Discover Damon Garcia’s insights on spiritual purpose, calling, and community beyond your job on Compass: Finding Spirituality in the Everyday.
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What is your true purpose—and is it really tied to your job? In this honest and eye-opening episode of Compass: Finding Spirituality in the Everyday, writer, artist, and former pastor Damon Garcia joins us to unpack what "calling," work, and meaning look like in a capitalist society. Damon shares his personal journey from childhood storytelling and Christian rap to ministry and creative activism, challenging the idea that our worth is defined by occupation or productivity.
Damon Garcia is a writer, public theologian, and video essayist whose work wrestles with faith, justice, and creativity. A former pastor, Damon’s latest book You Don't Need a Calling challenges traditional ideas of vocation and invites readers to find community and meaning in the here and now. He is also the author of The God Who Riots: Taking Back the Radical Jesus. You can find more of his work on YouTube and at damongarcia.com.
Episode Notes:
Damon was on a previous episode of Compass talking about his book The God Who Riots.
Damon's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/DamonGarcia
Damon's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/whoisdamon/
In this episode:
(00:00) Exploring purpose beyond jobs
(03:39) Childhood passion for writing
(08:51) Balancing passion with practicality
(11:37) Environmental activism challenges
(15:42) Making the book accessible for everyone
(18:52) Reflecting on small-town mindset
(23:05) Discussing religious reflections and ministry
(27:05) Adjusting to life after ministry
(34:42) Critiquing capitalist systems
(37:30) Rethinking capitalism and community building
(39:05) Building community-owned systems
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This episode posted on June 24, 2026
Episode Transcript:
Ryan Dunn [00:00:00]:
Have you ever wondered if your purpose in life is tied to your job or if there's something more than that? We're diving into calling work and what it means to find meaning in a capitalist world in this episode of Compass. And welcome back to Compass. Finding Spirituality in the Everyday. In this episode, we are joined by writer, artist, former pastor Damon Garcia for a candid conversation on purpose calling and the search for meaning beyond our occupations. Damon reflects on his creative journey from childhood storytelling and Christian rap performances to grappling with the intersection of spiritual calling, wage labor and capitalism. Together, we explore how our sense of purpose is shaped not only by personal passions, but also by the communities that we find ourselves in and and the systems that we live within. Damon offers some insights into resisting capitalist pressures, embracing the present moment, and finding connection and meaning through community. Connection.
Ryan Dunn [00:01:08]:
Whether you're seeking your purpose, struggling with the demands of modern life, or you're looking for a more authentic way to connect with others, this conversation invites you to, I guess, re examine where meaning truly resides. And if episodes like this are valuable to you, go ahead, hit the subscribe button on your podcast listening platform. If you've already done that, please take the next step and rate and review the Compass podcast that really helps other people know what kind of conversations we have and how this podcast helps connect our lives to the spiritual. Thanks very much. In this episode again, we're talking with Damon Garcia. He's a public theologian, writer, and video essayist. You can find his work on YouTube and in the book the God who Taking Back the Radical Jesus. We talked about that book with Damon back on episode 89 of Compass.
Ryan Dunn [00:02:02]:
That was nearly 100 episodes ago. Time really flies. Anyways, Damon's latest book is you Don't Need a Calling. It just came out and we're going to talk about it here on Compass. Damon, welcome back to the Compass podcast. Good to see you again. Hope you've been doing well.
Damon Garcia [00:02:20]:
Yeah, thank you for having me. It's good to be back.
Ryan Dunn [00:02:23]:
Yeah, we're going to talk about some pretty deep topics, things like purpose and calling and success and what that looks like in life. A lot of times we wrap that up with a sense of occupation and what we do for work. So to start this conversation off, I'm just curious, like, what did little Damon want to be when he grew up?
Damon Garcia [00:02:45]:
Yeah, since the very beginning, I wanted to be a writer. I remember I got an assignment in second grade to write a short story and they gave us these yellow legal pads and I wrote a short story called Daemon Comma Daemon and the giant dragon. And it was about this knight from medieval times named Daemon. Time travels to the present to find a kid named Damon and enlists his help in defeating this giant dragon. And for some reason, it just, like, lit me up inside, like, this is it. This is the most important thing in the world. And then, like, a week later, I turned to the next page in the notepad and started writing the sequel during class while the teacher was teaching. And then I got reprimanded because I was supposed to be paying attention.
