 Always a Yellet is the foremost internationally acclaimed authority on developing true connections. A Yellet is the founder and CEO of Universal Connections Inc, the world's premier relationship firm that is revolutionizing life through wholism and truth. A highly sought life and relationship coach, professional matchmaker, astrologer, philosopher and author, a yellet is always a yellet. Today's show is sponsored by Mt. Gox, MediGrill and USGoldCoins.com. Hello and welcome to episode number five of Always a Yellet. It is my absolute pleasure and sincere pleasure to be here yet again and I want to thank you so much for joining me and sharing with me my message of love and freedom and truth and also spreading the word to the best of your abilities like you have been. You can join me like my page on Facebook, Always a Yellet and you can also find me on my website which is always a yellet.com. Tonight I want to first again encourage or reinforce the message to the victims of Hurricane Irene. I know some people are still without power. I know some people are still struggling without their belongings. This too shall pass. You have your life, you have your souls. Keep it together. Have patience and this is what matters in the end, what we have. The other thing too I wanted to mention is extending my condolences to the victims of the attack in South Israel that happened a few days ago. It's a travesty, it's a tragedy, it's heartbreaking, it's sad, it needs to end. The endless attacks and we can only pray and be strong and choose love and make the hard decisions that are love based in order to change the way things are and to protect ourselves and to preserve our life and our sanctity of who we are as individuals, as human beings, as Americans and as human beings on this planet. I also wanted to bring to light the very important time of year that is upon us. The summer is almost over and lo and behold it is the 10th anniversary of 9-11 upon us and it wouldn't be a more suitable time to remind everyone to keep vigilant, keep aware, be educated, be informed, make decisions that are love based, not fear based. There is a perpetual battle between love and fear and they are the two prevailing deciding factors that affect all of our human decisions. If you dice it up and slice it up, what you'll end up with is either love or fear and don't challenge me, trust me, I've analyzed this up and down. Anything you want to decide about, you can make a choice out of love or make a choice out of fear. If you're making fear based choices, it's not love, it will not lead to anywhere but eventual pain, destruction and loss. But if we make love based choices continuously, consistently, always, then the road we travel may be a little more challenged, a little more bumpy, a little more difficult, however we will ultimately achieve our goal. And I say this with all my heart and all sincerity and from a place of experience, I've made love based choices for the majority of my life in the past 10-15 years and as difficult as those choices may have been and are still for me to maintain. No one can take my sense of self from me, no matter what I may gain or lose in my sense of self, in my choosing love. That is the ultimate strength, the ultimate power, if you will, and it doesn't entail imposing power on others, oppressing others or a emotional need or desire to control or possess anyone or anything, if we detach ourselves from this potential that we have as human beings, we will be inevitably free, free to love and to choose love continuously. So let's educate ourselves, let's get informed, let's inform our friends, our families, our neighbors, our communities, our society and together we will prevail in the war against fear and hate and all things that are threatening our humanity, our life as we know it. Today I have joining me a very special guest, he's a remarkable intellectual and talent that I immediately connected with when I met him or heard of him or learned of him and have is an interesting story as well, it's all interconnected my friends. His name is Ricardo Costa, he is a playwright, he's a writer and he is a brilliant, brilliant up and coming talent. Not up and coming, he's coming, he's arriving, he's arriving. My dear friend Tim Moss, you might remember him, he joined me in my first episode who was also a very brilliant and talented artist and actor. He recently announced that he was featured as I believe one of the star characters in a play off-Broadway called The Choice. Of course it was compelling upon me to see my friend Tim in his play and when he told me a little bit about it I was intrigued but didn't know what to expect. You never know what to expect when you're going to off-Broadway theater. So I went and the night before I wished to my congrats online on Facebook and the people who were writing in were saying, wow, what a great cast, what a great play and I was more enthused about going the following night. To my great amazement, not shock but amazement and enjoyment, I was deeply moved and touched by the subject, the content, the play, the acting, the cast, it was all just phenomenal and I was introduced after the play to the playwright Ricardo Costa. We found I think an instant simpatico and so he's joining me today and I'm hoping, I know it's short notice and it's not a very big theater but I'm hoping you can still get tickets to his last appearance. They extended the show for one extra week because they were just really doing so well and the last show is airing September 3rd. That's this weekend. It's Saturday at 9 p.m. at the what is it called? The Theater for the New City. The Theater for the New City in New York City. So let me first allow me to introduce this brilliant talent, Ricardo Costa. He joins us here. Ricardo was born in Bologna, Italy. He holds a master's in media studies and a certificate in media management and leadership. He graduated with a BFA in film and television production from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. He