The Universal Human Phobia

Perhaps the most amazing concept in Grossman & Christensen's book, On Combat, is what Grossman et al have termed The Universal Human Phobia - interpersonal violence.

.

Grossman describes it this way. The most common phobia in the world is snakes. If you were to take a sack of squirming snakes and drop it into a room with 100 random people, as many as 15-20% would have a phobic-level response, meaning they would run screaming blindly. The rest of the people would do something intelligent, like move away or kill the snakes, or something.

.

Grossman et al, in their research, have found that around 95% of the population has a phobic-level response to interpersonal violence. So, if you took that same room of 100 people and went in shooting and stabbing, almost all of them would run blindly. There would be virtually no intelligent response.

.

This is amazing to me. Amazingly freeing to know that everyone has a phobic or near-phobic aversion to interpersonal violence. Somehow I thought it was just me, and it has made me feel lazy or cowardly for a long time. Somehow, just knowing that I'm not weird (at least not in this instance) is freeing and empowering.

.

An example of what I'm talking about is the article I wrote a couple of years ago, titled, "Heroes," in which I talked about Delitha Ward and Kitty Genovese. On Combat sheds new light (for me) on bystander apathy. I'd thought that the bystanders in these cases were just lazy, evil, heartless, cowardly bastards - the scum of the earth. Well, per Grossman's Universal Human Phobia concept, it seems virtually everyone should be expected to act that way. (I understand that Air Florida Flight 90 was not interpersonal violence, but it seems that the same mechanism must be at work.) This really emphasizes to me the extraordinary mettle of people like Lenny Skutnik and Arland Dean Wiliams Junior, for being able to act in the face of such a horrific event.

.

I said it then and I still maintain, "I pray that our training will prepare us to do something if we ever are forced to – not because I especially want to be a hero – but because that kind of apathy we don’t need in the world and that kind of hero, we do need."
.

Thanks for the great lesson, Grossman & Christensen!

____________

Patrick Parker, is a Christian, husband, father, judo and aikido teacher, Program Director for a Cardiac Rehab, and a Ph.D. Contact: mokurendojo@gmail.com or phone 601.248.7282

____________

Subscribe now for free updates from the Mokuren Dojo blog

The problem with warrior wannabes

I don't think it's a bad thing for people to want to be warriors. It is a noble calling. The problem with warrior wannabes is they often want personal power instead of wanting to commit themselves to sacrificial service. Consider that throughout history and across cultures, warriors were considered to be a form of servant. Quick examples from Wikipedia:

Samurai is the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan... was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society... the terms were nominalized to mean "those who serve in close attendance to the nobility,"

.

The term [chivalry] originated in France in the late 10th century; based on the word for "knight" (French: chevalier...)"... From the 12th century onward chivalry came to be understood as a moral, religious and social code of knightly conduct. The particulars of the code varied, but codes would emphasize the virtues of courage, honor, and service.

...let the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as one who serves. (Luke 22:26;ESV)

So, the problem with warrior wannabes is not that they want to be warriors, but that they don't know what it is that they want to be. I wonder how many people would jump on the warrior bandwagon knowing it meant expending your life in servitude.

____________

Patrick Parker, is a Christian, husband, father, judo and aikido teacher, Program Director for a Cardiac Rehab, and a Ph.D. Contact: mokurendojo@gmail.com or phone 601.248.7282

____________

Subscribe now for free updates from the Mokuren Dojo blog

Warrior, doctor, teacher, farmer, mechanic

The other Day, Chris Marshall left a comment on one of my Warrior Spirit posts. I always get a kick out of his comments because he asks penetrating questions that make me think a lot before I respond. Chris commented...

I see no reason to hold warriors in higher esteem. There must be other, better metaphors to reach for. Doctors don't need to be "warriors", or even "peaceful warriors". Neither do teachers, farmers, mechanics...

Firstly, I have nothing against doctors, teachers, farmers, mechanics, etc... Those are noble, valuable callings - things to be proud of. But regarding warriors, simply put, the warrior is the only profession that civilization cannot do without. Grossman & Christensen's On Combat: actually addresses Chris' question directly, using some of his same examples (Hmmm, I wonder if Chris was setting me up for something by using those examples)...

