Minghequan
06-25-2011, 07:06 PM
I recently was invited to part with my hard earned money to be inducted into a "Martial Arts Hall of Fame". The "Hall" of what the?
I have already been given one of these such 'honours' ... the “Combat Magazine Hall of Fame Award in recognition of commitment to gain Martial Arts Practice greater popularity in both the United Kingdom and around the World” back in 2001 from Editor Paul Clifton and the "2005 Central Wushu Kungfu Guan World Wushu Kungfu Federation Hall of Fame “Living Kungfu Legend” Award". I claim neither and did not have to pay for these 'awards" nor attend the Celebration Banquet/Presentations.
Since the discovery of the martial arts we have already come to this: awarding each other prizes for being famous! Can there be a concept further removed from the essence of the Martial Arts?
What are your thoughts on such awards?
The need for gratification for recognition and even adulation, is not the hallmark of someone who has any real understanding or concept of the martial arts as I understand them to be.
I think such people have failed to come to terms with their own ego, something mastered long before anyone recognised them as having achieved anything.
The individual path that others walk has no bearing on me, just as I walk my own.
I endorse the right of others to believe what they want to believe. From the correspondence I receive I have come to understand that many people have their own opinions on the way the Martial Arts are. We each live with the choices we make. I recently reached my own personal “milestone” in I marked it in my own way, teaching a class and a few drinks with my family, students and close friends. Just another in what is a normal day much like any other. I’ve stopped making a fuss of such anniversaries a long time ago.
My life is focused on something more important than the small-minded behaviour of others. Some of the correspondence I receive has taught me a very important lesson: that the image other people have of myself often exists only within their minds ad their minds alone. They are the owners of such perceptions and it has no real bearing on how I view myself as a martial artist or person in every day life.
Some people find value in the ideas I put forward, and some people get quite angry or somehow “feel” threatened. Neither is my aim. I simply want to make people at least think! I’m not trying to make friends nor enemies with the words I write.
“Hall of Fame?” For me, more like “Hall of Shame”.
I have already been given one of these such 'honours' ... the “Combat Magazine Hall of Fame Award in recognition of commitment to gain Martial Arts Practice greater popularity in both the United Kingdom and around the World” back in 2001 from Editor Paul Clifton and the "2005 Central Wushu Kungfu Guan World Wushu Kungfu Federation Hall of Fame “Living Kungfu Legend” Award". I claim neither and did not have to pay for these 'awards" nor attend the Celebration Banquet/Presentations.
Since the discovery of the martial arts we have already come to this: awarding each other prizes for being famous! Can there be a concept further removed from the essence of the Martial Arts?
What are your thoughts on such awards?
The need for gratification for recognition and even adulation, is not the hallmark of someone who has any real understanding or concept of the martial arts as I understand them to be.
I think such people have failed to come to terms with their own ego, something mastered long before anyone recognised them as having achieved anything.
The individual path that others walk has no bearing on me, just as I walk my own.
I endorse the right of others to believe what they want to believe. From the correspondence I receive I have come to understand that many people have their own opinions on the way the Martial Arts are. We each live with the choices we make. I recently reached my own personal “milestone” in I marked it in my own way, teaching a class and a few drinks with my family, students and close friends. Just another in what is a normal day much like any other. I’ve stopped making a fuss of such anniversaries a long time ago.
My life is focused on something more important than the small-minded behaviour of others. Some of the correspondence I receive has taught me a very important lesson: that the image other people have of myself often exists only within their minds ad their minds alone. They are the owners of such perceptions and it has no real bearing on how I view myself as a martial artist or person in every day life.
Some people find value in the ideas I put forward, and some people get quite angry or somehow “feel” threatened. Neither is my aim. I simply want to make people at least think! I’m not trying to make friends nor enemies with the words I write.
“Hall of Fame?” For me, more like “Hall of Shame”.