January 16, 2023 • 14 mins
This past week, thanks to a dear friend, I had the opportunity to consider areas I've become less flexible and more prone to "Get off my lawn" Join me as I consider the melt flexiblity needed to not become set in our ways.
Contact Chance via email or Social Media
Strive Seek Find Website
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Unknown (00:06):
Hello there friends both old and new. Welcome to the
strive seek find podcast. I'myour host chance went home to
bite sized lifestyle advice froma fellow traveler on the road to
a better life. Brought to you bysomeone who is a longtime
educator, writer, parent, and anoutdoor enthusiast, who may just
(00:33):
may like a good draft becauseour future is set not just
through our choices, but by ourwillingness to explore and find
a better way. And welcome backto Episode 124 or 25 of the
strive seek find podcast about aweek ago, a friend hit me what
(00:56):
felt like a right hook, verballyOf course. On my birthday, we
were at a speakeasy, having acocktail. And if you've never
been to one of these 1920sinfluenced cocktail bars, you
should try them out, sittingthere in the dark. Realizing
(01:17):
that I need to break with thevibe and use my cell phone to
read the menu because I couldn'tscan the menu because it was too
dark. A little candle on thetable. It just wasn't doing
glasses or no. And it was adiverse menu of trendy craft
(01:42):
cocktails and I had to findsomething to try. Now, I'm not a
whiskey snob unless I'm awhiskey snob. It's not so much
that what the whiskey is. I havefound that bourbon rye, Irish
and most especially Scotch areenjoyable. Most definitely
(02:04):
scotch. But I tend to drink themall meat or occasionally on the
rocks. Enjoy the nose feel theheat experienced the whiskey as
I think about it as whiskey asGod intended it. So while I love
(02:24):
my gin cocktails, and one of thefirst signs of summer is a nice
ice cold Mojito in my hand. Itend to bulk whiskey cocktails,
telling me my favorite Scotchsuch as Lagavulin 16. is in a
cocktail, such as one of mywife's favorite cocktails, I
(02:46):
think it's called the boardingpass makes me ask the question,
why are they wasting the goodstuff? Sidenote here, I promised
tonight isn't all about alcohol.
For my non cocktail drinkinglisteners, hold on in the LC. So
I continued to go through thepages and pages of variety of
cocktails, gin, right. Lots oflots of bourbon and some scotch
(03:14):
and discarded a lot of what Isaw some for the whiskey, some
for the egg white, some, thecombination just didn't sound
good. And I ended up with an oldfashioned a solid cocktail that
I'll occasionally drink. And atthat point started vociferous
(03:34):
Lee complaining about lack ofwill and 16 being in the
boarding pass. This is when shestruck the right cross. Hit me
chance, perhaps for the secondhalf of your life. Perhaps give
yourself permission to try newthings. And I felt like I was
(03:55):
going down like I'd taken one ofAli's punches to the face. Now
let's get started. The painwasn't here because of the
cocktails, which by the way wereamazing. But the idea that I had
become so set in my ways andstubborn that I wasn't trying
(04:16):
new things really bothered me.
And the idea that that was how Iwas being viewed even more so. I
wanted to fire back. Yell thatthat wasn't the case. stomp my
(04:36):
feet, hold my breath, you know,the usual fit. But the evidence
was there. I walked out of avery cool place having tried
only the old fashion and ofcourse they're gin and tonic.
And while I love a good gin andtonic I'm not replacing whiskey
with the Whitmore's with gin andtonic with the Whitmore's. It
(04:57):
just lacks the ring It has mademe wonder if my jokes for years
about barbed wire at the edge ofmy lawn machine gun emplacements
and screaming Get off my lawn,which I do make a metric ton of
have become my reality. So Istepped back and considered. And
(05:20):
I've come to the conclusion of,well, sort of saw you
whippersnappers Get off my lawn.
Actually, that's not that faroff for part of my life. And I'm
going to stress this partbecause there are huge parts of
(05:41):
my life, I'm constantly thinkingabout changing and challenging.
Cooking, barbecuing, reading,travel, work. I'm always
challenging my assumptions,trying new things, and seeing
what happens. But for part ofthe year, or parts of my life, I
(06:01):
ended up seeking what I callcomfort food. And y'all know
what that means, shorthand forsomething that you just makes
you feel warm, you step intoeasy, and generally, it doesn't
take a lot of effort. So forinstance, entertainment wise, I
(06:27):
haven't been watching a wholelot of new entertainment. I may
have seen Star Wars Rebels 15times this winter, because I can
turn it off. At any point, turnit back on, and know exactly
what's going on. And I love thestory. And I can fall asleep to
(06:49):
it. It may be the thing I'vewatched most this winter, up to
and including football. And thenthere's the hybrids. I have made
10 variations on chili minimumthis winter. Now, I call those
(07:09):
experiments because I'm tryingnew recipes. And so it's
partially true. But ultimately,I'm still eating chili, rather
than expanding my horizons. Andyes, by the way, I have found
some fabulous new chili recipesthat way, the spicy pork yum.
