The Legend of Old Man McKenzie...Friends, Free Will, Principles and Values Worth Fighting For

By Jerry Divis

Every scar tells a story and McKenzie has plenty of them. Reflecting on his adventures, wholesome life-lessons can be learned from this crusty, ole mountain man like never play with bear traps or spit in the eye of an Ogypogee. McKenzie’s close calls and perilous problems are funny and frightening. The mountain man’s anti-drug wisdom encourages kids and inspires the young and old to fight against all odds, conquer their fears, never give-up, and give life their best shot. “Don’t let life get the best of you. Get the best of life.”

Today’s teenagers, young adults, and millennials desperately need role models and heroes. This crusty ole mountain man and his two loyal friends, the Monroe brothers, exemplify old-fashioned values like self-reliance, free will, faith, toughness, courage, honesty, and humor. “Dishonesty, self-pity, laziness, and entitlements are not allowed out here,” the side-kicks confess. They believe in Christian values and principles, the Constitution, Guardian Angels, God, and guns.

McKenzie mauls today’s educational system. His tall tales and adventures attempt to counteract the subversive effects of America’s public schools and colleges. Students are dumbed-down by what is not taught. Instead of learning U.S. history and being proud of this country, patriotism is down-played and belittled. The ex-CIA agent claims kids are intentionally “conditioned” for socialism, not capitalism. Instead of God, feelings are worshiped. McKenzie exposes the nefarious origins of today's education and the fallacy of feelings. In the name of sacred self-esteem, discipline, right and wrong, guilt, and God have been kicked out of classrooms. Indulgent teachers, coddling coaches, pampering parents, and idealistic professors have ill-prepared pupils for the real world. Many millennials are anti-work, anti-capitalism, pro-entitlements, and pro-socialism. The plan is that pampered pupils will vote for socialism or communism. The key to controlling minds is to control schools and the media. Karl Marx proudly professed, “The secret to subverting America is to “train the trainers.”

Millions of millennials are emotionally fragile and don’t know how to cope with effort, adversity, disappointment or emotional pain. Instead of growing up and adapting to the world, they grow down and want the world to change to suit them. When it doesn't, raised without discipline or respect for authority, the subconsciously sabotaged students get angry, instigate violence and social unrest. In order to relieve anxiety and “feel” better, many resort to alcohol, drugs, and even suicide. Parents, politicians, psychologists, counselors and teachers don’t know how to cure the epidemics because they caused it.

“A week with me and kids would be tough,” McKenzie claims. “It is either be lazy, starve or die from a boy-eating grizzly. There ain’t no crying towels, trophies or teddy bears handed out here!”

Each chapter opens with inspirational and profound quotes that give parents and pupils something to ponder:
“Inside of me there are two dogs. One is mean and evil and the other is good and they fight each other all the time. When asked which one wins, I answer, the one I feed the most.” —SITTING BULL

Like many adults, Old Man McKenzie battles emotional monsters. He suffers from scars on his heart. A mutant grizzly is not his worst enemy, but his past. Sinister, evil forces on the outside and inside try to destroy him. McKenzie brings out the warrior in all of us. His incredible adventures prove that values, principles, faith, family, friends, free will and the future of this great country are worth fighting for.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jerry Divis
• Release date: Mar 3, 2018
• ISBN: 9780971292277

Jerry Divis

Jerry Divis was raised in a small, rural community. His father taught him honesty, hard work and discipline. His mother exhibited unconditional love. In high school, he played basketball and baseball, and didn’t get any trophies for showing up, but for performance. He worked his way through college, attended Washington State University and graduated with honors in a B.A. in Communications. Mr. Divis aspired to major in psychology, but abandoned the endeavor. He discovered psychology had serious shortcomings. Psychology was symptomatic, scientific, secular and soulless. Studying mental health/illness issues, values and principles were not only ignored, but disparaged. Disillusioned, he ventured into religions of the world and philosophy. Searching for treasures of truth, Mr. Divis uncovered more fool’s gold than truth. Elaborate, philosophical skyscrapers were constructed on sand, not concrete. Their basic premises could be refuted. World religions were like giant, jigsaw puzzles accidentally dropped upon the floor. Not only were some of the pieces missing, but the proper progression to truth was lost. After college, Mr. Divis began work on the first version of this book, A New Thought, A New Way, A New Day. Mr. Divis uncovered alarming facts about our educational system. After World War II, German Nazis, cognitive experts and Hitler’s propaganda pros were invited to live in the United States, especially the University of Chicago. Attorneys yearned to learn how to manipulate juries and politicians (mostly attorneys) wanted to know how to manipulate the masses and get elected. In 1956, Nazis cognitive experts reformed our educational system, not by teaching communist principles, but by “conditioning” kids in classrooms. Karl Marx believed the key to overthrowing capitalism was to “training the trainers”. Spiritual Prescriptions exposes the “subconscious sabotage”. His books attempt to fix the subversive damage done to kids, young adults and millennials. The “socializing techniques” have spawned today’s anti-work, anti-capitalism and pro-socialism movements, not to mention today's opiod drug and suicide epidemics. Mr. Divis worked on the addition to Grand Coulee Dam; taught skiing in Aspen, Colorado; wrote and produced TV commercials in Anchorage, Alaska. He dredged for gold in Washington, California and Alaska, and continued to refine this book. During his 14-year tenure with the Boeing Company, Mr. Divis penned other works including the screenplay, Evil Often Lurks Behind Good Intentions and the books, Relationship Red Flags and The Legend of Old Man McKenzie. He also produced a PowerPoint presentation for small businesses and corporations. Marriagement explains the mindset of passive/aggressive employees and to motivate and inspire loyalty and create productivity.

