Speaker 1: Life Audio Dennis Nis Dennis Prager.
Speaker 2: Do you have a question you've always wanted to ask
Speaker 2: Dennis Prager. Well, now it's your opportunity for upcoming Ask
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Speaker 2: answering your question on an upcoming episode of Timeless Wisdom
Speaker 2: with Dennis Prager. And thanks for listening and supporting Dennis
Speaker 2: Today's episode of Timeless Wisdom II.
Speaker 3: It's great to thank you. I was wondering if if
Speaker 3: you have any magic answer to where the line lies
Speaker 3: between forgiveness and betrayal.
Speaker 4: What is the stupidest thing that you've ever done in
Speaker 4: your whole life?
Speaker 5: What do you think of adults adopted children trying to
Speaker 5: find their birth parents?
Speaker 1: Hi, I'm getting married tomorrow and congratulations, congratulations.
Speaker 6: I was wondering what your single greatest piece of advice
Speaker 6: would be. Maybe the least cliche.
Speaker 7: I'm getting a lot of cliches.
Speaker 1: One of the cliches. What cliches are you getting?
Speaker 6: Don't go to bed angry?
Speaker 8: And you know.
Speaker 1: That's a good one. By the way, you should know
Speaker 1: most cliches are true. That's why they became cliches.
Speaker 9: I just wonder if you're joking when you always say, oh,
Speaker 9: ask me anything you want meeting in life, and I
Speaker 9: was thinking, know what I'm asking him sometime?
Speaker 7: What is it?
Speaker 1: You're right? I was joking?
Speaker 9: Were you really?
Speaker 10: Don't tell me that?
Speaker 9: Don't drive me crazy?
Speaker 1: I just want them to hear you reach Oh.
Speaker 9: My gosh, driving crazy because I'm hanging on it.
Speaker 2: That's coming off on Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager. Welcome
Speaker 2: to Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager. Here thousands of hours
Speaker 2: of Dennis's lectures, courses in classic radio programs, and to
Speaker 2: purchase Dennis Prager's Rational Bibles, go to Dennisprager dot com.
Speaker 1: Anything that's on your mind, whatever you'd like to ask
Speaker 1: me from the proverbial, what is my favorite tobacco pipe
Speaker 1: or a cigar? That is to the meaning of life?
Speaker 1: Whatever it is on your mind. Did you hear something
Speaker 1: that you would like to comment on. Did you have
Speaker 1: something that you're wondering about in your own life or
Speaker 1: about me, or what have you. This is the time
Speaker 1: to do it. I set the agenda the other fourteen
Speaker 1: hours of the week you do on this one. Welcome,
Speaker 1: indeed to the Dennis Prager Show, and let us go
Speaker 1: to Westborough, Massachusetts, and we begin with Michael. Hello Michael, Dennis.
Speaker 4: Prager, Hello, Dennis, how are you doing.
Speaker 1: I'm wealth Thank you.
Speaker 4: I got a question for you. Yeah, what is and
Speaker 4: you've had a longer life, what is the stupidest thing
Speaker 4: that you've ever done in your whole life?
Speaker 1: There are so many contenders for that title that I
Speaker 1: can't really I will isolate some, but I must tell
Speaker 1: you that I can give you. It's terrible how many
Speaker 1: things come to mind. It's not like I can't think
Speaker 1: of Eddie. It's I can't know which one to select,
Speaker 1: but I'll give you one funny one. This was truly stupid.
Speaker 1: I was. I was in my twenties, and it was
Speaker 1: my twenties were a huge traveling time. Every year I
Speaker 1: went to another part of the world. And I remember
Speaker 1: my first trip to Hungary. And I went from Vienna
Speaker 1: to Budapest, and I went on a hydrofoil on the
Speaker 1: Danube River. And these are very fast little boats. And
Speaker 1: I got on the boat and I think it's an
Speaker 1: hour and a half. I don't remember how long it is,
Speaker 1: two hours, I don't know, uh, and somebody will know,
Speaker 1: and you know, tell me. And I got on needing
Speaker 1: to go to the bathroom, and I figured, no problem,
Speaker 1: I'll just go on on board. But for whatever reason
Speaker 1: it was, it was one of these fast and quick trips.
Speaker 1: They didn't have any laboratories. Now can you imagine speeding
Speaker 1: along on the water for an hour and a half
Speaker 1: while you already have to go to the bathroom? Deep all, yes,
Speaker 1: so you can only imagine. I arrived in Budapest bent
Speaker 1: over practically. Now. Unfortunately, it was then a communist country
Speaker 1: and customs took a while. You know, make sure you're
Speaker 1: not bringing in Western and Western propaganda and checking out
Speaker 1: for for everything else, and your visa because you always
Speaker 1: needed a visa for communist countries. So now remember there's
Speaker 1: not an airport. This is a a river port, a
Speaker 1: river entrance. Finally I get through communist customs and I
Speaker 1: am really, I am really in pain, needing to get
Speaker 1: to a bathroom. I walk outside. It's a street, a
Speaker 1: major thoroughfare, and to my great relief, I see a
Speaker 1: sign over a little building says WC. WC is right,
Speaker 1: water closet is international, and I think, thank god, you
Speaker 1: don't have to know Hungarian. WC is international. Huh, I'm
Speaker 1: you know, I'm like a man just you know, finding
Speaker 1: water who's been in a desert. Then I see two
Speaker 1: doors and one says knock and the other says furfiac.
