Monday Morning Thoughts

My first Chinese New Year banquet was a great experience. It was really impressive to see the way that everyone came together to help set up for the banquet and then again to tear down and clean up at the end of the night. The demonstrations were amazing and I had never seen a lion/dragon dance in person before. When I was sitting at the table playing the music for the demos, I found myself repeatedly looking over at the two black belts on the table beside me. There was something about seeing them sitting there waiting to be awarded that stuck with me. It made me think about all the time and energy that must go into earning one. I found it exciting and intimidating at the same time. When Sifu Csillag and Sifu Langner spoke about their Kung Fu experiences it tied the whole night together for me. Hearing about how far they’ve come and what Kung Fu means to them really inspired me.

I had a bit of a rough start to my I Ho Chuan year in that I didn’t complete any daily requirements on Saturday so I put myself in a hole right off the bat, although it was only one day. Yesterday was a lot better though. I completed all my requirements except for my situps and I was able to spend some quality time with friends and family for the Super Bowl too.

Speaking of the Super Bowl, I came to the realization last night that I need to start distancing myself from professional sports. I feel like I waste a lot of energy following and cheering for my teams and they never win anything. After Denver got crushed yesterday I felt like someone ran over my dog. I had invested some much emotionally over the course of the season and the playoffs that the let down for me was awful. I’m still kind of feeling sad about it and I shouldn’t be. It’s a game. Why should I even care? There is literally no benefit to following sports the way I do, other than entertainment value. But I seem to take it far beyond mere entertainment value. So, in the interest of balance, I’m going to try to take a time out from sports for a while and maybe try to gain some perspective about the whole thing.