Out of the Blue - The Podcast: Finding the Way Forward
Out of the Blue-the Podcast features interviews with inspirational survivors of traumatic out of the blue events who have overcome unimaginable challenges, sharing their stories of resilience and triumph. By sharing these stories, "Out of the Blue" aims to create a community where others who have faced similar hardships can find solace and strength as together, we find the way forward.
Out of the Blue - The Podcast: Finding the Way Forward
Compassion, Community, and Calling with Tom Rossignoll
A teenager gets dragged off the couch to volunteer, and a lifelong purpose begins. That’s the heartbeat of our conversation with Tom Rossignoll, a home-care physical therapist assistant with over 30 years of experience and a city councilor who leads with empathy, candor, and common sense.
We dive into the unexpected origins of service, starting with a young Special Olympics athlete whose love for basketball flipped Tom’s view of people, labels, and the power of simply showing up. From there, we step into the intimate world of home care. Tom shares patient victories that stick and the mindset that separates progress from plateau: therapists provide the map; patients bring the drive. We also explore how purpose passes through families.
The episode widens into a frank, down-to-earth look at local politics. Tom explains why serving neighbors demands the same habits that make great care possible: listening, clarity, and decisions rooted in values rather than party or money. We touch on term limits, civic decency, and practical compromise. Threaded through it all are stories of resilience, including a Division I shortstop who turned a life-altering stroke into a platform for hope, and an 18-year-old who found light again after losing both legs.
If you’re craving a reminder that purpose is discovered in small acts and sustained by honest work, this one’s for you.
Out Of The Blue:
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Welcome back to Out of the Blue the Podcast, where real people share stories of resilience, gratitude, and those unexpected turning points that change everything. I'm your host, Vernon West, joined today by my son and co-host Vernon West III, a talented singer, songwriter, and artist who created both our logo and our theme song. Today we're shining a light on someone whose entire life has been about service, community, and heart. Our guest, Tom Rosignal, is a lifelong Peabody resident, a proud dad of two amazing daughters, Amanda, a kindergarten teacher right there in Peabody, and Christina, who's finishing her doctorate in physical therapy. Tom himself has been a physical therapist assistant with MGH Home Care for over 30 years, and he's also served his community as a Peabody City counselor at large for the past eight years, after another eight on the school committee. But the story that brought Tom here today isn't about politics or even career. It's about the spark that set all of that in motion. When he was a teenager, his father, who was deeply involved with the Elks and the Special Olympics, brought him along to volunteer at practices. At first, Tom didn't have much choice in the matter. But what happened next was life-changing. Those moments of helping others opened his eyes and his heart and taught him that when we give of ourselves, we often receive even more in return. That out of the blue moment planted the seed for a life dedicated to compassion and connection. Tom Rosie now, welcome to Out of the Blue the Podcast.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you very much for having me. It's an honor to be here. Thank you.
SPEAKER_02:It's an honor to have you. And it's, you know, you are probably you know, we've been running a lot of, we've had a lot of podcasts with people that are first responders, um, and that. So you're like the first healthcare person. I think, I believe you are. We have some people that work in healthcare, but not exactly actually in healthcare. So that is going to be an interesting uh view to Out of the Blue. So uh, as we usually start our podcast, we start at the beginning. Well, the beginning seems to be way back when you're a teenager being dragged against your will to the elks. And dad said, Come on, you're gonna come with me. What do you say? Come on, you're like, no, just come, shut up and come, right?
SPEAKER_00:Exactly. You're doing nothing, you're sitting on the couch, you're a 13, get out of the house, let's go, you're coming with me. Right as an extra pair of hands to help with the kids.
SPEAKER_02:And you thought, oh, geez, all right, Dad, whatever.
SPEAKER_00:Well, think of yourself like a 13-year-old, typical, like you'd rather spend time with your friends, you'd rather be doing something different, even if it's just sitting on the couch, you'd rather be doing that than going and volunteering and and trying to um, you know, spend your time, A, with your dad at that age, and then B, um, with handicapped um children, you you know, in your mindset at that age, you're like, no, I'd rather be doing, you know, sports outside or riding my bike or whatever it was. Um, so in the beginning, you know, my dad would force me to go to um Special Olympics and especially basketball. I I still remember this one kid, his name was Michael, and he was Down syndrome, and and he literally changed my mindset when it came to seeing people. Um, you know, I as a teenager and and not knowing what I don't know back then. Watching him just love the game of basketball and being able to shoot three pointers for literally an hour. I just sat there and I was his gopher. I'd catch the ball, I'd throw it to him, he'd shoot. And and he was just so passionate about it, it kind of sparked me like, wow, you know, I can see his passion, and it made me compassionate about his love for sports, which is something that we both kind of had a kindred spirit. So we would talk about it and he would be all excited about uh sports. And then, you know, the next week it would be somebody different that would kind of touch me or or or affect me in that type of way, shape, or form. So the in the beginning it was my dad dragging me, and then towards the end, I'm like, you know, it's 11:30. Don't you think we should get there early? Don't you think we should get there early? And dragging him off the couch, getting him ready to go to these events. So it was my it was kind of like altering your your perspective as far as how you see people, how you interact with people. And and ever since then, it it's had a profound direction as far as my career goes, being a therapist and and helping people. Um, around the same time, actually, my grandmother had a stroke. So it was a pretty dense stroke. And now, fast forward, I'm probably just starting high school and seeing what the therapist did for her, and then my um interests and my um time with Special Olympics really kind of solidified what I really wanted to do. And it's what's that old saying? If uh you do something you love, you don't have to work a day in your life.
