The Laughing Heart, May 31, 2026
The Laughing Heart with Errol Strider
Meeting the Moment:
Errol Strider on Human Connection, Complaint, Feelings, and the Art of Being Seen
Errol Strider Opens The Laughing Heart
In this episode of The Laughing Heart, host Errol Strider explains that his goal is to use art, metaphor, music, parable, and story to reveal the essence of the human condition. He says the program will move through both shadow and the possibility of the sublime, using several audio pieces he created in the past. The episode becomes a meditation on human encounter, perception, humor, complaint, emotional honesty, and the small but powerful ways people can truly meet one another.
Remembering Life in a San Francisco Apartment Building
Errol begins by recalling his early 1970s experience managing a 65-unit apartment building on Polk Street in San Francisco while he was still in his early twenties. He describes that experience as the beginning of his “real life education,” because the building brought him into contact with people from many backgrounds, personalities, and emotional worlds. He mentions residents such as Mary and Ralph, Eddie, Claude, Virginia, and Patrick, some of whom were difficult, unpredictable, or even dangerous. These memories establish the episode’s larger theme: ordinary human life is full of complexity, pain, comedy, conflict, and revelation.
“Impressions at a Deli” and the Beauty of Ordinary Encounters
The first featured piece is “Impressions at a Deli,” inspired by a night Errol spent observing people in a delicatessen on Bush and Polk Street. The piece turns a simple deli scene into a rich metaphorical universe of sandwiches, tables, voices, gestures, clothing, glances, and “diamond people” circulating like particles in a living system. Errol describes customers coupling and uncoupling through conversation, choice, appetite, laughter, and passing contact. The deli becomes a symbol of human interconnection, where every new person changes the room and every small exchange carries the possibility of meaning.
Seeing People Through a Metaphorical Lens
After the piece, Errol reflects on how a metaphorical perspective can reveal the spiritual or emotional significance inside everyday activity. He suggests that normal encounters, even casual ones in a restaurant or store, can become moments of realization if people are willing to perceive them deeply. He connects this to the work of Martin Buber, especially the idea from I and Thou that “all real living is meeting.” For Errol, people want to be met, understood, and acknowledged, not merely passed by.
The Practice of Asking Someone’s Name
Errol shares that, at age 82, he spends much of his time trying to genuinely meet people in ordinary settings. One simple practice he has developed is asking people their names. He describes meeting a cashier named Brian at Whole Foods and later being impressed when Brian remembered his name. Brian explained that he remembered Errol because Errol had taken the time to engage with him, unlike many customers who simply pass through without connection. Errol uses this story to show how even brief recognition can become meaningful.
“Will We Pass By?” and the Possibility of Contact
The second featured piece, “Will We Pass By?”, asks whether people will move past each other unnoticed, hidden by routine, fear, sameness, rejection, or indifference. The poem explores the missed possibilities that occur when people avoid eye contact, hesitate to reach out, or fail to recognize the human being nearby. It suggests that even strangers who come close to one another may carry an opportunity for shared ecstasy, tenderness, or understanding if they pause long enough to exchange something real.
The Power of the Pause
Errol then shifts into a reflection on the importance of pausing. He says that in comedy, as in life, the pause can be essential. Pausing allows a person to become centered and gives space for the unknown to appear in a fresh way. He encourages listeners to stop, pause, and allow the divine spark within them to reveal something new, whether that is a new perception of the world or a previously hidden aspect of themselves.
“The Buck Stops Here Complaint Department”
The episode then turns toward humor with “The Buck Stops Here Complaint Department.” This satirical piece imagines a complaint department where frustrated people can rant without being challenged, blamed, corrected, or made accountable. Errol exaggerates the desire to dump anger on someone who will simply nod, validate the complainer, and preserve the illusion that everyone else is foolish while the complainer is fully justified. The piece pokes fun at chronic complaining, righteous indignation, emotional dumping, and the human tendency to want relief without self-examination.
