December 3, 2024 • 23 mins
A listener email about the 'be a purple thread' analogy inspired today's chat with Amy & Kat. Amy puts her own spin on the concept using food analogies—like salt, vanilla, butter, and pizza crust—to remind you of your importance in this world. This sparks a wild story about Amy's dad getting arrested in Saudi Arabia and a creepy "plain vanilla vs. French vanilla" photographer moment from Amy’s teenage years. Kat recalls last year’s viral video of the boy playing "doorholder #3," reminding us that everyone plays an essential role.
Plus, find out how you can help a listener bring their adopted child home from Haiti faster by signing a change.org petition HERE!
And don’t miss the chance to do some win/win shopping: Shop here with code AMY20 to save 20%—ALL proceeds go to Haiti (4 things puzzle, gratitude journal, totes, pullovers, cool mom, cat mom, dog mom, born year items & more!!)
Today’s Quote:
“There are two wolves and they are always fighting. One is darkness and despair. The other is light and hope. Which wolf wins? Whichever one you feed.” - Unknown
Call us: 877-207-2077
Email: 4ThingsWithAmyBrown@gmail.com
HOSTS:
Amy Brown // RadioAmy.com // @RadioAmy
Kat Vanburen // @KatVanburen // @YouNeedTherapyPodcast // YouNeedTherapyPodcast.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Happy Tuesday. Welcome to the fifth Thing of Amy that
I'm Cat And today's quote is unknown, but I do
think it has some Cherokee roots. Possibly there are two
wolves and they are always fighting. One is darkness and despair,
the other is light and hope. Which wolf wins whichever
(00:24):
one you feed?
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Oh deep, that is deep and true.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Yeah, if you feed the light and the hope, that
that's what.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
You're gonna say. It's kind of like the wherever you steer,
wherever you stare or you'll steer, Is that how that goes? Yeah,
wherever you pay attention to is what's gonna bloom.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
What you focus on grows.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Is that a quote? Let me just make that up.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
I feel like I've heard that, so it's like same.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Same it is. I just didn't know if that was
like another thing that I just didn't know.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
People said, Yeah, whatever you look at is what you see.
Whatever you touch, you feel, you know, whatever you listen
to you here, yes, Oh wow, hen we eat you taste.
I have an email from Sarah speaking of analogies, metaphors,
(01:14):
stuff like that. This is what Sarah's sharing with us. Actually, Hey,
Amy and Kat. During episode six hundred and twelve.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Stop, really are they numbered? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Yeah, I think somewhere on those sy episodes. Wow, well
it includes all the four Things episodes way back and
then the Fit Thing too. So she said during episode
six twelve, you encourage listeners to lean into their weird
and crazy and it reminded me of something that my
therapist told me. Quote be a purple thread. Greek philosopher
(01:46):
Epictetus compared the masses of the white threads of a toga.
He declared himself to be a purple thread among the
common white threads, saying I desire to be the purple thread,
that small and shining part which makes the rest seem
fair and beautiful. He went on to ask, when contemplating
changing his personhood, why should I attempt to be like
(02:08):
the mini? And if I am, then how shall I
remain purple? And then she ended the email with half
the day you need to have smiley face your friend, Sarah,
which I like the purple thread analogy, but I really
feel like I can't really relate to toga Greek green
philosopher stuff. I like it, it's good, but I'm not
(02:30):
wearing a toga. But one thing I am doing a
lot of lately is eating and maybe it's because it's
the holidays and recipes and cooking. But I thought we
could do like ingredients analogy the people can use because
none of us are wearing a toga is my point,
so we don't think of the purple thread. Okay, maybe
(02:50):
if they're going to a toga party. Yeah, but I
do like this. I just thought we could make it
relatable since a lot of us are cooking things.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
I'm confused how this is going to be the same
kind of metaphor with food.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
But they're ingredient analogies that still support the metaphor for individuality.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Okay, that's what.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Like, let's start with one thing that I use in
my kitchen the most. Like, I'm honestly not sure how
this item is impacting my blood pressure or my water retention,
But do you know what I love the most in
my kitchen? Do you know what ingredient I'm talking about?
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Well, based off of what you just said, salt, Well.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
I thought it would just be like, based off the
fact that you're my friend and you.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Know me, well, you said water retention. I'm not thinking
it's like tomatoes.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Yeah, but I mean, what do you see me use
the most.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
You put salt on a lot of items.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
So salt. I feel like with salt, it's not like
the star. It's not like the big major ingredient.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
You're not like, oh my god, the salt was so good.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
Right, It's like this dish is so good, but you
know why it's so good. They're salt because of the salt.
It's like subtle. If you don't have it, other things
just fall flat and it's not right. I feel like
salt also is a good friend to all the other
seasonings because it helps bring out their flavors too. So
a saying could be, next time you see the salt,
if you're trying to just remember this analogy of being
(04:11):
me is like being the salt. I'm not always noticed,
but I make everything better.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
That's actually beautiful.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
See yeah, the food. We're relating it to today's time.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Yes, yeah. And when you think of salt, you're like, oh,
it's in everything, or it's always in in recipes, so
you don't really think of it even as an ingredient.
