The post February Vacation Day Camp appeared first on Centerpoint Martial Arts.

The stakes for at-risk kids were high then (and high now), and so were the costs to society if they fail.  High School dropouts are far more likely to end up incarcerated, costing up to $100,000 (in 2007 dollars) per adjudication and perpetuating a cycle of poverty into the future.

So, Hester and I designed and ran a program called the Leadership and Resiliency Program.  It provided cultural and artistic activities, community service projects and, wait for it…martial arts classes.  The goal:  reduce dropout rates in three Southern Maine Counties by partnering with alternative education programs in four different high schools.  It worked. I still run into some of the students we worked with over the course of seven years.  They’re not always living as well as we had hoped, but they graduated high school, and a few of them went on to exceed our expectations and their own.

I was reminded of this when I did a document search recently.  I searched for “martial arts” and “resilience” and discovered some interesting articles in the National Institutes of Health Archives.  Several hundred articles came up, I picked a few that seemed interesting and relevant and read them with interest.  There’s clearly something unique about martial arts, in terms of its impact on resilience, its effectiveness at reducing bullying and other social health and wellness impacts.  There were also a lot of articles on the impact of creative arts on resilience as well.

These kind of database searches were much harder to do when Hester and I were working “in the field” nearly two decades ago. I recognize that there’s so much research out there that it’s relatively easy to find data to support any correlations that you want to make.  Still, it’s interesting to see that martial arts (and creative arts) have measurable, data-driven support at a very high level.  My work in resiliency is definitely a huge factor in how we run Centerpoint today, with its emphasis on martial arts and creative arts as catalysts of lifelong growth, success and achievement.

Community building is the third pillar of resiliency and this where things are getting truly interesting.  Connection to the people, institutions and traditions of our communities is key to an individual’s success.  At risk folks tend to be isolated, and creating community connections was a big part of our work all those years ago.  Community is growing at Centerpoint as well, and is doing so organically, in ways I had neither researched nor designed, nor even guessed at.  It’s in the Demo Team that Nolan is building, and the way that Camille and Ethan genuinely love spending time with the kids.  It’s in the extra time Alexandra is putting in to plan and execute better classes, and how Evan took the time to help Isis and Austin test for their Black Belts.  Older kids help the younger ones tie their belts and fold their uniforms, and parents dropped off cookies before the holidays.  I don’t know how you’d quantify something this organic, so I don’t know that we’ll be seeing data on any of these things in the National Institute of Health Database.  Still, I’m grateful that the work that I began so many years ago is continuing in such a unique and precious way.

The post Martial Arts and Resiliency appeared first on Centerpoint Martial Arts.

I discovered Viktor Frankl on the eve of my daughter’s Bat Mitzvah.  “Man’s Search for Meaning” was published following Professor Frankl’s internment in several Nazi concentration camps, including Theresienstadt and Auschwitz.  A dog-eared copy was in the bookshelf of the cabin we were staying at out on Peak’s Island, out in the middle of Portland’s Harbor. I found myself engrossed.  “It’s so very like you to be reading about the Holocaust right now,” was all my wife could say. I saw her point; I can be gloomy on the brightest of days.  I tried to explain that I was reading about what Frankl discovered in himself and the others who lived, about the unquenchable power of purpose.  “It’s totally appropriate for this moment, what fills the world with purpose more than love?” My wife looked at me, and then up at the heavens. “That’s my Dad,” was all my daughter said, kissing the top of my head.

‘Who are you when you have nothing except your own existence?’ is the question Frankl asked me as I sat reading on a sunny porch, my daughter trying on dresses in the next room.  When everything that defines you from the outside has been lost, how do you find the strength to live through the worst of times? I sipped my coffee. His answer is deeply challenging:  You still have the freedom to choose to make your life matter.  Professor Frankl noticed that survivors always knew that their lives had meaning and purpose, and that truth alone was more powerful than the forces cleaving their lives into pieces. Inspiring, particularly when sitting in an easy chair.

Man’s Search for Meaning inspired me for years.  I thought about it during the toughest of times, and it really helped.  Horrible as it sounds to say out loud, I am not totally satisfied by this idea the way I used to be. This has nothing to do with Frankl, who remains a hero of mine to this day.  Finding the courage to live through the Holocaust absolves him of the need to do anything further in my eyes.  My dissatisfaction with Frankl’s tenet is in response to how the idea of purpose has been reduced to a meme.  Choose to make your life mean something, and all will be well. If you’re suffering, it’s because you’re not thinking about your life the right way, you made the wrong choices, do the work, buttercup.

