Cleared Hot - Powered By BRCC - Politics and Family

Episode Date: August 30, 2024

We are diving deep into a wild mix of listener-submitted questions that span the gamut from light-hearted fun to life-altering challenges. 1. The unique psychological makeup that sets public figures like David Goggins, and Jocko apart from their peers in the SEAL community — what drives these men to become not just operators but also life coaches (whether they like the term or not)?  2. A listener's raw and emotional journey as they grapple with their mother's cancer diagnosis and the complex feelings of guilt, love, and the desire to be a better son. How do we prioritize dreams and responsibilities, especially when facing the fragility of life? 3. How do we balance the tension between faith and politics? A listener seeks guidance on staying true to their spiritual beliefs amidst a politically charged environment and an impending election, all while trying to navigate the complexities of family pressure to vote with a particular party. Check out the newest Cleared Hot Gear here: https://shop.clearedhotpodcast.com/  

What's going on, everybody? Welcome back. Most of the time on Friday episodes, I don't only have anything to say when I first start the episode. I don't do really an ad read. But today I'm going to shamelessly plug some things I just created for the podcast because I was going to say it's that time of year again and that season, but I don't even know what that means. It just happens to be that I have some new stuff. So check this out. It's fall. Maybe you can't even see it with the microphone. Red hoodie. Hoodie. Hoodie, what? Red flannel. God. It's going to be one of those days, I bet, when words are just going to not spill off the tongue. Red flannel. Got the podcast logo up here in the left breast pocket. I have a couple versions of this shirt. Get that out here. I think this one. Mm-hmm.

Colors. And then this badass minimalist wallet. Guy reached out to me blind from night shift leather. Leather comes from Chicago, hand-stitched. It's got a magnetic on one. side or a piece of magnet on one side, a magnetic clasp, if you will, a little paracord. You can pull it out of your pocket. This thing fits cards and it fits cash.

He sent me the prototype, I don't know, a couple weeks ago. I've been carrying that thing around ever since. It's badass. You can find all of that in the link below. And I don't even know why I just pointed down because it's not going to be in the video, but you can probably find it in the show notes. If I remember to actually put it there, that's it. Let's get into Full Auto Friday.

Get the red smoke. Okay, copy. Whist of the smoke. I'm looking at danger close now. All righty, as usual, three questions for today. I try to pick some that span different topics, so there's not a repeat. And the first one comes from a friend of mine. He texted me and asked how you could write a question in.

And instead of just texting it to me, which totally would have worked, he then asked for my email address and then sent it in. And I told him that I would answer it. Now, normally I do these things and they are anonymous. But this question comes from Rory Singer. He's a black belt inside of the SBG organization. I think he still holds the record for the fastest submission in UFC. He triangled this shit out of somebody. But what he's best known for throughout his entire life and his entire career is he gave me a black eye last year at the Bozeman SBG camp in, well, Bozeman.

Because he's just out of control. After all these years of jiu-jitsu, he's incapable of controlling his limbs. he rolls like a maniac. He's mean. He probably did it intentionally. It's not handsome. He's very short. You know, all of those things. So this one's for you, Rory. If one were to consider the psychological makeup of seals, I imagine that there would be a lot of overlap shared amongst the rake. There is a lot of overlap, but I'll be honest, there is a lot of unique traits and outliers as well. It is a community that, It makes it through a very stringent screening, training, and selection process. And so there are a lot of shared characteristics, but trust me, we had our flyers in there as well. Both ends of the spectrum, as far out as you can go.

But I'd say about 80% of the people are kind of in the middle, which probably is true of most of society. I assume it takes a special set of characteristics to make it through an elite training program, ignoring the physical abilities one may need. You are really my only connection to that community. I know some seals have gone on to be bestselling authors or even governors. I'd love to know if you have thoughts on what might be different about you, Goggins, and Jocko that has you three so forward-facing in the public eye and seen as life coaches. I believe that you hate that term.

I do hate that term. Maybe that's a terribly worded question and maybe I'm missing many other things. Maybe I'm missing many others doing the same thing. P.S. if you don't answer my question, I will give you another black eye. You see what I mean? This is the kind of person that Rory. is. He's a bully. It's not nice. And let's get back to the question. I don't know what's different about me or Jocko. I know Jocko. I've passed across Path of Goggins before I have no touch points

of actually interacting with him. And I've said this many times, and I'm sure I'll continue to say it. If you had asked me at any point in my career to write down 100 things that I thought I might do post-military service. I wouldn't be doing any of them. I certainly would have never, oh, didn't even know what a podcast was until after I was in the military, so would not have written that down. Public speaking, I don't, I don't know if I, I didn't mind it while I was in because I was forced to do it as an instructor, but that audience is very different because they're captive and they want to be there and then they're middle of a selection course. So, I mean, I hesitate to call it public speaking, even though that's specifically what it was.

