1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:23,160 (Auto-generated)Welcome back you wonderful people who matter so very, very much. 2 00:00:23,160 --> 00:00:24,160 I'm W.S. 3 00:00:24,160 --> 00:00:28,160 Walker and this is the Laughing Matters Podcast. 4 00:00:28,160 --> 00:00:33,640 A quick mention to any new listeners and a reminder to any that have a few of the newer 5 00:00:33,640 --> 00:00:36,880 episodes under their belt but haven't done this yet. 6 00:00:36,880 --> 00:00:43,760 The podcast is based on a book that I spent 10 years writing because I found something, 7 00:00:43,760 --> 00:00:49,920 something kinda huge and bigger still when I saw what it was all connected to. 8 00:00:49,920 --> 00:00:56,520 It is easily the most important thing I have ever written and will ever write. 9 00:00:56,520 --> 00:01:01,080 And everything you hear on this show is in reference to the book or something that I 10 00:01:01,080 --> 00:01:04,440 learned by way of what I wrote about in the book. 11 00:01:04,440 --> 00:01:09,320 I recorded each chapter of the book, the Laughing Matters, as episodes and there's 12 of them 12 00:01:09,320 --> 00:01:12,360 and they make up all of season 1. 13 00:01:12,360 --> 00:01:15,000 So before you go any further, check out the book. 14 00:01:15,000 --> 00:01:19,600 You know, you're not going to have any frame of reference for a lot of this stuff and a 15 00:01:19,600 --> 00:01:24,040 lot of it's just going to, meh, right over your head. 16 00:01:24,040 --> 00:01:30,120 The Preface episode, the very first one, which you may or may not catch me pronouncing as 17 00:01:30,120 --> 00:01:37,040 Preface because I went half my life without knowing that P-R-E-F-A-C-E in writing and 18 00:01:37,040 --> 00:01:39,960 Preface were the same word. 19 00:01:39,960 --> 00:01:46,320 But anyways, that one can be skipped or replaced with a short summary. 20 00:01:46,320 --> 00:01:49,600 That way we can get you hooked on the book quicker. 21 00:01:49,600 --> 00:01:53,280 It is a shame though, because you're going to miss out on an anecdote that I tell to 22 00:01:53,280 --> 00:01:58,960 explain a necessary practice for reading the book the way it needs to be written. 23 00:01:58,960 --> 00:02:05,000 And you'll also miss out on a pretty good Bruce Lee impression. 24 00:02:05,000 --> 00:02:09,120 I picked his voice for the monk because Bruce was very fond of telling the story of the 25 00:02:09,120 --> 00:02:12,160 Western Philosopher that seeks out the Eastern Philosopher. 26 00:02:12,160 --> 00:02:17,400 And I tell the story in the book because I say a lot of things that you will probably 27 00:02:17,400 --> 00:02:20,640 already have some kind of baseline in your brain for. 28 00:02:20,640 --> 00:02:23,200 I mean, you've lived a life. 29 00:02:23,200 --> 00:02:26,040 You've learned a life. 30 00:02:26,040 --> 00:02:33,680 And as such, the human brain tends to slice and dice new information so that it can categorize 31 00:02:33,680 --> 00:02:39,440 things that fit and things that jeopardize the beliefs that the brain has formed from 32 00:02:39,440 --> 00:02:44,160 said life living or jettison the whole lot of it. 33 00:02:44,160 --> 00:02:47,080 The brain gets lazy like that as we get older. 34 00:02:47,080 --> 00:02:51,920 We tend to question currently held beliefs less and less. 35 00:02:51,920 --> 00:02:57,080 So we take the pieces from this new information that we can easily mentally file away in each 36 00:02:57,080 --> 00:03:02,680 of our already existing mental folders as support for the beliefs and understandings 37 00:03:02,680 --> 00:03:04,440 that each folder represents. 