Dulcimer Recital

We were going to have a lion dance on the street today but we got scared off by the rain... that ending up stopping. I headed into Chinatown just in case our cancelled performance became uncancelled. But it is much easier to cancel something than to uncancel it.

When I got to the CCBA it turned out that my old Duclimer teacher and his students were having a recital. Jonah was already asleep. And Noah was surprisingly enthralled. He didn't even want to leave so I could check on the status of our performance.
I have to say these new students were really good. One in particular, who happens to be the daughter of a Professor who I traveled to Japan with as part of a study course in college was very good. When she was a little girl she already had a lot of the technical skills, and those skills have improved to the point that her the conveyance of emotion through her music has begun to flourish as well. I don't know the name of the song she played, because the flowing quick up and down waves of sound... know not just up and down, but also the more multi-dimensional back and forth flow of a current was able to be conveyed by her playing, The point was not just that the notes were hit fast and correct, but that it was smoothed out so as to appear as one soft living body of water instead of simply a series of notes. The dulcimer students of my generation were not yet at the level where they could play a piece that could weave the notes together like a fabric in the wind like that. Some of us had more emotion that could show through a simpler piece, but that development comes a little with life experience, and this girl is still young. Still a girl, not a young woman. So the emotion that she is already able to convey is amazing. The piece is famous. I have heard it on CDs and also in Wuxia movies, usually in beautiful gardens with some sort of courtship between well dressed Kung Fu powered semi-immortals flying about and perhaps even playing the piece... but usually on the Guzheng. Indeed there was so much hitting the few dulcimer strings that can be bent with the finger on the other side to vibrate the note that the dulcimer sounded a little like a Guzheng. All in all, it was a nice recital.

Why the minimum wage should be $15.00 an hour.

First of all, I'm a regular guy, not a scientist or economist, and the first time I heard the bearded tattooed activist tried asked for my vote and proposed a $15.00 an hour minimum wage while handing me a Socialist newspaper, I had to politely but firmly decline. But I've been thinking about the issue a lot recently, and my own experience working at McDonald's. But the reason my mind is starting to change is not for the reasons that Rep. John Lewis gave, that the way things are now are not Just or Fair. This is because even though John Lewis went through much more than I have, and I have led a sheltered life, somehow he believes in and is optimistic about Justice and Fairness.... and somehow I am not and tend to run from issues about Justice and Fairness. But his words made me look at the issue in my mind.

The arguments drilled into me against the higher minimum wage come from a graph shown to me in a Macro Economics class in college, where higher minimum wage = higher unemployment. (Btw I did not do well in that class.) Other arguments are that the smaller business owner will suffer and will not be able to afford to hire more people. Most viscerally, this issue sounds like a Communist ideal, and since my Sifu is extremely anti-communist and my Grandfather may have been some sort of Kuomintang official, I am personally biased against those ideas. Finally, the first time I went to China and saw like a hundred people with brooms and mops and soapy water  (happily) cleaning  the airport sidewalk, when in America you would have one Union worker with a big street sweeper somehow do the job less efficiently, that became a visual representation of how is you can pay people a really low wage, you can hire a bunch of them, and so a bunch of people will have jobs.


As far as small business owners are concerned, this will be tough on them I guess. Even if they pay under the table and therefore pay less than the minimum wage, eventually they will have to pay closer to the minimum wage because it will be harder to get legal workers if McDonald's is paying $15.00 an hour.

Here's why a higher minimum wage is better for the government. The government is basically subsidizing McDonald's and other companies because people getting paid such a low wage who live in Public Housing, are paying a less than market rate on their project apartments because they can't afford to pay more. Same goes for people who have these low paying jobs and are also on Welfare. If they are just paid a higher wage, then the taxpayer doesn't have to pay the extra money to make up the difference. The big corporation that hires them will. And they can afford it. People making more money will spend more money and pay more taxes. Republicans and Conservatives should love this higher minimum wage thing. It will help balance the budget.

It's also good for society. If you have a choice between a decent, stable job, and say robbing, drug dealing and other crime, there are a lot of smart people who will choose the stable decent job. Now some people will always choose crime. Bernie Maddoff didn't need the money. But a lot of smart, driven, leaders are choosing to sell drugs at a young age because working at McDonald's for the low minimum wage and part time just doesn't cut it. Selling drugs and a lot of criminal work is a high stress job, where dying and going to jail are simply an everyday occupational hazard. Then once they go to jail they are again a drain on the taxpayer. They also make society more dangerous and make their children's lives more dangerous.Their children will end up also probably requiring all manners of social services and who foots the bill again? The taxpayer. So why not just solve a big chunk of the problem and make these corporations pay their fucking workers properly.

I actually worked at McDonald's for a very brief time. It was not easy. It was the most stressful job I ever had, paid the least and I also had to use the most amount of skills I ever had to use anywhere. At the McDonald's in Chinatown, I was definitely the only American born person working there, and probably the only citizen. The Hispanic workers (who thought I was one of them) did not speak English very well. Neither did the Chinese workers (who did not believe I was one of them until I started speaking to them in Chinese.) So I often had to translate Taishanese into Spanish. (I was still fluent in Spanish back then.)
The workers were never hired full time, no matter how long they worked there so they never had to be paid benefits or get a promotion. There was a lot of bullshit and cutting corners. I was working there not because I had to, but because I just wanted to help contribute to my family (which was my mother and me.) The reason why I didn't have to work there, was not because we were wealthy. But because I lived in the projects. So, Uncle Sam was footing the bill for me surviving.

Even though I worked there for such a short time, whenever I see my ex-coworkers on the street, we still say hi to each other and we formed a very strong bond in such a short time. That bond is nothing to fuck with. Part of the reason for that bond is the job was so hard, and the customers coming in could be such racist scum of the earth. (not everyone but a good amount) When you are worked hard like that, and are paid so little, you feel you have little to lose, and you can fight easily without thinking of the consequences. It will be cheaper for these Corporations to just pay these workers more than fight them in the long run.

As to McDonald's losing money, not only can they and other corporations afford to pay these workers more money, but I think they will make most if not all and then some more money back. Why? What are these workers going to do with their newly earned higher wages? Don't you think they might spend it at say some of the businesses that these Corporations own? Yeah maybe they might say, I can afford something better and healthier than McDonald's now that I make more money. But they might by something there sometimes, and if McDonald's makes healthier and better menus, yes they will still buy it. If they have babies, they need buy diapers. If Walmart pays its workers more money they will still probably buy stuff at Walmart. These corporations are fighting this. But in truth, they could end up better off for paying their workers more money if they just play their marketing strategy right.

Finally, paying these lowest paid workers a living wage will be good for the economy. It will loosed up a lot of money stuck at the top and move it around more. You want to talk about a real trickle down effect? Making it mandatory to pay these workers more money and they will spend more money. They will buy more stuff, go out more, they will be more willing to spend money on education. And I bet too, that women will be more likely to try and go for it, work a job, go to school and hold off on getting pregnant to try and get a man (boy) to commit to them (which usually doesn't work but a lot of girls have this strategy. Or a lot of girls have the strategy of getting pregnant because the government will foot the bill (they think) anyway.
But if a fighting chance to better themselves by saving up money and going to school is held out to them, even more so than has been the trend they will choose not to get pregnant (or sue contraceptive methods to avoid having children) until they are more established. Society benefits, the economy benefits. And the powers that be, the government and perhaps even the corporations (again if they are smart) will also benefit.


