The Foreign Service Journal, May 2016

the Foreign Service journal | may 2016 49 between self-defense and self-discovery, because it develops both your body and your mind. Unlike competitive sports, prac- ticing the martial arts continues to improve your mental focus and physical movement efficiency as your skill levels continue to increase. My 84-year-old instructor holds an annual national training seminar where most of the senior instructors, now in our 60s and 70s, gather with our students. Surprisingly, the younger and stronger competitive black belts are hard-pressed to keep up physically with us old guys. We have been doing this for decades, and our physically efficient techniques are much faster than their attacks and defenses. When I first moved to Washington, D.C., with a master’s degree fromMichigan State University, my instructor, now an internationally renowned Okinawan Karate Grand Master, told me to teach a few students wherever I went. Teaching karate to others would force me to relearn and improve my skills over and over again. Each new assignment required starting a new school—secur- ing adequate space and then finding interested students, too! While overseas, I regularly instructed fellow FSOs, members of the local Marine detachment and local security personnel. While in the United States I normally focused on building a more stable student base. In 2008, I was promoted to 7th Degree, Karate Master, by the Okinawan Shidokan Shorin Ryu Karate Association. With retirement, I changed my small “club” karate school for- mat to a more commercial format. I had to learn how to set up a business plan, rent space, run marketing campaigns and comply with local business laws and regulations. The learning curve can be steep and painfully expensive (I can provide gory details of seemingly brilliant marketing campaigns that failed to provide even a single new student). Are the martial arts for you? Basically, if you can walk, you can practice the martial arts. We have all seen slow graceful movements of morning Tai Chi practitioners in Chinese parks. Most of these folks seem to be of retirement age, or older, and many only started practicing in the last decade or so. One of my newer students began karate practice after nearly 40 years of government service. This individual in his mid-60s quickly adapted to our practice and became one of our regular class members, and younger students now often ask him for karate assistance as well as life guidance. Robert H. Curtis served as a Foreign Agricultural Service officer in Washington, D.C., Buenos Aires, Santiago, Milan and Vienna. Travel with a Purpose By Wi l l i am McPherson W hen I went through the retirement seminar at the end of my Foreign Service career, I learned a lot about taxes and estates and all of the other formalities of retiring. But the thing that stuck with me most is when the instructor asked us during one session to list three things that we would be doing after retirement. This got me thinking about what I was really interested in. I thought about travel, of course, and possible use of my experience in some academic setting. What worked out best for me, however, was the following: • Volunteer Work. In the Foreign Service, I had become interested in the use of technology in the State Department and, in fact, had a short Foreign Service Institute assignment on the use of personal computers in diplomacy. After retiring, I found volunteer work with SeniorNet, a nationwide com- puter instruction service for seniors. I am now working with the Seattle Mayor’s Office for Senior Citizens on their “Seniors Training Seniors” computer program. • Part-time Conference Reporting. I am not a good tour- ist, but I did enjoy travel with a purpose: reporting on more than 25 environmental conferences around the world for Earth Negotiations Bulletin. This kept me current with international negotiations on the environment, particularly climate change. • Writing . It is perhaps a cliché that we are all writers, but I did put my writing experience to work to publish three books on climate change. (They have been listed in “In Their Own Write” in The Foreign Service Journal .) I found the experience of writing to be a very satisfying activity, made much better with the availability of the Internet for research. It is also an opening wedge for entrée to the academic world, where I have been able to participate in seminars. William R. McPherson spent 21 years in the Foreign Service, serving in Japan, Korea, the Philippines and Switzerland, among other locations. In retirement he has worked on international environ- mental issues, and is an activist working with the Sierra Club on climate change and coal exports.