(no subject)

I received a nice compliment tonight from the leader of my German Longsword study group. He said I was picking things up really quickly. I'm not surprised that I am, and I say this with all humility. I've been studying kenjutsu for nigh-on six years, so I'm able to approach the new art as a fully-formed swordsman. (By this, I'm not implying that I'm any kind of master in any sense, but I am able to approach the entire thing from the perspective of someone who has studied combat in a systematic manner for a good length of time.) The other part of the equation, of course, is that there are only so many ways to fuck somebody up with a sword.

I also realized something about myself tonight. I've been a little bit lax lately about going to my regular martial arts class, and I'd been having a disproportionate amount of guilt about it. I realized that in order to justify the guilt I've been having about not training, I'd basically have to be a professional warrior. And I am most certainly not. So I've decided that I'm OK with being serious about it when I can. Instead of lamenting that I want to be a Serious Martial Artist, then not going to class for a couple of weeks at a time, I'm going to embrace it as another facet of my dilettantism. I've chosen to integrate my thoughts on martial arts into my general Renaissance man self-image: I know a little art, I know a little literature, I know a little fighting. From now on, I'm going to start asking myself, "What would Quevedo do?" (The answer is usually, "Write a particularly vulgar sestina attacking someone's ancestry, then limp out into the street for a duel." I'll let you know how that works out.)