My 13 year old daughter, Audrey and I both practice karate together. While she is smiling in the above picture, I assure you she was not smiling but rather was balling her eyes out when she found out that I had signed her up for a karate camp two years ago this coming July. By the end of the week however, Audrey decided that she might actually like this karate thing and decided to take some classes beyond the one week camp she took in 2016.
I signed her up because as a father of a young lady in this day and age, I have some concerns as she matures. The reality is that I cannot lock her a in a closet and protect her from the pains and dangers of life. However, after much prayer, reflection and consideration, I came to realize that I could take some action to lessen my concerns and feelings of helplessness. While I had always wanted for Audrey and I to take up a martial art practice together, I had up to that point been unable to figure out how to schedule this in as I am a single dad and she is not with me 100% of the time. I gave up on us doing it together and decided that if she could at least get some basic self-defense skills in the week long camp then I'd be satisfied. Now here I am almost 2 years later sharing how significant a part of both our lives the practice of kenpo has become (kenpo stands for "law of the fist" and is often simply referred to as karate which means "empty hand).
I'm fortunate enough that the dojo we go to, Chamberlin Studios of Self Defense, has a strong group of practitioners who take the notion of "ohana" (family in Hawaiian) seriously. Our practice of kenpo has roots originating in India, then moving to China, then to Japan and more specifically Okinawa then to Hawaii and ultimately to the "main land" in the United States. With the strong family spirit that encapsulates our dojo, I was ultimately recruited to start training as I took Audrey to classes and sat and watched her. I began in February 2017.
We have both worked through the first 3 belts which are considered beginner belts of white, yellow and orange. Today, we are both purple belts, which is the first of the 3 intermediate belts. The intermediate belts are purple, blue and green. Following that are the advanced belts of Brown 3, Brown 2 and Brown 1 and lastly is the black belt. Audrey is due to test for her second purple belt next week (kids have first and second belts for each color/rank, adults just one belt for each rank/color except brown as discussed above). Below is a picture of my belts (I decided to create my own content and show my own belts rather than pulling a picture with them all, thanks to the lessons of owning my own content on this platform!). I will be up for testing again in June this year and will be going for my blue belt.
While I realize this post probably bores most people on STEEMIT, I really wanted to share something that is a significant part of my relationship with my daughter anymore. A few years ago as she was growing older it was becoming harder for us to relate as we really didn't have any hobbies or activities that we both enjoyed doing together. Now with karate we take classes together all the time, we go to karate social and service events, we have lot's of friends that we practice with and we are learning unbelievable life skills and self-defense techniques! Such a gem I cannot begin to explain.
More than anything, I really want my STEEMIT blog to be a true reflection of me, Brett Paul Prange. I want to be open, known and share who I am. I've wanted to do this virtually for a long time but have been hesitant to do so with concerns of privacy and data collection (ahem - FACEBOOK). Blockchain technology will ultimately revolutionize data collection and utilization and identity security such that there will be far greater trust that each of us can have that our information is ours, it is safe, and it is okay for us to be open, exposed and known. So as I embrace STEEMIT, I feel that I am doing it more than simply to write blogs, get likes, earn followers or even STEEM dollars. While I of course would love to do all those things, I want to do it in a way that energizes and excites me. Writing a blog has really never been a goal or dream of mine. While I love to journal and write, I have rarely shared my writings or my thoughts until I joined STEEMIT.
So as I venture into this new digital frontier, convinced of the revolution that is just now beginning, I have to be real. I have to share my passions, my hurts, my challenges, my thoughts, hopes, aspirations, failures. I feel like this whole platform is a big science experiment that I am participating in. We are exploring this new frontier together. And my philosophy as I do that in writing blogs is that I want to share different aspects and elements of myself. Even if I ultimately decide to write more specifically on one topic, or just to post my art, or to make this more of a journal about myself and my life, what I ultimately hope to convey are the reasons behind why I choose to share what I do. I hope that my true STEEMIAN friends and followers find value in something that I say, something they can relate to, something that inspires them, something that they like, something that they learn from or something that they simply want to respond to. I seek to share who I am here and hope you will do the same with me my friends. I have to be real, that's all.
Blessings and love!
Brett