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Hobbes Englehart Interview

Hobbes is a guy of many experiences and interesting perspectives. He studied Photonics and worked at Miller's Professional Imaging for years before leaving it all to explore a more fulfilling existence. He then spent 5 years hitchhiking all over America before settling again here in the central MO area. He's my co-worker here at Shakes and works ridiculously hard. A dreadhead, fire breathing, fun, funny, and tell-it-like-it-is kind of guy. Ladies and Gents: Hobbes Englehart! Dream pizza: anything with Green Olives. Lot's of green olives.

Recorded on 2016-02-02

Speakers: Joseph Weidinger and Hobbes Englehart

What? Hobbs was the best thing. What is the best thing for a human being? Happiness, happiness. Hands down because you can do anything you want. But if you're not happy doing it, it just makes it shit. Yeah, like happiness is the best thing for human good. What is your favorite form of information? What? Probably a world I like hearing someone, you know, talk and explain something. They're, you know, own personal.

Take on it. The voice inflection. You know, you actually get a sense of emotion versus reading something or just watching something. Why do you think human beings collect or gathering to pass on the entire point of no gathering information in any form? Besides, you know mentally is to pass it on and even mentally, you know, you pass it on to your kids or the next person down the road. I like that answer.

And is this need or want to collect information learned or hard wired, hard wired, hardwired that's, you know, the standard teach here young thing. Howto, you know, survive its life when you die, you know, and the more information you give it while it's young, the more it'll have, so the more it can pass on so everything survives a little nicer in a little better. That's good. Everything survives a little nicer and better.

It's kinda like trying to make it easier for the next generation. Or that's I remember talking my dad a long time ago or and maybe using my Dower is an oak or something. But it's just just tryingto make life easier for my kids and my kids to make life easier for the kids. And it's like the whole human evolution, which is like good and bad, I guess. But yeah, it's got its perks, you know, but to to appoint eventually, you know, if you make it too easy for the next generation, then they just get lazy and lethargic.

But when I really kind of think that's one of the directions humanity has been going lately is just things are too easy. So there's no need to strive. Try for anything. Yeah, I grew up. What is your earliest memory? It really is a memory. Okay, Well, I'm pretty sure a day, so I'm not home center if it's a full memory because I've got a, like a picture associating with, um I'll get him, like, three or four on DH.

I'm wearing this like green cover rolls. And my little sister had these, like, pink, you know, sunglasses. And my mom put them on, and my grandma snapped a picture of me with him on, and I've just got this huge frowny face. I'm just so disappointed with these pink sunglasses. I remember, Like getting them. And just like I did not want these fucking pigs on glasses for anything. I don't know why. Yeah, I think that's one of my, like, earliest memories is just being at my grandma's house with my family.

Inman Misery? No, In Arizona, where you're originally from? Yeah, I'm originally from Tucson. Two or three hours north of the border, huh? I do? Is that my microphone? I'm still hearing your microphone. Yeah, that's weird. It's totally Khun Year in both ears. Yeah. Please have a loose wire. Yeah, for some reason, it always is. This person walking by. It's like my right. Just, like, faded out. Just stopping him like that.

What you do. You know some reason anyway. And so do you have a photo of that by chance? I do. I have several. Like my grandma. She was picture intensive. She took more photos of us when we were like, small children than I've gotten. My brother has to my life, probably. My grandma was big in the picture is my you know, Mom and dad, they're not that big. And the cameras and shit my mom doesn't do anything technical like technology is just beyond her.

Which is irony, because ironic, because she raised a son that would later work at a photo lab. Oh, yeah. And even like my grandma, even like she, she's, you know, a tech wizard. She, you know, gets on these like tech logs and, like, you know, she she actually got, you know, like high speed Internet. When it first came out, she was, you know, doing all sorts of, you know, digital cameras and digital printers.

And, like, anything, you know, she's got all sorts of techy shit. You know? She got an iPad and iPhone, you know? I mean, I'm like, good God caramels got more tech that ideo I saw you online, the other on a well. I was drawing some emoticons and pain in the nineties. Um, so his memory more do you think a curse or more blessing? I consider it a blessing, because even if you remember bad things and whatnot, it's still a positive because you can at least remember those things.

Learn from those things and make yourself, you know, a better person or just not repeat those mistakes or, you know, like that gives you an insight into how and why you do the things you do. So you could, you know, trained like be the person you want to be instead of being the poorest person that you think you might be forced to be by your upbringing, your experiences. So do you look for bad memories?

Is opportunity for either improvement or to find something good and you're always looking two to turn? I know this is a theme turn a breakdown into breakthrough. That's the words that I used. But for every you see it as opportunity, everything's opportunity, even if it might be thought of as bad in the moment or something like that. Yeah, I mean, even some of you know, my worst memories, you know, were like, you know, traumatic experiences or bad experiences, I can still look back on those and be like, man like that might have been a really horrible time, and I might have really suffered through that.

But it's made me stronger as a person. I'm smarter as a person. And I know now you know the sorts of things to either avoid or how to handle that kind of situation. You know, something like that. Good. Um Who were your earliest role models within your immediate family? And how did they specifically influence or affect you, please? Right? No, my immediate family. Probably my Uncle Pole. Um, he is an ex marine engineer.

He's amazingly intelligent. The guy can compute numbers in his head that you can't do with a calculator. Like, I remember one time we were at a a fast food joint and calculated the sales tax on our order and found out that they were actually rounding up even if it was a one point one point two instead of rounding down like they're legally supposed to. And they were jumping us like a whole two cents on a thirty dollar order.

And he threw a fit about it, and they, like, broke out a calculator, couldn't figure it out. Then they had to break out a full of, like, computing calculator and finally figured it out. And they were just like, OK, what do you want us to do? And he was like, I don't want to do anything. I don't want free food or anything. Like I just want you to know that you are dipping your customers in your favor. Ball Blondie was just like, you know, ever since then, I I have sort of, you know, like I've always known him to be extremely intelligent.

But he's also like he's worked construction and all this. And he's a very physical jobs. But he's also only got one leg. Yeah, so, like even though he's only got one leg because of being a Marine, Yeah, and he's never He's never like if you if you saw him doing stuff, you'd never know him to have one leg, you know, like, you see, he's got a limp, but, yeah, he can do anything. Mean Guy used to do like, scaffolding on roofs and stuff.

I mean, climb a building with one family guy, you know, pretty amazing individual. And he's like you said Handy and quick and smart and all those things combined, you know, fast thinker. Yeah, yeah. Super intelligent guy. And you know, well, actually, just about everyone in my family is like my dad's, you know, mechanical genius. He could take anything apart with just by looking at it, you know, figure out how to put it back together.

And then my other uncle, Uncle Gene, he's a nuclear engineer right now. I mean, yeah, intelligence kind of runs in my family in it. It's a quality I admire. I enjoy, You know, the intelligence and others. Good. No. Were you raised a particular religion? No, I do remember when? When we lived in Tucson. Although up until I was like, maybe four five, my mom went to a Catholic. Church. You know, maybe a Sunday A month.

But my dad, he's never He's never shown any interest in any kind of religion, and I was never brought up in any religious sense. You know, we never said Grace, so I never went to church. Wasn't until I was probably about twelve or thirteen that I was meeting friends who were religious and asking me questions about shit. And I was like, I got no fucking idea. What? Who is this Jesus character? You know, I mean, I heard the names and whatnot, but I had no idea of any other stuff.

So it wouldn't until then that I actually like, picked up a Bible and read it multiple times and started making my own, you know, ascertain shins on religion itself that actually spawned really good, like, four or five years worth of, like, serious, in depth study of religion, religion generally. Oh, in all religions. Yeah, I've studied, You know, everyone's many that you care to be interested. Uh, as many as you care to be interested.

