- Thread Starter
- #101
And what makes *you* qualified to be someone who can counsel others? Do you have a degree in psychology? Do you have your licenses in order?
Nothing makes me qualified... except the 9 months I spent on probation, the drug I successfully quit, let's see... the arrest, the drunk fighting, I've been mugged twice, and so on and so forth. The same things which would qualify you; your life experiences. At 18 I was in AA, court-ordered while also attending ASAP and ADS. That was for one single charge.
When police raided my home last year, the charges were all dropped because of the legal consultation I did with my parents (my madre is a lawyer who specializes in real estate when not active duty) when we realized that the police had illegally entered the house, and in charging me, had actually snafud themselves into a way of having the court dismiss the case. The police were ticked at the time, but were mitigated by the judge not outright dropping it, and the fact the person who accidentally 'let' them in, in the first place, received ADS, and probation. Last night I stopped some kind of my hometown nonsense outside a 7-11. I have led AA, MA, and NA meetings, and I have completed all 12 steps, despite believing they are poppycock. What qualifies me to council others? The fact I was, for about a year, a drug user. And I quit, successfully. That, generally is all you need for counseling when you it comes to helping or being there for people outside of a legitimate program.
Again, what are your qualifications to tell us that our urging others to seek professional help is something we're not trained to do? If I see someone who is being rather irrational, what makes you think that it's not within my capabilities to suggest that they find professional help?
Because this is not a forum for that, and doctors who are qualified tend not to use their prognosis as a reason to attack a person, nor refer to them disparagingly through it. Doctors tend to have sensitivity, and not post about matters like this in public. Considering my father is a doctor, I know how they operate, and their practices, very well. Am I a doctor? No way, am I a lawyer? No way. But I understand how law works, just like logic.
On another note, many of us here have PhD's, MD's, and / or many years of experience dealing with people, and many more decades of training and teaching in the martial arts. What makes you think that we're not qualified?
When did I ever say you weren't qualified in the MA? Seems like a strawman. Is your Ph'd pertinent toward martial arts? All of my degrees are, so I would consider them, while a part of my training for qualification to teach... they are not essential, because the only qualification an MA person needs is from their teacher... and that's arguable, at best.
This isn't an insult, but a very, very blunt statement. You are not a master. You've dabbled in several kinds of martial arts, learning bits and pieces from each, and have attempted to combine what you think you know, into your "own" system.
Yes, yes I have. And the funny thing is, it works so well people come to me to learn, and have incorporated it into their own arts. A number of moves. If I go 3 years without seeing someone I trained with once, and they employed a technique I very distinctly remember creating at M. Khans before I had to go to Colorado, which I then taught to them 2 years later while they were a blue belt. Running into each other at the NVCC club, he used a combination/technique I recognize very readily- I know one of my moves when I see it. There aren't many, but I did create them, so why wouldn't I recognize it? I would no matter where it was. He didn't remember me at all, and I hadn't realized how much he had grown, which was a lot since he was shorter than me. I have never said I was a master, and if anyone came to me to say so, I would deny it, well into old age.
Why? Because master denotes completion, and I don't want to ever allow myself to fall into the complacency which holds people at one rank, forever. Because our styles have been correlated to rank, and therefore money. It's not just 'the good old days', because traditionally you paid in full before you started, and then yearly to your sifu, and it was I believe I've read in the range of 20,000 dollars today. The point isn't about the money, it's that in many arts, especially in the west, if you don't actively keep moving up the belts, you don't get to learn the system in its completion. Master Khan abolished that, at least for me, for all of the underbelt rankings.
I don't mind sitting at 3rd dan the rest of my life... I have a simple goal and once it's done, I will feel I have done my part for all MA. And, before I can risk that, it is also time to move on.