Asatru Folk Assembly - December 25, 2024


Community, Companionship, and Coming Together


Episode Stats


Length

18 minutes

Words per minute

149.17

Word count

2,829

Sentence count

87

Harmful content

Toxicity

3

sentences flagged

Hate speech

4

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

In this episode, Folk Builder Sarah Ault talks about the tragic loss of a 7 year old boy who went missing in the early morning hours of December 1st in a small Wisconsin town. The community came together and did whatever they could to find the missing boy.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 Folk Builder Sarah Ault, why don't you tell us about some things?
00:00:05.000 Okay, sounds good. Hello everybody. My name is Folk Builder Sarah Ault. I am a folk builder
00:00:13.340 out of Wisconsin. I help with the Ossetru Academy and I help Nick with the Ruinstone.
00:00:21.220 You might have also seen some of my posts if you were on MeWe about ancestors and the
00:00:27.720 importance of building a relationship with them and the gifting cycle so nick asked me to talk
00:00:35.640 about community tonight and if you bear with me i would like to share with you a recent story that
00:00:42.840 happened to me um since i live in wisconsin it's obviously cold but i live in a very small town on
00:00:51.240 the lakefront. There's under 10,000 people here and I think that number is generous to what is
00:00:58.600 actually living here. We have already hit negative temperatures. It's been very cold. We have a lot
00:01:07.080 of snow. And on the last day of November, it was about negative 12 out. They were supposed to have
00:01:13.640 a holiday parade downtown that night, but I didn't have my children. So I was looking forward to
00:01:19.080 to staying warm and maybe catching a movie or finishing a book in my house. And as I was getting
00:01:26.840 all comfy, an alert came across my phone. There was a missing child in town, a missing seven-year-old.
00:01:36.240 He was last seen by the bolt launch on our river. So I didn't even think about it. I just threw on
00:01:42.980 some warm clothes. I grabbed some flashlights, a blanket and headed to the area in hopes of just
00:01:49.140 being some sort of help. And so many in this town had the same idea. We parked on the other side of
00:01:56.880 the river from where the professionals were already searching the water. With the updates
00:02:04.880 that were being given to us by the police, we learned that this little one was autistic. And
00:02:11.420 And for those that don't know me, I also have an autistic son.
00:02:16.020 And while there are no two autistic kids that are alike, they often share similar traits.
00:02:25.220 A lot of autistic kids wander off. 0.83
00:02:28.620 I thankfully did not have that issue with my son.
00:02:32.640 He constantly wanted to be with me.
00:02:34.700 But I know a lot of parents that do, and it's a scary thing to always have to.
00:02:39.780 You can't have that moment as a parent to lose sight of them for a second because they'll
00:02:45.780 be gone. 0.87
00:02:47.580 They are very good escape artists and unfortunately with autistic kids for some reason they're 1.00
00:02:52.880 drawn to the water. 1.00
00:02:55.940 And so when the group of us that were together heard this, we all shared that common thought.
00:03:06.900 You will often hear new stories, heartwarming stories of autistic kids that wander off and
00:03:12.600 they are found in the woods a day later and maybe they were befriended by a dog in the
00:03:17.940 woods or a firefighter found them or something.
00:03:21.160 And unfortunately, these are the exceptions and not the rules.
00:03:25.960 The current leading cause of death for an autistic child is drowning.
00:03:30.640 And this is a reality that many in our community share.
00:03:35.340 So the police asked us to stay out of the direct area so their dogs could work unhindered.
00:03:40.860 So we formed search groups and we went to local parks.
00:03:44.400 The family spokesman had given a list of parks and places that the child would have been
00:03:50.360 familiar with in case he had wandered off to there.
00:03:57.520 So after about three hours of doing that and not being able to feel my toes, I headed home
00:04:03.920 and just watch for updates. All night long, you could hear the National Guard helicopters
00:04:08.960 going over and over the city. In the early morning hours on the first day of December,
