Empathy and Understanding: The Key to Meaningful Connections - With Terry Lynch

Hey, everyone, it's Sean. And in today's episode of the Meaningful Revolution, we're interviewing teacher and author Terry Lynch. Now, Terry has such a big heart as a teacher, as someone that's very empathetic. You'll hear him mention how much of an introvert he is a couple of times. And this was the first podcast interview he'd done, but did a great job. And we're talking about how he started a publishing company during COVID and written a series of books since then. And what's really cool about it, his new book that we're primarily talking about, Woken History, is all about shedding light on different perspectives in history. And this is woke. That isn't how it is out in the world right now. It's just this kid wakes up in history to experience Egypt, to experience all these different areas. It's such a creative idea and really sets to inspire people to be curious and explore more of other cultures and other parts of history. So I really enjoy this conversation. I always enjoy interacting with Terry again because he is such a big heart, such a positive attitude. You can't help but really feel that he cares and that he really wants to make an impact with the people around him. And I think he does successfully. So, with that said, I'd love to introduce you to Terry lynch and enjoy our conversation. Hey, everyone. Welcome to the Meaningful Revolution podcast. And today's guest is a family friend, a really great guy, an educator, and an author of a bunch of books. But one in particular we're going to be talking about today. I'd love to introduce you to my good friend, Terry Lynch. Hey, Terry. How's it going, man?

Hey, American. How you doing? How you doing, Sean, thank you so much for bringing me on. I truly appreciate this.

Likewise, man. I love talking to authors. And of course, because of our personal connection, like, I love the chance that we get to create something here today in this interview. First off, you're an author. You have a publishing empire. You started over the pandemic. And would you. Could you tell us about a time maybe right before that, what caused you to make the decision to start writing and a little bit about your journey. So just a story about how you got into this, to being an author.

As I told you before, and we had this conversation with Morgan Solaris and everybody else that I've talked to. This was not planned whatsoever. The plan for me was to go to school, to be a lawyer, to prosecute people, make them cry, make tons of money. That was the plan. And then I ended up Graduating with a history degree, a minor communications degree as a law. And then with that, I ended up going away to doing the whole corporate thing. Hated it. Owned my own restaurant in Florida, which was a cozy and Italian restaurant. Trying to, yeah, trying to understand that where you. I. I'm actually going from the, from the Caribbean. And I was born from a small island called Montserrat. Most of my cousins have dreads. So imagine all of us in the kitchen making your pizza or making your lasagna or your stromboli. And we're just there twirling pizzas and doing things like that. And then I ended up selling that, coming back up to Boston where I grew up. And Mattapan had to give you a shout out. Mattapan in Boston. And then I ended up going in for a substitute position. And I went in that day and absolutely loved it. And just after that, became a teacher. It's funny because I have colleagues who told me, you have this way of being able to reach kids who don't want to reach. And I'm just like, okay, I downplay a lot of the things that I've done in my life. If you were to tell me that I would have already done corporate America, that I've already owned my own business in the food industry, if I, if you told me that I would have been a successful author or publisher or anything like that, I would have told you no. But as I dealt with more kids with learning disabilities, ADHD or hard time reading or disabilities or anything like that, I felt to them because I can remember when I was in high school and I had this huge problem with being able to concentrate and things like that. I take from the way that I want to be taught and that was able, how I was able to reach a lot of kids. Not knowing that in my early 40s, I was diagnosed with ADHD. I never knew that I had a learning disability. From all those years, that was just me just figuring out different ways to just cope and figure it out. But there was no one there to just be like, hey, why don't you do it this way and do it that way? So now the way that I teach that way, on how I'd want to be taught because my attention span is horrible and I'll be the first person to talk to you and I apologize to everybody for that. I've told my students that my intention is horrible and they laugh all the time. The more that I worked with kids, the more I was just like, oh, I know for me, why don't you do it this way. And we broke down different ways that you could read something or how you can outline something, or different things to edit. And then history was my major in college. Cause I just loved knowing about history. I think it's just some of the coolest thing to hear about. You think about it. I used to tell my king love, like, think about King Henry viii. Just thinking about outfits that they wore and how they were able to do this and that. That's just. That's gangster. Then I was like, okay, I was messing around, helping out in a classroom. Childhood history. And I was just going over some stuff, and I broke it down in a way that the kids could understand it. Because the way that they're reading it, they're going through the regular textbook. And the way the textbook is, it's just like one picture here and then all this, and then you this. And the way they're speaking. And I'm just like, all right. And I just messed around or broke down stuff. And again, Justine. Mr. Lord Stitching. Great. Are you just trying to get a good grade? Because I'm not going to give you one for trying to lug up right now. But that's how it all started, honestly. And then with the pandemic happening and things like that, we were all stuck inside, couldn't go outside. I have two children myself. I have a son who's 11, and I have a daughter who's 8 going on 30. And I have a beautiful wife, so you can only be with them for so long before you're ready to write. And bought, like, bouncy trampolines just so the kids could be outside, so they have to deal with them and stuff like that. But the more. But then I got back to my roots. I found one of my old world history books from high school when I was going through it, and I was just like, ah, this is cool. But then the more I read it, the more I was just like, wait a second. As you can see, I'm a person of color. And I was like, wait a second. For all the years that I've been in school, we've had only one month of black history and stuff like that, when there's so many different things. And the more research I did, the more things I was like, oh, this person did this. Oh, this person gets up. It started out with me just taking down some history stuff and just looking for things. And I was just like, what if there was some type of book where, you know, they concentrated on that? So it's just not Just like one month, but of black history. It could be like every month of black history. So, yeah, it felt interesting. And then I was like, why need it to be in a way where it can actually attract the readers and keep their attention? So I was like, all right, I'm gonna make up my make believe cast. And I named them Davis. And I don't even know how it ended up with that. I think I was watching an NBA game and I think I was watching Anthony Davis, and I think he jumped on someone. I'm like, all right, let's. So I took that. Yeah, the podcast people right now are getting all the kidnits right now from my book and all of my silliness that goes on in my head. So I was like, all right, we've got Davis. And then I was like, how can Damon speak to these people? And I was like, well, if he finds the magic book. And I was like, okay, so now he found a magic book. And I was like, all right, let's make the magic book gold, because gold is beautiful. And then I focused. I was like, what would Davis want to do? Let's make him like a teenager. Nice age. Like middle teen, like seventh to eighth grader. And then he finds a magic book, and he reads the words, and then all of a sudden he disappears. And when he opens his eyes, he is, whoa, he's in Africa. But of course, he doesn't know what Africa really is. So then he talks to someone and then he's telling them, and then. Then it turns into. And it's evolved over this whole time period. When I started the book, the first thing was supposed to be David's just in Africa. And then it was supposed to be like this long thing. And then I was just like, ah, that doesn't appease to me. And then where I'm crumpling up papers and I'm throwing them, and I'm like, what if I made every chapter its own separate episode? And I was like, ooh, cool. So, man, it turns into that. So every episode or every chapter in the book is its own standalone episode. And then I made it to the point, like, you don't have to start with chapter one. You might want to start with the prologue so you can see him actually get the book. But then after that, you pick whatever chapter you want. So then it turns into that. And then I took some tickets from my family because I have some family members who are raspberry. So then I was like, okay. And I wanted to learn a little bit more about it. So I did the research, and I was like, all right. And you. The actual first original Davis story, which is working history. East Africa, because it takes place in East Africa. He's actually in Ethiopia, and he meets Haile Selassie. He's happened to be the emperor of Ethiopia and who also earns, quote, unquote, father of the Rastafari movement, where he is my second coming. It starts out with that, and then I did that, and it focused on Ethiopia and then hit Taegoneer, and then it hit tenure. And then I was just like when I edited kind of Quickhand, and then when he woke up in Egypt. And then I don't know if you've seen the movie Take Commandment with Charlton Heston and Al Lennon years ago. The most epic movie ever. Hashtag and chocolate. So I have a big. In the culture I'm from, religion was a huge thing, whether you're Anglican, Catholic, or Lutheran, whatever. But church is a huge thing. Looking at the Ten Commandments, actually focusing on Moses, and Moses actually used the Ten Commandments to give so everyone can be closer to God. And then I was just like, all right, wait a second. Not thinking that now that I'm older, but wait a second. They were in Egypt. If you watch the movie, the movie, Egypt was like this crazy place with all this wealth and things like that. But I know for me, when I was like, must have been like, I don't know, five, six, seven. They had all these commercials for Ethiopia, and they had the kids sitting there with, like, flies on their heads or their eyeballs or something like that. And I never. So we two together, not realizing that Ethiopia one time was, like, one of the wealthiest places ever in. In the world. Not just Africa, but the world. So then I was like, that's when I was like, oh. Like, I'm going to focus on that. So, like, he ends up in Egypt. And then I literally have. And the crazy thing is, the first one was actually 41 chapters. So 41 different episodes. Yeah, I put a little. I take the adhd. Like, once I get on something, I'm off on it. 41. I was like, 41. A little bit too much. I took 41 of those episodes and put it into the new book, which is this one right here.

