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Old 01-21-2012, 07:09 PM   #17
Ellis Amdur
 
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Location: Seattle
Join Date: May 2003
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Re: Oh My Gawd - did no one notice this?

Oh, and I like your positive spin. As I say, I've been through something quite similar - although neither I nor my teacher were important, the dynamics were similar. And because there was no money involved, that's one reason I see this as a symptom rather than a cause. I think I wrote in HIPS that the money was a symbolic manifestation of mutual confusion and sense of betrayal.

Based on my own experience, I can imagine Ueshiba whipsawed. One day, feeling that at last he can breathe, and then the old man shows up, and shames him in front of his own students, his own family, and he wants to kill him, and then come the money demands, and he's been giving away money to people he knows, and he doesn't have it, and should he could the kids in the Omotokyo marching band, and then the old man and he work out, or he's shown something, and bam - he's back in a state of ecstatic disbelief, because just when he thought he had it all, he realized there's another layer, and the money doesn't matter and the verbal abuse doesn't matter, and then his wife quietly asks, if they'll be sleeping in the store-room very long this time, and . . .this goes on for years and years.

Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if Ueshiba skulked out of Osaka, and when the train arrived in Nagoya, he gets off, and starts doing a victory dance on the platform ("Hahahahahah - this time he'll be so pissed off he'll throw ME out. HAHAHAHAHAH!" and his deshi are looking at him funny, so he just waves them back on the train, he goes out and gets drunk, hooks up with a couple of girls (the power of aiki), gets rolled, gets his wallet stolen, shows up a week later, dazed, broke, with a big grin on his face).

And one of the things I am most fascinated, is that Ueshiba continued to go to Osaka, Inoue taught in Osaka, while Takeda was there. They just didn't cross-paths. (Although I could run with that one too).

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Ellis

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