Weird Al Yankovic. A genius to me. A master if you will. You see, I love humor, and I dislike disrespect. Weird Al is a marvel to me not only because of his sense of humor and ability to parody life but he shows the utmost respect for the artist/song he is parodying because if an artist says "no, he can't use their song", he won't. He has quite a few songs that I absolutely consider classics ( another one rides the bus, yoda, fat, etc ), but one that I just get a total kick out of is "Word Crimes". You see, something I also value is the ability to use the English language properly. I bring this up because of yesterdays 2nd degree brown belt meeting. We discussed "verbology", you know, the ability to properly ask a question, proper terminology, the way you phrase your thoughts into words. This is incredible tough for so many people because we just don't talk to each other anymore. We text, blog, podcast, email, short and sweet, to the point ( usually ), no fact check. no responsibility, with spell check, the ability to erase and revgbd...redo. I dislike this A LOT!.
Real live conversation isn't like that, it has awkward silences, it takes turns, loses itself completely from the point, especially for someone like me who's thoughts and ideas tend to come out in a verbal tidal wave ( verbal diarrhea I sometimes call it ), no chance to screen or smooth out the lumps, hurry hurry hurry before you lose their attention. And everybody gets sooo offended sooo quickly nowadays. One wrong word and BAM, you a racist, your a narcissist, your blacklisted, no chance to explain, damage done, everyone with a phone or access to the internet and no ability to think for themselves hates you. Sorry, I'm going down a dark road here, time to get back to my point.
I like to listen and think, explore a conversation, contemplate. I don't have the greatest ability to orate my thoughts back to someone once they are worthy to share, but I try too. I get to excited, nervous, trip over my own tongue. Sometimes what I think and what I say are nowhere near the same thing and I don't realize this till later.
Thoughts are so hard to put into words and we need to change that. I never used to understand why my Dad loved to just sit around a fire, no music, no distractions, just family, friends and fire. I get it now, conversation. It is becoming a lost art and needs to be practiced and used more before we lose it all together, before it changes into something impersonal like a text or blog or email.
Just like our Kung Fu. You can watch all the movies you want, write all the blogs you can think of, talk endlessly about ideas, but if we don't get up and actually practice the art, it will become history, a fable, and that is terrifying to me.
Chautauqua anyone?
Then maybe a Lion Dance. Then Forms seminar, board break challenge, Tiger Challenge?
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