William C. Judge-The Wonder of it All

Show Transcript

William C. Judge: Inspirations of Life's Experiences

[00:00:00] Bob Gatty: Our guest today is author William c Judge, whose new book, the Wonder of It All , shares the inspirations of his life experiences, and profound reflections that shape his view of the world.

[00:00:13] As the Forward by Linda Gardner, Crandall States, " Judge writes poignantly about his hopes and past disappointments, his travels, and the people in his life who have influenced him in unique ways. We'll explore some of that with Bill today. 

[00:00:32] Bill's a veteran of the fire service. He's an award-winning videographer and three D modeler for a D O D contractor.

[00:00:40] As he puts it, he's a writer, traveler, photographer on a quest for spiritual truth and understanding. Bill Judge, welcome to The Lean to the Left Podcast. 

[00:00:53] William C. Judge: Thanks to be here, Bob. 

[00:00:56] Bob Gatty: I found your book fascinating. I did read it and I thought it was beautifully written, and you guys, if you have a chance, you should pick it up.

[00:01:05] It's really a delightful book. It's written with sensitivity and and feeling and I think you'd enjoy it. Bill, first, tell us a bit about it, about your book and what you're looking to achieve with it. 

[00:01:17] William C. Judge: One of the stories I wrote nearly 30 years ago, and Since that time so much has happened, but over the past several years, I've become much more reflective and wanted to share these reflections. Partly because of what I see in the world today with I. So much anger and hatred, and people are just so wrapped up with the day of the day.

[00:01:45] I'm hoping that this, these stories will give people a moment to pause and reflect. 

[00:01:52] Bob Gatty: Explain a mi a little bit about how that is you. It is not a novel. It's not a book that goes from one point to another in a plot. You've got a number of individual stories based on your experiences, correct?

[00:02:08] Correct. Yeah. Okay. So tell us about some of your favorite stories that are in the book. 

[00:02:17] William C. Judge: My favorite stories come from whatever emotion I'm feeling at the time. The story about my niece called Deeply Missed, comes from my experience of losing her at the age of 18 with three other teenagers in a car accident. And it just brings me back and it helps me think of her and and it actually brings a smile to my face when I think about her.

[00:02:45] But then it goes to other extremes with some joyous stories where I talk about learning to dance and how important it is in particular for a young man. I remember as a teenager getting on the dance floor with a beer in my hand and jumping up and down and that wasn't really dancing, but later in life, I learned to dance and with a partner that I'm deeply in love with.

[00:03:13] There's so much nonverbal communication that happens that it's just wonderful. So learning a few steps, you can really learn to communicate with someone. 

[00:03:27] Bob Gatty: I'm looking at that piece right now Learn to Dance. It's on page 1 35 of the book. And I have to confess, I think I missed that one.

[00:03:36] I think I stopped reading it on page 1 25. Anyway because I ran out of time. But I have to look at this one. It starts out to the young men out there who may be a bit unsure of themselves. I have a suggestion. Learn to dance. Dance is romantic. Poetic and seductive. It's also a lot of fun.

[00:04:01] Alright, you know what, you guys, if you don't, if you don't know how to dance yet, take bill's advice and learn to dance. 

[00:04:10] William C. Judge: Yeah, it's a lot more attractive than the jumping up and down and, that might be considered dance, but when you learn to work with a partner, it's amazing. 

[00:04:22] Bob Gatty: Okay. So when you learned to dance, what did you learn?

[00:04:26] Did, did you learn actual, like the waltz and the list 

[00:04:30] William C. Judge: Oh no. My wife and I we took a little class in oh, it wasn't a two step, it was more of a

[00:04:37] Went blank of what's what it's called, but it was similar to Two Step and you'll Oh, okay. And you learn how to move and communicate with your partner and it can go so much deeper. And I say in the story that, learning to dance on the dance floor or a moonlit spot on the beach, can be very romantic.

[00:04:58] Yeah. But when you get to be my age, A romantic dance around around the kitchen just brings back those moments. 

[00:05:08] Bob Gatty: Alright Tell me. About this documentary. You're a filmmaker and you helped produce a, an award-winning documentary about Native Americans in South Carolina. Tell us about that video and what it covers and what you learned from it, 

[00:05:24] William C. Judge: bill. 

[00:05:25] I've worked on a few videos with the Native American Study Center in Lancaster.

