Episode 91: The Speeches We Write With Our Words and Deeds
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Welcome to Wisdom from the Aerial View,
the podcast for those who wish to crush
anxiety and find [music] meaning and
purpose in their lives. Hello, Dr.
Klein. How are you today?
>> I'm great. And how are you?
>> I'm great, too. We we just for our
listeners sake, we had a just had a
conversation prior to this about about
all sorts of things basically about
meaning and purpose and and legacy and
all those kinds of things and it and you
had said to me, why don't we talk about
kind of eulogies, what people say and
whatever. And I I sort of it's a good
idea. So I I looked up something and I
wanted to read something to you that was
written by Ray Bradbury, the Fahrenheit
451.
>> Very famous Ray Bradberry.
>> He's pretty famous. He wrote, "Everyone
must leave something behind when he
dies." My grandfather said, "A child or
a book or a painting or a house, a wall
built or a pair of shoes made or a
garden planted, something your hand
touched.
H some way so that your soul has
somewhere to go when you die. And when
people look at it, they look at a tree
or they look at a flower that you
planted, you're there. It doesn't matter
what you do, he said, so long as you
change something from the way it was
before you touched it into something
that's like something else after you
take your hands away. The difference
between the man who just cuts lawns and
a real gardener is in the touching. He
said, "The lawn cutter might just as
well not have been there at all. The
gardener will be there for a lifetime."
I love that.
>> That's good. Well, that's why he's uh
such a great author,
>> right? But it's about what it's about
what we're leaving. It's about And you
and I talk about this all the time, you
know, why are we here? What is our
purpose? And and and the other thing we
don't we haven't really mentioned is
what are we leaving behind? So, I think
you wanted to talk about something close
to that. So, let's talk about that. What
are you leaving behind, Doc? I know what
you're leaving behind, but how'd you get
there? Did you think about that when you
were thinking about your life?
>> So, let me just tell our listeners that
do you do this to me all the time. I
know.
>> So, I say, "Let's talk about this." And
you say, "Okay, let's talk about this."
And then then we'll start and and
understand folks that uh Enan and I were
talking for at least 15 20 minutes
before we started recording just as we
always do because we love talking to
each other. I think that's fair to say,
right? We love talking to each other.
>> I do. Yeah, absolutely.
>> Yeah, I do too. So, it's always fun. We
cover a lot of stuff. Um and then we're
about to start and then she hits me with
something that I'm completely unprepared
for. It's a little trick, but it's a
test. So, um what am I going to leave
behind? I hope a lot of things. Um, you
know, I feel like you do. And one of the
things we talked about before we before
we came on the air just now is
those things that we're doing right now,
each of us. Uh, and we're doing them
because we want to, not because we have
to. Uh, and we feel like we have and
we're both doing things that we consider
very positive for others that they're
not based on things for us. Neither one
of us is doing this because we're make
getting any money or because we're
getting, you know, any special thrill,
you know, prestige out of it or No, no.
We're doing because we think it's the
right thing. We're doing different
things, but they're very, very similar
in the fact that they're focused on
other people, right? So, why are we
doing that? We're doing that because we
know that's our job. That's our
responsibility. We don't even think
there's an alternative. We it's not like
it's an option for us. You know that's
you we we can't like you said earlier to
me we can I I can so I do right you said
those words I can do it so I will do it.
And I feel the same way I can so I will.
So you know what we want to leave
behind. We want to leave you know this
is very cliche. We want to leave the
world better than we found it. For sure
we want to create something new. I'll
give you an example. So when you say to
me what did I leave behind? For many
years, my most prized possession were
the songs that I recorded
uh in my early between the ages of 17
and 22. Music that I had written, songs
that I had written with lyrics. And in
those days, and we've tal I've mentioned
this to you before, in those days, there
was no digital anything. You know, if
you want to record something, the best
you could do was get a cassette tape
recorder and put in a little cassette
tape and record. And hopefully you
didn't lose a cassette or the cassette
didn't unravel and tangle and it was
very fragile, right? Very fragile.
>> So I carried these tapes around with me.
I think there were probably I'm going to
say 15 songs. I don't remember how many
that I written. These these are on
guitar that I written. And they were
absolutely my most prized possession. So
if I lost my passport, I wouldn't care.
