I used to send Mickey Spillane a birthday card every year. I never expected an answer. Imagine my surprise back in ’03 when out of the blue there was a letter in my mailbox. If you want to read it, there it is at the bottom of this post.
He was 85 years old at the time, getting ready to embark on a book tour, and he took the time to sit down at the typewriter and reply to my card.
They just don’t make guys like that anymore.
If you’ve never read a Spillane book, I recommend you start with Vengeance is Mine! and if you like that one, read One Lonely Night. For those who don’t even know who he was, Spillane wrote hard-boiled pulp fiction novels and comic books, including a stint writing Captain America for Marvel. His claim to fame was the fictional detective Mike Hammer. He had a colorful life. He had been a lifeguard, a circus performer, and a fighter pilot in WWII before becoming a writer. At the height of his popularity he made a series of hilarious beer commercials. His quotes are legendary.
“Inspiration is an empty bank account.”
“I’m a commercial writer, not an author. Margaret Mitchell was an author. She wrote one book.”
“I don’t give a damn about reviews. What I like to read are royalty checks.”
“I have no fans. You know what I got? Customers. And customers are your friends.”
Just starting out as a writer, he was an inspiration. I don’t know how many of you have been following this blog since I started it back in 2008. But back then it was called 808 Hackard Buidling because that’s the fictional address of Spillane’s famous detective. Plenty has changed. Blog has a new name and a custom url. Focus has shifted from fiction to non-fiction. But what hasn’t changed is my blue-collar approach to this craft.
You show up every day, you punch the clock, and you put in an honest day’s work. And while you’re on the clock, you don’t stand around smoking cigarettes or hang out by the water cooler waiting for somebody to tell you what to do next. You get your butt in gear. And above all, you never act like you think your crap don’t stink.
Spillane was a hack writer. He was not politically correct. He wrote violent books. But he was authentic. He was honest. He respected his fans. And he didn’t take himself too seriously. And from him I learned three very important things.
Number one, put the reader first. Number two, write like it’s your job. Number three, tell it like you see it.
I write at 500 words a day whether I want to or not. Otherwise I’m a lazy bastard and I can’t look at myself.
Yesterday I received my custom-made knife from Kenny Hermsen. Kenny owns and operates Meherrin River Forge & Knifeworks in South Hill, VA.
For under $200 I received a locally made knife, manufactured to my specifications by a true artisan. It also came with a lovely letter sealed with wax, which appeals to my old-fashioned sensibilities more than Kenny could possibly have known. As it turns out, Kenny and I have a little bit in common.
This big, elegant, razor sharp beauty is a rugged, period-influenced Bowie with a blade just shy of 10″ — and she is now my silent training partner. As many of you already know, in addition to my non-profit Cabal Fang Martial Arts program, I am now also operating Bobcat Martial Arts, a Frontier Rough & Tumble martial arts and Walking Stick self-defense school.
So the knife Kenny made for me is fixin’ to get put through her paces real soon. And based on the feel of her, she’s going to make short work of whatever she comes up against.
If you have need of a blade, large or small, send Kenny a message through his Facebook page.
If you want the free content ya gotta put up with the occasional commercial. Don’t complain — I don’t run nearly as many as broadcast TV or cable news networks do!
If you like what I do, you might like some of the stuff I’m selling over at Mitch’s General Store. I’m selling a grab-bag of stuff — some of my paintings, one-on-one training sessions, seminars, all kinds of stuff. Check it out.
Or, if you want the extra special patron-only content, support me on Patreon and get immediate access — plus all kinds of perks!
Sales pitch is over. We now return you to your regularly scheduled program already in progress…
Check out this little fitness drill called the “Army’s Daily Dozen” from the Boy’s Fun Book of Things to Make an Do (Grosset & Dunlap, New York 1945) pages 142-143. It’s not as hard as Self-Destruct Sequence or anything, but it’s no walk in the park either!
No rep counts or time guidelines are provided except for two exercises — Burpees (40 minimum!) and the Banks Twists (30 minimum!). For our purposes I have guesstimated what seem like reasonable numbers.
