It's A Matter of Pride

Ever wondered how national pride aligns with personal actions? This episode of "They Call Me Mista Yu" tackles the fascinating dynamics between our proclaimed values and actual behaviors, especially in light of the upcoming Olympics in Paris. We explore pressing issues like clean water and terrorism threats that impact not only the athletes but also the pride of nations. Using the analogy of a teenager driving without permission, we shed light on the gap between intentions and actions, compelling you to reflect on your own motivations.

We then pivot to the vital role of individual responsibility in national progress, urging listeners to scrutinize traditions like supporting the Olympics without question. Personal development and integrity are emphasized as foundational to societal impact. Through historical and contemporary examples, and a heartfelt story about my father, a military man who faced challenges upon returning home, we illustrate how personal discipli

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Chapters

• 0:50 National Pride and the Olympics
• 13:25 Individual Responsibility for National Progress

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:50

Thank you, welcome back to the all-purpose pod for an all-purpose life. Wherever you are and however you're listening today, call me Mr U, the podcast. Thanks again for making us a part of your morning, your day and your week. We're your weekly mirror check before you go change the world. We definitely appreciate all the support we're getting from you guys. We are able to be heard worldwide. We're actually a global podcast. That may not mean a lot in the big picture right now, but it means a lot to me. It means a lot to everybody associated with this show. We are definitely growing and your support has been invaluable.

Speaker 1: 1:27

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Speaker 1: 2:44

Just a lot of things going on in our world at current Right now. If you're not living under a rock, you're aware that we're in that two-week period where the Olympics are taking place. There's been a lot of drama associated with the Olympics as of late. I'll try to do my best to try to catch you up. If you're not aware of what's going on, I know a lot of my listeners don't watch TV, don't watch the news. I get why you don't want to do that, but there's so much that you'll be missing in not doing so Not for your entertainment value, so much as for information purposes. So not for your entertainment value so much as for information purposes, but a lot of drama surrounding the Olympics in Paris, france. One thing that's going on that you may not have heard about unless you're actually in the news cycle wise, they've been having a problem with their water and having clean water, so to speak, for all of the tourists and everyone associated with the United States Olympic team and all the other Olympic teams that are out there competing for the next couple of weeks. So they say it's been resolved, but that's been a big issue.

Speaker 1: 4:04

There has been some issues surrounding terrorism or attempts at terrorist activities. That's been going on. Uh, that's not really outside of the normal. Anytime you have something as big a mega event like the olympics or world cup, etc. You see a lot of drama like this. It's not really a surprise. Sadly, it's part of the norm these days, but I wanted you to know about that. And then also there's a lot of backlash with some with a painting that was made that was supposed to be a depiction of the Last Supper.

Speaker 1: 4:35

You know I don't spend a lot of time on things that I can't control, but I'll tell you what the bottom line of this conversation today is that there's a lot of drama associated with the Olympics, but the biggest thing is this idea of national pride. I want to talk about it because I feel like we need to come to some conclusions about this. I know a lot of folks that are friends of mine. I consider them friends. They consider me friends. We're on both sides of the so-called aisle or in the center of it, or just don't want to be in the aisle whatsoever. I got friends that fall into all of those categories. For me, the challenge with the idea of national pride is that we say we're doing things for God and for country and we end up doing things that feel like it's just about us and not about God and country at all.

Speaker 1: 5:39

There's plenty of examples I can use, but I'll just use the ones know that consider themselves believers. They make decisions about how they're going to live. They make decisions about their level of service to local ministry. They make decisions about just their lifestyle and they think that they pleasing God or that they've heard from God, or did they think that God would approve of the choices that they made, even though they haven't actually consulted God, or they haven't consulted the one that's supposed to be, the one that they live for, the person or the deity that they are living their life to fulfill a purpose that was given to them by him. They don't really do that. They kind of decide for themselves and hope that he's good with it in the aftermath and hope that he's good with it in the aftermath.

Speaker 1: 6:48

It's just like if you have a teenage child that's learning how to drive but they can't go anywhere without you because they have to have a driver's permit and they have to have an adult in the car with a valid driver's license before they go anywhere and drive. But they decided to take your car and leave and let you know while they're in Walmart. You know what? Just want you to know. I got the car and they shouldn't be driving by themselves. You don't want to hear that after the fact they want you to co-sign after the fact Okay, the car's already gone, so they'll have to live with it or accept it or just be okay with it. Accept it or just, uh, be okay with it.

Speaker 1: 7:27

But it's not how it works and I think in religious circles, especially in the local church and in the areas of community ministry and such, we do stuff like that. We go and take the keys to the car without asking for permission from the person who owns the car. We just decide what we're going to do and I feel like we use the idea of God and country a lot of times to our own advantage, but it's not really to the advantage of God nor country. Case in point on the countryside a lot of folks do things and they say it's for America and they say it's for America. They have all-out brawls in political arenas for the sake of America. In their minds they have start religious-based wars and they say they're doing it for their country. But it's all self-aggrandizing. They do it for themselves. In almost every case it's not for a country. But it's all self-aggrandizing. They do it for themselves. In almost every case it's not for a country.

