Jetsetting

Jakarta last thursday, KL on Monday and Tuesday, Bangalore probably next week. Have fun guys.

Shameless Emotional Manipulation II

Roy's brother: Wanna play blocks with me?

Roy: More than anything.

Retrospective is a trick of perspective. I've made mistakes. Some of them still haunt me today, taking me by surprise in unexpected moments. Caught in these recollections, I cannot help but to look at my past with the perspective of who I am today; stronger, wiser, more mature.

Knowing this helps little. I view the past wondering what I should have done, could have done, but not realising that those events are the very ones that made me stronger, wiser and more mature.

I believe in the afterlife. Having made the mistakes I have, I am unsure whether I will have an afterlife like Roy's despite having tried very hard. Nevertheless I get my choice of afterlife, the one I want is Roy's.

An afterlife where all will be forgiven.

Discovery

What happens when you discover that all the trials you have faced are just lessons to prepare you for the ones ahead? That all the pain and suffering you went through was for a reason, where you have one more chance ahead to turn all your failure and heartache into something magical, something wonderful - if you can face down the trials ahead.

Do you take the road of safety? Or once more head down the path of peril?

I know my answer already.

No regrets.

Motto of the Day

"People forget how crucial it is to keep trying, even if they screw up now and then. They figure that if they can't manage it perfectly every second then they should pick some other alignment because it'll be easier. But it's the struggle that matters."

Moral lessons from a comic book with stick figures. Wow.

Out Of The Closet

There's a wonderful joy at coming out of the closet, to be relieved of the burdens of having to keep your deep dark secrets. The gay colours, shiny sequins, sidelong glances, and feather boas.

I'm, of course, talking about ABBA. Yes, I'm a closet ABBA fan.

Tome sent this to me. This is incredible shit - Frida from ABBA and The Real Group, a Swedish acapella group, performing "Dancing Queen".

Systema and Personal Growth

We had a guest trainer yesterday, James, who taught us the basics of Systema.



Systema is a Russian martial art, often advertised as the martial art used by the Spetsnaz. I personally think that the association with special forces is highly misleading. Contrary to expectations, it's probably closer to chinese internal styles than the hard styles I'd expect from being a special forces martial art.

The interesting thing about Systema is not the art (though the art is fascinating in itself) but the pedagology behind it - it literally trains you to learn about yourself and what works for you.

One of the central tenets to Systema is the concept of space. Everyone literally has a "bubble" of comfort around them. Learning where this "bubble" starts determines the style that is best for you. Some people might be more comfortable infighting - the comfort level dictates therefore that grapples and locks would be your primary arsenal. Some people might have a comfort zone far out from their bodies - their fighting style would involve a lot more strikes.

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By sheer serendipity, my boss was talking about the book "Now: Discover your strengths" and the philosophy of working to people's strengths, instead of working to compensate for weaknesses. Part of this exercise involves finding out what your "space" is too - then developing around this.

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One of my personal objectives for learning martial arts is as a form of integrated learning. My sentiment is that my own personal growth has often been obstructed by my lack of understanding physical systems - and what better physical system to study other than your own body.

I'm somewhat pleasantly surprised to find out how much I'm actually managing to integrate the lessons of martial arts into real life and vice versa. Martial arts is turning out to be a much more involved learning experience than I thought.

More thoughts on this in a while. I promise.