It’s hard to speak your mind these days. voicing your opinion is tough and a climate where you’re either seen as an ultra conservative or a bleeding heart liberal. But what about our perspective? What about the Gen X perspective? Hi, I’m Tony a latchkey kid from the 80s and 90s. Now I’m in my 40s, wearing cargo shorts, collecting Star Wars figures and reminiscing about the days before my first cell phone. The jennex perspective as for us caught somewhere in between boomers and millennials, or we see things a bit differently. I’m tired of staying silent. It’s time to rant, discuss a load and debate join Tony and his guests as they tackle the topics of Pop Culture, Sports, religion, and yes, even politics. If life’s a Rubik’s Cube, we’ve got the experience to tackle it. Welcome to the Gen X perspective with Tony Randazzo. Hey, how’s everybody doing? So it’s been a few weeks since I’ve done a done a recording. We’ve been really busy in, in the Gen X perspective world, traveling back from a vacation, and then being super duper ridiculously busy at work, because it’s now springtime, which means that we’re pruning grape lines and hiring seasonal staff. And everything is happening all at once getting ready for summertime, which we’re hoping and expecting to be really exciting and really busy this year. So I apologize. And we’re working on some cool stuff. So I’m hoping to be a little more on the regular circuit, meaning hopefully every week or every other week, getting a podcast done, and we’ll see kind of how that goes. So with that being said, I wanted to kind of check in and, and share some observations with my recent travels, and the vaccine, and the media, and all this stuff that I feel torn about even talking about because it’s just one of those things that’s every day kind of in our minds. And I listened to a lot of podcasts, so that maybe I’m not listening to this stuff every day. But it’s such a big piece of our reality that I find it hard to not have it on your mind in the reason that I’m bringing it up is the day that my wife and I got home from traveling. We had the opportunity to get our vaccines when we got home and was like, oh, okay, right away. That’s fine. We’ll do that. And my wife and I were both kind of torn for different reasons about getting it or not getting it. You know, I mean, part of us were like, okay, yeah, but you know, I grew up of the age of having a basically a vaccine card to get into elementary school. And High School, you didn’t get to go to school unless you had all your shots. So it’s been a part of my life growing up as something normal. And then as an adult, the importance or, or maybe it’s not important of getting your flu shot and jury is always kind of been out on that one. So I’ve been a little more regular and getting that in my later 40s will say, and so it’s kinda I don’t know, it didn’t. I didn’t think about it a whole lot. It was like, wow, they’re really quick on it. They came out with it really fast, but I don’t know. You know, it’s it doesn’t seem like too uncommon, at least for my generation to be getting a vaccine for something. And the little bit of research that I did personally, that they already kind of had the DNA worked up on this virus, blah, blah, blah without getting too technical, because I’ll fuck it all up. As you know, it seemed like they already had a head start anyway, so I kind of felt comfortable with it. What I didn’t like is New York State is giving this kind of feel that to be able to do anything or participate, that you’re going to need to have this vaccine and proof of the vaccine. So we work in the public facing world, right, so the winery and vineyard normal summers, we have staff that travel to shows all over the state, and they’re in front of other people. And it feels like and seems like the state is leaning towards probably requiring at like, these big events, everything from private food and wine shows to state run things like the New York State Fair, that goes for like, almost three weeks now, if they do it this year, that they’re going to require either getting tested, often during that event and or proving that you have your vaccines. So for us, it was kind of like, well, it’s going to involve work, it’s going to affect the ease of what we’re going to do. And again, these are assumptions, but based on the history and kind of how the state has been posturing through this whole thing. It seems like that’s going to be what’s going to happen. So we got our first shot. What I didn’t expect, and I’ve heard this from a couple other people, I’ve heard this on a couple podcasts as well is I felt like I was a pretty well adjusted human when it came to the the virus and how it affects people differently. How the lockdown, and how that affected people in different ways. And and I kind of early on just like everybody on the planet. We were all terrified, right? This kind of lurking invisible thing was gonna come get us when we least expected it or. And if we got it, God forbid we were going to give it to somebody else. So early on, I think so many of us, including myself, had