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Old 01-30-2007, 11:52 AM   #286
Brion Toss
Dojo: Aikido Port Townsend
Location: Port Townsend, Wa.
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 104
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Re: Baseline skillset

Quote:
Mike Sigman wrote:
Did I tell you the one about the professor who spent 40 years of his life trying to prove that the Odyssey was not written by Homer but by another Greek of the same name?
I love that quote, though the way I heard it was that it was "another blind Greek poet of the same name." The added qualifiers, of course, intensify the seeming absurdity of the professor's pursuit. But the implied kicker is that, in the process of this absurd pursuit, that professor might produce an unintended but productive consequence: a clearer look at the big historical picture.
And what does this have to do with basic Aikido skills? Only that principles are very, very subtle things at heart, though the actualizations based on them can be so numerous and complex as to obscure this. That's one reason why this thread, though things can get contentious, is so valuable to me; it encourages me to look deeper.
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