Episode 45: The Q&A Episode
Transcript
Patsy: Hi, I’m Patsy Clairmont, and I’m a Boomer.
Andrew: And I’m Andrew Greer, and I’m a Millennial.
Patsy: And you are listening to Bridges.
Andrew: Spiritual Connections Through Generational Conversations
Patsy: Season Two is brought to you by Food for the Hungry.
Andrew: Meeting the physical and spiritual needs of people all around the world for over 50 years.
Patsy: And we sure have fun doing this, going over one bridge or another. And there is a bridge that we walk across regularly, but it isn’t something that you can find in a certain state or in between two shorelines, unless it’s the shorelines of another person. And what I’ve found is that questions help us to know each other. They build bridges. When you have a good question, it can stir up a lot of insight about that person, and you get to know each other better, which is why there are so many little packets of cards with questions on them for the dinner table, because it turns out, it’s a good thing to kind of spit broccoli at each other as you ask the questions and have the fun responses that can be created or the very tender insights.
So this is what I would like to do today. Andrew, I’d like to ask you questions, and you get to ask me some.
Andrew: Alright.
Patsy: And we’ll see where it takes us.
Andrew: Where it takes us is exactly right.
Patsy: It’s scary to let a millennial ask questions.
Andrew: Well, you know, when you were talking about asking questions and conversation, I remember even as a kid my dad would encourage us to not just prepare questions for someone but to then listen to their replies, and that might even instigate new questions. So the great thing about conversation starters, the first question gets you going, but then you have the insight of that person, you have the content of that person coming back at you. And what I love about that is that you can find new questions.
We are endless in our interests with one another, if we just listen. So I’m gonna try really hard to listen to your answers.
Patsy: I just want to say, I love your parents. They raised you guys to be so smart and so interactive and so connected and so sensitive to the world around you, and I just really admire that.
Andrew: Well, thanks. I’ll tell them.
Patsy: They’ll hear it.
Andrew: Okay. Well, maybe. They're not that sensitive to what we do.
Alright, do you want to ask first or you want me to ask?
Patsy: You can ask first if you want.
Andrew: Okay, I’m gonna ask first. Now, this may seem like a specific question to you, but I think it’ll open up a lot of avenues for conversation.
You have been married to your husband Les for 59 years. Would you do it all over again?
Patsy: In a heartbeat, but I would wait a spell. I wouldn’t get married as young, and he and I have talked about this, and we believe that both of us would have pursued our education with some amount of fervor instead of what happened with both of us, which is we both quit, only to circle back later and resume. But I didn’t graduate from high school until I was 40. Do you call that a slow learner?
Andrew: Yes. There’s several words and phrases that come to mind.
Patsy: Well, I got so busy speaking I couldn’t even fit in the time to do that. What they did was they allowed me, the school system, to do the GED in sections so we could fit it in when I would dash into town, run over to the school, take a test, dash back, repack my suitcase, and fly off. So busy world.
Andrew: What was your favorite section? Do you remember? When you went back to get your GED.
Patsy: Well, what was the most fun was a couple of the classes I took as classes — the subject matter I took as classes — and the most fun was the history class, the U.S. history. I loved it. I learned all sorts of things.
Andrew: That’s what I feel like in this podcast every time I sit down with you.
Patsy: You learn another-
Andrew: Historic
Patsy: Historic thing.
Andrew: That’s right, yeah. Something like that.
Patsy: Okay, it’s my turn. I get to ask you a question.
If you could travel to another country, where would you go and with whom would you like to go, and why? So that’s three questions right there, starting with what country.
Andrew: Okay, if I had to choose what country, I’ve had the opportunity to travel, because of music and also because of some of the organizations I’ve worked with, to travel quite a few places around the world. Plus, I love nature. As we know, I love hiking, I love backpacking, and I’ve been able to backpack with some close friends, who also enjoy the same things, in different parts of the world because I find that’s a really interesting way to experience a new environment or culture being on your feet because, you know, it’s a little grittier. You meet people along the way, you need some assistance along the way in ways that you wouldn’t if you were taking all planes, trains, and automobiles.
There’s so many places. Can I pick two?
Patsy: You can.
Andrew: One would be Antarctica, alright.
Patsy: Oh wow.
Andrew: Yeah, just because that’s kind of a no man’s land in the sense it seems like you’re going kind of to the ends of the earth, and I like the idea of experiencing, you know, setting my eyes, setting my feet on a place that very few people get to see. There’s just something so exotic about being in such a unique space that so few people actually interact with.
