Simple questions for one hundred people. Welcome to the experiment. I'm Bill Correll, and this is my investigation. I'm researching to gather data from one hundred beautiful human beings for the sole purpose to see what actually happens across the interviews. The questions are fixed and all the interviews will remain consistent with the variable being the actual participants themselves and their answers. So it's as if I'm having you or come sit on my porch to share your thoughts so
that I can learn about people. We're looking forward to what we will learn when we're done, but in the means, were really interested in your story and this process. And uh, it's my distinct pleasure to introduce my guests. Well, how about I let you do it for me. What is your full name?
Laura Claire Brown.
Claire, Yes with an E.
No without And it was one that I actually gave myself because we were not given middle names as children.
So that's interesting and some would say not very usual. So talk to me about the process of not having a middle name, and then when did you decide that you really deserved a middle name and gave yourself Claire?
So when I got married is when I brought that in. But none of our family was given middle names. Not quite sure why the reasoning behind that. But my original name was Laura Brats and so I changed my name to Brown when I got married. Claire was my mother's maiden name, so that's what I went to as my middle name for kind of honoring her.
Yeah. Absolutely, that's very traditional and men a lot of times back in the day, especially the turn of the last century, what would be given their their mother's maiden name is a middle name.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, And.
If you think about it, it was kind of a nice way to co join the names of the people that are getting married, you know, instead of having a hyphenated name like got started and rejuvenated in the sixties and seventies. My wife's father's middle name was absolutely his mother's surname.
So love that's interesting, Yeah, all.
Right, exciting. What's your favorite nickname that most people don't.
No, So I don't really have a nickname. I my husband every so often calls me Pete and a few friends, so I can be a Peter, but I never really had a nickname. It's very interesting. I don't know why about that either.
So all right, so I'm going on a limb here. I think that letter is I not E correct, not to be confused with the organization Peter P E t A.
Exactly though that could match because of my love for animals. But yeah, p I T A is.
It's all in the interpretation right, exactly excellent. So no pet names, the mom and dad, brothers, sisters, nothing, No, my name.
Is spelled differently, so I think because my mom spelled my name differently and I always had to spell my name now to everyone that that probably just is where it's sad because that was already complicated.
Yeah. I had a sister whose name was Laura l a U r A, and I appreciate the uniqueness but also the beauty of the l O r A. It's it's quite nice.
Absolutely, I like it. I do the uniqueness for years where people said Laurie because they all thought I spelled it wrong, and I'm like, not, really is Laura. And even in the hospital when I was born, they kept bringing my birth certificate back like you spelled it wrong, and my mom kept saying no, I didn't, So it was it was an interesting thing. So I love the uniqueness of it. I always always can't have so.
Beautiful. So on to question number three, when did you first notice what color hair you had?
Well, I didn't have any hairtut I was three, so probably around three, and was disturbed that I wasn't a bright red head because our whole family was redheads and I had dark hair. So but yeah, probably about three when I finally got here.
It's interesting, can you actually remember a specific time.
It was? It was a question when I asked my mom, like, how come all the women in our family have red hair and I'm the one that does not, and how did that happen? So it was just kind of clear right before I was or right after I was starting school, and kids were like, your hair looks different from your family, and I was like, oh, yeah it does. Why am I not a red head?
Did that start the background conversation of am I adopted? Or was it the cable guy or me?
And my sister always suspected maybe the milkman or something.
But yeah, it's amazing. So red hair, that's interesting. We're both your parents Jewish.
No, my father was not. As far as we know, he was adopted, so we were quite sure. But no, our Jewish side of our family, all the women have red hair, all the men have dark hair.
So I love it. Yeah, that's very Scandinavian slash Irish, you know, or maybe Scottish. M there's some Viking blood in there somewhere, I think probably. Yeah.
That's also a suspect on my dad's side for sure.
Well, that's interesting. We had a couple of folks in our family who've had red hair when they were really really young, and then it turned. But everybody else's hair was either blonder or brunette. But I had five brothers and sisters, and then my mom and dad, but they were both brunettes. Just for your information, that's wonderful, Laura. What's your favorite thing to do to intentionally waste time.
I love to spend time with animals. We tend to have a lot of animals, so if I'm wasting time, I'm usually cuddling with animals, playing, talking, that kind of thing. And then I also like to just be outside, So I'll go outside and stare at the stars or stare at the clouds and just be in that moment. That's my time waste.
Excellent. What kind of animals do you have.
Right now? We don't have any, which is the first time in fifty years. But I primarily we've always had dogs, and the big dogs, not little ones, always the big scary ones, pit bulls and Whittwiler's German Shepherd things like that.
