www.markholder.org

"The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires." - William Arthur Ward

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. - Ephesians 6:12 Knowing your enemy is a skill that requires patience and understanding. As the quote above indicates, the enemy isn't always an individual, but a mindset or process. In ancient times, the problems wasn't necessarily the citizen of a Roman territory going about his business, the problem was Rome. This is not meant to excuse all abusers (think Nazi SS officers and the "following orders" excuse), but people for the most part are decent. However, powers, processes, and zeigeist can lead even the strongest astray. In our time, greed, fear, and hate are all great enemies, alone or in combination. Those in power, be it world leader or bank branch employee, can use any of the above to keep the rabble in place. Never forget: you are the rabble to the person on the opp

I'm spending a little time on  Ancestry these days, and between online resources and talking with relatives, I'm learning quite a bit about my forebears. My paternal great grandparents have proven to be a fascinating study. Let's take a look at the story of John Wesley Holder and Mary Crider Holder John Wesley is a bit of a mystery. He was a sharecropper on the Crider farm in Rocky Face, Georgia. No photos exist of the man, and very little is known of him. What is known is that in 1909, John Wesley, age 37, married Mary Crider, age 25 and a daughter of landowner Elijah Crider, on December 26. This didn't go well with her father, who disowned his newlywed daughter. As they say, nevertheless, she persisted, embracing the life of a laborer's wife and giving birth to four children. Life was hard; they lived in a shack on the farm, subsisting only on her husband's labor. Before his death, my grandfather recalled waking many a cold winter morning to find snow o

Being a man of a certain age, I enjoy classic rock. The problem with classic rock is classic rock radio stations, which seem to play the same 3 songs by the same 6 bands over and over again. As much as I love Zeppelin and Steely Dan, I need more than multiple airings of "Black Dog" and "Ricki Don't Lose That Number." I need variety. With that need in mind, I recently tuned in to the classical music station on my car radio. The music is beautiful, of course, but most interestingly, it's all new to me. With the exception of music used in movies or cartoons, I'm not that familiar with classical music. I'm catching on quickly, as the radio hosts often share stories and anecdotes about composers and performers. It's a brave new world for me, and one I find very interesting. For the record, Kronos Quartet is the Led Zeppelin of contemporary classical music.

I'll begin by stating that Zen is not a religion. There, my Christian friends, your excuse for not reading further has been removed. While Zen derives from a school of Bhuddism, it has been descrived as "a total state of focus that incorporates a total togetherness of body and mind. Zen is a way of being." It is also a manner of perception, in which the viewer is tasked to see the subject (whatever that may be) for what it is, and not merely the viewer's biased projection reflected for the sake of the viewer's egocentric perception. Remove Self from your perception, and suddenly the world and all that is in it takes on a whole new patina. An excercise: the next time you catch a cold, don't think of it as "I'm sick," observe it from an outside point of view. Note the host and the invader(s), how the two intertwine and compete for control for the several days you'll be affected by the cold. Note how the balance of power shifts and cha

My wife and I recently enjoyed seeing Gone With The Wind projected on a movie screen, a first for us both. We'd seen it on television, but the large screen experience was something quite different. A good many years had passed since I last watched the film, and I was struck by its comedic moments, as well as its more blatant racism and misogyny (times have changed and continue to!) I was also impressed with its rather solid financial advice. For example, when raising funds for "the Cause" (AKA war), Rhett Butler made an impression on the crowd with an offer of gold for a dance. In times of political turmoil, you know, civil war, regime change and such, precious metals are more desirable than paper money issued by a government that may or may not be in power in days to come. This point is hammered home in a later scene, when Scarlett O'Hara returns home to find the family estate in ruins and her father in shock. He tells her not to worry, as he has money. At firs

Inspiration has many sources. I prefer to stand on the shoulders of giants. This series is inspired by many profound thinkers, chief among them  Philip K. Dick . Dick, or PKD, was a science fiction author, a visionary whose work and influence loom large over the present time. Indeed, it was Dick who best predicted artificial intelligence and virtual reality. He also predicted misuse of technology as a means of social control. Paranoid, drug-addled and the unwitting recipient of a series of spiritual experiences, PKD is the patron saint of our time. Remember, it was he who warned us our toasters would be spying on us. If PKD described the black iron prison that keeps us enslaved.  Terence McKenna  sought to teach us how to break out of it. Psychedelics, spirituality, science, any tool that works is to be used. McKenna advocated finding a new operating system to replace the buggy one in use, while reminding us that this is not a dress rehearsal. Life is to be lived, and the fi