The Question: What is a 21st century martial artist?
Forgive my brief lapse into cynicism.
From a certain point of view, the martial arts are obsolete: a bunch of people in pajamas, playing with techniques that appear lethal only when we close our eyes and dream.
In another's eyes, it is the glamour of movies and television, where green screens, wires, and CGI blend with stuntmen and horrible acting to entertain the masses.
To others, the arts evolved into a hybrid witnessed by millions on pay-per-view as modern gladiators battle in an explosion of testosterone, sweat, and blood. They treat their arts like a sport or game, the kind reserved for the UFC, the Olympics, tournaments, sports camps, exercise, and friendly horseplay.
Several envision themselves as modern warriors, a reborn samurai or ninja, or perhaps as a Rambo-Chuck Norris crossbreed.
It is a billion-dollar industry, with most of the money landing in the wallets of savvy businessmen who withhold their knowledge to “earn” next month's tuition and build their wealth, while honest teachers live in stoic poverty.
There are artists, historians, and philosophers who are enamored by pretty things, classic stories, and metaphysical ponderings; preachers who abuse the arts to profess their favorite prophet; bullies who like to hit people; bubbly aerobics teachers kicking to the beat; and children who view it as something to play with their friends.
Pardon me, but if that's what it means to be a martial artist, then I quit.
We are capable of far better than this. I have spent my life creating more than this, and I know that your experience is worth much more to you than the trivialities that I've described.
The way that you answer “The Question” affects the kind of martial artist you can AND will be.
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