The James Donald Forbes McCann Catamaran Plan - heavy is the head

Episode Date: April 29, 2024

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Thank you for listening to this episode of the James Donald Forbes McCann Catamaran Plan. If you'd like to listen to bonus episodes, go sign up to the Patreon. That's patreon.com. Clom? Ah, we f***ed it. Anyway, look, you'll find a way. Catamaran Home! Hello and welcome to this episode of the James Donald Forbes McCann Catamaran Plan, the show where I, James Donald Forbes McCann, am trying to make enough money to buy a boat.

That's the entire premise of the podcast. How are we doing? We're doing better than ever. The Patreon has just cracked 1,300. The Instagram has cracked just about 20,000 followers, which is excellent. I mean, that's good for the ego. It does nothing for me financially. But I think now that we're on 20,000 followers, maybe I can start prostituting my image for brands. Is that still something that happens? A few years ago, 20,000 followers. Boy, boy, I'd be, boy, I'd be, boy, what wouldn't I be doing to get money? I'd be selling face creams. I'd be selling pubic hair shaving kits, even though that's not something that I believe in. I'm not against it. I'm shocked, actually, at this point the podcast has become this successful and no one from Manscaped has popped on the blower and given me a call. Ring,

ring, hello, is that the company, the Blue Chew, the little erectile dysfunction, gum? I'd do an ad for you if you wanted me to do it. They haven't asked. Draft Kings. Not one message. Criminal. Stamps.com. Did I mention Stamps.com?

Squarespace. Where you at? What about that one? What about that help one? What about the one where you type to a therapist? Now, obviously, I speak a lot on this podcast about how I don't believe in therapy for me or other people. So I wouldn't be able to do that ad. But why won't you give me a call?

Why won't you even try? Hey, it's great to be here. I'm sorry there's no visual component again this week. There will be a consistent visual component. I see no way around that. It goes too well on YouTube. But this one, audio only. I thought I didn't.

I thought, wow, we've just got to get out there and record this podcast right away because we're running out of time. And then I spent the better part of an hour finalizing my Eddie Guerrero memorial song. I just took clips of him doing the frog splash and put that to a beat that I wrote on a plane this week. Coming back from, or going to rather, I think I worked a little bit on both. Nashville. Went to Nashville. I got to open for Shane Gillis. Had a wonderful time. I was at the building that used to be the Grand Old Opry, or so I believe. That's what somebody told me. And I don't really fact check. I'm finding out more and more I don't

fact check. I did the Matt and Shane secret podcast when I got back. It was with LeMay, Sean Gardini, and Matt. Shane was off doing something, and gee, I shot from the hip about some scientific and historical facts and made the mistake of reading the comments on the Reddit message board. From now on, I'll just stick to my own message board on the reddit which exists it's been a big i apologize for not having a podcast out last week i uh i've been setting up this house we have a house in austin i just want it working nicely we've got the three children i want us to be able to take care of them in a nice successful positive life-affirming non-scarring way and so we're trying to set up the house promptly. We started last week when I should have been doing a podcast. I think I was out buying mattresses.

And we just had mattresses on the floor. And that was our only item really in the house for a couple of days. And I made... I don't know that I would qualify it as a mistake. But it did make my life more difficult at an already difficult time. Ikea had a sale on mattresses, and I have never owned a king mattress before. I've been a queen mattress man ever since I was a single mattress.

By the way, in America, the single mattress, cheekily, they call it a twin mattress, which sounds like it's big enough for two people. But actually, it's, you know what, a single mattress makes sense. A single person goes on it. But they call it a twin mattress because you're meant to get two to add up to one bed or something. Maybe it's for bunks or something. It just makes it sound like you're getting more than you are.

It's the opposite of a single, is a twin. I mean, I guess a twin, that would be a twin's mattress. A twin is one of a pair. I don't like it. Anyway, it's been queen mattresses, certainly, with me and my wife for some time. And before then, when we were living in sin, it was a queen mattress as well. I think maybe I had a double mattress at first when I moved out of home. I was so, even then, the language is so, double mattress. That's definitely for one person. You can't have two people on a double mattress at first when I moved out of home. I was so... Even then, the language is... Double mattress,

that's definitely for one person. You can't have two people on a double. Oh, you can, but it just doesn't work out very well. And now we've got all these kids and they're always coming to the bed and I just thought, heck! Tick, tick, tock,

it's king mattress o'clock. I bought a very affordable, but... I don't want to use the word nubile. That sounds disgusting. Supper? That sounds pretty disgusting too. It was a nice mattress, a nice king-size mattress that we were sleeping on on the floor for some time. Then it came time to get all the other stuff, and here was the mistake.

