Daughter-Father Dance Podcast
Episode 13: Winding Down
TRANSCRIPT

[00:00:00] Jenée Arthur [VOICEOVER]: Hey everybody. Welcome back to episode Lucky 13.

I didn't mean to leave folks with such a cliffhanger last week. The Catholic church episode is still on the horizon. I'm simply working through some of my declarations and some of the feelings that surfaced after my, mmmm, divinely inspired late night listening, if you will.

Dad and I are winding down Season One. And as we do, we are reflecting a lot about the past three months and what it's meant to us.

This week, Dad's not super excited about anything except getting back in bed and resting. He and Mom have had a bug that's pretty much kicked their butts. Thankfully they have strong immune systems and as dad refers to it, God-given NA. This two letter acronym stands for natural immunity. When we pointed out that natural immunity would be NI, Dad just shrugged and said, “Yeah, well NI doesn't really roll off the tongue quite as nicely as NA. So there.”

Okay. So send Mom and Dad. Good vibes is their God-given in a works to kick out their flu bug. Now onto me and Dad reflecting about this season of Daughter-Father Dance.

[00:01:14] Jenée Arthur: All right, Daddy, let's talk today a little bit about this season. Season one, we're rounding it out.

Is there anything that you have top of mind that you want to share with listeners that you've either learned or that you have deduced from doing this kind of experiment with your daughter?

[00:01:40] Gene Arthur: People who are joining in on this, what they enjoy or what they didn't enjoy, and some good that may have come from it in their own life. Now that would be a scale.

[00:01:52] Jenée Arthur: Yeah, I think that's something we could look at. Maybe even read some of them and just to give a shout out that it was indeed helpful or that it was frustrating.

[00:01:58] Gene Arthur: Mmhmm.

[00:02:00] Jenée Arthur: But in terms of your experience, and I'm happy to talk about mine, of course, what did you like, or what was your takeaway, 1) about doing this together, but also about our hypotheses of Division being Optional.

[00:02:15] Gene Arthur: When you presented this idea to me, I was clueless. I've, you know, I've only listened to a couple of podcasts. Barb Patterson, one, and Madeline as another one.

[00:02:29 Jenée Arthur [VOICEOVER]: Barb is my college best friend who has an amazingly engaging podcast, Real Business Real Lives. I was a guest on it a few years ago, her podcast highlights human connection and how thought affects our life experience.

And Madeline is my niece, Lera Niemackl, who, with her partner, Alex, hosts the Mushroom Revival Podcast. They are a huge deal in the mycology world and they are pioneers in the cordyceps revolution. If you have no idea what any of this is, you should check them out. Their episodes are full of science, but also incredibly relatable and fun.
And they're pretty damn cute together. Okay.

[00:03:05] Gene Arthur Not knowing what to expect, I went in with complete faith and hope that what you want to accomplish by doing this is that actually happens because it's a you're in. And the purpose for doing this is commendable to be a source of reference for somebody else. You may be in a situation that's not as loving or as connected.

Part of your intent was to get something going on out there where people could dialogue and, you know, give and take, not just a one person monopolize the whole narrative, but it'd be a joint adventure together with someone that they love or someone in the family. Expect anything other than to see what happens.

[00:03:59] Jenée Arthur: Yeah. Interestingly, I think that even though this is a podcast dedicated to different perspectives, you and I are very alike in that we often enter things with no expectation. And we shoot from the hip a lot. And, um, and as most listeners I believe can gather, this is n't a podcast or a conversation that's highly researched, nor do we had come in with real talking points. Like, you and I literally hit record and we go, and I think that's just indicative of how we live.

You know, I've had to adapt to schedules and deadlines and things in my career. But as far as my innate nature, I'm very much like you. Like, as you used to say, when you'd do all those great things when I was a kid, you'd just let the spirit speak through you. And I think that has merit. I think sometimes some of our listeners, I feel think this could have been a little more well-produced, but it wasn't my intention to do a big production.

It was really literally our listeners peering into yours and my conversations, because, as I mentioned, they've been so pivotal in my life and I just always thought it would be so cool to see that you and I can have fights about stuff and still we are connected and love each other. And I sound like a broken record 'cause I feel like I said that at-nauseum, but that's truly what my intention was. And it still is.

If somebody said, "Well, do you think your hypothesis has been successful?" I literally said in the 'Why We Produced the Show' that we may even "prove division is an illusion." Well, I think that part failed because I don't think that because we can have conversations about things doesn't mean we're not divided on them, because there are many things we still are divided.

So I don't think that that was an accurate hypothesis to say, "We may even prove that division is actually an illusion,." But I do think what successful was proving that division is optional because what that essentially means is it's a choice. People are choosing to be divided because we don't have to be.

