Aikido Shugyo Dojo Newsletter   Copyright © 1996
Dec 1996-Jan 1997
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Happy Birthday...to us!

by John McNabb and Oleg Gorfinkel

Yes, it's been a year since we started publishing Aikido News in the new format. When one ponders where the substance of the next issue will come from, its future can seem uncertain. Without a steady flow of good articles, where would the newsletter be? Yet, we continue to receive wonderful submissions on all kinds of topics.

In this issue, for example, themes range from one's mixture of emotions during her first advanced class to using aikido as a guide in helping with life's choices. There's a very intuitive essay on the origins of posture. Yet another writer talks about how aikido practice helps in achieving a healthy lifestyle that includes an ongoing search for balance in life. We read about people using aikido in their jobs, such as one writer who puts his martial arts training to use in television acting and stuntwork.

Besides the spirited submissions, Aikido News owes its success to a potent collaboration among the three members of the publishing team: Fran Turner, Oleg Gorfinkel and John McNabb.

Each issue's life-cycle begins with Sensei Fran always keeping a keen eye out for story possibilities. Whenever she sees a person in unusual circumstances, or a dojo member with an interesting background, or simply someone who is experiencing significant change in aikido or in life, she will ask them to write about it. All submissions then go to John, who types them in (if necessary), edits them for length and does the first round of proofreading. Next, the articles are e-mailed to Oleg, who edits them for style, does final proofreading and lays out the newsletter using Corel Ventura. At the same time, any photographs and artwork accompanying the articles are scanned in, digitally retouched or altered and incorporated into the layout.

The completed newsletter is then laser-printed and given back to John, who reproduces it in quantity, on coloured paper, using a photocopier belonging to a certain extremely large institution that has been posting colossal, multi-billion dollar profits despite such generous contributions to our worthy cause.

This working arrangement within the Aikido News team was reached quite spontaneously and has turned out to be a perfect formula for our publication's success.

Now, it is as though there were never any doubt whether the newsletter would continue. Doubt, what doubt? Watch someone on the path of mastery — they know not to worry about the future. They flow with it, work with it. Watch your sensei. She understands something, some basic truth about how to deal with what we'll find where we're heading...

Delight and Terror by Abbey Smith

Searching for Balance by Bethune Whiston; cartoon by Hoordad Ghandehari

Dancing with the Angels by Chris Keating

Pikaia by Jennifer Doyle

Writing and Aikido by Jonathon Beaudin

6th Kyu and Beyond by Jonathon Marks

Martial Arts in Film by Rui Feliz

In Transition by M.C.

Keener Award by Fran Turner

CPR / First Aid Course

We are planning a course in First Aid, and/or CPR for the new year. St. John's Ambulance offers the following courses, which we are considering:

• 1-Day Emergency First Aid with CPR ($61 per person) or without CPR ($50 per person) This is a 6½-hour course on what to do for an injured person until the ambulance arrives. This course can include a Heart-Savers CPR component if we wish. Breaks will be taken for coffee and for lunch.
• CPR Only - no First Aid ($20 per person) This is a 4-hour course on Heart-Savers CPR. It is designed for treating adults only (no children under 10).

The courses are given at a variety of locations. One location is 46 Wellesley East, near Wellesley subway. If we have a minimum of 12 people, St. John's can come to us, at the Bloor Valley Club.

If you are interested, please see Ramin Arvin, by January 31st, 1997. Courses can be scheduled for any day of the week, including Saturday and Sunday.

Dojo Christmas Party / Gift Exchange
Sunday, December 15, at 5:00 pm, at the Bloor Valley Club, 555 Sherbourne Street

Instead of our usual potluck, we will be serving two kinds of stir-fry—one vegetarian, the other non-vegetarian (prepared by David Beauroy and Nathan Segal, respectively. The cost will be $5 to $10 per person (whatever you can afford), with all the proceeds going to the Dojo Building Fund. Beverages will be available at the cash bar, or you can bring your own.

There will be a "white elephant" gift exchange, so each person should bring an item from home that might make a good gift. If everyone brings a gift, then everyone will receive a gift through the exchange.

If you'd like to play an instrument, sing, dance, do theatre or perform in any other way for everyone's enjoyment, please let Jon Marks know. Also, don't forget to bring your fave dance tracks on CD or tape!

The Bloor Valley Club is collecting for the Food Bank, so donations of cans and dry goods will be gladly accepted.

"The shot will only go smoothly when it takes the archer himself by surprise."

Master Kenzo Awa, from Eugen Herrigel's Zen in the Art of Archery