0:00:00 - 0:00:22 What a pretty day. I, I know there are people out there that love the sunny days. Those are nice, but I'm getting old and cranky and, uh, I like the overcast days because it matches my demeanor. Just kidding. Um, it's just not so hot. It's still like sunny skies, but I like it when it's not so hot. So 0:00:22 - 0:00:44 , living in Montana, you feel totally ripped off to go through a frigid winter for like, at least 15 months a year. That's what it feels like. And then you get like two months of a quick gasp of summer. But the payoff is that the summers are more like spring where it just doesn't get too hot because 0:00:44 - 0:01:12 the nights are still cool anyway, walking to a quiet place ish. Uh, because I want to share some thoughts on something I saw at lunch. Um, so I caught one of my sons, I was eating lunch at home and, uh, I caught one of my sons who's 13, um, reading a book and after he left, he left the book on the table 0:01:11 - 0:01:35 , which isn't good, but he gave me a chance to see what he was reading. And I was, I was, I just figured it'd be a novel and I looked, and he was reading Basic Economics by Thomas Soul. So, one of my favorite things to do as a parent is to catch my kids doing something good. That same kid, um, got an 0:01:35 - 0:02:01 atta boy the other day because, um, on a trip down to the river, uh, his brother's water shoes exploded for, I don't know how, but the bottoms came off and both of them and the, the ground's really rocky. And so he had to walk back. But the, the brother in question, the book brother, he, um, he had his 0:02:01 - 0:02:22 bike and um, my wife was with us and she said, hey, why don't you let your brother ride the bike because he doesn't have shoes and he's just gonna hurt his feet. And he said, oh, actually I've offered to let, to let him ride the bike twice. Now he won't do it. He's being stubborn and he just got, he 0:02:22 - 0:02:44 got the man nod and after people went away, it's just me and him. I said, I'm proud of you, man. That, that was the right thing and uh makes it even better that you, you said so twice. OK. So what's the point of all this? Um I took a picture of that book open. The other thing is that, I don't know in 0:02:44 - 0:03:08 between bouts of reading, he was doing some math factoring some polynomials and uh you can catch a little piece of that in the, in the thumbnail. But I want you to read the page that I took a picture of which is just the page he was on and realize some things here. This isn't about my son. The theme 0:03:08 - 0:00:00 here is it ain't like this stuff's a secret. That's the theme. It ain't like this is a secret. Um So what do I mean by that? read that page and think about the value of the information on it. Now, from past experience, I am gonna go on a limb here and say that you probably value what's on that page, 0:00:00 - 0:04:06 maybe 1, 1/100 or 1, 1/1000 of what I do. Um In my opinion, Thomas soul who you may have never heard of is, is obviously amongst the 10 smartest uh public people who speak English natively. I don't pretend to have a grip on or a pulse on uh non-english speaking public people. But as far as the English 0:04:05 - 0:04:32 speakers go, Thomas Soul is on the list. Now he's really old in his nineties. Um So he won't be on the list for too much longer. But that man and what he has produced over his lifetime, he is so amazingly intelligent and articulate and eloquent that um when I read his material or hear him speak, which 0:04:32 - 0:04:54 is rare because he doesn't play games with, with uh with people who, you know, most of the folks doing interviews, they try to trick people and he's just not into that. So he doesn't do many interviews. But, um, well, anyway, whenever I get a glimpse of what this guy has to say, the fact is that I am 0:04:54 - 0:05:24 floored at just how much intelligence he conveys. And I say it that way because I think we're, we're all conduits of light and truth and the in, in, in terms of his ability to convey things, I just feel like he's much closer to an unimpeded source. It's amazing. Um So he's been at it his whole life and 0:05:24 - 0:05:46 maybe you've never even heard of him. This book came out in 2004. I checked, um, before I took a walk and, um it took me years to hear of this guy and get my hands on that book and it's in the curriculum because at some point, my wife heard about him and she said, do you know anything about Thomas Soul 0:05:46 - 0:06:08 ? Because I'd like to get, I don't know, she has contacts and networks and does research about the kids school curriculum because she homeschools. And I said, boy do I? And it had a couple of his books, um not more than them and I'll tell you why in a second, more than just a few. Um If I remember, I'll 0:06:08 - 0:06:29 tell you why. But, but anyway, I happened to have Basic Economics by Thomas Soul. For me. Economics is kind of a gateway drug into greater light and truth, uh, government and economics because it's, um, I don't know, for me it just kind of was easier to see and it was