SPEAKER_02:So true.
SPEAKER_00:And it's been it's been a ride for 30 years now doing what I love.
SPEAKER_02:Wow, huh? It goes by fast, doesn't it? 30 years.
SPEAKER_00:It really does. It really does.
SPEAKER_02:It's amazing, but especially when you found your purpose.
SPEAKER_00:And it's funny because I still remember going on the guidance counselor, and you you you you you go there and you're like, oh, okay, you know, what what should I be when I grow up? And she's like, Oh, well, you you're not really a fantastic student, and but and you don't really sit still. So I'm really not sure. And it was funny, like then I was looking up different careers and what my likes were, and it this was just kind of almost a natural path.
SPEAKER_02:That's like an amazing, uh, amazing out of the blue thing, though your dad changed your whole paradigm.
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely.
SPEAKER_02:You know, absolutely you came out of it completely different. I mean, or at least focused. You found something that you were passionate about through that event, you know.
SPEAKER_03:Exactly.
SPEAKER_02:I think that's a that's a key thing with more a lot of people that have the out-of-the-blue kind of events is that when they hit you, it's almost like it's a message coming through the the event, and you either hear it or you don't. If you do hear it, I think it becomes like that. You know, you were very fortunate to even have heard it at that age, 13, you know.
SPEAKER_00:Well, it's funny because it's actually kind of how I started in politics too. I've never seen myself political, ever. When I mean, I would vote, I vote every year since I was 18, but I was never into politics. And my kids were 8 and 12 at the time, and I just happened to meet Dave McGeini, who was on the school committee, and we were just had having a conversation, again, just completely out of the blue or random conversation. And I said, you know, there's a lot of things that I can see that needs to change in the schools. And he's like, Oh, yeah, tell me about them. And at that time, I didn't even know he was in the school committee. I I was just having a conversation with somebody I just happened to meet, and he goes, Well, I'm on the school committee, you know. I said, Oh, really? Well, what about this and what about that? And he goes, you know, you should really run. I said, Well, I'm not political. He goes, but that's what makes you good to run.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I was gonna say the exact same thing.
SPEAKER_00:It is you're doing this for the right reasons. It's not because you want to leg up or you want to become uh whatever, you're doing it because you're a vested parent in your kid's education, and we need more of that. And that kind of lit a fire under me. And you know, I it I grew up in puberty, my mom's from puberty, my grandmother's from puberty. So I knew a lot of people either from through their connections or volunteering and different things. So it it that's another kind of out-of-the-blue moment that really sparked me in a completely different direction, but still in the manner of helping people.
SPEAKER_02:Just for the for our listeners that may not be from Massachusetts, Peabody is in Massachusetts, Peabody, Massachusetts, just north of Boston, um, like 25 minutes out of Boston, really.
SPEAKER_00:Right next to Salem.
SPEAKER_01:Everybody knows where Salem is.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, yeah, right. Salem, right?
SPEAKER_01:That's that's what I tell everyone in Los Angeles. They say, Peabody, Peabody? Peabody. It's next to Salem. Oh, witches. Yeah, the witches.
SPEAKER_02:Well, George Peabody uh named it after him, and he's famous, that guy all around the world. He has a building in England, I believe. Yes.
SPEAKER_00:So actually, there's folklore that um uh Ebony is a Scrooge is actually a Peabody resident. Well, no, no, no, it's that it's based on George Peabody because yeah, so so him and the author, um Dickens, yeah, were actually friends. When he lived in the United States, he was kind of miserly, he was very reclusive, he didn't have family. When he went to England, still to this day, there are actually tenements in England that are free that he established back then. Oh wow, so there is actually a uh uh uh folklore, I'll I'll call it that of a very you know, a very real correlation.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, uh he got out of his Scroogey ways when he went to Britain. You know, that's right.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, Scrooge is more of a literary name than Peabody. Ebenezer Peabody.
SPEAKER_00:Might not fly.
SPEAKER_02:But that's really interesting, you know, really cool too.
