One way less to kill
People are killing each other off since forever… And there are many ways in how this is done. Taking on purpose a human life will always be a sorry act. Could we at least reduce this list by one?
One can be killed by a murderer, regardless of reason… Become victim of a terrorist act, very much in “fashion” nowadays… Fall on the battlefield by the enemy or die as a result of war, an “old time classic”… Perish by a genocide act, become a target for an assassin…
Now somewhere here I’m slowing down on my list, because there is nothing more I can think of (excuse me if I skipped something) so maybe, I got the general idea covered. We have been living with those ways of killing our entire human history and it doesn’t look like we will dispose or get rid of any of them, soon… well, not today anyway or the distant future…
When we think of a murderer, a terrorist, a soldier at war, a mass murderer, an assassin or any suchlike, the healthy mind goes to one direction and one only… Will we be able some day to stop them, or at least stop some of them, for good?! Which of this killing ways will become a “thing of the past” one day?! Will it be the soldier, for we will need to war no more? Will it be the terrorist, for there will be no need for something as lunatic?
You see, in our minds we don’t hesitate for a second, in trying to reduce this list. And as for those who die by such actions, regardless by whom, we sympathize… we endlessly sympathize.
Now please keep that momentum and think of the following question…
Why is it that we do think it the other way round, when it comes to sentence a man to death for his crimes? Why is it that our attention does go to the one who will die, and we totally forget that it is the executioner that puts a man to his death? In any other case we concentrate on the murderer, the soldier, the assassin… But here, in the case of a condemned to death person, we look at the “dead man walking” and we ignore the executioner.
And please keep in mind that this (text) is not about sympathizing a person that is on a death-row. To make it more clear, let me put it this way… I don’t give a rat’s ass about him… end of story. My issue lies with one thing only… I totally despise the system and the logic of creating executioners and the sick ways that have been maintained and further “developed” in the direction of executing someone.
All the above sons of bitches (excuse my French) mentioned in my entry list, have at least wrong reasons in doing what they do… while an executioner doesn’t even have that!
And still we support him by willingly ignoring that he exists… When it comes to put a criminal to his death we dedicate our entire concentration on him, like if we are with a daisy in our hands (should he die, should he die not… should he die should he die not…) totally forgetting about the person/s that performs this discussing act… People fight and argue about if it is fair or not to sentence “this man to death” when the issue is, shall we permit executioners to continue having “a job”? And if this is an acceptable situation and I am wrong here please tell me this: Why is it that from a number of executioners, which press a series of buttons simultaneously, only one does execute the convict? Why is it that from ten guns in a firing squad only one has a live bullet? Let me guess! Is it because an executioner takes so much pride in his profession that they want to keep him… humble? Wrong guess, I guess…
When you have caught someone for his crimes, you don’t go ahead and execute him, simply because you have him in your custody, he can’t go anywhere and he can’t do anything.
This is so much different from when a police sniper has a dangerous person on his “sight”. He acts upon a threatening situation and he guns him down in order to save the day and the life of one or more persons.
The ways of execution are truly despiteful. The use of gas chambers (is that still on?) electric chairs and injections of toxic poison… What is this “legal torture” thing anyway? They make the traditional beheading with a sword by the Samurai look like an act of mercy… One stroke and you’re done with. Not that I would stretch my neck with pleasure, but who would like to sit on the chair and do the twist? No? What about the needles? Don’t run away yet, we also offer the choke as an option! …See what I mean?
We above all, in the civilized free world, should also re-think this, and eliminate one way of killing, because we can, because this is now possible and within our grasp… Proof of this stands the fact that among us… right next door sometimes, exist states and countries with strong laws against crime, which nevertheless have put behind them the execution system as means for justice. And I say “civilized free world” because I don’t want even to refer to those “countries” which stone their people to death… The theory that prisoners cost too much so you kill them in order to reduce their number doesn’t apply either. There are ways to put to labor those people so that they earn their daily meal and their four by two prison cell. How hard is that?
This is not a question of opinion. It is disgusting and inhumane to execute someone (you already hold) by any torture-to-death method (or not!) on the grounds that “he had it coming”.
