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This is "I'm Daunted Life" a man's podcast.
1:13
I'm your host Kyle Thompson. Let's get into it.
1:15
All right guys, this week we're going to be doing a book review.
1:18
And the book is "The Book of Man" readings on the path to manhood by William J Bennett.
1:24
So this is one of the books that was on our list that a lot of you have seen up to this point.
1:28
It's the 100 books that every modern Christian man should read.
1:32
And it's in the manhood category.
1:33
So if you are not familiar with that list, make sure you just go over to our website.
1:37
It's just www.undaunted.life/booklist and that's where you'll find that.
1:43
And so actually if you were listening to Steven Mansfield's podcast last week
1:48
or his great man podcast, he actually recommended this book at the very end of that.
1:52
And again, I would just kind of throw this out there to you that if you're not listening to that
1:56
podcast, that's probably another good one for you to be tackling.
1:58
Then that's Steven Mansfield's great man podcast.
2:01
So again, this book is by William J Bennett.
2:04
And I just want to kind of give you a little bit of background on who that is.
2:07
Because you might actually recognize him a little bit or recognize that name a little bit rather.
2:11
So he was actually the director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy.
2:16
And this was under Bush the Elder. So George H.W. Bush.
2:20
And then he was the Secretary of Education and also the Chairman of the National Endowment
2:24
for the Humanities under President Reagan. So he's had a lot of political ties and he's done quite
2:29
a bit in a lot of different areas. He's got his Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from Williams College.
2:34
He got his Doctorate in Political Philosophy at the University of Texas.
2:38
And then he got a law degree from Harvard. So pretty impressive dude, very good background.
2:43
He's authored a bunch of other books that you may recognize some of these.
2:47
The Educated Child, The Death of Outrage, The Book of Virtues.
2:51
And then there was I guess a popular two volume set which was called America The Last Best Hope.
2:56
And so he's also a syndicated radio show host. So I don't know if any of any of you have caught
3:02
his show, but it's Bill Bennett's Morning in America. So you may have checked that one out.
3:07
But if that name sounds familiar, so if William J Bennett sounds familiar,
3:11
it's because if you go all the way back to episode number two of this podcast,
3:14
I kind of did my favorite books that I read in 2017. And the book that he wrote called
3:20
"Tried by Fire," I put down is my most humbling book that I read last year. So that was a book
3:26
about the first thousand years of the Christian church and kind of what the early Christians went
3:31
through. And so that is another book by him. So it's another very large book, but got a lot
3:36
of great content in it. So let's go and talk about the Book of Man. So a cool thing about this book,
3:41
it is broken up into seven sections. And so each section will cover just a very specific topic.
3:48
So here are the seven sections of this book. Section one, man in war, section two, man at work,
3:55
section three, man in play sports and leisure, section four, man in the polis,
4:02
section five, man with woman and children, section six, man in prayer and reflection.
4:09
And then lastly, section seven, man at the end. So it breaks it into a lot of categories that you
4:16
guys would be very interested in. Some of those you may not be as familiar with or maybe spend
4:21
a lot of time thinking about those types of areas. But this book is really interesting because it
4:26
uses all kinds of different ways to get points across. So it's going to use biographies in history,
4:34
anecdotes, myths, even poetry and essays and even some personal letters. And this is really to help
4:40
give us an overall understanding of manhood as a whole, but also just many different facets of
4:46
life, a lot of things that would be of importance to us. So if you look at this book and all seven
4:52
sections, there are almost 300 individual pieces that have been compiled for this book. I mean,
4:58
it's just just a hair under 300. So there is a whole lot of different information that we can
5:04
go through and get into on this book. But we're going to go ahead and get into the first section
5:09
right now. And I want to go and talk to you a little bit about man in war. So in this section,
5:14
there's a lot of really, really great pieces that it goes into. So he talks about the story of David
5:19
and Goliath. He goes into what the Navy seal creed is. There's a profile in there of Audie Murphy. A
5:26
lot of you know that name very, very famous war hero. And there's even a speech from General Douglas
5:31
MacArthur, where he was just talking about duty, honor and country. And one of my favorite quotes
5:36
just from this entire section, it's a huge section with a lot of stories is this quote right here. So
5:41
it was John Stuart Mill, who is a British philosopher. This is what he said. War is an ugly thing,
5:47
but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling,
5:53
which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. A man who has nothing for which he is willing to
5:58
fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety is a miserable creature and
6:03
has no chance of being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.
