Sunday Service: The Promised Land

I done my best to live the right way. I get up every morning and go to work each day, but your eyes go blind and your blood runs cold. Sometimes I feel so weak I just want to explode, explode, tear this whole town apart, take a knife, cut this pain from my heart find somebody itching for something to start the dogs on Main Street. How? Because they understand if I could take one moment into my hands, Mister, I ain’t a boy. No, I’m a man. And I believe in a prom this land, and I believe in a promise land. Bruce Springsteen, promised land. What is the promised land? Is it a real place? Is it relevant? Does it even matter? That’s what we’ll explore today. Welcome to the Sunday service. So the Promised Land, it’s a concept that carries a ton of different meanings, depending on what the context is, if we’re talking about historical or cultural or metaphorical, and certainly religious and promised land is is obviously a very, very biblical term referring to the land of Canaan, which God promised to Abraham and his descendants, described as a land flowing with milk and honey, which speaks to prosperity and abundance. It’s a promise which is central to Jewish Christian and Islamic traditions. Historically, the term the Promised Land is associated with Jewish people’s journey from slavery in Egypt to freedom in Canaan, led by Moses. It is a story that represents hope, freedom and the fulfillment of divine promises. From a metaphorical perspective, you can use the term promised land to represent any place or state of fulfillment, hope and opportunity as we are approaching Martin Luther King, Jr Day, MLK referred to the promised land in his very famous, I’ve been to the mountain top speech, and In this context, the the Promised Land is emblematic of racial equity and justice, and can certainly also describe personal goal or dream, like achieving success, happiness or peace in art and culture, it oftentimes symbolizes just a better future, a more utopian type existence, or an ideal that people strive towards. So back to MLK, his abandoned the mountaintop speech, which was delivered on April the third, 1968 at the Masonic Temple in Memphis, Tennessee, is considered, widely considered, to be one of his most powerful and prophetic addresses, and that’s obviously saying something, because the man was such a profound and powerful orator and just obviously changed the whole complexion of of society and the civil rights movement through his career, through his courage, but his ability to to move people through through words and speaking extraordinary, just totally extraordinary. So he was there in Memphis to support striking sanitation workers, and they were, as so many people have over the over time, working to get better conditions, better wages, things like that. And it came during a really, really difficult period of time during the Civil Rights Movement, as King expanded his focus to also include economic justice and the eradication, hopefully, of poverty. So as many of his speeches are, if not all of them, they’re inspirational, reflective sense of of urgency, and he does such a wonderful job of of bringing together biblical imagery, historic, historical references and and his vision, just in general, he talked about the importance of unity in the fight for justice, particularly when it comes to economic justice, for for workers. And he challenges what he perceived to be and what were systemic oppression, and his calls for peaceful protests, which was one of his hallmarks, economic boycotts and holding corporations accountable. Those are certainly messages which are certainly alive and well today. He imagines traveling through history, considering various pivotal moments that include or rather that conclude that now that. Is the most critical time to act, because the opportunity to create meaningful change now is the best time to act in service of creating meaningful change. Isn’t that the truth? It’s true today, it’s true, then it’ll be true tomorrow. Now is the time Dr King frames the struggle for civil rights as part of God’s will, drawing up biblical stories. The story we were speaking on earlier, both Moses, leading the Jewish people out of Egypt and into the promised land of Canaan, speaks of his personal challenge, or rather calling to fight for justice, even amid threats to his life. I mean, can you even imagine? You imagine people are trying to kill you, and you’re getting up or traveling all over the country, speaking public, amazing in a very poignant moment, King acknowledges the threats against him and reflects on his mortality. He declares that he is not afraid because he has been to the mountain top, which is a metaphor for seeing the ultimate goal of justice and equality, even if he doesn’t live to actually reach it or see it in person. He ends it on a hopeful note. He believes that the movement will achieve victory. He’s right, inspiring his audience to persevere with faith and determination. I just want to do God’s will, and he’s allowed me to go up to the mountain, and I’ve looked over and I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, we will get to the promised land. He likens Himself to Moses, who led his people toward the promised land, but cannot enter it himself. And this suggests his awareness of his limited time, but also his unwavering faith in the movement’s success, which is a linchpin to the success of the movement. He urged individuals to take collective action against injustice through non violent resistance and economic solidarity, he just knew the power of of coming together, but from an economic standpoint, and I don’t think that that’s ever been more true. Today we see boycotts of certain companies today being really highly effective. And talk about impact investing, which is part of my professional work, and recognizing that if you want to drive social change, it starts with somebody’s pocketbook, and being able to incorporate the economic element into a social or cultural movement is going to really catalyze it. It’s what’s going to make it work. And he was, he was absolutely right. So his vision continues to transcend his life, emphasizing the fight for equality and justice is larger than any one of us. Speech encapsulated his deep sense of purpose, his courage, his enduring optimism. So powerful, so powerful, such an important human being yesterday, on the way home my one of my sons that he’s learning about, Martin Luther King, reveling. Dr, Martin Luther King, Jr, in school, and he asked me what, what would happen if he hadn’t stood up, if he hadn’t stepped up, it’s an interesting conversation. I think that we’d still arrive at the place we are today, but maybe not, maybe not. In fact, it’s probably pretty silly to think that history would be different, the path that, if not for Dr King, would certainly be different. But I think that what’s of value, instead of trying to rework history, is just to really celebrate more so, even more so celebrate him, and even more so celebrate those people amongst us who have the courage and the will and the tenacity of all the virtue to be able to stand in the face of impending death, ridicule, having your Life destroyed, your reputation tarnished, ravaged threats against you and uncertainty to your business and on

