Punchy,
You are now 2 days from your due date, though we keep telling you that whenever you are ready we are excited to meet you and are ready to see your face.
Today's blog did not start out as a one to you but as one that was all about what I am teaching in sword class this week, (Unless you are born late in the week, then I may have someone else teach it so I can be there with mom and once you are born, you.) As such, the lesson was about clearing an opponents sword line and how to do that, but I may finish and publish that one later.
In thinking about sword lines I realized that to me, there are 2 ways to change your circumstances, view or the world. The first is to do something active that changes it, the other is to change your perspective so that you can see it differently. In sword, I would call this forcing your opponents weapon to move (feints, or physically moving it) or to move yourself around them. What does each mean? How do you do each?
Doing something that changes the world is probably the most common thing that people focus on in life when things need to be changed. If you do not like where the couch is, you physically move it, or have someone else move it. If you do not like the way a law is written, you can write letters to those who make the laws, protest, or vote for someone else who supports your opinion, or possibly even get elected yourself. This approach is centered around my way, or my opinion is the right one, and the other is wrong. In sword this would be akin to feints or physically moving your opponents weapon so you have cleared their line. It is active, but there is a bit of stubbornness to it. What if you feel like things have to be a particular way, and no one else agrees? Do you then force everyone else to agree? In this case I would argue that you force it, or make them change their opinion. but at the end of the day, you get your way.
There is a second way. I would say that this one is not as active and forceful but more passive and that is to change yourself and your perspective. It could be argued that this can be a way of giving up, and though it may be, it is not always the case. This second way is all about changing your perspective, so in sword I would say this is similar to taking steps to the side so you are changing your line from your opponents. In that case, your literal perspective is changing from being in direct opposition to your opponents.
These 2 can be summed up in the phrases, Changing the world or changing yourself.
Neither one is distinctly right or wrong, but both can be relevant in particular situations. Say you get a job at a place that is going to require you to work weekends and you do not want to. In this situation you can work with management to change the policy, (Change the world) or you can quit, or stick with it but look for the good in that. (change yourself) Neither one is right or wrong, but it depends on the situation. In the case of your birth, I am getting anxious and want you to be here. But there is nothing I can physically do to make that happen. So my choice is to be grumpy about it, or change myself to be OK with it happening when it happens. You have control of your life, but sometimes things show up that require you to look at life differently.
Again, say you are working somewhere and you are written up for not doing something you do not feel comfortable with. You can take this 2 ways the world is against you, or this is an opportunity to learn how to do this better. You may push back and work to fight the rule, have it changed since this was unfair to you, (Change the world) or look at it as an opportunity (change yourself). I have been out of work from my real job 75 days. Tomorrow is my hearing for my termination. I am going into it giving it what I can but knowing that it may or may not be successful that it is overturned. The appeal, is changing the world. If it is not successful, then I can be a victim of it, or look at it as an opportunity to find something that will be better for me (change myself).
The key is to balance those 2 things. When your way is the only right way, it is easy to be a victim when things do not go that way. That does not mean it is never worth it to fight for your views, but know that sometimes the best way out of being a victim is to change your thinking about it. If you find that someone is not doing what you want them to, you get to choose how respond and the truth is at the end of the day, that it is that choice that really makes you free. Sometime you can't make that choice, but you are always in charge of your perspective about what you are going to with what is before you, and that is how you will change the world.
-Dad
