Ear Biscuits with Rhett & Link - What Will Our Great-Grandkids Think of Us? | Ear Biscuits Ep. 333

Episode Date: May 2, 2022

Link celebrates the storied life of his stepdad Lewis, literally through Lewis’ own stories. Link discovered Lewis’ memoir on his computer and reads a few entries that explore his time coaching, teaching at a local prison, and being drafted into the Vietnam War. Rhett and Link also question whether their great-grandkids will be listening to these episodes and what type of legacy they are leaving behind. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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where two lifelong friends talk about life for a long time. I'm Rhett. And I'm Link. This week at the round table of dim lighting, we're talking about your legacy. What? You know, when you go to a funeral, sometimes, as I did recently,

it puts these things on the forefront of your mind, thinking about like, man, when I pass, how am I gonna be remembered? And is there something that I should be doing now in order to facilitate my memory or my legacy. The first thing that comes to mind is you should be trying to find a way to get that image of you peeing chocolate into my mouth

off of the internet before you die. Yes, and I do wanna talk about- And I should actively also be working towards that. That should be our only goal. Let's just stop this podcast right now. I do wanna talk about us as a special case in this, but you know what? Maybe you're not an internet celebrity.

Maybe you're just an avid listener of two internet celebrities and that's okay. You still need to tackle your legacy and how you wanna be remembered as anything you can do. So I think we can put ourselves in the shoes of the listener as well and talk about that. Because yeah, I have been in this mode of, okay, passing away, remembering-

You're in the mode of passing away? Please. No, I'm not passing away. I mean, technically we all are slowly. Yeah, I went to a funeral. I'm in the head space I mean, technically we all are slowly. Yeah, I went to a funeral. I'm in the head space. Good, good word. Of passing away and being remembered.

So I just thought, you know, let's have a conversation about that. So I think the first half is me sharing the experience of everything surrounding this funeral. And of course, you know, I'm keeping it vague because once I start telling you about it, I'll be telling you about it. And then I do think there's a specific discovery

that then really got me thinking about all of this stuff. Got you thinking? More than just a funeral. Okay. More than just what other people say about you after you die. And a lot more about what you say about yourself after you die. And a lot more about what you say about yourself after you die.

Okay, you're talking about holograms now. You're intrigued? See, all this was teaser. Pretty lighthearted teaser. I mean, I guess it's gonna start out kind of heavy. You know, if you don't wanna hear about passing to loved ones and funerals, this is not the episode for you or role-playing your own death.

That's not, I'm not saying that the right way either. Anyway. Just proceed. All right, hard left turn into being serious. As you know, I've talked about it, I know you know, but as I've talked about on Ear Biscuits, my mom's husband, Louis, has not been good, good, good for a long time. Of course, that was his catchphrase.

But then once he suffered a number of strokes about three years ago, we never heard him say good, good, good anymore. And as I believe after I went home in July, I came back in and talked about it on an Ear Biscuit, like my whole experience of going home. And if it wasn't that episode, it was another one where I was just really inspired

by my mom being so sacrificial in her love for Louis to take care of him 24 seven as a nurse, as well as a wife and companion for, yeah, what went on for three years. He had a number of health complications recently and we were tracking along with mom and it was a bit of a surprise when he passed, but he had taken a turn.

So there was like, there were a few days, maybe a week leading up to it. He got, he had some complications from COVID. there were a few days, maybe a week leading up to it. He had some complications from COVID. He had a number of other things going on, but the long and short of it is he did pass away. I never called Louis my stepdad because again, he got married, mom. You did call him your father-in-law.

I called, yeah. I always called him a father-in-law because I loved him so much. I definitely loved him. And you know, he was- You feel like stepdad is not endearing enough. Yeah, I'm not feeling that term. There should be a term for when your stepdad steps up

and becomes your dad. And I think you just call him dad. Well, he didn't become my dad either. Okay. He just, he became- Because you were an adult already when they got together. He became my mom's husband. After- And that's how

you're always referred to him, my mom's husband. Right. And everybody would be like, you're stepdad? Right. And that's not to say that I didn't love him and still do love him. And he was a Popeye to my kids, as well as a wonderful, wonderful husband to my mom.

I mean, they loved each other. I mean, the reason why, and you know what? They gave people an opportunity to stand up at the funeral and say a little something about Louis. And I got up and I just- And I have a firsthand account of this, well, a secondhand account because- Yeah, you weren't there.

My wife was there. Yeah, that's right. Because my wife happened to be in North Carolina at the time. Which was awesome. Yeah, she was there. I talked to her beforehand. She said Link did great.

Just in case you had any doubts about that. Well, I knew there was gonna be like a popcorn sharing time and I knew that I was ready to go first so that to prime the pump for other people to go because they might not have known and been prepared for it. You know, it's not walk up and go behind the podium and talk. It's just stand up at your spot. Just stand up where you are

because the family just felt like that would give people an opportunity to say something from the heart, but not put anybody on the spot who really needed to prepare a- No microphones involved. There was a microphone. A passive mic.

So I knew that this was gonna happen. And so I was ready to kind of prime the pump. So I stood up first and said my little piece and then other people said their thing, but I did a very calculated, I'm not going to ramble on forever because then other people will feel like they have to do that.

And a lot of me getting up and the main reason I'm getting up is obvious, but a secondary reason I'm getting up is to empower other people to share with on their heart by not being too long or too perfect or intimidating or anything. I'm just gonna be myself and keep it simple. Okay.

But also keep it quick. And that was the one thing that I knew could be a problem. Well, how long did you go? Longer than I wanted, but I mean, I think it ended up being like, I don't know, it felt like four minutes. So it was probably six minutes. Probably seven and a half.

And it could have been seven and a half, but like Jesse told you. You did great. I did great. Right. But I was really glad to celebrate he and mom's relationship and the things that I had already shared with you and shared on this podcast,

that it really was a representation of, you know, a fulfillment of the marriage vows they took in sickness and in health till death do us part. She was there with him. She went above and beyond, not as a wife, but as a nurse really, to really care for him when she had lost so much of him years ago. I mean, it's been so difficult

to see both of them go through this. But I say, you know what? She didn't do it as a fulfillment of her vows. She did it because she loved him. I mean, they had a great relationship. They had a great life together. They enjoyed each other. And it's a beautiful thing that he was,

the way he treated her and the companionship they gave each other, he was worthy of the care that she gave him. And that was the way that I wanted to honor him to his family and friends there, was to say, I'm celebrating my mom for what she did in service to him out of love, not out of obligation.

And I'm so glad that she had someone in her life that was worthy of that type of care and sacrifice. Because Louis was an awesome guy. He was loved by everybody in the community. That's why other people wanted to say something. And so, I mean, it was, the service was really beautiful and it was a celebration and made all of us feel very grateful to have had him in our lives.

I will also say another note that I got from Jesse about this funeral, I didn't know if you were gonna talk about this aspect of it. We've been to many Christian, maybe only Christian funerals in our lives. And I know that this was a Christian funeral and they went to a Methodist church. Yeah.

