Gents Journey
Helping Men become the Gentleman they deserve to be. This Podcast is part inspiration part motivation. We discuss what it takes to be a Gentleman in the 21st Century. We also talk about how to deal with the internal and external battles that life throws at us. So come be apart of the Gents Journey!
Gents Journey
Grandeur: Episodes 1-5 Review
What happens when you dissolve into your lowest self? How do you climb back when you've become invisible not just to others, but to yourself?
The first five episodes of our Grandeur series trace a haunting yet powerful journey through collapse and the beginnings of resurrection. Our protagonist receives a mysteriously humming chess piece—not as a path to power, but as an invitation to remember who he truly is. Following devastating grief after losing the love of his life, he spirals into homelessness, where his identity begins to erode until he literally vanishes from meaning. People see him but don't truly see him, a nameless character in the background of others' stories.
This descent isn't dramatic or sudden. As Anthony explains, "You never fall into your lowest self. It's something gradual over time...almost like dissolving." Time loops, reality bends, and our character reaches the crushing realization that he's not missing because no one is looking for him. But at his lowest point comes the first spark of transformation—the moment he stops asking for help and starts choosing himself.
The series raises profound questions that apply to all our lives: How many times have you waited for the world to see you when you haven't seen yourself? How often have you asked for direction when what you needed was a decision? When did you start shrinking just to fit someone else's silence?
The hardest path isn't staying broken—it's rebuilding yourself when no one is watching. But as Anthony promises, "When you come back from nothing, when you've lost it all and got it all back, there is nothing more satisfying." Next week, our character begins this climb, the moment he stops calling his suffering "suffering" and starts calling it "instruction."
Connect with me through the "let's chat" link in the description, email anthony@gentsjourney.com, or find me on Instagram @mygentsjourney. Remember—you create your reality.
"True mastery is found in the details. The way you handle the little things defines the way you handle everything."
Hello and welcome to the Gentleman's Journey podcast. My name is Anthony, your host. And what this is? This episode, the episode we're doing today, is essentially our weekly review of the past five episodes for Grandeur. So what I'm going to do is I'm just going to go ahead and when they get into it we're going to talk about the five episodes. So you kind of get a feeling what's going on, some things that you missed, and then we're going to kind of I'm going to tell you a little bit what's going to go happen next week for the next five episodes. So episodes five through or six through ten, and then we're going to get going.
Speaker 1:So, first off, if you've actually made it through these first five episodes, you already know this is not a story, it's a system. This is not. It's not about the man you're listening to, it's about the man you could become right. So we're going to unpack the first five episodes of this descent. You know the five movements, this one path right, and the first hard truth is that you cannot rise until something breaks right. So in the first episode, the giving right. This is where it all starts. It doesn't start with like an explosion, but an offering. You know we meet our guy. You know he's broken in life, he's haunted by grief, stumbles into a shelter full of just shadowy people, not good people. You know he's there for reasons unknown, right, you know, a stranger places something in his hand a knight, a chess piece. It's cold, it's humming, it's unsettling. We don't know why he's chosen and he doesn't either. But here's the thing we know so far in that episode Is that you're never given a piece unless you're asked to play the game, right? So this was an invitation, you could say, not to power, but to remembering Right Now.
Speaker 1:In episode two, the spark something that you know writing, writing that episode and and then performing it is that grief speaks in silence. Right, and in episode two, we we meet. We meet the ghost behind his collapse. Right, and it's her. You know, the ring's still in his pocket. The proposal never happened and now her grave has become a place, really the only place that he still feels like. The truth is there, you know, but he can't go back to that night before. You know he's understanding that his life is going to be different. It's altered, right? He lost the love of his life and you know, through all that grief, he's now homeless, you know, and it's in that you know that episode it's not about moving forward, it's about how grief can is such a silent killer, how it can just really wrap its hands around your throat and you're not able to move at all. You know, and because you're not able to move, you can't move forward and you can't start. The process of grieving, I guess, is really the best way to explain that. Right, grieving, I guess, is really the best way to explain that right Now.
Speaker 1:Episode three. This is belief. He believes something is happening, but he doesn't know what. The night hums in his pocket, you know, the world feels off a little bit. It's like it's turning every you know, just a few seconds ahead of him, right, people don't see him, time repeats itself, flyers blow away before they're read and something terrifying begins to happen to him. Or the realization is that he comes to this understanding that he's not missing because no one is looking for him. And in this episode, in episode three, he doesn't know it yet. But what's really happening is that he's beginning to vanish, not physically, but from meaning.
