Sometimes I think about how relative time is. I don\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2t 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.<\/p>\n
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\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2m 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\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c2\u00a6and I still get to attend training sessions in fellowship just like I did in the 1960\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c2\u00a6but that\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s not what I think about.<\/p>\n
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\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2re 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\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c2\u00a6while 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\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2t take these for granted.<\/p>\n
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\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2ll be the age I am now\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c2\u00a6while I will have joined my old dojo-mates in the netherworld of super old agedness, assuming I\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2m still breathing. If Sheldon and Nikki have kept up with the art, they\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2ll likely still be mobile, strong, knowledgable, and sharing that knowledge with other interested students. Folks like me, will be just pleasant old memories.<\/p>\n
Before I get too maudlin about this subject\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c2\u00a6I 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<\/strong> at the time. He\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s still<\/strong> vigorously training with us, having missed only one Saturday class since he started with the ministry! How you figgah? In forty years, he\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2ll only be about 110 years old\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c2\u00a6maybe he\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2ll still be training.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sometimes I think about how relative time is. I don\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2t 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\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2m 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\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c2\u00a6and I still get to attend training sessions in fellowship just like I did in the 1960\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c2\u00a6but that\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s [...]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hiskarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hiskarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hiskarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiskarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiskarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiskarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hiskarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiskarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiskarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}