I know that these things sound quite basic, like climbing a rooftop or hanging out with friends or staying up late. These are not like some big, crazy things. But to me, it felt like I was climbing a mountain, that this was something huge that I was doing in my life because I was making my own choices and I felt that nobody was watching me.
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Printer wrestles with the person his chaotic childhood has trained him to be—and what pieces of himself he can salvage from the wreckage.
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The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that very existence of such a world is an affront.
Franz Kafka — Diaries
Your first judo class involves none of that whatsoever. Instead, you spend the overwhelming majority of your time falling down. You fall on your back and your side. You roll into a fall. You get reprimanded for sticking your arm out or not keeping your chin tucked. You are learning ukemi, the art of breakfalling. It is the foundational skillset that has allowed me, as a 41-year-old, to show up to the dojo multiple times a week and get thrown onto my back with full force by friends and strangers, and head home after to toss my kids around, carry the groceries, and do plenty of other things I'd struggle to do if I'd hurt myself.
Graydon Gordian