Kung Fu Dad: Revere Sand Sculptures

It was a nice overcast day for the beach and for the Revere Sand Sculpture festival. We took the car because we figured the clouds would mean less people. We did find a space far from the festival. And although the sculptures were cool, I think my kids had more fun just playing in the sand. In fact if all we had done was play in the sand and then eat a packed lunch, there would not have been any stress involved in our trip.

Walking along the beach that far was difficult. I had to carry both children at the end. But I think part of it was that they wanted to play now, and didn't understand the concept of traveling to see something further along down the beach and further along in the future... even if it was only minutes and feet ahead.

They started collecting a ton of shells and then burying them.

"Just leave them be. You do your Kung Fu or something." Grace told me.

I did not much feel like it but I figured it was indeed a wide open space. Should I do mein Lay jum (similar to Tai Chi) I started to. Getting into the position to start that is. But even though the beach is a nice background for both practicing or even filiming a little Tai Chi video, I wasn't feeling it. There were still people passing by and I was still watching my kids.

"Maybe I'll just do my external forms slow." I said to Grace, as if she would know what the hell I was talking about. She nodded, also, as if she knew what I was talking about. But in retrospect that sort of terminology means nothing to her.

I did Luk Lik, slow as if I was doing Mein Lay jum/Tai Chi. I've been working on this thing, where I breathe lower, almost from the hips. Really "hei wun dan tian." But again I aim lower to get it to the dan tian level.
Recently I had been erupting in shaking creating a powerful strike but I noticed when I breathed more from dan tian and tried to focus on the strike coming from the ground, slowly, that it all evened out. Sum ping hei wau and all that.

So I worked on that, and that was nice. And then I took some simple dan been stance hammer fist type techniques out from the second form and just did a hundred strikes while prancing up and down the beach, sprinting in a side stance sort of gallop. Its cool to free style with really simple combinations sometimes, and get a work out of it. Doesn't take much though, and is physically less difficult in terms of flexibilty and well, chances of hurting yourself.

Well there was push and pull and somehow we made it to the sculptures. Like I said, at the end I carried them both. Holding Dai Dai and shouldering Noah. We passed by these old men playing what looked to be baseball except with their hands and a hand ball. Because of theis, the baseball diamond was really small. The wives were sitting in their lawn chairs goddipping as the old men played. A lot of people were watching./ Noah was fascinated. Actually it's pretty cool. I will play this with the kids sometime. I mean you could theoretically play indoors. But since it was old men, it gave a sense of dignity and legitimacy to what they were doing. It is a great way for Noah to learn the basics of baseball. (I know that much about that game. And then for further information I will have to pass Noah off to someone else more interested in sports. Though in all likelihood Noah will simply create his own version of the game and we will follow his rules.

We passed some children and THEIR sand sculptures which Noah liked. And then we got to the professional ones. Large Castles, tributes to Iwo Jima and military service, and eyeball cut in half with the nerves stringing them together (1st place) Large nude female bodies coming together in one head, mermaids, fish, sea explorers. All fascinating. We looked, and then we sat down and had a picnic in the sand.

A band was playing "Against the Wind" and I was really feeling the music and feeling extremely white. Which was funny because I was surrounded by Asian people who also seemed to be really enjoying the music. Jonah started to pass out, and then leaving was difficult and stressful, but we did it. All in all a nice outing.