Funny Thing. . .

Today I looked up "Martial Arts Instruction" in the "mobile", 5 pound 6 six inches thick, yellow book, hoping to find an activity to keep me fit.  I was looking for a judo dojo but came across several jiujitsu, hapkido, and one aikido centers. I wasn't sure of what exactly jiujitsu, aikido, and hapkido were so I turned to the the most trusted source of information known to common man. . .Wikipedia muhahaha.  Turns out that Jiujitsu, Aikido, and Hapkido are very similar and historically related martial arts disciplines that focus on a combination of locks, throws and kicks that try to disarm and neutralize an attacker.  They are said to be developed out of daito-ryuu aiki jujutsu, a martial arts made famous by a Japanese man named Takeda Sokaku.  Very famous guy, his picture was on all three wiki sites.  But here's the thing, there is a lot of tension behind the historical origin of hapkido.  Hapkido's origins are attributed to a Korean man named Choi Yong Sul who claims to have studied under as an adopted son of Takeda Sokaku (the famous daito-ryuu aiki jujutsu teacher) and gone back to Korea to teach his fellow citizens what he had learned.  However, his name does not appear on the family tree of Takeda Sokaku and due to the extension of racial tensions fostered during Japan's occupation of Korea, there are issues of nationalism that fuel controversy around the statement made by Choi. So why do I bring this up?  My first reaction to all of this, was honestly, what would people think?  What would "they" think if a Korean took up Jiu jitsu or aikido?  Would I be treated differently because of my race?  And if I joined the hapkido would I be seen as racist?  I don't want to be naive because the world is not color blind.  For instance, take to account the profiling that the government has practiced in its search for "terrorists" made me afraid to think would I have to face the consequences of how do I put it. . . not really racism but I guess an ugly mindset.  But then again, I don't really care.  Well, that's not completely true.  I mean, I took kendo, japanese fencing for almost 4 years with some of the nicest people I've known and most of them are Japanese.  The sport taught me discipline and gave me confidence.  It strengthed my body as well as my mind.  I made friends and it was a great experience all in all.  But still even after that, I somehow have the tendency of the fearing of what society might think. Can't be helped I guess, I am only human.  All I can do is be a man, and live my life, trusting God with whatever comes my way.  However, I was so suprised by my thoughts, though given I'm not the first to think such things, that I decided to write about it in this blog.  Funny thing. . .haha