Ep 41. Election in the US, "AP" Classes, Kanye, Fault, Fish. The Self,

Divorce gets better. Kanye West on Joe Rogan.  The United States, or the 'States' vote.  Trump.  Left wing vs right wing: And the WINNER is..Ethan rambles about Betta Fish, commonly referred to as 'Fighting Fish', they can get along with tank mates. No live concerts with the virus is bigger than we think.  Advanced Placement classes in school, your kid doesn't know he can even TRY.  Get involved. Thank you for listening.  Transcript below.

For oddity and feel-good (usually) follow www.instagram.com/ethansharrettofficial

 

The JOYFull Podcast – Hosted by Ethan Sharrett –
Ep 41. Election Night in the US. Fault. Fish. Fault.
The Self. Concerts. - Free Listening on Podbean App

 

0:11 All right. Episode 40 or 41. Episode 41, let’s call it that. That’s what it’s going to be.
And already, it’s somewhere in the 40s. Maybe another one will come out before this
one gets published. And that one would take its place. But this is probably 41. So
welcome to it. And thank you for listening. As always, if you do like it, please leave a
comment on like iTunes or Amazon podcast, wherever you’re listening, pleasure is.
Leave a like, leave a comment, leave a recommendation. I used to say this more. If you
don’t like it, you know, if you’re going to turn it off right now, leave that in a comment,
say, this is a pointless podcast, but it’s not. It is not. It’s somebody getting things off
their chest sometimes. And talking about the state of the world, the state of The World
in the mindfulness revolution. When we go inside, we can really face that the state of
The World is really reflective of the state of our world. And what I want to say to you
tonight or today - if you’re listening to this in the day, of course - is that this is not our
fault. I feel like everybody is really stressed out right now. I don’t like to label the
episodes like with a specific event, because then when the event is done, who’s going
to listen to that episode, then it will be all for just that one day and only like seven
people listen to it. Like saying, like a special Thanksgiving episode of, you know, the
NPR frickin, whatever podcast. You never got to listen to that unless it’s on
Thanksgiving, Ramadan, or whatever the holiday you celebrate is or some other,
Kwanzaa, festivus, any other holidays you celebrate, you only want to listen to that
topical thing on that day, right?
2:17 But I’m going to break all my boundaries and all my comforts and say this is a special
United States Election Day for president and we are coming to you live from right next
to my little fish tank, in Reiko County, Virginia, where I did vote today, and a lot of
people voted, not as bad of a line as I thought it was going to be. I tried to vote early a
couple times last week. And every time I went by the courthouses where they were
doing it super long lines. So the early voting, early polling was, in my experience more
crowded than like the normal day, today. 
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3:07 I just got this tail algae eater. He is awesome. He’s just wiggling around like crazy. I
just got done filming a video of the fish tank for the first time. I’ve never done that
before. But there is a beta fish and beta Fisher aka like the Siamese fighting fish,
according to Alexa. A lot of people say Chinese fighting fish, Japanese fighting fish.
But according to Alexa, Siamese fighting fish. And they’re not supposed to really
cohabitate that well with other fish, but he seems to get along great with this tiny little
algae eater. I wonder what I’m going to do with that little video I took.
3:45 But yes, Election Day. And I want to say, this is not our fault. Let me get back on track
with that. This is not our fault. Nothing is this... And I don’t think who is going to be
elected president tonight is, really, if you really boil down your emotions, me, you
anybody, it really comes down to like this, right and wrong. It comes down to, or what
we think is right. And we’ve charged up the wrong part with our emotions so much that
it is going to frickin sting. And you’re going to get angry if your guy doesn’t win
tonight. And my god doesn’t win tonight. I mean, there’s going to be just like before
the elections, anger on both sides. And I want to just kind of release us. Take a big deep
breath out and say, the phenomenon of more than even just social media and
smartphones and stuff like that. It’s the 24 hour news phenomenon. It was such a new
technology, pretty recently, in the grand scheme of things, that this came on quick, and
we can’t be blamed for not knowing what the hell we’re doing and forgetting to be, you
know, really decent people through and through, throughout our whole entire day, our
whole entire lives, and becoming really responsible and mature about some of the way
things are right now. Because this all in the grand scheme of things did come on super
quick. And so of course, there’s going to be some tension. We’re all getting to know
about how this works, hopefully. You know, I just want people to forgive themselves
for emotionally charging something that is just tearing apart their lives or their day,
their family. I mean, I got people in my family that would curse the other ones for their
opinions. Some families like really roll with it well with a good sense of humor. And I
love you, but I just don’t agree with where you come out on what we should do
politically. My family is kind of a little heaviness to it. Like it’s even for me. I mean, if
people start getting into, what they think politically, it just takes me out of it. So I’m
going to work on that, I encourage you to do that same thing, too. Because we’re all
going to be dying at some point. And we don’t want to look back and think, “Oh, my
goodness, it was so plain to see that we had this chance that really, really showed us 
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where our tension lies and where we are turning on each other, and what emotion, what
spirit we are throwing at other human beings. And it was so crystal clear at that time.
