Forest Lessons, No 10
A proposal for you, dear readers.
First things first: I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. May nothing but the best come for you and yours this holiday season. Since I’m a public school teacher, I’ve had this whole week off so I’m taking the opportunity to explain some new ideas at The Partisan. It’s been said one reads to understand others while one writes to understand themselves. Beyond that, discussion is a forge where new ideas are made. Thanks to these short missives and the conversations they inspire I now see a way they can become more than just a diary of my weekly experiences.
I’ve said many times already public education is a mess. I’m not fixing it. You’re not fixing it. So it goes with most things. However, we are still obligated to deal with the world as it is and not as we wish it would be. To that end, I believe I’ve found the higher purpose of Forest Lessons: helping as many people as possible find their own way into the forest.
What do I mean by that? I’ll start by explaining who these essays are for, going forward.
First, the autodidacts. That’s a fancy word for “self taught”. For those of you here that haven’t yet rediscovered your God given curiosity and ability to learn about the world I hope my essays will point out the various paths available to you. You can begin at any time. Even now.
Second, the autotelics. We do things for the joy of that thing. We read because we like reading. We write because we like writing. We build because we cannot do otherwise. We take the forest passage because we’ll love not just what we find but the journey too.
Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, the anarchs. Pause before you consider this idea further. I’m not talking about anarchists. To understand this concept start with a simple formulation: the monarch seeks to rule all while the anarch seeks to rule only himself. I’m describing a person that retains their freedom while making their way through the world, whatever that world looks like. We don’t care who’s in charge. We’re not invested in what they believe. We don’t acknowledge their authority but we do make use of it for our own purposes.
In the end I’m a historian making his way through history’s ebb and flow. Whether your talents for this are far above mine or this is the first time you’ve encountered the idea one thing is true for us all: there is always more to learn. Let’s not just learn together but build something along the way. Something we can leave behind when we’re gone. Even if it’s just a trail of crumbs leading into the forest let it at least lead Home. You know of whom I speak. God is the only one to whom we bend the knee.
That’s the idea, such as it is. If it seems rough and unclear, you’re right! I don’t know what this will turn into (perhaps a book?), but I know I won’t find it without help. I have some, but I want more, and so we turn to more mundane matters: how does this happen?
As for me, this is a life’s work. I’ll be walking this path until I die, at least. My family and friends will certainly come along to the extent they’re able and I look forward to that journey with them. For you, whomever you are dear reader, I encourage you to participate in one of two ways.
First, simply subscribe to The Partisan. It will always be free to do so. Read my essays. Ask me questions. Challenge my points. Provide your own experience. Jump into the discussion as you see fit.
Second, consider a paid subscription to The Partisan. Money is important whether we like it or not. The more I make from Substack the more I devote to the work. Simple as that. Beyond that, a paid subscription marks you to me as a patron. You’ve got skin in the game. What you’ll get for that is exclusive paid subscriber chats where you’ll see ideas before they appear in The Partisan. You’ll have my ear and learn things in ways others won’t.
So what will you say?
Perhaps first mull the wisdom of John Adams. As it’s been said, weak men create hard times. Soon is the time for strong men to lead us out.
I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain.
I intend to cast the die high, building as if I’ll live forever but living as if I’ll die tomorrow. In other words, help me help us all so that our children today might become tomorrow’s Aeneans.
Time is short. The ideologies of the 20th century are in their death throes. A New World is waiting to be born, perhaps in fire. Let us take that fire from the gods and find the way forward into the forest. Perhaps not only on Earth, but to worlds we can't yet imagine.
For their assistance, special thanks to
and .If you wish to learn more about the concept of the Aenean Soul, click here for
‘s magnificent essay.
Thanks for teaching me the word "anarch."
I love your attitude & your enthusiasm for learning.
We can always learn new things, especially with the Internet. I was a latchkey kid in the 60's & 70's & I used to read the ancient (1940ish) encyclopedias we had at home, just out of curiosity. My mom also took us to the library every other Saturday, where I could browse to my heart's content. I read about ancient Troy, the Oregon Trail, and a lot of children's literature by English writers, describing forests & meadows & gardens I could only dream about, because I grew up in Phoenix. I eventually discovered science fiction & fantasy, which opened my mind to other worlds & other possibilities. I just devoured everything on the shelves. All that classic sci-fi & the dystopian futures it described taught me to be wary of big government, which seeks to control every aspect of our lives.
And that, my friends, is why I never fell for the "pandemic" (among other things). Science fiction taught me to regard the government with a very skeptical eye. And to think, it was once considered low-brow.
Hmph!