July 4, 2025 • 14 mins
For Shop Talk, we feature Army member Erik Lokkesmoe's reflections on what he wishes someone had told him when he was 30 or 40 years old.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Everybody is Bill Courtney with an army, normal folks. Shop
Talk number fifty nine. Welcome into the shop.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Hey, Alex, does anyone have any interesting numbers for fifty nine?
What do you mean, like any football players or remember
we talking about this trying to come up with numbers?
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Heines, fifty seven, Yeah, fifty nine. I can't even think
of a famous fifty nine any player or anything else, So,
you know, not really a good lead in Alex. Thanks, yeah, sorry,
I got nothing, you know, It's just okay.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
People can start suggesting, Oh, coming one's coming up. You
got sixty we'll say that.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
We'll say that, we'll remind him at the end of
the episode. Wait, what what does the number sixty three, four, five,
six and seven? Maybe that's right, okay, everybody, Shop Talk
number fifty nine is a is a second part. If
you listen last week's Shop Talt number fifty eight. This
(01:03):
is the second week that we are featuring the writing
of an army member named Eric Blacksmith. Eric has a
substack titled some Assembly Required, and the second piece is
titled the fifty year Old Version not Virgin. Fifty year
Old Virgin was a funny movie. This is the fifty
(01:25):
year old version. Some assembly required.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
It was a family appropriate show bill.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
That's a PG movie that came out.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
It was not a FIG movie thirteen or something. There's
some lines in there I remember that we cannot say
on the air that are hilarious.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
What we can't know? Oh okay, So Eric has a
substack titled some assimily required. The second piece. Last week
we featured and Eric read for us, narrated for us,
for all the fifty year old men who This week
we're doing the fifty year old version. Eric recorded a
(02:01):
performance of this, and we'll hear it right after these
grief messages from our general sponsors. Everybody Shop Talk fifty nine,
we are back with Eric Loxmo and his narration from
(02:25):
his substacks Some assembly required, the fifty year old version.
And now here's Eric Boxmo performing the fifty year old version.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
More than fifteen thousand people read a spontaneous essay I
wrote one afternoon. The title of it was for all
the fifty year old men who got dot done. It
was a letter, a kind of tribute, a collection of
thoughts for the boys like me who were told grow up,
be a man, get over it, stop crying. Stop daydreaming,
(03:01):
make mom proud, be the hero and fight back, and
above all, never show your true self. And what happened
next surprise me. The responses flooded in emails, texts, comments, stories.
I didn't expect, emotions I didn't see coming. It was
clear there's a deep hunger out there, a silent ache,
(03:23):
a longing to know. Am I the only man who
feels this way? And it got me thinking, what do
I wish someone had taught me when I was twenty,
or thirty or forty. Yes, I could have avoided some
hard falls, some broken relationships, some wasted energy, and a
whole lot of unnecessary striving. But here I am, at fifty,
(03:46):
a bit wrinkled, scarred, certainly grateful because along the way
I gained wisdom, deep friendships, and a deeper resolve to
live all in and all out until I crossed that
finish line. So I put together a bit of a
field guide. A map isn't comprehensive, but it's a start
(04:08):
some lessons and learnings for the version of me I'm
still learning to become, and maybe for the version of
you you're becoming two. This is the fifty year old version.
Here's a few to think about on the topics of
life and art and politics and purpose. Do not despise
as small. The sacred usually starts there. You're a steward,
(04:32):
not the star. Return things better than you found them.
Weird is a virtue. Peculiar things point to purpose. Finish
what you start. Starting is sexy. Finishing is sacred. You
don't need permission begin anyway. Joy is in the process.
(04:54):
Outcomes lie. The work doesn't walk in the un forced
rhythms of grace. As it's been said, smallness is greater
than bigness. Some of the greatest impact is unscalable. Contentment
is revolutionary. Want what you already have, and trust. Trust
(05:18):
is the bedrock for marriages, for media, for making. Without it,
everything cracks in politics, So politics is downstream. Culture makes
the weather principle of a party. Loyalty belongs to truth,
not tribes. The middle space is mission ground that no
(05:41):
fly zone is where change happens. Listen longer, talk slower.