But by the same token, I need tosearch more for other things to
(07:36):
try. So I guess in some parts ofmy life are flexible. And the
challenge may be maximizing theparts of my life that are less
flexible to get me back to thepoint where I'm not completely
get off my lawn. And now a wordfrom our sponsor.
(07:59):
I asked my dad if I could helphim become masa. And he said
yes. Yes, hope fine people. Formy dad's Puck, share this
podcast with your friends. Leavewith you to leave people for my
(08:19):
dad. You can donate to by me andideas and ideas to keep making
podcasts. Thank you forlistening me to stray sink by.
And I'd like to thank Amelia,age six, for sponsoring this
(08:40):
week's podcast. And now back tothe show. So two things come to
mind as I consider all this.
One, I've always thought the keyor at least one of the keys to
staying young in your mind wasto continue to seek new
experiences for no other reasonthan it keeps you excited about
what you're doing in life. And Idon't care who you are. There's
(09:05):
it's a lot better to feel joy insomething than to be patiently
waiting for the next televisionshow. For instance, the probably
the most joyful thing I've donethis year is standing near a
high mountain lake. Well, thelast calendar year rather than
obviously 2023. A new placecreating new experiences. Or one
(09:31):
actually from 2023. Watching myyounger two daughters at the
local zoo. Now they have been tothe zoo before mean we were at
the San Diego Zoo last Aprilwith them. But we hadn't been to
the Boise zoo in years, probablypre COVID And none of us had
(09:55):
realized the amount of the zoothat had been read done in that
time. It was a first for my kidsseeing a crocodile up close, and
exploring a place that was bothnew and exciting, and yet
somewhat familiar. And they bothloved every minute of it. Even
my 11 year old, wasn't going tocool for school, she was
(10:18):
legitimately excited to just bea kid. And I'll be honest,
there's a lot of points in mylife, or I am actively seeking
that level of joy. And I don'tthink I'm alone in that. And
next up, there is evidence thatkeeping your neural pathways
(10:40):
from solidifying into concreteis critical. I think it's called
neuroplasticity, though pleasedon't quote me on that. But
there's evidence in all parts ofour life. If you've ever taken a
weekend, and just fetched, youwalk away, tired, you walk away,
kind of mentally limping,because you're wondering why
(11:05):
you're not processing as fast.
This is different from just resttime. But at the end of a lazy
day, you're exhausted. Andyou're not thinking nearly as
clearly if you'd been up andmoving. This, pleasantly long
weekend was a great example ofthis. I'm starting to learn an
(11:28):
entirely new workflow for thepodcast, and it's got a long
ways to go. I was able toupgrade some of my equipment, I
get to play with the road casterpro the original now. And the
learning that's come out of thatabout how to use what I already
have. plus the new tool, and howto make it work within the
(11:52):
podcast has honestly beenexhilarated. It's made me
excited to not just play with anew toy, because it's tool. But
it's the same concept. Anytimeyou get a new tool you get
excited to play with it. Butit's made me reconsider some
episode things I've been doing,how I can make use of the
(12:15):
improved technology to toimprove the podcast. And get
really excited as I have gottenthe sense that my sound quality
improved with just the littlebit I have learned so far.
Great, for instance, so this isjust learning how to pre record
some of the, you know, my intromy outro, the mid roll drops,
(12:39):
and be able to place them withinthe podcast with a touch of the
button. I thought it was goingto be hard because doing it just
on my editing software. And Iuse Audacity is difficult to
once you've recorded a podcast,split and move. This is so much
more organic, and it works sowell. It has me really excited
(13:02):
about what I can learn and dogoing forward with this. Which
fits with the mission of thispodcast. All this to say stay
young. Stay off your rockingchair on the front porch, find
new experiences and enjoy them.
It's the best way to keep fromfeeling the need to scream at
the top of your lungs. Get offmy lawn. And heck, by being
(13:23):
aware, maybe I can avoid meetinga reminder that I'm rapidly
headed down that road. Wellfriends, that's it for this
week's edition of strife seekfind. Thank you again for
listening. If you'd like to jointhe discussion, or have ideas
for future episodes, hop on overto the strife seek find podcast
(13:45):
group on Facebook.
Alternatively, if Facebook's notyour thing, you can find me on
Instagram at strife seek findpodcast on Twitter. As at chance
Whitmore five. We're even onemail. The links for all those
are in the show notes below.
