There are life lessons everywhere, even in the most unlikely of places. For the Evolving Martial Artist, fighting is a metaphor for life. Engaging a daunting adversary who hits and inflicts pain is like entering the every day battles of life. Hell, it hurts.

Tough lessons are often employed by Shaolin kung fu masters to teach the tough demands of combat. And life. In American history, the Gold Rush brought people to the Black Hills of South Dakota and as the camp grew, a town sprung up around the prospecting. David Milch’s ground breaking Western HBO series Deadwood, based on real characters and events in the Old West, was a study in human evolution and our struggle to bring chaos to order.

In this scene from Deadwood, Al Swearengen (Ian McShane) the complex protagonist, ruthless and brutal, yet with his own morals, loyalties,and even, at times, kindness, imparts a life lesson to the Deadwood’s newspaper publisher, A.W. Merrick (Jeffrey Jones) who is demoralized by violent misfortune, after being threatened, finds his office and printing press vandalized and in ruin. In Swearengen we see a classic example of the Eastern zen slap or as we say in the West, a kick in the ass.

However crude, it is wisdom for martial artists and non-martial artists alike.

Lawrence Tan & Toni Josephson