subject: What Is The Real Value Of A Black Belt? [print this page] People hold a black belt to high regard, and it is a fair question to ask what is the real value of the thing. After all, the time and energy invested in the thing, a black belt can be a very costly item to earn. So what is the real--actual and intrinsic--value of earning expert status in the martial arts?
To answer this question I must tell you three specific tales. These three stories will illuminate the points of this bit of writing, and provide some rather enlightening notions regarding value and expert status in the martial arts. They should provide real knowledge as to what a black belt is worth.
One night I was doing kumite with my teacher, and he suddenly leaped in, grabbed my belt, pulled, and elbowed. My arms flailed helplessly, I ate the elbow, but what was worse was in my mind. He had actually manhandled my precious belt!
My sensei just gave a quirky grin. He had used my belt, but, in teaching me a lesson, and not abused it. He could treat that bit of dyed yarn like a rag, and it would glow with his respect.
The second incident regards a fellow I met where I was working. He was a black belt, supposedly higher ranking than me, though he had never been to a martial arts school. He received a taekwondo black belt from his friend because he could, ahem, fight good.
This fellow ran down the street using his black belt for a jump rope. Scuffing it off the pavement so he could do mindless exercises and grow physically stronger. There wasn't one bit of respect in his entire, puny, little soul for the badge of higher rank.
The third story regards this my humble self: I use my black belt to help myself stretch when doing yoga. I loop it over my feet to keep my legs straight, and then relax into whatever pose. I am using that belt to learn, to help myself become a better human being, to become better at martial arts.
Now, I respect the belt, even as I stretch it and wear it out. And when I wear it out, and it snaps from use, I will bow to it as I place it in the trash, and then I will get another one from a store and try to wear that one out. I do this with love and reverence, for the knowledge, for the masters who have gone before, for the insight that makes me want to do more than mindless exercise, that impels me along the way that earning a black belt has opened up so gloriously for me.