Okay.

There we go. Yeah, I'm trying to figure out this whole camera thing. Sorry, everybody. Technology is not my thing.

You're great, Ed. You're doing great.

I appreciate you. So I took 21 episodes and I put it in that. And then, because it was shorter, made More sense. And then, luckily, I gave much props and much love to my students because they started reading it. And when I asked them, I was like, would you like it? They were like, we need another episode of this lunch. And that's where they turned into, oh, maybe I should make an actual book out of it and release it. But then I was like, oh, what can I do to make it better? And they, like, leave pictures. And I was just like, you're right. And these pictures. So then I got an illustrator to go and illustrate the stuff in the book and then, voila, we have Woken History Leaders of the Fan, which is. It's not the first book, but honestly, I think I found something where I want to do stories like that and have the illustrations in there like that. I still have Woken History East Africa. I still have the Woken History Leaders of the fan with the 41 chapters, and I'm even messing around with Woken History North America. But yeah, I think from now on, I think what I'm going to go for, I'm going to go for these stories with the illustration, because I think the illustration is just like, it adds a new element to the book. It felt.

No, totally got. You are gracious enough to. You're fine. This is what the podcast is for.

Yeah.

You sent me over a couple of the illustrations and they're. I was getting like a graphic novel type vibe from it, which is super awesome. And as a amateur history buff, too, it's just so cool to see Ancient Egypt. I'd nerded out so hard that in sixth grade. I, one time, I can name all of the Egyptian gods and all that stuff.

Wow. Yeah. So cool. Well, when I started, I couldn't stop. I do the laundry and the cooking and stuff like that at the house. I also coach. I go to school, I teach, then I coach, come home, make dinner, then write. And then I'm writing all the way till like three or four. Because let me tell you something, if you have ADHD and you don't and you start and you can't stop. You can't stop. There have been many times when my wife has come in and she looked at me and she's been like this or she's just giving me the look. If you married, you know what that is like.

