The Sword

When coming up with the name for my site, I was inspired by the phrase, "The pen is mightier than the sword." For me, however, the sword or the blood side of Blot and Blood does not only signify war or combat. It represents the physical, the blood, sweat, and tears, get your hands dirty side of life. This could be cutting, splitting, and stacking firewood to warm your home in the winter, fighting to reach that next handhold as you're climbing the face of a cliff, or making your third pack-out from the elk you just harvested. Although crucially important, no memories are made sitting in your armchair, smoking a pipe, and reading Sun Tzu. There will be no stories told around the campfire of that time you were sitting at your desk writing in your journal. Adventure begins where mountains are climbed, rivers forded, cold endured, and challenge is met with ferocious determination. For it is only when you spend a night shivering to the core, pleading with the heavens to release their warmth, that you genuinely appreciate the sun's kiss as it crests the ridge. It is only after enduring days without food that you understand the profound blessing of creation's bounty. And it is only after staring into the face of unfathomable evil that you truly cherish all that is pure and innocent and good. It's time to unleash your inner savage.