The Laughing Heart Website and Creative Work
Errol briefly invites listeners to visit TheLaughingHeart.org, where he says they can find audios, videos, essays, cartoons, and other creative work. He mentions a cartoon series called “If Words Could Speak,” in which individual words have personalities, complaints, and ambitions. One word dislikes the sentence it is in, while another wants to be written in all capital letters because it feels minimized in lowercase. This playful aside reinforces the episode’s central style: language itself becomes alive, comic, revealing, and spiritually suggestive.
“Feelings, the Language of Relationship”
The final featured piece is “Feelings, the Language of Relationship.” Errol introduces it as a way of understanding what feelings communicate underneath ordinary emotional expression. The piece names emotions such as fear, fondness, anger, delight, grief, gratitude, hatred, exuberance, despair, tenderness, frenzy, firmness, sadness, gladness, bitterness, and joy, showing each as a message about what a person needs, feels, or wishes to share. The message is that feelings are not merely reactions; they are forms of relational language that can help people understand one another more deeply.
Closing Invitation to Laugh, Reflect, and Connect
Errol closes by hoping the episode has been inspiring, revealing, and fun. He invites listeners to contact him by email, visit TheLaughingHeart.org, explore his YouTube channel Strider Entertainment, and find him on Substack. The episode ends as it began: with a commitment to probing what is essential and humorous in human life. Through poetry, satire, memory, and reflection, Errol invites listeners to notice people more carefully, pause more often, complain more consciously, and recognize feelings as invitations to relationship.
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The Laughing Heart--a podcast
Humor, story, and spoken word for insight, inspiration, and connection
Hosted by Errol Strider, poet, performer, and non-prophet.
Hello, this is Errol Strider with The Laughing Heart, and I'm glad to be here with you today.
There is so much to uncover, and that's our goal, at least that's my goal, to use art,
in this case, metaphor, music, parable stories, to reveal the essence of the human condition,
both from the deep shadow, and hopefully point the way to the exalted and the sublime.
For this program, I want to feature some audios that I put together from the past.
This first piece is called Impressions at Adele.
In the early 1970s, I had the unique experience of managing a apartment building in San Francisco
on Polk Street, 65-unit building, by the way.
When I took it over, I was in my early 20s, and I felt that my real life education began.
In the 65 units that I had to deal with, there were, as you might imagine, a variety of people
from different backgrounds, ethnicities, religions, etc.
All the way from Mary and Ralph, who got drunk down the hall to Eddie, who was always complaining
about his place was never warm enough.
Of course, when we went up there to take a look at it, we noticed that he had his window open all the time.
Well, there you have it.
Then there was Claude.
Claude was a young black man who was really angry, and he took it out on me, not to mention
that he took us to wipe it, me, at one point.
And then there was Virginia and Patrick.
Virginia was a social worker, and she made the deep mistake of getting involved with one of her clients.
Patrick.
Patrick was, well, we might call him borderline.
I'm not sure which side of the border he was on, but at one point, he took a knife to me,
and actually kind of sliced me up.
That was an interesting experience.
One night, I went down to the Delacatessen on Bush and Polk Street, and as I sat there watching people,
I began to get these impressions, and it ended up in this piece called Impressions at a Dolly.
How much for one of those?
And those?
A nudge.
55 cents?
What is it?
Raincoat, grey scarf.
She is old on her way home, a little treat on the way.
An emerald.
That cake with mocha frosting.
Oh, I'll take that.
What else, please?
Two sit in one corner, earnest over tea.
Coffee?
Earnest bundles people grouped, sipping one another.
Each sends a little statement.
It hovers.
And then, as a feather, sifts into receptive sipper.
Tight bundles that coil come undone, who share points of common ground.
Synapse, breaking up, recoupling with new reciprocal thoughts.
Red sweater, pink skirt, ruby, corn beef on rye, and long white pants standing at cash
register.
18 tables, seven people, and laughter from one end.