got the job, he got a job actually a while ago with Spike Lee and then was invited yet again to assist him in a concert the following year. This relationship spurred on to him completing his award-winning third short film called Change the World, another message that I'm working to do one member at a time, one viewer at a time. And this film changed the world screened in more than 30 festivals worldwide, receiving very important recognition. He completed his fourth short film called Crossing, starring Joe Morton, Hazel Goodman, and Anthony Mackie, who is now starring also in two Spike Lee's movies. And it played in more than 40 festivals and won awards in several international film festivals, and it has been broadcast in several TV channels, including CBS. He was a playwright in residence at Philip Seymour Hoffman's Le Brinth Theatre Company in the summer of 2009. And his play, The Choice, won as best play at the Downtown Urban Theatre Festival at the Theatre of the New City in New York City, where it is now playing and is still playing for I believe there's one more one more one more show. So without further delay, allow me to introduce my dear friend Ricardo. Ricardo Costa, thank you so much for having me, the writer of The Choice. And let me just add, TheChoice, theexaminer.com, wrote that The Choice is a candid look at human nature, judgment, and the will to live. He describes the play as addressing division based on religion or class or gender or politics and makes a case for how much we are all the same, especially at a moment when the past ceases to matter, which by the way is every minute, every minute we're alive, the past doesn't exist anymore. The only thing that does exist is us and our potential for tomorrow. And we stand exposed to the end of everything. And I question Ricardo and I say, is it the end of everything or is it the beginning of everything? And so here we are today to talk about his brilliant work, The Choice. If I might add, my own personal perception is that it was just an intelligent way to show that The Choice, do you want to tell us what The Choice is? Or should I save it for the audience? Actually, I would like to hear what you think of The Choice, what The Choice is according to you. I mean, I love your work, I love everything you do. And I've been following you on TV as well as reading. So I would just like, I want to know what the love woman thinks of The Choice. Well, what The Choice did on stage was identify all the various perspectives of humanity, if you will, or let's just not say, it's not all of humanity, because a lot of people were not represented in your play, in the characters of your play. I don't think it would ever be possible to represent all individuals. But there was a cast of, I believe, seven or eight individuals, very different individuals in and of themselves, with very differing opinions and ideologies. And there was a, should I tell the audience what the play was about? Sure, please. Okay, it was brilliantly done, I have to say. What I think I loved most about it was that it showed the truth. It showed the biased truths on various perspectives. But it also showed the ultimate truth that life is not for us to decide who lives, who dies, what is, what isn't, isn't for us to decide. I believe in God. I think we share that strong belief. You being an Italian Catholic and me being a Jewish American Israeli. I think we believe in God. I think our identity with God being one, the source, the one God. God is one. I think we have that in common, that shared belief. And I don't believe that it's for humans. And I think, especially in light of what I introduced as far as the concept of love and fear. And of course, my predominant message is truth. Truth, not your biased truth. And you know that there's this whole debate, I'm sure you're aware of, of what is truth and is truth subjective. And is it, well, there is our individual truth. And that is unique in individual to each of ourselves. And that's based on facts. It's based on what is, and it's based on the truth of your soul, which is intangible, hard to decipher, but only one can sense for oneself and thereby be true to it. That's the crux of my message. The idea of your play showing, differing opinions, some lines I totally were like, wow, yeah, I believe that. And some lines I was like, no, I don't believe that. I'm like, what are you talking about? Again, they were characters representing the different perspectives. But ultimately, the play is about a young lad, let's call him in his early 20s, I think, is how he was depicted, a young man who just inherited this mansion. $8 million was the price tag. I have a good memory about the details. What do you know? The price of the house was about $8 million. And I have to say, I have to interject that my friend Tim Moss is a brilliant, amazing character actor. I mean, if he could play the role that he did, let me tell you something. God bless, because he was an amazing talent. And if not to see Ricardo's work, you go to see Tim Moss, then God bless. They were, it's brilliant. And I'm just, I can't wait to see me part of your future work as well. But back to the play, this young man, 20-something, early 20s, just inherits this $8 million house from his grandmother. I think he kind of lost everything. He doesn't have, I don't know what he has, really. I didn't get it. He wasn't a strong character, if you will. He didn't have a strong character about him. But that was, I guess, the message in and of it all. And so he's having an open house for this new inheritance that he just became possessor of, that he needs to sell because he needs the money. Because apparently he doesn't know how to manage money very well. And that was my perception. I think he drinks or he was gambling or something. Yeah, gambling. Gambling. And so I'm never really good at telling stories. I'm surprised at myself. Thank you, Ricardo. This was a good challenge for me. Exactly. Thank you. So I'm going to telling my stories, but not