Sunshine and Olly

by Jonathan Blaustein

"Be Water."

Two words.

So powerful.




They were uttered by Bruce Lee; still the most famous martial artist in the world, more than 50 years after he died.

They’re hard words to wrap your mind around, because they represent simplicity dotted with unlimited profundity. 

Water is fluid. 
It always finds a way.

Water is as gentle as a soft, summer ocean breeze, yet summons the power of a Tsunami at will. 

An unstoppable force with the calm, Zen power of the infinite. 


Who hasn’t stared at a horizon-line, lost in wonder?

Water is also tumultuous. 

(Surfing is a hard freaking sport.)

To be malleable, flexible, strong, determined, but also soft and patient?

A very hard skill-set to develop.






I’m trying to Be Water.

And I’ve inadvertently modeled my life after Bruce Lee. (Minus the global fame and insane good looks.)

Completely by happenstance, the small Wing Chun Kung Fu program I stumbled upon in 2013, here in Taos, came from the Hawkins Cheung lineage.

Hawkins is mentioned at the beginning of “Be Water,” the excellent 2020 ESPN documentary, because he was Bruce Lee’s training partner and best friend, growing up in Hong Kong.

Hawkins brought his Kung Fu to LA in the 70’s, and taught a bunch of roughnecks, including Phil Romero, who brought it to New Mexico. 

Hawkins stuck to Wing Chun, but Bruce Lee evolved beyond the limits of his Kung Fu.

Because traditional styles restrain how a body can move.

How a person can fight.

They remove autonomy, and Bruce didn’t like that. 

He rebelled, and evolved, eventually settling on Jeet Kune Do, which he invented with Dan Inosanto.

It’s more-or-less a precursor to modern MMA, including explosive movements from many arts.






I never planned to evolve beyond Wing Chun, but my former mentor and training partner, Dave Duran, asked me to do some Western Boxing one day, to expand our exercises.

He was the lead bouncer at the Alley Cantina, a rough bar on Taos Plaza, and had gotten hit in the head by a boxer during a skirmish.

(Which he quickly won. Dave was a beast.)

As much as he preferred to stick to the Wing Chun script, he also understood reality. 

Limiting movement, and ideas, limiting creative flow, doesn’t work.

Water always finds a way.






When Dave died of Covid in 2022, I inherited his martial arts belongings, including a library.

There was a Jeet Kune Do book, by one of Dan Inosanto’s senior students: Paul Vunak.

I loved what he wrote.

It made sense to me, and was a model for how I’d trained with Dave. For how I’d like to train going forward. 

I googled Paul Vunak, and his program at the time, Progressive Fighting Systems. 

Contemporary Jeet Kune Do. (Which includes full grappling arts.)

There was a Senior Instructor listed in Northern New Mexico: Lawrence Garcia.

I looked him up.






Now my Sifu, Lawrence Garcia is the second most dangerous man in New Mexico.

(After Jon Jones.)

Sifu has trained since childhood, and is also a black belt in Japanese, Korean, and Brazilian martial arts. 

He’s an expert with knifes, swords, bow & arrows and firearms, in addition to less-well-known Japanese weapons like the Tonfa. 

His day job, (outside of his private martial arts program,) is working for the security team at the Los Alamos National Labs. 

Protecting America’s OG nuclear facility. 

This is the guy who teaches me.







Last Friday, Sifu promoted me from Apprentice to Phase One instructor. 

It took a year and a half of transforming my body, mind, and my martial arts teaching practice. 

I’ve previously written about the litany of injuries I’ve had in BJJ, and all that grind was necessary to reach my promotion. 

So much pain. 

Gallons of sweat.
Some blood. 
And a ton of ego-squashing. 

I showed up in Los Alamos last week a strong 170 lbs.

My journey had taken me from a fat 188 to a wasted away 145.

(Since I fought at NAGA in December of 2023, I gained 5 lbs of creatine water-weight, and 20 lbs of muscle.) 

Still, Sifu Lawrence threw me around like a dog toy, in Nogi Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. 

They always say there are levels to the fight game, and while I’m way better than my students, Sifu Lawrence is so far ahead of me it’s silly. 

So great to learn from such a talented, experienced, awesome person. 

Both of us, walking in the footsteps of Bruce Lee.







But being water is really hard. 

People like certainty and security.

Not riding waves. 

Trump promised security and safety. A return to a strong America. 

People voted for it, so let’s see what the show has to offer this time around. 





Because mental security is important too.

Knowing what comes next. 

Theo asked us, this past weekend, if we’d stay in Taos through his senior year in High School.

He had valid reasons, so we said yes.

We’d try to stay here another year and half. 

Honestly, I’m not sure I can make it. We were so close to getting out of here. (Fucking Lowes!) 

But I’m willing to try, so we’ll see what happens. 

It’s easy to say “Be Water,” but much harder to do so.







That said, Sunshine and Olly has changed. 

Jessie joined the band.

And tomorrow, we’ll have our first piece from Serge J-F. Levy, a talented writer, artist and educator based in Tucson, Arizona. 

Thanks, Serge!

And catch the rest of you next time.