HANDLING DISAPPOINTMENT || Battle Ready - S03E24

[Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] hi my name is aaron mcmanus and welcome to the bad ready podcast in this episode i want to give a little bit of a disclaimer today is the day that we all vote i do talk about who i vote for my dad alludes to who he votes for we talk a lot about politics we talk a lot about how we can disagree we talk a lot about disappointment um but we want to make sure that no matter who you're going to vote for we even if we disagree or you disagree with us that we want to have the permission to disagree by no means is this an episode to lean you one way or the other but i do get a lot of requests as as does my dad on who should we vote for in the middle of all this and so we have a dialogue of how we feel voting one way or the other and kind of my inner turmoil of how i voted and then seeing the ramifications of what that looks like if you disagree with me if you have comments i hope that we can disagree well but watch the vataretti podcast check out this episode and i'm here with my amazing dad for this one welcome to the battery podcast my name is aaron mcmanus and i'm here with my dad irwin mcmanus i am so glad to be here with you aaron this is an exciting week uh tomorrow is actually today is election day well today is election day which will be tomorrow because we're recording this on monday yeah monday for tuesday for tuesday and it is election day which is and you're wearing your i voted sticker i am um wearing an eye voted sticker and i voted so long ago i don't know where that sticker is but i'm also wearing my dodger jersey because yes the los angeles dodgers have won the world series and so i just wanted to give a shout out to l.a okay lakers and dodgers win the championship first time since 1988 where both teams won the championship that was the year you were born i was born 32 years it's been 32 years it's worth a few good things living in l.a right now is that we have two champions yeah that an air one grocery store but the funny thing about this world series is like it actually hurts how like it actually hurts me to think and talk about this because it's been a hard week all right that's why i wanted to do this topic yes today's topic can you can you establish that then we'll go into the subject yes i felt we had both very personal and very uh global issues to deal with and so i wanted to talk about dealing with disappointment dealing with disappointment because um we won't we may not know who wins the election today or tomorrow or next few days or weeks but whichever side you voted for the other side is gonna have to deal with disappointment so how do you deal with not getting what you want but i thought a good place to start with before we get to the election is what happened during the world series because it's very personal it's interesting that you brought up this topic because we actually don't really talk a ton about what we want to talk about until we get here yeah obviously we see each other and we like we'll found some ideas off we'll shoot some texts or we'll call each other this would be kind of a cool topic but today i think we both knew we were just going to show up with this and then you brought it up and you brought the title and and you wanted to talk about disappointment i wanted to talk about um i don't know what i called it what did i call it oh i reserved the right to change my mind but i think we've already done an episode we already did an episode called that yeah we did but i i think that what you really want to talk about was the cultural pressure to conform because if in la if you voted for trump you cannot even say that out loud because you're anathema a good greek word and then if you live let's say in um i can't imagine it's a good thing [Laughter] and and if you live in other parts of the country because kim and i just drove last week through new jersey pennsylvania west virginia virginia tennessee north carolina took a little bit of a road trip yeah and i was overwhelmed because 90 of the trip was filled with trump pence billboards um flags signs on houses everywhere i'd say was a hundred to one trump over biden in terms of what i saw across the country and i would have never i would have never imagined that living in l.a because in la if you actually had a trump sign they would burn your house down this is not really an expression of democracy right now you're also that's not a figure of speech there's actually would be a fear if you were a store that had a trump flag or or sign on it you would get burned down yeah and so then i'm traveling to other part of the country and i realized oh wow here i am across mid-america with um you know this expression of it felt like normalcy of you know houses and homes and farms and you know and and all of a sudden i i i was actually honestly i was shocked that so many people were not only trump supporters but openly trump supporters and i i suppose that if you are in that part of the country and you said you were for biden although i i saw some houses where there's a trump poster then the next house said biden next house had trump next house said biden and i thought i wonder if in this part of the country they're allowed to disagree and still be neighbors uh which i wonder how it's going because here you can't you really can't no but i was getting okay this is the debacle that i've had this week i've had an up and down week they're gonna get into some personal stuff too but but um let's see where do we start uh let's start with the world series and they see yes mse our worship band from mosaic which how do you explain that our church sings music and then the music's really good so capital records signed it and they put out the albums each year and it's pretty awesome so they went to jackson whole wyoming which i don't know if i was supposed to say where they were but they were in wyoming i was with them a couple of our creative guys went out as well a couple friends joined us as well and they were writing music for their next album next album we were documenting some of it trying to like be behind the scenes and kind of show a little bit what's going on behind creating a great documentary film working on a documentary hopefully like a couple episodes long we'll see so i'm there and i'm not entirely sure when it happened but i've i've i've haven't had my license for a while i lost the actual card i definitely have a license and then when i was going to get it renewed covet happened so then my 10-year up or my 10-year expiration yeah renewal for my license was up this year 2020 and then in july it's when my birthday is but then obviously everything with kovid so they sent me a letter saying another six months you can do it in 2021. so i haven't been worried about it i've had my passport it's how i get in everywhere it's out everything happens so to travel you have to have your passport even in the u.s even in the u.s and so then in wyoming i do not know how it happened i don't know if i was riding a bike i don't know if i was running the snow i don't know exactly what was going on because we were popping around from house to house we were going to get food coffees all this stuff i've also been in like a different mode i don't know what is going on i have not been all there with my memory and mentally and i lose my passport the same day that i'm supposed to be flying to meet you and a few friends at the world series in arlington texas because at the last minute i had this this idea let's go to the world series i text five of my friends and i said do you want to go the world series and almost all of them immediately responded yes one of them said well i have to work and i said okay you'll miss out and then he changed his mind really fast and so i i thought six of us could go and experience this uh once in a lifetime kind of moment i figured it's a quarantine based world series in arlington texas and i thought i saw live people there and somebody got in there live why can't we get in there live and for me a huge part of life is having unexpected shared experiences with friends it's one of my highest values so so then i i lose my passport i'm looking for it everywhere i'm with some people from our team they're looking forward to i had you know given carlos all my jackets and i'm like is it in the jacket is it in my bag it is in my backpack it is the coffee shop it was at the restaurant is that the grocery store we stuffed it it was we had touched too many places too quickly and i had no idea is it in the snow buried somewhere so i go to the airport i go through security and as and it was like and i have we're gonna we'll pop a photo up so if you're looking at youtube i'm gonna show you a photo by the time i get to security when you go through security with no id it is like you are the the unabomber they they they they they do everything but strip you naked and search the entirety of every crevice in your body and the best thing was injectable it's not like lax they're the sweetest people in the whole world and he looked at me like are you sure you want to do this and i'm like i'm trying to go to the world series man he's like okay and he proceeds to take every single piece of clothing like every jacket every hat all my shoes the normal stuff and then every piece of thing out of my backpack every headphone every bandana every like vitamin every toothpaste every single thing scanning each and everything separately through that's insane and i'm not no but this is the thing i had a long conversation with him about it he's like look like we unders we just want to make sure america is safe like i want to make sure america is safe i'm the idiot who lost my id i'm not mad at the one situation i'm not mad at tsa and they were very kind and they were very thorough and i missed my plane and so there we were i'm stuck in jackson hole you guys are on your way to arlington you're on a plane and i i went home like a child that day because i knew that i was i knew i was bumming you out disappointing you so badly i went home and just sat there on the couch by myself for like two or three hours i even texted like one of my best friends it was like i missed my plane they weren't empathetic at all and so i just i just kind of wanted to wallow in it and it just it was what it was and i missed the world series and a part of my motivation is to create this great experience for you but you know yeah and it makes it worse because we're actually like a fan like this is the thing like we're a family and like we get very sensitive about missing things so i knew it was gonna i knew you were gonna feel it worse than i would because i would just be mad at myself but you were you were bombed yeah i was really disappointed both of us had to deal with this appointment 32 years old i'm still making my dad disappointed well i i wanted to do something here on battle ready okay i brought you something from the world series that's very sweet that should fit you i don't think it will because i have the smallest head in the whole world so i'm not going to