Hello Todd,
You will probably have guessed by now how political the SPM field is particularly the Jook-Lum patch, a many cornered field with individuals facing their respective corners and their backs turned away from one - another: well, some at least, some others are meeting in friendship in the middle - open ground.
I don’t know you or your background and I’ve taken you at face value. Jack and others are naturally more suspicious than I am and so perhaps are less inclined to fall into traps set by people who want to draw out politically inflamatory statements which can be used to cause trouble.
My policy of openness has got me into deep and troubled waters many times.
Your posts have coincided with an off-line attempt to intimidate me from a less than open group within the broader J-L community. I have responded appropriately and told them that I’ll debate in public about any issues that they wish. That was the kind of thing that Bruce and Jack were on their guard about as this group have caused trouble in the past and will without doubt continue to do so.
IME Bruce and GM Yee are fine examples of their traditional Pai, as is Scott Eng, Richard Hodson and GM Mark. Jack is a real-deal fellow who for a genuine (in his perception) friend he would lay down his life. All good people. We are all different but we work with those differences.
Many of my personal and subjective beliefs run counter to what is ‘expected’ from someone with my TCMA background. I have other aspects to my life and I draw on them as much as anything else. This has made me enemies.
I don’t mind fighting internet battles if it is worth the effort and occasionally I judge that it is. More often however, it gets tiresome as there is no return for efforts made excepting in those cases were genuine communication between open and equally frank human beings occurs. I have tried to be like that - I do not always succeed.
As I said above, I do not know you, but I have tried to be open. If you rae genuine and I have no proof to the contrary then I wish you every success in navigating through this amazing world of Chinese Martial Arts.
Sincerely,
Steve Richards.
