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Let's Disappear, Change Our Names & Live Our Lives... · Armstrong & Getty One More Thing

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  Speaker 1: Let's disappear, change our names, and live the life we
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  Speaker 1: really want to live. It's one more thing.
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  Speaker 2: I'm strong and who heavy.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: I saw about a bumper sticker once and it hit
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  Speaker 1: me like a ton of bricks, and uh, I've thought
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  Speaker 1: about it many times. Why that is that appealing to
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  Speaker 1: everyone when they see that, or only some of us?
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  Speaker 1: I would guess it's pretty universal, the at least the
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  Speaker 1: impulse briefly before you think about it much to just
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  Speaker 1: chuck it all and start over and live the life
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  Speaker 1: you really want to live. It would take a while
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  Speaker 1: to get to that and figure out what that is.
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  Speaker 1: By the way, well yeah, yeah, that's exactly what I
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  Speaker 1: was going to say. Do you know what that is?
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  Speaker 1: Congratulations if so. Well, so this happens to me like
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  Speaker 1: practically every vacation where I'm on vacation and I get
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  Speaker 1: away from the daily grind and I and then I
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  Speaker 1: start to think at some point like I'm doing it
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  Speaker 1: all wrong. I've messed up my wife. I mean, I'm
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  Speaker 1: just why am I living my life the way it is?
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  Speaker 1: I should be completely this should I was driving through
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  Speaker 1: this tiny little town in Iowa. We stopped to get gas,
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  Speaker 1: and then we were driving through this little town, middle
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  Speaker 1: of nowhere, gravel roads, probably a population of eight hundred
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  Speaker 1: people or whatever. There's little houses and people sitting on
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  Speaker 1: the porch, and I thought, why am I not them?
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  Speaker 1: Why am I not doing that? I could do that, but.
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  Speaker 2: Porch sitting is a time honored pastime.
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  Speaker 1: Could I actually or not? I don't know. Could I actually?
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  Speaker 1: How long? I texted a friend that and they said,
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  Speaker 1: I could see you doing that for about six minutes. Wow.
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  Speaker 1: And anyway, so it's kind of funny that it came
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  Speaker 1: around to I'm watching this interview Bill Maher's interviewing the
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  Speaker 1: movie director Woody Allen and.
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  Speaker 2: Who did not molest any children, by the way, No,
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  Speaker 2: I believe that firmly, firmly. He is a brilliant movie director,
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  Speaker 2: although he doesn't consider it himself brilliant. And one of
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  Speaker 2: the points was Bill Maher saying, you claim you have
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  Speaker 2: like no lofty thoughts in your movies and what he
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  Speaker 2: Allan said, That's true. I don't what I Allan said.
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  Speaker 2: Everybody thinks I'm an intellectual.
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  Speaker 1: I'm not. I don't think about the meaning of life
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  Speaker 1: or trying to like face the difficulties of existence or whatever.
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  Speaker 1: He said, I make movies and then I mostly watch
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  Speaker 1: sports and old TV shows. He said, that's all, that's
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  Speaker 1: what I do in my life, and and anyway, so
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  Speaker 1: it got off onto this quote which I thought was
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  Speaker 1: really interesting that Bill Maher brought up from Eugene O'Neill,
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  Speaker 1: who is a playwright from a gazillion years ago. He
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  Speaker 1: did the Iceman Come With in a number of other
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  Speaker 1: ones long Day Journey in Tonight. That's Eugene O'Neil. It
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  Speaker 1: doesn't matter. His quote is a life with illusions is
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  Speaker 1: unparta unpardonable, in other words, lying to yourself about various things,
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  Speaker 1: but a life without illusions is unbearable. Yeah, and uh,
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  Speaker 1: and Bill Martin Woody Allen's sort of getting to the
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  Speaker 1: nune of that that that is the most basic core
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  Speaker 1: of human existence. That those two things are true. And
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  Speaker 1: you know it's a matter of degrees, but we all
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  Speaker 1: lie to ourselves to a certain extent because you couldn't
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  Speaker 1: handle it if you didn't you just couldn't handle it.