a, it was a, it was a pathway to 0:06:29 - 0:06:51 start seeing the edges of what I was told was true and peeling them back and looking for more. So anyways, I had basic economics by Thomas Soul. I think I could be totally making this up. Maybe she bought it on her own and I'm just inventing this whole story. I don't know. The point is my son was reading 0:06:51 - 0:07:10 it and as I was reading it, I was thinking about what I was learning in 2004 in college during my undergraduate. And, um, thank goodness I had a bunch of A P credits. I didn't have to waste too much time and money in general electives. But, um, going back even further into the high school when I was 0:07:10 - 0:07:34 learning that stuff or what is labeled the same as that. I mean, it's just, there's no comparison. So this evokes many, many, many, many thoughts. And so get ready. Here comes the fire hose. Ok. For one. Why hasn't every single American heard of Thomas Soul? Why do we read anything by anyone else that 0:07:34 - 0:07:57 overlaps in any way? But we haven't heard of Thomas Soul. The fact is that, that, I mean, look, I'm broad brushing here but it would not surprise me if anything Thomas Soul has ever said about anything is better than anything anyone else has ever said about it. That's on the order of the truth. It's 0:07:57 - 0:08:18 , if you round up to the next nearest truth, I bet that that's true. It's probably true more often than not. Which is crazy. Why do we even mess with other people when it overlaps? And I'll tell you why, because we have a pervasive belief in the myth of sameness. People out there believe that any old 0:08:18 - 0:08:39 textbook on math is equally um effective and it's just not true. Now, there are differences in learning styles and things, but the fact is that uh it's probably closer to a winner. Take all. And here's the shocker. So that's, that's hard enough for people to accept because it's like it makes their mind 0:08:39 - 0:09:08 spin. The other thing is that it's probably the case that the next best book is way worse. The next best math book. And that's crazy. Ok. But it turns out that when it comes to teachers, some teachers are just miraculously good or writers, right? And most are horrifically bad. Most people that try to 0:09:08 - 0:09:28 do things like that are really terrible at it. Now, it's that way with art and no one has a problem with that, right? Or music, no one has a problem with that. But when it comes to teaching all of a sudden, we act like everybody's the same and learning and that's another problem is the myth of the blank 0:09:28 - 0:09:49 slate. It's just not true. We are different. There are massive differences between people and um changes can occur and changes can occur at a much greater scale than people realize for sure. But there are massive differences between people and the things that they do and the value of the things that 0:09:49 - 0:10:13 they do. Ok. So it ain't a secret that, that was, that was the thing I started on. What do, what do I mean by that? The things you will read in books, by Thomas Soul, you will sit there saying this is, this is amazing. Why isn't this on billboards? Um And this is one reason why I don't own more of his 0:10:12 - 0:10:35 books than I do. I have a couple of them and they're amazing. They're amazing books. I get so frustrated reading those books or hearing talks by people like this or reading books by people like this. On the one hand, I get super frustrated and I have a lot of peace on the other. Let me explain the piece 0:10:34 - 0:11:02 first and I'll go back to the frustration whenever I experience anything. I cannot stop my operating system from analyzing how it could be better all the time. 24 7. And it only gets to a peaceful state in a way. I always have peace in one way. But that mind doesn't calm down until it's as good as I 0:11:02 - 0:11:28 can get it or it's as good as I can envision it to be and uh I could say a lot more about that in terms of other people and whatever. But let's just leave it at that. So, when I'm reading a book, I think a bajillion thoughts because it's, it's uh Grist for the mill, the spirit uses inputs and then it 0:11:28 - 0:11:52 aggregates to them and it refines and it organizes and it builds and it augments. You've heard the spirit described as a revelator. The Holy Ghost is a revelator. It's many more things than that. Or you could, you could look at it as replacing the word revelator with more specific words. A set of specific 0:11:52 - 0:12:17 words, the Holy Ghosts, an augmenter, it's a clarifier and um it's an organizer. You could, you could go through and list a bunch of words and then give examples of this. So when I read a book, the Holy Ghost augments it, even if I know nothing about this topic, I've never thought about it in my life 0:12:16 - 0:12:42 . A stream of light and truth will augment it. And I see how these ideas could be expressed more fully and more clearly. And I feel a fire inside of me to see it come to pass. I've got a roommate right now. He's a lifelong best