WEBVTT 00:00:01.960 --> 00:00:04.719 Have you ever faced something so shattering, 00:00:05.200 --> 00:00:09.240 a sudden crash or a devastating loss? A moment 00:00:09.240 --> 00:00:12.140 where the ground literally disappears beneath 00:00:12.140 --> 00:00:15.419 you and wondered how you could ever possibly 00:00:15.419 --> 00:00:18.699 come back. Our guest today knows that feeling 00:00:18.699 --> 00:00:22.160 intimately. We're talking about trauma, not just 00:00:22.160 --> 00:00:25.539 as a concept, but as a real force that can break 00:00:25.539 --> 00:00:30.320 us and incredibly make us. Today, we're sitting 00:00:30.320 --> 00:00:33.460 down with Jeff. Razzly, if I'm saying it correctly, 00:00:34.140 --> 00:00:38.179 an author, a Himalayan expedition leader, and 00:00:38.179 --> 00:00:41.719 a dedicated humanitarian. Jeff is a survivor 00:00:41.719 --> 00:00:45.960 who navigated intense PTSD following a crippling 00:00:45.960 --> 00:00:49.899 motorcycle wreck in Mexico and a fatal avalanche 00:00:49.899 --> 00:00:54.100 in Nepal. His journey isn't about surviving those 00:00:54.100 --> 00:00:57.299 high -stake moments. It's about what he learned 00:00:57.299 --> 00:01:00.960 on the other side. This conversation is... anyone 00:01:00.960 --> 00:01:04.739 who's ever felt broken and needs a guide on finding 00:01:04.739 --> 00:01:07.879 their way back to purpose. So we're going to 00:01:07.879 --> 00:01:11.060 dive right in. This is Keeping It Real on Purpose, 00:01:11.140 --> 00:01:14.579 and I am Edna White, your host. And I welcome 00:01:14.579 --> 00:01:20.260 my guest, Jeff Rasley, to the show. Thank you, 00:01:20.299 --> 00:01:23.319 Edna. It's very good to be with you. Yeah, you 00:01:23.319 --> 00:01:26.840 too. So I'm really excited because... I, when 00:01:26.840 --> 00:01:30.159 I was reading your bio is like, man, I got to 00:01:30.159 --> 00:01:34.640 see if this guy looks like, well, sorry, sorry 00:01:34.640 --> 00:01:39.480 to disappoint you. All of this, I has, oh man, 00:01:39.500 --> 00:01:42.480 I got to see this guy because he's, he's got 00:01:42.480 --> 00:01:45.739 some strength and some angels around him, you 00:01:45.739 --> 00:01:49.340 know, and just really define the odds. That's 00:01:49.340 --> 00:01:53.760 the word to find the odds. So, um, so tell us 00:01:53.760 --> 00:01:56.840 about, you know, how you show up in the world? 00:01:57.019 --> 00:01:59.719 Because I know some of it, but the audience doesn't 00:01:59.719 --> 00:02:07.219 know. Well, currently, I'm a writer. I've published 00:02:07.219 --> 00:02:15.319 17 books, I think about 90 articles. So that's 00:02:15.319 --> 00:02:19.669 sort of my primary focus now. I practiced law 00:02:19.669 --> 00:02:25.150 for 30 years. Then I taught a class on philanthropy 00:02:25.150 --> 00:02:28.569 at Marion University and Butler University here 00:02:28.569 --> 00:02:33.009 in Indianapolis where I live. And I've been married 00:02:33.009 --> 00:02:40.949 to the same woman for 50 years, Alicia. We were 00:02:40.949 --> 00:02:44.009 college sweethearts at the University of Chicago. 00:02:44.830 --> 00:02:49.819 And we had two grown kids. poppy cat who's wandering 00:02:49.819 --> 00:02:55.340 around, sticks her tail where the camera can 00:02:55.340 --> 00:02:59.659 see her. That's wonderful. Jeffrey, your life 00:02:59.659 --> 00:03:05.360 has included two life -altering events, the motorcycle 00:03:05.360 --> 00:03:09.659 wreck in Mexico and the avalanche in Nepal. Most 00:03:09.659 --> 00:03:13.539 people can't even imagine that level of crisis. 