Well at first I was either going to kill myself or I was going to run away my life takes a different turn and I stop immersing myself in the outdoors and then really my next experience with it was when I got sent to rehab A wilderness rehabilitation program when I was 16 years
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Looking at these kids and I go ask them I say how long have you been here for man in they’re like 70 days I go ask another one 80 days and I flip out man well at first I was either going to kill myself or I was going to run away I
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During the week and 12:00 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday during football season D in today at mountaintops only Irish style pub Warren sturry welcome to the on tax podcast thanks for having me man this is exciting I feel pretty excited this this this building is absolutely incredible yeah super cool
Like man i’ I’ve never I’ve never been I’ve never been this is I’m I’m like in awe right now yeah yeah man I’m glad that we were able to put it to use and put together a little Studio yeah and shout out to Edward Crow for Edward Crow
Getting us linked up for sure man yeah it’s my dog yeah yeah so uh do you guys just know each other from being Freemasons yeah um I met Edward uh when he joined the lodge here so I was a member here I’ve been a member of this
Lodge West National Phoenix Lodge for um three years and Edward joined about a year a year probably a little bit more than a year ago now and I met him when he came and joined the lodge very cool yeah yeah man this everything about it like you were gave us a little little
Tour you know Eric and I when we first walked in and you know everything about this place like the symbolism and the Symmetry and just everything is just the the craftsmanship I mean the altar like it’s it’s unbelievable I I’ve I’ve never seen anything like it yeah man if you’ve
Never been in a masonic lodge before then you know it’s it’s uh like I was telling you that they’re all different every Masonic Lodge is different the older lodges are going to have obviously a little bit more architectural Beauty to them because that was just the way we
Used to build things nowadays we don’t care so much about making things look good unfortunately um but but Masonic lodges usually are uniquely uh designed in very peculiar way so this one was built um in 1968 and it’s up on stilts I’ve never even seen a building like it yeah yeah
That was thing we first rolled up it was like we came down you know down a little Hill to park underneath and yeah just in case that little creek floods you know which we’re safe right but yeah it’s up on still it’s a mid-century modern building um and we just did a renovation
Me it didn’t always look like this we just did a a big renovation um about two two well two or three years ago it was right before I joined this Lodge they finished the renovation okay yeah wow so did it look drastically different than what it does
Right now yeah really yeah yeah yeah was a huge overhaul and and we were out of the building uh for I think almost a year we weren’t using the building while it was being redone it was a big overhaul gutted yeah yeah what got you what got you interested in this in
Freemasonry yeah yeah so um I was 19 years old I was living in Boon North Carolina going to school at EP state is that where you from no I was born in Detroit I grew up in Charlotte mhm but I was uh I ended up in Boon for college
And I so it was a time in my life you know I saw the value of being a member of a fraternity because I recognized the value of Brotherhood I thought it was just a good thing to be tied into a group of people with a common belief you
Know but at that point in my life I really wasn’t a Greek life type of dude like I wasn’t really throwing down like they wanted to throw down and I don’t know it’s just the Greek life at least where I was um wasn’t really appealing
To me just as far as like the like the partying or yeah I think so and just like I I didn’t really feel um much magnetism to any of the fraternities uh that feel you didn’t feel like connection yeah I just it just I wasn’t drawn to it so it was also a
Time in my life where like I was going through you know what some people might call a spiritual journey you know you’re starting to kind of question the beliefs you were raised on you you start to kind of formulate your own ideas about things and and I was kind of
At a a stage in my life where I was doing a lot of that I was reading a lot of um you know religious and spiritual literature and I kind of found myself studying a lot of that stuff by myself I mean Boon’s a small mountain town of 30
40,000 people um and my interests were fairly peculiar so it was kind of just me and just like a couple friends diving into some of the stuff learning about things like hermeticism and you know some of those spiritual things and I I came across Freemasonry somewhere online I was reading about it
And I essentially came to understand that it had it was this ancient Society of men that you know was put together to pass down these secrets of the universe right is is kind of what I was reading is these philosophers were Masons and it was this institution that that taught
Men these philosophies about life and I was like all right well it sounds like it’ll check the box of me wanting to be a part of a fraternity for sure and then it sounds like it’ll check the box of me wanting to find people to dive deep with
To study some of those things that I felt was important to study in my life at the time so I went and join uh snow Lodge every every Lodge has a name and a number so I went and joined snow Lodge 363 I knocked on the just showed up
Knocked on the door um you’ll never be asked to become a Freemason Freemasonry does not solicit you you have to seek it for yourself it’s actually strictly forbidden for a Mas Mason to solicit membership out of people wow I I was actually going to ask like you know was
It a friend or somebody that said hey you should you should come join it’s it comes from your heart wow um so I went I I knocked on the door I met the guys I joined the lodge I went through my degrees shortly after I moved to Nashville where we are now
And I joined the Scottish W here in Nashville joined the lodge here in Nashville and I found what I had been looking for I I found a group of of you know fine gentlemen of all age ranges that’s what’s great about about masonry is I’ll come to Lodge and I’ll be with
People who are my age who are more middle-aged who are older and it’s it’s a unique place in society where men of all ages can come together to share discussion um which is which is valuable very valuable so yeah I I joined and and I found I
Found what I was looking for and and joined this lodge because there’s just a wonderful group of guys who were a member of this Lodge and it’s been am Mason for 5 years now it’s had a Monumental impact on on who I am and
Kind of how I think and and how I carry myself what are some of those things well you know Freemasonry encourages a man to be studious to essentially always consider himself a student so you know I’ve always been big in reading but you know when I joined
The lodge as you saw our library incredible I just became that much more more studious I just you know it it fueled the fire that I had already inside me for knowledge you know for wisdom to understand the world to understand God’s creation to understand people um and then the most you know
Most importantly it it put me in the room with people who were also on that same Mission so yeah it really uh it’s really incredible did it did you feel like you at that point in your life you were lacking something some type of connection or or something are’t we all
You know I mean yeah it’s at least at some point at some at some point um you know you know my my grand my grandparents my grandfathers specifically both died when I was young so I never really had a a grandfatherly figure in my life at least I was too young to really
Understand him okay um growing up so I I joined the lodge that’s the thing man I have like 200 grandpas now I was going to say really you know going back to what you said about you know all age ranges yeah right like it’s incredible so I I come here and and I’m
Able to to experience that grandfatherly wisdom that you get when you when you interact with older guys um who are wiser than you like that’s something that I missed out on U you know growing up just because of family circumstance it’s something that used to be a part of
Society when we had a more maybe not all the way back to like a tribe but that’s a good example of a tribe is like everybody’s very close-knit the culture today in America it seems like you know the the family like the the super close-knit culture of Americanized
Families is is kind of not as tight as other cultures um so for that reason Freemasonry plays a super important role particularly in this Society for my opinion because it does it does give you access to that that masculine guid that you really need um and you can only get
From older more experienced men in life yeah we’re going to dive deep into more of that and sure a littleit more about you talked about but what are what what are we looking at here right now I mean a lot of people are honestly like I said
