Stair Pits
What happens when a kid who lost the parent lottery grows up to find success — and then decides to write the whole thing down? Stair Pits is the podcast where author R.A. Thompson and co-host Max unpack the stories behind the memoir Stair Pits: a darkly comic look at a childhood gone spectacularly wrong. Expect real talk, sharp humor, hard-won wisdom, and the kind of honest conversation you only get between two people who trust each other. New episodes regularly — grab the book at unbreakableorigins.com.
Stair Pits
Why Big Achievements Don't Require Extraordinary Effort
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This is a powerful motivational video, designed to inspire and encourage personal growth. You can spend your whole life waiting for a heroic moment, or you can change someone’s day with something small, reminding us that great things come from small beginnings. We're all capable of life motivation, just remember that sometimes, all you need is a start.
The heart of the conversation is the Good Samaritan theme and the question we don’t ask enough: what do you do after someone gives you a second chance? We dig into rock bottom, the 12-step idea of finally “hitting the floor,” and what it means to show basic humanity through small acts. Then it gets personal, moving into hospice, regret, and the decision to forgive and care anyway, not because the past was fine, but because you still get to choose how the story ends.
Get Your Copy Of Stair Pits Below!
www.unbreakableorigins.com
0:00 Doing Something Small
5:31 Why The Chapters Are Short
10:49 Casting Voices And Accents
15:16 Ken Burns Visuals For Mini Episodes
26:39 Marketing Odds And Risking Failure
36:47 Rock Bottom And Second Chances
42:39 Hospice Regret And Forgiveness
53:12 What Makes A Marriage Work
56:45 Social Media Push And Closing
The very little that someone has to do in order to produce incredible, long-lasting and inspirational elements of things. You don't need something amazing, you just need somebody to do something. Ultimately, again, if we're created in God's image, the greatest power that we have is to forgive. And so by the act of forgiving, you've tried to imitate God, and therefore you're doing something that you have a unique capacity to do. I still am R.A. Thompson, and this is still MC3 or Max Christensen III wearing another hat today.
SPEAKER_01Do you like this one? Do you appreciate this one? I guess I do, sure. I wore it just for you. No, thank you very much. It represents you and I all in the same tone. That's really what it is.
SPEAKER_04Crackers. Crackers? Oh, that's what it is.
SPEAKER_01Yes, yeah, yeah. So the Atlanta black crackers from the Negro Leagues. Yes. Yes. I mean, I know you're you're you're you don't follow modern current baseball, but I know you're a baseball historian, a baseball enthusiast. And so I like to I like to tap back into uh into the bowels of history from the baseball side just for you.
SPEAKER_04No, I appreciate that. That's very good. That's very good on that.
SPEAKER_01And I I thought that this was the most unique name out of all of the the Negro League teams. Well, yes, it is, yeah. The black crackers. I'm like, that's interesting.
SPEAKER_04Well, yeah, no, it it works because it's just, you know, dude, we're we're reaching across the border. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01It's like jumbo shrimp. It's like, you know, different words like that, black crackers.
SPEAKER_04Right. No, it works pretty well. Yeah. Versus like Oreos. True. Which are like, you know, cookies, but it's the same concept.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. 100%.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, that's that's one of those things I like to look at. Yes. So um this is truly one of the things that I enjoyed the most growing up was uh NBC, National Broadcasting Thing. What was what was NBC in in this town in St. George? No clue. The station number? I have no idea. You had no idea. Nope. So what were the teams back in the day that had AFC games on?
SPEAKER_01Um like the Broncos, the That's football. Okay. Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_04No, but yeah, but the Broncos, yeah. It's um so you don't remember the station number?
SPEAKER_01No, I don't. Nope. You get you got me on this one again.
SPEAKER_04I don't know either. But it's like because I I never really watch television. I don't watch it's whatever it would have been. Well, back in the day you would have had channels, and one of the stations was NBC, now owned by General Electric. So I just thought if those who wanted to invest in it, that's what it is. But uh they would always have this tonight on a very special episode of Blossom. You know, then it would be whatever it was going to be happening on Blossom that was going to be very special. Never was. But they would try to hit it on there. Yeah. So today, on today, this afternoon, whenever you're watching this, on a very special episode of the Stair Pitts podcast, we have a bunch of exciting things and we can talk about them. So one is um despite the fact that you and I have wonderful banter and everybody loves to watch and to see what we're going to say, all 26 people that follow this, actually there's 57 currently. Oh, wow, okay. That's huge. That's like the same number, the pickle recipes that Heinz originally had. Yes. Yep. So um the my thought was we'll change the format a little bit and we'll kind of talk about how it might be able to come, and this will get people infinitely more excited on it. So because the book has very, very short chapters, my thought would be, what if we just read the book to you? Since people aren't buying the book, people will listen to us talk. They might listen to us talk just reading the book. So what we're gonna do is we're gonna produce a whole bunch of little mini chapters, and we'll just run it as a serial, and then we'll see if one, people will watch it and like it. Maybe it could gain some legs that way. Uh we'll also maybe then people will buy the book because they want to have the written word to go with it. Or maybe ultimately um we'll just burn the book and um, you know, then people will like it because they'll be upset that someone's burning books. That's what we really need. We need somebody to hate the book and then demand that it all be burned, and then people will buy it.
SPEAKER_01Yes. Or we need to burn the book, outrage the book lovers so that they will buy it simply to cradle it in their arms and make sure that no one destroys it. Yeah. But Robert, for those for those who haven't cracked open the cover of your famous book here, Stare Pits, talk to the audience a little bit about how the book's formatted. Yeah, I don't think we've talked about that yet. It's pretty unique. You said there's short chapters. Tell them a little bit as to why this is such an easy read.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Well, it was an easy read because initially um I wasn't sure you know how to write it. And then I decided I would use it in English, because that's like the language that I feel most comfortable speaking in. I'm glad. Because we previously talked about that, that I can't really speak Spanish particularly well.
