Serenbe Stories

Creativity and Zing! with Sam Harrison

August 23, 2021 Serenbe / Sam Harrison Season 6 Episode 3
Serenbe Stories
Creativity and Zing! with Sam Harrison
Show Notes Transcript

Sam Harrison has been on all sides of creative communications, marketing and branding, most recently on the academic and coaching side. He speaks, trains, writes and coaches on creativity-related topics with a mission to help people expand and express their creativity and improve their presentation skills. In today's episode, we talk with Sam about staying curious, his neighborhood newsletter that has been telling Serenbe's stories for years, and how to foster your creative enthusiasm and passion. 

0 (1s):
Hey guys, it's Monica here. I wanted to tell you about a new podcast that I've started with my very good friend, Jennifer Walsh called biophilic solutions. Our last season of ceremony stories, building a biophilic movement was so popular that we decided to dedicate an entire podcast to it every other week. Jennifer and I will sit down with leaders in the growing field of biophilia. We'll talk about local and global solutions to help nurture their living social and economic systems that we all need to sustain future generations more often than not. Nature has the answers. You can find biophilic solutions on apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts, subscribe and follow us today. So you don't miss an episode.

0 (41s):
All right, now let's get back to ceremony stories. Sam Harrison has been on all sides of creative communications, marketing and branding. Most recently on the academic and coaching side, he speaks trains, writes and coaches on creativity related topics. The mission to help people expand and express their creativity and improve their presentation skills. In today's episode, we talk with Sam about staying curious, his neighborhood newsletter that has been telling ceremony stories for years and how to foster your creative enthusiasm and passion

1 (1m 18s):
And tell us is as we get older, we began to lose. If we're not careful with some of those creative genes, some of those creative abilities, because we just don't question enough. We're not curious enough. We don't take risks. And now if we don't open ourselves. Yeah.

0 (1m 37s):
Hi Sam. Welcome to Sarah bee stories. It's such a pleasure to have you on

1 (1m 42s):
Thank you, Monica. Great to be here, Steve. I mean, Sam,

2 (1m 46s):
How appropriate that we're talking to you about Sarah and stories? I mean, that's, you know, more of a, what Sam does, Sam is we'll get into that in the interview while I'm saying that. Definitely, definitely for those who don't know who those are, listening, who do not live here, everyone who lives here knows about Sam and the great storytelling. He does everything going on. Sarah B

0 (2m 11s):
It's the super secret. If you're a resident town talk newsletter, but Sam, you know, one of the things we kick off our conversations is really telling the listeners how you found out about Sarah and B and you, you and your wife have been here for quite some time. So you've kind of seen it all, but tell us how you discovered ceremony years back.

1 (2m 33s):
So we were in Atlanta or right outside of Atlanta and around the Qaeda. And I had left the world of product development and marketing and Brandon, and was kind of decided my next step. And I was teaching at portfolio center, which is a private school for graduate studies program for, and designers and photographers. And it's a private school owned by, at that time by a woman named Jim again. And so I walked into Jim's office one day and she said, Hey, I just bought this lot down at a place called Sarah and B and is south of the airport.

1 (3m 20s):
Now, if you lived in Atlanta and somebody said style to the airport, your eyes would sort of glaze over. I had no idea what was south of the airport, other than when I would fly in from trips and just say a lot of trees and nothing else. And, but she kept saying, every time I would go in there, you kind of go down there. It's going to be this environmental artistic community. And they have these really weird lampposts and you would love it. So I to know if you went so every Sunday morning or every other Sunday, my wife and I would have adventures in the city, we would go somewhere different to get something to eat or to say something.

1 (4m 3s):
And so there was a new ice cream shop down near grant park near the zoo. So we said, let's go down and get an ice cream. So we did, and we was sitting there and passed while we're down this way. This we're already pretty far south down twice that Jim was talking about and just get our off our backs about sure enough, we wrote down. And we wrote in, and immediately we just for amazed at what we saw in the first thing we saw all the stables and all the green surroundings and went in and Reyna was at the sales office, which was then right across from the Daisy.

