REIFICATION: consideration of an abstract thing as if it were concrete, or of an inanimate object as if it were living.
Note: The weekly mettle maker supports all of the Heritage Arts programs — Heritage Self-Defense, Heritage Wildwood, Heritage Fitness and Heritage Spirit.
Reification: Mettle Maker #283
Self-Defense and Fitness: Take the Self-Defense and Rescue Fitness Test, and share your results with us. Facing the test and posting your scores isn’t about showing off. It’s about realistically assessing yourself, taking off your rose-colored glasses, and banishing your delusions. It’s about banishing delusions and knowing what you’re capable of. Here are the ten challenges that make up the test (passing score and perfect score in parentheses). 1 - Breath Hold (5 sec. prep only, 1 min. / 2 minutes), 2 - Jump over waist height (1 time / 10 times in 2 mins), 3 - Pull-ups, Chin-ups, or Knee Tucks (1 Knee Tuck/ 20 Pull-ups in 2 mins), 4 - 200 yard Sprint (all out with no breaks / <30 secs), 5 - Sit-ups (50 / 75 in 2 mins), 6 - Hand Release Push-ups (10 / 60 in 2 mins), 7 - Deadlifts, 3 reps ( 140 lbs / 340 lbs in 2 mins), 8 - Buddy Carry (any method 25 yards / 100 yards in 2 mins), 9 - Sandbag run (25 lbs 1/2 mile / 45 lbs 1 mile in 12 mins), 10 - Pain test (arm in ice-water to elbow, 90 secs/ 3 mins, no verbalizations). At the bottom of the page you can see videos of some other folks at the club facing the challenge. Look fun? Join the club, or sign up for the Heritage Self-Defense distance learning program or for the Heritage Fitness program.
Wildwood: The map is not the terrain — revisited. Everybody’s heard this expression, sometimes phrased “the map is not the territory.” For those who haven’t, it is used to express the dangers inherent in confusing a representation of a thing with the actual thing. I have never been lost in the woods, but I always get lost in the city if I don’t use a GPS. Up until a few weeks ago, I always made excuses for this. I would say, “I don’t get lost in the woods because everything is interesting and unique. But in the city, it’s all just a boring gray slate.” My wife is an excellent navigator, and I always relied on her. But when we were vacationing in Las Vegas and staying in the Venetian, the place was a maze. Even my wife got turned around. It hit me that (a) I have always offloaded urban navigation to other people and devices because I never cared, and (b) In the city, I always tried to navigate using a mental picture of myself moving on a map. So I switched gears in Vegas. I stopped offloading responsibility to her and I started navigating in the city the same way I navigated in the woods — by being engaged in my surroundings, looking backward at the return view, and so on. I was instantly just as good as my wife at navigating the hotel environs, and my urban navigation skills are improving steadily. Want more tips and tricks? Need an outdoor training plan? Sign up here, it’s free.
Spirit: Be like Fred, not Bill. Let’s look at two fictional people we’ll call Bill and Fred. Both of them have steady jobs, clean criminal records, and are loved by their wife and kids. The difference is that Bill behaves the way he does because he believes that if he doesn’t, he will be cease to be successful in life. He’ll lose income, lose the respect and admiration of his neighbors and family members, be out-performed by his male peers, etc. Fred, on the other hand, is deeply engaged in the act of living. He behaves the way he does because he enjoys his job, cares about his community, and loves his family. Look at yourself from the inside. Are you making a map of rules and living in it, or are you engaged in the art of living? This is what “fulfillment” means (see Matthew 5:17-18). Join us for Holy Communion on Sunday and if you need a pastoral counseling session, click here.