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  Speaker 1: If you, I mean, if you, if you didn't like
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  Speaker 1: ignore certain parts of your past or present or future,
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  Speaker 1: or or or fully acknowledge the dreariness of some things.
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  Speaker 2: You just couldn't do it, you couldn't function.
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  Speaker 1: So you have to live a life of of lies
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  Speaker 1: to a certain extent. Do you believe that or not? Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: oh yeah, I believe it.
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  Speaker 2: I might phrase it a little differently, of course, have
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  Speaker 2: written no place, I don't.
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  Speaker 1: It's the human condition. It's got nothing to do with
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  Speaker 1: being a playwright. It's it is definitely the human condition.
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  Speaker 2: And I also I would say, I would say there
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  Speaker 2: are things that are better left out of focus because
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  Speaker 2: it wouldn't do you any good to get the clear,
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  Speaker 2: hard focused reality of them. You're just as well off
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  Speaker 2: kind of, you know, putting a little uh vaseline on
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  Speaker 2: the lens like they used to in the old timey
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  Speaker 2: movies to make the not's a great looking actress look
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  Speaker 2: all dreamy.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I guess. Example.
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  Speaker 2: A good example is people thinking they're more attractive than
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  Speaker 2: they are. They lie to themselves to thinking they're more attractive. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: well sure, yeah, And I mean unless you're like a
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  Speaker 2: nutjob narcissist like the people on American Idol back in
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  Speaker 2: the day, who would convinced they were the greatest singer
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  Speaker 2: on earth. And they're either just nuts or dopes or whatever.
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  Speaker 2: You're better off being a little more confident than you
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  Speaker 2: probably deserve to be.
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  Speaker 1: Uh yeah, reason, So that's part of it. On how
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  Speaker 1: you need the illusions just to get through the day,
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  Speaker 1: especially depending on how your life's going at various times.
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  Speaker 1: I think everybody has periods of their life where it
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  Speaker 1: ain't going that great. If you just fully embraced that
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  Speaker 1: without illusions, it would be pretty tough. Probably. There's also
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  Speaker 1: the stuff that you do subconsciously that none of us
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  Speaker 1: understand because we change memories. This is known. We change
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  Speaker 1: memories throughout the years to better fit our narrative, and
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  Speaker 1: there's nothing you can do about that. That seems to
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  Speaker 1: be just the human condition too. So part of the
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  Speaker 1: reason you're able to go through life with these illusions
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  Speaker 1: is you don't know the truth, right And you mean,
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  Speaker 1: I had this happen once over the weekend, over something banal,
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  Speaker 1: not the least bit interesting worth re telling. But like
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  Speaker 1: the nuclear family was altogether me, both my brothers, my
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  Speaker 1: mom and dad, the five of us, and like we
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  Speaker 1: all have different versions of a couple of different things
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  Speaker 1: that happened. We all remember them differently, even in ways
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  Speaker 1: that aren't important. But so, what is that I don't
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  Speaker 1: even know, so we don't even really know our own histories.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I know that's always been really disturbing to me.
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  Speaker 2: I've gotten used to the idea and just accepted it
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  Speaker 2: because what else am I gonna do?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah?
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  Speaker 2: But yeah, it's like every time you remember something, you're
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  Speaker 2: remembering your last memory of it. It's like playing a
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  Speaker 2: game of telephone with yourself, and you adjust it to
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  Speaker 2: fit your narrative, your life narrative, right right, which is horrifying.
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  Speaker 2: I remember, what was it, nineteen eighty I was having
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  Speaker 2: sex with Farah Faucet. She was on top, and she said,
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  Speaker 2: you know, Joe, we remember things to make ourselves happy.
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  Speaker 2: So I want you to remember this in a way
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  Speaker 2: that makes you happy. And I still do, still do.
