[00:00] Speaker 1: (instrumental music plays) Good evening, everybody out there in internet radio land. This is the Reverend Blake Ruby. I hope you're enjoying your Saturday. I'm still enjoying mine. I got up early this morning at 7:00 and went to a speech contest, a Toastmasters speech contest. I've been a Toastmaster for many years, I'm a member of four clubs here in San Antonio. And for this contest, I was the chief judge, which means I had to coordinate a lot of things, I had to find the judges. There was five of them, and I had a tie-breaking judge. I've never been a chief judge before, and this is what they call a High Performance Leadership Project. And it's for me to get my level five of my persuasive influence pathway. There are all these different pathways, they call them. All different subjects that will help an aspiring public speaker to grow and develop in their communication skills and their leadership skills. So I've got to give one more speech.

[01:52] Speaker 1: I gave, uh, the first speech, got to give the second speech, kind of, like an after-action report, and then I'll have my level five. Anyway, the speech contest went well. I got there, I had to do my briefing for the judges and also the timers and the ballot counters. And then I had to tell the contest master that everyone had been briefed. I had to say that three times, stand up and say, "Madam Contest Master, yes and yes," to her questions, two questions. And it was an interesting contest. There were two contestants from one of my clubs and they were both disqualified based on time, going over their time limit. And that's too bad, and although the one that went over... In the speech contest, the international speech contest, a five to seven-minute speech, he was 7 minutes 35 seconds. So 5 seconds over but still disqualified because anything past 7:30, if it even had been 7:31, he still would have been disqualified.

[03:01] Speaker 1: And the other individual, she was in the evaluation contest, and how that works is, they have a guest speaker, a test speaker, it's a five to seven-minute speech, and it was a well-known person within the district. And she was, she's just a, a wonderful speaker, and she gave a pretty interesting speech. And so after her speech, then the, the two contestants were writing down notes, and they went outside the room and had five minutes to write up their evaluations, and then they came in one by one. Just two of them. But the first one, who is in my club, Marissa, she w- she went well over her time. There might have been some issue with the timing light. I just found out before my radio show that apparently they might have been malfunctioning. But nevertheless, the judges showed, chose the other guy instead. And so I'm glad to have gotten that out of the way. Altogether, uh, I got there at 8:00 and we got out of there about 11:30, so about three and a half hours.

[04:11] Speaker 1: The contest started at 9:00. And it's a relief to get that over and done with. My wife accompanied me, and the guy that won, he gave a good speech. Some of these people, you know, they've been around. The one, the man who won has been a Toastmaster since 1973. That's when I first came into the United States, because I'm a, a former Canadian citizen, and I got a green card along with my parents, and I'd been living in Guadalajara, Mexico from 1971 to '73. I graduated from high school there, did my 11th and 12th grades. I'd been living in Ottawa, Canada before we moved to Guadalajara. We left there on a cold winter night in January of 1971, and we drove all the way down to the Canadian-American border and then south, south, all the way through the United States, until we reached the American-Mexican border, and then 600 miles south of there to the beautiful city of Guadalajara, which is 5200 feet above sea level.

[05:29] Speaker 1: And when we got there, they couldn't accept me into the 11th grade of the American high school because the curriculum was different. So I had to sit out the remainder of that year, and then I started again my 11th grade in the fall, and then did my senior year. (clears throat) Excuse me, I'm gonna take a drink. (pause) And then did my senior year, and wow, that was an amazing year. My dad bought me a car here in San Antonio in 1972. It was a Chevrolet Vega GT, 2300 CCs, red. Very beautiful little car, you know. Four-speed stick shift, pretty fast, you know. I mean, top speed, and I took it up to the top speed quite a few times, thanking God that I'm still alive. And a year later, not surprisingly because I'd been putting in cheap Mexican oil, we limped up to the border, 600 miles on close to three cylinders instead of the four, and fortunately, it was still under the warranty.

[06:47] Speaker 1: And so, I had to beg my mother to buy me another car, which was an additional $800 after the credit they gave us for the, the Vega. It was a '71 Mach 1, yellow with black stripes, very nice car. Three-speed stick shift. That was weird because it had a 302 Windsor engine and usually, Mach 1s come with 351 Clevelands. But it still was a really beautiful car. The engine sounded like a jet engine. I had an eight-track in there and I, I had some old eight tracks. Um, Buddy Miles, The Moody Blues' Days of Future Passed, Rare Earth, Get Ready, and I bought a few more afterwards, uh, Time, um, Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, with the song Time, and ... Anyway. So I came up after graduating from high school to San Diego in 1973, in the summer. I got a job working as a linen boy at the Master Host Inn in Hotel Circle, San Diego. And I worked the summer, made some money, and then when college started, I, I did two years at a junior college called Mesa College.

