What a beautiful day. After coffee in bed and a scan of the depressing news of the world, I made a few wraps, packed the beach bag and once EM returned from her early morning bike ride headed to our favorite swimming hole, Lake Arrowhead in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Today joined by Anna and Danielle. There were astonishingly few people at the lake today. Even though there was plenty of space in the little beach area, we headed straight to our favorite spot on the other side of the lake. Other than myself, no one was into serious swimming and ended up just floating around in the water.
Because Anna was not feeling well, we packed up at 16:00 and headed back towards DC, but not without stopping at one of the farmstalls first, where I bought a cartoon of tomatoes, and a pit stop at one of the many local wineries. On the way home we stopped at our beloved Wegman and completed the grocery shopping for the next ten or so days. Tomorrow I shall deal with the tomatoes and make tomato sauce, one of my Christmas gifts for the various family members. Now that everything is unpacked, I shall dive back into my current read.
My brilliant friend had recommended a book to me; a martial arts novel. For the first fifty or so pages I thought this was not for me. A typical male book; skop, skit and donner as we would say in Afrikaans; well it is no. I am now on page 250 and totally hooked. It is well written. It has a great tension and beautiful diction. I am not entirely sure about the martial arts aspect as yet.
It is basically the story of a boy of German-Russian decent growing up in China and later in Japan who turns into a hitman. The focus of the Japanese experience is more on the game of Go than martial arts. But as the title suggests there is an underlying concept. The concept of Shubumi.
“Shibumi has to do with great refinement underlying commonplace appearances. It is a statement so correct that it does not have to be bold, so poignant it does not have to be pretty, so true it does not have to be real. Shibumi is understanding, rather than knowledge. Eloquent silence. In demeanor, it is modesty without pudency. In art, where the spirit of shibumi takes the form of sabi, it is elegant simplicity, articulate brevity. In philosophy, where shibumi emerges as wabi, it is spiritual tranquility that is not passive; it is being without the angst of becoming. And in the personality of a man, it is … how does one say it? Authority without domination? Something like that.”
This unlike the actions in the book has everything to do with the spirit in Japanese martial arts and is the principle by which the main protagonist abides. It is a concept I will need to spend more time on to fully understand and ultimately embrace. Also, I have decided I want to explore the game of Go. Somehow it feels as if I have played this many years ago. In the real world in the meantime the virus continues its spread, having reached 19.1 million globally and 5.2 million in the USA.
Sunday, August 9th, 2020