Gi, Your Hair Smells Terrific

This is now, it appears to transpire, a blog about karate. I’VE BEEN TRYING A LOT OF NEW HOBBIES AND SIMILAR LATELY. As a 37-year-old white American male (even one who exercises regularly and has largely given up red meat), statistically speaking I’m damned close to my actual life median if not past it already1, and I’m attempting to handle it with with the intentionality that I try to bring to all things I do in life2. I think that most typical mid-life crises as depicted in U.S. culture are less about wanting to be young-qua-young again (no thank you), and more about wanting to prove that we’re still capable of doing what young people do with such infuriating, unappreciative ease: grow, learn, change, and become. To that point, I’ve been trying to get ahead of this thing and am jumping feet-first into a bunch of things I’ve always wanted to try and which sure as hell aren’t gonna get any easier as I somehow get even older, such as like: The Piano (an instru-ment), and the playing…