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The Challenge of Trying Times:
Tournament 2003 

by William Joseph Pemberton

In every life, individually or collectively, there come times of trial, times when one must rise to the challenge, times when we must stand or fall on our own merits. We may disagree with one another. We may argue and debate. In the end, it is the choices we make that will decide our destiny. These challenges come, not when we would most wish, but when they choose, often when we least expect, or want, them. It is our responsibility to be ready when they do. How we respond to these calls defines us, as people and as a society. Did we respond with dignity, integrity and respect or with malice and hatred? These are the questions we must ask of ourselves. To this end, we of the Kenpo community train daily to hone ourselves, our skills and our values. We train as the tiger to find the dragon within ourselves so that in times of trial we can rise with honor to the challenges that are placed before us. We sweat and we bleed but we never give up.

Once a year we come together to test ourselves against others who have trained as hard as have we. We test ourselves to find out if we have found some of the dragon or if we are still firm in the tiger. Are we the scholar or the warrior? Do we accept defeat graciously or do we blame the judges or our opponent? Do we honor victory with integrity or do we gloat and parade our supposed superiority in the face of those who had the courage to face us? Do we use this challenge to test our focus and skill or do we use it to tear at the skill of others, to validate ourselves at all costs? This is the true test of courage we must face when we stand toe to toe with an opponent in the “field of honor”. This is the real challenge. When we honor our opponent in the field of competition we honor ourselves in the art and the art within ourselves. Whether we stand alone before those who must judge us and our Kata or dodge the raining blows of a larger opponent we must, in the end, face ourselves, our fears and our own personal truth.

This year, as in years past, the sense of love and honor that came to us through competition at the Kenpo Championships was inspiring to those members of our family, old and new, who came out to play. Whether a first time competitor or a battle hardened veteran you came together and faced the challenge head on. The brotherhood, and sisterhood, is rarely illustrated in a stronger sense than at this yearly event. The courage that is the true Kenpo practitioner is rarely at its highest or most evident. We are truly blessed to be a part of something so large and so rare but this basic fact can be lost, taken for granted, when one trains in the same Dojo, with the same, like minded, people day after day. It is only through seeing the truth of ourselves reflected in the art of others that we genuinely know what a wonderful gift we have been left.

One of the greatest things that Edmund K. Parker left us in Kenpo is its adaptability to the individual. At no other time is that more evident than at the annual tournament where we, as individuals, come together in our differences to share our unique visions of this art. If, as I believe, the greatest value of this great country is its diversity and the uniqueness of its people and their ideals then Kenpo truly is an American art.

With this in mind we thank those schools who brought their uniqueness to the “melting pot” that is Kenpo. As has been said many times, without the students, who form the raw building material of any tradition, there would be no art, no tradition. It would die out with the passing of the current generation. The mortar that holds this material together are, of course, the instructors who pass on, not only their skill and knowledge, but their values and integrity to succeeding generations. These instructors are (with my apologies to any whom I may miss) Mr. Bryan Hawkins, Colin & Tara VanDeusen of Power of One, Willie and Denise Aguilar, Jim and Deanna Diggs, Tony Martin, Tommy Chavies, Steve Cooper, Steve Spry, Robert Temple, Edward Chavez, Joaquin Sahagan, Perce's Kenpo, Lavalle Bullard, Albert Cornejo, Erik Akutagawa, Paul Dye, and Frank Trejo. Thanks to these great instructors and the students who have put their trust in them. Trust is a rare thing in this world and finding someone worthy of that trust is even rarer.

Of course, no building would be complete without the foundation upon which it rests. For us, that foundation is found in our seniors, those who came before and helped build and refine this art that we are, with luck and hard work, further polishing. The honor of meeting these people is superseded only by the honor of working with them and learning from them. Other than those, whose names we all should recognize from above, we were honored with the continued presence and support of Dian Tanaka and George Waite who epitomize the values we all strive to achieve. At every United Kenpo function we have the opportunity to meet and learn from those whose roots extend all the way back to the very architect of our art, Mr. Edmund K. Parker, without whom none of this would be here.

In times like the ones in which we live, where honor and integrity vary with the individual, where many are attacked for the very individuality for which we are fighting, it is reaffirming to find such a diverse group of men and women who can come together to celebrate this diversity in honor and respect to one another in the very individuality from which comes our strength. In our cooperative competition is forged the steel of our art for generations to come. Without challenge there can be no growth and in this event we show that challenge does not necessitate hatred and anger. The sportsmanship was, as usual, exemplary and inspiring. The love and fellowship continues to reaffirm the reason we must come back and accept the bruises and fatigue and disappointment and discouragement that we thrive upon to the “shock and awe” of those in our lives who express their lack of understanding at what calls us and continues to call us to this vocation.

With this, let us take time to thank the hard work of Bryan Hawkins for taking the time to put this together for our benefit. The hard work is always appreciated.

As always, we must take a moment to honor those men and women who came before us, Senseis in the true meaning of the word, to built and develop an art whose greatest purpose is the refinement of the individuals who makes up the society. It is only through their carrying of the torch of Kenpo that we may share these times at all.

Finally, we must certainly thank Mr. Parker for the time and tears, the blood and sacrifice, that comes with building a house that outlasts the architect. Without him there would be no art of Kenpo as we know it and we may not have ever met and shared our lives and that, in the end, is the greatest gift of these, and all other, Kenpo gatherings.

Thank you all for this time. May there be many more.

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