Become Godlike
Zoom out. You are going to die.
When I stand on top of the cliff behind the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where I spend every morning, I like to imagine that I am an eagle, soaring into the sky, seeing myself from the perspective above. The wind could push me, a bee could sting me, and I could go toppling down to the bottom. A vulture would then come eat my decomposing flesh, as the worms crawl through my orifices, leaving my body both nourishing nature and the soil.
Your death gives rise to new life.
We all have an expiration date. We are perishable items like food in the grocery store such as milk or eggs. Recognizing that we are bound by time can free us to live intentionally and without fear.
Live dangerously.
You are what you eat
I like the saying, “you are what you eat.” If you eat chocolate cookie crisp cereal each morning, an ultra-processed food, what are you feeding your body but merely poison?
This food will inevitably make your soul, or your physical body, sick. Consider your soul as your physical body. Everything that you consume becomes a reflection upon your soul. A sick body will ultimately have a sick mind. A sick mind is a damaged soul, perishable goods that are expiring at a rapid rate. Some people will smoke cigarettes, others will consume candy, but on the path to becoming Godlike, we recognize the temptations of tongue pleasure, our best to be avoided.
In the Iliad, the Greeks would often sacrifice hecatombs, or hundreds of cattle, for the gods, to seek favor and fortune in battle. This was not just a religious ritual, but everybody would feast on the flesh of the animals after making the sacrifice. This reminds me of my time in Jericho, during the day of sacrifice, Eid Al-Adha. Hundreds of lamb were slaughtered throughout the streets, and all I smelled was the stench of blood and sacrifice all day long. Everybody in the village fasted all day, and in the evening, feasted together as a community.
This is how I thrive in my daily life, fasting all day, and feasting in the evening.
Become cage-free
The quality of food that we consume is very critical. We should only consume the highest quality cuts of meat, grass-fed beef. Chicken is bad. Don’t eat chicken. Do you want to be a little chickenshit? Buck, buck, buck! Don’t eat chicken. Eat beef.
Do you want to be a bison or a chicken?
The simplest solution and best bang for your buck is perhaps the Wagyu American-raised grass-fed beef from Costco which is $17 for 3 pounds or the lamb leg from New Zealand, which is all grass-fed, no hormones added, and free-range.
As humans, we too, should be cage-free, free-range animals, raised in open spaces. However, this modern world puts us inside a box, both physically and metaphorically. We design our lives around luxury, comfort, and hedonistic pleasure-seeking. We live in office buildings for the majority of our days, sedentary, squandering our time and physical potential through pursuing material wealth. Let’s become free-range, like those free-range eggs that we purchase in grocery stores.
You are the salt of the earth
From grades pre-K to 8, I attended a Roman Catholic school and will never forget learning about the Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount. I remember this being one of the most important teachings that we learned in school, as they give you a set of principles to live by. During the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus described people as the salt of the earth.
Matthew 5:13-16
“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.”
During my Peace Corps service in Zambia, Africa, I worked with the Department of Fisheries as a rural aquaculture promotion specialist. After men gathered fish from the lake or the fish ponds, the fish was cleaned, gutted, and dried. We preserved the fish by adding salt, which prevents bacteria from growing, through dehydration, drying in the sunlight for a few days.
Like the salt that gives good taste to food, such as that delicious flavor that is added to our grass-fed beef, we too add a lovely flavor to the world. Not only does salt provide flavor, but it is also useful for preserving food. By preserving ourselves, remaining pure of heart, and upholding virtues, we can be useful to our neighbors through acts of kindness and uplifting those around us.
The 40-hour workweek
In hunter-gatherer societies, people would work in sprints, typically for a few days, maybe 20 hours per week, providing all of the resources that they needed for the community to thrive for a week or two. This gave the community much more free time to specialize in other pursuits, tell stories around the campfire, and spend time with family and tribe. This way of life provided a more balanced lifestyle, aligned with nature, providing more time for leisure. Now, in this modern world, with a 40-hour workweek, we drag out the day, toiling for an excessive number of hours, going against our natural state of being. Just think, 75% of the work done in modern cities is done indoors, under fluorescent lights, in air conditioning, sitting down for the majority of the day. This will lead to the decay of the physical body and the ability for the community to thrive and form social bonds through spirituality, family, and stories.
Do you see the carrot on the stick?
If man will fool a donkey with a carrot on a stick to make it move, what makes you think man won’t trick his brother or sister?
The carrot on the stick is the fiat currency that inflates in price every year, that drives our population to move their physical bodies onward, scurrying into the beehives, driving automobiles, and embracing the hamster wheel of life. What’s funny is, we love hamster wheels, running on treadmills, or even this new trend towards SoulCycle, cycling in place, indoors. We will continue moving onwards, so long as we do not see the carrot, this unreachable, intangible illusion of a goal that we are all striving towards in this material world. The carrot will continue to deceive the masses onwards, until the day they drop into the grave, and so the cycle of life repeats.