SPEAKER_00:So that that's the namesake of of the city I grew up in. Um, so you know, politically there's a lot going on, and there always is. Um, and then as far as therapy goes, when I, you know, when I wasn't sure of what I wanted to be growing up, and then I find a found this is it. This kind of combines what my dad kind of instilled in me, and plus my grandmother um having her stroke and seeing what they did. I I knew that this was the right path, and and it's literally been the right path ever since, you know. And I've done you know, acute care, I've done outpatient therapy, I've done um sniff or or nursing home, and I've done home care. They're all A, important, um, and but but B, they they all have their quirks. Yeah, the the one thing I love about doing home care is I'm in their world. I'm a I'm a guest in somebody else's world and trying to do what I can to get them mended, fixed, help in any way that I can to get them to do things that they want to be able to do in their home as well as outside in the community. So, and it's funny because now fast forwarding to doing this for a long period of time, what I've seen and what I've what I've um my experience is unfortunately bad things happen to good people. They really do. And and people, you never know what somebody's struggles are in the community. I I, you know, I do home care in the same town that I uh I'm a counselor in in the same town I live. So I'm seeing people at a grocery store or someplace else in the community, and they're like, oh my God, I can't thank you enough for getting me to be able to do this again because I hadn't been able to get out of my house in whatever amount of time. And those successes or those um triumphs from that person, it it and I and I tell them it has very little to do with me, it has to do with you and your want and your your will to do it, you know. If you have the ambition, you have the drive, I'll show you the map, but you got to take yourself there. And the people that are the most successful are the ones that, yep, I'm gonna, I I don't, I know what I'm going through, and I know it's awful, and I know it's it's it's really difficult. But if I put my mind that old, if I put my mind to it, I know I can kind of accomplish anything, and you can really, I guess I just quoted uh back to the future there. Um, but you can really it in in some respects it as it it really is true. The successes I've seen in therapy and in the patients I've had are the ones that will grab the bull by the horn and say, Nope, I I got this. Thank you for showing me that I can do it.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I mean, it it's coming from somebody like yourself who found their purpose, right? I I I just know that that communicates strength to the people you're you're teaching and helping because that you are focused on it. You know that you've seen enough results that your purpose is is going to drive you to do it. Like we talked to somebody the other day, we're saying um thing that um he said that eight or nine percent peep of the population are walking in their purpose. But you know, it's it's really really amazing when I hear somebody like yourself who's doing exactly that. You're walking and living your life for your purpose. And I mean, I'm a musician, I've been a musician my musician my whole life, really. And so was Vernon and my daughter, and we found purpose in that, you know. Um that was always done by me to because I always wanted to help people feel better. That's what music was for me. And um, and then the podcast became another way to do that to help people. So I that's my purpose. But I mean, everybody has I was I think I said this when I had my first boat of cancer, and we had played me and my son and my daughter had played a gig, a couple of gigs called the VW Bus Band. And anybody listening wants to look it up on YouTube, it's there, you can hear some of our songs.
SPEAKER_01:Shameless plug. I love it.
SPEAKER_02:Why not?
SPEAKER_01:Why not?
SPEAKER_02:But we did these shows, and I remember saying to the cut to kids, and they were kids at the time, Verna was maybe going back to school that year. Maybe you had you graduated? Had you graduated?
SPEAKER_01:I think I was like 24, 25.
SPEAKER_02:Because I remember getting on this horse about something. I kept saying to them, you gotta find your purpose, and then you get your passion behind the purpose, and that's the key to life. And I I feel like I I was saying that with all this vim and vigor at the time. I had no idea I was about to get my ass kicked by leukemia, but I did say that, and I think that kind of prepped me for going through that whole nightmare. But um, because you do have to have a purpose, and without a purpose, what is life, right? It's meaningless that you're doing that inspires me to see you do that. I know that I've you know been um, you know, you're one of your patients, so I know very well firsthand what it's like to have Tom Rosignal telling you, you can do it.
SPEAKER_00:Well, it's so funny that story that you just say, as far as you instilling what your desires, your passions are, and how strong and um uh uh uh passionate you are about those. And then your your children are following kind of in that same footsteps because they saw the passion come out from what you were instilling in them. If you if you think about me and my life, it's kind of the same thing. But both of my daughters are in one's it a teacher, which started when I, if you think about it, like when I was on the school committee, she saw the intrical workings of that. And then my other daughter is going to school for PT. And the the irony of that is I kind of did to Christina what my dad did to me. She's probably a preteen, actually, she was in fifth grade at the West School on the basketball team, and I happened to be the coach. And I said, you know what? Tom, Tom Gould runs what's called Challenger, which is a special Olympic. Um it's a it's it's a basketball program that in um incorporates um regular education, a special education students into a basketball program. And it's kind of like an open gym, but with basketball the primary focus. So I took all of my students there. Instead of a practice, one day we went to the Carol School and I said, This is our practice. We're gonna have fun with this group of kids. Now, some kids were scared. Amanda, I mean, Christina took over, loved every minute of it. And even to this day, she says one of the girls she met there, this girl Amanda, she goes, she made me want to be a therapist, and she like her primary focus is she wants to be is in pediatrics, and all goes back to this little girl at the time, Amanda, who is now literally a freshman in college. So, so she kind of has the same out of the out of the blue experience. Like, if if I didn't instill or show her other things that are out there, I don't know if she would take the path that she's on now.
SPEAKER_02:Passing the out of the blue right on down the line.
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01:And I and I will add, there's there was from you, Dad, there was never like a you have to do this thing. But it was, yeah, I mean, just being a part of it and feeling like you it was just genuine, that becomes more way more intriguing and inspiring. Because when you see someone you love that finds their purpose in a thing, it's way more inspiring to pursue it than if someone's like, you need to do this, right? Because then because then you like rebel.
SPEAKER_00:Right. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. So you you saw the passion in your dad and something that he loves, and that kind of gave you the want. Because if you don't have the want, if you don't have the desire, then it's it's then you haven't found your passion yet. You haven't found it.
SPEAKER_02:True, that's true. You have to get to that to the place where you really want it, and that's pad, that's the passion.