So the sneaky part of that is you and I both know they are very docile breeds. Naturally we need to be hooked up with a really bad human being to get bad bits, in my opinion.
Yes, absolutely. I was in Colorado when they did the pit Bull Band, which was very devastating because I'm used to them being gentle creatures and that's what I knew, and so it was just one of those what happened? How did this even come about? So I wasn't. I was still young and unclear. I'm now very well aware, so I'm always have been a big advocate for all the big dogs in general. But yeah, pipples hold a very special place in my heart.
So yeah, and how many pit bulls do you think you've had.
Come through my door? Probably thirty forty, maybe fifty.
All right, so now we've read we've hit an interesting topic. The others weren't, but this is very interesting. Are you what were you doing a shelter or like, you know, some kind of a foster program for for an almost what was that all about.
Yeah, we have done fostering. We work with animal rescues. I go in and help in the rescues with rehab and things like that as well as my mom was a bus driver in Colorado for our TV and she used to bring strays on the bus all the time and bring them home. So it was just and with her that was a wide variety of dogs. So we've had, you know, kind of I think we've had every breed of the medium to large sized dog at some point across.
Yeah, and we're in Colorado, were you.
I grew up in Denver on the east side of Denver and people five Points area. Went to Manual High School.
Yeah, so when you think of Denver, I was born there. I went to the University of Colorado. I have lot of family in Denver, and so the names of communities that are so called Denver, like Arvada and Westminster and Thornton and North Glenn, you know all of those. Aurora. I was born in Aurora. Yeah. My dad was in the service fitz Simmons Army Hospital, So that's kind of neat And how long ago did you leave Denver.
Well, we were in Aurora before we left, and we moved to Oklahoma a little over.
Six years ago, so it's been recent. Yeah, how about that. Yeah, and you're finding things quite different in Oklahoma from from Denver, Colorado very much.
So it was a big good jests. I will say that we love it here. It's a different pace of life than what Colorado has kind of become. And I do love that I'm getting all or I like that quieter, more country living life. But yeah, it was a huge adjustment for us and our family because all of us kind of came from a city living kind of atmosphere.
So are you more rural and in the country at this point or just a different kind of neighborhood.
Yes, we are country. We're in a neighborhood. But all the other corners around us are all farms, so cattle, horses, that's of little mini manches everywhere.
You can go out and get your mammal fixed anytime you want to. Huh. Oh.
Yeah, absolutely love it.
And you didn't give anything up. With regard to the sky, they're both big sky, big beautiful, starry. Yeah. Maybe maybe it's easier to see the stars now than it was in Denver because the ambient light from the city sometimes makes that a little bit more obscure, especially you know, pollution and what have you.
Oh yeah, definitely much clearer. And it was part of my requirements when we moved here was I want to be somewhere where there's no city lights so I can see two stars instead of city stars.
Exactly. I mean it's almost like cleaning your windshield on your car, you know, after driving it through a summer worth of dust storms and all that sort of thing. Yeah.
Absolutely, I love that analogy because that's perfect. It is exactly what it is. It was so clear now like wow.
Before you might see a few hundred stars. Now you see a few hundred thousand. They're just wow. Is that what that looks like?
Exactly?
So good for you. And we got there by asking what you do to waste time? Isn't that lovely?
I love conversations just flow.
Yeah, So, Laura, what's your favorite movie to watch alone?
I am a rom com person alone. I don't have a very rom com husband, so I and my one of my favorites is Fifty First Dates because it is the one probably that my husband will watch with me the most.
Yeah, what do you like about it?
Well, I like the pretense of it. I like the idea of, you know, kind of growing through that. But if a lot of it comes from my husband feels that same way about me. So I have ADHD and I tend to forget things, and after sixteen years of marriage, there's times where I'm like, we did that. He's like a few times, oh, okay. So I think he kind of feels like he's living in that world a little bit, and me too.
At times, you've got a living historian that can actually explain to you what you did before that you don't have any recollection at all exactly. That can be a good thing, but it sounds like it could also be a little annoying every once in a while. Sounds to me like he does it with love.
Absolutely he does it with love, but I'm sure it's very annoying at times when he's like, you don't remember, I'm like, oh no, I'm sorry.
I'm at the point right now where I'm trying to I think, is Julia Robertson that.
Drew Barrymore.
