Interview:Marcus Higgs-The Magic Inside The Incredible Gift!

Marcus is a teacher, a communications expert, and all around (as you will understand when you hear the episode) generous guy. There is so much laughter in this episode and kindness, and sweetness that you should all be shining by the end of listening to what he and I created! Marcus has changed children's lives, and you'll all understand that when he talks about the book that his students made him at the end of their school year with him.

Transcript

Greetings everyone!

It's been a while since I've released a Midweek Miracle episode,

But my conversation with Marcus Aurelius Higgs last week had me jumping up and down in excitement and I thought I cannot wait to release this interview to all of you so that you can enjoy and understand what an incredible human being he is.

Marcus is many things and once again I'm in the unenviable position of trying to describe a human being in just a few minutes,

But among many things he's a teacher and in this episode he shares a really sweet moment or a few sweet moments that he's had with the children that he's worked with.

He's also a communications coach for parents of preteens.

He's an educator and mentor and he's been that to young people from over 20 countries.

He's hilarious,

He's intelligent,

He can keep up with me and we had the best conversation.

And I'm not sure if many of you have noticed but I have been including some Easter eggs at the end of some of the past episodes and this one is no exception.

It's a little thing that if you want to listen to it at the very end you're welcome to but it's not necessary.

All right,

I'm so excited for you to meet Marcus.

I'm gonna stop talking now and say get ready for my incredibly gorgeous conversation with Marcus Aurelius Higgs.

And the leader of the pack,

Penny,

She kept saying,

Turn to the last page Marcus,

Turn to the last page.

It's actually a quote that she wrote for me.

Life is short so smile more.

She made me this Pinterest book,

Right?

But then the last one says,

You of all people deserve a happy ending.

Because we would always talk about stories.

Now,

Wait for it now.

So then,

Me in my head,

I said,

Do I deserve a happy ending?

And it wasn't doubt,

It's just the critical mind of a teacher of going to the question.

I said,

Do I deserve a happy ending?

And I was like,

Yeah,

I do.

I was like,

Well then how do I do it?

I am a messenger sanctified to speak with a divine voice and no it was not of my own choice rather.

God's will be done because I am part of a chosen generation of royal priests at a holy nation.

A special person used to proclaim the praise of him who called me out of darkness into the marvelous light.

You see,

I am the might and the Lord is my controller.

And it goes on and on and on.

I would not say that at a party.

But you asked me,

Who are you?

That's a poem that I wrote when I was 16 years old.

Called I Am.

Yeah,

I still remember it to now.

It was an identity piece.

Awesome.

But I am Marcus Aurelius Higgs.

Yeah.

I love people.

I'm curious about life.

I've traveled and I've also stayed grounded right here.

And I'm open to learning about other people.

And some people don't like that because I always get curious about them and I know how to pull up their stories.

But that's who I am.

I'm just a traveler you've met on the way.

And I am you experiencing life from a different perspective.

That's so beautiful.

I did not expect a poem right off the bat.

It's clear that you're a creative.

Would you say that's true?

Heck yeah,

Man.

We're all creative.

We're all creators.

We're creating this journey as we step,

Walk forward bit by bit.

We're writing life.

All of us are.

That's one thing Steve Jobs,

He said,

One of the questions you ask at a party is what makes your heart sing?

Or another one is what do you create?

And if other people like,

No,

I'm not a creative,

Like we're all creating something.

You create the space or you create context for something to happen.

Like we're all creators.

And yes,

I own my creativity.

Were you,

I mean,

When you were a kid,

Like younger than 16,

Did you recognize that about yourself?

Or was that something that kind of came out when you got a little older?

I grew into it.

I think my awareness was brought to it by older people in my lives,

Teachers and coaches and so on.

And that informs some of the work that I do now,

Because I am also a communication coach for parents of preteens.

And I think that at this younger age,

When you instill a strong identity in kids,

They grow into that.

And that's,

I'm out here to answer the mental health issue,

Mental health crisis,

As I say.

And it is identity as to why a lot of a lot of,

To your question,

I did notice it at a younger age.

And it was cultivated.

And have you now before we got started,

You said that you're in the Bahamas right now.

Have you always lived there?

Has that been your home?

Since I was 12.

