The Sound Of Silence…

Last week, I awoke to a quiet house. I’m never a fan of Monday mornings… They usually mean I have to get some work done and the week has started, the calm and free time of the weekend has evaporated and dealing with the outside world sets in. But anyone who has children and lives in a “typical” family-oriented home will understand why silence can be a bit of a surprise, sometimes even concerning.

My usual Monday mornings involve a colourful choice between an infant wailing for food or a parent’s attention or my rambunctious five-year old son who thinks that my abdomen makes a pretty good trampoline if I’m quietly sleeping. In fact, since the advent of COVID-19, I’ve set an alarm every weekday morning but have never reached it as my children usually wake me up before I get there. Which is fine, right? That’s pretty normal for a family household.

But last Monday, I awoke to the dulcet sound of Joe Satriani’s “Always With Me, Always With You,” which is my morning wake-up alarm. It’s a smooth, guitar-based instrumental that allows me to wake without being jolted out of my slumber as though someone has connected a car battery to various parts of my body. Anyway, after a moment’s confusion I realized that I couldn’t hear a sound, which in this household is an abnormality.

A mild sense of panic set in as I wondered what was going on. The temperature was in the low teens with a steady rain, so I knew my oldest wouldn’t be playing outside (at least I hoped he wouldn’t) and Monday is a day off for my wife. I stepped out of my bedroom to find my son snoring softly in his bed with his iPad playing cartoons next to him. This is an oddity in itself because he went to sleep here in my downstairs office, last night. This means that at some point, he transitioned upstairs to his bedroom without waking anybody; a miracle unto itself.

The baby was quietly sleeping in his crib and I found my wife sitting on the couch, tinkering on her phone. We said good morning and chatted for a few minutes before it was agreed that my wife should go back to bed and sleep while the baby sleeps. I got a cup of coffee and toasted an english muffin and escaped to the solitude of my basement, which is where I do all my research, indoor workouts and my writing. I settled in and enjoyed my breakfast in a quiet solitude that any parent can agree rarely happens.

So, I sat there… Took sips of my coffee and actually played Mega Man 2 on a badly coded game emulator on my computer. I read a few chapters of a book and checked out a few things online and enjoyed the silence. And you know what? I honestly don’t understand the folks who claim they can’t stand being in silence. It’s wonderful. You can be alone and collect your thoughts, you can enjoy some much needed down time and it’s good for your overall mental well-being.

Eventually the bubble bursts, and it didn’t take long for my son to track me down and begin demanding breakfast. But having that little bit of quiet time every now and again can make a huge difference in one’s life. I highly recommend it. Whether you have a workout, read a book or flat out do NOTHING and just relax, everyone should enjoy a little calm and quiet. Every once in a while. ☯

The Most Unlikely Sources…

Something important to bear in mind is that inspiration and learning can come from some very unlikely sources. Every Sunday, I try to choose someone that has taught me something, guided me or inspired me throughout my life. I hate to admit it, but it’s been a challenge. I’ve mainly tried to keep this contained to martial artists, including the likes of Michele “The Mouse” Krasnoo, Bill “Superfoot” Wallace, Ronda Roussey and even Miyamoto Musashi. All of these folks have had an impact on my life and have inspired what paths I’ve chosen.

But I’ve also made a point of including people who have inspired or guided me in other ways, like my father. Ultimately, we can find inspiration in negative places as well. I only say this because the subject of this week’s “inspiration” post is someone who has had about as much negative (if not more) influence on the general public as positive. I am referring to a reasonably well-known action star named Steven Seagal.

It may be considered an unpopular opinion by some, but Seagal played an integral role in my interest of the martial arts. After all, he’s a master of Aikido, studied/taught in Japan and starred in a number of action movies that came out during those impressionable years when I was young enough to be impressed but old enough to think, “Hmm, this martial arts stuff is pretty cool!” He moved to Japan and studied Aikido there, and claims to have also been the “first non-Asian to open a dojo in Japan.” Whether this is true or not is anyone’s guess, but he’s had a colourful life prior to returning to the United States where he began acting in movies.