1 (4m 48s):
And wasn't much else here. There was a Daisy in one row of houses in those townhouses. And she talked to us and she was so nice and explained everything. And then we went home to the Daisy and Steve was layer and Ralston and he was there and they were very nice. Talked to us about some of the artistic things that were going to happen. And just more and more of a hope. And I just kept looking at each other and by about three o'clock, we were getting ready to leave. And I can't remember it was, the bullets are chipping, right? I said, we're getting ready to have a little open house with all the neighbors. Just kind of a spur of the moment that I, why don't you join us?

1 (5m 31s):
And we did. And again, been to a lot of galleries and a lot of social events everywhere, but it was a different feel. Everybody had just seemed to be so comfortable with each other and talked. And we're very, we're very nice to us. So we left that day and I don't think we talked about halfway back. We were both thinking we, at the time we had, we had the house in Atlanta, but we also had a cottage in Highlands, North Carolina. And that's where we thought we would wind up. We had bought a lot next to us that we were going to build up a larger house. So we said, well, let's, let's think about all this.

1 (6m 13s):
And I guess within a week to two weeks later, we had bought a lot and we wound up building before Gemma did and subsequently sold our place in Highlands. And here we are. I

0 (6m 31s):
Love it. Yeah. That I think I remember that we were living in grant park. I remember that ice cream shop perhaps. And I love that your day just sort of kept flowing into another thing that that is very much what happens here. Right? All the time, all the time, all the time,

2 (6m 50s):
Many times, whether it's the friend or the spouse, that, that first gets the idea many times it's, it's, it's the friends that are getting ahead of them. Right. Right.

1 (7m 6s):
Many times too. Steve is not a logical decision. It doesn't seem like a logical decision at the time. Well, let's just do it.

2 (7m 19s):
No, I often say that's what makes Sarah and be so interesting because it's all people that do not follow logic necessarily, but they're willing to follow their th their gut or their heart, or however you want to do it. That's true of almost every household here. There was few logical decisions.

1 (7m 36s):
Yeah. I've heard that over and over. And I agree. I agree. And I think that's how I sort of self selected because of that. People follow their heart. Yeah.

0 (7m 48s):
Speaking of heart, and I'll add in head, I really am very excited to talk to you about all of your work. And you mentioned portfolio center. Did you continue working at portfolio and teaching there while you were in the early years of being down here? Sam?

1 (8m 6s):
Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, that's sort of led to how I got into what evolved into, which was writing books and articles, as well as speaking, when I first started teaching that I was teaching some writing classes and some Brandon type classes. And I saw a lot of kids that were less like kids. They were college graduates, but kids to me, they, they thought they were creative. Some, a lot of them were very creative, but they had never really looked at their creativity and thought about how do I, how do I become more creative?

1 (8m 51s):
How do I stay creative? How do I become when I need to be creative to come up with a product or a design or whatever. So I wanted to teach her a creativity class that was not a pure creativity class. Talk about what is the creative process. So I talked to Jim about that, or she was fine with it. And I happened to be in New York while I was thinking about this. And it was a fellow named Milton Glaser. He died. If he doesn't go with Milton, Glaser is probably the most celebrated graphic artists in America. He came up with the, I love New York logo, Lockhart logo.

1 (9m 33s):
He did that famous Dylan psychedelic poster. He's done a million things, but I had a conversation with him and I was telling him that I was thinking about teaching a class on creativity. He says, Sam, you can't teach creativity. That was kind of a let down. But he said, well, what you can do is you can help people discover and uncover their creativity, this layer that they already have, or you can help them rediscover. It becomes a lot of time, no matter how creative you are, you have created laws. So that, that became a task and mission and what I wanted to do. So I started teaching a class there that led to my first book called <inaudible>, which was basically how to find inspiration, how to keep inspiration, and then that led to, to begin teaching and speaking on creativity.

1 (10m 29s):
So that's how that all started.

0 (10m 32s):
Yeah. Well, tell us a little bit about zing or creative. Zing is, is, is that a newer one, right? That you kind of have, like, you could fall into these different camps of creativity. So tell us a little bit about that. Cause I'm, you know, all of us, you know, even if we are creative, right. Somehow we need to have inspiration, but tell us a little bit about your like thesis.