But you're right. Without it, the food will taste sometimes bad,
not even not that good. Sometimes it's bad without salt.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
You can over salt things, so be aware that there
may be a tolerance for you. And it's sort of like,
if that's the way, that's good.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Yes, yep, you can't give all of you in every situation.
That's so gad sparingly.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
It's like with the toga thread, if everything was purple,
or there was more purple on there than the purple
on the toga, wouldn't be special.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Also, I want to shout out to an ingredient that
landed my dad in Saudi Arabian jail. What Yeah, salt Vanella.
It's my next ingredient that I have an analogy for.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Your dad went to jail in Saudi Arabia.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
He did, so. He was opening up a Swinson's ice
cream with a Saudi Arabian doctor. Don't ask me how
their relationship came about or what this is. It was
the eighties and all I know is my dad went
to Saudi Arabia and he got arrested because he was
at the port bringing in the container. Because Swinson's ice
cream is very specific ingredients. If I had to guess,
(05:37):
the doctor maybe came to America and had Swinson's ice cream.
It was like, oh, this is amazing. I want to
open one of these. In Saudi Arabia, what is Swinson's
ice cream? Like a baskin Robbins or you know, like
a chain. So my dad shipped all this stuff, went
over there and was at the port waiting for the container. Well,
when things arrive into the port, there's I don't know
(05:57):
what they call it in Saudi Arabia, but is it
what is like port authority, Like they go through and
have to check everything customs and so they go through,
they do the customs and they arrest my dad on
the spot for trying to impore alcohol into the country
because you know, something that is found in vanilla that
you may not really think and alcohol content. There's a
(06:18):
percentage of alcohol in there. It's not enough to get you.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Wait, I had no idea feel.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
And tipsy unless you drink a lot, which that might
be kind of gross. But he was arrested because they
didn't understand. All they saw was that there was a
percentage of alcohol and on the bottle yep. So he
went to jail. Well, the doctor went to the jail
to bail him out, explained everything and they're like, yeah,
well we still can't give it to you. He's like well,
how can we work this out because I need to
(06:45):
open this ice cream shop. So they said, well, since
you're a doctor, we will put the vanilla in the
pharmacy and you can write a prescription and get it out.
Like that's how we'll allow you to have the vanilla,
because I don't know in the eighties and Saudi Arabia,
in fact, I don't even.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Know that he had to pay for it.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
What is allowed? No, it was their way of allowing
it to be through was to put it in the
pharmacy and the doctor to write a script and then
they were able to withdraw and make the ice cream.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
That is a crazy story. So how did your dad
get out of jail?
Speaker 1 (07:18):
The doctor bailed him out?
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Okay, he have to like go to court.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
I have no idea. I don't this is a long
long time ago.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
How scared to be in another country's.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
Jail, especially Saudi Arabia, especially for vanilla? Right when you're
like no, no, no, no no, that makes your ice.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Cream, and they're like yeah, right, that's what they all say.
So let me okay, So what's the metaphor?
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Okay, so the saying for yourself is going to be
being vanilla doesn't mean boring. It means essential because it's
so many desserts.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Also because people are like, oh, they're so vanilla or
like there's like I've heard the phrase, like they're like
white bread like plain, but also whitebread's awesome.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
When my sister was having her senior photos taken by
this photographer and our town, that was I don't know,
it's kind of questionable how he photographed teenageers, but because
my sister was like climbing on this wall in a
black tight dress, and she was in.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
High school climbing on a wall, like.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
Everybody had their pictures done by this person. But now
that I'm an adult looking back, no, I'm saying, picture
this white wall and a high school girl in a
tight black dress like climbing the wall like a cat,
like her hair and makeup done.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
You you see, it's a little Does she have those photos?
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Oh yeah, my dad had it up in our living
room and I'm like, this is weird. And then I
had I wouldn't my pictures taken bime too, because everybody
was getting their pictures done. And I remember one time
he's like, oh, let's just unbutton that one a little
bit more, and I was like, oh, like, it wasn't anything.
It's like there was a line. It's like he got
close to it, but he didn't cross it. Because I'm
not trying to accuse anybody of anything. It's just like, looking.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Back, it was a little weird.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
This this is weird, like we were teenagers and we
should not have had that unbuttoned dirt be like a
cat on the hat, like we're climbing the wall with
red lipstick.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
And so what's this had to do with Vanilla? Oh?
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Because when they were taking the photos, he said to
my sister, he said, okay, right now, you're playing Vanilla.
I want to see French Vanilla.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Oh my god.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Now whenever I think of Vanilla, I break your parents there.
But no, I don't know if they just dropped us
off or what she took hers when she was a
senior and I took mine when I was sixteen because
I got it as part of my sixteenth birthday present.
I'll try to find some of the pictures. Oh my god,
I'll show you. Okay, this is not okay, so shout
out to Vanilla. Yeah, and remember you want to be
(09:47):
like Vanilla. It's not boring, it's essential.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
What about butter, because I feel like butter makes everything better.
