Date: Thu, 11 Nov 1999 10:10:22 -0700
From: Jun Akiyama
Subject: Aikido-L Seminar Review [4/4]
Thanks and Such
Before I continue on, I wish to acknowledge the people who helped set
this Seminar up. The Seminar Committee exchanged over _1300_ messages
starting from August 18, 1998 through November 6, 1999 in preparation
and organization for the 1999 Seminar. The members of the Seminar
Committee, in alphabetical order, were:
- Jun Akiyama
- Jim Baker
- Mike Bartman
- Kjartan Clausen
- Emily Dolan
- Alan Drysdale
- Cady Goldfield
- Chuck Gordon
- Wendy Gunther
- Michael Hacker
- Greg Jennings
- Dave Liebreich
- Carol Shifflett
- Joseph Toman
My thanks also goes out to George Simcox, Mike Bartman, Carol
Shifflett, and the rest of the folks at Virginia Ki Society for
hosting such an event. I think they did a magnificent job. Special
thanks goes out to Carol for researching the hotels, coordinating the
rooms, printing the T-shirts, pouring the concrete for the tameshigiri
stand, and countless other tasks. Thanks to Susi Bartman for getting
all of those danishes and other goodies, too.
My gratitude also goes out to the teachers at the Seminar: George
Simcox, Philip Akin, Alan Drysdale, Jim Baker, and Chuck Gordon. As
well as bringing your experience and wisdom to the List, you've now
given us all your teachings on the mat. Thank you.
Thanks to Dave Liebreich for being such a great emcee for the awards
ceremony and the "Who's the Real Jim Baker" skit.
I'm sorry to have not been able to meet and train with everyone from
the List this year. I missed meeting Tammy Naugle, Danya Dilley, and
a couple other people who said they were lurkers.
In Closing
Seminars like this makes me wish the day was 40 hours long and
weekends were four days long. Someone said that they wished we could
get together like this every weekend. But in a way, precisely because
we _can't_, it makes events like this all that much more special.
However, we're not apart, are we?
Although we're scattered all across the world, we're still together.
Although we didn't know each other before, we do now. We all traveled
great distances and prepared in one way or another to get together,
all for the common thread that we have -- that of aikido.
In a way, I think that we have something special here on Aikido-L,
that something like this can actually _happen_. Without this forum,
we wouldn't have met each other, trained together, laughed with each
other.
Quite frankly, I think this is what aikido is all about. The
techniques and principles are good and all, but unless we're able to
bring our own lives closer to the lives of other people in a positive
manner, I can't quite see the point of all of the hours of our study.
It was wonderful to be together with each and every single one of you.
Let's do it again, huh?
Jun
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