Episode 02: The Truth Always Rises

Summary

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Podcast Summary:

Love and Radio: Blood Memory — Episode 02: The Truth Always Rises
Host: Nick van der Kolk
Date: February 9, 2026
Duration: ~33 min

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Episode Overview

In episode two of "Blood Memory," host Nick van der Kolk continues the exploration of Michael Lynn Thompson’s life story, delving deeper into Michael's formative years, his experiences on and off Native reservations, the trauma and violence he encountered as a child, and his relationship with the influential figure Walks on Top. Through in-depth storytelling and raw conversation, the episode seeks to unravel the threads of survival, cultural inheritance, masculinity, and the lifelong impact of violence. The themes of trauma, resilience, and spiritual identity are prominent, with a particular focus on the subtle but crucial wisdom passed from mentor to mentee.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Importance of History and Blood Memory

• Understanding Family and Personal History:
  • The episode begins by establishing the importance of understanding someone’s family history to truly know them.
    • "You don't really understand who you're looking at until you do their history...you learn so much more about who you're sitting in front of by knowing everything about their history." (Narrator/Interviewer, 00:36)

2. Michael's Childhood on the Reservation

• Adversity and Survival:
  • Michael describes a childhood of instability—being "farmed out" to relatives, sleeping under a trailer, and scavenging for food like fry bread among different households (03:23–05:19).
  • Lived with resilience and self-sufficiency, but also experienced social isolation:
    • "Life on the reservation was about Survival. I slept underneath a travel trailer. I don't recall ever being inside back then." (Michael, 03:51)
• Trauma and Violence:
  • Michael provides a harrowing account of being brutally attacked by a group of men as a child—a formative, profoundly traumatic event:
    • "He grabbed my penis and testicles in his fist and lifted me bodily into the air. 'Let's cut these off before they get any bigger and he starts fucking our women.' ... I made it to my feet and ran for the tree line..." (Michael, 05:38–08:45)
  • Yet, this low point also triggered his profound realization of connection with nature:
    • "Suddenly I had the sense that just as I was aware of nature, nature was aware of me. It immediately calmed me." (Michael, 08:27)

3. Systemic Failure and Family Dynamics

• From Abandonment to Juvenile Detention:
  • After his trauma, Michael is placed in juvenile detention based on a dubious claim of being "incorrigible."
    • "They couldn't put me in juvenile hall without something. And so my mother made the claim that I was incorrigible...It's not really a discussion that I've ever had with her." (Michael, 09:14)
• Mother’s Perspective:
  • A letter from Michael’s mother, Jacqueline Miller, is read, rebutting the narrative that she abandoned him and providing insight into their difficult circumstances:
    • "I did not raise Michael after he was about 13 or 14, but I never abandoned him...If this has damaged Michael in any way, it shows up even in his choice of women. We're not perfect... We've made mistakes. We've also had our share of tragedies." (Jacqueline, 09:36–10:56)

4. Meeting Walks on Top: A Pivotal Encounter

• Introduction to a Mentor:
  • Michael recalls meeting "Walks on Top" (Jack Martin) at age 12, who would become a father figure and mentor. Walks on Top was half-white, half-Nez Perce, and highly respected for his traditional knowledge (12:01–14:03).
    • "He was highly regarded in the native communities all the way down into South America for his knowledge of traditional native ways...he was what's called wikasha wakan, which is man of spirit." (Michael, 13:37)
• The Meaning of an Alpha Male:
  • Walks on Top modeled a different idea of masculinity than the violent, braggadocious stereotype:
    • "You don't hear much about the alpha male characteristic... An alpha male, as Walks on Top would have told you is that individual who provides for his family, who looks after the children, who looks after the elders...It's to provide and protect." (Michael, 15:14)

5. Learning Skills, Ceremony, and Blood Memory

• Natural Aptitudese and Ceremony:
  • Michael quickly learns horsemanship, ranch work, hunting, and Native spiritual practices.
    • He describes "blood memory" as an inherited, almost instinctual connection to culture and ceremony (16:48).
      • "He saw that I had a natural connection to nature...he said, you know, you have a blood memory, you know, even in drumming. First time he handed me a hand drum he didn't have to tell me how to use...it was as if I knew, you know, that heartbeat." (Michael, 16:58)
• Diverse Spiritual Education:
  • The philosophy of spirituality is syncretic—Michael is trained in Lakota, Anishinaabe, Nez Perce, Cheyenne, Miwok, Kumeyaay traditions and languages (17:40).

