#272 Surviving & Thriving the Current Fourth Turning: Mental, Emotional, Physical, and Financial 'Resourcefulness'

Greg & Rachel Denning (00:00.664)
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Extraordinary Family Life podcast. We are your host, Greg and Rachel Denning. And today we're gonna talk about all the craziness that's happening in the world and kind of just share some observations, put some puzzle pieces together and maybe share some thoughts or recommendations. At least today we're gonna ask some questions. We may not have any conclusive results for you, but we're gonna ask some questions.

And I think the most important thing we can do in life is ask the right questions. Well, right. As we were sitting here, we felt like we should talk about this topic. But we're both kind of like, well, I'm not exactly sure what we're going to say. But we're just going to have a conversation like you and I would have a conversation about it. And people like us to talk about these things. I mean, from the feedback I get.

people are interested in us talking about current events, even though I personally feel like I'm not that educated about current events because I don't watch the news, I don't pay attention. I literally get most of my news either from you, who gets it from a group of people we trust who watch things like that. They're intelligence around global intelligence. We're just watching things that are happening.

On a global scale. So either that or I get it from Facebook and Instagram, right? Which is, in some ways you think, that's not a great source. But I actually prefer that because I feel like it's interpretations of events, which to me is more valuable. human psychology. Yeah. And to me, that's more valuable than watching the news because I feel like the news is just propaganda anyways. I don't care what side. It's some sort of propaganda.

I feel better watching individuals who have studied, learned, and interpreted that information. That, to me, is more actual news. Well, for example, one person I like to follow and learn from, besides Jordan Peterson, of course, is Russell Brand. He's a very eccentric person. But I feel like he really cares about what's going on in the world. And he really likes to study it, interpret it. And so that's kind of where I get

Greg & Rachel Denning (02:23.414)
my news sources from. So we're just going to kind of talk through it, talk about some of the things we've been seeing, hearing about. And I don't guess a little side note there. We stopped watching the news early in our marriage. I don't know that we ever watched the news in Yeah, we never had a TV. We decided when we got married, were like, let's not have a TV. We didn't have a TV for And so I would listen to the news a little bit earlier than when we were first married to listen to the news. But then I think it was Brian Tracy or somebody. He's like, stop.

Stop. Don't listen to the news. Don't watch the news. Don't listen to the news. Like you're wasting your life. And this was almost, it was 25 years ago when I first started hearing them. Like what? I think also when we, you know, learned a lot about the law of attraction and the secret and all of those things, like of course all those people are like, don't watch the It's just negativity. It's pointless. And then it is, is propaganda and there's agendas. Now, luckily there are some news outlets or sources that are really trying to be.

Well, and I think a place like Substack is a great place to get news. And I also, I subscribe to something that's called FAIR, the Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism, which is, you would think might be very left. It's actually very balanced. It's trying to bring a lot of that back to center. There's one called the Institute for Family Studies that I follow and listen to, but they're more like scholarly articles on current events. But things like that, I feel, help me to stay up with a more

accurate picture of what's going on in the world rather than just the sensational news. And then like you were talking about there's there's individuals you start following to see like where they land and this is perfect example a few months ago I found this gentleman and I was like okay maybe he seems to be you know watching out for things

And so I just kind of kept an eye on it. Again, I'm not into the news. I'm not like, what's happening? What's going on? I don't do that. I get up and I live my life. And we live our family life. Because inevitably any big event that happens, you hear about it. We were in Mongolia when we heard about the attempted assassination on Trump because of that intel group you're a part of. So you end up hearing about the big things that happened. It's going you're not missing stuff.

Greg & Rachel Denning (04:44.534)
And sometimes we feel like, I have to watch news because I have to know what's going on. I would encourage you to not watch it. But anyways, was following this guy for a while and I realized he was too sensationalist or became that way. And he was just trying to stir up drama. And again, the news is all about wow factor and about getting eyes attention. Whoa, whoa, whoa. There's another storm. It may be the biggest one ever.

As of yet, it's just a little storm, but it might turn into something horrible. You might want to be afraid. It's like they're just trying to get shock and awe. And this guy started doing that. And then he started sharing some, you know, very political stuff one sided. And so I'm like, I'm done. I stopped falling because I want to watch. want to I want to just follow guys that are like, no, they're just like, here's here's what happened. You guys look at it. Here's actually here's what was said. Here's what was reported. Here's what actually happened. And I like that kind of stuff.

Well, since we're sharing these different resources, there's another website called All Sides, which for one thing is they actually rate the different news outlets and have people vote, whether they're far left or middle left or center or far right or whatever. So that's kind of interesting and helpful because you can look at all of the different outlets out there.

But then they also do try to provide a balanced headlines and things like that. Although honestly, personally, from my viewpoint, I still feel like they're little bit left leaning. But again, that's ultimately what we have to be doing. We have to be looking at it from multiple sources to even try to get some sort of accurate picture of what's actually going on. And that's just part of the process, I think.

two sides to the story and then the truth. Always. And like we don't feel like we have a monopoly on the truth or the right perspective. going on. Yeah, you understand what's going on. And there's so many of us that simply cannot understand what's going on because there are things happening behind the scenes. There always are. There's leadership decisions. There's secret understanding. There's things, okay, there's secret things that people are trying to hide in the darkness. And then there's things you just cannot tell the public.

Greg & Rachel Denning (07:06.466)
These can't. Like there's leadership decisions happening every single day in businesses, organizations, churches, governments. If you were to leak that to the public, just mayhem and chaos and meltdowns, craziness, because there are things you have to understand. And there's context to so much. And if you understand it, then you can handle the information.

If you just take the general populace that's rolling along and they don't understand the complexities of certain things or issues and you just toss it out there to them. Well, yeah, I mean, that's definitely something I've learned to comprehend that things can be so complex that it requires more than a simple sound bite on the news to explain it. And so you can't like you can't make it into a tweet.

In order to really understand it, you have to talk about it for 30 minutes or longer. You know what mean? To understand the context. to understand the 30 minute clip about something complex, I would say there's a hundred really good books you have to dig through before you can understand that 30 minute conversation. Right. Otherwise, you just miss it all. And there's so many issues that, like, unless you've read and studied with breadth and depth,

Like, you might hear it and you might think you get it, but the more I read and study, the more I learn, the more I realize how little I get. And how hard it is to truly understand something. Well, and I feel that that's often what's happening on the surface level with the things happening in the news, which again, for me, I see on say like Facebook, but it's these conversations that people are having and I'm thinking.

just talking about surface level stuff here. Exactly. Like even the whole situation with the women's boxing in Paris, right? So that there was a woman who got beat by someone who they're saying is tested as well tested in some other Olympic. I think in Russia they tested having an XY chromosome, right? So which means technically you're male. Even though this person, and I'm sorry I don't remember their name.

