Semantics - Naming

Terms used to describe what we do. We provide things with names that are to represent those things. The hope is that the name will be such that everyone who reads or hears it will understand its complete meaning. Semantics are the study of meaning. I guess I am practicing the Art of Martial Art Semantics. I feel this is necessary if I am to instruct/teach/mentor/guide anyone in any context toward understanding and knowledge of martial systems. This is a very important aspect of my current studies.

Dr. Suzette H. Elgin, PhD wrote several books on the gentle art of verbal self-defense. "The Last Word on The Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defense" has shown me how important this is for our martial arts. It has shown me how important it is in human communications/interactions. I have come to believe that in all endeavors we do ourselves great service if we take the time to understand the semantics, or naming, we put on those endeavors.

I have found a critical endeavor that warrants this belief and started a diligent and dedicated effort to do so.

Dr. Elgin's entire GAVSD has provided me the awareness, a good beginning, to what I hear, what I say, what I read, what I write and many other things of importance in life. I am grateful to have read her books and I am grateful for that extra effort Mr. Rory Miller placed in his bibliography describing the first book of the series of five [note: there are others but they become specific to personal relationships, etc.].

An example is given, "mental hospital:insane asylum, senior citizen:old person, sanitation engineer:garbage collector." In karate if we specify that a particular move in the kata teaches us to block. We have provided that technique with a limited name. It may or may not be a block so why name a kata meaning with a specific. It you get locked into a name and its perceptions then you may miss other valid applications of the kata move.

I have also come to "see" some personal traits I had no conscious clue I possessed by reading these books and other materials associated with their teachings. I speak of focusing effort inward to achieve "enlightenment" before directing efforts to the outside and found that I needed to step up to the plate and swing away. I was missing some very important, critical traits, that need to go.

In closing, if not for karate and its studies and practices I might have gone my entire life living within a dysfunctional life system that caused others to suffer and that is unacceptable. I can say than now because - I have a greater self-awareness that is far and above karate or martial arts. I am self-inspired to improve.

I can truthfully recommend enthusiastically these books as primer's for martial practice with emphasis on self-defense and more importantly as primer's for verbal self-defense.

The Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defense
More on the Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defense
The Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defense at Work
The Last Word on the Gentle Art of Verbal Self-defense
The Gentle Art of Written Self-Defense