Okinawan Way - Pride

[emattson]

Okinawa Karate has more than 500 years of traditions and principles in which teachers follow. One important code of ethics is shunning arrogance. Okinawan have a reputation of being content in the face of hardship. They do express pride in their wonderful accomplishments, but will not tolerate empty bragging. Reputable teachers will refuse to teach karate to any tourists who want a “quick fix” self-defense technique to drive away the bad guys. The masters felt karate is a slow, long-term, lifestyle practice. “Karate is not a way to punch someone’s face in, but a way to gentleness,” they say.

Karate discourage showboating as a fight, even in controlled environment, can be dangerous. Harry Houdini boasted that he could take a punch. One student, Joselyn Gordon Whitehead, received Houdini’s permission, and he clobbered Houdini’s abdomen with two devastating punches before given a chance to tighten the abdominal muscles. Houdini doubled over in agony, and continued to suffer terribly during his 15 hour train trip and his last performance. He soon died from acute appendicitis, which probably wasn’t caused by the blow, but coincidental. Still, he mistaken the dangerous appendicitis as just pain from a gut punch (just man up) and refused medical attention until it was too late. Nikola Tesla once befriended a boy who wanted to be a boxer. They tried matching him with the appropriate opponents so the fight will be fair, but the boy kept insisting on facing someone tougher. He should’ve listened. At the ring, he was knocked out from a single blow and soon died in the hospital.