Electronic walkabout. No one should have to walk through life alone. We share the good times, the bad times, and the best times. Everyone needs a little direction now and again. And TC and Mad Dog are here to show you the way. A podcast where we talk about the important things in life. Come journey with us. The electronic walkabout. It's time again to join TC and Maddog on another electronic walkabout where we explore what it may mean to fall in love as we live our lives and this beautiful, beautiful blue planet. To guide us on this journey, we look at a song by Christopher Cross. Arthur's theme song. Best that you can do is a song performed and co written by American singer songwriter Christopher Cross as the main theme for the 1981 film Arthur, starring Dudley Moore and Liza Minnelli. It was recognized as the year's best original song of both the 54th Academy Awards and 39th Golden Globe Award. What do you think about that?

I was 10.

You.

Yeah, I definitely know the movie, but yeah, not so dialed into the musical score.

Well, okay, be kind with me because we're going to. We're going to be Andrew with this one a little bit. But first, before we get into it, though, just the thought. Okay. The thought of the day. Right. Your challenge. Find the best in every situation. Think of these as little fortune cookies.

Right.

That I'm just going to kind of open up as we go along here. Yeah, but you think about that for a second. Your challenge is to find the best in every situation.

It's mindset. Right?

It's mindset.

Right. You in a different place.

Yeah.

Because transversely, if you were to try and purposely find the bad things and everything, you would. Those two feelings are extremely different. But I'd rather live in the positive world.

Yes.

But. But yeah, it definitely creates an aura as to how your. Your day or your life's going to be.

If that's how you think and it's. And keep one. I pose it as a challenge, too, because it. Sometimes it is a challenge. Right. As much as you might be in the habit of doing, what's the positive here? Sometimes that's not always easy.

Yes. In certain situations will help pull you out of that.

That's right. I mentioned the word love and of course, I. I should mention that neither myself or Maddog are experts on relationships and love. But we will just share our opinions.

We have life experience.

We have life experience. So let's start talking about something a little bit more simpler than love. This song is really tailored. After the movie Earther which is really about a grown man that has yet to grow up. What is it that we realize that we're not in Kansas anymore and we actually have to grow up.

Interesting.

Yeah.

I wonder if that's like, I guess that's a coming of age possibly thing. Right. Where you, you know, living in your parents house as a teenager and then you decide to move out or move to the big city and then whammo. Oh, bills and work and you know, the stresses of life and. Yeah, that's a different kind of. It's a big change in your mindset. So I think that might be the first big one that people night encounter.

Yeah, I think you're right. And then when it, what it hit me is when not so much my first year university, but my second because my. Was rooming with my brother and we had to kind of figure that stuff out. Even though we were, we weren't totally self sufficient, it was, it was still like there was still aspect of survival there too. Right. That, that we realized, wait a second, we don't have mom and dad to put the food on the table. My mom and dad to do this. Even though there was some financial support.

There was, there's, there's a certain, you know, amount of comfort, the safety fallback of having that structure there which when it's not, that's part of that eye opening experience.

Yeah. And just on that same, same token, I mean there's that, that financial aspect where you realize that okay, wait a second, I got to get a job, I had to put food on my table, I have to pay rent, I have to do this. And if I want to get that fancy car, guess what, there's a car payment that comes with it. And I don't, I don't know about you, but I didn't fall into this trap. I didn't go to the lot and buy that brand new sports car and having the hefty car payments. But that, that's a reality for some. Right.

So yeah, there's a lot of jalopies in my past.

Yeah. Well, I, I'll tell you a story about my first car. So it was actually belonged to my brother and he had a loan out and it was a Mazda glc. He had, I don't know how long he had it for it, but he blew the engine out of it. So he was kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place. I said okay, I'll buy the car from you for like I don't know how much it was. I'll help with the loan and I had to put a new engine in it. Thank God I was working. Obviously I wouldn't be able to do it, but that was my first car and had about two or three years and had it down the coast when I was going to school and somehow it segued into the next vehicle.

Yeah.

Oh yeah.

