Youtube comments of (@heavythingslightly).

  1. Wow is this gorgeous… it is just so obvious that race (the thing we imagine as a true marker) is a concoction meant to divide us. Of course there is some reality to it, but no spiritual reality in just the way you said Ebony. It lacks depth of meaning, and cannot survive the divine ascent! It’s almost like a stage or an immaturity that must be shed in order to become fully human (which of course means full divine). Thank you for this!
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  2. Wow! Your description of grafting, and the bleeding together in the process of friendship, it’s very resonant! So beautiful, and not just in a sentimental way, but fittingly for the way creation is. I think…
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  3. We did away with ads, cards, and end screens for our podcast. If you want to know more, would like to reach out, or feel like supporting, please check out our work at www.first-things.org And if you like WAWTAR, but want something more academic, check out our Substack "Heavy Things Done Lightly" here: https://johnheersftf.substack.com/
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  4. Love this… or would it be weird! In many ways weird is not doing these things, it’s not doing what your heart desires. Problem is… the heart doesn’t desire, it sees noetically, it desires nothing. Our gut desires but when the heart sees clearly the desire is only for God, the good the beautiful the true. Seeing clearly is the problem, especially in a society that teaches nothing of the noetic and everything regarding desire…we are becoming dogs, just not the obedient loyal kind…
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  5. Park B, you know what tho? Burnt out and high school teacher seem destined for one another, right? Next pod I’ll dangle a camel from my lips and quote Sartre and complain about salaries. Little by little!
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  6. Indeed... and next week we'll get into what that requirement means for our modern mindset. It creates a type of expectation about what comes next that is deadly for mortals. Lending at interest weirdly helps to create a utopian brain, one that we worship and that we become.
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  7. This is a most needful quote indeed. It is a way for us moderns to know when we are being led astray. When all the pieces “make sense” it is likely we’ve become too content with our rationalization. That’s when I must remember to bow low and listen and let my mind slow down enough to truly hear. Great help this Corna quote!
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  8. Agreed. And I’d be happy to do them…. Peace to you Bold Cut!
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  9. I want Ananias to come Back and connect those ideas of magic to the deep notion of science as delivering “spells”… the old idea of alchemy as a religious practice … should have gone there with him on this episode… little by little
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  10. Agreed. Kilts has that heavy things lightly mojo and I look forward to having her back on. Nationhood as something like mystical tradition really helped me. Peace to you Josh.
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  11.  @Orthodoxi  I think that is very possible. Let's do it!
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  12. That is the most wonderful —if you could see my face right now with the sly grin— comment ever! But he kind of did, and I love him for it, and I really enjoyed speaking with him. Lisa, you should come on wawtar next!
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  13. this is a remarkable post. And I love it most because in this odd historical moment all of it isn’t so odd and it somehow invites us all to wonder, where when I was a kid this just meant you were nuts. But now even the most hardened materialist whistles quietly to himself something like “it can’t be true but might it be , perhaps, so that I may be free of this cage I call my skull?”
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  14. This is a great point and it hits me often: The world we think is slipping away today HAS BEEN SLIPPING for a long, long time. Dostoevsky was telling us in the 1850's... And if what you are saying tells us something it tells us... stay awake! It's not what we think it is. It's that thing plus a lot more! I think often of how what we use now (say, social media or a leaf blower) was invented in a department of defense lab a long time ago. Yikes.
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  15. wow. Perfect.
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  16. On it!
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  17. Wow. Keep those words near indeed. To become is the way all of this now resonates within me. “To prove” is hollow… like the word implies….without a center.
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  18. Father! Indeed it would be…
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  19. This happens.
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  20. Many do, but the disposition of the protest movement has always been toward a diminution of tradition, or maybe worse, toward the creation of something “new” and more “appropriate”… so yes, liturgy exists within the reform tradition, but with a terrible seed of dissolution built in. Just a thought or two…
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  21. I want to riff on this most excellent comment. Whenever I hear Justin Brierely I am reminded of how lovely a soul he is and how hard he works to understand others, including those who disagree with him vehemently. This is a Christian thing! But I also hear in his shows how hard he works to make sense of this notion of church. Not him really, but all of those listening to him. It always feels like an octupus this notion of church in the west. And your quote from Florovsky is so helpful in that it is asking of western Christiians a kind of historical suffering, a historical surgery that makes them revisit a difficult past. It's like they need eye surgery and are dreading all the needles. But in the end it will be cartharsis. And I'm not talking at all about human souls who simply try and love their neighbor and live in a difficult world and call themselves Christians. I'm talking about recovering the Church as a most essential journey for "a people". And Orthodox people should be loving guides on this essential journey. I think this is what I think sitting here on this electron machine. May it be beautiful!
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  22. This perspective comes from two personal meetings with folks close to Putin. One was his KGB trainer back in the 1980's. The other an investor for many Russians in Kyrils circles. A good childhood friend Kyril. Both of them were describing a very materialistic understanding of the church in the world, as an institution. Both related to the Holy Icons (the holy things in general) as beautiful and "worth" a great deal in the world... as in money. I recognized in these personal experiences a type of thinking that I see with secularized Anglicans in the west. A type of upward thinking mobility about their role as culture shapers, not acquirers of humility per se. Just saying... Those relationships and conversations have not left me. I can't shake them. Am I right? Not sure. But that's what you are hearing in the podcast.
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  23. Carrisa, I too struggled with that... As you could see! But I also think she was trying to do something like "not take the bait". On the other hand, I truly was not offering the question as bait. It seemed relevant at the time. But I think I understand her hesitancy. And in this world of interweb angst, I think I get it. I just don't practice it so much. But I am tempted to be very wary with these things. For me the goal is to meet up where Love meets Truth. And stay right there. And I think you can talk about ALL THINGS if you stay there. I think.... I think.
