Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:05 Am I always this naked your mask. Well, of course not, but I do prefer to tell the naked truth. You see, I like juicy, raw and uncensored. The truth. That is so today's topic is about who am I? So I still want to ask you, who are you? What would you respond? The question of who are you is very unusual. However, when it's someone says, who are you? Usually people respond with, of course their names and their occupation or what they like to do in their leisure time. What is the real answer? When someone says, who are you? What would you respond? I asked my guests on my shows on Wednesday, who are you? And what brings you joy? So today I will answer those questions and myself. So who am I? I am Zen 10. That is my name. My legal government name is Harvey, Tennessee, which was changed from <inaudible>, which is a Haitian or French name, LV and Paintsville and Pittstown is my father's last name.
Speaker 0 00:01:32 And I changed that name to Tennessee, which is the last name around 2007. I believe. However, I've always felt my name was Tennessee, even in high school, I would say middle school and high school. So when I had the opportunity to change it to Tennessee, I've changed it to Tennessee. And I kept the first thing. Harvey will stop pronounce her V but many people would call me Harvey or Harvey or her, uh, does a coworker. She would call me her the perf not that I'm a perv, but it was funny. And I liked a good joke. So I changed my last name and I kept my first name. And in 2015, I believe the universe named me Zen. So I have gone by Zen 10, since 2015. And at work, I am called Tennessee. I prefer Tennessee because a lot of people, if they don't speak French on that French, they do not know how to pronounce my first name, which is LV.
Speaker 0 00:02:42 So do not try unless, you know, I do for an asset please. So that's part of who I am is my name and who I am. Second. Secondly, secondarily, with the word probably secondarily is my character. That's for me, who you are, could be different for you. And when I ask people who they are, so usually there again their name and occupation and what they like to do. But for me, it's different. First of course, it's my thing and my character. So I, part of my character of my meditation and mantra is every morning and at night, I usually say those mantras, I am peace. I am love. I am Zen. I am kind, I am patient. I am wise along those lines. So those are my mantras because that's who I thrive to be and who I work on to be. And that's who have become, and that's who I am because I make those mantras and black prayers and I make them part of me.
Speaker 0 00:04:00 And I not only make them as much rods, but I practice them in my life. And if you know me or you interacted with me and you seen me, you can attest to those character traits because part of my personality or persona or something of cling to is a perfectionist personality, as well as an extremist personality. And I've learned to be in the middle to have a balance. And it's something I'm still working on. So therefore I often thrive to be the best within myself, not the best in the room or the best in society or the best in compared to anybody else. It's just the best within me. So I make sure to have those character traits and I practice those to those around me. So these are what and who I am. And I read somewhere if I don't, if I don't, if I'm not wrong about this, I probably write in the book of Don Miguel Rayez, not the four agreement, but you know, the book I Googled it earlier and I totally forgot it again.
Speaker 0 00:05:16 But it mentioned if I'm correct admission in other to know who you are, you have to know who you are not or vice versa. Who are you not? You can know who you are. And I definitely know who I'm not. And I'm, I'm self-aware and I am a mindful person, which I'm very grateful of. And I've practiced that to remain that every day. And so therefore I know who I am and therefore I know who I'm not and who I am and who I'm not is something that is, can be practiced every day and have to be mindful about because you can change who you are in a matter of seconds. And I believe that who you are is your character beside your spiritual or your inner self, a spiritual, and what's the other word. Yeah, your spirit. So, but basically we're talking about the tangible world.
Speaker 0 00:06:19 So right now, and so who I'm not is, although a lot of people will label me as certain things or they will see me or perceive me as certain things. I am not those things and who I am. All of those in society. People can say, that's who you are. And that's who you seen as, but who I am is who I am, period, regardless of who anyone else think I am. So to break the ice or not break the ice, but to sit it out there is I am not my skin color. I am not my sexuality. However, those are part of my tangible self, but I don't live my everyday life as going outside and live. As people would call me a black man or a gay man or et cetera, or whatever anyone label me as funny thing is I probably would have labeled myself as those things in the Passover, in regular conversations.
Speaker 0 00:07:29 However, those things are not who I am in a sense, people would say, I am proud to be black or I'm proud to be gay. So I usually ask those people, these questions, what is being proud to be a sexuality or skin color and whatever response you may have that sir prerogative. And there's no judgments upon you or shame or guilt. And there's none upon me either. And when I have this conversation with some people, they would say, well, you self hate or you don't like these part of yourself. You should be proud. Who are you to tell me who I am? Do you know who you are? Okay, good. You know who you are, but you do not know who I am, who I am to you is perceived through your lens. And the tangible stuff you see is my skin color. Okay. And you might think or say that I'm gay or queer, but I never said those things.
Speaker 0 00:08:31 You say it, and you might say, oh, this because that's how you behave. Well, I hate to break it to you. There's more to me as the eye. And what you see is usually what is that perceived to be? So when it comes to who are you and who am I? I like to inspire people to see more than skin deep and to inspire people, to see someone's character. And even you may judge on character. We shy believe, however, don't even judge, judge, or don't even condemn is human to judge is human to discern, but don't go to the length of condemnation of, Hey, that person is gay or that person's black, or that person is this or that or not this or that. And of course, if you choose to do those things as stroke prerogative. So the second question of what brings you joy.
