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Manhood often feels like navigating through uncharted territory, but you don't have to walk alone. Join us as we guide a conversation about how to live intentionally so that we can join God in reclaiming the masculine restorative presence he designed us to live out. Laugh, cry, and wonder with us as we explore the ins and outs of manhood together.
00:01
Hey guys, welcome back to the podcast. This is Chris Bruno and I've got my good friend, Mr. Jesse French. Hey guys. So I don't know what the audio on this is going to sound like because we're not in a typical place where we record. No, very, very atypical. I am riding shotgun right now as Jesse is driving his pickup truck. And Jesse, where are we? Yeah, we are in the.
00:28
kind of the middle of Colorado. We are driving through the mountains of Colorado and driving might be an overstatement. We are creeping. We're creeping at a robust six miles an hour currently, which is a record for the last hour and a half. That's true. We've been going at anywhere from zero to one for about an hour and a half. Yeah. Yeah. So there's just a trail of traffic that is the worst.
00:56
Like we can see two miles ahead of us and it's still stopped up. Yep. So for you guys who are maybe not from Colorado, we are recording this in September. Yep. So I'm not sure when this is going to air, but just put yourself in the mindset of September in the high country of Colorado. The Aspen trees change color and it just is this glorious, amazing experience that all of Colorado comes out to see and then some. Everyone. Everyone is on the road. Everyone is out to see these.
01:26
And they're beautiful like they are absolutely stunningly beautiful there and for some reason they're all out today Right when we're trying to get home from a retreat. Yep. Yep, because the Aspen There's this huge big old Grove over this pass that people can drive to right? It's as Chris said. Yeah, it's stunningly beautiful and We're in a two-lane highway and going very slow. We're going very slow. Wait a minute. Oh, we're up to 14 14 14 Hello. Hello 14. We are winning. Yeah
01:56
So and the beauty is that in not the beauty, the curse is that we're out here in the high country of Colorado and there's very little reception. And so almost every time I try at least with my phone to get on and find alternate routes, it just like spins and.
02:15
loops. So I will take this opportunity to make... No you're not going to! This is happening, you brought it on yourself. This brought, you brought it on yourself. I wasn't gonna go there, but you open the door. I'm walking through it. Okay. One of the things that Chris and I have often argued about and fought about is the Apple versus Android phone debate. And I am on the Android, Team Android side. Chris is on Team Darkside. Apple, Evil Empire, whatever it's called.
02:43
And so he's constantly telling me like, well, you know, if you had an Apple, you'd be able to like call your daughter in Washington, D.C. And, you know, I don't know what the cool features are. You can't make phone calls. Oh, no, they're like out of state. I can make phone calls on my phone. Oh, yeah. OK. Anyways, that was a bad example. mean, like he's always bragging about I can text on my computer because I have an Apple and that. So there's a big inferiority complex is what I'm trying to say. You do feel inferior.
03:11
This is how he does it people. This is how he does it. He just uses these jabs like this and I feel bullied. I am asking you legitimate questions. I'm choosing not to answer. What I'm trying to say is Chris's Apple phone is not working and guess whose phone is? The good old trusty from 1962 Android or whatever however old it is. Yes. Okay. So here's the question. Check mark. Chalk that one up. I will give you this is true.
03:39
Okay. Your service is working and my service is not. Thank you. What service? for your honesty. What service do you have? Verizon. Okay. I have T-Mobile. Okay. So for those of you that I know who may be listening to this and work for T-Mobile. Oh, we do have a friend who does work for T-Mobile. We do. He's a good guy. He's a really good guy. And I don't know if he's listening or not, but I just want to say I love you. I love you.
04:08
And your coverage is lousy. All of the service that you offer me in most places of the world is amazing. And for some reason right now it is not working. So here's what I have to say about this, gentlemen. Please tell me it's not about Apple. It's actually not about. This feels like a classic denial mode. This is a total denial strategy. It's I don't know. It's guys. Just seriously. He can just accept and say it's both a service provider.
04:37
And it's an Apple issue. And it's an Apple issue. How does that feel to like accept a little phone responsibility? I only accept 50 % because it is the phone plus the service that makes the device actually work. Here's what another friend told me. So please don't cancel T-Mobile because we like our friend who works there. I also really like T-Mobile in most parts of the world. And my phone is still superior to Jesse's.
05:04
Here's what he just can't accept it. Here's what a friend told me one time when I was telling him my woes of being, you know, just bullied by fellow Apple staff members. And he just said, you know, when the time is right and it's a mutual friend, you know him and he actually is someone who loves Apple. But he said this wise statement. He said, when the time is right, you look across the room, this case across the car and you say, you know, if me and my Android phone.
05:33
need to be the villain that you need so you can feel good about your existence, I will gladly accept that responsibility. So that's my retort. Well in this traffic, I do need someone to be a villain. That is true. We do need a villain. There is a villain. I just said, okay, so this is, is, okay, if any of you listening right now are in law enforcement or highway patrol or anything, we love you. God bless you.
06:03
keep doing good work. And we need more of you out here right now. This is because this is so bad. We need somebody to be out here directing traffic or sending people off in different routes who can't get service to figure out what other routes to go on. That's right. That's right. So we need you. We need to do better. We also have another friend who like oversees traffic for state government. Yes. For another state. And that would also be really helpful to somehow design a better system. So I wish we could broadcast.
06:32
the podcast from here and actually call for help. Oh, that would be really good. Actually call for help. That'd be good. Support hotline. Yes. Okay. So the other thing that Jesse is experiencing right now in his inferiority complex is he made a call earlier today. Oh my gosh. A decision on which route to take when we set out. I did. And so we don't know. We don't, we were leaving a retreat from restoration project, the Grove retreat. Yep.
07:02
here in Colorado and we don't know how the other men have fared. Maybe they chose this route, maybe they chose the other major route or any other minor route. We don't know how they fared. Well, you could just text them. Oh, oh, oh, wait. Oh, wait, maybe not. Your phone doesn't work. This is true. I generally hopefully those guys who are traveling and have flights. Yeah. So.
07:30
Jesse, when you were growing up, how did you entertain yourself when you were on road trips as a boy? Oh, that's a really good question. Our family would make an annual road trip to the state of Montana every summer. this was, I grew up in the age where we had a Walkman. OK. Can you picture it? Like little headphones that played cassette tapes. tapes, yeah. Yes. So there was a significant portion of that drive that
07:57
put in the little Sony headphones and listen to some tapes as we drove from Colorado, Montana. Okay. Wow. And you just listened to tapes? There some of that. My grandma was this very kind woman who, when we would go on this trip, she would make trip bags for us. And so in the trip bag, no way. Yeah, it was really awesome. In the trip bag would be like some gum and some word searches and some other, cause every little boy wants to do word searches. Yeah.
08:26
Yeah, those were kind of boring. Those only lasted like, oh, I can't find hippopotamus, and I'm going to give up. That's true. There were other good things. There was like candy in there too, which was a total jackpot. That's great. Yeah. Right? Yeah. OK, do you want to hear my awesome story of when we were road tripping? Of course. My dad, at this point, my older brother, think, was four and I was two. So this was when I was pretty little. OK. And they were going on a couple hour road trip.
08:51
And my dad was kind of lamenting the fact to some friends like, hey, I'm not sure how this will go with my two sons. They're pretty young, right? It's a long time to be in the car. Like all of the parental concerns, right? And his friends said, oh, no, no, no, this is what you got to do. We figured out this new thing works great. You get in the car and tell your kids, hey, as soon as we get to the destination, you guys get this whole bag of candy and you pick up this bag of candy and tell your kids that. And my dad's like, okay.
09:19
And he goes, because you know, when you do that, then your kids cheer and they're all excited. And then my dad's friend said, so in the inevitable moment, 12, 14, 15 minutes later, when the kids start to fight, you very nonchalantly roll your window down, open the bag of candy, reach a handful of candy out of the bag and you throw it out the window and you say nothing. And my dad's friend said, it works like a charm. Kids stop fighting like all is well. Oh my. Right? Well.
09:49
Yes, right. Except for all the littering that is happening. Oh, you're killing the line. Oh, you're so smart. OK, so my dad does this. He's so excited. Does this with his two sons, my brother and I. And we start fighting. Reaches, grabs a handful of throws it out the window, and my brother says that exact line, don't litter. Dad, don't litter. Total backfire. Total backfire. So you and my brother must have some similar justice, environmental awareness. The same thing could have been accomplished.
10:19
if you had gone my route. Do tell. Get the bag of candy. Tell the kids that as soon as you get to the destination that they get the bag of candy and as soon as they start fighting, eat some. Yes, that is what you should do. Totally. And then, you know, the next time they do something, eat some more. And whatever's left they can have. That's a much better solution. The only, well, the only problem is that you could end up with a really bad stomach That's true, depending on how bad it gets. That is true. Yeah. Then you're not littering.
10:48
See, good job Chris. Okay. Good solution. Thank you. Yeah. Always thinking. I'm going to eat some candy corns right now because I'm kind of hungry. It's 2 30 in the afternoon. We left three hours ago and we made it 40 miles. 40 miles. Yeah. Yeah. That's good. That's not a great, really great progress. And our speed right now is zero. Yeah. We're stopped. Stopped. We are stopped. Okay. Well, what did, did you take road trips?
