Faith and Fumbles

CA: [00:00:00] Welcome, welcome one and all welcome to the Catholic experience recorded live before a studio audience. Okay, not before a studio audience, but it is recorded live Friday november 8th in the year of our lord 2024 And I say thank you catholic church Today I wanted to do a little reaction video To comedians responding or I guess reacting to the reelection of President Donald Trump.

Unbelievable. Unbelievable that I keep losing track of this microphone. And I also have a couple of updates that I wanted to share with you. I guess I do that kind of every show. That’s kind of become a thing, I guess. Sorry. I hope that’s not annoying. Again, thank you for joining me. I know that you have a choice to do a whole lot of things right about now, whether you’re watching me live or catching me on demand, you could be doing a million [00:01:00] things, but you decided to click play on this.

And I really appreciate you. Appreciate you. God bless you. Let’s fade that music out. You like how I say that? Like I have an actual producer here in a control room. And meanwhile, I don’t. So first thing I wanted to get out of the way, What’s that frog in my throat now that I got that? The next thing I wanted to get out of the way is, uh, I’m trying to get people to subscribe to my newsletter.

Here’s why. Don’t tune me out. Here’s why. I swear I’m gonna make this quick. I already ran a newsletter. I have like 200 people subscribe to the newsletter. Every time I send out a newsletter, somebody else unsubscribes. That’s okay. Can’t micromanage people’s, you know, people’s likes and dislikes. But, um, It’s a long story.

Most of those subscribers, subscribers came from sub stack. Sub stackers are looking to read stuff. They’re not looking for podcasts and so on. The reason why this pod, this newsletter is important to me is because it keeps me connected to you. It keeps you informed about [00:02:00] what I’m doing, what I’m publishing.

Okay. So if you can please consider it, I don’t hammer your, um, your inbox. I sent out one. newsletter a week, sometimes a little less frequently, sometimes a little more frequently. I might send out two at the most. I promise I will not hammer your inbox. I would really like for you to Dan this microphone.

Oh, I see the cord is in the way. I would really like for you to consider signing up to my newsletter, um, because it bypasses the social networks. It gives me a direct connection to you. Okay. For instance, if I ever get deplatformed, how will you ever know that? If I ever, if, if, if X or any of the other social platforms de platform me, how will you ever know that?

How will you know where to catch up with me? You won’t. And so on and so on. There’s a million good reasons to subscribe to the newsletter. Um, I update you on my content. I put nice stuff in there. I try to include some bonuses here and there. Stuff that you only find in the newsletter. So there’s two that I want you to consider.

One is the main newsletter. I call it Notes [00:03:00] from the Field. Updates on my content, a couple of extra things. Sometimes I put something there from the church fathers and so on. It’s not just updates, but it’s mostly updates. Okay. It’s kind of light. It’s not, you know, a thousand things in there. Okay. It’s pretty easy to look through.

So that’s notes from the field. The other one is a podcast bulletin that I want to do every time I release a major podcast. Okay. For instance, the hell is this? For instance, I do a podcast and then I do audio clips. Sometimes they’re extended clips, sometimes they’re short things that I call audio blogs.

And with an audio blog, it’s basically the clip and then I do a little write up of some extra thoughts about what’s in the clip. Okay? But if I publish 10 of those things in a week, which sometimes I do post several things in a week, several audio things. I’m really just updating you on the main episode.

So I’m not going to hammer you there either. How do you sign up for these things? First, I [00:04:00]got to say again, I would really appreciate it if you did. You’ll find links to them in the description of this episode when this episode is on demand. If you’re watching it live, I don’t have the links in there yet.

Okay, but if you go to CatholicAdventurer. com You’ll probably be able to find your way there to, to, uh, the signup forms. You’ll also find, um, in the link in my bio, you’ll find it there too. But if you’re catching this on demand, you’ll find the two links in this episode’s on demand page. Okay. So that’s, uh, the update.

Usually I say that to the end and I don’t think most people get to the end of one of my podcasts. I’m starting to get that idea.

By the way, I’m sipping on a little bit of whiskey as I’m doing this show. Don’t worry, I can put down, if you’re seeing this, I can put down like three of these, and still be able to walk straight. So, don’t you worry about me. I don’t often, uh, have a glass of whiskey. This one, [00:05:00] I probably shouldn’t say, but I have to say, it’s a re it’s really, really very nice.

It’s, it’s not expensive, but it tastes like it’s three times what it, what you actually paid for it. Anyway. Okay, 

The Challenge of Integrating Faith and Life

CA: let’s get on with it. I have to tell you something. I posted something very rare. Do I ever post anything on YouTube anymore? But I posted something. If you’re subscribed to me in my podcast catalog, you have heard this.

It’s a, it’s basically a rundown clarifying my mission. Okay, what am I doing here? It’s Why am I doing it? What’s my mission here? It’s basically clarifying that. You can go to CatholicAdventurer. com and you’ll find it there as well. It was put on the socials, but, oops, odds are you haven’t seen it because that’s how the algorithm works.

Someone responded, or dropped a comment to it, um, that was really [00:06:00] intriguing. Basically, here’s what I get from it. A lot of people are suffering, hurting, trying, failing to be what they understand is a good Catholic. I’m going to do an entire episode on this, but I want to take some time to pray on it and to arrange my thoughts because I have a billion thoughts going on in my mind and I guess in my spirit, you know, how you can know things intuitively.

And they’re there for me to, to draw on. They affect my thoughts and my actions and how I communicate and what I communicate. And what I choose to say and, and withhold. You can’t drop everything on everybody at the same time. Some people you need to withhold some things at first. It, your mileage may vary, it depends on who you’re talking to, right?

