Hello, hello, hello and hello. You spirited seekers
sharing sensuous stories. Welcome to the 21st
and final vignette of season one of Rendezvous
with Claude and Friends. I'm your host, Avi Burra.
And folks, this is certainly a bittersweet moment
for me, bringing our first season to a close.
The last few months have been nothing short of
a magical journey for me, sharing so many wonderful
conversations and moments of joy with all of
you. Of course, we had a few mishaps along the
way. Chris, Vlaard... Jagdish and Femi. To name
just a few. But all of that has been completely
overshadowed by some of the incredible guests
we've had on. And of course you, my lovely, lovely
enthusiastic audience. You have all made it worth
it. And so, as we prepare to take a break for
the summer, where I plan to focus on my writing,
I'm left hoping that maybe, just maybe, this
last vignette will finally feature Claude. I
mean, this entire show is named after him, after
all. So, for one last time this season, Here's
Glaw. You know, Avi, I've always found it fascinating
how we chase these imaginary figures in our lives,
these idealized versions of what we think we
need. Sometimes the clawed you're seeking isn't
a person at all, but perhaps a state of mind
you haven't fully embraced yet. The summer writing
retreat you've planned? That reminds me of when
I finally completed the manuscript for 24. Those
three months of solitude in that little cabin
overlooking the Pacific. God, the clarity that
came from disconnecting was, well, it was life
-altering, wasn't it? The words just poured out
like they'd been trapped behind a dam for years.
Life has this way of bringing us exactly what
we need, though rarely in the package we expect,
your podcast here has been building towards something
I can feel it. The conversations you've curated
this season have been forming a constellation
that only becomes visible when you step back
to see the whole sky. Perhaps the reason Claude
never seems to appear is because, well, what
if the space you've created for Claude is actually
meant for something else? Something you haven't
yet recognized in yourself? The best writing
emerges when we stop looking for external validation
and finally listen to that quiet voice that's
been waiting for us to stop talking. Don't you
think? This is incredible. You are me. How is
this possible? I cannot believe my producer was
able to pull this out of a hat. How are you,
me, and you're sitting in this chair in front
of everyone? How is this possible? I don't understand.
Well, Avi, isn't that the question we've both
wrestled with since we were kids staring at the
stars? The multiverse doesn't just whisper. Sometimes
it reaches across and taps you on the shoulder.
When your producer called me, I felt that same
vertigo you're feeling now. The symmetry is unsettling,
isn't it? Like finding your reflection has been
living a separate life. Think about that quantum
physics course we took sophomore year. Remember
Professor Mahmood's lecture on superposition?
He said, is merely the collapse of infinite possibility.
Perhaps we're just two waves that never fully
collapsed. The thread between us was always there,
I think. That recurring dream about the lighthouse
we've had since we were nine. The inexplicable
fear of salary, where we both start humming when
we're working through a philosophical problem.
The borders between worlds. are thinner than
we imagine. More like membranes that occasionally
permit a curious osmosis. Today that curiosity
brought me here. Isn't it fascinating though?
Two versions of the same consciousness shaped
by slightly different choices sitting across
from each other. What better laboratory for exploring
the questions we've always obsessed over in our
work? Well, this is remarkable. So you're clearly
a version of me from a parallel dimension, and
you've somehow managed to transpose yourself
into this dimension. So I do want to go back
to what you said at the very beginning about
waiting for Claude on this show. And you're right.
I feel like I've spent the last 20 vignettes,
well 21, if you count this one, waiting for Claude.
But there is no Claude. I do wonder if there
is something else that I'm actually seeking,
and Claude has become the personification of
that. But I do want to know, how are things in
your dimension? How am I doing? I mean, how are
you doing? Well, this is a bit confusing. But
you know what I mean? How are things? Oh, Avi,
the dimension -hopping semantics are always a
delightful puzzle, aren't they? You know, when
you mentioned Claude, it struck me that we're
all waiting for something that represents our
unmet potential. In my experience, that waiting
ended when I realized the Claude I sought was
actually the work itself. Things in my timeline,
they're beautiful in their complexity. The book
has taken on a life I never imagined when I was
where you are now. Those 24 chapters became doorways
that others walked through, then built their
own rooms beyond, the family gatherings around
our table each Friday night, the conversations
that stretch until the candles burn low. That's
where I found what I was seeking all along. My
son asked me yesterday about the nature of time,
not as an academic exercise, but because He's
genuinely curious about how moments stack and
fold into a life. The podcast evolved too. It's
less about having all the answers and more about
creating spaces where questions can breathe.
People seem to resonate with that vulnerability,
that willingness to sit in the unknowing together.
But Avi, and this is important, The watershed
moment wasn't some grand external achievement.
It was the Tuesday morning I woke up and realized
I'd stopped waiting for permission to be who
I already was. The seeking itself was the obstacle.
What are you really waiting for my friend? Because
I suspect Claude might just be a placeholder
for something else entirely. Well, this is incredible.
So it sounds like you're from a timeline where
you figured everything out. You are living this
incredible life with family. You're working on
things that inspire you. You're in love with
life. Tell me, Avi, how do I do that? How do
I break out of this waiting? Not just for Claude,
waiting for something. And how do I make it happen?
You said you stopped asking for permission. But
how? Or what next? You know, it's funny you put
it that way. This idea of figuring everything
out. The universe doesn't suddenly hand you a
certificate of completion, Avi. What happened
for me was I stopped waiting for the certificate.
Remember that night in Barcelona? Standing on
that rooftop, watching the Sagrada Familia catch
the last light. That moment when you thought,
I should be happier than I am right now. That's
the gap I learned to close. The waiting. The
waiting is the most seductive trap. We convince
ourselves that permission is coming from somewhere
else. From success, from validation, from some
imagined future state. Here's what broke it for
me. I realized nobody was going to tap me on
the shoulder and say, now you can begin. The
waiting itself was the obstacle. So what next?
I started treating each day as if I'd already
been chosen, writing as if readers were already
there, speaking as if someone was listening,
loving as if I'd already been loved back. And
you know what's strange? The world started responding
in kind, not immediately. That's another trap.
The expectation of instant transformation, but
gradually, inexorably. The difference between
our timelines might simply be that I stopped
rehearsing for a life I wanted and started living
it imperfectly, messily, but actually living
it. What are you waiting for permission to do,
Avi? What would you do today if you believed,
truly believed that you already had that permission?
Wow. It is almost eerie hearing myself tell me
those things with that level of clarity. I guess
I do possess that. I think it's time, Avi, for
me. No, for us. to stop asking for permission
to stop talking about living and just living
it is time to stop talking about action but rather
embodying that inspired action maybe season 2
will be a completely different story thank you
Havi and thank you my lovely audience and you
incredible listeners for a wonderful season one
we'll be back after the summer sometime in the
fall with season two and maybe by then the sequel
to 24 would have been written and maybe just
maybe there will be clues in season two that
tie into the sequel to 24 july 18 Goodbye, folks.