Suicide Prevention Sat - Holidays, Happiness, & Challenges

All right, poof, uh, here we are. It is another Saturday night, and what is this? This is Suicide Prevention Saturday. Um, and why do we do Suicide Prevention Saturday? Because as gun owners— see all the gun stuff behind me— 2 out of every 3 gun deaths you hear about are generally suicides. For real. Um, and let's see, I, I popped on just a few moments early because it wasn't exactly 9 o'clock. But I saw Fiona's question of how am I feeling? I am a disaster. So I have a guest for you tonight. I am, I am making DJ actually help me with tonight's show. So I'm not talking a whole lot because Fiona was supposed to come shoot with me today and she insisted that we reschedule because I could barely talk to her yesterday without coughing a lung up. So I appreciate my students who tell me to take care of myself. So, um, let's see. I know I told DJ, I'm like, all right, I'll leave you alone for right now. I will pull you back on in a minute. Uh, tonight, grateful list, holidays. Um, let's see. I actually have notes so I can try to stay on track because I'm trying to keep this really short because I am sick and I have a miserable virus and I cough a lot right now. So my talking part is little. So grateful list. Last week, Charlie and I talked about the grateful list and I just want to check in, find out if anyone's grateful. And because Tara is here, uh, I need to say one of the things I'm grateful for is getting my, uh, Tara's Kitchen— Tara Smith's Kitchen cup in the mail. And additional things, um, I got stickers. And just in case you don't notice, ta-da, there are my stickers. They will be here on every show depending on how my, my chair is. I can hide them or not. So Tara, thank you very much for my, my cup and my stickers. Um, my daughter was gonna put my ginger ale in here first and I'm like, no, no, not till after. I can't get it dirty until after I, uh, do the show. So I didn't spill stuff on me. But thank you for my, my cup. I do appreciate it. And I am grateful for the fact that people will send me stuff because it's kind of fun. And I was very impressed actually with the box it came in. So it's like a little bit like a kid. I'm like, give me the box, it's really cool. All right, um, so thankful, grateful list. So there are two, two of those things. Uh, what am I also grateful for? I'm not in the hospital. Yay! Let's keep it that way. Um, And just, I have an awesome family who is also trying to take care of me and telling me to sit down, do everything, or do nothing. Um, I did cancel everything today. I had EMT training in the morning, which I didn't go to. Um, I had 2 students which were kind enough to reschedule for me. And then I have this, and this is the only thing that I cannot cancel because even DJ said that I should cancel, but I'm talking without, um, dying yet, so I'm also grateful for that. All right, so I challenge you guys to start a grateful list, even if it's right now in the comments. Go ahead, go ahead, put one thing you're grateful for since we just got off the Thanksgiving holiday. Holidays are fun to celebrate and sometimes they are sad because there is an empty seat at the table and the empty seat is someone we've lost in the previous year. My grandmother died the first week of December, and going into that first Christmas without her was definitely a challenge. My grandmother was a very big part of our Christmas celebration, and those holidays are just off, and it's where you need to lean on your family even more, and hopefully you still have family to lean on. Um, my sister died the week of Halloween, so so we had Thanksgiving and Christmas without her. And that was also very strange and hard. And it's one of those things, the first holiday without someone that you really love and care about, I think is often the hardest. But know that you're not alone. Unfortunately, all of us have to experience that. I have friends that have lost their husbands and they've got kids and I just can't even imagine what that is like because it's just super hard. So as we are going into our holidays, and if we have not lost anyone recently, then the idea is to help be there for them, whatever it is they need. It may be just that phone call that I talk about, um, as far as, um, you know, checking in on somebody, Maybe they need somewhere to go. Maybe they did lose a parent or something, and that's where they usually go and they don't have somewhere. So check in on your friends who you know have lost a family member or something this year. And if you're that person who's lost someone recently, reach out, 'cause we don't always know, we don't always remember, and let us help you, whoever us might be. So with that, that's about as much talking as I think I'm good for right now. So, DJ.

Yes, ma'am.

It is your turn since you actually prepped for this, and I appreciate you for that. And now I'm all gonna let DJ, like, make noise.

