Do you ever ask yourself "why?"

[Shane Smith]

John's excellent essay concerning "what" he does for a living got me thinking. The question that I hear from others outside of the HES arts most commonly is "why".

Thats an interesting question. I have finally sifted through my reasonings and arrived at the primary motivators for me. Coming from an Asian MA background,I was just never satisfied with the feeling that I was involved in an activity foreign to my own Western European culture and heritage.It just seemed that I was trying to imitate an alien culture,and that, because my own lacked the historically validated combat effective system I was searching for,or so I thought. When I stumbled into the guys at ARMA VAB while searching for info on Kumdo on another forum,I was stunned that there WAS Something to be learned and that it was every bit as rich in depth as the Asian systems I had until that moment devoted myself to. What a revelation! I had found the answer.

The realization that I am re-discovering and gaining competency in the very arts by which my fathers fought and died all across the battlefields and back-alleys of Europe, both appeals to my sense of martial practicality, as well as my sense of nostalgia for a bygone era.That's my "why",whats your's?

[david welch]

Hi, Shane.

My reasoning is almost the same as yours. I was very interested in the geneology of my family, and found a couple of lines that went _way_ back. When I found some of my ancesters were at Acre, I started doing research on how they would have lived and fought, and wound up here. The funny thing is, after working on WMA for just a little while, it seem like I KNOW them. No amount of money could replace that.

Thanks,
David

[Craig Peters]

A good question. Like so many other people, my first introduction to this sort of thing was through the SCA. Although I never joined the SCA, my friends and I created a bunch of weapons for the purpose of "combat".

When I was directed to the ARMA webpage, I was excited to learn about real fencing and combat. My reason "why" is probably similar to many other people's reason; when I was younger, I really liked knights, the Middle Ages, castles, and of course, weapons and armour. As I have grown older, I still like these things, though I find in particular that the swords and methods of fighting interest me most. After discovering the ARMA, it seemed only natural to join up and begin learning about our lost martial heritage.

[Mike Cartier]

I know that for many years i never even considered western weaponry arts of any worth, which was a shame for me.

Now I can make up for this lack of respect for the those arts by fashioning myself into a swordsman to perhaps begin to display some small measure of the skill our ancestors had . To be able to display that skill is the goal i think, so that others too will know the truth of it.
My ancestors fought as far back as the War of the Roses, going backwards into my family history it became obvious to me i was perhaps the one of the few in my family lineage to have not marched of to some great war somewhere.
This I think is our way of connecting to them.