Crafting a Legacy- The Power of Words and Storytelling

Are you a grandparent dedicated to crafting a meaningful legacy for your grandchildren? Discover the profound impact of storytelling and the power of words in our latest episode. I'm Laura Brazan, host of 'Grandparents Raising Grandchildren: Nurturing Through Adversity,' where we dive deep into utilizing narratives to nurture and inspire future generations. In "Crafting a Legacy Life- The Power of Words and Storytelling," we are joined by Carew Papritz, an extraordinary storyteller and author of the multi-award-winning book 'The Legacy Letters.'
Dive into Carew's captivating journey from the bright lights of Hollywood to the rugged solitude of a cowboy life, where he penned heartfelt, fictional letters from a father to his children. These letters act as a practical, moral, and spiritual guidebook, resonating with readers worldwide. In this episode, we'll uncover the essence of gratitude, the profound connections literacy can create, and how rich storytelling can lay the foundation for a resilient, joyous family legacy.
For more information on Carew Papritz, and the "The Legacy Letters", please visit the
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Thank you for tuning into today's episode. It's been a journey of shared stories, insights, and invaluable advice from the heart of a community that knows the beauty and challenges of raising grandchildren. Your presence and engagement mean the world to us and to grandparents everywhere stepping up in ways they never imagined.
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00:00 - "Carew Papritz: Cowboy Philosopher's Legacy"
04:30 - From Hollywood to Rural Roots
11:17 - "Artist's Journey Through Life's Essence"
12:25 - "Outdoors-Inspired Book Signings"
17:02 - "Becoming a Man: Love and Responsibility"
21:16 - "Heartfelt Appeal for Presence"
23:33 - Captivating Kids Beyond Tablets
30:16 - Critical Early Years Impact
35:01 - Giant Thank You Letter Idea
37:53 - Promoting Gratitude on TV
40:43 - Exploding Dreams into Possibility
43:19 - "Rhonda: Fearless Living Pioneer"
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His bio caught my eye immediately. A Renaissance man in an age that intrigues and enlightens, charms and catalyzes change for every reader. This unique spirit, known for living life to the fullest while signing books on top of volcanoes and horses, led me down a fascinating path of discovery. On visiting his website, I unearthed the treasure trove that is the Legacy Letters rediscovered private letters from a dying father to his children and wife, offering a passionate and powerful guidebook to life. The narrative that finally hooked me proceeds from his first ever book signing while stomping grapes went to the Seattle Children's Hospital. This is a man I knew I had to meet. His zest for life is only matched by his extraordinary writing skill. You will fall in love just as I did and leave with a deeper understanding of the great passion we as grandparents have for leaving a meaningful legacy for our grandchildren. Join us for an episode that promises to expand your heart and mind.
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Welcome to Grandparents Raising Grandchildren Nurturing Through Adversity. In this podcast, we will delve deep into the challenges and triumphs of Grandparents Raising Grandchildren as we navigate the complexities of legal, financial and emotional support. I invite you to join us on a journey of exploring thoughts, feelings and beliefs surrounding this growing segment of of our society.
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Drawing from real stories and expert advice, we will explore the nuances of child rearing for children who have experienced trauma and offer valuable resources to guide you through the intricate journey of kinship care. We'll discuss how we can change the course of history by rewriting our grandchildren's future, all within a supportive community that understands the unique joys and struggles. This podcast was made especially for you.
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Welcome to a community where your voice is heard, your experiences are valued and your journey is honored.
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Karoo Papert's Affectionately known as the cowboy philosopher and the brilliant mind behind the multi award winning book the Legacy Letters. As I touched on in the episode teaser, it was Carew's captivating bio and the adventurous spirit that led me to dive deep into his work. I make it a point to read every book and article about those I interview, and with the Legacy Letters I found myself utterly engrossed, unable to put it down until I reach the final page. Carew's writing style is remarkable, pulling you seamlessly into the world created by the heartfelt letters of a dying father to his children. While I won't give away too much, I will say this for grandparents out there, this is a beautifully quick and engaging read. It will tug at your heartstrings, provide a much needed escape and leave you with a Renewed sense of purpose in the legacy you're building for your grandchildren. Karoo, I am so honored to have you on our show. Your passion for life and storytelling is unparalleled. And I have no doubt this conversation is going to spark both inspiration and introspection for all of our listeners. I love your passion for life. I love your passion for family.
