Thursday 24 September 2015

There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self - Ernest Hemingway

That's a lovely title...and while being an intense statement, it lends itself to the classroom really well.

I remember when I was trying to adapt to the WSL system, or even learning the LMK system before that...my frustrations at failing at seemingly simple concepts would have me apologising and holding too high an expectation of what I could achieve.
Understandably, I'd spent my entire life being the centre of my attention. All of my endeavors have ultimately been selfish, such as beginning my journey through Wing Chun. And so when my profuse apologies were negligently brushed off by the people I was learning from...well, I was offended.
These days I understand that its purely an issue of my ego asserting itself, but back then I merely found it an irritation. Why couldn't I just do <insert technique> like everyone else? There must be something wrong with me!

Well, it turns out there actually Was something wrong with me, but the process of learning WC was helping me fix what was wrong. I administer myself every day while trying to avoid the pitfalls of depression. I try to avoid saying that I suffer from it as a) I don't have it as powerfully as others I know, or have known; and b) to my ear it sounds weak. It sounds like I'm associating myself with a victim mentality. This may have been true of me once upon of time, but WC has been an effective tool in the healing process...which is a life-long commitment.

Firstly, WC gave me a look at something fantastic that I'd never seen before.
I'd attended Tae Kwon Do classes when I was 6 or so, then later in life I briefly tried Karate, Aikido, Capoeria, Yang Tai Chi Chuan, Kickboxing and since WC I've even tried my hand at boxing.
What WC showed me is a system unlike the movies.
It talked to me with a voice assuring me of how physics worked, and how WC was so powerful because of it.
These days I understand that the person teaching me at the time didn't have any understanding of Physics, and misunderstood many important concepts. But that doesn't matter. What I lost in misunderstanding, I gained back from physical strength.
The result is something I'd been yearning after for so long. Confidence.

When I walked into a room I owned it. (You see how the ego continued to be present?)
I'd compare myself to this guy, or that, and congratulate myself for learning WC. I'd enter into arguments (in person) about which was better...WC, or BJJ.
What...a...clown-shoe I was.

Comparing two martial arts is like comparing Ice with Glass. Sure they look similar, you can see through them both to some degree...you can make them both shatter if dropped on the ground...and both are a liquid at higher temperatures. But their purposes, their application, and their contexts are different.
The same can be said for the different arts, and for the people who learn them.
As such, one shouldn't place their peers on a pedestal to worship. It's fine to emulate them if you see them doing something particularly well, and its fine to think that, "I'd like to be as good as her/him one day." As humans we've spent a lifetime learning from other people, however I've heard individuals say that they'd like to be better than so-and-so. Why? What's the point?
While Ernest Hemingway was talking about individual nobility (not being a titled person), he also had a vast pool of language to sample from...so for folk less verbose, I believe it's telling us that we are the only ones who can truly drive our own development. We're not babes in swaddling. We are Homo sapien and we've evolved as a group, but been driven individually. It is when you compare yourself to your former self that you get a clearer idea of your place in this cosmos. Have you changed? NO. Then you are fated to make the same decisions, and mistakes, as you always have. Have you changed? YES. Then every day will be, for you, exciting and new.

Evolution is about change. Ving Tsun has evolved, just as we have evolved, and thus both will continue to evolve.

Anyways, this post could just waffle on and on...