6. Rodeo, Fighting, and the Ethics of Violence

• Life Lessons Through Rodeo:
  • Walks on Top teaches Michael bull riding, imparting the lesson that mastery comes from merging with, not dominating, the bull:
    • "I'm not going to compete with him...I'm going to merge with it. See, I don't fight it. But if you merge with it and go with that rhythm, all of life is a rhythm. All of life is a dance." (Michael, 18:05–18:55)
• The Genesis of Fighting Lessons:
  • A childhood trauma triggers Walks on Top to teach Michael to fight, using a bandana as a sparring ground.
    • "He constantly emphasized, make it your own, make it your own, make it your own. And I ultimately did. I mean, it took me probably till I was 18 to do that, but never occurred to me that I'd ever have a use for it. But as it turned out, I did." (Michael, 21:48)
• Violence and Ethics:
  • Michael reflects on the normalization of violence in his life, especially at rodeos, where older men would attack him out of resentment, and Walks on Top would let him fend for himself:
    • "If I'd knock a man down, I would step back and you know, tell them men, please stay down...Oftentimes there's an ethic associated with violence, particularly if you fancy yourself a warrior. Some violence is necessary, a part of the cycle of life... But violence is never acceptable as a trivial act... Violence without ethics is brutality. Walks on Top used to tell me that all the time." (Michael, 23:24–27:00)

7. Crime, Loyalty, and Unspoken Love

• Transition to Adult Life and Crime:
  • The episode closes on the revelation of Michael’s eventual arrest and the unwavering—if stoic—loyalty shown by Walks on Top:
    • "He only wanted to know from the commitment offense: he came to see me one time... he said, 'Did you do it?' I said, 'No, sir.' He said, 'That's all I wanted to know.' He got up and left. That was it, man. A few words. And that's the last time I saw him." (Michael, 27:10)
    • The absence of explicitly stated love lingers:
      • "Did he love me? Don't know, never said I loved him, you know." (Michael, 27:17)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the sun’s symbolism:
  "You'll notice that I'm facing east, of course. The sun just now rising. We say that's the truth that always rises."
  — Michael Lynn Thompson (01:53)

• On nature as refuge after trauma:
  "Suddenly I had the sense that just as I was aware of nature, nature was aware of me. It immediately calmed me."
  — Michael Lynn Thompson (08:27)

• On the complexity of family and survival:
  "I did not raise Michael after he was about 13 or 14, but I never abandoned him... If this has damaged Michael in any way, it shows up even in his choice of women. We're not perfect... We've made mistakes."
  — Jacqueline Miller, Letter (09:36–10:56)

• On what makes a true alpha male:
  "An alpha male, as Walks on Top would have told you is that individual who provides for his family, who looks after the children, who looks after the elders, who...remains in the village to protect it."
  — Michael Lynn Thompson (15:14)

• On merging with the bull/spirit of life:
  "There's a flow in that. There's a movement in that. It's no different than fighting... All of life is a rhythm. All of life is a dance. That's my belief."
  — Michael Lynn Thompson (18:58)

• On the ethic of violence:
  "Oftentimes there's an ethic associated with violence... Some violence is necessary... but violence is never acceptable as a trivial act... Violence without ethics is brutality. Walks on Top used to tell me that all the time."
  — Michael Lynn Thompson (25:09–26:40)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

| Timestamp | Segment Description | | --------- | ---------------------------- | | 00:36 | On understanding history | | 03:23–05:19| Life on the reservation | | 05:38–08:45| Detailed childhood trauma | | 09:36–10:56| Mother's Letter | | 12:01–14:03| Meeting Walks on Top | | 16:48–17:40| Spiritual training, blood memory | | 18:05–19:30| Bull riding philosophy | | 19:44–21:48| Lessons in fighting, making it your own | | 23:24–27:00| Rodeo violence, ethics, and interconnectedness | | 27:10–27:45| Walks on Top’s last words, loyalty |

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Tone & Style

The tone is reflective and unflinching, blending painful recollection with hard-earned wisdom. Michael’s storytelling is vivid and candid, marked by moments of dark humor, zen-like resignation, and a quiet reverence for the spiritual connections in his life. The host’s interjections are supportive but unobtrusive, letting Michael’s narrative unfold with weight and space.

