0:01 Who are you? And where are you going? Who are you? And where are you going? What do you want? Who are you? And where are you going? What do you want?
0:39 What can I say? Technology failed me. No introductory bumper today. A uh fitting fitting almost into a week of technology troubles. But in any event, I'm Kevin Bemel and I'm your host here on Jiggers's Place where we meet every other Thursday and we have a cocktail and a schmoo and uh so it's good to be here. I know I missed two weeks ago I was uh sick unfortunately um but now you know back and happy to see you. See? Got my got my
1:17 11 Toggs on and ready for honestly ready for the week to be over already. You know, we have summer weather again in winter here in Southern California. And I know for a lot of people, especially in the East Coast where you've been buried with snow, you're thinking to yourself, "Boy, that sounds fantastic." But I have to tell you, it's too too hot. Um, you know, we always want what we can't have, I suppose. So, on today's show, I'm going to be talking about the
1:53 book Guliver's Travels. Now, uh, if if you're of my vintage, you probably remember a cartoon version of the book that was really made for kids. Or maybe you remember uh the Disney version which was ma meant for you know family audiences. Um but I've never seen a a movie or a cartoon or anything that does justice to this book that was written around the
2:30 earlier part of the enlightenment period in here in the west. uh and and has so many things to say that are as relevant today as they were 200 years ago the book was or I'm sorry 300 years ago when the book was written in 1726. I know it's derigger these days that anything I think more than what 6 or 12 months old has no applicability to our lives. But uh I I I hope to if if if that's if that's your perspective, I hope to challenge that perspective this
3:07 afternoon. So in honor of uh Guliver's Travels, uh Chat GPT really outdid itself helping me come up with a themed cocktail. And this this cocktail is called the Winnham and the Yahoo, which as you'll learn in a little while, refers to uh two, they're not really even peoples. The Winnham were horses. The Yahoo were humans, although as you'll see, pretty disgusting humans. Um, it brings the two of them together
3:43 in the fourth part of Guliver's travels, really the darkest part of the book. And so the idea and and this is a very complicated cocktail. We'll see if I can pull it off. It's a layered cocktail where uh where you put in the the winnom and then I have to carefully pour the yahoo part of it on top of it. the idea is they should not mix immediately but only gradually. So, uh you know, we'll see how it works out. That's that's always one of the fun parts of the show. So the the I'm going
4:20 to talk more about the Winnham and the Yahoos when when we're sitting over on the on the love seat, but um you'll see that it's the cocktail is basically a representation of the juxiposition of pure reason know for all the Trekies out there, right? this sort of um uh you know spock um I forgot the you know the the people that he was from but anyway pure reason Vulcan thank there it comes you know the Vulcan perspective from the uh from the the sort of uh
5:00 the the the the unbridled human desire represented by the Yahoos. Uh, okay. And so, um, the first part, the Winnham is made with regular London dry gin. Um, I'm going to try this High Clair Castle gin. I think Highclair Castle, by the way, is is the castle um that's used in Downtown Abbey. So, for those of you who saw that episode of Jiggers's Place a while back, you you know I'm a big Downtown Abbey fan.
5:35 Beautiful bottle, isn't it? Kind of a bluish purplish bottle. Um, and there's there's Downtown Abbey, which is actually High Clair Castle. Um, this is a um 43 12% alcohol by volume or 87 proof uh gin. And we're going to I'm going to mix that with clarified green tea and uh some feno cherry. Just a little bit of feno cherry. And then the Yahoo cocktail is made with overproof gin. You've seen my uh broker's gin
6:11 before. This is a 47% 92 proof gin. It's a little bit higher than than normal. Not not hugely overproof the way you think about whisies where you might have a barrel strength that's you know uh 100 proof, 120 proof, something like that. Uh this is just a little bit overproof. I didn't want it to completely overwhelm the other ingredients. And um that's going to be mixed with some uh wild flour honey that's been lightly thinned. And some uh Bitterman's Orchard Street uh bitters. And then just one uh small um
6:51 uh basil leaf that's that's been bruised. Okay. So, it's going to take a little while. So, we're going I'm going to get going on this. Okay. So, first we're going to start out with an ounce and a half of London dry gin. Here we go. Oh, and you know what? Once again, I forgot ice. Give me 30 seconds.