Many of the funerals that we went to growing up, the obligate, it was much less about the person and they made it about the people in the audience and about them having to make a decision about Jesus. And it became this very hardcore, like gospel presentation. Yeah. And it was kind of like, yeah, he was a great dude, but what about you and where are you gonna spend eternity?

And we always felt like it wasn't a real funeral if the pastor didn't take that hard turn into a gospel presentation. Yeah. And I was happy, the current Rhett, not maybe the old Rhett, but the current Rhett was very happy to hear that while, you know, obviously it was a Christian message,

but it was really a celebration of his life and remembering him. It was, I believe it was honoring to God and honoring to his faith, and it was also honoring to his life. And it wasn't putting the congregation on the spot in any way, which can feel kind of cringy. Yeah.

So yeah, it really was a beautiful service. It almost feels like exploiting someone's death for the sake of an agenda. I'll get off my soapbox, but I'm just happy to hear that that didn't happen. Pastor did a great job. And everybody else who talked, including me, apparently. Yeah, Leigh did great.

The pastor did great. I mean, come to think of it, she didn't say anybody didn't do great. So. Yeah, everybody did great, right? That's not really what it was about, but sure. That's not really what it was about, but sure. But the experience around it was one that I wouldn't trade for the world

because Louis passed away on a Wednesday evening and then I got on a plane the next morning to fly home to be with mom. So by the, within 22 hours of his passing, I was there with mom. So he died on a Wednesday night. And then I was able to get on a plane the next morning and fly home so that by 22 hours later,

I was there with my mom. And the, we actually had plans to, like as a family, we were coming in, we had already made plans a long time ago to come into town the following weekend for Britton's wedding, which was like basically in the next town over in Sanford. So we were like, okay, we all need to be here for the funeral, we may not be able to make the wedding,

but it worked out and with the family and the funeral home and everything to push the funeral to the following Thursday. So he died on a Wednesday, I arrived the next day. One week later is when we scheduled the funeral so that my family could come into town, go to the funeral and then stay through the wedding as opposed to missing the wedding

because we couldn't do both if it was earlier because they would be in jeopardy of missing too much school. So logistically, we worked that out, but a byproduct of that, and that's just something that I'll end up treasuring forever, I think, is it meant that I was with my mom for six days, like all day and then staying at her house all night until Christy and the kids showed up

and then we went to an Airbnb for the night before the funeral. And that turned out to be, it was great to be able to be there for mom and for it not to be something that was rushed. It's like, when a loved one dies across the country, it's like, well, you go out there, but then you gotta get back to your life

and you can't keep doing a lot of your work. So you gotta go back versus like, if you're in town, you can show up and leave. You know, with us being over here, it's just one of those times where it really hurts to not be there because you can't be there for the people that you love the most. So it was nice that it worked out.

And it was actually easier because it was that same week is the week that you were on that trip with Locke. So the same time that you were doing that, that's why Jesse was there, but you weren't there. If anybody's wondering that. And it made it easier logistically, our shooting schedule was kind of cleared. And it ended up in it.

So I really felt released from my work in a way that I, I think I would have made the right decision to be with mom anyway, maybe that whole time. But I just felt more, I didn't have the pressure of like, okay, there's so much that runs through the two of us. I always get scared when it's like to do the right thing, it's gonna make things really hard back here for work. So it was nice to be released from that

because it just so happened you were already gone that week. Yeah. And I helped mom walk through a lot of the logistics and working with Louis's family to like, I don't know, just to set things up, keep things clean around the house. You know, my mom's an only child, I don't know, just to set things up, keep things clean around the house. You know, my mom's an only child, I'm an only child. So it was like, when it comes to her

and our side of the family, and it's really just the two of us, you know, there's nobody else who's gonna come in and help my mom out except for a couple of her best friends who were gonna be in and out. So I did really need to step up. So I was able to do that, but every night, people were coming through all throughout the day,

but it was really every night people would stop showing up when it got dark and it would just be the two of us hanging out, like watching television, eating some more of that Bojangles that everybody was dropping off. Like- That's what people do, man. Oh man, it was great. Bojangles has this like cinnamon twist thing now. It's like, boberry biscuits are not as good

as this cinnamon twist thing they got. Okay, hold on. People were bringing these cinnamon twists by. That might be sacrilegious. I'm just planting a seed, man. Nothing with cinnamon in it is better than a blueberry biscuit. It's just, oh, it's so good.

Okay. But I had both. So we'd be eating some of that. Of course, I did go to the grocery store and buy my supplies, which were- Water, chapstick. Coffee and cereal. So I'd get me a bowl of cereal and I'd sit down there with my mom.

Your mom's not a coffee drinker. No, so I gotta make sure I got my coffee. Wow, she's never been a coffee drinker. Nope. And then we would just sit down and talk every night. Of course we would talk, she'd be processing like this slowly becoming real. You're in shock.

It's like even you might think it was expected, but it wasn't and you really can't fully expect to lose your mate, right? So you can't be fully prepared for that. So whenever she wanted to talk about Lewis and like memories or what they had just been going through, it's like, I was just able to listen. But then we would also talk about other things.

I was like, I brought up stuff that like, memories from my childhood that I was talking about in therapy. Oh. Like I would bring up, I was like, mom, I remember this thing. I'm not gonna share it here, but yeah, I kinda got her perspective on it.

Like, I don't care, I'll share it. I remember when I was a kid, one of my first memories was at First Baptist Church. It was me and Jimmy, my stepdad. He was legitimately my stepdad. Your father-in-law. No, my father-in-law. Your first father-in-law.

I remember in the middle of the service, I was doing something. He took me out of the service and walked down doing something. He took me out of the service and like walked down the center aisle and took me out and like gave me a lecture and then brought me back in to like apologize to my mom during the service. And I don't even remember what I was doing,

but I remember just kind of being traumatized by the fact that like I was paraded out in the middle of church while everybody, and back in while everybody was looking at. Damn. And it was like- He didn't whoop you though. He didn't whoop me.

And mom reminded me, well, when you came back in, you had a flower in your hand. You'd picked a flower and you came and gave it to me. And I was like, I was like four years old. Wow. Five years old at most. And she was like reminding me of that. Pick a flower for your mama boy. Yeah, and she was like.

I don't care, just to get one. She gave me some insight into what was going on there that like we had never talked about. We had this very adult conversation about like, what was it? Like so many things that like experiences, like these little bits of memories that you have when you're a child,

that I never sat down and picked my mom's brain on what was happening that, what did I do wrong? Did you remember? She said I couldn't sit still. And she thought that the punishment didn't fit the crime. So there was a bit of vindication there. But that's just the nature of the type of conversations that we ended up having to the point where I was like,

on this, maybe it was the first night or the second night, I turned to mom and I was like, you know, this is the first time that we've ever spent this much time together, just the two of us, since definitely before I got married. Like once I got married, it's like, I'm always bringing Christy. It's like, hey, I'm not coming and spending the night

with my mom once I'm a married man. You know, it just doesn't happen. Well, I mean, in some relationships it happens. Yeah, but- Not in yours though. Yeah, I'm grateful for that. And it's like, you know, and we never, so and back when we did live together,

we were never having adult conversations. Right. You know? So it was nice to be there for her, but also to kind of have this, like to develop this new rapport between the two of us. Another time, I just kind of got in my mind questions I would ask her.

