Stephen's Secure Blog #205
These stories about Stephen began was when he was 10 years old, and
moving to a new part of the country to attend a special school for
gifted students, in the 1950's. This was from a time before computers
would fit on a desk, and when people communicated with friends in other
countries by actual letters sent through the postal service. He wrote
225 of them to a friend. He stopped writing to his penpal, but found he
still wanted to record his life, in case he lost his memory again, and
wrote 30 entries in his first logbook. Then he wrote to an artificial
intelligence called Geenee, in the master computer in his school for
gifted students, which he started attending in 2016. Now it's after
2018, and he's continuing to save his memories in a secure blog.
All characters are fictitious, even if some of them might have names
that belong to some actual people, or act like people we know.
The stories may not be posted in chronological order.
Stephen is 16 in this story, in the Summer after year 6 of his special
school.
Stephen's Secure Blog #205 "Bow and Arrow"
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The next morning, at the fair grounds, I said to the group, "We have
three kinds of students here. Those who want to learn what we can teach
about horses and riding, those who want to learn about archery, and
those who want to learn about anything we can and are willing to teach.
Now, there are limits. Srinoy and I have been to the toughest school in
the world. We have trained harder than all but a very few can survive.
That's right. There was no pass-fail for us, just survival. We train
from such an early age, that somebody like Srinoy, at just twelve years
of age, in fighting skills, can not be defeated by anybody not of our
school, and that is not limited to just one at a time. We will
demonstrate. Srinoy, anchor and resist." He nodded. I said to the
nurse, "Please try to push him over." He did, and was surprised when
Srinoy didn't move. I said "I know this sounds bad, but strike him hard
in the chest or stomach." Srinoy smiled and nodded, but the nurse still
looked doubtful. He hit him in the chest, to no reaction. I nodded
again, and he hit harder. Still nothing. Then he hit his hardest, and
Srinoy showed no effects. I said "Stop, and relax. We can't teach you
that, because it takes years. And we didn't use that kind of thing in
the demonstration. We showed you this so you know we do know what we
are talking about, when we say we can't make you like us. In fact, we
can't give you any more skills than you already have. What we can do,
is show you things, and ways of doing them, which might be new to you,
and can help you with what you do in the festival, and maybe in the
rest of your life. Ready to start?" They were.
I said "Our bodies and minds are capable of much more than we know
about. You just saw one part of that. Do you know that when I shoot an
arrow, most times I don't look at the target?" They were astounded. I
said "That target there. I'm looking at you, when I shoot it. I didn't
hit you, did I?" They were astounded that the arrow hit dead center. I
said "I didn't look, because I already knew where it was. With some
practice, you can do that, too. Not for looking really strange when you
shoot an arrow, but to improve your accuracy. You horse riding people
can learn this too, because like most things, to improve one part of
the person, is to improve the whole person. What do you need to have in
what you do, to shoot well?" There were a lot of answers.
I said "The list is, good equipment. A target, preferably one that
isn't running and hiding." Laughter. "Good health, which includes good
vision. Practice. What else? A good teacher, yes, that's helpful.
Alright, I'll add to the list. Technique. Ah, I see you did know. Give
me another. Yes! Attitude is very important. If you think you won't do
well, you won't. There is another thing. No idea? I'll tell you. Oh.
Well, I can't. There aren't the right words. Here, feel my bow. Open
your feelings to it. Stroke it, love it. Can you feel it respond?" Some
were astounded that they did feel something. I said "With practice,
most, probably all, of you will be able to be in tune with your
equipment. Then things like your bow, and your horse, will work much
better for you, which we will work towards today. The first part of
that is, what is in tune for one person, might not be right for another
person. And what is right for that person, may not be right for the
first. I made this bow with another, in exactly the same way, together.
Yet, only one of them felt right for me. I let a friend practice with
the other one, and it became so in tune with him, well, he sleeps with
it now. His special friends might have some complaints about that."
Laughter. I said "He won his first competition with it, against masters
of the bow, with only an hour of practice. He's been in love with it
ever since. They are not expecting children." More laughter. I said
"Yes, I'm making it sound funny, but it's actually serious. If you want
to be your best, you have to be in love with what you do, and with what
you do it with."
