Eskrima Kombat

Reader and fellow martial artist John Enger sent me a copy of his book Fingerprints. It’s a slim book that packs a punch. At first it seemed that the book was about grief and coping with tragedy. The opening is very gripping and told well. Tension built as I felt the rising dread of John and his family, as well as the agonizing dilemma they faced.

But the book moves beyond tragedy and its aftermath, wrestling with issues such as grief, purpose, overcoming  tragedy by embracing life, how to console someone dealing with grief, and the paradox of suffering in a world controlled by a loving God.

It’s a good read, a thought-provoking book that will inspire you to leave your fingerprint in the world, and a fitting tribute to his granddaughter.

To find out more about the book and to order a copy, visit John’s website: findmyfingerprint.com

You may be wondering what any of this has to do with Big Stick Combat or the martial arts. If you look at the martial arts salute of the fist in the open palm, the fist is the warrior, representing brute strength, while the open, bladed hand represents the scholar. The warrior is focused on the body and physical strength, whereas the scholar is focused on intellectual and spiritual strength.

The great warriors of any culture have always been trained in intellectual and spiritual strength. Think of West Point and Annapolis, where the leaders of America’s military cultivate their minds as well as their high moral standards.

John Enger is a retired law enforcement officer, and from what I know of him, a sincerely religious man. Think for a moment, do you want an officer carrying a gun and making life-or-death decisions, wielding the power to kill, to be a high school dropout? Would you want the men and women carrying guns as policemen to be illiterate, with no intellectual curiosity? Would you want the policeman you encounter on a desert road to have no ethics, no moral code, or to believe that a human is just a primate in clothes?

The warrior is a spiritual man, because he faces the reality of his own death. He also must wrestle with killing, and it’s important that he grasp the seriousness of killing another human being. When you lose sight of all humans as being the children of God, then indiscriminate killing becomes easy.  When you have no deeper faith, it’s easier to take the suitcase full of cash and look the other way when the van full of drugs goes by, or to lie on the stand during the mobster’s trial.

A lot of guys tried to be Bruce Lee by wearing a yellow jumpsuit, the black pajamas, and the double nunchaku, but Bruce Lee was a philosophy major. Bruce was a voracious reader. Jeet Kune Do was not based on Bruce getting certification in eight different martial arts, but on his personal research of boxing and fencing. There was an intellectual depth to Bruce Lee that most of the wannabes lacked.

I’m fortunate that my teachers GM Estalilla, GM Mike Vasquez, and GM Maranga are deeply religious men. GM Maranga told me one day after lessons, “Forget everything I’ve taught you, but don’t forget God.”

John Enger can be proud of the book he’s written. It’s a testament to his intellectual and spiritual strength. He reminds me of my father, who was also a police officer with a rock-solid moral foundation of deep faith in God. John embodies the ideals of the warrior, a man entrusted by society with tremendous discretionary power, ideals of physical skill and valor, coupled with a vibrant mind and spiritual devotion.