The Eric Metaxas Show - Fish Out of Water - continued (Encore)

Episode Date: February 11, 2021

Eric continues celebrating his brand-new memoir, "Fish Out of Water," sharing stranger-than-fiction stories beginning even before he was born and culminating in a wild dream about a Golden Fish. (Encore Presentation)

Folks, welcome to the Eric Metaxus show. Fortunately or unfortunately, Mr. Metaxus, because today is the big launch day of his brand new spiritual memoir called Fish Out of Water, I have to host the show today. So I'm sorry about that. To some of you, maybe it's good news. To some others, maybe not so much. But I have a very, very special and exciting guest to share with you today. And his name is none other than Mr. Eric Metaxis.

Sir? Yeah. How are you doing? How are you? Hi. Okay. Well, anyway, we're going to give you a taste of what it is to have a gruff guest. Okay.

And you have that, you deal with those all the time. I mean, it's murder. Being a radio host, I got to tell you, Albin, it's murder. And I want to give you a taste of that murder right now. Go ahead. Okay. I felt like I already was murdered and we were just on the air 30 seconds. Hey, I,

I want to start this interview off right. Because this is a big day, it's like the birth of a new book, Fish Out of Water, I want to celebrate correctly. And Chris Himes is here with me, but we're going to sing, happy pub date to you. How do you like that? Happy publication day to you. Happy publication days to you. Happy public patient day, dear Eric.

Happy publication day to you. It's a fish out of water. Hey! I'm blushing. I'm blushing so badly that I'm afraid to show my face. I feel like Elmer Fudd. Oh, guys, you guys are so sweet. Listen.

Listen, in all seriousness, we're joking around like we're being like buffoons here. I am so grateful to you, Albin and Chris, for wanting to do this. It was not my idea. And I have to say that I really am going to try to be a good. good guests, not like those other guests, like Zmirak and all those people that you can't get, can't get a word out of them. I'm going to talk. And I'm also going to say, before we forget, tonight, this is nuts. Salem Radio has set up a thing. Tonight live at 8 p.m. Eastern. It's going to be live on our YouTube channel and live on my Facebook page. And I'm sending those links out.

But it's a special launch event. 20 people from around the country have paid me. money to come on and ask me hard-hitting questions. This is the launch event. And I want everyone, please join us tonight. It's going to be nuts. I promise you, it's going to be insane. It's 8 p.m. Eastern tonight. Just had to say that. Okay, go ahead. Okay, back to me. And if you're listening on radio, you do not know that we have a cupcake with a lit candle. And Eric, I would like you to blow it out right now if you could. Please, one. This is not going to be easy because my internet connection is weak, but I'm going to try. Try. I had that.

That's okay. It's good. It's out. I did it. Got a little smoke in the room. Because I don't have 5G. Okay. Okay. Also, also, if you're watching from home, you're watching from home, you can actually see I'm dressed up. Now on the radio can't see this, but I'm actually wearing my Calvin Klein jacket, my Charles Tier shirt, my Ralph Larentai that says it's handmade in Italy, and if, if I were wearing pants, they'd be Hugo Boss. there you go and and chris hymns is wearing a a union suit it's true we have about three feet of snow here

or something so it seems appropriate yeah that's true we do have about two and a half feet outside my window you saw some of it yesterday oh alvin listen before i forget i don't want to correct you out of the gate but the book fish out of water is not really a spiritual memoir when you get to the end it is but i it's basically a literary memoir like it's written from the point of view of somebody me, right, who's kind of hostile to born again faith and evangelicals and stuff. So I grow up trying to sort it out. And I'm definitely not on that page. I'm sort of trying to avoid those people. I mean, this is my true story, right? And obviously I've said some of it is funny, but some of it is kind of painful and serious. We won't talk about that. But anyway,

okay, you're going to interview me. So we're done with the preamble. So go ahead. One last thing. There are a lot of people out there saying like, okay, it's Eric's fish out of water day. But what about Groundhog Day? Did the Groundshog see or not see his shadow? You know what? I'm sure he didn't see his shadow because there's like still six feet of snow out there. But Eric's fish out of water, now that the fish is out of water, we've got six more decades of great reading ahead of us because this book is going to be a classic for Eric. Thank you. That's very nice. Thank you very much. You're so nice. Okay. Okay. Now, let me start by saying this. It's just a general overview of the book. I got a sense when I was reading it, it almost read like one of your biographies and not a sort of autobiography because there's a bit of the Bonhoeff or Martin Luther, William Wilberforth, in there where you go in the past and say, well, what made these people who they are? And in this book, you talk about your dad, your mom, but also your grandparents and even great grandparents. And, and, and, and, and how they contributed to who you are, right? So my question is to you, the first thing I want to ask is, how did your parents, they must have read the book,

how did they receive this book and the tales of all their relatives that they read about? Can you give us a little hint on any of that? Well, first of all, the number one person I want to thank for making everything possible is Mike Lindell. the sponsor of this program.

