Dedication

          I recently watched the Travis Barker documentary “Louder than Fear”.  For those that don’t know, Travis Barker is the drummer for Blink 182, and has since done many collaborations with other artists.  I grew up on Blink, so was cool to see a bit more behind the scenes of his life.  It was filmed over 9 years and went over everything from his childhood, to the plane crash he was in, up until now.  What caught my attention though was his mastery to the craft.

        Now this eludes to my previous post of having a “why”.  Travis’s why was his mom who passed at an early age.  Through the documentary that held true, but it also showed other reasons for his drumming.  What I couldn’t get over was his obsessive dedication to drumming.  He would drum constantly wherever he was- working on beats.  He drummed so much he even wore his hands to the bone.  Literally.  There’s a scene where he’s playing a show, stops, shows his guitarist his hand where you can see bone, applies a bandage to it and keeps playing.  I already knew he was a beast on the drums as for a while there he had to play with only one hand.  What drives a person to practice and play so much that you can wear your hands to the literal bone.  I guess that’s why he’s one of the greatest drummers.

       It makes me think about my Kung Fu, which don’t get me wrong, I love it.  Do I love it enough to work myself to the bone? I don’t think so.  I admit I don’t have that kind of dedication, and I imagine very few do.  I don’t know what drives someone to do that, because that’s gotta go beyond passion.  Still, if I could grasp even an ounce of that kind of dedication, the wonders it could produce.  I still do Kung Fu daily though.  I try to sprinkle it in throughout the day. Sometimes that’s working on some sparring drills between seeing patients, utilizing my kicks to close doors, or working on a small section of forms in the hallways.  I do try to commit a good 15 mins in a day minimum . It doesn’t always happen, but I also tend to take a look at the whole instead of just a single day.

        I admit I have been struggling with my Kung Fu though.  The healing from the injury of course has been frustrating, but I’m building back my foundation.  What I’m really struggling with is balancing my family time with my Kung Fu and trying to recognize that these aren’t necessarily separate things. I know Kung Fu is a big part of the reason my relationship with my spouse is so healthy, but I also know that there are going to be many times over the next year that I will have to put my physical training on the back burner to better support Sara and Cillian.  Kung Fu is important to me and is apart of my physical and mental health which in turn helps support my family.  I still worry that it is going to suffer.