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Stoic Spiritual Exercises: Cultivating Justice
I am beginning my second week of stoic spiritual exercises. My last blog post was about cultivating Wisdom: https://multiconstruct.blog/2026/01/07/cultivating-wisdom/
Justice corresponds with the discipline of action. Each of us has the power to choose to move towards a thing and to move away from a thing. No thing is in our power but that does not stop us from pursuing goals and trying to achieve.
Stoicism is powerfully rooted in the individual. Virtue is the only good and virtue is the exclusive domain of our own actions and opinions. All else we cultivate an indifference towards so that we remain free and have a happy flow of life.
When we act, we must act in accordance with nature. When we observe other living things we see that they take action to obtain food and shelter, procreation, and the rearing of children. Humans are no different but we meet our needs socially in cooperation with others. Acting in accordance with nature requires right living and consideration of others. Stoicism is rooted in cosmopolitanism.
Self awareness begins when we are toddlers but it is many years and much growth before we learn that other people are conscious as well. We call it the narcissist dilemma. My thoughts and feelings are real and important because I think them and feel them, and others’ thoughts and feelings are mere rumors.
As we mature we realize our parents have feelings and needs and are not just characters in our story but are the protagonists of their own narrative. The rest of the family, my neighbors, other townspeople, and personal associates are all the same. We bring this understanding to our state, country, and in its most developed state all the people of the world.
Beyond that we think of all the people of the future. We share the same resource base and the decisions we make impact their lives. I want to leave more of a legacy than resource depletion and micro plastics; waste, debt, and bullshit. I want to leave the children something good.
This is Justice. Weighing our own interests as co-equal with all others. We give primacy to the people in front of us for sure but we are all bound together in a collective web of reciprocity and shared habitat.
We have to take in information and make decisions with others in mind to live a life of justice. Right actions, done at the right time, for the right reasons is what it means to live a just life.
I did a talk on Facebook today if you want a deeper dive: https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1DvjEJ3Xgs/ It’s only going to be up for 30 days. If you like what I have to say but my book: https://breadandrosespress.com/products/the-practical-guide-to-building-a-better-world
Cultivating Wisdom
Today I kicked off 4 weeks of stoic spiritual exercises. I have framed the exercises around the four virtues: Wisdom, Justice, Courage, & Temperance. This week I want to talk about wisdom.
Philosophers get their name by being lovers of wisdom. Wisdom is not only knowledge but practical knowledge. Knowledge that informs our actions that allow us to be happier and more effective people. To exercise judgement and build our moral character.
Eudaimonia is a happy flow of life. It is living with purpose without being disturbed. Arius a disciple of Epictetus distilled his teachings into a small book called The Enchiridion.
The Enchiridion opens with: “Of things some are in our power and others are not…” Then he makes the definitive list of what those things are: Opinion, Movement towards a thing, Desire & Aversion or in a word, whatever are our own acts. Note, that no thing is in our power but the ability to strive towards a thing are well within our control.
Not in our power are the body, reputation, offices (magisterial power) and wealth, or in a word, whatever are not our own acts. Magisterial power has to do with holding an office or facing legal issues like going to jail or prison.
He goes on to talk about the nature of these categories. The things in our control are by nature free, not subject to restraint or hindrance. No one can force you to change your opinion or your goals, what you like and what you don’t like. These things alone are inviolate.
The things not in our control are weak, slavish, in the powers of others. Right living then becomes an act of categorization. Is this in my control or not. The wise person toggles between bravery and acceptance depending on the nature of the situation.
Epictetus then tells us what happens when we confuse what we own with what is in the hands of others: We will be disturbed, we will lament, we will blame both gods and men. The worst thing that can happen to someone is to be excuse ridden. If you don’t take responsibility for your life you can’t change it.
He also gives the promise that if your only concern is your own actions and you realize this is your only concern: you will blame no one, you will accuse no one, no one can compel you, and no one will harm you because you cannot be harmed.
You can take my car, slander my reputation, and jail my body. When I realize none of that is my true concern or an impediment to my will then none of that is really harmful.