I mean, like a I will study every single religion on the faces. No, I mean, I You know, I obviously like, looked into some of the first religions just cause I was like, Okay, well, you know this, this crazy idea, you know, I find it interesting that strange that human beings came up with these ideas or, you know, were handed these ideas, or however you want to look at it. And so I, like, researched a lot of things, you know?

And then, like just a general overview of the cultures of the world and all the religions that sort of came out of those, you know, got a good, like, general knowledge of religions. And, you know, if you name one, I've probably heard of it. I could probably tell you stuff about it. So did you ever one time, though, like, consider yourself a particular believer in any religion. Like you went through a period for a year, were like, oh, read the Bible every day, and I went to church for anything like that.

Yeah, yeah. Like said when I was about thirteen, I was meeting friends who were very religious on, you know? So I actually started going to a church. It was a non denominational church, and it was it was quite inviting it was, You know, all the people were very welcoming. You and I was listening to the Scripture the creature was talking about was all great and wonderful, you know, good to hear, you know.

But as as I started, you know, reading in further and further to all these others, my opinions of different marriage and shifted and changed. And, you know, I kind of went from the idea of, like, you know, Christianity, Teo Narcissism, which is a branch of Christianity, which sort of formulates the idea that when Jesus said we're all God's children, he meant that s o the sort of, like, you know, powers that Jesus had.

So, like Jesus was a son, the son of God. But so are we to Yeah, And so, you know, Judases abilities to, like, walk on water, you know, turn water into wine. All these sorts of things. Those were those were gifts of God because, you know, on all humans had those gifts, they just had to know how to, you know, perform those sorts of miracles, healing the sick and all this, which is, I think, where, you know, like things like faith healers and all that sort of came from.

There were people who, like, sort of unlock additional powers through faith. And then I kind of drifted away from that. Checked out. Some of the more Eastern religions, you know, do booted from those sorts of things. And those also didn't quite fit. You know, I looked into the Aztec religions, you know, Stop. Those are interesting as hell. Crazy but interesting in more local. Yeah, a little more local to my to my spots.

And then, uh, the religion that I finally settled on eyes. Actually, the Egyptian paid. I follow the city in religion. Still, to this day, to this day, I'm a card carrying member of the Temple of Set. No way. Do the card with you as I do know my son. The temple of set the spell that Oh, my God. You swipe this somewhere? Yeah, I could go to the temple in San Francisco, swiped that gain entry. While that's wicked on it makes the most sense.

It's not necessarily about having a deity or, you know, giving oneself over to the power of a of another being, so to speak. But you know, you as you go about your life, you can, you know, ask favors of these these deities, you know, and they'll help you or they won't. You know, it depends on whether or not you have kept up with principles that they owner hand. So the Egyptian faith is very interesting in that sense that you acknowledge that all of those gods exist.

But you have these primary deities that you need to you need for certain situations. Like the minor deity. Conso is actually my my secondary primary or secondary deity. He's a protector of travelers and a protector of children. And I've always thought of myself as you know, this childish traveler who just goes about doing things. So, you know, he speaks to you. Yeah. In keeping with his ideals, I think I keep a little bit of his, uh, no protection and oversight on me when needed.

Meat is it sounds similar to the idea that Catholics, and like saints and patron saints and bring the Saints for guidance or protection or come in enlightenment or of things. So it sounds initially like, Oh, that's far out. But it's it's it's home for me and released with something things that I don't know. Yeah, I do. Actually, when I travel as well, I do carry a St Christopher medal because my mom actually gave it to me one year when I first started traveling, and she was like, You know, I know you don't believing it, necessarily, but I do.

And I'd like you, Teo. At least keep this close to you. And so I do, er aan die. You know, I like that idea. But, you know, I may not be of that faith, but that faith is still looking out right? And if not the faith. At least your mother. Yes, worrying. And though there's maybe there's something about it. A mother's worry. That is extra layer of protection. I like to think so. So speaking about your traveling experiences.

What? And this was almost probably six or seven years ago that you initially went on this voyage, if you will. But do you remember the day that you in for five years you've traveled right are roughly five years. Yeah, about about five years. And do you remember the day that you packed up and left the first time? I do. What, were you at home? No, I, uh So at that point in time, I was already homeless, and I've been staying with, you know, friends on and off kind of couch crashing.

And I had been friends with this lady who has traveled a lot when she was younger. And, you know, Wayne, I talked a lot about it. It's like, Okay, you know, like, there's all these places I want to see. You know, like, I'm not doing well here anyway. And you know, if nothing else, I'll go back to Tucson and, you know, you see my family and, you know, I'd be a good opportunity to do that. Give me all this worldly experience, and so I have.

I still have the original backpack that I started out in on. I've actually got a picture of myself on Facebook of that day that morning. We woke up way, made a big ass breakfast. I packed my bag, rolled up my my blanket and stuffed it, you know, through the top of a pole in my bag. And I should drop me off at, uh, midway. And you know what? Mr. Dumpster found some cardboard, Got out my Sharpie and I made a sign going west on DH.

Yeah. Started pretty. Pretty interesting. Yeah. So the signs and you said this before to me. But signs have been so you the most effective way of communicating with people, you know, in this light swirl of of society, in, in, in getting people to help you get where you want. Signs are like the most, as opposed to, you know, a thumb or going up to someone you know, in person. Maybe I don't even know. But yeah.

So I like to call it flying a sign, you know, typically do that, you know, right at the start of an on ramp. And I like to make him big on DH sort in st, you know, either just a direction city or, you know, half the time I wasn't even flying. Something with pressure. Anything just you know, say something like smile, smile more, you know, travelin further, you know, just cute little ideas. So no sentences?

No, I always just like a word or two words. Yeah, because if it's if it's too long than like, you know, like as people are, you know, turning onto the ramp, they'll see you that will do a quick bit of judgment. And then the possibly read the sign. And if it's too long, then they're not gonna have enough time to read the sign. Think about it and decided to pull over. They're just going to, you know, already be going.

And once already passed through there. There typically going keep on going. Right. So you want him to read the sign, make a snap judgment and decided? Well, okay, you're like, I'm going that direction. Okay, right. So it gives them that, that chance Time so. But as for approaching people that that does work on occasion, more so with truckers. So, you know, if you're a big truck stop, you can go to where the light truck entrances, you know, So there's typically entrance for, like, the cars and typical pedestrians, truck drivers.

And you know if you just say like, you know, do you happen to be going West, Jeremy going east? You know, if if their company driver typically their insurance doesn't allow another driver in the vehicle with another passenger in the vehicle, Just only them in the vehicle any time. So they can't help you out even if I wanted to. But independent drivers, you know, they'll sit there and talk with you for a bit.

Get to know you. Because that truck for truck drivers, that truck is their livelihood. That is your job. That's their truck, too, right? I mean, yeah, Typically that is their own thing. And or they're paying on it. And those things were horrifically expensive. They want it. They want to get to talk to you. Get to know you a little bit before they let you in the truck. It's pretty rare that truck driver would stop on a ramp and pick you up because, you know, they really do want to get to know you.

They want to know they can bring you into their home. Their livelihood. Right? Five days a week, right? Yeah. Cool. And when you were travelling, what worried you the most. It was a constant sort of primary worry. Fire. At first, it wass whether or not I would be stranded, you know, hundreds of miles from anyone and anything I knew with no friendly faces to help me and literally, just, you know, starving to death and dying somewhere.