...If we went a single generation without men (and women) who are willing to go out every day and confront evil, then within the span of that generation we should surely be both damned and doomed. We could go for a generation without the doctors, and it would get ugly if you were injured or sick, but civilization would continue. We could go for a generation without engineers and mechanics, and things would break down, but civilization would survive.We could even go for a generation without teachers. The next generation would have to play "catch up ball," and it would be hard, but civilization as we know it would survive. (page xxiii)

Regarding the ultimate value of doctors, a sensei once told me a (perhaps apocryphal) story once about Canada shutting down elective surgery one year and fewer people died that year but then they had a garbage strike and more people began dying from disease - the question suggested by the story, which is more valuable for civilization, a doctor or a garbage man?

.

Another story to the point... I had one absolutely outstanding teacher in high school. He received the Teacher of the Year Award year after year. All his students loved his class and loved him, and he taught us much more than just the subject he was assigned. I was having a discussion with him once and I expressed the opinion that I thought it was a shame that teachers weren't paid more. He asked, "Why?" and I said something about kids being the future, and all that, to which he replied, "Well I don't think teachers should be paid more because unlike engineers and scientists and businessmen, teachers produce nothing of value for society." You could have heard a pin drop. I think I did hear my jaw hit the ground. He went on to explain, and the basis of his explanation was that children would (to a large extent) learn on their own and if a child wouldn't learn then there was nothing a teacher could do about it. There was more to it, but I don't think I could do justice to his argument in this short blog post.

.

Anyway, of the examples given... doctors, teachers, farmers, mechanics, etc... All are noble professions and (I would argue) they all produce value for society. But none are indispensable for civilization. Without warriors, society would die of entropy in the form of destroyers (criminals, murderers, terrorists, etc...), and it would be a gruesome death and there would be nothing that a doctor, teacher, farmer, or mechanic could do about it.

.

____________

Patrick Parker, is a Christian, husband, father, judo and aikido teacher, Program Director for a Cardiac Rehab, and a Ph.D. Contact: mokurendojo@gmail.com or phone 601.248.7282

____________

Subscribe now for free updates from the Mokuren Dojo blog

Grossman&Christensen on the Warrior Spirit

Grossman&Christensen's On Combat is an outstanding text on the psychology and physiology of people under extreme stress. I mentioned in my previous review that parts of it mesh directly with a ongoing conversation we're having here on Mokuren Dojo. I'm referring to the Warrior Spirit discussion – whether or not there is really such a thing as a warrior... If so, what is the warrior spirit... That discussion.

.

Several well-known martial arts bloggers have jumped in on this topic, including...

.

Rory Miller...

A warrior is someone who makes war for a living. Period. It's not some autonomous, independent, noble killing machine, some reborn knight or paragon. It is someone who is paid money to make big problems go away, often in a messy fashion. Never been in a war? Not a warrior. Get over it. I know that there is a myth and an industry building up around the 'warrior identity' but there are parts of it that I really don't get.

Tgace...

I have come to be of the opinion that a true “Warrior” is someone who goes out into the world and engages in some sort of activity that serves someone other than himself. Soldiers, firefighters, EMT’s, LEO’s and numerous other professions can fit this description. That being said, being a “warrior” isn’t just having a job. There are plenty of people in those ranks that are just “grunts”. Being a “warrior” implies a level of dedication, mindset and professionalism that places one in a different class.

Well, I personally think that the Warrior Spirit does exist...

For the record, I disagree with the folks that say that there is no such thing as a warrior, or that it is a romanticized glorification of violence by weekend soldier-of-fortune wannabes, or that it is an artifact of imperialistic nationalism. The Warrior Spirit is a vague thing, but it does exist, it is noble in some sense, and is worth defining and discussing.

...and On Combat backs me up...

If you are in a war, you are a warrior. Is there a war on drugs? Is there a war on crime? Is there a war on terrorism? Are you confronting and containing aggression as a peace officer at home, a peacekeeper in some distant land, or a warrior combating terrorism around the world? Or perhaps you have chosen to be a martial arts practitioner or an armed citizen, seeking to defend yourself or your loved ones in their hour of need? Are there people out there who wake up every morning determined to send you back to your family in a box?

Then you are in a war and you are a warrior. (page xix)

If you are interested in the Warrior Spirit, or if you think you might be a warrior or even just know a warrior, you really ought to read this book. Great material by two guys who have been there and done that and really know the territory.

