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What’s the weekly mettle maker?
Training tips and educational info in support of our free programs, that’s what! What’s mettle? Mettle is, “The ability to meet a challenge or persevere under demanding circumstances; determination or resolve.”
What’s new?
Our program is now called HERITAGE ROUGH ‘N’ TUMBLE. To understand why we’ve made this change, read this post .
Skin in the game is now required. The program is still free if you can’t afford a donation of $1/month — but you have to at least hang out with the crew each week or volunteer to be a social media promoter, blogger, researcher, newsletter editor, fundraiser, mentor, artist, or even come up with your own idea.
Mettle maker #412: Riverscape
Never be afraid to skip a fitness or martial arts training session in order to do a chore or engage in an outdoor activity. A Rough ‘n’ Tumbler cultivates a kind of strength that draws on added width, not rigidly enforced depth.
When attempting to understand, reconstruct, test, and practice Rough ‘n’ Tumble fighting methods, it’s easy to overlook the fact that modern people are an entirely different breed. In terms of our fitness, body mechanics, skills, outlook, common sense, observational acumen, and other abilities, we have very little in common with the people who first earned the name “rough ‘n’ tumbler” in the back country of Virginia in the 18th century.
For several important reasons, we cannot use books to recapture the capabilities, skills, and knowledge they possessed. First, people don’t write down things they take for granted. When you journal, do you record the subtleties of how you manage your email box? Second, even if they had recorded certain fine details in books and journals, there’s nothing you can read let’s say, about chopping down a tree with an axe, that will magically impart the strength, endurance, and hand-eye coordination necessary to actually chop down a tree with an axe.
The skills of a waterman, for example, have been demoted to a hobby in modern life. But in early America, being on the water was integral to survival. The tribes of Virginia literally saw the world as a riverscape rather than a landscape, referring to rivers by the names of the tribes that controlled them. Imagine being an English colonist and trying to understand why they kept changing the names of various rivers! In the Western mind, rivers were often boundary lines between kingdoms. To the native mind, the river was the center of a kingdom, not the edge. Thus, when horses were introduced by the colonists, they took little interest. What good was a horse on the water? Could a horse catch fish? Could a horse carry you deep into the heavily wooded areas west of the fall line where the biggest bucks were hiding? To a colonist whose life centers around agriculture, the land is of paramount importance. But when you’re an Algonquian Indian who farms for less than half the year and subsists on hunting, fishing, and gathering for the rest, your life centers around the water.
But even the colonists spent more time on the water than modern folks do. It was impossible to get cargo to market without rivermen. Canoes, barges, and riverboats were the only way to get products to market. Loggers floated logs to town — wither loose, a practice known as “log driving,” or tied together to form rafts, known as “timber rafting” — which persisted until trucks, rail, and environmental legislation ended the practice. The river was central to human existence until relatively recently.
Add to this the fact that the human body is uniquely adapted to be in, on, and under the water, and you can easily build the case that if you aren’t engaged with the river, you’re missing 50% of what it means to be a human being — and you might also be missing certain key skills and attributes that rough ‘n’ tumble fighters took for granted back in the day.
If you want to be Rough ‘n’ Tumbler, go on adventures, do chores, live life to the fullest, and allow yourself to become the product of the milieu you create. Rough ‘n’ Tumble isn’t about learning techniques in isolation. It’s a way of moving in the world.
Interested in a totally free program that incorporates self-defense, fitness, outdoor skills, and spiritual development? Sign up for our free Rough ‘n’ Tumble Distance Learning Program!
Holy Eucharist is LIVE on YouTube every Sunday at 10 am EASTERn. Click HERE to watch live. To view and print a copy of the program for holy Eucharist, CLICK HERE.
Homily for the Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time 6/30/24 – Father Mitch
Readings: Wis 1:13-15; 2:23-24, Ps 30:2, 4, 5-6, 11, 12, 13, 2 Cor 8:7, 9, 13-15, Mk 5:21-43
Mark 5:21-43 World English Bible
21 When Jesus had crossed back over in the boat to the other side, a great multitude was gathered to him; and he was by the sea. 22 Behold, one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name, came; and seeing him, he fell at his feet 23 and begged him much, saying, “My little daughter is at the point of death. Please come and lay your hands on her, that she may be made healthy, and live.”