put it on just add it in there no no no literally not going to it's not going to fit it is it's a small oh it fits ah look at that look at that for the thumbnail come on we have to deal with this appointment right now okay here we go putting the hat on wait is this the dodger podcast right now i can't sorry it's absolutely a dodger podcast all right brian there is no colorado rockies gear a lad on his pocket so here's my dodger hat here we are um thank you so much it means a lot it still makes me sad so let's talk a little bit about dealing with this appointment should we talk about the emotional breakdown i had the night before the world series or do you want to skip over you can be as transparent as you'd like we can let's work ourselves backwards so do where do we want to go next we want to talk about politics do we want to talk about well first of all i think everyone who's listening has probably had a time where they had to deal with disappointment they missed out on an opportunity they made a mistake that cost them something that they wanted or loved and i think it's important just talk about it on a personal level where'd you get this the kids store and honestly tell me you get this in the kids store no we were really careful to find a hat that would fit you that means it says world series on it so who's the kid that tried this on was he 12 [Laughter] i don't know what happened my head mariah's head is a bobble head sized head and i just like mine i know mariah has a large head like mine and the mom has it it doesn't matter okay we want to talk about disappointment is that what you're saying yeah so what helped you all right so you missed this opportunity what helped you through it well one i reached out to a friend and they were like well turn yourself around turn it around i was like that's not helpful like you missed the world series like you won't mix it you won't miss it next time i was like okay that's actually really good advice i do think i don't know why like i don't i wouldn't say that i'm like the victim ever but i do feel like sometimes i take on a victim mentality or i take on a mentality where i'm like i let myself get sad and then sad doesn't help anyone sad doesn't help myself sad doesn't it doesn't mean you can't feel that way but it does do something to your own self mentally when you feel like you just let yourself dig a deeper trench a deeper grave and you're just like trying to bury yourself and i don't understand i think it's something that i've dealt with since i was a young kid and i think it's a mentality shift and even though you raised me with this mentality that you'd always say this to me as a kid mcmanus never give up and so i think but then there's so much tied into that like we don't give up but sometimes we don't even try i feel like i don't even try because i don't want to have to get to a place where i give up so i just quit before i quit while i'm ahead you know i don't even begin and i live in a place where i just get afraid and even though it has nothing to do with the world series i do feel like it is odd it is an odd behavior or mentality or a pattern that i have in my life where i deal with disappointment badly so how do i process that a bit better you know one thing that i think came out of it that were i think good learning points were i was really sad and i had to make a decision do i stay in my disappointment because you didn't make it and ruined the evening for these four other guys yeah and we had a brief conversation and what one thing i appreciate is you released me to enjoy the night right and i thought that's one thing you did that was really mature really noble right you're like dad i want you to have a great time right and there was there's almost like a release where i want you to have fun you don't have to be miserable because i'm miserable right i think a lot of times missouri not only loves company misery ensures that it has company yeah we're like the drowning swimmer we want everyone we just want everyone else to drown even if we do it subconsciously we just end up knocking everyone else out but i i do we i had a bad 24 hours i don't really know if we want to go that that much into it but i but but there was definitely something when i was in jackson hole like something emotionally happened like i don't know if it's just living in la the last well last six years of my life and before that in new york and then before that back in l.a but i don't know what it is or if it was just this year or maybe this is the stuff i've gone through this year but when i got to kind of the wilderness when i got to the snow and i went to the cold into the mountains and just this something released in me emotionally because i was struggling heavily and i had reached out to you and you were checking in like are you okay and i'm like i don't think i'm okay and and we kind of got into a fight and i and meaning i was trying to fight you i think and and we were just having like this text thing and i realized so quickly that i can let so many things outside of my own life or some so many things inside of my life affect my mental health or affect my personal well-being or and i do we need to be more guarded or how do we filter these things because i feel like this year has just been incredibly tough disappointing in a lot of ways but also so much good has happened you know what the moments where i'm able to like get a reprieve from my own emotions and like self-talk i realize how much we've accomplished and how much we will accomplish but there's this overwhelming sense of like loneliness and disappointment and frustration of like i went to you this morning and was like if if because we both write a town and we both came back in town i'm like i can't stay in la for another eight months if we shut back down again if the world shuts back down again i can't stay here they took away everything last time like i don't want to do that again yeah but then it's like where do you go and mom was my mom is like a warrior she's like we stand on the ground like what does that mean we stay underground this isn't braveheart man like i could stand my ground somewhere else and facetime the ground and we were having this whole argument and anyways well i i want to um go back because i think you did something else that was really important not only did you release me to have fun and to enjoy myself and i think that's an important thing and disappointment okay is don't bring everybody else down find a way to release other people and uh but you also then said you know give the ticket away find someone who really would want to go and i gave you some suggestions you did and so then i contacted um joshua craft the son of keith craft and they're they've been really great friends and yeah their churches actually helped mosaic financially and um supported us and just beautiful people and he doesn't even like baseball but just and but just the idea of getting to hang out to me the gift was you don't even really like baseball i just love experiences well we do like play-off baseball that's different yeah the world series is different and and one of the guys one of the guys in our team kevin pena uh he's a huge dodgers fan i think he was born with blue blood and um in a system and one of things that gave me so much joy was taking him because it's an opportunity probably he wouldn't get at this time in his life right i mean one day he'll he'll have the wealthy you have it so good kevin penny can we talk about this you have it so incredibly good you're welcome yeah but you know to me it's like all those times where kevin ran out for me to get me something i needed or pick up coffee or just you know uh grab my luggage or grab something i forgot and just do with such kindness and grace and joy that's just a way to for me to say kevin thank you so much and i love you and i hope you had a uh an experience you'll never forget and it's interesting because i follow this weird account on instagram now and i genuinely it's like anonymous or like something random but it's all this dirt this is really bad i should not follow this as like but it's all his dirt on like celebrities that text into this huge instagram and then he posts the text but he keeps people anonymous and so it's like you can tell when it's like throwing a like a big celebrity under the bus and then they're like yeah i was their personal assistant for three and a half years and they did this this this and this and i'm like well at least kevin can never throw you under a bus he's like yeah everyone took me to the world series and like well but not to say i should unfollow that account but like josh had this great experience yeah and and i think sometimes when you're dealing with disappointment uh a great thing to do is to turn it outward and go how can i bless someone else how can i serve someone else how can i add value to someone else's life and that instantly turned that moment to something really good i think josh sent you a text saying i'm sorry you missed world series but i'm glad you did yeah it was very backhanded it was very it was like i'm so sorry you missed word series but i'm kind of glad you did because then i got to go and hang out with your dad and all his friends and i love josh and he's the best yeah we've texted since he sends me the best encouraging text but i think that one of the things that happens in disappointment is that our our brains interconnect experiences so when we have a negative experience what ends up happening is every similar experience in our life is suddenly flooding into that moment so do you think this disappointment connects like a daisy chain into our past we're disappointed here it fires this line of like every time i've ever just been disappointed in my entire life yes and that's people who people who are overwhelmed by disappointment or a moment of disappointment um usually are not good at releasing the disappointments of the past do you feel like that's the case though in other situations in our life like do you feel like if someone who gets angry easily it's because it's connected to moments where they've been angry in their past or do you feel like when people walk away from conversations and get really mad do you feel like that's because maybe someone walked out on them in their past and i mean this because i like have deep abandonment issues trash issues all these things so i'm like when i is it is it something that is are all things like this or is it just disappointment no i think it's every human emotion and especially the ones that remain unchecked and so if you've been betrayed a thousand times in the past the moment it looks like someone's betraying you you project it as betrayal and if um so how do we be disappointed people who don't live disappointed lives that's a really good question well i think you have to decide which memories you will allow to be pulled into a moment so you're saying well so is that selective memory is that repressing stuff that you should it's not repressing but i do think it's selective okay and everyone has selective memory uh people who are