He has starred in almost five dozen movies, although a good number of those beyond the mid-90’s went straight to video. I first saw him when I was ten years old in a movie called Above The Law. In it, he plays a police officer and martial artists who uncovers a government conspiracy and helps put an end to it. Sounds pretty heroic, right? In fact, the majority of his movies have involved the protagonist being some sort of military/police/operative who ultimately saves the day. But that’s the whole point, right? We usually WANT to see the hero win. As a kid, I was awe-struck by Seagal’s ability to use grappling and striking as a means of defeating even the most difficult of enemies. And all of his films up until the late 90’s were pretty bad-ass. I can still watch some of them with deep enjoyment, although much more criticism on his martial arts technique.

Then it gets a bit convoluted. Seagal identifies as a Buddhist and martial artist. This holds some special meaning to me, being a Buddhist and martial artist myself. But it stands to reason that someone who practices a religion devoted to the elimination of suffering in the world should be doing just that, shouldn’t they? Seagal has been the subject of a lot of controversy recent decades, including allegations of sexual assault, violence against the people he works with and has ongoing feuds with the majority of his Hollywood counterparts, notably Jean-Claude Van Damme, as a prime example. Not a very Zen-like approach to life, especially a blessed one such as his.

In recent decades, Seagal has become something of a walking joke when one considers his strange political views, ongoing opinions about how other martial artists aren’t “true martial artists” and his apparent lack of self-care where his body is concerned. The man has ballooned up to the point that he almost looks like a cartoon character! My wife and I recently watched him on Netflix in a film called Maximum Conviction, where he starred alongside Steve Austin. Once again, he was portrayed as some sort of specialist who simply couldn’t be defeated. The movie basically starts out by having him beat up a prison inmate who happens to be over twice his mass!

I’m not saying that a genuine martial artist would be unable to defeat a larger opponent, but given the fact that he was 60 years of age in that movie, couple with how he’s let himself go physically, one needs to face reality at some point. It’s no surprise this was yet another straight-to-DVD movie. Even WITH Diabetes, I consider it a point of health, personal care and importance to try and maintain my physical fitness to the best of my ability; a task I feel that I’m still on top of, despite my gut slowly trying to overtake my efforts. But I digress…

My point is, Seagal helps to provide guidance in a very specific way: he’s shown me how NOT to be. His behaviours definitely don’t fall in line with someone who is a true student of the Buddhist or Martial Way. His concepts and abilities with the martial arts have been questioned for decades, both for their authenticity and truth behind his claims. None of this is how a true martial artists or Buddhist would be intended to behave. When I need to know how NOT to comport myself, I need only think of Steven Seagal. ☯

Don’t Judge A Book By Its Cover, Even If The Cover Should Reveal What’s Inside

I remember a story from years ago when I was a manager at my hometown’s local pharmacy. Yes, I was a pharmacy manager… In general, it was an uninteresting job. But like most things in life, there can be lessons to learn behind the scenes, if you’re willing to listen. This is one of those lessons…

I was helping the merchandising staff get some stock out to the floor and I was working in the painkillers and vitamins section with one of the pharmacy technicians. The pharmacy staff were always a little “holier than thou” with the front store staff as they believed that the dispensary was the only reason for the location’s existence. So, there would sometimes be a BIT of tension there. Especially since I technically had no direct authority over them as they fell under the umbrella of the Pharmacist/Owner.

Anyway, I was shelving painkillers (Ibuprofen and Acetaminophen) and the tech was shelving some vitamins. We had a plastic bin for damaged and expired goods on a wheeled cart between our two respective aisles. At one point, we took a break and I glanced down into the bin and noticed a coupled of expired items I had tossed. I also noticed a full, unopened box of multivitamins sitting in the bin. I picked them up and checked the expiration date. They were good until the following year.

I asked the tech why the vitamins were sitting in the throwaway bin. The tech took the box from my hand and showed me where the cardboard was slightly damaged on one end. That was it. The ends were still sealed and by proxy, the bottle of vitamins inside was still sealed tight and the vitamins were in perfectly good condition. I explained to the tech that we couldn’t throw out the box of vitamins based on a bit of scratched cardboard as there was nothing wrong with the bottle inside (part of my responsibility included shrinkage).

