.

SPEAKER_02

Their skin looks like velvet.

SPEAKER_00

And they feel like velvet.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And they have suction cup for toes.

SPEAKER_02

They do, and you can feel the suction cup when you're holding them.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

When uh she took it out of my hand, I felt it go pop off.

SPEAKER_00

It just popped off your pink. And and they're they will drop their tails.

SPEAKER_02

I apparently that's what she was saying. They will drop their tails if they get stressed or if it gets in the way. If it gets in the way. And then they're called frog butt.

SPEAKER_00

Frog butt, yep. He's the the other guy was telling us that that he was the male that they had had a lot of females around him. And I guess he was breeding so much that he decided that his tail was just in the way. Yeah. And so he dropped it off.

SPEAKER_02

Right, right.

SPEAKER_00

Just so he could breed more girls, I guess.

SPEAKER_02

I guess.

SPEAKER_00

That's quite a a talent, actually.

SPEAKER_02

And the interesting thing is on the crested ones, they were saying they don't regenerate their tail, so when they drop it off and are done with it, they're just done.

Bouncing Back After A Hard Week

SPEAKER_00

So do they choose their if they could drop it? What can't they choose to read? I don't know.

SPEAKER_02

That's just what the guy was saying. I don't know a whole lot about them. We had geckos when the kids were younger, but they were different kinds. They were different. Ours were purple.

SPEAKER_00

Oh.

SPEAKER_02

And I don't remember what they were called exactly, but they were some sort of gecko. And they got these big fat tails and Yeah, my I told you that. But like lizards outside, if they lose their tail, they'll grow it back. So some regenerate.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, like my friend had that big bearded dragon.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

I was telling you that story a while ago when when his he went from regular flat earrings and he put these fancy shiny diamond ones in his ears.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And his he had he was carrying his big he had a big it was huge. It was probably four or five feet long. And uh he would put it on his shoulder and it would just sit there and he put those diamond earrings in his ear and this dragon bit his earlobe off with the diamond.

SPEAKER_02

Chasing the diamond, thinking maybe it was something shiny.

SPEAKER_00

He said he felt the tongue and then he felt the bite. It was like it was all at once and it was just regular real quick.

SPEAKER_02

Did he regenerate his earlobe?

SPEAKER_00

He did not regenerate his earlobe. But he had to go get they had to go get surgery on the gecko to get it out. They well they took him, they just they run a thing down his into his stomach and pulled the get it out that way. Yeah, pulled it out.

SPEAKER_02

Huh.

SPEAKER_00

But yeah, he came out just fine, but his earlobe wasn't.

SPEAKER_02

Interesting.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, his wife was a some kind of reptilish reptilian lady. She likes sold snakes and lizards and frogs and all sorts of exotic reptilians.

SPEAKER_01

Huh.

SPEAKER_00

But it was a pretty cool experience. But anyway, so being childlike, we can you know, you can actually exp just live those experiences if you want.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I mean that's the that's the weird, random, crazy shit we do.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, you know, when we are adults and we become parents, we have a tendency to turn that switch off.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And not not have childlike fun and behavior. And like I remember I almost remember as the more the more fun that I got, the less fun my parents got. You know, like my dad was always really playful and fun. And then like the older I got into puberty and teenage years, he'd you know, he got to where he quit playing. I don't know what that is or why, but I don't either. I mean he he still had his fun with his with his people, but not with the kids. Like he didn't he just they just quit playing with us. Interesting. So I don't want to be that person. I want to have childlike thoughts and behavior.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. I want to be the goofy old lady that still plays and dresses weird and does weird shit.

SPEAKER_00

You are that lady already.

SPEAKER_02

I am.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Good.

SPEAKER_00

You're goofy. You dress weird. Your mama dresses you funny.

SPEAKER_02

I don't have mama. But good. That's exactly the kind of person I wanna I want to just keep being childlike and goofy and just weird. Yeah. I like being weird.

SPEAKER_00

You know, you know, like me, the playful person just wants to call an Uber and go over to their place and just walk in.

SPEAKER_02

If I call an Uber, I'm gonna go get my lizard first. Not gonna lie.

SPEAKER_00

Okay.

SPEAKER_02

I'm gonna go by there and I'm gonna pick one out.

SPEAKER_00

Okay. Well you better go soon because they close in three hours.

SPEAKER_02

It's not that far to walk.

SPEAKER_00

It's a pretty good walk from here. Is it? Yeah. We don't have a golf cart.

Kids Visiting And Playful Family Energy

SPEAKER_02

We could probably borrow one from somebody.