My mother's from the Philippines.

My father's from the Bahamas.

So I have the island in my blood on both sides.

And I moved here when I was 12 years old.

And I grew up here.

Yeah.

I used to live in SoCal,

But I moved here when I was 12 years old.

And I grew up here.

Yeah.

I used to live in SoCal.

Guys can I mention that?

Gosh,

How did your parents meet?

You know where they met?

In Nebraska?

They met at a college Union College.

Yeah.

NASCAR State.

How was it?

So they were both international students.

And it is a liberal arts Christian college.

And it was summer break,

Everybody left.

And this one Filipino girl and this one Bahamian boy went to the pools.

And they had a class and this it was like a girls and guys didn't go to the pools together.

But because everybody was off for vacation,

They took a swimming class together.

Now,

Not really,

Really.

But years later,

I happened.

That's so romantic.

Well,

When they were 12,

I didn't they divorced and I went with my father.

Okay.

So it's like happening.

No,

It was romantic.

Yeah,

I guess.

It was romantic.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And so you brought up your vocation right now and what you're doing.

How did that happen?

How did you become interested in the work that you're doing now?

So I studied communication in university,

Journalism.

And then straight away,

I went to South Korea,

As a missionary,

Sincere missionary.

Religion has never been a burden for me or spirituality has never been a burden for me.

And I say,

My worldview expanded,

Didn't want to keep on teaching what I didn't believe.

But uh,

No animosity towards the church or anything.

And I and I love teaching.

So I continued teaching,

Taught in South Korea for five and a half years,

Then got some my teacher training went out to Saudi Arabia for two years,

In the petrol company.

And then went back to Thailand and then to Spain,

Thought there and then Thailand for seven years.

And now I'm back in the Bahamas with my aging parents.

And how'd I get into being a communication coach?

One,

I love communication.

Two,

I saw the world and all the different intersections of humanity.

And there is a common line,

A common through line through all of it.

I taught high school English language arts.

This is a book for my fifth graders,

Not high school.

Oh,

You're gonna love this.

So they like,

Used to say cheesy Pinterest quotes.

So they made me a Pinterest page.

But then it's all the time we spent together on field trips.

And then when you turn to the front of it,

They have little stick figures with afros.

It's the cutest thing.

So the whole idea is to stay in the game long enough that I can help them with their kids.

I decided to come out of the classroom.

It was an AP school,

If that means anything.

It's like traditional school in North America.

But um,

Nothing against traditional education.

But I,

It just didn't resonate with me.

So I came out of the classroom there and decided to be a life coach,

Working specifically with communication at this age.

I have to say,

I mean,

Oh my gosh,

That book that you just showed me that your students created for you.

It's so clear that they love you.

Oh my goodness.

You know what,

I figured out my magical moment.

And I'm going to save it now.

Yes,

Because this magical moment is is surrounded by this book.

So yeah.

Oh my goodness.

I mean,

You're,

I mean,

This is a terrible thing to admit.

But you're the first teacher that I've met who's been given a book like that.

So I'm glad we're gonna circle back to it.

I mean,

When I was growing up,

The big present was an apple,

You know,

You brought in an apple to the teacher.

But I think that's yeah,

Say now.

And I always thought those red apples were totally disgusting.

They looked fake.

And I never understood why you would give a red apple to anyone,

Let alone your teacher.

But I'm just grateful.

I mean,

Maybe you've had some apples in your life,

But I'm sure they were organic or delicious or whatever.

So it's,

You know,

I actually just last October,

Interestingly enough,

Left Santa Fe to move back to outside Chicago,

To help my mother and take care of her.

She's about 83.

And I took care of her about for six or seven months.

So,

You know,

Kudos to you for coming back to,

You know,

Be present for your parents.

It's I,

I didn't know that caregiving because I was living with my mother.

So I don't know if you're living with your parents,

But I was living with my mother and caregiving is no joke.

No,

It's not a joke.

Yeah,

There's um,

They say what,

What is it twice a child once a man?

Um,

It's no joke.

I it's,

It's a lesson in itself.

Again,

Life is life and you go with the waves of it.

You understand if you can find gratitude in the moment,

Everything that happened before now has brushed to this moment.

And it's this moment is preparing you for what's next.

