For Gwynne

In my lifetime I have been blessed with many excellent teachers. They range from parents, grandparents, and one uncle in particular, to those who were not blood relatives but who played a serious role in my education. Now I am not talking about the three Rs, or primary and secondary education. My focus here is on those who taught me right from wrong, good from bad, and instilled in me a sense of values, ethics, and morals. Yes I know, most of these ideals are frightfully out of vogue right now, especially in our Capital.

Some of my teachers have shared incredible wisdom and esoteric knowledge with me. Through nuance and inference they have tried to help me remember that which cannot be taught. Sometimes it has taken root and other times I have been dreadfully dull and slow-witted. To those patient teachers I apologize.

One of the people who has taught me the most is my junior by nearly forty years, 34 to be more precise. It is an amazing awakening when someone who is part and parcel of your blood and body can remind you of what you once believed, who can stir those same emotions you once felt at that same age. Without consciously trying to live vicariously I tap into this reservoir of myself, now past, of my long spent youth, and enjoy the fruits. If there is a fountain of youth, a wellspring of immortality then this is it. There is a wonderful nostalgic melancholy in allowing oneself to slip from the role of teacher into that of listener and even student. This alone might be the slender golden thread that growing older offer us. If we are astute enough to see it and hold on to it, very delicately, like touching butterfly’s wings, ever so lightly………lovingly.....

Many of you will wonder what the heck I am talking about. That’s OK. All of my blogs don’t have to hit you over the head with a scathing product review or a rant on the daily news. Sometimes they need to be more gentle and abstruse. As I write this I am listening to the soundtrack of "Crouching Tiger, Sleeping Dragon." Surely music soothes the soul but it does many more things than that. At Yagyu kai keiko in NYC last weekend one of my old training partners reminded me that time slips away as do people.

Know what you have, when you have it, AWAKEN.

"Enlightenment is like the moon reflected on the water. The moon does not get wet, nor is the water broken. Although its light is wide and great, the moon is reflected even in a puddle an inch wide. The whole moon and the entire sky are reflected in one dewdrop on the grass."- Dogen.