00:03:14.349 --> 00:03:18.310 in this immediate aftermath of either of those 00:03:18.310 --> 00:03:20.969 crises, what was the first thought or feeling 00:03:20.969 --> 00:03:23.669 that signaled this was more than just a bad day? 00:03:25.509 --> 00:03:33.870 Well, yeah, so I was 19 when I was on a motorcycle 00:03:33.870 --> 00:03:38.650 with a passenger on the back who I had actually 00:03:38.650 --> 00:03:43.689 just met that day. down in Mazatlan, Mexico and 00:03:43.689 --> 00:03:51.289 we were riding into town from a camp and we came 00:03:51.289 --> 00:03:55.669 to a cross street. I looked both ways, started 00:03:55.669 --> 00:03:59.449 to cross and then there was just an explosion 00:03:59.449 --> 00:04:02.389 and I went flying through the air and we had 00:04:02.389 --> 00:04:08.520 been T -boned by a car. I flew over the handlebars, 00:04:08.620 --> 00:04:14.039 landed on all fours, sort of cat -like. And my 00:04:14.039 --> 00:04:18.259 only injuries were I cracked my radius forearm 00:04:18.259 --> 00:04:24.699 and broke my shoulder. But my passenger, a wonderful 00:04:24.699 --> 00:04:30.420 guy named Bob Dell, who had... taking my buddy, 00:04:31.019 --> 00:04:34.819 Tim Cosnop, who he and I had ridden over 4 ,000 00:04:34.819 --> 00:04:39.519 miles together from Indiana down through Mexico. 00:04:40.139 --> 00:04:45.160 But Bob and his friend, Gene, took us in. We're 00:04:45.160 --> 00:04:48.339 kind of looking out for us because Tim's motorcycle 00:04:48.339 --> 00:04:52.470 was stolen that day. So within a matter of hours, 00:04:53.269 --> 00:04:56.509 my riding partner's motorcycle was stolen with 00:04:56.509 --> 00:05:01.310 everything, his pack, his clothes, his money. 00:05:01.889 --> 00:05:06.250 And then I was hit and my motorcycle was wrecked. 00:05:06.750 --> 00:05:11.329 And Bob was really very seriously injured. And 00:05:11.329 --> 00:05:14.449 we were taken to a hospital. But you asked what 00:05:14.449 --> 00:05:19.329 was my immediate reaction. I was in shock, I 00:05:19.329 --> 00:05:23.189 mean, medical, a state of shock, but I saw Bob 00:05:23.189 --> 00:05:28.850 in the street with bones sticking out from his 00:05:28.850 --> 00:05:33.870 shoulder and his hip. And I just started yelling 00:05:33.870 --> 00:05:38.649 for an ambulance, you know, ambulance, ambulance, 00:05:38.850 --> 00:05:42.589 which eventually an ambulance came and we were 00:05:42.589 --> 00:05:46.610 taken to a hospital. Right. Yeah, that's tough. 00:05:46.730 --> 00:05:49.649 That's really tough. There's a lot of like, I 00:05:49.649 --> 00:05:54.329 know I've been in a car accident and I didn't 00:05:54.329 --> 00:05:58.170 even think about PTSD from after it, but I know 00:05:58.170 --> 00:06:01.709 that there's an amount of PTSD that you experienced. 00:06:01.790 --> 00:06:06.250 Can you talk about that? Yeah, it actually took 00:06:06.250 --> 00:06:10.930 quite a while because I was in survival mode 00:06:10.930 --> 00:06:18.740 for for some time because after the crash, Bob 00:06:18.740 --> 00:06:21.579 and I were in the hospital and we were under 00:06:21.579 --> 00:06:27.600 arrest. There was an armed guard sitting at our 00:06:27.600 --> 00:06:31.639 doorway in the hospital room 24 hours a day. 00:06:32.860 --> 00:06:39.319 And Bob came out of emergency surgery. and was 00:06:39.319 --> 00:06:42.480 crying and moaning and was obviously in terrible 00:06:42.480 --> 00:06:48.120 pain. And I kept asking the guard to go get a 00:06:48.120 --> 00:06:53.180 doctor because my friend needed, you know, help 00:06:53.180 --> 00:06:56.560 needed to be looked at because he was in so much 00:06:56.560 --> 00:06:59.819 pain. And the the guard, the policeman wouldn't 00:06:59.819 --> 00:07:05.639 let me and he wouldn't do it. So eventually. 