But if I lost those that tape those
tapes, I'd be besides myself. Finally,
we got to the point where you could
actually create a digital file. And you
know, today we take that for granted.
But when that moment occurred, I don't
know how many years ago, I immediately
took those tapes, converted them to a
digital format. Now they're on, you
know, I have them on iTunes, you know,
like I I, you know, I'm not saying I
couldn't lose them, but they're on
enough different places that that I
don't I don't worry about it. But those
were my most um prized things. And of
course, since time, I've written a lot
more music. I've written four books. you
know, there are other things that that
have they're concrete that, you know, my
kids can look at and my grandkids can
look at or anybody else might be
interested can look at. They're going to
they're going to be there. So, I'll
leave that. But more importantly, you
know, I want to I I think both of us
agree we want to leave uh not a legacy,
but a story that says something about
the people we were and that we tried
hard and we tried to do the best we
could and we do that through our works,
through our efforts.
>> Why is that? Why is that not a legacy?
>> No, I it's not saying it's not a legacy.
I'm just saying it's not that I want to
have a legacy. Ah, you must remember me.
No, I don't care about that stuff.
Remember me, don't remember me. It's
totally up to you.
>> Well, you won't know anyway. But yeah.
Okay.
>> I won't know. Well, maybe I will, maybe
I won't. It doesn't matter. I'm not
doing it. The point is neither you nor
me nor I. Neither you nor I are doing
these things because we want to build a
legacy. We're not putting our names on
any buildings. you know, we're we're
we're putting our names on our works,
but silently saying, "I'm trying to the
best I can. This I'm trying to do the
right thing. I'm trying to help as many
people as I can. I don't need the I
don't need the accolades. I don't need
an award. I don't need a trophy. I don't
need my name on a building. Uh in fact,
I don't want any of those things. I just
want to do what I what I can." And so,
in sense, yes, that's a legacy, but I'm
saying I don't want it doesn't have to
be up in neon lights. That's what I
meant.
>> So, so that's what I want to leave
behind and that's what I'm trying to
leave behind. And uh to me that's if we
talk about that's that's the whole
story. That's why we that's one of
that's why we're here to to make that
impression on other people in a positive
way. By the one thing Ray Bradbury left
out a little bit was that um the
gardener will be remembered forever. He
would be whether he planted a beautiful
rose bush or he planted a poison plant.
Right.
>> Well that's true.
>> So so I do think there's a difference
there. It you know it's not just enough
to leave our mark. You got to leave a
positive mark like the 911 hijackers.
People might know their names, right?
There are other heinous people in the
you know like John Wils Booth, heinous
people in in the history of the world
whose names will be remembered, but you
don't want to be remembered. Just being
remembered is not the point, right? You
got to you you have to be remembered for
doing the right things.
>> Well, I think his point was he said it's
about touch and I think he meant that in
a a positive way. I agree. touching
things you know but you had said to me
that you wanted to talk about and the
reason I really got into this notion of
legacy was because you had said let's
talk about speeches and you don't like
eulogies and those things and I was
thinking to myself if you were to write
your eulogy which would be a very
interesting exercise I might add or if
somebody were to write about you what
would you want them to say what is the
one or two things about you that you
would want somebody to mention
in your eulogy or your obituary. You
know, when when the New York Times does
an obituary of you, what do you hope it
says?
>> You know, I think about this every
pretty much every day.
>> Do you not? Oh, yeah. But not in the way
you think.
>> Okay.
>> I think about I told you when I used to
come home from work every day, I would
give myself a grade. How did I do today?
How did I do? Did I do a good job? Did I
help enough people? Did I do the right
things? Every day I give myself a grade.
Um, and so I, you know, I I don't do it
as much anymore because because my life
isn't as power as powerp packed full of
a million patients every day like it
was, but I still think about it
regularly. You know, how am I doing?
What would people say about what I did
today? You know, if somebody were
looking at it, what would they say? You
know, and some people would say, well,
what would God say? Fine. That's fine.
You know, we talked about being being
evaluated in some way or another on on a
recent episode,
>> but I think about all the time, okay,
what would people say about what I did
today? Really, what do I say? But but
more importantly, you know, the sense
that I'm I really am the harshest judge.
We should all be our harshest critic.
