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Welcome to Stuff I Learned Yesterday. My name is Darrell Darnell, I once rode a bike for 32 miles, and I believe that if you aren’t learning, you aren’t living.
Just to be clear, I entered a biking event and intended to go 50 miles, but I could only make it 32.
Today is Monday Mailbag day and I’m always excited to hear your stories and feedback. We have two contributors today: Jason and Andrew. Let’s get it kicked off with Jason’s contribution.
Hey, Darrell, this is Jason in San Jose, with my contribution to the Monday Mailbag. Since I’ve missed the past few opportunities to share, I wanted to touch base on a few of your past episodes.
First off, for episode 605, “Hold Me Closer, Tony Danza,” for anyone that doesn’t know, a misheard lyric is called a mondegreen, coined by Sylvia Wright in 1954 when talking about a misinterpretation of an old Scottish ballad. The original line was, “They have slain the Earl o’ Moray and laid him on the green.” She misheard as, “They had slain Earl o’ Moray and Lady Mondegreen.” So, my favorite mondegreen is from the Beatles’ “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” and the line, “The girl with colitis goes by.”
{music sample}
Or I should say, “The girl with kaleidoscope eyes.”
So, my main focus today will be on episodes 603, “Planting Your Tree” and episode 587, “My Faith Story.”
As one of the podcasting seeds planted by the SILY podcast, I wanted to give an update of the podcast that I’ve been working on over the past few years.
I first mentioned my idea for creating a recovery podcast for my 12-step group on episode 557, “Friday Forum,” all the way back in 2016. And I had a follow up on episode 573, “Community Feedback,” in 2021. And at the time of that episode, I had just finished episode 18. I’m currently editing episode 142. We now have a few thousand weekly listeners and reaching addicts all around the world. Besides the U.S., UK, and Canada, I’ve received emails from people in Singapore, Saudi Arabia, and South Africa, where there are no local meetings and people listen to the podcast as a substitute.
I recently recorded an interview with a woman from our program in Israel. Absolutely amazing. In addition to sharing people’s stories, we also do topic episodes covering various aspects of our program. And I also have quite a few music and recovery episodes, which I will get to shortly.
Thinking about planting my tree, I’ve been able to help a few other people get their podcasts up and running. One of my program friends has been previously working for a recovery network and wanted to branch out into podcasting. A few quick tutorials for set up and editing, and she was on her way. I was a guest on one of her early episodes, before the podcast went viral. And so besides interviews, she also has listener blog posts read by actors like Sharon Lawrence, Jeremy Sisto, and Sherilyn Fenn.
And Darrell, I thought you might appreciate this: they even have had a charity giveaway, with a guitar signed by both Richie Sambora and Jon Bon Jovi. So cool.
But back to my story. I wanted to share about my journey of faith. On SILY episode 417, “Friday Forum,” I shared about coming into the rooms of recovery as an agnostic, and finally finding a higher power through music and nature. I’ve mentioned some of my story on other GSM podcasts, We Have to Go Back and The Stranger Things Podcast. Not to repeat myself fully, I wanted to sum up a little of my background.
So, I grew up as a secular Christian. We only attended church for weddings, funerals, and occasional holidays. My grandma, on the other hand, was devoutly religious. I can remember going camping with my grandparents every year. There was one year that she told me that I would burn in hell if I didn’t read the Bible every day. I was seven years old. This scared me, and after telling my parents about it, they told her to back off.
All the way through adulthood, I had problems with her, whether it was music, movies, science, etc. I just had to ignore her. She was married into the family when my dad was in his teens. My paternal grandpa, on the other hand, was a multi-instrumentalist, and he passed down his love of music to our entire family. I loved playing music with him and especially when we went camping.
On that side of the family, I also had an uncle who was part of a Christian extremist group and was often in the local or national news, or even in jail after the San Francisco Pride parade. And guess what side of the street he was on for that one? My wife knew of his reputation as a campus preacher before she met me, and then had quite a surprise when we first had Thanksgiving at his house. So those parts of my family led me away from Christianity.
It was in my early teens when I started getting into metal music, where the topics of the songs were often anti-religious. I’ve mentioned a lot of this on The Stranger Things Podcast, especially during the last season, talking about metal and the Satanic panic of the ‘80s. And while on the subject, I am still extremely grateful to have been a co-host for episode 64 of The Stranger Things Podcast, getting to talk about the Ronnie James Dio documentary, Dreamers Never Die. Thanks again, Darrell.
So back to my 12-step program and the God problem. Step two came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. And step three made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood God. These steps were going to be my stumbling block. I just couldn’t get past my resentments against organized religions. But luckily, in our program, we are each able to redefine what “god” means to us. For me, I see a conception of a higher power to be like an energy similar to the force in Star Wars, and I find a connection to that energy through music and nature, where I find a sense of peace. Looking back at my life, my grandma wanted me to find God through the church, but it was through my grandpa that I found a connection to something greater than myself through nature and music.
