In this enlightening episode, Mike Oppenheim shares his profound journey of breaking free from societal expectations to embrace his authentic self through purposeful, mindful work aimed at helping others. Join us as we explore the significance of cultural integration, emotional well-being, and the power of self-expression in fostering unity and deeper connections.
In this insightful episode Mike Oppenheim opens up about his journey of breaking free from societal norms to embrace his true self through purposeful, mindful work that serves others. Tune in as we delve into the importance of cultural integration, emotional wellness, and the impact of authentic self-expression on building unity and meaningful connections.
Mike Oppenheim, a Phoenix native, is celebrated for his multifaceted creative pursuits and his unique ability to analyze social structures through diverse perspectives. Engaging in writing, music, and various media, he uses these platforms to encourage embracing differences and expressing authenticity beyond societal expectations. Oppenheim's work emphasizes the importance of pursuing creative passions with a focus on shared interests rather than ethnic origins, advocating for genuine connection and cultural understanding. Through his personal experiences and reflections, he inspires others to embrace their true nature, fostering a sense of belonging and counteracting societal disconnection.
(00:00:00) Celebrating Diverse Expressions for Deeper Connections
(00:02:26) Finding Fulfillment through Purposeful Creativity
(00:04:55) Cultural Interconnectedness in Globalized World
(00:12:12) Enriching Perspectives through Diverse Writing and Art
(00:17:53) Rituals and Belonging for Emotional Well-being
(00:20:41) Perceiving the World Through Diverse Perspectives
(00:33:38) Healing Energy Flow in Natural Connection
(00:44:15) Impact of Color Perception on Communication Across Cultures
(00:54:21) Value of Cultural Connections and Shared Rituals
Mike's Podcast: The Coffin Talk Podcast - https://open.spotify.com/show/3b5wMPRVcWeysEeuVgiqQS
His website: https://mikeyopp.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-oppenheim-8a5562186
On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mikeyopp38
Foreign. Moving to oneness. Nourishing curiosity. Embracing differences.Becoming one.
00:00:46 - Meilin Ehlke
You have a strong desire to change the world with your words? Then stay tuned to the Moving to Oneness podcast. Hello, everyone. I'm Meilin Ehlke, your host, and with me today is a man from Phoenix who really, in my eyes, has a nick to picking the right words, to look at social structures, to use a pen and draw something, to come at what he wants to say with many different angles at the same time.
This is going to be really interesting what's coming out toward you if you have that strong urge to speak your truth and not to be afraid, what other people think about it. So. Say hello with me to Mike Oppenheim in Phoenix.
Hello, Mike. How are you?
00:01:52 - Mike Oppenheim
I'm great, especially after that introduction because it's filled me with a sense of optimism about something that I've actually sometimes been told is not a good trait, which is having too many approaches to try to articulate things. I can't stay in one lane like writing or just filmmaking or just podcasting or just drawing. So what you said was inspiring to me because you understand my goal.
00:02:26 - Meilin Ehlke
Yeah. I think there are many people like you who have been told to stay with one thing or not to express themselves. But it's very non natural if you have any way a passion or it's part of you to create through different outlets. Maybe there are other people that love to do it with one, but others love to do it with multiple. And especially I think in men, it's looked upon more that you stay in a strict line than maybe women because anyway, we have a household, we have children, family, maybe job. It's culturally we do many things at the same time to bring the same point around. But please keep on doing that because I think, Mike, many people hurt or feel pain because they don't feel comfortable and safe to express themselves, their true nature, their true thoughts. And I think that is why examples like you are so important. And that's why I desire to shed light and the spotlight, put the spotlight on you so they can see it's doable and that they don't have to be afraid people. So thank you for doing what you're doing.
00:03:56 - Mike Oppenheim
Well, it's a pleasure sometimes. And no matter what, it's a job that I want to have and I want to do, which is, as you phrased it, to say things that are not popular to say about social structures, specifically because I'm not against or for any social structure so much as I'm dedicated to keeping People mindful about them all, like what is and isn't working.
And now I'm going to jump within this topic. But I, I think this is important to say I have not experienced a revolution. I was not alive during the French Revolution, the American Revolution, the Russian Revolution, but all of them terrify me because what's lost in that is what I'm trying to talk about, which is you shouldn't burn down the whole house, even if a couple rooms are off or things are off, it's in general that's not going to produce the effect you want. And I specifically brought those three examples up because all of them succeeded in their immediate goals but then created long term problems.
00:04:55 - Meilin Ehlke
Yeah.
00:04:55 - Mike Oppenheim
So I think in this weird era in which you and I are talking from separate countries and separate cultures within a different monoculture, now more than ever I want people to understand that it's over. There's no unique cultures anymore. Globalization has definitely set in. We could lose Internet, lose technology and then splinter off again.
But like it or not, Africa has to deal with Asia has to deal with Europe has to deal with North America and South America. There's no longer a real system where you can just sit alone in your country and say we're fine. So, and so it's going to be interesting to see like different versions of capitalism come together, different versions of communism, you know, like trade and, and for me where it hits home is travel. Because I'm a human who wants to travel. So any and all laws and international geopolitics does affect me even if I don't want it to. So even if I say I don't care about a war in Ukraine, I don't care about Taiwan and China, I do care because I want my planes to be able to fly and I want to be in them and safely land and I want to meet people from and in Ukraine and Russia and China and Taiwan. So.
00:06:10 - Meilin Ehlke
Yeah, because a few men create war, few men create strict restrictions on women. Yeah. But yes, men in the.
00:06:20 - Mike Oppenheim
Yeah.