[00:05:31] . And what an amazing experience. They used to dig on a place called the Cold Site, which is up on the PD River. They dug there for about 17 years, and I was with them probably the last three or four years. I went down, stayed two weeks at a time, and filmed the whole process and. I just found out how much I don't know about archeology.

[00:06:04] Bob Gatty: What was the digging they were doing? 

[00:06:06] William C. Judge: The cold site is a site that's on an ancient sand dune that's been used. It was used during the slave area. Johannes Kolb was a colonial era settler. And then going back thousands of years, the Native Americans used the site. So it's very rich in in archeological finds.

[00:06:31] Bob Gatty: Okay. And where was this exactly? 

[00:06:35] William C. Judge: It's on the PD River. It's out in the middle and nowhere. 

[00:06:39] Bob Gatty: So that's in South Carolina, correct? 

[00:06:42] William C. Judge: Yeah. Yeah. I've got a cousin, Chris Judge, who is I believe the assistant director of the Native American Studies Center and a professor at the university. I. And he and his partners led that, that dig?

[00:07:00] Bob Gatty: Which, which university are you talking about? 

[00:07:03] William C. Judge: University of South Carolina. 

[00:07:05] Bob Gatty: Oh, okay. Okay. Alright. Now, what what tribe of native Americans was this? 

[00:07:13] William C. Judge: That's hard to say, but. I know Chief Pete Parr from the p e d spent a lot of time there with us. And it's assumed that was p e d, but.

[00:07:27] I, I'm not an archeologist, so don't quote me. Yeah. There's so many different tribes in the area. The Kataba, the PED. Yeah. So it's hard to say. Yeah. 

[00:07:39] Bob Gatty: It wasn't the Waccamaw though, right? 

[00:07:42] William C. Judge: No they're down farther south towards the coast, 

[00:07:45] Bob Gatty: right? They are. They're in the in my area, Myrtle Beach area.

[00:07:48] Actually okay. Did you do a video for the Waccamaw as well? 

[00:07:54] William C. Judge: No, I, I started working on one for them. Then I ran out of funds and then I retired. Yeah. Okay. 

[00:08:03] Bob Gatty: Yeah, that was about the time that a friend of mine the late David Hathcox and I created a documentary video for the Waccamaw Tribe. And the point of it was to support their efforts to gain federal recognition as an official Indian tribe. Something that Chief Hatcher has been working on for many years and has been unable to pull off for a number of reasons that have to do with federal regulations. 

[00:08:36] William C. Judge: I surely hope he can pull it off at some point. Chief Buster Hatcher is a great man. 

[00:08:42] Bob Gatty: Yes, he is. You may be interested to know that just last week he received an honorary degree from Coastal Carolina University for the work he's been doing on behalf of the Waccamaw. 

[00:08:56] William C. Judge: I did see that, and that's just great.

[00:08:58] Well deserved. 

[00:08:59] Bob Gatty: Yeah, for sure. He's been a guest on my show a couple of times and I've written a number of articles for my lean to the Left blog promoting the work that he's doing. And he's, he is just been having a tough time. He even Spoke personally with President Biden just before Biden's election.

[00:09:22] There was a campaign stop here in South Carolina where Biden appeared and Hatcher spoke to him there and was encouraged that if he became president that Biden would help out. But that's not been the case. Of course President has a lot of things on his plate right now.

[00:09:45] Sure. Hopefully he'll be able to, Hatcher will be able to follow up with the bureau of Indian Affairs and the Department of Interior. 

[00:09:56] William C. Judge: Sad sadly, the rules are stacked against them. 

[00:09:59] Bob Gatty: Yeah, it's true. It really is. Yeah. 

[00:10:01] William C. Judge: When they say things like, okay, show us your birth records that prove you're a Native American.

[00:10:07] There was no birth records back then. 

[00:10:09] Bob Gatty: No. There were no, there was no writing back then, correct. Yeah. They were scratching things on rocks for crying out loud. 

[00:10:16] William C. Judge: So when they make that a requirement it's an impossible thing to achieve. 

[00:10:20] Bob Gatty: Yeah, it's a roadblock that, that seems like it's put there on purpose for whatever reason.

[00:10:26] I don't know what that would be. But the Waccamaw , they've been given official recognition by the state of South Carolina. And my question is, why is it that the federal government won't accept the same criteria as the state? 

[00:10:40] William C. Judge: Yeah, that's a good question. 

