Building a New Normal
The pandemic has deeply disrupted life at the dojo, here at Toronto Aikikai, and pretty much everywhere. We have lost friends and experienced long stretches of sketchy training. And yet, we are emerging. Things do not appear as bleak as they used to. The case numbers remain concerning, but we can once again come together and train, though the spectre of lockdowns continues to threaten us, and it’s hard to ignore that many pay the price of our collective freedom in this balancing act between a public health tragedy and an economic one. Frankly, myself, I keep going back and forth; grateful for the feel of the mat rolling off my back, worried about what my decision to train means for others I’ll never know…
Emerging indeed, and not free. Recently, like the first sings of spring through punching through weakening snow, seminars resumed. How I missed seminars! And soon enough, Toronto Aikikai had its first one since 2019, with David Halprin Shihan and Robert Zimmermann Shihan, with aikido and iaido classes, with tests, with people working together, and training with energy and shared passion; all those things I took for granted before ‘all this.’ I trained as though it was my last seminar. (I should always train that way…)
On the other hand, the following was also true: out of shape, out of practice, clumsy, and slow…
Back on topic, this new normal needs work. It is not just something that happens to dojos. The disruption, the lockdowns, these happened to dojos. It shook their cores and left them weak, mostly, but, if we want to look at the bright side, it now allows a rebuilding in a different direction. Keeping the good part of the old normal, but allowing new energy, new ideas, and lessons learned the opportunity to make the place a new place where they the members, old and new, feel like they belong.
‘This pandemic’ is the story that will bind us in the years to come. What we shared, what we went through, bitter memories, and takes of rebuilding will be the sagas that bind us.