SPEAKER_00:That is, and and a lot of those experiences can be just happenstance or or out of the blue, that moment that all of a sudden it kind of all clicks.
SPEAKER_02:It all coalesces and becomes something.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and it just it's like a perfect storm that happens right at that moment. Then it's like, wow, this is what I'm meant to do. This is where the direction I'm meant to take.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, because life is short, man, and it goes by so fast. Those those moments you make decisions come and they're they seem like they're very transient. Like they don't you only have it then. And that's a juncture in your life, you have pathways you could take, and you take that one.
SPEAKER_00:Well, think about this. Remember when your kids were little? I I guarantee you've had uh uh other parents say this your kids are let's say third, fourth grade, and then one of the older parents say, Oh, don't worry, it goes by really fast. And you're like, Yeah, yeah, you're in the middle of it, so you're not really paying attention to it. And then all of a sudden you blink and it's like, wait, they're graduating in like a week. Where did this all go? What happened to the fourth grader I had? Yeah, next thing you know, they're in California pursuing their careers, and it does go by in a blink of an eye.
SPEAKER_01:In a blink of an eye, not for the kid. Two shades. It makes sense that, like, you know, as you get older and you're and you're putting so much effort into these kids that their life fly they fly by because you're like, you know, you're doing way more work than they are, but they're just like, oh, every day is a nightmare in high school.
SPEAKER_00:True. But but you go from that until all of a sudden, like you, you're like my daughter, my oldest daughter just got married. Now all of a sudden I'm walking down the aisle. I'm like, wait, where did this go? Two days ago I'm helping you tie your shoes, and now uh I think I heard a song in here somewhere sunrise, sunset.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. But um No, that's gotta be one of the one of the most trippy things to happen to a human being. Seeing a seeing an infant turn into a human being that you can talk to and has ideas to present to you.
SPEAKER_00:I mean, but it's also kind of the best feeling, too, because the teenage is literally the worst. That's when everybody's just okay. I don't want you don't know what you're talking about, and then all of a sudden they either go off to college or do a few things on their own, and they're like, wait a minute, he was right about that. Wait, maybe yeah, right about that too. Maybe he doesn't know everything, but he definitely knows some stuff. Maybe I'll actually listen to him now.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, you know, just something like that.
SPEAKER_01:You need some space, you know. You gotta need that perspective.
SPEAKER_02:You have in your course of doing all this, um, two years of doing this, yes, you you must have encountered some you know good examples of out of the blue. I think you remember telling me something about a softball player or something. What's that doing?
SPEAKER_00:Oh yeah, yeah. I mean, you always try to find inspiration when especially so I've coached um a number of different sports, but my my main passion was softball. I played baseball when I was a kid, I had daughters, so easy transition, teach softball. So um, we were at an all-star event, and I also think that this had something to do with Christina's direction and and that she's taking. There was a girl who was a um an elite softball player. She was playing Division I and she was the starting shortstop for I want to say Arizona. And now I this is a 12-year-old all-star game in Worcester, and it was all the states, it was regional. So Vermont, Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island were all in this tournament, and there was one representative. So this girl um was the speaker, and she came out and she had a limp and she had an AFO on, and she had a stroke, and she was telling the story that one day she's playing softball, she went to dive for a ball, she hit her head, she ended up um having a seizure on the spot, she had a brain bleed, she had a stroke, and so you went from this vibrant Division I all-star athlete to now somebody in a wheelchair and who's handicapped. So as she was speaking, you know, we're all getting choked up, and she goes, Don't one of you feel bad for me? She goes, This was my calling. This I get to share that if something bad happens to you, that's not the end of the story. Where you take that and what you do with that, that's where your story starts. And she's like, I I've now, she was now, I think she was like 28 when she came and spoke to this group of girls. Um, and she was like, I go around the country telling people that whatever obstacle event the world gives you, look at it for what it is, but see what you can make out of it, see what can now change your out-of-the-blue moment that I am now injured to uh a literally a life-altering, life-changing event that put her on a completely different path than she ever thought she'd ever imagine. You know, and now she's inspiring people, absolutely, and then that and she did. She inspired like the all the girls were they couldn't wait to get a picture with her and and hear more about her story and get really more in depth. And it's funny because uh, you know, doing therapy, I've seen a a bunch of patients that something happened. There was a kid uh just by this conversation sparked me remembering when I first graduated and I started this, uh, I was 21, I think. And this kid, he was 18, he went to college and he ended up getting septic out of the blue. He ended up having both of his legs having to be amputated.
SPEAKER_03:Whoa.
SPEAKER_00:And when I saw him, he was I had just started, but I was around the same as this this kid's age. So he was really sheltered. He he didn't want to talk to anybody, he didn't want to do anything, he wanted everybody to leave him alone. Because in his mindset, that's it, I'm done. Uh it's over. So I went there and we just started talking. And then I'm like, well, in my mind, I'm like, all right, how can I motivate him to at least know that this isn't this is just where you are now, this isn't the end. So I grabbed the wheelchair and we started, I started teaching him how to do wheelies in a wheelchair. And you know, we're like 20-something, he's like, Oh, this is pretty cool. So I'm like, all right, so that kind of got him out of his shell, realizing that okay, all right, it's not the end of the world. I I I have something to look forward to. I can so we were we would literally race up and down the hallway doing wheelies, and then he got his prosthetics, and then by the time he left, he was walking and and he came back probably a month and a half later, and he goes, I was in the darkest place I've ever been. And just because we had a conversation and you kind of connected with me, I realized that the sky's the limit and this isn't the end, this is just the beginning.
