• S01E08[#008] - Shen...

    polyChromatique
    Aired: 2023-03-12 23:51:06

    Today we reflect on yesterday's live orchestration and dance performance of Shen Yun (self ascribed as: China Before [oppressive] Communism. We review the meaning of the performance and its importance, message and everlasting impact in contrast to the survive vs. thrive mentality we ever-increasingly live by. The real quest to exercise tolerance, compassion and love (for one another) even in the wake of destructive forces, the other side of humanity that's continually hellbent on greed, division and ruination. Let this be the gentle reminder that each of our affect and actions hold consequences, not only for ourselves, but most importantly also influence others. Ultimately behavior does shape outcome and the higher road is not always a painless one. However, a deep level of vulnerability is both beautiful as it is bountiful and provides a much more prosporous path to travel as together we work towards a better world for us all.


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    Hey Everybody ! And welcome back to the PolyChromatic Podcast. I think we're on now episode eight of this cast. Today is March 12th, 2023. My name is Zach, Co-host, along with my mom, Elaine and I were coming to you today and in response to a performance that we saw just this weekend. Actually, yesterday. Yesterday was really quite a special day for both. Sack. And I mean, it was the first thing we've really done together since I moved back here. But even for the past, probably. Oh, I'd say, ah, three four years. We haven't spent a day doing this. And it was a really enjoyable day. I kind of felt like we were getting back into life again. Yeah, it's. It's very strange. The thing. The closest thing I can compare it to, and I think we agree that it felt this way is it feels like similar to when you don't work out for a prolonged period of time and then you get back into it. Just how tired you are and how it feels good to work out. But when you lose touch with it, you're just like. You feel like kind of like a wet noodle. You know you don't. You don't feel like as good in your own skin like it's really the difference between surviving and thriving, I think, is the best way to describe it. So for us to actually go out and actually have an outing, write something to actually do beyond the normal on your case. Working right ? And if it were for me, if I was working, it'd be work, write, work and cooking at home, and you know, maybe run an occasional errand, but nothing terribly exciting. It's not like we've taken a trip to the botanical gardens. It's not like we've a while I haven't been on vacation in. God. I dunno how many years aside from coming out to visit you out in California when used to live out there. Well, yeah, and even then, your health lists and toys the best. So we didn't get to barely take an opportunity that we all. Opportunities that we wanted to do when you came out because you were quite tired. But that's going to say when you talked about thriving and surviving. I think it's fair to say we've been surviving and now we're beginning to start getting in the world of maybe thriving. I hope so. I hope so too. And and yesterday felt that way. We were both just so excited to be able to go to the theater to see Shen Yun, which was a performance that was, I thought really quite impressive. And the costumes were absolutely incredible. I think the message was overall very very positive and you walk out of there with really hopes that our world can really be together, you know ? And it's just because I think things have been quite negative for a long time. Particularly. I think as we've mentioned before, with the covert and whatnot, we've had to kind of restart life. Most everyone has. Yeah, and in the lead up to to what happened was covered in general and. And this is not. This is not. And I mean this is based partially on my opinion, but more based on just some very light research that I've done on the topic. Not super heavy, but is a general consensus. There's been a large move away from people going to church and believing in some sort of higher spiritual power, you know, adding that elements of their life to turn to this. You know, for some people, I guess Santa Claus, right ? Some invisible guy upstairs that watches out for us, or she watches out for us could be just as easy that it's a goddess rather than a god, right ? But whatever that there's some some ethereal being that that lives in and this, you know, realm above us that's watching out for us and in. Some choose to believe in that and others don't. But like I said, there's been a large move away from it. I can't remember the statistics, but I think it was something like that. Is reading in the nineteen sixties, nineteen seventies that you know, I think it was. I think it was like mid sixties or late sixties. If you look at the census of the amount of people that are going to church or engaging in community driven religious doctrine practices from then compared to now, it was, I think closer to seventies. So it was like six fifty five was above fifty per cent. I want to say it was like sixty five to seventy five, maybe even as high as eighty per cent of people were involved in church. And I don't know what these statistics were based off of versus now where it's less than fifty percents. Actually, less than less than thirty five percent of people are involved in some community based religious practice. And I just wanted to say something real quick before us back over to you. The reality is, I just want to clarify that both I, my mom and I don't believe in exclusive his principles when it comes to religion. That's to say, I don't believe if you're born in another country and you don't believe in my version of God that you're going to hell or anything like that. What I think is, personally, it's been helpful for my own life to believe in some sort of higher power. Watching out for me, watching out for us and I've seen real utility with that. And I even took comparative religions in college and it's. It's a very interesting conversation. The bottom line is, I don't like the context of quote, unquote religious. I like spiritual, self guided practices that say you don't have to go to church to have a relationship with a higher power, the cosmos, etc. Right ? Oh, yeah. I see exactly what you're saying or or actually what you're referring to when you talk about this. Because basically, with you studying that different religious and what I wanted to say, justices or doctrine or whatever you wanna call them, there is always I think in general they're all can interconnect. It is what you're trying to say. Yes, they all have a common thread to them. And the point I was trying to get across is, religion is like a four letter word. It is not a four letter word, but it feels like it's four letter word in today's modern context. What do I mean to say ? Religion's been used for years to warmonger, to cause conflict, to judge people, unfairly, right to divide people. It was it's first form of government governance back in the day. But we've moved away from that. And and even though, use that quote unquote, a separation between church and state and all that stuff. Really, there's not. You know, that when they see that you still see on the dollar bill that it says in God we trust. And you see at the inauguration, you know, the new presence, you know, standing up in and being blessed by God. Or you know, some someone up there that's some religious figure saying that. So the bottom line, it may seem like we're. We're getting off topic here, but it's. It's. Relate to Shun Young because Shin Young roughly translates, correct me if I'm wrong about this, but roughly translates to like divine dance or something like that. Yeah, it does. And and basically they're talking about. And compassion and tolerance of others, and which is the message they get across ? I think quite well throughout the. The. The. The whole two and a half hours that we were there and very positive. What I thought was amazing. Not to. I'm still part of the same topic, but I was so amazed with the projection, the background they had and how the characters that the dancers would jump over this wall and they'd fly off. Oh my God, that projection and it was really something. I was in awe of it. It was done so well, it was like you don't. There's no way to do justice for what you're. What you're describing. You're doing an excellent job describing it. But basically, instead of it being a front projector, it was like a rear projector, a bunch of TV panels without the sides. So it was like one huge screen and there was a platform right in front of the screen. That was, what do you think, maybe two feet, three feet, probably two and a half feet above the ground in. What they would do is, they would say there's something on the projection, the background, like the story, the basis of the story, without giving too much away as it involves shape shifters. There was a warlock and a. And a shape shifter. So in this particular act, what basically happened is. And you saw like the bird in the background, and then the bird would would like quickly evolve into a man or something in the projection, but then it would swoop down at