[08:11] Speaker 1: And after the summer, when I began college, I got a part-time job as a bellman at the Le Baron Hotel, which later went out of business. But for two years, I was a bellman there, usually just working part-time on the weekends, Friday nights, Saturday nights, Sunday nights, 3:00 to 11:00. That was my regular shift. But I made some money, I went to the junior college, and I met a girl by the name of Pat, Pat Tillerson, Patricia Tillerson. Beautiful tall blonde woman, and we had a relationship for almost a couple of years. Anyway, so later on down the road, I would get my US citizenship, you know, went about it the right way. My dad helped me, and we, I flew from Korea. I was in Korea at the time with the army and I extended for a year. They gave me a deal, 30 days free leave if I extended one more year, which I did. Plus, I was working on my second degree black belt in taekwondo, and that was pretty amazing.

[09:22] Speaker 1: So I don't know how close, I can't remember how close I was to getting it but I just got my black belt, first degree, in a place called Kukkiwon in Seoul, Korea. And, uh, so that was 1987 to 1988. When I came back with those 30 days of free leave, my dad had contacted his congressman and arranged for me to get my citizenship there in Tampa. However, it didn't work out, so fortunately, we were able to coordinate me flying back to Korea, going through Lake Charles, Louisiana, and getting my citizenship there. I raised my right hand and I was sworn in as a US citizen. So it took a long time, 1988, 15 years for me to get my citizenship. And now I don't know if I'm a dual citizen. I never really found out, and I guess it all it takes for me to Google it. Not really interested, I don't think I'm gonna go back to Canada, although the thought has come across my mind a few times. My wife has expressed interest in it because one, they have universal healthcare. Two, marijuana is legal.

[10:37] Speaker 1: My wife, she likes to have a drink every once in a while, and I guess she might smoke. I don't agree with smoking. I mean, I, I did it myself though before, smoking cigarettes, and I don't think inhaling lungs- inhaling smoke into your lungs is a good idea. My father and my mother were smokers all their lives, and you've seen pictures of what it's like to smoke, right? It makes the lungs black, and all that nicotine and tar, you know, not a good thing for a human body to inhale tobacco smoke, which it's harsh, you know. Anyway, mom and dad were smokers and they used to drink too, and thanks to God, the creator of the universe, the Mother and Father God of our solar system, co-creator Gods in the Most Highest, which is what we're aspiring to be also, my friend. Thanks to them that they lived to their ripe old age, both 81 years old. Dad died first, and then mom 10 days later. She said that he was calling her. Imagine that. 10 days later.

[11:55] Speaker 1: But I was glad that they, um, I mean, they had pushed it right to the very limit as far as their surviving, you know. Uh, they were on their last legs, but they-They were World War II babies. Had been... Mom had been through the bombing of London, Dad had been in Normandy and Dun-Dunkirk. I'm gonna take a drink. So, I entered the States in 1973. Altogether, I've been paying, have been paying into Social Security... I just retired 31 December of this, of last year, 2025. And so that's '73 to '25, that's 52 years, right, being in Social Security. I get a pretty good Social Security check without telling you what it is right now. Well, I'll tell you. It's around 2,500. And now, when I get my retirement paycheck, when that is finalized, then I can go down there and say, "I'm not making that much money now. I need to... Uh, you can stop taking out the $500 plus dollars for Medicare each month." And then that way, I'll get some more. I'll get to a...

[13:09] Speaker 1: My wife has right now, what she's paying, which is about 140. I think it might have gone up 150 a month. So, my paycheck, once they finalize my retirement check with the army as a civilian, then my Social Security will increase. And, but unfortunately, there was... well, not really unfortunately, but I retired on 31 December and there were like 43,000 federal civilians that took that early out, that Mr. Trump and Mr. Musk offered. And now there's a backlog and it might be even until the summertime before I get my check. But the good news is they're paying me a partial payment, an interim payment, and now that's going to be coming once a month and that'll help. Anyway, back to 1973, that guy that won, he, uh, talks about chickens growing up. He was born in '45, 1945, right when World War II ended. And in 1949, he was four years old and he, he was growing up around chickens and I guess he, he made friends with, uh, a one-eyed chicken called One-Eyed Jack.

