Donald Trump fancies himself a sensei, but he has had no training.
In the early 1980s, I got to know a Japanese karate master, Shihan Oyama, when I trained for a couple of years in his dojo in the Homewood suburb of Birmingham, Alabama. I progressed from white belt, to yellow belt, to blue belt, and then I injured my spine sparring with another student and I gave up karate. The next belt would have been green, then brown, then the first black belt.
Shihan was 7th degree black belt. His said his sensei in Japan, Mas Oyama, created his own form of karate, Kyokushin, and later he toured America and did demonstrations, which caused America to become interested in karate. Shihan said he and his older brother left their families to train under Mas Oyama, who became their father. Shihan and his brother performed public demonstrations of their skills, including Shihan barehanded fighting his brother wearing full samurai battle gear and wielding a razor sharp samurai sword, which Shihan captured between his bare palms. I saw them do that demonstration at a karate tournament in a gymnasium at the University of Alabama in Birmingham.
During class one day in his dojo, Shihan told his black belts that they all looked like white belts to him. Another time, he told his black belts that karate begins with the first dan (black belt). Another time, he told us that when he was 18, he could beat up all the other students in his sensei’s dojo, but he was still a white belt because all he wanted to do was fight. After he got over just wanting to fight, he started getting promoted. Eventually, he became a world champion.
Shihan was the sensei in his dojo, and everyone bowed to him and said “hai” to anything he said. I never understood how he ended up in Birmingham, but I was darn glad he did, because he tried to prepare me for what angels would start trying to do with me several years later. As for how that is going, the jury is still out.
The head samurai in The Last Samurai movie is an example of how the Japanese viewed a sensei in olden times. His community. was totally loyal to him, and he and they were entirely loyal to the Emperor. of Japan They quit using “modern weapons” -guns, cannons, and only used the traditional weapons. They alone tried to protect the Emperor and Japan from traitors who. had sided with American profiteers. The Emperor is barely a young man and he views the head Samara as his teacher. The Samara all were killed in a final battle, trying to protect the Emperor and Japan.
Tom Cruz plays the drunkard American ex-Indian fighting US Army officer, who come to Japan to help them build their modern army, and his side gets beat by the Samurai and his soldiers, who capture him because the head samurai had had a vision about him. They don’t like him, but they clean him up and he teaches their sensei what he needs to know about America and the Indians. They teach him how to be a samurai, and he fights with them until the end. he is the last Samurai in that clan, and that clam are the last true samurai in Japan.
As the tale winds down, the American samurai visits the Emperor, who asks him to explain how his teacher died, and the American says, Your Majesty, I will tell you how he lived. Then, the American returns to the remote Samurai village where there are only women and children and his samurai wife, whose husband he had killed in the battle his side lost at the beginning of the tale.
Donald Trump fancies himself a sensei, but he has had no training, nor does he want to be trained. I wish Americans were mature enough to run America properly, but they are not. If the US Military was led by samurai, they would take matters into their own hands for a while, with the intention of restoring the nation to the people if and when there were people worthy of being in control.
some Vanderbilt and Alabama alumnus lore and musings on college football, the oldest profession, boomerang karma and yin/yang disturbances
I celebrated 83rd birthday today by wearing that T-Shirt The Witch gave me a few days ago.
I graduated from Vanderbilt in May 1965, and that fall I enrolled at the University of Alabama School of Law in Tuscaloosa.
I was tired of watching the Vanderbilt football get beat most of the time, and I was an Alabama football fan since Coach Paul “Bear” Bryant came to Alabama, and I had rooted for Alabama when it played Vanderbilt.
When I watched Vanderbilt’s fabulous transfer quarterback Diego Pavia and his team lead the entire game and beat Alabama straight up last year in Nashville, I felt the better team had won.
I thought Name Image and Likeness (NIL) and the instant transfer portal had greatly leveled the playing field in college football, and had turned college football into a giant house of ill repute in which most of the better players are for sale if the price is right.
I thought Vanderbilt competes academically with schools like Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Stanford, and thus a Vanderbilt diploma is worth far more to Vanderbilt football players in after football job markets than, say, an Alabama diploma is worth to Alabama football players.
This year, I thought Pavia and his football team might give Alabama’s football team all that wanted and then some.
Leading up to the Vanderbilt-Alabama game in Tuscaloosa this past Saturday, I was astounded to read various news and social media reports that Pavia was saying, if Vanderbilt plays its game, it won’t be close.
I wondered what got into Pavia to taunt the Alabama football team?
In his day, Alabama’s G.O.A.T. (greatest of all time) Coach Nick Saban would have taken his quarterback to the woodshed for saying something like that in public. Coach Saban would have called it rat poison.
In his day, Coach Bryant and his quarterback would have a prayer meeting with Jesus.
As I watched the first half of Vanderbilt-Alabama game this past Saturday on my TV, I felt Pavia and his team were the better team even Alabama scored a long touchdown pass on the last play of the half to tie the game at 14-14.
