August 8, 2025 • 16 mins
At 35 years old, James Gutman was given just four hours’ notice before undergoing a quintuple bypass with no prior health issues, no medications, and no warning signs. But that life-saving operation wasn’t the end of his story. It was the beginning of a new one.
In this powerful episode of Hi Pod! I’m Dad, James shares how surviving heart surgery changed everything: how he viewed stress, how he approached parenting, and how he discovered a deeper connection with his nonverbal son Lucas through what he now calls “autism appreciation.”
Lucas became an emotional mirror, reflecting James’s calm or stress back at him, and their bond grew stronger when James stopped trying to control everything and instead entered his son’s world. From heart health to emotional growth, this episode is a raw, inspiring look at what happens when life delivers challenges that turn into unexpected gifts.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Hi Pod, I am Dad.
He's not just Hi Dad, he's mydad, james Gutman.
Folks, it's James Gutman, it'shigh pot, I'm dad.
Welcome to another edition ofthe podcast.
It is the beginning of august,it is 2025.
I appreciate you finding me.
Whether it's on any streamingservice, we're there
(00:37):
highpotomdadcom, all thearchives, audible, spotify, you
name it, it's there.
Maybe you're watching me rightnow on youtube hi blog, I'm dad.
That's our channel.
Find all the stuff there aswell.
I'm on social media Hi, jamesGutman, everywhere TikTok,
instagram, blah, blah, blah.
Okay, out of the way.
Thank you guys so much fortaking the time to check this
(00:57):
out.
Every single week I get to dothis.
I enjoy it.
I get a chance to share mythoughts with you guys.
I get a chance to share my lifeand my kids with you and
different things I have going on, and this week I kind of
deviated from what had becomethe norm, but for the longest
time, it was the way it was.
(01:18):
This blog is built on a story, astory that I plan on telling
here at some point on video withthis podcast.
I've told it at some of thespeaking arrangements that I've
done.
I've done speaking eventsbefore I have more scheduled
coming up I'm excited about.
If you want me to do it, go toHighBlogOnDad.
I've got a contact form.
I'll come talk to you aboutanything.
(01:39):
I love speaking to groups ofpeople and kind of telling our
story.
When I say our story, I'mtalking about me, I'm talking
about Lucas, I'm talking aboutmy daughter, I'm talking about
what I went through to get towhere I am, and that's what I
wrote about on Wednesday.
It was a piece that I was proudof and it's something that I've
touched upon before, somethingthat it's kind of a really
(02:02):
miraculous story when you thinkabout it, because so much of it
could have ended me could haveended.
You know how I approached life.
When I was 35 years old, I had aquintuple bypass right, people
hear that and they go.
You must have had a healthproblem.
I never had health problems,never.
I wasn't on any medication.
I didn't ever have surgery,ever.
(02:25):
This was my first surgery.
It was a quintuple bypass.
I had four hours notice, fivehours notice to know that I was
going to have the surgery that Iwas pretty sure I was going to
die from.
I thought that was the endresult.
I had never had surgery, theonly thing I knew about
quintuple bypasses and bypasssurgery and heart problems was
(02:48):
from Too Close for Comfort.
I told this story a milliontimes.
Ted Knight on the episode had aheart attack.
He went to the hospital andthey essentially did a recap
episode.
They all told stories about hislife and they were crying.
And in the end he didn't have aheart attack.
He had, in Ted Knight's ownwords, it's a little gas.
And so as a kid I thought tomyself oh, heart surgery kills
(03:12):
you.
But he didn't die on the show,he died later on for real in
life, which was weird.
But I thought well, you don'tdie from heart problems as long
as you don't really have heartproblems.
If you have heart surgery,you're dead, but if you're just,
if it's a little gas, you'll beokay.
Well, I didn't have a littlegas, I had major heart problems.
It turns out that I had blockedarteries like crazy.
(03:34):
It was genetic.
My family history is insanitywhen it comes to heart surgery.
I was told by one family memberwell, in all family, the heart
doesn't get you stomach.
Cancer will.
And I'm like thank you, merryChristmas.
That was a wonderful, awonderful thing to go about my
day with, anyway.
So I had this heart surgeryright, and when I came out I
(03:56):
asked them, I said what do I dodifferently?