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Conclusion

Episode two of "Blood Memory" strips back layers of Michael Lynn Thompson’s tough exterior, offering an unvarnished look at the circumstances and relationships that shaped him. As his story unfolds, listeners are challenged to reconsider the nature of masculinity, the cycles of trauma, and the redemptive—if complicated—power of mentorship, culture, and memory. The phrase "the truth always rises" resonates as more than a ceremonial greeting: it’s a hard-won ethos forged from survival and self-discovery.

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Transcript

[Nick Van Der Kolk]

Previously on Blood Memory.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

I first became aware of Michael Thompson when I was assigned to cover a parole hearing. The only one who wrote back and said he would see me was Michael Thompson. I wasn't gonna let fear or apprehension stop me from doing my job and from standing up for something that I believe in the world would be a much better place with this man out of prison.

[Nick Van Der Kolk]

From love and Radio. You're listening to Blood Memory. I'm Nick Van Der Kolk. This is episode two, the Truth Always Rises.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

You don't really understand who you're looking at until you do their history. I don't understand why people even date other people without doing a family history. You know, because you learn so much more about who you're sitting in front of by knowing everything about their history.

[Nick Van Der Kolk]

Okay, there he is. I see him walking down the road. Hello. Hello. How you doing?

[Michael Lynn Thompson]

Good. You?

[Nick Van Der Kolk]

I'm good.

[Michael Lynn Thompson]

Yeah. Why don't you just park right there? Okay.

[Nick Van Der Kolk]

Ready?

[Michael Lynn Thompson]

Yeah.

[Nick Van Der Kolk]

Shall we?

[Michael Lynn Thompson]

Yeah. My little trainer.

[Nick Van Der Kolk]

Right?

[Michael Lynn Thompson]

All right, we're on air.

[Nick Van Der Kolk]

Chapter One.

[Michael Lynn Thompson]

Michael, I haven't done ceremony this morning, so if you want to go outside, we can do ceremony and you can record that if you like. But the idea is that not to put too much haha on it, you know, I'm not going to, you know, great speaking. That's just not me.

[Nick Van Der Kolk]

Yeah, you do it.

[Michael Lynn Thompson]

However, there's no. There's no theatrics. You'll notice that I'm facing east, of course. The sun just now rising. We say that's the truth that always rises. Did he love me? Don't know. Never said I loved him. With the exception of Ariel Walks on Top, was probably the greatest influence in my life. I say that because I attribute so much of what he taught me to having survived prison. I sometimes think that it was almost as if he knew that. See where I stand in the sacred hoop of life and pity me.

[Nick Van Der Kolk]

What were you like as a boy? Like, did you get into trouble at all or like what?

[Michael Lynn Thompson]

No, I'd never been in trouble. I had been off and on the reservation in Big Pine. My mother was attempting to raise a number of kids by herself, which is ultimately how I ended up on the reservation. My mother, in her attempt to care for so many children, kind of farmed me out, I guess is the best way to put it. With relatives there. My oldest sister was married to a man that lived on the reservation.

[Nick Van Der Kolk]

Got it. Okay. So she was ostensibly your caretaker.

[Michael Lynn Thompson]

Yeah, I guess that's one way of saying it. Life on the reservation was about Survival. I slept underneath a travel trailer. I don't recall ever being inside back then. The res isn't like the reservations you see today with all the big houses and everything because of the casino money. That didn't happen until Congress passed the casino act in 1988. So you had a lot of tar paper, shanties, dirt floors. It was about really surviving, staying alive. I can remember making the rounds to the different shacks. The staple was fry bread. I would go to one shanty in the morning and ask if there were any chores I could do or anything like that. The mother of the household, whoever that may be, would be making fry bread. And so I would get a piece of fry bread, then I'd move on to the next one. And of course that always created a minor dilemma because, say, I'd been at Mother Janet's house and had fry bread. And now I went to Mother Kathy's house and I was going to do some chores there and get a piece of fry bread. And of course Mother Kathy would say, you were at Mother Janet's. And I said, yes, mother. And she would say, did she give you fry bread? And I'd say, yes, mother. She says, is her fry bread better than my fry bread? And I said, oh, no, Mother, you don't know. It's a tough life because you're just living life.