potentially making your family and your loved ones, putting them at risk and at danger, and to still do it, and to still go through with it because you’re so committed to. To your cause, to the cause, that’s an extraordinary thing. And so that’s that’s what we talked about. We talked about some of the other seminal people that that have changed the course of history, like Gandhi and Nelson Mandela and Mother Teresa. List goes on, well, doesn’t go on and on. It’s not that long of a list, and we’ve seen it in recent memory as well, with people standing up in the face of scrutiny and in the face of tyranny to say, No, we’re not, I’m not going along with this. And the people that have a lot to risk, how it’s even more it’s a more impressive thing for somebody to say, You know what? I’ve got all this. I’ve risen to a point of great success in my career. But this is the line in the sand, and I will, I will die on this mountain top, because I believe in the Promised Land. I see it. I’ve seen it. I’ve been there. We’ve strayed slightly from it, but there is a way back. So, so we talked about that, and it’s courage, and it’s virtue, and it’s obviously self sacrificing, and it’s amazing, literally, legitimately, literally, an amazing thing to see people step up and stand up in the face of Everything that we’ve been talking about in the name of a better tomorrow, a better future, the promised land. And I believe in the Promised Land, as Bruce Springsteen was talking about earlier. I believe in the Promised Land. I believe in a better tomorrow. I believe that while it felt like we were moving further away from it, and in some ways we always are, and in some ways we’re always moving closer to it. Culture changes. Culture fluctuates. We as a people, our preferences change. We value changes sometimes, but fundamentally, fundamentally, we have to know what matters. We have to know what matters. We have to know what must be done in service of what matters. And then we need to do the things that matter. We have to do those things. We have to have the courage and the tenacity to get up and do it every day, even though we’re not delivering famous speeches to 10s of 1000s or hundreds of 1000s people, even though nobody will ever, may ever know the work that you’re doing, but I certainly appreciate the impact that that each of us has. And sometimes when, when we look at at these extraordinary individuals like Dr King, we look at extraordinary individuals like Nelson Mandela and just people that have done these larger than life things and who live on forever because of their impact. I think it’s what is the term. I don’t know that it’s inspirational necessarily, but it ought to be. Perhaps it’s not relatable. Perhaps we have a hard time. I certainly do 1,000% I can’t really relate to Dr King. I certainly aspire to to do that. So it’s aspirational. Maybe that’s it. I’m going to get to the right word in just a minute, or maybe I won’t. But the idea here is that each of us ought to be in pursuit of the Promised Land. Each of us ought to be in pursuit of it, our own version of it. I’m not asking you to go out and write historical wrongs or to change culture, but I’m absolutely asking you to go out and write historical wrongs and change culture just at a different scale. Because if you are somebody who shares my values, if you’re somebody who believes in the Promised Land, what it stands for, what it can be understanding that it’s an ideal thing. It’s an idealized thing that we may never fully realize. You may never see it, but people will. And you go about your day and you go about your work and your life and do your job in a way that is aligned to those. Values and you raise your family and or impact your community and your sphere of influence, you are absolutely advancing the cause. That’s an incredible thing I do. I believe it’s a responsibility that we all have once you know, once you realize the power that you have, which is great, you gotta start exercising it. And again, doesn’t mean you need to keep you need change what you’re doing. Just understand the opportunity that you have and understand that it need not be on a grand scale, because it takes all of us. Tagline for the show is, do your part by doing your best. That’s really what I’m talking about. You do your part for the collective, for all of us by doing the best that you can, waking up every day and doing the best that you can, knowing what matters, doing the things that matter. And then we’ll reach the promised land, as always, do your part by doing your best. You.

