So yeah, I've been living here in Detroit for the past 9 months now. I initially came here last May because I had read a book called The Next American Revolution by Grace Lee Boggs. It's still strange for me to say, but I literally felt "called" to come here. And it wasn't necessarily just the ideas presented in Grace's book that got me....it just felt so much larger...like there was an epic purpose to my life and I needed to go to Detroit to begin to understand what that was. Up until that time I had never gone that far east across the country (let alone driving by myself). I don't have any family in Michigan, but interestingly enough my father went to Michigan State University on the GI bill in the '70's, so there are some family friends in Lansing (an hour or so away from the D), but none in the city of Detroit. Point is, there wasn't going to be anyone to help ease the transition when I got here. Scary as that was, nine months later that fear seems so trivial. I often joke with people here that I've made more friends in just these past few months than I ever have living in LA for the past 15 years! I guess that says a lot about me doesn't it...
Anyway, why am I writing all that? Cause I can dude! This is my blog; I'll say whatever the F-YOU-SEE-KAY I want! HA! Alright, calm down. No need to get nasty with the people. I can tell you that I never had the intention of writing any of these thoughts down. I mean, that's why I keep a journal...a private journal. And I mean, I guess since that's private no one except me gets to see it. But I mean, what's so special about my thoughts? Well shit man, if people wanna follow the status updates and tweets of their favorite celebrity, then why the hell can't I blog my thoughts into the cyber universe? The thoughts of those celebrities ain't anymore special than mine right? Right. Everybody got to get the hubris in them sometime, you know what I mean?
Okay, so what does all this have to do with karate? I know it's not so obvious now but this blog is an attempt to lay out some ideas, thoughts, connections, etc. about this art that I've been practicing for the past 5 years. What's interesting is that when I was getting ready to drive out here, I thought that I was going to quit my training. I was an extremely frustrated karateka who didn't understand my place in the martial spectrum of things. I mean, 5 years of training ain't that long, but it was long enough (and I was old enough in my late twenties) to begin to seriously ask myself what I was doing with karate. I was feeling like it was time to stop deluding myself about my martial aspirations, admit to my sucky-ness and just move on. Little did I know that I would come to Detroit and actually even begin "teaching" karate! Ha! That's an irony if I ever saw one (or heard one or...whatever). But that's what happened. It started off innocently enough by showing my karate to a friend at the local island park. From there it progressed, by word of my friend's mouth, that I was doing karate at the park and that if anyone wanted to come and train with me they were quite welcome. So began a 3-day-a-week training routine for the next 4 months; which is basically what my training routine was in LA! Most of the time it was by myself (which is how I wanted it), but my neighbor Dave was loyal enough to keep coming out to train with me as often as he could. Then winter came (damn that cold!). It was difficult to find a space to train for 3-4 months. I tried training in the living room of the rented flat we have here; I got a text from the upstairs neighbor asking me what all the pounding noises were and could I please stop (okay so yeah it was like 11 at night). But that was a no-go. In December I "tried" working with a local church to have a once a week karate class for the young people in the neighborhood. Held that space every Saturday for a month before I decided that I didn't have the conviction (yet) that it would work (only 2 people ever came, and they were people I knew). But then starting last month (February) I was fortunate enough to get a space at a local artists gallery in Southwest Detroit. With the stipulation that I would be holding karate "classes", I am now currently using the space 3 days a week, free of charge, for my own training. And funny enough, that's the only reason I wanted to get these spaces, so that I wouldn't have to stop training! But I guess you can't expect to do something "exotic" like martial arts somewhere and not have some people be interested in that. Point is, despite 3 days being the minimum I could be training, I am glad that I even have the space to be DOING IT at all. And no, I am not trying to conclude my blogs with clever sentences that connect it to the title. Only sometimes.
Elbow SMASH!
- Hiji Até
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| Showing Fukyukata Ichi at Belle Isle. |
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