Category: Digging for Courage

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The Super Mario Effect: Mark Rober’s Ted Talk

Mark Rober is one of my sons’ favorite Youtube stars. Having seen the game walk throughs, ridiculous movie reviews, and general garbage they watch, I wrote him off before watching any of his videos.

My sons are tenacious and I quickly learned that this guy is the real deal. He comes up with exciting goals and engineers his way to reaching them.

When I found out that he’s done a couple Ted Talks, I took the chance on one of our We Each Get to Pick One Youtube Video Before Bed nights.

The talk is about how a goal-focused approach to learning leads to more success and more lessons learned. Negative point scoring (as in tests) discourages people and focuses them on the mistakes rather than how to overcome obstacles to reach a goal.

It’s hard to trust the freedom I give my sons when they’re watching a pale waif of a boy (man?) scream at pixels on a screen. I don’t know if I’ll ever understand the value they find there. On the flip side are the Mark Rober and how-to videos. They take ownership in what they want to consume. When learners take ownership, they are empowered.

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The Tom Woods Show: Socialism as a Secular Creed: A Worldwide Study

The Tom Woods Show: Ep. 1826 Socialism as a Secular Creed: A Worldwide Study

This episode of The Tom Woods Show would be enough to share as a fascinating discussion of the religious structure of socialist theory. However, what excites me more is that the guest, Andrei Znamenski, sounds like a Russian Christopher Walken.

Disclosure: The links below are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.

Enjoy and be educated.

Book discussed:

By Tom Woods:

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Free Speech February: Ignorance and Fear

Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.

The Hiding Place is the story of Corrie ten Boom and her family during Germany’s occupation of Holland during WWII. The movie is very good and it may be free on Amazon. Amazon also has various documentaries about her.

It’s an unbelievable journey of faith that I was not familiar with, but should be shared without fear of the symbols of history.

Corrie and her sister were Christians who ran a safe house for Jews escaping German persecution. Their bravery as they were taken to Ravensbrück concentration camp is astounding. Their ability to keep and spread God’s Word while under guard is inspiring. Corrie’s sister died in that camp.

We had the privilege of being a part of Pages Alive Theater’s production. Westen and Isaac had the heavy weight of playing villianous Nazis and a traitorous spy.

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Free Speech February: Bridget Phetasy

When I gave up cable news, I discovered Dennis Miller’s podcast. It was a brilliantly funny review and takedown of current events. I started to see how I didn’t need a daily diet of mainstream media to lead a happy and productive life.

He went off the air and I checked out of most news shows. I listen to tons of podcasts, but they tend to run deeper than the news of the day.

Last year, I found Bridget Phetasy talking about being 40 and sober and it spoke to me. She’s hilarious, self-deprecating, and doesn’t fall into a tidy, ideological box. A lot like Miller.

Dumpster Fire tackles the news of the week and highlights the absurd.

Check out the latest episode: https://youtu.be/JqU5Gdm5IfI

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Dave Smith Surprises Me

I’m not even halfway through this debate and Dave Smith may have convinced me to join a political party.

Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. 

Should the Ron Paul Liberty Movement Go LP or GOP? Dave Smith Debates Eric Brakey! https://castbox.fm/vb/348029014

Bonus knowledge:

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Our Kind of Classroom

Our learning lifestyle changed dramatically in 2020. Almost all of our learning is done socially. As government Lockdowns partnered with fear-driving media, it became impossible to find people to learn from and with. The dozens (hundreds?) of individuals we interacted with per week was whittled down to a couple of families.

Fortunately, the mom of one of those families was sure that there were more of us who recognized the need for social learning. I was a naysayer, but backed her efforts to start a new group of families as the summer of Lockdowns began. On our first “official” get together, there were eight families and most of us didn’t know each other. The group has grown and the core families have become fast friends. I’ve witnessed (and received) material, emotional, and spiritual gifts given everyday through our various chats and group texts. Our weekly gatherings have grown into multiple days of video gaming, analog gaming, Lego building, cooking, and all types of learning meet-ups.

The latest adventure was brought to us by a mom brand new to homeschooling. She may have been considered a Crisis, or Isolation, Schooler when she met us. Lockdown restrictions on schools did not work for her family. I don’t know how she found our group, but she and her children have been a blessing to us in a number of ways.

One way was an invite to participate in Junior Rifle Club, a weekly meet of children to get instruction on gun safety and usage.

