Do not worry about why people do the things they do.
There is no sense in making up a story in your mind about their motives and intentions.
Doing so will not bring you peace.
You cannot know what is in another person’s heart.
It is difficult enough to know yourself without being driven mad trying to figure out why other people make the choices they make.
It is better to simply look at what they do and to accept it for what it is without judgement or emotion.
Live in the moment, make your decisions based on what you know to be true, and do not waste your time making people heroes or villains in your imagination.
“I’m not serving a menu. I’m serving a story. I’m serving my soul. I’m serving a conversation and I want you to talk back to me. I want you to dialogue with me.“ —Dominique Crenn
Within every artistic expression and experience, there are always many stories being told.
There is the story that the artist tells him or herself about who they are as a person, a creator, an artist, and as a member of society.
There is the story the artist tells him or herself about what their art means personally, what it means in the world, to the culture, and what it means to and for others with whom it will be shared.
There is also the story that the viewer, listener, reader, taster, experiencer, or witness tells about his or herself, about his or her culture, about the artist, and about the art itself when it is shared with them and when they share it with others.
Even the culture within or from which any piece of art is created tells its own stories about that art, but the art also tells a story about the culture it grew out of or was created in opposition to, and when foreign cultures experience this same art, a new, different story is told by and about these cultures, the artist, and the art itself.
Throughout all of this, the art is also telling many of its own stories. It is telling stories about individuality, relationships, creativity, conformity, rebellion, influence, preferences, possibilities limitations, clarity, confusion, joy, pain, beauty, ugliness, divinity, and profanity.
All of these stories are ultimately about one thing, however, and that is emotion. Art’s true story is told in the emotions it was created out of and the emotions it evokes in others. Art’s essence, its’ purpose, its’ most pure expression, manifestation, and experience is a feeling, an emotion, and, ideally, this emotion tells its own story while simultaneously transcending stories altogether.
Holistic Budo: As it is in budo, so too it is in life. As it is in life, so too it is in budo.
Robert Van Valkenburgh is co-founder of Taikyoku Mind & Bodyand Kogen Dojo where he teaches Taikyoku Budo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
All photos by Robert Van Valkenburgh unless otherwise noted.
The truth alone may be sufficient, but the truth told as a story is compelling.
The truth, presented as a set of facts, may be important and even necessary, but it is also boring, as easily memorized and repeated as it is forgotten. The truth with context, however, with a story surrounding it, becomes much more than just a set of facts. It becomes moving, memorable, and, at times, inspiring.
There is a reason why, since the beginning of time, we have used myths, fables, parables, and legends to teach each other and future generations important truths about the world, the human condition, and our relationship with each other and with the universe. Stories stick. They become part of who we are and change the way we perceive everything, even the truth itself.
Stories go deeper, they trigger our imaginations, and they make us think more broadly, more abstractly than a dry, memorized truth. It is exactly because of their power to change minds and to change lives that we must be careful with the stories we tell, however, because that which has the power to create also has the power to destroy. It is imperative, then, that we tell ourselves, each other, and our children stories that inspire imagination, compassion, and optimism, lest our stories create a reality no longer worth talking about.
Holistic Budo: As it is in budo, so too it is in life. As it is in life, so too it is in budo.
Meditations on God 