And this the never ending loop. Yeah, yeah. I was whining where I was 16. I was like, I want a car, I want a car. I want a car. And my dad went out and he was drinking with his buddy and came back, he's like, I got you a car. I was like, what? He goes, but you're buying it. I was like, what? How does this work? He's like, don't worry, it's great. It's a 1971 Lincoln Town Car.

A Lincoln Town.

Oh my. Had a 460 engine and it was the biggest boat imaginable. And it was kind of like 70s gangster is. Which was fine. But that was my first car as a 16 year old in Alberta. And yeah, yeah, it was, it was a thing.

So was this a badge of honor or did you.

Oh, I don't know if that's it. To my friends, they were like, I could take eight people to school so that was fine. I charged them each five bucks because of the gas. But. But yeah, that was. And then all of a sudden I had a car and I wasn't quite ready for it. I thought the idea was cool. But then just even gas alone was an I open.

Well, how cheap would.

Okay, well, let's not go with okay.

But I will tell you this. It would have been cheaper in Alberta for sure.

Yeah, like for sure at that time was probably 49.9. If that's around that time.

Crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy. Now to the lyrics of Christopher Cross song. When you get caught between the moon and New York City, the best that you can do is fall in love. What does that, what does that mean to you? What do you think that means?

Okay, I have no idea. Now they think about it like I've hummed that tune a lot. Not really paying attention to the words until you've just said them now, but let's flip it back to you, sir.

Well, thank you very much because like I, I thought, first of all, I thought it had to do with actually falling in love, but it doesn't. It really doesn't. And much as much as that would be the easiest road to go down, right? Because the best you can do and fall in love. But first of all, we're not, we're not going to get into it too, too deep, but I don't even know what it means to truly fall in love at a young age. Right. Because that's, that's something. That's, that's something I think comes as, as you mature and maybe fallen down.

A few times, really fall in lust, like. You know what I mean? As.

Yes.

As a young person and. But yeah, love. I don't know if that happens immediately. It's probably easy to say, but that takes time.

That love at first sight thing, maybe not so much. I guess it happens.

It does. And I'm not going to lie, it kind of happened. I shouldn't even say this because she's going to listen. It happened with, with my wife.

Yes.

Yeah, it, it was definitely. Honestly, and, and I know it sounds like a farce, but the moment I saw her, I knew that was it. But it, like it. You know, obviously the love part took a while and you, you get to know somebody and stuff like that. But, but it was for me, with her. It was instant, like, I can't even explain.

Well, just leave it alone. Just go with, that's it, she was.

Human and that's that.

There you go. All right. So. So metaphorically speaking, we have New York City. And when you, when you think about New York, you think about hustle bustle, like, what's the gland, the uphill climb, let's say the stock market and moving parts that makes life complicated. And then you got the moon. Something that's very, very, very beautiful. Something that people kind of, kind of gaze up at, but somewhere in between, there's that balance. So we're talking about balance again all of a sudden between that hustle bustle of life. That. And trying to find that life work, balance. And truly, that's what that song is kind of pointing to when you think about it. I know. I just, I never thought about it because again, if you dial it back and you think, okay, well, I remember, I don't even remember whole. I was. When I first saw, saw the movie Arthur.

Right?

Yeah. But I remember it was just like a funny, goofy movie about a guy that never grew up. And all of a sudden he has to. Has to do it, right? So. And he realizes again, like he does fall in love in the movie with Liza Minnelli. He hadn't, he hadn't experienced that before. So there's, there's a whole bunch of different realities that are like hitting him in the face. He's got to grow up. He's falling in love and he's just not prepared to do it.

It's. I don't know if anybody's really prepared at the time. It's not just shown, you know, from that carefree kind of youthful thing to, quote unquote, adulthood. It's a nasty switch.

Well, yeah, but. But in. Again, in the movie, like, we're. We're talking about a. A grown man that's never. Never had the, let's say, truly experience life.

Yeah, yeah, that's a movie plot.

It's a movie plot. Right. But I mean, like, I mean, if. But there is some reality in that we all. That we're going to get kicked out of the home and we have to basically sink or swim. And, and along the way, yes, we. We meet a partner or two and somehow something blossoms and leave. Leave it at that. Right.