Cause it's, and I will clarify, it's not that we weren't close, but growing up, it was just that- Most people don't talk to their parents about these things. Yeah, she loved, I mean, my mom was the sweetest mom. I can't come up with any trash to talk about her to my therapist.

I'll put it to you that way. You know, she never actively did anything to me that I need to pay for therapy for. Like I could say that honestly. But yeah, it's not like in college, I called her every and talked to her on the phone all the time and we had this like dynamic relationship, but we've always had a good relationship.

But this is kind of like a different level and a different facet to it, which was surprising. So like I started coming up with questions to ask her like, mom, what do you think about me being famous? Just to kind of get a kick out of how she, and she was like, why are you asking me that? She's like getting paranoid like, well, do you think I'm not proud of you?

I'm like, no, no, no, I know you're proud of me. It's just like, do you, do you- Is it weird? Do you, I'm not proud of you? I'm like, no, no, no, I know you're proud of me. It's just like, do you, do you- Is it weird? Do you, is it weird? Do you actually know that I'm actually- She was like, well, I know that you're famous. I do know that. I mean, I go to the grocery store and people,

people always have something to say about you and Rhett. And I'm like, okay, so you don't really know. Well, I gotta take my mom somewhere to like prove my fame. I don't know what it is. Like when dad came out there that time when we had the buddy system billboard, I took him out on Hollywood Boulevard and was like, look up there, see that billboard?

That's me. The man in Hollywood, like that kind of did it for my dad. Of course, he definitely knows I'm famous. You know, that's what. But that's the type of conversations that mom and I were having. And at some point in the conversation, I remembered as we were talking about Louis,

I was like, you know what? Louis mentioned to me, mom, do you know this? I think he said it in front of you too, that he was writing down his life story, or I don't know how he put it. I don't know if he said, I'm writing down my life story, but in my mind, it was like, oh, Louis is writing a memoir. It's kind of how I processed it.

And she was like, yes, I would give him such a hard time about that. Oh really? He said, I'm gonna write a book. Like so many things have happened to me, I'm gonna write a book. And mom said, and now I just kind of, I feel kind of bad for him

because I just gave him a hard time about it. I was like, so you never read it? She was like, no. And it was like, but the way that Lewis talked about what he wrote was, or that what he was writing was, I'm just writing down some stories from, you know, I've got these stories, things that happened to me, I'm writing them down.

And so he would downplay, he didn't say, you know, I'm writing and gonna publish a book. And I know I sound like Bill Clinton, but- Well, so does he. There's a little bit of- You sound like Lewis to me. Okay. Good.

So I went on his computer and- I guess it was not password protected. No. And I just started- Well, if you're gonna write a memoir and not keep it in the cloud, then don't put a password protected. No. And I just started- Well, if you're gonna write a memoir and not keep it in the cloud, then don't put a password on your computer. I don't think he has a cloud.

Exactly. The cloud is the computer. Yeah, Louis didn't have a cloud. I remember at the time, and this was maybe a couple of years ago that he mentioned this, that I was thinking, wow, if he's really following through with this and he seems serious about it,

this is something that one day when he does pass, this'll be something, this'll be a nice thing to have. Maybe he's writing it for his kids or, you know, I haven't read it and he didn't say who he's writing it for, but like that thought entered my mind and kind of stuck in there and then it popped back in. And I was like, oh man, yeah, this is, he's been working on this thing.

I know not in the past three years, but before that, he said he was working on it, you know? So I went on his computer and I'll tell you what I found. But first let's do an ad. Doesn't this feel kind of cheap? I mean, you're gonna throw the ads in. I like that. You might as well just throw them in

at a good cliffhanger. I agree. We want you to check out Stevie's podcast. Best Friends. If you have not done it. Best Friends back all right. The podcast that she has with her high school best friend, they're reconnecting via podcast, and the episode that just came out

is all about how Stevie went from Stephanie, yeah, that's the name on her ID, to Stevie. So there was a point in her high school where she went from Stephanie to Stevie and she talks about that. And Nagin talks about what it's like to grow up with a name like Nagin in a place like Greensboro.

Yeah, so it's an episode all about them processing their identity in high school and reprocessing it now as part of them reprocessing their and rekindling their friendship. So check it out if you like that, if you like early 2000s nostalgia, if you like voices other than ours, they've got two great voices.

Yeah, they do. Check it out, Best Friends Back All Right, wherever you get your podcast. Mm-hmm. Wherever you're going, you better believe American Express will be right there with you. Heading for adventure?

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That's the powerful backing of American Express. Visit amex.ca slash yamx. Benefits vary by card. Terms apply. All right. So I'm looking on his desktop. How do you search for this? Well, first of all, it's a Windows machine

and I'm like, oh my gosh, what do I do? It's like, look on the desktop for just stuff that he's thrown there, memoir. And somehow I found what I call a finder, you know, the Explorer window, the file Explorer. I haven't used Windows in so long. And I searched by date edited because I thought it might be one of the last things.

It was an ongoing thing he worked on. Maybe one of the last things he worked on. And I'm looking at all the file names and it's stuff like coaching tips. And then there'd be things, you know, instead of naming it, it would be like the first word of the document, like a lot of word documents where it would be like,

don't quit until, or some, and it would be like the start of inspirational quotes would be the names of these files. Because he was a coach for a really long time. Yes. And I started opening these. And a pretty successful coach in several sports, right? Yeah, and I've got proof of that

that I'll get to in a second. But yeah, he would, as a very committed basketball coach, he coached other things too, but like, he accumulated, I would start opening these things and it would be quotes, inspirational quotes. And first I thought he was searching the internet for inspirational quotes and putting them in Word documents.

But what he was doing was pulling from his memory of coaching and working under other coaches and being so committed to the craft of coaching that he had all these pithy inspirational sayings that then he would just, from memory, just start writing them down in Word documents. And then he would write things like, he would write his own name,

and then he would write like, what's it called? Like an anagram? An acrostic. An acrostic, not an anagram. He didn't worship Satan. That's pentagram, but- Oh, pentagram. Yeah, so like he did all these word document-esque inspirational coaching exercises. With his own name?

He even did his own name. Wow, do you remember that one? I'll have to look it up. That's awesome. I know, it just says a lot about who he was as a person that he was just like putting down the paper all of these things that like he would say on the basketball court to his teams and stuff, you know?

Lovely, excellent, wonderful, intelligent and swell. That's Lewis. I didn't email that one to myself. And then I came to one that was called Timeline. Time space line, not timeline, two words, And then I came to one that was called Timeline. Time space line, not timeline, two words, timeline. I said, this might be it and I opened it up. And lo and behold, here was a Word document. It had a table of contents at the top with like years,

1967, 1969, 1972. And it would say like, okay, this is when he was in college. This is when he was in service. This is when he had his first job. So it was like a table of contents. And then it was just, then you go down beneath it and it would be like, okay, 1968. And then he would have a paragraph,

sometimes three paragraphs, sometimes one sentence. And then he would go a paragraph, sometimes three paragraphs, sometimes one sentence. And then he would go to the next one, 1969, or whenever the next date would show up. And so he talked about all types of things. And I would just love to share a few of the things that I found in his timeline. Oh, that's great. Because it just shows you the type of person he was

that at the very beginning, he gave an intro, he said, it said 2017. So it was like 1968, 2017. It was like, now, before I go any further on all this, I wanna come back up here and write this. So it was like, you could tell he had written the whole thing. It was like four, it wasn't a tome.