00:07:06.350 --> 00:07:13.009 I knocked him down and jumped over him and ran 00:07:13.009 --> 00:07:17.410 out and found a doctor. And they came back and 00:07:17.410 --> 00:07:22.490 gave Bob more Demerol to treat the pain. But 00:07:22.490 --> 00:07:26.850 then, you know, it was a complicated situation 00:07:26.850 --> 00:07:30.069 to get out of the hospital and get out of the 00:07:30.069 --> 00:07:35.209 country. But eventually. We did. And then Tim 00:07:35.209 --> 00:07:39.990 and I hitchhiked home to Indiana from California. 00:07:40.290 --> 00:07:44.110 How far? How far was? OK. OK. Yeah. So, you know, 00:07:44.250 --> 00:07:49.610 2000 miles. So we were about 750 miles down in 00:07:49.610 --> 00:07:54.610 Mazatlan from the California border. And I had 00:07:54.610 --> 00:07:58.529 relatives and uncle and cousins in the L .A. 00:07:58.589 --> 00:08:02.470 area. So we we took a train up there. But then 00:08:02.470 --> 00:08:06.240 we Hitchhiked home because we were 19 year olds. 00:08:06.240 --> 00:08:10.639 We were determined to get home on our own power 00:08:10.639 --> 00:08:18.139 our own power, but Heard your dog and so anyway, 00:08:18.199 --> 00:08:22.040 so we hitchhiked home and Again, it was just 00:08:22.040 --> 00:08:25.680 like I'm in survival mode. This isn't really 00:08:25.680 --> 00:08:31.839 affecting me and then After I was home I was 00:08:31.839 --> 00:08:36.580 working in a factory before I went back to school 00:08:36.580 --> 00:08:39.299 at the University of Chicago and I had a steel 00:08:39.299 --> 00:08:42.340 pin in my shoulder and my arm was in a cast and 00:08:42.340 --> 00:08:45.879 then a sling. And it was, you know, still just, 00:08:45.879 --> 00:08:48.799 you know, surviving that. And then it wasn't 00:08:48.799 --> 00:08:52.539 really until I was back in school, I started 00:08:52.539 --> 00:08:58.220 waking up every night, completely covered in 00:08:58.220 --> 00:09:03.139 sweat, just. Wow. total body sweat. And, you 00:09:03.139 --> 00:09:05.340 know, at first I didn't know what was going on. 00:09:05.480 --> 00:09:08.820 I mean, I'd never experienced this before. But 00:09:08.820 --> 00:09:13.460 eventually I kept having, you know, kind of reliving 00:09:13.460 --> 00:09:17.980 the crash and seeing Bob with the bones sticking 00:09:17.980 --> 00:09:25.470 out of his hip and his shoulder. We stayed in 00:09:25.470 --> 00:09:27.830 contact and wrote each other and talked on the 00:09:27.830 --> 00:09:31.990 phone. We eventually, over the years, lost contact. 00:09:32.090 --> 00:09:36.309 I don't know what's happened to him. But he was 00:09:36.309 --> 00:09:40.950 crippled. He was going to walk with a limp at 00:09:40.950 --> 00:09:47.159 best the rest of his life. even though the woman 00:09:47.159 --> 00:09:52.139 who hit us was eventually also arrested and was 00:09:52.139 --> 00:09:55.419 determined by the local prosecutor that it was 00:09:55.419 --> 00:10:02.000 her fault. You know, I felt this really terrible 00:10:02.000 --> 00:10:05.580 guilt that this was the first time Bob had ever 00:10:05.580 --> 00:10:10.039 been on a motorcycle. He asked me to give him 00:10:10.039 --> 00:10:13.899 a ride and take, you know, ride him into town. 00:10:13.899 --> 00:10:18.110 And then that happened. So it was you know for 00:10:18.110 --> 00:10:21.809 a 19 year old it was just hard to live with yeah, 00:10:21.990 --> 00:10:27.330 and that the the sweats Lasted for about