King/Queen of clumsy WAS:RE: [Sca-cooks] Meadshtufff OT

[Phil Troy/ G. Tacitus Adamantius]

Also sprach Isabella di Giovanni:
>I have taken/taught martial arts (Tae Kwon Do) for almost 20 years,
>2nd degree black belt. On the dojang floor I have never hurt myself
>(except for gettin pi**ed off for not breaking a board with a kick
>and instead, hitting it with my fist...breaking the board and
>several little itsy bitsy tiny bones in my hand). However, off the
>floor, I think I would challenge you for King/Queen of clumsy.

My eleven-year-old son is now much sought after by senseis all around
the Northeast Region of the American Aikido Federation as a uke or
demo sparring partner, both for the quality and precision of his
attacks and for the skill with which he escapes from locks and
throws. He really does look like one of those people who flies around
on wires, and the man who runs his aikikai is actively taking steps
to insure that he is one of the people in whose hands the future of
the art form is placed (he being, essentially, in SCA parlance, the
equivalent of the grand-squire of the Founder).

He could also trip over an invisible grain of sand twelve miles from
his starting point. If it exists and can possibly interact with him
in any way that can be construed an accident, he will find it. The
Laws of Physics and Creation will bend themselves to accommodate him
in this. And they say children have trouble focusing...

Oddly enough, I find his knife skills are quite good. But then, I
can't stand to watch him with a knife in his hand, so maybe I'm
better off not knowing...

So, about breaking that board. Morihei Ueshiba would question its
status as an enemy (that's okay, Morehei Ueshiba questioned
_everything's_ status as an enemy), and would no doubt ask why you
didn't use that board for something sensible, like eating sushi off
it... I guess this is the definition of a culture clash, or at least
a philosophical difference ;-)

Adamantius

--
"No one who cannot rejoice in the discovery of his own mistakes
deserves to be called a scholar."
	-DONALD FOSTER