Drew Barrymore, Oh, yes, okay, I'm starting to get into the right church. Now I will have to watch that again because I like Drew especially like her movies absolutely, and you just awakened that in me again, So thank you. Goodness. So that's a that's a great movie to watch alone
and with somebody, especially especially with your husband. But here's the one I'm looking forward to asking you if you were to have an action figure made of you, what superpowers would it have and what colors would its uniform be?
Hmm, well, my favorite color colors are blue, green, and purple, so it will probably be that nice and probably Super Animal Lover. I'm not quite sure exactly what the name would be, but it would have.
To do with it. It's super Animal Lover. Yeah, I like it, I really do. Thank you. Let's talk some more about that. What would you actually do with your superpower? You, super Animal Lover you.
It's always been a dream of mine to open a rescue, to have a real facility where lots of different things can happen, and support in the community. I think that how we treat animals is a direct correlation of how we treat people, and working with teenagers for so many years in my first career, I have learned that there is a direct correlation with some of the behavioral stuff
usually starts with animals. So people all kind of have their little thing that they love, where you can love the world, but they have their one specific thing they really truly hone in on, and for me that was animals. I'm a huge advocate for you know, animal rights and how we treat them and why it needs to be different and stuff like that.
So I appreciate and I love you know that you've got kind of like two groups there. They're both groups that I love as well. Not that that matters to you, but it matters to me that that's where you operate in the world. Can you tell us a little bit about what you did with teenagers.
I worked with behavioral I guess in quotes behavioral teenagers in residential facilities and in juvenile courts, so they were having problems and needed to be put in the facilities. We didn't always want jail for them, so they would
come into the residential facilities for programs. And then I also was a case manager with Denver Juvenile Court, working with kids who were on pre trial, so they were arrested for something they were going through the trial process, but again we didn't want to leave them in jail for that whole period, so we would monitor them in the in public, at home and at school and stuff like that.
So did you have a set of criteria or some kind of a judgment that they would have to do in order to be set free at some point in the future or was it all just a matter of just discussing the cases as they went along and then more or less deciding which ones were appropriate for this environment and which ones probably needed to do something else.
Yeah, we had a as a case manager. We had a lot of say of programs available. When I was in the residential facilities, they were already sentenced to those facilities that we were working in, so then it was just more working through programs about I did. Part of mine was teaching life skills, accountability, just looking at the world a different way, and then the other programs were more working on their behavior and how they approached things
and stuff like that. We usually did in groups, so there was a lot of accountability factors among the group going through the program. They had to kind of learn how to be in society in a way that was more civil. I guess for lack of a better word, but.
It's always behavior based, and you know, it's kind of a heartbreak to me to see the number of kids even today, probably worse than when you were doing it in terms of gross numbers and everything. But they're just messing with the chemistry, you know, to a far greater degree than when I was that age, you know. But at the same time, everybody deserves a chance to get back on the straight and narrow. And when we're talking
about behaviors, I mean, you can't legislate behaviors. All you can do is try to recondition, retrain and give them a reason in their own mind, you know, to be here and make a difference for their own behavior.
Yeah. Absolutely, society has I think so it has what society seems to have a standard that they think is proper, and that doesn't always work across the board for everybody. So it's more finding not trying to fix them, but just trying to get an understanding of taking accountability for the actions that you've done and those life skills of caring for others in a way where you don't want to harm other people, you don't want to maybe say the things that you say that create then chaos moment
or you know, a fight or whatever else. So it was more teaching that of sometimes it's okay to hold your tongue or other times it is truly necessary for you to speak up and speak your truth and knowing when those times.
Kind of yeah, and giving them different words to say, you know, they are more powerful than just acting out and not being understood. You know, I appreciate that you did that, and I thank you for that, and I really understand better, you know, your affinity for dogs at this point, because in many ways we're talking about the exact same sort of you know, we've got this is acceptable, but they behave like this and this stuff over here
and this stuff over here. We'll keep this stuff because it's great, but this stuff on this side we got to do a little, uh, well, let's see if we can generate some interest on their part to behave differently.
Yeah, a little fine tuning.
So that's a great superpower. And thank you for really kind of you know, distinguishing it for me. So what did you want to grow up to be when you were five years old?
I absolutely wanted to be a veterinarian. I knew it from jump yeah, Yeah, that didn't happen back.
And is that because you were around divers animals from an early age, because your mom kept bringing strays home or else.
I probably that had a lot to do with it, but I I really was just on that path. I was really in that world and learning so much, and then created an allergy to animals, and so we had some We didn't stop bringing animals in, but there were rules in the house about they couldn't be in my room anymore and I couldn't be all in my face loving on them. So it hindered my ability to be
able to go into that field. I've now since overcome the allergies, so I kind of wish maybe I'd kept on that path, but it definitely sent me in a different path, and I did remain in rescue, but the veterinarian inside of it kind of came out of the pictures so nice.