The tech pursed her lips and turned her nose up, explaining that she wouldn’t buy a damaged box and couldn’t see any customer doing so either. I asked her, “Why not? If the bottle and the vitamins are intact, there’s literally nothing wrong with it, why would you not still purchase it? Who cares if the box has some scratched up cardboard on it?” She simply shrugged and had no viable answer to give me. I was at a loss and a little bit confused, as my feeling was that the little bit of damage on the outside didn’t take away the value of what was contained within. Apparently, she didn’t agree…

This is an important lesson for the world in general, especially in today’s society of social media filters, photoshopped pictures and everybody’s immediate obsession with their outside appearance. Bullying is at an all-time high, and people’s ability to resist or stand up to it is at an all-time low. But the unfortunate reality is that the first thing people see when meeting us is what’s on the outside. And more often than not, their assessment of you is over before they get to know what’s inside the package.

The Buddhist in me thinks that this is a sad state for the world to be in. The loud, French martial artist with the attitude in me thinks that I don’t give a shit what other people think about me one way or another, but not everyone is as thick skinned. Either way, the important thing to remember is that first impressions are simply that: a first impression. Until you’ve taken the time to look beneath the surface and see what the second, third and fourth impressions may yield, judgements should be reserved and withheld. ☯

Hot In The City, Hot In The City, Tonight! 🎶

Summer is upon us, and I couldn’t be more exhausted. Or miserable! This time last week, we reached temperatures in the low and mid-30’s (Celsius) and I’ve been hiding out in the cool recesses of my basement ever since. I know, I know… I should stop complaining as winter temperatures in Saskatchewan can often hit -50 degrees Celsius and then there’s the shovelling. But I don’t function well in the heat, and would opt for an Alaskan cruise or deep-cave exploration as opposed to laying on a hot beach.

Diabetes doesn’t like heat, either. In fact, according to an article posted by the CDC, people with either Type-1 or Type-2 feel and experience heat a lot more than the average person. Why? Quite simply, nerve damage caused by Diabetes can affect the sweat glands, making it more difficult for Diabetics to cool themselves as efficiently. We also tend to dehydrate much easier, since when the heat starts to dehydrate us our blood sugars rise, we urinate more and lose more fluids… Wash, rinse and repeat.

The other issue is that heat simply slows down the will to move and you tend to want to lay in the shade and do nothing. This is one of the reasons why people in South America tend to go “siesta” in the afternoons, when the sun is at its peak and temperatures are highest. Maybe they have the right idea. Besides dehydration and other typical complications, high heat will also affect how your body processes your insulin doses, so more frequent blood glucose testing (if you aren’t using CGM) may be required to ensure you don’t hit too many highs and lows.

Your equipment carries an entirely different batch of issues. Insulin is the biggest problem, as it requires an ideal temperature range to be effective. Having insulin in direct sunlight or extreme heat will not only damage its effectiveness, but it may cause the medicinal ingredients to evaporate and turn your insulin into nothing more than very expensive water! But your equipment is no different, including insulin pumps, glucometers and even test strips will be adversely affected by the heat. So it’s important to keep these things packed in a cool receptacle when travelling outdoors for any period of time.

Yes, the summer season is nice to get out and get fresh air and enjoy the outdoors. But the heat can sure throw a monkey wrench into the daily life of someone with Diabetes. Especially since kids find themselves out of school and your routine may be royally shot to hell. But as long as your drinking plenty of fluids (non-alcoholic), using sunscreen and have a cool, air-conditioned environment to take breaks in, you shouldn’t have too many problems. Stay cool! ☯

It’s What’s Inside That Counts…

No, this isn’t a post about inner beauty and about how everyone is beautiful! I’ll save THAT conversation for another day, as I do have some definitive thoughts on it. But if you’ve had Diabetes for the amount of time I have, you’ve been through some shit. And you’ve put up with some shit. Diabetes is shit… That’s the takeaway! But in all seriousness, the topic of today’s post are physical scars, which are mostly inside. And having Diabetes or using the associated therapies can leave a number of different scars.

