RIP Wing Lam

[Drunk Monk]

I’ve been doing that for years. PPFY - didn’t we have a conversation about him once? I can’t remember the context. Haymo and I have crossed paths in the wulin. A few years back, we ran into each other at Berkeley CMAT. He tried to impress me with how we’ll known he was there, but that was a fail because I’ve been covering that for nearly two decades now. I remember ditching him to talk with some VIPs there, and him looking like a lost little lamb. That might have been the last time we saw each other prior to Saturday. I wonder how he found out. My guess is Don Gee.

[Drunk Monk]

I dreamt of Sifu last night.  It kind of surprised me because I've been working to move on from so many things lately, and despite my copious amount of sleep to recover from my recent illness, I haven't been dreaming much.  It was a short dream, or at least my memory of it was short.  We were doing Push Hands, which was something I didn't really do with Sifu that often.  He tied me into a knot that completely restrained me and smiled at me with those twinkling eyes of his.  

I think I may have had another dream about him recently too, but that one escaped my waking memory.

[cranefly]

I don't know that I've dreamed of Sifu since he passed -- though I've thought about him a lot.

I did have two very vivid dreams about him on the third and second day before he passed.

Dream 1: April 22, 2018
I'm over at Sifu's, somewhere in his house, and I have this very important Tai Chi question to ask him.  So I go into the room where he is, and he's mostly turned away and doesn't notice me, and he's just starting to watch something on his laptop or on the TV or whatever (the layout is distorted from reality).  He's wearing a cowboy hat, by the way.  Yes, a cowboy hat.  Seeing that he's becoming totally abosorbed in what he's watching, I opt not to disturb him and leave the room.

Retreating to another room, I find a baby on a cot.  My "dream understanding" is that the baby is in Sifu's care.  The thing is, the baby is alone and very near the edge of the cot, and I'm not seeing any protective barrier.  I'm worried the baby might fall.

Then just like that the baby rolls over and falls.

I jump forward and catch it -- and wake up.

It took me a long time to get back to sleep that night.

Interpretation: The cowboy hat.  The sense I got was that Sifu was a loner in the style of a James Stewart or Gary Cooper, just blazing his own trail, refusing to throw in with anyone else, just going it alone.  That's pretty much how he handled his illness, as well as his life.  The baby: The baby represents all of Sifu's teachings and knowledge which is in danger of being lost.  As it fell, I caught it.  This is the most positive interpretation.  More likely the baby represents the two cats that I was coming over to care for in the past week or two while Sifu's daughter went on a much-needed vacation.  Yeah, I think that's all there was to the baby.  But it certainly preyed on my mind after I woke up.

Dream 2: April 23, 2018
I'm in a supermarket with someone, and it's time to check out.  We find a checkout that doesn't have a line.  I'm surprised to see that Sifu is the checkout person.  He is very cordial to us both, and when he learns that my companion does some martial arts, he asks if he can see some of it.  My companion proceeds to do a form just beyond the checkout.  Sifu is very attentive and treats him with utmost respect.  But I begin to realize that my companion is V, a fellow student, and one that forever tries everyone's patience, including Sifu's.  Still, Sifu is treating him with utmost respect.  I wake up.

Interpretation: Sifu as a checkout clerk speaks of his humble beginnings and his humility and lack of ego throughout life.  It's hard to think of anyone who was more humble.  As for his show of respect for V, despite his many annoying traits, that speaks further of his benevolence and patience.

But a couple weeks later (shortly after the funeral), I heard something that gave this dream a deeper interpretation.  After a Sunday morning Tai Chi class, V took me aside and told me what he had done a couple Sundays ago -- the Sunday before Sifu passed.  After that morning class, he decided to go over and visit Sifu -- this despite Carol's emphatic emails that it was Anna's and Sifu's wish that he not be disturbed.  But V can be clueless.  He told me how he knocked on the door, and Anna answered, and he asked if he could see Sifu.  I can imagine Anna trying to decide what to do, not knowing V, not wanting to be rude.  In the end she invites him in and goes up to check with Sifu.  Sifu eventually comes down the stairs, which he's barely able to do, and he dutifully greets V and asks him how his Guandao form is coming, and treats him with the utmost respect -- even though he's in no condition to be receiving a visitor and this is the last student he'd want to see.

I was livid, listening to V tell of this, especially when he started going into gruesome detail of Sifu's condition.  I really wanted to shut him down and tell him off.  But in the end I just let him finish, which he did convinced that he'd done a good thing, and stating that he and Sifu had always enjoyed a very special close relationship.  I let it go because that's what Sifu had done, recognizing that V simply isn't capable of understanding the basics of good manners and privacy.

