Bees

Helen says that my 'Injuries' blog entry left out bees. She's right, but let's startwith mosquitos.

Part of Karate is concentration. When training, one is in combat. If a door slams, you don't look away. You maintain focus. It is kind of like being in the army marching around. You do it right, but for different reasons. In the army, they yell if you don't do drill to the ideal. In a fight, if you let youself respond to distractions you'll lose.

Up north, during a summer seminar, training outdoors. Mosquitos. We were swarmed. We ignored them as much as humanly possible. One in particular I remember. The instructor stops us in a punching pose, and spends a minute or two helping somebody down the line. A big, fat, northern BC mosquito slowly lands on the back of my frozen, punching fist. She took her time, sucking my blood. Could barely fly when done. Then we got to move. Wanted to laugh, but couldn't do that either. Not until later.

The bees were different.

Summer Camp training outdoors by the sea a decade later. Sunny day, nice breeze, grassy field with just a hint of clover. In the middle of the session, ZAP. Burning in the sole of my foot. Ignored it until we were done, but I knew right away what it was. A bee sting in the middle of my right foot. Just went on and finished the class.

The next year I was back at Summer Camp training. Same kind of sun and breeze on the same grassy field. Halfway through, and I was stung again on the bottom of my foot. Finished the class. We later laughed like goons that it happened to me again. Nobody else got stung either year. I was the lucky one, twice.

Third year. Did it happen again? Yup.