8:12 Okay. You know, because this cocktail is made in two parts and I didn't want the ice to melt. I meant to do it at the very last minute and then I got distracted and you know, there you go. So, I forgot to preset the ice. Okay, so we've got uh we've got our London dried gin, ounce and a half. And then we've got um let's see a half ounce of the feno cherry.
8:52 Pour that in there. Put this back. And um Oh yes. And then a teaspoon of the clarified green tea. Let's find the teaspoon. 3/4 one teaspoon. Okay. And we're going to we're going to stir this.
9:28 We're going to be I'm going to be putting it in Nick and Nick Nick and Nora glass. And as I talked about before, uh that that comes from uh the thin man, Nick and Nora Charles. Uh they that's how what they drank their martinis. They drank them in this sort of squared off glass. I guess you call it that. Um and it became known as a Nick and Nick and Nora glass. William Powell and Maloy, right? Started moving back in the 30s. Okay, so there we This is the uh
10:06 this is the Winnham. Okay, I'm going to set the rest of this aside. And now we're going to make the Yahoo. So the Yahoo starts off with just a half an ounce of the uh high proof, higher proof
10:42 London gin. More and Right. Got to show you the bowler hat. Right. That's one of the things I love about Broker's Gin. Okay. And then a quarter ounce, I believe. Yeah. Quarter ounce of the uh wild flour honey.
11:22 this. What are you going to do? Okay. And then two dashes of the bitterman orchard uh bitters. One, two. Okay. And then one tiny leaf. of basil. And we're just going to shake this
11:57 briefly. Now, presumably this is lighter than the other layer. And so when I pour this over the back of a spoon, it's going to float on top. Let's see if this works.
12:34 And I don't think it is. I think the honey makes it too heavy, but it's an experiment. Okay. And here's what it looks like. There are no layers, unfortunately. You know, sometimes the cocktails work out, sometimes they don't. Let's give it a taste.
13:10 It does have a layered taste. Okay, see you on the
14:03 So, if you um if you get my emails, there we go. So, if you get my emails, you know you you you know that you have the cocktail recipes in it in the in the in the emails. And it talks about how this is a challenging cocktail. So, it's not meant to be delicious in the way that many of the cocktails are that I make here on Jigger's Place. It's meant to challenge our palette and and this
14:39 cocktail definitely does. There's a lot of competing flavors. Um, and it's it's certainly not a sweet cocktail despite um the the small amount of uh wildflower honey. Um it it really does challenge your palette, but um I I encourage you to try it out anyway. uh especially if you like things that
15:14 aren't sweet or you can appreciate the range of flavors and bitterness which this is this is definitely a more of a bitter cocktail. Um I I think you will find it quite interesting. Okay, so onto our subject Guliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift. So you can see it is not a long book. Okay, and you may be saying well but maybe it has really small print. Well, the print isn't huge, but it's not minuscule either. Um, you know, the book, uh, can definitely be read in
15:49 a short time. It's, uh, let's see, this this particular version is what, 219 pages long, I think. Yeah, 219 pages long. So, this is not a long book. Um, this was an inexpensive classic edition on, you know, some bookstore that prints classic editions, uh, printed this. Courage Books, an imprint of running press book publishers in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, right? You know, so um, I I I'm I'm pretty sure when I bought it, it didn't cost more than a few dollars.