It was already hard getting the king mattress into the car and into the house it was significantly more difficult than with a queen mattress unbelievable it's not that much bigger you would think but in terms of transport it's way harder to move a king mattress i'm sorry this is maybe the least likable thing I'll ever do is complaining about a luxe mattress, but it was very difficult. I'm doing it by myself. I can't afford to pay movers. I've got no money. I'm living on the gifts from friends. Sorry, I've gone quiet there because it's quite late and my neighbor just turned their light on and I'm probably being much too loud, so we'll just suffer through the humidity and we'll just, we'll suffer through the humidity and we'll have that up. Anyway, the linens are all super expensive, right? The actual bed

frame, which I finally got, I had to strap it to the top of the roof at Great Personal. Difficult. Why am I getting messages? Oh, I got a new Patreon. That's excellent. I'm happy to have that message. Thank you, S. Turner. I like to keep it discreet in case people don't want it known that they're on my Patreon. Thank you very much, S. Turner. Now, you know when I'm recording the podcast.

It's when you did that. Anyway, it was just very different. It's been nothing but trouble and expense, and I've regretted many times getting the king mattress. Heavy as the head of the man who buys a king mattress. But that head gets to relax on a beautiful king-sized pillow. That was all I wanted to say. That was all a big build-up.

It sounded more impressive in my head. It's hard being on this big mattress, man. It's, boy, it's difficult. I'll never do this on stage. I'm losing confidence in talking about the mattress. Even now, alone in my case, it's hard. I actually did, I'll tell you this, the mattress is so large,

I had a nightmare where I dreamt I was on the tundra, on this big white tundra. But it wasn't. It was just my mattress. And I reached out for my wife and I couldn't reach her. She was too far away. I got to get a taxi to go and see my wife on the other side of this mattress. Anyway, the point is, I feel very blessed to have this mattress. It was a lot of work to get the mattress. I wanted to say heavy as the hay. I thought it was funny to say. It's great to have. I feel weird talking about it. It's the first

step up I've ever taken in terms of niceness. I feel extremely guilty. I mean, we need our children come into the bed all the time. Three kids. Three kids, and they're all getting in our bed every night, and I'm rolling out.

So it felt like, you know, I'm spending an extra couple of dollars. It feels reasonable, but I can't tell you the extent to which I feel guilty having it. I get the cheap car. I get the cheap clothes. I get the reasonably expensive recording equipment, because that's part of the work, but boy, let me cheap clothes. I get the reasonably expensive recording equipment,

because that's part of the work. But boy, let me tell you, I edited it on the cheap software. I'm doing this on GarageBand. I feel weird sharing it. I feel vulnerable. You know, your people are supporting me on Patreon to just break America as quickly as possible so I can buy a boat. You know, that's the plan at the moment is that I'm in America. And it's really my ambition for buying that boat is to be here to break the comedy scene wide open. Excuse me as I close the window to the car. Once again, I had opened it up again, but then I felt awkward again.

I want to be a good custodian of the money that's increasingly coming in. And I'm very grateful. I mean, I've been buying some... Well, it's been a lot of purchases this week because we've had a house with nothing in it. I bought a bookcase. I bought beds for my children. I got a couch for $100 off of Facebook Marketplace. Then I had to spend an additional $100 moving it.

Man, movers in America are expensive. And I know you can just go down to Home Depot and get a couple of hombres to come and help you out for pennies on the dollar. But I didn't do that because i felt weird and sad maybe maybe that's wrong but i felt weird and sad going to home depot and getting some illegal immigrants dreamers whatever we're calling them this will sound weird for people in australia and other parts of america potentially but i think i i don't remember if I spoke about this on the Patreon. I went down to Home Depot,

which is their Bunnings Australia. It's just like a hardware store, and I was trying to pick up, I guess, a tape measure, and maybe a plastic chair. I think actually at that point I was trying to get a little table.

