Waxing on bodybuilding

This is my edited adaptation of an original post by "Sully" (veteran natural bodybuilder Sean Sullivan) on the OCB bodybuilding discussion forum. Thanks Sully, for putting your thoughts down so well.
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Bodybuilding is not really a sport nor an artform, although the latter comes closer. Bodybuilding is a discipline, like the martial arts. When practiced in their true form, these disciplines are a beautiful way of life, and create a better understanding and spirituality for the student. True mastery takes a lifetime, and there are few masters. When the martial arts are practiced for the wrong reasons or in the wrong way, the results are not good to the practitioner.

Bodybuilding is not about the competition, awards or titles. The stage is only a venue where we go to celebrate our accomplishments together. This is why, no matter how small, there will always be an outlet for those who wish to display what they have accomplished. Male or female, no matter what the criteria, it will prevail, no matter how small the numbers get.

I hear people talk about bodybuilding's identity crisis, but bodybuilding has never really had an identity beyond what the individuals practicing it make it out to be at that particular point in time. If bodybuilding really had its own identity it would be unchanged for the most part, like baseball or track events, and far more accepted. Now physical culture, care of the body, health and exercise are universally accepted, and that is what bodybuilding really is. Shaving, tanning, oiling up and parading around wearing less material then a dinner napkin is not what bodybuilding really is. When you think about it, bodybuilding has been around from the times of Greece and the Roman empire. Exercise to develop a physical ideal is a thought process that has endured for thousands of years, and it will continue to endure for thousands more. For those who practice bodybuilding for the wrong reasons - those little, insecure, over-pumped, drug-induced, skitzo-looser types that never got enough attention from momma and who feel bodybuilding is a excuse to rush to a early grave...they will not make it. Those who practice the art form of bodybuilding - the Drapers, Zanes, Pearls and yes, Arnold - they will assure bodybuilding's longevity.

I will continue to practice the discipline of bodybuilding and use it as my way of life. I train therefore I am.
As for the rest of the sport... Ronnie, Lenda and the IFBB can continue their downward spirial to hell if they want; that has no bearing on true bodybuilding. Our way of life as a sport will continue with or without them. So rest assured, the sport aspect of bodybuilding will continue.