I met David through my partner as they often overlap in their work. David has been nothing but smiles and genuine friendliness every time I've seen him. He's a pleasure to be around because of his optimism and his seemingly effortless way of being present. He's one of the few people to recommend someone (Susanne) to this project without having already participated. And then, with a splash of irony, the person he recommended ended up recommending him. I am so glad for that because he has so much to offer anyone who will take the time to read or listen below. I enjoyed chatting with him and getting to know him on a deeper level and I look forward to our next encounter.
Who are you and how would you describe yourself?
That's a really great question. Just a fellow community member. Just a fellow human being - a fellow person really looking to discover myself and realize how I can contribute to humanity. I would describe myself as a person who loves service. I love serving people; I do it every single day. Whether it's from the children that we serve, pregnant women, or whatever; we just love serving people. One of my favorite quotes of all time is, Service is the price we pay for being and living on this Earth. So, I try to embody that every single day.
Who am I? Quite literally, I'm a chiropractor. And it has so many different understandings and thoughts with it, but we come from the truest sense of... I look at myself as a person who elevates consciousness and improves the quality of someone's life on their path through life. Very different path than what chiropractic has allied around it. I'm so embodied in it and I'm so passionate about what it has to offer that it is who I am. Right? Like, some days I struggle with it to the mere fact of Should I have an identity outside of being a chiropractor? And, in reality, I don't think, other than being a husband, a man, fellow community member... I'm just really, really passionate about like, How do we move human beings through life and have them enjoy every single moment of it? There's so much suffering in this world. So much suffering with people that we see on every single day basis, whether it's from their life experiences or things that have happened to them or things that they've chose to do, but there's so much more to life, right? There's such beauty in life and how do we help people access that through every single moment? And our best way that we know is clearing out the channel through the nervous system, allowing the body to really express itself. Yeah, that's really who I am at the core. It's pretty much all I think about. Every single day of like, How do we keep this moving forward? Especially with us, How do we make sure that our children have an amazing world to live in? How do we make sure that children are expressing their full potential? It's tough to see children suffer. Right? These beautiful, pure little souls that have so much life and so much potential in life. And just want to help them reach that. It's really who I am and [where] my obsession lies (laughs) and what I think about every day.
How did you come across being so service oriented?
I experienced a lot of lack-thereof service in my younger years. I mean, I'm still 27; I'm not old by any means. But I just did a lot of things and said a lot of things and participated in a very superficial life of consuming and wasn't the nicest human being in younger years of my life. I started my service through Catholicism. That was the path it led me down. And then I really took that and spun that and How can I do it a different way? What's maybe a little more congruent with who I am? Started with some service in undergrad; did some clean water action in undergrad. And then, when I got to chiropractic school, that was a really, really big eye-opener to me of like, How do I keep serving and serving and serving? So we were part of projects there; we went on mission trips; we did a lot of things that showed us the beauty of service. How much it filled me up to see other people smile. Right? And even going down the route of being in a service mindset of like, How do I serve somebody on the trail when I'm out hiking? You always get a smile when you give a high-five, right? I look at that as service. How can I improve this person's life just in a moment? High-five. Or a smile. Or a hello. Or whatever it may be. 'Cause in reality, that improves the quality of their life and it puts a smile on my face, too. And it really fills up my cup.
What do we mean to each other on an individual basis? What does that person on the other end of that high-five mean to you?
It just means love and connection. What do we mean to each other on an individual basis, like when we cross paths with people? I think it's just a part of our evolution as individuals, but as a part of an evolution of both who are interacting, as well as the evolution of humanity. What is the path that that person's on? What do they need to hear? Maybe you said something that really frustrated them or maybe you said something that really excited them. And it's just a co-evolution; you're crossing paths for a divine reason. I don't really believe in just chance, right? I believe in coincidence. I believe in like the true meaning of coincidence, which is like coincide-ence. You're coinciding on this beautiful journey of life and conscious evolution and spiritual evolution. And when you cross paths with somebody... I remember things that just random people say to me that I'm like... just those mind seeds that you chew on for days. And your like, Man, that guy just said that me? I can't believe he said that! And you think about it for the next few weeks and it evolves you, right? It's a part of your path. And in reality, even the instant of giving a high-five or saying hello on the trail... for instance with you, it really chews at you on the inside when somebody just flat-out ignores you. What is the universe trying to tell you? Right? I don't know. It's a part of your journey. It's something for you to figure out. But that's an evolution of who you are. Constant growth and constant expansion of who you define yourself as.
When getting asked the question, Who am I?, I'm still really trying to figure out really Who am I? At the moment I really define myself as a chiropractor and community member and somebody who looks to improve the quality of people's lives, but I think Who am I? is a question for continuous evolution throughout our entire life, right? But, yeah, on an everyday basis, I think that we're a part of each other's lives to help every single human being evolve 'cause, if you think about this interaction, maybe, that we're having right now or an interaction that we have on the trail, how many more lives is that gonna affect down the line? You might never, ever cross paths with that person ever again, but if you made a positive glimpse into that person's life, changed the trajectory of their life, how many thousands of people is that gonna change?
What does community mean to you?
I think community is really where our heart resides. We're such communal beings. If you look at it from a very primitive standpoint, we can't survive without human connection; it's literally not possible. And having a community that supports each other and community that uplifts each other... I look at community as creating a tribe around this conscious evolution. That's where my mind is always at, like, How do we evolve the consciousness? But it's around love, it's around service, it's around so much more than just the face-value of your physical interaction; it's creating this depth around the people that we interact with. It's really uplifting everybody to help out this entire city that affects the entire world. I think community is everything; I really do. Connection is... I love, I love connection and realizing from a primitive standpoint that we need connection. Creating a solid community of people - of your tribe - that really vibe with you and are really grounded in love and service is... I think it's everything.
