Aikido, Part 1
I suppose it was my second year of college when I decided to take a phys-ed elective. I'd always been interested in the martial arts, but I'd never had the chance to get involved in them. I also found all that gold-dragon stuff pretty cheesy, and the egos of those "my school is the best" personality-cult types to be a real turn-off.
But, I was ready for a change, and I figured a one unit class couldn't have too much of that stuff. I browsed the catalog and found an Aikido class at the perfect time. I signed up and got in.
The first day, I knew I'd made the right decision. The Sensei was a professor from the Natural Sciences department, and very kind, gentle, and soft-spoken. At the same time, he gave off an aura of a lifetime of discipline and training; he never said so, but he had that "former CIA operative" vibe I'd learned to recognize.
All the senior students were incredibly helpful and friendly. There was no yelling, no intimidation, no showing off at all. Even the do-gis (uniforms) were incredibly understated: white judo gis for beginners, white judo gis with black hakama (samurai pants) for dans (black belts). However, there was a hell of a lot of ass kicking going on. No punching or kicking, but lots of throws, feints, and arm and headlocks. Everyone took turns throwing and being thrown, etc. It was very democratic.
Eventually, I joined the local dojo, Matsuki, and began going three days a week. Aikido is not just exercise, it's got a philosophy, taken from Zen Buddhism and Shintoism.
In a nutshell, it states that the world is full of strife, and people and things are always going to be attacking you. When a person clashes up against these forces, that's when they overwhelm him or her. If one learns to embrace them and use the energy that is intended to hurt you, then you can turn the situation to your advantage. The most common image for this is a ball: when you try to shove a ball, you just make it roll over. Throw something at it, and it bounces off and rolls away. Nothing short of stomping on it can hurt it, because it has no sharp edges and a stable center. Therefore, through Aikido, we strive to round out our sharp edges and keep a stable center.
4:04:20 PM 
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