Well, this is an odd post to see on a site dedicated to child development, isn’t it?  Don’t worry, I haven’t totally lost it – yet.  I am going somewhere with this.

As a young martial artist, I was a fan of Bruce Lee movies – wasn’t everyone?  But he didn’t really become a part of my psyche until I was exposed to his philosophy.  And the thing about it – I think that this was his greatest contribution.  If you really study the man during his tragically short life, it is almost as if he was using gong fu to explain philosophy.

 

Now I have had many great teachers, and have read many great writers.  But you can’t understand where Move Theory came from (if you care) without understanding Bruce Lee’s influence on me – especially since his symbol for the Tao of Jeet Kune Do is tatooed on my right shoulder!

To give you an idea of how he influenced me, here is a quote:

All fixed set patterns are incapable of adaptability or pliability. The truth is outside of all fixed patterns.

Yes, this is one of the early seeds of Move Theory.   The “life” of truth.  So many look at truth as this dead thing to be looked at and possessed as a trophy.  Bruce’s writings taught me that truth is something we seek – it is no more a thing than a process.  This is why I constantly speak out against our preconceived notions about child development, education, and the world.  Because a preconceived notion means you have stopped thinking, stopped searching.

Here is another gem:

Let an opponent graze your skin and you smash into his flesh; let an opponent smash into your flesh and you fracture his bone; let an opponent fracture your bone and you take his life! Do not be concerned with your escaping safely; lay your life before him!

This led me to understand that was I to learn, I had to challenge.  I never back away from anyone in my probing for knowledge.  I always wanted a better answer.  I don’t care whether the person is a Nobel Laureate or a peer my age.  I press and fight – because I know that’s where the growth is.  Classmates would sometimes be appalled at the way I would go after a guest speaker and debate.  But it was because I had learned to not consider my own standing or opinions of others – my intellectual “life” – in my “fight” for knowledge.

“Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless – like water. Now you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup, you put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle, you put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.”

All too often, people put so much stock in the apparent strength of rigidity.  But rigidity is often brittle, when not fortified by the continued search for truth.  So there are very few things I won’t budge on – even things I am passionate about.   This is also the reason that when I decide to be forceful – I am tremendously effective.  Because my forcefulness is coming from a place of fluidity between theory, passion, practicality, and action – The Move Theory.

Thank you Bruce, with all my heart.  I am forever in your debt.