A coffee shop owner? No, I didn't even drink coffee until I was 27. Never would have guessed in a million years that I would have gone down that brick and mortar pathway. What else do I do? I mean, professionally, I guess that's kind of the things that I do. Having sponsorship or endorsement or ambassador deals, again, didn't even know that that was possible.

So I don't necessarily think that there is anything different about Jocko or Goggins or myself. And I'm going to be very clear. I actually don't put myself in the same category as those two. They are orders of magnitude in scope, size, and scale when it comes to audience and influence and impact than I am. And that's not me being humble. That's just me being objectively honest. There are a lot of people in the world that have podcasts. Some are more successful than others. And I don't think there's anything wrong with taking an objective view as to where you rack and stack among those things. Gaggins and Jocko are authors.

They are both public speakers as well. I have no idea how their books did comparatively. I have no idea how often they speak comparatively, but I know that their audience and their sphere of influence is a lot larger than my own. And I'm totally fine with that. I actually really celebrate the success of other people. Like if Jocco is killing it, that makes me absolutely happy. because I think it's okay and maybe even more than okay, essential to be able to celebrate others

without having some measuring or yardstick to your own trajectory in life. I think, God, that might be just a path to being, what does they say? Comparison is the Thief of Joy. I mean, there's probably a reason why people say that. I think what might be different about the three of us is that we're just comfortable being a little bit more consumer facing. For me, it was incremental over time, and I suspect it was the same for Goggins and Jocko as well. I don't think anybody just wakes up overnight and you achieve the level of success that those two have. But it starts with your willingness to accept the pros and cons that are going to come from being more public about a community that has often and traditionally been known for more of their

silence and being in the shadows. And what I'll say about this, my guiding principle in this is I'm more than happy to talk about my experiences because that's all that they count for. And I believe that everybody is free to do with their experiences what they want to. I cannot speak for the community. And I am incredibly careful when I talk about the community. And at the bottom of everything is my desire to not put anybody at risk and expose, I don't know if expose is the right word, portray the SEAL community for what I believe it to be, pros and cons. I believe that's essential because I believe that's how you maintain your integrity. And I also think it's essential that there are some people out there that are willing to be consumer facing. I found out about SEALs. The first time I heard about it was

through my dad, but all the rest of the information that I found was from people who were willing to step out in front of the potentially large negative backlash from the community, depending on how you present yourself, and be okay with that and to weather that storm. Now, why they did that, I don't know. Maybe it was economic for some people. Maybe the, who knows, maybe they just wanted to grow into who they were in and elevate everything that they were doing in their life. But the books, the movies, I'm talking about pre-9-11. the ones that I was exposed to, they fed and fueled my desire to join. And I think that done appropriately, in every military community, there is a way to talk about who you are and what you did without

exposing things that are sensitive. It can continue that fire and churn of people being interested and having a desire to follow you down that pathway. Can it be taken too far? Can it be manipulated? Can it be twisted for your own personal self-reward? Yes, it can. And I don't. And I don't don't agree with that. But again, people are free to do what they want to with their experiences, but they also have to own the consequences of their actions. So if you take your experiences and you do some of those things that I mentioned, you twist, you turn, you manipulate, and things don't go your way, you don't really have anybody to point your finger at except for the person that you see yourself in the mirror, in the bathroom, when you flip on the lights. I really think that's

what might be different. Some people are comfortable stepping out in front of it. Some people are not. And I think most people are not, but I think the people who have worked their way into that position, and I don't consider myself to be a life coach. I will be honest about my experiences in life. There have been more failures than successes, and I try to be very open and honest about that. And I hope that people can learn from my mistakes and maybe shorten the learning curve of their own life, but I'm not a coach. I don't feel like I have wisdom. I don't feel like I have the intelligence to help people navigate through life. I feel like I have the ability to be honest about the things that I have struggled with in the hopes that it can help somebody somewhere.