an angle that it would go off the screen for a second. But then the timing of the performer jumping up behind the. The block and the way that it was timed in court, the court, the current choreography. Let's just say this, Okay, as far as choreographies concerned, and I think that's the right term. The choreography. Some of the best choreography I've ever seen in a performance before. You know, like some people say, The Matrix. You know, the original Matrix movie has some of the best choreography. I'm telling you this choreography was high level stuff. And that's how they were able to bridge the gap between this virtual world that were these screens or the projection. However they did that projection and then what would be interesting is either they would go onto the screen or they would come off the screen and they would go back and forth and it was so seamless in the way that was such high quality. Made you really feel like both existed in the same world while they were. There was never one time that I saw that what that timing was off I. Then that was what was miraculous about it is that even the positioning, the positioning of them was right on from the screen onto the stage, vice versa and relay. It was like when I first started going oh wow, how they doing this. It was that spectacular. Yeah, and there were a lot of really positive messages. But before we get into that, I just want to say getting back into it. The reason why we kind of went off kind of on their side. Tangent, but it's all relative promise is there's a connection between governance and religion, right ? As far back as the gas, right ? Like I said some of the earliest forms of government governance or govern government in general was a religious institutions. Well, yeah, if you think about it, they were all based on man, man - made. Yeah, like a man made law, right ? Like there are certain inalienable human rights are certain things. And and with Shin Young there they would do. There are surfaces, separate sets of performances, but in between some of the performances they would have things that were written in Chinese and then right underneath them there were written in English. And the general principle is we've gone from having soul, having spirit and is a culture, not just as a culture. Sorry, as a people, as a species. There was a sense previous to all this that we were thriving. So in the case of Shin Young, for the Chinese people before communism got so oppressive and helped destroy their creative culture. And by the way, the Chinese people have an extremely, extremely, extremely extremely gifted creative historical culture. I mean, even some of the medicines, right ? Medicines, acupuncture, and that doesn't even begin to get into the art. If you actually do your research, and sometimes you don't even realize that some of the art you're looking at in the modern day was heavily influenced by Chinese art. Of that existed hundreds, if not thousands of years ago. Perhaps the ride and the dancing. I did not realize until yesterday. I've. I've always loved ballet. I've done ballet in my lifetime and enjoyed joy dancing. But to watch them stun so professionally. But I. What I didn't realize is all of the stunts. The acrobats, I guess you could say the. Though I did not realize that originated from Chinese. Oh, yeah, yeah, you know what. It was something I hadn't considered it. And I'd been in karate for ten years. I got my black belt and showed a con. Karate. Okay, should a coon shotokan, which is traditional Japanese, and kata in. They also do some sparring, but it's more about form than it is about fighting. But I didn't consider for a moment that katas and martial arts was actually a side a side shoot of dancing. It all. It all originated with dancing. That's the thing that I didn't even consider. And it makes so much intuitive sense. Right ? Let's all night for them when you think about it. I mean from ballet to karate, all those things, even calligraphy, Yeah, to Chinese calligraphy, that the way that they write. And then, like I said, I don't have any specific examples. But if you look in Chinese art history, art, you will find so many artistic techniques that are used in art. You know, like here's an example. Where did I. What's it called ? You're really into the antiques with the. With the the food. Where was the call ? Oh, you're talking about. And like Nippon and what is called it is extra to worsen. Yeah, porcelain or porcelain. So chinaware rain like the antica porcelain that is, many of its. Much of like Nippon and some of the. The older older things that were early nineteen hundreds is all hand painted and beautifully crafted, you know ? So they popularized. I think every culture had kind of it's own form of how to serve food and whatnot. But they really popularized in the modern kitchen. We all use China where we all use what I don't know what I don't know what the phrases that the word china china or what what what What would would you actually call a dinner square dinnerware glassware. But but the designs. Yes, we for special occasions we bring out the china. Why do you think it's called China gets called china. China is Chinese right now. So we. We really started thinking about how much China has influenced our lives as Americans. Yeah, if you think about it and like you're talking about in the arts and the dancing. And they did a Hungarian dance, it was just. It was pretty amazing. It was a very educational program along with very enjoyable. And the costumes, as I mentioned earlier, were exquisite. They were so beautiful that I think there were three things that blew me away. One was their ability, choreography wise, in the way that everything was set up. They going in and out the screen to the costumes, three at the very end when they got all the performers onstage and we're like, wait, one, two, three, four, or five. I mean, I wasn't actually physically counting. Okay, but I was expecting an entire army of people to be onstage. What I didn't realize. And I should know this because as a kid I did some childhood acting and sometimes they played more than one part in a play. I'm not sure, but if I could guesstimate how many people were involved in the production acting wise, I'd say like maybe around thirty or less. Oh, it was crazy because even though they felt like there were one hundred people involved, the energy that they expended when they were on stand My God. Not to mention there was such a gracefulness to it like these, These women actually have pots that pottery, the pottery they balance on their head and dance. I mean, you watched them. They were so graceful. I mean, when they walked, that was so smooth and beautiful. Their movement was, you know, the ballet really very very graceful and very elegant looking to be able to hold balance a pot on your hand, on your head, on the. On the crown of your head. Okay, to then have to go at the same speed as everyone else, to have your movements all in alignment and to be moving, weaving in and out of people. I mean, it was pretty crazy. And then there was a whole nother part with a drunken guy. You remember where he's drinking his alcohol and you know, of course he ends up becoming the hero. But what's funny about it is is you. First you look at him in the way. If the stories told us he looks so drunken that he's useless. He's completely useless. But what's even more impressive is he's able to snap out of it. And even though it's still drinking a ton, he's able to fight all these places. Like fighting three or four or five people at a time. The story time was good and of course there was no there. It was a silent and just music based held. By the way, we forgot to mention about the music. You're out. I was just gonna say that orchestra was phenomenal. And as you're talking about them fighting, that's what was incredible to me. They had swords, they had all kinds, and you know, they would strike people down. They wouldn't literally catch them bodily but I mean the way that they fell and it was just everything was right on. It's like you knew that they had to practice for endless hours to be able to pull this off. I mean, it's amazing and performance is all the time. I was looking at their. Their schedule here, they. They. They toured the world and how popular it is. People fly from all over the world to see this production and every year it is different. They. They put it. They put a new one out every single year, which is impressive. I didn't know that. Yes, they have to rework all their choreography, their costumes, their dances. I. I mean, honestly, it's amazing how much you. You gather in the short, well, the two and a half hours, which is it went by fast because it was so enjoyable. But the energy and you can just see the enthusiasm minis in each individual. What they put together. You can tell their passion of what they're doing. Absolutely. Like at the highest level of professionalism, production or performance, but also I felt like their costumes, how vibrant the colors were, contrast the colors and whatnot match the energy. Like it was such high energy, but not in a way that was stressful. It was high energy in the way that if you were to. If I were to say to you and it's hard for a lot of us cause a lot of us are experiencing a lot of