Fear the Crab

My brother was back in town, and our house was as it was before my mom’s accident. However, everyone was how they were today. I was busy with fish-related things, but there were other people in the house, and many were from my old karate dojo. In fact, we were having a tournament of sorts, where we would compete against each other.

I remember noticing a man and a young girl, his daughter, who were newcomers, black belts, and I knew, or was told, that my brother and I would be competing against them.

I came to the realization that I had not been practicing karate since 1987, and I was nowhere near being in perfect physical condition. I made this publicly known, and I guess I was spared the humiliation of being trounced by some dude and his daughter.

My brother, however, accepted the challenge. He had not been practicing karate for a longer time than me, and it showed during the competition. Maile was there, and I remember her commenting after my bro tried a particular move, “Oh no, that move was a fake!” This was because she knew what moves my brother knew, I guess.

Finally, it got so bad that my brother performed a ninja disappearing act, and we were all wondering where he went. I knew that he was in our bathroom, with the door locked, and I told no one. So everyone went home, and my bro came out, and the first thing he said was, ‘Notice my new colors?” and his belt was back to white.

My dad mentioned something about how we now knew there were too many competitions. I mentioned that our dojo was interested more in form than physical contact, and asked my brother if he even knew what purpose each maneuver was for. He replied no, but he was also on his laptop doing something for an online game. However, he was being honest, and it made me think that perhaps that was the reason he lost, because he was just going through the motions. I asked him to show me a move we learned in our dojo, and I would tell him what its intent was for, since I was aware of these things.

Thank goodness I woke up at that point. Very disturbing dream and I don’t know if I want to try to analyze this one.

IRL, my brother is not a coward, and we both know what our dojo taught, and the purpose of blocking and striking moves. And most importantly, there were never any competitions between members, because as I said, the dojo stressed form and physical fitness over actual combat. That isn’t to say that if you went in with an attitude of non-learning that you’d still get by, you just wouldn’t be getting everything that was offered.