 Welcome to another show of celebrate life. My name is Gary D. Carlos, and I'm your host Over the years. I've read too many obituaries and left wondering that I wish I got to meet that person while they were alive This show is all about Interviewing some wonderful Vermonters and a few people outside of Vermont who have wonderful lives and they're still alive And so my belief is that everyone no matter how famous or not a person is has a story to tell If you'd be interested in being interviewed on the show, please write me at celebrate life 0747 at gmail.com or if you have a question for the person I'm interviewing Please do the same write me at celebrate life at 0747 at gmail.com And I'll make sure that we get that question over to the person interview Today, I'd like to introduce Emily Anderson. I'm happily happy and honored to have you as a guest Emily Thank you, Gary. So we're gonna celebrate your life today Where would you like to begin? Hmm. Well, um, I guess right now and and part of that is because even just coming into this space I Do a lot of things in this space with the program that I coordinate called the bridging program So so I want to kind of say that because at the same time I I love the idea of this conversation where we can kind of weave together two roles that I seem to have created with my life so far and that is is supporting and advocating and Developing the the Space for young people with disabilities to be themselves and love themselves and know who they are So that they can and learn about the world and they come here and we make a TV show about whatever We usually have kind of an idea, but we give them really the tools in the space to To learn that that's what? CCTV and other stations like this are for media making places are for to tell your story not the Hollywood story or the and and that that's been a Throughline in my life of for a while working with people with disabilities and supporting them and telling their story and then there's also this other part of my life, which is this drawing technique that I developed and use in a daily basis to support and Help me feel okay being me and having hope and positive thoughts and being able to Live live, you know happily and and feeling some sense of success with the different You know projects or obstacles. I'm facing and and that's been fun to share with others So how did this amazing woman be the person that she is today? What what were some of the early? Parts of your life that piece together over the years to become who you are today. Well, I think I Really benefited from I grew up in Rochester, New York. I had two parents two brothers younger than me my parents chose to stay and Have their children grow up in Rochester and not there was a lot of people in the 60s moving out There are a lot of white people moving out of the city to live in the suburbs and my parents really wanted to be part of Their city that they had grown up in my grandparents also lived in that city and that that I feel like Having my grandparents around and I've even read that people who have that Sort of regularly knowing that it's not just their own home that they're getting love from but outside of the home and and our So I know that really set a foundation for me and Mike my I also believed in fairness and so I had a Grandmother and my I'm the one side. I had a grandmother because my grandfather had died So I had a dead grandfather on that side and then I had My mother's parents were both deaf. So I had two deaf grandparents and I realized that I should I Could I seemed to have like had often had this like good intuition where I had a feeling You know, this could go a funny way where I can only talk to my grandmother I'm gonna really make an effort to be able to communicate well with everybody. So that included my dead grandfather I made sure every Sunday. I had there I had this place. I would talk to him You know and just sort of think about what he would be saying back to me and then my grandmother My deaf grandmother for years had been Giving me a man. They they didn't use sign language. They used finger smelling in the in Rochester The Rochester school for the deaf that was their form of communication that they want to encourage the students so that they They developed like a full sense of like an English sentence Versus with signs With American sign language your your sense of English, you know, it's a different Different language totally with the different syntax So so she kept giving me the manual alphabet card saying, okay, you know, come on Finger spelling. I'll be like no and then finally I think I had that thought like you know be fair and So I learned it and I really loved that I became that really brought me very close to my grandparents I was close to all of them obviously How old were you there at that point? That was probably Probably eight between eight and ten years old and And I I my grandfather I Would do a lot of things with my my grandparents because he he had he loved cars He had worked in the car industry his whole life, but he realized he couldn't drive anymore So he had me be the driver of their car and I would drive them to their Their their dad they had a they were part of a club called deer, which is deaf elderly around Rochester because my my grandfather was