Again, I'm no expert, and maybe there is some unforeseen consequence. But that is always a possibility. In other words, increasing the minimum wage is at least worth a shot. Not because it is just or fair, but because it could be beneficial to everyone.

Sport, Yoga and Kung Fu

The more I read about Yoga the more I feel that Yoga and Kung Fu are the same thing. Not if you look at the moves and what you are focusing in each move they are different of course because one is a martial art, and the other (at least in the modern American version) is not a martial art. What I'm talking about is when Yoga teachers get into talking about how Yoga is more than the moves, about self knowledge, that sort of thing. Pretty much anything the say when talking in this manner that starts with Yoga is..... will be the same if you say Kung Fu is......Yoga is not a sport. But I've seen articles where some practitioners have tried to make it into one. This seems less strange with Kung Fu. Because there are all sorts of sports associated with Kung Fu. There are forms competitions, fighting competitions, and lion dance competitions. But when it comes down to it, these competitions are more like a part of Kung Fu, a game invented to encourage people to get excited about doing Lion Dance, or Kung Fu, but ultimately the goal of Kung Fu goes beyond this. 

For instance there was Kung Fu before there was these tournaments, so what were they practicing for then. 

Let's talk about war. If the point of Kung Fu was war, or killing, then Kung Fu would have already died out because you can kill faster with fire, guns, bombs, and germ warfare. It just so happens that warriors, as well as non warriors, were very interested in Kung Fu as a way to pass the time as well as a mental and physical practice to get to know themselves. Plus the stereotype of a Kung Fu master is a wise old hermetic old man on a mountain. He is by himself so who is he killing? Plus people tend to be better fighters when they are younger. Maybe the old master could win in a duel. But on the battlefield, running about hacking people in a chaotic melee of burning pillaging and all manner of atrocities, I think young people are better at that game.

KUng Fu is something that continues or perhaps only genuinely begins after that stage in life.

Let's talk about sport. Sports have a few purposes. To win (or compete in a way that does not involve death (or less death), or at least in modern sports. Also another purpose is to entertain. But even though those are the main goals, it doesn't mean that athletes do not experience higher states of consciousness while playing sports. For instance while playing 21 or some such game with a basketball, I saw my friend trance out. He would not describe it like this, but after he hit shot after shot and was "on fire" I could clearly see that his eyes were more dilated an he was in a different state. Yes he could still joke and socialize. But isn't that just a higher level of altered consciousness where you can joke and still be in a trance? Of course this trance like state is not the main point in basketball. The main point is to win. But it is part of the experience. Conversely winning and being badass is a part of Kung Fu, but it is not the main goal ultimately. Flexibility is an aspect of certain types of Yoga practice, but again, it is not the main goal. 

The Choice

This parenting trick has been introduced to me several times and I have started to use it. The way it works is when your kid is flipping out, rebelling, rioting, screaming and causing a ruckus over something stupid or nothing at all, you give your kid a choice to make them feel like they are in control of their destiny, to make them feel that indeed they are the ones in control.
For instance, this morning Noah did not want to go to school, he wanted to play with blocks. But we had to go to school now which meant he had to put his shoes on. Rioting and protest ensued.
So I used the Choice.
"Do you want to put your right shoe on first or your left shoe?"
He happily picked one of these options not noticing the fact that he wasn't making a real choice between say, going to school and not going to school. He had to put on his shoes. He had no choice. But by being given the option of which shoe to put on first, he felt that he indeed had a choice and was in control. A willing participant in this family who takes an active role in the decisions the family makes and the direction we are going.

I can't help but equate this to our government. We choose between Republicans and Democrats, or we can choose not to vote or vote for a party that won't win. But it's like we are all Noah, those in power have given us a choice. And indeed we as a whole are much happier than people in China, who do not feel that they have a choice. I'm not saying that ohhh we are being lied to, revolt etc. Because as bad as things are in this country, comparatively, they are pretty good. People are starving. But when weren't there people starving. Should we work to make things better? Of course. But I'm not really about destroying the system we have. We have to work within it. One way to make it better, and to make the people (those not in power) feel less frustrated and less like rioting is to give them better choices. Give us more options. Perhaps, yes increase the minimum wage. Make us feel like we can accomplish something and we will be happy. I've seen a lot of stuff about Martin Luther King Jr. because of the anniversary of the I have a dream speech, adn some of his more radical ideas too. But are they that radical? It's not asking those in power to hand over their power or give up their power. It's not asking those with money to give up all of their wealth or to try being poor or even to try being middle class. The rich will remain rich. The Powerful will retain their power. The main difference is that poor people, vulnerable people, and common people, will feel that they worked toward something, and got a result. They will feel empowered. But they won't actually have power. What they will have is some happiness and a sense of belonging. They will calm down. Society will be better. So in the end, everyone benefits. So c'mon aristocracy, lobbyists, people who run the country for real. Stop abusing your children (us, the people) and neglecting them. Stop using touch love, or disownment, imprisonment and other sht that has been shown not to work. Use the new parenting skills and use them well. Distraction, giving us a choice, allowing us to be heard, letting us finish our sentences, letting us learn through play, focusing on enrichment and education instead of time outs and beatings. It will benefit you as much as us.

Sing Bahn

Noah has moved up to the next classroom. At first he seemed fine, but then yesterday he saw one of the Teacher's Assistants on the train. After she left he got sad and said he wanted to see her, and Ms Harriet (the Dolphin's teacher) and go to the Dolphins classroom. He said he "forgot" to go to Dolphins today and wanted to go to see them either tomorrow or on Thursday. He started getting real pissed off with me when I explained that he was no longer in Dolphins class, he was now in the Stars class. It's not that he doens't like Stars. He used to get to play there all the time because after 4:30 or whatever, the Dolphin kids go to Stars classroom because most kids have gone home and they just combine the classrooms. He liked going to the new class. But he didn't like the notion that he couldn't go back.
"You can visit." I said. And in fact it is true. After all, I went to acorn when I was Noah's age, and here I am back at acorn and almost 30, and indeed some of the teachers are still there.

Actually some of the admins had brought out some pictures of my era, and there I was looking like Jonah in the old building. I have to say looking at those pictures, were fun and I do want to post them on facebook, but they were also depressing. Chinatown is a lot nicer now. Don't get me wrong, there are still some old world looking alleys and streets, and those alleys and streets are cool. They are really cool because of the modern buildings surrounding them. However in those old pictures, the only modern building is the hospital and there it is, invading, because it wasn't that friendly toward Chinese patients yet. And then there are all these parking lots and there is just a nasty wasteland like feel to Chinatown in those old pictures. I also can't believe I was alive when people were wearing the stuff that people were wearing in those photos. I think Noah and Jonah will look back at their pictures and see parks playgrounds, lots of green, lots of trees, and even the playgrounds we do go to that are in the poorer neighborhoods still have an aesthetically pleasing look to them.