SPEAKER_01No, but you you can speak cow, you can gibberish.
SPEAKER_04Gibberish, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um you can include polar bears in just about any conversation. Have a gift. So I mean that you have different you're bilingual in a different form.
SPEAKER_04I yeah. I the fact is I'm a multi multimedia communicator. Love it. Yeah, and that's it. Or just my personal I don't care.
SPEAKER_01The dead stare. Yeah, just it's just the dead stare. But yeah, sorry, I sidetracked you in the format of the book.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, so the first thought was just English. So that was the bees. And I thought that was huge. I thought you might have laughed at that, but apparently it didn't work. Try it again. So I thought I would write it in English, Max. Much better. Much better. That's too much.
SPEAKER_01See, I didn't know how much you wanted me to carry on there.
SPEAKER_04You could, I was just trying to save you. Gotcha, thank you. Appreciate it.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah. Yes. It really was funny. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04No, um, so the it was kind of an interesting thing in writing it was um I tried to limit the chapters to about 150 words, which is basically the length that you would have on a uh Apple uh words or pages word processing thing. So I tried to get it into it would just fit one page. And the interesting thing actually about writing it was I knew what I wanted to say, but then I could write it out, but then it's way too many words. So then I had to take everything that I wrote and brought it down. So I would say I could maybe type at between maybe 80 to maybe 100 words a minute, but on this I would type at like 50 words a minute. Like I might uh I would go to the library at the fourth uh floor of the at uh Utah Tech. They have a beautiful open space there. It's one of the many reasons why you might want to go there. You could become college educated like Max, much better than Snow College.
SPEAKER_03Oh, I don't know about that.
SPEAKER_04Not quite as good as um as Stanford, but it's kind of right in that it's in that middle. Right in the sweet space. Right there, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And the great thing about Utah Tech, no academic requirements to get into it. I didn't even know that. A pulse. Dude, look at some of the guys on the team.
SPEAKER_01Wasn't gonna say anything, but gotta speak the truth. I reckon yes, I recognize where you're coming from. You're wearing a black cracker's hat, dude. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_04Well, this is this it is the truth.
SPEAKER_01This is gonna this is quickly gonna pivot into a podcast of just truth and and and total truth. Just a platform of of never telling lies. That's true.
SPEAKER_04Yes.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_04I think your shoes are stupid. Anyway, go ahead.
SPEAKER_01But it's the um these are one of the these are one of the better ones in my closet. What are you talking about? Yeah. The Jordans.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Old guy. That's it. Living in the past. Fair. That's it. No, that's it. But I would say that so if we looked at it, the hat would be the oldest. Yes. And then the shoes would be, but still, it's kind of a retro look.
SPEAKER_01Which I thought you would appreciate. I mean, I mean, you this is a good one. I was there. I'm living. As a young African-American male, I'm trying to connect more to you.
SPEAKER_04As being an old person? As the old white. But I'm living in the future, brother. You know, that's really what it is. I just right here.
SPEAKER_01Well, you always you always wear better shirts than I do. I mean, you're you're wearing a polo with different colored glasses on it.
SPEAKER_04That's true, because I'm trying to see the future. See, that's impressive. You know, I have skills. That is why you sit in the host chair. That's true. That's true. So what we're what what I originally did going back to actually writing on it, I would sit down and I'd write something, then I would edit it, then I would condense it, then I would condense it. And then I would have the I would then highlight it and then make it read it to me so I could hear what it said. And then I would re-edit it and re-edit it. And it would take me to write a page might take three and a half hours. But eventually I would get it down to the point that it I liked how it worked, and then I would write the top ten list and then finish out the backside. So the whole thing was about three and a half hours being able to deal with it. But it was surprising to me how I couldn't just type it out. And like I lived through it, but I wanted to tell the story in a way that sounded better. So it was a lot of fun of being able to deal with that. And then the top ten lists were just an extension of everything that I thought I should put into the story, but it didn't fit the narrative and it didn't fit the tone. So it was trying to make them standalone sta standalone chapters with a top ten list on the back side, and then characters of interest, more stuff on the back side. So I think what we're going to do is we're going to have Max or other people that can read, we'll try to find out what ethnic group does the best, you know, and then we'll fire the rest of them.
SPEAKER_01Exactly. Instead of battle of the sexes, it'll be battle of the minorities.
SPEAKER_04Battle of the minority enunciations on it. So that's what we're going to. The question is do we count the French as a minority?
SPEAKER_01I think we I think we just group all of Europe together.
SPEAKER_04Just one just one thing, so all of Europe gets a chance to do it. Yes. So that would be good. Which do you think would be the most interesting person to read it?
SPEAKER_01Like if you're gonna I'm trying to think of all the countries in Europe.
SPEAKER_04Denver.
SPEAKER_01Um you know. Is um Ireland or Scotland is considered in Europe, right? Okay.
SPEAKER_04Both of them are.
SPEAKER_01I they have probably the most unique English pronunciation.
SPEAKER_04Gaelic winds. Okay. It's like, I think my gibberish is bad, theirs is worse.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Okay.