SPEAKER_02:So that's a unbelievably you've been you've definitely when you accept your purpose in this world, then things like that come into your experience, and you you have to do it. It's like you're you're compelled now to help people. It's like you can't help yourself. You go into that situation and you think, Wow, you don't it doesn't end here, you know.
SPEAKER_00:Well, and it and it's funny because you know, I that very first day that my dad was taking me to Special Olympics, I was thinking, oh my god. And and all right, I'm I'm gonna help a couple of kids and they'll get something out of it, and that'll be it. And then the next week I'm like, okay, all right, they'll get something out of it. No, it it's it's reciprocal. You're getting as much out of it as they are, and and that that that kind of feeds your fire if if you're if you know what I mean.
SPEAKER_02:It is. No, I do know what you mean, exactly.
SPEAKER_00:So every time I would go, I'd get more excited, which then would get them more excited because now I'm excited to see them. So it was really, I don't know, it was it was it was awe-inspiring because it really showed that helping people for at least for me is is is the way life is meant to be.
SPEAKER_02:I love that.
SPEAKER_00:I love that so much.
SPEAKER_02:You have no idea how much that is in sync with everything that I've been going through myself personally, as well as with the podcast. But I mean, I um I know that I was just talking the other day about this, that what got me through some of the toughest times of my life was being of service, like telling somebody, hey, what's wrong? And I I remember even being in the hospital with tubes sticking in me, and then healthcare workers come in and uh look at them and I go, What's wrong? What's up? And they would tell me a problem they're going through, and I would end up forgetting my own self trying to help. And that got me through probably the most terrifying experience of my life, because when you when I got into helping another person, suddenly I became I got out of myself.
SPEAKER_00:I think you hit the nail on the head, getting out of yourself. Yeah, it's not about you when you connect with somebody else on their level, whatever level that is, all of a sudden you're like, okay, I'm I'm helping, I'm I'm I'm I'm productive, I'm doing something worthwhile. In a big way, too.
SPEAKER_02:It feeds your soul, it feeds your soul.
SPEAKER_00:Even if it's not in a big way as far as globally, no, no, I mean that to that individual, we're having a connection that nobody else has at that particular moment.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I mean, I'm sorry to say the word big, it almost demeans it. It's more like a really important way, yeah. You know, um, like I there's a um uh an ancient thing I was just reading the other day from the I Ching, which is 6,000 years old, and it talks about these are the this is something they said 6,000 years ago, but people getting in the same room, men, women, whatever, sharing experiences, strength, and hope with each other to nurture each other's. K T E means the soul in in ancient Chinese, and they are building more and more soul power and some in themselves. It's not like when you get in a group of people and you're doing that, like right now, there's three of us, and we're doing this, right? We are maybe bettering the conversation, but ultimately who we're bettering is ourselves.
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely. When when you can relate to somebody on their level, and and you know, in an exchange, you have a better perspective of yourself. It's like, okay, we have we have commonalities, we have differences, whatever it is. But now I get to through this conversation, you get to kind of almost look inward a little bit and realize your own positives and negatives, yings and yangs, and and you get it a better appreciation not only for the people that you're having a conversation with or interacting with or doing therapy with or on the council or whatever, but you also have a better appreciation for where you stand and and what you stand for and and what means stuff, what what um you hold dear to your heart.
SPEAKER_02:What's important, what's important to you. It's uh that's like you you you've you touched on a lot of interesting things. Um when you find yourself getting out of yourself and helping others, do you have like um like I know for me when I am trying to help others being of service satisf so to speak? I'm usually like when I played music all the years I played music, I did it because inside I was hurt. You know, I had a tough time growing up on my my own family life. So when I got to stand in front of people and make songs, I felt like I could by helping others, I was helping me because I might have been depressed inside, but I knew that when when I would go out of my head and get into the world of trying to help them with my music or whatever, and usually the help would uh would have it would only start with the song because then people come up to me after the set and they'd have all kinds of well, I my brother this, and then they they have these stories to tell me. And and then it's like something about doing that makes a sort of a magical thing happen where not only do you get a little bit better your own, heal your own depression, but you find that purpose in helping others be so much more valid. You know, it's like when you help your uh another person with their troubles or just being there to hear them, to be in here, it does something to us, you know, it gives us that purpose becomes uh aligned, I think. Alignment is the key, I think. We have to we're aligning our purpose to the the purpose of the the universe, the purpose of God's creation. Like you said, it we're here to help each other. That's that's about it, man. That's about it. I don't know if there's anything more to say here. Let's hang up, they're done.
