This is an introduction to our new podcast. My name is Leon La Couvée, the grandfather. And I’m from an organization called Don’t Be A Wage Slave. A Career Is A Must. So are we one more financial institution that decided to take to the airwaves?

Gosh, I hope not. Let’s start off at the beginning. Why am I called the grandfather? Well, first of all, I actually am a grandfather. But I think more importantly, the grandfather in all society is iconic, I feel.

Our grandparents, they’re very very special and they’re beyond reproach. I think it would be fair to say that our grandparents are the loving people that truly guide us in life. And they’re more helpful than our siblings and truly more helpful than our parents at some point. So my grandfather, he died when I was 15 years old. And I remember him because he was a dreamer in a sense.

He was a sea captain, and he always dressed formally for dinner. And it was quite the experience for a young child to actually watch this man. His house smelled of sandalwood. And he said to me, Leon, the earth respects a strong man. And I wasn’t very big at this point in life, and I was very curious what this actually meant.

It took me a long time to realize that in reality, the strong man is the psychologically strong man who can withstand the challenges that we will all experience in life. He always said to me, don’t be a wage slave. A career is a must. And what he meant by this was not that he wanted me to be a doctor or a lawyer or a candlestick maker for that matter, but he wanted me to take the concept of a career onto myself. I would then be able to do whatever I wanted to do in my own life.

So what we’re gonna speak about, what we’re gonna talk about in our podcast in the coming weeks is how, as an individual, am I going to be able to somehow be free in this thing called life. And obviously, I want to be independent, of course. But how can I really be free? Now we’re bombarded at the moment as we know with countless images, mostly nonsensical, always in the superlative. Right?

The richest man, the best looking woman, the most successful individual and then we come to me and I’m just a frail little being struggling forth in life. But that’s not really the truth, is it? There is no one like me. There never has been, and there never will be. I’m special, but in reality, so what?

So what? Everyone’s special. So unless I open the door to me, I will never never know who I am. Never. It’s impossible.

Because ultimately, at some point in life, we are faced with the 3 questions of reality. Firstly, why am I here? Me. If I’m lucky enough to have consciousness at around 22 years old, I’m terrified. I realize I’m free to unfold in any direction or not, or not.

I can just disappear and be totally conservative and take on no risks at all. Just like the chap working in some bureaucracy. Right? Vacant eyes, Kafka talked about people like this, didn’t he?

Then, of course, we have the second question. What’s my mission? Why am I here? Me. Why am I here?

I’m here to do something. I know I’m here to do something. But what is it? I don’t know. Well, you’re fortunate if you’ve gotten this far because you can get your notebook from Emerson, get your notebook out and begin to write down your thoughts, your daily thoughts every single day.

Every day, you can go forward like this. Absolutely. Right? And then we come to the final question. What happens when I leave here?

Where do I go? Where do I possibly unfold and in what direction? I’ll never know for sure, will I? Not really. Right?

Not really. But I do feel that all of us have to have some accommodation, make some accommodation with the universe, Gaia, God. It’s a very important concept, isn’t it? So we’re gonna talk about all of this in a sense. Right?

We’re gonna speak about the grandfather, the grandfather image, kind of an exciting one. You know what I really enjoyed about my grandfather is that he never judged. He never judged. One of my students the other day said to me, you know, I wanna get a dog. And I said, why?

Why do you wanna get a dog? And he said, because the dog will never ever judge me, and the dog will always embrace me when I come home. No matter how I feel, no matter what I’ve done, good and bad, my dog will always be there with me. And I think it’s so true, isn’t it? So that dog was my grandfather in a sense, my grandfather also.

He never judged me. He would proffer ideas and thoughts. Right? And then it was up to me. And I think this is what the school system is so sadly lacking because the school system wants us to learn things, if you will.

Knowledge. I mean, the Internet is great for this, isn’t it? It’s endless, the amount of knowledge we can have but absolutely zero wisdom. There’s no wisdom here and there’s not going to be because wisdom is beyond AI. Truly, wisdom is something magical that I can only bring to myself.

Who’s my teacher? Me. I have to sit back and analyze where I’m going and what do I want to achieve out of this piece of life. So that’s what we’re about. So you’re welcome to join us, and you know what they say.

You know what they say. Critical thinking is necessary if I’m going to change the world, change myself, and critical thinking is great. It’s cerebral. It’s free. So please, have a wonderful day wherever you are. Bye bye.

Grandfather: the iconic gift