And they all pretty much toldme none.
I'm like, what do you?
They go.
Well, you didn't do anything tohave this happen, like I wasn't
obese, I wasn't, my lifestylewasn't awful.
There were things I could dodifferently, do better, but by
no means quintuple, bypass majorblockage across the board that
(04:18):
I could have caused on my own.
This was not something I did,but I said.
I said if I make these changes,will it help they go?
Well, of course it'll help I go.
Then why wouldn't I make thesechanges?
So I did and I went out.
I stopped eating red meatinitially, eventually became
also poultry.
People get weird about it.
I don't really care what youeat.
Eat whatever the hell you want.
(04:39):
You know literally club a babyseal in front of me and chomp on
it.
I don't care what you eat.
I'm a pescatarian, which soundsvery pretentious, pretentious,
moi, yeah, I like fish.
I've always liked.
You know, if I go to arestaurant I would always want
to pick shrimp or something likethat.
(04:59):
So it's cool to have thatoption.
I also eat heart healthy.
So I'm not going to go veganbecause I'm not going to eat
boiled lettuce for the rest ofmy life.
If I could deep fry everything,I just you know whatever, maybe
I'll do that, but mypescatarian.
But the big thing that I had totake care of was stress.
I was stressed out.
(05:23):
I dealt not well with thingsthat frustrated me and things
that annoyed me.
I would react strongly to a lot.
I'd say yell a lot.
I would yell in the midst of anargument.
I would get worked up and I saythem in the past tense because
I don't do those things.
Now I realized that when I camehome from the hospital I had a
(05:44):
situation where I'm like I'm notgoing to be able to do this.
I remember I was gettingfrustrated about nonsense and if
you know anything aboutespecially quintuple bypasses,
there's a period after you haveit, that kind of messes with
your brain.
You know Bill Clinton and DavidLetterman.
You hear these stories.
I remember reading about it.
They both had quintuplebypasses and their response to
(06:06):
it was similar to mine.
It takes a little while to getyourself going where you're
supposed to be going with it.
I came home and I was feelingworked up.
I was feeling upset.
I had a lot going on too.
There are a lot of people thatneed to be wished into the
cornfield, which has become atheme when it needs to be done.
And I remember I went into mybedroom, I closed the door, I
looked in the mirror and Ilooked at myself and I said
(06:29):
you're going to die, and you'regoing to die because you can't
get your shit together.
Okay, and I had it out withmyself that day.
I kind of had my final go nutsmoment, just throwing things and
just got it all out.
I didn't break anything.
(06:50):
I'm not nuts nuts, butdefinitely just all over the
place and that was it.
It was gone.
That's not to say that in the 13years since it happened, I
haven't had my moments.
I have have.
I've had moments here and there, um, but it usually has to do
(07:10):
with either you know someonearound me or a situation not
being handled well by those whoare handling it.
Things like that, and it's sofew and far between.
For the most part, I don't Iget worked up and I'm even
saying this is like kind of, asI'm saying it, I'm like it's
been a while.
I don't really I don't want to,I don't want to be upset about
(07:30):
it.
I didn't worry about anything.
I spent years worrying about somuch stuff.
It didn't happen.
You know what if this happens?
What if that happens?
And they didn't happen?
And then I almost died of aheart attack that I never saw
coming.
And I'm like, how stupid isthis?
How much time have I wasted inmy life just being worried about
(07:51):
things that I shouldn't have tobe worried about?
So I told myself I'm not goingto do that anymore.
And people benefited from it.
I feel like my daughterbenefited from it.
I benefited from it.
My career, things I've donebenefited from it.
My relationships with coworkers, people that I've worked with
through the years like thatpatience and that kind of
ability to be jovial helps.
I mean, I tell my daughter thatI said you know cause she's off
(08:15):
the charts with her grades andstuff.
And I say, olivia, you know youcould get the best grades in
the world.
You got every achievement.
You could have every accolade.
But if people don't like you,if people don't want to work
with you, it doesn't meananything.
I said do you think I'm themost qualified for everything
I've ever done?
I don't think so.
I don't know.
People know that if they workwith me.
I'm going to takeresponsibility if I mess up.
