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“A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials.”

― Seneca

Human nature is a very strange phenomenon.

Between life experience and stories from the past, there’s certainly no shortage of intrigue and insanity surrounding the experience that we normally refer to as human nature.

After all, the whole concept of human nature is a mystery because the entirety of the human race in which this concept references often serves to be a constant contradiction. I mean on one hand, people are unpredictable while simultaneously being very predictable. As an example, people can react to one situation with a surprisingly positive deference, but when faced with the same scenario again at a different time, they can demonstrate complete defiance.

However, as strange as this sounds, people are generally fairly predictable up until the point that they aren’t.

So, with that being said, what typically causes people to be unpredictable?

Generally speaking, I believe one good explanation for this can be chalked up to what I would usually recognize as the concept of friction. I say this because when people are faced with hardship, that adversity will either stall out their momentum in life by causing them to implode, rather than choosing to face and overcome the resistance they encounter concerning that initial friction. Granted, friction can also change variables, and variables can, at times, present different challenges depending on the time that they are introduced.

You see, in physics the only thing that can overcome friction is the increase of an externally applied force. If force is not applied then the friction will always slow down an object and eventually bring that object to a stop. This is true in physics, as well as across an array of other decisions when overcoming the friction of adversity in life, when wrestling with whether to make certain key investments, and with always involving other big important life decisions. I know you know this to be true.

I want you to hold onto this for the moment while I shift gears to talk about how the friction of life can cause people to engage in some of the most insane behavior. Granted, if you’re a regular to this show then you’re no stranger to understanding just how insane life can get as a result of human nature.

After all, when speaking to the oddities of human nature, you and I are both old enough to remember seeing people out at public restaurants lifting and lowering their masks between bites to eat a sandwich. We both know that we don’t have to look any further than the pandemic to understand that a potential level of strange behavior definitely exists.

Two Tales of Friction

In the world of human interaction, friction can cause some people to not follow through on action, while it ends up driving others directly into action. Granted, some friction is necessary to avoid, but there are other types of life friction that simply cannot be ignored.

I want to begin by highlighting two different tales involving the friction of life and show you how that friction can derive two totally different responses and outcomes from people. The key component here is to keep in mind that none of us are immune to the friction of life.

Now, I want to take you back in time to examine an unusual case concerning an individual that was faced with significant friction, but allowed that friction to slow him down and stall him out in the most bizarre and shocking kind of way.

In August of 1392, a 23-year-old King Charles VI rode out ahead of his army on an expedition. At this point, the young king was already feeling the presence of friction as he was paranoid about traitors within his circle. To make matters even worse, the purpose of this expedition was to try and track down an individual who had attacked and nearly killed his close friend. Revenge was weighing on Charles VI, so friction was already present in the young man’s mind.

As his army rode along and finally exited the forest an exhausted page boy accidentally dropped his steel lance and the loud clanking startled the hyper-vigilant king. At this point Charles drew his sword and entered into a blind frenzy resulting in him brutally slaughtering four of his own knights. By the time it was over Charles had fallen into a multi-day coma. He psychologically never recovered from the guilt and horror of his actions on that day.

However, as bad as that was for the young king, the friction of life was still not finished with him. It was only about five months later when another violent trauma occurred during a masquerade celebration. At this event Charles and five other of his high ranking nobles dressed as “wild men” donning highly flammable linen costumes that were soaked in pitch and flax.

During this event an onlooker with a torch got too close to the men and the costumes instantly ignited. Charles only survived the catastrophe because his aunt, the Duchess of Berry, threw her heavy skirts over him to smother the flames before they could spread any further. However, Charles had to watch in total horror as four of his closest companions burned to death directly in front of him at the center of the gathering.

Sadly, these two back-to-back catastrophes ended up permanently fracturing the king’s psyche. It was at this point that something unusual took place with the king as his severe paranoia developed into what is now referred to as the famous glass delusion.

If you’re not familiar with this condition, it relates to how the king believed that he was made of glass. It has been said that the condition was so real to the king that he even had his royal tailor sew iron rods into the lining of his clothes. Even though the king obviously felt there was no escape from this, he apparently only ended up in this predicament due to his deficit of intuition.

Historians and psychologists have pointed out that this condition of glass delusion was essentially a coping mechanism in order to protect his deeply traumatized, “fragile” sense of self. In short, King Charles VI tragically surrendered his sovereignty over to the life friction of fear.

It was bad enough that the young king had experienced trauma, but the fact that he surrendered his mind and identity over to the glass delusion added another layer of tragedy to the story of his life. Looking at the life of King Charles VI there’s no doubt that the friction of fear was the ultimate symptom of destructionism.

Now, I want to take a moment to shift to a different story to address another case where the friction of life showed up to try and grind another man’s momentum to a halt.

It was the year 1095 and the rapid conquest and expansion of the Seljuk Turkish forces into Anatolia was successful in shattering the Byzantine defenses.

The goal of this Islamic conquest under the Seljuk Turks was to strip Christendom of vast territories, which, in turn, prompted Pope Urban II to issue a historic call to arms at the Council of Clermont.

On the heels of the Pope’s call to arms, and with the Islamic conquests engaging in severe and violent brutality across the Holy Land, a tall blonde Norman giant with Viking blood, heard the Pope’s rallying cry and he viewed it as his personal call to divine destiny.

This blonde giant’s name was Bohemond I, and he immediately decided to journey east to create some friction of his own by engaging the Seljuk Turks, aiming to grind their violent conquest to a screeching halt.

As it turns out, Bohemond was driven by a fierce, militant Christian devotion. This was significant because after engaging the Seljuk Turkish forces in eight grueling months of wall warfare, Bohemond’s will and his faith would be put to the test. The friction of life was very present here for Bohemond and his men. The suffering was immense as Bohemond and his forces had to endure the harshest conditions involving severe weather, disease, and death.

The walls would prove to be too difficult to breach, but what Bohemond was unable to overcome by force, he managed to accomplish through his cunning.

Late in the evening around midnight of June 2, 1098 Bohemond wa...