Now go see if you’re as fit as little boys used to be back in the day.
>>Video at bottom if you prefer visuals.<<
Boy’s Twelve: Cabal Fang Martial Arts Training Involution #146
If you get this done in under 25:56 you got me beat.
40 Burpees (no hop, no Push-up)
25 High Jumpers (a.k.a Standing Broad Jump)
25 Squat Benders (Squat, then touch toes)
25 Rowing Exercise (a.k.a. Jackknifes)
25 Sit-ups with Plough (dead stop after each Plough)
“Escape Plan Drill” a.k.a. “EPD” has been a fitness standard in Cabal Fang Martial Arts for many years, even before making its first appearance almost exactly four years ago.
If you haven’t done it yet, you’re in for a treat.
EPD is A+ because it shrinks to fit. You can use whatever calisthenics you like based on your needs and/or fitness level. And, since it’s an “as-many-as-you-can” type of drill, its difficulty increases with the fitness of the user.
This week’s variant uses martial-specific calisthenics. Dig it.
Escape Plan Revisited: Cabal Fang Training Involution #145
Escape Plan Drill. Set timer for 1:00 intervals. Sprint for 1:00, Shadowbox or hit Heavy Bag for 1:00 then complete as many calisthenics reps as you can for 1:00. Repeat 4 more times for a total of 15 mins, taking as few 12-count breaks as you must in order to finish. Your 5 calisthenics are: Sit-outs, Shots, Sprawls, Bear Walks, and Back Bridge. On the Back Bridges, hold or pop reps based on fitness level. This version of EPD could be called “Humility Sandwich.” Try a bite and tell me if I’m wrong about the recipe.
Hagakure Meditation. Escape is not always possible, certainly not in the end. After cooling down, set countdown timer for 10 mins., then read the paragraph below and meditate as directed. Seppuku is of course an ancient form of ritual suicide, so this is not to be read literally. Read metaphorically it contains a wise but very hard teaching. We are going to die, perhaps even by having to lay down our lives for what we value most highly. We modern people struggle with these old, hard lessons. But some things are worth the struggle.
NEXT WEEK…
Are you more fit than a 12-year-old boy circa 1945? Find out next week in Boy’s Twelve: Training Involution #146!
Initially this post was set up as an escape hatch. It was a link I could drop like a ninja smoke bomb so I could make my exit from conversations with vicious trolls and hate-filled, vitriolic atheists. But lately it has transformed into a personal filing cabinet for links that are helpful in dispelling common myths about Christianity.
It morphed because I slowly came to see that Christ did not shy away from difficult conversations, even in the face of crucifixion; and many was the apostle, saint and martyr who gladly went down to death in peaceful defense of the faith. They knew something that it took me a while to see, which is that many people who are angry, nasty and mean are in intellectual, emotional or spiritual darkness and pain.
They need help. So these days I’m not running too much.
I’m happy to engage anyone in conversation anytime. Please click here to schedule a meeting. I am here to offer pastoral care, intellectual conversation, interviews, and so on. As an interfaith minister, deacon and seminarian in the Old Catholic line, the alleviation of suffering is my calling, and my duty is to be an apostle and a witness for the reality of Christ.
If you don’t like to read, watch my Christianity for Doubters video series
This is a nice place to start for people who don’t like to read stuff. Or you can try to find you question below.
(A) General Questions
There is a 99.99% chance that you are not the first person in history to attack Christianity with the question, issue or method you are currently using. Christianity has successfully defended attacks by very smart people for over 2,000 years. This field of study is known as Christian Apology or Apologetics, and the Library of Congress lists over 5,000 books under this subject heading. Start by reading some of the previous scholarship. If you have a scientific, hyper-rational bent, I recommend William Lane Craig’s book Reasonable Faith. If you prefer a more light-hearted, literary approach, you must start with C. S. Lewis. He’s the most famous and popular Christian apologist — an atheist intellectual who converted to Christianity and wrote about why. Or, if you like a sort of “just the facts” take on this topic, one of my favorites is Cold-Case Christianity: A Homicide Detective Investigates the Claims of the Gospels by J. Warner Wallace.