(08:35):
I'm going to be nice to workwith.
So I try to do that.
But out of everybody who'sbenefited, I would say Lucas, my
nonverbal child with autism,who a lot of this blog is about,
has benefited from my lease onlife, and the reason why is that
(08:56):
Lucas is an emotional mirror.
I said it in the blog post thatI put up there.
It was called the Surgery, theDiagnosis and the Life I Never
Expected to Live.
And Lucas is the type of kidwhere if you get upset, he's
going to get upset.
So if I'm mad at Lucas for notputting his shoes on and I yell
at Lucas, lucas is going to cryand Lucas is going to yell and
(09:16):
the shoes are not going to go on.
But if I'm patient and if I'mcalm, the shoes might still not
go on, but he'll smile, I'llsmile and we just go about our
day.
And you know what?
Eventually the shoes always geton right.
Whether I put them on, he putsthem on, somebody puts them on.
So what is the point of?
Oh, the shoes aren't on, likewhy would you?
It sounds silly to even do itlike that and I watch people,
(09:39):
man.
I remember a few years ago I wasstill married and we were at
Disney and this dude we'rewaiting for a parade.
We're literally waiting for aDisney parade and this dude is
sitting there yelling at hiskids and his family.
They're sitting on the side ofthe road, he's like, and then we
go to the hotel you guys want,I remember my wife at the time
(10:00):
turns to me.
She's like is this guy going toyell at his family for the
entire Disney parade?
And I looked at him and I waslike, yeah, by the grace of God,
go.
I Like I don't.
I don't think that would havebeen me, but I know it's not me
and it's helped me.
It's helped me to connect withmy son.
It's helped me to accept thingsthat need to be accepted.
It's helped me get past a lotof issues.
(10:23):
I don't get worried, I don't getstressed out, I don't care Half
the time.
You know I don't argue withpeople to change their mind and
I don't get worked up on like ifyou don't agree with my
politics, cool, don't.
I don't care what you believe,I don't care what you eat, I
don't care who you vote for.
I don't care about any of thatstuff.
(10:46):
If I really don't like whatyou're saying or what you're
doing, I'll just go away.
I'll unfriend you.
I'll block you, I'll move on.
I'll wish you into the cornfield.
Sometimes you got to do that.
You have to wish people intothe cornfield.
You have to be okay, too, withonce you wish them into the
cornfield.
You might not know what I'mtalking about.
There was a Twilight Zoneepisode.
Right.
There was this little boy.
His name was Anthony.
Anthony could simply look atyou and wish terrible things on
(11:07):
you and wish you into thecornfield, and that's been
something I've held onto foryears since I saw it, because I
think to myself when somebody'snot bringing me peace, when
something's interfering with mylife, you wish it into the
cornfield.
So you do that Into thecornfield.
And people have to go, and youhave to be okay with what that
means.
You have to be okay with thefact that you might be alone,
(11:28):
the fact that people might notknow your side of the story.
I deal with situations all thetime where people that I know I
don't talk to anymore through myentire life will go back and
tell half-truths or whatever,and I'm cool with it, whatever.
Anybody who believes thatdoesn't know me anyway, which
means that I don't care, dowhatever you want, it's all good
to me.
So, yeah, people have to goaway.
(11:50):
Things have to happen Because,at the end of the day, you want
to have peace.
I know that I need to havepeace for my family and for me,
for my health and for everything, and I'm so glad that I had the
opportunity to do it.
And here's the irony ofeverything right, the whole loop
of life.
When I got out of the hospital,I was still writing about pro
(12:12):
wrestling and humor and popculture.
We were doing podcasts aboutthe Walking Dead and talking
about video games and it was fun.
It wasn't what I wanted to dowith my life.
It wasn't what I expected frommy writing.
I wanted to do something that Ifelt would help people.
I didn't know what and Ifocused on my own life.
And I started working with Lucas.
(12:33):
I started learning about him.
I started entering his world,playing with toys, the way he
was playing with them, trying tounderstand why he was doing the
things he did, and in doing soI developed an appreciation for
who my son is Nonverbal, severeautism, understanding why.
It's kind of beautiful watchingthe way he interacts with the
world.