SPEAKER_04So it's it it has absolutely no reverence to anything. And the worst one actually would be Iceland would be considered in there. You think so? But Iceland has it's not Latin. I mean, it just has random, so it's you couldn't figure out even remotely what they were saying. Yes. But I would say, in terms of Lilt, I would say if you went with Irish, you know, the Irish Lilt is magnificent. Yes. The Scottish thing is good. English, there's so many different sub-English dialects that it could work there on it. Bad French is one of my personal favorites. Okay. Because you can just throw that at any game. Absolutely. Works really pretty well. Uh and German is too authoritative, I think. For sure. The Italian thing, you just get lost in the pronunciation and the relative joy of saying the words. But but anyway, we'll figure out what it would be. So we'll have people then just kind of read it, and then to make it so that you're not totally bored by the concept of some idiot just reading to you and staring at the back of a book. Um, we're gonna borrow from Ken Burns. Do you remember Ken Burns at all?
SPEAKER_01I recognize the name, but don't remember the person.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, he um was not as skilled as Ken just the right temperature. Okay. As a different cook, but one guy just didn't work as well. Or Ken Too Raw was the other one. But they had three restaurants, only one of them six. Yeah. Kind of like the three little pigs. Absolutely. But so Ken Burns, when he did a couple of different documentaries that were noteworthy, one was on the Civil War, and the other was on baseball, which is a sport. And since on the Civil War he didn't have anybody that he could interview, and they didn't have any tape or video or anything, because that was in a time before electricity. So actually electricity existed, they just didn't use it. So what he would do is he would get a picture and then he would just pan across it. So here would be the picture, and he would start here, and then he would just slowly pan and expand it, and you would see what it was, and then he would have talked about something else and have another picture. And so he would take a static picture, and as opposed to just showing you the picture, he would walk you across the picture. And in the same way that um that architects like um Frank Lloyd Wright had this theory that in architecture the design of a building should invite the eye to wander. You should just look at it and you should just your eye should just want to devour the creation. And so my thought is we'll come up with really clever pictures, and then we can just run it across. So the people that wanted to watch the podcast could watch it and see it, and the people that just wanted to flip it on, they can deal with it. And we think we can get them down to about three minutes or whatever minutes allows it to be a short, and then you have it. And then conceivably we can bump a lot of them out there. Like in the book, there's like 68 or maybe 70 chapters in the book. If you'd like to anybody at home that would like to read part of it, you could, you know, possibly you know, submit your resume, what accent you'd like to say it in.
SPEAKER_01Um what your what your race is, of course.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. I would probably not to go with the guys. I mean I don't want anybody that does cross country, because I mean like for instance, like you're a cross-country coach. Yeah. What do you say to the guys? Run hard, run fast. You can't run that fast because you'll burn out your energy. Okay, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Somebody who never ran cross-country. Yeah, well, that's true. Yeah, yeah. Again, we talked about this. Short areas, short.
SPEAKER_04Right, yeah. But but the idea of like, if you're a cross-country coach, what do you say? Just keep running? Keep the legs moving, don't stop.
SPEAKER_01It sounds like you'd be a hell of a motivational coach. Oh, no, I'd be no.
SPEAKER_04I'd just I just how that guy gets paid is beyond me. Make sure your shoes are let me see your feet. Yeah. You know, I I don't think you have it. I mean, what is the you know, what what do you say? I mean, I mean I've been I've been watching your tape.
SPEAKER_01Maybe they're all part-time uh uh podiatrists, you know. Yeah, or maybe that's it, yeah.
SPEAKER_04Or just I don't get it, but it and I'm sure you know the answer is this most people on the internet tend to blast people for their you know political views or whatever the hell it's gonna be on there or something like that. I'm going for the I'm going for the one that America needs to look at. Cross country coaches, dude. You either the guy that's gonna run that far has his own internal motivation. Yes. God love you, just run that. So I mean, you get used to running that far, that's cool, but all sports are getting used to doing it, right? I mean, darts. You know, you just get used to how far this is, you know, you got the 90 years, you got the 90 year, and the release point is there, and you're just doing it. And pretty soon you get a chance that you can throw the dart accurately to the same spot. And the same thing, you're just doing this, but as opposed to doing this, let's say this would be Max's version, one, two, three, I'm to the end of my area. Okay, so here's the cross country guy one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, and then you do that for six miles. And then it's like, and then you stop. And then you walk over here and you get something to drink, and then you see, where did I finish? Sounds very enjoyable. Totally. I mean, and it's I mean, it's great. It's it's I mean, it's a sport, it goes back to something that's realistic. I get that, that in the days that you had to run down a deer or you had to run down a horse or something like that, that there could be some value in it. But I would have infinitely more respect for them if they did it barefooted. Wow. Outside. Yeah, right, of course. Because that that's the way that it came about, right? If you look at sports, do them the way they were designed, you know. No doubt. I mean, boxing, who needs, you know, you got who wears a mouthpiece? There's no mouthpiece when it first came up. You just hit the guy in the face and eventually I mean the teeth start coming out, the guy stops.
SPEAKER_01The bare knuckle boxing is actually very interesting to watch because you hear every crack of the body.
SPEAKER_04Oh no, no, yeah. You get it's very real, yeah. No, so I think that there's something valuable, you know, in that. Same thing with auto racing. You know, I mean safety belts, wimps. Okay, yeah. I mean, guy should go flying out of the car. I mean, you know, not put the paraplegic in auto racing because it really isn't in there, but there's kind of that thought that it should work.
SPEAKER_01I saw I saw a picture of a truck on Instagram the other day, an old blue truck. Right. And and on a bumper sticker that said, no seat belts, no airbags, we die like men.