So this week set a goal of self improvement. Take a look at the Enchiridion or Marcus Aurelius’s meditations. Put down the social media and open a book. Take 5 minutes for relaxation or meditation. Commit a helpful point to memory. Fall in love with wisdom all over again.
You can also follow my daily morning and evening meditations https://facebook.com/events/s/morning-meditation/1596039878200918/
https://facebook.com/events/s/evening-meditation/1433127815047245/
Holiday Letter 2025
Here it is early 2026 already and I’m just getting to my holiday Letter. 2025 was long, significant, and hard. For all the things that were good and I’m proud of, it was a difficult year I was happy to put to bed.
The year began with the bustle of moving into our new home. Shae and I bought a 1910 turnkey house in Leavenworth, Kansas at the end of last year and because she is a wonder it was quickly unpacked and decorated. Our things merged nicely and we only had to purchase a handful of items to have a beautiful tricked out house.
Shae, being a photographer has a great eye for light, composition, and color and I live in a house way cuter and put together than I have any right to. I have made good use of the kitchen to put out mostly healthy, scratch cooking, increasingly on a budget as the year progressed.
We have a formal dining room and got a nice dining room table to match my grandma’s china cabinet. We put it to good use with game nights and monthly gatherings of friends and associates. Shae has the Illuminati card game one of my particular favorites and we had several great games. Shae and I played a lot of chess and then Carcassone this year.
I continued my election organizing with the https://newamerican.community We posted over 100 learn articles based on needs identified in a comprehensive survey. We made contact with lots of County party organizations and provided fundraising and technical support to 20 different organizations. The County Party Orgs have a lot of potential but need a lot of consistent mentoring and follow up to make qualitative capacity improvements.
We also fought troubled private prison provider CoreCivic, who sought to reopen their troubled facility as an ICE detention facility. They applied for a permit in February and I wrote a blistering op ed to the LV Times calling for the permit to be rejected. A couple days later they withdrew from the permitting process and announced they were going to reopen.
I continued to write op eds and helped form a local opposition group and worked with regional allies to encourage the city of Leavenworth to defend their land rights. Leavenworth sued and won a temporary injunction. CoreCivic sued and lost. Appeals are pending with a hearing in February and CoreCivic applied for that permit with hearings scheduled in the spring.
Being part of a movement that is the only local community to stop an ICE detention facility has been satisfying. Here’s a link to one of my op eds if you want to learn more: https://www.kansascity.com/opinion/readers-opinion/guest-commentary/article303489741.html
Through all the organizing and activism I brought the Practical Guide to Building a Better World through the publishing process. I had a book release in Leavenworth and follow up events Columbia, Toledo, Farmington Michigan, and Bowling Green Ohio. You can get books directly from the publisher: https://breadandrosespress.com/products/the-practical-guide-to-building-a-better-world
I’ve had lots of media attention, more for the CoreCivic organizing then the book, unfortunately. The highlight was the NY Times coverage of The Pots and Pans March but my profile didn’t make the piece. I did get a nice profile in Voyage Minnesota.
https://voyageminnesota.com/interview/meet-mike-trapp-of-leavenworth-kansas/
The best book sales event I did was a training on working with homeless folks with the Missouri United Methodist Church homeless ministry team. It was a well attended powerful event and I got paid and sold a bunch of books. I have scheduled the training with the Daniel Boone Regional Library in Columbia for Saturday April 2nd. I hope to schedule more of those next year.
Last year we started Clear Creek Solutions LLC to manage the PAC. The consulting firm now pays the bills and the PAC is a volunteer effort. Our big contract is with Https: AnneforKansas.com Anne Peralker is an immigration attorney and moderate Kansas mom who is on fire to defend the constitution and the rule of law. She has a trust buster sensibility and when Kansas sends her as the first Democratic Senator since 1932 she will be the harbinger of the new FDR who will restore the federal system and address inequality and affordability.
