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THE
PASSAGE OF TIME
Here
today, gone tomorrow.
Over the past 26
years I have taught karate to a seemingly endless number
of students.
Many of them
trained for only a few weeks, or a few months before they
decided that karate was not for them. While still others
have remained along side of me for more than a decade,
convinced to this day that they will never stop training.
Few, however,
and this is the sad truth, ever last as long as they
think they will.
The dojo it
seems with it's four walls, roof, and a floor to train
on, has one other feature that all dojo's could really do
without.
A revolving door.
The question is
why?
Karate after all
is one of the very few physical activities of any kind,
that allows the practitioner to actively continue
participating well in to their eighties or nineties.
The answer is I
suppose in the long run, is a very simple one.
With the passage
of time, people change.
Their interests
change.
Their lives
change.
Their priorities
change.
Let me give you
an example.
Do you remember
that really hard working young boy you always use to see
at adult class, you know the one I mean. He started
karate around the age of eight, progressed well over the
years, and finally obtained a coveted black belt. You
remember him now don't you.
Well today he is
sixteen. High school sports, a new drivers licence, a
girl friend, and even a part time job, now all vie for
the limited number of hours in his day, and as a result
he seldom comes to class any more.
So like any good
instructor, his Sensei called the boy's home and spoke
with the boy's father.
"Karate, oh
yes my son is still very interested in karate, in fact he
plans to come back and start training again just as soon
as the summer holiday's are over". "Don't you
worry, my son loves karate, he will never quit".
Famous last
words, and yes, you guessed it. Johnny, or Billy, or
whatever his name was, never did go back to the dojo.
Instead, he like
far to many others before him, became a casualty of the
passage of time. Another reminder that what interests us,
and what we are passionate about today, does not
necessarily last a life time.
Yet you would
think that in a world where we come up against negative
behaviour, and lousy attitudes virtually everyday, that
with all of the positive true benefits that karate has to
offer, instead of abandoning karate students would hang
on with both hands even tighter than ever before.
So what is the
solution?
I wish I knew.
If you ever
figure it out please be sure and let me know.
In the meantime
I think I for one will stand a bit closer to that
revolving door, perhaps in doing so I can catch one or
two of those who are starting to feel the power of it's
vortex.
Remember:
You
never truly know what you have got till it's gone.
Part
the clouds - see the way.
"The
objective of karate-do is to contribute to the evolution
of
the human spirit through physical and mental training."
Sensei
Peter Lindsay
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