What makes you smile? How do you make other people smile? Where do we find our joy?

Oh, I got DJ up.

Hi DJ, let me fix that. I mean, now that we can start the evening with DJ, that's totally acceptable. Just not what I was expecting. So there's that. All right. Hi everyone. It is Two Star Friends Saturday. It is also Memorial Day weekend. So those of you who are not out partying and actually here live, gee, thanks so much. Oh, so much more exciting and special because, you know, it is a a holiday weekend and you are here. For those of you watching the replay, I still appreciate the fact you're watching the replay regardless of when you get to. Yes, DJ is our 2A roadie. For those of you who've never been here before, DJ Play Nice is my assistant here and he helps me, he helps Barbecue. I don't even know his whole list of shows that he goes and helps. So, so yeah. Oh, and Highwoods. Since I grabbed your thing first. All right, so where are we? We are at Suicide Prevention Saturday. Why? Because as gun owners, we need to talk about suicide because 2 out of every 3 gun deaths that everybody talks about, the CDC especially, are actually suicides. So if we're looking to save lives, we totally need to talk about suicide prevention and mental health. Oh, and guess what? There's that little handy thing where it's like if we actually focus on the things that help prevent suicide, When they look at violence prevention, hmm, a lot of the same things. So we can save lives by helping one another is basically the short version of this. So tonight I'm actually reading my notes. What makes you smile? How do you make other people smile? And where do we find our joy? We were in a training and we're talking about how we, the humans in this world, are always looking to be enough. And so very often, none of us feel as though we are enough. No matter what we do, there's always more. No matter how much we accomplish, there's always more. That's why perfection is the lowest standard, because as soon as you get to something to be just perfect, you find there's another level that you can go to. So what makes you smile? Uh, I did talk to my kids today because, you know, what makes most parents smile most of the time are their children. When they're not being jerks. Because, you know, we're all jerks from time to time, just like parents. But anyway, so what makes you smile? My children make me smile. The fact that I've got a 15-year-old who gets up at 5 AM in the morning to go to gym with me, that's pretty awesome. What else makes me smile? Puppies. Oh my gosh, today at, um, and so I have an outdoor range here at Great Start Shooting School, and I have a family for a special get-together We had a dove that would not stop landing downrange. Like, the target is here, the dove keeps going and like landing on the ground behind the target. And so we're like, all right, ceasefire, we're not going to shoot the dove. I don't want to have squab for dinner tonight. And so I'm like, all right, just shoot at the target that's over there. Dove does not move. I'm like, what the actual heck? So Um, yeah, so it is, it is kind of crazy. So silly stuff makes you smile, or makes me smile, right? Um, what else? Oh, hi GT3. So let me do this real quick because I'm like squirrel tonight. GT3, uh, one of my best interviews ever. If you haven't seen it, go look it up. Mr. Mike White over there in 2A Advocacy. Hold. Cheers. Allergies are brutal and it makes me feel like I'm drinking dust all the time, or breathing dust all the time. I don't know if I said hi to Chris from the 740. And see, this is where I'm like, hmm, I have no idea where 740 is, but I'm guessing that's a picture of his state. So someone tell me where Chris is from. And what else? I said hi to GT3 Mike, uh, Mike for Mike and Pam. Hi Mike and Pam over on the Facebook side. Um, so excited. Uh, so Mike Ballinger has been here forever. Uh, he has followed me on Facebook since I started this in probably 2018, give or take. So longest-standing, um, I don't know, viewer. There we go, like words. Uh, Fiona, my unicorn, I love her, everyone. Um, I think she's back from Florida. She was in Florida last week because she wasn't here. Anyway, um, I believe that is everybody. Oh yes, and he drops links in a lot of channels that allow him to do it, so DJ, please Play Nice, like I said, you know, helps me out. He helps Barbecue out and lots of other folks. All right, so there I got to say hi to everybody. What else am I doing? I'm going to click on the thing so that I stop looking at your comments, so then I will keep going. Actually, I want you to answer this question: what makes you smile? And here's the thing, how about you just ask yourself what makes you smile? Ready? What makes me smile? All right, so can you actually ask that question without smiling? I suppose some of you probably can, but in general, if we actually ask that question, what makes me smile, I will smile just because I realize that I can, and being able to smile is good, is good. So fake it till you make it. All right, ready? Everybody sit up straight, shoulders back, put a big smile on your face. Do you feel