SPEAKER_00

No, I don't think you can here because it's outside of city limits.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

But you know, I guess you could you could if you wanted to, I guess. Walk. Pretty good walk though.

SPEAKER_02

Crickets.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. I guess we could disconnect the motorhome and drive over there.

SPEAKER_02

I guess. Pull up in the motorhome.

SPEAKER_00

You should go by a lizard.

SPEAKER_02

Just to go by a lizard.

SPEAKER_00

That's kind of crazy. It would be kind of fun to have the lizard. I wonder how the cats would react to it.

SPEAKER_02

I don't know. I I'm hankering to have a lizard, a small turtle, and one of the I can I can kind of get down with the lizard.

SPEAKER_00

The turtle I'm not so down with. I don't know why. Why? Because it's a turtle.

SPEAKER_02

So they need love too.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, but how are you gonna teach this turtle to ride a skateboard?

SPEAKER_02

Have you not seen the videos on TikTok?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, but those aren't the same turtles.

SPEAKER_02

They put he puts it under his belly and he still walks. He just can walk faster because he's rolling instead of having to walk. He does this with his legs and the skateboards across his belly. And so he can go really fast, and the cats run from him.

SPEAKER_00

Okay.

SPEAKER_02

You've never seen the videos?

SPEAKER_00

I guess not. I have to look at them.

SPEAKER_02

Look it up.

SPEAKER_00

Interesting.

SPEAKER_02

And same with the gecko.

SPEAKER_00

I am gonna go play ping pong with with my with our son.

SPEAKER_02

I know, and they're and they're drunking her over in the bed. Come on, man. That's what I feel like. I feel like child waiting to be picked up by their friend so they can go play.

SPEAKER_00

Mom, are they ever gonna show up?

unknown

Right.

SPEAKER_00

Mom. Mom, can you call and see if they're gonna come? Mom.

SPEAKER_02

Right.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, because they have a ping pong table at their Airbnb. And so we w we went by yesterday to get ping pong tables, but yesterday I wasn't feeling real good, so we decided to come home and sleep.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, you went and bought ping pong paddles.

SPEAKER_00

They went and bought ping pong paddles and we were gonna go play, but then I they were I was a I don't know, I was a little tired yesterday.

SPEAKER_02

Well the day went by very quickly. Before we knew it, it was like four or five o'clock, and then I think everybody was kind of tired, honestly.

SPEAKER_00

And then I think uh uh Ish got a little long on his play, and then she hit rain going to pick him up. So he called at what, like eight thirty or nine? So that that he she wasn't even back yet or something.

SPEAKER_02

Uh yeah, he called about seven actually.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, it's about seven.

SPEAKER_02

And he was like, And I was asleep, she is caught in rain, and so they're not gonna get home till like eight or nine. And I think he and his female decided they were gonna just go find somewhere to eat and probably do a little bar hopping, apparently.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, obviously.

SPEAKER_02

According to the hangover tags that we got.

SPEAKER_00

Okay, because you know, the the closest, well, I don't know, there's they're in the bar region over there. There's bars all over the probably were bar hopping because that ocean that oceanside walker area that they call it over there. It's it's got all those Oceans Eleven resorts. Right. They all have bars in them. Yeah, yeah. And so they just whatever it is.

SPEAKER_02

And it's uh some sort of bike week at the 500.

SPEAKER_00

No, it's a bicycle race. It's not a bike race, not a not a motorcycle race. It's a bicycle race, not a bike rake bike race.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, it's a bicycle race. Bicycle race.

SPEAKER_00

Oh that's why it's all shut off out here in front of the motor home.

SPEAKER_02

I thought it was a motorcycle race. I thought it was too short. I see, I see. I got it.

SPEAKER_00

So they have this big bicycle race going on.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Which I think it ended already. I think it ended at one.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. So we are human too. Yep. We are looking to uh find that next uh fun, joyful thing, and right now I have my eyes set on having a lizard.

SPEAKER_00

Another mouth to feed.

SPEAKER_02

Oh gosh, your mouth.

SPEAKER_00

You'll have to go out here and catch the bigger.

SPEAKER_02

I mean, with the we're with the new way you're eating, I know, right? I feel like you have two mouths. And four stomachs. You have.

SPEAKER_00

I've been eating me out of house and home. Yeah, I know. I haven't beaten the dang freezer in like a week.

SPEAKER_02

Like every two hours you're eating something.

SPEAKER_00

I guess I'm just healing, I guess. It is what it is. It's okay.

SPEAKER_02

Right.