However, we just rode that out. And we didn’t say, All right, I’m going to enough of
this. What’s a new way to think about everything?” On my deathbed, I don’t want to
look back and just feel like “Oh, dude, I can’t believe how bent out of shape I was about
that.” Look how! Look what we could have done. So let’s not do that. And I have a
couple of pointers that I can’t think of them now, of course, and I didn’t write them out.
But let me see if I could remember.
7:42 First one. All right. Whatever... Let’s go off book. Let’s go completely off the grid.
First of all, let me talk to you about my first government teacher that I really, really
appreciated, Mr. Woods. Mr. Woods had this deep voice, Mr. Woods. He didn’t say
Mr. Woods, except the first day, “My name is Mr. Woods”, and he write it on the
chalkboard proper, like real actual chalk. But the roll call was funny, every day. This
wasn’t like AP classes. I did not know that you should like strive for AP classes. I
always put that out of reach. If you’re in high school or going to be in high school and
listening to this, get into those AP classes. Because apparently, from what I know, I
dated a girl who was always in AP classes. And she was like, what the regular classes
are like zoo. And I was like, “Oh, yeah. And you didn’t put yourself in that zoo?” She
said, “No, absolutely not.” I was like, “Oh my gosh! They were a freaking zoo.” So the
roll call in Mr. Woods’ class, it was one of the funny things that some of the crazy class
clowns would enjoy. Like, the low voice so almost like, not quite James Earl Jones, but
similar. “You didn’t?” Yes! Yes. Here. “Michael, Paul Rodriguez” Here! You know.
So everybody just kind of, say the name of the person. He just said, like, try to do it in
that low voice.
9:20 But the cool thing that he said was, “The more you know about yourself, the more you
know about government.” And that the government is made up of a bunch of ourselves.
So when we pull back and we watch what’s happening, and we don’t think that we, in
our own lives, in our own spirit, are not part of what’s happening. We are absolutely
kidding ourselves. So let’s make it the healthiest thing possible. “The more you know
about yourself, the more you know about government.” He would say that nearly every
day. And I wish I could remember one of the exact lessons, but it would come back to
and you’d be like, “Oh my goodness, it’s so true Mr. Woods.” More we know about
ourselves, the more we know about government. Where I’m going with that, but it’s 
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not our fault is don’t blame us. This frickin social media and iPhone, and 24-hour news
phenomenon. This came on really quick. We got to adjust. And it says on my Instagram
like profile right now. And if you don’t follow, it’s @ethansharrettofficial.
10:40 I’ve had that up there for a while. I really liked this phrase. I don’t know if I heard it
someplace or came up with it or modified it or something, but it is. I heard about it
somehow. The music choice channel on my cable network that comes with my
apartment, it has these little quotes that come up. And I think I modified something
from that. But anyway, it says that you have got to celebrate the virtues of your political
adversary. I guess it was. Is there a better word for adversary? The person who is on
the other side of you politically. And instead of attacking everything they do wrong, it
might be healthier to say, I’m on your team. If you don’t know, I’m going to let you
know that on the political right, the crazy Neo conservative Trump party, people on the
right end of the spectrum. They have some amazing values that that actually motivate
some of the things that we can look at the bad side of if we want, but really, they are
driven and the people I love are driven by this, they’re driven by, like this love of family,
this love have kind of a unit that appreciates like, this is time on earth. And let’s keep
our family together. And there’s some good wholesome things about time on Earth that
are best when in shared moments. And it’s not even so much about, like a traditional
family. I believe as much as you know, work hard and take care of, of yourself and
those you love. And that motivates a lot of things. And the other thing that’s also really
good. Is there preaching, preaching their attachment to the idea of self-accountability,
and quit your complaining, quit my complaining, take care of yourself, take a good hard
look at what you’re doing that might be hindering you and be real about it. Those are
some things that are not on the political right. Those are some things that are if you are
on the left, you actually really like those when you study yourself, when you study
these, these master guru teachers from Sadh guru, to the Buddha to this author that I
think is amazing that Oprah thinks is amazing study what Oprah says, “Oh my
goodness, look at yourself.