This thing was like four or five pages of Word documents. Okay? It was sketching out stuff that could be made into a memoir. Right, okay. But he went back up to the top, 2017, he was like, now I want you to remember, it's not really about all of the, how did he put it? It's not really about all the things I did,

even though I experienced a lot of things, it's about all the people I met along the way. And so pay special attention to the people I met. And then as you go through the whole thing, it wasn't his entire life. It was kind of like if he were writing a book for coaches, it was like the highest of his life related to basketball, coaching, some about teaching,

and then a few stories that he's told to people over the years that he wanted to put down on paper. Timeline, a coach's life. Yeah, but it was more of, it seemed like the audience, I mean, definitely his kids would enjoy it and they did get a copy of it, but it was almost like- Did they know that this had been happening? No.

Wow, that's really cool that they didn't know that this was happening. Yeah, I was able to- You just remembered it. I was able to tell them, find it and email it to them. And what I did was I'll say, I found it. I read enough to know that this was it. And then I stopped reading and I emailed it to them. And I said, here it is, this is the thing.

I didn't read all of it, but period. And I'm not gonna share it with anybody else. Except the earpiece gets less. Except mom. And then they wrote back and said, please read it, please read it. And you know, I'm not gonna read the whole thing here. I'm gonna read some excerpts.

You're saying you decided not to read it out of a sense of- I didn't know if I should read it because he wasn't my dad, he's their dad. Yeah, he's your father-in-law. I kind of wanted them to tell me it was okay for me to read it, which they did and then I read it.

And of course I was gonna give it to mom. I thought they would be fine with me reading it. I'm sure they would have. I just wanted to cover my bases. Got it. Legal purposes. In 1969, he told the story of getting drafted into the Vietnam War because it was 1969.

They made you put down a preference area, like what you would prefer to concentrate in. And he said, well, you drafted me, you choose where I'm gonna go. And they said, well, you gotta choose one of these things. Are you interested in infantry, transportation? It was like transportation. You know, I grew up on a farm, I drive all types of things,

I'll do transportation. And so he tells the story, I'm not gonna read it, of like everybody in the, I'm sorry, I don't know the actual term, like the group of 80 people. Platoon. That are being put through basic training and then getting their assignment. Like the vast majority of people,

when they got their assignment, it was Vietnam. But his was Washington DC. And he was like, there must be some mistake. Like two people out of all 80, it says Washington, DC. And he goes up there and the guy says, well, you lucky duck, you've been assigned to be a chauffeur at the Pentagon for the Vietnam War. Talk about dodging a bullet or many.

Yeah. It's like he was, and you know, it was kind of, he was so, he was very fortunate, you know? And then he tells the story of learning to drive every piece of equipment in the army, including like tanks and stuff. But then he was, when he got his assignment to go to the Pentagon, he was driving senators

and all government officials and military officials from the Pentagon. He said, I had to memorize everywhere in Washington, DC, like the back of my hand. I knew Washington, DC better than I knew Lillington. So he's talking about that. He says, after a month in service moved, and I wanna read some of this to give you an idea

of how he wrote it. He wrote it like he was talking. After a month in service, moved out into an apartment behind the Iwo Jima statue and enjoyed it very much. Would go over to Washington Monument and run to the top several nights a week, just for fun. It was a tough run, 897 steps to the top. We would look out when we got to the top,

then run back down. The run down was much easier than going up. I think it was longer going up than coming down. Yep. That's a joke because it was the same route. Right. That was what made it funny. Yeah, yeah.

I'm tracking. You gotta get a ticket to go in there now. I know, unless you're like, I guess if you're a soldier and you have a uniform and you have access to drive everybody around, maybe you can just go, you have a key and you can run up there. I mean, I was just there recently

and there's a whole complex that's added to the side of one part of it where there's security things that you go through in a little gift shop. Just think about it, back then, 1969. Back then it was just like a door. During the Vietnam War, he was running, he was driving people around and for exercise,

running to the top of the Washington Monument multiple nights a week. I mean, you know, it's, I'll never look at the Washington Monument and not think of that story. Yeah. Your papa- Used to run up 896 steps. Run up to that.

And I remember he would tell us that story at some family gatherings. So it's cool that like those things made it in here and a lot more that I'm, you know, I'm not gonna read, but like he talked about, he started coaching at Cape Fear Christian Academy and he taught the girls, taught, he coached the girls basketball team

and they made it to the state championship and lost. But like, he was a very successful coach, like from the beginning, like fresh out of the military and college. Shop Best Buy's ultimate smartphone sale today. Get a Best Buy gift card of up to $200 on select phone activations with major carriers. Visit your nearest Best Buy store today. Terms and conditions apply. So he would talk about, he would tell these stories of getting drafted, of things like that,

but it was striking sometimes how he would really hone in on something very specific. 1976, bothered by pollen. From the mid 70s, I was always bothered by pollen. My eyes would always turn red and itch very bad. I had to use many bottles of Visine. Visine would just ease it off for a few minutes, but not long.

During the 70s and 80s, I had to wear a mask while mowing the grass. In the earlier 90s, after my divorce, pollen bothered me for one year. It is now 2016 and it has not bothered me in 15 years. Thank you, Lord. I have not had any treatment and do not take any meds for it.

It just does not bother me anymore. Man, that's awesome. Bothered by pollen. Yeah, I mean, it was like, this is just a strange, this is his way of saying, this is an inexplicable, potentially metaphysical or spiritual thing that happened to me. Was I cured of pollen? I would like to know, because you know me,

I go through a lot of eye drops. Just to be on camera, I've got to put in eye drops or else everybody thinks I'm high. Well, maybe you just need to get a divorce. I mean, let's read between the lines here. I love you, but we're getting divorced because I'm bothered by Paula. That's the only reason.

We can stay together. We just need to legally divorce because that might be the key. 1982, taught math in prison for 12 years. What? He took a job through Central Carolina Community College. I know you love CCCC. They asked him to substitute teach

at the Harnett County Correctional Center, AKA the prison. Yep. And so he said, I started and I quite liked it. So I just kept teaching there for 12 years. He writes, what's the difference between an inmate and an outmate? The outmate is a person that has not been caught yet. Wow. The students have sports just person that has not been caught yet. Wow.

The students have sports just like we do out of prison. Cause he taught younger kids and then he taught adults in the prison. So when he talks about the students, he's talking about all prisoners. The students have sports just like we do out of prison. I had a student that was the weightlifting champion for all of Eastern region of the US.