(12:53):
And when I did that, Ideveloped my own approach to
autism, this autism appreciation, which then became the thing I
could write about, and thisthing that, for the last you
know at this point, like eightyears, I've been writing about
and I've been explaining andI've been sharing and I'm
feeling proud of what I do.
And it all came from thesethings that, on paper, would
(13:18):
have destroyed me at anothertime in my life Heart surgery,
my God can't eat meat.
My son is nonverbal.
What am I going to do?
I don't know.
Wake up tomorrow, go on withyour life, be grateful for the
people you have, for the peoplewho have been here, for Olivia,
for Lucas.
I'm glad to be who I am and I'mglad to have the things that I
(13:38):
do.
I'm just proud, proud of all ofit.
Yeah, I mean this has reallybeen a lot of self-reflection
and a lot of realizing that youknow for who I am and for where
I've come.
It's been a long road, but it'sone that every single day, I
(14:02):
wake up, happy to wake up.
I'm happy to be alive, I'mhappy to be here.
I'm grateful for the time thatI've been given.
I've learned to appreciate notonly autism and my son, but
appreciate other people,appreciate their stories,
appreciate what they tell me.
I don't have a lot of animosityin my heart, even for people
(14:23):
who maybe should I don't.
I don't really do that.
I move forward.
I make sure that life is aboutdoing what I feel strongly about
and making the right decisionsand the way I raise my kids.
And writing this blog, writingthis book, Hi World, I'm Dad and
getting to share our story, theway I see the world with you
(14:45):
guys.
That is, I don't know.
That's something that I'm sograteful for, and I thank you
guys all the time for this, forgiving me the opportunity to do
it, for reading what I write andfor being there.
It just means the world to me.
So thank you so much foreverything.
This has been an incrediblejourney.
I have so much more to tell you, so many more things that I'd
love to share, so we got plentymore on the way, but that does
(15:08):
it for me.
Guys, do me a favor, follow meon social media.
Hi, james Gutman.
I'm on TikTok, I'm on Instagram, I'm on Facebook, I'm on.
You know, you name it.
It's there Blue Sky and Threadsand whatever.
It's all over the place.
Thank you.
Follow us on YouTube, like,subscribe.
Hit the bell HiBlogOnDad andremember, go to the blog.
Hiblogondad based on the blog.
(15:38):
The blog is based on my life.
The book is based on all of it.
Everything is based onsomething.
I appreciate it.
That does it for me Until nexttime, james Guttman saying be
(16:06):
well, bye pod, I'm done, we'llbe right back.
Hi Pod, I am Dad.
He's not just Hi Dad, he's mydad, james Gutman.
Folks, it's James Gutman, it'shigh pot, I'm dad.
Welcome to another edition ofthe podcast.
It is the beginning of august,it is 2025.
I appreciate you finding me.
Whether it's on any streamingservice, we're there
(00:37):
highpotomdadcom, all thearchives, audible, spotify, you
name it, it's there.
Maybe you're watching me rightnow on youtube hi blog, I'm dad.
That's our channel.
Find all the stuff there aswell.
I'm on social media Hi, jamesGutman, everywhere TikTok,
instagram, blah, blah, blah.
Okay, out of the way.
Thank you guys so much fortaking the time to check this
(00:57):
out.
Every single week I get to dothis.
I enjoy it.
I get a chance to share mythoughts with you guys.
I get a chance to share my lifeand my kids with you and
different things I have going on, and this week I kind of
deviated from what had becomethe norm, but for the longest
time, it was the way it was.
(01:18):
This blog is built on a story, astory that I plan on telling
here at some point on video withthis podcast.
I've told it at some of thespeaking arrangements that I've
done.
I've done speaking eventsbefore I have more scheduled
coming up I'm excited about.
If you want me to do it, go toHighBlogOnDad.
I've got a contact form.
I'll come talk to you aboutanything.
(01:39):
I love speaking to groups ofpeople and kind of telling our
story.
When I say our story, I'mtalking about me, I'm talking
about Lucas, I'm talking aboutmy daughter, I'm talking about
what I went through to get towhere I am, and that's what I
wrote about on Wednesday.
It was a piece that I was proudof and it's something that I've
touched upon before, somethingthat it's kind of a really
(02:02):
miraculous story when you thinkabout it, because so much of it
could have ended me could haveended.