Right on. All right. There's a lot of information there. I guess the most pressing question I have is how did you come up with the title Awoken History and as like the name of the series? It seems maybe obvious, but I'd love To hear your thoughts.

For me, the reason why I came up with woken history was just this. Because every story, when Davis, when it starts out with David opening his eyes because literally he's waking up to your trance that he was in. Because from the previous story, when he looked at the book and he's touched the COVID and he disappears, like literally he disappears instantly. And then once he opens up, it's just like he wakes up and then he's in a new place having no idea where he is. He's got to figure out where he is by looking at the surrounding area or speaking to someone or. But he never knows who he's supposed to meet. And that's the beauty thing about it. I. I am tinkering around with one episode where when I hit different parts of the world, he just wakes up and he gets to meet Genghis Khan or something like that, just out of nowhere, not knowing who it is. But that's. And that's how the story. That's how you get it. Because for me, I wanted it to be like, okay, what if I didn't know anything on this topic? So the reason I have it is basically you as the reader are, David, you're sitting there and you're trying to figure out, okay, let me do 20 questions, figure out where I am. What did you do? Why are you so important? But I'm in front of you right now. And then with that, with Davis being a. A young man, he's gotta learn to be polite. Understand that if you speak to a monarch in a certain way, there could be consequences. And I kept it pretty TV for now. Besides stage, when he gets older and gets into the other stage, which I'm gonna do, which is gonna take around with America and the, the Civil War and slavery and things like that. Yeah, there might be some stuff where it's like, yeah, but if you look at the generation now, some of the things they're watching now, nothing compared to what they're about to see. That's the next step.

Okay, right on. I love that. So the question now that I think is maybe interesting because maybe you thought about this or maybe not, but I know that out in the culture now the word woke is this weird like lightning rod in a lot of ways.

Yeah.

Did you think about that when naming the. Your, Your book? Or was it just you just following the idea? Just I just.

To tell you honest truth, Sean, that was not my, my. That was not what I was trying to do. And the reason why I wasn't trying to do this. When I first came up with this idea, the idea that came up literally during the pandemic before everything really took off with everything. So I had that whole thing of. Because just. I was just thinking, oh, okay, he wakes up. And I was thinking past tense, because he woke up at that moment. And then as it goes on, that's what I was thinking. I'm towing around with maybe even changing the name to Awaking to History or Waking up to History, I don't know. But it's something that I came up with years ago, before the whole woken movement happened. I don't want. I don't want to be known as some champion for something like. For a cause like that, which I think is an amazing cause, because I think it is. But my whole purpose for when I came up with the title was just. Because I was just like, okay, like, he just woke up in front of it. And then that's when I was like, oh, so. And that's how I came up with the title, literally. And then now, looking at it as things have evolved in our society right now, which is still crazy to think that we're in a day and age of this is going on and 2023, about to be 2024 and a few months, which is shocking.

Same here. Yeah. With all the weird book bannings on ideology and stuff, that's gotta be, as an author, something you're at least concerned about, I imagine, and, like, the impacts of that. We could do a whole podcast just on this subject. And I don't wanna. I don't wanna wade into it because we're here to talk about your book and the good work you're putting out. So to shift gears a little bit, is there anything that you found really surprising in doing research or as you've been writing about these, about history from the perspective of Davis.

Okay, so from the perspective that I've noticed with all the research that I've been doing, which has been super amazing to me, I think the first thing is what I told you before when I did my research on Ethiopia, because I hadn't drove in my head. Not drilled, I should say. I think I should say I had it in my head, this perception of what Ethiopia was, not realizing what it really is in terms of history itself, the impact that nation has had, and not thinking about putting Trinity together with the Bible and putting Trinity together with the. And not even realizing that the place of Egypt was in Africa. I know, for me, did we really go over geography too much? Like, when we were younger, we were Just like, okay, here. Here are the consequences and stuff like that. This. This looks right here. Not putting two together, being like, oh, Egypt's really an African. Oh, you had literal kings and queen greater in concepts than some of the royalty that's even seen in Europe. Because I don't mean, like, when I was a seventh and eighth grade, like seventh grade, we did world history, which we focused mostly on European history. So B Boy and Muncher, which is the British monarchy. I was like, yo, this is great, because I get to learn about the queen and king of England because I'm. I'm part British, because I'm much Russian and stuff like that. So I was like, boom. But I was just like, wait a second. Now that I'm doing this research here, you had some more intriguing, more greater monarchy in Africa than you did maybe in Europe. And you don't realize some of the things that you find when you're doing your research. So it was that it was learning about the pharaohs, which was like, so cool with some of the things that they did, like finding out. So one thing I realized in culture, we've. And it's come a long way than what it used to be, where it was understood, women had their place. They were only supposed to do this, not allowed to do that. It was in a lot of the cultures, even in Africa as well. And some of the research I was finding out was like, you had female pharaohs, or you had queen who were married to king, but you had actually women pharaohs who literally had monuments made to them in the impersonation of a male, but they were a female, but in the first impersonation of a male, because they were still the pharaoh, but they were female, which I thought was really intriguing. So between all the stuff that I've done with Egypt and with Ethiopia, I'm actually doing some stuff right now with Sudan, south and North Sudan, which is really interesting just to see what's going on, or the history of there. Or there's one that I still have to do, which is Hannibal, which it's supposed to be one shotgun, but that might be a minisery. Honestly, from what he was able to do, and then even some research, not to go off on a tangent, but I also did some research they had. So I remember sitting down and I'm watching Netflix and I found something on Yaksuke, who happens to be the first black African samurai in Japan. And I was like, oh. I was like, oh, that's cool. It's Japanese animation, which is amazing to me. Because I love that. So I was like, I looked at it and then I was like, okay. So I did research so that I actually wrote a data story on Yasuke, where he actually ended up in Japan just to interview Yasuke, just to get information. That was cool. I had a couple of my students read that and they thought it was super cool. And I did some research on that, trying to find out if there were other African or any African samurai, which they said that there were, but there was never any, like, documentation of it. I was just like, okay, tidbits for the all the Muslims out there. It's going to be coming out probably in the next three to five months maybe. But I'm planning on doing a story on the resettling. So you get trained by Yasuke and two brothers and a sister. So it's the element of they're obviously from Africa, migrated over to Japan. So you have two brothers, but you have a sister. And in those coaches, you're not allowed to be a samurai. So it's going to be. There's going to be a focus on that as well. So little tidbit for the listeners out there right now is only probably three to five months. I'm working on it right now. And that's going to be a graphic novel as well. I think everything I'm going to do from now on, unless it a mafia book or something like that, is going to be a graphic novel.

