Evil

"Do you know who are the most evil people in this world?" my former coworker, Bob, asked me, with a serious look on his face.  

"White men." he scoffed.  "Wherever they go, they start wars.  They take the land and enslave the people.  It is all about conquering and dominance.  White men are the most evil people of all, you know."  Bob was normally a pretty cheerful and friendly guy.  I was a bit astonished to hear him talk with such hatred and distain. 

And then, he told me he has Native American blood.  That explained everything.

I met Bob when we worked together wearing orange-colored aprons.  Before that, he used to be an engineer for a commercial building.  He was one of our most knowledgeable associates in the plumbing department.  When our Aikido dojo needed some minor plumbing work done, I brought him over to help.

Looking at this wide span of white canvas mat, Bob asked, "So, what is this Aikido thing you do?  Have you entered any tournaments?  How many trophies do you have?" 

"Me?  I have never entered any tournaments.  I have zero trophies at home because there are no tournaments for Aikido."

"What?  No tournaments?  But I thought you said it is a martial art!  How does it work, then?" Bob was intrigued.

"We do not practice for competitions.  We practice so as to improve ourselves.  Practice is the most important part of it."

Clearly perplexed, Bob went on to ask, "Wait a minute: You mean you just practice, practice and practice?  Then, how do you know you are getting better?  How do you know if you are becoming good?  You gotta try it out on somebody else, no?"

"Of course you know.  Things you could not do previously, now you can.  And we have gradings.  You work on more advance skills and teachers will assess you on that.  There is a feedback mechanism."

"Nah, nah, nah." Bob waved his index finger, "I mean, how do you know who is better if you do not fight each other?  Otherwise, what is the point?  Wouldn't you want to compete with someone and win?"

"No, I don't.  Honestly, I do not like competitions, and I do not care about winning.  I am the most interested in knowing that the me today is better than the me yesterday.  I am sure there are people better than me, and there are some who are not as good, but they are not my concern.  Plus, people are often good at different aspects of the art.  So, it is not always easy to say who is truly better." 

"Huh?  You don't like to win?" Bob had a shocked look on his face.  "This is America, Young Lady!  You gotta be competitive and you gotta win to succeed.  Argh!  I don't know what you are thinking."  Bob frowned and shook his head.  "When I was younger, I boxed.  You get in the ring and beat the crap out of the other guy.  When the referee raises your hand up, you feel like you are on top of the world.  You want me to take you?  I think you will be much better off learning boxing than this Aikido thing.  Argh!"  

I chose not to argue with Bob.  It is clear that we look at the world very differently.  Any attempt to debate with him on the subject is futile.  Yet, he helped me understand why our country is the way it is, and the world is the way it is.  

To make the world a kinder place, maybe we really need to ramp up our efforts for new Aikido recruits . . .