____________

Patrick Parker, is a Christian, husband, father, judo and aikido teacher, Program Director for a Cardiac Rehab, and a Ph.D. Contact: mokurendojo@gmail.com or phone 601.248.7282

____________

Subscribe now for free updates from the Mokuren Dojo blog

Replay: American warriors

Here is another replay of an article I wrote in July of 2007. This was part of a long-ish series of posts I did on warriors, warrior spirit, and the warrior ethos.

The Warrior in America

My dad was a warrior. He was a Lieutenant Commander on a destroyer in the Pacific in World War II. He's never talked much about the war, just an occasional hint or two, but today he told me about some action that occurred in the Philippines. His destroyer took part in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, which saw the first use of kamikaze aircraft in the war. Dad says he watched a plane pass over him and miss its target by about 30 feet, piling into the water and exploding. Not yet realizing that the pilot's intent had been to fly into the ship, dad's thought was one of awed sympathy, "that guy never had a chance!"

Later he said he saw two planes fly into the USS Mississippi. During this action in the Philippines, a shell from a shore battery hit a nearby ship and utterly destroyed everything from the mast forward. My dad took a whale boat into the wreckage and picked up 20-some-odd survivors. As he was offloading the men onto a mid-sized transport, the transport was hit and destroyed and he had to go pick up the survivors again. For this action he earned an award (a Bronze Star Medal?)

After the war, he gave up warrioring and became an engineer, a businessman, and a family man. But beneath these hats there was still a warrior. There was (is) some part of the warrior, noble and stern, dignified and proper, remaining in him.

Yesterday I noticed a new book put out by Skyhorse Publishing, titled The Battle for Leyte Gulf and it started me thinking about my dad and this story I told in this old post, and that started me fiending for a copy of this book (Hint - if any of y'all want to buy me a book for Christmas). Or maybe some of y'all are WWII history buffs and would enjoy reading it too. If so, if you purchase the book from my Amazon link, they'll throw me a little kickback.

[For the rest of this week I will be camping with my family. In my absence I have scheduled several great re-plays from my archives. Check in each day to see what I've dug up in my trip back in time. Leave me a comment and let me know what you think and I'll see y'all again Monday!]

How did you decide, Martin?

Today we remember one of our country's foremost warriors in the cause of peace, equality, and freedom - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

.

Though in his Letter From a Birmingham Jail, he states that he was a force of moderation standing between extremists on both sides, King was considered extreme by the establishment of the time, and this led to his assasination. Dr. King could have possibly prolonged his life if he had skillfully shifted his position based on the forces that he encountered (aiki), perhaps going along with the prevailing forces until he could overpower them or unbalance them (ju) but instead, he effectively took a stand and spent his life all at once in the service of his cause (kime) - And it was certainly a worthy cause.

.

But this begs the question, how do you determine whether to stand and fight right here and now or shift and live to fight another day? At what point is the evil you face so grievous that you decide to spend all of yourself right now in its downfall? Or do you simply let your enemies decide when you take your final stand?

.

What do you think King's effect on the civil rights movement would have been like if he were alive today? If he had accomodated the establishment to any significant degree he would have sacrificed some of the moral power of his cause, but he would have had many more years to exert that lessened power.

.
.

.
CARNIVAL TIME!

With that question as an introduction, welcome to the January 2008 edition of carnival of martial arts. This is a themed issue on peaceful warriors and conflict resolution - not that every article submitted is directly on topic, but all are interesting and worth checking out.

.

Hilltown Families presents Peace Episode on HFVS (New Year's Day '08) posted at Hilltown Families. A little peace music to stimulate your sense of nostalgia as you peruse the carnival.

.
Patrick Parker presents Nonviolent self defense posted at Mokuren Dojo. A curious look at a (perhaps) faulty idea of non-violent self-defense.

.
Dave Chesser presents Aikido-like Chinese IMA posted at Formosa Neijia. A potential answer to the question in the above post.

.
Patrick Parker presents Rolling the ball and brushing off posted at Mokuren Dojo. My own take on Dave Chesser's article above.

.
Chris presents Conflict Resolution: A Casualty of Non-Violent Martial Arts posted at Martial Development. A valuable reminder in light of the above articles.
.
Nathan Teodoro presents Preventing Sexual Abuse in Martial Arts posted at TDA Training.

.

Michael Bell presents Why Study Martial Arts? posted at live-it-true.com.

.
Dave Shevitz presents Jury Duty and Ki Tests posted at AikiThoughts. Nobody I've seen has done a better job of applying the philosophy of aiki to his everyday life than Dave Shevitz.