this great fear and anxiety about getting this virus and dying. Well, pretty quickly. on early on, I kind of got to the point where I was kind of seeing a different perspective. I understood that this was a dangerous virus. I understood that it was affecting a lot of people I understood. Being in New York State watching what was happening downstate in the city. I understood that this thing was serious and real. But where we are in the state where we are in the country in a very rural area kind of out of the way. Our numbers stayed very, very low. I mean, I mean, in the middle of summer, there were points where we didn’t have anybody hospitalized at all in our Tri County area up here. But did change towards Christmas, but it was just kind of like, Okay, well, it’s here. We’re being safe. We’re wearing masks, we’re doing what we’re being told to do. And all right, whatever. You know, I don’t have any anxiety over this. I mean, I get it. I’m in mind you. I’m watching the news. I’m watching Cuomo, our Governor’s press conferences every day, mostly because of business because things were changing so much. But at the same time, being immersed in this negative The world is ending news every single day. You get kind of I wouldn’t say numb to it, but you definitely get used to it. It’s still happening today. I just watched the nightly news tonight. Not local news. But national. You’d figure the world is ending. But so I went in and I got the shot in my arm, the first shot and another one to go here at the end of April. And I got home in this really weird thing happened like this weight was lifted off my shoulders. What I realized was I was holding on to this stress and anxiety that was so kind of normalized. I didn’t even know it was there. So I it was kind of this weight lifted off my shoulders. Like I could breathe again almost. And it was just this really on a personal level. And I’ve heard this from other people, not from everybody. You know, I talked to my dad who got his shot and it was kind of like, whatever Yeah, okay, life is gonna continue on and whatever. But it really hit me that I realized I had all this under Stress, which was affecting me personally, professionally, etc, you know, and then you start kind of looking back at the last year and your behaviors. And it really affected me a lot more than I was willing to maybe admit early on. And then it was really hard to. I mean, to even notice that this was happening until I got that first shot. And now I know that Yeah, okay, I can still get it. Jury seems to still be out on if you become a carrier or not a carrier, and the CDC is changing the recommendations, and kind of their data regularly. But you know, they’ve been doing that for a year as well. So things are changing. But this weight was lifted off my shoulders that I didn’t realize that I had, then I kind of started realizing other things like the pandemic is, is like a drug for the media companies, the big media companies primarily, but media companies like it’s bad news, like, Oh, my God, the world is ending. So when COVID in a lot of ways started getting under control, or maybe wasn’t the the, the biggest topic of the day, now there, they get to report on the new variant and the new strain in the new this in, it’s still going to end the world and they’re going to lock down things more in there’s this constant kind of doom and gloom and the world is ending from these media outlets. I mean, I’m primetime, I’m talking not i’m not talking fox news or CNN or, you know, kind of the the extreme right and left political people. I’m talking like, the ABC, NBC Nightly News, you know, Laura O’Donnell, and what’s the other guy there that does the news all the time on the other channel there, Lester Holt, these guys, they are talking about the world literally imploding every day. So you know, now there’s a crisis on the border that they’re finally talking about. And admitting so you know, early on in, in our president’s tenure, you know, he kind of reversed back a lot of the Trump era laws about the border. And they kept saying, Oh, it’s not a crisis, you know, there’s not a problem, there’s not a problem. And now they all they can talk about, I mean, again, bad news, porn, so to speak, they get to talk about the crisis at the border. And that’s all they can harp on. So now we have new variants of the virus in this crazy fucking news about, you know, 20,000 a day, whatever the damn number is, migrants and children coming across the border. And folks, that’s a big damn problem. It’s not like, back in the 80s. From my perspective, as a kid, a lot of it was primarily Mexicans would cross the border, and it was primarily men, not all but primarily, they would come over during harvest season, they would come work on the farms, they would collect their money. And then they would go back home for half the year. So half the year, they were in the US working, the other half of the year, they would take all that money they saved, and they would go back to Mexico. Not all Mexicans. But primarily that was my experience in what California saw. And they would