When we first started when we walked in the door here I mean I’ve never been right and uh not I guess I didn’t really know what to expect to be honest right other than you I I saw a couple photos but the photos just didn’t do it justice
Right until I walked in and it’s like you know you you were explaining some of the symbolism you know the direction you know the Symmetry all that stuff so yeah what are we looking at here yeah so so Masonic Lodge so you know there’s the building but the
Lodge is the the room that we’re in is the lodge Hall this right now this is the called The Lodge Hall this is the lodge Hall yeah um and a lodge is essentially a meeting place for Masons uh you know we’re chared under the Grand Lodge of
Tennessee so every Masonic lodge and I guess people listening I’m speaking to American Freemasonry however most of what I say will apply worldwide masonry is fairly Universal but most if not every Masonic Lodge on planet Earth is built to symbolize King Solomon’s Temple um which is a symbol of perhaps
What was the most sacred spiritual place ever ever uh assembled on Earth you know um so King Solomon’s Temple masonry is a western institution so a lot of the symbolism is judeo-christian understandably so King Solomon’s Temple um and the lodge is oriented now now most lodges or some lodges are actually
Oriented cardinally east to west this Lodge that we’re in is not so behind us is the symbolic East um which is where the Master of the lodge would sit during a meeting also known uh as the president of the fraternity for the year it’s a year-long
Term so he sits in the East uh behind the cameras is the West which is the senior Warden and then behind me is the South which is the junior Warden I’m the this year I’m the junior Warden of this LGE this year so I sit in that chair
This this which one oh right right back here in the South okay mhm um and the reason for that for the direction and this is what’s great about Masonic lodges is not only are they beautiful but they’re also just riddled with symbolism and meaning and everything I
Mean even the tile that we’re on there’s meaning but east to west the sun rises in the East and the symbolism that’s taught to Freemasonry is that the sun rises and governs the day and rules the day from the East and in that same manner the master of the lodge sitting in the
Symbolic East represents the Sun he represents the force that governs and guides the lodge so it’s pretty cool pretty deep stuff really think about it it really is the uh the West um at the close of day the sun is in the west so the senior Warden has
Duties that are you know associated with closing the lodge making sure that you know when Lodge is done everybody’s in agree agreement everybody is in harmony there’s no disagreements amongst the Brethren um and then symbolically the junior Warden being in the South uh he he’s kind of in the middle
Ground where he he has various duties while Lodge is open and then when Lodge is called off he also has various duties outside of Lodge managing the faty so everybody has a role um the Junior Deacon sits in that chair the senior Deacon sits in that chair then you have
The secretary in the Treasure so you know like free I mean it’s a fraternity so there’s like a there’s a legal organization here yeah we have a secretary we have a Treasurer we have President all that take notes yeah exactly like we we take I saw some of
The books that were like this thick from like literally like the 19 early 1900s God I couldn’t imagine having to read those we’re doing a large history book so some of the guys are reading those they’ll probably watch this but some of the handwriting like we were saying
Before back then was actually probably a lot better than beautiful today yeah really interesting stuff Som you can’t even read it but yeah you know and we’ve got the altar here so every Masonic Lodge will have an altar um in America uh the Holy Bible will sit on that altar
As the symbolic word of God um and that’s that’s just the centerpiece of the lodge every Lodge is erected to God and the Altar and the Bible and the center is a is a reminder uh to us of that and here on this one we have a
Phoenix yeah this is very this is very interesting yeah this is awesome um it’s a phoenix in the Nashville Skyline which this is quite old we would probably have to redo the skyline to make it accurate now they’re building so quickly but the the Phoenix is not necessarily um a a a
Blantantly Masonic symbol but it’s Unique to our lodge being that we are Phoenix Lodge so the Phoenix you know as you know we talked about rising from the ashes it’s a symbol of rebirth renewal um and that’s why we have we have that here I love I just love the idea of it
Incredible yeah and then you know so we we also have the tesselated uh Mosaic pavement yeah what’s the what’s the symbolism here it’s Duality The Duality of reality you know good evil light dark um day and night I mean you could just come up with an endless list of things
But yeah it’s it’s symbolizing The Duality of life I love it so yeah I I really I really appreciate it you know like I I mean just you know the the the quality of the craftsmanship the yeah symmetry just the thought just the you know the thought that that people put
Into every single thing in here every square inch yeah I mean how many like nowadays things are done so thoughtlessly I mean even I do things thoughtlessly in my life it’s just but when you experience something like this and you really kind of dive into it that’s the thing with masonry man is
It’s so detailed and intentional in the way that it was designed and in the way that you’re supposed to interact with it that it’s just beautiful just in that sense how much effort uh these guys in the past put into creating this organization and what do you think that
Is like that detail that attention to detail like order out of chaos yeah I mean life is chaotic you know if you don’t have some sort of a guide some wisdom some sort of a some sort of Direction and The the more clear that direction is the better
I mean who knows what will happen yeah you know yeah so it’s been around like I said so you know the current ERA of Freemasonry um goes back to 17 17 with the Grand Lodge of England um on P the paper trail goes back to the the 1500s
And then people speculate about it about it going much further back so you got to think like how many how many things do you know of that are you know 600 years old and still around today yeah not many so before the United States yeah so even
Just that is a testament to like there’s something awesome here how how has this thing lasted so long like what is it about it that has allowed it to survive and then you know when America at some point you know countries com and go Freemasonry um I feel will will stick
Around even if one day America is no longer a thing I would hate to see that but um you know Freemasonry kind of transcends those political factions that that that uh that flare up yeah so yeah so so going back like some you know the history of this like yeah you know
How many how many people are part of like I mean GL us or globally like do you know like the a number yeah I think it’s around three million globally really we’ve got 30,000 or so in the state of Tennessee wow yeah yeah don’t quote me on that Global number because
I’m not entirely sure but um there are a couple million wow yeah that’s incredible I honestly didn’t know and I was I was you know when Eric and I were bringing the equipment in and out and we were you know talking as we were walking and honestly I didn’t really know much
If any anything about Freemasonry like at all you know and obviously I know you know a bit more quite a bit more than I did before I walked in the door here but it’s um it’s just it’s so it’s fascinating it’s very fascinating and oh dude yeah for sure I think maybe maybe
Because the the secrecy of it if that’s the right word like yeah we can use that word yeah like I don’t know if that’s like intentional or not right in the organization it’s absolutely intentional okay I mean all the best things that I found in my life had to discover you
Know right yeah like going back to like you said it’s not somebody that is recruiting you to join right no man like that’s one of the things like you know people I man I love reading the conspiracy theories like people say like you know what’s with the secrecy what’s
With the secrecy okay we got to talk about this I need to know I need to know I mean one um there’s nothing wrong with wanting a little bit of privacy like you know what I’m saying like if I were to go up to the Amazon building downtown
And say like I want to know everything you’re doing in there like they’re not going tell they’re not going to let me in because they have their own thing going on you know so there’s nothing wrong with privacy uh one but also you know Freemasonry it’s it’s a it’s a path
Of personal development that you have to seek and and work for for yourself and you have to have that desire to to explore pass the veil of of what you may know and and what you may think something is and and what your life may be in the
Current moment like you have to want more and you have to seek that so Freemasonry is is a is an organization that is private but we’re not I mean we’re not really secret like you saw the very visible outside giant logo yeah yep you know the giant logo on our building
