Trials, tribulations, temptations, tension. These are the X that marks the spot for where our understanding is limited and we don’t see clearly. If we forthrightly explore that space, we find that what we considered trials, were really invitations.

The Cutting Edge - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104040/
Weights and wings - https://www.crosswalk.com/devotionals/desert/streams-in-the-desert-april-9th.html
Streams in the Desert - https://www.amazon.com/Streams-Desert-L-B-Cowman/dp/0310210062
Veritasium on Entropy - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxL2HoqLbyA
Lex and Chamath on failure - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFQUDCgMjRc
Viktor Frankl - https://www.amazon.com/Mans-Search-Meaning-Viktor-Frankl/dp/080701429X

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
(James 1:2-4)

Find us here:
x.com/mattmccloskey
x.com/michaelvaclav
All Matt’s Links - https://solo.to/mattmccloskey
All Michael’s Links - https://solo.to/michaelvaclav
Sovereign Goods - www.etsy.com/shop/SovereignThreadGoods
Cafe Medici - mediciroasting.com/?srsltid=AfmBOo…9eDe2OliQmjTc2A


Ep 235: Toe Pick!

This week on SOI:
- Is this WWIII?
- How does the death of God effect the news and reporting of what’s true?
- Iran, Israel, Covid, etc - how do you know what’s true? Who can we trust to tell us the truth?
- Without God, narrative allegiances become rigid
- A functional story requires honesty
- Being who we are is relational
- How does tolerance become intolerant?

Find us here:
x.com/mattmccloskey
x.com/michaelvaclav
All Matt’s Links - https://solo.to/mattmccloskey
All Michael’s Links - https://solo.to/michaelvaclav
Sovereign Goods - www.etsy.com/shop/SovereignThreadGoods
Cafe Medici - mediciroasting.com/?srsltid=AfmBOo…9eDe2OliQmjTc2A


Ep 242: The death of God and the news

This week on SOI:
- AI can’t do what humans do because humans aren’t reasonable (Rick Rubin) - https://www.instagram.com/p/DK4isVTz93G/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
- AI turns data into a conversation.
- Storytelling is our native language. 
- Hollow vs. Hallow
- What does it mean to feel good or bad
- T.S. Eliot, Hemingway, Fitzgerald
- We are a collection of identities, responsibilities, and titles
- Fatherhood as an act

Find us here:
x.com/mattmccloskey
x.com/michaelvaclav
All Matt’s Links - https://solo.to/mattmccloskey
All Michael’s Links - https://solo.to/michaelvaclav
Sovereign Goods - www.etsy.com/shop/SovereignThreadGoods
Cafe Medici - mediciroasting.com/?srsltid=AfmBOo…9eDe2OliQmjTc2A

Ep 243: Be Unreasonable

This week on SOI:
- Matt’s mom Jeanenne joins the Shores
- Jeanenne’s journal that Mike read, and then named her “Poetgirl.”
- We are each an I, not a we. Gollam is a we.
- Poetgirl, poema
- We are either a male soul or a female soul
- We are each a poem written by God
- What has caused the revolt against sexuality
- What makes your life force increase, and what makes it decrease

Find us here:
Jeanenne McCloskey - https://www.rivendellcounseling.com / https://merefemininity.substack.com/p/poetgirl
x.com/mattmccloskey
x.com/michaelvaclav
All Matt’s Links - https://solo.to/mattmccloskey
All Michael’s Links - https://solo.to/michaelvaclav
Sovereign Goods - www.etsy.com/shop/SovereignThreadGoods
Cafe Medici - mediciroasting.com/?srsltid=AfmBOo…9eDe2OliQmjTc2A


Ep 244: We Are the Poiema, with Jeanenne McCloskey

Why is reality preferable to a dream? Vanilla Sky and The Matrix reflect our innate desire to be awake rather than asleep, despite the obvious appeal of the dream like state.

This week on SOI:
Europe and Trump
Vanilla Sky
The Matrix
What is real and what is not real?
Death and mourning, relationships don’t die
The bastardization of Truth
The Lord of the Rings
Why sacrifice and faith as necessary to live in reality
Colemak (Keyboard layout - https://colemak.com)
Shavian (English alphabet - https://shavian.info)

Ep 245: Vanilla Sky

This week on SOI:
- Life itself is an act of faith
- If we ask for what we want, will God give it to us?
- Opting into personal responsibility in the modern age
- Could we make parenting decisions without privation?
- Can you make art with out restraints?
- Writing in genres
- What will you sacrifice your life for?

