I want to apologize to the longtimers for the crap that spilled onto your forum. Apparently some of the TOAS students think I was taking potshots at Safakhoo, which I wasn't doing, even if they perceived it as such. Gregs post really kind of shook me up a bit. I've never had anyone go at me like that before, unless it was for racial reasons, which I don't think was the case here.
Because of the african american/japanese thing, and the fact that my formative years were in the '50s and '60s, I have a tendency to avoid people altogether I have the utmost respect for Safakhoo. Even if I didn't agree 100% w/ everything he said or did, I could always accept his reasons. One of the things that attracted me to his school in the first place was the fact that it didn't have the cult like feel some of the other schools had. He would regularly ask my opinion on various topics, and he's eaten at my house on a handful of occasions, and I felt the respect was mutual.
In case anyone is interested in the details of why I left, the story is as follows.
He'd gotten fed up w/ the performance of his "advanced" students, and wanted to start over. We were all given the option of spending more time there or leaving. I was never interested in treating it as more than a hobby and wasn't really learning anything new in the last few years anyhow, and was really only still there out of a sense of obligation, so I opted to leave. I have to respect the man for coming to the realization that the students weren't on track, and that a different approach needed to be taken. There was never any animosity on my part, as I saw the ultimatum as a way to get out w/o just abandoning him. Plus I was interested in learning something different.
BTW my wife says "Gregs mom is a liar, and that he is a coward, and that if he wants to spread inflammatory remarks about someone he needs to be a man about it and use his own name." Really, her words not mine.
Sorry for the last part, but I've long ago learned to do what I'm told.
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