Bruce Lee: 'Under the sky, under the heavens, there is but one family.'

Remembering Bruce Lee on the 50th Anniversary of his death

Each year when July 20 comes around, I remember three things:

Bruce Lee died in 1973;
Man landed on the moon in 1969;
It's Rudy Jandoc's birthday.

I tell my kids my three heroes were born days apart in 1940:

John Lennon, October 9;
Bruce Lee, November 27;
my father, December 2.

The intersections:

My dad took me to watch "Enter The Dragon" on the big screen. Per Wikipedia, the film was released August 19, 1973 in the USA. I'm guessing we watched after my sixth birthday. It was the first father-son outing (just my dad and me) that I remember. I was mesmerized while watching. I wanted to be Bruce Lee.
Before we moved to the USA, we had a dog named Ringo. Yes, The Beatles and John Lennon's drummer.

Bruce Lee Statue

The 7-foot bronze sculpture of Bruce Lee was created by an unknown artist in Guangzhou, China. It was transported to Los Angeles, California after a five-year effort by Lee's daughter Shannon, and is the only statue of her late father in the United States. Its unveiling occurred on June 15, 2013.

I had watched the first two seasons of WARRIOR, and had been awaiting the third season. On July 20, a few days ago, I checked Cinemax on my Fire TV. Lo and behold, Warrior already had released six episodes of Season 3. I've been 'out of it' to say the least.

After watching the Season 2 recap at the beginning of Season 3, I realized I had forgotten the storyline. Episode 10, the final episode of Season 2, came out on December 4, 2020. It's been 2.5 years. I needed a refresher.

I watched the last episode of Season 2 yesterday. I was foggy on some things so I decided to rewatch all of Season 2 again. I was in the middle of Episode 2, when I fell asleep.

I was watering my persimmon, pear and fruit trees in the backyard when Glenn sent me the YouTube video below.

Honoring Bruce Lee - CBS Sunday Morning

The martial artist, actor, writer, and civil rights leader Bruce Lee broke barriers and bridged cultures. Half-a-century after his tragic death at 32, Lee is still teaching lessons of power and peace. Correspondent Jonathan Vigliotti talks with Bruce's daughter, "Warrior" executive producer Shannon Lee, about her father's legacy; and with "Fast & Furious" director Justin Lin about the inspiration the "Enter the Dragon" star continues to provide 50 years later.

I started collecting Bruce Lee books in the summer after 8th grade, when I started taking martial arts. My sister and I went to West Wind on Tennessee St and took up 'Bok Fu.'

So I pretty much know by heart everything discussed in Shannon Lee's interview. The one thing of which I was glad to be reminded was that Bruce Lee's statue was in Los Angeles' Chinatown! How could I have forgotten and not visited when I was in LA a few times late last year. Next time for sure.

Bruce Lee: 'Under the sky, under the heavens, there is but one family.'

I do believe in 'one love." That's the similarity I see in John Lennon and Bruce Lee. John Lennon, a white man, married an Asian woman, Yoko Ono. Bruce Lee, an Asian man, married a white woman, Linda Emery.

"We're one world, one people, like it or not! We can pretend we're divided into races and countries but the reality is it's one world." -- John Lennon

As much as Bruce Lee believed in 'one love' he had to go back to his roots in Hong Kong to finally realize his dreams and goals. America was still too racist to give Bruce his shot as the leading man in a Hollywood film or even a TV show.

I loved watching the TV series 'Kung Fu' starring David Carradine as a kid. Of course, I found out later that the show originated from Bruce Lee's ideas and writings. But white Hollywood cast a white actor as the Chinese leading man!

That's why I'm so happy that Warrior is executive produced by Bruce Lee' daughter, Shannon.

I highly recommend 'Warrior'

'Warrior' and 'Kung Fu' are similar in that both are set in the 1870's. Whereas Kung Fu was set in the American Old West or Wild West, 'Warrior' is set in San Francisco, a city where I lived for three years.

Andrew Koji, as Ah Sahm, is terrific. Like Kwai Chang Caine in Kung Fu, Ah Sahm does not use a gun -- only his deadly hands and feet and martial arts skills.

Warrior is set during the Tong Wars of the 1870's where there was a lot of conflict and competition between rival tongs or Chinese 'organizations.' Of course, the Chinese (and any minority) faced racism, hate and violence from white America. Sound familiar?

'One love' is great in theory. But not everyone practices it.

The writing and cast are great. Give it a watch.

Hey Glenn!

Interestingly, I was looking over the authorized authors for this site this morning. I haven't removed your permission as I have others'. I'm still hoping you'd post a travel photo or two from time to time. Just set up 'posting by email.' It's that easy.

How would you like to be an admin of the Pinoy Built Facebook Page. Instead of sending me a YouTube link via Messenger, just post as Pinoy Built.

Ideally, one would post here on the site and. that automatically gets auto-posted to the Facebook Page. You may have noticed I do not post photos on Facebook like I used to. That's because I want friends and family to visit this site instead so that Pinoybuilt makes money off the activity and Google Ads, not just Facebook.

But I know everyone is so hooked on Facebook because it's easy. So I'm open to adding admins for the page to drive activity and to grow the community.

An invitation to all friends and family

I have an open invitation to all my friends and family whether you're in California, Hawaii, Canada, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Australia, etc. to join pinoybuilt as a contributor. I have a sub-site for each one.

You do not have to be a 'writer.' You can photo blog -- just post a photo as you would on Instagram or Facebook, with a one-word title even.

If you prefer not to share your photo, then consider joining as a commenter. The only requirement is a Disqus account. The latest comments can be viewed here.

Update

I've just confirmed that comments do now show on the mobile version of the site. Therefore, you will not see comments if you're browsing the site with your smartphone. The workaround is to view the desktop site on your smartphone.

You can also go to https://disqus.com/home/forum/pinoybuilt-com/ to view the latest comments on pinoybuilt.com.