There are other people out there besides the three of us that you mentioned. And, you know, Jack Carr's a good example. Sean Ryan is another good example. Those are both from the seal background specifically. There's a bunch of seals that work for Echelon Front, which is obviously Jocco's company. Leif Bavin would be another example of that as well. And if I had thought about this for 10 more minutes, so if I spent some time on the internet,

I could probably list 15 to 20 people. And they're all different from a personality perspective. There might be some shared traits, but truly I think it comes down to being willing to step out into the spotlight. I don't really like to use that term, but let's say it's probably pretty accurate for this. And for some people, it's a 60-watt bulb,

and for other people, it's a Batman signal right on them, just super bright. And I think that's awesome. That's really it. I wish I could say that there was something incredibly different that differentiated us, but I don't think that's the case. I think it's just the small incremental steps over time that led us specifically, since you're asking about that to where we are now.

So hopefully that answered your question to the degree that won't net me with another black eye when we come to your gym for fall camp this year. Moving on. Hey, Andy, despite all live. Oh, I think you meant lives. Despite all life's trials, triumphs, and turmoils, I've never actually thought I would reach out for a fallout of Friday. That was until a few minutes ago, just now when my mom told me she has very early stage breast cancer. And so, hello. What struck me was how good-spirited and unconcerned she was, cheerful even, and how I didn't really have much of an emotional reaction to it. No fear, little if any worry. And I'm not sure what to make of that. The doctor, unsurprisingly was a, and these are all his words, a fucking disconnected, insensitive cock-gobbling, ass Spalunker, and nothing would please me more than to shove my benchmaid up his perineum for casually telling my mom she has breast cancer. So I'm going to stop here and address something.

I'm not going to try to excuse the doctor's behavior, and I realize that you're writing this in an emotional state, because it's exactly how anybody would be when they got that information about their mom. Hopefully, in the time between you writing this email, and now when you hear it, hopefully you do, you realize that the doctor was probably not trying to be disconnected or an insensitive cock gobbling ass Spelunker to use your eloquent and fine words that I deeply appreciate. And realistically, maybe has lost the edge of his bedside manner because this is the world that he lives in day in and day out. I'm not trying to excuse his bedside banner, but in my experience, people, the best example I'll give you is law enforcement.

If you know somebody who's been in a law enforcement occupation for a long period of time, what you're going to find out is that they have a deep, deep gallows humor most of the time. And a little bit of a jaded perspective about certain population groups that they interface with all the time. They can lose a little bit of their humanity, and I don't think they mean to, but it happens over time. I doubt the doctor meant to come off that way. So hopefully you can find a little bit of grace for that doctor. and if for whatever reason the doctor were to happen to hear this, or somebody who is maybe in law enforcement for 20 years and has started to lose their humanity, maybe recognize that, maybe recognize

the toll that your career may be playing on you and realize even though that you deal with this every single day, perhaps the people that you are interfacing with do not and might deserve just a little bit more humanity. So moving on, I digress. My initial response was nothing. Only now, 20 minutes after receiving the news I am starting to think. Gee, maybe I ought to care more about how my mother feels about this situation and be a better son. I've always been a mother's boy. I had a rough childhood and she never gave up on me, despite the hell I put her through. Anything from getting charged with felony assault with a deadly weapon at age 14 to calling her from a drunk tank to being dysfunctional and causing her emotional harm during my bout with alcoholism.

She has never given up. To say I don't deserve her, as a mom, would put it lightly. So I'm going to stop right here. Why don't you deserve her as a mom? Now maybe you made that statement tongue in cheek. Maybe you actually meant it. I suspect you actually meant it. And I bet you there are a lot of people out there that need to hear this.

But regardless of how fucked up you may be in your personal life and the decisions that you may have made in your life and the path that they have taken you down, Everybody, man, woman and child, deserves a mom and a dad like the one that you described that never gives up because you're their child. So you are, in fact, deserving of the mother that you have, and you're damn lucky that you have her. Because most people, in my experience, they don't have that level of love and just this never-ending boundless ability to stay deeply involved, regardless of. of how dark the situation may be.

Back to the email. Since sobering up and working a program of sobriety, I've made it my passion to be a better son and make amends. Circling back around to this, I don't know why I don't feel all that much fear. Perhaps the program I work in sobriety, AA, for the last five years, has helped me with not obsessing over fearing the things I have no control over.

