Growing up with 60's comic books and Adam West's parody TV show as my guide convinced me that Batman was the most awesome person I could aspire to be. Looking back I think a great deal of the appeal was the the Bat cave - the coolest, most secretive location on earth. Only accessible through a hidden tunnel in the hills or by descending down the Bat pole in Wayne Manor, this restricted access ensured that you could work, play and live your life uninterrupted by others. This fed into my utopia of life as an introvert and when you factor in the high-tech toys available in the Bat cave, well, it was a done deal. That goal had "legs" as my friend Jon Sims would say.
But one day I was watching my favorite TV show and instead of just the usual plot-line involving the rotating cast of villains, there were two new characters being introduced, the Green Hornet and Kato. Suddenly my goal of being Batman was cast into doubt.
Batman, you see, relied upon the Bat cave, Bat mobile, Bat belt, and many, many other cool Bat toys and devices. He had built and manipulated his own little corner of the world, with a fort and weapons that allowed him to achieve his aspirations as well as fulfill his revenge-oriented lifestyle. His side-kick Robin was just another cog in his orbit, not truly an equal or really even a team player, but more an extension of Batman's own ambition and resources. However, this new pair of heroes, the Green Hornet and especially Kato, didn't fit this mold of superheros at all. Kato, who was played by Bruce Lee, was supposed to be the sidekick but even a 8 year old could figure out who welded the power in that team. He didn't rely upon gadgets but upon his own fighting abilities. And the confidence! I don't think I had ever witnessed anyone who possessed the kind of confidence that Bruce Lee showed onscreen. My allegiance to Batman was in danger of being replaced . . .
In the 60's, if you wanted to learn something about someone on TV, it was not the easily accessible experience that is available today. Your choices, if you didn't know anyone in your personal circle who could help, was to either read or write. You could write to someone in the hope that they would share what information they might have or you set out to read everything that was available on the subject that you were exploring. Note: This was before Red box, Netflix, even before Blockbusters so if it didn't show up on your local three stations, radio stations, or at your local movie theater you were out of luck.
I got lucky. In the 70's, after entering Junior High, I discovered that someone in my expanding circle knew some facts about the Bruce. My buddy Rick had a passion for the martial arts and possessed a couple of magazine interviews with Bruce. Rick was able to explain the difficulty of correctly reproducing even the most basic fighting moves that I had witnessed Bruce perform on TV. The magazine articles led to us discovering his movies and viewing them when they cycled through some of the budget / drive-in movie theaters in our area. Watching Bruce's speed on the big screen, was an almost mystical experience. Never had I ever seen anyone move that quickly. At this point in my life, even my growing teenage cynical nature couldn't overcome my admiration for his fighting skills. Yet the more important lesson that I was learning was discovering information about other cultures. At this point, living in the South all my life, I had never even met someone from Asia. This exposure to Bruce Lee helped ensure a respect for those that I had not yet met, or even heard of, and helped teach me not to categorize people by race or color. I know it sounds quaint that one man could have that kind of impact on a young kid, but its true. And it helped to build a bridge in my mind and heart that other people, around the world, were going about building their life just like I was attempting to do in my corner of the globe.
Throughout my life I've always flirted with the world of martial arts. I always harbored a slight fascination with the warrior lifestyle and I took informal and later formal lessons in Karate, Judo, and Taekwondo. My speed and agility were above average but I lacked the passion to fully commit to the discipline required by these arts. My heart was focused on music and it was difficult to carve out the time needed for any other serious endeavor. But my worldview was forever changed by the presence of a man who dared to forge his own identity, in two vastly different cultures, and who in his short life changed the world.