The food industry corrupt
Unhealthy foods were produced by the tobacco companies, such as Kraft, General Foods, and Nabisco. Most food that you find in cities like Philadelphia is made addictive by design. Just look at the ingredients on the back of the box that you purchased, and notice the laundry list of chemicals added. Nothing is natural about these foods, and the only food in the grocery store worth purchasing is found on the outskirts, in the areas where the meat is stored.
Have you ever been able to eat just one Oreo, or do you find yourself eating the whole sleeve?
Person A: Eats 2000 calories of Oreos
Person B: Eats 2000 calories of red meat
Which person will be healthier and full of vitality? The answer is obvious. Stop counting calories. Just eat real, whole foods, and animal-based protein. If you want to eat vegetables, just eat kimchi or kale. Stop living on the hamster wheel. Don’t weigh yourself on a scale. Counting calories is a scam.
Cattle as capital
In the beginning of The Bitcoin Standard by Saifedean Ammous, a book I recently read, it discusses the various earliest forms of money ever used in society. It discusses the use of shells, precious metals, livestock, salt, and grains. One of the words I found very interesting that was used in the beginning was pecuniary.
The word pecuniary comes from the Latin word pecuniarius, which means “pertaining to money.” This, in turn, derives from pecunia, meaning “money” or “wealth,” which itself originates from pecus, meaning “cattle.” In ancient times, cattle were a measure of wealth, so the term pecuniary has roots in the idea of wealth being tied to livestock.
When I consider cattle as capital, it makes the most sense after remaining on a disciplined, 100% carnivore diet for two years now. All man truly needs is a place to sleep, meat, salt, and water. Everything else is superfluous. My new idea of real wealth, or capital, is having a freezer full of beef. If you have a freezer full of beef, you are a rich man. This is the new sign of wealth in my eyes.
Salt and salary
Also, the importance of salt in antiquity, especially in Rome, was so critical that Roman soldiers were paid a salarium, which was an allotment of money used to simply purchase salt. This is where we get the word salary from, and is typically what 99% of our population depends on to put food on their plates. So, when we receive our salary, perhaps it is most wise to utilize it for storing capital. We can purchase beef, salt, rent, and then throw everything else into Bitcoin. Why would you want the banks holding your money, that depreciates in value each year, when you can store all of your capital in a property that will appreciate over time? Just go to hope.com, or michael.com, and watch the series: What is Money by Michael Saylor. Only those that need to know will find out. Otherwise, enjoy the carrot.
Real restaurants
The word restaurant comes from the term, to restore or to refresh. In 16th century France, the first restaurants were places where people could go and purchase affordable healing broths from street vendors.
Think of a typical restaurant in the city, like McDonald’s, salad bars, or even Chipotle, which all smell like stinky stockrooms, selling processed slop. I’d say 75% of the restaurants in the city provide zero nutritional value, probably use some sort of weird vegetable oil, fried food, and not fresh.
The only real restaurants in the city of Philadelphia are the Vietnamese beef pho places, such as Pho 75 on Washington Ave, Cali Pho in Chinatown, or Pho Street on both Market and Arch Street. I consider these real restaurants because the bone broth, organ meats, and beef are truly medicinal. I cut my face the other day at work while chopping down a tree, and after eating a hearty bowl of beef, filled with collagen, vital protein used to regenerate tissue and heal wounds. After a bowl of bone broth, and the following day eating some calf liver, the cut actually went away.
Our food can be used for healing or restoration, and we should be most critical about what restaurants we go to. Only go to restaurants that provide you with a nutritious meal, healing food, that subscribe to the original intention of what a restaurant is used for, restoration. Meat is medicine.
Live Dangerously
Focus on what you can change. There is a story about Epictetus, an ancient Stoic philosopher, who was born into slavery. His master was cruel and liked to torture him, one day twisting his leg. As his leg was being twisted, Epictetus told him,
“If you continue, you will break my leg.”
As he continued to twist, he inevitably broke his leg. When it broke, Epictetus calmly replied,
“There, I told you it would break.”
He remained detached from the physical pain, remaining calm by expecting the inevitable outcome of his broken leg. I highly suggest reading the book, The Discourses by Epictetus.
You cannot control external circumstances, but have control from within, through your reaction to external stimuli. We should focus on only what is within our power. You can change your diet, your daily habits, the amount of time you spend standing and walking in the day, and even where and how you store your money and capital. You can change your path, what you do for work, and leisure. You have the freedom of choice, and the ball is in your court. However, what if freedom was the elimination of these choices?
Should I go left, or should I go right?
I seek neither path. The only path is onward, and upward, soaring like an eagle into the sky, living dangerously.
During my morning walk, I sometimes enjoy teetering and tottering along the railing that guards me from falling into the river, on the edge of order and chaos, as I thrive in the unknown.
Just let go. Stop being a slave to your fate or fortune. Remove all hope and fear. This is the path to freedom. We need to go onwards with that IDGAF “I don’t give a fuck” energy. Accept your destiny, and c’est la vie. Thrive in the ups, the downs, and the mundane of everyday life. We live in a very safe, sanitized world, and it is time to take the dangerous path. It’s time to unleash our inner hero and become godlike.