Speaker 1: And I think, I think this is ridiculous. I mean,
Speaker 1: they have to have like an international symbol or you know,
Speaker 1: an umbrella and a skirt or pants and a skirt something, nothing,
Speaker 1: just knock and furfiac. Well, how the hell do I
Speaker 1: know if I'm a knock or a furfiac. And meanwhile
Speaker 1: I'm in real pain. And then I did you now asked,
Speaker 1: how does this come to the stupidest thing I ever did.
Speaker 1: It would not have been stupid to just flip a
Speaker 1: coin and walk into one, okay, would not have been stupid,
Speaker 1: or to watch if anybody walked in, obviously, but nobody did.
Speaker 1: I stood in the middle of this thoroughfare and I
Speaker 1: stopped Hungarians walking by, and I looked at them, and
Speaker 1: I looked, and I pointed to myself and the sign,
Speaker 1: and I said, knock firfiac. So I stood in the
Speaker 1: middle of buddhapest asking passers by if I was a
Speaker 1: man or a woman, And of course they all mumbled
Speaker 1: something like, you know, this man has escaped an asylum.
Speaker 1: I can you know how? I mean, what would you
Speaker 1: say if somebody stopped you man, woman? You would think
Speaker 1: that they were they were very seriously disturbed. That is
Speaker 1: one of the funny stupider things. On a more serious level,
Speaker 1: I would be financially secure if when I moved to California,
Speaker 1: I had bought anything anything. When I moved to California
Speaker 1: in nineteen seventies, if I'd have bought I moved to
Speaker 1: Simi Valley, California, if I had bought a hut, a
Speaker 1: hut you hear me an outhouse. If I had bought
Speaker 1: a toilet, I would I would have been financially secure today.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I wouldn't consider that necessarily stupid.
Speaker 1: Oh it was stupid because I was told Dennis, this
Speaker 1: is a great time. You're going to see the city's
Speaker 1: going to develop. When I lived in Simi Valley, it
Speaker 1: had one restaurant. One. But as I've often said, when
Speaker 1: God gave out abilities, when he gave out financial ability,
Speaker 1: I was in the men's room. I was in the
Speaker 1: furfiac room. Wait, wait, am I an knocker furfiac?
Speaker 4: I wouldn't be too hard on you get hot tis
Speaker 4: all the time and hot tips.
Speaker 1: That was common sense. That wasn't like, oh you got
Speaker 1: to get you know, generic brand a you know multi
Speaker 1: vitamin thing. All right? Anyway, I have many more, unfortunately,
Speaker 1: but thank you is a fun question. You too, appreciate
Speaker 1: it very much. Anyway. It turns out, by the way,
Speaker 1: that knuck is woman and firfiak is male. And I
Speaker 1: did walk into NUK because I thought furfiac sounded like female.
Speaker 1: And then some woman started yelling at me and Hungarian.
Speaker 1: That was the That was the end of that story.
Speaker 1: Hungarian is is unfortunately has nothing in common with English.
Speaker 1: The only language that has anything in common with is Finnish,
Speaker 1: which I know nothing of either. All alrighty, and let's go.
Speaker 1: Oh this is very apropos. I hope my son will
Speaker 1: hear this question. This is very good. Tyler in Pasadena,
Speaker 1: California that it's Praeger High. Hello Tyler. Yes, how are
Speaker 1: you eleven years old?
Speaker 11: Yes?
Speaker 1: Great to hear from you. Thanks for calling. Well what's
Speaker 1: on your mind?
Speaker 12: Well, I was just wondering because my mom, because we
Speaker 12: went out and I wanted some shirts like a scarface
Speaker 12: or tupac and dog tags and saggy pants, right, but
Speaker 12: my mom doesn't want me to dress like that, and
Speaker 12: I wanted to hear your opinion.
Speaker 1: Well, I'm glad you wanted to hear my opinion. And
Speaker 1: let me tell you, I would not always agree with
Speaker 1: a parent. Please know that just because I'm a parent
Speaker 1: doesn't mean i'll always agree. But in this case, your
Speaker 1: mom is doing you one of the great favors that
Speaker 1: she could ever do for you. Because people judge you
Speaker 1: by the way you dress.
Speaker 12: That's what they're trying to tell me that, But.
Speaker 1: That's the truth because that's the only thing that we
Speaker 1: know about a person when we meet them. We know
Speaker 1: nothing about a person except their clothing because that's all
Speaker 1: we see. So it's a huge sign. If you wear
Speaker 1: that sort of thing, it's like wearing a big sign. Hi,
Speaker 1: I'm a jerk. Okay, makes sense? Yes, all right, thank
Speaker 1: you for calling. Thank you, ah, thank you so much. Look,
Speaker 1: the very fact that the kid wanted my opinion is read.
Speaker 1: It's like mind blowing. But that's the truth. People have
Speaker 1: to know that that your clothing is like wearing a sign. Hello,
Speaker 1: I'm a good guy. Hello, I'm a jerk. Hello, I'm
Speaker 1: a dummy. Hello, I'm smart. That it's it's exactly like
Speaker 1: doing that. That is the That is how powerful clothing is.
Speaker 1: And West Valley City, Utah. And Heather, Hello, Heather, Dennis Prager.
Speaker 1: I'm well neat.