So your reaction to the allergy, what were the symptoms?
I broke out in hives. I couldn't breathe. It was like a full anaphylactic shock kind of thing that happened. It still happens from time to time, especially if I pet an animal and rub my eyes or something and forget and then immediately sorry, everything starts to close up. My eyes get ready, and I'm like, oh great, let me go wash my hands real fast and wash my face before this becomes a problem.
That's yeah, now you know what to do and how to deal with it. That's that's pretty awesome. And so how did you How did you beat the allergy to where you could actually be around them, but just not, like you said, rub them all over your face and body right exactly?
I really don't know. It just through time. I think I finally just built that immunity up. I think if you're unwilling to give something up, then your body will eventually go, okay, we're just gonna go ahead and and then let you have this. Maybe I don't know, but it just I never stopped.
So there's an awful lot too, you know, people putting their mind to something and actually correcting it, you know, at that level, I think that's pretty cool too. But you know, you, of all people, should not have something that terrible happens to you just because you're loving on animals.
You know, yes, i'd agree, But.
You didn't have that reaction with teenagers, did you.
Oh? Yeah, I absolutely learned to hate them.
A different kind of allergy exactly, and.
I knew I was gonna have mine one day, So I had to get to a certain point where I no longer hated them. Part of why I've let I stopped working with them was the idea that I couldn't be effective if I had become so burned out by what happened so and things that were going on and stuff. So in that world, you're not only fighting the kids and all the stuff in the programs that you don't always necessarily agree with, but you're fighting all of the
judicial side of everything as well. So it can it can be very tiresome to the those in that field for long periods of time.
So yeah, So did you have to accompany your your your kids into juvenile court and when they were being uh interviewed either by a prosecutor or the judge, and when they were deciding what kind of a sentence they were going to be given and what their story was and what their most recent transgressions were and all that sort of thing.
Yeah, as a case manager in juvenile court, that's that's what we had to do. And it was it was fun, you know, and judges are if you don't have your ducks in a row and you're in front of a judge, they let you know they're not not so nice. So again it was kind of those parts of things, and but our opinions mattered. We did get to say, you know, we're working with them now when this is what we see.
So we were part of the overall factor into what their sentences would be and you know, guilty not guilty, all the other things. So there were several reports, several meetings and being in front of the courts and stuff.
So did the judges tend to ask you what your opinion was about the right course of treatment for the person you were with and actually listen to you or was it more less personal than that.
No, they actually got personal with us. It did matter, especially if the social worker and the lawyers and if there was just no cohesiveness among them, then they would really turn to us and be like, look, you spend this time with them, you know them, you meet them every week, you're in their home. Give us a reality check of what's happening, and so yeah, then we would definitely speak up and say these are the things we see, these are red flags, These were not red flags and that kind of stuff.
So well, that's an extraordinary level of commitment and also probably energy drain. I can imagine there were times that you were in in a juvenile court, going I should not be the one here doing this right now, it should be anyone but me, or and then other times you probably were saying, I am so glad I'm here. You know, this might have gone badly if I hadn't been here.
So I had a unique perspective because I grew up where I grew up and how I grew up. I was involved in gangs, I was involved in, I guess with people, risky behavior of my own. I was not the easiest child in the world from my mother as a single parent, for sure. So I had a different perspective a lot of times on where behaviors may have come from instead of, you know, just they're just bad kids,
you know. So that's kind of where my fireback always came into, was I grew up like these kids, I lived like these kids, and I wasn't that far removed
from them when I started working with them. I was nineteen, so I was just coming out of that world myself, and I did that by moving to Oakland for two years and then coming and working there with their teenagers, and then coming back to Colorado to kind of separate myself from the community parts aspects, Like I loved our community, but there are aspects of it that were very influential so during that time frame, So I wasn't that far from removed from their age group either already, So I
had a different perspective, and we grew up very non judgmental. So I think I was more People would say I was more on the side of the kids, and I'm just like, I'm more on the side of not having that judgment and let's figure out what the deeper core problems are.
So yeah, good for you, because if there's ever a way to get a kid back on the straight and marrow, it's the way to go. Putting them, you know, incarcerating them and just giving them a time out for years at a time. It produces no good result, ever, and they usually end up coming out worse than they went in, you know, so in my experience and good So so this is interesting. We got there from your desire to be a veterinarian when you were five. What would you say your greatest accomplishment is.