Let’s begin with the digits, shall we? The fingertips… Part of effectively treating Diabetes is the frequent testing of one’s blood sugar levels. Although I was limited to testing only once a day when I was first diagnosed, as a result of financial constraints and my parents being unfortunate enough not to know better, the ideal situation is to test at LEAST five times a day or more. This would include when waking, before every meal and before hitting the sack at the end of the day.

As I got older and took control of my treatment, I started to test my blood sugar more and more in order to avoid many of the complications I had as a child. The result of this is that my fingertips lost sensitivity and accumulated hard, shell-like scarring. This type of scarring is true scarring, same as you’d get from an injury or a wound. It happens due to the accumulation of a fibrous protein called collagen, and is the body’s way of helping to heal the wound. Although the scar tissue may soften over time, it never truly goes away. Even if I have feeling in my fingertips nowadays, you can still see the scar tissue if you look closely (especially since I still do finger pokes.)

The more problematic scarring (because let’s be honest: as long as the needle pokes through the tissue and draws blood, fingertip scarring is no kind of a big deal), is Lypohypertrophy. You can check that term out on Google or Wikipedia if you wish, but the gist of it is a visible lump under the skin near your insulin injection sites. Besides being painful, it can also affect how your insulin is absorbed and the length of its effectiveness. I’m just going to refer to them as “Lumps” for the rest of this post…

People forget that insulin is a growth hormone and because of that fact, the Lumps you find at your injection sites are often an accumulation and/or growth of fat tissue. This is generally caused by using the same injection site repeatedly, but does go away over time. Depending on the severity of the Lumps, it can take several days, weeks, even years in some cases for them to completely heal and disappear. But they generally do, over time.

Here are a few ways to avoid developing Lypohypertrophy:

  1. Rotate your injection sites: This is something you should be doing anyway, but you want to avoid using the same spot over and over without allowing it some time to heal. In fact, my pump trainer was telling me about a Type-1 who only uses one side of his abdomen per month, allowing for a full calendar month for the other side to “heal” and for Lumps to disappear. I don’t go to THAT extreme, but I do switch sides with every new infusion set;
  2. Use a fresh needle: I used to be EXTREMELY guilty of this one. Either from laziness or trying to be cost-saving, re-using the same needle over and over can be terrible for you flesh (see illustration below). Even after one use, the point of a needle begins to warp and change shape, requiring more pressure to breach your flesh and causing more damage on the way in. This can lead to actual scarring as opposed to just Lumps. It will also increase the chances of inflammation and infection;
  3. Leave some space: If you are injecting on the same side and are close to the previous injection site, make sure you leave at least an inch of space between your current site and the new one. Like I said, insulin is a growth hormone. If you inject too close to the previous site, absorption and effectiveness can still be an issue;
  4. Give yourself time to heal: Alright, this one may be riding on the coattails of #1, but it’s important. Like anything else, injection sites need time to heal and get better. No matter what you may read online (this blog included), your body is unique and your healing time will be yours alone. So make sure you’re giving it the time it needs before poking into your preferred injection area.
Microscopic view of a needle tip after repeated use

Obviously, if things seem kind of wonky with a previous injection site, such as discolouration, throbbing or pain or the tissue is hot to the touch, you should seek medical attention as it could be an indication of a worse injury or even infection. I’ve just complicated matters for myself, since CGM requires a second injection site and is supposed to last for seven days. So I get to yo-yo two different injection sites with different change times and try to prevent reusing those sites too frequently.

At the end of the day (or week), those Lumps will disappear as long as you stay true to fresh needles and fresh injection sites. You may develop Lypohypertrophy on occasion even IF you do all these things, so don’t be surprised if you get the occasional Lump. Just be sure to take care of them properly and you’re good to go! ☯

Happy Canada Day!

Alright, so this is a re-post of last year’s Canada Day. But in reviewing it, I decided that there was little I could add or modify that does this post any justice, so I’m sharing it again.Other than the fact that July 1st carries a bit of a dark stain in my personal life (those close to me know what I’m referring to), my country holds a big place in my heart and I think our national holiday is an important observation on the yearly calendar. Enjoy…

O, Canada! My home and native land… Alright, for those of you who know the anthem, that was pretty cheesy. But today is our National holiday, celebrated on July 1st because Canada became a country on July 1st 1867. For my fellow bloggers and loyal readers who may not be from the Great White North, here are some quick facts about Canada to help you understand what makes us awesome…

The common misconception is that Canada was first discovered in 1534 by French mariner Jacques Cartier. Although it is the accepted belief, the discovery of an abandoned outpost in the Province of Newfoundland suggests that Vikings may have come to Canada as early as 500 years before Cartier.