And don’t expect anybody else to see the true value and the true... And the
responsibility for yourself that you have” one of my favorite motivational speakers,
Eric Thomas E the hip hop preacher, on YouTube, just so many teachers are saying,
stop, you’re complaining, stop, you’re looking outside for problems that you can be
distracted by, and work on yourself, whether it’s your own health, your own 
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mindfulness routine, your own finances, do that, focus on that, and, and be grateful.
And through that process of you being healthy, responsible for yourself, working on
yourself, you are going to have this flood of energy that can actually be a positive thing
in the world and share with others. And that self-accountability is one of the other kind
of virtues that I would encourage you to celebrate about that other side. So now let’s do
it on the flip side. I think that was three right so On the flip side, all right. Let’s look at
those. Those wacky left leaning Neo socialist liberals. Those guys that don’t know what
they’re doing, they’re bad. No, no, they’re not. They’re driven by some things that are
like, I see what’s going on. And this is not right, this is taking away, it’s taking away
privileges from people that should frickin have them, like medical coverage. Look at
how many people don’t have a shot at getting good medical coverage, getting a good
job getting a good education, they grew up in poverty. This is a virtue for somebody to
like, dedicate so much of their time to focus on messaging that is centered around, like
the plight of impoverished people, or people who are not being treated fairly. That’s
good. Yeah, both sides are, we can look at what they do. That’s like, bad, but what’s
another good thing about those wacky leftist people, open minded, bring on in some
new ideas, you know, what a good American thing like cutting edge, the cutting edge
of, of how society can be run is, is what we think of as, like the one of the proudest, you
know, memories in the United States is what like Tom Brokaw would have written
about Is he the guy who wrote the greatest generation, some book that got some acclaim
so nostalgic, and the stories about, you know, the troops coming home from D day,
and in a ticker tape parade, when everybody understood that we were actually on the
cutting edge of, of the best way to the best new way to look at things, the best new way
to possibly do things and in, in, in perfect, mega industrialized world, those virtues on
the left, they’re amazing. At and I’m going to break it down like that. So my point is, it
takes a lot of pride sucking up to start doing this, if you’ve built your habits and your
life on, on, on charging up how wrong the other side is. And that’s some pride that when
people are faced with something real in their lives, like, like breaking an addiction. In
an in, maybe it’s just an emotional addiction. I loved going to a classes or classes,
meetings, I don’t do them. I’d like to think that I can drink at a responsible level. Even
though when I try to not drink at all. For days on end, I it’s very difficult. I’m just like,
screw it, I need some wine. But it got me enough, enough interested to go into some of
these meetings, and listen to people pouring their hearts out and they have to frickin
work they work on they rip out the darkness. They rip out what made them feel like the 
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only way to hang on in the past. And they have to let go that they have to friggin let go.
And we might have to do that.
18:43 And I’m going to tell you a personal experience of mine. That, like when you get a
divorce, I bet a lot of people go through this. There’s so much anger, especially when
there’s children involved and at first, you’re just like you’re the enemy, you’re the
opposition, everything you want. I don’t want everything I want. I’m going to have to
fight you to get and everything you say I’m going to flip bad. And every time I
communicate with you, I’m going to be a total prick about it. And that was like the
natural only way to like to control that energy for a while. But when you see people that
are really happy really working on the same team, and I see this a lot, and there’s people
that have understood this. And they got through it. And I was really helped by Ed
Ratchford who is a healer who I interviewed with several episodes ago. Talking I don’t
think I talked about it as much in the interview but like on the phone one time. He was
like a man, even when I realized that it can be so much better to let those things go and
be on the same team. It kind of goes back on what you’ve been doing for a while. But
Holy Jesus that feels so much better. And it helps our children, it helps our souls to be
like me and do what I can. And if I have to say something that you might not like, I
better, I’m going to, like really sugarcoat that and explain it to you in a way that
hopefully we could go somewhere forward, rather than saying, like, you’re your dumb
ass, and this is what I want. And so, the point there is we’re going to have to breathe
through this, and I’m getting messages tonight, like a friend out there who said, I’m, I
can’t do it, I’m going to off myself. If, you know, Trump is elected president. Again.
And I just think that that’s not worth it. And if it’s the other way, you know, I’m afraid
of that happening too, because I’ve seen the crazy energy on both sides. I mean, who.
