December 23, 2021 • 16 mins
https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2020/12/23/ive-had-a-year-to-think-about-whats-important/
I’ve Had a Year to Think About What’s Important
Dec 23, 2020
RUSH: And greetings to you, music lovers, thrill-seekers, conversationalists all across the fruited plain. It is great to have you here today. Great to be with you. Rush Limbaugh, the EIB Network, and the Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Studies of All Things That Matter. Telephone number, 800-282-2882 if you want to be on the program. We’re gonna do a version of Open Line Friday today, Mr. Snerdley.
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Greetings to you music lovers, thrill seekers, conversationalists on across
the fruited plane. It is great to have you here today.
Great to be with you, Rush Limbaugh, the E I
B Network and the Limbo Institute for Advanced Studies of
All Things that Matter. Telephone number eight hundred to eight
to eight eight to if you want to be on
(00:21):
the program. We're gonna do a version of open Line
Friday to day. Mr Snerdleie. Whatever people want to call about,
whatever they want to ask about, whatever they want to say,
anything about, UM, let them have at it. And then
it's Since we're not going to be here on Friday,
this is in fact the last program of the year
for me and folks, I want to tell you at
(00:45):
the outset here to me, this is a very important program.
I have very much that i want to say to
all of you today, and I'm feeling very pressured. Not pressured,
I'm I'm feeling uh stage fright kind of thing. I
so much I want to say, and I want to
say it correctly. I want to convey my feelings and
(01:06):
I want to do it right. I want to do
it to the to the best of my ability and
I have found in circumstances like this that the best
thing to do is not to think about it. Don't
don't make it more pressure packed than it already is.
But it's very important. You all are very important. My
family is very important to me. I've had I've had
(01:27):
a year now to reflect on the things that really matter,
a year to reflect on the things that are completely
relevant and important to me. And all of you were
in that large conglomeration of people and things that are
very important to me. Uh. I want to go back. Normally,
(01:53):
by the way, I wait until the third hour of
the program too, As I has always said that I
I usually use the Christmas programs such as this one
to engage in my thank yous and my thankfulness for
the year, rather than a Thanksgiving. And I don't know why.
Something about Christmas um my childhood memories of it. The
(02:17):
family is getting together and the children making it what
it was. My feelings of thankfulness always surface, my feelings
of great gratitude always surface at the Christmas time of year,
and it's no different this year. Now. In January of
(02:38):
this year, towards the end of the month, I received
a diagnosis. You all know, but Ei, There's something I
want to say about it. Um stage four advanced lung
cancer terminal diagnosis. The objective of everybody involved was to
(03:05):
extend life for as long as possible, as enjoyably as possible. Now,
many of you have been through this, Lots of you
have been through this as individuals, as families, and you
know what that means. Medical treatment that is designed to
(03:26):
attack the disease as greatly as possible while maintaining a
quality of life that makes it worth it. Some people
can't deal with the side effects of chemo or other
forms of treatment. Well back in late January when I
received this diagnosis and I was shocked. I was stunned,
(03:52):
and I was in denial for about a week. I mean,
I'm rush Limbo, I'm m I missed her big the
vast right wing conspiracy. I mean, I'm I'm indestructible as
it can't be right. What it was, and what I
(04:13):
didn't know at the time that I learned later in
the course of the year was that I wasn't expected
to be alive today. I wasn't expected to make it
to October, and then to November, and then to December,
and yet here I am and today I've got some problems.
(04:38):
If I'm feeling pretty good today, God's with me today.
God knows how important this program is to me today.
And I'm feeling natural in terms of energy, normal in
terms of energy, and I'm feeling entirely capable of doing
it today. I have been blessed. I've mentioned to all
(05:00):
of you back in the early days sometime. I guess
this might have been in February. It was around It was,
I think either during or shortly after I had received
the Presidential Medal of Freedom at this year's State of
the Union, addressed by President Trump in the House Chamber.
(05:23):
By the way, something I really hoped at. President He
had marvelous speech last night, four minutes speech on the
COVID relief debacle coming out of the Congress that should
be studied in a master's course in communication. It was clear,
it was concise, it was well paced, it was powerful,
(05:44):
it was on brand, and it was classic. It was
the kind of speech only an outsider could have made.
