The Magic dress

I slowly woke up this morning pondering religion and Kung Fu. I've been tying these things, specifically the Catholic ideas and Lion Dance into my new novel and was day dreaming about starting a lion dance group at St. James, which may or may not happen. Anyway, in my imagination I thought about what would happen if people of different religions decided to join the team, specifically this other Sifu, Uncle Gai. I don't know why he popped into my mind, but he was ostracized unfairly from an organization (and then let back in later) in sort of a microcosmic way that some early members of the Church were excommunicated you know back when the Roman Empire still existed. Why did this pop into my head? I don't know. But I imagined explaining my Faith (which is probably different from the Catholic Church's platform but  there is more variation I think than people let on.) Anyway I running through a martial arts, religious argument in my head.

"Do any of you have any proof that any God or gods or Buddhas or angels exist in the way we pray to them? Real proof. Scientific proof. The answer is no. In fact that  is why faith is important. If it was just proof then it would be science and not religion. So to bring in people to your religion you don't have to prove that you know the TRUTH or that yours is the best religion. You just have to show that your religion is as good as the other, and that since you know us and hang out with us, you might as well be part of our community."

And then I ran through some criticisms I had in my mind of Christianity, even though I now consider myself to be Christian.

"Let's look at it from a martial arts perspective. Here is a White Crane punch. The basic one where we train to turn our waist and not our stance. Here's a Choi lei fut punch where you turn the stance. Here is a Hung Gar stance where the waist and the stance do not move and the arm is not fully extended. Here is a Wing Chun stance where the hips turns but the punch is short. If you are a student of any of these systems you might think that your way is the best way. But you don't have to. You could agree that there are other ways that may or may not be better but you are simply practicing your system because that is what you were raised in and that is what you are familiar with. You can have friends of other systems and visit other schools, but ultimately if you are a Wing Chun Sifu, even if you take up another system it doesn't necessarily mean you convert if you are part of a long lineage and tradition. But to say that only your punch works and no other punch is even valid or possible is ridiculous."

Well I woke up out of this horrible day dream because who day dreams about nonsense like this? And I saw Grace holding her phone. She held up a picture of a dress and asked me what color it was.

"Blue and green."

"What!?"

"Well okay I guess the green is a darkish brownish color what would you call it?"

The story of the dress is already widespread. At first I thought it was some sort of trick where a program created a different image to be seen by different people, but Grace and I were looking at the same screen and she said it was blue and black. Not just a little black, but straight black.

There are a ton of explanations, some scientific, some probably not so much. But here is the thing. I was upset at the way Grace said, "No it's..." I wouldn't say it like that. I see it this way, if you see it a different way okay. Maybe it's because of that Buddhist story of the elephant that I always think about. Maybe it's because I'm mixed race. But I have no problem with seeing it one way and immediately acknowledging that there is another way to see it, even if that's not how I see it. The fact that people got angry and in a huff about it is so telling of human nature.

A pile of Hong Baos

Noah woke up early this morning and just went downstairs. After a while I was curious as to what exactly he was doing because he usually calls for me or Grace. I came downstairs to in a pile of red envelopes playing by himself. We have two special stuffed animals, one a rabbit, to represent Jonah, and one ox to represent Noah. They were flying over the treasure of red envelopes. I laughed and Noah laughed when he saw he had been caught playing in his own world.
"I just came down to play!" Noah said excitedly.

Actually as I right this I realize that a pile of Hong Baos, as some sort of treasure is a cool idea. I will have to put that somehow into the book I am writing which is a fantastical representation of Lion Dance, borrowing heavily from non-Chinese myths, but in a Chinese American worldview. I.e. you can tell the fantasy world sprouted from my head as opposed to say J.K. Rowling's or Tolkein's imagination.

Creepy Snowman

Noah has really been enjoying these giant snow banks. He makes me follow him into the yard to "go on a journey." I considered building an igloo with him out of the giant block of ice that we hired someone to hack off of the roof. But we settled for a giant snowman with eyes made out of one piece of a yellow envelope that happened to be nearby. When you look out the bathroom window it looks like he is staring up at you. I thought it would be cute and funny but actually it's kind of creepy. In retrospect, it's probably bad Feng Shui. I should have made the snow man facing outward to protect the house. But I built the guy for fun and I figured we should have some interaction with him from inside the house.

Cardinal O'Malley's Chinese New Year Sermon

Today was St. James' Chinese New Year celebration. It was not as crowded at last year. Not even by half. When Grace heard that it was Cardinal O'Malley who had spoken she said, "Not the famous guy. Him? He's a big deal. There should have been more people this year." But snow vs. famous speaker only if you know Catholic Politics or I guess you could say God vs. Church. Well nature and God win.

He mentioned in his sermon that one of the ways to get people to be Catholic would be to behave in a way that would make people say, "If that's what being Catholic is about then I want to be Catholic too."

Well, I was there at St. James for that reason. Because the people I knew from that church behaved in a way that I wanted to emulate and I wanted my children to emulate. But that also meant that when I heard he was coming to speak, the name rang a bell but I didn't much care. But I am glad I decided to listen to his sermon because I did enjoy it.