Speaker 5: Hey.
Speaker 9: I'm just wondering if you're joking when you always say, oh,
Speaker 9: ask me anything you want meeting your life, and I
Speaker 9: always think you know what I'm asking him.
Speaker 1: Sometime You're right, I was joking.
Speaker 9: Were you really?
Speaker 7: Don't tell me?
Speaker 9: That drive me crazy?
Speaker 1: I just wanted to hear you reading.
Speaker 9: Oh my gosh, it was driving me crazy because I'm
Speaker 9: hanging on it.
Speaker 1: There is no answer to the question what is the
Speaker 1: meaning of life? Because there are only because there are
Speaker 1: many meanings to life there and you're you, you will
Speaker 1: have a meaning. But in the overall sense there is.
Speaker 1: This is what I can say to you in a nutshell. Okay,
Speaker 1: there is only meaning to life. I don't mean to
Speaker 1: one individual's existence. One gets meaning from being a parent,
Speaker 1: from being a spouse, from being a friend, from being
Speaker 1: a business person, from reading books. There are thousands of
Speaker 1: things that give anybody meaning, but objectively about life in general,
Speaker 1: not about one's individual own life. And subjectively there is
Speaker 1: only meaning in life if if life has meaning, and
Speaker 1: life only has meaning, if there is a God that
Speaker 1: made life, If life came about only on its own
Speaker 1: and is a fluke, a fluke has no means. Go
Speaker 1: to a micro subject here, Seal Beach, California, Joanne, Hello, Joeanne.
Speaker 1: Dennis Prager, Hi.
Speaker 13: Dennis, I enjoy your show every day.
Speaker 1: Good thank you.
Speaker 13: I have become aware that as a single, well as
Speaker 13: a divorced mother of two wonderful children who are adults
Speaker 13: with beautiful children, I miss their company, my adult children,
Speaker 13: because whenever we get together. It's always with the grandkids.
Speaker 10: Seven two and a half in five months, and we're
Speaker 10: focused on them. They're distracting. And this birthday, which is
Speaker 10: coming up, I would like to go out to a
Speaker 10: nice dinner with them without the children. And I'm feeling
Speaker 10: guilty about bringing this.
Speaker 1: No, don't feel it at all. I mean, this is
Speaker 1: not a routine request. It's not a routine birthday. You
Speaker 1: want to enjoy your kid. They could get a babysitter.
Speaker 1: We'll be back in a moment.
Speaker 2: This episode of Timeless Wisdom will continue right after this.
Speaker 2: Now back to more of Dennis Prager's timeless wisdom.
Speaker 1: All right, everybody, the phone number is one eighth Praguer
Speaker 1: seven seven six, one eighth p R A G e
Speaker 1: R seven seven six. And this is the hour where
Speaker 1: anything is on your mind. And I just want to
Speaker 1: repeat to Joanne who called in she would like to
Speaker 1: celebrate her a big upcoming birthday or sixtieth with her
Speaker 1: kids without the grandkids present. I think it's a fair
Speaker 1: it's a fair request. Absolutely in any event, parents cannot allow.
Speaker 1: And I am very, very very preoccupied with my kids
Speaker 1: and always have been. Nevertheless, you have to have a
Speaker 1: life as well. It's good. It's not even good for
Speaker 1: your kids not to have that, and and to honor
Speaker 1: your your mom on her sixtieth with a dinner together
Speaker 1: with her the way that she would like it. My god,
Speaker 1: I Joanne, is it clear what side I'm on? All Right,
Speaker 1: she's gone, Okay, anyway, I hope you heard that, Joanne.
Speaker 1: Let's go to some more of your calls. Here one
Speaker 1: Ad Prager seven seven six, and we go to North
Speaker 1: Hollywood to California and David, Hello, David, Dennis Prager.
Speaker 7: Hi, Dennis. First of all, I just want to say
Speaker 7: this isn't a cry for help, but I have a
Speaker 7: conserative Catholic friend and we were talking and he's telling
Speaker 7: me that he believed the Catholic position on suicide is
Speaker 7: that it's a mortal sin, and I'm never quite sure.
Speaker 7: I was never quite sure because he asked me what
Speaker 7: the Jewish position on suicide was.
Speaker 1: The well, Judaism regards it as a sin. The concept
Speaker 1: of mortal sin is a Catholic one, but it is
Speaker 1: a big sin. Your life is no more yours to
Speaker 1: take than somebody else's. However, morally speaking, they're not identical acts.
Speaker 1: Taking the life of another is certainly worse than taking
Speaker 1: your own life, and circumstances will help determine it. Though
Speaker 1: there is a rabbinic phrase that no one takes his
Speaker 1: own life unless the Hebrew is a ruach stutt a,
Speaker 1: a spirit of craziness, of madness has entered him. That
Speaker 1: it's it's nobody normal does it. And so there is
Speaker 1: a you know you temper the moral angst about it
Speaker 1: versus the belief that something has happened at that moment
Speaker 1: to pervert the person's mind. But it is. It is
Speaker 1: a sin, that's absolutely you're absolutely right. Well, I don't know,
Speaker 1: I'm right. You didn't you didn't make a statement, you
Speaker 1: asked a question. But yes, there it is a sin.