6:10
I thought that I mean, that was probably one of my favorite quotes of the entire book right there.
6:14
So that's almost worth the price of admission. So just a fantastic, fantastic quote. So I did
6:19
want to read one section to you. One of these sections of this book, one of the pieces was a
6:24
funeral oration, which was by Pericles. So if you're not familiar with Pericles, he was an Athenian
6:29
general during the Peloponnesian War. And so the Peloponnesian War was, you know, it started around
6:35
431 B.C. And this was between Athens and Sparta. Okay. And so this was actually a war that the
6:42
Athenians lost. So Sparta kind of routed him. The war actually took a considerable amount of time
6:47
to finish, but it was not a considerably close war, especially toward the end. And so the following
6:53
that I'm about to read to you is the funeral oration that Pericles delivered at the funeral
6:58
ceremony that honored the warriors killed in the first year of that war, the first of many years,
7:03
of course. So, but I'm going to go ahead and get into that now. So here we go. Indeed, if I have
7:07
dwelt at some length upon the character of our country, it has been to show that our stake in
7:11
the struggle is not the same as theirs who have no such blessings to lose. And also that the
7:16
Panageric of the men over whom I am now speaking might be by definite proofs established. That
7:22
Panageric is now in great measure complete for the Athens that I have celebrated is only what the
7:28
heroism of these and their like have made her men whose fame, unlike that of most Helene's,
7:34
will be found to be only commensurate with their deserts. And if a test of worth be wanted,
7:40
it is to be found in their closing scene. And this not only in cases in which it is set in the
7:45
final seal upon their merit, but also in those in which it gave the first intimation of their
7:50
having any. For there is justice in the claim that steadfastness in his country's battles
7:55
should be as a cloak to cover a man's other imperfections. Since the good action has blotted
8:00
out the bad and his merit as a citizen more than outweighed his demerits as an individual.
8:06
But none of these allowed either wealth with its prospect of future enjoyment to unnerve his
8:11
spirit or poverty with its hope of a day of freedom and riches to tempt him to shrink from danger.
8:17
No holding that vengeance upon their enemies was more to be desired than any personal blessings.
8:24
And reckoning this to be the most glorious of hazards they joyfully determined to accept the
8:29
risk to make sure of their vengeance and to let their wishes wait. And while committing to hope
8:34
the uncertainty of final success in the business before them they thought fit to act boldly and
8:39
trust in themselves thus choosing to die resisting rather than to live submitting they fled only from
8:46
dishonor but met danger face to face and after one brief moment while at the summit of their
8:51
fortune escaped not from their fear but from their glory. So died these men as became Athenians.
8:59
You their survivors must determine to have as unfaltering a resolution in the field
9:04
though you may pray that it may have a happier issue and not contented with ideas derived only
9:10
from words of the advantages which are bound up with the defense of your country though these would
9:15
furnish a valuable text to a speaker even before an audience so alive to them as the present you
9:21
must yourselves realize the power of Athens and feed your eyes upon her from day to day till love
9:27
of her fills your heart and then when all her greatness shall break upon you you must reflect
9:32
that it was by courage sense of duty and a keen feeling of honor in action that men were enabled
9:38
to win all this and that no personal failure in an enterprise can make them consent to deprive
9:43
their country of their valor but they laid it at her feet as the most glorious contribution that
9:48
they could offer for this offering of their lives made in common by them all they each of them
9:54
individually receive that renown which never grows old and for the sepulcher not so much that in
9:59
which their bones have been deposited but that no blish of shrines wherein their glory is laid up
10:05
to be eternally remembered upon every occasion on which deed or story shall call for its commemoration
10:11
for heroes have the whole earth for their tomb and in lands far from their own where the column
10:17
with its epitaph could declares it there is enshrined in every breast a record unwritten with no tablet
10:23
to preserve it except that of the heart these take as your model and judging happiness to be the
10:29
fruit of freedom and freedom of valor never decline the dangers of war for it is not the miserable
10:35
that would most justly be unsparing of their lives these have nothing to hope for it is rather
10:41
they to whom continued life may bring reverses as yet unknown and to whom a fall if it came would
10:50
be most tremendous in its consequences and surely to a man of spirit the degradation of cowardice
10:56
must be immeasurably more grievous than the unfelt death which strikes him in the midst of his strength
11:02
and patriotism comfort therefore not condolence is what i have to offer to the parents of the dead
11:08
who may be here numberless are the chances to which as they know the life of a man is subject
11:14
but fortunate indeed are those who draw from their lot of a death so glorious that at which
