The Challenge

My interest in polymaths traces it's influence back to many characters, both fictional and historical. Maybe one of the earliest influences is Batman, the epitome of humanism and being all that you can be. Other fictional influences include Mr Terrific, Dr Samuel Beckett, Eddie Morra from Limitless, and a character that I created named Dr John Reyes. Historical influences included American President James A Garfield, King Solomon, and most of all Jesus.

I was inspired by their physical, intellectual, and sometimes spiritual excellence, and their success in multiple things. Clearly I have not attained to the level of my heroes. However, in this case it is not about the destination, but about the journey instead. On this journey I would like to invite as many friends with me as possible.

My challenge to you reader: pursue excellence in every arena that you can.

The first question

What are the arenas that you must grow in, to live a holistic human life? For me there are six areas of the human experience: spiritual, intellectual, physical, occupational, social, and financial. Even within those, there are sub-arenas and cross-sections. Two that come to mind being politics and art. Some may disagree with my model. An atheist reader may say that there is no "spiritual arena". Well, those people are wrong, but they have their right to be. (My definition for religion here is your world philosophy and the practice of you ethical philosophy.)

Second question

What arena comes easiest for you? Or which is the one you spend the most time on? For me it used to be either the intellectual or spiritual arena (or a cross section of the two). Today it probably still is in the intellect arena. I have spent a lot of time reading about (and writing here about) politics. You need to look at your strongest arena and look for ways to continue to cultivate it. I talk about well-roundness, but everyone has a sharp point, and that's OK.

Take time to sharpen yours. If you are a young person reading this, find a specific thing within that arena that you can make a living off of, and go pursue a career in that. If you are a little older, hopefully you've done that already. There is also life outside of a job, so you can also consider volunteering in something of that area.

Weak spot

Next, identify your weak spot. I had two when I started this journey: I was out of shape, and an task-oriented introvert. OK, maybe I still have those problems, but I have made great strides. I have a small group of friends that I am regularly in touch with, and I am making more conscious efforts to make more healthy choices.

You have to start by thinking: how do I want to improve in these areas? Maybe you don't do a lot of reading. You can start by doing a little at a time. After finishing high school, I started reading one book a month. OK, it only lasted for a month, but I picked that goal up again the next year and it stuck. Now I read all the time. Still not as much as I'd like to, but far more than I used to.

So figure out what arenas you are weak in. Then think of small ways that you can grow in those areas. Take small bites. A little at a time.

Get organized

If you haven't rolled your eyes at the whole idea of this challenge, this is normally the part where people begin to roll their eyes. If you want to succeed in this challenge, if you want to have progress, you need to get organized. You need to do difficult things. You need to do things that all your friends are not doing. I have said before "you can be either normal or successful, you can't be both."

If you want to get ahead financially, it will require you to curb your spending and save some for a rainy day (and invest it). You won't be spending as frivolously as your friends. They may laugh at you, but you will benefit from it in the end. If you want to be more productive, you may need to schedule your time, and be more strict with it. It may not be fun, others may chide you, but you will benefit.

If you want to grow in different arenas, you need to set goals in each one. You need to be specific with your goals, and you want to write them down. You probably have a strong desire to put off what I am saying. You don't feel like it. Maybe you know that you should do (and even want to do) some of the stuff that I am talking about. I was there once, and in one brief moment I decided to actually do the things I had been putting off. Little by little. I'm doing a little bit more all the time. I am so glad that I do. My life is so much fuller now than it was five years ago.

So, tell me what you think. Tweet at me @frank_perseo or like Frank Talks on Facebook, then comment on the post for this blog. Are you interested in this challenge? Is this the kind of thing you already do? Am I totally off my rocker? What did you take away from this?

Faith • Life • Civics

The Christian Faith, holistic life, and politics. These three themes have increasingly become part of my life over the past five years. To me, their importance go in that order, each one flowing from the preceding. My recent interest in politics over the past four years has come from a desire to live a full life. If I want to do that, how can I neglect being informed about and involved in politics? (Admittedly, I've gotten a little carried away.)

I have chosen to focus my blog on these three themes, because I believe that they are important for everyone. I consider religion to be your beliefs (narrative/worldview or whatever term you choose to use) and your moral code and practices. Even if you are an atheist, or "not religious", have system like this that you live by. After religion comes holistic life. I believe that there are many "areas" of life, including religion (as previously defined), intellect, health, social, occupational, and more. One may be better in some areas than in others, but we shouldn't neglect one area because we are week in that one area.

Politics exists in two of the aforementioned areas: intellect, as you must have an understanding of the issues, and occupation, as you often must get involved. It is also influenced by religion, since your worldview and moral beliefs will effect your political ones. Now my religious views don't call for me to use political power to foist my faith on you. In fact, quite the opposite. However, as I've said before, I believe that there are certain self-evident moral laws which most of us can agree on and build our laws on. For instance, most of us can agree that murder and theft are wrong.

Therefore, these three topics, in my mind, encompass everything. These three themes are what I eat, sleep, and breathe. So it would only make sense for me to write a blog revolving around them.

