9/07/2010

Give them (visitors/students) a chance

(This pertains to my efforts to find places to shadow/observe/study for people wishing to study a little about acupuncture in Japan)

In the words of a British colleague practicing in Tokyo, who I recently asked for his help:

"I must say it's a bit of a mixed bag. In my view there are few that genuinely want to learn. The non Japanese especiallylike to say on their resume that they studied in Japan after being here for one day or going to a seminar of a famous teacher and calling them their teacher."

This sentiment may not be restricted to him, but I believe a substantial portion of the Japanese practitioners are also inclined towards this attitude.

In my email response to the above colleague I wrote:
"I think, I understand the problem of having "bad apples" in the lot.
But you never know who will fall into this category, unless you give him/her a chance.

And that is all I am asking for: Give those who ask for it a CHANCE.
After all, you, me ... in fact EVERY acupuncturist throughout history has been given his/her chance at one time, by somebody. Some turned out to be historically important figures, others just dropouts. The outcome is (maybe) not ours to decide.
But what we can do, is provide the **chance** - and thus repay the "debt" we carry,
because we had our chance.

Maybe I am completely off the mark, but I have the hazy, fixed idea, that this is what I should do.
Unfortunately, I myself am an uneducated, clumsy old fool (with VERY few patients),
so that I always can welcome potential visitors, but cannot show them anything worthwhile .....

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