Suicide Prevention Saturday - The Sun

All right, so I just have to say one more time. Thanks DM Foss for putting that together for me, especially this part, because I don't realize how much I do this, but I do this because I'm like, oh look, it's live, it actually works. I get all excited even after all the time of doing this. So anyway, everybody, welcome to Suicide Prevention Saturday. It is— hello, M. Gabriel. Um, yeah, poor DJ, he won't have a job to do if I say hi to people as they pop on, but it's like, oh look, squirrel. All right, so hi everyone, welcome to Suicide Prevention Saturday. It is Saturday night, 9:01 PM Eastern. Um, wow, we got a lot of folks popping in and saying hi. So, um, I know people keep telling me they're going to tell me what the hand pink waving is, but I'm just going to go like this because I just don't even know. And, um, hi Scott and Dean, uh, get to see you live and in person shortly. And, uh, oh, Mike Ballinger, um, thank you so much for helping out today. I'm just going to talk about Mike here for a real quick— all right, Suicide Prevention Saturday. Why? Because every 2 out of 3 gun deaths you hear about from the CDC are suicides. If we're going to help save lives, uh, we have to talk about mental health. So, but right now I want to talk about Mike because, uh, one of the things we want to talk about is sunny-ness in your world. And, um, how important— I don't know, I want to talk about Mike because it's like how important it is to give and help others. So, um, this wasn't the full topic, but because he popped on, I just want to say thank you for helping my son this morning. He— my son is completing his Eagle Scout project tomorrow. They are building stuff. He is working on creating an animal shelter. There's an animal shelter near us in Harwington and it's called Stony Brook Farm, and they save horses and cows and pigs and emus and chickens and dogs and cats and pretty much anything you can think of they will take in and help find a home for. And so today, this morning, Mike and a couple of the other guys got together at the lumber mill to go grab all of the, uh, pieces and parts that they're going to rebuild this horse shed. So, um, a couple weeks ago my son and a bunch of Boy Scouts tore it all down, and then tomorrow they're going to work on building it up. And without Mike's help, we wouldn't be able to do that as easily because he was helping us move all the wood from the lumber yard to the barn.

So that's why I'm like, oh, let me talk about that, because I don't know how many of y'all read the description Uh, Facebook up there, YouTube down there, you know.

Um, one of the challenges with power streaming or streaming multiple places, I'm like, hmm, where am I? So, sun, sun, uh, don't let the— don't let the sun go down on your anger, uh, vitamin D and sunny summer days is actually our conversation topic for today. And I think talking about Mike and his ability to give to the the Boy Scouts because he's been doing that for a really long time. Uh, his son aged out last year, I think, or the year before. I'm— I don't believe in linear time because I can't keep track of it. So anyway, um, Mike has just been really helpful. And here's the thing, Mike may not know it, but I'm gonna say it online anyway, is like, he is the sun as far as a bright part of our lives because he's willing to give of his time And I don't know about you guys, but I know when I volunteer to do stuff for others, it makes me happy. And the idea that we give to give is also something that makes me happy. So now we're gonna go back to the whole sun thing, because by the way, that was all DJ. Um, DJ and I were talking sometime this week and he's like, sun, sunny summer days, let's talk about that. So let's talk about giving without receiving. The sun gives us light, right? What else does it give us? It gives us vitamin D. And sadly, oh my goodness, sadly, we are not outside enough to get our vitamin D from the sun. And guess what vitamin D is super incredibly important for? Your mental health. Depression specifically. Uh, after many clinical studies, it has been shown that Vitamin D deficiency can absolutely lead to depression and anxiety. Um, so let's just go there. So sun, the warm sun on your face, think about how that makes you feel. You've been inside all day and you go outside and the sun just warms your face ever so gently. Doesn't that put a smile on your face just thinking about that? So not only does it warm your face gently, you you get some vitamin D out of that. What does that do? Oh, well, that helps elevate your energy and your feelings in general. And then the don't let the sun go down on your anger is also such a good proverb. It's something I believe it's in the Bible as well. It's used across many, many cultures because anger is the only emotion that gives you physical pain and causes physical problems in your body. Anger. So if you are angry, and you have rights to be angry— I'm not saying you can go through life and not get angry, because goodness knows there's a coffee table my dad used to have that I find very infuriating because, you know, I think it tried to break my toes— but anger is something that we all experience. But the most important thing we can do is let go of it. Do not hold on to that stuff. It will kill you, literally. So, um, um, um, um, DJ, there's so much stuff going on over there. Do you want to do a quick roll call so I can take a moment?

