What’s the weekly mettle maker? Training tips and educational information in support of our free programs, that’s what! What’s mettle? According the American Heritage Dictionary, mettle is, “The ability to meet a challenge or persevere under demanding circumstances; determination or resolve.”
Mettle Maker #356
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Self-Defense: This simple hack makes your training more realistic and increases fighting effectiveness. To simulate hair, a shirt, necktie, scarf, or just an ear, tie a rag to every heavy bag and floor bag you own, and practice yanking it. The old-timers called this lugging. See the snip below from the Etymological and Pronouncing Dictionary of the English Language (1881) and watch the video on the right.
I know. This sounds simple. But if you don’t practice it you won’t do it. Get there. Want to learn how to fight Rough ‘n’ Tumble style? Join the Heritage Self-Defense club in Richmond, VA. Or, if distance learning is your thing, click here to enroll in the Heritage Self-Defense distance learning program!
Fitness: What Dr. Stuart McGill calls “stone” is the kind of strength associated with stability. Heavy carries are the secret sauce. My high school friend Scott was a farm boy. One day I went to his house to fly model rockets and planes, and he said he had to do a couple of chores first. He drove the truck down to the barn, picked up a giant rototiller — by himself — and put it in the truck. He added several adult sheep (about 150 lbs each) and moved the whole load to another barn on the other side of the property. Scott was about 5’11” and about 170lbs. I was gobsmacked. He moved very heavy, awkwardly-shaped objects like nothing. That’s why I wasn’t at all shocked when, one day a few months later, Scott exhibited remarkable strength during a friendly game of tackle football. A large, athletic kid named Terry had started playing too rough, literally throwing his weight around, bullying, dominating, and humiliating the rest of us who were much smaller. Finally Scott had enough of it. As Terry cut across the field with the ball, Scott headed toward him. Terry was confident he could brush off the smaller, and much nerdier, Scott. But, to his surprise, Scott executed a crushing tackle. Terry hit the ground, the ball went flying, and he lay there with the wind knocked out, struggling to recover. When it comes to building functional strength for contact sports and real life activities, there’s no substitute for heavy carries.
MITCH’s STONE STRENGTH REGIMEN
Day A: Bear Hug Carry (hvy), Farmer Walk (hvy), Dragon Flag
Day B: Aux Carry (Shoulder, Suitcase, KBS, etc.), Box Squats, Ab Roller
Day C: Bear Hug Carry (lgt), Farmer Walk (med), Chin-up/Pull-up, Dragon Flag
Day D: Aux Carry (Shoulder, Suitcase, KBS, etc.), Box Squats, Ab Roller
Day E: Bear Hug Carry (MED), Farmer Walk (LIGHT), Chin-up/Pull-up, Dragon Flag
Work A--> E in order
Take a day off as needed — approx. 4 on/1 off, 1.5 days/week on average
Old School Protocol: no screaming, no insanity, if you can't do it every day you can't do it, gains need to be solidified, etc.
Light = 10+ reps, or 50+ yards, per set
Medium = 6 to 9 reps, or 25 to 50 yards, per set
Heavy = 3 to 5 reps, or <25 yards, per set
Need help integrating heavy carries into your fitness program? Click here to sign up for our free distance learning program.
Wildwood outdoor skills: Elderberry is in bloom! The nifty plant on the right is Sambucus canadensis a.k.a. Elderberry. This little beauty likes moist areas, along the edges of creeks and drainage ditches where it can get full or partial sun. Flowers are edible raw (pluck them for addition to herbal tea, add mash to make drinks, dip the flower clusters in batter and fry them as fritters, etc.). The berries must be cooked and seeds strained before adding to jam, jelly, pie, wine, or mixed drinks. Never eat leaves or stems. In the photo set on the right you will find two elderberry recipes from Nelson Coon’s excellent book, Using Wayside Plants. The evidence for the health benefits of elderberry are really piling up. Doctors are now advising patients to take elderberry syrup to help fight colds and flu. Do not eat elderberries if you suffer from an autoimmune-related disease or are taking an immunosuppressant. Want to learn more wild edibles and outdoor skills? Click here and sign up for the 100% free Heritage Wildwood distance learning program!
Holy Communion is now LIVE on YouTube every Sunday at 9AM EASTERn. Click HERE to watch live and, to view and print a copy of the program for holy communion, CLICK HERE.
Homily for the Ascension of the Lord, Sunday 5/21/23 – Archdeacon Mitch
Readings: Acts 1:1-11, Ps 47:2-3, 6-7, 8-9, Eph 1:17-23, Mt 28:16-20
Matthew 28:16-20 World English Bible
16 But the eleven disciples went into Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had sent them. 17 When they saw him, they bowed down to him; but some doubted. 18 Jesus came to them and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go‡ and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I commanded you. Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.
Brothers and sisters, we read in todays Gospel that, when Jesus appeared to the eleven disciples on the Mount of Olives, “they saw him and bowed down to him; but some doubted.” What were they doubting? Weren’t they seeing him, the risen Christ, in the flesh?
Is it possible they were doubting their eyes, or their own thought processes, their own logic? A wise man looks twice, knowing that at first glance he sees what he wishes to see. Is it possible that the Gospel is conveying a sort of double-take on the part of a few of the disciples? Some biblical scholars suggest that the word “doubt” would be better understood as “hesitancy,” meaning that some of the disciples were uncertain as they bowed down and worshiped him. Possible? Maybe.
But doesn’t it make more sense that they were doubting, not Jesus Christ, but themselves? Doesn’t it make more sense that they were hesitant about their mission, that is, going forward to do their work without Jesus being present in the manner he was previously? Some degree of doubt and hesitancy would be understandable, wouldn’t it, given the astounding nature of what they were witnessing, and the impossible mission they were given? Of course it would. Afterall, the disciples didn’t know what we know now.
Even though we weren’t there to see and sit with the risen Jesus Christ, we need not have any doubt or hesitancy because we know that the Ascension of Christ was real. We are witnesses to the Ascension of Christ. We know that the obscure teachings of Jesus of Nazareth rose to ascendancy in the hierarchy of ideas. Respect for human rights, and the inherent value of human life, largely unheard of in the ancient world, are now a primary concern nationally and internationally. Charity and public service, rarities in the time of Jesus, are now commonplace practices. We know that the disciples did exactly what Jesus Christ commanded them to do – that they went forth to “make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” We know Christianity grew from a small Jewish sect into the world’s majority religion.
We need have no doubts or hesitancy because we’ve seen that, although he withdrew from physical view, Jesus Christ became a beacon to the world. In the same way that a kite becomes visible to more and more observers the higher it rises, the Creator and Logos has ascended to very high place in human culture. This is both an observable fact and a continuing, aeternal † process that surpasses the merely temporal, physical, and material.
Jesus Christ withdrew from a world of limitations and ascended to heaven, a place of limitless potential. The Ascension was, is, and always will be happening. It began before the foundation of the world and continues now through our participation. So let us go out and, armed with knowledge the eleven themselves did not have, and participate in the continuing Ascension of Christ. Let us elevate him still higher in the eyes of all humanity, lifting him up to the highest place for all to see and worship.
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‡28:19 TR and NU add “therefore”
† Here I use the archaic spelling aeternal to describe something that is not bound by the limits of time.