Mostly he started listing comparisons between Chinese New Year and Catholic traditions and focusing on the Zodiac and animal symbolism in Catholicism. I'm not sure if most people cared for or understood this subject, but as it happens, I as a Half Chinese kid that went to Nativity Prep, did this sort of thing in my head during class, all the time. So thanks.

I even learned something. The Cain and Abel story was brought up because a ram was sacrificed by Abel and Cain gave fruit as a sacrifice. (Interestingly spilling blood on Chinese New Year is a no no, but all the Ram/Lamb reference were pretty gruesome and indeed since a lot of Christianity is about Jesus' sacrifice, like blood spilling as an offering, well Christianity is pretty bloody and gruesome too.

 He could have went with just talking about the color red over your door, and how that was done in Exodus with blood but Chinese just use red paper, but blood is too important in Catholicism.

Anyway, I learned that one interpretation of the Cain and Abel story was that some people wanted to "have faith in God to provide for them" and be nomads. as opposed to farmers. That was Abel. And then others like Cain, wanted to be like the Pagans and build cities and farm. By this interpretation, the most Godly were the nomadic Native Americans of the plains like the Lakota Sioux who worshiped the Great Spirit and followed the Buffalo. And the missionaries who Christianized them were making them more like Cain and less like Abel. In the story God accepted Abel's sacrifice and rejected Cain's. Cain then goes ahead and murders Abel, who is is brother. Hmmm that happen with us and the Native Americans too. Anwyay, I had never heard that interpretation of the story, and I also thought it was an interesting interpretation coming from a Catholic priest or any group that built things (like churches) and lived in cities.

Mot of the rest of the sermon focused on Lent and he told the joke about the priest and the mugger who gave up chocolate for lent but was in the process of mugging the priest.
Not sure if his sermon was really appropriate for the mostly Chinese audience.
But I liked the little tidbits of scriptural knowledge, even if it turns out to be Catholic exegesis. But that's because I'm a story interpretation geek.

Happy Chinese New Year Cardinal O'Malley!

Watching Peggy Sue Got Married

This movie by Francis Ford Coppola was on after we got back from Grace's Lion dancing, the feast that followed and other errands where the kids fell asleep n the car. and it entranced me as the kids just zoned out on a device. It was so strange. A similar plot is made into a movie about every 5 years by Disney, but Coppola's version had you on edge the whole time like you are watching a horror movie, and yet, the horror never comes. In fact the scary part is the whole idea that you can live your life differently and make drastic changes to your destiny, and yet, unlike the Back to the Future series there is no dystopian future. It's almost like an adult Wizard of OZ too. I couldn't stop watching it. And ultimately, it helps you to realize how important your children are. That you wouldn't change your children for other children. At least I wouldn't. Not for being president of the United States or Emperor of the Galaxy. Grace mentioned that he did this movie after the godfather so people were kind of like, "What the hell?" and Coppola was like, "I just wanted to make a cute movie okay." But all the cinematography is real Hitchcock like. Well maybe not, but it was all creepy even though all the scenes were heart warming and there is no monster jumping out.
There doesn't seem to be much discussion about it on Wikipedia. It's treated like any other 80's movie, but I had never heard of it. Another weird thing is Jim Carey is in it. Anyway, it's worth checking out. Better than the Godfather III for sure. Not exactly the Godfather but imagine a cute 80's movie but with strangely philosophical and disturbing themes lurking in the background of an otherwise quaint little "return to high school" type plot. For real check it out.

Hey your Lion Dance didn't work! We have Ice Dams!

I saw pictures of friends posting their accomplishments cleaning their roofs of and breaking their ice dams and I am beginning to feel pretty useless in this respect. I mean normal Dads are taking care of their houses why can't Kung Fu Dad? The answer is either those dads are abnormally useful or that Kung Fu Dad is abnormally useless. I won't say I am useless, but the truth is a mixture of both. I am afraid to go on the roof, I lack the ladder and I don't know how. I know my friends just did it. But I am beginning to see why people who can just do it don't take to Kung Fu. Because if they got into a fight that would just win... without training. They would just get it done. It is the cautious afraid type that is more drawn to training and dedicating one's life to various exercises with no pay off, in fact often paying.

Our downstairs neighbor upon luckily finding a guy to do the roof, who is probably around my age and very courageous looking and simply goes up, ties himself to the chimney and gets it done said to me, "Hey it's Chinese New Year, aren't you supposed to be blessing our house? It didn't work! We have ice dams now!"
Not only that but the heater is also leaking so a plumber must be called.

I suppose if I was earning a living I wouldn't mind as much, but actually Grace is the one who earns the living so what is it exactly that I am doing?

I am beginning to see that it was time I learned a trade. I could have should have would have done it earlier. And to tell the truth I can't even start NOW. Before I go off doing something full time or even part time, Jonah needs to be in school. But when he is, I have to learn something, and get into being the stereotypical American Dad who hangs out at the hardware store and can DO things. Maybe I should ask these roof guys if they will accept apprentices or interns, or whatever I would be called to start over at the beginning of usefulness on my journey to mastering a craft other than punching and kicking the air.