a huge they were both of them were Pillars of the deaf community also where my grandfather served in every Role in the New York State Association for the deaf that he could he went to they went to conventions throughout the country They wrote a newsletter in their attic So they were so deer was really very sweet, you know It was all their old friends from the deaf school and the deaf are Fascinating because they would graduate from the deaf school, but they went there wasn't like a deaf neighborhood so they live all different places and And did a great job depending, you know finding neighbors who could help with things because this is pre You know tty And and they would come together as a community though at times. Yeah. Yeah, and it was very joyous and fun I mean, it's just such an incredible the hands were moving Yeah, yeah, yeah exciting so So I think that and definitely that has linked me to my work with people with disabilities absolutely and and then When I was you know, I think I had this pivotal moment and it's it's it sort of had I had a You know a great real remembering of it when I was 12 years old my mother took us to see the movie hair yeah, and It completely changed my life because I think growing up with the feeling of the Vietnam War all around You know, we watched I remember we used to watch the TV during dinner until it fell over and We didn't do that anymore, but I think seeing that movie just made me Realize the power of theater and the power of delivering a story that had hope in it and like, you know Something can change because I had definitely growing up in Rochester. I went to alternative public high schools I was sort of surrounded by the efforts of the people in my Life or the predecessors of the adults in my life to try to make a difference. Yeah, how can we how can we Integrate the schools, you know, we went I went to a school called world of inquiry where they just found kids from all over the city You know all nationalities and put them together just really working on you know, the difficult race relations that That happened when we're happening when I was born So I saw that movie and it just it was like theater I'm gonna do theater and that sort of helped me Start to have a trajectory of I'm a theater person and I found a great summer theater Camp that I could be a part of that that was all you know, all of a sudden I had like a community of other kind of You know like minded like minded people and we did plays. We did the first play we did was Runaways by Elizabeth Suidos Which is a great ensemble piece where where she had gone out and talked to to young people who had run away and then collected their story together and made it into a musical and We just all everyone in the camp that year really bonded over that I bet and then We went the next year. We did the studs circles working. Oh, yeah Again another my goodness. Yeah, so that and then just having seen this this film just you know It was so I'm gonna be an actor. I'm gonna do some you know Something and I I then changed schools and I went to alternative high school I had taken a couple a few years where I went to a traditional high school But then I went to school without walls. It was a small school that was started by former teachers of the high school I was in and who just were like How can we do high school different? This is not working and they had they told a story when I went to that one of the Anniversaries for the school where where there was a sign-up, you know teachers. Do you want to make a difference? how can we make this better and they gathered everyone together in a room and And and somebody like the majority of the people were like, okay, we need to have police officers in the school We need to have more bells and more like restrictions and a bunch of people just put their heads down and the people left And the people who looked around are like what is going on there the people who started the high school You're like you have to do something different. So it's close out walls was born and I went there and and And in that school you you wrote you kept a journal and you you had an Extended class teacher and that was kind of your home-based class. So I had an art class That was led by Bob Drew. And so he was a person who was reading my journal and he finally was like Emily you keep Talking about hair because I also love the actor who the treat Williams who recently who died on June 12th He actually ended up living here right here in Manchester. Oh my goodness. Yes. Did you get to meet him at all ever? No, no, okay. No, but it was just cool. I didn't I knew he was in I Knew he had connections to Vermont, but I didn't realize what I mean I know that community is certainly mourning the loss of him So so I just adored him like, you know, Melissa Gilbert. I learned on Instagram also adored Because he he took that role and did it, you know so well and and so so treat Williams also meant many things to me like I you know, there were some struggles I had in my media at home and You know, he was my long-lost brother and he was gonna save me from this and I wrote all the time all these different You know, wonderful things that you know, 15 year olds, right? My teacher Bob Drew was like keep talking about hair the movie hair You need to see the