stress and a lot of change in our life. And a lot of us this is normal when we do change a lot of us wondering God what's happening in the world ? But you look at a performance like this that's got all of this energy, all this creativity in it's own weight. It's own level of innocence is one level purity. I felt a level of purity in the performance. Oh yes. And they were just. They were just beautiful. I mean, the people wear their makeup was beautiful. It was they just it. And it was so I felt as though it spoke a lot about what their culture was. It was a very natural performance. It didn't seem as though that they were acting. They were just dancing as though they were. They were showing the Chinese culture and they were proud of their culture and it was on display. Yeah, it was on display and they would come out before each act and describe what was going to happen and it was. It was amazing how basically each person, I mean each each performance and the way they set it up. You were. You kind of had an idea what is going to be that be about. But how it was played out was was pretty incredible. So I definitely would see it again. I was reading on reviews. Some people go for five six times. They just enjoyed that. Yeah, I sense them from a lot of people that recommend to go there. I mean, some of these people had been more than once already prior. And I just wanted to say if I could describe the performance and. And the way that is very organic to life is there's a natural state to the world, a natural order to the world, right ? And I think I mentioned to when they were performing. Disliked the flow of water, like their costumes had a flow to it. Like like I'm even looking at the. The brochure with the woman on the front that's basically jumping up mid air doing the splits. Her arms, her bodies twisted ninety degrees from her legs, and her. Her. Her arms are in the ten o'clock position, in the two o'clock position roughly. And she's got some monster sleeves on. Those sleeves look like there are. What do you bet the sleeves are fifteen feet ? Oh, at least. And the way that they moved in unison, they were not off at all. Do you notice that ? Yeah, I mean it just like a single organism. Yes, it was very flowery looking and very beautiful. Was. It was incredible. Because I have flour because it's emerging out. Yes, And like you were saying, I mean, how do you do that ? I noticed that what they did is they would let them out like the women in that one. I don't remember which which one it was, but they were the real flowery where they had the extended arms. They would throw them out and pull them back in and they'd hold onto in unison. I mean, it wasn't like one person was trying to grasp for it, it was just so just so perfect and you kind of got. Lie. I kind of got lost with the color and the movement in those cases. And especially also those women that were wearing the dresses that when they were doing like, what would you describe backflips or cartwheels or something like that ? But what they were doing is it was like a flower opening and closing when they were doing each flip because of the way the color was. And. And there were some of the outfits that were like you had bright orange with bright green with like purple like not a brightest purple, but a vibrant purple, pastel, vibrant purple and further like body. And anyways, the bottom line is really what I think the performance taught are trying to teach is the beauty in life, the beauty in each of us and the natural flow and state of the world. And to not fight that. And when you don't fight that, how many beautiful things can emerge out of that and yet not to launch into it, but just to just to preview what's what's ahead. At least some things I want to talk about is what happens. This was there. This. This performance progressed from China before communism to China after communism and just seeing how it started to howl at the end. And when my mom said that people were not physically hurt, but there was violence, there was kind of more of like the kind of violence and kind of an Indiana Jones fashion. Kind of, you know, a theatrical violence. But then there was also, even though it was against the Africa violence were in the theater. Were talking about more. They're trying to show an actual physical level. Violence. That's a. That's an unnecessary level of violence in today's world, and also an unnecessary level of disconnected. This and the reason why shouldn. Young spoke to us, and the reason why we wanted to do a whole episode onto this, and the reason why were like, Hey, do we even have an hour to talk about ? Of course we have an area, probably two hours, but this. Homerton, even though we don't feel like we have a ton to talk about, we have a lot here to unpack. Shin Young, for us, speaks on the same level of what the Polychromatic podcast is on. Message, an analogy of what we're trying to get across, which is, the world is increasingly disconnected, increasingly out of touch. We've. We've lost art, touches, people, and it's not our fault. It's really a cultural shift. It's a whole global economy, global sense. Shift in. It's in part due to technology and the way we live now and how the Internet's beautifully allowed to connect, but also brought us a lot of neuroticism and a lot of where we keep. You know, in today's world, we are monitored by our governments. There's no such thing as privacy in today's world in the true sense. I mean, how to police police. They look at your Facebook page. They look yummy. How much of that ends up in court documents ? Tablet. Absolutely true, like we've lost a lot of our individualism. Which with the Polychromatic podcast, we talk a lot about having a voice for yourself, being expressive, not being afraid to be who you are and not being offended by others who may not think that you are who you should be. But you know, as long as you can look in the mirror and say hey, I did OK today I try to be a good person in this world and reaching out and connecting with others. And I felt that that was really. That's what was beautiful. With that the chinese culture in that theater yesterday, to reach out to most people. Being American there. I mean, I'm sure there were some other cultures there as well, but it's the kind of felt like I like we're being reunited and that even though we have differences in culture, I. Our skin color, we're all people, we're all human. We're all humans. We experience similar things, We experience sadness, we experience happiness, we experience disappointment. But more importantly, what is that we really need to find that connection ? And not just as our connection with individuals, but also other cultures. That I find other cultures very fascinating to learn about them. And I don't know a whole lot. And I'm working on that in my life right now is learning about other cultures because I want to learn. I'm curious, and I think that that knowledge is very important to have. Living in this world, to be able to understand other cultures and their way of thinking, and not to pass that judgement. To be open minded and to listen and to watch and to observe. Yes, and you know what, I'm always blown away and to your point is just perfect. Segways is about keeping your mind open and keeping your ears and eyes open to things because the thing that always continually blows blows me away. And in a Bob Ross fashion is a happy little accident. I cannot tell you. And I can't think off the top of my head. I'm sorry I didn't come prepared in this sense with a list, but I have always been continually shocked when I've been doing research and learning about something new. About all of the inventions, all of the designs, all of the things that certain cultures have brought to us. What do I mean, like how India has brought in certain foods, certain ideas, certain inventions into our normal day living ? Same thing about, you know, other European countries, Chinese, China, China, you know, South American likes, you know, people from Chu Lai, et cetera, that, or even Mexico. The bottom line is we think sometimes in today's world and racism often becomes a scapegoat. Scapegoat for a lot of different things. It wasn't World War Two and with what unfortunate happened with an anti Semitism and with the Jewish people and every generation, every new generation. Unfortunately we repeat the same cycle and you know, and unfortunately around two thousand, it was with Al Qaeda. And so the bottom line is we have all of these things that happen in. In and usually as government and in certain governing bodies that decide, rather than taking accountability for our actions and having to look closely in the mirror and decide how we're going to. Wanting to change of the nation. We seek to blame entire races of people, you know. And then let's let's let's be honest, there there are know some aspects of some cultures where genocide even occurred, you know where where there was an attempted at wiping out entire races of people. And it makes me very sad. When you look at the contributions. All I'll mention one real quick. And I'm sorry. I. I wrote, Please realize there's more than I know than just this. It just can't think of any. Off the top of my head. Been alone week. But it's kind of like how what Japanese with the