The Forgotten Hearth

Upon this darkened hearth,
Where the blood of our fathers once burned.
Lay the cold, forgotten embers...
Their scornful spirits to return.

We shall surely feel their wrath,
As the centuries shall pass.
Abandoned to a lonely curse.
Stirring in their quenchless thirst.

Through the eons do their echoes cry,
Through pinewood forests and mountains high.
Over seas that roar in the frozen night;
They seek to end this wretched blight. 

A memory of exalted flame,
In burning souls - ignites again.
The rightful sons with might and main,
To return with honor to their reign. 

Before our noble hearth we stand,
Loyal to our blood and land.
With eager offerings in hand,
To heal our great ancestral strand. 

With blood to sword we take our oaths,
And raise our banners across the coasts.
For all that we adore the most.
And for those long forgotten ghosts...

Our flame shall burn forevermore,
In songs sung and written lore.
Which tell of all who came before.
A memory once lost - restored. 

These spirits now can rest assured,
That through our deeds and through our words.
No longer are we decieved and lured,
By those we have too long endured. 

For now our patience has worn thin,
With love for only kith and kin.
And for the gods that lurk within,
As blood is far much more than skin. 

Once more we stand before this hearth,
From whose flame we're given birth.
And give a virile Hail! - henceforth,
To the fathers of the North. 

What is enough?

Whatever it takes to win.

Old catholic church, struck by lightning, started on fire. ?

The reailty of the coming future doesn't concern me as much as people's inability to adjust their current plans and behaviors accordingly. It's as if they're incapable of seeing past the present moment or how current actions impact outcomes in the future. They're still living and planning as if a world that is already gone will be there when they arrive. But it won't. And that's the most dangerous part.

Ferment everything.

Whatever has the majority percentage of an individual's attention is what has the most influence over their mind.

A significant criticism from a few decades ago was how public school dominated half the waking hours of a child's attention. Effectively raising the child as they see fit while both parents work a full time job.

These days, while public school still has a significant influence over society's children, further attention has been drawn away from the parents through the internet and social media. Or any digital distraction in general.

There is an information stream the size of the universe out there. An endless ocean of useless and destructive garbage competing for your child's attention. And their main competition is you.

It's like living in an ant colony and being the one ant to see that there is a world outside of it. And wanting more to life than a fabricated and preprogrammed personality based around meaningless nonsense.

You realize it right away. As soon as you are old enough to interact with other people. It never goes away. The gap only gets wider as you develop further.

You can get along with people. You can make friends. But there is a limit to how close you can get, as their thoughts have boundaries that yours do not. And there is no polite way to tell someone that they've designed their entire personality and belief system around a lie. Or several layers of lies.

What's more is that people get mad at you for telling them the truth. They would rather continue being lied to than have to face the pain of having their illusions destroyed. Even if those illusions are truly destroying them or keeping them enslaved.

It's exactly like The Matrix, when Cypher resents Morpheus for showing him that his steak isn't real. And now he can never ignorantly enjoy it again.

Feeling good is more important to them than knowing what is real. And the only way to change all of them is to have the power to reprogram the matrix itself. Which we can see happen many times throughout history. Sometimes for the better. Many times for the worse.

Being weak, being lazy, being a coward, being a quitter, being dishonorable, being unreliable, a liar, a cheater, an addict, anything....all of it is a choice that you make somewhere inside yourself. Whatever you become, it is because YOU allowed it to happen. No matter the resistance that you face.

The resistance is there to see what you are made of. To see what you're willing to do and how much you are willing to fight in order to grow, to change, to earn respect, and gain honor.

The gods aren't there to hold your hand. You are not some helpless sheep drowning in your own pitiful unworthiness. You are the reflection of your great ancestors and held to the same standards. You are the product of their struggle. And they struggled more than you have ever known.

Now it is your turn. And they are watching.