So years later, you got kids and houses and blah, blah, blah.

Yes. Do you think maybe the lyrics are just another way of kind of asking the question, why are we on this planet?

Yeah, that's. That is an eternal question. And yeah, you can. Again, I think it depends on how you look at things. Like you said about that whole, you know, kind of positive mindset and looking at things versus negative.

But yeah, well, just running with that theme. That theme a bit about, like, why are we on this planet? How much time have you actually invested in trying to figure out what is my purpose in life? Why am I here? I mean, and there is that. I think I haven't experienced it, but I've heard as you get older, you're trying to do that reflective. How was my life? And yeah, I was.

And I shared this at one point and I won't get into it too terribly much, but when my mom passed away, she. That that was a. A grounding moment for me to live in the moment now. Not future cruise or humming ha and stuff like that. So that's how I kind of chose to live my life. But yeah, it's insofar as I think once you start getting older and things change. And I heard a song lyric the other day from a country song saying that, you know, my. My dad has more years behind him than he does ahead of him. And I was like, oh, man. Like that. When you think of it that way. Right. You know, because if you're. You're. If you're 50, you know, to make it to a hundred versus, you know, so it was just. It was a very interesting thought. And you know, I don't put too much sock into it, but I Heard that lyric and I was like, oh, crap. Okay.

Yeah.

All right. Nothing changed anything, but sometimes that's a kick in the ass you might not be ready for.

Yeah. And all this kind of. I know that when Toby Keith, before he passed, he was battling cancer, he came out with a song, don't let the Old man In. And that's. That was the reference to death. Right. So that's like kind of fast tracking what your lyrics are all of a sudden. No, he's banging at my door right now. Yeah. So, I mean, when we talk about getting lost between the moon in New York City, at one point, we have to have that. I'll call it a TSN turning point in our lives. Saying, yeah, like, how was it? Did it. Did I have a good time along the way? Did I? Did I? And. And I can go, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba. But here's the thing. I'm beating around the bush when I say this line. Don't know why, because it should be so obvious. The reason why we're here on this planet is spend time with family and make memories. And that's the only legacy that we should really concern ourselves about.

Yeah. Work. And like we've spoken previously, work can come and go. Money will come and go. Family is that one thing that's, you know, with you and attached to you for life. And that's. To me, that is truly the most important thing. And I've said that numerous times to people I've known. Yeah. Okay. I've had good jobs and good positions, but my purpose was to be a dad. And I've. That's been the most important job in my life and the one that I've enjoyed the most.

It's funny, the most important job in. In your life and you really don't have to have any training for it, you know, And. And you. And you get blessed and. And so many times, I'll not only say about being a father or a mother, we take that whole family thing for granted and we don't realize the importance of it. Right. So.

And, you know, again, my wife and I are very different people, but when we first started dating, dinner time, she was adamantly against the TV being on during dinner, and we sat down at the table and I was like, oh, all right. So for the first little bit, it was like, okay. But then the dialogue and the conversation started happening with the boys and. And then, you know, that is carried on to this day, like 29 years later. You know, we still have Sunday dinners where everyone sits around and stuff. So that, that really reaffirms to me the, the importance of family and that time that you spend with them. And.

Yeah, and you know, that whole dinner table thing, like, I'm, I'm, I'm a big fan of that for that very reason, because you, you asked a simple question. Well, how was your day? Anything interesting happen at school? Or how was work today?

And sometimes those kids are looking for that opportunity to go. But yeah, you know, just in one of my. We remember one of my, My older two boys were a little bit younger. We were talking about something and I remember they're referencing one of their friends and. Yeah, no, they don't eat with their parents. I'm like, what do you mean? No, no, he just takes his dinner plate and just goes to his room and that's where he has dinner. And I was like that to me was. It was shocking to hear that and I felt a little sad and I didn't say anything at time, but, you know, that's a pretty. It's a daily ritual where you can capitalize on it just by talking.

Yeah. And it really speaks to family as far as I'm concerned. I mean, I mean, we joke about the 50s of the TV shows, about the. Everybody's so happy in their family little environment, but in reality that doesn't happen. But in between, if we just take that break every day and spend that time as a family, it means, means so much. It really does.