Greg & Rachel Denning (09:29.602)
was raised as a female, raised as a girl. I think they're from Algeria. I don't even know. Again, like I'm saying, I don't know that much about it. But to me, all of that conversation happening, which I think both sides have valid points to the conversation. I'm not discounting either side. the conversation needs to happen. Yeah, and it is. It's a complex. There's of levels there.

You know, there's lots of valid viewpoints. But still, as long as you continue to talk about the surface level of things and don't take into consideration the larger picture, the deeper issues, then, you know, we really don't accomplish anything. We're just making lots of noise and putting a lot of posts on Facebook, sharing our irate opinions when...

nothing's really being accomplished. Nothing is really being achieved. There's a real warning there is we can begin to feel like activists and talkers. Yeah, which in some ways that's all activists are is making noise. Right. But it makes you feel good. You feel like, I'm doing something about this. At least I'm speaking up. Right. But then you have to take it a step further and say, well, you're just making noise. What are you actually going to do about it?

Yeah, and that's an important step in any issue changing your little Facebook profile to whatever we support whoever Give me a break and even putting something about it even putting I guess this is something I've never really fully understood Although I do get it because here we are making podcasts but you know to make a Post on Facebook sharing all of your political viewpoints. I guess I've never really got that because one

it's notoriously going to be ugly, right? The comments and responses. It's not like it's geared to be something that's positive. And I think that there's a lot

Greg & Rachel Denning (11:37.55)
challenge with the whole situation is because it's natural for humans to want to do this. It's natural for us to want to discuss the things that are going on and to try to understand the things that are going on. Which is all good and which is all necessary. We need to be able to have these debates and discussions about what's happening. The problem is we're removing the human element by putting it online, putting it in social media so that people are, one, ruder than they usually are in person.

And I don't even know if there's two, but there's a one there. The debate side of it, the healthy argumentative side of it is being removed where we're making these statements and like, this is the way things are. And then it becomes more of attacking another person instead of actually trying to understand them. Because when you're in person with someone, and this is proven, people hold back a little more. They're more tactful because you're actually looking another person in the face. It's a human being.

Yeah, it's another human being. And so we would never say and do the things to someone in person that you would say and do to them online. So that's a whole conversation in and of itself. definitely is. The darkness there that comes out. Yeah, the trolls. And so that's part of the challenge. So to me, I've never thought I'm going to put out some big statement or post on Facebook because I'm like, Why would I do that?

Like I would much rather have a conversation with someone, which is why I like podcasting. I feel like it is more of a conversation, even though it's one sided. Even though it is you and I conversing. But long form podcast, I think, is a better way. Which is why, going back to the sources I trust, I prefer to listen to. So I will often listen to podcasts about current events.

by people who are having conversations because to me that's a more valid way of understanding what's happening. Especially people who are very, very well educated, well informed, have different perspectives or views, global perspectives preferably instead of just from one society or one culture and say, well, wait a minute, let's look at it from this angle from somebody from this side of the planet who has this background and let's just walk through this.

Greg & Rachel Denning (13:52.248)
So in an effort to not be total hypocrites and just talk about things today, although we're going to talk about them because this is a podcast, the invitation is that we all do something about it. At a minimum, we do something for ourselves and our families. That's where it has to be. Well, for me at least, because we were hinting at with activists a minute ago, you

just talking about things and posting about them or putting it on Facebook or all of that, to me feels like lots of noise and lots of showing us without real action behind it. But then it does come back to this question of like, well, what do I actually do? And for me at least, I think I've settled in my own mind and heart that it comes back to, it always comes back to,

One, individual responsibility, so yourself. So at least, if nothing else, settling it out with yourself about what you think about these topics and what your viewpoint is and where you stand. And then two, sharing it with your family and having those conversations within your family. To me, that's where real change begins. And that's not going to change things on a national level or a global level, at least not initially.

But ultimately, I think that that's where real change happens. It happens at a grassroots level, which is individual responsibility and family, then community, influence, and then community. And I think that this is fully backed up with, I mean, if you research it, it's fully backed up by things like the Gulag Archipelago, where Socheneisen talks about how did I contribute to this, to me being in a Gulag? How did I contribute to the downfall of Russian society? Well,

lacked individual responsibility. I did not take enough responsibility for my own words, for my own actions. 20 years previously when I should have said, no, this is unacceptable. Don't do that. Right. Don't cross that line. So if you look at any of those types of things, same with Nazi Germany. Ultimately, those things were allowed to happen because of a lack of individual responsibility, which sometimes comes to a point where, yeah, you do need to say something. You do need to stand up. You do need to speak out.

Greg & Rachel Denning (16:11.72)
But it's not necessarily with a post on Facebook. Although, you know, sometimes it are times when you bring awareness to some people. But it depends. What's your motive, right? Is you're just trying to stir things up? Is it confirmation bias? Again, questioning the motive and then trying to help. At this point, you guys have heard us talk about the fourth turning. Excellent. There's two books now.

One's called The Fourth Turning, one's called The Fourth Turning is now, or The Fourth Turning is here, I can't remember. Because The Fourth Turning was written in the 90s. 90s. And they were predicting from historical patterns that we'd be in The Fourth Turning. And then he writes like, hey, it's here. It's happening. And it's expected to last another five to 10 years. Five to 10 years. They expected it to wrap up in the early 2030s. So we're heading into it, which is crisis.

And he says there's really not anything you can do to stop it. So in some ways, the the social ship is sinking. The Titanic is going down. in the story of the Titanic, it took it took a while for it to sink. So they had to hide. It took time for people to be convinced because people didn't believe it was sinking. Right. They were they were just like still doing their thing. on the ship. It's not sinkable. It's too great of a ship.

And so in some ways we have to step back and again I'm such an optimist and I love to see the positive side of things but it would be so naive, utterly naive of all of us to think that there aren't going to be. That things are good and getting better. Right. At this moment. That things are, they're not gonna.

ebb and flow and oscillate and ups and downs. There's a down coming and it's and we're not you know, we're not the the iconic preppers and we're not you know, We are they have any food storage at all. The sky is falling But it would be wise for all of us to recognize that the sky is falling Like things are happening globally and in the United States in particular

Greg & Rachel Denning (18:32.28)
The signs and symptoms are there. They're just showing that there's an underlying toxic problem and there's going to be a fallout. So it's not fear. not like trying to scare you. just saying, hey, this ship's going to sink. What are you going to do about it? I think you should build a raft for your family and prepare and help other people around you get prepared. So when it does sink, it's like you're not you're not saving the boat.

I mean, they're not keeping the Titanic from going down. But you can protect your family. And so that you make your little voyage on the ocean and your little raft a lot more comfortable. Right. Or at least possible. survive. possible. Well, and another analogy I like, especially because he talks about in The Fourth Turning how these turnings are cyclical. so after the, it's not like I used to think like, the fourth turning means the end of the world and then that's it. Blackness. Like, no.