There’s a spiritual thing to me there. It feels like such a great connection to God because we’ve yet to experience and we’ll never fully get to the end of God. I think that’s why we can have an eternal relationship with him. But nature even is sometimes an indicator of that. Our own earth, which is one globe in a universe. There are places that most of us will never ever visit or go. So it’s a really cool, kind of magical experience to see something that very few people get to see, and then you get to tell stories about it because that’s how you help other people see.
“We’ll never fully get to the end of God.”
Patsy: My friend Luci went there, and we couldn’t get enough stories or pictures because it was fascinating. She put her foot on all seven continents because that was one of her goals to do that, and she achieved it. But when she went to Antarctica, they were way out in all the ice, and they got in a small boat and made their way, cut their way, up a path to a trading post that was out there. It was only open certain months, and it facilitated some of the people that went on these small cruises. And she went there, and there was a gentleman that ran the trading post that had an old fashioned record player that you cranked, and he put on a record while she was there, and he asked her, out of all the people there, “Would you dance with me?” And she said, “I most certainly will.” So she talks about the dance in Antarctica out on an island of ice.
I just can’t even imagine.
Andrew: No, and if your eyes are open, you can experience new things everyday wherever you are, even if you never travel out of a small perimeter. But there are so many unique things to be seen and experienced that you could never even dream up or plan or schedule or put on an itinerary, just like what you were talking about with Luci.
Luci and I probably have… Well, we’re both single, so that helps with going to the ends of the earth without maybe having some responsibilities back home. But I love that sense of adventure.
You asked who would I go with. There’s only a few people, probably for each of us, that we want to experience kind of more extreme adventures with.
And I never answered my second place because now Antarctica, that’s it. After you talked about that experience with Luci, I’m there.
But I think it would be one of my closest friends — he’s really as close as my brothers to me — Ben. I met him in college, and he and his wife and two children live up in Minneapolis now, and I’m godparent to the kids, which is cool. And I don’t know what that means, and I don’t know when I’ll get a bill, but that’s the role I am.
Ben has a similar sense of adventure and experience. He’s just a great travel partner for me because we tend to intuitively like the same experiences. We don’t have to gauge. Because when you’re with someone traveling, especially under unique circumstances, at least me, I’m always thinking about, Are they enjoying it? Are they doing what they want to do? And Ben and I just have a similar palate. And so I think I would go with Ben, and why? I think I’ve already expressed. It’s to experience unique places.
What about you? Because you traveled a lot, especially across this country, but you’ve also been to Africa and such. Is there a place that you would globetrot to?
Patsy: Israel. I’m like you. I’ve got a couple of places in mind. I would love to go to the Cotswolds, and I would love… I love cottages, and I love villages, and I don’t love driving on the opposite side of the road on the opposite seat, just because I’m directionally challenged as it is and I would have no idea the entire time where I was. But I do love the English countryside, and I love flowers and window boxes and little gardens. All that has grand appeal to me. I like the aesthetic of it.
Andrew: It’s like literature come to life.
Patsy: Yes, yes. And maybe I’ve read enough cottagey kind of books and watched enough cottagey movies that I just have to a little bit of a longing that’s developed there, or it could be because I’m 70 percent English that it has an ancestral draw down in my DNA.
And the other place, where was the other place I thought, Oh, I’d love to go there? Oh, I know — Paris. And I would like to go to Paris with my twin friends, Deb and Jan, and the reason for that is the same reason you gave for your friend, and that is the same palate of interests. It makes travel so much easier if you are enjoying the same things so you don’t have that back-of-the-brain stressor going on. Are they okay doing what I’m loving? But they’ve been there before, and I like the sense that when I go to a new place, someone’s with me who knows the way because I get lost. I do get lost.
Andrew: Yes. I think that’s part of the beauty of companionship. Some people enjoy traveling alone. Even people who are married may like solo adventures. And there is something maybe to that. I’ve always enjoyed having a companion.
Patsy: And don’t you think it enlarges our heart is we see that people, while different, are still the same. How can that be? How did God do that anyway? And that his placement of us is very influential in our thinking, and when we go to other places, it begins to expand our realization and our ability to embrace other cultures and ways.
