Suicide Prevention Saturday - The Gift of Giving

Hi everyone, welcome to Suicide Prevention Saturday. I am just going to say, why are we here? Like I say every weekend, well, because as gun owners, we want to make sure everyone knows that 2 out of every 3 gun deaths the CDC talks about are gun deaths. And if we really want to save lives, we have to talk about mental health. Oh, see, people like Paul Lathrop show up and say good morning because he's like a second shift guy, so he's getting ready to go to work right about now. Um, so yeah, so hi Paul. Uh, uh, Mike White was here first and— well, sorry, no, no, my bad, DJ is here first. Uh, he got here a whole like 15 minutes early while I was slacking off trying to get fancy with multiple cameras and fun stuff like that. So, um, so all right, 2 out of 3 gun deaths are suicides. So if we work on mental health, not only can we help those who are suffering from suicidal tendencies, but that also happens to be, um, a way to help prevent violence as well. So mental health is the way to actually help people. All right, so hey Saria, how are you? Um, what else? Who I got? I already said I got DJ. All right, so tonight we're going to talk about giving. Can you tell I'm not in my office? Or if I did, this was my office, this would be a significant, uh, redo of my office, and it is not. Um, so the gift of giving, what are we going to talk about tonight? Hmm, I wonder. Uh, so there's Christmas trees behind me. Why are there Christmas trees behind me? Well, because I'm going to be giving them away. So over here we've got a little white one, and that's going to be— it's, it's got a, it's got a title. They have themes. They're going to a museum for, uh, here, here in— where are we? Connecticut. There is a, uh, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum. It's in Hartford, Connecticut., and every year they do a festival of trees. And what they do is they use it as a fundraiser. They're raising funds for the museum. And what happens is you go and there's all these different trees there, and there's all of these different themes. And while you're walking through, it's the first time you can kind of buy stuff that's in the museum. So I have two trees here that are going to go in the museum. On Monday or Tuesday, and I believe the Festival of Trees starts on Wednesday, and people can walk around and they can buy them. So the reason we're talking about the gift of giving is because the holidays are hard for a lot of people. Can you ask the boy to be quiet? Sorry, um, I don't know if you all just heard that, but my son is upstairs playing video games and he's being very loud, and my husband's over there and he can text him to be quieter. So, uh, the gift of giving. So I've been talking to a lot of people, and there are definitely some folks that are stressed. And, um, one of the things we talk about is when you are stressed, what's a way to get out of there? When you feel overwhelmed, like there's too much stuff to do, how do you get out of that feeling of overwhelm? And it's actually kind of counterintuitive. However, doing something for someone else versus something that's on your to-do list can actually help relieve you. So, um, this past week I decided I was going to do the trees, and mainly because the Festival of Trees is something that I've gone to for over 20 years now, maybe, um, probably, because yeah, since 1999 I think was the first time I went to the Festival of Trees. And a friend of mine always invites me, and we always make a day of it. We go out to lunch and we go look at the trees and discuss. And he's actually the one who gave me the titles for the trees. Oh yes, I don't think I told you the titles yet. So, uh, the festival trees, they all have different titles, and they're always like, oh, be creative. So I called my friend who's much more creative than me, you know, that whole know your wheelhouse and what you know, um, and what you're good at. And then you know, let other people who are good at other things. So he came up with— instead of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, we came up with gold, francs, and cents, and more. And we're not really sure what the more is, but it was the closest we could get to gold, frankincense, and myrrh. So with the magic of changing things. We're gonna go to— I want to show you the gold frankincense and more. So if I go there— it worked! So the way we've decorated this is that there are pictures of hot dogs, AKA franks, and then we've got the scents, and we've got a bunch of scents, um, and so we've got all sorts of different hot dogs on here. And of course we have the gold, and we've got gold sparkly balls. And we have, um, where's barbecue when you need them to make an inappropriate comment? So all sorts of little hot dogs everywhere. I don't know if like calling them franks is really a thing that doesn't happen elsewhere, or if that's a New England thing. I'm not sure. We got little gold folly on the end. It's actually kind of funny because I don't know if you guys can see it, but when I look at the ball, I can see a reflection of me. So, and there's the francs and cents. So that is one of our, uh, trees that we're donating. Then there is the cartridge in a pear tree. And this is really weird because I moved this one way and it goes the other way, so I don't know if you all can tell. And no, I don't know what caliber cartridges these are. I just know they're cartridges. And we've got little pears, and we did put the cartridge in there anyway. And this is my, um, this is my veteran tree. So we've got the veteran hotline and we've got little tags in here that say thank you for your service and oops and bows and pears and all of my favorite veteran helplines. I didn't— I— this was a new one that I found actually. National Veterans Foundation. And who else did I find that was newer? Um, oh, I know what it was. Uh, Vet Center was also a newer one. And then there's Veteran Training. So similar to Walk the Talk America, you could just go on there and, um, just do online stuff. And that's kind of it. So there's my veteran uh, whatever that's called, that thing. Oh wait, I'm on the wrong camera. How did I get switched back? My bad. I'm trying to show you guys the thing and you guys are looking at the other stuff. I'm sure that wasn't too confusing, but anyway, all right, so yeah, so there we have it. Thank you for your service, little red, white, and blue. We've got our little bows, um, all of that. I, I will say that my favorite part was probably the star that I made out of cartridges because it's a cartridge in a pear tree. All right, now we'll go back to the regular one and I'll go back to paying attention to you guys. And yeah, now you've gotten the full tour of my— oh, there's the dog, everything else. All right, so, um, all right, DJ, it is that time. I've been talking, you've been paying attention. So, uh, give the roll call, sir, if you'd be so kind.