It's also a part of helping hold cakes together. Part
of why it's in the mist. Eggs, they all play
a role, but it is part of the structure. It's
the same thing with cookies too. In a cookie, a
butter will add flavor, taste, even texture of flakiness, but
(10:14):
also structure, like it'll help bind it. So you're like
the butter. You may not always get the credit because
someone might try to give it to eggs, but you
hold everything together. So it's a good thing you brought
it the eggs into the mix because it helps make
the saying even stronger.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Yeah, you're right, I played right into that. I thought
you were going to do a metaphor about sesame bagels
and butter, because that's the best kind of bagel that
there is.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
No But if you want to come up with your
own analogy, you can like about a bagel like something
like gets round with a hole in the middle, but.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Not because it's broken, because it's working on itself.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
And lastly, pizza crust. Now, I was eating pizza crust
the other night. That's why I thought of this. I
was with someone and he kept setting his crust aside,
and I was like, you don't like your crust? He said,
red flag, and he had it piled up on the
corner of his plate, and it was the best crust.
So I was grabbing the crust and I was eating
(11:16):
it because I love the crust. And the crust is
literally the foundation of a pizza. Yes, but everyone's always
busy of like what kind of toppings.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Do you like? But there'd be no pizza without the.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
Crust, exactly, without the crust, there would be no pizza.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
You could Was that the metaphor? No, I was gonna say,
I took the pores out of your mouth. No, no,
But that's that's a follow up.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
That is like what leads into the analogy of without
you the crust, there's nothing for the toppings to rest on.
You are the foundation where everything comes together.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
That's beautiful.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Yeah, So I know the purple thread is about being
individual and being different. It's also just about being an
important role. And I feel like the ingredients these are
more of like these analogies are playing a role, like
you're not necessarily being different, but you are standing out.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Well. It's also highlighting that you don't have to be
the star of everything to actually be a star, Like
sometimes the stars are the background characters.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Oh I love that, you know.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Oh my gosh, have you seen that video going around?
I think it's from last year where this little British
kids extra cute because he has an accent. But he's like, mom,
guess what I got my role for the Christmas play?
And she was like, oh what you get? He goes,
it's an essential role? And so have you seen this?
Just like, are you Joseph? And he's like no, are
(12:35):
you married? No? Are you baby Jesus No. She's like,
well what could you be? He goes, I'm door holding
number three. It's so cute, and he goes, it's gonna
be amazing. He was so happy. He's like he probably
was like they could never come onto the stage if
I didn't open the door for them.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
That is so true. Like every role, it's very essential.
That's the perfect word. It's crucial because think about it,
if you forget the vanilla, or you forget the salt,
or you don't have the.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Crust, or you don't have a door holder, or you.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
Don't add in the butter, like everybody knows apple sauce
is not the same without what Sometimes people try to
replace butter with apple sauce. What in a cookie recipe?
Speaker 2 (13:21):
You've never heard that. I thought they oil. I guess
that's kind of similar.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
Oh maybe it is the oil. Well whatever, back to
the cute story. I guess it is oil. Yeah, but it's.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
Still not the same. Well maybe I don't know if
I've tried that, we'd have to try to see, but
whatever still work.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
But sometimes maybe I get why you would do the
apple sauce. I've done that before, and maybe there are
some recipes where it's still okay. So I don't need
to throw shade on the apple sauce at all. But
I love that story so much, so I'm glad you
thought of that, didn't share it. It's essential my role,
Well are you Jesus Joseph?
Speaker 2 (14:02):
But also what's so sweet is he literally was so
pumped for that.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
Well, and think about us as adults, like if we
were in that situation and we felt like we had
an essential world, we would probably say, oh, well, we
would need to be Jesus or Joseph for Mary. And
when you have a more childlike innocent approach to it,
before you've been tainted by the world. You understand the
(14:26):
importance of all parts of do a hold on number three?
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Yeah, and I'm like, everything is cuter in an English accent.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
Have you made any of your protein balls lately?
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Speaking of cooking, I was thinking about that the other day.
I feel like we've just been not on our routine,
so I haven't I really need a store to make
them inexpensively so I can just buy them.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Yeah, because you're having to continue to buy all the
things over and over and then it's time, which you
last week said that you were going to maybe post
the recipe on socials. I put the recipe for your
peppermint martini thing in the show notes, but did you
ever end up posting it to social.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
But I did have somebody asked me the other day
about the protein ball recipe, so maybe I need to
post that that we were.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
In the show notes as well, But I don't remember
what episode. Maybe Sarah knows, since she's got episode six
hundred twelve that she emailed us about. I wonder if
because of the transcripts Now Houston, Houston shout out, he's
our producer. If you're listening to this right now, hmmm,
let us know about the numbers. If you can search
(15:43):
keywords like oh, protein ball recipe four things, and then
I guess it to be able to do that. Yeah,
so that might come up. So there you go. You
search that into you can also post So is that
what we called them?
Speaker 2 (15:55):
Cats?
Speaker 1 (15:56):
Protein balls?
Speaker 2 (15:57):
Well, I can't really take credit. I took these balls
search that first of all. I think we could do better.
But I stole this recipe from somebody off of TikTok.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
You said you modified it a little bit for yourself,
which I could buy all recipes? Yeah, who made the
first ever?
Speaker 2 (16:14):
There's some recipees you can't mess with because then they
won't be right, like which ones?
Speaker 1 (16:19):
Like?