There are like 300 visibly Hispanic men in various states of unhappiness in the Home Depot parking lot in the morning. Definitely not here legally. That's not, if you can get the dole because you're unemployed, you don't get up in the morning and go down to home depot these are people with no other means of income and they try and wave you down and i have just it's a lot man it's one of the cultural things in america that i've noticed i mean people here they just know about it it seems sort of like rude to bring it up maybe this is something that's only observed

by you know your older right wing white men while barbecuing, and that they use it as a punchline, and it's actually a weird and sad situation. But just seeing that with unmolested eyes, virgin eyes, let me tell you, it's weird. It's like on the waterfront, that scene where they're all trying to get a job down by the docks, but instead they're in a car park, and you're trying park and people are having to like step out of your way. Oh, once again, welcome. Sorry. James Donald Forbes, McCann, Catamaran, a plan, trying to buy, I've got to, the window's

got to come down again because I am too hot. I'll just try and talk in a more reasonable volume. What was I talking about? Oh yeah, things I had to buy. Building a lot of ikea furniture a lot of boxes in the house let's get to the advice section because people have started writing to me for advice quite a lot of advice actually coming in and the reason i set up the advice column on the podcast originally was to get women to listen. No women, I don't think.

Remind me if I'm wrong. If you're a lady and you've written to me asking for advice, get back in touch because I've definitely forgotten about it. But aside from a small amount of interest early on from a wonderful artist and t-shirt maker, there's nothing. There's nothing. But from women. A lot of men. Let's go through. Here's one from women a lot of men let's go through

here's one from a man here we go james this is from uh jr all right i should read these before i try and answer them i think i read it i skim read it while i was having some drinkies this week i here's the jr writes I would love some advice, please. I am at a fork in the road at the moment. I currently rent with my brother, but he is going to move to a big share house with seven other men. This big share house has been named the hustle house by said men, as they are all entrepreneurs trying to, quote unquote, escape the rat race. Nothing against these guys, but you know the kind of person I refer to.

Yes, I do, JR. I remember very briefly hoping to be one such man when I started copywriting, and I realized that copywriting was actually very easy, and the difficult thing was getting the clients. And I thought, hold on a minute. Hold on a minute. I know a lot of arts degree dropouts. I could get them together, and they could do the copywriting, and I'm pretty good at calling people on a minute. Hold on a minute. I know a lot of arts degree dropouts. I could get them together and they could do the copywriting.

I'm pretty good at calling people on the phone. I don't think that's, maybe that's not a hustle. Maybe that's not even escaping the rat race. I was trying to turn myself into a middle manager. Anyway, we had another child and I didn't do it. I was like, I can, I really would. I was saying, walking around with my wife just before COVID hit. And I was going, I'm going to be a $100,000 man.

And one day I will be. I'm going to have to be on the road to a boat or it's going to take more than 10 years. Well, that's not how the maths works. Middle management is not my strength. But yes, I know the house. Anyway, we had the child and then the COVID happened and I didn't do it

and I just kept doing my copywriting job and then AI took the copywriting jobs. I got a great copywriting job that wasn't being taken. I came to America. It's not, this is not about my story. I apologize. So bros in a hustle house

escaping the rat race. My predicament is that me and my partner are planning to do a big Europe trip at the end of this year. Congratulations. And the rent of this new place will make saving difficult. Sydney rent. Yeah. I imagine so. Luckily, my parents are okay with me moving home so I can move home and save.

However, I could also risk the not saving and be surrounded with people who are motivated to make money. I've been given two weeks to make a decision and feel very unsure. Go home, be with your parents. That's it. Man, that was it. Sorry, that was easier than I thought it would be. Go home, live with your parents. Well, you've got to ask yourself some questions. What's your relationship like with your parents would be number one. If your relationship is bad, that's a good reason to move in. It gives you a chance to restore that relationship. If your relationship is good, absolutely don't move in with your parents.

You risk compromising everything. Do you live with your partner? Is your partner coming with you? If your partner is not wife, don't move in with your partner. Get married. If your partner is wife, then go for it. It's hard to know. I mean, I wouldn't want to live in a hustle house.