SPEAKER_00

I got a little heartburn going on right now.

SPEAKER_02

So yeah, that's what we're here to talk about. Is what'd you call it?

SPEAKER_00

Rechildlike.

SPEAKER_02

Redefining or re- Re-establishing childlike thought. Yeah, re-establishing childlike thought.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, and just being whatever, you know, who cares? And just make jokes and have fun and live life. You know, because this event for me made me thought I was, you know, like put all this freaking fear into me. And and I'm like, you know what? Because obviously it don't matter how much you study all this other stuff, it doesn't matter anyway, because you can just get surprised anyway.

Crested Gecko Facts And Pet Talk

SPEAKER_02

Well, that's the thing. It doesn't matter how much you worry, it didn't prevent it from happening. Nope. It doesn't matter about like how afraid you may or may not be. It still happened without any uh like pre-warning that we were aware of or that we knew like literally we felt like we got our legs kicked out underneath us.

SPEAKER_00

Brought into my attention f years and years ago. Yes. But it was like but there but even then the doctor said you didn't meant to meet the criteria.

SPEAKER_02

I think the the short and long of it is is fucking worrying about shit just doesn't it doesn't stop something. Well, you know, if you have a contract or if it's something you're gonna experience, come hella high water, you're gonna experience it. And that's period.

SPEAKER_00

You know, because this is the kind of thought thought process that I'm that I'm I wanted to transition from that conversation we just had was I remember when I was like I was probably 11 or so and I was riding a YZ-80 motorcycle. What'd you see what you looking at over there?

SPEAKER_02

I was just waiting for you to tell your story and see how far down the medical place we go with it.

SPEAKER_00

We're not going into it at all. I'm going completely away from it. I see. But I I rode a YZ-80 and I rode hard to the point to where I ran into a limb on a tree, I broke my two my my two fingers on my right hand, and I kept right on riding because I had the thought of I don't care. It'll be alright. And I kept running on riding. And that's because it was a childlice childlike thought. Because I was having more fun than the pain was.

SPEAKER_02

Right.

SPEAKER_00

And that's where we gotta be in life as adults is is we gotta create those childlife childlike thoughts in life.

SPEAKER_02

Or get really, really drunk.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, you can do that too.

SPEAKER_02

But I had a story where I went out partying, was very drunk, tripped over the edge of my dress, fell backwards, caught myself, dislocated my elbow, broke my elbow and my wrist.

SPEAKER_00

And you kept right up.

SPEAKER_02

And I was drunk enough where I was like, oh, well, here, let me just pop that back into place because my arm was literally pointing in the wrong direction. Let me go ahead and do that now while I'm drunk. Yeah. I had the wherewithal enough to say, yeah, if I don't do that now while I'm drunk, I may not get it back in place. So I just kind of gritted my teeth and popped it back into place in the right direction. And I just went on partying and continued partying. I'm like, there's no point in going home now.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

There's enough alcohol on board to deal with it, and it's already injured and broke. No reason to go home now and lick my wounds. I'll do that fucking tomorrow. So that's what I did. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

I've had some pretty drunken, wild, and childlike behavior.

SPEAKER_02

When tomorrow came, I was like, fuck. This is This hurts. This is this is not good. This is gonna leave a mark. So I went up to the ER and had my little doctor friend put a splint on the bitch and moved on. Moved on. It was my right hand too. So I had to learn Oh that sucks. Yeah. So I had to learn how to put my eyeliner on with my left hand. I did.

SPEAKER_00

You learned you forced yourself to learn something new.

SPEAKER_02

I did. And I got quite good at it. So now I can do it with both hands.

SPEAKER_00

Me and my buddies one time we were we had snuck into my parents into my dad's liquor cabinet and grabbed his liquor. And we were getting drunk and we were out at my buddy's his his dad had a shop and we were playing with uh rat traps.

SPEAKER_02

Like the snap kind or the sticky kind?

SPEAKER_00

No, no, the snap kind. Where you're trying to you have to beat your you have to beat it out, you know. Yeah. And uh well we had went inside because the rat trap broke and we went in to go get other ones and we were sitting around his parents bar and he set the trap and he gave it to me and not thinking what was above my hand. And so I and I've got my left hand in there and I got the trap down and I go smapping it and it got me. And I went, ah, and I raised my hand right into her wine glass rack.

SPEAKER_02

Oh my god. And you broke them.