I'd be happy to. Mike White is out there, so is Paul Lathrop. Sorry, Fan 93, Vanessa Kitty. We got Gun Websites out there, and last in the room was Tara Smith's Kitchen. That's your roll call.

All right, sounds good. Um, thank you everybody for popping in. Yeah, remind me to do that also. Thankfulness, that's also a wonderful thing to, uh, work on. Um, oh, and Mark Mark, you just missed roll call, so we have to call you out all by yourself. Hi, Mark. Um, so yeah, well, you know, DJ does get told that a lot. We don't want to let it go to his head or anything, but you know, on another show that's happening, oh, in about an hour on, uh, Hillbilly's site, they say he has the voice of God. So yeah, there is a reason why we call him DJ after all, right? All right, um Let's see, uh, what's a friend tree? I don't know. Oh, sorry, I'm reading the things again. I shouldn't be touching things because DJ as well, uh, you need to have a friend tree. I don't know what that is, so you'll have to tell us more things. Um, yes, and Ron Wayne is out there as well. Hi, Ron Wayne. Um, so where are we? Giving. Why do we have to give? All right, we don't have to give. However, like I was saying about 5 minutes ago before I started showing you the trees, we will find ourselves in less overwhelm by doing something for someone else. And when you're in overwhelm— oops, sorry, I'm on a little tiny table, um, so sorry for the Blair Witchiness— when we're in overwhelm, the challenge is finding the ability to be resourceful enough to know that we want to do something else for someone else. And it's a challenge. And so that's why I'm here tonight, is to remind you that there is a way to get out of there. Now, here's the other part. What is the whole purpose of y'all coming in here? Well, because each one reach one. I can't reach everyone that you know. However, since you are here, I get to meet you. I get to reach you. So now when you see someone who is in overwhelm and you can say, well, what have you done for someone else lately? And generally when we're in overwhelm, we're just like, oh, there's a list of 5 million things I have to get done. And there's this and this and this and this and this. And I got to get this done. I got to get that done. And it goes on and on and on. And our brain is in overwhelm. And then you break our pattern. By saying, what have you done for anyone else lately? And if I just told you I've got so much crap to do and you're gonna ask me when I did something for someone else, one, I might snap at you if I'm in a bad place, so be prepared. Um, two, it breaks my pattern of paying attention to all the crap that I feel like I'm overwhelmed by. So even if I do snap at you Because this is the thing, helping friends is not always comfy and nice and clean, um, but it will break the pattern that I'm in. And even if I do snap, like, what are you talking about? I've got the 5,000 things to do, you want me to do something for someone else? It's like, it can be simple. It can be a $5 cup of coffee to the stranger behind you at Dunkin' Donuts. Because now Starbucks used to be called Five Bucks, but as far as I can tell, Dunkin' is also Five Bucks. So barbecue. Oh, sorry. I'm sorry, man. You were— you missed some beautiful opportunities for you to be obnoxious earlier. So that's what you get for being late. You missed some great commentary that you could have had, but oh well. All right. So, all right. So I'm trying to catch up and pay attention. So Mike says everyone mail Brooke ornaments for a friend tree. Okay, so if everyone mails me ornaments, does that mean I have to go get another tree, or do I just put them outside on my trees outside? Um, uh, so did I miss— all right, DJ, I was not paying attention to the chat. Um, did Mike say anything else about what the friend tree was?