In addition to the protest stuff I’ve been making the rounds doing some poetry and supporting the local arts. My gig work hasn’t paid as well this year and my savings are depleted so I’ve had to cut back. Shae has done well and is picking up the slack.
She took us and the boys to Chicago this summer and Seattle for Christmas. Aside from some trips to Columbia and a quick trip to OKC when Shae lost her brother and the book tour I’ve stuck close to home.
I stick with the gym and have had a year of physical training. I’m down to about 205, 15 pounds from my target weight and packed on muscle. I’ve corrected my posture and gait issues that were chewing up my knees. I’m almost bone on bone, but I hope to stay off knee replacements for another 3 years. I also resolved my fatty liver disease and have a clean bill of health.
I’ve read some great books. Four by my editor at Bread and Roses Adam Gnade, a book on military strategy I got a lot out of (I have to read Clausewitz), a book on Kansas petroglyphs, On Authoritarianism, Rules for Radicals (5th time or so) and other great books. My favorite was about Boss Tom Pendergast which was great in local history and practical politics.
Next year I am wrapping up at the gym and looking to improve my fitness with more activity and at the Leavenworth Community Center. I am going to do 4 weeks of Stoic spiritual exercises starting next Wednesday and inviting others to participate with me.
Look for at least a weekly post on developing virtuous habits and having a happy flow of life. I also plan to do more book promotion and continue to look for a career type job because of the insurance thing.
Thanks for sticking with me constant reader. I hope your next year is happy, healthy, and blessed.
Spiritual Exercises
Greetings Faithful Readers and New Friends. It’s been awhile since I’ve posted. Someone attacked me on Facebook and brought up a blog post and referred to this humble repository as a little read blog. It has had its ups downs for sure, but I am working it more into my plans and you will see regular content through 2026. It promises to be a momentous year and I want to develop this leadership.
I’ve struggled a bit this year which curbed my joy and my productivity and my relationships more than I am comfortable with. I’ve taken a moment to reassess and identify what I’m bringing to the situations that are causing me trouble. To that end I am committing myself to 4 weeks of stoic spiritual exercises.
Two years ago, after stepping away from the directorship of a nonprofit I put together and implemented 4 weeks of spiritual exercises I developed while on an epic road trip through the Southwest. It cleared my palate of the stress I had been carrying and helped me develop the focus to both write and publish a book but also address my obesity and overall lack of physical fitness.
Two years previously, after completing my third term on the Columbia, Missouri city council I had gone on an epic road trip and completed a bastardized version of the spiritual exercises of Ignatius of Loyola, bookended by Crowley’s Book 4 exercises from part 1 (basically Buddhist meditation).
For those exercises they are completed 2-5 times per day with prayers and readings and 5 senses meditations (think visualization but with all 5 senses). Its ordered around the life of Christ as moral teaching and also involves colloquys (imaginary conversations with God, Jesus, and the Virgin Mary).
Most significantly it involves a conscience check. I used the time to work on my ego. Whenever I would note an egoistic thought I would touch my heart. Taking a month and focusing on the content of your heart and striving to be better is powerful. I see why the Jesuits do it annually.
I had tried them once before in the early 2000s while backpacking in Big Sur and was also profoundly impacted. That time I had powerful colloquys and I felt that if I continued down that path I would irrevocably break with consensus reality and that that was not being asked of me.
I wrapped them up after 2 1/2 weeks, called my dad and learned he was passing through Fresno and hitchhiked over to meet him for one last ride in the big rig. I correctly guessed it would be my last chance for a ride along with The Popster and it was. I’ve never regretted it.
The 2021 version wasn’t mystical at all. I’d had some of that during my COVID homelessness organizing and these exercises were more of an act of discipline and sober reflection. I “received” 2 messages: to get a job and live humbly and to make a small lifestyle change, which I did.
I came out of that a lot more keyed into philosophy and less interest in mystical experiences. I continued to deepen my study of stoicism and other ancient philosophies over the next couple of years.
