Today after supper my son Riker was pretty rambunctious and started attacking me. Sometimes this kind of violence-towards-one's-father stuff bugs me, but not today. I was showing him some moves and basically pummeling him and of course he always comes back for more (even against my patented Westman choke (TM) and my Chuck Norris like spinning back kick. Anyway, I was showing him some karate when the following exchange took place:
Mark: See Riker? It's all in the hips. That's where the power is in karate. Maybe someday when you get the whole "karate is for self defence only" thing a bit better, we can get you karate lessons. Or maybe even mixed martial arts?
Riker: Yeah, mix it up baby!
Just the way he said it, so smoothly and cooly, I could suddenly see him in a ring 20 years from now. There was both a feeling of excitement (my son will rock people!) and fear (by boy could get hurt!). Whether he takes up martial arts as a career or not, I know that I have to learn that I cannot save him from this world and it's hurts. He will experience joy and suffering just like any other person. I'd like to protect him but I can't. Hopefully he'll learn to roll with the punches and trust God to be his strength and his shield. And hopefully I will get many more years of pummeling him before he's big enough to do it to me!
May Light increase!
Testing
3 weeks ago
4 comments:
Mix it up baby. lol. Too cute :)
so i guess u watch a lot of UFC then
I know I'll struggle with the same thing when I become a father someday (emphasis on someday; it's not in the cards any time soon! :) I sort of went through that a little with my youngest brother, since he's 8 years younger than I am.
I don't know how long you'll be able to take Riker; that headbutt he gave me last week had a lot of power behind it!
Jay
Trust me when I say that he will start pummeling you sooner than you think! Declan has already got me a couple of times!
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