Levi Lenon: Saving Adin, Losing Dad, and Joyful Work

What do you do when you watch a 19-year-old die in a wreck, drive away thinking you failed, and learn months later he's alive?

On Halloween 2025, Levi was taking his daughter to a soccer game when he came up on a vehicle ripped in half. He pulled 19-year-old Adin Smith out before the gas could ignite. Aiden had a pulse in his arms, but by the time the ambulance loaded him, it was gone. Weeks later, after losing his own dad unexpectedly at 75, a friend showed Levi a GoFundMe page that didn't make sense. Aiden was alive, his mom had been searching for the stranger who stopped, and that stranger was Levi.

Levi makes a case for being a joyful worker, someone who does the thing they hate with the same zest as the thing they love. He talks about his dad's 75 years as a movie that was always going to end where it ended, not 30 minutes short. Joy, in his telling, lives on the other side of hard things, not in their absence.

Plus: the moment Adin's name lit up Levi's caller ID, and the phone call that followed.

Follow us today for some weekly joy.

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Alright, welcome back to a fiercer delight. I'm joined by Are we friends?

SPEAKER_01 0:06

We're friends, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 0:07

Joined by my dear friend. Are we dear friends?

SPEAKER_01 0:08

Yeah, I was gonna go with best. Deer's more sophisticated, so I like that. I also hunt, so it kind of plays on both sides of that too. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 0:17

This is gonna go well. Uh I'm here with my dear friend, Levi Lennon.

SPEAKER_01 0:22

Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah, you got it.

SPEAKER_03 0:24

Okay, so question one is it intimidating for you to be in a room like this and not be the most attractive person?

SPEAKER_01 0:32

It is. I'm mentally prepped for that, right? And I was like, okay, the first time for everything. Right? And so I uh it is a little bit. But you know what? Here's how it looks is right. B players want to be around C players because that makes them feel better. Sure. A players be around, want to be around A plus players, so that's gonna turn them into an A plus. So I find this both inspiring and a thing to shoot for there. So I'm not at the mountaintop. I can see where the mountaintop is. Yeah, that's right. Right? And so because I'm an A player, it's gonna be around A plus. So I wanna, it's good, and it's good. It's gonna set a high bar for me to go get.

SPEAKER_03 1:06

I'm glad I'm just fitting into your life philosophy, which you probably got growing up. You're a narcissist. Um, and part of that is because you're a twin, right? I am so you got to kind of like watch yourself grow up in another body, and so that probably leads to some level of narcissism, right? Like you grew up with someone who right? You're identical. Yep. You and your brother? What's your brother's name?

SPEAKER_01 1:26

Zach.

SPEAKER_03 1:26

Zach, are you guys close?

SPEAKER_01 1:28

Yeah, yeah. Now I'll tell you the story about how that uh came to be.

SPEAKER_03 1:31

So my mom Well, I think I know like the story of I think I know advanced discussion, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:37

There, so this is like the day of birth, PC. You probably have the good idea on the back end of that, right?

SPEAKER_03 1:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:42

And so uh my mom didn't know she was having twins.

SPEAKER_03 1:45

No, were you first or second?

SPEAKER_01 1:47

I was uh I was second. And so how this kind of cured the surprise.

SPEAKER_00 1:51

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 1:51

So they got there, and you know, this is early uh early 80s, right? And so she wasn't high-risk pregnancy, they're not doing you know the sonograms and all that kind of stuff, not needed for it. It's there's no issues, no complications. And so get there and uh go into labor, and and Zach comes out, and it's like, okay, there we go, boom. And doctor's like, hey, we actually have another heartbeat still in there. And it was like, what? Okay, we've got twins. Total, uh, total surprise. Four minutes later, uh, I come out, and yeah, it's twins. And how I think how this kind of played out, I think, is it what Zach came out, right? And God looked down and goes, you know what? I think I can do just a little bit better. Then he didn't. And then well, here's Levi.

SPEAKER_03 2:37

I don't know what Levi me. What does Levi mean? Do you know what the name means?

SPEAKER_01 2:40

I don't, I haven't ever looked at the book.

SPEAKER_03 2:42

You probably should know what Levi means, but Levi is Matthew in the Bible. Like that's his other name or whatever is Matthew. Matthew's gift of God. I know that because I'm a Matthew, so Matthew means gift of God. You're like this.

SPEAKER_01 2:56

Oh, but you're kind of like I do know. I think actually Levi's bigger gift of God.

SPEAKER_03 3:01

Now that you say that. You had Zach, but here's like the consolation prize. Here's a Levi. So you guys grow up twins. Yeah. I don't my wife is pretty fascinated by twins. I think twins are very interesting. Twins are like genetic gifts in a way, because that's how we can all scientific studies at some point involve twins. Because like this genetic thing where we owe the city. Yeah, you got the placebo, you got the yeah, you got the same genes going on, so it's like kind of helpful. Um, and so what is that like? Do you guys did you do the whole thing? Secret languages, all that?

SPEAKER_01 3:32

No, no, no, it it it wasn't that. I mean, I think so. There's like a duality, like our our wives wouldn't want to play like games with us. There's a hyper competitiveness sense to it. Um, but there's also a thing like uh it's one of those games is a picture or something there where you're giving hints and then just growing up experiencing that same life so closely together, you make these references that only you guys would get. Yeah, you know, it's like uncanny. It's like, how'd you pull that reference? It's well, because we live the identical same life to together. Um, and so that's a lot of things. So there's not a like, oh, I can read his mind and back and forth, but if you grow up so closely together with the exact same experiences and same interest that you can almost anticipate what they're gonna say because that's what you were gonna say.

SPEAKER_02 4:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:16

You know, so it's the same kind of general mindset with the same exact background, and maybe that is where this comes from. It's like, oh, reading the mind. It's like, well, no, if you just spent that much time with somebody with the same exact interest, you could probably anticipate that.