Vikings aside, French and British settlers began colonizing in 1602. British colonies and territories joined together in 1867 through confederation to become a self-governing country that we know today as Canada.

Although self-governing, Canada continued to be ruled by the British Crown until as recently as 1982, when our Constitution was patriated. The British Monarchy is still considered our head of state.

Our country has the second largest landmass of one country, in the world. Our borders touch three oceans (Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic) and our country has 10 Provinces and 3 Territories. As of today, Canada has a population of over 37 million people and we boast a unique multiculturalism unseen anywhere else in the world.

What else is Canadian? Well, I’m glad you asked… Five pin bowling, the wonder-bra, Trivial Pursuit, the vehicle Odometer, the egg carton, North American time zones, the electric wheelchair, the first plastic garbage bags, the paint roller, the first internet search engine, the first pacemaker, basketball, ringette and hockey, the world-renown Royal Canadian Mounted Police and of course, insulin! (You’re welcome world!)

We thoroughly enjoy our food. In fact, we’ve invented a mouthful of it (see what I did there?)… Poutine, Nanaimo bars, instant mashed potatoes, the California Roll, Chinese buffets, peanut butter and butter tarts, caesars (the drink), Hawaiian Pizza and Coffee Crisp bars!

And contrary to popular belief, we didn’t invent donuts but Tim Horton’s donuts is Canadian and its coffee brand is world-renown. One of the fun and unique things about Canada is that you’ll find local cuisine and dialects specific to particular corners of our nation.

There’s so much more, but I’d need more than a blog post to cover it all. Suffice it to say that Canada has a lot more to it than beavers, moose and donuts. If you have the benefit of living here, hopefully you’re doing something to celebrate today.

If not, come pay us a visit! I’ll grab a two-four of Molson Canadian and some Timbits and I’ll tell you the rest of the story. Stop on in, eh? ☯

Another Piece To The Puzzle

I started CGM last week. For those of you who may be unfamiliar, CGM stands for Continuous Glucose Monitoring, and it’s a device that measures my blood glucose levels every five minutes and communicates them with my insulin pump. In some ways, it’s the same as my FreeStyle Libre, with the exception that my FreeStyle doesn’t communicate with my pump.

Although having a device that instantly tells my pump whether it needs to suspend basal delivery because of a low and maintain a better percentage of “time in range,” it stands to reason that a more complicated device will theoretically have more issues. And I have found this to be true with CGM. The FreeStyle Libre has been good to me overall, providing little in the ways of problems and interfacing with my phone for a quick, easy means of checking my blood sugars.

When I started the insulin pump in early 2015, I was resistant to CGM. Hell, I was resistant to the pump itself, but the medical professionals through my work kept “encouraging” it, and since they were footing the bill I figured, why not? And no, that isn’t a brag about the fact my pump was covered by my medical insurance. I’m well aware that most people don’t have that benefit, so I’m grateful rather than bragging.

But given the potential violence of my work, I felt that it wouldn’t be ideal to have a device hanging off my gut, around the clock. I also didn’t want to feel tethered to a machine, having grown up watching my brother hooked to machines all his life. I conceded to try the pump, but I refused the CGM as it would be a second module attached to the body and I felt as though one was enough. I mean, come on! Life with Diabetes is difficult enough without turning myself into a cyborg, am I right?

Hello, CGM! Welcome to the party! (Pointing out my freckle is not necessary, thank you!)