I stopped watching the game and went outside to work in The Witch’s and my backyard garden, and when I came back inside and looked at the TV, I saw Vanderbilt had not scored in the second half and Alabama was ahead with only few minutes to play.
I watched Alabama’s offense give up the ball on downs and punt, and I watched Alabama’s defense stifle Pavia and his offense and get the ball back, and I watched Alabama run out the clock and its starting running back Jam Miller made a long touchdown run as time ran out.
I told The Witch, who had graced me a few months back by becoming my wife, that Lady Karma paid Diego Pavia and his team a visit in Tuscaloosa this past Saturday.
I told The Witch that what Pavia did to set up that karma has a lot to do with what is wrong in America today.
Way too much testosterone, not nearly enough estrogen (metaphor).
Or if you prefer, way too much yang, not nearly enough yin. resulting in:
I now can’t help but wonder if it was The Witch’s since childhood spirit protector and guide, Asherah, the wife of God in ancient Israelite lore, helped Pavia fumble near the Alabama goal line and lose the ball in the first half, and in the second half Asherah helped Pavia throw an interception in Alabama territory, and Asheral helped Pavia continue to not play up to his usually high level in the closing minutes of that game?
I now wonder if Asherah gave me this poem which wrote itself into my diary right before a Key West Poetry Guild monthly reading began in 2017?
“Bi Polar”
the world’s favorite
mood disorder
the cause of all
human ails,
including wars,
if the demons aren’t counted
bi polar disorder,
the destruction of the
south pole,
the feminine,
the north pole,
he ain’t been
right in the head
since she’s been gone
I wonder if Asherah gave me that poem, because she had arranged for one of my blog posts to show up in The Witch’s computer in early 2010, and The Witch read that post and knew she and I were soulmates and some day we would be together.
some nitty gritty memories and pleasant surprises in my terrible 80s
After I posted this below at my Facebook, three people I don’t personally know made interesting and unexpected comments, and it went from there.
Me
After Alabama lost to Florida State, I wondered if that might be really good for the Alabama team and its coaches, because that loss demolished their national ranking and flushed all of that rat poison down the toilet. I was wondering about my own self, old, grumpy, many, many football games of a different sort under my belt, some of which went okay, some of which did not. Alabama’s head coach Kalen DeBoer then came to me in a dream one night and said, “Sequoia”. I woke up wondering if his team’s performance would improve, and it did, so far. Underdog Alabama led all the way in a really hard fought game, and beat undefeated Georgia in Athens by 3 points. Alabama’s next game is against Vanderbilt, my alma mater, which beat Alabama last year.
Vanderbilt didn’t win many games when I was there. In fact, I was so tired of watching Vanderbilt football that I did not apply to Vanderbilt’s law school, and I enrolled at Alabama’s law school in Tuscaloosa. My father had said several times that he wished he had gone to law school, because knowing the law was so important In business. I was not ready to work for a living, and law school was a good way to postpone that. I did enjoy law school, and then I was fortunate to clerk for a federal judge in Birmingham, but by the time my term with him was up, I was physically ill and had lost my confidence, and so I went to work for my father’s company, Golden Flake, which felt safer for me, and for my wife and children.
Golden Flake competed against Frito-Lay. Working for Golden Flake turned out to be a big mistake for me and for my father, but I worked very hard for there, and I like to think it became a better company because I was there. I wrote some about that in The Golden Flake Clown’s Tale, now a free ebook at archive.org. I wrote about other things in that book, too. A fellow I barely knew growing up in Mountain Brook, later nick-named the Tiny Kingdom, told me that he took up writing short stories in his retirement, and what I wrote in that book often was taught reading, but he wanted to read it, but the tale kept hopping around and it wasn’t how a book was supposed to be written. I told him that I wrote the book as it came to me and it was like a patchwork quilt and that’s how the Muse wanted it to be.
After working at Golden Flake, I went into the practice of law, with a small law firm whose members did not grow up in The Tiny Kingdom. I liked practicing law pretty well, but something was not entirely right inside of me, and I struggled to stay normal Then, I lost two very important lawsuits in federal court, which I ought to have won if the judges were not programmed to rule against labor unions in one case, and against the federal government in the other case. Those two cases broke my spirit regarding the law was suppose to be dispassionate and simply dispense justice.
Toward the end of my law practice, I wrote three books that upset the residential real estate business and lawyers, and got me a whole lot of television and radio coverage, but the New York Publisher did not have the books in bookstores, and I did not get rich to go along with being somewhat famous. I had so hoped writing would become my career, and it would pay me a good wage.
I finally felt like I was a total failure, at the end of my rope, out of bright ideas, and I asked God to help me, I did not want to die failed, and I offered my life to human service. About ten days later, a couple of angels woke me up in the wee hours and told me I would be pushed to my limits but I had asked for it, and they jolted me three times with spiritual lightning, which freaked me out and at the sane time caused me to feel special. Then, they took me on a very long sometimes wondrous but often very rough ride, which demolished my ego thousands of times and changed how i perceived myself and everything else.