00:06:20 - Meilin Ehlke
And most other people in many countries do not even want that. Yeah. And I also wanted to say if we look, we go further back, we do now know, you know, that people did move totally different once upon a time and much more. First of all, they could walk much faster than we can walk. Right. They knew how energies could pull them faster through the landscape.
And I think since we are looking at the protein and not so much at the DNA and many other beautiful scientific advances, they can see that people were from southern Australia, the Aborigines up in Finland, where the Sami live, exchanging their wisdom. East, west, and everything is being turned. Turned around. We were speaking about men. I just heard something. Read something really interesting. I've been always interested in the Japanese culture and samurai. And they just found out that 30% of the samurai were women. And you couldn't distinguish before because all had long hair, but now we can.
00:07:34 - Mike Oppenheim
We.
00:07:34 - Meilin Ehlke
It's more precise. Old sagas are coming up where you talk a lot about travel, multicultural high cultures. I think that I don't know what the word is in English. We say in German.
00:07:46 - Mike Oppenheim
Oh, yeah.
00:07:47 - Meilin Ehlke
So high societies or something where there were old cities with. There's so many travel. Or, you know, the south axis route down to. Through the Arabian countries, down into Africa from all the way north, there was a vibrant streets. And I think just the last 2,000 years, we were being segregated. And especially the last 300 years told. No, no, we were so.
00:08:16 - Mike Oppenheim
Yeah.
00:08:16 - Meilin Ehlke
Plotted somewhere and didn't move and were unflexible.
00:08:21 - Mike OppenheimYeah, it's a. That's fascinating, too, because you touched on something that I'm, like, obsessed with now, which is education is so interesting because I didn't ever think I would live to see education change. Like, to see stories and narratives change. But, like, I live in America and, like, we are literally changing all of our history books. And there's. Wow, there's anger about it. Like, a lot of people are, like, mad about the changes. Other people don't want to change them. And per usual, I can see everyone's opinion inside. But it is fascinating that I, as a child was just drinking history books and, like, reading and listening to everything. And like you just said, I thought everyone was a stupid, like, caveman. And then one day we weren't. But that one day is like the year Christ was born. You know what I mean? Like, it's like it, like, starts so abruptly, and that's not at all true. Like you said, there were, like, vibrant, brilliant cultures. You know, finding out even in, like, middle school that algebra wasn't invented by, you know, white European philosophers, you know, and like that it comes from the Middle east, things like that. It's just. It's fascinating. Yeah.
00:09:30 - Meilin Ehlke
Yeah. I think this is nice. But also the children, they grow up again now learning in their classes about other cultures because they come from many different countries and they. Yeah, they sit together. So from that. That's really interesting and I'm happy. And nowadays, if you think about it, you write a lot newsletters and you've been writing since 2006 that's 18 years. My son was born that year.
00:09:58 - Mike Oppenheim
Yeah
00:09:58 - Meilin Ehlke
That is why I know.
00:10:00 - Mike Oppenheim
Yeah, that's cool.
00:10:02 - Meilin Ehlke
They're digital, so we can switch it so quickly. So if there's a new invention or new literature has been written about new findings or archaeology. No archaeology.
00:10:18 - Mike Oppenheim
Perfect.
00:10:18 - Meilin Ehlke
Right. Can bring right back something, into our history and be updated. Or what we learn about the brain, what we learn about plants. Yeah. That there's so many more. It was once there. And this is nice that we can print on demand so school books can be updated. So I'm very happy to hear that they're going through that. I think Hans Zimmerman I listened to once when I was in college at Georgia University, and he shared a little different view on history. That's, I think the first time I really started thinking, oh my God, how many other books are not right? So I'm thankful that he started stirring a lot and asking many, many questions.
00:11:11 - Mike Oppenheim
Well, and it's. Yeah, and it's funny too because, like, if you and I get off this call and I go talk to my wife and say, this is what happened. That's not going to be accurate. It's going to be my subjective and my memory. It's going to be two things. Your version, same thing. And yet every history book written was a person doing that. You know, like the. Just a famous example. Like all the books about Jesus were written by people who weren't even alive when Jesus was alive, at least according to everything I've read. So, you know, it's, it's. People say, oh, well, my grandpa told me all about this Jesus guy and he said he was the best. And he turned water into wine. He did this. And it's not even that I'm mocking Christianity or making fun of these stories. I'm just pointing out how apocryphal they are, how much they are testimony of someone repeating something. And, and so I think even with that, like, you know, if I were in charge of writing like a history book, I would be so obsessed with being fair that it would be very unfair, if that makes any sense.
00:12:12 - Meilin Ehlke
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's. It's good now because the personal experiences come in when you write. Many books were translated. If we look at old ones, you know, or that weren't born. If I have to think about in the middle age, just were writing each letter by hand and you copied one book after the other or there was someone telling them to write it different this time. Right. To influence people. So literature, words can influence. And I think that is something also Very important to you. I think if I understand you correctly and I understand your writing correctly, you're really inviting people to think about options also that could be new and look at things that are usual. I had even. Where did I write it down? I wrote it down because I thought it was so good. It was one of your titles. You use sentences that are on your thumbnail for your podcast, Coffin Talk, everyone, you have to go look for it. God, he's doing over 200 episodes already. But on this one, okay, it was about a medium. But also in your newsletter, you play with these kinds of structures. Maybe you can talk about it. So you wrote, all mediums are psychics, but not all psychics are mediums. Or you use something with literary. And I can't remember something else in your newsletter. So you ask us to stop other the reader or meet as the reader to stop for a moment and contemplate and say, oh, yeah, it has been used the whole time this way. Is it really still true? That's what I find so fascinating about you, Mike. You ask if it's still true and what I can do as the reader to change it or even to say, oh, my God, this was always this way. I need to speak about it more often.
