Art Beyond Borders
If a picture is worth a thousand words, how much can be conveyed in a facial expression? In an embrace? How about a 5 minute soft-core death match?
I found jiu jitsu in a dark place. I was still having regular nightmares about my season ending knee injury. My last year for Michigan rugby hadn’t gone as planned. In the season opener against Air Force, I blew out my knee and required reconstructive surgery. The rest of the year was sent hobbling along as I recovered and questioned what I would be capable of. I knew I wasn’t done yet. I wasn’t ready to wrap my physicality in a box and stop playing.
Our great war is a spiritual war. In the martial arts dojo, I found a third place where I could pray. A church for the agnostic. In jiu jitsu we worship efficiency, effective use of power, and self-defense. We harness our internal power with the structure of discipline and self-control. We submit to a pyramid of knowledge and martial artists larger than ourselves so that we may drink without drowning in our quest for refinement.
Fighting fascinates. Be it the stakes or the variables. I, like many boys, was obsessed with fighting, from wooden swords to dinosaur fight clubs. In martial arts, I can let this boy play again. I have a controlled environment to let out my aggression. The same spirit that was released in the wrestling room and rugby pitch can breathe. And with commitment and structure, this spirit will mature.
My relationship with jiu jitsu is a love affair. I love where she has taken me and who she has introduced me to. I love the art and community she has allowed me privy to. Her different flavors make me laugh and smile as I learn more about her over the years. American Jiu Jitsu with it’s rugged individualism, creativity, and close ties to wrestling. Japanese jiu jitsu and judo with it’s aesthetics and philosophy. And Brazillian Jiu Jitsu, what made her famous. Where the art was hardened and made competition sharp before being released out into the world. The Gracies are the prophets. The prophets of sacred geometry. Of what works.
If it seems paradoxical for there to be a ‘gentle’ martial art, you must remember the reality of fighting. The beauty of jiu jitsu is being able to neutralize without killing. Being able to harness torque, leverage, and balance to turn chaos into order without unnecessary damage. To do your will under the pressures of conflict. This requires the practice of the dojo. But the sacred geometry and techniques we practice exist beyond the dojo walls; we are pointing at the moon. We do not invent, we discover, we explore, we experience.