[00:10:41] Bob Gatty: If they're good enough to be an official tribe in South Carolina, why aren't they good enough to be for the federal government, it just, to me makes no sense. And and the problem, I think one of the problems, I think is that it's just hard to get the attention of legislators who are more concerned about running for office every two years and raising money than they are in helping their constituents, especially if the constituency is not that big. Sure. Hatcher 

[00:11:12] points out that the Native American population is compared to other populations is very low. 

[00:11:19] And that and therefore he just doesn't think that he's getting the attention that he needs, but, Anyway.

[00:11:25] William C. Judge: It's been a fight, especially in the southeast. Yeah. The Lumbee in North Carolina, they same problems. Yeah. The pd same, they all run into the same issues. 

[00:11:36] Bob Gatty: Early in the book, you have a chapter, our story's lost with the stars. I really like that. Can you tell us a little bit about it?

[00:11:44] William C. Judge: Yeah. Ever since I was a kid, I've always loved the stars and astronomy. And it was nothing for me to be laying out in the front yard or whatever, just watching the stars and dreaming. And when I wrote that story, it just occurred to me 'cause I was living in a place where you couldn't see the stars that we don't dream as much 'cause we don't see them. When you look at the stars, it just brings a sense of awe and it lets us know just how small we are in this vast universe. that's where that story came from. Now we lost the stars and we're so busy working with a 24 hour cycle. Nowadays we can light up our cities. You can't see the sky.

[00:12:27] So I feel like we just don't take time to dream. 

[00:12:30] Where was it that you were living where you couldn't see the stars? 

[00:12:35] Just outside of Raleigh. 

[00:12:37] Bob Gatty: Oh, and just because of the ambient light. Light, Correct.

[00:12:40] William C. Judge: Yeah. I lived in a typical subdivision with streetlights on every corner. And it really, you might be able to see Orion in winters or some of the brighter constellations, but to see those deep space objects or even see the Milky Way, you're just not gonna do it in a suburban environment. 

[00:12:59] Bob Gatty: Yeah. Bill, you've traveled a lot. Many of your stories are based on your travels.

[00:13:06] What has all of that taught you about the world that we all live in today? 

[00:13:11] William C. Judge: That it's not the big scary place that the news makes us think it is. 

[00:13:16] Bob Gatty: What do you mean by that? 

[00:13:18] William C. Judge: When we watch the news we hear so many horrible things about other countries, and of course they hear horrible things about us, but when you go there, you find the people are just amazing.

[00:13:31] When I was in India Constantly, people were just offering to, come in, let's sit down, let's chat. Or if I was lost, which happened more than once. Get good solid directions. Or sometimes a little beggar kid on the street would show me the way. So there's a kindness through the world that the media doesn't let us know is there.

[00:13:55] Bob Gatty: Did you speak the language bill? 

[00:13:57] William C. Judge: No. I, when I was in India, I spoke a little bit of Tibetan uhhuh. I was traveling with my Tibetan teacher. He was a monk, and he taught me a little bit of Tibetan. Enough to find the restroom, order something to eat. 

[00:14:13] Bob Gatty: Okay. So how was it that you communicated in India with the people there if you didn't speak the language?

[00:14:22] William C. Judge: Most of India people speak English, especially in the cities. Okay. And a lot of them speak English better than we do. 

[00:14:30] Bob Gatty: Does that surprise you that in other countries. Even in Africa more people speak English than you would think. Yet here in the United States, most of us are English speaking and that's about it.

[00:14:48] William C. Judge: Now it doesn't because of the English spreading colonialization throughout the world, so I see. So English, especially in India. It's not surprising at all. 

[00:14:59] Bob Gatty: Yeah, I see. Okay. All right. You write in I'm not sure which chapter this was, but I pulled it out.

[00:15:09] Here's what you said. You travel too far off lands can be transformative if you're willing to embrace the differences between us and recognize the fundamentals that make us all part of this human family. Can you explain what you mean there? 

[00:15:25] William C. Judge: Oh, sure. When you visit somewhere else, like India, especially when I was with the Tibetans, they dressed differently.

[00:15:33] They eat differently. Predominantly Buddhists, so you could say they, they worship differently. Their religion's very different than what Christian America is used to. But then when you sit down with them, They enjoy being with their family. They enjoy laughing and a good joke. And just being together, and that's what we're all about. Just of the quest for happiness. 