I have raised an amazing Then I love being a wife. I am people oriented and being with the animals. So I think for me, it's the ability to just not be, not be non judged, to be non judgmental, and live in this world in a way that's just very accepting of who everybody is and allowing them to be. So I think for me, it's more my mindset is the accomplishment.
Yeah, I'm wondering you You mentioned that you had experience in Denver, and this is a lot of kids go through this where their neighborhood has gangs, they're members of gangs. They're doing that more than because to not be a member of a gang is dangerous. You know, my dad grew up in Detroit where they were they were lower middle middle class. My grandfather, you know, worked you know, for for Chrysler Corporation. But my dad managed to never be a member of a gang. Uh. And then he
got out of out of Detroit. And I'm just wondering what your story, because what you just talked about is is that you are describing yourself as kind of like you know, Oklahoma American Gothic. Now you know that family and husband and children. That wasn't necessarily an aspiration of a twelve year old or a fourteen year old that was running with the wrong people. You know, now, did you were you involved in it particular yourself or did you just watch people around you kind of doing weird things.
I was involved myself and around so in our community. The it wasn't just that we were like, we're going to join a gang. It was we were living in our community as friends. You know, we're hanging out, we know each other, and LA did this terrible thing. Were instead of dealing with their own game problems, they banned all of them and they.
All came ready work right, right.
So you take a community of people that you know, get along, that are family, that enjoy each other, and you then add in that aspect of well, I can make you money, I can have this going on. So then things start to you know, I money and drugs come into it, and lines start to get drawn, and people start to lean a certain way, and it became
glorified in a way that was not our experience. You know, every little neighborhood has their people like this little group or quick of kids and this quick of kids, and we were our people's right. So that's really what we were. I was, so I was on the east side and I was I was with the cribs on the east side. I went to a school. I went to George, Washington for two years, and that was considered an all Blood
area school. So I was definitely crossing lines. But I knew these kids like we were all friends, and it made zero difference about those lines drawn. But for protection and for our ideas of protection, you kind of pick where you are. And you know, I still always cross lines. I tend to be a lot safer than other people felt. But we lost. We lost so many people, and we
lost hundreds within my high school years. And the idea well, yeah, I was in high school with eighty seven to or eighty eight to ninety three, so yeah, but it definitely the height of it started in around eighty seven when I was in junior high for US, and that was just it just happened, like there was no plan, and it just kind of everybody started feeling that push from the ones coming in and getting in our ears and saying we can do this, and we can do this.
And Colorado was fresh fresh meat, I guess for lack of a better word. Again, but we were a fresh canvas from what LA was and that definitely made it difficult.
So well, I'll tell you what I again, I had some experience in the middle of the nineteen nineties trying
to mitigate all of that in communities around us. But there was a period of time where the Crips and the Bloods were actively recruiting in every single community in the United States and Canada, and their goal was to syndicate, and you know, to be able to I had some smart people that were involved with it and said, hey, look, they can't get all of us, and how do we raise the most money that we're going to need if somebody has a big court case or something of that nature.
You know, we can't do that as a clique here in watts or you know, here in Aurora, you know, or like that. So that when you start becoming some part of something that's bigger than you, especially like that and those two gangs from the outside, they were portrayed as evil. Nobody ever took the time to figure out why are they doing this? For the most part, in a lot of cases, they didn't have a home life.
You know, their friends became their family, and what their family did became the tie, and they shared blood with each other, and before you know it, they would do anything that somebody needed them to do just because we're friends. Yeah. Yeah, all perfectly natural human reactions for things.
Yeah, well in the sty behind the cryps and bloods, even in LA doesn't come to light. So again, when you say they're portrayed as evil, it did not start off that way. I happened to. I'm highly involved in you know, Denver at that time, the Five Points in East Side area was a very dominant Black neighborhood and I grew up that way. So my mother had us very culturally ingrained with lots of different cultures. We were
living in the community. We were also part of the l g TBq community because that's where it was then, and so there was a lot of different cultures and a lot of different beliefs that were all kind of
being intermixed for us as a family. And I started seeing things that I didn't appreciate that wasn't It was a protection necessity that kind of came in from those that you know, I don't want to be too political, but there was a fear that came into the community when outsiders were coming in and trying to control and things were happening. So there's a lot of racial then tension, and there was a lot of you know, gender tensions
between those communities and different things started happening. So I think left to their own and the way that it started, the idea of what it was and why it was necessary. Even in California, the way it started became politicized into that negative, ugly feeling, and then it became glorified into that violence and that drug world and this way of being and stuff. And it didn't need to be that way. But there were so many factors and I definitely have
my opinions on those things. But I am a avid supporter still of the black community, of the l g T, BQ I as plus now there's.