SPEAKER_00

And I then I put my hand down and looked up, and then as just as I watched up, one of the wine glasses wiggled and then fell off the rack. Boom, right into my arm, right into my hand. I still got the scar from it. I had to learn how to how to change everything for six weeks because I got a bunch of stitches and crap in my hand, and her his his mom allowed us not to come back over and play no more.

SPEAKER_02

She allowed you not to disallowed us. You're allowed not to come back.

SPEAKER_00

You're not allowed to be back anymore. And uh because it went it was I got I got in trouble and it wasn't even my idea. Just because I stole the liquor. Don't mean nothing. But anyway. This childlike behavior though was fun just because I thought I was just trying to beat the rat trap.

SPEAKER_02

Beat the rat trap. Yeah, we did some crazy things as kids.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, you have no idea.

SPEAKER_02

I think our generation was a lot more try it, try it out, pay the consequences later.

SPEAKER_00

Oh yeah. Yeah, that's what that's how we were raised.

SPEAKER_02

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00

I feel like we were just You like I was playing with my Hot Wheels on this dirt round mound for many, many years. Yeah. And then one day my uncle's there over there and he says, Hey, you need to move off the way. We got the tractor coming because we gotta we gotta pull the the mound off the top of the septic tank. I'd been playing on top of septic tank shit water for years with my Hot Wheels.

SPEAKER_02

But it was covered in dirt.

SPEAKER_00

Like, no, the the septic tank, the the septic lines, it was a big mound of dirt that they put, and I played all the way down those things. When we we made mud pies and that crap.

SPEAKER_02

Right, but I mean our immune system's used to it. We drink out of the fucking water hose.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, I know. We did all sorts of crap. We'd throw uh we're water hose kids. We held that a gun one time.

SPEAKER_02

Thirsty. You remember going to the door and saying, Can we have in? We're thirsty.

SPEAKER_00

There's a water hose out there.

Stories Of Wild Youth And Resilience

SPEAKER_02

Drink out of the water hose. Go away, kid. They would shoo us out and lock the door, and we'd go to the door and say, We're we went in. Why do you want in? We're thirsty. Turn the water hose on and don't forget to turn it back off. You'll make a mud puddle. Like we were drinking out of the water hose for years. We're probably some mutated species where we could probably survive like a Twinkie atomic bomb or something. We'll be the only generation that can survive because of the exposure.

SPEAKER_00

And we played with everything with nothing.

SPEAKER_02

That's right. And it was nothing to drop something in the dirt, dust it off a little bit, and put it back in your mouth and eat it.

SPEAKER_00

I remember making complete forks, forts out in the open pasture behind the house with that big, tall yellow grass.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

We would cut it out in clumps and we would ride it and make and tie it into bundles, and then we would literally dig like you know, ditches into the ground with our with our bare hand.

SPEAKER_02

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00

And then we would build these forts out of these bundles of this grass that we would make. And man, we'd play for that for weeks.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

It would almost be like an ongoing thing with all the ever all my friends growing up because we it was more fun to play with well. We would just play with nothing. We figured out ways to play with things.

SPEAKER_02

Right, exactly.

SPEAKER_00

And that's that childlike thought.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. I mean, I think most of the time, for the majority of the time, I can speak for myself, I would rather be outside.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, yeah, totally.

SPEAKER_02

Than to be indoors.

SPEAKER_00

Yep. I didn't want because I was in the house, my mom was wanting me to clean something.

SPEAKER_02

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00

And I would as long as I was home by dark, I was good.

SPEAKER_02

That's right. I can remember getting, you know, I can remember getting an illness and not being allowed to go out.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And I would like the my like my fever would break or whatever, and I'd feel better. And then I would be like, okay, I'm ready to go outside and play. Like I want to go back outside. Nope, you're sick. So by God, when you were, you made sure you were sick because you didn't want to get trapped in the damn house.

SPEAKER_00

I just never told anybody I was sick.

SPEAKER_02

I mean, there were some times where I was truly ill and I just really couldn't do it. But you made dang sure you didn't like call wolf because they would trap your ass in the house and then they're like, they did this on purpose, just to teach you. That's right.

SPEAKER_00

To toughen you up. You're pretty crazy. And being trapped in the house, man, when you can't go outside is you remember when they used to slam on the brakes on the car just to stop you? Yeah. Just to mess with you. Not because you weren't wearing your seatbelt.

SPEAKER_02

No, that's so opposite story. When we weren't sitting down in the seat, because back in our generation, you didn't have to have seat belts.

SPEAKER_00

Right.

SPEAKER_02

And you could still stand up in the seat and not get pulled over by the police. You could ride in the back of the truck bed. Like all that was legal and okay to do. And if we were standing up in the seat in the back seat of the car after being told a couple of times to sit down, yes.