nine 00:10:27.330 --> 00:10:31.230 months basically through the school year and 00:10:31.230 --> 00:10:36.549 then that next summer My wife and I got married 00:10:36.549 --> 00:10:40.980 and I don't know I don't know if I should give 00:10:40.980 --> 00:10:45.460 her credit, but it seems like eventually over 00:10:45.460 --> 00:10:48.600 the course of that next year, I mean, they continued 00:10:48.600 --> 00:10:51.639 even after we were married for a while, but it 00:10:51.639 --> 00:10:56.100 became, you know, less and less often, more time 00:10:56.100 --> 00:10:58.179 would go on. And so it was, you know, maybe once 00:10:58.179 --> 00:11:03.120 a week and then eventually it stopped. Wow. Wow. 00:11:03.700 --> 00:11:07.149 You experienced some significant PTSD from. from 00:11:07.149 --> 00:11:10.029 that and I know maybe even Bob probably, right? 00:11:10.629 --> 00:11:14.690 So I know it seemed like the way you're telling 00:11:14.690 --> 00:11:18.450 me it's like a relentless cycle and even it was 00:11:18.450 --> 00:11:21.570 great, joyous things happening, you still experience 00:11:21.570 --> 00:11:24.850 this. Is there, when was the time that you saw 00:11:24.850 --> 00:11:28.509 that small crack of light that you could start 00:11:28.509 --> 00:11:33.250 to kind of dig out of that survival mode? Yeah, 00:11:33.250 --> 00:11:35.600 well, you know, when I was in that kind of the 00:11:35.600 --> 00:11:41.240 survival mode. It was all about just sort of, 00:11:41.340 --> 00:11:45.519 I can kind of equate it to doing trucking and 00:11:45.519 --> 00:11:49.320 mountaineering where, you know, the physical 00:11:49.320 --> 00:11:53.659 challenge is so great that you just focus on 00:11:53.659 --> 00:11:56.720 your next step, you know, put that one foot in 00:11:56.720 --> 00:12:00.440 front of the other. And you just you keep going 00:12:00.440 --> 00:12:04.159 by taking the next step, next step, next step. 00:12:04.559 --> 00:12:10.639 And I think that's sort of how I was living until 00:12:10.639 --> 00:12:16.399 the kind of the night sweats and the nightmares 00:12:16.399 --> 00:12:21.860 sort of took me out of that. And I had to start 00:12:21.860 --> 00:12:25.799 confronting what had happened as opposed to just 00:12:25.799 --> 00:12:30.340 focusing on that next step and to be more introspective 00:12:30.340 --> 00:12:35.769 and just really look down deeply into not only 00:12:35.769 --> 00:12:38.889 what happened, but how I felt about it, how it 00:12:38.889 --> 00:12:45.289 affected Bob, and that I had to take some responsibility 00:12:45.289 --> 00:12:53.289 for that and what happened to me. And eventually 00:12:53.289 --> 00:12:57.110 it was something like, OK, I can live with that. 00:12:57.330 --> 00:13:00.830 It happened. There's nothing I can't change it. 00:13:02.009 --> 00:13:06.230 So now I'm going to just go back to Enjoying 00:13:06.230 --> 00:13:09.289 life. Yeah, that's good. Did you ever incorporate 00:13:09.289 --> 00:13:12.730 writing or anything like that into into that 00:13:12.730 --> 00:13:15.110 as you were going through survival mode or no? 00:13:16.289 --> 00:13:24.230 Well, I actually I wrote my BA paper So two and 00:13:24.230 --> 00:13:32.120 a half years later about that experience. My 00:13:32.120 --> 00:13:37.799 advisor was very kind of flexible, liberal guy. 00:13:37.879 --> 00:13:40.639 And so I was supposed to write a paper about 00:13:40.639 --> 00:13:46.220 philosophy. And so what I did is I got permission 00:13:46.220 --> 00:13:53.139 to start a novel. And the novel was based on 00:13:53.139 --> 00:13:58.059 my