So for me, they’re perfectly ordered because that’s kind of how my brain works, but really they’re kind of all over the place. It’s [00:07:00] little pieces of knowledge and wisdom and experience and thoughts that are all over the place. And I want to prey on it and bring them into something orderly before I do a podcast on it.

But I do want to say this, and I really want you to listen and take in what I’m about to say. In fact, let’s go to the drama cam. No, I don’t like the drama cam. Let’s go to camera two. So, here’s what I’m about to say and I really want you to take it in. The Catholic faith, the religion, is hard. But here’s the thing.

Religion and humanity are meant to go together. We are built for religion. We are made for religion. It is through religion that we find God, that we connect to God, that we worship God. It is as natural to God’s design of the human person. It is as intrinsic to our constitution as [00:08:00] breathing, blinking our eyes, eating, and yes, even having sex with our spouse.

Well, then why does it seem so difficult? Here’s why. Because religion, specifically Catholicism, if it’s the right religion, religion pulls us out of the muck of our fallen selves. It pulls us out of that muck. But we have to, we have to do the religion, therefore it requires our effort. We want to be lazy.

We want to be lustful. When you think of lust, don’t always think of sex, by the way. It is that, but it’s not just that. Okay. We want to be lazy. We want to be lustful. We want to be rageful. It’s easy to be rageful, right? That’s much easier than being reserved, calm, doing something positive with your anger instead of just letting it explode, right?

We want to do these things. Our conscience [00:09:00] prods us that sometimes we feel bad about them, but we gain a certain pleasure from doing them, don’t we? We want to eat that extra piece of cake. We want to have that extra serving of bacon. We want to eat ourselves silly. We want to drink 3, 4, 5, 6 glasses of whiskey.

Whatever it is. Whatever it is, that, that is a vice that, that, uh, I don’t wanna say that you struggle with, but a vice that you deal with. Because we deal with a thousand vices, we may only struggle with three or four. That’s why I wanna make that distinction. We want to do these things first because there is a pleasure of the flesh that comes from them.

Don’t just think sex. There’s a, there’s a physical pleasure that we get from eating, from drinking, from expressing anger in a way that’s sinful or wrong or out of balance and so on. [00:10:00] There’s a physical pleasure, right? There’s a pleasure of the flesh. There’s also a psychological pleasure. I would call a psychological pleasure a spiritual pleasure.

It’s a wrongly ordered spiritual pleasure, which means it will lead us to something bad. Always does. But there is a, a, a psychological and a physical pleasure to doing these sinful things. Religion calls us to moderate. Religion calls us to temperance. Religion calls us to forget about ourselves, and we don’t want to do that.

We do not want to forget about ourselves. Religion calls us to forget about ourselves and to think of others immediately and God ultimately. We don’t want to do that. We don’t. And so religion is hard. The key to why it’s so hard is basically this, based on what I just said. [00:11:00] Religion, sometimes, is difficult to integrate into the human experience.

Which is strange, because religion belongs in the human experience. Human beings are made for it. And yet, it’s hard to integrate one with the other. So what do we do? We do them, or we experience them, in isolation from each other. We do the human lived experience. We don’t pray. We party. I don’t mean that you’re a scoundrel or a villain.

You just live an ordinary, let’s call it secular life. You don’t pray. You don’t, um, do any spiritual exercises at all. Maybe you go to mass once a week. You don’t think about God. You don’t talk, talk to God. Maybe you do some things that are sinful. Maybe you do some things which themselves are not sinful, but they orient you to sin.

Right? And then on Sundays [00:12:00] we do religion in isolation from our ordinary lives, our daily lives. Maybe we pray at night. We do that in isolation from our ordinary lives. I can go on with examples, but you can think of a million of them yourselves, right? We do the human experience in isolation from religion.

We do religion in isolation from the human experience. The normal, quote unquote, normal human experience. And it doesn’t just mean sin. It means things that are good, too. Right? For instance, the person who left the comment mentioned, um, family, the love of family, community. Those are all good things. And even if our lives are full of those objectively good things, we do them and we experience them in isolation from religion when really they’re meant to integrate, to, to be as one.

That is the hard part about being religious, especially about being Catholic. [00:13:00] I should do a separate show on the especially part, especially about being Catholic. Thank you. It’s hard to integrate one with the other. Especially, and it’s more or less difficult depending on your background. If you lived a long life as a secular person, not an awful person, just a normal secular person, right?

Maybe even a good secular person. And then you come back to religion, or you come to religion, you come to faith for the first time. To do it right, religion, especially, particularly Catholicism, it’s going to bring some pain. It’s going to bring some trial. Some of that It’s not natural pain or trial, because some of it is temptation, some of it is a trial that God is permitting.

And some of it is natural pain and trial. Instead of sleeping around, I’m not saying this is any of you, I’m just making an example. Instead of sleeping around, you have to be reserved about your sexual expression. Save yourself for your [00:14:00] spouse. Instead of, instead of being, Hmm. And ask to people who you think may deserve it, and maybe objectively, maybe, maybe they’re asking for it.

Instead of doing that, you have to say, that’s not what Jesus would do. Let me treat them better. You see the look on my face? Cause that’s hard for me. I’ve gotten really good at it. I’ve gotten really, really good at it. You should have seen me like 20 years ago. If somebody had it coming, oh boy would they get it.