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  24. Parker! Seth pods always get me thinking, especially about what people are thinking… Because it’s an odd pairing and Seth can be, well… Confusingly honest. But I’m very thankful that you’re having this reaction, it’s the kind I think our times call for. Mostly I am trying to figure out what the glue is between people who live but who utterly have disdain for one another’s “thoughts”… are we our thoughts at all?
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  25. This dude Uncle Seth...
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  26. It’s not bad, it is good! You need the arena to fight your passions. I know this because you are a human being. Which arena? Well… only you and those you love right there in your life, only they and you can know that. You sound like a healthy person indeed! But if you know someone who needs this FTF arena, hit us up Ivan! Little by little!
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  27. Yes, which isn’t far from “What is the cosmological function”… and that has something to do with anthropology I think. What image are we meant to manifest?
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  28. Hmmm… these are insightful comments. Indeed! I wonder though if what you are calling evangelizing still has too strong a hint of modern efforts to “convince”… culture turned because people lived the liturgical cycle and leaders adopted the ethos of that cycle… I think… and wars, them too.
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  29. Thanks Dusan!
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  30. Richard, that would be lovely... and in fact, we'd love to have you come along at some point. And even consider coming onto our podcast if you will!
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  31. Agreed indeed. It seems we need to be able to say something like, “there is a season” for all of this without denying Christ as the Son of God. We see the shadows because there is a Sun.
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  32. I do know him Pierce, and would love to have him on to talk about this very idea. The question about the bathwater is at the core of my restlessness I think. There is a ethos and a culture to the conclusion being made by "science" that is becoming harder and harder to accept, to believe. And it's because the bathwater of it all is too dirty. The context of the scientific revolution makes me suspicious. For better or worse. And your excellent comment on the difficiulty of evolutionary mechanisms is the fire starter for a deeper dive that for me... well, it leaves me throwing baby out and bathwater. But I don't WANT TO. But I've concluded that my reticence to throw out evolution, like all the way, is mostly cowardice for how I will be known in our culture. I fear I'll then be that dude who believes in Jesus riding a dinosaur. But the evolution narrative as an explanation of our existence, that narrative seems, to me at least, like a scientist riding on a dinosaur... utterly absurd. You see my problem. The extremes seem to be all we have. And for me the evolution narrative is now an extreme. I can't stay there and I don't know what else there is... Thanks for suffering this comment!
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  33. Prickly... I think this is very insightful. And if I had a bit more talent, I think I would dig down on that narrative aspect as it is the haunting part of it all. The science? Meh... maybe. But the notion that the narrative of relativism was alive and well far in advance of Darwin's writings, and that in fact his own grandfather had already "written" the Darwinian thesis but without the science some 80 years earlier, well, that's a telling piece of info. Check out this podcast for a history of all of this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDeHclpUgGY&t=236s
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  34. Yes. Seth is right. We are all for mandates. For me the question is, which mandates? All mandates aren’t created equal. In Sierra Leone a priest I know served liturgy from a common cup during Ebola. The mandate allowed that as per the type of disease Ebola is. Emergency measures are necessary. But when those measures are poorly constructed and delivered they should be rejected. And mandates should sell themselves I think. Writing out loud… Uncle Seth loves the stop sign mandate trope!!
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  35. THis quote I need to be using more often. Narrative does not care about your facts. Let's do a NARRATIVE DON"T GIVE A SH^@! t-shirt. I'm down!
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  36. Jesse, I think without a doubt that all of humanity is re-member-ing, as in putting back together what already is, this way of being. But it is so hard to remember when the way back is not something authentically in front of you. It's almost like we in the west are trying to remember our parents yet, we haven't been home in so long we don't even know what they look like. Maybe....
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  37. Lots to improve on indeed!
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  38. One thing about James… his beard is mesmerizing. And the Chinese medicine notion of health is unrelenting. Like… it’s everywhere. Which is why it was so cool doing this episode
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  39. So good... for me, it is that dynamic of the mask as on the edge, as liminal and when under girded with transcendence and The Creator, the mask then has a type of potentiality as sacramental. But a mask worn without a sense of the divine... well... then it's a "thief's mask". Wild indeed.
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  40. I think I am closer to this than to Father as per freedom. I love your insights... I don't feel more free in the west, I think what I feel is less watched by my fellow man. Not watched at all in fact. Watched may be the wrong word, judged? But this lack of judgement is more like a lack of humanity, or care for other. Which gives us the illusion of freedom I think. In many ways....
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  41. It's nuts when you really step back. It's like a 300 year old ponzi scheme. I'm kinda scared. What up DPR!? You good?
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  42. Dang Jeremy, your anecdote amplifies the whole concept of parallel cultures and a type of American schizophrenia. This is such a good example of how the deist and subsequent humanist strains of Americana have managed to outwar all the utopian zeal found in various American religious expressions. I think this story can be told from a Presbyterian and Catholic and well you name it perspective. The Orthodox hunkered down and in many ways paid Caesar his due while trying to protect the liturgy… and in turn made few inroads culturally, unlike the shaping of Utah through Mormonism. This stuff fascinates me and Kilts clarity needs to appear again in the near future.
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  43. Best comment ever. Makes us want to keep going! Thank you first name last name!We are getting there… and your youtube handle is hilarious. Brilliant
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  44. Indeed. May the battle bear fruit and not blood
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  45. Here is a link to a short overview of the places we go: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5H3r-c8xIsk And here are the trip details in full: https://first-things.org/georgian-journey See you in Georgia!
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  46. ROCOR! That was my gateway too. They’ll keep you straight and pull no punches. And somehow you’ll like it! Much love to you…
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  47. Cheers and much love from SC… Paul is allowing us to reconsider what love for nature looks like. He and many others are awake to a very old anthropology, a more authentic way to know who we are as a part of nature and reality…. Little by little. Peace to you!