More than this, as a Martial Artist, I cannot see the benefit of putting someone to his death by execution, because it does not solve anything… since death is no punishment, but only a destination we are all heading for. And under that point of view you somehow “relieve” the person you execute a bit earlier. Sending someone into oblivion is “easy” and our final common fate.
The death penalty is a dead-end of justice. By going there you prove that you have absolutely nothing to propose. Does this mean that someone who has committed terrible crimes should go unpunished? No, not at all! True punishment already exists, and it’s called lifetime imprisonment. You hold in custody a person for his crimes and you jail him for good, into his own personal eternity…
You see what happens?! In these last paragraphs I also lost my momentum, and talked about the fate of a person that is sentenced to death. But our focus, and mostly the focus of those whose job is to structure laws, should firmly remain on something else… It is to create laws that will not allow society, the “job” of an executioner. Just put executioners in the history books of mankind.
There will always be, and I mean always, men that by their acts have earned it to be sentenced to death… but the question remains, are executioners even considered to be a proper response? And even if you have in mind of putting to death those who “deserve it” would you want your son, your daughter, your student, to “learn the art?”
Big words from little man
While we speak, wars are being conducted at various places of the globe. But the world, as we experience it, has not seen a major war (of a global scale) for more than half a century. People from all walks of life are taking this great period of peace for granted. And thus, one parameter is, that they tend more and more to use military and martial expressions in their daily vocabulary with ease… This is being done light-hearted, without much consideration and, above all, without realizing what it really is, they are talking about. If you take an extended announcement of a company for instance, you could use a pen and while reading it, underline the vocabulary I am talking about. You will not go far in order to find that it is full of “strategy” “aggressive takeovers” “powerful weapons” “allies” “hostile environments” and more… all of them metaphorically speaking of course. The “I will kill you” expression, or any variation of it, is naturally avoided. But extensive use of it is made even from parent to child, metaphorically speaking of course. “I will kill you if you do this…” It even sounds much better than any kind of swearing.
We drift little by little into a territory of talk that has little or non gravity, in the sense of “making good for your word” and there is nothing to talk about doctrines like “…think what you say and say what you mean…”
The freedom of speech has overextended itself into things being said that have little or no respect about terms…
Last but not least, silence is golden no more… it has become scrap, second hand waste material… And there is more. “How to talk back” and “how to defend yourself verbally from a verbal aggressor” is actually being taught as a “parameter” in schools that are considered as Martial… leaving me at a loss of words.
More than just Dojo etiquette
Coming in and out of a Dojo, should mean that you don’t socialize in the same manner as one does privately, among friends or as one does at a cafeteria… Entering a Dojo should mean entering in silence, undress in silence and if one has something to say, it could be creative… we could always speak about matters of our own Dojo. Private affairs could be left for outside the Dojo, for later… One can be free and talk himself to death if he likes, but let’s stay quiet while in it.
After having entered the Dojo it is time to enter the tatami. Practically this should be an act as if entering a war zone. It can be a place of simulating a war zone and yes it can be polite and even friendly in manners but absolute silence is of the essence here… in other words and put as simply, direct and martial… do shut up! The negotiations class is one floor down to the left if you want to attend it and there you can speak all day. For the diplomats lessons you are in the wrong building.
Martial Arts are when the above has failed, or even better, when you were “surprise” attacked and you had no time to talk with your aggressor.
A few hours without a word (and while being awake) is good for the soul and it rests the tongue. It could be considered as a Zen practice. More important is that you will be prepared in a case of a real engagement, when you will be needing every breath for yourself, and no kind of distractions, especially from your own self (since habits never die when you want them to). If none of this ever happens and you will be so lucky to stay out of the way of being assaulted in any way over a period of a lifetime (lucky you!) you will still have learned the ultimate lesson of self-confinement and you will have given yourself, your classmates and your Sensei what we call… a break.
Cat got your tongue? I hope not… Because regardless of keeping silent while in practice, a well trained warrior does know when to speak, what to say, how to say it, and uncommonly and old-fashioned as it may sound, he is a man of his word…
Talking is a form of art. We should look around us, and learn. Leaders talk their way through, towards power, while people simply follow… If I sound like disliking politicians, please note that politicians have brought this on themselves. Not all of them, but certainly the majority of them. We all know the sign where a person wears a helmet and swings a shovel, and under it says “Men at work”. The equivalent sign for a politician could say “Men at… talk”
Warrior’s talk
There is a model of how a warrior handles his talk since warriors have been around long before anything else. And since “we are in Japan” our model is the noble Samurai and the ancient Bushi from which the Samurai sprang. A nowadays Martial Artist (I will not use the term modern, modern are my… jeans) should be elegant in his talk, well refined and, above all, very-very careful with words, just as all warriors were before him. It is a… recipe that cannot fail.