Damon Garcia [00:03:39]:
And then I remember so seriously telling the teacher, I'm writing the sequel to my story. Like, it was obvious, obviously, this is more important than whatever you're teaching. And then. But. But it's funny, it was like there was such a sharp difference between, like, how much I cared about my writing, how much everybody else did. And so I think, like, my whole life of, like, trying to get better at writing is trying to, like, I realized this while I was writing the book. I think I'm just trying to justify that moment still when I was a little kid. Of, like, no, I am a serious writer.
Damon Garcia [00:04:21]:
This is important. And so when I was a kid, I wanted to be, like, a novel writer. Super into science fiction and fantasy. Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Smallville heroes. Those are the things I was passionate about. And then I. And then as a teenager, I thought, actually I really like TV shows, so maybe I could write TV shows, however that works. And then throughout high school, I was super into making music and film.
Damon Garcia [00:04:52]:
Did a little bit of the, like, local Christian rapper thing as a teenager. Good times, all right, Performing at youth groups. But I was also really into film. And so I had a local film class in my high school. And so when I graduated high school, I thought I'm either going to do something in music or film. And so I did a little bit of film in the local community college. And then at 18, I felt like God called me to be a pastor. And that was just a huge sidetrack.
Damon Garcia [00:05:29]:
I grew up in church, but I never thought minister would be a cool thing to do ever. And so at first I thought that doesn't make sense at all because of what I want to do. But over time, I started to see there is some, like, a lot. There is a lot of creativity in preaching and leading communities. And so I started to see, like, oh, I guess I still am using the. That part of my mind and soul that. The creative part, the excited part. And so it's just, I.
Damon Garcia [00:06:04]:
Yeah, I'm still like, exploring that just in different ways now. But yeah, that's kind of the journey growing up.
Ryan Dunn [00:06:13]:
Well, pastors are in ways communicators, which I think, you know, gets you into expressing yourself through the written word. Even the things that we orate a lot of times end up coming out of stuff that has been written previously. I'm curious, though, so I got to jump back to the Christian rap days. Did you have, like, a rapper alias?
Damon Garcia [00:06:36]:
Yeah, like, I used the name Overflow, knows Overflow, because I thought I heard the pastor say it one day in a sermon on psalms. And I was like, that sounds cool. And so I also liked flowing, like flowing to the beat. And so it fit with that. So it was. It was a good time.
Ryan Dunn [00:06:59]:
But it has meaning on many levels. Yes.
Damon Garcia [00:07:03]:
Yeah. But it was all very like.
Ryan Dunn [00:07:05]:
And also I think would be a cool youth group name, Overflow.
Damon Garcia [00:07:09]:
Oh, yeah. It was very much a youth group thing. And I was making songs at my house to just have show my friends and perform at my youth group and a couple other youth groups. And then it felt like a long time while it was happening, but it was just a few years. Like three years maybe.
Ryan Dunn [00:07:34]:
Part of your recent, I guess, life journey has been kind of breaking free of the idea that you are the kind of work that you do or you are what you kind of what we would call occupation. You're more than that. So with that in mind, what does now mature Damon Garcia want to be?
Damon Garcia [00:07:58]:
It's interesting when I first think of what does adult Damon or mature Damon want to be? I feel like there is a through line of, like, wanting to be a writer or creative. But now what's attached to it is just now I want to be a writer for a living. A writer that makes money, that has income, that can survive off of it. And that's totally different than what it was originally. Before, it was just like, I have something in me and I want to get it out to the world. And this lights me up. And I love the way I can connect with other people through writing and now so much of it. And I write about in the book how we need to update the way we talk about purpose and calling and occupation.
