Rice and the fist

A revelation: The "take rice from the hand of a kung fu master" thing we see in movies is a really practical exercise for proper* fist formation in a punch. You must keep swift and relaxed, tighten your hand to a fist as you propel forward and immediately withdraw for a proper snap-punch.

Taking the rice isn't the outcome where mastery lies, it's the practice of swiftly delivering and restoring oneself with elegant force, repose, and clarity of intention. Honing how to get what you need even in messy situations.

*note: it's not the same a striking--there's a nuanced difference in distance and the exact moment for clenching the hand--but the essential motions and general timing approximate well to one another.


A tangent on rice and the fist:
Is anyone familiar with and able to explain the conflict between First Nation's rights to wild rice harvest and the DNRE's permitting for mining companies in Northern Michigan? Is this a regulatory outcome of environmental conservation which overlooks other aspects of our existence? It seems there's a double standard between the regulation for harvesting and how the State's departments permit mining and other activities that may/already harm the area.
I overheard someone explain as I was signing out of the Michigan Environmental Justice Summit but wasn't able to catch the whole conversation.

EDIT (!): In retrospect (and after a lot of googling to find where the idea/media inspiration for this post really came from), I guess I've never seen a kung fu movie where the student takes rice from the hand of their teacher. I'm guessing it's actually a pebble. Now that I found the clip below, I'm glad I didn't. Otherwise, I probably never would have made the connection between striking form and reaching for rice. I like my example better, but the advice in the clip on humility's nice to hear too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1wjvP-raOI

Discipline is [the path to] freedom

"Discipline is [the path to] freedom."
-See:
http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/self-discipline/
http://www.mindperk.com/articles/discipline-the-path-to-freedom/
http://www.coachcharrise.com/discipline-is-freedom/
http://www.randygage.com/blog/discipline-creates-freedom/

By this maxim, we may better examine the second amendment's assertion that we have the right to bear arms under purview of a "well-regulated militia".  But what constitutes a militia?  What happens when much of the civilian population is armed?

Perhaps we could pursue detailed legal answers to those questions, but the point I'm raising has everything to do with recognizing responsibility, discipline, and regulation as analogous requisites for our freedoms.

You, simple questions, squirm-worthy discoveries

I'm starting to suspect iterations of good personal questions also make good interview questions: they challenge your character and if you're unprepared, you're challenged to truly face yourself.

"What's your day like?"- Anna

"What do you think you want to develop about yourself?" - Chelsea

In some cases, people probably have a ready answer.  I've asked myself an iteration of both of these questions before, but hearing it articulated or simply being asked by another person who does not know your answers sheds light on how another person can hold you accountable for your own life.

The funny thing is that I might have asked other people similar questions not long ago.  I may have recently examined these facets of who we are and am ready to answer them--the stars align and I feel pretty good about it.  Sometimes, it's been a bit too long and the salience of the question becomes especially incisive.  You start to squirm, sometimes not even because of the person asking it--you might trust them a lot--but rather it's because you realize you never knew, or no longer know who you are at this time.

Self-help guru Stephen Covey, probably best known for his Franklin-Covey planners and his book(s) _# Habits of Highly Successful People (the number changes, last I checked I think it was at  7), talks about "Sharpening the Saw" as one of the habits and principles of self-improvement.  In essence: make your own self-restoration a regular priority.

From contemplating these two questions from friends, I realize my biggest challenge comes from finding an appropriate time frame.

Waiting for Wisdom

I just realized how important it is to recognize the timeframes between taking a break and forgetting. The intention behind this behavior is essentially to wait for wisdom--time can give additional perspective to a problem. Papers, projects, conflicts, puzzling life problems, etc. benefit from breaks in chunks, but if you wind up needing a lot of time just to figure out what you were trying to do, the break may have taken too long.

At this point, the behavior can be a tremendous detriment--I'd liken a challenge to the development of a fruit:

A plant needs time for fruit to develop, we may recognize its transition from bloom to a fruit, and may wait for it to ripen. Wait too long, and it loses its potentially nourishing and rejuvenating properties. Wait much longer and you may be baffled to discover a new plant in its place.