24 He went with him, and a great multitude followed him, and they pressed upon him on all sides. 25 A certain woman who had a discharge of blood for twelve years, 26 and had suffered many things by many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better, but rather grew worse, 27 having heard the things concerning Jesus, came up behind him in the crowd and touched his clothes. 28 For she said, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be made well.” 29 Immediately the flow of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction.
30 Immediately Jesus, perceiving in himself that the power had gone out from him, turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?”
31 His disciples said to him, “You see the multitude pressing against you, and you say, ‘Who touched me?’ ”
32 He looked around to see her who had done this thing. 33 But the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what had been done to her, came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth.
34 He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be cured of your disease.”
35 While he was still speaking, people came from the synagogue ruler’s house, saying, “Your daughter is dead. Why bother the Teacher any more?”
36 But Jesus, when he heard the message spoken, immediately said to the ruler of the synagogue, “Don’t be afraid, only believe.” 37 He allowed no one to follow him except Peter, James, and John the brother of James. 38 He came to the synagogue ruler’s house, and he saw an uproar, weeping, and great wailing. 39 When he had entered in, he said to them, “Why do you make an uproar and weep? The child is not dead, but is asleep.”
40 They ridiculed him. But he, having put them all out, took the father of the child, her mother, and those who were with him, and went in where the child was lying. 41 Taking the child by the hand, he said to her, “Talitha cumi!” which means, being interpreted, “Girl, I tell you, get up!” 42 Immediately the girl rose up and walked, for she was twelve years old. They were amazed with great amazement. 43 He strictly ordered them that no one should know this, and commanded that something should be given to her to eat.
How many of us, like the woman in the crowd, seek health and happiness far and wide, spending all our attention and energy on entertainment, seeking wealth, sexual gratification, power, and so on, but ending up spiritually poor and emotionally bereft? The Gospel says that she, “suffered many things by many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better, but rather grew worse.” How many of us, like her, go in search of health and happiness everywhere but in God, and so continue to suffer and bleed?
How many of us regard Jesus as just another wise teacher, no better and no worse that Buddha or Confucius? How many of us think of him as just another self-help guru spreading witty sayings and useful advice, capable of helping us out in our day-to-day lives perhaps, but not holding the keys of life and death? How many of us, like the people who came from the synagogue ruler’s house, say, “Your daughter is dead. Why bother the Teacher any more?”
But listen carefully to Jesus’ reply. He says, “Do not be afraid.” Why would he say that? What does Jairus have to be afraid of? For starters, he has to be afraid of the ridicule of the people whom, as a ruler of the synagogue, he’s in charge of teaching and instructing. He has to be afraid of being scorned by his fellow teachers and losing his job. And what if he allows Jesus into his home and his daughter does not arise? He has to be afraid of being tricked, being embarrassed, being called a fool and dupe. But Jesus says, “Do not be afraid. Only believe.” Jairus pushes past all the fears. He believes. And his daughter is raised from the dead.
How many of us are afraid of the same things Jairus was afraid of? How many people today are afraid to invite Jesus into their hearts and homes for fear of ridicule, embarrassment, or being thought of as fools? How many cannot push through their fears, believe in the Resurrection, have faith in redemption, and embrace the hope of eternal life?
The twin stories of healing and resurrection in our Gospel readings today are joined together by the common thread of the number twelve – a woman who has bled for twelve years and a dead girl aged twelve years. There are twelve hours in a day, twelve hours in a night, and twelve months in a year. The repeated incidence of the twelve-year time period conveys the eternal, recurring nature of sickness and death. The instant the woman began to bleed the girl was born. Both problems share the same essential nature.
In them we see ourselves and our human plight.
The naysayers claim that there is no God, or that God doesn’t love us. The cynics claim that the tragedies that befall us are random, or perhaps that God hates us. But our reading from the Wisdom of Solomon says that death and suffering were not part of God’s plan. They were introduced by human sin. God is not to blame, but rather the sin of Adam and Eve. The mishaps which torment us are consequent to the fallen state of our reality, and God is attempting to enlist our cooperation in setting things right. All he is asking of us is that we have courage and faith; that we walk home with Jesus and believe in his saving grace. This is the Good News that we proclaim far and wide: “Talitha cumi!” Arise brothers and sisters, arise!