[Nick Van Der Kolk]

You were just kind of left to your own devices. Yes, okay.

[Michael Lynn Thompson]

Literally left to my own devices. One of my earliest recollections. It not necessarily a good one.

[Nick Van Der Kolk]

Would you mind sharing that story?

[Michael Lynn Thompson]

No, I don't mind sharing. Let me do it like this. The sound you hear is my glass case. Now I'm putting my peepers on and those are pages turning that you now hear. It was mid morning and a boy came running up to me and pointed at a group of men standing by the bridge that crossed the creek. They want to talk to you, he said. What for? I said with some apprehension. I recognized the men as a group of older men who would have crossed the bridge over the creek that bordered the reservation from time to time and get liquored up at the general store in town. Don't know, the boy said. They just told me that they want to talk to you. As I crossed the meadow, walking toward the group of men, I could see that they were drunk. I walked up to the men who were laughing and turned and pointed at the boy and said. He said, you want to talk to me? Before I could turn completely back around, the man closest to me snatched me off my feet and began to club me with his fist, first on the side of my head as he gripped me with his other hand under my arm, then directly in the face. Soon another man joined the first man and grabbed me by my long hair. I screamed and struggled to free myself as the man holding my hair reached and pulled my shorts off. With his other hand, the only clothing I was wearing, he grabbed my penis and testicles in his fist and lifted me bodily into the air. Let's cut these off before they get any bigger and he starts fucking our women. He shouted to the other men. He released his grip on me to unsheathe the knife he wore his hip and I hit the ground hard. I was terrified, bloodied, and it felt like my groin had been on fire. But I no sooner hit the ground when I scrambled on hands and feet to get away. Fortunately, all the men were drunk and staggered after me, but they would have had better luck catching a greased piglet. I made it to my feet and ran for the tree line. The men didn't pursue, but instead cursed me while laughing amongst themselves. When I gained the tree line, I went a little further into the forest and finally stopped in a small clearing with some granite boulders jutting up from the the ground. I climbed the smallest boulder, but decided it wasn't safe enough and climbed up the front of two larger boulders. Sitting down, I was dazed and confused, sobbing, and had the hiccups. My nose wouldn't stop bleeding and my chest and belly had a sheet of blood comingled with dirt and debris. I held my head back and braced my arms behind me on the boulder to try and stop the bleeding. I was looking skyward and could see the trees moving in the wind. Suddenly I had the sense that just as I was aware of nature, nature was aware of me. It immediately calmed me. It was on an unexpected moment of mutual recognition, like when you look up and see a beautiful woman at the same time that she sees you. I knew then that an intelligence existed in nature with which I shared an intimate relationship. I knew this intuitively, even as a child. But until I encountered walks on top, I didn't know how to develop that relationship and build on my child's intuition. Since there was nobody to claim me, they put me in Joplin Boys Ranch, which was kind of like a stepping stone to foster care. They put me into juvenile detention.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

So sorry.

[Nick Van Der Kolk]

Sorry they put you in juvie without any kind of conviction or anything.

[Michael Lynn Thompson]

They couldn't put me in juvenile hall without something. And so my mother made the claim that I was incorrigible incorrigible about life, I guess. Okay, you know, it's. It's not really a discussion that I've ever had with her.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

A Letter to the California Parole Board, November 2011 My name is Jacqueline Miller. I am the mother of Michael lynn Thompson. Chapter 2 Jacqueline I wanted to correct some things that have been said about me, Michael and our family. I'm told some psychiatrists say that I abandoned Michael and he must hate me.

[Michael Lynn Thompson]

Me.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

It's true that I did not raise Michael after he was about 13 or 14, but I never abandoned him. I have always been part of his life to this day. Michael knows how hard it was for me to raise seven kids on my own. He understands that I left him in the care of other people only when I felt I had no choice. I think if this has damaged Michael in any way, it shows up even in his choice of women. We're not perfect, as you can see. We've made mistakes. We've also had our share of tragedies. But all of us have worked hard to survive without accepting charity and to better ourselves, including Michael. We are not a criminal family.

[Nick Van Der Kolk]

Love and Radio will return after these messages.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

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[Nick Van Der Kolk]

Do you remember your first meeting with Walks on Top?

[Michael Lynn Thompson]

Yeah, I do as a matter of fact.

[Nick Van Der Kolk]

How old were you?

