The Fighting arts/ Are martial artists crazy?

Grace bought me a Martial Arts book (the Fighting Arts) while on a business trip. When I was learning Kung Fu as a student I wasn't interested in really reading books like that, though I might page through one out of boredom. But this one seemed pretty cool because it had a wide range of Eastern Martial Arts. From India, China, Japan, Philippines... you get the idea. It's also kind of old so while I was paging through I noticed some predictions about Chinese Kung Fu and how that and the Lion Dance would go downhill over time and even if the interest in the arts went up and enrollments at schools in the mainland went up because.. well whatever. It's just interesting because you can see where the author was right or wrong. Certain traditions have changed, with some things being cast aside. But a new form of Lion Dance and Martial Arts as a sport is certainly popular now... and the mass interest in those sports are making more people start to look at the traditional arts that those sports came from. Is it too late to rebuild? Who knows... who cares really?

I was paging through this book this morning, reading something about Marman, and Indian martial art, and then glancing ahead at Kung Fu when I said, "People who do Martial Arts are crazy."
"That's you." said Grace.
"Not like this."
"Yes. Sometimes you writ eon your blog all these crazy things like, 'I discovered the DRAGON,'" she said while getting into a stance with both fists up, "or 'I had a dream about the... DRAGON!!!' Do you want me to point out a few places (in your blog) to you?"

Anyway, what I had been reading was this Indian Master who said you should never tell anyone that you practice Marman. I said this out loud to Grace as an exanple and she said. "I do Marman. There I said it. What are you going to do about it."
"The reason they give is that if someone knows you do Marman, they will attack you from behind, but if they don't know that they are more likely to attack you from the front and you are more likely to be able to escape." The Master also gave all these examples of how you should only use half hand strikes instead of full hand (i.e. short instead of long... like White Crane) because full hand strikes can kill them easily and you only want to hit enough to escape. But to look around for other people because even your half hand strikes might kill and you don't want witnesses."

I've heard stuff like this in Kung Fu movies and from other martial artists I know.

I thought about these statements. Some thoughts I had were, "I guess if he lives in the hood in India he might have to think like that but this type of thinking doesn't really apply to me where I live right now. Plus I already announced I do Kung Fu on the internet so it's too late anyway."

Then I thought, while looking at a picture which might have been of him, "Nobody's attacking that guy from the front anyway just based on his size. Heck, I am of average to below average height and that and also my face means that I doubt many people will attack me from the front even if they have no idea I do Kung Fu. In fact, once a guy at a train station sort of thought about mugging me I think. I had trained until I was really tired (don't do that) and anyway, he circled me I circled him, we chatted about the weather but both of us I think were thinking about a right hook. And then he said, "Wow you're really bad ass." and some other stuff and then walked away. Sounds like a joke but it happened. That guy was much bigger than me and didn't know I do Kung Fu.

Then I thought about all the real fighters, the famous fighters that can think of. And the greatest Fighters really are people like Ghandi, Martin Luther King and that girl who the Taliban shot, Malala. Let's talk about her.
I'm pretty sure she doesn't do any martial arts. But that doesn't matter. She is one young and probably short, girl. The Taliban did not attack her "from the front" they shot her right? You can't get any more forceful than that. Then she survived. What made her a fighter is that first of all, she dared to go to school, and then now, she is going to go back and continue the fight for the right for young women to be educated. That's fighting. And it wouldn't really matter in her fight, whether or not she did moves in the air or on a bag or not. Well it might help thereaputically or with the healing process but you get my point.

Reading ahead to the Chinese Masters complaining about Lion Dance and Kung Fu and all this.... I mean I know what they are saying, I can see a difference between what my Sifu taught me and what I see on youtube of people doing, even in China, and I wish that there were more people that did what my Sifu taught me and did so seriously, just for the sake his traditions being carried on. But to think about loss of secret knowledge all the time, or plan for whether people are going to attack you all the time... or to not tell anyone you do Kung Fu and then be sad that not as many people do Traditional Kung Fu anymore (okay so I'm mixing statements from the book but I have seen a general trend of these two ideas being put together in my life) seems crazy. Especially when the most famous fighters, the ones that have international recognition, the people that fight a system, a government, or oppression, often do so without necessarily throwing a punch or even practicing punch throwing. I think Kung Fu and martial art are important. I practice everyday. But I wonder if practicing by yourself too much, or only being around people who are practicing like you, only being around other grown men day in and day out talking for hours about this technique or that stance (okay I've done that) is crazy.

On that note, this blog post has taken up too much of my time already. Time to play with Jonah.