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When the World Tells You How to Feel — Choose Your Own Story · All About The Joy

• 0:00
  Carmen Lezeth: Just because something bad happened to me as a kid, and just because I didn't have information as to who my dad was, my father was, and just because I didn't feel a certain way, doesn't mean it was the wrong way to feel.
• 0:18
  Carmen Lezeth: You don't have to allow the outside world or media, especially media that is completely manipulative to determine how you feel.
• 0:31
  Carmen Lezeth: You know how you feel.
• 0:34
  Carmen Lezeth: Hi everyone, welcome to All About the Joy.
• 0:38
  Carmen Lezeth: I am Carmen Lisette, your host, and this is Carmen Talk.
• 0:42
  Carmen Lezeth: When I was growing up, there were a lot of talk shows, and they were different than the talk shows today.
• 0:49
  Carmen Lezeth: But Oprah Winfrey, of course, was one of the biggest ones, and everybody would watch a show.
• 0:56
  Carmen Lezeth: But before her show would air, there were other shows.
• 0:59
  Carmen Lezeth: And I don't remember which one came first, but there was Phil Donahue, who also had a talk show, and he was kind of this mild-mannered kind of gentleman who kind of did the same thing Oprah did.
• 1:14
  Carmen Lezeth: And then there was a woman, I don't know if she was before or after his show, but sh it was the show was Sally Jessica Raphael.
• 1:23
  Carmen Lezeth: And all I really remember about her was she was this white woman with big red glasses.
• 1:27
  Carmen Lezeth: Like the frames were really huge, you know, and she seemed pleasant enough.
• 1:33
  Carmen Lezeth: And the reason why her show stuck with me so much is because she would do these episodes where she would bring somebody on, some young person onto the show, and they would talk about not having a certain parent.
• 1:48
  Carmen Lezeth: And the ones that would affect me the most are the ones that didn't have fathers.
• 1:52
  Carmen Lezeth: And I think the one I remember most is Chili from TLC.
• 1:57
  Carmen Lezeth: She came on the show and she was talking about it.
• 2:00
  Carmen Lezeth: But it's such a mash of those stories.
• 2:04
  Carmen Lezeth: I don't know if this is Chili's story or just a mash of all of them.
• 2:08
  Carmen Lezeth: And that's not really the point.
• 2:09
  Carmen Lezeth: But the person would come on and Sally Jessica Raphael would say to them, Tell us about your story.
• 2:17
  Carmen Lezeth: And the person would be like, Well, I grew up and I didn't know who my father was, and I don't know if he loved me.
• 2:23
  Carmen Lezeth: And I don't, you know, they would say all of these things that we would just connect to, right?
• 2:27
  Carmen Lezeth: While you're watching it, you would feel for this person.
• 2:29
  Carmen Lezeth: And they would say something, you know, to the effect of, I don't know why my mother doesn't want me to have a relationship with him.
• 2:37
  Carmen Lezeth: And so you could tell there was turmoil and there was sadness and there was something.
• 2:42
  Carmen Lezeth: And then of course, Sally Jessica Raphael would bring out the father unexpectedly, and they would hug and they would cry, and it was so dramatic.
• 2:53
  Carmen Lezeth: And I always hated that part.
• 2:57
  Carmen Lezeth: And I'll tell you why.
• 3:00
  Carmen Lezeth: One of the things that I would hate about the person, not really hate, but I would not like about hearing this story is the person would inevitably who is sitting there talking about how they don't know their mother or their father or their sibling or whatever, would be sitting there talking about how, because I don't know who my father is, I don't know who I am.
• 3:22
  Carmen Lezeth: You know, they would always say this thing.
• 3:24
  Carmen Lezeth: And that would always push me out of the story.
• 3:27
  Carmen Lezeth: So for those of you who don't know, I grew up not knowing who my father was.
• 3:32
  Carmen Lezeth: My mom died when I was really young.
• 3:35
  Carmen Lezeth: She told me that she would tell me when I was 16 years old the one or two times I asked, because the first time she said she would tell me when I was 16.