weird? Yeah, probably. I mean, maybe. Or maybe you think I'm weird, so that's making you smile, and that's okay, because there is so much stuff that happens in our bodies. There's so much chemical things that occur when all we do is ask ourselves an empowering question like, what makes me smile? Because A, I get to smile. B, my brain starts looking for the thing that actually makes me smile. Thirdly, because I've given myself permission to know that there is stuff out there that makes me smile, if I am currently in crisis, if I am currently having distress, anxiety, depression, any of those things, I now realize I have the opportunity that I can find something that makes me smile because there is something out there, whether it's slapstick, you know, someone's stubbing their toe and hopping around and going, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, That's the sort of stuff that cracks me up so horribly. Like, my husband gets mad at me because when I see others in pain, I laugh hysterically because I'm so stressed by it. But I'm still— it's a stress response of me laughing, but it does actually make me laugh. So what is something that makes you smile? What could it be? Ah, all right, so sarcasm. Yes. Sarcasm is good. Now here's the deal. I am so not a sarcasm person in that I'm like, oh really? You could tell me that the world is flat. I'll be like, oh really? Okay. And if that's what you believe, fine. I will go there with you. So I make people laugh because I don't understand sarcasm a lot because I take you at your word. And if you're deadpan when you're telling me something like, oh, Okay. So what is within your hands? I don't even know. Anyway, Carrie Anne, Miss Carrie Anne Auclair over here, my neighbor in Massachusetts from Connecticut. Hello, darling. Looking lovely as always. Oh, what makes you smile? Let's talk about that. Do you not love giving people compliments? Now, Carrie Anne may just have smiled because I said, hey, you look good, because she does often. She's always very well put together and all of that sort of thing. And the reason I say often is just because none of us look good all the time. But when I see her, she's usually looking good. And so, yes, so here we are, smiles. Oh, drinks. All right, for real, we do not drink a lot of soda in our home.. And having a glass of Coke with ice is something that's very simple, simple that can make me smile. There's just something nice about it at home. Ice cold Coke. And no, it's not a commercial, but there's also just something about our traditions, right? When I see like, this is, I didn't even think I was gonna go here. I just happened to have this with me. But when I see one of the 18-wheelers, has a big red Coca-Cola sign across the side of it, it literally makes me smile. There is something about my life that makes— when I see this, I'm like, oh, this feels nice. And it's whatever emotion we create with stuff.

While you take a drink, I have to break in to say, quite literally, you are the epitome of have a Coke and a smile, Brooke. And I'm back out.

That is so perfect though. It's okay. You're allowed to, because I'm like, yeah, the allergies are ridiculous here and I have been on the range most of the day. So yeah, a Coke and a smile. And that's just it is like, honestly, I see the red and white in the font, whatever this font is for the Coca-Cola thing, and it makes me happy. And it's something so very simple. And we have stuff around us every day that makes us smile. We just have to notice it. All right. So I'm calling you all out there. Oh wait, Carrie Ann says, I make her smile. And she makes me smile too. We are very silly sometimes. We're very serious sometimes trying to protect our Second Amendment rights for the DC Project and all of that. But we have fun. Friends make you smile. Friends sometimes don't make you smile for whatever reason, but Here's the thing, we will find what we're looking for. So that's what I have for tonight. It's what makes you smile. Remember that there is always something that will make you smile in the worst of times. There is something, uh, I don't see Tara on here, but like I know her bike, going for rides on her bike is something that always makes her smile. I don't see Barbecue on here. He's busy at a, uh, birthday party for his daughter. So I know like doing stuff for his kids is one of the things that makes him smile. G23, what, what do we talk about that makes you smile? I know your wife, your wife makes you super happy because she's just really awesome. And All Within My Hands, May month of giving in my chapter, being on top of the leaderboard makes me smile. All right. So Fiona is a big metalhead. I think that might be an understatement. Metallica. She is, you know, number one fan. And so they have the My Hands May Month of Giving is Metallica's charity event, I guess. I don't know how else to put it. And so this is something that she gets to give. I will say giving is one of the most awesome ways to make you smile because when you serve others, you are absolutely serving yourself. Because when I go and give someone a random compliment at Walmart, or I pay for the