“Why do we need religion? Why can’t people just be good because it’s the right thing to do?” Because people aren’t all that good, and it’s very hard to make them. About 40,000 years ago humans starting working on ritual systems to solve this problem. These evolved into religions. Religions are not superstitions — they are sociological technologies. For more on this topic start by reading Supernatural Selection by Matt Rossano. The religion that changed the the world most dramatically in ways that have never been equaled is Christianity. Read Dominion by Tom Holland for more details. Why didn’t Jesus come to earth earlier or later than he did? Because of kairos — the time wasn’t right.
“If God is good, why is there evil in the universe?” This is called the problem of evil. There are lots of answers to this question. I like the free will defense. In a nutshell, all of the evil in the world is either caused by nature (storms, bacteria, viruses, physics, wild animals, etc.) or by human beings (lust, pride, greed, envy, hatred, etc.) not by God. God wants every living thing to be good, each of its own free will — he refuses to force the issue, which would be evil. God wants all of creation to sing together as a heavenly chorus. And we will, at the end of time.
“If God created the universe, what created God?” The universe was created out of the initial singularity by the Big Bang. Before that, there was no space-time, no matter, and no energy — that’s a scientific fact. Therefore the creator of the universe is timeless and immaterial. If you say it’s possible for things to exist without a cause, then you are a believer in magic. This is the Kalam Cosmological Argument.
“How is Christianity any better than the silly myths that came before it?” The myths that preceded Christianity were low-resolution pictures of the truth that was coming, kind of like the way the icon of a disc on the desktop of your computer is a low-res representation of the hard drive in your computer. C. S. Lewis deals with this beautifully.
“What makes you think you’re so smart?” I don’t. But I do understand what it’s like to be confused about religion. I spent most of my adult life as a religionaut and spiritual seeker before finally re-embracing Christianity. I used to believe most of the anti-Christian myths myself. This allows me to be calm, polite, and measured. Anyway, I’m not that smart. I’m just a guy who made lots of mistakes, wasted a lot of time, and now wants to be a simple priest and alleviate suffering.
“If God is real, why doesn’t He stop ______?” Fill in the blank with your choice of horrible tragedy, natural disaster or crime, such as death by hurricane or clergy sexual abuse. God is not responsible for human acts of evil resulting from free will, nor is He responsible for acts of nature. If people had no agency and there was no nature, the universe would be a giant depressing clockwork — static, rhythm-less and dead. Thank God it isn’t. Also see #3 above.
(B) General Christianity Myths
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is not crazy-talk. There are a number of perfectly good, reasonable, fact-based arguments to be made for the truth of the resurrection. Here is a video explaining one of my favorites. It’s for high schoolers, which means even I can follow it.
Christianity is not at odds with science, nor has science disproved Christianity. A humble Friar named Roger Bacon pioneered the scientific method, a Belgian priest named Father George Lemaître was the originator of the Big Bang Theory, and Father Gregor Mendel was the world’s first geneticist. One of the top biologists in the world is a Christian by the name of Francis Collins. He led the Human Genome Project and now directs the National Institutes of Health. He was a close friend of the late celebrity atheist Christopher Hitchens who called him “one of the greatest living Americans” and said “one of the most devout believers he had ever met.” In 2006, Collins wrote the best-selling book The Language of God in which he tells the story of his journey from atheism to Christian belief, showing that science is not in conflict with the Bible, but actually enhances faith. He started a foundation called BioLogos. Watch this awesome video.
Religions do not cause wars. According to the Encyclopedia of Wars, religion has been a factor in less than 7 percent of all wars and in less than 2 percent of all people killed in warfare. Isn’t it interesting that, when religion is involved, wars are less bloody, on average? Visit this website for data on the true drivers of war.
