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IAIDO
Mar 31, 2015 2:09:23 GMT
Post by JH Lee on Mar 31, 2015 2:09:23 GMT
My neighbor is a professional carpenter who also does landscaping (Scottish-German ancestry). Nice, regular guy. No time for martial arts or anything like that; too busy making a living for his kids. That said, I think he's one of the most disciplined people I know. In his own way, in his own walk of life, he also pursues perfection. And while he may not swing a sword, he is internally much stronger than a lot of people I used to train with in Kendo, Iaido, TKD, and Krav Maga (all of which I've done for many years). And that strength comes through in his personal accountability, general kindness, and ability to look at the good in others.
There are teachers, bakers, dancers, runners, mechanics, cooks... just every day folks who all get up in the morning, try their best at what they do, and put one foot in front of the other. I think that, sometimes, the greatest challenge in life is just trying to be the best husband or father we can be; respecting our parents even when they aren't so respectable, etc.
For the samurai, especially during the more peaceful Tokugawa-Edo period, martial training took a distant backseat to other things that complemented their education: tea ceremony, calligraphy, philosophy, singing, poetry.... and each of those were just another way for them to pursue self-control and maturity of character.
The point I'm trying to make is that it's not necessarily the activity that defines a person's character; it's the manner in which that activity is engaged. Not what you do but how you do it. A person could swing a sword all day, all year and become better at "winning" fights than anyone else. But for all that, he could also be the weakest (internally) and most frightened person in the whole town, even weaker than some frail sickly girl who does flower arrangement.
Not trying to argue with you. Just my 0.02 cents.
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IAIDO
Mar 31, 2015 4:03:01 GMT
Post by Gunnar Wolfgard on Mar 31, 2015 4:03:01 GMT
Absolutely, I've always said it doesn't matter what you choose to do in life as long as you do it to the best of your ability. It just so happens that I love to build things and do landscaping on my property, ten acres of it. Almost all of the furniture in my house was built by me. I don't do it for a living because I feel it would take something away from it for me. Everyone here seems to be misunderstanding me, all I'm saying is do whatever you choose to do to the best of your ability. I know not everyone can or wants to be a Iaido master and that's okay. All I'm saying is I have respect for someone who puts that much effort into something. Like I said before, this is a sword forum so here I talk about swords. Not motorcycles, wood working, landscaping, hiking, scuba diving or any of my other interests. Here I talk about swords and the people who use them.
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IAIDO
Mar 31, 2015 5:56:12 GMT
Post by JH Lee on Mar 31, 2015 5:56:12 GMT
Holy cow... if you don't mind, where do you live that you have 10 acres of land?? The property taxes alone must be quite a headache.... I remember in another thread, you said you were a motorcycle ride away from New Haven, CT.
My house (also in the East Coast; New England) is on about an acre or so, and I have a hard time managing even that, honestly. Right now, I'm trying to figure out how to save up money to get rid of some of these dang trees before they can fall on my roof during some storm.
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IAIDO
Mar 31, 2015 12:19:46 GMT
Post by Gunnar Wolfgard on Mar 31, 2015 12:19:46 GMT
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IAIDO
Apr 1, 2015 3:10:30 GMT
Post by Deepbluedave on Apr 1, 2015 3:10:30 GMT
I live in the beautiful Adirondack Mountains of upstate NY my Valholl, the only good thing about NYS. Up where I am you have to have ten acres to build a house on unless you live in town. Plus there's 55 acres of land behind mine that can never be developed that I can play on and not pay taxes on. My property taxes were very reasonable when I first got the house about sixteen years ago $500 but now they have almost tripled. Our taxes here are still a lot lower than most of the rest of the state. Talking about trees, I'm surrounded by them and I love it, I'm a Nemophilist. No more peaceful feeling than being in the woods. A view from the front of my property, the back of my property and from my back yard in the winter. How can I not love it. Simply stunning Gunnar, what a great looking place to live outside of the city.
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IAIDO
Apr 1, 2015 17:36:24 GMT
Post by Gunnar Wolfgard on Apr 1, 2015 17:36:24 GMT
Thanks Dave, I don't think a day goes by where I don't look out the window or go outside and smile and say I love living here.
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IAIDO
Apr 1, 2015 21:21:00 GMT
Post by JH Lee on Apr 1, 2015 21:21:00 GMT
Looks like you're building a nice Shinto-themed garden in your yard. Very nice. :)
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IAIDO
Apr 1, 2015 22:20:28 GMT
Post by Gunnar Wolfgard on Apr 1, 2015 22:20:28 GMT
Yep, working on it. I'm making some molds to cast some four to five foot concrete pagoda lanterns with blue led solar charged lights in them. Also building a life size Samurai concrete statue with drawn katana. You can't see it in the picture but I dug a Koi fish pond and now building up a mound behind it for a waterfall. Just can't stop building things, it's like an addiction.
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IAIDO
Apr 17, 2015 7:01:05 GMT
Post by 13th Ronin on Apr 17, 2015 7:01:05 GMT
If you don't have someone to play with Iaido may be for you. Your opponent is imaginary like when we were kids
The goal of Iaido is to achieve peace through reconciliation, its a deep spiritual knowing of ones self, Zen! any barbarian can kill a person with a edged weapon, the technique of drawing the sword, neutralizing an enemy and returning the sword is a art some wish to master, using a "real" Katana with a partner would greatly reduce the number of students on that journey.
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IAIDO
Apr 17, 2015 12:35:54 GMT
Post by Gunnar Wolfgard on Apr 17, 2015 12:35:54 GMT
That's what I'm trying to achieve, inner peace and tranquility. That's why I live where I live and I'm building a peaceful Shinto style garden. Need to tame the barbarian in me and I need to get all the help I can. Actually some people may not know but a lot of Samurai kept gardens, probably for the same reason.
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IAIDO
Apr 20, 2015 1:16:24 GMT
Post by krell on Apr 20, 2015 1:16:24 GMT
Now watch how it's NOT done.
Wasn't that the guy that indiana Jones shot in the first movie? Lol. Joking aside, that was silly he reminded me of a high school baton twirler. What did that have to do with the art of the sword?
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IAIDO
Apr 20, 2015 1:25:01 GMT
Post by 13th Ronin on Apr 20, 2015 1:25:01 GMT
Now watch how it's NOT done.
Wasn't that the guy that indiana Jones shot in the first movie? Lol. Joking aside, that was silly he reminded me of a high school baton twirler. What did that have to do with the art of the sword? That was a display of ego, humility is lost on this one.
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