Awesome.

Thanks. Super cool. I hope that answers your question.

Yeah, no, totally. I'm not sure if this is going to be a fruitful area to explore or if we want to focus on this, but I'm curious. Like, for me, I really got into history and middle school because there's a book in our library that was all about the conquistadors and how terrible they were to. To people, like tight people up the poles, lighting their feet on fire, trying to tell me where the gold is. Basic kind of crazy, terrible, Cortez type stuff. And so then you contrast that to what we get. Siri. We contrast that to what we learn in school, which is a very. Partly, I think it's sanitized for kids. Right. Because you don't want to expose them to the horrors of the world. Right. But it's also maybe a little bit of an avoidance strategy so we don't have to think about how not awesome like a Eurocentric history really is. Because, yeah, it's great for the Europeans. It's not so great for a lot of almost everyone that they meet out in the world in My personal research on it. So when we talk about, like, the history of Africa, which it doesn't get highlighted enough, you learn about Egypt, you learn about Carthage. Because in relations, all of it in relations to, like, ancient Rome. Right? Look, as a teacher, how do you. How do I want to phrase this? Do you think about how those different perspectives are really additive to understanding humanity? That's. That ended up being a way bigger question than I intended it to be. But I think it's an important question to ask.

I mean, I know for me, shout out to my colleagues at the oldie school that I. I work at who make it a point to educate our children in a way that they're learning things. I give them so much credit because for me, I'm learning from them. And I will sit in a history class and I'll listen. And I think from our days growing up, when we were younger, I think we were more sheltered, I would say, just like you said. But I think now the way that this generation is, there are some things that they talking about and they're listening to. Back in our day, we would have never heard about that stuff or never talked about it. So I think times are changing. I think it's for the good, because I think that a lot of kids need to experience and they need to learn about some of the stuff that happened that we don't know about. And the only reason we know about it is because you had the song Renegades pioneers who put themselves out there to make sure that we get the information. And I'm hoping, as I said before, when I will tell everybody that I am the biggest introvert ever on the entire planet. I do not like being the focus of anything. I had a choice. I'm a huge wrestling fan, so I would wear. I would prefer to wear like, a luchador mask so no one can know who I am. I just claim it and play with that. I'm hoping that not only will my book be able to educate not only just middle schoolers, high schoolers, adults, because I remember being asked, oh, so your book, is it geared for, like, middle schoolers and stuff like that? And I had to sit there and think about it, and I was just like, it's geared for everybody. Because I was just trying. It started out with me just giving the story out to a seventh grader for them to read to see if they liked it. And then they said, oh, there's so much we want more. And I'm just like, okay. And then somehow a fifth grader and a fourth grader because they're similar to those same kids. Saw it and they were like, this is really good. We get more. And I was like, okay. But then with the relationship that I've made with some of my past students, where they're college students or they graduated from college, or they're getting their master's degrees or they're in the real world and I still stay in touch with a lot of my students, like they still out of the blue. I remember one time I'm driving home from Boston to the Cape or something like that, and I literally was on a five way call with students that I had eight years ago. And they were like, I'm like, what are you guys doing calling me? They're like, we just wanted to just see how you were doing and just for us to give you a check in, just see how we're doing. And I was just like, okay. And then I reached out to them and let them know what I was doing and they read from the top and they were like, this is really great stuff. So for me, I think my story, I think hopefully it touches like everybody and it can help anyone, no matter what age or anything like that. And I think that's my goal of the books. I want the books to be able to. And I hate to say that there's some truth out there that we don't want to acknowledge that are out there. But if my books are able to bring out some of those truths in a way that the kids can actually learn from them to be better people, because that's all I really want, then I've done my job. And something I have to share. I didn't get into PJ for the money. I didn't get in for. I didn't get into writing books for the money. Writing the books, believe it or not, is a stress relief for me. But I think one of the greatest things I ever had was, and this was pretty recent, where a parent pulled me aside and said, hey, Terry, I gotta talk to you. And all I'm thinking in my head, I'm like, all right, which kid did I yell at this time? And then they were like, they're like, no. I was like, what did I do? They're like, nothing. Wanted to thank you. I was like, what did I do now? They were like, well, my. My son is. Loves your book. And I was like, the issuance is not saying that because she still wants that fifth grade. And she's like, yo, apparently he made her sit down with him. He's made the entire family get the book. They sit down and they read the book. He's trying to organize, like, an actual book club for the book. And I didn't know about. I just thought I had a rumor for the great month that was happening. I was like, all right, whatever. But apparently she was like, basically to get. For my son to actually be able to enjoy reading. You don't even understand how much I appreciative of that. And to hear that, Sean, that made my entire name, my week, my month, my year. I was like the happiest person ever to be able to hear that a young man or a young woman is reading something that I wrote. And they're actually reading and they enjoy it. That's why I got into teaching. That's why I got into education. Not to the fame. Even though when you are a teacher, technically your classroom is your kingdom and you are technical, a monarch, which is cool, but. But that's why a lot of us got into it. We got into it for the fact that we.

