"You Can Do This, Kwai Chang Caine"
Kerry Lindemann-Schaefer
In times of trouble and doubt,
The old man's voice echoes through my head.
And I reflect that even Caine,
that paragon of confidence and competence,
must sometimes question his ability to succeed,
If he needs encouragement from the Ancient.
Even the Master must now and then stand hesitantly on the brink,
hardly daring to take a step forward,
Until the Master's Master reminds him to go on.
And so, finding myself mired in fear and uncertainty,
I listen for the old man's voice and imagine
he's talking to me,
And I know that, yes, I can indeed do this.
Whoever said I couldn't was clearly lying,
even if it was just my own self.
After all, who am I to doubt the Ancient?
THE TEMPLE
Kerry Lindemann-Schaefer
". . . Evil forces destroyed that Temple. . ."
(Yeah, like maybe the same evil forces that cancelled my favorite
tv show and the source of most of my inspiration and hope during the last few years? Now what do I do?)
Lo Si: "There was a Temple, many many years ago. Your Temple.
A place of light and song."
Caine: "All -- was destroyed."
Lo Si: "But you survived."
(Survived? I suppose you might call it that. Is it surviving when the light is gone and the song is silenced, and all you have left in your heart is emptiness?)
Caine: "Even if Lai Tsu destroys this Temple, the spirit
of Shaolin will live on. Kung fu will live on."
(Perhaps. But all the people I knew and loved will be gone. What good is all the rest of it without them?)
Master Kwan: "This is all temporary. Someday it will cease
to exist. The real Temple lies in here: inside you, inside me, inside all of us who seek the
Way."
(Yes, Master. Maybe so. But all I know is that it doesn't feel that way right now. In the midst of the destruction, with the building burning around me and all I care about going up in flames, I grieve for what I have lost, for what we all have lost.)
My focus is gone. It may take a long time, but the essence of that which I loved is out there somewhere. All I have to do is keep looking until I find it.
That may not be easy.