other stories. But this is good. So Tom, I believe his name was the character's name, Tom inherits this $8 million house. And he's having this open house. And all these different characters walk in. And there's a politician. There's a liberal politician who's how they are. And then there is, I'm sorry, no offense to anyone. And then there's this right wing Jewish businessman. And you know how they are. No offense. And then there is this, there's all these different characters. I don't want to kill the play. There's all these different characters, extracts of our, I have to say it's New York. It's our New York world. It's not the entire world and all of you men. I mean, but it's our New York life, if you will. The New York metropolitan area. And while they're in this house and they're engaging in some debate and the characters are engaging in some debate on ideas and whatever, an alarm goes off. And this is familiar to all us New Yorkers who just experienced yet an earthquake and a hurricane in one week. So this alarm goes off for a nuclear fallout. And lo and behold, this house has a bunker in the basement that was created by this man's grandmother before she died. And it's only equipped to save the life of three people for the duration of a year, I believe. And only three people can live in this bunker. And now they're in this house, and they have an hour to decide who goes to the bunker and who doesn't. I'm not gonna say how it ends, but I think it ended eloquently, quite frankly. Thank you. In light of the playwright, I have to say. And so the whole play is about a dialogue and a debate of who goes and who stays and why they should go and why they should stay. And Tom is this young kid with really no life experience, but yet there is a purity about him and that enables him to, what's the word? There's a purity about him or a lack of knowledge about him that enables him to grasp his own sense of what should be or what shouldn't be. And a lot unfolds. It was very provoking, very deep, very aiella. It was definitely very always aiella. And that's why I was so moved by this that not only did I have to get a big hug and a kiss from my friend, Tim, I had to meet the playwright and there he was. We have been kissed and here we are today. So without any further, that was my take on it. So the take, it just showed the divisiveness, if you will. I think how Andre, your director, described it. The divisiveness of humanity. And I say this all the time, we are uniquely distinct. We have to find our unique differences and be true to those uniquenesses and those unique differences all the while recognizing that in the end we're all alike. We're fundamentally, and I'm also an astrologer, I don't know if you're aware, but in astrology, the language of astrology teaches us that universality, that there are 12 universal areas of life, that there are 12 signs and how they get translated in one person's individual chart is unique into and onto himself. New notes, new charts are the same. But again, this message is so deep and deeply etched within each individual being that if only we can own this truth and love and not fear our differences, but embrace our differences, but I ultimately have to say that anything fear-based, in my view, needs to be eradicated from our planet because there's no way we are ever gonna win. Humanity is never gonna win. As long as fear pervades this earth, there will be oppression, there will be control, there will be war, there will be hate, as long as fear, and it's innate to humanity, but we are on the dawn of an awakening. We are on the dawn of a new era and my last show, episode four, with Dr. Samuel Jouet from Afghanistan, we talked about the whole idea of fear and love and being in a war on terror and living in the aftermath of 9-11 and seeing your play and knowing the impending threat. I mean, those are scary symbols there. That's a scary symbol, that's a very scary symbol of nuclear, it's a threat and it exists and that's a truth, it's a reality, it does exist and it's based on fear, it's based on the need to control or oppress others and my darlings, from the microcosm of your individual selves and your individual relationships with yourselves and your fellow and your neighbors and your lovers and your family to the macrocosm of national and global politics, it's the same truth that applies and that is fear or love and what are we going to choose and we assume, I believe God who created us chose love. He also in his wisdom created the idea of fear and there's a reason for it and then it's for us to overcome that and be love as he is, fear will only destroy, love will always, always create and build. So tell me my darling Ricardo, I love your name by the way. Thank you. It reminds me of Ricky Ricardo. I'm an I love Lucy fan. But tell me, so you're in the United States now for 15 years. Correct. Tell me your story, tell me what inspired you to write the choice, to do the work that the other works that you've done, tell me what makes you you, who are you? Well, who am I? I mean, what inspired me to write the choice was a study actually that I read a few years ago about Swedish psychiatrists, like putting people in a room and telling them there was an end of the war out of the door and the first person actually was going to be able to step out of the door was the one who's gonna be saved and nobody actually got up and it was a long, long. So nobody want, wait. So the study was by a psychiatrist that if there was a war and you had a chance to live, would you go out? The only way to live was to go out to exit the room. Exactly. But no one got out. No one got out. Interesting. Yeah, and it was a long, long. Is this a true study? Yeah, yeah. Do you know who did the study? No, because they read it like on Science Magazine like a few years ago. That's very interesting. But like, yeah, and it was, so it kind of gave me the inspiration to say like, how can I apply that into like the actually real, real life? Do you believe that to be a truth? That