Speaker 1: 8:30

When you have military personnel that go to other countries to defend against threats potentially to said country or to our country in the United States of America, that's understandable. I get that that's doing a service for your country. We're not talking about that kind of stuff. I'm talking about individual people doing things for whatever the reason is and calling it or trying to file it under national pride, and it just doesn't fly. A lot of the things that we're seeing we're seeing flag burnings and all kinds of stuff that's not something you can file under national pride.

Speaker 1: 9:13

Our country is lit with a lot of incendiary motivations and feelings and rhetoric and toxicity, and it's to the point now where it's like the country is close to becoming unrecognizable. I don't think we're there yet, but we're not far away. And now we have the Olympics taking place in Paris. Look it up for yourself. There's so much drama associated with the Olympics right now, even more so than the actual events and trials that are taking place at the Olympics. There's so much drama surrounding it that you almost forget what it's supposed to be about, and it's a point I kind of want to get to today. It's really not about red or blue. It should be about red, white and blue. That's what this is all about. This is about creating opportunities for youth sports and sports foundations and to build on the legacy of sports in these different places, whether they be here, nationally or in other countries. That's what's supposed to be about. But it's become about something else now, and I know that you know in the minds of many, any war, especially people who are in power. They feel like any war that takes place.

Speaker 1: 10:36

Casualties are considered acceptable losses, but my question is are they? What does it really mean to have national pride? I'm looking at the Olympics and I'm looking at some of these competitors from our country that have been working for years to be in this position. Many of them have to work four years to be in this position. Wnba players that for the first time they've been named to the US women's basketball team in the Olympics. They had to work three, four years to have the right to be in that spot. People on the US swimming team had to work four years to be qualified and have the opportunity to be in that spot and I'm sure that their nation and national pride is on their mind. I'm sure it's been drilled into their psyche for years now.

Speaker 1: 12:13

And you're doing this for a country. My only question is what does it mean to serve your country? What does it mean to do for country? Because there's a lot about the Olympics that you know a lot of folks don't always recognize. But again, the original focus of the Olympics was supposed to be about increasing youth and sports programs, supposed to be about sustainable infrastructure, because a lot of times and historically, the Olympics have revitalized areas like a Barcelona in 1992. But they created long term economical problems in places like Montreal Hall in 1976 and in 2004 in Athens, greece. So this is a big production to bring into your country, a big production to bring into your city, and it costs a lot to prepare for it. It costs a lot to maintain it and, once the Olympics are gone, it takes a long time to recover from the impact. It takes a long time to recover from the impact. It's supposed to be known for building national tourism and trade and unity across the board, country to country, but it doesn't always seem to look that way and sometimes it doesn't seem to be a wise investment.

Speaker 1: 13:25

I'm only bringing this up because I want to just bring the question for us to think about. This show has always been about interest and thought and perhaps giving us a platform to think about some things. Why do we do this? Why do we support this? Why are we engaged in this? What's the purpose of our involvement in this?

Speaker 1: 13:47

I'm not saying the Olympics is not a valid way to show national pride. I just think that we shouldn't accept it as an automatic, because that's what we've been told to do. There's a lot going on in this situation. There's a lot going on in the realm of national pride and I feel as though and this is something I always believe it always comes back to the individual person. We can get involved with groups and circles and cliques and clubs and try to decide things about other people, but the bottom line is that everything that will be potentially good for our country boils down to individual people being individually honorable and being uh, people of, of of great value and integrity, and and duplicating that in your household first, and then in your community and neighborhood, and then city, state and then nation. You can't skip all those other factors and jump right into being an impact in your nation. It has to start with you from a personal development standpoint. That's one thing. That's a theme on the show.

Speaker 1: 15:13

I hope you guys aren't tired of hearing that, because that's what we have to accept. That's what we have to deal with. In order to make an impact on your nation, we have to deal with the person of ourselves first, sales, first Everyone. That's an Olympic athlete and we've seen it in big picture fashion. We're seeing that right now and the reason why we can see the level of excellence that we're seeing in the Olympics right now from all these different countries is because those individual athletes not the team, but those individual athletes had to deal with themselves first, developing discipline first dealing with where they are in their health, in their mindset, dealing with the kind of person they see themselves as or who they want to be, and then they join a team of people who have the same mindset, same goals and aspirations and what you see is a united front to be able to be impactful on the nation and the world at large.

Speaker 1: 16:31

But it starts with the individual person. I don't understand why we can't see that. I wish I didn't have to say that every single week, every single month, but I don't understand how we continue to keep trying to avoid the obvious. We're pointing fingers. We got political fights going on. We got actual, literal wars going on and people are blaming each other for it. It can't be everybody's fault that you're in a war. Somebody had to make an individual decision to do or not do something that's causing this. The individual person cannot be ignored. I don't know how many years of information in history we need to have.