[14:24] Speaker 1: And he asked to take care of it and he got a little box for it, you know, and looked after it. And he never did eat, never did eat that chicken. And so, I forget the name of his speech, um, um, chickens in 1949 or something like that, but it was a good speech. Very well done. He, you know, being born in '45, so that's 55 plus 26, 81 years old. Did a good job, very clear mind, very strong guy for 81 years old. That's when my parents passed away, but they had pushed it to the limit. They had drank... Okay, a fly just landed on my ear. Don't talk about them. I l- I miss my parents. I love them very much and know that their spirits are in heaven and they look very beautiful. Usually, when we get to heaven, our spirits revert back to an age 30 mode, which... Like hey, go away fly. Landing in my ear. And, um, so that's the common age that we choose. Apparently, the spirit is configuring and it can change. If you want to look old, you can. If you want to look young... Go away fly. Let me...

[15:34] Speaker 1: Hold on just a minute. I don't know how to deal with this fly. I've got some cutter, insect repellent, so I'll just put a little bit on my ear. Looks like it's been landing. Now, yeah, just landed on my leg and I just gave him a blast of the spray. I, I don't like killing anything, even flies. I know they're wonderfully made, but I can't stand it. I don't like it when they're bothering me and landing on poop out there in the backyard, dog poop, and then they come inside here and then they land on other food, and they think that's all right, and come upstairs into the bathroom and... I'm sorry. I mean, I usually put out, I might spray him with this spray here or get some, like, fly strips, you know. Hope God doesn't mind. I'm sorry, God, I don't like to kill anything, but flies are a bother sometimes, or mosquitoes. Anybody else feel the same way? I'm gonna take a drink. So that guy, he won the speech contest and, and two of the contestants were disqualified.

[16:49] Speaker 1: Then we came, we went to a nice restaurant called Pappadeaux's. There's a chain of Pappadeaux's restaurants here in Texas, I do believe, and also in Louisiana. And they're mainly a seafood restaurant and Cajun cuisine. Very fancy, you know. You can always expect at least, for two people, $100 plus, whereas if I go to the Mexican restaurant just around the corner from where we live, I can get a nice meal for my wife and I for, like, 22 bucks, you know, with a military discount. But anyway, I, I'm a vegan, so I always get a baked potato with butter. Mostly vegan. You know, I have a little dairy. Butter is my weakness. I, I love a little bit of butter, a little piece of bread with butter or a baked potato with butter and chives. And I also had some squash, butternut squash and some sauteed spinach. My wife had sea bass. Of course, that's very expensive. That's like $50 right there. And she had some butternut squash and she had also some baked oysters at the beginning, either baked or...

[18:06] Speaker 1: Yeah, I think they were baked. And she'd never tried those before, but she said they were great. And so, I guess she's gonna be getting those from now on.Anyway, and I... We came home and we took, um, took a nap. And I got up, came down here to the back patio which is my little man cave, and I sang a few songs. (burps) Oops. Excuse me, I'm gonna take a drink. (gasps) That was a burp. (laughs) A backward burp. Sang a few songs, and I've learned something which could be of value to you. Now, I only just started trying it but I have tried it before and I've heard that other famous singers have done it. And I think the logic is good, and this could help you. Pass it along if you feel like you want to. Whenever you sing, if you wanna sing by yourself or if you wanna practice public speaking, like I plan on doing, do it with no shoes on. The rationale is this, my friends. We're not meant as human beings to have a slab of rubber underneath our feet when we walk.

[19:20] Speaker 1: The mechanics, the biomechanics of the human gait do not include having a piece of or a slab of rubber under your feet. No doubt you can get some very good shoes. However, there is nothing like walking around barefoot as far as what's good for you. And I've noticed this, and I wish I'd done this before. It seems like I can do everything better. I can sing better, I can gesture better, because I'm not bouncing around from side to side on rubber. You know what I mean? So, my recommendation would be, not only for me to keep this up, but for you if you want to. If you want to sing or if you want to practice singing in your house, any public speaking, just take your shoes off and walk around. You might already do that. Maybe you might know things that I don't know. Some people are smarter than me in areas, you know. I don't claim to have perfect knowledge. I'm not God, I don't know everything.

