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

“Christian? What are you talking about?”

“Just the way you said ‘no’. The way you refused to kneel in front of them. God, I was so scared.”

“Well, Jesus, son, if they had told me to sit down on my butt I would have done it!”

“What?”

“I couldn’t kneel. I can’t get on my knees if my life depends on it. I would have sat down, though. They just never gave me a chance. I didn’t do anything brave, trust me. All I managed to do was put you guys in danger and get beat up. I was stupid, not brave.”

He looked at me with a questioning look and seemed confused. Good. That was all I needed. Just sow a little doubt. Imagination and the disappointments that we all experience, the disintegration of respect for the nobility of man… it would do the rest.

“Well, I still think it was pretty brave.”

He helped me get up and I dressed slowly, grateful for clean clothes. On the way out I saw the doctor and told him I wanted to make a donation to the hospital. He didn’t seem very interested in the fact that I had removed my own I.V. and was leaving. “Yes? Just leave it in the envelope.”

I looked at the envelope. “It won’t fit,” I said, and threw the big wad of cash I had taken from the Maoist rebels on his desk. He was surprised. “This is for the people.” I said. “The Nepali people,” and then we walked out into a brilliant, beautiful world.

Christian walked beside me all the way back to Namche Bazaar and although my back was sore and I could really only see well from my right eye I thoroughly enjoyed the trip down to the old city perched on the side of the mountain. At one point I needed to stop and lean against him because I was so dizzy. He just stood tall and strong and held me like a friend. We were having lunch in the Thamserku View Lodge when the rest of our group showed up.

“Oh Sensei, your face!” squealed Esra, and she and Celine both threw their arms around me. I have to admit I really enjoyed the attention. I’m still a man. The guys just watched with big grins on their faces.

I looked them over. In only five days their faces had taken the ruddy look of outdoors, sun and wind. They were ebullient, smiling and bubbling with happiness. Their young muscles had hardened. Their lungs and constitutions were now seasoned and at peace with the high country and thin atmosphere.

“So where are you going today?” I asked.

“We want to take the guys to the monastery at Tengboche,” said Esra. Her English was so much better I was amazed.

“Really?” I asked. “Where are your Italians?”

She blushed. “Oh, well, you know…” Everyone laughed.

“It sounds great. There and back in one day?”

“Sure! It’s easy,” said Celine.

“Go on,” I said. “Get out of here and make sure you take some pictures for me so I can see it.”

They laughed again and assured me they would and then were off. Five beautiful people I was proud to know. I sipped some more bad instant coffee and then a shadow fell over me.

“I heard what happened up there.”

I looked up to see Buz Donahoo standing beside me in full kit. Back pack and hiking polls sat on him like a normal man wears a suit.

“Hi Buz, you taking off?”

“Yeah, it’s time for me to go down.”

Somehow that depressed me. I was hoping to spend some more time with him. I suddenly felt a little lonely.

“That must have been something,” he said. He hunkered down next to me.

“What?” I couldn’t imagine what he was talking about. I had to turn my head to see him with my good eye.

“The whole thing. Going up there, getting robbed and beat up, then going back and getting your stuff back. I wish I’d been there! Man, what an adventure! A real shoot out with a rebel army? Hah! Then climbing all the way up the back side of Gokyo in a blizzard, at night, without a coat or any gear…?” He grinned at me. “You know, I almost envy you! I’ve been robbed by Maoists in Peru. They call themselves the Shining Path or some such, and I’ve been chased by pirates off the Spanish Main.., I’ve been robbed by whores… and bartenders…” he laughed, “...and I just keep going and going and think, what an amazing, wonderful life! What an amazing wonderful world!

“Everything we do should be an adventure and you have to have the occasional rifle butt to the head once in a while in order to make you really appreciate the look of Cho Oyo after a blizzard. It’s a trade off, and it all comes out even. In the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.”

He was preaching to me about ukemi.

He stood up. “Okay, see you around, sometime.” He turned and walked away.

“Hey Buz,” I called. “Maybe in Orlando or Winter Park???”

He turned, “How about we meet on some nice Greek Island like Santorini or maybe in old Havana?” He laughed and kept going down the bazaar and stopped a dozen times to speak to someone, shake a hand, or pat a shoulder. Then he was gone.

I sat and thought about what he’d said and decided that I agreed with him completely, and always had. Sometimes a rifle butt to the head causes your perspective to be altered for a time, but it wakes you right up if you let it. Perspective was returning.

Aikido is a metaphor for life. It is not a journey of its own, only a hiking pole to be carried along the way. Too many people train at aikido thinking that it is a worthy end in itself