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KENPO COMES HOME PART 4
By Jeff Speakman

Soon Mr. Sherman and I were called to the back stage area to prepare for the demo. Meeting other Chinese performers, none of which spoke any English and some had never seen a white boy other than in the movies, we stretched out and repeatedly walked through our demo. As the time went on so slowly I asked Mr. Sherman to join me in the tent for a brief moment to reflect on how we got here. We spoke of the history of our art and the sacrifices made by so many that have allowed us to be present at this moment. The depth of the emotions was very real and added much to the totality of the experience.
Perhaps Einstein was right and energy can never be created or destroyed, it just transfers from one event to the next; then maybe in some way my Kenpo teacher and mentor Mr. Ed Parker could feel this. Or maybe my recently deceased mother could feel pride in her son’s accomplishment of such staggering proportions.

Then the time came for us to go next to the stage and get ready to perform. It was at this very moment that I felt the sun and the cool wind on my skin in a way I never felt before, so incredibly alive. I was so taken by the emotion of it all I had to consciously change my focus just to the physical performance now seconds away. I became concerned that my concentration would be so taken from me by these emotions that I might trip on the red carpet on my way up the stairs. The moment came, we entered stage and hit the demo with every expectation we could have imagined. Spontaneous applause from throughout the audience assured us that we were not the only people enjoying this display of violent poetry we call American Kenpo. In just a few minutes it was over, but only the physical part; we were changed forever.

After the demo the group returned to the fantastic hanging temple for a tour. And here we were, at one of the places where it all began. Full circle is what I thought, walking through the temple with all the feelings and emotions of the event just finished. There were so many moments where we felt a sense of completion, not just of the demo but of the many many years of study and sacrifice that Mr. Sherman and I have shared these past 10 years together and all the many years we have trained in the martial arts previously. Hence the motivation for this article, that feeling of closure that calls clearly to me as never before in my life.

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