I’ve never shaken while watching TV before. Yet today I shook, I trembled, I bit my nails. A special was on 31 today called Bushido: The Way of the Warrior. I’ve never been much of a fighting fan. Boxing has always boring, pro-wresting isn’t fighting at all, and UFC just never appealed to me. For some reason though, watching Bushido sucked me in. They had the best matches I’ve ever seen before, real or fake.
The final title was fought between two large Japanese warriors, and it was the one that really knocked the wind out of me. The match was extremely close, with one fighter being smaller than the other. The smaller one took a lot of leg hits in the beginning so was injured from the start. This disadvantage, as well as his size difference, cost him the match, but not before he pulled off a screaming, adrenalin rushing, sitting-on-the-guy’s-ass boston crab and injuring him. There was one point where he had the larger fighter by the feet when the larger fighter was belly up on the mat. They were both trying to feel each other out, the smaller one looking for a submission opening, and the larger one trying to anticipate the direction of the move. The hands of the smaller one were tied up with the leg holding, so his entire head was open to attack from his opponent, which he did. Every time the larger guy punched his face, he got psyched, and kept shouting for more. He managed to pull the submission off, but it was reversed and he eventually lost the match.
I always find it interesting to know that I can feel something different, that I can react in a way that I haven’t been known to before, that I can shake from a television programme. There are always things that I enjoy finding out about myself, because it feels like I’m not a static person, that there is the possibility of change in me. Sometimes I’m surprised at my own confidence, or even stunned at the cerebrality I’ve been able to gain.
If only my heart could change as well.