bread-and-puppet theater and they're coming to town In Rochester, they're gonna, you know at ten o'clock or three o'clock, you know And at my school, you know, there was something that was connected to art, which was your extended class just go Yeah, and so so I went and it was May 25th, and it was All the puppeteers that I have since met there remember that day because it snowed May 25 25 in Rochester, New York. It snowed They also got in trouble with the police because they were riding around on their bus playing Like playing band music from that roof of it, right? So so it's a memorable show, but I saw that and I was just like Okay, and then they were also they also did an inside show because they were on a whole Tour with a whole group of people a whole group of Performers and it was anti nuclear thing. It was called the panned tour by I can't remember what PA and Some performers against Nuclear I guess it wouldn't be against nuclear disarmament But yeah Performers addressing nuclear And and I was just like oh, okay, and then it just happened that when I went to college The theater department was closed because they were trying to get rid of one final tenured Professor I went to a very small school Antioch College Small but very famous the one in Ohio. Okay. Oh, yes, the home home base. Yep Yellow Springs, Ohio look this on the other side and But I so Yellow spring that school is a co-op school. So you spend, you know six months of the year Away at a job that's connected with your field. Yes, so So I went I did a whole bunch of things connected with environmental studies but one time I came back and a couple from the San Francisco Mime Troop had joined had were there to start a theater department Wow, and And that was very exciting and it was the first time like political theater had really arrived in my life Because all through my two years in high school my final years You got to do a senior project and I had finished all my classes so So the senior project that I was able to do was to just go work at a theater I worked every day almost at a Repertory theater so there were six shows and actors coming in from all of the equity actors And then I did like I built a stage, you know for the first one I did scenic design for the second one. I did props for the third and it was great because I also had this like Really strong work ethic like I think also, you know as a result of things being a little unsettling at home I was just like if I'm working. I'm okay So Yeah, so I I mean I'm I'm trying to like I I feel like I work a little bit too much now like I or I'm trying to take that like take that back a little And work to live not live to work. Yeah. Yeah, so Emily I mentioned a couple times that things at home were a little tough It sounds like at at the same time I get the sense that mom and dad were special people to help Set that foundation for you to be the creative Yeah person that you are Yeah, talk a little bit about them. I would say my mom my mom her and I actually live with my mom now my husband and I moved in with my mother who lives in a beautiful place near the lake and Starting to think oh, I want to stay here, but it'd be wonderful to have more Support here, and it's just a perfect situation for us So my mom's very present in my life and a day-to-day basis, but in thinking about what she gave me she Was the early she you know her parents ate kind of like they live they were at the deaf school They ate a lot of canned things. They were not inventive cooks And my mom had this whole Interest in eating wholesome and eating, but you know, she was early on with the bulk food movement and Just had these food grooves and we would look at their cookbooks if we were gonna make something So just a real a real awareness of what you put in your body is is really important To know what it is knowledgeable She also did yoga. She was one of those early adopters doing yoga She also found the church that we were a part of and I even graduated from because Because I went to school without walls and it didn't have a place for it to graduate But we were involved in the Unitarian Church. Okay. Yeah, and that was where I went to preschool That's where my mom did yoga classes That's we were we had really great Sunday school classes And that's where actually I very first started doing theater was because we had a it was called biblical Jesus class and we would put on Jesus Christ Superstar and God's spell and the first time I took the class they they Wrote a play that was yeah made a play Musical about Jesus's life. So my my whole, you know Understanding of Jesus is through song or celebration of him and that that was great So she and did you say she helped found that particular she found it in in Rochester Oh, and she wasn't a founder But she yeah, she found I see what she was looking around. Yeah, my parents got married but my grandparents they were a Episcopalian and My grandmother I'm not sure what she was because there's a great story about her husband being at the church down the street and and The pastor said negative things about JFK being Catholic and my grandfather just got up and said we will not be It does not matter what religion he is so But anyways, she She was a great fine outside of the box thinker Where she where she you know her