That was initially a big worry. And then, after about a month, I realized that that was never going to happen. Because even if I'd been stuck in a ramp for, you know, a couple of days, I could always walk the highway and get to either another ramp or someone would, you know, stop and pick you up on the highway. And and even like police officers, have actually been incredibly helpful in that as well. Like you say, you're not legally allowed to hitchhike.

Well, you know, they're not necessarily going to arrest you because you're homeless. So you're not gonna pay any? Take it. You're not going to pay a fine. They know that. So what they'll do is they'll either tell youto leaves, which, at that point, you walked the outside of the highway and try and get away from there where they don't have to come back at you again. Or though, you know, Pat you down, run your name, make sure you don't have any Warren's.

And then, you know, put on, put you in the back of the car, put all your stuff back there and drive you down the road some ways, just to, you know, help you out. Yeah, they they want to help you out, Especially if there's there's no easy way in the system to take care of you like giving a ticket is taking care of someone you know, as in okay, now I'm done with this person. You don't have to deal with this person where he's getting tickets.

Going, pay the ticket. I did my job. Time to go on. But if you can't conform to that mold, then he has to be creative. And generally, in this creativity, being a genuine help is something that comes in their mind. Yeah, actually, one of the one of the funniest kind of incidents that I had happened was one time I was hitchhiking in Kansas. That was way out on the west side in your Selena and a cop, you know, told me like a, you know, like, hitchhiking is illegal here.

So, you know, he was like, I here's what we're gonna do. This was the first time that hasn't picked up my car. He patted me down. You'll make sure I had no weapons on which I do carry a large knife on my hip, but it isn't a sheath. And it's, you know, publicly viewable. So it's not illegal. It doesn't have a concealed weapon. Right? So he made me put that on my back pack with my backpack in his trunk on, then ran my name, make sure he had no warrants that I didn't.

So then who drove me to the county line, Which was a good, you know, sixty, eighty miles. So we had a lot of time to talk. You got to know him. And he'd, like, radioed ahead to another officer in that county. Let him new let him know that, Like, hey, you know, I got this guy. Well, they brought an officer to the county line, Picked me up, drove me to their county line is like, another hundred. Yeah, And so I literally got rides from police officers at every county line all the way into Kansas City, where I had a friend of mine waiting to pick me up because they actually one of them let me use their cell phone to call that person.

So I mean, that was incredibly helpful. But it was also like I knew they didn't want me in their county. They don't want me on their highway, right? And they didn't want to arrest me, even though it was highly illegal. So they just, you know, help me get further down the road, which is pretty cool. That is cool. So here's a question in our racially charged times. Um in your estimation, obviously, there's only so much perspective, but being basically of being a white male, uh, do you think that all the interactions that you have with police officers would have went different ways?

Or Or maybe you've been with friends, travelers that were black and had stories of of not exactly the same generosity. Do you have much to say about that, or do you not know? I I have trouble with quite a few, You know, colored individuals, and I have noticed in certain places, and maybe it was just that one. Copy that one time. But you have noticed some of them do get treated initially a little more harsh, you know?

Uh, yeah. When we're travelling, you know, like they'll ask us to lay down, you know, though, that you know, and then they'll pat us down instead of just like hate on line turning around. You know, they're much more formal. They're they're much more alert. And you know, I mean, in some of those areas like that, one of the places that that was was Atlanta, then I mean, like Atlanta's got gang violence out because, you know, stuff like that.

So I mean and, you know, my friend at the time, we both kind of understood on, So it was like, Okay, you know, if we're polite and follow what they say, right, you know, nothing that'll happen. But of course, like if if you want to be a jackass to a police officer, they could be, you know, three times worse because they don't have the authority to do so. So, you know, we only ever had actually the worst instance of, like, a cop being, you know, overly aggressive.

I was actually by myself, and, uh, I was in Wyoming. I was actually, like, I, uh I had just hopped off a train, and I was I was actually just walking down the sidewalk. I wasn't doing anything illegal. But, you know, I was clearly a dirty kid with a backpack, you know, covered. You know, I've got a big blanket attached to it. You know, I've got a ten hangout things was pretty clear that I was homeless, right?

Fans? You know, I, uh you know, you could tell from from the direction I was coming that I just, you know, come out of that train yard because there's nothing else in that area. You know, after that, it's four hundred miles of highway to the next city, so obviously didn't walk from there. So you know, I assumed he knew where he'd come from, but he had no proof on. So he pulls his car over onto the shoulder and gets out and immediately tells me to get down on the ground.

And, you know, he liked pats me down, Runs my name for Warren's. You know, he finds nothing. Nothing illegal, nothing out of the ordinary. And then who demands that? I opened up my backpack and jump out, pull up its contents, and I was like, I'm you know, I'm not doing anything wrong. Like why're you searching me? You know what the hell is going on? All right. He would give me no straight answer. He demanded that.

I do. All of this told me that I could very easily wind up in a back alley dead in his city and, like, literally threatened me. I was like, you know, holy shit. I had only been travelling for like, a month when this happens, I was I was pretty nervous, you know, I was like, Oh, shit like this is how it's gonna go. And so I, you know, I dump out my pack and he, like, rummages through literally everything I had unrolls all of my clothes, you know, like search.

It's everything he finds nothing, at least nothing out of the ordinary, nothing illegal. And so, you know, obviously, like, frustrated that you can't arrest me for anything. He tells me that I have ten minutes to put everything in my backpack or I won't make it out of this city and then tells me that I'm not welcome in his city and says that, you know, like to turn around and walk the other way and get the hell out of this town.

And I was just, like, a whole shit. I didn't even bother packing, like like I have a really specific way of packing my packs because everything has got a fit in their rights, like sixty pounds a year in a ten pound pack, you know? So I just, like, grabbed up most of it in my arms, through the pack on my back and took off pretty quickly in the other direction. But that was only the one of the worst experiences with an officer I've ever had.

A star is unjustified aggression. And now it is you with the knowledge and education through experience you would you the confrontation gold differently in terms of you'd be you demand things like you can't do this to you or something like that, Uh, I mean, or maybe it's still the same thing. And I mean, if he you know, if if the interactions had gone, you know exactly the same way I might have reacted a little more aggressively myself.

You know, just like pain are like, This is unacceptable behavior. I've done nothing wrong, ball, Bob. But I mean, when you're when you're staring at, you know, and armed individual, I mean, the guy's got a gun, He's got a Taser. You know, he's got a badge that says he can use those without anyway, you know, So it, uh it is extremely intimidating to try and tell this guy like, Hey, you know, like, I have rights.

I know these rights. You can't do this because then he says, Well, if you think I can't let me show you what I can and so that point it becomes a pissing contest with you, I couldn't have one. So you know, I my best course of action has always been like, you know, politeness. Just trying to interact with them is a normal human being, like they're just a human being, got a job trying to get it done and go home, you know?

And they just don't want to deal with some jackass kid. And I knew that, so I don't know if I would have reacted too much differently, but I probably would have, at least, you know, been less nervous and been not necessarily more polite, but more understanding with the way he waas right, Because that's that's probably the one thing that my travelling has taught me is just like understanding the human that you're interacting with, even if they are extremely aggressive for him.

Polite, you know, cause I I realize I know what I look like and it's not the picture of Model Citizen So it does make you know it does make for interactions that air a little off the off the rails. Right? But you dealt with that for years now. So like you said you'd be, if nothing else is more common. Yeah. More calm and understanding. Nervous about those of what? So we're some common meals? Uh, for you. Great.

Oh, my God. Um, McDonald's, everyone. Everyone who picks you up last you, you know. Have you eaten recently? Well, you know, ninety percent of them will ask you, You being recently in your life. Well, I've got kens of ravioli spam and, you know, soup and shit in my bag. You know, they're like, Oh, God. Well, let's get you a hot meal. You know, a lot of people there super generous that they will happily give you a hot.

