Tag: dojo community

Belts, Imagination and Kumite

Wednesday September 2nd, 2020

Last week we celebrated four birthdays (my nephew, my sister-in-law, my husband D and me), and we saw Sensei in the park last Saturday morning. He spoke words of encouragement to all of us, and handed out belts and certificates.

We arrived home to a pancake breakfast prepared by my nephew from Northern California. It was also D’s birthday, so we got take out from our favorite restaurant, shared it with D’s brother’s family and the grandparents. Afterwards, we watched Zodiac. D had worked with Aaron, the son of Robert Graysmith, who authored the original book. It was disturbing, mainly because it is a true story, but a good movie.

On Sunday, we peformed those chores neglected while entertaining out-of-town guests and celebrating birthdays. On Monday, we were off running.

I want to share my entry from Saturday.

Ceremony of Belt Awards

Today is D’s birthday. He slept in. The kids and I rose at 7 am. We were at the Figure 8 park by 8:30 am. T, TF, B, Sensei AJ and our Sensei were all there, as well as many of the kids. Sensei brought a large box, filled with certificates and belts. With help from T and B, he arranged them in a row on the green. His certificates this time were issued by the California Budoshinkai Association, the new style he is in the process of creating. We are still an IFK affiliate.

It was an emotional experience, seeing so many friends and my own children receiving their belts. Certainly I felt emotional upon receiving my own belt. Obviously this ceremony was not the one I imagined a year ago. Kyokushin, however, is about seeking absolute truth, or absolute reality–this is our preferred translation in our dojo community. Buddhism teaches us to let go of illusion, including and especially self-delusion. Wisdom will bring us to recognize beauty in that reality, when we can strip away enough self-delusion to see it.

Imagination versus Reality

Before the pandemic, I imagined a ten-person kumite match: most of the folks whipping my tail would be good friends from the dojo. I imagined it within the dojo building that Sensei no longer rents, along with board or brick breaking to demonstrate our skills, along with a party afterwards. But the reality is we gathered in the morning, outdoors, in a neighborhood park, under blooming crepe myrtle trees, standing on grass, surrounded by our greater Burbank community. Sensei announced that two persons from our dojo have been diagnosed with Covid-19. I hope they are coping okay and not seriously ill.

Many of us gathered there in the park, distanced but well, dressed in street clothes instead of gis. Despite the pandemic and the many woes inflicted upon our group that might have pulled us apart, we were there together, at least, those of us who could be there. Some others do join us over Zoom that were not at liberty to come to a park. One pair of children were allowed to come only briefly to receive their belts, and had to leave right away. Three members of their family are immunocompromised, so these children, understandably, kept their contact brief.

We are fortunate to be together, mostly over Zoom but sometimes in the park, like this gathering. We are fortunate to not have lost anyone in our little dojo community to this disease at this time. Granted, preserving our community through this crisis took a lot of work.

Kumite

This was our real fight: our kumite match was against a plague that would pull us apart with fear, illness and financial troubles, all against a backdrop of political unrest and dissension. Though we’ve received our belts and certificates, this particular kumite match is far from over. We have to support each other in the face of this plague, build harmony from discord, and hold our little community, along with Burbank, California, the United States and the free world and finally, the whole world, together. We are a world community of humans, with more binding us together than separating us. Also, all living things in this world are interdependent upon keeping our environment, and each other, in good health. We’ve made it this far.

Sensei saw fit to honor many of us with belts and certificates for our hard work. He also gave high honors to T and AJ by asking our dojo community to address them now as “Sensei,” or Teacher. They well deserve this honor.

Performing Breaks

Yesterday, in our own back yard, F, S and I broke up chunks of concrete and rocks with shuto hands. So we did our breaks before receiving our belts. That evening, S and I showed his young cousin the rocks and chunks of concrete that we’d broken. He was actually more impressed by the concrete breaks, since the rocks looked more “breakable” to him. S and I found a thinner piece of concrete and demonstrated how to break it on the patio. S’s young cousin listened carefully, and, using the technique we demonstrated for him, he broke it!