I'd be happy to do that.

Back together here.

So M Gabriel was in earlier this evening. Crabby Turtle is out there right now. So is Scott Johanna. You mentioned him, the Facebook side. Also on the Facebook side, Dean Sidden is out there. So is Michael Ballinger. Crabby Turtle saying hello, another East Coaster for you there. Uh, Upper Midwest got 2 live Moo, we're bumping around the country, aren't we? And scrolling down a little bit further, as I have to catch myself too, uh, Linda— I'm not sure how to pronounce your last name on the Facebook site, uh, but she says we'll call her Fluffernutter because I had a little dip in signal there for Brooke. So, uh, Linda's out there saying thank you, Brooke, and to your son and to Michael Chris. Uh, Tara Smith's Kitchen is out there as well. And she has this to say. She says, hello, I did a toy run for charity today, a poker run, uh, rode to 5 stops, got 1 card each stop, best card— best hand, pardon me— wins. About 40 miles, had a busted strut, needed a, uh, king, got a— got 3 lots, needed a king, I guess, to complete her hand there, uh, and got a 3 instead. Lots of editing to do on that video. Since Brooke is not back with us right away Uh, well, she's coming in the back room apparently.

Hey, how are you guys?

Doing all right, doing all right.

I don't know, I don't know how to make this work.

Oh, DJ, why can't I hear you? I'm so sorry. Hold on, let me see if I can get the camera to at least turn around or something.

There's that bunny again that we see when—

yeah, I see that you're talking every once in a while. It's so I can hear you. Hold on. All right, so I'm gonna sign back off and see if I can sign back on. I just want to let you all know that for whatever reason, as DJ was saying to all of you guys, it just sort of decided it was going to, um, reboot my computer.

So this is really stinky, but every once in a while it'll have to dip. Brooke, can I continue to hear my voice?

I can't hear you.

I'm going to talk to Brooke at the back chat.

I'm going to try to get out and get back on and see if I can go. So DJ, you keep everyone entertained. I'll get to watch the replay, find out what you were saying, and I will be back in just a second when my Windows pops back up.

Right on. So when we were— Brooke was beginning to talk about the power of the sun, uh, touched on a few instances of how that's important. Yeah, I can think of no other way to get a super free serotonin boost. Serotonin is something that'll help you— well, it's happy. A boost in serotonin will make your day that much better, that much brighter, that much lighter. And speaking of brighter and lighter, that's something that the sun does 2 times over and relatively well. I myself am not an in-the-sunshine person, and if anybody tries to riff on Katrina and the waves, I'll be incredibly unhappy. Chat, let me know what you think. Having been a kind of a midnight dweller, the overnight is my place to be. It's the thing that I enjoy most. I find myself sans sun for days sometimes, uh, in a row without it just appearing through my sun— through my— the sun appearing through my window. Brooke, you got me yet? No, Brooke doesn't have— Brooke's not back quite yet. So back to the sun. For those of us who like to deal in the darker hours of the day, it's something that is an incredibly important thing to catch once in a while. I myself have had it recommended that I use sun spectrum light bulbs.

I still can't hear you.

