In this short reflective monologue, the speaker shares a recent encounter outside a theater where a visibly agitated father berated his young son. The scene evokes a feeling of heartbreak, prompting the speaker to consider sending love to both father and son rather than viewing the child as a victim. The speaker then connects this impulse to a friend’s long‑standing practice of “sending beams of love” to strangers, recognizing it as a similar compassionate response. Framed against the backdrop of the upcoming U.S. election (six days away), the speaker proposes a daily practice of intentionally sending love to people who cause anxiety, aggravation, or disagreement, arguing that this active compassion can alleviate personal tension. The talk concludes with an invitation for listeners to join the practice for the next six days, with a promised check‑in on Friday to share experiences.
Chapters
Good morning, everyone. Here is your moment of yes for Wednesday, October 28th. So yesterday evening, I was going to pick up Holland at improv class, and it's in like a strip plaza. And so I parked the car, I'm walking towards the theater, and out of the door of like one of the food restaurants comes a gentleman, and he's got his son. His son's probably 10 or 11 years old, and you can tell right away That is, that the father is upset. He's talking to his son. He's really agitated, really aggravated, and it's gruff and it's aggressive. And at one point he just tells his son, will you just, you know, just shut your mouth, shut up, and get in the effing car? And there was such a palpable intensity and tension to it. There was also the feeling that this was normal and just trying to read the boy's body language, there was a sense of normalcy to it. And I just remember walking away from that and continuing on to the theater and feeling heartbroken watching that and immediately feeling like the only thing I can do here is just send love. Is send love to this boy, to send love to this dad, and see that— because my initial instinct was this poor child, right? This poor child like doesn't have a chance. If this is your home life, you don't have a chance. And then catching myself and being like, I can't go there, right? I can't accept sort of victimhood for this boy. And just— and then moving to, I need to surround them both in love. I just need to surround them both in love and know that they are protected and that they are cared for in that sense of love. And just, 'cause that felt like the only thing I could do. But at the same time, feeling like that's a powerful thing for something to do. And so this morning I'm having breakfast with one of my good friends, our weekly breakfast, and he's sharing with me how he's trying to get his blood pressure down. And he said, years ago, I would do this thing where I would walk around, and he's like, I would just metaphysically look at people and just send them beams of love, strangers, whoever, just send them beams of love. And it hit me like, oh wow, okay, that's essentially what I was trying to do last night. And then it hit me that here we are, 6 days out from the election, And as I notice so much of my own anxiety and tension, aggravation, judgment, fear, frustration that I'm carrying with me and trying to constantly catch and release and surrender, that there's a greater opportunity to not just tolerate those that we disagree with and those that annoy us, but to actually actively send them love. And, and maybe that's too woo-woo, and maybe that's too Just, I don't know, too soft. But I know what it feels like to just continue to carry around aggravation. But if I can just genuinely send love to the other, send love to the people and the things that are aggravating me, whoo, just that alone. And to have that be my practice for the next 6 days, have it be my practice for today. But then have it be my practice for the next 6 days. Regardless of the outcome, regardless of how things go down, just continue to send those people love. That's what I'm going to do for today. That's your moment of yes. I would love for you guys to do it with me, and we can share our feedback to see how that goes. My Friday moment of yes will be a check-in on this, so I'm cheating. Today's moment of yes and Friday's moment of yes are going to be the same, but Friday is going to be a check-in. All right, guys, that's it. Have a great day. Bye.