And I really hoped that Trump would sit down and
start ripping up the bill as Pelosi ripped up his speech.
You know, when she began to rip up his speech
is when he began the presentation of the metal to me,
(06:08):
seated next to his wife, the First Lady Milania, and
I I turned my back to her, which is proper.
She was the one who actually put the metal around
my neck. And I thought it was great, if, if,
if Trump would have ripped up that bill. Uh. But
he didn't, and that's that's understandable as well. But I remember,
I remember saying to all of you at that at
(06:30):
that time that I had a a little bit of
understanding of something that had perplexed me for a lot
of my life, and that was Lou Garrig. Lou Garrick,
the Iron Horse New York Yankees set the record for
(06:52):
consecutive games played until Cal Ripken came along decades later
and broke it. And on the day that rip can
are that the day that Luke Garreg announced that he
had his disease that was forcing him to retire from
Major League Baseball, he said to the sold out Yankee
(07:15):
Stadium today, I feel like the luckiest man on the
face of the earth. And I didn't understand that. I mean,
here's a guy who had just been diagnosed with the
most terminal of terminal diseases. And I said this, This
can't be really. You can't really think he's the luckiest
(07:36):
guy in the world. This is just something to be
saying because it will play well, it'll I don't I
don't mean to be insulting Luke garreg don't misunderstand. I'm
just thinking that, how in the world, if you're being honest,
can you feel like you're the luckiest man on the
face of the earth. Well, when I got my diagnosis
and when I began to receive all of the outpouring
(08:03):
of love and affection from everywhere in my life, from
from so many of you in so many ways, and
and from my family who man, they have supported me
my entire career, even during times it would have been
(08:26):
understandable and easy for them to say rush who we
don't know this guy, But that never happened. I mean,
I've been totally supported by virtually everybody in my family.
I've been propped up, i have been defended, I've been
made to look better than I am. My my lovely
(08:48):
wife Catherine has done so much in that regard. She
has done so much with Russia limbaud dot com and
with the charitable words that we have engaged in and
all of it has been to my benefit. All of
it has been for the UH and yours. It's the
benefit of people who are the recipients of our efforts.
(09:14):
UM So many people have put me first in all
of this, and I understand now what Luke Earrig meant,
because I certainly feel like that. I feel extremely fortunate
and lucky. And because I have outlived the diagnosis, I've
(09:35):
been able to receive and here and process some of
the most wonderful nice things about me that I might
not have ever heard had I have not gotten sick.
I think anything, how many people who pass away never
(10:00):
or the eulogies, never hear the the thank you's. I've
been very lucky, folks. And I can't tell you how
many how many ways when this kind of thing befalls you,
it's hard not to become self focused. It's hard to
(10:20):
not just think of yourself, and it's it's hard to
think that everybody's going to drop what they're doing and
deal with with me, with you. You have to guard
against that because this is to the family, this is
as disrupting, it's as upsetting as it is to me,
(10:50):
and in some cases even more so so. You can't.
I can't be self absorbed about it when that is
the tendency when you are told that you've got to
do date, you have an expiration date. A lot of
(11:12):
people never get told that, and so they don't face
life this way. This is not a complaint. I'm simply
this is why I said so much I want to
say today, and so much I want to say, well,
so much I want to say exactly as I'm as
I'm feeling it because my my point in all of this,
today's gratitude, my my point in everything today that I
(11:34):
share with you about this is to say thanks and
to tell everybody involved how much I love you from
the bottom of a sizeable and growing and still beating heart.
And there's room for for much more, all because I
(11:57):
have I've learned what love really is during this. You know,
I have a philosophy. There's good that happens and everything
that may not reveal itself immediately, and even in the
most dire circumstances, if you just wait, if you just
remain open to things, the good in it will reveal itself.
(12:20):
And that has happened to me as well in countless
countless ways. You know, I mentioned Katherine, don't misunderstand She's
done much more than just Redesign website and the and
Shepherd the Russia Lymba dot com store, she Shepherd of
(12:41):
the charitable efforts, the Betsy Ross stand up for Betsy Ross.
