Teachers teach and do the world good, kings just rule and most are never understood.  If you were to rule or govern a certain industry all inside this room would be in misery.  No one would get along nor sing a song, cause everyone’s be singing for the king, am I wrong? -  Krs One

When I watched the movie IP Man something stood out to me and was crystalized in  my mind while reading Dave Lowry’s book Moving Towards Stillness: Lessons In Daily Life From The Martial Ways Of Japan.  During the movie, Ip Man is meeting with several sifus (teachers) of local martial arts schools to demonstrate his style of the art.

In a chapter of the book Lowry relates a story of a sensei that loses everything during World War II.  Losing his business, his wife to pneumonia, a month later getting the news his son was killed in action.  On top of that the master was living in a tin shanty out in the open with very few clothes, food given to him by his neighbors and students.  Shortly there after a fire destroyed everything in the neighborhood right after the Japanese government surrendered to the U.S.

The master, and everyone around him, appeared to have nothing.  Then, having nothing, the neighborhood turned to the master.  He was a budo teacher.  This meant the people ‘looked up to him.’  He was a teacher.  The teacher was a well respected pillar of the community.  He had nothing, but the neighborhood turned to him not because he was a big businessman, not because he had persevered through horrendous adversity, not because he was a master of the martial arts, but because he was a teacher.

Teachers in our society have been deminished to the value of their paychecks.  Our current society places the worth of something based on its monetary equivalent.  Since American society has continued to pay the teacher very little for the value they are to render via education to our children, teachers are no longer accepted as a great value to our society, the teacher is no longer respected as a pillar of the community.Teaching has never been a profession that one would become wealthy and this was a known to all who pursued the profession, but one thing was understood, even when I was a child, that the teacher was to be held in very high esteem.

Teachers once held themselves in very high esteem and understood their position in society and for society.  Historically, teachers were “looked up to” and the title of teacher bestowed upon a person, whether a professional teacher in a school system, a martial arts instructor or a teacher of religion the title was a crown of the utmost importance in society.  Even Jesus was adorned with the title teacher.  Rabbi, as Jesus was commonly called is a word that comes from the Hebrew root word horah, meaning “he taught…”

Mary was the mother of Jesus and as such she was his first teacher.  Maybe, just maybe, when our society places woman where she really should be, no longer looking at her as “just a vessel” and understanding her true roll and value of any strong and lasting society, will the teacher be elevated back to the the esteemed position of our society.  Maybe, just maybe, when the title of teacher is elevated to it’s true heights our teachers will see themselves beyond that of just another “human resource” to be consumed by societal madness and see themselves as one of the pillars up holding the building of society.

During the conversation I noted that martial culture does not promote violence, but in fact promotes peace.  This was met by a mixed bag of responses, splitting almost evenly between those that agreed with my stance and those that did not.  The strongest opposition came from one participant who stated that martial arts are entirely about violence and death.  That the purpose of the martial arts is based on combat, war and must essentially be rooted in violence.  Thus, martial arts cultivate violence.

Violence of course it what is produced, at the end of the day in the world of martial arts, but it is not violence that martial arts cultivate.  To cultivate something is to perpetuate it’s growth, to foster it’s expansion.   Growing violence is not the Way of martial arts.  It is a way of cultivating beauty and unfolding of the human spirit.  Martial arts cultivate a discipline within those of us that practice any form of the martial arts that expands beyond the ending result of the damage our hands and feet may bring.

The martial Way teaches us to understand the beauty of our bodies, minds and to admire the beauty around us.  The Way is a beauteous path to understanding the world around us and how each plant, animal or geological formation is a part of us and that we are only a tiny part of the whole.  Sifu Roberto Sharpe of New York said that his teacher told him that by learning the martial arts he has become useful to society.

However, in the end, should the necessity to utilize our skill in the form of combat, the Way teaches us that it is the peaceful mind that will prevail.  It is the calm and stilled mind that will bring about a successful ending to a combative experience.  The Way of martial arts is to to cultivate the peaceful mind.  A mind full of peace.

For me Cuban Black Bean soup is one of my favorite meals no matter the time of year.  Whether 99 degrees or 29 degrees I will have my Cuban Black Bean soup.  Above,  the series of  videos show you the traditional recipe coming directly from her family’s version from the island.  I want to introduce you to my version of the soup. 