Make sure you use the code Eric. I just wanted to cheapen things by beginning that way, Albin. And of course, I got all dressed up because I take this very seriously. You're interviewing me, okay? So your first question, of course, it's a doozy. Let me think about this. I think, well, my mom, I gave her an early copy of the book to read. And it's the whole thing is so bizarre because she's a figure in the book.

I mean, I tell her childhood story and all these different things. And I thought what kind of a weird thing would be to read a book than you're in the book and you remember the stuff better than the guy writing the book? And it's just crazy. So her response was she kept saying over and over how funny it was. And I said, can you be specific? No. I think when you hit your mid-80s, that's asking too much.

And I kept saying, mom, like I'm a writer. I need encouragement. Tell me what you thought was funny. I don't know, just, you know, the whole thing. So the early part of the book, a lot of it is funny because it's crazy stories of growing up. But the fact that she raved about how funny it was, I thought, that's like I'm thrilled. And then my aunt, my Tanta Eleanor, who's another figure in the book, she said the same thing. Like she said, oh, it's really funny.

It's really funny. It's really funny. And I thought, could you be specific? Unfortunately, she's also in her mid-80s. She refused to be specific. but the fact that they found it funny, I was thrilled. Now, my dad, he's 93 and a half. His eyesight is now at a point where he can't read.

So I have the audio book is coming out. And of course, I have shared tons of it with him. I mean, I was on the phone with him, you know, for the last two years asking him questions about my childhood and stuff. And in a weird way, I think I said this, he ends up being the hero of the book. I don't know why. It's not like I planned that.

but my love for him comes through on most pages. And it's not like I intended that. I just told the story. And then the publicist, the Balabans, insisted that I put this picture of my dad on the cover. And I thought, really? And they said, yes, because it's the immigrant experience and statutorily. So the picture on the cover, I know I've said this before,

but it's my dad on a date with my mom. It's 1958. She took the picture. So it's the whole thing. It's kind of cool. but their response, you know, my parents, they're just, they never give you what you're looking for. Well, yeah, that's, I think everybody's parents are like that because of the generational thing and because they know you so well. Sometimes they think, well, you know what I'm talking about.

We grew up together. But that leads me to another question. I guess my second question here is the chapter called, because he's your father. Now, when you read the chapter head, an older person like myself, right away, I know. what you're talking about. And it's a great, it's a wonderful sentiment. But it's also sad in a way, because I think some people I may think, like, what does he mean by that? Because he's my father? What does that mean? Now, I know we're going to a break, but maybe when you come back, maybe you can talk about what you specifically mean about that and talk about a couple of things

that give an example about the father's son and the father-daughter, the father-child relationship, and how important that was in your life and in the book. I'm not keeping my eye on the clock since you're the host today, but I just will say that that was my Uncle Joe telling me that, and I'll get to that when we come back. But it's one of the most moving things I've experienced in my life. I love my Uncle Joe. He was like a dad to me.

I loved him like crazy. And he's gone, and I miss him terribly. But when we come back, I'll explain the story. Okay. Folks, we'll be right back with Eric Metaxus and Fish Out of Water. Hey, Eric, it's Eric Metaxis. He's the guest on his own show today. This is Albin Seder. I'm kind of hosting here, along with Chris Himes, who's also here in the background. And I wanted to pick up on the question we had right before the break. I was asking you about father's relationship because you have a chapter called Because He's Your Father. And I wanted you to elaborate on that father, that chapter title and your dad. Well, it's kind of funny. I was, I was maybe. 13 years old. This is the chapter in the book. I was about 13 and I was out in the country,

what we call the country, which is Suffolk County with my Uncle Joe and, you know, we always would go out there. And I must have like said something disparaging about my dad, something disrespectful. And my dad and mom left, they had to run an errand. And my uncle Joe took me and my brother, who's a year and a half younger than I am, Johnny, he took us aside and he gave us like a speech. And I will never, ever forget it. It was like a sermon. Now, my uncle Joe was not a religious man,

but it was like a sermon. He heard me be disrespectful of my father. And he did not shout. He did not humiliate us. It was really an amazing balance of being able to speak with this authority. because we looked up to my uncle Joe like crazy. And the refrain, like a like a like a like a like a preacher, he kept saying because he's your father.

