Guest Article

I will have a guest article up at spicycatholic.com as soon as Vic has read, approved, and added a forward to the text.
Yes I get the irony in the fact that my first blog post in four years is on someone else's website.
Here are a couple of cute picture of our kids for good measure.

On Pacifism

Pacifism: Opposition to war or violence as a means of settling disputes (Merriam-Webster)

I think pacifists are cool.

Consciously choosing to achieve one's aims by means that are not physically harmful to another human is, in my estimation, noble and honorable.

The key, it seems, is choice. The power gained by having the ability to turn the other cheek comes from having some other option.

More and more, I am discovering my martial path as one that allows me to more easily and fully live out Christ's commandments of love and compassion. This is one more example of God's great gift of free will. Explaining my position here will require me to delve a bit into Christian Theology, so bear with me.

God created us for a singular purpose, and that purpose is to love Him. He could have, of course, made us so that we had no choice but to show signs of love, respect, fealty, and fear. Had He, the whole world would appear to love Him. Love, though, is not a thing borne of compulsion. In order for any of us to love Him according to His will, all of us had to be created with the choice not to. The upshot is that many choose to reject God, but those who accept His role in their lives are free to love Him freely.

Now when we look at pacifism through that philosophical lens, we can see that only by being free to choose violence is non-violence a choice and not a requirement thrust upon us by limited options.

Why say all of this and take up server space? I mean, after all, as mammals don't we have a natural capacity to do harm to one another? One does not need to study how to inflict bodily damage on someone else, does one? Isn't that all instinctual? Actually, yes. That's not my point, but it does give me another idea for a blog post relating to what makes Human Beings something other than instinctual animals.

The thrust of my argument is scalability and appropriateness. By learning to be better warriors, we have a more diverse tool kit to respond to a wider array of conflictual situations. Rather than being forced to rely on fight or flight instinct, we can use warrior training to de-escalate, safely apprehend, or skillfully remove ourselves so that no harm need come to ourselves or our adversary.

Rather than "Peace Through Non-Violence," "Pacifism Through Power!"

Mobile blogging test.

This is the view from my office window. Mmmm, Good Times.

Discipline Writing

I am posting today because I'm supposed to. I don't know of anything in particular that I need to say, but perhaps in the writing, something will come to me... ... ... ...


Oh, here's something! I've been thinking lately about the way I feel about certain culturally divisive issues. As I've come closer to a spiritual road that can lead me to be who I want to be, I've been compelled to revisit some things. Truthfully, most of my positions are in complete agreement with my religious path. I have found it true, however, that even though I come down on the same side of most things as I always have, I do so for different reasons. More and more, I find my conscience informing my politics, rather than the other way around. I've felt really empowered lately by how freeing an experience it is to find that I actually believe what I've said that I believe or conversely to be able to say, "No, ya know what? I was wrong about that. Maybe I was even wrong about that all along. " I'm pretty sure this is what they mean by thinking for oneself.

By the way, the word "dogmatic" is over- and misused today.

Whew! Ok, here's a breathless account of the past 8 or so weeks. It's Lent and I'm finding myself challenged daily by laziness, lack of focus and forgetfulness. Growth can be hard. Vic and I are gonna get married, but unfortunately won't get to be parents just yet. All things in the fullness of time. She's moved on to Level 2 in To-Shin Do and I'm preparing for my upcoming solid brown belt test. I'm working for Programs, which was not true at the time of my last post, and it's fine. Vic's on the cusp of becoming an elementary school teacher through the Denver Teaching Fellows program which she should because she's incredible. Spiritually and religiously, things are moving along at what seems to be a fever pitch. The Easter Vigil is right around the corner and we're all so close now to being accepted to full communion with the Church. I continue to be amazed by the people that I've been lucky enough to surround myself with. Any suggestions for creating a system that ensures regular additions to a web log?

On Beginnings

Yesterday marked the beginning of a new year.  I've been reflecting a bunch recently and have realized that every day marks the beginning of a new year.  There are probably at least half a dozen days that I mark each and every year and and 1 to the number of years that it has been since the event that caused me to start remembering that date.  June 6 is the day that I left for boot camp.  July 1st is the day that I exited the Marine Corps.  September 11 is now September 11.  November 15 is my birthday.  There are some others.

My reason for bringing this up is to illustrate my belief that the ideal time to make a move could very well be right now.  Every year at this time, there is a whole host of people that denigrate the making of resolutions on the dawn of the New Year.  In my opinion it's perfectly acceptable to not make a New Year's Resolution.  Unfortunately, deciding not to declare what you would like to change all too often leads to there being no change.

What's my point?

Any moment can be the impetus for a sound, life-changing decision.  

To dovetail off of that idea, something that I have learned to implement in the past several months is a personal, internal reset button.

I find it very useful -especially when engaged in heated debate- to pause, check in with my mind, and see if I truly feel as passionate as my words and tone would indicate.  Some times I do.  Many times I do not.  When I'm sure that I am right (or at least that I don't want to lose the debate) this brief moment of internal quiet allows me to pursue my ends compassionately.  When I'm wrong or being bullheaded for the sake of my ego, I can discover that and tactfully and (hopefully) gracefully withdraw myself from the conversation or direct it in somewhere else.  What I find so cool and useful about this technique is that it allows me to decide how I feel.  I do not have to continue to feel and react in a certain way simply because I always have, even if up until only a moment ago.

Hey, if you like what's going on here, click the "Give Props" button on the left side of your screen.  

I would also love to hear from you, so please take a few seconds and write a brief comment or at least click one of the radio boxes to let me know how I'm doin'.

Joy of this Season

I have decided to quit being so picky about what I put up on this blog because, as you can assuredly tell, my fastidiousness has only lead to me not having a blog.  If I wanted to not have a blog, I could have very easily not established one.

Allow me to say that I love Christmas.  I have always loved this holiday (holy day?).  Very recently it has taken on more religious and liturgical significance, but I have loved this Season for as long as I can remember.  I'm not going to effuse at length about the love and unity that makes this time of year uniquely wonderful, but I enjoy those things immensely. 

The past year has been interesting for me in very many ways:  In December of 2007 I tested for my solid red belt.  I was at best a border-line Christian, forever questioning the tenets of my Faith which seemed to rely on the shutting down of my intellect in order for them to remain true for me.  I was working a job that I loathed.  I had a distinct lack of someone to share these sacred days with (no offense Thomas).  

One year later and I'm graduating into the final elemental expression of our taijutsu principles before Black Belt.  I have found the Church.  Spiritually, I've come home; where the marriage of spirit and intellect is not only helpful, it is required for true understanding of Scripture and Tradition.  I'm a professional martial arts teacher and enrollment specialist at the one place in town that delivers on it's promise to unleash the potential of the individual.  Best of all, Vic is here to share in these mysteries and she's in it to win it.

I suppose that this time of year is generally a time of reflection, and it appears that that is so for me, as well.  Nice to look back with some perspective and see sustained growth in my reality and my perception of it.

Merry Christ's Mass!