Yesterday my son and I attended Black Belt promotions at his Karate school – a once a year event. One of my concerns (one if many issues I have with American Karate schools) is that the younger students are shuffled in and out of the classes and do not have the opportunity to spend time with or even see senior students train. They have nothing to shoot for, learn by example or look up to. This promotion event is a big deal for this school and students from all over California showed up for the three hour show. It was very impressive as I watched them all greet each other. The shear number of them is enough to make you step back and say WOW. As I was looking at the head instructor, Master Jim Buhisan, I thought, “what a lineage you have, what a family”. Right then and there I thought of my teacher, Wing Lam. Sifu Lam also has a large family but we do not see each other much any more as our school is now closed and most of the senior students are spread out over the US. One of the things I like about my son’s school is the feeing of family there and I miss that with my school. I miss my family, my Kung Fu brothers and sisters.