11:20
has caused your mourning and to whom life has been so exactly measured as to terminate in the
11:25
happiness in which it has been passed still i know that this is a hard saying especially in those
11:30
are in question of whom you will constantly be reminded by seeing in the homes of others blessings
11:36
of which once you also boasted for grief is felt not so much for the want of what we have never
11:42
known as for the loss of to which we have long accustomed yet you who are still of age to
11:48
beget children must bear up in the hope of having others in their stead not only will they help
11:53
you to forget those whom you have lost but will be to the state of once reinforcement and insecurity
11:59
for never can a fair or just policy be expected of the citizens who does not like its fellows
12:05
bring the decision and interest of apprehensions of the father while those of you who have passed
12:09
your prime must congratulate yourself with the thought and the best part of your life was fortunate
12:14
and that the brief span that remains will be cheered by the fame of the departed for it is
12:19
only the love of honor that never grows old and honor it is not gain as some who have it
12:25
that rejoices the heart of age and helplessness i mean that is just incredible that is just an
12:32
absolutely incredible thing to have read and also to think i mean that was almost twenty
12:36
twenty five hundred years ago just an incredible thing to deliver to the people that would have
12:41
been mourning because at this time it wasn't just uh just these people uh the relatives of the dead
12:46
rather that were mourning but it was an entire country that was mourning so this is one of your
12:50
generals kind of coming out and giving you a little bit of a pep talk so incredibly incredibly
12:54
powerful stuff there so that was the first section there and that one was on war so now we're going
12:59
to move to the second section and that is man at work and so there this obviously goes into what we
13:05
do with the majority of our lives of course if you add up the amount of time you know it's basically
13:10
sleeping and working that's what the majority of our life has spent doing and so in this section uh
13:15
there's some selections from meditations which is by Marcus Aurelius which is also on our book list
13:20
you have Ralph Waldo Emerson talking about labor um Jack London uh there's an excerpt in there from
13:26
his work the sea wolf um we have Mark Twain talking about work ethic and then also Ernest
13:31
Shackleton's and Arctic exploration kind of the story behind that you know from the early 20th century
13:37
but the big thing that i want to highlight from this section was the concept of the strenuous
13:42
life which was by our 26th president Teddy Roosevelt so this was a speech that he delivered um to the
13:48
members of the Hamilton Club in Chicago and it was basically attacking this notion that life
13:53
should be easy and kind of full of leisure like it's okay to have leisure sometimes but obviously
13:58
the people that just seek to have life that's full of leisure it's not really the most appropriate
14:03
thing uh for for us to really shoot and strive for so i'm going to read an excerpt from the beginning
14:08
of the speech and one from the end of the speech so right here i'm going to go ahead and read a
14:12
little excerpt from the beginning so here we go the Timon man the lazy man the man who distrust his
14:18
country the over civilized man who has lost the great fighting masterful virtues the ignorant man
14:25
and the man of dull mind whose soul is incapable of feeling the mighty lift that thrills stern men
14:30
with empires in their brains all these of course shrink from seeing the nation undertake its new
14:37
duties shrink from seeing us build a navy and an army adequate to our needs shrink from seeing us
14:43
do our share of the world's work by bringing order out of chaos in the great fair tropic
14:49
islands from which the valor of our soldiers and sailors has driven the spanish flag these are
14:54
the men who fear the strenuous life who fear the only national life which is really worth leading
15:00
they believed in the cloistered life which saps the hearty virtues in a nation and it saps them in
15:06
the individual or else they are wedded to that base spirit of gain and greed which recognizes
15:11
in commercialism the be all and end all of national life instead of realizing that though an
15:17
indispensable element it is after all but one of the many elements that go to make up true national
15:23
greatness no country can long endure if its foundations are not laid deep in the material
15:28
prosperity which comes from thrift from business energy and enterprise from hard
15:34
unsparing effort in the fields of industrial activity but neither was any nation ever yet truly
15:39
great if it relied upon material prosperity alone all honor must be paid to the architects
15:45
of our material prosperity to the great captains of industry who have built our factories and our
15:50
railroads to the strong men who toil for wealth with brain or hand for great is the debt of the
15:55
nation to these and their kind but our debt is yet greater to the men whose highest type is to be
16:01
found in the statesman like lincoln a soldier like grant they showed by their lives that they
16:06
recognize the law of work the law of strife they toil to win a competence for themselves
16:12
and those dependent upon them but they recognize that there were yet other and even loftier duties