go back and forth and back and forth, well, then it started getting harder to go back and forth. So they would stay longer. So that they were traveling less so it wasn’t, you know, a semi annual thing turned into an annual thing turned into, Well, I better just bring my family here and stay here. Which, again, growing up in Southern California, that was a norm it wasn’t it was just the way it was in Southern California. And it was that was okay. I mean, it didn’t. I mean, maybe there were adults and people running around that were all pissed off about about it, but it was really generally accepted. They were doing these jobs that middle class Southern California, folk didn’t want to do anyway, and they were happy to do it. They got paid to do it. And, and then the laws started changing and it started getting more dangerous started getting harder to cross the border. So they stayed, we kind of created that problem, really, if they want to look back, at least in California, at least in what my understanding of it was at the time. So the self created Nightmare on the border is happening for many different reasons. I you know, tonight again, On the news, you know that they’re, they’re coming from these third world countries further down in South America, it has a lot to do with, you know, back to back hurricanes and these small farming communities being decimated, and war and crime and holy crap, and they’re just trying to get somewhere they can raise their family or their kids and maybe have a shot at it. And, you know, and then we have this crazy situation going on at the southern border. Now, I’m from a family of immigrants, just like most people in the US. I’ve only been here or our family has been here now. I would be the fourth, the third generation born in the US. So my great grandparents were born in Italy. And they came over as immigrants. They came over through Ellis Island. And I know times are different, and it’s fairly unpopular to have this belief. But, you know, if people want to come that bad, why don’t you create a way for them to come into the damn country and be able to live and work and not fear getting kicked back out of the country so that maybe they work through the rest of their immigration process and become US citizens, if that’s what they want to do, or if they want to work visa. So they think going back and forth, let them do that too. Or in addition to or instead of whatever, instead of this kind of polarized nightmare, where you have extreme right and extreme left arguing about it, nobody’s getting anything done. Because right now, it’s the democrats in power in an office and they’re making all their rules, by executive order. So the next time a republican gets into the office, he can just reverse all that stuff, just like Biden did to Trump. So Trump got into office, wrote a bunch of executive orders, pushed a bunch of crap through, not pushed it through, signed it through. And then President Biden was able to go in and undo it. So you kind of have to involve, you know, the legislative bodies and get both sides together. So they can create laws and things that will stay on the books and not be just reversed by the swipe of a pen. I don’t know, just my opinion. Just my perspective, I don’t know just seems like common sense. But we’re not talking about common sense right now. We’re talking about fear and being scared. And that is what the news has been totally harping on. You know, now, since this whole pandemic really has happened. So the news has to keep up with this crazy news addiction that that we have, or the sphere addiction. So now it’s these variants. And now New York State, along with a couple other states has got the largest population of people getting infected with this new variant now that’s more susceptible to younger kids, and they tell you that you need to go get vaccinated, but at the same time, that’s really the last thing that these media outlets want to talk about is because if there is herd immunity, and everybody gets vaccinated, then they gotta go find new news. And you got to realize that with Donald Trump out of office, all these news outlets kind of had to shift their profile to find other other stuff to talk about, because we all know, you know, agreeing with the last administration or totally not agreeing with them, they definitely gave us something to talk about literally every day. Because, you know, agree with Trump or not agree with Trump or like him or hate him. He surely gave us all something to talk about good lord every day. If that was a supporter or totally opposed to, he definitely gave us good. Good news, for sure. Good lord. So as he gets out of office, Biden gets into office, this new cycle is in this kind of horrible death spiral of doom and gloom. We’re stuck in the middle of it. And then all of a sudden, Tony Randazzo gets his first shot of Madonna, I think is what it was. And this kind of weight was lifted off my shoulders. So all of a sudden now I’m looking at my job a little bit differently. The family business starting to feel a little bit differently was like, wow, I