A few added Q up to Q.
When I was young, so and I have you know, my mother and my sister are about lesbians, and so I definitely grew up with all women and all lesbians primarily and primarily all Black women. So me being in that community and being an advocate in those ways in those areas was just it was it was huge for me. Those were the things that mattered, so and what how I thought we were not violent people. I'm not inherently a violent person, but I had a violent upbringing because
we were protecting ourselves in a lot of ways. And I was a Jew. When people found that out, you know, that was a whole other set offences and things like that. So it was just a lot of different things. But inherently, I don't think anybody just starts off like I just am going to be a violent person and terrorize and kill and you know, force dregs and this other stuff. I think it just morphs into that when stories are portrayed in a certain ways.
So understand, and you know what, a lot of times a very small thing gets blown out of proportion, it gets generalized to a whole population. And now instead of talking about two or three hundred people and on the east side of Denver, you're now talking about two or three million all over the you know, the continental US, and paint with a brad brush and like they're all the same and they're just not. You're a really great example of that, And I mean, hats off to you.
I want to say, I now understand your greatest accomplishment, you know, with with with with a deeper, deeper understanding for sure. Yeah, and congratulations on that, you know, And I know it's a work in progress for you, that this is something that you know, your family and your commitment to all the people around you, all the folks that you just described. It's a big commitment and you don't know all those people, but you're always going to have a light on for them, you know, And I
think that's wonderful. So this is really cool. I mean, we're getting into an area here offline. There's more for us to talk about. But who's your favorite person to listen to? Well?
Music wise, I'm a big music baby and I love music, and my favorite is Alicia Keys. I just I'm a fan girl. I'm not a normal fan girl, but I am a fan girl of Alicia Keys.
Yeah. There are there any speakers or you know, what you would consider, you know, thought leaders or something of that nature that you like to listen to as well, or are you more or less at a different kind of a place in your life where what other people are having to say is maybe a little bit less important to you.
Yes, and no, I am a fan of Brenne Brown and a few of the other spiritual leaders. I am more and I watched and study a lot of the channelers, Bashar and things like that so on that spiritual world. So I do a lot more of that the spiritual being within the spiritual world, and there's just a lot of them that we actually listen to, so but probably the typical ones that most people listen to within the spiritual world. But yeah, I am I am a huge fan of Ashar who's a channeler. And then I like
the mindset of women. So I don't have a favorite, but I love the women that are bringing the empowerment and the women to the forefront that are, you know, really in that movement of you know, equality and our rights not being taken away and you know, just really giving that those platforms and that that true fighting spirit maybe for women that are really bringing that out. And
that's again how I was raised with the women. It was women are empowered, stand in your place, do not bend you are you know, you have all the rights, you have everything. And I was just coming into a world when rights were just barely being given with a single mother, you know, so it was you know that kind of stuff. So I'm really just more in that world when it comes to women empowerment and in that spiritual journey and growth. So I don't truly have a favorite. It's more the movement I think.
For me, very clear and quite frankly, it's something you live and not something you say. Uh. From my experience with you just in a couple of having to chat with you a little bit the other day. Yeah, So now we'll come to the present. Please complete this sentence if you will. When I grow up, i'd like to.
I don't want to grow up. I'd like to remain a child. So when I grow up, I want to go back to childhood. Maybe I should.
Say that or recommit for another ten years. Yeah, Rea, up for another ten years. I like that.
I'd like to be a childlife spirit. But when I truly when I grow up, I want to just continue on that path of the movement of what I feel and and just loving on people, being able to give back to the community and do all of the things that make community an amazing place to be.
So yeah, yeah, So your what's your definition of being childlike? What? What kind of thoughts do you have? What's the characteristic of children that you think is so worth preserving in your own life, and how would you say that you are childlike in your thoughts and behavior.
I think with children with their lack of censor, I absolutely adore it. As we get older, we're told how to behave and how to act, and as an ADHD person, I tend to mimic people around me. You know, I heard people all my life like, oh my god, your mother would be so ashamed, and I'd go, oh, I probably shouldn't do that then, and I'd fix that, right. I love the idea of though I was a difficult child,
I was very honest, I was very upfront. Nobody questioned anything about how I felt or you know, what I thought. And I love that. I love the idea that children are just free to feel, to think, to do, to be who they are and to not lose that. And I would That's what I would love to go back to. Is that authentic. This is who I am. Love me or hate me, enjoy you know. I'm not going to be worried about what I say or what I do or who I offend. If I offend you, you're not
for me. We can part and be loving. I offend lovingly. But it's those things where if we don't see eye to eye and we can't have a conversation that doesn't include a battle of some kind. And I don't want to engage. I just want to you know, this is how I feel, that's how you feel. Yay, let's move forward, you know, and kind of get past all of that.
