So, this isn’t really a “secret” anymore, but there are far too many folks who I run into that LOVE LIVING A HEALTHY LIFESTYLE, but have NEVER HEARD this (seriously? you’re missing out on $ and health), so I decided to write a quick blog about it.
When people tell me they can’t afford healthy food, it’s frustrating [you just didn’t put that much effort into finding where to buy from].
I’ll fill you in, and then when you go become a member, I want you to use the exact link that I list below. Why? I make no bones about it, I want you to click my link when you sign up because I will get a $25 store credit when you sign up, AND YOU WILL GET 25% OFF. They’re cheap, they’re healthy, and they help families in need (scroll for more). C’mon, stop giving your money to Walmart or Kroger or wherever you grocery shop.
Jamie and I order from this place at least once a month to get our non-perishable groceries, body care supplies, and soaps from here (+ other things).
We’ve been saving money on our healthy goods for a LONG TIME now.
Especially if you don’t have a Whole Foods or Erewhon Market near your house, Thrive Market online should become a staple for you immediately.
They’re the CHEAPEST HEALTHY GOODS SHOP YOU WILL FIND.
Think I’m full of it? Do this immediately:
Go to your grocery store, walk down the healthy food aisles and snap pictures or write down the prices of every organic or natural healthy food or body care or cleaning item that you’d like to buy, but usually would not spend much on.
Go home to your computer (or use your phone) and click my link to Thrive Market and compare the prices.
Here is one prime example (screenshots from 10/31/18).
And look, just to show you how much cheaper it is, this compares ONLINE to ONLINE prices, not even ONLINE to STORE (which saves you crazy amounts more).
And this is vs. WALMART ONLINE, supposedly the cheapest place to shop on earth:
“Thrive” is the solution to making organic brands affordable.
Please do not confuse this Thrive with the Thrive beauty line pyramid sales program. No. Not that stuff.
Thrive Market is changing the way families shop for quality goods by offering over 4,500 organic, non-GMO brands at savings of up to 50%. They also ship it right to your doorstep.
What do they sell? It feels like everything. But in reality, think non-toxic cleaning supplies, organic groceries, clean cosmetics, and healthy snacks (but they don’t have Baruka Nuts yet! Hopefully they will soon).
The Thrive Market Collection is their home-brand, it’s full of top quality products at frighteningly (today is Halloween as I write this) affordable prices.
How is it so cheap?
They cut out the middle man, and did the dirty work of going to each of these healthy brands one by one and building a business model that would dropship all of their products. If that doesn’t make sense to you, just don’t worry about it. Enjoy the work they put in to organize this. Better access to healthier food means a better and healthier American society. That’s good for all of us.
Skip the drive.
Skip the lines.
Shipping is free on orders over $49 every damn time if you’re a member. I believe they let you make one order before becoming a member as a trial run. Membership is around $50-60 at the time I am writing this, but we save that in gas alone, not to mention the hundreds we save by not buying all this stuff from retail stores.
The filter by diet/type feature saves SO MUCH TIME.
Sold yet?
Here’s the best part: For every PURCHASED membership, Thrive Market DONATES a membership to a family in need.
They’ve made it their mission to make healthy food available to everyone.
Boom.
How can you not be on board with that?
It is still slightly more expensive than the cheap (unhealthy) groceries and goods, but if you are spending money on healthy stuff already, then make the move to Thrive. It’s a no brainer.
If you join Thrive Market by clicking this link, I will get $25 of in-store credit, and you will get 25% off your order. Simple as that.
Commonly written: arete
Sometimes written: arête (which is actually defined as a ‘sharp mountain ridge’. This is not correct, but the imagery of a ‘peak’ correlates strangely with our definition).
Defining areté
The most similar words to areté that we have in our modern english language would be virtue, excellence,greatness or goodness (in thought, in action, or both).
In its most basic sense, areté might be used to describe any person, thing, action, or thought, of which has achieved, or maintains a presence of, wholeexcellence.
Why is it so hard to define?
To depict areté in a simple way does injustice to its potency and meaning as a singular word. It has a somewhat elastic meaning depending on its context, but it’s tremendously inspiring. The greatest of things are not to be undersold. That is probably why we have no equivalent word in our modern English language.
