I gave a speech on “Becoming a Warrior-Poet” somewhere in Michigan on August 22, 2023, so thought I’d share it in written form here. Find Part 1 here. Enjoy! * * * Today, at Thermopylae, there’s a stone with a simple inscription: “Go tell the Spartans, strangers passing by, that here obedient to their laws…
Becoming a Warrior-Poet – Part 1
I gave a speech on “Becoming a Warrior-Poet” somewhere in Michigan on August 22, 2023, so thought I’d share it in written form here. Enjoy! * * * Come with me to a lonely impasse in Greece called the Hot Gates. It’s 480 B.C. On the one side is a sheer drop off; the other…
“They That Make Them Are Like Unto Them”
Yesterday, I read Psalm 115:4-8 with computers and AI in mind, and it impacted my understanding of both the psalm and humanity’s relationship with the technology we create. See if you could see what I’m getting at by reading the passage: Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands. They have mouths,…
Summer Nights, Shooting Stars, and Solitude
I slept outdoors in a hammock last night. Woke at 0130, just as the mosquitoes fell asleep. Wolves howled in the distance, all sounds and lights from the human world fell away, and shooting stars shimmered across the studded sky. Fireflies and bats flew around where I hung between two trees, swaying slightly, my skin…
Cutting Costs
Have forgotten where I’ve read this, but it’s stuck with me (and on my cracked Pixel 4) for a few months. “Cut costs mercilessly on the things you don’t care about.” It’s easy to stop paying for things you don’t like. It’s easy to say (and mean) to never pay for what you don’t care…
The Architecture of Decision
In several recent conversations, I brought up the current framework through which I make decisions. Here’s what it looks like. Start from the top and go down, filtering thoughts and actions through each level until the last one…where you go back up again, an endless cycle that purifies and clarifies as it moves forward in…
Be a True Poem
I came across the following quote two weeks ago, from John Milton’s Apology for Smectymnuus: “…He who would not be frustrate of his hope to write well hereafter in laudable things, ought himself to be a true poem; that is, a composition and pattern of the best and honourablest things; not presuming to sing high…
Easy Goodbyes
Sam Tompkins’ “Die For Someone” has a beautiful line that made me think: Guided, I’m misguided Wasting my time with easy goodbyes Many relationships make up our everyday interactions with people around us. The cashier or barista you met earlier today. Online customer service agents. The local church congregation. That group of friends you’re going…
Pleasure Without Prior Self-Organization
The original title for this post was “On Masturbation”. Nothing sexually explict; but do proceed at your discretion. I have been thinking about pornography and masturbation the past few months, and the many forms they could take on different levels of a person’s being–all of which lead to antitheses of life. I’ve heard it said…
The Right to a Right
You do not desire something until you understand what it takes to achieve the object of your desire. It goes further. You do not truly desire something unless you’re moving toward achieving it. Inaction leads to stagnation, the death of true, honest desire. Desire drives all human thoughts, words, and actions. When desire remains only…