SPEAKER_00:Well, so it's so funny. So when I was a kid, I think everybody, I well, I uh my feeling is everybody has their trials, tribulations, their down times when they're not feel that like you said, they're they're down, they're depressed. Everybody has those. When I was a kid, I used to have eczema. I used to have eczema that would and I'd be itchy and raw, and people would look at me like, oh my god, I'm so like it's catchy or something. Exactly, right. And my my my parents, to their credit or uh lack of knowledge, they would be like, Okay, yep, you're gonna be itchy, you're gonna sneeze, you're you're you're gonna be a mess, your eyes are gonna be water, you're gonna be scratchy. But do what you want. So I'm I'm allergic to grass, dirt, pollen, mold, mildew, dust. And they're like, Oh, remember earlier I said I love baseball. They're like, Great, go play catcher. So I'm rolling around in dirt every day while I'm looking to it. But you know, so I always had this self-doubt, if you will, about myself, because now I could play baseball, I could play it pretty well, but people would look at me like I was a leper, like I don't want any part of him that's I don't want to get that. Um, so I think that also may have spurned a little bit of my wanting to help people to get out of my own insecurities.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, that's what that's definitely an impetus, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:But I but I think unfortunately right now, people stay in their box, they stay afraid of of what they don't know or what they're fearful of, and they don't take that venture out to see what they can provide people, society, the world, and they stay kind of closed off because of their insecurities, and that's what it makes it a really um unfortunately that that's what makes the divide. There's no conversation, there's no interaction, there's no show me your source spots and I'll show you mine, and we'll find some commonality in that.
SPEAKER_01:That's the thing, too. That like a lot of people have those same ailments in a different in like internally, right? And if you have it on the outside and people can notice it, it's like you're forced to reckon with the the the harshness of what people like not being willing to connect to you feels like. So it seems it seems pretty clear to me that that was definitely a core experience that you went through that made you empathize with people that might have different things ailing them that might be judged. Right. And you're like, they they deserve love, of course. Absolutely. Human beings, we're human. I'm gonna love them, I'm gonna be that change. Absolutely, absolutely a lot of a lot of people have that, yeah. It's like it's in there, it's some emotional trauma or something, so they it's hard to like break out of it, yeah. And you don't it's not on your sleeve, so you don't you're not dealing with people going, oh, you're scarred from that, you know, experience.
SPEAKER_00:And then and then you know, unfortunately, sometimes that hope it that showing it to the the world and exposing yourself is not you know not in that way, but um, you know, explode exposing your your insecurities, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that's you know what ultimately what makes you free of them.
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely. Uh that I I think that that was very well said. Exposing your everybody's got flaws, everybody's got scars, everybody's got things that they've gone through, emotional baggage, all of it. And and when you can let them go and and help somebody else and let them see your flaws and you see theirs, it's like literally a cinder block, it's tossed off your shoulder so that you can kind of really relate to people on a deeper level. And when you can relate to people on a deeper level, then conversations can really get in depth and and you can really understand where people come from if they do have different opinions or different thoughts or different ideas, because ultimately that's the goal is to really see where everybody is emotionally, physically, um, to help heal yourself and each other.
SPEAKER_02:That's it, man. I've been I can't think of a better way to sum it up that really does sum it up, Tom. So you are taking all this great stuff, and you are in politics.
SPEAKER_03:I am. This is itself.
SPEAKER_02:It's almost like oxymoron to be empathetic and be in politics.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, you you're in local politics, you're in the school system. It's very different from what I think a lot of us are scarred hearing about at this point in time, you know.
SPEAKER_02:But it's kind of infiltrating even you can tell us, you can say it now. We would we won't uh no one's gonna hear this.
SPEAKER_00:So no, it's it's it's funny. Um the oxymoron actually, so now so it's election season, and I'm I'm out and I'm talking to people and I'm walking and meeting people, and they're like, Well, what made you want to be a politician? I said, to be honest with you, I'm not. I I'm not I'm not a politician. I'm in politics, but I'm not a politician. You ask me how I feel on an issue, I'm gonna tell you. You may like it, you may not, but I'll uh not only will I tell you how I feel about something, but I'll tell you why. Like to me, federally, that's a whole different ball game. That's party politics. That's I have to say this because everybody's telling me to, I have to say this because everybody's telling me to. The good thing about local politics, uh, I'm unenrolled. I can just tell you how I feel and and and try to do the right thing. I I think a lot of politicians, when they move up the ladder, they lose A, where they came from, and B, just make a good decision because it's what you believe in. I I think that's the that is to me the root of every decision I make, both in my personal life, my professional life, being a therapist as well as on the city council now. I just try to make the best decision I can with the information I have in front of me to try to do good. That's it. It's it's really not that difficult. If if you really think with your heart and try to do the right thing, you might make mistakes. I we're all nobody's infallible. Everybody, everybody's gonna take a misstep, or you know what? A year later, I wish I had that vote back. But with the information I had at the time and what was going on at the time, I tried to make the best decision I can. If you can't do that in every walk of life and and say, all right, I'm this is what's before me. What decision do I think is the best for the city, for the residents, uh, you know, for the town I grew up in, and I make that decision, then I can sleep at night and know that I'm trying to do the right thing, you know. And I think unfortunately, people lose that way too quickly.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I guess so.
SPEAKER_01:With money and power, I mean the illusion of power with money, people funding their decision making. It's like you lose touch with where you're from and yourself, your own morals.