motorcycle experience with my Buddy Tim. And 00:13:58.059 --> 00:14:01.279 so it was really it was I called it a novel, 00:14:01.279 --> 00:14:04.940 but it was really a memoir. And I just I started 00:14:04.940 --> 00:14:09.519 writing about that entire experience. And yeah, 00:14:09.639 --> 00:14:13.279 so yeah, so I did. I really, you know, relived 00:14:13.279 --> 00:14:17.059 it through writing it out. Well, that's good. 00:14:17.240 --> 00:14:19.519 That's good, because I know a lot of audience 00:14:19.519 --> 00:14:25.240 audience. they write, or they're interested in 00:14:25.240 --> 00:14:27.220 writing, or they're book readers. So it's so 00:14:27.220 --> 00:14:30.059 important to kind of see if that even helped. 00:14:30.139 --> 00:14:33.399 Because I know for me, coming out of my trauma, 00:14:33.820 --> 00:14:36.059 writing helped a lot. I mean, putting it down 00:14:36.059 --> 00:14:40.139 on paper and getting it out of you is so liberating. 00:14:40.179 --> 00:14:43.039 And it kind of frees you up to the next step, 00:14:43.139 --> 00:14:45.360 as you were saying, to the next step. What's 00:14:45.360 --> 00:14:50.350 the next thing? So that was really good. So you 00:14:50.350 --> 00:14:55.269 led expeditions in the Himalayas, and you run 00:14:55.269 --> 00:14:58.730 a humanitarian work like the Basa Village Foundation. 00:14:59.350 --> 00:15:02.990 You guide people through intense risks. How do 00:15:02.990 --> 00:15:07.190 you personally experience with the trauma that 00:15:07.190 --> 00:15:09.850 you had, change your approach to leading other 00:15:09.850 --> 00:15:18.120 people? Well, so I had been I started going to 00:15:18.120 --> 00:15:24.840 Nepal in 1995 and had done a couple mountaineering 00:15:24.840 --> 00:15:30.559 expeditions, but not as a leader. And on the 00:15:30.559 --> 00:15:36.559 third mountaineering expedition, when we were 00:15:36.559 --> 00:15:40.600 trekking out from the mountain. climbing experiences 00:15:40.600 --> 00:15:45.200 over. We're just trekking out to get back to 00:15:45.200 --> 00:15:48.080 Lukla village, which is high up in the mountains 00:15:48.080 --> 00:15:50.379 and it's an airstrip and we're going to fly back 00:15:50.379 --> 00:15:55.940 to Kathmandu. And there had been avalanches all 00:15:55.940 --> 00:15:58.500 the time that we were up in the mountains this 00:15:58.500 --> 00:16:01.840 time. And, you know, but they'd been in the distance 00:16:01.840 --> 00:16:07.000 and wasn't really dangerous for us. And we were 00:16:07.000 --> 00:16:11.009 going. across this very high pass. It was 15 00:16:11.009 --> 00:16:16.090 ,000 feet high, but compared to a 22 ,000 foot 00:16:16.090 --> 00:16:20.029 high mountain, no big deal. We're just getting 00:16:20.029 --> 00:16:24.070 through it. But the snow had gotten really, really 00:16:24.070 --> 00:16:27.409 deep, and it was thigh high as we were going 00:16:27.409 --> 00:16:32.009 across this pass. And what happens when there's 00:16:32.009 --> 00:16:36.710 a lot of snow If there was warm weather before 00:16:36.710 --> 00:16:40.049 that, which there was, then there's this sort 00:16:40.049 --> 00:16:46.730 of division. There's the soft, where it's warm. 00:16:47.000 --> 00:16:50.299 and the snow is piled up on top of that and it 00:16:50.299 --> 00:16:54.340 can become dangerous because this snow up here 00:16:54.340 --> 00:16:58.080 can because of that difference in the layer can 00:16:58.080 --> 00:17:02.919 start falling off on a steep incline and turn 00:17:02.919 --> 00:17:06.480 into an avalanche. So that's exactly what happened 00:17:06.480 --> 