Mm-hmm.

Seeing something on TV can be traumatic.

Reading something in the news can be traumatic.

So we all deal with trauma in different ways, and that certainly was true of our four kids.

I'll give you an example with regard to the twins.

So Matthew, when we adopted him, he was very meek, very compliant.

You know, you ask him to do something and he would happily do it and almost like trying to move back into the wallpaper, you know, and not be seen.

What was your writing journey like before you and your wife started adopting?

Yeah,

yeah.

Well, first of all, it's one of my favorite movies, maybe my very favorite movie.

And I think it relates in this way.

Like prior to that scene, and that scene is very, very close, second to last scene of the movie, The only people who speak in the movie are sort of the captains of industry, and that captain of industry speaks through a TV screen all the way back in 1936.

So it's this sense of technology that is doing all the speaking.

So in that scene that you were just referring to, yeah, that's the one where Chaplin... metaphorically and literally, finally finds his voice.

Go ahead, Mark.

Mm-hmm

... you know, my old- my teenager, my daughter, my oldest daughter is way into theater, and she's really talented.

I know I'm a proud dad, but she's actually like...

She's l- I ask around, like, "Is she good or am I..." No, she's really good, right? And I don't really know anything about that world, but I get to learn about it as she kind of, like, explores it and really, like, picks it up and, and puts, puts it on and, and now she's d- in performances and stuff like that.

And it's just not really a world I've ever been super exposed to.

Um, and I'm learning all about it through my teenage daughter, who has found this entirely on her own.

And it's a creative element, so I do kind of understand, like, that's her version of me picking up a guitar, you know? And me going and s- forming my first bands and playing my first shows are her first performances.

Mm-hmm.