SPEAKER_04No. Perfect. Pretty simple, pretty basic. That's really it. Did I ever tell you it's like Susan and I, my wife and I were on our honeymoon in uh we went to Louisiana, we went to New Orleans, or Norlands as they like to say. Good. And then we drove across to Mobile, Alabama. So as we're driving across Highway 10 down there on the bottom, uh we're coming back to uh New Orleans, and we're behind this like 1972 Oldsmobile Tornado. And in post-production, we can show you a picture of it. It's a massive front-wheel drive car that you could legitimately launch aircrafts off the front of it.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_04It was magnificent. And it's just belching the shit of smoke out of the bag. It's just it's absolutely, you can't even see. And it's in front of us and it's going maybe 10 miles an hour on this little road, and we can't do anything with it. So the car tries to go up and over this little berm that protects the railroad tracks from you know floods, which I don't think really does a particularly good job, but it, you know, at least it's an attempt. So it goes up on this thing and it stalls out. As it stalls out, the air pollution subsides, and the rear bumper is held on with duct tape. And there's a bumper sticker on the back of it that has a picture of a Mississippi State flag, which is a Confederate flag. Yeah. And next to that, it says, Frankly, we don't give a damn how you does it up north. And I thought it doesn't get any better than if I would have had the camera click, that would have been the meme of all memes, right? It was there. So we pull up around the side of the thing, and I put down the window, you know, in the car, and Susan's driving shotgun. The guys are just sitting there, and they look exactly how you think they would look. Yeah. And um I look at him and I said, you know, Bubba, you need help. And uh, no, we're fine. And um so then we just continued and put the window back up. Susan goes, What in the hell was that? And I said it was might be my only chance to ever call someone Bubba, you know, correctly. Yeah. And so I figured it was it was worth it. Yes. And she's like, Well, that was the stupidest thing. I was like, Well, they're not gonna shoot us. I mean, you know, they're not gonna waste a bullet on just you know, they wanna shoot both of us, not just one. So they don't got two bullets. And so we drove on and the car stalled there, probably still there. Yeah, probably. But you know, that's what happened. But that was my uh that could be a great guy to read. I think that yeah, we found go find that accent. Yeah, yeah, that'd be a good through your book, no doubt. That'd work pretty well. Yeah. But no, so I think that's what we're gonna do. We're gonna try to produce into little things. And then the ideas that could determine something on it. Maybe drop two episodes a week or something like that. You can get through it. You get a chance of seeing what the book is like. Uh maybe the series becomes meaningful. If the series doesn't work, then oh well, we came, we saw, we tried. Um if it does work, then it's great. Maybe people buy the book because then you have a compendium of it, which could actually be meaningful. Yes. So that would be it. So here's the thought, right? If you were going to try to read it, could you read it in a falsetto? Because you can sing. Max actually can sing, can sing well. Could you read it in a falsetto, do you think?
SPEAKER_01I don't think so. I don't think I I I have that type of range in me. What do you think is the highest you could get on it? I don't know. Maybe that was pr the horse is pretty good there. Well, I speak horse, you speak cow, right? I'm going to do a horse. So maybe yeah, yeah, you just showed that. Um maybe a high baritone. High baritone? Yeah. Let's hear your high baritone. I gotta I have to warm up the voice. It's a whole it's a whole process, Robert. You know, let's do this.
SPEAKER_04Let's do a wake out-of-bed high baritone, have to sing the national anthem. Oh my gosh. But we're not gonna have to do the next, but just just you know, um just recite something on it. In singing form? No, no, just just using the voice. Just get your voice there. Let's see.
SPEAKER_01R.A. Thompson Stair Pits. Deeply moving and intensely personal. This novel delves into the complexities of growing up unseen and unheard, capturing persistence amidst adversity with a darkly humorous approach. This unforgettable first installment invites readers into a raw, authentic journey, a powerful exploration of pain, strength, and the desperate longing to be understood. Very good. Thank you. That was my tryout. Okay, that was very good.
SPEAKER_04Make sure we have your name on your resume. It's a polite way of saying you're not hired. Oh, good, okay. That's it. Deeply moving and intensely personal this novel delivers into the complexities of growing up unseen and unheard, capturing per persistence and midst adversity and a darkly humorous approach. This unforgettable first installment invites the readers into a raw, authentic journey of powerful exploration of pain, strength, and the desperate belonging to be understood. That's why I won't be reading it.
SPEAKER_01I was gonna say, I think I think you're you're taking all the jobs off the table. I think you just need to do it yourself.
SPEAKER_04Well, no, that's the the whole thing is that's basically my Billy job, Bob Thornton, from doing Sling. Okay. Yes. But it's very similar to it. I could read the book, I think, entirely and bully um Thornton. Absolutely. I would find it much easier for me, actually, just to read it as um in character. It'd be much harder for me, I think, just to do it in my regular voice.
SPEAKER_01Even though it's that's the voice that it was written in.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, but I don't think it it needs to have the right guy to do it, you know. It's like John Crescenda, do you know who he was? Uh no. He was the voice of NFL films.
SPEAKER_01Oh, okay. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04I mean, he had that guy had a voice that makes you seem like a soprano. Yes. Right. Yeah, I know exactly.
SPEAKER_01The old 70s.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, the 60s, you know, and the Dallas Cowboys were I can't no one can get that blow. Yes. But yeah, he had um he just had a golden set of pipes.
SPEAKER_01Yes. The the one I always remember is it's the shot of Tom Landry in the old cowboy stadium, like someone's kneeling behind him, the sun's shining through, and it's just Tom Landry, right? No, yeah. I can't even get that low. Yeah, no, yeah, right? But yeah, great voice.
SPEAKER_04The frozen tundra of Lambo. No, but no one can get that. I mean, it's like triggers earthquakes low. Yes. So anyway, so I think that's what we're gonna try to do. And so let me walk through the marketing plan with you. As you know, a younger person, do you think that there's a chance in hell that it works, or is this just an example that we're gonna waste bandwidth?
