Yesterday
while writing a letter to a friend, I got to thinking about
what the martial arts means in our lives. You know, though
it's been said time and again that you really can't learn
from a book or video, they sure are fun to have and collect
. I remember being 7 years old and seeing ads in the back
of comic books for "Karate in 10 Easy Lessons" or my favorite
of all time "Ketsugo: Combination Self Defense". Thus started
my love affair with mail order buying. Though I hated being
disappointed everytime I opened the PO box to see nothing,
seeing that little pink slip of paper when the book finally
did come more than made up for it. I can still smell the post
office in my mind.
From
buying books off of comic book ads, I went on to Black Belt
Magazine and M.Uyehara's "Literary Links to the Orient" as
he so advertised. For me it was true. In my small rural Louisiana
town of 3000 people, those books were my only link to what
sparked my mind and imagination: the Orient and the amazing
and sometimes mysterious arts they produced. Mr. Uyehara's
company published books not only about martial arts, but about
people different from me, their thoughts and experiences.
He opened my mind during a time when no black boys played
on my baseball team, nor did we swim in the same pool. I took
on a centeredness, a different way of seeing the world. And
how many friends I made with all kinds of people who found
what I was trying to learn interesting and different.
What
treasures those books were. For those of you in Wing Chun,
have you EVER seen a more well done book than "Wing Chun"
by James Yimm Lee? James Lee tells you himself that you can't
learn from a book, but that book has taught more people what
Wing Chun is than any other source. What a wonderful thing-
to be able to communicate an idea so that everyone can understand
it. And most importantly, it's a book I don't mind my kids
reading.
I've
never really grown out of martial arts books. Though I have
a real sifu now, I still love these things. And now DVD is
the thing. My best friend and I have big plans. We're going
to make a cool collection of wing chun videos. We're going
to practice in the park. People crowd around us when we do
this. They're interested. Bet we make friends.
Can
we go wrong like that?