Um there’s Masonic lodges all over the world so yeah I’ve always seen them but like I said never really never really I guess didn’t really think too much about it cuz I never really knew anyone that was you know part of it um we discovered uh By the way when we
When we first got here Eric and I were saying like how long is it going to take while we’re here in Nashville before we run into somebody from nor eastern Pennsylvania where we’re from or and or uh how long until we find somebody that has a connection to Northeastern
Pennsylania and it happened I mean within 24 hours and you know you you were one of them uh you know we had a we have a connection back back TJ TJ Bell TJ Bell a Mason yep exactly and a and a great guitarist yeah right yeah exactly
Yeah cool dude yeah but I mean small world man like it is just incredible but going back to your point about like discovering and trying to better yourself and just along those lines like I know you’re a big outdoors guy um when you got into Outdoors just from you know
Seeing a little bit about you know on your on your Instagram you know you you your Outdoors you do these like Retreats right getaways uh what what was it about what is or what is it about the outdoors was that something for you to kind of ReDiscover
What you were looking for well dude I mean any person with common sense who lives in a city long enough will realize that this ain’t it right you know what I’m saying man I mean you know you can only sit in a concrete jungle for so
Long before your soul starts to tell you that it’s missing something so yeah I mean yeah I almost like in surprise so so for me um dude I I just it’s my church man like I go to church uh visit different churches but but the Wilderness you’ll never find a church
Like it like I go out there and that’s where I have my conversations with God you know that’s where I experience just moments of of awe and Glory when you’re just out in the middle of nowhere and you come across a mountain range or a beautiful River it’s
It’s it’s it’s God’s Art Gallery you know it’s something that we didn’t make it was here before us and it’ll be here after us it’s Eternal um so there’s something about that that’s very grounding to like the spirit that’s in us which is also Eternal in my opinion
Um so yeah man like the woods I like backpacking I like getting out there I’m not a big like rock climber like not a really super I like staying horizontal with what I’m doing for the most part you know the rock climbing where like you’re going straight up stuff yeah not
Too much of a fan of that but uh yeah man I just love exploring and seeing new places and and and doing it Outdoors yeah what was like what was your first Outdoor Experience like was it something as a kid or yeah dude so I was fortunate
Enough to like the neighborhood that I grew up in I was on the end of a a a a culdesac and my backyard was just a bunch of undeveloped land so I had a woods and and streams right there yeah like fortunately like I grew up and had
Access to all that um so I was just like I spent most of my my childhood just exploring the outdoors right and it’s crazy because then I figure out what video games are [Β __Β ] dud and then that is that it for the outdoors then dude for a moment
In time temporarily right yeah dude then you know it’s it’s uh the my it’s stole my soul and then I just started playing video game which look I look I love well I haven’t played him in a while but I used to get down man like Call of Duty
Zombies I think we all did at one to man I mean Eric Eric Eric’s giving us a nod over there I had those routes man like I I knew I knew how to work that MP5 um but but yeah man so like I I just
Got I kind of just get caught up in other things and my life takes a different turn and I and I stop immersing myself in the outdoors um and then really my next experience with it was when I got sent to rehab when I was a Wilderness rehabilitation program when
I was 16 years old which is something that that it’s funny when I come across people who also went to a Wilderness Program like this because they’re always generally very distinctive people um and there’s always some crazy story but essentially one morning I wake up and
It’s like a Wednesday and you know I was just doing drugs skipping school like okay this is like drug rehab when you said rehab I wasn’t really sure if you actually meant like drug and alcohol rehab or if it was or it was just like a
You know hey he was a bad kid or something going the program I went to had a wide range of people who like some of them some of them were there for like serious opioid things like I didn’t have any like crazy stuff like that going on
And then there was kids there with like video game addictions and I was like in the Middle where it I just had like a little bit of everything kind of messing me up um so dude this it’s crazy so I wake up morning at like 8:00 a.m. I I I
Hear my door open I think it’s like my parents or whatever I’m 16 and there’s these two giant like 6’4 dudes standing at the edge of my bed and my parents are over on the on the other side of the room and they’re like yeah like your parents are sending you away
It’s funny because my parents warned me about this they said like if you don’t like straighten up you’re going to go to a military school or whatever and uh I just called their Bluff I lost take it serious yeah I lost they were not bluffing so they were not two giant
Dudes and they’ve got these zip ties in their ran and they explained like you got to come with us you’re going to this program easy where hard way you choose they literally had these like handcuff these zip tie handcuffs like ready to go like in case you uh got out of control
Yeah and I kind of I was like all right let me just I don’t think I’m going to win this one so I just went with him get in the back of this car uh this Ford Taurus and uh we start taking off this is in Charlotte by the way where I’m
Living um we start driving uh to Bard North Carolina is where I ended up and it’s like a 2 and a half three hour drive so I’m in the back of this car did you ask any questions like before you left like like to your parents or like
No I was pissed like you just like didn’t speak dude it was yeah anger dude just all anger I can imagine as a 16-year-old kid yeah I was pretty pissed off and and like you said you were struggling with you know pissed off probably hung over in this moment sense
Of powerlessness all those things kind of come together to kind of shut you down um so I’m in the back of this car and I start talking to these guys like they’ve got me in the back and I’m like hey like what so like how long am I
Going to this program for and they’re like oh it’s a twoe program and I’m like okay no problem can do this I’m like I can do two weeks I’ll be back home playing zombies in no time right you know so I uh so we we go to we get to
Bard North Carolina we pull up to this like little like ranch style thing in this Hillside in the woods and um there’s like a few buildings there’s like a mess hall a couple cabins and you know I get out of the car they hand me off to this other group of people they
Take me into this like shed where they strip me down and put me in this uniform and gave me boots Put this backpack on my back 70 L backpack and um then they hiked me out to this group of uh anywhere from 8 to 12 at a time other juvenile delinquent
Males and um all for there for various reasons so like the group we’ move as a group and anywhere from 8 to 12 people in the group at a time three counselors who were in addition to that 8 to 12 so they were watching us and the whole
Program um the whole program which I think is closed now Trails Wilderness is the name of it a lot of these programs are very controversial cuz some of them were not managed very well um but the whole program Maybe had like four groups of boys and four groups of girls
Rotating through different regions at any but I was in Bravo so Bravo group and I get down there and I start looking at these kids and the these kids look like they had been here for longer than two weeks so so they lied dude yeah I mean
This is suspicious so I I I’m I go up to some like you know the hair is grown out like and you know 16-year-old like facial hair must I’m like dude something is a muck so I go ask I go ask him I say how long have you been here for man and
They’re like 70 days what I go ask another one you know 80 days and I flip out man I’m like oh my God they lied to me I ended up in that program for 83 days wow 83 days and living out of the backpack Out outdoors Outdoors very
Rarely we would stay in a cabin like a A-Frame style thing it’s like literally Outdoors Outdoors yeah yeah like we’re like bow drilling to start fires yeah dude like sticks and rocks caveman stuff yeah I mean close to it great skills to have though yeah but yeah I
Mean we’re like bow drilling to start fires like cooking group meals over a pot sleeping intense every single night for three months wow and and you know we would we would essentially hike around the various areas of the Blu Ridge Mountains um on both like national public Forest land and then also like
The property that was owned by the by the group trails and yeah we were just out there dude holy smokes yeah so I’m out there like you know and they had like booklets that would go I’ll tell you what man I’m so glad I went here and not some
Like like Ward where like you’re sitting under like a fluorescent light in some like windowless room yeah with like padding on the walls or something that wouldn’t have helped me at all no that would have made it worse it would have made it worse so thank God that somebody