Right. And I don't know you too terribly. My wife knows. Has known you from way back in the day, because our wives talk and are close friends. But I do know, just from what I've noticed, you're a very curious person. You're very, very easy to connect with. And so it doesn't surprise me that your writing and that curiosity about the world would draw people in. So I wanted to at least point that out and acknowledge that from my point of view, that it. It makes a lot of sense. Where kids would be like, this is awesome. I want to show everyone or anyone, not just kids, just anybody.

I. I think I'm just a big. I feel like I'm just a big kid at heart. Like, I'm in tune, eye open. I'm sitting here, and if I'm doing something or if I'm listening to something, and if I'm not, like, engaged, I'm like, this is boring. This is a waste of my time. Let me go. Sitting around with a pen or something like that. And I think I just try to think on that level just to try to reach them, because half the time you can't think that's what I'm saying. Because I remember someone saying to me, like, halfway. I'm having difficulty with that clap. How did you get that kid to do that? I was just like. I just told him to. I have no particular. Trust me, if I knew the whole special sauce that would get kids to do whatever you wanted them to do and stuff like that, I would do that sell it and whatever. But honestly, it's just. I just do. If you were to ask me, how do you connect with the kids? You connect. I was like, I can go in there and I figured out maybe it's the one year of psychology that I took or something like that. But I know for me, I want to be treated with respect. And so you treat them with the same type of respect. If they don't give you that respect, then why do you have to respect them? But they need to learn and understand that you are older than. The reason that we do the things that we do is because we want to try and make things better for you. And I think that's what I try to get out to them. But yeah, that's my old teaching thing. And I always get into this whole conversation about teaching and things like that. Just like talking to my students. I'm not going to lie. I lied to sometimes talk about my students. But I can't take the full tenant. Artifully app. Again, much credit to my colleague. Every good teacher and there are some amazing teachers out there, but a lot of teachers are humble enough to take a little bit from something from another colleague. You see something that another colleague is doing that works, take a little bit of it and make it your own. And like I tell you, people who have taken things from 15 years ago and I, I literally will call them up and be like, yo, he's got idea. Just to let you know and let me laugh about it. But yeah, I'm telling you, they say I'm an incredible teacher. I'm an incredible teacher for the colleagues that I have, the colleagues that I've worked with. That's why I am the way that I am. I feel like everybody should get treated with the same type of respect that he would want to be treated. Still feel like that even to the game at the times when I'm just like, it's not like that. But I still feel like that's how it should be. I think the way I was raised, I'm from the Caribbean. Like, I still fear my mother. I'm not gonna lie, she's way shorter than me. But I. Your latest respect. I don't know, but I'll tell you right now, I can only think that I moved that I would. I appreciate everything that you've done for me and now I understand why you told me not to do it. Take me having to have my own case, being older to take my stuff, but I just had to go and give like a shout out to John and Rosanna lynch for making me how I am and the rest of the family, click. That has made me the way I am and my aunts, my uncles, my cousins, my brother, my sister, different things like that. I'm. I am the way I am because of the people that I've been around and the friends that I've made as well, including your wife and yourself.

Thank you.

Wow.

And I think this leads into another interesting topic about community. So you just list. I think we're all products of our the people we surround us ourselves with. You just named off a bunch of people that helped you become an excellent teacher. And I'm sure that you've also influenced in the same manner where trading tips or like, oh, that's a really smart idea. I'll borrow that and apply it to what I'm doing. But getting back to your book, getting back to what people find meaning in community is one of those things people find meaning in. What kind of community do you hope to build with this series that you're working on, combining history and curiosity and exploration? Have you thought about that? Maybe.