16:24 And and I know you can find all kinds of versions of uh Guliver's Travels on uh Amazon. Um I I will put um a link to the book on Amazon. It's going to be an affiliate link. You know, full disclosure, if if you use the link to buy a book, I think I get, you know, three cents. Um, but if you if you can see this front cover image, that's Guliver and he's being tied down by the Lily the Lily Putins. Okay, that's and that's the first uh
17:02 that's a scene from the first uh part of the book. Okay. So, um just some some background. So, a lot of people think of Goliver because I think because of the uh Disney cartoon that dates I think probably I want to say to the 19 maybe late 1930s. A lot of people think of Guliver's Travels as a story for children, but it
17:38 was not, at least the way uh Jonathan Jonathan Swift intended it. In indeed, it was a satirical novel and um in it was written in the early period of novels. So back in the time that uh Tom Jones was written, these are some of the earliest English novels and the idea was to um write a story that was commenting on the society and culture in England at
18:14 that time and and in so doing create a a readable interesting way to explore for ideas as opposed to writing a treatise like uh you know John Lockach or you know one of the one of the you know uh enlightenment philosophers John um not John Russo uh Jacqu Rouso I guess it would be John in English but um so uh by writing by writing his putting his ideas in in a
18:49 the form of a novel Jonathan Swift was making them more accessible to people than had heretofor been been this been the case. So, um I mentioned the book was written in in 1726. Uh uh Lem, yeah, Lemuuel Guliver, uh the the the aonomous character is uh a ship's surgeon and uh he's he's on a voyage and he travels to these strange
19:24 sort of fantastical lands. And I'll talk about uh those in just a minute. And um it it it really it seems I think strange for us today where uh novels of fantasy whether they're um uh my brain is failing me. the the the the ones gosh, you you you go see them at Universal
20:00 Studios anyway, where there's magic involved and uh you know, wizards and and and you know, witches and all that kind of stuff. Um that was not the character of so-called fantastic old novels 300 years ago. So it was it was fantastical in the sense that it it created just another world. A Harry Potter is the the one I was trying to think of. Harry Potter. So uh
20:35 it it the the story was meant to grip you and involve you in it and and from that perspective there's there's no question that Jonathan Swift was successful. So, as I mentioned, the novel is divided into four parts. The first part uh takes place in a a land called Liiliput. Um Guliver is shipwrecked in Lilyut. And the Lily Pututins are this tiny people, little miniature people. And they're they're only about six inches tall. So maybe
21:11 about that tall, right? And so Guliver being a full-sized man is a giant compared to the Liliputans. And at first they treat him as this sort of giant, you know, curiosity. Um, but eventually they look to put him to use for their for their own sort of political and and uh ends and and and use him to try and uh solve their military dispute. So imagine if you're 6 in tall and a you know 6 foot or five 5
21:46 foot 8 inch man shows up right he he he he'd be you know the greatest warrior uh you know in in in your life so um the Lilyutians so there he divides them into these sort of absurd uh factions so there's the high heels versus the low heels um which is a satire on British political ical parties of the time, the Tories. Um, this is this is before the the Labor, it was the Wigs and the Tories. Um, at that point, the Wigs being the more uh liberal
22:22 party, the Tories being the more conservative party. And so you have the high heels and the low heels, right? And then you had the big Indians and the little Indians. And this these were representative of the religious divide uh going on in England at this time. um between uh Roman Catholics and Protestants. And there were there were actual, you know, wars that were happening between these two political factions. And um Guliver helps the the Lily Pututians um defeat um their enemies, which are
23:00 the I want to I'm reading this name because I want to get it right. The blue the Bluscu. Um but um after the Lily Pututians are victorious uh Guliver refuses to enslave the Blue Fus um and uh at least completely and and so eventually Guliver falls out of favor uh with the Lily Pututians um and and you know that part of that that first section of the novel ends. So um he in in in this section of the book he's
