Thoughts
- Concerning the
Recent Death of Kristy Cutright
I wanted to thank everyone who made it to the Memorial Service
for
Kristy Cutright this last week. We had nearly 25 people there
from KAT!
I was really heartened by the response from our school. Even
those who
couldn’t make it brought and signed cards and flowers
and personally
expressed their condolences to the Cutright family.
I wanted to get a chance
to talk to everyone for a few minutes
immediately afterwards but there were so many people that it
wasn’t
really feasible. So I decided to write this to the entire school
and
post it on the Sabumnim’s Corner section of the site.
Things like this are really
tough to deal with and it leaves students
with a lot of emotions from anger to fear to uncertainty to
hopelessness. However, as martial artists we must always try
to learn
what we can from every experience. I’ve been pondering
what there is to
learn from this tragedy and I came up with three important lessons.
1. Life is Not Fair.
It’s just not. While most of us deep down believe
that life should be fair, or have religious beliefs that say
that the
next life will make things fair from this life, its important
to
recognize that this life is not fair. Its also important to
recognize
that for those of us who live in the US, have good health, access
to a
good education and good martial arts training, life is usually
unfair in
our favor. But it goes both ways. There is no rational reason
why
someone young like Kristy who by all accounts was kind to everyone
and
full of life and potential should die, while there are people
out there
who just want to hurt others and yet they live. I know that
in these
extreme cases its really hard to accept, but this is just one
of those
things about life that we cannot change.
2. We Must Live
Our Lives As Best As We Can. We never know how much
time
we will be given, so we much make the most of it. There was
a Deep
Thoughts quote that said:
I try to live every
day like it’s my last day alive. That’s why I never
have any clean laundry, because, come on: who wants to do any
laundry on
their last day alive?
So, obviously this doesn’t
mean that we shouldn’t work or plan for the
future or go to school and study hard. We still have to do all
those
things. But we have to be careful not to sacrifice the present
for the
future. Make sure you tell the people that you care about how
you feel.
Make sure you take the time to go for walks, watch sunsets and
sunrises,
and spend time with relatives and friends outside of Taekwondo.
3. The Value of
the TKD Community. Although there are few positive
thoughts to come out of something like this, its good to see
the school
coming together to help comfort the students who were the closest
to
Kristy and the most affected. In todays modern society, it is
often
difficult to find this type of community. At Master Curtrights
house, I
also saw the closeness of the extended TKD community, as many
masters
stopped by or called to express their condolences. Training
together
increases the bonds between people far more than other activities.
Things remain difficult,
and Master Ghassan and I are here to help talk
to students if they feel like they need more help dealing with
Kristys
death. Ian and Ryan are working on memorial bands and embroidery,
so
contact them if you are interested in helping.
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Competition
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