1 (10m 54s):
Yeah. So the thing that I seen started and you're right, I had, my first book was called Zane and I wrote to in between that one call idea spot, and then one call idea selling. And I'll get into that in a minute. And then my most recent one is called creative zinc. And zinc has sort of become a on official trademark because I use that as a, as a word. That, to me means being enthusiastic and passionate and involved. And I, I think we're always in one of three zones people, we then I zombie zone where I thought we were just going to comma toasts and in our comfort zone and maybe not quite so creative all we have what I call a zigzag zone where we a chaotic and sort of running in circles.

1 (11m 47s):
And again, probably aren't creative because we're not focused. And then there's that wonderful that I call the Zane zone where we are hitting on all cylinders. It would be in creative. So what I attempt to do is to try to help people move, stay more in that Zen zone, that creative zone that was, that was interesting study done a number of years ago, where that was the test that NASA came up with. It was kind of a divergent thinking tests. And what they would do for instance is give someone an object, like a paperclip or a rubber band, and say, come up with as many uses as you can for this.

1 (12m 31s):
But most people will come up 5, 6, 7, or eight. But if you came up with a much large number, let's just arbitrarily say 20, they would label you a creative master creative genius. And they gave this test. These social psychologists gave this test to hundreds of adults. And only 2% of those adults were classified as creative geniuses that could come up to that amount. So that was an interesting, but then those same social psychologists said, let's do this, let's give this test to kids. So they got some kindergarten kids, same test.

1 (13m 14s):
The exact opposite happened. 98% of the kids fell into the genius or creative master category. What's even more interesting is that it was a longitudinal study. So they followed these kids and they gave them the same test. Five years later, five years later, only 38% of these same kids fell in that category. I'm five years after that and all the 12% fell into it. So what does that tell us? It tells us is as we get older, we began to lose. If we're not careful, some of those creative genes, some of those creative abilities, because we just don't question enough.

1 (13m 55s):
If we're not curious enough, we don't take risks. And now if we don't open ourselves and so we can, based on who we are and lifestyle, we can go up and down for that. But what we need to do, what I hope to do with what I do when I speak is to help people, remind people to do those things. I did his children to be more curious, to open themselves up and to allow more of their creativity to come out.

2 (14m 25s):
Sam, how much of that is our educational system in addition to the built places that we have for kids to grow up in,

1 (14m 36s):
Of course. Yeah. I think that, you know, kids are quickly talk, don't ask so many questions and, and don't, don't be different and form. So the traditional education system that plays a large part in not only removing art from a lot of our curriculum in our lower. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. That's so that's, what's so fun to say about the school here, when you see the kids outside in nature, doing things, just see him sitting out front on the sidewalk and drawing on the sidewalk right outside of the school. I mean, that, that warms my heart because that's exactly.

0 (15m 20s):
And so I, you know, you've been sort of set at, you've been called a creative guide. Right. Do you consider yourself sort of a coach? Do you think of yourself that way?

1 (15m 32s):
Yeah. Well, yeah. So I think I I'll try to try to coach it again. That's just to nudge people back. I can't endow them with any of them,

0 (15m 42s):
But I can't make them creative.

1 (15m 46s):
No, but I think, you know, there's a lot of it's like you made me from, you know, I don't know if you're familiar with the outcome analysis versus process analysis, outcome analysis, to put it in the sports vernacular. If you've got a quarterback and he's throwing passes and he's having intersections and he's not getting the passes to his receivers, he's got two ways of looking at it. He can like, well, I didn't throw passes this very well. So I'm going to do better next week. And I'm going to work harder to throw better pass it. That's how I'll come. Analysis process analysis is he goes back and he said, okay, how about that practice this week?

1 (16m 28s):
What, how much sleep did I get last night? What was my mindset when I woke up this morning and thinking about the whole process. So that's sort of all we have to do with our creativity. If we're not being creative for a while, we feel like we're when a wall, you know, there's looking bags. Okay. What have I done different? Good. How curious about bed? How much, if I've tried to expand outside of my comfort zone. So yeah. I can help coach people with talk. So with one-on-one coaching, hopefully in back into that zone, who are you,

0 (17m 3s):
Are you working with, do you find yourself working with creative directors at different agencies or different brands, or sort of like, who do you find you tend to be working with mostly these day, or I guess who's gravitating to your work. Cause it's so interesting.

