Defining Moments

I have always tried to surround myself with positive people and influences, and this is the atmosphere I strive to maintain for my students at Silent River Kung Fu. I cannot control everything that goes on in the change rooms or outside of class so the battle to keep students focused on the positive impact of their training is constant and relentless. Negativity is systematically contagious and if left unchecked, spreads like cancer.

Running a kung fu school of 270 students is as much about dealing with politics of personality as it is teaching the art. Push a student too hard and they may not be able to see the struggle to the next level as being feasible. Don’t push a student hard enough and the lack of challenge can create indifference in their training. Spend extra time helping this student in crisis and risk alienating that student who only sees favoritism.

Managing the diverse personalities in a school can be overwhelming and sometimes frustrating. I have to admit that at times I question why I do what I do. It would be so much easier just to train for myself and leave it at that. This is why I always keep my life’s defining moments in front of me. My life has been blessed with many - my first perfect throw, the day I met Master Macdonald, a life altering phone call, using my chi to heal for the first time. In times of crisis there have been many more defining moments that have helped me put things in a perspective such that I can draw strength to push on and remind myself that I am making a difference.

Earlier this year an incident took place that has become a defining moment. This incident has changed my life, and perhaps through my influence, will change the lives of many more.

I had just spent two stressful hours on the telephone with a friend who has been struggling with life for a while. This day was an especially trying day for him and I had done my best to help him with his perspective. My friend’s personality is such that he continually questions his self worth and what his purpose is in this life. I have to admit that on this day he had almost convinced me of his perspective and I found myself questioning many things, especially the big ‘Why?’. After ending our conversation as positively as possible, I headed off to teach my first class of the day.

I love riding my motorcycle and the peaceful solitude it provides. Ironically, this day it afforded me ample opportunity to spend my solitude reflecting upon my friend’s situation . This only served to deepen my despondent mood. This was when I noticed a little boy in the back seat of the car adjacent to me. The boy was intently watching me, obviously fascinated with the motorcycle. I looked over and made eye contact with him. That is when I realized he had Down’s Syndrome. As he continued to stare, I waved to him. The most beautiful and perfect smile appeared upon his face. It was as if I had been touched by an angel and a wave of emotion washed over me. Despite the stressful ordeal of my day, I felt totally rejuvenated.

Here was a boy given a lot in life wrought with disadvantages I will never experience. Yet this handicapped boy, with no extraordinary effort on his part, had shaken my world. He showed me that something simple and personal can have a ripple effect that transforms reality. I realized that this young boy’s influence had changed my perspective and eliminated all the doubt and pessimism that had invaded my psyche throughout the day. If I took this positive energy and passed it on to my friend, it could literally change his life.

So yes, thanks to this defining moment, I will always see how and where I make a difference. All of this brought about by the smile of a small, handicapped boy. I can only imagine the awesome potential each and everyone of us possess.

"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world."
- Anne Frank (1929 - 1945)

EDuh

So Ed Stelmach has once again indicated that we are on our own if we want our species to survive. Our premier has not shown any leadership toward initiating any legislation addressing overall carbon emissions and continues to ignore all the empirical evidence that shows our planet is heating up. Mr. Stelmach’s strategy of emission intensity reduction while allowing production to increase is the equivalent of a smoker switching to a ‘light’ cigarette but increasing the amount they smoke from one pack to two packs a day. Duh.

Now Alberta finds itself in a situation where our oil is being labeled as environmentally toxic and it may even be banned for sale in the United States. Our premier’s proposed technology solution? Let’s pump all those toxic emissions underground! Is there no end to our ability to damage and disrupt nature’s balance?

Moving the problem from the atmosphere to the soil, which by the way is responsible for producing the atmosphere, is irresponsible. Carbon sequestering will have a major impact on the life of the soil and therefore the life of the planet. Even if we ignore such an obvious point, how does Ed figure the carbon dioxide will not escape back into the atmosphere? Counting on technology to solve a cultural problem is a recipe for extinction.

I suggest we all adopt a carbon neutral approach. Rather than explain it myself, check out this link to the David Suzuki Foundation’s take on the subject: http://www.davidsuzuki.org/Climate_Change/What_You_Can_Do/carbon_neutral.asp

Why I think this is the best solution at this time is because it takes into account my theory of the three steps to empowerment, and therefore change - Enlightenment, Empathy, and Accountability. The big one of course is accountability. Make each of us accountable for neutralizing our own personal carbon emissions and we will solve this problem as a culture.

The time has come to reevaluate what is important to us. If we take a moment to educate ourselves, our values will shift our focus from the economy to the environment. No worries, our culture is so engrossed in making money that our economy will adjust to support our new values and introduce environmentally sound products and practices while continuing to generate a decent income for all. However if we don’t all act now, and I do mean now, everything will be lost.