You know how I approached life.
When I was 35 years old, I had aquintuple bypass right, people
hear that and they go.
You must have had a healthproblem.
I never had health problems,never.
I wasn't on any medication.
I didn't ever have surgery,ever.
(02:25):
This was my first surgery.
It was a quintuple bypass.
I had four hours notice, fivehours notice to know that I was
going to have the surgery that Iwas pretty sure I was going to
die from.
I thought that was the endresult.
I had never had surgery, theonly thing I knew about
quintuple bypasses and bypasssurgery and heart problems was
(02:48):
from Too Close for Comfort.
I told this story a milliontimes.
Ted Knight on the episode had aheart attack.
He went to the hospital andthey essentially did a recap
episode.
They all told stories about hislife and they were crying.
And in the end he didn't have aheart attack.
He had, in Ted Knight's ownwords, it's a little gas.
And so as a kid I thought tomyself oh, heart surgery kills
(03:12):
you.
But he didn't die on the show,he died later on for real in
life, which was weird.
But I thought well, you don'tdie from heart problems as long
as you don't really have heartproblems.
If you have heart surgery,you're dead, but if you're just,
if it's a little gas, you'll beokay.
Well, I didn't have a littlegas, I had major heart problems.
It turns out that I had blockedarteries like crazy.
(03:34):
It was genetic.
My family history is insanitywhen it comes to heart surgery.
I was told by one family memberwell, in all family, the heart
doesn't get you stomach.
Cancer will.
And I'm like thank you, merryChristmas.
That was a wonderful, awonderful thing to go about my
day with, anyway.
So I had this heart surgeryright, and when I came out I
(03:56):
asked them, I said what do I dodifferently?
And they all pretty much toldme none.
I'm like, what do you?
They go.
Well, you didn't do anything tohave this happen, like I wasn't
obese, I wasn't, my lifestylewasn't awful.
There were things I could dodifferently, do better, but by
no means quintuple, bypass majorblockage across the board that
(04:18):
I could have caused on my own.
This was not something I did,but I said.
I said if I make these changes,will it help they go?
Well, of course it'll help I go.
Then why wouldn't I make thesechanges?
So I did and I went out.
I stopped eating red meatinitially, eventually became
also poultry.
People get weird about it.
I don't really care what youeat.
Eat whatever the hell you want.
(04:39):
You know literally club a babyseal in front of me and chomp on
it.
I don't care what you eat.
I'm a pescatarian, which soundsvery pretentious, pretentious,
moi, yeah, I like fish.
I've always liked.
You know, if I go to arestaurant I would always want
to pick shrimp or something likethat.
(04:59):
So it's cool to have thatoption.
I also eat heart healthy.
So I'm not going to go veganbecause I'm not going to eat
boiled lettuce for the rest ofmy life.
If I could deep fry everything,I just you know whatever, maybe
I'll do that, but mypescatarian.
But the big thing that I had totake care of was stress.
I was stressed out.
(05:23):
I dealt not well with thingsthat frustrated me and things
that annoyed me.
I would react strongly to a lot.
I'd say yell a lot.
I would yell in the midst of anargument.
I would get worked up and I saythem in the past tense because
I don't do those things.
Now I realized that when I camehome from the hospital I had a
(05:44):
situation where I'm like I'm notgoing to be able to do this.
I remember I was gettingfrustrated about nonsense and if
you know anything aboutespecially quintuple bypasses,
there's a period after you haveit, that kind of messes with
your brain.
You know Bill Clinton and DavidLetterman.
You hear these stories.
I remember reading about it.
They both had quintuplebypasses and their response to
(06:06):
it was similar to mine.
It takes a little while to getyourself going where you're
supposed to be going with it.
I came home and I was feelingworked up.
I was feeling upset.
I had a lot going on too.
There are a lot of people thatneed to be wished into the
cornfield, which has become atheme when it needs to be done.
And I remember I went into mybedroom, I closed the door, I
looked in the mirror and Ilooked at myself and I said
(06:29):
you're going to die, and you'regoing to die because you can't
get your shit together.
Okay, and I had it out withmyself that day.
