Happy Tyr’s Day
I know I am not a warrior in the physical military sense. I guess the closest I have come is playing football which required a certain physicality with violent action. I can hit someone at full speed and they would feel it, fight off people trying to grab me and keep my balance. I have an aversion implanted from four years of football drills to being on the ground. When I fall for any reason, my first instinct is to get back to my feet. At six-foot five inches and a muscled 290 lbs. frame I don’t usually get a lot of people threatening me. I have a lot of strength and power with good flexibility and I can walk quite a ways without stopping to rest. While not ever having served in any military, I have a warrior mindset which I have applied to peace time activities. The old Japanese proverb applies:
Thanks to my father, I know how to shoot straight. I know how to engage in stillness when hunting and I have hunted enough that if it became a necessity for me I could pick it up and do it without too much adjustment. I gave hunting not because I think it is immoral or just hated the activity. I gave it up because it just isn’t a chief interest of mine and my father died and the only times I enjoyed hunting was when I did it with him.
I still would like some martial arts training and I don’t think it is too late for that. The whole viking thing has made me wonder what it would truly be like to fight with sword and shield wearing mail. Not much good when it comes to a world of firearms but the physical exercise might be beneficial in other ways. I may be getting older but that doesn’t mean I need to fade away.
Mostly I am a warrior against the forces of life. I take the Nine Noble Virtues of Asatru to heart and apply them to my life where they fit. Right now it is once more into the breach (Henry the Fifth still being my favorite Shakespeare play – the movie version from 1989 staring Kenneth Branagh being my favorite) and I am nearing the end of Fall 2018 at Ferris. If things are going well by the time this post drops, I will have finished my capstone paper and submitted it and with that my Health Economics class will be finished as well. I will only have Inferential Stats and that involves putting together three statistical reports and submitting them on exam day tomorrow. If I am making good progress I might be done today and Wednesday will be an actual rest day or preparation day for my capstone defense.
In any case, the warrior mind is to defeat each project by completing it. The time for feasting is near.
The Rabyd Skald – Wandering Soul, Bard and Philosopher. The Grey Wayfarer.
Skaal!!!