Had the idea to take therapy in Wilderness and and and combine them and re and combine them you know in that way so super grateful for that that I didn’t end up in some like weird psych word thing um but you know it was it was a
Cool program like I was there for three months I’m 16 so so but when you when you you know okay so so when you first get in when you first you know you’re there you’re out you’re outdoors and you you’re discovering that hey these guys have these guys girls whoever haven’t
Have been there longer than than a couple weeks like at that point or maybe even a couple after once you got into it like you know was there a point that you actually was like enjoyed it or like yeah well at first I was either going to
Kill myself or I was going to run away on the stacks so be back in a Flash after a word from our sponsor this episode is brought to you by elevation Wellness nepa’s Premier Wellness Center located on Monday Street in wils Berry from pro athletes to busy parents elevation Wellness is leading the
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Learn more visit an alone Law Offices online at ansalone law.com and now we’re back on the stacks um and I was contemplating which one of those two I was going to do I started like looking at rocks and was like oh man I could just so yeah it was
Weird like you get some weird thoughts when like you’re in a completely powerless situation you’re you’re 16 your brain is your chemistry is already jumbled up you’re away from home it’s like so many things causing me to think strange thoughts so counselors didn’t like that they caught you know I they
Caught wind to my scheme and uh for dude this is hilarious man so like anytime there’s like a code red person they have to like monitor you even more and that’s the thing like the program the whole program I never knew what time it was for 3 months never knew
What time it was never knew where we were going that day never knew where we were hiking or like nothing like all that unbelievable yeah yeah it was is it extremely interesting so dude yeah like they they they figured out that I was a high-risk patient so they started making
Me sleep in this thing called the burrito which ISO yeah dude this so essentially not the burrito that we’re all used to right no I wish yeah you essentially uh I would lay down in my sleeping bag and they would lay a tarp over you and one counselor would sleep
On top of the tarp on one side of you the other counselor would sleep on top of the tarp on the other side of you and they would essentially be like pinning you down to the ground human burrito yeah human burrito and that way if you
Have to get up and piss like you have to wake the counselor up so I ended up in that for a week eventually I simmered down and you know at some point I mean looking back I’m glad I I was there there was a point where you start to
Just get used to it I don’t know if it ever became like enjoyment like it was an absolute pleasure to be there because like you know we’re hiking miles miles every single day and I mean it was like a lot of work and you’re just eating
Bland food over and over again and you just you’re you have no power like you know a human a human wants to have control wants to you know do his own thing especially a 16-year-old male who’s you know uh amped up on test like you just
You don’t want to be powerless so you’re completely powerless and yeah yeah eventually I kind of like simmered down at least became like it was like neutral yeah became neutral and then you know there are like some great memories of just getting some good laughs and like
Really peculiar kids to kind of joke around with so um did you did you like become friends with any anyone do do you still keep in touch with anyone that was like yeah one of them is the reason I even came to Nashville wow yeah one of
Them one of them a guy here in town um his name is gayen and he was in that program and the other one who I really stay in touch with is named Cameron and he’s in Montana Helena Montana I was just out there two uh two months ago backpacking in the Montana Wilderness
With him he builds houses awesome guy very cool so yeah there are and you know some of the kids some of the kids have died like you know some of the kids just were too far gone and they just couldn’t get it together when they left wow um
But yeah I stay in touch with some of them do you feel fortunate that you’re at where you’re at right now now yeah yeah for yeah for sure fortunate I mean there’s just life is such a a rooll of the dice I mean there’s so many things so many so many
Things that could have placed me in a near infinite amount of circumstances that are not being in this room with you right now on this wonderful podcast it’s crazy so yeah I mean you know some some somebody’s looking out for me it seems yeah um so yeah I’m like speechless you
Know it’s like we Eric and I were even saying before we as we’re unloading the car even just here with you today and you know we have you know multiple other you know uh guests that were we’re having on the show that while we’re here
For a few days and yeah yeah we both we both like both keep looking at each other every like every once in a while and be like is this real right now are we what are we doing like we’re we’re we’re in Nashville Tennessee you know
We’re at this Lodge like we’ve you know like it’s like dude what other ways there live life man just on the on the edge of Discovery man yeah I mean I I don’t want to live my life any other way yeah I don’t ever want to get caught up
In any any sort of cycle of mediocrity yeah I can’t imagine I can’t imagine uh letting myself fall into something like that yeah so after how many days was it that you were on 83 days 83 so day 83 did like Did You Know by day 83 like did you know when you
Were coming home no that they they tell you the so like there a program there’s like an eight like an eight booklet program that it teaches you things like the hero’s journey and like all that like fundamental like personal development stuff um and then like basic Wilderness stuff and there’s like
Different Wilderness challenges that you do so essentially you work through the program and then you get the LA like the the way they would do it is like they would give you the final book and then you knew you had like a week left and you were going home had and that book
Took you about a week to get through and it probably depended like they probably had meetings on the side obviously yeah I mean like we had a therapist and like they were working with our parents and there was all sorts of stuff that was going on that we W aware of pro progress
And everything so like so maybe did did some people come home earlier some people later yeah dude there was one there was this one kid who like and I I mean dude every single letter like we wrote a letter I think uh once a week
Like a home letter that we could send to our parents dude yeah I mean every single one I’m like please take me home you know what I’m saying yeah when can I come home when can I come yeah dude one kid got his mom to do it like he got out
Like day 35 oh yeah we were all hating on him for it we were like this is [Β __Β ] like how did he yeah so um yeah like you had the the letters that was the communication you have you got a letter from your parents and you could
Send a letter once a week I think it was once a week okay um but yeah I got out of that program and then I went straight into a boarding school for 9 months so I was out of home for a year straight wow wow yeah did you know you were going to
The board boarding school right after no you didn’t know until you got home yeah well yeah I didn’t know I didn’t know uh until a therapist told me while I was he said yeah you’re going to go to this the school and wow wow so what what was uh
What was day what was day 83 like dude day 83 was uh felt pretty good I mean you know you you see your family for the first time in three months pretty good feeling um you you regain some sort of a sense of agency or at least like oh now I’m
Not like in this system at least for now anymore um so yeah mean it felt pretty good for sure it definitely felt good I wasn’t too happy about going to the boarding school afterwards yeah um but it all needed to happen how many months was that the school yeah at the boarding
School n nine yeah so 12 months total the whole program and then and after after the boarding school like was it back to I’ll say like went back regular school yeah went back to the same high school and by the time I get back there’s like rumors that I’m like in
Jail or like I like I think somebody spread a rumor that I died or I don’t know like there was all these weird rumors I can imagine yeah I lost some friends maybe show up a year later and then I just finished out my college or high school credits at at the high
School and then gradu Gru so like did you did you lose any time like like so with the time of year that it happened like were you was it like in school like did you like have did you did you get like held back at all or anything no I
Didn’t I didn’t get held back um because when I the boarding school had a had a good educational program involved so I I got my credits okay yeah that’s good so I didn’t miss any yeah I didn’t I didn’t miss any any school time in that regard