Speaker 1:And in that episode it was such a hard thing to write, because how many people do you pass by on a daily basis that are homeless, that you see them but you don't see them. You know they vanish really for meaning. They're just nameless characters, just a part of your story that you don't see them. You know they vanish really. For me they're just nameless characters, just a part of your story that you don't really interact with. Right, writing that was really hard because it could really happen to anybody.
Speaker 1:Now, as we're talking about that, right, let's talk about episode four, the crash. And this was so heartbreaking to write. Because you know he's not taking a shower, right, he's taking a shower. Maybe at what? Every four to five days, at most, maybe a week. Right, he's not eating. He begs for money and he feels disgusted by it. Right, the shelter has ungodly smells and sounds and people in it. Now, and he meets a man there that should have been a warning but he's too far gone to notice. Because, I mean, think about it, in that episode, two or three homeless people die. You know there's people talking to themselves, there's people that are trying to sell them drugs. There's people that are trying to, you know, trade them drugs for a sandwich.
Speaker 1:I mean, it's just, what's happening in that episode is that his identity is beginning to erode and it's happening right in front of him, you know, because in that erosion of his identity, right, right, he's kind of having this realization that maybe the world that he's living in maybe isn't real, or maybe he's not, because he's in such despair and he's lost. And when you get to that point, what's in your mind and what is outside of your mind it's hard to tell the difference anymore. You know what I mean. He just feels like he's nothing and people are treating him as such, and that's a really hard thing to understand, especially if you've never been in that position. If you have, it can be quite triggering.
Speaker 1:So episode five, the Mirror. This is such, you know, because here's the thing, you know, one of the hardest parts in that is when he meets the kid in the corner right it was probably in his early teens, probably like 13, 14, 15, 16 years old Gives him the you know, the candy bar, right or not, it was a granola bar right, bar right and then how he's looking at himself in the mirror and it's cracked and and he sees somebody who's literally given up, you know, and he's hanging out alleys where, you know, there's dangerous people, there's people doing drugs, there's more people being killed around him. You know, in the inhumane way, how they're just being dragged off. They're just. You know, essentially, at best you know they're just putting a blanket over them and then waiting until the morning. You know he's seeing around him, his world, that nobody cares if he's alive or if he's dead. But he starts to understand like you know what.
Speaker 1:Maybe this is my low point, now Right, this is my low point, now Right, this is my low point. He says that this is my low point and you're going to start to see that he's going to start to essentially start to make his ascension is about the best way I can explain it. So, as we're talking about this, here's some things you might have missed and I want to really make sure that you understand these things. Right, Is that the chess piece first off the knight is more than symbolic. It responds to him emotionally. You know time abnormalities have quietly begun in this right. There's time looping people not noticing him. Reality is subtly breaking around him. The phrase still here, he says this a lot is repeated across episodes. It's a subconscious denial of the truth Because, if you think about it right, no one ever says his name because he hasn't really claimed one anymore and, if you think about it, the only act of control that he truly has is writing in his notebook. That's it and him walking. Those are the only things he has, and that's so hard because you want to root for him, but you also know that he has to. You know something has to happen for him, and that will obviously start here.
Speaker 1:So, as we're talking about this, let's talk about how this applies to you. Now, right, how many times have you waited for the world to see you when, in truth, you haven't seen yourself? I'll give you an example. How many people do you know in your life that have all the potential in the world? They're smart, they work hard, but they don't ask for more, they don't demand more from themselves, or they have the ability but they don't have the want to. That's an example of that.
Speaker 1:Another question how often have you asked for direction when what you needed was a decision? You know, have you ever had that one friend as we're talking about this? Have you ever had that one friend where they go over a story and you realize that they're the problem and you try as nice as you can to kind of tell them that right, and you just get to a point like, listen, you just need to make a decision. I can't talk about this anymore with you, right, because they literally beat this dead horse and you just come to a point like, listen, it's, either you're going to do it or you're not. There's really nothing else, because they don't need direction. They just need to make a decision. And that's a lot of times. If you're asking for direction, it's because you're afraid to make a decision. Just remember that. Right. Here's another one.