SPEAKER_01I think there's always a chance in hell that it works. Absolutely. I mean, you know, I've and and just just giving it a chance, just putting it out there always gives it a chance. I mean, one of my favorite quotes is from Cars Three, okay? A classic. I'm sure you've never even seen Cars One or Two, but the third one is also good. Yes, okay. Um, but yeah, Disney picks our classic. But the quote says, Do not fear failure, fear never getting the chance to fail. Wow, see, even Siri wanted to get involved.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, that's it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, do not fear failure, fear never getting the chance to fail, right? So just the simple getting the chance to put it out there, we have the opportunity to have success.
SPEAKER_04No, that's true. So, in terms of chance in hell, is this like buy a condo in hell, just lease or sleep in your car?
SPEAKER_01I think I think it it has it's greater than a snowball's chance in hell.
SPEAKER_04Right, yes.
SPEAKER_01Okay, which I don't think that a snowball would last very long. But I I is I think this has a greater chance than that.
SPEAKER_04Okay, so basically what you're saying is um burn the book.
SPEAKER_01No, but that's all right no no no no it's got a really good chance.
SPEAKER_04No, wait, wait a second. That's better. Yeah, no, no.
SPEAKER_0156% off the top of my head. That's good.
SPEAKER_04Well, that's better than like nothing. Better than zero, absolutely. True, yeah. It's like 56 points better than zero. Yes, 100%. Which would be five, six for those of you that don't really count well. So that would be the thought there. In terms of just finishing up the relative joy of doing the regular podcast, which is I guess what we're doing here, I did have something that was kind of an interesting thought that I would share in terms of um well, one of the thoughts I think that I do try to get in the book, in addition to getting over yourself, is the the value of the Good Samaritan. There are certain things that I kind of get fixated on a lot when I think about the Torah and I think about the Bible, is I think sometimes the shortest, best pieces in it are the ones that are absolutely magnificent because they have truly been boiled down to their essence. And as I've said many times, the idea that you know we're we are born in God's image, made in God's image, therefore we are creators, and I believe that totally.
SPEAKER_01I really appreciate that. I I I definitely agree. I like the story of the Good Samaritan, but from a different perspective. Okay. A lot everybody wants to talk about the guy who scooped up the dude who you know who got beat up. Okay. I almost find there's more value, and that's the metaphor, right? That that that's what we talk about in life. No one talks about the guy who actually got scooped up. Right, yeah. Okay. And I feel there's more almost more value in looking at your life from that person's perspective, from the standpoint of this guy got the piss beaten out of him and got beaten almost within an inch of his life, but someone came along and gave him another chance.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Right. Many of us, literally or figuratively, have gotten the piss beaten out of us at some point in life. And someone has come along and given us another chance. Right? Whether that is God Himself, whether that's people in our lives, right, that have helped us overcome after being, you know, beaten up, things like that. And it's the question that we ask, and even and it'll happen more than once, right? Where you just get the crap kicked out of you. What do we do with that second chance? Right? That's what that's a lot of what I like to focus on is yeah, we are absolutely need the good Samaritans, and we need to be the good Samaritans. The people who pick up the people who are bruised and bloodied and and down on their luck, right? But we also need to be the people who, when we get the piss beaten out of us, and we get that opportunity to have a second chance, our second act, maybe third, fourth, fifth act, right? What do we do with that opportunity after we get beaten up? Right? That that's a lot of the perspective that I look at from the story of the Good Samaritan. Right.
SPEAKER_04I think it's I think that there's a couple pieces there. I think that when you look at in 12-step language, they talk about people that reach the bottom. I mean, there's a theory that you don't try to catch a falling knife because it just doesn't work. But that idea that once the knife has hit the ground and it's truly at the bottom, it ain't gonna try to fall a little bit more, then you can pick it up and you can do something with it. There's a chance. The people that truly fit the bottom, I think that they take that chance and they're pretty damn good at going forward. The people that are just gonna f keep falling just keep falling. And the people that don't hit their bottom don't take it seriously. And I think that there's a lot of ways of looking at that, that there's triage for the person that is truly, truly, truly, you know, downtrodden and beaten to death, and it's just not going to work. And then there's the sense of, you know, uh doing a simple kindness, you know, like offering Christ water. It isn't that Christ couldn't produce his own water, he could do whatever he wanted, but the fact that the man offers him water that's a very simple thing, and it's recognition of humanity. And I think that uh one of the things that I used to try to do with the guys that worked with me as brokers, a lot of times guys get a lot of money and they don't recognize that they're human. I mean they're perfect because they can make a lot of money and they can speak money into existence and blah, blah. So one of the thoughts was I used to have them tell me three things that they did in the last 24 hours that would show that they deserve to be on the planet. And one of the things I would tell them is that holding the door open for the pretty girl can never be one of them because everybody holds the door open for the pretty girl. The question is, will you hold the door open for the less than pretty girl? Will you hold the door open for the old person? What, you know, who else will you hold the door open for? And when I think you look at the little things that you do by being able to show a willingness to help. You know, if you look at the idea of a definition of love is recognizing and acting upon the will to provide value and protection to another. Okay, and I'm not saying you have to go out of your way to help everybody that's out of there, but the reality is you could do a little bit. I mean, if with nine billion people on the planet, if everybody lifted one feather's worth of burden from everybody that was out there the day, we lift a tremendous amount, whatever nine billion times the weight of a feather is. We should put that in post-production, whatever a feather weighs times nine billion, and that's many pounds. Hopefully it's a lot. It should be really impressive. But um, but that idea that you you can do something. And sometimes it's the example of like smiling, or sometimes it's the example of holding the door open for somebody, or saying good day, or complimenting somebody on something, you know, um trying to wear a you know a black cracker hat to gain additional level of intimacy with you know somebody who sits to your immediate right. Um, so it's yeah, scaring people with guns, something like that. It all works. But um, you know, and you're already, I mean, I recognize, dude, you can just flat out kill me. It's not that hard. You don't have to, you don't have to, you don't have to do this piece of it. For sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, no doubt. You think you're just in Kirkland. I mean, is that it? You're back in you're back in the Oklahoma day. Maybe that's what it is.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, but let me ask you this real quick. I'm I'm curious because it's on my mind. Do you think your parents ever hit rock bottom? Or did they did they plummet until I assume neither of them are alive?