Chinese American New Year

Success! In a crazy and interesting way. I was getting ready to head out when the door bell rang . Yay!! People actually came. It was Noah's friend L and his  Mom R and also the younger sibling N was in Jonah's playgroup. The mother in the family is Japanese and she told me some of the traditions for New Year's there. R said that actually they even celebrated Chinese and Japanese New Year depending on which sect of Buddhism you followed, and they also gave out lucky money and had lion dance. This was pretty cool to hear about since a lot of the people from Japan I met through college and high school hadn't been exposed to this side of the culture. But I suppose the same is true of people I met through school who were from Hong Kong or Shanghai.
Anyway, I don't know how we would have done the parade without her help. She ended up taking the Lead Role of the person who leads the Lion head because otherwise how could I play drum while I carried Jonah and how would Noah know where to go?
We did a full on lion dance for our house and the neighbors who were pretty impressed with Noah's "Dramatic pausing" which comes from the big bow. It is one of the reasons why I taught him the big bow instead of the small bow. In a way the small bow is more economical and makes more sense. But as a beginner, bowing is about the only thing you know how to do, so it might as well be a long ritualized event in and of itself. However, but the third house, we were down to the small bow.

We navigated snow banks higher than me let alone Noah (who is 5) and at one point the Lion head and L got in the sled that R brought along and I carried Jonah. I continued to play my toy drum and honestly I was actually getting tired. Maybe this wasn't 5 hours long, but it was still hard. Maybe we stayed within a couple of blocks of our house. But this really felt like an adventure!

The third house was was in Noah's classmate K and the younger sibling B was in Jonah's playgroup. Jonah snuck into her house and just started playing with toys. I almost left him there. The tail was tucked into Noah's sash. And at some point, Jonah wore the head while on my shoulders and I played the drum. Going against tradition, there were times when I just had to stop playing the drum because what could I do.

We went into the house and I made Noah back out just like he would have to on Chinese New Year and here is the best part of this whole adventure for us. The drums weren't as loud and there were no firecrackers, but in a lot of ways, for the people doing it, it was just like the Parade in Chinatown where we were going up and down flights of stairs. In other words, Noah is being trained for that event now, in a smaller scale event than that he can actually handle.

The last house, was another of Noah's classmates M who also happened to be in my Lion Dance and Kung Fu class. He played cymbals and followed the beat pretty well. I think the dance seemed short to them but Noah was wiped out, as was I to tell the truth.  R passed out Chinese New Year Popcorn to each family! This is such an ingenius idea. It was homemade popcorn in a paper bag with the words New Year written in Kanji (which is basically Chinese) on red construction paper. The kids loved it and of course avoided the Chinese New Year candy at all cost. Chinese New Year popcorn may have to become a thing at our house even though R had just made it up. If you think about it, the idea of a Chinese New Year goodie bag with something like homemade popcorn is so American and so JP and at the same time more cultural than the candy that kids don't like and are manufactured elsewhere. I'm telling you, Chinese New Year popcorn could catch on as a thing, like Halloween candy. (after all it was bread and water that was left out for Samain)
Chinese New Year really has potential as a mainstream American holiday. The only house we visited today that was remotely Chinese was our own. But everyone thought it was cool that we stopped by, Why not?
I definitely couldn't have done this without R's help though. So before I get a real drum, what I really need is a real team. Of course I am part of a real team in Chinatown. But for a real team for this house to house thing I need a real local team.

A lot of people seem to privately own real heads and drums and equipment. If you do you should totally go door to door in the neighborhood you live in too. In Boston Chinatown businesses often complain about too many teams. The truth is that you can grow the audience by bringing this holiday to non-Chinese households. Of course you won't get any cash up front in red envelopes. But if you already have the equipment who cares? You will form bonds and connections while celebrating this holiday. Maybe you can pass out New Year's popcorn.
I'm pretty excited for the potential for next year.

Anyway, Noah went with R and L to go sledding while I dropped off equipment with Jonah and picked up our sled. The kids tore into the Chinese New Year Popcorn and we had a fun time sledding. After ward, R and L came over to our house since it was on the way to theirs and it was snowing pretty heavily. The kids played and ate lunch and drank hot chocolate. At some point crankiness started to set in. But it reminded me a lot of what we will do in Chinatown on March 1st, except on a smaller scale. On the Facebook Group, Chinese Lion Dancers, there are videos Lion Dance in Hawaii the weekend before Chinese New Year. Maybe I will do that next year and hopefully recruit more people to help. At least Grace right? We could even do the big head. And we really should get a real drum. Anyway, I have a whole year to think about it.

New Year's morning.

I ended up staying up all night lat night. Not because it is the tradition but because the kids fell asleep and when Grace got home we watched suits and then hung out. But it happens to be the tradition too. This morning Jonah ran down stairs crying. "Gung Hei Faht Choi!" I said handing him a red envelope.
"Gung hei Faht Choi!" he screamed back crying like it was a swear or something and ran from the red envelope like it would hurt him. Great.

