The Craziness on the 401

For those not living in the Toronto area, the 401 is the central expressway cutting through Toronto and is considered one of the busiest highways in North America. I often drive the 401 from Ajax to different points of the Durham Region, mainly to Pickering, Whitby, Oshawa and Bowmanville. In addition, every so often, I drive to Mississauga for my part-time job.

Lately, I have noticed super aggressive driving on the 401, with drivers shifting from one lane to another as if they were in a Formula 1 race. On multiple occasions, I have seen drivers cut across all three lanes in one maneuver in heavy traffic. Nuts. A former police officer friend of mine recently drove his wife to a medical appointment and told me, “It’s not just aggressive driving; I’m seeing dangerous driving.” He assured me that I did not imagine things and that, from his perspective, there is an uptick in this phenomenon.

This aligns with the alarming rise in the breakdown of public mannerisms. Incidents involving violent airline passengers have spiked. Restaurant and grocery workers have borne the brunt of abusive behaviour by customers. Public school board meetings have broken down into chaos amidst threats. Protestors are throwing rocks at politicians. A lot of folks are angry about a lot of things.

Rudeness and anger are one thing. It’s another thing when it transforms into dangerous behaviour or actions.

Given the extraordinary times we live through and the rising anger, I think it behooves us to maintain calm and avoid trouble. I generally give my students three pieces of advice:

(1) don’t be an asshole;

(2) don’t go where there is trouble; and

(3) Underreact, instead of over-reacting, to any provocation.

Follow these three rules, and you should be okay.

Lastly, we need to be more generous to each other. Extend a hand to those who need help or assistance. Do what you can to lessen the hostility and anger in today’s world. Every bit helps.

That said, the long-tail effects of COVID-19 (economic and otherwise) are likely to persist for several years and will test our patience. All the more reason to be kind to each other.

This Week’s Video

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This video continues the series of stick-to-empty hand translation videos I’ve done in recent weeks. However, instead of demonstrating an endless number of techniques, I have chosen to give tips on finding the empty-hand applications of stick drills.

In this video, I demonstrated that the double sinawali movements could be performed out of sequence to find self-defence applications. This principle applies not only to stick drills but also to kata/forms. Once you get the hang of this principle, you will immeasurably expand your self-defence horizons.

The next principle I espoused in this video is to analyze any movement coming back to you. You will often find very useful applications. This means that you should analyze every motion in a drill or a kata.

There is no such thing as a useless or wasted move from the beginning of a drill or kata to the end.

Again, scrutinize EVERY move.

Inspiration for the Week

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This is one of my favourite inspirational videos. It’s cheesy and captivating at the same time. This philosophy denotes physical flexibility in going with the flow and mental flexibility. We all need to be like water (or bamboo) in today’s world, especially in this pandemic era.

Additional Reading