Society continues and now it begins a new turning and so to me the analogy of the seasons works beautifully because You realize like okay winter's coming winter's here winter's here, but it still looks like I Don't like that. think that's great winter is here, but it still looks like a summer. Yeah

Walmart still has food. What are you talking about? Winter's here. Like things are good. Our family just went to the family reunion. We went on vacation and I still have my job. What are you talking about? Winter's here. It kind of reminds you of the scripture in the Old Testament. It talks about Noah. were and you know, until that day they were eating and drinking and giving in marriage. Like, yeah, life just went on. And I think that that's normal. I mean, if you read about the Great Depression.

you read about leading up to World War II, all of those periods of times which were fourth turnings, that's how it was. Like life just went on until one day you realize, and we have a frame of reference for this with COVID, one day you realize like wow something happened that's major and things have changed here. And that's that's kind of what's happening. That's kind of what it's leading up to here. But the reminder though with like the seasons of

Greg & Rachel Denning (20:46.53)
nature is that spring comes afterwards. So and that's the other thing we have to think about. It's not just build your family life raft and then sail off into the ocean and die. Float forever. Float until you just run out and then die. Like the idea here is you're gonna make it through and then there's gonna be the springtime and you can... Everything's gonna be amazing. It's gonna be... it's better. People who are having children right now, those kids are gonna grow up in a

It's gonna be an absolutely phenomenal time. First turnings are known for being idyllic times. If you think about, I mean, the baby boomers after World War II, like that period of time, the 50s, it was like an idyllic time with Leave It To Beaver, all that kind of stuff. And know, and it's not like we have to regress and go back, but the point is it's a time of peace and prosperity and unification because we've been through this challenge that divided us.

And then afterwards we have to pick up the pieces and realize, okay, let's unite together and make something beautiful instead of fighting like we were before. So, and I think that's important. There is hope and it's gonna last for a few years, but there's still hope. This is not indefinite. Because the hopelessness that comes down, like is this what it's gonna be like forever? Just crushes people. Even if you study people who are in the gulags or in the concentration camps.

The ones who couldn't hope for an end just they gave up and died because they couldn't see a way out. just thought it would last forever. in Man's Search for Meaning by Victor Frankel. There's actually several references even in Edith Eger's book. She talks about that too. The same thing. People would pick a date and they're like if it ends by the date then I'm good and they would die on that date. Yeah. it didn't have an end. So

Greg & Rachel Denning (22:41.91)
Just kind of mention, let's put some pieces of the puzzle. Yeah. So so one of the things you and I mentioned last night was or this morning, I don't know that all this noise is going on about the women's boxing and of course the whole. Last supper thing with drag queens and whether or not that was actually a last supper or if it was some Greek thing, like, you know, all that stuff, all that noise is going on and I don't I'm not trying

diminish the significance of that because I think it is significant. If you look at all turnings through history, including the fall of the Roman Empire, it all involved this type of stuff, meaning it involved lots of sexual perversion for lack of a better term, right? Almost an obsession with sex and sexuality and sexual orientation. All of that obsession with sex and your sexual orientation being the most important value about you.

All of that has been a part of turnings, if we want to look through history. And discussing the value and the significance, all of that is not as important as understanding that it's a part of the turnings of history. It's a symptom that we all need to pay attention to. So all these things are happening. think, this hasn't happened before. Well, yeah, it did. It has happened. before you and I were born. It was a few generations ago. And it happened in the patterns. This is cyclical. So you realize, it's a pattern. There's a lot of confusion.

and a lot of social drama and a lot of social weakness. Well, even reading I've recently read Anna Karenina and Crime and Punishment and in both of those books. mean, it's almost like Tolstoy's writing in our day. I'm thinking, yeah, these are the conversations people are having now about these types of things, about open relationships and open marriages and this and that and the other. It's nothing new. It's something people have been struggling with.

or wrestling with, and it comes in cycles. It definitely does. So you read books from the 1800s at a time period when there was a turning in their society, and you're like, man, there it is right there. It's the exact same issue. And we think, it's happening for the first time. Because of progression. Because we're so much more enlightened. you're like, no, man. This has happened so many times. And the end result's always ugly. It's bad.

Greg & Rachel Denning (25:04.138)
Every kind of crisis, every societal crumble or reset, whatever you want to call it, they have common denominators and similarities, but then they always have differences. we were talking about this morning, Rachel and I were outside in the morning doing our morning routines. And we were just talking about like, it's going to be the same and it's going to be the different. And that's just what it always looked

Every time it happens, you're like, well, it's a little bit different than last time because technology is different, people are different, conditions are different. And especially now, obviously, the world is so much different than it's been before because it is a more global society because we are all interconnected in some ways because of the internet. So this one, I would say.

Because other turnings, there's been advancements in technology. There's always been advancements in technology. From the Civil War to World War II, you're like, look at the advancements in weaponry and life. mean, on and on on. Airplanes and jets and bombs and all this stuff. cow. So there's been, and they were looking back like, look how much we advanced. Now we look back and go, look how much we've advanced now. Which in many ways increases.

the danger to humanity because of our potential for destruction. It becomes more devastating. Yeah. Far more devastating. But in this instance, there is something that's vastly, vastly different. And it's that it's the global aspect of it where in real time, you can see video around the globe. Yeah. There was a freak out factor that spread worldwide. Yeah. The freak out factor that spread globally. Immediately. Almost. I mean, not immediately, but almost to me. It was very fast.

because of technology, like the globe shut down. That is crazy and terrifying, right? I actually remembered, I didn't finish my statement from before, so I was gonna finish it, because we were talking about while all this noise is going on about the Olympics and all of this stuff, almost behind the scenes, and I don't know because I'm hearing it from you with the global intel thing, is Iran is declaring war.

Greg & Rachel Denning (27:22.102)
on Israel. yeah, Iran's been doing things quietly here for several months. They've supporting Hamas. And it's getting a little bit more bold, more blatant, and they're posturing. So please don't misunderstand us. We're not saying that Iran declared war on Israel. They're posturing towards...

that position more and more. And some of their leaders are making these statements now and making these strategic moves that if you've been aware of history and strategy and things that have happened, you step back and be like, ooh, that has happened before. And you start to see the animosity build.

And you notice the things that are happening. And again, it's so easy to forget because we get all the hype and drama and whatever around the Olympics right now or whatever is in the latest news. The presidential race. yeah. Yeah. that. And and all these things behind the scenes are happening. These horrendous things like the wars that are still going on around the world right now. Well, yeah, they're active. They're We're not hearing anything about it. You just talked to someone.

We were in Ukrainian in Yeah, in And she was like, yeah, horrendous things are like two weeks ago. Still going on. Still suffering. Still destructions. Just terrible But it's not in the news cycle anymore because we've moved on from to other dramas. And that's part of the thing. We wanted to bring that up to this. We have to have a little bit more of a global perspective and begin to understand like, wait a minute. What?

What's going on here? What's happening behind the scenes? And try to, again, I don't claim to have the big picture. I don't. But I'm seeing puzzle pieces and connecting some dots from all the traveling we've done, all the brilliant people we've talked to, all the books we've read. You start saying, well, I don't have the full puzzle. But man, I know that piece fits. And I know that piece fits.

Greg & Rachel Denning (29:34.494)
And I'm pretty confident that these two pieces are connected. One of those that was concerning that Rachel and I was talking about was that there were this kind of...

Almost a global assault on farmers and farming and food production that's been happening. It's been going on for what like 18 months maybe and and is it still going on? Yeah, there's still stuff going on and And we heard a little bit about it. You're like, that's interesting. That's weird But then the new cycle moves on so you think Yeah, the national thought is out of sight out of mind Yeah, it was a little thing and then they must have taken care of it. Always good. Yeah. No, there's there's still like this

attack on the food chain which what in the world is that what's going on there which i had thought it was quote unquote over because i hadn't heard anything about it when we drove from portugal to france this was a few months ago a few months ago

And the protests were actually like actively happening in France. The freeway that we were supposed to be taking was closed. had to go on a detour, blocked by tractors. And then even in the roundabouts on the side roads, there was piles of rubbish. were burning like farm produce, like actively. It was smoldering. Tires, farm produce, loads of manure. They were just dumping them on the freeways, on the roundabouts in big cities in town.

was crazy. It actually happening. What's going on?

Greg & Rachel Denning (31:07.364)
They're still the farmers are still fighting back and farmers are pretty peaceful people. Well, they're not going to go out of their way to be. They're not activists. That's for sure. And they're not likely to go into the city and take their tractor off the farm. They want to live out in their lives. But somehow there's been something so upsetting to so many of them. It's like, know what? No, I'm going to I'm going to break the law. I'm going to commit a crime here. I'm going to drive my tractor into town. going to dump a load of trash in this

roundabout and I'm gonna light it on fire this is unacceptable and do this personally what would it take for you personally to do something like that what what would it take to push you so far that you're like you know what I'm loading up this trailer I'm driving down to my local roundabout I'm dumping it there and I'm lighting it on fire because you know there are gonna be legal consequences for that what what would have push push you to that limit

And for me, I'm like, want my freedom. But I'm not about to go dump a load of garbage and light it on fire in local roundabout. You'd have to push me pretty far to get to that point. And you're like, what's going on? And it was all across Europe. the Netherlands. And when you think about all the food that's being produced and then shipped all over the world, if they're disrupting crops and food chains, why aren't we?

And I guess that's why we're doing this podcast today. Why aren't we thinking about? Well, a lot of us don't know about the hiccup in the food supply that's coming. We don't even know. We don't know the details of what's going on. In fact, we wouldn't even know what we know if we hadn't been driving personally. It crisscrossed with it, you know, so there's and that's that's to me whenever I see the noise on Facebook or the news or whatever, I'm always like, hmm.

going on behind the scenes that we're trying to, they're trying to keep us from seeing that it's happening, right? Like, and.

Greg & Rachel Denning (33:15.522)
I know it sounds very conspiracy theory to say that, but I really think that that's kind of how it works. Well, it's always been the case. All you have to do is study history. So if you're like, it's not conspiracy, right? There's nothing going on behind the scenes. Just go back in history and read some books. And you'll be like, look what was going on behind the scenes that nobody thought was going on behind the scenes. Because they were all worried and talking about this other thing. man. Come on. That's not really happening. I think Europe in the 1930s was a perfect example. Because everyone was like, well, no,

is good like you hear about this crazy guy in Germany but he's not doing that right even even in during the war even in the the mid

In the heat of the war, people still did not believe that there was that what was happening at Auschwitz was actually happening. it. Absolutely. In fact, there's still people today that don't believe it happened. Like they're literally Holocaust deniers. But in Edith Eager's book, I remember specifically she talked about and this to me was significant. I don't remember what country in Europe they lived in, but. Hungary. OK. But I remember.

that for her family at least, life was so normal that someone came to them, I think it was like the music teacher of their sister. dance teacher or something, yeah. Who lived somewhere else and the sister was studying somewhere else and he came to them and said, I want to get you out tonight. And they were like, what? No, everything's fine. It's not gonna be that crazy. Then that night, came and took them. they felt like.

Everything's fine. if your neighbor came over tonight to your house like grab your stuff five minutes get out of here. I would be like you're crazy dude. are one of those wacko conspiracy theorists. know. You're crazy. No look around everything's fine and then later that night they were taken. Yeah and that was it. She never saw him again. Yeah she never saw him. She did see her sisters later but her parents did. So I guess what we're saying is

Greg & Rachel Denning (35:22.7)
Pack your bags, you have five minutes. No, I'm just kidding. Just kidding. But there is a sense of urgency. saying is that, of course it's not going to be exactly the same. It's not going to be the same scenario. It just won't. But there are similarities. So something is coming. Something's happening. Let's piece together some more symptoms. Let's piece it. So something's disrupting food. And when you take away food from people, when people get hungry, wow.

Okay, what about this? do crazy stuff. Desperate people do desperate things. What about, and again, we might think that it's not related, but because we are a global society, it is interconnected. We were in Mongolia on an amazing trip. Our guide, she's a Mongolian woman, she told us that this year Russia cut off their fuel supply.

just cut it off. turned it off. Turned it off. They just flipped it off. The people didn't have any warning. They just flipped it off. And so Mongolia was

fuel without power, right? so they, everything shut down. And basically what she said was like, it was just this play of like, you're not gonna support what we're doing? And we don't support what you're doing. well, let's just shut that off. And they left it off for a few days. even know if it was, if they were that vocal about it, just maybe they hadn't been vocal about actually supporting Russia, so they shut it off. I mean, all her details weren't entirely clear, but basically.

the government and from her perspective she didn't agree with it the government said okay Russia we support you turn it back on because the war so turn our fuel back on a million people were left without completely without a power source that they all rely on exactly which again scary Europe had that same scare when Russia said we'll shut that down

Greg & Rachel Denning (37:18.644)
and going into winter so well because there's already i mean i've heard jordan peterson talk about it a lot that in germany because and i think this is really related to the war and the fact that they're not getting as much fuel they have been burning their forests like essentially cutting down the forest and burning them

because of the war, two of the others because of the whole climate change thing, like the climate crisis. People in leadership positions are saying, you shouldn't be burning fossil fuels. So now they're like, well, I guess we'll just burn the forest instead so that we can survive. And this was during last winter. So we can survive the winter. still have to cook. We still have something. So we'll just cut down the forest because we can't use coal or fossil fuels.

Well, if Iran does declare war, there are major fuel sources from that part of the world. OK. And what happens when that gets disrupted? I mean, I don't know. I think I was half asleep when you told me some of this stuff.

that the US is sending ships? Well, supposedly they have, I haven't verified this personally, but supposedly they sent warships over to the Middle East. To support Israel. Well, just to have them over there. We don't know. Because it looks like conflict is escalating. Right. It's already happening. But it looks like it's escalating.

And so, okay, there's, again, we're just connecting potential puzzle pieces. We're not saying anything definitive here. But if a war were to break out in the region, that's a major supplier for the fuel globally. Yeah.

Greg & Rachel Denning (39:07.672)
There's another piece. And we think, well, the United States. So OK, here, let's connect food again and fuel. So then like, yeah, there's food shortages, but we can just ship things globally. Well, shipping is all done by fuel. Right. And if fuel supplies get limited or protected or shut off. Because of war in the Middle East. all that food that was supposed to get shipped over to feed us now doesn't get shipped over. So then what happens? Well, and to me also, I was connecting a piece there with the other.

noise I see going on which is all of the rioting on college campuses and protesting not just on colleges campuses anymore like in places like Michigan of full out Muslim communities protesting and supporting Hamas which you know that is their right to do and I respect that but if America ends up supporting Israel

we have a lot of potential problems within their own country. They're already burning flags and doing other things. Like, what is going to happen if the US actually supports Israel? So there's division on the inside, combined with.

All the mental and physical illness that, you know, seven over 70 percent of the country is physically, mentally, emotionally incapable of protecting themselves or protecting their country. I I'm I'm smiling here because I one of Peterson, Jordan Peterson's recent podcast, I just I actually recorded the clip and saved it because I loved it. He said, I'll never get over.

learning that the food pyramid is the biggest scam in history. it is one of, he's like, isn't this one of the biggest medical crimes ever? Exactly. And it was actually created for marketing? Like what a horrible idea to teach people that they need to be eating seven to ten servings of grains per day. It was just a lie.

Greg & Rachel Denning (41:21.112)
that our parents bought into and we grew up thinking We grew up believing. I remember being taught as a kid like this was the truth. the truth that many people now have verified, including Jordan Peterson, is that it was all a marketing plan created by the agricultural companies in the United States to sell more of their products. And they were warned by doctors that if they did this, they would create an epidemic

obesity and disease in the country. And here we are. Look around. Living through it. And in fact, I personally believe, and I know this is extreme, but it's taken me 20 years to come to this viewpoint. I personally believe my own father was a victim of that scam. He He passed away from colon cancer. Because of this literal scam of the food pyramid. I'm not even.

there but I'm smiling because I just recently heard him say that where I'm like yeah exactly unhealthy food the sad diet the standard American diet is killing people okay let's connect a couple more pieces drug abuse is rampant off the charts in the United States okay homelessness which is connect directly connected to drug abuse

in every major city now, they're just the homeless community. Well besides the fact that they're literally making drugs legal. Fentanyl, mean don't know all drugs. Or readily available.

Yeah, or leak. Well, in Canada, know specifically they are making them legal. Well, and we heard recently that on the West Coast, a couple of states out there did legalize them and then realized what a disaster. We're like, OK, we're going to make those illegal now. And are trying to now clean it up. it's too late. And then I just saw recently as well in this effort to be generous and kind and helpful, they're

Greg & Rachel Denning (43:26.756)
giving hotel rooms, apartments, like nice apartments to homeless people. They're just giving them to them. there was somebody who was just going off. Like, how in the world are we giving such expensive, nice apartments to the homeless?

to people who literally are not contributing society. They're not working. I mean there's enough good hard -working people in the country who are trying to get into nice places, who are trying to have safe, comfortable places for their families through their hard work and effort and we're giving these away to the homeless drug users. It's crazy. and you know and I think part of the problem we have these confusions and disagreements is because everyone has different understandings of what

means there are I know I'm sure there are a lot of people out there who just think homeless people are just good people down on their luck and

Individual insight into homelessness came specifically from your brother who was on drugs and was homeless for a time and he told you he said yeah, yeah Everybody that's homeless they're on drugs. They're doing drugs and they're stealing every day and he went through he walked through elaborate plans He told us I asked him all the details He told me everything how they would do it how they would steal how would they work as a team to steal? They would steal only specific things only specific amounts and they would go to certain shops a certain days because they knew

wouldn't get you know press charges or get caught and then they had this the whole system to sell to buy to trade to get drugs I mean it was it was a very creative innovative right mean they're dead dead broke they couldn't buy a morsel of food in the morning and by the afternoon they've already bought a couple hundred dollars worth of drugs right it's just crazy and they're becoming more violent they're becoming desperate when their addictions and so there's more crime and more

Greg & Rachel Denning (45:25.162)
and I want to touch on that. don't know if we do it now or... Well, I was just gonna quickly add, again, I saw another thing on Instagram about Target stores just getting robbed. People just walk in, Lululemon. They walk in and they just walk out with armfuls of stuff. And in fact, one... Okay, another place I look at, this is PragerU, and they were giving a roundup and a Target store...

somehow got reprimanded for being quote -unquote, I mean this isn't necessarily the word, but annoying because they kept calling about people stealing their stuff. And so like the county got upset that they kept calling so much. It's because people are walking in and just stealing stuff.

The police department or the sheriff's Has been defunded. And they're annoyed. They're getting bothered that they keep getting calls about crime. Exactly. There's another symptom. I know. There's sign. And of course, this is happening in societies where they have defunded the police or their homelessness and drugs are allowed. It's just a cycle for, it's just a recipe for.

bad news and disaster, especially for businesses that are trying to operate, trying to provide jobs for people, trying to, you know, they need to make a profit so that they can do all of these things. So they can offer stuff to us. of the reason why, yeah, part of the reason why is because in states, and I don't know where this is happening, but I'm assuming in states like California, if you steal less than a thousand dollars of stuff, you can't be prosecuted. And so there's literally like these mob

Shoplifting where they go in together and they all take yeah, they arrange it on social media. They go in together They all take less than a thousand dollars each and they can't be prosecuted And so a store could just get cleaned out they can lose $20 ,000 in merchandise like that not do anything about it. flagship store for REI which was I think in Seattle or was in Oregon Portland I can't remember. They shut down because they kept getting stolen from so often that they couldn't operate there

Greg & Rachel Denning (47:36.61)
anymore. shut down. Stores are shutting down in these states because they can't do anything about the crime that's occurring. And so if you're listening to this, like, does that have to do with me? I live in Nebraska or Kansas or Iowa or wherever. it's going to affect you. Exactly. is one of the reasons why inflation is also on the rise. One, food shortages are occurring that we don't even necessarily know about because we don't hear about all the stuff going on. And then two, theft is.

the roof and yeah all the stuff that's happening in California and Oregon or wherever is going to be directly impacting the prices that we're paying in the middle states or the southern states like it's all interconnected there are also businesses who just raise their prices and say inflation and they just raise their prices because people are gonna pay higher prices and what are you gonna do like that's what it's cost now okay and so even

The price may go up or maybe not or it comes back down. They're like people are used to paying it Our sales are still up. So we'll just keep it there and increase our profit margins So we can fly to the Bahamas yeah, I've seen stuff like that about like the executives are the ones benefiting of course because they're killing it The bottom line is so good this these quarters I do want to touch on violence. There's more violence happening with

homelessness with people using drugs. If you look at statistics like the amount of crimes that are committed under the influence of alcohol or drugs is staggering. In more than 50 % of all murders happen when one, at least one of the victim or the perpetrator are drunk. Under the influence of alcohol, yep.

So that that's happening more and more and then you people get drugs homelessness there's more violence coming and Then there's gonna be violence either in a civil conflict either from the riots or in some kind of war or from outside Where an enemy comes in? That's just always the nature of a fourth turning I Mean to this date in all of the fourth turnings they have studied every single always included war. Yeah, so some kind of war

Greg & Rachel Denning (49:57.22)
And so that's another puzzle piece and another thing to just be aware of like, okay, there's going to be more violence. And we've lived in such a time of peace and prosperity, which has been so wonderful. And I wish it would continue. I wish we would just carry on and it would be peace and prosperity. We wouldn't have to worry about violence, but that's naive. It's extremely naive. So another thing we all need to do as families is prepare ourselves for an increase in violence.

And we all hope it won't happen to us. And I hope that. But hope is not a strategy. And we all go along thinking, man, I've lived my whole life and that's never happened to me. So the natural assumption is, that's not going to happen to me. It hasn't happened yet. But we haven't been before turning yet. If you just look at statistics, like statistically.

your chances of it happening to you, think, increase over time if it hasn't happened to you because it's just statistics that it's you're going to encounter something at some point in time. whether it's you directly or you're just out and about and somebody you see, somebody you know. for me personally, I just want to be prepared and I want to be prepared. So that's why we're talking about this today.

Not that we just talk about it and go, okay, we talked about it. We're good. I want for us and for all of you listening, like, let's get ourselves prepared ahead of time. Like it's the time to look at the map is before you just start on the trail, right? It's before you go into the woods, the time to get in shape.

is before you have to carry your kids up a mountain. Up a mountain, right? Or wherever. It's before you need it. So you're all like, well, no, dude, I'll go buy an umbrella when it starts raining. Yeah. Nah, man. They're going to be out of umbrellas. be gone. Why then? I remember that happened multiple times when we were living in Texas and Georgia because there was hurricanes or tornadoes. And

Greg & Rachel Denning (52:15.39)
hurricane came boom sorry guys we saw it the power lines were down everywhere I mean met blocked our road I mean they were down everywhere this was in Texas and in Georgia and like there's not gonna be power for days so what does everyone do they run to the nearest home deeper lows to get a generator but guess what

Each of them only had like 10. And those were gone instantly for whoever happened to be in the store when it hit. And yeah, everyone else without power cursing that they didn't have a generator. And so all their food goes bad in their fridge and their freezer and they're just sweating and suffering. they're like, we've got to get a generator. But guess what? Five days later, they kicked the power back on. And you forget. Power's good. Generators are expensive.

You don't really need it, know, okay. And so then you don't get it. And then it happens again, you're like, don't. Why didn't I get that generator? Yeah. Well, yeah. So it makes me think about what we mentioned before. Like ultimately, what can you do? You have to go back to individual responsibility and preparation and then family influence and preparation. Like that's that's ultimately where you begin. That that's the only place you can actually have. Well, it's where you're going to have the most impact, the most influence.

And so that's where we have to start. And it totally reminds me of one of your classic stories, of course, of when you had been doing triathlons, but then we moved to Costa Rica and you didn't think they had triathlons. So one day someone called you up and said, there's a triathlon in two weeks here in Costa Rica. you want to it? And you said, yeah. course I do, bro. Let's do it. And the thing is, it's not like you hadn't been working out and that

let yourself go and you were overweight or something it was nothing like that you still been working out you just had not been training for a triathlon exactly and you went and you competed anyways you did the swim you did the bike and your legs cramped up on the bike it was one of the hardest swims I've ever done in the ocean it was easily the most difficult bike ride race I've ever done through the jungle it was epic I mean

Greg & Rachel Denning (54:30.82)
Howler monkeys and spider monkeys and macaws and toucans and the beaches and waterfalls and mountains. It was spectacular, but it was easily the hardest bike race I ever did. And it was hot and humid. And so my legs were cramping up and they locked up with my clip in pedals. I fell over. I'm sitting there wrestling, smashing, you know, getting run over and hit a tree. And I like finally got my leg out and had to use a tree, a couple of trees to unlock my hamstring. It was all cramped up.

And then I, you know, got on the bike, rode again, locked up, fell over, did it again, locked up, fell over. Get back to the transition station, trying to put my shoes on was grueling. If you've ever had hamstring cramps, leg cramps, and you're trying to put your shoes on, man, the pain. So, so, so bad. So if I get my running shoes on, I stand up and I try to start running out.

transition so there's all these spectators, all these racers, there. You're already watching. And both of my legs just seize up completely, completely locked in leg cramps and I just fall forward flat on my belly. Meanwhile, I'm at the All Inclusive Resort enjoying my meal with the kids. is great. I love when he does triathlons. This is amazing. And I'm laying there in so much pain, just So you couldn't even finish the race. I didn't even do the run at all. I did the swim and the bike and that was it.

and my legs were so shot, so gone, and I'm laying there and it just hits me. When the time to perform has arrived, the time to prepare has passed.

That's it. Done. When the time to perform has arrived, the time to prepare has passed. And I wasn't prepared. And it wasn't that I was overweight, grossly out of shape. I'd still been running and riding, but I wasn't training. And so it caught me off guard. And so yeah, I was able to do the swim on the bike, painfully finish the bike, but I didn't finish the run.

Greg & Rachel Denning (56:31.66)
I didn't do the race and and I met some guys there that day that were they were champion Ironman like these guys had won the Ironman championships in Hawaii

They went out and they did a, it was hilarious. I showed up a little early to warm up, get ready. I saw these guys riding down the hill. I'm like, what in the world? They went out and rode 110 miles before the triathlon. He came out of the water doing these full on butterfly. This guy was swimming on top of the water. They were just animals.

And I was sitting there like, I cramped up so bad I couldn't finish the run. And these guys rode 110 miles before the triathlon started. And so the contrast was palpable and real. The point is there's every level in between that too. And so kind of, guess, our invitation today is to realize that, yeah, bad times might be coming.

And we need to prepare and the intensity with which we prepare and train is going to determine, you know, where in the race we are. Not that it's not that it's a race per se, but unless you want to say it's a race for survival or it's a race of.

I don't know. It's not necessarily a race. But the point is there's going to be all levels there. And I think that we've seen this in history, 2008, or the Great Depression. Not everyone was affected in the same ways because of their level of preparedness, I would say. simply because sometimes we think about

Greg & Rachel Denning (58:24.368)
We think about being prepared means I've got food storage and I've got this and I've got that. That's not necessarily the type of preparation you need because we have plenty of stories of where people have lost that in an instant. They spent years preparing and then lost it quickly. they put together a nice first aid kit and they have zero clue how to use it. Yeah. So what we're really talking about with preparation is kind of a mental, emotional, physical preparation of being able to solve problems and have skills to be able to handle

Situations and challenges and to fixings and make things and do things and all that kind of stuff It's more of a soft skills in a way. Your greatest resource is your own resourcefulness Yeah, exactly. that down people. Your greatest resource is your own resourcefulness. well you can solve problems. And handle challenges when they come rather than losing it. you're able to keep your crap together.

which I'm so excited for in November, we are doing our first.

Toujours Près, which means always ready, be an asset training. And it's all about this. Like we're doing combatives and defense, how to use weapons, like from everyday items, turn them into weapons. How to travel safely. How to do first aid, to stop bleeding. Pre -hospital. Yeah, any emergency where you see trauma medicine. There's a gap or a distance between where you are or where the individual you're helping is and the hospital. What to do.

to more self -reliant and I love I love the mindset of like hey no one's coming to rescue you no one's coming to save you we're gonna do self -rescue technique yes we are training we're gonna do all that is come find out yeah come do it so I'm so stoked about this because this this course is just it's an example of how we like to think and we've studied my children I we've done a lot of Krav Maga and essentially that's that's the whole essence of Krav Maga like

Greg & Rachel Denning (01:00:28.802)
In case you have to self rescue, right? In case there's no one there to save your butt. And that's true with defending yourself against violence, feeding yourself, shelter or whatever, food, medical. Like, can you take care of yourself if A, no one's coming at all or B, it's going to take some time for them to get to you, which happens normally all the time anyways with natural disasters. But when things get more and more chaotic and there's more

There's less of the structure of society that we're used to. Which is happening. It's starting to crumble. There's massive deficiency. So just in one county in Atlanta, in a nice county actually, it's a very affluent, nice county. I trained Krav Maga with the SWAT team leader and he said that just their department was 600 officers short of full staff. Wow.

600 short. I'm like what does that mean? He's like we get calls every day we can't go on. Every single day we get tons of calls we just don't have enough officers to go out. Let that sink in.

And the same with medical stuff and firefighters, whatever. So again, I'm not trying to scare you. Please don't listen to her like, and your brain's freaking out. I think you need to be scared to realize how serious things could potentially be. And for me personally, getting scared and then realizing, actually there's some things I can do about this to mitigate the risk that.

Empowers me so that I feel less scared actually because I have I'm able to take some actions to help for me I mean one of the ways I relate this is because I realized early on in our travels because we started traveling 18 years ago our oldest child was four we had four children under the age of four and I soon realized that I didn't know very much about anything any minor scrapes bruises cuts colds

Greg & Rachel Denning (01:02:40.344)
Well, okay. Grocery stores, was everything. But I'm saying, specifically with the medical side of it and the health side of it.

I had to educate myself more on like how do I take care of croup on my own? How do I take care of bruising? And how do I take care of these things? Because we couldn't just, you know, we were traveling, we were driving, we were going to all these places and you couldn't just run to the local doctor or emergency room or whatever health clinic because for one, it's in a foreign language, two, we don't know where they are, three, this was back before we even had Google Maps or a phone.

We had to be self -reliant. It was one of the first skills, at least, I had to learn. I'm in nowhere, I nowhere compare or can compete with you in medical training and first aid and all of that. But I'm talking about the other side and the basics. I didn't even know those things. And I had to learn them so that we could be more self -reliant, so that we could take care of things and I could take care of minor things when you weren't around.

because I had some sort of skills in training. And we have to just keep doing that again and again. a full medical kit and a full pharmacy. You could do sutures. can give antibiotics if necessary. went on this trip for five countries. I always travel with a legit first aid kit for emergencies and now a little pharmacy that can handle illnesses, diseases.

Well, because people aren't aware of this in the United States, mean, you you can't get a lot of things without a prescription, and then it's still very expensive. But in most countries around the world, many countries around the world, you can just go into a pharmacy and buy whatever you need, and it's very cheap. Very, very affordable, because it's not grossly, grossly, immorally marked

Greg & Rachel Denning (01:04:34.722)
Like it is in the US. Which, this is one of the things you're going to be teaching in this November training, right? Of like, what's in your kit, how to put one together, where to get the stuff, what stuff to to have in your car, what to have when you travel, all that stuff. So those of you listening right now wondering, well, OK, what should I start working on? How do I get more prepared? Get some more food. Find ways to store proteins and fats. Not wheat. Yeah, exactly. You're like, no, we're good. We have food storage. have wheat, flour, and beans.

You're going to die from eating that. Horrible. So you've got to find a way to store proteins and fats and powdered butter, powdered cream, coconut oil. book did I just go through recently? Jerkies. That they ended up getting.

diseases a lot. Scurvy. Yeah, it getting scurvy. Was it one with our devotional? Well, we're reading, yeah, Story of the World. And it was talking about... He came over from... No, it was before him. It was... They were searching for the Northwest Passage. And they were in Nova Scotia. Anyways, they got scurvy. Okay, they got multiple times. Each winter because they ran out of stuff. you need some dried fruit.

Like that would keep you from scurvy, right? And some vitamins, and then I would get medicines. Think through all the common illnesses and go to the store while they still are available and buy medicine. Have at least a year's supply of medicine for your family. Two years and enough for your neighbors. Get that stuff, just stock up on it. And if you like wiping your bottom,

Get some toilet paper and some wipes. bidet. Or buy a bidet, that's even better. Make sure you have a water filter so you can filter water for drinking. Get a really good first aid kit. I have one that I can recommend. It's called Rhino. I just love it. I'm not getting, you know, there's no affiliate, nothing. I should get an affiliate because I love these guys and I tell everyone about them. But the Rhino first aid kits, you can just get them on Amazon. They're phenomenal.

Greg & Rachel Denning (01:06:43.1)
Make sure you have a first aid kit. What else? We have powdered butter and cream. Seeds. mean, it's good thing get seeds. We have lots of seeds. Get some, buy some animals. Like living food Okay, okay. No, legit. That is actually one of the things that we are actively doing at this point. We have the World School Family Resort, which is where we'll be hosting this retreat, this training. And one of the very first things we did, because for us that is food storage, is we have sheep.

We have goats, we have ducks, we have geese, we have chickens. Pigs. We have pigs. We have pigs. I mean, it literally is, in a way, our living food storage. Like, we're not actively raising and harvesting them at this point. But at worst case scenario, it is food storage. Yep. Because when we were in Mongolia, and we talked about this in our last episode, one goat fed 30 people for two and a meals.

Now that was including the eight, all the intestines and everything. you're hungry, you're going to eat it all. We're going to learn how to do that. Chop the goat skin. Which that's another resourcefulness skill to have. To be able to know how to process an animal and to be able to process an animal. That's a life skill that may one day save your life. You'd never know. So it's just thinking through those types of things. Love

awesome. So get a training come come to our training if you can. It's November 19th through the 23rd. But even 2024. For the mindset training just keeping because even if you have all the supplies and all the stuff but you lose it mentally or emotionally or physically it does you no good. Like if you just lose your bananas mentally

And when something bad happens, you're not an asset. You become a liability. Especially if you are the parent, you know. Leader. The spouse in your family. If you fall apart, your family's falling apart. You're in trouble. Which, again, this is why I have the Be A Man Master class in Tribe. It's why you do the 28 Trick Challenge. This is what it's all about. We're preparing ourselves to be optimized.

Greg & Rachel Denning (01:09:04.468)
and resourceful, capable, useful, prepared, getting your crap together mentally and emotionally, spiritually, physically, socially, financially. mean, in the Be The Man Masterclass, the whole thing is fitness and mind, body, spirit, family, marriage and parenting legacy, and finances, getting your income, your expenses, and your investment style then. You're getting yourself ready for life. And people are like, nah, I'm not.

good I got this. The only reason so many people are still alive and even surviving is because everything has been so easy. Well and in in some ways we don't fully realize the impact that having access to non -stop entertainment is keeping many people sane. Like simply because they distract themselves hours every day with entertainment.

They don't have time to go crazy. Go crazy. To focus on the fact that they're not doing as well as they would like to be doing. It's like nonstop distraction from the deeper issues of the soul. You are so right. If entertainment was just shut off, people would start going crazy. If the internet was shut off. Nuts. People would start going they had to sit with themselves in silence, they would Even if they had to deal

If they had to deal with what we had to deal with as children, not having access to a device 24 hours a day, where you had to come up with something to do on your own without using the internet, what would you do? my goodness. You actually have to use your brain and stand up and walk around and go find something to do. We were talking to our kids just yesterday about how different it was nowadays because our son is doing missionary work right now and you did missionary work.

20 years ago and back then you had to literally leave your apartment, walk to someone's house to see if they were home because you didn't have a phone. And this was in Peru, but you walked from place to place to place to contact and talk to people because there was no phone, there was no internet. That was how connection was done. And it was just such a strange idea for so funny for our kids to like, wait. Well, what did you do if they weren't there? said. You to walk over to see if they were there to talk to them?

Greg & Rachel Denning (01:11:28.76)
And they were like, what did you do if they weren't there? You're like, well, you would wait until they came back, and you would wonder where they were. And they're like, you wondered where they were? They just thought that was so funny. You weren't tracking them, and you didn't text them to see where they were? No, you just wondered. I wonder where they are. And then you sit there and wait for them to come back. Exactly. it's awesome. It's so funny. And there may be interesting times ahead with that, where there's disruption of entertainment and technology. And

then what are we gonna do? Right. And I remember feeling even a small part of that when during that hurricane in Georgia when the power went out and it was out for two days. We were kind of like, what do we do with ourselves? Especially because we also work online, you know. It's not all just entertainment, but it is kind of this idea of what do we do without the internet now? We've become so dependent on it and I include ourselves in this. It's almost like we don't know how to function when it's not there. I'll just throw this in. I hope you have some books.

and your home. I hope you have some good books and I hope you're reading from them every day and they get your kids to love reading. I know one thing for us and our family if everything in the whole world fell apart and we lost our 700 titles in audible. Hopefully it's downloaded the phone we could still figure out a way to charge it listen but we would read. We'd read from our books and we'd love reading because it's educational and entertaining.

And so we do that. OK. Love you guys. Again, don't just listen to it. Don't just talk about it. Talk about it so you can make a good plan and then take action on those plans. Invest in yourself and your children. It's the most important investment you'll ever make. Remember, your greatest resource is your own resourcefulness. So invest in that. And invest in some resources. And I'm going throw this out there. Still keep living. Some of you will listen and it's like, that's it.

We're not living anymore. No more fun, no more entertainment, no more traveling, no more nothing. We're just going to survive. And that's not like to take a line from the crude that we love to share. That's not living. It's just not dying. And so we fully advocate living. Somebody asked me this yesterday in one of my coaching clients. is it smart for us to go travel when the world is falling apart?

Greg & Rachel Denning (01:13:54.22)
I was like, no, but do it anyway. What is smart? What is wise? I'm like, yeah, go. Go live your life, but just be ready. Be ready for.

all the possible things that could happen. As long you're aware and you're ready and you're resourceful, you know how to solve problems and you've got some resources then you can outlive, have a great time and I believe God and his universe will guide you in the serendipity and beautiful wonderful things will happen as you're out living your life. Well and I would say after having traveled to 57 countries, that's the number I'm at, I think you're at 60 something or 60, that

If we were out traveling when quote unquote the world fell apart, there's not, I don't, can't think of one place that we've been or I didn't think, you know what, we'd be fine. We could live here, we could survive here, we'd be fine. Using our resourcefulness, even if we were here when crap hit the fan, we'd be okay. I think I'd want to be in Mongolia. Mongolia would be pretty nice. Get couple of gear, some goats, cows. Mongolia would be a great place to be. Awesome. Yeah.

Exactly. be so fun. Get some horses. And I think that that's the key to resourcefulness too, because in our minds we often think, and I think maybe this is the mindset people are approaching this question from, like is it wise to travel? Well, because you're thinking if I'm gone and I don't have all of my stuff and all of my resources, then hope is lost, right? When the reality is...

If you did have all of your resources and you weren't there when the world fell apart, you were somewhere else with resourcefulness, you would still be able to find a way to survive and thrive. That's the point. If you're going to cut something out, cut out that trip to Disneyland. This is a waste of time and money. Get out and travel and invest in yourself. OK. Love you guys. Have an absolutely fantastic day. If you have questions about this, shoot them over to us.

Greg & Rachel Denning (01:16:00.522)
And if you have comments, like if you've done things already to get prepared, share that. And if you're wondering what to do, ask.

ideas let's just let's just kind of share and talk about this and maybe there's gonna be some more good questions around this of like what else can we do but I'm gonna prepare myself mentally emotionally spiritually socially physically and financially I'm gonna hit those six buckets and I'm gonna be very deliberate about every one of them because if even one of those is missing

it's going to cause a lot of unnecessary suffering. Well, it increases, I think, your risk factors. exactly. You become more of a liability and less of an asset. And the one thing we have to do, especially as parents, is be assets to our family, to our spouses, to our children, and to our community. OK, love you guys. Reach upward.