Speaker 2 (16:19):
I feel? Well, I guess baking you can always change
the like chocolate chips or I'm gonna ad white chocolate
chips or something like that. But isn't baking like exact
science versus when you cook you can just modify it
as you go to taste.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
Yeah, but I still think you could alter the amount
of seasonings or like you said, if you swap something.
I don't know. I feel like everybody's just taking a
spin off of everything everything, which which thing was the original?
I mean, that's art, that's creation. We're all inspired by
other things. I'm not saying that it's bad. In fact,
like we're all.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
Nobody by things.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
Yeah, I believe that Greek philosopher Epictitos epic Tito's like
the vodka maybe it's named after him, a pic Tito's
also speaking of food. Cat and I would encourage y'all
will end on this encouragement is to come up with
some sort of tradition with your friends, because for the
(17:15):
last couple of years, Cat and I have gone to
Bartaco on Christmas eve Eve, and this year I'm actually
flying out on Christmas Eve eve eve.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
What is that the twenty second second?
Speaker 1 (17:28):
So I'm not going to be here. So on Christmas
eve eve eve eve, we're going to need to go
to Bartaco because it's our tradition. So don't get stuck
on just because it's not the way it's always been
and now oh can't do it. You just may have
to pivot a little bit and make it work because
we're still doing it even if it was Christmas eve
(17:48):
eve've e's tomorrow night. But listen, yeah, to remember four oh,
which hello, that is Cat's birthday, which I thought, all,
how are you going.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
To be thirty five? I'm saying it because that's not
like an exciting birthday. It's just like a thirty five.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Thirty five is you've officially hit your mid thirties.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
Okay, so that's you know what. I'm getting better with
every age, So I'm not sad that I'm getting older.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
You're like a fine line. I'm just like this analogy
I love.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
I was gonna say, you're gonna have to talk to
Patrick though about evv ev eve because the last time
we went to Bartaco was with you, and he was like,
I'm never going back to that place because he doesn't
think it's worth the money. He doesn't like it the food.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
Well, it's not about this.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
It's not about food.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
It's about the tradition, and we like it.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
So we have to go back there. So we have
to encourage him because he was like, I'm never going
back there. Well, I don't think it's bad enough to
say I'm never going back there. It's just nothing special.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Well, I can take my own advice and we don't
have to actually make it the same restaurant, like we
can pivot. But it's special. Well it is. But we're
not going to give it that much power. Is us
all being together?
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Okay?
Speaker 1 (19:02):
See what I did there? I took my own advice.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Okay, well that backfired on me because I wanted you
to convince him to let us go.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
Well, because I love bar talk.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
I haven't been there in a year. Wait didn't you go.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
For my birthday? Oh you weren't there? Sorry? Subject, Well,
and I will say this year it'll be better. Tell
him that maybe he didn't like it last year because
it was the company.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
Well I think that's probably part of it.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
Yeah, so, but the company will be this year. The
company will be better. More on that, Kat, Where can
people find you.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
On Instagram at Kat van Buren?
Speaker 1 (19:36):
I mean more on that later, which I'm not trying
to be annoying about that by any means. I think
this is like a fun place where we do get
to like drop little hints about exciting things and just
know that there's a little bit of a reason and
some timing stuff and I'll share more later. This is
the only place where I'm giving like a little taste,
(19:59):
you know, which you could see your face when you're
talking right now, is it smiley?
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Yeah? It's really Bigue yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
Okay, that's where you can find Kat. I'm at Radio
Amy Sarah, thank you for the email, and I quickly
want to say, speaking of emails, in the show notes,
I'm going to link a change dot org petition that
if y'all would go sign, it would be awesome. I
got an email from a listener and she shared with
(20:26):
me her story of adopting from Haiti and how back
in March, when the US decided it was too dangerous
for some the kids to stay in Haiti, those kids left,
but her child that she's adopting is still there, along
with fifty other families, and they are working really hard
to get their kids out of Haiti and home safely.
(20:48):
And so she sent me the petition to sign, which
I already did. I haven't posted about on socials yet,
but I will. But I was thinking too, I'll link
the change dot org petition in the show notes where
you can just go over there click it easily. And
she included a picture of her daughter. They're not allowed
to share that publicly yet, but she just wanted me
to be able to see her, and she is precious
(21:10):
and I can't imagine being their shoes, just knowing the
state of Haiti and how dangerous everything is and to
be so close and then to also have other kids
pulled out to safety, and then yours is not there.
And I just say that sometimes we don't understand the
bigger picture or why it's unfolding the way that it is.
But one day it will all make sense that this
is something we can do to rally behind a fellow
(21:34):
listener and mom and family and just human And this
is the time of year where there's a lot going on.
And I'm sure you're like, oh, I'll probably get to
this and I'll click that link when I have time,
but you can just stop what you're doing and go
do it. It takes like sixty seconds. I think you
do have to register your email, but it's change dot org.
It's legit, this isn't spam, and this will just help
(21:55):
people out. And one final thing too about Haiti is
all proceeds from certain items are going to the orphanage
where my kids grew up. Other items are going to
Project Meta Share, which is another amazing group in Haiti
as well. That's our journals, our Four Things Gratitude journals.
All proceeds go to education through Project metashare. But then
(22:19):
there's so many other items under Amy's picks, which I'll
put up through the shot forward. It's four things items
cool mom stuff, cat mom, dog mom, all the mom's
cool dad, there's born year stuff. It's all really cute.
