A Little Parable

Once upon a time Mr. Rock wandered into a bad neighborhood, where he was attacked by members of the Paper Gang and beaten badly. As a result, he decided to study martial arts. He visited a nearby school, which offered classes in rock-jitsu. As he began training, he found that rock-jitsu fit him beautifully, and he threw himself into practice. However, when he once again found himself facing members of the Paper Gang, he lost again. This was very difficult to accept, because rock-jitsu seemed so right for his body and personality. But, having experienced defeat again, he could only conclude that there must be a "real" martial art out there somewhere. So...

Mr. Rock went in search of a suitable dojo. First, he visited the school of sensei Scissors, but he was not impressed. Sensei Scissors' techniques seemed completely useless to him. In fact, though he was too polite to say so, he was pretty sure that, with his prior training in rock-jitsu, he could easily defeat sensei Scissors' scissor-jitsu style. So, he left and never returned.

The next school he visited was led by sifu Paper who taught paper-gar-chuan style. Rock was stunned by the ease with which sifu Paper handled him. Every one of sifu's techniques overwhelmed him. Clearly this was the school, for he had discovered the ultimate martial art.  Training was quite difficult for him, not natural, not comfortable, but the techniques were so effective, it seemed the obvious choice.


And, one day he found himself in the wrong part of town – again – facing the paper gang – again.  Gamely, Mr. Rock tried out his entire repertoire of paper-gar-chuan, but all that happened was that he briefly held off the gang, soon, he grew exhausted and began to fall back on the rock-jitsu he learned first, but he was as ineffective ever.  But, just as he was about to succumb to another humiliating beating, Sensei Scissor happened by.  Seeing Mr. Rock's peril, Sensei Scissor sprung into action and shredded the paper gang with ease.


Grateful, but confused, looked at Sensei Scissor, and said, "Thank you.  But, I visited your school, and your techniques didn't work on me at all.  Yet, you have easily defeated the paper gang.  I don't understand."


Sensei Scissor just smiled.  "Roshambo," he said.  "Roshambo."  And with that he walked away.