Until next time, my friends,keep seeking your own brilliant
(14:10):
future
Hello there friends both old and new. Welcome to the
strive seek find podcast. I'myour host chance went home to
bite sized lifestyle advice froma fellow traveler on the road to
a better life. Brought to you bysomeone who is a longtime
educator, writer, parent, and anoutdoor enthusiast, who may just
(00:33):
may like a good draft becauseour future is set not just
through our choices, but by ourwillingness to explore and find
a better way. And welcome backto Episode 124 or 25 of the
strive seek find podcast about aweek ago, a friend hit me what
(00:56):
felt like a right hook, verballyOf course. On my birthday, we
were at a speakeasy, having acocktail. And if you've never
been to one of these 1920sinfluenced cocktail bars, you
should try them out, sittingthere in the dark. Realizing
(01:17):
that I need to break with thevibe and use my cell phone to
read the menu because I couldn'tscan the menu because it was too
dark. A little candle on thetable. It just wasn't doing
glasses or no. And it was adiverse menu of trendy craft
(01:42):
cocktails and I had to findsomething to try. Now, I'm not a
whiskey snob unless I'm awhiskey snob. It's not so much
that what the whiskey is. I havefound that bourbon rye, Irish
and most especially Scotch areenjoyable. Most definitely
(02:04):
scotch. But I tend to drink themall meat or occasionally on the
rocks. Enjoy the nose feel theheat experienced the whiskey as
I think about it as whiskey asGod intended it. So while I love
(02:24):
my gin cocktails, and one of thefirst signs of summer is a nice
ice cold Mojito in my hand. Itend to bulk whiskey cocktails,
telling me my favorite Scotchsuch as Lagavulin 16. is in a
cocktail, such as one of mywife's favorite cocktails, I
(02:46):
think it's called the boardingpass makes me ask the question,
why are they wasting the goodstuff? Sidenote here, I promised
tonight isn't all about alcohol.
For my non cocktail drinkinglisteners, hold on in the LC. So
I continued to go through thepages and pages of variety of
cocktails, gin, right. Lots oflots of bourbon and some scotch
(03:14):
and discarded a lot of what Isaw some for the whiskey, some
for the egg white, some, thecombination just didn't sound
good. And I ended up with an oldfashioned a solid cocktail that
I'll occasionally drink. And atthat point started vociferous
(03:34):
Lee complaining about lack ofwill and 16 being in the
boarding pass. This is when shestruck the right cross. Hit me
chance, perhaps for the secondhalf of your life. Perhaps give
yourself permission to try newthings. And I felt like I was
(03:55):
going down like I'd taken one ofAli's punches to the face. Now
let's get started. The painwasn't here because of the
cocktails, which by the way wereamazing. But the idea that I had
become so set in my ways andstubborn that I wasn't trying
(04:16):
new things really bothered me.
And the idea that that was how Iwas being viewed even more so. I
wanted to fire back. Yell thatthat wasn't the case. stomp my
(04:36):
feet, hold my breath, you know,the usual fit. But the evidence
was there. I walked out of avery cool place having tried
only the old fashion and ofcourse they're gin and tonic.
And while I love a good gin andtonic I'm not replacing whiskey
with the Whitmore's with gin andtonic with the Whitmore's. It
(04:57):
just lacks the ring It has mademe wonder if my jokes for years
about barbed wire at the edge ofmy lawn machine gun emplacements
and screaming Get off my lawn,which I do make a metric ton of
have become my reality. So Istepped back and considered. And
(05:20):
I've come to the conclusion of,well, sort of saw you
whippersnappers Get off my lawn.
Actually, that's not that faroff for part of my life. And I'm
going to stress this partbecause there are huge parts of
(05:41):
my life, I'm constantly thinkingabout changing and challenging.
Cooking, barbecuing, reading,travel, work. I'm always
challenging my assumptions,trying new things, and seeing
what happens. But for part ofthe year, or parts of my life, I
(06:01):
ended up seeking what I callcomfort food. And y'all know
what that means, shorthand forsomething that you just makes
you feel warm, you step intoeasy, and generally, it doesn't
take a lot of effort. So forinstance, entertainment wise, I
(06:27):
haven't been watching a wholelot of new entertainment. I may
have seen Star Wars Rebels 15times this winter, because I can
turn it off. At any point, turnit back on, and know exactly
what's going on. And I love thestory. And I can fall asleep to
(06:49):
it. It may be the thing I'vewatched most this winter, up to
and including football. And thenthere's the hybrids. I have made
10 variations on chili minimumthis winter. Now, I call those
(07:09):
experiments because I'm tryingnew recipes. And so it's
partially true. But ultimately,I'm still eating chili, rather
than expanding my horizons. Andyes, by the way, I have found
some fabulous new chili recipesthat way, the spicy pork yum.