That amount of money we generated for the Tunnel to
Towers organization just incredible stuff. And it was all done
for me well, and and and the beneficiaries that it
was all for me. All of this was done for me.
(13:04):
So many people have done things this year for me,
and it's I know, it's not embarrassing, it's it's just gratifying.
And it has helped me to see so much, so
clearly not the goodness of people and their and their decency,
(13:27):
and it's confirmed so much of my instinctive beliefs about people.
For example, the alleged President elect Joe Biden holiday message,
our darkest days are ahead of us. Well, for some
(13:52):
of us, that's absolutely true. But folks, I have to
tell you, if I were president elected the country, it's
a last thing I would say. And even if I
believed it, I doubt that I would put it this way.
But I don't. I don't believe this anyway, darkest days
or ahead of us? What a bleak way of looking
(14:14):
at at things. This is. During a press briefing yesterday,
said the worst is yet to come in the fight
against the coronavirus pandemic, which is weird given that Biden
has repeatedly claimed that it's Trump who's killing Americans with COVID.
So Trump is gonna be gone soon. So why are
(14:35):
our darkest days ahead of us when Trump is leaving?
If Trump's responsible for all of this. But my point is, yeah,
the virus is what it is, but we adapt I
talked of it this yesterday. We Americans have adapted to
our problems. We've adapted to changing evolutionary things in our
(15:01):
lives in our country because of our freedom. Our freedom
has allowed our adaptability. If disaster is coming our way,
we don't just sit there and endure it. We come
up with ways to avoid it, to beat it back,
to overcome it. But we don't just sit there and
(15:22):
accept it. And as such, we don't just resign ourselves
to the fact that we're living in the darkest days,
because we, at least to this point, still have the
greatest degree of freedom of any people on earth. Now
it's under assault and under attack, and we all know this.
(15:44):
But I don't believe our darkest days or ahead of us,
and never have, like people have been asking, and you,
you've always told us to be time to panic at
the time. It's never time to panic, folks. Is never
ever going to be time to give up on our country.
It will never be time to give up on the
United States. It will never be I to give up
on yourself. Trust me,
Greetings to you music lovers, thrill seekers, conversationalists on across
the fruited plane. It is great to have you here today.
Great to be with you, Rush Limbaugh, the E I
B Network and the Limbo Institute for Advanced Studies of
All Things that Matter. Telephone number eight hundred to eight
to eight eight to if you want to be on
(00:21):
the program. We're gonna do a version of open Line
Friday to day. Mr Snerdleie. Whatever people want to call about,
whatever they want to ask about, whatever they want to say,
anything about, UM, let them have at it. And then
it's Since we're not going to be here on Friday,
this is in fact the last program of the year
for me and folks, I want to tell you at
(00:45):
the outset here to me, this is a very important program.
I have very much that i want to say to
all of you today, and I'm feeling very pressured. Not pressured,
I'm I'm feeling uh stage fright kind of thing. I
so much I want to say, and I want to
say it correctly. I want to convey my feelings and
(01:06):
I want to do it right. I want to do
it to the to the best of my ability and
I have found in circumstances like this that the best
thing to do is not to think about it. Don't
don't make it more pressure packed than it already is.
But it's very important. You all are very important. My
family is very important to me. I've had I've had
(01:27):
a year now to reflect on the things that really matter,
a year to reflect on the things that are completely
relevant and important to me. And all of you were
in that large conglomeration of people and things that are
very important to me. Uh. I want to go back. Normally,
(01:53):
by the way, I wait until the third hour of
the program too, As I has always said that I
I usually use the Christmas programs such as this one
to engage in my thank yous and my thankfulness for
the year, rather than a Thanksgiving. And I don't know why.
