Capturing Daily Life
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Candidate Insider
Sensei Peter Urban
Father of American Karate
My Hero
May 28, 2004 (Saturday)
...Sabu saw me as naive and tried to wise me up.
he convinced me to take karate by cleverly
emphasizing the meditative aspect
of martial arts. And he insisted
that I study at Sensei Peter Urban's
Chinatown Dojo.
Sabu held Sensei Urban in extremely high
regard, and so did I, very quickly. He is
known as "The Father of American Karate",
and he was like a father to his students.
He had studied and practiced karate under
Sensei Yamaguchi in Japan after WWII.
Sensei Urban was extremely intelligent
and highly regarded for his breadth
of knowledge. In 1972, during the
Fisher/Spassky chess match, he became
interested in chess and we students
would sometimes play chess with him
and each other in his office.
He could joke and tease a bit
and take teasing from his wife.
He was human.
People Need People
I went through a stage when I lived in a
tent in the mountains in upstate New York.
When I returned to his Dojo and he heard
about this, he said, "Too lonely, David,
people need people."
One day he was standing in his Dojo,
talking to two of his students, a third dan
and a fourth dan. "David, come here",
he called me. I hurried over. "David,
I want you to spar with (the third dan)."
Obediently, I took a fighting stance.
I feinted a punch with my right hand.
My opponent remained motionless.
Again I feinted a punch, and I spun
through the air and landed on my back
at his feet.
Use Your Biggest Muscle -
Your Brain
I studied at Sensei Urban's Dojo
for just a bit in 1970 and, when
I returned in 1972/73, I struck up
a friendship with Sabu again.
I had many Manhattan adventures with Sabu
that year. Sabu only strenghtened my
disillusionment with shallow liberalism
and the flaky left. Discussing the troubled
state of the world and the difficulties
of life, he quipped, "It...it...it not Nixon,
David. It...it...(searching)...it Cosmo,"
at once lampooning the liberals'
Nixon-bashing and the liberals' obsession
with Eastern mysticism (the cosmos).
I knew that Sensei Urban disapproved
of me "hanging out on the street"
with Sabu, whom he called Robert Price.
Eventually, I decided to straighten out
my life and get a job. I loathed liberalism,
now. I knew it from the inside,
and I hated it. For me, joining the Navy
was an act of rebellion against liberalism.
I was voting with my feet.
Besides, Sensei Urban was a Navy Man,
I think. And the military was somewhat
of a family tradition, and hence it was
healing in that regard.
Like Huck's ride down the Mississippi with Jim,
my ride through Manhattan with Robert Price
was a real and special experience,
and totally beyond the ken of a liberal.
Robert is a friend, and his greatest gift
to me was sending me to Sensei Urban.
Sensei Urban is my hero, a true
Renaissance Man, a living example of
Courage, Confidence, Fighting Spirit,
Intelligence, and Humanity.
"David," he said to me,
"use your biggest muscle - your brain."
Posted by dscully at 07:77 PM Top of Page
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David Scully
email
davidscully
@hotmail.com
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