23:36 using this idea of these sort of miniature people to expose the pettiness of human disputes. Um and and and by by shrinking the people uh physically he he is in essence emphasizing the pridefulness of their political and religious disputes uh and and and showing that um in essence these kinds of disputes are all out of scale with what should be going on. Okay, so
24:12 that's the first part of the book. The second part of the book, um, uh, Guliver finds himself in a land called, um, Braing Nag. And in Brabing Nag, uh, the Bra the Braing Nangians, try and say that three times fast, especially after having a cocktail, uh, are giants compared to Guliver. And so now he's the in essence the tiny person surrounded by all these huge people and
24:49 and and this sort of flips the you know what what has happened before in the book on its head. So now um he's displayed as this curiosity who's very vulnerable, right? They could crush him in their fingers uh if they wanted to. Um, and the king of um, Broing Nag uh, questions Guliver about England and Guliver talks about European politics and war and and and technology. Um and and the king is horrified at at
25:27 what Guliver tells him and and he decides that the English are the most pernitious race uh you know that's ever lived and and they're they're basically like these odious tiny vermin is really what the conclusion he comes to. and and and so um now that he's um comparatively reduced in size, he sees the broing broing nagians
26:02 uh as you know these huge people and of course every single flaw, every single aspect of them is huge compared to Guliver and he so he sees all the the blemishes the you the huge pores, you know, skin pores in that sense, and and and all of the all of the blemishes that these people have, and it it strips away what had previously been this sort of idealized picture that Guliver has of humanity,
26:37 right? So he's seeing it in in all of its kind of almost filth, but certainly in all with all of its faults. And the idea of the second part of of Guliver's travels is that oftentimes our perspectives are relative, right? So um if if Someone can be evil, but if they treat us nicely, we may look
27:14 upon them as a wonderful person. And someone may be a wonderful person, but because they did something to us that we didn't like, ah, they're the filth of the earth, right? And by the way, without getting into the the politics of it or but we see this playing out, right, with this whole uh Jeffrey Epstein scandal, right? So all these famous people thought he was this great guy, I suspect because he flattered them and he invited them to, you know, his homes with all this wealthy stuff, right? And so and yet he
27:52 was always a completely evil human being, right? Um, but you know, they people lost their perspective. And by the way, I'm not excusing any behavior, but people lost their perspective in dealing with him. I I I suspect because he was a very flattering guy and he really played upon their vanity. And and so the the the contrast between lilyput and broing broing nag
28:28 uh shows us we have to be careful in how we perceive other people and make sure that we're we're doing so accurately and not being seduced into perceiving them differently than they are. Okay? And so then from there um he voyages to a more sort of fragmented place um uh or fragmented really places. So um pardon me um Lautoa Baldn Barbie uh
29:06 Lugnag and Glub Dubdr. These are not names that's easy to keep in one's head. Um, and this third part of of Guliver's travels, it it satarizes science and philosophy and intellectual pride. And again I think this is a very timely uh issue for us where there's this sort of you know reverence for uh reason and science and science is is this immutable
29:44 thing that can never be questioned. Even though the core ideal behind science is to always be questioning, to search to get ever closer to the truth, but science is never settled. Talk to any scientist. Okay? One of my longest standing and closest friends, uh, Delroy Ba's been a scientist for over four decades. And when we when we talk about this, he laughs at this idea of settled science and it has nothing to do with his
30:19 politics. It has to do with his devotion to what science really is, right? And so um Leuta is this sort of floating island and it's ruled by these sort of abstractminded scientists and mathematicians and they're so absorbed in theory that they neglect anything practical and if you don't think this happens today uh I think it was earlier this week or maybe the end of last week I was listening to a podcast and the hosts were talking to an
30:55 economist And he actually said that um because people um the the pe the group of people he was criticizing have no theory for for why for their explanation of an economic situation. they should be ignored. Now, that's ridiculous on its face.