.
Patrick Parker presents Creamed Asparagus posted at Mokuren Dojo. Another perspective on nonviolent self-defense - in the context of bullying.

.

Dave Shevitz presents Martial Arts and Bullying posted at AikiThoughts. A very good answer to the above post about Creamed Asparagus.

.
Dojo Rat presents The Significance Of Billy Jack posted at Dojo Rat.

.
Argonautica presents Jujutsu Suffragettes posted at Argos Classic Martial Reprints .
.
Eric Frey presents Martial Arts, Why Belt Ranking Systems Are Bad. posted at Eric Frey Dot Com.

.
Eric Frey presents Martial Arts Training, How To See A Punch Coming A Mile Away. posted at Eric Frey Dot Com.

.
Shaheen Lakhan presents Martial Arts Program for Children with Epilepsy posted at GNIF Brain Blogger.

..

That's it for this month's issue. Thank all of you for participating - I hope we can keep this important discussion going. Drop by the articles you find most interesting and leave comments.

.

Submit your blog article to the next edition of *carnival of martial arts* using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

.

Lastly, but certainly not least, We're always looking for blogs to host an upcoming issue of the Carnival. If you are interesting in having the Carnival appear on your blog, drop Argonautica a line at Argos Classic Martial Reprints .

What is it about grappling?

Rick Fryer posted a good comment on my last post. He reminded us that you don’t want to grapple with a guy who has a knife. I agree. Of course you don’t want to grapple with (or even be near) a knife guy. The guy in the video says that. The idea of teaching to defend against a knife is nearly ludicrous because you can’t afford to screw around with knife guys. It’s such a good weapon it makes virtually anyone mortally dangerous.
.
But the point that the guy in the video made that was so interesting to me was that there is something about grappling that seems to bring out the warrior spirit in people. They are not teaching soldiers to grapple; they are explicitly involved in fostering the warrior spirit in these soldiers. This is because, as he puts it, we don’t win wars by grappling, but we win wars by being warriors (my paraphrase).

.

So, what is it about grappling that fosters the warrior spirit?

.

Grappling instills a willingness to get down and dirty and closely involved with things that inspire primal terror (i.e. being immobilized and choked, being dominated and forced to submit, being in peril of broken joints, the possibility of grappling with a guy who might have a knife, having your every action make your situation worse, impending total anaerobic fatigue, etc...)

.

It is this willingness to engage the enemy even under conditions of terror that defines courage, and grappling instills this ethic better (in my opinion) than stand-up fighting styles because the student of stand-up fighting is allowed to hold out the illusion that it might just be possible to achieve a nice, clean, hands-down victory. It is this stand-offishness, this unwillingness to dirty oneself for the cause that seems antithetical to the warrior spirit.

.

This seems to me the basis (besides friendly competitiveness) of why Marines and Army guys ridicule Air Force and Navy guys. Marines and Army are stereotyped (or maybe archetyped) as the guys that are willing to get dirty to win a war, while the Flyboys and Navy guys are portrayed as stand-back, technological fighters or as bus-drivers for the real warriors. Well, in this world of advancing technology, it is easy for the Marines and Army to develop this same creeping stand-offishness and lose part of the warrior spirit. Has anyone seen, for example, the Newsweek some years back about the new generation of electrically-fired rifle that will shoot timed, exploding bullets around corners?. So it seems the Marines and Army have instituted this jujitsu grappling training to nurture that old-style jarhead/grunt ethic of willingness to engage in the mud.

.
And that is what I think the guy in the video is talking about that makes the video so interesting to me.

Mississippi, land of warriors

If you can't read the text at the bottom of this awesome ad...

The Unmatched Courage of a Soldier. The Ultimate Sacrifice of a Town. The unparalleled Vision of a Workforce. Mississippi. A Legendary Force for Freedom.

One Mississippian – Lawrence "Rabbit" Kennedy – who served in the U.S. Army during Vietnam, remains one of the most decorated U.S. soldiers in history. One small town in Mississippi – D'Lo – sent proportionally more men to serve in World War II than any other town in the country … which was literally every eligible man in town. And for over 60 years, one Mississippi workforce – Northrop Grumman Ship Systems – has helped bring freedom to those who seek her elusive grasp the world over. One man. One town. One workforce. One state. Mississippi – dedicated to freedom. You better believe it.

