Episode 57: Field Report from a Parallel Universe

I went for a hike through the Green Gate and fell into a parallel universe. I am thinking of moving there full-time. If you're reading this, I'd love to have you "immigrate" with me. All the cool people live there, and there is an endless supply of headphones. Really. You'll see...

Transcript

0:01

Welcome to The Sovereign Guide. I'm your host McDonald. Let's get started.

Speaker 0:09

On Sunday evening, just before sunset, I jumped in my little golf cart and headed to the Green Gate. The Green Gate is where this beautiful community that I live and the community of communities kind of ends. It's almost like the edge of the Shire, and from there on out, it's all wilderness. It's all open space with rolling hills, hundreds of miles of trails from mountain bikes and foot traffic. And access to completely hidden beaches and coves that just go on for mile after mile can never tire of it. And it's a beautiful way to cap off your week. And so obviously, because it's such a great experience being out there in a beautiful way for me to cap my week, it's true for others. So it's quite a common spot on the mornings and evenings for you to pull up and find a flurry of other little golf carts parked there at the Green Gate. And as I pulled in, there was probably four or five other little buggies and golf carts, and I pulled up next to one that had what was clearly a father and son combination that were standing by their cart very close to me, maybe 15, 20 feet away, and I could tell right away that there was some sort of distress emerging. It turns out that this young man quite distraught, pacing back and forth with his. Baseball cap in his hands, both of his hands on top of his head, a grimace on his face, strutting back and forth, back and forth, contorted by some trauma that he was going through, and the dad standing dead still, stone cold, hands on his hips. I could hear the conversation. I didn't even have to listen to hear it. It turns out that this young man, I'm guessing he's nine years old. I don't know. Why do I say nine? Maybe he's eight, maybe he's 10. He's certainly older than 10, and he's can't be much younger than eight. Turns out that this little man had left his headphones in the little kind of compartment in the golf cart, and they weren't there. They were missing and this discovery had just happened as I arrived. And what initially was dealt with, the way it always would be, well double check, have another look. Maybe it's over here. Maybe you, they fell. Maybe they're under the, the standard things that everybody, standard responses that everybody has when they first start looking for something. And in that moment I could see the shame wash over this young man and the anger and frustration wash over the father. It was one of those tense, awkward exchanges, and it went the way that so many of these things go. This young man was explaining he'd put it right here and we weren't gonna go for too long, and this nervousness and and shame, and of course, his dad did what so many dads will do. He asked him, well, why did you bring them? And he said, well, I, I, I brought them 'cause I was listening to an audio book and I, I forgot that I had them. And, and he said, yeah, but you know the rules. You, you're not allowed to bring headphones when we're having family time. And the little man said, no, I know dad. That's why I left them in the golf cart. Father asked that question that it's just so punitively, so laden with judgment and shame. What were you thinking? And he said, well, I just thought that. You know, we'll be right back. And it's parked here. And there was no one else here at the time when we first pulled in. And all of these excuses and explanations rooted in him trying so awkwardly to get over a combination of the shame that he felt for his apparent stupidity and the loss of these things. And then of course, the third factor, the disappointment of his dad. He says, well, why did you leave them here? And he said, because I didn't wanna bring them, because I know that's the family rule. His dad said, well, of course they were stolen. Of course they were kept asking that question. What were you thinking? Little man just kept saying, I don't know. I just, I, and on and on. I was mesmerized by this. They were in their intense emotional loop that there was stuck in completely oblivious of my, even my existence, though I was sitting just a, as I say, 18, 15 feet away from them. Couldn't even notice me so bound up in the intensity of this exchange and it went the way that you can expect. Were those the headphones that Nana gave you? The little man said, yeah. Yeah. Those were them. Once again, he asked, well, what were you thinking? He told him, you know, Nana bought those for you. And the little man said, I know dad. He says, you know, those are expensive. Money doesn't grow on trees. Little man kept saying, I know