16:18
duties to the nation and duties to the race so that was a short expert from excerpt from the
16:23
beginning of the speech and now we're going to go ahead and go to the end so here we go
16:27
i preach to you then my countrymen that our country calls not for the life of ease but for
16:32
the life of strenuous endeavor the 20th century looms before us big with the fate of many nations
16:39
if we stand idly by if we seek merely swollen slothful ease and ignoble peace if we shrink from
16:45
the hard contests where men must win at hazard of their lives and at the risk of all they hold
16:50
dear then the bolder and stronger peoples will pass us by and will win for themselves the domination
16:57
of the world let us therefore boldly face the life of strife resolute to do our duty well and
17:04
manfully resolute to uphold righteousness by deed and by word resolute to be both honest and brave
17:11
to serve high ideals yet to use practical methods above all let us shrink from no strife moral or
17:19
physical within or without the nation provided we are certain that the strife is justified for it
17:25
is only through strife through hard and dangerous endeavor that we shall ultimately win the goal
17:30
of true national greatness so obviously those are some very very famous words from a former
17:35
president teddy roosevelt and obviously this is something that all of us should really think about
17:40
as we are going through and doing the things that are in our work life and in our personal lives
17:44
okay so a lot of people that that i know personally that i'm even good friends with you know all they
17:49
want to do is they just want to work for the weekend so they don't put a whole lot of effort into their
17:54
normal day-to-day uh their normal nine to five job or whatever type of job that they have
17:58
but even beyond that it's just why would we want to look forward to just sitting around doing
18:03
nothing uh it's never really been a concept that i've understood i mean people that i mean all
18:08
they want to do is they just want to end up on a couch somewhere watching a ballgame when there's
18:13
so much more that we can do with our lives and then they carry that same attitude and it works so
18:17
it's not just something they do in their personal lives so again that covers the section kind of
18:21
man-at-work and so we're going to move into section three now which is man-in-play sports and leisure
18:28
so uh obviously for a lot of us we're into these types of things right so play that's all the
18:32
different hobbies that you have sports that's playing sports watching sports and leisure you
18:36
know being able to react or to relax rather and that's kind of the thing that i was just talking
18:41
about in the last section there's nothing wrong with with having these types of activities but
18:45
it's when you like worship at the altar of sitting on the couch that's when it becomes a little bit
18:49
dangerous so this section has some really good stories in it it has a couple of profiles of some
18:53
athletes that you're going to be familiar with so pistol Pete Merovich and also Aaron Rodgers um
18:58
there's a story in there about a big wave surfer Eddie Eyckow who actually died they did a little
19:03
30 for 30 on him and kind of the sacrifice he made there's even another story from Teddy Roosevelt
19:08
he it was obviously a huge guy on hunting and action and adventure so this was a very important
19:14
thing in his life so he kind of described the other side of the coin where it's the guy just kind of
19:18
getting to relax by doing things that he absolutely enjoys but there's a story in here that i had
19:23
never heard before and maybe some of you had heard it but i wanted to share it for you
19:27
and it's about it's about a mountain climbing accident that happened on k2 it's a really
19:32
tragic story obviously it's called tragedy on k2 but um it was just a really great story of
19:39
sacrifice and kind of teamwork and different things like that so i'm going to go ahead and read that
19:43
to you now so k2 is the second highest mountain in the world after Mount Everest standing at 28,251
19:50
feet tall k2 is located on the border between china and Pakistan k2 has the dubious title of
19:57
savage mountain because of the number of people who have died trying to climb it as of july 2010
20:02
only 302 people have completed the ascent of k2 compared to more than 2700 climbers who have
20:08
conquered Everest at least 77 people have died attempting to climb k2 this means that for every
20:14
four people that have reached the summit one has died trying making k2 the most dangerous climb on
20:19
earth there are several factors that make k2 so perilous first is the lack of oxygen due to the
20:25
extremely high altitude there is only one third as much oxygen available at the summit of k2 as
20:30
there is at sea level the second factor is the unpredictable and violent storms that sweep across
20:34
k2 and can last several days finally all the climbing routes up k2 are steep precipitous and
20:41
exposed making the climb itself dangerous and the retreat even more dangerous the savage mountain
20:46
earned its name for a reason the first successful scent was made on july 31st 1954 by the italian
20:52
expedition of a chile kombagnoni and lino lassadelli only one year earlier charles houston led an
20:58
american expedition up k2 in what became one of the most iconic and tragic crimes in mountain climbing