A prison weightlifting champion? No, he was weightlifting champion before he was in prison. So this was a huge guy. I had him for two semesters. After the two semesters, he was back on the yard. Every morning as I came across the prison yard, he would meet me and ask, how's everything going? Some mornings he would ask me

if anyone was giving me any trouble. After a year or so, I asked him one morning, why do you ask me that question about every morning? He quickly answered me, Mr. Cummings, I don't want anyone to give you any trouble or a difficult time. You were fair to all of us while in school and you deserve the same.

If anyone gives you any trouble, you tell me and I will take care of them at night when they are not in school. They won't bother you anymore. Wow. Sounds like he's saying, hey, if somebody's bothering you, I'll kill them. Yeah, I mean,

that's what I'm understanding from it. He says, Sal was looked after in ways I didn't even know. He never told me until I asked why. He asked me almost every morning, is anyone causing any trouble? Like the way he'd write down a story. Just to tie a bow on it. Just to tie a bow on it. Just to tie a bow on it.

Just in case you lost track. He didn't let, you know, it wasn't like I'm, he had these experiences. The way that he tells them is so approachable. It's so true to who he was. I can hear him saying these things, you know, like I said, these stories, some of them he would tell us and he wrote them down how he would tell them, you know, like I said, these stories, some of them he would tell us and he wrote them down

how he would tell them, you know, it wasn't like, I gotta make this more than it is. I've gotta make this memorable, you know? It wasn't about the writing of it, it was about the experience of it. And I love the fact that nothing got in the way of him sitting down at his computer and writing this stuff down.

And it's such a treasure. He kept going. And yes, working with prisons was different, but it's that way in real life. People are all very different. Some inmates and some outmates. You have to learn to work with all kinds of people in real life.

It may be in school, job, church, community work, recreation, factory, et cetera. And I had the opportunity to work with private school kids, public school kids, parents, coaches, administration, and prisoners. Youth prisons for three years and adult prisons for nine years. Lots of great experiences and worked with great friends,

staff and students." You know, it's like he had wisdom to share and it didn't have to be, it didn't have to be souped up. Yeah. You know, I just love the fact that it just, it captured this down to earth wisdom that he had and the fact that he was so good hearted. You know, every time that we, every time you saw him,

you know, he had a story to tell, he had a smile on his face, you know, it was like, he was a special guy. Yeah. And he and mom were such a pair. Like that's the thing that like mom and I were able to talk about and remembering. Cause what I didn't tell you was my mom said,

can you print that off for me? And I'm like, well, your printer doesn't work. And I'm not about to start becoming your IT guy. That's not the main thing I'm here for. But what I will do, mom, is I'll read it to you. So I started reading it and like, we would start, we read through the whole thing. Like I read it out loud to her.

She was like, this is kind of like a bedtime story. And we got to talking about everything that I was reading that we couldn't get through all of it in one night. And I had to stop and I was like, mom, it's getting late. You're gonna have to go to bed. And she was like, no, no. You know, it's just like putting a kid to bed. And so then the next night she was like,

it got to be like 7.30 and she was like, you gonna read some more to me? We gotta pick up where you left off last night. And I was like, well, I gotta charge my phone first cause we don't want it to die in the middle of it. And she was like, she had to wait like 30 minutes. She was so excited. Couldn't plug it in.

Couldn't plug it in. I was kind of wanting to mess with her. I was like, we gotta wait until it charges, mom. But yeah, it just struck me when we went back through his memories, even though she got one line in the whole thing and it was like, the year of their second marriage, married for a second time.

Oh, so I got to that point in the thing and I read it to her. Hold on, I mean, let me just say, as the guy who is not willing to print it out for her, but willing to read it, you could have embellished that. Got married for the second time to the love of my life. But by this point in the reading of it, I wanted to be true to it.

And plus we both had an appreciation, like mom busted out laughing. She was like, now I don't feel so bad about getting in such a hard time writing a book. You know? Well, I think it's because he was actively experiencing a relationship with her. And the stuff that he was writing down

was a little bit more about like things he's remembering. And so much of it was through the lens of like teaching and coaching and it was that world, like 90%. If it wasn't about Pollen, I mean, he wrote one line about each kid being born too. I will say that. I think Bothered by Pollen is probably a better name for the book than Timeline.

Right. Sounds like a Robert frost thing or something what was the last thing that filled you with wonder that took you away from your desk or your car in traffic well for us i'm gonna guess for some of you that thing is hi i'm nick friedman i'm leo mary And I'm Leah President. And welcome to Crunchyroll Presents The Anime Effect. It's a weekly news show. With the best celebrity guests. And hot takes galore.

So join us every Friday wherever you get your podcasts and watch full video episodes on Crunchyroll or on the Crunchyroll YouTube channel. He wrote so many other things, but mom and I just got an appreciation for how perfect they were for each other and how those 15 plus years, I don't know, how many years do they have together? I just can't remember. Well, you just said right there, what year did he say he married for a second time?

I didn't paste that into this. I'm not looking at the entire document. In 2002, he talked about a near death experience he had where he almost got crushed by a dump truck because he had a dump truck on his farm and he reached, it was up. Oh God. And it was a tank full of water.

And then he reaches underneath it to pull out something. He was like, like a dummy, I pulled this thing that I thought was a loose wire and it tripped the whole thing. And it's the whole like- The hydraulic. Huge truck, just like the whole dump truck slammed down. And the next thing he knew he was standing beside it.

And he did not know what happened. He just had a few scrapes on his chest, but like he wasn't hurt. And like somebody walked by and they said, what, Lewis, what happened to you? And he was white as a sheet. And Lewis said, nothing. And then the guy said, well, you're white as a sheet.

And he said, well, I almost got crushed by this. And I don't know what happened, but like his original answer was nothing happened because I guess technically nothing happened. Right. But he talks about that near death experience and- But that doesn't coincide when he stopped being bothered by pollen.

Nope. It was like, that was 10 years later. Yeah, and then in 2010, he talked about how he was diagnosed with polycythemia vera, which is like, your body makes too much blood. So he had to go to the doctor and just- Leak? Leak a pint of blood every month or so.

But he said the way that he found out was they were doing a bunch of tests and they started taking blood. And he said, as the blood came out of the needle, it fell in the bag like ketchup falling out of a bottle. Oh my gosh. It doesn't come out unless you squeeze it. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.

How did you read that without freaking out? I freaked out about it a bunch, but I've read this a bunch now. So it's like thick blood? Thick blood. Oh gosh. That's when he decided to retire and like he moved into like he and mom's phase of happiness together.

But he had given up coaching for the most part. And you know, he signs the whole thing, "'Happy, happy, happy, thank you, Lord.'" "'Happy, happy, happy' was the Duck Dynasty catchphrase that he modified into good, good, good." Good, good, good, yeah. And you know, there's so much more there that, you know, it's not my business reading any more of it publicly,

but I just wanted to do that to honor him as a person, but you can see how this got me thinking. We should all be doing this. I mean, you've got experience. We should all have a timeline? We should all be writing down the things that happened to us. Like he had these memories treasured in his mind.

Like it was just the things that would happen to him, like the way that he was drafted and the near death experience, and I guess the pollen too. It's like, these were all things that were like, and the people that he met and a lot of coaches and basketball players that I did not go into those details here were things

that were very important to him and were kind of extraordinary. Things that don't happen to a guy who just is a farmer and a teacher in rural Harnett County. Right. So he had this sense that he lived a full life and it brought a tremendous amount of comfort to all of us that read it, his kids, to me, to mom.