So I'm not going to be you're doing this always,

But for what it's worth,

It's,

It's a life lesson.

Yeah.

And,

And you mentioned,

Um,

A little bit earlier,

Um,

Wearing your religion or your spirituality lightly.

And so my second question always is,

Did you grow up in a religious household?

Or what did that look like for you as a kid?

I would say it's a sincerely spiritual household.

Um,

Religious in the sense that there are things we did religious,

But it was never overbearing.

So we did observe the Sabbath.

If you're familiar with SDA,

Grew up seventh day of Venice.

And so sunset to Friday,

Sunset to Saturday,

We would have family time directing your thoughts towards God,

Being a servant of God and being a friend of man.

It was a community and so on.

During that time,

I would have it again,

This is what informs the work that I do now,

Because we would have,

I would have sincere conversations with the divine in poetry in,

Um,

To be seen to be heard,

To be understood,

To be guided,

Even gratitude,

And then asking for guidance and so on,

Which is why I think later on in life,

When coming back to the understanding of who are you,

That was such a strong part with me of that sincere relationship.

That's not just here.

Like I see it in other people too.

And when I say I see it in other people,

I think that is the joy that connects me with other people,

Because I'm looking for elements of the divine and you are characteristics of that.

Yeah.

And I speak to that.

And,

Um,

Again,

It was never overbearing,

But it was,

It was part of our identity.

Okay.

You must be a saint because I wish that I could,

I mean,

I start every day with what,

Yeah,

With saying,

Hey,

I'm going to see the divine in everyone because everyone's divine.

And then invariably I meet someone who's an ogre and I really struggle to kind of see the divine in them and I fail and then I fail.

Um,

And then I think I'll do better tomorrow,

But this world is a challenging place to be in with all the different people and their different experiences and traumas and stories and what have you,

It can be a really difficult road to walk kind of,

First of all,

You seem way more grounded than me and you also seem way more at peace in your heart than I am,

But to just,

I know you're laughing,

People can't,

You're laughing and it,

But it's true.

It's smiling.

Yeah.

You're smiling.

I'm smiling.

Yeah.

I'm laughing with you inside.

Um,

But I,

I just admire you,

Your,

Um,

Conviction,

You know,

In the fact that you can go out every day and it,

I really believe that the world responds to you or the world responds to your heart and who you are,

What you bring into it.

And so I'm kind of envisioning this beautiful Muppet story,

Like fantasy of everything's golden in your world and all these beautiful things are happening all the time.

And maybe like birds sing,

Walk by or something.

Do you,

Is that true?

Is that what happened?

That is so not true.

That is so not true.

Um,

I'm vibing off of your energy one.

And I mean,

Yeah,

You gotta,

You gotta,

You gotta set the tone for your world,

Right?

Like,

Um,

Let me see,

You know what it is?

I do practice stoicism and in my approach to life,

I.

E.

Philosophy,

I think everything is there for my growth.

Like there's that assumption and there's gratitude there in everything I do.

And what gratitude is,

Is recognizing a force outside of you,

Taking the initial action for your wellbeing.

And my heart,

I didn't ask my heart to beat.

I didn't ask a sun to come up,

But those things happened in concert that I might experience this.

And when you have such an inflow of gratitude,

Fill up and then you start to outflow with love.

Love and gratitude are two different sides of the same coin,

Because what love is,

Is recognizing life and taking the initial action for the wellbeing of that life.

Um,

That and when you're,

When you're tuned into it so well,

And I mind you,

Mind you,

Yeah,

I get pushed off of this often.

It's just catching myself to bring myself back.

That's equanimity.

But,

Um,

When you're tuned into it,

You realize oftentimes it's never the thing,

But it's how you're relating to the thing.

And I try to relate to things by saying what's in my control and what's not in my control.

The three things where I put my attention,

The story I'm telling myself about that and the action I decide to take.

And when I know all of that is in my control,

Then I get to write the story.

Now I am collaborating with other people.

And,

And there are other people who are writing into my story.

And we just call that pleasant surprises.

You rock with it.

You work with it and you keep going.

So are you a full,

Have you studied philosophy extensively?

Here's my book of Marcus Aurelius meditations right here.

I actually,

I gave away my other one,

Same book,

Just like to go through it every,

Every two years or so,

And then give it away.

