The Option

Mr. Miyagi: Then why train?

Daniel: [thinks] So I won’t have to fight.

Mr. Miyagi: [laughs] Miyagi have hope for you.

Who remembers this conversation? I’m guessing anyone over the age of 12 is nodding their head right now. If you’re like me, you loved the Karate Kid movies from the 80’s, but this conversation used to confuse me. I learn to fight, so I don’t have to fight. I struggled for years trying to understand that thought process. Maybe it was my youth, maybe I just didn’t hear it correctly, or maybe I was just naive. I just couldn’t wrap my brain around why someone would learn a skill, then not want to use it.

Like many martial artists, I spent much of my early years training to be the best and trying to fill all the holes and weaknesses in my techniques to take on anyone and win. All that went through my mind was being the best fighter in the world. Not only did I feel like I could defend myself in any situation, I welcomed that mugger to jump out and test me! While I never really had one single moment of clarity, I slowly began to understand what the martial arts were about through teaching others.

I touch on this subject in a previous blog on martial arts misconceptions, “Martial Arts are all about Fighting“, and explain that martial arts can be used as a tool for more important goals than fighting. There was one thing I didn’t mention though and that’s the option to choose not to fight.

If you learn to fight, yet chose not to, then there was no point in learning, correct? Wrong. Life is about having options, whether or not you chose them has no bearing. This is what “freedom” and “free will” are all about. The option to choose. When you take away your options, you take away your freedom to do as you see fit in your life. That’s not living, that’s surviving. When you only have $2 in your pocket and you need to eat, do you have a choice to buy a lobster? No, you buy the salad or a sandwich (or ramen noodles and a can of beer if you’re a college student). Does that mean you would have bought a lobster if you had more money? No, you may have really wanted that sandwich. Wouldn’t it be nice to have that option though? Yes!!!!

This is the option you are given when you learn martial arts. When given the opportunity to defend yourself or walk away, you now have a choice. Those who have no training, have no choice, even if their life depends on it. This country is built on having options and the freedom to choose, but it’s up to us to create these options. If not, our only choice then becomes choosing not to have options, and then your left living a life that you have to live and not the one you want to live.

This is the essence of what the wise old Mr. Miyagi was explaining in that unforgettable scene. Once again, martial arts transcends fighting. It’s a reflection of life!

So what happens when life puts an obstacle in your way? Did you create options for yourself to go the way you want to go so you can live the way you want to live? Or will you be forced to take a route and just survive?