• 3:44
  Carmen Lezeth: The second time it was like, don't ask again.
• 3:47
  Carmen Lezeth: You know what I mean?
• 3:48
  Carmen Lezeth: And unfortunately, my mom passed away way before that.
• 3:51
  Carmen Lezeth: I was 11 when she passed away.
• 3:53
  Carmen Lezeth: And she didn't tell anybody anything about my father.
• 3:57
  Carmen Lezeth: And so I never had an identity crisis.
• 4:04
  Carmen Lezeth: I never had a feeling like I wasn't whole because I didn't have a father figure.
• 4:12
  Carmen Lezeth: That never was my experience.
• 4:14
  Carmen Lezeth: And yet, as I was watching all of these people one after the other come onto the Sally Jessica Raphael show, you know, I started thinking is there something wrong with me?
• 4:24
  Carmen Lezeth: I don't feel like I don't know who I am.
• 4:27
  Carmen Lezeth: I mean, I didn't know what other part of the world my ethnicity was from.
• 4:34
  Carmen Lezeth: I looked very different than my mom.
• 4:37
  Carmen Lezeth: I didn't look like my mom at all.
• 4:39
  Carmen Lezeth: And I don't have relatives that I look like either that are blood related, supposedly.
• 4:46
  Carmen Lezeth: So I just didn't have a grasp of, you know, that other side of me, but it never made me feel like I wasn't a complete person.
• 4:57
  Carmen Lezeth: And so I would watch these people on this show, and I would think there's something wrong with me because I didn't feel that way.
• 5:04
  Carmen Lezeth: And I was like, and I'd start doubting myself, right?
• 5:07
  Carmen Lezeth: I'd start questioning, like, is am I doing life wrong or whatever, right?
• 5:12
  Carmen Lezeth: Am I am I a bad person?
• 5:14
  Carmen Lezeth: Because I don't, I don't miss my father that way.
• 5:17
  Carmen Lezeth: I can't, and I always used to say this when I was younger too.
• 5:19
  Carmen Lezeth: I can't miss something I never had.
• 5:22
  Carmen Lezeth: And I am a whole and complete person, right?
• 5:26
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm Gotaming Swatus.
• 5:28
  Carmen Lezeth: Like my last name, Swatus, is my mother's maiden name.
• 5:31
  Carmen Lezeth: I don't have that information either in my in my birth certificate.
• 5:35
  Carmen Lezeth: So that's that's my point, is I never felt odd or bad or different until I watched this show, this piece of media.
• 5:45
  Carmen Lezeth: And then I started doubting myself.
• 5:47
  Carmen Lezeth: And then I started questioning if I was feeling wrong or bad because I didn't feel a certain way.
• 5:54
  Carmen Lezeth: Like, why wasn't I angry?
• 5:55
  Carmen Lezeth: Why wasn't I upset?
• 5:57
  Carmen Lezeth: Why wasn't I feeling not whole?
• 5:58
  Carmen Lezeth: Why wasn't I feeling like my mother did something bad and wrong to me by not telling me, right?
• 6:05
  Carmen Lezeth: Just because something bad happened to me as a kid, and just because I didn't have information as to who my dad was, my father was, and just because I didn't feel a certain way, doesn't mean it was the wrong way to feel.
• 6:23
  Carmen Lezeth: And it took me a long time to reconcile that, to understand that it was okay.
• 6:29
  Carmen Lezeth: I had enough men in my life, or enough women, strong women in my life, that even though I was going through the circumstance I was going through as a kid, there were people who were not acting as my father.
• 6:46
  Carmen Lezeth: There were not people who were trying to be my father, but they were male figures who made me understand that I was a good person, a good kid, a good human being, and that I was whole and complete and that I was okay.
• 7:02
  Carmen Lezeth: Me not having a dad or me not having what everybody else had growing up, me not having a mom didn't make me angry or upset or pained or less than.
• 7:17
  Carmen Lezeth: Because it's all very different, right?
• 7:30
  Carmen Lezeth: Everybody has a different backstory and a different understanding of their circumstance.