1 (17m 20s):
So guys comment, it's a combination of, I never really analyzed it, but I would say about 25, 20 to 25% of my audiences that my readers are my audiences when I speak would be quote unquote non-creative categories. I mean, that would be people in the food industry, transportation industry, hotel industry, something like that, that have to come up with ideas as managers or as leaders, but they're not considered in the creative category. Then probably another 25% would be marketing people, PR people those types. And then probably the other 50% are graphic designers, product developers, product designers, writers, and that are every day having to come up with ideas, having to be creative, but who find themselves needing to rejuvenate the creativity.

1 (18m 18s):
It's kind of a combination of all three.

0 (18m 21s):
Do you have, because I think the curiosity is a really interesting one. I mean, you hear about, you know, changing your environment, whether that's moving rooms or going outside, or, you know, getting a little writer's retreat in the woods to like, you know, change your environment. But if you can't do that, you know, do you have some other things that you recommend people do to sort of re kickstart the zing?

1 (18m 48s):
Why do things keep, keep trying different things and going to different places? I mean, you've mentioned getting up and going to a different room or going to a different place, but it's keeping our minds open. I was speaking several years ago, somewhere in, after the tall was over different people coming up and saying things. And one woman was sort of at the back of the line, kind of standing to the side and she came up after everyone else is gone. And she said, can I tell you a story? And I said, sure. And she said, my mother was very ill several years ago. And actually she was terminally ill. She was about to die. And my two sisters and I were in our hospital rooms at her bedside, sort of watching over and attending to her.

1 (19m 37s):
And she, she said, my mother is a very creative woman, very, very creative and very artistic and always had great advice for what we knew she was dying. And so we were waiting to see what her final words were going to be to us. She's going to give us some great advice. And so she was this woman who was talking to me, he said, my mother was fading in and out of consciousness. And one day she came back into compassion and she said, you girls come here. I have something new. I want to tell you. So she said, my two sisters and I looked at each other and we went over to the bedside and cap close to my mother because she didn't have very much strength and a voice.

1 (20m 22s):
And she looked at the three hours and she said, pay attention. And we all got really excited and we'd looked at her and suddenly she just faded back out of consciousness. And she said, about an hour later, the same thing happened. She said, you girls come here. I have something I want to tell you. They came over. She said attention. And then she didn't say anything else and faded back out of cash. This is again, the third time I want to tell you something again. She said pay attention. And one of the girls said, mother, we are paying attention. What is it you want to tell us? And she said, that's it.

1 (21m 4s):
Okay. The one who was telling me this, that we realized, that's what our mother had done all her life. She paid attention should pay attention to, does she have paid attention to cashiers and grocery stores? She's paying attention to nature. She paid attention to these things. And so she held up this bracelet and own it and said, pay attention. And all three of them have a bracelet that says pay attention. They were to remind themselves to pay attention. And that's pretty much it. You know, if we pay attention, it will almost always re inspire ourselves and find inspiration. I absolutely love that.

2 (21m 42s):
And I'd never heard that. That's great. And so true. I mean, many times the cancer is right in front of us or the answer is so simple. We keep looking for something more complicated. And that's the perfect example. She was giving you the best age.

1 (21m 60s):
Yeah. I know there's a second moral in that story.

0 (22m 5s):
Sometimes we're looking for these crazy profound and it's, and it's just a simple, simple message. We were interviewing an ornithologist on a different podcast and he said, his daughter turned to him one day and just said, dad, you know, we can always be better. Just be better. You know? Like it's just a nice, like right. Every day we can get better

1 (22m 29s):
Now, just simple.

0 (22m 31s):
Like, it doesn't have to be this, you know, on high, but I love pay attention. Yeah. I had a quote to that effect. Isn't it

1 (22m 43s):
Simplest I have the best answer or whatever, but there's another, there was another experience with some, they took some, I think there were college students. I don't recall, but they had them come into a room and just look around the room and I didn't tell them why they were doing it, but they just had them. And they had different objects in that room. And then they had them leave. And then they later asked them to list what they saw, basically an observation study. Then they brought another group in and they had the group put on lab coats.