And you can use the code Amy twenty to save
twenty percent, and that discounts just for you. Nobody's making
(22:40):
anything from that, and then all proceeds after you get
the discount are going to Haiti, So just a win win.
Haiti's getting the win and then you're getting a little
twenty percent discount. And so I will link those items
in the show notes as well. If you have got
some Christmas shopping to do and you want some cute
quality stuff that gives back, all right, have.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
The day you need to have. We'll try it again.
Have the day you need to have. I got to
say it with you. We have today. Have we go
every other I have the day you need to have?
Oh I like that. Boom, bye bye
Happy Tuesday. Welcome to the fifth Thing of Amy that
I'm Cat And today's quote is unknown, but I do
think it has some Cherokee roots. Possibly there are two
wolves and they are always fighting. One is darkness and despair,
the other is light and hope. Which wolf wins whichever
(00:24):
one you feed?
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Oh deep, that is deep and true.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Yeah, if you feed the light and the hope, that
that's what.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
You're gonna say. It's kind of like the wherever you steer,
wherever you stare or you'll steer, Is that how that goes? Yeah,
wherever you pay attention to is what's gonna bloom.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
What you focus on grows.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Is that a quote? Let me just make that up.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
I feel like I've heard that, so it's like same.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Same it is. I just didn't know if that was
like another thing that I just didn't know.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
People said, Yeah, whatever you look at is what you see.
Whatever you touch, you feel, you know, whatever you listen
to you here, yes, Oh wow, hen we eat you taste.
I have an email from Sarah speaking of analogies, metaphors,
(01:14):
stuff like that. This is what Sarah's sharing with us. Actually, Hey,
Amy and Kat. During episode six hundred and twelve.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Stop, really are they numbered? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Yeah, I think somewhere on those sy episodes. Wow, well
it includes all the four Things episodes way back and
then the Fit Thing too. So she said during episode
six twelve, you encourage listeners to lean into their weird
and crazy and it reminded me of something that my
therapist told me. Quote be a purple thread. Greek philosopher
(01:46):
Epictetus compared the masses of the white threads of a toga.
He declared himself to be a purple thread among the
common white threads, saying I desire to be the purple thread,
that small and shining part which makes the rest seem
fair and beautiful. He went on to ask, when contemplating
changing his personhood, why should I attempt to be like
(02:08):
the mini? And if I am, then how shall I
remain purple? And then she ended the email with half
the day you need to have smiley face your friend, Sarah,
which I like the purple thread analogy, but I really
feel like I can't really relate to toga Greek green
philosopher stuff. I like it, it's good, but I'm not
(02:30):
wearing a toga. But one thing I am doing a
lot of lately is eating and maybe it's because it's
the holidays and recipes and cooking. But I thought we
could do like ingredients analogy the people can use because
none of us are wearing a toga is my point,
so we don't think of the purple thread. Okay, maybe
(02:50):
if they're going to a toga party. Yeah, but I
do like this. I just thought we could make it
relatable since a lot of us are cooking things.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
I'm confused how this is going to be the same
kind of metaphor with food.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
But they're ingredient analogies that still support the metaphor for individuality.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Okay, that's what.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Like, let's start with one thing that I use in
my kitchen the most. Like, I'm honestly not sure how
this item is impacting my blood pressure or my water retention,
But do you know what I love the most in
my kitchen? Do you know what ingredient I'm talking about?
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Well, based off of what you just said, salt, Well.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
I thought it would just be like, based off the
fact that you're my friend and you.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Know me, well, you said water retention. I'm not thinking
it's like tomatoes.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Yeah, but I mean, what do you see me use
the most.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
You put salt on a lot of items.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
So salt. I feel like with salt, it's not like
the star. It's not like the big major ingredient.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
You're not like, oh my god, the salt was so good.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
Right, It's like this dish is so good, but you
know why it's so good. They're salt because of the salt.
It's like subtle. If you don't have it, other things
just fall flat and it's not right. I feel like
salt also is a good friend to all the other
seasonings because it helps bring out their flavors too. So
a saying could be, next time you see the salt,
if you're trying to just remember this analogy of being
(04:11):
me is like being the salt. I'm not always noticed,
but I make everything better.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
That's actually beautiful.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
See yeah, the food. We're relating it to today's time.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Yes, yeah. And when you think of salt, you're like, oh,
it's in everything, or it's always in in recipes, so
you don't really think of it even as an ingredient.
But you're right. Without it, the food will taste sometimes bad,
not even not that good. Sometimes it's bad without salt.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
You can over salt things, so be aware that there
may be a tolerance for you. And it's sort of like,
if that's the way, that's good.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Yes, yep, you can't give all of you in every situation.
That's so gad sparingly.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
It's like with the toga thread, if everything was purple,
or there was more purple on there than the purple
on the toga, wouldn't be special.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Also, I want to shout out to an ingredient that
landed my dad in Saudi Arabian jail. What Yeah, salt Vanella.
It's my next ingredient that I have an analogy for.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Your dad went to jail in Saudi Arabia.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
He did, so. He was opening up a Swinson's ice
cream with a Saudi Arabian doctor. Don't ask me how
their relationship came about or what this is. It was
the eighties and all I know is my dad went
to Saudi Arabia and he got arrested because he was
at the port bringing in the container. Because Swinson's ice
cream is very specific ingredients. If I had to guess,
(05:37):
the doctor maybe came to America and had Swinson's ice cream.