I kind of had my final go nutsmoment, just throwing things and
just got it all out.
I didn't break anything.
(06:50):
I'm not nuts nuts, butdefinitely just all over the
place and that was it.
It was gone.
That's not to say that in the 13years since it happened, I
haven't had my moments.
I have have.
I've had moments here and there, um, but it usually has to do
(07:10):
with either you know someonearound me or a situation not
being handled well by those whoare handling it.
Things like that, and it's sofew and far between.
For the most part, I don't Iget worked up and I'm even
saying this is like kind of, asI'm saying it, I'm like it's
been a while.
I don't really I don't want to,I don't want to be upset about
(07:30):
it.
I didn't worry about anything.
I spent years worrying about somuch stuff.
It didn't happen.
You know what if this happens?
What if that happens?
And they didn't happen?
And then I almost died of aheart attack that I never saw
coming.
And I'm like, how stupid isthis?
How much time have I wasted inmy life just being worried about
(07:51):
things that I shouldn't have tobe worried about?
So I told myself I'm not goingto do that anymore.
And people benefited from it.
I feel like my daughterbenefited from it.
I benefited from it.
My career, things I've donebenefited from it.
My relationships with coworkers, people that I've worked with
through the years like thatpatience and that kind of
ability to be jovial helps.
I mean, I tell my daughter thatI said you know cause she's off
(08:15):
the charts with her grades andstuff.
And I say, olivia, you know youcould get the best grades in
the world.
You got every achievement.
You could have every accolade.
But if people don't like you,if people don't want to work
with you, it doesn't meananything.
I said do you think I'm themost qualified for everything
I've ever done?
I don't think so.
I don't know.
People know that if they workwith me.
I'm going to takeresponsibility if I mess up.
(08:35):
I'm going to be nice to workwith.
So I try to do that.
But out of everybody who'sbenefited, I would say Lucas, my
nonverbal child with autism,who a lot of this blog is about,
has benefited from my lease onlife, and the reason why is that
(08:56):
Lucas is an emotional mirror.
I said it in the blog post thatI put up there.
It was called the Surgery, theDiagnosis and the Life I Never
Expected to Live.
And Lucas is the type of kidwhere if you get upset, he's
going to get upset.
So if I'm mad at Lucas for notputting his shoes on and I yell
at Lucas, lucas is going to cryand Lucas is going to yell and
(09:16):
the shoes are not going to go on.
But if I'm patient and if I'mcalm, the shoes might still not
go on, but he'll smile, I'llsmile and we just go about our
day.
And you know what?
Eventually the shoes always geton right.
Whether I put them on, he putsthem on, somebody puts them on.
So what is the point of?
Oh, the shoes aren't on, likewhy would you?
It sounds silly to even do itlike that and I watch people,
(09:39):
man.
I remember a few years ago I wasstill married and we were at
Disney and this dude we'rewaiting for a parade.
We're literally waiting for aDisney parade and this dude is
sitting there yelling at hiskids and his family.
They're sitting on the side ofthe road, he's like, and then we
go to the hotel you guys want,I remember my wife at the time
(10:00):
turns to me.
She's like is this guy going toyell at his family for the
entire Disney parade?
And I looked at him and I waslike, yeah, by the grace of God,
go.
I Like I don't.
I don't think that would havebeen me, but I know it's not me
and it's helped me.
It's helped me to connect withmy son.
It's helped me to accept thingsthat need to be accepted.
It's helped me get past a lotof issues.
(10:23):
I don't get worried, I don't getstressed out, I don't care Half
the time.
You know I don't argue withpeople to change their mind and
I don't get worked up on like ifyou don't agree with my
politics, cool, don't.
I don't care what you believe,I don't care what you eat, I
don't care who you vote for.
I don't care about any of thatstuff.
(10:46):
If I really don't like whatyou're saying or what you're
doing, I'll just go away.
I'll unfriend you.
I'll block you, I'll move on.
I'll wish you into the cornfield.
Sometimes you got to do that.
You have to wish people intothe cornfield.
You have to be okay, too, withonce you wish them into the
cornfield.
You might not know what I'mtalking about.
There was a Twilight Zoneepisode.
Right.
There was this little boy.
His name was Anthony.
