Story Saturday (Mar. 6)
Words are important to me. I’m an explainer. My dominant mode of thinking is first through words and then through feeling and musicality.
I’m not surprised I took to poetry when I started to finally experience its purpose and ability to evoke powerful emotions and images in the moment.
I didn’t know others did this too until much later in my life, but apparently there are people who also just like the sounds of certain words. (“Internecine” is one that I’ve been playing around with a lot — moving the syllables around in my head like a DIY rock tumbler and polishing the edges.)
I used to talk a lot about how Jiu Jitsu is a means of self-expression. How it makes me feel like I’m making art and beauty and blah blah blah blah…
Here’s a better idea.
What I’ve been playing around with lately is the idea of Jiu Jitsu as a means of enhancing communication. Self-expression can have an audience, yes, thereby involving another. But communication necessitates another person. If self-expression is about showing who you are, then communication is about seeing others.
I do believe that Jiu Jitsu is a means for skillful communication. You have to be assertive and stand your ground when the context calls for it. You tell people to stop if they’re going too hard. You need to be agile sometimes to scramble for the best positions. You tap if something hurt. You can communicate verbally or non-verbally. And most of all, you learn to observe and listen.
I’m not perfect at jiu jitsu, nor am I at communication. But I’m trying to grow in both.