00:04:14.640 the sound stopped, and the police updated that some of the boys' personal items were
00:04:19.560 found in the river, and the DNR had narrowed down the search. And a couple hours after
00:04:26.100 that, the boy's body was found.
00:04:30.420 As I reflected on everything that had happened that night and the way the community had come
00:04:34.860 together and the sorrow that we all now shared and the way we embrace the family after as
00:04:42.780 a community, I was reminded of how thankful I am to live in this area.
00:04:51.460 Just seeing how within minutes of the alerts so many people came to the area not to be
00:04:56.400 onlookers of a tragic event, but to be active helpers forming groups coordinating with others
00:05:02.480 so all the area was covered, listening to the directions of the authority as not to
00:05:08.040 be a hindrance but being able to cover a larger area, still others bringing hand warmers
00:05:13.920 and coffee.
00:05:17.580 People just kept coming all night and early morning, strangers who didn't know the family
00:05:21.700 but just knew that a small resident of our town was missing and needed help,
00:05:26.980 and they just wanted to do whatever they could.
00:05:32.740 As I thought about this, this is community. In this day and age when you often don't know,
00:05:38.580 or in some cases don't want to know your neighbors, this sense of community is so lacking.
00:05:44.020 It serves as a reminder to appreciate when you see it around you and to help foster it by being
00:05:49.300 involved in it and it also reminded me of how very thankful I am that I came home to
00:05:56.840 the community of folk within the AFA.
00:06:02.500 Our relationship with our gods and our ancestors matter but also the relationships we build
00:06:07.860 within the AFA.
00:06:10.060 All members of the AFA are the inner guard.
00:06:14.780 As we stand in worship before our gods, we share a special group, Hemenja.
00:06:19.640 This relationship to each other requires a special trust and loyalty.
00:06:24.040 Because the AFA community shares in this, we hold each other accountable.
00:06:29.400 This is why it's important and encouraged to build strong bonds with each other.
00:06:36.160 Your AFA community is who you should lean on when it's needed until you can stand on
00:06:41.520 your own again.
00:06:43.740 So often when a person is going through rough times they retreat and isolate themselves.
00:06:49.580 There is no reason to do this when you are a member of the AFA community.
00:06:54.940 Reach out.
00:06:57.260 Reach out to a folk builder, a fellow member, one of the both are, because we are all stronger
00:07:05.500 as a community when the community grows together and moves forward together.
00:07:13.060 that is what I have
00:07:15.280 thank you so much Sarah
00:07:26.760 I know you wrote that
00:07:29.940 in the previous
00:07:32.520 Rune Stone
00:07:33.240 and
00:07:35.500 reading it
00:07:37.280 there was a bit of
00:07:40.280 I don't know, weird to it
00:07:44.020 that I'd ask you to speak on
00:07:46.400 community back in October
00:07:48.000 for tonight
00:07:48.920 and then you had the
00:07:52.280 perfect
00:07:52.720 story and the perfect
00:07:56.180 write-up
00:07:56.680 just truly speak to that and the importance of it
00:08:00.360 and absolutely
00:08:01.080 we have
00:08:03.240 we see often
00:08:07.860 members of the AFA
00:08:09.600 just kind of close off or run away or just break contact when they're going through a rough time.
00:08:19.120 But we also see members of the AFA who hunker down and really lean on us
00:08:31.900 And let us have the honor of helping them, whether it be through folk services or through counseling with our Gotar.
00:08:47.920 It is something that we are fortunate to be able to do for our folk.
00:08:55.420 and
00:08:57.320 we want
00:09:01.460 to do that and we want
00:09:03.540 to be able to build those bonds and be
00:09:05.640 even closer with our folk every day
00:09:07.380 and
00:09:09.600 even outside of
00:09:10.940 the direct AFA
00:09:13.300 it's something we want to do we do
00:09:15.320 all the time every month with our
00:09:17.120 food pantry
00:09:18.220 and the extra
00:09:21.140 donations that we can give
00:09:23.160 and the toy drive and the back-to-school books and
00:09:27.200 coat drives, when we have our members that
00:09:31.300 rallied around the
00:09:33.200 devastation and destruction following the
00:09:39.100 hurricanes back a couple months ago and went out to North Carolina
