https://youtubetranscript.com/?v=hIFs5fEqzwA
But Jordan, when you’re speaking with Julia, the most recent podcast I heard, the, it reminded me, her description of her life reminded me of an experience I had in Russia. I was in St. Petersburg and we were doing a scout for a film I wrote called Love and Honor based on a novel that I wrote. And we were finished with the scout. We had seen everything that we were scheduled to see. And this young woman who was in her early thirties, a Russian woman, asked if there was anything else we’d like to see because we had some time. And I said, well, I’d love to see some of your churches. And she got this quizzical look on her face. She was surprised that, I don’t know, a Hollywood director would ask that. And she said, well, I’ll take you to my church. And I said, you’ve got a church? And she said, oh, yes, I’m Christian. And I said, but you grew up when that was discouraged and was illegal. Are your parents Christian? And she said, no. Their mother’s a confirmed atheist. Her father was baptized as a child, but he’s also an atheist. So I said, well, how did you become Christian? And she said, there was no beauty. I was a young girl walking around and nothing was beautiful. And one day I passed the church and I could see candle light in it and heard music coming out. And I went in and I kept going and I kept going. And I became a Christian. And that to me says so much. And people have no idea. They have no idea. That’s why I wrote chapter eight. They have no idea how much they’re starving for beauty. Yes. Like it’s a hunger that goes far beyond. Well, let’s not say that. It doesn’t have to go beyond material hunger, but it, it, no matter how well fed you are without some relationship to beauty, there’s too much suffering in the world for it to be viable. It’s the ant. It’s along with truth. It’s the antidote to, to suffering. It’s not opt, it’s not optional, right? It’s crucial. And you can tell that by its economic value for those who are hard headed. It’s like you can’t point to anything with more economic value, period, the end. And so. Well, some weeks back when you were, you were, I felt really working your way back that, that, that work and engagement and in your calling is helping to heal and sustain you. You said something along the lines of that, that you wondered why in the Christian community and religious community, the people were telling you that your work means so much, you know, why, why it, it, it’s, it’s somewhat overwhelming to realize that so many people are drawing from you. And, and I think I can tell you completely. It is. I, I today, I was sitting on a bench with my friend who walks with me and this kid came up to me and he said, apologies for interrupting you, but I was listening to your podcast while I was walking down the street and I saw you here. He said, and he started to tear up right away. He said, five years ago, I was suicidal and I was, I’d been listening to your lectures on a regular basis. He said an hour and a half a day, which seems like an overdose to me. He said, he’s invented prosthetic limbs and has helped all sorts of disabled people and is on his way to MIT. It’s like, it’s just a random meeting on the street, you know? Yes. Yes. And thank God for that. It’s too much. Yes, of course it is. But I tell you, and like, I know you like to understand, you know, that’s the, there’s something else you said a couple of weeks back about, I want to, I want to understand why, I want to understand why this story makes sense. And, I do too. But the what of it all, that to me gets at the why of it all, but the what of it all is that you speak to people like me and like others who, who know this, this experience of more, who know, who know what it is to stand in awe, to, to feel the awe of a moment. And you combine all the different elements of, of perspective, of thought, of experience, and you, you validate or endorse that, that people who choose faith and who see courage and sacrifice as crucial divine values are not idiots. It’s, I think that that’s- It’s no accident that crucial and cross are the same thing. Yes, exactly. And, and, and, you know, we, we go through this thing of, well, you’re just, you’re, you’re choosing an opiate. And, and to me, it’s like, well, the alternative is not attractive to, I, when I started working on the Pope story, I came across a statement that I believe is one of the talk show guys, late night talk show guys had said, Conan O’Brien, I believe it was, but he said that Pope Francis had made a pronouncement that he thought even atheists could go to heaven. And in gratitude, atheists have said that the Pope, when he dies, is welcome to enter their endless void of nothingness.