[Michael Lynn Thompson]

I was 12.

[Nick Van Der Kolk]

Chapter 3 He who Walks on Top.

[Michael Lynn Thompson]

He owned the whole left side of Majeska Canyon. As you go into the canyon, that was his ranch and then it went back into the mountains on the right side of that. There were other places, ranches, small ranches. And there was what the place they called the Pink Castle, where all the hippies hung. But then you just go over the next hill, and that's Trabuco Canyon. And Joplin Boys Ranch was in Trabuco Canyon. So during fire season, they would bring heavy equipment in and they would cut fire break up over the ridges and everything else. But there were some places they couldn't get to. So they would gather up the boys in a stake side truck and take us out to areas that needed firebreak. Apparently, one day we were out cutting firebreak, and it was in close proximity to his place, and he saw me working. I've always had a good work ethic. I was a big kid when I was 12 years old. From the time I turned 12 to 13, I weighed 220 pounds and was already over 6ft tall. And he observed me. And so he contacted the director, Ray Stripe of Joplin Boys Ranch, about me. And of course, they were looking for a foster home for me. So Stripe called me in and told me that had this place and, you know, what it was and did I want to meet the individual. And I said, yeah. So they took me to meet him.

[Nick Van Der Kolk]

And did he introduce himself as Walks On Top or did he.

[Michael Lynn Thompson]

No, no, he didn't. He introduced himself as Jack Martin and Walks on Top.

[Nick Van Der Kolk]

He was white, right?

[Michael Lynn Thompson]

He was half white, half Nez Perce. Yeah. He lived in two worlds. He was highly regarded in the native communities all the way down into South America for his knowledge of traditional native ways. People say medicine man, but he was what's called wikasha wakan, which is man of spirit.

[Nick Van Der Kolk]

What were your first impressions?

[Michael Lynn Thompson]

I think I was excited. He was a rancher, and he was a man's man. He chewed tobacco on both sides, had a cigar in the center, wore a Stetson hat, Pendleton shirt, buckskin vest, Pendleton pants, Wellington boots, cold watch stuck in his belt. He didn't have any eyebrows. He had two scars there from brass knuckles. He looked like what you would always envision a Western man would look like. You don't hear much about the alpha male characteristic. And I don't believe that most people even know what a true alpha male is. Presumption is that an alpha male is that individual, you know, that's a warrior, and stand up and just devastate you and this and that. That. That's not at all what I mean by an alpha male. The idea that someone like Trump, for instance, is an alpha male, my goodness, he's anything but. His disrespect for women. His disrespect For Elder, I mean, you see his disrespect for just a number of situations, and you think, that's not a leader. That's not an alpha male. You know, an alpha male, as Walks on Top, would have told you is that individual who provides for his family, who looks after the children, who looks after the elders, who, if there's a threat to the village or the camp, remains in the village to protect it. So it's to provide and protect. You got that sense from him, one, that he was very powerful, very competent, and extremely confident. And so he didn't really talk much, spit his tobacco juice, and say what he had to say, and that was pretty much it. And he was looking for, you know, agreement from me that I wanted to come with him. And, you know, he essentially said, you know, you come here, you'll work. I don't have a problem with that. So he picked me up. Terrible driver. Terrible driver. He was not an advocate of education. He believed that everything you needed to learn, you could learn in nature. He was very fond of saying, nature doesn't require mathematical equivalent. I learned horsemanship from floating their teeth to trimming their hooves to being there when they foal riding. I showed them in the arena, taught me how to build things, maintain a ranch, hunt fish. Those were all the things, as far as he was concerned, that the man needed to know.

[Nick Van Der Kolk]

When Walks on Top was teaching you all of this when you were 12, 13, how did you take it at the time?

[Michael Lynn Thompson]

I loved it. I loved everything about him. Didn't take me long to begin to emulate, you know, him and his dress. You know, he would observe me. He saw that I had a natural connection to nature, and, you know, that when I was engaged in ceremony, that it was natural. He said, you know, you have a blood memory, you know, even in drumming. First time he handed me a hand drum he didn't have to tell me how to use was as if I knew, you know, that heartbeat. You know, that heartbeat is very simple. It's just a. He was part Nez Pierce, but was eclectic, I guess, is the best term to use in his approach to his spirituality. You know, it's just like I might align myself with the Anishinaabe, for instance, with reason, and the Mideum Lodge, the healing lodge, and everything that goes along with it. But I'm also trained in Lakota way, Anishinaabe way, Nez Perce way, Cheyenne way, Miwok, Kumeyaay and their languages and their songs.

