I miss class

I missed three classes with my injury. It felt like a year had gone by. In the time I was gone, one greenie got his stripe and head sensei had been asked to do a demo at a school, something that we haven't done in years. So he and Verizon guy left as I came in, we chatted a bit, and that was that. I spent the class working 10 bo wazas with Tank, who had just gotten his stripe on his green belt too. Like everything in the adult ranks, he learned it in about a minute because head sensei forgot to teach him. So, we spent time going over the first 4 wazas. It was PAINFUL! I discovered I couldn't do any stance comfortably, but it felt good to move around. The Benevolent Matriarch/Dictator shared her discomfort with her new judo top, which is not female-shape friendly in any way. I remember when Verizon guy got his, thinking the stitching made it look like a bounty paper towel. Now I have it and, although it is sturdy, it drives me nuts. She and aiki sensei were also talking about how bad the kids have gotten over the past year. Thank god it's not just me!

So I have a hip sprain. I can't do aiki or kicks for at least 3 weeks. Although it's not so bad, it sucks. I'll see what I can do for sword when I go on Sunday.

Hurt pride, hurt pocketbook, hurt hip

I have had a rough couple of weeks. I am completely out of money, which means I no longer can go to classes until I land a job. Not that I could, anyway- I hurt my hip. I was doing nijushiho and I turned really hard out of a stance while leaving my feet planted, and I hear a pop. My hip went out of joint. I tried to limp through sword class afterward but to no avail. Now, I am biding my time until I can get into the chiropractor. This absence and lack of cash has left me depressed. I hardly have ambition to keep going now. Luckily, I have midterms this week- studying keeps me busy.

This weekend, Prince Valiant is testing for blackbelt. I find it funny that he is apparently so confident that he's only shown up to every other class for the past month. I'm sure he'll pass- if brown belt boy passed his test taking 30 minutes on his oral vocab section and hurting three ukes (one so bad, he was crying), then I'm sure he'll pass too. He's another I don't see continuing much longer after blackbelt.

I miss a lot of people. I haven't seen the T's or Peanut for almost two months. They probably all quit- got busy, lost interest, you name it. I miss Applebee's kid, the guy who looks like Matt Hardy (yes, I used a wrestling reference-so sue me. He was a dead ringer), and (I dare say) Nerdverd. None of these people I know well, but I miss them. If this time away teaches me anything, I guess it's that I need a life outside all of this.

I'm thinking about writing a letter to these people and to my teachers. I know I could never repay them (especially monetarily) for what they've given me. If I didn't get into martial arts, I'd probably be more depressed than I am now. What was that saying my Japanese teacher told me? "Even if the world should end tomorrow, I plant apple trees today."

The Traditional Value of "Me First"

Little kids need to be spanked. I think that would sound inspiring if written in Japanese on a scroll for Japanophile dorks to hang up. It's certainly not a Zen quote, but it illustrates my point. It's that wonderful time of year where many kids get promoted and a) get distracted by the 100 other events in their social calendar b) rub their new belt into our faces, even if we don't care. One former greenie, now a purple people eater, can't go 5 minutes without mentioning one needs this for purple belt, or telling the others below him (one of them his older brother) you're not as good as me. I resist the urge to give him an advanced rank initiation bitch slap and hope he sticks his own size 5 foot into his mouth. We already have done 200 penalty push-ups, but what good are those if kids cheat push-up anyway? But I digress. I want to talk about the "me first" group of kids for a moment.

It used to be a long time ago there were no colored belts. There were no ranks (at least, not ones conferred on by the military or by birthright). It used to be that you would meet your enemy on the battlefield, not knowing if that person was a natural killer or bumbling farmer, and you'd take your chances. You wouldn't dare make assumptions on the person's worth (you'd have no time to, anyway), and if you did you were dead. Safer to assume you could be killed by this person, so you do your best to live. Say what you will about the traditions of battle having no place in today's world, but here's one I think we should keep- mutual respect.

Fast forward to now. If you're an orange belt, you're a doo-doo head. If you're only a purple belt, you are eh, maybe okay. If you're a black belt, hey, you know everything. Sound ridiculous, doesn't it? Let's set blackbelts aside a moment. To even comment that rank determines how you should talk to a person is arrogance at best, at worst a direct result of how this generation of karate students have become a "me first" and "other people's feelings whenever" generation. I blame, not TV, video games, or even celebrities (although all three do a good job of throwing water on the grease fire), but parents, who only associate a kid's worth in karate by how fast he/she gets blackbelt. "What's an orange belt?" they say, "I can't brag to my friends about that." And it becomes all about them and "when is my kid getting the next belt up. Hurry, hurry, so he/she makes it to blackbelt before he/she gets bored!". And, naturally, kids pick up on this behavior.

So what we end up with is a purple people eater telling his still-greenie older brother that "I know that, duh! I'm a purple belt now!" Disgusting, isn't it?