Oh my goodness, would they get it. Like a ninja, I would dish it out. You’d never see it coming, but I’d send you home crying. I don’t mean physical pain, I mean something worse. Emotional pain. Humiliation, that sort of thing. 20 years ago? Forget it, I was Godzilla. It’s still hard for me today, but today, compared to 20 years ago, I’m quite good at treating others well, even if they tick me off, or for whatever reason I feel like they don’t deserve to be treated well, whatever.[00:15:00]

Okay, so the religion calls you to this pain, and depending on where you are in your life, it’s hard to endure that pain because we don’t want it. We don’t like pain. The spirit especially does not want it. I might have said this in a prior show, but let me drop this now. This is my personal belief. It’s informed.

By the faith, but it is my personal belief. So don’t take this as what the church teaches. It’s my personal belief. I believe that the things we find pleasure in, whether it’s an inordinate love of the flesh, a disordered sexuality, overeating, laziness, whatever, right? An inordinate expression of anger, whatever it is, pride, whatever.

These things that bring us pleasure. I am convinced before the fall, Adam and Eve would have been sickened by [00:16:00] them. The thought of being lazy rather than diligent, the thought of being disordered in any good thing that God gave them.

I think often we’ll think of sexuality, but it’s not just that, right? The idea of not doing as God designed us to do, morally, ethically, whatever. They would have found that abhorrent, sickening. Eventually, Eve fell and so did Adam. Why? What got them to that point? That’s another series of podcasts we can talk about.

The point is this. These things that we find pleasurable, I believe Adam and Eve would not have. It’s interesting. Adam and Eve did not fall to a temptation of pleasure. Eat the fruit, and you will be as God. You will know good from evil, as God does, and so on. [00:17:00] Eve did say, or the scripture does say, that Eve found the apple, I think, that looked good to eat.

Still, if you look at the scripture, they did not fall to a temptation to pleasure. They didn’t even fall to a temptation, I don’t know, of, of, of laziness or negation of a good. They fell to the temptation of self preservation and self glorification. Even the sin that they fell to, right, is a sin that is deep and mysterious, so much so that we can barely wrap our minds around it.

They didn’t fall to the temptation of lust, although some of the fathers do suspect that, but I don’t think so. I mean, who the hell am I, but I don’t think they fell to lust. Some of the fathers, I believe, did suspect that. They didn’t claim it, but they suspected it. I [00:18:00] think, well, this is what I think. The things that we fall to so readily, forget about sex, we commit millions of sins outside of sex.

I think that’s the easy one that people go to, right? We commit millions of sins outside of that. Even Adam and Eve didn’t fall to the sins that we fall to all the time, every day, all day. I think they would have found it repulsive. They fell to the sin of self preservation, self glorification. Again, I could do a whole series of podcasts on that.

If I can ever get more than 25 people to listen to one episode, maybe I’ll devote my time to doing that. But until then, nope. Anyway, kind of joking, but I’m kind of serious. The point I’m trying to make here is this. Religion is hard because it calls us outside of our fallen nature. It calls us outside of our fallen nature, and that is hard, and that is painful.

It’s a challenge to integrate religion with our ordinary life. [00:19:00] That’s a challenge. It is hard, and it is painful, because it is contrary to our fallen nature, and that is our dominant nature. Fallen, right? It’s hard, and it’s painful. So the secret To this thing we call Catholic is learning how to integrate religion and the human and the ordinary human experience in a way that is natural, because it is natural, in a way that is comfortable, and yet in a way that is challenging.

We must always be reaching. We cannot sit in the muck and wait to be carried out. We must always be reaching. Because we are in the muck, how do you expect to get out? You’re going to float. You have to reach. You have to climb. You have to try. And that’s hard, and it brings pain.

But eventually, [00:20:00] this integration, it’s a rhythm. It’s a strategy, really, integrating religion and the ordinary human experience. It’s a rhythm, and it’s a strategy. And you have to find your own. I can give you some tips, which I will, in a later episode. But you have to find your own rhythm, your own strategy.

Just know that that is the goal. Okay? That’s the end game, is integrating your religion with your ordinary human life, your ordinary lived experience, and to modulate and strategize so that, and to reach and to try so that eventually the two truths in conflict find harmony. Because two truths cannot co exist.

In order for two truths to co exist, one of them must be degraded to a lie. Because two lies can co exist. Here we have [00:21:00] religion, and we have the lived human, the lived ordinary human experience. Those are two Those are really one truth that are split in two. They’re not two truths. They’re one truth split in two.

And you have to find a way unique to each individual to bring them back together. If you’re spiritually burned out, reboot your prayer life. Reel back a little bit, but don’t reel back too far. If you’re tired of having to go to Mass, go anyway. Go anyway. And do what you have to do to make it tolerable.

And if it’s intolerable, then just suffer through it for an hour. You’ll get over it. I promise.

If the moral life is hard for you, I’m going to say something that’s going to shock a lot of Catholics and it really shouldn’t because this really is, um, the disposition or the attitude of the church. [00:22:00] You must always be trying, but you have to be patient with your failures. You must, and let me tell you, my friends, God is teaching you something.

I’ve said this before. God is teaching you something through your failures. He’s not causing them. He doesn’t like them. But he doesn’t hate you for them. And he is going to, he’s using the opportunity to teach you something through your failures. So take that walk with him. But always get right back up and right back on that horse.

And that is painful too. That is painful too. My brothers and sisters, if you want it easy, you can have it easy. You can have it pleasurable, but it’ll only last for a second. If you want what’s real, if you want the fulfillment of the human experience, you must learn to integrate the holy faith with your ordinary lived experience and let the faith [00:23:00] dig you out of the muck of your fallen nature.

And then eventually your nature will be converted. Your nature will be converted. That’s what the saints did. They converted their nature.

So this may be, this may sound a little cryptic and theoretical right now, but I’m going to make it make a little bit more sense. Um, when I do that podcast episode, where the hell did my glasses go? By the way, if you are catching this on locals, my stream will be cut off in 30 minutes. Um, but I’m going to keep doing the show.