Or hopefully, I'm not disconnected. Maybe it's shock. Or maybe it was the way my mother told me. I would say given the proximity to when this happened, likely your first initial reaction is shock of the things that you listed. With a calm and joyful energy, she always has, she told me that I knew it was all going to be okay, no matter what. She said they caught it early and she only requires a lump actonomy, like lumpectomy. Damn, like I said, one of the days where the words don't come so well. Lumpectomy.

I'm assuming that means when you take out the lump. I figured you might have some thoughts on the matter considering your own experience and now makes me worried how much time I have left. Should I chase all my dreams that may take me for a time where I won't be able to spend as much time with my aging parents, such as joining the National Guard like I've been considering, going back to school, to work on a career, blah, blah, blah. Now I'm 32 and I'm still learning how to be a good son

instead of a taker and taking my mother for granted, taking both of my parents for granted at that. I don't know if I have a specific question as much as I am processing this information. I figured I would see what someone with more life experience than I has to say and you came to mind. Since I started watching your channel five years ago, I've been discovering what kind of man I am

and what kind of man I want to be. Along with my circle of men in my life, totally not gay, excluding my Jiu-Jitsu boys, B-O-I-S. I like where your heads are. I found a lot in the example you said that resonates with me and do my best to adopt and maintain those examples in my life. Okay, man, such a deep email. Mothers are amazing. Both times that my mom talked about her cancer, I don't want to say

she was upbeat. I don't think that that would be an accurate description. But she wasn't negative. She never seemed to me to be in a place where she didn't have hope. She never was negative. And she never gave up. I mean, even at the end. The end for my mom, you know, her choice was to be killed by the cancer treatments or the cancer itself, which is just a shitty choice, than a totally fucked choice. And even at the end, I mean, some of the last memories I have of my mom is sitting on a window sole and listening to the giants on an FM radio, writing in her journal, still not negative, still not giving up, still being positive to those around her and still caring more about the people in her life, specifically her family,

than herself. and it's fucking inspiring. I don't know any other word to describe it. And it's just what mothers do. And I don't know how they do it. You know, consider that the reason she delivered the information she did in the way that she did because she was concerned about how it was going to land for you. I didn't have this conversation with my mom, but I suspect she felt fear.

I suspect she spent time toiling with her mentality and the amount of time that she had left in comparison of the amount of time she would either want to have left or thought she was going to have left. And it never came out. And again, I didn't ask. But she didn't focus on those things. She focused on being surrounded by family, by wanting to see her grandkids, by wanting to have her family close to her in those moments as they were slipping away. And I think that just takes such an amazing amount of selflessness and courage to do that. And that's probably what your mom is doing. Now, the reality is the earlier you catch cancer, and this is just objectively true, the earlier you catch it, the better.

your odds are, right? You're still dealing with cancer, which is an absolute cock sucker, but the earlier the better. And I would suspect that your mom delivered the news the way that she did for your benefit. And again, it just speaks to the person that she is, which you described in this email. Now, you asked a question, and it was about how much time you have left. Let me see if I can find it. It now makes me be. worried how much time I have left. Should I chase all of my dreams that may take me for a time where I won't be able to spend as much time with my aging parents? I'm going to answer this from the perspective of something that I experienced a week ago, and that is dropping my middle

son off at college and giving him a hug goodbye and kissing him on his forehead and trying to fucking keep the tears at bay until at least we got in the car. So I didn't embarrass my in front of him. My point in saying all of that is for me, as a parent, it would be very easy to want to wrap my arms around my kids and monopolize all of their time. And I realized long ago that that's not the role of a parent, at least in my opinion. I think the role of a parent, beyond, of course, loving your child, caring for your child, being there for your child throughout the phases of their life, I mean, that's baseline,

obviously. But beyond that is preparing them for the world and then letting them go experience the world, just like their parents did for them. I don't think the role of the parents is to keep the kids in the nest, is to prepare them for everything to the best of their ability outside of the nest. And if you pursue your dreams, it may take you away from your parents. But from somebody who dropped off their middle son at college a week ago, there's nothing that makes me more proud as a parent to see my young son,

who is 19 now, growing into the young man that I know he can be. and he's not going to be able to do that unless he's out in the world on his own. And nothing fills me with a greater sense of happiness than seeing him out on his own. And I know that means I'll get less time with him. But you know what? He's never going to change the world if he spends all of his time with me. And neither will you. And your parents will understand if you pursue your dreams.