upbringing and then you know, it's you know, I'm still discovering You know the challenges that she had being she's technically called a coda a child of deaf adults Mm-hmm, and and that's a whole experience to be kind of an outsider in your home She had a wonderful older sister who was kind of like a parent to her and had taken the brunt of You know going to the doctor with your parents at a very young age to talking about complicated things and and taking the different cult, you know foam com or You know receipt so translating a lot of times with Professionals and yes, yeah situations. Okay, but but I think because finger spelling is really hard It's it's easy to do but it's hard to Receive it so so she was a little out of the you know in the dark with you know Her parents would be talking and it wasn't like she could easily Know what they were talking about which was sign language I think would be with American sign language It would just be you know, you're gonna learn it because it's in the house and you'll see it and be able to Pick it up. Yeah, so I think can you give us a quick little like say hi Gary with that fingers falling Which is fun because like even just like your name has a nice flow to it So as someone who did a lot of fingers spelling, there's a joy and there's some words that are just like fun and But but to finger spell everything right is a lot I mean it's not hard to do it, but it's hard to receive. Yes, if you're not I mean my grandparents, you know, they can talk in their sleep to each other They knew it on a whole fundamental difference level. Yes So I think there is a bit of an outsider feeling which I feel like I also grew up with somehow this kind of I don't fit in And I you know, I've always tried to pinpoint that And I think it does come probably from, you know, my mother having that yeah as a strong feeling Now my father My father's very I feel like I feel like my inward parts of me are from my mom and her family and my outward orientation to the world as much like My father's he was very Gregarious and friendly and loved to talk to people and and I realize when I'm with other other people from the Anderson's You know, that's what we do. We are we are going to be the person who talks to the person on the street and find out He just moved here and he's from UVM and he but he came from Wyoming yesterday and and that and So I got that from him, but my father also really struggled and you know, he grew up in the 30s 40s and 50s and he was you know, he realized later in life You know, I think did some soul searching after he was dealing with cancer that he was a gay man and and You know and that that played itself out in my family You know in a coming to a realization and at a certain point my mom and father Split for a year Which was fascinating because it was so cool to go to my dad's apartment and see what he chose to put in it Yes, because I growing up with a grandmother who was a widower and my grandparents There's a wonderful in this to being with just one person and seeing how they Yes, yeah, interesting. Yeah, so with my father after he you know So he came out and you know, my they actually my parents moved back My father moved back to my mother's because they they just were such a team. They're very different people and But they were they were a team but my father did have two boyfriends when he died He had a wife and two boyfriends He had a big celebration of his life and then I felt like after that all my artwork was somehow Processing my father's story But then when I got to the fairies I realized this is the true legacy of my father and that is is I my father one time gave me a book at Christmas by the artist Sark and She does all these books For you to express yourself and figure out who you are and be happy and this was called living the succulent life And my dad wrote on it inside. He's like, I think you need this book and I think you know, I was thinking Yeah, I I Well, my my theater work did bring me to the bread and puppet theater So that so I had a lot ten years that I lived in Glover and worked full-time with the theater and traveled all over the world and And then he gave me the book when I had moved here when I was ready to start my life and And realized oh working with people with disability It like I'd work with so many different cultures and so many different groups and originally when I moved here I wanted to work with seniors and help them tell their stories and I did lots of work with the seniors But we told lots of stories, but they did not want to go on the road, but at the same time A friend had connected me with working with people with disabilities and I taught a puppetry class and that all Evolved into creating a theater company and that sort of all Always happening and and I think that work is so important And I've even sort of evolved a bit in that work in that I am more aligned with the self-advocacy movement and it's less about I want to direct someone to tell their story than Create the space and see what someone wants to do or how they want to do it or Better yet they lead it and I I find a way to support that but that takes a lot of work and I think My father and giving me the book was like how can I support this person supporting? Herself and what keeps her going and what