Getting off-line

Also: "Funkenzwangsvorstellung" - That primal fire stare

Force moves in a direct line.

By stepping off-line — away from force heading towards us — we protect ourselves from maximal damage.

(Yes, I know you probably thought we’d be talking about cutting off internet connection for a minute there. Not exactly, although there’d be a tie-in to that later on…)

This concept of going off-line comes to the forefront in self-defense and martial arts training.

In self-defense, you never want to be in the best position for your attacker to do something bad to you. Ideally you’d be out of their reach altogether, but at least you’re not where they’re most capable of applying force and pressure to you, which is their direct line of sight. You’d perhaps be a step or two behind them to their right, or standing off to their right or left.

In Wing Chun, this idea is taken a few steps forward, thanks to these principles:

• Keep your opponent in your centerline. In other words, make sure your opponent stays within your direct line of force (while you’re staying out of theirs). The face, neck, sternum, and vital organs, most accessible through the “centerline” of the body, are the glass windows you’d want to smash, even if the rest of the body is basically make of brick. That’s the area you want to protect for yourself, and attack on your opponent if need be.

• Force comes, I redirect. Force goes, I follow. Instead of just avoiding force altogether or simply changing your position, learn to handle the force that comes your way. By redirecting force that’s headed your way, you learn to pivot and protect yourself without having to resist it head-on (which, depending on the situation, may result in injury). By following force that draws back, you learn to sense imbalance, weakness, or a lack of defence in your opponent, allowing you to apply force with minimal effort and consequence to self.

…But the point of this post wasn’t to give a self-defense lecture. ;)

Photo by Hidde Rensink on Unsplash

I’m thinking of ways this “getting off-line” could be used to our advantage in daily life.

It could mean something as small as changing lanes when a car next to you is driving erratically, something as meaningless (and unfun) as winning word games without knowing any words, or something as significant as asking for some time apart from each other as you decide whether to stay in a particular relationship.

In what areas of your life are you dealing with force or pressure head-on? Is it doing any good? Is this the only approach; and if not, is this approach necessary?

Sometimes stepping onto the line might be the stronger decision to make. Perhaps there is something more precious you are protecting behind you. Perhaps the situation doesn’t allow you to pivot and the only way out is to try your best not to die first.

But whenever possible, it could be a good idea to deal with pressure obliquely — be aware of its presence and influence as you go about your own business, be prepared to deal with it should things heat up, and approach it from the side or back when it must be responded to.

(It’s kinda like how ideas and inspiration work — whenever you try to focus directly on a new thought or noodling curiosity, it scurries away or disappears altogether. After that, it’d take a while for it to creep back out and allow you to find it again…if at all. But if, instead, you keep it in your mind’s peripheral vision, allowing it to grow and evolve without trying to touch or change it, the idea might become brave and strong enough to the point where it begins demanding our attention. At that point, stepping into direct engagement with it is the best thing you could do. But not before then.)

…And that tie-in with being online? If you see a constant barrage of information as a sort of “force” or pressure in itself, then yes, it may be good for your mind and soul to get off-line every now and then. Let your thoughts and emotions heal as you watch the world go by before stepping into the fray again.

Done well, this “getting off-line” results in the opposite of passivity — instead of it being “I’m scared to fight, so I’m gonna run away,” it’s more like: “What’s a better way to see this through so I could live to fight another day?”

In other words: Have hills you’re willing to die on, while also knowing they don’t have to be the ones on which you do.

Odelia

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Quote for the week

Something that impacted me in some way the past week, and think is worth sharing.

“Good Lord I know so well
I wanna get to heaven with a taste of hell
Still on my lips and down within
Quench my soul, in your water again”

— John Legend, “Move”

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This week’s word: “Funkenzwangsvorstellung”

Since the start of 2024, I’ve begun a project of writing 7 poems each week, using for my prompt an entry from The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows by John Koenig. I share the best from said project in this section.

Funkenzwangsvorstellung

n. the instinctive trance of a campfire in the dark, spending hours roasting and watching as it settles and sinks into the ground like a heap of shipwrecks whose sailors raise their flickering sails trying to signal that the prevailing winds of your life are about to shift, that the edge of the Earth is real and looming just a few years ahead, and that your marshmallow is on fire.

***

The flames lick the sides of the logs,
Wrapping themselves around 
The outskirts of my retinas,
Forgetting themselves in the flickers
Of living heat they shoot into my consciousness.
Yet this warmth is without pain
(If one discounts the nostalgia thus summoned,
Or the pang of loneliness when a certain loved one
Is not looking at the same fire).
It is home, it is the manifestation of dreams. 
It mirrors the state of one's heart, and
Sheds light onto those long-hidden thoughts.

***

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Snapshots of life

Photos taken of things I’ve made or worked with, or places I’ve been the past week.

Some clay creations. (I feel like I’ve taken myself back to kindergarten, haha!)

• From left to right: The interior of my hatchback, a turtle, and a miniature of my canvas bell tent.

Also: More fall pictures, just because…

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Give this a listen

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What I’m Reading

• Willingness to Look Stupid - Dan Luu

  • A friend shared this piece with me recently — I only wish I came across it sooner! A thoughtful, refreshing examination of the processes of learning and doing, and ways we may be sabotaging ourselves while trying to appear smart and sensible.

• Soul-making Productivity: A Process Manifesto - River Kenna

  • Fantastic thoughts from Inner Wilds on creation. I’m reading his “Soul-Making Scholarship” next.

• Are We Too Impatient to be Intelligent? - Rory Sutherland

  • A fun coincidence: I happened to read this article while travelling on a train. It’s making me rethink the different speeds at which I live various areas/sections of my life.

• Pleasure as an Organizing Principle - Tiago Forte

  • I don’t agree with all that’s being said and argued for in this one, but the concept of being driven by pleasure instead of pain has been one that I’ve been experimenting with in my own life this year (ultimately realizing they’re two sides of the same coin and operate simultaneously). So I found this an interesting perspective.