Positive Media

I noticed that I've been reading and watching rather depressing things for fun recently, Tale of Two Cities, Sherlock, The Given Day, are all interesting and entertaining but involve death and death and more death. As I was reading a children's book by Jon J Muth, b "The Three Questions" I noticed how much better I felt reading that. Does this mean I am only allowed to read novels that are rated G or at the very most PG? What does that leave me? Or maybe I should just take a break from these books and read something self help like by Deepak Chopra or Thich Naht Han. Of course I feel like if those were the only things I ever read I would be depressed out of boredom.
You know high school is a time when a lot of kids have a ton of reasons to be depressed, what with hormones, becoming and adult, issues at home, not being able to date who you want, being bullied, what have you. And I'm not sure reading a bunch of depressing books about other people's problems will necessarily help you. And yet are their any books that are really uplifting that you are forced to red in school? Even the books that have sort of happy endings are overwhelmingly depressing. We shove these things down our kids throats to make them cultured and more interesting and aware of... what? I'm not saying the books shouldn't be read but maybe we should have some happiness shoved down our throat too.
I mean if you read Shakespeare in highschool or Hemmingway, or read about stabbings and fist fights, blowing things up and shooting people. And when they are not doing that they are being promiscuous and drinking. Then we complain that our youth are doing all of these things and we blame Rap music.
If a teen were to behave today as the Illiad or the Oddysey says a man should behave, we usually condemn them to jail or condemn their behavior after they are dead. But in truth they are living out the lives that we uphold and worship through literature. They are being a real man. Or by getting pregnant at an early age they are behaving as many heroines of classic literature seeking love in the romanticized version of it.

Kung Fu Hip Hop

A few of my friends who I used to do dulcimer with now break dance. I never got into break dancing even though when I started Kung Fu there were a lot of peers who were really into break dancing too. Part of my not being into it was I was more clumsy. Part of it was also that I was seeking to get in touch with my Chinese side. My father was Chinese but he had died when I was four. Where as the Asian kids that were into Kung Fu were pretty comfortable with their Chinese and Asian culture. The altars and the language were not something they needed to learn about or remember. So Kung Fu and lion dance was just an activity, like break dancing, but for me it had much more significance than that, like it was the key to my soul or something.
Now that I am teaching a lot of kids though, I have changed a lot of the format. I noticed for kids, and even modern adults, our forms are just too long. I mean there are some older adults from white heritage that have mentioned that they could probably watch me do Kung Fu all day, even the slower forms. But they are older and their eyes probably are searching for something different than the average young adult. For those that have been exposed to Youtube, or even as far back as MTV, traditional forms, like Classical Music, might be too long. They might like that traditional stuff as background music, but only certain people with an acquired taste can listen or pay attention for that long.
So when I started watching a youtube video of my friends break dancing in a "battle" I saw that Kung Fu could be put in a similar format in a kids class. Instead of taking turns doing free style forms the way I have in the kids class (which is already shortened from the full forms that I learned) I could break a class into groups and they could compete against each other, with Kung Fu moves, and you don't risk the kids accidentally poke each other's eyes or something.
As far as tradition, a lot of Kung Fu was performed on the street on small stages with flashy moves. There was a lot of "Mai Mo" or "Selling Movement." My Sifu tried to put himself above this (though he did some of it and we have some origins in it) It's just that he had reached a status in his career in China where his Kung Fu was considered more respectable. If you think about it, Selling Movement is sort of like Selling Out the purer, mystical, essence of your Kung Fu. Which is why Sifu didn't have a problem with doing it to survive. But thought that if you don't have to do it, you should try not to.
However nowadays in America, I think those lines, castes and hierarchy are more blurred. Not that they don't exist, they just exist differently. For instance I'm sure there are people of older age from old money that turn their noses up at Hip Hop. Doesn't make them right though. In fact some of that old money might very well come from trafficking in Drugs and Humans. does make the descendants bad people, but the ancestors were downright scum of the earth.
And in that video I was watching I recognized two of the dancers. One was an MIT grad and a scientist. The other was a doctor. What can be more respectable than those two professions?

As far as selling out, I think of it more as selling something more pallatable to my audience/students to try and get them interested in the other aspects of Kung Fu. In fact my Sifu once mentioned in frustration that in China, it was all about the Sifu. Just like it was all about respecting the parent. But in America, the culture is different, and it's all about the student, or the consumer, and the child, and that it was hard for him to adapt. Well, when in Rome.

Left Handed

Recently I've my patience has been wearing thin with Jonah. And it was only today that I realized the main reason. He is left handed. "WTF i?" is my problem, you may ask. Jonah is 2 now and very demmanding. But so was Noah. Jonah constantly wants to cling to me. But so did Noah. Jonah smacks me in the face constantly, but so did Noah.... except Noah was right handed. And I always held Noah in my right hand (at least after the lighter Jonah was born) and held Jonah with my left. Both he and I have gotten used to the arrangement. So I'll be holding him, looking for where to go, or when to cross the street, or something I need to pick up, like a diaper bag and then "wack wack wack" followed by laughter. I'm getting smacked in  the face and I didn't see it coming. Right handed jabs and left handed haymakers that hit me where I'm more open because I am not used to them coming from that angle. I'm open. My reflexes aren't the same.
Yeah Jonah's going to give me a hard time, and probably it will get worse as he gets older.
I really understood he was left handed when I tried to show him how to hold a bat yesterday and he got mad at me and stood the other way, flipped it around and got into a perfect batting posture, for a lefty.
Well I guess I should take advantage of his left handedness and pick sports where it will be to his benefit.

Ironically, Grandma was just up here yelling at him for using his spoon with his left hand. "Not the left hand, not the left hand." She's old, and I get that the past generations had something against left handed people. Sinister means left handed. But the main reason for that is probably just because lefties that should have been lesser fighters were able to easily drop or kill superior right handed ones, simply because of their being dominant with the hand that most people are weaker with. It's a benefit, to be left handed.
But yeah, it's annoying for my face and trying for my patience.

Chinese Volleyball

I recently read an article on 9-man Volleyball. I actually never realized that the game as it was played in Taishan or Chinatown differed in the rules so much. In other words I didn't realize there wasn't an Olympic 9 man volleyball. As a child going to Red Oak, all the cooler older kids, or TA's played volleyball. The boys and the girls. I always wanted to play. But I guess when you are actually old enough to start doing that is Highschool, and since I went to Groton, a private boarding school, I did not get a chance.
I have a lot of friends that play the game, but most of the stories I heard about Volleyball were actually from my Sifu, who played the game as a young man in Taishan. My Sifu is actually pretty tall for a man from Taishan of that generation. Not the tallest. And today he would probably be considered average to tall in height. But he was not only athletic, he was also a Kung Fu Sifu. He said he could spike the ball hard enough to knock out whoever was giving the team trouble on the other side, that a spike and a cup cuen were not that different, and that there was an internal and external way of doing it. Some time the other team would confront him at the end of the game and challenge him to a fight. That would be unfortunate for them. Sifu said he could have played nationally but his family was considered to have a black mark against it because of the Scholarly background. Scholarly=Bourgeois. Communism. But it wasn't the worst thing that the communists had done to him.
He talked about other players too and their skills. How some were real. But some turned out to be fake.
He talked about a legendary event where a camera was first introduced into the game, and one team was caught cheating by doing a slight of hand move where they pretended the opposing team had blocked the volleyball, by blocking themselves, and then hitting the ball back over to the other side with the advantage of having set it up with his own hand. The action was caught in a photograph.