38 00:03:04,440 --> 00:03:12,720 And the rest of it we jettison. 39 00:03:12,720 --> 00:03:19,120 Now true, if something is truly profound, earth's shaking truth, a lot of times it 40 00:03:19,120 --> 00:03:26,120 leaves a residue and it stains like a cup of coffee spilled across the folders and the 41 00:03:26,120 --> 00:03:27,120 files. 42 00:03:27,120 --> 00:03:35,720 So in the preface episode, I basically asked you to create new folders for what I'm telling 43 00:03:35,720 --> 00:03:42,040 you about in the book, asking you to file this information away whole, because it's 44 00:03:42,040 --> 00:03:46,120 not all going to make sense until you have the whole thing. 45 00:03:46,120 --> 00:03:51,360 And I need you not to jettison some of it before you understand why it's true. 46 00:03:51,360 --> 00:03:56,440 If you finish the book and you still have pieces of it that you don't agree with, that's 47 00:03:56,440 --> 00:03:57,840 perfectly fine. 48 00:03:57,840 --> 00:04:00,480 You are welcome to disagree with it. 49 00:04:00,480 --> 00:04:06,320 For the record, I don't think you will, but if you do disagree with it, please be vocal 50 00:04:06,320 --> 00:04:08,000 to me about it. 51 00:04:08,000 --> 00:04:12,120 You're going to see things in it that I'd never be able to see on my own because I'm 52 00:04:12,120 --> 00:04:15,200 not working with your file cabinet. 53 00:04:15,200 --> 00:04:19,000 You'll think of questions to ask that I never would have thought to ask, and on the flip 54 00:04:19,000 --> 00:04:23,600 side, I'm going to have some answers for your questions that you likely would have never 55 00:04:23,600 --> 00:04:24,600 considered. 56 00:04:24,600 --> 00:04:28,440 So it's win-win, you know? 57 00:04:28,440 --> 00:04:29,440 Bring what you got. 58 00:04:29,440 --> 00:04:31,120 Let's see what you got. 59 00:04:31,120 --> 00:04:34,640 Bring what you got to the table. 60 00:04:34,640 --> 00:04:39,760 This definitely is a proactive, contributive process. 61 00:04:39,760 --> 00:04:43,640 So what you got? 62 00:04:43,640 --> 00:04:45,880 So yeah, the preface covers that. 63 00:04:45,880 --> 00:04:51,800 It touches on how, when I talk about my belief that there's a God, I'm referring to a sentient 64 00:04:51,800 --> 00:04:59,080 creative force that intentionally created us, and is far more complex than us, and that's 65 00:04:59,080 --> 00:05:01,840 all I'm narrowing the definition down to. 66 00:05:01,840 --> 00:05:09,200 I use the terms God and He because my childhood was spent in a Catholic environment, which 67 00:05:09,200 --> 00:05:13,280 is where I first learned about that creating being. 68 00:05:13,280 --> 00:05:19,160 But when I say these names, God and He, I say them with a definition that applies to 69 00:05:19,160 --> 00:05:25,280 any religious belief or sect or faith or understanding without getting itself too shredded in the 70 00:05:25,280 --> 00:05:29,060 filing process. 71 00:05:29,060 --> 00:05:34,600 Also in the preface, I address that I'm a science and physics nerd. 72 00:05:34,600 --> 00:05:39,560 My late 20s were spent studying to become a science teacher and a physics professor 73 00:05:39,560 --> 00:05:45,800 eventually, out of my love of shaping minds and my adoration for what we've learned about 74 00:05:45,800 --> 00:05:49,080 our physical existence. 75 00:05:49,080 --> 00:05:54,080 I'd like to get that out upfront because I believe there's a creating force, and there 76 00:05:54,080 --> 00:06:01,480 seems to be this prevailing stigma of science versus a belief in a creator, that either 77 00:06:01,480 --> 00:06:06,560 science is right or the believers are right. 