I felt that I had gotten what I needed out of discipling myself to work humbly for a board of directors. I again thought a major life change should be road trip and spiritual exercises. I thought of reworking Ignatius’s system to stoicism.
I realized though that the stoics already had a system. Leaning heavily on Pierre Hadot’s What is Ancient Philosophy I organized them around the 4 virtues: Wisdom, Justice, Bravery, and Temperance.
I had morning mediations where I set goals for the day. Unread from primary texts: Epictetus’s Discourses and Enchiridion, Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations, and Musonius Rufus and nothing else. I also memorized verses for each virtue and used the Ignatian conscience checks.
Wisdom involved a focus on study and reflection. Justice emphasized pro social interaction and philosophical conversation. Bravery involved physical exercise. Temperance involved vegetarianism and rigorous portion control.
I grew more focused and disciplined and kept that self motivation through writing The Practical Guide to Building a Better World. With setbacks and gear shifting I again am called to take on spiritual exercises. This time, no road trip but to be made real in my home environment.
I am also going to open them up to the public as a shared project with my community. I will be posting about it here and there will be an IRL version in Leavenworth and an online version available everywhere. More details to follow and I’ll be looking to start early in the new year.
If you are interested in my book it’s not too late to get it before Christmas direct from my publisher. https://breadandrosespress.com/products/the-practical-guide-to-building-a-better-world
Keep following for details as well as my traditional Holiday Letter coming soon.
Happy Interdependence Day
After a couple of hectic days at home we packed up and headed back to Columbia. We got a room at The Spa on Spruce, as the hot tub and backyard garden make it feel more like a vacation.
I did a podcast yesterday morning and had a campaign meeting with a Senate candidate yesterday. It’s exciting to open a second front on the war against authoritarianism with moving to fire a Kansas Senator who gutted Medicaid when he knows how devastating it will be to his constituents.
The podcast was heavy on CoreCivic, the troubled private prison we are working to keep from becoming an ICE detention facility back in Leavenworth. I’ll share the link when it comes out. Earlier in the week a story by the Marshall Project came out. The Guardian ran it so it was nice to get some national/international coverage. https://www.themarshallproject.org/2025/07/01/leavenworth-kansas-immigration-prison-fight
Today it was grocery shopping, hot tubbing, and off to the beach at Finger Lakes. Another family joined our picnic table while we were in the lake so we just made them part of our party. We’re going to catch fireworks tonight. We brought bikes to drive to the edge of traffic and park and ride in.
Tomorrow it’s a quarry lake party and a neighborhood festival. Sunday we make our way home. Things heat up at CoreCivic with the next hearing taking place at 10:00. Follow along for updates. Here’s a flyer on my book reading in CoMo. If you’re in the area you should come.
All Over the Place
When I read my old posts I mostly just gave a rundown on what I’ve been up to and how I’ve been feeling. With the book coming out, stopping CorrCivic opening a detention facility, running a PAC in a tough world of national democratic fundraising, cooking and eating food, the house and the yard I’m jamming all the time. I’ve sworn to stop that and embrace the puttering pace but that vow has been overwhelmed by events.
On to the good stuff and the victories. I had a nice profile piece done in an online Minnesota publication. https://voyageminnesota.com/interview/meet-mike-trapp-of-leavenworth-kansas/
The book is out and I have the official launch planned for Leavenworth at the Red Hibiscus on July 8th 4pm-6pm. https://facebook.com/events/s/ribbon-cutting-mike-trapp-book/696092123306330/
With all that I managed to insulate my cubby. Our historic home was a rental so first steps have been eaves, shoring up the crumbling brick and gaps in the retaining wall.