Speaker 1: There used to be a time, in fact, the community
Speaker 1: regarded as so sinful that a Jewish suicide was not
Speaker 1: buried in the same cemetery as other Jews. That has
Speaker 1: that has changed because of this, the general notion that
Speaker 1: something psychological has snapped had snapped in that person. But
Speaker 1: the interesting thing is Judaism is so life centered that
Speaker 1: it's pretty rare.
Speaker 7: Well maybe that's why everybody seems to know what the
Speaker 7: Catholic position is. But the Jewish position.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it talked about that's right. Yeah, that's a good point.
Speaker 1: Thank you for your call you. I appreciate it very much.
Speaker 1: Alan and Alan in Dallas, Hello Alan, Dennis Prager.
Speaker 5: High Hello Dennis. It's a pleasure to talk to you.
Speaker 1: Hi. Thank you.
Speaker 5: I just want you to know I value your opinion
Speaker 5: very greatly.
Speaker 1: Thank you.
Speaker 5: The question I had is what do you think of
Speaker 5: adult adopted children trying to find their birth parents.
Speaker 1: Well, if it's just curiosity, I don't have an issue
Speaker 1: with it. But I don't know what you gain other
Speaker 1: than answering curiosity, because unless you feel alienated from your parents,
Speaker 1: do you.
Speaker 5: No, I've had a good of course I was adopted,
Speaker 5: but I've had a very good life.
Speaker 1: I've been so what so what so? What is animating you?
Speaker 11: Really?
Speaker 5: I don't know. I think it's more just curiosity than
Speaker 5: anything else. I think it's you know, do I resemble
Speaker 5: my birth my birth parents?
Speaker 1: Because I really did you? Did you? Did you ever
Speaker 1: see a picture of of them?
Speaker 13: No?
Speaker 5: Actually, my mother was the nurse, one of the nurses
Speaker 5: that was at the hospital where I was born.
Speaker 1: And do you know how many kids who were biological
Speaker 1: kids have no? Do not look at all like their parents. No, Oh, okay,
Speaker 1: you see this is the fantasy that a lot of
Speaker 1: people have about about others. It's a very common thing.
Speaker 1: It's a very normal thing. Uh. We Alan, and I
Speaker 1: am speaking of the we of Alan. Here we we are.
Speaker 1: We know a couple and they have two daughters who
Speaker 1: do not look like they are really in the same race.
Speaker 1: Uh and they let alone look like the parents. So
Speaker 1: and I've always found that fascinating. This is only subjective.
Speaker 1: And I'm so touched that you call Alan. I have
Speaker 1: never found it important or even interesting whether or not
Speaker 1: kids look like a parent or look like a sibling.
Speaker 1: I remember as a kid I would always be told, oh,
Speaker 1: you look like your mother, And then just as often,
Speaker 1: somebody'd say, you look just like your father. Well, I
Speaker 1: can't look like my mother and my father. They look
Speaker 1: very different. Do you know how psychological it is? Anyway,
Speaker 1: when kids see a baby, oh, looks just like mom.
Speaker 1: I would bet anything that if there were ten babies
Speaker 1: of the same race lined up, people would would have
Speaker 1: no clue as to whose kid was Who's in the
Speaker 1: vast majority of cases, So, Alan, you know, send me
Speaker 1: an email. I'd be very curious to know about this.
Speaker 1: I most of the time people might be looking for
Speaker 1: something that is not significant. I mean, I'm not discouraging
Speaker 1: you from doing it, but it's it's not important. That's
Speaker 1: the way I guess the best way I could put it.
Speaker 1: I thank you for asking, my friend. I appreciate it,
Speaker 1: and I would like to hear from you. And we
Speaker 1: go to Mike in La Crasena, California. Dennis Prager Here, Hi, Mike.
Speaker 11: I have always loved the show, but I love the
Speaker 11: clarity issues. Uh you you you're articulate, but you do
Speaker 11: a thing that annoys me, and I want to know why.
Speaker 1: I'm always open to why I annoy people?
Speaker 11: Go ahead, Why do you take so long to start
Speaker 11: talking after the music starts?
Speaker 1: Well, it depends. It's a very good question. Actually, thank you,
Speaker 1: You're welcome.
Speaker 11: I like to make I like to hear you giggle too.
Speaker 1: Oh that's nice. I like to hear me giggle too.
Speaker 1: I actually think I think that every giggles adds two
Speaker 1: minutes to your life. That's my theory. Good anyway, here
Speaker 1: is the story. First of Well, if you I would
Speaker 1: like you, here's an assignment, and I mean it. If
Speaker 1: you're up to doing it. I'm just do it for
Speaker 1: one week, or even for that matter, do it for
Speaker 1: one show for the three hours. And you see how
Speaker 1: long you hear music before I come in. And I
Speaker 1: think you will find that it differs very much on
Speaker 1: any given break.
Speaker 11: Yes, it does.
Speaker 1: Exactly now here. So here are the reasons. One, there
Speaker 1: are times when I simply like hearing the music. It
Speaker 1: just it just calms me and I enjoy it all right.
Speaker 1: That so that will but even more often it will
Speaker 1: be because I am reading something that has just come
Speaker 1: over the over the wire, as they say, and I
Speaker 1: want to bring it to your attention because I'm bringing
Speaker 1: you stuff. Alan is in constantly giving me stuff that
Speaker 1: has just appeared on the internet, and so I am
Speaker 1: trying to bring that to your attention as well as
Speaker 1: stuff that I have ready for the show prior to
Speaker 1: the show.
