Category: Digging for Courage

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Honor Your Body

This’ll sound simplistic to many, but maybe it is this simple:

Most people survived the virus with no masks in November to April. The answer then is still the answer: Healthier people are more capable of surviving pathogens.

Every person can be healthier, whether immunocompromised or in seemingly peak health.

The answer is better choices for yourself, because health is individual. Only you can know your body and what it needs. Educate yourself about yourself, then learn what you can do to better honor your body, then do ONE THING better.

Once you see results from that one thing, you will be hungry for the next thing. Then you will be as powerful in the world as you should be.

Hold on, I gotta take this call from Jocko…

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Today, Choose Life

If more people aren’t vocal against the Lockdown, we’re going to see more devastation done to our lives.

Whatever version of “life” the technocrats and experts feel we’re allowed to have is not enough. You choose the size of your life, not the length.

If you want to avoid a public you see as dangerous, no one is stopping you. Wear your mask, get your vaccine, stay away from whomever you want, and protect your values.

The rest of us want to rebuild the damage done. The only time is the present. Act today because there may not be a tomorrow.

I’ve been inspired to be a pain in the ass by Tom Woods and Dr. Scott Atlas.

“I am angry at the people who were wrong and who insist on prolonging these policies that are killing people, particularly people who are not in their socioeconomic class. It’s no problem for a person who has a high-level job in government, or an academic job, to sit there and pontificate when the average guy is being destroyed. That I am angry about and I think history will record these people very harshly — it is an epic failure of massive proportion that they have abandoned regular people here with their own hubris and political agenda. In that sense, yeah, I’m angry.”

“All of these harms are massive for the working class and the lower socioeconomic groups. The people who are upper class, who can work from home, the people who can sip their latte and complain that their children are underfoot or that they have to come up with extra money to hire a tutor privately — these are people who are not impacted by the lockdowns.”

Scott Atlas, by way of Tom Woods’s newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/tomwoods/atlasyetagain?e=f29701e15a

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Imposter Syndrome

A few days ago I saw myself in a mirror. I looked strong. I felt strong and happy. I was between soccer games, cleaning out the garage, gardening, and enjoying a sunny afternoon with my girlfriend.
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Strangers, friends, and family have told me I’m strong in a number of ways.
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I looked down at my legs today and they looked frail. A couple rough days of parenting, someone dear to me reaching out for help in tears, news of another community broken apart by varying approaches to the Lockdowns, and a wellspring of insecurities have transformed the image of my body. I don’t know what good I am to the world in this moment.
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Searching for a positive turn to this post…not there yet.

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Is “Lockdown” Appropriate?

Delaware wasn’t the worst, but this was the official headline on March 22: Governor Carney Issues Stay-at-Home Order for Delawareans https://news.delaware.gov/2020/03/22/governor-carney-issues-stay-at-home-order-for-delawareans/

Yes, the details permitted limited access to the outdoors, but the list of what was deemed “essential” was nonsensical from the start. And the message was clear: “Stay-At-Home.” Government has no idea how to, nor the right to, define what is “essential.”

The economy is people and their decisions. The government restrictions have ruined some businesses already. Others will be failing soon. Excess deaths due to the Lockdown of medical services (I would expect that measures so extreme that people die would constitute the use of the term “Lockdown”) are criminal and that fallout continues.

Lockdown

A friend of mine in Germany was not allowed out of her apartment for more than an hour per day with her two sons. She’s a single, widowed mom. That’s the government acting like an abusive partner, “I know what’s best for you.”

Melbourne is under Lockdown: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/09/melbourne-australia-covid-lockdown-dan-andrews.html

Lockdowns in Hawaii are devastating the economy: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/hawaii-loses-half-of-economic-recovery-amid-second-covid-lockdown-as-cases-spike/ar-BB196Wxt

Thirteen people died in a Lockdown raid in Peru: “The club held an illegal Saturday night party that was raided by the police. There was panic. Thirteen people died in the ensuing stampede. Officials later revealed that 11 of the dead tested positive for the coronavirus.”
https://www.npr.org/2020/09/08/907084962/peru-locked-down-early-now-it-battles-one-of-the-worst-coronavirus-outbreaks

Many businesses were locked down, unable to open. Most are still locked down in capacity, unable to sustain their already slim margins. Each of the individuals running these businesses were locked down in their ability to provide for themselves, their family, and the community.

Have we been put into cages? No. Are there tanks with loudspeakers keeping us in our homes? No. That’s all, “It could be worse” bullshit. It can always be worse. We’re a nation that went to war over much lighter restrictions dictated by a faraway government. The government that now imposes an economy (read: people and their decisions)-killing Lockdown is insulated from those restrictions. They are far away from our lives and their disregard for human flourishing is inexcusable.

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This one is not for Doomers.

One of the reasons I have trouble thinking COVID-19 is a global conspiracy is what is happening in the public school system.

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Caveats:

1. I listen to conspiracy theorists, they often share information that injures the gatekeepers of knowledge (government, corporate media); and therefore, will not make it into “reputable” sources.