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I loved the Legacy Letters. But what I did not realize until I read the book was what an eloquent writer you are. Carew, can you tell us what inspired you to write the Legacy Letters?
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Yeah. Well, great. Thank you for having me on your show. It's an honor and a privilege. And thank you for those wonderful thoughts about the book. Yeah. You know, it's a funny, I sort of have a running joke about how that came to be, how the book came to be is that I had an early midlife crisis. So if you're going to have them, have them early. And I was working actually, of all things in Hollywood in the film industry and found that I was, you know, the bright lights and the fast paced life was getting to me and I was not raised around that and decided I wanted to find a way back to my roots. And so I ended up driving around the.
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Driving around the west, much like an aborigine. I did a driveabout instead of a walkabout and I ended up in a three bar town because that's pretty much out west. How you figure small towns, how many bars they have, Right? Yeah. And. And I asked for a job. I said I need work and says, can you fence? And I said, yep, I know how to put up a barbed wire fence. And so from there I worked about six months. And this was a very, very remote part of Southern Arizona.
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And, and then a local ranch needed a hand, meaning a cowboy. And I had done that. So I said, please sign me up. And there I was for the next five years.
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And what was fascinating was here I was in a place very desolate, sort of took myself out of the mainstream of that part of life and I found myself face to face with myself at a point where I needed to look at where I wanted to go next. And so I picked up the pen. I had written previously in my life and had published, but I hadn't done it in a number of years. And there the book came alive. And so over a period of years, it just sort of wrote itself. And I think the most fascinating part was the conversations that you have with yourself out in the wilds, out in the great alone in a Lot of ways, it's like a Walden Pond time period for me. Very, very much so. Being in the solitude and thinking about the great parts of. Of life and. And how I'd want to proceed with it. And so this story evolved. And for your, for your listeners, the Legacy Letters is a. It's a series of fictional letters written by a father to his children that he never lived to see. And these letters become their practical, moral, and spiritual guidebook for them for the rest of their lives. And I'm very fortunate that it's won a number of national awards and it's done very well. But the, but. But the most wonderful part to me is how people respond to the. Not only the book, but the letters inside and, and how it changes their lives. And I think that is. That was the most gratifying and still is to this day, the most gratifying part about how people react to it. So you talk about gratitude quite often in the work that you do as a tool for resilience. Can you share us, share with us a little bit more about your feelings about gratitude? Gratitude.
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Isn't that a. It's a funny word, isn't it? Because it gets bandied about so. And it almost loses some of. Some of its power these days because we talk about practicing gratitude, and I always say, don't practice it, do it, you know, type of thing. But I think that. I think, especially coming from that time period in the end, and reflecting on all the things that really matter in life, that you, You. You begin to exercise the idea of living life to its fullest. And I think part of that is when I think about gratitude. I think about what I have done in any particular day to move the needle of happiness or joy for other people or educate them or whatever gifts I've been given. How I can pass that on at the end of the day, I gotta say, all right, did you do a good job? Did you make someone smile? Did you make someone laugh?
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Did. Did you.
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Whatever. Were you, were you polite in a situation that someone needed it?
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Did you help someone that needed help? All those things are part of gratitude. And then at the end of the day, you go, huh, yeah, I did an okay job. Probably could do better tomorrow, wake up and do the same thing again. And I think that's part of the.
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The, you know, we say, we're gonna go work out. We're. Why not with gratitude? Why not with civility? Why not with politeness? I'm just, I'm a big, big advocate because I think they're the, they're the building blocks of civilization and without those, we go into anarchy. We go into all these other interesting places in the universe that, that are not good for us as human beings. So I'm a huge advocate for mental health for children and for human beings in general. In the book, the father has never met his children. I guess I'm giving away a little secret about the book. That's okay.