And what I find amazing is I didn't understand the theology behind it. I just knew that what my uncle was saying was correct. Like inside something inside me witnessed to the fact that it doesn't matter what your father says or does. He is your father and you need to respect him. And it's only in years later that I understood that we say that about the president, right? We say about the office of the presidency. We haven't said it so much because people have been really vicious toward Trump. But I said it when Obama was president.

I thought his policies were evil, but the office of the presidency deserves respect. And it's a concept. It's a biblical concept that the office of mother, father, grandparents, they deserve respect simply because of God's image. The fatherhood of God is represented by your father. And I knew this, even as I was 13, when my uncle said this, he didn't understand the theology behind it, but he just knew that to disrespect your father was wrong, that you needed to respect him because he's your father.

I mean, it just hit me as a kid, like I just felt guilty because I knew, you know, you think at that point, wow, what my father has done for me. And I would dare to be disrespectful. This guy has given his whole life. He's worked, you know, his fingers to the bone, worked odd jobs, worked second jobs, worked overtime. He's done all this stuff. Yeah. And when my daughter was born 21 years ago, I will never forget having that feeling like if my parents felt the tiniest bit of what I'm feeling for this daughter, I owe them everything. Like I suddenly had a sense of, oh, my goodness, the love and the and the responsibility that I feel toward this child was so overwhelming. I thought I have not, I have not thanked my parents enough. I have not treated them with enough love

because I never understood it before. But when I was 13, when my uncle gave me that speech, It hit me in a way. And I have given the same speech effectively to young men and said to them, it doesn't matter what your father screwed up. It doesn't matter. He's your father. And you owe it to him and to God and to yourself to treat him with respect. He doesn't have to earn that respect. He's your father.

And it's a wild. It just hit me so much how I had disrespected my dad. And, you know, I spent the rest of my life trying to make up for it. I don't know if I ever could, but I love him so much. And his love for me, I could see it as an undergirding presence in my life, which to me is a picture of the fatherhood of God, is that it's there, even when you don't acknowledge it, it's there supporting you. You take it for granted. So anyway, I know. You know, and a lot of this resonated with me, and I'm hoping, of course, it will resonate with a lot of the readers.

But, you know, my own father, he worked two jobs, and he was constantly doing something. And then on the weekends, he'd be mowing the grass or he'd be, you know, fixing the car. He was constantly doing something. And he never once, and there were five of us kids, he never once said, I work my fingers for the bone for you kids. And this is a way, you know, he just did his duty as it were. And he loved us. He's still at time to play baseball with us and all these things, even though he had two jobs and took a nap in between the two of them. It was an amazing feat.

So the way this honors both your parents, but especially. your dad is just, it brings tears to your eyes. It really does. Yeah. And as I said, it's not like I intended that, but just telling the story, it is, and it's so funny, because I'm asking my dad these questions as I'm writing the book. It's like, what happened then? And what would tell me this story and tell me the way? And there's a couple of stories in the book. They're my favorite stories because they're very funny. And there are things that my father said or did, which I find unbelievably hilarious. There's the V8 story and there's the leprechaid story. And there's the leprechaun story is my favorite.

Yes. And the whooper story, the whooper story, don't give that away. But those three stories kill me. They're just like this. And there's other stuff. But the leprechaun and the whooper story and the V8 story.

And so I'm telling my father, you know, this stuff. And he's like, well, I don't want, you know, my friends to read that I did this or whatever.

And I said, dad, I don't think you're getting it. You end up being the hero of the story. You're going to be like famous because, again, it's not like I intended it, but when you do this weird thing and you tell your life's story, you see things you did not see. And there's a lot of stuff in this book that I didn't see until I wrote

the book. Well, see, your dad is probably about maybe seven, eight more years older than what my father was. My father passed away, unfortunately, when he was only 78. But he was like that too. He would mispronounce things. He'd say the wrong phrase. He would be funny like that without intending to be funny. And you bring all that out, of course, in the character of your father. who's a real character. That was the other question I had. I mean, I have a bunch of them. But one of them is, how did you remember such minutia?