Yeah kept on track yeah I stayed on yeah I stayed on track yeah except for maybe those 3 months um that I was in the but I think I might have also uh I might have also got some sort of a credit I don’t know but yeah no I mean I
Graduated on time I hope they gave you some some something yeah I think there’s like some sort of like a Wilderness uh credit or something but yeah a badass credit dude you deserve it after that yeah I mean I wasn’t feeling too badass at the time but looking back
I mean there was definitely times where I felt like a gii Joe like dude like d there’s the this one time where we were up camping on this bald on top of this mountain we’re probably like at uh 4 or 5,000 FT elevation and we uh we’ve been hiking in
The rain we get up we set up camp and we can kind of see that there’s this storm kind of coming in the distance we ended up like in this cloud and we go to sleep you pretty much just go to sleep when the Sun goes down wake up when the sun
Comes up we go to sleep and all the sun in the middle of the night lightning strikes the top of the mountain that we’re on oh wow strikes like maybe 100 yards away from where we’re camping and the counselors make us all get up like red alert we have to
Evacuate this top of this mountain like immediately so dude we think like none of us have flashlights like that’s a hazard for us to run away so they don’t give us flashlights like we had to get up in the middle of the night in a complete downpour and pack up this
Entire like 15 person camp and evacuate off the top of this mountain like that was a kind of an interesting moment you know yeah pitch dark in the in complete downpour 16-year-old kid yeah just a bunch of a bunch of uh just absolute dopes I mean none like none of us knew
What we were doing you know right so there was some times like that I mean that was pretty interesting and yeah there’s definitely some fun stories for sure wow you generally get fun stories in the outdoors yeah so so this this outdoor thing it just kind of carried on for you yeah so
After that you know I came back I went to I went to uh it’s funny man again I went to college I went to college in Boon North Carolina the right in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains and in the in the whole four years I was there maybe I hiked like
Four times wow so again like I just got caught up in the ways of the world like I got caught up in College stuff got caught up in partying um just kind of just you know being a still kind of being a stupid kid you know um and then
It dude it really wasn’t until two years ago where I really like made the intentional decision like I’m going to go see as many state parks as I can I’m going to go hike every weekend I’m gonna go visit more national parks I’m gonna start backpacking again like I made the intentional decision
Two years ago and um and I’ve just been staying on it like this weekend we’re GNA I got two guys we’re going to go out and do Fiery Gizzard which is an awesome trail near Manchester we’ll cover like 25 miles in two days wow we’ll do that
Overnight and it’s just fun man just learned so much being out there yeah what what was uh what do you think it’s it’s taught you the most dude gratitude man I mean until you’ve like slept on the on the cold ground and like you’re you’re wet and maybe you can’t dry out I
Mean it’s just like that’s the thing man it’s like if I’m thirsty right now I can just go to the water fountain and get some water if I’m if I’m thirsty on the Fiery Gizzard all right well and I don’t have any water all right well where what’s the last stream that I
Crossed uh okay do I think that there’s one closer if I keep going forward or should I backtrack to the one that I cross is it dried up is it too like before I go out like are my water sources going to be dried up do I need to fill up on a
Ton of water at the river before I climb up on top of the plateau like little things like that like you got to think about that stuff um it’s just you and what you have in your backpack you know which is pretty interesting like it teaches like a whole another level of
Self-sufficiency and resourcefulness and accountability um when you’re doing especially like the overnight trips multi-day overnight trips you just have to really be mindful about stuff like that so it’s so that’s like one thing that’s taught me then also like I’ve just experienced uh you know what one may call like Spiritual Development from
Immersing myself in the outdoors um mainly through putting myself in places to feel awe I feel like that’s something that people should feel more awe like put yourself in places where you feel awe whether it’s a museum kind of feeling awe right now yeah that’s the point you know like I’m here
Every week feeling awe looking around seriously yeah yeah I’m I’m dead serious yeah like like I said I know I said this already but I didn’t know what to expect walking in here yeah you feel dud awe brings you to God man awe draws you to
Higher thoughts um yeah you you got to experience all so Outdoors it’s pretty hard unless you just are not good at picking a hiking trail where you don’t look up it’s pretty hard to not experience some level of awe at some point if you’re paying attention outside
Right um so for that reason and then also man it’s just like you get out there with some buddies and you guys go on an overnight trip um one of the one of the most powerful uh bonding agents uh is shared suffering um now I’m not saying I like
To suffer necessarily while I’m out but like dude you go hike 25 miles with somebody in two days like and you guys both just you know don’t give up and you get through that dog fight like you have a a shared connection there yeah serious Bond yeah so you know you’re outside
Like there’s some there’s also something that really unites um I can I just I I really just backpack I’ve never really backpacked uh with females um generally just doing it with the boys but yeah I mean it’s just like a great bonding experience to go out there cook over the fire it’s just
Natural it just makes sense yeah there is nothing like it yeah yeah old school yeah and it’s like cost you zero dollars yeah you know like yeah or like you know maybe you need a back country permit and you give the state like 10 bucks for a
Campsite and then like you invest a little bit in like a backpack but dude I mean next to nothing yeah next to nothing you can go to some incredible places tons of the national parks are free like it’s incredible man yeah so I want to come back to Freemasonry a
Little bit and um you know one of the things I was thinking you know I think you you had said it at some point when you were showing us around um but people um may think differently about Freemasonry and may just have negative opinions or thoughts about it why is
That yeah dude so well essentially well I think I mean the I can answer the why but so the why is because of the secrecy people fear what they do not understand which is a natural mechanism of being a human if you don’t understand something you fear it because
You don’t know if it could hurt you or not um so understandably people fear what they do not understand and also somebody’s always got to blame somebody man so we just just blame us um just blame the Freemasons blame the Freemasons anything goes wrong in the world blame the
Freemason give me a break man um you know so like a you seem like an all right guy I mean we just met but I’m doing my best man jeez like come on people a lot so a lot of it stems from the idea that Freemasonry is the secret
Group that controls the world almost like an Illuminati yeah like an Illuminati thing so and what I will say the Illuminati was a real organization I don’t know if it exists now but the Illuminati was created by a man named Adam Vice hop in the mid or late 1700s
He was a Freemason he left his Masonic Lodge in Germany convinced some of the members to leave with him and he started his own organization which was the Illuminati really on paper that’s what happened that’s where it came from but it’s it’s not like the idea I mean you
Got to think like these guys are just like getting together these are really just philosophers at the time like you know what’s so bad about one to like hang out with the boys and like talk about life and try to un understand the secrets of the universe like that sounds cool to me
Sure does so you know the whole like Illuminati like the name itself is like illuminate like light um which in masonry like we do have the idea of light like intellectual light spiritual light the idea of masonry is to help illuminate a ‘s mind to those things um
Then are are you the Illuminati dude I’ve been trying to get an invite man I’ve been waiting for it to show up in my mailbox man seriously I how do we find it that’s what I’m saying man I’m looking for the Rolex man I want the I
Want the Bugatti all of it yeah yeah so um so yeah like but that that organization that Adam viop started I think it went def fun in like the 1800s so I think the big think yeah I mean I think the bigger problem is like central
Banks um then you got these groups like The World economic forum and I don’t really like go into too much of this stuff not because I don’t want to talk about it because I don’t spend my time like researching this stuff like yeah you just don’t know enough about it yeah
Not just that but you know I know so many people who spend all their time like researching these conspiracy theories but then like they can’t like keep a job down it’s like I’m focused on my life um Gandhi said be the change you want to