My story

I was raised in the midst of Christianity. I was first Catholic, before switching to a non-denominational evangelical church. However, from a very early age, I suffered from deep existential and epistemological doubts. How could I know anything for certain, let alone the existence of an invisible God.

This doubt followed me until I was 18 or 19, when I took an apologetics and critical thinking class.

The teacher of the class, Keith, is a Christian apologist who hosts a radio show and podcast. I was familiar with apologetics, and very interested in the topic, but critical thinking principles helped me to look at it in a different way. The course helped me to realize that I can know certain truths for certain, and that I can be certain of God's existence.

Being certain of what you believe has a way of igniting your passion for it. Long after the critical thinking class, Keith began to mentor me one-on-one. We met up once a week for the entire summer, and talked about literally everything. One of our recurring themes, however, was the holistic life; particularly how the Christian faith applies to each area of life.

I don't know where my interest in holistic life started, but it continues to grow. I had an interest in a number of both real and fictional polymaths (or Renaissance men) like Leonardo Divinci, Bruce Wayne, and President James A Garfield (who became my favorite president after reading his biography my senior year of high school). I adopted my model of the six areas of life (spiritual, intellectual, physical, social, occupational, and financial) from Dave Ramsey and Zig Ziglar. Every year I've been setting more and more goals in these areas. There is always a sense of self-gratification when you make a change that betters your life. My goals for this current year include reading the whole Bible, reading a number of fiction and non-fiction books, learning one song on an instrument, writing these blogs, and ceasing my task-orientedness every so often to invest time in others.

During these meetings with Keith, I became convinced of the need to be an informed voter. I always liked controversy, but understood little about politics. It was at this time that I came to identify as a conservative (rather than a moderate or libertarian). After that, I have spent more and more time over the years learning more about politics from different perspectives. I wanted to share the things that I was learning, which is one of the reasons I started this blog. I also want to use this to share some of my thoughts on Christianity and holistic life, since I believe all three themes are connected.

Your Thoughts

So what do you think? Tweet at me @frank_perseo or comment on the Frank Talks Facebook page. Are these themes important in your life as well? If not, do you want them to be? Are you interested in reading more about these themes? What do you think of the definition I presented for "religion"? Do you think we talk about politics too much here on Frank Talks, or not enough?

Who Should You Vote For?

How do you determine who to vote for? Some people wouldn't dare to tell you who to vote for, but if you're reading this, I'm assuming that you are looking for a set of criteria to determine which candidate to pick. This set of criteria works for any elected office, in federal, state or local politics. I am arguing that these criteria are in the best interest of any person from any political position.

Here are the two criteria, you want someone who:

1. Will abide by and enforce the Laws
   and
2. Will represent the people

You see, we live in a nation of laws, and a nation of, by, and for the people.

The Law

Any candidate, for any office, must be someone who agrees to abide by and enforce the laws. At the federal level, this would be the US Constitution. At the state level, it would be the state's constitution, and at the local level, it would be the local laws. "What if the laws are unjust?" you may ask. Well, there is a system to change that, and we will get to this in the next point, but you want to work within the system.

If you have a candidate who is willing to break some rules to push an agenda, then you have a deal-breaker. You may even agree with their agenda, but think of it this way: you wouldn't want someone to break the rules to push an agenda that you disagree with. Remember, it goes both ways. What goes around comes around.

The Constitution prevents government officials from infringing on your rights. Among such rights are life, liberty, property, free speech, free religious exercise (meaning the ability to believe what you want and do what you want, without infringing on the aforementioned rights of others). These rights are basic, because they don't cost anything to recognize.

Bottom line: you want a candidate who will agree to be bound to the Constitutional restrictions. It is in everyone's best interest to elect a candidate who will not be his or her own arbiter of what rules to follow.

The Representative

We do not live in a pure democracy. Instead, we live in a Constitutional-Republic, where leaders rule by consent of the governed. In a pure democracy, there is simply a majority rule. Majority rule sounds nice, but then it sucks when you happen to be in a minority. Ideally, we want our leaders to represent all of their constituents, not just those in their party.

Our leaders need to represent both the majority and the minority. If they only represent the majority which voted them in, we will have a country which neglects (or worse) oppresses those in minority groups. Our representatives should promote greater liberty, while at the same time protecting all citizens from having their rights infringed.

You can also vote for a candidate who will work within the system (not infringing on the rights of others) to bring about a change that is necessary in our society. The best example of this would be Lincoln, who represented the abolitionist movement. The newly formed Republican party believed that slavery went against the philosophy of America, and were taking political action to end it.

Lincoln is the best example of this, because he made the change within the Constitutional perimeters.

*****

So there you have it. Two simple criteria. They must follow the Constitution, acting within it's perimeters; and they must represent all their constituents, not infringing on the Constitutional rights of any to push an agenda.

So, tell me what you think. Tweet at me @frank_perseo or comment on the Frank Talks Facebook page. Do you agree or disagree with these criteria? What would be your criteria for picking candidates? And based on this, who do you think that I support?