I wouldn't want to live in a hustle house. Hmm. Hmm. Europe trip. I don't know the answer. I'm sorry. You've left too many. I'm not great at advice here, but you've left too many unknowns.

So I have to open up a response tree. I'm so... I mean, what do I know about living somewhere? JR. I can't even get myself a home with a studio. Rent in Austin. I think rival Sydney for cost. Move to one of the only places in America that can go blow for blow with Australia for a housing market crisis.

Although I hear the housing market crisis has gotten substantially worse since I left. Is it true? Someone's told me that they're saying just stay alive till 25. As in next year. As in, like, don't make any plans. Just live. JR. Two weeks to make it.

Yeah, look, if you can go to your parents go to your parents are your parents going to charge you rent? I hope not I think it's cruel when parents do that they should just love you and welcome you back yeah go home to your parents go home to your parents

go home to your parents go home JR if you haven't rather than saying better or worse I'll just say if you have an uncomplicated relationship with them that's what i would recommend all right next piece of advice okie dokie uh this one is from adhd man i am a 21 year old man i have a quandary for you i've been listening to your podcast and following your work for some time i especially love the catechist which by the way is impossible to find on YouTube,

even when you put your full name and Catacast. All right, we'll work on the searchability of the Catacast. My other podcast with Jack Blanche. I found out this morning that I was diagnosed with ADHD and anxiety disorder. I'm undecided. Now, this one's a bit juicier than should I move home with mummy and daddy. I found out this morning that I was diagnosed with ADHD and anxiety disorder. I'm undecided about whether to pursue medication.

I've been having real trouble in the past. Even though it took a lot of work to get diagnosed and this is what I wanted, I'm having second thoughts. My main issue is a religious one. I am a Roman Catholic and a great sinner. Amen, brother. That was me. I spent a long time away from the Sacrament of Confession

and I recently went back on Ash Wednesday, which took a lot for me, and I don't know why. But knowing that I have ADHD, which I think can be partially linked to my addictive personality and at least some of my sinful behavior, I wonder if going on medication would help me focus on what is important in my life and my faith. The flip side of that is,

what if the medication causes me to hyper-focus, and I'm worried about putting something in my body once a day for the next 30 years that would help me be productive, but also gaslight me into thinking God's not real or something wild like that. I don't believe I fear this for a lack of faith in Christ, but rather a general mistrust of corporations and the government. The government does not care if you hurt yourself as long as you don't know that you are. Which is why cigarettes come with labels, they say cause cancer, but Red 40 does not care if you hurt yourself as long as you don't know that you are which is why cigarettes come with labels they say cause cancer but red 40 does not i don't know what red 40 does but i hear you anyway thank you for your time you can put this on the podcast if you like but i won't

beg or anything like that don't worry about it it is i just really like your advice style and it reminds me a lot of my brother it's not charitable or kind to sugarcoat the truth. All right, I'm glad we went in a different direction. I thought you were saying my advice wasn't kind and charitable. Let's rephrase that. It's not charitable or kind to sugarcoat the truth and shove it into someone's mouth. And you don't do that. Thank you.

You say cut the shit, start acting right. And that's awesome. I do have to cut me saying shit though, excuse me. Trying to keep the pod clean. Doing my very best. Kids in cars. I've been told that people listen to this podcast saying shit though, excuse me. Trying to keep the pod clean. Doing my very best. Kids in cars. I've been told that people listen to this podcast with their kids in their cars. It's not the podcast I'd listen to with my kids in the car, that's for sure.