00:09:43.420 and to help out. All of these situations
00:09:47.100 where we can really build bonds
00:09:51.200 and grow together through actually leaning on each other
00:09:55.740 and being part of a community.
00:09:58.760 So I appreciate you talking about it
00:10:03.540 and sharing that story with us again.
00:10:08.040 Thank you.
00:10:10.240 So as Go the East, I found it quite synchronistic
00:10:15.800 that we are all on the same page
00:10:19.680 because my brother Go to the East, he always talks about that when times get tough, as
00:10:26.720 Folk Builder Rice mentioned, that we should, you know, turn into each other, is that we should not
00:10:32.100 turn away, we should not run away, we should not, you know, seek solitude to find our solace and
00:10:38.240 our comfort. We should turn to our fellow ostracists who are, you know, there for us. It's
00:10:44.780 the reason why our church exists, not only to give the due worship to our ancestors and
00:10:50.080 the gods themselves, but to bind ourselves together in a good way, to be that community
00:10:56.260 for each other, to be a body of folk, as Folk Builder Malilo said earlier, who are loyal
00:11:05.320 to the ASEER, and that loyalty also extends, you know, by our very association and our
00:11:11.620 reason for coming together to each other um i would like to also touch on something that
00:11:17.440 that miss sarah said earlier about you know that the the search for that child i have been on
00:11:24.080 a fair number of such such excursions as you said as one of those professionals on the other side
00:11:30.380 of the river um and you know there were several i've had several calls um you know emergency
00:11:37.820 scenes where autistic children have been present and a few autistic adults in fact Sarah we
00:11:41.900 one of my little kind of little celebrated accomplishment even by me but I was thanked
00:11:48.980 profusely by the family was I used a tick a thermal imaging camera one night to
00:11:55.000 find a autistic man who was in his 30s I think 30s or 40s he had gone out in the woods now in
00:12:05.740 south georgia in january it's not that cold relatively but as i said earlier you know we
00:12:12.420 have a lot of moisture in the air so it's a bitter seep into your bones cold and poor guy had wandered
00:12:17.420 off into the woods he had wandered off into about a 70 acre patch uh which was surrounded by homes
00:12:23.220 but he had wandered into the one kind of wilderness in that area and i was able to locate him sitting
00:12:28.480 on a stump sitting on a fallen log just shivering in the darkness and i mean total darkness because
00:12:34.060 i had to find him with a thermal imaging camera and of course he lit he lit up like a yule tree
00:12:40.120 in the darkness but um coming away from that i know it's not necessarily a folk derived thing
00:12:46.700 but something that i don't even know it may be a bible verse i hope it's not but um something that
00:12:53.900 the shriners say because i don't know if everybody knows the shriners deal with disabled and you know
00:12:59.300 disabled children and children with you know deformities and whatnot and their famous thing is
00:13:04.760 a man has never stood so tall or a man never stands so tall except for when he stoops to
00:13:11.420 aid an injured child and I'm probably butchering that quote but you guys get the gist and you know
00:13:19.000 it's something of an overarching theme that we talk about we kind of go round and round with
00:13:24.340 these things and I don't mean that in a negative light I mean we are constantly revisiting these
00:13:28.420 themes and one of our themes for us men folk and I mean physically is that we're always encouraging
00:13:37.840 each other and should encourage other to be physically strong and sometimes I think all of
00:13:44.660 us lose sight of why strength is to be developed physical strength is to be developed and also
00:13:51.040 spiritual strength and one of the one of the chief reasons why strength is important of a
00:13:58.580 physical nature and of a spiritual nature is to shepherd and safeguard the weak and that is not
00:14:06.900 a derogatory term uh it is not you know i'm not i don't mean it in a derogatory way uh we cultivate
00:14:14.440 you know and maintain strength because it is the responsibility of the strong to shepherd and
00:14:22.100 safeguard the weak you know it takes all shapes and sizes to run the world to run a people to