And, you know, unfortunately, most of what's real close to a highway is McDonald's. Everyone, I won't lie. I do not make the hundreds of less I packed. I cannot. So you know, when they give me options, I'm like, Oh, man, anything but McDonald's. All right, there's a Berber thing right there. Yeah, that's good. Enough of right it was that? Did that surprise you? The generosity of people. And if so or did you expect it?

But if it was surprising, was the most surprising thing. Thank you. Discover, Um, Yes, Thie amount of generosity that was given to me as I travelled Wass amazingly surprising and at times overwhelming. Yeah, in fact. So right. One of my first, like weeks of travelling, I had made it to Denver, Colorado, and I was trying to get to a T which is north of that in saying Wyoming. Because I know that hitchhiking I seventy is actually pretty difficult, or at least less preferred than eighty now, which is just north.

I eighty runs from Omaha, Nebraska, to San Fransisco, California and San Francisco was the city I was trying to end up in. I actually had a friend who lived out there and was She actually lives here in Missouri, but she was You're going to college here, and she was going back there for the summer, so Oh, well, hey, I've got a chance to hang out with you, help you there. And so, you know, I was I was going north on twenty five out of Denver to Cheyenne, Wyoming, which is where I eighty intersect.

And I had three days of no rides. So every day after standing on a ram from the rides at night, I would walk several miles to the next ramp campout, would you? When you're on these ramps, you mean like three days of no rise. Three days of staying on ramp, trying to get a ride. Okay. Yeah, I would. Pretty much I start around, like, eight or nine in the morning when I woke up because someone would wake me up.

Because when I first start traveling, I didn't actually have a tent. I only had a tarp and a real nice. What wouldn't even really that nice? There's just a blanket. So, you know, morning would wake me up inside, and I stand on the ramp from about eight or nine in the morning until about seven or eight at night. You know, good. Twelve hours of standing there, you know, occasionally running off. Teo, you know, woods to go to the bathroom, or you running into a a gas station or something to get a drink or food or something, and sometimes not just literally standing there for twelve.

Got them hours, No other option time. So now, after three days of that and you know, and then course, like walking for for several miles, trying to get to the next ramp at night, you know, I get four hours of sleep and really started take a toll on me. I was sunburnt, I was tired, and, uh, on the fourth day, I had gotten no rides and I was getting really fed up. Really Just tired beat. So I walked over to a McDonald's.

I had, like, a couple dollars and change. So I bought a giant audio. Sweet cheeks are dollars on. I was just sitting there drinking it, just like I had all my shit in the booth with me. And I had my head down, just like it was just really at a low point, and some guy walks over and he's just like, you know, hey, I don't know what's going on. I see you need help. So, you know, here's five bucks go get yourself something to eat.

And it was it was an overwhelming sense of like, my my sense of gratitude was overwhelming. I just started crying right there. Really? Yeah, I won't lie. I started crying, you know, And I like just trying, like, thank the guy. And he was, you know, he was just like, no worries, no worries, you know, you know, give me a pat on the back on sat with this family and, you know, like his family. What are you doing?

What's right? Yeah, and I just I couldn't help it, You know, I just sat there and cried for a minute, you know, just kind of got that out. I was like, That was That was that moment where I was, like, I could do this, you know, like I'm tougher than this. That's the sort of thing that would get me through on ever since then. I had that sort of a surety that it may not happen today, but it'll happen. I'll get there.

I'll do what I need to do. Well, that's really powerful. I really like that story, and that was probably one of the first with that happened within the first month or so. Yeah, that was the first week that was like So when I when I first hitched out, I got driven to. Omaha, Nebraska. That was like, my first day on this guy let me sleep in his house, gave me a meal. So, I mean, I had no real hardship there.

Hey, gave me a Wal Mart bag of canned goods, you know? So, I mean, I had stuff to eat for the next several days, and he dropped me off at a rest stop that night, that that next morning. And then a guy who was a car salesman had picked up a car on. So he was driving this car, you know, all the way. You know what it was like He was driving like, six hundred miles and wanted someone Teo help keep him away because he'd been awake all night, right?

So he and I talked and drove all the way into Denver. So that, like, first three days of my my hitchhiking wass me just sitting in a car with someone else. Yeah, you know, so there was no real hardship there, and then it wasn't until I started walking north on I twenty five. But I really started to hit that initial hardship and realize how difficult it could get right, And so that was you know, that moment where that guy helped me out, and so is, you know, I've got to see how good it could be right off the bat and then how bad it could be right off, right?

Right. So there's a whole lot of things fortune and misfortune. Cool. So I would also talk about, uh what do you do it? You can't flow art. Is that what you call it? Yeah. Yeah, I call it the Floor Arts. Did you pick that up along your travels? You know, I've been I had been professionally fire breathing sense. Oh, six. Okay. So way before. Yeah, way before and then I'd been professionally double staffing since two thousand eight.

I did use, you know, double staffing, especially actually, I took a pair of double stands with me on the road. I used those to busk says, you know, doing some sort of skill on a street corner, you know, with tip jar trying to get someone to and was that relatively successful? Um, I can get you what you needed. No, uh, oddly enough, that was less successful than simply just asking for money. Really? I don't know if if the either I wasn't that great to, you know, some people's opinions or in my life, but I really think it was.

It's just sort of a strange skill set S o people see it. They're very amazed. I think it's really cool, but they're not always receptive to the idea. And it's not like someone playing music, right? Which is the typical idea of, you know, a person on a street corner playing music are given some money. Me doing this, you know, crazy, you know, a sort of dance with, you know, these stabs is is much more obscure.

So they weren't even though I had a very fuzzy yellow black print cheetah hat with a big cardboard science, sex tips. You know that. I'm not sure they were always a hundred percent sure right. What to do about it? There were certain cities where that was more successful. San Francisco, Seattle L. A. Austin, Texas. You know, like those cities where I think is just huge populations and probably more of that going on Las Vegas.

Las Vegas was amazing for that. Really? Yeah. You spent a lot time there. I spent a good week in Vegas. It was an interesting city. A little too much. Yeah, it's out middle of nowhere. It's like it's flying over it. And it's just like I can't believe they're city out here. There should not be a city out here. There should be nothing there. There's nothing there. There's no reason why that should exist. Yeah, is its own little little paradise of shenanigans.

So? So when you're doing your double stabbing, that's what you call it? Yeah, in your, uh, you're you're spending their sticks long sticks that year's spinning and doing things with your hands and arms. Basically, they're too. I use three footers. So two, three foot stabs and yeah, it's you think about time, basically. It's a It's a little bit longer than a baton, a little bit thicker than you know, something you might expect.

And movements are considerably different. In fact, I got a video. Yeah. And their spirt, and they're on fire. I believe this one has fire. Why? I mean, just like double stabbing in general floor. Obviously, perspire involved is another difference than a baton. Yeah. Yeah, for four fire heads there, I used one inch week, so it's one inch thick. You know, thickness. Actually, it kind of looks like this. Mike, it's about that big on.

Then. Of course, the fire is, you know, this big around and you feel like, what? That thing down, right? Or does it have, like, some internal life long lasting thing that these were placed? Everyone know I soak it down with fuel, Um, on DH it soaks it up. Yeah, it soaks it up. True. I don't. So I got a new phone not long ago. So I don't actually have any videos on this phone. No, but, you know, I could play something from Facebook or something.