That's absolutely f***ing right. I digress. Thank you for saying that. Apologies if this is the wrong email. The only one that I saw on your website. Sincerely, the person with ADHD. So man, it's a juicy one and it's one I think about all the time as the window comes back up. Every time I stop to edit something, I bring the window down. No one should be taking advice

from me. My life is a mess. Now, with that said, here's your advice. Okay, I'm going to catch it with this. I wrote back to this person and I said, this is what I originally wrote. I don't know. I'm in that boat with you. I think I've had a diagnosis in hand since I was seven and never been on medication for it. and i went on and and on about my experiences and then i got a big message back uh about like oh i didn't know you've been properly diagnosed i look i want to just address i don't know if i was properly diagnosed with adhd i had a series of um i had a teacher in primary school who insisted that i had it and put me forward for all these meetings and then i went to like occupational therapy people who said that i

had it but they didn't believe it like my mom i think took me to the specialists who would confirm something odd was going on but wouldn't push medication and so i just sat in a i've memories quite a nice time but like catching and throwing a ball sitting in a chair and being spun around rubbing brushes on my skin i don't know if how much of that was for the adhd it was for my other stuff and this lady was just like yeah put a backpack full of bricks on james's back and have him run around and watch the adhd symptoms go away and then i was putting like a gifted program in case i wasn't uh i it's a bit of a blur uh but my understanding is that i i probably have adhd saying that on the back of saying I don't really believe in therapists earlier,

I'm not going to get it checked. Which is also not to say that I definitely have it. Maybe I don't. I mean, maybe it's not real. Hmm? Nah, but seriously, I've got three kids and one of them is different to the other ones. One of them's very different to the other ones, and gets hyper fixated, I'll put it like that, one of my kids gets, like, oh man, you pop the telly on, the other's like, yeah, the telly's on,

there we go, and this particular child can't move, like, the whole body turns to stone, move like the whole body turns to stone and the rest of the time um running around going wild can't pay you know you'll we you'll go to a circus class and every other child is lining up neatly and one child is going absolutely ham out there uh i do think that ADHD must be overdiagnosed because we are so understimulated. And I know that for me and her, exercise is great and necessary. And you just have to be totally worn out or you go quite mad. And some people do seem to be like that. And no doubt there are some people for whom the executive faculty is so compromised that no amount of exercise will make a serious difference in their life and ability to sit still through boring occasions. Excuse me, this is me more talking about my family and my problems rather than you and where you're at. than you and where you're at.

The person you should talk to about medication slash drugs that you might get on and how that could impact your life and relationship with God is a priest. Straight up, talk to a priest. Ideally, talk to a priest that you trust, that people you know also trust, and who knows you well. And if you don't have a priest like that in your life, I suggest getting one. It's one of the best things I've ever had in my life.

Now, sadly, that priest is now in Adelaide and I'm over here, but I miss him very, very much. And I miss the good counsel he gave me. And of course, I can still get good counsel. I think if I gave him a ring, he'd pick up the phone. Boy, I've wanted to ring my priest. I'm not going to ring him now. He'd be absolutely furious if I put him on the podcast. He's never going to come on the podcast. Open invitation, though, Father.

So I would say that. I mean, the reason I would say all that stuff about a priest or a spiritual counselor or a friend is that, again, I don't want all the advice to just come back to this. This is not the James Donald Forbes Catamaran plan via nuance, but we've got to incorporate some more nuance. I don't know how your ADHD, if you do have it, affects you. I don't know what your spiritual life is based on.

I don't know the circumstances of you going away and coming back to the faith. It would just be too difficult. I will say, I also don't know of any short or long-term effects of being on the Ritalin. I have to assume it's a short-term effect because it's like dexamphetamine, right? Am I correct about that? I don't even know. like it's in dexamphetamine, right? Am I correct about that?

I don't even know. But, you know, like you don't mess around with antidepressants unless you don't feel as though you have any other choice because, again, I've never been on the antidepressants. I've been asked to be on the antidepressants before. People around me have been on the antidepressants. They are wretched. I'm not saying don't get on them. I don't want to be liable for

anybody's death, but man, they're not good drugs. They take you out of it, they do a lot to you, and they stay in the system for a long time, and then when you're coming off them, you're a suicide risk. Ew! I don't think that's necessarily a problem with Dexys, a conventional ADHD medication which people in Perth do recreationally all the time. Why would you want to stay up in a city where there's not much to do? I don't know, but that's what they do. So it may be important to incorporate the risk-reward here. Like if you're not getting something out of it, I mean, do your own research, please.

