On budō: why I do it at all.

January 2024 (exact date unknown)

A friend/classmate asked me last month why I do so many arts. I couldn’t answer. I didn’t expect the question and didn’t have enough time in that moment of dinner table conversation to organize my thoughts into a coherent answer. Thinking back on it now, I still can’t, a month later. There’s something precious and necessary it provides me. I can’t quite articulate it or summarize it yet, but I want to figure it out.

If I try right now, what do I come up with? It was said “we train in difficult things because it makes us better people”. Maybe that’s a big part. It improves me in several ways – I should figure these out, try to find the words. It’s challenging but I’m finally at a point in my life where I am finally able to do things like this, and not just dream about them. I finally do, and benefit. There is enjoyment gained, as these arts are beautiful, satisfying when difficult parts are done well, and exciting. They work with our fighting instinct as a species that can be violent and savage by nature, yet they help us temper and control this to our (everyone’s?) benefit. There’s an appeal in that.

There’s something else here in my motivations, I think, that I can’t quite put my finger on yet. But meanwhile, sudying these arts somehow gives me something to keep me going.

Just keep going. Just keep going. Just keep going. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going…

As long as I’m training, I’m still alive. Keep going.