Tough talk, threats, shouting, jabber, innuendoes, double talk, slang and so on, have nothing to do with the way of the warrior… which brings us back to the beginning! One is never to use Martial (or military) expressions in his everyday language. Maybe every other person does it, but every other person is not a trained/ in-training Martial Artist. Let’s put it in another way… A gentleman who has been brought up with care and the right education would never swear, now would he?
In the same way a Martial Artist is not to use terms lightly, terms that he above all should know best of! And there is no point in using them even in the case he really intends to bring them into action...
February 12, 2010
Fall seven times, get up eight…
Someone walks down the street and then he stumbles and falls… and most of the reactions he will get for that is grinning and laughing… Sadly, with very few exceptions this has become the rule. One might say “oh, come on, it’s no big deal” and they might have a point… until they stumble and fall themselves! Then, it’s not a joke anymore. When a recognizable figure (politician, celebrity etc.) slips, trips, or whatever will bring him down, he will find himself as “news to share and laugh at”. His/her fall will spread on the internet at the speed of light… Even if he has managed to regain control of his balance in midair, he has ensured to be the joke of the day.
You’re reading this now, but sooner or later, someone will… go down, and will be “all over the place” and all over the news. But when it happens this time, please take a moment to notice the “happiness” and “joy” of those who announce it through the media… who are supposed to encourage us in “sharing” that stupid moment… Laughing while others fall is not done on purpose by everybody. There are people that even feel uncomfortable about themselves for reacting like that… But why is it that people behave like this in the first place?
Well there is a series of reasons, but if I pull it my way, the answer is quite simple… Those who laugh-it-up, do not know how to fall. Meaning, like in Martial Arts controlled fall…
To learn how to fall in Martial Arts is lesson number one… This has nothing to do because of me practicing Aikido, which is well known for its acrobatic falls. Thus, concluding “what else was he gonna say?!” does not apply. How to fall should be a must in any Martial Art, regardless of origin and school. More than this, and away from the gates of Martial Arts, controlled falling should be taught just like anything else that is worth learning in life… swimming, climbing, singing, drawing etc.
Falling, once learned, is like bicycle… you never forget it and it will be there for you when it’s time to go down.
In many “so called Martial Arts” (that are usually martial sports) learning how to fall is avoided all together. In this manner they are supposed to cut down the number of students which abandon their practice. Especially in Aikido advanced “evading falls” are extremely demanding, and take a long time of practice in order to put under control. Only the sight of this (and especially the thud against a traditional Japanese tatami) can make the “heaviest” macho-man run off at… high speeds.
You see, the problem is not falling itself… it’s the fear you face, which can be only overcome by relentless practice. In Aikido most of the falling business includes a kind of consent between the thrower and the thrown, simply because Aikido techniques are designed to neutralize you, long before you hit the ground. So, in most cases you “lock” a technique to an attack, and the only way to evade its effect is to fall or break-fall… Thus, some people look at Aikido, and think that the falls are not for real. They think that of course from the safety of being a viewer… But the view of life is totally different when facing the floor head down while driven from a hip, which is not even advanced according to the full “menu” of throws. If one is good in his Aikido performance, he can practically flick a person in the air like a coin (by using the aggressors’ own power) and ever reach to save his head from landing first, if need be…
Nevertheless, a mistake which one can see in a number of Dojos, is when people are driven hard to the floor but only after a poorly technique has preceded this, when it should be the other way round. Technique at its top, should be effective and fast as lightning, only to be followed by a fall which is left up to nature’s gravity. The Art is putting a person into his own “orbit”… forcing someone to the ground is not much of an Art.