But by the same token, I need tosearch more for other things to
(07:36):
try. So I guess in some parts ofmy life are flexible. And the
challenge may be maximizing theparts of my life that are less
flexible to get me back to thepoint where I'm not completely
get off my lawn. And now a wordfrom our sponsor.
(07:59):
I asked my dad if I could helphim become masa. And he said
yes. Yes, hope fine people. Formy dad's Puck, share this
podcast with your friends. Leavewith you to leave people for my
(08:19):
dad. You can donate to by me andideas and ideas to keep making
podcasts. Thank you forlistening me to stray sink by.
And I'd like to thank Amelia,age six, for sponsoring this
(08:40):
week's podcast. And now back tothe show. So two things come to
mind as I consider all this.
One, I've always thought the keyor at least one of the keys to
staying young in your mind wasto continue to seek new
experiences for no other reasonthan it keeps you excited about
what you're doing in life. And Idon't care who you are. There's
(09:05):
it's a lot better to feel joy insomething than to be patiently
waiting for the next televisionshow. For instance, the probably
the most joyful thing I've donethis year is standing near a
high mountain lake. Well, thelast calendar year rather than
obviously 2023. A new placecreating new experiences. Or one
(09:31):
actually from 2023. Watching myyounger two daughters at the
local zoo. Now they have been tothe zoo before mean we were at
the San Diego Zoo last Aprilwith them. But we hadn't been to
the Boise zoo in years, probablypre COVID And none of us had
(09:55):
realized the amount of the zoothat had been read done in that
time. It was a first for my kidsseeing a crocodile up close, and
exploring a place that was bothnew and exciting, and yet
somewhat familiar. And they bothloved every minute of it. Even
my 11 year old, wasn't going tocool for school, she was
(10:18):
legitimately excited to just bea kid. And I'll be honest,
there's a lot of points in mylife, or I am actively seeking
that level of joy. And I don'tthink I'm alone in that. And
next up, there is evidence thatkeeping your neural pathways
(10:40):
from solidifying into concreteis critical. I think it's called
neuroplasticity, though pleasedon't quote me on that. But
there's evidence in all parts ofour life. If you've ever taken a
weekend, and just fetched, youwalk away, tired, you walk away,
kind of mentally limping,because you're wondering why
(11:05):
you're not processing as fast.
This is different from just resttime. But at the end of a lazy
day, you're exhausted. Andyou're not thinking nearly as
clearly if you'd been up andmoving. This, pleasantly long
weekend was a great example ofthis. I'm starting to learn an
(11:28):
entirely new workflow for thepodcast, and it's got a long
ways to go. I was able toupgrade some of my equipment, I
get to play with the road casterpro the original now. And the
learning that's come out of thatabout how to use what I already
have. plus the new tool, and howto make it work within the
(11:52):
podcast has honestly beenexhilarated. It's made me
excited to not just play with anew toy, because it's tool. But
it's the same concept. Anytimeyou get a new tool you get
excited to play with it. Butit's made me reconsider some
episode things I've been doing,how I can make use of the
(12:15):
improved technology to toimprove the podcast. And get
really excited as I have gottenthe sense that my sound quality
improved with just the littlebit I have learned so far.
Great, for instance, so this isjust learning how to pre record
some of the, you know, my intromy outro, the mid roll drops,
(12:39):
and be able to place them withinthe podcast with a touch of the
button. I thought it was goingto be hard because doing it just
on my editing software. And Iuse Audacity is difficult to
once you've recorded a podcast,split and move. This is so much
more organic, and it works sowell. It has me really excited
(13:02):
about what I can learn and dogoing forward with this. Which
fits with the mission of thispodcast. All this to say stay
young. Stay off your rockingchair on the front porch, find
new experiences and enjoy them.
It's the best way to keep fromfeeling the need to scream at
the top of your lungs. Get offmy lawn. And heck, by being
(13:23):
aware, maybe I can avoid meetinga reminder that I'm rapidly
headed down that road. Wellfriends, that's it for this
week's edition of strife seekfind. Thank you again for
listening. If you'd like to jointhe discussion, or have ideas
for future episodes, hop on overto the strife seek find podcast
(13:45):
group on Facebook.
Alternatively, if Facebook's notyour thing, you can find me on
Instagram at strife seek findpodcast on Twitter. As at chance
Whitmore five. We're even onemail. The links for all those
are in the show notes below.
Until next time, my friends,keep seeking your own brilliant
(14:10):
future
Popular Podcasts
United States of Kennedy
United States of Kennedy is a podcast about our cultural fascination with the Kennedy dynasty. Every week, hosts Lyra Smith and George Civeris go into one aspect of the Kennedy story.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com