I said "Feel your bows. Try to make a connection with your feelings
to it. Those of you who succeed in that, let us know." Three did, and
were very surprised. After more trying, another did. That left four who
didn't. I said, opening a case, "Try these." They did, and eventually,
all four made connections. I said to them, "Put them on the top of the
case. Close your eyes. I'm going to move them around. I'll lead each of
you to help you chose which one you bonded to." One by one, they chose
the right one with their eyes closed, after feeling all of them. I said
that, which the others who witnessed it, verified. They were astounded.
I said with a grin, "You didn't believe it was true, did you." They
laughed with embarrassment. I said "This works best with living things,
and with things made of living things. Yes, with horses, too. You
riders want to choose bows?" They did, and all bonded. I said "You all
may keep the bows. Yes, they are mine, and I made them. I didn't know I
made them for you, until you just showed me. I could not take them
back, because they have made themselves yours. Just try not to shoot me
with them." They were too surprised to laugh. The nurse said, "Would it
work?" I said "Er, no. Our defenses don't differentiate between an
Srinoy, shoot at me, from twelve meters." He ran off to do that, while
the students hurriedly moved away from me. I grinned at them and said,
"He's not going to miss." He didn't. I caught the arrow. I said to the
students, "This takes a lot of training. They do it in Japan. Unless
you are Japanese, don't try it."
I said "Now you have a feel for the bow. Next, you should have at
least some feel for the arrows. You don't have to love each other, but
you should get some idea from them about how they will behave with the
bow. Then you need to have a feel for the target. We will work on that
now. I'll do each of you, one at a time. I'm standing in front of you,
with my hand in in front of your face. Study it. Touch it, get to know
it as some thing like nothing else in the universe. Now close your
eyes. I'm moving the hand. When I tell you, point to it, with your eyes
still closed. Don't try to think about where it is, just do it. NOW!"
He pointed. I said "Hold that position. Open your eyes and look at
where you are pointing." He said "Wow!" It was at my hand. I did that
with all the others, with varying degrees of success. I said "So, do
you believe now I could shoot the targets with my eyes closed?" They
looked embarrassed again. I said "Are you still going to doubt what I
say?" They said they wouldn't. I looked sideways at them and said, "We
will see about that." Some laughed.
I said "Now for the aim. When you aim at a target, what actually are
you aiming for?" One said "The target." I said "If the answer were that
easy, would I be asking it?" One said "The center ring of the target."
I said "If that's where you want the arrow to hit it, maybe. If you
want to be accurate, you aim for the smallest part of the target in the
area you want to hit. We are working on the degree of accuracy
principle. If you aim for the whole target, if you are off a little,
you could miss the target completely, and somebody might find your
arrow. In them. If you aim for the center ring, if you are off the same
amount, you will still hit the target. Do you see what I mean?" They
did. I said "But all that ignores what can influence the arrow in
flight. What are those things?" They said "Wind and gravity." I said
"More like air than wind, because the heat of the earth can cause the
air to rise, and influence the arrow over long distances. So, we have
to know how far the target is away from us, and how much force the bow
is going to apply to the arrow, before we can estimate how much gravity
will pull the arrow down in flight. How do we do that?" Silence.
I grinned, and said, "Experimentation. We shoot, and remember how our
body moved, and how the arrow moved. With practice, we will know how
hard to pull the string back, and how high to aim the bow, for the
right distance. Tell me, didn't you bow men already know that?" They
nodded. I said, "Didn't you expect me to give you a magic solution
which would make that much easier?" They did. I said "Sorry. You still
have to practice. It's the same for judging the wind. You have to look
at what the wind is moving, and remember that it usually goes in
cycles. If you shoot near the end on a cycle, the wind will change
while your arrow is in flight, and make it inaccurate. Try to shoot at
the beginning of the wind cycle for the best results. All this means is
you don't aim for the actual target while you are practicing, because
you have to aim higher, because of gravity, and off to the right or
left because of the wind. With a lot of practice, you can do that
automatically, like I do, and actually aim for the target." Let's
practice.