Japanese have brought that to America and to the rest of the world with anime and video games. The. How much that's affected my generation, maybe the generation before me and all the generations after, you know, And that's an art form. It's an interactive art form. And it's it's it's. I even remember Voltron, Do you remember Voltron ? Oh, I remember Walter. And I thought Voltron was such a cool concept. Yeah, and Voltron was like, I think the first kind of anime Iverson, mind you, Voltron, I think, was United States made. Okay, but then, you know, came Dragonball Z. And and that wasn't huge in Dragon Ball Z. But i remembered as a kid. I remember Goku. I remember those animations and. And so I'm just trying to say is they all have an impact on us and especially his children. You know, when children are exposed, sir, certain cultural elements time and time again they'll come back to them. I even remember hearing the lead singer of the. The band The Gorillas which. That that's the virtual band that I am not sure if you're probably not familiar with them on. But anyways, bottom line is it's a virtual band where they project on screen the cast members not know if the customers, but the band members, they're not actual real band members. It's just people playing with main guy and plays a guy named a two D so I'm sorry, completely off not understand what I'm saying, but the main takeaway here is there was a biography or you know, they were interviewing him and he discussed about all the musical influences where he grew up in impoverished part of town in the UK. Completely influenced him on the type of music and he played a lot of music that's not considered. Quote unquote, white music and a lot a lot of culture. Blues. You you hear all of these people with these different backgrounds and the musical influence and that that's that's just another example of. So, you know, with what I don't know. I don't want to say this in this way because we're in very sensitive time. So I'm just going to say it this way. But please realize that. Nothing. No bad part with what I'm trying to say here. But what the Chinese have brought to the rest of the world has been amazing. It's like a tapestry of art. Artistic stuff. I don't know. I don't think they necessarily brought watercolor, but I knew if they brought a lot of techniques, I can't think off the top my head, but you'd be completely blown away if you looked at the full list of their contributions. Oh, absolutely one hundred per cent. I agree with you. That's it was. It was very, very educational. And it's just as far as the. Even just the dance yesterday. Also, they had a gentleman. I don't recall his name. I'd have to look at my program, which is right next to me, and I probably mispronounced at. Anyway. But he. He. He sang like kind of an opera. Oh my god. Yeah, the guy with the source of the T. Not trombone a treble, yeah, but his voice was very deep, but it was very beautiful. I mean on him. Plus the other woman that was there, they both. It was more like, wouldn't you say more opera style. Yeah, it. Basically it was pretty amazing if you're considering there's only two instruments truly. Once a piano and the other's a person's voice. For the woman, she was getting some really high falsetto. Oh my gosh, I can't even do it. But she had such high. Not not hurting your ears, but such high range of falsetto. And with her singing and. And it was beautiful and she was able to hold it for some really long notes. Amazing. I'm surprised she wasn't going purple in the face to be honest, and similarly with the gentleman. So there's a guy that came out in a tuxedo. Look good looking guy and he was like, whoa, it's really from underneath the diaphragm where a lot of his energy and impact came from. And oh god, I wish that I knew my musical terms, but it starts with a T. It's. It's basically where you get a low note, not not treble or not. Tenor. It is like ten or assist. Yeah, I think it is ten are actually the defined tenor. I think you hit the nail on the head. I think it's tenor I. Tenor is seeing voice between baritone and count. Countertenor highest ordinary. I don't mean, sorry, the highest of the ordinary adult male range senior with a tenor voice, I'm pretty sure was Tanner. I'm not sure, but the bottom line is it was on the all BC but WU and it was. I would describe it on the level of opera I wouldn't call like true, like Italian opera or anything, but definitely very strong performances for how long it was, I would say generally speaking, if you ever do ghosts see Sean Young, just bear in mind it's a short and sweet. I think maybe I just enjoyed it so much. The time flew, but when we were sitting at two and a half hours lesson and two and a half hours just shy of two and a half hours, and we're like that's it. It's because you're mesmerised, your trance by what you're seeing and you lose track of time. And I'm just saying in general I don't mean this bad. But for the amount they ask. And we got a good deal on our tickets by the way, cause you had got them real early on. You were seeing. How much do they normally go for ? Well, or conversely, we were in the orchestra apart and they're thousand dollars a ticket. We did not pay a thousand dollars for each ticket. Not even close. Fortunately, but still, you know, we're not talking about a sub sub one hundred. It was over a hundred dollars. And so generally speaking, for all the performances I've gone to in the past, you know, and I'm not saying that your ticket price determines how long the performances, but. But typically for like, even concerts, like usually, you know, for me, I usually expect like three and a half to five hours, but in all due respect to them, I didn't realize there were so few people doing all that stuff. That has been exhausting. I heard they had one more performance later that day because I ran into someone from work on the. The woman that runs the sister lab and. And said hi to her and asked if she was going to the other performance. I didn't expect to see her there, and she said no, she was us. Seen something else. I can't remember of some of the musical thing. And. But we did find out there was one more additional performance later on that day. So I think correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the only. Do two performances over one day. Waiting to hear this. March eighth through April four, April fourth, never mind. Yeah, but they do for a whole month. Okay, yeah, but you want to know something. They do performances, I know some time days they do two performances because I know when I book that. Yeah, there was the seven o'clock performance. But one of the thing I wanted to mentioned. What did you think about that to. String instrument ? Are you talking about the one. The woman was plainly yes, how she could get that. That was beautiful and I don't know how to string his. Could make so many different sounds, but it was incredible. Yeah, the best way to describe it is it was like a banjo, but not. It was like a two stream banjo and I don't even know it was like. Up and I'm not mean to be racist when I say this, I'm just describing it the best way I can. It was like a Chinese takeout box is what it looked like. Kind of like. The central part was like it was round, right, but it was about the size of. Of a. Of a rice box. It wasn't, but it was stood up on end to. It wasn't like a band that you'd play vertically. Know exactly. So it was a vertical is like a banjo. The banjo like instrument. The stood vertical only had two strains on the body, right ? The. The clinical part was something that looked similar, but it had additional sides to. It looked like a. Like a rice box, and then it had a neck on. It had two streams and then just a top and a shrink part was really tall and this is kind of stuck out. But it was. I could not believe the music she could play from that and that was in combination with that penis there. That piano. Yeah, and that was it was just beautiful. I was playing it like more like a violin then she was like a like a guitar. So so, if I'm recalling correctly, but yeah, she was just sitting there and she was able to achieve some really amazing notes. And I'm trying to remember the performance. I saw it. I went with a friend and I actually was, I think was one of the previous roommates too at one point. But bottom line is it was. I can't even describe what it was. It was like this chill hang out and hippie vibe place where they had musical performances, where it was a similar kind of vibe, where you see someone play an instrument and you think how the heck did they pull off what they pulled off with so little. So it's one of those situations, you know where he had a person instrument and you're expecting just one type of play and you get this whole other like almost sounds like they're five instruments playing. See, I was pretty impressed with that. I can't remember all the details. There was a lot, a lot going on and if you could guesstimate how long you think each act or set was. I think on generals. Some of them were closer to maybe six to two, eight, maybe ten minutes, but there are other ones that were shorter, maybe like three to five minutes, would you say I'd say so. And oh, the one I really loved is when they're walking on stage