I’m not even going to babysit it. My stream will be cut off in 30 minutes. If you go to catholicadventurer. com, um, you’ll, you’ll see in my website, in the menu, there’s a link that says live, you go there, I’ll still be live. Or you can go to my social networks on Facebook or Twitter. You’ll see me there as well.

I’m not going to babysit, uh, the locals feed. I already know they’re going to cut me off in 30 minutes, but [00:24:00] I’m going to continue doing the show. If you want to keep watching. Catholicadventure. com slash live dash video or go to my socials. That’s all I’m going to say about that. Okay. Might sound a little bit cryptic right now, what I just said, or it shouldn’t be too cryptic, but, um, but I’m going to make it make sense in a, in a later episode, maybe a week from now, maybe two weeks from now.

I don’t know. I’ll figure it out. Um, but I think a lot of people are suffering with this. A lot of people are trying to live the moral life. A lot of people are trying to live. Uh, a life of devotion, you know, like the, the prayers, the masses and so on. And they’re finding it difficult depending on where they came from before they arrived here at, at, at faith or came back to faith.

It’s going to be more or less difficult, more or less culture shock. You know what I wish could happen? I wish I could have a moment of conversion like Mary Magdalene or the other Mary had. Not Mary Magdalene. It was the other Mary. [00:25:00] Who was like the prostitute, right? I wish I could have that moment of conversion.

Which seems to me that it was almost instantaneous. Or at least close to that. And she just fell so in love with Jesus, she was changed forever. I wish I could have that, that encounter. And I wish all of you could have that encounter. Cause that would take That would take you far, quickly. Or I wish I could have the encounter that Mary Magdalene had, who was freed from seven demons or whatever it was.

Again, madly, madly in love, and I don’t mean romantically. Madly in love with Jesus. Remember when she went to the tomb? How distraught she was.

I don’t have words for it. She was just so distraught. You can see it in the narrative. Almost behaving in a way that was hysterical. Right? And then the [00:26:00] joy that came over her, oh God, the joy that came over her when I just want to check my audio levels. I’m so sorry. Test, test, test. Okay, great. Thank you, Jesus.

The joy that came over her when she recognized Jesus had risen. I wish we could all have that encounter where just like that, we turn away from, from sin and we are faithful to the gospel. The Lord doesn’t grant that path to everyone. He grants that path to very, very few, even the saints, St. Augustine, St.

Charles de Foucault. And I can go on and on. Even the saints did not really have, I mean, some of them, some of them had something like it, but most of them did not have that experience. The Lord wants us to learn something in the process, in the dying to, to the self. He wants us to learn something because it’s not just the destination.

It’s what we learn in the process. The process of dying, the process of going to war with [00:27:00] the self, the process of subjecting the will to the mind, because the mind knows what is good, but the will doesn’t want to do it. It’s, we learned something through the process. Take it from me because I have been through it, still going through it in some ways, but in general, I have been through it and I am telling you, we learned through the process And dammit, there really is no other way to holiness.

Unless God grants us a special gift, which he did to some of the saints, a couple of the disciples, but mostly that’s a special gift. The pain, the difficulty, the anguish, the occasional self loathing, it is the price you pay for holiness. Why must it be this way, Lord, and why can’t it be any other way? I have some answers to that, but the ultimate answer is I don’t know.

It’s the way God has it. Amen. And he has it for a [00:28:00] good reason and purpose. So just struggle with it. Keep reaching. Don’t give up. Don’t give up on yourself. But believe in yourself and believe and have faith and trust in God. The process sometimes can be long depending on what you’re struggling with. It can be arduous.

It’s a long and arduous road. But it doesn’t matter how long the road is because it’s not about the destination. You’ll get to the destination as long as you’re walking. The destination is certain as long as you’re walking. You’ll get to the destination doesn’t matter how long it is. It’s an arduous road and with every step, with every meter, with every mile, you are learning and you are getting closer to holiness and you will not, you will not see it maybe for the first few miles, the first several miles until you look back and you think, wow.

I’m a lot holier now in this way [00:29:00] or in this way or not and it won’t be as a whole but in particular ways Well, I’m a lot holier now than I was then Wow, it’s long and it’s arduous and that’s normal So just brave through it brave through it and just be at peace with it because it just is what it is.

Okay

Reactions to Trump’s Reelection

CA: All right. Now, let’s get to something fun. Shall we? If you don’t know you ought to know Donald J. Trump won the election The presidency of the United States, it all, it all seems, it’s surreal, okay? It really is surreal because it was a tight race and, uh, I don’t, I just expected conservatives to be screwed.

Maybe, who knows, maybe they tried to screw the conservatives and they just didn’t try hard enough and so the election was too big to rig, who knows? There are a lot of people freaking out over it, unbelievably to me. The liberals are now saying [00:30:00] that the election, that the election was rigged. But when conservatives said that in 2020, that there’s something fishy going on here, the liberals called us nuts.

You’re crazy. Shut up, you racist! It’s incredible to me, I said this on X, it’s incredible to me, after, and it’s true, after four years of being called racists, misogynists, and every other ist, the President of the United States called us trash, I thought the outrage from the liberals was much more explosive than the gloating from the conservatives.

Conservatives, by and large, from my point of view, were handling themselves pretty classy. But there is a lot of freaking out. There is a lot of melting down. You kind of expect that. God forgive me, and to any, you know, liberal person or progressive person who’s watching this, I don’t mean this as a personal insult, but it’s an observation.

