Before we get into this week’s mettle maker, check out these pics from Glen Allen Day 2023. Heritage Arts’ booth was a big success. Hannah and Laura — who just earned their white bandanas in Heritage Self-Defense last week — came out and distributed hundreds of flyers and business cards to the crowd. And get a load of this — our booth was right next to Ghostbusters VA! Neat charity — they go around in costume and collect money for the Make-A-Wish Foundation (and they collect a ton too, by the way)!
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Mettle Maker #376
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.”
Fitness — Take the longer view. Let’s pursue the direction given by this week’s gospel reading and think a bit about taking the long view with regard to fitness. I sometimes I long for the training sessions I used to do in the old days — the white-out calisthenics, the deep-burning weightlifting sessions, the high contact sparring bouts. But then I remind myself that it’s only by a great deal of luck and a modicum of body awareness that I’m not virtually crippled at age 62. Thank goodness I never lifted the way the CrossFitters do — I never did more than 4 sets of any exercise, never did more than five exercises per session, never did multiple sets to failure in a single session, etc. — and didn’t prolong those habits any longer than it took to sense the approach of permanent damage. As for years of high contact sparring including blows to the head, only time will tell if there is dementia in my future. Don’t be the way I used to be. Take the long view now. Start training with old-school rigor and mindset. For more details that might allow you to plan your own program, read this post. But if you need a free fitness coach to help you, we’re a 501c3 charity! Click here to sign up for our distance learning fitness program!
This is my forging post.
Martial Arts - Forging posts, pells, and…totem poles? I have a theory. It isn’t based on any real facts, it’s just intuition, wild speculation, and supposition after a lifetime of studying martial arts, indigenous skills, mythology, and world religions. I believe that standing poles — broadly referred to as “totem poles,” which are found in virtually every culture on earth, owe their origin to forging posts and pells used in martial arts.
Pells are standing posts used for weapon practice. Hitting a pell with either live weapons, or actual-weight dummy weapons, is absolutely essential to weapon command and mastery. Here is a great article on pells, with links to even more information, from the ARMA website.
Forging posts are used to practice unarmed strikes and other techniques and to toughen the body. Forging posts are often wrapped with rope and struck with hands, arms, feet, and legs.
A couple of years ago it occurred to me that I should put a face on my forging post. So I carved one out of cedar and screwed it on (I didn’t put one on my pell because I’m not inclined to spend an hour or two carving a face only to destroy it with knives and tomahawks).
I have a hard time believing I’m the first martial artist since the dawn of modern humans 100,000 years ago to have this idea. Read the articles below, courtesy of Wikipedia, to get a feel for the what’s going on with the various types of standing wood poles. Let me know what you think in the comments.
Most of these standing poles have spiritual nuances. But if we know anything about human psychology and anthropology, the spiritual is always practical, and always its origin to necessity. It’s a virtual certainty that the poles went up for some physically functional purpose and the rituals came second. Why would you put up a pole with a face on it? To practice your fighting techniques seems like a good bet!
Totem Pole — Canada and United States
Huabiao — China
Jangseung — Korea
Roofed pole — Lithuania
Irminsul — Germany
Tiki — New Zealand
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The view from the top of Sharp Top in the Peaks of Otter
Wildwood Outdoor Skills — More on the long view. One of the first things you should do when you find yourself lost in the wilderness is get to a higher vantage point and survey your surroundings. What’s a map but a simulated view from above? Get your hands something approaching the real thing by going to the top of a high hill or rocky outcrop, or by carefully climbing a tree. From there you can spot paths or roads to lead you home, water to slake your thirst, and maybe even some game for food. Does this sound interesting? It’s actually included in this week’s homily (click here to watch and listen). Looking for a comprehensive outdoor skills program, click here to sign up for the Heritage Wildwood distance learning program!
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Homily for the Twenty-seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time, Sunday 10/8/23 – Father Mitch
Readings: Is 5:1-7, Ps 80:9, 12, 13-14, 15-16, 19-20, Phil 4:6-9, Mt 21:33-43
Matthew 21:33-43 World English Bible
Jesus said to the chief priests and elders of the people:
“Hear another parable. There was a man who was a master of a household who planted a vineyard, set a hedge about it, dug a wine press in it, built a tower, leased it out to farmers, and went into another country. 34 When the season for the fruit came near, he sent his servants to the farmers to receive his fruit. 35 The farmers took his servants, beat one, killed another, and stoned another. 36 Again, he sent other servants more than the first; and they treated them the same way. 37 But afterward he sent to them his son, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 38 But the farmers, when they saw the son, said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and seize his inheritance.’ 39 So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard, then killed him. 40 When therefore the lord of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those farmers?”
41 They told him, “He will miserably destroy those miserable men, and will lease out the vineyard to other farmers who will give him the fruit in its season.”
42 Jesus said to them, “Did you never read in the Scriptures,
‘The stone which the builders rejected
was made the head of the corner.
This was from the Lord.
It is marvelous in our eyes’?*
43 “Therefore I tell you, God’s Kingdom will be taken away from you and will be given to a nation producing its fruit. 44 He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but on whomever it will fall, it will scatter him as dust.”
Survival schools teach the importance of a good vantage point. When lost in the woods, always seek higher ground or climb a tree if you can. From there you may scan the horizon for paths and roads to follow home, spot water sources, and see game animals. Modern hunters use tree stands in the same way that ancient hunters sat or stood in trees with spears and bows. Soldiers also seek the high ground to see enemies approaching from miles away. A city on a hill is more easily defended. The high ground is always an advantage. Having an advantage and having a good vantage point are so tightly related that they have the same root word.
In the Garden of Eden God placed the tree of knowledge and the tree of life. Every tree is in some way a tree of knowledge because from its branches we gain information about our surroundings. Every tree is a tree of life because climbing its branches yields nourishment, through spotting prey and picking fruit, and safety, by providing a superior perspective.
Some details escape us because we live in a world in which our food comes from a market and our defense is provided by police and armies. But for ancient peoples, all of this would have been glaring. Fruit on the ground is unhealthy to eat and could be a trap laid by enemies lurking above. A clever enemy attacks during the harvest when defenses are down and crops are gathered, ripe for the taking. The wise climb up into the branches of the tree or to the top of the tower, to spot the best fruit, the choicest game, and ensure safety. All of this would have stood out to the people of the past as starkly as a plume of smoke spotted from a high hill. Adam, Eve, and the bad tenants of the landowner’s vineyard are of the same type. These characters are shortsighted, rapacious, taking what they want today at the expense of the longer view. All are given a garden which they fail to tend as they have been instructed by the landowner. Lost in the woods, they’d be dead in no time.
Isaiah and Jesus didn’t put the tower into their stories as a mere embellishment or a nice touch of color. A man-made garden like a vineyard calls for a man-made tree. So, in the center of the garden, the landowner builds a tower. The vineyard is a garden which, like Eden, is made by a loving father for the benefit of those capable of appreciating its perfection. The servants hired to tend the vineyard never bother to ascend the tower and see the majesty of the work the landowner has built for them to tend. Adam and Eve never climbed the tree of knowledge. They stood on the ground and seized the fruit. Had they first climbed up to survey Eden, they would have gained the vision and patience to wait for God’s permission to eat the fruit and there would’ve been no fall.
Friends, let us endeavor to be as wise as the ancient Semitic people whose oral stories are recorded in the book of Genesis. Let us endeavor to spot the details of the story that the people of Jesus’ time would’ve noticed right away. Greed, covetousness, laziness, violence, these are the low-hanging fruits of sin and death. Attempting to see the world from God’s higher vantage point is the way to eternal life.