Made it to the half century mark

[brianlkennedy]

June marks two milestones for me. I started martial arts study in June of 1976, so that means this year I got 32 years martial arts experience. But---maybe the bigger milestone is, I was born in June 16, 1958, which means I am coming up on the half century mark, 50 years on Planet Earth.

Although truth be told, I still feel in my mind like I am in my early 20s!. Which I guess is a good sign. In any event here are the before and after photos taken 30 years apart.

Choy Li Fut butterfly knives, San Diego, 1978
http://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q.../1978brian.jpg


Pakua sword, San Chung City Taiwan, 2008
http://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q...y/R001-029.jpg


One thing I would mention is martial arts has always been a major part of my life and I really give a lot of praise and respect to martial arts for keeping me in good physical, mental and spiritual health. I have learned so much from martial arts and met so many great people. The world of martial arts (the Wu Lin, the Martial Forest) is so broad and so deep; it has room for everyone and it has something to offer everyone at all different stages of their lives.

Take care,
Brian

[RickMatz]

Congratulations and welcome to the club!

I had a pretty good run myself for my first 50 years, and I'm looking forward to seeing how the next 50 turns out.

[brianlkennedy]

Hi Rick,
Thanks for the fellow "old timer" support. And on the topic of folks in their 40s, 50s and beyond who still practice martial arts; do you know of any blogs/forums/websites specifically geared towards the over 40 martial arts crowd? I mention it because on your fine blog, Cook Ding's Kitchen, you mentioned another blog called Aging Budoka but it seems that person kind of retired from blogging. Are there others you know of?

take care,
Brian

[cerebus]

Happy Birthday Brian! Train hard, stay young!

T

[brianlkennedy]

Hi T.
Thanks much. Did I tell you that all of our talk about books about books made me set down and read a Lovecraft story, "The Thing at the Door".

take care,
Brian

[masherdong]

Congratulations and Happy Birthday!

[bodhitree]

Congrats man!!! You still got a lot of years of good training to go!

[cerebus]

Hi T.
Thanks much. Did I tell you that all of our talk about books about books made me set down and read a Lovecraft story, "The Thing at the Door".

take care,
Brian

Ha ha! Sweet! Some of my own personal favorites are "The Music of Erich Zann", "Dreams in the Witch House" and "The Dunwich Horror". HPL was truly a master of the "weird tale"...

[brianlkennedy]

Thanks folks, I appreciate the wishes. My wife is giving me my birthday gifts kind of in stages (as she buys them!) So far we got a statute of Tu Di Gong (the Land God in Chinese Folk-Daoism). The Land God is in many ways the most important of the Daoist deities for Taiwanese because he is the one that specifically looks after the welfare of this particular village, i.e. a super localized god.

I also got an interesting new book on Taiwanese Crane Boxing. It is written by a guy down in Tainan, came with a dvd too. I started last year to finally get serious about trying to learn some Taiwanese Crane Boxing as it is one of the island’s strong traditional systems.

Take care,
Brian

[RickMatz]

Hi Rick,
Thanks for the fellow "old timer" support. And on the topic of folks in their 40s, 50s and beyond who still practice martial arts; do you know of any blogs/forums/websites specifically geared towards the over 40 martial arts crowd? I mention it because on your fine blog, Cook Ding's Kitchen, you mentioned another blog called Aging Budoka but it seems that person kind of retired from blogging. Are there others you know of?

take care,
Brian

Brian,

I don't know of any blogs whose point of view is specifically the "seasoned martial artist. However, I've run across quite a few that are written by members of this esteemed group. Off the top of my head:

http://www.24fightingchickens.com/
http://zensekai.wordpress.com/
http://www.mokurendojo.com/
http://taijiquestion.wordpress.com/
http://neijia.wordpress.com/
http://fencer.wordpress.com/

I hope I didn't leave anyone out.

Enjoy.

Best Regards,

Rick

[TenTigers]

welcome to the "Ol Timer's Club!" According to Kwan Sai-Hung story in Chronicals of Tao' you are in your peak at 56, so we still have some years ahead to get stronger and faster. Then...
"Old age and treachery will overcome youth and vigor"

[Pork Chop]

Happy Birthday
I hope my training's still going as strong at that point.

[sanjuro_ronin]

Happy Birthday Brian, to you old ****, I gave you this:

[AJM]

Happy birthday Brian. I'm 56. Maybe it's attitudinal, but with study,training and practice most things do seem better after fifty. Exeption being how much weight I can lift.

[brianlkennedy]

Good Morning Rick, Ten Tigers, Pork Chop Sanjuro Ronin and AJM;
Thanks one and all for the good wishes and the encouragement. Rick, thanks much for taking the time to lay out that list of blogs. I will take a look, thanks. Sanjuro Ronin, thanks for the birthday cake, dark haired girls do make the rockin world go round.

I appreciate everyone taking the time to send along their wishes and it is really great to hear from other people who are 50 plus and still working out and making gains. That is super.

Take care,
Brian