texting. Oh, yes, yes, that Ovid, the modern day, and they were describing Hong Kong and the. The civil unrest both before and during. Covered. And they showed all of the people as you were saying. Well, I was just saying that it was really great. They were all texting and it just threw it. I thought, isn't it interesting how we look at culture and we know we're all very different ? But I think I was kind of surprised to see all the texting going on because as socialization in America has really suffered, because I think of technology and the way people communicate, the lack of commute, personal communication versus through technology, and and I I thought that's what I kind of got out of this as well. Is that that's also happening in China ? Yeah, you know, it's. I think post - World War Two as a general, a general sense. You know, with the United States essentially winning World War Two teams in the Eastern World were not going well for awhile. Like economically right, like for instance, Japan had to re invest cause they were pretty heavily militarized there to invest in their economy and start deciding other sectors. And they became very heavily economist right ? Production and electronics and things like that and similar. Similarly, similarly, a similar thing happened with China. I will say this and is thought to be racist. It's just a fact in America you used to see made in China. What used to think most people in America would say if it's from China, it's a piece of crap. Don't buy it in today's world if it says made in China I don't think any of us think any anything where iphone spade, yeah, where's where's half the stuff made ? You know, a lot of it is made in China and it's not as not necessarily a bad sign or bad omen like it was. It was put out court culturally as Americans of the past and you know, I'm just saying this was a normal thing is about my own judgment. I will say that from my own experience. Yes, I did notice there were a lot of things that said made in China that broke very easily or weren't well constructed. But today's sense not at all. And furthermore, I didn't realise this until i really looked into all the stuff that happened with apple in the Foxconn plants and looking more at Chinese life because I was curious, you know, about the way they're living. I'm like, how can people live at the foxconn plant and also want to kill themselves ? And so I just wanted to better understand, you know, like what life is like and and China cause I, you know, I didn't know if it was, you know, more backwards where it was not as developed. You know more living in a kind of like generations before us are more simple. I dunno the best way to verbally characterize that, but just suffice to say, not living in the first world country. You know, cutting edge of that America, or you'll see other countries are. Or even Japan. But to be honest, you look at it and they're living on the upper echelon. From my understanding of Chinese people are living very well. There's also, I think a pretty a pretty good going ongoing middle class. And I'm talking about at an urban centers outside farmers and whatnot. They still live pretty poor. And so that's the reason why the whole Foxconn thing came about as people go live in the foxconn plant, send their money out to the rest of their family living out in the. In the countryside, you know, to help them out. So I would just say this is his China. My. Understands China's urbanized and becoming a lot a lot more well developed and urbanized. And along with it all a lot of money, a lot of wealth. And if you just look at pictures of how they develop, you see a lot of skyscrapers. I mean, I'm not sure if you noticed, but I think China is home. If it's not the. The first tallest is either the second tallest tower in the world. And so they become the highly technical. Technological lies. Is that the word ? Is that a word to technological lies. I don't know they'd become more and more technical, you know, a technologically advanced. Yeah, with time and so I know I've kind of digressed. But the point I. I think we were just trying to get at the point about whether or not how they've changed and how they've developed in the way things are now. They're basically if a first world country there are not a third world country. I don't know if they were ever. Third world country. I think they were seen more as a second world country. Maybe, but there are like, for instance, there's an Apple store or Apple stores, you know, in the major hubs etc. But back to your point, and I know I went off on a tangent about the phones. So it's interesting because if you look it and I don't like using this word, but it's the way that we know how to use it. And all the countries that had become westernized, right, that had become modernized, that live essentially the same way we live it. I think it serves to make us understand there's not as much different between us as we think there is. Right. Like when when when I. I use my imagination drive him. Imagine what living in China's like, those glimpses, those diaries, those people that are from America that are living in China, teaching English as a second language or something. And I look at those flags and those diaries and stuff in. And while it's different culturally because there's different government and stuff, there's still like I sit in the urbanized centers. It feels kind of all the same to me. But just want to say one last thing, with heads face down in the phones. This is killing us as people at our sole. I feel like it's really robbing us of human connection. And we are led to believe that these tools that connect us. And again, there's nothing like a face - to - face conversation. There's nothing like a phone call over a text message or an email. So much of today's become so highly personalized. And don't even get me started with the fact that we are all expected to help. A cell phone and we're all expected to have our cell phone set up to accept email. So if we get a phone call or an email from work were expected on the weekends to also answer. Which is not right, because let's be honest, we're not on call. But that's the reality. That we live in is because of technology. But yet technology has also brought us a lot of good. Like with, you know, advancing our understanding of cancer. And you know, research and and improving our lives in other ways. If it wasn't for technology, Drink, Coven, how would we have done everything we would done ? How would we have been able to engineer a vaccine as fast ? And how have we been able to stay connected even if we were so all sequestered in our homes ? But so I'm sorry to digress. I just wanted to say that and just say that yes when you've mentioned that whole scene with people looking down on their phones. God, all it takes is a little bit of distance away to understand just how wrapped up hell When I was messing around with our internet the other day, we didn't even realize just for one night how we have difficulty just turning off the internet for one night. Or yeah, because we are real movie buffs here. And we didn't have TV's for one night and we go. Wow, we got a good night's sleep because we didn't even have to worry about watching a movie. But at first we were like, really bummed out and threw just that. Half a day. I was like, oh my god, we're. We're hopelessly addicted like everyone else. But I was just gonna say if we're. Marry and move on to something else. Yeah, yeah, the I. I think the message that they were trying to get across was based on truthfulness, compassion and tolerance, which I set, I think covers a lot. And that is just beautiful. That connection and just one more thing I wanted to say before I move forward. I also really enjoyed their hand gestures, which was almost like they were doing sign language when. Particularly. There was a scene where a mother and father and. Had lost their daughter because she was standing up. She had put a banner up that talked about truthfulness, compassion and tolerance and it wasn't allowed with the government and she was. Her life was taken because of it and the way that they portrayed that on the stage and reached out to the audience to show their grief was it was so powerful. Yeah, and it's really, I think what they're trying to teach his empathy, realizing even though it was maybe a little bit extreme on the sense of being more intolerant towards people that are atheist. And we read that there's some intolerance about LGBTQ. I didn't really see that personally. And the performance. I didn't see, you know, anyone of LGBTQ backgrounds that made it obvious in the performance, but it didn't. I didn't feel like they were being attacked either. But suffice to say in in the overall archy message, what I mostly saw was we've grown out of touch with ration for more science based. We've grown out of touch with tolerance, like you're saying, and one another. Connectedness in a way that robs us of culture. It robs us of this. And so, for instance, just just and with this, the Chinese Communist modern trend, a modern Chinese Communist government, oppresses. They are most almost willing to kill to eliminate threats to their furthering their rent. And they do see creative creativity in divinity. Even God is something that is a threat to