does she need and what good thoughts does she regularly need to Keep and how can she keep her vibration a bit higher than yes being Frustrated depressed sounds like a good father. He was taking care of his daughter I think so. Yeah, so so the fairies, you know in a way are this tribute to him first their fairies, but The fairies definitely started withdrawing as we were talking about before the show what was difficult in my life as Demons and using my non-dominant hand To name the demon Draw it sometimes. I'm the demon sometimes. I'm interacting with the demon and then The most important part which we didn't talk about is writing the word antidote and then As you're writing it think what is the first thing I can do to address this It was the first step is it oh go outside and smell something nice or or and the antidotes are as curious as The names of the demons because as I write it I'm always like what that's funny because I was telling Gary earlier that when you write with your non-dominant hand You are connecting with something different in you more truthful and So give me a give us an example of Demon that you may have. Oh oh, yeah, let me see. I this is my last summer. I did the kind of a Ferri and demon journal and I'll Well, let's see Well, here's the first one demon of any negative thoughts that float into me and cloud my way and Let's see and I'll send it So and the anecdote the antidote is oh look for green to grow your inner light And this is all done with your non-dominant hand. Yeah always yeah, and so Amazing Demon of awful decisions that poorly affects. Oh, this was right after the row versus Wade was overturned demon of awful decisions that poorly affect so many and dampen our morale Antidote pray and proceed with living fully Want to show that to the audience there That's amazing and then and then Somehow after this I probably drew like a hundred and then I started to have less to draw and In my in I have and it was it was on a bigger paper. I've sort of evolved into using these four by six index cards But even into those drawings these fairies started coming and I never thought okay I'm gonna be someone who draws fairies but the fairies are always something that has happened that day or something that just Feels like it could be positive words one of my favorite ones is the fairy of it's all going to happen and Then and she's a funny. She's such a funny-looking fairy That's what's also funny is as you draw me you're like this is so funny-looking and then it becomes like your favorite fairy so the fairy of do you have any pictures of your I Might be able to so the fairies the fairies turned into cards I had a friend who saw them all over my house and she's like I Because I used to put out the ones that were most Resonant with me including the demons because I always felt like the demons actually are more resonant because that antidote in there But my friend was like let's let's print the fairies. I don't want to deal with your demons I now want to start creating cards with demons, but she she's a great Graphic artist so she figured out a great way to do it food from the farm love it live it That's great. Yeah, all of them with your non-dominant hand. Here's the fairy of it's all going to happen Have fun Yeah, and the important thing is to remember to have fun. Well, it's all gonna happen because usually we're in the midst of And do these fairies do you ever like tell a whole story with a particular fairy? Yeah, because what happened was when we first rolled them out, which was nine years ago at art hop I just had I had I had these tucked away some place and I had little pictures of like for some reason I I wanted to only show Little xeroxes of the pictures and if someone was interested they could tell me the number and I would give them the fairy But then we started to do I was like well, you know of three days for this I put all the number 63 I put 63 numbers in a box and people got to pick their number and then that would be their fairy and I would I would like tell a story about it or Just kind of see well, I was just so interested to see how a Whole bunch of people all different kinds of people were responding to these little drawings that had drawn with my left hand Like it was a big like share Yeah, but then and I met the man that I married down the third day of art hop He came in he's like oh wow you have a Oracle deck You should make a fairy of the day app and I was just like okay, and and then he started talking about the generator maker space and I I had been working on a huge project my theater company ended with a final project which was creating a movie With a man named Mark Utter and Mark Utter is a brilliant person and he Types to communicate and I had previously been trained to support Communication of people with autism with this form of communication Which again fits into growing up with people who fingerspell because it's letter by letter often very slowly But Mark had wanted to he said you know, I just want to work on some ideas For a play maybe that awareness can awareness theater company can do about my life And you know for a couple years I was like this seems like a really huge project and I and then finally we sat down and then it did evolve into a project over five or six years He wrote just ideas