SPEAKER_04One of them I think is still spitting up blood in the basement, but no, it's not. But I mean they probably won't be dead by the end of the well, let's assume they're both dead. Okay, let's just assume. Okay. So do you think for those of you playing at home before you dial 911? No, they're both dead. But I just was trying to be funny.
SPEAKER_01Because I know your your father passed away a couple years ago in Florida. Yeah. Right. Um, and and I, yeah. When do you feel like they just plummeted for their whole entire lives until they passed away, or do you feel like they hit, they, they were a knife that hit the floor, to use your analogy, and were able to be somewhat scooped up and and and redeemed in some way. How do you view their lives at the end of the day?
SPEAKER_04I would say my stepfather uh continued to live a most frustrating life. I mean, I think at one point the guy was living in either a uh went from a double wide to a single wide. And that's good living, you know. Um and when you, you know, when you had coupons to buy banquet frozen chicken, that's a good way to live. Uh, but no, he was so desperate towards the end of his life, and I kid you not, so he would, and I he had a deep voice, not as deep as yours, and my brother could do an infinitely better version of him. But he would legitimately do this. Well, yeah, I uh I'm calling up today because uh, you know, my my my credit cards uh I I I've got the cancer, you know, and I um I yeah, well no, it's it's uh yeah, I'm probably not gonna make him. It's stage four. So yeah, I I have the cancer. And uh but anyway, my my credit card, I just I just want to make sure that uh that that you know when I pass people don't uh you know don't get any extra charges on it. Okay. So the guy is milking the customer service person at Chase Bank for sympathy. Yeah. Dude, that is just you know, it what are you doing? Yeah. And like he's would call them and he'd call the cable company, he'd call the gas company. Well, I've got I've got the cancer. And it's okay. Do you you know, it's like, okay, it's sad that the guy is dying, it's sad that the guy has cancer. Yeah. There's a whole bunch of sad things there. But dude, if you have to be milking sympathy from customer service reps on the phone, you know, so some poor guy in India, yes, this is very good. Thank you for sharing your cancer with me. Many people in my country die from starvation. Much slower, more painful. You know, what you do. Many people die from snake bites.
SPEAKER_01Yes, yes.
SPEAKER_04My brother once tried to get a cobra out of a thing, bit him, and he died. It's terrible.
SPEAKER_01You know, but it looks like you found another accent to read your book.
SPEAKER_04But um, but that whole that whole piece of like if that's not the bottom, that's like the bottom of the bottom. I mean, the fact that you have to milk some human contact that everybody that you've been around can't stand being around you, and you're just going to do that. And I mean, just to joke on it. My mother, uh, when she found out that she had stage four cancer, uh the doctor opened her up and said that she was, you know, littered with cancers and there was nothing they could do. And that was right around the 5th or the 6th of uh July, and she was dead two months later. And during that time, um, like I hadn't seen my mother in a long time. She and I didn't get along particularly well. And I did cruel things to her. Like I didn't give her my address of where I lived or did anything. But on Christmas, her birthday, and Mother's Day, I would send her an envelope with one dollar in it.
SPEAKER_03Why?
SPEAKER_04So I wanted to acknowledge the day. But also it was it was a bitchy thing to do. I mean, it was insulting, it was mean, it was cruel, it was stupid, it was hurtful.
SPEAKER_01But you felt justified because Oh, I thought I was clever. I mean, I mean, in the fact that everything that you just said, all those feel all those, you know, you're like you acknowledge that that's how you made her feel, or that's that's what came across, that's what stair pits is.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, well, no, I it is.
SPEAKER_01I mean, I mean that like that that is how you felt being raised by her.