because they're going to be profoundly proud of you and supporting you from afar. I think it's the role of a parent. Maybe your parents won't agree, but that's the way I look at my job. Now, worrying about how much time you have left. I've seen these calendars, essentially, they're a countdown calendar where it breaks out the average lifespan

and it breaks it down to the number of weeks that you have left. And the whole point of this is as you cross these weeks off, it's a daily reminder of potentially how little time you have left. It forces you to answer the question. What do I want to do with my time? I don't think you should sit there and like ruminate all the time about the demise that we're all going to find in some way, shape, or form. But I think remembering that time is finite, not infinite, will help you take action in the moments where you feel like you don't want to. Because, hey, I can just do that tomorrow. I have forever, fill in the blank of any. excuse that we all give ourselves. I think contemplating your mortality can be very positive because it can spur action, which can change the trajectory in the course of your life. So how to close this out for you. It sounds to me like you are on a hell of a journey. I'm figuring out who you are

and being the best son that you can be. And I don't have any advice for you other than to stay on that path. I don't think there is a way to be a perfect child because you have your life and they have their life. You know, the Venn diagram overlap. Trust me, as a parent, I want as much overlap as possible. But I realize now I need to manage that because otherwise I'm stealing from my kids. That's just not what I want to do. Stay on the path that you're on. Try to be slightly better each day.

And when you're presented with opportunities that, you know, you find, you know what, if I do this, this is a way to give back to my parents. This is something that they'll appreciate. Take those chances as often. as you can. And that's it. Hopefully that helps. Final question. Dear Andy, first off, thank you for your service. You're very welcome. 98% of it was really enjoyable. I'm a big fan of your podcast and have been following and listening to you for a long time now. Your Monday episodes are always a great start to my week. So thank you for all the unbiased and unfiltered diversity of guest topics and

conversations and laughter. Your Friday episodes tend to be more on life advice and guidance side of things, which I truly appreciate and is why I'm writing you. I'm a bit of crossroads with something and thought you might be able to offer some advice and guidance on how to move forward. I don't know how religious you are, as I've never really heard you talk about it much on your podcast, but I am a 30-year-old and a Christian, born and raised as a man of faith. It is everything to me. I also happen to live in California and come from a family that is pretty heavily political, Democratic and strong supporters of Kamala Harris, which you can probably imagine make for quite

the colorful and creative dinner table conversations, especially now during peak election season. God, it's miserable. Any topic, any subject within three responses or comments is on to politics. It's fucking insufferable. I used to consider myself political and would rely on them for help, clearing up confusion to answer or and answer. I would rely on them for help clearing up confusion and answer to questions on such topics. Over the last year or so, however, I've become less and less political due to the seemingly impossible ability for people to have discussions without. being able to agree to disagree in a cordial manner.

Amen. I'm with you on that. More recently, the assassination attempt on Donald Trump was the final straw for me due to the fact that someone disagreed with the presidential candidates so heavily that they decided to try to end their life. And in doing so, take the life of an innocent person who was just so happening, just so happened to be a firefighter, and was simply trying to shield his family from the bullets. After seeing it on the news and hearing about the aftermath, I decided that I am done with politics and choose faith over politics. In the past, I have tried to follow and understand

viewpoints from both sides of the political spectrum, and I have sadly learned that sometimes it is easier to just keep your opinions and viewpoints to yourself. Here is where my recent struggles lie. Ever since telling my family that I am done with politics and am choosing to follow my faith moving forward, they have been very supportive of my decision. That being said, it feels like they are also pressuring me to make a decision on who to vote for come November. while I understand that it is my civil duty to vote for who I think can help get out or get our country back on track, I honestly don't know if I will vote or who I will vote for. How do I focus on my faith when the world seems to be a politically fueled machine with the election just over two months away? Thank you for taking the time to read this.

And any advice or guidance you might be able to offer would be much appreciated. Keep up the amazing work with cleared hot. I will do my best to keep up the work. I wouldn't describe it as amazing, but I would consider it to be work. Okay. Man, politics. I, too, have found that it is almost impossible to have a conversation with somebody who may align on the other side of the aisle, specifically, at least if we're talking about politics. And I don't understand why that is the case.