Andrew: Absolutely. And I think it also translates back to our perspectives, view of God. We like to box God up, and I think that’s human nature because we want to understand him, and so it helps to have parameters so that we can size it up and go, Okay, this is what it is, and this is how we relate to him, when God is so huge and vast and big and beautiful. And I think other people of different cultures, who live in different places, look different than us, smell different than us, cook different than us, have families different than us — all those nuances, to me at least, have helped me understand that God cannot be boxed in, that he is indeed quite large and vast and beautiful.
In fact, so much so — I’ve said this before — but when I was in Nicaragua, where I’ve done quite a bit of work with an organization there, there was a mother, it was a grandmother, who was taking care of some of her grandkids. And we were asking her — it was a child sponsorship program — and so we were saying, “What does child sponsorship mean to you?” We were just asking casually. And she said, “The fact that people from around the world are interacting with my grandkids,” she said, “it teaches me that with God there is no boundary and that he’s a wild frontier.” That’s how it translated. I didn’t know what she was saying in the moment. I knew she was saying something positive and expansive, but then when the translation came back that he’s a wild frontier, I just thought that was the most gorgeous perspective of God. And I think by getting to know people of different cultures, we begin to tap into that maybe.
Patsy: And it enlarges our world. I love that. I love that.
Food for the Hungry Sponsorship Message
Patsy: Food for the Hungry is giving us a wonderful way to take God’s Word and invest it all over the world, and we get to be a part of it. It will deepen their spiritual experience, it will help in literacy issues, it will bring light into dark places, and we can do it all if you will help us help others. And how do we do that, Andrew?
Andrew: It’s pretty simple. Our friends at Food for the Hungry are giving us a unique opportunity to purchase Bibles for folks all around the world, and here’s the cool part, Patsy. It’s translated, ready to go, ready to read in their language, and that’s a rare thing around the world.
So go to fh.org/briges, and for $12 a pop, you can buy as many Bibles as you want to help our friends know God better and read better across the world. Go to fh.org/briges.
The Abide Bible Sponsorship Message
Patsy: “Shout out praises to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with joy. Enter his presence with joyful singing. Acknowledge that the Lord is God. He made us and we belong to him; we are his people and the sheep of his pasture.”
That’s Psalm 100, verses 1 and 2, from my own Abide Bible.
When we abide him and his words abide in us, everything changes — our perspective, our attitude. So it anchors my soul when I go to the Word of God. It teaches me better behavior than I’d have otherwise because I can really suffer from a case of the attitude. So this helps to keep me in a better place with a sweeter attitude in a difficult world.
The Abide Bible comes in two different versions. I don’t know if you have a favorite, but there’s a New King James and then there’s the New English translation. It is set up so you can journal, so those of you who love to do notes on the side, this paper is set up to receive those notes. It also gives you insights on the edges of the pages that help us to read the Word in a more meaningful way, to meditate in such a way that it begins to sink into the very depths of our being, to pray the verse so that we get better claim on the truth in it, and then to contemplate so that as we move forward the Word goes with us.
So that is what I want to tell you about the Abide Bible because I believe in passing on the Good News.
Andrew: We have been talking about the Abide Bible throughout the entire Bridges broadcast, but one new way to highlight your experience of reading the Bible is a free 21-day video devotional series called Experience Abide. It’s an incredible way for people to experience the Bible themselves and adds a free benefit to your own spiritual growth, and so we are excited to offer not only the Bible but this free Experience Abide devotional series straight from bridgesshow.com/abide.
Patsy: Okay, Andrew, I’ve got a quick question for you. If you could choose your mode of transportation on a daily basis, what kind of a vehicle would you pick? Now, I’m gonna give you a little challenge by mentioning some. You don’t have to pick one from my list but just to open up your thinking. It could be a hoverboard, a flying carpet, a pogo stick, roller skates, a time machine, a tram, a cruise ship. How would you like to get around in life?
Andrew: With a chauffeur.
Patsy: You want a driver.
Andrew: Yeah, I don’t mind the car as a mode of transportation at all. Although, I was thinking a magic carpet would be efficient. Streamline, I like streamlining. But yes, actually this is true. I’ve thought through this. That if ever I have an element of expendable income that just I can’t find out what to do with, I thought it would be great to employ a semi-retired or retired gentleman who just wanted to work a little bit, enjoy a good relationship-
Patsy: Driving Mr. Andrew.