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  48. I think at the core this is probably true.... but there may be something of beauty in making it the last important thing said, and not the first. In short, it may be that to remain human is to keep some of the sacred ideas, sacred. But yes, it is true. We need God. But we don't own God, we belong to the Church. And this belonging is a very sacred thing, something not easily shared, and often, not necessarily shared. Good stuff!
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  49. And yes Luke, I agree. We have to not be afraid to tackle the question of “is this for everyone” just because it feels impossible that it could be for everyone. It is impossibly for everyone and still only real in the particular… or something like that. I mean, not everyone should become Orthodox is not the same as saying Orthodox is not universal. You can affirm both. And that shit is straight paradox which is a type of “evidence” that it is probably true. I mean God became man seems cray cray too… yet…
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  50. It's happening today btw... look for it soon Daniel...
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  51. Let’s do it! Have heard a good deal about him. Do you have a connection to him brother? How are you and thank you for listening!
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  52. And many of ours here at FTF!
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  53. Depth and many dimensions!
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  54. We're happy you enjoyed it!
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  55. At the core this is the notion that western culture, "we" being all of us who participate in it (which on some level is all of us) must be pulled along. When culture is lost to something new, so our the souls that make up that culture. I think it is a gnostic idea to imagine some part of me is not in some way a product of my material reality.
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  56. Thanks Nancy for checking in... your questions are spot on. Sustainability is important. And the Peace Corps mojo is definitely an inspiration. Our work is slightly different as we don't have sectors or "initiatives" established by bureaucracies. Not that those aren't sometimes necessary. Our work is born out of the simplest form of love: face to face long term relationships. The hardest work of all is that done to really know someone. The good and the bad. If we stay true to our ethos, the ethos of the ancient Christian east, we have a chance. If not, our projects will look like everyone else's in the long run. May we be humble enough to keep trying and checking in on one another and driving forward in humility. Little by little! write me at johnheers@first-things.org for more. Peace to you!
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  57. How could we miss a chance to sync up with DPR’s and this wonderful film? Plus… Neil kinda has swag, even if it’s like nerd -out-can’t-help-it swag. Plus… he’s weirdly handsome and getting younger somehow. And I should also stop writing now…. Let’s just say I was thankful for this meet up. Much fruit here!
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  58. You may be onto something. Let me let it simmer a lil!
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  59. And perhaps live… indeed.
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  60. Me too! And you know what... I think we may be on to something.
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  61. So much wisdom with Martin, would take a legendary amount of time to unpack everything that man understands. Hopefully we get him on again!
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  62. This is like some sort of New World old world orthodox shangrala… don’t stop, it will bear fruit even if not exactly the ones you suspect… but don’t stop. Very cool. My city self needs such a place indeed
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  63. I'm going to call Uncle Seth on this one. Uncle Seth, where art thou!
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  64.  @deaththekid3998  Fr Seraphim Rose talks about this indeed. He describes the modern inclination toward analysis as a type of gorge being dug out between mind and soul, a void that ends in the impossibility of belief. He didn’t say this but I will, I feel it akin to a muscle bound man who can no longer scratch his back. The muscles he uses exclusively have made him unable to achieve what should be easy for him. He is strong indeed but in a way that unmoors him from his own nature. The scientific world of data analysis has become our only workout. It’s made us muscle bound.
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  65. Not sure it is written anywhere. The story is morphing as per the new narrative. The question of correcting "bad" history is at the heart of the pod I think. And your comments go right to that heart. For me the coolest part of the potential conversation is, "Who are we as a people?" And can we sing the answer to our progeny in good faith, as we believe to be so? Or is it rather just 300 million people picking and choosing independently as if at a salad bar? Who are we as a people? Right now, well... I think we don't know.
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  66. Otis, peace to you! I wonder if there is a type of "before the Tao" kind of religion in the east? Would it be Shintoism? Juju is really, in many ways, the religion of gods who give humans power in return for a sacrifice, for control, over the human. In China this feels like augury, the ancient reading of bones tied into emperor worship and the Mandate of Heaven? Maybe? I'm not really sure... But love the invite to wonder!
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  67. Thanks for your kind words! We are doing our best to make sure the podcast stays regular and you aren't left hanging - stick around I'm sure we'll have plenty more conversations in the future that will spark your interest!
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  68. Appreciate it!
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  69. Let’s find a way. The country can be made small for us! Where shall I find you?
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  70. Yes man! The creativity is in the acceptance or obedience. In the ability to see and accept alignment with reality/God… good stuff Ivan
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  71. “A secret to hide oneself”… damn. So true, but also, a part of the journey until no longer a part of the journey. There is a time for everyone that says something like “no more… enough. It’s time!” We all face it. The cross. Pray that we all find a way to bear our own cross as we should….
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  72. Indeed! In fact to conspire is to live… it’s just a question of what you are conspiring for. Right? Of course people are conspiring, the dark arts of a conspiracy is really just perspective on right and wrong. “You” work to save the world, “we” conspire to destroy it…. It’s just about majority narratives and minority narratives I think…
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  73. YEs indeed.... I think we should get him on. Lets reach out! I will try.
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  74. He’s gonna hate this comment Steve! Bravo! But also I think he just thinks they are cool. But I mean, I was wearing a dorky bald head and baseball cap. Much love!
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  75. I like I don't know. I think of I don't know as a type of beginning point. I feel myself leaning into "an idea" but I love the notion that in the end I haven't "seen", so I don't know quite yet. Being saved, saved, will be saved.... Becoming aware, am aware, will be fully aware.... something like that! Yes?
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  76. I think it is a type of inherited evil. Something cultures pass down. And I think it is primarily found in the offering of the devil when he showed Christ all the kingdoms of the world, looking down from the heights, and said "You can have all of this..." That is the heart of usury I think. It isn't so much that you take some off the top (thought that's nasty), it's that really, you are trying to own and control and usury is the fastest way to your dreams. It's a ephemeral, gnostic shortcut to power. And it objectifies the one who takes the loan. Something like that... at the core. I think.