Speaker 11: And it's not that I dislike the music either, Yeah.
Speaker 1: I understand that.
Speaker 11: That's why I want to hear the stuff.
Speaker 1: I understand. There is one other possibility, and that is
Speaker 1: the least frequent, and that is I am just tuned out.
Speaker 1: That is, there's nothing as disarming as hodesty, is there.
Speaker 11: No, that's that's the perfect that one. I believe that.
Speaker 1: One you believe, Yeah, but that that happens to be
Speaker 1: the least common. Thank you very much. It really just
Speaker 1: might happen, and I will get a little hidden from Sean. Dennis.
Speaker 1: You speak now, or you are doing a radio show.
Speaker 1: Your livelihood depends upon your speaking at this time. Alrighty,
Speaker 1: let's continue here, you folks. Crack me up anything you want,
Speaker 1: My friends, it could be as heavy or as non
Speaker 1: heavy as the last one.
Speaker 2: Are you enjoying timeless wisdom? We'd love to hear from you.
Speaker 2: Call eight seven seven two four three seventy seven seventy
Speaker 2: six and leave a review, share your thoughts, or just
Speaker 2: even an encouraging word for Dennis. Your voicemail might just
Speaker 2: make it on the show. That's eight seven seven two
Speaker 2: four three seventy seven seventy six. That's eight seven seven
Speaker 2: two four three triple seven six. Thanks for listening and
Speaker 2: for your support.
Speaker 1: We go to Shoreview, Minnesota and Joe, Hello Joe Dennis Prager.
Speaker 6: Hi, Dennis, Hi, Hi, I'm getting married tomorrow.
Speaker 1: And congratulations, congratulations, Thank you.
Speaker 6: I was wondering what your single greatest piece of advice
Speaker 6: would be. Maybe the least cliche I'm getting a lot
Speaker 6: of cliches.
Speaker 1: One of the cliche, what cliches are you getting?
Speaker 6: Don't go to bed angry?
Speaker 1: And you know that's a good one. By the way,
Speaker 1: you should know most cliches are true. That's why they
Speaker 1: became cliches, right, And.
Speaker 6: I think they have a lot of value.
Speaker 8: Yeah, yeah, But I was.
Speaker 6: Wondering if you had a unique piece of advice.
Speaker 1: Hmm, you know, wow, I'm stumped. One unique piece of advice.
Speaker 1: While you're laughing, Alan Alan is cracking up. I think
Speaker 1: he likes when I'm stumped. It like makes his day.
Speaker 1: It's lousy for the show, but it's somehow Alan Alan
Speaker 1: is having the time of his life. Let me think
Speaker 1: about that. Let's see a piece of advice. I have
Speaker 1: so many pieces of advice. I'm trying to isolate one here.
Speaker 1: Oh you know what. Here it is. I'll tell you one.
Speaker 1: One piece of advice that I would give is that
Speaker 1: almost everything is endurable so long as the two of
Speaker 1: you respect each other. The respect is probably the single
Speaker 1: most important quality for the durability of a marriage.
Speaker 6: How would you define respect?
Speaker 1: Well, when here, I'll put it in the negative. It
Speaker 1: is Doctor John Gottman is the I do believe is
Speaker 1: the finest expert on marriage and marital failure in America.
Speaker 1: He can predict to a staggeringly accurate percentage after watching
Speaker 1: a couple for five minutes, he predicts whether they will
Speaker 1: divorce or not. And the thing that the single most
Speaker 1: glaring guaranteur of a failed marriage is if one spouse
Speaker 1: develops contempt for the other. And we go to Long Beach,
Speaker 1: California and Naomi, is it? Do you say Naomi or Naomi?
Speaker 14: Sami?
Speaker 1: See? I knew to ask?
Speaker 14: I knew, Yeah, my name is of Japanese origin.
Speaker 1: Okay, Naomi, take it away. I was.
Speaker 14: My dad has been listening to you for years, and
Speaker 14: he started listening to you with Religion on the Line.
Speaker 14: I was wondering, why did that go off the air
Speaker 14: and is there any other show out there.
Speaker 1: That's like for those Let me explain. Let me explain,
Speaker 1: explain your question to the to the larger audience around
Speaker 1: the country. I began radio on a radio in Los
Speaker 1: Angeles in nineteen eighty two as the host of an
Speaker 1: extremely popular show. I'm inordinately popular in southern California, and
Speaker 1: I was the host of it. It was called Religion
Speaker 1: on the line and had a priest rabbi minister different
Speaker 1: ones each week and I would moderate and I did
Speaker 1: it exactly ten years, and then they persuaded me. I
Speaker 1: loved it so much, and I love doing weekend night
Speaker 1: radio so much because it just kept me free during
Speaker 1: the week. I said no over and over to offers
Speaker 1: to have weekday radio, which is professionally far better for
Speaker 1: obvious reasons. You're just on more, you have a larger
Speaker 1: audience generally speaking. I just loved it, and so now ONMI,
Speaker 1: I finally agreed, you know, it's time to move on
Speaker 1: after ten years, and so that that's what happened. Does
Speaker 1: that to answer your question?
Speaker 11: Yeah?
Speaker 14: Absolutely? But are there any other shows out there like it?