Damon Garcia [00:08:51]:
Because often the dilemma we find ourselves in is we have these two paths. Either we sacrifice what we feel called to do by God or our family, our community, and just have to get a day job and just give a little bit of extra time to the purpose stuff, the stuff that really feels meaningful, or we sacrifice the vision of what we're passionate about and turn it into a day job. But when we do that, we have to sacrifice some of the vision and integrity by morphing it into the most profitable version of it. And so it sucks that, like, now I have to think about, okay, what would an audience value in this work? And that's a part of it too, which is like, I think that there's a good, sincere part of that, which is like, actually using your work to help other people and think about what can help other people, but also is having. Having to think about what can make money so I can make a sustainable income. And then the more you get into that, the more it gets a little sketchy to say, I'm just doing what God wants me to do. It's like, well, there's a lot in that that I think needs to be a more complex conversation. And consider that a lot of the motivations we have are very much influenced by our need to work to survive.
Damon Garcia [00:10:35]:
Was that wasn't? It's wage labor and a capitalist system where the resources that God put on this earth for all of us to share are turned into products that we have to buy back from capital owners. I don't think God set that system up. The system that we have where we have to work to survive in order to buy back these resources that are privatized is a system clearly set up by humans. I don't see that vision in Genesis 1 or John 1, these creation accounts. And clearly, because humans are the ones who made this kind of system, capitalism is only about 400 years old. That also means we could change it. And so that was really important to me to express it in the book, that not only do we need to update the way we talk about purpose to make sense in a capitalist context, but also changing this capitalist context could be part of our purpose too.
Ryan Dunn [00:11:37]:
A few weeks ago on this podcast, we were talking with an activist or advocate for environmental and creation care. One of the things that he acknowledged is that there's this tension in that we all want to shape or reshape the way in which we kind of interact with the environment and express care for the environment. And. And yet the society that we live in makes it really impossible, right? If we are going to be, I guess, you know, what we would call, quote, unquote, productive members of society. Like that involves us driving places or using the Internet, which consumes resources. And it sounds like maybe you kind of exist in that tension too. You were talking about this need as a writer to be able to say things that are to some degree palatable to people so that they want to, in essence, offer a demand for the product that you are producing. And yeah, Damon, in the stuff that I've read from you, I know that also, like, you do kind of like to push the.
Ryan Dunn [00:12:46]:
Push the tension of what people are experiencing. So your first book is the God who Riots. And you know, that in and of itself is a. An exciting phrase. And now we're coming out with a book that speaks about our existence within capitalism and offers a critique to that. Can you talk a little bit about how you exist within that tension? Do you ever concern yourself with saying, oh, I'm going too far into the critique here? Or are you, in a sense, is your calling so strong that you feel like, oh, I can just go all in for this?
Damon Garcia [00:13:28]:
Hmm. It's interesting. There's a version of just kind of just finding a way to just say whatever will get a bigger audience and whatever will be valuable. There's a version of that by just choosing the safer route and just trying to please everybody. There's also a version version of it of just be really controversial. Yeah. And just like, let me just get people mad and passionate about something by just saying the most controversial take. And.
Ryan Dunn [00:14:05]:
Yeah, but I don't get a sense that you're there either.
Damon Garcia [00:14:08]:
Yeah, yeah, right. And so. But I'm saying, like, I see these paths of, like, I could have more followers if I were to be a little more aggressive, I guess, or controversial. And I think, for me, the balance that I try to find in order to be. Remain authentic and keep my integrity and say what I think would actually help people is I try to think of, first off, what are we actually for, not just what we're against, and what kind of world are we building, not just what kind of world are we tearing down. And I think first and foremost, that's what people are looking for. And they're. They're looking for a different way of living.
Damon Garcia [00:15:00]:
And then I'm thinking about people who have never heard anyone talk about this kind of stuff before either because they don't have a more spiritual background or political family and friends or people they're following. And so I try to think of what can. What. How can I talk about this stuff that makes sense to someone who never gets to have these conversations with other people? And I try to. So, yeah, I'm trying. I'm trying to challenge people, and I'm trying to show them a different way. And I. I think I could have been a lot more controversial, and I could have.
Damon Garcia [00:15:42]:
This book could have been Way more appealing to my fellow like anti capitalist leftist nerd friends. And I could have gone way more into theory, like Marxist theory, real stuff. And I think like there is a voice in my head that's saying like those friends of yours are going to say that this book doesn't go deep enough, doesn't go far enough or whatever. But I'm just thinking, like, I'm thinking of my other friends who don't have the opportunity to have these conversations that often or read these other books or because they're too busy with work and life, their relationships and they're just looking for another way of living. And they know something's wrong, they can't really name it, but they want something else. I'd rather hang out and talk to those people than just appeal to the people who already think like me. And so I think that was really important for me in shaping the book too, is trying to make it more accessible to all kinds of people.
