Chi
Predator Press
[LOBO]
Having not been in a Dojo since Grand Master Futon awarded me my honorary white belt, little Screechy’s first karate class left me pondering my own illustrious martial arts career. That is where I developed the strict discipline and physical fitness I continue to emulate even today, and I consider it one of the most demanding -yet rewarding- weeks of my entire life.
-And Screechy is lucky to be following in my footsteps: a “legacy,” he too was bestowed with the rank of whitebelt on his very first day.
But the congratulatory ceremonies were cut short: just we were about to break out the traditional karate booze and piñatas shaped like ninjas, a bunch of kids wanting to play basketball started to harass some of the students.
Expecting a spectacular display of compound fractures and bloodletting, I was really disappointed when a small group of lowly blackbelts circumvented the incident entirely and without any violence whatsoever.
Why, when there must have been sixty or seventy of us deadly whitebelts in the auditorium, would three or four amateur blackbelts allow our sacred Dojo be besmirched thusly so? After doubtlessly devoting several hours studying the great Wisdom of the Orient, have these people learned nothing about when someone needs their ass kicked good an proper? Has all that effort and time learning to rip someone’s arm off and beat them to death with all gone to waste entirely?
This is why I will never become a Sensei.
[LOBO]
Having not been in a Dojo since Grand Master Futon awarded me my honorary white belt, little Screechy’s first karate class left me pondering my own illustrious martial arts career. That is where I developed the strict discipline and physical fitness I continue to emulate even today, and I consider it one of the most demanding -yet rewarding- weeks of my entire life.-And Screechy is lucky to be following in my footsteps: a “legacy,” he too was bestowed with the rank of whitebelt on his very first day.
But the congratulatory ceremonies were cut short: just we were about to break out the traditional karate booze and piñatas shaped like ninjas, a bunch of kids wanting to play basketball started to harass some of the students.
Expecting a spectacular display of compound fractures and bloodletting, I was really disappointed when a small group of lowly blackbelts circumvented the incident entirely and without any violence whatsoever.
Why, when there must have been sixty or seventy of us deadly whitebelts in the auditorium, would three or four amateur blackbelts allow our sacred Dojo be besmirched thusly so? After doubtlessly devoting several hours studying the great Wisdom of the Orient, have these people learned nothing about when someone needs their ass kicked good an proper? Has all that effort and time learning to rip someone’s arm off and beat them to death with all gone to waste entirely?This is why I will never become a Sensei.
Comments
Interestingly enough, I've actually done quite of bit of martial arts, but I'm worse in some ways than you. I'm a dabbler.
Judo in college.
Tai Kwon Do and Hapkido (and don't ask me why they were being taught together) early after I started work here.
Then Aikido
Then more Tai Kwon Do+, where I got my yellow and green belts, but I broke a toe getting my yellow belt and my foot getting a green belt. I was kind of afraid of the next belt up.
Maybe the black belts didn't want to kill anyone (again), including themselves.
Isn't it odd how "real" power is often best defined by never needing to actually use it?
Many people forget that insecurity breeds a great deal of violence. Fear and a need for power are often signs of severe self-esteem issues and the mistaken notion that hurting others will get it back for you. Sometimes, it's a rapist or spouse/child beater. Sometimes it's an intolerant hate-monger.
Secure people have bigger things to do that lose sleep over trivial differences (in my opinion).
If you know who you are and are comfortable with it, what others think of you matters so much less. And your need to "prove" your power falls by the wayside; it's enough to know you have it. You only have to prove it if you're not sure.
I think that trait, of all of Obama's traits, is the one that impressed me most, the one that put me firmly in his camp during the election. I haven't seen a cool under attack attitude like that in far too long.