78 00:06:06,560 --> 00:06:09,840 Just so you guys know, this is a myth. 79 00:06:09,840 --> 00:06:15,080 This doesn't actually exist in the scientific community. 80 00:06:15,080 --> 00:06:20,080 In the preface, I lay out a bunch of quotes and support from several representatives of 81 00:06:20,080 --> 00:06:24,720 the fields on natural, formal, and social sciences. 82 00:06:24,720 --> 00:06:31,000 The majority of people either in or teaching these fields that I've met believe that there 83 00:06:31,000 --> 00:06:40,120 is something that's out there, but I have noticed that they do tend to disagree with 84 00:06:40,120 --> 00:06:46,000 accepting everything that a group believes without evidence in order to be part of that 85 00:06:46,000 --> 00:06:49,660 group. 86 00:06:49,660 --> 00:06:50,660 Which makes sense. 87 00:06:50,660 --> 00:06:57,240 I mean, these are people that spend all of their time working in a very precise environment 88 00:06:57,240 --> 00:07:04,200 and system that has it down to the one hundredth of a percentile, whether or not a result counts 89 00:07:04,200 --> 00:07:06,760 as evidence of a theory. 90 00:07:06,760 --> 00:07:12,520 Your theory has evidence that supports it, or it doesn't get to play. 91 00:07:12,520 --> 00:07:17,240 Of course they'd have issues with backing religions. 92 00:07:17,240 --> 00:07:20,400 But a belief in something? 93 00:07:20,400 --> 00:07:27,420 To see the patterns emerge over and over again, and see how mind-blowingly incredible the 94 00:07:27,420 --> 00:07:34,480 naturally occurring patterns that form systems with specific purposes are, and how intricately 95 00:07:34,480 --> 00:07:39,640 they interlock to allow for life to thrive in our universe? 96 00:07:39,640 --> 00:07:44,880 Yeah, there's a lot of them on board with that. 97 00:07:44,880 --> 00:07:51,680 But these days, there seems to be this underlying tone that belief is owned by the religions. 98 00:07:51,680 --> 00:08:00,680 You either throw in with their specific beliefs, or your own beliefs lack credibility. 99 00:08:00,680 --> 00:08:05,040 And I want you to know that this is not the case. 100 00:08:05,040 --> 00:08:07,420 But let me be clear. 101 00:08:07,420 --> 00:08:12,900 If you are religious, and you believe everything that your religion has taught you, that is 102 00:08:12,900 --> 00:08:14,840 completely awesome. 103 00:08:14,840 --> 00:08:25,360 I am glad you found a community that mirrors your beliefs so long as they are your beliefs. 104 00:08:25,360 --> 00:08:32,680 If you are part of a religion, and only stayed because you believe in God, however you have 105 00:08:32,680 --> 00:08:38,320 come to believe in that creative force, and don't have much in common with that religion 106 00:08:38,320 --> 00:08:45,660 outside of that, just kind of going through the motions, I encourage you to seek God out 107 00:08:45,660 --> 00:08:47,400 elsewhere. 108 00:08:47,400 --> 00:08:53,720 I encourage you to look around you at the rest of it, and seek God out. 109 00:08:53,720 --> 00:08:59,840 If God made everything, well then He would be there too. 110 00:08:59,840 --> 00:09:07,120 If those are not your beliefs, then why are you trying to make them so? 111 00:09:07,120 --> 00:09:11,740 Just because you believe something different, doesn't mean you are wrong. 112 00:09:11,740 --> 00:09:15,240 And it doesn't mean that they are wrong. 113 00:09:15,240 --> 00:09:21,800 Humans have been around a long time now, and we were all over the earth. 114 00:09:21,800 --> 00:09:27,720 I figured that if God had interactions with any of us, He probably interacted with more 115 00:09:27,720 --> 00:09:32,820 than one person, and said different things each time in different regions. 