Sensei had told us that receiving a black belt is about teaching, sharing what you know. I was so excited to see my ten year old nephew present the fragments of his shattered hunk of concrete to his own father with pride. His was a clean, straight break.

The Loss of Chadwick Boseman

Our family was saddened to read about the death of Chadwick Boseman. Sometimes we fight hard and do not win. Not winning the battle, or even the war, does not make you less of a warrior. On screen, Chadwick fought super-villains. In real life, he had more formidable foes: racism, on top of the usual demons faced by artists and other creatives, and finally, cancer. He deserves his own black belt for tenacity and his drive to share his gifts with the world.

If you have not watched his speech to the Screen Actors’ Guild, it is well worth your time.

This is another kumite match we, as a society, need to take on and defeat: racism, including systemic racism and unconscious bias.  Exacerbating these situations is the problem of poverty, another formidable foe, but one we can defeat, if we have the will.

Monday June 15th, 2020

I have not updated this site for a few days. I did do push-ups, sit-ups and squats last Thursday and Friday. Friday evening, we had karate, as well as Saturday morning. Sensei had hoped to have a beach work-out, with appropriate social distancing, but the beaches are not yet open for group activities. He had to cancel it and hold class over Zoom.

The kids, husband and I did go to the beach Saturday afternoon. We tried Will Rogers State Park Beach, but the lot was full and we were unable to stop. We drove on to Point Dume. The kids swam. D and I were cold. A strong, chill breeze kept our ears sore. I wore a towel over my head and pinched the towel closed under my chin to protect my ears.

Once the kids finished swimming, we hiked along the trail. On the way back, we saw seals! Not many, but we could see a cluster on the rocks, close to the shore, from one of the look-out areas.

On Sunday, we had our dojo community planning meeting and managed to agree on a letter to send out. We need to run the letter by Sensei for edits.

I have been keeping the paper journal every day, though finding time to update this site is sometimes challenging. So since this should be the Monday entry, I’ll jump to Monday.

I did push-ups, sit-ups and squats this morning. Sensei posted a black belt training work-out for those of us testing on his Facebook site. He’s suggesting one hundred push-ups, sit-ups and squats. This week, I am still doing ninety. I’ll be at one hundred pretty soon. I do these exercises twice daily, on week days, and presumably, Sensei’s workout is for a day. Hopefully I’m good. This morning I could only do about seventy push-ups on my toes. That’s fifty “tricep-style” on the ground, and twenty “chest” ones on the mat, before I have to go to my knees. I know I’m allowed to do them on my knees, but it makes me feel “less than,” if I cannot do the requirement on my toes.

Senpai H, who tested last year, told me that we only have to do sixty for the black belt test if we do them on our knuckles. I do do them on my knuckles. Sensei likes to mix it up, however. The last time I discussed exercises with him, he’d suggested reaching the point where I could do sixty on my knuckles on the ground. Given we may not be able to do a ten man kumite round, however, or if I end up simply fighting my two children for ten rounds, he will have to make other parts of the Shodan test more difficult, in order to make up for the lack in that area.

He also recommended jump rope intervals for cardio this week, so I did that today instead of jogging. Also included: drilling Sanchin back to back with Tensho, so I practiced those as well. I was rusty on Tensho, but watching a video of Bobby Lowe helped bring it back.

I wrote outside this morning, and, while writing, the squirrels were all over the place. They are in the lemon tree now. I’d never seen them there before. Normally they like the loquat tree.

Sunday June 7th, 2020

Organizing people is difficult, exhausting work. Who knew? We had a major conflict last week. One committee met, ostensibly, to plan the Zoom teaching schedule for next month. Instead, they talked about curriculum, even though several people on the call were not black belts. At least two black belts on the call felt their rank was not being respected.

