Only Fools Rush In (Day 230)

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A good person is invincible, for they don’t rush into contests in which they aren’t the strongest. If you want their property, take it - take also their staff, profession, and body. But you will never compel what they set out for, nor trap them in what they would avoid. For the only contest the good person enters is that of their own reasoned choice. How can such a person not be invincible?”
Epictetus, Discourses, 3.6.5-7

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At its core, martial arts is about being where your opponent doesn’t expect you to be, and taking full advantage of the weaknesses presented. If an aikidoka’s or karateka’s techniques were employed where their opponents were strongest, or where their opponents left obvious openings, they’d most assuredly lose every time. Now, before you, dear readers among the intelligentsia, go off on some speculative rambling about out-thinking one’s opponents and tricking them etc, etc, etc… before you do all that, go train in a combat art, spar, get hit in the face about a dozen-dozen items, then come back and make your comments. I’d wager you’d not find them the same as your original opinions.

That being said, falling for a feint is something fools do, and that’s because they rushed in, thinking something was an opportunity when in reality that something was a trap. When we let those deceitful opportunities pass us by, we are controlling the tempo of interaction, and ultimately, the outcome.

Each action is patiently employed… PATIENTLY employed, and it’s that patience that wins engagements…

… thus making the slow-moving, non-fool, unbeatable.

(See y’all tomorrow)