Ryan Dunn [00:16:47]:
Yeah. So it's tearing down a wall of the echo chamber a little bit.
Damon Garcia [00:16:51]:
Yeah, yeah, I think so.
Ryan Dunn [00:16:53]:
Excellent. Well, you talked about that individual who is feeling like, well, I don't know what it is, but I feel like there's something different. And one of the things that you note in the book is that purpose or God's plan you've discovered is not something really that we uncover by being a more successful version of ourselves, but it's something that you've kind uncovered to a degree by really paying attention to the present. Can you talk a little bit about like how do you do that? What, what are you employing on the day to day basis that in your life it looks like paying attention to the present.
Damon Garcia [00:17:37]:
Yeah. So I grew up in a city called Santa Maria, California on the central coast. Like literally on the, the corner where it turns toward the bottom on that, that part of the map on California and the. It's about a hundred thousand people. And what's funny is like people who grew up here consider a very small town and kids feel like this is too small for me, I need to get out here. But I know the people out there who are really in a small town be like no way. That's.
Ryan Dunn [00:18:08]:
Yeah, right.
Damon Garcia [00:18:09]:
You don't know what a real small town is. Yeah, I get. But also like, yeah, but like Los Angeles is like 250 miles one way and San Francisco is like 250 miles the other way. And so I think that's what a lot of these kids are looking at. They feel like life is so much better just a Couple hundred miles away, and there'd be more to do, there'd be cooler people, more people that I could connect with, more job opportunities. And it feels like there's always something better somewhere else. And so I. I mean, I think that's a general feeling that everyone feels, but.
Damon Garcia [00:18:52]:
But I remember where I grew up hearing that all the time that, like, oh, it's Santa Maria sucks. There's nothing to do here. There could be so much more. And then as I've gotten older and you start to, first off, travel to other places, go to real small towns, realize, like, the differences and what you have, but then also start to realize that a lot of the dreams that some of us have growing up is so much about escaping the present and escaping our lives. And it always feels like if I just had more, either more wealth or success, then I can live more. Or if I could just live somewhere else that could give me more success or opportunities, then I could live more. And it's so funny, lately I just keep thinking about how we're just like the animals. I mean, Ecclesiastes says that we're like the animals.
Damon Garcia [00:19:58]:
We come from the same place, go to the same place. But also, like, biologically, none of these other animals are stressing about this kind of stuff. Like, if only we lived somewhere else, life would be better. It's just like, this is just what life is. And even though we're a lot smarter in some ways than other animals, I don't think God meant for us to be so stressed about that kind of thing. I believe that the type of life that God calls us to is one where we can fully embrace the present, realize that there is life right here, and we can't spend our lives just wishing to escape it. And I think the thing that. Oh, what was I going to say? Hold on, Try to remember.
Damon Garcia [00:21:12]:
Oh, yeah. And so I think when we. When we. And so when we think about what life was like for most of human history, the question, what do I do with my life? I doubt came up. Came up that often because the answer to that question was just in the needs of the community. And every day it was like, okay, what does our community need today? What are we part of today? What are we doing today? And then as we get. As alienation builds through privatizing the resources we need to survive and requiring us to sell our labor to the companies that are privatizing our resources to buy them back. And as things get more and more individualistic, these new questions start to pop up.
Damon Garcia [00:22:05]:
Like, what job am I meant to have what job would give me the most income so I could survive and get what I need. It's no longer about, okay, what does our community need? Let's just do that today. And I think there's something there where I think when we get into this talk, it could just feel like sometimes I get a little self conscious about talking like this because it just reminds me of the teenage stoners I was friends with in high school who it just feels like, oh, yeah, cool, that's idealistic. That's how the world should be. But then there's the way the world is. Like, that's a cool top to have when you're high and just hanging out and wishing how the world should be. But I think it's important to have these conversations, even if they feel a little too idealistic, because we recognize that the world was made this way. There's a process of other people making the world this way.