SPEAKER_03 4:30

See around some of the same corners.

SPEAKER_01 4:31

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 4:32

Did you ever do any of the Trent twin tropes like uh I don't want to go to biology class, like you go to biology and I'll go to did you ever do any of that?

SPEAKER_01 4:40

I mean try now. When I say we're identical, I we're identical. However, when it comes to it, is like if I got up and walked out and he walked in, you probably wouldn't initially go, Hey, where'd Levi go? Come on. But if he came in next to me, you'd easily be able to tell. We could do the whole, like, you know, get underneath a cup, pull the cup out, you know, like on the ball game, right?

SPEAKER_03 5:01

The Coke Pepsi taste test.

SPEAKER_01 5:02

And then you would you'd get out there and go, Yeah, that's clearly Levi. It's not gonna be like we stand next to each other, like, where'd he go? Which one's which? So you could easily tell at that point. So similar to teachers and and you know, friends growing up, that there's no you know, fooling them on that because it's just enough difference you can easily tell.

SPEAKER_03 5:18

So did you have other siblings?

SPEAKER_01 5:20

Yeah, one younger brother, yeah, five years, yeah. Okay, so and he looks pretty similar to us too, so it's all kind of all a blessing. It's all a blessing. It's all a blessing. Yeah, hashtag blessed. I get you. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 5:31

Uh we're the show's kind of about joy, happiness, chasing it around. Um so how's that work for you? Where does joy come from? Where does or like what do you have a dis you're a thinker? You always have thought of you're the guy who asks people what's your favorite quote, I think. Like you do that kind of stuff. Yeah. You listen to a lot of things, you read a lot of things. Um so yeah, do you think a lot about happiness, joy? Would you consider yourself a joyful person generally?

SPEAKER_01 5:58

You know, I would I'd probably say, yeah, I would be a joyful person. Um, or someone that's that's is trying to be very intentional around being joyful. And maybe that goes into appreciation, gratitude. Um and those could end up being like, I think, really big cliches a lot of the times, you know. You know, next thing you know, like, oh yeah, I saw that on an Etsy sign. I got that off Pinterest. Yeah, like well, you know, that kind of piece there. But I do like taking a the nuance of thought, or why I don't care much how much you think, why you know what you think is why do you think it and what's the background. And we you know, that ask five whys. And can we get back to that? That's a fascinating piece for me. When I think of like where I derive joy from, you know, for me, it is through it's on the other side of of task, of suffering, of hardship, of anguish. I think there's that that is where I would get that, right?

SPEAKER_03 6:55

Because they know Which is totally opposite of how we go about it. Like I think my joy comes from uh removal of bad circumstance, removal of hard get away all my challenges and then I'll be happy. Like go on my beach vacation and that's where happiness lives. And there could be some of that there, but actually like what you're saying is sort of counter to that by beating your body into submission through your hobbies or like striving really hard or doing difficult things or having the challenging conversation with your kids is actually on the other side of that where you're feeling it. Is what is that what you're saying?

SPEAKER_01 7:30

Yeah, generally yeah, because I think you look at it and you go, it's easy, like a different kind of premise here, but it's easy to be a nice guy when you had eight, one or four hours of sleep, your stomach's full, and you have no stresses. Anybody can be nice in that moment, right? Uh who can be who can be nice and empathetic and have patience, and I'm not accusing myself of having any of those things, but who can do that when you've had the four hours of sleep and your your belly's growling and everything's pileing up behind you? So similar when you look to joy, I like I look at that and go, it's not the absence of removing those stressors and all that, but how do you go and navigate those and do that? Like something I'm trying to teach my daughters, right? I have 11 and a 15-year-old, is to be joyful workers, right? Like there's a piece of it that says, let's have, because you know, you could say this about probably about joy, but also discipline, is doing something that you hate with the same zest that you do something that you love. Anybody can do the thing that they love and be happy. Can you do the thing that you hate, but you have to do it anyway?

SPEAKER_02 8:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:36

And that goes back to this joyful worker thing, you know, because kids growing up, it's like, do I have to and all this? You know, and it's like, all right, do the task. That's like the first step. Do the task, right? And maybe not even do the task without me asking you to do the task. You saw the thing of laundry there, you know that's your laundry. Do I have to tell you? Okay, good. But then also, how do we get you to where you don't do that begrudgingly?

SPEAKER_02 8:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:57

You know, and be joyful. Because that's when they grow up, that's that's the employee that they that will lead them to success. I'm trying to, you know, create that. So be a a joyful worker, and that means doing the things that that aren't always enjoyable, but doing them uh joyfully in doing that. Sometimes they, you know, it's like it's a competition, right? You can pick something up mundane, but if who has the biggest pile of leaves to rake up versus oh, I have to, and there's more and there's more, it's things like that.