SPEAKER_00

They would slam on the brakes and your head would hit the freaking windshield. Yes. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

I can tell you, my dad did that a lot of times. He would pop the brake to yeah, to slam us down to teach us a lesson air quote.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And we would sit down then for a minute, but I can remember standing back. Yeah, yeah. I can remember that.

SPEAKER_00

That's all kind of funny.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

I remember my Uncle Gary, he had this white Dodge truck. It was like a 80s, early 80s model. Yeah. And uh there was this road, um, U the Gall Road. It was I can't remember what the name of that road is, actually. But it would it was like really hilly and really star, you know, sharp up and down.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And we would get in the, he would, he would make all of us get in the back of the truck and he would literally fly down that road just so we would I mean we would come up off the bed of the truck and then bam on the bottom as he went through the bottom and he would just be laughing his ass off the whole time. And nowadays it's like child endangerment, but right.

SPEAKER_02

Reckless endangerment of the child.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, totally.

SPEAKER_02

You get a pretty hefty uh penalty for doing that.

SPEAKER_00

Or he would do that shit on purpose too on the boat. Like any he had a he had a flat bottom boat.

SPEAKER_02

For sure.

SPEAKER_00

And if you stood up in the boat without and he w wasn't and you weren't ready for it, it just out of just out of spite, he would throw your ass in the water. Oh no, he wouldn't. There would be no try. He would throw your ass straight in the water.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. Our uncle who always brought the boat to our um what do you call those gatherings? Family reunions.

SPEAKER_00

Family reunions.

SPEAKER_02

He would do the same thing. He would do the same exactly. And then just laugh.

SPEAKER_00

Oh yeah, they just laugh about it. They toughened you up back then.

SPEAKER_02

Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_00

You know, like my buddy, his dad had a boat. It was a jet boat. And uh that boat would run like 120 across the water. It was called the SS Gitchy Sum. It was the name of it.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And uh when I first started hanging out with them, they invited me to go to their lake house. His dad, here's a here's a really cool story story. His dad owned a little three-person tray uh drywall company. And when w the uh Uligal school system got hit by a tornado in like uh say it was probably the eighty six, eighty seven, somewhere in there. Um, and it got destroyed. And he got he went online and bid for the entire drywall job for this entire rebuild of the school.

SPEAKER_01

Okay.

SPEAKER_00

And he got it. He became a millionaire overnight.

SPEAKER_01

Okay.

SPEAKER_00

But anyway, so he had his he ended up with his great big lake house. And uh he says, yeah, his no Chris invites me to go with him for the for uh um the weekend for the to the lake house. And I was like, sure, I'll go. That was cool, you know. And his his dad says to me, Do you know how to ski? No, sir, never skied before. Oh, well it's it's gonna be your lucky weekend then. Well, first thing in the morning we'll take the boat out and we'll teach you how to ski. And I was like, all right, I was more there to fish because I had a fishing boat too.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And we get out on the water and and uh he's laughing and carrying on, and he's like, I was nervous, you know. I you know, he'd they'd fit a live vest on me and and uh how old were you?

SPEAKER_02

Uh I was never skied before at this point? Nope, never skipped before. Okay, okay. I was like, why were you nervous?

SPEAKER_00

I was probably eleven, twelve, you know. And uh understand. And so the and Chris is laughing at me. That's my friend. He's laughing the whole time because his dad's like all being serious. He's like, okay, so this is what you do, blah blah blah. He's all telling me all this stuff, right? And and uh and so he he tells me, jump in the water, lay back on your vest, hold your skis out of the top of the water, yeah, keep your rope between your skis and try to stop the boat when it takes off.

SPEAKER_02

Right, right.

