The reaper is the 13th card of the major arcana in the Tarot. It is special.
In fact, the Reaper is "Death" but I thought that would be a bad title for a post, because it's a bit one-sided. The Reaper is all about Yin and Yang you see. Death ... and Life.
In one of my favourite episodes of "Father Ted" the young idiot priest Dougal has his Tarot read by a "gypsy". She pulls out the Reaper. "OMG" he shouts; "don't worry sir, Death does not mean "death", it means "great change" ...". He chooses another card and pulls out the Reaper again, and then again, and then again. "That's funny" says the gypsy "there is only supposed to be one of each card in the pack!".
Some people just don't "get it" and are resistant to change - sometimes in such a rigid, sclerotic manner that new life has difficulty arising.
I certainly stirred up some poops with my recent post on the situation of "tai chi" in general and the French wudang groups in particular. Michel refused to shake my hand at Dan's seminar, saying "this is the second time you have insulted me, my friends and my students". "Let you and your offspring me damned until the sixth generation!" he might have added. I pointed out that I wasn't really aiming at him (I actually named no-one ... and please read the header again at the top of the page) and that perhaps he was being a bit sensitive. "That must be it," he laughed ... "you have to think of the collective!"
Hmm. Well, so, er, just when was the first insult? I looked up "insult" and discovered that yes, it really is a question of how a message is received and interpreted. So that you can insult someone without actually meaning too (now how many times have I done that? lol).
Collectivism of course is often associated with Stalin's attempt to destroy the Russian rural population, or even North Korea's crackpot economics. A term much beloved of lefties (and indeed, I should have added that to my list of insults WOOT!). And France is full of lefties - it's kind of a badge of honor, however lunatic some of the broad left's ideas are (for example "a job for life" and "full employment" are still actually considered possible and desirable!). So the French often behave in collectives. Nigel in Malaysia told of a time when a group of Tai Chi-ers from France came over for training with him - they would all start, stop, get dressed, go to the toilet, have tea, etc. at the same time. The collective.
I've trained with groups all over the place. Dan (for example) will say "forms" and in most places people will start doing what they want to train on (long, short, sword, sabre, left, right, whatever). Not in France, where first of all everyone has to decide what to do. There will be some split ups into smaller groups training on a specific form. Then everyone in that group lines up and when everyone's ready they start together. In theory the most experienced student leads them, in practice fuck it no way do I want to join a collective and I'm there to learn not to teach nor lead. And anyway what I often see is people who want to be leaders and/or think they actually have something worth showing, taking the lead.
Why not? Hell it's all about mini power plays (witness the latest edition of 'Energies' uh-oh!). Mini-me and maxi-effect. Big fish in duckponds. Highly demotivating for me I'm afraid.
So - as the Blue Öyster Cult once sang - "Don't Fear the Reaper".
Change is inevitable and with my departure new flowers will grow (and yes they will be thorny flowers and no they won't be doing full-contact). If the effect of the falling sycthe is less clean and skillful than we all would like, then I am truly sorry. But that's the way it is - sometimes you kick a rock and falls down into the valley, sometimes it just goes a few metres, sometimes it starts an avalanche. How much do you really control the results of your actions? How can you really live a life without insulting anyone?
I don't think such things are possible, and now the Reaper's here I can't wait to get on the other side (Heaven for me of course, with 71 (?) brown-eyed virgins awaiting).
Change is good - resistance is not only futile, but against the Tao! So stop resisting and make the future now!
