Heads up! This week’s mettle maker contains a coupon code for free shipping at Mitch’s General Store so read on.
What’s in these weekly mettle makers?
A martial segment, a fitness segment, a primitive skills segment, and a spiritual segment. Want to get strong inside and out? This is the way I’d advise doing it.
Vault of Reason: Mettle Maker #243
- Warm-up thoroughly for at at least 8 minutes. Do 2-3 minutes each of (a) jumping rope (b) light calisthenics and (c) shadowboxing, forms, or light heavy bag work, or 8 minutes of MBF.
Do some scufflin’ fitness. Set a timer for repeating 1 min. intervals. Cycle through 1 min each of Sprawl ‘n’ Punch, Bear Walks and Heavy Bag Squeezes (use your floor bag and squeeze as hard as you can!). As a maintenance drill, run about 3 cycles (9 mins total) at moderate intensity. For something more strenuous, up the intensity and run more cycles. Created using Scufflin’ Dice ©. Set includes 4 dice and a handout with link to training video. Enter coupon code “SCUFF21” at checkout for free USPS priority mail shipping on any order — good until 1/31/21.
Hike, vault, and roll. Put on a pack and hike to a place where you can practice your vaults and rolls. Take off your pack and put in a few minutes of movement practice. I used a couple of park benches — see video below. When you’re done, put your pack back on and hike home. Adjust weight and distance, and number and type of movements, based on your fitness level, training cycle, and so forth. If you don’t have training cyclically, you should read my book Martial Grit: Real Fighting Fitness (On a Budget).
- What plant is this? Here’s a hint: it’s the same plant the famous wand is made of — the one Voldemort wanted to get his hands on so badly. Answer below the photos.
-
- Central rosette of a young plant
-
- Plants look different at different times of the year
-
- Wilting, frostbitten youngsters
-
- Posing for her close-up
-
- I paste plants I don’t know into my plant book. I already knew this one, I just thought it was a pretty example, so I put in again!
-
- Here’s a shot of my plant ID book
-
This is Sambucus canadensis or common elderberry. Berries ripen from late July to August and should be cooked before eating, which explains why you always see elderberry jam, preserves, wine, etc.
- Acknowledge your higher power. If you don’t believe in God you might want to reconsider. Recognition of a higher power was central to the survival of our hominid ancestors when they were on the verge of extinction 70,000 years ago and is easily supported on scientific and logical grounds. Of the roughly 20 sound logical arguments for existence of God, the best, in my opinion, is…
The Cosmological Argument1. Whatever begins to exist has a cause.
2. The universe began to exist.
3. Therefore, the universe has a cause.
4. The universe began to exist at the point of the Big Bang.
5. Before the Big Bang there was no time, no matter, and no causality.
5. Therefore the cause of the universe is timeless, immaterial, and uncaused.
6. A timeless and immaterial first cause is commonly known as God.The first classic rebuttal is “Not all things that begin to exist have a cause.” But persons, animals and things are not popping in and out of existence all around us. If you insist on completely rejecting our current understanding of how things work, I can’t help you. The only other avenue of escape from this argument is to dispute the standard model of the universe. But the standard model — in which the universe had a beginning and will have a cold dark end — has remained the scientific consensus despite all challenges thus far, including the Steady State Model, the Oscillating Model, the Baby Universe Model, the Multiverse Model, and so on.Based on the evidence and the current state of the scientific debate, we can say with relative certainty that the universe is of finite size, it had a beginning, it will have an end, and that only the Uncaused Cause – a.k.a God — is infinite. So start saying your prayers. It might feel a little awkward at first, but like anything else, you’ll get better with practice.
TWO MARTIAL ARTS DISTANCE LEARNING PROGRAMS AVAILABLE. 100% free and operated through my non-profit, Cabal Fang is martial arts for personal development, self-defense and fitness. Bobcat Frontier Martial Arts is just $19.99/month and that’s your choice if you’re interested in Frontier Rough ‘n’ Tumble — the fighting arts, survival skills, lifeways and ethos of the colonial and indigenous peoples of North American during the frontier period (1607 – 1912). What are you waiting for — enroll today!
If you don’t know where to start with the whole meditation thing, my little ebooklet Wisdom of the Raven explains the differences between meditation, contemplation and prayer, and shows how to get started in each. Get it at 
Robert Mitchell Jr. 