Birds of Prey:
Most people regard birds of prey with a sense of awe and majesty. The sight of several Bald Eagles circling above our house, gracefully wheeling their way through the sky, looking for food, affected me that way.
In September of 2008 I had the great pleasure of meeting and spending time with the legendary knife maker, Shiva Ki. After escorting me past his guard dogs he offered me a chair in his living room. The first thing to catch my eye was looking back at me. It was a small hawk sitting on a perch. I was thrilled, but the hawk seemed less pleased with my company. Shiva mollified it with a piece of raw chicken while we conversed.
Shiva and I talked about many things ranging from our time in Vietnam to race cars, his dune buggy project, and of course knifemaking. Shiva had over fifty blades laying around in one stage of completion or another. He handed me knife after knife for my inspection. Looking sideways at me he said, "You are one of the few people I have met who did not put their hands all over the blades." His knives are impressive and I will talk more about them in another blog. But let us get back to birds of prey and how they relate to knife fighting.
Shiva told me that even though birds like these are used for hunting small game they will not persevere if their prey puts up too much of a struggle. Despite their tremendously powerful claws, they are keenly aware of the fragile nature of their wings. Break too many feathers and a creature of flight suddenly becomes a pedestrian, and fair game for other predators. Therefore, if the intended victim becomes too fractious, or resists too much, the raptor will desist and move on. Now do you see the value in this thread of conversation? Can you see the immediate parallels?
We were talking about birds, but I was thinking about predators in general, and I suspect so was Shiva. How might this information affect you and your self-defense? I have another example. When we bought our first home we needed more furniture to fill out the rooms. An estate auction just down the road offered many nice pieces of antique furniture. When I arrived I could pretty easily pick out the dealers. It occurred to me the biggest difference between myself and a dealer was they needed to make a profit on everything they bought. Having done my research ahead of time I had a good idea of the prices dealers charged. All I had to do was "persevere" in my bidding to the point that they could no longer make a good profit and they would drop out. My strategy worked and I got every piece of furniture that I wanted. Can you see the parallel here too?
If you make the stakes too high, if you resist violently enough, then the cost of winning becomes too great for the hawk, the dealer, or the street predator. You must make the risk too high for him to continue. Acquiesce just a little, concede even the smallest bit of ground and you are dead meat! These signs of defeat are what the predator looks for. They are the indicators he needs to increase his attack and achieve victory. A predator cannot afford to be injured or expend too much time in the struggle. Each second that passes increases his chance of exposure or injury. Fight back! Many times police nab the criminal at the hospital when he seeks treatment for his injuries. Tell-tale marks of the struggle brand him and make him suspect to hospital staff. His injuries provide evidence against him during his arrest and subsequent trial.
I am not a lawyer and I do not offer legal counsel and although I am a priest I will not presume to offer unasked for spiritual advice. I realize the moral and legal problems associated with fighting back and the concepts of force continuum and the use of equal force. If you hold back, if you do not retaliate explosively with all of the means at your disposal, it will most likely result in your death. I could be more diplomatic about that I suppose, but I would not be doing you any favors. The hash reality is that when your life is on the line and no one is going to be there to back you up, you have to do what it takes to survive. Too many politically correct writers are saying that fighting back, which is what we are talking about, may only land you in prison. That is a sad commentary on the American justice system but it should in no way deter you from doing whatever you need to do to survive.
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