Something about Christmas um my childhood memories of it. The
(02:17):
family is getting together and the children making it what
it was. My feelings of thankfulness always surface, my feelings
of great gratitude always surface at the Christmas time of year,
and it's no different this year. Now. In January of
(02:38):
this year, towards the end of the month, I received
a diagnosis. You all know, but Ei, There's something I
want to say about it. Um stage four advanced lung
cancer terminal diagnosis. The objective of everybody involved was to
(03:05):
extend life for as long as possible, as enjoyably as possible. Now,
many of you have been through this, Lots of you
have been through this as individuals, as families, and you
know what that means. Medical treatment that is designed to
(03:26):
attack the disease as greatly as possible while maintaining a
quality of life that makes it worth it. Some people
can't deal with the side effects of chemo or other
forms of treatment. Well back in late January when I
received this diagnosis and I was shocked. I was stunned,
(03:52):
and I was in denial for about a week. I mean,
I'm rush Limbo, I'm m I missed her big the
vast right wing conspiracy. I mean, I'm I'm indestructible as
it can't be right. What it was, and what I
(04:13):
didn't know at the time that I learned later in
the course of the year was that I wasn't expected
to be alive today. I wasn't expected to make it
to October, and then to November, and then to December,
and yet here I am and today I've got some problems.
(04:38):
If I'm feeling pretty good today, God's with me today.
God knows how important this program is to me today.
And I'm feeling natural in terms of energy, normal in
terms of energy, and I'm feeling entirely capable of doing
it today. I have been blessed. I've mentioned to all
(05:00):
of you back in the early days sometime. I guess
this might have been in February. It was around It was,
I think either during or shortly after I had received
the Presidential Medal of Freedom at this year's State of
the Union, addressed by President Trump in the House Chamber.
(05:23):
By the way, something I really hoped at. President He
had marvelous speech last night, four minutes speech on the
COVID relief debacle coming out of the Congress that should
be studied in a master's course in communication. It was clear,
it was concise, it was well paced, it was powerful,
(05:44):
it was on brand, and it was classic. It was
the kind of speech only an outsider could have made.
And I really hoped that Trump would sit down and
start ripping up the bill as Pelosi ripped up his speech.
You know, when she began to rip up his speech
is when he began the presentation of the metal to me,
(06:08):
seated next to his wife, the First Lady Milania, and
I I turned my back to her, which is proper.
She was the one who actually put the metal around
my neck. And I thought it was great, if, if,
if Trump would have ripped up that bill. Uh. But
he didn't, and that's that's understandable as well. But I remember,
I remember saying to all of you at that at
(06:30):
that time that I had a a little bit of
understanding of something that had perplexed me for a lot
of my life, and that was Lou Garrig. Lou Garrick,
the Iron Horse New York Yankees set the record for
(06:52):
consecutive games played until Cal Ripken came along decades later
and broke it. And on the day that rip can
are that the day that Luke Garreg announced that he
had his disease that was forcing him to retire from
Major League Baseball, he said to the sold out Yankee
(07:15):
Stadium today, I feel like the luckiest man on the
face of the earth. And I didn't understand that. I mean,
here's a guy who had just been diagnosed with the
most terminal of terminal diseases. And I said this, This
can't be really. You can't really think he's the luckiest
(07:36):
guy in the world. This is just something to be
saying because it will play well, it'll I don't I
don't mean to be insulting Luke garreg don't misunderstand. I'm
just thinking that, how in the world, if you're being honest,
can you feel like you're the luckiest man on the
face of the earth. Well, when I got my diagnosis
and when I began to receive all of the outpouring
(08:03):
of love and affection from everywhere in my life, from
from so many of you in so many ways, and
and from my family who man, they have supported me
my entire career, even during times it would have been
(08:26):
understandable and easy for them to say rush who we
don't know this guy, But that never happened. I mean,
I've been totally supported by virtually everybody in my family.
I've been propped up, i have been defended, I've been
made to look better than I am. My my lovely
(08:48):
wife Catherine has done so much in that regard. She
has done so much with Russia limbaud dot com and
with the charitable words that we have engaged in and
all of it has been to my benefit. All of
it has been for the UH and yours. It's the
benefit of people who are the recipients of our efforts.
(09:14):
UM So many people have put me first in all
of this, and I understand now what Luke Earrig meant,
because I certainly feel like that. I feel extremely fortunate
and lucky. And because I have outlived the diagnosis, I've
(09:35):
been able to receive and here and process some of
the most wonderful nice things about me that I might
not have ever heard had I have not gotten sick.