Rhetoric does its best to describe an experience, and pictures/videos might do even better, but words cannot typically replicate our perception, in its totally, of an amazing event. “I’m speechless”, “Words cannot describe”, these are responses to moments that fall into a unique category of near divinity. We can’t pinpoint what left us in awe, but we felt it. Side note: Each experience is one’s own experience only. An example: Some cry tears of joy at the waving of a flag or in the presence of a religious statue, while others feel anger or injustice at the same sight.
We might take complex terms and use simple shared experiences to help us better understand them. That’s what storytelling and metaphors are used for.
To understand areté, we must have assimilated a great thing at least once before, in story or in reality, from which we can derive a shared meaning.
What’s the closest you’ve come to observing or feeling that awe? That moment of areté? Close your eyes and think back to the last time you were truly awestruck or breathless in observance of a person, thing, or event. Now, try to place yourself there again…
Origin of Areté
Where did we derive this thought? Of potentiality? Of fulfillment of purpose?
We have an innate obsession with reaching our fullest capacity.
“To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.”
– Steve Prefontaine
The vigor and passion of “chasing our dreams” or “doing something incredible” all stem from the thought that we each have a bound potential waiting to be unchained, and when we do, that is what it means to live.
We resent the lazy, the leeches, those who squander opportunity.
Where does this obsession and pride in personal mastery come from?
Religion?
Early in Christianity doctrine, God uses biblical figures to portray what the ideal person or what an ideal life might look like. Of course, later, in the new testament, Jesus Christ is the figure of exactly that—the ideal. This might be why, in America, that the pursuit of an ideal is so broadly understood, but areté is not biblical.
The thought originates in ancient Greece, and is tied inextricably to Greek philosophy.
An Act of Areté
We see it in the Iliad, associated with the perfect compilation of physical skill put to action. Characters like Achilles and Hector exemplified this perfect bodily representation of a war hero figure, who’s stature was associated with skill, bravery, tenacity, and valor.
Defining the entirety of what this word, areté, meant to the ancient Greeks, might be too difficult. So, we tell stories that others might resonate with. Only then can we begin to imagine the meaning of the word from the same platform. Although no story ever places the receiver of a message in the same exact mind-frame as the sender, it’s a better place to start than without the story.
Think about the defining, climactic action of your favorite characters and heroes, fiction or not.
It’s Dr. King on the podium, deviating from an already powerfully written speech, and changing the course of the world with his words.
It’s Carl Brashear (Cuban Gooding Jr) taking those damned 12 steps in the diver suit in the movie “Men of Honor”, with Chief Sunday (Robert DeNiro) passionately pushing him through it (video below – must watch).
It’s DaVinci painting the Mona Lisa.
It’s Leonidas of the brave “300”, fighting for Sparta’s freedom until his dying breath.
It’s Michael Jordan, dazzling us with a dribble move, then hitting a game winning jump shot in a championship game.
It’s Einstein working through an equation.
If we were to see one of these things, it’d most likely be unlike anything we’ve ever seen before, and likely, ever again.
At the moment we encounter a truly amazing feat, or a flawlessly executed endeavor, not only does the action rise above our perceptions of possibility, but it takes along with it every observer, transcending the grey, the mundane, the real, and approaching the ‘the ideal’, embodying pure perfection and inspiring limitless potential.
When we see this potential in action, we can better formulate our own unique, personal version of perfection. That might be your pursuit, that might be your areté.
Areté of a thing
Objects as well can have, or stand to represent, areté.
The perfectly designed home might be described as having areté, or it could also be used to describe the architect of such a home.
A pot or vase, crafted with an upmost artistic touch could have areté.
Areté of the Mind
Like the marines slogan “Be all that you can be.”, a life lived in areté would, in theory, include the actualization of our full potential. Of which we know, in itself, is an undefined pursuit.
What does true potential look like? How do we know if we’re on track?
“In The Odyssey, arete is used to describe Odysseus, who combines the warrior-hero’s courage with wit, cunning and resourcefulness. Arete is also used to describe Odysseus’s wife, Penelope, who demonstrates that even misfortune and sorrow can be suffered with excellence.
And lastly, the Greeks provide us with still another manifestation of arete : Socrates, a very new and different kind of Greek hero. Socrates was a real person, a Fifth Century BCE Athenian who has come to symbolize for us the life dedicated to the pursuit of moral and intellectual excellence.” ¹
The mind bears a stricter burden than the body or an object when it comes to excellence. Because we know that as humans, we are capable of malevolence, we know that a physical act of perfection could carry with it some evil intention or misguided abhorrence. Therefore, areté also implies the presence of honorable thought and moral choice. Humans distinctly have the ability to reason, and should therefore, use that reason for good.
