Can you believe it, it’s already March!  The New Millennium is here and established, we just celebrated the Lunar New Year, and in many parts of the country, there are signs of spring!  In my own garden, spring flowers are everywhere. The month of March is a messenger of spring, of changes, of hope.

March is also women’s history awareness month.  This is a big topic and you might wonder what’s that got to do with Martial Arts?  Well, a lot!  Let me start with my life story:

When I was a little girl, my world was not a friendly place for girls or women.  Korea at that time considered women as their husbands’ or fathers’ properties.  They had no rights to speak of, and were born to cook and sew, work in the fields, and have many sons.  The only way a woman could earn some respect was if she had many sons, and that with a husband her parents found for her!  It was no different for me.  When I was born on the Lunar New Year, as a firstborn, when they realized I was ‘only’ a girl, my grandfather bowed down at the ancestor’s altar and was a deeply broken man, “what have I done to deserve this curse?” he cried.  This was my welcome into this world!

Then, to make matters worse, the Korean War broke out.  As just another mouth to feed, my parents left me behind, only taking my brothers with them.  Scared as I was, I made it through this time, saw a little friend die right before my eyes, blown up by a bomb, and eventually joined with my parents again.  One early morning I woke up to some very loud shouts.  Still scared from the traumas of war, I scratched a little hole through the rice paper window and saw the most beautiful sight – all my uncles were training.  I was captivated.  I thought that was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen!  Yes, that was something I wanted to do!  But, no such luck!  I was ‘just a girl!’  As a female, I was not allowed to train in the Martial Arts!  5000 years of culture and tradition dictated that it was forbidden for women! I was determined and this time I did not listen to what everybody was telling me.  I knew what I wanted to do.  I begged my uncles every day to teach me and every day they laughed and sent me away, telling me to start acting like a girl and getting ready for a husband.  I was only 7 year old!

In time my youngest uncle; still a teenager, agreed to teach me, thinking that once I got some bruises I would run home crying.  No such luck!  Against his expectations, I kept progressing.  Things at home got worse.  They feared that now they would be stuck with me for life, since nobody would want to marry me, the village tomboy.  My mother locked me in the house and cut my hair to force me to stay home.  The other children in the village ridiculed me and threw snakes at me and spit on me.  But, in spite of all these things, I kept right on training until one day an elderly Buddhist monk came by, whom my grandfather had asked for advice what to do with his wayward daughter.  He was a very kind man and a very wise one as well.  Far ahead of his times, he recognized what I could become, and he agreed to take me on as his student.  Pretty radical for a Buddhist monk of those times!  The situation at home did not get better, but now I had my training to get met through.  As you can see and as they say, the rest is history.

Talking about history, I am certainly not alone in my accomplishments.  There are, and have been, many women throughout the centuries that were true trail blazers, strong women who helped shape this world.  We all know about Joan of Arc and how bravely she fought for her country, we have heard of Florence Nightingale and how she tirelessly helped the wounded, and we remember Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Suzan B. Anthony and their fight to bring to women the right to vote.

But what about the many others?  Did you know that the first ob-gyn doctor was a woman, Trotula of Salerno, born in 1090?  That she wrote a book “The Diseases of Women” that was used as a textbook for the next seven centuries?

Did you know that the first woman to ever receive the degree of Ph.D. was Elena Piscopia and was born in 1646?  That this lady taught math and published three books?

How about Philipa of Hainault, married to a British king, mother of 11, who in the 14th century not only founded universities and hospitals, but also actively lead her troops into battle and fought the Scots, capturing their King?

What about Jeanette Rankin, who became the first woman to be elected into the US Congress in 1916, when women did not even have the voting rights yet? 

And what about more recently, Mae Jemison, the first African American to ever go into space, which is exactly what she did on the Shuttle Endeavor in 1992.

The list goes on.

Let’s not get caught on to being man or woman – let’s be citizens of the Universe. Today we live in constant change.  Cultures blend and disappear. Soon we’ll all just speak one language and have one culture.  Let’s make sure that in this world of change the Martial Arts will be a constant.  To do that, we need to preserve the spirit of the Martial Arts.  How?  We need to keep our traditional principles, and practice and teach them adapted to our times.  In closing, let me tell you what principles I use in my school to do this:

As a Jung SuWon Warrior, I will strive to merge my body and mind as one
So that I may discover the truth about my strengths and weaknesses
And work to attain purity of body mind and spirit
I will learn to love myself
And maintain loyalty to my goals and purpose
I will learn to sacrifice in order to achieve these goals
And be patient in my ways to that I may ultimately become the Master of my Life.

I would like to salute to all those brave women and men, past and present, who have made, and are making a difference in this world.

God bless you.

With love, from my heart to yours,
Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim