Skip to main content

My Memorial Day Weekend

First of all I really didn't do anything significant to the holiday.

I went to karate camp.

I packed up four kids, a tent, and a van-load of gear and drove a bit less than 20 miles to unload it all again. My 9 and 11 year olds wanted to camp and this way we were close enough to bail out if they couldn't handle the reality of "out in a tent overnight."

Camp was great. Primarily it seems to be about gathering upper level people from all over, who may have their own Kojosho Karate schools, so they have an opportunity to compare notes and get some instruction themselves. A handful of color belts who are local get to go too and it's just mind-blowing.

The most fun thing was applying the wind element to self-defense holds. I'm talking about those "someone grabs you and ends up with their arm twisted behind their back" things. I hate those. It's not just that I forget how to do them, it's that I can never figure it out to start. We had spent the morning doing the 18 animals and elements postures having to squint our eyes shut when gusts of wind picked up the dust and after lunch Mr. Absher said that we were missing an opportunity to work with wind.

I never did quite get wind when we were doing postures, you sort of swirl around twice before starting the next element, but even doing it so wrong I could feel the wind in the movement. Doing the self-defense moves with wind was the first time they ever made sense to me. I think it's because I wasn't moving my foot "there" and my hands "this way" and shifting my weight "like that." Instead of separate things it was one thing. And it worked. Very much too cool for words.

Also too cool for words was the opportunity to recieve instruction from Mr. Absher. He actually spent quite a bit of time with the three children at the camp and I wonder if he likes that because they don't know enough to get all stressed around him. I get stressed. After working out for two days and sleeping in a tent *nothing* looks right, certainly not that rising block, and you want it to *be* right. And you just *know* that he's going to think that your little blue belt traumas are silly... but he doesn't. And somehow he watches for just a moment and tells you the one thing that makes an abstract form make sense in application.

I'm very new and just getting to know people. I recall someone saying that we don't have masters, only students. So far I've never heard someone call anyone Sensei and certainly not Master... other than behind Mr. Absher's back. The "old guys" seem to want everyone to know why there is a note of awe in their voice when they describe the man who spent at least part of this last weekend helping three little girls collect pine cones.

Comments

Ymarsakar said…
Just house call, that I've responded to your comment here, reproduced at my blog.

http://ymarsakar.blogspot.com/2006/06/why-over-there-should-not-be.html

Popular posts from this blog

Some times some people.

 

It's Not Projection

Take the case of "fascism". When you can see clear as day that the person who is accusing you of fascism is a fascist, they aren't projecting. They're talking about something ELSE. Basically, in the case of fascism, the basic set of fascist government controls are the default assumption of reality for a whole lot of people. The government is supposed to control every part of your life. The government is supposed to make you moral and good and reflect "justice". The government is supposed to do this by picking winners from the good people and losers from the bad people. The government is supposed to control the way people do business, how businesses (and farmers) function and what they produce. And people should be made to cooperate with this control because they are part of society and society is dependent on everyone being in compliance. This is simply the Truth. It's how the world works and how the world is supposed to work. The Socialist Nationalism,

What You Know That Isn't So

  The saying goes like this, It's not what you *don't* know that is going to trip you up, it's what you know that isn't so. I believe that the first lady might possibly have been feigning helplessness, just a little bit.  She already had concept art and visuals, so I think she'll be okay.   But someone might truly be so new that they know nothing about science fiction as a genre or how it works in the world.  That person, the truly "new" person, might not realize that the second lady, no matter how assured she seems to be that she's passing on vital Wisdom, is wrong. So lets unwrap her backpack a little (to steal a metaphor). Stories about space pirates are Space Opera, generally.  "Soft" science in science fiction usually refers to sociology or psychology, social "science".  A story about space pirates might be "soft".  But that's picking nits.  The first big boo-boo is this: "not as popular *because* it is women