[20:26] Speaker 1: And I've noticed that some people are very smart, you know, and have been around and they learn things. And they listen to their guides and their angels, and they're living good lives. You know, everybody's got at least one spirit guide and one angel that is in close proximity, close proximity to you all the time. I'm gonna take a drink. (swallows) Yeah. That's what I was doing today. I was telling Thomas... (clears throat) Need to take another drink. Right at the beginning before we started the radio show, that I would talk about my day. (gasps) And also, I've talked about it before, I would like to say something again. I donated one of my kidneys to my son back in 1995. I'm always concerned about my kidney. I, I do sometimes push myself when I go out and I run a little bit, not much. I want to exercise my heart. That's my goal, is to exercise my heart and my lungs to ensure my longevity. I'm almost 72 years old, so...

[21:40] Speaker 1: According to my research, the best all-around exercise overall is sprinting because it exercises all the muscles of the body plus it brings the heartbeat up quickly. It's high-intensity training, and you don't have to do too much. I see people, they do a lot. They don't need to do as much as they do. You know, sometimes even one mile a day walking is good. Women and men that I've heard lived to be over 100 years old, one of the things that they have in common is they would walk like a mile each day. But I incorporate a little bit of sprinting in my walking, so for me it's like about maybe 90%, 80, 90% walking and 10, 20% sprinting. Lately, I've been going to a dirt track which I've done before, and I can fly doing like a 50 meters. I like the 50-meter sprint, myself. I've tried 20, I've tried 40. You know, like some of the, uh, football players do the 40-meter sprint, 60.

[22:47] Speaker 1: Uh, track and field, um, professionals do the 60-meter sprint or the 100-meter sprint, you know, at the World Championships and the Olympics. But personally, I like the 50 'cause that's really when you reach top speed. You can't really go any faster after 50 or 60 meters, and I breathe through my nose. And on dirt I've got this straightaway that I go to. It's right alongside this book, a babbling book, and it smells good, you know. Trees are starting to bud, to sprout their new leaves, and it's a nice time of the year. You know, the smells are wonderful. And I go on, I just have a couple of 50-meter sprints. You know, I'll walk, walk slowly in between and, and altogether I do about a mile each day. I took today off. Sometimes I'll take a day or two off weekly. And so like I mentioned my kidney, I've got one kidney left, and that's been now 31 years since I donated that kidney which is my right kidney. I have a huge scar on my right-hand side in my abdominal area.

[23:57] Speaker 1: It's nine inches long. First of all, before I go on any further, my friends, I would encourage you to, anyone, to donate a kidney to a family member or even a perfect stranger. It's a gift of life, my friends. There is no greater gift than a kidney. And on that note, it behooves you and everyone to take good care of yourselves.You know, diabetes is kind of like an epidemic and all of it can be traced back to eating foods that are too sweet. Now, I don't want to judge you and I apologize if I offended anyone, but the fact is, diabetes is usually caused by excessive sugar intake. Am I right? I think so. It might be genes, a little bit of genes, perhaps alcohol too. But I would encourage anyone to donate a kidney. However, with my situation, since I donated the kidney in 1995, surgeries were a lot more invasive back then. They sliced me open nine inches to take that kidney out, take my right kidney out.

[25:14] Speaker 1: And now that scar on my right abdominal area is like a little inner tube compared to my other side. It took years for the nerves in that area, the lower right abdominal area to grow back. Years. They slowly did grow back, but still I have that little inner tube and that is the source of a lot of my disabilities, that painful scar, to include PTSD, anxiety, sleep apnea. Maybe not entirely, but also costochondritis on the other side, um, in my left lower abdominal area. And right now I'm trying to get 30% disability from the VA for the loss of a kidney. Their rationale for denying the claim was that it was elective surgery, which means that I chose to do it. However, I had to get it approved all the way up my chain of command, my company's first sergeant, commander. I can't remember if I had to have the battalion commander approve it, and then all the way up to the Surgeon General of the Army, the highest level. So, if I had to have it approved, was it really elective?

[26:38] Speaker 1: But more than that, my son at the time was 10 months old and he was born with underdeveloped kidneys because during his fetal development, there'd been a blockage in his ureter which caused the urine to back up into his kidneys and stunt their growth. So, right after he was born, they had to do what they call a colostomy, which is open the skin behind the kidneys, in the back to allow the urine to drain out into the diaper. And he was that way for three months, and we were praying, "Grow kidneys, grow." But unfortunately, they didn't and so at age three months, he had his kidneys removed and was put on peritoneal dialysis. And that was kind of tough for a three-month-old baby, but my son was a real trooper and he is just a tough young survivor, you know, and he has made it all these years. And they asked me if I wanted to donate one of my kidneys and I said, "Of course." I had to go through the testing, the tissue compatibility and I was proven to be a match.