Miracles aren’t made up by crazy people. Things we can’t explain happen all the time. Ask anybody you know and you’ll get dozens of examples of spontaneous healing, freak events, and other improbable “coincidences.” If one in a million of them is “real,” there have been millions of miracles. C. S. Lewis wrote a book called Miracles that I highly recommend.
“It’s impossible for somebody to be raised from the dead, so Christianity is obviously made up.” Obviously it’s impossible, which is what makes it a miracle. That’s why a religion sprang up around this one guy named Jesus who rose from the grave after three days. You should know that nobody attacked Christianity in its infancy by contesting the empty tomb — not even Jewish or Roman authorities — which is why many modern atheist historians do not. And you should ask yourself why hundreds of people claimed to be witnesses to the risen Christ and were willing to be crucified and die rather than deny what they saw. It’s also useful to note that the gospels don’t make it 100% clear what happened. In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus just disappears from the tomb and that’s it. In other Gospels he appears but the apostles don’t recognize him at first. What happened or didn’t happen isn’t all that clear. Most Christians understand that and are okay with it.
“God is your invisible friend or a flying spaghetti monster.” Billions of Christian believers over the last 2,000 years have not attested to the reality of a flying spaghetti monster. Would you rely on eyewitness testimony in a court of law? Then why not believe billions of witnesses of Christ? This is called the “argument from reason” and lots of really smart people seem to like it and/or have a hard time refuting it.
Christians are not blind automatons. The word “Israel” means either “God struggles” or “to struggle with God.” Either way, Christianity is a conversation between God and humanity spelled out in 73 volumes.
Christianity doesn’t owe its popularity to forced conversions. Isolated cases occurred. But, for the most part, people dropped pagan religions like a hot potato and picked up Christianity instead. And the world is better for it. Start here.
Just because some Christians don’t practice what they preach doesn’t mean that Christianity stinks. Don’t make a short list of radical, stupid, and/or evil Christians and say “see, Christianity stinks.” This is the dumbest thing I ever heard. All doctors aren’t perfect, but we don’t give up on medicine do we?
Christianity isn’t some childish belief system you can outline on a 3″ x 5″ index card and then poke holes in. Christianity has been developed by the the greatest minds of the last 2,000+ years. The Bible is a library of books that is completely unique for having been compiled by means of a multi-generational collaboration by thousands of authors across several millennia. Its 73 books are complex, universally relevant, inspirational and interconnected to a degree you cannot possibly imagine.
Jordan B. Peterson videos. If you don’t want to read books but you insist on being anti-Christian watch as many videos as you can on this video channel.
Visigoths, Ostrogoths and Vandals brought the Roman Empire to its knees. And then they converted to Christianity. These were some of the most terrifying, brutal, powerful tribes ever known. Were they converted by force? Were the Vikings? The Celts? The native tribes of the British Isles? The mere thought of it is absurd. My people are Scottish by name and blood, and we are pretty hard-headed. Try converting me by force and see what you get.
The Roman Catholic Church isn’t a parasitic organization that hordes wealth. The RCC is the largest non-government provider of health care services in the world, operating 18,000 clinics, 16,000 homes for the elderly and those with special needs, and 5,500 hospitals — managing 26% of the world’s health care facilities.
Popes and priests are not rich fat-cats who gallivant around the world living large. Catholic clergy take vows of poverty. The Pope doesn’t get a salary at all, and priests may earn a small salary which averages about $40,000/year (paid mostly in room and board). Many priests subsist on room, board, healthcare, and a small stipend of around $250/month.
Catholic clergy aren’t more likely to abuse children than other clergy, nor have they been more likely to do so than men in general, or even more likely than public school teachers.
Clergy sexual abuse in the Catholic Church can’t be blamed on celibacy, homosexuality, or on all-male clergy.
Almost all of clergy sexual abuse cases in the Catholic Church occurred during the 1960s and 70s.
Most clergy sex offenders aren’t pedophiles in the popular sense — most offenses were against post-pubescent teens, not young children. Still horrific and unconscionable, but this is an important distinction.