you would be maybe, it would be imprudent to dabble in whatever, Lexapro, any of the mental health, depression guy drugs. I reckon you might be able to roll the dice. I don't know for sure. But maybe you're able to just have some Dexys and see what they do to you. Gee, I've thought about it. Gee, I've thought about it. My wife has encouraged me to go to a doctor and not to just have you know people like hey you want some speed uh just to get on it there because basically also it is right it's speed right dexys uh but i've thought about it but i haven't done

it because i'm very afraid of drugs as well i will say i whatever it is that marks the child of mine out from the other one, whatever it is that I have personally, if it has a name or if it's anything, I don't know that it has brought me any closer to God, except that there are things in life that cause me to suffer that other people seem to find really easy getting a driver's license and just like going through the bureaucratic steps to get a driver's license so many other people just found that to be a piece of piss and yeah you just turn up you lie about your hours you pass the test blah blah. I found it unbelievably challenging to do. And like, just to work with a bureaucracy, with my brain, one of my favorite things about America is that they've just gone, we're having as little bureaucracy possible. You want a driver's license? Hop

in the car, drive down the street, drive back, tick, you're done. This is not the case in Australia, where it is a very regulated society. And I bristled with that. And a lot of people are fine with a regulated society, but I'm dysregulated. Excuse me, this is not about me. It's a hot car. It's about you. I just meant to say that the suffering that was caused by my disorderliness has helped me get closer to God. Right? Suffering does help us. God is a concept by which we measure our pain. John Lennon.

And so there are certainly situations where I have felt my spiritual side growing that I don't think you could, for an ordinary person, say was a spiritually growing time for them. Doing my taxes, I really find brings me closer to God. Because it's so bad and so hard. As I have to sit still and do something I don't want to do for a long time. Cleaning the house. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Additional bit.

I think, I don't think it's the hyper focus that you're describing which i also have and my child also has so i you know i get it i mean is it hyper focus or is it spending hours at a time making a not very good eddie guerrero song there's the other thing we've got to take into account say you do have adhd say Say I do have ADHD and I'm hyper-focused. Well, the things I'm making with the hyper-focus are not necessarily good. I cannot forget. And this is about depression. It's odd that these two things should be very different conditions.

But the effect and the way people think about their creativity and having a mental thing is sort of similar. and having a mental thing is sort of similar. I remember reading this article someone had written about how they weren't going to go on the tablets for their depression because they thought it would hurt their work. And I know David Foster Wallace, he was trying to come off antidepressants because he thought that would help his work. That's what people say.

And then he committed suicide as he was coming off them. And thus, that was the greatest impediment to his writing, being dead. But this person, I saw they were writing an article about it and they were talking about that and they were like, I don't want to lose my ability to write, so I'm going to live with my difficult mental health condition and not be on the drugs so that I can still do my creative thing and the problem was this article was written really badly I mean this guy had absolutely no gift for the written word

whatsoever none so I mean imagine that imagine going I'm going to be desperately unhappy so I can do something great. But actually, you suck so bad that you have no idea how bad you suck. And you're suffering for no reason. You'd be better off just taking the tablet. So there's that. Excuse me. Heavy is the head that wears the crown. I don't know. Man. I don't know.

Man, I don't know. It's too much. Too much going on in your life. So much with ADHD and God and suffering. I would say if you, I mean, I don't think speed would take, I'm not a doctor. Speaking real off the cuff here, I don't think taking ADHD medication would impair your ability to suffer. It might just stop you suffering in certain ways that you suffer now. And if you want to suffer more, to contact God better.

There's a lot of ways you can suffer. There are so many ways you can suffer. So many more constructive and interesting ways that you can suffer. Rather than just being hopelessly disorganized and disoriented in a regulated world. That's it. It would sound from that advice like I was saying, I hear what you're saying.

I'm the same as you. Go and get on the drugs. But I'm absolutely not going to get on the drugs at the moment. I'm not going to find out if I got a proper diagnosis when I was a kid. I'm not doing it. I'm just going to keep struggling. Hey, does that hurt the podcast because there's no video component this week?

Excuse me, this one's gone too deep to the core. Excuse me. Okay, last piece of advice, and also the end of the podcast, because we have an Eddie Guerrero song to get to, and I know the people are crying out for that. Dear James, this one is from a Protestant who's also in Denver. I think I have two Denver Protestants. I don't know if the other one was from Denver, but hello, Denver Protestants. Great to have you on board. Dear James, I am writing to you in the midst of a bout

of melancholic emotion. The turbulence in my soul stems from my urge to divert from my Protestant upbringing and convert to a more traditional form of Christianity, such as the Roman Catholic Church or Eastern Orthodoxy. Amen, brother. I am the youngest son of a Nazarene pastor. Nazarene is essentially Methodist.