Speaker 1: There is one I think in New York, but other
Speaker 1: than that, I don't believe. I don't believe that there is.
Speaker 1: And so many people in the southern California area asked
Speaker 1: me what I do it again, I just can tell
Speaker 1: you I have no answer to that, but I can
Speaker 1: tell you that it was a I almost believe, literally
Speaker 1: a godsend. I have been working, as many of you know,
Speaker 1: as a bridge between the Jewish and Christian communities, and
Speaker 1: that program every week two hours with priests, rabbis and
Speaker 1: ministers is what enabled me to understand so well the mindset,
Speaker 1: the thinking, the theology of these two great religions and
Speaker 1: indeed become a big advocate of what are called Judeo
Speaker 1: Christian values. Let's go to Helene in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Speaker 1: Hello Helene, or yeah, Helene. Hi Dennis Prager, Hi, mister Prager.
Speaker 3: Thank you. I was wondering if if you have any
Speaker 3: magic answer to where the line lies between forgiveness and betrayal?
Speaker 1: You mean for you mean when you shouldn't forgive? Is
Speaker 1: that what you're asking when a person has lost the
Speaker 1: right to be forgiven?
Speaker 3: I guess, uh, I guess that might be.
Speaker 1: A better way to put uh huh the the uh.
Speaker 1: I believe that almost everything is forgivable except murder because
Speaker 1: the injured party is not there to forgive beyond that
Speaker 1: with a truly sincere contrition. And if you think that
Speaker 1: the person is a decent person otherwise and they really
Speaker 1: want to be forgiven and beg you that they ought
Speaker 1: to be will be back in a moment.
Speaker 2: This episode of timeless wisdom will continue right after this.
Speaker 2: Now back to more of Dennis Prager's Timeless.
Speaker 1: Wisdom, Eureka, California and Teresa Teresa Dennis Prager, Hi, Hi.
Speaker 15: Interestingly enough, my sixteen year old son came and told
Speaker 15: us that he may have to do something that we
Speaker 15: won't be happy with.
Speaker 1: Uh huh.
Speaker 15: And that is and it was he thought he might
Speaker 15: get into a fight at school, right, And the next
Speaker 15: day he came home and I asked him what happened,
Speaker 15: and I had to drag it out of him, but
Speaker 15: he said that he did not get in a fight,
Speaker 15: and the reason that he didn't was because he didn't
Speaker 15: want to disappoint us.
Speaker 1: That's the reason he didn't get into the fight. Correct,
Speaker 1: And what type of fight was it? Who started?
Speaker 11: What?
Speaker 1: Was it?
Speaker 15: A friend that he thought had done something deceiving to him?
Speaker 1: And we tried to when he means a fight, he
Speaker 1: means a physical fight.
Speaker 15: Yes, which he's never been in before.
Speaker 1: But he would start the physical aspect, well.
Speaker 15: He would talk to the boy about it and depending
Speaker 15: on what happened, and he was pretty irrational about it.
Speaker 15: He was sixteen, hadn't had a lot to think about,
Speaker 15: and that was what he thought might happen. They might
Speaker 15: get into a fight over something and.
Speaker 1: He didn't do it because he thought he might disappoint you. Correct,
Speaker 1: all right, And you want to know my reaction, well.
Speaker 15: And I, ironically I was almost disappointed with his answer
Speaker 15: because he should have chose not to do it, because
Speaker 15: it was the right thing to do, not to get
Speaker 15: in a fight.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but you see, the parent is to use Freudy
Speaker 1: in terms the superrego of a child for a long time,
Speaker 1: what would my father or mother think? Usually the father,
Speaker 1: but not always is a very major factor, especially in
Speaker 1: a boy's development of his conscience. Listen, I'll give you
Speaker 1: an example. I don't know if you're religious, and it
Speaker 1: doesn't matter for the sake of this question, but what
Speaker 1: would God think of what I did? Is to me
Speaker 1: a very good way to try to figure out whether
Speaker 1: or not something is right.
Speaker 15: Yes, and maybe he didn't even want to fight, and
Speaker 15: maybe using us as.
Speaker 1: The excers, that may well be that that that's a
Speaker 1: very perceptive comment. But but but don't don't be disappointed
Speaker 1: if if you play it's it's in fact that I
Speaker 1: think that's wonderful that a parent plays a role in
Speaker 1: a child's character development. What would my mother or my
Speaker 1: father or both think if I did x or Why
Speaker 1: that's wonderful?
Speaker 15: And we also went through well what would happen if
Speaker 15: you disappointed us? What would happen?
Speaker 1: Right? That's another question. Yes, that's a psychological one, and
Speaker 1: thank you very much. But I just need you to know,
Speaker 1: don't in any way think that that's not good. Uh.
Speaker 1: It plays a deep role in all of our lives.
Speaker 1: What would so and so think? Would I would I
Speaker 1: morally disappoint x Or? Why this notion that I only
Speaker 1: have to answer to me and my conscience. I don't
Speaker 1: buy that. I don't have trust in humans like that.
Speaker 1: I think think we need a reference point outside of ourselves.
Speaker 1: And if it's God, if it's a parent, or if
Speaker 1: it's somebody else, that's why that's good that. I think
Speaker 1: it's a very good thing. Alrighty, thank you for your call, uh, Teresa,
Speaker 1: Mike and Van Nuys, California, Mike Dennis Prager Hello, Hello,
Speaker 1: Hi Mike Dennis.