It was an early start and my boys struggled a bit with hearing the initial safety speech repeated a few times as new participants arrived. Although unplanned, I believe it was important for them to hear the messages multiple times (which, of course, they would continue to hear throughout the morning).

They took turns shooting and observing for close to three hours without complaint. They got to watch their improvement on the targets and the learning was off the charts, too much to absorb in one morning. I have no doubt that this will become an important part of our week and we will be broadening our skills in significant ways.

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Hope

Live music. A friend lamented at music’s healing power of sound, connection, rhythm, and pure magic. I shared the lament. This is the longest I’ve gone without a proper concert (even counting the miracle yoga and music fest we attended in August).

Then I remembered I had tickets for a Lone Bellow concert at Union Transfer in Philly in March. My date for that show dumped me months ago and I was pessimistic that it was still happening at all. I looked up the venue and the show is still listed as on!

With good news trickling out and an event date right at the beginning of spring, I’m cautiously optimistic that my friend and I will be letting loose like the maniacs we are in a couple months.

Now, to find that magical, four-day, hippie fest my sons and I have been craving…

Disclosure: The links below are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.

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Back to Service

God blesses us every day.

I have been sorely missing the service opportunities provided by our church community. I’m a poorly educated Christian, but my experience with the Gospels places love and service over fear of the human frailty of disease. Slowly, we are finding ways to help our neighbors in the spirit of Christ.

For a few hours this MLK, Jr. Day, we felt love and shared it as we were given the chance to help beautify One Village Alliance’s Freedom Center in Wilmington.

When we arrived, someone was already outlining a mural and the grounds looked like this.

We removed a massive amount of ivy and I was allowed to build a makeshift fire pit.

I got lost in the ivy. My late wife, Mary, and I lived in two homes that existed under the constant threat of being overrun. I indulged in a touch of anger at the creeping vines as I smiled at the cleared fence and grounds. The firepit gave more catharsis. My knees hurt from grappling with the ivy embedded in two inches of driveway gravel and dirt, but permission to put the cinder blocks to use was more than enough to overcome the discomfort. Mary loved fires. We never had a pit this big and I envisioned her working alongside me to prep the fire.

My sons faded from the yard work and I couldn’t blame them, there was painting to do. They started inside, helping with the stairs, and ended up contributing to the love-infused mural outside.

Finally, they were rewarded with a videogame paradise provided by Mobile Entertainment Theater.

We were all rewarded with this day of service. I made new connections and saw friends who I’ve missed for nearly a year. We walked away with jobs still to be done, but also real improvement in a necessary community center.

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Night Time Fun in Sarasota

A real life, living, live and alive, amplified bluegrass band? I don’t care if the setlist was uninspired (and more country than bluegrass), the female lead singer had an old school somewhere-between-Patsy-Cline-and-June-Carter vibe and the bass player was super cool with my son. Live music is in my DNA. It seemed like such a simple pleasure 10 months ago and now, now it’s the kind of thing I would drive a thousand miles to see.

After dinner, we strolled the streets of Sarasota enjoying the art and the quiet.

After a full day of adventuring through botanical gardens, it’s hard to imagine a better close to the day.

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Context, Danger, and the Fear Response

Perspective is critical when assessing danger. An immediate threat activates our primal survival brain. As time passes (and assuming the danger hasn’t killed us) we can quiet the fear response and start to frame the danger with context.

A study that included almost 10 million people in Wuhan, China, presents context on the threat of asymptomatic spread of Covid-19.

“Of the 300 asymptomatic positive cases, two cases came from one family and another two were from another family. There were no previously confirmed COVID-19 patients in these two families. A total of 1,174 close contacts of the asymptomatic positive cases were traced, and they all tested negative for the COVID-19. There were 34,424 previously recovered COVID-19 cases who participated in the screening. Of the 34,424 participants with a history of COVID-19, 107 tested positive again, giving a repositive rate of 0.310% (95% CI 0.423–0.574%).”

Post-lockdown SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid screening in nearly ten million residents of Wuhan, China


These numbers undercut the foundational argument for the Lockdowns. An argument that was initially propped up with a false anecdote.

A Chinese business woman in Germany supposedly transmitted the infection to her German colleagues before returning home.

The doctors reporting this neglected to speak to the woman and it turned out that she had been self medicating to hide symptoms in order to complete her work.

Study claiming new coronavirus can be transmitted by people without symptoms was flawed

It’s way past time to have a rational discussion about what we can do to improve the overall health of our society.