Alabama was good times, enough people have expressed better than me how inspiring working with everyone was. The highlight for me was definitely meeting Dave Mcneil--a truly amazing man. Seeing Greensboro was staggering. The racism, poverty and a whole wack of other things floored me. A place like that simply shouldn't happen. But it's getting better.
I think one of the best parts of the trip was the past week, when people have asked me "so why were you down there?"
Quicker than they can react I whip out the spiel, hitting them with terms like "real self defense", "living the martial arts" and, of course, "out of the dojo and into the world". I've given some variant of the UBBT speech at least a dozen times and everyone has reacted fantastically. A few people I saw after a few days and they've told their family, other friends, even a professor or two. My friends are, for the most part, jaded punks or academics who are very good at dismissing everything. But I've found that enthusiasm shines through. I used to think inspiring people was hard, but all you need to do is have passion and be willing to show it.
Plus, some guy in Alabama said "howdy" to me. It was amazing. And Sifu Edge slit open my finger with a swiss army knife. For science!
2 comments:
Postcolonialism has ruined everyone, my dear.
and I'd do it again!
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