I got all of this second-hand from F, my daughter. The two, after that meeting, decided to quit or minimally participate less. It seems that everyone was not aware that others on the call were uncomfortable with the topic of discussion. It seems that no one, save the teens, really spoke up.

One person I spoke with, however, pointed out that this would not have happened at all if we did not have a leadership vacuum. Maybe that is a problem with karate, or even our society: we are too used to having a “strong leader,” usually an assertive man. We expect all the answers to come from that one man. We’re not able to imagine how an actual democratic system, one that gives voice to both the weak and the strong, might function. Maybe I’m an idealist, but it will not come into being if we cannot even imagine it. As for me, I’ve studied the value of democracy since I was a child. Most of us have. Why doesn’t that apply here?

That doesn’t mean we throw out rank. We are not practicing karate if we are not respecting rank. And of course the higher rank should decide what to teach, and how to teach. But if we have a lower-ranking child propose going to the beach to practice karate, or a lower-ranking adult point out some potential risk during a fire-break, why would we not listen?

It took some smoothing over and an actual curriculum meeting of the Yudansha to head off black belts defecting. Nevertheless, one instrumental person, still upset, may scale back her participation. I called her today; we had a long talk.

F was upset and pulled in Sensei. He spoke with several of us. Then he worried about over-stepping, or rather, recognized that we need to have the ability to solve these kinds of conflicts on our own. It is true: if he retires, he won’t be around to mitigate our every disagreement. We need to learn to do it.

I am worried about the fact that we keep losing people. I know it’s a process, and any time you are dealing with a large number of people, you will have politics. However, I also look at what others have done: recently, in defense of black lives, there has been sustained, organized protest in many large cities across this country. These are locally organized, grass-roots groups, people no different than us, putting on these peaceful protests. I look at our Temple’s Sisterhood, and even our little Temple. It isn’t large, but it is an organization that’s been around for over sixty years.

We can do this. Our dojo community is full of intelligent, capable, agreeable, well-meaning people. This includes the folks who did the offending last week, as well as those offended. In order for people to be comfortable proposing ideas, we have to figure out how to reject bad ideas with kindness as well as embrace good ideas. As an engineer and artist, I know this: you have to be able to come up with, and reject, a whole bunch of bad ideas before you land on a good one. If our members are afraid to propose bad ideas, then they’ll be afraid to propose ideas.We need to figure out how to make it safe for everyone to toss out ideas, bad and good. And people need to feel safe arguing with each other.

Today we did hold another organizing meeting and some of us talked about reaching out to past members. This upset others. I participated in those discussions, and found out later it was upsetting for some. One of the people who had been part of the committee meeting that went awry last begged off, so I’m also worried that person might stop attending out of fear.

And you know what else happened today? This!

But notice the crazy thing: the laundry rack fell over in such a way that it failed to bring down the smaller rack, and somehow nothing damaged the little kumquat tree. And yes, there’s a gi top and a brown belt, but somehow that garment fell on top of other clothing items. F helped me lift up the rack and shake the dirt out of the clothes. Everything was fine, though it was work to put it all right again.

It is Southern California, and the winds are strong this time of year.

Monday June 8th, 2020

I did do push-ups, sit-ups and squats this morning. During my lunch hour, I called a friend and ran on the treadmill for twenty minutes. After work, I did my second set.

Mondays are my “get going again” days: Saturdays will often include karate and a walk or a run, but I do not do push-ups, sit-ups and squats unless we do them during class. On Sundays, I do try to rest, but rest, admittedly, will often include yard work, laundry, and taking out the trash.

This morning, I wrote in my journal that I was not looking forward to work. Dealing with one of the new folks in our remote office had felt weird last Thursday, and I dreaded picking up that interaction today. I thoroughly documented what I needed to do in order to solve the issue, but I also believed the problem had a straight-forward solution.

Here’s what happened: the documentation helped to bring everyone onto the same page; and the artist in the remote facility turned out to be much easier to deal with, even kind. I think he is new, and just unfamiliar with the workflow. The problem, itself, turned out to be more thorny than I’d expected. By the end of the workday, I felt like I had a working solution, however.