[Nick Van Der Kolk]

Did Walks on Top teach you bull riding?

[Michael Lynn Thompson]

Yes. Walks on top. Pretty much taught me everything. The bull is no different than any of us. I mean, he wants to be left in peace. Now, I know it sounds odd, but what I mean, he wants to be left alone. Get the hell off my back. But I don't know if you're familiar with bull riding or how it occurs.

[Nick Van Der Kolk]

Explain it.

[Michael Lynn Thompson]

Okay, it's real simple. What they do is they put a cinch between his hindquarters and his rib cage. It's really right at the point of his scrotum. You set yourself on his back, and it pulls right up into his scrotum. And it's painful. You see, it's not so much that he wants you all off his back. He wants that damn strap off his scrotum. But the point is, is that that bull just wants to be left alone. And I'm not going to compete with him for that. You see, I'm going to merge with it. See, I don't fight it. But if you merge with it and go with that rhythm, all of life is a rhythm. All of life is a dance. That's my belief. And it's no different than writing a book, you know, he just wants to be at peace. He wants to be left alone. Well, I get it. But meanwhile, in those eight seconds, I'm going to merge with your energy. I'm going to cooperate with you. So as you twist left at the front and twist right at the back to dislodge me, you see, I'm going to compensate. And there's a flow in that. There's a movement in that. It's no different than fighting. When he first started to teach me how to fight, that came as a result of an experience that I think kind of chilled him.

[Nick Van Der Kolk]

What happened?

[Michael Lynn Thompson]

I think we were building a bullpen, and it was hot. This is in a high mountain valley. Noontime came lunch break, and I had my shirt off, and I was sweating. I mean, just so that even the rim of my britches was wet with sweat. As we walked into the breezeway, he said, lay on the floor. He didn't explain himself. He just said, lay down. And it triggered me. Whenever someone gave me an order like that on the rez, it usually involved beating something bad, I'll just put it that way. And so I thought, oh, damn, you know, here it comes. I started shaking. As I started to lower myself to the floor, he turned around and he says, what's the matter with you, boy? That's what he used to call me, boy. I told him that I thought he was going to beat me. He said, well, why in the hell would you think that?

[Nick Van Der Kolk]

Why did he ask you to lie down?

[Michael Lynn Thompson]

It was a cement slab and it was cold. So he just offhandedly said, you know, lay down to cool off. But I didn't get that. And so I told him some of my experiences on the reservation. He didn't say anything. He just very intently watched me as I told him some of those experiences. And then he said, well, he said, you know, what we're going to do is we're going to teach you how to fight. He carried a big bandana in his back pocket. I said, I saw it quite often because, you know, he chewed tobacco whenever he'd spit. And he had mustaches. So he'd pull that out and wipe the tobacco juice off his mustaches. He would take the bandana from his back pocket, made a big to do big showing about spreading this bandana out on the ground. And then he'd step up on a corner of it and he'd say, get up on a corner, boy. He'd say, okay. He said, put your hands up. And I put my hands up. And he said, now hit me. Oh, no, no, sir. He would flick out a hand and he'd hit me on the side of the head. And he'd say, come on, get your hands up. Hit me. I said, no, no, sir. He pestered me, antagonized me to the point where I finally just tried to hit him. And of course, that was never going to happen. He was extremely proficient in the vast majority of martial arts. You know, he just slipped it, slipped it, slipped it. You know, while he was clobbering me, I was trying to get him and never connected once. So that's how the lessons began. His style of fighting was in keeping with his body. I have an 82 inch reach, fingertip to fingertip. You know, his would be much shorter than that. It's a matter of style. So while he was teaching me these techniques, he constantly emphasized, make it your own, make it your own, make it your own. And I ultimately did. I mean, it took me probably till I was 18 to do that, but never occurred to me that I'd ever have a use for it. But as it turned out, I did.

[Nick Van Der Kolk]

Love and Radio will return after these messages.