SPEAKER_00

I'm like, okay. I could do that. He said all you gotta do is try to and when you when you feel it, you'll pop up and then just put you lean back on the rope.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Just like that. He made it sound easy as pie, right? And uh what it came out to be actually it was easy to pie when I actually did it. Right. Because he this is how I find out later this is how he taught people. Is the first time he did it, I leaned back on the and he he put everything into that jet boat and it took off out of the hole so far that it jerked me out of the skis and I flew through the air probably ten feet and landed face first in the water, then he just laughed at it again. And he was like, You ready to go try again? And I didn't know he did it on purpose because he wanted you to feel the power of the boat. I found out later, but you know, we were all laughing about it, then then the the like the second time I get I get literally get straight up and I actually am skiing. Right. And uh and so he tells me to start trying, he can hear him, try things, lean left, lean right, whatever, you know. And I was I was a child, I was a kid. I was like, okay, sure, I'll try it. Right. Try anything once. And I'm just jumping around, I'm going back and forth out of the thing, and then I'm in the middle, and and he said, When you're done, he said, all I want you to do is give you the thumbs down like this, and then show me an open hand, and then I'll I'll slow the boat down so you can just let go. And uh so I went, I was pretty worn out, and and I'm and I'm giving him the s the thumbs down, and before I get the thing open, he goes, You ready? And I'm and so I'm like I'm like, What? He goes, and he and then he turns the freaking rooster tail on at about 40 miles an hour on the water. And that water hits me straight in the face, and I tumble uh you know, it's like what you see in those videos on you know uh America's funniest home videos. Gonna get always head over heels across the top of the water. And uh, but it was pretty funny. It was funny to watch afterwards because his mom was videoing all of it.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And uh, but it was a fun childlike behavior. I'd yeah, I jumped right up after that. I I had made the initiation, you know. I was I was the cool kid now.

SPEAKER_02

Did she have that big huge VCR border with the VH tape and carried that thing everywhere? They were so huge compared to what they are now today.

SPEAKER_00

Yep. She actually had a a uh in a stand for it mounted on the boat.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And they would yeah, she used that anywhere she went, anywhere we were, she had the video camera out.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, yeah. That's way back when it was.

SPEAKER_00

She had lost a daughter back years ago, and so it she after that she changed, she videoed everything. Yeah.

Growing Up Then Vs Now

SPEAKER_02

After that, but that's how my aunt was. She had one of those big ass, they were huge.

SPEAKER_00

And so heavy too.

SPEAKER_02

And heavy, and so it was hard to like it. She would let me try, and I would have to put it on my fucking shoulder just to keep it holded up. And my video that I recorded was like just all over the place, moving too fast, moving too fast and shaking because it was so heavy.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Oh my gosh. And the kids these days don't even know what a VHS.

SPEAKER_00

You read they know they have no glue. They have no glue.

SPEAKER_02

No idea. Something else I found interesting. We were watching that um what's that comedian's name last night? He said something interesting. Matt Ruff. Yeah, he was saying at his age, he will never know what if Michael Jackson was black or white.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Other than from online videos, yeah. Videos.

SPEAKER_00

And he's like, he didn't really know if Michael Jackson was black or white. He didn't know because he was young enough. He was like, he's only 32.

SPEAKER_02

It kind of popped me for a minute because I'm like, yeah, even the people that we grew up listening to or watching on TV, these next generations.

SPEAKER_00

They have no clue who they are.

SPEAKER_02

They don't. They have no clue who they are.

SPEAKER_00

They don't know what it was like to not have a computer.

SPEAKER_02

Right. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00

I remember I didn't get a we didn't have a computer at home until matter of fact, I think I was already out of the house.

SPEAKER_02

Oh yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Before we got a computer at home. And we had a computer at work, but all it was was basically a fancy calculator.

SPEAKER_02

It was. It was just very basic typewriter and calculator. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Pretty crazy. They they don't they won't know how to experience it. They don't what it that you know, their life.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. It's much different. Most of the kids nowadays don't even know how to write a check.

SPEAKER_00

I know, right? It's all electronics.

SPEAKER_02

Isn't that funny? I taught our kids how to write checks as part of their learning experience when they got their account.

SPEAKER_00

You know, there are some rural towns that these these kids nowadays don't even know what a Walmart is or a Target because everything's done through Amazon.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

I didn't even think about that until he made a joke about it.

SPEAKER_02

Right.

SPEAKER_00

He said he has little nephews that live in like somewhere in uh northern Indiana in a small town that has no they have no stores. They have no Walmart or anything. Uh-huh. And so uh everything that they own is Amazon. And so all they know is online shopping.

SPEAKER_02

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that makes sense.

SPEAKER_00

And so it's like, and then it it's like, oh wow, it's not even something you don't think about. Kind of childlike that childlike thought and behavior.

SPEAKER_02

Kind of crazy if you think about it.

SPEAKER_00

It really is.

SPEAKER_02

Especially when I We didn't have internet. I do remember our our grandparents sitting around talking about things like uh listening to the radio um after family dinner.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

As their family get together.

SPEAKER_00

And it was my grandma Horner didn't even that's all she had was a radio.

SPEAKER_02

Well, and some of them didn't even have a radio. Like my one grandmother said, We didn't have radio. We sat around and we told stories.