We did, and they got to know the targets, and the arrows, and even
the people with hardly any experience shot very well, after some
coaching from some of the more experienced ones, including Srinoy. Then
some Monks from the Temple brought us lunch, and ate with us. Some of
the archers told them about the lessons. The were interested, but not
surprised. The archers were a little disappointed at that, except for
the nurse, who was thoughtful. I wiggled an eyebrow at him, and he had
to suppress his laughter. I opened a case and took out some apples. I
said "If you want, have some, but leave some for target practice." They
did chew on some, but some archers said they didn't think they could
hit them. I said "Some of you will. Do you still doubt me?" The nurse
said "Not I!" I bowed to him. I said "Srinoy, have you ever shot an
arrow at a moving target?" He said "No, only when I was moving." I said
"Get your bow, and get ready to shoot." When he was ready, I threw an
apple up high, and he shot it on the way down. Right through it,
naturally. I said "Report." He said "You have to shoot ahead of it so
it will fall to where the arrow will be when it gets in it's path, at
the same time. Once I figured that out, and relaxed and moved smoothly,
it wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be." I bowed to him and
said "Thank you, worthy assistant." He grinned and bowed, and said,
"You're welcome, Master Teacher." The nurse got a little wide eyed at
that. The Monks saw that, and had to hide their smiles, which the nurse
noticed.
After lunch, I said, "Now we do something different. In shooting from
horseback, and even from the ground while you are trying to avoid the
arrows and spears of your enemies, you will be moving. That means you
have to split your concentration, between shooting, and not running
into anything. Or tripping, or falling off your horse. That's something
like what led to my death. My horse fell on me, in a duel. So, now we
will run by the target, and try to shoot it. We hope, not eating dirt
in the process." They did. It was horrible. Arrows went everywhere, and
some actually did trip and eat dirt. I healed some scraped faces while
I cleaned them. After two hours of that, they had improved
tremendously. While we were resting, I said, "After the first try, did
you expect to do this well now?" They didn't. I said "So, do you still
think you can't hit an apple?" They laughed at my big grin.
They weren't laughing when they all missed their apples the first
time. And the second. And the third. And then some did. By the end of
an hour, all had hit at least once. A half hour later, most hit most of
the time. After that, I said "All we've done up to the apple, you can
practice on your own. But with this, you need a friend, or an enemy, to
toss the apple for you. Unless you do it yourself. Anybody see a
problem with that?" The nurse said, "You have to set up the shot real
fast after you let go of the apple." I said "Yes. Should we ask Srinoy
to see if he can do it?" There was a big "Yes!" He and I grinned at
each other. He got ready, by knocking the arrow, and holding it with
his left forefinger at the bow, and said "I never did this before. I
hope I don't embarrass you." He threw the apple up in the air, and
looking like he had all the time in the world, he, drew the string
back, and shot it clean through. He said "Wow! It was easy. I just had
to not rush things." I said, looking at the others, "There are some
their own flying apples. I said "That's all for today. Tomorrow, we
work with the horses." Srinoy said, "If you think you have had some
surprises today, you will change your mind about that tomorrow.
Really!" I nodded, which made them all look very interested.
We walked to the Temple, and we cleaned up and had some food. They
discussed with the Monks what they had been doing and learning. I said
to them, "Do you think what I'm teaching you is something special?"
They did, and I said, "No, it isn't." I threw a rock hard at the face
of the Senior Monk, and he caught it without looking. He smiled and
bowed to me, which I returned. The students were all open mouthed in
complete horrified astonishment. I said "What you have learned today
has been known and taught for thousands of years. I should know,
because I've lived them. It's part of what our friends in the Temple
learn. Which was very nicely demonstrated for us, just now. No, we
didn't plan this. But yes, he knew I was going to do it as soon as I
planned to, which was right before I threw it. You probably didn't
notice it, but his hand was moving to catch the stone, a little before
I threw it. There is an energy flow between the attacker and the
attacked, that makes the two into one, in a way. That's how he knew,
and that's how I knew he knew. It made it so that I didn't throw the
rock at his head, but at his hand, which was going to be there to catch
the rock, because I was going to make it be there. That made it not an
attack, but one part of the whole, sharing the rock with another part,
in harmony." A pause, and Srinoy said, "Wow! I knew something about
that, but I have NEVER heard it explained that way before. So right!
What a lesson! Wow!" The Monk said, with a bow to me, "Master Teacher,
I must agree with Master Srinoy. Thank you very much." I bowed in
return, and said, "You are very welcome. Thank you for your help in
expressing this lesson."
The Monks left, and there was shocked silence. Then the nurse said,
excited, and discussed it for a while. Srinoy was grinning all over. I
tried not to, and succeeded, mostly. Before bedding down for the night,
they all came to me and shook my hand hand hugged me, and thanked me
for teaching them. Srinoy had some tears at that. My eyes weren't
completely dry, either.
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Grant
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