I frequently wonder if I confuse delay with patience, and how to make the distinction. Discerning necessitates a clear understanding for the definition of patience, as I'm certain that waiting is a vehicle of patience, but does not embody patience. To the dictionaries (note, I omitted a few irrelevant definitions though the phrase "what's in the cards" comes to mind)!

{Randomhouse} pa·tience [pey-shuhns]
1.the quality of being patient, as the bearing of provocation,annoyance, misfortune, or pain, without complaint, loss oftemper, irritation, or the like.
2.an ability or willingness to suppress restlessness orannoyance when confronted with delay: to have patience witha slow learner.
3.quiet, steady perseverance; even-tempered care; diligence:to work with patience.
{World English Dictionary} patience (ˈpeɪʃəns) — n

1. tolerant and even-tempered perseverance
2. the capacity for calmly enduring pain, trying situations, etc
3. chiefly ( Brit ) US equivalent: solitaire any of various cardgames for one player only, in which the cards may be laid outin various combinations as the player tries to use up the wholepack
4. obsolete permission; sufferance

There we have it, my rough summary: the capacity and willingness to to endure misfortune, pain, other presumably unpleasant circumstances with calm. Good to know!

The etymology is interesting too, I suspect when we speak of a person who exhibits piety, especially among christians, it has very strong ties with the concept of pain: early 13c., "quality of being patient in suffering," from O.Fr.pacience, from L. patientia "patience, endurance," frompatientem (nom. patiens), prp. of pati "to suffer, endure," fromPIE base *pei- "to damage, injure, hurt"

Enough tangent, let's return to edible things like fruit again!

There's something I like to call "scorched wisdom". Insight from an experience--particularly a traumatic one--has a ripening period. However, when kept within for too long, or when the conditions which incited insight lose their novelty, an individual starts to take it for granted without getting it across. At which point, anecdote begins to lose its vigor. One of my composition professors, Lee Brooks, likened writing a paper to cooking. We muster many ingredients, assimilate or integrate them into one place, and the heat introduced by our thinking presents a unique outcome.

Dwell too much on the same thing however, and a dark, hardened mass emerges from the process. I liken this to encountering people who have endured tremendous challenges, but were so taxed by the experience that they've burned out or are inclined to give bitter nuggets of truth. I've certainly been there before too.

We can use John Kingdon's concept of policy streams and "windows of opportunity" to weigh out what's happening. When problems, solutions, and politics (I define this as an articulation of desired action) are together, it creates a window of opportunity for us to take coherent action toward. For a person who's experience was burdened for too long by a problem, complacency with their situation becomes a real possibility. If one takes complacency, they eventually lose their desire to engage the problem and articulate some kind of action. At this point, even if they're later introduced to viable solutions, the window of opportunity shuts when it comes to actually doing something useful.





Image sourced from: http://www.scielosp.org/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0042-96862006000800021 fair use disclaimer: I've not copied this image, it's directly linked to its source host and used as an educational aid toward understanding political and philosophical concepts.

The solution to this is simple: communication with others. Share what you've learned, even if it's still an ongoing experience.

Notes and additional references:


Even when I'm not trying, I tend to describe something before I can interpret what I actually tried saying.  I originally gave this post a temporary descriptive title "Patience, breaks, forgetting, and scorched wisdom" that delineated the sequence of concepts I wanted to cover in the post.  I later realized this is a lot about behavior, and I ponder over the structural link between the "waiting for wisdom" and "scorched wisdom" ideas.

The idea for scorched wisdom came up some time around June 24th, and I've forgotten the details behind how they arose. Fortunately, I wrote something on paper about it so I'll try to put it up here later on too.


patience. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged. Retrieved July 28, 2012, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/patience


patience. (n.d.). Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition. Retrieved July 28, 2012, from Dictionary.com website:http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/patience