Newsletter 985
What is Your Martial Art Ethic?
I was teaching a student the other day.
She’s over 70,
but studied martial arts when she was young
so she’s in good shape.
I showed her a technique,
and we were talking,
and she made an interesting remark.
‘If I had him down like that
I’d kick him and stomp him.
I’d kill him.’
Whoa!
We had been talking about a rape situation,
I usually avoid those in teaching,
but she brought it up,
and I said,
‘But you’ve already got him down.
Why kill him?’
‘Because of what he’s done.
If he’s raped one,
he’s raped another.
He needs to be killed.’
It was funny.
She’s liberal in most attitudes,
but in this situation
she was a little to the right of Ghenghis Khan.
My kind of girl.
Except…
I said,
‘if you give in to rage you give up the art.’
But she really didn’t get it.
I couldn’t dent her pissed off-ness.
We were just talking,
but the rage she held,
for a make believe situation
(that she had never been in),
I couldn’t dent.
Ethics,
you see,
didn’t matter
when it came to rape.
I told her that if she shot somebody
and the wound was in the back
she would go to jail.
A man with a turned back is trying to get away,
is no threat,
and shooting becomes murder
if there is no threat of harm.
She didn’t care.
She was right,
and that was it.
Interesting.
I kept teaching her,
and will continue to do so,
even though there is a spot of insanity
hiding in her bones.
But then everybody is insane,
they don’t realize it
or they would be sane.
Martial Arts makes one sane.
It leads,
if done correctly,
to a higher ethic.
So when I meet somebody who is off kilter,
I just tell them to keep practicing.
But…
how about you?
If you’re female,
and found yourself in the situation
of having a rapist at your mercy,
would you do harm?
Kill him?
Cut off body parts?
Would you let your baser part rule you?
If you’re male,
and your wife or daughter is compromised,
would you kill the rapist?
You’ve already knocked him down,
he’s no threat.
Would you fall to revenge
and do bad things to him?
I’m not going to lecture anybody on this,
there is a line between civilization and savagery here,
and though I claim the higher ethic,
I can’t claim that what I think
is best for the race.
I’ll keep working out,
and hope that I find the answer that is right,
but…?
Here’s the obligatory ad,
it’s for Tai Chi because that is what I was teaching this good lady.
Have a great work out!
Al