Mississippi? Believe it!

www.mississippibelieveit.com

The warrior spirit does exist

For the record, I disagree with the folks that say that there is no such thing as a warrior, or that it is a romanticized glorification of violence by weekend soldier-of-fortune wannabes, or that it is an artifact of imperialistic nationalism. The Warrior Spirit is a vague thing, but it does exist, it is noble in some sense, and is worth defining and discussing. My gross generalizations of what we've learned in this discussion include:

• The warrior spirit seems to be something that pervades or accompanies warriordom of all types of all ages. It is common to the times and cultures of Achilles, Gilgamesh, and Beowulf as well as those of World War II and the Civil War soldier.
• It has something to do with manhood, though there were notable female warriors (eg Dido, Boudica, Amazons. Perhaps even Rosie the Welder).
• It seems to be associated with sacrificial service to a group (i.e .samurai, Heckler). See this quote at Nathan's blog.
• It is associated with several virtues (honor, courage, strength, etc…)
• There are conspicuous potential mis-uses of it (machismo, misogyny, etc…)

Warriors in a cage

The modern warrior

I realize this might be video overload, but these give an idea of what folks think a modern warrior is. Or maybe what the Military wants folks to think a warrior is. Or maybe even what the military thinks folks want to believe about warriors.
.
What do you see in these videos? What is the warrior spirit portrayed here?

Warrior fraternities of yesteryear

Strozzi-Heckler talks in his book about the fraternity, or brotherhood of warriors. I don’t have the book with me right now so I can’t come up with specific citations, but the premise is that part of why men are warriors is because as such they receive positive affirmation from other men. A while back I wrote about Susan Faludi’s book, Stiffed, in which she comes to the same conclusion.

This aspect of fraternity has apparently always been either a part of the warrior spirit, or coincident with it. It is easy to find examples of the warrior fraternity in ancient literature; Achilles and Patroclus, Gilgamesh and Enkidu, Beowulf & Wiglaf, David and Jonathan.

The strongest point that Strozzi-Heckler seems to make in his jumbled mess of a book is that it would be a good thing if someone could find some way for men to tap into that warrior spirit and affirm each other without actually having to be destructive. To give that warrior archetype an outlet, not for aggression and violence, but rather for service.

The warrior in America

My dad was a warrior. He was a Lieutenant Commander on a destroyer in the Pacific in World War II. He's never talked much about the war, just an occasional hint or two, but today he told me about some action that occurred in the Philippines. His destroyer took part in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, which saw the first use of kamikaze aircraft in the war. Dad says he watched a plane pass over him and miss its target by about 30 feet, piling into the water and exploding. Not yet realizing that the pilot's intent had been to fly into the ship, dad's thought was one of awed sympathy, "that guy never had a chance!" Later he said he saw two planes fly into the USS Mississippi. During this action in the Philippines, a shell from a shore battery hit a nearby ship and utterly destroyed everything from the mast forward. My dad took a whale boat into the wreckage and picked up 20-some-odd survivors. As he was offloading the men onto a mid-sized transport, the transport was hit and destroyed and he had to go pick up the survivors again. For this action he earned an award (a Bronze Star Medal?)

After the war, he gave up warrioring and became an engineer, a businessman, and a family man. But beneath these hats there was still a warrior. There was (is) some part of the warrior, noble and stern, dignified and proper, remaining in him.

But I didn't intend this as a simple tribute to my father. My father is an example of an extremely common nobility in America. Because of the relative youth of this country and the frequency of conflicts, America has bred warriors in every generation. I think you'd be hard pressed to find an American that is more than one or two generations removed from this warrior ethos represented by my father. This idea was somewhat hinted at in a quote by John Adams that I posted a few days ago;

I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce, and agriculture, in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain.

The idea being that despite our desire to believe that we have evolved into artists, poets, and philosophers, not only are we at most a couple of generations removed from the warrior, but we are indebted to him (or her).

About 120 years ago, Jigoro Kano saw this same thing happening in Japan. His country was emerging from feudalism into the modern era of industrialism and multinationalism and he saw that there would be no place for the professional warrior as he had previously existed in Japan. The next generation would be engineers and businessmen and the following generation would be artists (so he thought or hoped). Gichin Funakoshi in his autobiography, Karate-do My Way of Life, describes coming to the same realization when he had to get his topknot shorn in order to be admitted to a modern school. So, what did these guys do? They reorganized the martial traditions that they had access to in order to preserve the nobility inherent in the warrior ways. That's part of what we are doing in the martial arts - conserving the warrior spirit.
.

