January 1, 2013

Dear Friends:

Happy New Year! I hope your 2012 was a great one and that your New Year will be all you want it to be.

Do you have a feeling that 2013 will be a year of change, perhaps, profound change? Me too. Ban Pen Fu Gyo.

I am a little surprised by how many people have contacted me over the last couple of weeks asking about my yearly message. I wrote quite a bit in 2012; I really thought that I may have said enough. If you missed any of the blogs, stories or interviews, here are links to them:

• The ethical warrior (Part XVI): What's in a name? by Jack Hoban and Bruce Gourlie, December 2012 PoliceOne.com
• Jack Hoban November 2012 Newsmax interview.
• The path to becoming an "Ethical Warrior." by Jack Hoban and Joe Shusko, November 2012 Military1.com
• The ethical warrior (Part XV): What is a warrior? by Jack Hoban and Bruce Gourlie, September 2012 PoliceOne.com
• Jack Hoban on "Frontlines of Freedom".
• Press release for Jack Hoban's new book, "The Ethical Warrior."
• The ethical warrior (Part XIV): Where philosophy and reality collide. by Jack Hoban and Bruce Gourlie, August 2012 PoliceOne.com
• The Ethical Warrior and the Combat Mindset by Jack Hoban and Joe Shusko, May 2012 Marine Corps Gazette
• Doug Wyllie of PoliceOne.com interviews Jack Hoban on "The Ethical Warrior."
• The ethical warrior (Part XIII): What We Have Learned. by Jack Hoban and Bruce Gourlie, April 2012 PoliceOne.com
• The ethical warrior (Part XII): De-humanization and PTSD. by Jack Hoban and Bruce Gourlie, March 2012 PoliceOne.com

In addition to the above, I even wrote a new book. For years people have asked if I was going to have "Ninpo: Living and Thinking as a Warrior" reprinted. The answer is, "probably not." That was then; this is now. My thinking has evolved quite a bit in the years since the "Ninja Boom." I am more interested in what comes next than what I thought then. The new book is called "The Ethical Warrior," and you can get more info here or on Amazon.com; it's even available for Kindle.

I've stalled enough, so here is my 2013 blog. Ready?

2012 was an extremely eventful year. Besides all the writing, it was my busiest year ever for training and traveling. Check this out:

To paraphrase Dan Fogelberg, "The training was heavenly; the travelling was hell."

Two very significant yearly training events are the Buyῡ (Warrior Friends) Camps east and west. Our group enjoyed a fifteenth Buyῡ Camp West in San Francisco under the Golden Gate Bridge on the Pacific Ocean. As has become custom, the event is in honor of Mark Hodel.

We enjoyed a ninth Buyῡ Camp East in New Jersey.