You Can

James Shell (Baltimore Aikikai)

When a small child takes their first few steps the parents proudly proclaim that the child is walking. I believe no one has ever seriously said that that is not really walking, after all the child did not even make it up the stairs into their own room.

When you add one and one are you really doing math? If you came up with the answer of two not only are you doing math, you came up with the perfect answer.

Pick up a sword for the first time and raise it above your head and bring it down in front of you. You have just done a sword movement that can be used to block an incoming strike or to deliver a deadly blow to an opponent.

You are calling into being the same law if you are doing a roll, taking a fall, or executing a throw. Once you have done something, you can do it. Do it once and forever after that the question of if you can or cannot do it is answered. The question you then have to face is how good do you want to do it.

It is possible that once you have done something once, that might be enough for you. It is possible that once you have done something, you will do it thousands of times. spanning years of practice. Neither way is wrong, the right way is whatever you decide to do for yourslf.

Go forth with an indomitable sprit of determination with flags of battle unfurled, snapping as the winds of war blow across the fields on which kingdoms rise and fall. Or you can go out to the meadow and have a sandwich on the lawn. Doing something for serious reasons or just for the enjoyment, either can be right for you at any moment. (A word of warning, serious people get mad with people who are having fun even if they are both doing the same thing in the same way. Apparently having fun and being serious are not compatible and cannot coexist.)

You can look at someone and copy what you see and that is called learning. You will never do something exactly like another person because you are not that other person. The responsibility for learning is your responsibility. How much you want to learn, how well you want to do, that is up to you. Whether you have had enough or you want more, it is totally up to you. Whatever name you want to use, (teacher, instructor, mentor, ED from next door) someone can show or teach you a movement but they cannot learn you a movement.

Take what you have been shown and hug it, make it yours and take it home with you. Stay open for suggestions and comments. Do not assume that what you are doing is incorrect for you just because someone makes a suggestion. It is a learning process for everyone.

Telling your self and the world in general that you have never/ have always beenÉis saying the same thing. I have never been coordinated/ I have always been uncoordinated is the same thing. Speaking of the future by saying I will never/ I will alwaysÉis saying the same thing about your self. Always and nevers are not true unless you are in a mental or physical state far and above what most of us will ever see. If you are in such a bad way you are probably not reading this so I feel a little safe. To button your shirt requires coordination and hand and finger dexterity learned after much practice; because you have done it so many times and become good at it does not detract from the learning process. Have some fun with your self, use your other hand to button your shirt, just make sure before leaving the house to have someone check and make sure you have dressed your self properly.

There is an old saying about polishing a stone. The student is given a stone and told to polish it. That is all the instruction the student is given and all he needs. The rest of the lessons of the stone are up to him to find on his own (a life time pursuit). However (you knew there was going to be a however), a couple of items may come up which relate to what I have said. When is the stone polished enough? Your answer may be different from mine. It is your stone after all. My stone is polished enough when I decide so. The second item is if you polish the stone enough you will polish it down to another "fault in the stone" and will have a reason to keep polishing. Let me leave you with a question, when you polish the stone until there is no stone, what are you left with?