Speaker 1: 17:15

If you want to, if you ascribe to the Bible, you can go all the way back to the Bible. Go all the way back to Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. Adam can say that, but he was a witness to what was taking place with his wife and the serpent. It wasn't like he wasn't available. He was out working somewhere and came back home and found out that that man had fallen. He was present. And not only was he present, he was a participant Willing or not, he was a participant in the fall. In said fall, there's a need for personal development in that situation. And you can go on and on Cain and Abel, you can go on and on To Jonah, you can go on and on and on and on.

Speaker 1: 18:07

Even in culture today, in presidencies, in people, in culture today, in presidencies, in people in political offices, people in workplaces that are over corporations that are being indicted right now, it all comes down to the individual person, the you in all of this. What's your part in all of this? What's your responsibility in all of this? What's your part in all of this? What's your responsibility in all of this stuff? We sit back and we point fingers about what somebody else is doing or not doing. People on our TVs are not making us proud. We're not happy with their decision making, but what about yours? What are you doing?

Speaker 1: 18:50

We talk about national pride like it's something we can just put on a t-shirt with a flag on it, defying flag code, but that's another story altogether. Putting on hats and socks that have old glory on it and making it look like we are all about country, but that's not enough of an indicator, because the country is better when we're better, and I honestly believe that we can't avoid it. Our country is better when we're better. Our country is stronger when we're stronger. Our country is stronger when we're stronger. This has to be a united effort. This is us all in together. I don't know how else to say this. I hope this makes sense. I hope this is helpful to somebody that's listening today. I'm all about national pride. I'm all about people fighting for our country, or even in competitive sports like the Olympics, on behalf of our country. I've been a fan of the sport since the 70s, but I look at what's going on people who are dealing with mental health issues in the Olympics, and people are taking on so much pressure for national pride.

Speaker 1: 20:18

I don't always love to tell the story, but I share the story of my father because I feel like it's relevant. I wrote a book called the Heart of a Stepfather. It was on shelves for a while, in 2016. But I share the story there in more detail. But I share the story of my father for a reason because it resonates with me the most. He was a longtime military man, served his country with honor and with valor and he came back Sick, broken and he was in need of some things and he didn't get what he needed. It wasn't available for him and it should have been. And I share that because if anybody cares about national pride, my dad was definitely one of those people. He lived his life by it.

Speaker 1: 21:13

I'm not saying don't have national pride, don't misinterpret what I'm saying to you. I'm saying it's just time for us to ask ourselves some questions. Why do we feel the way we do? Is it the right route? Because your mother and father believes it is so doesn't mean that it is so for you, your mother and daughter. Excuse me I don't know why I'm on the mother and daughter kit, but your mother and father may have lived in the 40s. It's a much different time than in 2024. I'm not saying ignore all of the wisdom they may have to give you, but their situation was different. They treated everything, from the food that they cooked to the clothes that they wear, differently their response to issues in their neighborhood and in the communities. They responded to it differently than we do. It can't all be equal.

Speaker 1: 22:07

I'm just saying, at the end of the day, that your individual responsibility needs to be at the forefront of every decision. You think you're going to make Everything, you think you're going to get with everything you think you're going to get behind and rally behind the causes you want to support, the issues on social media and the conversations that you want to interject yourself into. Before you do that, before you make that decision, think about the individual aspect, where you are who you are, who you want to be. How do you want to be viewed? What do you want to look like? It's just food for thought.

Speaker 1: 22:50

Again, I'm not against national pride. I'm not against doing anything for God and country. I just ask us to check our motives, check your motives. Why do you do what you do? I guess today, that's probably the larger question above everything that we're talking about. Why do you do what you do? I guess today, that's probably the larger question above everything that we're talking about. Why do you do what you do? Why do you desire that thing? What's the reason behind why you want that? I think if we do that, we'll be in a much better place than we have been. Totally down with national pride. I'm totally down with the United States of America. It's the greatest country in the world, without question. I know it's not as good as it could be, it's not as great as you want to believe, but it's better than anything I've ever seen, and it's because of people who recognize that their individual responsibility, their integrity, living a life of honor will help make the country that we love so much that much better. So think about individual responsibility. Check yourself before you wreck everybody else.

Speaker 1: 24:09

Wherever you are and however you're listening today. Call me, mr U the podcast. We thank you again for making us a part of your morning, your day and your week with your weekly mirror check Before you go. Change the world. Of course, you can find us on all your social media platforms and it's audio podcast. You can find us on Apple Podcasts, spotify, iheartradio, pandora, amazon Music and so on, and you can subscribe to our show at Apple Podcasts. We would love for you to do that. It'll really help us move forward a lot. Thank you very much. And, of course, if you're listening and watching, you can find us on our YouTube channel at TheyCallMeMrU. Thank you so much for all the support you've been providing us and I hope that this message finds you well. Have a great day, enjoy the music, coach out. We'll see you next time.