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Yeah. So when he finds out that he has children, these are the things he wants to share. Would you say that the thoughts that come from the book really came from your heart and what you think is important to share with children? Oh, from the parents point of view, yeah, 100%. I think that's the, the joy of being an artist. You can put on so many different hats and you can, you know, call any rose by any other name and ultimately you're the, you're the, the heart and soul behind that. Right? So, yeah. And it's interesting as the, as the book came together, it was really a, it was such an exploration into my own upbringing and then what I thought was important in the world and then these characters evolved. The grandfather and being raised on the ranch and there's a lot of memories and thinking about things in the past and then bringing them forward. And it's a, it's a very simply complex book because it deals with how we deal with life on a day to day basis, but how we, we pull up our past and how we go to the future with it. And his constant rejoinder to his kids is like, just get out there and live. Live to the, to the utmost. And, and, and this is maybe a bit of a side note onto this, but one thing I ended up doing, I love. Book signings are great. It's, it's so wonderful as an author to be allowed to do that.
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And I was able to do that all over the United States and Barnes and Noble, Costco, and continue to do that to these to this day.
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But I love being outdoors. I love being in the mountains, I love skiing, I love hiking, I love whatever it is, I just love being out there. So I came with this idea of, well, how do I get, how do I get outdoors into a book signing? And maybe you followed this or found it. And so I created these first ever book signings.
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The first one was at Barnes and Noble in Tucson on the horse.
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I used to cowboy on boots. And we literally rode up to the bookstore right in front of it with a big crowd and did a book signing right there. Actually did a digital Book signing. At a book signing. And then people say, oh, we've done it on top of Mount St. Helens, done it on glaciers in Alaska, on a whistle stop tour, on the east coast, on 13 cities, on Amtrak and on river rafts. And I mean, you just. We've done a lot of them. And people say, well, why do you do this? I say, oh, thank you for asking. Because guess what? I get to walk the talk of the book. And walk the talk is living life to the fullest. And there I am. I'm actually able to do that. And it's such a. Such a cool deal. But again, it's about, I think, for all us grandparents and especially raising kids, even if we aren't the primary grandparents doing it, it is all part of walking our talk as parents, grandparents, as adults in general. They're watching us, right? They're constantly going, not do as I say. Do as I say, not as I do. Right? The old saying. No, they're watching. So.
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So I have a question. You were a father during the time you wrote the book? Oh, the best question of all. No, I wrote 90, 95, 99 of that book before my son was born.
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And I'll tell you a little secret. There's a. There's a lovely letter. It's one.
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I say, my favorite letter. They're all my favorite. They're all like my favorite children.
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Right. But yeah, they all took years to write because they were. They were. I would take notes and put them together and write as far as I could go, and then I had to rethink and, oh, it was.
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But I always had to find the sweet spot in every single one that motivated me to write it. And as a consequence, would. Would. Would get into people's heads and hearts. But this last one was a letter in the book called On My Boy Becoming a Man. And it was addressed to his son again, that he wouldn't love to see.
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And I was having trouble with it because I wasn't finding that sweet spot. And there. So my son had him in a little crib thing up on the, on the table. And I'm saying, hey, can you help me here? I'm really having trouble with this because I need to know where to go. And I'm trying to finish this book up, and this is the last letter. You know, you're like, this is it. And he goes. And I go, oh, oh, oh. So you want me to write the letter to you? And that's how it pulled together. And it's. Wow. Yeah. And it's A really. I gotta tell you, it's a really powerful, beautiful letter, Mike. If I can find. Oh, I can easily find it. But it is talking about the, the joys and responsibilities of becoming a man in this day and age. And it's, it's. It's good, actually. I try to sometimes I can find it quickly. And so you were prepared to be a dad? I mean, when I read this book. When I read this book, I went, wow, this dad really has it together.
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What great messages he has to give his kids. And here you are, even a father at that point. So I would say you were ready to be a dad when it came. Came time. Yeah, it's sort of funny. And then my son live with that, being brought up with the book, and he loves it. You know, it's. It's at this point, now that he's in college.
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But yeah, it was a fascinating.
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And I think with that being said one day, well, this is a few years back, and I said, oh, my gosh, I'm a philosopher who, who grows up to be a philosopher. Who wants, like. Yeah, the school. I want to be a philosopher. No, I don't think so. That's funny.
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Absolutely. But no, it's. Oh, here we go. Here we go. Oh, good, good, good.
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I found it. Do you mind if I read a quick passage from it? Love to. Okay. When do you become a man?