116 00:09:32,820 --> 00:09:41,600 In other words, if one religion has had some kind of interactions with God, I think it's 117 00:09:41,600 --> 00:09:46,640 probably likely that most of them have. 118 00:09:46,640 --> 00:09:52,760 Religions are based primarily around the history of people's encounters with God, or God's, 119 00:09:52,760 --> 00:09:55,600 or the people who spoke on God's behalf, right? 120 00:09:55,600 --> 00:10:02,880 They're a snapshot of our past with God, and then mankind pontificating on what it 121 00:10:02,880 --> 00:10:05,280 learned from it. 122 00:10:05,280 --> 00:10:11,280 I figure that there's probably more than one true story out there, so I learn what 123 00:10:11,280 --> 00:10:17,640 I can from the stories told about them, and I look for the common threads. 124 00:10:17,640 --> 00:10:25,440 Because if God repeats Himself, it's probably a good idea to take note of what He said. 125 00:10:25,440 --> 00:10:30,720 So yeah, feel free to start at chapter one if you want to dive right in, and we'll be 126 00:10:30,720 --> 00:10:33,540 right here waiting for you when you get back. 127 00:10:33,540 --> 00:10:38,920 But I cannot recommend going forward from here, because the next thing I wanted to talk 128 00:10:38,920 --> 00:10:45,680 about was a little something I noticed about our subconscious recognition of the Breaking 129 00:10:45,680 --> 00:10:47,860 Laugh. 130 00:10:47,860 --> 00:10:54,000 It occurred to me while watching a rather brilliant piece of television put out by Disney 131 00:10:54,000 --> 00:10:55,960 and Marvel Comics. 132 00:10:55,960 --> 00:10:59,680 I'm talking, of course, about WandaVision. 133 00:10:59,680 --> 00:11:07,760 The series takes place in the Avengers universe just after Endgame, and Wanda Maximoff, aka 134 00:11:07,760 --> 00:11:13,800 the Scarlet Witch, is dealing with the loss of the love of her life, Vision, who's an 135 00:11:13,800 --> 00:11:18,440 android that was brought to life through a fusion of Tony Stark's artificial intelligence 136 00:11:18,440 --> 00:11:26,840 Jarvis and one of the Infinity Stones, the Mind Stone. 137 00:11:26,840 --> 00:11:31,600 Now this series was creative and excellent and touched all the right notes. 138 00:11:31,600 --> 00:11:36,640 All of that has very little bearing on what I noticed and what I wanted to talk to you 139 00:11:36,640 --> 00:11:41,880 about today, but I did want to note that I thought it was a pretty great watch. 140 00:11:41,880 --> 00:11:47,760 Any who, this scene takes place in a flashback, where Wanda's watching a scene from the 141 00:11:47,760 --> 00:11:53,320 90s sitcom Malcolm in the Middle, a scene in which Howl, the dad, is installing a new 142 00:11:53,320 --> 00:11:54,320 roof. 143 00:11:54,320 --> 00:12:00,440 He just built the frame of it, he steps back to admire his work so far, and the whole thing 144 00:12:00,440 --> 00:12:03,400 just falls down on top of him. 145 00:12:03,400 --> 00:12:09,520 Vision, an android who's still learning the nuances and reasons behind human behavior, 146 00:12:09,520 --> 00:12:11,240 watches the show beside her. 147 00:12:11,240 --> 00:12:15,560 It is funny because of the grievous injury the man just suffered. 148 00:12:15,560 --> 00:12:18,440 No, he's not really injured. 149 00:12:18,440 --> 00:12:21,360 How can you be so? 150 00:12:21,360 --> 00:12:26,720 It's not that kind of show. 151 00:12:26,720 --> 00:12:32,960 Have you ever watched or read a work of fiction that has a character, usually an alien or 152 00:12:32,960 --> 00:12:38,880 a robot or some intelligent animal, that's trying to understand humor, having seen it 153 00:12:38,880 --> 00:12:42,160 for the first time? 154 00:12:42,160 --> 00:12:46,440 At some point, most of them ask that same question. 