00:14:24 - Mike Oppenheim
Yeah, I think that's. I have never thought of it with those three words. Is it. Or five words. I don't know. Is it still true? But that is very accurate. That is like. I feel like I'm paying a therapist right now and they're telling me something that's like, break groundbreaking. Because it is. It's. I'm actually. It's really interesting. As I just was telling my wife yesterday, we were having a really pleasant, good conversation, and she kept saying, you keep saying this is true, but what about this? You keep saying this is true. And I said, yeah, that's the weird thing about life. Sometimes both are true. Like, very infrequently. But often enough, two things that seem like they have to contradict each other can be true. And then what you just said is like, on top of that. Well, there's also a. There's this thing of time. And so things don't have to remain true. Like that famous phrase black swan comes from. And this might be, again, like a tale that isn't true, but apparently they had never seen a black swan in Australia specifically. And then they. Or maybe it's the opposite. No one had seen a black swan in Britain. And then they went down to Australia and they saw a black swan. And so now there's A black swan. And so that's why that phrase is an idiom. It's idiomatic to say a black swan, something you thought didn't exist or never had thought about existing, that does exist. And that can be true with truths. They can become true or not true. So I feel like. Like there's a. There's a lie that's told all the time in my culture, which is war. And is. Is war is inevitable. War is a part of being human. Conflict is human. It's impossible to have world peace. There's no. It's not even possible. It wouldn't happen. It can't happen. And that is true until it's not true. And so that's like my answer to everyone who says that is I just go, well, if you. And I didn't participate, and every other person on the exact same morning woke up and said, you know what? Not participating, including Vladimir Putin, including the generals in my country, everyone, if all people just woke up and said, yeah, you know, just like people sometimes are alcoholics and they wake up and say, I'm never going to drink again. And they do. They never drink again. We as a species, we individually could never war again. It's not impossible. So I don't like when people say, this is always true. Which is why you just blew my mind about that is because I am. I'm very concerned with the gravity and like, the forces that the more you tell someone or you tell yourself you're a failure, you're not good, or they're the problem, you know, or this person is ruining my life. If only they weren't that kind of thing. It, like, bills and builds, but it doesn't have to be true. The next day, a person who I find myself awkwardly standing up sometimes for, like, weird things like, like, I want evil dictators in our world. Use your imagination. Put a name in if you want. I want them to talk to us, and I want them to be open to negotiations and talk. Like, I don't want to exile or push or excommunicate anyone out of any system, because I think that leads to what we're talking about. So it's like, awkward, though, because I'm not defending their personality. You know, like the. The former slash current leader of Syria, Assad, he just fled the country, I believe, and. Yeah, no, go ahead. Yeah, I think I'm done.
00:17:53 - Meilin Ehlke
I was just thinking. So you desire openness. And what it goes back to is relating with each other, to find out more about each other. So if I under. Feel that Is really what you're really interested. How can we relate to learn more about each other?
00:18:17 - Mike Oppenheim
Definitely.
00:18:17 - Meilin Ehlke
And that's already fascinating. That is already. Wow. We would do that. Or I had a conversation with a rabbi episode that just went out and. Oh, now I forgot the thought. It's okay. What was I saying? Relating to each other now. Something that happened. The conversation. But he said something really beautiful and I forgot what I wanted to say. It's okay. And the one.
00:18:54 - Mike Oppenheim
But I do. I mean, you nailed it, though. That is what I'm. What I want is I want, you know, like, you and I are agreeable and we get along and we come from a similar mental place. On today's podcast, like today's episode specifically, I have no idea what you were like 20 years ago. I know what I was like 20 years ago, but it doesn't matter. The point is, today on Earth, your human form, My human form. And so this conversation is good. And especially because if anyone else listening receives courage, strength, or anything good from it. But what we're also talking about is how important it is to talk to people you don't want to talk to and to try to relate to them specifically. So not to, like, talk to them with your arms folded, but like to really try to relate. And that's what I was. I was saying is so awkward. Is that, like, I have strong negative opinions about a lot of people who are famous specifically in politics and things like that, but I will never openly say them on a podcast, write about them, or do anything to like, give them more weight and power, because I want the opposite to happen. I want to not have those opinions. And so I'm trying to, like, find out how I can relate to people, including horrible, terrible leaders who are doing awful things on Earth. And it's not because I want to become their friends or. Or help them. Well, I do want to help them, but I want to help them relate back. And. And if we can, I just think everyone is capable of change. And if you can reach people in that spot where everyone is reachable at some point in their heart or whatever you want to call it, through relating specifically, that's the cure to what I care about, which is less and less conflict.
00:20:41 - Meilin Ehlke
Less conflict. Yeah. So. But that is why you're bringing so different information out. So the more we know, the better we can understand. The more I understand a person, I learn about a person, about a thing, the more complex an experience is I have. So that's why it's important, having experiences. So conversation is an experience with someone being in a group somewhere. We have telephones, we have zoom. I think this is a beautiful thing. We can speak with people around the world, hear what they think directly, not through a third party like a newspaper before or a book. But that's also nice reading someone's thoughts and ideas. And you do that. And even you've written up to eight books now, not all of them are published yet, but you go also in different genres. So it is like you're even exploring for yourself so many different experiences. You must become like a different personality or you're looking at different sides of. Of yourself. And you also, I saw in your newsletter you also make a satire comic drawing cartoon that's called. Right. Thought provoking cartoon on top of it. So I think what that is also interesting. You look at so many different possibilities for the reader to use their senses. So to see, to read, to go into different personalities. Right, because different personalities, you sense different. You were just taught you had here a medium on your podcast. I'm a medium. I'm a physical medium. I feel different when I have different beings within me. So when I'm a different person, I walk different, I talk different, I broaden or I tighten. Yeah, I. There is so much to experience. So in your books you also do that. You go into different genres, into different personalities and way of speaking to bring that out. Did you also. Please talk about that and then also did you experience that in life for yourself?