Dunkin' Donuts behind me, or I— like Fiona was talking about— I give to a charity. Tara, she just had a fundraiser for her sister so she doesn't lose her house. I can't buy the house for her, but I can help a little bit. And it's little tiny things that we do every day.. And I will definitely say that playing video games helps me understand the importance of celebration. And it's kind of funny. I don't know if y'all have any of those VR headsets or not, but I have a VR headset and I play this, this, this game called Beat Saber. And each time you get a high score, it play it at the end of the song, it will give you fireworks. And so when we don't go to the gym to lift weights, I do, um, whatever that's called. I do, uh, I do Beat Saber or boxing or something in VR. So at the end of the song, I get fireworks when I get a new, a new high score. So one of the things last week when I was doing this, I'm like, I am going to enjoy the fireworks. I'm going to enjoy the fact that I've accomplished something and someone is celebrating for me. And so these are little things. When people celebrate us, like someone like Carrie Anne, um, and Little Miss Teal for 2A, we are a sisterhood across the nation that are fighting for our Second Amendment rights. And when we get together, it's like the best thing ever because we are from all walks of life, all sort of backgrounds, and we're not all gun people all the time, but it's just like to be around people that make us happy because we have something in common. Um, faith, family, friends, and trust. I know I read that wrong, but family, faith, friends, and trust. But I got the words. I was talking about someone else today hanging out in the ocean or at the range in the mountains with his wife And again, family, and then sometimes hanging out at the range or the woods or the ocean by yourself, just listening to the lapping of the ocean waves on the sand and the crashing. So there are so many things in life that can make us happy. There are so many things that is worth being grateful for and gratitude. And these are the things that we have to pay attention to. Mr. Charlie Cook over on the Facebook side has joined us. He just got off of Paul's show over at the Second Amendment Foundation there. Oh, oh, and speaking of Paul, there he is with his beautiful wife. Now I will tell you, I know something that makes Paul smile. A, his wife, because she puts up with him. B, the background in his little profile picture. I know it's itty-bitty for you guys, But that was like a really cool vacation they went on not that long ago to go visit our friend Kathy Jackson. So, so yeah, there's so many things in life that can make us smile. Why is it so important? Well, it's really simple because there's really lots of stuff that sucks in life. There's lots of hardship. There's lots of heartbreak. There's lots of horrible things that happen every single day. And we can choose to focus on those things, and some of the stuff we just cannot avoid, but we must always remember to come back to what makes us smile. When you hear about some tragedy, when you hear something bad happens to you, whether it's losing a loved one or a friend of ours just lost his mom, whether it's losing a child, uh, we were talking to someone the other day about that, asking yourself, okay, what can make me smile? Granted, sometimes that is not always what it feels like, that that is the appropriate thing to ask. When you say someone just lost a child, oh, what makes me smile? All right, our little brains scramble a little bit because we should feel sorry and upset over the loss of a child. But it's also like, all right, well, the child was a blessing. Pain can also be a blessing. It's just usually not a blessing at the time. Hello, Mr. Gregory Dwyer. Um, let's see, Greg here— I don't even know how long have we known each other. We've known each other a while. He had me on his TV show when he was doing public broadcasting, and he's got a really cool— um, he goes on trips. Like, he does like— I don't want to say Bible trips, but I kind of think I want to say Bible trips. But he goes on really cool trips, and he helps coordinate traveling all over the world for fun and excitement. And he's definitely into What makes you smile and things like that. So it's 16 minutes out. I try to get done in 20 minutes or less. It used to be 10 minutes or less, but we've gone further and longer. And each time y'all are here to say things and encourage me to do this, I will do this more and more. So there is that. And Mr. Paul says, friends that make me smile. It's rare to have a bad day when you have a lot of great friends. Yes, and he has great friends like me and Carrie Anne and Charlie Cook. And like I said, his wife is also a very cool friend. And, you know, Kathy Jackson's not so bad either. And yes, I've seen lots of posts as of late that are, make sure the people that are around you are supporting you, not trying to pull you down. And that is what I think is the most important. Who makes you smile? What makes you smile? Make sure you get more of that every day. All right, Mr. DJ, you got anything else? What you got for me?

