Northern Wind

Have you ever watched a magician perform tricks right in front of you? Not the David Copperfield type of magician, standing hundreds of feet away on a huge stage filled with smoke and pulsing lights and scantily clad assistants, the kind who make cars disappear or miraculously escape cages filled with tigers. No, I mean the simple kind of magic, the kind done right in front of you, with you standing within touching range of the magician, the kind where the simple, yes, but nonetheless the impossible happens before your very eyes. How does he DO that? you think to yourself. The answer being, as you may know, something called "sleight of hand." But what does that mean, exactly? Well, one way you might think about it is, the magician gets you to focus on one thing, to think about what he wants you to think about, while he does something else at the same time without you being aware of it. Now let me ask you this: have you ever watched a really high ranking budoka, be...

Once again, I've let this blog get quite lonely over the past several months, sorry. Life has been tumultuous, to say the least. And in the face of all that turmoil, I couldn't help but notice that the people who were the most natural for me to reach out to, the people who in turn genuinely cared the most, were those friends I had made through the dojo. I've always thought it was interesting how I was always able to make such a close bond with "dojo folk", a bond that I've never really made with coworkers, fellow church members, or even my own family! I've had a couple of theories over the years, but here's one link I had never considered. I read a few articles recently dealing with "oxytocin", a mammalian hormone that also acts as a neurotransmitter in the brain. Now, I know, you're thinking, "Isn't that the so-called 'love hormone'? The one they give women to speed up the birthing process?" Yeah, yeah, but wa...