Personal Development
THE MIRACLE AND MUSCLE
OF THE MUNDANE
BY LISA FATIMAH
“Wax on, right hand. Wax off, left
hand. Wax on, wax off. Breathe in
through nose, out through mouth.
Wax on, wax off. Don’t forget to
breathe, very important.”
[Mr. Miyagi walks away making
circular motions with hands and
repeats . . . ]
“Wax on. Wax off. Wax on. Wax
off.”
86400 seconds . . .
Each moment we are blessed with
another POWERFUL opportunity
to breathe. Every breath we take,
every step we make as vertical
beings is a blessing and yes, a
miracle.
As educators we are tasked in the
most wonderful and challenging
ways. We CHOSE to receive the
gift of giving and receiving that
enhances the seconds of many
lives for a lifetime.
Try multiplying that number and
the legacy our lessons leave on
the souls of our scholars. There is
no simplification and no expanded
notation that can do our “jobs”
justice.
With this bounty comes the
boring? That is, if you are looking
and not seeing. If you are
breathing and not experiencing
the GRACE of breath, then you
have no idea that this opportunity,
this routine, this “drudgery” is in
fact a regal, purposeful “Wax on,
wax off,” prize in process.
In the 1984 Martial Arts Film, “The
Karate Kid” starring Noriyuki
“Pat” Morita and Ralph Macchio,
we see a young boy seeking
self-defense guidance from an
unassuming maintenance man and
undercover Japanese martial arts
master, Mr. Miyagi.
Yes. Things, people, and
circumstances are not always
what they seem . . .
After immediately being beaten
up by local bullies when he and
his divorced mom moved from
Newark, New Jersey, to Reseda,
California, USA, Daniel LaRusso
a/k/a The Karate Kid, is out to
prove his manhood.
As Mr. Miyagi’s prized (and only)
pupil, the Karate Kid is directed
to begin training with a mundane,
rather innocuous task that at first
glance has no redeeming value.
After all, the Karate Kid is hungry
to learn Gōjū Kai style Karate – he
did not come to learn how to clean
cars.
Mr. Miyagi/Teacher: “First, wash
all car. Then wax on . . .”
Daniel/Karate Kid Student: “Hey,
why do I have to . . . ?”
Mr. Miyagi/Teacher: “Ah ha!
Remember deal! No questions!”
Daniel/Karate Kid Student: “Yeah,
but . . . “
Mr. Miyagi/Teacher: [In
Japanese] “Quiet!”
[He makes circular motion with
hand and continues in English]
Writing in SCRIBD, Daniel F.
Chambliss pens an “Ethno
Ethnographic Report on
Stratification and Olympic
Swimmers” entitled “The
Mundanity of Excellence.” In it he
cites the words of Mary Terstegge
Meagher, a three (3x) time
Olympic gold medalist winner.
Mary Meagher shares, ‘People
don’t know how ordinary success
is.’
Chambliss continues, “what
Meagher said—that success is
ordinary—in some sense applies, I
believe, to other fields of endeavor
as well: to business, to politics, to
professions of all kinds, including
academics.
Excellence is mundane.
Superlative performance is really a
confluence of dozens of small skills
or activities, each one learned
or stumbled upon, which have
been carefully drilled into habit
and then are fitted together in a
synthesized whole.
There is nothing extraordinary
or superhuman in any one of
those actions; only the fact
that they are done consistently
and correctly, and all together,
produce excellence.”
As adults, we know, everything
is not always the way it appears.
Often messages and purposes
reveal themselves in the most
minute ways.