"What, ref, are ya blind??"

Easy enough of a concept, but I'm still finding this out: In order to really "see", you should be "looking". We see what we want, and tend to ignore what could be an obvious happening, all in the attempt to "see" what we personally prefer.

I meet people with "selective awareness" all the time. Sporting events, martial arts tournaments, martial arts classes, healing methods, etc. Name an activity, and of course you'll see people that are staunch supporters and fans of what they do or like.

Whatever the thing we support or activity we do, I'm a believer myself of the "whatever floats your boat" stream of thought, so long as "you don't try so hard to sink my boat, and to stop thinking your boat is bigger, faster, has more sails, has better engine, or whatever else."

It is our own thought process that makes something interesting, enjoyable, and full of positive results. It is also our thoughts that make something dull, lackluster, and full of negative results. We will tend to see things in the way we'd prefer them to be....we will tend to gain results from things we prefer to believe in. That's fine. We all do that......

...But, let's all get of our high horses, shall we? Yes, that includes me...and includes you too.

I've heard lots of things.....Karate is better than Kung Fu, MMA is better than Karate, this method of healing gets better results than that method, this religion is better than that religion.....all because we've developed something over the evolution of humans.......

"Personal opinion".

Ironic....that my opinion is that everything boils down to opinion....hahahaha!

"Personal opinion" can also make success. Or make failure....

Recently at a tournament, i heard several spectator shout "What are you, Blind?" as we officials were calling points for a sparring match. Parents are looking for points *their* child makes, ignoring obvious point the other child makes. What made it ridiculous, was that some parents were making the other kid's clean point to the midsection, a sloppy slap to their own kid's arm. Hello! All 3 of us judges saw the other kid make a clean punch to your child's midsection....and controlled too. Meanwhile their own kid was kicking *really* hard and made the other kid cry after a particularily hard roundhouse kick to the stomach. "What! That kid is faking! He's not hurt! That was a clean point! New judges! Get new judges! My kid deserves that point not a contact warning! Wimp judges"

Yep....that's what can go on at martial arts tournaments sometimes. But I can't really blame those blowhard parents. They want their child to win so badly, that all they see is their child's victory......meanwhile, they don't see how embarassed their child is of the shouting his parents are doing at the sidelines, nor do they see they are coming across as opinionated and obviously hoping the other child will lose the match. No sportsmanship there. The desire the support their child was a good thing....their opinion of what it took to win, was not a good thing.

You know who the good sports are in any sport? The people that truly understand what getting good at their sport is all about. The good sports are the ones that are thankful there are other people that play the sport in order for tournaments to happen. They're the ones that learn from mistakes instead of blaming the winning team for cheating in a fair and square match.

As I said earlier..."Whatever floats your boat, people." Enjoy the sailing and don't sink mine. Besides, regardless if you have a cool boat while I have a mere kayak, I could easily just put mine on a carrier on top of my car and away I go....., while you have to go through the trouble of putting your big boat on a big trailer with a pickup just to drag it anywhere.


Learn well, Train well,

Restita
http://seattlewushucenter.com