was that a, do you believe that to be a valid study? Do you believe that if given the choice, people wouldn't just trample each other to get to the door first? Well, that was the point. One of the point was like, people wouldn't get up because they were trampling each other and so nobody actually would make it out because they were going to kill each other before actually getting out. Before getting there. So that was, so kind of like. So die or be dead. Exactly. So kind of these things of survival. Yes. So it's like, where are you going? And so I kind of like took that material and I fictionalized the material and I said, okay, like how I'm gonna make it like as you actually mentioned before, very intelligently, like how I'm gonna make it like a New York story. And I came out with the characters and I came out with people they see every day when I go and do, you know, on the walk on the street, we see on the subway platform. You live in Manhattan. Yes, I live in Manhattan. We live here for 15 years. New York. Yeah, don't you love it? Yes, I love New York. I love New York. It is the greatest city in the world. It is. It's the best one. Number one. Thank you, thank you much. And by the way, I love Italy too. Thank you. I have a country to visit is Italy, my darlings. It is the best, but go ahead. Exactly, to visit. To visit. To visit. I wanna have a summer home in Puccino, Sicily, but we'll talk about that some other time. Okay. I'll call you so you can help me negotiate the deal. Okay, well, I'm a good negotiator, so. Yeah, I know you are. And you speak the language. Yes, that helps. Yeah, but go ahead, go back to the- So, I came out with this idea and I kind of like started writing the play, which is my first play because I usually write screenplays or TV plays. So this was my first like attempt to write a play and I was like, you always, when you write a play, it's very different than writing a screenplay because you don't have editing and you don't have like change of scene. You don't have change of time. So everything happened in real time. Right. And my son gonna put myself into it. So I did it and I submitted to a few like theater companies who was able to get into the labyrinth, a theater company, which was a great experience to develop the play. With Philip Seymour Hoffman. With Philip Seymour Hoffman. He's amazing. And Stephen Gurgis, who just now got like Tony nomination. Wow. So it was just like a very, I'm working with actors every day, reading the material. It was just like very interesting and helped me to develop. Then I did the last year for the Downtown Urban Theater Festival, one honorable mention as best play. And I was asked by the theater for the new city to bring it back in the DreamUp Festival this year. And it was supposed to have only five nights and now we have seven so far. So that's amazing. I really hope they extended further because I announced that we have the last show on September 3rd, but I really hope whoever's the powers that be, I really hope they extended because it is a must see. It will leave you thinking. It will leave you feeling and that is what art should do. All art should leave you feeling and thinking and hopefully leading you to a path of truth and exploration. We need to take a break and thank our sponsors Ricardo for a few minutes. But when we get back, I want you to tell me more about your creative process and how you came to create the choice and more about your life right after these announcements from our very important sponsors. First, I would like to thank, first I would like to thank mountgox.com. They are an online exchange services for bitcoins. They now take euros, British pounds, Australian dollars and Canadian dollars with continuing fees of 0.3% and two factor authentication. Also, mesagrill.com, where authentic Mediterranean food meets modern flavor, now serving breakfast at 8th Avenue and 55th Street in New York City, just a couple of blocks south of Columbus Circle. And I would love to thank usgoldcoins.com. That's 1-800-HOTCOIN, our trusted advisor for investments in rare gold and silver coins. Andy takes the mystery out of buying silver and gold by holding your hand. They take a hands-on approach, better to call and speak directly for current inventory. Again, that number is 1-800-HOTCOIN. And I'd love to hear from you. So please give me a jingle at my Ask Ayelet voicemail at 212-569-6969. Again, that number is 212-569-6969. And also, if you would log on to my website at alwaysayelet.com, you can save $395 today. That's a lot of money, folks. Exclusively for only one TV viewers. Register for a special coaching package at alwaysayelet.com and receive an extra one-on-one with Ayelet, that's me, at no additional cost. And also, I'd like to announce the must read, The Value of Love, if you haven't already read it and downloaded it. It's available for a free download at ayeletmedia.com. That's ayeletmedia.com. You can download for free. The must read, Value of Love and The Gift. If you're seeking true love or not completely happy in the love you have, please read The Value of Love and The Gift so you will be on your path to finding this. Also, with me today is Ricardo Costa, the playwright for The Choice, which is performing live for unlimited engagement only. There's one show left, which is this Saturday, September 3rd at 9.30 p.m. at the Theater for the New City at 155 First Avenue between 10th, between 9th and 10th streets in Manhattan. It's starring Tim Moss and Josh Breckenridge. Tickets are available at the box office or online at www.smartticks.com. That's www.smartticks.com. And so, without any further delay, my darling Ricardo, tell me more about you and your life and your work and The Choice. Well, actually I wanna take something that you said before about truth and because I always wonder about truth and when also, actually when I wrote this play, it was about what is the senator lines and what is the truth. I asked because I don't have an answer and I don't think I have an