“Life before death, strength before weakness, journey before destination.”
These are lessons learned in Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archives. Today, I want to focus on the journey part. I recently had the opportunity to rediscover everything stored in my closet, as the sagging support for the clothes bar gave out, dumping my clothes onto the floor early on April Fool’s morning. As I pulled everything out, I found my collection of karate belts, representing my first ten years studying martial arts.
I realize it’s hard to tell in this photo that about half the belts are split colors – there aren’t two orange belts side-by-side; there’s a yellow & orange belt between the yellow and the orange belts. That’s easier to notice on the red and blue belt, since the shade of blue is different from the solid blue next to it.
In a rare case of social media being helpful, I am frequently reminded of my martial arts journey on my Facebook account. Just opening the application, I’m likely to see a post by one of many friends I’ve made at various karate events, and Facebook’s reminders of photos shared on any particular day in the past frequently showcase a past test, tournament, or other time on the mat. Even the photo above reminders me of karate friendships; the snow leopard blanket (essential for protecting my sleeping feet from a ferocious toe-biting cat) was a gift from one of those friends.
Karate has never been about the destination for me; that suggests that at some point it will finish. Instead, it’s an ongoing journey filled with friendships that last a lifetime.
For most of us, the world has shifted immensely in the last week. More people than ever are suddenly working from home, and parents who never considered homeschooling are finding themselves with children underfoot and educators scrambling to produce online lessons.
The initial wave of panic shopping should be done, I hope, allowing grocery stores to return to the new normal – encouraging social distancing as people move through restocked stores. And the kindness may continue… people offering to go shopping for anybody in the neighborhood that can’t or aren’t comfortable going at the moment, photos of goods in a front yard saying “take what you need,” relatives dropping of food for family members in the vulnerable groups. Whether they’re technically related or not, these are the families that hold our neighborhoods together.
Our karate family is similar. Classes are either cancelled are reduced in size at the moment, so karate schools are turning to technology to make sure people stay active and keep training. Many of the schools are streaming classes through Facebook Live, and opening them up to everybody instead of just their students. That is how I attended a local class online on Tuesday, part of a class at Legacy Martial Arts in Pennsylvania last night (I had a meeting rune late), and am prepping for a kickboxing class at Double Dragon Tang Soo Do in Michigan tonight.
Stay active, stay upbeat, and if you’re able, take a moment to help somebody during this mess.
Sometimes it’s fun to blend my hobbies. Over the years, I’ve crocheted assorted images into pillows or towels, and even coasters with Space Invaders aliens. You can see some of them here. Some of the fandom-related items have appeared in art shows at local conventions, looking for new homes.
The karate ones have only been created as gifts and donations. I carry a crocheted karate towel in my sparring bag, and a matching one was donated to the raffle prizes at the 2016 World Championships. (I have no idea who it went home with.) A karate scarf I made with all of our belt colors was auctioned off at a holiday party a few years ago.
When Eagle Academy, the karate school I attend, announced that they were going to have a Casino Night with raffle prizes and a silent auction, I crocheted a pair of karate pillows with flying sidekick figures. The Casino Night (21 and over, of course) is a fundraiser to raise awareness about human trafficking. It’s paired with a Parents’ Night Out event, so kids can play in the awesome gymnastics area across the hall while parents play games in the dojang.
If you’re free tomorrow night (Saturday, February 1st, 2020), considering attending the Casino Night in Aurora from 6:30-9:30pm. The address is 881 Shoreline Drive.
We’ve reached a new year – 2020 – and as I do each year, I take the time to look back on my victories from last year and the goals I’m setting for next year. I realized belatedly that a couple of my goals related to organizing around the house didn’t meet the SMART requirement – Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-based. Specifically, they weren’t really measurable – “organize the shelves” doesn’t have a defined end.
I completed two project management courses as part of my perpetual goal of maintaining my certification; I started a third, which I should finish early this year. I added a new garden bed and grew delicious strawberries in it, had some delightful kale and pea crops, and lost every squash plant in the garden to hungry woodchucks. This year’s garden plan (still in progress) includes planting squash in the higher bed, where the woodchucks are less likely to eat the plants before they have fruit.
My old shed is gone, I’ve re-used most of the bricks that we found behind it, and am expecting to plant sunflowers where it used to be. It’ll be a while before that planting happens, since we’re barely into winter at this stage. My first seed catalog has arrived, so I do expect to have a plan done by the end of this month, but I don’t expect to put any seeds in the ground – not even kale or spinach – until at least late March.
I deferred a couple goals to this year, such as re-doing the master bedroom closet and testing for my hapkido black belt. I added other goals that replace them, at least in terms of me having time to accomplish everything – I think I started 2019 with 11 annual goals, and I finished with a list of 15. I’m starting 2020 with 20 annual goals and 12 weekly ones, which include a minimum number of German lessons on Duolingo each week and using something from the freezer (clearing out old harvests well before the next one needs freezer space).
I don’t make New Year’s resolutions. The concept, at least as presented in our culture, tends to be too abstract – take a look at Wikipedia’s list of popular resolutions. They also list the results of a small (3,000 people) study: 88% of the people who study participants who set New Year’s resolutions failed to accomplish their resolutions.
