One of the great lessons in life is:
The hit you don’t see coming is the one that hurts.
In my youth I had flirtations with martial arts training. When I was studying Engineering I finally knew where I’d be for four years, so when I began training in the university karate club I could get serious.
And get serious I got. I trained in GoJu Karate for 10 years, learning to fight, to compete, and learning that the expression “Karate is training for life” is true.
I learned far more about living real life in those classes than I did about fighting. I haven’t needed to scuffle for a very long time, although I have also noticed that simply knowing how to fight is a powerful tool in not needing to fight. Bullies can smell a victim, and 4th degree black belts don’t smell like victims.
One of the things we learned in full contact is that it’s the hit you don’t see coming that hurts so contact (boxing, kickboxing, whatever) is about setting your opponent up to hit him where he isn’t looking.
It’s not confined to fighting; football, hockey, (any contact sport) will teach you it’s the blindside hit that gets you.
Saturday night, I took an emotional blind side hit. I was completely unprepared for it, and I’ve been wobbling ever since. Yesterday I even about trying to keep the top spinning, because as long as the top is spinning, it won’t fall over.
I’m doing the things I need to do to keep the top spinning. As I talk about here, sometimes you have to go through the motions.
I continue to wobble, but I’m going through the motions, hoping to get through.