answer. Although I say there is something I learned like long, long time before I go from like a movement, a Catholic movement I used to go to and one of the motto was like, if something is true, it's always true. I say this. And it's like something you can't change, you know like, and that's so in a certain way like a play of words. It's like, it's true. I mean, it's something, the water is always gonna be water. It's never gonna be wine. Nature is what it is. Truth is what it is. Sir Winston Churchill had a great quote. I love it. I use it all the time. Sir Winston Churchill said, the truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it. Ignorance may deride it. But in the end, there it is. So lots of like, you know, love to people out there who are fear-based and propagating the lies that sustain your fragile egos and fragile existence. But the truth is always there. And I love you for bringing that to light. But please tell me more. Yeah, well, the other things I wanna say about it is like the fact that it's true is that it doesn't depend on human beings. I mean, it truly depends on God or like whoever like spiritual, you believe in spiritual things or like nature if you wanna call it that way. While actually fear is a total human construction. I mean like. I'm sorry, say that again. Is a human construction the fear? I mean, you create your own fear or you kind of like. I agree. Kind of like say, okay, there's an earthquake. I'm fearful, but you're fearful because you don't know what to do. It's not about something that you create, something that comes with you. So if it comes with you, it ends with you. It's something that you can control. Absolutely. So it's not like if you're hungry, that you need to food because that's why you die or you die if you don't drink something. But like fear is just something you can totally live without. And it's something that you actually create growing up because a kid is just one day born, doesn't even a concept of death. They don't have fear. Children are pure in spirit. They haven't yet been adversely tainted by life. Exactly. To be fear and to develop egos and. And until I have five years old, they don't even have a concept of death. They realize the concept of that after five years old. So you can tell you that in those five years, these kids believe they're gonna live forever. Because that's what our soul is about. It's about like forever. It's not about like, they finish their life. And that's a very interesting truth you just brought to light as well, which is something that I've been trying to reinforce in my message as well, that materialism, the material world in which we live is but an illusion. It's but an illusion. It's only an illusion. The only thing real, the only thing of any substance is our soul. And it is forever. I remember being in love, my first love when I was 18 years old and I told my mother, how we think our moms don't know anything when we're 18 years old. And my mom, and I was saying, no, me and whoever he was will last forever. My mother said, and she was at the time, she was my age right now. And she said, no one, she said, nothing lasts forever. I yell at nothing lasts forever. And you know what? Maybe in the material world, she's absolutely right. Most things on this planet don't last forever, but love and our souls do last forever. And if we are true to ourselves, we are true to ourselves, we are true to our, if we love ourselves and true to that love, that self love, everything else will fall into place no matter what adversity come your way. And you know, this is a survivor. This is, you know, they say I'm a consummate survivor. You know, I like to call myself a champion life master but cause I know how to champion life and surviving but this is a survivor story. This tells the story of survival. This tells the story of the human will to survive and to want to be alive. And the play, I think, did a really brilliant job on showing or questioning what is life? What does anything mean? All those labels that we use to identify ourselves. What does it all mean if it isn't in relation to anything, if it isn't relative or in relation to anything else? In the end, the only thing that matters is you and you look at yourself in the mirror. What do you see? Do you see truth? Are you, do you see love when you look in the mirror? Are you living a love-centered life or are you living by being oppressed? Are you living in fear by either being oppressed, allowing oppression and thereby oppressing others through the control manipulation game that people do, that people play in their one-on-one relationships and in our global and national political arena. But that's sort of where, I guess you could say, I think that's how we've kind of found ourselves on the same line, if you will, when it comes to, but yeah, we do believe in forever. We lose that belief because life hurts us, challenges us, causes us pain and you can either pick yourself up and keep on trekking and get on the horse again and keep on riding or you can just throw, you know, throw in the towel and call in a day, but. So tell me more. Well, you know, there's something interesting about what you're saying because it comes in my mind what people tend to say, which is like, live this, most of the people today live like, live their day, if it's like their last one. And I always challenge them and say, I actually live these days as my first one. I like that. Because it's like, if I was in my last one, there's nothing after. If it's my first one, there's plenty. I love that. So. And it's all about, and what you just showed us too is that approach to how to change. The only thing we can change is our attitude and our approach on how to look at a situation. You know, the old cliche of the glass is half full or half empty. And I love that. Yeah, I always say this is the first day of the rest of my life. I always say that too. It's the first day of the rest of my life. And I'm gonna do whatever I can today because we don't know what