00:17:12.700 and above us actually on a higher ridge were 00:17:12.700 --> 00:17:16.480 three Nepali porters. And they weren't the porters 00:17:16.480 --> 00:17:19.720 from our group, but they were porters from another 00:17:19.720 --> 00:17:26.200 climbing team. And we heard this roar and immediately 00:17:26.200 --> 00:17:28.940 knew the sound. This was an avalanche and it 00:17:28.940 --> 00:17:32.339 was up above us. And so there were four of us, 00:17:32.579 --> 00:17:38.359 our guide and then our three climbers. And we 00:17:38.359 --> 00:17:42.029 just started running. are actually four climbers. 00:17:42.049 --> 00:17:44.490 So there were five of us. So we just started 00:17:44.490 --> 00:17:48.910 running down the incline down the mountainside. 00:17:50.890 --> 00:17:54.730 And by the time the avalanche got to us, it was 00:17:54.730 --> 00:17:57.950 just what we call spin drift. It was just like 00:17:57.950 --> 00:18:01.660 you're inside a blizzard. You know, just sleet 00:18:01.660 --> 00:18:05.660 and snow, but, you know, no boulders, no, you 00:18:05.660 --> 00:18:08.220 know, flying rocks, nothing that's really going 00:18:08.220 --> 00:18:10.660 to hurt you, so you can't really see because 00:18:10.660 --> 00:18:15.299 it's just so thick. But so we got down to the 00:18:15.299 --> 00:18:21.160 bottom of this mountainside and the three porters 00:18:21.160 --> 00:18:23.880 that we had seen up above us before were just 00:18:23.880 --> 00:18:29.400 gone. We didn't know what happened to them. But 00:18:29.400 --> 00:18:32.680 we found out later that they had been killed. 00:18:33.039 --> 00:18:37.579 They were wiped out by the avalanche and the 00:18:37.579 --> 00:18:41.599 avalanche separated us from the from our porters 00:18:41.599 --> 00:18:45.380 who were carrying all of our heavy baggage, the 00:18:45.380 --> 00:18:49.420 tents and cooking supplies, all that kind of 00:18:49.420 --> 00:18:53.059 stuff. We just we had just our own backpacks 00:18:53.059 --> 00:18:59.380 with our own gear. And so then So we're separated 00:18:59.380 --> 00:19:03.220 from them. The avalanche is blocked. So they 00:19:03.220 --> 00:19:05.960 can't get to us. We can't get to them. And our 00:19:05.960 --> 00:19:10.220 guide decided we should just go on to Lukla. 00:19:12.079 --> 00:19:18.619 So the five of us, the four climbers, four Westerners, 00:19:18.680 --> 00:19:24.309 and the guide. We had to cross three streams 00:19:24.309 --> 00:19:28.130 to get to Lucla and each stream was getting higher 00:19:28.130 --> 00:19:32.410 and higher. So like the first one was ankle deep. 00:19:32.769 --> 00:19:36.109 Next one was knee deep. The next one was thigh 00:19:36.109 --> 00:19:40.589 deep. But we made it to Lucla. We were soaked 00:19:40.589 --> 00:19:44.869 and freezing. But we were there. We were safe. 00:19:45.730 --> 00:19:54.900 And we were staying at a lodge. And so our guide 00:19:54.900 --> 00:20:00.920 went back to try to get to our porters. And so 00:20:00.920 --> 00:20:03.319 he's gone. He said, you know, just stay here, 00:20:03.420 --> 00:20:07.559 get warm, get fed, you know, take care of yourself. 