If y'all didn't know that that was a thing, um, sun spectrum light bulbs are not a reasonable— they're a reasonable substitute, but not all that reasonable when it comes to the actual power that you can get from, from the thing that hangs in the sky. Brooke, you got me back yet? Brooke does not have me back yet. Um, Moo, thank you for that reference. Lack of sunshine is the reason Seattle has a high number of depressed, says Dean. Oh. And that's something that Seattle is well known for.

All right, I give up. I don't give up. I mean, obviously I'm still trying, uh, I just don't know why I can't hear, um, DJ, which is very frustrating.

So here's the deal. It is 9:10.

I will walk my sorry little butt down to my office because my other computer won't work. So this is going to be like DJ's show today, um, because, you know, you all can hear him hopefully even if you can't hear me.

So I'm gonna go again, and there she goes.

I don't know how long the walk is between, uh, where she is now and the office where we usually see Brooke. And Moo and Dean, yeah, we're, uh, Moo's got this. Uh, thanks for the instructions, fellas. That would be a great way to communicate to her. I did drop her a message in the back chat. We'll see how long it takes for her to run down to the other spot. Um, thank you Also, Dean, or Dean and Michael, got a triumvirate of folks trying to help us out there. So back to the sun. Getting enough sun, it can have a big impact on your mood, and if it has an impact on your mood, it's going to have an impact on your overall mental health and well-being, one would guess, right? As I was saying, I'm not a person who finds that a sunny day will lift my mood so much. But, you know, culturally we associate sunshine with happiness too. I mean, Brooke, in the, uh, not long after the intro stopped playing, showed you that she likes to do the hands out, you know, splayed as if rays of sun. A smile is also something. So projecting from that smile that she showed into the radiant beams, um, of her jazz hands, uh, flowing kind of thing, it is a bright— and what do we refer to it as sometimes? A sunny disposition. So the awareness of things like seasonal affective disorder, that's actually one of the things that impacted the suggestion that I use sun spectrum light bulbs. Seasonal affective is one of those things where some people will call it like, well, that's fake, that's a fake condition, it's just, you know, something else in your life that's going on. But if you, if you're a person who depends on people to point out things to you that might not be related specifically to a medical necessity, then you run across a lot of ideas, some of which are not all that great. The sun is a pretty good idea. Um, one of the things that I— she was in and out again.

So I swear to God, I'm here this time and I can hear you.

All right then. So to catch you up, I started to ramble and babble, babble, babble about the sun, about seasonal affective disorder, about light spectrum, light bulbs, and all of those other things. But to catch you up, because I'm not sure whom you heard about or didn't, we're going to start all over with that roll call. So in the room first tonight on the YouTube side was M Gabriel, followed by the Crabby Turtle. Over there on the Facebook side, got Scott, Johanna, got Dean, Sid, Michael Bellinger is out there as well. 2 Live Moo dropped into the room not long after those folks did on the Facebook side. Scrolling down a little bit further, we see that, uh, Linda is out there. Uh, you said Fluffernutter, Flufferbutt, I can't remember exactly what it was.

So Linda is our mail lady. She's been our mail lady for a long time. Um, I never say her last name either. I just call her Fluffernutter because that's what I see when I look at her last name.

And, uh, Tara Smith— Tara Smith's Kitchen, that is— uh, did a charity poker toy run today. That was kind of cool. She talks a little bit about that out there. Chris from the 740 is also in the room. Glad to see him here. Ohio in in the house. Paul Lathrop has joined on the YouTube side. I'm scrolling, scrolling down towards the end here to see any— I don't see any new additions. If I did miss somebody, my apologies. I'll go back and parse through that.

Brooke, all right, you're back.

I am back.

Honest goodness, and this—

I couldn't believe it. It's like I'm talking to you guys, then my screen just went blue, and it's like, oh, we're gonna reboot now, and it's doing updates, and it says this will take a while. I'm like, are you kidding me right now?

So here we are.