I think anything, how many people who pass away never
(10:00):
or the eulogies, never hear the the thank you's. I've
been very lucky, folks. And I can't tell you how
many how many ways when this kind of thing befalls you,
it's hard not to become self focused. It's hard to
(10:20):
not just think of yourself, and it's it's hard to
think that everybody's going to drop what they're doing and
deal with with me, with you. You have to guard
against that because this is to the family, this is
as disrupting, it's as upsetting as it is to me,
(10:50):
and in some cases even more so so. You can't.
I can't be self absorbed about it when that is
the tendency when you are told that you've got to
do date, you have an expiration date. A lot of
(11:12):
people never get told that, and so they don't face
life this way. This is not a complaint. I'm simply
this is why I said so much I want to
say today, and so much I want to say, well,
so much I want to say exactly as I'm as
I'm feeling it because my my point in all of this,
today's gratitude, my my point in everything today that I
(11:34):
share with you about this is to say thanks and
to tell everybody involved how much I love you from
the bottom of a sizeable and growing and still beating heart.
And there's room for for much more, all because I
(11:57):
have I've learned what love really is during this. You know,
I have a philosophy. There's good that happens and everything
that may not reveal itself immediately, and even in the
most dire circumstances, if you just wait, if you just
remain open to things, the good in it will reveal itself.
(12:20):
And that has happened to me as well in countless
countless ways. You know, I mentioned Katherine, don't misunderstand She's
done much more than just Redesign website and the and
Shepherd the Russia Lymba dot com store, she Shepherd of
(12:41):
the charitable efforts, the Betsy Ross stand up for Betsy Ross.
That amount of money we generated for the Tunnel to
Towers organization just incredible stuff. And it was all done
for me well, and and and the beneficiaries that it
was all for me. All of this was done for me.
(13:04):
So many people have done things this year for me,
and it's I know, it's not embarrassing, it's it's just gratifying.
And it has helped me to see so much, so
clearly not the goodness of people and their and their decency,
(13:27):
and it's confirmed so much of my instinctive beliefs about people.
For example, the alleged President elect Joe Biden holiday message,
our darkest days are ahead of us. Well, for some
(13:52):
of us, that's absolutely true. But folks, I have to
tell you, if I were president elected the country, it's
a last thing I would say. And even if I
believed it, I doubt that I would put it this way.
But I don't. I don't believe this anyway, darkest days
or ahead of us? What a bleak way of looking
(14:14):
at at things. This is. During a press briefing yesterday,
said the worst is yet to come in the fight
against the coronavirus pandemic, which is weird given that Biden
has repeatedly claimed that it's Trump who's killing Americans with COVID.
So Trump is gonna be gone soon. So why are
(14:35):
our darkest days ahead of us when Trump is leaving?
If Trump's responsible for all of this. But my point is, yeah,
the virus is what it is, but we adapt I
talked of it this yesterday. We Americans have adapted to
our problems. We've adapted to changing evolutionary things in our
(15:01):
lives in our country because of our freedom. Our freedom
has allowed our adaptability. If disaster is coming our way,
we don't just sit there and endure it. We come
up with ways to avoid it, to beat it back,
to overcome it. But we don't just sit there and
(15:22):
accept it. And as such, we don't just resign ourselves
to the fact that we're living in the darkest days,
because we, at least to this point, still have the
greatest degree of freedom of any people on earth. Now
it's under assault and under attack, and we all know this.
(15:44):
But I don't believe our darkest days or ahead of us,
and never have, like people have been asking, and you,
you've always told us to be time to panic at
the time. It's never time to panic, folks. Is never
ever going to be time to give up on our country.
It will never be time to give up on the
United States. It will never be I to give up
on yourself. Trust me,
Rush Limbaugh - Timeless Wisdom News
Popular Podcasts
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
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.
Intentionally Disturbing
Join me on this podcast as I navigate the murky waters of human behavior, current events, and personal anecdotes through in-depth interviews with incredible people—all served with a generous helping of sarcasm and satire. After years as a forensic and clinical psychologist, I offer a unique interview style and a low tolerance for bullshit, quickly steering conversations toward depth and darkness. I honor the seriousness while also appreciating wit. I’m your guide through the twisted labyrinth of the human psyche, armed with dark humor and biting wit.