friend. He lives with us and, um, and we live with him, but he made a comment 0:12:41 - 0:13:03 not too long ago about um how he imagined that he feels differently about this. Land we live on than I do because he doesn't own it. But I do. And I wanted to quote Ernest goes to camp who can own a tree. That's such a good movie. Anyway. The spirit told me the other day, go watch Ernest goes to camp 0:13:03 - 0:13:27 again with your kids. And I said, ok, and we did and I got massive amounts out of it anyway, who can own a tree. But, uh, I was talking to him about that and I, I was looking out into our yard in the front yard and I said, I said, you know, um, you made a comment about the difference, you know, I just 0:13:26 - 0:13:50 explained, I said, you know how I feel about this place. And he said, how's that? I said, I feel like I have a responsibility to make it the best I can, but it's not mine. So I'm just in charge of making it better. I feel very deeply about that because it extends across everything in my life. And that's 0:13:50 - 0:14:16 how I feel. It's stewardship. We've been given things, um, for a time to see how much better we can help them be starting with ourselves and then extending out all around us to all people and things. So, uh, around the yard, there are places now on our property. They're finally getting to the point where 0:14:16 - 0:14:36 I feel like I've done all I can and that's a really great place to be because it's super peaceful. And the way I describe it is when you walk out into it or if it's in your house, um It's like there's a vibe and if you look at, you know, again, you, you're resorting to using that to explain complicated 0:14:35 - 0:00:00 things is not the best thing, but there are um there are uh waves that um can fight against each other or can boost each other. And um you can think about this if you just have a, what are those things called? A, like a, a boogie board and you're in a pool and you can push down on it and make waves. 0:00:00 - 0:15:20 If you have the right rhythm, you can make the waves bigger and bigger. But if you change up your rhythm, you'll actually take away from the amplitude of the waves, they'll get lower because you're disrupting that. And so we can vibe with the spirit or we can disrupt the spirit, we can add or we can 0:15:20 - 0:15:42 take away and that's how it is with all people and things, it's all like that. And so uh I don't want to get more into that, but there's a lot more I could say and I will say about that. So anyway, you wanna get your, your space such and your people such that you're vibing, you're not degrading, you're 0:15:42 - 0:16:07 not degenerating, you're augmenting, you're improving, you're working together and you're boosting and um all in the light. And so you can get your situation more towards that. And then all of a sudden, so internal peace is your choice. But there are certain levels of peace and joy that extend beyond 0:16:06 - 0:16:28 what can be inside of you. And it requires interaction with other people and other things. And that, that's why you can't have a Zion of one. It takes, it takes multiple people because there are certain things that can't happen without a group. So um that's why there had to be creation. God didn't just 0:16:28 - 0:16:52 sit there and have a little bubble with spirits in it and you know, shake it up like a snow globe and boom. Same outcome, there had to be a place and there had to be creatures and there had to be plants and rocks, et cetera. So um all right. So that's the piece. So when I read a really well written book 0:16:52 - 0:17:27 that has tons of intelligence in it, I love it because this, it, it's quiet for once. It's not this, this uh blasting celestial trumpet. It's probably the weird you probably weren't expect expecting that description. Um When Moses took the Israelites to Sinai, there was a loud trumpet and the trumpet 0:17:27 - 0:17:48 is a funny word because we always think of the brass, you know, of course, they were talking about animal horns and uh they didn't have the long ones that you see all these uh Israelis with doing the shofar thing. They short ones. I mean, those are just a ram. It wasn't like this Kudu or whatever they're 0:17:48 - 0:18:13 called. Those are from down in Africa. It's just a ram and there's a little horn and, um, uh, it seems like to me anyway. Right. Don't, don't quote me on that one. That's, that's just me thinking, um, but it didn't sound like AAA Shoar. It was way louder than that, that noise. It's just a trumpet was 0:18:12 - 0:18:32 the closest thing. Like, if you'd never seen a satellite before, what the heck would you call it? Probably like a, a celestial bowl or something, right? I don't know. Anyway. So why is it that the Israelites were freaking out when the trumpet was just getting louder and louder and louder? And Moses was 0:18:32 - 0:18:54 just like me and just, just uh strolled right up into the presence of God right past the Israelites who were freaking out. It's because he had the trumpet inside all the time. It's the