filled with negative memories are being incredibly selective and only keeping the negative memories and people who seem to be optimistic and keep positive memories they are being selective they're choosing to highlight the positive memories in their life and so i had to make a decision that night would i let that memory be completely defined by the disappointment of you not making it interesting and or was i going to let that evening be defined by the joy that all these people that i brought together were experiencing that moment i did feel like because you were calling me and so is eric roy and you two are both uh emotional young men and i thought you both were gonna cry and i'm like i'm the one who should cry i'm the one not going to the world series hanging out with my friends but also i didn't but i was also just pissed at myself because i was i was upset with myself for missing it and making such a stupid error we've talked about this in the past it is wild how you can be so in love with someone and then they hurt you so bad and then six months later you don't remember all the dumb things they did to you and they or maybe you did to them both sides but you remember how much you loved them like do you think certain emotions are more powerful than others like is love more powerful than disappointment well i don't know if that's love as much as it is loss i think sometimes we confuse the emotion of um almost like um of not buyer's remorse but losers remorse that when when we lose a relationship it's almost like we want it back more than we wanted it when we were in it and i don't think that's love i think it's dysfunction yeah i've definitely told yeah dysfunction i've definitely told you i need to get out of the situation i don't know how and then you're like why six months later why are you still in the same situation yeah because i don't know how but you do know how what you really mean is i don't want to right but with disappointment i feel like the difference like you could have easily stayed disappointed with me afterwards but you didn't you released it pretty quickly you're like are you good you called me later that night you're like are you good i'm like yeah i'm good i'm annoyed with myself and you're like okay then i'm moving on me too then i thought okay we're gonna get a hat we'll make you a part of the experience as much as we can all right so let's make this bigger now well hold on i want to i want to set this up all right but you can set it up no no you set it up go on so we're talking about disappointment how to handle disappointment how it's okay to leave disappointment and move on you good yeah so how are we going to deal with half the country being disappointed on tuesday tomorrow today why are you listening which is why i thought this podcast was so important because did i set that up oh you set it up so well and because you missing the world series is a personal disappointment it's a family disappointment it's a dad's son kind of disappointment we wanted this experience together but right now we're going to face a national crisis of disappointment that was justin turner's swing by the way if you weren't sure keep going and i i know in um in the last election that uh hillary clinton i think won the popular vote by three million votes i think it's three million and um and i don't know the entire number of people who voted um as opposed to our population we can fact check this and then we can add in at the end if you want but but but say what you're going to say and then we were like we'll break it down you know let's let's because i understand i understand yeah you know because we have over 300 million people in our country right and so let's say um 100 million are disinterested they're just apolitical and don't care but maybe 100 million people would lean toward hillary clinton and do you have the numbers for the voting last time yeah there was around uh 130 million votes in the population and she won the popular vote by about three million right okay so the 130 would be divided almost in half yes it was 65 million to 62 million right so you're looking at 65 to 62 million people i'm assuming more than that number actually care but they don't vote yes you know because a lot of people protested after um president trump won but we find that many of those people didn't vote and so i'm gonna i'm just gonna throw it up to a hundred million but at least it's 60 million on each side so i know for certain that at least 60 million people are going to be disappointed tomorrow either 60 million plus who voted for donald trump the joy ju but joe biden becomes president or 60 million plus who voted for joe biden and donald trump becomes president and my question is does how you deal with disappointment say less about the issue and more about your character see because i i think that we have a a generational crisis in that um when you have a generation who let's say voted democrat for president obama and those were their first two elections brian did you start did you vote for president before obama no obama's my first here's your first presidency and how old are you right now i'm 29 29 so oh you voted for the second term you voted you voted in that election because he was first elected in 28 2008 you're 29 i'm 32 so i would have voted in both and you voted both times right yes i voted both times a lot of the times i remember driving three hours to get to my home town to from college to vote is it okay for me to say who you voted for back then well i'm going to go into that okay all right so brian is alright if i talk about you okay because what i'm saying is like you're a generation where from all your memory who you wanted was elected president through the two terms with president obama yeah and and then suddenly it's not the democrat it's the republican and there was a really a negative reaction to that and i think a huge part of that wasn't just political it was um the psychological trauma of never experiencing disappointment before of not knowing what it feels like to lose and not knowing how to lose with elegance or with honor and uh and like i'm 62. so i i've seen the full weight of democrats republicans republicans democrats who would have been the president when you like when you first can remember who was the first president you remember well i mean the first president i remember was john kennedy wow so i've been around a long time oh wow and and you know so i would have been a person who i would be one of those people who loved john kennedy right wanted robert kennedy to be president um but i wasn't a big fan of lbj you know i i i would be one of those people who was not for richard nixon and um and probably would i i came to faith around the time of jimmy carter um around 1978 jimmy carter became president in 1976 so i'm giving you way too much history but um and i was not a follower of christ so the first time i ever saw the phrase born again was i think the cover of time magazine with jimmy jimmy carter's face on it so um my understanding was that the christian party was the democrats there was i keep going i'm gonna google it it's crazy i didn't know so in 1980 was when ronald reagan uh won the first time through and it's funny i don't have all this memorized this is just my common memory of the history and um and i remember at that time being so um much more of a democrat that i couldn't imagine anyone ever voting for ronald reagan and it's because that was my background in so many ways and and then in the middle of that time i i had kind of um some i spent 10 years working with urban poor my economic philosophy began to change um i began to realize a lot of my views for creating a better world for dealing with social inequity dealing with economic inequity dealing with racial injustice were probably not as functionally effective as i'd hoped and uh and so i began looking at things on a much much more broader level but all i'm saying is that there was a time in my life i remembered christians were the democrats and then their timeline for all sudden all the christians were republicans and and you were alive during the switch yeah and and it's really interesting to me that we live in this era where if you're quote a christian you're supposed a certain way but i was a pastor of a black church for nearly 10 years of my life and anyone who's really involved in black culture knows that black churches historically have been very political uh they would tell you who to vote for in church that wasn't even abnormal it wasn't even seen as a contradiction of separation of church and state and that oftentimes black churches were democratic and uh in their view or democrats and then uh it was it was only in the 80s with the moral majority and all of them where you suddenly had like white evangelical churches becoming political more and um and then all of a sudden now it becomes a question of separation church and state it was never an issue on the on the democrat side but did become an issue on the republican side and all this to lead to this moment of going kim asked me she said i'm so tormented about who i voted for i don't even know if i voted for the right person i and i looked and i said honey i i can guarantee you that no matter who you voted for you voted for the wrong person and right and and why did you say that though well because there isn't a right person because they're uh and from my perspective um neither one of them express who i am or or the world i want to create and then behind the individuals because you're not always voting for an individual sometimes you're voting for a party and sometimes you're voting for policies and and when we try to personalize everything we're actually being very limited in our thinking some people are voting for an individual they may love joe biden or they may love donald trump but some people may be voting for those individuals with um with an asterisk they may not love joe biden they may not love donald trump but they believe in the party and then some people go i don't know if i believe in the party but there's some particular policies that are really important to me and i'm voting for those policies and and that's why when you demonize people and go oh everyone who votes for trump is a racist i i think it's really um unhealthy and it's uh unfair and and if you demonize everyone who votes for biden and say oh you're a socialist i just think it's it's it's absurd and and equally um destructive to our cultural conversation people vote in very complex ways and i hope they're voting in a very thoughtful way but my question isn't not even about who you voted for well i don't agree with that statement which do not actually think people vote in very complex ways i think voting is very complex because there's a lot of confusion but i do think most people vote in the most simplest form you're probably right okay i'll concede my point and say i think vote well no i think when you say everyone votes for the same reasons that's what i mean it's not true i don't know who says that well you're saying that well when you say everyone who