And there you are. And what you did, and I pointed this out where you're gone, that's the, that's another halftime that you've done the radiant sunbeams. I talked about how your smile and then your jazz hands come out. Since I asked, yeah, that, that's now the 4th and a half iteration since I asked you that question. So it is something that you do a lot, and it is an indicator of ace. We call people who are smiling and bubbly, they have a sunny disposition. And that's the kind of thing we see exhibited there. So I have caught you up. All right, I'm gonna have some stuff out there, uh, comments to bring up later on, but what have you got to say right now?

All right, well, so since we're talking about charities, my son's doing the animal shelter, uh, Tara did the toy drive, uh, Paul actually just did a drive-by, um, with his motorcycle. Let me explain that because he wasn't shooting anyone. It wasn't that kind of drive-by. There was a 2-year-old or 4-year-old who loves motorcycles, and their mom or dad put up a thing saying, hey, we've got this 2-year-old who loves these, could y'all drive by my house? And she gave out her address on the internet, which, you know, we'll talk about the safety stuff, but not right now. So Paul got to do something fun that was a charitable thing to make somebody else's day. So back to the sunny stuff, starting with Mike, Tara, Paul, myself, my son, my son, not the just the S-O-N, but the S-U-N, and vitamin D. These, okay, so, so yes, Paul helped me out, the 2-year-old. And so doing stuff for others to me is the sun for most of us in that life is hard. Let's, life is, life is hard.

It's ugly.

It can be beautiful. But it's hard. And so I find that that opportunity to give to others, like Mike, like all of us do at some point in time— like, I get up on here, people say thank you for doing this, and it's like, I will never know who I affect, who I help, but I will get up here every Saturday in hopes that I will help one person. And I've been blessed enough to have one or two people call me and let me know that I did make a difference.

So what else about the sun?

We talked about the sunny days, the warmth of your face, vitamin D. And seriously, Americans in general are deficient on vitamin D. So if you haven't had your vitamin D checked— I'm not a doctor, I'm not offering medical advice— but get your vitamin D checked, or just start taking vitamin D, um, from the— that you can get in the grocery store and see if it makes a difference after doing it for a month or so. So what else did I have? Oh, don't let the sun go down on your anger if you're mad. SAD is no joke. I have a friend that moved to the tropics and had her SAD greatly reduced.

S-A-D, seasonal affective disorder. That's one of the things I was talking to you while you were away.

Yeah, what did I miss?

And you said Americans seem to be— and the comment you were making was that we are vitamin D deficient. Well, get down to the tropics on more than a vacation and that might be corrected.

Yeah, absolutely. Well, and we used to be— we have been— we haven't— we've been an industrial, uh, culture for such a very short amount of time. All of us used to have to be outside. All of us used to walk to wherever we're going or ride a horse wherever we're going, but we were outside so much more than we currently are. And it's only been about 100 years now where we've been indoors And, and Tony Robbins calls it our box, um, our box world. I look at a box, aka the TV. I go to work in front of a box, aka the computer. I drove home in a box, aka my car. So when do I have time to get the sun and the fresh air and that sort of thing? So part of it is just looking at our lifestyles in general. So yes, uh, nationally we are deficient in vitamin D. And my doctor actually said how it's kind of ridiculous because if you ask your doctor for a vitamin D test, the insurance doesn't pay for it unless you've already been shown to have a vitamin D deficiency, but they won't pay for the first test to get you to be known that you had that vitamin D deficiency. So I'm not going to go on a rant about healthcare, but understand if your doctor hasn't already given you one, you might want to look into that. So, all right, anger, super important. Let it go. Let that stuff go. I did see Dean say something about sunshine. That's the— where the heck is it?

Oh my goodness. Where?

Anyway, DJ, do you know what? You are my sunshine.

This one here.

So I get to see Dean the end of the month. I will be away on the 30th.