He also had all these cool Kung Fu names for Volleyball moves and dives, and claimed to be so quick on his feet that he could serve the ball to himself. I didn't really know anything about the game, but is cool to listen to. In fact my only hands on experience of Chinese or Chinatown Volleyball besides hitting the ball back and forth with female teachers at BCNC, was quite embarrassing.
I remember coming back to Chinatown on some weird prep school holiday and meeting up with some friends at the Quincy School Gym. I walked in and they were doing volleyball drills. The Gym was alive with young high school aged adolescents like myself (at the time). I knew most of the guys, and a lot of the girls. Except the last time I had seen the girls they had been classmates in grade school or kindergarten, and now they were short short wearing hotties. When I stepped in everyone kind of looked at me and I red in the face. Not so much because I was white, but because the only clothes I owned at that point were within the Groton School dress code. I didn't have Groton clothes, and Chinatown clothes. I just had my clothes, which meant I was wearing kakhi pants and a collared shirt.
"Hi Adam..." my friend smiled, "What the fuck are you wearing?"
I shrugged.
"Do you want to try some drills? You can. Feel free."
They were doing some sort of spiking drill.
I ran over and jumped up and.. the ball didn't go over the net even though it was thrown to me in a way to make it easy. I did it a few more times and then just stood around talking with friends instead of further embarrassing myself.
Will my kids play Chinese Volleyball? I don't know. I'm not the only person in Chinatown who didn't get into the Volleyball scene, or the Dragon boat scene. The Kung Fu and Lion Dance scene has a lot more, Non Chinese and also a lot more recent immigrant Chinese. At least my school anyway. And I liked that aspect of it. But it was kind of like we were all the fringe of the fringe. People on the outskirts of Chinatown. Americans who didn't speak Chinese, and a lot of Chinese who spoke no English. And then me.
The cool kids seemed to all play volleyball.

Building Blocks

Noah and Jonah have been playing with blocks more recently.. together! Like building things together like good little children. The make a house, other buildings, a railroad track. It's pretty cool. Of course now that I have acknowledged this in writing they have started to fight and not play nicely anymore, breaking each others houses, etc. But I swear yesterday they were actually cooperating. It was nice to see because it was something that ahd never been seen before between the two of the them. It is a rarity that they can even parallel play let alone get together and make something that ends up being better because two minds have been put together to make one thing. Hopefully this will continue.


I also started Noah on a two make weapon form last night. I have made little toy weapons with plastic pipe, broom stick and cardboard. It is big knife (dao doh) against spear. He enjoyed it. At some point he can do it with Jonah but for now it's me and Noah. Jonah can't really hold the spear yet. But me and Jonah do the double sticks with the noodles and I'm introducing the concepts to him.
I tried to resume practice today but Noah wanted to do blocks instead.

The Given Day by:Dennis Lehane

Just finished reading this book. It is amazing how Boston, 100  years ago, (the 19 teens) is both foreign and familiar at the same time. The same conversations about terrorists, bombs, racial tension, except that some of the ethnicities targeted are a little different. This is not academic book. It is a novel, for entertainment, but I found it very educational in the different events it mentions. Not only were things so bad for certain groups in certain areas, but you would be surprised to know how good things were for say blacks in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I was completely ignorant of that.
In school you get the sense that as far as blacks/African Americans were concerned, things were bad before and are better now and will continue to get better as if progress were in a straight, boring line. It never occurs to your gradeschool mind that blacks 100 years ago were thinking, "Now we've finally made it economically and soon we'll be seen as equal, the same as whites." 100 years ago. So what happened?
It never occurs to you that there is reactionary movements too. That some people want the future to go the other way. Of course in high school and college and as an adult you may or may not read serious or seriously toned books and articles that go into more detail and warn that there is more work to be done etc etc.
But it's nice to have all that in an action packed novel, that had people like Babe Ruth show up in there.

I hope Dennis Lehane will write a book that involves Boston's Chinatown. Not just has some a mention of Chinese (usually derogatory because of the time) but actually has Chinese characters. Dennis Lehane isn't Chinese, but he's not black either. (or is he? I guess you never can be sure, I should know that of all people.) Usually the main character is Irish. But there are a few plots and characters from real life that can have a good action packed novel involving Irish and Chinese and crime and the law. It could be about the 70's or the 80's or the 90's. Or he could go further back. I'm sure there is a story there. And I'm sure too that Lehane would make it not only entertaining, but fair. And if he does his research, I'm pretty sure he can paint an accurate picture of Chinatown (from his point of view) but still much more realistic and deep than the Hollywood version that is out there right now. And because he is Lehane, the book will be sell, be made into a movie, and will probably spark more interest in Chinatown.

In The Given Day, the main neighborhood is the North End instead, and the Irish cop living there speaks Italian. There are a lot of similarities between that historical neighborhood and Chinatown, which is also a historical neighborhood of Boston by the way. A lot of people don't realize that the Chinese have been in Boston for quite some time. There are a lot of Chinese families in Boston that are Old American Families with Old American Roots. But Chinese tend to be thought of as a new immigrant group even now. It would be good. A Dennis Lehane Chinatown adventure.

Appetites return at Thompson's Island

Finally today I feel I can eat, and we tried some real food on Jonah and he was fine with it too. His poo is not exactly solid, but it isn't diarrhea any more.
Today Grace' company had a company outing to Thompson's Island. Noah's never been on a boat/ship before so this was very exciting. The boat went past the airport too. So two things he likes on this trip: boats and planes. There were games a jumpy house and food. It was a good thing my appetite did return. But I didn't push it. I probably ate like someone on a diet or something. But it's the first real food I've eaten in days, and I wanted to make sure I could even handle it.
Jonah will try anything so we had to be careful what we showed him. I think he ate a little more ice cream/sherbert than he should have, but he kept it down so I guess it was fine.
We saw other kids preparing to camp out on the island. I had forgotten that they do that. Maybe that's something I can look into when Noah is old enough.

A Jehova's Witness visit

The doorbell rings and I creep away from napping Jonah. I answer the door to a crisp clean dressed black man looking for Mr. Cheung. He looked confused that I (a white man) answered the door.
I smiled, "Yeah that's me."
"Oh... " he smiled back, "no that's okay we get all types. We are reaching out to the Chinese community and I just wanted to leave this pamphlet with you" and then he read the title in mandarin. I recognized three of the six words in there. "Do you read or anyone in your family read Chinese?"
"I actually don't read and I speak the most Chinese of anyone in this household... I think you probably read more Chinese than I do."
He laughed back, "No only a little."
Normally once people selling me stuff at the door leave me off the hook I'm quick to shut the door but I had to know.
"So what organization are you from?"
"Jehova's Witnesses."
The answer was kind of disappointing.
"Did you study in China?" I asked.
"No actually just here..... for the purpose of reaching out to the Chinese Community. People usually respond more to their home language. But I guess if you've been here this is your home language."
We laughed and that was that.
I guess this story wouldn't even be worth noting except that a black man who learned Chinese to sell religion to a Chinese man rings a doorbell to find a white Mr. Cheung answering the door. It almost sounds like the beginning of a joke or something.
Actually I guess I should have asked him if there were free Mandarin classes for Jehova's witnesses or for going to church services.