00:23:13 - Mike Oppenheim
Yeah, I think so. I've moved a lot. I'm going to answer your question very strangely, but I think it'll answer it. I've moved a lot. I've lived in nine or 10 different states. I've lived in Thailand briefly. I've traveled to 32 countries. I've been to every state in America. And when I was. I've been married twice. I'm in my second and final marriage. And it. When I had my second wedding, I had friends from all these places come to visit. And my favorite part of the wedding was watching them all get along, but also knowing I'm not a chameleon and I'm not fake. Like everywhere I go, I am the same person, even though I'm growing and changing all the time. Because as a child I was told constantly and appropriately so that I changed my mind too much. I want to do this now. I want to do this now. I'll do this. But I associated that with like being fake or changing like who I am. So I misunderstood that as a child often does. And now I understand that I was just being critiqued for, like, crazy energy, you know, Like. Like, that was a different thing, but I was taking it, you know, deeply in a bad way. And. And so I thought when I moved, I like moving a lot. And I was worried that it was because I, like, I need to, like, create a new reputation. I need to go somewhere else. So it was very nice and comforting for me to have friends from everywhere throughout my life always meet each other. Like, everywhere I've lived, I would have friends visit from other places and have them get along and see the same me, like, the same thing that you. You are seeing. And so my. Like, it's weird, though, because the whole time you were talking, I wanted to ask you a question about you, because.
00:24:54 - Meilin Ehlke
Go ahead.
00:24:56 - Mike Oppenheim
So. So. And I tend to do this on podcasts, so I apologize, but I'm. Please, I.
00:25:00 - Meilin Ehlke
It's a conversation.
00:25:01 - Mike Oppenheim
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I have a huge ego, and I care about myself, but I cannot talk to other people about myself. As much as I want to hear about you, I want to learn who you are. And so the two times we've met, you have. You have a presence. And I feel this presence occasionally, but not often. I would say enough times that I can't name how many people have it, but not enough times that it seems common. And it's. I have a feeling you've had it since you were a child, but I don't know for sure. But what it is is it's a presence that. There's no polite way to say this, but it is polite, and you will not be offended. But there's no. I can't. There's no words in my language to say this, because everything we talk about in my culture, about what I'm talking about, is negative, because my culture is not accepting of presence because presence is not scientifically quantifiable, and you can't put it in boxes. So instead of saying, there's this mysterious thing called presence, let's honor it. We are dismissive of it where I live. And so there's no, like, positive connotations. But what I was trying to say, and am saying is some people have a presence, and I feel like they're full of. They're literally trying to have a presence. And so, like, they light incense and they burn sage, and they take deep breaths and they shut their eyes, and they're trying to give this impression of a deep, philosophical, weighty person who might have access to spirits and. And who might be able to see through their third eye, perhaps, or something like that you have the real thing that those people are trying to fake. And I can't prove it, but I know it. And I only know it when I'm in it. And so it's just fascinating to me because it's hard to have you talk about what I'm doing when I'm feeling your presence. And then I want to ask you about it because I want to know, have you had it since childhood? Do you know you have it? Does it weird people out? Do people ever, like get worried by it? Like, what is it like going through life with that? Wow.
00:27:17 - Meilin Ehlke
Yes. I have it since I'm a little girl.
00:27:19 - Mike Oppenheim
Okay. Yeah.
00:27:20 - Meilin Ehlke
There's something I knew now. I'm of almost 57 now. I educated myself. The right people came in my world and I find here and there a few people that are similar. It has not been very easy, Mike. It does help though, hearing also nowadays that someone says, mylene, when you were in school with us, you were already calming. And I said, wow. So most people always share that I'm calming. And I heard sometimes people get mad at me because I wouldn't see the part, the negative the whole time I would see the positive because I like to look behind things and look behind again. I see the good thing always.
00:28:16 - Mike Oppenheim
Yeah.
00:28:16 - Meilin Ehlke
And I feel it, but I don't, you know, if I use the word see, I don't see. I don't have spirits that translate. I had to learn that I was a physical channel, you know, for me, it was so natural to be a different being within a sentence. That came also only when I was in my 40s. So, yeah, it was not so easy. And then I think, why? And people would change while they're in my presence. I noticed that, but they couldn't understand it. Many years later they would understand it. Or even in my work now, it's like sometimes I just need to touch someone. And that's it. It stays. Yeah, but it has been difficult. But it. I have. I think I've been born this way. And I've been trying to put it into words, what I am. That is hard. It is. I can't say it's too vast. But I cannot put myself in categories. And maybe that is why, Mike, I so understand beings that are have so many facets, but all beings have so many facets. We're all light beings. And since I'm a little girl, it hurts me to feel compression. If it's an animals, I can sense it in nature. And maybe that's why I also turned landscape architect. I Wanted to be a veterinarian. Vet. I did. Started with shamanism for animals. Right? I did. I mean, I need a lot of also ways to express. And I sing. And sometimes then. You think you're crazy. Marlene, who do you think you are? Or who I am? Yeah. But thank you for seeing that. But there's a beautiful. Times are changing also, so I think the whole world is in a new energy. So now I'm hearing that from other people. And I just recently said that to a good friend of mine. Said, it feels so good. People tell me what I want to be, that they tell me that they sense what I wanted to be since I'm a little girl.
