Responsibility

In August of this year there will be an Anniversary, of sorts.  On the 18^th August 2008 I commenced a 3-month term of engagement with my Governmental agency.  Klara and I discussed what this would mean and how, having moved lock, stock and barrel out of Sydney to Stuki it would by disruptive to our plans.  But it was only 3 months; the money would be useful, etc., etc.

Forgetting for a moment how my employers keep renewing (or at least dragging me back after a few months of insistent “leave”) I want to dwell on what I wanted to achieve in the down-time during that original 3 months: the non-working part of the week.  In the mid to late 1970’s, during my Kendo years, I had briefly sampled the art of Iaido during a seminar in France.  Iaido is the art of drawing a Japanese Katana from its sheath and cutting imaginary opponents.  3 months should be enough for me to reacquaint myself with this weapon and begin to develop the deeper side: the invisible side.  Picture the movements within Iaido as the tip of the visible iceberg.  That tip is held aloft by something nine times larger but below the surface.  Yes, mentally I believed I was approaching the maturity needed for this side of martial arts.

Quite by accident (since I turned up at Bob Brown’s Wollongong Dojo for Iaido but they were practicing some “stick” art first) it is also the anniversary of my commencement of the two internationally recognised forms of Jodo – Seitei and Shinto Muso Ryu.  I would unequivocally state the highs and lows of all these arts have maintained my sanity during our time back in Sydney.  Even Klara has taken up the three (for Seitei Iaido, Seitei Jodo and Shinto Muso Ryu Jojutsu are three separate skills) although she would be the first to profess not quite so single-mindedly. 



Canberra 2009.  Not even in the picture



As time passes by the arts have taken us inter-State to Canberra, Perth and Melbourne and will, in July/August be partially responsible for our time in the UK and Japan.  We’ve also begun to crawl up the line of people within each Dojo as our grades and experience increase.  Part of me is not too keen on this crab-like crawl to the left (seniors are on your left, juniors to your right) as this brings both the responsibility to impart hard-fought-for knowledge and strips time away from active learning.  Tonight this narrow-minded attitude has to change.

Tonight, for the very first time, a Seitei Jodo club is to be opened in Sydney (at a Senior Citizens Centre!!) with Klara and myself as the seniors.  I will not say the Sensei word and we do follow Wollongong’s 4^th Dan Bob Brown in this respect and believe only 5^th Dans and above should don the “S” word with any meaning.  New South Wales has one 4^th Dan, one 3^rd, a 2^nd Dan (me) and a smattering of 1^st Dans (including Klara), however my point is at long last Wollongong will not be the only place within New South Wales where the Seitei form of this Japanese stick art is practiced.  Despite our personal reservations, we do have an obligation to pump something back into the System that formed us and this must be a good thing for Seitei Jodo.