Feb 20, 2013

Elders vs the Juniors.

Recently, I found myself sitting across from men who are already taking on the early bird special.

They reminded me of those old gentlemen on yachts by the.... Where people do those kind of life very world apart from the life my father had lived. World apart from where most of us live!

I say it in a jocular way because the meeting itself was so terrible. I had to look to humor really.

One man in particular, is now living his life high on the position he and they, gave themselves after leaving one particular group. When they learned they meant very little to this "leader", it seems  they threw a tantrum and decided to give  themselves a illusionary importance with, guess what, making a new organization with the name Kyokushin in it. Their theory is, since they trained and worked under  Sosai for 49years (some number that is a lot)  they are entitled to do whatever they liked with my father' s intellectual properties.

Of course, we all do consider them as "somebody's" . I mean, they were part of my fathers history , no matter how small or big their placements were considered. My father had that special ability to make people feel special, which gets misinterpreted as they being special.

Now today I met with the younger generation. They are enthusiastic, forward-thinking and polite. However, they have very little patience for the "older people" who are titled Shihans now who lived the era with my very own parents, and have very little respect or admiration for those who caused "more break up to make money",   as they put it.

They too, have their badge of honor, champion their established tournament résumé and their black belt certificates they received from numerous groups all using some connection to Sosai.


I can't help but wonder. Which came first?

Did the seniors who could have made proper rule and made an example to the juniors, screw up? Or is just the younger one's feeling the connection to Sosai and therefore, can detect the seniors who misrepresent themselves? Are the younger generation more keen to seeing, what is real and what is a foe?