00:14:28.820 run a folk to run a church so just because you are not as physically strong as you know your
00:14:35.480 brothers does not mean that you do not have value but what it does mean for those brothers and
00:14:40.520 sisters who are stronger than you is that it is their responsibility to protect you should you be
00:14:47.680 encountered with you know overwhelming strength you know from a foe so that is the point of
00:14:54.860 cultivating strength and back to you know the whole thing about helping out the the weak and
00:15:03.040 injured and and everybody coming out that was so beautiful sarah to hear you know it just
00:15:08.860 it really restores your faith in humanity when everybody just like you did said you know what
00:15:16.940 i could sit here and watch this movie and read this book and i could just sip my drink and be 0.89
00:15:22.280 warm inside but damn it you know there's a child out there who doesn't know that he's in danger 0.93
00:15:27.620 doesn't understand what's going on or whatever the situation may be that everybody had the same 0.94
00:15:32.760 thought and said I'm going to go help that is just amazing and that is the definition that is
00:15:39.540 you're right sir that is the true definition of community is sacrificing comfort for the safety
00:15:45.540 and well-being of one of your number that is just you can't get it any better than that
00:15:50.460 and there is actually since we're talking about the Nordics a lot today and aren't we always
00:15:55.520 because there is a Swedish phrase that translated in the English because I'm not going to butcher
00:16:01.400 or the Swedish, is bare is he whose back stands without a brother. There it is. I mean, I said
00:16:08.500 you can't get more simpler than that, but there it is. That's even simpler. Your back is bare.
00:16:13.320 You are bare. You are defenseless. Have you no brothers or have you no sisters who can stand
00:16:20.140 with you and protect you and share the load with you? Your back is completely bare. You are
00:16:24.920 completely caught out, you know, caught off guard and outside the inner yard should you have no
00:16:30.480 brothers to guard your back. So I can't think of any better topics, you guys, for this time of the
00:16:36.660 year, for this holy tide, than to talk about community and what it means for us to cultivate
00:16:42.560 and share our strength and use it wisely to shepherd those among us who, and, you know,
00:16:49.540 protect them and look after them and make sure they're okay during such a trying time. So
00:16:54.060 like we've all said tonight, it is, it is our, you know, it is literally our sacred duty to each
00:17:01.920 other to maintain these things, to maintain these traditions and these things that we do in service
00:17:08.600 of each other. Now, I, you know, have a particular professional reason for being, you know, kind of
00:17:18.240 concerned with these things and the kind of touchy-feely expressions of it. And I am reminded
00:17:24.320 since one of my close professional friends, a young fellow who is going to become a Air Force
00:17:31.980 pararescue man. And if you don't know anything about that, these are the guys that the super
00:17:37.260 sneaky special forces guys call in to get them when they're hurt or injured. These are the
00:17:43.160 super medics uh in fact pararescue men's school is called superman school it has a 90 attrition
00:17:49.680 rate and if you're following along at home and doing your math that means one out of every 10
00:17:54.260 people pass that class um but the reason why i told you all that is that their motto
00:17:58.820 is that their motto is this we do so that others may live and i have translated that in my
00:18:07.480 meditations recently as my role as a priest of this church is that this i do so that others may
00:18:15.260 come home because i do it to bring more and more of our folk home to their you know rightful place
00:18:24.280 and the only church of the ace here in midgard but also to maintain that and to enrich their lives
00:18:31.340 and to enrich all of our lives
00:18:33.380 and to grow this church
00:18:35.600 into the force for good for our people
00:18:39.700 that it should be and deserves to be.
00:18:42.700 So that's the end of my sermonizing
00:18:44.580 to you guys tonight.
00:18:45.420 So if you have any questions or anything,
00:18:46.800 just let me know.
00:18:53.420 Thank you so much, Gauthier.
00:18:55.580 You are a font of wisdom as always.