Large Fierce Mammal

I know how you feel Steve. Truly I do. (S. F. Kaufman photo)

Today’s title is taken from the vast body of sage advice that flows from the mind, pen, and lips of Hanshi Stephen F. Kaufman; a treasured Friend to whom I have referred here on many occasions, and will again. I invite you to peruse and reflect on these representative pieces from the LFM Archives that you can revel in by clicking on the titles:

• What You Don’t Know …;
• Art, Science, Life, and Reality – Certified Organic;
• Welcome to the Jungle;
• Worldly Wisdom Wednesday – A Return to First Principles; and
• Worldly Wisdom Wednesday – Death and the Modern Warrior.

Steve Kaufman and I first came to be connected by my (seemingly, but we all know better) serendipitous discovery in a Nova Scotia book store of his The Martial Artist’s Book of Five Rings – The Definitive Interpretation of Miyamoto Musashi’s Classic Book of Strategy back in the mid 1990’s. I loved it, and have continued a tradition of re-reading it annually since then. The Kaufman bibliography is extensive and growing. His work carries the LFM stamp of approval. ~ If You’re Going to Play, Play. Don’t Play.

My Esteemed Friend Stephen Kaufman turns 78 today and by all appearances has every intention of continuing his pattern of simultaneously delighting his friends and disappointing his enemies in perpetuity. Lest the tone of the poem I’ve written in his honour be misconstrued as something that equates age with proximity to, or a fixation upon, death, I invite you to read My Angelique before moving on here. Happiest of natal days Steve my Friend.

Ode to Kaufman the Elder

By LFM

In three score years plus ten and eight
A Man will know both Love and Hate.
Of seasons passed both brown and green,
Of Friends and Foes and all between.

And by that time he’ll know this too —
His measure’s known to but a few,
And joyous comes an end of days
That’s found but one to sing its praise.

Accepting that his life will end,
Wise is he who calls Death “Friend”,
So when She comes, Her hand to lay,
Hears, “Thank you Dear, but not today.”