2. I don’t need a conspiracy to know that government will take every opportunity to assume more power. This is a basic human desire and when alternative incentives are reduced, it is driven by the survival instinct.
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At the very least, this is a terribly thought out conspiracy.

With school shutdowns, many people are being forced to consider homeschooling. This has never been the case before. Almost every pre-COVID discussion I’ve had with parents who have chosen public/private school starts with a remedial course on homeschooling.

Now, people are being exposed to the principles every day. Some are engaging to varying degrees and many more are seeing their friends and family try a different educational path.

Ultimately, fewer children will be returning to the classroom. Whether it’s those who love virtual/remote learning, radical unschoolers, or the infinite rainbow between, schools will look differently.

I’ve been concerned with what that will mean for the home education community, but as our ranks grow, we are sure to gain strong champions for the cause of educational freedom.

This postive change of perspective was inspired by the following conversation:

Tom Woods Interviews Jeff Deist on Silver Linings from the COVID Dystopia

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Tribal Realignments

For months our casual relationships were strained. Divisions grew between us as differing media accounts, risk assessments, political positions, and governmental measures formed.

We were limited in our contact with one another. Impersonal, online slights were never softened by social contact or context.

The truth of my homeschool community is that it thrives on social contact. No matter how much our politics or approaches may divert, we come together with our children and recognize in each other the fundamental focus of our educational choices.

Without those meetups, many fell victim to their own ideology and entrenched themselves in easily-accessed online communities. Carl Jung said, “People don’t have ideas, ideas have people.” We let ourselves be possessed by our ideas.

But for all the bonds that were stressed and broken, there are new, stronger bonds forming. Bonds based on the same focus on our children and a recognition of each other’s good will.

Those who are willing to meet in person and allow each individual to choose his or her level of assumed risk are forming new tribes. Not based on ideology, but a love for our children and fellow man. These tribes are based on grace for those who choose not to join us, as our arms remain wide and welcoming.

It is these tribes that will preserve the things we all love. Music, theatre, sports, homeschool meetups, martial arts, family reunions, parties, weddings, and even memorials. These tribes will not let the paradigm shift away from a social existence among social animals.

In this mad season, “social” falsely preceeds “media” and “distancing.”

I prefer this definition of “social”: living and breeding in more or less organized communities especially for the purposes of cooperation and mutual benefit : not solitary.

I’m grateful for the new tribes. There’s excitement in this wave of meeting new people. I can hardly keep straight the soccer players, homeschoolers, jiu-jitsu practitioners, and yogis I’ve met in recent weeks. We see each other and share big smiles as we dive into the things we share and love.

God bless, I appreciate you, and thank you for reading,

Jason

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Covid has done a merciless job of exposing our individually self-imposed weaknesses in mind, body, spirit, as well as the vulnerabilities in the systems we’ve patched over those shortcomings.

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What Has Schooling Wrought?

The headline was changed to reflect that the CDC Director was specifically referring to high school students and the need to reopen schools.

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/micaelaburrow/2020/07/28/redfield-says-more-abovebase-suicides-than-covid-deaths-n2573278?fbclid=IwAR1mMzEnl51HxAgk8s6d8XIuJIPyB5EDBsqN-LE4a9XUBOGOA0qlacftd74

The article is terribly written, obviously with one premise in mind, then sloppily editted to include the critical fact about students.

So what questions should we ask? Is the education system creating strong, healthy individuals who can overcome hardship? Or is it creating dependent addicts who can’t survive without it?

The hardest and most important job I see as a parent is to foster my children’s independence. I want to coexist with these humans who love me, yet nonetheless want to flee from my authority. School can’t do that. School says, “You must stay until 3:00.” “You must stay until June.” “You must stay until you are 18, 22…”

This is heartbreaking information. I pray for those who are ready to be awakened from a system designed to create compliant factory workers and soldiers.

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Change Yourself, Change The World

“Some of us are more susceptible to being infected, and some are more likely to transmit the virus once infected. Even small differences in individual susceptibility and transmission can, as with any chaos phenomenon, lead to very different outcomes as the effects compound over time, on the scale of a pandemic.”

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/07/herd-immunity-coronavirus/614035/

This is a faacinating read, but it seems to only hint something I’ve been saying for months, “You are the critical variable in the world. Your thoughts and choices constitute reality.”

The Butterfly Effect states that the smallest alteration at the beginning of a system can mean exponential differences in outcomes. You have a distinct advantage over the butterfly, you can choose how, when, and where to flap your wings. You can choose the nectar you drink. You can pick which flowers to pollinate. These are your actions and thoughts and they set into motion chains of reactions that alter the world.

Self improvement is individual and it is the way we improve the world. It’s a journey without end. It is every day. It isn’t a pill or a shot, it isn’t easy. It certainly won’t come from a politician or bureaucrat. It won’t even come from an expert or guru.

It has to come from inside you. You have to move your heart, mind, and soul into a place of self love and self care.

That’s the only way to heal yourself and heal the world. It is more than possible, it is imperative.