The Savage Philosopher

Before we get started, we should first define fear. According to our good friend Webster, fear is “an unpleasant often strong emotion caused by anticipation or awareness of danger”. If we were to dissect this definition a little, we realize that there are two parts. The first is the “anticipation or awareness of danger”, and the second is the reaction to that perception with a “strong emotion”. This is important because I believe that the reaction is dependent upon the perception. This also gives us a possible lever of control. If we control our perception, than we can control our fear. Basically, we are only afraid of dangers that we know about. If this is true, then we could purposefully redefine what we consider as dangerous. In today’s world we are not normally chased by lions and tigers, but our fears of failure and loss trigger the same emotion. So, if we want to control our lives and make choices (the key to being Human) then we need a way to control our mind to minimiz

Who are the people in your life? Are they the ones that motivate, inspire, and pull you up to your greatness? Are they the ones that draw on your energy, make life harder, and pull you down to your baseness? And, who are you to them? The Human species are social animals and our ability to work as a pack through collaboration is what has allowed us to leap to the top of the food chain. It isn’t our thumbs, squirrels have thumbs. Nor is it our ability to think, lots of animals can think to varying degrees. What has protected our weak flesh, brittle bones, and lack of natural offensive capability (even my cats have claws), is our ability to work together for a common cause. Now that some of us no longer have to struggle to just live everyday, how has our pack/tribe evolved? I’m going to refer to your closest friends as your pack. It is a much more accurate term than tribe due to scale. We would of had the type of pack in the days of survival who are good hunters and would share their sk

I wanted to take a minute and discuss what a typical day for me looks like. This is to emphasis two things. The first is that it takes Willpower to do things you don’t want to do. The second is that the body and spirit has limits. Note, while the daily details change, the amount of effort remains the same for every day I choose to be free. 0400 - Wake up after only getting about three hours of sleep. This happened because I am currently in my transitions class and all the new information is creating a whirlwind of thoughts. I finally lay down, my brain continues to compute my new future. 0400...0600 - I am currently enrolled in the veteran Boots2Business class, and I had to catch up on the homework and watch a 30 minute video. When I was done; I started laundry, shower, get dressed, and wake up the kids for school. 0600...0700 - I struggled to get the kids up, fed, and lunches made. I didn’t have time to actually see them off to school. I had to trust them to leave 15 minutes

Who owns you? To what obligations have you promised? Do you have freedom of choices or freedom of choice? Every day I evaluate my life and try to measure what I am doing to what I believe I can do. I find that most days, my assessment is aligned. If I believe I can do it, then I normally accomplish it. But this makes me wonder about the limitations of belief. What would happen if I suddenly chose to believe that I could do something I never had done before? Let’s say it is something that ‘has’ been done before, just not by me. If I believe that I could do it, then could I? And now let’s take this up to the next level. There are an infinite number things that we could do that haven’t been done yet. How do we assess the reasonable from the impossible? Or is it all possible with enough ingenuity and creativity. These particular Human attributes that define us from the other species on this planet. This takes me back to my original question of ownership. Freedom is the state of belief.

I struggle every day to find a space where my expectations and mindset meets the reality of the rest of the world. The frustration born from this discordance can be overwhelming and seem impassable. When I look around I see the untapped potential of the faces and events around me and I wonder if I have the right to expect that potential to be fulfilled. As some point we must reach a civilized agreement of what we will tolerate from each other. What we will allow to coexist within our space and what we will shun. And with this thought and question lingering I slip into the topic of today’s blog. “Why am I not Batman!” That is right, you heard me. The single indomitable focus to live a life unafraid in the pursuit of a mission and idea greater than oneself. The skill and determination to press hard against life knowing that this maybe the only chance we get to satisfy our higher divine needs. The limitless mindset to go further than anyone has ever before just to say at the end of the

I am not content. I am grateful for everything in my life. My struggles and my victories define the person I am today, but I want more. Why am I just not content with having what I have? Why do I feel this need to obtain more in my life? I’m not talking about physical things. While I certainly would like a couple of nicer things, this feeling of discontent is driven by something much deeper. I do what many of us do. I seek out others that may have some guidance or answer to why this hole exists in my stomach. Reading and listening to all the great authors and thinkers of mankind doesn’t seem to reach down deep enough. They grab my mind, my heart, just not by gut. That part of us that ‘hungers’. What is this beast that resides within me that seems to be insatiable? Perhaps, this is the Human Instinct. Every animal on the planet is born with instincts that are tailored to the survival of its particular species. You don’t find deer hunting rabbits, lions grazing on grass, or sharks eat

I tend to think a lot. I reflect on what I have done and what I would like to do. In my tangled thoughts I wonder if I'm living a life worth living or if I'm wasting this awesome opportunity to explore and connect with the world. When I consider the possibility of an unused life a great anger begins to boil within me. In my mind's eye I want to imagine doing great things. I see myself making a difference in the world. I see myself being significant in some way. I see a legacy that continues to live well past my death . But these things I see are only fantasy. They are illusions because I do nothing to act on them. The Human ability to engage the imagination is a huge part of what has made us successful as a species in this very hostile world. To see a fulfilled potential before a project is even started. These visions give us the desire to begin and the motivation to continue. Whatever we can dream, we can create. No other species on this planet can claim such a feat. T

Never quit! I don't care if you woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning and it seems like the world is conspiring against you. Get up! Get out! Get Done! The world is not meant to be easy. It is meant to be brutal. It is meant to shape us into better Humans and show us the difference between surviving and thriving. How many times do we just not feel like doing the things that we had decided to do? And then, after we pressed on anyways, wondered why it was such a struggle to get started?  We have the advantage and disadvantage of being able to assign meaning to the events that occur in our life. You know you have done this when the words, "it was meant to be" escapes your lips. Animals, do not have the cognitive ability for this type of imaginative creative storytelling. So why do we? Is this the first hint that maybe we are something more than just flesh on bone driven by animal instinct. (Notice the period and not the question mark at the end of the last

Seriously, why are you here? Why did you bother to wake up this morning? What drives you to go to work? Is it fear or it is it passion? My purpose today is to give you something to reflect on. I want you to think about how you are living and examine for a moment if you are really living at all. It took me years to have the courage to ask the deeper questions of my existence. And today, I would like to share one small filament that guides me: Choice. The most amazing power we have is the power to choose. The problem is that most of us do not know that we have this power. We assume that our choices are limited to a selection of choices instead of having the unlimited choices. We are told by 'others' that we can choose to do "this" or we can choose to do "that". Our choices normally come in pairs; get a job or go to school, marry the person or move on, buy this house or rent it. This dichotomy is built into the system of life. But why? Why have we 'chose

The Savage Philosopher Purpose: I am here as a Savage; one who lives in the brutality of life, and as a Philosopher; one who examines the meaning of it. I believe that the Human race will one day come together and connect in ways that make our world a better place for generations to come. Since the beginning of time humans have come together for survival and for prosperity. We started out small families that grew into larger tribes until we were Nations. Many things separate us; from languages to ideals, we separate our world into comfortable spaces. Our challenge then is to become uncomfortable. We must seek experiences to connect with one another, and we must learn to live with each other’s differences. I have hope for the human race. I have hope that we will one day reconcile our differences with tolerance and acceptance. I have hope that we will no longer seek to control others, but seek to find Harmony. While I have hope, I am a realist. The human race is first and foremost an