Wednesday, March 02, 2005

Fire Fist!

So I just watched a bunch of wushu clips from www.wushucentral.com and I'm thoroughly convinced that I will never be any good at this stuff; it doesn't mean that I'm going to give up, I'm just acknowledging that wushu will, at best, be yet another one of the ways in which I flutter but never fly, much like Japanese (and other random languages), drawing, mixing drinks, cooking, writing, cleaning (though i doubt there are ever going to be any world cleaning championships), theatre, academia, dancing, playing the guitar or photography. I guess, all things considered, I have a pretty long list of random talents (though, to be fair, I wouldn't call them talents - more like things I can bullshit my way through); still, it would be nice to somehow attain mastery in one of these things. I used to watch things like Legend of the Condor Heroes and imagine that, one day, I'd meet Hong Qigong and master the xiang long shi ba zhang, or be able to fly or some nonsense like that. Even if this were even remotely possible, I have to admit that even the venerable master Hong would probably be, like, yeah, well, kid, there's this other dude who's more flexible, so bugger off. If I were in Legend of the Condor Heroes, I'd probably have to settle for being the dude who tries to marry Huang Rong and is pretty clever (who was this, Ouyang Ke? I forget) but in the end gets poisoned because he's too ambitious and not the number one super power fist of death dude.

Nonetheless, this doesn't mean I'm going to give up, on any of the things I like doing. Like I always say, I might look like a jackass on the dance floor, but at least I'm into it and look like I'm having fun. I'm not one of those crackers (sorry, white boys) who sort of half-heartedly flail their arms, looking like they borrowed their bodies for the weekend and haven't really read the instruction manual. Instead, I'm the guy who's so far on the ground he looks like he needs a periscope, yet still grooving. I don't care that I look like a dumbass any more; I think I've finally grown up enough to be beyond that. If being able to throw a couple punches, make a couple poses and kick some ass (here, of course, we define ass very broadly, like, say, maybe I could fight off some panhandlers ... if they were crippled ... and also drunk ... and, err, maybe hadn't eaten in a couple days), well, yeah, that makes me feel good. That's pretty much good enough for me. Damn straight. Also, one day I might really meet Hong Qigong and, because of my awesome never-say-die (unless I'm tired, in which case all bets are off) attitude, he might teach me how to fly. Or maybe shoot dragons from my butt.

Yeah, we'll see who's laughing then.

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