Honestly, that's an amazing question, Sean. And the reason why I say that's an amazing question because it made that question is something I thought about on my journey. Where I live. We have a huge resilient population here on the island I live on. And I wanted to learn more about them since classmates, a lot of them are designing, they'll come to the house and they're so respectful and they come to the house and they're like, hey, what's the lunch? And I'm like, what's up? Or something like that. I'm hoping that the community I build where by when you read the book and you're just like, oh, I never knew that's what happened or I understand something, you knew where I can go to. Well, in case if I meet someone who is from relatives from Africa or Brazil or South America or anything like that, they have their conversations and be like, I let it work. And what are things like? Because for me, I know that my treat day and I what are some of the things like in Brazil? Because I had never been there. I only know of Brazil from the fastest Creators movie. Let's be real America. I've never been there because I just have not traveled. But from the people that I've met, I'm like, yo, why have I not been to Brazil? Or why have I not been to a place by Samoa? Or I mean, and it's funny because I was just watching Moana last night with my daughter. Fantastic movie, by the way. And then. And if you look at it, there's a lot of Samoan, but I put inside things that you might not realize. The only reason I realized that, and I know that is because when I went to Northeastern University, I had a Freddy who was from Samoa, and I didn't even know what Samoa was until she told me about it. She told me about it. I was like, really? I was like. And I didn't want to sound ignorant, you know, I know why he wanted. Samoa is his own separate thing. And I was just like, okay. So then I started doing some research on Samoa. And then. You do research on Samoa, Yo, I want to go there. Because if you look like. If you see some of the intricate tattoos and stuff like that, in secret, big guys are considered beautiful there. So I definitely want to go there. So I couldn't remote loosely. Like, it's things like that. It's like you're able to learn about a new culture, learn about a new place, and you're like, oh, I want to talk to this person. It's like, when I was high school, I grew up. I grew up in Matt. Mattapan, Mattan, Boston. Most places I went to was like Dorchester, Mattapan High park down there, Youngling, things like that. Mattapan, Sway, things like that. So when I went to high school, I met people of Irish descent. I didn't know about that because in my mind I was like, I had like tunnel vision on road, everybody, like, this is how we do things when stage are not different. So learning about, like, Irish culture. And then like when I went to college and then finding people who had Russia descent, and they were telling me about that, and then they were telling me about people from Spain, I was like, wait, Spain? Actual Spain and people from Mexico or people from Guatemala. And I'm like, wait a second. Those are completely different because, yeah, Guatemala, Columbia, like in South America, they're completely different. The more things that I've learned, the more things I'm like, you know what? I want to learn more. And I think I'm. And I'm being selfish because I'm using the reasoning, writing, just looking at a little more about those different cultures. Is it a win? I guess it's a win. Could I say I'm being accomplished a little bit because I get to learn about these cultures and now I'm writing about them because I'm learning about it and I want other people to know. It's a beautiful thing when you learn About a culture that you didn't know actually exists. It's an amazing thing. Like, when I met my wife didn't know anything about Montre. Like, when I met her, I didn't know anything about Martin. You know, I'm like, what's that? She was an idol. I never knew. I didn't know that that existed until I met her. So she didn't know anything about Montreal. So for her to actually, when we got married and she writes about, like, my family, the different things that we do, and then as if you've met some of my family members, it's hard to understand some of them. I had to be the transplanting, which is actually quite an interesting thing as well. So to answer your question, I'm hoping that this book will be hopefully a bridge for a starter where other people get curious and fascinated about learning about cultures, where they want to learn about other. Because I'm not going to lie. In some of the books, what I. Some of the episodes, what I've done, I got to was like, oh, I want to know more. If you want to know more, try and do some research or meet someone who knows about that and talk to them. So I'm trying to make people. I'm like. Like this generation now, they want kind of everything giving to them. And thank you, guys. A little work and you're in the solicit class. Let's give you everything just like that. You got to figure it out yourself.

Oh, I love that. And the challenge of it, of it's there for you, but you got to do a little bit of work, which I think is something that we really sound like the old guy now yelling at the cloud from the Simpsons. Like, back in my day, like, we had to work. And I'm sure it's not as dramatic as I thought, but. Okay, so another question I have for you is, you know, you said something like, I remember earlier today when you're like, oh, I remember when it was like. And I wish I was taught in a different way. I'm going to teach the way that I wish I was taught. As a student, you talk about relating to all these people from different cultures and just being really curious. And so my question is, were you always empathetic and curious and that informs the work or. And I'm imagining there's a connection with. The more you learn about other cultures, as you do this, this research and exploration, you become more empathetic to the human experience. But have you always had that sense of empathy for people and has that really Driven a lot of this work.

I think for me, I can honestly say I was known as a people cleaner. If I had my way, I wish everybody would be happy and I would do whatever I can that everybody would be happy. That's me. So I think some of that is exciting. In the course of my day it's worth. Because I'll meet someone and I'll just try to think, oh, try being in their shoes. That's probably not the best situation. If you say, for instance, if you've moved here from your way of life or your country, you come here, you don't know anyone. Completely different culture than what you're used to. Where you've moved to views you not in the same as you would if you were back where you were. If that makes sense.

Yeah.

So I try to think like that and I try to think, okay, let me try DMX you a lot of the time. But I also feel like sometimes if you have a closed minded thought on something, I think it's the job some way he is empathetic of that situation. You're trying to make that person realize, hey, why don't you try to say and come from that point of view of where they're talking. So I would say like me, I've always been in. I've always been a people person and a people teaser. So I've always been that type of person who's always wanted to try and understand and not be like that person. I was the one thinking I'd make it a point, just, hey, what's going on? You're new. This is how he goes here. Happened only a couple times getting younger. But you learn that. I guess I would say my son is like that because he does that now, which is super cool. I'm very fortunate when my son was the older than he is. But yeah, I also claim Sean, like everybody loved everybody else more. Then there'd be less things to worry about. Like you only have one layer in this world and you should surround yourself with these people. Positive, not negative in any way. But don't all say judge just because you're like, oh, that person's negative. I can't be around him. I can't mess with them or something like that. No, you never know. They could be putting up a truck because someone else is like. Or something like that. And once you get past, get past that outer crust and you get as God there you might find a little gooey part where it's really cool. Yeah. And I think that's how I've always been. I think that's how I've always gonna be. I've had these situations where I've had done me wrong in the past, but I'm still gonna be mean. I'm still gonna be that type of person to try and look at it that way. But I'd always tried to put myself around positive people. Yeah, I think that icness that I have is because that's just how I am. But I also think a lot more people should try and be like that. Or if you see someone who has that shell, just try and be like, hey, set, you're going on. Because maybe that perfume doesn't have that one person. You're like, yeah, set, I could be wrong. You don't know.

Well, definitely.

Oh.

I also identify as being a people pleaser in a lot of ways and as trying to see situations through other people's shoes.

And.