21:05
history houston and his team the 1953 third american caracorum expedition began their ascent establishing
21:12
camps one through three with relative ease because of good weather they established camp eight at an
21:18
elevation of about 25,500 feet and began their attempt to conquer the summit it was here that
21:23
things went from good to bad to tragic very quickly while stationed at camp eight horrible storms
21:29
trapped all eight members of the team for seven days with hurricane force winds blizzard-like snow
21:35
and rapidly depleting supplies of food and drink their dreams of the summit hung by a thread that
21:41
thread snapped when art gilke became terribly sick and needed to be evacuated even though
21:45
it's nearly impossible to lower their sick comrade down to the side of k2 houston and his men were
21:51
determined to save their friend from certain death on the side of the mountain when a break
21:55
in the storms finally came the team began to lower gilke only to be turned away by the threat of
22:00
avalanches they retreated to camp eight and waited until the next day furious winds and driving
22:05
snow met them again the next day but gilke was so sick by this time that they couldn't turn back
22:10
foot by foot the turn the team began the daunting task of lowering gilke down the steep
22:16
descent of k2 all of a sudden a mass fall began when climber george bell slipped and fell on a patch
22:22
of ice pulling on his rope mate tony streather as they fell the rope tangled with those connecting
22:28
houston bell gilke and d molyner pulling all these men off of their feet as well finally all the
22:35
weight came bearing down on peat shoning instantly wrapping the rope around his shoulders with an ice
22:40
axe shoning stopped the fall of all six climbers and prevented them from falling to their certain
22:46
death amazingly the eight-man team was still intact shonings hold was an amazing act of strength
22:52
and determination after the climbers recovered and proceeded to tent at camp seven they anchored
22:57
gilke to the ice as they prepared the tent when the climbers returned to get him they found no trace
23:02
of him a faint track in the snow suggesting an avalanche was the only evidence left of gilke
23:07
gilke's death while heartbreaking and tragic undoubtedly saved the rest of the expedition
23:12
by allowing them to descend without having to carry him most authors and historians believe that
23:17
gilke realized the burden he was to the team and released himself to save the team the ultimate
23:22
act of selfless sacrifice the remaining seven men survived a harrowing descent their expedition
23:28
remains one of the most gripping and moving stories in mountaineering history their survival
23:32
is a testament to the strength of human will in the incredible links men will go to to save their
23:36
fallen friends men at play often reveal the character beneath so again that's a very tragic
23:42
story but the self-sacrifice that we saw gilke give in that moment is something that we are
23:48
are obviously still talking about today because we've all been in situations where we've needed
23:52
to help out a friend this is obviously a very extreme situation but uh it was just something
23:57
where play and sports and and leisure are things that are very important to our lives but every
24:01
now and then we come up with opportunities that could be very important for us in terms of sacrificing
24:05
for others so in this particular story gilke sacrificed his life but uh there's a lot of mountaineering
24:11
stories that don't go nearly as heroically and uh obviously we we are better for gilke and being
24:17
able to tell his story and obviously the other people in the expedition are better because they
24:20
were able to live to tell about it so we're gonna leave that section now and now we're going to go
24:25
into section four which is man in the polis and so the word polis may not be something that you're
24:30
very familiar with i obviously when i were first read through it i was like wait a minute i feel
24:34
like i should know that word but i don't so i'm just going to read to you from that first section of
24:39
that section and tell you what that all means so the word polis originated from the ancient greek
24:44
idea of a city state instead of a city or town being ruled by a king or a small oligarchy the greeks
24:51
developed the polis a self-contained entity governed by a body of citizens it's the root of such words
24:57
as politics, polity, and met metropolis the idea of self-governance, autonomy, and independence passed
25:03
down by the greeks remains to this day the foundation for modern democracy so obviously we uh as
25:08
western americans we obviously have a lot that we owe to the greeks and the things that they
25:13
figured out a long time ago and this section goes into a lot of the important reasons why that is
25:18
so great to us now and so in this section there's a lot of great works there's a profile on navy
25:25
seals and specifically the ones that did the ubl raids so the raid to get Osama bin Laden
25:30
also there was teddy rosville showing up again he just can't get out of all these notes here
25:36
he went through a speech that was called duties of american citizenship uh grover cleveland kind
25:41
of talked about what he felt was uh what made up a good citizen um and then there's the amazing
25:46
story of a math teacher named high may escalante um so if you've ever seen the movie stand and deliver
