A Journeyman is defined as a sports person who is reliable but not outstanding. A person who is expected to take fights at short notice, provide a show but realistically never expected to win. Any practitioner worth their salt must spend time in this wilderness. It's good for you. In many ways it defines you. Not how you handle victory but how you handle defeat. As a race, humans are often judged more by our failures rather than our successes. Perhaps I'm wrong, and this is in fact only embedded in the Scottish National psyche? The world likes Scotland mostly because it has always given it a go but unfortunately failed, often at the last hurdle. The world respects the effort but perhaps respects more that the order of things has not changed. Life can continue safe in the knowledge that failure is inevitable and therefore it is justified for us all to sit on our backsides and continue as before for fear of making a fool of ourselves. Yes, people are more comfortable with failure than with success. Maybe because of this we reflect more on our failures and our shortcomings than that of our achievements.
This type of negative thought process serves no purpose in the world right now. Society and the establishment as it is, is already a shambles and is not moving forward. As our leaders becomes increasingly more aware of their obsolescence and decline in power, they move to make us all feel that we are "done" and that we too can do nothing to change our course. The truth is; this is of course bollocks! Everyday we have a chance to make a difference. Small or large, minor or definitive. The truth is "you can be the change you want to see in the world".
I have been involved with Martial Arts for almost 20 years now and I have spent my time being the journeyman, but come this Sunday I leave for China with some of my best friends and peers from the Martial world. We will travel to Zhangjiajie for intensive training with Master Li of the Shen Wu Lin Chuan Taoist internal arts. I fully expect my mind to be blown and I fully expect to return a different person.
Collectively we will present Master Li with funds raised by our students from around the UK to rebuild the ancestral temple of Master Li's masters. This act will see us become an indelible part of history. This small effort will see us all add to "the record" for generations to come. As a group of Martial Artists we all have doubters and people who disapprove of our teaching methods, our skills, our take on certain techniques and pretty much everything else! We are all quite familiar if not tired of it. I would by no means suggest that those doubts and criticisms are unfounded or without merit but more than anything I am aware of my own shortcomings and grey areas. However I choose to continue moving forward to learn and to build, and I choose to do it by thinking positively and hopefully. By engaging and actively seeking out solutions and new ideas. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that my Martial Arts would see me travel the world, compete, meet such awesome people. Earn respect and give respect to so many incredible practitioners many of whom are unsung. Never did I think I would move from learning the basic mechanics of punching and kicking to understanding the traditional methods of healing. Then from this gain insight into the spiritual teachings that permeate all styles to then have my very life shaped by the Masters of the past.
In this I can say I am finally winning! In this I can say, although my journey isn't over, my time as a journeyman is.
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