He eventually came around though two seconds later.

Noah knew what this was about sort of, but asked why the 100 dollar bill was so small.
"Umm because it is real." He is used to the play money. Noah somehow felt that something was wrong. Why was he getting real money? It almost made him nervous.

Actually when he first woke up and I said "Gung hei faht choi" his response was, "Why are you saying things?"

Because it's Chinese New Year.

"But it doesn't feel like Chinese New Year."

I suppose you are right Noah.

I tried to give them Chinese New Year candy but the container was pretty difficult to open. We'll try again for lunch, and then I'll give out some New Year's present because Noah' right, currency has no real meaning to them. In fact the big money that is fake is of more use to them.

Well I guess I have to use the internet to put something Chinese New Year like on. But then, the kids are happy watching sprout right now. I have to go shovel and then prepare for my little homemade parade.

Sun tai geen hong!!! Sun tai geen Hong!!!!!

New Year's Eve

Well maybe we should have done our Tuen leen fahn on the weekend after all. Due to the state of the T Grace has been coming home rather late. I encourage her to just stay out and make the best of the situation. Enjoy yourself, etc.
Tomorrow me and the boys will go and do our lion dance for a few houses. Our house, a neighbor, and a friend. I'm going to use the cardboard head that I painted instead of the more "authentic" looking one because I don't want that one to get wet from the snow. The drum is going to be one of the toy drums and toy cymbals and gongs (though I may not have anyone to actually play those.

But it's mainly the idea. Basically it's all I got in terms of some sort of ritual or celebration. So I might as well do it.

I'm actually more nervous about this little adventure than the actual parade in Chinatown. I mean, I don't know if I will actually succeed, or if someone will call the police on me. That's another reason why even though it is kind of lame that I have a toy drum, it is also sort of safer.

But one day I hope to do this thing on my block with the real heads and a real drum. It can be a small drum, but you know, bam, a real drum. I actually have a real head so that isn't really the issue is it? But a real head and a fake drum.. that just won't match, so might as well have a fake head too.

Wong Fei Hung Marathon

I thought Noah and I might watch all the Once Upon a time in China movies this week. But it turns out Noah just wants to watch the lion dance fights. I used to wish that these movies were more realistic. But now I realize that Wong Fei Hung happened to exist, but the movies have made him into a Paul Bunyan Cultural hero where you can use the events to preach certain ideas. Mainly the movies from the 90's with Jet Li are Hong Kong ideals that Chinese People should be modern, support foreign investment, continue to hold on to their traditions but not superstitions, make the country strong, and be Christian. This last one is easier to see when you look at actual history versus the movies.

Most of the frothing at the mouth bad guys in the movies are Buddhist. But the biggest frothing at the mouth rebellion at real Wong Fei Hung's time was the Tai Ping. Supposedly he was a medic for the black flag militia which fought some battles for them too.

But in the movies, Wong Fei Hung is like an invincible god who preaches and hits people with crosses or cross like objects.

The world he is in is so far away from the modern world that it' more like a fairy land or Camelot even though it's not actually that ong ago. That's because there was so much change from his time to 1990's Hong Kong.

Now it seems like 1990's Hong Kong is a world away from today's Hong Kong and China. But this fantasy world Wong Fei Hung is in that never happened willed with lion heads... well that's not that different from Noah's house.

A really good shovel.

My Block is my village, my household my little patch of land I govern with my shovel.
My shovel, my spear, my weapon. Honestly I've never felt more in control of something. At least I have something to do. I can shovel. Even when it looks impossible, because the snow is light I know I can have a path cleared  within minutes. My overzealous helpfulness is sometimes met with suspicion and out right rejection. Whatever. The sidewalks are clear. I take out my frustrations on the snow that must be cleared. And then, after coming to terms with that rejection, I just started digging tunnels and building forts. Perhaps my body has just gotten used to shoveling and now I can't stop. I have developed techniques where I can thrust snow high and farther than I ever could have last year while simultaneously switching the shovel from a left handed grip to a right handed grip or vice versa mid air.  It would have been much cheaper if I had taken up this activity instead of Kung Fu as my hobby. Like that guy Seamus Heaney wrote a poem about. At the very least, my hobby would have actually made me some money instead of costing me money.

I love this weather. I love working up a sweat. Let's all by live in yerts and bow snowshoes. Let's start knapping beer bottle bottom shards to sticks and hunt rats. I don't care, just show me how.

I feel like I can do anything.

Maybe I'm insane.

Maybe I just have a really good shovel.

Video of Noah's Performance

This captures Jonah taking the orange from the dish. I think I should put in here that Noah had already eaten the "orange" and that someone had put it back into the dish. So actually Jonah was correct in taking the orange away at this point.

Chicken Sacrifice and a holiday visitor

Yesterday I was in Line to get fried chicken wings at Chinatown Cafe. Chicken wings and a rose. That was Grace's wish. You may say that is not very romantic. But what you want is better than something expensive that you don't want.