Before we even get going, I want to point out that most Christians are not anti-science. In fact, many sensible Christians have a much more practical, common sense relationship with science than some atheists. See the bit about Francis Collins above.
Anyway, there are 2.4 billion Christians on the planet, belonging to hundreds of wildly divergent denominations. It is virtually impossible to make sweeping statements about what Christians do and do not believe.
All Christians do not believe in a literal Heaven and a literal Hell.
Furthermore, Christians do not agree on the definitions of certain key words, such as “salvation,” “heaven” “hell,” and so on.
All Christians are not Bible literalists who believe Earth is only 6,000 years old, flat, and other silly things.
Christians are not motivated by fear of hell or promise of heaven. Most Christians believe that salvation (whatever that is) cannot be achieved at all – it comes through a combination of grace (a free gift from God) and works (demonstrating our cooperation in God’s plan by doing good stuff in the world).
All Christians are not fundamentalists. Only about 1/3rd of Christians are even Protestant, much less fundamentalists.
For about the fifth time: all Christians are not opposed to science.
Christians do not hate gays. If they do, they’re not following Jesus’ instructions to love everyone, even our enemies – instructions which are everywhere in the gospels and quite clear.
Christians do not despise the world and live for the next life to the detriment of this one. Despising the world is actually a pretty heretical belief in the eyes of most Christians. Probably the most famous Bible quote of all time is, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” John 3:16 (NRSV)
References
“Incorporeal things are not in place after a manner known and familiar to us, in which way we say that bodies are properly in place; but they are in place after a manner befitting spiritual substances, a manner that cannot be fully manifest to us.” [St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, Supplement, Q69, a1, reply 1 written 1265–1274] 750 years ago, one of the greatest theologians in history plainly said that heaven, hell, purgatory, and so on are not physical places we can comprehend.
This is a page from the introduction to my Catholic study Bible which explains the difference between fundamentalist and non-fundamentalist interpretations of scripture.
Most Christians — especially members of the clergy — don’t believe the Bible was magically written by God. Or even that it was written by the people to whom the individual books are attributed for that matter. That’s because…
The Bible is not just “some old book.” The Bible is a library of 73 books, and it is an incredible feat. Somehow, thousands of authors, editors and scribes, working in different times across millennia, managed to bring together this library of books in such a way that the disparate volumes form a cohesive narrative structure. See the diagram below. The Bible makes something like Wikipedia look like a tri-fold pamphlet. You might even say that it’s a miracle.
The Bible doesn’t promote violence, or misogyny, or any of that. It contains stories with controversial themes — kind of the same way that a documentary about drug addiction might show drug use without promoting it. And it contains all of the outdated ideas that we’ve improved upon too. The great thing about Christianity is that its definition of “good” has evolved over time because Christians have generally tried to be humble. God is the highest possible good, and beyond our comprehension. As our vision gets better, “God” and “good” get better!
People who study the Bible and think it’s important are not uneducated and/or backward. Most of the smartest people and greatest scientists of past and present were and are Christians. See references in previous section.
Biblical laws were not and are not backward and draconian, nor are they evidence that Christianity is outdated and backward. The Hebrews were the first culture in the Ancient Near East to abolish physical punishment for property crimes, the first to establish a single law code for everyone regardless of social standing, the first to do away with divine kings, and so on. Compare the law of the Hebrews to those of their neighbors and you will see that the Hebrews’ are far more progressive. The philosophy that gave birth to those laws allows for the laws to be updated — see #2 above.
Just because the four canonical Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) contradict each other doesn’t mean that the Bible is a nest of lies. The founders of the early Christian churches were aware of the contradictions — they just didn’t care all that much. Apparently they were more open-minded that most people are nowadays.