Um,

Yes,

I studied philosophy.

Yeah,

That's the short answer.

Traveling around the world.

I studied different religions,

Different people's different walks of life for people.

Everybody has a philosophy just means the approach to live in philosophy.

The love of wisdom,

Wisdom is a practical application of knowledge.

Knowledge is how are you applying it to your life?

Everybody has a philosophy,

Right?

Yeah.

So I have to tell you that,

You know,

I looked at stoicism for a while and I was like,

I don't know if I can do this.

So then I thought hedonism because I do love delicious food.

And I love beauty in the world.

I'm like,

I'm like,

Just enamored of beauty enchanted by it,

And would love to facilitate more beauty for other people.

Although hedonism and beauty don't necessarily dovetail exactly.

But then I read this fascinating philosophical idea that George Berkeley put forward that we're living inside the mind of God.

And I thought to myself,

Okay,

Now that's pretty groovy.

And my brain can't even kind of conceive of what he's saying.

But I could think about this for a few years and try to see if I,

What do I think of this?

What is going on?

And of course,

That's just another iteration of another set of philosophies.

It's like these things are always evolving,

Expanding and,

And kind of giving birth to new philosophies.

But I did think that was very provocative to think that we are all inside the mind of God.

I read Sophie's World.

Have you read that book?

Sophie's World?

I know Sophie's Choice.

Sophie's World.

I've heard of it.

It's amazing.

It's amazing.

It's about a young girl who basically starts I mean,

It's complex,

But she starts studying with a teacher who wants to teach her philosophy.

And so yeah,

This rigorous kind of program,

But then this other mysterious,

She sort of makes friends with this,

She starts receiving mail for this other woman,

Girl named Hilda.

And she's like,

Wait,

Why is that coming to my house?

And then there's this whole mystery.

And it's,

It's really gorgeous.

But you learn about philosophy,

And it's complicated.

And then George Berkeley comes in at the end.

And it's,

It's like so masterful and gorgeous that every few years I have to go back and read it.

But I do,

I am enchanted with that idea that maybe this reality is,

Is,

You know,

We're inside the mind of God.

And it's like,

Then what does it look like to,

Can we escape it?

And what does it look like on the other side or outside of it?

It seems for me,

Because I'm a romantic and a writer and a creative,

And I like duality,

I think of being outside of the mind of God is maybe being empty and black and empty,

And nothing's going on.

And there's no music,

And it's really sad.

Well,

Hearing you speak,

And then I was thinking of non dualism.

Are you familiar with that?

And that's why I said,

I said,

You are me experiencing life from a different perspective.

And that when you fall asleep and have a dream,

You will see different people,

But all of them are in your mind,

Right?

But then all of them do collapse into you one.

Some people say that is what this is.

And it's a plane of infinite possibilities.

Whereas we are seemingly separated.

But all of this really is.

When I say all of it is one,

There,

Again,

Seemingly delineations or divides and boundaries and all of this.

And it's actually,

I'm asking you about life,

And I'm understanding life,

By hearing of your perspective.

Yeah.

Thank you for that.

You should write a book.

I have.

I was setting you up.

There's another book I'm writing.

And then there's this book I have.

And yeah,

Yeah.

Tell me about this.

Yeah.

Why do you say that?

I would.

Well,

I see this gorgeous cover behind you words of well being.

How did that come about?

What inspired you to to create that?

It's inspire life through words of well being.

Yeah.

Personal meditations and poetry to find balance and inner peace.

Following the concept of Marcus Aurelius of when he wrote meditations.

I've written poetry since then from a long time.

And this is how I process and make sense of the world.

I was a creative writing teacher.

And these,

These are poems that I wrote for myself when I needed them.

And actually,

When I look,

When I look back at him,

Yeah,

My words have served me to where I am now.

And I like to also look back at myself and write poetry for it's the through line that connects me and my future and my past.

It's my words.

Yeah.

So it's interesting,

Were you going to say that you write poetry for your past self?

I will,

Like hearing you say that,

Um,

Because I've written poetry for my future self.

And I'm writing it for my pet.

Well,

There's there's a book that I'm working on.

It's called written for you by you from your future.

