THE MARTIAL ARTS BOG. (…not “blog”- “BOG!”)
Don’t “bog down” in your martial arts when you first actually sought-seek-want clean, generic hand, stick, knife and gun survival versus crime and war.
* Bog Defined – “A bog is a wetland that accumulates peat as a deposit of dead plant materials – often mosses. Other names for bogs include mire, mosses and quagmire. Quagmire.
* Bog defined as a verb – “to cause to sink into or as if into a bog. Impede. Mire. — usually used with the word down as “bog down.”
* Wet, not dry like a sandtrap (as kids my age, from old shows, it seemed like the worst bog was quicksand and it was everywhere!).
Bruce Lee did express the “bog-like” idea that fixed martial arts systems can become traps, but he framed it more philosophically. Quotes are:
“All fixed set patterns are incapable of adaptability or pliability. The truth is outside of all fixed patterns.”
“Styles tend to separate because they have doctrines that become dogma.”
He was criticizing rigid adherence to art-style, not necessarily saying every martial art is useless. His concern was that once practitioners cling to a “system,” they may stop adapting, evolving. This philosophy led him to create “Jeet Kune Do,” (JKD) which he described not as a style, but as, famously-
“Using no way as way, having no limitation as limitation.”
Tricky to manipulate, but I get it. I get the message. Limit as no limit. Philosophical. I did JKD for two decades and it got systemically trappy too, so I stepped outside of that box. I still reach into that great box, sure, but my feet are outside the box.
I would say, “Enjoy your fighting hobbies. But just be in the know.” Know what you want, wanted and what you are doing. If crime and war survival is what you seek? Your hobby may be quite abstract with abstract benefits. Off-mission. No matter how tough it appears, or how rough-tough some participants in it appear.
This “trap” philosophy transcends into everyday life. Every program, operation and system, job is something of a trap, a trap in its own way. It might be a comfortable trap. Yes, many experts, psychologists, and philosophers consider being “too comfortable” a trap because it may act as a barrier to personal growth, fulfillment, and long-term success. While comfortable and comfort offers short-term pleasure and a feeling of safety, it is frequently described as “addictive,” and even dubbed by some as a “sweet prison” that leads to stagnation, complacency, and for some folks, regrets. Not for all. Some.
I myself have done the wrong-for-me martial arts much of my life, always biting my tongue, frustrated with the doctrine and dogma. From the army and policing, I first and foremost had enemies and criminals to worry about. What do you worry about? Or do you worry at all? Just enjoy the exercise, the tradition and social experience?
I am not not trying to sound so negitive! But not to fret, it’s all quite natural. It’s just life we are living through. Just…know. Be happy. They say ignorance is bliss. But…just know what’s going on with you and around you. See the sandtraps and bogs, even that darn quicksand ahead…or feel the one you’re in now?