Klondike Bars
So this was going to be the "sixty second submissions" post - and then I realized, while I was writing the introduction, that I wanted to put this information into a separate piece. Here 'tis:
How can I take several years of not practicing martial arts at all - which came on the tail end of several years of practicing insufficiently, adding up to about ten years -
and start to get to a place which begins to regain and improve on ten years of practicing martial arts constantly?
Daily training of several hours would be good, and my first teacher was quite right: if it matters that much to you, you'll make time. (That is, assuming you live a life when time is, at least, plausible; the Discordian in me wants to point out that if you're serving a 20 year sentence in Siberian salt mines, martial arts practice is less feasible. But I'm not; I'm just too busy because I'm trying to make a living working for myself. If martial arts were really important, I could get a day job, instead - even a simple one. People have sacrificed far more.)
I'm not willing to do that.
If the question were about D/s, and not martial arts - if, somehow, I needed to change my situation that dramatically in order to have D/s in my life...would I?
Yes.
What am willing to do?
I would give up many kinds of being in love, for D/s.
I would cut myself off from my family, if I had to. But I deeply wouldn't want to.
I would lose friendships, if I had to.
(The last two - are flexible situations. Would I, for example, have a friendship where I never discussed the fact that I did D/s? Sure. Would I, if I felt I had to, simply hide it from my family? Probably - rather than have to cut off things with them completely. The thing is - I wouldn't say, "If you don't say you 100% support my lifestyle, I can't be your friend". It's more along the lines of "You have to chose, Jeff - give up D/s and be my friend, or leave my life". And of course, someone who's made you chose is already someone with whom things are potentially dangerous.)
I don't think I'd cut off a hand. I don't think I'd lose one eye, but I might; I'm biased on the subject.
I need to think more on this.
What would you do for a Klondike bar?
How can I take several years of not practicing martial arts at all - which came on the tail end of several years of practicing insufficiently, adding up to about ten years -
and start to get to a place which begins to regain and improve on ten years of practicing martial arts constantly?
Daily training of several hours would be good, and my first teacher was quite right: if it matters that much to you, you'll make time. (That is, assuming you live a life when time is, at least, plausible; the Discordian in me wants to point out that if you're serving a 20 year sentence in Siberian salt mines, martial arts practice is less feasible. But I'm not; I'm just too busy because I'm trying to make a living working for myself. If martial arts were really important, I could get a day job, instead - even a simple one. People have sacrificed far more.)
I'm not willing to do that.
If the question were about D/s, and not martial arts - if, somehow, I needed to change my situation that dramatically in order to have D/s in my life...would I?
Yes.
What am willing to do?
I would give up many kinds of being in love, for D/s.
I would cut myself off from my family, if I had to. But I deeply wouldn't want to.
I would lose friendships, if I had to.
(The last two - are flexible situations. Would I, for example, have a friendship where I never discussed the fact that I did D/s? Sure. Would I, if I felt I had to, simply hide it from my family? Probably - rather than have to cut off things with them completely. The thing is - I wouldn't say, "If you don't say you 100% support my lifestyle, I can't be your friend". It's more along the lines of "You have to chose, Jeff - give up D/s and be my friend, or leave my life". And of course, someone who's made you chose is already someone with whom things are potentially dangerous.)
I don't think I'd cut off a hand. I don't think I'd lose one eye, but I might; I'm biased on the subject.
I need to think more on this.
What would you do for a Klondike bar?