I'm, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. Apologizing to his dad. Right in that moment, this Grackle parked up on the tree like five feet from my head, just yelled at me and I did something that can happen sometimes. I've done it a thousand times before I slipped into another world. I fell into this parallel universe and I snapped awake inside of that space and I looked back up and there was the same father and son, but it was six minutes earlier. The same conversation was emerging. Only this time the dad was looking around in all the corners and pockets and cubbies of the little Jeep, and his son was despondent and said, it's no good. They're not here. I've lost them. Somebody's stolen them, I'll never get them back. And the dad said to his little man, come over here. Sit down. And they sat on the back fold down seat of the golf cart, giving me about a front road view as I could possibly ask for. And he sat there and his son despondent head in his hands, baseball cap thrown on the floor next to him, bent over. The dad just put his hand on the back of his shoulders and he said, you know, Mikey, I'm sorry that the headphones are gone, but I'm really afraid. And the little man looked up at him. He says, you're afraid? He says, yeah, I've gotta confess to you. I'm really afraid right now. He said, we're afraid of what? Dad, don't worry. I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll find them off. He says, no, no, no, that's not a problem. He says, I'm afraid that you and I mostly you are gonna lose something else. Like right now. Little boy sat up, tears in his eyes. He looked to gas like it'd seen a ghost. And he said, well, what dad? What, what, what, what, what am I gonna lose? What do I, and the dad shifted his energy, moved his seat over to look directly at his little man. And he said, you know, Mikey, you know old Mr. Jones that lives at the end of the street? And Mikey looked at him nodding, still completely locked in on his dad. He says, yeah, Mr. Jones, the, the angry one, the guy who never waves back. And he said, yeah, the angry old gentleman, the one who never waves back. He says, yeah. He said, you know, I think Mr. Jones lost a set of headphones when he was a young guy. And oh, Mikey said he did. How do you know that? And that's, well, I don't know that he did, but I feel like he might have said, well, how do you know that dad? He's on, I don't even know that. Did headphones even exist when he was a young kid? Because I'm, I'm just a little guy and a young guy, and I don't think they had headphones back then. And the dad smiled and he said he might have had headphones, might have had something else that he lost as well. Mikey was confused. The dad picked up on this right away and he said, you know, Mikey mean people think everyone's mean. You ever notice that? You ever notice how honest people think? Everyone's honest. And Mikey said, yeah, I, I, I guess I, I guess so. I can think of my teacher. She's really honest. He said, yeah, and kind people think everyone's kind. And he said, yeah, she's really kind. He said, yeah, you know, dishonest people, they think everyone's dishonest. Little Mikey at this point was just nodding and staring at his dad trying to connect this to his headphones. His dad shifted one more time and he looked at him and he said, Mikey, here's what I'm afraid of. These headphones, they're probably gone, but that's not what worries me. He says, after all, you know how many headphones there are in the world. Like he said a a lot. He says, yeah, there are so many headphones. You know how easy it is to get more headphones. Little boy said, it's, it's no, dad looked him square in the eye and he said, Mikey, you know the thing that you could lose here that you might never get back? Mikey didn't even respond. Staring at his dad aghast with the prospect of a loss even greater than his headphones. He said, in the next minute or two, right now, you might lose something that you might never get back. Well, Mikey said, well, what He said, Mikey, you left your headphones here in the golf cart. Because you trust people, you trust people, and you're a good young man. And trusting people think everybody can be trusted and could young men think everyone's a good young man? And that's not always true, but the real risk. The real danger for you, my man, is that you lose that because next time we come and you bring your next set of headphones, are you gonna trust anybody ever again? Little Mikey shook his head, adamantly no. He wanted to impress his dad to see he had learned this lesson. There was no way, no way. His dad clicked his fingers and said that. That's the loss that you'll never get back. He said, dad, I don't understand. He said, Mikey, you can't lose your trust in the goodness of people. 