It was like, oh, this is amazing. I want to
open one of these. In Saudi Arabia, what is Swinson's
ice cream? Like a baskin Robbins or you know, like
a chain. So my dad shipped all this stuff, went
over there and was at the port waiting for the container. Well,
when things arrive into the port, there's I don't know
(05:57):
what they call it in Saudi Arabia, but is it
what is like port authority, Like they go through and
have to check everything customs and so they go through,
they do the customs and they arrest my dad on
the spot for trying to impore alcohol into the country
because you know, something that is found in vanilla that
you may not really think and alcohol content. There's a
(06:18):
percentage of alcohol in there. It's not enough to get you.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Wait, I had no idea feel.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
And tipsy unless you drink a lot, which that might
be kind of gross. But he was arrested because they
didn't understand. All they saw was that there was a
percentage of alcohol and on the bottle yep. So he
went to jail. Well, the doctor went to the jail
to bail him out, explained everything and they're like, yeah,
well we still can't give it to you. He's like well,
how can we work this out because I need to
(06:45):
open this ice cream shop. So they said, well, since
you're a doctor, we will put the vanilla in the
pharmacy and you can write a prescription and get it out.
Like that's how we'll allow you to have the vanilla,
because I don't know in the eighties and Saudi Arabia,
in fact, I don't even.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Know that he had to pay for it.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
What is allowed? No, it was their way of allowing
it to be through was to put it in the
pharmacy and the doctor to write a script and then
they were able to withdraw and make the ice cream.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
That is a crazy story. So how did your dad
get out of jail?
Speaker 1 (07:18):
The doctor bailed him out?
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Okay, he have to like go to court.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
I have no idea. I don't this is a long
long time ago.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
How scared to be in another country's.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
Jail, especially Saudi Arabia, especially for vanilla? Right when you're
like no, no, no, no no, that makes your ice.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Cream, and they're like yeah, right, that's what they all say.
So let me okay, So what's the metaphor?
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Okay, so the saying for yourself is going to be
being vanilla doesn't mean boring. It means essential because it's
so many desserts.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Also because people are like, oh, they're so vanilla or
like there's like I've heard the phrase, like they're like
white bread like plain, but also whitebread's awesome.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
When my sister was having her senior photos taken by
this photographer and our town, that was I don't know,
it's kind of questionable how he photographed teenageers, but because
my sister was like climbing on this wall in a
black tight dress, and she was in.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
High school climbing on a wall, like.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
Everybody had their pictures done by this person. But now
that I'm an adult looking back, no, I'm saying, picture
this white wall and a high school girl in a
tight black dress like climbing the wall like a cat,
like her hair and makeup done.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
You you see, it's a little Does she have those photos?
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Oh yeah, my dad had it up in our living
room and I'm like, this is weird. And then I
had I wouldn't my pictures taken bime too, because everybody
was getting their pictures done. And I remember one time
he's like, oh, let's just unbutton that one a little
bit more, and I was like, oh, like, it wasn't anything.
It's like there was a line. It's like he got
close to it, but he didn't cross it. Because I'm
not trying to accuse anybody of anything. It's just like, looking.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Back, it was a little weird.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
This this is weird, like we were teenagers and we
should not have had that unbuttoned dirt be like a
cat on the hat, like we're climbing the wall with
red lipstick.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
And so what's this had to do with Vanilla? Oh?
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Because when they were taking the photos, he said to
my sister, he said, okay, right now, you're playing Vanilla.
I want to see French Vanilla.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Oh my god.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Now whenever I think of Vanilla, I break your parents there.
But no, I don't know if they just dropped us
off or what she took hers when she was a
senior and I took mine when I was sixteen because
I got it as part of my sixteenth birthday present.
I'll try to find some of the pictures. Oh my god,
I'll show you. Okay, this is not okay, so shout
out to Vanilla. Yeah, and remember you want to be
(09:47):
like Vanilla. It's not boring, it's essential.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
What about butter, because I feel like butter makes everything better.
It's also a part of helping hold cakes together. Part
of why it's in the mist. Eggs, they all play
a role, but it is part of the structure. It's
the same thing with cookies too. In a cookie, a
butter will add flavor, taste, even texture of flakiness, but
(10:14):
also structure, like it'll help bind it. So you're like
the butter. You may not always get the credit because
someone might try to give it to eggs, but you
hold everything together. So it's a good thing you brought
it the eggs into the mix because it helps make
the saying even stronger.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Yeah, you're right, I played right into that. I thought
you were going to do a metaphor about sesame bagels
and butter, because that's the best kind of bagel that
there is.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
No But if you want to come up with your
own analogy, you can like about a bagel like something
like gets round with a hole in the middle, but.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Not because it's broken, because it's working on itself.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
And lastly, pizza crust. Now, I was eating pizza crust
the other night. That's why I thought of this. I
was with someone and he kept setting his crust aside,
and I was like, you don't like your crust? He said,
red flag, and he had it piled up on the
corner of his plate, and it was the best crust.