Book preview

Some of life’s most important lessons can

be learned at the dinner table.

Eat food you don’t care for,

so you can study classes you can’t stand,

but are required to graduate.

Eat dessert after dinner, not before.

Work comes before play,

not vice versa.

—ANONYMOUS

Mishaps are like knives that either

serve us or cut us, as we

grasp them by the handle

or the blade.

—JAMES RUSSEL LOWELL

INTRODUCTION

The Life and Legend of Old Man McKenzie is important to the young and old, adolescents and adults, teenagers and parents. Judging by the condition of today’s culture, too many young adults didn’t learn values and principles. Kids are getting their values from TV, the internet, video games, pop and rap music. So many teenagers don’t even know what values and principles are, let alone why they are important. If they did, alcohol, drug use, illegal and legal, wouldn’t be so rampant and out of control. If they did, crimes and violent protests, murders, rapes, robberies, and mental illness wouldn’t be spreading like a pandemic. If they did, our emergency rooms, alternative schools, jails and rehab centers wouldn’t be overflowing with drug overdoses, high school drop-outs, criminals, and drug addicts.

The demise of values and principles started generations ago. Psychologists, counselors, teachers, and mothers decided that feelings were more important than values and principles. Overnight, a child’s feelings and self-esteem were elevated to sacred status. Instead of the father ruling the family, children’s feelings did. Children couldn’t be effectively disciplined because it might hurt their feelings and their bottoms. Without effective discipline, children have difficulty developing self-discipline as teenagers and young adults. Raised without boundaries and rules, they became adults with little self-discipline or respect for laws and authority. Without punishment, they don’t learn consequences. Without consequences, they never learn accountability. Without accountability, there is no responsibility. Without responsibility, they do whatever they feel like doing. As a result, many of them end up in jail. The empirical evidence is that prisons are overflowing like a backed up septic system. Whose fault is it?

The promotion of feelings and sacred self-esteem are largely responsible for the condition of today’s culture. It has taken generations to see the effects of these fallacies. To increase self-esteem and reduce guilt, liberal psychologists renounced wrong and made everything right. If there is no wrong, children won’t have to feel bad about themselves, thus increasing self-esteem. If everything is right, how can parents discipline or punish their children? They can’t. Such thinking has not only infected families but schools. To protect precious feelings, schools suspended discipline. Teachers even fabricated alternative report cards so children could feel better about themselves and their grades. For students to get good grades, learning has been dumb-downed and made easier. Homework is reduced or eliminated. Coaches can’t criticize kids and trophies are handed-out like condoms.

Instead of preparing students for the real world, counselors, parents, and schools don’t. Kids are being conditioned and set-up for failure. In the real world, like sports, effort, performance, and obedience to rules and laws matters, not feelings. After years of being coddled and protected, how could parents and schools have been so wrong? The world requires more than just getting out of bed and showing up for work. After suffering job loss after job loss, young people become disillusioned, bitter and angry. Their superficial, shallow self-esteem is shattered like a fragile vase dropped on a marble floor. Instead of being emotionally resilient or tough, their feelings are fragile. The easy solution to make them feel better and reduce frustration and anger is alcohol and drugs.

The problem with focusing on feelings is people only want to feel good, not bad. They can’t cope with bad feelings. It contradicts their reason for living. Bad feelings can’t be right. Feeling guilty can’t be right. If the truth hurts, it can’t be right. Effort doesn’t feel good. It can’t be right because laziness feels good. The right way is the easy way, but growing up isn’t easy. So what do they do? They can’t cope with it. Teachers, parents, and counselors sold them a false bill of goods. Instead of growing up, they grow down. Old Man McKenzie explains what happens to grown-downs and the fallacies of a feel good mentality.

