The Gentle Art of Chewing Gum

I read the “Calvin & Hobbs” comic strip. The little shit sometimes seems like a true psychopath and than simply like a small male child with an evil twist to his thinking. The recent comics have been about chewing gum. I chuckles at first, then laughed as the comic series progressed. I can hardly wait till tomorrows strip is published to see if that theme continues. Honestly, I think it could go on and on and on and on - almost forever.

Then, my funny bone kept tingling as I cruised through the various Facebook walls, blog posts and other martial arts oriented eArtilces, etc. then it occurred to me that the art of chewing gum symbolized how modern karate is being studied, i.e., inexperienced and trained folks lacking the full skinny tend to do the same things as Calvin. I do it too!

We look for brands and logos to tell us what is best for self-defense, martial arts and/or combatives - all dependent on our personal perspectives, perceptions, wants and desires. We then attach significant and insignificant rhetoric, importance and views so that we can delude ourselves into a feeling of importance, status and self-soothing related emotionally safe feelings. 

Chewing gum is a relative emotionally comforting endeavor that triggers our base instincts as well as hitting buttons in our pleasure centers like going to a favorite restaurant that severs “Road House,” style comfort food so that we feel good even if we know deep down that the comfort food is actually very, very, very bad for us health-wise (physical not mental because comfort food is all about feeling good ;-) ). 

Then you see how Calvin now has to get every single device to support that belief system much like those who stand in long lines all night to get the next, greatest and best app filled new phone developed by the “Madmen” of the cell phone industry. 

In karate or martial arts the same occurred, i.e., all the variations on a theme that was originally Zen like minimalistic in nature until we fill up our uniforms with colors, materials, brands, patches, and other accouterments meant to set status levels and accolade driven achievement bragging and so on. 

Now, take a moment and read the following series (also found here at the comic site: http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes#.UlcILChgm24 and then tell me you don’t get little hints toward same thinking processes seen in modern martial arts.

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