Tornado Sirens

Tornado sirens suck.

Your eating lunch; trying to focus, and it's noon on a Friday and SCREEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Why are they so loud?

It's like the're saying: "Look at me, look at me, look at ME!" It's like being surrounded by a dozen ADHD kids.

I'm trying to remember a time in my life where a siren saved me from something.

I can't think of any.

A few years ago we had a tornado rip through our area. Huge trees hit the ground. An entire telephone snapped and landed in my yard. I watched it snap and fall and the power lines come down while hiding in the stairwell of our basement.

After it passed I heard the SCREEEEEEE of the siren finally start.

Nice.

The app on my phone had warned me to get in the basement five minutes earlier.

I wonder why they keep sounding the alarm these days. Maybe it's for people who don't have phones - who knows?

Sifu Brown says: "Never argue for time."

He means you should never keep doing something that doesn't work just because you've done it that way for a long time.

I think we all are a little bit like the siren. We keep doing things that  don't work; we figure we've been doing it this long - maybe we should stick with it.

Belts are like that in the Martial Arts. A guy calls me and says; “I’ve got a Brown belt in such and such a style; can I keep it"?

I say: “Of course you can keep it in that style; but in our style (it’s different) you’ll start at white and earn other ranks".

Usually they don’t want to earn ranks in our style. They just want to be promoted in their old one.

I ask; why not just continue with your old style?

They always have a good reason. Sometimes the old school only teaches kids, sometimes they are getting hurt, sometimes their teacher quit. 

I say: “Why not try something new; that way you can have rank in two styles"?

They say: “Let me check my schedule; I’m really busy right now, I’ll get back to you".

Lots of people are still like tornado alarms.