So that's how I see kids. I see kids with that just genuine honesty and ability to say what's on their mind, what they think without all of the censors that happen as we get older.
Excellent. I appreciate your being a child and I support it, and I invite you to continue doing that for the rest of your life.
No, well, thank you.
For what it's worth. So what's the most important thing in life to you right now?
Well, I'm working through this business because I have goals, and also really supporting my set in trying to figure out where he's going with his life, though he doesn't have to know that at twenty. But I think really just leaning in more to all the things that I have supported through my life, to really lean into that more, use my voice and use my presence more in all of the things that really are truly dear to me and dear to my heart.
So yeah, good stuff. And so later, what would you like to live in the world after your life is done long time from now.
The idea that you have permission to be who you are just I would love to leave that legacy of there is no need to change, there is no need for you to be inauthentic, that your life can be what it is. You're not here to be suitable for everybody in the world, So be suitable for those that love you and that you love. And you know where your tribe is, where your people are, and don't worry about the missed.
That's a pretty great legacy. You know, the skin you're in love it, m yeah, beautiful. So I have a baker and she's this beautiful Italian woman and every time I go in, and I don't do it as much as I used to before COVID, but if I go in and get a dozen donuts or a dozen cupcakes, or you know, a dozen cookies or anything, always get a thirteenth one. And so we've had twelve questions and you get a free thirteenth question. Are you ready for it?
I'm ready for it.
The baker's question is what's the thing that most people misunderstand about you, Laura.
I think people feel that I am always I'm always in debate, or that I'm always enjoying conflict or I'm stirring things up, and I'm not. But I think that's the big thing is that even in I do human design, So for those that understand it or have heard about human design, it literally I am a catalyst in my human design, and so I embrace that I am not purposely ever trying to start conflict or disruption or anything else,
but in some ways I am. I think we grew up so open and our mom allowed us to be who we were no matter what, with no judgment, no care about what would happen, because she knew we would be in our eyes good people or in her eyes, like I think she always knew we had a heart for people and things are animals and things. So I think that's really what it is. It's just that I'm not I am a catalyst. I am here for change.
I want change, I absolutely do. So if that does mean I come across as a bit combative or confrontational, then so be it. But I truly am not. I just really I do. I have a passion that is it's been to me since I was little. I've just kind of always known I was pushed towards that, and those passions will come out how they're supposed to, and that I unapologetically they will. I will be who I am unapologetically.
So yeah, I kind of get that you would be how unapologetically. However, you also strike me as the kind of person that doesn't intentionally leave messes around. If there's an opportunity to clean it up and move on, you'll do that. However, if you put your effort in and it's still not cleaned up and people have maintained an attitude about what you said or what you did, then you're perfectly satisfied with them to stay with that, having given it your best shot. Yeah, absolutely, we.
Did all the time that I'm the rip the band aid off or face the mirror and then I'll hold your hand through it. But I am that one that rips the band aid off. I just say it, no matter how harsh it feels, and then or do it and then yeah, and then but I'm there. I don't just do that and run away for everything to explode. I stand in it with you and deal through the whole thing.
So, yeah, I love it, and I've kind of learned and then forgotten that I knew this. Sometimes it's good to say I'm not sure how this is going to come out, but this is the words I've got available to me right now. You know, don't take it personally, because this is my reflection that I'm seeing back to me, and I'm going to give it to you that way, and then you let me know what you got, you know, that sort of thing, because I don't think you're in
the business of killing relationships. I see you as having had some friends that they've hung out with you through thick and thin a very long time. Yeah.
Absolutely. It takes a lot from my friends because they get it too, probably more than anything my poor husband, you know. But it's you know, and I sense that you get used to that. You understand. It comes from love. It's never come from anything but light and love and just a really good place in my heart.
So, boy, wouldn't it be great if we could give everybody access to that where they could be able to, like the training for the kids, not have the appropriate words, but take a moment or two and figure out what they're going to do, if anything before having a reactive scenario.
Right and then accepting if they don't. Sometimes the process is longer, so you can you can do that rip off the band aid, and then they've got a process to kind of deal with. And I have been the villain in many stories, and I'm okay with that. I do not mind being the villain a story as long as you use it for good. You understand that I won't remain the villain like. You've got to figure out how to get past that.