1 (23m 24s):
Like you were like, scientists were for like doctors. And they had that group go in there and do the same thing and go out and ride. And every time that group would have better observation because they, because they had that cuddle, they felt like they were scientists. They went in thinking they had to. And I think that's such a great study because it just reminds us that we have to remind ourselves to be observed in a particular I'll walk around ceremony or every morning hope Steve sees me out. I passed him a lot of times cause he takes more than walks to.

1 (24m 5s):
And every thing every day, I try to stop and hear three things, three things and possibly smell three things and touch three things. And that's such a great exercise because first it just gives me the pause, but it's amazing how I see different things. And you think every time, so I shouldn't train myself to do that throughout the day. It would be good anywhere. Yeah.

0 (24m 41s):
I find, you know, we're rushing from one thing to the next. And as you were talking about creativity, I'm like, you know, strangely, you know, I obviously haven't been on planes a lot lately, but I would find myself in a really creative place where I would have the opportunity to write when I was on a plane. And I think it's, the distractions are gone. Right. There's nothing really to do. I mean, now they're putting screens in front of us, but you know, there's, you don't have any distractions everything's at the time probably, you know, years back, there's no wifi, there was no screens. And so you either had a book or you read the, you know, the magazine inflight magazine. And I, and I do wonder if that's just sort of the lack of stimulation, let you almost be bored that lets you open up a little bit to being curious.

0 (25m 32s):
Do you find that all that boredom is a good thing sometimes?

1 (25m 37s):
Yeah. Well, I was going to ask you a question back on that last year. So do you, do you as a writer or are you more of a cave person? I mean, do you like to just kind of Nussle by yourself somewhere to write or how does that work?

0 (25m 54s):
I think my biggest thing is I do need to be alone, you know, and I need to find the time in mornings mornings are better. You know, I'm just much more focused and I can really turn it out versus at the end of the day, I'm going to have to really, I don't know if I'm going to be quite as productive from a, from a focused writing, but yeah, I guess I'm a little bit of a cave person when it comes to that.

1 (26m 21s):
Yeah. I think most writers, I know I am Amber Burks at both extroverts and introverts. And so I, I need time with people and to get that stimulation and I enjoy being with people, but I also need that alone. How about you, Steve? When do you have your best ideas?

2 (26m 42s):
Oh, it's absolutely the early morning hours and many times it's, I feel that I'm almost channeling from, from sleep because I'll maybe have something that's troubling me the day before and I'll wake up maybe earlier than usual. And I seem to just be able to sit down and I have the resolution and it says is though it has come to me somehow during the sleeping hours. So

1 (27m 11s):
That's correct. Yes. I know that feeling, you know, I think it was, I can't remember if it was Thomas that I said a, but Mr. Fuller used to sleep in a chair for let himself fall asleep in a chair in front of a fireplace with a metal ball-bearing in each hand so that when he fell asleep, he would drop the ball, whereas it would wake him up. And he said that was his best zone for having an idea of right way. He just walked up. Isn't that funny? But that's really interesting.

2 (27m 48s):
I think there's, there's a lot to the subconscious. We all know that we just don't understand. And, and, and where, where is that? That we're able to tap into things that we are not in our conscious and, and I think that goes back to what you're talking about, Sam with kids, they tap into some of that in a more natural way, which is the creativity that we somehow learn to layer. And logically think that doesn't make sense.

1 (28m 16s):
Yes. Because everything's nonsense until it makes sense. Right? The example of that

2 (28m 27s):
When you started this, some of my friends in Atlanta came out and they want to know where the marijuana, marijuana patches were because they were sure I was drawing something,

1 (28m 42s):
People that told you what nonsense it was back then would probably tell you how brilliant you are now. Right?

2 (28m 48s):
Amazed in these 20 years, especially regarding environmental issues, how I've gone from this crazy tree hugger to this conservative visionary. And you know, it's amazing. I think we forget how far the environmental movement has come from. Literally people thinking of it as seventies, liberals, and now every fortune 500 company requires a certified building because they understand all the economic and social implications with it. So the 20 years is a pretty short time for a culture change. I think we forget about,

1 (29m 25s):
Yeah, yeah. That's interesting. But I think it does it, you know, what I admire about you stay in terms of creativity and always have is that you not only come up with ideas, but you also have ability to implement ideas. That's what really gives, you know, a lot, a lot of people can come up with ideas, but they can't bring them to fruition. You you've always been able to do that. So I always admired that

2 (29m 56s):
It's that maybe piece of a dysfunctional family, I learned how to switch between the, the right and left brain. Sometimes they were survival skills, but I think, you know, when I look back, you know, it's that, that understanding the difference and, and the skills on each side yeah. Served your well.