tomorrow can bring. You know, interesting about the hurricane that we just experienced. I had to do show prep, you know, production work for the show. And the show airs live on Saturdays, but it was, and I wasn't even concerned about the storm, but I like to get things done on Wednesday or Thursday, not last minute. You know, I even told you to be here two hours before the show because I wanna make sure. Because life happens. There's always going to be an obstacle. There's always gonna be something that's gonna take you away from your dreams, from your desire, from fulfilling the best of your human potential. They always will exist. Now you can throw in the towel and call it a day and say, okay, I give up. Or you could say, you know what? Today's my day. Let me get it done. What can I do? Make your list. Check it off. You know, like Santa Claus and get it done and just do it. And it was the good thing that I did because I had my show done and emailed to the studio on Thursday. So that when Friday happened, I was good to go. And then in the end, we had to reschedule because I wasn't able to, the city was closed. It was impossible to get into Manhattan. And the studio was obviously closed. And the, but I had no power for 36 hours. Imagine if I waited till Saturday. I would have been, even though the studio was shut, I never would have been able to get to today's show to the airing of today because I would have still been unprepared. Because of work I could have done and should have done a week ago, which I did do by the way. So here we are. So always be prepared. I know Boy Scout 101 is be prepared. Be aware. Be aware. Be vigilant, be aware. Look back only to learn from the past. Don't bury yourself in the past, but look forward. Always keep your eye going forward. And if something works, let it work. If it's not working, cut it, redefine it or end it. Those are your options. But we must find the courage for truth. And hopefully, I believe this is a new era upon us. Dr. Sam from Afghanistan concurred with me. He, we're at an awakening. I feel it. I know it. It's spiritual. It's universal. It's happening. Your work is indicative of it. My work is indicative of it. And the work of all the great workers, they call them, I don't want to use any labels of light workers or whatever because some of that has a lot to be desired even in that label. I don't like labels, but the work of truth, the work of love, the work of a oneness of humanity, let's eradicate the divisiveness. Any religion, and I mean any religion, religion was created by man. Think about it, religion was created by man. There is only one God. There is one truth. I believe in the Torah, which is the Old Testament. I believe that is the ultimate truth. I believe the Torah was given to all of humanity to live. And the Jewish nation received the Torah, became the Jewish nation by receiving that constitution to life. And if we live this constitution as hard as it may be, and each nation, each individual takes that constitution onto oneself to live it in the way that Jesus did, we will, and I believe that Jesus was a great leader, if you will. I don't believe in him being the savior or the Messiah or any of that with all due respect to your faith and beliefs, but I believe he was a great leader, but I don't believe he ever had an intent to create the Christian faith that was created, or maybe he did. I don't know, I might be wrong about this, but it is what it is. And I believe religion divides. I believe in the one truth that is love, that is to love and honor thyself, your other, which is anyone outside of yourself, and in so doing, and it all starts with you. If you don't love yourself, you're not capable of loving another. If you don't love yourself, you do not love your Creator. Call him God, call him the source, call him whatever makes you happy, but the Creator, nature, the sort, the oneness of the ultimate reality of universal life and love created us to love and honor ourselves, and in so doing, we will thereby honor and love one another, valuing the valuing life, human life, humanity, individualism. And all of this is inherent in the Bible, in the Old Testament, in the Torah, even the story of creation, the divisiveness of the heavens and the waters, and all of this is indicative, it's all metaphorical indications, if you will, of what life is, and if you go back to the origins of our creative, our creativity, our creation, it's only natural to see divisiveness existing within us, conflict existing within us, but in the end, we got to the seventh day where we rest, and we honor God, and we honor our families, and we honor ourselves, and remembering God as our Creator, and that is the message of love, and that's what we need to do, we need to work. We can't be sitting on the dole, getting welfare checks for the rest of our lives and unemployment checks. What is that? What is that? Have you been, you're in Italy, I love Italy, I know socialism isn't the greatest concept, but it works in nations, it works for nations, if you're your own sovereign nation, but go to post-con, I was in 98, I went to visit Bulgaria, Sofia, and it was in 1998, it was only nine or 10 years post-communism, and it was sad, it was horrible, people, when you're used to not working, when you're used to not creating, to not thinking for yourself, and what happens when now you have the ability to do that? You'll either perish or create. It also breeds, it's a breeding ground for corruption. Any oppression, when we are, think about, again, I gave the example in my last show with Dr. Sam, even parenting, when a parent restricts his child out of love, not the emotional need to control or possess or fear, but out of love, pure love, then the child will value the parent and be safe, and perhaps be inspired to think and create and overcome that limitation. But if a child is being limited or restricted or denied because of a parent's fear or inhibitions or fears, or fears, it's all about fear, people, it's just, really, it's