Damon Garcia [00:23:05]:
And the problem was just saying, okay, well, this is just how it is. You just have to accept it and just go along with it and find a way to figure it out is that we just end up maintaining the status quo when we forget that it wasn't always like this and that it could be different still and God is meant for us to live a different way. And so I think, yeah, it's really important to have those conversations. And so when I think about, how do we respond to the present now? I also think about how annoying I was when I was an evangelical minister who felt like I needed to help everyone find their purpose. And so many of the conversations I had was about what I see in you and how I see God is calling you to this, and your life could be so much better. And I think you could do this also. My church has this opportunity. We need volunteers.
Damon Garcia [00:24:07]:
Like, it's just. It's so much about me and seeing everyone through me. And after I left ministry and the only friends I had because I was in evangelical ministry, I was doing youth and young adult stuff. And then I left that world and I. The only friends I had left are my artist friends. And my artist friends taught me how to just be with people, just to be with people, how to love people just to love people because they're making art just for art's sake. And so now it's about learning what other people want and need and dream about and finding ways to be part of that instead of it needing to be so much about. Let me help you find your purpose.
Damon Garcia [00:25:01]:
Let me just tell you what I see in you. You could, you could still encourage people, affirm with the gifts you see in them, but also consider that they're living a different life and what are the needs today and how can we be part of that today? Right now and now, I think just the future is wide open and there's so much that we could find by just responding to the needs of our community. Still, how do you.
Ryan Dunn [00:25:29]:
How do you find connection with that community? I mean, that's a real epidemic in this day and age, right? So many people are living that individualistic, independent, dare I say, isolated lifestyle. Are there ways that. That you've been able to reach out to others and encounter community?
Damon Garcia [00:25:54]:
I think there's a lot of. There's a lot of ways that we still can have community. It's definitely a whole lot harder. And traditionally, I think a lot of people got that through school, church and work. And the spaces to find community are becoming harder and harder to find. In my case, I'm lucky to have a lot of friends who are artists and I go to a lot of local shows and meet people there and there, there's always. Yeah, some. Some little.
Damon Garcia [00:26:30]:
Even if there's just a few of us there, it's just. It feels really good to be able to connect with people in that way and support my artist friends in that way. And then I have been fortunate to find a new church too. The church I'm part of now is part of Disciples of Christ and United Church of Christ. It's a combination of them. But the. I think it's. It's still like.
Damon Garcia [00:27:05]:
I think. I think what's been really cool too is I've had to learn how to connect with others in a different way after being a minister. Also, as someone who's just. Now I'm just a member of the church. Church. I'm just a guy who goes there. And when you are in ministry, a lot more people just go up to you and you can skip some of the, like, learning to socialize part. And I think it's been important for me over the years to learn.
Damon Garcia [00:27:35]:
Like, oh yeah, now I'm like everybody else. Like, now I gotta learn how to talk to people, right?
Ryan Dunn [00:27:42]:
I'm still learning how to know your story.
Damon Garcia [00:27:44]:
Yeah, exactly. And I'm still learning that. And what I'm really afraid of for this next generation is there's definitely. A struggle to learn to socialize. And so many people are now offering quick shortcuts so that you don't have to learn to socialize. Like, look, smacksing is a Big thing right now. Have you heard of that looks. The meme of look smacking?
Ryan Dunn [00:28:16]:
I. I've. No, I mean, I have. I've heard the phrase. I. I couldn't tell you what it is. It's.
Damon Garcia [00:28:25]:
It's young men, unfortunately, even some teenage boys who are just doing whatever they can to alter their looks to look as attractive as possible. Okay. And a bit. And a lot of is based on some really misogynistic philosophy of, like, just through Internet forums of, like, all that matters is attractiveness level. And this is the only way to get these women who only care about how you look. And all women are like this. And so we have to change ourselves. And some of it could get dangerous of, like, taking certain drugs to, like, quicken puberty or even, like, a thing of mashing cheekbones in order to get, like, fuller cheekbones, things like that, where it's all, like, doing these things to look really good.
