Before receiving his MBA from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Dr. Paul Bolger studied for his MD at the Emory University School of Medicine. He now serves as an attending emergency physician at UnityPoint Health Trinity Medical Center in Rock Island, Illinois, and owns and operates Medical Aesthetics and Wellness Center in Davenport, Iowa. Dr. Paul Bolger counts the martial arts, which he studied for 20 years, among his varied pastimes.
In the martial arts, the color of a practitioner’s sash or belt identifies his or her standing in the discipline’s hierarchy. White, yellow, and orange belts identify beginners; green, blue, red, and brown signify intermediate practitioners; and black indicates an advanced level of achievement in the martial arts.
Like a seed under the snow, white represents beginnings. Yellow symbolizes the first rays of sunlight giving the seed the strength to grow. Progressing onward, orange signifies the advanced power of the sun, while green represents the sprouting of the seed.
Blue symbolizes the sky toward which the new plant stretches, and brown the maturing plant approaching harvest. Red is the final stage of the hot sun, now much closer to the plant than before. Finally, the black sash of the advanced martial artist is indicative of the darkness beyond the sun, symbolic of the pursuit of higher knowledge.