25:52
it's that that guy in that whole section there and then there's the story of sincinatus which is
25:58
something that we're going to say for a future episode because his story is just incredible
26:02
and so we're going to get into that later on but uh one very quick thing that i wanted to
26:06
read from that section just to wrap up this section was the Athenian oath so um that basically the
26:12
young men of ancient Athens they would repeat the Athenian oath once they reached the age of 17
26:18
okay so the oath really emphasized a true obligation and loyalty and service to the polis and its
26:26
citizens so it's very very short so i'm just going to go ahead and read the Athenian oath to you so
26:30
here we go we will never bring disgrace on this our city by an act of dishonesty or cowardice
26:36
we will fight for the ideals and sacred things of the city both alone and with many
26:41
we will revere and obey the city's laws and we'll do our best to incite a like reverence
26:46
and respect in those above us who are prone to annul them or set them at not we will strive
26:52
increasingly to quicken the public's sense of civic duty thus in all these ways we will transmit
26:58
this city not only not less but greater and more beautiful than it was transmitted to us so uh
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i don't know what you guys were doing when you were 17 and i don't really remember what i was
27:09
doing i was 17 but i wasn't really reciting really cool stuff like that so give it up to the Athenians
27:14
for being complete bad days about everything so that's a really cool section there going into
27:18
the polis so section five this was a section called man with woman and children so if you listen to
27:25
the app the last episode that was episode six of this podcast i went into the subject of abortion
27:30
and obviously at the very end of that i talked about how there are so many men
27:34
missing from the lives of their children and obviously this is a concept that's not lost on
27:39
the author of this book as well because this is something that bennett said in the very beginning
27:44
section of this part here about women and children so here we go with bennett men are missing from
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the lives of women and children today in increasing numbers almost half of all babies born in the 21st
27:55
century in the united states are born out of wedlock single mothers and fatherless children are an
28:00
increasing phenomena in our culture today many women are left on their own to wonder where are the
28:06
good men where are the fathers the reason for this sad state of affairs are many there are massive
28:12
cultural shifts there is personal irresponsibility and dare election and there's too little education
28:18
and intentional preparation of boys for manhood much too often men perceive fatherhood only as a
28:23
burden not a privilege fewer and fewer men understand the virtues and rewards of marriage and fatherhood
28:29
since the sexual revolution our cultures transition into a postmodern liberated society
28:35
the ideas of love and marriage have been cheapened confused and diluted cultural anthropologist
28:40
david mary remarked that when you see a young child with a woman walking down the street today
28:45
it's a natural fact but when you see a young child with an attentive man it's a cultural
28:50
achievement i mean just think about that last part guys i mean obviously we see
28:55
we see women and children all the time but there are moments in life where even i will see a dad
29:00
with a kid you know and the dad's actually paying attention and not buried in his phone or buried
29:04
you know doing something else it does kind of seem like a cultural achievement which kind of
29:07
gives you a sense of where we're at right now so uh this section here was another very interesting
29:12
section there was some interesting stuff by a scottish writer named uh thomas carlile it was
29:16
just basically advised to young men um james freeman clark who was a 19th century preacher
29:22
and author he kind of talked about the differences between true and false manhood uh but the section
29:26
i wanted to pull out here and reach you all it was a letter that thomas jefferson wrote to the son
29:32
of a friend who had named him after thomas jefferson this kid's name was thomas jefferson smith so this
29:37
was when thomas jefferson was uh quite a bit older than uh whenever we saw him come on to the
29:42
historical scene during the revolution uh but this was a letter that he wrote to thomas jefferson smith
29:48
this letter will to you be as one from the dead the writer will be in the grave before you can
29:54
weigh its councils your affectionate and excellent father has requested that i would address to you
30:00
something which might possibly have a favorable influence on the course of life you have to run
30:04
and i too as a namesake feel an interest in that course few words will be necessary with good
30:11
disposition on your part a door god reverence and cherish your parents love your neighbor as yourself
30:18
and your country more than yourself be just be true murmur not at the ways of providence
30:24
so shall the life into which you have entered be the portal to one of eternal and ineffable bliss
30:30
and if to the dead it is permitted to care for the things of this world every action of your life
30:36
will be under my regard farewell and then he uh shared this part here a decalogue of canons for
