Why Aikido?

I started this blog to document my training in Aikido which has the personal goals of 1) fulfilling a promise I made to my mother, Virginia Mayhew, who was possibly the first American woman to teach Aikido 2) a heart felt effort to nurture the mind, body, and spirit.  Aikido means the way of harmonizing ki.  And ki is that energy or spark that animates the universe.  So who wouldn't want to be in harmony with the universe!

After finishing a dissertation that did so much to nurture my mind and surviving two quarters of teaching new classes, I came to realize that only exercising one part my of soul isn't really all that fulfilling.  My mom passed away while I was in graduate school almost seven years ago and it is still hard for me to realize a world without her.  It had always been my mother and I against the world as anyone who was raised by a single parent and later cares for that parent surely understands.  But our story is also a tale about gender, race, and class and it is through these intersections that her history and my foray into Aikido can best be understood.

So I finally started my beginning Aikido classes this week at Aikido of Santa Cruz.  I recently moved to the area, got the monkey of the dissertation off my back, and live five minutes away.  However, in addition to logistics, it is a dojo my mom would have really liked.  It is designed to be more than just a place to train but rather a place that fosters community.  That's exactly how my mother envisioned the Hong Kong Aikikai way back in 1967.

I could really see the community building in play at Aikido of Santa Cruz yesterday during the Japanese Cultural Fair.  The dojo hosted an all day schedule of demonstrations which included demonstrations from Sanford's Martial Arts and the School of Sword and Staff, and culminated with Glen Sensei disarming an actual sword attack!  The Japanese Cultural Fair was great fun and ended with an absolutely riveting performance from the San Francisco Taiko Dojo.