Speaker 16: I just wanted to thank you for your help, uh,
Speaker 16: your help to America. I think you do a great job.
Speaker 1: And well I try. Thank you very very much.
Speaker 16: My question is how do you think perfectionism is related
Speaker 16: to disappointment not only in others but in myself.
Speaker 1: Well, obviously, if you're a perfectionist, you'll always disappoint yourself.
Speaker 1: But I I find the word perfectionist is overused. Uh,
Speaker 1: A perfectionist what does that mean? Does it mean one
Speaker 1: who if they if something isn't perfect, they will they
Speaker 1: will not do anything. I mean, I don't. I'm a
Speaker 1: perfectionist with my writing, but I I still send in
Speaker 1: my column every week even though it you know, objectively,
Speaker 1: it's not perfect. But I keep striving. I keep editing
Speaker 1: and editing and editing. That's why it took me ten
Speaker 1: years to write my book on happiness. But I don't
Speaker 1: know if I'm a perfectionist. I just wanted to reach
Speaker 1: a level of excellence that I can approve of. So
Speaker 1: what is it? What is a perfectionist?
Speaker 16: Well, I guess it's a standard that I have in
Speaker 16: my mind about the way I do things and expecting
Speaker 16: others to do with them. Like, maybe it's not perfectionism.
Speaker 1: Oh, expecting others to reach your level?
Speaker 16: Yeah, yes, my level may not even be that high,
Speaker 16: you know.
Speaker 1: Well, I don't know. But whatever level it is, you
Speaker 1: are setting people up to disappoint you. Yes, there's no
Speaker 1: question about it. ALRIGHTY one eight Praguer seven seven six
Speaker 1: is the number. And in Minnesota, in Arden Hills, it's Steve. Hello,
Speaker 1: Steve Dennis Prager High.
Speaker 17: Hi, Dennis Kai. I am getting ready to send my
Speaker 17: son to high school here next year, and I'm beginning
Speaker 17: to work with a school in terms of just trying
Speaker 17: to ask them some questions. And here's my question for you.
Speaker 17: Where there's no expressed prohibition against something, does that imply permission?
Speaker 1: Then yes, and imply and implies permission generally, But it
Speaker 1: doesn't imply that it is proper.
Speaker 17: Okay, And here's my here's my real life example.
Speaker 1: Well, also by permission? Forgive me by permission? Do you
Speaker 1: mean is it legal? If it's something is not illegal? Okay? Well,
Speaker 1: what is what is permis? Well, well, let's you have an example.
Speaker 1: Give it because I have an example.
Speaker 4: Go ahead, here's my example.
Speaker 17: I'm just gonna check with the school in terms of
Speaker 17: their attitudes towards We know that the school has a
Speaker 17: prohibition against drinking. We know a school has a prohibition
Speaker 17: against drug use, But schools do not have prohibitions against
Speaker 17: sexual exploration. Trying to figure out kids sexual identities, and
Speaker 17: yet it's at least a destructive of force as the
Speaker 17: use of alcohol or the use of cigarettes.
Speaker 1: Wait a minute, schools prohibit alcohol at home.
Speaker 17: No, no, no, no, amongst their students.
Speaker 1: Oh icee. But they don't have you mean amongst their
Speaker 1: students at the school.
Speaker 17: Yeah, they would say, don't smoke, oh icee.
Speaker 1: But they don't have. But they don't have don't have
Speaker 1: sex at school, don't Jenial? Well, in general, in general,
Speaker 1: they can't because because they can't control what happens at home.
Speaker 1: It's an interesting question.
Speaker 2: This episode of Timeless Wisdom will continue right after this.
Speaker 2: Now back to more of Dennis Prager's Timeless Wisdom.
Speaker 1: And let's let's go to Santa Monica, California, k r
Speaker 1: LA eight seventy. Raphael, Raphael, this is Dennis Prager.
Speaker 8: Hi, Hi, Dennis, Hi. I think this is a little frivolous.
Speaker 1: Compared to your a wad frivolous questions.
Speaker 8: And I went to you first, Well here you got
Speaker 8: it then, So I know you're against laugh tracks.
Speaker 1: Like, very very opposed.
Speaker 8: Okay, So here's what changed my mind about it may
Speaker 8: have no effect.
Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 8: So years ago I saw this documentary of this I
Speaker 8: Love Lucy episode in which you know, it's this long,
Speaker 8: drawn out, absurd situation. She's got all these eggs in
Speaker 8: her shirt and they smash, and the audience laughs and
Speaker 8: laughs and laughs. And at that time, anyway, it was
Speaker 8: the longest recorded laugh track laugh on TV. It was
Speaker 8: a minute or whatever.
Speaker 1: It was a laugh track. It wasn't an actual audience.
Speaker 8: No, it was a live audience. Sorry.
Speaker 1: Also, that's not a laugh.
Speaker 8: Yeah. Well, oh, I see what you're saying. Well, I
Speaker 8: thought you were against live audiences.
Speaker 1: Oh, why would I be. I love live audiences. Now,
Speaker 1: it's not an issue. It's like a play.
Speaker 8: Oh so you're against the pre recording.
Speaker 1: Yes, that's a lie. Oh, I see, I'm against lies.
Speaker 1: That's all. It's fake. It's it's to force me to
Speaker 1: laugh or to announce on a sitcom. You have just
Speaker 1: heard a joke.