Yeah, I also want to see it. I'm also going toe Facebook stalk. You find that photo of you even I think that I can pull that up. That one's not too far down my stuff. I'm so I guess a part of the surprise that you have a Facebook account. Yeah, actually. So funny enough. I never had a facebook. I thought it was a dumb idea. I'm old enough to remember when it was strictly a college thing like that. When I was in college, it was only available to college students on, you know, I didn't like it then.

I never had one. And so I recycle. This is stupid on. So I didn't get one until I actually went traveling, because then it was an extremely useful way to keep track of people in all major cities all across the country without having to use phone minutes and, you know, Internet time in, like, a shop. I could just, you know, I didn't have to have a laptop or anything. I just pull this shit up on my phone, which was really useful.

If I was ever lost out in the middle of nowhere could be like, you know, like I know you're near this city. You know, I don't have any friends that pick me up and everyone checks their Facebook, so it's Yeah, it's the best way to get a hold of anyone ever And when you say college, you mean that. All right, you went through some a tree program or some intensive learning with light here. That is like, Yeah, that is me.

Day one, literally sitting waiting for my first ride. That's great. No Gerets, no dreads, no dreads. Top says he's out. You know what that means? Yeah, I'm out. I'm out of here. Yeah, that was my first. They going Wow. It's good for your abs. Yeah, right. You look super stoked. Kind of. I was. I was nervous as hell, but still on the ship. Men, let's see here. This's a speech. Later that month, I get I got to the beach at That was Santa Cruz right there at the Santa Cruz boardwalk.

You look bigger here than you are now. Is that cheerful? Probably true, because I mean, I was packing around eighty pounds worth of gear, so I mean, I was I was pretty built up. Yeah, on walking six, eight hours a day. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I wasn't sitting ever. Hardly. You know, when I was walking with huge amounts of gear and then, of course, picking it up and down, carrying all that stuff. Yeah. You know, being on the road makes a big because you've gotto carry your house.

Yeah. Imagine carrying everything he owned makes you a pretty big one. They're young. Yeah, there's there's me flying to sign, smile more, smile more. And that was a really long sign. Yeah, that was my one of my favorite sign because, you know, there I wass homeless telling all these people who had cars and jobs and all this stuff to smile more because at one point in time, I noticed every every car that passed me.

They all looked so depressed. Everyone I saw for, you know, eight hundred miles was depressed, and I was like, There's no way this entire state is just depression. State like this is not the Depression state. What the hell? And so, yeah, I started flying that and I noticed almost immediately that even if they didn't stop, people would smile. They would wave. Do you think people tryto act depressed when they see some guy on the side of the road like asking for money or something like, Oh, I'm sad, You know, our Yeah.

Or they looked not sad, but we're not not discuss what's the right word here? I am frustrated or like they put on a look when gap for that moment that you see it. Yeah, I think I think they do try and do that. You know, it was like they realise that you're down in the dumps or potentially down in the dumps, you know, because that is sort of the typical homeless appearance is depression they don't like.

Oh, well, I I've got these problems out me out, and that wasn't what I tried to do. I never flew a sign or said anything of the sort that Wass, you know, like, Oh, you know, like, I'm homeless, I'm broke. God help me. You know, like I didn't I didn't ever want do that, because I noticed, you know, people don't respond to that sort of thing very well. And I personally wasn't actually ever that depressed.

In fact, you know, during that time, I was probably happier than I'd ever been. Right, You know, I mean, I was having a great time doing what I wanted to do, seeing places I wanted to see, you know, and living off the generosity of others. I wanted to show how grateful I was every day to be alive, right? And so I don't fly signs like that. The smile more on I I noticed, you know, as I'd smile and wave and, you know, be sort of a goofball.

People responded to that all better. You know, they'd smile and wave or, you know, pull open like a I don't I don't really want to give you a ride. I don't know you, but, you know, here's a dollar. Here's five dollars, you know, little things like that. And just those. Those little moments of seeing another person smile back at you. It really, really helps your day. Sometimes when we were like, yeah, I've been standing here for, you know, three days and I haven't eaten, too.

And you just see another person smile at you and wave and you're like, All right, you know, at least at least at least they care or at least want to, you know, show you a smile and it's nice. Wow, that's intense. What's the longest you ever went without food? No. The longest they ever wind was probably four or five days. But to be fair, I wasn't in a It wasn't in a position to receive any sort of generosity from another person.

Me in about thirty people. We're out camping very far from civilization. We're actually in a national forest, so you know, traffic within the thing on DH, we had, like, hike dinner. Good. Like, thirty forty miles. Way off. Yeah, way off grid way were thirty, forty miles. Just say from the road. And then we were another good, like ten miles from any major road. Everything was gravel road that we had to come in on on.

So, you know, we've hiked in and what we're actually doing. We just were hot spring jumping up in Idaho. Utah. That means s O hot spring jumping Esso in northern Utah, Idaho, Montana, western or eastern Oregon, Eastern Washington. There's a boatload of hot springs all over the Rocky Mountains so we would spend well, we spent a grand total of about a month hitchhiking and traveling to all these different huts.

You in this group, like traveling together? Some of them we met along the way some of them dropped off. So I mean, at our high point, we had about thirty people with us, you know, any given day, you know, there was five to eight of us, and most right, and we were just, you know, we don't so, you know, obviously you can't hitchhike eight to thirty people, right? So, you know, we don't travel in different little bunches.

Impacts gettinto wherever we wanted to go, so we don't split up, meet again somewhere. You know, we have, like, rough ideas where we're trying to get Teo, You know? So that was a lot of fun. Way basically had packed in way had a boat, loads of food and shit. And so we would occasionally, like, pack in somewhere will fall head bullets, food initially, Yeah, way thought we had planned well, but, you know, as we you know, So we get off the main roads and hike in packing and, you know, camp out for two, three days, and then it's like, off it What do you got left for?

Food? You got nothing you got going there last night. All right. Well, you know, so those moments where it's like you thought someone else had all the food or are, you know, sometimes bear bear get such it Really? Yeah. That that happened once, You know, we didn't thank God. No one was, like, ever injured or anything, but yeah, you know, one day we had a a bear, all of our shit, and we were good, like, three days from anywhere.

It was like, Oh, man, we've got a long walk ahead of us now, right? And so, yeah, that's That was a fun fun time. Please survive, But for five days in this when you're with the group, but but declared by hot spring jumping, you're basically in the national force, or they're these natural, naturally occurring hot springs in your swimming or something. Yeah, so you can like, there's there's actually, when you when you get to like a commercial hot spring, they have a book and that they're these huge books they own their almost every there pretty much every commercial hot spring.

So with commercial ones, you know, you can pay anywhere from, like, two dollars to ten dollars. And you basically just get to, like, hang out in these sort of like they're naturally occurring hot springs, but they're built up, you know? They put concrete and whatnot, make it look more like a pool. But they're amazing, you know? And some of them have specific, like mineral contents. So actually, funny thing.

Thie antidepression drugs. Prozac has lithium, innit? That's like its active ingredient to make people not pressed well, this hot spring. I forget what it's called. I believe it's crystal spring up in a southern Idaho. It has the highest mineral content of lithium by, like, you know, several million parts per million of any other hot spring in the world. And they found that native peoples I would sit in that and be happier.

So they started research wine. That's a sure Prozac came from was hot spring, so we checked it out on, you know, it was great. You know, we spent a day just playing around these hot springs and slashing each other swimming and whatnot on Then we found the book and, you know, started looking through this book and we got them to xerox us off the entire Idaho, uh, couple of pages. They as in the employees of this park.