Anyway, everyone in line was buying whole chickens and the words "bai sun" which means bowing to the gods was thrown around. Basically the chicken would be a sacrifice, and then it would be eaten by the family directly afterward. Chinese are very practical.

But what Holiday was it? Chinese New year is next Thursday. The only thing I could get from Facebook (and not asking anyone in line because I didn't put this all together until I was walking home) was that people were probably just doing the Chinese New year's dinner now since they wouldn't have time later.

Hey Jews don't change their holiday dinners to fit in with the work schedule do they? Maybe Chinese are too practical. Actually what would really be practical would be a Chinese Holiday App. I know there is actually some sot of Holiday every month. And most of it just means you eat.

But I wasn't sure if this was  some other pre-new year holiday I was supposed to do sacrifice a chicken or if everyone was just doing stuff early despite having to wait in the snow. Not that I have an altar in the house.

This morning I woke up to see a child standing up on our bed. I thought it was Noah, but things were out of focus. I moved my foot to gently kick where Noah's legs would be. But they weren't there. I had a moment of panic as I put my hand down and felt Noah's body. The other child, which looked a lot like Noah was looking at Noah. I wanted to go back to sleep but I was sort of afraid for Noah somehow. The part where the child's head was shifted and then faded away until it was actually jut the light on the ceiling.

This reminded me of a time when I was a child and I woke up to see a bunch of Chinese kids sitting on my bed eating rice happily until they faded away before my eyes. They weren't trying to hurt me, but it still freaked me out.

This little visit from doppleganger imaginary Noah made me wonder if I had somehow missed an important holiday and some child ancestor was looking for the chicken he was supposed to get.

But hey we can just get a chicken on Wednesday right? Or maybe today we'll set up a little pretend altar and do a pretend chicken just to ease my mind and give the kids something to do.

Noah Performs for his Class

Today Noah's class did a common Valentines and Chinese New Year's and Tet celebration. Another family did some explanation of Tet and Chinese New Year and Lai Si (every kid got one with a dollar) and then explained the traditional Ao dai (pronounced Ao yai)
Then I did the Lion Dance story and Noah performed his little dance. Jonah did not hold the tail, instead Noah's friend did. The only thing I didn't like about it was the drum I played did seem loud enough. It was loud enough at home but failed to fill the space of the classroom. It was just so exciting to see my son perform and to drum for him. But I need to get a real drum or at least a louder drum.

I didn't get video but hopefully the teacher got some pictures and hopefully the other family too.

I was going to bring the Big Lion head but then realized now that Noah can actually do a real lion dance, who needs me to do it? I mean maybe the bigger head would have been a little more exciting but it might have also been scary.

The next thing up for Noah in terms of performing is our little parade we will do on our block. Maybe Jonah will start practicing so that he can participate now that he saw that it can result in a performance.

Jonah was pretty excited about being in school. I think he will do well next year.

Yoga Fu

I was working on this idea for a while. The name Yga Fu, seems to simple and silly, but Grace started calling it that and I haven't thought up a better one. Basically it is Kung Fu adapted to a map, and instead of doing a form, you try to fit in all the stretchy stuff even if it doesn't make martial sense.
It started off with two separate manuals. There was one that was Tibetan Yoga Kung Fu, that might have a pirate theme, and the other one was lion dance themed. I stopped working on it because the pictures were harder to do than I thought, and I realized that the origin story would have to come out of theis other novel I was working on Aravel, which is like Lord of the Rings meets Lion Dance. So I've been working on THAT book only. But I have been practicing my Yoga Fu to develop it further and to master it.

The basic thing it started from was this.

A Kung Fued up Sun Salutation. Like a Sun Salutation but with Gung and the Warrior one stuff done just like how it's done in Tian Gong Kuen.

Then 100 Chuen kuens or straight punches.

Sun Salutation, 100 Pows, Sun salutation, 100 cups, Sun Salutation 100 been ngaus (back fists and hooks), Sun Salutation, Punches with leg lifts, Sun Salutation 100 Walking punches backward and forward staying within the confines of the mat.

That worked with Noah a few times but then he got bored. Actually looking at it now, it looks like a lot. Even in it's basic form. But say, if you ever studied Woo Ching White Crane at our school even for a summer, you could look up Sun Salutation and some version of this. Actually I guess you would still need some instruction in the variation of Sun Salutation.

Dam it that was the simple version? Well I've made it even more complicated since then adding in strikes to the Sun Sequence. And then there is also a moon sequence which incorporates back bends. It still simple though because anyone can do these moves or some variation of them.

Then I went ahead and added my 10 animals from wheels on the bus, but made it more free style. Basically it's become something great for me, but I'm not sure it would be easy to follow anymore. Someone certainly couldn't see it once and then memorize it and work on it at home. It's not like the 5 Tibetan rites. Which is sort of what I was aiming at in terms of simplicity.