them. And so does that seem bizarre that they cannot openly in public, show emotion or dance. They cannot openly in public practice religion without some serious consequences. It could even very well be debt. That's kind of what I. I kind of get. If it's not death, it's internment punishment. And and again, there's way more going on in China. Then then we're leaning onto here. I've. I've heard that you know there are Muslim internment camps and that you know a. There's been a lot of celebrity influencer PR that's been trying to cover that up a lot of bad stuff. And so I'm not speaking ill of the Chinese people. I'm just saying I hear the Chinese government's actually very evil. And. And there's much more going on. Like even if someone crosses the street and Jay walks and there's public shaming with their. Their state and a mobile app and during covert. If they didn't get their covert shots and you know they, they could turn off their. Their credit so they can't purchase things they can't use their ID. Just all kinds of backwards. Really insane. You think this stuff is gone just like slavers gone in the world. Unfortunately, we're not there. So anyways, I just wanted to say I have no clue what it's like for those people there. People will say tho those people were all the same people. But for their people of their specific background and heritage to walk that lineage from how things were to the modern day. It made me sad. I didn't. I didn't cry, but I think if I had, if I were to see it again, I think it might make me tear up to realize just how much of their creative outlet, expressionism, culture and really the true gifts that they'd been given. How that's all been squandered because the modern Chinese government sees it as a threat. And so that's also what it means to be in a communist or collectivist culture. You don't have individuality. The individuality is a huge threat. Well, I think that's the portrayal of the Schengen. What they're trying to do by their performances and traveling all over the world is to say truthfulness is important and that means the individuality of a person to be truthful and add Justin and honour and the honour and showing compassion. It's okay, you know, when you're compassionate towards a person, it's an emotion and to be able to tolerate. Which means that being patient and understanding to others. So I loved what it stood for. And yeah, there's a beautiful thing. I really enjoyed that was you and I dunno if you want to discuss where, where we went for dinner or whatnot, but just fights to say a moment. I have not had this kind of outing. This kind of normalcy. If you want to call normalcy it's still. We're still slowly getting there, but I will call for what it was for that night. But it was one of the. One of the. I don't wanna see the best but one of the better, if not one of the best things I'd experienced in a very long time. Well, I'm going to say this. I'm already putting in for next year. We're going to go to this next year too. I mean, I'm hooked. Yeah, it was kind of like a religious experience in the sense. Walked away. I felt. I mean, I felt better about things enough for us to go adventure downtown and be like Hey, you wanna grab something and we. We just decided to look online and we couldn't get a good signal underneath the. The mall. Way with. But we finally did and actually ran into a guy that he had lost a leg. He was a ticket. Gary and we had a great conversation. Same thing happened to him. You would not believe. Does not absolve certain people. OK, but you would not believe the amount of people nowadays that are getting infections that were previously not an issue that can't get their infections under control because there's way too much antibiotic use. And way too much antibiotic resistance is becoming a real problem. Talking about superbugs, which we will do a podcast on. I think it's important enough to really to really visit that because there there's a lot. And I think because we're so aware of it, we're realizing it more. But we have talked to so many people. Have a whole. Have had flesh eating diseases they have not been able to get rid of with antibiotics. Who've lost limbs, and especially since some. Zach lost his leg. It's put us in a different place where where we're reaching out to people who have suffered a lot of similar things. And it's just mind blowing to me to see t even know the things that are going on. And we are in a in a period of time where antibiotics have been used so much that we have overused and it's. It's quite scary, but we'll do it. I think we need to do a separate podcast. Just wanted to hit on that cause that was. That was another god shot type of situation that just happened. But talking about spontaneity, I love spontaneity. It was life. Yeah, it was really a special gift yesterday because we didn't make any plans for afterwards. Just kind of came out. It was a little bit chilly because, you know, was they the lab. We went to the theater. I think the show started at two o'clock and came out and said, Hey, we should hit dinner while we're down at thirteenth. And Curtis says I believe the street that to be all theaters on and dykes act said we were trying to find a restaurant can be found that there was a really amazing. We felt like Mexican food be good as little chilly. So we went and we found a Mexican restaurant. Called to to mail my. Gosh, was that a treat ? I mean, we walked in there and realizing from there at the reviews that it was probably pretty good, but just timed it out beautifully. There's one booth at the timing. It was wonderful. Best if we had reservations, but given the fact with my leg and fact that they were so kind, they seated us in a booth, he did the right thing, cause sometimes they. They. They just completely ignore that kind of stuff. And I was really hungry. I think it was just that just feeling good and the weather and everything. So we ended up having enchiladas that were like, oh my god, I don't even know what kind of cheese it was, but smokey gosh ! I drive down to that restaurant to have dinner with you. Yeah, smoked cheese like a. I. If I could guess, it was either like a. A white cheddar, a white case. So, and maybe spoke mozzarella, I'm not really sure, but that just suffice to say it has smoky flavor and it wasn't like you. Can, you know, when you have cheap cheese, bite into a sheep. Cheese is just a nice thing. Ever. I'll tell you what I do like cheese. I mean, I don't try. Try not to eat a lot of it, cause I don't think it's the healthiest thing by far. But it's got calcium that that's. That's true, you can get good calcium from it, but overall the quality of cheese. To me it's just like, like chicken, anything that you eat you can. There's different grades of it. There's. You know, you can get something that's less than or better than. And this was the batter then, and we just had. Like we asked them because they had. Didn't specifically have like cheese and gelatos, and we just asked our waiter if we could just get some cheese, enchiladas, maybe with some rice and beans and all. My gosh, he's. He went and asked and they said absolutely. And oh my gosh, we just enjoyed it so much. It was. It was absolutely amazing. And then I'm so full. And what does that say ? I think we need dessert. Dumpling. I can't. I can eat dessert. And he goes, But look over there, Yes, heroes, look at the churros and they've got ice cream. And and you said you thought you saw a tart or something as well. Yes, So I was in with. And I shot of a bunch of different certs. First one I saw were the cheerios. So what they had, as they had for cheerios, stacked up like a like a house kind of. You know how the little Lincoln logs. So it had become logs or or even just set up in like a tic tac toe, like a figuration. So two on the bottom to ninety degrees perpendicular on top, and then a dollop of ice cream. And then there was also another one that was a little raspberry chocolate bar. Or yeah, we're still talking about the. Yes. And then it came with caramel. And we asked about that and said can we have that on the site ? Cause it that it might be a little too much, but that caramel I took a bite of it actually had a spiciness. I dunno what they thought I was a little bit like, kind of a more of a burnt or carbonized taste. But but I could see like what you mean, that it had some bite to it. It did have a bite to it. But anyway, you know, I mean that couple of bites that I said I could handle turned into Well, I think you ate most. But I will have to say that I walked out of there more than content, more than so thankful that we actually had to walk back to the car. And it was perfect. Because I mean, that was a sell out crowd. So obviously the parking lot. Yeah, it was part of the reasoning. Yeah, full of cars and we just said hey, let's just chill here for awhile, grab some dinner and we go back. There won't be the traffic. So it worked out really nice. And not to say we forgot I really major thing. So we're thinking when we leave here that an hour's going to be plenty of time. God, yeah, the five was like being in California. Oh my God, we're likely what is going on ? Stop and go traffic, unusually high traffic corner, the GPS unusually high. And yet they're saying unusually high traffic for