00:30:39 - Mike Oppenheim
That's interesting. That's really interesting. Yeah, it's this new era. It's like everyone feels it. And what I find hilarious is some people are really against it, I think, just because a lot of people hate change. And so I think it's scary. But it's funny because to me, the change, everything, robots, AI, space aliens, all of it, it's all changed. To blow our minds, to open us, to, like, the fact that we're really light and that we're interdimensional and that you go to sleep every night and where are you, and you have to remind yourself who you are when you wake up. Like, these thoughts are disturbing to people because they don't want to not be human. It's like. It's funny to me. Like, I am so relieved. When I. When I was younger, I wasn't afraid of dying, and I had a lot of close calls, and it only. It took me a long time to realize that that was to remind me that I get to die, which is kind of like coffin talk. It's like this. It's so hard to talk about this. Like, I love life so much that sometimes it's too much, and I just wish it wasn't. Like, it feels like a burden sometimes to be so alive, to, like, feel, you know, I think this drives a lot of people to alcoholism and drug use. I think that it's scary as a kid to feel so much love for so many people, and then to see them not loving each other, that, to me, was just always frightening. And it still is to this day. I hate that I have friends who can't get along and that I have, you know, splintered groups from my youth that, like, people won't talk to each other. And even in my own life, I have an ex wife and their family, and no matter what I try to do with them, it just doesn't work. There's no. Like, they don't want to be peaceful and have a good relationship. And it's. It's a good lesson for me, though, to actually walk away and let someone have negativity towards you. But like I'm saying, this new era is the end of that. It's like, I feel like. So if you. The. The side that is taking over isn't a side that uses brutality or force to take over. It's a side that uses, like a soft, soft, soft approach from the bottom up, not from the top down. And so it's. Yeah, it's slow. I don't even know if I'll live to see it come to fruition. But I still think we will.
00:33:08 - Meilin Ehlke
And I also think, Mike, many of us will live much longer. We can see that you were talking about AI, and I think it's so important that we beings even with this gentleness, with this calmness, with this patience, with this being present in our beingness. That's my vocabulary. You use different words.
00:33:37 - Mike Oppenheim
No, that's exactly. Yeah, yeah.
00:33:38 - Meilin Ehlke
But that people can feel comfortable and have the moment to feel safe. I think that is what many are afraid of. And we were manipulated again for thousands of years to feel unsafe of change. You were talking about change. Right. So when you write, for example, a lot about change and looking at things from different perspectives, people will get more and more comfortable as more of us become courageous or to show ourselves how the full way we are and not trying to adapt or listen so much anymore to others, but share more how we function. So that's why. What's very nice that you asked me, because I bet there's some listeners that feel exactly like you and me. And it's funny, we're both wearing green. Would have talked about it. And it's like a similar green. It's the color of healing. Right. And nature. So we're very connected to the flow, both of us and many of us of you listeners to what is out there and to listen to it and to listen to our body, to feel and sense what our body tells and even the words that want to come out that we don't tighten our lips or like Mike, you take a pencil into a pen, into your hand, and then you write, or maybe you're a type into the computer, but that you follow the input and you don't censor yourself too much and delete it because what you've written is fascinating and better words than fascinating, but it really is. You start pondering, and that is Important. Or you put these words and AI picks them up because you write newsletters, right?
00:35:43 - Mike Oppenheim
Yeah.
00:35:44 - Meilin Ehlke
So then suddenly they have a bigger reach to get something and write something and educate others.
00:35:52 - Mike Oppenheim
Yeah.
00:35:52 - Meilin Ehlke
Even if you use ChatGPT, the more we share of ourselves, we use different vocabulary. I think that's also important. I also encourage many people, use your vocabulary. What words do you want to say? And I think, Mike, that's what's so interesting. What you're also interested in is the experiences behind the words and how words have changed over time and where are words going again? And I see so much that people want to go to the root of words again, that this is coming up so they can feel freer to express what they about. Do you go often and look what is a root when you write your pieces?
00:36:40 - Mike Oppenheim
Yeah, I am very obsessed with what they say, etymology, the. The roots, where words come from. And I love, like, a lot of the Internet things that you can now access, like graphs of usage and like, when you know, like, the word. I was an English language teacher, so I'm obsessed with this subject. So just one anecdote that always stuck. There's only one slang word in English language that hasn't come and gone. So in other words, rad was a cool word for, like six years in the 1980s. Hip was cool in the 50s, groovy was cool in the 70s. Like, things like that. Right. There's one word that became slang and never stopped being used. And it's cool. Cool is the only slang word to be used by every single generation, and it's still being used.
00:37:30 - Mike Oppenheim
Like, even little kids are saying cool right now. And no one can figure this out. No one can figure out why. Radical, tubular, groovy, hip. Like, you know, there's a million of them. And again, I can't speak for any other language. You know, I can't talk about even Spanish or French, but I just know English is the most welcoming, absorbent language of all the languages that are currently out. Meaning we accept new words. The. The Oxford Committee and Webster dictionaries accept. Whereas most languages, like especially French, they're very obstinate to adding new words. They don't want to create more. And so I just find this fascinating that there's that one word. And this goes back to what you were asking about.
00:38:13 - Mike Oppenheim
Do I study words? Well, that's important to me because I like to make jokes in my newsletters. And what becomes harder and harder as I get older is the popular culture realm of jokes. It moves that window. So, like, my parents If I was writing an article to they're 77 and 78 years old, I would have to change references like Howdy Doody and like, Mickey Mantle. And like, you know, I have to bring up Marilyn Monroe, John F. Kennedy. Like, I would talk about 60s and 70s, maybe 80s, but I also want to talk to people my age.
00:38:48 - Mike Oppenheim
So then I have to bring up things from the 90s, Britney Spears, Bill Clinton, you know, and like. So instead I have to constantly think, what is a word that everyone who's currently alive and could read? This is going to have a similar connotation to, like, I can keep my group together. And so it's. Etymology is really important for that because in. Again, I can only talk about America.