155 00:12:46,440 --> 00:12:55,960 They point it out to us, not really to be funny, but because it seems to be true. 156 00:12:55,960 --> 00:13:03,680 And the funny thing about that is as works of fiction, their dialogue is written by other 157 00:13:03,680 --> 00:13:06,240 human beings. 158 00:13:06,240 --> 00:13:13,280 Human beings telling stories to human beings and offering up this truth that's hidden in 159 00:13:13,280 --> 00:13:22,880 a place that is very hard to look directly at, like trying to push together two negative 160 00:13:22,880 --> 00:13:29,880 ends of two rectangle magnets and line them up perfectly. 161 00:13:29,880 --> 00:13:35,760 It feels like something that wants to stay hidden. 162 00:13:35,760 --> 00:13:42,720 There is this part of us that knows what the breaking laugh is, in so much as you can know 163 00:13:42,720 --> 00:13:48,040 something you've never really looked directly at. 164 00:13:48,040 --> 00:13:53,720 And when a fictional character learns about the concept of funny for the first time, we 165 00:13:53,720 --> 00:13:59,400 chuckle a bit, as the subconscious way of acknowledging it as true. 166 00:13:59,400 --> 00:14:06,000 True, true, alright so let's change the subject and move right along, haha. 167 00:14:06,000 --> 00:14:12,320 We've known it for a long time, but it's hard to look at. 168 00:14:12,320 --> 00:14:15,160 Have a think about this. 169 00:14:15,160 --> 00:14:21,560 What is the demeanor of someone who is teaching someone about laughter when the learning character 170 00:14:21,560 --> 00:14:25,280 asks questions about humor? 171 00:14:25,280 --> 00:14:30,160 Most times that I can remember, the teaching character seemed to be a bit embarrassed or 172 00:14:30,160 --> 00:14:36,200 off put by the question, if not totally derailed. 173 00:14:36,200 --> 00:14:39,800 Because deep down we do know. 174 00:14:39,800 --> 00:14:46,560 There's a part of us that has never stopped knowing what it is that we are doing to ourselves 175 00:14:46,560 --> 00:14:52,720 with a breaking laugh, and that it's not okay. 176 00:14:52,720 --> 00:14:59,680 It's like there's a part of you that relaxes and nestles in when we genuinely laugh. 177 00:14:59,680 --> 00:15:05,440 Anyways, just something I was thinking about. 178 00:15:05,440 --> 00:15:12,080 Also that wandavision scene that I played has an absolutely stunning observation that 179 00:15:12,080 --> 00:15:16,400 Vision makes about grief that I wanted to pass along. 180 00:15:16,400 --> 00:15:23,640 Me, I am a sucker for writing that can put a very big idea summarily into only a few 181 00:15:23,640 --> 00:15:26,160 words. 182 00:15:26,160 --> 00:15:32,920 Like C.S. Lewis's, the pain I feel now is the happiness I had before. 183 00:15:32,920 --> 00:15:35,780 That's the deal. 184 00:15:35,780 --> 00:15:38,200 So concise. 185 00:15:38,200 --> 00:15:40,680 And the Marvel writers did not disappoint. 186 00:15:40,680 --> 00:15:41,680 Listen. 187 00:15:41,680 --> 00:15:50,920 But what is grief, if not love persevering? 188 00:15:50,920 --> 00:15:54,600 So good. 189 00:15:54,600 --> 00:15:57,440 So I propose a toast. 190 00:15:57,440 --> 00:16:00,460 To love's persevering. 191 00:16:00,460 --> 00:16:05,120 Love endures if you give it a home. 192 00:16:05,120 --> 00:16:15,080 So be good to them, be good for them, and you're gonna be fantastic. 193 00:16:15,080 --> 00:16:16,080 This is W.S. 194 00:16:16,080 --> 00:16:17,400 Walker signing off. 195 00:16:17,400 --> 00:16:43,240 Be sweet and bye everybody.