On winning a trophy another lesson to learn

 

It was in 1979 and for the most part I really didn’t know what I was doing.

 

I was a new black belt, had no local instructor to guide me. I took it upon myself to become an instructor at the Scranton Boy’s Club, and I was on my way to competing at local Pennslyvania karate tournaments to gain experience.

 

While I was living in Scranton Pennsylvania I was not from there, a few years earlier I had moved there for work in a Regional Pa. Bank. So no one really knew me, or had any interest in my karate.

 

Of course that didn’t bother me as Karate was what I did for myself.

 

At one of those tournaments in Harrisburg Pennslyvania, which happened to be sponsored by a different Isshinryu organization than I was in, I had some modest success. I won 3^rd place in kobudo kata. Of course no one there really knew me either.

 

I was pleased that I had that level of success.

 

Afterwards when I returned home I began to think about what that trophy meant?

 

All I knew was that after tournaments Mr. Lewis would place an article at the local Salisbury Maryland paper, and at times they would publish the results. As I thought on that it occurred to me that perhaps I should also do the same. Perhaps it would help enrollment at the Boys Club.

 

So I went to a photographer and had a few photos taken and I submitted an article about my modest success to the local paper.

 

Then several weekends later an above the fold article appeared in the  Local News section of the paper.

 

The result was a nice article but I never heard a word from anyone at the Bank about it, or from anyone at all for that matter.

 

The Club had no difficulty identifying students for my program. The article had nothing to do with that.

 

In fact it didn’t hurt or help me in my karate.

 

And while karate was very important to me, and extremely personal, I found out that the rest of the world really doen’t care. People have their own interests after all, ones dear to them. Karate is in reality important to other karate-ka, but to the rest of the world not so much.

 

After that I never published any articles about what I did, when I did it. There were times that articles were published about my program by the Boys and the Boys and Girls Club, but that was more so show the depth of their programs.

 

footnote:

 

In the long run you really learn that what those trophies are for, to gather dust. Those I acquired and saved were eventually discarded when I moved, and really are not missed.

The day is gone after all. Being awarded a trophy is a memory. Life moves on.