Sometimes I think about how relative time is. I don’t mean the Theory of Relativity, wherein the passage of time is not thought to be a constant, but passes at a different relative rate, depending upon how close a traveler comes to the speed of light (186,300 miles per second) relative to a non-traveler. I mean, about how the same passage of time can affect persons of different ages/stages relative to each other.

I began training in Aikido when I was 12 years old. Just like our ministry, the Aikido class was comprised of students ranging in age from children to grandparents. I really looked up to and enjoyed some of my older mentors. My interest in Aikido, however, gradually diminished and I stopped training altogether by the time I was 16 years old. I had punching and kicking on my mind. I found Shotokan at 18, and as you know, practice/teach the art until this day. I’m a little slower, 60 lbs heavier, and less flexible than I was in 1963. However, I feel smarter and stronger than I did back then…and I still get to attend training sessions in fellowship just like I did in the 1960’s…but that’s not what I think about.

I think about the nice old men (old men?…they were in their fifties) who trained along side me as peers, or led the classes. Forty years later, they’re either in their nineties, or practicing Aikido up in heaven. I wonder how it is, that things seem relatively unchanged for me, other than having more knowledge and stronger technique…while my dojo mates have lost their speed/strength/flexibility/mobility or gone on to the next spiritual level. In life, we only get to do things a finite number of times. This means that you will only have the opportunity to train with your friends a finite number of times. Please don’t take these for granted.

In this light, I look at Sheldon and Nikki, who are the same age I was back in 1963. Today, we get the chance to interact and practice karate-do in fellowship together. In forty-odd years, they’ll be the age I am now…while I will have joined my old dojo-mates in the netherworld of super old agedness, assuming I’m still breathing. If Sheldon and Nikki have kept up with the art, they’ll likely still be mobile, strong, knowledgable, and sharing that knowledge with other interested students. Folks like me, will be just pleasant old memories.

Before I get too maudlin about this subject…I turn around and look at Sempai James and get grounded again. He started Aikido the same year I did (in another dojo), except I was just entering middle-school at the time, while sempai was probably finished with grad school, being more than twice my age at the time. He’s still vigorously training with us, having missed only one Saturday class since he started with the ministry! How you figgah? In forty years, he’ll only be about 110 years old…maybe he’ll still be training.