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You become a man when you marry, not just for love, but to be a partner with your wife, to be the best man you can be with her. When you fall short to admit your shortcomings and to constantly strive to. To be a great man to your wife. You become a man when, in having children, you not only physically look after and protect them, but also protect them with all the love and learning you have to give.
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You become a man when you give your family the best of who you are.
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And ultimately, by being the best man to yourself and to your wife, you are being the best man to your children. And that, my son, is a great gift and responsibility. And what type of man should you be, my son? A good man. Above all else, strive to be a good man, and you do not become a good man overnight, much like a big solid Douglas fir, you must learn to withstand all manner of wind, rain, lightning, sun, and even fire, year after year, and still stand tall and true.
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A good man in your papa's book is a great man, one who constantly strives to be the best of men, to himself and to others, because the world can never have enough good men. Amen.
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Amen. That is a great passage.
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Thank you for reading it. It's nice to hear you reading.
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And what that reminded me of was this last week I was inspired to do an art project with my grandkids. Of course, being an artist, you know, oddly enough, I don't think about doing it with them enough. I think about it for myself, but not for them. But it's so peaceful.
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It calms them. And while my granddaughter was painting cookies, we were doing watercolor cookies.
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Oh, nice. She has dyslexia, so she's a third grade level and she can't even read. She's just reading first grade. But I love to read to children.
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Yeah, I love getting in character and reading.
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And the last three nights I've been sitting on the couch reading to her while she's painting. Oh, and what a rich experience.
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You know, I know that I want to talk about how you believe that literary activities like writing thank you notes promoting emotional expressions and connections through literature are essential to the mental health and well being of kids. Of kids. You took the words right out of my, you know, my mouth. Read to your kid.
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Talk about, talk about connection. Right? Talk about. It's so much in our cultural DNA to sit around the campfire and pass along stories.
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And the stories are how you learn about, you know, probably in the caveman days, it's like, don't go up into that cave because that bear will eat you. You know, and it's like, oh, okay, we shouldn't go up. Yeah, that's right.
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And then, because remember your. What's his name? Grok down, down, down the road. Got eaten. You know, he, he got eaten and. Oh yeah, that was horrible. Yeah, okay, but starting with something as simple as that, I, I am such a fan of putting down the phone.
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Everyone, everyone talk about walking your talk and getting people to connect once again, eye to eye, have conversations and all this. I will tell you a funny, quick little story. Years ago, a high school decided to put on a play based upon the book.
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And I said, they just wanted my permission. I said the only thing I wanted to do was meet with all the people afterwards and talk to them about it.
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And so there were about nine students. And I went to the play and they did a wonderful job. They did readings and did some other stuff. And I was very happy that they did this. And so we met at this round table and they're all high school juniors and seniors.
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And they proceed to put their phones on the table. And I said, guys, I gotta tell you something. And they all Looked at me, I said, yeah, I want to be very, very honest with you, but I don't have a long time to live, and I am here spending time with you away from my family.
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And it's very important that we are here, present together, sharing this time, because this is the most important place in the world right now. And if you wouldn't mind putting your cell phones away, I sure appreciate, because there's nothing more important than being with you and you being with me. And they were sort of. They were, oh, my gosh, this is a serious moment. I says, okay, no, no, it's, it's fine. You can relax. But, I mean, I just want to let you know, I just wanted to be honest with you. So after a few minutes, one of the guys goes, Mr. Papritz, can you. How long do you have to live? Can I. Can I ask you that as a personal question? And I said, yeah. I said, probably. Probably 70 years, maybe. Maybe 80. And they all looked at each other and they bust up laughing. I said, relative to a glacier, I've got a short amount of time.
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They all end, and at that moment, they got it.
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And we met like three or four times, and the phones never appeared on there.
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And I know this is a sort of a roundabout backdoor way of talking about what you're talking about, but it's a, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's coming back to the table and saying, guys, this is what's important. This one to one relationship. And, and reading to kids is part of it. And conversing with kids. My son, it's.
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He gets complimented all the time for being able to talk to adults.
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And I go, what, are you kidding? And I hear that from adults, like, kids, they don't know how to talk to us. And I go, why? Because no one talks to them and they don't talk, and everyone's just clammed up in their digital worlds, so get them out. You know, just teach people how to be human again.