Persuasion starts with curiosity. Surprise people, especially your opponents. Try
being more conservative than any conservative, and also more liberal
than any liberal. Transcend the labels. Create before you criticize.
(06:07):
We need more builders, not barkers. Proximity changes everything. Get
close to the mess. Movements are named in retrospect. Just
do the work, and humility is strength. I don't know
is a leadership superpower In entertainment, the artist leads, the
(06:31):
politician follows. Story shape hearts long before policies shape laws.
Art should haunt. Don't answer everything, leave room for mystery,
build soil, create environments where others flourish. Don't just entertain,
(06:52):
make them better, like handle, aim higher. Question Mark stories
are greater than period stories. Raise questions. Don't just preach.
Create for the future, not for the charts or the likes,
but for legacy. Don't chase the elites. Find your audience,
(07:12):
serve them well. Popular doesn't mean profound, but sometimes it
can be both. Hollywood isn't a town, it's a term.
Make great work anywhere, and if you're on the inside,
look with outside our eyes. Disrupt from within and on
(07:34):
faith and purpose. Remember to redeem the time, redeem the dream.
Don't waste the ache. You are a co creator. Make
all things new. By making new things, art is vocation.
Sweep your street like Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel. Faith
(07:55):
is found in the middle between the broken and the beautiful.
Pray for the world, but move toward it. Love a
yard from hell. Sacrifice is the strategy, always has been.
Do it for the five, not the five hundred. You
(08:16):
never know who's listening. Blessed are the outliers. They see
what others miss. Trust the source. The river of culture
still flows through God's land, and ponder knew what the
Almighty can do. This is the fifty year old version,
(08:37):
not the final word, just one voice, but maybe it's
why you needed to hear today.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
So now on chop Talk for the second week, we
have heard Eric's voice with poignant thoughts and ideas and encouragements.
I think the one I loved the most, and again
I'm paraphrasing, is life's a mess, run to it or something?
(09:07):
Is that what he said? What was it?
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Proximity changes everything. Get close to the messy stuff.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Yes, proximity changes everything. Get close to the messy stuff.
I mean that is actually how this podcast started. Really,
look at the mess, someone else going to do about it.
Get close to it and clean the mess.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Not just a mess, a mess you're afraid of. Yeah,
all right, you don't want your flat tire breaking down there.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Yeah. I mean, but people don't like messes typically. I
guess when I hear it, I'm thinking he titled.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Do it Here's something funny. Sorry, what I'm the mess?
If you will don't like it? Said? Do you know
Pat Conroy random thoup, But I don't think we've talked
about this on the podcast before. He's like a famous
Southern writer, okay, and he's got like a really messed
up family.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
That's it. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
So if he's given this book talk, it might have
been for his book great Santini. I'm not a Pat
Conter expert, but I've heard this story. And someone comes
up to him after his talk and says, man, your
family is messed up, And he says, how far do
we got to go down your family tree to find
I find I? So it's it all?
Speaker 1 (10:17):
Yeah, none of us.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
We all got mess Oh.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
It's life is messy. It is the other thing I
think I find interesting listening to it is as I
hear him well, as you read it hard copy, and
then as you hear him narrate it and put his
voice to the words he wrote. The title the fifty
year old version is interesting because what is the perspective
(10:45):
of all of those things from a thirty year old version,
you know. And the point is, I think, one, we
continue to gain wisdom, but two we continue to gain scars.
We simultaneously gain wisdom, oftentimes through many of the mistakes
we made are the things that have beaten us up.
(11:07):
So the fifty year old version is an appropriate and
interesting title. And I think somewhere in there he you know,
he's talking party before party before politic or something like that, but.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
Basically, principal over party.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Principal over party, and don't be something conservative and don't
be something liberal. What was that?
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Yeah, be more conservative than conservatives and more liberal than liberals.