• 7:36
  Carmen Lezeth: So I'm not trying to dismiss people who may feel that way.
• 7:40
  Carmen Lezeth: What I'm saying is that when you're feeling a certain way and you're presented with information, you don't have to now all of a sudden start to be angry.
• 7:51
  Carmen Lezeth: You don't have to allow the outside world or media, especially media that is completely manipulated and manipulative to determine how you feel.
• 8:06
  Carmen Lezeth: You know how you feel.
• 8:09
  Carmen Lezeth: I started going down that rabbit hole, like, yeah, why I should be angry, right?
• 8:15
  Carmen Lezeth: I should be upset.
• 8:16
  Carmen Lezeth: Like, why didn't my mom, why didn't she tell me, oh my God, how could she not know that this and then I was like, whoa, wait, whoa, like my mother, who loved me from all I've been told, because I don't really remember that much, but I would have never done anything to hurt me on purpose.
• 8:34
  Carmen Lezeth: My mom's intention was not to do anything to make my life harder.
• 8:41
  Carmen Lezeth: That was not her pure intention ever.
• 8:44
  Carmen Lezeth: And I know that in my soul.
• 8:48
  Carmen Lezeth: I know that.
• 8:49
  Carmen Lezeth: And me not having a father and me not having pains and anger and angst about not having a father didn't change the trajectory of my journey because I stayed in a place of gratitude and joy and curiosity, right?
• 9:09
  Carmen Lezeth: I have always been curious about who my father was.
• 9:12
  Carmen Lezeth: And I did all the DNA testing and I did all that.
• 9:16
  Carmen Lezeth: So I know what my ethnicity is now, which is an interesting, amazing thing about technology, but I'm still not angry at him.
• 9:25
  Carmen Lezeth: And I wrote an entire book about all the people that intervened in my life.
• 9:28
  Carmen Lezeth: The name of the book is Canela, which means cinnamon, which is the color of my skin.
• 9:34
  Carmen Lezeth: And the whole thorough line through that book is me talking to a father I never knew.
• 9:44
  Carmen Lezeth: That's the that's who I'm talking to.
• 9:46
  Carmen Lezeth: For those of you who haven't read the book, spoiler alert.
• 9:50
  Carmen Lezeth: Um, but the way I created this book, because it wasn't intentionally supposed to be a book, I made it like I had finally found out who he was and he was dead, and I found his grave, and I was sitting at the grave explaining to him my entire life, at least up until I graduated from high school.
• 10:09
  Carmen Lezeth: So the whole book, there were these uh moments where I'm talking to the audience, and actually I'm talking to my father.
• 10:17
  Carmen Lezeth: And anybody who knows me knows that I everything about fathers and daughters or fathers and sons makes me so happy.
• 10:29
  Carmen Lezeth: You know, it's always made me like uh there's a song by Luther Vandros, I believe, and it's um Dance with My Father.
• 10:37
  Carmen Lezeth: I could cry thinking about it right now.
• 10:39
  Carmen Lezeth: I love, oh, I love that song because I dream about that idea.
• 10:44
  Carmen Lezeth: Like if you listen to the lyrics, it's the idea that my mom would be happy dancing with whoever the man was that she was with and that I was born, you know, like, or another one was I remember Tim Russert, who, for those of you who don't know who Tim Russet was, he was an amazing uh newscaster, a new person journalist.
• 11:06
  Carmen Lezeth: And I think he'd I forget what the show, oh, he did Meet the Press.
• 11:09
  Carmen Lezeth: That's the name of the show that he used to um anchor.
• 11:13
  Carmen Lezeth: And I think it was like in 2002 or 2004, he did a book called like Big Russ and Me.
• 11:21
  Carmen Lezeth: And it was a book about him and his father.
• 11:24
  Carmen Lezeth: And I remember reading that book, and I was like, oh my God, you know, like one of my favorite movies, Field of Dreams, which people make the mistake of thinking it's a baseball movie, is one of my favorite movies for so many reasons, but the biggest reason is spoiler alert if you haven't seen Field of Dreams, is he plays catch with his father at the end.
