Today, you cant turn on the TV, look through a magazine, or most definitely surf the internet without being bombarded with ads for health products. Magic chairs that work your obliques. Magic pills that eat your fat. Magic people that can show you how. The health crisis in America is at an all time high, with more obesity, cardiac disease and cancer than we have ever experienced. I dont need to tell you that there really is no magic solution. So what does this have to do with Samurai Weapons?

Ok, before you abandon this article as a thinly-veiled attempt to sell Martial Arts equipment with a weak connection to health, let me say this first: I do sell samurai weapons. I love promoting the industry and encouraging participation. The question is, why? I own an ad agency in New York City. I dont need an e-commerce venture to survive. So whats the deal?

Ill take you on a very brief tour back to my days as a 7 year old. Unhappy. Neglected. Broken family, you know the drill. But I stumbled into a Tae Kwon Do class one day, and never looked back. Here was room filled with fit, disciplined, self-respecting people, and I ate it up like ice cream. It gave me focus, on-going goals, and the aforementioned self-respect.

Do I now believe that pursuing the Martial Arts is the answer to the health crisis in America. Well, yes, and no. No, because there are many tools we can use to allow health to happen. Yes, because its fun, and is based on the very tenants that 21st century USA is lacking: self-control, discipline, and respect.

Self-control requires discipline, and discipline is not something we gain watching American Idol and sucking down super-sized sugar drinks. By applying ourselves over time, and reigning in the urges that lead to the loss of health, we learn discipline. The study of Martial Arts is for me and many other people, a fun way to achieve the goals of fitness at the hand of discipline. More fun than repetitively lifting inanimate pieces of metal in solitude, or running on a gerbil wheel leading to nowhere. It involves other people, mentoring, self-mastery, physical torture that is exhilarating (certainly not boring!), and the effects of achievement carry over into every aspect of life.

Ok, so, samurai weapons, you say? Its true that placing a Japanese Katana in the hands of an amateur would be more than a mistake. Im certainly not advocating that. But have you ever looked at one? I mean an authentic Japanese katana? The workmanship of hand-forged and folded steel. The graceful lines. The beautiful fittings of silver, brass and iron, combined with the delicacy of silk and hand made Menuki (ornament). Just holding such a weapon evokes a time and place that we as Americans cant really grasp. A way of life that involves more than raucous bar-capades and reality TV. An existence of discipline that brings rewards beyond what we could imagine.

My point in all this? Well, if youve tried the magic pills, the magic chairs, and listened to magic people, and still have not found a magic answer for your own personal health crisis, try something else! Heck, maybe stumble into a Tae Kwon Do class as a start, knowing nothing about what your getting into, but with a vague notion that its going to be more fun and exhilarating that the pills and chairs, and it might just lead you somewhere new.

For me, I stumbled into my first class after holding my uncles authentic Japanese katana at a backyard barbeque. I swung it wildly as a 7 year old, and a little less so today. But learning to properly use this magnificent tool, to care for it, to respect it, to wield it with authority and self control, has lead me to a place of, well, health. Now to walk by my study and see it mounted in pride gives me a perpetual reminder of the way my life could have gone. The general study of swordsmanship involves things most people never use. Patience. Certain muscles. Long standing goals. Discipline. All of these have lead to a lifetime of health and well being for me, and for many others who choose to step out and explore, and spend effort rather than money on magic potions. Deep down...you know it can't be as easy as pill. Finding health is a challenge, but it doesn't mean it can't be fun!

Copyright 2006 Rick Lloyd