For various reasons, Baby Wigglet hasn't been sleeping through the night, so I'm only managing maybe two hours of fencing a week, less than I want. Plus, last week was rather demoralizing because the three adults who usually show up for group practice didn't. I was surrounded by energetic, athletic and aggressive teenaged boys and girls. Let me tell you, there's nothing like having a little Asian girl—who's still taller than you—giving you pitying looks because your short legs don't let you lunge as far as her to make you feel old and decrepit.

Anyway, hyanan's offered to teach me iaido, so I took her up on it and we started this weekend. While I often feel like an inadequate mother (no matter how many times people assure me otherwise), I have to believe I get cool points for entertaining the baby while practicing cutting up a rival daimyo's samurai on my lanai. Wigglet sat in her blue chair and chewed on her tiny stuffed whale toy and was quiet throughout, so it must have been interesting to watch.

After that we packed her up and went to get food and groceries while still dressed in practice outfits (this is the point where I note that hakama look much better on guys). I joked while we were walking through the frozen section that we were like some bad intersection of an anime series and a cheesy 80s movie ("Two Samurai and a Baby!"). hyanan rolled her eyes, maybe, but she's used to me by now. Poor woman.

I have by now forgotten almost all the nuances of my first lesson and am left only with some bizarre specifics, such as the belief that if I don't hide my thumbs some ninja will come cut them off. But I find that there are a lot of similarities between fencing and iaido, at the fundamental level: there's a shared emphasis in balance and its seat in your hips, in the notion of threat and implied threat, and in the emphasis on situational awareness. Learning is the same also, in that both instructors echo each other: "Do it slow and learn it well, speed will come later."

When I think about what I'm learning from all this, I keep coming back to one thing: I need to write more fight scenes.

No, wait, that's not it. What I'm really learning is that in high school I should have joined the fencing club, because that's were all the athletic boys who were still into knights and dragons and geekstuff were.

No, that's not it either. (Though I'll share that bit of wisdom with my daughter when she's old enough.)

Um, when I figure out what I've learned, I'll share it with you. Count on that. Just keep your thumbs tucked in or you'll have to use base eight.


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Tags: fencing, health, iaido, mom in spots
Current Mood: loopy