Speaker 0 00:09:33 When someone was say who they are, there was talk about their work that may bring them joy. But as we know, a lot of times work done to not bring people joy. So who are you when it comes? People would also would say what they do for fun. So that usually brings them joy. So what brings me joy? This brings me joy on my leisure time. I sing, I write, I meditate. I make stories in my head have fun with myself. Actually yesterday I was walking and I was thinking of someone was saying that they like, they love their mother, but they do not like their mother. And that's not what I was thinking. And I was like, Hmm, how much do I love myself? And how much do I like myself? And I had a big smile on my face. I said, wow. I do love myself.
Speaker 0 00:10:32 And I do like myself. And I'm so blessed and grateful to be in a state where I'm able to like myself and love myself. For those of you, who's listening to this and asking, what do you mean? Like in love? I would implore you to think about that. You can love yourself, but you, you may not be able to like yourself or you can like yourself and not love yourself. It's like in love is very different. And if you're able to do both dude, like dude. So, so what brings me joy again? I like to walk on a beach. Just kidding. Of course I do like to run a beach. I love this sound that has been, we enjoy my grandfather clock, tick tock, tick, talk to you about Bahir it once in a while. And what brings me joy is reading mostly audio books.
Speaker 0 00:11:30 What brings me joy is work. Most of my work that I like brings me joy. I am very blessed and grateful that I do not do anything that does not bring me joy. And I will not say never, but sometimes even last week I did a job, which I come from to do for two days. And I was not happy at the job. Although I meditated and I did my best to have joy, it was not there. So I fulfilled my commitment for two days and I made sure not to come back to the job. Even when the manager said, Hey, would you like to work again? I told them, thank you very much. I'm very, very grateful for the opportunity, but this job is not my calling. And it paid well, $26. Some, some of you might say, oh, I got $26 is not a lot of money.
Speaker 0 00:12:26 So whatever. And the jaw I think was for two weeks. And some of you might say $26. Are you crazy? How you turn down a job like that? Can you put a price on your wellbeing? Can you put a price on your happiness or your joy? You CA you may say yes, but I'm sorry. I cannot, I, my rent is a lot of money for some, and may not be aligned money for some, to me, it's not a lot of money for, for, depending on what you're making in New York city. So therefore I'm very grateful to have a roof over my head. That brings me joy. I am grateful that I'm able to pay my rent and my expenses are under $1,500 living in New York city. Can you believe it? I'm very blessed and grateful for that. So therefore living in New York city, there's the excuse to do any job again, in my opinion, and my life.
Speaker 0 00:13:22 I'm not talking about you, so don't get offended. Uh, yeah. So, cause when I've said that on Facebook, people get offended, but I'm talking about myself. So living in New York city, if I'm doing something that I'm not happy doing, there's something wrong with me. And I need to be honest with myself and have integrity and say, Hey, this is not bringing me happiness. I'm not doing it. And of course there's a level of happiness. I work with a person who often yells at me and get frustrated and everything. And I'm getting paid less with him than I'm getting paid with other jobs that I do. And I'm taking it now because I'm have a lag, but I'm ticketing because I can, and I'm a kid doing that, but certain things and I'm happy doing it because I'm learning a lot from him and I'm okay.
Speaker 0 00:14:15 And I think for you, you would, you can discern on your own to see, Hey, what I'm doing. Does it bring me happiness? Does it bring me joy? And if it doesn't, would it be okay to do without affecting your well-being like two weeks ago or a week ago, the job was affecting my well-being. I had to say no. And the jet out, the job that I'm doing, helping the person that I'm doing, some construction work or electrician or work, et cetera, brings me joy and I'm happy. And even when that person is yelling and doing all this stuff, I know it's not personal. I know that's, that's who he choose to be at that moment or whatever. He claimed cleaning too. So I'm not attached to it. So that's, that's the difference and praying or having mantra saying, Hey, give me wisdom, telling the university to make me wise and give me wisdom is having the discernment of saying, I can work with this person and still be happy.
Speaker 0 00:15:17 Well, I can do this job and I can not be happy and I have to quit. So there's no tagline to it. And so that's why I am. So another thing in who am I, who am I is how I treat others. Of course, as I mentioned earlier in character, uh, recently I've had a phone conversation with a coworker and we had a little funny thing going on and I handled the call pretty well. And none of the thing that I do is before I talk to anybody, I make sure there's a list in front of my eye. The list goes from compassion, understanding, respect, empathy. And so if I do not have that at the moment to talk to somebody, I will not talk to them until I have those because everyone is deserving of compassion, empathy, respect. And I say the fourth one, I don't remember at the moment.
Speaker 0 00:16:19 And so even if that person is your claim to be enemies, even that person, you think they are not deserving of it. I believe for me, everyone deserves that. And I apply that in my life and my life is wonderful. Not a hundred percent. I could use a little bit more money and a life partner. That's the only thing I want to say that I'm liking. I'm pretty happy within myself and I'm very content, but of course, as a human being, you want to grow more. And that's another thing I would like to have more, a great partner that compliments me. That's going through the spiritual realm and growth, et cetera. And of course, more money. So how you treat, how I treat others. Other people is part of who I am. And I'm very, very blessed and grateful and very happy of why I am.
Speaker 0 00:17:17 And part of who I am is my past. However, your past does not need to define who you are in the future. You have to live in the present and define who you are every day in that present. And thank you for tuning in to see in that episode of where am I and who are you? So a lot of people tend to not know who they are and a lot of people tend not know how to answer that question. So if you're listening to this today, I employ you. And I basically request employers influences the word that you really think about that question. And that question will bring up a lot of things for you.