Starving it out

I had to cancel our little Panda class today. Miraculously I am actually feeling much better. Either from fasting, or finally eating (my first meal being fu yu and rice) or from this cooling herbal tea I took which is actually for detox and I wonder if I would have recovered faster if I had taken it in the first place. Now only if I can get Jonah to drink it too. The doctor's advice was to starve the bacteria out of Jonah, because antibiotics would have a side effect of diarrhea. So it would just be like prolonging the sickness. He is to only eat bread and he can also eat yogurt because it has probiotics.
I realize I had been starving it out too and it seemed to work pretty well. I did eat bread mainly so I could take Tylenol. Recently since I did have the energy to practice, I was doing more meditation. That and just lying there doing nothing under a blanket. Yesterday I did walk to the playground and hung out with an old friend, Alhambra, but I wasn't active.
Usually, when I am healthy, when I do meditation, it is a warm up for Kung Fu. Or while I am meditating I feel like I should be meditating in horse stance or something because my time is limited. I never just really focus on my meditation unless it is after a workout and I am too tired to continue.
I meditated yesterday morning and this morning at around 3am. It felt really good. Like that feeling after being so tired during a kung fu workout, except without the work. Maybe I should focus more on meditation. I mean I've never heard of someone getting a meditation injury. Nor would I have lowered my immune system by tiring myself and exposing myself to allergens and fung.

Sick

Somehow I cam down with a fever last night. I think it has something to do with training really hard in the park, and then instead of coming straight inside, staying out their while I was all sweaty and the wind the breeze blowing into me (feng).
Ironically I pushed the training harder to be healthier and get a cardio base. I was going for the 45 minutes doctors prescribe. So now I ache all over and am pretty much useless.
Maybe I was already sick, I mean the germs were already in my body, but the workout, among flora that I am allergic to pushed me over the edge. That and maybe sitting in a cold courthouse all day. Not sure. I'm pretty sure I had it from Jonah because our symptoms are similar. The only difference is he didn't go and try to push his body all Kung Fu like.
Oh well, positive thoughts, Lying down, Ginger Tea, maybe some meditation..

Jury Duty

Today I was called to Jury duty at Dorchester BMC. I took the 22 from Jackson Square to get there. I hate taking the 22. First of all there is some confusion about where to get on because supposedly it lets passengers off in one location and receives them in another. But if enough people get on where passenger's get off the bus will take off. Plus there are 22's that go where I want to go and 22's going in the other direction. Then when I get on the 22 the route is winding and confusing.
After getting help from three different people I was pointed to the courthouse. Jude was the guy around my age on his way to work who walked me part of the way.
"Not from the neighborhood?" he asked.
"No I'm from JP"
"Oh I grew up in JP,"he said and we talked a little while. He told me a little about Dorchester. How if you're not from here it's confusing to know how to get around. How there's actually some pretty nice parts of Dorchester that's all white people, but they all stay in their own area. Then he started talking about JP. I felt like a kid on my way to school or something with a friend. Because that's the last time I was able to have such an open conversation with someone my age who I didn't know who was black, walking through a ghetto (residential though it may be)
"Actually I didn't grow up in JP though I grew up in Chinatown."
"Chinatown! That's cool. Then you must have a lot of Asian friends. I'm trying to get some Asian friends because I think it's always good to have friends of different cultures."
"Actually I'm half Asian..... I know nobody believes it but yeah."
We talked some more and then parted ways and I headed off to my civic duty.


****
This was first posted on 8/19/13
I posted another post (on the wrong blog) about how this post actually helped me know that I had already served within the past year, so that when I got called up under the wrong name (Adam Cheng) I was able to quickly find when the last date I served was and where. Thank You Blogger!
Anway my post was on my School blog so I just deleted it and I guess this little Footnote is more appropriate than a whole other post.

Quincy August Moon

Whenever I go to Quincy it's kind of like some sort of parallel universe for me. I haven't left Massachusetts, I'm surrounded by Chinese people, and yet instead of recognizing 70% of the faces in the crowd, I only recognize 1%. But yeah I still bumped into some people I know. It was interesting too to see the different personalities of the very similar August Moon Festivals. Quincy had rides and jumpy houses and ponies which was cool. It is also one long street instead for short streets. And I guess more free stuff and cheaper stuff. I realized while I was watching the performances that I wasn't really watching them so much as just being with the crowd. It's fun to be with the crowd, and Noah enjoyed everything that was performed, The pretty costumes, pretty girls, pretty music. Children swinging sticks and breaking boards. Old people singing Chinese opera. I rarely get to just watch, because I'm usually part of the thing and have to prepare or something. They were selling shirts at this one. I almost bought one, but decided not to. I really would have bought the Chinatown shirt though because it had the moon lady on it. I really wanted it. This one had a panda, which is cool, but I don't need it. Anyway back home now.

Dance Party

A friend of mine had a birthday party at his house. I know him through a playgroup that both Jonah and his son attend. It occurred to me that all of my "friends" are actually parents of kind who play with my kids. Either that or they are friends that I hardly ever talk to anymore (except for facebook).
Anyway his basement was tricked out with disco ball and stuff like that. We arrived early and I'm sure more people actually arrived later, but while we were there it was more of a play date. Still cool. Jonah's friend had all these dance moves and break dance moves. Now obviously they were the moves of a three year old, but still you could tell he was trying to do something he had seen before and was comfortable doing it.
Kind of like my kids are very comfortable doing Kung Fu or pretending to do Lion dance and the like.
But Jonah was scared at first, of the loud music (not as loud as a drum I don't think) and the environment (which was just new to him.) But eventually he did try to do some of the moves his friend was doing and it was pretty funny to watch them dancing together (mostly stepping on the lights that reflected off the floor and moved across it as the disco ball and other stuff spun.
Pretty fun.

Gong Gong's visit

The in laws came up yesterday and were treated to a Patriots game with Grace. I stayed home with the children, although Grace's posts to Facebook do not reflect this minor detail. I am not really a sports fan anyway so it's not like I really minded. Instead for some reason I indulged myself by watching more Sherlock. Jonah will watch this show with me. You would think it is too violent but anytime you are about to see something violent, you don't. It's edited that way. Noah however was quite scared of Moriarti yelling.
Okay so that part was sort of scary, but then at the next episode when the song comes on Jonah was like, "I like this song."
Well we went to bed slightly later than usual. Mainly because the kids were so excited and usually Jonah sleeps with mommy. Instead he just kept switching beds/cribs, floor and crawling on me.
This morning I woke up and decided I would go work out. Not just because I had the opportunity. Also because I had to get out of the house. It's not exactly crowded, it's just that I like my space I guess. I think that's why the old Chinese people in China get up so early every morning to practice.
I mean people say it's because of the heat, or because the chi is better in the morning especially under trees. But if you are working out in Tiananmen square or some other Beijing park the Chi sucks real bad all the time.
Maybe it's slightly better in the morning. Maybe.
I think the real reason is they need to get out and be away from family (not people because the park is crowded too) and if you are doing various Kung Fu moves strangers (in China) probably aren't going to start asking you questions. Mid day in America I've noticed people will ask you questions or say something like "WAuuuuuu!!!" is they are passing by. Not in the morning though, and not in JP. There is mostly dog walkers around and other people working out. Plus in JP, where people have tattoos, do yoga, live in communes, and I swear I've seen some people doing witchcraft n the woods, Martial arts is simply not the weirdest or  non-mainstream thing to be seen. In fact I've seen a guy doing his moves and I won't comment on the art itself, but as far as his hairstyle, beard and Samurai pony tail hair, he looks more out of the norm than I do. People still watch me but that doesn't bother me as long as it's from a distance. In some ways there is more peace and quiet in a crowd of strangers than when you are it home with family.

