As I write this, the news is still relatively fresh regarding the death of actor David Carradine.  I won’t discuss all of the alleged sordid details surrounding his death.  Those kinds of details are not what Boomerocity is about.  Besides, according to the press, the exact circumstances of his death haven’t been determined as of this writing.

I know to most people today, he’s remembered as “Bill” from the hit movie, “Kill Bill”.  I’m one of the four people on this planet who hasn’t seen that movie.  Others may remember him from the recent TV advertisements about a phone book.  I and many other Baby Boomers will always know Mr. Carradine as “Caine” from the 70’s TV show, “Kung Fu”.  In playing the character of “Caine”, Carradine presented an understated uber-coolness that taught teens some pretty darn good lessons. 

For instance, “Caine” was highly skilled in the martial arts.  However, he took these words from one of his mentors, Master Kan, to heart and lived them:  “Avoid, rather than check.  Check, rather than hurt.  Hurt, rather than maim.  Maim, rather than kill.  For all life is precious, nor can any be replaced.”

Caine demonstrated those words by using his Kung Fu skills as the last resort.  I don’t know about you, but when I was a teen watching that show, I was thinking, “Dude!  If I knew Kung Fu like you, I would be kicking some major butt!”  However, Caine’s inner-calm allowed him to take a lot before he ever used his martial arts skills.

One of the games that the show inspired came from one of the most famous lines from that show.  Caine’s mentor, Master Po, would tell him, “Take the pebble from my hand.”   Guys around my high school campus would try to do what took Caine a season or two to master and that was to snatch a pebble from the middle of the other guy’s open hand.  It’s actually pretty simple once you know the trick. 

I don’t know how that skill relates to being ready for the grown up world but it makes for a cool trick to try at the next party that you attend.

I really don’t know why Carradine, or any anyone else for that matter, leaves this life way too early.  I guess the answer to that question is, paradoxically, given by Caine: “I seek not to know the answers, but to understand the questions.”

Questions.  Lots of questions.  I suppose what he was referring to is to know which question or questions to ask and why.  I believe that the key questions are the ones mankind has asked ever since the apple was chomped on in the garden:  Who am I and why am I here?

Boomers like us evaluate our lives by reflecting on variations of those questions.  We often will do so at the risk of living in the past or failing to learn from it.  This reminds me of another exchange between Caine and Master Po, in which Caine asks him, “Is it good to seek the past, Master Po?  Does it not rob the present?”  Master Po replies, “If a man dwells on the past, then he robs the present.  But if a man ignores the past, he may rob the future.  The seeds of our destiny are nurtured by the roots of our past.”

As I allude to in the introductory article on this site, we can’t live in the past but we sure as heck better learn from it or, as has been often quoted, we’ll be doomed to repeat it.

Why did Carradine have to die now?  I don’t know.  I’m still trying to understand the question.  Maybe had to do with the rest of the “pebble” quote from Master Po:  “When you can take the pebble from my hand, it will be time for you to leave.”