SPEAKER_04Right. Well, it's the same idea that you know, when you look at, you know, black people that were lynched or were killed, and you're trying to shoot me with your finger guns. I mean, it made me feel more connected to you and to, you know, to black people that I pretty much grew up around my entire life. But you know, the the idea that there's no reason for me to um to do something that mean to my mother. I mean, it was mean. I mean, I thought it was funny, I thought it was cruel, I thought it but it was bitchy. I mean, I recognize 100% bitchy, and I'm actually embarrassed by it. You know, it was it was not the right thing to do. And so I went to go see her in the hospital because she was dying. She was gonna die. And I knew that she didn't want to die in a hospital. That was one of the things that she'd often said. She just didn't want to die in the hospital, she wanted to die at home. So I went and I saw her and I said, you know, we have a limited amount of time left together. And during that time, what we could do is we could pretend that we loved each other, and then eventually we might act like we loved each other, and then that might turn into loving each other. And so, or, you know, I can just go away, whatever you would like. But, you know, this is a chance to make it work, but I don't want to fight with you. I'm not gonna fight with you anymore. And she goes, Well, I, and I said, just, well, I isn't the right way to start the conversation if we're not going to fight. You're already checked out at that point. Yeah, I said, believe me, it it's you'd be amazed at how quickly, you know, I can turn on my heels and it's gone. I said, but you know, I know you don't want to die in a hospital, and I can help you that you don't die in a hospital. So insurance would cover somebody for some hours. So I worked with the insurance company and I got them that they would pay for morning and um and like morning and second shift, but they wouldn't pay for midnight till seven. So I told her then that I would just simply stay there and I would be her nurse from midnight to seven. Wow. So she moved, we got her hospital bed and oxygen, stuck her downstairs, and she sat in her bed, and you know, that was it towards it. And I would just kind of half-acidly sleep, you know, next to her bed on the floor so that there would be somebody there for her. And I would listen to the oxygen going into her. And it was very bizarre being able to listen to this happening. And the uh people that were working hospice said, well, you know, it's getting near the end. And they were saying, well, you know, she's probably gonna die within a week or something. And during that time, right after I heard that, that uh my mother would have these hallucinations from the drug, you know, from the opiates they were giving her. And at one point she um in this like drugged out little voice just says, you know, uh, Bobby, I'm I'm tired of this. Why why is this taking so long? And I recognize that she's like hallucinating. And I said, you know, okay, where are we? And she goes, well, I'm just waiting to check out. And I go, well, yeah, sure. I said, well, why don't why don't we do this? Why don't you go wait in the garden? And we'll just wait out in the garden. And um then when it's time, it's time. And she goes, Okay, great. And then she just went back to sleep. Two days later, no, three days later, she's the same hallucinated thing, and she goes, I think my room is ready. And I go, well, let's go check. And she says, yes, it is. And I go, okay, great. And so she kind of nods out. That morning before I go to work, she's not in the hallucinogenetic cloud anymore, but she's like normal. And my mother had been smoking so much that like it hit her larynx, and she, you know, just is this real awful sound. And she's like in a normal, like awful voice that she had, she looks at me and she says, I really appreciate everything that you did for me. To, you know, you love me. You allowed me to live at home. I love you very much. And I looked at her and I told her, Well, I love you too. And I, you know, and I hugged her, and I think we both cried, and then she died that day. And she's hit by a bus. It was terrible. She had never been in the living room. But no, it was um, no, she died from cancer. I tried to make it seem like the game through to get her, but you eventually rolled her out into the road.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, was it? Oh, gotcha.
SPEAKER_04I tried to put a slow sign on that.
unknownDidn't work.
SPEAKER_04Caution didn't work.
SPEAKER_01Attached some lights to the back and none of it.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, just dead. But um, but no, but she did die. And when I kind of think about that, that you know, what was that my mother's bottom? Was my mother's bottom actually allowing me to help her? You know, and looking back at it, why did I do it? I mean, I I did it because initially I did it out of hate, you know, and I did it because I wanted to show her that I could do something that she couldn't. You know, and that's what it is. And if you look at like what anger is, anger is the emotional response that gets into us that allows us to prepare to protect against pain or intrusion or danger. I mean, that's what anger is, right? Yeah, it's it's goes into that. It's it's a mixture of fear and directed at something, you know. So, like for instance, the obvious nuclear device that's getting ready to detonate and lit behind the wall there. Now, if I wasn't, you know, like if I wasn't as confident that radiation would ultimately be a good thing for me. For sure. You know, which is why I keep my microwave door open at all times. As you should. Yep. As much stuff out of there as possible. But um, but during that time, I got to the point I knew I had to be able to show my mother that I could do it. I mean, I viewed it as kind of like just a test. And that having that little brief moment with her, it was you know, a two-month experiment turned into a seven-day experiment, turned into a midterm, turned into a final. And it worked. Yeah. You know, it's like I felt like I learned something there. And then years later, when I got married, you know, the the addendum story to that is when I first met my in-laws, who were wonderful people, John and a Vonor, just absolutely wonderful. Um, they'd been married their whole life. You know, they were married for 60-something years. And they were wonderful, they were caring, they were loving, they were supportive people. He was in, they got married shortly after he was married. I gave toilet, but he went to World War II. So he goes ashore at Utah Beach and then goes from there to the Battle of Bulge and ultimately takes it goes in to take Berlin and is then the quartermaster for Berlin after the war, bringing everything in. So wonderful, wonderful man. Comes back from the war, and you know, nine months, six hours after he's back, Susan is born. So, I mean, I think he missed his wife a lot during that period of time. But they wonderful man. So I met them, and I couldn't believe that anybody had been married that long, as the longest I'd ever even remotely thought of someone being married. And I asked John, how did you stay married so long? What is the secret to staying married so long? And you know what he said? Keep the receipt. That way you can trade them back in. No, he didn't. That was he didn't say that. It would have been funny if he would have. Yes. Uh, but no, what he said was, uh, you have to say yes, dear, like you mean it. And his wife, Yvonne, just, oh, John, you're horrible. And he looks at me, or he looks at her and he goes, Yes, dear, I am. And she goes, Oh, honey, and and he says, You're so sweet. And she is, yes, dear. And then she turns over and kissed him on the cheek. And he looks at me, smiles, and wings. And I'm thinking, that's the most James Bond, cool thing that I've ever seen in my life.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, wow.
SPEAKER_04And then it occurred to me that in listening to John and Yvonne, they never called each other John and Yvonne. It was always sweetheart or deer or honey or something. They never called each other by their names. And when I thought of my mother and stepfather, they would like they would call each other by their by their names, or they like my mother would call my stepfather, you know, like shithead or something, which I think was Latin for person that has, you know, feces on their head, but I wasn't sure. There you go. But whatever it was, they they had a totally different way of interacting. And but it was just this weird thing that here's an example of how to have a marriage. And the way that you have a marriage is that you affirm you affirm the intimacy by never calling the person their name. You know, you rebrand them as whatever. And that like it's strange in that I can think of in the last 15 years the number of times Susan's ever called me by my name.