Yeah. Yeah. And so that had every commercial hot spring and every known natural occurring hot spring on DSO, you know, And then, of course, there's, like, you know, stories from all the employees past around thiss one that's so perfect. You know, you just travel this mountain path off this one highway. God knows where and we're like. All right, Wait, What do I got to do today? Nothing. All right, Let's go walk on.

So, yeah, that was what we did for a month. So you just went around in satin hot springs? Wow. Every Sounds like a good time. Yeah, it was fantastic. That was That was amazing. I think that was also probably some of the most beautiful landscaping I had ever been in. In fact, like if you ever go travelling over, you don't want to go see something amazingly beautiful Hunt down the lolo hot springs. Lo lo L O l O Hot Springs.

It's about two or three hours from Missoula, Montana, into Idaho. Missoula, Montana. Yeah, like I got asked. Yeah, you travel the I ninety into Idaho off of Missoula, and then, you know it's there's so As you're like winding through this, you know, Valli. In Idaho, there's just a little sign that says, like Lolo Hot Springs. And so you pull off. There's actually like a little shoulder turn off where you know you can kind of parked cars along the side of the road.

And there's a little suspension bridge that leads you across the giant raging river and you make a right and then you go down about a mile fish on DH. Then there's five total pools, and so one of them's like, right almost in the river on it's it's, you know, the coldest because it's also got river water for you. And then as you go up the mountain, they get hotter and hotter and hotter on. People have like you know the most.

As far as like, built up this hot spring is a couple of people have run. Mike Coz is from the top one down to the lowest one kind of filter out a little bit of the water, right to make that a little warmer, but yeah, that's that's it's, you know, real hidden. It's just amazingly beautiful. Probably the prettiest bit of scenery I've ever seen. This whole country loathe low lows. And how hot is that water?

Just out of curiosity, like otherwise, I believe the top one. It was like he couldn't actually sit in the top one without like it being wintertime or like bailing. So it's like a hot. It's literally hotter than hot point. Yeah, it was like a one hundred thirty degrees. Not stuff is like one hundred. One hundred eight is like, typically, the hottest of the hot tub would go, right? Yeah. Yes. This thing was you couldn't sit in it.

It would literally Skull D'Oh. Yeah, it was. But that is funny, because that is almost scalding tempura for likes calling chickens. I think it's one hundred forty. Something like that. Yeah, I remember you I mean, you No way did we tipped our hand in you and your skin. Come on, instantly read. You're a man. So, yeah, but, you know, so way, Actually, we're playing around a lot in the third. Third ones there's, like one of the top two and then progressively colder as you go down you go.

Yeah. And that that third one actually has. It was actually really big. It was probably a good, like ten to twenty feet across. And there was a giant boulder right in the center, which I'm not sure if that was purposeful place or if that was just like this one boulder of a certain rock type that wouldn't dissolve. But the As the hot spring bubbles up through the ground, it actually, like, breaks apart the ground around it.

So it makes it a gravelly It's, like almost like sand. So there's just this big ring of sand around this giant boulder, and the water is crystal clear and just nice and bath water warm. You know, it's probably about a hundred degrees in here, and this is off the grid like this is there's not a road going up to this No, it's not. People are. It isn't monitored much. No way did run into one other person wakes.

You spent three days camping low lows because, you know, we found it so beautiful. We all agree that was our favorite. So we spent a couple days later than initially anticipated. And, you know, one other person came on, then one day and then another day, you know, family came with a couple of kids, and that was That was Ada safaris. Like other people that we saw way never ran into park rangers or anything.

But there is a little sign there that says, you know what? Aloha springs. And there isn't a suspension bridge. That so you know that that area of the National Forest does have some, You know, construction built up in tourism. But you know nothing. Nothing like, you know, true commercialization. There's no one, no one around for houses. No, there's no houses anywhere for miles, right? You say it's not commercialized.

That's cool, that's cool. So here's some more questions I have, and I'm kind of interested in how relates to your traveling, but I think at Shakespeare's you're probably one of the hardest workers, obviously, with probably the most energy. Or it seems like you always have a lot of energy and is energy is something that you haven't natural, sort of naturally occurring in your body thiss energy. Or did you have this when you traveled or, um well, do you ever get exhausted?

Yeah. Yes, when I appreciate the compliment. And so, yeah, I get exhausted. Um, coffee. Okay. I love Cali. That that helps me through a lot of days. They're mostly just amped up all the time. I mean, you know, I enjoy working here, and so I put forth the effort to prove I enjoy working. No. I've been in the job fields for a long time, and I've been out of the job market for a long time, so I know with I guess I can.

I know that I could be pickier in in where I work, because I don't necessarily have to. I don't feel an obligation. So you know that if you want to, you could start traveling and you don't need a job, Teo. But also, yeah, and I think that gives me a lot of mental freedom. You know, just just knowing that I don't require it. I want it right. So it it gives me that drive to keep it. And so, you know, I work hard enough to do that, you know?

You know, and I want to show my appreciation for the job. A cz. Well, as you know, the time and money that it gives me the freedom. That right? So I think that's one of the reasons I work as hard as I do. Yeah, good. Um, second What's more important jobs, conviction or compromise, conviction or compromise? I mean, that that really depends on the situation, right? Because, you know, I mean, say, say you're in an argument.

You know, compromise Khun Khun, Truly be the better ups in there. But, you know, something like the Holocaust compromise is not an option. You know, you have to show the conviction of putting a stop to things like that. So yeah, I think knowing that knowing when each one of those is appropriate, so in their life, which one do you tend to choose more off? No. Maybe that's my question, right? That makes sense.

Conviction conviction is well, Hobbs wants to do. Yeah, I'm I'm, uh I'm a pretty self assured individual. What? I know, I know. I know, kind of thing. Um and so I my my thoughts, my beliefs, my ideals of you know everything from my my passions and my hobbies to my morals. I showed great conviction, those trying to stick to that sort of thing. You know, I don't I don't compromise your waiver on unsightly things like that.

There's a confidence. Yeah, I do have. I do have confidence, I'll say that much, I am quite confident. Is loyalty based on reason. I think so. I mean, you know, there is I do have loyalty to some friends who may not always show it back, but I have reason to be loyal to them. In fact, one of my greatest friends all time. David David Hetero. Come on. Uh, he is a person who has always been there for me in the little list of ways and even in some of the very big ways when I when I was with me in one of my exes split, you know, we've been living together and she kicked me out of the house, So I was like, All right, well, I'm gonna be homeless.

This sucks. That was back before I'd been homeless. I had no idea. I was pretty freaked out. And he welcome to me into his house without a question. And, you know, let me sleep on his couch while I got my my own place, you know? And he's he's been there for me since that day one. But, you know, in any way if I call him, I'm like a, you know, like, Could you give me a ride to the gas station? Gave me a ride to warm up.

You know, it doesn't matter. What if I need something? Even if you can't help me right, then I know that I can always count on him. Still to this day. To this day? Yeah. There. You know, he knows the same is true of him if he ever calls me. You know, whatever it is, I'll help him out. There's an understanding here. Yeah. And, you know, he has been one of the few friends who has shown me that unending friendship, even when you know, I was doing things that people didn't necessarily like, you know, when I first traveling, I was like, Oh, my God, you're going to die in a stupid way to do that.

You know, when he was, like, whatever dude like, if that's what you wanna do, go do it, you know, come back safe. So, you know, he was one of the few people that I actually kept in contact with writing that whole time and have kept in contact with. Now that I'm no stationery for time. Stationary for a time, your virus it. Now that I'm back or something like that, I like your choice of words, But of stationery.

