บทถอดความฉบับเต็มของ Episode 10111011: Shiva’s Lingam

could show up and I know, this is weird. I want stories. Chris Reynolds I the things that are adjacent to what you suggested, are this sort of like singles gatherings that I that I know exist. And no, like, if you're not, if you're not in the war, it's usually like Ward centric. It's like this the singles Ward, or no, no, that sometimes they have like a singles Ward, where it's like a bunch of different words. And it's all the singles from those words, and they have like a group meet thing to, like, meet. Meet with other single Mormon people from outside your word, will Allison make a blanket statement and say most LDS people in Utah, I would guess, are like, unless you're interested in also being a Mormon. They're just fine. Not hanging out with. Yes, Chris Reynolds yes. I mean, I don't know. So broad statements. And Allison this is a very blanket. I'm just going off of what I know from my listen, if Gary somebody in the audience somebody, if we offend some, we offend somebody. Just email me, I would be happy to chat. If Allison my second cousin Megan is listening to the podcast, shout out to that side of the fence. Chris Reynolds I think that I think that, while I think that's broadly true, I think that there's always obviously always exceptions, and I think a lot of the a lot of the people that I have met are, you know, cool with Whatever, dude, but I also get the feeling that like, even if you're like, super close, with any of them, you probably like there's, there's, if they're active in the church, which is a big distinction, then there's like, a level of like, like, removal, if you aren't part of the church, also, like you would never be like, besties with this person, because you're just not one of us. Yeah. Gary Um, okay. I think I had a sillier idea in my head. I think in my head. Actually, this is a fascinating conversation, because it says more about me than anybody else. I think in my head, I think that they were all just like, we're like Kumbaya? Well, no, like, like, like, we get that as a joke. Right? But that may be just my lack of interaction with them. So they're the ones that send people out on bicycles, right? I mean, like two by two and go like, like two by two for sure. Recruiting towns, I guess by uh, yeah, maybe isn't a requirement? I guess probably not. But white Chris, I'm not sure what Chris Reynolds the two by two is definitely a thing because when they when when Mormon missionary or LDS missionaries come go, like whatever Canvas they're usually doing it in pairs. Okay. So Gary I've had very little interaction with those. That's my only interaction. And I feel like the one I guess to it would have to be two that I interacted with. Kind of were like in on the joke was my take on the matter was that they were here doing this thing, but it was just the thing they had to do. Allison So this was a non Utah situation. Gary Well, the hellscape of Florida so they're Chris Reynolds probably missionaries on their mission and means they're youngins, which means we're youngins and they are doing thing that because that's the thing that they're supposed to do, because that is what your mission is, is go door to door and talk to people like and everyone's Gary mission there, right? Like, don't they all do that? Yes. So seems a little short sighted, right? Chris Reynolds I mean, they do like they do. I mean, Allison some people go to Florida, but some people are assigned to go to like godless. Well, I mean, yeah, you could argue. Well, but like, but I mean, that like getting your getting your assignment is like a huge announcement like akin to like, at least in some some parts of the community. And Chris Reynolds it's like, it's like, it's like getting the acceptance letter from the university. Yeah, Allison like, it's just like, did I get in? Where am I go? Where am I place? Chris Reynolds I don't know, what's more, what's what's more, well received as a, as a young LDS person about to go on their mission, if it would be more desirable to go to someplace like Florida, or San Francisco or New York, or like a cool city, or if it would be more desirable to go to somewhere like Ghana, or like, you know, Cuba, or like, somewhere where like, you're gonna be like, in like, very low income. Allison It probably just depends on the person in the family because I don't know, like Gary a what kind of area do they cover? Like, everywhere? Everywhere? Chris Reynolds If I mean, okay, not not your Gary five by five grid, or like, oh, Allison well, there'll be assigned to like, my understanding is that there'll be assigned basically to like, another like, community, like another community and other LDS community, and Chris Reynolds it's, it's someplace where there already is some sort of foothold, that like, and there's like a temple or a steak or something in the area. You're telling Gary me there had to be like an LDS temple near where I was when I met them. Yeah, that's where they keep their bikes. Allison They don't just wander Yeah. Gary Yeah, in hindsight, that doesn't make sense. I was thinking like, they like go get a cheap apartment to you. Good luck. Chris Reynolds Come back. And yeah, no, no, no, they're definitely well, I mean, Allison very community minded, like they're they're taking and they're making sure that that the people on their mission are like, supported in whatever, whatever way that Chris Reynolds it's more than Yeah, it's more than just the going door to door because it is very much like if you if they came to your door, and you're like, is there anything that you need help with or whatever? And you're like, Well, yeah, I've got this shed out back that I want to tear down. They'd be like, Well, great. We'll be here tomorrow. And they would work on that with you. And there's all sorts seriously. Yeah. Great. Allison We know, next time we see Gary is gonna be in like a weird collared shirt