Transcend labels, Transcend labels. That was the bottom line, the
transcend labels. And I think for an army of normal
folks to be a successful movement, we will have all
of us have got to transcend labels and dive into
(11:57):
the mess. And I think that's what I got the
most out of his words from what about You? That
was all good. I don't have anything specific to say
besides head of just a random thought of people want
to do this too. Maybe some of the listeners want
to reflect on their lives. That's interesting to hear, but
(12:19):
then their wisdom that they can share with us and
maybe we can feature too.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
Absolutely love to hear about it. So once again, shop
Talk number fifty nine is Eric Loxmo's the fifty year
old version from his substack caddled substack, titled some as
Simply Required. Eric, really appreciate you taking the time to
narrate that for us so that we could share it
on shop Talk. Guys, if you enjoyed this episode, please
(12:46):
rate review it. Join the army at normal Folks dot us.
If you have ideas for shop talks, email me at
Bill at normal Folks dot us or Alex at army
at Normal Folks. What army it? Normal Folks got us
and normal Folks to us. One other thing that is
shop Talk number fifty nine, meaning we'll be picking up sixty.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Oh yeah, I looked up fifty nine. Well, it's really
not much. I looked at the Internet while you're doing
that officially, it's just yeah. The only thing really could
come up with is there's some song called the fifty
nine Street Bridge. It might have been Simon Garfocal or something.
I put my computer down, but it did remind me
of fifty ninth Street the beginning of Central Park.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Well, I guess so that's the most the most.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Like kind of thing I can think of, is I
love the entrance of Central Park there on fifty nine Street.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
So y'all, Alex has really hung up on the numbers
of shop Talk, having an interesting little side note about
the number. So please email me something to do with
sixty nine through seventy so I can say it. I'm
shop Talk, so our producer here.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
I'm not talking up on it. I don't even believe
in horoscopes or any of that weird stuff. I just
thought this could be fun.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
Just say it is fun. Yeah, it's fun. So y'all,
y'all said it? Okay, Bill, Courtney, Army and normal folks.
That's shop Talk funder fifty nine. We asked you to
do all the stuff you're supposed to do, So I
guess that's it, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
Until next time, do it can.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
Until next time, do what you can. We'll see you
next week.
Everybody is Bill Courtney with an army, normal folks. Shop
Talk number fifty nine. Welcome into the shop.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Hey, Alex, does anyone have any interesting numbers for fifty nine?
What do you mean, like any football players or remember
we talking about this trying to come up with numbers?
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Heines, fifty seven, Yeah, fifty nine. I can't even think
of a famous fifty nine any player or anything else, So,
you know, not really a good lead in Alex. Thanks, yeah, sorry,
I got nothing, you know, It's just okay.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
People can start suggesting, Oh, coming one's coming up. You
got sixty we'll say that.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
We'll say that, we'll remind him at the end of
the episode. Wait, what what does the number sixty three, four, five,
six and seven? Maybe that's right, okay, everybody, Shop Talk
number fifty nine is a is a second part. If
you listen last week's Shop Talt number fifty eight. This
(01:03):
is the second week that we are featuring the writing
of an army member named Eric Blacksmith. Eric has a
substack titled some Assembly Required, and the second piece is
titled the fifty year Old Version not Virgin. Fifty year
Old Virgin was a funny movie. This is the fifty
(01:25):
year old version. Some assembly required.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
It was a family appropriate show bill.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
That's a PG movie that came out.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
It was not a FIG movie thirteen or something. There's
some lines in there I remember that we cannot say
on the air that are hilarious.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
What we can't know? Oh okay, So Eric has a
substack titled some assimily required. The second piece. Last week
we featured and Eric read for us, narrated for us,
for all the fifty year old men who This week
we're doing the fifty year old version. Eric recorded a
(02:01):
performance of this, and we'll hear it right after these
grief messages from our general sponsors. Everybody Shop Talk fifty nine,
we are back with Eric Loxmo and his narration from
(02:25):
his substacks Some assembly required, the fifty year old version.