What goes up must come down
Living on the floor is one of Japan’s characteristics even to this day… This was also a Chinese characteristic far back in history, but it was later on neglected. On the contrary, for most Westerners the floor is a… very far away place, a place where human feet are mistreated and highly neglected. Even in Western athletics, when you go down, this is synonymous to defeat and shame… While in the East going down is where you get your strength from, and only an ideal place from which you rise again. In the West the remark “On your knees” is synonymous to embarrassment and forced obedience. In Japan the kneeling position only means deadly Swari Waza (techniques performed from the floor). The Samurai did so, and in extent of that, so do Aikidoka.
One of the best examples on this may be the following: Imagine any ancient warrior or modern soldier you would like, and take your pick among all kinds of armies you can think of. Come on, pick one, let’s do this as some kind of a test… Got one?! Now, give to the soldier or warrior of your choice a place to guard. How does he do that? How do all of them do that, even to this day? They stand! But this does not apply in classic Japan… From the Japanese imperial guard, to the unknown Samurai in a remote mountain village, there was the choice of guarding from a seated to the floor position! He was able to fight from there, springing to action without the fatigue which constant standing brings with it…
Crash landing
Some even go as far and say: “I will never fall, I have a solid base”. There is no such thing as never falling. We are creatures that balance ourselves all the time and the right thing to do is to live to the title of this text (which by the way is a Japanese saying) More than this, why is it that I don’t hear this magnificent statement within the four walls of my Dojo?
Not long ago I was fully packed with handbags heading for my basement garage… It was snowing and the ground was full of ice. At the beginning of my decent I slipped on the ice and oops… started going down and I mean all the way down into the basement. When I finally stopped I found myself in a position that is… hard to describe, one foot extended forward and the other… somewhere in the back. No “normal” person would have survived this without some kind of injury. Everything that was in the bugs has become a line of debris and my pants and jacket were torn. I didn’t have a single scratch myself, but I could not get up… I was on the floor in that funny position, surrounded by my broken stuff, laughing my heart out. Does this mean that maybe we should laugh when someone falls?! Of course not… It simply means that I was comfortable with the cement floor and familiar with falls, since I was only hours away from conducting my last class. You don’t train for nothing after all…
Whenever I have assisted someone from his fall in public places, I have observed the following (beside the grinning business). The person who fell is in shock, as if something terrible has happened to him/her and they turn pale white. Then, they try to spring-up much faster then they went down, as if staying down is the worst place on earth, and they turn red. And soon after that they try to speed-off, as fast as they can, as if trying to flee the scene. And while they do, they don’t even look back, like if they lost anything by the fall… “Hey mister… You dropped your cell-phone…” and the color gets yellow…
So if “losing face” is what we feel by going down, then the smile-reaction, grin-reaction or whatever joke-reaction, is really there to offend the other isn’t it? Meaning only, now that you are down and I am up, I am better than you. Yes, until your time comes to fall…
In the Samurai Arts one of the most effective ways of killing, was to drive one’s opponent to the floor, while crashing his skull. And since gravity stayed the same through times, we train this just like back then: You “overextend” your “partner in practice” and you land him on his back, instead, in order to protect him. Now think of this: Gravity is one and the same, but heavier things go faster and harder down. Physically stronger people are heavier and look magnificent while standing… But once your technique is effective, a stronger adversary will have a harder time landing… Martial Artists with experience take falling very seriously and also take great care in not injuring their “brothers in arms” on their way down. Trained warriors find nothing funny or humorous when they see someone going down…
So, here you have it…
For Martial Artists, once falling has become as second nature, and learning it has become a thing of the past, when they see an untrained person fall the first thing that pops into their minds, is not laughter, but the question: “How can these people not fall?!” and then rush in to help the person. And then comes the other thought: “How can these people, who obviously cannot fall themselves, laugh when someone falls accidently?!”
March 17, 2010
Never hit or force your children
It never occurred to me that listening to the radio while driving can be dangerous…But I almost crashed the other day when I heard about the new scientific research and what it tells us to do. It said we should “slam” our kids every now and then, it is supposed to be “good for their development”. At the instant when I realized what was said… I lost my direction of where I was going (joke, but it very much impacted me in this way). Shortly after that, I thought to myself: “who listens to what some people say on the radio?!” …but I was wrong. The same “scientific” suggestion was all over the place that same day, and was broadcasted through all media, the internet, you name it. And it caught me unaware once more, making me spill my food on me while I was eating (no joke this time).