The minds perceptions of excellence and perfection are often daunting. It almost never feels like the low hanging fruit. In fact, it frequently feels out of reach. That’s ok, though.
True excellence acts for us like the carrot dangling in the eyes of the horse, pushing us forward in a desirable direction, but never definably completing a linear course of action. What trajectory are we on? Our aim, and our intentional thought about our aim, offer an array of lessons in excellence. In Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave”, the pursuit of a thing’s ideal shape or state would be its areté. Its the elusive achievement, but not for achievement’s sake, that we all strive for. Its always out of reach, but also coordinating our placement on the path that will show us exactly what we seek. Areté of the mind is a constant process in the practice of: excellence, wisdom, honor, virtue, knowledge, happiness, joy, wit, modesty, courage, mastery, love, honesty, synergy, valor, passion.
It is the goal we all seek.
Individual human potential.
The eminent figure.
To not only be great, but also morally sound.
To accomplish without conquering.
The true hero. To be not only the technical expert and great communicator, but also, the respected benevolent leader.
Each of us has our own distinct idea of what our life might be like if we committed to areté. The direction is unclear, the path unkept, but the purpose behind our decision to pursue it, is the only thing that matters.
Trying to live out our full-potential is far easier said than done, but there’s not better time to begin that journey than here and now.
To fly, we need wings.
To begin to fly, feet!
Think, every flying thing has feet or wheels, yes?
Birds, planes, insects, people with jetpacks.
Thus he cried,
“I traded my feet for wings! No doubt a mistake, but why? Without feet I can’t get to running, Which I MUST in order to fly!”
Creativity is no good by itself, with no action or learning.
All effort and do and order are a waste of time and energy, with no thoughtfulreflection to pair it with.
No person embodies all of one or the other, though. And rarely, is our mix of the two, balanced enough to be effective at both. But it’s true, the greatest of our human achievements come from the far end of one spectrum or the other. The eccentrics.
The great balance.
We need both the imaginative spirit of the drunkard artist, AND the staunch discipline of the conservative.
Our synergy is obvious, if only we’d see our roles, and choose to work together.
If you’re a doer, I’d best find a creative and make friends… else you’ll never fly.
If you’re a creative, put down the brush for a minute when the doer finds you… else those wings will be a waste.
Magically-engaged in a passion project, he hurredly leaves his desk, zips to Whole Foods on a Lime Bike for a to-go box and a 6pm Allegro Americano, then heads without pause to a shared workspace, mingling with other entrepreneurs until the wee-hours of the morning. Wishing the night were longer, he taxiis again back to his high-rise for a few quick hours of sleep.
Anxiously pushing to finish the shed he’s been contracted to build, he thinks, above all, about his son arriving home from college soon. At home, his wife readies the grill and proudly slips her Eagles jersey on. It’s Monday Night Football, and soon, voices and banter from the whole family will fill their modest 3 bedroom home to enjoy a few too many Bud Lights and endless supply of laughter.
Border collie at his side, he enjoys waking up at 4:45am and strolling a middle-cut path of the road in a quiet, wooded neighborhood with more horses in site than people. Contemplating clearing and tilling, for a market garden, some recently purchased land, he enjoys the moon and stars from the back-end of the dark night.
Each in their own world, like so many others, these men might find a consistent joy.
Adding a social app or the national news to any of these paintings, and their nostolgic perspectives might fade.
Our minds aren’t often capable (yet) of comprehending the overload of environmental stimulation that we allow it access to.
Inter-connectiveness draws us in, then it ties us up in a knot.
It could possibly be that our mental capacity has not biologically adapted yet to be able to understand the complexities of EVERY regional culture + weather pattern, physical environment + city size + social norm + family dynamic + unwritten rule … the list goes endlessly on.
It’s ok to have your world, and to let other’s have theirs as well.
Before criticizing someone for their lack of personal diversity or cultural understanding, it’s worth considering that less than 40 years ago, talking to someone in another city meant writing a singular letter and waiting days or weeks before hearing back. That bought us a little time to reflect and maybe comprehend another’s experience.
While our physiology has been adapting for millions of years to outside stressors, our minds are trying to go from living within a few mile radius village setting to being able to empathize with the entire planet in the matter of 40 years.
JAKOB'S JOURNAL 