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[Michael Lynn Thompson]

Experian When Walks on Top and I would go to rodeo, I'd be in a bull ride and he taught me a lot of things. A lot of his training actually helped me in my bull riding so that I was young and I'm besting these older full grown men in the bull rides and we'd be camped out. Most rodeos have like olive groves or some type of orchard that surrounds them and that's where you camp. The other bull riders would get liquored up. These are full grown men and they wanted to seek their revenge against me. And oftentimes it was more than one. You know, the advantage on my part was that they were liquored up. But Walks on Top never intervened, could have, but he never did. Even if there was more than one. He would just kind of kick back and watch. And that's kind of how I honed my skills. But that's the kind of thing, you know, if I'd knock a man down, I would step back and you know, tell them men, please stay down. And you know, they wouldn't go for that. Oftentimes there's an ethic associated with violence, particularly if you fancy yourself a warrior. Some violence is necessary, a part of the cycle of life, of the struggle to nourish self and family and to be safe from predators, and would be an enemies. But violence is never acceptable as a trivial act, as in a competition of rivalry, because everyone else's life is intimately connected to our own. In short, violence is checked and balanced by ethics. And ethics in turn arises out of the experience of interconnectedness. Ethics are absolutely necessary to minimize the damage violence can do to the integrity of human society, not to mention the traffic to the individual who experiences or perpetrates violence. Therefore, ethics are essential to any true warrior or warrior society. Violence without ethics is brutality. Walks on Top used to tell me that all the time. The Los Angeles Times reports that investigators in Santa Ana Open opened a crude grave beneath what had once been a pig pen and recovered the badly decomposed bodies of two men believed beaten and then executed in 1973. Three men were arrested in pre dawn hours Friday. John Manuel Solis, Robert Cessma and Michael Lynn Thompson. The three suspects did he love me? Don't know, never said. You see, I loved him, you know. The only thing he wanted to know from the commitment offense was, you know, he came to see me one time, came up, came out the visiting room, shook hands with him, sat down, he said, did you do it? I said, no, sir. He said, that's all I wanted to know. He got up and left. That was it, man. A few words. And that's the last time I saw him. Sam. Sail gave what you save. Wolves teeth in your hand. Swallow blood and a soul to take. Fingers break, flowers fall. When you cast the earth, When you save the temple, Step ahead, follow down.

[Nick Van Der Kolk]

That's it for this episode of Blood Memory. Stay tuned to the end for a sneak peek of episode three. Music on this episode comes from Kishosis Interspecifics, Sarepti, Oliver Coates, Zaroshi Umano, Julian Moreno, Interbellum, Andrew Heath and Mi Cosa de Resistance Odd New and Bodev songs. Check the show notes for the full playlist. Additional voices on this episode were provided by Laurie Goldenson and Bill Rolfing. The series producer of Blood Memory is Meera Kumar. Robin Aimer is our managing editor. Additional reporting by Brian Kranz and Anya Schultz, fact checking by Nicole Pasulka and Visuals by Orla McCarty. Love and radio is a labor of love and radio and made possible thanks to our members. Thank you with extra special thanks to Rock Hard Abs Casey, Pamela Anderson, Mark Dunksason, Aaron Go Go Goers, Sam Huffman, the Huffman, Jacqueline potato leak, Keith McLendry or Leith McKendry, jotato palm Harry, Ally Mothra Perry, Chris Lesage, William Stabby, Spears, Jason V for Vendetta, Ed and Kasani. If you'd like to join the fine group of people who make love and radio happen, head on over to loveandradio.org member. Join us on Patreon or if you listen on Apple Podcasts, you can subscribe right in the app. You'll get access to the next episode of Blood Memory right now ad free. I'm Nicholas Sardine. Punch Punch Van Der Kolk. Thanks for listening.

[Michael Lynn Thompson]

Sa.

[Nick Van Der Kolk]

Coming up on the next episode of Blood Memory. When he was telling the story, how did he present? Was he like laughing about it? Was he?

[Michael Lynn Thompson]

No, no, it was actually he was telling the story by way of being in a dilemma. The impression was that he wanted to do something about it, but he couldn't because he worked for these two guys. So he's telling me this story and I said, did you tell him these guys are going to try to kidnap his kids. He said, no, I can't. I work for them and I can't get involved like that. It puts me in between them and I'll get killed. And I said, well, give me his phone number. I'll call him. And I called him.

[Nick Van Der Kolk]

Coming to this feed next week or listen now by becoming a love and radio member.