For the rest of the day I was confronted with the following picture… parents getting comfortable with the idea of slamming their children, “every now and then” just because it was promoted by the “new scientific research…”
I could save the following statement for last, but I can’t wait to tell it. My own scientific research comes up with a slightly different conclusion. Slamming around “your” children can be dangerous (and unforgettable) because you never know who you’re gonna bump into while doing so…
Universal rule… which is going far above any “scientific research of the week”, you do not hit a child for any reason at all. Violence is no education, it’s no good for their development and in fact it’s only bad for them. And I can explain why: There is no such thing as controlled hitting or controlled violence, which is addressed to a boy or a girl. Once you raise your hand against a child (especially “your own”) it becomes a reaction habit “of the hand”. It is a “habit” that you can start with a first “innocent” slap, which is very hard to call back, once you take that path. This is not a matter to dispute or argue about, and it upsets me a lot that this brainless “scientific research” was all over the place for parents to follow.
Hitting a child is the total lack of communication between parent and offspring. Further more it cultivates feelings like fear, mistrust and hate. And any communications failure has little, or nothing, to do with children themselves. We as parents are one hundred percent responsible for it… Those who slam their children are coward, because “the slamming around” business miraculously stops at the age when parents disagree with their children to the very extreme… This is clearly not out of a sudden respect, but out of fear that the “child” has grown in size, and now it intends to instinctively fight back on this…
So, keep your hands down and save that sort of energy for a real threatening situation against someone of your own size…
Why it is that we know best…
In Aikido, but as well in all well put Martial Arts, there are many “stages” of practice. Techniques should always be practiced in a soft studying manner, while we are being extremely attentive. After that, fast application is as well a necessity, but one needs to stay away from injuring his partner in practice. But one of the “final” refinements, in cultivating techniques, can take place only between a Master and his Apprentice, and it is as follows: As soon as there is engagement, any defense which is left open, is dealt with a blow. The impact is done at the precise opening, and it has a controlled force of causing no injury, but one is to “remember” it without using his memory for a few days… It takes tremendous skill and self-control in order to perform this correctly, on all levels, physically, mentally and spiritually. And it is only for those practitioners who have eliminated most flaws from their technique with “regular” practice… It also requires that the practitioner is, sort of, “volunteering” for the task. Because Politeness is a classic Samurai virtue, a student can always “call off” the engagement, if he finds it too uncomfortable. All he has to do, according to Japanese Tradition, is to step back one step, and stay bowed without moving or speaking, until relieved.
This stage of training is the only “hitting, slamming or forcing” which is permitted and acceptable between two human beings and could be “good for your development”. And still, this training is unsuitable for children, that by the way could not be advanced practitioners in any case…
Now here comes the part related to our theme!
People who have been physically punished by their parents, have a hard time to undergo this part of training… They discover for themselves (…not without surprise) that they automatically act with a spastic panic motion. And this “uninvited” reaction comes at the exact moment when they should have been pressing on, deliberately ignoring the oncoming “corrector blow”. Nothing could frustrate more a person who is definitely a dedicated practitioner, and there isn’t even one of them, who do not comprehend from where this unwilling “coward act” is coming from… Instantly they realize, that these are “remains” which are rooted deep in their past. And this realization makes them only more determined in order to eliminate and totally overcome their fear. Now how can one tell this without spoiling the sincerity of the moment?! I guess the straight forward way… Some apprentice go as far as making the decision of diving into the oncoming wooden sword attack, deliberately lowering their defenses, in order to extinguish the last spark of that hidden fear… Not a “wise” decision that I would recommend, but on the other hand in my “line of work” I have never seen any kind of “talk treatment” to rise above action…
Martial Arts are for those who are determined to learn how to take care of themselves from an unprovoked, violent physical attack… “Attack” is actually a war term. Its nature is usually random, unfair, harsh… and, in many occasions, it is intended to lead to “destructive death”. Any attack, no matter how great (press the doomsday button) or small (person to person physical force) requires the mental and physical will in order to be executed. An “attack mode” is triggered from the same synapses of the brain regardless of the size of damage intending to cause. Furthermore it is connected with emotions like anger and it is a reaction just like a “bad habit”. It is hard to be controlled…