Giant Icicles

I didn't really want to knock down the giant icicles. They were pretty. But our downstairs neighbor and Grace thought they may cause damage to the house. Okay I thought so too. In truth, we have a couple of leaks but they are not anywhere near where the icicles are.
Another part of me really did want to knock the icicles down, because I knew it would be fun, but I thought Noah might get angry.
"Why did you do that!" I imagined him saying.
"I want you to use that Samurai sword to cut them and I will video it." Grace said.
I thought that was unnecessary but if it was for entertainment purposes.... okay.
Some part of the icicle, like normal icicles, just felt after being touched. But some really did indeed require the sword. In fact, the cheap sword, a manufactured replica of Tom Cruises sword in The Last Samurai, sold at one of those mall antique shops I would go into except that Grace wanted to priced at either $15 or $25, (so how can I not buy it even though it is utterly useless to me) well, it bent. Not only did it bend the weak way where you would think cheap metal would bend, but it bent where it should have been strong too. And by the way I did not swing hard. Well I didn't want the sword to snap off and fall below or somehow cut me (I could care less that it is broken like I said it is of no use to me) so I got a stick. In retrospect I should have used the ice chipper. But I didn't realize this until I had knocked all the icicles down by spearing them with the stick (if they were thick) or touch or whacking them (if they were small or simply not at a good angle for me to spear.
Stick form techniques came in good use. In fact, a lot of those techniques were pretty useful for shoveling too.
Here's what I've learned.
For usefulness: tools like you get at home depot. Those are better for shoveling, hitting and even fighting if you ever had to.

For Look or decoration: Cardboard or paper mache on a stick. You can make any sort of fantastical weapon or even animal head on a stick and even perform Kung Fu with it as long as it doesn't have to hit another stick.

Anyway, Noah squealed in delight as I hacked at the icicles. We got a video. Grace's choice of background music accompanying me gingerly touching the icicles with a sword made us laugh pretty hard watching it.

An Imagination Problem

NPR did a story yesterday about Policing in America. I've written about this before so I'm just going to summarize my thoughts.

Is it a race problem? 

Of course it's a race problem but frankly that' not going away for a really long time. With all the protests and even other stuff, that's not going to help much sorry. The being organized part, that will help. Too bad Malcom X was killed. He could have actually solved this problem now. 

Is it a police problem? 

The thing is because there are a lot of "good" cops, even victims, even black victims of police brutality still want to say, (at least on the radio) that they trust police. Part of the reason is that if you take away police completely something will fill that power vacuum. It will be gangs who are even worse than police. It will be lynch mobs who are even worse than police.  So in that sense, no it is not a police problem it a police power problem. No matter how good of a person you are, power will corrupt you. 

The power problem. 

If you beat someone and people support you, you will continue to beat people. If you cavity search them and you believe you are helping them, you will continue to do this. If you kill and you get away with it and told you were right, you will continue to do it. You're very moral compass will be warped and tainted to the point where you can watch the same video everyone else watches and see something completely different.

The brainwash problem

There are plenty of white people who agree there is a problem. But why do so many people (probably there are some older black people too) who support the police whenever these things happen. Let's not talk about Eric Garner. Let's talk about Henry Louis Gates Jr. Why do so many black people, after hearing the whole story turn on the professor, saying he should have never acted in the way he did, even though he was in his own house and old and a professor with a cane? Why did they turn on him when any old man who is tired and feeble has the right by law to say whatever he wants on his own property?

The reason why there was protest over death but not over simply being arrested (especially arresting a professor) was because now everyone realizes they can die. 

But the reason why nobody rallied for Henry Louis Gates was this, to rally for Henry Louis Gates would mean everyone, even whites, would have to admit that they aren't free in America. Even people who haven't had any problem with police, haven't had a problem because they are lucky. It is completely within the power of the person pulling you over. If Master is a good master like Benedict Cumberbatch in 12 years a slave, then you are lucky. But we change the story in our mind to say, "If  you comply like a good citizen then the Master will be a good master like Cumberbatch. It is only people who are bad boys and girls who have these experiences with a bad master."

Or

It's not that I hate Masters, it's just some individual masters take it too far.

Even in the language of the good cops on NPR you can hear a problem. They ask members of the community if anything is going on and tell them to please call in so they can do something about stuff that happens in the Community, even if it's just drunks yelling. Having called the police many times for a many number of things as a teacher and someone who ran a martial arts school, what I learned was the best and most Moral Cop, Jesus in the form of a cop, cannot help the situation. The only thing he can do is catch a murderer after he murders. Catch a thief AFTER he steals. 

The problem is people don't realize that what police are actually for what they should be for, is to work for the community. Members of the community should be able to go up and question police and see if THEY are doing there job. If not, then we are all under occupation. But to accept that is difficult, especially for a white man who follows the rules. How can he accept, that he, who might have even memorized the declaration of Independence and believes in the meta-narrative of the history of the United States, that even HE, the older white man, is not really free.