My belly hurts

Jonah kept saying that his belly hurts, but he said it in a cute sing song way that made me think he was just saying it. Now I'm pretty sure his belly actually hurts because his poo is a little diarrhea-ish. I'm pretty sure it has something to do with him putting his hand in the pond we went "fishing" at yesterday. I thought he would be alright because I grabbed him quick and I rinsed his hands off with clean water. But I think maybe he could have put his hands in his mouth or some such thing. We used to go there all the time to throw rocks and he wouldn't stick his hands in there. I guess bravery and adventure has its costs. He seems to be doing fine otherwise though. We'll see how the rest of the day goes.

Fishing

Today Jonah wanted to take out the fishing pole to go fishing. So we did, sort of. I didn't actually attach a hook. We just took the pole to the pond and pretended. It would be so easy and fun and stress free..... in my mind.
Going there I didn't bring the stroller because strollers don't work well in the woods. Then Jonah kept banging the fishing poll into the ground, fences and other things as we walked. Then he didn't want to be held as we crossed the street. Then he took off his hat while we were crossing and threw it on the ground and fell, so I had to scoop him up and sprint across while carrying him. Then he decided he would use the fishing pole as a shovel. Next time we'll pretend fish with a stick and string. and the stick will be from the woods and left in the woods.
Jonah did have fun though and we did end up going to the playground afterward and lounging around there. All in all the day was pretty nice.

RRCherrypie

I have started watching these youtube videos where a pair of hands makes various Japanese things, Candy that looks like other food, or inedible plastic that looks like food, bento boxes, etc. Why am I watching this? The first answer is Grace made me. The second answer is it usually puts Jonah to sleep. But today it didn't. His pseudo nap in the stroller means he was immune. But after a few videos, I couldn't take it and I fell asleep to the calming well edited sounds of plastic being opened and various miniature things being expertly crafted arranged, and played with.
So now the third answer is I have come to like these videos myself. Especially since Jonah seems to talk a lot during them. perhaps because there is no dialogue but a lot of things are presented.
"It's candy! That's a cup! What's that?"
When you think about it, it's kind of like a foreign language text book listing words you need to learn. Maybe RRCherrypie should get into the foreign language business.
 And here's the crazy thing I'm proposing. I think I would like to watch these videos on the big screen.
My reasoning is it will be better. You might not think so, but the other day I watched an Arthur and a Curious George episode on the big screen at the library, and for some reason, it was more awesome. The kids were more into it, talking and laughing, and I enjoyed it too. Would I watch 2 hours of short videos of making bento boxes? Well maybe 1 hour is long enough. But yes I think I would. Especially if the deal was, your kids could talk and also there was some sort of bento box and served and a candy kit given to your child to make at home

Sherlock Holmes

I was watching the newish Sherlock from BBC. The one set in modern times with Watson being an Afghanistan vet. The second episode has "Tongs" and gangster Chinese acrobats dressed up in Chinese Opera gear. One of the masks was clearly a Guan Gong mask (a god I still bow to) but he had a gao wan do and somehow managed to be defeated by skinny Sherlock with a can on spray paint.
It kind of reminded me of of what I would guess a Fu Manchu episode would look like. And of course they are introducing Moriarti slowly and he seems like that Asian, no Oriental, menace that Fu Manchu would be.
Was I offended? I guess I just recognized that the second episode was full of these sort of stereotypes and yet..... it's fun to see these familiar thing son TV in a western series. It's weird to see how it's represented. Chinese gangsters are always dressed a certain way in American and I guess British film and media. But they are dressed a different way if you watch a Hong Kong gangster film. The way Chinese gangsters dress in the west looks kind of how the Taiwan or Japanese gangsters dress in the "Young and Dangerous" series, which when I think about it, is really dated now. And the Mainland Chinese Gangsters in say "The Election" don't dress like anything in particular.
There was a lot of cheesy dramatic English and fear of "them" getting you because once you are "in" you can never leave even if you move to England.
The flip side of that in the Young and Dangerous Movie where Chan Ho Lam travels to Denmark and is shown around by an old Hung Hing member who has put that life behind him. Chan Ho Lam ends up trying to give him some money out of "yee hei" not track him down and kill him for some strange ancient Chinese artifact sold on the black market.
When you think about it, Rush Hour was the same premise.
All that being said, I enjoy the Sherlock series and will continue to watch and enjoy it. And if I was an actor, I would play one of those stereotypical roles immediately.
But with this Sherlock being so much about the Asian Underworld, it makes me wonder what Elementary is like, with Lucy Liu playing Watson. I won't be watching it yet though. Because on Amazon it isn't free yet,

Karate Yes or Karate No

Yesterday a friend of the school who did Karate performed with us on stage, much to the confusion of some of our students who didn't know. I noticed him and was given the okay on him all through eye contact communication. But I'm digressing from my point.
My neighbor did Karate a long time ago and I thought I would invite to perform at other events if he felt like it. Just for fun.
It turns out when he stopped he made a decision to seriously stop and that was it. That to do it again now would be like making fun of an old flame, like cheating on her or mocking her.
As I talked with him more I realized that he still did some things, like stance work and meditation, but that he could not consider that Practicing. I do consider this practicing  (sort of) and in fact that was a period of time when the children were small when that is all I was doing as well.
But I also know that when my Sifu did movements in a circle practicing internal he would consider this exercising for one's health, but not practicing. In fact he would also always say that he hadn't practiced for several decades.  He did not count telling stories, or demonstrating on people, or even hopping in on basics as really practicing.

I noticed that a lot of people who were really good, like bad ass good, kicking people's ass good in a superhuman way, usually stopped practicing in their old age. And the old men that I know who are still quite active Kung Fu wise, always did it more for fun or how do I put this without sounding like a Kung Fu snob. The point is, the level was different.

As for me, I don't think I will stop. My Kung Fu just changed when I had kids. But I know what my neighbor is talking about. And he was the only person who ever actually verbalized such a thing to me. My Sifu or his students that no longer practice did not talk to me about it. Partly because there could be a language barrier, partly because, well maybe it is a difficult thing to talk about.

My neighbor mentioned how he felt that he was living in a parallel world, not in reality. I don't think this was the issue for my Si Hing's. But I do know that they practiced really hard. Harder than I have ever practiced. So if they were to decide to try and practice again, it would not be, slowly moving into it, moving around the way I do. They would associate practice with the way they used to practice. The hard bad ass type of stuff that I have never actually been through.

