Highlights from The Literary Pugilist: Mark Connor's Journey
Mark Connor on Boxing, Writing, and Reconnecting with Faith | The Science of Self
See the full interview at https://youtu.be/EhcVLPlyiGk
In this episode of The Science of Self, we sit down with Mark Connor, a literary pugilist from St. Paul, Minnesota. Mark discusses his unique career path merging boxing and writing, and his successful book, 'It's About Time,' which explores his relationship with his father and his spiritual journey. Tune in to hear about Mark's deep connection with his Catholic faith, his involvement with the Native American community, and how he navigates both worlds with respect and authenticity. Mark also shares insights on the discipline required in both writing and boxing, and offers thoughts on moral values and personal growth.
00:00 Introduction and Guest Introduction
00:17 Mark Connor's Background and Book Overview
01:12 Themes and Inspirations Behind the Book
01:53 Mark's Journey with Faith and Community
04:48 Involvement with Native American and Irish Communities
08:02 Reflections on Faith, Morality, and Writing
13:07 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
Transcript
Hello, listeners and welcome back to The Science of Self.
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:Today we have a guest with
us, mark Connor from St.
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:Paul, Minnesota.
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:And Mark, as is usually the case, I'm
gonna ask you to take a first few minutes
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:and introduce yourself to our listeners.
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:Mark Connor: Well, hi, as you said,
my name is Mark Connor from St.
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:Paul, Minnesota.
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:I am a literary pugilist, and when I
say a literary pugilist, that means
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:the only two things I've been good
at in my life are boxing and writing.
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:So I'm no longer a competitive boxer.
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:I'm a boxing trainer and I'm
a writer, and I have a book
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:that, we're gonna talk about.
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:It's called, it's about time.
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:Millions of copies sold for dad.
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:published, June 16th for
Father's Day last year.
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:it, won the Irish Network, Minnesota,
blooms Day literary award, and it's a
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:finalist in the Midwest, book awards.
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:which will be announced on, June 28th, in
the religion slash philosophy category.
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:And it's, described as a
saga wrapped around a package
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:of poems guarded by angels.
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:So it's a short autobiography
that reads like a novel and it
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:has 20 poems running through it.
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:it deals with my life.
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:My relationship with my dad, I
wrote it in response, to losing
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:him on, September 30th, 2019.
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:I didn't actually write it until,
early:
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:29th of March is when I finished it.
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:I juxtaposed my experiences with,
my Catholic faith growing up.
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:talk a little bit about the
Irish, heritage influence, on
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:myself and on the city of St.
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:Paul, where I live, where I grew up,
and, I talk about my experience with,
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:the Native American Indian community.
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:I worked, 13 and a half years at a
place called Onai Young, which means
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:our home in, Ojibwe Really spent
a lot of time, in the, spiritual
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:tradition of the Lakotas and sort
of kinda lean that way for a while.
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:but never abandoned my Catholic
faith and kind of had a reimbursement
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:of my faith back around 2007.
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:So I talk about that in the influence of
it and kind of a re embracing of my faith
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:and, reinforcement of my faith as I deal
with, losing my dad and letting go of him.
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:That's what the book is about.
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:One of the things, we cut corners,
quite a bit on, Preserving ourselves,
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:for, activity outside of marriage.
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:I make a mention at a certain
point in the book that I started.
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:I started to go back and not to follow
all the rules that I grew up with as
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:a Catholic of what I'm supposed to do.
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:Go and make it to mass every Sunday,
you know, and, just keep basically
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:keeping the commandments, you know?
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:And I think that, I also tried to.
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:Kind of blend things with, because
we have this kind of feeling in
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:American culture of, you know.
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:if we live our faith, fully
to, how we're supposed to, we
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:don't wanna offend others by it.
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:We don't want to try to be
forcing others to be following
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:the same thing that we follow.
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:so sometimes we might.
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:Not bear witness, publicly to what,
our behaviors are supposed to be.
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:Or we may make excuses, for others to
just, and, you know, you can accept
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:someone who doesn't believe the same thing
that you believe or behave the same way
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:you behave, but not necessarily, endorse
the behavior or endorse the way of life.
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:I was deeply immersed in the Native
American Indian community at the time.
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:And I wasn't announcing to people,
I'm re-embracing my Catholic faith,
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:but what I really love and respect
about my friends and native community
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:is no one was trying to pull me out
of that or discourage me from that.