• 11:47
  Carmen Lezeth: And I love that.
• 11:50
  Carmen Lezeth: I have always been able to be positive about my circumstance.
• 11:55
  Carmen Lezeth: I have always been able to see the joy, to walk through the other side of whatever hell you think you're walking in, get to the other side and find the light, find the joy, find the positivity.
• 12:08
  Carmen Lezeth: And why am I bringing this up?
• 12:11
  Carmen Lezeth: Why am I talking about this so much?
• 12:13
  Carmen Lezeth: I think because my story wouldn't happen today if I was the 11-year-old kid who lost their mom and had no father.
• 12:27
  Carmen Lezeth: The story that happened would not happen today because we have become a country and a people who are angst, who are selfish and inconsiderate.
• 12:44
  Carmen Lezeth: We wouldn't want to take in an 11-year-old brown kid who's on the streets.
• 12:49
  Carmen Lezeth: We we we wouldn't do that.
• 12:51
  Carmen Lezeth: Now I know as you're listening to this, you're going, I would, of course, of course I would.
• 12:55
  Carmen Lezeth: Of course I would, right?
• 12:57
  Carmen Lezeth: That's what we but you we're we're watching that today.
• 13:00
  Carmen Lezeth: We're watching people, and we've seen this happen over and over again.
• 13:07
  Carmen Lezeth: And what we're doing is we're believing, we're believing that our circumstance that we find ourselves in, whether it's we don't have enough money, we don't have the right job, we don't have the right connections, instead of being okay in that circumstance and trying to find our way through it to get to the other side of it, we've decided instead to blame people for our circumstance.
• 13:36
  Carmen Lezeth: So instead of me being able to say, I am okay, I don't know who my father is, but I am a whole and complete person, anyways, and I'm gonna try to get through this journey in my life.
• 13:53
  Carmen Lezeth: And trust me, as I say that it wasn't that grand of a thing.
• 13:57
  Carmen Lezeth: I was a kid after all, but it is the ability to see that you are in a situation and all you can do is choose to move forward.
• 14:06
  Carmen Lezeth: But if I didn't do that and instead started blaming people, if I started letting a show like Sally Jessica Raphael influence me in such a way that I changed the trajectory of who I was and instead started being angry at my mother and angry at the people who let me down, and angry at everybody who didn't know who my father was or didn't tell me, or angry at whatever, God or whatever it is, that would have been a very different human being.
• 14:38
  Carmen Lezeth: I would have not been the child I was, the teenager I became, the young adult I was, and now the person I am today, because I would have let the idea of pain and anger and hatred take over my life as opposed to taking responsibility for the cards that I've been dealt and working through it anyways, and finding grace in the people that did walk through, and finding joy in the circumstances I had the ability to be joyful about.
• 15:11
  Carmen Lezeth: We have now become, as people in this country of the United States, so mired in TikTok videos and shorts and Instagram.
• 15:25
  Carmen Lezeth: And I know my friend Andrea and my co-host on Culture and Consequences watching this, going, exactly, I hate social media, and that's not what I'm talking about.
• 15:36
  Carmen Lezeth: I don't hate social media and I love technology.
• 15:39
  Carmen Lezeth: But what is true is that we haven't learned how to use it because what we've allowed it to do is influence who we are, believe everything everybody says, and then change the trajectory of who we can be.
• 15:56
  Carmen Lezeth: Because it's so much easier to be angry and to hate and to blame someone else, anyone else, immigrants, anybody who's brown, anybody who's poor.
• 16:09
  Carmen Lezeth: They have us believing that our anger is towards people who come to this country are the problem.
• 16:19
  Carmen Lezeth: That the reason why my eggs are high or my rent is too high, or I can't get the job I want is because immigrants are stealing my job, jobs that we'd never want to do.
• 16:31
  Carmen Lezeth: That's what they have us believing.
• 16:33
  Carmen Lezeth: They don't have us understanding fully and completely that the real problem is that corporations and big-time companies that are making tons and tons of money are not doing what they're supposed to be doing.
