Preserving your identity

 















 Fighting, counter-assault, hand-to-hand-- whatever you want to call it-- is very much a thing of guts and nerve, visceral, not intellectual. And yet, you have a brain. Use it.   -Rory Miller


Friday evening BJJ in Bellevue. Did something to my left shin and it's been bugging me all week. I was able to do most stuff yesterday and today, but I did pass on the sparring portion of tonight (with the exception of a roll with Doug).

Standup, no-gi-type grips (meathook behind neck, outside tie). Pummel back and forth a few times like this, then duck under and take the back.

Same, then the backtaken person does this escape: on the same side that opponent has your wrist trapped, take one step forward and then turn sharply back, using the free forearm to break down opponent's arm. Single leg from here.  I had some trouble here because as always, I struggle with left/right and could not remember which foot to step forward with.

Same standing guard passes that we did last week- underhooking the thigh and passing around the back, then around the front.

Have been thinking a lot about yesterday's quote, the part about hanging onto the past because it's preserving your identity.  There's also the good one about  how dwelling on past bitterness is like swallowing poison and waiting for the other person to die.

I carry around a lot of baggage and bitterness, to my detriment. I have a very visceral repulsion toward the concept of forgiveness in these cases. To me, forgiving says, "It was okay that you did that".  Fuck no. It was not. It never will be okay.

And yes, I am intellectually aware that forgiveness is about healing the forgiver and not about letting the forgivee off, and all that... but emotionally it just doesn't wash. There are people who have done things to me that I will never forgive.

I am aware that they are not lying awake at night. More than one of them failed to ever understand what they did wrong or that they even did anything wrong at all. It costs them nothing that I hold a grudge, it just costs me (ironically, this serves to make me even more bitter).

If you're still bleeding years later, it proves that you were "right", right? That the other person is unspeakably evil? That you deserve sympathy, admiration, help, slack? We already established that the perpetrators don't give a shit that they hurt you; they are going on about their merry lives while you lie in the ditch and moan. If you let go of it, then NOBODY is carrying it, right? Somebody has to be left holding the bag. WTH, does it just evaporate? Does that prove that it didn't matter, that it didn't really hurt that much, it wasn't so bad, that "it was okay that you did that"?

I've been stuck and frustrated about resolving this emotional baggage, because I just can't put a spin on "forgiveness" that will make it palatable to my logic-rejecting inner child, and I couldn't find a way to reframe the problem.

So, "preserving your identity"........

We are brainwashed from toddlerhood in this society to admire/idealize heroes and Disney Princesses who were orphaned, abused, and otherwise got shat on and went on to rise above. It's a glamorous identity to have been fucked over and then rise above. Movies don't get made about people who were raised by loving parents in plenty and comfort, married their high school boyfriend/girlfriend, had a fun and enlightening education, got a great career, and had a successful happy life. If you cut out the part of Malala's story where she had to struggle to get an education and then nearly got murdered for it, and only show the wonderful work she is doing now, it's not quite the same. The hardships and struggles are part of the hero's journey, the hero's identity.

At what point does the tragic backstory become baggage? At some point do you get to choose whether that tragic past gooses you to get better or just drags you down? At some point do you get to choose when to just cut those chapters out of your book and begin at the better parts? It seems like there is an inevitable degeneration into using the tragic backstory as a crutch. "You can't expect me to accomplish X, after what happened to me,".... "You should marvel that I am able to do Y, after what I had to overcome"..... yes, it is a BIG part of one's identity. Big enough that the prospect of excision is quite daunting.