[00:15:58] Bob Gatty: Yeah. Yeah. I really like the title of your book, the Wonder of it all. The more I think about what you've done here it's just a. It's just a beautiful exercise that you went through. Bill, I really do.

[00:16:13] I think it's just great tales and musings from life's journey. So tell me this, what is your view of the state of our world today from an environmental perspective? Are you concerned, for example, about climate change? 

[00:16:30] William C. Judge: I'm concerned that there is climate change. I don't know about the causes.

[00:16:35] We hear so much that's divisive, so I don't know. Is it all manmade? Is it natural or somewhere in between? Yeah. It's concerning about sea lies and loss of ice. 

[00:16:47] Bob Gatty: In your travels, have you seen any examples of. Any of this that would cause you to be worried or concerned? 

[00:16:56] William C. Judge: No, not really.

[00:16:58] Okay. I may not have traveled in the places, and I gotta say my first trip to India was in 1992. And my last trip was 11 or 2000. 11 or 12. Okay. And the difference in India is incredible how much it's been cleaned up. Okay. There's a rising middle class there, which wasn't there on my first trip.

[00:17:22] So there's a lot more wealth there and people are, seem to be taking much better care of the country. 

[00:17:30] Bob Gatty: Another thing that struck me as I read through your book was this many of us face forks in the road in our life choices to make that will perhaps shape the rest of our lives.

[00:17:44] Talk to me about some of the choices you've faced and how they've worked out for you.

[00:17:49] William C. Judge: Okay. One of 'em was, I was in the Fire Service for a long time. Alright. And so there there came a time where I was just done with fire trucks. For a lot of different reasons. So I have to make a choice. Do I stick with this Sure. Thing of a career.

[00:18:06] For another 15 years. 'cause in North Carolina you have to have 30 years before you can retire. Okay. So do I stick with that? Is my body gonna be able to handle it? Am I gonna be able to handle it emotionally or do I follow my passion and go down another road. Okay. So in the end I decided to follow my passion and went down another road, which turned out amazing.

[00:18:30] Bob Gatty: Okay, so number one, the fire service that you were working for was what? 

[00:18:35] William C. Judge: Cary fire department. 

[00:18:37] Bob Gatty: Okay. And the fork in the road that you took that was amazing, took you where? 

[00:18:47] William C. Judge: So I went back to school and learned three D animation and three D modeling with the intent of getting into architectural rendering and engineering.

[00:18:58] And I ended up okay after I graduated to hire me. Are you still there? Back as a teacher. And that's where I really learned how to do 3-D remodeling when I was teaching it, which led me to a position. Are you still there position with a defense contractor? 

[00:19:13] Bob Gatty: Okay. And 

[00:19:15] William C. Judge: Working with those guys was amazing.

[00:19:17] Okay. Because I, I worked with a lot of our elite guys in the military doing video work. The three D work led to video work. 

[00:19:26] Bob Gatty: Okay. So were you happy that you, obviously you were happy that you took that fork in the road, that path? Yeah, sure. Yeah. I did the same thing early in my career.

[00:19:40] William C. Judge: I found that stretching our comfort zone is where we grow.

[00:19:44] I could have stayed a captain in the fire department. I knew the work. I knew what to do. How it do it. Sure. I had all the benefits. Yeah. But it was time to stretch that comfort zone 'cause Yeah, it was a big pay cut when I left. Yeah. 

[00:19:59] Bob Gatty: I know what that's like.

[00:20:00] I was working on Capitol Hill. Chief of staff for a congressman making the top salary that at that time, that staff people could make. And I decided that I didn't wanna do it anymore and I chucked it and took my retirement money and invested it, launched a communications business and I did.

[00:20:24] And I did that for 30 plus years. So sometimes you have to take a chance. 

[00:20:30] William C. Judge: Yeah. I think personally that's worked out well for me. Yeah. That's been more fun. Yeah. It creates a whole lot more 

[00:20:40] Bob Gatty: stories. 

[00:20:41] Yeah, that's right. And then you get to sit down and write a book about how wonderful it all is.

[00:20:46] All right. Now you have a chapter entitled Human Being I. Yeah, You write about how the population is changing, that it won't be long before living to age a hundred and beyond will not be all that unusual. What challenges does all this bring in your opinion? 

[00:21:05] William C. Judge: Right now we're, our retirement age is basically 65 With social security.

