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Bad times breed strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times breed weak men. Weak men create bad times.

In all seriousness though, humans are doomed anytime we have enough time to wring our hands over worries about the percentage of “People of Color” on the corporate boards of tech companies. Woke politics isn’t just the method of decline, it was the harbinger too. We could have put an early end to it, but too many were worried their neighbour would call them an “ist” or “_____phobic”. We need to find our strength so that we may survive what is to come, and make better times again. It needs to start with mass non-compliance with all the woke and far-left political bullshit.

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Please clarify? Are you saying that too much free time breeds "worries" or racism, or ? I just want to understand. I think free time is good, in moderation, as a means of day-dreaming and keeping creativity strong and well...

Our strength is in many things, it seems to me, to each their own, and creativity has a big role in what that looks like, though it's not been ubiquitous much at all throughout our history, "our" being "Western" culture...

And plus, I am totally down for that last sentence!!

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Oct 5, 2022Liked by Chris Bray

“suffering and loss are the normal human experience”

I tried to say this during the “pandemic.” It was not appreciated.

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We avoid adversity by sacrificing personal freedoms to bureaucratic tyrants.

“You do not have to climb that mountain range yourself, dear sheep. You may fall and break! Let my strong safe jaws carry your weary body. It’s for your own safety, dear sir!”

*says the lion licking his chops*

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Both of your posts reminded me of Aesop’s fable of The Scorpion and the Frog. Voluspa has in it several similar statements warning one of trusting any who isn’t worthy of your trust because of their inability to act in a trustworthy manner.

I personally don’t think the quotas of corporate boards ethnic make was where this started but something more sinister. It was the quotas of graduating medical classes where the fall began in earnest, and probably before that. There are three books I have read that detailed this where this and other current topics were discussed years ago. None Dare Call It Conspiracy, None Dare Call It Treason, and Dumbing Us Down. All three are excellent lucid reads. All three are also long out of print in their original form ( now highly edited or censored).

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Oct 5, 2022·edited Oct 5, 2022Liked by Chris Bray

We are living through a fable about the elixir of life.

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This is why history is important. Especially family history. If you know the stories of your ancestors, you know the insanely difficult circumstances they struggled through and triumphed over - at least enough that they were able to muddle along to the degree that ultimately, you were born. Those conditions were worse than anything we've experienced, at least physically (I'm half convinced that our spiritual malaise is up there with the worst humanity has ever gone through). If they got through that, and they're in us, then so can we.

Conversely, the contemporary push to anathematize the past, to 'live in the present, man' and therefore maintain a near perfect ignorance aside from a half-mythological, vague impression that the past was nothing but bigotry and oppression, makes it impossible to draw strength from our ancestral examples. That makes us weak, easily controlled, and fragile - the smallest molehill looks like the cliffs of K2 when you don't understand the sheer uncompromising savagery of the mountain ranges our ancestors found navigable passes through.

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Exactly. My sister scolded me a few weeks ago (whining about the state of the world) and reminded me that we are descendants of pilgrims, patriots, and pioneers. Just because an illness (in many, many forms) is taking over the world, doesn't mean we cave to it. That's not who we are.

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Likewise, it helps us to be kind to all when we remember that no one's ancestors had it easy, compared to today. Life is always hardship as well as, hopefully, some joy, for every person. The current fad to talk "privilege" ignores that. As Louis CK said, the only time you should be looking at your neighbor's bowl is to make sure they've got enough in there.

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Very well said. People don’t read history today so they have no idea how good things are today.

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Oct 5, 2022·edited Oct 5, 2022Liked by Chris Bray

From one version of The Lord's Prayer in Luke: "and do not subject us to the final test" (an alt translation of "lead us not into temptation"). I've been through some rough times. Tests of my mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical limits. I'm better after having been through them, but I don't want them. I don't seek them. (OK, I have sought and pushed through physical limits.) The mental/emotional/psych tests were much harder than the physical tests. With physical tests I felt more in control (mind over matter, push through the pain, focus on the goal). So yeah, I'd ask God not to subject me to the ultimate test, but I also know that life's full of hardships. They're inevitable. I either get stronger or I allow them to get the better of me. When faced with those tests, I can turn to God or away from him. My choice. There are more to come as long as I draw a breath and awake to a new day.

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You can edit your comments after you post them -- look for the three dots, and click on that. Happens to all of us.

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Oct 5, 2022Liked by Chris Bray

Thanks Chris. Done it. Those sneaky 3 dots . . .

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Oct 5, 2022Liked by Chris Bray

Just think about the state of mind required to trek across the country to Keeler and say "WELP THIS IS THE PLACE."