votes for trump is a racist right everyone who votes for biden as a socialist that's when you use these like big generalist like your generals legitimizations these big umbrella statements about trump people or biden people you start we start we we we we're we're playing a very dangerous game now in the us yeah and i was listening to uh the joe rogan kanye west podcast i only made it like it's so long i made it through an hour and 20 minutes and even then i was like i'd rather listen to kanye's record so i switched it over but he did make one really i love kanye like love him or hate him i've been i've i love kanye and incredibly nice person the time i got the few times i've gotten to meet him the this is one thing he said that i thought was really funny he says to joe hogan that presidential debate that's family business that should not have been televised for the whole world i agree with that 100 percent he's just breaking down he's like you want the whole world at your dinner table with your wife no with your mom no so do not let the whole world he's like the whole world things were crazy because we're in a time in our history a time in history where we don't all agree and we agreed when we disagree very adamantly he's like that stuff needs to be maybe the u.s only and then slowly release over time you kind of wish that our political process was a private process and it does feel like the world stage right it does feel like whether you like it or not whether we like it or not it does feel like the whole country and i'm not saying the us is the most important country in the world that's what i'm saying i'm just saying i think because the us has had such an influence on culture historically that we there's so many eyes on the country and then it does sometimes some bad more bad than good yeah and you know it it does feel like we're shutting back down again coveted wise not so much us but a lot of major um cities that are blue no la is really gonna quarantine i bet you yeah and and we're hearing from europe and london london said they're completely shut down shutting everything back down and so it feels like it's gonna trickle back into the states i was just in wyoming people you know people did make sure hey can you make sure you have your mask on and and but people were really kind about it people weren't very nervous people were very sweet about things and then i went to arizona and that is where things got weird and that's what i want to talk about because arizona's a swing state right now isn't it yeah they're swinging for something because i get a lot of emails on the battery pack you're listening from arizona we love you you know i actually i'm looking at at houses over there i really love you i really i really love anywhere i can go outside and and go inside and eat food and go outside and feel normal and not have to worry about you know someone yelling at me or crossing the street because i'm walking and you said that i was like waving at you when people were saying hi who were talking like i was driving my car looking through like looking around neighborhoods and i had a friend showing me around and people were saying hi to us waving and and i was like do you know them like no i don't know them just so you but your people are nice here you said something's a little bit unusual yes but i wanna preface it by this i get a lot of emails on the podcast um email and aaron batteradypodcast.com i get so many emails if you email me please be patient i'm coming i have over 200 emails in there i got to get back to every time i get it down to like 150 it goes back up so i'm just you know here we are one actually this last week was on abortion and pro-choice pro-life and it was a young guy and it was just being very transparent very vulnerable like i voted for this president because i'd you know believe this this and this but then i do not like this candidate because this isn't this and he's like i'm just so confused very raw and very like hey can you help me how do you walk through the process so you know from my side i'm going this is the podcast side this is my personal opinion this is how i feel and this is how i wrestle with it biblically and spiritually but also hum in a human in a humane human way because i do think that i i don't know and then maybe you can this is and i want to be more honest and i'm nervous about this because i do think that our friends who are awesome and cool and intelligent and successful most of your friends my friends are all pretty young um and they're all cool but not quite successful yet we're getting there um i feel like i'm gonna get a lot of judgment from your friends people who i really respect people who are artists and that i look up to and so this is this is an email i got this week from courtney i'm nervous aaron i deeply respect the views you and your dad sharon battle ready and i and i am aware you refuse to say on the podcast who you will slash have voted for i'm looking forward to hearing irwin dissect whoever wins the presidency but i'm honestly fearful of either one of them trump or biden staying slash becoming president i want to vote but i don't know how to cast my ballot the choice isn't clear all that's clear for me are the things i don't agree with on either side my conscious ways heavy would you be willing to share your thoughts would you be vulnerable and tell me who you were voting for thanks for any insight courtney maybe i shouldn't have but i was feeling very free and open this morning and i you know i preached for the first time this last sunday and i'm out of breath because i'm actually really nervous and i've dealt with a lot of anxiety coming up to sunday and i've dealt with a lot of relationship stuff friend stuff work stuff mental stuff like everything that could have possibly gone wrong in probably a week and a half and it's crazy how it works because like i do feel like on one side of my my life i am called to to speak and and have and i don't know if it's to be a pastor but to speak and to and to help people and to walk people through maybe the things i've done right or wrong but then also on the other side i absolutely hate doing it and not hate doing it i feel incredibly uncomfortable doing it so it's not so much that i dislike anyone in the process i responded like this and then we might cut this out we might bleep out some names actually so these are not cuss words these are just me saying who i voted for or maybe brian might bleep them out out of my own protection i responded this i voted for obama twice and hillary once and then i voted for trump because i am a democrat whose party has abandoned itself i don't fully believe in calling the left socialists as fair but it isn't entirely wrong there's a brilliant podcast with sam harris who's a democrat atheist talking about why he left why the left is divided and it is being taken over by socialists and then i go to red states and feel nervous the red state i went to was arizona and feel nervous about its aggression but i live in a very blue state that lit itself on fire and pillaged its own stores and i'm a little disgusted i love my gay friends and want them to have rights i believe god would never take away our right to choose even our own demise in parenthetical thought i said he still let eve pick from the tree even after he told her not to i don't look for the perfect choice because i've never been the perfect choice i look for the choice that frees that i feel frees the most people and keeps the government small given and i said i hope this helps aaron given i hope she doesn't work for the times and any of the times it could be like the the you know the jackson times it i say that meaning this like i voted for who i voted for the most recent but i want to start with the first one because i was at school at pepperdine a wildly conservative school who's the head of who the dean of the law school was ken starr who was fighting against gay rights who led the impeachment of president clinton yes who also was the lead council like advisor to i think against prop 8. was it prop 4 no it's prop 8. sounds right prop 8 right i never remember which way he basically was saying gay people should not get married right and i made sure i drove three and a half hours to and i loved this school i very much loved this school drove three and a half hours to get back home to where my ballot was so i could vote for the first time for president barack obama and i would would the right terminology be against prop no i'd be pro i'd be voting for prop 8 right four games right prop 8 eliminated the right of same-sex couples to marry so i'd be voting against prop 8 yeah so i voted against prop 8 which i remember sitting at the dinner table with mom having a huge conversation about it because that was it was very controversial back then that was a big deal for me especially growing up the way we grew up you never put any political pressure on us you've always been very political very politically um uh i don't know how to say it like not switzerland because you definitely have strong beliefs i think i was politically i was neutral in terms of party but not necessarily always neutral in terms of policies yes so you always helped us on the ideas and the ideals but you didn't but and you always kind of just let us figure out who we felt was the right candidate yeah so and even what policies you were really committed to right i never tried to impose those on you no and you never disagree now that you never disagreed you would say if you disagreed but there were it was always deeper it was always more more of a human conversation it was more about the why the why and do you understand what this means and do you do what is it actually that you're fighting for and will you know and and so i think now why is it 12 years later from the first time i voted for the first presidency i voted for in the first election that i voted in i'm now wildly disappointed in the party that i've grown up in i say that because i've always had conservative values and very liberal human rights values because i've always believed that that i've always believed biblically and humanly and politically that god gave us the right to choose and not and i'm not saying this in the way political form saying that literally god has always given us the right to choose to live with god or to not and so it's for you it seems hypocritical to vote for the government to eliminate people's right to choose one guy doesn't eliminate our right to choose whether or not i agree with the choice i have to feel like i believe that god disagrees with so many of my choices and yet he doesn't take my choice away from me he wins me with love right i say that very nervously because i understand what the right will think though i am i think very right and very not right wait now we're getting amazing though i do feel that i lean very conservatively more now than ever and so but i also say this and i reserve the right to change my mind later because i vote for trump and then i left for jackson hole and then i was mad because mom said she would drop off