[00:21:12] Yeah. What? What happens when all of a sudden we're faced with another 65 years of life? That's right. That was social security gonna carry us that long? Probably not. And the other thing is I talk about in that story I'm not ready to be put out to pasture or the modern day pasture or golf course.

[00:21:34] Yeah, 

[00:21:35] Bob Gatty: right. Me neither. How old are you, bill 63. Oh, you're just a baby. Oh my goodness. Oh God. 63. I wish I was 63.

[00:21:47] Oh man. All right. You're right though. That's a big gap between when people are retiring pulling down social security. Taking the benefits of the retirement plans if they have them. And when they may end up, cashing in their chips, I guess you could could say and you're right.

[00:22:11] More people are living past the century mark today than ever before, I think. And and there is a big gap between when you officially retire from a paid job or career until you don't need the retirement funds anymore. 

[00:22:35] William C. Judge: And so the other part of that story besides the finances, is what do you do to have value in your life?

[00:22:45] You've now got to the time where youre not tied up with raising kids and working a job, and you have the chance to be a human being. You can just be. You can be with yourself in your hobbies or working in the community or creating a whole new career for yourself. Redefining yourself. There's so many avenues you can explore. 

[00:23:07] Bob Gatty: Exactly. And you have time to do that, especially if you are reasonably healthy. And have taken care so that you can .I know that in, in my case, I'm 80 years old now and I've still got a little money put away, but I worry that, how long is that gonna last?

[00:23:30] Especially with the way the politicians are screwing around today and messing up the. Stock market. Yeah. 

[00:23:38] William C. Judge: Yeah. And of course they always like to scare us with, the first thing that's gonna stop is your social security. Yeah, 

[00:23:45] Bob Gatty: right. Exactly. Exactly. And I think that, I know that I mentioned that I'd worked on Capitol Hill back in the it was back in the seventies and even back then, they were using this debt limit stuff, the two parties to try to get what it is that they want done. And I just think it's a crime that, that people are held hostage like that. So anyway I wanted to follow up with this not long ago. It was the one year anniversary of the mass killing of children and teachers in Uvalde, Texas.

[00:24:22] What are your thoughts about these shootings and what lawmakers should do to answer victims pleas to please do something?

[00:24:31] William C. Judge: Yeah. From what I've read and seen, we've got a huge mental health crisis in this country. And not one of these shooters. It was somebody you would consider I think every one of 'em you would consider had mental issues. Correct. That's not been dealt with and Correct. So what are the root of these issues?

[00:24:52] We can look at society and families, our family values morals, these things all seem to be disintegrating.

[00:25:03] Bob Gatty: Yeah. I think you're you're right there. But the politicians in Washington especially seem to be so skittish about taking any kind of action that might upset the National Rifle Association, that it just seems like it's a criminal act to me, 

[00:25:25] William C. Judge: They don't wanna take action in that.

[00:25:27] But then Washington wants to take over our schools and take local control away. And it seems like the more that the federal government's involved with schools, the more the local folks, you lose control and also lose the the community spirit in schools. So somewhere we gotta find a balance. 

[00:25:50] Bob Gatty: Bill, have you got any thoughts right now about what's going on in the two major political parties with respect to the presidential election that's coming up. 

[00:26:00] William C. Judge: Since I moved out here to the mountains, I watched the news rarely. I've really unplugged from it all. I found it was, Such a distraction to me trying to develop my own spiritual side and do things here in the community that I just don't want to get spun up on all that anymore.

[00:26:22] Yeah. It's I don't know who to believe in the media is part of it. 

[00:26:27] Bob Gatty: Okay. Got anything else you wanna talk about? 

[00:26:30] William C. Judge: Buy my book. 

[00:26:32] Bob Gatty: Where can people find it, man? 

[00:26:35] William C. Judge: It's on Amazon, Barnes and Noble. Good Reads, books A million. It just about anywhere that sells books online or, my website, william judge.net.

[00:26:49] Bob Gatty: Okay. Alright. You guys, I hope you take his advice. You should pick this up. It, it's an easy read, like I said before, at the beginning, beautifully written and bill really did put his heart and soul into this book and I highly recommend it. Bill, thanks for being with us on the Lean to the Left Podcast.

[00:27:09] I really appreciate 

[00:27:10] William C. Judge: it. Thanks for having me, Bob. And. And good luck with all things.