I read it to Christy and my kids when they showed up. Like when we went back through it, it was like, we were able to celebrate, it's like, wow, he really had a lot of treasures in terms of memories. So this got you thinking, you're gonna start writing? Well, for us, I'm like, that's kind of like the, I don't know, the every man's application,

but we're not every man, we're weird people. We're weird people who have this conversation on a podcast. And we've documented so much of our lives here. It was the type of thing that, again, when you were, week before last, when you started talking about your trip with Locke, it's like, you shared that with me and on this podcast

with everybody who's listening, you're also sharing it with people who would care to listen after you're gone. You know, there's so much stuff out there and so many stories out there in Chee and Lincoln and Good Mythical Morning, and especially this podcast when we're actively processing things that like, we're storing up a bunch of treasures here.

But honestly, I was like, there's no way my kids will ever listen to this. I mean, it's like, first of all, there's way too much of it. It's not like a Word document that's like can be emailed to you after I die. It's like, do I make a after death playlist? Do we need somebody to do that? It's like, there's so much content from us

that it's overwhelming. It's for our audience now, but then I started thinking about, what are my grandkids gonna listen to this? Are my great great grandkids gonna listen to this? Are they listening to it right now? Does it mean anything to me? To know that that's part of it?

You think this would make the- What is legacy? I don't know if this would make the playlist. I mean, maybe this would make the like Link history playlist because you're talking about the playlist and it's only appropriate that it's so like meta that it just would make the playlist. So that means I'm on the playlist. So welcome to Link's life history playlist.

You're in so much of it. People are kind of annoyed. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, but it just worked out that way. Why do you insist on being in everything that is my legacy? They're gonna feel the same way about my, now this is my, this is the one video

that's in both of our playlists. Right. So welcome to my playlist and I'm sorry that he's here. And even in the book of mythicality, we devoted a whole chapter to planning our funeral. I'm not really talking about planning the funeral and our, what's our obituary. Like we wrote farcical obituaries.

We try to just embrace death in that way and the humor of it on this side. But I'm talking less about that and more about just, we put out so much information that our loved ones could benefit. They can know us through all of this, but it's so much that I honestly don't think, it's just too intimidating.

Well. It's too much. What, so it's then it becomes nothing. Well, I don't necessarily agree with that. It makes me think a couple of things. One is that, and we can come back to this in a second. I just want to throw this out there because the first thing I think of is what is the motivation for a legacy?

Like what is that related to, right? What are we actually trying to accomplish? Second thing is I have thought about this aspect of my kids, my grandkids, just how people remember me. You know, I tend, of course, and most people who are in entertainment tend to think this to some degree, but we tend to think that what we have to say is important.

You know, we're narcissistic enough to not maybe get diagnosed as a narcissist, but narcissistic enough to feel like we could have a podcast and a show and a so-and-so and what we're saying- I don't think it's important. I think it's entertaining and engaging. Well, but- And connecting. But I guess what I'm getting at is,

so I have journaled at different rates on and off for years. Yeah. But as we have transitioned more into this podcast being so full of self-disclosure and sort of story summary and that kind of thing, and also the stuff that we've done on Good Mythical Morning over the years, the frequency and the detail of journaling

has gone way down. There was a point in my life when I would start writing in a journal entry and I was definitely writing it as if someone was going to find it someday. Like I'm thinking about my grammar, I'm thinking about sounding smart and eloquent and sounding like a good writer. And that has really gone away.

And also, with something like the trip that I took with Locke that now I was able to sit down within a week of getting back, write down all the little things that stand out in my mind as being compelling to remember and to talk about. And then I talked about them for an hour and a half or however long that podcast was. And so now I've kind of put it out there.

And if I wanted to re-access it at some point to remember what I, because there's a little bit of this, like I'm never going to remember it as precisely as I did a week after it happened and when I told the story. So you think about it in terms of personal recall. You're never gonna re-listen to it.

No, no, no, no, that's one aspect. It's just one aspect of it. But you honestly don't think you're ever gonna re-listen to it, right? No, no, but I think that Locke will, right? The idea that, you know, I think there are certain pieces where it's like, okay, after I'm gone, Locke will listen

to those two podcasts of the two road trips that we had in the span of four months. Does he know they exist though? Yeah, yeah, yeah, he knows they exist. Okay. I don't know if he listens to them now. He's an 18 year old kid who's got a bunch of stuff going on. He's like my dad makes stuff.

Yeah, my- But he will, right? He will at some point, either when I'm old or when I'm gone. Oh. You know what I'm saying? So I do think about that, but I, so I kind of feel like we've got it covered in one sense. Now, to answer your question about the logistics of it,

you're probably, if you're interested in this, if you're like legitimately interested in somebody doing this, I do think it's like, like a paid intern working for literally months to take everything that you've ever said about yourself and put it into like a playlist or edit it together. Yes, I think that that could be a worthy exercise if you wanna like catalog your life

because you've talked about so much your life and then, you know, it would probably get one intern to do both of us. But. So I do think the only way, it's just so intimidating, is to like have a curated guide to, Link's dead and you wanna be sad about it, but you wanna also be happy about it.

And you want like, this is a good one. I think a sampling is enough. Sampling is- I mean, I think you get, I mean, we kind of say the same types of things over and over again. Like a guy. You know, is like, oh yeah, some funny things happened. I don't think it's, to me, it's like,

there's one thing that's like the process of mourning and letting go but celebrating and hanging on to who, like in this case, who Lewis was as a person, who he was to me, who he was to mom, who he was to students and prisoners. And it really, it coalesced in my brain. Like everything kind of came together.

Like I wish I would have read it while he was alive and we could have talked about it. You know, it's like when he said, I'm writing it, you know, it was like, let me read what you got. But it, I don't know, you know, it's just one of those things where it's like, okay, it's a work in progress. But I do think that there's another way to think of it.

So that's one place to think about it is that, hey, I'm mourning, I'm remembering, and I'm not just eulogizing, but commemorating. not just eulogizing, but commemorating. So I feel like my love for Lewis is kind of commemorated in this experience of reading this thing. But there's another experience that I think about is like my grandkids' kids. They're like, oh yeah, it's like, you know,

back when videos used to be on the internet and like this is how technology used to work. Your great, great grandfather, you know, that guy who's like, he's so old, he's scary to look at. Do you think you're gonna have great, great grandkids? Oh, hell yeah. You're gonna get some sort of elixir? Yeah, man.

Okay. Well, yeah, I guess you're right. The dead, the dead guy. You know the one that's just a brain in a vat? Yeah, who knows? With the glasses on the outside of the glass? Yeah, who knows how I'm still gonna stick around. Grandpa Link?