See uh so if I want to change the world I’m going to change myself and then through that the idea some sort of domino effect will happen while I pass through this place so I just don’t really worry about that kind of stuff you know are there groups out
There that are performing like malicious evil things I absolutely believe so like all the Epstein stuff like that’s [Β __Β ] up that’s some nasty [Β __Β ] it’s not Freemasonry like it’s annoying but also like somewhat humorous when Freemasonry gets connected to all this stuff um does it does it get connected with some of
Those things like yeah dude I don’t know if there was ever any like see I don’t really like I said I I I never really knew too much about Freemasonry dude yeah there’s like the the the the the general um at least this is at least something that really has actually
Happened in the recent generation maybe the past two generations because my grandfather’s generation in America had the utmost respect for masonry and masonry was a more public organization um there were more members like it really is only in the recent uh 80 years 70 years maybe where the the
Public uh thought of masonry has gone down and I think it’s a SC up I really think it’s a it’s it’s a it’s a trick because I mean Freemasonry the fundamentals of Freemasonry the founding fathers most of them were Masons these men were driven by these by these
High philosophies of wanting to create a place a spiritual dwelling for Humanity and dude we’re in a state of cultural decline right now big time Big Time it’s like okay if everything else is going down downhill and then only recently people started hating on Freemasonry like you know it’s just it
Just doesn’t make sense most also a lot of the anti-masonic propaganda comes from um a lot of like super far right group so I don’t know man it’s just uh we’ve just got caught up in it but it’s cool like it doesn’t really bother me um
But I but it does upset me when like it’s had such a change on my life and you didn’t know anything about it maybe walking away from here it seems like you’ll have a better understanding of it uh well you will because we’ve been talking about it for however long but
The the only thing that it upsets me is that is that this idea that has been spread about this institution um is perhaps preventing men who really need something like this from finding it or from being open enough to learn about it so it’s it’s it’s really in a way
Robbing um some men of an experience that could really change their life as it has mine and many others do you think uh you know kind of you just you touched on a little bit maybe about the generational difference right like do you think nowadays uh I’ll say people you know
We’re all about in the same age range close enough right in the room right now that um yeah again like I didn’t know much about it right but do you think there’s a a like a a gap now where like do you see not as many young members to
Join in Tennessee at least I think I think uh 70% of members in Tennessee are over 60 wow that yeah it’s like so pretty much after World War II um there was this uh shared suffering right so the tightest Bond uh uh men will ever experience is is I’m not a veteran I’m
Not speaking from experience um but camaraderie through uh War like ex like extreme hard times right so you had this these guys who came back from World War II and they were not able to find the camaraderie that they felt overseas so they they flooded these fraternal
Organizations and that you had a huge influx of membership after World War II huge influx membership and then you had another influx of membership um like the 70s so yeah like from there from then on it’s been less and less people joining and um yeah there definitely are less
People who are our age in the organization than there are older people just depends on what lodge you’re at though like this Lodge is unique this Lodge has a flourishing young uh demographic um we’ve got a great age range uh at this Lodge which is which I’m very very grateful for the lodge
That I was raised in that I it’s what it’s called when you you you’re uh initiated as an enter Apprentice passed to the degree of fellowcraft raised as a Master Mason and those are the that’s the process those three degrees are essentially um theatrical performances that are put on to teach you certain
Lessons and then you have to like pass an exam that shows you learn the lesson and then you can go to the next one so I became a Master Mason in North Carolina the LOD was at uh I was the O I don’t think there was anybody who was within two decades
Three decades of my age oh wow so that’s common that’s a common thing in a lot of lodges so yeah yeah and then like you said you you can’t solicit so it’s not like hey let’s go out and get some new young young members it’s it’s no soliciting so it’s really that’s the
Thing is like uh you just tell you tell people you’re aming with your actions you know um and then I like that say that again yeah you that’s you tell people you’re masing with your actions so that’s you know what I want to do in
Life is I believe I mean Mason is just a piece of my life but it is but it has given me um quite a lot of fundamentals and quite a lot of things to work with in regards to you know putting my life together so I just want to be an ex an
Exemplar man you know like that’s what I’m after I want to live some sort of an honorable life you know and I like I don’t I’m not I don’t like you know some guys like walk around with like the Mason hats and all that I mean if you go
To like my social media Pages like eventually you’ll see me in a masonic lodge or you’ll see something and if you’re paying attention you’ll be like oh he’s a Mason and when that happens when somebody has that realization I want it to give them an incredibly positive view of what
Masonry is so it’s up to me and it’s up to every other every other member who’s a part of masonry to to speak with their actions so yeah yeah those are my thoughts on that what the hold your arm out what does your tattoo say oh yeah I don’t
Know if the camera can see that yeah the white the white shot well what does it say through discipline comes Freedom when did you get that d That’s the only tattoo I have and I got that when I was uh going if I was talking to the mic
That’s the only tattoo I have and I got it when I was uh 18 or 19 and it’s a quote uh from Marcus aelius who did not speak English he he would have said it in Greek ancient Greek I believe um but yeah that that’s that’s my only tattoo
It’s a nice little reminder of uh self-governance really accountability why did you get it dude I think I was just like damn I need some help maybe if I put a qu on my arm you’ll remember right look at it every day I think it was one of those things where but it’s
Funny I don’t even notice it anymore but it’s funny like in the moment it was like I got to get my life together you let me let me put this uh let me put this quote on my arm and then I’ll see it like every time I sit down to work
Like I’ll look at it and it’ll it’ll remind me of what I’m supposed to do yeah um but yeah no it’s just a great quote like you know the idea of discipline it’s odd that it has this like negative connotation like oh like you’re disciplining somebody but you
Know we buy freedom for oursel we buy freedom for our future by subjecting ourselves to sets of rules now it’s like some people think like oh let me just like not have a job or like if if we just like got up here and like went and walked around town for two days
Sure like that’s kind of cool like maybe that’s Freedom right like oh we can do whatever we want but then you’re going to face the consequences you just wasted two days and and now you got to pay your bills and you know like you have to work
For it so it really is I think a testament to a long-term gratification and the ability I mean Mason and one of the first things that a Mason has taught is the value of subduing your passions and and really circumscribing your behavior and your actions and understanding that you you
Have to create some sort of a set of rules for for yourself or adopt a set of rules and that’s what’s religion you know it gives you a set of rules and gives you a god um like you can’t just live ruless or I don’t think it’s going to work out
Too well for you I mean I’ve lived I’ve lived without principles before and and you ended up in the woods for 8 Days ended up in in the woods for 83 days involuntarily right so almost in zip ties almost in zip ties yeah so yeah you got to have some sort of a
Code and whether you get that from whether you you adopt that from an institution or you create that for yourself you got to have something you know you can’t just you can’t just be out here willy-nilly just yeah just like without some sort of compass right yeah
So uh you have you have a couple books right yeah yeah yeah I wrote uh it’s funny so writing I like to write and I like to read I think that every person should write and read every single day um when you when you write especially if you if you if somebody considers
Themsel like a fairly thoughtful person it’s easy to just have these thoughts that bounce around in your head all day right and it’s very easy to start like entertaining yourself with your own thoughts but when you write you you you’re forced to turn the abstract nature of your mind into a linear
