The articles on this blog surround a few subjects that I’ve come across in my life. Subjects that I personally find fascinating. Bruce Lee started my fascination with martial arts. Whether you were a puny Chinese kid or just a puny kid, he offered an avenue to reclaim our manliness, or womanliness.

Teaching martial arts, or what my best friend calls sexual assault prevention, became another passion. Maybe I was following Bruce’s footsteps, I don’t know. Not only did students look up to me, mainly because I was taller than all of the seven and eight year olds, but it seemed I made a difference. I talked to parents, to students, and observed their relationships. But like Bruce, there was something missing from teaching people as a group instead as individuals.

One of the things that burgeoned was my friendship with my best friend, who used to be my instructor. Our core values are very similar. I began to observe our roles and how they switched between teacher and student. Keep in mind that my teacher has practiced and taught martial arts before I started. So it was a bit weird to see our roles change. Although, he’s taken the teacher role much often over our friendship.

Because we never launched the school we envisioned, I was lost. I didn’t know what I wanted out of life, but I knew it lay in artistic creation. But what? I’d tried everything—drawing, writing, acting, martial arts, painting, poetry. I even studied computer science. Not an art form, you say? Tell that to any programmer. They’ll tell you how beautiful code is.

So I wandered the desert like landscape of limbo. I’d discovered Dr. Wayne Dyer, consulted with a hypnotherapist, and delved into my personal growth. It was at this point where I’d learned things in life have coincidences and recurrences that help point me in the direction my life should go. Things I connected to, found fascinating, drawn to. What was it all leading me?

Then I listened to the child within, tugging at my pant leg, urging me to write this story that I’ve fantasized for over twenty years. And as I finished revising, I realized that everything I’m interested in, including issues that I’ve had to deal with, are in this book. It’s amazing how the unconscious works in mysterious ways. How your mind can be a link to the deepest of wisdoms. Don’t let your music die with you as Dr. Dyer would say. Bruce Lee was asked about the concerns of being accepted by an American audience. He responded, “If you honestly express yourself, it doesn’t matter.”