[27:51] Speaker 1: And of course, my blood type was O positive, so it's a universal donor and that was good. My wife couldn't at the time, my ex-wife, she was borderline diabetic and her father died of kidney disease at age 40. So, really, perhaps that's why Bryce had that disability to begin with. But anyway, it is what it is. Was what it was. I'm going to take a drink. (swallows) And for babies to go through a transplant, they have to have a minimum of 10 months of age and 18 pounds in weight. The thing about Bryce, we would hook him up to the machine at nighttime, it would last about eight hours. And if you're not familiar with peritoneal dialysis, you're hooked up to a machine, you have a tube in your abdominal area which is plugged off during the daytime and taped up. And then at nighttime, you go through different cycles where the machine pumps fluid into the abdominal area and it sits there for a while, being timed, and then it's pumped back out into a tray.

[29:14] Speaker 1: And that is kind of like urine, that fluid, they have different kinds of fluid, different levels. That draws the impurities from the blood and the individual then goes through a whole bunch of cycles, like about eight cycles a night, maybe about one every hour. And with Bryce, he would drink his formula during the day but he would throw up a lot because, uh, it's not the same as having real kidneys. You know what I mean? And so, he would throw up at nighttime too, and we would be woken up at all hours of the night. The dialysis machine would go off, the alarm would sound off because he had crimped the tube by rolling over, you know, bent the tube. Or we found out after a couple of months that since he wasn't able to keep down formula on a regular basis, we had to have it pumped through his nose by a machine called, uh, an eng- um, a formula, high-calorie formula machine through a tube called an NG tube. And then during the night sometimes, he'd pull it out....

[30:33] Speaker 1: and because it hurt, you know. And then we'd have to put it back in, and poor fellow had to endure that pain and, but then he would, he would throw up in the bed and, and also the, when they pulled the, the, those tube out, that tube would still be pumping formula and so they'd have to change his sheets and the blankets and his clothes and we had to do that sometimes multiple times during the night. And that went on for seven months until he was 10 months old and he reached the weight of 18 pounds exactly, the minimum age. And so we went to the Children's Hospital in Stanford University and you know who my doctor was? He was the brother of, oh who was that guy, um, he was in Platoon, the sergeant in Platoon, Elias, uh, I forget his name. Willem Dafoe, he was Willem Dafoe's brother. So it was really interesting to meet him. He did the surgery and so the next day they got me up walking. They always get you walking right away. Oh man, I don't feel like moving, you know.

[31:44] Speaker 1: Major surgery, they get you up walking because it's good for you and I went down and I saw Bryce and he was hooked up to all these machines and he, like I said, he was a trooper, you know. He, he had that fight in him, "I'm gonna survive. I'm gonna get through this." You know. He was shaking and the pain, you know, it was really sad. But going back to about the elective procedure issue and I have a lawyer helping me thank God. The definition of elective surgery is something that can be delayed, it's not urgent. I needed to do that to save my son's life because the kidney transplant list back then was five years, like it is now, more or less, five years. My son could not have survived for fiveyears. My 10-month-old baby could not have survived for another four years or so on that dialysis machine throwing up all the time. He just couldn't have. So it was an emergency surgery. Plus when you're in the army or you're in the military, you basically belong to the military.

[33:04] Speaker 1: Even your life belongs to the military. If they want to send you off to combat and you get killed like Vietnam or Desert Storm, you know, any war, you belong to the government. Your whole body does, you know. That's the definition of a veteran. Someone who's willing to sacrifice their lives or everything up until and including their life. That's the definition of a veteran. I didn't go into any combat myself. The closest I was was in Turkey when I was there from '93 to '94. That's when my son was born on his, on May the 26th 1994. He was a little bit premature, 37 weeks, but he, um, I came back and he was there at the Children's Hospital in San Francisco. I flew into Travis Air Force Base. My ex-wife picked me up and it was a beautiful thing to see my son when I walked into that hospital- hospital room and see him across the room on that bed. That was something I'll never forget. I can still see it in my eyes, uh, my mind's eye. I'm gonna take a drink.

