Returning to Virtual Events

Video Transcript:

Hello Fanatics of sorts, it’s your friend Edd Fairman, Wizard of Sorts.

It’s probably unusual for a comedy magician to fight in Muay Thai Kickboxing but we all do things to balance out our lives. That’s me right there with the big tattoo on my back in my first Muay Thai fight.

In fights, like in most of life you can be going forwards or backwards. But you never do just one of them.

Muay Thai being from Thailand is intertwined with Buddhist principles. Like the tide one moves in and out, forward and backwards.

And that’s what we are doing with COVID. We are in a fight and right now we might need to return to virtual events and that’s OK. Sometimes you move forward and sometimes you move back. You step in and you step out.

But you keep fighting and you take more forward steps than backwards ones and at the end of the day you get your hand raised in victory.

I imagine most of you don’t want to go “back” to virtual events. Sure they don't have all the same things as in person events but sometimes to avoid a huge punch to the face you have to step back out of the reach of your opponent.

And there are benefits of Virtual events:

Obviously keeping our family and friends safe is number one.

Virtual events require less or no travel which is good for the environment.

The dress code, well at least the bottom half, is way more relaxed for virtual events.

Virtual events are way less affected by winter storms.

Virtual events have limitless attendance and reach.

And because of all of the above, virtual events are way easier to plan.

Muay Thai kickboxing is, as the name proves, from Thailand and is rooted in Thai Buddhist principles. I am not an expert and I am not a Buddhist scholar but I think I understand some of it. I’m actually more acquainted with Taoism. In Taoism they say, “Water has no shape yet it can be any shape. Water is soft, yet it can break the rock.”

When I’m training with newer students I always paraphrase Bruce Lee and I say, “Be like water.”

The tide moves in and it moves out and it fits everywhere.

We need to be like the water and move in and out and conform to fit our situation. We are not moving backwards. We are eroding the rock.

Is it a mishmash of philosophies? Sure. Am I just trying to make sense of this whole situation, you betcha. But we’ve got to do what we’ve got to do in order to move forward fully.

And if that means taking a step back to avoid the big punches, then that’s what we’ve got to do.

If you need any help with planning a virtual event, need ideas, or just want to vent, you know where to find me.

Until next time, take care of yourself and take care of each other.