Summer 2012

This coming summer, we're going to be busy. We are planning on a bit over a week in Vernon with friends. There is also a huge choir festival in Powell River. Cruising? We've got a two-week trip booked to Alaska. The rest of the time will be divided between home and with family in Victoria.

It's all pencilled in on the calendar. If the current plan gets followed to the letter I will have a number of martial arts training opportunities.

It should be possible to do about a month's worth of each Karate and Judo classes in Victoria. I'm looking forward to that. Checking the dates I can expect to be home it looks like I might also make a week or two worth of Jiu-Jitsu.

Funny how I might get a month of Karate, a month of Judo, and a couple of weeks of Jiu-Jitsu to fit into two months of vacation.

It's especially remarkable when one considers that I'll be doing no training at all in Vernon, Powell River, or on the Alaska cruise.

The three martial arts I plan on training in are all similar to one and other in some ways, and yet very different. They are especially different for me.

By summertime, I'll be medium status in Jiu-Jitsu, hopefully wearing a freshly earned Blue Belt. When I visit the University of Victoria Karate Club, I am treated with great deference and respect for I am an old dude with a very worn out Black Belt. Attending Judo I'll be a fresh faced beginner. The very high and very low status positions will rotate when I'm in Victoria on alternating nights. White Belt on Mondays and Wednesdays and Black Belt on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

A big danger in martial arts is that of getting a fat head, swaggering around and thinking one is somebody. I'm sure I've been guilty of it, but I try not to. By turning into a beginner every so often one is really kept down to earth.

Literally kept down to earth.

Sometimes with a crashing noise.