Death at 27, kitchen psychology at 11
Masaaki Hatsumi, the head of the Bujinkan tradition says that he died at the age of 27.
Sounds strange, doesn't it? It sounds like something who actually is the head of a long tradition of budo masters might say, in the spirit of the best martial arts movies.
It suddenly dawned on me that I did kinda the same thing at 27, quitting practicing the aforementioned tradition almost overnight. I started to think about it, as a 26-year old friend mentioned that lately, she has started to think that what she used to think she wants are no longer the things that she really thinks that she wants, and she no longer knows what she thinks, or wants. Err. Something like that anyway. But it did strike a chord somewhere in my jaded guts.
Perhaps 27 really is the age where the idealism of the youth dies; the strong opinions, feelings, and habits picked up during your teenage years no longer carry you beyond that point, and the real world hits you. Usually, at the same age, people (academic people anyway) also leave study life and they have to actually, completely to start to take care of themselves. There are no more safety nets, no more teachers and guides, nobody to tell you what to do with your life. So you reinvent yourself.
Or perhaps it is all just a part of a larger conspiracy.
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| "Main_blogentry_251103_1" last changed on 25-Nov-2003 19:37:38 EET by JanneJalkanen. |
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Or then you yelp in panic till they accept you for a doctorate program. At least three more years of the blissfull (and bankrupt) oblivion.--80.221.138.107, 25-Nov-2003
I find it somewhat surprising that you would pin that down to a particular age -- especially that particular age. Then again, I never studied and thus never graduated; instead, I entered the working phase of my life at a relatively early age, so that may be a factor here as well.
(Hell, by my count, I was about forty years old when I was born, a grumpy old man well beyond my time -- all the idealism I've ever had has been long forged in the fires of pessimism into a sharp sense of disdain towards anything and anyone that fails to meet my standards.)
--Mikki, 25-Nov-2003
How else could've I've then linked to the "27 conspiracy" page? There ain't no "26 conspiracy" or "21.438" conspiracies... :-D
(And I did actually do a doctoral program as well. Didn't finish it, though :-).
--JanneJalkanen, 25-Nov-2003
Well, shit, what can I say? It's not like I bothered to click on the link. =)
--Mikki, 26-Nov-2003