SPEAKER_03 9:24

Well, that's I've I've had similar conversations with my kids, a little bit younger. But I I found this out maybe in my late teens, and it really did make a difference in my life. It's like learn to love the stuff you hate. And life's just better, because you're gonna have to do those things. And if I can't love the things I hate, try to think about it as little as possible and just do it. Instead of lamenting, oh, I have to go. I always do it with funerals. Sometimes I have to go to funerals. I don't want to go to funerals, no one wants to go to the funerals, and it's not like love the funeral, oh right, but it's like I can't love it, so I'm not gonna lament all week long. I gotta go to that funeral, I'm not gonna I just put it on my calendar and I know I'm going, and that's all I need to think about. And that's fine. But then, like, yeah, mowing the grass. Get a way to love that because I'm going to do that weekly for the rest of my life. I'm gonna have to do it. And so it wouldn't it be cool if I find little ways to appreciate it or enjoy it or whatever. And so that's what I've been working with my kids on a little bit too. Kind of similar I think they're very similar. It's like clean your room, you're gonna have to, you gotta take care of your room always, or obedience. Someone in your life is always going to be telling you to do something. You can get to where, like, you kind of enjoy knocking something out and checking a box and getting it done and feeling good about that. So that's hard though, but I I do think there's some wisdom in instead of trying to remove ourselves from all the hard things, learning to like have the fire lit inside when the hard things come. And you've had that. You've had in the last year, you've had a bunch of complicated things happen in your life because you have some military experience, you know. But I would say knowing you the last six months, the last year or so, you've had some complexities that most of us don't have. And like you're here on a podcast about joy for a reason. Uh somehow you've kept it going. So you're living that too, where you're just kind of like, okay, life is you can't actually remove yourself, you can't inoculate yourself from all that. I think that's what happens to celebrities. They get removed from all this stuff, and then it's like they have money, they have a publicist team, they have all this stuff to like protect them, and yet stuff still gets through. They're still lonely and hurt, and grief happens and pain happens, and disease happens. So, how have that has that worked for you? You're telling your kids this, how have you been able to cultivate a disposition where you're walking into hard things and somehow like they don't break you?

SPEAKER_01 11:44

Well, I mean, I think there's a piece there of building up some emotional, maybe scar tissue through it on there too. And you're and you're referencing, you know, there was a you know a catastrophic wreck that that I I helped with in the fall of last year, and which, you know, at that time when I I helped with it, uh the young man that was in it, you know, you know, died at the scene, or at least that was my and like by help, you crawled into the fray, you got covered in fuel, it was a dangerous situation, it was a bloody situation.

SPEAKER_03 12:13

Like I've seen pictures of it. It was um it was traumatic, it was a difficult thing, and you you went in. So you helped, but it was like a very direct it wasn't just call the police, you know, someone did that, which is important, but like you got in there.

SPEAKER_01 12:27

I did.

SPEAKER_03 12:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:28

Yeah, I did. And you know, that's a and I I sometimes undersell that or I don't, you know, but at the end of the day, yes. You know, I I jumped in there and I I I dragged him out and tried to give him a chance of of living. And there's a fast forward to that that says that he actually was once he got to the hospital, they did they got him revived and so he was dead, Dad.

SPEAKER_03 12:48

You he was dead that definitely dead in your heart and in your mind.

SPEAKER_01 12:51

Well, when he was loaded on, there was no pulse. When I pulled him out of there, he had a pulse. And but uh by the time that amethyst arrived, and you know, regardless of CPR, he was dead. Yeah. Um and in that, you know, I try to take away like what is my what is a positive takeaway? Because there are there is some struggle in there to go, you know, I I risked a lot, I tried to give him every chance to live. But with that being said, it was it was fruitless, right? At least in that moment I thought it it was. And man, that does not bring any happiness. It brought anguish and it brought, you know, to my to think it's like, why did I? Why did I why why did God put me there in that moment if it didn't matter? But man, focusing on that, uh, that does not that doesn't bring any any joy to my heart. And it doesn't um doesn't help. And so the things that I, you know, another thing that happened, you know, and this happened three months ago is I lost my dad unexpectedly. You know, it's the um just you know, out of out of nowhere catastrophic health event and lost him in a lost him in a moment, you know. And the the piece there that you can easily go back and do, and I did this during the heavy grief, maybe you know, the first you know, four or five days after, was uh the regrets. I should have gone there that morning. I had some plans. My daughter asked me, like, hey, we want to go to you know grandma and papa's today, you know, and then the things of life was like, no, we'll we'll go next week and we'll plan it. And you know, I can't get that back. Uh but also to focus on that doesn't help anything because I can't take that back. That's right, you know, and so it's very cliche that somebody says, Hey, what's your biggest regret in life? You know, and that's a tough one to answer. One is you have to have a high trust in there, right? Two that's a lot of vulnerability. Say what's your biggest regret? But I, you know, the thing that I've been trying to look through a lens of that lately is don't answer with an instance, all right? But answer with a character trait that led to that instance, right? Like if we go back to a you know, driving a car and you got in a in a wreck or whatever, you know, a fender bender, it's like don't say that I wish I would have looked both ways before I pulled out and the guy you know hit me in the side. Because one is you can't take that back. Yeah, but what you can do is look at the character trait that says that will lead me from not doing that thing in the future. Yeah, you know, and then what are that oh in a hurry?

SPEAKER_03 15:09

I want to be more aware, yes, yes, well that's distracted. I thought about that some this last year as you're going through your stuff, even that some of our modern sort of takes on things are to like to live in the moment, which is good. But if the moment's terrible, it isn't good. And sometimes what happens is we have these escape mechanisms where we can go into the past where we can think about the future to help us, and I think that's a good human thing. But then when we look in the past, what happens is all that stuff has already been written, it's already done, it's in ink, the ink is dried, yeah, can't change it, and so you can actually choose which parts to dwell on. And so, like you're saying, the car wreck happened. If the hypothetical car wreck that we're talking about, it happened. I can relive the trauma of that over and over and over and over again. Or I can go a little bit and be like, hey, were there some ways to prevent it, or is there something and if there's nothing to take out of it, just make peace with it and move on, which I know takes years and it's hard, maybe you need some help. But there is something about that. What you're saying is we sort of like we kind of have a bunch of choice with how we view our past.

SPEAKER_01 16:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 16:10

You can't change it entirely because that would be dishonest. But we can kind of choose which like soundtracks we turn higher and which ones we turn lower or something. And so it sounds like in some ways through these events you're getting to do that in real time.

