Mr Yellowhawk,
Just wanted to say hello! My family is from the South Kingston area of Rhode Island, so having you post is like hearing a voice from back home. Welcome to E-budo!
Several people have brought up an interesting point about culture. One of my observations from the strange world of a graduate MFA program ( From which I just graduated this Spring ) is that people who have a strong cultural background from which they come tend to have stronger work.
I believe that this is because they have a sense of their own identity which serves to shape the skills and experiences of their life. Many suburban American kids do not have this, and I have often wondered why. Perhaps it is the emphasis on the nuclear family, which is now becoming the single parent family. I also think that television tends to fill the unconcious with a lot of empty filler, the equivalent of marshmallow fluff. I remember walking down the street one day wondering about the preponderance of eighteen year olds wearing tee shirts with images like Scooby-Doo and the Atari logo. My own theory is that these icons have power beacause they were a touchstone of security in their childhood. For a ten year old child who finds him/her self being routinely shuffled between two parents after a divorce, everything seems ambiguous and confusing. For a while, Mommy lives with Rob in Seattle. No..now they're broken up and Mommy is in upstate NY. Daddy is in California with his second wife etc. Wherever he finds himself, however, when the child pads downstairs on Saturday morning there are always his favorite shows! An anchor of crude myths in an uncertain world. What is missing is a larger worldview that goes back more that fifty years. It is no wonder to me that when these kids decide that they want to pursue art as a lifestyle, they often have difficulty creating focused work that effectively transcends the commercial culture. I contrast that with a Haitian friend of mine who recently put up a wonderful show in which she created a series of ceramic boats full of figurines as part of a metaphor about the experience of travel, drawing heavily on the experience of the hazards her people have faced in making their way to the United States. Beautiful, timeless, and substantial. I believe it is this quality which we all seek in our pursuit of the martial arts.
Krzysztof M. Mathews
http://www.firstgearterritories.com
Every place around the world it seemed the same
Can't hear the rhythm for the drums
Everybody wants to look the other way
When something wicked this way comes
"Jeremiah Blues, Part 1"
Sting-The Soul Cages