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I was telling you, I've been reading to the kids, and last night, my grandson, although I was reading to my daughter, he moved to the end of the couch with his tablet.
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And I noticed that as I got more creative with my reading, he took one headphone off and he started listening, two headphones off. And pretty soon his eyes came off the tablet and he was listening to me reading over listening to his tablet, because. So I just got them more engaged and more excited.
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What struck me was that I don't know many things that have more power over people right now than cell phones and tablets when it comes to grabbing their attention. But my reading the last two nights has gotten my husband and both the kids listening and the connection. And what happened because of that was magical. Like when I say, rich, like, you couldn't buy what was created in that room. Isn't that amazing? The inner. I love that story in the, in the. And again, the interaction. Right. It's. It's not this.
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It's not this thing that you're being force fed. And it's not even force fed. I'm done with the. With the phones. And it's just constant.
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It's a constant sense of stimulation. Thank you. Both. Yeah, yeah. But. But like, I. I've always thought that was way more powerful than anything I could do reading from a book until I actually witnessed it happening. And then I realized there was so much more than just in get. Than stimulation going on. There was actually a room of present individuals that were focused on each other. There was a kind of a caring and an intimacy because when you're all sitting at different places on a tablet, you know, you go, oh, my gosh. These devices have everybody totally enthralled. But I changed that by reading with dynamic passion. In other words, it was coming from my heart. What I was speaking was coming from my. I wasn't just reciting something.
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And when I witnessed that, I went, wow, that just showed me that we can break. Now. You got to help me. Addiction.
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Addiction. Addiction. Yeah. I call it. I call it digital addiction. And don't get me wrong, I don't like to downplay technology.
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Look at me. I'm using it to communicate with you. I use it to communicate with millions of people over the Internet, and I love it. But those children will remember me reading that book to them long after way over. That little video they were watching on. That he was watching on. My grandson was watching on his Kindle. Yeah. Isn't it? And there's another example of that. When you take kids out to go camping, there's another one. You will remember that. I mean, I hear kids, oh, yeah, we went camping once and I did it. And they'll. They'll recite. It's these interactions you have. And especially at this point, you get. You get really think about this. You get maybe six, seven years to really imprint all this incredible stuff.
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Why? Because up till three or three or four, they're still being blah, blah, blah. But, you know, even at that time and then 10, 11 after, you know, they're trying to figure out their own way in the world.
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But you've got this short amount of time to really give them the best of all these. You know, it's so funny. I write so much stuff about like, thank you letters and, oh, that's old fashioned. I go, I said, any old fashioned. It's timeless. And what's timeless is interacting. Like you say, reading a book, going out camping, going out for a walk, playing in the park. All these things that don't, guess what, they don't cost money. And you get the richness of this, this. I keep saying interaction, but it's more than that, right?
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It's. There's something powerful about the magic of human connection and also through the power of the written word, what we can touch with our hands, what doesn't come through a screen. Yeah, totally agree with you. Totally agree with you. And that. And I think social scientists have come up with, with that, it takes 3,000 texts. I believe that's the number. It might be.
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I might be over exaggerating, but I believe it's that to equal one minute of human conversation. Think about that. Ooh, good fact. Yeah, I could be off on that. But whether it's a thousand or whatever the case is, the idea is that all of those signals that we give with our eyes, with our face, with our voice, with the lilt, with the tilt, with the engagement, with the pause, all of that, you know what that is? Communication. And we. It's almost as if we've forgotten that lost art. And yet that is how people love to get information.
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And it goes right into you. Like, look at the kids. I mean, they're. Oh, my gosh, there's something going on here that I need to.
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You know, Laura, it's funny when I'm talking to an audience, this is wild. I. And I came across this years ago because I love telling these little stories. And they're engaging. And I'll say this, I'll say, hey, I've got a little story to tell about this. I will watch the audience perceptibly move and shift into their seats, getting ready for the story.
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It was wild. And I've done it a number of times. And I just watch it. It's just like, oh, oh, okay, we're getting. And it's like, are you serious? Is this in our cultural DNA? Is this someplace deep inside us when we say story, you settle in and get ready to receive it. To receive it. And look, that's what your grandkid. They were receiving it and you were giving it. And My gosh, talk about gratitude. Talk about the act of gratitude, of giving and receiving and true legacy. And true legacy. I love that. Yeah, that's beautiful.