My endocrinologist did it right; sneaking the FreeStyle Libre into my life, calling it the “poor man’s CGM” (although it’s far from being cheap, by any means) and allowing me to get comfortable with the prospect of a second device on my person. I have been using FreeStyle for about two years now, and with the advent of my new pump that I started mid-March (Presenting, The Medtronic 670G), I decided to stop being such a stubborn princess and try the CGM that my pump is designed for. (Don’t get any ideas, I’m the only one allowed to call me a princess… And maybe my wife…)

So, here are the problems… Because this is me, and of course there are problems… The first glucose sensor I installed at my pump training failed within hours. Either from a faulty sensor or from scar tissue (which I’ll be covering the day after tomorrow) we don’t know. But it was a pain in the ass, nonetheless. Installing the sensor is tedious, involving more steps than refilling the insulin pump AND using enough adhesive to make Red Green‘s duct tape jealous. (If you don’t know who that is, click on the link and I apologize for aging myself so severely)

This happened last Monday. I was frustrated and I already felt as though the CGM would cause more problems than it was worth, so I shut the option off on my pump. I’m also a bit old school and it takes me a while to put the fate of my well-being in a machine I’m unfamiliar with (Not today, SkyNet!). On Tuesday, I went cycling with a friend and felt it wasn’t a great day to re-install, so I went without it. On Wednesday, I realized that I was actively avoiding it, so I installed a new sensor and started the whole thing up.

I also needed to demo the installation for my wife, who will be the one helping me install it on my tricep, should I decided to use that as a potential site (cue the naughty nurse jokes, here.) Here’s the thing: it’s been helpful. I’m eating an entire murder of crows admitting this, but having the ability to simply glance at my pump screen and see my trends and know what I may be currently sitting at has been nice. Also, my pump is set to automatically suspend my basal rates if I hit 4.0 mmol/L, making it a whole lot safer for me at night. Now, I just need to see how the device will hold up to extreme exercise or cycling, and how I’ll handle a punch to the gut when I return to karate, for the jury to fully have a verdict.

I guess my point behind all of this, besides pointing out how stubborn I am, is that although we don’t have a cure for Diabetes yet, technology has carried us lightyears beyond where we were in the early 80’s when I was diagnosed. When I think about the brick of a glucometer I used to carry around, only testing my blood once a day, “eat no sugar” being my only mantra and the fact that I was excused from most if not all sports due to the fact that “Diabetes makes it dangerous to play sports…” Pffft… what bullshit! If I only knew then what I know now. But I digress…

My point is that we’re getting there. Different technologies are at least making Diabetes manageable in ways it never could be, before. Will we have a cure someday? Like a significant percentage of the Canadian population, I sincerely hope so. I just don’t know if it’ll be within my lifetime. In the meantime, I’m well on my way to becoming a cyborg. ☯

“Stick” To Traditional Weapons…

There is an unlimited number of martial arts styles from dozens of countries and backgrounds, all across the world. Some are surprisingly similar, despite having never intersected or crossed paths. I guess there’s only so many ways to throw a punch or kick. And throughout the centuries, some weapons decided to come along for the ride.

Having personally spent more than three quarters of my life studying an Okinawan style of karate, I’ve been exposed to a number of “traditional” Okinawan weapons including nunchaku, sai, kama and tonfa. I’ll just let you Google any of those terms that you may not recognize. And given that I’ve studied Kendo in reasonable depth means that I’ve developed some skill with the sword. But none holds a deeper place in my heart than one of the most basic weapons one could think of: the staff.

Let’s get real for a moment and agree that it doesn’t get any more basic than this. A stick is essentially the simplest and most basic weapon a person can grasp, and I’m sure that if we could have been there to see it, we’d also understand that humans have swung sticks around as weapons since the dawn of humanity. Given the styles I’ve studied and the culture from which it came, my version of the stick is referred to as a bo.

A typical bo staff usually measures about 6 feet in length, but can vary and reach almost 9 feet. The length of the weapon usually depends on one’s height and reach. A smaller, shorter version of the bo is a referred to as a jo, and is usually about 4 feet in length. This weapon is normally intended for children and martial artists of shorter stature. The bo will usually be made of a flexible wood, allowing for fluidity of movement and is tapered (thinner at the ends and thicker at the centre), which allows for proper balance during its use.

There are more variations of bo than I could possibly list, but they can be made of various different types of wood and shapes, including a rounded or hexagonal body, or even a square body. The shape makes no difference in the use of the staff and is mainly a preference. The staff has been included in some traditional martial arts styles such as Kobudo, which is an Okinawan style of weapons-based martial arts, or Bojutsu, which is effectively the Japanese martial art of training with the staff.

