A harsh dose of an unfortunate reality

A PERSONAL STORY


This is a letter written for people who live in apathy and denial. This letter was written to a friend of mine in Texas back in the mid to late 90s, who used to teach self-defense, by one of his students and he had emailed it to me way back when.

It is a heavy letter and the truth behind it sinks heavily into my soul each time I read it. I cannot begin to imagine the pain that the writer must have felt, must still feel now, although it seeps through every written word.

It was not written for shock value, nor was it written to convince you to take our courses. It was written by a man who was in love with a woman who was savagely taken from him. It was written in hopes that this sort of thing would never happen again but the sad fact is... it did, hundreds if not thousands of times over since just as bad and in many cases, much worst.


It is something that happens in many third world countries daily today, right now, as you're reading this.  It is something that should never happen, yet it does and so do other much more gruesome things.


I've always said, We are born, and we know for a fact we are going to die, no 2 ways about it.... what are YOU doing in between?

Share your experiences, thoughts and opinions, be heard

We are looking to gather an array of intelligent people with varying differing beliefs all discussing and debating for the greater good of humanity, providing an open and comfortable platform with no judgement or personal insults but respect with the notion that we're all in it for the greater good.... the more the merrier.... like Tupac Shakur said, we may not change the world, but we can certainly help spark the minds that will... help up spark minds by speaking yours....

Share your experiences, feel free to discuss & debate all topics of human (HUMAN...NOT technological, but our species, humanity) improvement & evolution like self defense, martial arts, personal safety, personal health, combative or non combative sports, systems and disciplines, the law, training, conditioning, health, diet, nutrition, medical, ailments, dis-ease, politics, government, corruption, religion, spirituality, atheism, racism, crime, economics, poverty, peace, war, world issues, cultures, anything to do with Human betterment, improvement and evolution as a COLLECTIVE and as whole.

The objective? To provoke thought, to challenge personal beliefs, to encourage questioning, research and open the mind in ways it normally never would.... confusing sometimes sure, but much more often than not, this "confusion" causes questioning and these questions require search and that search uncovers things otherwise would have remained un-found or un-explored within one's very own self and that... in my most humble of opinions, is the essence of self evolution... the root of it... personal introspection. The ability to sacrifice who we are today for who we can become tomorrow using the Bruce Lee's proverbial mantra as the vehicle of personal growth: "Absorb what is useful, add what is specifically of your own, and disregard the rest" all the while "Using no way as way and having no limitations as limitations." 

For the fans amongst you, forget for a minute who said those words, forget the Bruce Lee stigma, forget the sterotype, the martial artist, hell, forget the man entirely for a moment and look at the words again, 

"Absorb what is useful, add what is specifically of your own, and disregard the rest" all the while "Using no way as way and having no limitations as limitations." 

read them, let them sink in., understand them beyond the realm of simple language and linguistics.... otherwise, the essence is lost.  

So if you feel like you can have a heated debate, have your beliefs challenged, have your thoughts provoked, shake the foundational root of your staus quo and the do the exact same thing to others in a respectful and polite manner regardless your more than welcomed levels of passion and fire, then please, help us spark each other as well as other readers and lurker's minds some:

The Senshido International Forum

In 2006, I began a thread called "The Good Deeds Thread", the thread grew and grew, which was pretty cool, and one day in 2008, I was contacted by an individual who shared with me that they had chosen not to end their life via suicide after having decided to do so for a long while because that particular thread, and I quote, "Renewed my faith in mankind".... that's one person who never even posted, just "lurked" on our forum who chose to contact me and kindly let me know the profound effect it had on their life.  Who knows how many are out there reading, lurking, and what they are picking up.... so put your best foot forward and come share your experiences as they may one day save someone's life without you even knowing about it..... :`)

The Good Deeds Thread

‎"A Patient Cured, Is A Customer Lost"?

Thoughts? Opinions? Real? Hoax? Conspiracy theory?

Georges Carlin at work:

The Thinking Comic:

Bill Maher drops logic on yo ass!

A few years back, this was a 'conspiracy theory',
today, anti conspiracy theorist Bill Maher speaks the truth:

Inspiration? Conspiracy? Truth? Who cares... DO SOME SHIT!!!

"95% of the (world’s) people WANT to be led by the other 5%", and claimed this can be proven because "the 95% DO NOT WANT TO KNOW what really goes on in government" ~ Senator Robert Byrd

"In the attitude of silence the soul finds
the path in a clearer light, and what
is elusive and deceptive resolves itself
into crystal clearness. Our life is a long
and arduous quest after Truth."

Mahatma Gandhi

"Educate and inform the whole mass of the people...They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty." ~ Thomas Jefferson

tHE tINY dOT eFFECT

Rich Dimitri Finland Interview 2010

The following interview with Richard Dimitri was done by Senshido International Team member Ville Kaivonen of Tampere Finland during Richard's last trip there and was used as the source for the February 2011 Finland Fight Sport magazine interview.

Richard Dimitri Interview, Tampere Finland - November 2010

1. You lived in Cairo, Egypt from Oct. 2009 to Oct. 2010 mainly doing charity work, what lead you there and how was the experience?

Indeed I did. It had come to a point where I needed a drastic change and considering the fact that I could work anywhere in the world with Senshido, I was going to move to Guadalajara Mexico.  I was looking for warmer climate and after speaking with my folks who were living there retired since 2006, I decided, why not Egypt?

I was working with 3 international women’s movements there with the goal of bringing forth education on the subject of rape which is unreasonably high there as their definition of rape is quite culturally different.  However, cultural or not, when other human beings suffer due to these or any other ‘cultural’ or 'religious' differences/beliefs, then it is time these cultures evolved some and joined humanity on a more humane level.

I worked in conjunction with 3 women’s movements: Girls Gone Gorgeous, the Association for Women's Total Advancement & Development (AWTAD) and The Association for the Development and Enhancement of Women (ADEW) to bring forth education and information on the empowerment of women in Egypt. The majority of it was charity work as I was only paid once for a workshop I did there and it was a quarter of what I usually make.

I definitely wasn’t there for the money lol. I was looking for a change of pace, growth, personal evolution and I had gotten everything out of Montreal I possibly could by then.  Egypt was quite the humbling experience, quite the cultural differences on so many levels. Yet, people are people wherever I go in the world… the same passions, the same drives, the same desires and fears at the guttural levels, no matter where you go.

The levels of poverty were astounding. What was more astounding were the levels of wealth there as well and the way the wealthy treat the poor… many are inhuman in their ways. I’ve come to know families that literally lived in closet spaces, boxes and streets.  My wife and I would regularly buy groceries for some of these people, as well as blankets and pillows.

Joe Rogan speaks the truth:

Our dumbing down....

Makin' a point...

TRUTH IN HUMOR

Choose Wisely.

How do I deal with my ego?

The following is what works for me, see if any of it resonates with you, if not, keep searching for a way to bitch slap your own egos and remember, "Absorb what is useful, add what is specifically of your own and disregard the rest".  

It's a daily battle, some days are easier than others. What's the most important factor next to accountability?