While writing this morning, my mind wandered back to issues we’d run into with organizing the martial arts club. I wrote, “The whole cat-herding aspect of community organizing is tiring.”

Later today, I thought of the Sisterhood at my family’s temple: they are primarily ladies above seventy, along with a couple pre-school mothers and me. Nevertheless, they hold monthly meetings, plan and cook multiple Temple holiday meals, host an annual yard sale and and often raise, during that sale and throughout the year, a good deal of money for the synagogue. Now, you might argue that, because many are retired, they have time than working, middle-aged adults and teens in school. However, they have their issues; our former president is living with a slow growing, incurable cancer. Despite this, she attends meetings regularly and does as much as any other member. The Sisterhood women often care for spouses, or grandchildren, or elderly friends. They are busy. Yet they get so much done.

They inspire me. So, our dojo community is full of smart people and none of us are over seventy or fighting cancer. We can do this.

Thursday June 4th, 2020

I wonder just how much of the current dojo community politics it is wise to include in this blog. While we are forming, everyone is critical: we have to pull together and I do not want to be a divisive force, whatever my personal experiences may be.

That said, I’ve been fielding complaints, and may need to make a couple phone calls. It takes time and negotiation for everyone to be on the same page. Now I need to defer to what I wrote in the paragraph above and stop.

This does give me an idea, one which is basically already being pursued by other members. At the Temple, the Sisterhood will usually vote, before the start of each meeting, to approve the record of the previous meeting. With the exception of one time, these votes were unanimous and uncontroversial. But on that one exceptional day, the Sisters held a debate, with various members objecting to what was written. The notes were amended, and then approved.

We can do the same: each meeting, including committee meetings, should have notes posted somewhere or emailed out, so that the various persons who participated can read, approve and/or if necessary amend the notes. The notes are important, because they are the record of the decisions made by the group as a whole. Various persons among us are already taking notes and either posting them in a Google document or emailing them out. The next step, then, would be to formalize this with a group approval of the meeting notes.

But exercises: back to my own original intent for this blog, that of keeping me honest and on track for my Shodan test. I did them. In the morning, I did get the Japanese count correct. Doing exercises in the evenings is often more difficult. Shedding the stress of the work day is one component, along with the bedroom, where I exercise, simply being hot.

The kids both went to the dojo today to help Sensei pack up. I’m sad this will be their last summer to hang out at the dojo with Sensei, in that physical location. And what a sorrowful endeavor: packing up the place that had been our spiritual karate home for many years; Sensei was there even longer. He had been a student in that location, and had taken over the dojo as a business from the previous Sensei roughly ten years ago. So, for over a decade, Sensei practiced karate in this place, first as a student, and then as a business owner and Sensei, guiding others along the path. I’m glad the kids could go and help. I hope the experience was good for all of them.

Change is difficult, but inevitable. This one, not enviable.

I need to return to reading the Koran. Going to an older Buddhist text that I read years ago simply puts me back into my comfort zone, which is fine for now. At some point, however, I need to approach a new mountain, and climb it. The Shodan test is as much a spiritual, mental test as it is physical. In Germany, I had a good friend, a student from Egypt, who was both a physicist and a faithful Muslim. She was so kind, also intelligent. She had been born Christian but chose to follow Islam. I don’t expect to convert, but I do want to see with my own heart’s understanding the teachings that cast such a bright light on the world through her. While seeking spiritual guidance, I remember her example.

And yes, for Shodan tests, we’ll have to accommodate changes required by the pandemic to keep everyone healthy. It is not likely I’ll be able to do a ten person Kumite test in August. Sensei had discussed having us do some kind of cardio test: kata in the ocean, or Sanchin practice holding jars of sand, Uechi style. I trust that Sensei and the other Shodans will come up with an appropriate test or set of tests for the three of us. In the mean time, I should do exercises, keep records, read and practice. More frequent meditation would help, too.