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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Pazu" data-source="post: 695898" data-attributes="member: 679">Hi Darius!  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />I suppose I should provide some personal context since I butted into this thread. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />I have studied choy li fut kung fu for...well, I can't remember how many years, and since my birthday was yesterday, I probably subconsciously don't want to know. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />  When I was much younger, I took some isshinryu karate.Back then, you could say I learned martial arts for all the stereotypical reasons.  I was one of the only Asian kids in a predominantly white neighborhood, I was/am a big nerd, I was/am no good at sports at all.  Thus, I got picked on.  So I decided to take some karate classes, figuring, okay, I'll show those bullies what's what.  So how many fights did I get in (before the age of 20)?0.Now we flash-forward an undefined <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> number of years.  My fiancee and I had moved to San Francisco, and I was feeling a little blobby and out-of-shape.  So we thought, okay, what kind of regular exercise might be fun?  Running?  Bleah (ran track in high school and hated it).  Biking?  In the Bay Area, the natural habitat of the psychopathic SUV driver?  24-hour Nautilus?  Boring.  But hey, look, there's martial arts schools all over the place, why don't we find one near us and see what it's like?  And the rest is history.  So how many fights did I get in (over the age of 20)?0.Now, it has been pointed out that when you live in San Francisco (as with any other city), circumstances may require you be in less-than-savory areas. In those places, knowing how to defend yourself may well be useful. But that's not really why I got into it.  Truth is, I enjoy the activity, I like the teacher, I like my fellow students, and I think it's neat to be studying forms that have been passed down from generation to generation and crossed an ocean.  It's humbling to find yourself as just a tiny part of such a grand tradition.In case Lannon is reading this, that is what I meant by "cultural".And for the record, I am a western-trained physician, and I am not particularly dismissive of eastern medical traditions.  Here in the Bay Area, practitioners of both seem to have reached a certain rapprochement.  Most Chinese physicians would never advise a patient to forego surgery to remove a malignant tumor, and many western physicians wouldn't argue with the possibility that ch'i gung and acupressure might help folks recover faster after the surgery.-- Pazu(went on much longer than he meant to)</blockquote>

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