But what would they say? You know, how'd
you do today? And when I do things that
I don't think are meet the standard that
I'd like, I'm not happy. You most days I
think, okay, you're doing a good job.
But some days I think not so good today.
Not so good. You know, maybe I said
something to somebody I shouldn't have
said or said something the wrong way or
didn't follow through on something I
should have done or wasn't as good a
friend as I should have been or or
parent, whatever it is. Right? If when
those days when those things happen, I
go, "Not so good." Now, I try not to
beat myself thinking, "Okay, it's like a
baseball player. Got 162 games. Let's
get at it tomorrow." Right? Got another
game tomorrow. Let's suit up, get out
there, and play better than we did
today. So, that's what I think. But I
think about this all the time. I think
about because we're each writing our
story every single day. It's not like
it's, you know, you do this one event
and that's the story of your life. No,
you're you're writing the story every
day. Every page of the book that we use
as our metaphor, the story of our life,
that book, that's the metaphor of our
life. You're writing on it every day.
Well, those pages don't go away. They're
always there. So, you have to be
conscious every day. Now, you're not
going to write great pros every day.
Some days you're going to do things that
you're just not proud of. Hopefully,
nothing too terrible. probably why they
invented the eraser. Yeah,
>> that's why they in Yeah, unfortunately
it doesn't work. The eraser doesn't
work. You can,
>> you know, if you do something bad, you
can apologize to that person. You can
try and make amends. You can go out of
your way, but you can't erase it. It's
not There is no eraser in life, right?
So, so you have to be conscious of that
every day. Not to put so much pressure
on yourself that when you make a
mistake, you do something wrong, you're
going to jump off the cliff. No, you
have to say, "Okay, not a good day. You
know, game number, you know, the
baseball season, game number 98 wasn't
so good. Luckily, we have a bunch of
games left to go. I can make up for it.
I can do better the next day. That's
what you should say to yourself. I'll do
better the next day. I'll do better next
time. But I'm always thinking about
this. I think we need to think about
this. That's how you have not only a
meaningful life and a and a worthwhile
life and a purposeful life, but it's how
you make a society that's worth living
in. You know, if only two people are
thinking about this and the other 100
million aren't, it doesn't work, right?
You got to get everybody thinking this
way. And the reason I want to talk about
speeches is because we give a lot of
speeches in our lives. Um, you know, we
had I was at a retirement party recently
for one of my former employees who I'm
still very close to. You know, it was so
easy to give a little speech in front of
like what what 30 people whatever were
number that were there at the at the
party. It was very easy. I didn't have
to, you know, I just I didn't have to
prepare anything. It was right off the
top of my head because it's so easy.
This she's a wonderful woman, wonderful
person. Everybody knows she's a
wonderful person. and she was
unbelievably great at what she did, you
know? So these kind of things flowed. So
that's what you want. You want to live a
life so when people have to give a
speech about you, it's not like, oh
crap, I got to find two things nice to
say for this bastard. [laughter] Right.
Right. Right. That's you don't want to
live a life like that. So that's why so
you you need to be conscious of what you
know the speech that somebody would give
you know about you whether it be your
you know a celebration or retirement or
your eulogy, right? And you know what's
what's God writing about you? You know
what what you know what you know we uh
what is God writing down today or not
today but generally in general good
person and not so great person you know
you know swing and miss every single
time or mostly got their bat on the ball
but occasionally had a swing and a miss
that's fine that's okay. So so there are
there are three groups of people who are
writing speeches right for you. One is
the people with whom you interact,
whether it be family, co-workers, etc.
Two is yourself, right? You got to be
honest with yourself. How did I do
today? And again, without beating
yourself up too badly, just try and do
better the next day. And three, you
know, God, if you believe in God or
whatever higher authority you believe
in, right? You know, these, you know,
whether you like it or not, you know,
all these all these uh speeches are
being written about you every single
day. What do you want to have in them?
What do you want people to say about
you? you you can't decide 10 minutes
before you die. Oops. You know, I better
apologize to everybody. No, you got to
do it every single day.
>> You see, so therefore, um, what I how I
began this talking about legacy is in
fact what you were talking about with
speeches because it is the reflection of
what did I do? Did I do a good job
today? But you're talking short term
today. When you're writing the your
legacy, your eulogy, your whatever, your
obituary, it's not about today. It's
about a lifetime.