Or I'm gone, and it's like, you can watch these things. It's like, you're gonna have to get a different type of screen, and it's not gonna be downloaded to your brain. I know it's gonna be frustrating, and you have to scrub through it on this old device or something, or I don't know,

maybe it's been brainitized. Well, you make a good point, because if they could just download all the history to their brain, then they actually don't have to watch it then watch all that content. Talking matrix? Yeah. But I think that's another use case of-

I've been thinking about this. All of this crap is that like, all this content that we're putting out into the world. It's like, what if, I mean, what if you were, I don't know, it would be like watching, like if Andy Griffith was my great, great grandfather and I'm like, well, you gotta watch this show called the Andy Griffith Show.

And like, he was a comedian and he made this sitcom. What's the sitcom? Okay, don't worry about it. Just watch it. You won't find it funny. My question is why, right? So what is the motivation for us as living people who are trying to leave a legacy

once we're dead, and what is the motivation or what do you think the purpose, ultimate purpose is for someone who's left behind to read it? Because I was thinking about, you know, I was recently thinking about my grandfather, my dad's dad. Now, both of my grandfathers, my dad's dad, who I met just a couple of times in my life. And then my mom's dad who I never met

because he died when my mom was in college. And then I had like a step granddad who was the closest thing I had to a granddad. But you know, but I've been thinking about them, the ones that I didn't know well, and I'm just like, you know, But I've been thinking about them, the ones that I didn't know well, and I'm just like, everything I know about them is through the lens of my parents. And then I found myself wondering,

what were they really like? And how much of it has been shaped by just the perception that my parents had? And then I was like, why? Why? What do I wanna know about them? Why do I wanna know that? Because you feel a connection. There's a blood connection to like, why, why? What do I wanna know about them? Why do I wanna know that? Because you feel a connection.

There's a blood connection to like, there's part of my DNA that was in this guy. I am who I am, at least in part because of them, for sure. Think about if you could watch a video, a one hour and a half video of your grandfather talking about his struggle with spirituality. You know, it's like, that would be fascinating. And I mean, just to say, look at his mannerisms.

Like I do that, you know, I sound like that. Like I have this instinct to talk about things I do that, you know, I sound like that. Like I have this instinct to talk about things in this way. And so did he, it's like, all of a sudden you have this like connection of lineage. Like I've never really been one, I'm not one of those family tree people. Like I've just never been inspired to look into lineage. But that is fascinating.

And if there was a video of my great grandfather- Can we just get a video? In his internet prime talking about it, I'd be like, oh, I gotta see a little bit of that. Of course, I would love to experience that from long dead relatives. But then maybe you get some sort of like insight because there's wisdom.

To me, it's like, is there wisdom that could be passed down a few more generations because so much has been recorded of us? I would hope so, especially on Ear Biscuits. But there's also a lot of us cutting a fool that's like, would just be a trip to watch. People found this funny? It's like, what?

Yeah, people find it funny, but- Some people did. There's a lot of people did. All of the stuff that we eat on Good Mythical Morning is like, it's a preservation of pop culture. You know, in a way that there's few, I mean, there's other videos that got it, but in terms of a complete catalog of pop culture,

especially when it comes to food, like snacks, think about, we go on eBay and get all these old discontinued snacks and eat them from decades ago. But like think about a century from now, we are conveying an experience of eating snacks from the 2010s, 2020s. It's like, is that valuable to like the library of Congress?

I mean, they put like Wu Tang clan in the National Archives. Like, I kind of feel like maybe one day we'll be in- Okay, but here's my question. GMM will be in the National Archives. But you know. For eating snacks. But why do we want that to be the case?

I just think that's cool. I don't want that to be the case. But no, but don't, I mean, you kind of do though. I'm not doing it for that reason because I just thought of it. Well, no, no, no, but no, but I'm just saying, what is the motivation to, yeah, okay. There's an altruistic version, which is like,

maybe my descendants will gain some insight about themselves. Yes, of course, that's awesome. Sins of the father type thing. That's rewarding to think about. But don't you think that everyone has a tendency to want to be remembered and it's the same thing that keeps you wanting to be alive, we don't want to die.

We don't want to go away. And lots of people, probably the majority of people in the world, definitely the majority of the people in the world, believe that they will continue to exist in some form after they die. I don't know what I think about that. Obviously everyone wants to continue to exist,

but what if this expression of consciousness is contained in this lifetime and then it's over? First of all, there won't be any ego post death to appreciate or relish in the fact that you are being remembered. You know, Locke and I had this interesting conversation on our road trip, now that I think about it, that is strangely related to this.

Because he essentially asked the question, I don't remember the specifics, but it was, would you, if you could choose, like your life is going to be great and you're gonna get to do the things that you want to do and accomplish the things that you want to accomplish and live a long life, but like five years after you die,

your reputation is gonna be ruined because they find something out about you. Even if it didn't happen, but just like, let's just say that somebody says something about you that wasn't true, but your name- Post death smear campaign. Your name becomes associated with just like, oh, we don't talk about grandpa because of so and so.

Okay. And Locke was like, would you- Or what? I mean, I'm just saying like, if you, okay, if somebody came to you right now and said, you can have what you want, you can have health and life and success- But the trade-off is- But just so you know, five years after you die-

Okay, yeah, I got it. I'll tell you what I said after you- My knee-jerk reaction is I would go for it. I just feel like that the reputation is overrated. I'm just concerned about how it might impact my progeny's opportunity. Well, that's what I told him. I said, the first thing that comes to mind is

I don't want your life and Shepherd's life and your mom's life to suck because you're- The smear campaign. Yeah. But if you remove that, so let's just say it's five generations later, that your name is gonna be synonymous with like something crazy, hateful, or just whatever.

How does it make you feel? Like if, okay, Lott was like, I don't care because I won't have the ability to care. But really, if you could choose, if you could choose, and let's say nobody that currently you love and know is gonna be affected, but five generations from now, are you really telling me that you don't care about your name being smeared?

I have to know, what am I choosing against? You gotta tell me, I mean, like just a crappy life, a horrible life. No, no, I'm changing the scenario now and saying that, come to you and I say five years from now, I mean, five generations from now after you're dead, either your name's gonna be remembered for what you did or there's gonna be a smear campaign.

You're obviously gonna choose what you did, but why? Why do you care? Because one but why? Why do you care? Because one thing is like, do you care? Because I only have something to gain, I guess is my point. But what do you have to gain? Yeah. You won't exist. The knowledge now that I won't be smeared

five generations from now. Right, but even when I think about things like, I don't want to die naked or something, you know what I'm saying? Like, I don't want to die naked or something, you know what I'm saying? Like, I don't wanna die in an embarrassing way. Like when you think about, oh man, if I die and I'm wearing this pair of underwear that I just took a crap in or something,

there's a part of me that's like my ego feels like it's trying to reach past my existence. Okay. And so I say all that to make the point to come back to what we're talking about, which is it's difficult for me to separate that tendency for my ego to wanna live beyond my consciousness from my desire to leave a legacy

because it is a lot about me. And then I kind of ended up being in this place where I'm like, ah, I have so much to be thankful for in terms of so much of what I've done and said and the things that I'm proud of are out there. And I don't really have to think about this. Like I don't have to think about what my memoir would be because it's kind of already being written.

I don't- So it sort of takes care of itself. For me, I get excited about my great grandkids who would never know me or know me as this old guy who might be an invalid or something, or great, great grandkids who will never know me as this old guy who might be an invalid or something, or great, great grandkids who will never know me, being able to know me in a sense and say, you know what, I could have been friends with that guy.