So I was grabbing the crust and I was eating
(11:16):
it because I love the crust. And the crust is
literally the foundation of a pizza. Yes, but everyone's always
busy of like what kind of toppings.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Do you like? But there'd be no pizza without the.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
Crust, exactly, without the crust, there would be no pizza.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
You could Was that the metaphor? No, I was gonna say,
I took the pores out of your mouth. No, no,
But that's that's a follow up.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
That is like what leads into the analogy of without
you the crust, there's nothing for the toppings to rest on.
You are the foundation where everything comes together.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
That's beautiful.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Yeah, So I know the purple thread is about being
individual and being different. It's also just about being an
important role. And I feel like the ingredients these are
more of like these analogies are playing a role, like
you're not necessarily being different, but you are standing out.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Well. It's also highlighting that you don't have to be
the star of everything to actually be a star, Like
sometimes the stars are the background characters.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Oh I love that, you know.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Oh my gosh, have you seen that video going around?
I think it's from last year where this little British
kids extra cute because he has an accent. But he's like, mom,
guess what I got my role for the Christmas play?
And she was like, oh what you get? He goes,
it's an essential role? And so have you seen this?
Just like, are you Joseph? And he's like no, are
(12:35):
you married? No? Are you baby Jesus No. She's like,
well what could you be? He goes, I'm door holding
number three. It's so cute, and he goes, it's gonna
be amazing. He was so happy. He's like he probably
was like they could never come onto the stage if
I didn't open the door for them.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
That is so true. Like every role, it's very essential.
That's the perfect word. It's crucial because think about it,
if you forget the vanilla, or you forget the salt,
or you don't have the.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Crust, or you don't have a door holder, or you.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
Don't add in the butter, like everybody knows apple sauce
is not the same without what Sometimes people try to
replace butter with apple sauce. What in a cookie recipe?
Speaker 2 (13:21):
You've never heard that. I thought they oil. I guess
that's kind of similar.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
Oh maybe it is the oil. Well whatever, back to
the cute story. I guess it is oil. Yeah, but it's.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
Still not the same. Well maybe I don't know if
I've tried that, we'd have to try to see, but
whatever still work.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
But sometimes maybe I get why you would do the
apple sauce. I've done that before, and maybe there are
some recipes where it's still okay. So I don't need
to throw shade on the apple sauce at all. But
I love that story so much, so I'm glad you
thought of that, didn't share it. It's essential my role,
Well are you Jesus Joseph?
Speaker 2 (14:02):
But also what's so sweet is he literally was so
pumped for that.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
Well, and think about us as adults, like if we
were in that situation and we felt like we had
an essential world, we would probably say, oh, well, we
would need to be Jesus or Joseph for Mary. And
when you have a more childlike innocent approach to it,
before you've been tainted by the world. You understand the
(14:26):
importance of all parts of do a hold on number three?
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Yeah, and I'm like, everything is cuter in an English accent.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
Have you made any of your protein balls lately?
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Speaking of cooking, I was thinking about that the other day.
I feel like we've just been not on our routine,
so I haven't I really need a store to make
them inexpensively so I can just buy them.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Yeah, because you're having to continue to buy all the
things over and over and then it's time, which you
last week said that you were going to maybe post
the recipe on socials. I put the recipe for your
peppermint martini thing in the show notes, but did you
ever end up posting it to social.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
But I did have somebody asked me the other day
about the protein ball recipe, so maybe I need to
post that that we were.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
In the show notes as well, But I don't remember
what episode. Maybe Sarah knows, since she's got episode six
hundred twelve that she emailed us about. I wonder if
because of the transcripts Now Houston, Houston shout out, he's
our producer. If you're listening to this right now, hmmm,
let us know about the numbers. If you can search
(15:43):
keywords like oh, protein ball recipe four things, and then
I guess it to be able to do that. Yeah,
so that might come up. So there you go. You
search that into you can also post So is that
what we called them?
Speaker 2 (15:55):
Cats?
Speaker 1 (15:56):
Protein balls?
Speaker 2 (15:57):
Well, I can't really take credit. I took these balls
search that first of all. I think we could do better.
But I stole this recipe from somebody off of TikTok.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
You said you modified it a little bit for yourself,
which I could buy all recipes? Yeah, who made the
first ever?
Speaker 2 (16:14):
There's some recipees you can't mess with because then they
won't be right, like which ones?
Speaker 1 (16:19):
Like?
Speaker 2 (16:19):
I feel? Well, I guess baking you can always change
the like chocolate chips or I'm gonna ad white chocolate
chips or something like that. But isn't baking like exact
science versus when you cook you can just modify it
as you go to taste.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
Yeah, but I still think you could alter the amount
of seasonings or like you said, if you swap something.
I don't know. I feel like everybody's just taking a
spin off of everything everything, which which thing was the original?
I mean, that's art, that's creation. We're all inspired by
other things. I'm not saying that it's bad. In fact,
like we're all.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
Nobody by things.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
Yeah, I believe that Greek philosopher Epictitos epic Tito's like
the vodka maybe it's named after him, a pic Tito's
also speaking of food. Cat and I would encourage y'all
will end on this encouragement is to come up with
some sort of tradition with your friends, because for the
(17:15):
last couple of years, Cat and I have gone to
Bartaco on Christmas eve Eve, and this year I'm actually
flying out on Christmas Eve eve eve.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
What is that the twenty second second?