Begin by using dried black beans, not canned.  You should always rinse dried beans (I do it 3 times the magick number) and whether you pre-soak your beans or not is your choice.  However, whether you soak them or not when you add them to the pot do not put salt into the water as this will make your beans tough even though you have pre soaked them.  The vegetables I like to use are cilantro, green peppers, a green habanero chile, onion, scallion,  tomatillos, fresh thyme, and fresh oregano (best if you can grow your own herbs.)   How much you use is up to you, but make sure you use the amount of veggies in accordance with amount of beans you will be cooking. 

While the beans are coming to boil chop your veggies then  toss them into a blender, add olive oil, just enough to make an emulsion, squeeze a lime into the blender add a bit of water and blend it down until you have a loose paste.  It should be a pretty green in color.  Set this to the side and chill, have a Tacate beer with some lime wedges, or  whatever you like to drink.  After about 45 minutes to an hour pour your sofrito, the blended veggies to the pot,  add your sea salt, cumin, garlic powder, onion powder and black pepper (get a grinder for black pepper this gives a splendid flavor) and let it  cook down for another 30 – 40 minutes.  By this time the beans should be pretty soft.

A this point I add about 1/4 cup of rice to the pot, then a tablespoon  of  margarine (I use Earth Balance) and let it cook until the rice is tender. I’ve been to Cuban restaurants and had Black Bean Soup and I have yet to have it with rice cooked in the  same pot with the beans. This thickens the soup without mashing the beans.  I certainly have nothing against mashed beans because I love my frijoles refritos (Mexican refried beans) without a doubt.  But, I like my beans whole as much as possible in my version of  Cuban Black Bean Soup.

After about 20 -25 minutes squeeze the juice of half a lime into the pot, put the top back on, turn off the heat and let it steep for a few minutes.  After that grab your bowl and fill it up.  Ok I must confess, not being from Cuba, and having no Cuban parentage, but Mississippian heritage I have to have my cornbread on the side and sometimes letting the crumbs fall into the bowl.  This reminds me of my aunt Essie that would crumble the cornbread over my bowl of pinto beans and rice when I was no more than 3 or 4 years old.  I guess that taste of beans, rice and cornbread have been etched into my mind and palate eternally.

Enjoy!

Blue Tilapia

Between 1973 and 1986 the “Nile” Tilapia was being “reared” in fish hatcheries in Arizona and by 1986 a single Tilapia fish was found in the Saugahatchee Creek portion of the Yates Reservoir, in the Tallapoosa drainage of Mobile Basin in Lee County, Alabama turns up on January 12th, 1986.  This fish was introduced “experimentally” into the wild in the southern part of Arizona.  This doesn’t explain how the fish ends up in Alabama and are now a large part of aquatic life in the southeast United States.  This is not a true Nile Tilapia, and actually cannot be identified.  It is a strange fish that hit U.S. market, selling at a very low price.  This fish is being sold as low as $1.49 per pound at a time when people are being told that eating of fish will improve their health.  But is this true concerning Tilapia?

Tilapia are herbivorous.  They eat primarily the vegetation in lakes, rivers, and creeks and have been used in some water treatment plants.  Most Tilapia sold in the U.S. are farm raised, though I have seen wild Tilapia sold, that is a rarity.  Farm raised Tilapia has been found to be more detrimental for heart health than eating bacon or a hamburger.  Wake Forest University Researchers have published in the Journal of  American Dietetic Association that “Tilapia have higher levels of potentially detrimental, long-chain, omega-6 fatty acids than 80-percent-lean hamburger, doughnuts and even pork bacon.”  And yet, Tilapia is the number five biggest selling fish in the United States, projecting the selling of 2.5 million tons last year.   Beware, other transgenic fish are in your market including Trout, Salmon and Carp.  For my continental West African people and Memphis, TN fam who love Buffalo Fish, hate to tell you that Buffalo fish is in the Carp family.

Reading is fundamental.  This became like a mantra when I was growing up.  There was a Reading Is Fundamental organization that would bring a mobile library around with books for children to read and they would also visit schools in the school district my schools was a part.  Yet, reading which can lead to studying and even researching may be more than simply fundamental for functioning properly in the U.S. and the world.  Reading may save your life.