Project like you have to take the thoughts that are bouncing around and you have to put an order to them kind of back to the order out of chaos thing that I mentioned earlier so give me an example well dude I mean like let’s say a journal you know here’s an example a
Journal you know a lot of people a lot of people journal for various reasons a lot of people Journal their feelings right so you know you maybe you’re you’re in some sort of relationship you broke up with somebody and you’re dealing with these thoughts they’re coming and going in random times of the
Day you’re overwhelmed by this these feelings of anxiety and they’re just kind of ruling you but when you sit down and you actually decide to write it out like you’re now taking the initiative to take these feelings and to give them some sort of a structure so in
A way you’re owning your feelings you’re you’re taking back your thoughts you’re taking back possession of your mind and you’re putting a structure on it is it also like thoughts you know sometimes have or they may you may feel like these thoughts have power over you right is
That also part of the theory like if you’re if you’re able to put these thoughts feelings emotions whatever it is down on paper yeah that no longer it’s going to be bouncing around in your head like you’re like you feel like you’re you know zip tied to these
Thoughts yeah absolutely man like it’s yeah for sure like a lot of people well what is venting like you’re just you need to get stuff out of you so you can talk I just like writing I like writing more than talking what do you write it just depends man like I’ll write I’ll
Write about what I’m working on the books that I wrote are about my opinions on and it’s funny because I remember the like the title and I remember the general idea of the book but when I go back and look at it I do not recognize the person who wrote it um interesting
So like I I Journal I write one practice that I do have that that might be something that not a lot of people have heard of is I I do write prayers like I prefer to write a letter of prayer than to like speak a prayer because for me it forces me to
Spend more time in that moment and just something about it something about it to me it’s I just feel more connected ConEd more fulfilling yeah it’s more fulfilling like I don’t know what it is I can’t explain it but something about writing writing the prayer out and then
If you want to take it to another level like then you can you can burn it and send it up into the universe you know so there’s another practice of of uh you know what to do with what you wrote after you wrote it well you could
Document it or you could burn it like some people who might be experiencing some anxiety write out what’s worrying them destroy it you know that can be a very transformative process for a lot of people yeah so there’s all sorts of ways to do it but yeah the books yeah I wrote
Two of them well two books and then the other the third thing that I had published is is really um I mean it’s only like 40 pages it’s really more of like a long poem perhaps and then I just like write poetry here and there but yeah the books
Are called uh the first one’s Reflections on morals and ideals and the second one is Reflections on vices and passions so I just kind of I kind of just went through like I made a list of like all right like what are some virtues and I think I got this idea from
Ben Franklin I’m a big Ben Franklin guy like I’ve got like I’ve got one bumper sticker on my car it’s a a Ben Franklin silhouette love it you know and uh dude the dude was just incredible read his autobiography it’s an incredible account of a man who came from Absol absolutely nothing and
Busted his ass and became the world’s most famous man Benjamin Franklin people don’t realize that he was a worldwide celebrity in the late 1700s before any sort of Global Communication that’s incredible yeah dude people do not realize how Ben Franklin was the [Β __Β ] he was the [Β __Β ] dude he was the [Β __Β ] man
And in his autobiography he was an incredibly he was a Freemason wow you know he was an incredibly an incredibly mindful man at one point in his autobiography he talks about how he essentially wanted to perfect his conduct right he was a devious uh fella in a way like he he had
Some dude he was just I think he was just horny for real man dude Ben Franklin he just loved getting around man that was his one dude every great man has a vice I don’t care what people say you can’t cancel Ben Franklin every great man has a vice nobody’s can canceling Ben
Franklin not on my watch not on my watch either where there is virtue there is often times a vice that exists that is equal in greatness to that virtue um so but Ben Franklin in his book he talks about how there was this one point in
His life where he he was like all right I want to like really perfect my conduct right so he made this list of the 13 virtues like Temperance um Integrity I can’t remember them all but essentially this list of things and he had this whole system
Where he had like a little like a notebook and at the end of every day he would reflect on his behavior and if he remember if he broke any of those virtues he would like he essentially tracking his journaling tracking his behavior in reference to this list of of
Characteristics right so I was like okay that’s cool I’m pretty sure I got this idea from reading that book and then later on it just came to my head but that’s what the book is is like it just goes through things like you know Integrity honesty Temperance
Fortitude and the way that that book is is like I have a quote from some influential individual about it and then I just kind of like stream of Consciousness I I mean I wrote it in like two weeks like it was like a really quick thing like I didn’t really do much
Editing to it it’s full of typos it’s full of grammatical errors like it’s raw yeah dude it’s just like it is what it is like it’s what I it’s what I was thinking you know yeah um and it’s only like 112 pages and I don’t even necessarily like push it like I don’t
Know I just think it’s kind of cheesy sometimes where people are like hey read my ideas like I got some great ideas I got the I got the best ideas I got the best ideas since Franklin since been friend yeah so like dude there’s a ton
Of books that will probably do more for you than what I wrote but if you’re if you if you know me and you’re interested in getting to know me more then you know and interested in learning more about my ideas yeah I’m sure there’s something to
Learn yeah the books are there so like honestly I’ve just had some friends read it I’d rather have like 10 friends read it and like I see those people all the time and they just know me more than you know a bunch of random people um thinking that it’s like the next best
Thing so but people can’t buy it yeah it’s on Amazon oh okay it’s on Amazon both yeah all three and then the third the third one is just like a little like pamphlet style thing it’s like 40 pages yeah it’s on Amazon Amazon Prime next day there we go it’ll get there tomorrow
Next next day not not today next day it might even be I don’t man I might have lied it might be today that’s all right but uh dud it’s an Amazon primer for sure man it’s on there I could buy I could get it and have it uh at my house
Before I get home yeah there you go you know my doorstep waiting for me yeah but writing I think writing is great man I also I also wrote those because like I like videos and I’m starting to like embrace it more more but at the end
Of the day I like real like I like things I can touch I like tangibility like the idea that to me the idea that like all right maybe like my great grandson will like find this one day and read it like that’s a cool idea to me
You know I’m down with that idea so I’ve set myself up for maybe that or maybe my house will catch on fire and it’ll all get destroyed maybe it’ll all just go up and smoke youren no I got to have some backup cop somewhere something right who knows Jeff Bezos has some for
Sure that good yeah he’s got them in the warehouse got him in the warehouse ready to ship two day yeah two day and two day shipping yeah two day and two day shipping so uh yeah man I I think writing is great I think everybody should do it just write about something
Um you don’t have to have it all figured out I just write it’s you know it’s it’s reading and writing they separate us among many things they separate us from the rest of the animal kingdom there’s certain things that happen in the brain when somebody is literate and can read
And write the brain grows differently so there’s just something really unique about that practice that that pushes us to a higher state of being MH and that’s why I think it’s a good good to do in uh just micro does I guess like journaling a little bit reading it’s just the best
Way to get information I mean videos I like videos but um I just really enjoy writing like if I sit there and read it’s all so another reason this is actually something I mentioned on my pages but attention span such a big problem nowadays yeah you know social
Media is like the way it’s designed short form content dude it’s almost like very troubling if you think about it like first type of video was movies right films late 1800s early 1900 something like that it’s a big deal you got your family you got it dressed up you went