Liberals are quick to melt down, like I have never, [00:31:00] ever seen. Liberal, modern liberals, modern progressives, are very quick to melt down about anything. Yo, who needs a grieving room? Have you ever heard of a grieving room? Do you know there were schools offering students time to spend in a grieving room after the election?

Whew! They’re quick to melt down. Conservatives, not so much. I said this in a past episode. Conservatives Express the worst of who they are differently from how liberals express the worst of who they are. So I’m not saying, you know, conservatives are great and liberals are trash. I’m not saying that. We all have our crap.

We all have our garbage. We just have different and unique to ourselves ways of expressing that crap and garbage. But the melting down? Wow. So what I have to share with you today It’s not melting down because I don’t like to see people in pain. I don’t care what they’re in pain over I don’t like to see people in pain.

[00:32:00] My heart goes out to them My heart goes out to the liberals who are melting down over donald trump truly Because people in pain is a sad thing doesn’t matter what they’re in pain about You know, it’s funny um I have a I don’t like discomfort I don’t like pain. I don’t even like having a cold I hate having a cold.

I hate being sick all that But I have learned to force myself to be patient with it. If I’m sick, I don’t let the sickness of my body have my mind. I distract my mind. I pretend like I’m not sick. I try to turn off the pain. And I try to just do what I will to do. So when, for instance, when my children are injured, Sometimes I’m a little insensitive to that.

I try not to be. But sometimes, you know, if it’s something small or minor, and they’re blowing it way out of proportion, Oh, I scraped my [00:33:00] ankle, my knee, or my elbow, Oh, whatever it is, and it’s not, it’s, maybe it’s a scrape, but it’s, it’s such a minor scrape, it’s not even bleeding. My response is this. Are you broken?

Are you bleeding? You will survive. That’s basically my response. I don’t coddle. Oh, you poor thing, let daddy kiss the boo boo. I, I don’t do that. I, I, I, I force myself sometimes to be more nurturing than I really am. I’m a pretty nurturing guy, but some things it’s just like you scraped your knee. I’m, I’m sorry, I’m, I’m sorry.

I, I just don’t see, see the, the value of what you’re experiencing right now. That you’re, it’s a scraped knee. You’ll get over that, like, fast, super fast.

I know, because I scraped my knee thousands of times as a little boy. And I never cried. Well, maybe once or twice, but you get the idea. All of you, same thing, right? The point is, are you broken? No. Are you bleeding? No. You’ll get over [00:34:00] it. That’s my, that’s my measurement. Okay, Trump gets elected. No! Are you broken?

No. Are you bleeding? No. Get the hell over it. Holy crap. Do you think conservatives were doing that when Joe Biden got elected? I was really bummed out when Joe Biden got elected. I didn’t cry. I was super bummed out when Obama first got elected. Oh, man. That was my first time boycotting the news. I wanted to just ignore the next four years and pretend like they weren’t happening.

Same thing with Obama. I wanted to ignore the next four years, pretend like they weren’t happening. Did not cry. Not once. Peace. Peace. So I can’t abide a meltdown. I just I’m sorry Something really tragic has to be happening to you for me to For me to really feel bad about your meltdown, but I do feel bad that people are in pain, if that makes any sense.

I do feel bad when people are in pain, but I just [00:35:00] don’t respect the meltdown. I’m sorry, I can’t, I can’t respect the meltdown. Okay, let’s get to this video. This is not melting down. These are comedians trying to be funny. Emphasis on the word trying. To be funny. And, um, There are a couple, one or two funny parts in it, but not very many.

Late-Night Meltdowns

CA: Alright, so, these are late night comedians, or comedians in general, I guess some of them are late night, maybe one or two of them are not. And, uh, they’re doing their, oh my god, Trump just got elected, bits. We’re starting with Jimmy Kimmel. I’m packing. Are you going on vacation? No, I’m not going on vacation.

I’m leaving the country. Why are you vacation is pretty funny leaving the country. I can’t stay for another four years of this who knows what he’s gonna do well

I have to say jimmy kimmel is really Really not funny [00:36:00] He just isn’t funny. I have never found him funny This thing about leaving the country is also not funny because liberals are always threatening to leave the country yet. They all remain If so and so gets elected, I’m leaving the country, I’m going to Canada, I’m going, I’m going, I’m going.

And yet here they stay. So even the premise of the joke isn’t really funny because we’ve seen that joke a million billion trillion times. Let’s go back to it. It happened again. After a bizarre and vicious campaign fueled by a desperate need not to go to jail, Donald Trump has won the 2024 election. Now, what’s interesting to me there is the whole studio audience booed for over this.

You realize it gives young people the impression that everybody in America [00:37:00] is on one political side. It’s an illusion. It is not true, but it gives them the idea that everybody is on one political side, right? This is another man that I don’t find funny, Stephen Colbert. Um, his comment on, you know, a desperate attempt not to go to prison.

Let me tell you, you could threaten Trump’s life, which his life was threatened, you could threaten to torture him to death at the end of four years, and he’s still going to try and become president. Because love him or hate him, the guy is sincere, and he really does want to help his country. That is just true.

You can love him. You can hate him. I understand both points of view. I do. But he, this is not his ego. This is not his ego. He really wants to help his country. It’s not about self centeredness. I think he’s a self centered guy. He’s egotistical, okay? [00:38:00] But he’s also sincere in many ways. He’s genuine and a straight shooter in most ways.

And I believe he wanted to become president the first time to help his country. And I believe he wanted to become president again to help his country. Despite the assassination attempt, despite lawfare making his life hell since he came down that damn escalator in 2015, 2016, whenever that was. Anyway, let’s go back to it.