SPEAKER_00

They read things like that.

SPEAKER_02

The other grandmother had a radio.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

But my one grandmother, she was like, We didn't have radio. We sat around and told stories and interacted with each other after our even the movies that were old when we were kids?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Just started TV, like Greece. Right. No, they had just had black and white TV and it was only the little small TVs, and they had just started broadcasting that in major cities.

SPEAKER_02

Right. Even our TVs were much different than they are.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, yeah, total.

SPEAKER_02

We had to be the antenna. We've talked about that before.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

But I can also remember hearing stories from my grandparents of, you know, like uh going to the movies and being able to go to the movies and buy their snack on like a nickel.

SPEAKER_00

Oh my god. Yes.

SPEAKER_02

Or I can remember as a child going and my grandmother smoked, and I was in kindergarten, first grade, somewhere around there. I can remember going into the store for her and them letting me buy her cigarettes.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And I got to take the change and buy, you know, like four or five pieces of bubblegum or whatever. Or being able to take two dollar bill, buy some gas, go in and pay for the gas and get me a pack of cigarettes, and then you can buy, you know, bubblegum with the change. Being able to buy a pack of cigarettes, a tank of gas, and like three or four pieces of bubblegum, because they were a penny.

SPEAKER_00

Yep.

SPEAKER_02

On a two dollar bill. That's what it seemed like.

SPEAKER_00

My mom used to give me three dollars. And I would drive down during during the summer when I was out of school. I would ride my bicycle like eight miles, by the way. And I would for three dollars, I'd get her a pack of cigarettes, a six-pack amount and dew, a that would get us two deli sandwiches for lunch, and I'd still get like 45 cents worth of gum.

SPEAKER_02

Right, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

All on three bucks.

SPEAKER_02

Right. That's what I'm saying. We can remember that.

SPEAKER_00

I could buy those deli sandwiches for 35 cents a piece.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. But I can remember my grandparents telling stories like that of being able to buy, you know, even less than that, less than less than that.

SPEAKER_00

Like my dad, yeah, I remember my dad telling me a story one time with his first car. Uh he could fill up the entire tank for a dollar and eighty cents.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

That's from a fill-up. That's like a f and back then that was those are full tanks, they were 50-gallon tanks.

SPEAKER_02

Or my grandmother, she always was in the nursing genre for her career, or she sat with elderly or sick people. And I would I can remember asking her, well, how how much did you get paid to do that back then? And she was like, Oh, I got paid like a dollar fifty a month. And I'm like, Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, we have to talk about talk about Sal, 99, 98 years old now.

SPEAKER_02

Talk about like poor income. She was like, Well, you have to remember, uh a quarter would buy like all this.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And I'm like, oh my God, like they could buy their whole list of groceries for the month on a freaking quarter. I don't even remember what the amount was. I'm over exaggerating, obviously.

SPEAKER_00

Winsell told me he got his first job at age at age fifteen.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

His monthly pay was two dollars. And eighty six cents.

SPEAKER_02

Right.

SPEAKER_00

A month.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

That was in the military.

SPEAKER_02

Right.

SPEAKER_00

Two dollars and eighty-six cents a month. Yeah. That's what my grandmother. That's 98 years ago. That's how old he is. Yeah. It's kind of crazy.

SPEAKER_02

A month. And so they had to pay for housing and groceries and all of that. And that was plenty of money to do that. That's what my grandmother was trying to explain to me is yeah, it sounds like not a lot, but I lived comfortably.

SPEAKER_00

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02

I bought groceries. I had my housing and all that.

SPEAKER_00

And most of them were able and we had enough money to build wealth for a nickel.

SPEAKER_02

For retirement.

SPEAKER_00

They could build wealth wealth on that.

Prices, Paychecks, And Saving In Past Generations

SPEAKER_02

Exactly. Yeah. My aunt, she would, she was a stay-at-home mom, and my uncle was the one who went to work. She would get uh two quarters, um, I don't remember, maybe once a month, to go and buy the list of things she needed for the house, and then one quarter was for her to buy her um, you know, like lipstick and like her needs. Right. Yeah. And get her hair done. She would go and get her hair poofed up and back combed and all of that. And she said she could do all of that on her little quarter allowance and still have money left over. And so her money left over, she would put back in her little savings jar.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And then whenever they got ready to do like family vacation or something, they went on these big, huge, extravagant vacations, and she ended up having all on a quarter. Almost all of the family's retirement saved back.

SPEAKER_00

Yep.

SPEAKER_02

Because she would put part of her allowance, so to speak, back.

