Tag: Hapkido

Summer setback

That summer in Jr High, I experienced a setback: Hapkido went wild, leaving me with a broken arm.

The Kung Fu Hall already had my parents’ release, so even if it had been the fault of the visiting Red-Belt Master (who held up the brick, but moved it unexpectedly when it’s my turn to kick), we couldn’t say a word. All my fault!

So I stayed indoor most of that summer: learning English phrases and reflecting on my class yearbook.

I envisioned life not as a straight line (not like Champ Elyse), but quite twist and turn, hard to see around the bend.

I also knew that my friends and I would make choices we later regret (clearly my attempt at Kung Fu still stared at me, heavy in cast, itchy and with hair ).

I promised myself that whatever happens around the bend, I still see them as they once were: innocent, a bit naive and full of energy.

40 years later, I got to see what’s around the bend.

I ran into some of them: neither innocent, nor full of energy.

Nevertheless, I listen and take in what 4 decades did to a young junior high friend: regime collapse triggered a chain of unintended consequences (for both of us). For him, it meant failed attempt at escape, imprisonment and finally orderly departure with the help of his sister (way to go girl).

Now, we still “ping-pong” in our conversation about deficit and surplus.

I detected hidden intelligence and determination despite my friend’s lack of higher education. After all, we were the selected few for that high school.

The IQ scores are still there. In fact, his setback and mine has strengthened our resolves. For him, it offered such an unmatched springboard and deeper frame of reference. For me, a summer setback (an eternity at that age) which has turned into a lifelong pursuit of learning.

I never look at someone without assuming his/her best intention. If a broken arm caused me a summer setback, it gave me something better in return: the ability to bounce back, to heal and to see in others the pain they might have gone through, albeit not a physical pain.

In retrospect, what one projected into the future was quite powerful.

It’s called visualization. In my case, I knew I couldn’t see around the bend (of time). But I knew then as now, that life is unpredictable. Growing up witnessing the burning monk, starting school late because of Tet 68, only confirmed that someday, when I see my friends again, not only I would greet them with warmest of hearts, but also, rejoice in that we are alive still.

Setbacks make us stronger, just like muscles that got ripped when we exercised. Talking of which, I have stayed away, far away, from the Kung Fu Hall ever since. Instead of muscles, I dwell into higher learning. The body will someday waste away, but a man with clarity of mind and purity of heart remains forever.

Summer setback was my painful lesson in overcoming adversity.

I did not ask for it. But the unintended consequence is the ability to absorb disappointment and bounce back from it. No setback, no success.

Brief shinning light

TIME and Life’s Turbulent Years (60’s) has a picture of JFK just an hour before his  death.

Presidential, Camelot and eternally youthful in that Dallas morning.

Another picture shows after a dip in Santa Monica. What other President would do that today.

Summer time. Pool is opened. Life guards and their whistles.

Sun shades and sun tan.

Sun burn and sun block.

Heart throbbing and heart breaking.

I had one indelible summer memory of staying indoor: had a broken arm from Hapkido went wrong.

Summer-long restlessness.

Forced me to sit down. To be reflective.

Trajectory deflected.

Before that, I hadn’t realize that life never travel in a straight line

(white, yellow, blue, brown then black belt. Supposedly).

Even product planners can tell you that (S curve, valley of death etc…).

Instead, forced disruptions, surprised and blessed events strung together to make what’s called life.

Those in leadership factor in  the “unexpected”, plan B, plan C , worst-case scenario.

Even then, things still turn out not as planned.

(ComSat with low battery life, no reception etc… that forced our Lt Mike Murphy to the clearing hence drawing fire).

The team that got Bin Laden, even with the Iranian hostage crisis in hindsight, still left a burned helicopter.

Apollo, Challenger all had their shares of disasters. Skype with multiple dropped calls,  bought out twice to land in Seattle, Washington (but managed finally to link Video Chat for friends on Facebook).

Camelot and America’s brief shinning moment “Ask not…”.

So we did. A race to the moon, and a race to the jungle of South East Asia.

B-52 is now a throat-burning drink (ironically) and Apocalypse Now, a gay bar in former Saigon.

Horror! (line from the film).

I still remember where I was when I heard JFK was shot.

I was discussing it with Pierre, my half-breed schoolmate, on our way to L’Ecole Aurore via a short-cut.

We were in blue uniform, pretending to be adults. Even then, we knew somehow life would never be the same.

That world events somehow would directly impact our little lives (not too long before that, our own President had been assassinated along with his brother).

Still we had a dream (that Vietnamese kid and half-breed French kid would happily go to school).

Summer time, and youthful dream (especially when you are confined at home on cast).

And no matter what, taking down political leaders didn’t seem right in my naive assessment.

I have waited to see better solutions. And lately, with the trial of Egyptian President, I started to see that things have changed for the better.

And that if you waited long enough, what’s right will always have its day in court (or get declassified).

For that brief shinning moment, no one knew the handsomest President would hold office for only a little over 1,000 days.

Yet, his impact and influence lasted way beyond his grave e.g. private-sector space travel like Virgin Group etc..

Ask not….. for you will never know when the bell toll for thee. Summer time. Youthfulness. In restless dreams I walk alone.