00:20:07.559 --> 00:20:12.059 So we're doing that. And the woman who runs the 00:20:12.059 --> 00:20:15.599 lodge in Nepal, you call them Didi, which means 00:20:15.599 --> 00:20:20.619 big sister. Didi. was looking out for us and 00:20:20.619 --> 00:20:24.140 then she comes to us that evening and she's very 00:20:24.140 --> 00:20:29.220 upset and what's happened is her brother was 00:20:29.220 --> 00:20:32.660 on a flight flying in from Kathmandu to Lukla 00:20:32.660 --> 00:20:37.920 and the plane crashed and it turned out that 00:20:37.920 --> 00:20:40.500 everybody in that plane was killed including 00:20:40.500 --> 00:20:43.789 her brother. But at first, you know, we don't 00:20:43.789 --> 00:20:46.230 know what's happened to them. We don't know what's 00:20:46.230 --> 00:20:50.569 happened to our porters. So we wait all night 00:20:50.569 --> 00:20:57.250 long and eventually late in the next day. The 00:20:57.250 --> 00:21:02.670 good news is our guide Seth comes back with our 00:21:02.670 --> 00:21:06.789 porters. He had to carry one of them because 00:21:06.789 --> 00:21:11.400 he was had severe frostbite. But they made it 00:21:11.400 --> 00:21:15.759 back, brought all of the tents and all the gear 00:21:15.759 --> 00:21:19.779 with them. They were soaking wet because by the 00:21:19.779 --> 00:21:23.500 time they got to the river, it was neck high 00:21:23.500 --> 00:21:29.339 and Seth had to create like a rope bridge and 00:21:29.339 --> 00:21:33.279 he had to go back and forth. And he was just 00:21:33.279 --> 00:21:36.680 amazing. I mean, amazing, courageous, strong 00:21:36.680 --> 00:21:41.160 guy. What lessons about fear do you now pass 00:21:41.160 --> 00:21:43.759 on to the leaders, though? Out of all that you've 00:21:43.759 --> 00:21:47.960 done now, what lesson about fear do you pass 00:21:47.960 --> 00:21:52.259 on to leaders? Well, I would say perseverance. 00:21:55.039 --> 00:22:00.559 If you're afraid of something, you just look 00:22:00.559 --> 00:22:06.009 it in the eye. and face it down and go on. And 00:22:06.009 --> 00:22:08.650 then, you know, that sort of back into the survival 00:22:08.650 --> 00:22:12.710 mode of next step. Just take that next step. 00:22:13.529 --> 00:22:17.170 Yeah. You're now a prolific author. It seems 00:22:17.170 --> 00:22:20.789 you repurposed a lot of the pain and you transform 00:22:20.789 --> 00:22:25.450 a lot of the chaotic past into purposeful communication 00:22:25.450 --> 00:22:28.009 after writing all those books and all those papers. 00:22:28.680 --> 00:22:31.240 For listeners who are currently struggling through 00:22:31.240 --> 00:22:34.640 their own wreckage right now, what's the most 00:22:34.640 --> 00:22:39.160 crucial step you took successfully to find meaning 00:22:39.160 --> 00:22:44.980 or purpose after those disasters? Well, it took 00:22:44.980 --> 00:22:49.299 a long time, I suppose, to reach this understanding. 00:22:50.119 --> 00:22:57.230 But eventually, it occurred to me that Living 00:22:57.230 --> 00:23:01.430 your life is like creating a work of art. And 00:23:01.430 --> 00:23:07.609 so every day you are adding to that work of art. 00:23:07.789 --> 00:23:12.150 And as an artist, you want to make it beautiful. 00:23:13.150 --> 00:23:19.269 And so the actual the banner on my website is 00:23:19.269 --> 00:23:22.109 live your life like it's a work of art and make 00:23:22.109 --> 00:23:27.930 it beautiful. Thank you. I mean, that's sort 00:23:27.930 --> 00:23:31.289 of the fundamental philosophy that I try to live 00:23:31.289 --> 00:23:34.690 by. Yeah, that's beautiful. I like that. Are 00:23:34.690 --> 00:23:39.349 you working on anything right now? Yeah, I'm 00:23:39.349 --> 00:23:42.490 actually working on two projects. One is with 00:23:42.490 --> 00:23:46.589 my wife. During COVID, we started visiting small 00:23:46.589 --> 00:23:49.670 towns all over Indiana, and we've been to over 00:23:49.670 --> 00:23:54.519 250 of them. Wow. And we research each town, 00:23:54.700 --> 00:23:59.059 take photographs, do a little post in Facebook 00:23:59.059 --> 00:24:02.140 about each town, but we're compiling it very 00:24:02.140 --> 00:24:06.180 slowly into a book about small town Indiana. 