Apologies for the weird title. Unless it was that kookiness that attracted you to the blog, in which case welcome!
My Baguazhang instructor sold us the concept of the "bagua sandwich". Essentially, he said, the modern world means we bagua players can't always devote hours of training each day as expressed in the traditional Chinese model. Go live with an instructor, do their chores and get paid in training is a nice idea (and a trope in many martial arts movies) but doesn't really gel well with having a full time, 40hr a week job and a family to support.
So, he explained to us that a good way to think of your training was like making and eating a sandwich. Now there are many kinds of sandwich. Some take a great deal of preparation and the finest ingredients to craft a sandwich that tastes incredible and is really satisfying to eat. Other sandwiches are literally just some sandwich paste in between two slices of generic, white sliced loaf.
Both have their value. Some days, you can devote lots of time, energy and focus to your training and craft yourself a superior "bagua sandwich", with really good ingredients and solidly put together before eating slowly to savour the taste.
Other days, time is at a premium, or maybe other things weigh upon your mind. Those days, some sliced ham slapped between a couple of slices of cheap bread is the best you can manage.
While the latter, cheaper, simpler sandwich is not as satisfying as the one that took more time, energy and focus, it still manages to stave off hunger for a while. It keeps your "bagua stomach"(?) full until you make time for yourself to have something more nutritious.
Recently, I have been having a lot of cheap sandwiches. I need to sort some time to myself so I can get back in the practice of making some truly legendary sandwiches once more. ;)
No comments:
Post a Comment