SPEAKER_01 16:26

Yeah, I mean it's a it's a victim versus victor mentality. If I say there's nothing to take away from that, I think that falls into maybe the you know victim or a you know, at least victim of circumstance on there. But if you if you look at it hard enough and you know, you keep you focus on at least something, there has to be some takeaway. Or God wouldn't have put you in that scenario. So there's has to be some takeaway. You know, in the initial thing with that wreck, I looked at it and it was a time to revisit some things that were you know unresolved with, you know, you mentioned a little bit that my my military player, I deployed Iraq in 0708 as a platoon leader, and uh there were a lot of echoes in uh that devastating wreck to the the IDs that went off and things that I experienced over there that I had just kind of you know put behind me, and it's a it's a quote that I I say often enough, but you know, un unresolved um trauma that you can't bury it, it'll come back up later in uglier ways. Yeah, you know, and it's that's something there. And so in the moment, at least whenever I had initially thought that you know he didn't survive it, and I was like, what is the reason? What is the reason? And it is to probably revisit some of those things and actually work through them and digest those correctly going forward, versus, you know, and it was a good, it was a a very good exercise, all albeit painful, uh, to go back and look through that and say, all right, I need to actually go and really think through that and maybe have some discussions because I'm telling myself, I'm telling myself a story that I can bury it and I'm and I'm tough and all that, and I'm just lying to myself.

SPEAKER_03 18:01

What prompts you, even in these situations, like you crawl into this wreck and it turns out help a person save their life. Um and then also you say goodbye to your father, it's pretty easy to be victim there, and probably all of us are victim in some ways for a spell. It's like how long is that victim cycle gonna go before you do the victor thing like you're talking about? What things push you to the victor mindset, if we're gonna use that terminology? Because you probably are like swinging between both at all points. So what are the things that push you over to be like, I am gonna deal with that or I am gonna have those conversations instead of just wallowing or pain or stuffing or whatever?

SPEAKER_01 18:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 18:41

What is it that for you? What are some mechanisms? Are there, or is it just thought, or is it preparation?

SPEAKER_01 18:48

I mean, I think it's very easy on the like that's not my my default, you know. I don't know if anybody is the the default, right? But it again, it's what it's that thing that you don't want to do, but you do it anyway. You know, and I know that I have to be able to do that anyway. So my default, you know, I think as like with most people, is like, hey, I'm gonna go do a hard workout. The main thing isn't that you stared at your shoes for 20 minutes before you tied them and put them on because you're sitting there going, how can I get out of this? Oh my gosh, maybe I am in good enough shape. I don't have to go do that workout. The main thing is that after 20 minutes, you laced them up anyway, and you did anyway. So that's that's a game, that's a difference of where the of a mentality mindset. Because I think the person that has is really mentally tough, it's not that they don't feel those things, they feel them just as much as uh the next person, but that's a that's a why in the road.

SPEAKER_02 19:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:38

And the one person feels it and says, I need to get out of this. And they they flee that. The other person, the person that I want to be at least, you know, and I I try to be, and I'm not saying I'm there, but that's at least try to get that path. I try to take that other one that says, No, I'm gonna go and figure out how to make that a uh find a win. And if I can't do it, it just means I haven't thought about it enough. Or maybe I haven't talked to the right person that says, Hey, have you thought about it like this? Yeah. Hey, maybe here's a perspective you haven't entertained. Because there has to be something in there. And sometimes maybe it's just, you know what? I uh I'm just you know, this was gonna be a good opportunity to learn how to suffer better.

SPEAKER_02 20:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:16

Just a good opportunity to suffer. I'm not gonna change it. I'm not, but you know what? Sometimes it's just being really good at suffering.

SPEAKER_03 20:21

Yeah. It's a thing that separates us from most animals, is that we get to suffer well. Animals suffer in one way. They just suffer, and we don't even know if it's suffering because we don't know exactly how they feel. But we can like say goodbye to our parents well or poorly, or something in between, and it either way it's searing and it's terrible and it's suffering. And it's like, what are you gonna do? Are you gonna like excel in it? Like you said, it's a a fork in the road or a Y in the road, and it is. I think that's some of what this is when you talk about joy. It can feel like light and frivolous, and I think it is that. And then I also think it's like sturdy and rugged, but there's more agency there in the human, I think, than we give it credit for that you can choose joy, you can uh bring more of it in, even in these terrible moments. So you had I would say a pretty crummy run there for a little bit as far as just the external circumstances connection. Uh give us the other side of that because you said this kid is dead, and then you said somehow they brought him back or something to the hospital. Is that the end of the story? Did you read this in the newspaper? Uh how'd you find out? And then, like, is that it? Is that the end of the road? Is he just like, is he living still? Can you catch us up just a little bit on that?

SPEAKER_01 21:37

Yeah, yeah. The second half of that is this happened on uh you know, on Halloween of last year, October 31st, 2025. And you know, we're a minute, two away from uh I'm taking my daughter uh to her soccer game, and it's a reschedule. And uh we're just a few minutes out, and that's when we, you know, I witnessed this thing, and he hits this one, it's a catastrophic, rips this vehicle and Half. We pull by to get around it so I can, you know, just get at least around it. And he's hanging there suspended, uh, unconscious. And, you know, then it's, you know, it's pulling him out. And with the terrific amount of gas, I was really afraid he was gonna uh catch fire and he was gonna burn alive. And uh, you know, I knew there was a lot of risk in that, but I also said I'm not gonna live with myself if I watch somebody that could have lived burn alive because I was I didn't, you know, go in there into that, you know, and um so I did I just I jumped in and and did that and again, you know, and really quickly I think it feels times are kind of hard, it kind of gets weird in that time. But I felt like emergency services got on on station pretty quick. But the by the time I got done dragging him away to safety um on there, the pulse had stopped, his leg was was ripped off, and so there's no pulsing of blood. And you know, uh even with the defibular, they never got it back. And so I I pulled away and went to the to the game and you know, washed the blood off my hands and uh kind of went on with their in it and the hind behind that there was a lot of like I was looking for some closure, something, you know. I knew his name because uh all the personal belongings were spread out all over the road, and I saw his uh UPS badge, and that's where he was headed that night to go to work. Uh, and it was out there and I got to see his you know his badge. So I knew the name, but it was Smith's last name, and it was a very common name, and you're not gonna find that anywhere, and just never could find an obituary, all that too. But I also was like, maybe he's from out of town, maybe I'm searching for St. This is a St. Louis, St. Louis Obids, and he's from Chicago, he's from Springfield, I like you know, and it was just nothing. And uh you fast forward to January 11th when I when I lost my dad, and you know, devastating uh and just a lot of emotional toil and things like that um on that one and and just working through that heavy, that heavy moment and came back to work uh the next week, and uh, you know, our mutual friend, uh, and he's a little bit better friend me than you, but Zach Mast, right? Yeah, he he I don't like him. It's weird. He like I never I'm always like I was gonna talk to Matt, and he's always like, Yeah, I like you better than Matt. I'm like, you didn't have to volunteer that information.

