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Hi folks
The weather is starting to get damp and cool, my back hurts and I'm cranky. So, here we go.
Has anyone played the game "telephone" ? One person whispers a statement to another, who whispers it to another and so on. The last person repeats the statement and everyone laughs at how it was changed during the transmission.
MA history is much the same way. Especially when we add human nature (self aggrandizement, urge for acceptance, mistakes, outright lies etc) to the mix.
If a bunch of people (speaking the same language with no incentive to change the original) can't get a statement across a room intact what says we should accept recorded MA history as gospel? Especially with all the time it covers and all the translations its gone thru. What says we shouldn't ignore it all together and get on with our practice? After all, what is important, that we can make the bad guy fall down or that someone (insert your favorite MA creation myth here, this is mine) watched a spider tying up a fly and invented Aikido?
Mark
The weather is starting to get damp and cool, my back hurts and I'm cranky. So, here we go.
Has anyone played the game "telephone" ? One person whispers a statement to another, who whispers it to another and so on. The last person repeats the statement and everyone laughs at how it was changed during the transmission.
MA history is much the same way. Especially when we add human nature (self aggrandizement, urge for acceptance, mistakes, outright lies etc) to the mix.
If a bunch of people (speaking the same language with no incentive to change the original) can't get a statement across a room intact what says we should accept recorded MA history as gospel? Especially with all the time it covers and all the translations its gone thru. What says we shouldn't ignore it all together and get on with our practice? After all, what is important, that we can make the bad guy fall down or that someone (insert your favorite MA creation myth here, this is mine) watched a spider tying up a fly and invented Aikido?
Mark