30:43
observation in practical life so he shares ten things with uh thomas jefferson smith here so
30:48
here we go number one never put off till tomorrow what you can do today number two never trouble
30:54
another for what you can do yourself number three never spend your money before you have it
31:00
number four never buy what you do not want because it is cheap it will be dear to you number five
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pride cost us more than hunger thirst and cold number six we never repent of having eaten too little
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number seven nothing is troublesome that we will do willingly
31:19
number eight how much pain have cost us the evils which have never happened
31:25
number nine take things always by their smooth handle and number ten when angry count ten
31:32
before you speak if very angry a hundred okay so some of that it was a little choppy to read
31:38
because it was written kind of in old english but hopefully it came across but that was a very
31:43
good section there again just talking about man with woman and children so for all you uh
31:48
husbands and fathers out there that would be a great section to read as well and now we're
31:52
going to get into section six here and that is man in prayer and reflection so this was a very
31:57
unique section especially for us because we talk a lot about spiritual mental and physical resilience
32:02
as a ministry right um and this has a lot of different individual prayers and a lot of different
32:08
ways that people think about prayer and reflection and i thought that the author uh before he went
32:12
into the individual story summed that up pretty well and so here was a quote from the beginning of
32:16
that section while you can judge a man's physical manhood by the weight he can lift or pace of his
32:22
sprint his mental manhood is more elusive the development of the mind is a non-linear event
32:28
with no specific milestones or checkpoints it's an internal struggle a push in a pool that's
32:33
often two steps forward and one step back but we welcome the fight the real man smiles in trouble
32:39
said american pamphleteer thomas pain gathers strength from distress and grows brave by reflection
32:46
so obviously uh we talk about that a lot because you know you have the guys that are physically
32:51
capable and you can see that obviously like when someone puts up a very strong bench press or
32:55
squat you can see it when someone's really really fast you can see it whenever they can swim really
32:59
far you can see it but mental fortitude or as we like to say mental resilience it's kind of hard
33:04
to see and then the spiritual side as well i mean there's so many people that walk around pretending
33:08
to be spiritual and pretend pretending to be spirit filled but you would never be able to judge that
33:14
you know what i mean so this section i mean there's thoughts on prayer by st augustine
33:18
there's some individual prayers from guys like martin luther and spurgeon and g gk chesterton
33:24
and billy graham and even talks about the story of the martyrdom of polykarp um but the one i
33:30
wanted to read this was a very short prayer uh because this particular man is is very important
33:35
to me so this was george w bush so uh he was the very first presidential candidate that i voted
33:40
for us because whenever i turned 18 that was the year that john kerry and george w bush were uh
33:45
vying for the presidency and you know obviously he endured a lot as a president and um for eight
33:52
years he it just basically was up and down and he was made fun of left and right and all these
33:57
different things and so um but this was a prayer uh for the departed and it was a prayer right after
34:03
the september 11th attacks okay so he was addressing the nation and so this is when you need to see
34:10
a lot from your president you need to see uh some strength you need to see resolve and you see action
34:15
um remorse different things that you might expect uh but he was also very quick to make sure that
34:21
prayer was a part of this so i'm going to go and read this short section from his address to the
34:26
nation we come before god to pray for the missing and the dead and for those who love them on this
34:31
national day of prayer and remembrance we ask almighty god to watch over our nation and grant us patience
34:37
and resolve and all that is to come we pray that he will comfort and console those who now walk
34:43
and sorrow we thank him for each life we now must mourn and the promise of a life to come as we have
34:50
been assured neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present
34:56
nor things to come nor height nor death can separate us from god's love may he bless the souls of the
35:02
departed may comfort our own and may he always guide our country so i mean again he's got his faults
35:10
there are issues that happen during his presidency and obviously those are things that cannot be
35:13
diminished but uh this truly was a man of god you can see that just about everywhere in this man's
35:19
life and i really lament the fact that our current president and the president that came just after
35:24
bush neither one of them seem to have a real true faith uh and seem to share things like this in
35:30
times of mourning uh it's it always seemed kind of forced and i know i'm going a little bit political
35:34
here but um it always seemed very very genuine from uh from w bush in my opinion so uh that was a very