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:They were, and no one was trying to
push me to go to the sweat lodges
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:or to pray the way that traditional
Native American Indians prayed.
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:but if I prayed with them in
that tradition, it was accepted.
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:You know, the fact that
I was respecting them.
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:And that was the cool thing about it.
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:people will say openly to me, yeah, the
Catholic church is just a cult, right?
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:But, you know, when I didn't go to
mass, there was no one knocking on my
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:door saying, trying to pull me to mass.
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:You know what I mean?
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:And why weren't you there on Sunday?
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:There was no one trying to.
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:wrote, wrote me and said, you can't leave.
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:You know what I'm saying?
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:It's, it's, it's, and that's really when
you talk about God, I mean, God is love.
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:And God loves us,
eternally and to love us.
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:He must respect our freedom.
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:If you don't respect someone's
freedom, you don't love that person.
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:So you can't force
someone to do something.
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:You have to make a free will choice
to, to love God, to follow, you
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:know, to follow what God's will is.
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:And so, that's why Neither tradition
I'm talking about is a cult tradition
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:at all, you know, is, or, or
what we would call a cult, right?
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:Russell Newton: you talk a lot
about the Native Americans.
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:How did you get involved with that?
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:Mark Connor: in the early 1990s,
I met this poet in his early
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:forties, His name is Kevin O'Rourke.
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:And he'd gotten, and I talked to
him after, after this, this poetry,
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:and he was, um, telling me that
he was sober and got into sobriety
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:and the time he got into sobriety.
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:He'd, um, um, been brought to, uh, a
Lakota Sundance ceremony down in, uh,
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:uh, Rosebud Reservation, and that he was
involved with this Lakota tradition and
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:he said, if you ever, uh, want to, uh,
come down there to, to, uh, to see this
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:or to be a part of this, come on down.
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:And, um, in the summer of 1995, I,
I went down there with him and that
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:kind of, uh, and, and at the same time
also I'd gotten involved with, uh, I
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:mentioned here that I joined this, uh,
uh, Irish Catholic organization, um,
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:Irish Catholic, uh, fraternal organization
called the Ancient of Hibernians.
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:I joined that right around the same
time I, I'd gotten involved with.
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:I had met some people that were
involved who were kind of grassroots
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:activists involved with, raising
awareness about what was happening and
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:advocating for, the Irish Republican
side of the conflict that was going on
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:in Ireland at the time, the troubles.
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:And, there was a solidarity
that had been built up for over
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:the last couple of centuries.
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:There's been a solidarity built up between
Irish Republicans and, and, American
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:Indians, and I mean, if you can go far
as far back as the Irish famine, when
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:the Choctaw raised money with, by selling
some gold to send over to, to Ireland to
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:try to help feed people and everything.
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:Then the following year I
met, the guy who actually, did
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:the, cover art for this, book.
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:His name's Eric Ke.
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:He's a really good
artist, Canadian Ojibwe.
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:He got me the job at this
place called And Young.
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:It's spelled three words.
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:It's spelled A-I-N-D-A-H-Y-U-N-G.
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:It's a temporary emergency.
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:it's an American Indian program.
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:It's a temporary emergency homeless
shelter for youth aged five to 17.
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:And it's for all youth, but the
primary, community that serves as
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:the Native American Indian community.
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:So I worked there in one capacity or
another, for about 13 and a half years.
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:And what really made me comfortable
about going to a Native American
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:ceremony and witnessing it But,
what made me comfortable about it
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:was, one, there's kind of a fatherly
understanding of God that the Lakota have.
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:And there's also, the recognition
of the spo, you know, like,
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:The word in Lakota for God is
aka, which means, grandfather.
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:Great mystery, I believe is, a pretty
close interpretation in English, but also.
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:Just the whole idea of Spirit or the
Great Spirit is a parallel to me or
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:another understanding of the Holy
Spirit and also in the sweat lodge.
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:one thing that I found very
similar to Catholicism is.
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:The belief that the ancestors who, who
would come into the sweat lodge when
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:they, when they would, uh, when, when
the prayers are happening, and then,
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:and listen to the prayers and then at
the end, uh, go back to the creator.
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:So they're bringing the prayers
of the people back to God.
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:One of the sickest incongruencies of
modern life is that people generally
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:are more comfortable publicly sharing
information about their sex lives
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:than about their financial lives.