the ballot and then she didn't and then it was like this whole thing and i was like mad so like oh it was this funny thing and then she was like oh i dropped off the ballot everything's good and then i go to arizona and then i see all these kids with like trump flags and these trucks and these like wealthy people with bumper stickers and i asked my friend like do you feel nervous when you're in la because how much like biden harris presence there is and they're like yes and i'm like it's interesting because i feel even though i voted that way i was very much second guessing my vote because of the people that were like associating with and so i had this in and i called everything we talked about i'm like i have i'm having this in i'm having a lot of inner turmoil because i don't feel like i voted for that president even though i did i voted for maybe that party because i know how much actual disdain you've had thoroughly dislike him thoroughly like adamantly vehemently he does bothers me but i also believe that less government is better than more government when the people who will have the more government a bigger government aren't the right people to be running it and and i and i'm totally okay with you disagreeing because sometimes i wake up and i disagree with my own self yeah i i i think the a huge part of the dilemma is um even when the person that i vote for wins i find myself oftentimes disappointed and um and so you have to you can't look to the election to solve all your problems for the human dilemma that that's why we really are about jesus and that and we really do believe that the revolution he started is the one that makes the world better and makes people better and they create a better future and you know our our neighbor but then mom said can i write jesus in and you said absolutely no that's a cop-out because jesus isn't running for president [Laughter] he's the savior of the world but he's not the president the united states right right so he's the hope for humanity but but and it bothers me when christians try to act like the president is god's chosen one to save america but i think that works both ways because if trump was the chosen one then obama was chosen twice right yeah it was the chosen one christians keep changing their mind they go oh no that's god's person and i go well how come i never heard you say that with president obama but but it also flips because i remember when president obama won the election the first time yeah and ap called me from washington yeah and they asked appreciated press associated press and they said to me what's it feel like to have the first non-christian president and i said i have no idea what it feels like because president obama is a christian and and they said what i said heaven you read his autobiography i said he at least three times talks about his encounter with jesus and they go what and i'm going you're associated press and you're trying to promote him as a non-christian president i said do you know why you don't know he's a christian she goes well why i said because you like him yeah and you don't like christians so you can't put them in that category look president obama is the only president who ever invited me to the white house multiple times i i i'm he's the only only one you've said yes okay maybe he's the only one who said yes to all right so let's be specific but he's the only president i know of that ever had easter services in the white house yeah and the first president in modern in us history to do that and and so i i mean the first time i met president obama and uh joe biden was actually at the easter service in the white house so don't tell me that just because a person is a democrat that there's no faith there and you're not a democrat i'm not you're not a republican i am not you my friend my father confused me i do not believe that we should be in um imposing our our beliefs or morality on people through political power yeah and and so i'm a person who would never try to limit anyone's freedom and even if they disagree with me and i know that pastors don't understand it because i think a lot of pastors think that governments should be manipulated to force a nation to act like it's christian and i think that actually goes contrary to the scriptures and to the message of jesus i think it hurts the gospel see mosaic is here for liberals and conservatives mosaic is here for democrats and republicans mosaic is here for libertarians and the green party because jesus died for the world we're campaigning because we're both nervous right now no i it makes me mad i know it makes you mad it makes you mad because you're very friends that will be mad at you for what i said they'll never listen to me speak again they'll they will never invite their friend to listen to me speak again cannot get over the fact that i'm a democrat that voted republican and is has been won over but i've always been more conservative in so many other ways but you grew up in la there's no way i'm not gonna want my friends to have rights there's no way like this is political this isn't this isn't this is political this is human rights this isn't biblical and what i actually believe in as far as what god wants for us and maybe that's maybe i'm not there yet maybe i need to mature maybe i need to grow maybe i don't know maybe i need to like figure it out more but but right now where i'm at i know that i'm offending a lot of people and it bothers me because i'm like no we should be able to we should actually want to go somewhere that disagrees with us but still preaches still speaks to truth because i've never leaned either way in a message if anything to my disgust i've prayed for my enemies because i believe it says that in matthew 5 44 pray for your enemies those who persecute you god calls us to do it and i feel like there has been many times in this in very in the last few presidencies where i feel like lots of different people have been persecuted in unfair ways and i've prayed for every president that i've ever lived under i think when i prayed in my praying season but i do i do more than anything dislike that you are not allowed to disagree you're not allowed to think a different way you're not allowed to vote a different way in either one because i probably would have never voted right if i hadn't witnessed what i witnessed in la you know what i mean because that was that was a debacle that was crazy and i lived and i lived literally in the middle of my front door during most of it and you look at it and i'm going like both far left far right is very dangerous right now it feels like and i'm like how do we get back to a place where things can level out and get to okay we disagree we believe very different things but we all want to better society better our country and better the world through the product of our politics and the things that we believe but i feel like we're so far from that space do you think we can ever get back there again in the condition that we are in now well that's why i wanted us to do this podcast is it feels like things are going to get worse before they get better and and what to me is fascinating is that we can't make this nation better until we can actually accept each other with our different views and you know we had a neighbor walk by walking her dog and kim started talking to her yesterday and and uh and she they started talking politics almost instantly which i'm surprised you know your mom was talking politics and of course the woman because it's our neighborhood you know said um i voted for biden and she assumed you know that everyone did you know that we all we should jump into that too but keep going yeah and and and and kim said also you you like biden and she goes well what i know is i voted against trump and and i think it's it's time we have a woman in the highest office and i and i said so you didn't actually vote for biden you vote for kamala and she goes yeah i think it's i think it's time for a woman to hold for women to have the highest offices and then she went on to speak really in a in a in an incredibly negative way about um the new supreme court justice who's a woman and i thought how interesting how she was saying kamala harris needs to be president because she's a woman but this woman should not be a supreme court justice even though she's one as i realize we're not really honest about even why we're doing what we're doing or maybe we're not even aware of it because if she was four women she would be for both those women and i'm going it's really interesting i think a lot of people are voting for kamala they're not actually voting for biden yeah um and well she's probably the stronger of the two candidates or people yeah and and i i'm honestly i'm upset because the democratic party had four years to give us a better candidate and and and democrat party had eight years with president obama to raise up some really great candidates and the republican party to me um was um unexpectedly co-opted by donald trump i don't think there was a single person in the republican party who expected that to happen not one and i don't think they were happy about it and i also think they got bamboozled because donald trump wasn't a republican he was a democrat until more recent times that's the other thing that the that that no one wants to talk about either yeah basically about the dmv with a friend he's talking about how all the people that he works with are big actors big athletes big business and how they all have like these bite and hair signs outside their house and he's like because i i work with him a lot i see how they actually vote and we talk about it and he's like not one of them are voting for biden harris they're all they all have the flags they all donate they all do the things publicly they all post about it not one of them now one of them when i ask them are you are you voting like no not not at all like not gonna vote for that i'm gonna gonna always save my money and and and make sure i don't pay taxes it is wildly true across the la yeah and and uh i you know i go to a um a person i'm one of their clients and they have a lot of famous clients but almost all their clients are black except for me and um and they told me that every single one of their clients who's a black man is voting for trump but quietly but they can't say it out loud right they'll never work again in l.a pretty much right which is pretty true across the board right and and part of the reason we're having this conversation on tuesday is we're not trying to influence people's voting we're actually trying to influence people's thinking yeah i don't i i want to say this though the reason why i'm talking about who i'm voting for is because you can be mad at me i don't care whatever i'm mad at me what do i lose like you have more to lose in this and and and i don't mean that in a bad way but i mean it in this like i think i'm always going to be the example on this podcast but i i don't say who i'm voting for to make you mad or to to like help sway you i say that going like just be able like don't if you have friends you