Speaker 8: I see. Okay, well, okay, yeah, I was only defending
Speaker 8: all right.
Speaker 1: Oh, I wish they were all in front of live audiences.
Speaker 1: That's fine with me.
Speaker 8: Okay. Then, And your screener, by the way, is quite funny.
Speaker 8: She was she wanted to know if I was supporting
Speaker 8: laugh tracks for this show.
Speaker 1: Actually, that's a funny question, Janine. That is very funny
Speaker 1: that you know what, that we're going to get them.
Speaker 1: That's a great idea. That's great. So anyway, now I've
Speaker 1: calmed you.
Speaker 8: Uh yeah, apparently there's no difference of opinions.
Speaker 1: There you go. All right, thanks Raphael YouTube. Appreciate your
Speaker 1: call very much. That's funny. Yeah. Why would I be
Speaker 1: against a live audience? Absolutely not, that is true. Laughed.
Speaker 1: Can you imagine laugh tracks? Or that makes me laugh?
Speaker 1: A laugh track? That's wrong? Why not? After all? I
Speaker 1: am periodically funny? My god, just I remember November eleventh.
Speaker 1: It's not there you go. That's right, so absurd. I
Speaker 1: think it's great. Now it shows that they work. You see,
Speaker 1: this is the silliest moment in the history of my radio.
Speaker 1: Shut up, well it works, you see. Yawning makes you yawn,
Speaker 1: Laughing makes you laugh, Crying makes you cry, Scratching makes
Speaker 1: you scratch, or scratching makes you itch and then scratch.
Speaker 1: That isn't What else is contagious? By the way, that's
Speaker 1: an interesting question. Yawns, laughter, smiles, crying, scratching, anything else
Speaker 1: that comes to mind. All right, let's go to Ben
Speaker 1: in Fort Myers, Florida on w c NZ. Hey Ben
Speaker 1: Dennis Prager.
Speaker 8: Good, good, You've spoken.
Speaker 18: A lot about the hard why differences between males and female.
Speaker 1: I sure have.
Speaker 18: I had an experience with my only daughter. I have
Speaker 18: three children with one daughter, the youngest she's seven years old,
Speaker 18: and she came to me on a Friday recently and said, Daddy,
Speaker 18: I want to talk to you why. She had a
Speaker 18: dentist appointment on Monday and she's scared. So I responded
Speaker 18: with a piece of advice. I said to her, rook
Speaker 18: we call her rookie. You've been to the dentist before,
Speaker 18: it never bothered you before. This visit won't be any different.
Speaker 18: And it's only Friday. Don't ruin your weekend worrying about Monday.
Speaker 1: If that worked, I'm a pumper Nickel. You're no pumper nickel,
Speaker 1: my friend, right exactly.
Speaker 18: She got dignant, of course, and she put her hands
Speaker 18: on her hips and she said to me, Daddy, that
Speaker 18: was a sentence. I came here for a talk.
Speaker 1: Oh God, daughters, Oh God, that is precious. That is perfect.
Speaker 1: See by I just want to make it clear that
Speaker 1: what you said would have been equally ineffective with a boy.
Speaker 1: That's how I knew it. But but it's uh. The
Speaker 1: way she reacted is utterly female. Your story is perfect. Yes,
Speaker 1: I'm surprised she didn't say, Dad, I don't want solutions,
Speaker 1: I want sympathy. But that's basically that's right. Basically that's
Speaker 1: what she is. Say Hi, hider, rookie for me. By
Speaker 1: the way, it's very funny. I thought he said that
Speaker 1: she had a Dennis appointment. I'll never forget. In fact,
Speaker 1: a little girl once said asked me when I was
Speaker 1: the director of a camp, said what's your name? I
Speaker 1: said Dennis, and she said, oh, look at my molars.
Speaker 1: And I thought what until I realized a lot of
Speaker 1: people say Dennis for dentists.
Speaker 2: Tomorrow on timeless wisdom with Dennis Prager.
Speaker 1: I have great admiration for my parents' generation absolutely fought
Speaker 1: World War two, the Korean War, and much of the
Speaker 1: Cold War, and the sacrifices made at home, through the
Speaker 1: families that stayed back and then, and the numbers of
Speaker 1: Americans who died abroad and and just just went under
Speaker 1: either a draft or a volunteer to go and fight
Speaker 1: either the Japanese fascists or the Nazis. Is it is,
Speaker 1: it's there was a lot of greatness in that generation. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: I don't I don't say it's the greatest generation, is
Speaker 1: greater than the generation of George Washington and the founders
Speaker 1: of the country. That's that's an odd statement. But it
Speaker 1: certainly was a distinguished generation, and distinguished in particular by
Speaker 1: its patriotism. How did that generation produce the babyl generation
Speaker 1: characterized by so much narcissism, so much antipathy to America
Speaker 1: and its institutions, so much anger at the religion of
Speaker 1: their parents. Pretty much whatever most of those parents stood for,
Speaker 1: the kids overthrew.
Speaker 2: Join us tomorrow to hear more on Timeless Wisdom with
Speaker 2: Dennis Prager. Visit denispragger dot com for thousands of hours
Speaker 2: of Dennis's lectures, courses in classic radio programs, and to
Speaker 2: purchase Dennis Prager's Rational Bibles.