In simple terms, the staff is one of my favourite martial arts weapons because you can access one almost any place you happen to find yourself in a compromised situation. Mop or broom sticks, maybe garden tools… any wooden length of even a few feet can provide the benefits of bo training. Even if you don’t have access to Kobudo or Bojutsu in your area, many styles of karate will also incorporate the staff and can be an excellent addition to your combat repertoire. ☯

Roots In The Foundation

Way back at the end of the greatest decade ever… the 80’s, in case you’re wondering… I met an individual who would change and improve my life. In fact, I would go well beyond saying that he’s saved it, on more than one occasion. I am speaking, of course, of the subject of this week’s inspirational individual: My Sensei, Jean-Guy Levesque.

Sensei began his martial arts journey right around the same time I was born (ironic, isn’t it?). He worked in my home town of Dalhousie, New Brunswick and began studying the art of Judo at a young age. Although he achieved the rank of black belt, he never quite felt as though Judo was the right art for him. This would be where he did his research and discovered an Okinawan style of karate he wanted to pursue. The only problem was that it wasn’t taught in the Maritimes back then.

He found a teacher in Boston, of all places. Sensei packed up his red mustang and left his wife and newborn child behind in order to travel to the U.S. and pursue his martial arts ambitions. He travelled to Boston and found himself under the tutelage of Sensei Robert Blaisdell. At the time, Sensei Blaisdell was taken aback by the Canuck who randomly landed at his doorstep, seeking karate lessons. In fact, Sensei Blaisdell tried to convince my Sensei to seek out a teacher back in Canada as it made no sense for him to travel to Boston several times a year to maintain the skills he would learn.

Sensei wouldn’t be deterred and continued to travel to Boston regularly, eventually reaching the rank of brown belt. At that point, people in my home town of Dalhousie started asking Sensei to teach, which he did, opening his first school of karate in the attic space of an old Catholic School convent. He named the school the New England Academy of Karate & Judo, a name that ne can still see adorning some of my gear to this day.

Sensei and I in 2007

Sensei grew in skills and rank, and starting climbing the black belt ladder. He’s taught hundreds of students in the North Shore of New Brunswick. He fathered two children, a daughter and a son; both of whom have studied karate under his guidance. Sensei became THE leading source of self-defence and discipline back home, and was known as the karate no one stuck with, mostly due to the severe level of discipline and commitment required to keep up with the curriculum.

I walked into his dojo for the first time in early 1989, months before I would celebrate my 11th birthday. I had been diagnosed with Type-1 Diabetes six years prior. I was dangerously underweight, I suffered from severe insulin resistance and had already been through a number of comatose events in the previous years. My parents didn’t want me joining karate and were unaware that I was attending class, having left the house on the premise that I was simply going for a bike ride.

Due to my poor health, Sensei could have easily turned me away, claiming that I wouldn’t be able to keep up or train with the class. But instead, he chose to take me in, guide me, train me and help me develop. Over the next year, my health and blood sugars improved, my appetite and my mass increased and I began to hold my head up as opposed to being the quiet, withdrawn ghost that most only noticed when they needed someone to pick on.

Throughout the decades, Sensei has been a mentor, teacher, guide and father figure. He’s given me advice on almost every aspect of life and has helped in all areas of my growth. he’s taught his students with only the bare minimum of tuition fee, the strict minimum required to keep the doors open and the lights on. He has never charged any of his students for belt tests, additional training or even the physical belts themselves. His tutelage has always been about the art and never about the profit, the way any traditional teacher SHOULD be.

A few years ago, after more than forty years of teaching, he closed the doors to his dojo due to rising rental costs imposed by the local school board for the facilities he used. He now trains in private in a small dojo built into his home. He still trains with a couple of the students he once had, but it’s mostly on a one-on-one basis.

