Books and bokken

Sandwiched between trips this past weekend and this coming weekend, Vincent has been somewhat busy this week with – in addition to inside and outside chores – volunteering at the St. Matthews library – mainly shelving books – and going to martial arts classes. Vincent complains that shelving is boring and he’s angling for volunteering with the Boy Scouts with his friend Sam, but I’m not sure that will really materialize. Vincent can’t go to be with his father in Ohio until he’s finishing the volunteering, and he’s been averaging 4 volunteer hours a week. Vincent is required to do 20 hours of volunteer work this summer to help him prepare for his senior project next fall.

After missing most of his Kempo classes at St. Matthews Martial Arts this winter and spring, Vincent has been going twice a week for the 2-3 weeks that he’s been home since school let out. Vincent got excited enough about taking a (wooden) swordsmanship class before his regular class on Fridays that he bought a wooden sword (called a bokken - pronounced BOH-kun - in Japanese) and brought it home today. He went out to practice but said his shoulder was hurting him. Vincent still has a smaller wooden sword that I brought home from Japan after 6th grade that Vincent essentially inherited (and is now beat up).

Assuming Vincent eventually finishes the volunteer work, he will probably be gone for a week or two in Ohio and will miss Kempo classes (including the swordsmanship class) but hopefully will get going once or twice a week when he gets back for the school year. Any school-based extracurricular activities cut into Kempo. Because of Vincent’s past weight and cholesterol problems, our health care flexible spending account bases the tuition for the classes, which our doctor has prescribed for Vincent. He hasn’t tested for a higher belt in a long time, but maybe he’ll get to that this year. And he’ll continue to be able to talk in any college essays about his longstanding interest in Asian culture – connected with manga and anime movies, video games, and martial arts.

-- Perry