Thank you. And I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I told myself that this show would be uplifting tonight and give people hope and inspiration. But unfortunately, I’m too depressed and quite frankly, very, very hungover.

Everyone’s laughing. Another reason here why I don’t understand this joke is it’s real. I’m too depressed, but they are. [00:39:00] Why is that funny? That’s not a joke. A joke is supposed to be a humorous or witty spin on a truth, or something that isn’t true at all, but this is neither of those. They are depressed, and I think many of them were hungover the next day.

I don’t understand that joke. I, I Is it a celebration? I shouldn’t. of being depressed. Is that why it’s supposed, it’s like, it’s, it’s being re reacted to like a joke because they’re really celebrating. Oh, she admits that she depressed. She admits that she’s hung over. I don’t understand. I think there is like a celebration, a celebratory factor to it.

Uh, which again, I, I don’t understand because I think it’s a little weird for a woman, her age to be bragging about being hung over. That’s just me. Yep, Trump returning to the White House is a huge historic comeback [00:40:00] for someone who literally never went away. Of course Trump’s already super busy, first he’s got to move all those classified documents back into the White House.

Does anybody care that Joe Biden had classified documents in his possession too? Does anybody care that Trump had a legal right to have those documents? I don’t think people should be leaving with, uh, classified documents. It was a terrible night last night. It was a terrible night for women, for children, for the hundreds of thousands of, of hardworking immigrants who make this country go, um, for healthcare.

I really want you to listen to this ranting of stupidity flowing from his mouth. Try to ignore the fact that a grown man is crying on air. For the hundreds of thousands of, of hardworking immigrants who make this country go, um, for health care. Hardworking immigrants, shut up. Hardworking immigrants who make this [00:41:00] country go.

What about the hardworking Americans who can’t find a job that pays them well because they’re competing with those hundreds of thousands of immigrants who came here illegally to work, to send money home to Mexico, to Venezuela, wherever the hell they’re from. What about them? What about the people who are trying to put food on their table, who belong here, who have been contributing, and now they’re out of work, or they’re trying to compete for a better job, or for a better salary, or for a job at all, but it’s hard to compete with folks who will work for 2 an hour.

It was a terrible night last night. It was a terrible night for women, for children, for I’m not sure why it was a terrible night for children, chime in, I’m sorry, for women. Chime in the comments and tell me. Why was it a terrible night for children? I have no idea. I think it’s a good thing that children are not, are, are, are not going to be butchered [00:42:00] in transgender surgery, hopefully, right?

Anyway, the rant continues. The hundreds of thousands of, of hardworking immigrants who make this country go. Um, for health care, for our climate.

I’m going to tell you a secret. It’s not much of a secret. If you’re at all reasoned and astute, you already know this secret. I hate saying liberals

that way because it sounds like a pejorative, but it’s just what they are, right? They’re liberals, we’re conservatives, right? It’s just what they are. And I don’t mean it as a pejorative or to objectify the opposing side. I’m kidding. Liberals love to tell horror stories. They don’t have to be rational.

They don’t have to be reasoned. They’re stories. They’re fairy tales. It goes like this. Once upon a time, the climate, [00:43:00] women, children, Hard working immigrants, they leave out the illegals part, hard working immigrants, Sasquatch, the animals in the forest, the earth is dying, Freddy Krueger, Jason, and they all live miserably ever after.

That’s how those horror stories go. You can go through these bullet points.

For health care, for our climate. I forgot about health care. Health care, climate, this and that. Oh my god, what are you talking about? Trump is going to destroy social security. Is he really? Donald Trump is. Shut up. Is he really? Think about that. Is he really going to destroy social security? I don’t even know where that came from.

Is social security on the chopping block all of a sudden? Do you really think he’s going to deprive? Millions and millions of [00:44:00] Americans of their social security. It’s a terrible day for the climate. What is he doing? Is he spraying, I don’t know, fumes directly into the clouds saying, Ha ha ha ha, we hate you climate, we hate you environment.

Ha What is he doing? Really? Who do you think just got elected? Dr. Evil? Horror stories? And Trump is going to do this. Horror story. And Trump is going to do that. Horror story. Horror stories. They love talking about horror stories. They don’t have to make sense. They’re fairy tales. That’s the whole point of a story.

Ask them to support their horror stories. And I’ve done this. If you’re following me on socials, you’ve seen me having some of these exchanges. Okay, tell me about this horror story. Tell me why it’s the truth. Okay, here’s three links. All three of [00:45:00] them are horror stories. They’re news links. They’re editorials.

People talking about horror stories. Just spinning more horror stories of their own. Okay. Send me something that has some facts in it. Well, here’s a story with the facts that support that horror story. Okay. And what is that? It’s another horror story. It’s an editorial or some kind of bloviating nonsense.

I’m trying to be fair minded. Like, what do conservatives do that’s the equivalent to how liberals love horror stories? I don’t know. I’m sure there’s something. I mean, for God’s sake, conservatives lay claim to Alex Jones, and that’s about the worst as you can get. So I’m sure we have something that’s the equivalent to the liberals going to their horror stories, but damn if I know what it is.

Horror stories. They love, they love to tell horror stories because horror stories are emotionally moving, right? They get a response, they get a reaction, and because they’re emotional, they get people on their [00:46:00] side. And people are not conditioned to think well, they’re not conditioned to think purely. So once you have them on their side, they’ll, they will usually not ask you, prove it.

Tell me why this is true. Is that really true? How do you know? They won’t ask. Because you’ve appealed to their emotions and people are conditioned to think with their emotions, not with their brains. He won the 2024 election and he’ll be president again for 4 more years, or 8, or 12, or whatever. Ha ha ha ha!

