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One of my friends posted this on Facebook.  I shouldn’t have to say this, but don’t try this at home.

A friend of mine posted this on Facebook.  This little guy looks intense.  I think I saw the same picture used in a Silat poster.

My wife and I had the pleasure of going to Disney World this past weekend, and I thought our readers would find this interesting.

The Good
Disney is great at making people feel good. It really is the “Happiest Place on Earth.” It is amazingly clean, and the staff is always extremely attentive to even the smallest of details. I guess this is why so many businesses copy Disney’s practices.

The Bad
Seeing thousands and thousands of people at one time is a good way to view society. For our purposes, it is a large enough sampling of the population through which we can infer certain things. This is by no means “scientific”, but it is an extremely enlightening view of society.

For example, with such large numbers of people, you will always wind up bumping into someone. My wife and I noticed that people in their 30′s would for the most part excuse themselves or apologize when they had inadvertently bumped into us.

Those in their 20′s and below, didn’t seem to care, or chose to ignore a confrontation. I don’t know if they couldn’t communicate, or if they just didn’t care. My wife and I joked that they couldn’t apologize, because they didn’t have our phone number and therefore they couldn’t text us.

I think it is a pretty sad social commentary when the younger generation can no longer communicate, or worse yet, that they don’t seem to have basic courtesy.

That’s why we are extremely lucky to be involved in martial arts, where communication and courtesy are emphasized.

The Sad
I chose to use “The Sad”, because I didn’t want this to be offensive to anyone. However, I think it has to be noted that when viewing such large populations of people from all over the world, it is easy to see that people are no longer taking care of themselves the way that they should.

Obesity was almost pandemic. Even in very small children. Every day we as a society struggle to “stay in shape”. This is just part of the human condition. What is sad however, is that so many people have just given up the fight.

I know that there are people out there with medical disorders. In fact this is something that I understand extremely well, because many of my family members have thyroid issues.

However, the vast majority of people do not fit into this category. We are a world of instant gratification, and eating seems to give gratification a lot more “instantly” than working out.

That’s why I feel so fortunate to be surrounded by people at our martial arts school, that continually try to improve themselves day after day and workout after workout.

The Final Lesson
The final thing that I wanted to mention about Disney was this. While standing in line, (we did a lot of that) we were next to a 10 year old girl from New Orleans. She was confined to a wheel chair, and her mother was telling us of some of their struggles.

What was so amazing was that this young girl had been to Disney many times, and she loved the ride named, “Soarin’”.

Through this ride, Disney gave this young girl the opportunity to view the world from above.  It gave this girl wings, even though she couldn’t use her legs.

The real magic of Disney is in its imagination; and in its ability to ignite that spark in others.