Orland Lehman

I’ve had Orland Lehman in my life for almost my entire life. He may not have been my blood relative, but he definitely felt like my brother. The sense of loss I have experienced in his passing is massive. Orland was never front and centre in my life but the love he brought to my family is irreplaceable. I am struggling to imagine the world without him in it.

I learned a lot about leadership while Orland went through his final battle, and even more after his death. I could never quite put a finger on the specifics of what he brought to the table but his influence is undeniable. Orland was the irrefutable leader of my family, the alpha of alphas. Listening to his eulogy, I realized Orland’s influence on his eleven siblings was even more profound than his influence on me. Listening to the stories his brothers shared helped me understand, despite Orland’s limited direct involvement in my life, why he was, and continues to be, a major influence on me.

Leadership comes in many guises. Orland’s has been guiding and protecting me for over forty years. The emptiness that has been left in my heart with Orland’s death will never be filled. It can’t be filled. I will do my best to step up and provide some of the leadership that Orland brought to our family. Those are mighty big shoes to fill. I miss you Orland.

“No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear.” - C.S. Lewis (1893 - 1963)

Sifu Melanie Beckett

Attached is a video of the entire 18 Temple Motions. I had one of my black belts, Melanie Beckett perform the form for you. I felt it would be the most insightful version of the form because of Melanie’s particular circumstances.

Melanie received her black belt from me in February 2015 after returning from training full-time at the Wudang Temple in China for the previous five years. Some of you may have met Melanie in Alabama in April of 2015 as part of Tom Callos’s UBBT Project. A few weeks after returning from Alabama, Melanie began suffering from flu-like symptoms. Her condition continued to deteriorate until she ultimately ended up in intensive care, fully paralyzed, requiring a ventilator to breathe for her, totally helpless and in searing pain. Melanie had developed Guillain-Barre syndrome. Decades of training had been wiped out in a matter of days.

Melanie’s recovery has been slow. She spent the entire month of July 2015 totally paralyzed but returned to classes in September in a wheelchair. She worked hard to regain the use of her limbs and began walking with a walker by October. By February 2016, she was able to perform a form at our Chinese New Year banquet. Two years later Melanie still has a long way to go but as you will see in the video, she is progressing.

There is a reason for the back story. Melanie and I have been able to recognize a serendipitous opportunity that has presented itself because of her unique situation. We have a very advanced martial artist who was at the pinnacle of her training after just completing five years of full time intensive training in China, having to reboot her body from scratch. Her mind had all the knowledge and memories of her vocabulary of motion while her body was a complete empty slate. Melanie is applying her knowledge and understanding of the six harmonies to the rebuilding of her body from the ground up. While she works to regain proper coordination and strength in her body, we can see the micro-nuances that go into specific techniques and applications. I have learned more about the six harmonies in the past two years while Melanie recovers than I had learned in my previous 30+ years of training.

I am not sure if there has ever been another opportunity like this in the martial arts and I wanted to share this with all of you.

Lest We Forget

I found myself in the US for Remembrance Day this year. Specifically Seattle. I do not have many things on my bucket list but one that has been there since I was a kid, is a visit to Bruce Lee’s gravesite. I have many martial artist heroes, but the pinnacle of that list is Bruce Lee. His dedication to Kung Fu, the fearlessness of his drive and ambition has inspired and motivated me for my entire career. His legacy and legend have no peers.

Walking through the cemetery, looking for his gravesite, I was felt some trepidation. The rain was starting to pickup, I was getting wet, and I felt like I was in a dream. I played the moment in my head so many times over the years but the reality was not what I was expecting. Bruce Lee is buried next to his son Brandon who died twenty years after his father. Their tombstones simple, but beautiful. There was no crowd. Just a handful of fellow martial artists arriving one at a time over the course of the hour or so I was there. Everyone paying their respects to the one.

My whole life Bruce Lee was bigger than life. He died young, so he will never be old. Forty four years after his death, he continues to wield influence over the martial arts, inspiring others to follow his path. I stood there touching his gravestone, coming to terms with my new reality. He was a man, no different than me. Everything he achieved, he worked for. His success was built upon the sweat and blood of his past failures. He took his circumstances and created opportunities. Standing there in his presence, I have never felt such humility.

“The key to immortality is first living a life worth remembering.” - Bruce Lee (1940 - 1973)

Our Species Sucks

The Gift of Death. Written five years ago, this is more true now than ever. Our species is a pox on the earth.

There is a massive rate of income growth for the 1% and the other 99% of our species scrambles to secure a piece of the pie while almost every other species is either listening to the sound of their own death knell or are long since gone. It is becoming impossible to imagine anyone slowing down long enough to recognize the absurdity of our actions and values. Insects are disappearing at an apocalyptic rate while the rest of us are racing to purchase the newest smartphone. The country that used to be the most influential force on the planet now has turned so far inward that their relevance to the rest of the world is now only measured by how much more damage their corrupt, self serving government can do before it is too late. We’re in trouble but no one seems to recognize it.

The problem is it is already too late. Things, bad things, are in motion and there is nothing we can do about it. It's not as if we would do anything about it even if we could. Consider how long we have known about the consequences of our actions. Yet here we are. We never consider the impact of our expectations of continuous economic growth on the long term viability of our environment. We elect governments that promise to put more money in our pockets, never the ones that promise to protect the planet. Shame on anyone suggesting saving the environment at the expense of the economy. Let’s see how all your money tastes when there is nothing else to eat.

How much do you need? Trust me - you have enough.

There is a sufficiency in the world for man's need but not for man's greed." - Mahatma Gandhi (1869 - 1948)