Andrew: Absolutely. I can get behind that 100 percent. And where I first thought about this is I was seeing through the eyes of our friend Ginny Owens, who of course because she is blind, she does not drive, at least on the main roads. I have driven with her in some parking lots before. She was a good driver. But because of safety issues, she does not drive, so she always, whether she’s in an Uber or a taxi or a friend is driving the vehicle, she’s always a passenger.
Now, while that may seem debilitating to some or lacking independence, and I get that — I like taking a drive on a back road on a Saturday afternoon with nothing to do, that kind of thing. I told her one time, because she was over there… She said, “Can I answer this text?” or something real quick. We were talking. I said, “Sure.” So I’m just driving, and she’s over there just catching up on stuff. And then I’ve taken long road trips with her, and of course, I will be depended upon to drive. She’s taking a nap. You know, there’s things that she is able to do-
Patsy: That you find appealing.
Andrew: Very appealing. And then to do it from the backseat for me while someone is in the front seat driving and we don’t even have to converse. Now, I think naturally with some of my extroverted nature, I would want to get to know the individual, but I thought, How great to have just a part-time…?
And it wouldn’t be all the time. I still want to drive out in the country, I still want to drive with my friends, but especially like when going into Nashville or back — I live south of Nashville, about 15 minutes in a smaller community out there — and this week especially, I’ve been back and forth every single day, which is unusual. And to have a chauffeur just-
Patsy: Would take the pressure off.
Andrew: I think so. And I think it would even, you know, I’m typically a little bit late. I wonder if I wouldn’t become a little more prompt because that last thing I’m trying to do before I leave the house, I can just bring with me.
So see, this could help everybody. So I’m gonna start a GoFundMe. You can find it in the show notes.
Anyway, okay. I’ll turn that back on you because you both drive and are passenger, but any mode of transportation to get from A to B.
Patsy: Yeah, I’m mostly driven rather than being the driver because once I get in a vehicle, there’s no telling what my destination might be that I didn’t even intend. So I really need a directional person nearby.
I thought about the flying carpet. It seemed like it would be a speedy little way to do it, but I don’t like heights, and there’s no-
Andrew: You’re exposed.
Patsy: There’s no sides on that.
Trams are not my deal. I had to ride one in Israel. I was with a tour group, and in that group were several of my friends. One was Luci Swindoll, one was Jan Silvious, Mary Graham, so I had some buddies right there in this system. But I had no plans on going up in a tram. I didn’t know when they said, “We’re going to Masada today,” that that meant a mountain and a tram.
Andrew: Yes.
Patsy: I didn’t know that.
Andrew: And you’re talking about the ones that hang from a cable in the air.
Patsy: Yes.
Andrew: Have a little swing to ‘em.
Patsy: Yes. And I looked at that, and I thought, Oh, this isn’t happening. And then the lady that worked there went over the intercom, and she said, “If you lose your ticket, you will not be allowed on the tram.” Bingo! So I lost my ticket, and when we boarded, I said, “Oh, for goodness sakes, I’ve lost my ticket.” And Jan instantly flew back in where I had been in the ladies’ room to look around, and she found it and brought it back out and said, “Here. Get on.” And I thought, Now what am I gonna do? And Luci was already inside the tram, leaning against the wall, and she said, “Patsy, come stand by me. Come here. Come on, stand by me.”
There’s something about a friend who’s fearless that makes you feel braver and safer, and so I walked over to her, she put her arm around me, and up we went to the top of the mountain. I’m so glad I didn’t miss out on the view. We miss a different perspective when we’re unwilling to take a risk, and so even though I wouldn’t pick a tram today, I’m grateful I get to say I’ve been on one. Been there, done that. Don’t need to do it again.
“We miss a different perspective when we’re unwilling to take a risk.”
Andrew: Lost the ticket.
I definitely friends along the journey, like you said, help us be fearless. When you were saying that, I was thinking how I’ve been on quite a few excursions with one of our friends Sandra McCracken. Her husband, Tim Nicholson, who’s been a friend of mine a long time, even before he and Sandra were married, and he just has a way about him, maybe like Luci. He’s very confident in his encounter with challenges that seem a little perilous to me on the surface.
Now, while I may realize rationally there are a lot of people who have met this challenge successfully, and it’s not necessarily a fatal end, I just have enough reservation in me, surprisingly enough. I surprise myself sometimes because I am adventuresome, but I surprise myself that I have found someone who can out adventure me, and that’s Tim and just his presence alone. Because I also know he’s a prepared person, he’s a thoughtful person, he’s a thinker, maybe much like Luci, he’s intelligent, he’s researched, so I trust his rationale too.