Biblical laws, rules and customs cannot be taken out of context and used to prove points. The Bible is a library of 73 books written across millennia that document the centuries-long struggle of Jews and Christians to figure out exactly what the laws and rules should be. Of course there are contradictions. Copernicus and Ptolemy contradict each other regarding the correct model of the solar system, but we don’t claim that Astronomy itself is invalid. Also, it’s useful to note that the book of Proverbs is not a book of religious laws. It is called Proverbs because, as it happens, it is a book of, you know, proverbs. It’s a book full of the ancient Hebrew equivalent of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” or “what goes up must come down.” Why do uneducated people insist on attacking Biblical material without any sense of appropriateness or context? Here’s an idea: “As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly.” ~Proverbs 26:11
Introduction to the New Testament History and Literature — Prof. Dale Martin (RLST 152 – Yale Open Courses website). [Note: If you think it’s important, which it isn’t, but you might think it is if you believe in common myths about Christianity, Prof. Martin is gay.)
My new eBook “The Wildwood Workbook: Nature Appreciation and Survival” officially released on Friday. You’re going to have just a couple of days to get it for 99 cents, then the price goes up to $3.99. Available wherever eBooks are sold — B&N, iTunes, Kobo, Smashwords, etc.
Patreon supporters are getting a coupon for free download — that’s one of the perks. Want a free copy? Support me on Patreon!
Baggage: Cabal Fang Martial Arts Training Involution #144
Fill a large gym bag with whatever you can find. Use folded sheets and misc. athletic equipment for weight. Then add in some of the detritus of your pathetic existence — junk food wrappers, tasteless magazines, empty beer cans, old video games, and bits of shameful clutter from your attic or garage. And finally, throw in a handful of promises you’ve broken or things you’ve said to friends and loved ones in anger. I’m not being cute or metaphorical. Take this part seriously.
Complete 100 Bag Lifts as fast as you can. Beginners do them Cabal Fang-style, advanced, Kansas-style.
Complete 50 sieo nage as fast as you can.
Pick up the bag and cover 1-mile run as fast as you can. Run, jog, walk, doesn’t matter as long as you finish.
Make sure you warm up thoroughly before you begin and keep your heart rate within safe limits. This one’s a real humdinger. If it doesn’t trigger your vomit response, either your bag is too light or you aren’t trying hard enough.
Cool down, then wrap up with the Cross of Light ritual and 10 minutes of contemplation. The Cross of Light ritual is so packed with meaning that describing it fills a whole chapter in the Cabal Fang Study Guide. Re-read as needed.
Record your time and what you learned in your training journal, then share the less personal bits with the Cabal Fang Facebook group.
The other day Mark Hatmaker wrote an excellent piece about natural movement. He explores the benefits of moving with fluidity and the negative consequences of moving herky-jerky. Read it here.
It strikes me that his take is the western perspective on the eastern form of walking contemplation I have been doing for years as follows:
Empty your mind of language. Speak nor think any words.
If words come to mind, let them fade naturally like receding echoes. Fight them and they’ll only multiply.
Just walk as efficiently, smoothly, and naturally as possible — that’s it.
Be relaxed, alive and present. Smell flowers, turn your head and eyes to follow things of interest. Walk with natural, adaptive efficiency, not the efficiency of a robot.
This exercise, like the one Mark describes, is very simple — but that doesn’t mean it’s easy.
As it happens, just walking like a human being is a very difficult thing to do.
I teach free of charge through Heritage Arts , a 501(c)(3) educational charity offering free or donation-only classes related to martial arts, fitness, outdoor skills, and spiritual development. Distance learning programs available. Visit the Heritage Arts website to find out more, or click here to join the Heritage Self-Defense group on Facebook.
What is Heritage Rough ‘n’ Tumble? It’s mind-body-spirit form of American Rough ‘n’ Tumble, which began as a manner of no-holds-barred fighting in the Southern Virginia backcountry during the Colonial Era and has since grown, evolved, and adapted to the realities of modern self-defense. An amalgam of the varying techniques brought to America by colonists from all over the world, blended with the fighting methods of the over 900 distinct indigenous tribes, American Rough ‘n’ Tumble is perhaps the world’s most fearsome martial art.
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Apparently boys were pretty fit back in ’45.
“Why do we need religion? Why can’t people just be good because it’s the right thing to do?” 
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Robert Mitchell Jr. 