and a tie. And Chris Reynolds yeah, they absolutely do stuff like that. And that's that's like, Gary I mean, I'm just looking forward to the Mormon undergarments. Match underwear there. Yeah. Thank you, Mitt Romney for exposing that idea to me. Allison When growing up, for whatever reason, well, I know the reason the house next to us had like bunk rooms and like lots of like, perfect for a family reunion, large family situation and it would always be rented out in the summer. So large Mormon families would always come rented out every year, and they would go swimming, but like swimming with like their undergarments, like over like, it just was like it was as a kid who grew up in Southern California. It was very confusing to me, because I was very, like, what are these old timey people in the water? Like, Chris Reynolds what's happening? The one of the things that that was most striking visually for me, coming here in the summer, from living from living and growing up in California, was seeing women and girls with like spaghetti strap or tank tops with T shirts underneath. That is the weirdest weirdest thing. And it's because they have a weird thing about shoulders. Shoulders need to be covered. And even friends that we have, that have left the church but grew up LDS still, like cover their shoulders, because it just feels wrong to like, expose them in any way. Like even even when they've left Yeah, it's really Yeah, but it's it's a really kind of weird. Gary That is fascinating. Yeah, that our brains work that way too. Like that's the thing you grew up with. And you're like, No, like, the crazy people with the word underpants I'm out of that, but I just can't do shoulders. Allison You're like, just not gonna happen. But like, it ties into this, that weird thing where it's just like you're so used to your own narrative from your childhood. And until you start comparing it with other people's stories or experiences. There's that moment when you're like, I don't know maybe 10 to 12 are used aren't realizing that like, not everyone has those same experiences. And then sometimes you realize, oh, wow, you're telling a story and everyone's reaction then changes how you feel about it. Every Chris Reynolds time I tell a story about my childhood, Aaron just gives me this little look, because it's like, you know, normal kids don't have that. Allison No, because I had a friend who had this really rough childhood, and she was telling a story. And we were all like, looking like, yeah. Chris Reynolds But to her, it's right. For her, she Allison was just telling it, like, oh, I went to them, like, as if she had gone to the movies or something. Chris Reynolds Well, and it's a similar experience to like, when I realized that, like, my eyes stuff was not normal. Like I didn't I didn't even have a thought about like, the way that I perceive light because of my keratoconus. Like the way I perceive light isn't what everybody sees. So like, at night, I remember being like 16 and it's raining and it's like, I'm, you know, along El Camino in like San Bruno or something. And I see these streaky lights coming from the, from the cars and whatever. And I just assume that that's what everybody sees. So I don't even think about it. And like you hear all this stuff about like, oh, yeah, you have to be careful about visibility when you're driving at night, especially like, obviously, because there's weird streaks of light. Like, you know, it wasn't until somebody mapped my frickin eyeballs and shot some like, there's a mountain there. I'm Gary imagining like the Metro at Boston, like, I'm driving at night, right? You're like, no, was just Allison about like, just about, like, my normal bad eyesight where I gotta get, right. Yeah, I got in trouble for writing, like, copying off someone's paper. But I was just copying off like the problems not even. I was like this. In my head. I remember thinking This must be why people say math is hard. Because like, you can't like it's just really hard to like, literally see, and it didn't even occur to me that like, something's wrong with my eyes, like I was too young to like, make that connection. I Gary was devastated. I was in private school and then went to public school and public school. They do the eye test every year. How old were you first? I was in third grade. So it was the first test I ever failed was an eye test. And I was Allison like, failure. Like, Gary it wasn't. I mean, that was back in the 80s, though, so you know? Yeah. But yeah, I mean, whatever. At the time, though. I was just like, oh my gosh, I can't do this thing. What? Allison I still get like that, when I get my eyes tested, though, when they're like doing the back and forth. And I'm like, I can be seen even better than how I'm saying. Like, Chris Reynolds well, that was that was a that was such a weird experience. For me. The thing that led to the whole, like, discovering that I have keratoconus thing was going in to get my eyes tested. And they did that, this or that, this or that? And like, okay, and we did that whole process, and they put it together and like, I can't see jack shit. And like, so we went through from the beginning of this or that this or that both eyes and like, Okay, we're good. We're good. We're good. I can't see. Allison Like, no good. Chris Reynolds And he's like, let me see. Maybe you have this thing. You should talk to this guy. And they'll do it typography. Allison It's really good that they like got to the bottom of Yeah, yeah, Chris Reynolds it was it was pretty, it was a pretty big leap because it was not like it's not a normal like optometrist thing. It's like, you know, ophthalmologist thing. And so like for them to make the mental leap old. This seems like this other problem that sometimes manifests in a similar way to like a astigmatism, which is what he was assuming it was to make that sort of jump and be like, Yeah, you should