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  77. Keep listening as we start cooking later in the pod... I think we were trying to reconcile our times Australia style... she super early, me super late...
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  78.  @charmormorr7719  Chucky!
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  79. Peace to you! I don’t think either are a problem but my initial thought is have your spiritual Fsther or priest ASSIGN your new name/Saint… problem solved!
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  80. Oh man… wait just a bit. More warm coming. May it be inviting and not just a reminder of the chaos of my soul…
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  81. Parker, peace to you good brother. They are my fave too. They unravel things right? On the other hand, they must be handled with care or they become the spaghetti monster lol...
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  82. It’s a great question sister! I think the deep syncretism is a type of hope for the eternal symvollos… an image of oneness, but mostly as per a fallen model. In the same way that a puritan hope is an image of oneness, but also based on a fallen, us them, model. Maybe?
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  83. scary lol
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  84. This must be said in the next pod. It shall be! Cuz… “not all lives are equally valuable” just made me feel a little yucky. Uncle Seth… cmon man
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  85. HR.... there is so much more to say indeed. The Japanese angle is an interesting one as I think it is instructive. Plus, if you add in the screen we now see through daily, this one, the one I am typing into as another type of mask, it could be that we are nearing total masked living. Which, surely, is a type of hell. Surely....
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  86. Bon soir! Jai beacoup des amis de La sud, a cote Marseilles. Ou as tu?
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  87. Yes yes! Purity demands policing not paraclesis or transformation!
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  88. It is naive perhaps but if I can be properly truthful and properly loving, the rest is just a conversation toward illumination. But alas, it is me I worry about, not her.
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  89. Check out wawtar podcast 3 or 4 I think on love and marriage… but yes! Working on an African guest as per early marriage rites…
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  90. Toastmaster at a Georgian Supra… check out the article on symbolic world called “the symbolism of the Supra” by Daniel Padrnos. Great stuff! And much love to you KappaW!
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  91. This book. This boook! Really had an impact on me as a younger man.
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  92. Agreed! Gotta stop that 🛑!
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  93. And this is still a great idea! We should talk… and I didn’t know he visited! Bravo
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  94. Stephanie count me in! I learned a great deal with Dr Timothy… let’s keep going. Best way to do it? johnheers@first-things.org
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  95. Not currently! We are looking to send folks to Mozambique currently
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  96.  @spinkyl9559  there is something very true in all of this I think spinkyL. Could it be you are describing every cult or principle that asks people to truly believe that they are the god? I feel like you are describing Babylon in this great riff. And Rome. And Assyria. I think. But these comments have me wondering deeply. Thank you….
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  97. We will keep trying to ask more! Thanks!
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  98. So we’ll said. We have perfected the art of product delivery. And now we are addicts. It’s like Covid in a way… the waking up has to run through us all before the healing can begin.
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  99.  @dreyn7780  that is the most succinct “space” answer I’ve ever heard… I love this because I hate “space”…. The notion that we would be putting so many resources into entering “space” when we don’t even enter the space which is our soul… bones! Dry dusty bones must be our destiny
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  100. Here’s the thing with Uncle Seth… how much of what he says does he believe? And how much can a modern person believe at all? Like in anything immaterial. That’s always my wonder with my dear friend Uncle Seth. And with me too as a modern man… peace! So good to see you here Ima
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  101. It is where our connections were all those years ago when I served in Georgia. Now we’ve made new ones. And the south is a forgotten part of Georgia. Just the kind of place where we like to try and work. Ozzie is with Jake there currently but Jake will leave soon. Ozzie is in his own. We are recruiting for two more to join him in the south soon. He is still in early phase immersion. But go see him for sure! Another FW Andrew will vision him in July. Meet up! alastairfarley@first-things.org
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  102. Loved there… that’s funny. LIVED there
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  103. JMG: peace to you! I loved there during the Abkhazian war, again in the 2000’s and we now have work there In Alkhatsike… www.first-things.org And what are you doing there brother? Great to have you on board! Go meet our people there. I can connect you to Ozzie in Alkhatsike. Keep watching and thank you…
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  104. I have read that book. So insightful and an offering to make us break our control habits indeed. I think the Orthodox would say something similar but it might end like this: Be the book, don't share the pages. Much love Ella!
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  105. It is pretty much exactly that! You have to except before you can offer. But I think that’s how life is for anyone on the “outside.” If you think about your real life you very rarely just roll up on people and offer them things. I mean we do as merchants in the west but people don’t really enjoy those kind of transactions. The shelf life of that type of relationship is rather short
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  106. I think that is how this should have ended, this episode! If to resist THIS WAY is to invite the leviathan, what should resistance look like. I think your answer is it brother. It has to look and smell and feel and be sacrificial in that most glorious, hard to define way. It must look like ingestion and digestion and then transformation into a more beautiful being. Resurrection by crucifixion. Like that…
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  107. The beginning of a good thing!
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  108. We will certainly try!
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  109. We're glad you're here too! Stay tuned for some cool content coming your way about this. We recently just finished semester one of our online "podcourse" which was "Are You a Communist, a Capitalist, or Christian?" - we are getting ready to share some of those classes soon which go in depth on this topic!
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  110. And then we think aloud, what should I do next!? The analysis is easy, the metanoia is hard. Right?
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  111. Gotta check him out it seems!
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  112. Yes. It was that, in a rhetorical way.
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  113.  @DouglasHorch  Super duper agree brother
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  114. About an hour south from Fargo toward the Minnesota border. They joined us on our podcourse and are desiring to become orthodox one day. Good peeps.
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  115. I believe it's Laurus, by Eugene Vodalazkin.
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  116. No. We were invited there about four years ago but it didn’t pan out. Ideas!?
