Honor and Legacy.

 As a teenager I spent a lot of time at my Sensei's house, mostly doing yard work and learning how to cook. 

Many of the lessons were not even directly drawn from Karate, most were drawn from mundane things like weeding the garden, cooking stir fry, eggs, etc. 

There was quite a bit of Karate, but the main lesson was that all things can be Karate, Karate is found in being deliberate, mindful of what we are doing each and every moment, moving with patient intent. 

When my Sensei retired I was uncertain what to think, what to really do, but I kept going because it was already a part of me. 

One can speculate on why he felt the need to retire, to get rid of all things related to his Karate, and speculate I did, but that really serves no purpose and, at least to me, maybe that was a lesson as well. Just keep going, nothing is really permanent anyway. 

It does not matter why he retired, it does not matter if he still trains or not; what really matters is moving with deliberate and mindful intent, one foot in front of the other, one step at a time. 

Shihan Roseberry, my Sensei's Sensei, is gone, but his legacy remains in those that are still moving forward, still keeping to the path. 

Unwavering? Maybe. It is not likely, we all waver, that is how we learn balance. 

That is the most important thing. 

***

There is another 'group' of Karateka that seem to have forgotten what this is all about, maybe they never really knew to begin with, who is it say?

Shihan Roseberry even stayed in touch with his Teacher, Seikichi Toguchi, when he and the Shorei Kan went their separate ways. 

He also stayed in touch with his Dojo Brothers, one such being Yoshio Kuba, and had the opportunity to train with Masanobu Shinjo Sensei. 

The point being that it does not matter what patch you wear on your Karate Gi and it does not matter how you do Kata or what sort of Kihon you practice, we are all Karateka, we are all one family, we can all learn from one another. 

Differences are differences, certainly, but this should never come between us and, when on the floor, the training takes precedence over ALL disagreements. 

The back and forth Political BS has no place there. My Sensei would always say, 'It is not the Teacher who leaves the Student, it is the Student who leaves the Teacher.'

Perhaps some Teachers should learn that lesson, if they care about the legacy they leave behind then they should make sure their legacy is a good one, a legacy worthy of being passed down, carried on into the future. 

We have enough charlatans, we have enough bad apples. Let's try to keep planting good seeds that will one day grow into strong, healthy, vibrant trees with deep roots.