[34:24] Speaker 1: So the thing about the VA, with all due respect to the VA, some of these officers, they're using the same verbiage that they used in the previous denials like it didn't even happen when I was in service. That the kidney transplant didn't happen. It was there in my records. I was in the Army from 1982 to 2004, 1995 is when we had the surgery. And they've said it multiple times that it didn't even happen when I was in service. So, you know, it's aggravating, it's frustrating and fortunately my lawyer has my back and, and now we're just appealing, you know. It's a long drawn out process. I know the VA has to pay out a lot of money to disabled veterans and I'm very grateful from the money, for the money I get from the VA as I know other people are too. It's a godsend and may God bless America my friends. Only in America they take care of their people. God please continue to bless, Creator, please continue to bless America. There's so many wonderful, beautiful people in the United States.

[35:41] Speaker 1: I've seen them. Thousands of people I've seen over the years, my friends. All good, decent, generous, family-oriented, loving people. Truly. Like nowhere else. I mean there's good people all around the world, but there's nothing like the United States of America, my friends. If there's a disaster anywhere in the world, a natural disaster, who's the first country that's there helping out, providing relief, food, supplies, water? Always the United States. Earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis, all over the world there's so many good people in the United States and Creator, please note that. Help us to survive as a world. I know we're...... in a very precarious situation. I heard early today that the supreme leader of Iran was killed and I don't agree with killing anybody. I can understand both sides of the coin, you know. They say things that perhaps they shouldn't have said, like, "Death to America," or, "Death to Israel," but have you ever seen the movie The Revenant?

[37:05] Speaker 1: L-e-n-a-r Dicaprio's character meets up with this Indian and he gives him some food and they talk and they share some time together. And he says to the Indian that, "My son was killed by this man." And the Indian said, "Yeah, my family was killed by an Indian tribe." I forget who he said, the Siouxs. But then he wa- he thinks about it for a second, then he walks away and says while he's walking away, "However, revenge is in the hands of the Creator." And that's true, my friends. There is no justification to killing, for killing anyone, even though we dis- if we disagree. I mean, would we do that with President Xi or Mr. Putin? No, we shouldn't. There is no justification for killing anybody. And how many other people were killed in that explosion, you know? You can try to justify them. You can say anything you want to say, but I wouldn't want that on my conscience, you know. There'll be a judgment day, guaranteed.

[38:08] Speaker 1: You will have a judgment day and everything that you have thought and said will be examined, and you will have to be held accountable for everything that you said and did and even thought. There's no justification for killing anybody. We're all brothers and sisters in spirit. If you kill somebody, you're just killing a part of yourself. Plus, karmic debt is a reality, my friends. If you kill somebody, you're gonna have to probably go back to a category one planet, a planet of war and killing somewhere else in the universe, maybe this one even, and pay back that karmic debt. It's ... Especially if you're responsible, truly responsible for doing that. I, I don't like saying that because I love Mr. Trump and I respect him very much. And I don't know if it was Pete Egsay that was talking into his ear about doing this, you know, and we invaded Venezuela. You know that Venezuelan army fort where they had that invasion? I worked there in 2001 to 2004. Fuerte Tiuna.

[39:15] Speaker 1: I was in the military group there along with, oh, about 20 US and foreign national, Venezuelan foreign nationals. I remember a man there, he was a Venezuelan foreign national and he had an English accent, very unusual kind of thing for someone who speaks a native language of Spanish to have an English accent when they speak English. And his name was Simon, I remember him. Very beautiful man. God bless his soul, please. I think I've said that before. Very friendly. And he had just taken up scuba diving, and he was with his instructor and they were at some diving location and he'd been a scuba diver for a few months, you know, and was getting better at it. And apparently what happened was a fisherman went up to them when they were getting ready to get out of the water and said, "Would you please help me? I had a motor on my boat and the motor sank. It fell off the boat and sank down to the ocean bottom," you know. And, of course those fishermen are not ...

[40:37] Speaker 1: They don't make a lot of money, in other words. And, and, uh, to save their motor, you know, and maybe, you know, get the water out of it and use it again was very important for them. So, he pleaded to Simon and the instructor, and it was about 70 meters down, which is about 200 feet plus. And, uh, they were already pretty low on oxygen and ... Especially when you've been doing it ... Uh, they'd already dived for like maybe 20, 30 minutes and ... So they were being set up to, you know, into a bad situation and that's what happened. They, they ran out of oxygen and, and, um, they just imploded, you know. I guess the bodies were found later and they were black and, um, their lungs exploded. And my friend Simon, well, my coworker, he, he died. I went to his funeral and his girlfriend was so sad. Anyway. So back to, um, Bryce. He's doing well, my son. He got a second kidney. The one I gave him lasted him 19 years.

