{"id":189,"date":"2017-05-01T09:05:16","date_gmt":"2017-05-01T15:05:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.agilefieldbook.com\/?p=189"},"modified":"2021-04-26T10:04:18","modified_gmt":"2021-04-26T16:04:18","slug":"the-passing-of-a-master","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.agilefieldbook.com\/?p=189","title":{"rendered":"The Passing of a Master"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>It has been several months since news of Emily Busch ‘s unexpected death<\/a> and I still wrestle with the thought I shall never have the privilege of again practicing Aikido with her at Nippon Kan<\/a>. The blow to Homa Sensei is undoubtedly far greater. I do not know his pain, but I am familiar with it<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Looking at the growing stack of draft posts, I see about a dozen on the subject of mastery. I feel I have a lot to contribute to this subject, particularly in regard to Agile practices. And yet, I hesitate due to a sense that I still have more to learn before I’m in a position to teach on the subject. In no small measure this hesitation is counseled by having met and studied with a great many truly masterful people across a wide variety of human experience.<\/p>\n

Emily was one of those masters.<\/p>\n

Not only was she a master of Aikido (6th degree black belt and Sensei at Nippon Kan), she was a master jeweler. She designed and made the wedding rings for both my first and second wife along with several beautiful pendants and a set of ear rings for one of my nieces. I never had a personal jeweler before Emily and shall not have another before my time is finished on this earth.<\/p>\n

For all her skill and mastery, she very much understood the importance of service. There was no task that needed attention at the dojo or in preparation for a seminar that was beneath her rank. And I wonder how many patrons to Domo restaurant<\/a> knew they had their order taken and served by a 6th degree black belt.<\/p>\n

Emily had already achieved the rank of black belt by the time I began practicing at Nippon Kan in 1989. My very early memories from practicing with her are of her patience and ability to skillfully instruct a 6’5″ oaf like me in the ways of Aikido – both on and off the mat. I don’t know if Emily even weighed 120 pounds, but that never stopped her from putting my sorry ass on the mat or sending me over her shoulder. Even so, I never matched Emily’s skill, even on my good days.<\/p>\n

Those mastery related posts will have to wait a while longer. And in the wider view, my respect for those whom make claim to be masters without having done the work and earned the title have lost a little more of my respect.<\/p>\n

Emily Sensei will be missed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It has been several months since news of Emily Busch ‘s unexpected death and I still wrestle with the thought I shall never have the privilege of again practicing Aikido with her at Nippon Kan. The blow to Homa Sensei is undoubtedly far greater. I do not know his pain, but I am familiar with … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “The Passing of a Master”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[34,33],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.agilefieldbook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.agilefieldbook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.agilefieldbook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.agilefieldbook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.agilefieldbook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=189"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.agilefieldbook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1578,"href":"https:\/\/www.agilefieldbook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189\/revisions\/1578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.agilefieldbook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.agilefieldbook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.agilefieldbook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}