can't be who you really are with they aren't your friends if you work in a city that will not hire you despite whether you agree with them or disagree with them you should get out like this mentality that we're like completely succumb to and controlled by this this thinking of if you are not left or if you are not right you cannot survive inside of our world in our circle i think that's got to go that's good that's going to die and i look at our room right here and i know we have people in this room who voted for the democratic party i know we have people in this room who voted for the republican party and are terrified to say and they don't want me to single them out and um and they're laughing in the background i also know there are people in this room who voted for the libertarian party and i imagine there are people in mosaic who voted for the green party although that probably didn't uh show up on this there's a green party in the u.s yes i i don't think anyone in our in our group here voted for kanye but no i don't think either and uh that would be an interesting thing and i think that we would definitely redesign the white house and it would definitely get very cool and would definitely have great church services at the white house maybe we would change the um the star small banner something something like that gospel would be pretty pretty it's pretty dope and uh but i i think here's the thing mosaic to me is the idea of a better future yes and what is the better future where we can actually have dissenting views and believe that everyone is well motivated to make the world better and that we don't have to use fear to coerce people into conformity of ideas if you believe your ideas are better then just communicate your ideas and let the better idea elevate and um we have better conversations here off the mic with our dissenting views a lot of times that we have on the mic uh because off the mic we're all committed to each other and we know that even if we disagree we're going to come through this together as a community and this is what's so important to me that we learn as americans maybe to once again embrace each other as americans i'm an immigrant i love this country i love belonging to this country i love being an american i mean even when i would hear things like well you know i think sometimes at some point along the way like bernie sanders had a view of a 90 percent tax and no no you were saying something though i'm sorry i took you off the you were off the course but yeah i know what i'm saying is that we need to learn how to be an american family we learn how to be for each other we do uh we need to make sure that we don't collapse as a society because we are always against each other and creating um we demonize the other side and i love the fact that in our own family we can have dissenting views dissenting positions dissenting uh perceptions on how to make the world better and still love each other respect each other and move forward together i think that's who mosaic is and you know mosaic is a church a community filled with democrats and republicans it's a it's a community filled with liberals and conservatives we have people at mosaic we call themselves socialists or anarchists we have people and mosaic who would call themselves uh tea party and libertarian and apparently the green party and and yeah there are people in our church where environmentalism is the most important issue in their life i am not i'm only joking that i'm only joking i genuinely do care about the environment more more than i ever have before so that's just and i think you need to realize that yes um presidential elections are not permanent no and and whatever happens today um deal with your disappointment as an american citizen in a democracy uh and because frankly no matter who wins i am going to be deeply disappointed and i'm just telling you i agree with you i actually think that there are things that if um if the republicans win that i will be deeply disappointed and there are things if the democrats win i'm going to be deeply disappointed and i have to live in the reality of this disappointment but i'm not going to let the disappointment define me i'm going to use the material of that environment to create a better world i am not limited by whether donald trump or joe biden becomes president i am limited by my own fear my own apathy my own inertia i can create a better world with either one of them in power i can create a better world with either party in charge and and i i i just think that to put all your power into you can i can't that is the that is the difference no you can't no no no but i'm not saying no i i can theoretically but there are certain there are certain aspects that i cannot get out of if i'm not allowed to be like the ramifications financially living in california in my tax bracket is so incredibly hard i'm not alone either there's thousands and thousands of kids la's becoming almost impossible to live in it will not get better with with with one party or the other there definitely needs to be like a reform across the board with both parties of like how we live in major cities how we construct schools we talk about this all the time how could you have raised us in this city you to go to a decent school you have to pay like a college fee to like send your kid to school in l.a if you live in l.a you can go 30 minutes outside and you can go to a public school but it's probably very terrible i the thing i the thing i worry about is you're talking about inside of our own mind taking control of our own life we can make things better if we choose to make things better not just for ourselves but for other people and and how how do you make that a reality but to not let parties monopolize how our thinking is structured you're a person who actually fights for people to have choice you believe that women should have choice even though i don't agree with the choice yeah you're a person who actually has stood for gay rights yes but that i will i'll never change yeah probably never and you believe you fight for these things yes and at the same time you're also a person who believes in a meritocracy you you don't want the government taxing you more and more and more and and you want an opportunity to create a future that's based on your willingness to work hard your talent your your drive your determination i don't want to be taxed heavily so let me live in the wild west of you know maybe i get less from the government maybe i don't get certain aspects but i get taxed less so i'm able to do more business if you want a a fully you know 360 government where you know you take a certain check take the 75k but then let the rest of us go and fight for the for the billions and trillions and millions and everything else because i do think it's a tough thing when you're in both when you're like okay but i want all the support but then i want the potential to get all of the capital and i'm like no take the support but then let the rest of us get the capital no i don't know i'm just like okay like is the idea of do you want to eat at the buffet or do you want to go hunt you might starve you see and i want to go hunt but do you but you might also but you might also get i may go hungry that's right i may go hungry because i i don't catch anything and i'd rather die in the wild yeah but know that i eat by my own hands than get free stuff but thank you for not letting from not making me pay around who's here so i'm super grateful for that he was in here i'm sure he was eating at the buffet but i think but i was honest but at the same time i want to make sure people in our society in our nation who are um living in poverty who do not have opportunity who have fewer options for breaking the cycle of poverty to have more and more opportunity and i want us as a society to find ways to create that common good for everyone i just don't think it's bigger and bigger government i think it's it's it's bigger and bigger human commitment you broke the cycle of poverty how did you do it yeah i don't think people realize how poor i was yeah people don't people don't accept that i though i grew up in your poverty yeah because i wasn't poor i was a kid i was happy it's funny because when i i don't post pictures of of things like the world series really because i just i get tired of all the hate but some of my friends who went posted the photographs and someone saw them and and then they sent me a dm wow you must be really rich and and so i'm just going to give a disclosure right here i am really rich and uh oh man because there it goes this is the one that's going to get us and because i've worked my butt off as a futurist i've i've worked as a writer as a consultant i've owned multiple companies in my life i've run five companies at one time and sold a few and i was always basically the biggest giver to the church at our church and so no not almost always pretty much always until you made a few other friends that are wealthier than you that didn't go to mosaic who started giving to mosaic because yes they were your friends only in the last few years wealthier people have been giving to mosaic but before that kim and i were the biggest givers to the church and so when people indict you for success i i think it's one of those odd things where i i'm a business person who gave us volunteer time to be a pastor and to build the church how was that unethical so i can't afford to go to the world series and i can't afford to create experiences for other people and i do but there was a time in my life where i didn't have enough money to wash clothes i was working minimum wage jobs i was filping hamburgers i was working construction i worked as a as a lumberjack i worked as a carpenter and uh and there were times where i would just sit and even when i would weep not knowing if i could eat or pay the bills or make it through another day and then when kim and i were married uh we slept on the floor because we could not afford a bed i don't think from the age of 18 to 32 i made more than sixteen thousand dollars a year sixteen thousand dollars a year at my highest income a lot of those years was eight thousand ten thousand you turned down money you turned down money left money on the table absolutely turn down incomes of hundreds of thousands of dollars do you think you should have taken those now i'm asking no i'm asking no no because i wonder this i want to i wonder this would you take the same road twice well i like variety so i take a different road yeah no like logic would say no never right you no one would ever take the same road twice because you've learned no i i turned down seven-figure opportunities and i probably probably should have taken them it would have created more freedom for me later i didn't realize that i was limiting my opportunities because at that time in my life i was anti-materialism anti-wealth and i i had this i was actually very much in in some ways like a socialist and um and i i believed that money was evil but you were very you very much had martin luther vibes and and and in the reformation