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  117. Your words reveal something I’m feeling: is the purpose of this movie making art to actually obscure the redemptive nature of human life? I don’t think that’s cynical at all… but part of me thinks the heart of man or woman just spills out… and in so doing does something like paint a picture of being… of what a writer or director is… and in that way Ozark is just an answer to the question of what people are becoming in our storytelling industries. So… in a nutshell, I struggle to see intentional malice by folks making art, it’s more like our storytellers no longer recognize the same spiritual contours as say the heterodox story tellers of americas first 200 years. Which, of course, is a very different contour than the old world Christians of the Orthodox world. It’s a new world cropping up all around us indeed! Exciting but also… deeply dangerous in the way chaos can be dangerous…
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  118. Jordan and others like him, but Jordan especially, are dealing with very old and deeply spiritual ideas, and doing with new world language and for that he is a perfect guest. The different fits are coming but it's gonna be rocky indeed. And also good... or something like an opportunity. Do you think spiritual peace will become a new type of currency? You comment makes me think of that...
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  119. I like the new categories.
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  120. Count me in. If I can learn to stutter less and think more... or maybe think less and stutter less, thereby?
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  121. Joe is the best indeed!
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  122. Likewise!
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  123. It’s true and a long story!
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  124. martino! A kind review indeed and I am thankful for your words! Little by little... reach out sometime on our website, it would be great to learn more www.first-things.org
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  125. Thank you sister! Little by little as each of us is a cosmos unto ourselves! We can save the world little by little because the world is our neighbor. It’s just saw hard to remember when we keep thinking the world is this rock we live on. It’s so much more than that… your comment is fuel!
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  126. It does have legs I think! Those two will make a good film if they can illustrate the nuance of the crazy idea that soul and nous save trees!
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  127. Let’s do it and let’s not be guilty! Let’s make the beauty blot out the guilt.
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  128. You’re the man Parker!? Where is this happening?! Little by little, let’s keep going somehow. Much love and your support goes deeper than you know.
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  129. I hope you find a way to enter the situation good brother. Find me at johnheers@first-things.org if you feel like reaching out. Little by little indeed…
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  130. Much love to you as well!
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  131. lol
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  132. May it be so!
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  133. can they be related? Next week there is a Hindu inspired author coming on the podcast, Gregory David Roberts (he wrote Shantaram) and we will get into it. Probably. Hinduism, old school, definitely swallows up evolution a little easier than the various Christian confessions... Orthodoxy does something Royal Path with it I think.
    2
  134. We can play Chuck Ds music Andrew! Stop hating! I feel like Chuck would not sue us.
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  135. I couldn’t agree more lol!
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  136. Simplification indeed! But I agree with "nego" below... It has helped me make sense of some many things in this "new" world. And in truth there is a unique vibe, an unseen energy that does in fact reside in cultures with less techne and less wealth. There is a "thing" there. I call it old. It's dumb but also... it has legs in an ephemeral way I think. But it is simple indeed.
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  137. Agreed, in fact, we can't really get out of our deficiencies as we are "of" them. To be aware and humble is maybe all we can do toward a better understanding. And love of neighbor. Something about doing this is also about leaving behind ego. Which seems like the beginning of leaving he polemic and the new world... at least a little
    2
  138. Is the way you use worldliness here something like "love of the temporal"? I think often of how a monarchy is in alignment with Orthodoxy, but I think that I am alive now, as in "right now"... in this time. And to embrace that is not "love of the world". For me Father is saying something like that when you perceive he is being worldly. But I do think he fears old things in the same way I fear new things... both are being "feared" as incomplete. Which they are actually. The Middle! The Middle! The Royal!
    2
  139. As in not super evolved randomly in a galaxy far far away. Uncle Seth trusts weird and very unlikely stuff indeed.
    2
  140.  @JLeppert  Joseph. No. 🛑
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  141. I always think the same thing, that if life exists far away or something, why isn’t it like some sort of dog or something. You know? why do they always have super technology? That has to be some weird psychological remnant of our immediate reason dominated past… no?
    2
  142. These insights on abortion are just brilliant to me. Potential as it’s own value, and human potential, human “being!” is the most beautiful of all potentialities! This type of being is, of course, divine being, and to remove that from life and take it into death, it’s just as you say Rachel, it is an act of suicide and it destroys the future. Love these insights of yours and they demand some attention from Seth and I next time. Thank you for going off lol…
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  143. It's true and weird. Nearly everyone, and I mean everyone, has started to feel the splinter. Well.... not everyone, but I bet every 6th person or so. Which may be enough!
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  144. You made an instant moment of joy in this host. Thanks good brother. I hope we can offer something of use. Something beautiful. Reach out anytime.
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  145. This is such a rich idea indeed. Making me think Dogon peoples space traveler gods that they built stone arrival pads for and incorporated into their origins story. The whole idea of seeing and believing… great great idea!
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  146. Thank you indeed! Also.... Andrew can turn a phrase alright. He saves this thing on numerous occasions.
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  147. So glad to hear this indeed... I was a bit nervous to start cracking jokes with all the smart folks around!
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  148. Ha! Careful....
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  149. Dang! I love this comment! Yes, it’s the proper way to see history I think. All these moments, all these Airpax, have skin, form, and yes they are characters. And yes the old world has to die, but not all of it right? Something has to be passed on, and maybe overtime we find, if we attend, something like a perfecting. an awareness, or wisdom appears… not appears but makes for us an appearance, but not as something new but as something already there just not seen fully yet. Like the spiritual life history offers revelations about God. I think.
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  150.  @parkermize  let me know when you might visit KEIPU and if I am in town let’s make it a date!
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  151. Parker! Much love and may we bear fruit with all of this. Where do you live? I am in South Carolina…
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  152. I know right? Light “ish”… I need to lighterer!
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  153. Wow. Few words. Eloquence write large!
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  154. Oops... not good. Heard. Share this word with your youngun's next... Forgiveness. The guy on the radio is asking for it. Much love!
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  155. It’s a joy to try and offer perspective on these ideas. I’ve left teaching for First Things but history stuff remains in my blood…. Peace to you!