And now here's Eric Boxmo performing the fifty year old version.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
More than fifteen thousand people read a spontaneous essay I
wrote one afternoon. The title of it was for all
the fifty year old men who got dot done. It
was a letter, a kind of tribute, a collection of
thoughts for the boys like me who were told grow up,
be a man, get over it, stop crying. Stop daydreaming,
(03:01):
make mom proud, be the hero and fight back, and
above all, never show your true self. And what happened
next surprise me. The responses flooded in emails, texts, comments, stories.
I didn't expect, emotions I didn't see coming. It was
clear there's a deep hunger out there, a silent ache,
(03:23):
a longing to know. Am I the only man who
feels this way? And it got me thinking, what do
I wish someone had taught me when I was twenty,
or thirty or forty. Yes, I could have avoided some
hard falls, some broken relationships, some wasted energy, and a
whole lot of unnecessary striving. But here I am, at fifty,
(03:46):
a bit wrinkled, scarred, certainly grateful because along the way
I gained wisdom, deep friendships, and a deeper resolve to
live all in and all out until I crossed that
finish line. So I put together a bit of a
field guide. A map isn't comprehensive, but it's a start
(04:08):
some lessons and learnings for the version of me I'm
still learning to become, and maybe for the version of
you you're becoming two. This is the fifty year old version.
Here's a few to think about on the topics of
life and art and politics and purpose. Do not despise
as small. The sacred usually starts there. You're a steward,
(04:32):
not the star. Return things better than you found them.
Weird is a virtue. Peculiar things point to purpose. Finish
what you start. Starting is sexy. Finishing is sacred. You
don't need permission begin anyway. Joy is in the process.
(04:54):
Outcomes lie. The work doesn't walk in the un forced
rhythms of grace. As it's been said, smallness is greater
than bigness. Some of the greatest impact is unscalable. Contentment
is revolutionary. Want what you already have, and trust. Trust
(05:18):
is the bedrock for marriages, for media, for making. Without it,
everything cracks in politics, So politics is downstream. Culture makes
the weather principle of a party. Loyalty belongs to truth,
not tribes. The middle space is mission ground that no
(05:41):
fly zone is where change happens. Listen longer, talk slower.
Persuasion starts with curiosity. Surprise people, especially your opponents. Try
being more conservative than any conservative, and also more liberal
than any liberal. Transcend the labels. Create before you criticize.
(06:07):
We need more builders, not barkers. Proximity changes everything. Get
close to the mess. Movements are named in retrospect. Just
do the work, and humility is strength. I don't know
is a leadership superpower In entertainment, the artist leads, the
(06:31):
politician follows. Story shape hearts long before policies shape laws.
Art should haunt. Don't answer everything, leave room for mystery,
build soil, create environments where others flourish. Don't just entertain,
(06:52):
make them better, like handle, aim higher. Question Mark stories
are greater than period stories. Raise questions. Don't just preach.
Create for the future, not for the charts or the likes,
but for legacy. Don't chase the elites. Find your audience,
(07:12):
serve them well. Popular doesn't mean profound, but sometimes it
can be both. Hollywood isn't a town, it's a term.
Make great work anywhere, and if you're on the inside,
look with outside our eyes. Disrupt from within and on
(07:34):
faith and purpose. Remember to redeem the time, redeem the dream.
Don't waste the ache. You are a co creator. Make
all things new. By making new things, art is vocation.
Sweep your street like Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel. Faith
(07:55):
is found in the middle between the broken and the beautiful.
Pray for the world, but move toward it. Love a
yard from hell. Sacrifice is the strategy, always has been.
Do it for the five, not the five hundred. You
(08:16):
never know who's listening. Blessed are the outliers. They see
what others miss. Trust the source. The river of culture
still flows through God's land, and ponder knew what the
Almighty can do. This is the fifty year old version,
(08:37):
not the final word, just one voice, but maybe it's
why you needed to hear today.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
So now on chop Talk for the second week, we
have heard Eric's voice with poignant thoughts and ideas and encouragements.
I think the one I loved the most, and again
I'm paraphrasing, is life's a mess, run to it or something?
(09:07):
Is that what he said? What was it?
