Another Way To Look At Martial Arts: A Curious Start On My Path

"As you think, so shall you become."

-Bruce Lee

I have an interesting story about how I got into martial arts. Actually, I have a lot of interesting stories, but this one is about how I came about starting my martial sojourn.

The truth is we all have a story about how we started. Some are dramatic, some are not. But all are fitting for who we become through practicing.

I was just about to turn four when I requested to start practicing. I believe I had been in the United States for less than a year, and at that time, still spoke French though I had switched to English about that time.

I used to avidly watch the power rangers as a child, my favorite being of course the red. I don't know how many children began to want to be like them because of that show, but for me it was certainly what inspired me.

It's strange, when we are young we seem to know most what we are meant to do. And whether we realize that or not is something time and life can either ensure or inhibit. I was fortunate my family and life allowed me to begin.

It would be many years, almost twenty before I realized it wasn't that I wanted to be a superhero, or even a power ranger actually. I wanted to help others. I see that in my compassion for others; I have always been that way. Perhaps it was because of a troubled childhood as some have told me they think it, but in truth I believe it is because I have a kind soul.

I believe in all earnestness that each of us can make the world a better place, better than it was before we came. And even the smallest actions can create an infinitely better future. 1 is always infinitely greater than 0.

I find simple joy in helping others; it gives meaning to my life. I see no difference in the value of one life from another; I often rue walking to work when it rains, not because I hate getting wet, but because a five minute walk becomes forty. I cannot help it; every earthworm I see on the ground either drowning or blindly struggling toward a body of water I move. And I treat people the same way.

I think about that a lot, around four years old we begin to develop true consciousness. Most of us begin to form long-lasting memory at that point (my earliest was around two years old, but they are fragments) we begin to become truly defined as who we will eventually become. And much can and will change of course, but it seems to me that from the instant we begin to realize ourselves, when I began to, I knew in my soul that helping others in any way I could was why I existed. Perhaps I made that my reason for being, or perhaps other events conspired for me to be that way. I don't know, but it's not something I regret in the least.

About a week after four I began to practice. Eventually I began to do kendo, and then switched martial art schools after a decade of training and service at my first school. I received my first dan when I was 7, and whether or not I deserved it (I do not believe I did, though my father tells me otherwise) I know in my heart I deserve it now. Well I should after over twenty years of practice, but I made it a point to earn it again at the second school, and that is where things get interesting.

You see, the second school I trained at, switched from WTF Moo Duk Kwan Tae Kwon Do to Chung Do Kwan was run by the greatest teacher I have met in my martial arts journey. Master Fazel Khan.

I eventually received another black belt there, and became the last head instructor appointed at the school before he retired and it shut its doors.

It would only be years later that I would learn that he was also the teacher of Jason Geiger/Austin St. John, also known as Jason Lee Scott, who was the very same power ranger who had inspired me to begin martial arts.

The world works in strange ways, and causality falls into place like rain does. I learned later that Jason received his training at the school before moving and eventually beginning a career in acting.

I still have difficulty understanding how a teacher I love and admire for his impact on my at fourteen, and making me more than just a true martial artist, but a great one- one I would have admired when I was little and just starting, was also the man who taught the martial artist and being who would inspire me to begin. And in that sense, it is because of Master Khan I ever began martial arts at all.

And if it's the case that I began to practice indirectly because of his influence, I can only wonder at how many others began their path never having a clue who he is. I sometimes wonder if he realizes how great his own impact on the martial arts has been.

It is true, he never created his own style directly, and it is true that any influence he had was very behind the scenes, and I doubt deliberate in the sense I am referring to. But it exists nonetheless.

My understanding is he had over four-hundred students who became black belts, and every single one deserved the rank.

And although it was long after I met him and had left his school that I learned of his hand in my past, I will always be grateful, because he did something truly great. Without either of us realizing it until well after the fact he helped a little boy realize his dream; true, I never became a power ranger, but it was always my dream to become something as capable as what I saw on that television. And then I went beyond it; I became higher ranked than the person who inspired me, by his very teacher.

And perhaps it is pride, but I do take joy from that fact. Not because I am better, but because of the simple fact a man without even realizing it helped me achieve a very real goal.

And that is something inspiring to me; that perhaps I could do the same for another.

We all walk a path that leaves footsteps to create a great story.

Today I work toward working for the Kids Kicking Cancer foundation. It has been my goal for years now to find a way to take martial arts, something I long thought only formative and destructive to being able to help others heal; to find a better quality of life. And I can see now how that can be done.

http://kidskickingcancer.org/
http://www.cnn.com/2014/09/18/health/cnnheroes-goldberg/

And perhaps I can find a way to use what I know to help those suffering and some to survive their illness or depression (as it did for me when I was suicidal four years ago) and persevere. And if I can even help one person find within themselves that ability to make themselves survive than I will have helped another save and better their own life.

And any I can do that for, I can attribute to a teacher who inspired me through his student to take up that mantle.

Perhaps that goal isn't realizable, but I believe it is. We should all use what we have learned in a purpose to help others.

And who knows? That foundation teaches terminally ill cancer patients who are children martial arts; gives them a confidence and strength that may be what allows them to survive their disease. Who I am to doubt that? It has helped many already, saving lives in the process.

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