Kendo Take 6

Lakers vs. Celtics, the Hatfield’s vs. the McCoy’s, Batman vs. Joker, nothing seems to rival what we have going on in our apartment…the Urban Samurai’s family vs. the stomach flu.

In China there was once a man who liked pictures of dragons, and his clothing and furnishings were all designed accordingly. His deep affection for dragons was brought to the attention of the dragon god, and one day a real dragon appeared before his window. It is said that he died of fright. He was probably a man who always spoke big words, but acted differently when facing the real thing.

Hagakure

I was ten minutes away from leaving last night. I changed my clothes, packed a bag, ate a bowl of soup so I wouldn’t be hungry, but not too full…I was as good as out the door, on my way to kendo. My first sword fighting class ever. I was bouncing off the walls. Like that nervous excitement I used to get before a big night out.

That’s when my 2 year old daughter projectile vomited on my bed…more specifically my side and my pillow. Not really the unexpected turn I was hoping for…

Sure, I thought about still going to class. But what are you going to do? I don’t want to leave my wife with this. I don’t want to leave my daughter when she’s like this. So I stayed. This is what you do as a parent. She’ll be fine, as my son and wife both had it already and they were fine in just over a day.

So, onto the real problem. Over a month into this thing now and no sword fighting class. And only some meditation, but that hasn’t been easy to be consistent with either. It’s not easy with kids and a dog and no space that’s just yours.

I am calling myself the Urban Samurai, when I should be calling myself the ‘Guy who lives in the city and reads samurai books.’ (I just looked it up. UrbanReader.com is available for the ridiculous price of $2188…and I’m considering getting it.) Because all I’ve really been doing up until this point is reading…thinking.

I feel like a fraud. Like the Pepsi CEO who only drinks Coke. Like the airplane mechanic who never flies because ‘ the planes aren’t safe.’ Like the kid from Ohio that goes to University of Michigan, but still cheers for the Buckeyes.

Is there any silver lining to missing that class last night? At 4 in the morning, when my daughter threw up again…in our bed…again…my wife looked over at me, in a kind of desperation…and asked, ‘What should we give her?’ That’s when I realized something. So, I reached over and pulled out my copy of Hagakure, and stuck it out for her to take. My wife wasn’t amused, but I laughed out loud. Anytime you can make yourself laugh in a bad situation, that’s a better day than it was.

4 people in my house. 3 of them got this sickness in the last 7 days. The only one who didn’t…happened to have read Hagakure. Happens to consider himself a samurai in training.

Coincidence? I think not. Maybe I’m not giving myself credit for all the reading and thinking and mind training. And maybe my mind and body are really getting stronger because of it. The samurai mind doesn’t fold to some sickness. And I at least have the beginnings of a samurai mind. Urbandreader.com is for some other poor sap who probably had this same virus yesterday.

I do have a garbage can nearby, my credit card out and the Network Solutions site up just in case.