SPEAKER_02:Yep. Absolutely, yeah. The money takes over, yep.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, absolutely. And you you you you said a word, and I get a dream, um, the the perception of power. We all put our pants on one leg at a time. Everybody's the same. You just because you're in a position, that doesn't mean anything changes. You still have a house, you still have a bed you sleep in, you still go to the bathroom. Like, you're not any more important than anybody else on this earth, period. End of story. And you got to remember that you're making decisions that may impact a bunch of people, but so are CEOs, so are CFOs, so so are everybody. You're in a band, you your music is resonating and touching people. They're important figures because of how it makes you feel, but at the end of the day, everybody's the same, everybody has their own insecurities, everybody has their own thoughts, everybody has their own ambitions, drives, goals, and that can't get lost. You still have to make a good decision, a good decision for what you think is right.
SPEAKER_02:Because you got to live with it, really.
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely, you know. Absolutely, absolutely.
SPEAKER_02:So, what what what are we gonna do, Tom? Can we get you to go to well, we should nominate you? Uh well, and it's we really when you think about America and the United States, it started like that. Even the Washington Washington politicians were local politicians, absolutely 100%. They looked at it like it was a their duty, they're doing their duty, civic duty.
SPEAKER_00:Well, and and to be honest with you, our founding fathers never looked at being uh a uh representative for your area as a lifelong deal.
SPEAKER_02:Right.
SPEAKER_00:I don't care whether you're Democrat or Republican, nobody should be in office for a long period of time. Because new ideas get squelched when you've been in power or in a position of power for that many years. It's just kind of a retread. So you there should be limits to how long you're in office so that somebody else with a new passionate uh uh drive and and force can be shown their way, you know.
unknown:Wow.
SPEAKER_02:I'm gonna take I want to bottle what you just said. Can we bottle it? We're gonna put it on the highlights, that's for sure, because that's as a killer statement.
SPEAKER_00:Now, here's the irony, though, if you really think about it. You're in California, I guarantee that your um uh federal legislator has been there for 100 years. I'm in Massachusetts, our state legis uh our federal um senators and and congressmen, they've been there a hundred years. But and everybody, what they'll do as an individual say, Oh, well, it's not my guy, it's that guy. He's like 90. Well, wait, your guy's 80. Like I don't know.
SPEAKER_01:No, there should be an age gap or an age limit.
SPEAKER_00:I said this to my father the other day. And now he's he's 70, uh 78. He'll be 79 in uh two weeks. Oh, is he? Is he up? Is he running for president? No, no, no. No, well, so this was my this was my my statement to him. He's like, oh, I said there should be term limits. He goes, No, no, no, listen, you get to vote them in, you you can they should be there until you vote them out. I said, wait a minute. I said, Do you think you have your fastball still? I said, or do you think because there are days that he's like, uh, you know, so I said, Do you still think that you're as sharp as you were when you were 46? And I just threw out a number. He goes, No. I said, so we have our federal government in that age bracket making decisions for everybody. Like, think about that for a second.
SPEAKER_02:It's pretty bizarre.
SPEAKER_01:Anyway, sorry to go off on a political. No, I mean it's something that everyone in my you know circles thinks about, like feeling completely unrepresented by folks that have a co a whole different set of morals that they were taught from generations before them. So even older, and like, you know, then we have some young politicians like AOC and um Zoran, the the new mayor and or the guys running for mayor. Yep. Um, and like they are there's they're like, you know, elder millennials, I guess is what they are. Um, or I I forget the one of the above that, but they're they're speaking.
SPEAKER_00:There's an acronym or or a word for regeneration now.
SPEAKER_01:Gen Xer or something, I don't know. But they are speaking more closely to what we align with, and it's like so refreshing, and yet the power is still not in their favor. So it is very it is very like clear that the the age is is stifling the growth. The age, the the elders in power are stifling the growth of a of a country that is desperate for you know a new a change of pace, a refreshing take from the youngsters that have their whole lives ahead of them and have to deal with all this all the stuff that they leave behind. And I didn't want to say stuff.
SPEAKER_00:But it's but it's so and the and the irony is is so espe, especially in the state and federal levels, money rules who's gonna run. And even in the local election that we're having now, is some of the people that are running, like I know a lot of good people in this city. I do, I know a lot of really, really good people, and I ask them all the time, well, why don't you run? You'd be great. You can you're you're well spoken, you can see both sides of an issue, you can make an intelligent decision, you can kind of moderate a situation and say, okay, your way over here and your way over here, let's kind of find some middle ground and have a conversation about it. Why don't you? He goes, uh he literally said he goes, because it ain't worth it. I'm like, well, wait a minute. Whoa, whoa, whoa, what do you mean it's not worth it? There's too many people with their own agendas trying to get into politics to make a name for themselves instead of the person that would do a good job.
SPEAKER_02:The people of service.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, exactly. The people that are looking at it as a service job, something that they're bringing to the table is I'm representing you because you asked me to, and I'm gonna come back and ask your opinion of what you think and how do you think I'm doing? Way too many people they go in with their own set of agendas, their own set of ideas, their own set of ideals, and that's it. They are not gonna sway from that, even though there might be a compelling argument around a different way to think of things.
SPEAKER_03:Right, right.