The time is perception reality. No, terrific, Lino. Because on DH again Something, eh? That really hit home and my travels was, you know, like if I perceived negativity, I got it. If I perceived, you know, good people and, you know, carrying this, you know, carrying people in. I think I got that, you know, in those days where, you know, things were really hard. Like, one time I was caught in a rainstorm, and it rained for, like, several days street.

So naturally, I couldn't stand on the ramp, you know, without being soaking wet. No one's gonna pick you up here. Write up a pool of water covered in human, covered in human pool of water, covered in human. No one wants that. Yeah, so, you know, I mean, I was, you know, so I didn't want to side to staten my tent for, you know, three days and just kind of read a book. You know what I could beat on? You know, it was nice, but at same time was like, man, it really just done sitting here for days.

You know, Occasionally I, like, run to the other side of the highway and, you know, go into this arby's and hang out use their WiFi. Bye. You know, it's kind of the extent of what I could do in a day. Right? And you know that really world, you know, like Vegas sucks so bad and even actually even think two. You know, like dimension to any of the truck drivers that were in there, like, Hey, where you guys going?

You know, it didn't even occur to me because I was too busy being bummed about the weather until one day I was just I was in there was all pissed off, you know, It's just reading my book, you know, just quietly to myself, just, you know, probably grumpy Look on my face and, you know, the struggle becomes that reads like Yeah, wait. What? What you're doing. You know, sitting here, reading a book is like, I don't, like, appreciate your homeless right along around here.

I was like, Yeah, yeah, it's that obviously is like, yeah, yeah, that's not Where you going? I was like, Oh, shit, anywhere at this point, he was like, Well, where's your stuff? And I was like, Oh, I'm gonna tend across the highway was like, Okay, well, run it over here. Get yourself under the, you know, the canopy for fueling, and we'll kind of dry it off, you know, take you somewhere. All right. So you know, And after that, I started to look up.

You know, that guy actually ended up giving me twenty dollars, one speed, like parted ways one hundred miles later. Just talking, being happy. You know, I really think your happiness for your perception of things is irrelevant to you. No good or evil happiness and, you know, depression, that sort of thing. It's sort of independent from Yeah, is that what you mean? Yeah. So, I mean, perception doesn't necessarily equal truth because although you can perceive things, it doesn't make it true.

You know, we all perceive things differently. Waken all see two sides of the coin, you know, So I like to remember that Just cause I perceive something to be one way doesn't mean that's that way. It actually is. So you're always open to you the through the brighter side. Even if you don't feel it in the moment, you know that it's that it's out there and it's just a matter of looking. A different way way can be the difference.

Yeah, just just knowing that although you might perceive something one way doesn't always make it so. And you know that that works. And I think all situations, Yeah. Uh, here's a heavy one. Why is it so difficult for humans to consider the possibility that life may be pointless? All right? Probably because every human since the day they're born strives. You know, everyone striving for something, everyone is trying to achieve something, you know, even, you know, say some of the worst people ever you know are, you know, like like even people in the lower end of things, like drug addicts and whatnot, they're they're still striving for whatever.

And, you know, billionaires in their mansions, striving for money and every every modern individual just striving to make a living. They want to know that that's not in vain. And so that fear that it really could all be for not is a terrifying thought for most people. They can't just simply be happy or content with doing what they're doing because they're doing it. They want a purpose for what they have to know that if it goes beyond just being what it is, All right.

I like we said, uh no matter who you are, everyone doesn't want to be. Anything in pointlessness is kind of like that. That vanity that is very vain. Fame. Thought to think of everything you've accomplished in your life to equal nothing more than everything you've done in your They wanted to actually mean something, you know, have some greater purpose. Not that many people are content just being like I did it.

He has done all right. I mean, is that your nature? I mean, are you on the people that that? Are you saying that you're one of those people that is happy with that? Oh, uh, that that ambiguity is comfortable with the ambiguity. Is that your demeanor? You're kind of saying earlier, you like your signs, and when it's all you know, just says, just smile. Were you growing up like just a happy go with the flow kind of child?

No, actually, I was a kid. I was, um I was picked on a lot. So it's actually very angry, kid. I had anger issues growing up in school. I actually transferred several schools because of, like, violence in Arizona. Yeah, Arizona. And when I came here, actually went to three different high schools because I didn't take anyone shit. I was kind of an angry kid anyway. And so, you know, if you listen to lots of Ray Jenkins machine, listen to a lot of lot of madeleine and whatnot, you know, angry chef, you know, And it wasn't until, you know, sort of the end of high school that I really start to realize that.

All right, this is all pointless. And, you know, after that, I realized like the anger. Yeah, I was like, you know, there's no point me being angry at all these people that I'm never going to see again. Or don't I have to see again if you don't want to. And so, like, sort of relieving. You know, I guess almost like six years worth of pent up anger at any lining. It was extremely relieving. And then, you know, just being out in the world, you know, going to college, You know, being a whole new person there was extremely helpful then.

You know, entering the job market, you know, like having to learn that, you know, even if you're angry at someone, you can't always show it. You know, it really was, Ah, maturing and growing up. And that happened. It started happening while you were in high school off. So that was that. That was probably a good thing. At least that you leave on a better note. Yeah, three years. That kind of drug it out to the Yeah.

And so after that, it really started to, like, don't on me that no matter what I was doing, even if it was pointless, I was still content to do it because I don't I don't need the validation of another life to make mine worth, you know, to make mine have value. Like my life has value to me. And that's all right. That's all. You. Yeah. So I don't I don't require that. That's sort of validation from another, too.

You know, basically saved my life. Wasn't appointment. So it's just that breeding of the confidence that that you don't need other people. It's kind of fitting one theme in your life on that's what you use that confidence. Toe quiet. Your anger. Yeah, like, like what I strive for in life. I get, you know, and like, you know, if I want something, I get that thing. And it's the fact that, you know, I can strive without the need to You have the acceptance of someone else that I think sort of sets me apart from a lot of people in our ways.

Yeah, for sure. Here's another question. The American Indians and Eastern Culture respect their elders. Can you explain the Western cultures disdain for old age? Yeah. I think the disdain for the elderly in the West is not necessarily disdain for the person itself, but but for the closer and closer eventuality of death. The Western culture has a terrific fear of dying the unknown. A lot of cultures they have either, you know, mythos or, you know, like stories and whatnot of of like he's he's beautiful places that you go to when you die or, you know, just a you know, a sort of satisfactory explanation for getting older and dying and like being able to pass on that wisdom.

You know, a lot of a lot of cultures revere the elderly because of their knowledge and the things that they did an experience Where is our Western culture is very, um no very right now. So, you know, like, what you're doing right now is the most important thing you're doing. And everything has got to be right now on. So as you get older, you know, kind of relaxing like none of this shit matters, You know, I'm getting older.

I don't give a shit, you know? And at that point, we don't. We don't look to our elders as much as beacons of wisdom and experience, you know, because they're not doing exciting things now. Yeah, they're not. They're not doing the hip thing now, so yeah, they're just laying. And, you know, I mean, a lot of us are afraid of getting older. And so I think that that fear of just aging ourselves turns that turns our fear of further into sort of disdain for the elderly.

This thing in product that we are all slowly evolving. Tio, uh, is human progress cyclical or cumulative? To find cyclical, like, goes for awhile and then starts and, uh oh, yeah. Okay. I can't think why. But when I see the question, I think you're like the matrix. Payson Rangers. Yeah, Uh, I don't know if this is the first one or whatever, but it's like point it restarts every boots program reboots, and he goes back to not not whatever the beginning is, but but it just doesn't keep evolving like it.

