In my ever
delusional condition I fancy myself as a snappy-title guy – all my blog titles
attesting to this true confession. Today’s title, PAWNS AND PUNCHES:
THAT’S LIFE, is in reference to a couple of ideas I’ve added to my program
of working with Young Offenders. (In a
past blog I bragged about this program addendum as KNIGHTS AND KNOCKS: CHESS AND MUAY THAI MASTERS, August 13, 2018.)
PAWNS AND
PUNCHES in reference to the game of Chess and the sport of
Muay Thai that I’ve incorporated into our reducing recidivism program for Young
Offenders. KNIGHTS AND KNOCKS, I thought was a rather clever reference, but PAWNS AND PUNCHES, is less abstruse, and
a better metaphor. I shall explain.
Pawns, having a value of one, are the most
common yet least valued pieces in the game of chess. Chess piece pawns can easily be identified as
being the olla podrida, mix of common citizens of any country on our
planet. We are merely pawns is a common expression relating the futility of
anyone’s real power; that is, anyone who is accursedly competing in the
commercial system of our everyday existence. This metaphor of being powerless is commonplace and has been around for
some time. You can’t fight city hall … You can’t beat the
system … and my favorite, “Despite
all my rage I am still just a rat in a cage” (The Smashing Pumpkins).
And now I’ll
explain the Punch/es in my snappy
title. Punching, I must confess, is my
favorite practice in Muay Thai. (I quite
suck at the kicks. I’m just not a
kicker. In high school I took some
karate and sucked at kicking. As a young
man I took karate again and still sucked at kicking. In the practice of Muay Thai I still suck at
kicking.) Punch, as pawn, is a
commonplace metaphor relating to our sufferings and routines in life. I’m
just punching the old time clock … I
don’t want to be anyone’s punching bag … and my favorite, “Everybody has a plan until they get punched
in the mouth” (Mike Tyson).
This is all
good but how do pawns and punches relate to me, and even more importantly, how
do pawns and punches relate to busking?
In my day
and evening jobs I am a worker bee or a deck scrubber, either metaphor is
apt. In daylight I am under contract
working with Young Offenders and in evening light, typically, I am (usually) under
contract as an instructor in the Faculty of Psychology. Both of these jobs I love, love, love but
both my reflective and introspective self knows that I am still just a rat in a
cage. Saying this, dear readers, I AM
NOT IN A RAGE!
In
phenomenological and delusional fashion I can make perfect sense of my daytime
and evening jobs. Working with young
offenders has always kept me physically fit. On a previous and similar contract, I had these young guys running
outdoors daily, for a minimum of five miles, rain or snow, or shine. Whether the temperature was 30 above or 30
below, we ran. Windy or windless we ran. And after our run we lifted weights every day
save for Friday. Friday we took over the
pool and I gave swimming lessons. This
was my work-a-day exercise regimen for seven years!
These days
I’ve calmed down. We walk to the gym
daily, spend a half hour on weights, then practice Muay Thai (punches only), and
then shoot some baskets.
In my past
contract working with young offenders I introduced Mac computers, which at
the time, purportedly were user seductive
rather than just user friendly. This second time ‘round with young offenders
I’ve introduced the game of Chess and the sport of Muay Thai. I did
not know how to play chess but not-so-strangely, so far all of our young
offender students do know how to play. They learned the game in custody. Because we are dealing with the highest risk of the young offender population,
all of our students have been in custody for at least a few years, and
therefore have a few years of chess playing experience.
Factoid:
Not any of the staff (including me) knew how to play the game of chess, and so we now
rely on the students to be actually teaching us. Anthropologist, Margaret Mead, predicted the
evolution of a new kind of culture
that she called prefigurative. Her prefigurative
culture was one that was future-oriented, and of which the cultural
transmission was predominantly from the youth to their elders. In my daytime contract, I am working in a
Margaret-Mead-defined prefigurative
culture.
Meanwhile …
back to busking.
I remind
you, readers, that I am but a faux busker; my busking is but a sidequest. By
self-design I have temporarily freed myself from the prosaic life among the
pawns and the accompanied pedestrian punches. Being a busker I am certainly
not representative of the Americano middle-class pawn, and I am certainly not
punching the clock. However, one could
argue that I am even lower than pawn strata, having to rely mostly on the pawns
to toss the coin into my guitar case. And
one could also argue that even though I am not punching a clock, I have to be
on the clock to strum out a living.
Eking out a living by busking does demand a very middle-class (protestant)
work ethic.
PAWNS AND
PUNCHES: THAT’S LIFE reflects one of
my favorite adolescent dialogues in the ilk of Samuel Beckett’s theatre
of the absurd, of which I studied later in life as an emerging adult in university
English literature classes.
“That’s life.”
“What’s life?”
“A magazine.”
“How much does it cost?”
“Ten cents.”
“All I’ve got is five cents.”
“That’s life.”
Running in
my CHAUCERIAN PARADE this week is Gary, my colleague and former NHL’er, who
just ran his first marathon.
 |
| GARY ON THE RUN |
 |
| MYSELF AND GARY HOLDING OUR MARATHON MEDALS |
MARATHONS are 26 miles. Lifetimes for humans are 100 years, giving (20) or taking (10). Completing a marathon takes an average of four hours (the
winners finish in two hours). Completing
a life takes an average 78 years for males and 82 years for females. Completing a marathon, the faster you finish
the better the performance; completing a life, the slower the finish, the
better the performance.
I am 67 years old. According to
the above statistics, I have just 11 years to my finis.
YIKES … I'D BETTER GET RUNNING!
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