Hidden Potential

This afternoon I was with a couple of the other staff in one of the supermarkets.  They were looking for a new shower curtain for one of our apartments and I was perusing the aisles, that's when I saw it!  To probably almost everyone else, it's just a rolling pin, but I saw much more potential in it than just rolling out dough to make noodles.  It just so happens that it can almost double as an escrima stick or kali!  (That's the weapon  I chose to study in karate... it's a Filipino weapon and the word "escrima" is Spanish for "fencing")  It's slightly tapered at each end, but that's only about the last inch or so on either side, not typically where you grip it.  I'm pumped to start practicing with it.  :)

It reminds me of a movie I recently watched.  It is the new Jackie Chan (or Chen Long over here) movie titled "Shaolin."  In the movie Jackie's character is the cook at the Shaolin temple, as a child he was never able to focus enough to study kungfu and subsequently became the cook.  In the kitchen you see him kneading huge mounds of dough and tossing vegetables in a giant wok.  Half way through the movie he has a conversation with one of the kungfu masters and the master says that kungfu lives in everything we do and he was able to focus enough to become a cook.  As is typical in most Jackie Chan movies, the temple comes under attack and he is the last line of defense so he uses his cooking techniques to defeat the invading forces.  (Sorry if I ruined the movie for you, but come on... it's fairly obvious what's going to happen.)  The rolling pin/escrima seems to go along with the spirit of the movie.