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POISON
What is it? More accurately, what WAS it? Because right now it is UNAVAILABLE and I’m not sure if that will change, and if so, when. Still, read about it here, find some essays serialized on my Substack page, and if I sense there is enough interest I may redesign and reprint the book, with some essays removed and other, new ones added.
From 2011 to early 2016 I wrote a weekly Sermon that was posted behind the paywall on the old Gym Jones website. These Sermons were mostly philosophical — because I believe that opening or guiding the mind makes all physical work and training more effective, more transferable to life outside of the gym, and it amplifies the physical practice itself.
All of these essays draw upon personal experience — how else would the ideas manifest or be applied and tested or leak outward to “real” life? Writing them was a treat at first, an opportunity to share more than a workout or the specific idea supporting it.
Later, deeper, further along the track, with all of the demands of real life upon me, shouldered sometimes in a weakened condition, often at great distance from my family and support .... well, Sundays could get heavy. Sometimes the demand felt too much, to be present and thoughtful, to be someone who could motivate subscribers and readers, some of whom came to count on the weekly output to keep them hungry and positive and working toward a goal that was greater or higher than they were in that moment.
The cost for me was enormous and I grew to hate Sundays, and the Sermons, and the demand that I be more than my daily Self for a scheduled effort, a weekly commitment ... sometimes I just didn’t have it.
But even then, on those empty days, I pushed myself to make something, to think about and create something. Even the rejected Sermons express the distance and depth I was willing to cover simply because I said that I would. I committed — and in that time I demanded that others do so as well — and I fulfilled that commitment, sometimes as late as sunrise on Monday morning, because if I did what I said that I would then I could ask and expect others to do the same.
If anything matters here it is that. Do what you said you would. Keep your excuses to yourself if you cannot fulfill your commitment ... turn your disappointment inward, and use it to make yourself better, and equal to the task and demands that are surely on the road in front of you.
For those years I did just that, and believed my example — how I was working and living right in front of my business partners, and wife — would lead others to behave consistent with the ideals I had been espousing and expressing for most of my life. Once revenue became more important than revolution the business took a turn I did not want to see, and my Sermons took a different tone. When I started the project my imperative was to question everything, especially ourselves and our actions, but this wasn’t consistent with the manager’s need to appear expert, and all-knowing.
Eventually, our disagreements came to a head and I was forced out via hostile takeover. Once the corporate maneuvering began I quickly learned that 49% equals zero. However, copyright law favored me, which meant my partners — now my attackers — could not seize my intellectual property along with control of the business. Thank goodness my personal attorney specialized in contract law.
I had written over 200 essays by the time the corporate attorney sent me a cease and desist letter advising that my tone and my questions were possibly a breach of fiduciary responsibility and from that notice forward, others would write the weekly Sermon. An era ended.
The book was originally printed with 141 essays in the summer of 2022, then reprinted with 14 additional essays in 2023. The second edition was a behemoth — 496 pages, and a shipping weight of two pounds. I am bummed out by the fact that the remaining inventory was locked down when the publishing company ceased operations, and may, in fact, go up in flames. TBD.
What is it? More accurately, what WAS it? Because right now it is UNAVAILABLE and I’m not sure if that will change, and if so, when. Still, read about it here, find some essays serialized on my Substack page, and if I sense there is enough interest I may redesign and reprint the book, with some essays removed and other, new ones added.
From 2011 to early 2016 I wrote a weekly Sermon that was posted behind the paywall on the old Gym Jones website. These Sermons were mostly philosophical — because I believe that opening or guiding the mind makes all physical work and training more effective, more transferable to life outside of the gym, and it amplifies the physical practice itself.
All of these essays draw upon personal experience — how else would the ideas manifest or be applied and tested or leak outward to “real” life? Writing them was a treat at first, an opportunity to share more than a workout or the specific idea supporting it.
Later, deeper, further along the track, with all of the demands of real life upon me, shouldered sometimes in a weakened condition, often at great distance from my family and support .... well, Sundays could get heavy. Sometimes the demand felt too much, to be present and thoughtful, to be someone who could motivate subscribers and readers, some of whom came to count on the weekly output to keep them hungry and positive and working toward a goal that was greater or higher than they were in that moment.
The cost for me was enormous and I grew to hate Sundays, and the Sermons, and the demand that I be more than my daily Self for a scheduled effort, a weekly commitment ... sometimes I just didn’t have it.
But even then, on those empty days, I pushed myself to make something, to think about and create something. Even the rejected Sermons express the distance and depth I was willing to cover simply because I said that I would. I committed — and in that time I demanded that others do so as well — and I fulfilled that commitment, sometimes as late as sunrise on Monday morning, because if I did what I said that I would then I could ask and expect others to do the same.
If anything matters here it is that. Do what you said you would. Keep your excuses to yourself if you cannot fulfill your commitment ... turn your disappointment inward, and use it to make yourself better, and equal to the task and demands that are surely on the road in front of you.
For those years I did just that, and believed my example — how I was working and living right in front of my business partners, and wife — would lead others to behave consistent with the ideals I had been espousing and expressing for most of my life. Once revenue became more important than revolution the business took a turn I did not want to see, and my Sermons took a different tone. When I started the project my imperative was to question everything, especially ourselves and our actions, but this wasn’t consistent with the manager’s need to appear expert, and all-knowing.
Eventually, our disagreements came to a head and I was forced out via hostile takeover. Once the corporate maneuvering began I quickly learned that 49% equals zero. However, copyright law favored me, which meant my partners — now my attackers — could not seize my intellectual property along with control of the business. Thank goodness my personal attorney specialized in contract law.
I had written over 200 essays by the time the corporate attorney sent me a cease and desist letter advising that my tone and my questions were possibly a breach of fiduciary responsibility and from that notice forward, others would write the weekly Sermon. An era ended.
The book was originally printed with 141 essays in the summer of 2022, then reprinted with 14 additional essays in 2023. The second edition was a behemoth — 496 pages, and a shipping weight of two pounds. I am bummed out by the fact that the remaining inventory was locked down when the publishing company ceased operations, and may, in fact, go up in flames. TBD.