On marching forward

Last week I alluded to the fact that I’ve learned all of the forms (three sword forms and one sword fighting form) that a white belt can learn before testing for (and passing and advancing to) yellow belt. And I plan to use the time over the next month (before I can test in mid-January) productively to practice the forms I know and work on the foundational movements in the basic forms as well.

But I also have ADD -- something that was diagnosed close to 20 years ago and that I’ve learned to work with. An interest in different subjects and a somewhat constant search for something new are good traits for a journalist. Those traits, however, may not be so beneficial in whatever my career looks like next. And when it comes to sword training, in the last few weeks or so it has manifested itself as a desire to learn more about various other historical forms of swordplay -- specifically (this time) an interest in figuring out some of the training and sword techniques of the Greek hoplites and the Roman legionaries.

I even went as far as getting myself a (hardened plastic) “waster” sword modeled on a gladius (I watched a YouTube video in which a sword collector warned that it can be addictive -- he’s right, even when it comes to just wooden and plastic training weapons) and am researching replica shields for price and historical accuracy, primarily in terms of use and weight -- aside: I suspect most of the replicas I’ve seen people using on YouTube are significantly lighter than the scutum would have actually been, which Wiki (citing Cambridge University Press) says should have been about 22 lbs!

But perhaps the more valuable lesson came recently. I’ve put my part of the poetry project “to bed” (as we used to say in dead-tree journalism). I’ve hit a couple of other personal milestones. I’ve answered a few questions about how to discern my path moving forward (even though I know I need to figure out the right questions before I start looking for the right answers). But I was nevertheless feeling pretty down as I looked forward.

Then, with the unseasonably warm weather in Boston providing a little extra motivation this morning, I decided to go for a walk. I put on some upbeat music and set out -- “marching” I joked to myself. Then I remembered something I’d stumbled across in my research of Roman training techniques: they started with marching. And more marching. And then more marching. All while under the weight of a lot of gear until the recruit got used to carrying it.

So to some extent, maybe what I’m doing now is marching: getting used to the weight of new responsibilities, commitments, burdens and accountability as I move forward.

“I don’t know where I am going, but I am on my way.” - Voltaire

Picture from: Diary of a Roman Soldier in Britannia