00:39:12 - Mike Oppenheim
But in the last 10 years, really, but five, for sure, there's been a huge movement to ban words, to, like, say, this word's not okay. We shouldn't use this word. And especially with etymology, they wanted to remove every man and his word from my language at one point. So instead of history, it would be our story or something. And. And again, not critiquing the politics or the impetus for these movements. I'm just speaking as a language and a writer, to your point. And so, you know, like, a manhole is like a thing on a street where there's a sewer top in my language. And they wanted to change that word. They were like, no, it should be a person hole. And, you know, there's just this, like, point where I.
00:39:58 - Mike Oppenheim
That's, like, why etymology is so interesting to me is I have to be mindful of, like, what is going to last, what came before me, where am I now? And I think in general, with these weekly essays, it's more important to be here now when I read it, like, to make it poignant to that day, that year and those people. So I'm not really writing for, like, 400 years from now. Someone's gonna find my writing and, like, will they understand it? And. And so the etymology and the use of words is incredibly important to me for this reason. Like, the connotations. If I say, yeah, I don't know, it's like, even if I were to, like, talk about, like, gay people, that would be like.
00:40:43 - Mike Oppenheim
Like, even that has shifted so much in my lifetime. Like, the pejorative use of that word is that even the correct word anymore? But then also, like, what is the purpose in talking about gay people? Like, will gay people exist in a hundred years because they might not have a word for sexual orientation in 100 years, that society might not care yeah, why would we have a word for that? Or they might care a lot. They might be like, gay is not enough. We need 500 words for like, the 500.
00:41:10 - Meilin Ehlke
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember my teacher. He' he mentioned there was a Native American tribe. I don't know which one it is. In their language, they have 300 words for the word of green. A lot. Yeah, yeah. And that also before settlers came, they didn't have. You were talking about cool, by the way, in Germany, we still also use the word cool in our language.
00:41:37 - Mike Oppenheim
And.
00:41:38 - Meilin Ehlke
But that they weren't cold. Only then when the settlers came, the words were included that described coldness. And then they physically became cold. Wow, that's a really interesting thing. So if we look at words and while you were speaking that we have to create new words. But how can we create new words? And to be mindful. But we're then in an open time with people are interested to say things differently. And again, so people start thinking the masses. It's always often about the masses, that they change or become more open or they become more enclosed or that they segregate more or that they don't. But yeah, so in a way, words that express a lot of feeling. German is considered a cold language. I remember when I lived in the U.S. oh, it sounds so rough and cold, Mike. One day a man who was a Spanish teacher said, oh, we had linguistics. I think he was doing his doctor at that moment. We had to learn about German. I'm so surprised. You have so many words for feeling. So he had to use flowery language, describe things longer, and we had, let's say, words different. So that is also something he didn't know until he spoke or learned a little bit about a language and the usage. So that comes also to it. How do we use these words and the society. Different cultures use words differently. And we have to travel as you did. We have to go and explore and be immersed in words for one thing. Like if it's a newsletter, a book, a podcast or film what you're doing, or if it's a group of people, music that we hear, the colors of clothing. Like if you go in the African continent or the Southern American continent, these countries, they have such vibrant colors because the sun is so strong. Or also Asia, if you think about it, Bali. Right. If. Then you look at the traditional clothing. Yeah. You know, then the vibrancy comes. It has to do with the climate. And can we bring that all into a text?
00:44:15 - Mike Oppenheim
It's not easy. The color thing is really fascinating because You've raised a child and you know that you may remember this. I shouldn't say you do. But teaching colors to children is incredibly difficult. They don't see them and they don't want to see see them. They just see everything. And then you're like, that's red. But like I remember one of my kids, I have three children, one of them couldn't get red and orange. Like it just took them much longer than I thought it would. They just refused to see that division. They just didn't want to see that red and orange are separate. They were cool with yellow being different green. And then in Thai, one of the languages I speak, they don't have one word for blue. They have two words for blue because they don't think blue is one blue. They think there's the Pacific Ocean color of blue. And then they think there's like the Atlantic Ocean color of green. And so since water is blue in our language, it's not blue. In Thai, water isn't blue. So they, that's like their big hang up when they first start learning English is they have to tell their mind. Oh, when you switch to this language group, you have to see literally two colors as one. And in every conversation when someone says blue, you have to imagine which blue they're talking about. You don't get to tell them which blue. And I think that's a lot of cross cultural communication. You know, I mean I could. There's a million examples but like fascinating.
00:45:41 - Meilin Ehlke
But you know, that's how, how much people start mistaking each other because he can't feel it, understand it, that someone sees colors different reds. Everyone sees reds different. What are we? As a painter, I can see what colors do certain painters use and love to use because they feel comfortable for. Some of them were too muddy for me. I didn't feel so comfortable using them. But I can say they're wrong. All one should paint with them, right? And children. Yeah, you're right up to the seven. They see. They don't until we put them in kindergarten where we teach them to draw lines. And in lines, different colors, they see the whole ray. They see these energies and energies. If you go and close your eyes or go in the non material or many people see energies and we can the freak. The energy is also free. We know it's like it. They flow and they go up and down. You were using your hands so often. So everyone who's listening, oh, and take a look for a moment how Mike moves his, his hands when he talks about words. And, yeah, and they wide at one point and then they're thin. Or if you look at a field of flowers, like in the prairie lands in the US you have swales and exactly one plant doesn't grow like five, 10 in one area. There's maybe four here and two, and then they're one, so then they go into the other. There is a dance, there is a flow from one into the other. And I think when we become more movable like this, and we flow in our life or in your writing, that we flow. Or when I paint or sing or dance, whatever someone does, we become free to do this flowing movement again, this spiraling, letting these energy flow through our body. Then we become also more open and relate better to each other.
