So often I am confronted with people who are locked into the past. Whether this is via music, movies, the martial arts, or someone they loved way back in the way back when, they lock themselves into never changing.
 
But, change is good. Change is evolution. Sure, we all like what we like when we like it. But, that, “Like,” is never the new, the experimental, the refreshing, the evolutionary.
 
From the perspective of music, so often I encounter people who lock themselves into a time period of music. There is a style of music or a band or bands that they loved, most generally when they were first coming into their own, and they never move on. They are happy to listen to the same song(s) over and over and over again. But, by doing this, they trap themselves from ever evolving into the new, the more, the becoming. And, from this, they can never meet the new as the new is never presented.
 
In film, it is much the same. Throughout the history of cinema, there have been some great pieces of representation created. There is no doubt about that. Some people I interact with lock themselves into a period or an era or a performer, and they never move on. They watch/they experience the same performance over and over and over again. In doing this, however, they never meet the new.  And, by never meeting the new, they ever meet the new. They never evolve in their vision in the what can be experienced as cinematic art.
 
In every moment of every decade there has been advancement in cinematic art. Filmmakers bring new visions and new ideas to the craft of filmmaking. But, for all of those who hold themselves to the expected and the known, they never allow themselves to know these new knowns. From this, no evolution is experienced.
 
In the world of martial arts, I frequently encounter those who locked themselves into what they are locked into. They brand themselves with the traditional systems that they were originally taught. They believe that the only true knowers were those who walked the path decades before them. …That what was taught then was so much better than what is taught now. But, all you have to do is put one of those traditional martial artists up against one of the very-proficient MMA practitioners of today, and forget about it. They will be decimated.
 
The things is, times-gone-past may be beautiful. They should be respected. They laid the foundations for what we all have become today. But, yesterday is not today. And today, there is a whole new world of ideas, techniques, knowledge, and understanding, that could never have even been even contemplated yesterday.
 
Remember this. Yesterday was great. But, yesterday is not today. Do you want to keep yourself locked into the past? Or, do you wish to experience all of the beauty of the newly discovered today?