Wreckage of ZeppoManx-athon

“The history of a man's life is the history of a failure. That is my happiness.”
from Wreckage of Agathon by John Gardner (1970)

I'm in Charlotte, North Carolina and I practiced at Aikido of Charlotte tonight. It was a good class and a nice change from the IT convention which I am attending. I opted out of a few “networking” social events in order to walk the mile and ½ to the dojo.

The strange thing was that while I mostly adapted to a different dojo, there were a few points that really threw me. For one thing, previously whenever I've worked from a static beginnings Shomenuchi was always Gyaku Hamni where Uke always steps as he strikes. To get your bearings you look at your partner's stance and change accordingly. Tonight I had no idea what to day. I would change my stance and then the other guy would change his so that it looked wrong for me.

Then we practiced a different version of Shomenuchi Nikkyo and it it also confused me, so I looked pretty stupid.

But even though I recognized my failures, I had a good time and felt purified. There is something about an Aikido practice that cleanses your body and soul.

As an aside I saw that the Mind + Body convention was finishing as the IT Service Management Convention started. I kind of wished I was going to four days of Mind + Body rather than professional networking, 10 seminars and 5 uplifting motivational speaches.

If only my work would send me to an Aikido convention.