Shaolin Community - something to think about

All,
I enjoyed re-visiting here. I'll see you again in awhile. I just like to check up on things, see how the comm. is growing, evolving, see if people have anything new to talk about or add. My overall impression is that things are improving. The comm. is becoming more 3rd grade than it used to be and the kids are playing well together.
I wanted to make a suggestion for all to think about in general.

The days of mystery, mystique, and legend are really over. There's not much left for us, and you can't even really experience it today in a temple as money-oriented as Shaolin is. The fact is the best feeling you can get is from reading or watching things like "Star Wars" and although it's sad, it's true.

So. With that in mind, everyone should keep in mind that WE are the community of shaolin. Our words have meaning. Think about it: you aren't viewing the community, you are the community.

It's a big family, a big dysfunctional, arguing family like in Home Alone, but it's still true. Instead of bashing each other's lineages and styles, we should be building and coming to some agreement that there needs to be a movement to re-unify Shaolin in America because in all schools the art is being degraded due to American culture and mcdojoism. It's time to work together and you're going to see in a few years this movement take form.

Shaolin needs all of us in this community to work together to catalog and document the art, because it's really an endangered species at this point. All the old masters are dead, dying, or aging and we've got to move forward rather than looking back. And with youtube now being loaded with all kinds of things, reality is about to be lost in the muck and grime. Without a concerted effort, pretty soon "authentic" will be an anachronism as well. Some may argue we're past that point. I think we're right at it.

That's really all I have to say about that.

I'll get on once more to check my messages once, and then you won't see me for awhile, so ciao.
-sl