And even more so, 

How can a GOOD cop, who also believes in this meta-narrative, who became a cop to end the tyranny of murderers and gangs accept that ultimately, his real job is actually to keep the people down. How can he accept that he doesn't really work for the people in his position, he works for the Law, which is not made by the people in reality, but by the highest lobby. The cop sees himself and herself as the Savior, the Hero. Con can he or she accept that it may be the system and the position that they hold, that feeds them that makes them defacto, a dog keeping sheep in line. Yes they protect from the wolves, but also they keep the sheep from going and becoming men. They makes sure the sheep are used (perhaps not always killed) but used. And Sheep that look rebellious or look like they are transforming are killed. 

A good cop can never accept this. So they change the story. They didn't kill a sheep, they killed a wolf in sheep's clothing. It isn't the other cops fault, there must have been some other factor. As long as everyone follows the rules, things are as they should be. This is better than actually looking at the reality that things are not as they should be, that even they, the good dog, is being lied to by Master. That they are not even really part of the family and one day, like Old Yeller, they can be taken out to the barn and shot.

The system itself is a problem. We always explain this away by pointing at a third word country run by gangsters. But as Americans, we were founded to do better. We were founded to change the system even when we ourselves are hypocrites. We are supposed to have ingenuity. We can figure something out. If not steal ideas from those other developed countries that are actually working.

We can have the imagination to create a better society than the one we live in instead of leaving it up to THEM. Because even if you don't vote, THEM is us.  

Why we match

Grace had wanted to watch Jupiter Rising for her combined birthday and valentines present. However this will not happen because we don't have a baby sitter. I was listening to review of this movie, which I only sort of wanted to see because Sean Bean is in it and basically it sounded like it would be much like the Matrix,lot of special effects but plot and dialogue that falls apart. I fell asleep watching the Matrix for a class in college and actually wrote a whole paper about why it was recycled and boring.
 "Who cares if it doesn't make sense it will have good special effects." Grace said. And I said, "Wow you really are the guy in this relationship." My point is, she works I stay at home. Okay. But also in terms of which things to watch, I like Downton Abbey, where as she wants to see the movie for the special effects.

I'm not saying she is a guy and I am a girl in all aspects. I'm really not very feminine at all in my appearance or demeanor. And of course I don't want to watch all these reality say yes to the dress stuff that she likes. But I just thought that in this instance, of what we are looking for in a movie, that it might be why we match. I mean if she was dating some other guy and they like the same movie just for the special effects, that could be cool at first and it would be cool as teenagers I guess. But after a while that would be weird. I mean how can you really be with someone that likes all the things that you like? That would be annoying. You would fight over stuff. You would be competitors instead of species that have a symbiotic relationship

To end,
Grace is the most beautiful woman most suited to be my partner and I am the luckiest man ever to walk the earth to have her as the mother of my children not just in the big things, but also in the little things.

To Grace.

Owning your rituals

I was recently commenting on a Lion Dance discussion panel on Facebook regarding the touching of the lion's horn. I threw in my two sense, that though impractical there wasn't anything against it. But then there were others of a tradition who were strongly against it. Though we never touch the horn, it was never seen as something as stepping over the tail. But the discussion made me go back into my mind to remember a story of the opening I shared.

My Si Hing was going over different ways you can open with the lion. One is to kick the head over yourself. and one was actually to grab the head by the horn and through it over yourself. My Si Hing had seen this done by old school people while still in China. And now I recall that my Sifu actually did mention not to touch the horn. The reason why I didn't first remember it was because he didn't make a big deal out of it. He didn't start yelling like, "Hey! don't touch the horn!"

It was more softly like, "When you perform don't touch the horn. Some people don't like it," Not we don't like it, "they say that the horn was put back on by Kuan Yin and they think that's what the ribbons signify." The red ribbons that are not only on the lion, but also on altars and the Tiger fork and are bought in the supermarket.

Now let me point something out. My Sifu does not speak English. and even in China he was considered the epitome of Traditionalism. A throw back, A counter revolutionary. In fact he had to pay for his traditionalist thinking.

That being said, at least part of him, when it came to lion dance, was somewhat open minded. For instance, his daughter was watching woman's team perform a dragon dance and saw them step over the dragon in their routine. Something which is now common in China.
"Who wants to see a woman straddle a dragon on New Year's" his daughter cried out.

But later, my Sifu mentioned that before in his village that was unheard of. But here in this environment and even in China, people's mentality are different and would not consider it a bad thing. And that the rules are dictated by the majority of people's beliefs. In fact many times, when we followed all these rules, he always said that we would just make sure we followed them, but not thrust them onto others.

In any case the story of Kuan Yin re-attaching the horn, is to be respected depending on your audience, and since it is an easy rule to follow (don't touch the horn) it might as well be followed. But not because you have to, more just to make people who you are performing for happy. But if it makes you unhappy to follow a rule, then of course you should just do what you want After all you are the one performing.

A Box of books

It was an amazing feeling to get the Books that I ordered. To see finally in my hands what had started as an idea. To write a book titled "Kung Fu and Love." In fact the idea was an off the cuff one. My friend said, "You're a Sifu. You know Kung Fu. But I don't care about Kung Fu so how is this going to relate to my life? You should write a book about Kung Fu and" he gestured to the stove, " and then gestured to the air, "Kung Fu and Love."