You know, the savior often looks like the villain at the beginning. Yeah, so do you have any questions of me?
I just really love what you're doing. And I wanted to say that the ability to come in and ask those questions and bring out conversations that most people wouldn't hear or know. I just truly find that remarkable because it does take a big heart and a person with dedication to truly do something like that.
Thank you. I will take that acknowledgment. I'm getting so much out of it too. I mean, it's a labor of love. I've always loved people because like yourself, my friends and my family and my community. It changed a lot while I was growing up we were nomads across the country. But at the same time, I've always been interested in people. I've got better questions now than I used to.
Absolutely, since you grew up more of a nomad, have you ever done the no mad life I owed, the traveling across the US and just outside of from your childhood. Have you continued to do that in any way?
I really haven't, other than to go on vacations or to find you know, if I'm twenty years ago. Actually, back in the nineteen nineties, I spent a lot of time traveling all over the place to get different types of education. But it's something I can see myself doing. And I'll tell you what in that vein what I do do. Because my wife works diligently as a rural postal carrier, and she every once in a while is working six or seven days a week. I'll just you know.
Two months ago, I hopped in my car, my new convertible that I bought new to me, not new at all, two thousand and five, and I just drove and contacted people up and down the East Coast and went spent a day or two with them, or maybe out to dinner, or maybe were three days, you know. But I got in contact with probably thirteen or fourteen people, many of whom I'd never met before but have been Facebook friends
for fifteen or twenty years. Old friends that I've had for a very long time, a couple of which are are are struggling, you know, with different forms of cancer, and I wasn't sure if I'd ever see them again, and they were wonderful times with them. So that nomad thing. I put thirty five hundred miles on my car in two weeks.
Oh loves.
Although that's not an extended nomad, I'd say it was probably the way I do things. It was probably you know, hyperspace nomad quickly.
Absolutely, I'm loving the new digital nomad center world. I even have clients but that they're traveling. They have these amazing rbs and they're going on these chips and I'm so jealous that they tell me their stories and I'm like, oh, I wish I was there, But I love it. I'm not a big traveler. I love being home, but we've traveled a lot. I just have a real big security
about being home. But I love the fact that they can do that, they can get out there and just travel and be a part of it, and I think that's wonderful.
Yeah, well, we are going to do it again for two weeks, the first two weeks of November. My lovely wife and I are going to hop in the car and pretty much do the same thing and go see some of our common friends that we haven't seen in Florida for a few years. But beautiful, So, any other thoughts that you want to share in terms of all of the You've been so generous and so open about pretty much everything I've asked you, and I really appreciate that. That's It's great.
I enjoyed the conversation I was. I'm interested because I didn't realize that you were from Colorado. Did you stay there long for? What high school did you go to?
Well, i'll tell you what. You've got questions, I've got answers. But I think what we're going to do is we're going to wrap up here and we're holding our listeners. Some of you guys are interested in this, I know you are. But maybe you and I can do another just the two of us talking about our shared experiences and family stuff that happened in Denver and some of the things that we're not maybe so proud of and other things that man, they made us who we are
and we're so glad that happened. You know. It's like the human being side of things, right.
Yeah, absolutely love it.
Thank you. I appreciate that, and I think from my perspective, this is one of the I can say is everybody's great, you know in these interviews, which are basically just conversations with Bill. You know. So thanks for coming and hanging out on my porch for a little while, Laura.
Thank you for having me. I'm so excited. Thank you.
You're very welcoming you folks at home. Thanks for once again listening to us have this totally spontaneous exchange of ideas and thoughts, all based around some pretty standard questions. And would you do me a favor while I'm thinking of it, I would like for you to accept a
little chore that I've got for you. Will you reach out to someone that you know, like and trust and maybe even love and let them know that they matter to you, that your world is better because you know they're here, and if they ever need you, no matter what it is, you know, twenty four to seven, they can call you and you will help them with whatever whatever terrors they're going through at the moment, and get
them through at least to the other side. They've got to know that they've always got a phone, a friend, in a safety line. So with that said, ladies and gentlemen, once again, this is Simple Questions for one hundred People. And I'm Bill Correll and I have absolutely loved my time with you today. My dear guest Laura Brown.
Thank you. I've enjoyed it too.
All right bye. For now you've been listening to Simple Questions for one hundred People, part of the x Video podcast Network. You can find every episode at xvadio dot com, slash podcasts, the Apple podcast app, Google Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, and wherever you find podcasts.