Lips, eye, cabbage, bores, soup, and dilate.
Then the pairing starts some more.
Wonderful exchanges.
A new thought for me.
Thank you.
What's in that one?
Whipped cream and chocolate.
Sensation.
A diamond walked in on crutches.
Refined four legs.
Laughing.
In and out together as ideas recirculate throughout the room.
Each is affected by a new entry.
The world changes.
So many tastes.
Wonderful little children inside each person playing.
Much like an atom's nucleus condensed, waiting to explode with goodness.
And the gentle sounds of searching together.
In and out.
Then stranded momentarily, waiting to come home again.
To couple.
Undermate and the dance continues.
A new person synaps.
An added dimension.
And systems spiral onward.
Months of all soup please.
And a Coke.
A Coke.
93 cents.
Please.
In seven cents change.
For a coat, a white noobraw waits near entry way for mate sent for two coffees.
And they couple across brisket stained wood with mayonnaise.
Slim and green.
Tall.
Regal.
An emerald who reads Kurt Vonnegut.
In liverwurst.
Ooh, but so cool.
She did not couple.
But what a cute behind.
Chop liver with split pea.
And jeans.
Jeans everywhere for those who know no costumes.
And hot steamy coffee rises as couples congregate.
Beautiful coupling goes on.
Full systems.
One and one are two.
And their children.
Two squared.
The long counter of decisions.
This.
Or that.
What are those?
My tastes change tonight after fog lifts.
Step up.
Receive.
Pass out of line.
In one corner multiple figures and a dark shading of business creeping into the otherwise
social surroundings.
One man coffees over figures.
New people.
Coat and boots.
At one.
No, too.
Oh, how infinite.
A smile surrounds.
Expression, sincere and a warm Friday beard.
An Napoleon.
Maraschino people to go please.
One black collar nudges forty gray hairs.
But he is alone with seedless rye.
Looking over shoulder for news, served on.
Trays with ketchup.
Two bagels and an knapsack.
Please.
And red lights bump onward as diamond people continue to glisten.
And now an aerial shot.
Little two-legged gems and their first exploration of the universe.
Their universe.
Their home with mostly unseen rooms.
But awareness expands though slowly.
People gems finding their minds.
Their beings tied to earth by gnawing cravings of mots of balls, stomachs and bell bottom
sex.
All searching to find out about the me within.
Hot corn beef, extra lean.
Kosher salami.
Attempted interest in a life explanation unasked for with dill pickle on the side.
Two more.
Very distinct.
Sweater, leather jacket.
And the flow continues as fingers point.
That one, please.
No, no, no, no.
That one.
Many fingers pointing.
Many places.
That one.
This one.
That one.
Voices point every which way to their preferences.
And then all hands back in pockets.
And here comes a known Jerome.
As left pretty girl fingers her hair amethyst.
Thank you pretty girl.
Thank you for being as pretty as everyone else.
But special.
Fingers in hair, yours, mine.
Together.
And the worker's servers exclaim like a chorus.
Order please.
What did you have?
Please.
Order.
You.
Have.
So much to couple with.
And two women sit not far off.
One young one not so.
Serving one another.
I catch a glimpse of real worth.
They explore stirring up old blockages which evaporate as coffee grows cold.
Refill.
Refill.
Refill.
Refill.
Me please.
Serve me hot and steamy.
Steamy hot joy diamonds.
So much concentrated.
And electrons escape from one person to another.
They run around each other's circuits back and forth.
And the coupling goes on.
Oh joy.
Hair lifted to outside of coat where it belongs.
Swept back hair that wants only fingers running through it.
Jerome scrutinizes.
Opens wallet slowly and hot tea is sitting next to me.
First movement is drawing to a close as my own coupling approaches.
A big tray with a little cup of tea.
Big frame for a morsel.
All now in one last electronic recoupling.
Interchange people being beautiful.
Dispan shuffle together.
Part.
