Uncovering and Unfolding

Just as one needs a brilliant instructor to reach inside of you and to show you how to ignite and to use that incredible energy each of us possesses, a great interview depends as well on working with a writer who has that same skill. I did my first published interview with a major newspaper in Raleigh, N.C. at age ten after winning a city-wide art contest.

That’s right, you heard it here first---Joe Lewis, the artist. Bruce Lee was also an incredible artist; in a way, that makes us both real martial “artists.”

Over the years I have been fortunate to have worked with a number of excellent writers and some top scientists from various intellectual fields such as philosophy, psychology, space research, physics, parapsychology, and etc. These scholars in my life have taught me that there is a big difference between just information and real knowledge.

Some day I hope to republish several of these top favorite interviews and articles I’ve done after having worked closely with a number of these intellectuals in my life. There are some of these already posted on the membership sections of my web site: Joelewisfightingsystems.com. Each of these mentor/friends was at the top of his field, such as Durk Pearson, a research/physicist who graduated from MIT with the highest point grade average in the history of that renowned university.

I know you will find this ongoing premise to be of profound interest as it will lend insight to many of the sources of my own development, and will also identify the roots of some of the principles that I teach today. One of these people, Dan Levin, at the time in 1971, was the senior staff writer for Sports Illustrated magazine. He was assigned to spend an entire week with me to do his background research for the below featured article. It was the first time a martial artist had been featured in this magazine, the largest circulation of any sports publication at that time (2,500,000).

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1084790/index.htm

Dan and I hit it off from the beginning because we each had a common interest in Ayn Rand, a Russian scholar, who founded Objectivism, a revolutionary philosophy movement that was based out of New York City. I find that many martial art styles practiced today lack a structured philosophical base---it remains my belief that this is one of the chief reasons why the majority of those who are involved in the arts eventually will resign from any lasting, active participation. It is kind of unfair to call them “quitters” because deep in the sacred core of their spirit, they never really started. They were motivated to start but not inspired to continue.

This idea lends support for the purpose of this blog; hopefully, in part, to help one find through reading my Sports Illustrated article, and why it was originally brought to my attention from a fan on Facebook, a greater reason to seek a more meaningful personal challenge to continue participating in martial arts. Ultimately, my mentors guided me to realize that my actions in life were not about just gathering information, but learning how to think, effectively processing this collective mental input in order to use it as functional knowledge, not just something that “floats” around in your memory.

Remember! Lost time can never be found. However……. “Uncovering the past can be just as rewarding and exciting as the unfolding future.”