00:47:53 - Mike Oppenheim
Definitely. And I think that. So I'm 43, which means I'm officially middle aged, you know, and you're also middle aged. We're in the exact middle age period. And I. I don't know if your parents are still with us, but I know mine are. Mine are still with us, but, like, one of them doesn't have the best health and, you know, we can just see an end coming. And I think what you just said, for me, that's really the hardest part of flowing for me is, is accepting since I was a child, that my parents should pass before me. That's the natural order. Like, I should be left on earth without my mommy and daddy. That's like the most terrifying thought ever. And then it keeps becoming a little less terrifying, but it still is terrifying. It's still like there's two people who have to love me. Like, they have to help me, they have to take my phone calls, they have to listen to me talk, you know, like. Like, I. I mean, I know that not everyone has that relationship with their parents, but I do. And. And I have that relationship with my children. And so I have these nasty thoughts all the time where I'm like, oh, I'm giving my children the same gift of having a parent you love so much that you never want them to leave. It's like a weird. Does this make sense?
00:49:11 - Meilin Ehlke
Like, I can understand it, but luckily we're becoming older and we're hearing more about mediums and conversations and going back to that one episode. Yeah, he spoke with his father, who has passed, and we can do so much more. And I think sometimes I'm in a teenager age, I think something is going to happen. We really are able to be here longer, and people were once much older. And I feel that. And I can't Put in words. And maybe it's not the truth for someone else, but I'm curious. So as I'm living, I'm even overthrowing the similar fear. My parents are in their 80s. Luckily, I know by father's side, they all were over close to 100. Over 100. So I can spend more time with them and my son can spend more time with them and learn about their life. Yeah, but that is something of the human. But also we have to learn more about maybe our ancestors. If we go and understand that, we can still converse with them. Or maybe write a letter and see, or take a pen into your hand and start writing and let's see what words suddenly appear on paper. And maybe ancestors have wisdom for us. Maybe then we feel better and then we also feel loved more. Because I think this is a big thing. Why do we read? Because words make us feel comfortable, or we drug ourselves with words so we don't have to live. Life also happens. And there are phases in life where it's more the other, but. And then we also feel loved of a whole longer history. And when we become open to speak about community. And I think that's also what you've created. You're creating community also with your newsletters, with your coffin talk, with your podcast. Right. You create communities in there. You invite people to become members so they can feel part of something. And I think when we feel more part and accepted and seen and understood, because we look at all different facets, because the more facets you show me, I can show you more my facets. And then there's these overlaps, it's, oh, my God, you do this too. We have something to talk about. But if we say, I'm only a writer and I'm only, let's say, a singer, I'm. Okay. There are also words. Let's say painter. Yeah. Then we never get along. But when you start saying, oh, I also draw some cartoons about what was spoken about or what I'm writing about, I said, oh, yeah, we show me what pen, and suddenly what paper do you like? What times do you draw? And suddenly we can have a long conversation where we feel comfortable with each other. Yeah, I love that.
00:52:24 - Mike Oppenheim
And I think it's. It's what I'm always trying to relate to people in my country because there's so much tension right now over identity. And. And to me, it's silly because your identity doesn't have to be one thing or even 10 things, and it can just be, you know, identifying with, trying to get along with people that could be your identity. So it's, like, interesting that people tell you. In my country. Our country. And when you. When you meet people, I keep imagining your audience is international. So I keep saying my country for them. But, yeah, it's good.
00:52:56 - Meilin Ehlke
They are international. Yes.
00:52:58 - Mike Oppenheim
Yeah.
00:52:58 - Meilin Ehlke
So I figured you get confused because I'm also half American. Ye.
00:53:02 - Mike Oppenheim
That's why. Because I know you're 20 and I.
00:53:06 - Meilin Ehlke
Live 20 years in. Yeah.
00:53:07 - Mike Oppenheim
More so for me, it's. It's difficult because I think there's, like. You'll remember this. One of the first questions Americans ask each other and other people is what are you? And that's referring to, like, your ethnicity. It's like a very specific, weird, vague, so it sounds like, what are you? Like a human Molecules. Biology. But the real meaning of it is what ethnicity are units? Because in my culture and our culture and my country. Our country, there's a huge, like, importance on, like, where do you come from? And then when you meet someone from another country. So I'm part Italian, part Spanish by heritage. I once told a Spanish person I'm, oh, yeah, I'm also from Spain. They're like, no, you're not. Like, you're like, no, I am from Spain. Like, it doesn't matter that, like, someone left on a boat in the year 1920. From my country. I don't care. Like, you're not. And so that's an American fixation. And I would like to get rid of that. I'd like it to be more of, hey, you know, we're. We're both artists. Oh, I. Your skin color. Of course, I noticed that. But why would I care? That shouldn't be even, like. It should be like number 500 on your list, your skin color. Yeah, that's again, should be.
00:54:21 - Meilin Ehlke
Yeah, that will disappear. But there is this need of belonging. We don't belong anymore. I think that's what we were speaking about throughout today's episode is that we were disrooted, we were separated, we were censored, we were pushed along. You had to leave. You were speaking about war, Fanon, maybe somewhere you're interested to go somewhere else. We don't have cultural. And you write about those things as well. I know the cultural settings anymore where we can come together or where we have rituals, especially in the West. I remember when my son was 12, he wanted to become a susquehannic, like one of my teachers, Native American. And he became. I did. Yeah.
00:55:19 - Mike Oppenheim
No, I'm laughing because it's.