Needless to say I picked Kung Fu and Love first. But I do indeed plan on writing Kung Fu and Cooking as well. But I have some other projects I'm working on first. Now the only question is, How do I sell the books that I have? In my mind, these books were something that I could sell at the end of a lion dance presentation. Not like at a wedding or a store opening. But you know, the type of Lion Dance and King Fu demonstrations that are more workshops. The educational sort. The sort that is more talking and some drumming and Kung Fu and Lion Dance and teaching. But mostly talking.

My Si Hing would like it. I mean while the performers rest gasping for air preparing to do the Kung Fu aspect of the performance, what better time to do a reading from my book? I mean usually I tell the story of the Nian and the Lion and all that. But Now I could just read. It kind of gives you an extra scholarly feel to your Sifu-ness you know what I mean?

But now the more I think about it, the book I wrote, might not be a good match for that type of scene. I mean, my book is not a kids book, so I can't read it for elementary schools. Well I could read parts of it, but how could I sell it? So now I should probably contact Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center, and the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association (probably after the Chinese New Year scramble) and see if I can't set up some sort of book signing thing there and see where I can go from there. I heard mention of a book store "East Meets West" and I should probably check that out too. But honestly one of the most exciting things I plan to do, is sign one book and give it to my Si Hing, hopefully to put up by the schools sign. There are a couple of ancient looking texts up there right now, with titles in Chinese. One of them is the 9 yin manual and the other the flower manual. These are actually fictional titles from Kung Fu novels and whoever takes the bate and actually looks inside the book will find that they are blank. My Si Hing has a sense of humor. But it would be cool to have my book up there. Like a trophy you know? Anyway, visitors could actually have something to read.

Well Check out my book on Amazon. Kung Fu and Love. I'm trying to sell it on Kindle too but I guess they are reviewing it for that.

Also if you read my blog and have any ideas on how I should sell this please comment. And also, by my book! It will make a great Valentines gift! And if you read it and like it please tell people about it!

A Fool's Injury

One one of the Snow days I decided to try and get Noah to do a Kung Fu Class with me. Not the regular Yoga Fu we've been doing within the confines of a mat, but a performance style one. Noah was not interested at all. So as I began to try out fdiiferent moves and then do some of my old kicks that were jumpy and spinny and show boaty, I tried one i was not as familiar with as I felt my body warming up.
Bam!
My foot hit the corner of Noah's Thomas the Train play set, a table where you can lay down track and train that has been covered with other sorts of toyr for a while now. Well I didn't break my foot, but it was that sort of hit where your toe goes numb and you aren't sure. It was bad enough that my foot was bleeding slightly even though I didn't hit anything that was actually sharp.

The endorphins or stress hormones that went through my body while I wiggled my toes while Noah looked at what looked pretty gross to a kid pulsed in a way that made me feel... alive.

Well it still hurts but it wasn't broken. But it very easily could have been. And even If I had practiced outside in this way I could have pulled something. I think this is a sign that I should stick to my Yoga Fu when inside. I.e. stay within the confines of the small mat.

And then when I do begin to practice outside in warmed whether, still keep my movements within the familiar of what I have been doing recently, and not what I may have done years ago.

I'm not saying I should never to jump kicks or even learn new exciting athletic things. But just not now. Instead, anything I try to do that requires athleticism, stretching, jumping, spinning, should be done slowly first. And after all, the fact that I can still do the routine that is on the mat that I was doing before even with the hurt foot, shows that is really the direction I should take my training for now.

I realize I was thinking about performing, in a space in the future and was working towards that, experimenting. But really when I practice, I should just focus on here and now and what I can do here and now.

Marketing Kung Fu and Love

Well I guess writing my book was the easiest part. The hard part will be marketing it or selling it. I thought I put it on Kindle Direct Print, which markets the book by giving it away for free on Kindle for a certain amount of time. But I guess there is a reviewing process for all that.
I bought a few copies and will try to sell them myself, to neighbors relatives and friends. Actually some have already said they will by the book online. (Some have already bought it. )
But the exciting part about selling the book was always in some sort of Book tour. I figure I can do some sort of Lion Dance workshop of some sort and then sell my book afterward. But now that I have the book I am trying to think of an appropriate place to do this. My class in the park wouldn't really make sense. Neither would a Lion Dance class at Noah's after school. Even if the book were for children, it is the parents who must by the book. But also, the book isn't really for children.

I guess I really should do some sort of event specifically for the Book. Grace suggested going through the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association and perhaps Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Association, as well as the Public Library. Once I get the book sin the mail I guess I will do that.

In my mind, I was thinking of Universities, and High schools. But then College kids don't really want to buy books for fun like that.  Maybe just like writing the book, if I get out there and start doing this, some ideas will come to me.

Actually if you are reading my blog and happen to have ideas and instructions on ways I can sell my book, I would be grateful for your advice.