Today Is World Martial Arts Day
Ettore Palazzo, MD, FACP, pictured above with his son, Luca Palazzo and their jiu-jitsu instructor, Korbett Miller
Today is World Martial Arts Day, commemorating the birth of martial artist and actor Bruce Lee. Born in San Francisco in 1940, Lee returned with his parents to China the following year. His family filed for a Return Certificate on his behalf, documenting his birth and American citizenship. Lee tragically passed away in 1973, but his legacy continues to inspire.
Growing up in the 1970s, I was always intrigued by martial arts. However, my father, an immigrant from Southern Italy, was more interested in his son playing soccer than learning Kung Fu, so my exposure to martial arts had to wait until adulthood. Fast forward several decades, and I found myself experiencing martial arts vicariously through my children after enrolling them in a local Martial Arts Academy. Little did I know that their Sibok (Kung Fu instructor) had a direct connection to Bruce Lee's martial arts lineage. Their instructor, Korbett Miller, was a student of James DeMile, one of Bruce Lee's earliest martial arts students in Seattle during the 1960s.
After many years of watching my children train, Sibok Korbett encouraged me to join them on the mat, and thus began my own martial arts journey. Now, as a blue belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, I've come to appreciate how much of what I've learned on the mat translates to the work I do every day in healthcare. Bruce Lee famously said, "I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times." This resonates deeply with the principles of our High Reliability Organization (HRO) philosophy at EvergreenHealth. The quote reflects the HRO traits of preoccupation with failure and preoccupation with success – both cornerstones of EvergreenHealth's commitment to delivering high-quality, safe healthcare.
Like martial arts, healthcare delivery requires discipline, respect, humility, focus, and resilience. Whether you provide care at the bedside or support those who do, every day and night you demonstrate an unwavering commitment to our patients, our community, and one another.
I hope you'll join me this week in remembering the late, great Bruce Lee – a cultural icon and a bridge between Eastern and Western cultures during a pivotal moment in history.