And the best personal development would be from the wisdom of yourself,

Who has lived it,

Right?

I always think your future is bigger than your present.

And what advice would your future self give you?

So it's 10 letters that your future self has written back to you.

And the 11th letter is a letter of gratitude where you guys actually meet.

And it's written from your present is written for yourself,

Meeting your future self,

Or your future self meeting your present self and saying thank you for the work you've done.

I'm looking forward to meeting them.

Yeah.

And that's the congruent line.

What I really appreciate and love about that concept and that idea is that it kind of collapses time if that makes any sense or makes time irrelevant.

The passage of time is irrelevant.

And,

You know,

I already believe that everything's happening all at the same time,

That it's all happening in one instant,

But our consciousness makes it linear so that we don't go insane.

And so there's something really beautiful about writing a letter to our past self,

Because there's there are all these therapies now that you can do to heal trauma that include kind of talking with your past self or talking to yourself when you're two or when you're five and incorporating those stories and those experiences.

And it's it's almost like and the idea is that when you do approach yourself at two or five,

Whenever that trauma happened,

Once you heal it,

And you you resolve it,

That then from that age on to the where you are now,

You won't have the pain anymore,

You won't have the suffering because you've already healed it when it happened.

If that makes any sense.

I mean,

I think there's something really beautiful about that.

It does make sense.

However,

Not however,

It does make sense.

I understand that perspective.

I'll share with you two other perspectives that may augment or,

You know,

Inform that perspective even more.

And again,

It comes down to the definition of trauma.

I think trauma is a retelling of a past experience by which you are blocked in the present,

You can only take action in the present.

Right?

You can look to the past and retell yourself a new story and process that issue that happened so that you can take action in the present.

You can look to the future.

And some people anticipate a blockage,

That'd be anxiety or something.

And you can tell yourself a story about the future to take action in the present.

It's always action in the present.

Yeah.

And the other thing I was gonna tell you was time and space perspective.

So if I said you are here,

Does here mean,

You know,

In your living room in Oregon?

Or does here mean in America?

Does here mean on the globe?

Like,

It depends on how close or how far you zoom in or zoom out.

And the same thing is with time.

And I said now does now mean this moment that we're on the podcast does now mean today does now mean your lifetime.

So then,

Quite honestly,

Yet here and now could be could encompass your whole lifetime for all of the universe.

Yeah,

Everything everywhere all at once.

I have to say you're,

You're so amazingly diplomatic.

Because you're,

You're so nice.

You said,

However,

And they're like,

Well,

Not however,

And I thought,

Oh,

Diplomacy at work.

I have got to witness this.

I have to see where this goes.

But you're very,

You're very,

Like expansive and generous when you're,

You're subtly tweaking something that I've said,

And I so appreciate it,

Because it just is,

It reminds me of just,

For me,

Collaboration is the best way of being in this world.

Because not only are you including more people,

You're bringing more people in,

So that people have a sense of belonging and community and just conviviality,

Because you're creating more friends and having a wider network and,

And lots of people need to belong these days.

You're also just,

You know,

If things gain power and can help more people,

You're,

You're bringing a greater blessing to the world.

Like you have more power when there's more people involved with anything with social justice with trying to raise money for your nonprofit with anything.

So I'm a fan of like bringing more people along and collaborating and I feel like you would be an incredible collaborator because you are able to verbally express things first of all,

Gorgeously,

But you're also able to subtly kind of tweak what someone says in a way that is really gentle and amazing,

Which is probably why your kids love you.

I feel like I need to leave right now and start creating the book that I'm going to create for you.

And then so I can mail it to you in the Bahamas.

There,

There.

You know what?

A good word received deserves a good word in return.

So I would mail you back another book.

Yes.

All right.

Awesome.

I don't know if it could be as cool as what they created for you.

I do have to say I admire the art,

All the words,

All of it looks so creative.

And I think that speaks to you,

Like bringing that out of them,

Don't you think?

Yeah,

We used to talk about stories.

And actually,

I used to say that to them,

A good word received deserves a good word in return.

Because I would always talk about,

We would do character analysis,

Breaking down the stories.

I told them,

You know,

They are the protagonists of their life and so on.

And they were just literary lovers themselves.

We'd go to the library and everything.