I think that might have been the clue right there, was that we needed to send ornaments to you so that you had something that was decorated by your friends. But I'm not sure, maybe Michael can fill us in on that a little bit. And I wanted to make sure that you knew that Chris from the 740 was also out in the crowd tonight.

Oh, very cool. Yeah, I had not seen that yet. Um, Guns and Barbecue, of course, uh, caught my eye just because, see, over here, Guns and Barbecue, we we have a tree that has a theme and it's called Franks and Scents versus frankincense. And it's got hot dogs and it's got pennies in it. And so it's Franks and Scents and there's got other things over there. So, all right, so anyway, tell me, DJ, what do you think about what we were just talking about? Because I know that you do the same thing and pattern interrupts. And what does it feel like to be helping someone when you're in overwhelm? Yeah.

It actually gives me the opportunity on occasion to go into, I call it commonly Boy Scout mode. And it's kind of, it's a Zen kind of thing where, because I'm helping somebody else out, I get to toss my stuff to the side. And toss is the word choice there. Leave it to barbecue to say something about that one too, right? And that is that I'm so far removed from it because I removed myself from those things that are taking my attention away from others. I also want to make sure that what attention I can give is not taken away from by the things that I need to do or I need to get around to. I still try to do the things that I need to do. And you've reminded us in the past of making sure that we do that, take care of ourselves as much as we can first, because if we're no good because we're so distracted, we can't be of help to others. So, I guess that's kind of my take on that. The holidays also bring around the opportunity for me to do gifting and another opportunity for barbecue to throw stones, right? I'm notorious about not getting stuff out on time, but, and I'd like to say just that my heart's in it and please be patient, but there are some who wait far too long. And I guess that, that's kind of an overwhelm for me in that there are so many people that I would like to send things out to. And so I can tend to lean on phone messages and the like. So somewhere between, betwixt and between, that's how I get it done. That's what I got. Oops.