Instead, I set goals, both for the year and on a weekly basis. These are both achievable and measurable; I can definitively say when I’ve completed each one. Of the eleven goals I set for myself last year (I didn’t post all of them here), I completed nine. Of the two I didn’t complete, one carried over for this year and the other has been removed from the list. Starting this year, I’ve added categories to the goals – those include personal, professional, fitness, house, and garden, among others – which I include on both the weekly and annual goals. I have a Google Doc listing the annual goals with a spot for a completion date, and a separate one for the weekly goals.
Here are some of my 2019 goals:
Test for my hapkido black belt – this is my carryover from last year.
Develop a garden plan for the year – the plan is different each year, as I look at what seeds I have (leftovers or harvested from last year’s vegetables) and determine how the crops should rotate.
Add a new garden bed – this is already a work in progress; I have mulch and leaves down in the appropriate area and will add dirt as we get closer to spring. I suspect there will be strawberries planted there.
Complete my next project management course – also already in progress.
Organizing around the house – I actually have three different goals around organizing at home.
Do you approach the new year with goals or resolutions?
Four years ago, I embarked on my first drive to Dan, or Black Belt, Camp, with a carload of teenagers (none of them mine) and the vague notion that I’d be doing karate all weekend. Our first stop was a rest area on I-65 in Indiana, where one person slowed down long enough to receive copies of the New Testament for all of us. That resulted in some interesting car conversations as we proceeded to a popular (with our karate family) lunch spot. Beyond that, well, we stayed up late, got up early, and did karate pretty much all weekend. There were team-building exercises, some general silliness, and new friendships that came out of the weekend. Every year since has been a different adventure, with a new mix of driving companions and the same overall giddyness that comes from doing karate for a whole weekend with two hundred or so of your closest friends.
Strawberry milkshake in a mason jar… is that enough whipped cream?
This year was no different in that respect. After years of driving by, both to Dan Camp and other events towards or past Indianapolis, and only having stopped at the shop before, we ate lunch at The Farmhouse at Fair Oaks Farm. If you’ve driven south on I-65 recently, you’ll know that it’s hard to miss the billboards for Fair Oaks Farm; between the restaurant and the farm, there were probably a dozen before we got there. (Driving north, there are two that tell you that you missed it and you can turn around at the next exit.) This is unquestionably the first time I’ve been served a milkshake in a mason jar. They are, as it turns out, the perfect size. The meal was delightful, prefaced by some fresh cornbread and well, no, we didn’t make it to dessert. But I generally consider dessert to be optional when I have a milkshake.
After lunch, as I mockingly pointed out the scenic corn and soy (and more corn and soy, as this is the midwest), I noticed a faint rainbow out of the corner of my eye. It wasn’t until my companions (who weren’t driving) looked that we realized there was a double rainbow, with a far brighter one hiding below the faded one I had spotted.
Beyond the exciting weekend activities – have you ever played balloon “soccer” on a windy day with multiple balloons per team, and only karate moves allowed to propel the balloons? – the weather was just about perfect. Two years ago, there was a downpour along with some exciting thunder and lighting on the Saturday afternoon, which forced a break in our outdoor activities for a bit. This year, there was a bit of rain on our drive Friday, and a light sprinkling Saturday afternoon.
Looking at the giant slide from the suspension bridge, through the fog and a spider web.
Sunday morning, as I began packing the car, I enjoyed the fog that had settled in overnight. I went back to the cabin for my phone, then walked onto the suspension bridge to get some photos. (The bridge is one of those things that you either love or hate about the camp; it bounces quite a bit when everybody is lined up, crossing the river.) Just me and my arachnid friends.
Pretty spider and web with a foggy morning in the background.
I actually had a different post in mind relating to earning my black belt, until I saw what Google did with the photos that were taken on my phone in the last few days. When you take several photos in quick succession, Google takes the liberty of making an animated GIF out of some of them. This amused me, so I thought I’d share a couple of them.
After receiving our belts, we performed Sip Soo, one of the open hand forms we needed to learn before testing for the 1st degree black belt. This is a fairly small part of it, just what Google decided to clip together.
Part of Sip Soo (“Ten Hands”), the latest open hand form I had to learn to test for my 1st degree black belt
In addition to the excitement of earning my black belt, I received a sword as a gift. I started learning the first sword form a while ago, and practice it infrequently… it’s a black belt form. Now that I’m a black belt, I need to work on remembering it. I carried my sword to class the other night to show my instructor, and took some time after class to test it out on the mat.
Trying out my new sword.
Exciting times! I’ve already started learning the next open hand form I need for when I test for second degree black belt.
Tonight, I will test for my Cho Dan, or 1st degree black belt, in the World Tang Soo Do Association. As part of our preparation, we take a written test (up to twice, if needed; I passed on my first attempt… both times) and write a thousand words about Tang Soo Do.
I failed my sanity check and wrote it as a poem. Enjoy!