I mean, you remembered names. You remembered locations and dates and times and all this. Like what? I mean, because I don't like. Well, the different characters, like I want to read something from the book, one of the funny sentences. I mean, you've got so many funny sentences and paragraphs. So one that I marked out here in particular was about the two people that you painted with. It was a husband and wife team, Alex and Anna.

And they'll describe them. Dude, listen, nobody can believe, like, there's not a syllable of exaggeration in that chapter. My father, it was kind of like the funny thing. It was like, I didn't get, like, a good job for the summer. So my father said, okay, I'm going to call up Jerry, which is our friend Jerry Femiotos. And he calls him up, and I'm going to work for Jerry painting houses, which was not going to be so great. It wasn't going to pay great, but I couldn't get anything. So I worked with Jerry and he had a couple who worked for him as painters.

And it was the, I mean, Bizarre doesn't do it justice. When people read that chapter, because there's no way to do it justice. But it was a couple, the guy ended up being a dedicated Nazi. Like it was the most insane thing. He was Hungarian. He loved Hitler. And I remember thinking, is this a joke? I mean, I go to Yale.

Like, I know the Nazis are evil, and you're telling me you like this guy, like, how do I have conversations with this person? There's no way to make it up. Can I just read it? Just a few sentences from that chapter, okay, just to entice people. But this stuff is very funny. This is a description of Alex's wife, Anna, okay? She was 10 years his senior and had the look of a pear-shaped 12th century peasant from the Russian

step with a face wrinkled. beyond her years and horned hands with which had tools been unavailable, she might have dug a moat. Often she struck me as prehistoric, bearing no small resemblance to a triceratops. Okay, now listen, actually listening to this sounds mean, you got to read the chapter because you'll never, you just won't believe it. You won't believe it. This was the two of them, I ended up, this is what's still crazy, and this happens a couple of times in the book, I ended up having an affection for these broken people, and they were very broken. She was, like, there's no way to describe her.

You just, you just can't, but she was more vulgar than any of the workmen on the site. And so it was bizarre. But the two of them are like something like if you made them up in a novel, people say these are the most ridiculous characters ever. But this is completely true. And there are other characters that summer that I, that I encountered, it really was, I mean, you talk about a fish out of water experience. That was the ultimate fish out of water experience.

I mean, the kid from Yale working with people that are like total, like, foul mouth racists. And, you know, it was, it was insane. I don't know. Yeah, that's kind of like, that's the halfway point of the book. Are we at a time on? No, no, we still have about 20 seconds. But when we come back, I want to talk about a person I think is probably your favorite character in a book. I know that you probably have a few of them, but this Vlostos character, the Vlostos.

I could cry when I think of him. I know. He's one of the sweetest men. He is. And he, another character, he's the one that, well, we'll talk about when we come back. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I'll set it up and you'll knock it out of the park. Okay.

We're going to be right back with our special guest, Eric Metaxus after this. Hey, folks, we are back to the Eric Metaxus with our special guest, Eric Metaxus. I'm Elbin Seder, one of the two producers in the background. of course is Chris Himes, the other producer. There he is. Eric's, I mean, Chris, say hello. Hello. Yeah, I actually heard.

Okay, that's enough. Yeah, my wife, I have not been reading the book because I live the book. It's a pop-up book. No, I didn't live the book. But my wife's been reading it, and she's enjoying it very much. There you go. There you go. I've been reading it and laughing it.

And Anne, my wife, she's usually upstairs in the bedroom trying to sleep or something. like what's going on down there. But I wanted to pick up on something we ended the last segment with it. This is a character or a real life character, by the way, named Vlastos. And he had a strange living quarters in Manhattan. I think it was near the village or something like that. And you you stayed with them for a while because you had one of your first jobs with a publishing house, right? You were sending. I was going to Yale. And I thought, okay, I want to be a writer. I better get a job like in publishing or something for the summer. So I sort of get some experience. And so I got this non-paying internship.

It paid nothing. So when I told my parents about this, they like flipped. Like what do you mean? How's that a job? It's paying you nothing. And then I thought, oh, well, I just got to find a free place to live and another job so I can make some money. So I got another job as a bus boy.

