Judo empowers you to win. There are other more effective martial arts out there to do, like Karate and Submission Grappling. But there is something special about Judo. It is not just physical education.
I endured many things in my life. I could have imploded and destroyed myself. I could have just given up. But because I know I am right and I was meant to be vindicated in the end, I never gave up on myself.
Judo is not just an Olympic Sport or Jacket wrestling. It is a comprehensive system with a lot to it. There is more to it than Sport Judo. Besides contest Judo, there is kata, randori, lecture, discussion, the atemi waza which is similar to Karate and the Goshin Budo Jitsu which is similar to Aikido. Americans tend to think in results driven fashion. Judo is jacket wrestling and that's it. But compared to Taoist philosophers, they have simple minds.
It is not just physical education. It is a system where you start with child's play and you build up. MMA is a realistic contest where you see what works and what doesn't. A philosopher wouldn't do too well in a cage brawl. Philosophy is useless. The Gracies invented a great martial art and introduced the world to what works in a real brawl. But the Gracies don't own the game anymore.
A real Jujutsu master starts with randori, or wrestling on the feet, and builds up from there. He doesn't start with just kickboxing or just grappling. If you are overspecialized in one thing, you are not complete, and you fail. The foundation of MMA is wrestling, sport wrestling works without a gi, jacket wrestling works with a gi. I read one guy on the internet who said, 'wrestling is to MMA what Judo is to the street'. It is not the end knowledge, it is the beginning point. You start in wrestling, you add strikes and submissions, and then you add weapons and then you really know jujutsu. It is not just about jumping right in.
There is wholistic medicine and there is wholistic martial art. There is wholistic everything. When you see one thing and one thing only you are stupid. When you understand that what exists now depends on a rich complex of factors that began in the past, you become mature. This present moment is not all there is, but it is all humans can understand.
Now that TCM and Judo are no longer options, I have to get even more tough and move on. I have career potential in graphic design, and my music is growing. In my life, I mastered TCM, Judo, Graphic Design, and Music. Some paid off big and some didn't pay off at all. It turns out, the money is in Graphic Design, but the fun is in my hobbies. Just call me the hobbyist.
So I got tough. If I wasn't tough, I wouldn't be here being a keyboard warrior. I wouldn't have fingers to manipulate the keyboard. Lots of innocent people are victimized by the system in the USA, but very few are the one in a million who survive to tell the tale. I am that one champion who won the game. So I am the Cassius Clay of mental patients.
In Judo, we say 'Gambare!' which means 'get tough'. In every aspect of life, you must get tough. TCM empowered me with a worldview and a philosophy to guide all of life. With it, I mastered many things. And my life keeps improving. I can say the best experience of my life where training Sambo, discovering art, playing music infront of people, and leaving my mother's home. So the past 10 or 15 years where better than my youth. I didn't enjoy my youth. But now as a middle aged man, I am better off than ever. The best is yet to come.
So in this essay I described how Judo and my education helped me survive. I got tough. I am not saying I can get in the octagon and take on Fedor. I am not stupid. But I am saying I am tough, experienced, I believe in myself, and I have won more than I have lost. So in the end, I am a winner, and most people never reach what I have reached.
It is easy to write on a keyboard about martial arts. In reality, there is no way to win. The more I write, the more good people like me and bad people hate me. But I wouldn't want it any other way. I want good people to like me and bad people to bark up. If you bark, I know you are wrong. The good people just smile and acknowledge me. The gospel, or good news, is, good will win in the end. Evil appears fast and strong but it doesn't win. Maybe some initial victories, but in the end, all the good, weak, slow, poor, downtrodden people will win in the end. So get tough, and don't quit.
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