Find us here:
x.com/mattmccloskey
x.com/michaelvaclav
All Matt’s Links - https://solo.to/mattmccloskey
All Michael’s Links - https://solo.to/michaelvaclav
Sovereign Goods - www.etsy.com/shop/SovereignThreadGoods
Cafe Medici - mediciroasting.com/?srsltid=AfmBOo…9eDe2OliQmjTc2A

Ep 246: The cost of life is death

This week on SOI:
- Life from entropy
- Love your neighbor as yourself
- Drifting away from revelation
- Perception of tools and objects
- Your aim defines how you perceive your life
- Marriage, dating, and a culture of disposable things
- The Ouroboros - The feminine is what is, the masculine is what becomes 
- Have kids young - give your parents to your kids

Referenced links:
Richard Feynman (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifk6iuLQk28)
Entropy (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxL2HoqLbyA)
Breath book (https://www.amazon.com/Breath-New-Science-Lost-Art/dp/0735213615)
The Origins and History of Consciousness (https://www.amazon.com/Origins-History-Consciousness-Mythos-Princeton/dp/0691163596)

Find us here:
x.com/mattmccloskey
x.com/michaelvaclav
All Matt’s Links - https://solo.to/mattmccloskey
All Michael’s Links - https://solo.to/michaelvaclav
Sovereign Goods - www.etsy.com/shop/SovereignThreadGoods
Cafe Medici - mediciroasting.com/?srsltid=AfmBOo…9eDe2OliQmjTc2A

Ep 247: Where Does the Mass of a Tree Come From?

How can we protect ourselves from doing evil in the name of good?

“Above all, don't lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

This week on SOI:
- AI vs Reality
- Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift
- The culture of compliant
- Is there a man behind the curtain?
- JFK, 9/11, Covid, and conspiracy theories
- Does evil exist?
- Evil is always done in the name of Good
- Buhdism vs Christianity
- The Chinese Farmer parable
- The Pieta - the good mother fails - the pieta by michelangelo
- The People of the Lie - https://www.amazon.com/People-Lie-Hope-Healing-Human/dp/0684848597

Find us here:
x.com/mattmccloskey
x.com/michaelvaclav
All Matt’s Links - https://solo.to/mattmccloskey
All Michael’s Links - https://solo.to/michaelvaclav
Sovereign Goods - www.etsy.com/shop/SovereignThreadGoods
Cafe Medici - mediciroasting.com/?srsltid=AfmBOo…9eDe2OliQmjTc2A


Ep 248: How do I know my good is not evil?

- Isaac Asimov, Fiction, and the Future of AI
- How is trust built?
- How can we live in a world where we don’t know what’s true?
- Can robots feel pain?
- What is heartbreak?
- You need the Divine to functional experience anything
- Pretending to be good always deteriorates 
- Astrology as a replacement for spirituality
- Paradox: He who will save his life will lose it

Find us here:
x.com/mattmccloskey
x.com/michaelvaclav
All Matt’s Links - https://solo.to/mattmccloskey
All Michael’s Links - https://solo.to/michaelvaclav
Sovereign Goods - www.etsy.com/shop/SovereignThreadGoods
Cafe Medici - mediciroasting.com/?srsltid=AfmBOo…9eDe2OliQmjTc2A


Ep 249: The functional need for the Divine

Remembering Charlie Kirk: The reverberations of his life and assassination in our culture.

“When people stop talking, really bad stuff starts” - Charlie Kirk
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/0vL5uZBLk7s

Charlie Kirk - https://x.com/charliekirk11
The rise of the Modern Self - https://www.amazon.com/Rise-Triumph-Modern-Self-Individualism/dp/1433556332
Cliffe knechtle - https://x.com/askcliffe?s=11
Colin Wright’s graph - https://x.com/SwipeWright/status/1966288413939659079

Find us here:
x.com/mattmccloskey
x.com/michaelvaclav
All Matt’s Links - https://solo.to/mattmccloskey
All Michael’s Links - https://solo.to/michaelvaclav
Sovereign Goods - www.etsy.com/shop/SovereignThreadGoods
Cafe Medici - mediciroasting.com/?srsltid=AfmBOo…9eDe2OliQmjTc2A


Ep 250: When people stop talking, really bad stuff starts

This week on SOI:
- Will we ever know the reality of what’s happened?
- Reality isn’t a team sport
- What does it mean to pursue truth?
- What’s in between the fool and the prideful intellectual?
- Recursive injury
- Are humans purposefully diabolical?
- How does one become a monster?
- Forgiveness, and it’s rarity in our culture
- If he really knew what he was doing he wouldn’t have done it


Find us here:
x.com/mattmccloskey
x.com/michaelvaclav
All Matt’s Links - https://solo.to/mattmccloskey
All Michael’s Links - https://solo.to/michaelvaclav
Sovereign Goods - www.etsy.com/shop/SovereignThreadGoods
Cafe Medici - mediciroasting.com/?srsltid=AfmBOo…9eDe2OliQmjTc2A


Ep 251: Reality isn’t a team sport

A podcast by Matt McCloskey and Michael Vaclav

Ep 235: Toe Pick!

Shores of Ignorance

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