Yeah, I think you said perfectly. And I do think it all comes down to maybe this is a step above what you said, but I think it comes down to love. Right. And just seeing people for people. And I like my favorite thing about learning about history and other cultures and just being a curious person is you get to see people. It's one thing to be like, the Magna Carta was signed and 15. Whatever. I'm totally going to get a bunch of comments on how I screwed up the date. But it's a different thing to say that all these people came together and this is the community and these are the people that were moving and shaking in that particular time. Or we talk about Cleopatra as like the most beautiful person and pharaoh and Egypt. And then you talk about how Mark Antony was involved with. It was like maybe a political thing. And it's a power. It could be a power game. It could be like you get to see more of the human experience and. And ultimately you can't love concepts, but you can love people.

Right.

So if you understand that it. It somebody exactly like you in this crazy situation, we all have this shared human experience that's happening. I don't know. I felt like I got up on a soapbox there for a second.

But no, I see exactly what you're saying. Because I'll give you. I'll give you an example. And back to my little Samoa thing. Like when you see some of the cultures, like in Samoa, if they're. I think it's called. I forgot the name of it. It's a type of a war call. They do it during kiddos. They do it when someone's retiring it's just a different type of work. I forget the name of it. I just don't want to say the long name because I don't want to be disrespectful. But I think it's things like that. It's things like, oh, back in the day, they would wear some of. Some of the outfits that they wore. Like, maybe it's just me, because I'll be the first person. Anyone who knows me and has known me for years knows me. I truly can be like some of the outfits that they wore back in the day or just don't. I don't know why Kanye or someone else hasn't brought them back yet. Kanye tried to stand up like me. I work. But some of the things that they've wanted worn and done back in the day, when you see these things, you're like, yo, don't. That's just. That's ill. Like, the music beats that they've done. Some of the cultural things that they've done, just some of the beliefs that they've had. And I think it's maybe just because of the way I am, but I stay too. Other cultures, all cultures. And I feel this. And I could be wrong, but this is just my own personal opinion. But I feel that all cultures have something kingdom where someone can appreciate something from it. You don't have to agree with it, you don't have to be about it or anything like that. But you definitely have to just be like, yeah, okay, all right, I could appreciate that. And I think that's what a lot of culture. I think that's when you have like a cross culture thing and things like that, where you're just like, oh, okay, all right, yeah, I can mess with that. Yeah, I can do that. Yeah, I can see myself doing that. That's why you have people who will go to different countries and just like hire in those countries. Because some of the things that they see in a different culture, they. What they'd rather do or rather be about. And that's what I think my books. And I should even say thanks. And I gotta get. I gotta give a shout out to my cousin Dan, AKA my brother. He basically said to me, never say thing. Just always say. And honestly, my book, when you look at someone saying, and I would call and I would want it to make you think, oh, wow, if it's like that culture like that, okay, I never thought of it like that. Let me try and. Let me try and see. Let me do my due diligence and try figure out Some more stuff or more. Some more stuff. And that's just basically how it is. And just when you said about the whole thing about St. Patrick, like some of the history stuff that I've found out about her. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. That's in the next book, ladies and gentlemen.

We'll talk maybe offline about that a bit more before we start wrapping up. Terry. It's evident as we're talking about the book and these ideas how animated and how passionate you are. Since this is a podcast called the Meaningful Revolution, and we talked about how the pandemic spurred you into writing and kind of just falling in and loving it. And it seems like what I've noticed, and maybe you could agree with this or not, that you've taken a lot of the things that you really were interested in and really fired you up and have combined them, like with the books you're teaching, history, you're exploring and being curious, you're sharing your little messages of wisdom, because I've heard a couple of them. I'll have to. I have to go through my notes again to pull out off the top of my head after an hour of talking, but is there. What's the question?

So.

What do you think has been.

The most.

Rewarding part of combining all of these different things and she actually doing it right? Because so many people out there. I want to write a book. I want to start a business. I want to start a nonprofit. I want to cure world hunger or solve cancer. I just want to raise kids that are good people. If you've actually have made the decision and have been working in it, what do you think has been the biggest feeling behind just finding your thing and getting after it?