So I was working two jobs. And a friend of my godmother, my Nuna, F.E. Dragara, who just passed away. He's another major figure in the book. I loved her so much, and I'm so sorry that I can't share this with her. But my nunah, Effie Dragaras, she said, oh, I have a friend, Andreas Vlastost, and he lives in the city. Maybe you can stay with him for the two months while you're working these two jobs. So I went to this guy, and I had some idea in my she, my nunas says, Vlastos, he's Bohemian type. And, you know, in her accent, he's Bohemian type.

And I said, Bohemian, that's perfect. Like, he's probably some artsy guy, maybe he lives in the village. And, you know, I had all these ideas, whatever. And I get off the bus at the Port Authority with my avocado colored suitcase, which didn't have wheels. And I walk and walk and walk and walk to 24th Street between, I think it's sixth and seventh avenues, which is the definition of no man's land. Like, there's nothing there.

There's like warehouses and loading docks and whatever. And this guy had a lot. of some kind. You know, people always talk about we have a converted loft. This was a totally unconverted loft. It was like there was, it was like a machine shop. There was like a drill press. Like it was the most disgusting, weird place imaginable. And this strange, eccentric Greek man greets me and he called me boy. I think he forgot my name and never wanted to, bother to ask me against. So he says, eh, boy. And he was like a wealthy miser. He had founded a a publishing, Greek publishing thing.

And there was a newspaper. And my father and mother, I remember telling them about this or whatever. And my mother says, Vasta. Oh, she says that when we were married, when we were dating, or when we first got married, we would go to the beach with Effie and Nick, her husband, Nick Grigars would get. And Vlostos would come along. And this is like, you know, 25 years earlier or more. And my mother says that this guy was eccentric then.

he would wear a wool turtleneck to the beach and he was a strange bird. Let me tell you. My mother was like, I can't believe. So now I see this guy and he obviously had some money and he lived like the ultimate miser. There's no way to describe it. I mean, you got to read that chapter. But in the course of the summer, like he just broke my heart with how sweet he was to me. He was such a dear soul.

And there's some magical stuff in there. But can I tell the McDonald's story? Oh, you want to tell a McDonald's story? Okay, because I was going to talk about how he had one of his inventions because he was an inventor. And that's how he made some of his many. That's what's crazy. He was an inventor. Yes. Yeah, but back then, of course, Mr. Coffee was big. Nowadays, we have the curic and all the little things. But Mr. Coffee was big. And he seemed to have used that same technology for his shower where the water was instantly heated to boiling point or something to heat the shower. But it was like he created this little thing that you got into the shower. And there was a little trickle that came down on your head. And that's how you got his water. I mean, think about it. We are talking about a loft with no hot water. So he created some kind of a, like he invented some kind of like a gizmo to heat the water.

And it worked, but it only worked technically. And so in order to take a shower, the water would trickle. Like it was like if you had an eyedropper of hot water. It was the most unpleasant, bizarre. But what could I say? This was free. Like, I'm not going to complain. Right. But yeah, I tell the story. I don't want to go into the details, but like the shower scene is that.

It's scarier than psycho. Yeah. But tell the McDonald's, the McDonald's story. Well, actually, my favorite part is he said, oftentimes he would show me something. And then he would say, it's my invention. Like he's telling me, yes, I invented this. And so he would say that about a few things he showed me he had these inventions. And one was called Breezy. shoes. Right. And these were shoes. This invention never caught on. So he showed me like a yellowed clipping of when he tried to kind of make this work. And then he showed me the prototype of the shoe. And it was like an orthopedic looking hideous shoe with the thick rubber sole with square holes all along the soul. And then you looked inside and it was like a mesh. Your foot rested on like mesh so that you were walking on air.

And he said, I call them Breezy Suss. And I said, what, breezy soos? They're breezy because they breeze. And I won't say any more about it. But there are things like that, these little magical things. For years, I've said, I have to write about this. No one will believe this. I've just got to write it down to the best of my ability.

When we come back, I'm going to tell the McDonald's story because that's my favorite. I love this man. He's so sweet, and I'm glad I can write about him. Hey, folks, welcome back to another segment. of the Eric Metaxus show. I'm Albin Seder, one of the producers. Chris Himes is with me. He's another of the producers.

Wow, two producers for one great guy. Eric Metaxes. And you know what? He's the guest on today's show talking about fish out of water, which is out today. Eric, hello. This is weird, man.

