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Has the sudden rise to fame over inflated your ego and if so, how do you regulate it? Oh, I’m married Well, and you know more importantly I’m married to someone who’s very sensible, you know And and she doesn’t let things go to her head really she she doesn’t get overly upset and Desperate when things are overly upsetting and desperate and she doesn’t get overly enthusiastic and narcissistic when things are going well, she’s very level-headed and and You know when we’ve been through a lot, we’re not kids my wife and I were both damn near 60 you know and we’ve had we’ve had our kids and we have grandkids and we’ve Traveled all over the world and met all sorts of people and done all sorts of things And so, you know, we’re reasonably sensible and to the degree that we’re not we sort of butt up against each other and Try to make ourselves slightly more sensible than we are and so that’s helpful and Also over the last couple of years You know, I’ve had people I’ve been watching very carefully because well, especially for the first Year and a half because I was always one utterance away from complete bloody disaster and so I Was watching what I was saying and doing very carefully, but I had people around me who were doing the same You know my my wife being foremost my two kids who are both awake You know and careful and they were keeping a close eye on things and my parents are still alive and and they were watching as well And I have a group of friends Some of whom I lost some friends but I kept a number of them and they were watching very carefully and letting me know when I was not you know a little too angry maybe or a little too a Serbic or or Or arrogant the all those things they’d let me know right away. And so And I I’ve been a psychologist for a long time and I know Especially from reading Carl Jung about the danger of ego inflation. It’s not something that you want to mess with It’s very dangerous and you know, I tell these archetypal stories a lot and I learned from Jung 30 years ago that Knowing the stories doesn’t make you the archetype and that’s very very very important to understand You know, and so I’m I try to be cognizant of my shortcomings which are manifold and to be Grateful, that’s a good thing You know like tonight here you all are and I’m really happy about that pleased about that and and I would say Grateful is a rough word to use because it’s kind of it’s been overused You know, it’s been it’s been used by people who it’s been used to signal a virtue that is Non-existent often but I am grateful for this because it’s so unlikely, you know that that there’s 5,500 of us here sitting together in peace and tranquility and harmony Trying to think hard about what we should be doing in our lives and how we can make ourselves better in a non-naive and and non and non What would you call it? It’s it’s it’s that There’s a kind of striving for goodness that isn’t virtuous And I think it’s that it’s the praying in public kind. It’s the I’m against poverty sign kind I’m hoping what this is is that it’s it’s the old original sin kind You know, it’s like yeah Christ there’s plenty wrong with me and I include myself in this all the time You know, I know there’s plenty wrong with me It’s like it’d be good if something could be done about it even a little bit And maybe that would make things a bit better for everybody and maybe that’s a noble goal and maybe we can come and have a serious conversation about that for two hours and think hard about it and maybe we can turn around our lives a little bit and and because I think we can do that and and It’s possible for each person to make things around them way better than they are You know not always because sometimes you’re in such a dire goddamn situation that that Basically all you’ve got is slut Hope for slightly less hell, you know But man, you can make a huge difference in your life To take care of yourself properly and a huge difference in your family’s life and a huge difference in your community’s life And and it would be so good if we could people wonder well, what’s the meaning of life? Like what’s it all about? What’s what justifies the suffering and the misery and all of that? It’s like well, that’s what it’s all about And all of that it’s like well, that’s what justifies it is like you put yourself up against that you think okay All with all of this pushing against me. How much can I push back? Could I move the horror an inch back with with all the strength that I have at my disposal? Man and the answer to that is yeah You can it it makes you better with regards to yourself But it also makes the world a better place and so well so, you know more of that and and you don’t want to be you don’t want to be you don’t want to be a Narcissistic or or egotistic about that because it just gets in the way, you know And one of the things I learned from from Solzhenitsyn. This was an unbelievably useful man. This is a pronoun thing This is a pronoun thing About 30 years ago I came across this website that was that had been produced by this guy who was a paranoid schizophrenic And he was an aerospace engineer in England and he was no fool He’s a real genius he put together a really interesting site and he had this delusion He had developed this delusion that he was the center of the world and he had this really complicated explanation because he lived in the geographic center of England and He thought of England as the center of the word that had spread around the world and he lived right in the middle of The town that was in the geographic center. And so his schizophrenic fantasy had put him at the center of the world the center and he’d made a very elaborate web page about all of this and And then at the end so so I was thinking about that this the center of the world I was also reading Solzhenitsyn at the same time and Solzhenitsyn said, you know that the world is constituted And this is the this is one of the fundamental axioms of Western civilization is the world is constituted So that each person is a center of the world like literally that we can’t understand this because we can’t understand how something could be Constructed so that that could be the case because we’re used to things having one center, but the universe isn’t like that it has multiple centers every conscious being is a center and and a center of Infinite scope in some sense, you know like bounded but but infinite which is also very difficult to understand and and There’s a big difference between being the center of the world and as center of the world So if you remember that you’re as center of the world Then you stay sane but as soon as you start thinking that you’re the center of the world Well, then, you know, but you’re you’re just done and it’s not gonna be helpful and like even if you are doing the best you Can you know? You invite everyone else along it’s like I’m doing the best I can but there’s way more work to do man and we’re Everybody needs to participate and everybody’s participation. That’s the other thing that’s so weird about it Everybody’s participation is vital There isn’t anybody that it isn’t okay for anyone not to be in the game You know and and I don’t understand that exactly as well but that also has something to do with our like our being made in the image of God and And the central value and divinity of our consciousness the consciousness that gives rise to being itself These are truths, you know, these are truths It’s consciousness that gives rise to being from from from possibility and and and and that’s us That’s what we do and we decide is it gonna be better? Is it gonna be worse and if it’s better? Well, that’s on you man because you made it a little better and if it’s worse that’s on you too And that’s your destiny every day and that’s what gives you your intrinsic value and the and the and the meaning of your life The significance of your life and the effect of you on the structure of reality itself That’s all that’s all you and it’s a miracle, you know, and and and that is why I believe fully That’s why it says in Genesis that human beings are made in the image of God God is what extracts order from chaos from potential It’s like I don’t I think that that’s I don’t think that can be said in any way, that’s more true than that and It’s a hell of a thing to contemplate and especially when you think that you actually believe it You know because you do believe that you have intrinsic value Our whole legal system is predicated on the idea that you have intrinsic value Even if you’re a murderer, even if you’re accused of something absolutely highness There’s still something about you that has value outside of the dictates of the state and you treat other people like that that you know if you’re gonna have a friendship with someone or an intimate relationship or Love for a child or a parent is you treat them as if they have intrinsic and transcendent value It’s like well, is it true or not? And if it’s true, well, maybe it’s an incident. Maybe it’s an inexhaustible source from which you can draw It’s possible. It seems to be the case and it it’s worth the experiment because like what the hell else Do you have to do that’s better than to try that? so That’s that answer