0 (30m 20s):
And Sam did you, it's interesting. You bring up sustainability. Steve, was that even something that it probably wasn't even on your radar that, that existed the sustainability tenants. I know for me, I had no idea, you know, it was just the beauty of the place and the people I, you know, in that sustainability just became like a little bit of icing on the cake. But did you guys even understand the benefits of those things at the time, Sam?

2 (30m 46s):
I think she's asking you and you were looking at a ceremony. Did you know, was that even in your scope of things to consider

1 (30m 54s):
No one, well, no, not real. I mean the, certainly the environment, we, we love the look of the community. We, we did like that idea of the trails, but no sustainability was the artistic and just environmental with the two reasons and quickly this sense of community. That's what everybody says, everybody that I interviewed for town talk when I asked, you know, what's the best thing about living here almost to a person. They say the people community. And, and I, I agree with that. I mean, that's been the surprise to me is how we've been able to maintain a lot of that.

1 (31m 35s):
I mean, has changed since the day is when we could all get together on Sunday morning and the Daisy things have grown a lot, but there's still not only the sense of community, but the sense of taking personal initiative really good to see you. I mean, we had to do that in the beginning because we didn't, we didn't have any fives. The Institute didn't have a fund yet to do anything. So we all just came up with loud initiatives to make our own entertainment and fun. People will still do that today.

2 (32m 15s):
Someone today was just sharing me with me that they stumbled upon the ball field last night, Thursday night. And of course, you know what happens on the ball fields all night? You know what? We have five teams now that are going on and they were drawn by the laughter. They were on the street and they heard this laughter coming from around the trees and they, you know, and they, they just thought it was the greatest thing happening that the whole community was out there and the cheering, they said, they've never seen so much cheering for some of the stupidest things they'd ever seen

1 (32m 53s):
Last four. And that's just one guy decided to start doing that,

2 (32m 60s):
To start us off alive and well, it's a different scale than back in those old days. And we pulled our chairs out in the middle of the street because nobody was there, but the spirit is clearly

1 (33m 13s):
Exactly. And that's, that's what I'm glad to see because there's so many. And I think that again, I think that's self select. And I think the people that moved here are people who tend to take the initiative because you don't, if you want everything handed to you, you're not going to move to a place that somewhat remote or doesn't have all the country club facilities. So fortunately it's sort of self-selecting. So everybody come here and is willing to join in and participate. So that's

0 (33m 49s):
Sam, tell us, how long have you been doing town? Talk, tell us a little bit about what that is, why you started it and, and how long you've been doing it.

1 (34m 2s):
Yeah. Golly, I think it's about seven or eight years. Wow. I know. I was surprised. I went back looking for an older issue and I realize it's seven or eight years and I've done newsletters. I've been a writer all my life. That's my core skill. I've taken, I've studied design and I've studied photography, but right. It was always my core skill. I have, I have my brothers, my older brothers have died recently, but both of them were journalists and writers as well. And my sister who was also had an edited magazine at one point, so it comes, it comes in our DNA.

1 (34m 48s):
And I then used letters throughout my career in one form or another. And so I was thinking I'm bad. And I'm, I love the publications, Monica that you and your team, but also, well, maybe there's a place for just sort of a resident or resident thing. I kind of had it bubbling around in my head. And you don't know this, I don't think I'd probably tell them you for the first time, but you and I, we were at the market on a Saturday morning and I'll talk to you. And I said, by the way, Steve and I pointed up at the market to a fan would inbox up on two poles. And I said, what is that thing?

1 (35m 30s):
It's a bat house. And you're explaining to me why it was layer and that there were several the community to attract BAPS. And who would consequently get rid of some mosquitoes? And I started thinking after that. So what if I didn't know that a lot of people didn't know that. So that's a one reason right there to start doing. And years later, it's like, I've

2 (35m 56s):
Never heard that.

