Kung Fu and Music Teacher

Well now that I am leaving, the two preschools where I teach Kung Fu are looking for someone to come in to replace me. This is actually more difficult than you would think because most Kung Fu People I know have regular jobs, and those that do not, may not want to teach pre schoolers.

On another note, the middle school where I teach Lion dance is looking for a part time music teacher, preferably someone who can teach a three part choir.

Know anyone?

The Rat swimming in my subconscious

We are getting ready to move which fro whatever reason I have no interest in writing about. I will only mention that I have begun to question everything and everything is on the table.

Instead I will write about more mundane things.

Walking around a pond I happened to notice a rat at the edge of the water. It sensed I was there and dove under the water, but the water being clear.. i could see it swimming.

It swam quite well, which I knew about in theory and from footage on the internet, but I had never seen it with my own eyes. It swam our and out and then swam back to the edge. I wondered if it swam well enough to catch and eat fish. It was simultaneously disgusting and fascinating.

I thought about the rat as symbol... and a bunch of different rat notions went through my head. (Ratatouilee pops to mind now but not at that moment)

I just thought about how rats are pretty strong and resilient when you think about it, but though they are part of the Chinese Zodiac there is no Rat Kung Fu. In fact that would be seen as kind of stupid.. but why? I mean I might do white crane.. but I get a lot more opportunities to observe rats in their wild habitat and frankly they are largely out competing cranes.

Side Note: I have considered making Kung Fu that is more accessible to Americans (including Jook Sings) by just going with the Chinese Zodiac for Kung Fu animals instead of the 10 major Shaolin animals.  After all, every American Chinese restaurant will give out some calendar for free or some place mat with the zodiac. There is also the "Spring Roll" Punch. Chuen kuen (or penetrating punch) was often mispronounced by the ABC kids (whioe parents did restaurant work or even owned restaurants) as Chuen Guen, or spring roll. Now it might not sound very powerful but the straight punch does kind of remind you of a spring roll. I may have to run with this at one point with Restaurant super powers and all that.


But back to rats.


I heard that some of the gangs in Northern China used the Wu Shu or dark rat (or mouse) as a symbol. When I heard this I thought it was so lame. But come to think of it, rats get things done right?

There is also this Chinese cartoon that was allowed to play for about 10 minutes when I went to Red Oak summer camp before the counselors shut it off for good reason. 10 minutes was all it took. It was about some police cat. And the criminals were mice. (So like the opposite of mouse, the hero was the law and the cat)

It was so China of the 80's. This police cat showed up to a crime scene (this is a children's cartoon mind you) and of course didn't read rights (there are none) he just goes "Don't move" And proceeds to shoot a bunch of unarmed rats dead. Some of them push their comrades in front of the bullets to show the young children that there is no honor among thieves.

But it was just interesting because all of this was not only acceptable, but commendable. Like "Good job Police cat!"

Anyway... even though the rats were bad guys there and cowardly, it still shows that they are a force to be reckoned with. And of course there is master splinter.

Don;t get me wrong. I don;t want rats near me. They freak me out. In my childhood a couple of them jumped on me running into our section 8 apartments closet. and another one died in this plant right next to where I was playing.

But it's not like Tigers and Dragons are preferable to rats. And jut like that Buddhist New Years story goes with the rat being increased to three times the size during the parade of the animals, I mean if a rat was the same size as a tiger.. which one would win? Hard to say right?

Well enough of rats. I will try to write in this blog more often if only to practice writing.

Kung Fu Jesus

So we are packing up and getting ready fro a big move to another state, in doing so Grace found a miniature Christ the Redeemer which a friend had bought for us and then not given to us but hidden because the small statue had broken in transport. Grace fixed the little pocket redeemer easily enough. But I later found Noah playing with it like an action figure. I explained that this might be considered disrespectful and Noah said, "So I don;t believe in him"

Well I wasn't upset as some might be but I was also a little weirded out using the statue like that. I complained that it might be damaged, but he said it's stone why would it be damaged.

"It;s more like an adult statue."

"Then why is it so small?"

He then had Jesus throwing been ngau kuens and started singing, "Kung Fu Jesus>' In a very carefree way.

And then I thought, "How could it be that I haven't written that book yet?"

I mean I thoiught of writing KUng Fu AND Jesus... and even thought of writing a Kung Fu gospel.. but actually Kung Fu Jesus would be so much cooler.

He started singing Kung Fu Jesus like Kung Fu panda (which if you watch Kung Fu Panda up to part 3 there is a ton of correlation there as Po actually dies and then is resurrected through the Chi of the panda village (or as they say in the Catholic language... faith... in fact in some Churches, this camp I went too, everyone did the whole chi hadn thing to bless someone exactly like they did in Kung Fu Panda 3, and never in all my expereince Kung Fu ing did we all do that in some sort of ritual ever. Just saying.)

Trying new stuff

I was working out with a friend who was showing me some Silat... what I realized (again) is that anytime I try something new... even though it is hard to necessarily learn an entirely new system, especially in a day.. it will broaden your perspective about whatever you know. Whether you are doing Yoga or even a new sport or game for a day or just switching something up.

Yesterday teaching at Nativity I used the Magic Rocks game which I adapted from a birthday party I went too and the "Monkey King" game I already. This game was for young children, and I told this to the 4th graders and they were like "We don't Care!" They liked it better than the "serious" basics.

I realize that this could potentially have the same effect on adults.

For Silat... I just started looking at a lot of the techniques I already know in a new light. And honestly it might even be the WAY that my friend does Silat and what he focuses on vs what other people might focus on. Like he likes to focus on a form of light sparring and we had a discussion about what he likes to do and problems that you run into sparring with the most normal looking people who end up being extremely aggressive. I thought of how children can actually play for hours "fighting"

And that although forms appeal to some people... maybe I shouldn't be so rigid about people learning them.

Then again I get very upset when Noah can't even remember his forms. Going forward... would I just allow him to completely drop them? Because I know he likes to practice... moves, and fighting.. and to follow along doing forms... but not to be forced to do them on his own all the time...

I don't know I struggle with this question all the time.

For Jonah it is very difficult for him to learn forms... but I have a feeling once he learns them he won't forget them.

Or maybe I should just leave forms for certain people who like them.