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I spent a couple of hours in the Johannesburg, California cemetery one afternoon twenty-one years ago, almost to the day. It was after 9/11. It's an old mining town, almost a ghost town now. It's down by Ridgecrest. I almost left a comment yesterday. Any old cemetery, rural or urban, will bring tears to your eyes, all the children buried there. Young men and maidens too. Read about their hope in the face of death. They carved it in stone.

Walking through cemeteries is a great way to imagine the past. And truth be told, imagine the future too. We live in an age that has lost its way because we don't want to be bothered thinking about death. The old Samurai trained themselves to wake in the morning and imagine all the ways they might die that day. Christians have the imagery of the mass and baptism to help them imagine that dying with Christ is life everlasting. But, when they cancel mass because they fear the 'pandemic,' I'd say unbelief is holding all the trump cards. What do you want them to carve on your headstone Chris?

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I've had this discussion with my family: No headstone, no box. Cremate, deposit in ocean. Visit ocean, wave hello.

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That will make the sort of remembering you've been doing harder for the living.

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We've had that discussion, and will go on having it. I don't want to rot in a box. But I guess it won't matter to me, at that point.

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Oct 5, 2022Liked by Chris Bray

This is one I hadn’t checked out (I’ll definitely have to!) - but the “lost to time” aspect reminds me of Aurora just outside of Bodie. You can take the back road out of Bodie and hit it in about 30 minutes. There is a relatively intact graveyard, some beautiful old equipment left to age into a gorgeous patina, some footprints of houses, etc. I’m a ghost town nut and though Bodie is exceptional, Aurora is somehow far more haunting. Probably tied with the Silverado mine for me or Belfort.

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And now I have another road trip to plan.

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Oct 6, 2022Liked by Chris Bray

You won’t be disappointed :)

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Oct 5, 2022Liked by Chris Bray

People have tried to and plain had to live

in the craziest of places, so open and windy.

I can't imagine. Mom came from

Saskatchewan, Canada, and it was very

wide open too , few trees.

Remembers helping her mom hold

the door shut from the wind. - Best

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Oct 5, 2022Liked by Chris Bray

So many of life's most poignant lessons come from tragic personal stories behind graves long forgotten. Perspective is an acquired trait—but it only comes from researching or seeking the whole story (good and bad), not just accepting revisionist/editorial bullet points as "history."

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Amazing. Putting that area on my list, for sure.

I've wandered through a lot of ghost towns, even some that seem like ghost towns but aren't, and the cemeteries are such a testament to the people. In fact, just scouted one out a few weeks ago, and the town is still somewhat functioning, I'm just not sure how. They had an old pioneer cemetery marked on the map, and then their traditional (still pioneerish) cemetery in a separate place. And the old cemetery was a a handful of decayed stones smushed together, overgrown with weeds, with odd plastic barricades around it. And they don't know who's buried there. And it's next to one of the only real homes in the area, which was a nice house, with a Dish satellite on the roof and children's toys on the manicured lawn. Such a strange juxtaposition.

So you've pointed out why these things speak to us, which I'm not sure I've put into words before. People are either brave and strike out in the unknown and harsh world to find something better, or were driven out from ease and comfort and forced to make their way in the wilderness. Either way, humanity survives and is stronger for it. We all live on things built by these hardy people in the past, so if it's our turn to honor that legacy by having to be strong, so be it. Good always wins in the end.

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Oct 5, 2022Liked by Chris Bray

I love the eastern sierra. It takes a special person to live, and vacation there. It’s not for everyone- and in California, that’s a good thing (less people).

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As a kid, my Disneyland was Mac's Sporting Goods in Bishop.

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As an adult, my Disneyland is Eastside Sports in Bishop:

https://eastsidesports.com/

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Oct 5, 2022Liked by Chris Bray

My popular requests consist of things I wish or imagine people would request...

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Oct 6, 2022·edited Oct 6, 2022Liked by Chris Bray

This is why you are one of my favorite substack writers.

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Oct 6, 2022Liked by Chris Bray

The Eastern Sierra, from above Reno down through the Mojave is so full of so many unique and thought-provoking places, landmarks and environments. Much the same way as the often unseen and hidden parts of family histories. Both are worth exploring, even if it's a day trip, it's the first step that counts. Thanks Chris for sharing a few of the steps through parts of your journey.

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Oct 5, 2022Liked by Chris Bray

My favorite ghost town in Nevada is Mineral Hill, where there is among the crumbling mines an apple orchard and a small cemetery with gravestones with Hebrew writing, whole little families there. My wedding ring is made from a gold nugget I got there. My grandfather used to play in old sod houses near Rifle, Colorado, and in one there was a piano that he swore he heard playing when no one else was there. Midas, Nevada is like part ghost. Cortez, you'd find a separate Chinatown to the rest. The cemeteries bear lessons to us all. Thanks for this reminder!

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“suffering and loss are the normal human experience”

Kind of summed up by the word "snowflakes".

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