Like, you see something one way. And I see it another doesn't mean we have to, you know, be divided. That's a simplistic statement, but there's so much I feel like people can glean just from that awareness. That division is a choice— and you're choosing it.

t's like being aware of anything. that's not serving somebody. As soon as you recognize, oh, this is what's happening, you can change it. But until you recognize that's what's happening, you're not capable of doing anything different.

[00:06:33] Gene Arthur: Hmm.

In my own mind, I think you're doing a great job of presenting two different explanations or understandings on situations that arise in daily life and family life.

[00:06:44] Jenée Arthur: Thanks Dad.

Have you shared the podcast with any of your spiritual group or anybody? Like, do they have anything to say about it?

[00:06:53] Gene Arthur: Uhh, John made a comment and that was, I think, from the very first one. But the other ones, they don't do Facebook and they don't do podcasts. They don't do anything like that.

[00:07:04] Jenée Arthur: You have a bunch of Luddites over there.

[00:07:06] Gene Arthur: Are they like the Formortdites.

[00:07:08] Jenée Arthur: What is a Formortdite?

[00:07:10] Gene Arthur: I said, you, you said something dites, and then I just came back at you with Formortdites.

[00:07:14] Jenée Arthur: [LAUGHTER] Um...

[00:07:17] Gene Arthur: But getting back to what we were talking about, uh, the new direction that you want to go. It's entertaining. And, uh, I'm curious about how you want to do it.

[00:07:24] Jenée Arthur: To keep going would, you know,...I feel like just, just making it about division almost makes—this is my impression, so you can tell me what you think—but it almost makes it feel as though we almost have to stay on opposing sides to maintain the agenda of the podcast.

[00:07:49] Jenée Arthur [VOICEOVER]: Essentially. I recognize that I chose a very difficult discussion focus—division. Especially in a time that it's so glaringly on the surface of just about every topic imaginable. And not that that's new, but there's a part of me that is tired of contributing to the narrative of division. I mean, I'm a believer in what you focus on, you get. So in essence, the topic is old and passé and annoying. And having it with my hero, my dad, a man whom I totally admire and who can frustrate the living hell out of me, it isn't always fun.

So if anything, I hope this dialogue gives listeners hope that they can —when they have to— have difficult conversations that don't leave them and the other person at perpetual odds or, worse, caused them to no longer relate to one another due to different perspectives.

[00:08:51] Jenée Arthur: You know, I've had a secret agenda all along. That's just been my personal agenda that has not been professed to listeners. And that has been, you know, I used to have these kinds of conversations with you and I was little and they weren't divisive at all.

Like, I could have a different perspective and you would ask me more about it and want to know how I thought about things. And it's one of the things I've loved about our relationship. My secret agenda has always been that in this process, you and I would return to those types of conversations where you, I, it felt like you were less militant or less rigid.

It's not a public acknowledgement of what my intention was because it was just sort of my own secret 'in my heart' intention. But if I, if I were to look at that and say, "Well, did you accomplish that? Or did you fail at that?" I would say I failed at that because I think what this did is it made you more militant about your stand on things.

You are incredibly myopic when it comes to your faith, you see it a certain way. You see it from a certain, you know, you see it from the institutional perspectives as far as like the next steps. I think for me, I think I would like for it to be just kind of rounding out what the season kind of taught you and I...

...what are you doing with your eyeglasses?

[00:10:02] Gene Arthur: Making sure they are pushback on my nose far enough...

[00:10:07] Jenée Arthur: So they don't get me those [hair] trails, Cousin Ed? Never a dull moment with you.

I'm sorry. You don't feel bad, Papa. I mean, you don't feel good.

[00:10:13] Gene Arthur: I'm going to lie down when we get off here.

[00:10:16 Jenée Arthur: All right, go feel better. I love you.

[00:10:17] Gene Arthur: I love you more.

[00:10:18] Jenée Arthur: All right. Bye, Dad.

[00:10:19] Gene Arthur: See you next week?

[00:10:21] Jenée Arthur: You will.

[00:10:22] Gene Arthur: Same time? Same place? Same station?

[00:10:25] Jenée Arthur: Yes, sir.

[00:10:26] Gene Arthur: Okay, Love.

[00:10:27] Jenée Arthur [VOICEOVER]: Okay everybody. Next week, we ig into the specifics about what we've learned, how we felt, what we loved and what we hated about this process. We would have done that this episode, but life and my dad's God-given NA had a different agenda.

In the meantime, check out the Mushroom Revival Podcast and Real Business Real Lives wherever you're listening to this episode.

The rebroadcast of my conversation with Barb is number 104 on Real Business Real Lives. Just FYI.

Have a great week, everyone. Stay healthy. And as my friend Christopher loves to say, "Have fun. You deserve it."

See you next time.

Division is Optional