I took up martial arts when I was a youngster, as a way of trying to quell the insistent voice of fear that murmured inside me … after having been beaten up a couple times, as a young kind, I began my quest for super-powers. Fear can be a powerful motivator – the more scared I became, I more I would over-compensate. I was pulled off the unconscious body of the biggest bully in school on more than one occasion. Yikes!
There is though, a much more insidious threat that I didn’t perceive until much later in my life. And my response to that new threat – I beat the crap out of it!
When we are beaten on the mat (or on the street) we at least know it … the much worse beating to take is the one we don’t even perceive; the soft beating; the beating we take day after day without even realizing it.
People are beaten down by the way they live their lives; by advertising, by the foods they consume, by the conversations they have, by the habits they acquire, by the work they do … and all the time, they think ‘that’s just the way it is’.
I have always rebelled – and have been punished for it. But I won’t be beaten down! Never.
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