But I can sympathize with the parallel world thing, and that hard training too. I realized that ever moment in my training I was never completely absorbed in KUng Fu KUng Fu. I was at Boarding School in Groton, then I was in College. Then even when I was living at Moh Goon, I still had a job, and even when I was Kung Fu-ing, I wasn't just practicing. I was teaching kids, treating patients and thinking about the business side of it too. I was never completely isolated on the mountain as it were. But I also had a moment when my Kung Fu had to take a back seat, and my real Kung Fu, the raising of my kids began. I mad my Kung Fu adapt to the situation instead of giving it up completely, which I knew a lot of people thought I would do.
Some people were actually shocked when they heard I wasn't "active" as in working out at the Kung Fu school anymore, Probably because I didn't stop that after my first son was born. But with two... it had to change. My work out space became playgrounds and parks. And "My Time" became classes that I taught with my children in mind. This didn't happen overnight. There was an evolution, of workouts to classes for older kids, to work outs for younger kids, and even younger kids.
And in a way, the way I approach Kung Fu now is perhaps a completely different animal than the Kung Fu I once trained. Or at least a completely different worldview. But instead of a different mountain, it is just a different view of it. It's still Kung Fu.

August Moon 2013

What a lot of fun! We went it for lunch and played at the Acorn playground while Grace got Baos and other things for the kids. Then we ate there at the tables and then it was off to Moh Goon House. I filled up water and we met the team coming out and rolled ourselves straight down to the stage. My two children had full stomachs and already had got their play in, and had their little Kung Fu outfits on. We got up on stage and they played their smaller instruments. Got pictures of that. And we also were interviewed by BNN network. (how do I get a clip of that?) I did my one stick form and then that was that.
Normally we would have went home. Instead, Grace walked around, I walked around, we met up, bought things that are always sold in Chinatown anyway but when it's a festival you can't help but buy what you normally would not. Plus the ability to walk in the middle of the street somehow makes it ten times cooler than normal Chinatowning. Seriously, At the end of the day, that's when Noah wanted to do after everyone left.
I kept bumping into people I knew, But I couldn't really talk because the crowd flow was like a river. Which actually caused a stroller traffic jam once because Noah dropped (omg what is it and where is it! Freak out!) a bottle cap. Grace went and got a foot massage and then it was off to Moh Goon to decompress. It would have been great, Jonah napping, Noah relaxing. Except instead of relaxing Noah kept smacking Jonah as hard as he could and running away. Jonah was so tired he actually went back to sleep until the twentieth or so time finally woke him up. Noah threw around this soft dice that was given away by a guy representing Mohegan Sun. The big die was awesome. The fact that I'm starting my kid on dice ironic. No I won't use it for gambling, we can use it for board games. But when I was younger than Noah, my dad actually did bring me into the gambling house and I grabbed real dice for crap shooting. For Noah it was a Chinese teenager dressed up as a Native American that gave him his first taste of the gambling world. (Can someone Native American please share their opinion on this?)

We actually stayed for our second performance, the one for the Federation. The kids were tired, we had a ton of people, five heads, and I got to play drum and howl the way only a white guy in the crowd would, which made my team members (the ones that don't really know me and are from Wong Keurng not Woo Ching) start laughing. Usually such insane revelry and marching lion dancing has been restricted to New Year's and cold weather. The times I have been able to do such a thing in warm weather I usually had to plan things, stress out, and do lion head or stilts or something or other. This time I was the crazy old drummer guy. It was fun. On stage Jonah cried. Not because the drum was too loud, as some audience members thought he was crying about (including Grace) Only the people by the instruments knew the real reason. He didn't want to play the small cymbals, He wanted to play the big drum. Maybe in a few years Jonah.
We finished the day with dinner at Asian Garden and watching the Shaolin School perform from the window.
Pretty cool!

A Tale of two cities

I found this little children's version of A Tale of two Cities. Even saying that kind of sounds weird. Anyway, it fits in you pocket and there is a picture every page. I thought Noah would like it or at least tolerate it because I noticed that when we read an illustrated version of the Monkey king, Noah only wanted to read the pages that have pictures. Usually I read the book on the train and then Jonah takes it awy from me and pretends to read it. It's not really working so probably I should stop. It's just that the size of the book is so convenient. But It has gotten me interested in the plot. So much so that I borrowed the real book from the library today. Somehow I've managed to live this long without really reading the book and despite countless introductions to the story through TV I managed to remain not all that interested in the book. Not sure why.
But when I was reading the child's version it somehow seemed so relevant to modern day politics. You know, Snowden and that sort of thing. Well off to try and read it.

Jonah the Pooh

Today while getting ready for Jonah's group, like everyday Jonah insisted that he make his peanut butter and nutella sandwich himself. I usually allow him to part of it himself, and often help him along because we have to get out the door. This pisses him off of course. So today I figured, let him do it himself. Noah used to ask to do it himself too. Now he asks me to help him. I did Noah's and then set up Jonah. Then I got the stroller ready and set up outside. When I came back (and I'm not sure why I didn't foresee this) Jonah was in Nutella up to his forearms, digging it out of the jar and putting it in his mouth like Winnie the Pooh with his honey pot.
"Dai dai do that!" said Noah, "Bad! dai dai!"
"Baba it's so sticky!!!." said Jonah smiling through his chocolate face. Oh yeah, it was covering his face and his arms. So I wiped Jonah down. I think he was shaking from the sugar overload and they did say he was "so crazy" in group today. Well, tomorrow I will have to come up with some other solution or put up with the tantrum of not being able to make the sandwiches completely "myself, Myself! I want to do MYSEEEEELFFF!!!"

Revealing the leopard

Yesterday I watched revealing the leopard on Nature. The Leopard strike in Kung Fu is something I always wondered about. Especially since I had to do a bunch of them for the Kung Fu Bus song. The thing about the leopard strike is that the strike also looks like a python. So in Sup Ji (cross) which is also called the five animal form (NG ying cuen) I could never decide whether that strike was more representative of the snake or the leopard, and if there had been some sort of mistake in calling it both. The thing is, a python strikes exactly the way the strike happens and I've never seen leopards fight. Did they strike like that? From what I can tell from the documentary, the answer is no. But when the leopard stalks prey it looks a lot the way you look in terms of body positioning when you are doing the technique. There was also some great night vision footage of the leopard stalking where there was a close up on the leopard's paw. The paw looks the same as the hand does in leopard strike, and when walking the animal froze with that paw hanging there for a very long time, just standing there frozen feet away from the prey that did not see her. (The Leopard in the documentary was a mother.) Of course when she actually kills something, she garbs it and bites the jugular. But even though the function of a leopard strike is more of a punch or jab where using different knuckles than you usually use, you still would say looking at the silhouette of a person doing the technique that it reminds you of a leopard. That is, if you have seen a lot of leopards. You have to remember that the naming of techniques after animals is not so much about the spirit of the animal, or acting like an animal, so much as naming a technique after something to classify it and remember what you are talking about.
That being said, there is also an aspect of animal mimicry in Kung Fu as well.
And after watching the documentary I realized that the snake and the leopard actually have similar fighting personalities. Snakes lie in wait, patiently waiting for an opportune time to strike. Leopards do too. Of course sometimes they charge like a lion. But they are less confrontational than lions or tigers and tend to melt away into the shadows and are seldom seen. Apparently this enable them to live closer to humans. In fact, there are many leopards whose territories include farms, suburbs, and apparently in Nairobi they are right in the city knocking over trash cans at night. But melting away at day, kind of like raccoons I guess.
It turns out that because of this technique, though there are some types of leopards that are critically endangered, on a whole there are a ton of leopards left and they out number all the other big wild cats put together.