[Drunk Monk]

Who is V?

Sorry, not tuned into the last gen of Lam Kwoon.

[cranefly]

Vincent.  A long-ago Hung Gar student from San Francisco.  Somehow he got back in touch with Sifu a year or two ago and started coming Sundays to learn Sun style Tai Chi, Bagua, Xingyi.  He's a very slow learner, and we keep having to review material for him.  He seems to lack the most basic intuitive grasp of anything.  The deeper concepts largely go over his head.

Professionally, he works as a mechanic on airline engines.

[Drunk Monk]

Not Tarozzi, right? Different Vincent?

[cranefly]

Right, not Vincent Tarozzi, if he is the big solid Hung Gar guy from Wing Lam School on Willow St., right?  Who now teaches MMA stuff in San Jose.

This Vincent never came down to that school.  He is small, under 5 foot, but with a Hung Gar stoutness (and a gut).

And he's not an android.  At least I don't think so...

[Drunk Monk]

Don’t know him. I really fell out of touch over the last decade. Sounds very irksome.
I always felt Sifu’s cordiality made him prone to Qi vampires like this V, Lynn & Haymo. In some ways, it was like his tragic flaw.

Are you having a problem with droids? I’m having more issues with zombies but that’s been an ongoing problem.

[cranefly]

DM, I don't know how you wrote that Wing Lam memorial piece for the ezine in your current circumstance.  A beautiful piece.

Just so you know, the second ex, of whom you had some very choice words, has insinuated herself into the arrangements picture.  She does seem genuinely shaken by his death, but there is clear evidence of maneuvering on her part for financial gain.  This is really not the place to go into detail on this.  But just so you know, we've cautioned the daughter and her boyfriend not to be influenced by her regarding the future of the warehouse business, and to protect Sifu's legacy and valuable possessions from her pillaging ways.  This was done in as tactful a way as possible, and I think was well-received.

Well, the daughter just fired Joel and Terri on the spot today, because she just sold the warehouse business to her mother, Lynn -- the second ex.  Lynn is flying out on Friday to take over.  It's not clear who is minding the store in the meantime.  But the fact that Joel and Terri had warned the daughter about her own mother's thieving ways, even calling her the devil, probably made it untenable to keep them aboard.

Sudden and shocking.  No doubt there's a bigger story behind all of this.  But very likely the daughter is overwhelmed by this business and wants to live her own life, and her mother can take the load off of her while still sort of keeping the business in the family.

Terrible for Joel and Terri...  No advanced notice.

[Drunk Monk]

Damnnnnnnn

[Drunk Monk]

Cf & LCf - are you guys doing any of the remembrance activities this weekend?  I'm going to head over to Stephen's for a bit soon, and hope to make the grave visit tomorrow.  I was going to do the gathering at Ortega park because it's literally my mom's backyard, but it got moved to San Jose, not nearly as convenient, and now I have some odd chores to attend to in the morning.

I trust you heard that Chris Louie passed.

[cranefly]

LCF and I will be skipping the morning Push Hands in the San Jose park but intend to go to the gravesite, maybe around 3 pm but not sure.  Then of course the dinner.

As for Sunday, I will likely go to Creekside Park in Cupertino for the morning practice (9 to noon), followed by a picnic there.  I was hoping you could make that one, but I think you have a much better date.

[Drunk Monk]

It was good seeing you and everyone last night. I’ll be at the gravesite, probably until you arrive, but no more. I may go up a little early to have some private time.  

My new schedule will have me in svale on Tuesday nights so I’ll join the group at Chen Fei’s in Cupertino after 8 for a while. I dropped in a few times previously over the last few months. It was fun to do Sun Tai Chi again with them, plus some Tai Yu sword.  Hopefully when my wrist and elbow heal up, I can do some BSL with Oliver.

[cranefly]

I trust you heard that Chris Louie passed.

I read past that in your earlier post, just caught it now.  No, I hadn't heard.  I did hear you mention Michael Louie last night, maybe talking to O, and you probably were relating Chris Louie's passing, but I didn't quite catch it.  Wow.

[Drunk Monk]

Yeah, Chris passed away recently. He was having health issues. Michael was a coach at the gym where Tara trained in elementary so I saw Chris occasionally and he wasn’t doing so good back then. I don’t I know the details though. I recall him saying he had heart problems.

After all the deer at the cemetery struck me as auspicious, even more auspicious was that I saw a whale on the drive home. Clearly caught the spout and the back just south of half moon bay. I always feel so blessed to see whales. They are so magical.