A Gambling Man by David Baldacci (ebook audio reader .txt) 📕

they get to throw uke around, and people watching are really impressed. It looks awesome to twitch and then someone flies through the air, but in all truth, if you really do it very well, you are merely moving with the force that uke gives you and directing it away until uke quits. It is the uke that runs the show in the practice of aikido, not nage.

“Without uke, you not only do not do aikido, you can’t do aikido. Aikido senseis are guilty of showboating, to be sure, and they tend to use people as their ukes who fly highest and farthest and then hit and look at them with awe and wonder in their eyes, but we both know that’s just plain bull. It’s like taking a break fall from kote-gaieshi, the wrist throw. Try throwing a serious uke into a breakfall and you’ll get killed if he decides he isn’t going that way.

“And this is life, my young friend. If you don’t have a place to stand and move forward from, how in the world do you ever get anywhere? If you don’t know what your goal or objective is, how do you reach it? If you don’t move forward relentlessly from the heart into the heart of the world, how can you ever hope to discover what is in your own heart?”

I waited. He nodded and pointed to the pitcher of beer. “I’d like to start here and get that pitcher of beer in my hand and begin pouring beer into my glass. Then I intend to drink that glass of beer and then I’m going home. I’ll be leaving from Shoshin dojo and driving…”

“Just get the hell out of here, wise guy.”

“Sensei, I’m trying to start someplace.”

“You’re going to start by being thrown off the deck if you keep that up.”

“Okay, where do you suggest I start?” he asked.

“Where have you been? I asked.

“I’ve been in school.”

“Have you gone on any trips? Have you ever been beyond these United States? Have you visited all fifty states? Have you ever seen Yellowstone? Have you hiked the Grand Canyon? Have you seen a play on Broadway in New York? Have you seen the Mona Lisa in the Louvre or Botticelli’s Venus in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence? Have you ever stood on the Acropolis in Athens and watched the sun rise over the Aegean Sea? Have you ever gone carpet hunting in the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul? Have you ever ridden off into the Anatolian Desert in the middle of the night to slip quietly in the back door of a thousand-year-old caravanserai and watch Whirling Dervishes perform their secret meditations?

“Son, I’m asking you if you have ever done anything, been anywhere, or ever experienced life outside of your own skull. I don’t mean having a girlfriend, drinking a beer, going to class, getting a job, buying a cool car, or getting your first apartment. I mean closing the door and as you glance back, wondering if you will ever see it again. I mean going someplace that takes a little more effort than stepping off a bus or out of a taxi. I’m talking about leaving the tour and finding a taxi driver to take you every place in Istanbul where he has never, ever, taken a tourist, then bribing him to take you further just because you want to see. Getting out of the taxi and wandering around, meeting people, scary people that you meet as an equal and showing no fear. And by showing no fear you find new friends. I mean taking chances and sleeping on hard ground, and wondering what you are going to eat tomorrow. I’m talking about going where the road ends and where the nearest doctor is five days travel by foot over mountain passes so high you can’t believe the color of the sky.

“This is what it means to be an uke. You go forward and damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead. You meet life in the grips of the bear and live or die by the speed of your escape. Christian, you go for it.”

“I know you’ve done all that and more, Sensei. But you need someplace to start. You need something to get you out the door. Remember in the Hobbit when Bilbo Baggins was so comfortable in his hole? It took Gandalf to get him up and running and then he needed a teacher along the way.”

“I think you’ll find it is a lot easier than you believe. Get your passport, book a flight to Paris and go hang out in front of the Louvre. You might meet some people who are touring Europe on a shoestring. They might ask you to tag along, if you don’t act like a jerk or try to impress them with the fact that you are an American. Try to understand their languages. Then you go where the road leads you. Or try Greece if you like it warmer. Or try Bosnia if you don’t mind food poisoning. Just kidding. Go to the Middle East if you want to show some hair and don’t mind the idea of dying by explosion. Or if you really want an adventure hike over the Himalayan Mountains and visit the Tengboche Monastery and meditate there for a day with the monks.

“The world is full of amazing peoples and places and once you have seen it and experienced it you will never see your life the same again. This kind of thing gives you perspective. It allows you to go on with your life despite having to deal with the day-to-day crap everyone has to deal with.

“Life is very long and yet very short. We spend so much of it trading our time for money to live in the style we feel we need that without those memories of adventures we have experienced, life can just be long. That’s