Monday, February 15, 2010

Grunt Work


In our martial arts class we are encouraged to make a lot of "noise".  It not only helps us remember to breathe, but it can intimidate an attacker or draw attention to us if we are being attacked.  A grunt, a growl, a yell, a kiai,  whatever.  As a woman, it was really hard for me to do this at first.  After all, ladies are expected to be quiet and polite, demure, etc.

Now that I've been training for a few years, it has become more natural.  Perhaps a little too natural.  I've noticed that I make noise whenever I'm doing something physically challenging or at all exerting.  This isn't an issue at home or in class, but when I'm at the grocery store, lifting a heavy bag of cat food, I get a few strange looks.  The other day I was trying to plug in the coffee maker at church and the cord didn't want to cooperate.  I gave it a good push, along with a loud grunt, and it wisely gave up.  Perhaps that's why the other ladies in the kitchen stopped making eye contact.  At a fancy Italian restaurant, a little piece of bruschetta took a bit of convincing and a noisy "unh!" to break in half.  I didn't look around but I'm sure lots of people heard me.  At least I didn't go "Hi-Yah!".

Yet. :)

4 comments:

A Joyful Chaos said...

As a fellow grunter, I can feel your consternation of happening to make a sound where you really had not intended too.

Mama Pea said...

I laughed out loud at this post. I can relate. I tend to be a little vocal when I'm home, especially alone. Sometimes I think I scare the dog.

You may get strange looks but the upside is people are probably saying to themselves, "I'm not messing with her!"

MrsMama said...

I'm glad, and a little surprised, to learn that I'm not alone in my grunty world.

sharli said...

That's hilarious! My husband and I do martial arts and at our school, we bow when we walk in. My husband has actually bowed walking into a store before. I guess its just hard to break the habit...