I ask people a lot of questions when I talk to them about politics because I'm trying to understand their position. The reason I'm trying to understand their position is I'm trying to get a feeling for who they are and why they feel. that way and what has led them to the beliefs that they have, especially if they're different from mine. Because to me, understanding does not equate to acceptance. But if I can understand where you're coming from, maybe I can help see the world a little bit through your eyes and have a deeper knowledge and perspective. Again, it doesn't mean I have to agree, but that is lost on people, right? Understanding does not equate to acceptance. I also don't understand why people cannot openly discuss the deficiencies in their candidate while also supporting them. It is as if you have to

ignore all deficiencies and only focus on the things that you believe in, as if this person that you are talking about is in some way, shape, or form perfect. And if you're talking about a person, we all know that's impossible, because we're all a goddamn mess in our own personal lives, and these people are just people. But if you talk about anything that appears to be, what would be the best way to describe this. Less than positive, if you bring up something that would be considered perhaps addressable, whether it be a behavior, a past action, speech, whatever it may be, the standard response is, will they start throwing it back at you through the lens of those things, same things through the candidate that you may support? And I think this is absolutely

idiotic. I think we should be able to address, assess, and dissect the places where people fall short and still be able to profess our support for them. It's high. It's high. the lost art of conversation. What seems to exist a lot of other areas, but damn, politics cuts it short. And I don't know, maybe it's because it's so emotional, maybe because it's so tribal. I don't really understand. Have you considered being a man of faith and a Christian, perhaps this verbiage may not work for you. But I'm going to throw out there a line that you might want to use with your family when they start pressuring you about who you're going to vote for.

consider asking them if they have considered getting fucked. And by that, I mean, what you decide to do is your business. And maybe they should just leave you alone. Regardless of who you vote for, you're still going to be a part of their family. And hopefully, they can understand that, even though I have seen politics rip families apart. and I just think it is so nonsensical, but it happens. And I bet everybody listening to this knows a family where that has been the case. Keep who you vote for to yourself. And if they ask you who you're going to vote for or they try to pressure you, I would address it head on. Be like, listen, I don't want to talk about this. This consistently becomes contentious inside of our family.

Who I am going to vote for is my business and my business only. So let's move along. If they won't let it go, I would suggest just getting up and removing yourself from the situation, not for an extended period of time, but until the conversation can move on elsewhere. Because if they keep pushing and pushing and pushing, it's not going to go anywhere positive. You know, you ask me, how religious am I? I don't know how religious you are. I've never heard really talk about it much on your podcast. I am not a religious person.

I have never been a religious person. and I have been deeply envious of people who can have the level of faith that you have many times in my life. Because I see the impact that it has on their life. But religion has just never landed with me. And I'm not saying that I don't think that there are amazing frameworks and structure inside of religion for living a fulfilled life, for living a moral life, for living a life full of integrity. It just, and I agree with all those things, but the concept of religion for me has just not landed. And maybe that means I'm just not ready. I've had plenty of conversations with people about religion.

I've served with people who are devoutly religious. And we always had fascinating conversations. And many of them, I don't want to use the term, try to convert me, but tried to persuade me. And I just would tell him, like, I don't, it doesn't land for me. It doesn't feel for me the same way that it does for you. And I think that's okay, because like I said, maybe one day in my life I will feel that way. I'm not closed to it. The best I can describe myself is agnostic.

I just don't know. I'm not smart enough to know. I mean, it'd be cool if there was something in the afterlife, but I also wouldn't be shocked to be like, oh, and the lights went out and I don't know, where the hell you go from there. I don't have the answers. So hopefully that is a better explanation for you and where I land on religion. What else? Yeah. Monitor your proximity to the tension involved in these conversations.

And don't be afraid to advocate for yourself. If you want to put politics down, first, you said you don't know who you're going to vote for or if you'll even vote. Answer those questions for yourself and don't engage in that with the rest of your family. Handle your business and then go back to your faith. I actually think the world would be a far better place, not necessarily saying go back to your faith for everybody, because there's people out there varying degrees of faith, to include none at all, but handle your business, and then go back to the thing that brings purpose to you, that brings fulfillment and satisfaction to you. And I don't think anybody would describe that as arguing with your family about politics,

because it's the opposite of those things. But it's a cool thing, that you have that level of faith and that you've read recognized that engaging in the ecosystem of politics is not serving you well and faith is serving you better. You might have to take a little bit of time off from your family for the next two months, but I think at the end of the day, especially the path you're on, you're going to be okay. Don't be afraid to advocate for yourself. People really start pushing on you, stand your ground and hold your line and what you'll notice really quickly is there are a lot less resistant to push back. That's all I have for this Friday.

Hope everybody has a good weekend. It's like Labor Day, I think, on Monday or Tuesday. I don't know. It's one of those days.