I will not tire to keep repeating the following: Classical Martial Arts and especially Aikido, when taught correctly, are all about control… One can do other things in order to feel excitement, to have an adrenaline rush or to “train” in order to defuse his suppressed emotions at the end of a difficult day. There are countless forms of actions around us from which one can choose his “Dr. Feelgood”…With the sole concern that this will not harm “others” and will not violate any laws, display of emotional extremities and cultivation of aggression is approved, deepened and systematically repeated. The fact that it violates the personality of a person which acts in this manner is conveniently overlooked… If we were back in the ‘70s I would use the words “we need to find actions which balance our personalities” but I guess that kind of phrases aren’t “in” any more. So let’s have it nowadays said: “Regarding emotional control, we need to pull our act together”. Raising a child is not without challenges. And it takes a considerable amount of control in order to face the difficulties of handling its behavior. But “attacking” it in any way, means having lost our control as grownup persons… It’s nothing more and nothing less…
A child has only its parents (or those who are responsible for it) in order to turn to. Hitting and using force on it, is actually a form of attack against it. A child runs to its parents, because it instinctively understands that it will be protected and defended against anything hostile… furthermore it understands that it will learn from us. Hitting it in any way compromises this natural trust and scars its personality…
Until now I thought that we needed to protect children from behaviors like that, which are caused by ignorance and stupidity on behalf of the parents. But it totally escaped me that we have also to protect them from “scientific researches” which encourage violence over them…
April 14, 2010
A futile education proposal
When we examine a person’s educational background, we usually evaluate him by the degree he achieved at the time of his “exiting days” from studies and “throwing hats in the air”. Of course this resumes his entire experience of study in any field… There is so much attention given into that direction, that one tends to forget another aspect… the “where it all begun” and more than this, the “how and why it begun”. Education from scratch, in a word…
Many of the failures of our society have to do with basic education. The catalyst here seems to be that education is done with “the market” on mind. And it is “logical” since economy is the measure… But even so, even by the measures of economy, does this kind of education “pay” in the long run? We create “market hunters” when we should go into the direction of creating… people first. Man should precede in importance any market… but the truth is it doesn’t work that way.
One can be bitching all day on matters like that and achieve nothing, so here are a few thoughts as a “suggestion”. Not that I expect any of this to see the light of education… but still we are free to think, aren’t we?
Drawing to precede writing: You sure have more than one watch in your house, either as a wrist watch, alarm-clock, or as a display on various home devices. And surely you have noticed that there are two kinds of displays in showing the time. One comes in a digital presentation, which shows us what time it is with a number… and two, in an analogical form, where you see the time by its clock-fingers.
The human mind instinctively “understands” easier and faster the analogical watch because it represents what is more natural for its prime organ, the eyes. Thus we perceive better a form of something, rather than a written description of it. Fighter pilots have all the essential organs of their cockpit in an analogical form. So, when they find themselves in the middle of intense fighting maneuvers or under the stress of a real combat, their response is more natural. Instant looking at their flight organs, and seeing a form rather than having to read something, is easier understood while a missile is on their tail…
All ancient writings were in a form of hieroglyphics and ideograms. In both cases these are practically drawings which represent a “picture”. Egyptians wrote in this way….. Japanese and Chinese do so as well, up to this day…
Point is… We should learn much more drawing and painting before we take up writing anything. A kid (of an education as it is described here) should be able to represent on paper, let us say… its own face from a mirror (even in a basic form) long before writing its own name.
Music to precede ability of lecture: Every infant, regardless from which part of the world or culture, dances up and down its belly to the sound of music. They do so while barely standing on their feet and long before talking… This is something that all of us have witnessed with amusement, and… we did that, too!
Music and rhythm is part of our nature and in our evolutionary steps, we played music (even primitive one) long before we developed a full pattern of speaking. Many times we wonder how come some people can express themselves verbally better, than some others who find it impossible… Well, this isn’t about “reading good books” when you where young, but it’s mostly about expressing your feelings and thoughts, via other means, before speaking them out in the form of words. I’m sorry that it’s going to be “the Greeks again” but it is a fact that ancient Greeks would value music in education just as any other form of learning, mathematics, philosophy etc. Music was an obligatory study, important as any other…
Point is: We should be able to play with efficiency at least one musical instrument (of our own choice) well before being able to stand up in the presence of others, and give a form of speech.