same reason he wasn't afraid of the cloud because he, he'd been through the fire, right when, when John describes the 0:18:54 - 0:19:20 eyes of Christ, he says they're full of fire, but you can see him without the fire in his eyes if you've already subjected yourself to it. So once you're, once you've been through the furnace of affliction, um you don't notice it anymore. It doesn't go away, it never goes away, but you get used to it 0:19:19 - 0:19:37 to the point where you don't even think about it. It's like you know, I, I made a video, I don't, I don't know if it got posted or it got deleted. I don't, I can't keep track of these things, but I shared memories from airborne school and, you know, at that time I was running five miles a day in boots 0:19:37 - 0:19:52 and a helmet and it was like 100 degrees outside and whatever. You just do it. If you do something every day for three weeks like that, at the last day, you're just like whatever, you don't even have to think about it. You don't notice it, you might notice the birds and the trees and everything else 0:19:52 - 0:20:18 because you're just used to the running. Um, anyway. Ok, so that's the piece. Why does it frustrate me to read books by people like Thomas soul? Because I can see everything wrong with the world and how the solution to all those problems is right here. So every problem is not solved by the content of 0:20:17 - 0:20:35 what's in any given book by Thomas soul or whatever. But my point is you can see all the big problems in the world. If you can see some of the big problems in the world, you're gonna go down that list and cross off all these things. If Tom, if people would just read this book, all of these things would 0:20:35 - 0:20:59 cease to be a problem or there's tremendous value available. If people just knew this and lived it, it's so obvious right. The things he describes are so obvious. Once you read them, they're in you and they're not coming out. But people won't look again. It's not like it's a secret. You know, what's 0:20:59 - 0:21:29 shocking to me with all the things that God has led me through and too and taught me and everything else. What shocks me the most is just how much is here. It's right in front of your face and you don't see it or if you see it, you don't value it. It's amazing. One of the biggest challenges of creation 0:21:28 - 0:21:53 of God's plan, that one of the biggest problems it solves is just how little we recognize and value. What is of the greatest value. Uh The inverse of that is also true that we overvalue so much that just doesn't matter at all. It's worthless. A lot of it's less than worthless. It's, it's worse than worthless 0:21:52 - 0:22:29 . So it's amazing what can be so available and set and, and yet so unappreciated and under used Thomas soul is gonna die any minute. I don't wish that on him, I think, but he's fought the good fight and uh you know, I salute him. But um people like this are so dang rare and yet they come and they go 0:22:29 - 0:22:55 and, and people don't even notice and yet if the world were, if people in the world were able to sense and make decisions according to value, these are the folks upon which all systems would be built. These are the ideas upon which all systems would be built and, and these are the patterns according 0:22:54 - 0:23:25 to which all lives would be lived voluntarily because it's obviously better than whatever else, you know, about more than anything. We have to learn to seek, recognize and respond to what is obviously better than who we are or what we have. You can't do that while embracing the myth of sameness. You 0:23:25 - 0:23:46 can't do that when you begrudgingly admit that some people are different, but then keep the margin tiny. He say like, yeah, you know, switching over to an analogy. Yeah, you know, making 100,000 a year or 200,000 a year. Yeah, it's different than making 20,000. But what's the big deal? I mean, it's all 0:23:45 - 0:24:11 the same. It's, it's basically the same. No, no, it's not. And if you believe that you got a hard life coming, brother or sister, a really hard life. So anyway, that's just the analogy, the broader sense of value. I mean, what it really comes down to is joy and meaning if you had any clue what was actually 0:24:11 - 0:24:37 available and I'm going to do things to help you. See, um my goodness. Would you live your life differently? Every aspect of your life will be different because that's how dramatic it is. So to bring this home just to sum up what do, what do you think the difference is between a 13 year old who, and 0:24:37 - 0:25:01 I'm not giving you a full lens on the kid who knows how to factor polynomials and reads Thomas Soul versus a 13 year old kid who spends 90% of his time watching girls shake their booty on tiktok or being babysat in public schools. I, I'm trying to tell you, you know, one thing is all things and all things 0:25:01 - 0:25:22 are one thing. It's all interconnected and I'm beating on a dead horse just constantly talking about home school and public school and these