JOURNEY - on Mastering Ukemi by Daniel Linden (classic books for 12 year olds .TXT) 📕

young I didn’t recognize the desperation and abject craving they demonstrated. For the sake of a promotion and the drive of ambition I ignored their hypocrisy and abuse of students, especially women. They chose ambition over and over and left their top teachers floundering in the confusion created by the differences between actions and words. They destroyed years of work by many individuals who had spent a decade or more bringing aikido to many foreign lands and destroyed their dreams for no reason other than the hope for a promotion to 7th, 8th, or 9th dan, which in truth means nothing.

I have gone forth with the will to be a better man and to honor O’Sensei; the true founder of aikido with a life lived far better than these teacher’s lives have been lived.

So I looked forward to the journey as a chance to be the best person I could be. I have not always done that and it is true that my life has not been a shining example of a life well lived. Still, I know that I have accomplished many things that others desire and wish for themselves. I have envisioned my life as I wished it to be and have created a world for myself where the pleasures and labors and rewards have become so intertwined as to be inseparable. This has required extraordinary discipline to create and maintain, however I simply can’t imagine living my life without the discipline, love, laughter, happiness, work, sweat, struggle, searching and just plain joy that anyone can create for themselves. It merely takes enormous effort.

Why are we here if not to live all these things as completely as possible?

***

My idea was to get everyone together at the dojo and to leave from there. This way we could take a cab from the airport when we returned and all leave from here when we got home. As I have ample parking it was not a problem and logistically it worked out well. I was standing in the front yard and looking at the grapefruit tree, the big one that produces bushels and bushels of good, sweet, ruby-red grapefruit each year, when Nick drove up to the gate. Nick, Nicko, my senior student, my most deadly friend. He is the only student I have never thrown. Nick has never failed to take perfect ukemi for me and to attack again and again until the instant he needed to withdraw, to escape, and to survive to attack again. He is the only perfect uke I have ever known. I promoted him to 4th dan a year ago and I am embarrassed. He should be more senior than that, but he is still so young. I waved at him and walked over to open the gate. He drove through and parked his car and got out.

“Hello, Nick,” I said.

“Hello Sensei.”

“How are you?” I asked.

“I’m well. How is Laurie?”

“My wife is working, but besides that, she is doing okay,” I said.

Nick is Syrian. He grew up in the oldest city in the world. Some anthropologists suggest that Damascus has been continuously occupied for over 12,000 years. No one knows for sure, but the culture there is far more complex than any place on earth. Tribal influence is deeper than the mind understands. Nomadic cultures have been drifting in and out of Syria for five times longer than the Americas have been occupied, and the mix of ancient Hebraic, Islamic, and tribal cultures from the ‘Stans’ – Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Turkistan, etc is older than the most ancient recorded scrolls or tablets or memory. It is a place out of time and mind. The streets in Damascus are hard and dirty and anyone who grows to manhood there is tough beyond the dreams of most street hoodlums in New York and in reality tough beyond the reality of most United States Marines.

“Sensei, I wanted to talk to you before you left.”

I nodded and waited. Understanding culture is one of the most important aspects of anyone who aspires to be a gentleman. I can merely aspire.

“I just wanted to tell you something. I know you’ve been in Asia a few times. Well, a lot, really. But I know the part of the world you are going to. Chris is a good man and strong and smart and Curtis is, well, just amazing. He’s brilliant and tough. But Christian is a boy, still, and the ladies, well, they are something else. I envy you, Sensei…”

I glanced at him and screwed up my face.

“Okay, forget that... well, what I want to say is this. If you get into trouble. I mean really bad trouble.., and if there is any way you can get word to me… I’ll give you my international calling numbers…I’ll come get you. I’ll make some phone calls, do whatever it takes.., but I will get you out of any trouble you are in. I swear it. You can trust me and count on me. I will find you.”

I knew Nick was telling me the truth. I nodded and saw that he was standing at quarters to me so that neither of us would be able to look into each other’s face while we spoke.

I remembered back to a time when I had hurt the feelings of one of my senior students. He was an Army Captain, an Armored Company Commander; he commanded a phalanx of tanks and armored vehicles, an awesome fighting force. He had overheard me tell someone that if I had to go back into combat, back like it was in Viet Nam, the one person I would want with me was Nick, because he would never fail and he would die to cover my back. My Captain was hurt, I guess, but it wasn’t personal. He had a wife and children and wasn’t from that time or part of the world. I’m sorry, if that hurt. If you read this.., I