kind of feel like I’m coming out of this fog or this weight or this oppression, or suppression almost. And I’m starting to feel better. And I’m starting to feel more motivated. And what can I go get done, which is timing wise is great for our business because it’s a very busy season, getting the vineyard kind of opened up, there’s a lot going on fixing tractors and you name it, you know, you’re planting flowers, hiring people, winemaking is probably the slowest thing right now. But even then I’ll start getting busy again. But you know, the winemaker is doing his maintenance and cleaning the winery and doing this and everybody’s doing their projects and getting things done. Because soon enough, there’s going to be a ton of people here. And we’re going to be really busy. And, and then it’ll be winter again. But I won’t talk about that too much. That’s a little too much doom and gloom coming from me. So I’m going to stay in the moment, the moment is, you got to look in on yourself a little bit, I think, and realize how this whole thing is affecting you. On a real personal level, and I know a lot of people that have done you know, they do meditation, and they they’re doing yoga, or they’re doing whatever it takes to kind of get grounded with themselves and kind of get control back of your life. And some people are still I’ve talked to that, you know, they haven’t left their house in a year. Because that is what they were told to do. And, and that’s okay. Everybody has their own take on that. And everybody I think did it from the extreme, never leaving their house to the other end of that spectrum where you know, we had to leave the house every day, our business stayed open. Being a farm, we were working, our staff was reduced, but we worked throughout. So if those were the two extremes, staying at home and never leaving the house for a year, and or getting out there and having to work in the public eye. And during the pandemic and doing what they’re asking you to do to be safe. If those were the two kind of extremes, and I could go with the extreme of not wearing a mask and doing whatever, but that didn’t that happen in such an isolated way. And really only happened early on in the pandemic, for the most part that it’s not even worthy of really kind of talking about, we all have our horror stories for whatever reason. But seriously. So it I found that the people that kind of got the mental help that they needed, and tended to stay healthier and more grounded. I really found it interesting, as well, that the media, were so concerned with telling you what to do and what not to do. So wear masks stay home, you know, don’t go to big gatherings don’t go anywhere for Christmas, don’t do don’t go to spring break, blah, blah, blah. But they never really talked about what would you could control and do to control yourself and your own health. And anybody that knows me knows that I’ve been on a roller coaster of weight gain and weight loss my whole life on extremes, you know, his heaviest, 350 pounds, as late as 167 pounds in everywhere in between, which is where I am now I’m creeping up on the high end of that. And really, in my own research, and I talked to my general doctor about this. You know, there was really not a lot of talk about vitamin D and the importance of that in regards to COVID and some of the stuff that was coming out in some of the research etc. And they never talked about getting people outside and exercising. During COVID in in healthy lifestyle stuff that never really came up. It was talked about kind of in the fringes. And in some cases when somebody brought it up if they weren’t really careful about how they talked about it. They were banned or kicked off Facebook or their content was taken down because it was kind of inadvertently contrary to what was being said in the mainstream media or by the CDC right or wrong. I’m not quite sure but they didn’t talk about kind of self health and how to take care of yourself during this whole thing either. They You know, there’s been more stories about you know, the COVID 20 or the COVID 40 I’ve heard both about that. And that being how much weight you gained during it, but they didn’t talk about was the people that got healthy and lost weight and got their kind of their, their levels, their their body chemistry up to where it was supposed to be, so that they could be the healthiest they could be, which meant that the likelihood of them getting severely ill or dying from COVID, or anything else for that matter, could have been greatly diminished and bring any of that up. I’m pretty comfortable talking about it, because I’m a classic example of a stress eater, and somebody that’s overweight and doesn’t take care of him damn self. And I didn’t, and I let it affect me in that stress of everything going on, it directly impacted that. And I can’t tell you if it would have worked or made a difference. It makes a difference now where I hear about it. And intellectually, it makes sense, when I hear people talk about getting healthy and having appropriate chemists body chemistry, will greatly diminish the