Um, I'll be—

or no, I will be here online the 30th, but that'll be down North Carolina. So, You Are My Sunshine was Libby's favorite song to sing to Christopher as a baby. So Libby is my grandma, my dad's mom, and there's a little museum holding a little thing about her this— they're having an event. But anyway, so You Are My Sunshine, and it is a fun song. And DJ, I won't sing to them, but do you want to sing to them? No, I'm just kidding. I won't put you on the spot like that.

Well, if I was going to do that one, I would have a little bit— well, that one I would have hard— a hard time with the range. I would also have a hard time with the range on the first Sun song that's related that occurred to me. Wow, got all that out. And that is Don't Let This— that Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me, right? So yeah, and I'm not like a huge Elton John fan, um, or anything like that, but you know, Elton wrote that— was it '70? Wow, that's a long time ago, 50 years ago or so.

I don't know, I heard it when I heard, uh, like I was watching some vampire movie. I forgot what it was called.

So yeah, right on.

We are able to pick up, uh, tunes and tools to help us along all over the place.

And that's my other sunny part is like, um, just music in general. Uh, music helps you go do, do, do, do, do a little bopping, you know, or, you know, just nodding your head. It's like, uh, there's— oh, there's some crazy movie where the guys are driving along and they're just like whacking their head sideways. I can't think of the name of this movie.

Night at the Roxbury, I do believe. Yeah, offshoot from Saturday Night Live.

Yeah, yeah, it's like all I can think of is this, and I'm just like, okay, but it makes you smile, right? So, um, a sunny disposition, happiness, uh, and that's kind of it. So, Sue's Everyone's Saturday. Thank you to all the new people who are here. Um, I know, uh, I've been popping around on other people's channels and y'all follow me back here, so I just want to say thank you for that.

And, um, and Gabriel has a— oh, after you take that, I got another comment for you. Go ahead.

Well, no, I was gonna say is that, um, do you talk about her— his grandmother being very Victorian when gardening? Long gloves, hats to keep the sun off her skin. And as much as yes, you're not gonna get the sun on your skin, but you're still outdoors gardening, so that's still good. So what was the, uh, sorry, what was the question, DJ?

And Gabriel from the YouTube side asks, have you ever seen the movie Sunshine?

I want to say that I have, but I don't remember it, if that makes sense. It's like it sounds familiar. As long as it's not a horror movie, I might have seen it. So, um, it's— I don't know. And, um, so, oh 2 Live Moo gave me my 4th thumbs up. Oh yeah, I could talk today. Um, so yeah, those of you on YouTube, go ahead, give me a thumbs up. Those of you on Facebook, go ahead, give me a like.

Um, I gotta get this on the screen for you. Riding Shotgun with Charlie is popping in at the last minute and he says, I think I'll go for a walk outside now, the summer sun's calling my name by the Brady Kids. I won't sing that to you, but you heard me beat the melody on the very last of it. So thank you very much for that, Charlie, harkening back to 1969.

Charlie's another one of my little sunny people that I know, so there's that as well, because Charlie pretty much is always has a smile on his face, is generally laughing most of the time. Uh, he is definitely a very sunny kind of person to be around. So I started with Tara, um, Tara Smith's Kitchen. She was— I commented on one of her videos. So if y'all haven't been over at Tara Smith's Kitchen, I just was saying how like, ooh, that connection with food, like taking your lettuce and your tomatoes and chopping them up yourself versus pouring them out of a can. It's little things. And all of us have our different sunny moments. So my goal for tonight's Suicide Prevention Saturday is think about sunny stuff in your life. What gives you joy? What gives you happiness? What lifts your spirits? Um, that's kind of what I got.