• 16:50
  Carmen Lezeth: They're not doing the work they're supposed to be doing in order for all of us to have a great society.
• 16:56
  Carmen Lezeth: And that's not about handouts, that's not about giving away free stuff, that's not about me not believing in capitalism.
• 17:04
  Carmen Lezeth: I do.
• 17:05
  Carmen Lezeth: I don't love capitalism, but I can see how it could work.
• 17:08
  Carmen Lezeth: But what it is saying is that if I expect my neighbors to have a high bar and I expect them to have standards as to how they behave and how they work and function in society, I have that same angst and feeling towards corporations.
• 17:30
  Carmen Lezeth: I want you, corporations and billionaires, I want you to do right by people.
• 17:39
  Carmen Lezeth: I want you to do the right thing and make sure you're not trying to stir up this weird pot so that you can keep making more and more money, so that you can keep getting more and more clicks and more and more profit at the expense of my good neighbors and my good friends.
• 17:58
  Carmen Lezeth: All anybody wants, all any human being wants around the world, not just coming to the United States, but around the world, is to be able to eat, to have shelter, and to be loved.
• 18:16
  Carmen Lezeth: That's all anybody wants.
• 18:21
  Carmen Lezeth: It is basic.
• 18:24
  Carmen Lezeth: And the idea that we have allowed people to influence the trajectory of who we are as human beings breaks my heart.
• 18:38
  Carmen Lezeth: The amount of hatred, the amount of bad information that is influencing your choices as to who to vote for or who to love or who to accept or who to allow to be here breaks my complete soul.
• 18:57
  Carmen Lezeth: My story would not happen if it happened today.
• 19:03
  Carmen Lezeth: And I know that to be true, and it breaks my heart because my story, the story I wrote in Canela, is about the neighborhood coming out, people from all walks of life making sure I didn't fall through the cracks.
• 19:18
  Carmen Lezeth: Poor black kid with no parents.
• 19:23
  Carmen Lezeth: All of these people came out of the woodwork to make sure at different times.
• 19:29
  Carmen Lezeth: And here's the thing: it wasn't like they had a committee meeting.
• 19:32
  Carmen Lezeth: It wasn't like they all got together and said, you know what, let's make they did, it's not what happened.
• 19:37
  Carmen Lezeth: It was a time where we had compassion and love for each other.
• 19:42
  Carmen Lezeth: It was a time when somebody was hurting, when a child was hurting, we did our due diligence.
• 19:48
  Carmen Lezeth: I am still in touch with my seventh-grade teacher to this day.
• 19:52
  Carmen Lezeth: I am still in touch with so many of the people I wrote about in that book who walked me through.
• 20:02
  Carmen Lezeth: And I'll always be grateful to them.
• 20:05
  Carmen Lezeth: And some of them I give way too much credit to.
• 20:07
  Carmen Lezeth: There's no doubt about it.
• 20:08
  Carmen Lezeth: Like I also understand that I was a pretty smart kid.
• 20:11
  Carmen Lezeth: But here's the thing: most kids are.
• 20:13
  Carmen Lezeth: I believe most people are good and decent human beings.
• 20:18
  Carmen Lezeth: But I also know that life is hard.
• 20:23
  Carmen Lezeth: It is really, really hard.
• 20:26
  Carmen Lezeth: And sometimes it really is easier to think those damn immigrants, they're the reason why.
• 20:34
  Carmen Lezeth: They're the problem, they're the ones.
• 20:36
  Carmen Lezeth: It's them.
• 20:38
  Carmen Lezeth: That's why I'm in pain.
• 20:40
  Carmen Lezeth: Or that's why my son is a drug addict, or that's why this one you can come up with all the reasons once you find that boogeyman, once you find that person to blame and hate.
• 20:53
  Carmen Lezeth: Hate is powerful.
• 20:56
  Carmen Lezeth: It's such a powerful drug, you have no idea, and it's hard to fight against it.
