Trust

At TKD on Monday, Ms. Pryor was teaching. That's always good.

Well, it's always good at TKD. I love the way our two teachers' approaches are different--we learn different things and in different ways from each teacher.

About mid-way through the class, Ms. Pryor said "let's have some of the men black belts up here. The bigger ones."

She had six guys stand in two rows facing one another at the front of the room perpendicular to the stage. They linked arms with the guy across from them.

"OK, Jane--go up on the stage."

I did, and I knew what was coming next. I went and stood on the stage in front of the guys with my back to them.

"This is all about trust," she said--to me and to everyone. "You have to trust the people you work with enough to know they'll catch you when you fall. Go ahead and fall back."

I did.

They caught me.

"Were you scared?" said Jason, incredulously, when I joined the rest of the class.

"Not really," I said. "I trust them."

"I can't believe you weren't scared!" Jason continued.

"Well, I've actually had a lot of practice with that sort of thing," I admitted.

As one of the smaller people in any group I was in when I was in my teens, I was often the one chosen to do the "trust fall" or to be lifted up by my youth group cohort (with only their index and middle fingers . . . has anyone done that?). I was the one who got picked up and tossed around during playful gatherings--thrown into snow, pools, other people's outstretched arms.

Well, maybe it was that. Or maybe it was just that I trust those guys.