Looking back, I see the angels had in mind that I would write a lot, and it didn’t matter to them whether a lot of people read what I wrote. Only, it that I wrote. And so I wrote a few more status quo disturbing books, some where non-fiction sometimes accused of being fiction, and some were novels sometimes accused of not being fiction, and I wrote tens of thousands of pages of status quo disturbing posts at different blogs, some of which a friend turned into free ebooks at archive.org, as well as all but the first three books and one later book. I don’t know right now if I have another book in me, but I have lots of stories in me, and I have theredneckmystic.com to hold them, and I know how to build new Google blogspot blogs.
Perhaps some cosmic humor, as my father drove me to Ramsay High School in Birmingham for my first day of class in 1956, he said he thought I should sign for a typing course because knowing how to type had been very handy for him in his business life. So, I enrolled in a typing class with another boy I knew from Crestline Heights Elementary School in The Tiny Kingdom, and about 30 young girls who lived in Birmingham and knew nothing about living in The Tiny Kingdom. Today, I thank my father for telling me to take that typing course, and anyone who has wished or might later wish I did not become a writer can blame my father .
Linda
Roll Tide I didn’t know you first worked at Golden Flake I knew a lady that worked there. She brought me chips every week. I can’t remember her name. She was good to me
Me
Thanks, Linda, a whole lot of good people worked at Golden Flake. I worked there many summers before going to law school. Besides my father, I was the other Bashinsky who learned it from the ground up. My father’s father and his brother in law bought it after WW II and made my father a junior partner. The intrigue behind that purchase, never told in writing by anyone but me, is told in the Golden Flake Clown’s Tale,https://archive.org/search?query=the+golden+flake+clown’s+tale
Linda
You n Chris mean a lot for me. Yall are perfect love!
Me
Thanks, after we hitched up about this time last year, I stopped waking up wishing the Lord had taken me in my sleep.
Diane
I was a single working 30-yr-old woman who really wanted to buy a house back when interest rates were around 10 or 12%, unfortunately. But I saved and saved for 2-3 years, and I was determined! and thankfully got approved easily enough for an FHA loan with 10% down. The year was 1989.
Thanks to you!… I was extremely well prepared when it came to making an offer and going through the negotiation process, and holding my own at the closing. I say, “thanks to you” because of your book. The realtor said EXACTLY what you predicted he would say!… When I offered 10% less than the asking price, the realtor said, “You’ll insult the seller with such a low offer“ ha ha. And at closing, when the lawyers said I had to pay for something which was NOT listed on my side of the closing docs, I said “OK, well, we’ll just have to meet back in three weeks when I’ve gotten another paycheck because I’ve already covered my out-of-pocket expenses and I’m not responsible for any more. It wasn’t listed in the Buyer’s Column so I’m done, no closing today.”
I was NOT intimidated. Thanks to you, I was PREPARED.
Lo and behold the realtors split the cost for the extra $175 fee the sellers had slipped in… Just like you said they would do!
The name of your book was “Lambs to the Slaughter.” And it made all the difference for me, buying my first house, and my second and my third, and I just want to say THANK YOU.
Me
Thanks, Diane. The full title to that book was HOME BUYERS: LAMBS TO THE SLAUGHTER? A Birmingham public relations firm owned by June Cunniff had a fell ow named Yanna Davis working for it. Yanna often was heard on Birmingham’s public radio show, WBHM? Yanna got the producer of the Jane Pauley Today Show interested in the book, and I was interviewed on Today by Jane in early January 1985, as I recall, on her show in NY City. I thought I was gonna be a best seller author. Heh, we plan, God laughs?
Dianne
Well, that book should’ve been a best seller! I recommended it to many of my friends and acquaintances! Some of THE most important advice I’ve ever gotten, for sure.
Porter
I’m from ‘The Tiny Kingdom’ myself. Born in 1956 to Kitty and Van Scott, our family of 6 children grew up eating Golden Flake potato chips, which were the best. My mother Kitty even did television commercials for Golden Flake for a while. My first adventure with filmmaking was when my younger sister and I skipped elementary school to film a commercial for the Bambi Iron Ons that were included in each package of Golden Flake chips.
I enjoyed reading about your unorthodox career path. Finding our way in life is always a challenge. I too have scrambled to reinvent myself over the years. And I’ve always said that the most useful course I ever took during many years of fancy schooling was my typing class in 7th grade. It’s the basic skill that allowed me to transition to the computer age without feeling inept.
Me
Unorthodox, for sure . Yeah, being able to type really helped me transition to the computer age. When I ran for school board in the Florida Keys and learned half the kids don’t go to college, and the ones that do, most don’t complete college, and those who do, most can’t find decent paying jobs, I talked about that on my blogs and during candidate forums, and I said by the time kids get to middle school they should know how to touch type and be fluent in Spanish and English, and by the time they leave high school, they should have a trade skill that can earn them a decent living. And the school district ’s main focus was to teach kids how to take the ATC test, which was really dumb. And that every school should become a charter school, run by the parents of the kids in the schools using money the school board got from real estate taxes. I came in dead last. Imagine me running for the Mountain Brook school board , telling stories about what it was like growing up in the rich white supremacy kingdom
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