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Talk to us about national thank you letter day and its relevance to the conversation we're having. Oh, that was easy.
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That was a softball. Oh, this was fun. So what. I'll tell you the backstory of this. Here we go. Okay, we got a little story. You ready? Settle in. Yeah, I was ready. I was helping. We have a. We have a school. We're at. It's 100 years old, 100 plus years old, and it's a little country school.
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And the whole school is kindergarten to eighth grade. And it's that.
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That's the school for the town. My kids go to a school like that.
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Yeah. And it's wonderful. And everyone knows everyone. And so. And so I'm able to. The superintendent and the principal, they're. They're one and all in the same. And so I know everyone up there, and they always allow me to do these crazy things with the kids and get them involved in community service and all sorts of different things. And.
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Well, one of these things. One day I was helping with teaching some cursive writing because I. I like bringing that back. And so I'm helping to teach an after school class and. And I'm using the book, and I, you know, because I figured I've got some legitimacy and the kids know me. And I said, okay. And I said, let's pick a letter. We'll work from this. And I.
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Oh, how to say please and thank you? And so I'd write a sentence up there on the whiteboard and, like this and.
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And they'd copy it. And I turn and I could just see, like, this is so boring. And I thought, you know, if I was like, even with. Even with Mr. Carew, who's Mr. Exciting out there, it's still. It's still pretty boring doing this. And so I.
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And then this thing popped into my head, like these things do as an artist, right? I said, hey, what do you think if we made a thank you letter the size of a football field? And they said, oh, my gosh, that would be great.
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I said, yeah, that would be great. And I thought, what are you saying, buddy?
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I said, this is nuts. Well, we did it. We actually created a thank you letter the size of a high school basketball gym. It took us two months. It took us over 30 rolls of butcher paper, hundreds of rolls of, I think, about 70 pizzas, you know, 500 cookies, something. I've got it down everything and school was involved with it.
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And here's another funny story as sort of an aside to that. So we had to write this letter. And so I decided, in all my incredible wisdom, I was going to be a fourth grader again and write this thank you letter.
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And I wrote it, and it was absolutely horrible. It was an adult trying to be a fourth grader.
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Yeah, it was, oh, my gosh to this, dad probably burned. So I went back to the kids and says, gosh, guys, I need your help. I want you to write things that you're thankful for. And so they did. And we compiled them and put that into the letter. And it sounds like fourth graders. Okay, so. And I'll go ahead. But for those that want to check it out, it's national thank you letterday.com. so go check it out and you'll see the letter. You'll see how big it is. All right. So then I decided, well, wait a second. Why don't we create a day called national thank you letter day. So we finished it and we did it right in the middle of November. November 14th now is National thank you letter Day. We revealed it, we undid it. Entire front of the entire school. The entire school signed it. 600 kids, all the teachers, local people came in and it was a huge success. Local tv, everyone loved it. And the local owner. Okay, so then, then the running joke was, what do you do with the world's largest handwritten thank you letter? Well, you have to send it next year. Created the world's largest envelope, world's largest stamp. Had the postmaster stamp, it send it through post office. The kids had to fold up the letter. I'm telling you, this is a 26 foot, 4 foot high paper burrito. Took 20 kids to take it out to the poster truck. We had to take the doors down to the gym, put it in there, transport it to other school on the postal truck. Unveiled it, it was delivered. It's official. We got a Guinness Book of world record for it. And we're on the Kelly Clarkson Show.
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And it was, you know, just goes on and on and on. And every year we, we try to do something different with national thank you letter Day. And so we, we were trying to get that good word out. We do things like one year, we did things with writing to the veterans and writing letters. We did one year where we were writing to our local people in our community. The people, the grocery clerks, the garbage guys, the whoever. And they all came to school and we gave them thank you letters. And the kids Were just enthralled by it. And the whole idea is really bringing back the art and the beauty of writing a thank you letter and what that means. That's wonderful. I'm putting it on my calendar today. You've done so many great things.