It’s both. I’m going through this with you guys. And I am trying to give you something
that’s like a new day, but we’re going to have to let go of this. The other side sucks and
starts celebrating some of their virtues and saying that that’s not getting us anywhere.
It’s not. I listened to Kanye West’s interview by Joe Rogan the other day, and that was
awesome. Kanye West is a fun listen. Super smart, super surprising. Really
scatterbrained but because there’s so much going on in that brain. And that guy is not
making the same kind of rap music anymore. It’s still very musical. But he’s like, in
this phase, when it’s all gospel, he’s doing like this, this massive church that he built
and is, is like hiring people to come in and study music and have this amazing, like, 
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choir experience that is like in a giant setting. I can’t remember if he said it holds, how
much it holds 50,000 or more people. I don’t know, mega church experienced super
awesome praise music. And he’s totally dedicated to it now. And like all kinds of other
stuff, including running for president totally talks about running for president. And to
me, it kind of seemed like
22:57 he might have been inspired by the new way that politicians can be a politician, you
can use social media and say anything you want. It doesn’t have to sound like the old
party line anymore. And this, the current president is an example of that. Not only was
it possible to be outspoken, completely at odds with your party, but it actually really
helped and it’s part of the platform and the appeal that gives people so much passion
when they follow him. So after I listened to that, I was like, man, I really liked the way
that guy answered, he’s just going to do what’s really good and rely on awesome
information and the experts around him and make decisions from the heart, honest and
transparent, to make all those decisions even though he doesn’t know what they would
be right now, because he doesn’t pretend to know all the facts. I thought those were
really cool answers he gave to Joe Rogan. And when I looked at that ballot today, I saw
that right in and it crossed my mind right in Kanye West can easily. I can’t remember
why I got started talking about that. Why? Oh, just I’m with you. It’s a really tense
situation right now. But, you know, letting it go is like letting it go. That’s a personal,
deep, deep thing. And it’s not something that really makes sense. Writing things out on
Facebook that much unless you’re one of those really eloquent people that can write
those really engaging things. I got a friend named Caleb who wrote something that was
really eloquent and engaging the other day. Got another friend named Bill Who wrote
something that was not eloquent, but direct, just as direct from, you know, from the
heart. And that was, that was, you know, kind of fun to read about. And the thing is I
don’t, I don’t like these charged things. But you know, I appreciate the people that are
invested in one aspect of culture and what’s going on, I appreciate that I appreciate that
passion. But why is it so big? And what I’m saying is, it’s not just something you can
put on social media, it’s, it’s deeper than that, I really, really am starting to believe that
and if you are actually trying to get through something that must be let go or must be
rethought, from the core view. And if it has to be rethought on the whole of us on the
macro level, and the macro is just a collection of a bunch of micro classes. That means 
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it also has to be done at the individual, the self-level. And those things take that those
11 steps or 12 steps, sometimes those really tearing out what’s inside and saying, I’m
going to be you know, I’m not sure what I’m going to look like or what kind of things
I’m going to say on the other side of this, but I might have to do that. Listen to me
preaching, thinking I got all this good stuff to say. I just don’t want to see you know the
peril anymore. And the mindfulness revolution is going to bring it into and I just like to
see it happen. Sooner, more sooner. More on the student side than on the later side.
27:03 In my mind, I really think that just as I see it picking up steam and in so many subtle
ways that only if you’re really hip to that self-accountability and self-awareness,
practice, and compassion and gratefulness and gratitude. If you’re really aware of those
types of things, you see it everywhere. You see it everywhere. And just checking to see
if my mic is still on. And people don’t really talk about it. But there once you start being
hip to it, it’s a lot of people beating that same. Same tune out. And same, same thing.
And I tell you, it is going to come to an end and let’s just let’s just do it now and be
kind of nice, because remember, screw all of this. That’s the one thing I want to say
screw all of this. There’s a better way. Yeah, a lot more people should have a lot more
money. Yeah, we should not be oppressed by any foreign threats. Yeah, all those things
are true. But also there’s some element of letting go of the accusations and being on the
same side as the people who are in your country, on your earth, in your world. And
that’s what I want to leave you with. Thank you so much for listening. Please make a
comment. If you disagree follow my Instagram @ethansharret officially to see the silly,
ridiculous things I do to try to focus on things like fish and snails and stuff and lighting
a fire in the fireplace which feels good. I have a place with a fireplace and something
about lighting a fire. It’s really rewarding. So we are going to say good night. God bless.
And Namaste and enjoy this because this is what we should all be doing, having fun.
It’s some kind of a festival like this for church because it is a lot like church, I mean a
congregation gathering come on! [Music].