Riding for Roses

This story is weeks old, yet I wanted to put it up anyway. Mostly, it’s just the proud parent thing, though I think there is possibly some sort of interesting lesson in it as well.

Spencer attends Master Yi’s Tukong Moosul through a program offered by the Childrens School. Tuesday and Thursday, after school he and about 15 other kids take the school bus over to the Tukong school and learn Tukong with Master Ali and instructors Alex and Victor. Much of the work is discipline building – learning to follow directions, concentrate, and have courage. They cover the basic forms and lately have started non-contact sparring and weapons work. Spencer loves it.

Tukong was the first outside activity we restarted after Spencer began chemotherapy and Master Ali gave him private lessons to help him get exercise, catch up with class, and make up for lost class time from being tired. When Spencer first came back, he had to walk one or two laps to warm up while the class ran three laps. He still is not back up to his energy level from before chemotherapy, but he gives it his all. He’s also tried to show leadership, primarily by helping children from his school class who decide to try Tukong. One friend didn’t like Tukong, so Spencer went and talked to him about why (“the teacher is too loud and bossy”) and encourage him to take the class anyway. He also helps in class, picking up and putting away equipment after it has been used (a task normally performed by the instructors) without being asked.

He has started intensification chemotherapy, but has not yet had problems with side effects. His energy and blood counts remain high. We still think he’ll miss 4-6 weeks of Tukong, but for now we will take what we get.

At the beginning of February, they had a promotion test. Spencer was a yellow belt junior, taking the test for promotion to yellow belt, senior (the senior belt has a black stripe). He performed adequately. My untrained opinion is his skills are about the middle of the pack for his cohort (the other yellow juniors who all started around the same time he did).

The previous promotion test had included board breaking. The kids break a 4 inch section of a 1”x12” board, so they are breaking with the grain. My own experiments show that a 42 year old with no training can easily break 2 such boards stacked and a 4 year old can do it if he or she has the confidence to strike through the board instead of punching the board. It is primarily an exercise in courage and confidence. Nobody at the previous test managed to break a board under the test conditions, so Grand Master Yi had Master Ali send 2 board home with each kid. Spencer broke those and then had me go buy a 12 foot long 1”x12” and cut it into four inch pieces. We now have two left.

Naturally, this promotion test had a different test of courage. The Grand Master had the kids pair off and then asked them to do non-contact sparring – three moves of punching or kicking staying several feet away from their opponent. They had never done this in class and none had the confidence to try after being told what to do. Now, they have sparring added to their training to help build confidence. Spencer’s immediate concern about this is that somebody will hit his port-a-cath while they are sparring. He talked about that with Master Ali and feels comfortable with it now.

After everyone had completed demonstrations and the promotions were being announced, Spencer’s turn came up. Grand Master Yi said, “Orange Belt. Double Promotion.” I wish I had been faster with the camera or, better, had brought the video camera. I was not able to capture the combined look of shock, excitement, and pride on Spencer’s face, followed shortly by a look of confusion. His first question to me after he came of the floor was “why did I get a double promotion and not anybody else”.

It’s all about courage, son, and you’ve got courage in spades.