To the casual observer, the lack of values and principles might not seem like a serious problem, but it is! On purpose or not, besides sexual promiscuity, laziness, dishonesty, and immorality, it has created a drug and crime epidemic. Every week, Christian values and principles are preached in churches and Sunday schools across this country, but it isn’t working. If it were, our society wouldn’t be in such a dilemma. Millions of young people have been brainwashed into focusing on feeling, not values and principles. Ideals and values are essential for society and developing a conscience and morals.

That’s the purpose of The Legend of Old Man McKenzie. To reverse the effects of parents, teachers, and psychologists who focused on feelings, instead of values and principles. The life of McKenzie reveals why values and principles are essential for society. Without them, McKenzie could not have survived the wilderness. The same principles apply to all of us. Without a solid belief system, young adults cannot survive civilization or the real world. So many young adults have tried and turned to drugs.

Old Man McKenzie depicts how evil forces want to defeat and destroy us. Feelings cannot conquer evil. Only values and principles can. Old Man McKenzie addresses issues like fear, freedom, forgiveness, effort, honesty, pride, gratitude, self-pity, self-esteem, bad choices and consequences. Through his trials and tribulations, McKenzie teaches young people how to cope with the challenges of life.

Encountering formidable forces and overwhelming odds, Old Man McKenzie provides hope and encouragement for not just the young, but everyone. McKenzie and the boys from Brewster exemplify old-fashioned, Christian values and principles. Christian principles that force us to focus on what is right and wrong, good and bad, and other people besides ourselves. Focusing on feelings creates narcissistic, selfish, self-centered people. The exact opposite of what Christianity espouses.

Through admiration and imagination, young people and grown-downs can learn valuable lessons from Old Man McKenzie. I hope his legend will inspire and instill precious ideas and values that will last a lifetime.

Every flower must grow through dirt.

—SOURCE UNKNOWN

The brook

would lose its song

if the rocks were removed.

—SOURCE UNKNOWN

It is not the size of the dog

in the fight that counts.

It’s the size of the fight

in the dog.

—AMERICAN PROVERB

Chapter 1

Scars of the Heart

McKenzie’s Quest

Years ago, Jack McKenzie was leaving for work. It was a spring day, full of life. The sun was shining. Flowers were blooming. The sky was bright blue. The birds were singing.

Dressed in his dark green Forest Ranger outfit, he kissed wife Sarah, and hugged his three children, Megan, Amanda and Jack, Jr., good-bye. His children thought he looked like a movie star in his wide-brimmed hat, cowboy boots, and dark sunglasses. A scar adorned his left cheek. It was left there by a broken arm and beer bottle. Sarah and Jack were dancing at their favorite country bar. A barroom drunk insulted Sarah, and Jack defended her honor. To Sarah, the blemish was beautiful. It reminded her of how much Jack loved her and why she fell in love with him. Besides his dashing good looks on the outside, he was handsome on the inside. He was honest, loyal and loving. Jack always said, It is not what you own, but your honor and word that counts.

The kids thought the scar made him look rugged and tough. Jack was, especially with them, but his discipline was tempered with love. Laziness was not tolerated, physically or mentally. Their chores and homework had to be done on time and done right. Excuses, sloppiness, and shortcuts were not accepted.

Lessons were learned at the supper table. If you didn’t like the food, you ate it or made a great effort. Jack figured they might as well get used to doing things they didn’t want or feel like doing. It is an important part of growing up. He often explained to them that he didn’t want to get up early, go to work and leave his wife and them behind, but some things you must do whether you like it or not. Jack equated eating with school work. What happens when you have to study subjects in school you don’t like or can’t stand? Then what are you going to do? Don’t do your homework, get a poor grade or flunk the class? Whether you like it or not, you will have to eat some foods you don’t like and study classes you can’t stand. You might as well get used to it now. It is much more difficult later.

Dessert was another issue. If you ate all your food, including the vegetables, the reward was dessert. Good behavior was rewarded and bad behavior punished. It taught the kids consequences, good and bad. Dessert was never eaten before dinner because it sent the wrong message to the children. Work always comes before play. Playing is a reward for working. Vacations are a reward for having a job. Homework is done first, then play, not vice versa.

Jack taught his kids priorities and prepared them for adulthood. Sports were stressed because performance counts on the court and in the real world. Just getting out of bed and showing up for work won’t get you any trophies, promotions or raises. Self-esteem comes from doing a job well, not mediocre. Those that challenged themselves and their limits and played their best deserved the trophies, not those that were lazy and simply showed up for the game and practice. Jack always thought that competition was with yourself, not others. Those that conquer themselves are the greatest conquers in the world. Jack McKenzie was a man of principles, integrity, honor, honesty, and effort.