While watching the 10 minutes of news per day I will allow myself to ingest, I saw the nearly 90-year-old Rev. Joseph Lowery on a news release on an event here in Atlanta.  Looking as well he looks, hair looking healthy, skin looking healthy, he  may have some physical difficulty, but the man was still full of life. I then remembered once reading something about the dis-ease named Alzheimer’s.  It appears the higher the education, the lower the risk of Alzheimer’s.  While looking at Rev. Lowery I could see that this was true.  In fact Betty White is an example of a woman who has lived a significant number of years and seems to be very much in control of her mental faculties.  Education, it appears, does keep people mentally aware in this day and age of brain deterioration.

Before we go on, allow me to deal with the term education.  It’s quite common to relate the word education with higher learning,  of course higher learning drums up images of college campuses text books and a beautiful autumn afternoon.  Truly, we pigeon-hole ourselves if we only believe higher education is simply book learning.  That thought reminds me of a humorous line on the Everybody Loves Raymond show when his brother Robert jokingly says “Pa wasn’t into fancy book learning…”    But, I digress.  Simply reading books and taking in whatever information you can glean from them is educating you.  And, often this can lead down a rabbit hole of learning.  Learning new words, new foods, cultures and even different languages or phrases and idioms of other languages that are not your own.

We need to learn to love what we are learning, and have learned, as a wonderful education and don’t dismiss it as trivia because it wasn’t learned at some “fancy named institution.”  We should also be willing to accept, as part of our education what we learn physically.  Muscles actually learn physical movements and activity.  If you have ever lifted weights or did some biking then had to stop for an extended period of time then came  back to it you should  have noitced that restarting was not as difficult as when you first began your workout routine.   Thats because of muscle memory.

Apparently, other studies have concluded that physical exercise fends off Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.  Studying Tai Chi Chuan is a fantastic way to exercise.  Not only does Tai Chi include using the mind to imagine the next posture, but you must achieve the proper physical form to accomplish the posture.  When I began studying Kung Fu, my Sifu admonished us to read as much as we can on the art, its history and read the concepts of all the forms.  By the time I moved into the internal martial art of Tai Chi Chuan it became imperative to read and study what one reads.  Then move into physically producing what was read and studied. 

Tai Chi Chuan as practiced in its slow-moving form is deceptive to those that do not practice.  The slow and precise movement are often viewed as not having an effect on the body, many complain that they may not receive a “good” workout.  Yet, the opposite is the case.   The slow movements allows you to analyze your body mechanics to perfect the posture.  In fact each posture can be and should be studied individually.  This then encompasses both the reading and learning aspect that may deter Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.

The version that I had the opportunity to see was totally in the Chinese language and without subtitles.  I was able to follow along and knew exactly what was happening based in the action of the people and the body language.   In the openings scenes the protagonist was having dinner with a famous Sifu in the area.  I noticed how very British the scene was and it almost struck me as strange upon first thought.  Luckily, I was able to reel myself back and remember the historical aspects of the time period.  I was then able to remember the British had a strong hold on China for some time and I’m sure much of the culture was absorbed.  But, I digress.

Shortly after dinner Sifu Ip Man invites the Sifu he was having dinner with to introduce the teacher to Wing Chun.  As they began to box, the first thing I noticed that Ip Man did not attack.  In fact he never attacked first in any of the fight scenes.  This however, was not unusual.  It was the absolute control over his thoughts that struck me most  of all.  It was the calm response to the attackers that was striking.

Wing Chun is not Tai Chi Chuan.  Tai Chi Chuan is not Wing Chun.  They are both Kung Fu.  Kung Fu is set around a certain set of principles that runs concurrently along all styles hard and soft.  Sifu Ip Man displays not only the beautiful boxing style of Wing Chun, but the mind that must be maintained during the extension of ones art.  Tai Chi Chuan is as much mental as physical.  In fact Tai Chi Chuan teaches heavily that the body follows the mind.  Ip Man maintained a completely calm and settled disposition in combat.  His mind was that big mountain standing still.   His body followed, it was moving, but it was still.  His mind was not everywhere, and his body acted in accordance.