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The Weightiness of the Long Distance Helper

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 I was attracted to the lifestyle of animals at an early age. I longed to be something like a fox, needing nothing more for shelter than a safe enough place to sleep, finding food and water where I might, carrying nothing but my fur.  As I got older, I admired the frontiersmen on TV who carried nothing but a bedroll, a gun and a knife. I admired Indian braves who rode horses bareback, not needing the heavy, bulky saddles used by the whites.  It seemed to me that one of the main things setting humans apart from other animals was that humans were oppressively encumbered. In the story, A Christmas Carol, I knew the truth of the chains Bob Marley lugged around. They were the stuff we burden ourselves with. Still, I lived life more or less conventionally. I owned cars, as well as a house at one point. Renovating and selling that house convinced me to never again undertake home ownership. I divested myself of a lot when I moved into a series of ever smaller apartments. Then came the war in U
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Segue

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Well, that was a short-lived project: learning the taijiquan sword form and writing about the learning. I got through a few weeks and realized it was not going to be possible to devote the time needed while simultaneously preparing to leave the country to go to Ukraine. I had to keep eyes on the prize, which gave me cause to reaffirm for the thousandth time over the last fourteen months what the prize is. It is, simply, to devote the rest of my life to helping Ukraine rebuild and join the European Union and NATO. Just that. Everything else had to give way, except for my dear friend’s 70th birthday which was June 30. I think I told a few folks that I’d have been gone already were it not for that milestone, but honestly, that last month before the birthday party was so hectic with dispensing with the remainder of my worldly goods that I probably could not have left the country any sooner. So I’m writing this two and a half weeks into my farewell tour of the USA. I left Colorado on July 1
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2. Step Forward Together With Sword

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Of course, it's not that simple, stepping forward together with sword. As with all of the taijiquan form I practice, it makes me question everything, like what stepping is, and where forward is, and why does the name include "together with sword?" We are holding the sword; how could we step forward without it? Ah, but we can. More on that later. I remember when I first learned Repulse Monkey, my teachers described the backward stepping as stepping forward to the rear. It took several years for me to understand this and actually it was only recently at a retreat in Costa Rica led by my teachers that my understanding really blossomed. In the first week, we spent some time each day discussing the taijiquan classics, guided by one of Lee's invaluable documents. In the Taijiquan Classic attributed to Zhang Sanfeng, there is this: Upward, downward, forward, backward, left, and right are all the same. In each case, the distinction is in the yi and not in the external. Lee t
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1. Starting Posture

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A confluence of influences has finally tipped the scale in favor of starting a blog. I've been wanting to start one for months to explain to my friends why I have decided to move to Ukraine to help in whatever way I can. But how to begin. Where to begin. My dad spending his whole career in the defense industry during the Cold War? His being absent so much of my youth because the submarines he worked on demanded so much from him? My elation at the dissolution of the USSR in 1991? My growing alarm in the months preceding Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine? The horror, the absolute horror of the atrocities perpetrated by the retreating Russian soldiers in Bucha. They even booby-trapped kids' toys. That's when I decided I wanted to clear landmines in Ukraine, even though I don't have any background in that and no military experience at all. I just feel strongly that I need to continue my father's work. I have friends in Europe, including Ukraine, and my friends
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