1 (35m 58s):
So I can maybe be the cat of a town talk. I think kind of behaves like the nosy neighbor. Basically. I'm trying to answer the question. Why is that here? Or what is that over there? Who are those people? So that's what I try to do is just make it a folksy kind of positive little newsletter for residents. It just talks about, I don't try to cover events. I leave that up. I mainly just try to keep, try to cover the people and the environment around here as best I can,

2 (36m 44s):
You know, Monica, I was just thinking, you know, we, of course we all have these electronically, but wouldn't it be fun at the first decade to actually publish a decade of downtime? Oh,

0 (36m 55s):
Oh, well, yeah. I mean, I was thinking that we should archive him somewhere and, you know, at minimum in the HOA, because, you know, and obviously that would be up to Sam. I mean, I, I've always sort of taken it as a very personal, not private project, but a very, you know, it'll come out when it comes out. And when you got the time and I really love that because it's, you know, it's not a monthly, it's not a quarterly, it's not, it's just like, it's this really lovely, curious town talk. And there's a discoverability that like, it's going to come out. It'll it'll keep coming out, but it may not be, you know, so I don't know that that would be totally up to you.

0 (37m 36s):
Of course we would love to. That would be super fun to do that. But maybe that's more of a resident, a resident gift or something archive him. Some were Sam. I don't know if you have them just, you know, we should, I don't know, put

3 (37m 50s):
Them somewhere for the HOA at least. Yeah. Maybe we can figure that out. I love a book, a book, Steve, but yeah. I don't know. Sam, maybe it's too private.

1 (38m 4s):
No, we can talk. Yeah, that'd be fine. Well,

0 (38m 8s):
Everybody loves it. And I, and I, one of my favorite stories was the ducks. Can you share the duck story? Because it really is a good one.

3 (38m 18s):
Okay. So

1 (38m 21s):
Gosh, I guess again, six years ago, I don't know. I was maybe longer. We have one duck, one Peking duck, quite duck up on the farm pond. And I would walk by there and I would feel sorry for that doc by itself there. And I remember winter came and the pond sort of froze over and it was nestled down on one side now, but near the bridge and I would go feed the duck player and I just kept feeling sorry for it. So I decided that I was going to get a female.

1 (39m 2s):
I asked Steven was okay if I did. And he said, sure. So I said, well, I'm going to, I'm going to find a female duck. He has a partner. And I started looking at well, it's, it's more difficult than you might think to find an adult female duck. You can find, you can find baby ducks, but not, not adult females. So I started calling around and I called farmers and I call, I don't know who all of finally I called an auction house for farm animals. And he said, no, we rarely, we rarely get a dog, female ducks hanging out. You know what I tell you what though? Down, down in barn, full Georgia Vietnamese fellow, his wife owns a nail shop down there and he raises ducks.

1 (39m 54s):
He said, she said, call him called. You can call them there. He gave me the name of the nail shop called the nail shop and see if he might have one. So I call and threw some patch and throw it out. Finally talked to him and he, he cannot not speak any English. And I can only speak about three words of Vietnamese. So it was an interesting conversation, but we finally got through to each other and he said, I'll let you know. Or where's the, that effect. So weeks went by and one afternoon about two o'clock on a Thursday afternoon, I get a call and it was his son and could speak perfect English.

1 (40m 36s):
And he said, dad has a duck for female duck. If you can come down this afternoon, he'll give it to you. So I jumped in the car and ran down, rode down there and got this dog. He had built a little cage for it. And so I brought it back. I named it Rosie because the nail shop, her name was named Rose's nail shop. I brought her back and I got poked, my wife, and we took it over into the Han and I said, I'm gonna put it in. And, and you get the mail doc in the mail that was down the other end of the pond.

1 (41m 17s):
And so I put the female in and she got the male dog rushed out into the pond and they went out to the center of the pond, met each other and swam off. That was the, of a number of ducks they had, I don't know how many offsprings, but they've had a number and those are still there. I think we asked them we still have eight there.