SPEAKER_03Wow.
SPEAKER_04You know, most of the time she just whistles.
SPEAKER_01But no, it's um And it's like it's like a dog whistle, only you can hear all the time.
SPEAKER_04It's pretty loud. It's like, shit! No, it's not that isn't a whistle, though, is it? That's actually a square word. No.
SPEAKER_01I mean, well, hey, you know, instead of calling you shithead, she can call you Shatheed. Shatheed, yes. No, that's it. Yes, that's much better. So that is a little little play-on word here. Yes.
SPEAKER_04Yep. But no, Shathead, whatever, Shathayad. But um, but no, she um she never does that, and I re I never call her by her name. And and it's not because I don't remember it, it's just because I, you know, call her something else. But there's I think that there's something about that that's remarkable. And I guess that's you know, if I look at it, that where where the bottom is on something, going back to your initial question on it, I think my mother had a bottom. I think that my my biological father, when he had his bottom on alcoholism, I think it hit. I think that when I showed up in Florida to be with him during the last part of his life, I think that just surprised the hell out of him. Um But you don't you just don't know what's really supposed to happen. I mean, you know, the happy-go-lucky version of everybody's gonna die, and that's what happens, and oh, you're gonna do this, you do the other thing on it. But if the relationships have some problems, then you know, how do you get it to end on a decent note? You know, it's not you don't always get a chance to walk off home or kick a late second field goal or something like that. Sometimes you just have to, you know, if the cake slops side, you just got to put more frosting on this side to kind of even it out. And I think it comes down to how do you edit something. You know, it's like you have the ability to edit it, you have the ability to cast yourself, you know, as a neutral person as the hero or the victim. And I think that ultimately the greatest the greatest power that we have on earth is again, if we're created in God's image, the greatest power that we have is to forgive. And so by the act of forgiving, you've uh tried to imitate God and therefore you're doing something that you have a unique capacity to do. And that beyond forgiving people, the next best thing that you can do is to exercise the will to care for or just support the good, the good for the other person. And if there's meaning in the book, hopefully it comes into that, that there are characters in there that I think provide that. And there's characters in there that have no concept.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_04But I think that's ultimately what life is. Life is just a balance of between you know what's out there. You don't know. It's people you're gonna do good or bad, but you have the chance of being good and don't have to worry about what they're going to do. You can do what's right. So that's what I have.
SPEAKER_01Be a hero. Don't be a victim, find happiness in life.
SPEAKER_04Forgive.
SPEAKER_01Forgive.
SPEAKER_04Thank you. There's four simple things, dude. How hard is that?
SPEAKER_01Take notes. I I I I shot 75%. That's yeah. For a big man shooting 75% from the foul line isn't too bad.
SPEAKER_04You know what else that's called? First loser. True. No, that's the other thing. Very true. No, but it's no, but no, but but it's good. But the thing is this I think it's it's it's a lot, you know, which is there. So anyway, so that's what we have for this. The last, maybe the last hard note. We'll do it again, probably. There'll be such a demand. All four people that watch this will send emails. They'll demand that we come back. They want to see rather hats. But yeah, we'll be trying to produce something that you might want to see that might be interesting. Try to look in. This is the other thing before Max pitches the buy the book piece, which is good. Here's the other thing on it. Don't be scared to dump the little clips and the podcasts into your social media feeds. I mean, that's really what it kind of comes down to. You know, generally, I would say the entire world of social media, I kind of have a general overall feel of contempt for because it's a giant world of look at me, look at me, look at me. And, you know, I guess if we want to have a much better, um, much better usage, we could say, you know, Trump is a pedophile and or, you know, Nancy Pelosi is stupid. Okay, so we could have all sorts of inflammatory things we'd be putting out there, but all that's doing, it's just trying to, you know, seeing, you know, who can put the most whipped cream on a shit sandwich. For sure. It's still at the end of the day as a shit sandwich. What are you doing?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So the social media is a cesspool, but we view it not as bad because every everyone's swimming in it.
SPEAKER_04That's true, yeah.
SPEAKER_01So so so it we don't view it as a we it it's not it's a cesspool, but but because everyone is swimming in it, doesn't mean it's not that bad.
SPEAKER_04What it comes down to is when you're swimming it, you don't have to have your mouth open. It's kind of the answer, right? I mean, there there's ways of of go, you know, like one of my personal favorite um I know you've seen this movie, right? You've seen Sawshank, right? Yes. Yeah. But my fate one of my favorite lines in Saw Shank is at the end, and then crawled through over 400 yards of the most unspeakable. And that's just, you know, there's something spectacular about that. That basically is life. You if you're if you have to do it, by all means keep your mouth clean. Yes. And then eventually Red comes and visits you on the beach. That's kind of the way that it works.
SPEAKER_01Yep. The problem is some sickos do like to swim with their mouth open. Dude, then don't stair pits. The book, Unbreakable Origins.com, find it now. Easy read. Robert's life story. You already see this guy's as interesting as it gets. Why not learn more?
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Pump the thing on your social media, go out there, pump it on there. Otherwise, you know, Max will come to your house and kill you. Or somebody else.
SPEAKER_01Someone who looks like me, probably.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Or he'll just kill someone else and send you the body.
SPEAKER_01That's even better. It's the godfather method. That's the method.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, you gotta make it look good. Anyway, that's it. Thank you very much for tuning in. Hopefully, you'll like the little videos we put together. Um, you know, buy low, sell high. That's what we got for you. Thank you again.