Down to the theater you sat and you watched a film right that was a big deal long form yeah long form and then and then you had films films films then you had TV shows which were short form films 30 minutes whatever and then you essentially had just TV shows until
YouTube came around and then the videos got shorter and shorter and now the average piece of content is like 7 seconds I mean what is imine doing how how about doing a 7sec podcast dude what is going on on man you know like look like I know like we’ll cut the podcast
Up I’ll post shorts you’ll post shorts like it’s great we’ll pick the juicy ones hopefully we’ll get a good message across yep in those 7 to 60 seconds like hopefully we’ll make the best of it um but it’s just something to think about like what does that mean for the for the
Mind that that we’re consuming like the average piece of content we’re consuming is that short it’s just the attention span is being attacked and the attention span if you lose that or you get too distant from your ability to focus do you lose all control over your
Life everything is is out the window at that point I mean focus and the ability to focus for extended periods of time sets the Great Men apart from The Good Men that’s my next tattoo focus focus man free yourself with Focus not I’m not even lying I’m not even joking
Dude this is a it’s a weird thing right now I could pull up Tech messages on my phone right now about getting it about the focus tattoo I don’t think I said this to to you or on the show right but uh we actually we were thinking about
Actually getting a couple tattoos here in town yeah while we’re in and uh no joke I you know texted my wife just a couple ideas last night and focus was one of the ideas Focus man how Wild is that it’s so I feel I have to I I mean I
Have to get it now you should put it on your face yeah I might right here maybe right over Focus who knows shave eyebrow off replace it with the word Focus that’s it that’s what I’m doing yeah and then yeah if the people want it you know
If this video gets over five likes ah a [Β __Β ] that’s too easy too easy D yeah Focus man so you know that’s it not only does it so there’s a few reasons one it just helps you get [Β __Β ] done you can’t get anything done without Focus like you just need to
Be able to focus on things but also when you when you’re able to focus for a long time like you tap into a part of your brain and maybe it’s even a mind outside of you maybe you’re tapping into the god mind whatever where you get ideas and
You get solutions to things that you would not have come up with in the busy distracted State of Mind like some of the most interesting ideas I’ve had which I can’t like necessarily like list them all but I just remember like between the hours of like midnight and 4:00 a.m. everybody
Else isleep sleeping my phone is off there’s nothing going on the focus time dude it’s just me and my mind there’s nothing else going on and that’s where you can go deep that’s where you can go really deep that’s where you can pretty much go all the way um
And you know yeah we have to be able to focus So reading and writing it’s you have to focus on it like if you wake up and you spend 30 minutes writing and reading you’ve started your day with with an exercise and focus and that
First hour of the day is crucial if you look if you start [Β __Β ] off with short form content or like whatever in the first hour of the day like you’re going to you’re going to set a tone to be distracted for the rest of the day yeah but if you spend that first
Hour really focusing on something maybe you go for a run or you go to the gym I don’t bring my phone into the gym like I just want to be there you know your own thoughts be my own thoughts and you know if you can spend that first
Hour just focusing you’re going to be in a totally different mindset for the rest of the day you’re going to get so much more done I promise you it’s like night and day man yeah night and day it’s Focus I’m getting it before this episode comes out I’ll have the focus tattoo you
Must that that’s solidify you going to get it somewhere in Nashville uh yeah we might that’s pretty cool yeah might might uh if not if and if I don’t if it doesn’t work out TimeWise whatever with our schedule I’ll be getting it at home but either way it’ll it’ll I’ll I’ll
Have it but by the time this episode comes out it’ll that’s awesome we’ll have it so uh I’m I’m holding myself to it here I’m holding myself accountable I would love dude let me know man I would love to see it oh yeah I’ll send I’ll
Send as soon as I I’ll send you a picture while I’m getting it yeah I mean it’s happening that’s super dope yeah that’s awesome how weird is that that’s awesome I mean I’m serious honestly stifi it dude yeah this is the thing man like synchronicities like you know there
Was a time where I would like freak out it’s like but dude it just makes sense now like it does you know I can’t CU I was on the fence with a couple other ideas and I’m not even mentioning them CU it’s not it doesn’t you sit down and I start talking
About it it just makes sense like you know in a video game where you know you’re going the right way when you find the coins but if you’re going the wrong way there’s not going to be [Β __Β ] out there right but if you go if you’re going the right way you’ll see
Characters and you’ll see coins and you’ll see signs when things like this happen like synchronicities coinci inces that’s how you know you’re going the right way that’s how I think about it at least I agree and if you go like a period of time and those things aren’t
Happening you’ve gone off the map bro like you’ve gone in some other area too far so I look at those things like Winks from God like him letting you know that that’s no coincidence it’s not a coincidence so that’s awesome that that dude yeah can we reach we reach we did
It all right it’s dope dude yeah it’s going to be a dope tattoo wild so wild well man this is this is been absolutely incredible yeah man I’ve had really great time I don’t even I’ve just been so locked into the conversation like it’s almost a good conversation you kind
Of forget the world yeah and forget how long we’ve even been talking I know it’s been well over an hour cuz I you know I have Eric over here give me a little signal you know every once in a while saying cut cut stop talking about the stop talking
About my tattoo stop talking cuz Eric is a little undecided still um but um hopefully allowed to say that I already talked about one of the other shows all Eric just hopefully some people don’t watch I’ve had so much fun man it’s just such a blessing and an honor meeting you
Guys and doing this podcast and you coming down to see Edward Edward connecting us the whole I I I could you know there’s not enough time in this show to tell you the rest of like what all led up to this point and I I’ll be
Happy to share it with you um you know in a separate conversation too just because I feel like maybe our listeners and viewers might be a little bit bored but not with not with the show but just I I’ll just be ranting about like all
The things that led up to this point and meeting him and meeting you and just all this stuff and man it’s like like just like I said it’s it’s not it’s not a coincidence you know I don’t believe you know I mean like I don’t believe in that
Anymore it’s like things things like this are we’ll go we’ll meet up in PA we’ll go to TJ Bell’s there we go house which is he lives in an 18th century Lutheran Cathedral it’s wild we’ll go hang out and check out his Alchemy setup yeah man definitely let me know when
You’re when you’re up if you’re up in up our way yeah and we we’ll be back to Nashville I mean it’s Eric’s already given me the yes over there like we’re you should man there’s so many dude if you come back man I got I got a a whole
Roster of interesting people that you can interview line them up brother yeah seriously for sure I mean I don’t know when we’ll be back but um I I imagine this is this we’re going to be we we joked last night we said we’re going to be frequent flyers here Nashville’s
Great man yeah this is like super positive energy and you should go like while you’re in town like you should go see the Parthenon we’ve got the only life-size replica of the Greek parthan in the world here in Nashville yeah in a giant the tallest indoor sculpture in the Western World which is
A 41 1/2t statue of Athena covered in eight pounds of gold wow yeah dude like this there’s a Vibe here man there’s some sort of residency it’s cool in Nashville it’s a cool City it really is well thank you for um for having us in letting us use the space and of course
Man thank you so much thank you to uh is it the members am I using the right word yeah just the lodge the lodge thank you to the to the lodge if anyone you know if any any of the guys are watching yeah I appreciate uh you know you and
Everybody you know letting us use the letting us use the space this was this a great experience dude I’ve had so I’ve had so much fun man yeah really really appreciate it so we’ll uh we’re going to continue this conversation off camera for sure man until next time absolutely
All right on the stacks Warren story thanks for joining me sweet if you want to see more on the stacks content subscribe to our YouTube channel at youtube.com / onth theack podcast or search the hashtag onthe stacks on Instagram Facebook and Linkedin
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