Ripples

Last night at my third Chinese New Year Banquet of the season, I was reminded of something Seth Godin wrote about this week. He was referring to cultural change comes about when we get everyone thinking within the same timeframe. Often, when we do not agree upon things, it is due to the timeframe in which we are viewing an idea. The example he used is that a sophisticated audience sees that there is more to life than the ten or so seconds just in front of them. Mobs, however, only care about how they feel at this very moment. If we get everyone thinking about things within the same timeframe, we may find we are not so different in our values, needs, and wants.

When I began studying kung fu many years ago, I did not have a clue as to the effect the art would have on my life. I was not sophisticated in my approach or understanding. Like mob mentality, I only saw what immediate gratification I could get from expending all the blood and sweat of my training. I spent a lot of time during last night’s festivities humbled by the people I was sharing the night with - people I call my friends, my kung fu brothers. People that I only know because I made a decision to take my first kung fu class almost forty years ago.

My life has been defined by kung fu. Hindsight makes my decision to train such an easy, obvious choice. Yet at the time the choice was made, I did not have a clue about the consequences. It is hard not to be humble when you have to acknowledge that the most important decision you will ever make in your life was not made through any insightful knowledge or guidance. I am truly the luckiest guy on the planet.

“A couple of people I knew went to university apart from me, but all the way through I was the smartest kid in the school. That's luck, but I was proud of it. And I was also proud of doing well without trying. As you get older, and it took me a long time to realise it, that's a disgusting attitude, revolting.” - Ricky Gervais (b. 1961)