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  Speaker 2: A life with a energetic, very very generous, A life
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  Speaker 2: with illusions is unpardonable. Well, a life without illusions is unbearable. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: I guess you just have to decide how many boy
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  Speaker 2: I can think of some examples.
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  Speaker 1: I don't know if I should say them on the air.
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  Speaker 1: I know somebody who considers themselves a good parent who
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  Speaker 1: is most definitely not, but they have crafted a narrative
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  Speaker 1: in their life that works for them, I guess that
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  Speaker 1: can't be good. I mean, they're just completely out of
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  Speaker 1: touch with reality, and it's fairly obvious. But that can't
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  Speaker 1: be good. To what extent do we do that with?
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  Speaker 1: You know, I'm a good son, I'm a good parent,
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  Speaker 1: I'm a good worker, I'm a good dancer. I don't
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  Speaker 1: know if that's one. Probably not important, but you know
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  Speaker 1: we craft all the life without illusions is unbearable.
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  Speaker 2: Right, Yeah? Man, this is a lot, a lot to contemplate.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and given the fact also that Woody Allen, one
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  Speaker 1: of the great movie makers of all times, doesn't ever
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  Speaker 1: think about that sort of stuff at all. I just
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  Speaker 1: make movies and I watch lots of sports and old
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  Speaker 1: TV reruns. That's funny. It's like Larry David says on
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  Speaker 1: his tombstone it should say he watched a lot of sports.
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  Speaker 2: Here's a question for you. Do you believe Woody Allen?
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  Speaker 1: Yes? About that? Yes?
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  Speaker 2: I do you think he's completely well? He could be
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  Speaker 2: completely sincere and also be wrong. Yeah, I'm shocked by that. Huh.
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  Speaker 1: I also think, as you're always saying, you don't have
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  Speaker 1: a whole lot of control over your personality. I don't
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  Speaker 1: know what percentage you do. But it ain't a ton right.
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  Speaker 2: It's one of those things that are probably better off
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  Speaker 2: in soft focus mostly, I mean, otherwise I don't know.
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  Speaker 2: Self contemplation constantly, Oh, we'll make you insane.
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  Speaker 1: Oh and what are you getting out of it? At
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  Speaker 1: some point?
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  Speaker 2: Just get stuff done. It's good now. And again, obviously,
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  Speaker 2: as I've said more than once, I've been humbled, seriously
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  Speaker 2: humbled a handful of times in my life, and it's
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  Speaker 2: been a good thing each time in retrospect, rather painful
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  Speaker 2: at the time, you know. So you can't just cruise
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  Speaker 2: through life completely clueless, although I know a there are
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  Speaker 2: number of people who do well.
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  Speaker 1: Here's I can't believe I'm going to interject this into
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  Speaker 1: the conversation. No, but I'm the best example I can
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  Speaker 1: think of it. Does Trump ever worry about any of that?
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  Speaker 1: Does he ever that might have been a little too far?
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  Speaker 1: Does he ever think that? Or does he just plow
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  Speaker 1: forward and have a pretty happy life because of it?
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  Speaker 1: I think that second one mostly, I think so too,
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  Speaker 1: And I've known a few people like that. They just
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  Speaker 1: seem to like, ye know, I did kind of break
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  Speaker 1: some things in that china shop as a bowl but
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  Speaker 1: whatever life goes on.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, wow, is too too much to think about.
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  Speaker 2: I've already contemplated having visited a foreign land and looked
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  Speaker 2: at other people in their lives and their cultures and
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  Speaker 2: their politics and their attitudes. And then you know, the
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  Speaker 2: cultures that are my grading invading the Western world. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: I've already got a head full of this stuff. I'm
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  Speaker 2: afraid there's no room at the end. No more heavy thoughts.
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  Speaker 2: Can't take it. I got an opening next Wednesday.
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  Speaker 1: Well, I guess that's it.