Zen and the Art of Speedskating

Sometimes there is an actor who really strikes at the core of something essential during a role, and becomes part of popular culture afterwards. Pat Morita just passed away at 72, he was astonishing as Mr. Miyagi in the movie The Karate Kid. (check out the list of 103 other films he acted in).

Here is my favorite quote from the movie:

Miyagi: Now, ready?
Daniel Larusso: I guess so.
Miyagi: [sighs] Daniel-san, must talk. Man walk on road. Walk left side, safe. Walk right side, safe. Walk down middle, sooner or later, get squished [makes squish gesture] just like grape. Same here. You karate do “yes,” or karate do “no.” You karate do “guess so,” [makes squish gesture] just like grape. Understand?
Daniel Larusso: Yeah, I understand.
Miyagi: Now, ready?
Daniel Larusso: Yeah, I’m ready.

here is a page of excellent quotes from the Karate Kid, and here are some more.

This quote is true for many things, not just Karate, There is so much baloney about martial arts out there (Bullshido is a good word for it, practiced liberally at McDojos everywhere), and admittedly even the book this blog was named after has FUNDAMENTAL flaws in it, mostly because the author and the Japanese archery master he studied with did not share a language, so mistranslations of concepts abound (a long and good read about this is here, this link is a .pdf file download). Even so, the book Zen in The Art of Archery has become truth, both in Europe and Japan.

Here is my thought for the day: If enough people read a mistranslation as truth, and then practice something like Kyu-Do (trans: “the way of the bow”) and find their own truth, is it still false? If you receive a map to buried treasure, and the map contains lots of mistranslated directions, but when you dig in the specified place you still find treasure, is the map still wrong?

People see/read their own truths into art, books, movies, speedskating, religious texts. However, there is a lot in that sometimes cheesey Karate Kid movie that is still valid, not just about Karate, but about humanity, (somehow, I think of that other mid-80’s movie, “The Breakfast Club” while writing that line, I betray my age here…) Why do I call The Karate Kid cheesey? well, of course anyone with a few months of karate training, (on a beach) can go to an intensely competitive tournament and win first place vs extremely talented people who have dedicated their lives to training… oh, and your master gives you a restored classic car too.

Yet I am frequently reminded of “wax on, wax off”, or of this opening quote when I question my commitment to that intense art form of racing a 500m, I find the 500 almost like trying to do a Kata REALLY FAST and ABSOLUTELY PERFECTLY.

I found an interview with Pat Morita that was very interesting. Evidently, his everyday speaking voice has NO trace of any accent. This was a man with serious talent.

Q: Can you still do karate?
A: I never was able to do karate. That’s calling me a good actor. I act like I can do anything.

Q: You faked it well.
A: Thank you. Well, we had some trainings, some really hardass training prior to the movie. And then of course, before each one, we’d get back into it again.

Q: Do Kids still come up and say, “Mr. Miyagi?”
A: All over the world. I was in London about five months ago and “Oh yeah.” This is a very familiar face now.

p.s. check out the comment my Father made on this post, imagine that something you have said IS someone else’s mistranslated treasure map!

Filed under: Quotes, from home