Mark Gilroy

Bringing Books to Life!

Let’s Smoke A Brisket!

From shopping for the best cut of meat available at your grocery store to slicing and serving it to friends, here are the secrets to smoking a perfect brisket on the Big Green Egg (or whatever smoker you prefer to use). I try to cover all the key elements that are valuable to both beginner and experienced smokers.

How do you select the best brisket available where you shop? How much trimming should you do? Do you really rub a “rub” onto your brisket? How long do you need to cook it and at what temperature? Why is it so important to let your brisket “rest” before serving it? How do you slice it?

I make no claim of being a master griller. You’ll probably never see me at a competition. But no one turns down a dinner invitation to my house when brisket is on the menu! Let’s Smoke a Brisket on the Big Green Egg is a distillation from watching countless videos and my own trial-and-error experience of smoking a ton of brisket.

It Wasn’t My Fault

(But You’re Still the Only One Who is Responsible for It)

We won’t be defined by our setbacks as much as we will for our comebacks.

It wasn’t my fault. There is a broad spectrum of emotional and intellectual responses, often polarized, when hearing that phrase stated by someone who has suffered a setback in life. But taken at face value, it wasn’t my fault, is often correct. You, they nor I have done little to bring certain losses or setbacks to fruition in our lives.

Life Isn’t Always Fair

If you are driving your car carefully but a careless driver runs a stop sign or switches lanes without looking or fails to stop because they are distracted, then the accident absolutely isn’t your fault.

If you are faithful, attentive, affirming, loving, fun, and full of other positive attributes within your marriage but your spouse is unfaithful, inattentive, unaffirming, hateful, and full of other negative dynamics in your marriage, then an un-wanted divorce isn’t your fault.

If the company you’ve worked hard and effectively to build for years suddenly hits financial woes due to unforeseen events (like a pandemic) and subsequently lays off half the workforce, you included, then your loss of employment isn’t your fault.

If you live a reasonably healthy lifestyle that includes a good diet, exercise, positive thinking, loving relationships, and the practice of no major health risks but you receive a bleak cancer diagnosis after an anomaly is discovered at annual checkup, it isn’t your fault.

Life isn’t always fair. People aren’t always fair. The benefits we grew up with aren’t equal and are often unfair. Some things just happen outside our control, including floods, pandemics, illness, economic depression, wars, crime, and more. There is nothing wrong or weak in acknowledging that many events and conditions that crash into your life aren’t your fault.

There is an important distinction that needs to be noted, however. Saying, it wasn’t my fault, does not mean that you aren’t responsible for accepting where you are and for working on what happens next. To deny responsibility for your life—the good, the bad, and the ugly—flips what happens next from it wasn’t my fault to I’m the only one to blame. (Jimmy Buffet wrote a song about that I think.)

Yes, you and we and I have all been victimized by others and by the seemingly random storms of life. But that is never the end of the story. A setback need not be what defines us.

Joseph and the Coat of Many Colors

The biblical story of Joseph is filled with fortune and calamity; tragedy and redemption; betrayal and reconciliation; incredible success and abject failure. You can read about Joseph in Genesis 37-50. His story is so incredible that is found in other texts. A shorter version of Joseph’s life is told in the Koran, where he is the only prophet to be given his own chapter.

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12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos

Make This the Next Book You Read

A book that wants the best for you!

Jordan Peterson, a Canadian Psychologist, has become a viral sensation because of his media interviews and YouTube presentations on practical and controversial topics covering personal growth and healthy relationships like child-rearing, marriage, the meaning behind religion, friendship, personal responsibility, equality, and gender issues (from assumptions about toxic masculinity to transgender studies). Based on consuming a number of those interviews and presentations, I started reading 12 Rules with a definite expectation of a clear, pithy, and practical path to self-improvement. After all, don’t all of us know, any book with a set number of secrets, principles, rules, precepts or irrefutables will include some common assumptions, a few surprises, and always, in an easy-to-digest style? That leads to my recommendation that you read the 12 Rules, though it is seasoned with a warning and wrapped in a book review!

A Recommendation

Read it. Or listen to it. Sooner than later. As in, your next book. Peterson is so brutally honest (one of his rules is to tell the truth or at least not lie) that you can’t help but be a little more forthcoming with yourself and others in the reading. He is so willing to go against popular culture and the PC ethos of academia that you’ll feel a bit like a bold and strong bulwark against the fickle winds of enlightened conformity. He is so versed in not only his field of behavioral psychology but also philosophy and religion and literature and history that you will feel smarter whether or not you understand every word of the book. He is so down-to-earth practical that your are going to be challenged to take responsibility for your personal life and the way you interact with others—and help those others while doing so.

The second rule, treat yourself like someone you are responsible for helping, is case in point. Peterson uses statistics and studies to shine a spotlight on the sad truth that many people treat their pets better than they treat themselves. For example, it is more likely that a person will fill a medicinal prescription for their cat or dog than they will for themselves. His argument sparkles as he warns us in this chapter:

You need to articulate your own principles, so you can defend yourself against others’ taking advantage of you. You must keep the promises you make to yourself, and reward yourself, so that you can trust and motivate yourself.

That quote alone is worth a five-star review and recommendation. But there are still a couple of warnings!

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