>> What did you do in your lifetime? And I
guess the issue is, did you have meaning
and purpose in your lifetime?
And if so, it's going to be about a
eulogy, isn't it?
>> Well, I think it's not so much whether
you have meaning and purpose. It's what
did you do? Because you know it's not
like what you did in one but you
remember a lifetime is made up of many
days. An hour of made is made of 60
minutes, right? A minute is made of 60
seconds. It's what you're doing during
those those individual moments that add
up to an hour or a day or a year or a
lifetime. So every day you're writing
this story. So that's why I personally,
you know, have chosen to to do this
evaluation daily. It just kind of keeps
me focused. And I will tell you there's
a negative side of this cuz you know
when I have a day where I don't think I
did well, I don't really like myself
that day as much. It's not so pleasant.
And so now at least I'm mature enough to
say, okay, you know, it wasn't, you
know, you could have done better. Fine.
Do better tomorrow. Whereas when I was
younger, I was, you know, much harder on
myself, you know, as if as if I wasn't
going to get, you know, many many more
chances to do better, you know. Whereas
when you take the aerial view, you
realize, oh, okay, you know, yes, every
day is important, but you're going to
miss on some days. Everybody does.
Everybody's going to swing and miss.
Everybody's going to strike out at the
wrong time. Everybody's going to be uh
an insufficient friend, husband, wife,
parent, colleague, blah blah blah blah.
Everybody's going to miss out. So that's
that's part of the deal of being human.
So you can't, you know, beat yourself up
too badly, but you also can't give
yourself a complete pass. Okay, bad day.
Let's get at it again tomorrow. So it's
a summary. Your life is a summary of
individual moments, right? It's not some
vague thing. It's actually made up of
very concrete moments. And what you do
in those moments, what counts. You know,
it's funny. The other day, maybe because
we were talking about uh I decided to
clean up um you know, you know, I used a
notes app on on on my Apple computer. I
use notes a lot for all kinds of
different things. And I was making new
um I was making new uh folders to move
things in to clean it up. M
>> and one of the folders I decided was
eulogies cuz how many eulogies have I gi
given? I went and I went I'd given like
I don't know five or six eulogies, you
know. I didn't realize I seven actually
seven eulogies that I could count. I may
not remembered all of them but that's a
pretty good number. Seven eulogies,
right?
>> Yeah.
>> And I l I read them because I kept
notes. I didn't I didn't write when I do
these I make notes. I don't write out
the whole thing in script. I kind of I
don't want to sit there reading from a
prepared text. But I, you know, I looked
at some of them and I realized, well,
these were pretty easy. These were
pretty easy to to to to talk about, but
some were easier than others. None of
them were terrible, but some were easier
than others. Some I had to think, okay,
don't mention this, don't mention that.
You know, [snorts] but what you want to
do is you don't want to have that
problem. And you don't want that per
anybody to have that problem for you,
right? When they're writing you, you go,
"Okay, well, see, we got to leave out
that. We got to leave out that. Don't
mention that." Uh, I'm sure he did
something good. Anybody know anything
good he did? Was he nice to anybody? You
know, oh yeah, that one time. Okay,
we'll talk about that one time when he
was nice to somebody. You don't want to
do You don't want that. You want to make
it like I only have 15 minutes. How am I
going to fit all these things into a
eulogy, right? That's what you want. You
want your your stock your shell stock
with so many great things to say about
you that when somebody gives you eulogy,
they just go, I'll take these 15
ingredients. I don't have time for all
the rest of them. Right? That's what you
want. That's that's such an important
concept I think for living your life on
a daily basis. It you're always writing
your the speech either the speech that
some like I said one of those three
people is going to write about you. You
your friends, family and colleagues or
God, right? You want to make sure that
it's easy to write. I have to tell you
it's interesting to me that you write
eulogies. I've never um I wrote a
eulogy, helped write a eulogy, but I
could never deliver a eulogy. I I just
think I would sobb the entire time. If
somebody that I love died and I had to
deliver the eulogy, I don't think I
could get through it. I'm How did you do
it? Seven of them. How'd you get through
it?
>> Well, you sobb sometimes. I mean,
there's no doubt about it. Depends.
