Guardian: Be like a child: Aikido and Art: Perception & Columbus: Columbus’ Egg

Guardian: Be like a child: Aikido and Art: Perception & Columbus: Columbus’ Egg

Dydd Llun 9fed. Rhagfyr 2013                                        Monday 9^th. December 2013

Claire and I had talked about going to see Guardian at Six Bells. Yesterday we actually got around to doing so. Yes, I was impressed, increasingly so as we approached from the car park.

How it changed from its mesh-like appearance to something solid as we got closer and finally stood beneath its towering form.

Then I started to read the names of the miners who lost their lives on Tuesday 28th June 1960.

There was something I appreciated about the names being cut through the rusting steel plate and the fact that as well as listing the full names of each man, their nicknames were included.

For me, this made them much more real, 53 years after the disaster. As we had not read anything about the monument or these men who had lost their lives in the explosion it was only as we walked around it that we discovered that six of those lost that day were three fathers and their sons and also twin brothers.

What I wasn’t prepared for was the emotional effect this would have on me. I told Claire that the tears running down my cheek were caused by the cold. I lied!

Later we visited Ty Ebbw Fach, where we received a warm welcome. The Heritage Centre, I found fascinating. The scones and the coffee in the coffee shop were half tidy too.

Although I knew where I was going when we set out from Ynysybwl, there were no road signs for Six Bells before we got to the roundabout at Aberbeeg, which is only around the corner. It is surprising, also, that there are only two brown heritage road signs, one at the roundabout and another a little further on the road to Abertillery. The village itself is so typical of a Valleys mining community, at the bottom of the hill, hemmed in on every side.

I’m very glad we made the trip. I will be making it again. 

Dydd Mercher, unfed ar ddeg, Rhagfyr 2013                   Wednesday 11^th. December 2013

So, this is the difficult second album….well the equivalent of one. I was prompted to write my first blog by the visit to Guardian at Six Bells. Today, I just want to post something on

11.12.13. Bit childish, isn’t it.  ChildLIKE, now that is something worth aspiring to.

Last evening I had the privilege to conduct the first Aikido examination of a young man named Cian, who has recently attained the magic age of seven years. In childlike fashion, I could see in his technique that he had taken in what he had been taught and did his absolute best to put it into practice. Often, we adults take what we can from a teacher but still think that, in some respects, we know better. Over the last twenty three years I have witnessed some jaw-dropping achievements from very young people. Perhaps it is because they have no preconceptions and have not yet been tainted with cynicism. To become like them, once again, childlike, is no mean ambition. Perhaps the ultimate purpose of our study is to lose the ‘ego’. And, yes, I DO know how difficult that is.

Dydd Mercher Hapus, fi fach.

Dydd Iau, deuddegfed, Rhagfyr 2013                   Thursday 12^th. December 2013

Shw mae, fi eto. Claire has often suggested I write a book. Well, you know she’s strange. However, the idea is not entirely unappealing, although, in light of yesterday’s musings I have to ask myself if that isn’t pandering to the ego.

I have a title for it, this book that doesn’t exist; its ‘Adventures inside the mind of Adam Dean’. The thought of the time and discipline that would be required for such a project is more than a little daunting, but if I continue to find the time to write these short passages then I suppose that one day there might be enough to put in a book.

Here’s a definition of art; the expression of the mind through the body. I would worry about some of the entrants for the Turner Prize; I would worry about the people who award it.

Aikido is a martial art. Literally, an art of war; an art of surviving war. However, as most of us are unlikely to experience war on a personal basis or have our lives threatened in armed combat, perhaps a better way to define it is ‘the art of living with danger’. The first thing to do then, is to develop a mind that perceives danger. When was the last time that you nearly knocked someone down who stepped off the pavement and walked in front of your car whilst engrossed in conversation on their mobile ‘phone or composing a text?

Hwyl am nawr, fi fach.

Dydd Gwener, trydydd ar ddeg, Rhagfyr 2013                     Friday 13^th. December 2013 

So what is perception? (I don’t imagine that these things will always be linked up, but it is today). How about ‘Imagination’? But what I imagine needs to be true. And what is the truth? Something which makes someone else wrong. My imagination is most probably true if it coincides with what most other people imagine to be the truth. This is not necessarily the case; ten others may think I am wrong and I can still be right. However, it is worth asking why ten other people think you are wrong. Which brings me to Columbus.

Columbus believed the world to be round. Most people thought him mad. When everyone else imagined it to be true, it became a fact. More about Columbus to come.

In the meantime, consider how annoying it is to break a finger nail if you use them to play guitar. I might expand on this when I stop sulking.

Cyn bo hir, fi fach.        

Dydd Sadwrn, pedwerydd ar ddeg, Rhagfyr 2013            Saturday 14^th. December 2013 

Hylo eto. Ah yes, Columbus. It is said that some time after his historic trip to the Americas he was in a bar back in Portugal when he overheard someone ‘dissing’ him. The comments were along the lines of, ‘…well, anyone could have done that. What makes him so special?’. It was the custom to keep hard boiled bantam eggs on the bar for the punters. (Pickled egg, anyone?) Columbus asked if anyone could get one of these eggs to stand on its end. Many essayed the task, but failed, whereupon he simply banged it down hard on the bar, breaking the shell and it did indeed stand on end. ‘You see’, he said, and no doubt with a smirk on his face, ‘anyone could have done that, but I had to show you first’.

Be grateful for the insights of others. There are no limits to where you might go with a new found ‘truth’. Each time we perceive the truth of something we view our whole world differently.