Right on. Okay, rest your voice. And I am glad to be here. I'm— here's a thankful— I am thankful for the opportunity, uh, to be here on Saturdays. This is one of the things I look forward to most, and I tell people about it, and I hope that they will swing by., and I'm glad for those who have gathered with us. So as a quick segue here, it's going to be a musical one. While you were rolling that introduction for us, I was reminded of the hardest days, those first days. And there's a lyric from a song called Uncle John's Band by the Grateful Dead that goes like this: Well, the first days are the hardest days. Don't you worry anymore, because when life looks like easy street, there is danger at your door. Think this through with me. Let me know your mind. Whoa, oh, what I want to know is, are you kind? I think that as we approach, you know, the season's turn and the holidays, we're all looking for a kind of kindness. We're finding sometimes a stress in trying to provide that for others. And so gathered here on a Saturday, let's get grateful. I'm grateful for a holiday table, like any holiday table, the ability to gather with folks that my family family being small, the opportunities aren't as rich as they once were. And so, when we're at a holiday table, a lot of us are gathered in homes or in places where folks offer thanks or offer up prayer. So, the holiday table, picture this. Here it comes. It's my turn in the rondelet. It lands on me. It's time for me to share what I'm grateful for. And it's just like, oh, here we go. So, like when I was a kid, I'd search for things. To say earnestly, sometimes way past those that were closest to my heart. Like, you sit at the table, you're supposed to say, "I'm thankful for my bicycle." I mean, that might play when you're up to 5 years old, but time goes on. And so, as I got older, as if to legitimize some of those things that I was grateful for to those who gathered, it was like in an attempt to make those things actually really totally actually become manifest. To some degree, or maybe to take those things, like to notch them up, to live them, you know, a life of gratitude, to show that thanks by actually having things to achieve things, to strive, to, you know, to come to be more than just the things that we came to that table with, to try and have an enriched experience. So, I practiced saying grace at my mom's Methodist home for 15 years, and I developed my own style. Now, it's a much simpler style. It's a much simpler list of things that I'm grateful for that I offer on occasions where I get to say what I'm thankful for with others. Now, I could just use a word, right? Music, and be done. But I'm DJ, and if you know me, you've been around me at all, you know you're not going to get away without hearing me spiel for more than a hot minute when I'm on the mic. I'm thankful for music. I'm thankful for my hearing. Okay, that's pretty obvious. So, I'll take a second to remind all of us gathered right now, here and in replay, find some positive aspects of your health. It's easy to get stuck in all the things that ail us, whatever it is. It's like begging for your attention, you know, stubbed toe to God knows. You know, sometimes pain doesn't like to be ignored. If you ignore— we're talking physical pain— if you ignore physical pain, you may be doing so at risk of a greater problem, right? Okay. So, I was going to offer you an example with me. I'm not going to do that, but I'm just going to say this. It's not just your physical self. It's also your emotional self. It's your heart. It's the feels, right? If your heart hurts, do something about it. Take yourself seriously because like simply, others might not take you seriously. They might not even know if you're not expressing this or trying to find your cures, I guess. I guess here's the thing. You are your own mental health first responder. So, work on those, right? Okay. So, I listen to a lot of stuff in any given day, lots of different curated playlists, mixes, you know, all kinds of stuff. So, some 8-bit advice. When it comes to music, I like to keep it moving. I like to stay engaged in the pursuit of the new. And so, I'm going to encourage everybody, open your ears. You never know what you might hear. There are way more colors than those that just come in the Binney Smith box, right? Okay, so often the sounds that are closest to us or bring the strongest emotions, those resound with us most deeply. And so, I thought about sounds for tonight's presentation, sounds that I am thankful for. These might be things that I would offer at a holiday table. I didn't say any of these things just having recently gathered with my mom for Thanksgiving. But here they are, a top 10 list. Top 10 joyful noises. There we go. Joyful noises for the holiday. Sleigh bells. I'm not kidding. Sometimes the simplest little things can— if you don't hear the joy in my voice, I'm actually smiling. Like, sleigh bells will make me smile. And I realize that that's, you know, it's a very December kind of thing, but we're in the holidays, right? Another thing I'm thankful for, a little bit more seriously, I am thankful for the sound of the furnace cycling on during winter's nights. It's a reminder that I don't have to be cold, that I am not as cold as I might be. And I often think of those who do not have the ability to be as warm as they would like. They don't have that comfort. Another sound that I'm absolutely thankful for, and it was recent, The sound of my mother's oven door opening and closing when Thanksgiving or any other holiday meal approaches for us. That's a great sound. I like the drone of voices gathered at parties or clubs, shows, wherever. I just kind of let my hearing and my visual perception go kind of soft focus. And I guess what I'm grateful for most there is it's the sound of humanity. I don't always want to be engaged in the specific words or even the tone of things. And if I kind of go soft focus, it all just becomes the representative of something that I am a part of, something greater than myself. I am thankful for every time, many, many lines, but there is one line in the film A Christmas Story where the narrator talks about the glow of electric sex coming from the lamp in their front window, that embarrassing lamp, the, the "it's a major award" lamp. That thing always cracks me up. I'm thankful for the voices of those that I love and care about most out of all the voices that I hear. Sometimes they can get me through difficult days, and people don't even know that it was just hearing them that got me there. This is, well, it's tongue-in-cheek, but I'm thankful for hoofbeats on my roof. Because that means that like presents are going to drop. Okay. So, like a little bit more seriously, right? I'm grateful for the joy that I hear in the sound of children's voices around the holidays, shredding paper and shrieking, you know, all the gee whiz kind of stuff that goes on. I don't have kids of my own. So, anytime I've been around other family celebrations, if it's present time, I am so there. I am riveted. This is more important than any concert I will see. Well, maybe not, but it's a very important event for me. And I really do like— it's the purer expressions of emotion will just grab onto you. I'm thankful for, like, the equality that comes through expression. And this is sound, the sound of other people engaging in conversations like this one. I am really, really grateful for because when it's not shouting, it doesn't have to be pleasant, but it's something that I want to participate in. I don't like shouting. The less shouting we do, especially coming into the holidays, howling at people in traffic or when you're at the shopping mall, God forbid, or something like that going on, So, I'm thankful for just others' voices. And then, the number one thing that I'm grateful for when it comes to sound around the holidays, it's the sound of people sighing when it's all over and the stress of the holiday season might finally slip away. It's that very satisfied, those satisfied moments when everything that led up to it worth it or not, is finally at its conclusion. And the fact that, uh, we roll into another year coming up not so far after, uh, what a lot of us celebrate is Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, whatever you got, whatever you want to do. Um, it's a season of rebirth in a lot of ways. Don't have to be Christian, you know. Hit the, hit the new year and the clock rolls, and so does the calendar. So, those are the things that I am most grateful for. And again, Brooke, as you come back, I am grateful for the opportunity to be here and to express those things. I would like to give you a roll call so that you can rest your voice just that much more. Joining us tonight, and I will also add in some of the things that people have, I think, been grateful for in the text chat.