Twas two weeks before Dan Camp when my teacher and friend,
as I was leaving the dojang after a fabulous class,
asked “Are you testing this cycle” Thus the planning began.
Was this a thing I could do, could I make it and pass?
If I test in September, and again in the spring,
I would visit Tikal as a new Cho Dan Bo.
Pre-Testing next Dan Camp could be a real thing,
But I found in October one goal had to go.
January’s test is usually late,
So we relearn what holidays help us forget.
Last year it fell on my own birthdate,
Testing so soon would be a close bet.
With regular practice and no real chance to rest,
Was I being too ambitious or just slightly insane?
I gave it my all, I gave it my best.
My knife skills were iffy; my shoulder, in pain.
My breaking was lousy, I can’t say that’s new.
But my one steps were solid, and I knew all my forms,
I was happy to pass and then learn Sip Soo.
But how did I reach this point that transforms?
When Cassandra, my daughter, had turned almost four,
we went to the fair to enjoy rides once again,
stopped at some booths, thought about them no more,
till a phone call came in, we stopped to think then.
Was karate something she wanted to try?
It’s truly hard work, not like Kung Fu Panda,
while really quite fun, Po’s too goofy a guy,
earning a black belt’s more than Hollywood propaganda.
Cassandra’s first karate class
Her first class looked great, she had a fabulous grin,
When I look back at it now, I see many a friend.
Some still do karate, others have left it since then,
I didn’t know yet that our hobbies would blend.
I promised her when I saw the first buddy week,
I’d try it with her, take my turn on the mat,
I didn’t know then that my body would speak,
to say my appendix was a bit of a brat.
I woke up that Christmas in a hospital bed,
worried in two months for my stair climb,
ninety-four flights up I would tread,
forty-some minutes was quite a slow time.
I sat three more months with my books or my hook,
crocheting or reading as she learned some new skills,
watching the classes my daughter partook,
while I thought about crafts and paying the bills.
Hugging Cassandra after my first karate class. This was before I even had a uniform.
Winter became spring, as May rolled around,
I was invited to class, to my delight and surprise,
not just for a week, a whole month I had found,
celebrating mothers with some pain in my thighs.
There was pain in push-ups and again in each crunch,
though I’m flexible enough, I always could kick.
I found there’s no pain in one single punch,
unless there’s a board or even a brick.
I know that my desk job does me no good,
sitting all day is hard to offset.
Needing more exercise, I understood,
karate was something I could not regret.
Training beside that cute smiling face,
spending time exploring one steps together,
driving towards one or other new place,
these are things that we would certainly weather.
I trained most of a year, and at a regional event
saw Grandmaster destroy a piñata with skill,
after our demo teams to great lengths had went
to show their moves, devotion, and will.
The next spring was a setback, unfortunate for me.
It would not quell my passion, this thing with my shoulder,
I pulled something wrong when cutting a tree,
it felt more like I had lifted a boulder.
Six months I sat out, sad to just watch,
knowing it would take time to achieve,
the skills she would learn as she stepped up a notch,
knowing my health would give no reprieve.
On the plus side I’m older, I had a clear goal,
she wasn’t quite six, she was quite content
to learn something new, she was on a roll,
as a Little Dragon, she made her ascent.
The next summer, my health again wasn’t that great,
I wound up in therapy for pulling my hip,
I sat for two months, as it messed with my gait,
and acquired a walking stick on our road trip.
Two thousand fourteen was a year full of jaunts,
Disney, Hawaii, and Guatemala anew,
some were a first, some were old haunts,
this time though, my skills travelled too.
With some consternation and also great joy,
after extensive searching and some interview pain,
I quit my old job for a new employ,
not working at home, but still, quite a gain.
The downside I found was I had a commute,
the length of which would not let me teach;
the earlier class I would overshoot,
the later classes just in my reach.
As time went on, I found my job shifted,
I bought a new house, left for an earlier drive,
the timing restrictions were happily lifted,
I could plan out karate, make sure I arrive.
I knew by this point that I do like to spar,
and I’ve come to enjoy even hapkido.
I’m not quite the addict that my instructors are,
that may be a change I yet undergo.
It took some time, moving’s always a mess,
and a birthday piñata claimed some of my time,
my first Prep class helped me obsess
on the skills I would need to advance my belt climb.
October added another workout,
bimonthly, with black belts, all of them skilled,
I gather there could be a larger turnout,
the space we were using is nowhere near filled.
The day crept closer to the August pre-test,
one skill, then another, I learned on the mat,
with time to spare, I completed my quest,
Ninety one-steps were learned, some fell a bit flat.
There was just one month till the test in the Dells,
just enough time to refine and improve,
and appear before judges with no whistles or bells,
working hard that day to make them approve.
Three days before, a crash dragged me from the mat,
my car was totaled by a distracted pick-up truck.
The doctor said your concussion will prevent testing for that.
Between the diagnosis and car shopping, I was stuck.
At Valpo, five months later, I pre-tested – again,
enjoying myself despite a horrible cough.
I’m ready for April, it’s time to ascertain –
can I break two boards in this final face off?