• 21:02
  Carmen Lezeth: That's why so many Christians are having this weird problem right now.
• 21:07
  Carmen Lezeth: Because, on the one hand, you're justifying without even realizing you're justifying everything you don't believe in.
• 21:17
  Carmen Lezeth: Because hate is so powerful.
• 21:22
  Carmen Lezeth: It twists you into like pretzels to try to understand, like you're conforming arguments and excuses for things that are so easy to see.
• 21:36
  Carmen Lezeth: You can so easily see them, and I know you can.
• 21:42
  Carmen Lezeth: But to do that would be to admit that you made a mistake.
• 21:47
  Carmen Lezeth: And here's the thing this is a tough time for everybody.
• 21:50
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm doing this Carmen talk because I feel the need to share that my heart is broken about this country.
• 21:59
  Carmen Lezeth: And I am well aware that I am absolutely nobody.
• 22:04
  Carmen Lezeth: I do my shows.
• 22:06
  Carmen Lezeth: I will continue to share my peace because this is my way of trying to bring joy to other people.
• 22:13
  Carmen Lezeth: This is my way of helping people with what I know, with what I learned.
• 22:18
  Carmen Lezeth: These are the gifts that I was born with, and I am trying to share them to the best of my ability.
• 22:24
  Carmen Lezeth: And during this time period in the United States, while we are going through this pain and through this heartache, I am also very well aware that I might be able to get through just one person and to say to you, please stop.
• 22:38
  Carmen Lezeth: Stop going down the rabbit hole.
• 22:41
  Carmen Lezeth: Stop it.
• 22:42
  Carmen Lezeth: You can actually come back to where you used to be and you can walk through whatever you need to walk through and not be a person filled with so much hate and so much anger and all the whataboutisms.
• 22:57
  Carmen Lezeth: Well, what about this?
• 22:58
  Carmen Lezeth: What about stop?
• 22:59
  Carmen Lezeth: Be a good person.
• 23:04
  Carmen Lezeth: Be a good and decent person.
• 23:06
  Carmen Lezeth: Don't just talk the talk.
• 23:09
  Carmen Lezeth: Don't just spit out Bible verses or wisdom notes from this and that.
• 23:15
  Carmen Lezeth: Actually become a compassionate, loving, listening person.
• 23:19
  Carmen Lezeth: Actually become the person you want to be in the world.
• 23:25
  Carmen Lezeth: Treat your neighbor as you would treat yourself.
• 23:29
  Carmen Lezeth: And here's the last thing I'll say.
• 23:32
  Carmen Lezeth: We can all bring our cultures and who we are to this moment in time and be magnificent, be better because we know people of different cultures.
• 23:44
  Carmen Lezeth: I was saying this, again, I've said it like two or three times now in the past week, but this idea, when I was growing up, I remember one of the biggest arguments was this idea that like I would fight with people that we were not a melting pot.
• 23:57
  Carmen Lezeth: We were salad, we were like a salad, right?
• 23:59
  Carmen Lezeth: So when I was growing up, we used to say, is America a melting pot, right?
• 24:03
  Carmen Lezeth: Where everybody from different cultures.
• 24:05
  Carmen Lezeth: So if you were Irish or if you were African American or you were Latino, that we would all meld together and, you know, make one, I don't know, mishmash of soup or something, right?
• 24:15
  Carmen Lezeth: And I would always say, because I always believed this, like, no, we're more like a salad, right?
• 24:20
  Carmen Lezeth: Like I'm a tomato and you're a lettuce and you're onion or whatever.
• 24:23
  Carmen Lezeth: And together we make this great meal, this great salad.
• 24:27
  Carmen Lezeth: Like we're all still one unified meal, but but we're all very distinct and beautiful and we contribute in different ways.
• 24:36
  Carmen Lezeth: That's the country I want.
• 24:39
  Carmen Lezeth: That's the country I believe in.
• 24:41
  Carmen Lezeth: That's the people I still believe in.
• 24:43
  Carmen Lezeth: It's killing me.
• 24:44
  Carmen Lezeth: But I still believe in the best of who we can be.