for scenarios that you put all together and Then we showed them to Rusty Dewey's who was had done a lot of different things with our theater company He's my one contact with treat Williams because he was in a play He was in a movie with treat Williams. So that made him always like oh special and interesting so So Rusty Dewey's read it. He's like, oh, this is a bunch of scenarios But what I think would be interesting is if you told a day in your life and show how in your life because of your communication disability You you there are things that you can't access. Yeah, and how could that be different? It's so Mark's like great on throwing this out and he you know And when at any time you threw something out that was like two years more Because we had some funders who are like we're ready to produce the play. Oh, no, it's a it's a movie Okay, we're ready to help you produce the movie and and they'll be like, okay We'll get it right back to you but for us it would be two years but This this is sort of the most the I mean biggest project. I've done in my life is to support someone to To go through this process Then raise the money we raised $60,000 to do the film and and the film's called I am in here a view of my daily life with Suggest good suggestions from my intelligent mind and what Mark said is this film Outed me as an intelligent man. Wow, and and it was a pretty amazing very amazing experience just to be in the process of that in the presence of that the energy that he had to do this work and And once and just also as soon as he put it out there like I'm doing this people From all over came, you know, he we the $60,000 was from coin drops and and little events We would do where we just meet people and then they'd want to support and so people just came forth and And I I know I would I would wake up when I was working on that project I would wake up right away at six o'clock. I would have no idea why and I just would work all day. It was sort of like this creative force was in me That was just helping make this come to life Now you skipped real quick over the fact that you met your husband at art hop on day three. Yeah So that that little interaction you had so so what happened was was he was connected with the generator Makerspace and and for a while Christy Mitchell was there and she had been talking with me and Mark and other people So along with Mark, I knew some other pretty amazing Very amazing people who use facilitated communication and are very articulate intuitive Wonderful people and and I feel like our you know, sometimes when you feel like But well, obviously my grandparents have never really died. They're very I think about them every day, but when you realize When you've been nurtured in your life by people with disabilities, yeah, you I don't there's It's I was hearing that one of I was reading something by another person who is a coda and he said, you know, there's Because my parents were deaf. There's a part of me. That is deaf Mm-hmm. And even though I don't not hear there's a there's a and so I feel like having been so nurtured and and Raised by people with with you know as they would never say they had a disability but and and in many senses they didn't they But they they did yeah, and in how to fit into our culture as we do it And you got to see them actualized people though. I mean they were out there. They were leaders. They were system change people Yeah, so one of the things that happened in a conversation with mark and other people who use Facilitated communication Tracy Thresher being Tracy Thresher and Larry Bisson at Are two men who started a movie called wretches and jabberers about It's a wonderful movie. It's my favorite movie Last year we watched it in the bridging program and the students all completely loved it But it's two men who use facilitated communication traveling the world and meeting others who do it or are interested in it And Larry was the first person I worked with when I moved to Burlington and I was trained to work with Okay trained in this yeah for my communication So we were I was in and I've then since became friends with Tracy Because after I worked on Mark's film I was like well I've supported Mark so much I should have more experience working with other people Mm-hmm, and so I was working at Washington County mental health where they have a really great communication program that's very specifically focused on FC and But I was at a meeting with Tracy and Mark Oh Mark Mark and Tracy were starting to hang out more because they become friends through the movie making process process and Tracy had this comment. He said You know mark it sounds like you are always having to cheer Emily up like you're always like her positive You know she's not feeling you know yet have this really and it was true Mark was you know He was always like cheering me on and giving me good thoughts about things like this is gonna be okay I mean we had gone through a huge project and I was the front person I remember we were gonna do an appeal and he was like Emily you get out there and you put that smile on You know and you know that he had to I he had to kind of keep pumping me up because he was what What was helping to propel this movie forward? Yeah, but Tracy looked at me and he said do you have anything