31:32 To say that theory trumps reality is just it's just silliness, right? But he he would he would be a Leboutin essentially, right? and and we can hear that uh you know we can hear that sort of in our in our minds how ridiculous that is. But there are people alive today who actually believe that as is evidenced by I'm not going to say his name. It's not I I don't believe in embarrassing people. But this particular economist, he believes that he said so
32:08 on this podcast. And by the way, this was not some crank podcast. This was a very mainstreamed podcast. It produced by a very well-known news organization. Again, I don't want to embarrass anybody, so I'm not going to say which one, but if I told you the name, almost for sure you would know the name of the news organization. Okay. Okay. And then, so then the the Baln Barbie. So um they're experimental science uh scientists and among the um the baln bar the baln barby uh uh swift is satarizing
32:49 scientists who do these crazy experiments that have no practical application. They're just again sort of lost in thought. uh and and uh the the the the the age of enlightenment was the beginning of the blossoming of science and there were all kinds of experiments going on but unlike for example Benjamin Franklin's experiment flying the kite and and figuring out that lightning indeed is electricity there were all kinds of
33:25 silly things going on a as there are now it it is somewhat surprising uh some of the uh some of the science or some of the experimentation that that goes on that is you know you know considered to be so amazing so fantastic right okay another sip okay and then um in lug nag uh Guliver meets the stra
34:00 drugs. Um, and these are immortals who keep on aging rather than dying. So, they're sort of the reverse of Merlin if you're familiar with um uh um the sword and the stone. Um and so what he finds is rather than uh eternal life being a blessing um these stro stro strolled drugs um they they're they're miserable. They're scenile and and they're they
34:36 become very isolated because there's they they just they're essentially cut themsel off from the rest of the world. And so in in this third part of Guliver's travels, Swift is satarizing the blind faith and reason uh speculative science and to a certain extent um the enlightenment belief that that all progress um that that progress always improves
35:14 life, Right? So like the idea that okay now you know human beings are never going to die and what he's showing is that that does not improve human lives. Um and and indeed um he really he really questions um whether whether advancement actually advances humanity um making humanity wiser or happier. Right? So he's he's questioning one of the core tenants of the of the enlightenment which is all progress is good. Okay. And
35:53 then in the fourth part uh of Gul the fourth and final part of Guliver's travels. So um it's we meet the the Winnhams and the Yahoos uh you know about uh for which the cocktail was designed and and this is as I mentioned at the beginning of the show this is Guliver uh this is the darkest of the four voyages that Guliver takes. So the land is ruled by the winnhams that are these super rational horses of all things. Um, and they live by reason
36:32 and truth uh and and simplicity. So they're very much like Vulcans, you know, for again for the Trekies, they have no word for lying. So if you're familiar with the uh the GA with the movie Galaxy Quest and the the the people who seek out um the the commander. So, um, they are in some ways like the the Winnham uh because as as you see in the movie, I'm not giving it giving anything
37:08 away, by the way. It's a fabulous movie. I think I did a show on on the movie Galaxy Quest. Uh, they don't understand what lying is. They're, in this case, they're too innocent. Okay. Um, and the humans of this land are called the Yahoos, and they're filthy. They're greedy. Um, and they're violent creatures who essentially represent a very sort of degraded state of of humanity. And um as he grows more disgusted by the Yahoos,
37:47 Guliver starts uh identifying more closely with the Winnham even though they're horses and he's a human being. Um and uh eventually though the winnhams who Guliver seems to respect, they reject him because from their perspective, he's too much like the Yahoos. And so, uh, Guliver's Guliver finds himself
38:23 repulsed by the Yahoos, rejected by the Winnham, who eventually expel him uh from their land. And so, he returns to England. And back in England, Guliver can no longer tolerate human company. So, uh he's he's um he's but he's too sort of disgusted by it uh by it from interactions with the broing broing
38:59 nags uh who from from whom he you know through whom he's seen all of the flaws of humanity and the the other people who uh you know idolatry idolat idolatry ized idolatry. Yeah. Idolatriized reason and and the other peoples who made a fetish of science. Um and the Yahoos who were just disgusting. Um and he he comes to prefer the company of horses, just regular horses in England.