[41:48] Speaker 1: He got his second one from his best friend's mother in Ohio in 2014 at the University of Michigan. And that kidney has done him well. My prayer is that the Mother and Father God, and the Creator of the universe who are separate, would bless him and help him to keep that kidney as long as possible. It's, it's been heard of before that there's one individual, I think he's in his 80s, he got a kidney back in his 60s. He's had it for over 50 years, in other words. I think that was um ... He might have passed away since then, but he had it for over 50 years, so it, it is possible. My son wrote a book and it's available in Amazon. It's called Finding Faith Through Dialysis by Bryce Ruby. Can I ask you please to-... buy that book. He talks about... And I helped him write it. I e- I edited it for him, helped him edit it. And it's an amazing story what my son went through. And he was on peritoneal dialysis again after he graduated from high school when he was, like, 19 years old.

[42:59] Speaker 1: And that was a- another very difficult time for him because peritoneal dialysis or hemodialysis, my friends, is not something that I would wish on anyone, not even my worst enemy. I don't have any enemies, but you know what I mean? It is terrible. It... And there's nothing like a real kidney that works, you know. Y- you, you can survive on one kidney and it really does behoove us to treat our kidneys well. If you don't know much about maintaining proper kidney health, just read a little bit about it. And the number one most important thing, my friends, and please don't forget this, and Bryce talks about it in his book, and that is make sure you drink no matter what. No matter how hard it is, no matter what you're going through, try to get your daily recommended amount of water, H2O. It is so important to flush your kidneys and help your body maintain optimal health. I'm telling you the truth.

[44:03] Speaker 1: Drinking water, your daily recommended amount of water not only can help prevent diabetes, but also cancer and heart disease and any other disease only if you drink water, your daily recommended amount of water. Drink as much water as you can. You can never drink too much. Don't believe what they tell you. Of course you don't want to go overboard, you know what I mean? So Bryce is now 31, he'll be 32 in May, and he's living in Burbank with the aunt in Home Alone 1 and 2, she's like a second mother to Bryce. She's his manager. She rents a bedroom to him. She rents the apartment and she's... It's a wonderful person. I've met her quite a few times, we're going again in May. And Terri is in her 80s. My prayer is that Creator, Mother and Father God, bless Terri, help her in any way she needs it for the good woman she is, looking after Bryce. And thank you for her help, for her love for Bryce. Thank you.

[45:15] Speaker 1: And by the way, when I say my prayers, just for those that didn't know about it, let me just clarify something. How am I doing on time? I've got a few minutes left. Remember, all the way across the universe from here, billions of years ago, the creator of the universe who is omnipotent and omniscient, who existed before the physical universe was created, when there's nothing but darkness and silence, and the creator who, who didn't have a beginning and doesn't have an end. It's hard to comprehend, but suffice it to say, the creator is a spirit and a beautiful spirit. It is a huge, huge energy field, kind of like the aurora borealis with all the colors of the rainbow with a, a mind inside that you can talk with telepathically if you want to. And then the creator decided to create the physical universe to kind of pro- ... to grow his/herself, because the creator, I believe, is both male and female. And the plan was to utilize the four forces of the universe. The force that created...

[46:39] Speaker 1: The first force that created the suns, the moons, and planets. The second force that created all the plant and animal life. The third force that created all the sentient life, all the beings that are out there, all the humanoid different variations of beings, different colored skins, different eyes, different sizes, shapes. And the fourth force, which is a little piece of the creator's light, because the creator is a being of pure light and we have that light in our souls, which is the brain of our spirit. You can take a drink. You have a spirit in your body that will pop out when you die. When I die, our spirits will pop out. This body is like a coat that we wear during this lifetime. It serves a purpose. It's an amazingly and wonderful creation, though don't e- ever abuse. We should never abuse our bodies. They're fearfully and wonderfully made, just like the Bible says. So the plan was to grow the universe, grow the light. Grow your light, my friends. Grow your light.

[47:41] Speaker 1: Develop yourself. Spiritually evolve. Increase the intensity of your soul's light. And so the universe began forming itself, one solar system after another, one galaxy after another. And then we, the sentient beings who have that spark of the creator's divine essence in us, we are ultimately, at some point in the future, going to assimilate everything that we've learned if we want to. Everything that we've experienced, all the love, all the knowledge, assimilate that into the ocean of the creator's spirit like a drop of water, thereby giving the creator the growth that he/she desires. Growth. Is there anything greater than growth, my friends? No, I think not. How am I doing on time? There's a few minutes left. So I'm looking after my one kidney and I'm se- I'll be 72 in August.And sometimes I can feel a little bit of pain, a little urges or little bits of pain. How is the best way to describe it? Sensations of pain. And I think, "Okay, what did I have to eat yesterday?