effects of COVID or any other illness on the body won’t we all know that if you’re healthy, the likelihood of you getting severely ill or dying from something like COVID, or the flu is greatly greatly reduced. Not always, I know it would take three seconds on Google to type in healthy fit athlete dies from COVID sure, or from the flu, or from tripping on the sidewalk, anybody could essentially die from anything. Yes, it doesn’t take a long time to you know, if you want to argue the point with me, but at the same time. Globally, healthy people. Well, chemistry balanced people, um, you know, vitamins, minerals, healthy diet, healthy body. And I’m not talking skinny, I’m talking healthy, different subject. Being healthy, taking care of yourself, it’s going to help your brain in your mental stability, but it’s also going to help you physically. And there has been a lot of research that is now starting to come out. Although the news isn’t, of course, picked up on it or talking about it. I don’t know why. But they’re not that there’s a lot of benefits to being healthy and taking care of yourself. And we’re not focusing on that we’re focusing on being scared and being controlled and being kind of locked down still, mentally and physically. And it’s worth looking at. During COVID, I started doing some meditation, but primarily doing yoga, three days a week, and it’s made a huge difference in my kind of mental stability, my health as well has gotten a lot better as well. That is a bonus for sure. And that was part of the reason I was doing it. But I just had to go do something. And in the middle of winter, in the part of the world that I live, you know, it’s a little harder just to go out for a walk at, you know, 10 below with the wind blowing on the river, it was a little easier to go seek out yoga classes and I was taking private classes kind of one on one stuff because I wanted to learn and get back into understanding yoga and getting active in it again. And I liked the idea of going to and just being one on one with somebody. And I wasn’t comfortable when they all started allowing classes wasn’t kind of comfortable wanting to be around other people. Again, I worked in the public eye but spending an hour in a room even with only the yoga studio that’s close by was they were told that when they were allowed to open were 10 people, Max, or it was eight people or 10 people max in normally the same room would hold I think 30 I think was the number it might be 20 but 20 or 30 a lot of people compared to very few people but I was even still like You know what, I don’t know if I want to be around people for that long in a room that I don’t know. Which is really funny since I worked all summer around all sorts of people I didn’t know but I you know, I don’t know, I guess different mindset. So started doing yoga. Starting to get my body chemistry kind of straightened out. Realizing that I I was putting things in my mouth that I shouldn’t be eating that was making me gain weight. And now I’m starting to struggle through another cycle of getting healthy. And we’ll see how that goes, we’ll probably talk about that in the future. I’m not gonna harp on that one too much right now. But you know, hey, it is what it is. That’s what I got going on. So to kind of wrap it up. And I talked about a bunch of different things, but really, the bullet points being to kind of round round this thing out or be aware of the input that’s coming in, and how negative it is all the time. And be aware that, that there, there’s probably a huge underlying stress that you don’t even realize is affecting you. That you may not even realize until you either get COVID and get past COVID and or get vaccinated. And then the people that are out there that aren’t going to get the vaccine, I have people in my family, they’re not going to get it and they have no desire, and they’re not going to do it. I haven’t had people in my family that have health issues, legit health issues, that if they get COVID, it could really be bad, potentially, and they’re not going to get the shot. So it’s not for everybody, you know, and God Bless America, right, we all kind of, we get to choose and control our own bodies and minds. And that’s one of the kind of principles of our country, if you know, at least I believe it is still. So keep that all in mind. And really look in on yourself and, and give yourself a gut check and see what’s going on. Make sure you’re being healthy and covering all the bases so to speak. And I’d love to hear from you guys, check out the new website just kind of made some changes to that. And it’s got kind of a new look and feel and if you feel like you’d like to reach out to me go for that and, and have a wonderful week. I look forward to talking to you guys very soon. And been sharing some new stuff that’s getting ready to happen, at least in the podcast world. So y’all Take care of yourself and we will we will chat soon. Peace. Thanks for listening to the Gen X perspective. Bye Tony Randazzo, where we see things a bit differently. 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