this. We're feeling like, Oh my gosh, we're going to be five minutes at least five minutes late, if not fifteen minutes late. And we just were going. It's OK. We'll still get to see most of it. Well, I think we only missed one act, but you would not believe tons of people pouring in their late. It was not just us, a large amount of people because everyone else assumed the same thing. I do not know what's going on. Yesterday someone suggested there was a St. Patrick's parade, but I have not seen. I. I thought really, I was back in California. It was unbelievable. I mean, it was just like traffic was not moving. Thank goodness. And thirty six we got on. This was your genius idea. Yes, I said take the toll on thirty six. Yeah, so there's a. There's a whole dedicated. Have a dedicated lane on the far left and if you pay the tolls you can drive it. And so what happened is it was stop and go, but mostly stop was to say if we didn't take that we would probably benefit as thirty to forty five minutes. Oh, absolutely. So what was weird is we were going. I bet you. And of one thing I am most. The average speed had to have been maybe, I think one to three miles an hour just by the time you stop and go. Probably. And so for the stretch, rest, remaining stretch stretch of thirty six, which was almost like half of it. Oh gosh, it was because we were gutting it and people were just standstill. Yup. And then when we got on I. Twenty five, Of course they told us to turn on Federal, which it would have probably been faster, but we were way over in the left lane on the tall. So we said let's go to I. Twenty five. Oh my gosh, we had six miles before we took the spare exit, just barely moving, but we were in the left lane and and we did. I think we did actually really well, I think we got there like a minute before it started, and by. And unfortunately we came upon parking. All the handicapped was taken, but we found a little magic, that magic spot. So what was is we kept going up the ramp. Oh yeah, we going up the ramp, going up the ramp and were looking, you know, like an open. And there was always this one spot where you know, in the handicapped space we were going to spot park in a handicap spot. Sense of my situation. And so there's a whole area that just handicapped spaces. So they're. They're not interspersed, they're just one dedicated area. That's the area that's closest to the pillar of the parking structure where the elevators are. That are the closest proximity wise to elevators. So we. We. We see the first one. We're like, ok, oh, it's one of those spaces around the car where you know for van accessible or whatnot. So we see at the very end that. And so we start to dismiss it because we checked were like, oh, it's not a space. So that depth perception. But he was. You tell the rest of it what ended up happening. Oh, so he kept going up the ramp, up the ramp. And finally we get to the seventh floor. Top gap almost, and I'm looking over to the right and I'm going, Oh my gosh, that looks like a space. And people are just looking like crazy cause they're trying to get in their car parks so they can get in to the theater. And at first we were like, No, it's like going noting gonna hate backup. I think it is. And we back in there and sure enough, it was one of those spots you really could not see anywhere. So fortunate to get that. And clearly that's clearly what happened. Because guess what, once you get to the seventh floor, those parking spaces near the center pillar, or that that other central pillar, but the pillar with the elevators. That wasn't even a part. There wasn't even a handicap spot. No, it wasn't. So what it was as it was just the depth perception. There was not enough of an angle for people to see. So like we presumed, and so many other people presumed. Oh, it's just that dead zone area for that van or whatever. While in this case it was a little bit larger, from our perspective is a little bit deeper and more like. Hmm, I wonder by the time I got close to where. Like, Oh my god, that's a whole parking space. So that was kind of the magic. We just wanted to share in the magic of the moment. I know you guys probably all have your own version of that magic. But to just share in the magic, the memorable moments of this of this trip, I would say those are the main ones was. Yeah, but anyway, it was to me. It. It was a splendid evening. I mean, we, like I said, Emily, were so exhausted today I just didn't even make it to church. Do. Now we know what I think. Also the fact that it was daylight savings time. That too. I. I couldn't believe that today. Like I slept in till I was ten forty five. I mean, I woke up a couple of times but just really. I think it was just all the energy, the emotional energy of pleasure yesterday. Less kind of unusual for us because we have not had this much fun in. And adventure time together in a very, very long time. Yeah, a more carefree time. And the other thing too. And it's. It's sad to have to report this to you, but just being transparent and this is what I want to say. Is that like as prefacing earlier on in the podcast and early on when I was talking about comparing it to working out. You know, just because life has gone to be the way that is so based on just basic survival and not thriving, there's so little time dedicated to focusing on thriving in that well being sense of doing things that you wanna do for the thrill of it, for the fun of it, for the enjoyment of it, rather than just simply the survival of it. And so you know, here we're find ourselves doing something by all accounts is not previous to us on characteristic, but in the modern sense. Very uncharacteristic for us given that my chronic health issues stemmed all the way back for eight years ish, and eight nine years and no infection and all. Probably been a major contributor because we were. I was discussing with you earlier prior to that I would come out and visit with you. And you were very active and your act, activity level of activeness encouraged me to be active because what we would do is we would correct me if I'm wrong, but if it wasn't every day, it was every other day. We're going to the gym. So we're working out an hour and a half, two hours. The gym every other day, and back then I would commute by bike to campus. Sits, it's cu boulder and. And. And you know, I was in some of the best shape of my life. But you look at it now and I don't mean this poor. Against you at all. But with everything that's happened with my health. And then you also had to have a surgery and everything that entailed with that, I mean, suffice to say, we've. We've become very D conditioned. And so, you know, that outing for us. While it may sound small and basic and kind of stupid that we're making such a big deal out of it for us, it was a lot. It was a lot. It was a laugh for me physically, I think. Correct me for on. It was quite a bit for you as well. Just because you know you put in such long days of work there. You know it's not like we really leave the house a ton. And thus costs are also kind of partially by design as well, because I'm just not one hundred percent on my feet yet. I'm still trying to build up the endurance and stuff, but I was pretty impressed with what I was able to get around with. And. And it's slow going and I'm slowly making strides and it's making me excited to realize that there are. Eventually there will be normal again. It's just going to take so a little bit more time. But while you're doing really fine with your lake, I'll tell you what You're walking so well and I cannot imagine how much energy it must take. A lot of energy it's. I get exhausted doing it, but you know why you're looking great and walking really really well. I mean, I'm so so impressed with you. And just you know, your. Yeah, I really appreciate the good sport you are. Because you know, even walking to that restaurant was a lot. You know, I had some shorter heels on yesterday, so I give myself credit for that too, because I don't generally wear wear heels to my jaw. That's a lot of energy in itself. Isn't a lot of balance, right ? You're not used to that. Yup. So you know it just makes me. Now we have got to look forward to some really nice things to do in the future. We can dress up a little bit and yeah, stuff to get excited about. And I was going to say five days a week and with work and all that. Obviously not at that level yet. But I know that eventually I'm feeling like I'll be able to get there. Whereas before, it seemed like an impossibility. And I am excited at the prospects. If we do ever go to some trips like you know, some once we need to cross off the list. While we've been to French Puppy at Tahiti, we've been to Alaska, been to Hawaii. We've knocked some harder ones off the list. And you've been to Italy and France and the European Union's European states, and I have not. But also on the list is gotta be Francais for me or for us. And we also discuss possibly Japan. I think Australia be also another awesome one to visit, even though we. Technically, when we were infringed puppy at a. We did visit Rare Tonka, which is part of those same set of islands, but when we were on a cruise. But suffice to say I. Yeah, you know, it's been a while since we've. While since I've had a vacation and