Speaker 1:When did you start shrinking just to fit in someone else's silence? You know, if you think about a lot of times what happens in relationships I'm talking about in friendships and romantic relationships. A lot of times, let's say, we're doing good and our, our, our friend or our partner is not doing great, right, we don't want to share how great our life is going. We don't want to share the good things that happen today because they've had a bad day. Right, it makes us look like an asshole. So we have to kind of shrink a little bit. But what starts to happen is, if we're doing that all the time, what you build in the relationship is animosity and a lot of time your partner or your friend's not going to see it, it's going to be animosity on your side. So obviously, as you're doing that partner or your friend's not going to see it, it's going to be animosity on your side, obviously, as you're doing that. That's a very thin line and it takes a lot of maneuvering and massaging to kind of make it work. But you can do it for a little bit, but you can't do it for the whole relationship. It's not fair to you or to them. I'm just throwing that out there Now as we're talking about this right.
Speaker 1:What I love about this series is that it's a very cinematic feeling. It has like a mythic feel to it because of the chess piece, but it's also very real. It's in Chicago. It's cold, it's damp, it's windy. You know he's been homeless for a while now. He's pretty much have met all seasons.
Speaker 1:Because this is real, this is real life we're talking about here, with somebody you know and every man that I know that has gone through a collapse and I'm including myself in this knows this truth. You never fall into your lowest self. It's something that is gradual over time and the best way to describe it. It's almost like a dissolving. You dissolve into it, right, and the only way out of that, like, let's say, you're trying to climb out of that.
Speaker 1:It begins with one real moment in your life and it starts with you saying this isn't who I am anymore, this't me anymore, I'm not going to be this person anymore. But the problem is is once you make that decision, you have to stay with that decision because, as odd as this is going to sound, when you dissolve to a point to where you are invisible to anybody and everybody and there's no more feeling of wanting to do better, sometimes that's just easier Because really the hard path that you take is not staying in that position, but actually getting yourself out of that position. You know, redefine yourself, build yourself back up, because in the beginning it's really just going to be you doing it, no one else and that's a hard truth to understand. Like with him, no one's going to care If he's there or not. That's where he's at right now. And when you're dissolved to the point to where you don't care and you feel invisible, you starting yourself back up is one of the hardest things you can do in your life, but at the same time it's also one of the most rewarding things you will ever do in your life, when you come back from nothing, when you've lost it all and got it all back. There is nothing more satisfying than that, I promise you.
Speaker 1:So let's talk about this next couple episodes now. So in episode six, it's the choice. And this, you know, next week begins a new chapter. Right, it's the moment he stops asking for help and he really starts choosing himself, and I'm going to tell you, it's not going to be easy for him. He'll meet someone who sees too much. He'll meet, you know, he'll feel the ground ripple beneath him, and not from an earthquake, but from people that are watching him. Right, this is where his world starts to bend. Characters start to come into play. With this, the Invisible King starts to come into play. The Red King starts to come into play, right, and this is where we start to finally, later on, start to see what's really happening in his life, and what you're going to see here and I'll end it like this is, for the first time, he's going to stop calling it suffering, he's going to start calling it instruction.
Speaker 1:So again, guys, I know this has been a real different series that we've done here on Jen's Journey, but I just I cannot tell you how much I appreciate all the support that you give to this, that you've given to this show and this series and the questions that you ask. It's just it's it's just an awesome, awesome, awesome place to be in and, again, I'm just so thankful for every single one of you guys listening. So, as we're talking about that, if you want to support the show honestly, the easiest way to do it is two ways. First, send this to a friend or a family member. Let them listen to this Right. Second way is leaving a review. Reviews are amazing. Especially for a small show like myself, reviews help out tremendously.
Speaker 1:Now, if you want to talk to me about this series, this episode, 14 other series out there and the 270 now plus episodes we have on Jen's Journey, there's three ways you can do it. First way is going to be through my email, or not my email. It's actually going to be through the description on the podcast. There's a little highlighted thing you click on that says let's chat. Once you click on that, you and I can have a conversation again about this series, this episode, the 14 other series that are out there, the 270 now plus episodes that I have. Second way is going to be through my email. My email is anthony at gentsjourneycom. And then, last but not least, you can always go to my Instagram. My Instagram is my gentsjourney. So again, guys, thank you from the bottom of my heart. So much for listening today. And remember this you create your reality. Take care, bye.