39:34 And he becomes estranged from his family. And so in this section, uh, Swift is is satarizing certainly humanity stripped of all illusions, right? Um, and, you know, driven to greed and pride and and all of the, you know, uh, all of the, you know, deadly sins. Um and yet he comes to find that the pure reason of the win the horses is also not desirable
40:11 at all. And so he's it just leaves him completely cold. And so he's left completely unsettled and feeling like he has no place in the world. and and it's a very, you know, melancholy ending to the book to say the least. So, uh, if you, if you're a regular watcher of the show, you know that I
40:46 approach matters of life from a moral perspective or from the perspective of what does this mean morally, right? And Guliver's Travels is a novel that is helping us look at the moral quality of our society. And that's why the book is as relevant today as it was 300 years ago because that question is an eternal question.
41:23 And and again, we see it playing out here in the United States with competing groups claiming that they represent true morality, right? And we're left to figure out does this group, does that group, neither of them, both of them, somewhere in between, where does where does appropriate, proper morality actually exist? Right. And so I'm gonna I' I've got several
41:58 uh major themes of God lovers travels that I want to share with you. So um one of the things the first theme is is the corruption and pettiness of politics. I I hope no matter where you are on the political spectrum that that you would agree that this is what's going on in the United States right now. So Swift mocks political parties, war, divisions caused by religion
42:34 a as trivial and ego-driven. And indeed I think a lot of them are. And and so Lily put really uh represents a political system built on vanity rather than on principles, right? And and our country which is uh at least supposedly built on the principles of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, right? American society and American politics are supposed to be built on principles. is is you know is
43:10 that where we're at today? Okay. The second major theme is the relativity of perspective. And I talked about this um when I was talking about Luliput and bra bing nag right that are we really seeing things as they are or is our perspective being skewed because of how someone is treating us or some other factor. So um it uh Jonathan Swift uses size
43:47 as his uh perspective, his issue of perspective. But of course size isn't the only one. And so uh we need to make sure that we're seeing and understanding things clearly and not from a relativistic point of view. Okay. Number three uh theme is human pride and hypocrisy. So Guliver himself becomes an object of satire. So
44:23 at first he sees the lily the lily putians as ridiculous but then when he becomes the miniature among the broing nags he becomes an object of ridicule right and and this is you know this is exposing oftentimes the hypocrisy of human beings. And to to paraphrase a line from the
44:58 movie The Big Chill, it's hard to go for for a day without a good hypocrisy. Uh it it's very difficult not to be hypocritical. And yet I think we have to try and we have to recognize when our own behavior and our own actions are perhaps somewhat hypocritical. It is human nature and I think we both need to
45:37 at times excuse the hypocrisy of others. Not not the huge hypocrisies of course but the little hypocrisies of daily life. We need to excuse them as much as we need to receive grace from others for our own small hypocrisies. Okay. Theme number four, reason versus passion, right? And uh we see this in the conflict between the Winnhams and the Yahoos, right? And
46:13 we also see this in in the third voyage uh where uh where Swift satarizes u reason and and and this sort of ridiculousness of science. The the fact of the matter is as human beings we have emotions and we're not going to subjugate our emotions through reason. And I would argue we should not aspire to do so.
46:48 To do so would be to be devoid of empathy. It would be to create a very cold isolated society and that is not a society in which human beings can flourish. We need to love. We need to love at times passionately. Even if the results of that passionate love are a a slap in the face or a kick in the gut.
47:23 and to share just a I I just recently had that happen in my life. And I will tell you quite candidly, despite the pain of what turned out to be an unrequited love, I would not give up how I felt about this woman for anything. And it was a it was on on some level a completely crazy thing.