Another question began to trouble me: Do we have to suffer in order to create meaning in our lives?  Suffering certainly seems unavoidable.  If so, how much is enough? The Old Testament answer to suffering was to accept it completely.  When Job lost everything, he threw himself on the ground and worshipped.  His faith unshakeable, his flocks were restored, and he raised a new family, more beautiful than his first.  Job’s grief and anguish were extinguished in the light of a new beginning.  Would it were that easy.

The years went by.  I’ve been through open heart surgery, the pain of watching my daughter struggle with adolescence, the gradual disappearance that comes from aging and many other difficulties, personal, familial, financial. I’m going through a tough time right now, not comparable to Victor Frankl’s or Job’s of course, but not easy.  I do my best to create a narrative that this difficult time has a purpose, that I am learning from this time, that things will work out (even if they don’t, if you get my meaning), that there is a reason beyond my own physical fragility and intellectual limitations, that purpose and faith will get me through. However, that no longer feels like enough to me, negativity and purposeless suffering being out of fashion in America right now.  If it seems like you are required to make create meaning, that you have to find a purpose in everything, are you still making a choice?

Fortunately, chance placed another writer in my path. Chris Wiman writes, “One grows so tired, in American public life, of the certitudes and platitudes, the megaphone mouths and stadium praise, influencers and effluencers and the whole tsunami of slop that comes pouring into our lives like toxic sludge.”  In one sentence, Prof. Wiman skewers the meme-ified positivity that has permeated American pop culture, and he doesn’t stop there.

In an age where we seem required to make everything mean something, and something wonderful to boot, here’s someone who gives us the strength to simply accept that suffering exists, we’re going to get a chunk of it, and we are not always going to be able to place an inspirational soundtrack behind it.  A divinity scholar and minister, Prof. Wiman was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer in his early 30’s. Wiman’s description of his pain is utterly shocking, intimate, and at the same time, gently powerful.  His pain is so profound that it completely obliterates all other thoughts or ideas or narratives, it wipes his consciousness of everything except the pain itself. The pain exists whether he accepts it or not, whether he creates a sense of purpose around it or not.  For Wiman, acceptance precedes purpose, but what you are accepting is the utter impossibility, the impenetrability of what it means to be alive.

I find this idea completely liberating.  I am alive whether I accept that or not, whether I understand that or not whether I find a purpose or a meaning.  Freed from the requirement to create meaning, I can just accept my life. Paradoxically, that is what allows me to give my life purpose.  Things don’t have to be lessons or metaphors, or part of an over-arching plot line of meaning and purpose and unflagging positivity.  Life alone is enough.

The post Suffering, Meaning and Acceptance appeared first on Centerpoint Martial Arts.

Looking for a new and unique way to celebrate your child’s next birthday? Sit back and relax as the kids play games – or join the fun! We take care of everything, from cake cutting to clean up. See how much fun a birthday can be!
Learn about Centerpoint birthdays >

The post Black Friday Custom Birthday Party Sale appeared first on Centerpoint Martial Arts.

Save 10% on Centerpoint’s Summer Day Camps 2024
(our last camp sale!)

Field trips, art projects, life skills, friends, and of course, martial arts!

The post Black Friday | Cyber Monday Camp Sale appeared first on Centerpoint Martial Arts.

An afternoon out to finish holiday preparations for you (or a date, or a nap…), and a chance for kids to have fun and show you some love. They’ll make presents for you and their family, have a little hot chocolate, and some fun with friends!

The post Presents for Parents – Parent Day Out appeared first on Centerpoint Martial Arts.

It’s the PNO for the PTO! Come join us for an evening of games, martial arts and life skills in support of a great cause. Proceeds go toward the Falmouth Elementary School’s Parent Teachers Organization.

The post The PNO for the PTO appeared first on Centerpoint Martial Arts.

How many pennies can you stack on your face? How fast can you push a potato with your nose? Can you write legibly while you are blindfolded? Can you play Jenga with your feet? We will be answering these and other important questions at November’s “Parents Night Out”!

The post Minute to Win It! Parents Night Out appeared first on Centerpoint Martial Arts.

School may be closed but Centerpoint is Open!  We have set up a wonderful little day camp on Tuesday, the 7th for Falmouth Families looking for a great full day option for their kids.

The post Falmouth Parent-Teacher Conference Camp Nov.7 appeared first on Centerpoint Martial Arts.

We take this time to show appreciation for those who serve. We’re going to create and mail “thank-you” cards to the Maine Veteran’s Home in Augusta, along with our usual daily routine: martial arts, live skills and other hijinx!

The post Veteran’s Day Camp appeared first on Centerpoint Martial Arts.