like you were very much i was a monasticist yeah you were anti-money in the church you were anti-big church money you were anti-big economy you did not like the the showiness of pastors in the church and just in even a broad level i just didn't like the corruption of what i saw was walton and i began dealing with the heart issues that corruption had nothing to do with wealth or poverty had to do with the human condition and that if i had the capacity to create wealth it was it was evil for me to not create wealth to provide good for others when did that switch happen for you when did that light bulb switch from going like okay like i i instead of trying to take the system down and doing it my own way completely and entirely and and and because i see it sometimes even the way you like connect with certain people and don't you never connect with someone based off of their economic value no almost to the point of your own detriment where i'm like that person could actually help dramatically change the situation of certain things whether investing in a project or whether giving you've turned down people's money to our church because you didn't feel like you came from the right place yeah and what switched when you were like nope okay god god gave that thing to me the spiritual gift of gender like generous being like being generative being generous and i'm going to actually create wealth and do this thing i i literally came home one day and told kim i think god just gave me permission to go create walls how old are you um 33 34. interesting and kim said what she goes you know how to make money that's funny that's really funny i said i've always known how to make money i started a business when i was 15 years old i i knew how to create wealth i i was financially independent from before i was out of high school and i was bringing groceries to my family and um you know i was working 40 hours a week in my junior and senior year and and um i i've always known how to create wealth and that's something my grandparents and my mom taught me and and so she goes well if you know how you know go for it you know and and it was a mindset shift because i realized that i was actually living a very selfish life because i i felt noble by living a minimalist life but true nobility would be for me to create jobs for other people yeah and to create opportunity for other people and um and and then i had to work my way through giving myself permission to enjoy the benefit of that work it was hard for me to enjoy the benefit of like buying clothes or buying shoes decades decades it took me decades decades because i think i inherited that because i remember you would send me to college and and i had the gift of of not having to work i would work in the summers i think i think i was i think i did your fulfillment for your books back like when amazon first existed and it was dial up internet and i would ship 12. i remember i shipped 60 books and it took me like almost 12 hours because this the internet was so insanely so and i was like dad i can't like i i don't think i can't do this no one can do this but we did your first fulfillment and i think you made me the janitor when your companies i think you like i started you below the bottom below the bottom i would drive from pepperdine which is in malibu i lived a nice life in in college and and i would drive all the way to um to to downtown l.a and i would scrub your office and you had this like one room that was all vintage materials and it smelled so bad and you'd be like you got to organize this so i'd do that from like i don't know do you remember this i would do it from like 9 00 p.m 10 p.m to like three in the morning i drive back to school and wake up for class and i remember i used to hustle in school because all the little like rich girls would um in in my film program didn't know how to edit because they didn't want to learn so i would just like flip money and be like i'll edit your videos for you if you this is funny because i'm saying this to like an editor who's like you're a terrible editor like all i did was like the little that i knew that was more than them and then just like get paid for it but i look back and i remember that you would give me a little bit of money to like spend on whatever like my own stuff and and you know and you'd give it to me for the year or for a few months and i remember at the end of the few months you'd be like like how are you doing on money i'd be like oh i'm super good and you'd be like what do you mean you're super good and i'd be like did you spend any of it be like no yeah you never spent i've never spent a dollar because i remember growing up like that and mariah don't think remembers it as much i think she remembers now through through us but i remember growing up really pouring being like i remember no one ever talked about money because there was nothing to talk about you know there you didn't ask for things because there was there was nothing to to to do but i also remember never going hungry never not having clothes the clothes didn't always fit but but it but i always always felt blessed and happy because you guys were blessed and happy and there was moments where there wasn't as much happiness and then i remember getting like you gotta check for a book which is crazy now because like that check now is so little in comparison hey at that first check i ever got for a book we gave all of it to the church and you cried like everyone cried it was beautiful and now and i look back and now i'm like that's ridiculous like that's insane because now like in scale god has blessed us so much and and and i'm proud of it and maybe a little too proud of it but i remember growing up being really ashamed of it being like man like to to to we've changed we've our life has changed we've become really blessed and you know is that a christian thing to have is it you know when you don't grow wealthy you don't really see a lot of wealth and so then when you get thrown into this world of wealth and i feel like god has always put us in circles that are kind of beyond us maybe not for you because you're a little bit of a genius a lot of a genius but maybe for me where i'm like okay god this pool is really deep and i'm not sure i can hold my breath this long and in but i remember but but being in those circles i'm like okay god what are you doing here because i feel out of place yeah you know it's interesting this conversation has kind of evolved to a different space but i can i i don't know if i've ever said this publicly but um i i know that i could have made millions upon millions upon millions of dollars and i chose not to because of the hate i felt i would receive from the christian world and and and so there's been so many times where i've actually mitigated my success to fit within the expectations of other people do you feel like that's societal pressure because if you're in texas or if you're in no i mean but if you're in atlanta there's a very different expectation for and a very different acceptance level for people who you know i always use i don't want to use this example but i also kind of want to use this example because i think people i don't think is this big of an issue now because i think as you get older and they've seen you put out 11 books that have done really well and you've and when you're super open about not taking a salary for like 15 years or like it was below 20 000 whatever you you you built a really great reputation for being honorable but i think when you have these big big speakers in the south who are you remember that article that that guy can't remember his name was like i'm praying i'm calling and i'm praying for a new plane do you remember that whole thing yeah see those people embarrass me wait but hold on but hold on yes they embarrassed me too i was i was like appalled did he get the plane though yeah google him he did he got the plane and i'm like okay not that that's a great example this is like outlandish but to me that's a different that's not being generative that's that's being cons being a consumer he's consumptive he's asking people to give him their money so he can have more stuff right but the point but i was always generative you've never asked for anything except for to buy the building and your friends all your friends stepped up and then thank god we didn't because covet you know for me it was always about starting companies creating ideas generating wealth and creating jobs for people and the 2008 pandemic that's when i was motivated to start several businesses so i could employ 40 50 60 people at one time yeah you did and a lot of my friends actually so thank you very much um but you fired me first which well yeah i guess um i say that to say this is that we never know what god's doing because i don't understand why that guy got on a plane like he already had a plane the funny thing is he was asking for a new plane he already had a plane and then he wanted a new one and i'm like let's see what god does and maybe it was humans that did it but i'm like god you works through humans a lot so i always one thing that you've taught me and i think a lot of the other guys that are in your world have taught me like just don't ever second guess what god can do it may not be your thing you may not even understand it you may never be able to understand it but knowing that god is doing something through those people and like i said this in this email and i said i'm like i don't choose the perfect candidate because i i know that the i've never been the perfect person so there's no way i'm ever going to choose a perfect candidate i'm gonna choose the person i feel more comfortable with in the moment and like i said when i went to arizona over the weekend i felt really uncomfortable and then i just went you know what though like i reserve the right in four years that is the thing what i love about you and this and to some maybe some a little bit of this up and going to another subject because i think we have it in us we're just vibing today do not follow us because of our politics follow us because we think and we're willing to think differently each time because i think that's what happens right we get let down because we're like well we thought you were this well it was on you for thinking something that no one said well you said you voted for this guy one time yeah but i also voted for barack and if barack came back i'd vote for him again if brock said i'll adopt you i'd say yes and if michelle obama ran then i would say you're the queen of the world because i believe it and she is and and and i don't like her politics but i'd rather vote for someone who i feel like has the character and and i listened to her podcast and now i think being 12 years older i absolutely disagree with almost all her political positions what i agree with though is who she is and i trust her and so when i say that you can you can say i'm confused you can say i'm not a true republican or a true democrat but you can also just say that i'm i'm i'm reserving the right to to change my mind and to vote for who i feel like