just about fear or love, and if it's out of fear, then that child is going to rebel, is going to become corrupt, and engage in activities that the child and parent relationship, the trust will be severed. If you oppress, there cannot be trust, which is a very valid and important factor in the definition of love. You must have the concept, the element of trust. Now, a benevolent king, a benevolent God, a benevolent leader gives us the power to trust him because we know in the end, with that faith, all is good. He gave us life, he will give us life, he will sustain us. But if we are oppressed by laws and dogma and doctrine that divides us, that tells us to kill others, then what happens to us, Ricardo? It's preposterous. What happens is corruption is born, and rebellion is born, not revolution, but rebellion. And the other extreme is born of that. And Lord have mercy on us, seriously, of what? And we're witnessing it on this planet every day, globally, nationally, and even locally. People are out of jobs, crime rates are up, people are looting, people are stealing, people don't have, they're frustrated, they're killing each other, they're drinking. It's very, very sad, and humanity has the power, I believe in the power within each and every individual to find the strength within and overcome the fears and question authority, question anything that is oppressing you. And then you have the power to change it and do something about it, and that's my message. But I feel like I'm talking too much, and I really wanna hear more about what you have to say. No, well, you know, the fact is like, when, I mean, what you're saying, I mean, I agree with you, they have to say that it always comes about the fact of, like, what you wanna do with your life. It comes about, like, what- Knowing your purpose. Knowing your purpose, knowing your goal, and about the creativity part is always interesting if you also wanna bring back to, like, the religious element or the spiritual element. In fact, the verb to create is the first verb present in the Old Testament. It's saying it? The first verb, the first verb that's present in the Old Testament is creation. God created, that's the first verb. And verb is like about action. So we are about action, we are about, like, creating. That's what man's do. That's what we're doing down from the beginning. Even when it comes to, like, giving birth, you create a life. Or maybe you're, like, maybe it can be, like, the instrument, the vehicle. The vehicle. The vehicle to, like, create the life, but that's what this is about, creation, and we, this is, like, inside of ourselves. That's, like, part of our, like, human beings as well as our soul. So, in that regard, it brings me to think about the fact that if we create, we cannot settle for less than what we want, or less than what we are. Or what we deserve. Or what we deserve. And in that regard, it's like, so what we deserve, what we, we deserve to live. We don't deserve to survive, okay? Absolutely. Like, people, people they are in, in wars, nations they are in wars, like, politically, like, unstable situation. They survive, they tend to survive, but they don't really live. And I think that should be our goal as human being of each one of us, is like, you deserve to live, to have the life that you want, and you can't achieve that. Absolutely. It might be the worst situation ever, politically wise, family wise. Economically even. Economically wise, but the change comes with you, okay? And that's kind of the message I wanna give also in my, in my work, in my plays, like, you can make the choice. The choice is yours. Is nobody's choice but yours in order to make that difference. Right. With you and with also the people who love you, the people that are around you. Right. And it's all about believing it. Believing it, believing it. You have to believe, you have to know yourself and believe in yourself to, to be. And man was not, man, I don't, I don't mean to be effeminate by saying that, but, or is that the correct that, yeah. I don't mean to be not feminine or, or devaluing the value of the feminine or the woman, but human beings were created to create, in God's image, God created, he wants us to create. And when we're not loving ourselves, we are destroying ourselves. If we are living a fear-based life, we are self-destructing. One, cigarette at a time. One, bottle of booze at a time. One, bad relationship at a time. One, whatever gambling, loss, whatever it is you're abusing, whatever vice is yours, you're destroying yourself. You're destroying your soul. And that is not why God put us here. God put us here to live, to find liberty, like Thomas Jefferson said, to have life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And the pursuit of happiness is individual for each of us. What makes you happy doesn't necessarily make me happy. But ultimately I believe that freedom, having the basic human needs of love and relationship and family and community and service, service is a very important element of life. If you're not providing service to the universe, then what are you doing exactly? Why are you here? And why don't you ask yourself, what do you love to do? And how can I turn my passion into a service for a humanity? How can I turn my weaknesses, what's been challenging me all along in my life, into a positive? How can I make lemonade out of lemons? You know, if God's giving you lemons, think for yourself, why is this happening? Maybe there's a message in this. Maybe I need to make lemonade. Maybe I need to turn this negative into a positive. Maybe I can take this talent, this potential, this energy, and apply it to something bigger than me and bigger than I ever dreamed or bigger than I ever really wanted. And I think oftentimes the great inspirational leaders of life, whether they be artists or writers or leaders or anyone who's of great accomplishment has always taken an adversity that's affected them and turned it into a positive. And that's life, my darlings. We're all going to