Bruce Lee and the Apocalypse

I wake up in a cold sweat.  The walls of the room ricochet flashes of light with every blast.  Could it possibly be? I roll… low profile like…to the floor and not bobbing an inch, crawl commando style to the window. My mind contemplates the worst.  Bombs? Maybe. Unforeseen asteroid? Knowing how NASA is cutting back, this is very likely.

At times like this, you can never be more thankful for bulletproof Kevlar jammies. 

I hear a fiendish cackle, yup, must be a mob, recently ousted from their homes and coming here to get my 862 gallons of stored water, 122 days of rice preserves and most importantly my bulk cases of Pringle chips.

My wife wakes and looks down at me on the floor. Of course the terror of the situation is written all over the confused look on her face.  I tell her to stay calm and toss the baseball bat from under my pillow.

She tosses the bat and says ‘Fine, but don’t scare the neighbors again, they’re out having a pretty nice fire in the back yard’

OK, false alarm, but one can never be too prepared.

The confidence that I get from preparedness is critical to my function.  Unfortunately, that dynamic ability to adjust, to fly by the seat of the pants is more often what is called for.  This got me thinking about the question; In my drive to constantly be prepared, am I being counterproductive to my ability to be spontaneous?  If you are always prepared, when on earth do you get to practice for when things don’t go according to plan?

In the words of Bruce Lee, “Don’t make a plan of fighting; that is a very good way of losing your teeth”. “Be formless, shapeless, like water. Put water into a cup, it becomes the cup…”

Following that logic however, you can’t be water if you’re currently a brick.

So I analyzed Kung Fu and why we practice and prepare as we do.  Form repetition is obviously very critical for developing flexibility, strength, muscle memory….Aha, there is the answer.  Instinct.  Bruce Lee further talks about being formless and shapeless, to empty your mind rather than trying to remember what you have learned. But in order to act in all spontaneity, it goes without question that your body requires a blueprint to instinctively follow.

Forms give rise to instinct, and instinct can transform a brick into water.

In this revelation my heart rate rises in excitement for the forms seminar coming up this weekend.  But for now, I will tuck the bat back under the pillow and try to get some sleep.