Look, luckily
>> I mean, the people I only had to give a
eulogy for one person who was very who
was young, not super young, but too
young, right? It was a cousin of mine.
Um, the other ones were mostly older
people. Um, you know, so it's more of an
inevitability than anything else. Um,
but I I you got choked up. How I mean,
if you don't get choked up, it means you
had no relationship with this person.
Right.
>> Right. Well,
>> right.
You take a break. You take a break. You
take a breath. You wipe your tears and
go. I don't think I can do it. But it's
interesting.
>> Yeah. And you try, you know, I always
think it's And there's always, remember,
you and I agree on this. There's always
something funny to say. Yeah,
absolutely. I Yeah, you know, I think
it's I think it's scary that doctors
write eulogies. What does that say about
your practice? I'm just kidding. I'm
absolutely kidding, but I think that um
that it's fascinating that So, do you
believe in Do you do journaling? Do you
journal?
Oh, I'll tell you a funny story. So, I
thought journaling is a good idea,
although we didn't call it journaling in
those days. This is back when I was in
my 20s.
>> I was actually in Italy and I bought
this I still have it. this absolutely
gorgeous leatherbound
notebook online pages totally online
pages it's it's a beautiful I still have
it right
>> I said I'll start I'll start keeping a
journal
>> so I started and I did it for like I
don't know a week maybe
>> I was using I remember I was using a
fountain pen it was like you know very
elegant my handwriting is terrible um
but still it was pretty and I did this
and I went oh I've got enough time for
this but in retrospect I absolutely wish
I had for my whole life
>> I really wish I How about you?
[clears throat]
>> I do not. And I I think about I wish I
did. In the old, you know, when we were
kids, we used to keep diaries, which was
the same, but all you did in that was
kind of gossip or whatever. But a
journal would be different. And it would
seem to me that in what we're talking
about, it would be sort of when you came
out back home from work and thought,
"How did I do today?" It would be
interesting to write that down and see
um why you thought you didn't do well or
what you thought you did well or what
did everybody else think about you. And
do we even know what anybody else thinks
about us?
>> Oh, I know. You know, this is an
interesting question. So, I I'm pretty
sure I know what most people thought
about me cuz, you know, when I was
younger, um I was fairly argumentative.
I was um you more confident that I was
right than I really had reason to be to
be confident like most people. Um, and I
thought some people I thought I was, you
know, some people thought I was a great
guy and some people probably thought
he's a bit much sometimes. You know, I
think I think generally when I look back
I think cuz I think about this a lot,
right? I think I think most people think
I'm I'm a I'm a good guy and a good
person. I've tried to do the right
thing. You know, they might not like
everything I did, but you know who I
don't even like everything I've done,
[laughter] so why would I expect anybody
else to, right? You know when somebody
when somebody you know very often when
somebody criticizes you or comments
about something you've done most of the
time there's a grain of truth in it if
not complete truth right you you know
you generally don't need people to tell
you when you're behaving
>> in a less than op yeah le I was going to
say a less than optimal manner but
poorly yeah it's easy to say you know we
know we know and then and I know and
that's when I that's the bad day that's
when I come back and go oh not such not
good today not good today and sometimes
I'm I find in my particular case, I'm
probably a little too rough on myself
sometimes. It probably wasn't nearly as
bad as I thought it was. But if you
don't set a high standard from for
yourself, then you know, then you're
never going to get to a high enough
level. You you can't you know, you
shouldn't expect perfection, but you
should absolutely shoot for it. That's a
very interesting concept. Well, nobody's
perfect, right? But if you don't try,
you're never going to get to very good
or excellent, right? You got to try for
perfection as best you can and not and
and live with the fact that you're not
going to get there. You have to have
some humility and accept that I'm not
going to get there. But that's mean you
shouldn't try to do the best you can.
>> But then you defi but you're defining
then what perfection is and who you know
who's
>> in my mind. Sure. In my mind.
>> Right. Yeah. Yeah. And I wonder if
anybody else ever gets to perfection. I
don't I don't know.
>> No. Nobody. Zero.
>> Maybe.