Damon Garcia [00:29:18]:
And then you're supposed to get people who are attracted to you coming to you, wanting to be friends with you or date you. And I just think, like, or you could learn how to talk to women and listen more importantly to women and care about women. Instead, it's just like, no, let me just be so attractive that women and just flock to me.
Ryan Dunn [00:29:40]:
Yeah.
Damon Garcia [00:29:41]:
Or a big thing. A lot of entrepreneur content creators are very big thing right now. Or hustle culture of lump grinding. Just find your side. Hustle and get rich and escape Matrix, which is such a backwards metaphor for what that movie is about. And. And it's like, it's so much still about, let me just skip learning how to care about other people and be a good, valuable community member and just become so successful and attractive and charismatic that I could just skip learning how to be a community member and earn a community. And I think that that's been a huge shift for me too.
Damon Garcia [00:30:25]:
And when you ask about the difference between, like, finding purpose first or finding community first is so much of the way we talk about purpose. Often feels like I need to become someone better in order to earn a community. When really how we find purpose is by finding a community and responding to the needs of that community instead of feeling like we need to earn it or that we could just skip learning how to be in community and then we'll become what we want to become. It's totally different.
Ryan Dunn [00:30:59]:
Yeah. Oh, yeah. That is kind of turning the clock around. Yeah. And see that. Let's. Let's throw you back to your young adult youth pastor days, knowing what you know now. If you were jumping Back to then.
Ryan Dunn [00:31:15]:
And you had to, I don't know, maybe give a message to students about purpose in life. That was probably just about every other message that I'm thinking to my own days as a youth minister, like, oh, this is what God wants for your life. Like, that was seemingly every third. Every third youth group talk. What might you want to mention now? Like, how do you envision, or what words might you offer for liberating their view of what purpose in life looks like or what their future life in I guess a spiritually connected way might look like?
Damon Garcia [00:31:59]:
I think back to the youth ministers when I was a teenager that really inspired and encouraged me are those who showed me that I'm already living in my purpose. I'm already. Instead of, like, you have so much potential. You could be something great if you just work a little harder. Instead, they're those. Those who are like, you're already living out God's purpose. You're already doing great things. We.
Ryan Dunn [00:32:30]:
You.
Damon Garcia [00:32:30]:
You could do this, you could do that. You're part of what your life is, is. Is to become already. And I think, first off, I would really want to encourage people in that way that it's not about just waiting to become an adult and your life really starts. It's like, no, your life has definitely already started. You're already making an impact. You're already living in meaning already and shaping the world around you. And it's.
Damon Garcia [00:32:59]:
And then secondly, I would definitely encourage them. And a huge message of this book is that you don't need to become some better version of yourself in order to be worthy and valuable and deserving of community. You're already valuable, lovable, worthy of community. And when we can live from that place, we can find all these small, simple callings all around us. And like we were saying, when we pay attention to the life and the community around us. And
Ryan Dunn [00:33:41]:
I
Damon Garcia [00:33:44]:
really want, like I said, for people to realize their life has already started. There is meaning and purpose and calling already happening in their lives. And this is the point of life. This is the life. It's not going to start later. Because what they also don't know is that many of us go into our 20s and still think life is going to start when I become something. And then our 30s and then our 40s, and then our 50s, and then eventually it's just like a devastating thing of like, oh, my God, my whole life has passed, and I'm still thinking it's going to start later. And it's like, no, this is it already.
Damon Garcia [00:34:29]:
And so, like, you could, you could just give that up right now as a kid and be like, oh, yeah, life is happening right now. That was good.
Ryan Dunn [00:34:42]:
We can, we can admit that there are traps to the capitalist system, especially in terms of how it tends to use people in the talents of people and subverts that for profit for somebody else. And yet also in where we live, that requires us to engage a little bit in the capitalist system. So maybe as a function. Final thought. Damon, I want to invite you to maybe offer some advice or even like a witness as to how you're maybe pushing against the capitalist system. How are you throwing a. I don't know if it's fair to say, like a rod in the cog, but, you know, where's your rebellion coming out against that system?
