This holiday season I am indulging an old dream and creating a World Holiday Celebration for the dojo. This dream was born over a decade ago when I worked for a YMCA. We had a basket of inspirational sayings and a person could just choose one out of the basket whenever the fancy struck. I loved this basket. After only about 2 weeks, the basket disappeared. I asked my friend in management about it and was told that we had to remove it because it only had inspirational sayings from the Bible and was therefore more exclusionary than the Young Men's Christian Association wanted to be.

On the one hand, I understood. They wanted to appeal to more people and not alienate others. On the other hand, I was outraged. There are many religious and secular traditions with wisdom to share. Why not expand your offerings around an inspirational theme, instead of sanitizing the experience.

So I made a vow to promote difference, rather than a sanitized experience, and thus the World Holiday Celebration was born. I don't want to arbitrially celebrate holidays; I want the dojo to represent the holidays BQC students celebrate. To participate, bring in a decoration to share with the dojo, enter our Art Contest, participate in free classes, and have a joyous holiday! (And don't forget to Give Props! this holiday season to everyone who makes your world a better place!)

Labels: Christmas, Dojo, Holiday, To-Shin Do, World