I think in comparison to those 50s and 60s era, the amount of background noise that's happening, the amount of distractions now that with phones and just everything, that it's easy to tune out of your physical environment. Where back in those days you had a TV with three channels to watch. You could listen to the radio or read a newspaper. So, yeah, it's just times have changed.

But put in that effort and I'm just thinking a lot of funny you say three channels, but somehow my brothers and my sisters, we all seem, always seem to fight about which channel.

Three of them, please.

I don't know why we think about today when there's what literally hundreds and hundreds and hundreds. Right? So scary stuff, Scary stuff. I don't know. We kind of already talked about this for a bit and I don't know how I want to approach this, but I mean, there, there. And it gets back to that, that comment about, you know, your challenge is to find the best in every situation. How. How do you set yourself up to see that, to see that best in every sit situation? What is it that kind of Kind of kicks someone in, in the butt to say, this is what I need to do each and every time I, I look at something because it is hard.

It's hard to look at, you know, especially when there's so much maybe not positive or it's easy to find faults and things. It's, it's sometimes a challenge.

It's a challenge. But how do you overcome that challenge? That's the thing, right? And then, and you know what part of the challenge that we're having that we're hardwired to do that anyhow. But if you weren't hardwired, then if.

You were just a free thinker that I think you would just, if you weren't hardwired for it, you would probably have to base it on how you feel when you think positive versus negative. And you know, the feeling of that positivity and just that little bit of light heartedness I think would go a long way. But how to get yourself to that point, I don't know. I don't know what the solution is. For me, it was like, I think it got to a point where even just going to Costco, you know what I mean, like that will bring out the evil in a lot of people. But you know what? I'm going to take this as a challenge. I'm going to put in my headphones, I'm going to realize it's going to take me however long it's going to get to get in and get out. No matter how long I stand, just listen to the music and just kind of chill. And it took me a while, but eventually it was like, man, I would know it was no big deal and, but I, I had to consciously work on it because otherwise, you know, people start wandering with their buggies and I would just rather smash the pile my way through. But that doesn't have a good, it's.

Not, it's not bumper cars, Maddog can't do.

So yes, it takes a conscious effort and I think that you have to want to have that mindset and you're gonna have to work for it.

I think it's individual for sure. Because even, even though, like I'm, I think that way it's not across the board for everybody. It's not across the board for your kids. They have to find their own little way of doing that. But if, if you could somehow instill that in them, that would be such a great thing. Yeah, yeah.

And I tended to do that with any injuries that my kids had. You know, even if, even if they have to be mildly severe. Okay. Grand scheme of things. Yeah. Your. Your. Your thing there or whatever they. That hurt. It could be a lot worse. There's kids in the hospital and stuff like that. So you always have to go back to the perspective and look at the bigger picture to help pull you out of that. Easy to look at things negatively and say, yeah, you know, it's not that.

Yeah, things could be worse. And don't be. Don't get me wrong, because there are a few people in this world that walk around with that dark cloud and you want to stay away from that.

Is. It's like a black hole.

It is for sure.

Into that.

Yes.

Hard to get out.

There's not music in Mad Dodge. It comes pretty quick. You know, that's really.

But I think it's because of the positive attitude we have with these podcasts.

Yes. This. It goes by so quick. Yes, it does. Remember, we're meant to live our lives to the fullest on this beautiful planet. Never take one day for granted. And during this time, consider this. Seize every day like there's no tomorrow.

I agree with that.

Let your dreams run amok. Go for it, though. Think about this. We are on this planet to share memories with the ones we care for, and they are yours for the taking. Think about that. So when was. When was last time you made a memory with your family? And I'm not gonna ask about the prey before the. Okay.

Yeah, we took family pictures in the field.

Cool. Yeah, the grandson's got their picture taken with Santa on the weekend. That's nice, Maverick. That's fantastic. Finally, there is only one legacy we need to concern ourselves with, and that is family. So remember to take advantage of the moment before the moment takes advantage of you. Anything else, Mad Doug?

No, that's great. It. It's funny how some of these topics could go on for days, but I appreciate you being the moderator of Time.

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