Sensei continues to be an inspiration to me because he sought out to pursue his dreams of learning karate and did so, regardless of the obstacles he faced. He managed to build a career and raise a family while doing it. We should all be so dedicated and committed to something. Even if we now live more than two thirds of the country apart, we communicate often and he continues to train me. I’m still learning from him. I don’t anticipate that will ever change. An email here, a photo or video clip there; he continues to add to my puzzle of a million pieces… One piece at a time. There are many who would say that I improved my life through my own efforts. Although they would right, I likely wouldn’t have made it with a lesser instructor with less dedication. Domo Arigatoo gozaimashita, Sensei! ☯

When The Unusual Becomes Normal

I’m sure we’ve all been there… Or at least, I have! You’re standing in line somewhere, perhaps a retail location, grocery store or the bank. The person behind you is basically at your heels, forcing you forward until you’re almost on top of the person ahead of you. Then it happens; the person behind you coughs or sneezes. Maybe they cover up properly. Maybe they don’t. Even IF they do, you may still be faced with the prospect of a fine mist of someone else’s bodily fluids impacting with the back of your bare neck and onto your clothing. Whatever typhoid they may be carrying makes its way into your pores and then you spread it all over the bloody place by dragging it along on your clothing…

Lovely, eh? As disgusting as that prospect may sound, we haven’t even discussed what the terminals, debit pinpads and counter at the location may be carrying as a result of people like that. And having someone essentially riding the spot on your shoulder where your conscience should be also puts you at risk for having less-than-trustworthy folks watching for your debit pin as you pay for your purchase. It may sound pessimistic (and maybe it is) but this happens far more often than we care to think about. And speaking of thinking, that’s exactly what this concept has had me doing recently…

As the world slowly begins licking its wounds amid the lovely beast that is COVID-19, some of society’s strict quarantine measures are beginning to slacken. But as I’ve recently seen from my excursions into the urban wilds to obtain groceries, plenty of people are still wearing masks and gloves and washing their hands despite these requirements no longer being in place. And despite some industries re-opening their doors and some measures being lessened at essential ones, place markers are still present on the floors and directional arrows can still be seen for circulation in the aisles.

Will these things ever go away? A better question is, should they? All things considered, I’ve always felt that maintaining an appropriate distance in public lines has always been important. Not only for hygiene but for personal safety. I’ve often found myself asking the person behind me to take a step back when using my debit and/or credit card. I’ve gotten mixed responses to this, ranging from “sure, no problem” to “go fuck yourself.”

I don’t think I need to clarify that I’m a firm advocate of frequent hand washing, especially if you’ve read any of my posts related to hand washing. But I don’t think that frequent hand washing should have only become a “thing” because of the current pandemic. It’s something that everyone should have been doing all along, for their own personal health and to prevent the propagation of germs.

Masks and gloves are a different story. The first problem is that people need to understand that wearing gloves doesn’t protect you much beyond the immediate moment. Even medical professionals and first responders switch up their gloves often and between patients, so when you see someone using a pair of rubber gloves ALL FREAKIN’ DAY, it becomes easy to forget that whatever you pick up on those gloves stays there. And unless you switch them up, you’ll just spread that stuff the same as you would with your bare hands.

I get a kick out of the photo I’ve seen online, where there’s a man standing in line to pay for groceries. He’s got a face mask hanging off his chin and he’s eating what appears to be a small bag of chips. The joke is he’s eating the chips while wearing latex gloves intended to prevent the spreading of germs and protect himself. But I digress…

Masks are particular, since they’ve been explaining that it’s mostly to protect OTHERS since the beginning of this whole thing. And in fact, many countries have a large percentage of the population that have been using face masks all along. A neat YouTube video I recently watched, entitled Why Do Japanese People Wear Masks? is a good example, as the interviewees reveal reasons ranging from everything including having a cold and not wanting to spread it, to simply not liking the way they look. And that video was released in 2017, well before the advent of COVID-19.

I’m no boy in the plastic bubble, but some health and safety practices should have been implemented as a general part of daily life a long time ago. Maintaining one’s distance from the people ahead of us is a practice that people should have been doing in the first place. So, as strange and unusual as all of this may have seemed in the beginning, will social distancing become the new normal? Are we all going to develop a reflex for staying far away from the people in line with us and learn to distance? It will be interesting to see how society learns to adapt and adjust once it returns to “normal”… ☯