Well, what I want to do is give you a complete roll call, but you did, I believe, hit everyone in the crowd as they came in or when it was convenient to mention. So G23 was here, so was Mike White. Michael Bellinger was out there, so was Fiona. Good to see her. Woods, the man from the Pacific Northwest, was out there. Chris from the 740. Carrie Ann Simpson. Auchlair. Charlie Cook was a late arrival, as was Paul Lathrop. Glad to have them. And Gregory Dwyer, Tactical Fudd, the last one in the room. It's Buck's birthday today, so I'm gonna go ahead, if you don't mind, and tap that. Yeah, he's celebrating a birthday today, so happy birthday. Thanks for joining us this evening. Happy birthday, Buck. Rock. And I thought I would share a couple of things that make me smile. And you know, I am the DJ. I am what I play. G-Web's also in the room. He's reminding folks maybe to thumbs up. He He's the fifth one, so go ahead and add those thumbs up and share the cast. It's valuable. So sound for me, I am the DJ, I am what I play. That's a David Bowie line. But playing tracks for people in clubs where they weren't quite convinced, there's usually individuals, and I'd see them with that kind of look on their face like, what is this? And then they're not aware that I'm watching as their heads start to nod back and forth a little bit or up and down. Then they start to move the rest of their body. That would make me smile every damn time because it's like I was selling you something that you weren't buying and you decided that this beat was something that could move your body. Another thing that really appeals to me, I do not have children of my own, but I really enjoy the sound of children at play. In my neighborhood, in the spring, summer months, particularly in the fall, I have the windows open in the kitchen. So when the kids on the street are running up and down, there might be some other older folk who are cursing the noise, but I welcome it in. To me, there are few things that are a more pure expression of joy than children's laughter while they're at play. I think I've even mentioned that perhaps on the program before. So yeah, those are the sounds that make me smile all the time. Your voice makes me smile every Saturday.

Always glad to be here. Excellent. Excellent. So yeah, so kids are definitely fun. There is absolutely— I don't know, there's definitely a baby laughing. It just seems to me like to be one of the most universal. You, if you can, if you can listen to a baby laugh and not smile, I think you need to get checked out by your doc. Cause I do not think there's anything more that's like, yeah, I can't even, I'm not going to try, but yeah, it is. Babies are amazing and people are amazing. And I have another friend who's not on here tonight, but Celia, she does a program where it's how to learn not to yell at your children. And she put up a post the other day, and it's about instead of saying, I have to, remember to say, I get to, as far as things that can make you smile. Because her example was, I get to do the dishes because we had food on the table and we're able to have a meal together. Because there's so many of these little tiny tasks that we have that we have to do And if we just change the wording that goes on in our head a tiny bit to say, I get to versus I have to, all of a sudden you can find something that will make you smile because you are blessed to be able to have to do dishes because you get to do dishes because you had food on the table. So one more thing, because there's always one more thing, because I learned from the best of them. Tony Robbins always says one more thing. So that's my one more thing tonight. And since G Web's the only one I didn't say hi to— hi Pete, how are you? And yes, those of you who are on YouTube, hit the thumbs up. Let's see. Yeah, I guess it's on the bottom for both of them. If you're on Facebook, go ahead and hit the like and share. All right, for real, it is a happy Memorial Day weekend here in Connecticut. We have spectacular weather. So that is a bonus. So that's nice. Uh, hope you all have fun at parades this Monday. My son is going to be marching, so we'll be watching a parade this Monday. And whatever else you do— oh, and I'm teaching tomorrow. I was like, take the weekend off. Like, no, when other people have time off, I make sure I'm working so I can take care of all of you so y'all can get more education. All right, good night all. DJ, see ya. Thanks for popping in and, uh, have a great weekend.