I have to say, from everything that you just said about all those examples, I think I've done all those things. It's done pure world hunger. That's going to be the next step, hopefully. But I know for me, doing this process has been the best process ever. If you had asked me years ago, actually, if you'd asked me 20 years ago if I'd be a published office, a successful office, I would have told you no. And not even 20 years ago. Let's go even. I don't know when I started this 2019. So if you even go like four years ago, like, when I started the process, really, because, like, I. I had everything written down, but I never really went forcing through it until the pandemic, which I have to be thankful for that because that's what forced me to do it. But when I was when this whole process started for me, becoming an author. So if you want to be an author, you can be an author. Don't ever let someone tell you that you can't do something because all that's going to do is make me want to do it more. That's just how I'm built. Not everyone's built like that. But the way I became an author even. And I have to thank my daughter, AKA the princess. When she was, I asked her, I was like, if you want daddy to read you a story. And she was like, yeah, sure. I was like, do you have anything you want me to read? No, not really. I was like, oh, all right. So she and I came up with this story about Sunny the Sun and Cloudy the Clown. It's two opposites to become friends. And that's how it started. But then I was like, you know what? For a friend of mine, let me get some pictures done. Let me go about what it costs, what entails for it to be published. And that's when I found out that when you're a publisher, the royalties for your book, you really don't make really anything of it. And I know for me being a Capricorn and I don't like anyone keep building any of my stuff because I'm like that, because I'm an only child. So I listened to what it would be like to start my own self publishing company. So what I did was, and I think this is something that we even really talked about, so this might even shock you. I started my own self publishing company, earpodscape Publishing llc. So I control everything. I am the CEO, I am the writer, I am the editor. I do everything. Or what I do is I go through everything and I'll send it off to someone else to actually edit some more just to make sure if I made any mistakes with even I am not perfect. And I realized that. So I started my own self publishing company. So all my books are all controlled by me. So if someone like me could do something like this, anyone can. So I tell anybody if they tell, you can't do something. In this day and age and the type of society we're in right now, the type of technology we have, I can't attest to that because I'm horrible in technology. Because we were getting, we had our class figuring that out. But if you can figure it out, you can figure it out if you want it not enough secretly and for all the people on here. The next thing I'm working on is I look at this, the stories And I have the pictures and stuff like that. And I wanted to reach out to my students and reach out to any other readers. And I was like, what would it take for me to turn it into an animated type of series type thing? They've got all the AI stuff and things like that. It's not going to be like. It's not going to be like he man masters of the universe and GI Joe and Transformers from back in the 80s, but it will be the animated pictures that you see inside this book right here, sorry, camera, it'll be moving around and different things like that. There'll be audio and things like that. So that's the next step. I don't know if I answered the question. I feel like I went off on a tangent. But I'm trying to just let everybody know if this stuff's in that you're passionate about. And if you not even think, because don't say you think you can do something, you can do it. It's if you want it bad enough and if you surround yourself with the people that you surround yourself who are positive, this is how. If that person has your back, if you come up with some kind of idea on how wacky it is or something like that, you can say it in a way where you're like, I don't know if that'll work, but you need me to be there for you. I'll be there for you. But never give up on. And if there's one thing I've learned, this whole thing of being diagnosed with ADHD has been a bluffing. It's not even. I'll never say that it's a curse. It could. Damn bluffing. The reason why it could block me is this. It's helped me be able to reach all the students that I have. And that's why I'm able to reach some of the students I have. Because I think like how I want to be taught. And if I can understand it, as shallow as that sounds, if I can understand it, anyone can understand. If you have any type of thing, like if you have a learning disability or something like that, don't ever let. And I've said this to all my students with IEPs or something like that, with a 504, an IEP or anything like that, you're no different from any other child, any other person. You just learn it a different way. So it is my job as your teacher to figure out the way, how you learn and implement it. That's all it is. And that's how life is Teaching is life, ladies and gentlemen. Found it.

You are in my. I can't agree more with that statement. So that is a hundred percent true from my world experience too, as a coach and everything. All right, Terry, thank you so much for this fantastic conversation. Where can the good folks go to find out about your current books, your future books, the animated series, anything that's going on in your world? What's the best way for people to reach out to you?

So the best way to reach out to me, honestly, like a lot of my books right now are actually on Amazon.com right now. And just look under Terrence lynch, which is T E R A N C E Lynch L Y N T H. Or if you go to my actual website, which is pierrepontaine publishing.com the P I E R E P O N T E n dot com. You'll see an entire list of all the books that I actually have written. Because it's not just the history books I've written. I've also done. I have a not even a mafia book. It's called the Baldwins. And like, it's based on like my family. Basically it's just a more positive outlook on a family of a West Indian family that is actually creating their own LLC in a positive way where they're not drug dealers or anything like that. They did everything the right way, but the antagonist is the book that they have to go against is of the criminal. But there's different books like that. I've got everything on there. It's crazy how many books that I've actually done and I have a horror series on there now because of my students, because they wanted me to write a horror book. I have a couple other as well. But you can find everything on Amazon.com or go to tfart.com because I'm going to start putting more stuff on there. As I told you before, I'm working on that animated. Animated stuff. And honestly, if you guys have any suggestions or anything like that, there's my email address, which is purepontaine gmail.com if you want to send out just like something just to like give me ideas or something like that or something you'd like to see or something for me to work on. Things like that. That would be excellent. And I have something that I'm working on. I just completed a grant. I wrote a grant that's going to allow me to hopefully travel and interview and document like some more different cultures and then write them in different stories so other people can see them and the reason I did that is to transform me being from Montserrat. Like all the elders from Montserrat are actually passing away. So I want to get that information up to my generation and the next generation. So it's out there. So that's something we're working on right now. Don't believe I said we latitude or something like that. It's just me. That'd be a little bit cooler when you say we have a few things we're working on. And Sean, like, thank you so much for having me on the podcast. I hope you can do this again. Just to talk about something different or something like that. In the habit to log. Hopefully me being on here is boosted the rating and I'd love to do like special appearances just to say hi or something like that. That would require me to come out to California, which I have no problems with. Wait, do I have to bring Michelle?

Between you and me, Ashley's definitely not listening right now, so it's our secret.

I'm sure my son's somewhere around here, so I'll probably tell mom, but. Yeah, yeah. But thank you so much for telling me that. You've got everybody checking out Sean, some of Sean's stuff. He's a wonderful. He's a wonderful human being. That's being something that needed in this world. To anybody out there who feels down or something like that, reach out to a friend. Listen to Sean. Sean's just doing positive things, Sean. So I. I can't even. I can't even hype you up enough more than I have because some of the stuff that you've done has just been like, amazing. So I have to say thank you. Thank you.

That's. It means a lot, man. And so with that, everyone with mission and purpose, get out there, put your positive out in the world, find your thing, write your books, start your businesses, whatever you gotta do. Terry, again, thank you so much for being on and yeah, we'd love to have you back when you get your next series out or whatnot, let us know and we can talk about that. I think people would really love it. I would really love and 5800 cool with that. We'll see you guys on the next episode of the Meaningful Revolution podcast.

Much love and many blessings, everyone.