0 (41m 48s):
I dunno. I love that. Well, and that's like one fun thing. We can tell our listeners, if you, if you are staying at the end or, you know, wandering through the neighborhood, there is a lake right there that you will see a duck crossing. And that is where the ducks live. And so you can go see them. But one of the things that we always asked as well at the end of our conversation is what are your favorite? Like, what's your favorite thing that you would tell somebody who's visiting or is going to come down that maybe they wouldn't know? And they, they wouldn't discover on their own? Well,

1 (42m 27s):
I would say, you know, what I would really say is slow down. I mean, they'll say the stables, let me look at the, I love the view of a, so I can tell you more scenes that I love. I love the scene of the stables. I think that from the wildflower field up to the end is just a beautiful walk and a beautiful view. I love the path behind the Daisy, like a highway of the woods. I just loved that walk. I've many times when friends have been down, we'll leave the house and I'll walk through the woods over to the days.

1 (43m 15s):
And they're always just amazed that you can, you can walk five minutes through the woods and be at a coffee shop, but mainly, you know, I think if I was king for a day and Sarah, I don't think I would allow rental golf cards. I think I would, I think I'd force ever visited a Walker. You can drive by and see how beautiful Sarah B is, and you can see the houses, but it's not until you walk around and really look and see and stop and talk with people.

1 (43m 57s):
You really understand Sarah B. So that would be part and, and try to stay at night too. And somebody that was talking to one of your earlier podcasts about seeing the stars. Yeah. Now think that's a, you need to experience Sarah at night, so you can say the stars as well. So, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, and I always

0 (44m 21s):
Think that the, the street lamps to visit each of the neighborhoods at night, cause they each have different streetlamps. And you know, sometimes when I'm doing tours, you know, it's during the day and the streetlamps are phenomenal, but you're like combat, like make sure you come back out at night because they're magical even more magical at night than just the artistic product that you see on the street.

1 (44m 45s):
Yeah. Yeah. And go see it and go see a sunset on town boy, through that pastures.

0 (44m 52s):
Well, Sam, anything else you want to add as we wrap up here, it's been such a delight to talk to you about creativity. Likewise.

1 (45m 0s):
No, it's a, this is a creative place. You know, I think there are a lot of reasons that Sarah is creative and in the way it is, first of all, I think Steve talked about this as opposed to fill it out, man. I mean, I really think there was a vortex here. I gave Steve a book years ago. I was thinking, I don't know if you remember it. That's about Concord, Massachusetts. And back in the 18 hundreds in the little town of Cairo, Massachusetts lived Thoreau, Emerson, Henry male volt, who, who wrote little women.

1 (45m 45s):
I can't remember Mary Alcott. She lived there. They were all in this small little place. And I think that happens at the well, I think silicone valley, as an example of that, I think there are a lot of examples all over the world. And I think that Sarah is one of those that it's not only in the air, it's in the dirt here. I think, I think Sarah, just a vortex. So I enjoy being here. I enjoy seeing that and I enjoy all that that happens here. So I'm thankful to Steve for beginning this place.

1 (46m 25s):
And I'm thankful that poking out here, all of you are here.

2 (46m 30s):
Well, we're just, just delighted that you and hope or some of the early people, because you know, it's constantly, it's the people that show up and invest in Sarah and B, not only by buying a house, but being part of the community that make it what it is. And that's especially true for folks that were there in the early days, because it was a lot less obvious that this was going to be successful. And so we so appreciate you all being here. And also Sam, I appreciate those books that show up every now and then from U K, you know, with, with these creative things, keeping me in those loops of places. I, I, I might not have always been, so I appreciate that as well.

1 (47m 12s):
You likewise, thank you so much, Sam. Thank you, man. Appreciate it. See

2 (47m 19s):
You on the streets. Likewise bikes.

0 (47m 27s):
Thank you for listening to Sandy stories. New episodes are available on Mondays. Please follow us and leave us a five-star review and visit our website to learn more about guests, episodes and everything. ceremony@ceremonybstories.com. This episode is supported by the, in it be nestled in the rolling countryside of the bucolic community of ceremony where guests can walk on the 15 miles of private trails through preserved forest land, the wildflower meadow and the animal village, relax at the pool hot tub or in rocking chairs on wraparound porch, lay on the croquet lawn, grab a canoe and jump on the in-ground trampoline, connect with nature and each other all while staying in a luxurious space at the end at be book your stay today at <inaudible> dot com, S E R E N B E I N N.