I don’t get that joke. For science! Oh yes, it’s also a bad day for science. It’s a bad day for science. Say the people who told us a paper mask will protect us from the most dangerous virus since the Spanish flu. Okay. For journalism. For journalism. It’s a bad day for journalism. Hashtag, [00:47:00] Biden laptop is Russian misinformation.

Transcribed Hashtag Russian dossier on Trump. Okay. Terrible day. Terrible day for journalism. For justice. For free speech. It was a terrible night for poor people. Justice and free speech. Folks, where do they come off calling conservatives fascists when they’re the ones always trying to put the kibosh on free speech?

If you know, let me know, because I have no idea. Free speech, they’re the ones always policing free speech, but they’re the ones telling us that conservatives are the ones who are a threat to free speech. Shouldn’t be a surprise. They spent God knows how long telling the world that a vote for Donald Trump was an attack against democracy.

They’re saying that conservatives are a threat to democracy. Okay. Horror stories for the middle class, for seniors who rely on social [00:48:00] security, for our allies in Ukraine. I wish they would have kept, uh, the clip going, because I wanted to see him cry, just to kind of make a point. Not, not to rub it in or make fun of him, just to make a point.

Another one who I don’t think is funny at all.

Also, something else you should know, when I start referring to myself in the third person, it’s a good sign that something in Meyers brain broke a little bit last night. Oh God, he’s so funny, Seth Meyers. Oh my God, stop, stop, I can’t. You’re too funny. Oh, my stomach. Stop it. Meyers brain broke a little bit last night.

For NATO, for the truth. Oh, it’s also a bad day for NATO and the truth. And for this and for that and it’s a bad day for that and for this and for another thing and for 13 other things that you aren’t aware of and it’s just a [00:49:00] big old bad day play and democracy and decency and it was a terrible night for everyone who voted against him and guess what it’s a bad night for everyone who voted for him too you just don’t realize it yet in america this is the only funny thing in this whole I love you.

If you are feeling upset, or hurt, or depressed about the turn towards fascism that your beloved homeland is taking, then all you have to do is this. Just look into your heart, and you take out your foreign passport,

and you go back to Malaysia, where you came from, until Trump leaves office. Remember I said at the top of this they’re always threatening to leave but they’re all still here[00:50:00]

I appreciate that. They’re trying to make light of it I I really do because humor is a universal language throughout time for as far back as we can go You know to see written languages and evidence um of humor People have always been cracking jokes People have always been doing something cheeky or saying something cheeky We use humor to communicate we use humor to get us through Count how many times in a day you make a joke or you crack a joke or some wisecrack or something Right.

It’s just the ordinary part of communicating every day And I can laugh at jokes that are a little irreverent. I don’t mean like sacrilegious. I mean irreverent, you know, like jokes that That on paper you think should offend me, but if they’re funny i’ll laugh my ass off You know I’m, okay with it. I have a lot of respect for comedians and and And, and humor.

If you don’t know, I like to crack some jokes myself. [00:51:00] What I don’t have any respect for, in fact, what I find repulsive, is when comedians are just not funny. Just not funny. Just a terrible waste of time and space and words. Just not funny. In that whole reel, only that last thing was funny. And that was only just a little funny.

So I appreciate that they’re trying to make light of it. Um, I mean, I guess, what else can you do? You’re, you’re a late night comedian, and you have to go on the air, and it’s a day after election day. I guess, I mean, what else can you do? I, I, I really don’t know. Um, you know, I appreciate good, honest humor. I don’t care if they’re making fun of conservatives, or they’re making fun of themselves or each other.

I, I don’t care. I appreciate good, honest humor. But what I see here is, I see through The attempt at humor, and what I actually see is [00:52:00] people trying to turn their tears into giggles. They’re trying to turn their tears into giggles. What they’re really doing is they’re crying on the inside. And I think the best that they can do is try to turn that into giggles.

There’s probably some merit there, but they do it very, very badly. They do it very, very, very badly.

Reflections and Closing Thoughts 

CA: In the end, what do we learn from all this? Number one, people need to get over themselves, on the left and on the right, people need to get over themselves. Number two, let’s try to be sensitive, not sensitive, considerate of the people who, for whatever dumb reason, they’re crying on the inside over the election of Donald, the re election of Donald Trump.

I don’t understand it either. Okay. Try to be considerate of them. [00:53:00] Don’t gloat too much. You shouldn’t gloat at all because gloating is, is often, as I I mentioned earlier, sometimes we do things that aren’t themselves sinful, but they lead us to sin. Gloating is one of those things. Gloating isn’t always prideful, but it guarantees to take you there.

Don’t gloat, don’t rub it in. Don’t get revenge. You know, I’ve heard this, I don’t know if this was a philosopher or just a line in a movie. Don’t you love it when people quote movies, like they’re quoting high philosophy? You know, they say, keep your friends close, but keep your enemies closer. Really? Do they say that?

Or was that a line in a movie? I don’t know. Anyway, So, I don’t know if this is from a philosopher or a line from a movie, but I’ve heard it a number of times. A number of times. I don’t know the origin. The origin could be that same movie, or the same philosopher, or the same book, whatever. I don’t know. But they say the best revenge is a life well lived.

I haven’t thought very deeply about it, but my [00:54:00] inclination is that’s probably true. Don’t try to take revenge against the political opposers or the political opposition. The best revenge is a life well lived. The Lord Jesus Christ and God and His providence allowed Donald Trump to be re elected. Let that be your revenge.

Just be happy. Man, let me tell you, the night before the God, I can’t even tell you the torture I went through on election night waiting and watching and watching and waiting and eventually I just had to go to sleep. I just couldn’t stay up any longer because I had to go to work in the morning and had to put this to bed, but I was scared and I was nervous.