>> So there was a um I just I think I've
told you I just finished reading a book
by uh the rabbi at Central Synagogue in
Manhattan. She's very famous. Rabbi
Angela Buckd Doll super interesting
person came her mother was Korean father
was American soldier back in Korea they
ended up getting married blah blah blah
moved to United States it's it's it's a
fantastic story then her mother was
Buddhist her hus her father was Jewish
and they decide to bring her up in in
the Jewish tradition although keeping
some of the Korean traditions of course
um and then she goes on to become a
rabbi of all things and she tells this
incredible story about her life which is
pretty cool one of the things she just
mentions is that um how do you evaluate
somebody who's you thought was really
great and then they do something pretty
bad, right? And she gave an example of a
rabbi, you can look this up if you're
interested in it, who at her synagogue
who in the late in the 70s, I believe,
>> child predator. Oh, yeah. Go ahead.
>> Not quite so bad, but he was No, he
wasn't a child predator as much as he
was just more of a meto kind of
situation, right? Inappropriate behavior
with some of the women, right? I think
one of them was young, but not it wasn't
like, you know, pedophile stuff, but
still inappropriate.
>> And so, and she she loved this guy,
right? Thought he was great. So, how do
you handle that, right? What do you do?
Here's another one. There was a famous
uh musician uh composer who she loved
and sang his songs and cuz she also
plays music and thought this guy was
fantastic. I turned out he was a bad
dude in some ways, right? He was also in
that same kind of category, maybe even
worse. I don't remember the details. So,
what do you do? You know the fact is
that people So what do you do? Do you
throw out everything? Do you say this is
just a bad person and everything he did?
I give you another one. Roman Palansky,
right? The director, right? He was a
pedophile. He had all these great things
he did. What do you do with somebody
like him? Do you throw everything away?
Or George Thomas Jefferson, father of
our country, genius, brilliant
Declaration of Independence,
slaveholder, right? You know, so what do
you do with these people, you know? And
so, you know, her her conclusion was,
you recognize what they did. Uh, you
don't hide from it, but you tell the
whole story. You just tell the whole
story and you don't tear it down and
change history and change names on
buildings or museums or things like
that. You just you you can add some
information that, by the way, this guy
whose name is on the building internet
do some stuff that wasn't so great. So,
you tell the whole story, but you don't
tear the patient down. That's one
opinion. I happen to share it. Uh, I
think that's what makes the most sense,
but it's not the only way to look at
this. So, the point is that in your
life, even people who are not famous,
who are not super accomplished. They'll
do mostly good things and they might do
a couple of bad things. What do you do
with that? Well, you know, that's up to
God to decide, right? It's not up to we
we we can't judge too harshly. Now, if
somebody, you know, murders somebody,
you know, kills somebody, does something
like that, that's easy. But most of the
stuff isn't that severe, right? So you
have to figure out how do we handle
this, you know? So they've written their
story. So again, they're being evaluated
by three different groups. One, other
people. What do we think about this
person? Should we should we take his his
or her name off buildings? Should we
scratch them from history? Should we
ignore the good stuff because of the bad
stuff they did? That's one. Two, what do
we think of ourselves when we do that?
My guess is these people are not proud
of those moments in their lives. They
wish they could do it again, most of
them. And number three, what does God
think? Well, that's out of our league.
We don't know, right? We don't know what
what God thinks. We don't know what
happens after we die. We don't know what
the what we talked about karma a little
while ago. We don't really know how this
all plays out. So, we can't answer that
one. But, we certainly can. The one we
can really control is how we how we
evaluate ourselves. So, my feeling is
think about the fact that you're writing
your eulogy. You're writing your speech
every day. Uh, and live as best you can
so that people don't have a hard time
writing it and talking about you.
So, of those three, the family,
yourself, and God, which one is the most
important?
>> I would say I would say others, right?
>> Okay. And which one is the most
important?
>> I think they're all important, but I you
know, so let me turn this on you. What
do you Who do you think is the most
important?
>> I don't know. I think um if I'm looking
at from the street view, it's me. If I'm
looking at from the aerial view, it's
the guy gal upstairs. I don't know. But
I think that I live in the street view.
