The Thin Space

Well, hey there, Cadre. How are you? How are you doing? I hope when you get the opportunity to have that question asked to you, how are you doing? You take a moment to consider the answer. Now, if you're like me, I never come up with a good answer for that question because I, like. I think most people struggle with knowing the answer. I rarely know how I am doing, but thinking about the answer to that question is really healthy. You deserve to know how you are doing. Say, my name is JC Lepold, and thank you for allowing me to spend a little bit of time with you right now.

It is a gift to spend time with you on Sundays. In the Cadre sphere, we talk about self care. Ways that you can be good to yourself, ways that you can mend and heal and nourish you. Someone said to me recently, gosh, you don't seem to have a selfish bone in your body. And my response was, by golly, I think I'm one of the most selfish people I've ever met. Why? Because taking time to do good things for yourself is selfish, and it's the prerequisite for being able to be selfless. Right? If you feel like trash, if you're empty, what can you give to anybody else?

So I spend time kicking off Sunday mornings talking about the thin space. The thin space is in between everything that has been and everything that will be. It's a. It's a concept that kind of resembles being present, but more so. It's not only being present with being like, ah, I'm thinking about the future. I'm thinking about the past right now. But saying, hey, I am literally going to honor what is in this moment. In this moment, I'm going to say, good morning, jewels. Because that is something that I can do right now.

That is right now. If you're wondering what does thin space look like? Like, what does it look like within people's lives, I will say this. It normally looks like normal, ordinary stuff. I often find that my favorite movies are movies where people are in the thin space. How about I talk about my second favorite movie of all time? Planes, trains, and automobiles. Planes, trains, and automobiles, I think is the. The best Thanksgiving movie that's ever been created. It's a wonderful movie starring Steve Martin and John Candy, and it's a story about these two strangers who are trying to get home to Chicago for Thanksgiving, and it takes them planes and trains and automobiles to get there.

Classic film. Yes. Jules. Hey, Beezovitz. Nice to see you in this movie, which is a comedy, but it is the one movie that every single time I see it, I cry. No matter how many times I watch it, I always cry every time I watch this movie. Now, the reason why I think it's such a great example of thin space is because of this. Yes. Steve Martin is trying to get home for Thanksgiving from New York to Chicago. So you could say, oh, so that's. That's about the future. Like, he's. He's anticipating or he's excited, or he's longing for the moment in the future to get home.

John Candy is kind of stuck in the past. That's all I'll say. I won't give anything away. So you could say, oh, well, John Candy is in the past and Steve Martin's in the future. So how is this about being present? How is this about being in the thin space? Well, these two strangers end up after fighting it for quite a while, appreciating all of the things that they were experiencing within the space in between. Now, there's this really great scene at the end when Steve Martin is having flashbacks.

Uh oh. Again, we're in the past, but everything that he's flashing back to are moments when him and this stranger, John Candy, were being in the moment that they were in. I think that's the reason why I love this movie so much, because it is made up of normal moments. Normal meaning. Things that happen, like in real life, like flights being cancelled and trains breaking down and okay, there's a car that starts on fire. So maybe that doesn't happen all the time. But all of a sudden, what Steve Martin remembers from this journey was not the longing or the dreaming or the anticipating, but the being in the thin space.

Here's the takeaway for today. If you feel like you're wrestling with the moment that you're in, you know, we're in one of the classic thin spaces of the year, the dog days of summer. The dog days of summer are often met with certain emotions of like, oh, my gosh, summer is ending soon. So again, we're kind of longing for the earlier days of summer. We're also anticipating what is coming up in the next season within these days when we get restless. How many great summer memories are made in this time of the year when you were in the moment that you were in, when you were like, gosh, it's humid and I'm feeling it.

Or the days are getting shorter, but they're still really long. And I'm acknowledging that. How many fairs or carnivals or events, how many sensory moments like freshly sharpened pencils and, you know, the smell of a clean classroom on the first day before a whole school year happens. That's the thin space. And I hope today, whether it's watching an old movie, the past, about anticipating, about getting home in the future, maybe you sit down, you watch planes, trains and automobiles, or maybe you go, huh?

Where am I right now? And what's going on around me? And how do I appreciate that? Be in the space that you are in. If you need a couple other reminders of how to be good to yourself today, how to take care of yourself, get ready. Right? You're gonna see Jane. You're going to see Darryl, you're going to see Tiffany. You're going to see Jason. You're going to see this whole lineup of people today who are willing to say, hey, where are you right now? Be there. Because you don't really have a choice, y'all.

I'll be back tomorrow morning and every morning. m. central standard time on the weekdays. m. central standard time on the weekends. Have a good one. We'll talk to you later.