Patsy: They have conquering hearts.
Andrew: Yes. And there’s something really nice about that. I don’t think that’s me, and it’s nice to be pitted up with people who are different than us. It makes the world go round, right. So we need friends as we address our fears.
Alright, speaking of, I’ve got one final question for you. If you could be any animal, what would you be?
Patsy: Oh, not a sloth. They get on my nerves. They move so slow, and their nails are too long. I really like the fuzzy little bears. I like the pandas. I like the roly-poly-ness of them. But I’m allergic to eucalyptus, which I think is a big part of their diet, if I’m right about that. So that could be an issue. I love little dogs.
Andrew: Yes, you do.
Patsy: So fluffy little dog would do me well. My mother had a toy poodle when I was growing up. I thought it was a pretty cute little thing.
Andrew: You might have too much bark to be a toy poodle.
Patsy: Well, actually, they can do a little yipping themselves.
Andrew: Alright, then bingo. We’ve got you zoned in.
Dogs, we should all aspire to be dogs were we to be animals because they are unconditionally loving. I remember I was in the company of my mom one time, and I was kind of just asking out loud rhetorically like, Why are dogs so wonderful? Why do we all love dogs? And she said, just right way, she said, “Well, because they look you in the eyes.” I thought how interesting. I’ve never thought about that. They do look at you and look at you longingly.
Patsy: When someone looks you in the eye, it is a real form of acknowledgement, friendship, level of compatibility. There’s something about it. It helps us identify ourselves. I like that.
Andrew: Yeah, and there’s something unconditional and loyal about it.
I think I’d have to go with golden retriever, so I’m with you on the dog page. Even though, strangely, I don’t have dogs and I don’t want dogs, and you know I have a little animosity toward your dog.
Patsy: Many people do. Get in line.
Andrew: Right. But we’ve made peace. She and I work well together most of the time. But I do love retrievers. In fact, so much so I’ve realized I am softening because I started following Instagolden, which is a major golden retriever profile on Instagram. I can get lost there for a second. And I saw one the other day where it said, you know, they caption the dogs or whatever, and the caption of this retriever was “finding my new best buddy,” and they had just brought a baby home, the dog’s owners had. It was just clips of this dog holding this baby, wrapping itself around the baby, the baby leaning back on it. I mean, I just thought, Wow, retrievers have something about them that we could learn. If we could treat each other a little more like retrievers, you know what I mean?
So all that to say, I think we’re probably in reality chihuahuas and poodles, but we can-
Patsy: Yippy and nippy, and we know how to growl.
Andrew: That’s right. So we can aspire, but reality sets in.
It’s been an interesting time with you, Patsy, learning some new things, some things I didn’t know, and I think conversation is certainly the bridge that helps us learn new things, appreciate new things, understand new things about others but also about ourselves.
Patsy: It even helps in gift giving because then you don’t give them something that they sit and stare at you for a long time trying to figure out, Do you not know me at all? This is not in my wheelhouse. But you give gifts, and they go, Oh, she heard me. She understood this was important to me, and she has tied in a gift that makes it really sweet to my spirit.
So yes, I’m Patsy Clairmont, and I’m a gift-giving Boomer.
Andrew: I love it. And I’m Andrew, the gift-receiving Millennial. And you’ve been listening to-
Patsy: Bridges
Andrew: Spiritual Connections Through Generational Conversations
Thanks for getting to know us. We love getting to know you, and we’ll see you next time.
Patsy: Bridges is produced by my co-host, Andrew Greer.
Andrew: And co-produced by my co-host, Patsy Clairmont. Our podcast is recorded by Jesse Phillips.
Patsy: And sometimes my son, Jason Clairmont.
Andrew: At the Arcade in Franklin, Tennessee. Jesse Phillips is also our editor and mixes our show. And our theme music is written by Kyle Buchanan and yours truly, and all of the instruments of the music were played by Kyle Buchanan at Aries Lounge in Spring Hill, Tennessee. Our transcripts are provided by Rachel Worsham. Thanks, Rachel, for all your work.
Patsy: If you like what you’ve been listening to, you can help us out by leaving a five-star review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to our show.
Andrew: For more information about Patsy, myself, or to read transcripts and to listen to more episodes, go to bridgesshow.com.
Patsy: Catch you next time.