in my heart is the right person even though maybe this time it's not the right person but i do feel like it's maybe the right way this time and i don't know i feel torn i feel i'm in turmoil but but i'm glad you're in turmoil and i'm glad that our family has voted almost a whole spectrum of options because that's the whole point um hey by the way if you're listening and you want to send us uh hate because we didn't choose your political side uh could you just not yeah and uh because that's not that's the whole point of this is we got to end the hate yeah and start respecting each other and um and start appreciating the fact that people can try can believe that we should all create a better world and have different approaches to how to create that and sometimes it's a mix of things you know because um like if you take us issue by issue i think that we're we're really thoughtful about things and um you know our family all deeply cares about social justice our family really cares about um you know racism and our family cares about um creating a society where everyone matters where everyone is free where everyone is respected and cared for and and we're all trying to get there and sometimes we think now this policy weighs more than this policy and and that's what i mean that voting should be complex voting should uh shouldn't be monolithic and we shouldn't define people by the one issue that we think indicts the other person and you shouldn't just vote your party you shouldn't just vote your friends and you definitely shouldn't vote your faith you need to but i think people need it because i we all sat around the table where there was phones or phone calls and texts and we were all going what do you think about this or what what are you voting on this and none of us voted the same way but we all talked about it had like a dialogue and i really do love and we were like everyone's yelling everyone's laughing everyone's talking about it's you know and and i think we're able to leave it there because you know me and mariah do not agree but we also like love each other so much that it's it's gonna be okay but i do think that this reality of us not being able to be who we are and say what we really think and talk about who we voted for like why is this such a not that why is it such a big deal i i know it's a big deal why are we so quick to cut each other off you know like i know people move to l.a from other states they go i can never tell them what i really think i'm like then you're never you're never gonna be who you really are then because you should be able to go like i just fully disagree with you you're crazy without them going you know you're crazy because you believe in god and you think this and xyz i'm like man because i believe in god does not mean i'm not human so i'll go back to my other statement no matter who you are before you voted for the wrong person well i'm just saying that you know a little bit tonight but what i'm saying is um the most important thing now coming out of a tuesday that's who we are is how do you deal with disappointment how do you deal with not getting what you wanted how do you deal with your party not winning this time your candidate losing um can we treat each other with mutual respect if you yeah if you find yourself winning can you use powered grace if you find yourself on the losing side can you learn how to cooperate and work within a democracy and and to believe that if you can form better ideas and elevate better candidates uh then you can create a better future yeah and i think about it and this thing that i agree with everything you're saying i agree with everything um and i appreciate the dialogue because i think one i wanted to come out and say some things because i want to say it and i want to see like if you want to email hate you can email aaron at readypodcast.com it goes into my junk mail and i do not respond because i don't respond to anyone who doesn't disagree um good respect with respect yeah you know what i mean and and what did i what do i say to you i said if people you don't invite people who talk trash into your kitchen like and you just walk out like you just you only invite people who can disagree and have a civil conversation and who can sit down at dinner and go i disagree with you and xyz and you have so many friends who disagree with each other your friends who call each other socialists and you know oh my gosh and please if you are my friends don't dm me and start sharing all your positions with me i i this podcast is not to spur private conversations with me and aaron this this podcast is a spur private conversation between you and your friends your friends yeah and with that said i i will be heartbroken if la's lit on fire again like i think i'm having a hard time in the city because it's actually affecting me emotionally what we do to our own people and our own selves and and i'm so against racism and i understand that that's a hard thing to say when you say you voted this way you voted this way but i hope that no one categorizes me in one box or the other looking at the choices i've made over my life and the journey i've gone through but i do also believe that we are better as a society than for us to burn the cities that we live in hey we love l.a we love it let's take care of our city no matter who wins and who loses let's uh let's not justify rioting or looting or destruction or burning property uh let's love each other let's be respectful of each other yeah because i think that's the and that's the easy way out right like like we go and burn stuff and we like and you're like yeah it's the boston tea party or is this this and this and i'm like no like you want to you want to go and do something like shut your mouth put eight years in go to law school become the next barack obama or become the next ronald reagan and go become the next jfk and change the world from the next martin luther king and change the world do not go out and burn something because that's what you can do in the moment i think that's the difference of our generation my generation right now it's like what can you do in the moment to make yourself feel emotionally relieved right yeah it's like it's pouting and throwing a fit lighting stuff on fire throwing speech through a window and just stealing stuff like do not let other people's actions be the determinant factor and you being destructive yeah i'm grateful we live in a rare time in history where we actually get to vote yeah i mean human history uh doesn't really lend itself toward us having an opinion and so we actually get to vote and and we get to have a voice we get to create a better world and um and honestly i mean see this is the part of me that i'm so optimistic i don't even think that either party can stop us from making a better world if we'll commit ourselves to it i agree i agree i would just like to pay less taxes that's all that's like all i did like i would like yet let me be let me be me and let's change the world but like honestly we've been talking for a long time and we got a lot to edit here we do okay should we wrap it up wrap it up how you wrap it up honestly this thing is over we've talked this thing out and we could keep talking about it and we're going to keep talking about it i'll probably talk about it again on friday and kind of recap with that said um yeah once once election's over you're not done no no i think once election over i think it'd be fun to talk about some policies would you love to along the way yeah the reason i didn't want to before the election is i didn't want anyone to feel like we were using our platform to try to sway people in the election yeah no my only like if i could give anyone advice do research go and vote just go and vote like like use use your american right to vote and and and think and like treat it like the greatest gift in the world that you get to go out there and you get to vote and you know what it's such a weird time right now with covid and and mail in ballots and everything and everyone's gonna say it's re this is the thing everyone's gonna say it's rigged either way either way and just like understand that it's gonna be okay at the end of the day and there's gonna be hard times either way yeah and and a lot of people who vote here in la or in california um they'll say well it doesn't really matter because no matter how you vote it's going to come out you know democrat and i go well it still matters because exercising your right to vote whether you're a democrat or republican or whatever i i think that there are healthier future options in a two-party system i think a two-party system allows too much power to ingrained entrenched political systems but that's just my opinion so you know no but i would never try to make a better world i would agree with you i agree with you i agree with you that the third a third party matters but it just seems like it's become so heavily one or the other that maybe that's maybe that's the direction we need to go i hope that there's stronger candidates that can go into the third party and make the third party something that's equal weight to go like hey look this is anti-corruption this is anti-big government anti-little government this is anti-people going sick it's anti-people having like going on more the candidates in this third party are better than any other party i think it's still important to have an open mind i think it's important to allow each person to vote their conscience and their best decisions i think this bullying culture where people are afraid to say who they're for has got to come to an end and i hope whoever wins this election that we can actually become an america where we have open dialogues open conversations stop demonizing each other and actually together can create a better world yes please with that i think it's over um you can read and review this podcast on itunes hit subscribe you can subscribe to the youtube you can listen to us on spotify and a few other places we are excited to have this conversation i'm honored to have this conversation with you my dad and i hope that as i grow in every aspect of my life that i will handle disappointment better and i do and i do believe my generation and and our humanity will handle disappointment better so this is it for now i'm sure we'll cut some things out probably my stuff and we will see you on friday on battle ready podcast thank you daddy all right hey thank you buddy [Music]

Channel: Mosaic

Views: 8,686

Rating: 4.9495268 out of 5

Keywords: MOSAIC, MOSAIC Los Angeles, Erwin McManus, Erwin Raphael McManus, Los Angeles Church, Church, Jesus, Worship, Mosaic MSC, Mosaic, MSC, Aaron mcmanus, leadership, battle ready, battle ready podcast, erwin mcmanus podcast, battle ready erwin, battle ready aaron, battle ready mosaic, mosaic podcastt, mcmanus show, erwin mcmanus leadership podcast, battle ready with erwin mcmanus and aaron mcmanus, disappointment, politics and church, election, voting and faith, how to disagree

Id: tq3Pts4sFec

Length: 88min 50sec (5330 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 03 2020