A New Thing

Categories: Blog, #Pressing RESET, Dan John, CS Lewis, Screwtape Letters, Ahsoka Aug 27, 2023

Hello Friends,

I’m going to try something different this week. For over ten years, I’ve been writing a blog or article or musing once a week. For the first couple of years, I wrote two a week. While I never get tired of talking about the wonders of our design, I do often feel like I don’t have anything new to say that I haven’t already said. I still learn nuances and find more wonders in how we are made to move, but I’m never sure they would interest or thrill anyone else. Everything I have learned about the body has shifted me more into philosophical perspectives that I’m never sure will translate. All of that to say, I don’t know what else to say. 

So, in an effort to still be useful, I would like to borrow a page from my friend Dan John. Every week, Dan John writes a letter for his Wandering Weights email. I love getting these emails because they are so conversational. Dan is simply sharing things he has learned over the years, the months, or the previous week. It’s great, and I dig it. I have learned and borrowed many many things from Dan, so I might as well keep doing what I’m doing. Here are some things I have learned over the last week or so…

Oh, before we get started, speaking of Dan John, Dan and I will be teaching two certifications together in Maryland on October 7th and 8th. He will be teaching his new “From Accessed to Success” certification, and I will be teaching Pressing RESET. If you would like to see us both in action, click here for more information: https://www.crossfitkoncepts.com/my_weblog/2023/07/early-bird-registration-ends-saturday-070823.html

Now, on with the show.

I love learning and contemplating nutrition and how we are designed to eat. Or, more specifically, what we are designed to eat. YouTube is highly aware of my interests, and it exploits them daily. I have learned so much about the extremes of nutrition, from the carnivore diet to the fruit diet, to being vegan, to being raw vegan, to living off of honey and locusts. It’s wild. There is no shortage of opinions or studies about nutrition. There are so many nutrition tribes and so much information about nutrition. It almost seems like something that should be simple has gotten extremely complicated. It also seems like nutrition has become a religion, one that uses the fear of death as a means of conversion. This is why I found this video refreshing. It is aimed at some interesting fears: https://youtu.be/r6HRgMr7_ns?si=HlWlrw5jEZx58TSZ

My father-in-law recently gave me a copy of C.S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters. I started reading it over the last couple of weeks, and I love it. If you’re unfamiliar with the Screwtape Letters, it’s a fictional series of letters written from one demon to another regarding how to win the souls of humans for Satan.  Lewis was a literary genius, one of the best word surgeons of all time. He may have also been a prophet, as this could have been written today: 

“We must picture Hell as a state where everyone is perpetually concerned about his own dignity and advancement, where everyone has a grievance, and where everyone lives the deadly serious passions of envy, self-importance, and resentment.” - C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters. 

I’ve not been able to put my finger on the atmosphere or the uneasiness, I’ve been feeling over the last few years, but this quote gives me a sense of clarity.  If nothing else, it has opened my eyes a little wider. 

Another quote from The Screwtape Letters that I found amazing was the following lesson Screwtape was giving to Wormwood about the postures or positions people take when they pray, “…for they constantly forget, what you must always remember, they are animals and that whatever their bodies do affects their souls.”

I thought this was so neat. How we move and how we hold ourselves does greatly affect our emotions, our thoughts, and our souls. And one thing that I think Lewis was hinting at here is that our bodies can bring us closer to God. Or further away, for that matter. 

If you haven’t read The Screwtape Letters, you may really enjoy it. You can find it here: 

https://amzn.to/47MUxUn

And lastly, if you’re a Star Wars fan, Ahsoka came out last week. So far, so Amazing! And it is amazing, the Star Wars stories, much like the Rocky Balboa series, have been a part of my life, from birth to now - almost five decades. And with today’s technology, these imaginary worlds are visually stunning. But more importantly, the stories they hold, the heroes, the foes, good versus evil, The Force - it feeds my soul. I love it. If you are a Star Wars fan or even a Trekky, you might want to check out Ahsoka. 

Ok, my friends, that’s it for me, this week. I may never do this again! Regardless, your body is amazing, and so are you. I hope you discover that and have a wonderful week. 

Tim

 

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