00:24:07.119 --> 00:24:13.349 And then I'm writing an auto fiction. meaning 00:24:13.349 --> 00:24:18.549 a novel based on real experience, which is I 00:24:18.549 --> 00:24:22.170 was a law clerk for a guy in my senior year in 00:24:22.170 --> 00:24:25.569 law school who was the hottest criminal defense 00:24:25.569 --> 00:24:29.190 attorney in the Midwest. And he handled a number 00:24:29.190 --> 00:24:33.769 of high profile criminal cases. And it was fascinating 00:24:33.769 --> 00:24:37.970 to work for him, but it's also a tragic story 00:24:37.970 --> 00:24:41.980 because he went from being this you know, high 00:24:41.980 --> 00:24:46.839 profile, he was written up in Playboy magazine 00:24:46.839 --> 00:24:52.519 and things like that to getting involved in cocaine, 00:24:53.200 --> 00:24:56.519 ended up losing his law license, going bankrupt 00:24:56.519 --> 00:25:02.480 and fleeing the country. So it's kind of the 00:25:02.480 --> 00:25:08.500 rise and fall story based on him, but it's fictionalized. 00:25:09.519 --> 00:25:12.039 Yeah, you know, they say a little fiction is 00:25:12.039 --> 00:25:16.559 always a little non -fiction in there. Just a 00:25:16.559 --> 00:25:22.140 little bit. Yeah. Nowadays, can we tell the difference 00:25:22.140 --> 00:25:25.539 between - Right. I don't think so. Right. That's 00:25:25.539 --> 00:25:28.480 right. That's right. Listen, Jeff, we've been 00:25:28.480 --> 00:25:31.740 talking with you, your incredible story, and 00:25:31.740 --> 00:25:33.759 I want to thank you for that turning tragedy 00:25:33.759 --> 00:25:37.460 into transformation. What you share with us today 00:25:37.460 --> 00:25:40.210 is resilience. isn't something that you're born 00:25:40.210 --> 00:25:42.789 with. It's something you build in the aftermath 00:25:42.789 --> 00:25:45.150 of being broken. And I like that. I like that 00:25:45.150 --> 00:25:48.809 your story and I know your journey will prove 00:25:48.809 --> 00:25:54.950 special to those in the audience and even to 00:25:54.950 --> 00:25:56.990 end their own trauma and to see it in a different 00:25:56.990 --> 00:26:00.250 light. Like you said, take your life and create 00:26:00.250 --> 00:26:03.430 it like it's a work of art. You know, and that's 00:26:03.430 --> 00:26:06.250 a great lesson all in itself. Is there one thing 00:26:06.250 --> 00:26:08.490 that you could tell our audience who is struggling 00:26:08.490 --> 00:26:11.690 right now with trauma or feel broken and what 00:26:11.690 --> 00:26:16.130 you could tell them? One last thing. OK, yeah, 00:26:16.210 --> 00:26:20.190 you will live through it. You will live through 00:26:20.190 --> 00:26:25.650 it. You just take that next step and create your 00:26:25.650 --> 00:26:28.549 life like it is a work of art because it can 00:26:28.549 --> 00:26:32.579 be beautiful. Awesome, that's right. So go find 00:26:32.579 --> 00:26:36.240 Jeff's 17 books and his incredible, humanitarian 00:26:36.240 --> 00:26:40.119 work with Bassa Village Foundation. I believe 00:26:40.119 --> 00:26:42.539 you could just find him by just writing his name. 00:26:42.720 --> 00:26:45.960 Google him, Jeff Rasley. All right, audience, 00:26:46.059 --> 00:26:48.079 I want to thank you for being here today, hearing 00:26:48.079 --> 00:26:51.240 this incredible story. And I know that there's 00:26:51.240 --> 00:26:53.859 more to come when we talk about Jeff Rasley. 00:26:54.140 --> 00:26:54.720 Bye for now.