No dancing. That's my caveat. I'm putting in there. James McCann. And I'm nervous about bringing up my thoughts about theology to my father because it is a strange predicament to be in that my spiritual advisor is also my father. And he might feel that this decision is my way of not only leaving his theological ideas behind, but leaving him behind as the leader of my family as a whole.

I am curious of your thoughts on the situation I find myself in, although I would love to hear if you gave any considerations to joining the Orthodox Church, and if so, why you chose Catholicism over it. Oh, happy to start with that one. Happy to start with the one that doesn't involve me passing judgment over you and your relationship with your father. Can we... That'll be a thorny one to unpick. Yes, I did once consider seriously joining the Orthodox Church just because I popped in. And I was in Melbourne.

I was away from home. I think, I mean, I'd had a beautiful community in Adelaide, the Latin Mass community in Adelaide I love. And it was wonderful spending so much time there. And I yearned to go back there again. But when I left there, I, yeah, I didn't feel, I wasn't vibing on the Melbourne traddy thing. For whatever reason, maybe I don't actually line up with the trad lifestyle all that well. There were some lovely people there.

They had, in many ways, a very nice church. And they had a lot of stuff that I did like. But I just didn't go, oh, this is my home forever. They had a lot of young men there. And I'd just come from a parish that was overwhelmingly young families. And we had a young family. So that would have been part of it um but in my sort of you know i wouldn't say i wasn't like i didn't go into the orthodox building thinking aha this is me entertaining leaving the catholic faith that i've been a part of for whatever it was at that point a year uh it was just it was there it was open music was coming out i'd never

seen it before i think there was a lady selling bread in the foyer i think so it was a greek orthodox thing i think or it was one of the orthodox whatever and i went in there and it was um sort of dusty there weren't people were standing and then there were like these funny wooden rests in the corner where you like people had to prop themselves up and then i remember the the priest he was doing the smells and the bells but it was one thing like they didn't have a bellboy and a thurible incense guy. It was both on one thing, the smells and the bells. And people were kissing icons and stuff, and the music was great. The Orthodox music is stellar, and it feels so much older than the Latin mass. I mean, if what you're looking for is something really old, yeah, it's old, brother.

Am I saying brother a lot in this podcast? Ese. Got to get people ready for that Eddie Guerrero song. Listen, ese. Hombre. Mi hermano. Yes, it's very old. But for me personally, it didn't feel like it was my tradition.

Whereas when I first went to the Latin Mass in Adelaide, man, it felt like going home. The Catholic Church felt like home to me. What I'm discussing here, I mean, there are obviously theological things as well. I can't get my head around the filioque difference between the Catholics and the Orthodox. It sure does sound to me scripturally, like Christ says, he will send for you a paraclete. He will send it. What is it to send something other than to have it proceed from? So even though it is an innovation, I don't see the problem with saying that the Holy Spirit proceeds also from the Son. I don't get it. I don't know enough about that. That just seems like that one doesn't keep me up at night. But the Orthodox thing feels Easternic feels asian feels like you know what i'm saying like it's it's

it's like those are notes in a scale that i don't register emotionally as anything other than a sound whereas western music i know what that chord means and I know how to feel when it goes to the next chord. And the clothes mean something to me, and it speaks to, you know, I'm deeply culturated into that thing. Inculturated is the term I think we would use. But basically, it's just to say that I was lonely. I didn't have a place that I was really thrilled about going to mass in melbourne and i saw this thing that was very beautiful and just for a just for a second i thought am i making a huge mistake and it's only an accident of birth and acquaintances that i've ended up with the catholics and actually obviously the the Orthodox thing is correct and good and true,

because look at it. I mean, they don't have crappy, groovy, thick, white pancake batter paint on the walls and a guitar out here. I mean, it's real, interesting, ancient liturgy going on. It's very easy to feel something spiritual. I felt that for a moment. And then I felt like an observer watching their thing. And I just wanted to go back home to my thing. And obviously that's the case for most people. I know there are converts from one to the other

and people who have intellectual reasons. I know people who have converted from one to the other. And I know someone who's converted from the other to one. It goes both ways. And you can think your way through it. But for a lot of people, I mean, clearly a lot of the people in Greece just become Greek Orthodox.