SPEAKER_00:And to me, that's that's what's ruining politics, is is a first and foremost, commons decency, just being able to say, okay, we're gonna disagree. I read Tip O'Neill's book back in the 80s, 90s, 80s, I think it was. And so Tip O'Neill was the Speaker of the House when Ronald Reagan was president. Tip O'Neill is a Democrat from Massachusetts, Ronald Reagan's a Republican from California. Every morning, no matter what, first thing they would do is have breakfast together. And they'd have three piles of paper. This is what we're really, really close on. Let's get this done today. This is what we still need to work on. Let's see if we can kind of find some middle ground and this is taboo. We're not even going to touch it because we know you're way over there and I'm way over here. So we're gonna leave this alone. And every morning they would try to whittle down the piles to get things accomplished, to get things moving, to get things positively moving in the right direction. You don't have any of that any longer. All you have is discourse, all you have is well, it's your fault. No, no, no, it's your fault. No, it's my fault. Well, instead of a blame game, how about this? It's all of our fault because this is where we are. It's everybody's. So now everybody's gonna take a chunk of that, own it, and fix it.
SPEAKER_01:We need to I have a solution. I know how to fix politics. I just came up with it.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, we're gonna fix it all. Let's hear it.
SPEAKER_01:Everyone who runs for any political office needs to have been a healthcare worker for at least 10 years. I like that.
SPEAKER_03:All right, you know, I think that's that's that's not bad. Look it right up there.
SPEAKER_00:So, this is the problem with that, though. You gotta make sure a worker because you can be in like if you're a CEO of uh you know what I mean? So pharmaceutical company or something.
SPEAKER_02:It's gonna be a worker. So that was just you know, you're funny that you said as I was gonna wrap it up a little bit. I was gonna say, here we are talking to Tom Rush and who's an unbelievably engaged healthcare worker, yes, who does physical therapy, and his children are even falling in his footsteps because they're so passionate about this purpose. And here he is taking that same mindset of empathy and care to the world of politics. Now, what more can we ask for? Vernon just said it. People should just be able to be prove that they did 10 years in healthcare work. Yeah, you have to get signatures from every person you helped.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Something like that.
SPEAKER_01:Prove that you are in it for helping your people, right? Well, we should for the people.
SPEAKER_02:We should have somebody type this out and send it to Congress and have them put a stamp on it.
SPEAKER_01:Let's make an amendment to a constitution. I like it.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Well, thanks a lot, Tom. This has been an incredibly informative and inspiring um in so many ways. I'm so glad out of the blue got a little political here. We don't really get political, but I don't think we actually did. We didn't really become right or left in this discussion. It was about politics as an animal, like as a major thing for both sides.
SPEAKER_00:To me, I did a little bit. But that's all right. But but to me, politics is really just about trying to do what's right and never losing sight of that. If you're honestly trying to do the right thing and you're just coming at it from a different perspective, then I have all the passion in the world for you, and we can have a dialogue, no matter what side of the aisle you're on. The key is to actually have a valid, passionate opinion, not because of a party is telling you to do that or money is telling you to do that, because that's actually how you feel.
SPEAKER_02:Amen. That's a great way to end this show, right? There, thank you so much, Tom. Tom Rosignal of PBD Massachusetts. And um, boy, oh boy, this was a really great podcast. I'm I'm excited.
SPEAKER_00:No, me too. I I I can't thank you guys enough for having me. This was this was excellent.
SPEAKER_02:I am so glad we had you because we needed this viewpoint, and we we really just gonna round off the season for us, out of the bill, because it's getting across, you know, we we think about everything in Auditablo, not just you know, coming out of a trauma or something and how you make it better, but also how you not only once you make it better, the fruits of that, and that's what I'm hearing with you. You found that purpose and you've used it in your life, and you're still using it. I'm trying, you're living with it. So find your purpose, get in line, start living it with passion, right, Tom? Absolutely. What like what you just say? If you it's okay to have that a point of view as long as you really believe in it, right? And it's not because of money, not because of money or power or any other reasons external, but something inside of you that you feel, right?
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely, couldn't have said it better myself.
SPEAKER_02:Well, I'm not gonna put me saying it, I'm gonna use yours, but absolutely, it was so great. Thank you so much, Tom. I really, really appreciated your time. My pleasure.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you for nice talking to you, Tom. All right, and take care. Thank you for all the work you've done with helping my dad.
SPEAKER_02:Not a lot, and also thank you for that a lot. That's my pleasure, and also thank you for all the work you do in helping the people of Peabody. And uh yes, and um including my dad, including my dad, and my dad, not my dad, but yes, me. And don't forget everybody out there for tune in again next week, all the weeks, and help spread the word. Hit the like button, share, and get the word out there. We gotta spread the word. People living for their purpose, and we want you on board with Out of the Blue. Thanks a lot for help helping us get that point across, Tom. You did it better than anybody could. Appreciate it very much.
SPEAKER_00:All right, have a great rest of the day.
SPEAKER_02:You too. Bye-bye. Bye everybody.
SPEAKER_00:Thanks, Tom.
SPEAKER_02:Thanks for joining us. Out of the Blue, the podcast, hosted by me, Vernon West. Co-hosted by Vernon West the third, edited by Joe Gallo. Music and logo by Vernon West the third. Have an out of the blue story of your own you'd like to share? Reach us at info at out of the blue-thepodcast.org. Subscribe to Out of the Blue on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. And on our website, out of the blue hyphen the podcast.org. You can also check us out on Patreon for exclusive content.