Hi, friends. Welcome to the Robcast. I'm Rob, and this is episode 420.

And I'm realizing the episode is called Ray, and you're going to meet Ray in a minute,

but I'm realizing as I record this intro to the episode

that at the center of what really matters to me doing the Robcast is I want you to know that you're

not alone. I can see that now with the clarity I couldn't see before, how important it has been to me for decades now to let you know that you're not alone.

And as we do, as we reflect on why we do what we do and what we've done over the years, we're generally doing it

for ourselves. Yeah, I've wanted to know that I'm not alone, that there are others pursuing the same things, curious about the same things,

with the same aches and pains and sorrows and losses and hopes, right?

That's solidarity with each other.

I can see now that's that's been at the heart of pretty much everything I've done for so long.

And this episode, to me, that's what's animating it. Sometimes I'll hear somebody say something like,

no one wants to talk about and they'll mention something, but they want to talk about that.

So someone does. Sometimes we're the answer to our question, but as a general rule,

there's something that happens when we find out that someone else is feeling what we're feeling,

wants what we want, longs for what we long for has been ruminating on what we've been ruminating

on. And so this episode was recorded. Last week, I did a two-day here in Ohio,

which is people getting together

who don't know each other,

but are listening to their lives.

And I'm really interested in exploring and experimenting with

creating space where we meet up

and we explore and listen to our lives together.

...