If you want to buy the Practical Guide to Building a Better World. See me and save postage. Today I’ll be in Columbia through Tuesday. Hit me up if you want to hook up with a book. You can also pick one up from my publisher.https://breadandrosespress.com/products/the-practical-guide-to-building-a-better-world
I also caught Pride and gave the governor of Kansas a book and told her to run for Senate. She said “hell no” so I met with another great prospect yesterday. Gave the Christian Nationalists some words at the County Commission on the dangers of Christian sectarianism and a little lesson on Jesus’s core message. It’s a lot and it’s all over the place and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Think Nationally, Act Locally
I had the great pleasure of speaking to the Boone County Missouri Muleskinners on Friday for their weekly meeting. It was over Zoom and it went pretty well. They put the video on their Youtube channel. It begins with my friend Alyce Turner introducing me and reminding me of my biggest political defeat when I chaired The Committee for Rollcart Choice to try and keep Columbia, Missouri from banning automated trash collection. She references restoring recycling because Columbia’s Materials handling center was recently destroyed by a tornado. I’m posting the video link if you care to see the presentation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQf30-2Mies
If you prefer to read, here are my prepared remarks.
After writing a book on winning elections, governance, and advocacy I first need to make clear that my approach to politics is fundamentally different. Almost all political discourse in the US is around state and national issues based around a right/left dichotomy. Worse, the political discourse is heavily focused on horserace considerations more than substantive policy discussions. Rhetoric and sound bites play well on social media and cable news and politicians today exist who only have a political strategy and no strategy at all for governance.
As a longtime grassroots activist with a focus on building community with an anarchist’s heart and an ecologist’s focus on the bioregion I had a fundamentally different approach to politics. When I ran for city council my focus was not on pursuing any ideological victories or building a political platform for future political advancement.
When I was thinking about running, I asked the “why” question. I decided as a candidate I would run on my values but if I won, I committed myself to a governance agenda that recognized my fiduciary responsibility to the city as an organization, as a placeholder for long term capacity to ensure resident services. I also committed myself to the care and well-being of the 1,400 or so employees. I also decided that the concrete (sometimes literally) facts on the ground were more important than more ephemeral things like my political career and my constituent’s feelings about how the city developed.
My focus on good government challenged me to respect city policies and internal capacity and to focus on regular improvements and long-term planning. I long argued that as much attention we place on state and federal issues it is local government that matters most. Local governments operate utilities; electric, water, sewer, solid waste; deliver public safety with police, fire, and the courts; we guide and facilitate economic development, pass local laws, make land use decisions and more. From what it takes in taxes, fees, and other revenue compared to what it delivers, local government is the best value in politics. Politics even takes its name from polis, which means city.
All these points are well and good but what do they mean in an age of rising authoritarianism? They mean everything. An authoritarian agenda needs all levels of government to control the people and fulfill its awful purpose. One of the real strengths of our country is our system of decentralized power and local control. From voting to education to policing to land use, the patchwork of local systems that make up most of our governance systems serve as a check and balance from any group asserting a national governance agenda.
An approach that I call localism tells us to defer on national ideological agendas. Instead, we should look to our own local conditions to inform our path of building long term progressive change and protecting freedom and democracy. In Leavenworth, Kansas stopping CoreCivic from reopening their troubled detention facility as an ICE deportation center presents as the obvious issue to rally around.
CoreCivic through their chronic cost cutting and casual disregard for their employees, their detainees, and the law make themselves an obvious target. We highlight their long and spectacular malfeasance rather than the large national issues around immigration. We bring everyone to the table who wants to stop the facility from reopening with no litmus test.
As we work on this specific issue we strengthen our alliances, our individual and collective capacity, and the belief in the community that they can make a difference. Having a deep knowledge of local processes, relationships with the local power structure, and the unique political pressure points for local actors which can help guide messaging and approach has been critical in the success of the campaign.
More importantly we are manualizing our approach. We are telling the story to inspire action across the nation. We are also making connections with other activists in other communities who are fighting the same struggle. The national zeitgeist expresses itself within local communities and is best combated and ameliorated within communities based on their own conditions.
