00:00Now, it's the holiday season, so, you know, you got Thanksgiving coming up and then Christmas and New Year's.
00:05But there was a holiday over the weekend that my family and I joined in with some of our neighbors
00:10to celebrate.
00:12So we moved into a new neighborhood almost a year ago today.
00:17And we moved in next door to an incredible couple who's become some of our closest friends.
00:23They have a son who's only four months younger than McKinley.
00:26So, you know, two kids are adorable.
00:28Yeah. And they are Indian.
00:31OK. And so already early on, I'm like, OK, we go over to their house.
00:37We're hanging out. They're from, you know, not too far from where we are now.
00:40But they've totally uprooted their life to come to this neighborhood.
00:45And we get to talking to them.
00:47And shortly thereafter, they're like, hey, would you guys ever wanted like, you know, have some Indian food and come
00:53over and like learn about some of our holidays?
00:55So fun. Yeah.
00:57Yeah. Yeah. Sounds good.
00:59Well, that was a year ago. We've been getting to know them and getting to know some other couples who
01:03are also Indian in our neighborhood.
01:06OK. Well, this past weekend was Diwali.
01:08Diwali. Yep.
01:09Oh. And so our weekend was filled with two massive Diwali parties.
01:16OK. So hold on a minute, because so there are a lot of neighborhoods around me that are populated by
01:24a lot of, you know, Indian people.
01:26And this time of year, I start seeing what looks like Christmas lights going up every year.
01:32And I'm like, there's no way that all these people are just putting their Christmas lights.
01:36So it must be for Diwali. Right.
01:38Yep. Exactly.
01:39Well, actually, it comes from the word meaning a row of lights.
01:44Oh, OK. Well, that makes sense.
01:47It's so interesting.
01:49And our friends even lent us some traditional garb for not only for Emily and I, but for Bodie, our
01:57four month old and for McKinley, our three year old.
01:59Oh, my gosh.
02:00To wear and be a part of the festivities.
02:02And I thought that was one so awesome of all of these families to invite us into their home to
02:09teach us about their culture and learn about, you know, what this means to them.
02:13So welcoming.
02:15So wanting of us to feel comfortable.
02:18I love that.
02:20Explaining what's happening in English to us to make sure we know what's going on.
02:23What is this portion of the ceremony?
02:25What does this food represent?
02:27Wait. So you were at like, was there a ceremony?
02:29Oh, my gosh. Yeah.
02:30Really?
02:31Oh, yeah. It was a whole thing.
02:32It was it was so special.
02:35And I hope this doesn't come off as self-serving because but I was taught growing up that it's so
02:42important to be curious.
02:43It's so important to listen to people, talk to people who either come from different backgrounds than you, maybe disagree
02:49with you politically, whatever it might be, because we never learn anything from somebody we agree with or a background
02:55we come from.
02:56Right.
02:56It's so important to humanize our neighbors, our friends, people who think differently than we do.
03:02And it was such an important learning weekend for our family.
03:06And our daughter McKinley and our daughter McKinley to recognize like, hey, like this is different from what happens in
03:11our home.
03:11And that's OK.
03:12Yeah.
03:13Like, that's cool.
03:14Yeah.
03:14And the lessons we learned fighting light over darkness, good over evil, knowledge over ignorance, whether you celebrate Diwali or
03:21not, those are those are lessons I'm going to take with me for sure.
03:25And I just wanted to take a moment to say thank you to those families who led us into their
03:29home and taught us what, you know, what their heart and their home is all about.
03:34I love that.
03:35I love that.
03:35And if you think about it, right, people do this all the time anyway, just not on such a differential
03:42scale.
03:43Right.
03:43So, like, we're my family's Polish.
03:45We have a my and I grew up with a huge Polish Christmas Eve traditional Polish dinner.
03:52And so we invite another family to come over.
03:55And I told them all about what each food represents and why we do certain things and stuff.
03:59Right.
03:59So, like, we already do that stuff with people that we're friends with.
04:02But this is on another level because it's so new to so many of us.
04:07And I love that they brought you into that, Jeff.
04:10And I'm honestly a little bit jealous.
04:11Right.
04:12But, like, I want to go.
04:14As I get older, I learn the most valuable thing in my life is knowledge.
04:19Yeah.
04:19Because it allows me to be, you know, just a better adult, a better dad, a better father, better neighbor,
04:25better co-worker, whatever it is.
04:26Because you're more understanding.
04:27Exactly.
04:28So thank you again to all these great families that led us in their home.
