ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Most weeks on our Wild Card podcast, host Rachel Martin asks a famous guest to draw a card from the Wild Card deck and answer a big question about their life. Well, recently, Rachel tried something different. She went to Washington Square Park in New York City and got a random selection of people to play the game. You know the drill. Rachel starts by asking them to pick a card - one, two or three?
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SINA MARA: Two.
RACHEL MARTIN: Two?
MARA: Yeah (laughter).
MARTIN: OK. What's a place you consider sacred?
MARA: A place I consider sacred is - it doesn't necessarily exist for me anymore because my parents did have to give away my car, but it would be the car that I learned to drive in (laughter).
MARTIN: Do tell. What went down in the car to make it sacred (laughter)?
MARA: (Laughter) Nothing. Nothing out of the ordinary - just a lot of really happy memories. I think driving became an outlet for me, especially because I learned to drive during COVID. So that was kind of a time for a lot of people my age - we were bottled up in the house.
MARTIN: Yeah.
MARA: We couldn't really leave. So when I was stressed about college apps, when I was stressed about school, life, whatever it might be, I would go in my car, and I would just go on drives - long drives. Sometimes it was 2-in-the-morning drives, but it was what I needed. And it became a place where I just felt at home. I felt myself. And whenever my friends needed to go places or just vent, I was the first person to kind of drive over in my car, pick them up, and that became our spot for just sort of, you know, being teenagers and..
MARTIN: I love that.
MARA: ...Hanging out. Yeah. So I miss my car a lot, but...
MARTIN: Cars can definitely be sacred places.
MARA: Yeah.
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MARTIN: OK, three new cards - one, two or three?
SACHI KOSHI RAISHI: Two.
MARTIN: Two. OK. What's something you think of very differently than you did 10 years ago?
KOSHI RAISHI: Oh, 10 years ago, 10 years ago - ah. So my son is now 22 years old. And 10 years ago, he was still 12 years old. And at that time, I wanted to make him a successful person in the world of economy...
MARTIN: Yeah.
KOSHI RAISHI: ...Or, like...
MARTIN: Like, financially?
KOSHI RAISHI: Uh-huh.
MARTIN: You wanted him to be successful.
KOSHI RAISHI: Like a good businessman...
MARTIN: Yeah.
KOSHI RAISHI: ...Or, like, socially.
MARTIN: Yeah.
KOSHI RAISHI: So money and fame and...
MARTIN: Yeah.
KOSHI RAISHI: ...Connection.
MARTIN: Yeah.
KOSHI RAISHI: Such kind of thing...
MARTIN: Yeah.
KOSHI RAISHI: ...I prioritized when I raised him.
MARTIN: Yeah.
KOSHI RAISHI: Like, for example, I - my son went to a very good private school...
MARTIN: Yeah.
KOSHI RAISHI: ...From elementary school. So he's got a good connection with, like, important friends. Like...
MARTIN: Yeah.
KOSHI RAISHI: ...They're...
MARTIN: ...Rich and famous friends...
KOSHI RAISHI: Yeah. Yeah.
MARTIN: ...With rich and famous parents. Yeah.
KOSHI RAISHI: But - so he is now a kind of person who lives in that kind of world, and then - but he himself is happy.
MARTIN: Yeah.
KOSHI RAISHI: But I'm not sure if it is good for him now, at the moment. Like, maybe he wants to be an artist or - I'm not sure. And he's not sure, I think.
MARTIN: Yeah.
KOSHI RAISHI: 'Cause I raised him in the limited world.
MARTIN: And now you're thinking...
KOSHI RAISHI: So yeah, that's...
MARTIN: ...You want his world to be bigger.
KOSHI RAISHI: Mmm hmm.
MARTIN: Yeah.
KOSHI RAISHI: Maybe, yeah. Yeah. So yeah, that's that difference.
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MARTIN: Three cards - one, two, or three?
TAYANNA GONZALZ: I'll do three.
MARTIN: Three?
GONZALZ: Yes.
MARTIN: Is there anything in your life that feels like praying?
GONZALZ: Feels like praying?
MARTIN: Yeah.
GONZALZ: I think that when I'm being immersed in nature, that feels like praying to me - especially being in the ocean. So I'm from Hawaii.
MARTIN: Oh, are you?
GONZALZ: I was born and raised in Hawaii. I'm native Hawaiian. I grew up a few minutes from the beach, did water sports my entire life - canoe paddling, kayaking, swimming, surfing. So I'm very...
MARTIN: You're a water baby, yeah.
GONZALZ: ...In touch with the ocean.
MARTIN: Yeah.
GONZALZ: Exactly. And I think, when I'm in the ocean, that feels like a - I'm called to, like, a higher self. And you look down, it's deep blue. You can barely see land out...
MARTIN: Yeah.
GONZALZ: It's really humbling.
MARTIN: Yeah.
GONZALZ: And...
MARTIN: Humbling is a good word.
GONZALZ: Yeah. It's humbling.
MARTIN: I think that's a word that helps...
GONZALZ: Yes.
MARTIN: ...Define what praying can be without divinity.
GONZALZ: Exactly. And I think it invokes a sense of awe and deep gratitude when you realize that maybe the thing that I'm worrying about is not - it's not as deep as I'm making it out to be. It's - it really trivializes these small things that do seem worrying in the moment. And here, obviously, the Hudson River is very different. But I live right by the Hudson. I'm on West 54th and 11th. So I - when I need that moment of kind of stepping out of myself and from my worries, I'm like, body of water - get me there. It just - it's a centering.
MARTIN: Somehow that water is still connected...
GONZALZ: Yes.
MARTIN: ...To the waters...
GONZALZ: Exactly.
MARTIN: ... Of off Hawaii.
GONZALZ: Exactly. And that's the thing that - as a native Hawaiian who's grown up with that cultural upbringing - a lot of our ancestral wisdom shares that oceans don't separate us, they actually connect us. So...
MARTIN: Where's your mom?
GONZALZ: That's my mom.
MARTIN: Good job, Mom.
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SHAPIRO: That was NPR's Rachel Martin speaking with New Yorkers Sina Mara (ph), Sachi Koshi Raishi (ph) and Tayanna Gonzalz (ph). And you can hear more of those conversations on the Wild Card podcast. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