Walking across the lawn to his truck, he almost stepped in a gift his dog, Jake, left him. He cussed, apologized to his wife and kids and shouted to Jack, Jr. to clean up the dog poop. The dog was one of his responsibilities and chores.

As he turned his truck down the driveway, he waved and thought how lucky he was to have such a beautiful wife and three healthy, loving children. His yellow lab chased him to the highway and barked like it was yelling at him to stay home. He thought it was odd. His dog never did that before.

As he drove to the Forrest Service station, Jack felt something was wrong. An emptiness filled the pit of his stomach and told him to turn back, but he didn’t. As he turned into the parking lot, six Game Department rigs surrounded the office. He opened the door as panicked shouts and frantic yelling filled the air. I don’t care. We need those dogs in here, and we need them now! someone shouted over the two-way radio. There’s a giant Grizzly on the loose and who knows where the monster will strike next!

Have you heard? Sally asked.

No, Jack responded.

Two Grizzly bear attacks.

Are you sure? Jack said in disbelief.

Of course, I am sure. A semi-truck and Campsite 51.

That can’t be. There haven’t been any Grizzly bears in this part of the Cascades for fifty years. Are you sure it was a Grizzly?

I don’t know of any black bears that can tear apart a semi-truck, break branches fifteen feet in the air or leave paw prints the size of a frying pan. Do you? she proclaimed.

Must be a monster Grizzly. How many dead? Jack asked.

Only the truck driver and the family dog, thank goodness. Last night, the trucker hit the bear. It demolished the front of his semi. The driver thought the bear was dead, but it wasn’t. The impact knocked out the beast. When it came to, it tore the truck and the driver apart. She paused. This morning, the beast attacked a campsite. The family dog is dead. The kids and family are devastated, but lucky to be alive. The poor pooch barked and distracted the bear just long enough for them to get into the car and get away. With one swipe, the thing shredded the side of the car; bit the rear bumper and tore it off.

My God, what kind of beast could do that? Jack said to himself. He immediately thought of his wife and family, and his dog, Jake, was acting funny. Dogs can smell a bear more than a mile away. His stomach felt queasy. He wanted to leap in his pick-up truck and rush to check on his family, but restrained himself and wouldn’t allow his imagination get the best of him.

When he was a young boy, he learned that an essential part of growing up was controlling his fear, instead of allowing the fear to control him. Self-discipline and control are essential for human happiness. When he was working Search & Rescue, Jack learned to contain his fear. Camping alone in the wilderness, he couldn’t let fear keep him awake. He needed his sleep to save lives the next day. Fear was self-defeating. Society wants you to believe that sleeping pills or drugs are the answer, but they aren’t. Jack knew the only true solution was self-control and trusting our Creator.

We need a tracker. Let’s go, Jack. You’re the best tracker in this neck of the woods, ordered Joe Baker, Game & Wildlife officer. Tracking was a skill Jack perfected working for Search & Rescue. He found many a lost and weary hiker. Teary faces, hugs, and kisses with loved ones were imbedded in his brain forever. He endured rain, bitter cold, and snow, but the family’s gratefulness made it all worthwhile.

As they leaped into his four-wheel drive rig, rifles in hand, his stomach was sick. It wasn’t fear from being attacked by the giant beast, but for his family. A feeling of overwhelming and impending doom came over him.

Arriving at the Campsite 51, the destruction was unbelievable. It looked like a war zone. It was a display of power and rage. Trees were snapped in half like toothpicks. Sleeping bags were shredded and looked like cotton candy. The Coleman cooler was bitten in half. The car bumper laid on the ground with a fang in it. Jack pried it out with his knife. It looked like the tooth from a saber tooth tiger. With one mighty swipe, the beast had catapulted the family’s loyal German shepherd thirty feet into the air. Its lifeless carcass still hung in the tree.

This bear didn’t need a professional tracker. It left a trail like a tank. It mauled its way through the thick woods and dense underbrush. Its tracks were massive and deep. Compressed by the weight of the beast’s massive body, each mighty step crushed the ground. Judging by the depth and size of each print, this bear weights nearly 3,000 pounds, the weight of a car. Grizzlies can’t get this big. That’s more than a ton of fighting fury, Jack said in disbelief.

He placed his wide-brimmed hat in the Grizzly’s paw print. His face went pale and his mouth dry. A chill ran up his spine. He shuddered in horror. Terror rose up and lodged in his throat. The tracks were heading north toward his home.

Gotta go! he shouted to Joe Baker. He ran to his truck, slammed the door, turned the key and pushed the accelerator to the floor. Sliding around gravel corners, Jack raced as fast as he could. He pushed his truck to the