SPEAKER_03 24:09

Yeah, no, it's fair. We it goes both ways. Yeah, he's the worst.

SPEAKER_01 24:12

It's odd.

SPEAKER_03 24:12

Uh also he's on, I think, episode four of this podcast, if you want to use it. But okay, so you're sitting with this.

SPEAKER_01 24:18

And then there, and but I make I meet with uh uh with Zach and we're talking about we're talking about dad and and how I'm kind of working through that. At the very end, he goes, Hey man, I think uh because I told him this story in the moment, you know, from uh that wreck, and he goes, Hey, I think uh Ashley is his wife, he's like, I think that I think that kid that you helped, I think he's alive. And I was like, No. And I didn't want any more I didn't want any more hope, I guess, in that moment of like I've already kind of got that behind me, you know, and I'm gonna I'm dealing with a lot right now. So I'm I I'm not looking for any more hopeslash now. It's it's no actually, sorry, false alarm.

SPEAKER_03 24:57

It's the Michael Scott thing. I think I'm ready to get hurt again.

SPEAKER_01 25:00

You weren't there yet. You are ready to get out there. I wasn't ready. I needed a little bit more space, yeah. And he's like, No, I think she found him on GoFundMe. And uh Ashley was on GoFundMe with somebody that she knew, and then she had just scrolled one down, you know, and one down was a detailed picture of of Aiden and a detailed rundown of his of the wreck to include the highway, the whole thing, which matched exactly to this, to what I the story and everything that I had told him. And uh, and I was like, even in that moment, I was like, uh, dude, that's not that's not possible. You know, I watched him die. And so he uh he got the link and he sent it to me, and you know, one look at him, you know, Aiden looked different than whenever I had last seen Aiden, but uh it was there and and he was and he is absolutely alive. And the uh the joy and maybe jubilation that I had in that moment, like it's a you know, it's a uh goosebumps coming up the back of your of your neck. It's a uh kind of a shoot up outright of your chair, and I was sitting down, I I looked at it because I did click the link with trepidation, you know, of like, okay, I'm gonna protect myself a little bit on this to be like, no, he's not that's not actually not him, man. And when it did that, I knew immediately it was him.

SPEAKER_03 26:16

And uh I always feel that way when I save people's lives.

SPEAKER_01 26:20

It's an old hat for you.

SPEAKER_03 26:22

Well, now like the dopamine doesn't even drop. Doesn't even make a dip. Just always like saving lives, you know.

SPEAKER_01 26:28

It takes a twofer on it for you to say, like you need to do it, you need to do at least two for one. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 26:32

I only look for twins now.

SPEAKER_01 26:33

Yeah, and those are tough to pick up.

SPEAKER_03 26:34

If you and your brother need something, I'll sweep it. There you go.

SPEAKER_01 26:36

Yeah, that gets the blood going.

SPEAKER_03 26:37

But other than that, it's But a kid, like that's gotta be. I I think about when you're talking, I kind of think about my wife's feeling and mine, I guess, too, but especially hers. She carries a baby and then she brings it into the world, and then you're holding this life, and you had kind of like begotten this life.

SPEAKER_01 26:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 26:52

And it's like a weird, out-of-body, like she was like, I did this, and like your body and you, you you did this. And not that you gave birth to this kid, but you did like help him arrive at life, kind of like that second chance and that same. Gotta be a weird feeling to read that and just be like, Whoa, I that what I did it mattered anyway. But now it mattered, and there's an outcome, there's a byproduct, and it's like maybe a 70-year byproduct, a 60-year byproduct. This is a young kid.

SPEAKER_01 27:19

Yeah, 19.