So as much as I would like to say,

I brought out the creativity,

I just made the space for it to express itself.

And you know what I say?

If you are the universe experiencing itself,

And the universe is expanding,

Is it being pulled from the edges?

Or is it being pushed up from the middle?

And the answer is yes.

Yes.

You know,

The main question of the podcast is I would love to hear a story or stories if you want to tell more than one of something magical or miraculous that has happened in your life that you feel comfortable sharing.

Yeah,

I am.

I'm glad I want to share about these fifth graders,

Because they were awesome.

I'm going to share two stories or whatever comes up.

But the first one I want to share is when we came in after lunch,

One time in this class is buzzing,

The kids are all excited.

And it was math time.

And they're still at that age where they still respect authority.

Right.

And I'm sitting there at the front of the class.

And I closed my eyes,

Because I didn't feel like yelling.

Not that I don't yell,

That's just not me.

I closed my eyes.

And then this kid in the back goes,

Mr.

Marcus is waiting.

Right.

And I'm smiling at the front of the class.

And the thing is,

The smile came into my face naturally.

And they said,

Why are you smiling?

They all calm down.

And I said,

Why are you smiling?

I said to them,

I said,

You know what?

Um,

I know you guys came in after after lunch.

So you're all buzzing,

And you're all active.

And I was waiting for you to be quiet.

And I thought the noise was annoying.

And then I smiled.

And I said,

You know what,

There's gonna be a time when I missed this noise.

And I said,

Let me just appreciate it right now.

And then all the kids go.

It's the cutest thing.

So that was that was that was magical.

And again,

It was just very organic,

Because it was true.

And I think about it.

I was just like,

Oh,

Man.

Yeah.

I just savored the moment in the moment.

It's not tears,

My eyes really itch.

And there's nothing wrong with crying.

I'm just really I'm just rubbing my eyes.

The second story.

So after we had that whole year,

A friend was on maternity leave,

And I was covering for her.

And they put together this book,

And they called me up on stage.

And they presented the book to me.

And the leader of the pack,

Penny,

She kept saying,

Turn to the last page,

Marcus,

Turn to the last page.

It's actually a quote that she wrote for me.

Life is short,

So smile more.

She gave me this Pinterest book,

Right.

But then the last one says,

You,

Of all people deserve a happy ending.

Because we would always talk about stories.

Now,

Wait for it now.

So then,

Me in my head,

I said,

Do I deserve a happy ending?

And it wasn't doubt.

It's just the critical mind of a teacher of going to the question.

I said,

Do I deserve a happy ending?

And I was like,

Yeah,

I do.

I was like,

Well,

Then how do I do it?

And there's a still small voice says,

Write it,

Marcus.

And when it said,

Write it,

Marcus.

Like,

I got washed.

And I was just like,

Yeah,

Yeah,

Write it.

And I choked up.

And then Penny goes,

Are you crying?

And a circle of fifth graders just proceeded to hug me.

And like,

So then I'm there.

I dropped one knee and they're all just hugging me like,

Oh,

And that was a magical moment.

And yeah,

That is,

You know,

Like those moments when they say a villain was formed.

That was the moment.

That's like when a hero was formed.

It was in that moment,

I was baptized in the hugs of a class of fifth graders.

And it said,

Just write this moment,

Or write life,

Write a happy ending.

And that's what I do.

That's why I do what I do.

Okay,

I'm a little verklempt right now,

Because that was talk amongst yourselves.

I just don't.

That was like too beautiful.

Oh,

Man.

It was an awesome moment.

And we have it on video.

I'm gonna send you the video.

Oh,

My goodness.

I,

I think one of the greatest gifts in life is to be loved.

And like pure love,

Like people who love you without any expectation of anything coming back.

And so this,

This image of all these fifth graders,

First of all,

I'm sure that you cultivated and really earned their love through that year of teaching and being present to them,

So much so that it touched them.

So they created this gorgeous book for you.

The powerful last page.

You have all people deserve a happy ending.

I'm all people.

Yeah,

We all need to hear that.

And the thing is,

Right,

So with with child protective,

Child protective safety,

CPS rules,

Right?

If a kid initiates a hug,

You don't deny them.

But then you don't initiate a hug,

Right?