Poetry to precede composition: …I admit I have a bit of difficulty in supporting my own cause here. But composition is far more complicated since it requires previous experience of extensive reading and an ability of bringing forward and describing thought patterns and as well feelings in the most organized manner. Many forms of poetry are more spontaneous and don’t require that much of logic, but more feeling, which we are more capable of, when at the prime educational age. It is no accident that most part of the ancient writings of man (like Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey in Greece, the Hindu Vedas and also the famous to this day Chinese book Tao Te Ching) was written in the “form of poems” or as “text-pieces” which were closer to poetry than written word as we know it.
Point is: Poetry is the right entrance in order to move towards composition… (and I only hope that I’m not going to have e-mails asking me to put up… a poem. I ain’t got any…)
Scouting to replace competitive athletics: “He is no boy-Scout!” You often here this being said about someone, as in, “he is not naïve”. Since when is that?! Am I missing “episodes” here? Because I would like someone to give me a full explanation on this one… but only slowly, word by word and without any ironies. Why is it that one of the most important learning of life is being even considered as some sort of lack of intelligence?
If I would make a list of what is being learned, while being with the Scouts, we will never finish this… Orientation, exploring territories, setting camps, starting camp-fires, cooking, knife use, map reading, plant recognition, fishing, surviving techniques… But I will take only one, which has to do with cultivating a mentality to a person, which is as far as possible from any form of antagonism. Scouting is the best tool in learning how to co-operate with one-another and think as an individual that is part of a team. A thing we could never say for athletics…
On the contrary athletics are promoting antagonism to its fullest. I know that this will sound somehow strange to many ears, but hear me out first, worst thing that can happen is that you might join… the Scouts! Athletics are being promoted as a “peaceful” activity and when you hear a thing repeated once too often you go and… buy it. In athletics you have one winner, and one winner only (who celebrates like out of his mind). You set your mind on a single path of victory, or if you like, on a path to defeat all “others”! Athletics is bad influence in the educational process since it promotes an aggressive attitude. It produces a strong physique with a weak mind, not only because you become “single-minded” but because during the practice of athletics it is given that the mind simply plays no part and it is sharpened elsewhere. And to clear this up, this of course has nothing to do with bringing a board to the beach for some surf, being a sportsman of some sort, or anything equal to this...
Point is: We talk about… Indi’s basic training here! How would Scout have it? Oh yes! “Be Prepared”
Aikido is for both, knowledge and defense…
It is well known that Japan globally holds the very top in education in most fields. There is a story (which I remember “loosely” but it’s worth mentioning): Once an American university did sent to an equivalent university of Japan a sort of “electronic cable” which was supposed to be the “thinnest possible cable” with a hole through its entire length… The idea was to tell the Japanese “what is your answer to this?” Almost immediately the American university did receive their own “experiment” back as it was, with nothing else to show for… The American students did contact the Japanese asking why they did send the “cable” back… The reply was this: “Look inside your cable!” Needless to say that they had managed to pass their own invention, which was a much thinner version, through the hole of… the thinnest cable…
Martial Arts are part of the school system in Japan to this day. They are taught to children for self defense and as a character builder. Japan is a country which is modern, developed to the fullest and nevertheless has practically no crime!
Education should be a fun thing to enter, not a bore where someone tells you “learn this” or “do that”. Most of the time grownups are only too happy to… discipline children and youngsters, to teach them order, to command them around and feel important in this way…
In education man should be at the center of everything for the essence of being a man! Everything else comes second best. That is the place from where to restart this...
If we look at it as realistically as possible, what is our chance on a futile proposal like this? Or any other which would make more sense than what we are given now? What is the choice on our kid’s education?! The direction of governments of the free world looks like converting on the matter by the minute in creating nothing more than money making people! And I’m not going to put this up because of the global economy “failure” which is going on right now, since I’ve been nagging about this all along… The question is: Do we have a choice? Yes, we certainly do… but it could only work on a personal level and for those who are willing to make a difference by starting from themselves… because governments will probably do from little to nothing…
Point is: Just make the trouble, raise your eyes one last time before you go, and look at the marked in bold “proposals” and join my thinking on this… What do you see that we cannot offer our children by personal effort?!
April 23, 2010