be plagued with adversity. I'm sure you have a story. I know I have a story. And I'd love to hear more of your story. But we all have the potential for turning lemons into lemonade and living a love-centered life and the choices within and, you know, dig. Dig is a guilt. What is, oh, I'm doing this out of guilt. Well, where does guilt come from? Fear. Any, and I say it again, my friends, dice it up, slice it up any way you want it. But the two prevailing deciding factors affecting any human choice in our lives, the two prevailing deciding factors are love and fear. They determine our economic condition. They determine our political condition. They determine our personal, emotional condition. Make your choices out of love. Ask yourself, is it love or is it fear? And if your answer is guilt, well, guess what, darlings, that's fear-based. If your answer is even if it's fear of God, even if it's fear of God, it shouldn't be fear of God. It should be love of God. It should be love of God. God doesn't want you to fear him. He wants you to honor him. Honor and fear, think of that. You know, when I was reading over the weekend when I had no power during daylight, I was reading, I was dabbling in The Prince by Niccolo, another fabulous Italian. Niccolo Machiavelli wrote The Prince and he was talking about how leaders deciding between fear, is it better to be a leader who is feared or a leader who is loved and sometimes you need to instill. And maybe if you're gonna be the next conqueror, the next Napoleon Bonaparte, but really, do we really need another conqueror in this world? Do we really need another Machiavelli? I mean, maybe there was an importance to his book, but really, folks, if you make your choices out of love, I know it's not very Machiavellian to lead in such a fashion, but in my view, it's what God intended to lead with love, be a benevolent. We do need leaders. We do need someone at the helm making the decisions to govern us. But that leader shouldn't be someone who has an ego complex that is help-ent on oppressing us or some kind of egomaniacal complex on proving something to himself or he leads because he wishes to be of service. He wants to be of service to humanity. He wants to be of service to his nation, to his people, even a father, a patriarch, mustn't be oppressive. He must be, he must be a benevolent patriarch. He must inspire and enable creativity and independence amongst his children and his fruits. Not oppression, not dependence, because in dependence, there is oppression. In independence, as difficult or challenging as it may be at times, but there is always freedom and it's a valuable, valuable truth. We're almost out of time, Ricardo, and it's been so fabulous chatting with you. Thank you. I wanted to share some of the photos that you brought with us of the play and the cast. This is opening nights where we have the party after the show. Yeah, I met Melanie, they were all fabulous. Tim, of course, is my darling, darling friend. I love you, Tim, if you're watching, I know you're watching. I love you, Tim. Melanie Torres, I hope to have her on our show at some point soon. And this was a really great cast, a really fabulous cast. I believe we have Tim and you and the director, Andre. Correct. And then we have some, that's Melanie Torres. Melanie, you and again, Andre. Andre. And we have, again, the entire cast. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. You have a picture from the show, actually. Right, this was the set. Correct. Beautiful. You must, audience, you must try to get down and see the choice. It's playing at the... Theater for the new CD or September 3rd? The theater for the new city on September 3rd, Saturday at 9.30, the tickets were inexpensive. They were only $15. Yeah, they're only $15. I mean, it's an inexpensive night out in today's economic time. Support the art, support my fabulous friend Ricardo and his wonderful and very talented cast. And I wanna thank you, my dear audience for joining me again and for giving me the chance to introduce a great talent, Ricardo. Thank you. Costa, I hope I'll be seeing you again as well. Absolutely. In your next episode. And when you have the resurgence of the choice, you must keep me posted so that I announce it to the audience. I'm sure they're gonna be seeking it if they can't get into New York this weekend. I know it's Labor Day weekend, so it's tough. A lot of people might be away. But if you're in town, it's a great night out. Nine o'clock, Saturday night at the new, the theater for the new city in New York. It's on 1st Avenue between 9th and 10th. The message, my darlings, is a message of love. It starts with you as an individual. It starts with your individuality. It starts with your questioning. Anything that might attempt to oppress you in any way, shape, or form. Oscar's sleeping. Oscar, I know you haven't seen much of Oscar today and I just woke him up, my little rascal. He's such a good boy. You wanna say hello to the audience, Oscar? Oscar, say hi. And this, my darlings, is a brilliant example of what true love is. Yes, Oscar likes to get his belly rubbed. Anyway. You made his choice. Yeah, he made his choice. Mommy just woke him up and now mommy's getting all these beautiful kisses. But my dear beloved audience, please tune in. Please spread the word. I have a very important message here. I know you are watching and I know you're listening and it's gonna be a process and a program and we're gonna do this every week and you're gonna get some great tips. And I promise that on Saturday I'll get to answer some of your Ask Ayelet questions. In fact, I may just dedicate the entire show to Ask Ayelet questions because I know you've been writing me and forgive me for not responding sooner but I will, I promise. And with all my heart and all my love, until next week, I am always Ayelet and this is my beloved Oscar. Yes, and he loves his mommy. And Ricardo, thank you again. Thank you so much for joining us tonight. Thank you. Thank you. Ciao. Ciao everyone, ciao.