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Proximity changes everything. Get close to the messy stuff.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Yes, proximity changes everything. Get close to the messy stuff.
I mean that is actually how this podcast started. Really,
look at the mess, someone else going to do about it.
Get close to it and clean the mess.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Not just a mess, a mess you're afraid of. Yeah,
all right, you don't want your flat tire breaking down there.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Yeah. I mean, but people don't like messes typically. I
guess when I hear it, I'm thinking he titled.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Do it Here's something funny. Sorry, what I'm the mess?
If you will don't like it? Said? Do you know
Pat Conroy random thoup, But I don't think we've talked
about this on the podcast before. He's like a famous
Southern writer, okay, and he's got like a really messed
up family.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
That's it. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
So if he's given this book talk, it might have
been for his book great Santini. I'm not a Pat
Conter expert, but I've heard this story. And someone comes
up to him after his talk and says, man, your
family is messed up, And he says, how far do
we got to go down your family tree to find
I find I? So it's it all?
Speaker 1 (10:17):
Yeah, none of us.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
We all got mess Oh.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
It's life is messy. It is the other thing I
think I find interesting listening to it is as I
hear him well, as you read it hard copy, and
then as you hear him narrate it and put his
voice to the words he wrote. The title the fifty
year old version is interesting because what is the perspective
(10:45):
of all of those things from a thirty year old version,
you know. And the point is, I think, one, we
continue to gain wisdom, but two we continue to gain scars.
We simultaneously gain wisdom, oftentimes through many of the mistakes
we made are the things that have beaten us up.
(11:07):
So the fifty year old version is an appropriate and
interesting title. And I think somewhere in there he you know,
he's talking party before party before politic or something like that, but.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
Basically, principal over party.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Principal over party, and don't be something conservative and don't
be something liberal. What was that?
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Yeah, be more conservative than conservatives and more liberal than liberals.
Transcend labels, Transcend labels. That was the bottom line, the
transcend labels. And I think for an army of normal
folks to be a successful movement, we will have all
of us have got to transcend labels and dive into
(11:57):
the mess. And I think that's what I got the
most out of his words from what about You? That
was all good. I don't have anything specific to say
besides head of just a random thought of people want
to do this too. Maybe some of the listeners want
to reflect on their lives. That's interesting to hear, but
(12:19):
then their wisdom that they can share with us and
maybe we can feature too.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
Absolutely love to hear about it. So once again, shop
Talk number fifty nine is Eric Loxmo's the fifty year
old version from his substack caddled substack, titled some as
Simply Required. Eric, really appreciate you taking the time to
narrate that for us so that we could share it
on shop Talk. Guys, if you enjoyed this episode, please
(12:46):
rate review it. Join the army at normal Folks dot us.
If you have ideas for shop talks, email me at
Bill at normal Folks dot us or Alex at army
at Normal Folks. What army it? Normal Folks got us
and normal Folks to us. One other thing that is
shop Talk number fifty nine, meaning we'll be picking up sixty.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Oh yeah, I looked up fifty nine. Well, it's really
not much. I looked at the Internet while you're doing
that officially, it's just yeah. The only thing really could
come up with is there's some song called the fifty
nine Street Bridge. It might have been Simon Garfocal or something.
I put my computer down, but it did remind me
of fifty ninth Street the beginning of Central Park.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Well, I guess so that's the most the most.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Like kind of thing I can think of, is I
love the entrance of Central Park there on fifty nine Street.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
So y'all, Alex has really hung up on the numbers
of shop Talk, having an interesting little side note about
the number. So please email me something to do with
sixty nine through seventy so I can say it. I'm
shop Talk, so our producer here.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
I'm not talking up on it. I don't even believe
in horoscopes or any of that weird stuff. I just
thought this could be fun.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
Just say it is fun. Yeah, it's fun. So y'all,
y'all said it? Okay, Bill, Courtney, Army and normal folks.
That's shop Talk funder fifty nine. We asked you to
do all the stuff you're supposed to do, So I
guess that's it, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
Until next time, do it can.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
Until next time, do what you can. We'll see you
next week.
Host
Bill Courtney
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