Bump.
Turn.
Heads connect.
Work here.
Word there.
Dispan.
Synapse.
Coil.
Listen.
Treasures.
All gems.
Sensations of colliding.
18 tables sharing.
Bumping people.
Embers.
Interchange orbits.
Spinning.
And then resolution.
Jerome says to me, finding truth is a sport.
And so it is.
As 18 treasure chests nod in agreement.
The system works.
Beautifully.
Don't you think?
Well, there you have it.
Impressions at a deli.
I hope you were impressed as much as I was.
Just another way of perceiving people in humanity with the, well, I want to say advantage
of a metaphorical perspective.
Jax deposing some of the normal everyday things we do in the context of a spiritual perspective
at the very least valuing the little encounters we have and seeing them as a potential for realization,
revelation.
One of my teachers was Martin Boober who wrote the classic book I and Thou.
And one of the things he said that really impressed me in many ways changed much of
my life.
He said, all real living is meeting.
And what I discovered is that people want to be met to be understood, acknowledged.
My experience of this has evolved over my life.
And at this point at the age of 82, I'm finding that I spend a good deal of my time when I'm
out in the world just doing my best to meet people.
I've actually found some wonderful ways of initiating those meetings.
Simple as it may sound, I ask people their names.
And they seem to respond.
Very few people are reluctant to give them to me.
Some people ask even my name.
And on more than one occasion, I've had some of these people, like the young man I met
at Whole Foods the other day.
And I said, hi, Brian.
And he said, hi, Errol.
He's the cashier.
The fact that he remembered my name, I was impressed, speaking of impressions.
And I asked him, well, I wasn't that he remembered my name.
He gets so many customers coming through there.
And he said, because you took the time to engage with me.
Most people just go in and out and don't do that engagement.
There's a lot to be said for that to take advantage of the possibilities in the human
situation.
That being said, I'd like to share another piece with you, which really reinforces the
possibility and the potential in human engagement.
This piece is called, will we pass by?
Will you pass by and not notice me going on your routine way with the fragidity of indifference?
Will you pass unnoticed by me, camouflaged by sameness, covered over by too many rejections?
Will we pass by each other, acting as if we didn't exist, retarded by familiarity?
Will you pass by and glance at me, capturing my gaze with your twinkle or pull back into
bleary shutters?
Will you pass?
And I not see you there.
Afraid you'll misinterpret my hand, reaching out to touch.
Will we pass over the possibilities inherent in our coming so close, though it seems we're
strangers to each other?
Will you pass me by and not see me at all as you make towards your ultimate goal, even
with no one beside you?
Will you pass through the field of my vision and make no sounds for fear I might notice
you there?
Will you, we pass the moment of ecstasy, which we could share if we stopped long enough
to pass something to each other?
As it was pointed out in the impressions in Delhi, and I hope you got it from this piece,
there are golden opportunities that we can discover if we do stop and take the time
to make those connections.
Speaking of stopping, one of the things that I have found is so important, even in my comedy,
is the importance of a pause.
Indeed, I think pausing, often in life, just to get centered, to allow that which is unknown
to show up in a grand and brand new way, is really a wonderful practice.
So I encourage you to stop and pause, and maybe even allow that divine spark within you
to show you something that you haven't thought of, even perhaps an aspect of yourself that
is revealing and affirming.
Now just to shift gears here for a moment, there are, understandably, a lot of issues
and obstacles and things that are not appealing, are in fact often troublesome, and what that
often leads to is, well, complaining.
You may have complained, or I think we've all complained at some point or another, you
might know someone who is a chronic complainer.
Well, my response is this piece, which is called, The Buckstops Here, Complaint Department.
Friends, when you find yourself getting frustrated, when you get pissed off because you can't
get no satisfaction, when your exasperation level is about to reach depth con five, don't
blow a circuit, don't throw your baby out the window, and don't destroy your cell phone
when you've been on hold for an hour and a half.