SPEAKER_03 27:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:21

19 at the time of the wreck, and uh, you know, and it was such an opposite end of the spectrum of what I've been experienced for the last week and a half uh with my dad passing, right? And so it was such a uh a swing of emotion there, but uh it's what I needed absolutely in that moment. It was like a kickstart back into the to the joy realm because I'd been a little I I mean, and at that point I had not access to the okay, why, you know, I'm I'm gonna go look at the my dad's uh passing as a you know, I had not turned that flip that switch back over yet. I was very much into why me, he's he was 75 when he passed, you know. Why 75? He didn't even make it to the median age of American male, and he was in what I thought was good shape, you know, and there were some unseen things there. But you know, so there's very much a lot of of that, and then to get that kickstart back into that, yeah, man, it was huge. I'd um in my family had experienced the whole thing. Of course, my daughter that was there, and um I called and I got it, and I was like, oh my gosh, that's him, that's him. And I called my wife, and she's a teacher, and she only gets like that one free period during the day, and uh it happened to be on that on that free period time. Did I know that at that time? No, because I don't pay attention to my mom. I says, Yeah, it's the third period is my free period, whatever. But my daughter's actually in the room at the same time, the same daughter that was on that um on that on that trip with me. And uh it was for all of us, it was such a like uh just an emotional roller coaster of of joy, you know, of of that. And uh my daughter's in the in the background, because she experienced that too. That's the that's a at her at the time of 14-year-old seeing what was essentially a a dead person hanging there uh for her, and then she's uh screaming in the background, so my wife's on speakerphone, and is you did that, dad, you did it, you did it. And uh man, it got me back in a in a great you know, frame of mind. It seemed like it all made sense. It was the uh seeing behind the curtain of why it all happened almost, right? And it was just a a wild chain, you know, and I had some other teammates at work here that uh after realizing that were able to use their you know, stalking, sleuthing, investigative skills uh to figure out who the mom was on Facebook. Um and they were scrolling through, and the mom had uh, you know, had a bunch of posts on his updates and his you know his recovery. He had a you know broken pelvis, collapsed lung, uh traumatic brain injury, uh both legs ended up being amputated. One was at the scene, um, and just a terrific amount of of injuries in there in the worst possible sense. Uh, but then there was a post in mid-November of where uh the cop on the scene that I'd given my my statement to, um, and because of uh Good Samaritan laws, he he wouldn't he refused to give my information over. Uh, but there was a post in there that they had found out from that cop that there was somebody that had pulled him. And uh they were uh looking for me on that, right? And so I thought it was like this crazy thing. Like they didn't, I I thought nobody knew um because I didn't have any closure. Uh I didn't, you know, it was given that mentality of what was it all worth, why, why did this happen? Um, and uh the family, they uh the mom knew that somebody did stop and help. And it actually was there was an outcome, a positive outcome, right? Um, on that too. So it was like this, oh my gosh, they actually knew there. And it's the post was uh, hey, uh spread this, spread this, you know, we're looking for the guy that stopped and and helped my son. Uh, you know, general, you know, just kind of the premise, if you know that anybody that was on that too. And so it was just a crazy story of like, oh my gosh, and they knew I existed. What didn't think anybody knew I existed?

SPEAKER_03 31:11

I saw one of those posts actually. And it said they're looking for the this angel. That's what it said. They called it it. And then I was like, were they disappointed when they got you? Like, oh man.

SPEAKER_01 31:23

Well, I yeah, they kept calling now they say fallen angel. Okay. And I think after one combo, too, actually about two or three minutes into the combo, they're like, ah, fallen angel eve. I was like, what the fu- what the fuck did they come from?

SPEAKER_03 31:34

They did. They found you, and now you say after a combo, and you're making a joke, but you you've talked.

SPEAKER_01 31:40

We have, yeah. Um we were able to make that connection and and uh and reach out. And I got to have a I was actually pulling in my driveway uh about a week after we realized it finally to make that connection on there, and I, you know, my phone's ringing and it's the caller ID is coming up, Aiden Smith, right? And this is a this is a uh every time, everything before for months, I had reconciled. That was a lost soul. Yeah. And that was um somebody that I'll never know or anything. And uh him and his mom were on on the phone and we got to have that that conversation about that. And you know, they were overjoyed. They had a lot of questions about what happened at the wreck and trying to fill in those pieces of it too. Um, and I got update on all their their journey. We're gonna be meeting up, you know, soon uh to have um you know in person and and do all of that. And she's kept me updated. We traded a lot of uh techs and stuff too on on his recovery journey, you know, getting um prosthetic limbs. He's got one now working on the other, uh, took his first steps um a uh a few weeks ago and just kind of trying to get him back into this new this new life, a second lease on life. But you talk about an overjoyed mom that was you know a few times in there, she's like, Oh, but I gotta be quiet because Aiden said this is his combo and not mine, but I'm just so excited and you know, on that too. So and yeah, it was a wild story. I think this is a story, you know, that I I feel like I'm it's not my story. It doesn't feel like that. It feels like and it feels like a script that if somebody wrote that one, be like, hey, a little far-fetched, let's dial it back. Nobody's gonna buy into this on how this all came together.

SPEAKER_03 33:13

Well, because it's like of course it's more complicated than this, but in real life, stories don't tend to end with happily ever after.

SPEAKER_01 33:20

Right.

SPEAKER_03 33:20

Now, of course, he's struggling, he's his legs, he's he's got a long road and he's working hard and it's gritty. But it is like from death to life, man.

SPEAKER_00 33:29

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03 33:30

This is a happily ever after in some ways, and you always are like, where's the other shoe gonna drop? And in this case, like it did drop, but it was the good shoe. Yeah, like the good way. And so, yeah, you're right. It's like it's the screenplay came out like this is only good for lifetime. This won't work on any other thing.

SPEAKER_01 33:43

Yeah, nobody else is buying this, yeah. And uh, yeah, for that to come through. And it seems surreal, yeah, you know, on that, and it was uh yeah, it's just a wild it's just a wild and crazy story, but it's one of those that uh I feel so grateful to be a part of. You know, I think a lot of times is you you can't appreciate sweet unless you've tasted bitter. You know, there's some people that you know, if they go and they sprinkle sugar on their strawberries, I'm like, strawberries are sweet enough. What are you doing? Yeah, it's like go go eat some plain chicken breasts and almonds for two weeks and you'll taste that strawberry and it'll be the sweetest thing you've ever tasted. It's just and it's uh it's a perspective piece, and it it it has absolutely a huge perspective for me on the fragility of life, which I was already familiar with with my deployment to Iraq and and on all of that. Um and then, you know, Aiden, but then also losing my dad unexpectedly, and there's like a huge fragility of life and it can be gone in such a a quick moment, but then to have this boomerang back around into the resiliency of life and the ability to persevere and survive things that are difficult. Yeah, we're not a you know, a small flower with the you know that will wilt at this. There's a lot of resiliency in that. Yeah, and that's super you know inspiring as well to say what uh what the human body can do and can recover from, and um also what our modern medicine can do and and all that. So it all made it finally kind of you know, a lot of months of wondering and me telling myself, well, here is the takeaway, um, to find out that actually there was a much bigger takeaway of why God put me there. I just didn't know it yet. Yeah, but man, that is a it was like that downer movie, that one there, it's like, oh, this one's gonna kind of end kind of sad, and next thing you know, it ended up with a really, really warm and fuzzy ending at the end. So I'm really grateful to be a part of that.