If you liked what you read and are interested in learning more about the practical realities of activism consider ordering my book. We should have books in this week, and they should ship the week after. https://breadandrosespress.com/products/the-practical-guide-to-building-a-better-world?fbclid=IwY2xjawKQPpNleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFFRVdlMTdjQ0U5ZXFIeUhJAR4t9VcKwAmjbC0TRFkPMrp5PdLY9Boh372cUz-qdfq5rkuO7zFoWKmKtbDZLA_aem_O46YqlaAoNU-5hWACdnx4g
The Practical Guide to Building a Better World
I can’t believe I wrote a book. What was only an idea at the end of 2023 is this giant beautiful thing becoming more real every day. The milestones have come so thick I have not been able to celebrate each one. Today I want to acknowledge the ISBN #
The Library of Congress is under attack. The President fired the Head Librarian without cause and claims to have appointed the Deputy Director of Commerce, I think, as its head. The staff there point to the name and the fact that the president has no power over the Library of Congress and had two folks escorted from the property. The alleged new acting chief librarian has not yet tried to enter.
Having a book enter the Library of Congress has been something I’ve looked forward to as I moved my manuscript from rough draft to a perfected piece of physical media. I am not surprised that every good thing is under attack. A would-be authoritarian’s desire to control the Library of Congress is understandable. Preventing that misuse of power is baked into the system. We shall see what prevails.
Today, I still celebrate and proudly share my ISBN # 978-1-939899-86-6
You can preorder at Bread & Roses Publishing
https://breadandrosespress.com/products/the-practical-guide-to-building-a-better-world
Podcast and Book Preorders
There has been so much going on my head is spinning. Achieving some big milestones is huge but it still leaves you to manage all the change and the innumerable details that need to get nailed down when you succeed.
Before I get into that some of the eggs have hatched in the House Finch nest in the wreath on our front door.
All of the projects I have been working on seem to be coming together at the same time. At the New American Community we have been leading the local opposition to keep CoreCivic from reopening their troubled detention facility as an ICE detention center.
Through our work on the issue we came to know William Rogers a former corrections officer who has become a leader in exposing their understaffing and unsafe conditions for staff and residents. Mr. Rogers was kind enough to share his story on our first podcast episode.
https://newamericancommunity.podbean.com/
On the literary front Bread and Roses Press has The Practical Guide to Building a Better World at the print house. Presales are open and we should have books in June!
https://breadandrosespress.com/products/the-practical-guide-to-building-a-better-world
Thank you for support and follow along here or at Https://www.miketrapp store or Https://www.newamerican.community for the latest updates on the book, podcast, and organizing events and materials.
Happy Easter
It’s been a great long holiday weekend visiting with family and friends. Even with a doctor’s appointment and some work it’s been nice to focus on family and connection and making memories. Most significantly I finished the final edits on my manuscript and The Practical Guide to Building a Better World will get its layout and final design this week. Very exciting.
We’ve also had a tremendous spring this year and we found time to visit with the Spring ephemerals. With a long frost free period with rain the flowering trees have put on a show and are mostly supported by the budding hardwoods.
Easter is a time of new beginnings. The Spring renewal. I thought I might share my Easter poem/song I wrote some years back. We know of the eponymous Eostre only through the writings of the 8th century, I think, ecclesiastical historian the Venerable Bede. As a super nerdy kid I have been a fan since high school.
He records her name and that the preconquest European indigenous honored her at this time of year. That’s it.
Looking at religious origins of European religions the spring nature goddess Eostre was likely a close cousin of Assana/Astarra. Their stories are better preserved. Her hares ate the dark covering that surrounded the sun, freeing it for the first sunrise. Thanks for the dawn Easter Bunny!
Eggs are of course a symbol of life. Think The Great Egg of Euphrates. With that laid out here’s my Easter ditty.
The Venerable Bede was a friend to me
‘Cuz he told stories
Stories of the way things used to be
Before the great genocide of Europe
That came with the coming of Christianity.
Eostre/Astara/Asana was the goddess of fertility
She sent her swift hares to guide us
From the darkness to the light where we can see
And water drawn on Easter morn is holy
Eggs represent the Earth’s fecundity
And Easter’s really about Eostre
The forgotten women erased from history.
Be peace today. Get outside and see the beauty. Recommit to a life worth living.
Multiconstruct 
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