00:55:20 - Meilin Ehlke
That's such a tskhanic. Now and. But it was very important. And I asked and he said, yeah, because there's a time of belonging. I said, right, we have no rituals for men. We women, we get a period at least we have bleeding our hormones. They show some. Okay, maybe men appeared, but we get. But it's. Yeah, no, nothing. But you don't belong to a certain group anymore. You want something where you can share the sameness. Because we like to be with each other and we have been so pulled apart. Like if I live here in towns, generations stay here and live there. And I, for me, after being also experienced in the US People leave. You go new house. New house, different city, job somewhere else and you just move, but you're just located. And we don't have, in a way, rituals anymore where we at least go back to the source where we as a human being come from. So we can understand. Or. I was speaking about ancestors. We don't have rituals where we speak with ancestors. So we know we have a backing that we can fall back onto something that we can feel safe. Because if you know you have beings and spirits around you and that you're loved by nature and you're loved by the sun and. And I'm loved by you, Mike. I can feel much more comfortable. I don't get sad so often. And I'm more creative. And when I'm more creative and I can express myself, then I can be really calm and peaceful inside again. That goes back to what we all. You spoke about as well. Right. When we are peaceful and then at the end, there is a beautiful way of moving around this earth and meeting each other.
00:57:10 - Mike Oppenheim
Definitely. And I think it. That's why I was asking you about your presence. Because I imagine as a former teacher, but never of little children, nothing would be more frightening to an older person who isn't calm than a child who is calm. Like. Like it's. So that's why I was asking, like, I don't know if you knew you had it your whole life, but I'm sure that you. Anytime an adult wanted to tell you to be like nervous or tell you to be scared or tell you to be worried, which is something some adults really like to do because it makes them feel better. They think they're preparing you for life. What they're really doing is telling you life is hard and terrible. And you know, my mother a little bit like this.
00:57:50 - Meilin Ehlke
Or teachers. Yeah. Stubborn often. Because I wouldn't do that or I would leave.
00:57:57 - Mike Oppenheim
Exactly.
00:57:58 - Meilin Ehlke
We just spoke about it. We all got together like this Sunday I drove to my parents and my brother and his family was there. Yeah, it is exactly that. Then I just ran away. I would run into nature because I would feel and I would not never stay on a path. I would feel the energy below my feet. I mean, I didn't know that at that time. Now I know that I was following the energy lines and not the sets roads by for a tractor. So right. If you go for a walk and suddenly the dogs, the deer, the cats, they use different. You let the children roam and they follow the energy lines. We were speaking about it. And they wiggle and waggle and they're not straight and they, they tank up. They. They get nourished by the energy in the earth, they get nourished by the plants and that's why they have more energy and they can move better. And we're so even segregated there. We can, we both can speak for, for hours. But I. For me, it's important that people really get to read what you're writing, Mike. How can they connect with you? Or could you tell them how to find your work?
00:59:11 - Mike Oppenheim
Yeah, and actually this is a good time in my life. I have finally found a landing spot. One website which has all my stuff on it. So if you're interested in anything I do, which includes novels, non fiction, essays, podcasts, music, cartoons, television shows, movies, I think there's other stuff, but anyway, it's all at my website, which is www.mikeyop.m I k e y O-P-P.com and that's it. If you go there, it'll say, do you want to subscribe? The answer is yes, but if you don't want to, you can still say no and still see my stuff. So it's not that you're required to. And then, yeah, I'm gonna send, if you sign up for it, I'm gonna send you one email every Sunday which has the podcast in it, an original essay that I wrote. And then there's also extra things that you can get on top of that. So. And I am working. I'm working more than ever, harder than ever and more mindfully than ever, which is the real component I care about. And it's to, to keep a focus on. I'm not trying to be entertaining and I'm not trying to be successful. I want to be entertaining and I want to be successful. But I AM in my 40s, I have children. That is like increasingly less important. What's more important is actually helping others. Not saying I'm helping others, but like, so I, it's, it's interesting because it's still me indulging in myself, doing my creative process, but everyone's doing that. That's how you pass time and it's how you enjoy life. But then because I've changed my purpose, it feels deeper now. It feels better and I feel like cleaner and I walk away from it with less attachment to the results. So especially for people who are listening, who are creative, as soon as you can move in that direction, because it's a long road from the little child who likes the spotlight and attention to the adult who gets that, but for the good, wholesome reasons that it should come, not because you're desperately seeking it and it'll feel different. So I've had the spotlight because I was working for it with a different approach and it never felt good because I was looking for something different. Now I'm shifting and I'm not looking for that. And so it's actually coming. That feeling I always wanted. And so like, if you want a feeling, chase the feeling, but don't attach it to the real thing. The real thing isn't what gives you the feeling. The pursuit with the right attitude is what will give you that feeling you want. Whatever it is. It doesn't even love, even friendships, even relationships, that the reason you're doing it is because you want a feeling, it's not because you want a result. And I think that's really important to tell people right now. So that's what you get. If you sign up to my stuff, I'll help you find that feeling.
01:02:06 - Meilin Ehlke
That is so beautifully said. I want to add just one thing. I remember when my son was born, I wanted to do everything to live truly me more so I could live it and not tell him what to do, that I would be an example. And that's what I hear out of you. And beautiful words and last words and. But they're never going to be your last words. You're going to keep on bringing your energy through many different ways and outlets to this world to support others, to shine brightly. Mike and I really thank you for this and being so compassionate for your family, for yourself. That's really important. Everyone be compassionate for yourself and for the world, humanity and the world. So thank you Mike for your time, for what you're doing and everyone do read or listen. If you are more a listener to his podcast and soak in his words, his play on words and the deep meaning even within the play of his words. Thank you Mike and everyone. I wish you the best I'm a Lynn. And be creative now and find your way as Mike said. Bye. Bye.