All right, well, I got this coming to your screen from Dean on the Facebook side. Here Comes the Sun. And we can— and that's another thing, you know, the sun, sometimes that which will make us happy is unreliable. We don't get a birthday cake every day. We don't get a greeting card in the mail every day. We don't get a phone call from our very best friend who we haven't heard from in a very long time every day. But yep, We get the sun every day. It does come out, um, like Little Orphan Annie sings, it'll come out tomorrow. It does come out every day. So if you're at a point in your life where that seasonal affective disorder has got you down, you got your light bulbs in, you're watching your— you're listening to your happy music, you're watching your comedies one after the other, and the corners of your mouth still aren't lifting, sun's on its way, you know, another day. I mean, that seems really cheesy. That is really kind of a trite thing and something that doesn't give a lot of effect to a lot of folks sometimes. But if you start to accumulate those things which the sun provides and add them to your toolkit, there's another way that you can help beat back the sadness and the darkness sometimes. Give it a shot.

All right, sounds good to me.

I wanted to let you know that one other person whom I have not mentioned, I need to mention before we leave, and that is Gun Metal Guy USA on the YouTube side. Everybody else, thanks for being around. Uh, for my half of the screen right now, Brooke, be safe, have fun. And take care of your crew. And as always, rawr! I'm out.

As only DJ can say. So, all right everybody, um, sorry for the bumpy intro beginning and cutting in and out, but here we got to the end of this. Uh, thanks everybody for popping on. Oh yeah, nope, see, now we got, um, well, To Live and Moo and Paul I think said this almost at the same time. So, uh, but yeah, there are actually tons of songs. And here's the thing, like I said, music makes you move. Movement can make you happy. And remember that don't let the sun go down on your anger? Movement can also help you move through anger more. That's why we like punching things sometimes. Try not to break things. We actually have a punching bag here in our house, um, so even my punching bag can make me happy sometimes. Getting rid of the anger can be fun. So with that, I just want to say good night to everybody. And I'm sorry, I did just see this that DJ put in the back office there. So yeah, Tara, technical difficulties. Paul was talking about this. G-Webs was talking about this. The challenge with live sometimes is it doesn't go according to plan. So that's why having a handy-dandy sunny moment or thought in your head will definitely be helpful for your toolbox, which DJ and I have started talking about, making sure we have toolbox stuff for y'all tonight. All right, so I'm out of here. It is 9:30-ish almost. Uh, I know Hillbilly— Hillbilly Nation's gonna be on shortly. And DJ, I don't know, I am going to ask you one last thing though. Can you drop the donation link to my son's Eagle Scout project?

As if, as if we are joined at the hip, Siamese style, or we are on the same wavelength. I have done that, folks out there in the text chat. There's a link for Brooke's— I hope that it does appear. I'm going to drop it a second time, but, uh, the link that's out there should be 2 times out there is for— that's a GiveButter address. That's for Brooke's son's Eagle Scout project, right?

Um, we're hoping—

there it is.

Well, yeah. No, that's his Facebook. Oh, so yes, so that's who we're trying to give to. Uh, there is a GiveButter account, uh, for them. So yeah, the Facebook account is so you can go see the animal rescue that he's working at. Uh, we currently have raised around $700. Our goal is $3,000. Uh, we have already spent the money that's in there for, uh, the pro— what we have put together so far. We're not done with the project yet, and we're really hoping to have more than we spend so that we can actually give them a donation as well. So that's what the money is going for if y'all decide to actually give to there. If you go to my Facebook side, which is the only place I know where to pin it, but because I have smart people around me, y'all can— I will put it in my YouTube side too because I know most of you are over on there. Um, so you could give to the GiveButter account. We've got that. All right, now that I'm done with that and the thunder is rolling in, I'm gonna get soaking wet, which is why I was trying to stay in my house this afternoon.

I will happily see y'all later.

Um, Hillbilly— Hillbilly Nation, is that what it is, DJ?

The channel is Hillbilly Up. Anybody who is part of that very loose assemblage is part of the Hillbilly Nation, so to speak. And, uh, yeah, that's back— that's on later on this evening. Go ahead and check it out.

All right, that's 10 o'clock. All right, I'm gonna really go.

Y'all have a good night.

Thanks for helping, DJ, and I'll see you all next Saturday.