Coffee With David

I am writing this entry out of frustration. It is not a rant or a rage that has become popular on many blogs. Instead it is the frustration of obsession. What obsession do I have? While I may have many other obsessions, two are bringing pain to me from the lack of being able to access them: karate and writing.

I have to be obsessed. Can you think of any other description for wanting to focus on story after story, idea and character, every day? Or what about the focus of thought about martial arts and the possibilities in sparring, katas, techniques and applications? It is an obsession that I suffer from, for I can not find any other word in the dictionary that better describes it. They are both physical outlets of the mind and the body.

I wake up in the morning, take my shower and then what do I do? I turn on the computer—even before the coffee pot—and get things started and capture the thousand pings on the creative sonar that will coalesce as black pixels on virtual paper. Maybe I might eat sometime before noon (or before I go to work if it is a weekday). When the body finally stiffens from the sitting and typing, feeling like something pulled out of a coffin, I begin to stretch and clear my thoughts. So what do I do? Karate.

If I am working at home, which is rare (otherwise I will go to a park) I stand up and begin going through some katas or techniques and then zen my thoughts away to clear my mind. I miss going to the karate studio and working out, feeling the bag beneath my foot as I drill it with some kick or as I hammer home a hand strike. I miss the mental chess match of sparring great fighters or trying to improve those who are of lower belts.

It must be obsession. What else would you call it if you are willing to spend your time on thoughts and allow your heart be bruised by rejection or your body by blows in sparring. If this obsession is a disease, then let there be no cure other than doing that which feeds the disease the most.

Thank you for reading and please visit www.davidalanlucas.com for updates to the novels, novellas, short stories and blogs I write.