then just thriving and and doing all of that stuff. So and it makes me excited at the prospects. Maybe we can better take advantage of our time and I hope my next job, like I said, it can find the right situation, offer me agency autonomy, but also flexibility and also if I can be paid better. I. I just want to say one other thing with the work situation. I am so blessed. Even though I've had to go through hell with all this. I feel so blessed with my boss and with with CU Boulder in general. My employer and I think different employers, different bosses would have thrown me to the curb and just completely forsaken me. Just said, Wow. You know it doesn't matter if you work for us for six or seven years, You know you're. You're useless to us. You can't perform your job duties anymore. Signer, Nice knowing you. Good luck, no benefits. Well, universities really watched out for me and my boss really watch out for me with and currently I'm on disability still with them, or was short term disability turned to long term disability ? And also I'm not going to go into too many details. But suffice to say, my boss continued pain for my health insurance were beyond well, beyond where he probably should have. But I appreciate it because he knew that I worked my ass off. I've worked my butt off very hard. I was the lab manager and I and I moved impossible mountains. You know, we only had two main people working on a two and a half million dollar project and it was some of my coding ingenuity and stuff was Google sheets that did a lot of heavy lifting in addition to just me being a genotyping machine. And I even went in when my leg was not well and worked when there was early on trying to treat this infection and he saw me come into work even though my limp cup getting worse and worse, progressively worse through twenty twenty one. So in all fairness, I did earn it. I started off as a volunteer that has been very dedicated that lab to the point of almost being ridiculous. That's another lesson learned and something that I need to be careful about in the future is. Even though I'm very professional and I get a lot of my hard core work ethic from you, I do need to dial it down a bit. And I do need to work in a work life balance. And I do need to request and demand work life balance. What you're saying is self care. It's important that we remember that as well, because both of us have the same type of job, ethics of performance, and our expectations of our selves are very high. And so remembering that self care is really important because I think that our barometer sometimes is off on that. And I think that sometimes when you think about going back to work, that's something else to consider because you. Now, I think because your. Your expectations of yourself are so high that just remember that going back to work does not have to mean like I have to one hundred percent one hundred percent or I know it's not really a hundred percent, but maybe ninety percent. But just realize like, hey, I can go in and do a halfway decent job and have a boss that's going to understand that it's gonna take me awhile to actually be able to work my way into this. Where you know and be a little bit understanding about your stamina and how much that you can actually do. Yeah, and so that's the whole thing. Those. I'm just being honest, I'm not. I'm not there yet with even part time and I do need to lose part time writer. I do need at least to be able to work fifty per cent time for my health benefits, etc. But also just unless some are going to be earning way more than what I was earning before. And I really can't afford at work getting less than full - time salaries. So so the bottom line that the main takeaway, all I really need edition in addition to say to this is that I'm kissing point. You're right with all your points, but my. To hit back at my main point. My main point is that I am seeing an evolution. Some real progress, a real path forward here. I'm not physically there yet. And yes, I won't be. Ever be one hundred per cent to that level where you know I feel one hundred percent confident with going back to work, whether it be part - time or full - time. But I do need a build step point where I'm not pushing myself in a way that I'm like, Hey, I have to either work this job. These expectations are of me, or I'm gonna lose my health insurance and I've got skin breakdown. Or I'm so tired that I can't even walk straight. And so I'm not. I'm not terribly concerned that I'm never going to get there. I know I'm going to get there. I'm even all the more convinced it's. It's coming down the pipeline. It's just really. It's. It's about the endurance and building up the strength. But there are glimmers. There are moments where I'm walking with my prosthetic on and I'm like, I don't wanna say I've completely forgotten that I'm wearing it, but the lines tend to blur a little bit. So that's. That's. That's the main takeaway of something's really awesome. That's off The New Revolution. Yeah, it's cool. It's like your brains adjusting and adapting to it as well. Yup. So it's been a long week for us. And. And you know, so we want to report something positive that's went on here. And we have also been trying to brainstorm new topics to bring to the podcasts. But it does take time and effort. Even though we're unscripted and we on our unfiltered. There are certain topics that we want to do some of our own due diligence on research on. And so I didn't know if there is any other things we wanted to talk about tonight, or if you want to kind of cut it short and sweet for this one, focus on Schengen. Or I mean, we're currently at an hour and eighteen minutes in. So at least we're actually really good. And I just think that leaving it at that is really good. And next time we'll have a topic that we probably be more in depth with. I think this is probably the shortest podcast we've had so far. Well, actually, I think it's the second it was, I think tied for the shortest. I think it'll become our second shortest podcast. And ninety percent sure. I think our. Our first one was like an hour and fifteen minutes or twenty minutes. So we're. We're. I think we're time with the second. Yeah, I mean that really. I have nothing more to add to it. I think that yeah, gosh, I think we. What we talked about. There was a lot that we did out in just the what hour and eighteen minutes. He just said, Yeah, we have such a high standard for ourselves that we. We don't realize that we can also approach this with just like kind of a like a happy or easy going lucky kind of heart. So, you know, sometimes we feel like we can excuse ourselves, you know, to to go but like, you know, head first, you know, just dive into a conversation and. But but also show that level of respect that we want to show to it, you know, like we feel like any less would be disrespectful to you and disrespectful to us. So we just want to explain that this kind of. Where we're coming from, even though that's probably not what's going on at all. You guys are enjoying whatever works we're talking about. We hope that what we can we talk about is clever, intriguing, cognizance of circumstances and implications and all that. But I sent up provoking, we thought provoking something you want to share slightly. Something that you connect with on a personal level, so we hope that that's been what's happened with you here for this week, we'll see about maybe putting outs. While we're definitely committing to the Weekly. As you're saying, and we're good for that. We'll see if we're able to put more out. But just as fights to say, things have been really busy with busy for us. So while we're a project that we haven't been able to put out more, we're glad that we're at least able to commit to this. Even though sometimes it's tough, It's just some weeks are busier than others, and it's hard with the energy. And while now the time the hour we lost two. Oh yeah, I think that makes up for the hour we're not doing tonight because I'm actually really feeling tired too. Me too. Me too. All right. Well as that qualify if I lead us out, Absolutely peace out everyone ! Looking forward to talking to you next week. Yes, please check us out on the web. It's Polychromatic dot com. That's p o l y c h r o m a t i q u e dot com where you can find the least episodes. If you have a moment, please visit us on Apple Podcasts you Can search for again polychromatic, just like polychromatic dot com and Polychromatic. And if you can rate and subscribe to us, that would be awesome. And we've been kind of looking at some of our own analytics and we just wanted to personally reach out and think the current, I think a dozen or so of of you or more that are currently listening to the podcast. Just wanted to thank you for taking the time to edit your weekly repertoire, your weekly schedule and everything that you do. And I just want to spread the peace and love and just say that. And yeah, we, you are our people, we are your people. We are one and the same people and it's important to remember that scene. Schengen was reminder of that and just how happy we are to share something like this with you. And as its and I guess costly and constantly evolving. So yes, peace and love to guys, and we'll catch you in the next one. Bye for now.