20 Minute flurry

Over my "vacation" the house we rented had a bunch of National Geographics and the top one just happened to have an article on Shaolin Temple. I didn't have time to read it, but one of the pictures should young teens at Shaolin Temple doing a "twenty minute flurry to build stamina." This is not the first time I heard of this. My Sifu taught me something similar. But I focused on speed and distance travelled with your feet first and variations second.  I you watch the opening of the HIghlander TV show, you will see a short clip of McCloud (the long black haired one) doing something similar, except he is more or less standing in the same place and therefore doing a bunch of kicks to work the lower body.
When I first became a stay at home dad, I was doing a 20 minute workout. The workout started with  more pushandsy internal moves and built to a Kung Fu sprint and included forms etc. I haven't been doing that and when I started practicing more regularly again I was doing forms in a Yogic like fashion. In New Hampshire I picked up the 20 minute flurry idea again after looking at the picture. I decided to do all my forms, inside the housem while it was raining. This turned out to be a mistake because, not having done them for a while, and not having really warmed up, and not having the space I felt like I had slightly twisted my ankle. Not enough to notice at the time, but something I felt after I stopped. I also did it too much like a Beserker sprint. The next day I decided to do the flurry outside and also to do it free style. That way I had more control over how much I moved , instead of letting the form control what technique was next. This enabled me to adapt to the surroundings better and prevent injury. Also when you get tired, its good to do simpler moves fast instead of following a complicated form pattern. OF course I still used combinations from the form and I was able to do this while my kids played in the playground. SO far I've kept up my little routine. IN fact Yesterday I did the flurry inside and it still worked pretty well. The main thing is I start off with very simple Internal moves and I don't ever speed up exactly to a sprint. Another benefit is if I do this outside, the pows and cups (haymaker like things) actually shoo mosquitoes and other bugs away.
Today I even used the same concept to do a "flurry" with a stick before My little playgroup in the park. This way I will be able to fit in my weapons work as well. I used to do this before too, but I always considered it a sort of snack of a workout instead pf a meal. The only difference now is that it is pretty much all I do. I try to do some Yogic like thing in the morning, with mainly stances, and then eventually it would be nice to do a yogic like thing at night. Eventually I would hope to extend the 20 minutes to 45 minutes so that it would be a substantial cardio workout.

Natural Baptism

I'm still on Diana's Baths in mind, because another thing occurred to me that I forgot to write about. The whole time I wanted to lie back into the water to get that falling Shamanist sensation, and because of my surroundings I thought about a lot of Christian Baptisms of adults that I've seen on TV where they take the person and have them sort of trust fall backward into a river.
Then since I was in the wild I thought about John the Baptist and Jesus. You know I feel like because Christianity is such a major religion with serious die hard practitioners that it makes the discovery of who the people in these books, legends, myths, harder to be reached by the common person. I see all these preachers on TV talking about how they are concerned that they are becoming irrelevant to the younger generation, and yet "The Bible" got major viewership on TV.
What I'm saying is, you can make a comic Book about Thor and Odin, and translate those myths in very accessible language for today's readers, but do that with even the New Testament and you have to be careful how you interpret things and indeed who you are.

Anyway, we don't talk about John the Baptist a lot. A guy a lot like the "wolfman" of Santa's Village, except spiritual. An ascetic, shaman (but Jewish so monothesitic) with visions and eating wild things and clothed in wild things. And Jesus (who also famously spends time a lone in nature and has visions) goes to the river to be Baptized by him. There is a Bible version of this and many film versions of it. Maybe it didn't even happen. But it doesn't seem too far fetched that one Religious leader would seek out and be baptized by another so probably it did happen. That scene, for me seems more spiritual than a church or something more structured.
I guess the same is true for a lot of American Christians too because there were a lot new types of Christianity sprouting up in American woods and deserts or just being more tied to nature and indeed mixing with the Native American Traditions, or Native American traditions mixing with Christian influence. It is easier to think about Christian ideas, ideals and spirituality when you drop most of the Church politics, rules, and strict adherence to scriptures. When you just think about the rituals as customs, and the stories as well, stories, things become easier to swallow and to understand.

Diana's Baths solo

We are home now and it is nice. Before we left New Hampshire though I got an opportunity to visit Diana's baths by myself. The kids fell asleep in the car and Grace dropped me off. It turns out that I was actually within walking distance of the water falls. This means I got to explore more and also see how we would explore in future years as a family. It seemed very exciting and challenging to crawl from rock to rock, but I saw all the ten year old's doing it. I cannot picture Noah  or Jonah as a ten year old and can only think of him and his personality now. So it scares me to think of a tantrum near a cliff's edge. But I guess they grow out of that.
I went under the waterfall again. It took me a while to bear up and do it, even though I see other people go under it like it's nothing. I realized though it's not so much the pressure of the waterfall. It's that it's cold. I guess my tolerance for pain or discomfort is much lower than it was when I was younger. I remember jumping into the New England Ocean much more readily as a child. No it's no way. Why?
I went to other pools and smaller falls. I saw a lot of teens lounging on the rocks in the sun with towels over their faces. I eventually did the same. I've read that in shamanistic trances the shaman will lie down covering the eyes to have darkness and while a drum beat is played. I tried to see if the rhythm of the falling water could be like that beat. Being inside waterfalls also has shamanistic and meditative significance. There are plenty of Kung Fu/Karate scenes of people doing Kung Fu under a water fall. My Si Hing said that the pressure of the falls could act as a weight under your punch. Some scenes show the practitioner with his/her body under the water and the punches not weighted down. But even without the weight, there is a mind numbing sensation of constant cold water crashing down on you. It is very other consciousness. In fact when Monkey King jumps through a waterfall, he not only becomes king, but the whole monkey group suddenly jumps into civilization because they discover an abandoned kingdom.
The author made up the story but the flower curtain reference has Taoist significance (so say the footnotes) but I haven't really studied up on that. I only noticed that from that fantasy novel, all the Taoist "demons" the Monkey comes up against are not part of one religion, rather these animal spirits learn the Tao independently instead of being part of one "Church."
And while I don't know of many animals that actually became humans and started temples and religious movements in real life, Shamanism stresses finding you power animal and that sort of thing and again, many cultures use waterfalls in order to attain an altered consciousness.
Anyway, I tried to soak up as much scenery and Zen like feeling as possible to use from memory in my meditation time at home, where we are now, enjoying Bob the builder.

Story Landed out

Noah had fun yesterday doing the full day at story land. He knew what he wanted. Polar coaster 10 times, loopy lab for hours, and he really wanted to see the princess again and we even did the 20 minute line to the antique cars at the end. Gotta say though, it started wearing on me mentally after a while. Grace couldn't bear it and left with Jonah. I just turned into one of those sitting dad's at the loopy lab instead of the ones playing with the balls and vacuums and various ballistic machines. I think my dreams last night had the background music piped into them. I now realize why you really need to make story land a once a year type of thing. I don't think I could take another day. Noah of course still wanted to go back. The best was that first day we went for only a couple of hours, and then knowing that you have a free pass to come back.
Today it's raining though so I suppose waterfall's are out. Blue berry picking and the local children's museum is the plan.