It goes back. Yeah, come on. I mean, I think right. I think it is extremely cyclical, but, uh, it does. It progresses in its own. Right. Bye. The progressions are are, you know, in cycle. So you know, I mean, way, make that so we make agriculture advancement, which allows us to feed more people, which means our population can expand. And then we make technological advances, which means, you know, more people can get around into information.

And so again, our population expands, and then, you know, way over, use an area, and so we have to stop production there. So population decreases. And then, you know, we find new technology and new information that helps that area so population can expand. So it's It's extremely fluctuate in the fact that, like, yes, way are progressing in some aspect. But overall, it's the cycle of, you know, maintaining what we have with, you know, accumulating what we can exciting.

Each generation kind of goes through the same cycle as last, with a little bit more progression in information or technology That's sort of way. But it's the same cycle, you know? So I think that's I think we're a little bit of both. I like when you said that cycle and you're talking about the population experiences. So for a moment, I was thinking, all right, it's like, Oh, people are starving. So we developed have food.

Advancements are agricultural. Take it. Technological advancements in agriculture allows to feed more people. And then then, because of that, we have a ton more people. And then since there's so many more people than where they're starving again, And then it goes this endless cycle until we can get one side to catch up to the others. But, yeah, it's that it's that kind of ever balancing scales game of, you know, population.

And, you know, population control on that control is all all the factors of life, you know? So, yeah, a good example for that idea is, do you know the town of Guthrie? Not not too far from here? Uh, no. No, I don't. Okay, with town of Guthrie is over by the Colombia airport, down near the river bottoms. Oh, it between here, National. Yeah. I should know this voice back. And like the nineteen hundreds, early named hundreds.

They actually had a a rail depot. That was the size of St Louis. It was a huge, built up area. Or at least it was getting very built up because a lot of farmers were coming into the Midwest from the East Coast to farm. What years? Nineteen hundred. Very early nation. Hundreds and then the Great Depression hit. And that area cleared out. Yeah, I mean, now there's six houses down there, but there's still this huge amount of infrastructure for buildings that have never been built.

Old foundations and like rail yards, you know, that are now pretty much overgrown and torn apart. Is this on the air port side or on the The National Church Road? Sort of side. Minor Hill report. Yeah, probably the best way to get there. Oh, no, no, no. It is on. It is on the church side. Just getting so as you know, you take by three isn't by three crease. Yeah, it's it's sort of I believe if you take highway em for all the way out, it will run you into that area.

But, well, the point being, you know, Queen, we built up this huge amount of area, which is what we've done everywhere. We build a huge amount of areas, and then something like great depression hits and obviously, like, people can't feed themselves. They can't take care of that area. And so they all leave it in mass. And now we're slowly returning again. We re populating that area, reforming. So that's that's cyclical, you know, sort of make it work when we can.

When we can be dispersed. Way can make it work and we will turn right. So yeah, but population fluctuates with the way we can take care of ourselves. Good. I like that way. Okay, we probably have, like, five, ten minutes left, so I just got a few more questions of Yeah, here's a nice point. What is the most significant difference between men and women? Physical aside? And why do women live longer than men?

Well, women are crazy on. Men are stupid. I'm on under crazy because they deal with stupid men. All differences aside besides the physical. Well, I'm gonna bring up the physical. Men are inherently more physical. Where is women are free our life in the much more intellectual, um, women will think things through in ways men never thought. Yeah, and that's not true of every single person. But I believe women in general think things through a lot more where his men are a little more quick, too.

Do it right. And so the biggest set of differences I've seen are mostly cultural. You know, because I mean, I've known Well, all right. So I know this this girl from Ireland, she will be the man in any physical competition ever, you know, And she's, like, extremely masculine in that in most senses, you know, when you think of the word masculine, except she's, you know, extremely feminine, very beautiful and all that so, you know, first looking at her, you you've never assumed that she was as masculine as she can be.

And so I believe it's very much more a cultural idea of the terms mass is coming. Yeah, unless you're looking at a strict physical, in which case, you know, and the men on a broader chest did they carry most? They're waiting. They're, you know, chest wears when I hear that's a thing, right? Yeah. I'm not sure there is really a difference between men and women other than you. The differences in which they think an approach situations.

Right. Um, how do you find peace of mind? Yeah. Either by, you know, spinning, spinning flow art starts at my floor. It's our sort of the, um, equivalent of, like the the menial tasks it allows. My Yeah, mine too quiet down, completely like. And I just sort of do a series of small, complex actions which require very little brain function. So it's, you know, it's sort of like, quiets my mind down and lets me think about nothing or something very specific in a calm manner.

It's akin to like people who, you know, take apart and reassemble guns with blindfolds on as like a meditation. It's just that that's sort of like, you know, a simple minded task that you, khun quite the rest of your mind down on give yourself just a small bit of mental focus for the task. So the rest of your mind you can sort of quiet down and, you know, either have that piece for quick bit of mental acuity.

That's kind of like, Well, rolling is Yeah. Yeah, His visit is very physical, but only on a few things. Yeah, it requires very little actual mental focus, so you can just get your as you're doing your your simple task. Your mind has that chance to sort of quiet down and think about other things or think about nothing. Right? Tio, sort of think about nothing of last question is is what is the healthiest cultural shift you see developing today?

The healthiest cultural shit? Oh, man, that's it's actually kind of a difficult one, because I like I personally believe that most of the leg, the pop culture, you know, diet trends and exercise trends are actually unhealthy. So a lot of perceived healthy culture office that's not necessarily limited physical health, but a lot of the perceived. Miles. Healthy cultural shifts are actually healthy. In my opinion, Yes.

You know, a lot of the like the dietary things, you know? I mean, we've gone through a za culture, you know, the newest pop diet, you know, go through one every year or two every year, right? And they're always debunked, you know, they always seem so great. And then they're always debunked because they are limiting the body in several ways. My personal opinion on that sort of thing is way are omnivores.

We do need to eat both, you know, greens and meets. You know, all things are good in moderation, though. Proportion, proper proportion ing. And you know what works for? Some person doesn't always work for another. But, you know, also in this day and age, especially a star is like physical activity. We don't. I mean, like, you go to the gym and what? Not sure. But back in, you know, in the old days, a human being was in extremely physically fit because they were always on the move.

They were always hunting their food. They were gathering food, just like when you were travelling. It's you weren't physically focused on a specific regimen or exercise. And it was just your daily life style demand of it. Uh, yeah. I mean, my my daily life of travelling was probably the healthiest I've ever been is. Well, like, I mean, I did Emma for a year, and that was extremely physically demanding, but I was still probably more built up and more physically.

No. Hello. Yeah, physically astute. Then I was when I was just, like, you know, fighting right. And that was just because, Yeah, like when I woke up. I was carrying everything I owned, and I was walking for several miles, you know? I mean, I was healthy. Is hell strictly because I needed to be right. That really? You know, I think that's something that today's society truly lacks Is the need to be healthy, Right?

Because we don't. We have no need to be healthy. We can take drugs. We can, you know, sit it. You know, computer, desk and way. Now, have a vitamin for goddamn everything way. Don't eat anything that has anything worth value, right? Yeah. Yeah, I don't I don't believe today's culture is going in a good direction. Healthwise. Well, that's, uh that's a. That's a good observation. Mad stays fairly. That has a lot of accuracy, Tio Gosh, darn it, Because that is meant.

That question is mental. Bring out just good. Feel good answer. It have. Just like, Well, you sit down with some reality. Well, you know, I always like Tio. Surprise was the Hobbs has been. It's been great. And thank you so much for your time and being the first one on some as far this series. Do you have anything else there? Is that who's that That is. Oh, I mean, I have enough stuff for three days, but we'll stop there because I got to get my stuff packed up and get over to a building by too.

But thank you so much.