Speaker 1 (17:28):
So I'm not going to be here. So on Christmas
eve eve eve eve, we're going to need to go
to Bartaco because it's our tradition. So don't get stuck
on just because it's not the way it's always been
and now oh can't do it. You just may have
to pivot a little bit and make it work because
we're still doing it even if it was Christmas eve
(17:48):
eve've e's tomorrow night. But listen, yeah, to remember four oh,
which hello, that is Cat's birthday, which I thought, all,
how are you going.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
To be thirty five? I'm saying it because that's not
like an exciting birthday. It's just like a thirty five.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Thirty five is you've officially hit your mid thirties.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
Okay, so that's you know what. I'm getting better with
every age, So I'm not sad that I'm getting older.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
You're like a fine line. I'm just like this analogy
I love.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
I was gonna say, you're gonna have to talk to
Patrick though about evv ev eve because the last time
we went to Bartaco was with you, and he was like,
I'm never going back to that place because he doesn't
think it's worth the money. He doesn't like it the food.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
Well, it's not about this.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
It's not about food.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
It's about the tradition, and we like it.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
So we have to go back there. So we have
to encourage him because he was like, I'm never going
back there. Well, I don't think it's bad enough to
say I'm never going back there. It's just nothing special.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Well, I can take my own advice and we don't
have to actually make it the same restaurant, like we
can pivot. But it's special. Well it is. But we're
not going to give it that much power. Is us
all being together?
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Okay?
Speaker 1 (19:02):
See what I did there? I took my own advice.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Okay, well that backfired on me because I wanted you
to convince him to let us go.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
Well, because I love bar talk.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
I haven't been there in a year. Wait didn't you go.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
For my birthday? Oh you weren't there? Sorry? Subject, Well,
and I will say this year it'll be better. Tell
him that maybe he didn't like it last year because
it was the company.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
Well I think that's probably part of it.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
Yeah, so, but the company will be this year. The
company will be better. More on that, Kat, Where can
people find you.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
On Instagram at Kat van Buren?
Speaker 1 (19:36):
I mean more on that later, which I'm not trying
to be annoying about that by any means. I think
this is like a fun place where we do get
to like drop little hints about exciting things and just
know that there's a little bit of a reason and
some timing stuff and I'll share more later. This is
the only place where I'm giving like a little taste,
(19:59):
you know, which you could see your face when you're
talking right now, is it smiley?
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Yeah? It's really Bigue yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
Okay, that's where you can find Kat. I'm at Radio
Amy Sarah, thank you for the email, and I quickly
want to say, speaking of emails, in the show notes,
I'm going to link a change dot org petition that
if y'all would go sign, it would be awesome. I
got an email from a listener and she shared with
(20:26):
me her story of adopting from Haiti and how back
in March, when the US decided it was too dangerous
for some the kids to stay in Haiti, those kids left,
but her child that she's adopting is still there, along
with fifty other families, and they are working really hard
to get their kids out of Haiti and home safely.
(20:48):
And so she sent me the petition to sign, which
I already did. I haven't posted about on socials yet,
but I will. But I was thinking too, I'll link
the change dot org petition in the show notes where
you can just go over there click it easily. And
she included a picture of her daughter. They're not allowed
to share that publicly yet, but she just wanted me
to be able to see her, and she is precious
(21:10):
and I can't imagine being their shoes, just knowing the
state of Haiti and how dangerous everything is and to
be so close and then to also have other kids
pulled out to safety, and then yours is not there.
And I just say that sometimes we don't understand the
bigger picture or why it's unfolding the way that it is.
But one day it will all make sense that this
is something we can do to rally behind a fellow
(21:34):
listener and mom and family and just human And this
is the time of year where there's a lot going on.
And I'm sure you're like, oh, I'll probably get to
this and I'll click that link when I have time,
but you can just stop what you're doing and go
do it. It takes like sixty seconds. I think you
do have to register your email, but it's change dot org.
It's legit, this isn't spam, and this will just help
(21:55):
people out. And one final thing too about Haiti is
all proceeds from certain items are going to the orphanage
where my kids grew up. Other items are going to
Project Meta Share, which is another amazing group in Haiti
as well. That's our journals, our Four Things Gratitude journals.
All proceeds go to education through Project metashare. But then
(22:19):
there's so many other items under Amy's picks, which I'll
put up through the shot forward. It's four things items
cool mom stuff, cat mom, dog mom, all the mom's
cool dad, there's born year stuff. It's all really cute.
And you can use the code Amy twenty to save
twenty percent, and that discounts just for you. Nobody's making
(22:40):
anything from that, and then all proceeds after you get
the discount are going to Haiti, So just a win win.
Haiti's getting the win and then you're getting a little
twenty percent discount. And so I will link those items
in the show notes as well. If you have got
some Christmas shopping to do and you want some cute
quality stuff that gives back, all right, have.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
The day you need to have. We'll try it again.
Have the day you need to have. I got to
say it with you. We have today. Have we go
every other I have the day you need to have?
Oh I like that. Boom, bye bye
4 Things with Amy Brown News
Host
Amy Brown
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