And a lot of the people in Italy just become Catholic. Or, you know, whatever it is that they're becoming in Italy nowadays. As for you, clearly you're, yeah, you're already thinking about leaving the, where you're at. I would say, look, I mean, what do you, here's the only reason you should adopt a new religion. There are many good reasons for staying in your own denomination

and your own religion. I think the only reason is because you become personally convinced that it's true. I understand the appeal of wanting to belong to something older

and that's maybe a good reason to start going to Mass and hanging out. But being around something older and traditional, whether it's the tradie Catholics or the Orthodox, it's not going to sustain you. The oldness of it is... You can go and become a Zoroastrian.

The oldness of it, the traditionalisticness of the thing is not really... I don't think it'll be enough to sustain you. I mean, find out what you believe. If you don't want to do it by reading, I guarantee you, you'll find a priest who's happy to argue with you about it. An Orthodox one and a Catholic one, if you like. And pray on it. Pray on it, think about it, wrestle with it.

Israel, one who wrestles with God. Jordan Peterson, that sort of thing. Do you know what I mean? I'm very sorry. This podcast has gone on for a long time. It's almost going on long enough to be a normal podcast by somebody else. I like the short, sharp, shiny podcasts. I'll say this about your relationship with your father.

It's good that you have your relationship with your father it's good that you have a relationship with your father um and it's good that you have a spiritual relationship with your father that's so nice a lot of people would be you know they would wish they had that in their lives that said i can see that uh there's also a bunch of other stuff going on. You know, like, yeah, that's your dad. He's got a lot of practical concerns. And within Christianity especially, you know, Christ comes to tear families apart. And the thing that your dad naturally wants for you is not necessarily... dad naturally wants for you is not necessarily... I mean, who from a materialist point of view

would actually want to raise their child to be a saint and have a difficult life and get martyred? Do you know what I mean? To actually pick up their cross. I'm not saying that no father would want that, but it does push back against a lot of the natural tenderness. And I think it's great that within the Catholic tradition, priests are not to sire children,

not merely so that they can be better priests to people who are not their children, but because with those responsibilities, I can see that that would put a weird relationship between the Father and the Son. As to your dad, I don't know. Man, that's your dad! I don't know enough about you and your dad. I think when Christ says, call no man father,

but your father in heaven, I would think what he's saying there is that your relationship with God has primacy over your relationship with your biological father. I don't think he's actually saying don't use the word father to talk about flesh and blood. He's saying that your real father is God, and you have to listen to that.

So you have to pray on it. You have to work on that in that regard. I don't want to cause division between a man and his boy. Do you understand? A Protestant in Denver. You see what a difficult situation you put me in. I would never come between a daddy and his boy. But I would also say, you're your own man.

And you've got to figure out where you're at. And obviously, I'm not a Protestant anymore. But, I mean, I was a Protestant. And my dad was a Protestant. And I was becoming a Catholic. I was being catechized. And I had like a number of weird talks with my dad about that. And for a lot of them, he acted like I was saying crazy things.

And in some of them, I was saying crazy things. And then the end result is that he—I mean, we both, within 24 hours, we were confirmed in the Catholic Church. So difficult conversations with your father could be good. But again, just, I mean, there's so much in you. That's my sweaty hair. Can you hear my sweaty hair? That's how much I'm willing to be here sweating it out for you.

I feel like Latino heat up in here Don't do it Eddie! Eddie don't do it! No Eddie no! No way! FOSFLASH! FOSFLASH! From the top of the cage! Who? FROGS! What the fuck did Eddie Guerrero capitalize? How much did the FOSFLASH take off Eddie Guerrero? It's a wrap. But the game is lost Lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost And you don't want to say, I did, because I'm here right now.

Day by day, by the grace of God, I have earned my way back into this ring, man. Day by day, by the grace of God, I have earned the respect of my kids again.