On the flip slide of the what matters to you question, what concerns you?
There's quite a few things that concern me, but I think the biggest concern - one of my biggest life purposes, I'd say my life purpose - is to improve the lives of generations that are coming about. What concerns me is that the statistic is one in 48 children have autism. That concerns me. What's the fate of humanity when 1 in 2 have autism? Right? If we continue on the trajectory that we're on, by 2050, one in two children will be autistic. That concerns me. Where does it go? What's our world gonna look like? That wakes me up every day and gets me going. Yeah, it really, really concerns me.
What's one role in the fight against social injustice? Not this particular social injustice or that particular social injustice, but social injustice.
I think it's just playing our individual part. Whether we subscribe to Black Lives Matter or whether we subscribe to Me Too or whatever it is that we really vibe with and that's our promotion. I think that it all just surrounds How do we contribute? And it's not just necessarily like What do we subscribe to? It's How do we show up every single day in every single moment? Right? Like, when no one's watching, how do you show up? You might just be walking down the trail by yourself, how do you show up as a friendly hello? You know? There's so many people that I've been excited to meet in my life and I've finally met them and I'm like, That's who you really are? That's a little disheartening to me. It's not about what we subscribe to and what we show up as... at an organizational level, I think it's really just how we show up every single day; I think that has more to do with creating more equality. One of my favorite quotes is, There's only two ways of living; a life based in love or a life based in fear. Social inequality comes from fear. Equality comes from love Living a life through love and loving on people if you've never met them or it's somebody you just meet on the trail, just loving on people and showing love, the impact that that can make is amazing. And really raising our future generations with that love-based mindset... it doesn't matter if somebody's completely different [than] you - you know, black, white, green, purple, gay, straight, bi-sexual, truck driver, chiropractor, dentist, whatever it is, man - we're all human beings trying to figure out who we are and how we can improve the lives of others. I really think that's the deepest core of it. Really basing our life in love and doing our best to let go of fear even though there's a lot of things that want to get us into that fear-based mindset. Just every single day showing up in love.
Do you think there's enough people showing up in love every day to tip the scales in that direction? Is there a critical mass of love?
I think both are growing. I think if you look at or if you watch a show based in Medieval times, right, it's growing in love. The trajectory of the human race is growing towards love. The media and everything else surrounding that wants us to be based in fear. 'Cause fear is a super strong emotion and really gets us into our primitive brain and we lose all intellect. Being based in love, love allows us to have higher-level intellect. And I think there are enough people showing up in love. I don't think humanity's doomed, per se. More and more I see people show up in very loving ways. We're really moving towards that way. And I really do believe that the human race is evolving consciously and physically. The fastest growing population in our world are centenarians - people living to a hundred. Remember 10 years ago in snowboarding, a 1080 was a big thing. Now a triple backflip 1460 is the new thing, right? The human potential is evolving and I think it's evolving in the mindset of consciously toward love. So, I don't think we're past any barricade of falling back the opposite the way.
There's a lot more people speaking the love language, but it's a quieter, softer language than the more obvious, more heard fear language? What's it gonna take to get the masses to act in love?
When we have a political system, especially a leader, 'cause I think we can both agree... I think the majority of people in our country and world can see that the leader in our country comes from fear. Like, massive amounts of fear and not from love. When we have somebody who sits in a power place who comes from love, I think that's when we're really begin to see a shift. If somebody like Marianne Williamson ran for President or somebody like Oprah Winfrey - people who outwardly express things like love - I think that's when we'll begin to see a shift. And I think in our lifetime we'll see that shift. Our country elected a human being that is just the [epitome] of fear and hatred and disgust. I think he's operating from the best standpoint that he can, but when really have somebody who is the representation of our country and our world stand up there and speak about love from a genuine standpoint and acts out of love behind closed doors, I think that's when we'll really begin to see a shift. But there's so many factors to it, as well, in different areas. Maybe we'll get to in this conversation; maybe we'll talk at a different time. But I think if we see somebody who's in the limelight who has power and who has control speak from a place of love and act from a place of love, I think that's when we'll really see a shift.
What do you want more of in your life?
I feel pretty blessed with what I have right now. Just more connection. More community. More of this. Things that bring tears to my eyes, right, that get me passionate - can always use more of that in my life. I could use more people loving life and getting to witness that. Getting out of this realm of fear, which if you look at fear as the basis core, of people comparing themselves, and feeling not enough, and being scared of sharing who they are - if I can witness that more often... that's why I love hanging out with children because children are just This is who I am! I'm gonna run around and throw things and scream and have fun and say ridiculous things and just be who I am. Yeah, I could use more of that in my life. To see people just fully expressing who they are, right? Even if I don't agree with it, it still gets me excited. There's so many people that I've met that I'm like, I don't necessarily jive with them, but they're authentic and they're expressing themselves fully and I love that. Keep doing more of that. You're gonna change some lives that way. So, yeah, I could use more of that.
Do you have anything that you want to close with?
I think something to close with is loving and respecting our fellow human beings. I feel myself so many times judge people. Like, Why did they do that? And then realizing... you get the glimpses of beyond that judgment. You figure out, you know, somebody lost their son a year ago to suicide and I'm like, Who was I to judge? Who was I to say I can't believe they did that? They're just operating from the best state that they can be. I think it's just not taking things so personally when you interact with people and just really loving people for who they are in that moment and doing our best to let go of judgment around why somebody showed up a certain way and just realizing that person's operating from their best capacity and what your job is to do is just shed a little bit more love and connection in their life.