35:40
important thing for me to read so i really like that from that section and then the last section of
35:44
the book is section seven and that's just man at the end okay so it's a really really short section
35:50
definitely compared to the others but i mean it had some obituaries and some different things in
35:54
there but it really was just kind of a bow on the last part of the book so obviously this book went
35:59
in a lot of different directions and it really was incredible but i want to just kind of give you
36:03
three very quick reasons why you should read this book okay because again i could do my review and
36:08
i could read some things from it but i i really want you to internalize these because i'd really
36:11
like for you to read this book so the first reason that i think you should read this is this is going
36:15
to be a springboard into other areas of study if you'll remember from the very beginning there's
36:21
almost 300 individual pieces from this book so if you can't find something interesting in this book
36:29
if you can't find an interesting character or person from history or something like that
36:33
and i mean this in the meanest way possible there is something wrong with you okay so
36:39
there's so much here that you can get not everything is going to be exciting to you
36:44
i mean there were several sections in several pieces i was like i didn't really do anything
36:48
for me but obviously there were a lot more that did so that's number one it's a springboard into
36:52
other areas of study second reason why i think you should read this book is it's perhaps the best
36:58
father-son book that you could read together okay because again here's a deal it's a bunch
37:03
of short stories all right i mean some of these sections were you know a third of a page long to
37:08
maybe seven or eight pages long right so the reads are pretty easy uh they're indigestible sections
37:14
so obviously i'm i don't have a son right right now i don't have any kids but if you're a father
37:19
and you're wanting to kind of teach a young man i mean even eight or nine years old about different
37:24
virtues of manhood i mean just look at the sections of this book that we've already talked about
37:28
so i really think that this could be a fantastic father-son book and so the last reason that i
37:34
really think that you should read this book is just the importance of story telling okay the
37:38
importance of storytelling um you know this whenever you see it you know when there's people in your
37:43
life that they just know how to tell stories that everything that's happening in life good or bad
37:48
or indifferent they have a story that kind of goes along with what's happening in that area of their
37:52
life and so this book is full of like i said almost three hundred different stories so
37:57
if you can just have these even in the back of your head as you're going through your normal
38:00
regimented life uh i think it would be something that would be very valuable for you so again
38:05
three reasons to read this book a springboard into other areas of study second perhaps the best
38:10
father-son book out there and third the importance of storytelling so again we're going to do a quick
38:15
resilience boost here at the end so as a lot of you know at this point where a men's ministry in our
38:20
mission is cultivating manly resilience and specifically we do that by providing content that
38:25
forges spiritual mental and physical toughness today it's mental resilience and it's very very
38:30
simple guys buy this book and read it i mean i mean that's it buy the book read it by by this
38:34
point you should be at least curious as to how it could be beneficial for you and maybe some other
38:39
guys that are in your life and really let me know what it's springboards for you right because the
38:44
first reason i gave you to do this was it'll springboard into other studies so did you go through this
38:48
book and then really want to dive deep into poly carp okay did you go into this book and really
38:53
want to dive even further into the life of general macarthur or teddy rosavelte or any one of the
38:58
other historical characters so email me at info at undaunted.life again info at undaunted.life and
39:05
let me know what that springboarded for you okay so thank you guys as always for listening in i
39:09
always appreciate it please subscribe on itunes soundcloud or google play and refer your friend's
39:14
solution also share this on social media if you tag us or if you do the hashtag undaunted life just
39:20
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39:24
review please leave that for us that's how we're going to continue to climb to get more listens and
39:29
get more people actively involved in our ministry our website is www.undaunted.life follow us on
39:35
instagram and twitter @undauntedlife and on facebook.com/undauntedlife check out our free devotionals
39:41
only you version Bible app just search undaunted life under plans and as always we'd like to thank
39:46
augustburns red for allowing us to use their music library for our content the intro outro track on
39:51
this podcast is their song king of sorrow which is off their latest record entitled phantom anthem
39:56
the links to all this are in the description i'm your host kyle tomsen remember keep cultivating
40:02
manly resilience keep forging spiritual mental and physical toughness keep seeking the lion of juda