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The I love to read series, the. Great book balloon launch. I mean, we could go on and I know we're running out of time, but you're also. The proceeds from your book sales go to the make a wish foundation. And the reading is fundamental. Yeah. Every single book signing has that component. It's a pay it forward. Right.
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Especially. And so I make sure that people know that. Hey. During this time period. Yeah, yeah. And it's a good. So I have contributed by the purchase of this book. Yes, yes, you have. I love it. And thankfully. So. So would you share with us a website where people can go to find out more information about all of this and to support literacy and mental health initiatives in their own communities?
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Yeah. Well, the best place to go, of course, is thelegacyletters.com that's easy just to find all that stuff. And then of course, on Instagram, if you look under Karoo Papra, it's on Facebook, Carew Paper, you know, the. All the usual cast of characters. And. And, you know, it's easy to say, go buy it on Amazon, but your local bookstore, which I love to promote, can. Can get ahold of the book too, so. But Amazon does have it, so it's under there. And I was wondering before we head on out to the great beyond. Not the great beyond, but wrap that up, if I could read one more passage. You know, I was just thinking, oh, this is one of the last letters in the book, and it's called dream like your old man. That's the one I'd picked up to read. No, you are kidding me. Not. Oh, my God. It's. Oh, that is funny. Oh, all right. You want me to read. Do you want to read part of it or do you want. No, I want you to read it. All right.
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Okay. Dream like your old man. Dreams are about anticipation. Dreams are about hope. When you're a kid, you need to trust your dreaming. It's not about asking for the moon. It's about going to the moon. About choosing to explode into possibility. It's about your chewing every night and every day on a piece of the future. Dreams are about secret secrets and wishbook desires. The hither and hilly of wanting an expectation. The unknown guiding the known. The Daniel Boone of it all. Always wanting more elbow room whenever smoke is seen on the horizon.
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Dreams are about tilting your head up toward the desert sky where stars are dazzling and hot and white, and then the autumn is snapping cold on the nape of your neck. Dreams are about the Milky Way mantling across the universe like some saucy necktie, all temptation and God and wonder rolled into one. And as you look up, you think you're the first person ever to notice how magnificent the heavens really are. And you dream as a pioneer, dreams about stout homes and greener valleys. This is how your old man looks at the world. This is how I dream.
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There it is. That's the best. Oh, this is a good one. Thank you so much.
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Oh, my gosh. I really want to encourage the listeners to go to thelegacyletters.com and I want to recap the importance of gratitude, literacy and mental health support for our children, especially in challenging times. Yes, especially. Thank you for your time, Karu. Yeah, thank you. Lord, what a treat to be on your show. And to all your listeners, have a wonderful new year. And let's as the best we can do is spread joy, spread happiness, spread goodness, spread civility. Let's teach our kids that.
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Because really and truly, that is one of the great legacies we can pass on in our lives. So happy New Year, everyone. Yeah.
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Thanks. Thanks for joining us today for another episode of Grandparents Raising Grandchildren, Nurturing through adversity. I encourage you to share both your challenges and your successes with us. Your story is undoubtedly one someone else needs to hear. Submit your stories to the links provided in the podcast information. Your contributions will enrich upcoming conversations, creating a more supportive community in which we can learn and grow together. In next week's episode, I'm thrilled to welcome the extraordinary Rhonda Britton. She's an Emmy award winner and celebrated as America's favorite life coach. Rhonda has inspired audiences across the globe with her fearless approach to living. With over 600 episodes of reality TV, four best selling books, including the globally acclaimed Fearless Living, and countless appearances on national TV and radio, she's a true pioneer in the field of personal transformation. She's a repeat guest on Oprah and the formidable force behind the Fearless Living Institute. Rhonda has built the Ivy League of life coaching training programs. Her journey from personal tragedy to a life of fearless impact is both powerful and transformative. Join us as Rhonda shares her compelling story, a tale only she can tell, and learn how she's revolutionizing lives by helping others live fearlessly. This is an episode you won't want to miss. Thank you for tuning in to grandparents, raising grandchildren, nurturing through adversity. Remember, you are not alone. Together we can find strength and hope in the face of adversity. Peace be with you. And I pray that you find some time this week to listen to your inner wisdom amongst the noise and the pandemonium of this world.