Just to make sure that their boundaries and just do the whole year they would always want to and I say,

Well,

I don't hug kids,

Right?

But then the moment I guess was just so overwhelming for them.

They're just like,

Oh,

And it was just it was awesome.

It was awesome.

That's so beautiful.

Do you ever?

I don't know,

Because I'm in sometimes,

I'm a little shallow.

Do you ever become drunk with power?

Just with the effect that you have on other people and fifth graders?

Never,

Never that never.

The thing about me the way I approach life,

It's all it's all emerging.

And hey,

No shame in that.

Like if that's how you get on,

I'm not gonna I'm not gonna steal your joy.

The thing for me is,

I want people to emerge.

Yeah.

Like,

Like,

If you've experienced beauty in your life,

And you believe beauty's inside,

It's just but a matter of time before it comes back again.

So I want you to be a wellspring just coming forth.

And we'll get to that beauty again.

Yeah.

And I think that,

I mean,

Just that last sentiment on that last page,

I feel like there need to be more humans walking around with that on a t shirt.

Other people can read it.

Yeah.

And so that we could live it.

Yeah,

Absolutely.

So that we can,

You know,

Understand that we all deserve a happy ending,

Whatever that looks like,

In whoever's life or whoever's world,

But it's such a,

A beautiful,

Completely altruistic,

Simple,

Simple,

But powerful benediction that they,

I mean,

My gosh,

I'm just,

I'm just kind of shocked at the appreciation of beauty,

The awesomeness,

That's,

You know,

That is,

That's,

That's what it is at that age.

To be full of awe.

Because after that,

Everything comes commonplace.

And it's like,

You know what,

The world never changes.

The world as it were,

Was when you were a kid,

It still is.

It's just that you forget that it's filled with awe.

That's awesome.

That's awesome.

Everything is awesome,

Like a Lego movie,

Right?

But it's like,

It's still the same.

It's just,

Your way of looking at it has changed.

I hope you all enjoyed this interview with another exemplary human being in the world.

Marcus and I got along like a house on fire.

And I think our conversation and the laughter that resulted from it.

Well,

I hope that it lifted your day.

I also hope these interviews with other incredible human beings are reminding you that there are people out in the world who are here to do good work and provide service to others.

The work that Marcus is achieving with all of the preteens,

The kids,

The teenagers that he's working with.

Well,

We need more of that in this world.

And I for one am so grateful that Marcus is doing this work.

Thank you to all of you who listen and thanks for all the ratings and reviews.

And once again,

If you feel so inclined,

Those of you who have not yet given me a rating or written a little review,

I would be ever so grateful if you would do so.

Those ratings and reviews help other people find us.

Thank you for listening.

And here's my one request.

Be like Marcus.

Be hilarious.

Well,

Be funny,

I guess,

Or use your sense of humor to create change in the world,

To lift other people up,

To remind people that this world is a good place.

So cultivate your sense of humor.

Be like Marcus and be open to the world and bring laughter and hilarity and kindness to every single human you meet.

Okay,

Thank you so much.

I feel like you dropped the mic and walked away like 20 times during this interview.

So I appreciate it.

You want another one?

You want another one?

And this would be a nice enough to end on.

Yes.

There's no greater privilege than to be who you are.

Right?

Wait for it.

There's no greater privilege than to be who you are.

And when it is told,

Let them know.

It is a privilege to hear your story.

Yeah,

I'm looking forward to hearing your story,

Kristen.

That's,

Uh,

Yes,

I'm when I achieve real domination,

I'm going to force everyone to hear it.

You in this power trip,

Man.

If you want to dominate it,

That's your role.

Do you boo?

I'm not gonna steal your shine.

Get it.

Hey,

I have to say,

I think,

You know,

I'm generally known as pretty witty and funny and quick with the response.

But I think you could give me a run for my money.

It's not a competition,

But you're winning.

Yes.

No,

It's good.

I,

I rarely meet people that can keep up with me or,

Or,

You know,

Keep things going.

So I so appreciate it.

Seriously,

I appreciate it.

Because it's such a rare occurrence.

That I'm that cool.

I'm very humble,

But it is.

Anyway,

That's awkward.

My friend had this thing whenever we hear something like that,

Like,

The most humble man I know.

Come on.

I love that.