talk to this dude. Gary If you have you done the machine where they do like the, the very close picture of your eye, yes. Allison No, it's weird. Gary Yeah, the doctor comes in, and he's like, I would like to see a really close picture of my eye. Well, they can identify things like blood pressure in the, like, if you have like high blood pressure. They can be like, oh, yeah, like, look at these vessels here. No, I mean, to a layperson, they just look like vessels. What do I know? It's like, No, you have great, you know, you're doing fine. These look healthy. Allison I know. They compliment you on things that you're like. Gary Thank you. Yeah. Chris Reynolds Part of that parents had really bad experiences with super creepy optometrists when going to like, like LensCrafters and stuff because like, they'll like make weird comments about like, her eyes being really like nice or pretty or something. She's like, No, go away stops just stop. That's that's not no, that's just a huge bummer. Yeah. So so now we just basically do all that stuff online as much as Yeah, yeah. Or go to the university. We've been going to the university and they're less Gary smart. Yeah. They're less creepy because they're so focused on what they're doing. Yeah, exactly. Have you seen the show? Chris Reynolds To be fair, like when Aaron broke her knee and had her knee replacement like the the doctor that worked on it is probably one of the, like, legitimately one of the best doctors in the country at that type of surgery like they have, you know, it's also where you get like some really kick ass like medical care, because they have people that know their shit and teach it and they're like, updated on like the latest, latest and greatest. Yeah, yeah. Gary That is the fun thing about being rural office, like old book and pull the dust off. Like, have you heard of the internet? There's probably been some studies since then. You know, Allison I'm purely in the walk in clinic realm because I can't find a family doctor, but I scheduled Chris Reynolds my first appointment for like just a regular checkup with a maybe our somebody who could be your PCP for the first time since being an adult. Good for you. Going to the doctor? Gary Yeah. Allison Oh, good for you. Yeah. It's an easy, it's not an easy like phone call or thing to arrange Chris Reynolds it. It's like, it's so overwhelming, like, Who do you pick in like, for so long? It's just been reactive, like, oh, we have a problem. Let's go to the like, you know, urgent care or whatever. Like, I don't know, but like, like, how do you choose someone? How do you decide what's good and what's bad and like, you Gary could do your network. I had this physician's assistant that I hated. But I kept I went once a year because I went for my annual. And I was like, Man, this guy is the worst. And that was it. I went anyway. And then apparently, a lot of you thought he was the worst because he was he left the practice. And I went to schedule my annual and they were like, Oh, he's down here. Do you have a preference on who else you would like? And I'm like, Nah, who's available? You're like anyone else? Yeah. So I ended up with a nurse practitioner. And she was great, like, left that appointment and felt like I knew things I could do to be healthier. And that was an improvement. Even communication dialogue started Chris Reynolds I started looking at because it was add it because it was an add on on my brother, my brother and me. I started looking at ZocDoc which is like an online thing that works with your insurance and whatever. And I found some stuff and it was like, oh, there's appointments next week. And I'm like, okay, good. I'll just use this thing and I'll be done. I went to make the appointment. It's like virtual only and I'm like, well, for my very first physical ever. Probably don't want it to be virtual. And then the ones that weren't virtual are like 40 miles away. I'm like, Okay, this is shit. I'm gonna bind dude. Yeah, Gary if you do want to in person, because I remember like this last one. She was like, I mean, look at this closer. This mole. Yeah, no, it's fine. It's just a mole. But yeah, like, we'll look at it again next year, like something that would have happened at virtual but just by virtue of being in person, like, what's weird about your body? Chris Reynolds And like, I have weird things about my body, like I have a mole and a very interesting place that is not generally exposed through like just pulling a sleeve up or something that like, I don't know that I want to put my phone down there. Just Allison it somehow becomes less medical when you're like. On that note, Gary, do you have to go? Yeah, Gary I should. Thank you all. Enjoy the weekend. Transcribed by https://otter.ai