11:17
Yes, we took road trips and this has actually dissuaded me from ever being a road trip dad I don't like taking road trips We've had to because of just money and trying to you know Get places and all the kids like all that stuff. But as a boy, we did not have Walkman I do not have a Walkman. Okay. I have the one older sister and she has this pretty severe mental and physical disabilities and so it was really boring there was no one to
11:46
talk to or play with or do anything. I couldn't even fight with somebody in the car. So, Yeah. There was, there was that piece and my sister loved the soundtrack to Annie. Oh, that's a gooder. That's a classic. It is a classic until you listen to it for the thousandth time. Yeah. And it would be a cassette tape.
12:11
that my parents would put into the car and it would just play in the car and there was no way to get away from listening to Annie. And as soon as the soundtrack was over, then it would be just repeated, repeated, repeated. so literally for the next six hours or whatever, you'd be listening to Annie. so what was your then the trade out was Sound of Music. Oh my gosh. Those are like some of my wife's favorite movies. They're my wife's favorite movies of all time. And my wife's heart hurts.
12:40
when I say like, can't watch that with you because I have some trauma around those two soundtracks. I was gonna ask like, I would imagine all of those songs probably like, you know, maybe produce some shaking and mild headaches, but like, is there one that is the least trauma inducing? I won't say favorite, but if you have to listen to one from the two of those two soundtracks.
13:05
Oh my gosh, that's a good question. I think from Sound of Music, probably My Favorite Things. This is classic. Okay. Yeah, so good. Yep, and then Probably from Annie There's a clear choice here Is there? Totally is. I don't know. Maybe my traumas too deep. Sun will come out tomorrow,
13:35
No, not coming out coming out for you tomorrow my heart going to like, okay arrest I'm sorry. So let's not do that. Yeah, don't don't make that happen. Okay, so Yes, I don't have many good boyhood road trip stories. I'm sorry that yeah I remember a lot of times I wasn't even required to wear a seatbelt and so I would get on the floor and just like try to hide Okay, so yeah, maybe sleep or something like that on the floor. Yep, but I couldn't read
14:04
because they get carsick. Oh, such a drag. There was no such thing as like watching movies in the car at that time. So audio like tape books. I feel like one year we did like a and it was it was they were tapes. Right. No, no. My dad would have nothing to do with that because it would be like right because it was the it disrupted those. Yeah. Any sound of music show. Hey, Sheriff just drove by us right now. OK, thanks, Sheriff. But he's going the other way. And you need to go this way. You need to go this way. And I'll just about this.
14:33
Because I think there's about 50 miles of traffic behind us and we need it to clear up in front of us. That's true. That's true. Well, I'm not sure what we're going to do when we have to pee. That's going to... Yeah, that's a good question. That's a good question. Because here's my efficiency mindset. I don't want to pull over. No. Like, no. We must maintain our spot in line. We must maintain. And I'm good for now. OK. Are you good? I'm pretty good right now. OK.
15:02
Yeah, that's good. I'm good for now. Okay, but when the time comes, I'm not sure what we're gonna do
15:08
So this is raising the existential question of like how much pain are you willing to undergo for the sake of beauty? Oh Right because there is beauty all around us like this hillside looks like it's parts of it are on fire like the Aspen or that That bright. Yeah, but there's another sheriff Another sheriff just drove by please That is a good question. That is a really good question. And that is what we call at restoration project a Jesse French deep dive question
15:38
How much pain are you willing to endure for beauty? Yeah. That's a good one. Obviously you hear my sarcasm of like our pain is very minimal. We're in traffic. We're stuck in Right. But still. I am enjoying the sights and I'm also ready to get home. Yeah. Because it is now 2 45 in the afternoon. We left at 11 30 and we've made it 41 miles. I don't know. Woo.
16:04
Is that how much? think that's probably... Oh, wait a minute. I can't. Oh, wait. Just kidding. I can't. Do want to pull your rotary dial phone out and we can try it that way? Shut up. Shut up. Yeah. Well, this is our pointless podcast. It is. And just a celebration of being together and laughing and joking. And OK, here's my attempt to try to at the very end, one little nugget. Bring us home, OK. It's not mine.
16:32
It was actually from an email I read a couple weeks ago from the Renovare organization in Colorado Springs. And one of the things that the guy was, the director was getting ready to go on a sabbatical and he met with his spiritual director and was telling him like, hey, here are all my hopes for my sabbatical. Here's what I really want for this whole time. It was like laying it all out. And his spiritual director said, everything does not have to be meaningful.
17:00
And I loved that phrase thinking about, like, everything does not have to be this, you know, serious, hinge point. Yes. So I realized some irony in me trying to bring that good nugget on the end of a like, you're trying to be meaningful to a meaningless podcast. I realize there's some irony there, but I think it's worthwhile and. Yeah, that's excellent. No, it's meaningful just to be with you. Oh, thanks, Chris. It's meaningful to be with you and your phone that doesn't work.