Martial arts allows me to hit people and throw them around, so that I can release my aggressions in a socially acceptable manner. It's really very therapeutic. Plus, my children are involved in the classes with me. That way I can yell at them and they can punch me, and we all go home happy. It's fun.
When I was a little girl, my Auntie Margi was a budding martial artist. She was the coolest Aunt in the world because she was a teenager, and she wore braces on her teeth. I always wanted to get braces, because she had braces. Then I got them and they hurt, but that's not really very interesting. The point, albeit a limited one, is that I don't remember ever wanting to be a martial artist even though my favorite Aunt was one.
I did want to be a missionary because of her, and that might still happen someday.
I wanted to be a Japanese Cheerleader for Stanford. (That's true! Would I make that up?) Auntie Margi was never a Japanese Cheerleader for Stanford. Nor for Biola, and that is where she actually went to college. She did go to Japan on a missions trip.
But I don't think I ever wanted to be a tough girl. I liked pink and dolls and tea parties and stuff.
But then God gave me boys. So, it somehow seemed wrong to allow my boys too many tea parties. I took them to learn to defend me gallantly, instead. This is how I think, you know "defend me gallantly' and stuff like that. I have envisioned them as Mighty Defenders of Women and Children. Manly Men.
And then I signed up, too. What does that make me?
It's fun to be such a dichotomy. I can invite you into my pink living room with doilies and antimacassars, and if you try to attack me, I can kick your sweet derriere! I'm real tough until I break a nail.
Actually, now that I am into this sport, I really want to have a black belt like my favorite Auntie.
I could be a Black Belt Missionary to Japan, but I don't know how to work Stanford into the story. I'll keep working on that.
2 comments:
Close, but no cigar. My mommy went on a missions trip to Taiwan. My dad did an exchange program in Japan. I'll be in Japan in 4 weeks on a vacation with my hubby!
Martial arts are fun. I don't know how my mom ended up being such a tomboy, but I think it had something to do with the doilies and the pink in Granny's house.
O, you're right! It was Taiwan. I stand corrected.
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