This is freaking me out. I'm a guest in my own program. Okay, so here's the issue. I've got to tell the McDonald's stories because this is, you don't make this stuff up. This is, okay. So, Vlaustos, and I, like, I was kind of, you know, I was 20 years old. I was 19. I turned 20 that summer.

When I turned 20, the day I turned 20, my parents never called me up. Nobody called, like, it was just the weirdest, saddest birthday. But in the morning, I mentioned to Mr. Vlastos that it was my birthday. And he said, oh, it's your bed day. He runs out. He pulls a tarp away from an organ. plugs it in, he plays me happy birthday and sings happy birthday to me. It was so moving that for the rest of my life, I'll be thinking about it. Every once in a while, I would go out to dinner with him. And it was always like to a little diner or something very cheap, like really cheap. And a couple of times we go to the McDonald's on Bleaker Street, which was a little bit of a walk.

He was on 20th. And so Bleaker's like, I don't know, 10, 15 blocks. Before we went in to the McDonald's, he said to me in his Greek accent, he said, here they are calling me Mr. 305. Okay. Here they're calling me Mr. 305. Here they're calling me Mr. 305. I didn't know what he meant.

So we go up. He goes to the, you know, the teenage girl at the cash register, and he looks up and he blurts out. He says, filet of fish, press fries, strawberry sick. and she brings it up and she says, that'll be 305, sir. Evidently, that's what he ordered every single time he went there

and the girls thought it was kind of cute and funny. And so they called him Mr. 305. So later in the summer, after I moved into another apartment, I got together with him for dinner. And he stopped on the street, he said, ah, I must tell you something. Recently, I have been promoted.

I said, what do you mean? and he says, now they are calling me Mr. 312. Evidently, the price had gone up. That's a lot of funny stories like this. I wanted to. You can. No, I read it so I can. I can tell people they're in for a real treat.

But I wanted to shift moods for a second here. You dedicate the book, of course, the first part you dedicate, you say this book is for my father and mother. Makes total complete sense because your father. your mother come out as heroes as it were. And you see how they helped your life become what it is. But then the second dedication is to, is a Charos Khan. And this is what you say, who swan dove into the period at the end of the sentence God wrote for her and emerged in his presence in heaven. Very sweet. Do you want to explain that? Yes. I never intended to dedicate the book to Cheris,

But when I was writing it, Suzanne, my wife kept asking, who did you write this for? And I said, honestly, I have no clue. Like this is one of these books. You know, it's such a strange melange of stories and characters and shows all the different parts of me, you know, like insane, stupid humor with very serious faith stuff. And, you know, it's like this big mixture. I couldn't really say. Like, so who did I write it for? I don't know.

And then it hit me. I know exactly who I wrote it for. I wrote it for Cheris. C-H-A-R-I-S. Cheris Khan, C-O-N-N is her last name. She was a friend, brilliant woman. She was a senior editor at Harper's Magazine. That's Lewis Lapham, you know, the literary magazine for 20 years.

And just brilliant. Brilliant. And when I had my faith conversion thing, she continued to be my friend and would ask me questions about it. And I would tell her all these crazy stories about faith or miracles or this or that. And I was really trying to share my faith with her, but without being too forward about it. And she remained my friend and really appreciated me in a way that very few friends have ever appreciated me. She was incredibly sweet and funny and brilliant. And I just, you know, like just a true friend that you've had over the years. And we didn't really see each other much. But when we saw each other, it was like no time had passed. And the bizarre coda to the story is that of all the people I could think of who I would expect not to be interested in becoming, you know, a Jesus follower, I would say she was probably at the top of the list. but she had some illness and one day let me know shocked me that she prays she believes in Jesus and I really couldn't get my head around it I thought like really like I just don't believe it

but it was true it was just the most amazing thing and it had to do with my sharing these stories over the years and I mean many years and she died very young. She was in her mid-50s of a very rare blood disease, one of the most amazingly strange things ever. But she died as somebody who believed in the God of the Bible. And at her memorial service, I talked to all her friends who are, you know, kind of like Brooklyn literary, liberal agnostic, I guess. And I kind of shared this with them. And I think some of them got it and some of them didn't. But I just thought, in a way, I wrote this book for folks like them, for people who are totally not on the same page as we might be politically and theologically, but just as a

literary read. And in a way, that was my approach to Cheris all those years. I wasn't trying to convert her. I wasn't talking to her, you know, necessarily very overtly about the Bible. I was just sharing stuff. And somehow God used that and led her to himself. And I, I, her picture is in the book, toward the end. And anyway, that's all I'll say about it. It was just, but her friendship, she was a very, very amazing person.