'cause you lose that, that's taken you years to build. You can lose that right now and you'll never get it back. Do you know the only thing that there's more of. Then headphones. Mikey just shook his head. No idea. Money. He said money. He said, yeah. The only thing that exists more, the thing that there's more of on this planet than the number of headphones is money. The dollars, more of those than anything. Well, Mikey was mesmerized. He said, Mikey, you know what it's gonna take to get more headphones? Mikey said, money. He said, yeah, you just need to get money. Do you know how much money is out there in the world? Well, Mikey said a lot. More than headphones. Yeah, way more than headphones. And you know what? You already know how to get money. Do you want to get money to get more headphones? What are you gonna do? Well, Mikey sat up straight bolt, straight spine, super proud. This is a question. He knew the answer to this one. He knew his dad had told him from when he was a little, little bugger. He said, help somebody. Yeah, exactly. You just need to help somebody. There's gonna be lots of people, probably people in the neighborhood that need some help, and they'll give you money if you help them. Maybe you can even help all Mr. Jones down the road with his lawnmower. Well, Mikey said, Mr. Jones, the mean one that doesn't wave back. And he said, yeah, Mikey, you know what? When Mr. Jones was a young man, he lost a pair of headphones. The problem is he lost much more than that. Mike is slowly nodding. The penny dropped. He said he lost his kindness. I said, yeah, he lost his kindness. He lost his trust in other people. He says, yep, he probably lost his trust in other people. That's why he doesn't wave back. Little Mikey looked at his dad, nodded his head and said that's why he doesn't wave back. Suddenly the Grackle screamed at me again, snapped me out of this alternate reality. I looked up at, it fell like I'd fallen asleep. I was like, fell into a wrinkle in time, and I sat there and sure enough, the two of them were sitting on the golf cart in complete silence. Obviously waiting for something didn't make any sense. This whole thing had just taken a matter of minutes, but out of the bush from the trail, right behind the green fence, bounding out of there with joy and energy. Skipping and holding hands was clearly a mom and her daughter. They slowed down their skipping and. Their smile turned into a little bit of concern. This was a frequency change. What was going on with the boys? Why is your brother so sad? Why is dad so upset? And as they approached, there was a moment of just complete stillness as these two, this young man and his dad sat there, little Mikey staring down at the ground. The dad got out to the backseat, started pacing around. The mom was watching all of this, reading the energy, the young daughter clearly visibly nervous. Something bad had happened and the mom said, well, what's happening? Mikey looked up before he could say a thing. His mom said, oh, hey Mikey. Here's your headphones. Like I said, what the husband snapped around, she said, yeah, I noticed when we were leaving that you had left them in the little cubby in the golf cart, so I brought them for you. Little Mikey jumped up and threw himself into his mom's arms, sobbing into her chest. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. The mom was holding onto him and looking around, looking for eye contact with her husband, but what had happened? What could possibly have gone wrong? Such weight, such intensity. Why is Lou? Why? What's going on? Why? And the dad just turned. And walked. Climbed into the vehicle and sat at the driver's seat. Well, Mikey looked up from sobbing into his mom's chest and said, thank you so much, mom. Thank you so much. Climbed into the vehicle. And they drove off. And I sat there like an invisible man given this absolute cosmic gift. One of these stories isn't true. One of these realities was not the one that I lived through, but it was available. It was right there. Parallel little universe that you can slip into at any time, and I loved that other place. And I'm thinking of moving there full time. I'm thinking of moving there and bringing my sisters and my nieces and nephew, and I'm thinking of taking my mom and dad there. If I can get them to move, I think it's gonna be easy for me to drag all my friends, my partners, my amazing clients, those I have the privilege of working with every week. I'm thinking of inviting them to this other beautiful place 'cause I wanna live there. I wanna live there full time. I wanna live there as a problem solver for the people I serve. I wanna live there as a brother, as a partner, as a son. But man, do I want to live there as a dad? So I'm thinking of immigrating and I want you to know free passage. No visa required. You can come anytime. You can stay as long as you want. I'd love to see you there.

Speaker 2 18:20

That's it for this episode. Thanks for being here. Hey, there's only two things that you have in your life. Your time and your attention that you've given both to me for these few minutes of today means everything. Cheers.