What A Toothache - By Craig
Late last year I was eating some almonds. Munch. Munch, Munch.. Crunch! Oh Crap, I had broken a tooth, A back molar to be exact. Buggar, what to do? I was heading off to Okinawa in a week and thought to myself, "It’s not hurting so I will deal with this another day, when I get back from Holidays". Holidays came and they went, I had kind of become used to living with my broken tooth, sure it was a little irritating at times but I kind of liked the idea of having all of my teeth, nothing that I could not just ignore… until -
Last week, I was drinking a cold soft drink from the fridge and ‘BAM!’, my tooth flared up and this time, it was taking no prisoners! I’m convinced that I was speaking in a foreign tongue as the words coming out of my mouth were definitely not the Queen's English! And regardless, my tooth was not equipped nor prepared to listen! So, I popped some strong pain killers and booked myself into the local dentist. The next appointment was in 2 days - ok, no problem, how painful can this be right?
Anyhows…. 2 days later of pill popping, swearing and sleepless nights, I had the tooth removed. I had a bit of discomfort during and after the process but in the long run, I am better off without it.
Also this week, I had to ask my one and only student to leave the dojo. I was only teaching him Kobudo for most of it, as he was running a different style of karate at his own dojo in town. Teaching him went well for the initial few months, I even kind of liked the guy. But slowly, slowly he started to show his true character and intentions, and for the most of it, like my broken tooth, I just ignored it and it did not really affect me too much.
I did find over the last month he had become a little more irritating. My remedy was to train harder and talk less - kind of a pill popping exercise against his ever albeit slightly more abrupt personality.
Now ‘old mate’ is a big guy. Probably just under 6ft tall and carrying a few extra kilograms (as what we all are - except for Terry). I have always treated him with respect, given encouragement and freely given up my time in our shared adventure. I realised a couple of weeks back that there were no, nor had there really even been any sign of gratitude and this did bug me a bit, but again, I persevered and I just ignored it.
Our Kubudo sensei have always said ‘heart first’. If the student has a good heart, I will teach them, if their heart is bad, then they are not welcome in the dojo.
So what condition was this student's heart in? The clincher of this particular toothache came the other night in the dojo, just as we were about to start warming up. He was telling me how he went to join a new Local Gym, but the receptionist was ‘too heavy’ to be working in the Gym and she had no right to be there!
I obviously confronted him about this, but his response was the same - the rant continued.
Anyhow, I changed the subject, we trained and I sent him on his way. I also found his comment completely hypocritical. He runs a dojo, his students call him Sensei, no one would ever question his ability based on him being overweight - and yes, he is very much overweight! In my experience, there is an expectation upon any Sensei when running a dojo to lead by example, to mentor others and just overall and most importantly to have a good heart.
The next day, I made him aware that he was no longer welcome in my dojo.
Ironically, I worded the message as such that my heart was no longer wanting to teach, but the truth was his heart was no longer teachable.
In his reply, he stated “ok, oh, but before I go - how about a grading?”
This was worse than my actual toothache, but just like my tooth ache I had it removed!
It really did pain me to have to do this, but in the long term it would eventually fester, it would affect my life, my beliefs and hell, there is just no place for this in my (or any) dojo.
So for now, again the Hervey Bay Dojo has no students. There is a stillness in the air again which gives me a sense of peace. All of the Brisbane Dojo are all still going strong, filled with good people, all with good hearts and this always makes me happy.
Anyhow, if you have not thanked your Sensei of late, I mean a real ‘Thank-you’, make sure you do next time you see them (It is worth more than you know).
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