other things that are very practical and applied, but you gotta understand it all connects to much bigger things in the gateway to greater things is doing what 0:25:22 - 0:25:47 we already know what living according to the value we already have the capacity to see is the only way God can reveal to us greater value. He can't, it's all sequential until you comply with what you already have the capacity to comply with. He can't give you new stuff. So when we minimize the differences 0:25:46 - 0:26:05 and we just say like, well, it's just, you know, and I know there are people out there who are doing everything they can and they don't feel guilty when I say this stuff. They say amen. I wish I could do it. I can't, but I will help anyone who will listen to make the choice, who can do it. Uh It's the 0:26:05 - 0:26:21 same thing as if you're dirt poor and someone's preaching about helping the poor. You're not gonna feel guilty. You're gonna say, you know, I wish I had some money because I would absolutely do that. That's where my heart is. But I can't. So, but you won't feel guilty. The people who feel guilty are 0:26:21 - 0:26:42 the ones who aren't doing everything they can. That's the magic ingredient. It's like the freedom from guilt. Just do the best you can. You know, like, I don't know, I, when I started losing my hair, my kids would start um laughing at me that, that sounds terrible but not laughing at me. But um making 0:26:41 - 0:27:00 comments. Let's tone it down a little and it started, you know, I had a little Tuft here still and it started teddy. They're really young daddy. You look like Iron man. And I was like, oh yeah, Robert Downey Junior, I could do that and they're like, no, no, no, no, no, the the robot and the first time 0:27:00 - 0:27:19 it happened like it hurt my feelings a little bit. I was like, oh, all right. I guess I'm going bald, whatever. And uh but over time it's like, yeah, you know, I don't have a full head of hair. It's cool. It does not bother me at all. If someone said like, hey man, you're going bald, I'd be like, yeah 0:27:18 - 0:27:37 , I'm 6 ft two and the sky is blue. What do you want? I don't care. This is how God made me, you know, I'm not, you, you got a problem with it, you take it up with him. There's nothing I can do about that, you know? And, uh, same thing with being overweight if you're doing what's reasonable in your situation 0:27:36 - 0:27:57 and you're still overweight, who freaking cares? Be happy, be satisfied because the things you're choosing instead of that, if you believe they're more important, they're more power to you. Right. Be happy about it. Choose what you want and want what you choose. That's the recipe to happiness in life 0:27:57 - 0:28:20 . So, um as far as homeschooling goes, you know, you might be like, man, well, you shut up about that. There's nothing I can do about it. All right. All right. But there are a lot of people who can do something about it, including when your kids who are public school kids get married, who they choose 0:28:19 - 0:28:38 is going to decide if they have that option open to them and the choices you made and the things that happened because not everything is within our control obviously have led to the fact that that's not an option that's open for you. Ok. Great. So help the people for whom it's still an option. And in 0:28:38 - 0:28:58 that way, you can be free from the guilt that you're not able to do it yourself. So it's, it makes a huge difference, being able to, um to be free from all the nonsense you get hit with there and to have access to much better material because the schools are not deciding what to teach your kids based 0:28:58 - 0:29:21 on the smartest people who have ever lived or the smartest people alive today, they're making, it's a bunch of morons, pushing a bunch of material that comes from a bunch of morons under your kits. So if you want your kids to be super bright and capable in life, have them learn from people who are super 0:29:21 - 0:29:41 bright and capable. Not, you know, the person who just kind of rolled out of bed and got a teaching degree. Um So I, I know some phenomenal teachers, uh some of whom are in the public school system and they put their heart and soul into what they do and that's great. It's wonderful. It's like a church 0:29:41 - 0:30:02 . It's wonderful to do good things inside of a corrupt system, but that's not the ideal, that's not what everyone should just pick up by default. So, um you know, we're getting late in the game and the fact is you got to choose better things. If you see something better, you gotta choose it. And that's 0:30:02 - 0:30:23 the only way you can be led to something even better than that. And there's a whole lot of these cycles that have to happen before um God can take you to the place and before you can become the kind of person you need to be to overcome the situations that are already upon us, you just might not realize 0:30:23 - 0:30:29 it yet and it's gonna get worse. So, on that cheery note, we'll end this here. Have a good one.