in your life? That you can call upon To help you be more positive for yourself And I remember riding my bike. I was living out in Heinzburg in this beautiful roundhouse That that was really bit in the swamp lands it would flood regularly But there were ferns everywhere. I was doing lots of drawing and I was like my drawings That is what that's what helps me. This is what has to keep and look I picked up the fairy of independence It's open and okay Um, yeah, so that's when I really you know, and I guess this whole time we were talking we're it's it's very intertwined how this this work is for me and After I met Brian. Oh the reason I was excited was that Christy Mitchell who was the first? Executive director of the generator maker space she would often see me out watery muddy waters with mark Typing and she's like I want to do a huge thing that support, you know shows these guys at their best typing and Having smart people asking them great questions because this will just shift the paradigm Yes, and so as soon as Brian said I'm connected with the generator maker space. I was like, oh well We should talk more I'm gonna give you my business card and and I had just made a Website to promote bluebird fairies, but I also included all the work I had done with people with disabilities and Mark's movie and other movies. I had created with people of and And so he went and he read everything in the website and then sent me an email and said Well, you have done such amazing work. I would love to collaborate with you and I just thought Somebody wants to collaborate with me, but but it also had this like special zing like I just felt like oh Something very special is happening And I remember going to see where my friend was exhibiting Because I just needed to be seen like and I went I went and saw my mother and again It was just like something has happened and then what was great was Brian was working in the maple sugaring industry and and was helping to oh they're they were they were Laying lines for this huge thing that was happening up in Island Pond So he was he was away a lot. So I would so we had a correspondence for like It felt like forever, but I think it was like 15 days And that was such a beautiful correspondence just you know in the morning I would get an email from him at some point I would write him an email and it just went back and forth and there was one lost email And there was this everything has ended and then the fear of Have I made this toy? You know, is this person really who I think they are And yeah a beautiful dance. It sounds like yeah, so we Yeah, so we and you know having gotten married later. So then we got married We just celebrated our fourth anniversary or no our fifth anniversary last week So so we have a very intentional wedding Ceremon or marriage. Yeah, and the fairies are part of it every day. We pick a fairy Oh, it's gonna have you pick your fairy Very of the day fairy of the day Well, this one looks good with a little heart there fairy of vitamin D Son or a little pill get some every day Absolutely, yeah, I mean this is definitely I love that we need the little pill this summer with this Yeah, and this this card this came up at art hop There was a girl a little girl had you know done the number thing and she picked this one and I was just like I said to the mom. Oh, I think this is kind of an adult fairy like maybe my fairies are adult Focused and she said, oh no, she totally doesn't get the amount of vitamin D She needs because she doesn't drink milk and so we actually have on our list that today. We have to buy Buy vitamin. No kids. I was just like wow Okay, I mean it is often uncanny That's wonderful what shows up So Brian made me a fairy booth and so for many years first It was at a holiday event, but then for several years at the art triad truck stop I had this really nice fairy booth But that had it had it's made of four card racks. So well, it looks like Lucy, you know Lucy's The doctor is in yes, yes, where it's a little table I can sit and people can come up to it But the cards are all the fairy cards are on either this inner part or the outer part So people can also just okay. Yeah kind of around them And and I just loved doing you know it evolved from the one card to like somebody said Oh, just do mind-body spirit. So it'd be like, oh you pick one and it's you know, where's your mind thinking? Mm-hmm and what I loved about these conversations is I've There I love conversations like this that are below Except we're not asking you questions to really okay Where we get below the surface right and I've already sort of shared my drawings I did with my you know my hand That's not as strong and So it already brings it to a place where someone feels comfortable Just to share and the the conversation remains in a positive place because because they're fairies and the whole idea Is to uplift so even if you have a sad conversation or a fairy brings up something that's sad It the still there's this movement to a positive place Well, you have like that anecdote that you did with the demons. So you here's the demon and here's the solution Yeah, and you're always moving to the light. It sounds like yeah, exactly. Yeah So we have a few minutes left And I know I believe you also have a choir do you Well something