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:They're either afraid.
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:People will think less of them for
making too little money, or they'll
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:try to exploit them or cause them
trouble if they make too much money,
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:They're ashamed to admit to
striving for moral chastity.
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:Though I told you at the beginning of
the book that I'm Catholic and I said
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:that in 2 0 0 7 I fully returned to the
faith, began praying the rosary daily,
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:and decided to avoid casual relationships.
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:I started following
the rules, all of them.
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:So if the text of the poem portrays
a greater or lesser degree of
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:intimacy within its story, so long
as you can critically prove it
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:with quotes from the text, feel
free to let your mind wander there.
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:That's part of the achievement of
universality in a well-written poem.
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:No.
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:With certainty though, if you try
to assign any autobiographical
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:realities between me and the women
about whom I wrote these poems,
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:that it never happened with any
of them, especially since 2 0 0 7.
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:That has been my choice because I'm a
godfather to my niece and a confirmation
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:sponsor to her under brother, and that
is the standard up to which I must live.
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:If I fall, I must get back up.
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:That's the standard required of
any honest Catholic as it is the
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:standard of any honest sun dancer.
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:It may seem strange to compare the
honest Catholic to the Honest Sun Dancer.
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:The mental, physical, spiritual, and
emotional elements are the four portions
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:that comprise each human being, the
medicine wheel, which represents in color.
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:Red, white, yellow, and black.
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:All the people of the world also
represents each of these four elements.
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:The circle is always turning
in one element or another.
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:May be the central experience
of the moment, but they're
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:all there all the time.
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:One point a merger of difference
in unity is the respect for
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:family and the value of sex.
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:Those who believe sex is
meant for arbitrary enjoyment.
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:In the absence of commitment, who
believe in polyamory, approve of
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:produce, distribute pornography, and or
broker prostitution do not value sex.
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:No.
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:Those who value sex are those who
confine it to the commitment of husband
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:and wife who making love form family.
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:If God ever grants me a wife,
I'm perfectly comfortable going
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:through every page with a comma.
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:So long as we're natural and open to life,
those who value sex, never put a price on
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:it because it cannot be bought or sold.
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:Because in fact, sex is not a commodity.
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:Humans are not a commodity.
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:We are priceless.
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:And sex is a gift to be shared only in
love that is never lustful because it
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:is never selfish and is always selfish.
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:Sex is sacred.
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:a lot of times we think of freedom
as being able to do whatever we want,
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:but freedom is more, being able to
develop ourselves to the highest, level
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:that we can develop as human beings.
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:And it takes discipline to do that.
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:And, it takes a certain
amount of, anchoring in.
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:we have to have a perception of what we
want and what we're going to do, and we
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:have to have a structure to get ourselves
into the routine of continuously doing it.
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:'cause once you take the first
step, you start to build momentum.
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:When you have momentum, you can keep
things going, but you have to be able to.
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:have a focus on things to accomplish them.
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:So that's the practice of boxing
and the practice of writing.
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:That's the similarity to the two of them.
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:And the approach that I have, it's the
same principle, applied in both endeavors.
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:Russell Newton: We from the books that
we present here is the of don't wait till
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:you're motivated to do something, doing
something, getting started on something.
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:As you said, taking that
first step is the motivation.
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:That's what gets you into the
process, not waiting to feel like
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:you need to do it or want to do it.
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:Mark Connor: Yeah, I
absolutely agree with that.
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:I actually mentioned, a writer, when I'm,
talking about the different poems that
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:appear through the book, named, Natalie
Goldberg, who wrote a really popular,
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:book about writing and specifically
writing poetry, but creative writing in
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:general called Writing Down the Bones.
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:She says, you know, is it okay to
say a swear word in this podcast she
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:says, the excuses that people have
for not writing this, I write shit.
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:And she says, well, so what?
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:Then write shit.
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:She said, every single.
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:Great writer that you have
ever encountered, writes shit.
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:You just never see it because over 75%,
maybe even over 90% or more than that
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:of what great writers put down on paper,
never sees the light of day The garbage
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:is thrown away because you have to have
the momentum to get to the point where
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:you write the great thing, you know?
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:Russell Newton: Great.
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:Fantastic.
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:thank you for joining
us this week listeners.
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:Hope you'll, Leave some comments if you
have any on the podcast and, thank you for
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:joining us and we'll see y'all next week.
