Community

In 2008 we ended our Pandamonium by making handprints of everyone who participated in that final day and using those prints to create a quilt. The completed quilt was then auctioned off at our Chinese New Year banquet with the proceeds donated to charity. I won the auction for the quilt and I have had it with me ever since. We took out the quilt yesterday while creating more room in our linen closet. It brought back a lot of memories, including the memory of my mother in law who constructed the quilt. She passed away four years after the quilt was completed. 

Silent River Kung Fu has raised in excess of $300,000 over the years. Our community activism has impacted not only our local community but our global community as well. Every project we complete creates more awareness for issues many of us never have to think about. 

Memories are more vibrant when you have something to anchor them in place. My memories of our 2008 Pandamonium are among my favourite.

“The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference.” - Elie Wiesel (1928 - 2016)

The Season

It is less than a week before Christmas and the stress is building. I love the season and everything it is supposed to be - family, friends, and goodwill. I hate the season for everything it is not supposed to be - greed and consumption. Everything has become commercialized and commodified. If someone isn’t exploiting it or making a buck off of it, just give it a minute.

Each year my family cuts back and reclaims a bit more of the season. We may not be able to change the world on this account but we can stop the world from changing us.

“To perceive Christmas through its wrappings becomes more difficult with every year.” - E.B. White (1899 - 1985)

Wuxin

Wuxin in kung fu basically translates as “no mind” and it is one of the more difficult aspects of the art to master. The wuxin state does not imply mindless but rather purity of response. I don’t impose my ego or paradigms upon the situation, my interpretation and subsequent response must be unbiased and completely without discrimination. The opposite of wuxin is evident in today’s polarized politics where people do not consider any facts except for those that support their already entrenched point of view.

As wuxin becomes more prevalent in one’s training and one’s life, the eye for detail improves. In training, my application becomes more realistic and pure. My control approaches absolute. Outside the kwoon, my empathy is heightened, improving my relationships and reducing my stress

The longer I study kung fu, the more I master. The more I master, the more I realize I do not know. Time is the only true commodity of value and I am aware that there is not enough.

“It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into.” - Jonathan Swift (1667 - 1745)

Progression and Recognition

Progression of skill in anything is best measured by overall competence and mastery. Identifying that I’m better today than I was yesterday is a pretty good indication that I am on the correct path.

Where things start to get muddled is when we lose perspective and place more value on recognition than skill. In the martial arts we have belts and stripes to track progression. It is easy to get caught up in only focusing on your next rank instead of the skill the rank is supposed to represent. Anyone can train to test but that does not directly correlate to overall skill. 

Recognizing that the journey is about progression of skill and not just recognition goes a long way in helping a student differentiate between knowledge and skill.

“Art is skill; that is the first meaning of the word.” - Eric Gill (1882 - 1940)

Consequences

Eliminating a deficit does just that - it eliminates A deficit. What it does not do is eliminate ALL deficits. Nothing is free or without consequence. A government can cut their spending deficit but in doing so they must create another deficit. Cut healthcare spending, and there are consequences that effect wait times and outcomes. Cut education and you will see an increase of crime and a need to increase policing and incarcerations. There is no such thing as deficit reduction, only deficit reallocation.

Where and how deficit reallocation is applied is a reflection of values and priorities. For politicians, their priorities are bought and paid for by their campaign donors. Political decisions used to be driven by the electoral base but the electoral base no longer has an independent voice. Propaganda in social media and biased press dictate a large percentage of public sentiment. Those with the money have the power to force any public policy they choose.

For martial artists, our approach to deficits is no different. We cannot eliminate all deficits, we can only reallocate them. The one constant we all have in our training is finite time. There are only so many hours in a day to perfect our craft while our bodies continue to age - forcing us to constantly reevaluate where we are and what our priorities should be.

Nothing is for free. Spending time practicing a particular form or technique always comes at the expense of another form or technique that you are forced to neglect. The irony of training in kung fu is that while you are embracing mastery in one aspect of the art, mediocrity is gaining a foothold in another.

The difference between a politician and a martial artist? A martial artist is honest and up front about the of nature of deficits. Knowing where you are and what you are doing ensures deficit reallocation is a direct representation of values and priorities.

“Cutting the deficit by gutting our investments in innovation and education is like lightening an overloaded airplane by removing its engine. It may make you feel like you’re flying high at first, but it wont take long before you feel the impact.” - Barack Obama (b. 1961)