around music and people with disabilities No No, okay. I'm sorry. No, but there was awareness theater company. Okay. All right. Yeah, are there are there Well two things one is so what's the next chapter of your life going to look like and What are some words of wisdom that you would share with the audience based on your life to this point? Things that you've picked up Good. Well, I think I'll I'll continue to figure out the The way sort of my gauge was funny. I was the blue bluebird fairies. I Went through the women's small business program twice the first time it was kind of what you know to figure out my theater company and then I it moved into oh, no, I want to find a way to do something with these drawings and Yeah, I didn't have a full-time job then but then I was given this great opportunity to have this full-time job And I by then needed it. So so this wonderful work with the students is great I feel like it takes away a little time for really, you know What can I do with bluebird fairies because it it doesn't it? I would like I would like to figure out a way that I can do more with it Right though at the same time. I also like it just as it is. You know things do have to morph and change yes and Yeah, I think I Think there'll be some interesting evolutions to to You know, I've also created a really strong and solid program with the bridging program over the last eight years And now I'm having my students in the program come back the graduated students and start to take more of a leadership role with it So my my thing is to to keep growing that So that then I could also maybe be working on some other projects And I'm very connected with Green Mountain self-advocates Yeah, and and all of this you know is interconnected together in the self-advocacy movement But what I love is is how is really getting out a little bit more into the wider World and seeing what's what's going on. Yeah, so there's that and then yeah Continuing to figure out. Yeah, how do all the so if we go back to that? Movie hair there by the way, did you ever see the Broadway play? I I haven't seen the Broadway play, but I've read it and I love the piece that NPR did on the 50-year anniversary of it because it was so helpful to hear how Theater-goers were having epiphanies by seeing young people and realizing these are just kids You're not crazy He's like we're calling them like there was again that just seeing it in the face This this is these are young people wanting to change the world. That's right and and that's what I yeah Do you have a the can you envision yourself someday putting a play together like that for another generation of young people? Oh? Well, it would be somehow like I guess my my What I would love to share with people is just this like I just feel like it's so important for people to know who they are and that we do have a lot of Inner wisdom that we can connect to and and share with others and the importance I Feel like of positive thoughts is so Helpful because when when we have big things like if we're imagine like putting on something as big as that You know the only place that's going to happen is with the higher of vibration. Yeah, and so whatever techniques and kind of Daily practices that people have you know that help them feel Say those good things that we say to other people, but we don't say to ourselves I felt like that was the biggest message in the fairy booth is We don't for some reason we don't learn this or I think I feel like you know Being in exercises classes now. I feel like there is a new emphasis on you're here for you You are not here for anyone else. You know, you're not here to please me doing the exercise You do what you need to do and you trust your body. So that That I feel like I love being part of that And if I was to do a big play it would be on like a celebration of you know I would love to do you know musical of the of the fairies and the demons But not just mine like pull in other people's And then let people know that they can create their own well given the the level of suicide that's happening in our society the opiate and Addiction overdose situation and so many negative things going on in our society at this point What you're suggesting and what who you are is such a gift to this where we need more Emily's yeah That would be fun Yeah, I'll pick a fairy for that. Okay That fairy of love There you go. Perfect open the door and let it in Wonderful. Is there any anything we haven't touched on that you would like to say before we close? I Don't I would just like to thank you Gary for for having this feeling of I need to well the obituaries I love reading especially the New York Times obituaries. You learned so much from them, but then you're like That person's not here and you know any any obituary is is yeah celebration, but it's it's belated So thank you for mother welcome for you know having Well, I don't want to say you're having living obituaries, but in a sense. Yeah, because one one should you know I am I'm 56 so I'm definitely moving in I mean the fall of my life and If you're thinking of it is, you know seasonally Yeah, so I definitely am thinking yeah, what how do I want to use this time and? And and yeah celebrate is the perfect word. Well, thank you for being on the show. You're very great to meet you