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  156. Same dad experience for me! The lure of it is that it refreshes… which it can. But this kind of “me time” rarely adds, creates… it may be necesssry but I think it is more like conditioned by our culture… and now it is an essential principle for those selling stuff. Thanks for your time Cyndi! Let’s keep going!
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  157. “In the greatest company ever…. That’s the deep insight indeed!
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  158. Llo! The truth is this notion of me time jumps out to me because I so deeply want it… even as I am aware it is not actually good for me. BUT… I think for me to acknowledge the reality even as the illness envelopes you, maybe it is the beginning of the way back… maybe?! Love to you!
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  159. It’s actually almost unbelievable… to see it in person is well… try if you can. Something where techne meets compassion
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  160. I think this comment is one of the best comments our pod could ever see… thank you for your insight Douglass. I think the way westerners use the word believe makes modern “belief” impossible. And I think this has to do with the bifurcation of the intellectual life into things material and things spiritual. This was done by the light people as a new paradigm for truth
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  161. Huge mistakes tho?
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  162. Ron, much love to you indeed. Little by little! Hope there are more here to love!
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  163. Parker!
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  164. Me too! Mere Christianity in a mud hut kicked it all in… but crying at an Orthodox wedding alongside non Orthodox friends, also just bawling… that cinched the beginning of the middle… and so on and so on! May it all end with more and more…
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  165. First Things Foundation is hiring for Mozambique! - https://first-things.org/opportunities Hey everyone! We were very grateful to have Jonathan back on the show and highly recommend checking out his podcast and work at: https://thesymbolicworld.com/ Please drop a like, share this up, and subscribe - it really helps us grow and share our work (including our projects around the world) with all of you. Much love to all of you!
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  166. Lived…
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  167.  @ChristIsKingPhilosophy this is insightful. I think I have loved much of this in my life as an older brother to the unyielding younger brother… truth and love were embodied in my family by my mother (truth) and my father (love). And I suspect this is true for everyone in some way in their own lives, be it in the family or in the workplace or wherever one encounters relationships. I’m trying to learn how to live in both, mutually, and to share both, mutually and simultaneously… I will fail, but to be aware (as it seems you are too), and too remain aware, is perhaps the greatest challenge there is…
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  168. I agree. That chick makes me happy somehow
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  169. You guys want to throw a Georgian Supra?
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  170. This is a good idea
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  171. Neil!
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  172. So sorry so long ago... I hope you get this: Greenville SC, Hampton Station. Keipi. See you there!
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  173. 100! Intentions seem to be something like where meaning is found. Courage is something like meaning in action. I think…
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  174. Bingo
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  175. So this is making me think Brad. Maybe you are on to the biggest truth of all about the new world: Everything is under scrutiny somehow! LIke, I've been given, you've been given, a properly educated Light Person has been given, the power and the invitation to scrutinize everything. To test everything. And to do it is something like "the good". And that sh*!# is weird, like, as a concept. Where does the invite, the imprimatur come from for such scrutiny? Like, because I have a melon sized set of meat synapsis I get to use them to experiment on your being? I get to test your being, your IQ, your way of doing things your reality because... I have a brain? I think scientism teaches us this. And I also think that is a death inducing lie. I don't have the authority to do such things. I do have the authority to love you though. I think... Dammit Brad, I've got to get back to work. Much love!
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  176. Dusan, gotta do it. Would be honored...Been thinking of the best angle for that. Ideas?
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  177. For me uncle Seth is always right on the verge of saying there is no meaning except... then he goes family on me... which is classic pagan ancestor worship in lots of ways
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  178. Love having you on board Midnight!
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  179. Brother! Can there be a why without the divine... I think my uncle Seth would say something like “irrelevant!” Which seems like a diversion.
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  180. What was he searching for?
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  181. It would be a beautiful trip!
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  182. This is just the kind of thing, of words, that are the good fruit I hope for as per our conversations. I really do tire of Uncle Seth’s “world view” yet somehow his soul remains, well, intact. Or something… something loyal and kind about him. Which is maybe the transcendent part of it all. But his vision for a “better” world? Count me out sister! Great comment!
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  183. I think it’s less nasty and more nihil bitter… meaning he is actually a gentle dude. A true gentleman. But “the dirt nap” philosophy can leave a brother cold I think. He doesn’t lol
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  184. He is a dear friend and an uncle of sorts to my daughters, and a pretty hardcore secularist.
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  185.  @nathankurtz5960  you nailed it! It’s shorthand between friend s AND for effect, a type of caricature of the divide these days…
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  186. Agree. Yet he has deep empathy. Is he faking one or the other? Hmmm
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  187. indeed that data does exist, and sadly, I think it will get worse. But is being alone in fact a disease for an "individual". Are we simply becoming sick in a way that we have started to believe is "normal"? Is being lonely just how we live now?
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  188. I think?
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  189. “Suddenly being in the truth”… yes! This is something like the outcome of communing with God- which is prayer. Union is the result of attentiveness… with anything! Prayer is attentiveness to our origins, our Father, our God. Hence “being IN THE TRUTH”
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  190. Sending this over to Nick indeed…
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  191. It was cold! but this comment alone means I’m bringing the burglar back! Much love!
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  192. Love you Natalie!
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  193. much love for that! Ugh... brain still working on them COVID cells.
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  194. Ron Wood this is a most hilarious and most wonderful comment... and it must be done. I'll pester JP again in time, and let's see if we can do rabbits on many dimensions of meaning. Wonderful idea.
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  195. thank you for listening doorman, it is a gift to have you along. Let's keep going!
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  196. Wow… and yes, her argument is that science is a cultural and I’d seduce “religious” endeavor first and foremost. This video is a type of beginning of the end conversation, and I think it is happening all over the world. Philip Sherrard wrote about this, sounds like this woman in many ways, way back in the 1980s…. Rape of man and nature is his book. Good stuff!.
