Heroes Still Matter Malcolm Guite's Galahad And The Grail

[00:00:00]Welcome everybody to Coffee Break Tuesday. I truly appreciate you being here. Grab a coffee or even a tea because we're not going to discriminate today. A video dedicated to Malcolm kind of calls for an exception. So, ordered this book here probably about two months ago. Galahad in the Grail by Malcolm.

[00:00:19]The card online said there was like two left in stock. So immediately I swiped to my little online credit card and I pushed through all the submits and confirms just to get an email telling me your order is on back order and you will get your amazing book you just ordered in 2 months. So apparently Malcolm's book was a little bit more popular than I anticipated. As a good millennial who never learned that patience was a virtue, I proceeded to get on Audible and see if I could find an option to listen to it. The joy of discovering that the Dr. himself narrated. It was like a fine coffee hitting the parched pallet of a sleepy soul. While doing the dishes, driving down the road, and even mowing my yard, I allowed Dr. to read it to me.

[00:01:01]And then the book finally showed up.

[00:01:12]>> Fast forward about a week ago. The book finally arrived in the mail. pristine condition, beautiful pages, and the illustrations are amazing. A work of art, no doubt, and you can actually tell that somebody cared, which is kind of getting rare nowadays. Anyway, that night, I gathered the kids around. I lost the 2-year-old right off the bat.

[00:01:30]Once they wake up, it's really hard to get them to sit back down until they fall over and they go back to sleep. The other three sat on the couch, and I presented this new book to them that we were going to be covering. Now, I got goosebumps actually when I read the first few lines, and I will read those to you real quick just so we can relive the experience. When Galahad was still a child, they let him run full free and roam the castle holds and halls and hear the minstrel sea. Now, the kids didn't know what a minstrel was, and I kind of explained to him the rooster and Robin Hood, and it kind of gave them an idea.

[00:02:03]Now, this type of writing and work is something that I've been looking for, waiting for, need, I say, longing for.

[00:02:08]Poetry is necessary in our day and age, especially something new and kind of modern for this new generation. My kids actually listen better than expected for this type of reading, which kind of surprised me a little bit. I initially kind of feared that this book might not be able to keep their interest because it is definitely something different than they are used to. Epic poetry is beautiful if done well, especially when done in rhyme, and Malcolm completely crushed it in this book. And even at my age, I still really enjoy uh books with some really good illustrations and pictures in it. Now, I do not personally know Malcolm, but I have listened to a lot of his podcast, his YouTube channel, and stuff like that. So, I kind of feel I know him and I appreciate men like him in the world. Dedicated men with a purpose to make the world more beautiful. And in doing so, they kind of make it worth living. As John Milton said, "Many a man lives a burden to the earth, but a good book is the precious lifeblood of a master spirit, embalmed and treasured upon purpose to a life beyond life." A book like this allows a man or a woman to live far beyond their earthly existence. Books like this are powerful. They have the power to form the foundational elements of future generations, seeding their minds with morals, virtues, respect, honor, dignity, worth, all the things that I want their little minds grappling with at this point in time. And through this book, we have been grappling through a lot of things together. Some lessons I'm still having to kind of learn as well, questioning things throughout the book.

[00:03:39]Why is this the fate? Why is this punishment occurring? What has pride led to? Which one do you want to become like? And why do you think you are admiring the good? Or do you find yourself desiring the bad? I know the first time through this book, we're literally just going to scratch the surface. The second and third reading through, we will start getting more into the symbology of things, the religious connections, the metaphors, and everything else. It's kind of like we're pulling our own sword out of the stone and venturing down this path together. A great line representing this in the book is here. Then Arthur said to Galahad, "Sir, you are not alone. I too stood with my life unmade and set my hand to hilt and blade. I know the burden on us laid who draw a sword from stone." You got to love that. We all pull different concepts from books, especially at different ages. I told my kids that the sword can represent many things.

[00:04:34]Opportunity, ambition, desire, divine right. The stone can represent the obstacles, the weight, and the distractions keeping you from what you are destined to do. The stone not relinquishing the sword may be God telling you not yet. Have patience or simply this journey is not for you. To pull your sword, you have to believe, you have to have faith, and you have to be worthy. And the sword life allows you to pull will most likely be different for everybody. But with the pulling of the sword comes responsibility, duties.

[00:05:05]And once the power is in your hand, the temptation grows and hardships they will increase. The journey never gets easier.

[00:05:12]And how that journey ends is how you will be judged in life. So end it well, justly, piously, and honorably. There are so many lessons in this book. And I think children and even the parents will kind of grow together throughout it. And it's not just a kids book either. I will say like I enjoyed it just reading it as an adult. I think it's amazing. It's one of those things that I kind of feel I I missed out on early in life. I never really dove into these stories. I kind of just saw the Disney movies of it. So, I'm really excited that something like this is out. So, with that being said, I just want to humbly say thank you, Malcolm, for putting out this great poetic work. Like most heroes in life are men we look up to. We will probably never meet them. And I don't know Malcolm or anything like that. He hasn't asked me to promote his book. We live on two opposite ends of the pond and I can only imagine we probably never will meet. But I truly appreciate his work and this book is definitely worth supporting. It appears he worked with Rabbit Room Press. So I will provide their link down below if you want to check them out. Help support them as well. So please support Malcolm. He's got another three volumes I think coming. The next one I believe comes out in the fall of 2026. So not that much longer. His books can also be found on Amazon and all the other online book places. And I'm sure a lot of the smaller bookstores are carrying it as well. Check it out locally if you can.

[00:06:28]So saddle up with Lance Lot in Galahad and set your lance on the journey ahead and help support Malcolm on his his journey is sharing our history and our culture and the way of life. Please check out his YouTube channel. I will go ahead and link it down in the description below as well if you want to check it out. Please subscribe if you feel the desire to do so and let me know down in the comments if you have this book and what your thoughts are. I'd kind of like to hear I'd like to hear what you think of it. With that being said, I love you all and as always, I truly hope you stay blessed. Thank you, Malcolm. Appreciate it.

[00:07:06]Yeah. Oh.

[00:07:08]Oh.