Back on the “Friday Forum” episode 417, I talked about music and recovery workshops that I’ve done in my program, and playlists that I made that are spiritual for me. On the podcast that I do, I continued to share music with others, usually songs that pertain to the topic at hand or others that are current to my daily recovery. Additionally, I also get listener suggestions for music to share on the podcast as part of their recovery.
I wanted to highlight one of the bands that I discovered through YouTube a few years ago that has been extremely important to my spiritual growth, and that band is called Heilung, which means healing in German. Heilung is an experimental folk-music band made up of members from Denmark, Norway, and Germany. Their music is based on text and runic inscriptions from Germanic peoples of the Iron Age and Viking Age. Their song lyrics are made by using text from historical artifacts or poems, and they use many languages, including German, English, Gothic, Old High German, Old Norse, Icelandic, Latin, Old English, Proto-Norse, and Proto-Germanic. Heilung’s music, along with artists Wardruna Eivor and Mongolian band, The Who, have given me a connection to primal roots with nature, music, and history.
Some people may know this type of music through movies or TV shows like The Northman, Vikings, or The Last Kingdom, or through video games like Hellblade Senua’s Saga, Skyrim, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, etc. And I’ve actually learned how to throat sing alongside some of these songs.
{throat sings}
Anyway, exactly two years ago, as I record this, I attended Heilung’s ritual performance in San Francisco, and it was life changing. This was not just a concert, but a ritual bringing connection and cathartic release. This started off with local indigenous people blessing the stage with a smudging ceremony.
{smudging ceremony}
Followed by a call-and-response prayer that just brought me to tears.
Remember that we all are brothers.
Remember that we all are brothers.
All people.
All people.
“Remember that we are all brothers. All people, and beasts and trees and stone and wind. We all descend from the one great being that was always there before people lived and named it, before the first seed sprouted.”
I was right next to the stage and really connected with the band and everyone around me. I met several people that night that I’m still connected to via Facebook, including band members and crew.
And before closing out my share, I wanted to play a short clip from Heilung’s song ”Norupo,” and the name of that comes from the first two letters of each of the words in Norwegian Rune Poem, Norupo.
{song clip}
Love, love that song. Some of the other songs that they have I use for meditation. They are slow and droning. Others are a cathartic release through pulsing drumming and dancing. Just amazing.
So finding fellow pagans, Wiccans, and animists has opened up a new area of my spirituality.
And for anyone interested, about a month ago, Heilung just released their 2021 ritual at Red Rocks on YouTube. And it’s been so amazing to see comments from people all around the world who’ve been touched by their music. Some comments in English, some are written in Cyrillic and other languages that I don’t really know, but I get the gist of what they’re saying. But yeah, just awesome.
Back to Stuff I Learned Yesterday, recently, I made a comment on the Facebook post for episode 609, “Campfire Encounters,” that as a non-Christian, how awesome it is to hear your faith stories, Darrell, and lessons from the Bible. Years ago, I would have been closed off, but your approach is non-judgmental and educational. I thank you so much for this podcast.
Well, this has been Jason in San Jose. Namaste.
Thank you, Jason! You packed a lot of great stuff in your contribution. First, 142 episodes! That’s amazing! Congratulations on all that your podcast has accomplished and the lives you’re impacting! Second, I’m also extremely grateful we got the opportunity to do the Dio episode of The Stranger Things Podcast together. You brought so much value and insight into that interview and made the content exponentially better than it would have been otherwise. I was driving around last week and Dio came on the radio. Of course, my mind immediately thought of you. Third, throat singing! WOW, that was incredible!!
I also appreciate you sharing your spiritual journey with us. I’m not going to bad mouth anyone’s grandma, and I certainly have issues with my own grandma, but I’m so sorry that you had that experience as a seven year old. The truth is, failure to read the Bible every day does not send you to hell any more than reading it every day will send you to heaven. I’d like to give her the benefit of the doubt that she though scaring you into reading the Bible would end up having a positive impact on your life, but there are more effective ways to go about that goal.
I know many of you listening can identify in some way with Jason’s experience of being hurt by Christians. As I’ve said previously, sometimes that hurt comes in spite of good intentions and other times it comes out of harmful intentions. My hope is that regardless of the cause of the pain or the intentions of the person who wounded you, you’d somehow be able to look at Jesus, his life, his love, and his claims.
All of us, Christians and non-Christians alike are all flawed people. That means that we’re going to hurt people. But if we allow pain caused by Christians to prevent us from truly seeking and forming a relationship with Christ, we only harm ourselves. That pain is sometimes so severe it’s hard to separate Christians who’ve hurt you from Christ.
I’m glad you’re on a spiritual journey and I’m grateful you’ve found this podcast to be a place to have open discussions about it. I’m trying very hard to create faith-based episodes that help Christians grow and mature in their faith, while still being relevant, inviting, and educational to non-Christians. That’s been quite challenging for me to do, especially when I’m trying to be succinct and keep each episode under 15 minutes. So your feedback and point of view are very much appreciated.