SPEAKER_03 35:34

I just think of the old phrase uh speaking of God, he giveth and he taketh away. And for whatever reason, he giveth and he taketh away, and we stop with the taketh away, probably because we think about death being the end. And you got to live a microcosm of death not being the end. Yeah. Um where this cat and he's walking around today, and if faith is true or if God is true, or Jesus is, and in some ways it's like it's he giveth, he taketh away, and he giveth. Like giveth gets the last word, and so it's weird and odd and beautiful and miraculous, and these stories happen um that you actually get to sense that, feel it, and live it. And you got to, and so it's kind of crazy uh that you would crawl in there, but also like that the end wasn't actually the end, that the end was the beginning.

SPEAKER_01 36:22

Yeah, yeah. I mean, I it's that uh the giveth and the takeh away. I think it's appreciate I think there's so much of the the give that we take for granted, and then whenever we take that for granted, this is a known quantity, I deserve this, and then when the takeh away, it's a devastating because like this is mine. This is you know, so I put it back into my you know, my dad, it's cliche to say I thought we thought he had more time, you know, active, all this kind of stuff. And it took a it was like a a switch that flips a little bit there because we I mean you know we're using this uh movie analogy a lot, right? On a script or a movie or something like that. But I got hyper focused, and at least in the heavy grief of losing him, of man, I had a two and a half hour movie and I was enjoying the heck out of this movie, and then it cut off at two hours, and I'm really upset about that 30 minutes I didn't get.

SPEAKER_02 37:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:12

And I wanted to focus heavily on that 30 minutes, and the mind shift that I needed to do when I got there was one, Levi, it was never a two and a half hour movie. That was never God's movie for my dad. There was never two and a half, he was never gonna be 83. Yeah, so you need to get that out of your head that he was gonna live to 83 or 86. He was always gonna live to 75, and you need to really, really appreciate the 75 that you had with him versus the eight that you didn't. Because 75, and I'm not, you know, really good at math, but 75 is a heck of a lot bigger than than eight. So why would you ever focus on the eight you didn't, that by the way, never were gonna be there, versus the 75 that you did? And when you can focus on that appreciation, that gratitude, that giveth, and instead of the seven taketh that actually was never gonna be taken away anyway, man, you took it's uh it's a mind shift, and then you get that that joy starts coming back.

SPEAKER_03 38:06

Well, that's where like I think some of it is a humility. Um, and I lack it. But I always thought about it like my boss drives a really nice car. And if my car breaks and I ask my boss, can I borrow your car? He'd say yes, I think, and then I'm driving the car, and one week goes into two weeks, and two weeks goes into four weeks, and maybe I have the car six weeks, and then on week seven he calls me and says, Hey, I need my car back. And part of me is like, it's kind of my car. Like, you don't get your car back, it's my car, or what a jerk. How dare he? I need this for another thing. And it's like instead of being like, dude, thank you for the car. It was great, and look at all the places I went during the six weeks, and so I think there is this disposition of humility with our lives where like one smile is a precious gift, and when we can live that way, we do have a little bit more happiness and a little less entitlement, and that leads to more lasting joy. Also, if we know bad stuff's coming, like we know it, um, we can have that reserve so when it does, we like can handle it well, like you said, suffer well. It's always gonna be a mess, we're always gonna get it wrong, it's always gonna be messy. But we can whether it takes three days, three years, thirty years, we can come out the other side like better in some ways. Um so yeah, you've gotten to kind of have a microcosm of living that in like six months, yeah, seven months. So that's kind of pretty wild. Uh I don't quite want to end here. Um, I mean, I do. We're getting close to being done. But Fierce or Dolite, we talk about chasing joy and happiness, and then you come in here and talk about this kid hanging upside down, there's blood everywhere. We went to Iraq for a while, your dad died. I'm the saddest I've ever been in my life. So um is there another podcast we can just pivot to and you can just actually this is the podcast because you're also an idiot, uh, which is something I love so much about you. So, what are some dumb things that not just saving people's lives? Okay, what's a what's a couple frivolous dumb things that just make you smile? You go to you've had a rough day at work, and you're just like, before I go home to be my best for it's Heidi, right?

SPEAKER_01 40:11

Is that yeah, before I go home and who's thinking about and it's uh there's weird, you say Heidi, right? Every time this is I don't know why this always happens. So like Heidi, out like work events, we bring her in, and I'm always like I introduce her and I'm like, hey, this is this is Heidi. And every time, and I think maybe it's an audio thing, people always go, Lucky, and I'm like, name's Heidi. Why did you say lucky? You know, but I think it's because they they're like, Oh, it's your I've heard you tell that joke before. Um how was the delivery this time?

SPEAKER_03 40:40

No, it wasn't good the first time. Uh okay, so you want poor Heidi, you want to be great when you go home. Well, tough work day. You want to be great when you get home with Heidi and your daughters, uh, and you just need to like lift yourself up for five minutes or an hour or two hours, whatever. What is it for you? What are some like frivolous go-tos?

SPEAKER_01 41:02

I think uh, and and uh Andrew Humerman has this thing is that any dopamine that you get that does not come from the backside of hard work will will eventually destroy you, right? And so anything that you go and grab that's easy, and that's a lot of times people talk about vices, and you got all the standard ones, but the things in there that are that dopamine, that rush, that joy, that yes, I did it, that needs to be earned. Because those are the things there that get like the reset on. Do something difficult, go do something hard.