• 24:48
  Carmen Lezeth: I really, really do.
• 24:49
  Carmen Lezeth: I still believe that the country, the United States of America, not the blue country, not the red country, but the United States of America, just stealing a little bit from President Barack Obama.
• 25:01
  Carmen Lezeth: I think he was senator then when he did that speech, but it's a beautiful speech, right?
• 25:06
  Carmen Lezeth: We were all so excited to hear that speech because it was true.
• 25:10
  Carmen Lezeth: We were not a red America, we were not a blue America, we were the United States of America, and we need to get back there.
• 25:19
  Carmen Lezeth: We need to get back there.
• 25:21
  Carmen Lezeth: So, in summary, stop letting other people influence what you know to be true.
• 25:30
  Carmen Lezeth: That really is the gist of this whole conversation.
• 25:33
  Carmen Lezeth: You are okay.
• 25:35
  Carmen Lezeth: You are okay as a human being.
• 25:39
  Carmen Lezeth: You will be okay as a human being.
• 25:42
  Carmen Lezeth: You don't have to hate other people to walk through this life.
• 25:46
  Carmen Lezeth: And I have to tell you, living in that kind of hate is going to make for a miserable life.
• 25:52
  Carmen Lezeth: Having so much anger and pain keeps you stuck.
• 25:57
  Carmen Lezeth: But when you choose joy, when you choose to walk in grace, you it's not easier, completely easier, but it feels better because you work through your issues, you work through your problems, and you don't have all this hate towards other people.
• 26:17
  Carmen Lezeth: I hope that helps.
• 26:22
  Carmen Lezeth: I hope that helps one person.
• 26:24
  Carmen Lezeth: I hope it also makes people understand why I do the show I do and why I will continue to always share my piece, whether that's in speaking events or writing my second book, the next book that I'm working on right now, or doing these shows that we do every week, Culture and Consequence, The Private Lounge, and the Friday Night Lives.
• 26:47
  Carmen Lezeth: Like, I want you to understand what it is I'm doing and what I'm trying to do so that you can also be a part of this neighborhood, be part of this community in a really authentic and awesome way, right?
• 26:59
  Carmen Lezeth: Not just passerby.
• 27:02
  Carmen Lezeth: And I do really believe this and I wish this for everyone.
• 27:06
  Carmen Lezeth: First of all, uh, this is going to be airing right before the Super Bowl.
• 27:11
  Carmen Lezeth: So I hope everyone will enjoy uh the Super Bowl, regardless of who you're cheering for.
• 27:17
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm originally from Boston, that's all I'll say.
• 27:20
  Carmen Lezeth: But really, Bad Bunny is going to be doing the halftime show.
• 27:25
  Carmen Lezeth: And I'm excited for so many reasons, because again, the other thing I love about the United States is that we've always been curious and we've always had so many different cultures.
• 27:36
  Carmen Lezeth: The salad, remember, the salad bowl, and the thing about Puerto Rico that is wonderful is we should know more about it.
• 27:45
  Carmen Lezeth: And we are about to get the opportunity, just like we know about Texas, and just like we know about Kansas, and just like we know about Minneapolis or you know, Minnesota, or Chicago, Illinois, or Los Angeles, California.
• 27:59
  Carmen Lezeth: Now we're gonna learn about Puerto Rico.
• 28:02
  Carmen Lezeth: And we should.
• 28:03
  Carmen Lezeth: We should definitely know our country and all of its lovely flavors.
• 28:10
  Carmen Lezeth: And yeah, I could go on and on, but I won't.
• 28:13
  Carmen Lezeth: So remember, at the end of the day, it really is all about the joy.
• 28:18
  Carmen Lezeth: And thank you so much for being here.
• 28:19
  Carmen Lezeth: I appreciate it.
• 28:21
  Carmen Lezeth: Thanks for stopping by, All About the Joy.
• 28:24
  Carmen Lezeth: Be better and stay beautiful, folks.
• 28:26
  Carmen Lezeth: Have a sweet day.