On the Valuable Life Lesson of Remembering to Breathe

By Tim Clark — HEAD ABOVE WATER

Several years ago I took Taekwondo. It was a well-lit, brightly colored studio, the whole floor was covered in blue and yellow padded matting and the southern wall was covered in mirrors. Loud, uptempo music echoed off the white walls, and most of the time the whole thing seemed more like a wildly progressive modern fitness class than a serious study of an ancient, patterned, precise fighting style.

After several months, though, I found myself in some surprising situations.

As a child I was overweight, inflexible and too tall for my meager athletic ability. Things other children did as a matter of course I found impossible. Turning cartwheels, for example. Children all over were rolling along from their feet to their hands back to their feet in a slow, graceful ballet of youthful joy. I could tumble, but that was about as far as I could get.

In Taekwondo class, in one of the routines — designed, I’m sure, to promote aerobic activity and emphasize balance — we twisted our way around the room. First left, turn right, a few steps backward, turn, jump over a red padded obstacle, and then cartwheel or tumble, bounce up onto the balls of our feet and kick the pads being held by some trusted assistants, before starting the whole exhausting circuit…