I took my dog for a walk one last time and I had this thought, I don’t know if it was my imagination or it was inspiration or a little of both or what. I don’t know. But I had this thought of waking up in the morning and hearing Donald Trump has just been [00:55:00] elected or just, you know, been reelected as president of the United States.

President elect Donald J. Trump. And I smiled, like I literally smiled, like, boy, that would be, that would be so nice. Could you imagine? I thought to myself. That would be so nice. And I went up and I went to bed and damn intent on not, not looking at the news when I woke up. And I told my children, if you know who won, do not tell me.

Do not, do not check. And if you do check, do not tell me, because I’m too nervous. I need to mentally prepare. I’m not really, I don’t have such a mild or such a fragile disposition, but um, sometimes I need to mentally prepare for news that’s serious, you know. And there’s nothing pressing about finding out who won the election.

It’s not like I have to see now who, who won. I can put that off. Okay? So I’m not like, I’m not failing any duty by putting it off. [00:56:00] Anyhow. Wake up in the morning. I have just enough time to get coffee ready. Um, and maybe a couple minutes to spare before I have to wake up the first child for school. And I thought, this child is definitely going to check.

And with that big mouth, they’re definitely going to tell me I’d better just look for myself Big mouth can’t keep their mouth shut So I said definitely they’re going to check they’re going to tell me I better just do this myself And i’m not even kidding Um, you know, it’s funny I got out of alarm goes off Feet hit the floor.

It’s an old discipline of mine. As soon as the alarm goes off get your ass up feet hit the floor I mean I stay in bed, but my feet hit the floor. I do my morning prayer You And it was only after I started walking out of my bedroom that I remembered, Oh crap, last night was election night. [00:57:00] That means we have a new president elect today.

So anyway, go and make the coffee. I finally arrived at this conclusion, I have to just check myself. Sat down at the kitchen table with my phone in my hand. I am not exaggerating. My phone in my hand like this.

Like, should I, should I check? Should I not? I should put this down, but I can’t put it down. I gotta check. Lord, should I check? I did. I asked the Lord, Lord, should I check this? Lord, did you hear our prayer? Even my kids were praying the night before. Okay, so I unlock my phone. I start to go to a website, to a news website.

Then I stop. I said, I have the opportunity now to reverse course and not check. I can, if I just can, I can just put it down right now or I can tap go. Tick [00:58:00] tock, tick tock. I tapped go. And there it was. Donald Trump reelected as president of the United States. Oh, I couldn’t believe it. I really couldn’t believe it.

I didn’t smile like I did when I had this thought the previous night walking my dog I didn’t have this smile and this big like exultant kind of Reaction as I thought I might have But boy, was I happy Boy, was I happy And I woke up my kids and I tried to remove my the happiness from my face. I woke up my kids and I said It was a sad night last night, man They’re like, oh no, did he lose?

I held up my phone and I said, It was a sad night for liberal America. And I showed them the news website. Oh boy. That was funny. Where the hell did my glasses go? Um. [00:59:00] Anyway, why did I get into all that? I don’t remember. I guess I just wanted to tell you the story. But, um, even then I was intent on being considerate of the other side.

And, and not gloating or rubbing it in. Not getting revenge. We got what we prayed for. A Republican in the White House. He’s not the greatest conservative. He’s not the greatest person. But, oh, there they are. A conservative in the White House. We got what we prayed for. Why should we gloat? Why should we feel like we need to take revenge?

Don’t do that. Don’t do that. Just be happy with what the Lord has granted this country for another four years. And I’ll say this too, and this is in closing. I know I kind of went from one place to another to another. Um, from where I started to the video and now to this, but anyway, I’ll say this in closing.

Never underestimate God’s providence. Donald Trump lost the election in [01:00:00] 2020. In the four years that followed,

they tried to kill him. They tried to imprison him. Okay. But here’s what matters most. He went over a lot of Democrats in the past four years. Some of them are very prominent. Elon Musk, RFK Jr., Tulsi Gabbard, and a few others. Now, He has a coalition of trust, right? Yes, he’s flawed. Okay, we know all this, yes.

But he has gathered a coalition to his side that did not exist in 2020. And I don’t just mean the prominent Democrats, I also mean the voters. He’s gathered a coalition that he would not have had, he did not have in 2020. Maybe, just maybe, in 2020, God said, not yet. [01:01:00] But in 2024, I got your back and I’m going to do you one better with this coalition.

Donald Trump today is a little bit different as far as his, um, disposition, I guess, than he was in 2020. His policies have changed. Some of them have gotten a little worse. Some of them have gotten a little bit better. This coalition of, of, of, of democratic support, as I said, is different. And he has more support from.

Spanish people and black people than he had in the past. I don’t know. I feel like it’s God’s providence that God said no in 2020 Because he was preparing him for 2024 Let’s see. Let’s hope let’s pray Let’s see what happens over the next four years

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, Catholics of all ages, this has been The Catholic Experience. [01:02:00] Hey, don’t forget to sign up for that damn newsletter. Don’t make me come and find you and force you to sign up. If you’re watching this on demand, which at this point all of you are, You’ll see the links in the description, the newsletter, uh, which is called Notes from the Field, and then the podcast bulletin.

Please sign up. I would really love to be directly connected with you instead of having to rely on freakin social media to keep us connected, okay? This has been another Rootin Tootin episode of the Catholic Experience, Experience. This one has been live. I have been your host, the Catholic Adventurer.

Thank you for joining me. Thank you for watching. Thank you for listening. God bless you. God be with you. Talk to you soon. Bye [01:03:00] bye.