Moo Do Corner

                      AUTUMN 1999, TIME FOR A NEW HARVEST


"Where has the time gone?"   "It seems like it was just yesterday when we were whitebelts in awe of our seniors in midnight blue."  Do those two statements
sound familiar?  I've been observing our four sam dan candidates prepare for their upcoming dan shim sa for several months and both statements have been
prevalent in my thoughts.  Now, as I watch them prepare, I find myself reflecting on the past and stand in wonder of all the events, classes, clinics,
regional and national camps, that we've all attended and their effect on the harvest of 1999.

Grandmaster Hwang Kee provided us with different belt colors for the gup ranks and related them to the four seasons.  I used to think that as I attained the
rank of cho dan, that I would then be mature and my harvest complete.  As I've continued on the path laid out for me by my seniors, I've come to learn that the
harvest is a continuing process which is marked by ever increasing difficulty of physical and mental obstacles as well as more senior ranks.

A farmer is affected by the weather, prices for his product, pestilence, and the ever increasing encroachment by cities and suburbs on his farmland. The
practitioners of Soo Bahk Do are shaped by each class, camp, and event they attend.   We are shaped by our conversations with our Sa Bom Nim, instruction by him and his fellow Ko Dan Ja and by our interaction with each other.

The Sip Sam Seh says that skill will take care of itself.  I always enjoyed reading that statement when I came across an obstacle which I thought I'd never
overcome.  Never the less, while watching the sam dan candidates, I know in my heart that they didn't just sit around waiting for their skill to kick in but
they moved to action to instill the process in their core being.  They didn't sigh away their time.  Their move to action created their skill.  They took the
Sip Sam Seh to heart and put it to action.  Using it as their bag of tools, they planted the seeds, watered and fertilized, and soon, will enjoy their new
harvest.  But we get to enjoy it too.  We watch, listen and follow their path. We see their harvest and then use the seeds from the fruit of their endeavors to
plant our crop so that we may enjoy our own harvest.

In a couple of weeks, the crop will be ready and in the fall of 1999, it will be time for a new harvest, time for celebration, and time for rededicating
ourselves to the ideals given to us by Grandmaster Hwang Kee.  It is Autumn 1999, time for a new harvest.

Yours in Moo Duk Kwan,

Mark Lee

November 1999