jpmwritesThe Master Within: Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Big Waves.
Updated: Jul 31, 2020
Un Cuento en pocas palabras:
He was fit, young and able
when granted a black belt.
He was technically skilled
and worked harder
and longer than the rest.
So when the master cinched
the black top knot
The boy thought
he’d earned something greater
Than a tie that binds
to hold up his pants.
His master said, "Your journey is just beginning."
For the next 5 years
he cinched his black belt
and sparred and won all his bouts,
but that didn't help him.
There was a myth
of a master on a mountain
On the afternoon of the Vernal Equinox.
The boy was 21
when he took his first journey.
He arrived and found
a seated silhouette at sunset,
staring over the horizon.
"I'm looking for a master,
I’ve come to spar and learn.”
He hitched two thumbs
into a coal black belt.
"You've already found him."
The boy sat but failed
to bring the figure into the light.
He could only make out greying hair
that matched a grey peasant belt.
"I'm looking for a Black Belt Master.”
"Again" said crossed legged figure,
"You're confused,
you’ve already found the master...
You came with him.
And as for your belt,
You’re the only one here
with a black one.
But if it’s a sparring partner
you're after… That I am."
They sat and watched
the shadows play.
"Are you ready?" asked la silueta.
They both smiled and stood.
After 15 minutes
the boy hadn’t touched the figure
but was wet with sweat
from effort.
After 40 minutes he lay on the ground
and la silueta had yet to raise a hand
or clench a fist.
The boy looked up
from there down below
and said, "You win.”
"Not the point,”
said the voice from above.
He rose to his knees
and put his head in his hands.
“How?”
“Come back in five years,”
said la silueta and walked away
down the mountain (following a goat trail to water).
Five years passed.
The young man returned.
And was yet to touch the shadowy figure whose belt had gone to oyster.
Another five years past
and the man returned
and his belt too
was turning to grey but by then
he no longer cared.
It was simply a tie that binds
to hold-up his pants.
He endeavored on his spiritual journey.
After 20 years the man arrived
and la silueta was breathing shallow
but still sitting in the same spot
at sunset.
They did not spar.
They stretched.
And as the sun set
they sat lost in silhouettes
and shadow.
"I think I understand."
“I think so too,” said la silueta.
And they never saw each other again.
The boy's hair turns grey
and then white
and his once black belt
does the same.
But now his pilgrimage is yearly
on the Day of the Vernal Equinox.
And now he stretches and sits alone.
One day on the rise a girl arrived.
She was young, fit and able
with a black belt cinched at the waist.
"I've come to find a master, to spar and to learn."
He looked down at his white belt
and in the shadow of la silueta,
the corners of his mouth rose.
The End.
The story is dedicated to
Renan Pitanguy, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Coral Belt, Big Wave Surfer.
An original Brazilian Nut,
in his own words:
”I believe that my prominence in Hawaii came from the self-confidence I acquired over the years, especially thanks to Jiu-Jitsu.”
On this particular day at Pipeline
no man was in the water
and he decided to go.
”I was alone but sure of myself.”
The story was inspired
by Gabriel Sodre.
A Brazilian Big Wave Surfer
whose Black Belt
is going grey.
Big Wave Surfing
and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu are exercises
in understanding The Body in relation to Momentum and Center of Gravity.
And the reckoning with Fear...
The by-product of which
is Humility and Confidence.