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  197. You are eliciting for me the whole guts of the podcast! The tension between what we’ve lost and what we’ve gained as “light people”… So insightful to know that for a moment here there is a subculture asking the same questions. They are important, and not in a puritanical way. It is redemptive to look with humility upon the past. Light people disdain the past as somehow not “progressive”… great comment and thank you for your support! I’m checking out this video indeed!
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  198. Thanks so much Demetrios - I often wonder if I'm striking the right balance. I appreciate your feedback!
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  199. There is something to what you are saying about Lebron. It is such a powerful bait though, the thing that our culture dangles in front of him, the idea that he can change culture... rather than all meaningful change comes when we change ourselves. I mean... I could see me taking that bait. It's Christ on the mountain with the devil right? In some ways few can resist when it actually faces you down. But man... leadership matters. Lots to consider Mtarlo!
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  200. Ivan, I think I agree with much of what you are saying. But we don’t have to use the enlightenment template. If we use these three types of knowing. Enlighten, the enlightenment becomes a type of bloatedness, an over emphasis on a type of learning. A type of knowing. That I think can be “corrected“… maybe
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  201. I was fumbling with the ideas, but the main point was, hopefully that there’s unity and something like a photo, like there is unity in the painting of an icon, and perhaps a greater unity, something beautifully whore, and the icon of a saint. Everything in proper focus united. Maybe?
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  202. J! When he comes on you must always comment. And I'll get back at ya. He is dear to me, but... so much to be said
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  203. what is seth actually dressed like this? It seems fitting somehow. But alas, it was Halloween.
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  204. Agreed. Both can exist simultaneously. Not unlike all the principles and values that seemingly conflict in my own mind. Love and truth for example. There is no straight line toward the good. Everything is in balance and complimentary…
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  205. The holes! They go down the holes, and then, well… they become meat for the machine
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  206. ❤
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  207. Thanks!!
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  208. No not at all … danielpadrnos@first-things.org
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  209. Yes yes! It always is like this with pure evolutionists… the now, the “we” are always the top of the sword, the enlightened punctuation people… because, well, it MUST BE THIS WAY as per the presumptions of the theory itself.
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  210. Man o live! Yes… the linear time lie is so built in to the convo that most “spiritual” conclusions are literally impossible. It’s why evolution is a type of evil… it closes the loop on spiritual or noetic possibility. It’s what it means to be buried, cut off… anathema.
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  211. Perfectly described. I found the whole thing fascinating as a product, like… it is a sales job and not so much a search for meaning. And it’s as you say… sickening in a creepy kind of way. Like desperate or something… but it’s also ver accepted and right in the secular wheelhouse. Wild stuff that human transformation crowd
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  212. Secret communique…
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  213. Thanks to God and also, let’s see if there is a way to make even better conversations indeed! Greetings from South Carolina. I hope to talk to Paul again soon. Suggestions?!
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  214. The avoidance of the deep dualism is indeed essential and indeed the deepest challenge for us binary thinking humans. Especially those of us trained up in the Aristotelian west. But there seems to be a bloom going on if a type of Neo Platonism… I think a type of “new” Orthodoxy (which of course is a terribly poor phrase but helpful within the context of this comment I hope)… A bloom that asks us to see layers instead of “sides”.
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  215. Also check out Oswald Spangler and his notion of the Magian era… cavernous “within”… we have a chance to recoup this idea now I think…
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  216. I wonder too about all the connections, it makes me think of 911. I need to learn more about this Gandhi situation
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  217. Correct!
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  218. Triscat! I have some very good friends who have a similar story out on the plains of ND… North Dakota… shall I introduce you? Good peeps figuring out their new way of life. Much love to you!
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  219. Accept
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  220. Indeed! My mistake. Let the record show as it is not a small error. Thank you!
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  221. Glad you like them!
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  222. Love to hear what you think brother
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  223. Agreed. He is wonderful
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  224. So true! Happy to hear this is helping (maybe just a little!).
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  225. Thank you for watching! We hope that these updates increase our transparency and reach. All the best to you.
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  226. Let’s talk indeed… johnheers@first-things.org
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  227. I think I understand this comment as rather insightful AK. A little combative but in a fair kind of way. Call me wushu washy but it feels there is space for Sherrard and a robust rejection of Sherrard within the walls of the Orthodox world. I mean, it took 200 years to sort out Origin. I mean, we have time for a drink together at least! Thanks for being a part of this indeed.
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  228. Love this idea thank you indeed. Are you acquainted personally?
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  229. Little by little!
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  230. Much love to you Porch Time. And also, great internet handle. So good...
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  231. "the other still lives and needs an invitation to the true table"... damn Steph. So good. In that sense, one has already made his toast, the other awaits a full reckoning, a true entree... dang. I'm telling you that moment at our table just won't leave me.
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  232. See you there!
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  233. Gagimarjos!
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  234. Have to balance out my Old World inclinations!
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  235.  @EcclesiastesLiker-py5ts  lol
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  236. 🤣 🤣
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  237. You are kind sister!
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  238. Olga, it’s High Tech Academy and my contact/friend their is Tania Bassot (she is Kazak married to a Frenchman).
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  239. Olga! Maybe we should talk. I know some people associated with the new private school there in Almaty. Let’s talk next week yes?
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  240. Why do we do this and how does it work... We have the dog's vomit example too! Thanks St. Paul!
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  241. Agreed!