[49:04] Speaker 1: Maybe I gotta stay away from eating spicy stuff." I try to do that. It's hard, but, you know, I'm always looking for different foods. As I mentioned, I'm mostly vegan. 99% vegan. I'll have, uh, maybe food with a little bit of dairy, a little bit of egg. I was a vegetarian for several months, and then I became vegan because I thought, "Well, if I'm just gonna go for it, I might as well go for it, the whole thing, you know, and become vegan." And I haven't regretted it. And I think for me, and, uh, can I be honest with you? Constipation was always an issue with me before, but now being a vegan, I'm not as constipated, hardly ever as con- constipated like I was. And the reason is because I eat mostly vegetables and they're easy to digest, you know. My friends, I tell you everything about myself and I want you to get to know me and I don't wanna hold anything back, and I think we should all be like that. We should have no secrets.

[50:15] Speaker 1: Now, some things are better left unsaid, but one has to be intelligent with communicating with other people and, and just being down to earth though, and, and showing people the facts that they wanna know from A to Z, you know. Being a vegan has been beneficial for me. As far as the ethical side, I'm aware of that, but I don't judge people for eating everything. I used to eat everything until I was 44 years old, and then that's when I became a vegan and, and I don't regret it. But I don't want to judge you. I can't judge you because I, or anyone, because I used to eat everything. Plus, I know that you enjoy your food and that's the last thing I would want to do is take away your enjoyment, you know, with anything that I say or do. My wife eats everything. My son eats everything.

[51:11] Speaker 1: It's not easy to be a vegan, but I felt it was something I needed to do, not only because I donated one of my kidneys to my son, but also because, without going into all the details, I didn't always treat myself well. When I joined the army in 1982, of course, we used to run everywhere and so my health improved a whole lot. I would do exercise with my fellow soldiers, you know, push-ups, sit-ups, other exercises. Speaking of running, remember when we were children, we used to run everywhere and we were always happy? We used to say, "I'll race you to over there." And you see how children are? They're not grumpy or morose or bad tempered. They're always happy. Why? Because, in my opinion, they're always running everywhere. And when you run, you exercise your heart and your lungs. You get that blood flowing faster throughout your veins and you sleep better at night. Well, we got away from that. We had our parents say, "Don't run.

[52:18] Speaker 1: Walk." You know, I've heard parents say that to their children in the airports or other places, you know, and I'm thinking to myself, "It's okay, just be careful, you know. Don't bump into..." Even if you do bump into somebody, they won't mind too much, a child, seven-year-old child, 10-year-old child running down a hallway. If they bump into somebody, they'd be like, "That's okay. Just watch where you're going. That's not a big deal." I'm gonna take a drink. So here's a prayer. (clears throat) Excuse me. Creator of the Universe, we give you praise because you're omnipotent, omniscient, you're a being. We owe our existence to you. Thank you for the miracles of all creation. But you know what? We just want to enjoy the ride. We're gonna wake up tomorrow morning. It'll be a brand new day, a brand new start, and we won't have the fear, no fear in our minds, and it'll be great. But I know that heaven also will be wonderful.

[53:21] Speaker 1: Incomprehensibly beautiful there in heaven, my friends, and it will be so much fun. Please, take it from me. It's going to be great because we're getting back to where we were before. That's our home. Earth is not our home. But while we're here, let's learn and develop ourselves spiritually as much as possible. Creator, help us in any way we need to grow and evolve and develop ourselves spiritually. We need Your help with everything. Things go better with you, Creator, you are God. Now, we have a Mother and Father who are co-creator gods of the solar system, which we are aspiring to be through the process of reincarnation one life after another, until we reach that level of perfection where with our soulmates we can create our own spirit children and have our own patch of infinite space, to have our own planets in our own solar system. That's all, my friends. I wish you the best. I hope you have a great rest of your Saturday. I love you.

[54:14] Speaker 1: Take good care and remember to say your prayers and thank God for your life and the lives of other people. And if anything, just, if you're gonna say just one good thing about somebody, you know, in this world we're always saying bad things about people, that one good thing would be, "Hey, I recognize that you're alive." And that's all. Goodbye, everybody. Talk to you next week. Bye-bye. (instrumental music)