SPEAKER_03 41:35

So you're not at the end of a rough day watching a funny YouTube video with World Farrell. You are going to go do 700 push-ups.

SPEAKER_01 41:43

I want to do something in there that has a sense of accomplishment on there too. And I'll also tell you I'm a competitive guy, and I also kind of like doing something that goes, uh, yeah, nobody else is doing this kind of thing there too. And that kind of talks to my ego. And I'd love to tell you that I'm doing these things altruistically or something. There's always going to be some kind of maybe ego-based, self-serving piece there, because despite what you always think about me, Matt, not perfect. Not perfect. Yeah. Surprisingly, right? Yeah, I get it.

SPEAKER_03 42:09

Shocker.

SPEAKER_01 42:09

Yeah. But um, I think it's going to doing something difficult. I mean, I when I'm driving home, this is where I challenge myself, is I want to give my family the best of me and not the rest of me. And it's so easy to do that on the way home, being like, I worked so hard and all that, and try to use that drive home as a ramp up versus a ooh down to do that. And I don't always hit that mark. But if I can, you know, invest into my daughters, if I can uh, you know, and that's going out and playing sports with them and making them, you know, better because uh or getting a workout in myself or going doing something in there that I've been thinking about all day that like, oh, when I get home, I need to get that done. My challenge for myself is prioritizing important versus versus urgent. You know, I don't have I don't think when I get home I have a ton of, I'm blessed a ton of urgent and important, right? But I need to make sure that I'm not conflating the two and thinking that something that is urgent just because those dishes are stacked up or all of a sudden important when it's actually important is going and spending time with my girls because seeing them succeed and doing stuff are the ones that really bring that, right? A child spells love, T-I-M-E. And going investing that, right? And and all their two. So those are the things I I try to go do to really go there because I can at the end of the day, I want to say I put I want to put my stamp on the day and say I got the most out of it.

SPEAKER_02 43:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 43:37

I didn't leave anything, any any meat on the bone for that. Um and those always for me at least come from accomplishing things, whether that's with the family or maybe something in there, some kind of something when I got home that's like, okay, if I get this done, you know, changing the oil on the car or some things like that, you know, whatever it is, say that's going to help us down the line. It's those. So I think that's what I try to try to do. I don't always hit that mark though. You know, sometimes I go home and it's the it's the rest of me situation. But I'll tell you, I I have enough reflection at the end of the day, or maybe certainly the next morning, be like, man, I'm I didn't do it. I didn't do it. I didn't hit it last night. They got a passive Levi. They got a passive dad. They got a distracted dad. And I feel guilt on that. So then I try to take that away. I want to be ref you know, look back like that. Was that is that what it is? You know, that quote out there that says, if somebody was to uh accuse you of being a Christian, would there be enough evidence of the court of law to convict you? And that same thing can be used on being a great dad. You know, like so often, you know, people will talk out there and it's like, well, tell me what you are. You know, what like what do you really want to? I'm a good I want to be a great dad, a great husband, a great Christian. And then I need to look through there. It's like, is there enough to convict me of that? Yeah. And look at that in day type compartments, right? Did I hit that mark or did I not? Uh because you can if I if I don't look at it in a day type, or maybe even weekly, I try not to do that in a monthly because man, time flies. Yeah. And you can't get it back. And so I can try to be like, did I hit that mark?

SPEAKER_00 45:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 45:08

Or did I not? And then asking Heidi, you know, have good counsel. Like, how am I how am I doing on that? And I don't always like that answer because it doesn't align with what I want to be. There's some incongruence with that, but that's the feedback I need. Not the not the feedback I want, yeah, it's the feedback I need.

SPEAKER_03 45:22

Yeah, that's I admitted to a large group of people what a crummy dad I had been for a couple days. And then I think about the last two nights, because it's at nighttime. Yeah. Putting my boys to bed specifically. I just like if they're not ready in time, I just good night, and that's it. I was like grouchy, and it's like the last two nights, we've sat there with the guitar and made up silly songs. And then the other night I wrote a story that we're gonna write together and try to write a book this summer together.

SPEAKER_02 45:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 45:50

And it was like 15 minutes extra of my life, and they they looked at me, they were looking at me like I was a god or something. I was an angel. Yeah. And they were having fun and they were laughing, and it just felt so good. It was a little harder, uh, but it was like having that reflection to be like day daily, I bombed these two days.

SPEAKER_01 46:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 46:08

So either that's gonna become the cycle and that's gonna be who I am, or you just do something different. Yeah. Try a little harder, get some feedback. So I love that advice kind of about um shrinking down accomplishment and making accomplishment serve you rather than you serving it. Um, I think there's some wisdom there. Uh, we're gonna cut this off. This has been a longer conversation, but I think it's worth it. I would love to say a bunch of nice stuff about Levi right now, but you should see his head right now. It is like triple the two.

SPEAKER_01 46:35

I actually brought a list of things. Yeah, that's right. I have a list on there too, so yeah, I can get it done next full four or five minutes. I can get through the end of them.

SPEAKER_03 46:42

We'll have a two-parter. We'll bring you back on someday. Uh next time you save a life, we'll bring you back on. Uh, but anyway, this has been Levi. It's been awesome talking with him. I hope you got something out of this or something you can think about. Um, yeah, the keep pursuing joy, like he said, uh using the reference of his dad, like it's kind of written, maybe the days that we get. So maximizing them, living them well, seizing those, and sharing them with others is important. Um so yeah, I hope you can go do that. I hope you can chase that joy. I hope you want a fiercer delight. And I hope by listening to this, it's helping you pursue that. Thanks for your time, Levi. Thank you. Thanks, man. I appreciate the opportunity. It's a good discussion. All right, we'll talk to you next time.