The Journey

The other day I was browsing Wikipedia and came across an interesting article about the poles of inaccessibility. A pole of inaccessibility is a location that is extremely challenging to reach due to its remoteness from geographic features that provide access. This pole is often the furthest point from coastlines. Basically they are the parts of the world that are hardest to get to. The people who are most interested in these areas are of course explorer and travelers.

Now why would an explorer be interested in trying to reach an area whose only interesting characteristic is the challenge of reaching it? For just that of course, the challenge. It's about the journey, not the destination. I am fascinated by the human drive to push ourselves to our limits, to see how much we can take and accomplish. Reading the article made me think about the I Ho Chuan year and the challenges we set for ourselves. The way we set goals and strive to reach them for as much as the final result as the path towards them. I like to think of ourselves as explorers in our own way, searching for self improvement.

Banquet

It's that special time of year again. With only two weeks left until the banquet, there is still lots of work to be done. Every practice matters at this point as we try and prepare ourselves to look our best. I am really happy with how far we've advanced with the Lion/Dragon dance and the demo. Its always inspiring to see the whole team working hard together. Kudos and thanks to everyone making it possible. The new years banquet is a great way to show the results of the I Ho Chuan year.

As usual at this time of the year I have become paranoid about hurting myself. All the dragon dance practices, especially having them back to back, has been rough on my ankle and shin. On Saturday the pain in my lower leg was really getting to me. I think everything should be alright though so long as I make sure not to overdo anything.

Tai Chiathon

The past week I have been practicing a lot of Tai Chi. I think i might have overdosed on Tai Chi because last night I dreamed about doing it. I dreamed I was practicing and critiquing myself as I went along. Maybe I actually learned something while sleeping. That would be pretty awesome. Now that I finally know the entire form I can start working on the finer details. I look forward to fixing my bad habits and exploring the finer points of the form.