Santa Cruz Retreat and the Return of Mr. Spock

I just saw Anno sensei off at the San Francisco International Airport this morning. I remarked to Linda Holiday sensei back in the day it was the Shingu train station. One of us from California would be leaving and a group from the dojo would come to see us off. In 2006 when my group left Shingu none other than Anno sensei and Yanase sensei came to see us off.  So this capped off a memorable week of training. The retreat itself was held at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium. Anno sensei taught some memorable classes as did Linda Holiday sensei and Mary Heiny sensei. And an aside but quite an important one is the our dojo's Mike Driscoll got married to the very lovely Rachel and the wedding was presided over by none other than me as a priest of the Takemusu Shinbuden...... So quite a week....And in between classes I got a chance to play some music. Mainly by myself. But I had some neat sessions with Dennis Kyne and pictured above with Jody Ho....

Some of you may remember at the old dojo in Japantown we had a clock with a picture of Star Trek's Mr. Spock. Of course he was my favorite on the show. I remember Mary Heiny sensei and I often discussing how we wished Hikitsuchi sensei were more like Mr. Spock and less like Captain Kirk. So this character meant a lot to me in some very formative years. I always found him by far the most meaningful of the original Star Trek crew. And I loved the way he was featured in the latest Star Trek movie and by Leonard Nimoy himself.

Anyway the clock was either a gift from a very dear friend or purchased when I was shopping with that very dear friend. We used to rent the dojo out to police tactics trainees a couple of times a year. Once when I was out I came back and was informed that the clock had been knocked off the wall and broken by one of the officers. That officer replaced the broken clock with another ordinary one. I must admit I always have harbored an anger towards whoever broke that clock for not realizing it meant something to me. I certainly would have liked an apology. If I broke something that appeared to have meaning for someone I certainly would apologize. Well, at the end of each retreat gifts are presented to each of the instructors. And what I got was a set of salt and pepper shakers with a Mr. Spock mug. And I realized I had been holding onto that anger and that the universe had provided and Mr Spock had returned to Aikido of San Jose, albeit in a different location(Martha St) and in a different century(the clock was broken in the nineties). So my thanks for this very important lesson............