Hold on. No, no, no. I got to put my favorite one up first. All right, then. I appreciate that. But I love Tara's thing of when I play guitar, it's like running my fingers through a waterfall of multicolored sand and playing with how it flows through my fingers. It's all touch and tone. But I don't hear it right. It's just like, I love that because it's, it's, it's music just reading it. In your head, like the running fingers through a waterfall of multicolored sand. Totally the best thing ever. Um, yeah, so anyway, I don't need to steal your thunder, but I'm like, I saw Tara's name, like, oh, we still have to put that one up. But go ahead, I will let you talk about everybody else's.

Oh well, joining us in the room first, uh, we got Gun Websites is out there, Smeggy42 is as well, uh, Mike White, you're doing double duty, you're on both sides, typing is better than talking right now, young lady. Uh, Mario Mosin is in the, in the room, so is Tara Smith's Kitchen. Got Mike White out there, if I didn't say his name. Fiona Remillard, always good to see her out there. I think I was also doing double duty, or I commented at least once there at the very beginning, but I do believe that completes our roll call for— no, I'm sorry, on the Facebook side, I am able to tell you that Michael Bellinger, I hope I got his name pronounced correctly, is out there as well. So, things that people are grateful for. I'm gonna go from the bottom up kind of thing. Let's see. I think G Webs is grateful for shotguns. Um, that's a good one, right? Smeggy42, uh, somewhat musical, right? Drums, that's an awesome one. Um, let's see what else have we got out here.

And just to clarify, Smeggy used to play a little drummer boy for his dad on drums. That's what the drum comment was. Since you're going backwards, I'm just catching you up.

I, I did— I didn't know that. Thank you for that. Okay, yeah, maybe the order that I chose isn't as well advised. I got this on your screen right now from Mario Moses. I'm grateful I don't have to deploy anymore. I can't imagine that. I can't imagine what that must feel like and the grace that's granted by the fact that you get to not have to deploy, bro. It's awesome. Let's see. Oh, check this out. Mike White, little drummer boy song always puts a smile on his face. Had Tara's comment out there. Let's see. Fiona with a little bit of bad news about her furnace. I'm sorry to hear that. First died on Thursday. I'm trying to stay warm, you know.

But yeah, I think she got a new gun safe, I'm guessing. I'm not really sure if that's 100%, but you know, out with the old, in with the new. Not that the gun safe is going to keep her warm, but you know, it's still a fun thing.

Well, when your heart is warm, sometimes it does literally translate that, or you can just like kind of run in circles around it, like being super excited, load it, you know. Put stuff in, take it out, put it in, take it out. There's some way to make this a positive, right? So looking for another thing that's kind of cool, check this out. Smeggy42 says, I'm thankful for my gun channels crew. You guys helped me many times, family and friends. There we go. Okay, from Gun Websites, I'm bringing this to your screen. Grateful we live on Earth in 2022 in the USA. We have a very cool time in history. So many interesting and impressive groups of people to be here with. I second that emotion. Yep, I'll get some links at the end of the chat that I want everybody to think about following. And we got that scroller going across the bottom, didn't say anything about that so far. Please pay attention to that scroller and, uh, mark it Write that stuff down. There'll be some links in the text chat, like I said. Mike White says, my house, you, and everyone here, and on and on and on down to my TV set.

So the rank of reports further up there, he said just everything. I'm like, no dude, give me at least one thing. And his first thing was actually his job, and he does have a cool job. Um, sorry, and now we have to say hi to Lori. Because Lori popped on, and Lori is a DC Project Girl as well, um, because DC Project Girls are awesome.

So with that, um, yeah, I'm bringing this to your screen now. It's from the Facebook side, so bring it up to your screen right now. Uh, Michael's saying grateful the flu is almost over. Apparently did not have the best Thanksgiving when it comes to like some upset.

His whole family was sick for Thanksgiving. It was horrible. Sean and I have both had this cough, but we still made it through without anything bad. It didn't really get bad until like last night for me. So, um, and, and again, it's just like, uh, back to the gratefulness. The fact that you guys are all here watching is awesome because like I said, I canceled everything on my calendar today and that never happens. But showing up because I know you guys are going to be here waiting for something. That's why I am here, is because of all of you guys. And for those of you who are watching the replay who've not seen this before, I'm here for you too, because I've never been consistent with anything in my life, like for real, as far as my brain goes. And I'm super excited that I've been here since 2018 and it's just, it helps having people around you. And sometimes you may not think you're making a difference, but you just never know what ripple effect you've put into the pond. And it could be something as simple as saying, hey, nice scarf, Doctor Who scarf from London. Yes, very cool. But it could be anything. So I just wanna thank you all again as we go into the holiday season. And I don't know, Tara, are you gonna plug these? Are you selling these too? I don't know. I don't know what else is out there. And DJ for trying to talk me out of doing this so that I don't cough to death. Um, I appreciate that, but I just can't do it. Um, but you know, some days I am not here, but I will plan ahead, not just because I'm sick, because I will always show up for that. So everyone, drink your water, take your vitamin C, take your vitamin D, and take better care of yourself so you don't get stupid viruses and cough up a lung. So that's my advice for tonight. DJ, you got anything else?

I would like everybody to be safe, have fun, to take care of each other, and to rock. Always, always to rock. And I'm, I'm grateful for G-Webs. He's out there taking care of business.

Thanks, G. Yeah, getting rid of the, uh, that, that bot there.. And I love Tara for the I'm breathing and walking, because even those simple things, I will never forget going reading a story. And it was about this woman who woke up, opened her eyes, stood up, went to the bathroom, walked to the bathroom, brushed her teeth and hair, and was thinking about how amazing that was. And it was a dream because she was actually paralyzed from the neck down. And so the breathing and walking thing, You know, it's pretty crazy how something as simple as that is truly amazing. So we are done for tonight as far as I know, and I do hope you all have health and happiness in the holidays. And if you need help, reach out to somebody here who's chatting, uh, call 211 or 988. I guess I have to update my little thing since we've got the national 988 number now. And I bid you all adieu. Goodbye everybody, good night, and see you next week.