You know, I think it's funny that my dad, the warrior fought the Japanese and it is Japanese martial arts that have allowed me to learn and preserve part of that warrior spirit.

The Warriors of Vicksburg

This past weekend, my wife and I went to Vicksburg and stayed at a bed&breakfast that was part antebellum, part Victorian. The Baer House was a wonderful experience with a host that really went out of his way to make his guests comfortable and welcome. I'd highly recommend this B&B for anyone in the vicinity who wants an exceptional experience.

While there, we went to see the old Court House Museum. Fascinating history. One of the most interesting artifacts (to me) was a copy of a newspaper that was unfinished at the time of the seige. One of the last articles to be set was basically an editorial about how there was no way in hell the Union would ever be able to take Vicksburg. Well, they did and the Union army found the newspaper and finished setting he last column and printed copies of it. In the Union addition to the paper was a counter-editorial that essentially said,' a couple of days make a lot of difference, don't they?" But the most interesting part of the counter-editorial was a comment to the effect that the Mississippians ought to be grateful to the Union because they (the citizens) need not live in caves and eat cats anymore. Apparently, according to the artifacts at Vicksburg, both sides had noble motives. One was fighting for Unity, the other for Homeland. The one side thought that they were the noble defenders against 'Northern Aggression,' while the other side saw themselves as saviors and liberators.

The next day we viewed the Battlefield Memorial Park, a 16-mile long trail winding through the sites of the emplacements of the various Union and Confederate troops during the seige. Now, the trail is populated with massive, impressive memorial structures to the various states and companies and groups that took part in the seige. At the end of the trail (not really the end, but we were exhausted by the time we got there, so the rest of the trail went really fast) is the USS Cairo museum (the first armored steamship to be destroyed by a torpedo (what we would now call a mine).

I'm certainly not a Civil War buff, but this was fascinating military history. It was touching to see the battlefield memorials to the various warriors on both sides that fought this conflict to determine what kind of country this would be. I thought this trip had a good bit to say about the role of the warrior that I've been discussing with Dojo Rat lately.

Richard Strozzi-Heckler's Warrior Spirit

I have finished reading Richard Strozzi-Heckler's In Search of the Warrior Spirit that Dojo Rat recommended I read and review and which Patrick Waits (P3) subsequently loaned me. What can I say? Overall an interesting book. It's got all the things that should make for a fascinating read - aikido, Green Berets, hi-tech biofeedback voodoo. The premise is that in the mid-1980's the author got to try to teach a bunch of soldiers aikido, meditation, biofeedback, etc... to see if there was anything in these new age modalities that would make the soldiers better warriors.

.

Despite the great premise the book fell somewhat flat with me. First, their explicit premise seemed to be to bring the mythical Jedi warriors from Star Wars to life in the form of the United States Special Forces. The project's motto was Vi Cit Tecum (may the Force be with you) and their logo depicted crossed light sabers over a Trojan horse. Those that know me know that this is a pet peeve of mine - trying to take movie spirituality and use it as a justification for some behavior. I had a sensei who used to love to motivate us by quoting wise-sounding sayings of Yoda et al. And sure, I have found over the years quotes from movies that significantly mirror parts of my martial arts philosophy (perhaps most notably, "Power without perception is spiritually useless ..."), but I don't toss these quotes around as resources of wisdom or cite them as guides to belief or action.

Also, on a purely personal note, I went into the book with a couple of expectations, One: I expected that somewhere in the book, the author would come to the conclusion, "a warrior is..." and that would be interesting. He did cite various qualities, like courage, mindfulness, patience, etc... but either he skipped it or I missed it in my reading. Two: and this is related to the first point above. I expected this book to move from point A to point B making some progress and describing it. It didn't. Instead it vaguely meandered through selected vignettes that occurred during the project. To put it into Meyers-Briggs terminology, the book is very intuitive-feeling-perceiving (NFP) and not very sensing-thinking-judging (STJ).

.

All that is not to say that it is drivel. It is not. The book was thought-provoking and there were many parts that I am going to want to think about a lot. It is the type of book that I will want to re-read more than once. I intend to dissect some of the issues in the book and cover them in future posts, hopefully translating them from NFP-speak to STJ-speak. Stay tuned...