I don't know, it just seems, it just warms my heart a little bit. And I think there's legitimacy in that. Yeah, but I don't think about like on a societal level, I know that we're doing good work. I know it has a positive impact on people. And when I say it, I do start to think and I guess get excited about that,

like some people would still have this taste for it, you know, generations from now, they might, you're probably right. They would watch Good Mythical Morning and like say, you found this funny, you found this entertaining, but maybe that's not true. I can sit down and watch the Andy Griffith show and right now and be, my heart could be warmed by that.

You know, so that does make me happy. But in terms of like, I guess now I'm in such a familial zone, you know, with coming off the funeral and everything. I'm thinking a number of things, which is like, I'm not, I'm thinking more about dying and living forever. You know, like death with dignity type thing. And I started to have those types of thoughts,

but also people who, yeah, like generations, like family members, being able to have some connection with me and gain some wisdom from me that I would just hope that they could glean somehow through the reading between the lines of this podcast. And I don't think there's, I completely agree. And I don't think there's anything wrong with that.

And I'm not trying to say that the element of ego that is in what you just said as well is a bad thing. We can't help that. I mean, sure. The fact that we want to leave a legacy that is positive is a good thing that's built into the human psyche. Because if it wasn't, then you would do some crazy shit

right at the end of your life. Just because, you know what I'm saying? Like we actually want to die. Most people want to die well, want to leave a legacy. And I think that because you have the ability to think about the future benefit that someone else will receive, and even if it makes you feel good because,

oh, I'm proud that I could leave a legacy that they will benefit from. I don't think there's anything wrong with that. It's just, those are the things that come to mind when I think about, you know, that can be taken too far. There's like an unhealthy level of that when you're like so concerned about what you're doing

and how people will remember you in ways that, you know, it's the old adage, you can't take anything with you, you know? I've never seen a hearse with a U-Haul attached to it. You can't take anything with you, but you can leave a lot. Ooh. You know what I'm saying? I've heard that before.

Who told you that? Not you. But I also like the idea of, okay, when I die, I would love to know that there are still some mythical beasts out there who are active enough, who hopefully I'll die a long time from now. So it'll be surprising that there's like mythical, active mythical beasts who are like

putting together a, you know, just like a montage. Well, people still watch like Golden Girl. I just want to, you know, put down a montage. Well, people still watch like Golden Girl. I just wanna, you know, put down a- People still watch Golden Girls for like comfort. I have to believe that somebody out there is gonna watch GMM for comfort. But I believe that there will be fan montages that will be passed around on whatever version

of the internet exists in the future, hopefully the distant future after I pass. And the sadness that they experienced in me being gone will be overwhelmed and eclipsed by the comfort in knowing that I lived my life to the fullest and they connected with it. I agree, I wholeheartedly agree. It does feel good to know that that will happen.

But one interesting thing, here's a closing thought that might make this all very unsettling for you, is that our legacies are linked. Is it inextricable, is that a word? Yeah, whoever doesn't die first. So like if I die and you live on and you do something that is,

if you just tarnish your legacy, you tarnish my legacy because people can't, you know, and vice versa. How do we solve this in the book of mythicality by, there is, when you read the obituaries, you realize that one of us inadvertently killed the other one, right? Through like some strange turn of events. That was a fun chapter, but.

That's how we solved it. But that's an interesting thing is that so much of what people experience from you and what your great great grandkids experience, it's like they are forced to experience me as well. And we basically have that responsibility for one another, whoever dies first. You gotta, you know.

To make the playlist? Well, to hire an intern and make the playlist, yes. But what I'm saying is to make sure that the legacy is not tarnished. I'm saying, you know, and I'm taller, so I'm probably gonna die first. So this is probably on you. Okay, yeah, I'm not worried about it.

That's my worry. That's my worry. Sorry. If I'm not present. Yeah, man. And like, you know, maybe there's a live stream at some point. Now you know how Christy feels every day when I come to work. Like 30 years from now, something comes out wrong.

What's he gonna do at work today? On a live stream and you tarnish our legacy. And I'm just like, I'm up there in heaven. Damn it, I can't do anything about this. Oh, but you're watching it. Yeah, I'm watching it on. Link TV and everything. You're seeing all of it.

So write your own timeline if you want to, if you were inspired to do so. Bothered by pollen. Let us know about your experience with pollen. Hashtag Ear Biscuits. No, what does this make you think of? How are you processing this? Is it making you cringe?

Is it giving you ideas? I really don't know. That's why hashtag Ear Biscuits exists. And why do you wanna leave a legacy? What kind of legacy do you want to leave and why? Oh gosh, we got deep. There's gotta be more of these podcasts. Hashtag air biscuits.

Do you have a rec? I do have a rec. Not related to anything. Switch it up. I'm going to recommend a hot sauce, okay? It's a hot sauce that I've been putting on multiple things. This is exciting, this is different. It is a Marie Sharpe's.

Now she has a whole lot of different stuff. The original- Marie Sharpe's. The original hot sauce, which is pretty daggum hot. It is from Belize and it is habanero. And in Belize, they add carrots to the hot sauce, which gives it a really good flavor. Now let me say something about this. And you may remember when we tasted-

$10 on Amazon. Much cheaper than that in the grocery store and it's probably available in most grocery stores. When we did a hot sauce taste test on Go Mythical Morning, we tried Melinda's hot sauce. And Josh said this at the time, I don't know what made it to air. But the story of this hot sauce is that this woman,

Marie Sharp, was in Belize and her husband was a farmer. He was growing habaneros and she started making hot sauces out of it. Everybody was like, this is great. What we're gonna make, we want to start selling your hot sauce. And she says, I wanna call it Melinda's. And it was like named after the to start selling your hot sauce. And she says, I want to call it Melinda's. And it was like named after the farm

or something on the farm. The company that she was working with copyrighted or trademarked Melinda's and started Melinda's, the hot sauce company, which is actually bigger than Marie Sharpe's and sells a bunch of hot sauces. And we had it on the show. And that's why I feel a little bit bad about this.

And basically took this woman for a ride. And so you're trying to make it right with this recommendation. And then Marie Sharp was like, I gotta go back and start from scratch and I'm gonna make my own hot sauces and now she makes her own hot sauce and she has a bunch of different varieties.

Again, I like the original and she has reasons for why she thinks hers is better than Melinda's. I actually haven't tried them side by side, but just out of principle, I'm a Marie Sharpe's man and it is spicy, but I've been putting it on. I've been putting it on everything and I just love it. It's got a complex flavor and some heat. So I think probably any of the varieties are great, but if you're gonna get started somewhere, start with just the original hot. I love how the-

And the white wrapped bottle. The bottle says, gives a lot of the story of how she makes it, but the last sentence is, "'Produced in the fertile paradise of Belize, "'her red habanera is considered to be the hottest of pepper "'known to man.'" Last question.

Well, that's not true, but. Marie has spent many years cultivating a habanero worthy of her recipe. She has succeeded. She has succeeded. There's just something about her.