So friends, don't kill the messenger when you can drop by Buckstops Here, Complaint
Department.
We've got a person on call 24-7 to hear your complaints so you can experience that enormous
sense of relief that comes from dumping on someone who won't make excuses, try to justify
rationalize, equivocate, project, or mollify your well-deserved rage.
Our trained complaint technicians won't blame you back or hold you accountable.
You can rant and rage to your heart's content.
Our registered complaint technicians won't put you on hold, disconnect you, or make you
wait in line.
She'll not in agreement and make you feel like everyone else is a stupid idiot, but
you.
As a licensed CRS practitioner, she'll immediately forget all indications that you are a raving
lunatic.
And if you should feel tempted to admit to your own mistakes, she will kindly, but firmly,
remind you that you always did your best, so that you can feel even more supercilious
and justified in your righteous indignation.
Stop by this week and pick up a free bottle of Buckstops Here poop freshener.
This aromatic mind laxative will help you maintain the illusion that while it may be
true for everyone else, your poop does not, in fact, stink.
Our Buckstops Here complaint technicians speak both bitching or fetching, depending upon
your religious inclinations.
Please specify before you start griping.
Come by, Buckstops Here complaint department and we'll make sure your complaints reach
a sympathetic ear.
But wait, if you still feel that you're getting no satisfaction, we will gladly return all
your complaints and you can just shove them up your shredder.
Not available in California.
Think Aunt Andy Rumi.
From The LaughingHeart.org I would encourage you to go check out our website.
We've got all kinds of audios and videos and hopefully enlightening perspectives and
essays and in the last six months I've created some cartoons.
I have a series called If Words Could Speak.
I know.
It's kind of obvious, isn't it?
But in each of these cartoons we feature a particular word who has attitudes and perspectives
and issues like one word, didn't like the sentence he was in.
Another word wanted to be in all caps because he felt that in small letters it minimized
his importance.
Anyway, go there and check it out.
Now in honor to add to the perspective we're dealing with today, I want to close with this
piece called Feelings, the Language of Relationship.
As we encounter one another we do express feelings.
But what's behind those feelings?
What motivates them?
And I think as we understand those motivations we're in a better position to really be there
for someone else.
That's why this piece Feelings, the Language of Relationship is hopefully a way to get
there.
And by the way we do have a YouTube channel, Strider Entertainment.
That's Strider IN and E-R-T-A-I-N-M-E-N-T.
And I've worked with an actress from Finland and she does a fabulous job of performing
this piece.
So let me give you a taste of it, hopefully a preview and you'll go and see a video of
it.
This is Feelings, the Language of Relationship.
I speak fear.
So you'll know I need assurance.
I speak fondness.
So you'll know you can come near.
I speak anger so you'll know my frustration.
I speak delight so you'll know I am here.
I speak grief so you'll know how deep is my loss.
I speak gratitude so you'll know I'm fulfilled.
I speak hatred so you'll know I'm distraught.
I speak exuberance so you'll know I am thrilled.
I speak despair so you'll know I've lost hope.
I speak tenderness so you'll know I really care.
I speak frenzy so you'll know I'm confused.
I speak firmness so you'll know I'll be fair.
I speak sadness so you'll know I am hurt.
I speak gladness so you'll know I've been touched.
I speak bitterness so you'll know how I've suffered.
I speak joy so you'll know I love you so much.
So there you have it my friends another episode of The Laughing Heart.
I hope you found this time together.
It'd be inspiring, revealing and perhaps even a little fun.
Again, I look forward to hearing from you who can reach me at estrider at gmail.com
and go to our website the laughingsheart.org to partake of the many things.
I said we my spouse and I Rochelle have developed over the years.
And finally I do have a sub stack, aero strider.
Be that as it may.
I hope you'll join me next time The Laughing Heart.
As we probe and deepen into what is most essential and in some cases what's most humorous.
Thanks for joining me.
This is Errol Strider.