Anthony could simply look atyou and wish terrible things on
(11:07):
you and wish you into thecornfield, and that's been
something I've held onto foryears since I saw it, because I
think to myself when somebody'snot bringing me peace, when
something's interfering with mylife, you wish it into the
cornfield.
So you do that Into thecornfield.
And people have to go, and youhave to be okay with what that
means.
You have to be okay with thefact that you might be alone,
(11:28):
the fact that people might notknow your side of the story.
I deal with situations all thetime where people that I know I
don't talk to anymore through myentire life will go back and
tell half-truths or whatever,and I'm cool with it, whatever.
Anybody who believes thatdoesn't know me anyway, which
means that I don't care, dowhatever you want, it's all good
to me.
So, yeah, people have to goaway.
(11:50):
Things have to happen Because,at the end of the day, you want
to have peace.
I know that I need to havepeace for my family and for me,
for my health and for everything, and I'm so glad that I had the
opportunity to do it.
And here's the irony ofeverything right, the whole loop
of life.
When I got out of the hospital,I was still writing about pro
(12:12):
wrestling and humor and popculture.
We were doing podcasts aboutthe Walking Dead and talking
about video games and it was fun.
It wasn't what I wanted to dowith my life.
It wasn't what I expected frommy writing.
I wanted to do something that Ifelt would help people.
I didn't know what and Ifocused on my own life.
And I started working with Lucas.
(12:33):
I started learning about him.
I started entering his world,playing with toys, the way he
was playing with them, trying tounderstand why he was doing the
things he did, and in doing soI developed an appreciation for
who my son is Nonverbal, severeautism, understanding why.
It's kind of beautiful watchingthe way he interacts with the
world.
(12:53):
And when I did that, Ideveloped my own approach to
autism, this autism appreciation, which then became the thing I
could write about, and thisthing that, for the last you
know at this point, like eightyears, I've been writing about
and I've been explaining andI've been sharing and I'm
feeling proud of what I do.
And it all came from thesethings that, on paper, would
(13:18):
have destroyed me at anothertime in my life Heart surgery,
my God can't eat meat.
My son is nonverbal.
What am I going to do?
I don't know.
Wake up tomorrow, go on withyour life, be grateful for the
people you have, for the peoplewho have been here, for Olivia,
for Lucas.
I'm glad to be who I am and I'mglad to have the things that I
(13:38):
do.
I'm just proud, proud of all ofit.
Yeah, I mean this has reallybeen a lot of self-reflection
and a lot of realizing that youknow for who I am and for where
I've come.
It's been a long road, but it'sone that every single day, I
(14:02):
wake up, happy to wake up.
I'm happy to be alive, I'mhappy to be here.
I'm grateful for the time thatI've been given.
I've learned to appreciate notonly autism and my son, but
appreciate other people,appreciate their stories,
appreciate what they tell me.
I don't have a lot of animosityin my heart, even for people
(14:23):
who maybe should I don't.
I don't really do that.
I move forward.
I make sure that life is aboutdoing what I feel strongly about
and making the right decisionsand the way I raise my kids.
And writing this blog, writingthis book, Hi World, I'm Dad and
getting to share our story, theway I see the world with you
(14:45):
guys.
That is, I don't know.
That's something that I'm sograteful for, and I thank you
guys all the time for this, forgiving me the opportunity to do
it, for reading what I write andfor being there.
It just means the world to me.
So thank you so much foreverything.
This has been an incrediblejourney.
I have so much more to tell you, so many more things that I'd
love to share, so we got plentymore on the way, but that does
(15:08):
it for me.
Guys, do me a favor, follow meon social media.
Hi, james Gutman.
I'm on TikTok, I'm on Instagram, I'm on Facebook, I'm on.
You know, you name it.
It's there Blue Sky and Threadsand whatever.
It's all over the place.
Thank you.
Follow us on YouTube, like,subscribe.
Hit the bell HiBlogOnDad andremember, go to the blog.
Hiblogondad based on the blog.
(15:38):
The blog is based on my life.
The book is based on all of it.
Everything is based onsomething.
I appreciate it.
That does it for me Until nexttime, james Guttman saying be
(16:06):
well, bye pod, I'm done, we'llbe right back.
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