3 Million Views and a Moral Dilemma
After a near fatal car crash this past summer, I’m more grateful than ever to share a lifetime with you. Adding to the epic scale of the past few months, the video of me detaining a homeless attacker at a church in Hollywood now has over 3 million views on TikTok. I’ve been congratulated by police officers and some of the most prominent martial artists alive for a job well done, and my audience for my Tai Chi coaching grew 12X and landed me an agent from this one video. I’m writing to share this bittersweet experience with you in hopes that I offer a unique perspective on your approach to daily life, as the video represents both my unfiltered principles and a direct clash with what I want to put out in the media and the world.
On one hand, this moment has a theme of directness. I like a Buddhist definition of compassion I once came across, which is defined as spontaneous right action. Doing the right thing the moment it is called for. I always need more of that in my life, especially when filtering out TIME-WASTERS. I perform at the highest levels of my sport in Tai Chi Push Hands, and that’s because I don’t allow people to waste a fraction of a second of my time. So, I ask myself…
…WHY have I allowed people and things to waste my time outside of the ring?
This means a text, phone call, or worse, a shared meal that drains energy. Time wasters have been a plague in my career in media, so I’m inspired by this attacker to work more diligently to disrupt that pattern. (This calls to mind the great example set for me by legendary Broadway producer Elliot Massie — see my writing on how he removes energy-sucking obstacles here).
On the other hand, this video pains me.
Perhaps for not so obvious reasons.
To put it bluntly, to me it looks like two Black men destroying each other, and having people applaud me for that feels… treacherous on an “Uncle Tom” level.
Black people in conflict is something expected in our culture, and that SUCKS.
And while I’m densely multicultural with my ancestry and don’t foundationally refer to myself as “Black” (see my last video on the subject), it would not be uncommon to assume I’m Black in this video. That makes me feel like I’ve done a disservice to The Culture*.
(*The Culture = the specific Black experience that fuels many pop cultural movements across language, style, media and the world.)
I want to uplift people. In fact, in recent years, I’ve been colliding with my love of action filmmaking. In an age where symbolism and context can be easily lost, I feel culture shifting to a NEED FOR THE LITERAL, and that means a need for more responsible and intentional communication.
For years, I’ve considered even my beloved superhero storytelling troublesome, and have been doing my best to ideate around principles that solve problems without resulting in slugfests, or at least having very good reasons behind martial action taking place.
And that is perhaps the saving grace of this attacker video for me — good reason.
To exhaust all other choices for peace and have to physically defend others or oneself.
This principle can and should go deeper for me. In my conversations. In my creative expressions and more.
How do I apply this to personal boundaries such as my time?
How do I defend my principles without the tension that can come along with feeling threatened in some way, even emotionally?
Pressure is pressure whether it’s emotional or physical. Being able to redirect pressure toward a goal is a key life skill. The best exercise that I know to train this skill is called Push Hands (or Tuishou). It is 1/3 of the Tai Chi system.
I’m fortunate to have Tai Chi’s 2-person Push Hands exercises as a safe space to pose these questions kinesthetically, as I’ve done for years with my father and martial family, and as I coach for my clients.
I highly recommend experimenting with this exercise yourself with someone close to you, and have placed an instructional video on it here. I hope you benefit from it and am available for any questions you may have.
With Love,
Jan L.
