Kung fu

Sorry for the long delay in posting. I've noticed something rather curious over the last couple weeks: if I don't blog, I get terribly scatter brained...more so than usual that is. Evidently journaling makes a big difference.

Sifu Brinker asked us to write something of what kung fu has done for us. I feel somewhat at a disadvantage when writing such a thing since I've been doing kung fu since....4 or 5 or so. I can't really remember a time when kung fu wasn't in my life to some extent.
The biggest thing I think it has done for me is confidence; after sparring with so many talented martial artists, it's hard to be intimidated by random idiot #37.
Walking down whyte ave the other night with two friends, both of which are also training in martial arts, a fellow tried to pick a fight with us. We politely declined and kept walking. Being that he wasn't armed, I figured that the worst that would likely happen if he followed us is that I'd get beaten up. Big deal. I had no reason to feel afraid since I have confidence not only in my ability to absorb a hit and act accordingly, but also in my ability to outrun and outmaneuver drunk people.
Don't misunderstand, I'm not arrogantly assumig that I'm a big bad nineteen year old ninja, who is invulnerable (Side note: that's why I don't carry much in my wallet), but I'm confident that although I'm sure I couldn't outfight everyone, I've become clever enough to make sure I make it out of almost anything alive.
This even carries to things that have no chance of doing any physical harm. When I'm deciding if I should do something which intimidates me, whether it is talking to a girl (Side note: sad but true, sometimes they scare me), or taking up a personal challenge, kung fu pops into my head to fight a philosophical duel with whatever excuse I have not to do it. Kung fu is often the only thing that pulls me not only through a challenge, but into it.
For example, for the month of July I decided to not drink pop and not to eat anything out of a can. I would never even have had the idea were it not for kung fu driving me to push my boundaries and improve myself. Every time I told people they looked at me like I was crazy and ask 'why'. Telling people you've simply decided to undertake a personal challenge for nothing other than the satisfaction of doing it tends to enhance the crazy looks, but telling people it's a challenge for kung fu is a great way to deal with it. I've used kung fu as a motivational crutch many times.
I think I'm writing in circles to real end though, so I'll switch gears and bring this to an end with this paragraph which I think sums it up nicely:

When people find out that I do kung fu, they're sometimes quite impressed, or sometimes they voice the fact that they're unimpressed. Regardless of what they think, they always have an opinion and it's usually not accurate. The general view seems to be that training in kung fu should allow me to punch through brick walls, survive sky diving without a parachute, fly, dodge bullets, and possibly incinerate the english with lightning bolts from my eyes William Wallace style. Kung fu though, does not itself allow me to do anything, I can punch through the boards because I can, and so can everyone else on the planet; I can put my body through punishment because it can take it; I can work a 16 hour construction shift because I have stamina.
Kung fu does not magically allow me to do these things, it lets me see my potential to do them.

Ben Davies
Silent River Kung Fu
Stony Plain Alberta, Canada
www.silentriverkungfu.com