Note: The weekly mettle maker supports all of the Heritage Arts programs — Heritage Self-Defense, Heritage Wildwood, Heritage Fitness and Heritage Spirit.
This week’s mettle maker revolves around the idea of the sensorium — the entire sensory apparatus of an organism taken as a whole. Thanks to Mark Hatmaker for putting these concepts on my radar.
Sensorium: Mettle Maker #280
Self-Defense: Partially utilize your senses at your peril. We often group senses into five categories — sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch — but that’s an immense simplification. Touch, for example (which is one of the most important fighting senses of all), is detected not just by direct skin contact but by means of hair follicles which are triggered when hairs are disturbed. And there are half a dozen different types of receptors in your skin that sense heat, pressure, torsion, and so forth. Self-defense isn’t about memorizing a million if/then statements like, “if he does this, then you do that.” Pay attention to your environment on an elemental level to register and avoid trouble; and when you fight, learn to react appropriately to feel, position, direction, pressure, and so forth. Want to learn more? Join our free distance learning program or come train with us on Tues and Thurs nights from 6 - 7 PM at West End Manor Civic Association, 8600 Lakefront Drive, Richmond VA 23294.
Fitness: Fitness should changes your perceptions. Is it changing yours? People who are strong and fit perceive the world differently. If you’ve never lifted weights, the idea of hauling and mixing a dozen 80 lb. bags of concrete to fix your sidewalk seems daunting. A 10k charity walk looks easy after you’ve run a marathon or hiked a mountain. If your employer asks you for a little extra effort, it doesn’t seem like much if you’re accustomed to getting up at 5 am to train. Unlike other vertebrates, humans are capable of applying seemingly narrow lessons across multiple domains. Take a minute to consider if you are fully applying the lessons you’ve learned through your fitness training.
Wildwood: Listen to your ears. Last week I suggested you follow your nose. This week I’m suggesting you make an effort to recognize the soundscape. Really listen to your environment. Soak in the sounds. There is, for example, a Northern Mockingbird who lives in the holly tree at the northeast corner of my house. He’s always the first bird to start singing at dawn. The news you get from just one little neighbor like this one, in combination with other input, can help you tell time, direction, and much more.
Spirit: Are your five senses pulling you apart like five wives or five husbands? The Gospel of John chapter 4 tells the story of the Samaritan woman. In this story, a woman of Samaria (a pagan culture) is drawing water at a well, and Jesus asks her for a drink. After a brief exchange, she requests more teaching. Jesus asks her to go and fetch her husband and come back, and she replies that she has no husband. Then Jesus says, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and he whom you now have is not your husband; this you said truly.” The woman then became a believer and, after bringing many to the faith, a martyr. This has been traditionally assumed to mean that she was a woman who had lived with many men out of wedlock or was many times divorced, and that she was impressed by Jesus’ ability to know her past. But what if Jesus was speaking of the fact that she was being torn in five different directions by her five senses? What if Jesus was suggesting that, because she was a slave to sights (pretty things, distractions), sounds (music, flattery), sensations (soft clothing, physical contact), smells (perfume), and tastes (food, wine) she is able to appreciate neither her actual husband nor her spiritual husband, God. Meditate on this.