Minutiae

The small, precise, or trivial details of something. Oh how we in martial arts tend toward minutiae. It builds up our base toward filling in all the empty spaces between learning actual martial arts. Yet, it is also part and parcel of learning. You have to have some baseline of knowledge to understand knowledge. It is like learning to read and write for to not have that capability means you lose a lot of knowledge that leads to understanding that leads to mastery.

What happens is martial artists get lost in the minutiae of martial arts. They get so caught up in the details they forget about what is actually the essence of martial arts. It is a bit like when someone I know asked the bird doctore, "What about the pink of the beak?" and the response was, "don't get caught up in the minutiae but rather look at the whole bird, i.e. the body language, etc. to see the whole health." 

Martial arts are like that where you use minutiae to gain knowledge but then you let it go so it sits in the mind ready to be mixed, matched and made into a whole idea or bit of knowledge that does not hold you fast to just one simple leaf of the tree of knowledge but allows you to see the whole tree itself with all that knowledge has to offer. 

Minutiae, trivia, is fun and gives us things to do between - between training and practice on the dojo floor. Like writhing this blog post, it gives me a topic to speak on and to add to other things to make sure I remain grounded. It also allows me to explore the universe that is martial arts while maintaining my perspective so I can apply things holistically and wholeheartedly. 

All knowledge from the moment you are born to the day you lay to rest is an accumulation of bits and pieces that float in the mind ready to be put to good use either singularly or in a societal gathering of things that make an idea that can be an action appropriate to the moment. 

Use minutiae as a tool to gain mastery of the whole that is martial arts. Remember that there are many, many things that come before, with and after the fist. The fist alone is not enough.