My advice as a friend is that we must be careful to avoid worshiping the creation instead of the creator. I have episodes coming up in the next year that I think you’ll like. In some of those episodes I will talk about the reliability of the Bible, the claims of Jesus, the moral argument for God, and other similar topics. If those sound interesting to you, my favorite resource to share is a book that’s about 30 years old called The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel.
Lee was the legal affairs editor of the Chicago Tribune in the 70’s and was shocked when his wife came home one day and told him she’d become a Christian. Lee, using his investigative and courtroom skills, set out to prove Christianity false so he could get his wife back. He details his sources throughout the book and gives exhaustive resources for those who want to take an even deeper dive into the topics he explored.
I do believe each of us have a yearning to have genuine fellowship with God and that the Bible tells us clearly how to achieve that. It’s not by reading the Bible daily or by praying to the saints. It’s not by going to church, doing good things, or giving to the poor. The book of Romans gives us a clear path to God. It says:
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. And if we confess with our mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in our heart that God raised Him from the dead, we will be saved. Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ.
Let’s keep these conversations going through Facebook, these episodes, or however you’d like. I love having you as a friend and my life is better having you as a part of it.
Okay, now let’s hear from Andrew.
I just wanted to start off by saying that episode 601, “The Shortening of the Years,” is one that I thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed. And I have to say, I was really touched by it. My kids are 7, 8, and 12, and I have used that phrase, “The days are long, but the years are short” a number of times throughout the last few years. And so true. Every year, I think time speeds up. I love that poem. I hadn’t heard that poem before that you read at the start. Thanks, again, for your wisdom and advice.
So, what did I learn yesterday, Darrell? Well, in 2017, my younger brother, Colin, was diagnosed with MS, multiple sclerosis. And it was a bolt from the blue for him and for the wider family. But Colin, being the guy he is, he said, “I’m not going to let this stop living my life. In fact, I’m going to make this diagnosis a change for good.” And straight away, he made big changes to his lifestyle.
First of all, he started going to church. He started eating better. He actually became a vegan, so he’s completely vegan now. And the final thing he started to do was exercise and, in particular, go out running. And he started to run, and he got the running bug, so much so, in 2022, he decided he was going to run the length of Ireland. And he got me—he got me involved to be the man in the van. I got a van, and we packed it full of food and supplies, and we set off. Now, unfortunately, he didn’t complete the challenge. It was just too much, too soon. But that didn’t stop him.
The following year, 2023, which was last year, he decided to run an ultramarathon every month. And I was so inspired by him, I decided to join him—not for an ultra, but for half a marathon. So the last 13.1 miles of his ultramarathon, I would join him. And that was our challenge for 2023. And I’m pleased to say he completed his challenge, and I completed mine.
And with Colin, there’s always something else. This year he decided to enter and compete and a 108-mile ultramarathon, and I thought he was absolutely nuts. But after a few months of him talking about this 108 miler, I decided, “You know what? For a bit of fun, or as we say here, for a bit of craic, I will join you for that 108-mile ultramarathon.”
And on the 1st of June, into the 2nd of June of this year, Colin and myself completed 108 miles of this ultramarathon. And it was fantastic, and it was amazing. And thankfully, Colin is doing so, so well with his MS. You wouldn’t know he had MS. In fact, if you looked at the both of us running, you’d think I was the one with MS, not him.
But what did I learn? Well, there’s two things. The first is this: I am very privileged to have a brother, when faced with a diagnosis, completely looks at it in a different way than probably most people and decided that his life would only get better with that diagnosis. And he really is an inspiring guy. Crazy guy, but inspiring guy.
The second thing I learned was 18 months ago, or about 19 months ago, I could probably run a 5K, and that would have been okay. But never, ever, ever, ever in my wildest dreams did I think I would ever be able to run 108. And I had Colin there with me. He was great support and encouragement, and hopefully I was for him, too. But it just goes to show what we can do, what you can do, when you or I put our minds toward something.
Thank you, Andrew! What an inspirational story from both you and Colin. I’ve seen what MS can do to people, which makes Colin’s story even more inspiring. I’m not sure that I’ll ever find myself running 108 miles just for a bit o crack, but if I do I guess I’ll have you to thank for it. At least 108 is a LOST number, so there’s that I guess.
Andrew also left me a comment with his audio file that mentioned how much he loves the quotes I put on the screen for the YouTube version of each episode. For those of you who watch the YouTube version, you may have noticed many of the episodes recently have not had the alternative camera angle that shows the quote. The reason for that is I’ve had some issues with that camera, most of which are user error. I assure you each episode had a quote, even if I was the only one who got to see it!
Thanks to Jason and Andrew for the contributions. I appreciate your willingness to share your lives with us and you’ve made this episode a great one. The next Monday Mailbag is coming up at the end of the year on December 30th. I’d love to have a contribution from you, yes YOU to share on that episode. You can send in your contribution by visiting the Golden Spiral Media listener feedback page.
I’m Darrell Darnell, and this has been Stuff I Learned Yesterday.