So I have to reconcile my own behavior
with myself and think about what do I
want written on my stone. Uh and I guess
I'll let God either let me in or or tell
me to go the other way. But I think
because I live in the street view, it's
got to be me. I've got to be I got to be
me, but I have to be happy with who I
am. that I did the right thing that I
guess my philosophy is I I want to fix
what's broken in the world and so did I
do that and on judgment day will
somebody say yeah you fixed what was
broken in the world or at least you gave
it a damn good try kiddo
>> yeah I agree with you I think our own
evaluation is is probably
it's it's the most essential and you
know I look back on my life and I think
okay and I'm you know I've done a lot of
things that I like, a lot of things I'm
proud of. And then if somebody saying,
"Well, what about we got a little short
list here over here? What what about
that? Remember that or you remember
that?" Yes, I remember those things.
What do you think? They weren't my
finest moments, right? I'm not proud of
now. I didn't do anything that's going
to make the front page of the Wall
Street Journal or Washington Post or New
York Times, fortunately, on either side,
by the way. But I'm talking about the
negative side, but there's still things
I'm not proud of, you know? So, because
I'm because I I I am shooting for
perfection. And when I when I'm short or
severely short, it pisses me off, right?
I'm thinking, what in the world were you
thinking? Why did you behave in that?
Why'd you do that? Why did you not do
this? Why? You should have been there.
You should have done this. Why didn't
you? Or you shouldn't have done that.
So, yes, I look at that and and at the
end of the day, that's part of life.
You're not going to get it all right,
but a correct your errors. Try to get
come to bat the next day. put on your
put on the uniform and go to go to bat
the next day and and do better than you
did the day before. Accept accept your
your your failings. Apologize to the
people who you've might have injured in
one way or another. And and that's a
life. That's what it is. So, you know, I
that's why I write I'm telling you, I
write in that speech every day. I'm
thinking about it every day. And, you
know, all in all, it's a it's I think
it's going to be a pretty good one. But,
you know, if somebody wants to point out
the negatives, I can't deny them.
They've been there. It has not been a
perfect road for sure.
>> Yeah. You know what I like the best
about this podcast today? We talked a
lot about baseball. It's always good to
talk about that. I love I know you love
baseball.
>> And for those who are listening now,
it's the playoffs time of year and it's
exciting. Of course, my team's not in
it, but it's still exciting. I love
baseball and I love baseball because
this gets back to a podcast we did prior
to this. It's not violent. There's no
violence in the game. And that's the
beauty of it. There's nobody hitting
anybody else on purpose usually.
>> Well, I'll tell you I'll tell you why I
like baseball.
>> Yeah,
>> baseball is a and this is I'm not
inventing this. This has been said by
about 9 million people, right? But it is
it is a great metaphor for life in so
many ways. It's a long game. What you do
in the first inning does not determine
necessarily what happens at the end. It
may have something to do with it, but
it's not predictive of what's going to
be happen. You got to perform in every
single inning. There's going to be ups
and downs. You're going to get you're
going to strike out. You're going to hit
a home run. These things are going to go
up and back. You know, you're going to
you're going to make an error. Things
are going to happen, but you have a
chance to get back up the next inning.
Baseball is a great metaphor for life.
That's why I think it was so appealing
to to earlier generations. It really
it's it's long and it's storied and it
has a history to it. It has a legacy to
it. It's all of it. And you know when
you go to I was just in the baseball
hall of fame in Coopertown not too long
ago and you're looking at these you know
hundred plus years of history and you go
oh you know all these people went
through the same things they all had the
same ups and downs they all struggled
they all and and they achieved right and
they were weren't perfect people right
Tai Cobb not a perfect person right a
lot of people like that right in the
hall of fame so anyway
>> the other thing that's beautiful about
baseball I I'll my last word on this is
the great thing about baseball too is
there's There's always extra innings.
[laughter]
>> Well, only if you only if you're only if
you get tied up if you only if you're
tied. But again,
>> there's always another game. That's what
extra. There's not always another game
cuz you know 162 and if you didn't make
the playoffs, bye-bye. Not an extra
game, but if you're tied, there's an
extra inning. So, that's the beauty of
it. I'll leave you with the final word
because otherwise I could talk about
baseball all day.
>> I know you can. Um, [music] I would just
say, you know, pay attention to what
story is being written about you and
make sure you, you know, make sure
you're, uh, you're giving people the
[music]
the words and the deeds that allow them
to write to write your eulogy in a very
easy and smiling and [music] happy
manner.
>> Thank you, Doc. Appreciate it. Till next
time.
>> Yes. Thank you all for listening.
[music] See you next time.
>> Peace.