Acting My Age

With a birthday fast approaching, I find myself reflecting on my age and whether I should act it. There are more than a few people who don't understand why someone my age would take up martial arts more easily done and mastered by the younger. There are times I even wonder about it myself, as when I'm explaining to the nurses prepping me for my colonoscopy that no, the defensive bruises on my forearms are not from fighting off my husband--they're from taking a sword away from someone over and over and over. Or when my boss looks across his desk and asks where the large bruise on my elbow came from. At least I didn't have to go into work this week and explain the latest. The left side of my face took a rather hard hit from a shinai, which is the bamboo sword we use in kendo for partner work. The young man who hit me (he was not supposed to be striking my head which is why I was not prepared to block my temple) was the same young man who cracked the scalp on the back of my head open a month ago. That one bled, but you couldn't see any evidence of the injury once the bleeding stopped. This one didn't bleed, but a week later people are still asking me what happened. The young man was very apologetic, though we all know that accidents do happen. I told him last night, however, that I would not be working with him at the kendo open workout tonight or even next Friday. No, it's nothing to do with the injuries. It's because I've been invited to test for my yellow belt in karate in two weeks, so I'll be working on karate rather than kendo until the test. There may be time to act my age later, but for now I have other things to worry about.