Damon Garcia [00:35:43]:
Yeah, I think it. What's really important when we're talking about a system is to have a systemic lens and a systemic interpretation of these systemic problems, and then also have systemic solutions to these systemic problems. And I think we can be so used to being individualistic that we can feel like me working a job is keeping capitalism going and there's something wrong with me and I'm the bad guy and. Or I feel bad for people who just happen to have a job that pays well and they feel like they're like one of the bad guys keeping capitalism going. And it's like. No, actually, it's like if you have the need to work to survive, then you are part of the working class, the larger working class. And there's all these differences in our job, but that is the work. The working compared to the owning class, who is made richer off other people's labor.
Damon Garcia [00:36:45]:
And so the. And these, yeah, these are like leftist Marxist terms, but I think they're important first off to realize that there's a lot more solidarity than we realize. Instead of just splitting us in like lower class, middle class, upper class, but then all these different types of middle class, and then different types of lower like. Or different types of jobs. Blue collar, white collar, office, manual labor. It could feel. It's so easy to just draw all these separations between all of us in the working class. But when we could see, like, okay, we're all just needing to work to survive, there's a connection there, I think is really important to, to recognize.
Damon Garcia [00:37:30]:
And so with that, it's going to take a transformation of the whole system and we need to work to survive in the meantime. And you shouldn't feel like you're immoral for needing to work to survive, but rather the system is immoral that we are in. And another big shift over the years for me is seeing all this sin like sin is a real thing, but it's not just individual, it's structural. Especially when you see structural sin of a system that exploits us, causing us to participate in individual sins like greed and envy and exploiting other people in order to survive. And now I really want us to see like, okay, if you want to talk about sin, let's talk about actual structural sin that causes other individual sins. And so yeah, first off, I just wanted to make that distinction for everyone who feels bad about being in a capitalist system. But then yeah, as for any sort of resistance, I think this starts with building community. And ultimately we're going to need to find non capitalist ways, non profit driven ways to connect with each other and to provide for each other.
Damon Garcia [00:39:05]:
A vision that I see of the world is more and more opportunities and resources where we can own the production and distribution of our resources and our communities. And the more we could build those kinds of systems, the more hopefully they could gradually replace capitalist systems, profit driven systems. And the vision for the world that I see is one where things are produced for people's needs, not for profit. And so, so on the way there it is a lot of organizing, building networks, people connecting with each other as a larger working class. And I think this may go against all like self help advice or church sermon, but complain about work a little bit more. I think there's a lot, there's a lot out there. Be like stop complaining so much. Just be grateful, embrace, appreciate life.
Damon Garcia [00:40:15]:
And that that message is kind of in my book too, appreciating life. But also let's be honest with each other, let's. And when we can complain about work more to each other about like how come I don't get to decide how much I'm paid or the decisions my company makes or how much food costs, how much just being existing as a human costs. When we could talk more about that with each other, we can start to see the solidarity of that. We're all going through that and we can change it. And so that's like really what I'm hoping for people to start to see and find a collective communal purpose in that work and hopefully not stress so much about an individual purpose.
Ryan Dunn [00:41:06]:
Well Damon, thanks so much for spending time with us. If folks want to learn more about your writings, your art, things that you're up to, where might they connect with you?
Damon Garcia [00:41:19]:
Yeah, you go to my website, damongarcia.com and I'm mostly on YouTube and Instagram. YouTube just Damon Garcia. And Instagram is whoisdamon. And yeah, DM me. Let me know you heard me on the Compass podcast and that would be awesome. And that's pretty much where I'm at writing and making videos and I'm excited to share this book with y'. All. Cool.
Ryan Dunn [00:41:48]:
All right. Well, Damon, once again, good to talk with you and yeah, hope to connect again sometime soon.
Damon Garcia [00:41:54]:
Yeah. Thank you for having me. Appreciate it.
Ryan Dunn [00:41:57]:
Thanks for joining us for this episode of Compass Finding Spirituality in the Everyday. If you'd like to dig deeper, head over to our [email protected] Compass where you'll find episode notes and, of course, more episodes to explore. A big thank you to the team at United Methodist Communications for making this podcast possible. If you haven't already, make sure to subscribe to Compass on your favorite podcast platform. And if you're enjoying the show, please take a moment to rate and review. It helps others find us and supports the work that we're doing. Thanks again for listening. We'll see you again in two weeks time on Compass.