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  242. It is going to be a thing
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  243. So odd
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  244. Brother, so interesting this view of yours. The notion of balancing seems spot on and in many ways the challenge of every society is to awaken their people, their souls, to the act of balancing. And the heart seems at the center of this act, physically, spiritually and ontologically… check out one of our later pods with Dr Mohebali the Chinese med doc… talking about the heart as not a pump but a passageway
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  245. Steph on fire. It’s weird right? How could the fallen world be anything but dirty? The mechanical impulse to clean and coterize everything ends in cold calculated cultures I think…
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  246. Caleb! Maybe we should do that! Write me and maybe we can work this out. And yes, the issue again and again in these and most internet comvos is the simplification imperative. I know it’s in my blood, but I also know it corresponds with a human imperative to “understand”…. But if I’m being honest much of that need to understand is want and desire and not “need”… it often feels like the need to understand is akin to an addiction. Info and clarity becomes a type of porn. Often I feel myself wanting to shout out, “you will not understand and you will not be clear about X Y and Z… but if you try you will relate and love and that might be the point of it all.” Maybe. You making me think now…
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  247. Do you think it can be stopped Thomas? It feels like a type of inertia that can only be slowed by... well... a series of awful and violent events that unmask the data. Think Matrix.
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  248. LOL! But isn't there still something beautiful in trying to hit that little dumb ball? I can't escape the beauty in the difficulty
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  249. CS Lewis also talks about this in some ways when he equates science with magic and the "short" game of supplying wants, but eventually destroying our ability to recognize true needs (spiritual in nature).
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  250. Not by much! Little by little.
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  251. jamison! My new world pal....
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  252. You are kind. I hope we can all help each other strip off all the vanity… but then I catch myself being vain! Little by little!
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  253. Indeed
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  254. True. But he does speak a clean fight…
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  255. It seems very possible that you became something like transcendent at that moment perhaps J'nel... something like aware of your nous, that which "we come to" when confronting ourselves. And Ithink that confrontation is often found in various forms of violence, not just physical. Violence here being something like a rattling of our world, a deafening rattle of the "norm"... I think...
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  256. Would have been perfect!
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  257. Seriously appreciated! Thank you!
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  258. KT, you are striking close to the serpents head indeed! How do we come to KNOW... what is the epistemology of the new world, and why should we trust it? Uh oh.... too deep into that conversational pool and the west is in danger of drowning I think...
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  259. Indeed indeed 👍🏽
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  260. BB! Count on it. Trying to get a couple of the contemporary rasta reggae cats on as we speak… jah Mason and Khari Kill… really would love that!
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  261. Rachel! I don’t see a way around it. We will… and we shouldn’t
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  262. Yikes! So good…
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  263. Andrew having fun!
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  264. Peace Joanna! Indeed... but how does it all end?
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  265. One of the best!
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  266. “I don’t think that mystery matters to us”… bingo!
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  267. The reason is both tool and telos for the materialists and they can’t keep up. It’s a closed loop. So agree with you
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  268. Politics and healthcare! They may be the engines for all future change A to Z! Steph! Peace to you!
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  269. Ron, I love this notion of touchstones and timelessness. It's oddly true yet so paradoxical that it almost defies the mind. Something timeless that you can touch (stone)? What? But yet... YES! I keep thinking of a friend of mind who just shakes his head at such things and says, "you are weird." But am I? Well.. is the idea weird, really?
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  270.  @shayneswenson  Liturgy must be more than that which happens "over there" in that place... I think it is that AND all that is, it is a re-membering, putting back together.... of reality. Yes?
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  271. I need to be less worried and go forward. Good stuff!
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  272. May we feast together one day!
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  273. This is the risky talk...challenging the origins story scares people!
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  274. Gosh I love the notion you speak of… “come unannounced and serve a coffee and move on”… this is the heart of the thing at play. A soul demands a moment more… just a moment at least! And it’s not “fake” it is honorable somehow. Great insight here. Brazil is such a place indeed, between old and new
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  275. Steph! This gives me an idea! I’ll do that podcast you are suggesting. It makes sense… and with a twist. Thank you for your insight indeed!
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  276.  @Orthodoxi  🥸
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  277. I think this happens! Is it Reisha’s or mine? Because I know my questions often fail to manifest skin and bones if you know what I mean…
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  278. Agreed!
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  279. Agreed! And so learn about us and maybe one day we can learn about you… we are looking now for good folks to serve in Mozambique. One never knows!
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  280. I hoped it has stopped. And I’m thankful you have watched. I recommend we have a coffee instead of another viewing of this video! Life!
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  281. Peace to you Lisa!
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  282. 🤣 can we monetize it for good? Tell your hubsy hello from all of us at wawtar!
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  283. Love Theodore Dalrymple - Our Culture or What's Left Of It was also an eye opening read! Will have to definitely check out your suggestion. Thanks!
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  284. Ouch. But New York is the jam!
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  285. Invented never. Scientifically born from a primal truth sludge. Here you go https://first-things.org/lightometer
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  286. Right on! I am thankful to have met her as well
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  287. She and her crew are doing something powerful as per lifting up men by being deeply beautiful women
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  288. We think so too!
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  289. Agreed!
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  290. Yes but died? no… more like began its death march… this is hospice we are watching
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  291.  @Brad-RB  peace! I do think that science or whatever has always existed. But like the noetic self must lead the intellectual self, the suspicious parts of us must be tempered by a deep trust in the Divine. Christ is resurrected from the dead so doubt that neighbors intention just a little less please… like that!
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  292. Paul Wise your words are with me brother! They are heavy words said lightly. Perfecto! And yes, I have a little Orthodox pin hammer I keep in my podcasts back pocket just for the Episcopalians. Please forgive me (I started as an Anglican guy way back as a baby… I’m only now waking up to a kind of willingness toward mercy for my past…) It’s dumb, I know. Let’s be friends even if I say mean things now and then. You can say them back brother! And then… we share a drink. Shall we?
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  293. the third one is soooo true. Something like be nice will ascend. But nice about what?
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  294.  @d.b427  He came on Dusan! Go back and look, I think he's episode 8 or so. He is my pal!
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  295. Bow tie is legit though.
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  296. Jeremiah! Thank you!
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  297. Deep ideas here said lovingly
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  298. Working on it!
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  299. Come join us on our monthly online hangout nbinghi! Would be wonderful 👍🏽
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