And so her death was very upsetting. But the fact that somehow, amazingly, this brilliant literary genius found her weight of faith. And she said in a letter, because of my time with her over the years, you know, that meant everything to me. And I realized this book is for her.

for her friends. Yeah, that's very beautiful. And I know you lost a lot of friends that comes out in the book when you became a Christian. They treated you like a leper. And that's also in the Bible, but they probably didn't believe in the healing of the. Well, I mean, I think it's very, it's asking a lot of people. I mean, we can talk about it in the final. Yeah, yeah.

We've got to go to a break. Sorry, got to cut you off there, Eric. We'll be right back with Eric Metaxus. All over stands on golden sand. Hey, folks, we're back with Eric Metaxus. He's the guest on his very own program, isn't that something? Get out of here. Get out of here. So we've been talking about fish out of water, which premieres, if you will, today.

Okay, today's opening day. So go out there, folks, and buy the book and enjoy it. Eric, I'm going to throw over to you. What do you have for the folks? Actually, I should mention this. I've just published an op-ed today. which I put it on social media and I sent out to my email list. It's called the secret vocabulary of the heart.

And it talks about the ending of the book and the dream that I had. But that's out. I've posted that. And I would appreciate because I've been shadow banned on Facebook and we've been having some social media issues, anything you can share on social media, I would be so grateful if you can retweet the tweets or share what's on Facebook or if you can find it someplace else and put it on your own Facebook page because I've been having real problems.

But Albin, I've got to say this tonight on Facebook Live and on YouTube. And again, I'm sending these links out. We're sending emails. If you're not on the list, what can I tell you? But tonight is the official launch event. 20 people from around the country have paid money to ask me questions, like hard-hitting questions. So it's going to be loony, and I'm going to be hosting that,

and I'm going to be answering these questions that the people have. And so that's tonight, 8 p.m. Eastern. It's the launch event. So if there's anybody who can join us there, the link will be, you know, I'm posting it on all my social media and we sent out an email today. But I think if you just go to our YouTube page for the show, the Eric Matakka's show YouTube page, it should be there or on my Facebook. If you're a subscriber to the YouTube channel, you'll get a notification when it's about to go live. And if you miss it for some reason, don't worry. We'll post the video after it's over, but obviously it's more fun live if you can make it.

And I have to say, because this is how we pay the rent, but if anybody's ever interested in buying a book, you want to buy it as soon as possible. That helps sell the book. It has gotten really wonderful reviews. I'm on the Dinesh DeSuzza program today. He loved it, which thrilled me, because you never know what people are going to think.

But I've been getting a lot of, let me just be honest, surprisingly positive feedback because when I wrote the book, I kind of didn't know what I had. You know, you do your best, you put it out there, but you just don't know because you're so close to it. If you're writing about your own experiences, you really have no idea if it's going to resonate with other people. So so far it seems to have, but I do want to ask people to please do what you can. I think you fold a lot of people by writing like mundane stories with beautiful words. I don't know how you did it. That's my plan to fool people.

Okay, I'm being sarcastic like you sometimes, Eric. I'm never sarcastic. No. I thought that was your love language. Isn't that your love language? It is my love language. But, and you know, we forgot to say there's a lot of pictures in the book. Yes, a lot of pictures.

A lot of pictures. Crazy stuff. Crazy stuff. I hope some people are touched by it. And I do mean it when I say that if I wrote the book specifically for people maybe who are on the same page as we are theologically or politically to share it with people who aren't

because I think there's very little out there for folks like that. People like my friend Cheras who, they're not going to read a Christian book. I mean, it's not really a spiritual biography. It's a literary biography. It is. With a spiritual ending. And I think that if it were more,

more overtly Christian throughout, a lot of people wouldn't read it who are not on that page. And I specifically wrote it for, I wrote this book for those people because I really wanted to reach them. I know we're at a time. Yeah, there's a very thin thread of the Christianity running throughout. And it doesn't shout out. Intentionally thin.

Yeah. Not until the ending. Does it come really? Yeah. We're going to be back with more with Eric Metaxus after a commercial break.