george grombacher 16:00
So if I want my iPhone, and my Tesla and my Bitcoin to work, we need to get the metal out of the ground.

Pierre Leveille 16:07
Absolutely. Without it, we cannot do it.

george grombacher 16:13
Why? Why is there a Why has production been going down.

Pierre Leveille 16:21
Because the large mines that are producing most of the copper in the world, the grades are going down slowly they’re going there, they’re arriving near the end of life. So and of life of mines in general means less production. And in the past, at least 15 years, the exploration expenditure for copper were pretty low, because the price of copper was low. And when the price is low, companies are tending to not invest more so much in exploration, which is what we see today. It’s it’s, it’s not the way to look at it. Because nobody 15 years ago was able to predict that there would be a so massive shortage, or it’s so massive demand coming. But in the past five years, or let’s say since the since 10 years, we have seen that more and more coming. And then the by the time you react start exploring and there’s more money than then ever that is putting in put it in expression at the moment for copper at least. And what we see is that the it takes time, it could take up to 2025 years between the time you find a deposit that it gets in production. So but but the year the time is counted. So it’s it’s very important to so you will see company reopening old mines, what it will push also, which is not bad, it will force to two, it will force to find a it will force to find ways of recalibrating customer, you know the metals, that will be more and more important.

george grombacher 18:07
So finding, okay, so for lack of a better term recycling metals that are just sitting around somewhere extremely important. Yeah. And then going and going back to historic minds that maybe for lack of technology, or just lack of will or reasons, but maybe now because there’s such a demand, there’s an appetite to go back to those.

Pierre Leveille 18:33
Yes, but there will be a lot of failures into that for many reasons. But the ones that will be in that will resume mining it’s just going to be a short term temporary solution. No it’s it’s not going to be you need to find deposit that will that will operate 50 years you know at least it’s 25 to 50 years at least and an old mind that you do in production in general it’s less than 10 years.

george grombacher 19:03
Got it. Oh there we go. Up here. People are ready for your difference making tip What do you have for them

Pierre Leveille 19:14
You mean an investment or

george grombacher 19:17
whatever you’re into, you’ve got so much life experience with raising a family and doing business all over the world and having your kids go to school in Africa so a tip on copper or whatever you’re into.

Pierre Leveille 19:34
But there’s two things I like to see and I was telling my children many times and I always said you know don’t focus on what will bring you specifically money don’t think of Getting Rich. Think of doing what you what you like, what you feel your your your your your, you know you have been born to do so use your most you skills, do what you like, do what you wet well, and good things will happen to you. And I can see them grow in their life. And I can tell you that this is what happens. And sometimes you have setback like I had recently. But if we do things properly, if we do things that we like, and we liked that project, we were very passionate about that project, not only me, all my team, and if we do things properly, if we do things correctly, good things will happen. And we will probably get the project back had to go forward or we will find another big project that will be the launch of a new era. So that’s my most important tip in life. Do what you like, do it with your best scale and do it well and good things will happen.

george grombacher 20:49
Pierre Leveille 21:03
Thank you. I was happy to be with you to today.

george grombacher 21:06
Damn, tell us the websites and where where people can connect and find you.

Pierre Leveille 21:13
The it’s Deep South resources.com. So pretty simple.

george grombacher 21:18
Perfect. Well, if you enjoyed this as much as I did show up here your appreciation and share today’s show with a friend who also appreciate good ideas, go to deep south resources, calm and learn all about what they’re working on and track their progress.

Pierre Leveille 21:32
Thanks. Thanks, have a nice day.

george grombacher 21:36
And until next time, keep fighting the good fight. We’re all in this together.