I unmuted the wrong mic. My bad. You're all right. All right, so I forgot, this is my favorite, uh, on this tree, this, this particular one, "Never fight alone." This is on my, um, on the veteran tree because I think this is one of the things I was talking about recently is just that we, we, whether we're veterans or not, will forget that we have other people that can help us out. So we will say that the overwhelm thing, I still think the best possible thing is to do something for someone else, because like DJ just said, you have that opportunity to put your stuff on hold. You get to do something for someone else, and it usually makes us feel much better to do something for someone else. Uh, when I was in Mothers of Preschoolers, when my children were itty-bitty, I said we should start a club where the moms go to someone else's house and clean their house. And why is that? Because when I'm here in my own home and I pick something up, I'm like, huh, I have to make so many decisions. Where does this go? What am I going to do with it? Do I love it? Does it need to find a new home? Do I have to get rid of it? What am I doing with it? But if I'm at your house and I'm cleaning your house, guess what I do with it? I put it in a neat little pile, and that's as much as I gotta do. Because when we're doing it with other people, for other people, we can get out of our own way so much faster. All right. Oh my goodness, I feel so special. Hi, Diesel. How are you, sir? It is nice to have you here. And why you made me go Southern, I have no idea. Me because I haven't seen you in a while. Um, Diesel is my USCCA guy. Uh, he helps me with that sort of stuff. Um, wow, there's a whole other side chat going on over here. I need to look away because otherwise I'm going to be talking about hot dog sandwiches and calzones also being a sandwich because it's a pizza sandwich. Um, but that is— I'm just going to throw that one up there because that's what Vanessa Kitty said is a pizza a sandwich, or a calzone, also a sandwich. So, ah, and then Tara, who is our chef, of course: pizza is a pie, calzone is a sandwich made from a pie. Which I certainly wouldn't have thought about that. Um, all right, so where I'm just going down the rabbit hole today because we can— helping a G4 and his dad sight in their muzzleloaders. Love teaching stuff I'm good at. 'Yes, ooh, that right there.' Tara, for example. Mike, for example. Everyone here has something. Everyone here has something they're good at. Uh, Guns and Barbecue, the blind guy who does photography, is really good at that. DJ is awesome at DJing. Um, so we all have something we're really, really good at, and often we take for granted the stuff that we are good at to actually do for others. Because we do it and then someone pats us on our head and says, good job. We're like, yeah, no big thing, because it's nothing to us. Oh, Mario, my buddy! See, now I gotta go through that tree over here. Over here, um, for real, Mr. Mario. Wait, I'm gonna try to do this not non-handcam. This is probably gonna be worse. However, over here behind me, Mario, this little tree here, this is my veteran tree that I'm donating to our museum. It's called Cartridges in a Pear Tree. And up there you can kind of see the cartridges. So I'm trying to— I should stop clicking things. I really should leave that to DJ because DJ is much better at these things than I am because he doesn't get his— oh, look, squirrel. So anyway, Mike White, earlier in this chat here, one of the things that I did C was, we hope that everyone had a good Thanksgiving dinner. Now, I don't know for sure, but I think I had one of the best. There it is. There's my white. See, this is why, why, uh, Mario, Mario, there. Sorry. Hi, DJ. I know you're the one pushing the buttons. Okay, try that again. So, good Turkey Day. Yes, I hope you all had a good Turkey Day. I hope you are enjoying the leftovers. We had 20 pounds of turkey, 8 people, and we still have leftovers. We gave away as much as we could. We definitely had fun. It was relatively relaxing because 8 is really small. Um, it's usually at least 10, and you know, it's just barely our family plus the in-laws and the outlaws. So, but it was good. It was good food, good fun, relaxing, all those things. We reinstated some traditions in our house. We have food, dinner, and then you must run around the house. There's a race around the house, and then we can have dessert. And so we did that. So anyway, DJ, help me out, man. I'm dying because I keep getting sucked into the chat. Is there anything I should actually pay attention to?

Um, for now, I think we're caught up with the text chat. You said hello to everyone, and Yeah, I'm ready to wrap. It's been a great Saturday night. I'm glad that everybody came along for the ride. Looking forward to next week's iteration as well. Remember, with the holidays coming up and we've been reminded of them just 2 days ago, slow down, take some time for yourself now, get ready for the race that is towards the new year and 2024. It will go by much more quickly than some of us would like. So get the book filled now. And then that's what I got. Be safe, have fun, take care of your crew, and rock.

All right, so wait, now, now, now I gotta go into what Tara said though, right? There are times when people are not interested in help, like teaching your kids, but they seem to come back later and ask for it, so it's time to— right? And this is where it's so much easier to just help a random stranger than it is to, uh, help your family, because help is not necessarily helping a family member or even a friend. Uh, and like Mario here, I just want you to know that my veteran tree was inspired by you because you put up that video on your YouTube site not that long ago, last week I think it was. And so I thought it was important to get that tree out there because it's got a bunch of, um, crisis helplines and that sort of stuff in there. And what else did I just see? Oh, I want to know what taquitos mean. Turkey taquitos. Are those those little tiny, um, deep fried thingies? So, all right, anyway, see, I'm just gonna go like all squishy. So great words to live by for sure. Thank you, Ron Wayne, and thank you for commenting on how pretty the background is. I saw that comment, I just didn't say anything at that moment in time. All right, my friends, I appreciate you. Thank you for coming, and I am glad we got to do something different with not just being in my office all the time. Give what you can when you can if you can. Don't stress yourself out more by trying to give more than you can. But if you're in overwhelm or you know someone is overwhelmed, see if there's something that they can do for someone else. Just to break the pattern of feeling overwhelmed, because the gratitude of giving is rather huge. And with that, I will say adieu, and perhaps I will see some of you later on Hillbilly's channel. But right now I gotta go pick up my kid. So good night everybody, see you next Saturday. And yes, we will continue some kind of holiday theme through December. Oh yes. And because She Fires was talking last Sunday on her fireside chat, which we're in front of a fire— fake fire, but you know, um, giveaways for the month of December. I think that's a great idea. They might not be very exciting, but it'll be something. So that is the plan for December. I'm gonna copy her and, uh, we'll see