SPEAKER_00

Yep.

SPEAKER_02

You know, that's like uh I'm like, it's mind blowing when you think about it.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I remember Doc telling me a story one time that uh him and his wife when he first got uh when he went in the military and take after he got married, that he would take uh I th I want to say it was fifty cents. Yeah. And he would buy a little piece of gold.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And it was like a grime or something, a gram or something, I don't remember.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And uh when he when his wife at twenty hit twenty their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary, she took all the gold and care and cast it in.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And it was like five hundred thousand dollars worth of gold.

SPEAKER_02

Right.

SPEAKER_00

Because it had went so much time in that twenty-five years, so much growth.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. And yeah, I saw a thing on TV the other day and I thought, you know what? Maybe we should start buying some little gold and silver pieces just to kind of I used to do it and I sold everything.

SPEAKER_00

I used two years ago.

SPEAKER_02

I felt the hankering. So anyway, so that was kind of the I don't know. That was a different kind of podcast. Yeah, it was fun though. It was good. Uh I think the key thing is trying different things.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Just let it be fun. Find the if you're especially if you're going through a wonky time.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Just randomly out of the blue, try some, try some off the wall things to try and find that joy vibration.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

I think for me, what I wanted to convey to the people that listen to us is that even we get knocked off course. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And that just because you find something that gives you joy today doesn't mean that it's gonna be what works for you tomorrow, the next day, or whatever.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Be open and willing to let that change.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, totally.

SPEAKER_02

And try something different and be willing to try something different.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, totally. Be open-minded.

SPEAKER_02

There's no book that says there is no manual and do this, and life will be good. You've got to try things. Yep. Even in the metaphysical world uh that we play in, you know, when you're going through your awakening process and things feel hard and you're trying to get down to that belief system that makes you feel wonky and you don't really have a daily routine that to speak of, you've got to try different things. Try stones, go get a massage, do some meditation, have chakra work done, go try all those different modalities to see what works for you. Yeah, and then know that if it changes, allow it to change.

SPEAKER_00

Agreed.

SPEAKER_02

Go back out there and explore uh what that looks like.

SPEAKER_00

Totally. You gotta be open-minded to it.

SPEAKER_02

I mean, because in my I can tell you, in my journey, which is going on 40 years now, 30 something years, I went, I did everything from Wicca to spell work, to stones, to meditation, to yoga, like chakra work. I I've tried it all, and some some hung on for a little while, some hung on other like I'm still a big stoner, yeah, and stones still are a big part of my life, but some of that other stuff faded away, and my daily routine changed.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And still changes to this day.

SPEAKER_00

Yep, totally. So you know, and and it it got us from point A to point B.

SPEAKER_02

Always does. That's the thing.

SPEAKER_00

I feel complete.

SPEAKER_02

Try something. Go play Monopoly or Skip Bow. Yeah, really. Or buy a lizard. I'm coming, my sweet lizard.

SPEAKER_00

Well, hey guys, uh, we appreciate y'all listening. Don't forget to check out Lucidiumworld.com. That's L-U-C-I-D-I-U-M World.com. That's our new app that's about to come out. And you can still check out the website at www.themircenters.org. And uh don't forget to like, follow, and share and tell all your friends about it. And be paying attention because we're gonna be setting out an a uh uh commercial that where you can actually buy a year's subscription to Lucidium World app at a 35% discount for the entire year.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, yeah, yeah. I'd be in like one of the first so many.

SPEAKER_00

It's a pre-launch sign up. Yeah, if you it's gonna be a pre-launch, we're only gonna allow 500 people to do it because we're also gonna improve or we're going to add uh 50% of those people into the beta. We're gonna do random randomization, yeah, and uh 250 of those 500 people will be added into the beta testing. So it'll be a little upfront. Uh here you go. Thank you for working in.

SPEAKER_02

Believing in us following us and helping test out the app.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, and so we'll give you a discount for the first year.

SPEAKER_02

For sure, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

All right, but anyway, um, don't forget to like, follow, share, share, raise or ring that bell. And uh, we hope y'all.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I'm still here. Did I get evicted?

SPEAKER_00

No way.

SPEAKER_02

Because I'm supposed to say ring the bell.

SPEAKER_00

You do? You always say that.

SPEAKER_02

I always say ring the bell.

SPEAKER_00

Okay, let's try this again. Hey guys, don't forget to like, follow, and share. Share, and don't forget to ring that bell. Hey, you'll have an awesome day.

SPEAKER_02

Love ya, and we're going to be able to