48:01 And I'm very grateful that I had that experience. As human beings, we need to love. We need to experience passion. And conver, you know, in contrast to the experience I just mentioned a moment ago, I I met someone uh about a week and a half ago who is just cold to to the passions of life or many of the passions of life. Certainly the passions of life that involve being involved with
48:38 other people. How colossally sad for this person. A lovely, lovely young woman. Okay. And talking to her, she she in essence wants nothing to do with humanity. It's it's sad for her. It's sad for the rest of humanity who who won't get to experience as I described her to her. I said, "You are a kick and I'm very grateful I got to spend
49:15 time with you and get to know you a little bit." Okay. Uh number five, theme number five, the limits of progress. Progress is not linear. This is I think one of the most foolish beliefs that we have as human beings have. Progress is not linear. Sometimes things change and purportedly progress and they are not good for us as human beings. They're not good for our culture and our society.
49:52 They are in fact harmful to our society. And so I think we need to approach progress with some skepticism. As an example, I take social media. Social media has done some good things. It's created a a a path whereby uh people who maybe before could not have been uh financially successful now
50:28 can be financially successful. At the same time, they have created ways to be financially successful that are predatory on our fellow human beings. And so like anything, social media, it's not good or bad. It's an is. How we use it determines whether we've used it well or used it badly. Okay? And that's just one aspect of of
51:06 social media. We could talk about how on the one hand, social media allows us to stay connected with people that we other or find people we we've been we've been wanting to re-engage with and allows us to re-engage with them. I know my my older sister Mara has used social media that way. It's been it's been fantastic for her and for the people with whom she's reconnected. And at the same time, social media can make us extremely isolated. From a relationship standpoint, is social media good or bad? And the answer
51:43 is yes. Depends how we use it. Okay. So that the limits of progress and then the last major theme number six um mythan mythanthropy and disillusionment. So the novel gets successively darker with each voyage and what begins as a political satire really ends up being a very disturbing critique of human nature itself. And as I mentioned we see at the end of the novel uh Guliver becomes
52:21 estranged from human society and decides it's it's better to live with horses. How sad. How sad. What an isolated, terrible way for Guliver to spend the rest of his life. Yes, we're human beings. We're flawed. Of course, we are. But we also have in us greatness. We have an aspect of of of God, the
52:58 divine in us. And the tr the one of the essential goals of life is to engage with other people despite their flaws, their weaknesses. And I would argue that perhaps not the only goal, but one of the most important goals of loving someone is to love them because of their
53:34 weaknesses, because of their flaws. to recognize that but for those weaknesses and flaws, we could not possibly hope to have that person in our life. If that person were truly perfect, what are we compared to that person? And why, unless they were God himself,
54:10 why would they ever have anything to do with us? And I think the honest answer is they wouldn't. They'd be an angel and they would not live among human beings because angels don't live among us. They sometimes perhaps mix among us temporarily, but they don't live among us. And it's on that thought that I'm going to wrap up this episode. I hope
54:46 that you have someone in your life that you can love deeply and that perhaps I've given you a way to continue loving them. when they're driving you crazy. Whether it's your spouse, your children, close friend, another family member, a parent, a sibling, learn to love them because
55:22 they have faults. Don't become Guliver who decides he's better off living with horses. So, I thank you for joining me. And uh I'm glad to be back here at Jiggers's Place and uh you know what? I was in a meeting earlier today and uh I I happened to mention this show and uh um one of the people I was meeting with said, "You
55:57 know, we're gonna have to get together and and uh and have a drink." And I said, "You know what? Come by on a Thursday when I'm doing Jiggers's Place and we'll have a cocktail and a schmoo together." If you're going to be in the West Los Angeles area and and you want to join me here at Jigger's Place, drop me an email. All my social media links and my email address are in the show notes when this episode posts on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcast. Maybe I'll make a cocktail for you. So,
56:33 thank you so much for joining me. Of all the shows that I do, this is the one that I hope will truly have an impact on your life. And I'm going to sign off with the person up in Shim up in heaven that I love so dearly because of how she loved me and how she let me take care of her in the last year of her life. Marie Darling, you are and ever will be my bell.
57:12 Courage at all times, my friends.