"Storing carbon in trees or soil reservoirs for several decades may help delay climate change, but if releases from these reservoirs are not matched by deeper emission reductions, climate change could be faster and more damaging in the future."
- David Suzuki Foundation

Walter and Me

Walter Magnene. Here’s a name I have kept in front of me for over thirty years. I have not talked to Walter or even seen him over that same period. In fact, I am not even sure how to spell his last name. Yet I keep his name in front of me because of that lesson I learned so long ago.

I was in grade five, and Walter was in grade seven. Walter had low confidence and was bullied and picked on by his classmates. Walter’s school life was difficult and gloomy. It was not surprising that Walter tended to lash out on occasion. Since Walter and I took the same route to school, I tended to be the target for Walter whenever he needed to blow off steam. Lucky for me I was fast on my feet and Walter could never catch me. This routine became our norm. Eventually we both forgot what had spawned the original conflict, it was just what we did.

While I had started out as an innocent victim who was being picked on by an older, bigger boy, I now had anger issues of my own. I became an annoying, fleet footed, smart aleck who would unload a verbal barrage at Walter before speeding off into the horizon and leaving him in a cloud of dust. Picture Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner. Such is the cycle of bullying.

I remember the day our situation changed forever. It was Spring, and I had brought some of my model airplanes to school for show and tell. School had finished, and I was playing in the playground with some of my friends before heading for home. I had just decided to call it a day. I bent over to pick up my bag of model airplanes, stood up, and found myself looking straight into the chest of my arch nemesis - Walter Magnene. The same Walter Magnene that I had dubbed Walter Maggot the week before. Time stood still. A soft breeze rustled through the leaves of nearby trees. Somewhere in the distance a dog barked. While my body fought to control my bladder, my mouth took on a life of its own, and I heard myself say, “ Hi Walter! We’re just leaving to play at my house, would you like to come?” I waited for the inevitable pain to arrive via his grade seven fist while my mouth continued to independently take matters into its own hands by pasting the biggest, friendliest smile across its lips. Walter looked me in the eyes, blinked twice and replied, “Sorry I can’t make it, but thank you for the invitation.” ** And then he walked away. Other than inducing a state of euphoria that caused me to forget my model airplanes in the sandbox and lose them forever, I had come out of the incident unscathed. While Walter and I never became friends, our conflict was over forever.

My point? I was involved with a conflict for so long that rather than look for a solution, I just accepted it as the norm and adapted a strategy that was reactive as opposed to reflective. This strategy not only didn’t alleviate the situation but exasperated it. However, when our situation became explosive, the incident, and in fact the entire conflict, was resolved with dialogue. Beyond the total eradication of your enemy and all his allies, this is the only way any conflict can be resolved.

I think our world leaders could learn a lot from Walter and me.

** I am 99% certain that these were his exact words. I remember thinking at the time - “What grade seven kid talks like that? No wonder he gets picked on.”

"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."
- George W. Bush (b 1946)

Sacred Balance

My first journal entry of 2008 - a brand new year with awesome potential. Now the hard part. Figure out how to best realize that potential and actually make a difference.

I have been reading David Suzuki’s “The Sacred Balance”. This book is truly inspiring and enlightening. The quality that gives us, the human species, such an advantage and the ability to excel in the bleakest corners of nature is our cultural diversity. As per Suzuki: “Our ability to exploit our surroundings and to pass on with language the lessons learned by failure and success accelerated the pace of human evolution. Humans have had an added edge in culture. Every individual human being must begin life from the same starting point, as an infant, laboriously acquiring all the accumulated lore and beliefs of society until he or she is ready to become a productive adult. But culture grows steadily, without having to go through the same learning curve every generation. Compared with rates of biological change, culture evolves with lightning speed - and for this reason we have come a long way in a relatively short time.”

Wow, why did I never really think about this before? It is something I have known but not really dedicated much thought to. I guess I started thinking more about it in the past year which is why I am on this accountability kick. I have looked at what I have accomplished in my life and upon reflection I realize that I have wasted a lot of time and potential. That is the folly of the arrogance of my youth - failure to accept my own mortality. Really what kind of lasting impact did I expect to have on the world in the short time that I am going to be here? Very little since I have been living my life as if I have an infinite amount of time to accomplish my goals. Eureka! If I invest my time and efforts toward influencing my culture, the impact of my life will be felt for many generations long after my death.

Silent River Kung Fu is a culture that is growing and evolving. Every one of us is contributing to this culture. I continuously remind my students that they are the future of kung fu. Two thousand years of development and refinement are now in their hands. What happens now will help determine the future of kung fu for the next two thousand years.

So what happens now? Are we going to define kung fu by the quality of our kicks and punches or the quality of our character? It is time to guide our culture and set an example for our community that shows just what value we are bringing to the table.

We are martial artists who define our growth not by the perfection of our skill but by the self realization and enlightenment we achieve from the challenge of the journey. We are leaders. We are accountable. We are Silent River Kung Fu.

“A leader is a dealer in hope.”
- Napoleon Bonaparte (1769 - 1821)